Warning: this article includes spoilers for The House of the Dragon up to episode 8 (included).
If you’ve seen the last episode of House of the Dragon, you’ll know that it was full of emotional ups and downs. But one of the best moments of the episode was created entirely by accident.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the emotional scene in which a weakened Viserys is helped to the throne by his brother/brother-in-law estranged, Daemon, was an instantly popular scene with the show’s creators, and it happened by accident during rehearsals.
“When we were shooting that (I think rehearsal on the first day) the crown fell off Paddy’s head and Matt picked it up and we just kept going. [de filmar]”, says the director of La Casa del Dragon, Greeta Patel. “That moment was discovered there.”
The original plan was for Matt Smith’s Daemon to make a toast at the family dinner later in the episode, but the actors and director felt something special in the coronation scene during rehearsal. So the crew shot both Daemon’s speech and the corona scene and decided to cut Daemon’s toast for timing, keeping the shot impromptu.
“I was very grateful that this accident happened, that the crown fell off, because it turned out to be, at least for me, a very heavy moment and a turning point for a plot that had started in the pilot: “Hey, I want your crown but you I’m going to put it back on your head and help you get to your throne.”
House of the Dragon episode 8 was set to be another showdown between the black faction of the series, led by Rhaenyra, and the green faction, led by the Hightower family. But instead, it became the last hurrah for the ailing Viserys, who even in the last few episodes didn’t seem far from Westeros.
But while the tender moment between the brothers would be one of the warmest, most familiar moments in episode 8, it didn’t last, as Viserys’ illness catches up with him at the end of the episode and sets up the civil war we’ve been waiting for in the House. Targaryens.
