House of the Dragon viewers angry at dog kicking scene

House of the Dragon's treatment of the dog has seen anger erupt online.
House of the Dragon's treatment of the dog has seen anger erupt online. Photo credit: Warner Bros Discovery

Some House of the Dragon viewers are angry the latest episode showed a dog being kicked.

Warning: This article contains spoilers.

The hit Game of Thrones spinoff show's second season debuted on Monday and featured a grisly final scene that shocked many with its depiction of violence towards a human child.

However, while many were stunned by that, it was the depiction of cruelty to an animal that upset others.

During the final sequence, as characters 'Blood' and 'Cheese' made their way into the Red Keep on a murderous mission, Cheese (Mark Stobart) is shown giving his dog a booting.

Outrage spread quickly online with many demanding to know if an animal had been mistreated in the making of the show.

"That poor dog, he was only being a very good boy," posted one on X.

"The way we all collectively yelled at the TV when they kicked that poor dog," another wrote online.

"Please tell me that the dog kicking was not for real? It looked so real," another commented.

"I'm very upset rat catcher kicked the poor dog for no reason don't wanna see that anymore in future episodes," another posted.

"Why the f**k did they have to have a guy kick a dog," another commenter wrote.

The show's parent network HBO has not commented on the furore, but on Reddit, at least one commenter has reassured others the scene was created with visual effects rather than actual animal cruelty.

"A show with a budget like this one can and did absolutely use CGI for the dog to be 'kicked'. If it helps, the dog's reaction afterwards is a big tell. It barely made a sound and sort of hustled off," they wrote.

"A real kick would make it yelp/cry out very loudly and sharply then very, very quickly scramble away."

House of the Dragon streams on Neon in New Zealand.