House of the Dragon director Miguel Sapochnik defends the controversial scene in episode 1(Spoilers below)

The highly anticipated prequel to Game of Thrones began streaming this Sunday and received positive reactions from fans and critics alike.

The episode had all the trademarks of the original which included Violence, Gore, political intrigue, and sex, and like the original, a particular scene in the first episode had stored up some controversy which led to the director speaking in its defense.

The particular scene in question shows King Viserys and Queen Aemma Arryn with the queen about to give birth.

They are then informed by the maester, that there are completion and the child can only be saved if they tear open the queen's womb which would kill her.

What follows is a gore-filled birthing scene that is interspersed with visuals of violence from the celebration tourney being held at the same time.

Many viewers felt the scene was too violent and unpalatable.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reported director Miguel Sapochnik spoke in defence of the scene

"We felt that was an interesting way to explore the fact that for a woman in medieval times, giving birth was violence. It’s as dangerous as it gets. You have a 50/50 chance of making it. Many women didn’t. If given the choice, the father would choose the child over the mother as a cesarean would kill you. It was an extremely violent part of life,”

He went on to add “We have a number of births in the show and basically decided to give them different themes and explore them from different perspectives the same way I did for a bunch of battles on Thrones, where each time I tried to put a different spin on each so it wasn’t just doing the same thing, as I don’t think putting a bunch of violence onscreen for the sake of violence does any good in the world,”

The House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood novel and focuses on the civil war within House Targaryen.

The series is currently streaming on Hotstar.