Warning: contains spoilers for House of the Dragon episodes 1 and 2.
House Targaryen are not us. The dragonlord rulers of the Seven Kingdoms live by customs that, in our time and culture, wouldn’t just raise eyebrows but would urgently require the involvement of social services and several SWAT teams. In the interests of keeping their bloodline pure, Targaryens marry their siblings (sometimes a handful at a time), betroth children to grown adults, and when it comes to sexuality, are unencumbered either by Judeo-Christian religious shame or childish embarrassment. Just look at their décor.
On the walls of the Red Keep – the royal palace in the city of King’s Landing – are multiple erotic murals depicting sexually explicit scenes. There are orgies, erect penises, penetration, cunnilingus and sex acts of every variety. These images aren’t locked away but out on view. They hang above the dining table where King Viserys eats with his teenage daughter, decorate the Red Keep’s corridors, and adorn the royal bedchamber.
That may explain why this New York Times article about Queen Aemma’s death in childbirth in House of the Dragon episode one, is accompanied by a doctored photograph. Above the deathbed is a blank space where, in the TV show, was a mural depicting the enthusiastic participants in group sex (see below). The edit was presumably made on grounds of taste. A serious discussion of the depiction of a woman’s death in labour might be undermined by the sight of a massive wang bobbing above the corpse’s head.
