House of the Dragon premiered just last week, but there's been one scene that's been on everybody's lips since it aired: the birth of King Viserys' heir and the death of Queen Aemma. Not only was the scene brutal, but it was also horrifying to watch a woman be killed and treated solely as an incubator, a fact which Aemma seemed to realize with dawning horror in her final moments.
House of the Dragon showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik have already stated that they did not intend to include 'gratuitous' sex and violence throughout their series. It was therefore important to Condal and Sapochnik that they get feedback from the women in their life regarding the key birthing scene in the show's premiere episode, which they discussed during an interview with Insider.
Sapochnik and Condal discussed the intent of the scene, clarifying that they did not want the scene to be 'excessive,' nor did they want it to be 'glorifying' the situation. However, as the two are men, they decided to ask the women in their lives what they thought of the House of the Dragon scene. Sapochnik says, "We did make a point of showing it to as many women as possible and asked the very question: ‘Was this too violent for you?' And unanimously, the response was ‘no.’ Often the response was ‘If anything, it needs to be more.'" Traumatic births are a real situation that occurs in this world as it does in Westeros, so it became clear to the two that the scene needed to highlight this fact.
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In the key moment in question, Queen Aemma Arryn is in labor when it is discovered that her baby (the audience is told she wanted to name him Baelon) is in a breech position. King Viserys is summoned, and Grand Maester Mellos tells him in whispers that both mother and son will die unless he performs a C-Section, which will surely kill Queen Aemma but allow the baby a shot at life. Viserys gives the order that the operation is performed and does not inform Aemma, who discovers what is happening while she is being held down and cut into. Since House of the Dragon is a series of gray characters, the action is decidedly immoral. Viserys never once asks Aemma what she wants, nor does she get a choice in the matter. Her last moments are spent in fear and agony as Viserys makes her choice for her.
Game of Thrones was frequently criticized for having just that - scenes of gratuitous sex and violence that did not ultimately matter to the plot, but which were interpreted as scenes meant to titillate and excite the audience. Many of those scenes involved women, which opened up a dialogue of what was 'realistic' to show in regard to violence towards women and what was over-the-top and extraneous.
It is notable that the two thought of the implications of the scene and wanted to branch out from the writer's room to see how others, who may have experienced similar trauma, would react to the scene. The idea represents an expansion of understanding, rather than exploiting, real-life experiences that had not really caught on when Game of Thrones first aired. With House of the Dragon set to have even more brutal events in the series, these scenes will likely be handled with a bit more care, while still being horrifying to the audience.
House of the Dragon airs on Sundays at 9 PM EST on HBO.
Source: Insider