Warning! Spoilers ahead for House of the Dragon season 2, episode 1, and Fire & Blood.
Summary
- George R. R. Martin addresses the backlash to
House of the Dragon
season 2’s Blood and Cheese storyline, acknowledging complaints from those who read
Fire & Blood
. - Martin reveals that the sequence was likely effective for those unfamiliar with the source material. He plans to speak more about the changes the show made at a later date.
- The Blood and Cheese storyline was far more gruesome and devastating in
Fire & Blood
.
Fire & Blood author George R. R. Martin comments on House of the Dragon season 2’s Blood and Cheese storyline and the audience backlash to it. After getting off to a strong start in 2022, the hit Game of Thrones spinoff returned last month with the premiere of season 2. House of the Dragon season 2 reviews have been overwhelmingly positive from critics, but episode 1’s adaptation of the Blood and Cheese plot proved controversial on social media after the episode’s release due to some key changes it made to the source material.
In a recent blog post, Martin acknowledges that House of the Dragon‘s handling of Blood and Cheese has been divisive. The author keeps his thoughts on the sequence relatively brief, saying that it was likely “powerful” to those who haven’t read Fire & Blood. He does promise, however, to more fully address the matter in a future post. Check out his comments below:
The show added a brand new character as well. The dog. I am… ahem… not usually a fan of screenwriters adding characters to the source material when adapting a story. Especially not when the source material is mine. But that dog was brilliant. I was prepared to hate Cheese, but I hated him even more when he kicked that dog.
And later, when the dog say [sic] at his feet, gazing up… that damn near broke my heart. Such a little thing… such a little dog… but his presence, the few short moments he was on screen, gave the ratcatcher so much humanity. Human beings are such complex creatures. The silent presence of that dog reminded us that even the worst of men, the vile and the venal, can love and be loved.
I wish I’d thought of that dog. I didn’t, but someone else did. I am glad of that […]
The only part of the show that is drawing criticism is the conclusion of the Blood and Cheese storyline. Which ending was powerful, I thought… a gut punch, especially for viewers who had never read FIRE & BLOOD. For those who had read the book, however…
Well, there’s a lot of be said about that, but this is not the place for me to say it. The issues are too complicated. Somewhere down the line, I will do a separate post about all the issues raised by Blood and Cheese… and Maelor the Missing. There’s a lot to say.
House Of The Dragon’s Blood & Cheese Changes Explained
Why Fire & Blood’s Version Is More Devastating
It didn’t take long after the airing of House of the Dragon season 2, episode 1, for some viewers to the infamous Fire & Blood moment on social media. In the show, Daemon (Matt Smith) sneaks into King’s Landing and hires two assassins, known only as Blood (Sam C. Wilson) and Cheese (Mark Stobbart) to kill Aemond (Ewan Mitchell). Not able to find Aemond, the two assassins resort to plan B, which is to take “a son for a son.” They wind up in Helaena’s (Phia Saban) room, and they kill the young Prince Jaehaerys in front of her.
While the sequence is disburbing in House of the Dragon, it is even more so in Fire & Blood. In Martin’s source material, Blood and Cheese kill Helaena’s maid and take the dowager queen hostage before Helaena arrives. When she does, the assassins force Helaena to choose which of her three children she wishes for them to kill. Helaena chooses Maelor, her youngest, in the hopes that he won’t know what’s happening, but Blood and Cheese then kill Jaehaerys instead. Before leaving with Jaehaerys’ head, the assassins make sure Maelor knows that his mother chose him to be killed.
In
Fire & Blood,
Helaena has a third child, Maelor, who isn’t present in
House of the Dragon
due to changes made to the show’s timeline.
There are several extra deaths featured in the Fire & Blood version of the Blood and Cheese storyline, and the assassins themselves are far more cruel. The absence of Maelor means that one additional element of psychological torture they inflict on the royal family is also missing. It’s clear that House of the Dragon‘s softening of some moments from the sequence didn’t work for all viewers, but Martin evidently plans to address these concerns at some point in the future.
New episodes of House of the Dragon season 2 air on HBO on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
Source: George R. R. Martin