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The first sound inepisode sixofHouse of the Dragonis a faint, panting sort of moan.
Even before theres an image onscreen, the episodebegins with noises made by a woman in pain.
The moaning, we learn, is coming from Rhaenyra Targaryen, whos giving birth to her third child.
Shes slick with sweat; her eyes are closed.
She grimaces as she totters up the stairs and leaves a trail of blood in her path.
Its excruciating to watch her hobbling through the court, waving off well-wishers and curious onlookers.
The scene is upsetting, but by this point inHouse of the Dragons run, its not surprising.
The doctors tell Daemon Targaryen theyve run out of ways to help his wife Laenas labor progress.
Frantic, desperate, exhausted, Laena staggers outside and begs her dragon to burn her to death.
Its awful, and yet it manages to dump the low, low bar set by Aemmas birth.
At least Laena chose her own violent death before someone else could do it for her.
There is, sort of, a feminist argument for these appalling scenes.
It was an extremely violent part of life.
Its time to be honest about the nightmarish outcomes for pregnant people, that argument goes.
Show what peoplereallygo through when they labor and sweat.
That will be proof of how worthy and strong these women are.
After all, arent theysuffering?
Isnt their suffering noble?
The idea was never that this one scene should encompass the entire experience of childbirth, after all.
We have a number of births in the show, Sapochnik toldTHR.
Still, its Rhaenyras third child; I wonder what her previous two births were like.
By horrible childbirth No.
3,House of the Dragonseems so proud of itself.
Finally, fantasy stories are shining a light on how hard it is to bear children!
Rather, how hard it was to bear children in the medieval period.
The repetition starts to feel smug:This trauma was constant and pointing that out is important work.
The child bed is our battlefield, Aemma says in the first episode, before dying in that bed.
Apparently, she didnt fight hard enough to win the battle.
