‘House of the Dragon’ blames men for House Targaryen’s collapse

Will I be seen as a decent king in the future?

This topic is raised in the brand-new “House of the Dragon” episode that airs on Sunday as King Viserys (Paddy Considine) prepares to pass away. He is unwell, has strange lesions all over him, and his nose is oozing blood.

“What are going to say about me?” Viserys queries Lyonel Strong, the King’s Hand. This query could have made fans of the George R.R. Martin novel “Fire and Blood,” upon which the television series is based, grin. King Viserys may be concerned about how people will remember him in the future, but Martin has already written that history, so followers at home already know.

Additionally, it is much different from the viewpoint shown in HBO’s “House of the Dragon” series.

King Viserys, as he is known in the books, is praised for having presided over the “apex” of House Targaryen’s influence in Westeros. However, the HBO adaptation has so far told us a tale from the viewpoints of his daughter and second wife, and we get to watch an entirely separate drama take place in the patriarchal country.

The star of “House of the Dragon,” Emma D’Arcy, said that the show is centred on the issue of how to eradicate discrimination against women.

The sixth episode, which again moves forward in time, airs next week and features Emma D’Arcy as a mature Rhaenyra.

Speaking to Insider during a pre-season press junket, D’Arcy stated, “Westeros is a culture that doesn’t offer women space. “In this cosmos, being a woman is linked to maternity, amenability, obligation, and incapacity.”

“If you are a woman seeking to dominate, how do you persuade an electorate?” they said, referring to women in positions of authority in patriarchal societies. How do you persuade men that you are not “other”? How can you remove such negative labels?

Viserys’ decision to appoint Rhaenyra heir was insufficient to preserve a peaceful transfer of power, as these first five episodes have shown; a failure comes from all the instances later on when he fails to back her claim to the kingdom.

It nearly seems like an allyship, right? stated D’Arcy. “You may bestow this cloak of authority on someone, but you must also be aware that all the mechanisms that mantle is enmeshed in will be fighting against it. To actually facilitate such development, there must be continuing assistance and effort. Unavoidably, such assistance is not provided.

The actor said that instead of merely having individuals who want the world to change, it has to “learn” how to do it.

This takes us to Viserys, who in the most recent episode reflects on his legacy.

Viserys is credited with fostering wealth and peace in “Fire and Blood,” yet “House of the Dragon” depicts him watching as the kingdom disintegrates before his own eyes.

The creators of the first-ever “Game of Thrones” prequel series had a special starting point with “House of the Dragon.” “Fire and Blood” is a fast-paced historical narrative of House Targaryen written from the viewpoint of masters and witness reports recorded far into the future. It is not a lengthy work charting complex character arcs.

In other words, the narrative is wholly arbitrary. As you turn the pages, you’ll see conflicting stories about which princess had sex with which knight or three distinct versions of the same person’s demise. There is gossip, hearsay, and paraphrased quotes. Furthermore, “Fire and Blood” has a significantly male-biased view of how these fictional events transpired because Martin created Westeros to be a patriarchal society in which men are the legitimate heirs to their father’s titles and homes and where women are traded as political pawns and forced into childbirth.

Co-creator Ryan Condal and his writing group made it clear to viewers from the very first episode of “House of the Dragon” that this TV adaptation would correct the myth that two women were to blame for the beginning of House Targaryen’s demise in addition to filling in the gaps of the events found in “Fire and Blood.”

According to the historians who wrote “Fire and Blood,” King Viserys’ reign marked the “apex of Targaryen dominance in Westeros.” He had a “generous, affable temperament,” according to the authors, and was “much liked by his lords and smallfolk equally.” He was referred to as the Young King, and many thought his reign was “calm and prosperous.”

His “open-handedness was famous,” according to the historian, and the pages brag about how this was the period with the most dragons and dragonriders.

For “House of the Dragon,” however, showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik made adaptive decisions that portray King Viserys as helpless and useless. He avoids speaking out in front of others and delays critical talks until he has a private fit of wrath or sadness.

We can see how his decision to marry his daughter’s closest friend caused the first significant rift in the relationship between Rhaenyra and Alicent. Viserys also neglected to challenge the realm’s belief that Rhaenyra was eligible to reign and inferior to a male kid during the hunting scene.

To be honest with the setting of the novel, Viserys isn’t always given a positive review. Very “was hardly the strongest-willed of kings, it must be confessed; always affable and eager to please, he depended much on the advice of the men around him, and did what they bade more often than not,” the master writes.

In “House of the Dragon,” we witness this in action as Viserys makes an effort to keep his Small Council sessions devoid of conflicts and often heeds the counsel of his Hand.

However, Viserys’ resolution to the dispute between Rhaenyra and Alicent in “Fire and Blood” is categorically absent thus far in “House of the Dragon.”

King Viserys “liked both his wife and daughter and detested dispute and disagreement,” the master says in the book.

According to the text, “He worked throughout his days to maintain harmony amongst his wives, and to gratify both with presents and riches and accolades.”

The fact that Alicent, his second wife and the mother of his two youngest children, is unhappy and that their tight relationship has deteriorated ever since he picked his wife without first telling her in secret seems to have escaped Viserys’ notice so far.

In “House of the Dragon,” the fictitious history of the novel is altered to place responsibility for House Targaryen’s demise on males.

Prior to the launch of “House of the Dragon’s” first season, Insider also met with Condal and Sapochnik, who remarked on the approach taken to this specific subject and the unique adaptation potential it afforded.

In our approach, Sapochnik remarked, “We explicitly want to convey this narrative from the viewpoint of the female. Therefore, one of the things we must do is listen to women because if we don’t, we are just making everything up.

Clare Kilner, the first female director for this HBO series, oversaw the most recent episode as well as the one from the week before (in which Rhaenyra had sex with Criston Cole and her uncle Daemon while Alicent was carrying out her anxiety-inducing duty of allowing King Viserys to have sex with her). The series’ first female writer with a solo episode credit and a producer credit, Charmaine DeGrate, wrote the wedding episode that aired on Sunday.

The masculine viewpoint in “Fire and Blood” depicts both Rhaenyra and Alicent in a chilly, unfavourable light. Their underlying motives and lifestyles are not sufficiently examined. But “House of the Dragon” reverses that, showing that House Targaryen’s collapse was really caused by Viserys’ flaws.

The first five episodes jump back and forth in time during the formative years of young Alicent and Rhaenyra, altering the plot of the book so that the two women are both 14 at the beginning of the narrative rather than being several years apart and never being friends before becoming stepmother and stepdaughter.

We get virtually a mini-prequel inside this broader “Game of Thrones” prequel plot thanks to the younger actors of Emily Carey and Milly Alcock.

The tale picks up next week when Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy transition into the adult roles as the story arc that will ultimately leave House Targaryen in the wreckage that “Game of Thrones” viewers know is coming goes into high gear.

Condal added, “In the tale conveying the objective truth, we get to be as the God’s eye point of view, and we get to depict those times. And I believe that will keep viewers intrigued and leaning forward.

HBO broadcasts “House of the Dragon” on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. Read our assessment of the greatest information from the most recent episode here for further analysis of the series.