Here's What Aemond Put in His Eye Socket (Instead Of, You Know, The Eye)
Prince Aemond "One-Eye" Targaryen, despite debuting only in the second half of Season 1, and only in the last three episodes as his young adult self (played by Ewan Mitchell), quickly became one of the more popular characters in House of the Dragon.
That is unsurprising. He is a badass who single-handedly managed to shift the balance of power towards his side of the family by bonding with the mightiest dragon in the world; he has plenty of sympathetic qualities, mixed with just the right amount of recklessness and ruthlessness.
And despite said recklessness, even as a child he was among the more reasonable characters of the show – following the bloody incident which earned him his nickname, he was the only character besides King Viserys who even attempted to discharge the situation.
Oh, and while after said incident he usually appeared with a pirate-style black eyepatch over his left eye, he deemed that appearance, badass as it was, not cool enough for someone like his majestic self.
What did he put in his empty eyesocket in place of what belonged there? Why, a large, gleaming sapphire.
The book Fire and Blood, on which the series is based, tells us that whenever Aemond went to battle, he removed the eyepatch which he wore normally, to avoid frightening all the people at court and his younger relatives, and wore the sapphire false eye, as it made him look more intimidating.
House of the Dragon made this habit less explicit, but here Aemond too only removes his eyepatch when he intends to intimidate Prince Lucerys and wants to take one of the latter's eyes, in revenge for what Lucerys did to him several years ago.
And yes, with the sapphire Aemond indeed looks scarier and more intimidating. Too bad about all the memes, comparing him with various anime characters, which quickly proliferated on the web, after Episode 10 had aired. Maybe he is trying a bit too hard to be cool, after all. Such mostly-friendly mockery nonwithstanding, he remains a beloved character, and we're likely to see much more of him in subsequent seasons.