House Of The Dragon Episode Eight Review - 8 Ups & 2 Downs

10. Down - The Sea Snake's off-screen troubles

While The Lord of the Tides wastes no time in establishing Corlys Velaryon's current predicament, the argument is there to be made that a brief scene pertaining to the events that led to the Sea Snake's life threatening condition would have served the episode well.

A huge amount of changes occurred off-screen during the time jump, so many in fact, that even seasoned readers of Martin's works have a hard time keeping up with every minor development in House of the Dragon's sprawling story. The Lord of Driftmark has been billed as a member of the main cast and a central figure within proceedings; it seems bizarre that the storyline of the titular character of the episode is relegated to an off-screen depiction.

Of course, the counter argument to be made is that The Lord of the Tides was House of the Dragon's joint longest episode to date and setting up the backdrop of the latest conflict with the Triarchy - let alone how Corlys was wounded - would have eaten into the already jam-packed episode time. With that being said, it is difficult to see how a short scene bringing events behind Corlys' injuries to life would have taken away from the quality of an already superb episode.