Literally — his body and face were crumbling. Viserys' deterioration happened slowly. First, it was a few festering cuts from sitting on the Iron Throne, then it was some missing fingers. After the 10-year time jump in Episode 6, he lost an entire arm.
Viewers see the illness slowly take over Viserys's health as he loses strength and is unable to heal from minor cuts induced from the razor-sharp edges of the Iron Throne. Over time, various extremities are removed from Viserys, including fingers, an entire arm, and one of his eyeballs.
Viserys had a form of leprosy in House of the Dragon.
He's still a young man in there. He's just, unfortunately, got this thing that's taken over his body. It becomes a metaphor for being king, and the stress and strain that it puts on you, and what it does to you physically, what it does to you mentally.”
WHAT DOES VISERYS HAVE? In a recent podcast interview with Entertainment Weekly, Paddy Considine — the actor portraying Viserys — revealed that his character has a kind of leprosy. “He's actually suffering from a form of leprosy. His body is deteriorating, his bones are deteriorating.
Since the beginning of the show, House of the Dragon, King Viserys' health is steadily worsening. He even ends up losing two fingers in a bid to stop what is affecting him from spreading further.
Viserys' deterioration happened slowly. First, it was a few festering cuts from sitting on the Iron Throne, then it was some missing fingers. After the 10-year time jump in Episode 6, he lost an entire arm.
Elsewhere in the episode, the fingers in question appear mangled and partially amputated — a result of Viserys accidentally slicing his hand on the iron throne and letting maggots feast on the wound earlier in the season. At press time, the editing mistake had not yet been corrected on HBO Max.
Leprosy is a slow moving disease
The show has got the speed of the disease correct. King Viserys has lived with leprosy for many decades and the disease has grown very slowly.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, actor Paddy Considine revealed that his character was suffering from a form of leprosy, which would be incurable at the time. The nasty wounds and legions festering on Viserys's back and arms were likely his downfall, especially after it took one of his arms and eyes.
We may not know for certain how the pathogen spreads, but we do know what the pathogen is. Leprosy is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae which, in actuality, isn't all that threatening. Roughly 95 percent of the population has a natural immunity.
"It is you. You are the one. You must do this. You must do this."
The visual and special effects teams collaborated quite a bit to achieve King Viserys's sickly look. For the king's half-missing face, they covered parts of Considine's face with green makeup, which allowed them to edit the areas out in post production to create the illusion of missing skin.
In the HBO television show House of Dragons, King Viserys Targaryen (played by Harry Lloyd) loses his eye in the eighth episode of the series. During a botched mission to gain intelligence from the House of Yronwood, King Viserys is caught in a tangle of ropes and has to cut his left eye in order to free himself.
In 109 AC, Otto was removed as Hand for hounding Viserys to declare Alicent's sons the heirs to the Iron Throne instead of Princess Rhaenyra. Having no place at court anymore, Otto returned to Oldtown.
Daemon Targaryen reveals that Viserys never told him about Aegon's dream in House of the Dragon, confirming Daemon was never going to be his heir. WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for House of the Dragon's season 1 finale!
Whatever disease King Viserys I Targaryen has in House of the Dragon, it's not Greyscale. However, just like the dreaded skin affliction first introduced in Game of Thrones, Viserys' mysterious disease could lead to an early death.
Viserys' Golden Crown
If it was a lead/gold alloy, however, Viserys would have met his horrible end as this would melt at lower temperatures. “Interestingly, I found no historical record of anyone being killed this way, but several people have been killed by having molten gold poured down their throats,” Simmons says.
Ser Otto Hightower served as Hand to Jaehaerys in the king's final years, and Otto continued in the position for King Viserys I Targaryen. Because Otto encouraged Viserys to name as his heirs the children of the king's second wife, Otto's daughter Alicent, he was replaced as Hand by Lord Lyonel Strong.
Viserys Wasn't the Oldest of Men
If the HBO prequel series matches the same timeline as the source material, Viserys was only 52 years old when he died. Despite his appearance in Episode Eight, that is no age to be bedridden and struggling to speak.
In House of the Dragon, Viserys' mask is used to shield his condition from his family and his subjects, just like he shields himself from believing the truth of Rhaenyra's children's father. His mask is also a way to attempt to reclaim his status as king.
As we know, Vhagar is the last surviving dragon of Aegon the Conqueror's Conquest of Westeros. She was ridden by Visenya Targaryen, and, after her first rider's death, she spent 29 years by herself, with no one mounting her.
Turns out, Rhaenyra and Daemon are endgame, meaning they have a sexually tense relationship, eventually hook up, and get married—which is pretty significant from a power play perspective considering (1) they both want the throne and (2) their Targaryen union is almost sure to guarantee that happens—even though Alicent ...
The ring that Viserys kissed was the one Queen Aemma was wearing when she died.
He Doesn't Prepare Rhaenyra For War
Viserys' mistake here is not adequately preparing his daughter for the realities that come with ruling a kingdom. His quest for peace at any cost is of no use to Rhaenyra, who faces an existential war to secure her claim to the throne.
In an effort to stop the infection, the king places his hand in a bowl of maggots and allows the larva to eat the dead tissue; however, the creepy-crawly treatment ultimately fails, and the maesters inform Visery they'll have to amputate his fingers.