Since our last journey to Westeros in Episode 7, House of the Dragon made another huge jump skip. The future queen of Kings Landing, Rhaenyra, bore two additional children, Aegon and Viserys, in the six years following her marriage to Daemon Targaryen. Meanwhile, King Viserys has been bedridden with age and illness, and Otto and Alicent Hightower are looking to take advantage.
Despite the long gaps in continuity, the show made it quite evident that Viserys was unwell. His body is decaying while his brother and other relatives have kept their youthful appearance. As time passes, the king’s health worsens to the point where he can no longer muster the energy to sit on the Iron Throne or even make it through a full family meal.
In “House of The Dragon,” What Ailment Does King Viserys Have?
Cuts seen on the king while he sat on the throne in House of the Dragon are not related to Visery’s overall condition. Dementia is an age-related memory disorder exemplified in Episode 7 by the King’s inability to recognise familiar faces or recall names as easily as he once could.
Fortunately, Visery’s actor Paddy Considine let viewers in on the secret disease that ultimately took the king’s life. The news that the king has leprosy was broken by Considine in an interview with Entertainment Weekly’s podcast West of Westeros. This young man’s body is ageing prematurely due to his disease.
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Injuries Sustained by King Viserys at The Outset
Viserys slashes his hand on the Iron Throne, which is fashioned of the swords of the people Aegon I Targaryen defeated during his conquest of Westeros, at the end of the first episode. By the second episode, it’s obvious that the treatment of the day isn’t helping him. His fingers are rotting away due to an infection in his hand, and the masters try some really gruesome therapies to save him.
Why Is King Viserys’ Arm Missing Its Arm?
By Season 6, after more than a decade has passed, Viserys has lost his entire arm. The show never reveals what happened to the King’s arm, but it’s safe to presume it rotted to the point where the maesters determined it had to be severed
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What ails Viserys, I say!
Viserys seems to be ageing at an accelerated rate, and it’s not just because of his rotting arm; he also has a massive sore on his back (and possibly other places), coughs violently on the regular, is losing his hair in patches, and has frequent attacks of diarrhoea.
Paddy Considine, who plays Viserys, elaborated on his character’s ailment in an episode of the “West of Westeros” podcast, produced by Entertainment Weekly. He has leprosy, Considine said. His bones are breaking down, and his body is wasting away. He’s not as elderly as he seems. It’s clear that deep down, he’s still a young man. He just has this horrible thing that has taken over his body. As so, it becomes a metaphor for the pressures of ruling a country, both psychologically and physically.
King Viserys’ Illness and Its Symbolic Significance
As a first episode emblem, Viserys’s severing at the hands of his throne seems simple enough. The inhabitants of Westeros believe that the Iron Throne can “judge” those who sit on it if they are not worthy, according to George R. R. Martin’s books. According to legend, it was purposely built with so many points of potential injury to remind monarchs to exercise extreme caution. As a warning against acting hastily in matters of state, taking the throne is a delicate task that requires care and planning to avoid injury.
According to those criteria, Viserys’s wound represents a verdict of guilt. This is especially likely given that he suffered the wound after opting to allow his wife Aemma to die a horrible death in the hopes of producing a son who would survive. The injury’s progression might also be interpreted as a condemnation of Viserys’s lack of forethought; the king is ignoring his live heir, Rhaenyra, in favour of the manipulative counsel of his numerous council members, who urge him to remarry.
Ultimately, Considine told Entertainment Weekly, Viserys’ illness is a metaphor for a king’s predicament. He went on to compare the emotional and physical tolls of being king, saying, “It becomes a metaphor for being King.”
