A blonde man with an eye patch stands behind some soldiers looking serious.

Oh dear. Just when you were kind of, sort of, vaguely hopefully that the Targaryens/Hightowers/Velayrons might be able to get along after all, it looks like all King Viserys’ hard deathbed work was for nothing.

In the trailer above for House of the Dragon episode 9, the King is indeed dead, and Alicent has taken his final delirious words to mean that their son, Aegon, should be the one to succeed him.

From the looks of it this translates to the Hightowers attempting to rush through some quick leadership changes while Rhaenyra is out of town so they can shore up their own claim. It’s only going to end one way.

New House of the Dragon episodes are available every Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.