Warning: spoilers ahead for House of the Dragon season 2 episode 1.
House of the Dragon is officially back – and the hit fantasy series certainly didn’t pull any punches in season 2 episode 1.
At the very end of the first instalment, a truly abhorrent act is committed in the Game of Thrones spin-off – and fans are rightfully horrified out of their minds, with some even saying they ‘had to skip’ the scene altogether as they found it too abhorrent to watch.
Following the death of Luke (Elliot Grihault) at the end of season 1 – Rhaenyra Targaryen’s (Emma D’Arcy) second eldest son – she wants revenge from the person responsible… her half-brother, Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell).
Rhaenyra’s husband Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) heeds her request, taking it upon himself to head to King’s Landing undetected and enlist the services of two assassins called Blood (Sam C Wilson) and Cheese (Mark Stobbart).
Blood and Cheese are meant to sneak into the castle and kill Aemond, but before finding him, they instead come across Queen Helaena (Phia Saban) with her two children Jaehaerys and Jaehaera.
The assassins make her tell them which child is the boy, and she eventually points at her son while the youngster – who is the heir to the Iron Throne – is sleeping peacefully in his bed.
Figuring out that she’s telling the truth, Blood and Cheese murder the boy there and then, as Helaena grabs her daughter and hurries out of the room, while a horrifying sound can be heard of cutting or sawing after Jahaeyrs’ murder.
Helaena speeds to Alicent Hightower’s (Olivia Cooke), where she discovers her mother secretly having sex with the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Ser Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel), before she reveals that her son has been killed.
Viewers were aghast to witness infanticide in the very first episode, with some expressing just how disgusting they found the horrible noise after Jaehaerys was stabbed to death when he was having his ‘head cut off’… which made them skip the scene altogether.
‘I had to skip that part like DAMN,’ @voodoo_bubu wrote on X, while @mooniedelusions added: ‘It was the sound for me, I had to skip.’
‘I had to turn my head chile,’ @MaryJaneH011and agreed, as @FineVanillaChai remarked: ‘Likeeee that was so brutal 😭.’
Several people remarked on how gruesome they found the whole sequence, including @zDecepticon who wrote: ‘The sawing sound 🤢💔,’ as @milkmariee1_ stated: ‘Not even chopping they SAWEDDD 😭😭😭 I was like omfg.’
Another user called @Rexnoct added that while the scene was apparently ‘far worse’ in the book, it was ‘still horrifying’.
The murder of Jahaeyrs wasn’t the only thing that left House of the Dragon fans horrified in the first episode of season two.
Some viewers were absolutely irate over Cheese kicking his dog, who he’d brought with him on his and Blood’s assassination mission.
‘Me trying to fight that guy as soon as he kicked the poor dog,’ @kathleen_hanley wrote furiously.
‘Worst moment of this episode was watching this poor dog get kicked 😭,’ @LordSnow added, while @xoSWEET_DREAMS shared a gif of Keanu Reeves as John Wick as they remarked: ‘Oh b***h did he just kick the dog????’
One fan called @frshtonya also commented: ‘Remember how Team Green was preaching for months that Blood and Cheese was gonna be more horrible and impactful than the Red Wedding but people are more p***ed about the dog getting kicked.’
However, @AnCaldazar added: ‘If you care more about a dog being kicked than about this innocent angel being murdered, you’re a f***ing ghoul 😭.’
House of the Dragon airs on Sky Atlantic and NOW, with new episodes released on Mondays in the UK from 2am.
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