Arthdal Chronicles: The Sword of Aramun (2023) Episode 8

Episode 8 of Arthdal Chronicles Season 2 starts with Tanya deciding to entertain the idea of overthrowing the hierarchy and being part of this new world order. Tanya leads Saya to the temple and questions what he’s doing. Well, Saya claims that killing Tagon is the only way now and he’s already struck an alliance with Eunseom in a bid to make things peaceful for the realm. However, he tellingly eyes the sword of Aramun while they talk.

Over at the rebel camp, Karat continues to lounge about but Eunseom sits before him and tries to strike a deal. The man continues to spit in the face of the hospitality he’s being shown, refusing to be part of the Ago Tribe. He claims that everything stinks and everywhere he passes reeks of blood, referencing Eunseom’s perceived war mongering.

Karat claims Eunseom doesn’t owe them anything, given he actually saved them all over at the river so there’s no favour to be made between the Momo and Ago Tribe. He also questions Eunseom’s loyalty.

Eunseom loses his patience and decides to challenge Karat, claiming that he could just order the whole Ago Tribe given he’s on their territory right now. Karat tells him there’s only one person who will do him a favour and that’s not him.

Eunseom concedes and eventually lets Karat leave… but not before giving him a prophetic message. Before the sun sets that day, he’ll be on his knees before him.

Over at the Notsam River, the group are reunited again but Eunseom hands over a trinket from the past, something that helps jog his memory of the past. As a result, he lowers to his knees in the wake of this and agrees to help out. I mean, he could have just done this 15 minutes ago and saved us a lot of hassle!

The Momo Tribe grab ropes and they manage to bring the meteorite out, with help from the tribe. It’s a massive chunk of rock, towering over all their heads. It also seems to be enough to craft a lot of iron weapons and armour for the whole army.

Back in Arthdal, Saya is shocked to see the punishment that Chabol is about to undergo. It’s there to send a message to anyone who speaks ill of the King and his motives, but it’s a barbaric act and doesn’t exactly illicit favourable reactions from everyone. Tagon does check Saya’s arm and notices the same scar from the bandit camp and realizes that it’s actually him.

Tagon claims that he’s just pretending to be crazy, but of course he’s still seeing visions of his father. Tellingly, the King gives the order to release the queen.

Saya feeds back his meeting to the queen and how everyone is uneasy following the execution. Eunseom decides to attack Molabeol Castle and do so in secret, believing it’ll be easier to take down the walls that way. However, Tagon is doing a good job of putting himself down to be honest. He sentences two of his commanders who are questioning his sanity and rule to the same punishment as Chobal.

Tagon is self-destructing, and Saya tells the queen as much. He believes that if Yeonbal and Gitoha die, the Third Corps might join their side.

Well, the executions go ahead and both men are killed. Tagin decides to let their corpses hang for 7 days as a reminder of their insubordination. As their blood runs red, Tagon warns that anyone who tries to take them down will be tried for treason. With the Daeyok Punishments dished out left, right and center, the rest of the troops turn and join Tanya in her crusade.

In the wake of all this drama, Nunbyeol and Chaeeun are reunited at Arthdal. However, it comes in dire circumstances given the number of people who have been killed as of late. This is their last stand though; the proverbial deep breath before everything plunges into chaos.

Meanwhile, Eunseom uses that huge giant meteorite to smash right down into the side of Molabeol Castle. The walls are breached immediately, allowing Eunseom and the others to charge down the hill to take the castle from the surprised soldiers. We don’t see the actual assault though, as this happens off-screen.

Back in Arthdal, Tanya and the rest of the priests prepare for their ritual. As they do, Commander Sodang shows up at the city gates drunk and angry. All of this is a ruse though, given the Queen has archers there to kill the unaware guards.

Saya decides disobey the king’s order and orders for the dead to be brought down. He’s joined by the Third Corps who slaughter the soldiers loyal to Tagon and untie the deceased.

With everything taking place at once, there’s bloodshed all over the place while Tagon is unaware that Nunbyeol is channelling her inner Neanthal powers, contemplating assassinating the King herself. When Tagon asks her about the father, it throws Nunbyeol off her game, especially when he begins humming. The Queen warned that his humming means he’s scheming, and it doesn’t take long for Tagon to turn and confront the servant girl, challenging her motives and what she intends to do next.

Chaeeun notices something is wrong as soldiers march through the streets, as does Tanya while doing her ritual when she notices two of the candles aren’t burning. This means that two people are still alive… but who?

As it turns out, all of this was a ruse by the King, who has duped them all. He feigned the death of the two commanders, while Chojaha never lost an ear, he was just acting as an informant for Tagon. Saya has walked right into this and they’ve got nowhere else to run as the soldiers loyal to Tagon – including both Yeonbal and Gitoha who are actually still alive. It’s a clever ploy from Tagon, who did all this to oust the real usurpers to the crown.

Nunbyeol throws one more trump card her way. She brings up how she’s a Neanthal and slices her hand, smearing blue blood over her mouth. As she does, she launches herself at Tagon, bringing the episode to an end.

The Episode Review

Well that was a very dramatic ending and a clever ploy from Tagon to oust those who would wrong him. This had Game of Thrones vibes all over it and is arguably the best episode of the whole season. The plan looked to be going well until Tagon started humming, and the revelations that followed from there were really well executed.

The latter half of this show looks set to pick up the pace in a big way, although not seeing much of Eunseom off during his campaign to take the castle is a bit of a shame. It would seem like he’s the only one who can save Saya from this predicament, while the queen will almost certainly going to meet a sticky end after all this.

Nunbyeol is the wild card in all of this though and it’ll be interesting to see what ramifications there are for her actions, should she choose to kill Tagon. We’ll have to wait until next week to find out though!