House of the Dragon trailer breakdown: Episode 8, “The Lord of the Tides”

The leper king laid low

Now it’s time to get our first and only glimpse of King Viserys of the trailer. As lightning flashes outside a window, Rhaenyra (presumably) approaches the king’s bed. This shot is pretty dark, but between the lightning flashes you can just make out that it’s Viserys in the bed…and that half of his face is covered in a bandages, hiding his right eye.

I don’t know for sure whether Viserys is going to die in this episode, but it looks pretty damn likely. At the very least, he’s bedridden enough that Otto and Alicent are taking over control of King’s Landing. And there’s a kind of poetic justice to the fact that his ineffectual rule led to Aemond getting his eye cut out, and now Viserys’ own eye is being eaten away by his disease.

I’m anticipating these final days of King Viserys I Targaryen will have some pretty gross practical effects and make-up. Here’s someone picking up a surgical tool:

A matter of succession

From there, we get our first hints about the other family drama that will be occurring in “The Lord of the Tides.” The episode draws its name from an ancestral title reserved for the Velaryon lord of Driftmark; as the camera lingers on Rhaenys, we hear Daemon’s voice say that Corlys Velaryon has taken a wound in the Stepstones.

Corlys’ brother Vaemond looks pretty pleased about that. Perhaps because it gets him one step closer to the Driftwood Throne:

From there, we’re off to the training yard in King’s Landing, where Criston Cole is attacking Aemond Targaryen with his signature morning star:

Say what you will about Criston, he’s a fierce fighter. Aemond will have spent more than half a decade under his tutelage since Episode 7. Aemond One-Eye catches Ser Criston’s blow, but it shatters a piece clean off of his shield:

Next, Rhaenys sits on the Driftwood Throne, hearing out a petition from her brother-in-law Vaemond:

Vaemond asks outright who will sit the Driftwood Throne should Corlys die. During Episode 7, you might recall that Vaemond got in a not-so-subtle dig at Rhaenyra’s children for being bastards during Laena Velaryon’s funeral. No doubt we’ll see that spill into this episode, since Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys is still slated to be the heir to Driftmark.

Now, back to King’s Landing, and all those whacky Targaryens: