(Contains spoilers for Episode 4 of Season 1 of the series. House of Dragons is streaming on Hotstar in India.)

Given that it's the prequel to the often shocking—sex, violence etc—Game of Thrones, the show has a high bar to clear if it wants to get the same jaw dropping reactions that GoT got.

That odd bit between Daemon (played by former Doctor Who, Matt Smith) and his niece, Princess Rhaenyra, was clearly devised by the former as a characteristically harebrained lunge for power. In fact, given the setting he chose—a very public pleasure house—made it seem akin to the leaking of a celebrity sex video to compromise a powerful woman. His next step—asking his brother, the king, for the hand of the princess in marriage—confirmed that it was more about power than desire.

Not that that kind of desire (uncle's for niece) is not problematic, but then again the show sits in the Game of Thrones universe, and so that's a theme that the audience must be expecting.

It was refreshing that Rhaenyra does not let the jilting get to her too much. Back at her palace she claims Ser Criston Cole, her bodyguard, for her pleasure. Ser Criston resists for a while but then gives in and they seem to have a lovely enough time of it all.

Tastefully done scene with depiction of unabashed female desire and pleasure. On that count it stands out from most of the sex depicted in Game of Thrones. Also interesting that young Rhaenyra is not besotted by Ser Criston as she soon comes to a pragmatic understanding with her father, the relatively mild mannered King Viserys, on a marriage to someone she does not know for political expediency.

And then there was the trauma of marital rape experienced by Allicent. Summoned by the otherwise gentle king late in the night, and put in bed for him to have sex with. Viserys has no time for her pleasure and is most likely just looking for a release. Probably—and we surmise here—looking for a release from all the stress on a difficult day at work.

In that moment he is a warning to all men to always remember that they can’t find sex unilaterally. When it is unilateral it is rape. And it is ugly. Ugly as this scene. Possibly a very high impact scene in that sense.

All told, it was a fine episode when it comes to depictions of sex. Several dimensions presented, and not just to shock us as Game of Thrones might have, but to also make us think.