A very striking detail of the last episodes of ‘The house of the dragon’ has been the presence of rats at the end of them. As expected, this decision by those responsible for the series at HBO Max is not random and serves as an omen for a horrible event to be produced later that rivals The Red Wedding from ‘Game of Thrones’.
What is he preparing and when can we see him?
Beware of spoilers for ‘The House of the Dragon’ so far, but also for the future of the series.
We could already see one drinking blood from Joffrey’s corpse at the end of ‘We light the way’ and another has appeared hanging around Viserys again in the final moments of ‘The princess and the queen’. At first glance, it might simply seem like a bad omen that death is drawing near for the character played by Paddy Considine, but everything indicates that they are some of the first clues that prepare us for an essential event in the future of the series.
And it is that those rats -taking into account that 10 years have passed between episodes it is impossible that they are the same- have not even been the first clue about the future appearance of two characters nicknamed as blood and cheese. Already in ‘The King of the Narrow Sea’ there was the first big sign pointing in that direction.
As you will remember, Rhaenyra escapes from her home through a secret passage whose existence perhaps only Daemon knew of until then. As she walks along it, we see some rats feeding peacefully. Another possible nod to something that easily shouldn’t happen until well into season two, with Viserys already dead and Alicent and Rhaenyra completely at odds.
I am referring to the murder of Jaehaerys, grandson of Alicent and eldest son of her daughter Helaena as Daemon’s revenge for the death of Lucerys Velaryon, Rhaenyra’s second son. For this he hired two mercenaries nicknamed Blood and Cheese, the second being a rat catcher.
Most likely, Blood and Cheese used that same passageway to infiltrate the Red Keep, neutralize Alicent and force Helaena to choose which of her three children she wanted to see die only for Blood to then decide on his own to end the life. Jaehaerys in place of Maelor before leaving with Jaehaerys’s head to collect Daemon’s bounty. Blood was caught, Cheese was never heard from again, and an enraged Aegon II ordered that all the rat catchers in the Red Keep were executedbeing replaced by cats.
All this further precipitated the confrontation between two sides within the Targaryens known as the Dance of the Dragons.
In Espinof: