House of the Dragon: “Alicent doesn’t understand at all what just happened”

Olivia Cooke and Ewan Mitchell tell us the most awkward moment from the first episode of season 3, between Alicent and Aemond…

We tend to forget it, but among the Targaryens, incest is a family tradition.

Moreover, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) married her uncle, Daemon (Matt Smith). And Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) married his sister, Helaena (Phia Saban). And yet, in the first episode of season 3 of House of the Dragon, before the fury of the Battle of the Gosier, another even more traumatic moment marked fans: during a one-on-one scene, Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) and his mother, Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), exchange a sloppy kiss!

To prepare the ground for Rhaenyra’s arrival in King’s Landing, she convinces her one-eyed son to fly with his dragon Vhagar to Harrenhal to join Ser Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel) and confront Daemon. But the situation takes an unexpected turn when Aemond, confusing maternal love with romantic love, leans towards Alicent and kisses her passionately, leaving her shocked and, let’s say, horrified. After all, she’s a Hightower, not a Targaryen!

But then why? Where did this terrifying kiss come from?

“It’s pretty badass, isn’t it? Or just bad, actually!” laughs Ewan Mitchell, interviewed by Première. “No, I have to admit it’s a tough pill to swallow. For her, for me, for everyone. It’s terrifying.”

The actor insists: “Without a doubt, Aemond has problems with his mother. With maternal figures in general, even with Vhagar, his female dragon so powerful that he loves her so much. A sort of Oedipus complex! The whole question is to know what he is capable of changing, of opening up a little more. But he is quite horrible, it’s true.”

Olivia Cooke isn’t much more comfortable talking about that “special kiss with mom,” as she calls it.

The British actress tries to explain that this moment comes only “from Aemond’s side, from his perspective. He has this strange vision of things. And when he suddenly kisses her, she is totally in shock.”

For her, Alicent is “downright upset” by what has just happened:

“She doesn’t understand what’s happening to her. But at the same time, she immediately has to deal with this new element in their relationship, because he could just as easily plunge his sword into her chest if he wanted to! He sits on the Iron Throne; he’s drunk with power, he can do whatever he wants.”

Alicent has no choice but to endure another brutal moment.

“She doesn’t even have time to think, to wonder what has just happened. In any case, it’s further proof that she has largely failed in her role as a mother…”

Ewan Mitchell, for his part, claims to have been less surprised: “I expected it a little, given everything I explored regarding Aemond and his relationship with Alicent. In Aemond’s mind, it’s as if he was taking control of the family, in fact…”

But for Olivia Cooke, it was above all an embarrassing scene: