Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers for HBO's House of the Dragon, specifically episode one. If you do not wish to be spoiled, feel free to leave the page. This post will still be here after you've caught up if you so wish to return (and we certainly hope you do).
Okay, so we're going to talk about that scene.
In the very first episode of House of the Dragon, we are introduced to a very pregnant Queen Aemma, who appears to be having a pretty uncomfortable go at it. She seems to be on at least partial bedrest, and at one point, as pictured above, she is having a bath to help soothe the pains. Viserys is convinced that she is carrying a boy, an heir, and he is throwing a pre-emptive tournament to celebrate his birth. Shortly before said tourney begins Aemma goes into labour, and there the real trouble starts.
The baby is breech. For anyone who is unfamiliar with this term, it means that the baby hasn't turned 'round inside the womb, so the feet or bum are still pointed down towards the birthing canal. Breech births can have various complications (as listed at the link). The maesters and other attendants have done their best to get the baby to turn, but he isn't having it. More importantly, he also isn't coming out. At all.
So Viserys is summoned away from the tourney because of the problems with the birth. The maester tells him that they've tried what they can to get the baby to come out. He also, in a line that quite a few people seem to have missed, explains that they've already given Aemma as much milk of the poppy as they safely can without it having adverse effects on the baby. Shortly after he informs the king that the Citadel has been working on a technique to get babies out in such situations, but that the resulting blood loss makes for a grim outlook for the mother.
And here we get to why I'm writing this at all. The maester lays out two choices: either they do nothing and Aemma and the baby both die, or they attempt the technique and possibly save the baby. Aemma dies in both of these scenarios. Both. Of. Them.
So we're going to address two things I have encountered people saying about this scene. The first is that Viserys should not have made the choice himself, that he should have given the choice to Aemma. I get this mindset, I do, but it's very black-and-white and, ultimately, not applicable to this situation for a number of reasons. We're going to set aside the ones dealing with hierarchy and the patriarchy, though, and focus on the actual, practical reasons presented to us within the scope of the narrative.
First off, Aemma has been given quite a bit of milk of the poppy, which is the Westeros equivalent of morphine, an opiate. She's not exactly in her right frame of mind. She has also been dealing with a lot of pain and physical exertion from her labours. She's fucking exhausted while drugged. She is definitely not in her right frame of mind. It sucks, but Aemma was most probably not even capable of making that decision for herself at the time.
It also isn't like it was just Aemma's life on the line. There was a fully formed, living child stuck inside her. It would be different if Aemma had a chance of survival, but that was not the case here.
There seems to be a lot of confusion from people, as they are assuming it was Aemma or the baby, but that was not the case. It astounds me that I even have to bring this up. There was a whole ass baby stuck in Aemma's womb that refused to come out. It isn't like the body is just going to reabsorb that shit or whatever else people might assume could happen there. Her body trying to expel the baby in futility could have lead to any number of issues, such as a severe spike in blood pressure and/or fever, stroke, heart attack... And even if any of that hadn't happened by some miracle, once the baby died he would begin to necrotise in her uterus leading to sepsis.
Why do you think people are so fucking pissed off that abortion is being denied to people who miscarried (among other reasons)? A dead baby stuck in the womb can very literally lead to a dead parent.
I am going to say it one more time: Queen Aemma Arryn was going to die either way.
Secondly? I see a lot of people vilifying Viserys as only caring about his heir. There is so much wrong with that assumption, and it shows a complete lack of understanding anything about his character.
This man loves his wife more than anything. Yes, I know, he keeps knocking her up for duty, but from the small amount of time we have her, this is something she sees as her duty, too. She may not be super happy joy joy for it, but she does it willingly through love of her realm and of her husband. But, you know... in that scene above, with her in the bath, she tells Viserys that this is the last time. That she has buried too many who died at birth or in the cradle, and she can't do it anymore, even if this one doesn't work out.
And you know what? He acquiesces to that. Because he isn't a horrible person... He's not perfect, not at all, but in the scope of the world of Westeros, the man is downright a saint.
'But he murdered his wife!' I hear the chorus echo.
No the fuck he didn't. Paddy Considine is a brilliant actor who was able to portray Viserys beautifully. When the maester tells the king that his Aemma will not survive but there's a chance to save the child, he is visibly torn on the decision to make. He has an idea of what that procedure would inflict on his beloved, but he has to consider the possibility of saving a life. So he asks again, just to be sure, if it's possible for the babe to live. Only then does he make to choice to go through with it.
This is Westeros, King's Landing. Viserys would have had every right to make that call and then leave the maesters to their work with no one to even think to question his loyalty to her or his honour, but that isn't what he did at all. He went straight to Aemma's bedside, told her how much he loved her, and then held her hand throughout the whole ordeal. He tried to be a source of whatever comfort he could be, to be there for his wife even though he knew that what he'd chosen signed her up for excruciating pain at the end.
And when the maester holds up the baby, a boy, the coveted boy, Viserys barely looks up at his new progeny. Even after learning that he'd finally gotten the male heir he'd been hoping for he didn't care. He just lost his wife. The love of his life. You can see it in his face that he is broken. It was absolutely, utterly, heart-wrenchingly tragic, but Viserys didn't murder his wife. He made an attempt to save his baby.
Can you honestly say you wouldn't have done the same?
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