Stepping into the Targaryen dynasty means stepping into the shadow of some towering performances, and Finn Bennett knows it. As Aerion in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, he’s fully aware fans will compare him to Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys, but he also understands that trying to mimic her “prophet-like” presence would be a trap. Instead of chasing someone else’s stillness and fire, he’s treating Aerion as a chance to carve out something messier, angrier, and uniquely his — even if that means admitting there are hard limits to what works on his own face right now.
Quick read:
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Bennett calls Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys “almost like a prophet.”
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He realized her calm, still style didn’t suit him.
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That pushed him toward a louder, harsher Aerion.
Why Finn Bennett couldn’t just follow Emilia Clarke’s lead
When you join Westeros, the temptation to borrow from what came before is huge — especially when those earlier Targaryens are iconic. Bennett freely admits that trying not to be influenced by them is almost impossible. He told THR:
“It’s hard not to be because they’re so fucking good. But for me, maybe, it was a bit of a sobering realization that what worked for them, their stillness… like Emilia Clarke in Game of Thrones, she’s almost like a prophet. She’s so stoic and calm, but has this real fire bubbling beneath the surface.
It was maybe a kind of reckoning to see there are limits to what I can do, and what works for me. Maybe those will change, as I get older and my face changes and I grow rounder. [Laughs.] But I was like, ‘This doesn’t really work for me, so I have to try something different here.’”
Credits: HBO
Building a louder, crueler, more human Targaryen instead
What comes out the other side of that decision is an Aerion who feels nastier and more human than mythic. Rather than hovering above the chaos the way Daenerys often did, this prince dives straight into it with a brat’s entitlement and a bully’s instinct.
By refusing to chase Clarke’s “prophet” energy, Bennett gives the show a Targaryen who undercuts the dragon-rider mystique instead of repeating it. That makes Aerion a perfect foil for Dunk and Egg: a living reminder that not every silver-haired royal is destined to be tragic or godlike — some are just dangerously, recognizably petty. If you’re fascinated by how actors remix this family’s legacy, this is the performance to watch closely as Seven Kingdoms digs deeper into what makes its Targaryens so unnervingly different from the ones we already know.
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