Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the latest episode of House Of The Dragon.
House Of The Dragon actor Paddy Considine has opened up about his character’s final moments in the show.
In the latest instalment of the Game Of Thrones prequel, Paddy’s character King Viserys was seen succumbing to the illness that he’s been struggling with throughout the entire series.
With his final breath, Viserys was heard saying simply “my love”, referencing his late wife Aemma, who died in a divisive scene in the very first episode of the series.
Speaking to Vulture, Paddy revealed that this was actually an unscripted line he came up with himself, which ended up being left in the final edit.
“There were little instinctive things, improvisational moments that made it into the final cut,” he told the outlet.
“The moment at the end — in my mind, I’ve made a choice that as he dies, he sees Aemma. When he reaches out and says, ‘My love’, that’s what he sees the moment he dies. I tried to discuss it with Geeta [Patel, the episode’s director], and I’m like, ‘Hang on. This is Paddy stuff, not character stuff, and I’m just going to keep this thing secret. And if they use it, they use it, and if they don’t, they don’t’. Luckily, they used it, which is amazing.”
Referring back to the divisive series opener, Paddy continued: “Ultimately, the character is a very, very tragic character.
“I think some people are confused. I think they thought he chose to save his son over his wife, and he didn’t. They were both going to die. He just chose to put his wife through a terrible procedure, and that breaks his heart and he never recovers from it.
“I always saw him as this tragic character that lost the love of his life, and the minute that he burned her on her funeral pyre, he just never lived properly again. I think he started dying from that moment.”
When the interviewer suggested Viserys thinks he “deserves” his fate, Paddy added: “Yeah, he deserves it. I imagine he’s in such pain at that point.”
It was recently revealed that another of the episode’s most memorable moments also came about completely by accident.
“I was so thankful that accident happened, that the crown fell off,” director Geeta Patel recalled.
“Because it proved to be, at least for me, quite a heavy moment and quite a turning point for a storyline that had started in the pilot: ‘Hey, I want your crown, and by the end here, I’m gonna put the crown back on your head and I’m gonna help you to your throne’.”
The first seven episodes of House Of The Dragon are available to watch in the UK on the streaming service Now, with new episodes every Monday on Now and Sky Atlantic.
HuffPost may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Prices and availability subject to change.