HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Why Blood And Cheese Is EVEN WORSE In The Books

Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show. I’m your host, Paul, and in this video, we’re breaking down House of the Dragon.

The first episode of Season 2 has just come out, and it ends in a big, bad way. Featuring the entrance of Blood and Cheese, they’ve come to collect a son for a son. The ending is pretty messed up, but it’s actually even worse in the books.

Throughout this video, I’m gonna discuss it and talk about what exactly happens in the work. Obviously, there are gonna be heavy spoilers here, so if you don’t want it ruined, then I recommend you turn off. If you agree, then please hit the thumbs up, and if you don’t… then don’t hit the thumbs down… just close the video, please.

Nah, do what you want, mate. A like for a like.

Anyway, thank you for clicking this. Now, let’s get into Fire and Blood.

HOW BLOOD AND CHEESE APPEAR IN FIRE AND BLOOD

Ok, so the episode culminates with Daemon arriving at King’s Landing by boat. After entering the stronghold, he catches the attention of Blood, who he gives coins to pass through the gates.

This is something touched upon in the work, with it saying:

Let it not be forgotten: in his youth, Daemon Targaryen had been the “Prince of the City,” his face and laugh familiar to every cutpurse, whore, and gambler in Flea Bottom. The prince still had friends in the low places of King’s Landing, and followers amongst the gold cloaks.

From here, he then hires both him and Cheese, with the instructions being to go and get Aemond. Now, they do tease things by asking what happens if they can’t find him, and we cut before Daemon gives an answer.

We then follow Blood and Cheese through the kingdom, and they make their way up to where they think Aemond is. Now, gonna be honest, mate, watching them kick the dog, that actually got to me a bit more than what happens.

Now, as a father of twins, I can’t condone that, but also… I’ve got a dog as well… lovely little lad.

Anyway, they hold Helaena at knifepoint and tell her to point out who Jaehaerys is. She does, and then carries out her daughter before going to Alicent’s room. It’s pretty terrifying because she’s completely helpless and has to make a Sophie’s choice for her kids.

Just seeing her run out of the room as we see them working on Jaehaerys, it’s one of the most messed-up deaths in the Game of Thrones universe.

However, again, the books went even worse with it, and that’s what I wanna talk about for the rest of the video. Now, unlike the work, Mysaria wasn’t a captive, and she’d remained in King’s Landing. There, Daemon reached out directly to her, and she sought the pair out for this terrible vengeance.

It said:

Amidst the stews of Flea Bottom, Prince Daemon’s go-between found suitable instruments. One had been a sergeant in the City Watch; big and brutal, he had lost his gold cloak for beating a whore to death whilst in a drunken rage. The other was a ratcatcher in the Red Keep. Their true names are lost to history. They are remembered (would that they were not!) as Blood and Cheese.

We learn that Cheese knew the Red Keep better than the shape of his own cock, which is a line we get in the episode.

From this point, they traveled through the hidden doors and secret tunnels that Maegor the Cruel had built. This allowed them to pass by all the guards, with them then heading into the Tower of the Hand.

Now, it’s here that we get our first major difference, as Alicent isn’t present in these scenes. Getting some of that Criston Pole.

Anyway, the book tells us the following:

The two men crept up through the walls, bypassing the spearmen posted at the tower doors. Ser Otto’s rooms were of no interest to them. Instead, they slipped into his daughter’s chambers, one floor below. Queen Alicent had taken up residence there after the death of King Viserys when her son Aegon moved into Maegor’s Holdfast with his own queen. Once inside, Cheese bound and gagged the Dowager Queen whilst Blood strangled her bedmaid. Then they settled down to wait, for they knew it was the custom of Queen Helaena to bring her children to see their grandmother every evening before bed.

So, already, Blood has strangled someone to death, whereas in the show, he allowed the servant to escape. This was to keep up appearances, but I imagine it’ll cause issues down the line. As of making this video, I haven’t seen episode 2, so let me know below if I’m stupid.

Now, things become way more sinister in the work, as we learn they waited there in silence while Alicent was tied up. I can’t imagine how scary that would be for her, with these two strangers having her at their mercy. Sure, she gets tied up in the show, but… it’s with Criston Pole… look, I’ll stop doing that joke.

Now the work then says:

Blind to her danger, the queen appeared as dusk was settling over the castle, accompanied by her three children. Jaehaerys and Jaehaera were six, Maelor two. As they entered the apartments, Helaena was holding his little hand and calling out her mother’s name. Blood barred the door and slew the queen’s guardsman, whilst Cheese appeared to snatch up Maelor. “Scream and you all die,” Blood told Her Grace. Queen Helaena kept her calm, it is said. “Who are you?” she demanded of the two. “Debt collectors,” said Cheese. “An eye for an eye, a son for a son. We only want the one, t’ square things. Won’t hurt the rest o’ you fine folks, not one lil’ hair. Which one you want t’ lose, Your Grace?”

HOW DO BLOOD AND CHEESE APPEAR IN HOUSE OF THE DRAGON?

Now whereas in the show, Blood and Cheese question which one’s the boy, here they give her a choice of who’s to die. They then do something twisted on top of it, which we’ll talk about in just a bit.

Now in the series, Helaena gives up her necklace and does this as a way to try and bargain their way out of it. She even says in the work she’ll give up her own life, but they say a wife’s not a son.

At this point, Cheese then told her to quickly make the choice or Blood was gonna R-word her little girl. Just super messed up, and they basically made her pick between her two sons.

Now, Helaena picked their youngest, Maelor, with it saying it was because he’d be too young to understand. However, there was also the thought that Jaehaerys was the heir, and thus he was next in line for the Iron Throne. This would mean that, to her, he was more important, and it was crucial that he was kept alive.

However, this is where the real twist came in, and Blood and Cheese pulled off a sick trick.

Whispering to Maelor, they then said, “You hear that little boy? Your momma wants you dead.”

Blood then gave a grin and swung his sword at Jaehaerys. The book says it beheaded him in a single blow, and that Queen Helaena screamed out in agony.

So you can see how it’s way more messed up with them basically taking away the son she chose to live.

Now, this became an even bigger issue for her as she didn’t know exactly how much Maelor knew.

Potentially, he’d just heard his mother order his death and might live knowing he was chosen to die by the woman who was supposed to care for him. However, he was only two years old, so there was back and forth over whether he understood.

The truth is, Helaena never knew, but slowly this night ate away at her.

For the next part of the video, I’m gonna talk about what happened next, and obviously, this could spoil some of the show. So if you don’t wanna know, then turn off now because it deals with the fates of these characters.

Also, if you’re enjoying the videos and wanna support the channel, then check out our merch store right below the video. There we have our three House of the Dragon shirts, with the first two being based on the Greens and Blacks. Show your allegiances and also check out our Dragons, Drama, and Destiny one. A huge thank you to everyone who’s picked one up.

Now, after the death of Jaehaerys, we learn that Blood and Cheese kept their word and didn’t harm anyone else. The work tells us:

“Two days later, Blood was seized at the Gate of the Gods trying to leave King’s Landing with the head of Prince Jaehaerys hidden in one of his saddle sacks. Under torture, he confessed that he had been taking it to Harrenhal to collect his reward from Prince Daemon. He also gave up a description of the whore he claimed had hired them: an older woman, foreign by her talk, cloaked and hooded, very pale. The other harlots called her Misery.

After thirteen days of torment, Blood was at last allowed to die.

THE TRUE HORROR OF BLOOD AND CHEESE EXPLAINED

Queen Alicent had commanded Larys Clubfoot to learn his true name, so that she might bathe in the blood of his wife and children, but our sources do not say if this occurred. Ser Luthor Largent and his gold cloaks searched the Street of Silk from top to bottom, and turned out and stripped every harlot in King’s Landing, but no trace of Cheese or the White Worm was ever found. In his grief and fury, King Aegon II commanded that all the city’s ratcatchers be taken out and hanged, and this was done. (Ser Otto Hightower brought one hundred cats into the Red Keep to take their place.)”

Now we then learn about what happened with Helaena.

Though Blood and Cheese had spared her life, Queen Helaena cannot be said to have survived that fateful dusk. Afterward, she would not eat, nor bathe, nor leave her chambers, and she could no longer stand to look upon her son Maelor, knowing that she had named him to die. The king had no recourse but to take the boy from her and give him over to their mother, the Dowager Queen Alicent, to raise as if he were her own. Aegon and his wife slept separately thereafter, and Queen Helaena sank deeper and deeper into madness, while the king raged, and drank, and raged.

We learn that in the end, Helaena couldn’t bear the torment anymore and that she became a wreck. Now what happened to her, we don’t know fully, but we do know that she died.

It’s said that when Rhaenyra took over King’s Landing, she sold her to Mysaria. Mysaria apparently then pimped her through her brothels, where she was forced to work day and night. She apparently fell pregnant, which made things even worse because it had all come from her being forced to do this work. Mysaria apparently told her that Maelor had been killed as well, and there are rumors she received his head stuffed in a chamber pot.

Some witnesses say Rhaenyra received it and she ended up instantly weeping. However, others say that she was the one who had it sent to Helaena, and we’ll see what the show ends up going with.

Now what happened next, we don’t know, and there were rumors that she was murdered. However, the most widely accepted story is that she flung herself out the window and landed on the spikes that lined the walls and gates below.

She was just twenty-one years old.

Sound like a true crime podcaster there.

She’s not real. But yeah, it’s still pretty messed up. Either way, that’s what happened with Blood and Cheese and how it kinda spun out and had major repercussions. Now, obviously, I’d love to hear your thoughts below and what you thought of how they did it in the episode.

Make sure you leave your comments and let me know what you think they’ll go with for Helaena.