House of the Dragon: 1.08 - The Lord of the Tides

[ctg]

Six years later. With the Driftmark succession suddenly critical, Rhaenyra attempts to strike a bargain with Rhaenys.

IMDB score: 9.5 Runtime: 67 minutes

 

[svalbard]

Tremendous episode.

Poor Viserys. I really felt his pain. Paddy has been brilliant in the role

Aemond and Daemon. It is going to be titanic.

Aegon is a terrible person.

There will be blood spilt.

 

[ctg]

Oh man, I had a sneaking suspicion that the Hand might make it to the throne. It all fits the picture, but is he a device or did he do it all on his own will?

The title had changed again, with more crests getting covered in blood.

It has been six years since the drama in the SeaSnake courtroom. Another timejump as Svalbard suggested. Six more years for the Old Kind to stay and wither. It surprised me that Lord Corlys went to fight the pirates and got almost killed in action, "In the fighting, his neck was slashed by corsair's dagger. He went overboard. But the Maester says he's burning from within..."

Infection, that tiny thing, can take the mightiest of men down, no questions asked. If the Old King can be still kicking around, even though we condemned him to death three episodes ago, Lord Corlys is going to be around for a while. Maybe.

The bigger problem was that if he's taken by the fever, then the Driftmark throne is in the hands of Lord Corlys brother. Funny thing was the big man was on his way when the brother made the claim. I wonder if he has an agent that can snuff Lord Corlys' life?

It was good to see Rhae and boys doing well in the Dragonstone. Even the dragon had hatched three eggs. I know that they referenced two episodes ago that not all the eggs will hatch, but even one out of three is a big deal, when there are no other air power. Not even griffons.

I couldn't get why Lord Corlys' being on deathbed means that Rhae's sons parenthood is going to be questioned. I just don't get it, when Mrs Hightower has a red hair, and she produced blond hairs. It also makes me wonder would a salon enterprise offering platinum blond bleaching solutions would make a bank in the Westeros?

If the blond hair is the key and not the ability to command dragons, then I believe that anyone with a blond hair could claim all sorts of things. Whether it causes anything is to be determined. Besides the point, they had managed to make her pregnant, so a totally blond one could be the key to everything. Except the problem was Hightowers and their claim on the throne.

What does it take? The Old King looks and pretty much sounds like a zombie in this shot. If I had not heard that groaning, I'd have claimed that he's already dead. He could barely meet the little ones, which there was more than I expected, as all of suddenly Aegon and Vizerys were presented, along with the third one waiting.

Six kids is a big family, plus they have some dragons. Yet, the Old King couldn't handle them, nor the successor business for the SeaSnake throne.

When the Queen finally arrived to greet the pair, all she could claim was, "The King's condition has worsened since you last saw him. It subjects him to a considerable pain. And on the advice of the maesters--"

"Ah, the maesters," Rhae cut in. "Of course. It is they who keep him..."

Man, at that moment, I remembered the Undead Mountain from the end of GoT. The Maester's could've probably extended his life unnaturally for several thousands of years, if you ask me. We've seen them turning a perfectly dead Mountain to undead one, with their elixirs.

When the heraldry for the SeaSnake throne were questioned, the Queen flipped flopped and claimed that the decision was to be done by her, and the Hand, the daddy-o. Oh, that is so convenient...

The Queen and the servants. "I brought her here immediately, ma'am," the other one claimed. It took me a while to get that one of Queen's boy had turned bad and raped the poor girl. All she could offer was a hug and a shush. By the looks on her face, it wasn't the first time that had happened. Since it is a skeleton in her closet, I wondered if she was going to send the servant girl to be executed or do something else?

It turned out to be the latter, silencing her and making the servant girl word to stand against the prince. That whole thing made me feel sick. For her silence, she got Maester's tea and a bag of gold. Then they revealed that the Prince was Aegon.

The prince couldn't get up from the bed, he even snorted at the mention of the servant girl's name, Dyana. All she could do at the end was to give a slap and claim, "You're not my son."

The claim and the problem. I could not believe how big problem passing of Lord Corlys would be at the end. To be honest, they were playing it like it was the biggest geopolitical problem in the Seven Kingdoms and whatever the King had claimed, didn't count because the blood had been spilled.

Rhae made a nice offer to the Queen of Driftmark to keep silence on the parenthood, but it wasn't enough. The grandma wanted a revenge for her son. If only the Sausage Prince would send a postcard from Essos to let her know that he was alive...

I hated, but I also loved that the Old King interrupted the Court proceedings on the title. He looked like a proper lich when he arrived at the throne room. It was also the second time, when Rhae didn't get to speak in the course of this season. Nobody offered the Old King help as he arrived to the steps and told the Hand, "I will sit on the throne today."

Respect, both the Old King for saying no to poppy and Daemon for not listening the commanded and helping Viz on his seat. I know from my personal experience how patients can put up one good day, and be the King for the day to keep up with the business. Viz has put up with the death for sixteen years, before he started to look like one.

When his crown fell on the steps, I thought it was a symbolic gesture of his one last will. The final act of the Old King. The matter seemed declared cleared very quickly, as Viz announced, "I hereby reaffirm Prince Lucerys of the House Velaryon as heir to Driftmark..." before Ser Vaemond intervened with his own agenda.

"You break law and centuries of tradition by installing your daughter as the heir," he growled. "Yet you dare to tell me who deserves to inherit the name of Velaryon. No. I will not allow it."

"'Allow it? Do not forget yourself, Vaemond."

He spun around and pointed at Rhae's son, white skinned and going paler. "THAT is no true Velaryon, and certainly no nephew of mine!" Well, that I do agree, and finally I understood the blood claim, except it's not if you go down to the science level.

Ser Vaemond continued defending his claim, when Viz said that Lucerys was his true-born nephew as he hissed, "You... may run your house as you see fit... but you will not decide the future of mine. My house survived the doom. And a thousand tribulations on the side. Gods be damned, I will not see it ended on the account of this--" He waited before he yelled, "Her children are BASTARDS!1!"

Science says no. Also, to the whore claim.

The Old King stood up and pulled out his knife, "I'll have your tongue for that..." then Daemon lopped his head off. Man, Best scene, ever. LOL.

The Last Supper, GoT style. There's Old King and twelve other people around the table. I applauded that the Royal Guards had managed to turn his head around and allow them to carry him in, instead him dragging his feet.

Viz stood up with a great effort and said, "It both gladdens my heart and fills me with sorrow to see these faces around the table. The faces most dear to me in all the world, yet grown so distant from each other, in the years past."

Then he removed his mask, showing an empty eye socket, fit for any lich king. He would make a perfect example, except he doesn't have any magic, cannot even command a dragon. "My face, no longer a handsome one, if indeed it ever was. But tonight I wish you to see me... as I am. Not just a king but your father. Your brother. Your husband and your grandsire. Who may not, it seems, walk for much longer among you."

Let us no longer hold ill feelings in our hearts. The crown cannot stand strong, if the House of the Dragon remains divided. But set aside your grievances. If not for the sake of the crown, then for the sake of this old man..."

Rhae was the first one to offer the olive branch to the Queen. To my surprise the Queen accepted and yielded her claim. Lucerys was next one to mend the relationship between the families. Am I watching GoT?

Thank God Aemond brought back the tradition by bashing heads, and spilling blood, with a grin on his face. I also loved that Rhea's reaction was to take kids back to home and then return on dragonback. As it should have been done in the first place!

What was the King's last wish to the Queen?

--

9/10 Beautiful episode

 

[svalbard]

I think he thought he was speaking to Rhaenyra. Alicent might take it that he named Aegon the heir. Which will set it all off.

 

[ctg]

I think he thought he was speaking to Rhaenyra. Alicent might take it that he named Aegon the heir. Which will set it all off.

You mean the blood-letting at the aftermath of King's passing? I kind of expect that from the GoT at this point. Seeing a pacifist route would totally surprise me.

 

[therapist]

Doesn't look like Golem/Two-face will survive too many more time jumps.

 

[ctg]

Queen Alicent having no knowledge of the Targaryen prophecy passed down from royal heir to heir, didn’t understand Viserys when he – thinking he was talking to Rhaenyra – said that yes, he believed Aegon’s song was true and yes, she would be the one to unite the kingdoms against the coming darkness. “The prince that was promised, it is you, you are the one, you must do this,” he said to Alicent. She appeared to grasp only the words “Aegon”, “Prince” and “You must do this”, and interpreted them to mean that Viserys wanted their child Aegon (a wastrel rapist she’d earlier called no son of hers) to inherit the Iron Throne instead of his sworn heir, Rhaenyra.

“I understand, my King,” said Alicent, when she absolutely did not. Now, through no fault of her own (the TV series clears Alicent’s name in a way that Fire & Blood‘s ‘she poisoned him’ rumors don’t), Queen Alicent wrongly believes that King Viserys’ dying wish was that Prince Aegon be crowned Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. Viserys’ real dying wish, of course, was for Princess Rhaenyra to take the throne. It’s quite the mess, and extremely regrettable after Viserys made such a sterling effort to unite his clan and inspire them to forget the quarrels of their past.

For the romantics among us, Viserys’ final last words had nothing to do with any variety of Aegon, prophecy or throne. As the screen went to black and he took his last breath, we heard him say simply “My love”, as if in greeting. Who would he address as such? His first wife Queen Aemma, surely, in the Game of Thrones afterlife.

That’s all very well for Viserys, who is finally out of his misery, but the situation he’s left behind is an untenable one. The newly repaired bonds between Alicent and Rhaenyra will surely not stay fast when the Queen attempts to follow what she believes were the King’s instructions and install their son on the Iron Throne instead of his daughter.

House of the Dragon: Why Alicent Misinterpreting Viserys' Words Spells Doom for the Targaryens

The Targaryens really shouldn’t name all their kids Aegon.

www.denofgeek.com

 

[Judderman]

King Viserys can last a couple more episodes yet.

 

[ctg]

King Viserys can last a couple more episodes yet.

If he turns to a zombie or preferably to a lich king.

 

[SilentRoamer]

This episode was fantastic. This season - I honestly didn't have massive expectations, but it has surpassed them in every way.

You know a show is fantastic when 90% of the episode is just people talking and is just straight up character development. It just feels so realistic, like these are real people in a real situation (minus the Dragons).

This is night and day compared to RoP which has been very underwhelming.

 

[ctg]

Let’s talk about the dragon-winged elephant in the room now. The coming Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons is King Viserys’s real legacy. Whether it’s the ruler’s fault or not, history is not a big fan of commanders-in-chief who were unable to avoid civil conflict. James Buchanan, the U.S. President who preceded Abraham Lincoln (America’s Jaehaerys), frequently finds himself on “Worst U.S. Presidents of All Time” lists largely because of his inability to slow down the march to the American Civil War.

According to the fictional maesters writing the fictional history of Fire & Blood, King Viserys did very little to stop the conflict between his wife Queen Alicent and his daughter Princess Rhaenyra. House of the Dragon offers up a much kinder interpretation and in episode 8 we see the sickly king make one final Hail Mary to stop the incoming war…and he almost succeeds before Aemond and milk of the poppy have other ideas.

Still, regardless of how sincere of an attempt he made to avoid it, King Viserys’s actions directly led to one of the bloodiest conflicts ever in Westerosi history – and one that forever impeded the power and influence of House Taragrayen. The house of the dragon was at its height under Jaehaerys Targaryen and it began its slow descent under Viserys. That fact cannot be avoided or mitigated in any way when addressing his legacy.

Viserys was not the worst Targaryen king by a long shot. In fact, so many Targaryen kings run the gamut from “meh” to “breathtakingly, apocalyptically awful” that he may actually sneak into the top half on the list of 17 kings. He was also seemingly a good man, which at least counts for something in this terrifying amoral fantasy universe. But neither of those two facts make him a good king.

Viserys I Targaryen was a bad king. An unlucky king mayhaps, but a bad king all the same.

House of the Dragon: Viserys Was Not a Good King

How will Viserys I Targaryen be remembered by Westeros? After the Dance of the Dragons, he'll be lucky to remembered at all.

www.denofgeek.com

 

[REBerg]

What does it take? The Old King looks and pretty much sounds like a zombie in this shot. If I had not heard that groaning, I'd have claimed that he's already dead.

I wonder what the pitch was when they offered Considine the role. "You'll be the doomed King Viserys. You'll be dying, one piece at a time, over the course of several decades. You'll get a nice blond wig. You in?"

Fortunately for the less than hale and hearty king, Daemon had a Will Smith moment when Vaemond bad-mouthed his niece/wife. It would have been interesting to see how the tottering Viserys would carry out his tongue-removing threat had Daemon not lopped off most of Vaemond's head with a quick sword swipe.

Just another fun moment at a Valyrian social gathering.

 

[SilentRoamer]

I cant help but like Aemond - the casting of him as a youth and now as a young man is fantastic. His mentality, the half smirk and the way he sits completely still, like a cat amongst the mice - exactly like Daemon.

I think we can see where the epic fight scenes are going to come into things.

I am just surprised how well a story spanning decades has been told - honestly this is by far the best thing I am watching at the moment.

"Do not mourn me mother, it was a fair exchange. I may have lost an eye, but I gained a dragon"

 

[Judderman]

I notice on GRRM's recent blog ("not a blog") as well as extolling Paddy Considine (King Viserys's) acting he also mentions he believes it would take 4 seasons of 10 episodes to do justice to the Dance of Dragons story. That seems a good amount to me as often shows decline after some seasons.