Blood and Cheese, Hold the Blood
Understanding how House of the Dragon adapted the most brutal event of the Dance of Dragons
I admit, I was dreading the moment.
When it was announced that an adaptation of the Targaryen civil war would be the successor to Game of Thrones I was thrilled. The Dance of Dragons seemed the perfect source material to merit revisiting Westeros on multiple fronts — palace intrigue, a completed story, and of course DRAGONS. Yet while the Dance was, in my estimation, an obvious choice to adapt to the screen it at its core is as much a greek tragedy as it is an action packed fantasy epic. Balancing the compelling narrative and action against the unrelenting body count of House Targaryen (and friends) is perhaps the greatest challenge this show faces going forward. To quote the opening voiceover of the series premiere “the only thing that could tear down the house of the dragon was itself.”
Which brings us to Blood and Cheese. Akin to “The Red Wedding”, uttering the phrase “Blood and Cheese” triggers immediate recognition of the Dance’s most brutal stroke among book readers while remaining vague enough to not spoil the unsullied. The way the moment unfolded on our screen was undeniably horrific yet significantly less gratuitous on multiple fronts —thanks to some significant changes to the account related in Fire and Blood.
As with any change from the source material the way “Blood and Cheese” was adapted has been met with mixed response. For reference on the page, the two assassins sneak into the Tower of the Hand. In front a bound and gagged Alicent1, Heleana Targaryen is forced to choose between her two sons — six year old Jaeherys and two year old Maelor. After first offering herself instead, she reluctantly names the younger Maelor only for the assassins to slay Jaeherys instead and tell Maelor his mother wanted him dead.
House of the Dragon’s adaptation obviously differs on a few fronts. We only hear the death of Jaeherys but do not actually have to visually witness it, as the camera instead tracks Heleana and her daughter, Jaehaera. Admittedly, I may be more sensitive to this a new-ish father, but I strongly feel that anyone who felt strongly about that moment being shown should seek immediate psychiatric help.
The more common and understandable gripe with the show’s version of Blood and Cheese is an accusation that the show “pulled punches” by removing Heleana’s forced choice between sons. Given the way departures from the books coincided with an overall downturn in quality towards the end of Game of Thrones, I am sympathetic to skepticism of any instance of the show “changing” the story. Furthermore House of the Dragon has already “pulled punches” at times in its first season, most notably by making Lucerys’s death a consequences of Aemond losing control of Vhagar rather than an intentional act by the sapphire eyed prince2.
Perhaps House of the Dragon is pulling punches, but ultimately I believe the differences in Blood and Cheese’s show adapation is less about omitting Heleana’s “Sophie’s Choice” moment and instead a consequence of sidestepping a future moment of brutality.
As astute viewers likely noticed, there were only two children with Helaena — her son Jaehaerys and her daughter Jaehaera. Maelor was nowhere to be found, and likely has been cut from the show entirely. Without spoiling future events, Aegon’s younger son also meets a grisly end that at least in my opinion seems to do very little to actually advance the plot of the Dance of Dragons and feels like superfluous brutality. While cutting characters inevitably introduces controversy, excluding Maelor does very little to undermine House of the Dragon as an adaptation3 while helping keep the show from devolving into misery porn.
Ultimately the murder of Aegon’s son and heir in a slightly altered manner can and will credibly evoke the same response from the Greens as it does Fire and Blood. If the death of Lucerys in the skies above Storm’s End was a soft point of no return, Blood and Cheese is the moment where full scale war becomes inevitable. To that end the change may ultimately help keep House of the Dragon from feeling outright sadistic — there is plenty of fire and blood left to rain down anyways.
Disclaimer (of the Week)
Last season this space was a fun weekly feature “Dragon of the Week”. Perhaps it will be again. But for now a disclaimer:
I didn’t plan to write about House of the Dragon this season for a few reasons. The first is life has been busy. I am in the midst of a job change and move that goes along with it. On top of that we now have a toddler at home. So my free time to sit in front of a computer and write is exceedingly sparse.
The other reason is that the online experience of discussing shows is far different than back during season 4 of Game of Thrones when I first started writing post-episode columns. Podcasts, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok have supplanted longer form blogging for a while now. The social media and internet discourse around shows like House of the Dragon (or The Acolyte) has turned unrelentingly toxic. Furthemore, I appreciate the small handful of people who read these posts but I have no ambition or prospects of turning this into a highly popular blog, much less anything profitable.
So why did I change my mind?
Upon the conclusion of last night’s premiere my brain was just filled with thoughts and I needed to let them spill out. At this point this is as much a personal exercise as any attempt to reach an audience. And I must admit it felt good to get back behind the keyboard, step away from the toxicity of social media and just let my thoughts flow.
I don’t know how much I will write going forward. I am not committing to weekly posts. But I realize this is one of my favorite ways to enjoy House of the Dragon. So in some form or another I’'ll be here.
Whose relationship with Criston Cole is a new addition by the show.
A choice I still don’t absolutely hate, but I probably would have preferred Aemond go full villain.
Yes there are consequences to Maelor’s fate but his omission should do very little to change the arc of the story. This is not Game of Thrones omitting “Young Griff” or even Lady Stoneheart.
> Yes there are consequences to Maelor’s fate but his omission should do very little to change the arc of the story. This is not Game of Thrones omitting “Young Griff” or even Lady Stoneheart.
Maelor's fate is tied into the death of a KG and, according to one in-universe theory, Helaena's suicide. We don't know what the consequences of Young Griff & Lady Stoneheart are, because GRRM hasn't finished their stories.