‘House of the Dragon’ star Paddy Considine details King Viserys’ one big mistake

Warning: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon episode eight

Episode eight of House of the Dragon had no shortage of twists and turns as the stage is set for the season’s penultimate episode, and one of the key figures in these events is King Viserys I Targaryen.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, actor Paddy Considine, who plays King Viserys, spoke about the character’s fate in the episode. Before you read on, this is your final spoiler warning, so proceed at your own risk.

During episode eight of the show King Viserys dies, and while he made many hard decisions during his reign as king, according to Considine there was one that he regrets above them all.

The only mistake he made was becoming king. He should have said, ‘No, give it to Rhaenys. I don’t want it. I’m going to fly some dragons and have a good time with the ladies in nefarious places of town.’

Considine also shared that there was another decision that the King made which he grew to regret, which happened during the family feud that took place in episode eight’s dinner scene.

I think he neglected to be a good father to his second family. I think he neglected putting any effort into those children. They didn’t like him. I was on set one day and one of the actors playing one of my son says, ‘You hate us.’ And I went, ‘What?’ What do you mean? That I hate you as people — like Paddy [the actor] hates you?’ And he was like, ‘No, Viserys hates us, because you hate your children.’ I was like, wow, that’s amazing. That was so profound for him to say that.

Viserys doesn’t hate his children, he just doesn’t love them the way he loves Rhaenyra, since her mom Aemma is the love of King Viserys’ life. In a way he’s responsible, because he was so dogged about wanting a male heir, and there were several failed pregnancies, and he feels greatly responsible for pushing her to have a child so many times. That’s his big regret. That’s part of the reason he chose Rhaenyra as his heir — there’s a bit of guilt there.”

Considine’s time appearing in House of the Dragon has come to an end, however the decisions of Viserys will continue to play a huge factor in the series going forward.

There are two more episodes of House of the Dragon left to air in season one and all of them so far can be streamed on HBO Max right now.