This text accommodates main spoilers for the Season 2 premiere of HBO’s “Home of the Dragon.”
It might not be the Crimson Wedding ceremony. However “Blood and Cheese” — as followers of the George R.R. Martin books name the closing occasion in Sunday’s episode of “Home of the Dragon” — is prone to be a serious Westeros water cooler second. It’s stunning. It’s brutal. And it has a cool nickname (although viewers who haven’t learn the books may surprise what the heck it means).
The Season 2 premiere served up Blood and Cheese on a platter, however for these simply catching up, it could be arduous to make certain of what simply occurred. So what simply occurred?
Who’re Blood and Cheese?
Blood (performed by Sam C. Wilson) is a member of the Metropolis Watch, the safety drive that Daemon as soon as headed up in King’s Touchdown. (Blood’s counterpart within the books is a former member who misplaced his publish for killing a prostitute.) Cheese (Mark Stobbart) is a Crimson Maintain rat catcher who enjoys snacking on dairy merchandise as a lot as his quarry does. Blood and Cheese aren’t known as such within the Season 2 premiere. Anyway their true names are misplaced, based on the historians of “Fireplace and Blood,” the Martin ebook on which “Home of the Dragon” is (principally) based mostly. Of their spare time, these two like lengthy walks via tunnels, loyal canines, and murder-for-hire.
Have been there indicators this was coming?
Sure, lots. Did you odor a rat in Season 1? The Crimson Maintain wasn’t infested solely with rodents. It was thick with clues, too. Every time a rat scurried across the Crimson Maintain — visiting King Viserys (Paddy Considine), crashing a marriage, nibbling a dragon cranium — it served as foreshadowing. The creatures give us a guided tour of the fortress’s hidden passageways (as do, subsequently, their exterminators) and a method of sneaking up on the royal household at its most weak. See the rat lapping up blood on the marriage ceremony of younger Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) and Laenor (Theo Nate), probably the most heavy-handed bits of rodent symbolism for the reason that finish of “The Departed.”
How did the occasion differ within the present from the ebook?
“Home of the Dragon” takes nice pains to point out that the Blacks (Staff Rhaenyra) didn’t intend to homicide a small youngster of their quest for vengeance; Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) was the supposed goal when Daemon (Matt Smith) secretly employed the assassins. That’s not the case in “Fireplace and Blood,” which depicts an assault that’s way more strategic, brutal and devastating. How so? Image Helaena (Phia Saban) being pressured to make a “Sophie’s Selection” between two sons, the inheritor (Jaehaerys) and the spare (Maelor, not represented within the present). Or how about Blood and Cheese threatening to rape a little bit lady, taunting a little bit boy and killing some servants — all whereas Alicent (Olivia Cooke), sure and gagged, is made to observe.
Why is that this occasion important?
Nothing says the gloves are off like beheading a child. (OK, toddler.) Even when the assassination of an harmless youngster with a bizarre factor for Small Council stones wasn’t the purpose, there’s actually no defending it, is there? It’s pointless. It’s merciless. It’s a violation of the principles of engagement. And now the tone is about for the battle to come back. A watch for a watch, a son for a son, and shortly the world of Westeros will probably be blind with rage.
