House of the Dragon director addresses premiere's extreme birth scene
House of the Dragon showrunner Miguel Sapochnik has explained that the scene shows how "giving birth was violence" in medieval times. **WARNING: Contains spoilers for House of the Dragon episode 1**
If you stayed up late to watch the House of the Dragon premiere last night, then you'll know that it isn't for the squeamish – particularly when it comes to the graphic birth scene.
When Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke) runs into complications during the birth of a male heir, King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) chooses for his wife to receive a fatal, rudimentary version of a Cesarean section in an attempt to save the baby, resulting in her painful, bloody death.
Now, director Miguel Sapochnik has explained why he chose to include the explicit scene, revealing that he wanted to explore the idea that "for a woman in medieval times, giving birth was violence".
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Sapochnik said: "Aemma says, 'The child bed is our battlefield.'
"We felt that was an interesting way to explore the fact that for a woman in medieval times, giving birth was violence. It’s as dangerous as it gets.
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"You have a 50/50 chance of making it. Many women didn’t. If given the choice, the father would choose the child over the mother as a Cesarean would kill you."
The director added: "It was an extremely violent part of life.
"We have a number of births in the show and basically decided to give them different themes and explore them from different perspectives the same way I did for a bunch of battles on Thrones, where each time I tried to put a different spine in each so it wasn’t just doing the same thing, as I don’t think putting a bunch of violence on screen for the sake of violence does any good in the world."
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Sapochnik also serves as a showrunner on House of the Dragon, which is set 200 years before the start of Game of Thrones and follows the Targaryen reign on the Iron Throne.
With Viserys needing to decide who should succeed him in leading Westeros, the series covers events leading up to the Dance of the Dragons, with his daughter Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy, Milly Alcock) and his brother Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) fighting for control.
House of the Dragon is available from 22nd August exclusively on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW.
With an Entertainment Membership, fans can currently bundle together NOW Entertainment and Cinema Membership for £14.99 per month for six months. All episodes of Game of Thrones are also available to stream on NOW.
Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.
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