A Simple Misunderstanding Doomed Everyone in House of the Dragon

I recently started watching House of the Dragon, and I love the slow burn build up to the main battle among the opposing sides that will begin the battle for the Iron Throne. What I wasn't expecting was the 'reason' with how the battle would begin, and man, I was in complete shock.

The king, Viserys Targaryen, had been battling a horrible sickness, that left him bedridden in his final days. When he hears that many people were questioning his daughter, who he had chosen for his heir, including her sons that were considered bastards, he decides to stand up for his family. Even though he is extremely weak, he sits on the Iron Throne, to challenge anyone who would dare to question his heir of choice.

One family member does get killed as an act of treason, and afterwards, everyone is made to have dinner with the king, and he demands that everyone in his family make peace. They do, but tensions are still there, as his wife's and daughter's children still consider each other enemies. Before Viserys passes away, he is spending time with his wife, Alicent, and in his sick state, he believes that he is speaking to his daughter.

He had told his daughter about Aegon, a past family member that had been quite famous. He says that Aegon, should be king, but Alicent believes that he was talking about their son, Aegon. Viserys dies, and Alicent tells her father, the king's hand, Otto, about this information. During the meeting with the main people in charge, Alicent appears distraught and confused as everyone around her prepares to get Aegon ready to be king.

I could not believe this was how the war was going to begin.

I'm not blaming Alicent here, because she appears to be a genuine person that actually grew to love the king over time. She had been through a lot of awful events prior to her adulthood, and she was struggling to raise her children in the present, coming to the conclusion that Aegon was a monster out of all of her children. Alicent was only trying to look out for everyone in her family, because naming the king's daughter heir meant death for everyone close to her.

I'm also not blaming Viserys either, because he was on his final days of life, and he had gotten very sick from an illness. He had deeply loved his family all the way to the end, wanting to keep the peace between them. He was aware of many bad allegations against his family, but he still wanted everyone to get along and love one another. It was just awful timing that he thought he had been speaking to his daughter in his final moments, thinking that he was bringing up the tale to her again, that his daughter had brought up on the same day many hours before his death.

And it's even worse knowing that Alicent and Viserys appeared to actually love each other. Alicent was only being cruel to protect her family, but it was obvious that the upcoming war was scaring her, making her mad. She believed that Viserys was pleading with her to make Aegon king, but even though she should have been thrilled, Alicent knew that Aegon was bad news, and not meant to be king. She even got pissed off that her own father and the other people in charge had made plans behind her back, still determined to make her first born son king.

It's tragic how two people that dearly cared for each other, unintentionally started the war.

The war most likely would have started regardless, but the words spoken between the king and queen ended up possibly starting the war much early than everyone anticipated.

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Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn