Aemma’s death
After a prologue that details just how much Westeros does not want a woman to rule—explaining why Viserys (Paddy Considine) leap-frogged over his older cousin, Rhaenys (Eve Best) to ascend the Iron Throne—we understand the urgency facing King Viserys and his wife, Aemma (Siân Brooke) to produce a male heir. Thus far, their only child together that’s survived Aemma’s many troubled pregnancies is daughter Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), but Viserys is certain his about-to-be-born child is a boy. When Aemma’s labor becomes dangerous, Viserys chooses his obsession with succession over his wife, authorizing a C-section he knows she won’t survive. (She’s conscious as this is happening and screaming at him not to do it.) She dies, the baby (which was indeed a boy) dies, and from that double tragedy, House of the Dragon’s central conflict is gruesomely set in motion.
