Warning: This article contains spoilers from House of the Dragon season 2, episode 5.

Three dragons flew into the Battle of Rook's Rest. Only one flew away. Could either side really call it a victory? That's what Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) and Ser Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel) ponder as their army carts the severed head of the dragon Meleys through the streets of King's Landing on House of the Dragon season 2's fifth episode.

Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) may have lost one of her most formidable dragons and dragon riders after the fiery battle in the sky during last week's "The Red Dragon and the Gold," but her half-brother and chief rival for the Iron Throne, King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney), is barely alive. The Greens smuggle his charred remains back to the Red Keep away from the public eye, revealing that Prince Aemond's (Ewan Mitchell) lawless play left his brother completely transformed.

Aegon is now in a coma, with half his body covered in burns, plus broken bones and internal injuries. Glynn-Carney speaks with Entertainment Weekly about Aegon's severe transformation. "It is really intense, but at the same time, it fully makes me feel like something horrendous has happened," the actor says of his new prosthetic and makeup for the character. "It really restricts. We spent a long time [on it], which I was very grateful for."

Ollie Upton/HBO

Glynn-Carney credits prosthetics designer Waldo Mason, who "exceptionally pulled out the stops with his design." He also points to Hannah Eccleston and Amanda Knight on the hair and makeup team, saying, "It's quite the undertaking for everybody involved."

"It means a long time in the chair. It means a lot of being in my own head with my own thoughts. It means a lot of sitting around covered in this gloopy stuff. I don't know what the material is," he continues. "I was allowed to collaborate in a way that I wanted it to restrict my movement as much as possible. There's a piece down my neck, which is really tight and forces me to move as one unit rather than being able to move my head independently, which is typical of somebody with facial burns and neck burns, where the skin is so tight. It really helped influence the way that Aegon moves now."

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Glynn-Carney also now knows that Aegon is in the same boat as his late father, Viserys. Paddy Considine donned plenty of prosthetics and makeup towards the conclusion of season 1 to depict the aging king at the end of his life. "Paddy loves that stuff. Halloween is his Christmas and New Year's and Easter," Glynn-Carney remarks. "I could see how excited he was to be able to do that, even though he sat in the chair for hours. But, yeah, I know where the story goes [for Aegon], and it's one that I'm just going to have to get used to, I think."

HBO

Aegon's brother, Prince Aemond, who was the one to put him in this state, now serves as acting prince regent in his stead. Things seem to be working out in the one-eyed dragon rider's favor, while questions still persist as to whether he intended to put his brother in the ground.

“I think that maybe Aemond would never have intended to burn Aegon, but it just so happened that Aegon was there tangled with Rhaenys and Meleys when he was on top of Sunfyre," Mitchell previously told EW. "It raises the question of whether or not he would've done that or if Aegon was just collateral damage. I think that's compelling. Maybe it was when Aegon brought in the Pink Dread [as children] when Aemond was like, ‘I'm going to burn him one day for this.’ Who knows?”

“We wanted to sustain multiple motivations that might have happened there," Alan Taylor, who directed episode 4, said. "It's a battle move, but he did deliberately join the battle late, and he is being a little bit indiscriminate with how he's blasting fire. So I think you can believe whatever you want to believe about his motivations there.”

New episodes of House of the Dragon air Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.