In House of the Dragon, King Viserys did not change his mind about Princess Rhaenyra succeeding him, but Queen Alicent misheard him speaking in favour of her son succeeding him.
House of the Dragon delivered the penultimate episode of its first season with episode nine, which followed the events after the death of King Viserys at the end of episode eight.
In the most recent episode, Queen Alicent and Ser Otto Hightower gather their alliances to support Prince Aegon succeeding his father.
These actions were based on the words of the queen who believed that these were her husband’s last words.
When in fact, the heavily drugged king believed that he was talking to his daughter about the prophecy which he shared with her as a successor to the throne which referred to Aegon the Conqueror, and not his son.
What was the prophecy Viserys shared with Rhaenyra?
In order to understand the events of episode eight, it is important to go back to episode one, specifically, to the prophecy that King Viserys passed on to Princess Rhaenyra as his successor to the throne. He told Rhaenyra:
“Our histories… they tell us that Aegon looked across the Blackwater from Dragonstone, and saw a rich land ripe for the capture. But ambition alone is not what drove him to conquest. It was a dream. And just as Daenys foresaw the end of Valyria, Aegon foresaw the end of the world of men.”
Viserys was referring to Aegon the Conqueror in his prophecy, the first to rule over the Seven Kingdoms in Westeros, rather than his son, who at the time was not even born yet.
House of the Dragon: Why did Viserys change his mind?
In season one, episode eight of House of the Dragon, 20 years after the events of the first episode, Rhaenyra, who was a mother and married to her uncle-husband, Daemon, visited her ailing father who was kept alive by drinking milk of the poppy due to his advanced leprosy.
Rhaenyra, knowing that the end was near for her father, wanted to ensure that he was still steadfast in his decision about her succeeding him on the throne.
Speaking to her father, she asked if he believed the prophecy of The Song of Fire and Ice to be true, referring to his words explaining, “Aegon saw absolute darkness riding on those winds. And whatever dwells within will destroy the world of the living.” Later she added “a Targaryen must be seated on the Iron Throne”.
Which was what Aegon called The Song of Fire and Ice. However, at the time, because of how much milk of the poppy he was drinking, he never answered Rhaenyra.
Instead, following the succession meeting which pulled him out of bed, he asserted that he still wants the princess to succeed him.
During his nightly conversation with Alicent, he thought he was speaking to Rhaenyra when he answered her by saying, “His Dream. The Song of Ice and Fi — It is true. What he saw in the North. The Prince That Was Promised”.
Alicent confused this to mean their son, Aegon, rather than Aegon the Conqueror and his vision of the yet to come Jon Snow. As such, Alicent merely heard what she has always wanted to hear rather than Viserys had changed his mind.
Did Viserys change his mind in the books?
HBO Max’s has taken some liberties with the sequence of events compared to how it was written by George R.R Martin’s novel which inspired the series, titled Fire & Blood.
The book, unlike the series, is written as a compilation of folklore stories about the Targaryens. As such, there are distinct variations in the sequence of events.
Such as the fact that Rhaenyra did not come back to Westeros and asked her father the question which would result in Alicent’s confusion.
Instead, in the book, Viserys died after only speaking to Helaena and his grandchildren in his sleep without having a vision before.
Was Viserys killed?
House of the Dragon went out of its way to make it clear that there was no foul play in the death of King Viserys.
It is clearly established that Alicent was a doting wife who just misinterpreted the words of a confused and heavily drunk ailing man to be what she wanted to hear – that Aegon should succeed him.
As such, her actions are pure in heart as she works with her father and the rest of The Greens to ensure that Aegon is king during season one, episode nine.
This is as it is expected that the season finale will be the beginning of the epic war which will inspire the events of subsequent seasons of the series to come.
Was Viserys killed in the book?
Again, Fire and Blood is a book that is based on a collection of folklore on the events which resulted in the demise of the Targaryens as the rulers of the Seven Kingdoms in Westeros.
In the book, there is a suggestion that Alicent poisoned her husband, the king, as it speaks of Mushroom, a dwarf, who was the court fool of the kingdom, though he is not part of the series yet. The book excerpt explains:
“The dwarf Mushroom suggests a more sinister scenario, whereby Queen Alicent hurried King Viserys on his way with a pinch of poison in his hippocras. It must be noted that Mushroom was not in King’s Landing the night the king died, but rather on Dragonstone, in service with Princess Rhaenyra”.
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