WiC Reads: Fire & Blood

4) The Sons of the Dragon

This chapter is — mostly word for word — the same story many of us read when it was included in the anthology The Book of Swords. If you haven’t read that one yet, don’t bother after reading this chapter.

Two important aspects from earlier chapters become arguably even more important here: Visenya’s influence and the maneuvering of the different Oldtown-based factions. While Visenya and the Oldtown-based factions used to be stabilizing factors for Targaryen rule, at least superficially, that stops now, although to what degree might be up for debate. In the end, Visenya and her son Maegor are dead and the Faith dealt a massive blow, losing its influence and its military power. I can’t seem to shake the feeling that the Faith and Visenya both overplayed their hands. First the Faith turns more and more against Aenys I Targaryen, and then, partly as a result, Visenya undermines her stepson’s rule. Trying to end Targaryen rule by force, as the Faith tries to do, is as doomed an undertaking as putting Visenya’s son Maegor on the throne.

In between all that, we get the story of yet another Aegon Targaryen, son of Aenys I Targaryen, and his older sister and wife, Rhaena Targaryen, who are the proper (tragic) heroes of this chapter. Rhaena makes it out alive. I’m curious what the next chapter has in store for us, what with Rhaena’s brother Jaehaerys on the throne instead of her daughter Aerea.