Greens Going Rogue is The Fault of Everyone's Favorite Character in HoTD
Yes, we are looking at a certain Targaryen king.
In House of the Dragon, it's hard to determine who is right and who is wrong, because everyone is famously "morally gray". However, some things are becoming clearer for fans as they take a breath after the dramatic season finale and take their time to analyze the events that the first season has shown.
And it would seem that the majority of the internal Targaryen problems could have been easily avoided if it wasn't for a certain fan favorite — King Viserys Targaryen.
With Paddy Considine's compelling performance, the character has quickly garnered a lot of fan love even though the awkward monarch started the season off as a "weak" character that was "unfit" for ruling.
But even despite the fan love, people put the blame for the family feud on him. After all, it was him who failed to make sure that all his kids are equally loved, clearly preferring Rhaenyra to Alicent Hightower's kids.
It was particularly clear when Viserys seemed to ignore how Aemond lost an eye in a fight with Lucerys, only caring about Lucerys and Jacaerys being called bastards.
But other people think that Viserys was not the best father in general — even for Rhaenyra.
"Honestly he failed all his kids. Pretty much ignored Rhaenyra during his initial period of parenthood while pumping out more kids in the hope of getting a male heir. Once Aemma died, gave all his attention to Rhaenyra eventually ignoring the green kids," Redditor chintu_isg suggested.
Basically he was never there for the Greens, especially in their late teens — an important time for kids to have a father to look up to.
"I also wonder how healthy he was through most of the green kids childhood and teenage years. He's basically a corpse by the time his green kids are in their late teens. If he had been on the serious decline for years then it makes more sense that he wasn't there for those children," Redditor Realistic_Tutor_9770 said.
To be fair, King Viserys did try his best to avoid conflict and bloodshed, but only after his kids' trauma has already taken its toll on everyone. Right before he died, he once again defended Rhaenyra and her children, even organizing a family dinner where everyone seemingly made peace with each other... only to ruin it all by telling Alicent the Aegon prophecy. Naturally, Alicent deemed that he meant their son Aegon, and not Aegon the Conqueror and his dream of a song of ice and fire.
Viserys' failure as father, along with a string of painful misunderstandings, has basically led to what the Westerosi history knows as the Dance of the Dragons — the Targaryen civil war.
Season 2 of House of the Dragons is due to start filming in early 2023, with the premiere date to be announced by HBO Max later.