Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Episodes 1-9 of House of the Dragon.I bet if you had a bingo card for what would happen on this episode of House of the Dragon, foot fetish probably wasn’t a box that you thought you’d be checking off. And yet in “The Green Council,” the penultimate episode of Season 1, we saw how Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) and Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) relationship had developed in the last six years.
We know that Larys has installed himself in court at Alicent’s side. After killing his brother and father in a fire and implicating that Alicent ordered the tragedy, the two have been tied together. We’ve seen multiple times that this is a man who is willing to do anything, whether that be for Alicent or, more likely, for himself. By the time Episode 9 rolls around, Larys has reached a position of power. He has conversations with Otto (Rhys Ifans), he oversees the collection of the servants in the keep to keep them silenced, he's regarded as the Lord Confessor at one point, and he now enters Alicent’s chambers freely to deliver her information.
What Information Does Larys Have?
We see in this episode that Alicent and Otto are at odds about how Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) should rise to the throne. Otto wants Aegon to simply kill Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her family so he has no contest to his rule, but Alicent wants a peaceful option. She doesn’t want to see Rhaenyra killed and doesn’t believe that that would be her husband’s wish. Alicent sends Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and her son Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) to find Aegon in the city and Otto sends Sers Arryk (Luke Tittensor) and Erryk (Elliott Tittensor). Whoever gets him first will have his ear.
But Otto knows of something that Alicent doesn’t. He knows that there is a network of spies in the palace and uses this to his advantage. He meets with the White Worm, Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), who demands that he stop the child fights happening in King’s Landing that the crown turns a blind eye to and in exchange gives him the location of Prince Aegon.
Knowing that she doesn’t know about this network of spies, Larys meets Alicent late at night to tell her what is going on, but the exchange of information is no longer over pies and wine as it was years ago.
Does Larys Have a Foot Fetish?
The answer to that is a resounding yes. The episode focuses on Larys’ club foot, but it is Alicent’s feet that receive the spotlight. When Alicent arrives in her chambers, Larys asks her if she is curious about how her father found Aegon first. To that, Alicent sits down on the couch and takes her stockinged feet out of her shoes, and props them on the edge of the desk in front of her.
Larys then continues and explains the web of spies that exists in the Red Keep and how these spies reveal all of their secrets. "Your father knows this but has left it in place. More than once it has proved advantageous for those who are willing to feed the weaver," he explains. But when Alicent asks if the said weaver watches her, he pauses and waits for her.
In a game of tit-for-tat, Alicent removes her socks, now baring naked feet. Seeing them, Larys reveals that Talya (Alexis Raben) is one of those spies, which we know from the last episode. Larys explains that there are far more like Talya and not even he knows how many there are, but in order to gain an advantage over Otto, the queen of the hive must be taken out. Alicent knows that he has the capabilities to carry out the murder of Mysaria, and in order to gain this upper hand, she agrees.
But instead of simply ordering him to do so, she turns on the couch and props her naked feet up and allows Larys to masturbate to the sight of them before sending one of his men to Mysaria's brothel to set it on fire and kill her. It's up for debate how successful they are, as Mysaria is far more self-sufficient and wily than Larys' family.
How Long Have Alicent and Larys Had This Relationship?
It stands to reason that given how wordless and seamless their interaction is, Alicent and Larys have been trading these favors for a while. Considering that they have worked together closely for six years. It's very possible that with Alicent's unknowing role in the Strong family's death, she has been roped into this relationship with Larys against her will.
We can see in the scene that she looks quite uncomfortable and sees this as a necessary evil more than anything else. It seems certain that their relationship will continue to evolve now that Aegon sits on the throne and Alicent is helping him to rule by his side.