During Game of Thrones' 8-year run on HBO, fans of the series became acquainted with strange, unconventional scenes that challenged every moral creed known to man. However, a scene from the first season of House of the Dragon pushed the boundary further than the audience expected.
The prequel, which is based on George R. R. Martin's 2018 novel Fire & Blood, is set about 100 years after the Seven Kingdoms are united by the Targaryen Conquest, nearly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, and 172 years before the birth of the last Targaryen, Daenerys Targaryen. The series details the events that began the fateful downfall of House Targaryen, particularly the civil war of succession that came to be known as the Dance of the Dragons.
In the ninth episode, Larys Strong, who serves as the Lord Confessor and Queen Alicent's trusted confidante, shocked fans when, in exchange for revealing to Alicent how her father, Otto Hightower, managed to find her son Aegon after he went missing, he requested to see her feet. Holding back information from her, Alicent had to remove her shoes and stockings and lay her bare feet on the table, an act that Larys used to sexually gratify himself.
During the panel session of the official Game of Thrones Convention in Los Angeles, Larys Strong's actor Matthew Needham shed more light on the particular scene, saying:
The apex of his ambition is not feet. As great as that is, it’s not. I don’t think it’s a foot fetish like we understand in 2022. I think it’s weirder than that. It’s not just about a man with a clubfoot being attracted to feet. It’s that he can make her do it. This is a very disturbed person with a lot of trauma… it’s about making her feel as much shame as she does for that part of her body as he does for his. He can cut out tongues and he can cut out eyes. I think he likes that … I think he likes making people incomplete. He can’t do that with her. He can, though, associate that part of her body with a trauma so that long after he’s gone, she’s got this sick feeling about it that’s connected to that. That’s the thing about assault like that: it makes the victim’s body the scene of the crime, and I think that’s what he likes to do. So I don’t see it like he loves feet. It’s the fact that she’s not into it and he can make her do it.
Fans will have to wait and see what the future holds for Larys Strong in Season 2, which was renewed earlier this year. Filming is expected to begin in spring 2023, which means that we won't be seeing the second season until sometime in 2024.
