Viserys had a form of leprosy in House of the Dragon. 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.”
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.
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.
Short answer is because the Iron Throne is not designed as a comfortable seat but as a show of power. They also say that the Iron Throne does not accept unworthy rulers. And they always said that Viserys I was a good man but a bad King.
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.
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.
Greyscale does affect the flesh, which is where fans may have drawn the connection between Viserys (Paddy Considine) and the illness, however that is where the similarities end. Unlike Viserys' gangrene-like symptoms, greyscale kills off the flesh by hardening and calcifying the surface of the skin.
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' 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.
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.
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."
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.
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 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.
It's likely that Viserys caught his illness from his throne. We've seen that the Iron Throne keeps cutting Viserys, potentially poisoning his blood. In the book The World of Ice and Fire, it's implied that the blades of the throne, which kept nicking and scratching Viserys, played a role in his death.
While House Of The Dragon episode 4 showed Daemon was able to seduce Rhaenyra by kissing and undressing her, he couldn't fulfill the act due to impotence.
"He loved his brother so deeply and trusted him, even through all the problems that they had, and Viserys never shared it with him. He kept [Daemon] in the dark, and it just it breaks Daemon. Instead of reacting with grief or sadness that you see out of him later, he reacts with rage and he takes it out on Rhaenyra."
Daemon Targaryen: Born in 81 AC, Daemon is supposed to be four years younger than his brother, Viserys, according to the chronology in Fire & Blood. Matt Smith, who portrays Daemon, is 39 years old.
The jagged edges are likely causing cuts that are then becoming infected, possibly leading to a condition (at least in the case of his finger) called "necrotising fasciitis", which the NHS says can lead to black blotches and blisters on the skin and may require "surgery to remove the infected area." It's a condition ...
A theory states that after the prophesied Doom of Valyria, the Greyscale disease originated among those ruined walls. Since the Targaryens have the old blood of Valyria flowing through their veins, it would not be a far stretch to imagine that Matt Smith's Daemon Targaryen is immune to the disease.
All the way back in episode 1, King Viserys passes a family secret onto his daughter Princess Rhaenyra -- a doomsday prophecy telling of the end of men. Let's break down what Viserys says: "Our histories... they tell us that Aegon looked across the Blackwater from Dragonstone, and saw a rich land ripe for the capture.
The ring that Viserys kissed was the one Queen Aemma was wearing when she died.
First of all, Fire didn't kill Viserys. Rather, it was the molten gold that Drogo had poured on his skull after demanding a crown. Secondly, on the “immunity to fire”, Targaryens are not immune to fire, but they have a high tolerance of heat. This is both emphasized and implied in the books.
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.