What’s wrong with Larys Strong’s feet in ‘House of the Dragon’?

Larys Strong is one of the most calculated and conniving denizens of Westeros in the age during which House of the Dragon takes place. He can’t help but remind us of Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish from the original Game of Thrones series with the number of dastardly schemes and manipulative behaviors he’s exhibited in just one season of the show.

However, he isn’t much of a physical threat – being that he can only move about quite slowly with the assistance of a cane, seeing as one of his feet may be twisted inwards. We can speculate this is why the guy’s got a foot fetish, considering his own aren’t entirely functional, but we digress. What exactly is going on with Larys’ foot? 

Larys ailment is called “clubfoot”

In the show’s source material, Fire and Blood, Larys is commonly referred to as Larys Clubfoot, or simply, The Clubfoot. Notably, the show hasn’t referred to Larys as such very often, if at all as far as we can remember.

However it does identify the condition with which Larys is afflicted, with Fire and Blood noting that his foot was twisted at birth – which is effectively what clubfoot is. 

Much like King Viserys’ affliction, clubfoot is a real-world ailment. According to the Italian Journal of Pediatrics, it is the most common congenital malformation of the foot, affecting roughly 1 in 1000 newborns. 

With modern medicine, clubfoot is treatible with a number of different methods, which are most effective before the age of two, but sometimes surgery is required to resolve it. But of course, Larys and Viserys exist in the world of Game of Thrones – where the primary form of medicine is to drink some milk of the poppy and hope for the best.