Of all the deaths in the game of Thrones Pantheon – the beheadings, stabbings, poisonings, drownings, suffocations, skinnings, suicides, burnings, beatings, explosions and zombie attacks – few things top the extremely traumatic, gruesome birth of Aemma Arryn, the wife of King Viserys, in the series premiere of HoDIt is the most realistic of all game of Thrones Death, an unforgettable depiction of the brutality of childbirth. Aemma’s labor becomes complicated and it soon becomes clear that both her life and that of the unborn child are in grave danger. King Viserys, desperately seeking a male heir to secure the Targaryen line, is faced with an agonizing decision when he learns that the only way to save the baby is a risky and primitive Caesarean section that would almost certainly result in Aemma’s death. Torn between his love for his wife and his duty as king, Viserys decides to have the procedure. Needless to say, the gruesome sights and sounds of it all are hard to shake.
Depicted with graphic detail and emotional intensity, Aemma is forcibly restrained while the maester makes the cut without anesthesia. She dies in agony, pleading for her life and grimly aware of the fate that is destined for her. That the baby does not survive is almost beside the point (though it does set off the internal war within House Targaryen). Both Receive And HoD are at least odes to the horrors that people inflict on one another. But hardly anything compares to the brutality that simple life brings with it.
