Game of Thrones: Every Targaryen who should appear in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
"[...] He named himself Aerion Brightflame. One night, in his cups, he drank a jar of wildfire, after telling his friends it would transform him into a dragon, but the gods were kind and it transformed him into a corpse."
— 💭 (@thinktargaryens) October 21, 2022
- Aerion Targaryen. He was the son of Maekar I Targaryen. pic.twitter.com/VQt3Ovg2jH
Aerion Targaryen
Aerion is the resident crazy Targaryen in this time period, and Dunk and Egg’s main antagonist in The Hedge Knight despite being Egg’s older brother. In their youth, Aerion apparently threw Egg’s cat down a well. Egg’s older brother Daeron referred to him as “quite the monster.”
During the Ashford tourney, Aerion punishes a girl named Tenselle because she conducted a puppet show with a dragon dying which offended the prince. Dunk intervened by punching Aerion. Dunk is arrested and Aerion calls for his execution. But Aerion’s uncle and Hand of the King Baelor Breakspear refuses to allow his execution. Dunk demands a trial by combat and Aerion raises the stakes by making it a Trial of Seven.
Dunk uses the fighting skills he learned in Flea Bottom to beat the prince down and put a dagger to his face, forcing Aerion to yield. Maekar sends Aerion to Lys after the tourney, hoping a few years in Essos will change him for the better. At some point, Aerion returns to Westeros and fights in the third Blackfyre rebellion on the side of the loyalists. He also urges King Aerys to execute Bittersteel instead of sending him to the Wall.
Aerion had one child named Maegor, which was off-putting because the only prominent Targaryen by that name before this was also a madman. For some reason, Aerion drank a cup of wildfire and died relatively young, saving the realm from another cruel king.
I think Aerion will be a fun character to hate in this show, since he is basically a more competent and dangerous version of Daenerys’ brother Viserys.