#it also explains why daeron the young dragon is called that

[befooremoonrisee]

to me one of grrm's biggest screw-ups is not letting gaemon and jaehaera grow into adulthood, because the dynamics those two could have with aegon lend themselves to so much.

you're aegon iii and you're forced to marry the daughter of the man who killed your mother and your brothers. her only friend is her dragon and you hate dragons because one killed your mother in front of you and two others killed your brothers. she hates you and would kill you if that didn't mean her own demise. your best friend is also a son of aegon ii, but he hates him too, as he is responsible for the death of his mothers, he was a pretender, he is a nice kid who wants to help people just like you. he's the only one that understands you.

you're jaehaera, your father won the war, but you're forced to become the wife of the son of the man who killed your twin, the woman who put a bounty on your other brother's head and who drove your mother to suicide. your grandmother, the only family you have left, is crazy with grief, she wants you to kill aegon. you're just a child. your dragon is a wretched delicate thing, just like you, your husband hates it. he is afraid of it, it makes you happy. your only brother (if he is your brother) doesn't like you, he spends all his time with aegon, you try to bond with him, but he is not jaehaerys. he will never be.

you're gaemon, son of a whore, bastard of a king. you were the hope of the smallfolk, a path for liberation, but the royals came and they killed your moms. now you're their pet, their tool to avoid being poisoned. you love aegon, he shares the same wounds as you, but you resent him, he is using your body, your life, that's what you smallfolk are for the royals, just pawns in their little games. maybe you're tired of it. then viserys comes back and you're discarded, not longer a friend, but just a tool. jaehaera claims she's your sister, but she isn't, aegon is nothing to you, she creeps you out, she understands what being a hostage is.

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

Why do Dany antis think Dany gave herself her titles? Like the amount of times people rant about how she must be "so conceited" to have all those titles, like do they not know how titles work in ASOIAF? This is rhetorical of course, I know the answer, hatred of her character and that shit show. So, since D&D chose not to explain to them in simple terms how titles come to be and how Dany earned hers, I will (don't worry, I'll use small words since they so clearly struggle with media literacy).

So how do titles work in ASOIAF? Simple, their awarded by others. If someone gives themself a title it's not acknowledged by others, simple Medieval European rules. We see examples in Aegon the Conqueror, Maegor the Cruel Jaehaerys the Conciliator, Rhaenyra the Realm's Delight/Black Queen, Aegon the Usurper, Aegon the Unlucky, Baelor the Blessed, Daeron the Young Dragon, Aegon the Unworthy, Aemon the Dragonknight, Daeron the Good, Aegon the Unlikely, and Aerys the Mad King. Yes, I decided to do all Targaryen examples, because why not use Dany's family.

Each of these titles were given because of the attributes or accomplishments of their owners. Aegon I conquered the Seven Kingdoms, Maegor usurped and killed his family members (and much more), Jaehaerys stabilized the kingdom, Rhaenyra was greatly loved by the realm as a child and her faction were called the Blacks after her clothing. I could explain everyone on the list, but that would take forever and we have a lot to get to. However, I believe I have made my point about titles, they are given, sometimes posthumously, by those around them because of what that person has done or what they're like.

Dany's titles are no different, she earned them and/or was given them by those around her. These titles are: Stormborn, Princess of Dragonstone, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, Mother of Dragons, and Breaker of Shackles/Chains. I'm going to go in order and say how she got these titles, since apparently that needs explaining. I'll even go into Queen of the Seven Kingdoms (etc) and Queen of Meereen, in case someone wants to bring that up.

Stormborn was given to her by her mother, Queen Rhaella, upon Dany's birth, same for Princess of Dragonstone actually. Dany was born on the night of a terrible storm that destroyed what was left of the Targaryen fleet. She was also born after her family had been almost wiped out and Westeros was in the middle of massive civil upheaval. Hence, Stormborn. Now, Rhaella and Viserys both believed he and Dany were the rightful heirs to the throne after Aerys and Rhaegar's deaths, so Viserys was crowned king of the Seven Kingdoms and Dany was made his heir until he had children. The heir to the throne was traditionally given the title of prince/princess of Dragonstone, so that's why Dany was given it.

Fast forward thirteen (or sixteen in the show) years and Dany is married off to Khal Drogo, this marriage makes her a Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea. And since the position of Khaleesi is a bit of a lifetime thing, since after the Khal's death they join the Dosh Khaleen. Therefore, Dany will carry the title of Khaleesi for the rest of her life. She also became the leader of her own Khalasar, making the female equivalent of Khal an appropriate title.

But before she gained her Khalasar, she earned the titles Unburnt and Mother of Dragons on the same occasion. This was, of course, when she woke her dragons from stone. Dany walked into the fire of Drogo's pyre and was unscathed (except for her hair in the book). Because of that her people called her the Unburnt and told others. As for Mother of Dragons, Jorah and her Khalasar call her this first, then it spreads to Qarth, Astapor, and eventually Westeros. As for where it came from, well, she literally hatched three dragons that nursed from her (book).

Next up, the Breaker of Shackles/Chains. This is a title Dany earned after the events of Astapor, where she freed the Unsullied and helped lead a city-wide slave revolt. More specifically this name came from her order to the Unsullied, "Strike the chains off every slave you see," After the events in Astapor, the Unsullied and other slaves named her the Breaker of Shackles/Chains. This name spread across Slaver's Bay, to the rest of Essos and Westeros. Dany makes this name into an official title as a warning to the slavers, she is coming to free the people they enslaved. In Meereen, it's used as a reminder of the new order she was instituting, one that wasn't built on the backs of slaves. In Westeros it's a sign of her achievements and shows her intentions, to help the downtrodden and oppressed, even though the show decided to throw that out the window to "subvert expectations".

Now, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, etc, and Queen of Meereen are the only titles that it could be argued she gave herself. However, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms is her inheritance, at least she was taught it was (if you want to argue about new dynasties and such). She was Viserys' heir, so, when he died, his titles and responsibilities were passed to here. This means that technically the title was given to her lol, but she did choose to pursue it. After all, she was raised by Viserys to believe it was not only her birthright but also her duty to retake Westeros for first Rhaego, then herself. We see this line and thinking time and again in her chapters,

"If I were not the blood of the dragon...this could be my home." (AGOT) This is said about staying in the Dothraki Sea, and the same quote comes up in Meereen. Dany wants a simple life, the house with the red door, but she rejects it because she believes it's her duty to take the IT, her responsibility to her family.

A similar sense of duty is what drives Dany to take Meereen and rule it. At this point Yunkai has fallen back into slavery and Astapor is falling apart, so Dany learns from her previous choices and chooses to stay in Meereen to try to ensure the slaves she freed there don't fall back into slavery. Now the show really fucked up her storyline in Meereen, by removing the threats of Yunkai, Qarth, and Volantis as well as greatly reducing the actions of the Harpy and just straight up trying to make Hizdahr a "good guy". But both in the show and the books, Dany takes Meereen because of the rapant injustice of slavery, why is that so hated by certain parts of the fandom? Well the answer to that is because hatred of Dany is so deep in some people that they will demonize everything she does, even the things that are objectively right. This mentality causes them to be willfully blind to her titles and their significance.

Dany's titles were made to set her apart from her ancestors and contemporaries. The show damaged this by neglecting to actually show how titles work and by not giving any new ones to people who deserve them (Jon Snow for example). But either way, her titles show how Dany has done more in her sixteen years of life (about 20-22) than almost anyone else has done in their 40+. Her titles are signs of how respected and loved she is by her people, they are reasons her enemies should fear her, and they demonstrate how inspiring her character is, no matter how the shit show ruined her.

[ride-thedragon]

Intentional Parallels of Dragonriders.

Targtowers and Dragonseeds

Between these groups, there is reason to believe George intended for these 8 characters to have parallels with each other. They are on opposite sides of the war (for the most part), similar age line ups, none of them hatch dragons, and the group breakdown is exactly the same. I'll also be explaining why these are the pairs, but this is more book focused because it contains the whole narrative of the characters. I'll try to include book elements, but overall, this is a spoiler for HOTD and Fire and Blood.

Aegon and Hugh

They are the eldest of the groups. Both are on male dragons, renowned for their colour, and they both have kids in the show, and a wife they dismiss often, but that's neither here nor their. Both take on the leader role in the groups. Both call themselves King, in spite of there being direct issues with that. Both are lusty, violent, and drunk. At the end of their story, they are both killed by their men. They are also both complimented by their softer/ female counterpart. I do think show Aegon takes more from book High, his pursuit of the crown, and to rule is undermined by the men around him and isn't taken seriously. Daeron throws wine in Hugh's face in the books and for Show Aegon that doesn't seem so out of place.

Ulf and Helaena

My baby girl and this degenerate. I'm so sorry, but it's fair. The softer (very loose definition)/ female counterpart for the more traditionally masculine men. Both are the only female dragon riders, as in their dragons are female. They both have extreme reactions to things that happened during the war, Helaena with Blood and Cheese, but Ulf's character experiences a big behaviour change before and after the Gullet. They both die in the end as well, and both to some extent are self-induced. Ulf is poisoned (like Aegon), but he suspected the cups to be poisoned and drank anyway. Both their dragons also live past them, which isn't a very common thing in the war. Both their dragons also belonged to Targaryen queens before them, who are their only riders otherwise. Apparently, Aemond wants my girl to fight? Anyways...

Aemond and Nettles

I've done this more in depth here but for continuity sake.

Both ride really notable dragons that are strangely of the opposite sex of them. They both get or become the assumed paramour of older partners who possess some magic or power that they don't. Pregnancy is also a noted arc in their stories and affects their narratives. They also act as each other's welcome and goodbye into the narrative, Aemond can't come back while Nettle sis still there. They are both flying around the Riverlands in the end and are meant to parallel Daemon Targaryen. Both cost their teams allies as well in different ways. This one is more vague because I've done it before and better.

Daeron and Addam.

They are the most definitive and cohesive argument for this because they are the same age, and their dragons actually 'fight' each other. They also have the youngest dragons. Both are motivated by a horrible thing Rhaenyra does and inspire loyalty in the men they fight with. They are also charmers. Jace is tied to both of them as parallels as well and grew up with their mother's family. They are knighted during the war, and they die in the same battle against each other before they can truly fight. Genuinely read their parts of fire and blood if no one else. They are my boys.

Overall,

I do think they are an intentional Parallels on George's part, although their are similarities past this point. Helaena and Nettles are the girls of the group, Ulf and Aegon are sexual with implied young girls and so on. But I do think these groups were meant to be compared to each other.

[j-morgan-fly]

Shaena Targaryen!lives/Ned Stark 

The visual in a companion to my rare pair story, inspired by Wallofprompts short wips of the above paring from their “Another Chance to Win The Fight Universe” and also inspired by the “Celiaverse” works of Fromtheboundlesssea.

Please enjoy this glimpse into the first chapter, soon to be posted to my AO3.

Shaena Targaryen was the third child and only daughter of King Aerys and Queen Rhaella’s four living children. She was a genial, practical and well humored young woman that was charm at court and a lovely vision to whom the admirers of her house found great joy to look upon. Her greatest amusement at court was to help her mother arrange happy marriages. She was also her mothers dearest companion and joy. She lived a rich, comfortable life but that was not to say there were not darkness to be found, bruises to have been had and hard lessons learned.

As the only daughter of the royal family, Princess Shaena had been given the expectation by her own father that she would one day marry her elder brother, Rhaegar, or her younger brother, Daeron. They were Targaryen’s after all and the King believed in the importance of certain Targaryen traditions and ideals.

It was mildly surprising then when at nine years old Shaena was in attendance as it was announced at the tourney celebrating the birth of her youngest brother Viserys, that Rhaegar would be betrothed to the host of the tourneys daughter, Cersei Lannister. The little lioness was only a year older than Shaena, so it was not a matter of impatience to make a match for Rhaegar else her father would have waited until the Shaena was of age to marry Rhaegar. This was a matter of nescesity and something Shaena would believe later was under great influence by the small council. The marriage would be a good way to bridge the poor relationship between the king and his hand and also continue to guarantee direct deposits of Lannister gold into the Crowns coffers after the wedding as well.

After the announcement, Shaena was absolutely certain she would be marrying her younger brother. Daeron was only two years younger than her and they always got along well. But marrying him, well, it was not exactly a thought that sparked joy or excitement in her. It was more of a fact she was simply resigned to. Like her mother, Shaena was mindful of her duty, and her duty was to produce pure Targaryen children according to her father. So when she was sat down at fifteen by both her mother and father told she was to be wed to Eddard Stark it was the greatest shock in her young life, or so she thought until she learned the reason for the betrothal.

Rhaegar had gotten Lyanna Stark with child. Shaena had heard the same rumors about Rhaegar and Lyanna. How her brother had abducted the lady after the Tourney at Harrenhall. Shaena had not been present, helping running the castle and assisting in the preparations for her brothers wedding to Cersei Lannister.

After the Tourney the Starks were meant to travel to Riverrun for Brandon Starks wedding to Catelyn Tully. Brandon and his father had rode ahead, Lyanna would follow at a slower pace in a litter. Ten leagues from Harrenhall she was abducted reportedly by Rhaegar and six confidants of his. Lord Rickard and his son departed the Riverlands, postponing the young lords wedding, with the goal of retrieving the stolen girl from the crown prince. The father and son split ways, one coming to Kings Landing and the other going to Dragonstone to try and widen the search quicker and depand the return of their kin.

Shaena remembered the fury of the day the elder Stark arrived, the sounds of yelling, the commotion of it all.  Lord Stark was ushered into a private chamber rather than stand before court when Lord Varys, the master of whispers, advised the king why the man had come. Shaena had not been privy to the conversations inside the chambers as her father did not let her take part in the small council meetings. Only her brothers. Some time later Brandon Stark came to the capital as well after finding Dragonstone not to be hiding Lyanna and Rhaegar. 

She very little crossed paths with the Starks during their stay. Her mother wanted her to help with the care of her little brothers and focus on her lessons, making sure she had little free time to snoop on what was happening.

When she did run into them their words were cold and curt, still courteous but bordering on rude as if she was also to blame for what Rhaegar had done. She tried to not take it personal and reminded herself that Northerners were more brusqe in their manners.

Brandon Stark was a handsome man and she thought Catelyn Stark lucky as any young girl might, if he did not glare at her so fiercely all the time when ever their eyes met. The poor young woman must have been very upset to have her wedding postponed. She and her groom were not strangers at all, and had been meeting over the years since the bethrothel was made when Lady Catelyn was a girl of twelve. Her brother and his fanciful ways was disturbing so many peoples lives. She wished she could only understand him better. Rhaegar was always an enigma to her. He was always a sensible young man so this hadn’t made sense. Had he simply gone mad? She would learn the answer that year.

The Starks spent weeks in Kings Landing working with her father and his council on trying to discover the truth and locate the missing man and girl, sending Varys little birds into flight all over the Kingdoms to try and get word on their location. Her father sent parties to all of Rhaegars known favorite places. Summerhall, Oldtown, villages he frequented but they remained to be found.

They tried to keep things quiet but eventually the news was leaked out. Robert Baratheon was barely being contained at the Vale from coming down and raining hell and fury on them with a rebellion that would no doubt rise once he was able to leave. Already Roberts brother Stannis was picking up arms to come to his brothers aide.

Her father wanted the young mans head, the Starks could be reasoned with it was the Baratheon boy that would be the real issue. If he was dead then they might be able to prevent a war. His younger brother Stanniss was a sensible, strict fellow, he would make a much better Lord of Storms End and would not be so quick to go to war with the crown. He would understand that Rhaegar was a young man and his own older brother had already a number of bastards. Rhaegar was a prince, he could have any woman he desired if he so wished. A highborn losing her maidenhead before a marriage was a scandal, not a crime. 

Of course King Aerys didn’t see things like other men. He thought his family, like many before him, above the law. Dragons did not answer to gods or men.

During the earlier meetings the North had threatened breaking from the Seven Kingdoms again in response to this scandal if not adequately compensated for the insult and possible crimes being committed against Lyanna, completely blaming Rhaeger and accusing him of kidnapping the girl.

Tywin Lannister was eerily quiet during all of this. After all Rhaegar had insulted him and his daughter Cersei to whom her brother was betrothed to by running off with another woman when the wedding was so close. 

Shaena tried to comfort her good-sister to be, but the girl was prickly and haughty. She hid her hurt feelings behind snappish retorts and faux confidence that she would be queen, that this meant nothing and Rhaegar would have his fun and return to wed her as promised. Shaena had tried to be understanding and patient, be a good sister. She had the practice but Cersei made things purposefully difficult rather than just accepting her companionship and comfort. 

Others might have just assumed she was putting on a brave face for herself and others, but Shaena knew this was just pure arrogance. Cersei was called the light of the West, songs were sung that she was the most beautiful woman in Westeros and the richest with her houses wealth behind her.

If Cersei was more personable, more kindly, perhaps Shaena would feel worse for her. But the girl was a viper and not worth more time than was expected spent with.

Shaena had been walking with her brothers around the keep, heading to the gardens when she heard her father loudly threatening to burn Rickard and Brandon in the middle of court for their treasonous words. He might have if they hadn’t received a lead that same day, word from a scout near Dorne.

Rhaegar had taken Lyanna past the Dornish Marches. Just beyond Summerhall to a small place called the Tower of Joy past Nightsong.

Lord Rickard and Bradon wasted not a minute and departed the capital without the kings consent. They rode like the wind to Dorne. When they arrived they learned something even more shocking. Apparently it was no kidnapping her mother explained to her. Rhaegar and Lyanna fell in love at Harrenhall. Lyanna went willingly with Rhaegar and the two have been carrying out a premarital affair despite their individual betrothals to others. Rickard and Brandon arrived in time to stop the couple from marrying, there was even a Septon there. Bran Stark had challenged Rhaegar to a duel for dishonoring his sister. Rhaegar won. Brandon Stark was dead.

Her mother explained that Lady Lyanna, only fourteen, was with child and she would give birth quietly in a remote location per the Starks wishes.

There would be no union between Rhaegar and Lyanna, that Aerys was clear on that. He would not throw away the chance that Tywin would still keep the engagement between his daughter and Rhaegar.

Lyanna’s child once born would then be given over to Rhaegar, to acknowledged as his bastard since Lyanna had been a maid prior. Where the bastard would go after had yet to be decided.

There was still much at stake and something else had to be done to help keep what little peace was to be found. Acting fast it was her mothers idea to offer Shaena’s hand to the middle son, Ned Stark, as restitution for what Rhaegar had done to Lyanna. She did so immediately before it was suggested that Ned be wed to Catleyn Tully now that Brandon Stark was dead and she was without a betrothed anymore. They had to strike to seal an alliance with the Starks against he Baratheon’s.

It was uncertain if Robert would still have Lady Lyanna after this. Shaena could have been offered to Lord Baratheon to replace his betrothed Lyanna as Princess Rhaelle had once been offered to Orys Baratheon when Duncan married Jenny of Oldstones. The consequences of that love nearly destroyed the kingdoms, and now this may prove to have just as horrendous of consequences. No doubt the fields would run red with blood, a rebellion was expected, war. For house Targaryen it was a choice between fighting the North and the Stormland’s or making peace with one to lessen their enemies. It was decided they stood a better chance with making peace with the North and keeping them out of battles. Robert and Ned Stark were friends, but Rickard Stark still lived and had no other attachments and commitments to House Baratheon other than the relationship his son had with the young Lord of Storms End.

The Targaryen’s had never had a close relationship with the North and this marriage would rectify that as well take away an ally from the Baratheon’s. It was a keen opportunity that should not be passed up. Shaena understood the sense behind it.

“And Rhaegar?” Shaena found her voice to ask, though there was a tremble to it she was embarrassed to admit. Her throat had gone dry as she listened to her parents.

Her mother noticed and motioned for a servant to bring her some water. Shaena smiled gratefully at her.

“Your fool brother has been escorted to Dragonstone where he will remain under heavy guard until I say so.” her father sneered, practically spitting Rhaegar’s name as if it was curse in his mouth.

“If we are lucky, Lord Tywin, will overlook this as a young man sowing his wild oats before marriage and not break the betrothal to his daughter.” her mother sighed, watching as her daughter tosses a lemon slice into her goblet of water, her hands shaking.”No need for him to know Rhaegar had planned to marry the girl. That is just between us, do you understand, Shaena?”

Shaena nodded and noticed how her mother was wringing her hands. They were so ashen and dry. Shaena reached out, putting her own hand over them to comfort and support her. She could not imagine the disappointment and stress this was putting her through.

“Gods have mercy on us, we will be ruined if the marriage does not play out. We will need the Lannisters to crush Robert Baratheon in the rising rebellion,” King Aerys stood from his chair, robes billowing.

The back of his long hair looked tangled. Ever since Duskendale he let no man or woman give him a sheer. He was terrified of the blades. Her father could barely sit his own throne, always nervous of being nicked by the still sharp tipped blades it was forged from.

“We should never have went to that Tourney,” Aerys was speaking of the Tourney at Harrenhall, where Rhaegar had crowned Lyanna Stark as the Queen of Love and Beauty.

They hadn’t thought much of it when it happened. Lady Cersei was not in attendance for the Tourney, busy with wedding plans. Besides, many a man had crowned pretty girls and nothing came of it. They had thought this would be no different. They could never have imagined that Rhaegar would do something like this. He barely knew the girl. To their knowledge this was the first time the two had ever met, and they had not even spoken to each other. Now they were in love? It was odd but her brother always had been a somber romantic. Perhaps he really did fall in love at first sight. But still he should know to have restraint and that nothing could come from his affections, recuperated or not. He had duties, responsibilities, a commitment to anther to uphold.

“I understand, your grace, mother,” she swallowed, a strange pit sitting heavy in her stomach at the thought fo the cold north of the glares her soon to be husbands father and brother had once given her. She would not be well received in the North she suspected.

“I wish we had more time but because of the sensitive nature of our situation it is in everyone interest you leave as soon as possible.” her mother than explained that she would be leaving on the morrow for Winterfell and the servants were packing her things as they spoke.

[asoiafdrabbles]

II.37

Elia is getting tired of explaining why it's not bastards who are the problem. 

Elia/Lyanna (Rhaegar Won AU)

Over the years, Elia became used to questions about her husband's bastard. They almost always went the same way as the current, inane line of questioning she faced.

"Do you not fear a second Blackfyre, your grace?"

Elia glanced over at the lady, almost laughing in her face. "The first Blackfyre Rebellion did not happen because of a 'wicked bastard', my lady, it happened because of a bad king. If my husband were to treat my son the way Aegon IV treated Daeron...well, I am no Naerys, I would not meekly allow my boy to be called illegitimate."

The lady ducked her head. "I am sorry, my Queen, I do not know the details, only what my Septa told me of the evils of bastards."

She almost sighed, missing the times in her life where she could fully express herself. No, she couldn't blame this lady for how horrible the education of women outside of Dorne was.

"Aegon the Unworthy didn't simply favor Daemon, he clearly did not favor Daeron. He allowed rumors to spread that Daeron was a bastard of his sister and brother."

"I--I have heard stories of the Dragonknight and Queen Naerys."

The lady blushed and Elia knew she'd probably found them romantic, as so many young girls found doomed romances. But Elia had had a doomed romance of her own and she knew they were not worthy of songs or longing. She would give anything to go back, to have nothing but a boring love with Lyanna.

"Exactly. Some maesters believe the king may have even been the source of the rumors. And then, not only did he give Daemon the symbol of kings, Blackfyre, but he also legitimized him on his death bed, meaning he purposefully created chaos in a way no one could ask him to clarify. So many came to believe that Daeron was a bastard, unjustly placed on the throne, and Daemon was now the legitimate son and clear heir to Aegon IV."

"Oh, I never thought of it as such," the lady murmured.

Looking away, Elia took in the sights of her children and her Lyanna's son--truly, her three children in her mind--playing. How anyone could blame innocent children for what was largely the fault of men, she blamed on the societies north of Dorne, and the ridiculous amount of power they granted their men. Never did they want to take responsibility.

Rhaegar was near-Dornish, compared to most of the men around him. Of course, his reasoning for having a mistress was very different than most men, it did not change the fact he had wanted one. Elia had often thought if more highborn men simply discussed it with their wives, first, they'd find them far more accepting. Most arranged marriages did not favor the women, half the ladies in court would be fine with their husbands having mistresses if they allowed their wives a bit more freedom, too.

"So, you see, my lady," Elia concluded, eyes following Aemon's slight form, "no bastard has the power to make themselves the next Blackfyre, only their fathers do. Even if Aemon were to be legitimized, as long as Rhaegar would, logically, state he came after his older brother in the succession," and how she chaffed, knowing her poor daughter was behind even her uncle to these people, "no one would rise up for him."

She did allow herself a soft laugh, then, motioning to the children playing. They were playing knights and dragons and it looked like Aemon had been made the damsel, being protected by the noble dragon against the wicked knight. Rhaenys growled and lashed with claw-like hands at Aegon as he feinted with his toy sword.

"Not that Aemon would ever try. He loves Aegon, he wants his brother to have a peaceful reign, and there's certainly never going to be a Bittersteel to fill his mind with poison."

[citadelofoldtown]

@oddballnerdguy said: @citadelofoldtown Which Daeron? The Young Dragon? Because he was the one that started the war and ended up creating new waves of hate between the different regions of Westeros. Aegon the Unworthy was the one who created a lot of the ills of Daeron’s reign. He sired Daemon Blackfyre and gave him many ideas on what he deserves. While you could argue Daeron the Good didn’t deal with the problems adequately it was the Unworthy who kept fermenting dissent against his son.

No, I meant Daeron II, though Baelor bears a lot of the blame as well (his handling of the resolution of the Dornish Conquest was absolute political madness). Aegon IV might’ve put the idea that he should be king into Daemon’s head, but more than that is needed to get so many lords to rally to his cause. The First Blackfyre Rebellion wasn’t particularly about the succession of the throne, it was a bunch of unrelated grievances that pooled military strength together behind a figurehead that could promise a favourable end to those grievances. Why else would the Yronwoods support the Anti-Dornish faction of Daeron II? When Daeron II said that Baelor’s work was done... that’s not really a good thing, since Baelor did a lot to fuck up the realm.

Steve Atwell, of @racefortheironthrone, has already wrote a brilliant series of essays on this subject which I’d highly recommend you read in full. Below the cut is an abridged version of the first part, which describes pretty well why I feel the First Blackfyre Rebellion wasn’t just a battle of nerds vs. jocks, and actually a result of Daeron’s inability (or, more likely, unwillingness) to understand the grievances of his lords, though perhaps “created” is the wrong term to use. “Exacerbated” would probably have been a better choice.

@riana-one said: I love Alysanne. But ranking favorite ships I will put two wartime teenagers making good over an old man panicking in a time of plenty

Oh, well, fuck me! I thought we were talking about their merits as kings, and completely misunderstood the post! Recontextualizing the post to be about shipping, oh yeah, I can totally see why you’d prefer Daeron/Mariah to Jaehaerys/Alysanne

Baelor's actions are lauded for bringing an end to the Dornish War(s). But in retrospect, I think we can fairly criticize Baelor for how he handled his kingdom's expectations regarding the peace. While Baelor's martyr-like, all-encompassing forgiveness is certainly personally commendable, it also prevented the people of Westeros from coming to any kind of catharsis over the losses they had suffered, let alone restitution or revenge. By suing for peace, releasing the hostages unconditionally, and doing a public act of penance for the war, Baelor symbolically placed the men who had fought for his brother, both the ones who survived and the ones who died, in the wrong. The muted, inexpressible resentment and the suppressed grief and rage of those who had so much snatched from their grasp would only fester. And by uniting the houses of Martell and Targaryen, he brought the conflicts over the war into his own family.

However, with the text of The World of Ice & Fire in hand, and in the light of Jon and Daenerys' peacemaking efforts in ADWD, I think Daeron II's reign is due for some revisionism. For like Jon Snow, I think Daeron can be rightly criticized for having pushed for peace too fast and too hard, failing to build enough of a constituency behind his policy, and failing to pacify the hardliners who would lead a backlash against him.

This is where I feel Daeron [II] can be rightly criticized, because he had eleven years between his accession and the Blackfyre Rebellion to deal with this anger, and did nothing to ward it off. Especially given his manifest skills in administering and ruling, he should have known better - he may have only been seven years old when Daeron I was slain in Dorne, but he grew to majority in the reign of Baelor the Blessed and must have seen the reaction to Baelor's policies; he certainly would have been familiar with the depth of feeling that his father had drummed up in support of his new war and against Daeron himself. There was a need, once again, to manage expectations, to find symbolic and practical means for soothing and channeling violent emotion in productive direction, to explain and justify his policies, and to ensure that the men who had lost out when peace with Dorne had been accomplished had a stake in the new regime by spreading around the patronage as opposed to concentrating so much influence in the Martells. 

But lest we fall into a simple story of nerds vs. jocks, we should note that Daemon wasn't just a warrior. Yes, "Daemon stood straight and proud, and his stomach was flat and hard as an oaken shield. And he could fight. With ax or lance or flail, he was as good as any knight I ever saw, but with the sword he was the Warrior himself." (TSS) But as Martin explains, Daemon could "be charming and charismatic too, with a winning smile... He made friends easily, and women were drawn to him as well." (So Spake Martin) Just as Renly made use of chivalric iconography to build a political following, Daemon used his abundant gifts to attract a political following of the greatest knights of his day: "Robb Reyne, Gareth the Grey, Ser Aubrey Ambrose, Lord Gormon Peake, Black Byren Flowers, Redtusk, Fireball... Bittersteel." (TSS) Daeron might have been the better diplomat and the better administrator, but Daemon was clearly a gifted politician, someone easily capable of the charisma that calls armies into being - just as Daeron I had done. 

However, in retrospect, Daeron's decision-making here doesn't quite match the propaganda of "Good King Daeron." He already had a volatile political situation in which large segments of the political community were feeling isolated, and had probably already started to gather around his brother, who almost certainly was taking an anti-Dornish and pro-military position, and now he exacerbated the situation by giving his half-brother a personal grievance against the king, who had now twice meddled with him in matters of marriage - first, by insisting that a fourteen-year-old Daemon marry Rohanne of Tyrosh, despite that it was not "Daemon's desire" to marry her, and second, by marrying the woman he loved to the people he had been raised to fight against. Even if it didn't cause him to go to war, it certainly changed their relationship from one of brothers who might disagree over policy, but nevertheless would share in the family prosperity (hence Daeron honoring Aegon IV's bequests granting Daemon incomes, lands, and a castle). At the very least, Daeron should have acted to defuse the situation - following the model of Viserys I, who dealt with a similarly troublesome Daemon by sponsoring him in wars safely off the continent.

[T]he Blackfyres drew their support from lesser houses that were traditional rivals of their lords paramount, or that were in some way troublemakers from their region - the Sunderlands were formerly independent of the Arryns and a cause of much conflict between the Arryns and the Starks, the Reynes (and the Tarbecks) major rivals of the Lannisters, the Brackens and Freys unruly and disloyal vassals of the Tullys, the Yronwoods who warred against the Martells to keep their throne. As we might expect, these local sources of grievance found their outlet in Daemon Blackfyre - if Daemon could supplant Daeron, perhaps they might supplant their liege lords and become the new lords paramount of their own regions.

Daemon's strength is largely in the Reach, the natural constituency for anti-Dornish policies. [...] Ironically, by the logic of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Daemon also had a strong presence in Dorne among those Houses opposed to House Martell's predominance, ironically uniting under one banner both the Marcher lords and the Dornish lords who traditionally have fought against them.

From standing at the right hand of Daeron the Young Dragon and serving as regents of Dorne, the Tyrells had lost their position and were now living under a monarch who married into their traditional, hereditary enemy, the same family responsible for the death of Lyonel Tyrell (Leo's father or grandfather). Not only that, but the Dornish were now dominant in the court of Daeron II. 

[aegor-bamfsteel]

Naming Aegon IV’s Children

Names can have a great deal of significance in the aSoIaF universe; they can be used to honor a dearly departed family member, as a mark of gratitude for a friend or mentor, or to recognize the legacy of a prominent ancestor. These names can also have important dynastic meaning; to give a relevant example, Eustace Osgrey complained that although Daeron II bore the same name as the Young Dragon, he named his heir after Baelor I “the feeblest king to have ever sat the Iron Throne” (The Sworn Sword). This choice was likely to signify that after Aegon IV’s anti-Dornish antagonism, the Iron Throne under Daeron II and Baelor “II” would seek the same appeasement of the Dornish that Baelor I had.

This meta will be an analysis of the names of Aegon IV”s children. It will go over each of their mothers’ backgrounds to try to understand why the name was chosen and what involvement, if any, that Aegon IV had in choosing it.

Naerys Targaryen

Naerys was the youngest child and only daughter of Prince Viserys Targaryen and his Lysene wife Larra Rogare. The court was suspicious of both of her parents due their foreign backgrounds, with Larra’s family having the power to challenge Aegon III’s regents. Perhaps to prove that he and his offspring were true Targaryens, Viserys arranged the marriage between Naerys and her oldest brother Aegon, although there was no dynastic benefit to the match and the two weren’t expected to ascend the Iron Throne. Naerys and Aegon were the only Targaryens of their generation to produce (allegedly) legitimate offspring for the next 20-odd years, so they may have also felt the pressure to show their loyalty to the dynasty, which is reflected in the Old Valyrian names given to their two surviving children.

The name Daeron had previously been given to Prince Daeron "the Daring” Targaryen, King Daeron "the Young Dragon” Targaryen, and Lord Daeron Velaryon, the father of Aegon III’s Queen Daenaera. It’s unlikely the future Daeron II was named after Prince Daeron, who fought for the greens against Naerys’ grandmother during the Dance of the Dragons. While Ser Eustace may have made the connection between Daeron II and Daeron I, the older Daeron was only 10 when the younger was born and hadn’t yet embarked on the conquest for which he would win Aegon’s admiration; I doubt the 18-year-old Aegon paid him much mind at the time, certainly not enough to name his heir after him.

The name Daenerys has no direct precedents, although it does resemble some of the names given to Targaryen and Velaryon women like Daenys the Dreamer, Daena the Defiant, Queen Daenaera, and Naerys herself. It may be the name of a Targaryen woman from before their flight to Dragonstone about whom I haven’t yet read, or it could be in honor of some of the women I’ve just listed. It’s interesting to note that the names of both of Naerys’ children bear a resemblance to those of Aegon III’s Velaryon wife and goodfather, which might mean they had a close relationship. Whether that is the case or not, I can at least say that Naerys’ children have names belonging to their mother's Valyrian culture.

Megette

Megette was the smallfolk wife of a blacksmith from the Riverlands town of Fairmarket. Her husband sold her to Aegon for seven gold dragons. She stayed with Aegon for four years and had four daughters with him. After this, Viserys had her returned to her abusive husband who beat her to death. Her story is a horrifying tale about Targaryen royal entitlement and the nobility’s abuse of the smallfolk.

Alysanne was her eldest daughter, and the only one of her children who may have been named after a Targaryen, Good Queen Alysanne. However, the name appears to be common in Westeros, with some women from the Reach, Westerlands, Stormlands, North, and Riverlands being called Alysanne. It’s bizarrely endearing to think that Aegon might have named her; Megette was the only woman he said he loved who he also “married” in a ceremony, and Alysanne is the only one of Megette’s daughters not to be named after a Riverlands plant. Yet due to its popularity as a name in Megette’s native Riverlands, their eldest child may also have been named by her mother.

Willow is a common name in the Riverlands; not only is it the name of Willow Heddle, the sister of the Riverlands crossroads innkeeper (not an especially highborn person, though she does descend from landed knights), but also the name of two streams that flow into the Trident and the name of the seat of House Ryger. Willow is therefore likely a common name among the Riverlands smallfolk, explaining where Megette must’ve heard it.

Similarly, while the name Lily has no precedents in either the smallfolk or the nobility, like Willow, it is also a name that comes from a plant growing in the Riverlands. It could be a Riverlands smallfolk name, but certainly not a Valyrian-Targaryen one.

Rosey is also a plant-based name, and does appear amongst the smallfolk; in the AFFC prologue, the young daughter of Emma the Oldtown serving wench is named Rosey. Although Oldtown is in the Reach, roses do grow in the Riverlands as well, so it may also be a Riverlands smallfolk name.

Bellegere Otherys

Bellegere was the daughter of a union between a Braavosi Sealord’s son and a Summer Isles princess. (Yandel’s account that her mother was a Braavosi merchant’s daughter and her father an envoy from the Summer Isles is apparently incorrect. If he messed up basic facts like this so badly, I wonder what else he’s getting wrong?) Her name comes from her father’s culture; the -rys in her last name is also present in other surnames from the Free Cities, and lacks the distinctive Qs or Xs that seem to characterize Summer Islander surnames (Qo, Xho, Xaq, Qhoqua, Toraq). She lived an exciting life as a sometime pirate, smuggler, and sea captain; she gave birth to three children during her and Aegon’s 10-year affair, though as she had other lovers elsewhere, Aegon may not have fathered any of them.

I’d posit that her elder daughter Narha’s name is Summer Islander, since it sounds similar to other Summer Islander female names (Xanda, Chatana, Chataya, Alayaya), ending with an A and having an “rh” in the middle, which may be indicate Summer Isles origin (since Jalabhar, Xhobar, Malthar also have consonants followed by H). The name doesn’t appear anywhere else or seem to have any potential inspirations, so I don’t have much other evidence for this claim.

Bellenora, who followed her mother in using the alias “The Black Pearl”, likely was named in part after her mother Bellegere, who had a Braavosi name. I say so because it doesn’t sound like the Summer Islander names I’ve read, nor has any Qs or Xs or a consonant+H diphthong.

Balerion was named for Aegon the Conqueror’s dragon. It’s a name of Valyrian origin, but it’s not Valyrian practice to name people after dragons (Or dragons after people for that matter. The closest example to such a thing happening amongst Targaryens that I can think of is Maelys Blackfyre possibly being named for Meleys the Red Queen, but that’s not an exact match.) I suppose Bellegere knew that Balerion the Dragon’s nickname was “the Black Dread”; as she and her daughter Bellenora took on the alias “the Black Pearl,” she may have wanted her son to have a similar-sounding, fearsome nickname. Balerion is a nod to his Valyrian heritage that she didn’t give her daughters, so perhaps she was more certain about his paternity. I doubt it was because Aegon himself named him. Although he may have been proud to finally have another son, the name doesn’t follow Targaryen naming practice, and given the nature of his relationship with Bellegere, I doubt Aegon was even present when her son was born. Like Megette, Bellegere’s children were probably all named by their mother.

Daena Targaryen

Daena was the oldest daughter of Aegon III and his queen Daenaera Velaryon. GRRM described her in a 2006 So Spake Martin as “Targaryen to the bone.” She was so desperate to continue the Targaryen line that sought to shame her husband, Baelor I, into consummating the marriage by wearing all white. Even when she was set aside and locked in a gilded prison, she wanted a child to call her own. During one of her escapes from the Maidenvault, she conceived him. Some twelve years after his birth, Aegon IV claimed him as his son, bestowing upon him the ancestral Targaryen sword Blackfyre.

Yandel states that Daena named Daemon after the Rogue Prince, but I want to impress upon everyone that Aegon had no role in naming him. Daena steadfastly refused to reveal Daemon’s father, claiming Daemon was hers and hers alone. She did not conceive Daemon to seek Aegon’s favor, but because she wanted a child to rear to be a great Targaryen. So she gave her son the name Daemon after her grandfather, the last great male warrior and dragon rider in the Targaryen dynasty. I’m sure that she would’ve named her son Daeron had that not been the name of Aegon’s “son", but she still gave Daemon a venerable Targaryen name that carried a martial legacy she doubtless wanted him to live up to.

Melissa Blackwood

Melissa Blackwood was the daughter a man from House Blackwood, a family driven out of the North to settle in the Riverlands during the Age of Heroes. Though certainly an ancient family, their castle Raventree Hall is not one of the most important in the Riverlands. Melissa was Aegon IV’s mistress for five years when he was king, during which time she bore him three children.

Her elder daughter Mya shares a name with Mya Stone, the oldest of Robert Baratheon’s natural children who works as a servant in the Vale. I can’t say for certain if the name is common in the Riverlands, since we have no other incidence of it than Mya Stone, but it certainly isn’t Valyrian in origin. It’s a more humble name, perhaps one not often used for noblewomen (as her natural daughter would not receive a title), possibly an example of Melissa’s “more modest” nature.

Her younger daughter Gwenys’ name has no exact precedents or successors, but it does bear a phonetic similarity to Gwyneth. Like Melissa Blackwood, Gwyneth Yronwood is a member of an ancient family of First Men descent, so Gwenys may be an old Blackwood family name. The -nys suffix appears in a few Targaryen names, such as Rhaenys or Aenys, but also in a few non-Targaryen names like Ynys Yronwood's, so it doesn’t have to signify her Targaryen heritage.

The name Brynden appears in the Riverlands only after Bloodraven came to and fell from power, with Brynden Blackwood and Brynden “the Blackfish” Tully being known examples. That doesn’t necessarily mean no Riverman was named Brynden before Melissa’s son was born, though. In fact, the name is similar to Brandon, an ancient and common name from the North where the Blackwoods once ruled; Brynden may just be the Riverlands version of it. Since Brynden is only seen in the Riverlands, it can be assumed that Melissa gave her son a name from her heritage alone.

Serenei of Lys

Serenei was the last member of an impoverished Lysene noble family, and was Aegon’s last mistress as well. She was rumored to be much older than Aegon IV and to have concealed her age through sorcery. She was considered beautiful but haughty.

In a 2006 “So Spake Martin,” GRRM claimed that Serenei had named Shiera before dying in childbirth. The name is Lysene Valyrian for “star of the sea” (making Shiera Seastar’s full name “Star Of the Sea Seastar,” which honestly sounds more stupid than beautiful). There exists a Targaryen-Valyrian version of her name, Shaera, which was given to Aegon V’s eldest daughter. There’s also another Shiera who lived before the unification of the Seven Kingdoms: Shiera Blackwood, who might’ve become Queen of the Trident if some of the Riverlords hadn’t refused to be ruled by a woman. If I were to disregard the semi-canon SSM, I could make the argument that Melissa (who still retained connections with the court, so may have been present at Shiera’s birth) named Serenei’s basically orphaned daughter after one of the prominent female figures in Blackwood history. It certainly gives Shiera Seastar’s and Brynden Rivers’ sexual relationship another dimension! Whether my idea is true or the SSM becomes official canon, Shiera is not a Targaryen name and Aegon was not the one to name her.

To conclude, I think I’ve established a pattern when it comes to the names of Aegon IV’s children. Each of their mothers gave them a name, with Aegon’s involvement in choosing it possible at best, that reveals something about her character. Naerys gave her children traditional Targaryen/Velaryon names to show that they were members of the ruling dynasty. Megette gave her daughters Riverlands smallfolk names as a sign of her humble origins. Bellegere, a pirate queen of Summer Islander-Braavosi heritage, gave to her three children a Summer Islander name, a Braavosi name, and a fierce dragon’s name that also references her own alias (the Black Dread, the Black Pearl). Daena gave her son the name Daemon to honor the martial Targaryen legacy of which she was so proud. Melissa gave her children humble yet ancient Riverlands names to show her humility before the Targaryens, but also to acknowledge their belonging to a First Men family who were in the Riverlands long before the dragons came. Serenei gave Shiera a Lysene-Valyrian name meaning “star of the sea” to indicate her high hopes for her daughter, and that her own Lysene heritage (so hated during Larra Rogare’s time at court) was worthy of being recognized in Westeros. Thus all of the mothers of Aegon IV’s children gave their children a name belonging to their own culture and according to their own tastes.

Well, except…

Barba Bracken

And to think I’d forget a character who I’d defend until I develop CTS, the mother of the character who inspired my URL! Well, I didn’t (of course). But here’s where the pattern breaks. Here’s where things get painful.

Barba was the teenaged daughter of the unnamed Lord Bracken. Sometime before she turned 16, her ambitious father sent her off away from the Riverlands to the Maidenvault to wait on the three princesses imprisoned by their brother. Finally freed from her confinement some time later, the 16-year-old Barba had the misfortune of entering another cage: the attentions of the 36-year-old Aegon Targaryen. Without the text making clear that Barba was willing, Aegon made her his mistress when he ascended the throne. After a year of enduring the role of a royal mistress in a court that hated her, Barba gave birth to a boy two weeks before Queen Naerys nearly died giving birth to twins. Then because her father couldn’t shut up about his plans to crown her, and because Targaryens are easily offended, she, her son, and her father were banished to Stone Hedge. The name of that son was Aegor, by the way.

Aegor? According to the pattern I’ve established, Aegon IV named none of his illegitimate children, and that’s clearly a Targaryen name. Well, not exactly; it looks and sounds that way, but there’s never been a member on the Targaryen family tree with that name. Sure, there was never a Daenerys before Naerys’ daughter that I know about, but Naerys was a Targaryen whose father was obsessed with projecting an image of Targaryen-ness; it’s almost certainly a traditional Valyrian name. I suppose Aegor could be one of the pre-Aenar lords from when the Targaryens were still in Valyria. It could also be a “stem name,” like Aemon (Daemon, Gaemon) or Aegon (Vaegon, Haegon) or Aelor (Maelor, Baelor) that I just haven’t seen used like the first three (though considering the only derivative of “Aegor” I can think of is “Maegor,” there’s probably a good reason). But those two theories discount the fact that Barba named him. She’s a Bracken, and as a female teenager from the Riverlands, likely didn’t know that much about the Targaryen family naming customs. And she didn’t give him a dragon’s name like Bellegere did; looking at the rest of the Targaryen tree, Aegor is obviously supposed to be a human male name. Like the rest of Aegon IV’s children’s mothers, she could’ve given her son a name that belonged to her own culture, something like Lothar or Hendry or Jonos. So why did Barba choose Aegor, a name that sounds Targaryen but isn’t?

My guess is that it’s yet another example of the Brackens trying their utmost to gain Aegon IV’s favor. Barba or Lord Bracken didn’t choose the name to honor their own family, but to appeal to Aegon’s vanity by giving his illegitimate son a name so close to his own. If I consider the fact that Lord Bracken wanted his daughter to be Aegon’s queen, Aegor might’ve seemed a suitably traditional name for a Targaryen prince. Of course, the horrifying part is that they lacked the knowledge about the Targayens to realize that Aegor isn’t a name they use. So it’s a Targaryen knockoff name with no great legacy or history. It’s meaningless.

Why do I think this is so important that I’ve essentially dedicated this huge meta to it? I think the significance of Aegor's birth name speaks to the core of his character in a way that’s deeply tragic. In giving him a pseudo-Valyrian name, Barba and Lord Bracken alienated Aegor from their own heritage; his cousins might be called Otho or Jonos or Lothar, but he has a completely different, strange-sounding name. It’s also a permanent painful reminder (as if Aegor’s very existence wasn’t enough) of just how far the Brackens went to pander to Aegon IV, the man who later murdered two of them. While Daemon and Brynden were named by mothers proud of their own heritage, Barba gave Aegor a name with no heritage, a knockoff of the traditional names of the family who caused his true family (the Brackens and later the Blackfyres) so much pain.

Is it any wonder that later in life, he became known as Bittersteel?

[asongofstarkandtargaryen]

The mad Targaryens

It’s interesting that the author intended for the House which held the power over Westeros for around 300 years to carry the trait of insanity on its bloodline. Of course, within the text it is explained that not every Targaryen has inherited the madness trait. According to King Jaeherys II Targaryen “madness and greatness are two sides of the same coin” and according to Ser Barristan Selmy “every time a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land”. 

 That’s why it irritates me that people are labeling any Targaryen they dislike *cough Rhaegar and Daenerys cough* as mad. They see the characters they dislike as flawed and equate flaws to madness. But that’s an erroneous thing to do. Not every Targaryen who has flaws or makes some mistakes is mad.  A great example is Aegon IV who made lot of mistakes and he was actually responsible for all the Blackfyre rebellions by legitimizing all his bastards and yet he wasn’t mad; just a terrible king. So, in this analysis I’d like to focus on those Targaryen who I believe that they had inherited the insanity trait of their family or developed it along the way.

1.  MAEGOR I TARGARYEN

He is better known as Maegor the Cruel, a sobriquet he earned with his actions. It was said that not only he enjoyed war and battle, but most craved violence, death, and absolute mastery over all he deemed his. According to information from the yet unreleased “Sons of Dragon” book,  even from a young age he had showed cruel habits - such as killing animals.

However, his cruelty peaked after he was waken from his coma state with the help of his lover, Tyanna of the Tower. Many years later, the same woman was accused by him to perform magic to his other wives in order to make them birth grotesque stillborn children. It’s obvious that she also used some kind of sorcery to woke him from the coma and it wouldn’t surprise me if the same magic turned him to the monster he became afterwards. I’m not saying that this magic turned a completely sane man to an insane and cruel one- because the actions of his youth showed that he was far from being sensible. But I do believe that the magic she performed on him fed the beast he was hiding inside him. After all a “revival” by magic always comes at a price (just look at Lady Stoneheart).

Famous acts of his cruelty include: burning the Sept of Remembrance to the ground, killing all those who had taken part to the construction of the Red Keep, terminating House Harroway because of his Queen Alys Harroway suposed infidelity, letting Tyana torture to death his teenager nephew in retribution of his mother and siblings escaping Dragonstone. There were also rumors of him being behind his Queen Ceryse Hightower’s death. The way he killed Queen Tyanna after she confessed she was responsible for the abominations his other Queens birthed, is also alarming ; he cut her heart with Blackfyre and fed it to his dogs.

His demise came by his own hands since he probably killed himself as he was sitting on the Iron Throne.

2. BAELOR I TARGARYEN

Baelor was quite the opposite of Maegor. While Maegor was loathed by everyone, people loved Baelor. Even within the current time line of the books he’s remembered as a merciful holy man by plenty of people. That doesn’t mean though, that his sanity can’t be questioned.

An interesting incident that shows Baelor’s state of mind is the imprisonment of prince Aemon by the Wyls. After Baelor had forged a peace with the prince of Dorne, Lord Wyl gave him a key to Aemon’s cage which was suspended over a pit of vipers. Baelor, feeling that the gods would protect him, fearlessly stepped into the pit. This resulted to him being bitten by the vipers (sources differ  ranging from half a dozen to half a hundred) and collapsed after he opened the cage. He remained unconscious until Aemon carred him to House Baratheon and even then he only fully recovered after more than half a year passed. 

Some lords were speculating that Baelor’s later erratic decisions were due to the vipers’ venom affecting his mind. It can’t be proven that this was the case but it’s true that after Baelor returned to Kings Landing he made a lot of questionable decisions.

First of all, he resolved his marriage to his sister, Daena and placed her alongside their other two sisters in the Maidenvault claiming that it would prevent any carnal thoughts. His obsession with purity can be also found on his decisions to outlaw prostitution and to exempt lords from taxes if they protected their daughters' virtue through chastity belts.  The list of his questionable decisions also include forcing Lord Belgrave to wash the feet of a leper and burning books he deemed immoral.

Also, it is interesting to note that when the High Septon died, Baelor choose a simple stonemason called Pate as the replacement because he thought that the gods told him so. After his death, he made an eight years old street urine the new High Septon because he claimed that the boy could perform miracles.

In the end his demise came by starving himself to death. Some people don’t believe that Baelor was the one responsible for his own death and put the blame to his Hand and uncle Viserys. In either case, his death served the good of Westeros because otherwise his beliefs would have lead towards a war between those worshiping the Old Gods and the Drown God and those who were believers of the Seven.

3. RHAEGEL TARGARYEN

He’s only a minor character in the Mystery Knight novella, but he makes a strong impression to the reader since the first mention of him (if I remember correctly) is about how he was dancing naked in the Red Keep. This also proves that he wasn’t the sanest person. The book describes him as weak minded and touched by madness.

4.  AERION TARGARYEN

He’s also known as Aerion the Monstrous but he liked to call himself Aerion  Brightflame. He stars in one of Bran Stark’s favourite tales  "The Prince Who Thought He Was a Dragon". As the title of the tale indicates, Aeron was convinced he was an actual dragon so he drank wildfire in order to be transformed into one. And as anyone can guess, he died screaming.

According to Raymun Fossoway while the prince acted quite noble in front of his father, he revealed his monster self when he was around other people. Even his own brother, Daeron, described him as “quite the monster”. Similarly, his other brother, Aegon, despised him, because Aerion bullied him all his young life going as far as putting a knife to Aegon’s genitals once and joking about removing them.

5. AERYS II TARGARYEN

He’s the most infamous mad Targaryen king something that it is indicated even by his nickname being the Mad King. However, he wasn’t insane by birth. He slowly descended into madness as the years passed.

A factor that greatly affected the King and perhaps helped to prompt his insanity was his Queen Rhaella’s  stillbirths, miscarriages and the births of two princes who soon died. While Aerys was at first sympathetic towards his sister-wife’s case, later he accused her of being unfaithful and confined her in Maegor’s Holdfast. He even went as far to humiliating her as to order two septas to sleep in her bed with her so he could be certain that she remained faithful.

His madness was lessened once the Queen Rhaella gave birth to a healthy boy, Jaehaerys. However, it was short lived as Jaehaerys died later the same year and Aerys put the blame for his son’s death to his wet nurse and had the woman beheaded. Later on, he decided that his mistress was to blame and put her and her entire family through torture and eventually had all of them executed.

When the Queen Rhaella gave birth to another boy, Viserys the king became more paranoid fearing that his son would follow the same fate as Jaehaerys and the two princes that were born before him. That’s why, no one could touch the boy without the King’s permission, not even the Queen. He even commanded his own food taster to suckle at the teats of the prince’s wet nurse to make sure that there was no poison in them.

  While signs of his madness were already obvious, his insanity only peaked after the Defiance of Duskendale incident. Aerys decided against his Hand’s (Tywin Lannister) council to accept Lord Darklyn’s invitation to come to his castle and discuss about a new charter and traveled to Duskendale with only a small force. That unwise act of his, lead to him becoming a prisoner of the Darklyns. Tywin Lannister laid a siege to the town but the King was freed only after six months of imprisonment. 

Those months had a huge impact on him, feeding his already existing paranoia. Signs that shown his paranoia include: destroying House Darklyn and House Holland by burning their members alive (with the exception of Dontos Holland), believing that Tywin Lannister had assassinated Lord Steffon Baratheon, not attending his son’s Rhaegar’s wedding and neither letting his other son, Viserys, to attend because he was afraid that either of them could be assassinated, becoming so fascinated by wildfire that only used that as the way of executing traitors and finally becoming unable to be aroused if he hadn’t watched someone burned alive first.

Even his appearance reflected his troubled mind. He was described as someone who looked much older than his actual age and  he was very thin because he only ate a little as a result of his phobia for poisoning. His beard was dirty and his hair was matted. Also, he had developed a phobia of blades and thus he refused to have his hair or his nails trimmed. 

Aerys not only was an insane King but also the one who held the most responsibility for his House’s demise.  Not only his actions made many Lords wanting to overthrown him but by killing both Rickard and Brandon Stark and wanting the heads of Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon to be presented to him, he marked the beginning of Robert’s Rebellion.

6. VISERYS TARGARYEN

In Visery’s case I’m a bit reluctant to call him mad. I believe that his difficult upbringing brought out the bad traits of him, but being narcissist, violent and abusive doesn’t necessarily mean that he was insane, just that he had a shitty personality.

According to Daenerys, Viserys was driven mad because of all the difficulties he faced on their exile.

[... ]She hated it, as her brother must have. All those years of running from city to city one step ahead of the Usurper's knives, pleading for help from archons and princes and magisters, buying our food with flattery. He must have known how they mocked him. Small wonder he turned so angry and bitter. In the end it had driven him mad[...].

Also, according to Ser Barristan Selmy Viserys showed signs of being mad like his father, even from his childhood:

[...]...even as a child, your brother Viserys oft seemed to be his father's son, in ways that Rhaegar never did." "His father's son?" Dany frowned. "What does that mean?"    The old knight did not blink. "Your father is called 'the Mad King' in Westeros. Has no one ever told you?"

It seems that Ilyrio Mopatis also shared the opinion that Viserys took after his father in terms of sanity.

"Viserys was Mad Aerys's son, just so. Daenerys … Daenerys is quite different”

So, I guess I’ll have to trust those people’s judgement and thus why I included Viserys to the mad Targaryens list.

[sheikah]

Sneaking Around--A Jonerys Ficlet

So my friend @sweetorganza had a very specific request for a ficlet of Jon and Dany getting frisky in his childhood room at Winterfell, and Dany teasing him relentlessly about what she finds there haha. I hope I was able to deliver it mixed with some fluff :) Also on AO3. Disclaimer: This is 100% pure, triple-filtered crack. As in, I know it’s ridiculous lol. Enjoy!

When they finally arrive at the room Dany urges Jon in ahead of her, biting her lip with anticipation. All night she has wanted to get him alone, and they’ve been at their cups for hours waiting for the others to find their beds. 

Inside, she leans back against the heavy wooden door until she hears it shut with a thud. Jon turns to face her, his eyes dark and hungry as he looks her up and down. Dany’s long hair hangs loose about her shoulders, shining with moisture from the storm that nearly caught them in the yard. Her lips are stained crimson by the Dornish vintage she’d been enjoying over dinner and her fine silk dress nearly matches, the rich burgundy fabric cut to flatter her figure. The way Jon is raking his eyes over her makes her feel bold and alluring, and she likes it.

“Am I really the first girl you’ve ever brought to your room, Jon?” she teases, her lilac eyes twinkling mirthfully.

“Yes,” he replies shortly. Dany can see his cheeks color slightly at the question. That doesn’t deter her.

“What?” she demands, feigning shock, her hand flying to her mouth. “How can that be? I would have thought that every girl north of The Neck would be swooning over the mysterious young Jon Snow.”

“Well, they didn’t,” he insists with a disapproving scowl. “And besides, who do you think I am? I’m Ned Stark’s son. I couldn’t exactly slip girls to my rooms unnoticed in the middle of Winterfell.”

“You mean like you just did?” Dany asks, failing to suppress a snort of laughter.

“What? No. This is … This is different.”

“So you’re saying if you could have gotten away with sneaking girls up here all the time, then you would have?” She arches a brow at him, relishing the way Jon immediately bristles at the suggestion. He is so easy to rile, so unfailingly stern and disciplined. In a word, he is different—different from the other men she has been with.  At first Dany had thought him uptight, but she has come to know Jon and to understand that he lives by his own set of principles and adheres to them firmly. She loves that about him.

“That’s not what I’m saying,” he mutters. “I wouldn’t have done that because it wouldn’t have been right, using those girls.”

“You’re right,” Dany agrees. “From what I’ve heard of him, you certainly are the honorable Ned Stark’s son.”

Jon nods, ignoring her sarcasm. “I take it seriously. You know, being with a woman,” he explains, looking awkwardly about the room. It is, Dany knows, the same room that Jon stayed in as a boy. A lot has happened since then but it is still intact, a simple space dominated by a small, single bed made of oak. Layers of plush-looking furs cover the mattress, and even more are strewn about the floor—rugs to ward off the bare feet from the cold. In the grate a fire burns low, set by the servants that morning and long-forgotten now. A candelabra throws flickering light from a writing desk next to the window, where the pattering sound of sleet from outside gets in.

“So I’m the first girl you’ve brought in here,” Dany repeats, grinning. “I must be special.”

“Aye. You are,” Jon says gruffly, stepping closer to her. Their chests are nearly touching when his eyes drop to meet hers, and goosebumps erupt over her skin under his gaze. Dany’s tongue darts out to moisten her lips as she looks up at Jon’s own. She knows just how soft they feel, how they leave a trail of fire over her flesh when he kisses her.

She reaches up and links her hands behind Jon’s neck, urging his face toward hers and straining to match his height. Jon complies willingly, dipping his head and pressing his lips to hers. His familiar hands slide down her sides, gripping her hips to pull her greedily closer. She sighs into his mouth, pressing her body against him until she can feel the thrum of his heartbeat at her chest. When her mouth opens to him, Jon’s tongue is a shot of heat against her own that renders her weak and pliant in his arms. He tastes of ale and rain, and Dany can think of nothing sweeter.

He wanders away from her mouth, his beard scratching at her cheek as he kisses down to her neck, his tongue sliding against her pulse point. When he closes his lips and sucks there, there’s an answering pulse between her thighs, and suddenly Dany can’t form the words to taunt Jon anymore.

“Bed,” she pants at his ear, and he spins them around, guiding Dany backward across the room. But before they can reach their destination, her boot heel catches on an uneven board in the floor and she stumbles backward, her arms slipping from Jon’s shoulders.

His reflexes are too quick to let her fall, and Jon catches her by the forearms before she can go down, yanking her back on her feet with an amused smirk. “How very regal of you, Your Grace. Are you alright?” he asks, reaching a gloved hand to brush the tousled hair from her eyes.

“I’m fine,” Dany shrugs, a bit embarrassed. “Something on this floor,” she says thoughtfully, her eyes scanning the ground around their feet.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Jon announces dismissively, taking Dany by the hand and making his way to the bed once again.

“No,” Dany protests, shaking her hand free, still searching the ground with interest. “There was a sound when I tripped too. Something shifted in the floor.”

“You’re hearing things. You were just clumsy,” Jon argues.

Dany narrows her eyes at him curiously.  “I’m not.”

An explanation occurs to her and she drops unceremoniously to her knees, pushing one of the fur rugs aside to reveal a loose board. It isn’t nailed in and its once-snug fit between the other planks has deteriorated with time and use.

“Don’t—” Jon entreats her.

Dany ignores him, hesitantly pressing one end of the board so that the other rises in a seesaw motion.

“It’s just as I thought,” she breathes, lifting the plank away and looking with wonder at a hidden compartment housed beneath the wood. It’s a long, rectangular opening, and though it’s too dark for details, Dany can see contents hidden inside.

“Gods, Daenerys, please just come away from there,” Jon groans, and for a moment she falters, setting the board aside and turning to him.

“Why?”

“Because it’s … ”

“It’s what?”

“It’s embarrassing,” Jon finishes at last, sealing his fate.

“Oh, well in that case,” Dany says gleefully, turning back to the hole in the floor. “Let’s have a look.”

She scrambles to her feet, hurrying to fetch the candelabra from the nearby desk. The candles have burned low, running down the burnished silver of the holders, but Dany is heedless of the hot wax, thrilled at her discovery.

Jon unstraps his sword belt and drops it to the ground with a clunk before sitting on the bed, watching her with helpless resignation.

“Oh, stop sulking,” she encourages him, kneeling beside the secret compartment and holding the candles over it for light. Inside the small, dusty space Dany sees a couple of folded up pieces of parchment, an incredibly small and thin sword, and some other items that were obscured by the faint light.

“What have we here?” She lifts out the little sword, holding it up to the candlelight with a delighted smile. “Jon. Jon! Was this yours?”

Dany turns to see him with a hand hiding his reddening face. He separates two fingers to peek through. “Yes. Mikken made it for me when I was a boy. My first.”

“It’s … it’s so small! My, my, Jon, you’ve definitely upgraded,” Dany giggled, nodding toward Longclaw on the floor at his feet.

“Yes, yes. Okay, you’ve had your fun,” he complains, collapsing back onto the bed with a sigh. “Can’t you put that away now. I didn’t bring you here to inspect my things.”

“Really?” Dany asks, the picture of innocence. “Well, tell me. What did you bring me here to do?” She glances over to see Jon fidgeting uncomfortably on the furs.

“I, um. I …”

“As I thought,” Dany concludes, setting the sword back inside and retrieving another item from the hole. She holds up a piece of parchment and unfolds it carefully. On the paper is a crudely drawn man in what she suspects is a knight’s armor. There’s a sigil on his chest, and squinting, she realizes that it’s a dragon. The man wields a sword and shield, a serious expression rendered on his face with sketchy lines. The whole thing is drawn with all the haphazard care of a child’s hand, and Dany can feel a tender smile warming her to the core at the thought of a Jon as a very young boy, all messy black curls and childhood wonder, busily drawing away at his little writing desk.

“Jon,” she calls, turning to him with shining eyes. He sits up begrudgingly in the bed and looks her way.

“Yes?”

“You drew this didn’t you?” She brandishes the drawing at him, beaming.

He nods.

“It’s … so sweet. Jon, you’re adorable,” Dany gushes, standing and walking over to sit next to him on the bed.

“I’m not adorable,” Jon protests fiercely. “I’m a grown man, Daenerys. Please, I—”

“Oh!” she exclaims, turning to the backside of the parchment. In a shaky squiggle little Jon had written, “Daron Targaren. The Yung Dragon.”

“Jon, your hero was Daeron I, who conquered Dorne? The Young Dragon! Does that mean,” she wonders aloud, setting the drawing aside, “That you’ve had a thing for Targaryens all this time?” She flashes Jon a salacious grin, and even in his frustration she can see the beginning of a smile crinkle the corners of his eyes, his lips curling into a smirk.

“I guess I have,” Jon relents, scooting closer to her on the bed. He removes his gloves, pulling them off at the fingertips and laying them aside. He raises his right hand to cup Dany’s cheek, and she leans fondly into his touch. Her heart swells with contentment that she hasn’t known since her own childhood, a safety and joy that she often feared was lost to her forever. Now, she can chase this feeling only with Jon. “Are you really so interested in all this? What I did as a lad?” he asks softly.

“Of course I am,” she answers, moving her own hand to cover Jon’s against her face.

He exhales quietly and leans forward, pressing his forehead to hers and closing his eyes. She is touched by the intimate act from the usually resigned Jon, but his proximity has the same effect on her as always, and she can feel her blood racing, the persistent desire to close the distance between them nagging at her again.

She knows Jon feels it too when he drags his hand down her neck, his fingertips ghosting over her clavicle before he stops at her chest. Even through the fabric of her gown, his thumb brushes torturously against the tip of her breast and Dany’s desperate to be rid of their clothes. She tilts her face to kiss him again, their lips drawn together instinctively, and without breaking away she pushes the cloak from his back, worries at the buttons up the front of his doublet.

Jon responds in kind, his arms snaking around her to work the fastenings on the back of her dress, both of them kicking idly to get their boots off. “You and your layers,” she complains, smiling against his mouth. Jon just chuckles at her, finally peeling his way out of the last of his clothes before grabbing Dany at the waist and lifting her all the way upon the bed.

It’s cramped, only built for one; but Dany doesn’t mind at all. The tiny bed is cozy as she nestles into the furs, Jon poised over her, a warm coverlet thrown over them both to keep out the chill of the chamber. She knows what would usually come next, that Jon is invariably willing and able to please her.

She has spent dozens of nights in his arms, tucked away in her cabin on the ship that brought them north, entwined together in her tent on their journey by land, and now in every hidden nook and cranny that Winterfell has to offer. For weeks she muffled her cries into pillows to keep their dalliance a secret. Every time, Jon kisses his way eagerly down her body, his mouth and fingers sending her over the edge again and again, reeling with heady bliss.

But she is in no hurry for all of that tonight, wanting nothing more than to make her time with Jon last as long as possible. She wants simply to be with him, to relax and pretend, just for a little while, that they aren’t both living in an apocalyptic nightmare. They almost never have the opportunity to act like regular people, to talk and flirt and be silly like they have this evening.

So she raises her eyes to Jon’s with a sly wink and sneaks her hand up between them, her fingers quickly confirming that he is more than ready for her. “Oh, Jon!” she gasps dramatically, “You are a man grown after all!” She barely manages to get all the words out before exploding into a fit of uncontrollable giggles.

Jon drops his head on the pillow beside her with an exasperated sigh. “Will you keep it down?!”

“Why would I do that?” Dany asks loudly, raising her eyebrows at him in mock confusion.

“Do you want the whole damned castle to hear us?” he hisses.

“You’re right,” she concedes, almost inaudibly. “I’m sorry. I’ll be quiet!” She lifts her head, kissing at Jon’s neck with exaggerated contrition, wrapping her arms around him.

Wordlessly he braces himself over her on one arm, moving the other between them, his hand finding its way between her legs. He touches her there the way he knows she likes, and even this is enough to get her hot and flustered, sweat breaking out along her brow.

But she wants more, wants the fullness of him inside her, the connection that comes only when their bodies move together in that urgent rhythm. So she trails her fingers along the shifting muscles of his back, tracing lovingly around every scar, her hands guiding him down as she opens herself to him readily.

Jon follows her lead, his eyes burning with passion that sears the air between them. He coaxes her hands up over her head and pins her wrists in place, watching her as he slides gently inside. Dany feels her tensions ebb away with every roll of his hips, every quiet, involuntary sound that escapes his sweet lips. It’s comforting and right, being with him this way, and she knows that it’s love. But it’s also sinfully good, every nerve in her body hypersensitive to his touch, her muscles quaking with pleasure as she arches shamelessly against him, hooking a leg around his waist.

Dany has loved another before, and she has desired others; but never have the two been harmoniously combined like they are with Jon. It’s what makes their lovemaking perfect, leaving her in a stupor of pure sensation. She knows it well, feels herself climbing the peak that will have her coming undone beneath him once again.

But then she is seized with an insolent, absolutely wicked idea, and somehow Dany fights through the fog of her building release to make one, last jest.

“Oh, gods, Jon, YES! Yeeesss,” she wails suddenly at the top of her voice. He freezes in surprise, the sound ringing out against the stone walls and echoing through the room. She knows that it will likely carry even further than that. Both of them listen apprehensively to the silence of Winterfell, broken only by the still-falling precipitation outside, the puffs of their mingling breath in the air.

She gazes sheepishly up at his startled face, and for a moment Dany is anxious, thinking that he might actually be cross. Even though it’s obvious to her that everyone already knows about them, Jon might still labor under the delusion that they’re hiding their relationship well, and believe that she has just spoiled it all.  

But then his kind, brown eyes find her. “You little fool,” he scolds with a shake of his head, and he laughs, really laughs from deep in his gut, shaking them both. Her chest tightens to see him so happy, a rarity that always lifts her own spirits. She laughs with him, letting the sound and the warmth of his skin on hers drive her fears away.

“Will you ever cease teasing me, Dany?” Jon asks her fondly, pressing a lingering kiss to her forehead.

Dany sighs, utterly content in his embrace, in his home, in his heart. “Never.”

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

I recently came across the theory that the Tattered Prince is Aerion's son Maegor. Being a true Targ, he would have dragon eggs, and when he fled Pentos, were left behind or stolen from him, which explains how Illyrio was in possession of dragon eggs - three, no less. The theory also mentioned that TTP's aim is still to steal Dany's dragons as they're essentially his. While this theory does sort of explain what happened to Prince Maegor, it still seems like a whole lot of speculation. Thoughts?

It seems like a whole ton of speculation. Cloud-castle-building theorizing of the worst kind, where instead of working with evidence to develop a theory, they start with a theory and twist the truth to match.

But let’s see the evidence.

Age. Maegor Brightflame was born in 232 AC. If he were still alive, he’d be 68. The Tattered Prince is “past sixty”, which is a match, but GRRM has a tendency to average up and would be more likely to call a 68-year-old man “near seventy”.

Appearance. Maegor was the child of two Targaryens. Aerion looked a classic Targ: pale skin, silver-gold hair, purple eyes. We don’t know what his cousin/wife Daenora looked like, but of the children of Mariah Martell only Baelor is mentioned as looking Dornish, not Rhaegel… and Daenora’s mother was an Arryn, who are generally blonde… so we can presume Maegor probably had the Targ traits. The Tattered Prince is old, with grey hair, so that’s no help, but he says all he needs to do is take off his tattered clothing to become “plain and unremarkable”. (Though note going incognito was something Maegor’s uncle Daeron could do.) But he evidently doesn’t have purple eyes, as that certainly would have been mentioned.

The Prince of Pentos is chosen from the forty families. (And greatly honored, until something bad happens and the Pentoshi believe the gods are angry at them, upon which he is sacrificed and the magisters choose a new prince.) Even if Maegor was living in Pentos (though I don’t know why, see below), he would not be of the forty families of Pentos, so why would they choose him to be their sacrificial prince?

The Tattered Prince was chosen by the magisters when he was twenty-three. Maegor was 23 in 255 AC, and this is the biggest fault in the theory, because TWOIAF has a date for when the Tattered Prince was elected, and it says it was in 262 AC.

But even assuming that Maester Yandel somehow got the records that wrong (and if you do that you open up wayyy too many cans of worms), 255 AC was four years before the Tragedy at Summerhall. Why would Maegor have left Westeros for Pentos during the rule of Aegon V, during a point when there wasn’t even any ongoing war with the Blackfyres? (The Band of Nine didn’t start doing their thing until 258.) Even if Maegor were exiled like Aerion briefly was, for similar reasons, why would he have been allowed to take dragon eggs with him? How would he have gotten three? A Targaryen prince is only given one each, in the cradle.

Illyrio says the dragon eggs he gives to Dany are from the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai, and are thousands of years old. If they were from Westeros via Maegor, why would he need to make up such an elaborate lie? Why not just say they were eggs acquired from Westeros, from the Targaryens back when they had dragons? Dany would have been even more kindly inclined to Illyrio to hear that, that perhaps someone in her family once held these eggs, that perhaps they were laid by one of the dragons she knows of from family stories. (Also, the fact that Dany’s eggs are eons old and petrified and from Asshai is a plot point re her miracle, goddamn it. They aren’t any of the known Targ eggs, which were probably all destroyed at Summerhall, anyway.)

The Tattered Prince doesn’t want Dany’s dragons. He wants Pentos. He says this clearly, more than once. When Pretty Meris fake-deserts the Windblown to tell Dany that the Tattered Prince wants to go over to her side, she says he says the price is Pentos. And when Quentyn comes to him asking for help stealing the dragons, again he says he wants Pentos in return for that help, and they sign a contract with this agreement. If the Tattered Prince wanted the dragons for himself, why doesn’t he even hint to this feeling? Why does he keep saying Pentos?

No, the Tattered Prince is a Pentoshi, from one of the forty families. He wants to be the Prince of Pentos for real, but on his own terms, one that doesn’t get sacrificed to appease the gods. He’s not a Targaryen, and he doesn’t want Dany’s dragons.

As for what happened to Maegor Brightflame, he’s only mentioned twice, re the Great Council of 233AC (once unnamed in ACOK, once with more details in TWOIAF), and then entirely disappears from the narrative. Personally, I believe that if Maegor didn’t die young, then he’ll be the thematic replacement for Aerion in the last D&E story, and I’d bet something he did is one of the reasons Aegon’s ceremony went wrong at Summerhall, and he died there.

At any rate, even excluding the notable contradiction of the dates… what with Maegor’s mad father, mad grandfather, and apparently mad aunt and uncle... I sincerely doubt Maegor would ever be the cold and rational devil-bargainer of ADWD, the twisty rogue called the Tattered Prince. Hope that helps!

[sheikah]

I really hope that Friki really is just repeating what previous leakers have said, for the simple fact that I HATE the idea of Jon's Targaryen name being Aegon. Way to shit all over your son with Elia Rhaegar. Not to mention, didn't we already do the Aegon the Elder and Aegon the Younger thing during the Dance of Dragons? Sheesh. I hope the Empire Mag info is actually correct and his name is Jaehaerys. Or even Ameon. Or Daemon. Or ANYTHING other than Aegon.

I agree with you. For so many reasons. I think that this name is horrible because:

1. It erases the existence of Rhaegar’s first son, Aegon.

2. Jon in my opinion has nothing in common with Aegon the Conqueror for whom we can assume this name was chosen. 

3. Better options are available. Aemon would have been a nod to Maester Aemon, someone Jon would be honored to share a name with. Jaehaerys would help to explain why Jon was called “Jon” as a safe nickname that shared the same first letter as his real name. This also alludes to King Jaehaerys whose reign as the Conciliator and the Wise was prosperous and would be a positive omen for Jon’s rule. Even Daeron would be cool, since we know that as a child Jon admired Daeron the Young Dragon.So yeah this was part of the leaks I was hoping was wrong or a typo. Aegon and Aemon are so similar. I was really holding out for Aemon :(