Aemma Arryn
Viserys's first queen, an Arryn of the Eyrie with Targaryen blood of her own ÔÇö wed at eleven, worn out by the cradle and the crypt in equal measure.
A soul of House Arryn, born at The Eyrie.
The fuller tale
Season One
At the heir's tourney, Daemon fights like the war the realm hasn't had in a lifetime ÔÇö while Queen Aemma dies in the birthing bed, and baby Baelon a day after her. In Pentos, Laena Velaryon's second labor goes the way of Aemma's ÔÇö she walks to Vhagar instead and commands her own pyre: 'Dracarys.'
Where they stand. King's Landing.
How it ends for them
On the screen. Died in the birthing bed (S1┬ÀE1)
The maesters gave Viserys the choice no husband should hold: the mother or the child. They cut her open on the birthing bed to free a son who lived a day, and she died knowing what was happening and why. The king carried the choosing to his own deathbed.
On the page. Died in the birthing bed (F&B, ch. 1)
Fire & Blood records the queen's death in childbed in 105 AC, delivered of the son Viserys had prayed for. Baelon lived a day; Aemma did not see it end. The court mourned; the succession question, quietly, began.
In the show, Aemma's labor turns fatal and Viserys, presented with his maester's grim choice, authorizes a procedure to save the child rather than the mother. She dies aware of what is being done to her and why; the son bought at that price, Baelon, survives her by only a few hours.
Fire & Blood records the same childbed death in 105 AC in flatter historical terms ÔÇö Aemma dies delivering the son Viserys had prayed for, and the boy does not outlive the day. The court mourns formally and moves on; the succession question the death quietly opens does not surface fully for two more years.
Their chapters, book by book
Fire & Blood ÔÇö The Dance of the Dragons 1 chapter that name them
Where the page and the screen part
Both tellings agree on the essential cruelty of Aemma's final labor and its aftermath; the show dramatizes the birthing chamber scene directly and at length, with Viserys forced to choose between his wife's life and his hoped-for son's in real time. Fire & Blood records the same event more clinically, as history rather than scene, but the outcome and its consequence ÔÇö a grieving king who, soon after, names his daughter his heir ÔÇö are identical in both versions.
Their journey
Where the two tellings send them to the same place the road runs whole; where they part, the screen keeps the left and the books the right.