'House of the Dragon' on HBO: How does King Viserys I Targaryen die?
Contains Spoilers for 'House of the Dragon'
The first two episodes of ‘House of the Dragon’ have made everyone believe that the ‘Game of Thrones’ universe is finally taking the right direction after the underwhelming final season of the aforementioned series. Set 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen, the ‘House of the Dragon’ follows House Targaryen and their reign on the Seven Kingdoms.
King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) was announced the new heir to the throne when King Jaehaerys started facing health problems. Viserys sat on the throne, along with his wife Queen Aemma (Sian Brooke). Even though the Queen gave birth to their first child Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) in 97 AC, the couple didn’t stop trying to have a boy so that Viserys can name his child heir to the throne. Unfortunately, Aemma had five miscarriages and died while giving birth to a baby boy named Baelon. However, the boy died a few moments after his mother’s death, leaving Rhaenyra to be his only living child. So, he decides to name Rhaenyra the new heir to the throne and that’s when things get intense because everyone wants to move ahead and get their daughter married to Viserys so that they come closer to the king and the throne.
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On the other hand, it seems the throne has started feeling that Viserys is not the right man anymore to sit on it and he has started experiencing a lot of cuts on her body. But the real danger is not these injuries, but people who are trying to manipulate Viserys and lead him to something unfortunate.
With ‘House of the Dragon’ taking time jumps in almost every episode, the end for King Viserys seems to be near. But how will he die? Does the book ‘Fire & Blood’ have an answer to that? Let’s take a look.
How will King Viserys die in ‘House of the Dragon’?
According to the books, the last decade of his reign saw a lot of turmoil in the kingdom. His wife, Lady Alicent Hightower, and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen started hating each other and they made sure that the servants and every other being followed their commands only. In one instance, King Viserys slipped and cut his hand to the bone on the Iron Throne in 127 AC.
Grand Maester Mellos tried to heal the king but was unable to do so. Viserys suffered a fever from an infection and it was feared he would die. He only recovered after two of his fingers were removed by Maester Gerardys. After that, Viserys decided to never sit on the throne.
If the show follows the path of the books, then Viserys will die in his sleep on the third day of the moon of 129 AC. He was 52 when he passed away and his death was concealed from the general public of Westeros for a full week. But the show seems to be setting up a more painful death for Viserys
‘House of the Dragon’ can make things interesting by giving Viserys a more gruesome death, given the fact of how dirty the politics is. Maybe, a dragon will burn him to death or someone might poison him. There are endless possibilities in the world of ‘Game of Thrones’ and giving Viserys a gruesome death might turn out to be the most important part of the show because his death marks the beginning of the end of House Targaryen.
'House of the Dragon' returns to HBO with a new episode every week on Sunday, at 9 pm EST.