Episode two of season 2 of House of the Dragon discusses the terrible end of a character. If what happens in the work Fire and Blood is faithfully transcribed, it will be a passage of great cruelty.
The world that George RR Martin proposes is a violent and cruel world. Who has read the novels of Iron Throne or seen its adaptation to TV with Game Of Thrones can only confirm this. Generally, one scene in particular is cited as the typical example of this barbarity: The Red Wedding.
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House of the Dragonwhich takes place 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen and, therefore, before GoT, also has a certain propensity to show the darkest facets of humanity. The end of the first episode of the series, which was broadcast in streaming on June 17, 2024, was able to show this with a certain “talent”.
Story-wise, the shock caused by the tragedy of the events concluding the first episode still largely reverberates in episode 2. However, one scene in particular has probably not yet revealed all its cruelty. She may have only been briefly sketched, before returning later in the series.
The following contains spoilers.
A vile murder in the heart of the castle
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Let's recall the setting: Daemon Targaryen, the uncle of Rhaenyra (the leader of the Black faction), wants to avenge his niece, who lost one of her children, Lucerys. The latter was killed by Aemond Targaryen, one of the sons of Alicent Hightower, a former friend of Rhaenyra, and who is now on the opposite camp (the Greens).
Daemon uses his network to organize this vendetta. He enters King's Landing thanks to his influence within the guard and recruits two people to enter the castle and kill Aemond. The first is the guard and it is he who will take care of the dirty work; he is nicknamed “Blood”. The second is a rat hunter who knows the dungeon well; It’s “Cheese.” He must serve as a guide in the mazes of the fortress.
Blood and Cheese therefore sneak into the castle but fail to find Aemond. On the other hand, they come across Helaena, Aemond's sister and Alicent's daughter, and, above all, her children: a boy, Jaehaerys, and a girl, Jaehara. Fromage considers that taking the boy's head will be equivalent to that of Aemond.
What followed was obviously terrible. To put it quickly, Sang kills Jaehaerys and cuts off his head to serve as proof. Helaena manages to escape with her daughter Jaehara and take refuge elsewhere. This drama upsets the Black camp, and more particularly the king, Aegon II, who has just lost his son in the most despicable way.
Days and days of torture
From the moment the murder was known, the dungeon was secured and the city sealed off. Larys Fort, who acts as a sort of head of spies and intelligence for the king, tells him that a suspect has been apprehended. It's about Blood. He was arrested near a city gate, with a bag containing Jaehaerys' head.
When Sang, then imprisoned in a dungeon, is confronted with Larys Fort and the prospect of torture, he immediately speaks. It indicates who hired him (Daemon Targaryen), what reward was promised to him and under what terms. He confirms that he formed a duo with a rat catcher, but whose name he did not know.
Sang obviously fears being put to torture when he sees the instruments that Larys Fort takes out. However, the latter assures him that he is not going to do anything to him. The king, on the other hand, is only motivated by revenge. He enters the dungeon with a mace in his hand. Without surprise, and without a word, he delivered a violent blow to his head.
We won't see Blood again for the rest of the episode. At this stage, it is also unknown whether we will see him again later in the series and, if so, in what state. If the series is faithful to the work Fire and Blood (the name has nothing to do with the guard), from whom he was taken, so we will find him in a sorry state. We are indeed talking about thirteen long days of torture.
Sang has no chance of surviving. After the ordeal he will endure continuously, he will eventually die. On the other hand, Fromage, the rat hunter, will a priori be a little luckier: the guard will never manage to formally get their hands on him. If he was killed, it may have been when it was decided to kill all the rat catchers. Radical.
