Daemon and Viserys’ poignant moment on House Of The Dragon wasn’t scripted
The great sequence, which summed up the relationship between the two characters, happened naturally
Aux News Viserys
[The following contains spoilers for the House Of The Dragon episode “The Lord Of The Tides”]
The most recent episode of HBO’s House Of The Dragon was a lot, with a emotionally complex dinner party and a misunderstood conversation that is going to annoyingly serve as the basis of an entire war, but one of its best moments—arguably one of the best moments in the whole Game Of Thrones HBO franchise—came after Paddy Considine’s King Viserys made his dramatic “I’d like an Emmy, please” entrance during the big debate sequence.
Halfway through the episode, with his body intensely decayed from the disease that his made him age 100 years while his relatives haven’t aged at all, Viserys slowly limps his way to the Iron Throne while everyone looks on in stunned silence. After stumbling on one of the steps up to his pointy chair, his crown falls off and is quickly retrieved by his brother, Daemon (Matt Smith), who has basically been a big dick to Viserys for the whole show. Daemon helps his brother to throne and quietly places the crown back on his head, silently acknowledging both the fact that he’s been a dick for his whole life and that Viserys is a relatively nice guy who doesn’t deserve to be visibly rotting to death.
And, somehow, that wasn’t in the script. Yes, much like Tony Stark’s final line in Avengers: Endgame, this incredibly important bit that sums up an entire character arc and relationship wasn’t planned, which makes us wonder what the heck it is that writers do all day. (As writers, we’re allowed to make that joke.) Considine revealed this fun fact during an interview with Complex, saying it was an accident that his crown fell off during the scene and that Matt Smith just happened to pick it up. They decided to keep the take going, with Considine slumping down into the throne and Smith kneeling down a little to place it on his head, and afterward Considine went to episode director Geeta Vasant Patel and said “that’s the moment” to make sure she got it.
She did, of course, because it’s in the episode, but it still feels a little like finding out that Jack Gleeson came up with the idea to behead Sean Bean on set and didn’t tell anybody until after Ned Stark’s head had been taken off. But if you want to take a more optimistic read, it could be argued that this moment speaks to a looser philosophy that’s going into the making of this show versus what happened with original Game Of Thrones, which got so bogged down in the very specific story it wanted to tell that it started to break some rules and drop some storylines simply to make it work.
Considine notes that “these accidents” can make for “really poignant moments,” and that having “the allowance to do that by the powers that be” can make “the job so much more satisfactory.” Also, it’s not really relevant to this, but Considine compares playing Viserys to Jim Carrey’s Grinch elsewhere in the interview, which is funny (even if he’s talking about getting anxious from having elaborate makeup on all day).
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“ silently acknowledging both the fact that he’s been a dick for his whole life and that Viserys is a relatively nice guy who doesn’t deserve to be visibly rotting to death”
Or using the act of ‘kindness’ to influence a *very* important decision Viserys makes seconds later….
Daemon and Vaemond’s moment wasn’t scripted either. Matt Smith just saw a sword lying around and said why the fuck not?
That is some real dedication to your craft – it takes a truly committed actor to be beheaded for your role.
You know, they give you Dark Sister, and it’s so terribly sharp and fun to swing…I buy this story, because the shot of him coming up beside Considine was a notably awkward shot. It gets broken up by the closeup of Smith looking down at Considine (which, like the actual shot of his hand picking up the crown, had to have been filmed later), but when I first saw it, I was moved by the moment, but my next reaction was, “Couldn’t they have shot that bit better?”
An inspired choice, though Matt Smith has made few friends on set
Bullshit lmao
came after Paddy Considine’s King Viserys made his dramatic “I’d like an Emmy, please” entrance during the big debate sequence.This is the same joke the AVC review made and it was better there. Not off to a good start, Barsanti.Daemon (Matt Smith), who has basically been a big dick to Viserys for the whole show.
What? If there is one thing that they’ve made clear with Daemon from the start, it’s that he loves his brother. He’s been a big dick to Otto, but never to Viserys. this incredibly important bit that sums up an entire character arc and relationship wasn’t planned, which makes us wonder what the heck it is that writers do all day. (As writers, we’re allowed to make that joke.)The fuck you are.
Daemon’s been such a weird combination of deferential and pouty that his attitude, working alongside the time jumps, has been arguably the biggest tension-sapping problem on the show. He comes off as a legitimate wild card in the first episode, but, and I haven’t even read the books here, it’s been obvious since about episode two that the status quo was going to be basically stable, give or take a kid or husband, until the King died. It’s taken eight full episodes to get there, and the time jumps have made that feel even longer.
This is the same joke the AVC review made and it was better there. Not off to a good start, Barsanti.Hey, the best Barsanti is when he’s Ctrl+C-Ctrl+V’ing someone else.Or however you copy text on the iPhones they use to type these articles while in the Starbucks’ shitter.
Well in the first episodes he did disobey some of the King’s orders, he did beat up his messenger in episode 3 as well.
And the “I’d like an Emmy, please” joke doesn’t even make sense. Like, we are supposed to mock the guy for doing a good job? An actor can’t just do some good acting?
Remember when the snark on here was funny and made sense? *sigh*
Yeah, the before times.
It’s Barsanti. He thinks the only way to do a job is as shittily as possible. Hence his output.
(As writers, we’re allowed to make that joke.)First of all, you’re a writer in the same way I’m a painter, in the way that I own a paintbrush and a can of Haymes. Second of all – since you’re not much of a writer – you’re writing this piece under your own name, singular, but you’ve made a reference to writers, plural – that means more than one. Is someone helping you write this?
He’s a writer the way Count Chocula is a vampire
“…but it still feels a little like finding out that Jack Gleeson came up
with the idea to behead Sean Bean on set and didn’t tell anybody until
after Ned Stark’s head had been taken off.”Sean Bean would have preferred this. I hear he thinks decapitation coordinators take the fun and spontaneity out of beheadings.
So… I snickered at first, when Viserys arrived. The heavy music, all this pomp and circumstance for a decrepit old man’s entrance. I hadn’t connected with this character, so I was completely insensitive to the scene. What I will admit is the image of his rotting ass at that throne was striking. Quite a good speech, too. By the end of it, I was won over. For me, this was the first time in the series that I saw a Targaryen living up to his own legend.