Incest scenes abound in the “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon.”
In the eighth episode of the series, which aired on Sunday, it was briefly revealed that Daemon Targaryen and his niece Rhaenyra had two children as a consequence of their incestuous connection. They had sex and were married in episode 7 following the burial of Daemon’s second wife, who was also his niece. They had passionate encounters throughout the season.
The “Games of Thrones” series has made considerable use of the topic of incest. According to a recent story from The Sun, the “Game of Thrones” relationship between Cersei and Jamie Lannister, who are siblings, increased interest in fauxcest (false incest) searches on porn sites.
The concept is being continued by “House of Dragon” more than ten years later, and audiences still like it.
Of course, seeing niece-uncle adultery has shock value. But it goes farther than that, according to Justin Lehmiller, a sex researcher at the Kinsey Institute and the presenter of the “Sex & Psychology” podcast, who spoke to Insider.
According to him, Incest plays on viewers’ ingrained urge to witness what is taboo.
People are driven to doing or seeing activities that are considered to be “bad.”
For years, sexologists have known that taboos like incest make individuals more interested. According to Lehmiller, who published the book “Tell Me What You Want” on sexual fantasies, there is something fascinating about doing or simply seeing something you’re not meant to.
According to Brian Connolly, author of Domestic Intimacies: Incest and the Liberal Subject in Nineteenth-Century America, incest did not acquire an intrinsically negative meaning until Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, invented the phrase “Oedipus complex” in 1899.
However, it hasn’t put an end to incest fantasies or tales. The exact reverse, according to Lehmiller. According to Lehmiller, porn, social media, and TV dramas like “House of the Dragon” have all contributed to a kind of on-screen incest renaissance that has people saying, “It’s so horrible, I can’t look away.”
According to Lehmiller, “part of it is that transgression aspect, that elevated arousal that comes with prohibited acts.”
“[It] can also just be real interest, like, ‘I think I’ve heard a lot about incest before and how it’s horrible,’ so for some individuals it might just be this morbid fascination behind it.”
“Basic human wiring hasn’t altered much over the previous several millennia, and we’ve always had an erotic interest in incest tales,” said Geoffrey Celen, a trend specialist for the porn business, to MEL magazine. Although Oedipus had a terrible ending, the fact that he beats his mother is what defines the narrative.