Viewers are now taking to social media to share their thoughts on House of the Dragon‘s Blood and Cheese sequence. The response to the show’s version of events has, so far, been decidedly mixed. Check out select reactions below:
blood & cheese was so underwhelming. pic.twitter.com/KONTGKzojX — kendall roy’s ghost writer (@visenyasdaughtr) June 17, 2024
@visenyasdaughtr calls the show’s version of Blood & Cheese “so underwhelming.”
“blood and cheese is going to be worse than the red wedding” it has been proven once again that nothing in cinematic history can top the red wedding #HouseoftheDragon pic.twitter.com/oO95Cqu9Hm — rulji (@jjmileo) June 17, 2024
@jjmileo notes how House of the Dragon‘s Blood & Cheese moment was positioned to be even more traumatic than Game of Thrones‘ infamous Red Wedding scene, but concludes that “it has been proven once again that nothing in cinematic history can top the [Red Wedding].”
i will NEVER forgive them for completely changing blood&cheese!! A mother should never make that choice and it rightfully draw Hel into madness. Grrm’d writing peaked here and showing the tragic aftermath of Helaena not being able to look at Maelor pic.twitter.com/9uJud2Helo — Fanny🦋 (@darklesdarling) June 17, 2024
“I will NEVER forgive them for completely changing [Blood & Cheese]!!” writes Fanny. She also says of the moment in Fire & Blood that Martin’s writing “peaked here.”
blood and cheese was insanely anticlimactic — neptune !! (@bluixi) June 17, 2024
@bluixi writes that the show’s version of Blood & Cheese was “insanely anticlimactic.”
blood & cheese was a chop. this is what they were comparing to the red wedding? #HouseoftheDragon pic.twitter.com/Zkrv8Ozqb4 — tyler (@supermanslut) June 17, 2024
“[Blood & Cheese] was a chop,” writes tyler. “This is what they were comparing to the Red Wedding?”
that episode was so fast paced jesus christ they couldn’t linger on anything blood and cheese did not have the emotional weight and whelm they swore it would for that. you can definitely feel the shrinkage of episodes really affected the story execution — unethical consumption of cat soup (@thechurchofmoe) June 17, 2024
@thechurchofmoe writes that the episode was “so fast paced” and that “[Blood and Cheese] did not have the emotional weight…they swore it would.”
blood and cheese is much more tragic in the book. helaena is in tears begging them to kill her instead and heres just like “yeah its that one” — kate ðŸ‰ðŸ‰ðŸ‰ (@toaster_rodeo) June 17, 2024
“[Blood and Cheese] is much more tragic in the book,” writes Kate, highlighting changes made to Helaena’s traumatic decision.
hotd fumbled so bad with blood and cheese like. it’s kinda ridiculous that they robbed alicent of such a defining moment in her character of being there w helaena during blood and cheese in favor of a sex scene that genuinely added nothing to either character involved. — NEVERTHELESS ALICENT PERSISTS (@guoaei) June 17, 2024
@guoaei complains that House of the Dragon “fumbled so bad with [Blood and Cheese],” and adds that “it’s kinda ridiculous that they robbed [Alicent] of such a defining moment.”
How Blood & Cheese Is Different In Fire & Blood
House Of The Dragon Makes Some Key Changes
In the premiere episode of season 2, Daemon is looking for revenge after the death of Lucerys (Elliot Grihault) in the House of the Dragon season 1 finale. Blood (Sam C. Wilson) and Cheese (Mark Stobbart), on Daemon’s orders, infiltrate King’s Landing with the task of finding and killing Prince Aemon. The two men ask Daemon what they should do if they can’t find Aemon, but the scene cuts away before revealing Daemon’s answer.
Blood is a former butcher, while Cheese serves as a ratcatcher in tunnels of the Red Keep.
The two House of the Dragon characters then stumble across Helaena (Phia Saban) and her two children. After making Helaena tell them which one is male, they murder the young Jaehaerys. Helaena flees with her surviving child to Alicent’s (Olivia Cooke) room, walking in on her having sex with Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel). This moment plays out quite differently in the book, however, with Martin describing that Blood and Cheese made Helaena choose which of her children she wanted them to murder.
In Fire & Blood, Helaena chooses between her two sons, Jaehaerys and Maelor. She chooses Maelor, seemingly in the hopes that he wouldn’t understand what was going on, but the assassins then choose to murder Jaehaerys instead, taunting the young Maelor that his mother wants him dead. House of the Dragon‘s timeline changes meant that it wouldn’t really make sense for Maelor to have been born yet, explaining why certain changes were made. While the Blood and Cheese moment in the House of the Dragon premiere was certainly disturbing, it’s clear that some viewers were hoping for something even more traumatic.
