Poor, old Viserys.
Against all odds, the (very ill, rapidly rotting) King managed to drag himself out of bed in episode 8 and bring about a temporary peace between his long-warring loved ones. It was all going so smoothly, right up until it wasn’t.
The problem? After a long day of over-exerting himself the king lay in bed in pain, only for Alicent to come to his rescue with some milk of the poppy. The king grew delirious, started talking about the ol’ « Prince that was Promised » prophecy that he spoke to Rhaenyra about in episode 1, and then accidentally said something that is almost definitely going to kickstart a civil war.
But hang on, let’s back up a step. What exactly did Viserys say to Alicent, and why were his words so important?
What were King Viserys’ last words to Alicent?
The first couple of times we see Viserys in episode 8 he’s lying in bed, struggling to tell the difference between his daughter Rhaenyra and his wife Alicent. Rhaenyra introduces him to her children – one of whom is called Aegon – and asks him about the Song of Ice and Fire prophecy that he told her about all those years ago.
Clearly these things stick in his head, because at the end of the episode – after managing to stay lucid during the day – the freshly-drugged king begins speaking to Alicent about them. Clearly, at this point, he thinks he’s talking to Rhaenyra again, and even though Alicent doesn’t understand his talk of the Song of Ice and Fire, she latches on to the name Aegon when Visersy’ murmurs it. The king is talking about Aegon the Conqueror, who first dreamed of the prophecy, but Alicent thinks he means their firstborn son.
« I don’t understand, Viserys, » she says.
« The prince, » he murmurs.
« Prince Aegon? »
« To unite the realm against the cold and the dark, » Viserys’ mumbles. « It is you. You are the one. You must do this. You must do this. »
At this point Alicent’s face changes and she tells him she understands, before leaving the room.
What does their final conversation mean?
In a nutshell, it means that the temporary peace between Alicent and Rhaenyra is broken. Despite their truce at dinner, Alicent has always tried to put her family first — and in the king’s final mumblings, she’s heard what she always wanted to hear: That her own son, Aegon, is to be the one that will unite the realm.
In the trailer for episode 9, which confirms Viserys’ death, Alicent says it out loud: « He told me he wished for Aegon to be king. »
As the king lay dying, he and his wife were essentially having two different conversations. Viserys thought he was speaking to his daughter, and telling her that he believes she is the one Aegon the Conqueror dreamed of bringing the Seven Kingdoms together — but what he was really doing was giving his wife everything she’d always wished for.
New House of the Dragon episodes are available every Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.
