House of the Dragon scene coming where kids “beat each other senseless”

The premiere of House of the Dragon, HBO’s highly-anticipated Game of Thrones prequel series, is finally here, and it brought with it all the wonder and horror that viewers recalled from the original show. But beyond dragons soaring through the skies, knights jousting in tourneys, and more political scheming than you can shake a Valyrian steel sword at, House of the Dragon also featured some scenes that never appeared in Game of Thrones. The most prominent of those from the premiere was Aemma Arryn’s horrific childbirth sequence, which is immediately up there among the most emotionally scarring scenes from Thrones, like Shireen Baratheon’s fiery end or the Red Wedding.

Part of the reason House of the Dragon has leaned into elements like bloody, difficult childbirths is because, at its heart, this show is much more of a family saga than Game of Thrones was. Over the course of season 1, we’ll follow several generations of Targaryens across decades as they deal with births, deaths, and marriages. And in the medieval era that House of the Dragon draws inspiration from, childbirth was a much more dangerous affair.

“In medieval times, giving birth was violence,” showrunner Miguel Sapochnik said ahead of the premiere. “It’s as dangerous as it gets. You have a 50/50 chance of making it. We have a number of births in the show and basically decided to give them different themes and explore them from different perspectives the same way I did for a bunch of battles on Thrones.”

Childbirth scenes aren’t the only place House of the Dragon will be pushing boundaries. While those attached to the production have insisted the show does not overly rely on sex or violence, that doesn’t we won’t see plenty of that stuff; in one case, Sapochnik teases a bloody fight that occurs later in the season between five children that ends in brutal fashion.

House of the Dragon showrunner teases “Eye for an Eye,” and it sounds brutal

While doing press interviews at the London premiere of House of the Dragon, Sapochnik was asked about some of his most memorable moments filming on the prequel series. Sapochnik was responsible for some of Game of Thrones‘ biggest action set pieces, from the Massacre at Hardhome to the Battle of the Bastards to the Burning of King’s Landing. But the scene he picked out from House of the Dragon is different from any of those.

“I had a scene where five kids between the ages of nine and 12 had to beat each other senseless,” Sapochnik told Metro . “It took three days to shoot and then one of them stabs another, and so it was quite, quite taxing.”

We saw kids get their hands dirty on Game of Thrones; Arya Stark’s journey as an assassin began at a very young age. But I can’t say as we ever had a scene where five kids “beat each other senseless.” It’s going to be interesting to see how Sapochnik pulls off this scene.

Getting into Fire & Blood SPOILERS, the scene Sapochnik is almost certainly referring to is the brawl between Rhaenyra and Alicent’s children that occurs on Dragonstone. Book readers will know that despite starting out as petty bickering, that fight ends with one of the children being permanently disfigured in a gory way. Alicent demands retribution, which leads to that scene that has been so prominent in the trailers where she tries to stab Rhaenyra with the catspaw dagger. Internally, this sequence was known as “Eye for an Eye,” with good reason. It will be featured in Episode 7.

We’ll be waiting a while yet to see this particular scene, but no doubt House of the Dragon will shock us in plenty of other ways in the meantime.

House of the Dragon premieres new episodes on HBO and HBO Max Sundays at 9:00 p.m. EST / 8 p.m. CST!

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h/t Yahoo News