History Characters / ASongOfIceAndFireCourtOfAegonII

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

-->''"I lost an eye and gained a dragon that day, and counted it a fair exchange."''

* WorthIt: He considered losing one eye a fair trade for obtaining Vhagar, the largest living dragon.

* BodyguardCrush: Criston served as Rhaenyra's sworn shield for a decade. Near the end of that time, one of them had a crush on the other. It's agreed that their ItsPersonal break was born of a failed LoveConfession when one spurned the other. Who had the crush, though, is unknown -- there's [[RashomonStyle two different stories]] about who was the rejecter and the rejected.

* CoDragons: To Aegon II with Ser Criston Cole.

* AlliterativeName: ''C''riston ''C''ole.

* BodyguardCrush: He served as Rhaenyra's sworn shield for several years before joining the Kingsguard and is rumored to have desired or even been in a relationship with her. The final break that led to Cole's defection apparently came when one spurned the other, though views on who exactly rebuffed whose advances are naturally colored by which side of the ensuing conflict people think was in the right.
* TheChampion: He was Rhaenyra's, serving as her sworn shield starting in 103 AC, when she was seven and he was twenty-one. This lasted for ten years, until their falling out, whereupon he became sworn shield to Queen Alicent Hightower.
* CoDragons: With Aemond One-Eye to Aegon II.

*** According to the fool Mushroom: Ser Criston was a CelibateHero who took his VowOfCelibacy very seriously. When Rhaenyra attempted to seduce him into taking her maidenhead in the White Gold 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: Ser Criston went to Rhaenyra's bedchamber one night 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 NotGoodWithRejection turned against her.

*** 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.

* ObnoxiousInLaws: Alicent couldn't help but make nasty comments to her son-in-law Laenor Velaryon about how [[MamasBabyPapasMaybe his supposed kids by Rhaenyra looked nothing like him]].

-->'''Alicent Hightower''': 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.

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: 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.

-->'''Aemond''': I have never known any one so ''strong'' as my sweet nephews, so let us drain our cups to these three ''strong'' boys.

* WarriorPrince: A Dragonrider prince.

-->'''Daeron Targaryen''': You shall receive the same terms you gave my nephew Maelor.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: {{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''': [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech I'll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker. There's tens o' thousands dead on your account]].

* HeelFaceTurn[=/=]FaceHeelTurn: Depending which side you are on. Ser Jaime and Ser Loras discuss his legacy in ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'' with Jaime noting that he was a Knight that represented "the best and the worst" of the Kingsguard.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Remembered as "the best and worst" of the Kingsguard, despite the histories showing him to be far more of the latter than the former. He was a petty, jealous, misogynistic homophobe who razed farmland and slaughtered unarmed old men. Even judging him by his martial prowess, he managed only two victories in battle, one of which came with heavy losses, before getting utterly slaughtered and dying against the Winter Wolves.

* KnightTemplar: Killed a defenseless old man for speaking his mind.

* TheMentor: Trained Aemond One-Eye to be a warrior.

* RashomonStyle: Two different tales exist of how he and Rhaenyra developed such a deep rift:
** CelibateHero: According to the fool Mushroom, Ser Criston took his vows very seriously, and when Rhaenyra attempted to seduce him into taking her maidenhead in the White Gold 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.
** NotGoodWithRejection: According to the account of Septon Eustace, Ser Criston went to Rhaenyra's bedchamber one night 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 response was to ensure she never got the Iron Throne.
*** In a different note concerning this point, Cole's main concern is purported to have been actually keeping Daemon Targaryen and the Princes Velaryon [[note]]*Mostly because of the claims of illegitimacy and because their father was Laenor Velaryon, whom he suspected of being a homosexual and a pederast[[/note]] away from the Iron Throne, not so much denying Rhaenyra of her claim.
** Surprisingly, even though Septon Eustace's account is the one biased in favor of the greens, his account is actually the one that depicts Cole in the worst light. It is Eustace, not the pro-Rhaenyra Grand Maester Munkun, who says that Cole wanted to break his vows and elope with Rhaenyra. Moreover, as revealed in ''Fire & Blood'', Munkun's version just says that Lord Beesbury was thrown in the dungeons where he later died of a chill. Eustace's version is the one that says Cole personally slit his throat at the council table itself. Even then, it's not clear if this means Eustace's account is honest... or if perhaps he's trying to present Cole in a bad light to make Aegon II look better, i.e., framing Cole as an evil knight who led Aegon II astray with bad counsel.
* RankUp: He 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.

-->'''Squire''': Who are they?
-->'''Criston Cole''': Our death.

-->'''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?

-->'''Daemon Targaryen''': 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

* UnreliableExpositor: 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 baby 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.

* IronicName: ''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 [[UniversallyBelovedLeader widely revered]] as [[TheHighQueen "Good Queen Alysanne"]], married to TheGoodKing 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 GenderIsNoObject 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, UnfitForGreatness, and the named heir being her stepdaughter. It might be telling that instead of Jaehaerys mistaking Alicent for his beloved late wife Alysanne, as one might expect from grief and senility combined with their similar names, he mistook her for their conniving, cruel daughter ''[[BitchInSheepsClothing Saera]]''.

* {{Foil}}: To his uncle Daemon Targaryen. Both are second sons, unnecessarily brutal, and [[UndyingLoyalty never waver in loyalty to their cause]].

* HumiliationConga: 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 lead to him singlehandedly reignite the war and 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[[/note]] being measured in months. While his legacy fared slightly better than his half-sister's by virtue of his claim being legitimized, he still went down in history as a power-hungry usurper.

* HumiliationConga: 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 lead to him singlehandedly reignite the war and 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 anymore and had to sit on a cushioned seat standing at the steps of the throne [[/note]] being measured in months. While his legacy fared slightly better than his half-sister's by virtue of his claim being legitimized, he still went down in history as a power-hungry usurper.

* RashomonStyle: 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.

* YouShallNotPass: He stopped Erryk from doing whatever he was sent to Dragonstone to do.

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: He was stabbed by Erryk and it took his days to die.

[[folder:Ser Rickard Thorne]]
!!Ser Rickard Thorne

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

* BodyguardingABadass: Before his injuries, Aegon II was a highly capable warrior and dragonrider who hardly needed the protection of the Kingsguard.
* FailureKnight: He and his charge Prince Maelor are killed by a mob.
* FamousAncestor: 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.
* IdiotBall: 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.
* SuspiciousSpending: 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.

[[folder: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.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: 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?

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: ''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.
* PutOnABus: He and Princess Jaehaera were sent to Storm's End to keep her safe after the Blacks took King's Landing.
* RankUp: Was promoted to Lord Commander of the Kingsguard during the reign of Aegon III Targaryen until his death from the Winter Fever.
* SoleSurvivor: He was the only member of Viserys I's Kingsguard who survived the war.

[[folder:Ser Gyles Belgrave]]
!!Ser Gyles Belgrave

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

* BodyguardBetrayal: His exact role in Aegon II's poisoning is unknown, but he was involved somehow.
* TheConspiracy: 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.
* DeathSeeker: 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.
* TheOathbreaker: Betrayed his king to end the Dance of the Dragons.
* OffWithHisHead: He was executed by Lord Cregan Stark for his crimes.

* UnreliableExpositor: After Aemond's death, Alys claims that they were married, she was 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 baby 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.

* SuspicuousSpending: 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.

* ConspicuousConsumption: 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.

* {{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. While Alys [[UnreliableExpositor certainly had reason to claim this, even if untrue]], it's not implausible either. Considering they're in the middle of a war where legitimacy is part of the conflict, wanting to marry Alys while she was pregnant to legitimize their baby would make sense. Not to mention that Aemond was, by all accounts, completely besotted with her.

* {{Seer|s}}: She claimed the future in fires, similar to the ability of Red Priests.

* UnreliableExpositor: After Aemond's death, Alys claims that they were married, she was his widow, and their son was his trueborn heir. On one hand, Alys has a lot to gain by laying claim to Aemond's legacy for herself and her son, and so she has an obvious motive to lie. 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 baby 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 baby to escape that same fate and pressure Aemond to marry her. And 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.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Her fate after the Dance of the Dragons is currently unknown. Any details about her son by Aemond are also completely unknown.

Third child and younger son of Aegon II and Helaena. Only 2-years-old during the Dance of the Dragons. [[spoiler:He was torn apart by a mob when on the way to Oldtown under the care of Ser Rickard Thorne.]]