Attack on Titan creator loves House of the Dragon, names favorite character

Game of Thrones was unquestionably the biggest show of the 2010s. If you didn’t watch the medieval drama series, you were surrounded by people who were, all of them excitedly talking about the Red Wedding, or whether Jon Snow was really dead, or how Daenerys could have done that to King’s Landing, and so on.

Likewise, I’d argue that Attack on Titan was the biggest anime series of the 2010s, at least in terms of anime series that broke through outside Japan. Based on the manga of the same name written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama, Attack on Titan has more than a few things in common with Game of Thrones. Both stories concern people who can get too wrapped up in their own political rivalries to come together and face down the existential threat looming over humanity (White Walkers and titans), death comes brutally and often even for major characters, and both stories end with a beloved lead character taking a shocking heel turn that polarizes fans.

It should come as no surprise that Hajime Isayama was a big fan of Game of Thrones when it was on. Speaking at AnimeNYC, he also revealed that he’d watched and loved HBO’s new spinoff show House of the Dragon. “I watched all of the first season and really enjoyed it,” he said, per ComicBook.com. “Even compared to the first season of the original Game of Thrones, it was well done.”

Attack on Titan creator has a favorite House of the Dragon character: Aemond Targaryen

Although the Attack on Titan manga is finished, the show has one more season to go; it’ll air this year starting on March 4, with the final episodes being released in two chunks. We’ll see that controversial ending I alluded to earlier, which has the potential to light certain corners of the internet on fire in the same way that the end of Game of Thrones did. And I cannot wait! It’s gonna be such a beautiful mess.

We’ll have to wait longer for new episodes of House of the Dragon. But when they arrive, Isayama will have his eye on one character in particular. “I like Aemond Targaryan,” he said. “I think that character’s face looks really good, as an actor.”

Of all the characters on House of the Dragon, the ambitious, revengeful Aemond does give off the most Attack on Titan vibes. We’ll see him back in action in 2024.

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