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WARNING! The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 and Blood and Fire, the series the show is based on.
Blood and Fire Author George R.R. Martin revealed that he had Dragon House Producer Ryan Condal explains the changes to the Blood and Cheese segment. game of Thrones The spinoff premiered in 2022 and returned for Season 2 earlier this summer. Season 2 opened with a violent, brutal blood and cheese storyline, as the titular assassins (played by Sam C. Wilson and Mark Stobart) broke into King’s Landing to kill young Jaehaerys (Jude Locke). However, changes to the books polarized viewers over the scene.
In a blog post he later deleted Not a blogMartin explores in depth Dragon HouseMartin revealed that he and Condal had a disagreement over how to complete the sequence. The disagreement stemmed from removing another child of young Merlor (Helena (Phia Saban)) from the scene, which Martin felt was “not very interesting”.Weakened the sequenceHowever, practical and budgetary considerations ultimately prevailed, and Martin admitted that he did like Blood & Cheese. Here is an excerpt from Martin’s blog:
When Ryan Condal first told me what he was going to do a long time ago (probably in 2022), I was against it for all of these reasons. I didn’t argue for long, or vehemently, though. I felt the change weakened the plot, but only a little. Ryan seemed to have a practical reason for doing it; they didn’t want to cast another child, especially a two-year-old. A child that young would surely slow down the production, and it would have an impact on the budget. Budget was already an issue on House of the Dragon, and saving money wherever possible was a smart move.
Besides, Ryan assured me that we are not losing Prince Merlot, just delaying his mission. Queen Helena [Phia Saban] Possibly giving birth to him in season 3, presumably after a pregnancy late in season 2. This made sense to me, so I withdrew my objection and acquiesced to the change.
I still love this episode, and the entire blood and cheese scene. The loss of the “Helena’s Choice” beat does weaken this scene, but not by much. Only people who have read the books will notice its absence; viewers who have never read Fire and Blood will still find these scenes heartbreaking. After all, Mellor doesn’t do anything in this scene. How could he? He’s only two years old.
What Martin’s Criticism of Blood and Cheese Means for House of the Dragon
Image from Max
Suicide is mentioned below.
In general, Dragon House Reviews for the second season have been positive, with critics and audiences alike praising the show. For example, the second season received an 83% critics score and a 74% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite this, the Blood & Cheese series has been widely criticized on social media for the absence of Mellor and how it removes Helena’s choice over which child will be murdered. Martin may be happy with the final episode, but the response to it is concerning given how subsequent seasons of Blood & Cheese have been received. “game of Thrones”.
“game of Thrones” The eighth season was met with mixed reviews, with one of the main reasons being that it lost the complexity and nuance of the previous seasons. Dragon House This will be the case for seasons 3 and 4, but the spinoff’s “Blood and Cheese” segment will reduce a degree of storytelling complexity. This change will not only affect the segment itself, but will also affect the storylines of Helena Targaryen, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), removing the motivation for certain key events, namely Helena’s suicide.
More to come…
Source: George R.R. Martin