Nothing hardens a man like war. When we last saw Daemon (Matt Smith) he was slathered in blood standing victorious after the War of Stepstones. When he comes to Kings Landing, as King of the Narrow Sea in the new episode of House of the Dragon, he continues with his unpredictable nature. In a new featurette makers of the series reveals what it was like to shoot the Daemon and Rhaenyra’s (Milly Alcock) intimate scenes from a female point of view.
Co-Showrunner, Miguel Sapochnik revealed that they had the idea about Daemon coming back seemingly a changed man and then turning out to be exactly as he was. “When he comes back he is not looking for his brother anymore, he’s somehow looking to get back at his brother and Rheanyra becomes the apple of his eye.” Ever since the first episode fans have known there’s chemistry between them but Episode 4 provided the opportunity for makers to really get into it. Sapochnik revealed that there were a lot of conversations about Rheanyra not being innocent and “at the same time she’s not the perpetrator of this.” Adding,
The idea that this is actually abuse felt really important to explore, but we put aside that because Daemon is her uncle and because that is the Targaryen custom.
So to get back at his brother Daemon takes Rhaenyra to a pleasure house where in true Targaryen fashion they share some intimate scenes. However, director Clare Kilner made some interesting visual choices and chose to show us the entire sequence from the Princess’ point of view, as she feels directing scenes like that can be "really difficult, it’s a big responsibility and it's important to shoot it from the right POV.” She further revealed that she has “grown up watching how male directors have directed sex scenes.” So as a woman, she has to really think about how to shoot it because her go-to references, the ones that she grew up with weren’t necessarily from a female perspective. The director further elaborated that at a point they carefully pondered over it and "it was really important for it to be a scene where people were equally enjoying themselves, freeing themselves, from the constraints of the world they’ve been living in.”
Kilner’s thoughts provide an allegory to Rhaenyra’s political position and need for finding momentary freedom from it. However, when it comes to it, Daemon shockingly withdrew. Sapochnik tells that the idea is that Daemon is using Rhaenyra so, ultimately his impotence is "a reflection of the fact he knows deep down what he’s doing isn’t right.” Alcock further explains Rhaenyra's mindset in that moment, “He thinks it’s shocking to her, but she doesn’t just get shocked, she gets excited by it and when it happens... he has nothing. And he basically can’t handle not being in charge or in control.”
However, Kilner thinks what it's saying is that "there’s this young woman who wants sex as much as this young man.” Creator Ryan Condal sums it up, “He awakens something in her which is, her perception of sex as a pleasure, she comes home and Ser Criston Cole is the nearest person available. It’s against his oath, but he’s also carried a torch for her and that’s it! Everything changes from that point forward for Rhaenyra.”
House of the Dragon Episode 5 will drop on September 18. Meanwhile, you can watch the featurette below: