House of the Dragon's Most Hated Dad: Reddit Fans Cast Their Votes
Fans pitted the worst parents in Westeros's history to determine the most disgusting.
George R. R. Martin is widely known for his tendency to inflict as much suffering as possible on his characters, killing and torturing them to create a believable narrative and shape their story arcs.
The HBO series House of the Dragon is no exception to this rule, as the first season alone saw members of the Targaryen dynasty and the other great houses go through all sorts of trials and tribulations, making fans eager to see what happens to them in subsequent episodes.
So, fans on Reddit decided to hold an unusual poll as a tribute to George R. R. Martin's attempts to create the most obnoxious characters in history.
Fans tried to determine who was the worst father in House of the Dragon – Viserys I Targaryen or Otto Hightower.
Unsurprisingly, Otto won with almost 5,000 votes, while Viserys only got a little over 2,000. Otto Hightower seems to be the undisputed winner of the dubious title of the worst parent in the Seven Kingdoms, but some fans disagree with the poll's results.
Otto is universally hated for forcing his 14-year-old daughter to seduce an old king suffering from sepsis and gangrene and then marry him. And even though the arrangement made Alicent queen, it was Otto who was the real beneficiary, as the marriage made him one of the most powerful men in Westeros.
Viewers hated his guts for this act; thus, the poll results were a foregone conclusion. But was forcing his daughter into the arranged marriage with the king such a cruel act on Otto's part?
Not according to some fans. Many people point out that arranged marriages were the norm for women from powerful houses, so Otto's endeavour to marry his daughter off to the king and make her one of the most powerful women in Westeros could be viewed as noble, even if he also stood to gain from it in no small measure.
The fact that the marriage made Alicent an important member of House Targaryen for good completely redeems Otto's actions in their eyes.
By contrast, Viserys is an absentee father in the worst sense of the word, and his complete inability to take care of his kids in any way, shape or form has caused tremendous suffering to many of them. All his decisions regarding the future of his offspring have been questionable, and some fans argue Otto has at least participated in his daughter's life, whereas Viserys has never been there for his kids at all.