House of the Dragon Fans Have Identified the Real Victim of the Season 2 Premiere
Murder and mayhem are par for the course on House of the Dragon. But kicking a dog? That's another story.
This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season 2 episode 1.
The murder of the young Prince Jaehaerys at the hands of the infamous Blood and Cheese assassins wasn’t the only tragedy found in the season 2 premiere of House of the Dragon.
According to some fans, the moment that Cheese kicks his dog for absolutely no reason is an even more heinous act. The beheading of a child is apparently an expected act of war, especially for those who knew this was coming, but the unprompted kicking of a dog is just a bridge too far.
Not only was this poor little guy just minding his own business, but this was his job! He was on the clock, hoping to catch some rats like he was trained to do. And he would have done a damn good job of it, if only he would have had the chance.
But, as some Reddit users have pointed out, this brief moment does more for Cheese’s characterization than anything we have seen thus far. We already know he’s desperate enough for coin that he would agree to kill someone, but kicking a poor defenseless dog aptly foreshadows how cowardly and cruel he really is.
He’s too scared about being caught to do the job properly and kill Aemond, and thus resorts to beheading a poor, defenseless child to make sure he still gets his coin.
Hopefully, now that the dog is free from the unnecessary cruelty of Cheese, the little guy can make a new life for himself in Westeros. Maybe retire from his job as a ratcatcher and find a kind family in the countryside. He could herd sheep or goats and receive a generous payment of bellyrubs. I only hope that this dog does not find himself as yet another casualty of the war between the Greens and the Blacks.
Cheese, on the other hand, deserves whatever punishment is coming to him. Kicking a dog before you go off and behead a child is just too cruel, even for Westeros.
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Brynna Arens (she/her) is a freelance writer who studies movies, TV, and pop culture through an intersectional feminist lens. She'll watch almost anything tbh, but it's…