Final evening’s second season premiere of Sport of Thrones’ spinoff Home of the Dragon tackled certainly one of George R.R. Martin’s most notorious deaths—in a brand new means that stunned the fandom.
In an interview with Variety, showrunner Ryan Condal defined the reasoning for the Max present’s departure from Martin’s unique recollection of an occasion recognized by readers of Hearth and Blood—the writer’s historic clarification of Targaryen historical past in Westeros— as “Blood and Cheese,” named for 2 assassins who’re liable for the homicide of Jaehaerys Targayren. In “A Son for a Son” Blood and Cheese take heart stage, employed by Daemon (Matt Smith) to retaliate for the death of Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) son Lucerys at the end of last season. We decide up on the duo’s journey to do the dastardly deed which, within the present, is way more immediately orchestrated than in Hearth & Blood, having Rhaenyra name for Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) demise.
“One of many issues that’s difficult about adapting Hearth & Blood is that there’s this deliberately conflicting narrative within the ebook the place there are sometimes these three completely different viewpoints on the historical past that don’t line up with each other,” Condal defined, “so it’s our job as adapters to attempt to discover the target line by way of this to carry the viewers into the narrative as we see it having been laid out.” Within the ebook, it’s a complete lot extra messy—Blood and Cheese weren’t given a selected goal, simply Daemon’s orders for “a watch for a watch, a son for a son,” and so attempt to kill the primary boy they discover.
“It felt like Rhaenyra, regardless of being in grief, she’s searching for vengeance, however she would select a goal that might have some type of strategic or army benefit,” Condal continued. “In fact, in case you did take out Aemond, not solely would he be punished immediately for his betrayal and homicide of Luke, however it will eradicate the rider of the most important dragon on the planet, and instantly create a bonus for his or her aspect.” Jaehaerys nonetheless dies in Home of the Dragon, nevertheless it’s introduced extra as attributable to Blood and Cheese’s incompetence—as a substitute of discovering Aemond, the assassins encounter his sister and spouse, Queen Helaena, in her room together with her twin kids.
Within the books, Helaena truly affords up her youngest son, Maelor (who isn’t included in Home of the Dragon attributable to how the present has condensed the timeline of Hearth and Blood), just for Jaehaerys to be killed by Blood and Cheese anyway—however within the present, Helaena is compelled as a substitute to sacrifice him to save lots of her daughter. “We knew it will be horrifying and brutal—we didn’t need it to be gratuitous or excessive,” Condal mentioned of the homicide. “The thought of that sequence was to dramatize a heist gone mistaken. So we transfer off the middle narrative of Daemon, Rhaenyra, Alicent and Aegon’s world, and all of a sudden, we’re following these two characters that we’ve simply met in an alley in Flea Backside. Daemon’s given them an project to go in and discover Aemond Targaryen, and we’re following them, and we’re following them, and we’re not chopping away and we’re not going again to the opposite narratives—‘oh, God, what’s going to occur?’”
Home of the Dragon airs Sundays on HBO and Max.
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