‘House Of The Dragon’ Viewers’ Jaws Literally Dropped At One Character’s Changed Appearance In ‘Lord Of The Tides’

(House of the Dragon spoilers will be found below.)

“Lord of the Tides” picks up six years after we last saw the House of the Dragon characters, and let’s just say that this week’s events did not follow the steamy, HotD tone that frequently appears on this Game of Thrones prequel. Instead, we pick up with Rhaenyra and Daemon having enjoyed a period of peace and bliss at Dragonstone. Whereas at King’s Landing, the very sad monarch has physically declined to the point where he looks — to be perfectly blunt — like a zombie. His health has never been optimal, and that’s left people guessing about why Viserys has so many ailments.

Targaryens are neither fireproof nor invincible, but they are thought to be resistant to illness. Clearly, King Viserys I is an exception to that trend. We’ve seen him dunking his hands into maggots, losing digits, and oozing from random sores. He’s essentially been rotting away, and there’s no telling whether the Iron Throne is actually making him sick (thereby rejecting him as a leader) or whether Otto Hightower has been a poison-happy bloke. Speaking of which, yeah, there was some curious stuff going on in this episode. We’ll get to that soon, but for the moment, let’s observe how people were taken aback after seeing how much Viserys’ health went downhill.

This is not happening, although the spirit is appreciated.

— AintItJay TV (@AintitjayTV) October 10, 2022

When Rhaenyra enters her father’s bedroom, the poor guy has got half of his face covered (and we find out why later). He’s emaciated, his teeth are rotting away, and he’s both disoriented and in severe pain. Even after what we’ve already seen from Viserys’ appearance, the drastic change hit people hard. Jaws began dropping.