Game of Thrones shocked the world with its very first episode showing not one, but two examples of incest.
Viewers were shown a brother ogling his naked younger sister and fondling her breasts, and if that was not bad enough, later in the episode we would see a twin brother and sister having sexual intercourse.
If you managed to get through that first episode of Game of Thrones and stay on for more, you would see more examples of incest. Perhaps the most horrifying was Craster’s abuse of his daughters, which was revealed in the second season.
Not only did he marry his daughters as soon as they came of age to have more incestuous children with them, but he also sacrificed any sons that were born to the White Walkers.
Firmly establishing itself as a show that is not afraid to “go there,” Game of Thrones pushed our boundaries in terms of shock factor. And House of the Dragon has taken up the mantle of making audiences cringe by being full of more incest.
It was well established in the Game of Thrones canon, prior to HotD, that Targaryen incest was common. Cited as being a potential reason for the famed Targaryen madness, it was well-known throughout Westeros that they had been inbreeding for years to keep their bloodlines pure.
Fans on Reddit have pointed out that despite the immense ick factor of Targaryen incest, it is not that controversial.
The argument is that real-life high-born families have been known to breed through incest for the exact same reason as the Targaryen, to keep their blood as pure as possible. It may be disgusting in the eyes of most, but it is not unheard of among royals and nobles.
Even within the universe of the show itself, the Targaryen’s incest is not as “bad” as what some other characters have gotten up to. Jaime and Cersei were twins who had three children together, and it was against the wishes and norms of their family.
Craster raped his own daughters and murdered his sons, the patriarch of an oppressive and vicious rule over his keep where his daughters and daughter-wives were his prisoners.
By comparison, Targaryen’s incest is strangely tame. It is not only accepted within their family but also expected. It also appears mostly consensual, or at least, as consensual as was possible for those misogynistic times. As much as it will rightly continue to repulse us, fans have noted that taken in the context of being a noble family with this firm tradition, it is not as controversial as it first appears.