House of the Dragon: How Tony Soprano Inspired Aemond Targaryen

This article contains spoilers through House of the Dragon season 2 episode 4.

House of the Dragon has more in common with The Sopranos than you might think. There’s the obvious similarities in plot such as mutilating the loved one of an enemy to send a message, clandestine meetings between heads of households, and illicit affairs, but there are also more subtle ones. According to actor Ewan Mitchell, who plays Aemond Targaryen in House of the Dragon, his character is a lot like James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano.

While chatting with Den of Geek at a press roundtable, Mitchell said that Gandolfini’s performance in The Sopranos influenced and inspired how he approached Aemond in House of the Dragon season 2.

“If [Gandolfini] wanted to feel intense in a scene or to have some things simmering underneath the surface, he would put a stone in his shoe, if I recall correctly.” Mitchell said, “That was something that I wanted to do with Aemond – with putting this coin in my shoe.”

Mitchell said that the coin represented “something that kind of niggles him or just something that constantly reminds him going forward” of the fact that Daemon sent people to kill him, and they came close to doing it.

Even though they are on opposite sides, Aemond “idolizes” his uncle Daemon, much in the same way that Tony Soprano looked up to his father Johnny. According to Mitchell, “there’s almost this romantic quality that Aemond feels” about how close Daemon got to ending his life. “Aemond likes being noticed by his idol” and the fact that Daemon was potentially “too scared” to do it himself or couldn’t bring himself to commit the act is something that Aemond has been thinking a lot about.

“Maybe there’s a guilt that Aemond feels with that,” Mitchell says of Prince Jaehaerys’ murder. “Because it is a domino effect that started from him killing Lucerys in the skies above storms, and it was in retaliation.”

Aemond’s intensity this season makes a lot of sense within this context. He has always been a little cold and calculating, but this season, he seems to encompass a lot more mob boss energy. He’s willing to get his hands dirty to keep the throne in the family, much like his idol, Daemon, and very reminiscent of Tony Soprano.

But also like Tony Soprano, it’s hard to tell sometimes how much of Aemond’s desire to get involved is out of care for his family and how much of it is because he truly enjoys the power he can hold over people. The way he so casually stood by the fallen body of his brother Aegon after Sunfyre went down and the way he’s making lovey dovey eyes at the throne might not bode well for Aegon as the season goes on.

Like Daemon, Aemond has had to pick up scraps of power wherever he can as the second son. With Aegon down for who knows how long and Otto Hightower currently out of the picture, there is a power vacuum within the Greens, and we’ve learned anything from mafia movies and shows, it’s that power vacuums usually come with a lot of bloodshed – something Aemond doesn’t seem to be particularly against.