What happens in episode eight, Lord of the Tides?
WARNING: Spoilers for Lord of the Tides ahead.
Jumping forward a further six years, the Stepstones is still a location of war, with Lord Corlys wounded in the latest battle, prompting his brother, Ser Vaemond Velaryon, to make pleas to name him his brother’s heir to take over Driftmark.
Rhaenyra and Daemon are forced to return to the capital as rumours continue to circulate about the lineage of her children.
King Viserys is now a shadow of his former self, leaving Queen Alicent and Otto Hightower practically in full control of royal matters and the Kingdom.
As her children become teenagers, Alicent is forced to deal with son Aegon’s ill behaviour.
Knowing her father is soon to die, Princess Rhaenyra begins to rally her allies as she prepares to fight for her claim to the throne.
Ser Vaemond’s brazen accusations against Rhaenyra go public and turn bloody in court as the realm begins to divide between the two heirs.
This later spills over to family dinner as a teenage Aemond incites a fight.
As Viserys finally draws his last breath, his confused state leaves him muttering his final words to Alicent – who takes them completely the wrong way.
Meet the new cast
With another significant time jump, the children of the show are once again recast as they reach an adult age.
The new cast members are:
- Harry Collett (Dunkirk, Dolittle) as Prince Jacaerys "Jace" Velaryon
- Tom Glynn-Carney (The Last Post, SAS: Rogue Heroes) as Prince Aegon Targaryen
- Ewan Mitchell (Saltburn, The Last Kingdom) as Prince Aemond Targaryen
- Phia Saban (The Last Kingdom) as Princess / Queen Helaena Targaryen
- Bethany Antonia (Stay Close, Nolly) as Lady Baela Targaryen
- Newcomer Phoebe Campbell as Lady Rhaena Targaryen
Showrunner Ryan Condal explained: “The episode six time jump was to introduce Alicent and Rhaenyra's children as young adults, and then this time jump is to make those young adults, adults.
“So it's important to age them up again and recast again to get them up to the appropriate age. So they're all in the 17 to 21 age range across the span of both families.”
Who is Vaemond Velaryon?
Ser Vaemond is the younger brother of Ser Corlys Velaryon, and in many ways has lived in his brother’s shadow most of his life.
Corlys is a highly celebrated seafarer, nicknamed the Sea Snake and Lord of the Tides, while Vaemond has never quite been so accomplished.
So when Corlys is injured in battle at the Stepstones, and seems like he could die, he’s quick to petition to take his place as ruler of Driftmark.
As Corlys’ son Laenor is seemingly dead, the next in line with be Lucerys Targaryen, Laenor and Rhaenyra’s son – although it is widely regarded Lucerys is actually a bastard born of an affair with Rhaenyra’s lover Ser Harwin Strong.
With this in mind, Ser Vaemond doesn’t believe it is Lucerys’ birthright to take Driftmark.
He’s so desperate to take Driftmark, he’s willing to publicly address the elephant in the room.
Executive producer Miguel Sapochnik explained: “Vaemond's one of those guys who's not particularly likeable, but he always tells the truth and he can't help any construct himself. For that reason, he's never really got very far in life.
“And yet, suddenly, in episode eight, he finds himself possibly in line to inherit the Driftmark throne. He also walks right into the midst of the contentious issue of Rhaenyra's children and their real father. Because he's kind of a ‘do-right guy’ and wants to always tell the truth, he misses just how strongly and heavily everybody feels about this.”
Wil Johnson, who plays Vaemond added: “He knows that those children are not Velaryon. They're white. They've got brown hair. Very obvious, and everyone knows it. It's the pink elephant in the corner that nobody wants to talk about. But Vaemond is the one person who will talk about it and who will speak out about it.”
“This is something he's been holding on to for like 16 years. And when the petition goes completely sideways for him, he knows he's gonna fall on his sword, but I want to fall on my sword my way, and my way is to tell the absolute truth so even if nothing is done about it, everybody in this room will know.”
Addressing the boys as bastards in the face of King Viserys, Prince Daemon, and Princess Rhaenyra, Vaemond pays for the indiscretion with his life.
Daemon swiftly beheads him, mockingly adding ‘he can keep his tongue’.
Alicent’s newfound religion explained
Showrunner Ryan Condal said: “We know that Alison holds closely to the new religion of the Seven Gods, which is not something that Targaryen's do. It's part of what sets her apart from the house that she married into.”
The Faith of the Seven is Westeros’ most prominent religion and over 6,000 years old.
Prior to the Targaryens ruling the Seven Kingdoms, the Faith were also essentially the law and order of Westeros, and were permitted to pass judgement and dispense the justice they saw fit to everyone in the land.
When this ability was removed from them, the collective remained in practice, and became more corrupt as they tried to regain their power.
As part of Alicent’s involvement in the religion, King’s Landing is deemed by Condal as a much more ‘quiet and conservative place’ than when we first saw it back in episode one.
She’s also added emblems of the religion around the palace grounds.
In doing so, it’s suggested that she thinks she’s taken on a righteous path in comparison to Rhaenyra.
The end of King Viserys
After holding on to his life for nearly two decades of illness, King Viserys breathes his last – but his pacifist nature causes problems right up to the moment he dies.
Emma D’Arcy, who plays Rhaenyra, explained: “One of the issues with his leadership through the series is a refusal to step up and intervene, to speak with clarity and to lay down the law and to stand by choices that he makes.”
Condal added: “This is a guy who was unwilling to make enemies of one side to do what was right. So a lot of things in his life went unsaid because he was trying to always tamp down aggressions. And it leads to this final moment where his final message is unclear.
“He's very ill. He was in a lot of pain. They put him on medication, and he wakes up in the middle of the night trying to have this unfinished conversation that he had with Rhaenyra, not realising that the woman sitting in his side is not an arrow, but Alicent.”
“So he speaks to her as if she's Rhaenyra, and Alicent picks out words like 'Aegon' and 'prince who was promised' and 'prophecy' and whatever, and doesn't understand all the context going back into it because she never heard The Song of Ice and Fire, because she was never there.”
On his character’s true motivations, Paddy Considine, who played King Viserys added: “I don't think he ever wanted to be king. It's a burden. He's just doing a duty. He was too human to be King.”
“When he takes his last breath, he maybe feels like he's done all can and he's put his ass right. He did his best.
“In some respects, he wasn't the right man for the job. But in the history, he kind of was the right man for the job, you know, 200 years later. So he does have a legacy.”