House of the Dragon brings Game of Thrones’ sexposition to Matt Smith

A world in which Game of Thrones made sexposition rampant, House of the DragonThe showrunners have no choice but to do the same. Though the showrunners have said they plan to “pull back” over time on prolific sex scenes that earned Game of Thrones A certain reputation is the beginning chapter House isn’t a huge break from the tradition.

Matt Smith was the main character in pilot House of the DragonTwo sex scenes are set up for a narrator, and he is given two different roles. First, you are your normal Game of Thrones fare: Daemon (Smith) is visiting his mistress, and he’s having trouble focusing because he’s stressed about his relationship with his brother. This is the second, and it’s more comical. Daemon leases a brothel in order to reward his soldiers who did a good job. The (still melancholic)DiverseAfter a fight with his brother, he sits down and glooms before his mistress incites him to give a speech.

Which of course leads to the whole brothel stopping what they’re doing — several of them very much mid-coitus — going quiet, and listening to his toast.

“Well I don’t think it’s exactly nice to be the saddest person at the medieval orgy, is it?” Smith laughs in a roundtable interview with Polygon. “But I think it tells you something about Daemon.”

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

And indeed, for all their situational comedy, they’re an example of how sex scenes on TV can be used to further the plot. The brothel scene is certainly one way of showing how devoted Daemon’s men are, and how much their relationship is, in some ways, built on mutual respect. Smith points out that each moment allows him to show off another aspect of his personality.

“People keep saying he’s a villain and all this, and he does really bad stuff. That’s true. But I think deep down there’s a real sense of fragility about him. There’s a strange vulnerability. And such a strange moral compass — which is warped, but it is a moral compass, in his own way.”

Smith admits scenes such as these are not his favourite, but he does see how they can fit into the show’s narrative (assuming that the set is safe).

“No one likes doing sex scenes. You know how I feel? Sonoya was able to save them. [Mizuno]Mysaria’s actor, Smith, was simply amazing. And then we had an intimacy coordinator, and that all felt quite good and safe and stuff,” Smith says. “But you know, that’s the world that we’re representing. That’s the world that George [R.R. Martin]Has written. It is all the world. House of the Dragon. And we’re trying to represent the books as truthfully as possible.”