'House of the Dragon': An Unexpected Reason to Love King Viserys Again
King Viserys is definitely not one of the fan favorites in the 'Game of Thrones' prequel... but things change.
Warning: the following article contains spoilers for 'House of the Dragon ' episode 4
With the premiere of 'King of the Narrow Sea', the fourth episode of 'House of the Dragon', fans seem to warm up to King Viserys — someone they would usually blast as "weak" and therefore unworthy of the Iron Throne.
However, it seems that he starts to grasp the reality in episode 4. Viserys now realizes that Otto Hightower has been sneaking around this whole time in order to get closer to the throne, sending his daughter Alicent with the same goal. But it's not even Viserys firing Otto that got fans to suddenly respect him more.
A man with a history of letting his wife die in the middle of the C-section for the sake of getting a male heir, Viserys decides to give Rhaenyra (who, he suspects, has hooked up with her uncle Daemon) an apparent Westerosi version of Plan B — some kind of tea that should "rid [her] of any unwanted consequences."
So, King Viserys is pro-choice? Good for him! Fans could not help but applaud the move, even though Viserys has never enjoyed much respect from 'House of the Dragon' viewers. Some people even joked how King Viserys did more for reproductive rights than certain politicians do today.
However, not everyone was enchanted by Viserys' suddenly progressive views.
"I've seen a couple of posts that are like, "Wow, Viserys is a pro-choice king!" and it's like, uh, he didn't ask his daughter her consent when he gave her that tea and he cut open his wife without her consent, so... no. He deserves to get killed by that pointy chair lmao." – @xxlonelybones
After all, will it help resolve all the problems the House of Targaryen is now facing? The majority of fans highly doubt it. With a civil war brewing in the dragon-riding family, Viserys might be a tad too late with good decision-making and being progressive.
However, there are still six more episodes to find out. 'House of the Dragon' is currently streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes arriving every Sunday.