This story incorporates spoilers for episode 4 of season two of Home of the Dragon.
Aemond Targaryen is now probably the most harmful man in Westeros. Portrayed by Ewan Mitchell with a steely resolve, beset by fleeting moments of vulnerability, Aemond has been a wildcard because the Targaryen civil battle heats up, and now he’s lastly put himself within the recreation in an enormous manner.
Tonight’s episode of Home of the Dragon, “A Dance of Dragons,” lastly made good on the season’s promise to ship all-out battle, because the Recreation of Thrones prequel unleashed its first main battle scene. Helmed by stalwart HBO director Alan Taylor and written by collection showrunner Ryan Condal, “A Dance of Dragons” ends with the battle of Rook’s Relaxation, in a sequence that simply might measure as much as the very best of Thrones—all because of Aemond’s actions.
The battle is a ruse between Aemond and Ser Criston Cole to lure a dragon from Rhaenyra’s facet out, so Aemond—who rides Vhagar, the most important dragon in all of the land—can swoop in with a sneak assault. And that’s precisely what occurs when Rhaenyra takes the bait and dispatches Rhaenys Targaryen and her dragon. Solely, she’s met by Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), feeling impotent and insecure, hoping to show his worthiness as king in battle. The result’s a climax that lives as much as the episode’s title, with a gnarly three-way dragon battle.
Aemond emerges from the woods on Vhagar and unleashes hearth on each of the opposite riders — sure, together with his personal brother. The ensuing chaos leaves Aegon and his dragon significantly injured and grounded within the close by forest, whereas Aemond and Vhagar kill Rhaenys and her dragon. For these retaining rating, that’s now two large our bodies from the opposite facet Aemond has claimed by way of Vhagar (the opposite being his nephew and Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys within the season 1 finale). And now, with Aegon both lifeless or near it, Aemond is (theoretically) poised to take Aegon’s place as ruler.
Within the wake of this plot twist, GQ talked to Mitchell to debate whether or not or not Aemond loves his brother, filming the battle of Rook’s Relaxation, cultivating a persona primarily based on worry, the connection between a dragonrider and dragon, and rather more.
GQ: Why do you assume Aemond assaults Aegon?
Ewan Mitchell: I feel it is that shared historical past that they’ve. It is their two characters’ trajectories lastly accumulating at this crescendo, this turning level that, going ahead, will not be the identical once more. This brotherly bond, should you can name it that — should you might ever have known as it that. Aegon was very a lot the ringleader of Aemond’s bullying and supreme misfortune as a child.
Aemond forgives, however he doesn’t overlook, and on prime of that, you will have this second son who’s finding out with the maesters, coaching with the sword, whereas Aegon is seen as squandering his inheritance. I feel Aemond appears like Aegon lacks the perseverance to be a pacesetter. These two issues collectively — you realize Aemond, he holds a grudge.
I feel there may be. As a lot as Aemond hates his brother, he additionally yearns for love and acceptance from him. However in Aemond’s world, love is a weak spot. He can’t be seen as weak in any manner, form, or kind. He is cultivated this picture over time. You see a really completely different Aemond between episodes six and 7 within the first collection. He is modified bodily and psychologically by means of this insecurity and all the torment he endured as a child. He is created this hardshell, this chilly persona, this picture, [that] he desires the entire world to know. He desires the entire world to know that he’s, finally, this neigh-unkillable Terminator-like horror. He can’t be seen as weak in any respect prices. Weak isn’t in Aemond’s vocabulary. Or at the very least that is what he desires you to assume.
I feel that ties into the scene within the brothel from final week. I like the concept that when he will get up and stands up, bare, it’s virtually as if he is being reborn once more at that second, with this even more durable, steelier exterior than we have seen earlier than.
That is attention-grabbing you say that. I’ve at all times form of performed with the truth that Aemond possesses this code. It is much like Michael Mann’s Warmth. Robert De Niro, his character, has that well-known line, “By no means get hooked up to anybody you are not ready to stroll out on in 30 seconds flat while you really feel the warmth across the nook.” That is the code that his character lives by: to maneuver the world with out getting caught by the police.
