House of the Dragon: The Last Conversation Between Alicent and Viserys I, Explained
House of the Dragon Episode 8 was full of intrigue, tense moments, arranged marriages, and family feuds, but the biggest moment is a simple conversation between a dying King Viserys I and his wife, who can’t quite figure out what was going on. What was he saying at the time? When Rhaenyra, Daemon, and their children arrive at King’s Landing to defend Luke’s right to inherit the Velaryon lands, they soon realize that the king is in dire condition, covered in bandages, missing an arm, and unable to fully see. , and his mind is not in the best condition either, since every day they give him tea for pain that makes it impossible for him to think clearly.
At one point, Rhaenyra approaches her father again, speaking to him about the weight she feels being the heir to the throne and asking him to defend her and her children, leading the king to gather the last of his money. strength to appear in the throne room and support Luke, to later be part of a dinner where he asks his family to put aside their differences and start working together. All this points to the fact that there could be peace between the Targaryens (and that House of the Dragon is not going to have a war between brothers) and that Alicent is going to stop being a problem for Rhaenyra, but all that changes with the last conversation between the king and his wife.
House of the Dragon: What Does Viserys I Say To Alicent?
After the family dinner ends with a conflict between Aemond and his nephews, whom he calls Strong again, Viserys retires to his room and begins to suffer excruciating pain, so his wife gives him some Milk of the Poppy, which it’s opium and it doesn’t allow him to think straight. In his grief, Viserys speaks about Aegon, the prince promised, and the need to unify the kingdom to protect it from the darkness. Viserys was talking about Aegon the Conqueror‘s prophecy and thought that he was talking to his daughter, to whom he had already told all this, but Alicent doesn’t understand it that way.
Hearing only snippets of the story, and the name Aegon (and this is why it’s a very bad idea to use the same name for multiple children), Alicent understands, or wants to understand, that Viserys is telling her that Rhaenyra is no longer to be her successor and that he wants her to appoint Aegon as the new king. This simple conversation, and the confusion it causes, is what leads to war.
The situation was not very good between the Targaryens and a series of events paved the way for the war (such as the moment when Luke gouges out Aemond’s eye), but Alicent decided to respect Viserys’s decision to have Rhaenyra as his heir and that maintained a relative peace, and a very fragile one. The queen now believes her son is the true heir and Viserys’s death coincided with Rhaenyra’s journey back to Dragonstone to bring her children home, meaning Alicent and Otto have complete control of King’s Landing, and that there is nothing to prevent Aegon from being crowned.
Rhaenyra could certainly have told Alicent about the prophecy, but Alicent isn’t going to ask questions about it (even when she knows Viserys wasn’t in his best condition) and that’s what’s going to leave two people thinking that the throne belongs to them and they must fight for it, each one with their respective allies, which in the case of Rhaenyra do not seem to be many.
