House of the Dragon's Softest Moment Everyone Pretends Not to Notice
Westeros can be tender for a change.
Though George R. R. Martin has built his career on dark fantasy full of gruesome deaths, vile intrigue, and deadly action, the legendary author has always been more interested in creating complex personalities than shocking the reader with his books. Every single character populating Westeros behaves like a real person, and even though the world around them is cruel and unforgiving, they too are able to enjoy moments of peace and tenderness.
The Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon largely follows Targaryen clans as they kill each other for a chance to sit on the Iron Throne. However, the power-hungry characters are also human, and the series' first season did show them as vulnerable at times.
Only the most resilient viewers managed to not shed a tear when Rhaenyra and her children, Viserys and Aegon, visited her bedridden and maimed father. The characters were visibly happy to share this brief moment of family connection in the midst of the battle for the Iron Throne, and fans were pleased with how skillfully the actors conveyed those emotions.
'I really love Rhaenyra's face in that scene. She's really just so happy for her son to meet his namesake (and for her dad to meet her youngest boys!) despite how much she's probably feeling in the moment seeing her father's condition,' one fan commented on Reddit.
Viewers also loved the way the young actors reacted to the sight of Paddy Considine in makeup, as it added a lot of realism to the show and proved that even toddlers can act in front of a camera.
'Look, I know they're incest babies, but they're frigging adorable. The way the baby actors reacted to their zombie granddad (the pouting and the crying) was such a realistic moment of the episode, I'm glad the directors didn't cut it,' another fan noted.
All in all, this scene is one of the most wholesome in probably the entire Game of Thrones franchise, and viewers were thankful for this little opportunity to regroup and rest before the intrigue and murder resumed.
Source: Reddit.