Paddy Considine shocked by fans’ hatred towards Viserys Targaryen in House of the Dragon

King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) from House of the Dragon season one pulled at all our heartstrings in the eighth episode. But while he exited with as much grace as he could in that condition, his introduction didn’t exactly make him a fan favorite.

In episode one of the HBO show, he makes a tough decision to allow the maesters to open up his (already-dying) wife, Aemma, to deliver a possible male heir. And later on, Viserys became known as a king who could not make tough decisions, then he married a teenager and was a pretty absent father figure in his kids’ life (except his daughter Rhaenyra).

there's no way people think viserys calling rhaenyra "my only child" is cute… that man neglected all of his other children, there's nothing cute about it pic.twitter.com/T4Y0KCAaJf

— alicent's doormat (@aemondcommunist) November 29, 2022

But actor Paddy Considine says it came to him as a shock that there are fans who do not like his character. “I was sort of shocked in the first episode or so when people commented that they hated him,” Considine shares with Deadline. “I didn’t understand that. Why would you hate him? I don’t think that fans were used to a character like that in that world, a king who wasn’t corrupted by power or entitlement. I think it was difficult for people to place him because he wasn’t particularly archetypal and he wasn’t what they were expecting from what they’d read in the books, either.”

Is Viserys a character who deserves the hate?

In the world of Game of Thrones and its spinoffs, no one is completely good or bad. It is their complexities that make the show seems so real, despite the dragons. And Viserys is definitely not the best person on the show, but he isn’t villain material, either. His shortcomings deserve the benefit of the doubt because it is very evident that he does not mean intentional harm or malice to his people.

As a whole, Viserys’ impact and Considine’s performance far exceeded anyone’s expectations. George R.R. Martin himself admitted that Paddy’s Viserys was much better than the one he wrote. The author even hopes Considine wins an Emmy. Speaking on Viserys Targaryen, House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal says, “We started with the desire to portray this very complicated character who we always said was a really good man but was not a good king. The reason for that is that he’s actually quite a modern politician. He’s not quick to move. He takes consensus. He finds the middle often.”

Condal continues, “Those aren’t qualities that work in a feudal medieval society. They are things we look for in our contemporary leaders. We were really excited to populate this world with a character like that. There’s a certain weakness seen in that.”

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