When it comes to iconic TV scenes, some things simply cannot be recreated. When you begin to expect twists, turns or even a full-on war, it becomes less surprising and more expected. Everyone knew that House of the Dragon would have dragons and war, of course, but that doesn’t mean that it has to mimic everything that its predecessor, Game of Thrones did. Still, fans are using the flagship series as a reference point, and it has sparked a debate over which is worse: slaughtering a bunch of humans or kicking a dog on your way to slaughter one human. It’s a conundrum for the ages.
Season two of House of the Dragon premiered this week, and people are already itching to compare the two assassins Blood and Cheese to the infamous Red Wedding from season three of Game of Thrones. As if we should really be pitting two bloody slaughters against each other!
In the premiere, Daemon sends the aptly named gentlemen Blood and Cheese to kill Aemond, only the guys proceed to make Helaena point out her son Jaehaerys, who is then beheaded off-camera. What more can you expect from a man named Cheese? In the books, Helaena has three children, making her choice even darker, and her decision plagues her. On-screen, she does what she can to protect her daughter Jaehaera in a moment of distress.
It makes sense that this scene was watered down a bit for screen, but some fans think that it wasn’t gruesome enough compared to the text, which was apparently being teased as a “Red Wedding” moment.
“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
Readers built up Blood & Cheese like it was a Red Wedding-level event and the show changed every aspect of it and then severely underplayed it, IMO
So
That’s an interesting decision
— Sean (@SeanStangland) June 17, 2024
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
remember how team green was preaching for months that blood and cheese a sgonna be more horrible and impactful than the red wedding but people is more pissed about the dog getting kicked #HouseoftheDragon pic.twitter.com/0hIcnFuKbG
— mafer | nyra “the cruel” apologist (@frshtonya) June 17, 2024
so that was it for blood and cheese…that was supposed to rival the red wedding? pic.twitter.com/XDy71zSlAC
— venus ♛ realm’s delight (@ratedshiera) June 17, 2024
blood & cheese was so underwhelming. pic.twitter.com/KONTGKzojX
— kendall roy’s ghost writer (@visenyasdaughtr) June 17, 2024
Can we please stop complaining that the Blood & Cheese moment wasn’t as brutal was you wanted it to be? It was still fairly intense but the amount of people I’ve seen cry out for Dave and Dan to return because they didn’t get a slightly more traumatizing child murdering scene is…
— RedTeamReview ✪ (@RedTeamReview) June 17, 2024
Red Wedding was a forever sting, a never forget type of TV event. Blood and Cheese didn’t even register on the Thrones scale.
— Josh Eberley
(@JoshEberley) June 17, 2024
Of the scene, Phia Saban told Deadline that she tried not to let the scene get to her head. “First instinct was like, ‘oh no, I have to do that in episode one’” she told Deadline. “I think what was really important to me was to really try not to overthink the gravitas of the moment and be like ‘what does this mean for the show, what does this mean in the universe’ I tried to just clap my brain in a way that I could just react to hosw shocking and unomfortable that moment is. It’s a huge shock, and she has to do a super human thing this is make a decision and acts as a mother in the worse circumstances,” she said.
Good thing the Red Wedding scene will always be there streaming on Max (Season 3, Episode 9) when you need it. For now, let Helaena unpack her own trauma and embroider in peace!