Season 3 of the popular fantasy series, House of the Dragon, has created quite a stir with its first episode due to an uncomfortable scene between Aemond Targaryen and his mother, Alicent Hightower. In the first episode, viewers see that Aemond is seated on the Iron Throne while tension mounts at King’s Landing. Little does he know that his mother has made a secret move to allow Rhaenyra Targaryen’s entry into the capital city.
In attempting to steer the next step of Aemond, she tells him that he should leave the city and fly to Harrenhal. Alicent uses Aemond’s vanity and desire for winning over Daemon Targaryen to manipulate him. The conversation takes a sinister twist when Aemond unexpectedly leans down and kisses her. She does nothing in response and simply remains frozen in fear and control.
Ewan Mitchell, the House of the Dragon star, clarified that the scene was purposely created with conflicting motivations. The actor pointed out the psychological interpretation of the character, mentioning the possible presence of an Oedipus complex in his character. Aemond does not have any emotional anchor and was deprived of love displays since his childhood years.
He said, “I think maybe a little bit of both, maybe a little bit of an Oedipus complex. I think, you know, Aemond has a very skewered perception of what love is, you know, lacking it when he was growing up. And so he doesn’t particularly know how to show it. And I think Alicent was so young when she had Aemond and seeing her grow up in this male dominated world and, you know, him feeling like he should be there for her to a certain extent as well.”
Ewan also traced back to Season 1 when he remembered the time Aemond lost one of his eyes. At that time, only Alicent stood by his side while everyone else was fighting over the reasons behind it.
The House of the Dragon actor further added, “I always think of like, the eye for an eye scene in Season 1, after Aemond had his eye taken out and everyone else is arguing about where Aemond heard this illegitimate slur from strong from whereas is mum is actually the only one defending him in that moment and being like, look, he’s just been physically maimed.”
Despite all the explanations, the incident is causing debate amongst fans. Many of them argued that it fits well into the complicated and ethically dark world of the Targaryens. But some people also said that nothing can be “more cringe than the kiss between Alicent and Aemond.”
For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels.