Still Haunted by That Birth Scene on 'House of the Dragon'? Same.
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Spoilers ahead.
On Sunday night, House of the Dragon depicted one of the more disturbing scenes in Game of Thrones history: a bloody medieval C-section that ended in the mother’s death. This fantasy franchise is known for pushing the limits of what can be shown on television, and it certainly hasn’t shied away from portraying violence on screen in the past. (Remember the Red Wedding, the Mountain crushing Oberyn Martell’s skull, Drogo melting off Viserys’ head, Shireen Baratheon getting burned alive…shall I continue?) But there was something about this birthing scene that was particularly sickening in a way others weren’t.
i love the dragons and little miss “this position is quite comfortable actually 😏” but a graphic forced birth scene
IN THIS ECONOMY????— roslyn talusan (@roslyntalusan) August 22, 2022
That birth scene in house of the dragon was more traumatic to me than the entire game of thrones
— Gabby TOP 1% STONER 🗣💨 (@littleowlella) August 22, 2022
Like when I say "violent" I don't mean "graphic" or "intense" I mean "literal violence is perpetrated against a person in the context of their giving birth"
— Kristin Chirico (@lolacoaster) August 22, 2022
My reaction to the birth scene : #HouseoftheDragon pic.twitter.com/SuMcyIeEZS
— Dracarys (@iamdelphinee) August 22, 2022
There’s been so much death in this series but this scene of her giving birth with a no anesthetic c section?? Might be the most gruesome scene I’ve watched #hotd #HouseoftheDragon
— Em🔆 (@ejemell) August 22, 2022
For context: The scene features Queen Aemma Arryn, pregnant wife of King Viserys Targaryen, in labor to deliver a child her husband is sure will be a son. (With their oldest child being a girl, he’s desperate for a “legitimate” heir and Aemma’s past stillbirths and miscarriages haven’t helped.) When Aemma faces complications during delivery, the maester says he cannot save both her and the child. Although Viserys seems troubled by the decision, he unsurprisingly opts to save the baby over Aemma, unbeknownst to Aemma. What follows is brutal: The queen screams as the nurses hold her down to the bed and the doctor cuts into her womb to remove the fetus manually—of which we get a clear birds-eye view. The camera is unrelenting here, showing the blade run down Aemma’s abdomen as her blood spills onto the bed sheets. There are bloody closeups of hands opening up and reaching into her to extract the baby from her body. (To Viserys’ relief, it is a boy, but the child dies hours later.) It’s a lot. It’s too much.
So…why is it there? In terms of the plot, Aemma and the heir’s death eventually kick off the Dance of the Dragons civil war within House Targaryen, which this show will cover. As for the scene-setting, it proves a point Aemma told her daughter, Rhaenyra, earlier in the episode: that while men fight wars, childbearing is a woman’s battle. That’s emphasized by a very on-the-nose parallel, with Aemma’s labor sequence intercut with scenes of knights gruesomely brawling at a tournament elsewhere in King’s Landing.
As Vanity Fair points out, Aemma’s death by childbirth in George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, on which House of the Dragon is based, is only two sentences long. Why elaborate it in such gory terms on screen?
The showrunners’ justification is that they wanted to be real about the horrors of childbirth in Middle Ages-equivalent Westeros (a fictional world). “Any slight complication, anything could lead to very tragic consequences for the child and the mother,” co-showrunner Ryan Condal told VF. “We wanted to dramatize that. We think you see plenty of violence of all colors in Westeros, but there is a particular violence to childbirth, even childbirth that goes well in the end.”
Martin called the scene “incredibly powerful.” He didn't find it gratuitous but rather necessary to tell a convincing story. “I want to live the book. I want to be there. I want my emotions engaged,” he added.
Sure, I guess? The story takes place in a time when women had little place and power in society. And I’ve already bought in on the franchise—the dragons, the vast kingdoms, the imaginary languages, White Walkers, whatever milk of the poppy is—but is a woman’s torture on the childbed the necessary next step to world-building? Am I not getting the full picture unless I see someone ripped apart during labor? What am I seeing here that I don’t already understand?
To bring things back to present-day, the scene also speaks to the timely topic of abortion and a person’s right to choose. As Jezebel put it, in our post-Roe v. Wade world, Aemma’s labor scene “hit too close to home.” Co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik is aware of this. He told Popsugar that the scene addresses an issue that “hits a real trigger for women, which is this idea of choice and that she doesn’t get to choose. She’s effectively murdered by her husband. And that is a good indication of the state of play in this world that we’re inhabiting.”
For me, it was very triggering watching the birth scene. A man made the choice to sacrifice his wife by trying to save the baby and not giving her a choice in the matter and violently ending her life. It also is reflected to today's abortion talk of men making the decisions.
— Laura ลอร'า 劳拉 (@lsirikul) August 22, 2022
#HOTD
Considering the state of reproductive rights in America right now…that birth scene was horrifying and sickening.
Basically ensuring your wife’s death just to save the baby…JFC.— Hiatus? 💗💛💙 Rainbow Fangs 🐺 NOT SPOILER FREE (@Astraea_Styx) August 22, 2022
Sapochnik also said that the moment was highly debated behind the scenes, and the team knew it would upset viewers. “We did make a point of showing it to as many women as possible and asked the very question, ‘Was this too violent for you?’” he said. “And unanimously, the response was no. Often the response was, ‘No, if anything, it needs to be more.’”
But, why? To prove to the men watching that this is what it’s like for us? Will this change anyone’s minds regarding women’s bodily autonomy, or abortion rights, or the maternal health crisis? And if the scene is supposed to visualize how women are warriors in their own right, did any women watching this feel empowered?
Martin says Aemma’s death is supposed to “rip your heart out and throw it on the floor,” with the same impact as the Red Wedding. Both are gory moments (and contain pregnant women being murdered), but the big difference here is that the Red Wedding killed off characters we had loved for three seasons. In House of the Dragon, a woman is ripped open before our eyes 30 minutes after she is introduced.
If the scene was merely for shock value, or to elicit an emotional response, then that points to a bigger conversation about how much House of the Dragon wants to be like (or maybe even outdo) Game of Thrones. With bloodshed, nudity, oozing wounds, castration, and implied incest, it’s as if the first episode is saying: In case you forgot how hardcore we are, here’s a reminder. With small callouts to Daenerys Targaryen and “A Song of Ice and Fire,” it wants to assure you that you’re in the world of Game of Thrones while also differentiating itself with an ostensibly more feminist storyline.
The prequel series seems like it's trying to be more self-aware. GoT came under fire for its depictions of rape, nudity, and other forms of sexual and emotional violence against women. As House of the Dragon begins, it’s evident right away that a main focus will be women wronged by and persevering under patriarchy. (It’s not until after Viserys’ wife and newborn are dead, and after his brother disrespects the dead child, that Viserys finally names his daughter Rhaenyra his heir. What he probably should’ve done from the start.)
Sapochnik told the Los Angeles Times that their intention with the birth scene was to be accurate and not to “sensationalize it,” but with such harrowing visuals, they still did create a spectacle. And it’ll stick with viewers for better or worse.
Just gonna warn everyone: the birth scene with Aemma Arryn is VERY intense, and disturbing in a way that Game of Thrones never was. Brace yourselves
— Winter is Coming (@WiCnet) August 22, 2022
Queen Aemma has been used time and time again to produce a male heir. The loss she has experienced at the hand of her husband and her duty as a wife is actually putrid. #HouseoftheDragon
— Wanna (@WannasWorld) August 22, 2022
Viserys KNOWS he's cutting Aemma open and says "I love you" acting like everything is gonna be alright #DragonsYall #HouseoftheDragon #HOTD pic.twitter.com/H5JKI2lZfn
— Black Girl Geeks (@BlackGirlGeeks) August 22, 2022
In the behind the scenes they’re saying they wanted to show the female perspective in the birth scene and I’m like “Did… did you ASK any women???” #HouseTargaryen
— Kiala (@Kiala) August 22, 2022
I was not at all prepared to see Aemma Targaryen like that #HouseoftheDragon pic.twitter.com/Nf1iQHIgo3
— b.martina (@brittersplease) August 22, 2022
Clearly their definitions of 'gratuitous sex and violence' are different to ours.#HouseoftheDragon https://t.co/kUeIrIGlxI
— Carolyn - Petite Possee - Hinds 🇧🇧 (@CarrieCnh12) August 22, 2022
i’m still so baffled that they had viserys straight up murder aemma because that is what that was, he killed her and has no right grieving her like he did
— mia | hotd spoilers (@silvcrwings) August 21, 2022
still think the worse thing about aemma's death is how viserys took away her ability to choose in favour of treating her like a broodmare #HouseoftheDragon
— j || hotd spoilers (@INEJSKNlVES) August 22, 2022
aemma’s death scene is so fucking disturbing fuck viserys fr
— neferure | hotd spoilers (@RHA3NYRA) August 21, 2022
The screams of Aemma Arryn will haunt my dreams for the next hundred years#HouseofthedragonHBO #HouseoftheDragon
— Matt ⛏️ (@MMinscraft) August 22, 2022
I was also deeply upset by the birthing scene for obvious reasons. Even though I ~know~ that happened, and STILL HAPPENS, all the time, it infuriates me that Aemma’s agency in her final moments was ripped from her #HouseoftheDragon https://t.co/ncNr6eTNyf
— Emily May (Taylor’s Version) (@Manning_thefort) August 22, 2022
#HouseOfTheDragon Medieval births were always the most dangerous during this time, especially after what Queen Aemma had already gone through https://t.co/21R8iC64X3
— Brendon Smith🏳️🌈 (@bigdogXVI) August 22, 2022
God. This is horrible to watch. Aemma realizing they’re going to cut her open. #DemThrones #HouseoftheDragon #FireandBlood
— Baenerys Targaryen (@kshante) August 22, 2022
Damn Aemma Arryn lasted less episodes than Ned Stark #hotd #HouseoftheDragon pic.twitter.com/ftPrA1JV1T
— Alex (@alexr_241) August 22, 2022
Did all that just for both Aemma and the baby to just die in the end #HouseoftheDragon pic.twitter.com/jqvmq33Ww6
— twiggy’s groove. (@elektramurdocks) August 22, 2022
So, I’m coming back from my incredibly bad post traumatic panic attack due to that the “birth” scene. My partner skipped through it all because it’s spliced into the last half of the tourney scene. BE CAREFUL WITH THE TOURNAMENT SCENE. Unnecessary… #triggers #HouseoftheDragon
— Margaery Tyrell (@Margaery_Tyrell) August 22, 2022
that birth scene felt worse than maybe anything they ever showed on thrones
— Matt Collette (@matt_pc) August 22, 2022
i think it's very funny that the house of the dragon guys are like "we want to reflect the misogyny of the time period" the time period is the twelfth of makebelieve. it's the 149th year of sir gooby the dragonfoot. it's the eighth age of targabargabor. it's literally made up
— Thing Bad (@Merman_Melville) August 22, 2022
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