House of the Dragon Season 2 Premiere Makes Major Changes to “Blood and Cheese” Storyline

The House of the Dragon Season 2 premiere ended with yet another dark part of Game of Thrones lore being brought to life onscreen: the story of “Blood and Cheese,” two assassins hired by Daemon Targaryen (Matthew Smith) for a terrible mission.

However, the HBO TV version of the story made some big changes to the lore that George R.R. Martin established in works like Fire & Blood (the history of House Targaryen), and fans have some strong opinions about it. 

House of the Dragon: Blood & Cheese Changes Explained

In the established lore of the Game of Thrones Universe, “Blood” was a butcher who had once been a serjeant of the City Watch in King’s Landing, but was disgraced after beating a prostitute to death in a drunken rage. “Cheese” was a ratcatcher who knew the tunnels of King’s Landing and could infiltrate the Red Keep where King Aegon II Targaryen and the royal family lived. 

The books established that Daemon hires Blood and Cheese to assassinate one of Aegon II’s sons; House of the Dragon changes that framework to shine a more noble(?) light on Daemon, by having him target Prince Aemond Targaryen directly, as revenge for Aemond killing Rhaenyra’s son Prince Lucerys Velaryon. The show also chose to go with having “Blood” still working as a Gold Cloak, to give the assassination an (admittedly more logical) ‘man on the inside’ twist. Needless to say, Blood’s cruelty and penchant for butchery still shine through.

The biggest change that House of the Dragon makes is how Blood and Cheese end up killing Aegon’s heir, Prince Jaehaerys. 

Fans of House of the Dragon had been touting the Blood and Cheese segment as a possible successor to Game of Thrones‘ “Red Wedding” with good reason. In the text, Blood and Cheese enter the Red Keep with a clear plan: they know that Queen Helaena Targaryen brings her children to see Queen Mother Alicent Hightower every evening before bed and set an ambush in the Queen Mother’s chambers. Alicent is bound and gagged; at this point in the historical record, Helaena had three children: the twins, Prince Jaehaerys and Princess Jaehaera, and a third, younger child, Prince Maelor. House of the Dragon only features the twins, which changes the entire dynamic of what happens next.

In the books, the execution of Jaehaerys is so much more brutal (if you can believe it): Alicent watches as Helaena is forced to choose which son should die, but refuses, offering herself instead. Cheese and Blood warn that if she doesn’t choose a son, Blood will rape her daughter Jaehaera and slay all three children. Helaena ultimately chooses Maelor, since he is so young she thinks he won’t realize what’s happening. Instead, Blood beheads Jaehaerys in a single cut, while Cheese tells Maelor that his mom wanted him to die. The assassins leave everyone else unharmed, while Helaena can’t stop screaming. 

Why Did House of the Dragon Change Blood and Cheese’s Story?

Even HBO and House of the Dragon have limits to what they can do on television, in terms of standards. 

The scene of Blood and Cheese murdering Prince Jaehaerys described in books would have involved a whole other level of explicit horror involving children. Threatening the rape of a child; psychologically traumatizing another child, and forcing the audience to witness the beheading of a child are all incidents that would never make it past the TV censors. 

As it stands, House of the Dragon is already disturbing quite a few viewers with its depiction of a brutal child murder. The sound effects and unseen violence are more than enough to take most imaginations to the dark place George R.R. Martin went with the story – you can see that for yourself in the fan reactions below. 

Blood & Cheese Book Version

Here’s a good recreation of how the story of Blood & Cheese Plays out in the books. 

Those Sounds Tho…

We don’t know if you can give an Emmy Award for sound mixing for a scene like this… We just know it will haunt us forever… 

Leaving With Something

Black Twitter captures the TV version of Blood and Cheese in one hilariously dark use of a classic meme. 

So Underwhelming

Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon fans are a different breed. The use of the world “underwhelming” is wild in this context. 

How Daemon Will React

House of the Dragon fans are eager to find out how Daemon will act when he realizes what happened. 

Not MY Blood & Cheese!

Game of Thrones book fans are bringing out book pages like they’re receipts! 

They Didn’t Want to Go There…

The House of the Dragon creative team did not want to step all the way into the lore, in this case. 

Red Wedding Still the GOAT

“GOAT” is a crazy term to use here, but since House of the Dragon stopped short, Game of Thrones‘ Red Wedding episode still holds the crown as Trauma King of TV. 

House of the Dragon Season 2 is streaming on Max.