The premiere episode of “House of the Dragon” proved Sunday night that — much like “Game of Thrones”— things are going to get pretty bloody.
But one scene in the first episode of the new HBO series seemed excessively disturbing.
Warning: Spoilers for “House of the Dragon” below!
In the series premiere, King Viserys (Paddy Considine) is forced to make a life-altering decision for his wife, Queen Aemma Targaryen (Sian Brooke), who is having a very complicated labor. Viserys has to choose: Allow both Aemma and her unborn child to die, or try to save the child with a medieval cesarean, which will kill Aemma.
Viserys opts to save his unborn son, who he hopes will someday be his heir.
The show then features graphic scenes of Aemma being cut open and bleeding to death — without her knowledge or consent.
Co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik told PopSugar that he screened the scenes for several women before deciding to keep them in the show.
“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?’” Sapochnik told PopSugar. “And unanimously, the response was ‘no.’ Often the response was ‘If anything, it needs to be more.’”
“We shouldn’t be shying away from this thing that’s happened because it’s raising a point that seems to hit a real trigger for women, which is this idea of choice. She doesn’t get to choose.”
Sapochnik also said that intercutting that scene with scenes of men jousting in a competition was meant to show the parallels between men’s and women’s struggles in Westeros at the time.
“One’s fighting on the battlefield, the other’s fighting for survival — sometimes from the person closest to her.”
Unfortunately, both Aemma Targaryen and her newborn son die in the end. Viserys ultimately names his daughter Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) as his heir.
Despite the graphic scene, “House of the Dragon” has proved to be a huge success for HBO. Nearly 10 million viewers in the U.S. tuned in to the opening episode of the “Game of Thrones” prequel on Sunday, the largest audience for an original series premiere in the cable giant’s history.