Bend the knee! This article contains major spoilers for “House of the Dragon” Season 3, Episode 7.
“House of the Dragon” has a big problem: It doesn’t really have likable characters you can root for guilt-free. Of course, that’s also the point of its story, i.e. war makes everyone sinners and monsters. Indeed, across the ever-escalating conflict of the Dance of the Dragons, both Team Black and Team Green have committed numerous atrocities, with every primary player having been either entirely complicit in or, if nothing else, somewhat supportive of war crimes and horrendous acts at this stage in the show.
But Season 3 has taken its characters’ un-likability to a whole other level. While one can sympathize with the pressures of her newfound job as the queen of Westeros, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) has made one frustrating mistake after another lately. She’s essentially laid the foundation for her own downfall, even as she continues to grieve the loss of her first born child — though the fact that she refuses to spend time with her only other living son is less justifiable. Meanwhile, Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) agreeing to kill her son, Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), for Rhaenyra would give Child Protective Services a shock, as would that Aemond-Alicent kiss in the Season 3 premiere.
Yet, that’s not even the most disturbing moment involving them to occur on “House of the Dragon” this season. That happens early in Episode 7 when Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) appears to have a full-blown sex scene with his own mother. Sure, this ends up being a fake-out perpetrated by Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), but it’s still messed up.
How Aemond’s Oedipus complex is driving the plot on House of the Dragon
So, what exactly is going on here? It’s clearly to do with Aemond legitimately having a big ol’ Oedipus complex, but it also seems to involve Alys doing some witchcraft. The former issue is, well, gross and one of the most bizarre elements of “House of the Dragon” to date. The latter, however, is much more interesting but still quite confusing.
You see, Alys is not an especially proactive character in George R. R. Martin’s source material for the show, “Fire & Blood.” Rather, she’s an enigmatic figure defined largely by what we don’t know about her, with different sources in Martin’s book describing her as a witch, an enchantress, a serving wench, or possibly an illegitimate daughter of Lord Lyonel Strong (who was played by Gavin Spokes in “House of the Dragon” Season 1). At the very least, “House of the Dragon” has indicated that Alys has actual supernatural powers.
Last week, Season 3 revealed Alys has great ambitions and intends to rule Westeros with her own army of dragons and Aemond by her side. She speaks as if she’s way older than she looks, too. Now, she’s using Aemond’s Oedipus complex to serve her purposes by making him believe he is having sex with his mother, when in reality it’s Alys herself, hoping to become pregnant with a Targaryen baby.
Even taking Alys’ trickery into account, this is still a wholly disturbing turn of events. It doesn’t help that 2026 is apparently the summer of incest on TV, either, with “The Vampire Lestat” having likewise focused on the highly toxic and incestuous relationship between the titular Lestat (Sam Reid) and his mother Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle). What a time to be alive, eh?
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