Warning: This article contains spoilers for episode one of House of the Dragon
The time has finally come: House of the Dragon, the prequel series to Game of Thrones, has finally landed on HBO Max, and the internet has been set ablaze.
The premiere episode of the season took us straight into the messiness of House Targaryen, and in case you haven’t seen it, the stakes have already been set and they’re sky-high. This is your second warning: spoilers lie ahead.
We meet King Viserys I who is trying for a son with queen consort Aemma Aeryn who can become the heir to the Iron Throne. Their daughter, Rhaenyra, is ineligible to be an heir due to her gender. Westeros gonna Westeros, I guess.
Aeryn is heavily pregnant throughout the premiere and proceeds to go into labor during the episode’s climax. Viserys, who is attending a tourney along with Rhaenyra, Sir Otto Hightower, his daughter Alicent, Rhaenys Targaryen, and Lord Corlys Velaryon, leaves to be by Aeryn’s side when he’s told that she is having complications. Soon after, Viserys is given an ultimatum: have what is essentially a cesarian or C-section performed on Aeryn, which would kill her due to blood loss but save the baby, or persist in giving natural birth, likely killing them both.
Viserys, finding out that the baby is a boy, opts for the medical procedure to be performed on Aeryn, and it proves to be a gruesome, visceral, and distressing watch. The scene is interlaced with scenes of the duels taking place at the tourney, making for an absolute overload of blood on both the bed and the battlefield.
The procedure was ultimately fruitless, though, as the boy, Prince Baelon, died a day after his mother. The graphic nature of the scene, as well as the emotional weight it carries thanks to its timely commentary on what happens when men choose what women do with their bodies, has led viewers to dub it one of, if not the most, intense scene in all of Game of Thrones history.
You can catch the first episode of House of the Dragon now on HBO Max.