Some fans found the ‘graphic’ birth scene ‘unnecessary’ (Picture: HBO)
Warning: spoilers ahead for the House of the Dragon episode 10 finale, and content warning for mentions of baby loss.
House of the Dragon season 1 has finally come to an end, with the episode 10 finale boasting bloodshed and tragedy aplenty.
In the final episode – which has aired after season 2 of the Game of Thrones prequel series was already confirmed – Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) finds out that not only as her father died, but her half-brother Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) has been crowned the new King, despite her previously being named the heir to the Iron Throne.
Rhaenyra goes into labour prematurely, before delivering a stillborn baby in what has been described as a ‘traumatic’ birth scene – one of several featured throughout the show.
In the very first episode of the fantasy drama, Rhaenyra’s mother Queen Aemma (Sian Brooke) was forced to undergo a C-section against her wishes, resulting in her bleeding to death in a horrifying turn of events.
After a time jump mid-series, Rhaenyra was shown giving birth to her third child, while Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), who was married to Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), chose to burn to death rather than die during childbirth when the maester was unable to deliver her child.
Having witnessed several bloody birth scenes throughout the season, viewers were left feeling ‘traumatised’ by the latest, which saw Rhaenyra deliver her stillborn baby herself, before cradling the child’s body in her arms.
The finale starts and ends with Rhaenyra suffering losses (Picture: HBO)
She later wraps up the baby herself, before the body is cremated as part of the tradition of Targaryen burials.
At the start of the episode on Sky Atlantic, it came with a warning which stated: ‘The following programme contains strong language and scenes which some viewers may find distressing.’
However, several people have called out the fact that the episode didn’t feature a warning pertaining specifically to a harrowing birth scene, while also criticising the need for the moment to be so graphic on screen.
‘And I thought Rhaenyra’s first birth scene was rough, this was on a whole other level,’ one person tweeted.
‘One thing this show will always do is show you an unnecessarily graphic birth scene,’ someone else said, while another wrote: ‘Verrrry much over all these traumatic birth scenes.’
One viewer wrote that after the ‘disturbing’ birth scenes that had been featured on the show, this latest one was ‘too much’ for them.
‘That birth scene needed a “viewers discretion advised” / trigger warning,’ another stated, as someone else remarked: ‘That birth scene should NOT have been so graphic. It was unnecessary. There should’ve been a specific trigger warning.’
In a behind-the-scenes video, Emma explained how ‘different’ the birth scene in episode 10 was to the one in episode six, stating that there’s a ‘deep sense of injustice’ over Rhaenyra going into labour after discovering the betrayal that’s occurred over the Iron Throne in King’s Landing.
‘The thing that she had always fought so hard against about being the mother, the feted mother, is exactly where she finds herself at the point where the most important conversations of her life are happening,’ the actor said.
The episode’s director Greg Yaitanes added: ‘She’s at war with herself, with her own body. There’s a lot of emotional complexity in terms of this war that’s starting without her and it’s tearing her apart, literally tearing her apart.’
House of the Dragon is available to watch on Sky Atlantic and NOW.
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Some fans found the ‘graphic’ birth scene ‘unnecessary’.
