Dragon House is based on the influence of the Targaryen dynasty and the importance of royal blood in the fictional world of Westeros, which is not only an iconic theme in fantasy stories based on monarchs, but also a realistic interpretation of real-world politics when political power was largely based on monarchies and bloodlines. In season 3 of this series, the storyline will continue to develop on the bloody civil war between Rhaenyra and Aegon Targaryen. However, despite all the horrific events that have happened since the first episode, there is one defining moment in the pilot that continues to haunt the storyline.
The future of House Targaryen was in question in the series premiere, and the Seven Kingdoms eagerly awaited the birth of a son who would become heir to the Iron Throne and solidify Viserys Targaryen’s legacy. In a strange and disgusting scene, the king lost his wife and child, leaving the succession more uncertain than ever. The queen’s disappearance was not only a disturbing and defining moment for the story, but also a representation of the story’s most uncomfortable and brutal themes. Game of Thrones franchise.
Aemma Arryn’s brutal death in House of the Dragon is haunting
The first part of Dragon House is one of the episodes that fans need to mentally prepare themselves for, diving straight into the most gruesome and disturbing aspects of a bloodline-dependent medieval monarchy. This first episode begins with the end of the Grand Council of King Jaehaerys, who was to vote for the next heir to the Iron Throne. Ironically, the kingdom chose Viserys over Rhaenys because he was a male heir, but nearly a decade into the new king’s reign, he had only managed to provide one daughter for the Targaryen dynasty, leaving the future of his house in question.
Tragically, Viserys’ wife Aemma had lost a few pregnancies and children shortly after their birth, making the young queen feel like she had failed her husband by not providing him with a male heir, even though she obviously had no control over this circumstance. Although Viserys seemed to genuinely care about his first wife, he put a lot of pressure on Aemma by wanting a boy to legitimize his heir’s claim to the throne rather than settling for her brother, Daemon, as the next ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. This episode is aptly named “Heirs of the Dragon” as it focuses on Viserys’ only child, Rhaenyra, and how he has constantly neglected her, as well as the impending birth of Aemma’s next child, who the king is convinced is the male heir he was hoping for.
Viserys made many mistakes as ruler of Westeros, particularly in the way he treated his family and caused tension within the royal line due to his indecision, but one unforgivable choice was to pressure Aemma to continue carrying pregnancies despite all of her losses. Despite the queen’s pain and fears, Viserys held a tournament when she gave birth to celebrate the son he did not yet have and could not be sure would get. As Aemma suffered in her birthing bed, fearing the loss of another baby and her own life, the kingdom celebrated a potential heir, creating a strange juxtaposition that represented the joy and pain of childbirth.
However, if there was joy among the nobles of King’s Landing, there was none in Aemma’s chambers. The Queen was in excruciating pain and was unable to give birth to her child, which was later revealed to be because the child was breech and would likely not be delivered safely or naturally. Faced with the loss of his child, Viserys chose to allow the master to cut Aemma open, removing the child from her womb and killing her in the process. The show didn’t shy away from revealing any of the gruesome details surrounding this scene, and audiences witnessed the fear and pain Aemma showed as she was held down so they could remove the baby. Viewers watched in horror as Aemma bled to death for her son, Baelon, only to hear the baby’s last breaths moments later.
House of the Dragon clarifies power requires pain
Aemma Arryn Targaryen’s horrific birth scene was almost forgotten after the last two seasons of events, but it remains one of the most iconic. Dragon House scenes ever. This moment was not only a glimpse of the blood and gore that would be constant throughout the series, but a haunting demonstration of the lives of royal characters when their hold on power depends on lineage and descendants. In this first episode, Aemma tells her daughter that childbirth is their battleground, and this phrase has been whispered throughout the years covered by the first two seasons, emphasizing the burden of royal women and the demand that they produce as many heirs as possible to maintain their family’s hold on the kingdom.
This bloody scene of birth and death not only highlights the pressures placed on Targaryen queens to produce royal children, but also the societal expectation of kings to have male heirs, to the point of sending away their daughters and risking the lives of their wives. The loss of Aemma was a devastating moment in King Viserys’ reign, as he adored his queen, but was repeatedly reminded that he needed a son to claim to be his heir. Although Viserys rejected Daemon as his heir and named Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne at the end of this first installment, the king knew the dangers of this decision and set the stage for the inevitable conflict between his eldest son, Aegon, and Rhaenyra when the time came for one of them to take control of the Seven Kingdoms.
There are terrible things Rhaenyra Targaryen does throughout Dragon House this leads others to question her ability to be a fit queen, but it’s important to remember that the Targaryen dynasty’s descent into civil war began with the disappearance of Aemma Targaryen and her infant son. After their deaths, Viserys had three viable options when considering his heir: marry to hopefully produce a male heir, defend Daemon’s claim as the next king of Westeros, or defy societal norms by naming his only child, a woman, heir to the throne. Unfortunately, he felt like he was honoring his wife and son by sending Daemon away and raising Rhaenyra, causing chaos and uncertainty within the Targaryen line of succession.
Viserys was forced to take another wife and have sons, but as king he had the power to disregard tradition and stand by his decision to claim Rhaenyra as heir, refusing to produce male heirs who would challenge his claim. Instead, he ignored tradition by appointing a daughter as future ruler and then remarried to have male heirs, thereby ensuring the future bloodshed of his house by either choosing his only living daughter or having sons. Although every decision the king made led to war between Rhaenyra and Aegon, it was the traumatic event of Aemma and Baelon’s deaths that sent this dynasty into a dark spiral of hostility, murder, and political turmoil.
The House of the Dragon continued to return to this scene
At the end of season 2, the Targaryen family is engaged in an all-out war for the Iron Throne and the series’ deadliest characters. Dragon House are the royal members who fight for power. However, it was not only the dangerous battles and war games that led to death and destruction, but also the continued dedication to tradition and the importance of royal blood. Although many characters honor Viserys’ decision to name Rhaenyra heir to the Seven Kingdoms, the pressure on the Targaryens, particularly Rhaenyra and Aegon, to produce heirs is greater than ever.
Aemma’s brutal C-section that led to the disappearance of mother and child was disturbing and unforgettable, but that first scene wasn’t the only disturbing birth scene during the show’s first two seasons. Rhaenyra experienced two frightening moments featuring two of her six births, one of which included Queen Alicent demanding to see the princess’s third son moments after his birth, leading the defiant heir to run through the castle after the birth, refusing to give up her baby to his enemy without her present. In the heartbreaking season 1 finale, Rhaenyra learns of her father’s disappearance and her brother’s usurpation of his throne, leading to a stress-induced premature birth and a stillborn daughter, as she is desperate to begin retaliation against the Greens.
The first two seasons of Dragon House continued to establish the importance of an expanding Targaryen family tree, resulting in several children in the royal line. Unfortunately, Rhaenyra and her mother aren’t the only women to experience horrific childbirth scenes. Daemon’s second wife, Laena Velaryon, suffered a dangerous childbirth and ordered her dragon, Vhagar, to kill her with dragon fire instead of dying from her labor. Aemma’s haunting work scene, coupled with these other disturbing moments of life and death, defined the series, highlighting the horrors of bloodline-based political power, which brought about the war that would consume the story of the fall of the Targaryens.
Dragon House
- Release date
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August 21, 2022
- Network
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HBO
- Showrunner
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George RR Martin
- Directors
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Clare Kilner, Geeta Patel
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Matt Smith
Demon Prince Targaryen
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Fabien Frankel
Ser Criston Cole