If GoT Was a Show for Perverts, What is House of the Dragon Exactly?
With Game of Thrones, showrunners admitted it themselves. With House of the Dragons, things are different... but are they, though?
In case you forgot or missed this, Game of Thrones was at some point touted as a show for perverts, albeit not as explicitly, by its very own showrunners. Back in the good old times of 2012, one of GoT directors, Neil Marshall, told Empire in a podcast that executive producers would approach him and encourage including full frontal nudity in the episodes.
"This particular exec [who remained anonymous in the story] took me to one side and said, 'Look, I represent the pervert side of the audience, okay? Everybody else is the serious drama side, [but] I represent the perv side of the audience, and I'm saying I want full frontal nudity in this scene.' So you go ahead and do it," Marshall revealed.
Sex sells; Game of Thrones has largely proved it. Still, when House of the Dragon was announced, fans appeared to openly urge showrunners to concentrate less on sex and nudity and more on the story and drama. Did it help?
Largely, yes. At the beginning, House of the Dragon does not offer a lot of explicitly sexual scenes, resorting to a couple of such interactions between Daemon and a prostitute, as well as between King Viserys and Alicent. However, none of those scenes are as spicy as Game of Thrones used to be; in fact, in the middle of the season, HoTD even injects a softcore sex scene, and thus provides a pleasant surprise for many fans.
"One thing I really like about House of the Dragon is that they're not relying heavily on nudity or porno scenes. All the sexual encounters so far are implied and not shown and I think that's how it should stay personally," Twitter user GHXSTWES noted.
But things are not that simple this time. Not only do we have to witness the scene where Alicent Hightower indulges Larys Strong's foot fetish but also the creators appeared to resort to another way to hype everyone up about the show.
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With the very first episode basically throwing a close-up C-section scene in our faces, as well as dismembering people and cutting their genitals off, we realize that the GoT universe does not seem to be willing to expand without sticking to some kind of deviation. You are either going to have full frontal nudity and explicit sex, like in the original show, or close your eyes when Aemma Targaryen is getting sliced open when giving birth or Larys Strong touches himself while looking at Alicent's bare feet.
On top of that, there is an entire plethora of people who were grossed out by Jaime and Cersei forbidden love in Game of Thrones, but are now enamored with the Targaryen incest between Daemon and Rhaenyra.
Still...
"With almost nothing but dialogue, House of the Dragon remains absolutely captivating. The performances all around are solid, and it's nice that not every single episode is filled with egregious nudity and sexposition," Twitter user TheMiddleborne argued.
It would seem that the prequel managed to learn the lesson of "the show for perverts" and turn into something else — however, is this "something else" exactly better when you think about it?
With House of the Dragon only beginning its tumultuous journey through the Targaryen civil war, we will maybe get to know the answer soon. Season 2 shooting is scheduled to kick off in early in 2023.