This story contains spoilers for the eighth episode of House of the Dragon.

In the eighth episode of House of the Dragon, Paddy Considine’s Viserys Targaryen eventually gave in to his illness and passed away in what was a slow demise. Considine has been leading the House of the Dragon as the king of seven kingdoms, a ruler seeking a peaceful regime in Westeros. At the same time, a rift develops within his family. Early in the season, it was revealed that Viserys was suffering from a skin disease later told to be Leprosy. Throughout the show and the corresponding time jump, Viserys’s health declines due to the disease, which seems to take his life in the last episode.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

However, Considine has a more insightful take on the character’s death, whom he played with sheer commitment. Considine has a more allegorical interpretation of Viserys’s disease and its constant expansion on his body over the years. In his interview with The New York Times, Considine expressed that Viserys’s demise began right after his first wife’s passing. In the show, Viserys allows the maesters to do a surgical procedure on Queen Aemma to save his son. However, his obsession for a trueborn heir takes both his wife’s and newborn son’s lives. And Considine believes that the disease expresses Viserys’s guilt for that day, to which he slowly surrenders. In his statement, Considine said,

From the minute of his wife’s funeral, I think Viserys starts to die. It’s a slow death. Nowhere in the story does Viserys ask the maesters to cure him, to stop this thing from eating him alive. I think he accepts it as part of the guilt of the decision he makes to put his wife through a terrible, horrible procedure. It’s like people who surrender to illness. When they offer suggestions to cure him, he doesn’t bother with it. He lets it consume him. He surrenders. That was my thing for him, anyway.

Viserys Cared Only for His Reign

     HBO

It’s interesting to note that Viserys didn’t ever ask for the maesters to push for a cure for his disease, and neither did he ever show worry about his illness. All he cared for was his reign and family to sustain peace and his responsibility towards Aegon’s prophecy concerning the threat from the North.

Aemma was Viserys’s, true love. It was something he didn’t realize until she was gone, and that guilt later consumed him from the inside. Viserys’s death further strengthened this as in his last moments, and he called out to his “love” as he passed. At that moment, after so much pain and suffering, he was still reminiscing about Aemma.

The eighth episode is getting all the praise for Paddy Considine’s performance, which is being called the episode’s highlight. Throughout the episode, his presence brought strength to the screen, whether it was his dining room speech or his walk to the throne. It signified House Targaryen’s power in Westeros and on the Iron Throne while adding intensity to the whole scene. With Viserys’s demise, Paddy Considine’s time on the show has ended. But surely, he will be the talk of next year’s award ceremonies.