House of the Dragon Star on Helaena’s Unfair Choice in Season 2 Premiere

The second season premiere of “House of the Dragon” ended with Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) making the terrible choice to sacrifice one of her children to two assassins in order to save another.

Saban told the official “House of the Dragon” podcast that the “unfair” decision to tell the killers – Blood and Cheese – which of his twins was the king’s heir and which was just his daughter was not limited to to fear. It was about “saving a child’s life.”

“I think what she means is that we are extremely dangerous men and we are more than capable of killing you all, and you can make this easy for yourself or you can make this harder for yourself- same,” Saban said. “Obviously, there’s nothing easy about it. I think it’s unfair to say that someone braver would say, “No, you won’t get either.” “I don’t think that’s an option. I really don’t think that’s an option at this point.

Blood and Cheese were hired by Daemon (Matt Smith) to kill Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) in retaliation for him and Vhagar murdering Luke (Elliot Grihault) in the season 1 finale. They never find Aemond, but they fall on Helaena and her twins – Prince Jaehaerys and Princess Jaehaera. The assassins force her at knifepoint to tell them who the boy is and the king’s heir. After failing to convince them with gold, Helaena gives in and nominates 6-year-old Jaehaerys, who is killed as the queen flees the room with her daughter.

“I actually think it’s pretty powerful that she’s honest the first time, because I think it shows how high the stakes are for her,” Saban added. “Like, ‘I’m not going to screw this up or I don’t have a choice here.’ » It’s about saving a child’s life.

The moment is slightly altered on screen compared to how it appears in the book. While the bloody end result is the same, on the page Helaena is forced to choose which of her two sons will die and when she finally makes a decision, Blood kills the opposite. Showrunner Ryan Condal told TheWrap that adapting the big moment led to a lot of decision-making.

“There was a lot of debate about how to write this? And how can we structure this to make it satisfying, but also achievable? » he noted. “And, of course, what’s written on the page is great and classic and has affected everyone who reads this book, but we had to find a way to take that and bring it to the screen in a way that would be executable and also dramatically satisfying.

New episodes of “House of the Dragon” air Sundays on HBO and stream on Max.