The Big Picture
Aemond’s act of kinslaying carries a heavy stigma in Westeros, it should impact him stronger in
House of the Dragon
.
Kinslaying has historically cursed characters like Robb Stark and Stannis Baratheon, highlighting the tragedy that awaits those who commit the act.
The Greens in
House of the Dragon
exploit kinslaying as a tool for power, revealing their hypocrisy and corrupt nature.
As the second son of King Viserys I (Paddy Considine) and Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke), Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) is one of the most compelling and emotionally complex characters in House of the Dragon. Ewan Mitchell’s cold, vulnerable portrayal blends the ferocity of a vicious knight with the unpredictability of Aemond’s uncle, Daemon (Matt Smith). The character goes from a boy who was bullied by his siblings to the rider of the largest dragon in Westeros, Vhagar, and Aemond dedicates himself to combat training with more rigid discipline than his older brother, King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney). Aemond’s traumatic childhood and militant mindset also cause him to draw first blood against Rhaenyra’s Blacks by the end of Season 1, but Season 2 of Ryan Condal’s prequel epic has so far seemingly forgotten the act and its role in his identity: the fact that he is a kinslayer.
In the world of Westeros, kinslaying is the killing of a family member at the hands of another, and it is ranked among the most dishonorable acts of violence a person can commit. Since Aemond kills his nephew, Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Grihault), with Vhagar in House of the Dragon’s Season 1 finale, the prince already qualifies for the sin, but Season 2 of the series has yet to explore the full implications of Aemond’s crime. In George R.R. Martin’s prequel novel on which House of the Dragon is based, Fire and Blood, Aemond’s murder of Lucerys earns him the title of Aemond the Kinslayer to his enemies, bringing with it a legacy of guilt and shame. In the show, Aemond’s kinslaying is barely acknowledged by members of the Red Keep, barely delving into the taboo of kinslaying or how Aemond’s murder demonstrates the hypocrisy of the Greens.
House of the Dragon
The reign of House Targaryen begins with this prequel to the popular HBO series Game of Thrones. Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon is set nearly 200 years before Game of Thrones, telling the story of the Targaryen civil war with King Viserys.
Release Date August 21, 2022
Creator Ryan J. Condal, George R.R. Martin
Main Genre Drama
Seasons 4
Distributor HBO
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Kinslaying Carries a Severe Stigma in the World of Ice and Fire
While fans of both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon know Westeros is no stranger to horrific wars, bloody weddings, and heartless massacres, even the citizens of the Seven Kingdoms have to draw the line somewhere. Throughout both shows and George R.R. Martin’s multiple books, characters of various classes, religious backgrounds, stations, and titles repeatedly insist that no one is as cursed as the person who chooses violence over family. Those who do are reviled in the eyes of both friend and enemy, and the majority meet tragic ends as a result of their alienating act. Therefore, Aemond’s own act of kinslaying carries an entire history of extrema stigma on its back, and the true cost of the prince’s murder is him being turned into a cursed social pariah.
Past examples of Westerosi kinslayers illustrate the bloody cost of killing family. In Game of Thrones, one of the most dramatic examples of the taboo occurs in Season 2, when Stannis (Stephen Dillane) kills his brother through the magic of the Red Priestess Melisandre (Carice Van Houten). In Season 3, Episode 5, “Kissed by Fire,” Robb Stark (Richard Madden) also becomes a kinslayer when he executes Rickard Karstark for murdering Lannister hostages, as the accused himself admits that the Karstarks and Starks share a related bloodline. The fact that both Robb and Stannis later face brutal ends in the series reaffirms the Westerosi idea that kinslayers are inherently cursed, with Robb’s betrayal at the Red Wedding and Stannis’s defeat outside Winterfell emphasizing the tragic fates awaiting those who partake in Aemond’s crime.
Even Targaryens, who tend to be exceptions to the rules of the Seven Kingdoms’ various faiths, suffer from the stigmatized form of violence. In Fire and Blood, King Maegor Targaryen is impaled on the Iron Throne after stealing it from his nephew, Aegon the Uncrowned, and killing the boy during the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye. In the battle’s aftermath, Maegor is believed to be cursed when he is unable to produce an heir, further isolating him from his subjects. House of the Dragon Season 2, however, chooses not to demonstrate the social costs of Aemond’s actions but the personal ones, as Aemond confesses to regretting that he killed Lucerys in the arms of a brothel keeper (Michelle Bonnard). The show therefore chooses to depict the more intimate struggles of Aemond processing his own actions, rather than any potential blow to his social status.
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The Greens’ Reaction to Aemond’s Crime Reveals Their Own Hypocrisy in ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2
The potential stigma attached to kinslaying is of much more interest to the rest of Aemond’s faction, however, as the Hightowers’ Greens attempt to use Season 2’s most high-profile instance of family murder to strengthen their position. Taking advantage of Blood and Cheese’s assassination of the infant Prince Jaehaerys and the realm’s hatred of kinslayers, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) immediately uses his grandson’s death as an excuse to blame Rhaenyra and incite public outrage towards the Black faction. The title of this week’s episode, “Rhaenyra the Cruel,” stems from the small council’s use of Jaehaerys’s intentionally public funeral to villainize Rhaenyra in the killing’s aftermath, but since Aemond’s presence gives the Greens their own prominent kinslayer in their midst, the effort only really reveals the Greens’ own false attempt at public virtue.
If the Hightowers really cared about punishing royals guilty of kinslaying, they would have imprisoned Aemond the moment he returned from Storm’s End after killing his nephew. Instead, the Red Keep’s own version of Prince Daemon is given little more than a light scolding in the small council chamber, while King Aegon is nothing if not complimentary to his brother for Aemond’s murderous accomplishment. Aside from emphasizing the tragedy of Prince Jaehaerys’s death, the Greens’ funeral serves to sell the citizens of King’s Landing on the lie that the Hightowers truly care about what is considered right. In reality, the Greens’ usurping of Rhaenyra’s throne and hypocritical protection of their own reveal that what the faction has always cared about is power, and Aemond’s abilities as a warrior and dragonrider are the Greens’ best chance at keeping the throne.
Furthermore, this week’s episode of House of the Dragon makes the Greens even more culpable of kinslaying than the Blacks. While Daemon is directly responsible for hiring Blood and Cheese to murder Jaehaerys, Aemond’s murder of Lucerys almost brings the two sides to an even playing field. As Season 2, Episode 1’s title, “A Son for a Son,” suggests, the Greens and the Blacks traded lives at the beginning of their dance. However, with Aegon approving Ser Criston Cole’s (Fabian Frankel) plan to send Ser Arryk Cargyll (Luke Tittensor) after his twin, Ser Erryk (Elliot Tittensor), on Dragonstone, the Greens initiate a mission which results in the brothers all but murdering each other, casting an even greater kinslaying stain on the Greens’ honor than Prince Daemon’s callous assassination attempt.
It’s unclear why the series refuses to even attach kinslaying to Aemond’s name, especially since it now acknowledges how horrible the crime is. Instead, the show overlooks the social stigma of kinslaying and refuses to acknowledge how Aemond’s murder of Lucerys contradicts the Greens’ most recent attempts to curry public favor in House of the Dragon. Aemond’s status as a kinslayer makes him cursed in the eyes of the Seven Kingdoms, while the Greens’ deceptions emphasize their false face of self-righteousness that Rhaenyra recognized in Alicent during House of the Dragon Season 1. As war unfolds and Aemond’s actions inevitably reap their consequences, the series still has time to demonstrate how the shame of kinslaying may yet drive more allies from the Greens’ cause, as well as whether one of the show’s most layered characters can survive being haunted by his most shameful murder.
House of the Dragon Season 2 is currently streaming on Max. New episodes air every Sunday.
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