Why Did Aegon Hang the Rat Catchers? ‘House of the Dragon’ Reveals His Darkest Side Yet

The moment ‘House of the Dragon‘ fans still bring up whenever they talk about Aegon II is the mass execution of the rat catchers, and it remains one of the most brutal turning points in the show. It happened early in season two, but its shockwaves are still being felt as fans revisit the scene amid the current season.

The order came straight from a grieving and furious king, and once you understand the context, the cruelty makes a twisted kind of sense.

The Assassination that Started It All

The killing spree traces back to the murder of Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen, the young son of King Aegon II and Queen Helaena. Two hired killers infiltrated the Red Keep using knowledge of hidden passageways built generations earlier by King Maegor Targaryen.

Those assassins were known only by the names Blood and Cheese, and their ability to move undetected through the castle came from one very specific job.

Those who work in the sewers under the Red Keep keeping the rat population under control are called the rat catchers, typically poorer citizens of King’s Landing who take the job to make a living.

Their familiarity with the tunnels beneath the palace made them uniquely suited to sneak in undetected, and one of them used that access for something far darker than pest control.

Cheese and Blood’s Connection to the Rat Catchers

Cheese, one of the two assassins, was not an outsider brought in for the job. Cheese was a ratcatcher in the Red Keep who also spent time in Flea Bottom, and the hidden doors and secret tunnels built by King Maegor were as familiar to him as the rats he hunted. He and his partner Blood were hired to avenge the death of Prince Lucerys Velaryon, who was killed by Prince Aemond Targaryen.

Cheese led Blood into the Red Keep through a forgotten passageway, and after binding the Dowager Queen and strangling her bedmaid, the assassins waited for Queen Helaena and her children to arrive. What followed was the killing of young Jaehaerys, an act that sent King’s Landing into chaos and left Aegon desperate for vengeance.

Why Aegon Targeted Every Rat Catcher in the City

Once Blood was captured and interrogated, he gave up information tying the crime to his accomplice. After learning this information, Aegon furiously ordered all the rat catchers of the Red Keep to be executed. Since the assassins had posed as rat catchers to gain access to the castle, Aegon’s fury turned into a citywide purge of anyone connected to that profession.

In his fury, Aegon II ordered all of King’s Landing’s rat catchers to be hanged, and Ser Otto Hightower later brought one hundred cats into the Red Keep to replace them. It was less a targeted investigation and more a brutal, sweeping act of retribution meant to guarantee that whoever had wronged him would not escape punishment.

Cheese and the other rat catchers were then hanged and displayed along the walls of the city for all the smallfolk to see, with his body left hanging for weeks until Prince Aemond ordered the bodies removed after becoming prince regent. The public display was meant to send an unmistakable message about crossing the crown.

How the Show Handled the Aftermath

The brutality of the moment has stuck with viewers well into ‘House of the Dragon’ season three, with fans still referencing it as one of the show’s most disturbing choices. Some viewers have pointed out that the show paraded Jaehaerys’ body through the streets and hanged the rat catchers, yet characters in King’s Landing seem to move on from Rhaenyra’s connection to a child’s death remarkably quickly.

That criticism has become part of the larger conversation around how ‘House of the Dragon’ handles consequences and memory across its sprawling cast.

The show ultimately confirmed Cheese’s death among the hanged bodies in Flea Bottom, with his dog’s visible pain in the scene serving as final proof that Cheese himself did not escape Aegon’s wrath. It closed the book on a mystery that had lingered since the source material left his fate ambiguous.

The rat catcher purge remains one of the clearest windows into who Aegon II really is when pushed to his limit, and it’s worth asking whether fans think this single act defines his reign more than anything else he’s done since.