Why Alicent shows her feet in House of the Dragon

A major challenge for anyone is House of the DragonIt has always had one problem with its immensely successful predecessor. Game of Thrones It was for perverts. This isn’t a joke. It happens quite often. Thrones director Neil Marshall told Empire magazine in reference to an executive producer that encouraged him to include more nudity for “the perv side of the audience”). The series relished in what became known as “sexposition,” a term coined to discuss the many instances in Thrones and premium TV dramas like it that delivered heaps of exposition in titillating scenes — Littlefinger, like Tony Soprano, did not You can find it hereIt was not easy to establish a shop in a brothel. The sale of sex is easy.

Its first season was successful. House of the Dragon’s approach toward sex has been intentionally much more muted. It’s still there, but not front and center, and usually as a dramatic turning point in the plot. However, in “The Green Council,” the penultimate episode of the season, there’s a bit of a sexual curveball: Following the death of King Viserys and in the midst of a dramatic plan to install Prince Aegon as king over the crown princess Rhaenyra, the schemer Larys Strong meets with Queen Alicent in her chambers to discuss the rapidly shifting balance of power.

As Larys speaks, Alicent sits across from him and takes off her shoes — an oddly normal and relatable moment in a show that’s full of high drama. She’s been plotting all day. She’s You are tired. It gets strangely familiar. Alicent removes her socks and places her naked feet in Larys’s sight. Larys slowly looks away, while Alicent turns his gaze lascivious.

Warner Media

The scene could play in many different ways depending on how sensitive you are. It can be a horror short, an outrageous bit of prurience, an incredible moment of dissonant comedy, or a wildly insensitive character beat (the way the camera conspicuously cuts to Larys’ disabled leg suggests a link between his disability and sexual deviancy, a jarring implication in a scene this layered).

In an episode filled with dramatic scenes, the moment seems out of place in a series that has been simmering for years for characters and viewers. It’s part of the discomfort. It’s staged as a prurient reveal, yes, but, like the rest of the episode, what makes it truly notable is what’s missing: contrast. Rhaenyra.

In “The Green Council,” Alicent has won. The episode isn’t a win for Alicent. She has been plotting with her small council to make Aegon the king, but she is not included in this plan. She is literally unable to resist her attempts to coerce Rhaenys (Eve Best), and her family members to agree to her will. There are many minders and spying, so her only chance of gaining the upper hand is to give the Westerosi version she has seen the feet photos to the most shiftiest man. In patriarchal Westeros, Alicent can never truly win by playing by the rules, because playing by the rules demands a woman’s dignity as the cost of buy-in. Now she’s been playing for years, and the weight of all she’s traded away is catching up to her.

Rhaenyra, and those close to her, do not appear in “The Green Council.” Its action is entirely set around the ticking time bomb of King’s Landing, and she and Daemon are far away. Rhaenyra is still a shadow. She is not in power, but she is powerful — and she didn’t have to show anyone her feet to get it.