Ok so King Viserys in House Of The Dragon is actually one of the most complicated characters
in the show. Though on the surface he seems like a King who simply seeks peace there’s
far more going on with him. During the Happy, Sad, Confused Podcast, Paddy Considine discussed
his portrayal of the King in depth and I think it was completely eye opening interview that
went into what really motivated the character.
Throughout this video we’re gonna be breaking down what was said and how it makes the character
even more intereting.
Now there will be fully spoilers for what happens to Viserys so if you haven’t seen
up to episode 8 of House Of The Dragon then I recommend that you turn off now. Hit the
thumbs up to give us your favour and pledge allegiance to our house by subscribing.
With that out the way, thank you for clicking this, now let’s get into our King Viserys
video.
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Now in order to understand the secret that Viserys carried I think we have to hear it
from the man himself. To give some context to this he’s talking about what he took
from the King, his relationship with Aemma and also a deleted scene that had his reaction
to her death in the immediate after math of it.
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So that explains the real tragedy of Viserys in that he died along with his wife. I love
the section about him refusing to accept any healing because he has no interest in being
saved and just wants to be with his wife.
Him constantly thinking of her is also something that we see throughout the series too and
there are a number of inidcators towards this secret.
Firstly Viserys clearly cares more about Rhaenyra than he does the rest of the family. He constantly
downplays them and talks about how she’s his daughter and definitely the favourite.
When we see AEgon riding out to his coronation he finds it hard to believe that his father
named his the heir because he didn’t think he cared about him.
He of course also doesn’t change the heir at any point even in the wake of having a
son.
Men were seen as the ones that should lead but him still holding his daughter as the
heir shows how much he didn’t want to hand power over to alicents side.
It also cements the kind of relationship they actually had and Rhaenyra being Aemmas daughter
hammers home the idea that that is who he viewed as being his true wife. In the most
epic walk of all time, Viserys hobbles to the Iron Throne in order to claim that Lucerys
will remain the heir of Driftmark. When it came to Aemond getting his eye slashed out
he didn’t give a f**k but he’s willing to do this just to protect his daughter and
their child. At this point Viserys was heavily medicated with Milk Of The Poppy but he even
turned this down from Otto just to carry this out. The character would’ve been in so much
pain but he put himself through that in order to sit on the Throne.
Even earlier in the season when he’s alone in his room and the rats are closing in he
also plays a ring before slipping it onto his finger. We get a brief look at this and
it has the house of Arryn sigil on it. This is the house that Aemma comes from and the
ring would have belonged to her when she was alive. Him kissing this shows he hasn’t
let go and still thinks about her when he’s alone at night. Epiosde 9 even showed that
he and Alicent don’t sleep int he same room
as when she’s told of his death she’s in her own bed.
The book goes into detail on this and Alicent slept in the Queens chambers for most of their
marriage whereas he and Aemma would sleep in the same bed.
On top of this at Driftmark when going to bed, Viserys calls Alicent Aemma.
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This shows that he’s still living in this moment where he’s with her and he’s literally
now rotting away from the inside without her love.
Viserys heart clearly lasts from this point onwards all the way to his final few moments
as well and when discussing his death Paddy said this.
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So now we know this it all makes sense as to why Viserys arc went
the way it did. In the source material he was a much jollier character and didn’t
carry the disease that he does in the show. Here though it’s very much his soul rotting
away manifesting physically on the surface. He doesn’t care about losing everything
but to him he doesn’t really have anything left.
He still sits in his room thinking of his deceased wife at night and in his final moments
he reaches out to Aemma.
Though this exchange is between him and Alicent he thinks its Rhaenyra and therefore it actually
adds more weight to him reaching out to her instead. At no point is he panicking and asking
to see Alicent for the last time because in his mind he’s with the people that matter.
He believes he’s with Rhaenyra and he starts to see Aemma as he goes which to him is who
his true family are.
It
gives so much more to what Paddy does with the character and I can’t wait to rewatch
the season with this in mind.
Obviously Happy Sad Confused helped me massively when it came to making the video and it’s
such a good podcast that I definitely think you should check out. Make sure you subscribe
to it and I’d also love to hear your thoughts on Viserys in the comments below.
We’re running a competition right now and giving away 3 copies of Top Gun Maverick on
the 15th of November. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is like the
video, make sure you subscribe with notifications on and drop a comment below with your thoughts
on the episode. We pick the comments at random at the end of the month and the winners of
the last one are on screen right now so message me @heavySpoilers if that’s you.
If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of perfect
scene in Spider-Man Homecoming. We break down the entire thing so it’s definitely worth
checking out if you wanna know more.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’ll
see you next time. Take care, Peace