Whenever we return to the continent of Westeros with the release of the second season of House of the Dragon, there is one thing we can all expect without measure – a full-blown war with dragons at the center. The HBO sequel to the hit series, Game of Thrones has been set up for total carnage by the actions of one petulant prince and his over eager dragon. Despite often showing off a lot of restraint beginning from when he was first introduced to audiences, first as Leo Ashton and then as Ewan Mitchell, Prince Aemond lost control of his emotions and his dragon, Vhagar, in the skies over Storm's End which ultimately cost his cousin, Prince Lucerys (Elliot Grihault) his life and triggered a war.
A large part of Aemond's problems began with the hand dealt to him by fate. Per Targaryen custom, a dragon egg is placed in the crib of a newborn, establishing a bond between the rider and his dragon. It's a bond the young prince never had, and this set off in him a feeling of insecurity within a very troubled family. "It's tradition in Targaryen culture to place a dragon egg in the cradle of a newborn, which establishes a bond between the rider and the mount," Mitchell said when asked about his favorite character plot in an interview with The Face. "There's this dynamic that as the person grows, so does the hatchling."
The loneliness felt by Aemond was a point of reference for the bonding that took place when the prince took the awfully dangerous step of claiming the biggest dragon in the world, Vhagar. One of the three dragons originally used for Aegon's Conquest, Vhagar belonged to the Conqueror's sister, Visenya. Having seen all those familiar to her gone, the dragon was as lonely as Aemond. "[Vhagar is] named after the old Valyrian God of War, and she's a hardened survivor of over 100 battles. She's enormous but also the loneliest. She's so big she can't fit within the confines of any castle wall, like Aemond. He doesn't fit it anywhere, and so he identifies with her," Mitchell says of the bond between the pair.
Bonding with Vhagar Changed Aemond
While Aemond was young and riderless, the prince was a bit more subdued. However, upon claiming Vhagar, the unification with the world's largest mount infused him with both immense arrogance and still a desire to maximize his potential. "A character like Aemond never really felt that unconditional love from his family, but he's found it in this dragon. What does that do? It changes him," Mitchell adds. No more was Aemond the overlooked, drangonless third child of Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) but a major player within the family capable of squaring up to anyone in a duel.
House of the Dragon is streaming its first season in full on HBO Max. Watch the trailer below: