Introduction
Who was the worst Targaryen king of all time? Aerys II Targaryen, The Mad King, might be the first answer that comes to mind. Scarcely could there have been a worse Targaryen king than the one whose villainies prompted the overthrow of the Targaryen dynasty. Or, if you’re extra familiar with the Targaryen kings, you might be thinking of Maegor I Targaryen, the Cruel, who, in 42 AC, cooked the Sept of Remembrance in dragonflame, along with hundreds of Faith Militant with it. Still, some few readers maintain that Maegor was only doing what he had to do to defend the family dynasty. Whichever terrible Targaryen king comes to mind for you, it can safely be said that Aegon IV Targaryen, now remembered as Aegon the Unworthy, is not far from readers’ tongues.
So, what did Aegon the Unworthy do that made him so unworthy of a king? Where do I even begin? Aegon coveted the throne so badly that, as rumor has it, he killed his father with poison to speed up his own succession. Aegon the Unworthy tortured his own Kingsguard knight to death, Ser Terrence Toyne, for giving comfort to one of Aegon’s mistresses who was distressed by his… loving embraces. Worse, he made the mistress watch the torture, and executed her too. Aegon delighted in humiliating his wife and brother. He envied his brother, Aemon the Dragonknight, who was better loved than himself. He tormented and spurned his sister, sired countless bastards on who knows how many women. And, before Aegon’s death, he bookended this awful reign by “legitimizing all of his natural children, from the most baseborn to the Great Bastards,” setting the groundwork for what would become five generations of rebellion over the rightful royal succession. That is, to name just a few things.
If Aegon the Unworthy had only done half of the horrible things that the histories say and suggest he did, his position as one of the top contenders for the title of Worst Targaryen King of All Time would remain unthreatened. Indeed, the only other Targaryen king for whom this is comparably true is Aerys the Mad, whose villainous deeds, like Aegon the Unworthy’s, are so numerous and extreme as to render his villainy inexplicable, absent the existence of some profound will to evil within him.
But, what if I were to tell you that this is no accident of history? What if I told you that Aegon and Unworthy and Aerys the Mad are mirrors of one another across a century, and that almost all of the explanation for both Aegon the Unworthy’s and Aerys the Mad’s evilness, as depicted and described in the histories, is just that — a story? *His* story, in the literal meanings of the root words, where “his” refers to mankind, and “story” means that the facts have been simplified and arranged to depict people and events in terms of hero or villain, right or wrong, good or evil. And what if I told you that Aegon the Unworthy and Aerys the Mad were, in the final assessment, actually between ordinary and good kings, and that their histories constitute a giant history puzzle that’s waiting for some sufficiently astute and brave reader to piece it together, giving Aegon the Unworthy and Aerys the Mad the fair trials that everybody deserves, if only to rescue their reputations in the eyes of the A Song of Ice and Fire audience?
Well, if I said any of that, you might think I’m as mad as old King Aerys. So, I won’t say it. Instead, I’ll show you. I’ll undertake this massive A Song of Ice and Fire project myself and prove, one situation at a time and one king at a time, that these terrible kings and their histories are as I described. I will begin with Aegon the Unworthy, whose temporal distance from the present day characters of A Song of Ice and Fire that we know and love might render the persuasion inoffensive enough that emotion will yield to reason. And I’ll leave Aerys the Mad for a future essay that relates more directly with the present.
Next: Chapter 1 – History is Written by the Victors (ish)
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – History is Written by the Victors (ish)
Chapter 2 – The World of Ice and Fire
Chapter 3 – Plumming the Depths
Chapter 4 – Butterwell and Eggs
Chapter 5 –
Chapter 6 –
Chapter 7 –
Update History
Created Mar 16, 2023 – Intro draft
Updated Mar 18, 2023 – Minor changes
Updated Apr 18, 2023 – Small addition
Updated Sep 7, 2023 – truism
Updated Sep 8-13, 2023 – Ch. 2 TWOIAF
Updated Sep 13-19, 2023 – Ch. 3 Plumm
Updated Sep 20, 2023 – Split chapters into separate pages and made TOC
Apples and Dragons 