Whether you want to admit it or not, King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) was the best House of the Dragon character. Was he a good king? Absolutely not, but compared to the other rotten apples who’ve fallen off the Targaryen family tree, he’s a saint who only wanted the best for his wives and children.
This makes Viserys ultimate fate, dying alone in his bed after accidentally betraying his daughter Rhaenyra Targaryen all the more heartbreaking. Still, there was one silver lining, as the king stood on the edge of life and death, he seemed to see someone he loved.
The fantasy series didn’t reveal who it was Viserys saw, but Considine has now pulled back the dragon scale curtains on this particular secret. “I made it up in my own mind that when he dies, he sees Aemma because her death is the spiral. That’s his downfall really,” Considine told crowds at the LA Game of Thrones con (via Comicbook). “He never gets over that death.”
He went on to explain that he believes Aemma’s death is one of the most misunderstood in the TV series. “I think [fans] thought I killed my wife, but that wasn’t the case,” he explained. “They were both going to die.”
“They had the chance of saving Baelon, but it meant putting her through a horrific procedure … I think it was misunderstood that he killed her, but he was trying to save the child, or they were both gonna die … I don’t think he ever recovered from that,” he continued, “It just became the catalyst for his journey really he was only ever really in love with her.”
Considine finished by repeating his oft-repeated theory that Viserys allowed his leprosy to get so bad to punish himself for the way he treated Aemma. To be honest, Aemma was really the only option for who Viserys saw, as his only other dead loved ones were his parents, but we can’t imagine him gasping at the sight of them.
If you want to learn more about the fallout of Visery’s death, then check out our guide to the House of the Dragon season 2 release date. If that’s not enough, we’ve got articles on all the major players, including Daemon Targaryen, Alicent Hightower, and The White Worm.