HBO’s upcoming ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ may be a smaller, more intimate tale than ‘Game of Thrones’ or ‘House of the Dragon’, but that doesn’t mean the series will shy away from the darker corners of Targaryen history.
One of the most disturbing characters in George R.R. Martin’s canon, Aerion Targaryen, or Aerion Brightflame, is finally leaving the footnotes and making it to the screen.
Aerion Brightflame’s Monstrous Legacy
Although ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ is based on the popular novellas of Martin, the relationship between Ser Duncan the Tall and young Aegon “Egg” Targaryen is the central theme of the series. However, it is impossible to ignore Aerion Targaryen’s presence. His brutality, instability, and tragic conclusion cast a long shadow over the period, even though his entire narrative may unfold decades after the original timeline of the show.
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The introduction of Aerion offers something that ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ alone promises: a close-up look at the everyday Targaryen dysfunction that quietly shaped the future of Westeros long before dragons burned cities and kings went mad. Aerion is among the rare Targaryens in Martin’s layered history. His cruelty is as notorious as that of the Mad King, and in ways even more troubling. Aerion is known as Brightflame, and he thinks of himself as a dragon in the flesh.
That delusion in itself is disturbing enough. But his violent temperament makes him particularly dangerous. Aerion is the King Maekar I Targaryen’s second son and Egg’s elder brother. Egg is the hopeful, kind-hearted king that readers love. Aerion is the embodiment of all the worst qualities of the Targaryen dynasty: arrogance, entitlement, and simmering madness. His introduction in The Hedge Knight, the novella that season 1 will be based on, is short, yet memorable.
Aerion is able to bring on board crude menace even in a smaller, character-driven story. He does not require the magnitude of a massive war or a political uprising. His sadism is close, personal, and very human. This is what makes it even more chilling. And that is where ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ derives its strength. It demonstrates how even the mundane world of Westeros is influenced by dangerous individuals in privileged positions.
Aerion’s Wildfire Death Became A Horrifying Targaryen Cautionary Tale
What makes Aerion stand out among the many tragic Targaryens is not only how he lived but also how he died. His demise is so disturbing, so hideous, that fans continue to talk about it with disbelief decades after the story was authored. Aerion kills himself by drinking wildfire. Not accidentally. Not in battle. But deliberately. He gulps the burning green stuff, the same chemical that destroyed Stannis’s fleet in Blackwater and detonates the Sept of Baelor, with the full belief that it will turn him into a living dragon.
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Instead, it kills him screaming. A human body has no chance against wildfire. Martin tells how it eats flesh like paper. So, the picture of Aerion’s last moments remains like a stain. And it’s not because it’s frightening, but because of its pathetic tragedy. He wanted transcendence but found annihilation. This demise also makes a chilling comparison with the most notorious Targaryen of all: Aerys II, the Mad King.
Similar to Aerion, Aerys felt that wildfire would open the power of a dragon in him. He never followed through, but the echo between them is unmistakable, a pathological belief woven deep into a bloodline that has always danced too close to fire. These are the threads ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ can tug at. The biggest question now is: Will Aerion’s gruesome death be shown on-screen?
The brief reply is, not yet. The initial Dunk and Egg narrative is set in 209210 AC. However, Aerion dies over twenty years later in 232 AC. Unless HBO is willing to make changes to later novellas or leap further into the Targaryen timeline, viewers will not see the man who dies screaming, but the younger version of Aerion.
