Viserys had a form of leprosy in House of the Dragon. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, actor Paddy Considine (who played Viserys), revealed his character had a form of leprosy. In the podcast he explains, “He is not actually old. He's still a young man in there.
Paddy Considine, who plays Viserys, has recently explained that his character is suffering with leprosy. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly's West of Westeros podcast, he revealed: “He's actually suffering from a form of leprosy. His body is deteriorating, his bones are deteriorating.
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.
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.
After all, it was forged in dragon's fire, and they're magical creatures. It's possible that the Iron Throne is judging those sitting on it in some way, and if it deems them unworthy, it may cut them to remind them of their duty.
On the show's premiere episode, King Viserys cut his fingers while touching the Iron Throne, leading to an infected wound that eventually led to him losing a pair of fingers.
Deamon upsets the king by toasting the death of the nephew who would have impeded Daemon's path to becoming king himself. While rebuking his brother, Viserys cuts his finger on the Iron Throne.
As time goes by, Viserys becomes weaker and has some of his extremities removed to cope with his disease's side effects. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor behind Viserys, Paddy Considine, revealed that his mysterious ailment is actually a form of leprosy.
Viserys, moaning in pain, reaches up into the air above the bed and says, "No more." Then, after the screen has cut to black, we hear him utter his final words: "My love."
We can presume that King Viserys Targaryen lost his eye as a result of his leprosy. The virus has already eaten away at his fingers and arm, and it seems in the last few years of his life, it spread to his face.
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.
Though not confirmed, Viserys' illness has instead been linked to the incestuous Targaryen bloodline. It has been said that the frequent inbreeding has resulted in deformities such as these. Viserys' parents were both siblings, as were his grandparents, making this the more likely explanation.
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.
Viserys' illness has been confirmed by Paddy Considine to be a fictionalized form of leprosy, slowly eating away at his body while he still lives. This illness works as symbolism for Viserys' lack of suitability as Westeros' king, but also for his crumbling family unit.
House of the Dragon: Where did Viserys get leprosy? While he may have leprosy, the origin of his diagnosis likely links back to George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood, teasing the true cause of his ill health: he caught the disease from the Iron Throne, because it rejected him as king.
Viserys' golden mask was more than a creepy new style; it was used to cover his body's rotting away from his leprosy. Viserys' actor, Paddy Considine, confirmed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the king was indeed suffering from leprosy.
His legendary ancestor, King Aegon the Conqueror, had a vision that the world of men would fall, and understood that only his family of Aryan inbreds could save it. Viserys tells his daughter, Princess Rhaenyra, that Aegon “foresaw the end of the world of men.
Rhaenyra's baby died during childbirth.
According to the book Visenya, like Maegor the cruel's children, was born with scaled dragon-like skin and a small tail. Apparently, she was also missing her heart and instead had a hole in her chest.
With no one left to help her, Aegon II demanded his dragon Sunfyre to kill and then consume his older sister right in front of the eyes of her last remaining child and future king, Aegon The Younger.
King Viserys is suffering from a form of leprosy
Considine shed some light on Viserys' condition, explaining that he wasn't suffering from greyscale but a form of leprosy. Here's what the actor said: "He's actually suffering from a form of leprosy.
We know that while the two came close, they never actually did the deed. Daemon, thrown off by his lack of ability to shock Rhaenyra, left her to get drunk and pass out. While Rhaenyra did go on to sleep with Criston Cole — the big problem of the episode — Viserys (Paddy Considine) was made more cautious of Daemon.
Suffering from gout, Viserys is described by Martin as “extremely fat and red of face, and scarce had the strength to mount the steps to the Iron Throne.” After ruling against the cousins, Viserys falls from the throne and cuts his left hand open, down to the bone.
The ring that Viserys kissed was the one Queen Aemma was wearing when she died.
Frankly, Viserys didn't tell Daemon about Aegon's dream because he didn't trust him with it or believe he would give it the dedication it required. It's part of why Viserys never made Daemon his Hand or his heir, as Daemon was far more concerned with personal ambition than his duty to the realm and humanity.
Viserys was a dragonrider who rode Balerion until the dragon died of old age during the reign of Jaehaerys I. Viserys never bonded with another dragon after Balerion's death. In the television adaptation House of the Dragon, Viserys is portrayed by Paddy Considine.