House Of The Dragon “The Lord Of The Tides” Review
House Of The Dragon “The Lord Of The Tides” is the eighth episode from the first series of House Of The Dragon. This episode has a six year time leap from episode 7 and all the child actors have now been replaced by the actors who’ll play them for the rest of the time they’re in the show. Lord Of The Tides opens up with an urgent warning that Corlys Velaryon has been injured at sea and will almost certainly die before he makes it back to Driftmark. Rhaenys is left with the option to choose who will sit the Driftmark throne, as youngest son of the heir to the iron throne Luke is the obvious choice but once again the fact that they’re not really Velaryons gives the Greens, orchestrated mainly by Otto Hightower at this point, a chance to call into question his claim, especially seeing as the king is so ill Otto does his duties for him whilst he’s abed dosed up on milk of the poppy. Something that both Rhaenyra and Daemon notice. Rhaenyra tries to make a deal with Rhaenys in regard to her granddaughters and marrying them to Luke and Jace so they will be consort to the princes, if Rhaenys backs Luke’s claim. Vaemond Velaryon oversteps the mark at the hearing and ends up having his head cut in half by Daemon after naming Luke and Jace bastards and Rhaenyra a whore. The episode ends with the Greens and Blacks on seemingly good terms and the scene of the King on his deathbed mumbling nonsense because he thinks Alicent is Rhaenyra, this leaves Alicent confusing things and thinking Viserys is talking about her son Aegon.
Review
This was, without a doubt, the best episode of the season so far. Masterfully paced, directed and written, not a single minute was wasted and not a single character overshadowed or underused. Every minute of this episode was emotional, tender, nerve racking and tense all at the same time. It felt longer than it was because so much was packed into an hours worth of content.
This is how it should be done and this one episode has set the benchmark for what HotD writers should be aiming for from now on.
