When Will King Viserys Targaryen Die on House of the Dragon?

From the series premiere of Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon, fans have known that King Viserys I (Paddy Considine) was suffering from a mysterious illness and that his days were already numbered. With each subsequent episode, Viserys appears to only be getting worse, as each chapter in the series sees fans speculating about when his time will actually come. Despite one episode hinting that the time had finally come for Viserys, the patriarch's reign continued, leaving fans to wonder if the king could potentially make it to the end of the season or if the show is delaying the inevitable. 

However, the end of House of the Dragon Episode 5 made it look like King Viserys' clock had run out, as he collapsed on the floor at Princess Rhaenyra's wedding with blood leaking from his mouth. However, the trailer for House of the Dragon Episode 6 clearly shows that not only did Viserys survive his downward turn in health – he's still up and around years later, after the show's big upcoming time jump. 

When is King Viserys I going to die in House of the Dragon?

The trick of House of the Dragon is that we already know how the overarching series of events will play out – the devil is in all the smaller details and reveals we don't know along the way. In that sense, there is some educated guesswork we can do for how much of the timeline House of the Dragon will cover in Season 1. 

The long-short of all that timeline math is a simple conclusion: House of the Dragon will likely end Season 1 on the cliffhanger of setting up the major conflict in this era of time: The Dance of Dragons. Game of Thrones referenced it many times (mostly in relation to Daenerys Targaryen's story): it is a Targaryen Civil War that begins over the right of succession to none other than King Viserys I. 

So there it is: before the main event in House of the Dragon can begin, King Viserys I has to die. 

Theory: King Viserys' death will be the House of the Dragon season finale

Going with the theory that Season 1 will end by setting up the Dance of Dragons conflict, the best guess is that King Viserys I will die in either the penultimate episode (Episode 9) or the season finale (Episode 10). The fact that House of the Dragon's finale episode is titled "The Black Queen" is a pretty solid indicator that there will be funeral dresses coming out.

The midseason episode (Episode 5 "We Light the Way") was also an impressive "event" episode, which used the premise of a wedding celebration as a venue for all kinds of intense character conflicts. It would be good symmetry to end the season with a funeral for a king, in which all the simmering ambitions and conflicts we've been seeing all season, finally boil over into an all-out war. 

House of the Dragon airs new episodes Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.