The One House Of The Dragon Character George R.R. Martin Wishes He Had Created

This post contains spoilers for "House of the Dragons."

If you thought "Game of Thrones," with its zombie armies, tortures, rapes, incest, maimings, and genocides, was cruel and bleak, "House of the Dragon" makes it all child's play. This goes back to the show's very first episode, which includes an extended stillbirth scene that set the tone for how relentlessly cruel this show was going to be. It also set the stage for a world and a time where life could easily end (or even just never begin). Although we haven't had as many characters to actually care about dying here like we had in "Game of Thrones" — there's no Ned or Rob Stark, whose deaths continue to be considered all-time greats — the fact of the matter is many of the characters who do die (or almost die) in "House of the Dragon" die much more horribly. This is as true of the biggest clown in Westeros getting horribly burnt because he recklessly charged into a battle he had no business getting involved in, or an accident between half-brothers turning into a horrific dragon attack like in season 1.

Without a doubt, the most shocking, horribly cruel, and gruesome death in the entire show so far happened just barely off-screen at the start of season 2 — the Blood and Cheese murder. The incident involved the death of Aegon's son at the hands of two vicious and kind of incompetent assassins, which was unnecessarily cruel in the book, yet even after being toned down for the show it remained horrific. However, the horrors of that incident didn't stop there because that side story also gave us the most tragic character in all of Westeros and the one player George R. R. Martin wishes he had written into his books — Cheese's dog.

We first meet the best boy on either side of the Narrow Sea in "House of the Dragon" season 2's first episode, "A Son for a Son," as a companion to the ratcatcher who comes to be known as Cheese (Mark Stobbart). Even before the abhorrent killing of baby Jaehaerys Targaryen, Cheese already had audiences red-hot with anger after he kicked his dog companion to dismiss him when he was no longer useful. It's a quick but highly effective way of making us immediately hate Cheese even before he turns into a horrific child murderer.

In a post on his personal blog, Martin shared his admiration for the addition of the dog to the cast of "House of the Dragon." Martin confessed that he is "not usually a fan of screenwriters adding characters to the source material when adapting a story," especially not when he's the one responsible for the source material. Still, he now has one exception: "That dog was brilliant."

"Such a little thing... such a little dog... but his presence, the few short moments he was on screen, gave the ratcatcher so much humanity," Martin wrote. "I wish I'd thought of that dog. I didn't, but someone else did. I am glad of that." 

He's right to be glad. That dog is one of the wisest choices "House of the Dragon" has ever made, especially because he was not just a one-off character to be treated cruelly before disappearing. Instead, the dog has had a little arc of his own as the most loyal being in the land, a story that echoes the saddest and most tragic episode of "Futurama." That's right, we have our very own Westerosi "Jurassic Bark," the Hachiko of King's Landing.

Episode 2, "Rhaenyra the Cruel," saw the dog return as he sat quietly (and nobly) right in front of his now-dead master, hung by his neck alongside every ratcatcher in King's Landing. Poor pup, after being kicked by Cheese, still loved his master so much that he'd stay by his human's side after his death. Making matters even more heartbreaking is the fact that we know there has been a food shortage in the capital due to the war between Teams Green and Black, yet no one has eaten this scrawny dog who's been sitting there for days, maybe even weeks.

Episode 5, "Regent," seemingly brought this sad story to an end, with newly-appointed Prince Regent Aemond "I'm an Anime Character" Targaryen ordered every ratcatcher to be cut down. We then see the dog follow the cart loading up the corpse of his master and driving away. 

What makes the dog so special in the context of "House of the Dragon" is not just how cute and sad it is to see a dog suffer, but how rare this display of loyalty is in the history of Westeros. After all, this is a franchise built on backstabbing and betrayal, on sacrifices and murder. What's more, the rare show of love and loyalty from the dog to his master echoes what we've recently seen in the connection between dragons and their riders, a connection that's much more emotional and much closer than we imagined. It didn't matter how awful Cheese was, just as it doesn't matter that Rhaenyra and every dragon rider is taking their flying nukes to war to die horribly. They'll follow no matter what.

New episodes of "House of the Dragon" premiere Sundays on HBO and Max.