Last year, HBO premiered its long-awaited Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, and by pretty much any metric it was a huge success. Set nearly 200 years before the events of Thrones, the spinoff tells the story of a brutal Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, which was detailed in George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood. By the end of the season, blood was drawn and the dragons prepared to dance.
With the recent news that House of the Dragon season 2 has commenced filming, it’s the perfect time to look back on some of our favorite moments from season 1. Here are five moments from House of the Dragon which still haunt us to this day.
1. The final walk of King Viserys I Targaryen
House of the Dragon is an intergenerational family saga. We begin the story with King Viserys (Paddy Considine), a man who has fallen into the role of king and turns out to be less than ideally suited for it. Over the course of the season, we see Viserys strain to keep his various family members from each others’ throats, all while ruling the Seven Kingdoms.
It takes a toll on him. By the time Viserys meets his end in the season’s eighth episode, “The Lord of the Tides,” he’s deteriorated to the point where he’s missing limbs and organs and can barely walk. The episode features many different members of the Targaryen family, but spends extra time on Viserys since it’s his last day alive.
And what a day it is. While there are several showstopping moments in House of the Dragon season 1, Viserys’ last walk across the Red Keep throne room is easily the best. Not a dragon in sight, just a tired old man struggling to sit in a chair so he can defend the rights of his daughter and her children. The heartstrings get plucked all the harder when Viserys stumbles, his crown falling to the ground, only for his estranged brother Daemon (Matt Smith) to come out of the wings and help Viserys up the last few steps before placing the crown he’d so often coveted upon the king’s head.
By all the old gods and the new, I’m getting a little weepy just remembering it.