13. Maester Aemon recalls his lost love (“The Watchers on the Wall”)
KATIE: Game of Thrones is full to bursting with rich characters, and we don’t have time to hear all their stories. There’s always gossip about HBO picking up a Game of Thrones prequel series. My vote is for a series revolving around Robert’s Rebellion, but a show that explored the long life of Maester Aemon could be well worth watching.
We get snatches of Aemon’s life story on Game of Thrones. We know the gist of why he hightailed it out of King’s Landing instead of taking the Iron Throne, as was offered to him. But what toll did that take on him? What ties did he have to sever to take the black? What did he regret, and how close did he come to abandoning his Night’s Watch vows when he heard about his his family members had been killed in King’s Landing during the rebellion? And beyond all that, he had to break a couple of hearts, too.
As Maester Aemon reveals to Sam in “The Watchers on the Wall,” he had once been in love: “I met many girls when I was Aemon Targaryen. A future king always does. Some of them were quite forward in their attempts to win my affections. One of them succeeded… Ah, I could tell you everything about her. Who she was, how we met, the color of her eyes and the shape of her nose. I can see her right in front of me. She’s more real than you are.”
Perhaps if Aemon hadn’t been saddled with so much responsibility, he could have explored that love fully. That didn’t happen, although it’s clear from Aemon’s speech that that love is as real and potent as ever. He may have had to give up his girl, but he never gave up on the love that bound them.