Baelon Targaryen explained (House of the Dragon)
By WiC Staff
The series premiere of House of the Dragon contained all the bloody twists and turns one should expect of a Game of Thrones show. Yet even after eight seasons of backstabbing on the original show, House of the Dragon found new ways to shock viewers, specifically with the horrific forced C-section birth sequence with Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke).
After finding out that the baby has breeched in such a way that a natural birth would kill both Aemma and her baby, King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) makes a terrible choice: to have the maesters perform a caesarian section procedure on his wife in hopes of saving the child. But since this is medieval times, that means Aemma is certain to die from blood loss. No one tells her this is happening, no one gives her a choice. Instead, the procedure is done, Aemma dies, and the child is removed from her body in one of the most stomach-churning scenes in either this or the original show.
Who is Baelon Targaryen?
Highlighting how terrible this patriarchal system is, the first thing that Grandmaester Mellos (David Horovitch) does after Aemma’s death is to congratulate Viserys on the birth of his newborn son. He then asks if Viserys and Aemma had picked out a name, to which Viserys replies, “Baelon.”
This was the name of Viserys’ father, who died of a burst belly. At the time of his death, Baelon was the heir to the Iron Throne then occupied by Jaeherys the Conciliator. Baelon’s death is what brought about the Great Council of 101 AC.
Does King Viserys’ son die on House of the Dragon?
However, Viserys’ relief at having a male heir doesn’t last. Young Baelon dies only a few hours after Aemma, and is cremated alongside her by Rhaenyra’s dragon Syrax. It’s not made clear exactly what caused Baelon’s death, either in House of the Dragon or the book on which it’s based, George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, but it appears to have happened due to natural complications from the difficult pregnancy and birth.
Thus did Baelon Targaryen, the “heir for a day,” leave the realm barely before he’d arrived in it, and his mother Aemma with him.
House of the Dragon premieres new episodes every Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.
Next. House of the Dragon asked “as many women as possible” if birthing scene was too much. dark
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