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Beneath all the heraldry and magic, George R.R. Martin's writing is all about authentic, humanized characters dealing with extraordinary circumstances. That's true for everyone from the humblest street urchin to the larger-than-life dragonriders, such as House of the Dragon's Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell.) In a new interview with The L.A. Times, Mitchell talked about finding the humanity of the character, beneath his haughty demeanor as well as his facial scar and sapphire eye. Showrunner Ryan Condal chimed in as well to emphasize how important this was for the character. He said that he and the writers were careful to avoid turning Aemond into "an anime villain."
As usual, Condal pointed out the vast difference in perspective between Martin's book Fire & Blood and his TV adaptation House of the Dragon. He noted that Aemond's story is pretty bare-bones at this point in the book, leaving it up to Condal and the writers to fill in the blanks. He felt there was "a danger of the character becoming an anime villain," because "He looks a certain way. He has this eye patch. He rides this Godzilla-sized dragon. And he’s done some pretty reprehensible things."
Is Aemond Targaryen an "anime villain?"
Of course, the melodrama is part of the point for House of the Dragon — and for all fantasy stories — but Condal and his team wanted to make sure it didn't distract from the real arc beneath the surface. He said that they used Fire & Blood as "a baseline," then went on to "excavate that trauma and vulnerability" within Aemond. Mitchell seemed to be in a similar place with the character, saying that his goal has always been to ground his performance in the set up from Season 1, when Leo Ashton played a younger Aemond to great acclaim.
"He was this neglected, bullied boy. He was never given a dragon egg," he said. "So from the beginning he recognized that he was on the back foot, and he was bullied for being different. What’s nice about Season 3 is it’s showing Aemond’s true colors."
Fans of anime may take issue with Condal's phrasing here, but the point remains that "Aemond One-Eye" could have become a caricature of himself very easily. The trappings of royalty are gaudy as it is — Aemond is always impeccably dressed whether in finery or armor, and his silver-blond Targaryen hair is an ornament unto itself — but his massive scar and eyepatch put him on a level of his own. By the time he removes the patch to show the sapphire filling his empty eye socket, we are firmly in fantasy territory.
What makes Martin's world so unique as a setting is that Aemond himself is well aware of all these symbols, and he is using them on purpose. The young prince is desperate for power, and he grew up in a court where flaunting the Valyrian roots of his house could always invoke it. Like Daemon (Matt Smith), Aemond seems to know as much about dragons as any Targaryen alive at this point in the story, yet the show never loses sight of the fact that he is still a young man who has spent all of his life in Westeros. Connections to his Valyrian ancestry are just posturing for him.
We've already seen Aemond's tough exterior begin to crack at Harrenhal, and according to both Mitchell and Condal, we'll see much more of that in the episodes to come. House of the Dragon season 3 continues on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max. Martin's books are available now in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
Today's best reads
- House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal hints that more wild dragons may be coming
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This article was originally published on winteriscoming.net as House of the Dragon boss reveals one thing the show wanted to avoid with Aemond Targaryen in season 3.
