‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘House of the Dragon’ Controversies Through the Years: Incest, ‘Sexposition’ and More

Credit: HBO MAX

'Game of Thrones' and 'House of the Dragon' Controversies Through the Years: Incest, ‘Sexposition’ and More

When you play the game of thrones, you win — or you stir up a few controversies. Game of Thrones and its spinoff, House of the Dragon, have been faced with tons of backlash over the years. Almost as soon as the original series premiered on HBO in April 2011, critics began to wonder whether the drama really needed so much nudity. One month after the pilot aired, writer Myles McNutt coined the term "sexposition" to describe a certain kind of Thrones scene where characters discuss important plot points during intimate moments. In one particularly egregious example, Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) explained his full history with Catelyn (Michelle Fairley) and Ned Stark (Sean Bean) while instructing two prostitutes how to properly pleasure a man. The scene was one of many that seemingly inspired a 2012 Saturday Night Live sketch about who was really responsible for all the sex on the show: a 13-year-old consultant named Adam, played by Andy Samberg. [sendtonews type="float" key="JETgCkgNU5-2831793-14453"] While Game of Thrones writers seemingly toned down the nudity in later seasons, the series still had a reputation for gratuitous nudity when spinoff House of the Dragon premiered in August 2022. Ahead of the show's debut, Matt Smith, who plays Daemon Targaryen, joked that he thinks his character has "slightly too much" sex. "You do find yourself asking, 'Do we need another sex scene?'" the Crown alum told Rolling Stone UK in August 2022. "And they're like, 'Yeah, we do.' I guess you have to ask yourself: 'What are you doing? Are you representing the books, or are you diluting the books to represent the time [we're living in]?' And I actually think it's your job to represent the books truthfully and honestly, as they were written." On the literary side of things, A Song of Ice and Fire creator George R.R. Martin has come under fire for failing to finish the book series on which the shows are based. Fans have been eagerly awaiting a release date announcement for the upcoming sixth installment, The Winds of Winter, for more than a decade. Martin, meanwhile, finished a separate book about the Targaryens — Fire and Blood, which became the basis for House of the Dragon — and participated in the making of the video game Elden Ring, among many other projects. In August 2022, the New Jersey native admitted that he has stopped trying to predict when he'll finish the series, which is supposed to include at least one more novel after The Winds of Winter. “I’m making progress, but I’ve given up on any hope of predicting the end," he told Vanity Fair. "Every time I do, I don’t make it and everybody gets mad at me, and there’s no sense. It’ll be done when it’s done." Keep scrolling for a look back at the biggest controversies in Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon history.

Credit: HBO MAX

'Game of Thrones' and 'House of the Dragon' Controversies Through the Years: Incest, ‘Sexposition’ and More

When you play the game of thrones, you win — or you stir up a few controversies. Game of Thrones and its spinoff, House of the Dragon, have been faced with tons of backlash over the years. Almost as soon as the original series premiered on HBO in April 2011, critics began to wonder whether the drama really needed so much nudity. One month after the pilot aired, writer Myles McNutt coined the term "sexposition" to describe a certain kind of Thrones scene where characters discuss important plot points during intimate moments. In one particularly egregious example, Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) explained his full history with Catelyn (Michelle Fairley) and Ned Stark (Sean Bean) while instructing two prostitutes how to properly pleasure a man. The scene was one of many that seemingly inspired a 2012 Saturday Night Live sketch about who was really responsible for all the sex on the show: a 13-year-old consultant named Adam, played by Andy Samberg. [sendtonews type="float" key="JETgCkgNU5-2831793-14453"] While Game of Thrones writers seemingly toned down the nudity in later seasons, the series still had a reputation for gratuitous nudity when spinoff House of the Dragon premiered in August 2022. Ahead of the show's debut, Matt Smith, who plays Daemon Targaryen, joked that he thinks his character has "slightly too much" sex. "You do find yourself asking, 'Do we need another sex scene?'" the Crown alum told Rolling Stone UK in August 2022. "And they're like, 'Yeah, we do.' I guess you have to ask yourself: 'What are you doing? Are you representing the books, or are you diluting the books to represent the time [we're living in]?' And I actually think it's your job to represent the books truthfully and honestly, as they were written." On the literary side of things, A Song of Ice and Fire creator George R.R. Martin has come under fire for failing to finish the book series on which the shows are based. Fans have been eagerly awaiting a release date announcement for the upcoming sixth installment, The Winds of Winter, for more than a decade. Martin, meanwhile, finished a separate book about the Targaryens — Fire and Blood, which became the basis for House of the Dragon — and participated in the making of the video game Elden Ring, among many other projects. In August 2022, the New Jersey native admitted that he has stopped trying to predict when he'll finish the series, which is supposed to include at least one more novel after The Winds of Winter. “I’m making progress, but I’ve given up on any hope of predicting the end," he told Vanity Fair. "Every time I do, I don’t make it and everybody gets mad at me, and there’s no sense. It’ll be done when it’s done." Keep scrolling for a look back at the biggest controversies in Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon history.

Credit: HBO MAX

'Sexposition'

Throughout Game of Thrones’ original run from 2011 to 2019, critics slammed the show for using "sexposition" scenes to move the plot forward. As many fans were quick to point out, these moments usually involved female nudity, while male characters remained clothed. After the show ended, Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen, admitted that she wasn't always comfortable with all of her nude scenes.

"I came to terms with that beforehand,” she explained during a November 2019 appearance on Dax Shepard's "Armchair Expert" podcast. “But then going in and doing it ... I’d been on a film set twice before then, and I’m now on a film set completely naked with all of these people, and I don’t know what I’m meant to do, and I don’t know what’s expected of me, and I don’t know what you want, and I don’t know what I want.”

The Last Christmas actress noted that her costar Jason Momoa, who played Daenerys' husband, helped her cope with some of the show's more difficult moments. “He took care of me,” she recalled. "In an environment where I didn’t know I needed to be taken care of. It’s only now that I realize how fortunate I was with that. Because Jason had experience; he was an experienced actor who had done a bunch of stuff before coming on to this. He was like, ‘Sweetie, this is how it’s meant to be, and this is how it’s not meant to be, and I’m gonna make sure that that’s the f–king case.’”

Credit: HBO MAX

The Lannister Rape Scene

Game of Thrones depicted multiple rape scenes over the course of the show, but the most controversial one happened in season 4. During the episode "Breaker of Chains," Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) raped his twin sister, Cersei (Lena Headey). Cersei repeatedly said "no" and "stop," but episode director Alex Graves told Vulture that he thought the interaction became "consensual" by the end. Many fans, however, did not agree.

Martin, for his part, responded to the controversy on his blog, noting that he didn't discuss the TV version of the moment with showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. "The scene was always intended to be disturbing," he wrote. "But I do regret if it has disturbed people for the wrong reasons.”

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Shireen's Death

Few deaths unsettled viewers more than that of Shireen Baratheon (Kerry Ingram), who was burned alive by her father, Stannis (Stephen Dillane), in season 5. After the episode aired in 2015, some fans took to social media to ask if the show had finally gone too far. Shireen's death did not occur in the books, but Benioff claimed that it was Martin's idea, suggesting that it could still appear in a later novel.

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The 'Game of Thrones' Series Finale

The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones was widely criticized for rushing through a series of major events that had been built up over the show's previous seven seasons. While there were many complaints about the show's final episodes, there were a few major criticisms that popped up repeatedly: Daenerys turned evil too quickly, Jaime and Cersei's deaths happened too quickly and Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) becoming king was a letdown.

Credit: David Fisher/Shutterstock

The Canceled Spinoff

Before House of the Dragon premiered, HBO produced a pilot for a different Game of Thrones spinoff that never aired. Former WarnerMedia exec Bob Greenblatt revealed in 2021 that HBO spent more than $30 million on the pilot before it was scrapped.

Jamie Campbell-Bower, who was supposed to star in the series alongside Naomi Watts, also admitted he was disappointed that the show didn't move forward. "Everything happens for a reason," the Stranger Things star told Entertainment Weekly in July 2022. "I don't think anything happens by chance. At the time of that spinoff not working out, of course it's sad. Of course it is."

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Racist Backlash

Ahead of the House of the Dragon premiere, racist social media users attacked Steve Toussaint, who plays Corlys Velaryon, the first Black lead character in the franchise. “I didn’t realize it was a bigger deal until I was racially abused on social media when it was announced,” the U.K. native told The Hollywood Reporter in August 2022. “Yeah, that s–t happened. ... Then someone else referred to me by the N-word. There was also a Black American chap who is a big fan of the show who contacted me saying that he gets abuse because he championed me for the part.”

Credit: HBO MAX

All the Incest

The Targaryens are known for incest in the books and on the show, but many viewers were still disgusted when Daemon seduced his teenage niece, Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), during a September 2022 episode of House of the Dragon. Alcock later told the New York Post that she felt "quite comfortable" filming the controversial moment, but she described the scene as "pretty gnarly."

However, after a 10-year time jump, Rhaenyra was played by Emma D'Arcy, which made audiences slightly less uncomfortable when she married Damon. The two went on to have children together, even naming son Viserys after the king (who was both Rhaenyra's father and brother-in-law).

Despite Alicent's initial disgust at the idea of Rhaenyra hooking up with her uncle, the queen later marries her son Aegon to daughter Helaena. They have multiple children together. 

Credit: HBO/Ollie Upton

Larys' Foot Fetish

Larys (Matthew Needham) comes to Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) with information in an October 2022 episode, but he doesn't give her information until she shows him her barefoot. She turns her head away, dissociating as Larys masturbates to the sight of her feet. Viewers were shocked that House of the Dragon found a kink that Game of Thrones never explored, and many questioned if Alicent really needed to serve as sexual gratification for yet another man in her life.