House of the Dragon shocks viewers with deeply twisted Aemond-Alicent scene

The Targaryens are back in House of the Dragon season 3, and with them some disturbing scenes we’re left scratching our heads at. Just a regular day in Westeros, am I right? Among the many surprising moments in the premiere—including a devastating death at the end—viewers are seemingly most disturbed by a incestuous moment between son and mother. Yup, you read that right.

This goes without saying, but there will be SPOILERS for House of the Dragon season 3 episode 1 below.

The season 3 premiere covers a lot of ground, which makes sense considering it’s believed this was originally intended to be the penultimate episode of season 2. Now that Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) have made their bargain, Rhaenyra is ready to travel to King’s Landing to take back what's hers: the Iron Throne. But there’s one thing standing in her way now that Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) has fled the city: Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell).

Of course, Aemond wants the power. And to Alicent’s surprise, her son is no longer considered the Prince Regent. With Aegon out of the picture, Aemond is now referred to as the king and sits the Iron Throne. But this won’t work for Alicent’s scheme. She believed Aemond was planning to fly out on Vhagar to meet Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and his army. She now needs to act fast before Rhaenyra shows up.

Why does Aemond kiss Alicent?

Alicent then concocts a new plan, writing a letter to her cousin Ormund Hightower (James Norton) pretending to be Aemond, and changing Aemond’s course. Putting on an act, she speaks with her son in private under the guise that she believes he’s the one who was meant to be on the Iron Throne after all. Complimenting him and showing him the most support he’s probably ever gotten in his life, Alicent convinces Aemond to fly to Harrenhal, even suggesting she might meet him there.

Of course, Alicent does this to send Aemond away so Rhaenyra to come to take the city, but Aemond totally falls for it. He believes his mother is actually supportive and loving, and he doesn’t know what to do with this level of encouragement. While they’re embraced, Aemond responds to Alicent’s support by leaning in and planting a kiss right on her lips. Alicent goes along with it, to ensure her plan works, but when Aemond walks away, she cannot hide the sheer horror on her face.

The kiss is… an unexpected choice from Ryan Condal and the writers’ room. Of course, we’ve known that Aemond is a lone wolf who doesn’t feel accepted by his family, a place he’s been in since childhood. When caught snuggling naked with an older madam named Sylvi in season 2, it becomes evident he’s in need of a mother figure to coddle him. He doesn’t get that from Alicent, so when he finally does feel support from her in the season 3 premiere, he misinterprets what to do next.

While talking about this scene with i-D earlier this month (without describing what happens), Mitchell reflected on his character: “He’s got this very skewered idea of what affection is. Maybe there’s a drop of an Oedipus complex in there.” It’s clear that as disturbing as the moment is, Aemond kisses Alicent because he feels it’s the appropriate response to receiving love. He doesn’t have much experience with it.

When screeners for the third season began circulating, it didn’t take long for a leak to come out on social media describing the kiss between Aemond and Alicent. Fans either laughed at the absurdity or groaned at how gross it was, finding it hard to believe. And, of course, now that the masses have seen it, the responses have been rolling in. See some of the best reactions:

Now that Aemond is off to Harrenhal, we don’t need to worry about his relationship with Alicent for the time being. But we suspect he’ll have his sights on another woman pretty soon—don’t worry, it’s not a relative.

House of the Dragon season 3 releases new episodes every Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max. Keep checking in with us at Winter Is Coming for our continued coverage on all things Game of Thrones.

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