Ewan Mitchell thinks his character Aemond Targaryen is "Daemon’s biggest stan"

On House of the Dragon, Daemon and Aemond Targaryen (played by Matt Smith and Ewan Mitchell respectively) are uncle and nephew, but they have a certain special relationship beyond that. Aemond sees his uncle as a rival, perhaps the only other person in Westeros badass enough to take him on. It's unclear if Daemon spares much thought for his nephew, but now that they're on opposite sides of a war, it's only a matter of time before they clash.

“I’ve always thought Aemond is Daemon’s biggest stan; so much of the image Aemond has curated over the years, it is almost like a homage to his hero,” Mitchell said in a recent roundtable interview, according to Polygon. “Aemond idolizes Daemon; there’s almost this romantic quality that Aemond feels that Daemon got this close — or, rather, he sent people to end Aemond’s life, but he didn’t want to do it himself. [...] So Aemond likes being noticed by his idol.”

Mitchell is talking about the season 2 premiere of House of the Dragon, when Daemon sent assassins into the Red Keep to take out Aemond. Aemond previously killed the son of Daemon's wife Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy), so Daemon was out for revenge. But the assassins couldn't find Aemond, so they killed his young nephew Prince Jaehaerys instead.

If Aemond feels bad about that, he hasn't shown it much; mostly he's just flattered that his senpai noticed him. "It’s something that constantly reminds him going forward that Daemon got this close to ending him. And maybe there’s a guilt that Aemond feels with that.” Maybe.

In a way, Aemond's relationship with Daemon is reflective of Ewan Mitchell's relationship with Matt Smith. Mitchell watched Smith on Doctor Who when he was younger, and came to idolize him a bit. “Matt Smith brought such a vibrancy and an electricity [to the Doctor], and the youthfulness that was a little more accessible to me as a kid,” Mitchell said. “So I thought there was something interesting in never taking Matt Smith off that podium. I wanted to kind of keep my distance. [...] I wanted to save our eye contact for a moment that we share in episode 8 of season 1, that moment where they face off against each other at the banquet table.”

There was indeed a ton of electricity in that moment:

Will Aemond and Daemon meet up again? Watch and find out! New episodes of House of the Dragon air Sunday nights on HBO and Max.

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