eve

Now, that's not to say he was the innocent victim in this. Book Aemond is a vile, misogynistic ego maniac who exterminated her family, and took her as a prize of war (read: sex slave) likely because he wanted to sexually humiliate a bastard of a house he despised. Its just that she might have potentially turned the tables on him, and made the best of her situation to secure power for herself.

Did she play on his mommy issues? Possibly, we don't know. All we have to substantiate the mommy angle is her being a wet nurse, and an older woman (who looked younger than her age). We don't get any information about Aemond's character in relation to women (beyond him choosing the prettiest of Lord Borros' daughters), or his relationship with Alicent, or his previous sexual partners to know for sure that he actually preferred older women because he was Oedipal toward his mother.

And precisely because of this ambiguity, because of this plethora of interpretations, I actually don't mind the mommy issues they gave him on the show (fml, if you've read Daughters of the dragon, you know he has major mommy issues there as well). The issue is their handling which is to say, they were reduced to cheap, sexually titillating shock value rather than a meaningful facet of his character that serves to further develop him and advance the plot.

First, they weren't set up properly. S1 was rushed as all hell, meaning we never got to properly develop any of the kids and their relationships with their family, and how that shaped them into adulthood.

S1 Aemond's personality was bullied kid who felt inferior cause he didn't have a dragon, got a dragon and turned himself into a badass edgelord fueled by resentment. The framing tells us this insecurity stems from his second son syndrome and the trauma his brother and nephews put him through (chiefly Luke slashing his eye), not Alicent's parenting specifically (like it so clearly is w Aegon, who is routinely belittled, verbally, emotionally and physically abused on screen. Which in turn, manifests in his alcoholism, and promiscuity, a desperate need for love and approval; one of the most common ways mommy issues show up in adults)

The fandom often views him as a parentified child, but this is an extrapolation gotten from one scene; Aemond comforting Alicent at Driftmark, and managing her feelings, rather than her doing it to him.

That's it. We don't get to explore their dynamic as a family unit (Alicent and all her children) as well as their individual bonds with each other, and with her. We don't get to see the the impact being parentified has on him, Alicent's inconsistent, or even authoritarian care, the blurring of familial boundaries.

Instead, they barely interact and the season kinda sorta sets up the potential for Helaena/Aemond, with both he actors and some of the directors playing into this (possibly tying Aemond's desire for his sister to his jealousy of his older brother and his status)

Fast forward to s2, and now you have him lying naked in the fetal position in the arms of a much older prostitute; the same prostitute who mind you, was paid to SA him at 13. S1 established he hadn't seen her in a while, and was uncomfortable around her, only for his s2 to jump into a full blown mom-baby cosplay with the show implies has been going on for a while. Why? Why did he seek her out? What is the purpose of him going to seek comfort from a woman who was essentially paid to assault him?

We don't know. Because Ryan never showed the start of this relationship. Now as an observant fan, you can infer that this happened cause he and Alicent had a fight over Luke, and he basically lost her as a support system, which in turn prompted him to seek out an older woman substitute. But that's just it; this is an inference. A headcannon Ryan never properly established on screen. We not only never got to see the fight post Luke's death, we also never got to see the depth of Aemond and Alicent's bond to understand why her spurning him would send him to spiral so badly he would seek comfort from someone who abused him. (You can read about why this is an issue here and here)

Aemond spends the first half of s2 as a random NPC who doesn't interact with his family, has no reaction to the death of his nephew (who mind you, was killed in retaliation for his murder), before rapidly transforming into his book self within the span of a single episode; a cartoonish, ego maniacal edgelord whose personality is 'I got a big dragon' (s2ep6 self is the closest he ever got to Book Aemond).

He dismisses Alicent from the council because she's his 'kryptonite' who would cloud his judgement; except this is a BTS comment from Ewan Mitchell, not something we see on screen. On screen, it just looks like he's dismissing her cause she's an idiot who keeps advocating for peace and dickriding their enemy in the middle of a war. (And cause he's angry with her cause she blames him for starting the war)

Which brings me to s3 (finally). Again, what is the point of Alicent and Aemond's kiss, and the sex scene? Genuinely? To show he's fucked up and has mommy issues? Yeah, makes sense, that scene of him lying fetal in s2 wasn't enough, we really needed to have him outright fuck his mom for people to get it.

To show how incest is bad and how it leads to the breakdown of familial relationships? Okay, gotta wonder why Ryan didn't meaningfully set this up, showed how the blurring of boundaries gradually led Aemond to think this is completely fine. And I can hear you saying "Oh, ofc he'd think it's natural, the Targs practice incest!". They practice lateral incest; between siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles etc, for the specific purpose of maintaining their dragon blood.

Parent/child incest has always been a taboo, even among them, so there's no excuse that Aemond just naturally assumed this would be okay; especially because his Mother is a Hightower, not a Targaryen, raised religious, and very anti incest (she only married Aegon to Helaena cause of politics).

(A good fanfic that tackled this issue in a far better way was the now deleted Family Tree. It unabashedly showed the impact incest has on a child, how it shapes their view of relationships, both familial and romantic. Not to mention that it skillfully showed how abuse and neglect intersect with the incest, even in cases where said incest was supposedly 'consensual'. And it was set up from the very first line, and consistently developed across multiple chapters)

For more info about why the mommy issues angle doesnt work, please see these posts here and here.

No, these scenes are here for the same reason we saw Daemon eat out Alyssa last season: shock value. That's it. Neither of these scenes tell us anything meaningful about these characters beyond Aemond is fucked up and has mommy issues and Daemon is fucked up and wants approval; as if we didn't spend seasons getting slapped over the head with this very information.

And thats why I take issue with it. Granted, I did take it too far by calling it a mommy fetish fanfic, and I take responsibility for it. Regardless, it doesn't alter the fact that the show has been portraying abuse and SA in horrible ways that do absolutely nothing for the plot. ASOIAF has incest and gratuitous violence as well, and while I have my fair share of gripes w how George handled these topics in many respects, I understand why they were included in certain contexts. (To avoid repeating myself, I'll just drop this answer where I go into detail about the narrative purpose of incest in ASOIAF)

This isn't it. It serves no meaningful purpose other than shock value in an empty, inconsistent story that's simultaneously dragging and speed running toward a predetermined conclusion.