Brothels, incest and DIY C-sections: All of the weirdest moments in House of The Dragon

House of the Dragon, as television shows go, is probably one you don’t want to watch during a family night in. The show has plenty of moments that are shocking enough when you’re watching alone, let alone with your nan sat next to you. We’ve ranked the weirdest moments in House of the Dragon, perhaps you could use it as a guide of which scenes to look out for if you’re rewatching with the family.

‘He can keep his tongue’

via HBO

In the world of House of the Dragon, beheadings don’t count as weird, or shocking moments. To half of the show’s characters, removing a head is like painting your nails, or washing your car – it’s just one of those things you have to do every couple of weeks. This particular decapitation was a shocking one though, with Daemon chopping Vaemond Velaryon’s head in half, just above the tongue – giving the camera nice view of the whole mess.

All the incest

via HBO

If you watched Game of Thrones, you’ll remember that Cersei and Jaime Lannister’s excuse for their particular brand of sibling love was that back in the day, the Targaryen family practiced incest as a matter of routine. So, going into House of Dragon, we should’ve prepared ourselves.

I had, but after the first few episodes showing nothing worse than cousin-on -cousin action, we were all lulled into a false sense of security. Then they hit us with it: Uncle and niece, adult cousin and child cousin, brother and sister and then, in one of Daemon’s most disturbing dream scenes in Harrenhal, he got way way too freaky with his Mum. Yikes.

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Rhaenyra and Daemon’s brothel scene

via HBO

Even in a show that’s basically 20 per cent incest, Rhaenyra and Daemon’s brothel scene needs a special mention. Featuring plenty of disturbing sights and a significant dosage of cringeworthy uncle – niece dirty talk, this was one of the scenes early on in the first season that makes us feel sorry for anyone who was watching with family.

The Aemond brothel scene

via HBO

Another brothel is next on the list. In all honesty, this ranking could’ve been almost entirely brothel scenes, so maybe keep an eye out for a brothel scene rankings – there’s more than enough to choose from. This scene can be distilled into one eye-boggling moment when we saw Prince Aemond’s *ahem* crown jewels in all their glory – if glory is the right word. Fair play to actor Ewan Mitchell for this scene. In a show that asks a lot of its female actors in the nudity department, hats of to Ewan as he reportedly volunteered to shoot that scene fully nude.

All the child violence

via HBO

Just like with all the incest, there were so many disturbing scenes of child violence that they had to be grouped together as one category. In real life, kids fight and cousins fight too, but I never took a knife to my cousins eye – and seeing that happen in the most violent tween playground scrap ever to be shown on TV made for an difficult watch. Watching the toddler prince Jahaerys be decapitated with what looked like a cheese knife wasn’t much easier.

Queen Aemma’s terrifying death scene

via HBO

There were a couple of scary childbirth scenes in House of the Dragon, but this was a particularly tough watch. When Queen Aemma (Rhaenyra’s Mum) was giving birth in episode one, Viserys was called into the room and told his newborn son was going to die, but he might survive if they tried a new procedure, which would unfortunately mean Aemma would be sacrificed. We then watched Aemma be subjected to a C-section without anaesthetic. I’m no medical expert, but that rusty old dagger didn’t look like it was the safest tool they could’ve used either. Having watched this scene, and all the other terrifying childbirth deaths in the show, I really think Westeros could benefit from the NHS.

Otto setting his daughter up with Viserys

via HBO

This was a scene just after Queen Aemma’s death, in which Otto suggests to his daughter that she might visit the king to cheer him up. This was early on in the series, but we already knew Otto was a schemer. It might have been possible to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he says to Alicent as she walks out the door: “You might wear one of your mother’s dresses.” From that moment on, we all knew exactly what Otto Hightower was up to. Who among us can say we haven’t set up our daughter with our grieving best friend who’s twice her age?

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Featured image via HBO