Characters / A Song of Ice and Fire - Court of Aegon II

This is a listing of characters in the court of King Aegon II Targaryen in A Song of Ice and Fire.

For the main House Targaryen entry and overall tropes, see HERE

For the rival court of Rhaenyra I, see HERE

From left to right: Dowager Queen Alicent, Aegon II, Queen Helaena and Prince Aemond

Aegon II's supporters, known as The Greens, were the allies of Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower and driven more by the Queen's power, not to mention the wealth of House Hightower, as well as the ancient Andal tradition that a male comes before a female in the succession. They were headquartered in the Red Keep at King’s Landing or alternatively in the equally prosperous Hightower-held city of Oldtown. These assets gave the Greens an air of legitimacy that the Blacks did not. Support for the Greens came mainly from the Reach, Westerlands, and Stormlands, although several river lords supported them as well. The Greens used a sigil depicting a golden dragon on a black field to represent the famed golden dragon Sunfyre, which they possessed during the Dance of Dragons.

General

• All for Nothing: All the suffering and tragedy they go through is rendered null and void when Aegon is poisoned and his last surviving child Jaehaera dies without issue, ending their King's line and ensuring that all future Targaryens will descend from Rhaenyra.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Congratulations, you managed to crown Aegon II as King. Now get ready for a horrific death or enduring fates worse than that.
• Color Motifs: Green and gold.
• The Coup: For all intents and purposes, this is what they did immediately after King Viserys' death.
• Doomed Moral Victor: They could be seen as this from a Westerosi point of view — while they did launch a coup and ultimately saw their whole line extinguished, their opponent was a woman who flaunted her bastard children and was, well, a woman, which goes against all rights of succession.
• Dragon Rider: They have fewer dragons than the Black Faction, but they make up for it by having Vhagar — the largest dragon in the known world.
• Dwindling Party: By the time the war and the Hour of the Wolf are over, only a few are still alive.
• Heir Club for Men: This is their reason for supporting Aegon II.
• Irony: Their attempt to enforce male primogeniture ends with the only one of their side of the family left able to produce heirs, and therefore continue the line, being Jaehaera.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The Greens started a Succession Crisis in order to claim the Iron Throne, so it seems fitting that, by the war's end, they're the ones who die out, while Rhaenyra's line lives on.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: While they go down in history as the official leaders of Westeros during the Dance while the Blacks are portrayed as the rebels, they were the ones that caused the split by championing Aegon II's claim despite the fact King Viserys I was quite clear in his intention to have Rhaenyra succeed him.

The Royal Family

Aegon II

King Aegon Targaryen, the Second of His Name; r. 129-131

Aegon the Elder, Aegon The Usurper

Aegon II as depicted by Douglas Wheatley in Fire & Blood

"The time for hiding is done. Let the ravens fly that the realm may know the pretender is dead, and their true king is coming home to reclaim his father’s throne."

Oldest child of Viserys I and Alicent Hightower. Was married to his sister Helaena and had three children by her (twins Jaehaerys and Jaehaera and Maelor). Crowned by Ser Criston Cole at behest of his mother, Queen Alicent Hightower, sparking the civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. His personal sigil was the Targaryen dragon, gold, on a field of black. He wore the crown of Aegon the Conqueror and carried Blackfyre, the Conqueror's blade. He was lazy, sulky, and gluttonous. He died in 131 AC after a very brief reign, poisoned by his own supporters.

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• 0% Approval Rating: Aegon was disliked even before he seized the crown; Rhaenyra's takeover of King's Landing was initially successful because he was so unpopular with the people. Getting rid of Rhaenyra didn't help Aegon's cause because by the time he did, half the realm wanted him dead and were prepared to keep fighting to make it a reality.
• Absurdly Youthful Father: His first children that we know of were conceived when he was barely in his mid-teens.
• The Alcoholic: Described as having a particular fondness for wine, though he grew out of that later on. Then he becomes a true alcoholic to partially dull his constant pain upon returning to the throne. He later dies from drinking poisoned wine.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Finally defeated Rhaenyra by bribing Dragonstone's garrison.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: The smallfolk of King's Landing celebrated his death with much joy, as it meant that both claimants to the throne were now dead and the Dance of the Dragons was finally over.
• A Fate Worse Than Death: Dying at the start of the war would have been more pleasant. Aegon won the war but lost everything in the process: his sons, his wife and his dragon. In his remaining years, his body was decimated by a series of devastating injuries during the war, which caused him no small amount of constant agony and he never really recovered. All that suffering for a pitifully short reign, ending when his remaining supporters assassinated him rather than let Aegon drag the fighting out any longer, after which Rhaenyra's son ends up succeeding him.
• Asshole Victim: He was lecherous, gluttonous, vindictive and ultimately poisoned by his supposed allies when they reached breaking point. Even when Cregan Stark was punishing those responsible, his outrage was not for Aegon as a person, but because of the disloyalty shown to a king (in the same breath as he acknowledged Aegon was a usurper).
• Ax-Crazy: By the end of the Dance, he definitely seems to have become this, with a fondness for killing his enemies / anyone who upsets him in horrifically violent fashion, such as leaving half of Rhaenyra's maester's corpse on display as a "welcome" sign, having Rhaenyra cooked alive in front of her son, having the Shepherd and his followers nailed up and then set on fire, and threatening to mutilate or just kill a preteen boy rather than risk the possibility of his getting near the throne. History remembers him as unfavorably as Rhaenyra.
• Bad Boss: He feeds those who displease him to Sunfyre.
• Big Eater: Aegon is remembered as being a glutton.
• Blood Knight: Not to the extent of Aemond, but he got impatient with Otto Hightower for reaching out to potential allies rather than fighting (neatly ignoring that he needed allies to fight), and soon fired him for it.
• Body Horror: His "victory" at "The Battle of Rook's Rest" had him suffer terrible wounds due to dragonfire. Burns covered half his body and one of his arms had even been melted into his armor. It took a year for him to recover. His condition only worsened after his dragon duel with Baela Targaryen. As their dragons fell to the earth, he was forced to leap off Sunfyre's back 20 feet in the air, shattering his legs; said legs never healed properly and left Aegon unable to walk under his own power without the use of a cane.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Won several dragon duels, but each one left him with injuries that eventually made him a cripple in constant agonizing pain.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Married his sister Helaena.
• Bullying a Dragon: After Rhaenyra's death, he imperiously commanded Rhaenyra's loyalists in the North, Vale and Riverlands to stand down and face punishment for rebelling against him, ignoring that their armies completely outnumbered his. They promptly told Aegon to get stuffed and started marching on King's Landing with the intention of deposing him.
• The Corruptible: Not that he was exactly untarnished to begin with, but he proved easily swayed into making things worse by Criston Cole and his mother.
• Covered in Scars: After his battle in the skies with Rhaenys' dragon his body was covered in scars from the burns, despite emerging victorious.
• The Determinator: He refused to take dreamwine or milk of the poppy to ease his agonizing pain once his place as king was secure, out of fear that doing so would cloud his mind and lead to addiction. Unfortunately, it didn't really improve his decision-making skills.
• Detrimental Determination: He was hell-bent on getting the crown and keeping it, no matter how much it cost him, family members and his own health included, ultimately resulting in his death when his own advisors were unable to persuade him to just give up.
• Dragon Rider: He rode Sunfyre. During the Dance, he rode his dragon into battle and against other dragons. One of the few nice things you can say about Aegon II is that at least he wasn't a coward.
• Generation Xerox: Subverted. He resembled his father in looks, but not personality.
• Heir Club for Men: One of the main reasons he usurped the throne was because he claimed the right of being the next in a male line of succession; as such, his direct heirs would have Targaryen names unlike Rhaenyra's, whose immediate heirs were Velaryons by virtue of her being a woman; down the line, his successor ended being the second youngest son of Rhaenyra with Daemon Targaryen, Aegon III. This aspect, and the fact that Rhaenyra's reign was disastrous to say the least, led to the subsequent unofficial ban of having a woman sit on the Iron Throne.
• Humiliation Conga: His personal conduct during the Dance of Dragons ultimately amounted to this, with him amassing a series of debilitating injuries, each more agonizing and humiliating than the last, and spending most of his supposed reign either bedridden or in hiding. Once Rhaenyra was dead and he was able to act as king in full, his poor decision making leads to him reigniting the war and ultimately his own death, with his time on the Iron Throne ^note  And figuratively at that, as he was so badly injured by this point that he couldn't even make it up the steps to the throne anymore and had to sit on a cushioned seat standing at its base being measured in months. While his legacy fared slightly better than his half-sister's by virtue of his claim being legitimized posthumously, he still went down in history as a power-hungry usurper.
• Ignored Epiphany: Corlys Velaryon and Larys Strong urged Aegon, with the Greens' remaining army destroyed by Lord Kermit Tully, and a northern army under the command of Cregan Stark days away from King's Landing which the Greens had no chance of defeating, to surrender in the hopes Rhaenyra's son Aegon would spare his life and allow him to join the Night's Watch. Aegon was almost persuaded...until his mother chimed in that he should start slicing parts off the boy as a warning to the incoming northerners to back off. Aegon came around to his mother's way of thinking...so Velaryon and Strong, fully aware the war was a lost cause at this point, washed their hands of Aegon's desperate brutality and arranged his assassination before the end of the day.
• I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Aegon threatened Alyn Velaryon with this, insinuating that he would have Alyn's cousin Baela Targaryen executed if Alyn failed to stop the Braavosi fleet transporting forces loyal to Rhaenyra from the Vale to assault King's Landing. Fortunately, Alyn's father (and Baela's grandfather) Corlys Velaryon orchestrated Aegon's assassination before the king could make good on his threat.
• Kick the Dog:
  • When Aemond killed Lucerys Velaryon, Alicent and Otto Hightower — according to Septon Eustace — were horrified, since it meant there'd be no chance now of settling things peacefully and it just plain made the Greens look bad. Aegon, by contrast, congratulated Aemond and held a feast for him.
  • When he took Dragonstone, he had Rhaenyra's Maester killed, but made sure to leave just enough of him for her to recognize before he killed her.
  • Speaking of which, the means by which he killed Rhaenyra alone are horrific enough, but he made a point of doing so in front of her son, Aegon, who was still a kid at the time.
  • After Cheese escaped capture in the wake of Prince Jaehaerys's murder, Aegon ordered every rat catcher in the Red Keep hanged, regardless of their innocence.
• Kill It with Fire: Narrowly avoided this fate. During "The Battle of Rook's Rest" he was nearly burnt to death by Princess Rhaenys' dragon, Meleys. Though he survived, it took him a year to recover from his incredibly severe burns. This was the fate of his sister Rhaenyra, at the hands of his dragon Sunfyre, who devoured her afterwards. He might have also dealt this out to Rhaenys, the Queen Who Never Was, but the text doesn't reveal whether Sunfyre or Vhagar finished her off.
• King Incognito: He escaped King's Landing and snuck into Dragonstone by pretending to be a dragonseed smallfolk.
• Lazy Bum: Before the Dance, this was the most could be said about him, being more interested in sex and more sex than anything else, like learning statesmanship, unlike Rhaenyra, who did attend small council meetings.
• The Loins Sleep Tonight: After breaking his legs from a battle against Baela Targaryen's younger dragon, Mushroom claims that Aegon suffered impotence. He would order his guards to have their way with a woman while he watched from a silk screen before confessing his sin to Septon Eustace, who does not repeat these claims.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: His harsh reprisals on Black lords in the Crownlands who surrendered to him after Rhaenyra's death came back to bite Aegon hard at the Battle of the Kingsroad, where they got even by either abandoning Aegon's loyalists to destruction or helping the Riverlanders win the battle.
• Momma's Boy: Always tended to listen to his mother, whether it was a good idea or not. Gyldayn even claims that when he was at the edge of hope, he "desperately" asked her what to do, even though he was supposed to be a king.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: It helps that she was his wife as well, but at a feast where Jacaerys Velaryon asked Helaena for the honour of a dance, Aegon angrily took offence, with the implication the argument between them could have turned violent, had the Kingsguard not intervened.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His threatening Baela Targaryen with execution was all the impetus Corlys Velaryon, Baela's grandfather, needed to agree to arranging Aegon's assassination.
• Oh, Crap!: This was apparently Aegon's reaction to learning the Riverlands had almost completely come out in support of Rhaenyra, and the few supporters he had there were crushed. It was a particularly galling blow to Aegon because it proved Rhaenyra had far more support for her claim than his court had assured him.
  • Also, his reaction after the Battle of the Kingsroad, knowing his last loyal army had been destroyed and there was nothing standing between King's Landing and three enemy armies who wanted him dead.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His two sons perished in the course of the war. Jaehaerys was assassinated in retaliation for Lucerys's murder, Maelor was killed by a mob at Bitterbridge; though his daughter Jaehaera lived to marry Aegon III, she did not last long before she either killed herself or was murdered.
• Papa Wolf: Septon Eustace claimed that Aegon didn't really want to be King at first, he only agreed when he was told that if he didn't, Rhaenyra would kill his family.
• Peaceful in Death: His death by poison was so sudden and so quiet it was remarked that if not for the blood dribbling from his mouth his Kingsguard could well have presumed he was just fast asleep.
• Perpetual Frowner: Often bore a sullen look on his face. After the war with his half-sister began, and the losses he suffered because of it, it's no wonder he looked so miserable.
• Pet the Dog: He may have been a Royal Brat but he had a few nice moments here and there.
  • Aegon granted the pretender Trystane Truefyre's last request of being knighted before executing him. He also spared Gaemon Palehair on account of his youth, making the boy a ward of the crown.
  • He did not allow Baela Targaryen to be killed after a fierce battle over Dragonstone just out of the sheer braveness of her act. They both lived covered in burns for the rest of their lives, though Baela lived longer. Though he did consider having her executed several times, he just never got around to it.
  • He also spared Aegon the Younger when he was suggested of having him killed. He settled for keeping him captive in Dragonstone, at least until Alicent suggested slicing pieces off of him to warn off the remaining Blacks.
  • He loved his dragon Sunfyre, and was genuinely heartbroken when the beast finally died of its injuries.
  • He also loved his younger brothers, Aemond and Daeron. After they were killed in the war, Aegon commanded that two colossal statues of them be built as part of his plans to rebuild the Dragonpit.
• Psychopathic Manchild: While his true Ax-Crazy tendencies only surfaced later in the Dance of Dragons, Aegon's behavior even on the onset paints him as a frightening combination of petulant, impatient, and bloodthirsty: He throws a tantrum over his family prioritizing cementing his powerbase before openly declaring him king; he throws his brother Aemond a feast over killing Lucerys and starting the war in earnest (while his mother and grandfather despair at any chance of ending the conflict peacefully being dashed), and removes Otto from his position as Hand when his plans don't provide immediate results in favor of Criston Cole (Otto's efforts would later be instrumental in crippling the Valeryon fleets, while Cole's military campaign ends with him and his army being massacred).
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Delivers one before feeding Rhaenyra to his dragon.
  Rhaenyra: It would seem we are your prisoners ... but do not think that you will hold us long. My leal lords will find me.
  Aegon II: If they search the seven hells, mayhaps.
• Pyrrhic Victory: He outlived his opponent Rhaenyra, but he lost both of his sons, his wife and his dragon Sunfyre, was critically injured during the Battle of Rook's Rest, and later died. Aegon later suffered badly damaged legs at Dragonstone and never really recovered. Living in pain for the rest of his days, his reign would only last for about 6 months, with his own supporters eventually poisoning him when it became obvious that they couldn't win the continuing civil war. And, adding insult to injury, the crown passed to Rhaeneyra's son, Aegon III, when Aegon II died without (male) issue. However, as Aegon III never legitimized the rule of his mother, and the succession passed along to a male heir, the legal question of Aegon II's supporters was vindicated in the end.
  • In the long run, whoever was left after all that mess was executed during Cregan Stark's "Hour of the Wolf", which is the term used to refer to his period of six days as Hand of the King Aegon III to bring Aegon II's murderers to justice, which turned out to be the very same guys who put him in the throne.
• Really Gets Around: Had loads of bastards. The accounts from both sides of the war agree that he was in the middle of sex when the Kingsguard found Aegon to tell him his father was dead. ^note The pro-Rhaenyra accounts claim he was having sex with a prostitute in a tavern in Flea Bottom, while the pro-Aegon accounts claim he was with one of his mistresses, the daughter of a rich merchant
• Refusal of the Call: According to Eustace, at first, he didn't even want to be king, until Criston Cole convinced him that Rhaenyra would kill him and his children to assert her right to the throne.
• Riddle for the Ages: In-Universe. It has remained a historical mystery who exactly poisoned him. Though those thought responsible was arrested and tried during the Hour of the Wolf, far from everyone was convinced that the entire conspiracy was unravelled after everything was said and done, or if those judged were the actual culprits.
• Short-Lived Leadership: He was king for about two years total. And that's on technicality. Between injuries and being in hiding, his actual time reigning could be measured in months.
• Stout Strength: He had his father's plump build but was still a warrior.
• Straight for the Commander: Killing Rhaenyra did not end the war. The Blacks kept fighting to put her son on the Iron Throne.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • His response to Grand Maester Orwyle offering to go to Dragonstone and negotiate a peace settlement with Rhaenyra was to accuse the Grand Maester of treason and threaten to throw him in the Black Cells. Aegon only relented when his mother, wife and grandfather spoke in favor of Orwyle's proposal.
  • He also fired his grandfather, Otto Hightower, as Hand of the King because he felt Otto was being too cautious and cowardly. In truth, Otto was desperately trying to shore up the meagre support Aegon had and persuade other noble Houses still on the fence to back him, as well as make diplomatic overtures to the Free Cities for military aid.
• Unreliable Narrator: According to Word of God, there were problems with the editor when The Princess and the Queen was published, resulting in certain lines being cut for space... particularly what were actually vital framing phrases that they should not have cut. In the narrative style of the novella, it is presented as a history text which at times quotes rival sources, though the author is careful to point out who said this so the reader can judge if they were biased, i.e., Septon Eustace was a major Aegon II supporter, so any time that his historical account is quoted, you're supposed to view it warily. George R.R. Martin has confirmed via blog postings that pretty much anything nice you could say about Aegon II was just propaganda being quoted out of context — specifically, that the whole thing about him not even wanting to be king at first was propaganda from Septon Eustace's book (but the editor cut out the line saying "Septon Eustace said this and I'm not sure if he was lying"). All other accounts such as from The World of Ice and Fire describe Aegon II as a power-hungry "grasper" eager to usurp the throne.
• The Usurper: To Rhaenyra's loyalists, the "Blacks".
• Won the War, Lost the Peace: After capturing and executing Rhaenyra and taking her last son as a hostage, Aegon had effectively won the Dance of Dragons. All he had to do was be reasonable, offer pardons to convince Rhaenyra's loyalists to stand down and acknowledge her son Aegon as his (albeit temporary) heir to allow a modicum of peace to return. Instead, Aegon, influenced by his mother and her sycophants, started meting out brutal reprisals on Black lords closest to King's Landing, and when word of that got out, Rhaenyra's loyalists in the North, Vale and Riverlands chose to keep fighting rather than lay down their arms and suffer the same. Within the space of a week, the last of Aegon's armies had been annihilated, and he had no forces left to defend King's Landing from three enemy armies about to lay siege to the capital. When he chose to mutilate his nephew as leverage against his enemies rather than abdicate to prevent the city being ransacked, a good number of his courtiers decided enough was enough, assassinated Aegon and the rest of his loyalists at court, then negotiated a surrender before their enemies could assault King's Landing, with Aegon going down in history vilified as a grasping usurper.
• Would Hurt a Child: Played with. The war snowballs considerably after Aemond kills Lucerys Velaryon. Both Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen hold Aegon responsible, though he had nothing to do with it. Daemon then orders one of Aegon's children to be killed; likewise, Rhaenyra is blamed even when she didn't give the order. And also at Rhaenyra's death, he refused to have the future Aegon III killed despite the suggestion, though he wasn't above considering having the kid castrated. It was the fact he listened to his mother's suggestion to start slicing Aegon the Younger into pieces as a threat that ultimately prompted Larys Strong and Lord Velaryon to kill him.
• Would Hit a Girl: Leaving aside what he did to Rhaenyra, after his beloved dragon Sunfyre died of the injuries it sustained in his battle with Baela Targaryen, Aegon spitefully ordered her beheaded for it, only relenting when his advisers pointed out Baela would be a useful hostage to the loyalty of her Velaryon kin. Aegon again threatened her grandfather Corlys Velaryon that if his son Alyn failed to stop a Braavosi fleet transporting an army from the Vale loyal to Rhaenyra to assault King's Landing, Baela would lose her head for it. Unfortunately for Aegon, that threat just goaded Corlys into arranging the king's assassination before the end of the day.
• Written by the Winners: Aegon decreed Rhaenyra was never a true queen, only a princess. This decree still stands, even while Aegon goes down in history as a usurper himself.

Queen Helaena Targaryen

Queen Helaena Targaryen

Second child and only daughter of Viserys I and Alicent Hightower. Aegon II's wife and mother of his three children (twins Jaehaerys and Jaehaera, and Maelor). She committed suicide in 130 AC after spending months in a deep depression following her son's murder.

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• Absurdly Youthful Mother: Gave birth to Jaehaerys and Jaehaera when she was only 14, having married her brother Aegon a year earlier at the age of 13.
• Awful Wedded Life: It's hinted her marriage to Aegon wasn't very happy, especially after the Blood and Cheese incident; Helaena refused to share a bed with him and didn't go see him when he was bedridden from battle wounds. Considering Aegon wasn't the most pleasant man and frequently cheated on her, it wouldn't be surprising their marriage was unhappy.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Played with. Helaena was said to be not as strikingly beautiful as most Targaryens, but still a pretty girl, and she was easily one of the nicest members of her family.
• Big Beautiful Woman: She was described as plumper than most Targaryens and pretty. Well, she did have three children.
• Broken Bird: After her elder son was killed. Plus, if Mushroom is to be believed, Rhaenyra forced her into prostitution as revenge for Alicent constantly claiming her first three sons were bastards.
• Brother–Sister Incest: She was married to her brother Aegon II and had three children by him.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the few things she's recorded as saying is when asked where her husband was when Viserys I died was "not in bed", even telling the men looking they could check under the bed sheets if they liked.
• Despair Event Horizon: After her eldest son Jaehaerys was beheaded in front of her, she fell into madness and never recovered, eventually committing suicide at the age of twenty-one. It's said that what triggered her suicide was Mysaria telling her of the gruesome death of her other son, Maelor, though this was never confirmed.
• Damsel in Distress: She was cornered in her mother's bedroom by two assassins, who killed her guards and forced her to choose one of her sons to die. She was later taken captive by her older half-sister Rhaenyra after King's Landing fell to the Blacks. According to Mushroom, she was forced into prostitution by a vengeful Rhaenyra, though no other sources cite this happening.
• Dragon Rider: She rode Dreamfyre. She never rode the dragon into battle though; she wasn't a warrior and by the time the fighting really started, she was considered too mentally unstable to be a reliable asset in battle.
• Forced to Watch: She was forced to watch her son being murdered, which caused her to fall into a deep depression.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By spikes at the bottom of the moat of Maegor's Holdfast.
• Never Suicide: After her suicide, the rumor is that she was murdered by Luthor Largent, Commander of the City Watch, on the orders of Rhaenyra Targaryen. Rhaenyra is hated by enough of King's Landing by that point that this rumor becomes gospel among the smallfolk, and by night's end the city is gripped in deadly riot.
• Nice Girl: She was described as being a "pleasant and happy" girl, who loved her children and was adored by the smallfolk. Unfortunately, she's emotionally broken by the horrific events she went through in the Dance of Dragons.
• The Ophelia: Watching her son Jaehaerys die right in front of her eyes — after she had reluctantly picked his brother Maelor as the one she thought most expendable — drives her mad with grief, to the point that she eventually throws herself off the roof of Maegor's Holdfast. But then, see Never Suicide above.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Jaehaerys was killed in front of her as mentioned above. Later, Maelor was torn apart by the mob at Bitterbridge after being spirited away from the Red Keep (though it's possible Helaena never learned about this).
• Parental Favoritism: A downplayed and horrific instance of this. Helaena loved all her children, but she reluctantly chose Maelor when Blood and Cheese demanded one of her sons be killed (if not they'd kill all her children). Helaena chose Maelor because she thought he was too young to understand what was happening. Blood and Cheese killed Jaehaerys instead and made a point of telling Maelor his mother "wanted him dead". Helaena sank into a deep depression over this and couldn't bring herself to look at Maelor out of guilt.
• Please Spare Him, My Liege!: She offered to die herself instead of any of her children. Blood and Cheese refused, insisting Daemon had specified one of her sons killed in retaliation for Lucerys.
• The Quiet One: Whether because she just said little or no-one ever bothered recording what she said, but Helaena doesn't seem to have been a very chatty person even before her madness.
• "Rashomon"-Style: There are differing accounts as to how Helaena died: one account accuses Luthor Largent of throwing her to her death on Rhaenyra's orders, but in-universe historians dispute this, given Largent had the alibi of eating dinner with his fellow gold cloaks miles away from the Red Keep at the time of Helaena's death and Rhaenyra had no reason to want Helaena dead, dismissing the claims of murder as slander spread by Larys Strong. The other accounts that assert Helaena committed suicide differ on her motive: some say it was discovering she was pregnant after months of being used as a Sex Slave alongside her mother in a King's Landing brothel after Alicent provoked Rhaenyra, while others say Helaena killed herself after Mysaria told Helaena how her infant son Maelor had died at Bitterbridge, just to be cruel.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
  • Not by her per say, but by her dragon Dreamfyre. She got loose and went berserk in the capitol after her rider committed suicide. In a way, Dreamfyre exacted revenge on everyone who was responsible for Helaena's death.
  • By extension, one reason the smallfolk of King's Landing started rioting against Rhaenyra was to get justice for Helaena and her sons after they learned of her death.
• Sadistic Choice: Daemon's assassins "Cheese" and "Blood" forced her to choose which one of her sons they should kill, saying that if she refused to choose, they would kill all three of her children and rape her daughter. Helaena pleaded with them asking to kill her instead if it meant sparing her boys, but the two assassins insisted that their orders was to kill one of the sons and nothing less would do. In the end, Helaena reluctantly named her youngest child, Maelor, probably because he wasn't the heir after all. But in response, the two men killed Jaehaerys instead.
• Sanity Slippage: She falls into depression after witnessing the death of her son Jaehaerys, refusing to eat, bathe, or leave her chambers. It's unclear if she was really "insane", or just deeply depressed (which wouldn't be surprising given what had happened).
• Sex Slave: According to Mushroom (who is not exactly the most reliable source), she was prostituted to the people of King's Landing, alongside her mother after Alicent called Rhaenyra's Velaryon sons bastards to her face once too often, to be left there until she and Alicent were pregnant with bastards of their own. Mushroom also claims discovering she was pregnant from this ordeal was the cause of her suicide.
• Sleeping Single: After the incident that caused her breakdown, she slept apart from Aegon.
• Take Me Instead: She tried to offer her own life to Blood and Cheese in place of her sons, but they immediately shot it down.
• Teen Pregnancy: She was only 14 when she gave birth to Jaehaerys and Jaehaera, and 18 when she gave birth to Maelor.
• Token Good Teammate: She doesn't seem to share any of her mother, brother-husband, and other brothers' jerkassery and has no Kick the Dog moment.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Out of all Alicent's children, she was the most kind, gentle, and innocent, never willfully doing any harm to anyone. She ended up as collateral damage in the Greens and Blacks' feud, that saw two of her children dead and her being left emotionally and psychologically broken, eventually driving her to take her own life (unless she was actually murdered).
• Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: Following the Blood and Cheese incident, Helaena would often refuse food in the midst of her grief.
• Universally Beloved Leader: The smallfolk loved Helaena, even after her depression. Consequently, after Helaena committed suicide and it was rumored the Blacks deliberately drove her to it (or even murdered her), it triggered a mass riot against Rhaenyra that proved disastrous for the Blacks.
• White Sheep: Didn't possess any of the negative traits of her siblings. Even Rhaenyra seemed to feel no ill will towards her; while she always spitefully called Aegon, Aemond, and Daeron her "half-brothers", the only time she speaks of Helaena, she calls her "sweet sister".

Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower

Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower

Second and last spouse of King Viserys I and mother of Aegon II, Queen Helaena and princes Aemond and Daeron Targaryen. Daughter of the long-time Hand of the King Ser Otto Hightower.

See the House Hightower character page.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When she heard Rhaenyra had given orders for her sons to be killed on sight after the fall of King's Landing, Alicent went on her knees before the Iron Throne to beg for mercy. Rhaenyra unsurprisingly ignored her pleading, retorting that she'd been prepared to give Alicent's children places of honor at court when her father died, but she was no longer inclined to be merciful when Aegon and his brothers had stolen her throne and killed two of her children.
• All for Nothing: At the end of the Dance of the Dragons, her father, brother, younger sons, daughter, and grandsons were all dead, and her son ruled for less than a year and accomplished zilch before being unceremoniously poisoned by his own supporters, going down in history as a power-hungry, grasping usurper. Her last surviving grandchild would die young and childless, with Rhaenyra’s sons continuing the Targaryen bloodline. Alicent herself would die a broken woman shortly after, in grief and bitter regret.
• Awful Wedded Life: If she did actually kill Viserys, it would say a lot about their marriage that she was willing to do so. It's telling that in her final years, as she started talking about all the dead people she wanted to talk to again, her husband never got mentioned once. To be fair, that doesn't mean she killed him, just that she didn't love him, and given most indicators suggest Viserys did love her, it probably wasn't that bad on her end. He was probably a better husband than Robert would be to Cersei.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: She desperately wanted her son and daughter to become king and queen. She got her wish, even crowning Helaena herself. And then she got to see her family killed off one by one in the ensuing civil war, down to her last (legitimate) grandchild.
• Bullying a Dragon: She continues mouthing off about Rhaenyra's kids to her face when held captive, even when Rhaenyra makes it plain to Alicent the only reason she's still alive is because Viserys loved her.
• The Caretaker: For the elderly and senile king, Jaehaerys I, who even confused her for one of his daughters and died peacefully while she was reading to him. Surprisingly, she seemed to look back fondly on that role in later years, suggesting it wasn't a duty she was forced to do because her father was Hand and Jaehaerys was a dearly beloved king.
• Cruel Mercy: She is spared from execution twice, but has to see her children, grandchildren, and supporters die one after the other, and she is eventually confined to her apartments for the rest of her life and forgotten by everyone—including her last living grandchild, who is utterly terrified of her. Archmaester Gyldayn even remarks that, all things considered, Alicent's death from the Winter Fever was a pretty peaceful way for her to go.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of Mother Makes You King. Everything Alicent did, she did so her son Aegon II could be king and her family could be in control of the Iron Throne. While she gave her children every possible social and political advantage growing up, she never bothered to discipline them in any way or teach them how to lead effectively, with the result that Aegon II and Aemond grew into, respectively, a lazy, unlikable, gluttonous womanizer and a psychotically violent Royal Brat who murdered his nephew the first chance he got, destroying any chance of a peace treaty between the two warring factions and leading the outraged Blacks to retaliate in similar fashion. During the Dance of the Dragons, her father, brothers, daughter, two other sons, and grandsons were all killed, but Aegon II survived, fed Rhaenyra to his dragon, and claimed the Iron Throne... and he proceeded to accomplish absolutely nothing and would rule for less than a year before he was fatally poisoned by his own supporters (after he decided to go along with her suggestion to mutilate the young Aegon III, rather than stand down in the face of an enemy army he had no hope of defeating), making the death of every single Hightower for naught. In the end, Alicent did everything in her power to make her son a king, but it meant nothing because she didn't raise him to be a man worthy of a crown.
• Doting Parent: Whatever her other flaws, she did love her children, enough to wage a war against her stepdaughter Rhaenyra in an effort to give them the royal crown. Unfortunately, she also allowed them to grow up entitled and spoiled, as evidenced by the dispositions of Aegon II, a womanizing Jerkass, and Aemond, a violent Royal Brat and Blood Knight. Helaena and Daeron turned out all right, though.
  • This would also extend to her grandchildren, as she took over raising her granddaughter after Helaena lost her mind. The text would indicate she didn't consider it a burden.
• Dropped a Bridge on Her: She stops being mentioned after Rhaenyra's death, other than being mentioned among the casualties of the Winter Fever during Aegon III's reign.
• Everyone Has Standards: Alicent was said to have been horrified by Aemond's cold blooded murder of the defenceless Lucerys Velaryon, knowing that act had destroyed any chance of negotiating a peace with Rhaenyra.
• Green and Mean: She wore a green gown to the tournament of her fifth wedding anniversary while her stepdaughter Rhaenyra wore black, leading their respective factions to be called the Greens and the Blacks. She was also a ruthless, power-hungry woman who tried to usurp the crown from her stepdaughter against her late husband's wishes and caused a massive civil war that devastated Westeros.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She and her children resented Rhaenyra for being made Viserys' direct heir despite being a woman, and eventually waged war against her to take the crown for themselves. Also literally, considering that they were called the Greens.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: If the worst rumors about her are true, as Archmaester Gyldaen dismisses many of them (such as poisoning Viserys) has unlikely and little more than political slander.
• Ironic Name: Alicent sounds very close to the name Alysanne and it's even plausible that Alicent was named for her (as she was born during Alysanne's lifetime and it is known that men across the Realm named their daughters after Alysanne), but Queen Alysanne would not have gotten along with Queen Alicent, at all. Alysanne Targaryen, the grandmother of Alicent's husband and great-grandmother of Alicent's children, was widely revered as "Good Queen Alysanne", married to The Good King who was called "The Conciliator", helped him keep the peace by counseling him and making political marriages to strengthen the Realm's ties to each other, a bookworm who would have been sent to the Citadel in Oldtown had she been a man, and believed Gender Is No Object with a preference for equal primogeniture. Alicent Hightower is an infamous figure in history who indirectly caused the catastrophic Dance of the Dragons, married to a king who couldn't reconcile the two enemy factions brewing in his own family, was a primary source of said conflict instead of an arbitrator and partner to her husband, a daughter of Oldtown's lord and introduced as someone who used to read to Jaehaerys in his twilight years, and clamored for her son on the throne despite him being the second son, Unfit for Greatness, and the named heir being her stepdaughter.
• Irony: All of her scheming and plotting was so her own family could control the Iron Throne. The war she caused resulted in the deaths of every last one of her children and grandchildren. When her last grandchild, Queen Jaehaera, died without issue, the line of the Hightower-Targaryens was extinguished, with Rhaenyra's descendants being the ones to continue the Targaryen line.
  • A smaller example, but towards the end of her life, Alicent grew to dislike the colour green (presumably because it reminded her of everything she'd lost).
  • Aemma Arryn struggled to give Viserys I one living child and died birthing a son, while Alicent gave him four healthy children without apparent issue. Alicent's line ended up extinguished with her grandchildren, while Aemma's line is still going strong.
• Jerkass: She constantly made nasty digs at Rhaenyra and her kids at every opportunity, and showed No Sympathy to Rhaenyra's children dying.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Alicent had a point when she dismissed Corlys Velaryon and Larys Strong urging Aegon to abdicate in the hope Aegon III would let him take the black in exchange, noting the boy was hardly likely to be merciful to the man who'd fed his mother to a dragon.
  • She probably wasn't wrong about Rhaenyra's oldest children being bastards fathered by Strong, at the very least. This doesn't excuse her dismissing their deaths later, obviously.
• Karmic Rape: If Mushroom is to be believed, after calling Rhaenyra's Velaryon sons bastards one too many times, Alicent was locked in a brothel, alongside her daughter Helaena, where any man willing to spend a golden dragon could use her as they wanted. Apparently, the idea behind this punishment was that if Alicent would speak so freely of bastards, she'd be left there until she was pregnant with one of her own. Though that's a pretty big if in this case.
• Kick the Dog:
  • After Criston Cole killed Joffrey Lonmouth at the tourney to celebrate Rhaenyra's wedding, while everyone else, up to King Viserys himself were appalled by Cole's actions, Alicent made him her sworn shield as a reward for causing the upset to Rhaenyra.
  • When the citizens of King's Landing began leaving en masse after the death of Rhaenys, it was Alicent who ordered the city gates shut and barred to prevent anyone else fleeing.
  • Mushroom's account is filled with examples of her doing horrible things that don't show up in other versions of the story, such as poisoning King Viserys and hoping that Rhaenyra will die in childbirth.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: She surrendered King's Landing to Rhaenyra after the Blacks captured the capital (though only after a feeble attempt to convince Rhaenyra to hold a Great Council to decide the succession. Rhaenyra, unsurprisingly, threw the proposal back in Alicent's face and gave her stepmother a choice: yield or die. Alicent wisely chose the former).
• Lady Macbeth: Oh, yes...
  • She and Ser Criston Cole have to convince Aegon to go against his half-sister's claim to the throne, convincing him that if she did take it, Rhaenyra would put them all to death to secure the throne for herself and her "bastard" children.
  • Fire and Blood has Gyldayn mention a rumor, which he dismisses, that she was the cause of Viserys' sudden death. To be fair, the only source for that claim is Mushroom, who wasn't even present in King's Landing at the time.
• The Mistress: It was claimed the rift between her father and Daemon Targaryen arose when Ser Otto found out Daemon (supposedly) had deflowered Alicent, and others whispered she'd been Viserys's mistress even when he'd been married to his first wife. Mushroom went so far as to claim she'd been this for King Jaehaerys as well as his caretaker (though that seems unlikely, given Jaehaerys was bedridden and senile by that point).
• Moral Myopia: The murder of Maelor by a panicked mob set off by a greedy innkeeper and stableboy is horrific. The death of Rhaenyra's sons, done deliberately by troops on her son's side? They're just bastards.
• Mother Makes You King: She was the real mind behind Aegon's crowning, to the point of hiding her husband's death from the public eye for a while to get the time of plotting her son's coup.
• My Nayme Is: Alicent, not Alison.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • When Aegon II is advised to surrender after the Battle of the Kingsroad, she suggests he start sending pieces of his nephew Aegon to the deceased Rhaenyra's supporters as a warning. He agrees with this idea but is promptly poisoned by a member of his court who wanted the war to end already.
  • Even before that, after Aegon returned to King's Landing following Rhaenyra's death, she urged Aegon to harshly punish Rhaenyra's supporters, against the advice of Corlys Velaryon, who argued in favor of offering pardons to convince the Blacks to stand down. Aegon took his mother's advice... and when word of the reprisals meted out on Rhaenyra's Crownland supporters got out, her loyalists in the North, Vale, and Riverlands decided they'd rather keep fighting than surrender and suffer the same, promptly crushing the Greens' last standing army and setting into motion the chain of events leading to Aegon II's death.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: If Rhaenyra is supposed to be the Empress Matilda, then Allicent is not Adeliza of Louvain (Henry I's second wife who because of her lack of children went on to be a supporter of Empress Matilda's), but Matilda of Boulogne, the wife of Stephen of Blois. When the Empress seemed to be nearing victory following Stephen's capture at the Battle of Lincoln, it was Matilda who rallied her husband's supporters, not only driving the Empress from London, but capturing her main supporter Robert of Gloucester and arranging a prisoner exchange to free her husband.
• Not Helping Your Case: While a prisoner, Alicent went before Rhaenyra to try and plead for the lives of her sons. Rhaenyra was already not impressed by them having tried to take her crown in the first place, and really not impressed when Alicent called her deceased sons bastards.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Alicent made comments to her son-in-law Laenor Velaryon about how his supposed kids by Rhaenyra looked nothing like him.
  Alicent: [to Laenor after Lucerys' birth] Do keep trying. Soon or late, you may get one who looks like you.
• Oh, Crap!: Her reaction to hearing about what Aemond did to Lucerys, at least according to Eustace.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Aemond and Daeron were both killed during the war, Helaena committed suicide (or was murdered, depending on who you ask), and Aegon was assassinated by his own courtiers at the end of the Dance. Her grandsons Jaehaerys and Maelor, also died during the Dance, and her last (legitimate) grandchild Queen Jaehaera (who was by all accounts terrified of Alicent) died childless barely two years later — after which the broken Alicent died during the Winter Fever epidemic.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Alicent repeatedly defended her father's record as Hand of the King to Aegon when her son was rapidly losing patience with his grandfather.
  • Her final hours would suggest she held some sincere affection for King Jaehaerys, who she cared for in his final years while her father served as Hand. (Her late husband, not so much.)
• Promotion to Parent: Aegon had his son Maelor given to Alicent's care after Helaena's depression in the wake of Jaehaerys's murder left her incapable of looking after their surviving children.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Sure, her rival is dead and Aegon has the throne at the end of the Dance of the Dragons, but her other three children, two of her grandchildren, and a few other family members all died during the war, and Aegon's rule lasts less than a year before he dies, poisoned by his own supporters. The Iron Throne then passes onto Rhaenyra's oldest surviving son. All of Alicent's plotting and the devastation she caused ultimately amounted to nothing but tragedy for all involved and began the decline of Targaryen power due to the loss of most of the dragons during the war.
  • She lived to see her son Aegon II killed by his own court and themselves either executed by Cregan Stark or sent to the Wall, only to die herself two years later during the Winter Fever. The last two to three years of her life she spent behind bars during Aegon III's Council of Regents' reign.
• Revenge by Proxy: After the war ends, she attempts to murder Aegon III purely to spite Rhaenyra's memory.
• The Rival: To Rhaenyra, to the point that the two sides in the Dance of the Dragons, the Greens and the Blacks, were named after the color of the gowns they wore at the feast of the tournament that celebrated Alicent and Viserys' fifth anniversary. Several historians In-Universe consider the Dance of the Dragons to be a conflict between Alicent and Rhaenyra rather than Aegon and Rhaenyra.
• The Rashomon: It's not clear if the rumors about her giving her maidenhead to Prince Daemon or sleeping with the King while he was still married are only rumors, or if she got Historical Hero Upgrade treatment and her worst acts are covered up. Though given he was one of Rhaenyra's biggest supporters, the fact Daemon isn't noted to have tried to use this against her would suggest it wasn't true.
• Sanity Slippage: In the last years of her life, she started to unravel, talking to herself and/or reminiscing about her children and grandfather in-law. It's quite the tearjerker to realize that she genuinely loved most of those she helped ruin.
  Alicent: I want to see my sons again, and Helaena, my sweet girl, oh ... and King Jaehaerys. I will read to him, as I did when I was little. He used to say I had a lovely voice.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Despite Viserys wanting Rhaenyra to succeed him and Targaryen tradition allowing for that to happen, Alicent decided she would make her son Aegon king, using her family's wealth and power to gather allies and claim the Iron Throne.
• Self-Serving Memory:
  • Alicent refers to the deaths of Rhaenyra's two elder sons as "bastard blood, shed at war," conveniently forgetting that Rhaenyra's son Lucerys came as an envoy under a peace banner to Storm's End, and Aemond murdered him when he was trying to flee.
  • After Rhaenyra dies, she sneers that the Queen had scorned any overture of peace Alicent had made. The only overture she made were done after Rhaenyra had captured King's Landing, and they were to A) have another Great Council, which had previously voted overwhelmingly against allowing a female claimant or her sons to become the ruler of Westeros, and B) divide the realm evenly in half, when Rhaenyra was on the verge of total victory.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Who would have thought that the sweet young caretaker lady with the gentle bedside manner would turn out to be a fully-fledged Lady Macbeth?
• Silver Vixen: She is reported to have stayed slender and attractive even after giving birth to four children and becoming a grandmother, something her younger but Formerly Fit stepdaughter seemed to resent.
• Social Climber: Her family, the Hightowers, were famous for this. She married King Viserys and had four legitimate children with him, then decided to make her eldest son king after his death, going against Viserys' wish that his eldest daughter Rhaenyra should be queen.
• This Is My Side: "Suggested" to Rhaenyra, after being taken captive, that if she wanted to be queen so much, they should divide Westeros in half^note Alicent proposed that Rhaenyra would rule the North, Vale, Riverlands, Iron Islands, and Crownlands from King's Landing while Aegon ruled the Reach, Stormlands and Westerlands from Oldtown. Somehow, Rhaenyra wasn't taken with the idea of accepting a draw when she was on the verge of winning, and refused.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Aegon III spares her life. Amount of gratitude Alicent shows? 0.000%. His regents keep her away from court because they figure she'd swear curses at him, or just flat-out try to murder him, a fear that proves accurate when she tells Jaehaera, who is eight at the time, to slice his throat.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Well, she actually did know that she could face a civil war, but the consequences of her actions were far larger than she could ever imagine, even extending for centuries and leading to the dragons' extinction in Westeros, the cruel deaths of all her children and grandchildren and the slow decline of House Targaryen.
• Was It Really Worth It?: Alicent and the Greens won the war to put Aegon II on the throne, but in the process, her father, brothers, daughter, two other sons, and grandsons were lost. They would enjoy their "victory" for less than half a year before the Blacks closed in on King's Landing and Aegon was poisoned by his own supporters.
• We Used to Be Friends: At the time of her marriage to King Viserys she and his daughter got along well, until she gave birth to a son of her own, whereupon the dispute over succession began. Also, as Rhaenyra grew up, there was less and less space for two primadonnas at court.
• Wicked Stepmother: She plotted against her stepdaughter for years, and inarguably plotted to supplant Rhaenyra with Aegon the moment Viserys croaked. Mushroom's account makes her even more of this trope, whereas Septon Eustace does his best to downplay it.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • When Aemond got his eye poked out, Alicent's immediate response was to demand the kid responsible get his eye taken out in revenge.
  • Just as Aegon II was starting to think about folding it, in the face of oncoming and angry Rhaenyra loyalists, on the recommendation that Prince Aegon would likely just send him to The Wall, it's Alicent who pipes up with her suggestion that he instead start slicing the kid to pieces as a warning.
  • After Aegon III becomes king, Alicent snatches a dagger from a guardsman in an attempt to murder him.
  • Her urging her granddaughter Jaehaera to slit her husband, Aegon III's throat in his sleep traumatized the girl so badly that Aegon's regents forbade Alicent from ever interacting with Jaehaera again.
• You Will Be Spared:
  • When they used Alicent's chambers to lie in wait for Helaena and her children, Blood and Cheese murdered Alicent's maid but settled for just tying up and gagging Alicent.
  • When Rhaenyra captures King's Landing, she spares Alicent due to the love Viserys had for her. Nevertheless, she is still confined to a tower and bound in golden fetters.
  • Aegon III's regents didn't execute her after the Dance (some out of sympathy for her losses, others out of fear killing her would reignite the conflict), but they kept her effectively under house arrest in the Red Keep for the rest of her life.

Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen

Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen

The eldest child of Aegon II and Helaena, and twin to Jaehaera. Only 6-years-old during the Dance of the Dragons. He was murdered by "Blood" in 129 AC in retaliation for the death of his cousin Lucerys.

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• Decapitation Presentation: His killer was caught with Jaehaerys's head stuffed in a sack. Under interrogation, Blood admitted he was taking it to Harrenhal as proof for Daemon the job was done.
• Extra Digits: He had six fingers on his left hand and six toes on each foot.
• Named After Somebody Famous: After his great-great grandfather Jaehaerys the Conciliator.
• Off with His Head!: Beheaded by Daemon's agent "Blood", a former Gold Cloak.
• Revenge by Proxy: Falls victim to this after the death of his cousin, Prince Lucerys.
• Sacrificial Lamb: The first major Green casualty. After him, It's Personal.

Princess Jaehaera Targaryen

Princess Jaehaera Targaryen

The second child and only daughter of Aegon II and Helaena, and twin sister to Jaehaerys. Six years old during the Dance of the Dragons. She married her cousin Aegon III after her father's death in 131 AC but (possibly) committed suicide only two years later.

See the Court of Aegon III page.

Prince Maelor Targaryen

Prince Maelor Targaryen

Third child and younger son of Aegon II and Helaena. Only two years old during the Dance of the Dragons.

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• Bus Crash: He was overtaken at Bitterbridge and torn apart by a mob.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Torn to pieces by a mob at Bitterbridge.
• Decapitation Presentation: Mysaria supposedly presented Maelor's severed head to his mother stuffed in a chamber pot.
• Doomed by Canon: There's no mention of his fate in The Princess and the Queen but the novels state that Aegon II died childless (without male issue, anyway) and was succeeded by his nephew Aegon the Younger, so Maelor didn't survive the Dance of the Dragons.
  • His fate was eventually revealed in The World of Ice and Fire as mentioned below.
• Due to the Dead: Rhaenyra had what was left of him cremated, since he was a Targaryen.
• King Incognito: He and Rickard Thorne traveled as refugees. Might've worked, if not for a greedy innkeeper deciding to rob Rickard.
• Put on a Bus: In-universe, Lord Larys Strong smuggles him from the Red Keep and then Ser Rickard Thorne of the Kingsguard is charged with taking him to Lord Hightower.
• "Rashomon"-Style: That he died is indisputable, but there's a few different tales about just who and how. Mushroom claims he got his neck accidentally snapped by a mentally handicapped woman who'd been trying to defend him. Everyone else says he was torn apart by a mob.

Prince Aemond Targaryen

Prince Aemond Targaryen

Aemond One-Eye, Aemond the Kinslayer

Third child and second son of Viserys I and Alicent Hightower. Killed by his uncle Daemon in the Dance over Harrenhal in 130 AC. A caustic, envious man, but a renowned warrior nevertheless, Aemond was the only Targaryen ever to have taken the position of Prince Regent and Protector of the Realm when Aegon II was incapacitated and unable to reign.

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• Aloof Big Brother: While their relationship isn't explored in much depth, he seems to have held this attitude towards Daeron, dismissing him as too young and with too small a dragon to help Aemond directly.
• Arranged Marriage: He agreed to marry one of Lord Baratheon's daughters to cement their alliance, although such marriage wouldn't eventually take place.
• Asshole Victim: A violent, brutal war criminal who murdered countless people without compunction and died at the hands of one of his victims' vengeful relations.
• Ax-Crazy: Few Targaryens were as ruthless and bloodthirsty as Aemond, and it didn't help that he had the biggest dragon alive during the Dance. He killed Lucerys under a peace banner, slaughtered the entirety of House Strong under the mere suspicion of one of them being a traitor, and used Vhagar to reduce the Riverlands to smoking piles of ash.
• Bad Boss: Nearly murdered two squires who brought him the news of the Fishfeed and the fall of King's Landing, massacred an entire noble family that were on his side and stormed off to lay waste to the Riverlands to sooth his wounded pride after his attempt to capture Harrenhal handed King's Landing to Rhaenyra, leaving Criston Cole and his army to die at the Butcher's Ball.
• Blood Knight: He was by far the most bloodthirsty and eager for war of any of the Greens—or anyone in the Dance, for that matter. Even as Prince Regent, he spent much more time leading his army against the Blacks or launching raids in the Riverlands instead of actually managing things in King's Landing.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: A very minor case; he's stabbed through his bad eye in the book and through his good eye in Histories and Lore.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When he found out King's Landing had fallen to Rhaenyra's forces, he personally killed every man and boy of House Strong he could find because he was convinced the Velaryon princes (including Lucerys) were fathered by Harwin Strong, who was long dead by now. Keep in mind that House Strong was technically on his side, as its current lord was his own Master of Whisperers, Larys Clubfoot—which only further convinced Aemond that Larys had orchestrated the city's fall.
• Dragon-in-Chief: As Prince Regent and Protector of the Realm while Aegon II is injured.
• Dragon Rider: Rode Vhagar.
• The Dreaded: Because he rode the strongest dragon in Westeros, fighting him alone was pretty much a death sentence. In the later part of the war, he spent months terrorizing the Riverlands, burning towns and castles to ash then disappearing before anyone could confront him. The Riverlords were constantly begging Queen Rhaenyra to bring her dragons to stop him, until she finally sent Prince Daemon and Nettles to Maidenpool to search for him.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Aemond apparently came back from Storm's End expecting praise for convincing House Baratheon to back Aegon...and instead got chewed out by his mother and grandfather for single-handedly destroying any chance of peaceful negotiation with Rhaenyra and her supporters. He got the "hero's welcome" he wanted shortly afterwards, however, from his brother Aegon II.
• Establishing Character Moment: His reaction learning his father is dead, the first thing we the readers ever heard of him (though not the first thing he's recorded doing from a chronological point of view):
  Aemond: Is Aegon king... or must we kneel and kiss the old whore's cunny?
• Evil Nephew: There was no love between him and Prince Daemon, whom he considered something like his Archenemy, and spent precious time trying to defeat his forces. Their eventual duel was the climax of the Dance of the Dragons.
• Evil Uncle: He was always a rival to Rhaenyra's sons, but after the Vhagar incident that cost him his left eye, he eventually killed his nephew Lucerys at the first opportunity, even though they were on a diplomatic mission at the time.
• Eyepatch of Power: Despite losing his left eye, he became an accomplished swordsman under Ser Criston Cole's training.
• Eye Scream: Lost his left eye when he was ten years old to Rhaenyra's children, who ambushed him after he slapped and pushed the youngest, Joffrey, into dragon droppings while attempting to claim the dragon Vhagar as his own shortly after his rider Laena Velaryon's funeral. He succeeded in taking the dragon and considered losing his eye as a fair trade for riding the largest and most fearsome dragon alive. He would later die the same way when Daemon drove Dark Sister through his empty eye socket.
• Foil: To his uncle Daemon Targaryen. Both are second sons, unnecessarily brutal, and never waver in loyalty to their cause. Their names are almost matching, just moving the D. As for differences, Daemon was an Ephebophile while Aemond Likes Older Women. Daemon and Aemond killed each other, cementing their significance to each other.
• Finally Found the Body: It was years after the Dance had ended before his and his dragon Vhagar's carcasses were found, with Dark Sister still embedded in his skull.
• General Failure: Maester Yandel describes him this way, blaming his inexperience as a commander and his attack on Harrenhal for Rhaenyra being able to capture King's Landing. Ironically, Aemond leaving King's Landing ended up benefitting the Greens, as Rhaenyra's occupation of the city eventually undid her rule.
• Glass Eye: Wore a sapphire in his empty eye socket, leading to his nickname of Aemond One-Eye.
• Glory Seeker: According to Eustace, he ignored everyone telling him to wait in favor of charging Harrenhal on his lonesome, so he would get the glory of killing Daemon.
• Hot-Blooded: Deconstructed; lust for battle and a sensitivity to insults (both direct and implied) meant that he spent most of the Dance either trying to chase down Prince Daemon (who was likewise trying to find and battle Aemond, though the two didn't meet up until much later) or taking out his frustrations on the local Riverlanders.
• Informed Ability: He's described as an extremely capable warrior, but as he largely fought on dragonback, his only real sword duel was the trial by combat that he forced Simon Strong into, and the old man didn't stand much of a chance against him.
• It's Personal: Has a particular hatred for Rhaenyra and her offspring due to his losing an eye to her Velaryon kids, particularly Lucerys; this is why he has very little qualms killing him even when Lucerys is unarmed and riding a smaller dragon.
• Karmic Death: His killing of Lucerys is what drives Daemon to send Blood and Cheese to Aemond's sister Helaena, making her choose which son should die, driving her to madness. Later, Aemond is killed himself by Daemon Targaryen (Lucerys' stepdad) by driving his sword through his blind eye.
• Kick the Dog:
  • As if murdering Lucerys Velaryon wasn't enough, one account claims that when the boy's corpse washed ashore, Aemond gouged Lucerys's eyes out and made a gift of them to Lady Maris Baratheon.
  • He nearly throttled to death the squire who brought him the news King's Landing had fallen to Rhaenyra and of the destruction of the Westerlands army at the Fishfeed, only stopping when Alys Rivers intervened.
  • Harrenhal's surrender enrages him so much that he needlessly slaughters the entire Strong family, even including bastards with only minor Strong blood.
• Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: Aemond's murder of his nephew Lucerys while the latter was fleeing and refusing to fight earned him the nickname of "Aemond the Kinslayer" and crushed any chance of peaceful negotiations with the Blacks, leading to all-out civil war.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: Aemond develops an intense attraction to Alys Rivers. The similarities between his lover and his mother are pretty superficial—both are dark-haired women in their forties—and it might be considered a Downplayed Trope of not for the Meaningful Name linking Alys to Alicent Hightower.
• Malicious Slander: He was too eager to remind his nephews of their dubious parentage, as well as his older half-sister's sexual exploits. Of course, it's ambiguous whether or not these insults were genuine slander or not.
• Mutual Kill: His and Daemon's dragons dealt each other mortal wounds in their final battle, and Daemon himself died from the fall just seconds after killing Aemond.
• Named After the Injury: He was popularly referred to as Aemond One-Eye as a result of losing a left eye to a fight Rhaenyra's children.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • His cold-blooded murder of Lucerys Velaryon provoked the Blacks into all-out war, as well as causing Daemon to send assassins after Aegon II's family.
  • His obsessive quest for Prince Daemon in the Riverlands is what left King's Landing free for Rhaenyra's successful siege.
  • His storming off to lay waste to the Riverlands after learning of King's Landing's fall left Criston Cole and his army to make their own way back to the capital. Without Vhagar to give some aerial protection, Cole and his army were worn down by ambushes, desertion, and fatigue before finally being annihilated at the Butcher's Ball.
  • It's implied his purge of House Strong might have been a deciding factor in Larys Strong turning on Aegon II when it became clear the Dance was over for the Greens.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: Some say that what provoked Aemond to chase after Lucerys and kill him just after he'd left Storm's Landing was Maris Baratheon asking if he'd lost an eye or his balls.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • It's said Aemond's final expression was one of terror before his uncle drove Dark Sister through Aemond's skull.
  • It's said this was his reaction to learning his stripping King's Landing of its defenders for an all-out attack on Harrenhal had caused its fall to Rhaenyra...at least until he then tried to cover it with homicidal rage.
• The Resenter: His Freudian Excuse is his and his older brother's Passed-Over Inheritance, despite being legitimate sons of the king and the dubious parentage of Rhaenyra's sons. It very likely created an Inferiority Superiority Complex that their mother's own resentment only increased. Lucerys gouging out his eye, getting no punishment for it, and Rhaenyra calling for Aemond to be "questioned sharply" just piled resentment on resentment.
• Royal Brat: He always resented his Velaryon nephews for being ahead of him in the line of succession and treated Joffrey roughly—to say the least—but after the fight where Lucerys cuts out his eye, he becomes positively vicious.
• Shoot the Messenger: Aemond nearly strangled the squire who brought him the news of Rhaenyra's victory in the Battle by the Lakeshore, only stopping because Alys Rivers begged him not to.
• Someone to Remember Him By: Aemond falls in love with the mysterious woods-witch Alys Rivers and takes her as his paramour — and leaves a pregnant Alys behind during his final fight with Daemon. The fate of his bastard child with Alys has yet to be revealed in print.
• Stealth Insult: Toasted his three Velaryon nephews at a feast in a manner that made it clear he was taunting them over the rumours they were bastards sired by Harwin Strong.
  Aemond: I have never known any one so strong as my sweet nephews, so let us drain our cups to these three strong boys.
• Token Evil Teammate: Of the Greens, at the start of the war, as he's the most vicious and bloodthirsty, and willing to kickstart the carnage by killing Lucerys during a diplomatic mission.
• Undying Loyalty: For all his jerkassery, he never crowns himself King despite ruling in his brother's name.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Not only does his murder of Lucerys kickstart the war, but also led to Prince Daemon's revenge on Aegon's children and his sister's insanity.
• Villain Ball: He killed his nephew Lucerys purely for revenge, despite the fact that they were both acting as messengers and under truce. This pointless act of cruelty is what kick-started the real bloodshed during the Dance of Dragons.
• Worth It:
  Prince Aemond said later that he lost an eye and gained a dragon that day, and counted it a fair exchange.
• You Have Failed Me: Killed Simon Strong for surrendering Harrenhal to Daemon, and then ordered the execution of virtually all of House Strong simply for being related to the long dead Harwin Strong.

Prince Daeron Targaryen "The Daring"

Prince Daeron Targaryen

The Daring

"My Lord is kind to say so, but the victory belongs to Tessarion."

Youngest child of Viserys I and Alicent Hightower. He died in 130 AC, during the Second Battle of Tumbleton.

For King Daeron I Targaryen (his nephew once removed), see here

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• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • He was pretty upset by Maelor's horrific death and took it out on the people he felt were responsible. Given the circumstances, it's hard to blame him.
  • He tried treating with Ser Ulf and Hugh the Hammer. Their behavior was so awful, he signed off on the Caltrops' scheme to kill them the minute it was presented to him.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: In comparison to his brothers, Daeron is much more stoic and observant and a surprisingly competent military commander and is quite vengeful (see his response to Maelor's death). To the extent that Daeron was considered the biggest threat to Rhaenyra's brief reign over King's Landing.
• Dead Person Impersonation: His body was never identified after his death at the Second Battle of Tumbleton, so several pretenders claimed to be Daeron during Aegon III's reign.
• Dragon Rider: Rode the dragon Tessarion.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: All three possible ends listed for him are very abrupt and undignified for someone of his status.
• Everyone Has Standards: Maelor's death made him willing to go along with the sack of Bitterbridge, but he was horrified when Tumbleton met a similar fate, and tried his hardest to stop the murder, looting, and rape of the innocent townsfolk. Unfortunately, the two Betrayers were running the show at that point, and had dragons much bigger than Tessarion.
• Foil: To Addam of Hull. Both of them are characterized more as followers rather than leaders (Daeron as the youngest son of a very ambitious family, Addam as a legitimized bastard of a shipwright’s daughter. As a result, the both of them have chips on their shoulders, desperate to prove themselves), and despite their bravery, remained loyal to their faction leaders despite seeing proof that Rhaenyra and Aegon/Aemond were horrible people.
• Food Slap: Daeron angrily threw his wine in the face of Hugh Hammer when the dragonseed started claiming he should be proclaimed king by the Greens.
• Frontline General: Despite being only 16, he served at the forefront of battles with Tessarion and was a surprisingly capable strategist.
• Kick the Dog: To prove that he was just as strong as his brothers, he allowed the Hightower troops to sack Bitterbridge while he burned the town on dragon back in revenge for the death of his nephew Maelor.
• Misplaced Retribution: Burned down the town of Bitterbridge for the death of his nephew Maelor, even though the ones responsible for the Prince's death were already dead or had been executed by Lady Caswell.
• Modest Royalty: Even when directly praised, he politely declines and instead credits his dragon and his men.
• Nice Guy: At least the nicest of the Greens.
• Not So Above It All:
  • While not explored as much as his older brothers, Gyldayn states he was also resentful towards Rhaenyra's kids like they were.
  • When the treacherous Dragonseed Hugh Hammer started calling himself "King", Daeron was not very pleased at this slight.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: In response to the people of Bitterbridge brutally murdering his toddler nephew, he had the town sacked, much of its populace killed, and then burned the rest with his dragon Tessarion. He even invokes the trope himself:
  Daeron: You shall receive the same terms you gave my nephew Maelor.
• Pretty Boy: He was very handsome.
• "Rashomon"-Style: There are several versions of his death. One claims he was killed by Black Trombo, a Myrish sellsword fighting for the Blacks who split Daeron's skull with a mace. A second claims he was slain by a random man at arms who never realized who he'd killed. A third claims that Daeron perished when his tent was set ablaze by the dragon Seasmoke and then collapsed on top of him. The only consensus is that Daeron didn't survive the Second Battle of Tumbleton.
• The Resenter: One of the only things he had in common with Aegon and Aemond was that he resented Rhaenyra's sons, who were possibly bastards, being ahead of them in the line of succession.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: The Nice Guy to Aemond's Jerkass.
• The Squire: He was one to Lord Ormund Hightower, his mother's cousin, who would later knight Daeron for valour at the Battle of the Honeywine.
• Token Good Teammate: Both sides in the war were very much Grey-and-Gray Morality, but compared to his brothers Aegon II (a pouty, lazy, lecherous slimeball) and Aemond (a vicious, bloodthirsty hothead who abandoned his own army to their deaths), Daeron the Daring was an all-around wonderful guy. When Aemond heard his father was dead, his only reaction was to bluntly ask if his brother was now king, or if they had to kneel and kiss Rhaenyra's cunt. Daeron's reaction to hearing his father had died was to weep. The war would have gone very differently if Daeron had been the eldest son — though arguably Aegon II being eldest and Daeron being the youngest is what shaped them into the people they were. The mind boggles at what would have happened if A — Aegon II had stayed dead, and B — the bloody Caltrops succeeded in killing the Two Betrayers and the Second Battle of Tumbleton never happened.
• The Squire: To Lord Ormund Hightower.
• Undying Loyalty: It might look strange to see him next to Aegon and Aemond, but Daeron was their brother and a Green through and through, willing riding into battle to fight for them, and remaining loyal to the day he died.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Only a villain if you accept that the Greens as a whole as villains, but he was by far the most popular of Alicent's sons among the people.
• Warrior Prince: A Targaryen dragonrider.

The Kingsguard of Aegon II Targaryen

For other Kingsguard before the events of ASOIAF, see here

Lord Commander Criston Cole

Ser Criston Cole, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard

The Kingmaker

"It is not for you to plead for support from your lords, like a beggar pleading for alms. You are the lawful king of Westeros, and those who deny it are traitors. It is past time they learned the price of treason."

Leader of the Kingsguard during the reign of Viserys I. It was said he was having an affair with Princess Rhaenyra, but it ended badly so he withdrew his support from her and declared loyalty to her half-brother Aegon II, earning his nickname "The Kingmaker". This set off the war known as the Dance of the Dragons.

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• Abomination Accusation Attack: Alicent made one vague accusation of predatory sexual conduct between Criston and 13-at-the-time Rhaenyra. No one — not even the most lurid source, Mushroom — backs up this idea, and Alicent clearly had political motives for saying it.
  Alicent: Ser Criston protects the princess from her enemies, but who protects the princess from Ser Criston?
• Alliterative Name: Criston Cole.
• Asshole Victim: A petty, bigoted thug who broke his oath to his king for personal spite and kick-started perhaps the most devastating civil war in Westerosi history. No tears were shed after his ignominious death.
• Badass Normal: He didn't have a Valyrian steel sword or freakish size like Daemon or Harwin, yet he dominated against both in melees.
• Bodyguard Crush: Criston served as Rhaenyra's sworn shield for a decade. When Rhaenyra was young, she was clearly very fond of him in a way that might read as a Precocious Crush. Near the end of his tenure as her sworn sword, one of them definitely had a crush on the other. It's agreed that their It's Personal break was born of a failed Love Confession when one spurned the other. Who had the crush, though, is unknown — there's two different stories about who was the rejecter and the rejected.
• The Champion: Criston served as Rhaenyra's sworn shield starting in 103 AC when she was 7 and lasting until her wedding when she was 17. Then they had their falling out, whereupon he became sworn shield to Queen Alicent Hightower.
• Decapitation Presentation: To add insult to injury after his undignified death at the Butcher's Ball, Cole's killers cut his head off, stuck it on a spear, and carried it as a banner at the First Battle of Tumbleton.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: According to Archmaester Gyldayn, Ser Criston was largely concerned with the late Laenor Velaryon's influence over his sons with Rhaenyra, considering that he was a homosexual, a purported pederast, and who knows what other aberrations he had that could had been inculcated in the Princes Velaryon.
• Demoted to Extra: the Cryptic Background Reference comments in A Feast For Crows imply he was the main architect of the whole conflict; in reality, he had very little impact on either its beginning or its outcome.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Invoked by his killers, who specifically deny him any possible romanticization of his death and respond to his challenge of a trial by combat by simply riddling him with arrows.
  Ser Pate of Longleaf: I'll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker. There's tens o' thousands dead on your account.
• Epic Flail: He preferred using a flail in combat. Its relatively uncommon fighting style allowed him to defeat even Daemon Targaryen in a tourney melee, and the formidable Harwin Strong, though each of them was armed with a Valyrian steel sword. In the same tourney that he broke Harwin's collarbone, he used a flail to bash Joffrey Lonmouth's head in, mortally injuring Laenor Velaryon's paramour.
• Failed a Spot Check: The Blacks left dioramas made out of corpses from the Fishfeed in the path of Cole's army as it marched back from Harrenhal. By the time they reached the village of Crossed Elms, such displays had become so commonplace that Cole and his army ignored the latest batch of corpses left in their way, only to be taken by surprise when the "corpses" turned out to be a group of Myrish sellswords waiting in ambush, who killed a dozen men before they were driven off.
• Foil: Criston is mentioned twice in the main series, both in A Feast for Crows: once by Arys Oakheart and once by Jaime Lannister. Arys comes first and he introduces Criston as an infamous Kingsguard member who kicked off a war. Arys thinks Criston is just awful. When Jaime mentions Criston a few chapters later, it's much more sympathetically. Jaime says Criston represented "the best and the worst" of the Kingsguard, and it's implied that Jaime — an infamous Kingsguard member himself — identifies with him.
• Four-Star Badass: He was an extremely competent army commander.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He went from being the son of the steward of Blackhaven to the commander of the Kingsguard whom history holds partly responsible for one of the most devastating wars in the history of Westeros.
  Ser Arys Oakheart: The Kingmaker wrought grave harm and gravely did he pay for it.
• Honorable Warrior's Death: Tried to invoke this by offering to face his foes in single combat, they refused him for both practical reasons (Cole and his army were in a hopeless position and thus nobody had anything to gain by accepting his offer) and to deny him the legacy of a brave, chivalrous death.
• Human Pincushion: Killed when Red Robb Rivers and two other archers fatally shot him with arrows at the command of Ser Pate of Longleaf.
• If I Can't Have You…: One possible interpretation of the falling out between him and Rhaenyra is that he fell in love with her, and she spurned his advances. Whatever the case, he dedicated the rest of his life to making sure she would never be crowned Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
• Informed Attribute: Despite his nickname, he's not in any meaningful capacity a kingmaker apart from in the literal sense of putting the crown on Aegon's head.
• Join or Die: Cole's first act upon being named Hand of the King by Aegon was to have any supporters of Rhaenyra who'd been imprisoned after Viserys I's death hauled out of the dungeons and give them a choice between bending the knee to Aegon or execution. Three lords submitted to Aegon; the remainder chose to stay loyal to Rhaenyra even unto death.
• Kick the Dog: During the wedding tourney of Rhaenyra with Ser Laenor Velaryon, Ser Criston slew Ser Joffrey Lonmouth during the jousts. Ser Joffrey was Laenor's best friend, confidante, and possible lover; Cole's action is largely considered to be a petty move just to spite Rhaenyra and Laenor and sour their celebratory occasion.
• Kingmaker Scenario: How else did he get his nickname?
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Went into the Butcher's Ball knowing his army was outmatched, and thus tried to arrange for a retreat in exchange for the lives of his men being spared. Unfortunately for him, his opponents didn't exactly feel like negotiating.
• Malicious Slander: There were rumours about Laenor Velaryon in addition to his Transparent Closet being a pederast and worse, but Criston's the only person recorded by Gyldayn as giving voice to these rumours.
• The Mentor: Criston trained Aemond One-Eye to be a warrior.
  Prince Aemond, despite the loss of his eye, had become a proficient and dangerous swordsman under the tutelage of Ser Criston Cole.
• Number Two: Became Hand of the King to Aegon II.
• The Oath-Breaker: Betrayed Viserys I's Dying Wish by participating in a coup to deny the crown to his rightful heir.
  • According to Septon Eustace, this was why Rhaenyra refused to elope with him when Cole begged her to: she argued that if he could so easily break the vows of the Kingsguard, why should she expect him to be any more faithful to marriage vows?
• "Rashomon"-Style:
  • It's agreed that Criston and Rhaenyra went from allies to enemies after an unreciprocated Love Confession went badly and someone was scorned, but the two version of events flip who was the confessor and rejecter. Intuitively it seems like Criston and Rhaenyra would both be motivated to tell the story where they do the rejecting, but surprisingly it's Eustace — pro-green and confidant of Alicent — who tells the story that paints Criston badly, while it's Mushroom who paints him favorably.
    • According to the fool Mushroom: Ser Criston was a Celibate Hero who took his Vow of Celibacy very seriously. Rhaenyra wanted him, but he seemed disinclined. Daemon offered to give her seduction lessons, promising to teach her how to ensnare him. Rhaenyra took Daemon up on that, yet remained a Technical Virgin. When the time came and Rhaenyra attempted to seduce Criston into taking her maidenhead in the White Sword Tower, he rejected her. This caused her to seek out and sleep with Ser Harwin Strong, and Ser Criston switched his loyalty to Queen Alicent out of disgust.
    • According to Septon Eustace: Right before her wedding, Ser Criston went to Rhaenyra's bedchamber and confessed his love to her, asking her to run away to Essos and marry him. She rejected his plea, claiming that she was meant to be more than the wife of a common sellsword. His was Not Good with Rejection turned against her.
  • During the green council after Viserys's death, Lord Lyman Beesbury objected and tried to get up and leave. Then...
    • According to Orwyle: Otto commanded Beesbury to be seized, he was put in the dungeons, and he died awaiting trial.
    • According to Eustace: Criston forced Beesbury back into his seat and slit his throat.
    • According to Mushroom: Criston flung Beesbury out a window, and then he was impaled upon the iron spikes in the dry moat below.
• Rank Up: Criston was made commander of the Kingsguard after his predecessor, Ser Harrold Westerling, died. He was also appointed Hand of the King when Aegon II got fed up with his previous Hand, his grandfather Ser Otto Hightower, continuing to pursue diplomacy while Rhaenyra's armies were gaining ground.
  Aegon II: My new Hand is a steel fist.
• Talking Your Way Out: Before the Butcher's Ball, realizing his army was outnumbered and in no condition to fight an enemy army of Riverlanders and northerners, Cole called a parley and tried to negotiate terms. All his efforts to negotiate fail; his offer to retreat in exchange for his men's lives was dismissed by Garibald Grey, who refused the chance to avenge the deaths of his own men. When Cole pointed out a battle would cost the lives of many of their own men, Roderick Dustin laughed and told Cole that his northerners would rather die in one last glorious battle than freeze or starve to death with the onset of winter. When Cole finally tried to challenge all three of the enemy commanders to a trial by combat, Ser Pate of Longleaf just dismissed the offer and signaled Red Robb Rivers to riddle Cole with arrows.
• This Is Gonna Suck: His reaction before the Butcher's Ball to finding his path blocked by a numerically superior enemy army in no mood to take prisoners.
  Squire: Who are they?
  Criston Cole: Our death.
• Undignified Death: At the Butcher's Ball, Cole was basically abandoned by Aemond Targaryen, who flew on Vhagar to burn the Riverlands when they were supposed to rendezvous together with Lord Ormund Hightower and Prince Daeron. He proceeded to take Harrenhal, which was vacated by Daemon Targaryen. He was ambushed by Lord Roderick Dustin at the God's Eye. Upon seeing himself outnumbered, surrounded, and in the eve of defeat, Ser Criston tried to instigate a duel in single combat against Ser Garibald Grey, Lord Dustin, and Ser Pate of Longleaf, but they all refused him. He was instead riddled with arrows and his men were brought down by Dustin's forces, and after his death, his killers hacked his head off and stuck it on a spear as a battle standard.
• The Unreveal: It's not quite clear what made him betray Rhaenyra, but whatever happened between them was bad. Rhaenyra marrying Daemon didn't help.
• Unstoppable Rage: Apparently on the day of Rhaenyra's wedding tourney, he was in a "black fury", as he beat Joffrey Lonmouth to a pulp.

Ser Arryk Cargyll

Ser Arryk Cargyll

A knight of House Cargyll and member of Viserys ! and Aegon !!'s Kingsguard. His twin brother Ser Erryk serves on Princess Rhaenyra's Queensguard.

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• Family-Unfriendly Death: He was stabbed by Erryk and it took him days to die.
• Impersonation Gambit: Arryk pretended to be Erryk to infiltrate Dragonstone.
• Mutual Kill: The brothers were too evenly matched for an outright winner, but sadly too skilled not to mortally wound each other.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Both choose the side they felt should rule and set aside any family loyalty when they did so.
• "Rashomon"-Style: According to the singers, the Cargyll twins professed their love for each other before dueling for an hour and dying in each others arms. The fool Mushroom, claiming to have witnessed the duel, says instead they cursed each other as traitors and had both dealt each other mortal wounds within moments. It is also unclear who was Arryk's target at Dragonstone.

Ser Rickard Thorne

Ser Rickard Thorne

A knight of House Thorne and member of Viserys I and Aegon II's Kingsguard.

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• Bodyguarding a Badass: Before his injuries, Aegon II was a highly capable warrior and dragonrider who hardly needed the protection of the Kingsguard.
• Failure Knight: He and his charge Prince Maelor are killed by a mob.
• Famous Ancestor: He is one of only three known members of House Thorne, the other is Alliser Thorne from the Night's Watch and his more recent relative Adrian Thorne.
• Idiot Ball: If you're trying to hide the fact you're traveling with a prince, bringing your highly distinctive uniform with you would be foolish enough, but Ser Rickard also kept a dragon egg in his bag as well, so the minute one greedy stableboy goes rummaging through his goods, Thorne and his charge are rumbled on the spot.
• Suspicious Spending: Thorne was disguised as a peasant but he paid for the services of an inn with silver. This caused a stable boy to steal from him and blow his cover.

Ser Willis Fell

Ser Willis Fell, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard

A knight of House Fell and member of Viserys I and Aegon II's Kingsguard. During the reign of Aegon III Targaryen, he was ascended to Lord Commander until his untimely death from the Winter Fever.

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• Added Alliterative Appeal: Indulged in this while denouncing Baela Targaryen and her new husband Alyn Velaryon as potential heirs to the Iron Throne should anything happen to Aegon III.
  Willis Fell: The girl is wild, willful, and wanton, as we feared, and now she has attached herself to Lord Corlys' upjumped bastard. A snake for a sire, a mouse for a mother… is this to be our prince consort?
• Bodyguarding a Badass: Before his injuries, Aegon II was a highly capable warrior and dragonrider who hardly needed the protection of the Kingsguard.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Fire and Blood reveals that after returning to King's Landing with Jaehaera, he became one of the many victims of the Winter Fever of 133 AC.
• Put on a Bus: He and Princess Jaehaera were sent to Storm's End to keep her safe after the Blacks took King's Landing.
• Rank Up: Was promoted to Lord Commander of the Kingsguard during the reign of Aegon III Targaryen until his death from the Winter Fever.
• Sole Survivor: He was the only member of Viserys I's Kingsguard who survived the war.

Ser Gyles Belgrave

Ser Gyles Belgrave

A knight of House Belgrave who joined Aegon II's Kingsguard during the Dance of the Dragons.

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• Bodyguard Betrayal: His exact role in Aegon II's poisoning is unknown, but he was involved somehow.
• The Conspiracy: He was one of several conspirators who took part in poisoning Aegon II after he refused to surrender following the defeat of his last army by the Blacks.
• Death Seeker: He refused the chance to join the Night's Watch instead of being executed for his role in Aegon II's death, believing that he should not outlive his king and that his crimes deserved death.
• The Oathbreaker: Betrayed his king to end the Dance of the Dragons.
• Off with His Head!: He was executed by Lord Cregan Stark for his crimes.

Household and Supporters

Ser Otto Hightower

Otto Hightower

Hand of the King to Jaehaerys I, Viserys I and Aegon II, and father to Alicent Hightower.

See House Hightower page

Alys Rivers

Alys Rivers

A bastard of the Riverlands and Prince Aemond's bedmate.

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• Call-Forward: Much like the eventual Lady of Harrenhal Danelle Lothston, Alys was believed to be a witch who used sorcery to retain her youthful looks.
• Damsel in Distress: Alys was briefly held prisoner by Sabitha Frey when the latter's army captured Harrenhal following Criston Cole's death at the Butcher's Ball. Aemond returned to rescue her. Playing I Have Your Wife with Aemond was not an advisable scheme, and he burned all the wood in the castle in the process of getting Alys back.
• Elopement: After Aemond's death, Alys says they were married, giving her (his widow) and her son (his trueborn heir) greater claim to Aemond's legacy. For the truth of this claim, see Unreliable Expositor.
• Hot Witch: Zigzagged. Alys definitely played this role to Aemond, who was completely infatuated with her, but no one else gave any indication that Alys was hot. The narrators of Fire and Blood seem confused by Aemond's attraction to Alys, going so far as to speculate that she used Love Potions to ensnare him, thinking that makes more sense than her seducing him organically.
• Love Triangle: There appears to have been some sort of kerfuffle between Aemond and Criston Cole right after Aemond got with Alys. Mushroom attributes this to a love triangle.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Alys raised her hand and killed Ser Regis Groves. This was either a Magical Gesture to explode his head, or a signal to her crossbowman to shoot him in the head.
• The Mistress: Despite Aemond being engaged to a Baratheon lady, he kept Alys openly as his lover during the war. Alys later claimed that she wasn't his mistress, she was his wife.
• Morality Pet: There's an anecdote about one time Alys managed to prevent Aemond from strangling a messenger who brought him the news about the Westerlands army being crushed at the Battle by the Lakeshore.
• Mother Makes You King: After Aemond's death, Alys sets up their son as Aemond's trueborn heir.
  Ser Regis: His bastard?
  Alys Rivers: His trueborn son and heir, and the rightful king of Westeros.
• Multiple-Choice Past:
  • Munkun and Eustace say Alice was the bastard daughter of Lyonel Strong, sired in his youth. This would make her older than his sons Harwin and Larys, but in the same generation. Mushroom says Alys was at least a generation older and served as wet nurse to both Harwin and Larys (and possibly even Lyonel).
  • The narrators all agree that Alys practiced some sort of magic, but disagree on the details.
    Munkun: A serving wench who dabbled in potions and spells.
    Eustace: A woods witch
    Mushroom: A malign enchantress who bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth.
• Nude Nature Dance: When Sabitha Frey's forces took Harrenhal, the only person they found was Alys, who was standing around in the godswood, heavily pregnant and completely naked. Harrenhal is on the shore of the Gods Eye, which has associations with the First Men and old gods. Alys's magic further suggests she is aligned with that tradition.
• Older Than They Look: It is said she was much older than she looked, possibly using magic to appear young.
• Seer: She claimed to see the future in fires, similar to the ability of Red Priests.
  Daemon: Who told you where to find me?
  Aemond: My lady. She saw you in a storm cloud, in a mountain pool at dusk, in the fire we lit to cook our suppers. She sees much and more, my Alys
• Someone to Remember Him By: She is heavily pregnant when Aemond is killed.
• Sorcerous Overlord: From Aemond's death in 130 to at least as late as 132, Alys ruled as "the witch queen of Harrenhal".
  It was being said that a sorceress ruled over them, a witch queen of fearsome power.
• Step Servant: Alys Rivers is the bastard daughter of House Strong, and she serves at their castle as a wet nurse for decades. In this setting, wet nurses aren't just for orphans — highborn women sometimes elect to have lowborn women nurse their babies for them. This means there's a particularly acute class angle to Alys's role.
• Unreliable Expositor: After Aemond's death, Alys claims that they were married, making her his widow and their son was his trueborn heir. On one hand, Alys has an obvious motive to lie: There's has a lot to gain by laying claim to Aemond's legacy for herself and her son. On the other hand, Aemond grew up amid the Rhaenyra's-sons-are-bastards drama, so it makes sense for him to want to legitimize his child by marrying his baby mama before the birth. It makes sense for Alys — a bastard herself who spent years as servant to her trueborn kin — to want her child to escape that same fate and pressure Aemond to marry her. Aemond was reportedly crazy about Alys. Alys is implied to be a follower of the old gods, and in that tradition a wedding only needs a heart tree as witness/officiant, no human witnesses needed.
• Vain Sorceress: All the sources agree that Alys was at least 40 by the time of the Dance, but looked younger. Some say this was just happenstance, and other say she used magic to achieve it.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Her fate after the Dance of the Dragons is currently unknown. Any details about her and Aemond's son are also completely unknown.

Ser Roger Corne

Ser Roger Corne

A knight from the Blackwater Rush who, alongside Lord Owain Bourney, betrayed the blacks during the First Battle of Tumbleton.

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• Bullying a Dragon: Sure, provoke a brute who can bend steel bars with his bare hands and who happens to own a dragon. Nothing will go wrong.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Having three horse nails embedded in your skull is not a pretty way to die.
• Everyone Has Standards: While he might have betrayed the blacks, he wasn't going to tolerate treason towards the green cause.
• Turn Coat: He was secretly a supporter of the greens, and when the treason occurred, he ordered his men to open the gates of the town.

The Two Toms

Tom Tangletongue, Tom Tanglebeard

Father and son, they were two men in service to King Aegon II. They were also the uncle and cousin of Ser Marston Waters.

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• Like Father, Like Son: Both supported King Aegon II and assisted in the fall of Dragonstone.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: During the purge of Aegon II's supporters, Tom Tanglebeard tried to avoid death when caught in a tavern on Eel Alley, claiming to be just a simple fisherman looking for ale. His killers didn't buy it and drowned him in a cask of ale.
• Off with His Head!: During the purge of Aegon II''s supporters after the King's assassination, Tangletongue was caught in the Red Keep's stables and beheaded on the spot.
• Parent-Child Team: Father and son who served and fought together.
• Pet the Dog: Tangletongue takes Baela to the Maester after she suffers burns at the hands of King Aegon.
• Speech Impediment: The source of Tangletongue's nickname.

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