‘House of the Dragon’: Rhaenyra and Ser Criston’s Sweet Sex Scene is Unlike Anything in ‘Game of Thrones’

In just its four first episodes, HBO‘s House of the Dragon has both honored and improved upon what made Game of Thrones so great. Back from the original show are Ramin Djawadi’s iconic theme song, the gripping palace intrigue, and the brutal look at life in a fantasy world. But House of the Dragon has already given us bigger and better dragons, a more opulent look at King’s Landing, and — perhaps most importantly — a sex scene that is more about vulnerability than titillation.

The scene in which young Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) seduces her loyal white knight Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) is unlike anything we’ve seen in the Game of Thrones universe before. While it certainly evokes the fraught tenderness of Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Daenerys’s (Emilia Clarke) first time and has the giddy romance of Jon’s tryst with Ygritte (Rose Leslie) in the cave, there’s something pure about this particular sex scene. Maybe it’s because it’s shot PG-13 style, with very little overt nudity, or perhaps it hews so close to Arthurian conventions, but Rhaenyra and Ser Criston’s House of the Dragon Episode 4 sex scene is revolutionary in that it’s…well, a “love scene.”

House of the Dragon Episode 4 is concerned with the question of whom Rhaenyra will eventually marry. Viserys (Paddy Considine) has given his rebellious daughter free rein to travel the Seven Kingdoms in pursuit of her chosen husband, but a year has passed and she has not found one suitor worth her while. We know from the way she plays with her Valyrian steel necklace that Daemon (Matt Smith) is never far from her mind, but it is Ser Criston Cole who is always at her side. He is devoted to the princess since she elevated him from nothing to the Kingsguard and she sees the knight as the only confidante she has in the world.

After Daemon returns from the Narrow Sea and reconciles with Viserys, he whisks Rhaenyra out of the castle for a debauched night on the town. The two get intimate in a brothel, but Daemon leaves the girl wanting more. Upon arriving back to her room, she decides to take it from Ser Criston.

The scene starts innocently enough, with Ser Criston worried that something’s happened to his princess and Rhaenyra teasing him with his helmet. She essentially locks him in her room and kisses him. As she makes to undo her stop, Criston whispers, “Stop,” but they keep going, with Rhaenyra in the lead. As she carefully takes off his Kingsguard armor, he becomes more and more willing to participate. Though he pauses at the sight of his white cloak — which symbolizes his vow of chastity — he is completely in it once he’s free of his armor.

After the two very sweetly take off their own clothes in tandem — Rhaenyra giggling as she unlaces — he carries her to the bed. The scene is partially shot from behind a screen, offering the audience the position of voyeur. Rhaenyra’s long silver blonde hair covers her breasts. But they are clearly having exuberant sex in the candle light. Hands clasp hands, Rhaenyra slips on top, and they hold each other tightly.

Nothing about Rhaenyra and Criston’s sex scene feels designed to objectify the actors or titillate the audience. It is about the innocence of Rhaenyra’s desire and the purity of Criston’s love. As Ser Criston is breaking his oath, the music — while romantic — has an undercurrent of sorrow. You can already sense there will be regret, if not dangerous consequences, for this act.

The scene is immediately followed up by a spy telling Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) of Rhaenyra “carrying on” with Daemon in a pleasure house. While the show intimates that Daemon did not have sex with his niece, this will be enough to sully her reputation and potentially take her out of the line of succession for good. While Rhaenyra convinces Alicent of her innocence, it remains to be seen what could happen if news of her hookup with Ser Criston leaked out. It wouldn’t just ruin the princess, but could lead to Ser Criston Cole’s death, dismemberment, or exile to the Wall. He would lose all he had earned through hard work and luck with a stroke.

More than anything else, though, this scene is shot like a love scene first and foremost. It’s about the romance brewing between the lady and her knight; the tragedy underpinning the embrace of temptation. It’s about emotions, pleasure, and the inevitable doom of such a pairing as a dragon-riding princess and her common-born Kingsguard knight.