The creators of House of the Dragon have defended a shocking birth scene that many viewers described as "traumatic" and "horrific".
(Please read ahead at your own risk - SPOILERS INCOMING!)
Speaking to Vanity Fair, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R. Martin and series showrunner Ryan J. Condal discussed the intense response the first episode of the new series triggered, noting the violence was necessary.
House of the Dragon covers events occurring roughly 200 years before those in Game of Thrones, and serves as the multiple Emmy award-winning show's prequel.
The show also boasts an all-star cast - including Milly Alcock, Matt Smith, Emma D'Arcy, Graham McTavish, Rhys Ifans, and Paddy Considine - who played a key role in the premiere's most talked about scene.
The disturbing scene in question involved the shocking death of Queen Aemma, who bled to death after her husband, King Viserys I Targaryen ordered a Caesarean section without her consent. Both Queen Aemma and her baby died following the procedure.
This scene was a dramatic extension of one written into Martin's 2018 Fire & Blood novel, in which the birth was only briefly described. "Queen Aemma was brought to bed in Maegor's Holdfast and died whilst giving birth to the son that Viserys Targaryen had desired for so long," the scene went.
"The boy (named Baelon, after the king's father) survived her only by a day, leaving king and court bereft," Martin's scene concluded.
What began as less than a paragraph evidently transformed into a disturbingly violent scene that included King Viserys granting permission for his wife to undergo a fatal Caesarean section, without first consulting her.
Martin and Condal expanded on this transformation, with Condal telling Vanity Fair: "It's not meant to be gratuitous."
"There's this whole idea in Game of Thrones, or in the Middle Ages, or in historical age like this, that the men marched off to the battlefield and the women's battlefield happened in the child bed," he added.
"That was a very dangerous place to be. All of the complications that people go through in modern birth that are now fixed by science and medicine and surgery were not really possible back then. Any slight complication, anything could lead to very tragic consequences for the child and the mother," Condal added.
At that point the author mastermind behind Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, chimed in: "That is so powerful [...] The terror on [Queen Aemma and King Viserys' faces], they're both so powerful. Yeah, I think that was certainly the right way to go."
Touching on continuous accusations of the show being gratuitous, Martin says: "I don't think anything is gratuitous. Of course, I've been accused of gratuitous violence and gratuitous sex and occasionally of gratuitous heraldry and gratuitous feast scenes [...] I want to live the book. I want to be there. I want my emotions engaged. Those are the kind of novels I love to read and the kind of things I love to write. That's what affects you emotionally."
Viewers across social media voiced their concerns (and praise) for the bloody scene, with one user tweeting: "Watching that one scene was TRAUMATIZING. Being a woman during a time like that is not for the weak of heart #HouseoftheDragon."
Another viewer, however, wrote words of praise for the hit new series, writing: "I finally finished #HouseoftheDragon and here we go again with me and this universe. This episode brought me back to the feeling I had when I binged all 7 seasons [of Game of Thrones] in the span of 2 weeks to be able to watch Season 8 live when it aired. A great first episode!"
It seems the torturous scene's content paid off, as Deadline reported 10 million viewers tuned in to episode one of the series. Episodes are set to air weekly on Sundays over on HBO Max.
