House of the Dragon director breaks down that gruesome premiere scene

Sian Brooke as Aemma in House of the Dragon — (Image credit: HBO)

House of the Dragon episode 1 featured a horrifyingly gruesome moment, and director and co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik has broken down the scene. Major spoilers for episode 1 follow!

In the scene, Queen Aemma (Sian Brooke) is in labor, though, due to the baby's position, both her and the child will die. The Grand Maester offers King Viserys (Paddy Considine) a choice: he can save the mother or the baby. Viserys, obsessed with finally having a male heir, gives the go-ahead for a brutal caesarean section.

"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?'" Sapochnik said during a roundtable attended by Insider. "And unanimously, the response was 'no.' Often the response was 'If anything, it needs to be more.'"

In the scene, nobody tells Aemma what is happening, and when she realizes, she tries to resist – but eventually dies from blood loss. Even more tragically, her newborn boy dies shortly after his birth, too.

"We shouldn't be shying away from this thing that's happened because it's raising a point that seems to hit a real trigger for women, which is this idea of choice," Sapochnik added. "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."

Sapochnik also explained why the scene cuts between Matt Smith's Daemon fighting in the tournament and Aemma's violent death. "As we stated earlier in the episode, the birthing bed is almost a battlefield," he commented. "You have 50 per cent chance of survival. And so it seemed like this was an appropriate time to draw that parallel visually between the male and the female struggle. One's fighting on the battlefield, the other's fighting for survival – sometimes from the person closest to her."

House of the Dragon episode 1 also featured a major prophecy linked to Game of Thrones which reframes everything we know about the Targaryens – and you can read more about the surprise reveal through the links, as well as two Easter eggs you probably missed.

See our House of the Dragon release schedule to find out exactly when the next episode drops in both the UK and the US, and, in the meantime, see our roundup of the best Netflix shows streaming now to fill out your watchlist.