Aerion Targaryen

Aerion Targaryen, nicknamed Aerion Brightflame, was a prince of the Targaryen dynasty and one of the worst sufferers of the madness that plagued them.
==Biography==
===Background===
Aerion was a prince of the Targaryen dynasty. His parents were King Maekar I Targaryen and Dyanna Dayne. He was the older brother of Aemon and Aegon Targaryen, the latter of whom would ascend the Iron Throne as Aegon V.
Despite the fact that both his father and grandfather broke the ancient Targaryen custom of marrying brother to sister "to keep the bloodline pure", Aerion still succumbed to the madness that plagued many members of his family due to multiple generations of compound inbreeding. He ultimately killed himself by drinking wildfire, believing it would transmute him into a dragon.
===Game of Thrones: Season 3===
Touring the Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing, King Joffrey Baratheon points out to Margaery Tyrell the urn containing what little remains of ​Aerion Brightflame. He briefly explains who he was and the manner of his death.
===Game of Thrones: Season 8===
Aerion is mentioned under Ser Duncan the Tall's entry, in the Book of Brothers, which the new Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Brienne of Tarth flicks through. The book states he had a hand in the death of Prince Baelor Breakspear.
==Family==
==In the books==
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Aerion Targaryen is remembered as an example of the madness that can befall the members of House Targaryen, believing himself a dragon in human form, and had a rather cruel streak that would lead him to be nicknamed Aerion the Monstrous. In his youth, Aerion was slim and of average height with curly silver-hair, a statuesque face of sharp cheekbones, straight nose, pale skin, and violet eyes.
His brothers were not fond of him, particularly Prince Aegon. At some point of Aegon's childhood, Aerion threw his brother's cat down a well and stole into his chambers with a knife and threatened to castrate him to get a sister that he could marry. During the events of the tourney at Ashford Meadow, Aerion disgraced himself when he impaled the horse of Ser Humphrey Hardyng with his lance during a joust, leaving the horse to die an agonizing death. Aerion was later offended when he noticed the Dornish girl Tanselle putting on a puppet show about a knight slaying a dragon. He immediately attacked her and proceeded to break her fingers. His actions started a fight with the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall, who managed to knock out some of Aerion's teeth. When Duncan was put on trial for his actions, he was reminded by Prince Baelor that a trial by combat could be requested. Aerion demanded it to be a trial of seven. The trial, which resulted in the death of Prince Baelor, turned the tide in Duncan's favor. Aerion's father, Prince Maekar, proceeded to banish his son to the Free City of Lys. During his exile, Aerion may have possibly fathered several children and served with the Second Sons, a sellsword company.
Aerion did not simply have a fit of madness one day in which he decided that drinking wildfire would turn him into a dragon; he was quite drunk at the time. He was always quite arrogant and unstable, but under normal circumstances was not outright delusional.
Aerion married his first cousin, Daenora Targaryen - the only surviving child of his uncle Rhaegel Targaryen, who was widely believed to have been insane (not sadistic like Aerion, but is said that he was seen dancing naked through the Red Keep). Aerion had one child by Daenora, a son, that in a display of pique and arrogance he named "Maegor" - after his ancestor, the infamous tyrant King Maegor the Cruel. The first Maegor's memory was so despised that the Targaryens had avoided naming any of their sons "Maegor" again for the previous two hundred years (in real life terms it is comparable to how the English monarchy never named a son "John" again after King John, brother of Richard the Lionheart, or like naming a prince "Nero" after Emperor Nero).
Aerion died drinking wildfire in 232 AC, and his father Maekar died only a few months later that same year. Aerion's son Maegor was still just an infant, and it was feared by many that the son had inherited his father's madness (and possibly also the madness of his mother's father). At the Great Council to determine the succession, only a few spoke up for Aerion's son and he was quickly passed over as a candidate. It also passed over the only heir of Maekar's eldest son Daeron, a ten-year-old girl named Vaella who while sweet was mentally disabled. Maekar's third son Aemon had become a maester, leaving his fourth son Aegon V to inherit the throne (though due to Aegon V's populist leanings there were many among the nobility who pressured that Aemon should be released from his vows to inherit ahead of him, but Aemon flatly refused to have any part in this, and joined the Night's Watch).
Interestingly, Aerion had a lot in common with Joffrey: both were mentally unstable, psychopathic sadists, cruel to animals, and used to bully their younger brothers. The resemblance supports, though not confirms, the theory that Joffrey was the grandson of the Mad King, based on Barristan Selmy's comment about Aerys and Joanna Lannister.
Aerion Brightflame is one of the main antagonists in the first entry in the Dunk & Egg novellas set 90 years before the War of the Five Kings. He is a major opponent of Ser Duncan the Tall, and challenges him to a trial by combat - or rather, a rare "trial of seven" variant in which two sides of seven men fight each other. Aerion Brightflame would thus appear in any potential TV adaptation of the prequels.
==Appearances==
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==References==
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Category:Crownlanders
Category:Individuals from Histories & Lore
Category:Individuals mentioned in Game of Thrones
Aerion Targaryen
Aerion Targaryen
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