The second season of House of the Dragon is on the way, and the stars are out there getting people hyped. Ewan Mitchell (Aemond Targaryen) appeared this past weekend at the CCXP convention in Brazil, where he talked about the moment Aemond turned a cold war into a searing hot one at the end of season 1: when he killed his nephew Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Grihault), infuriating Luke’s mother Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen.
Although, actually, Aemond may not have meant to kill Luke. The murder happened when the both of them were on their dragons, and Aemond’s dragon Vhagar seemed to act partially on her own.
That said, Aemond did threaten to cut out Luke’s eye (Luke slashed out Aemond’s eye during a scrum when they were younger) and chased him into the sky, so there’s no scenario where he’s blameless. Speaking to the crowd at CCXP, Mitchell said that “you’ll see” whether Aemond reveals his true intentions in House of the Dragon. “ got over the fact that Luke took his eye out, he just hadn’t got over the fact that he got away with it,” he said, per Redanian Intelligence. “When a crime goes unpunished, the world is unbalanced. Aemond’s world more than anyone’s. As to whether or not it was intentional, that’s spoilers, I can’t say.”
"I mean, you guys know… when a Targaryen is born the gods toss a coin. One side is greatness and the other side is madness. We’ve got a whole family of these guys. So this is possibly the craziest you will ever see Westeros."
Aemond does seem extremely sensitive to breaches of protocol, particularly when that breach involves one of his vital organs getting slashed out of his face. I like how Mitchell is clearly trying to get inside Aemond’s head; he seems like he’s trying to play him as a person who does villainous things rather than as a villain. “You might not like Aemond, you might feel like you’re not supposed to like him, but you do feel something for him,” he said, per westerosies. “You might not condone his actions, but you understand why, and I think that’s what makes him a complex villain.”
That said, Mitchell is in no way above stoking the bloodlust of the audience, and thank goodness for that. “Aemond drew first blood,” he said dramatically. “He solidified these two sides, and now that the players are set, mark my words, Brazil: it is all-out war.”
All-out war begins sometime in the summer of 2024.
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h/t Collider