The least hot of all the sex scenes is the one involving Alicent’s oldest son, Aegon. Like any typical teen, he was caught masturbating by his mother. But it’s not under the covers or in the bathroom, but boldly out the window. It’s a deliberate choice by the show to make it embarrassing and disturbing. It foreshadows Aegon’s later (blessedly off-camera) behavior, when he sexually abused a girl working in the castle.

Alicent doing her “wifely duty” with Viserys (juxtaposed against Rhaenyra having a fantastic first time in bed — more on that later) was a complicated watch for some viewers. It’s not violent or anything; it’s just that Alicent wishes it would be over already, made clear by her staring at the ceiling, bored, while she and Viserys work to conceive yet another child.

Moving into the hotter sequences, the one between Daemon and his mistress, Mysaria, is hot, but odd. The only sex scene in the series premiere is loud, with Mysaria yelling out and Daemon thrusting gratuitously as if to make sure those in the cheap seats can see it. It’s hot, but it also comes off as a box-checking exercise: “Here is the classic GOT sex scene you expected. Have we met expectations? Good, OK. We’re done here. We now return you to HOTD, already in progress.”

Incest and age aside, this is a pretty intriguing scene. Daemon is determined to show Rhaenyra that marriage has, ahem, benefits, and he does so by taking her to a brothel. They don’t have sex, per se, but they almost do — he can’t keep his hands off her and has to rip himself away. He goes off and gets drunk while she goes back to her room, frustrated.

In place of her uncle, Rhaenyra finds satisfaction waiting outside her bedroom in Ser Criston Cole, who looks like he cannot believe a fairy tale is happening to him. Their sex scene is the polar opposite of the down-and-dirty at the brothel just before. It’s got pillows and sheets flying; there are giggles and sweet whispers. It’s almost too precious to be hot, the kind of romance novel sex where everyone will live happily ever after as soon as it’s over. And it’s all juxtaposed against Alicent silently doing her duty with Viserys, having been denied that happiness.

The hottest scene by far is also the darkest (literally). Rhaenyra never wanted to marry her first husband; she had no choice. Given her druthers, she would have had Daemon kidnap her away before she wed Laenor.

But perhaps the wait was the better choice. By the time they could finally be together, Rhaenyra had grown up; she’s had a husband in her bed and children by another man. She knows who she is, what she wants, and what satisfies her and what doesn’t. Daemon is the only man for her, and their scene in the tent where they finally consummate what started a decade ago in the brothel was worth the wait (and maybe also worth brightening your screen a few notches to actually see it).