Look, I don't want to say I watched House of the Dragon just for the foot scene, but well, mumble mumble mumble. The internet has been abuzz with chatter about this foot fetish scene, and colour me curious. If everyone was talking about it, I probably should check it out, right? I mean, for work if nothing else. I loved Game of Thrones, but House of the Dragon didn't interest me so I haven't been watching weekly and have instead been learning the show's beats through existing on the internet. This week, I heard there was a foot fetish scene, and given how far HBO likes to push the boundaries, my curiosity was piqued.
I went in with zero knowledge whatsoever. I didn't even know who was involved in this scene. I was relieved, after searching 'house of the dragon foot scene' on YouTube that the thumbnails were populated by Olivia Cooke and not some ugly old bloke with rotten hairy grippers, but then it was all so very tame. I had no real idea what to expect. I wasn't sure if the scene would be uncomfortably erotic, like the passionate and incestuous kisses of Jaime and Cersei, or if it would be more like that time Denethor ate a tomato in The Lord of the Rings.
I wasn't even sure what I would have preferred. I was accused by other editors at TheGamer that I was only looking up the scene for salacious reasons, but I assured them that if I wanted to find erotic foot videos on the internet there were better places to look than random scenes from TV shows – especially given it was a crapshoot whether I was going to get to see Olivia Cooke or Paddy Considine whipping their socks off. All I really wanted was something. Anything. Instead I got nothing.
All we see is Cooke's character take her sock off and put her foot on a table as a means of paying her spy for their information. It's a well shot scene, with a lingering gaze from the camera selling the act as something forbidden and secretive, the aching silence in the background. We're supposed to be disgusted, from the grotesque way said informant openly begins to touch himself, from Cooke's embarrassed and pained expression. Even without seeing the rest of the show, I get the gist of the scene. Cooke's character has figured out a way to use her body without using her body, though she still feels a sense of shame. Meanwhile, we're supposed to look on the informant as a vile creature – he doesn't just want a kiss, or to see her naked, or even to touch her, but instead is a disgusting vole with a penchant for feet. The scene does a lot for the plot and the characterisation of the pair, and I can tell that even as an outsider. I have no issue with the scene itself. I have an issue with you lot.
I understand that, in the fabric of the show, we're supposed to find this man gross, and think that the way he uses his power for something so uniquely shameful is abhorrent, but that's not really the reaction. People tend to overreact on the internet, but the fallout from this scene through memes and online discussion has been as if her feet were covered in whipped cream and chocolate sauce, wiped all over the camera itself, licked clean, ejaculated on, then licked clean again. After a 20-mile run. It feels like a silly complaint – and for the most part it is – but it's also a comment on how when storytelling uses sex for anything other than the basest entertainment, as a culture we're unable to comprehend it. This feels like a pivotal scene that reveals new layers of both characters, and all that we have talked about is 'ooooooh she showin' feet!'.
I don't really know what I wanted from this scene, but all things considered, it was startlingly tame. If this is enough to send pop culture into a spiral, we're nowhere near as sex positive as I thought.
Source: Read Full Article