Who Is King Viserys Targaryen?
Image Source: Hollywood Reporter
This article will contain major spoilers for the first two episodes of House of Dragons.
Not to be confused with Viserys Targaryen from the Original Game of Throne series, King Targaryen is from the new HBO Show House of Dragons and is a new character added to the series. King Targaryen is the heir of House Targaryen and the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. He succeeded Jaehaerys I Targaryen after his death. The show starts with Viserys desperately needing a male heir to the throne. He is married to his cousin Aemma Arryn to keep the bloodlines pure. When his wife and child die during childbirth, he is pushed to name an heir to the Iron Throne. He has the choice between his brother Daemon and his daughter Rhaenyra. Daemon is determined to become heir to the throne and believes he is entitled to it. However, he is very unpopular amongst his family.
Despite Viserys being pushed by the royal courtiers to select a male heir to the throne, he selects his daughter to be the heir, breaking the long-standing tradition of having male heirs and upsetting the council. After Viserys’ wife passes away, he remarries a young woman named Alicent Hightower, a friend of his daughter Rhaenyra. In the future, they will have a son named Aegon II. Since he is a male, he is considered the true heir to the throne, threatening Rhaenyra’s rule of the throne. After the birth of Aegon, the Kingdom shows that they would rather have a half-blood male Targaryen rule on the Iron Throne than a Queen rule.
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Some possible plot points based on what we know about Viserys include conflict within the Targaryen family. The Targaryen family likes to keep bloodlines pure, and by marrying outside of the bloodline, he created a male heir to the throne that is not full Targaryen blood. In future episodes, this will probably cause conflict between Rhaenyra, Aegon, and the rest of the family. Potentially causing an attempt to overthrow Rhaenyra and remove her from the Iron Throne.
Image Source: IGN
Viserys’ decisions on who to name ruler caused lots of discourse in the Kingdom and in his own family. Although his brother wants the throne, he had to begrudgingly name his daughter heir and then have a son on top of everything, complicating his entire decision to make his daughter queen.
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Source(s): Time, Radio Times