Warning: Full spoilers observe for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 1, “A Son for a Son.”
House of the Dragon Season 2 has lastly arrived, and with it comes probably the most infamous moments within the historical past of Westeros: the terrible occasion recognized by followers of the George R.R. Martin ebook collection as Blood and Cheese.
In Season 2, Episode 1, Matt Smith’s Daemon hatches the plot that results in what has been described because the “Red Wedding” of House of the Dragon. After Rhaenyra’s son Luke is killed within the Season 1 finale in a dragon chase with Alicent’s boy Aemond, Daemon seeks revenge. And so with Rhaenyra in mourning, he hires a brutal member of the City Watch – that may be Blood – and a ratcatcher – that may be Cheese – to infiltrate the Red Keep. His orders, within the TV model anyway, are to kill Aemond. But when requested by Cheese what they need to do if they will’t discover Aemond, Daemon merely stares again on the killer… and the digital camera cuts to the subsequent scene.
Indeed, what follows is just not the homicide of Aemond, however of the kid Prince Jaehaerys, the son of Aemond’s brother King Aegon II. I spoke to Smith, Emma D’Arcy (Rhaenyra), Olivia Cooke (Alicent), and different main members of Team Black and Team Green about this startling and brutal improvement.
The Cast Responds to Blood and Cheese
“I believe the overriding emotional impact that that has on [Daemon] subsequently is it makes him stare into the abyss,” Smith stated of the kid being killed as an alternative of Aemond. “And when a person stares into the abyss, the abyss stares again. I believe finally it triggers one thing that unnerves him psychologically. I believe they’re form of umbilically related, Rhaenyra and him, and there is one thing… The absence of her screws with him.”
The members of Team Black who I spoke to agreed that Daemon’s culpability in what occurred to Jaehaerys doesn’t make them undeserving of the Iron Throne, even when they really feel unhealthy for Team Green.
“I watched it solely as soon as, however so far as I’m involved, his directions had been fairly clear as to who he wished lifeless,” stated Steve Toussaint (Corlys). “It’s the incompetence of the individuals he despatched that resulted in what occurred. So no, I do not suppose… Other than the truth that he simply desires blood for blood. We can discuss that.”
Smith additionally factors to the loss Team Black took not too long ago – the dying of Luke. While it was final season for us, it’s solely been days for the characters.
“Are we forgetting the primary strike wasn’t ours?” says Smith. “Do what I imply? Let’s not neglect that.”
When I counsel that Luke’s dying was an accident, Smith says it “would not matter” and D’Arcy takes exception to the speculation.
“I do not suppose that is the dominant narrative in any respect,” they are saying.
‘A Living Nightmare’
Meanwhile, over on Team Green’s facet of the aisle, there’s Phia Saban, who performs Queen Helaena, the mom of Jaehaerys who’s compelled to decide on which of her kids can be killed. She says that taking pictures that scene was scary as a result of she wished to verify she did it properly.
“That’s the obvious factor on the earth, however I believe I needed to actually attempt to put that apart to be able to deal with the fact,” she says, whereas explaining that all the things adjustments for Helaena in that second. “I believe it is a dwelling nightmare, genuinely. I believe that there is not a lot in her world that makes her really feel secure. And I believe that her youngsters being a part of that, and even simply merely a part of her routine, it simply throws completely all the things the wrong way up. And she wants her mother a lot. That motherhood factor that they’ve collectively, it simply turns into actually necessary what that dynamic is. It’s all about what you want – needing one another.”
Tom Glynn-Carney performs King Aegon II, and whereas we don’t see his character’s response to his son’s homicide within the season premiere, the actor guarantees that Aegon is brokeon “on a mobile stage.”
He provides: “The first time I learn the scripts, there was an choice to go certainly one of two methods, I believe. Either play as if it was a private slight in the direction of him, or one thing that has simply viscerally occurred on an atomic, chemical stage in his physique. … I believe it totally broken him to an irreversible stage, which fuels the remainder of the narrative.”
Cooke agrees that the Blood and Cheese story can have a huge effect not simply on the Team Black versus Team Green dynamic, but additionally on Alicent in quite a lot of methods.
“She feels so accountable as a result of she was with Cole [Fabien Frankel] and he ought to have been ensuring that citadel was like Fort Knox and as an alternative his thoughts was elsewhere,” says Cooke. “And so she feels so shameful and so responsible and she or he’s totally, totally devastated. And I believe she lives with that guilt. And you see how that form of manifests in the best way she then operates inside the citadel, and she or he’s on injury management massively as a result of she is aware of that that is simply the beginning of what is to return.”
We’ll quickly see what’s to return from House of the Dragon as Season 2 is now in full swing. Let us know within the feedback what you considered how the present tailored the Blood and Cheese story.
