During the Game of Thrones Official Fan Convention in Los Angeles this past weekend, House of the Dragon star Paddy Considine gave some insight into the final moments of his character King Viserys I Targaryen. We saw Viserys for the last time in Episode 8, “The Lord of the Tides,” when he was a weakened man suffering from a degenerative disease that had claimed one of his arms, an eye and some of his memory. In the final scene of the episode, Viserys looks at the ceiling and mutters “my love,” before dying in his bed.
Considine confirmed that by “my love,” Viserys is referring to Alicent Hightower, but to his first wife Aemma Arryn, who died giving birth to baby Baelon in Episode 1.
“I made it up in my own mind that when he dies he sees Aemma because her death is the spiral,” Considine explained, per Entertainment Weekly. “That’s his downfall really. He never gets over that death, which was kind of misunderstood I think by people early on. I think they thought I killed my wife, but that wasn’t the case. They were both going to die.”
King Viserys never got over the death of Queen Aemma
I understand what Considine is saying here, and maybe the script made it clearer that Aemma was not meant to be murdered in that scene. But the way the sequence was edited made it very uncomfortable for not only Aemma, but the audience as well, many of whom concluded that Aemma was killed.
In the scene, Meastar Melos tells Viserys that Aema will die either way, but nobody tells her that. Instead, Viserys just decides for her that she will be cut open in an effort to save the baby, and Aemma is terrified because she does not know what is happening. I think if he had just told her what the deal was, and that she would die either way, Aemma would probably agree to try and save the baby.
“I don’t think he ever recovered from that,” Considine said about Aemma’s death. “It just became the catalyst for his journey really. He was only ever really in love with her. And if you watch the show… the sicker he gets, he’s never asking for a cure. He’s never the one asking for help. It’s everybody else around him. It’s almost like he’s accepting what’s happening to him physically as a punishment.”
Viserys is perhaps the most tragic character on House of the Dragon, and Considine’s explanation adds more dimension to his suffering. Viserys punishes himself for Aemma’s death, which I think makes sense because her final moments were full of terror and uncertainty, all on account of his choice. In any case, Viserys was in love with Aemma and she was the one on his mind in his final moments.
Considine also revealed that Viserys’ final words, “my love,” were improvised by him and the crew decided to leave it in the show. “Ultimately, when he dies, I just had this idea that, before he leaves that realm, Aemma is the one that comes to meet him and he’s finally back with her. So that was it. It was a line that was improvised,” said Considine.
Viserys’ death set the table for a power struggle between his son Aegon and daughter Rhaenyra. Get ready for bloody war in House of the Dragon season 2.
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