Fans are breathing fire over a controversial scene from the Sunday night premiere of HBO‘s “Game of Thrones” prequel series “House of the Dragon.”
Warning: Spoilers below.
While Queen Aemma (Sian Brooke) is giving birth, a dangerous complication arises. So her husband, King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine), desperate for a male heir, orders the baby to be delivered via Caesarean section — which would kill the mother.
The woman screams in anguish and begs them not to do it, but the doctor holds her down and graphically operates. It’s extremely painful. Westeros’ potent drug milk of the poppy isn’t exactly an epidural.
Fans are breathing fire over a controversial scene from the Sunday night premiere of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel series “House of the Dragon.” Photograph by Ollie Upton / HBO
Queen Aemma (Sian Brooke) has a traumatic first episode of “House of the Dragon” on HBO. Photograph by Ollie Upton / HBO
On social media, fans were appalled at how violent the scene was, at Viserys for betraying his wife and at the show for departing from George R.R. Martin’s books.
Twitter user @Gpierce10 was sickened by the imagery — a high bar, considering this is the same franchise that gave us the Red Wedding and the shocking death of Ned Stark.
“That C section scene was the most uncomfortable I’ve ever felt watching TV,” they wrote. “I wanted to cry and vomit at the same time.”
User @daeneryskywalkr had a beef with the king for making a life-threatening choice for his wife. “The issue isn’t that the c section was performed on Aemma,” they said. “The thing that makes it awful was that Viserys made the choice without consulting or even TELLING her, having all those people hold her down as she’s asking what is going on. It’s the lack of consent or knowledge.”
Twitter user @baelontargaryen, meanwhile, said the show excessively veered from the novels. “Still angry about Aemma’s death,” they said. “It was such a useless change. The root of it was the same, she was always going to die birthing Baelon. But they had no reason to make her the victim of a nonconsensual c-section forced onto her by her husband.”
“Game of Thrones” was often criticized for being Wester-gross because of the gruesome violence against women it depicted. Sansa Stark and Daenerys Targaryen were both raped by their new husbands, and Cersei Lannister infamously walked totally naked through King’s Landing while onlookers shouted “shame!”
The violent new “Game of Thrones” spinoff is about House Targaryen. Photograph by Ollie Upton / HBO
King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) with his wife, Queen Aemma (Brooke). Photograph by Ollie Upton / HBO
The “House of Dragon” show runners Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal, however, claim they weren’t out to offend viewers.
“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?’,” they said during a roundtable interview with several outlets. “And unanimously, the response was ‘no.’ Often the response was ‘If anything, it needs to be more.'”
And more is surely what we’ll get. The series is bound to top its premiere shocker. If there’s one guarantee with the “Game of Thrones” universe, it’s that carnage is coming.