It was simpler back in Game of Thrones when there were so few Targaryens to keep track of. Before the once-great dynasty winnowed down to just an old maester at Castle Black and a couple of exiled siblings in the Free Cities, Westeros was ruled by generations of (mostly) platinum-blonde royals with a fondness for dragons and a tendency toward madness.
The sheer number of family members is complicated by their tendency to fight among themselves and their obsession with reusing names. Don’t forget, in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the Aegon Targaryen we know as Egg tells Dunk there have been four King Aegons so far in Westeros. (As House of the Dragon fans well know, King Aegon II is Alicent Hightower’s bratty son with a not-so-solid claim to the throne.) “Egg” is a goofy nickname, but at least it sets him apart from all the others.
If A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has got you curious about where Egg and his immediate relatives fit in, especially with House of the Dragon season three coming in June, you can read up on all the gory details in George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood. But if you’d rather skip over all that Targaryen history and just get a quick crash course, here’s a guide focused on the members of the family we met (or who got significant mentions) in season one of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
As a reminder, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place after House of the Dragon but before Game of Thrones, with enough time between them that there’s not too much overlap in characters between the three.
Egg to Dany (and Jon Snow)
Egg is the son of Maekar Targaryen. Egg’s older brothers include Daeron and Aerion—who make an impression in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms—as well as Aemon, who doesn’t turn up at Ashford Meadow because he’s at the Citadel, studying to be a maester.
Aemon appears in Game of Thrones as a very old man; we meet him as the maester at Castle Black during Jon Snow’s time in the Night’s Watch.
A few decades after the events of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Egg ascends to the Iron Throne as King Aegon V. He is the grandfather* of King Aerys II, aka “the Mad King”—the last Targaryen to sit the Iron Throne, a fascinating era soon to be explored in a play premiering at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
As his reign progressed, the Mad King became increasingly unhinged. He’s overthrown in Robert’s Rebellion—“Robert” being Robert Baratheon, a main character in early seasons of Game of Thrones. Jaime Lannister, another Game of Thrones regular, lands the killing blow, thereby earning him the nickname “Kingslayer.”
That’s why King Robert Baratheon is in charge when Game of Thrones begins, and the Targaryen line—greatly reduced amid the uprising—is suddenly nearly as extinct as the family’s dragons.
*An important note: Game of Thrones eliminated a generation to simplify things, making Aegon V the Mad King’s father, rather than his grandfather. In the books, Egg’s son King Jaehaerys II is the father of the Mad King.
The Mad King is also the father of Daenerys Targaryen, which means Egg is her great-grandfather in the books, and her grandfather in the Game of Thrones TV series. (That choice also made Maester Aemon the great-uncle of Daenerys, instead of her great-great uncle.)
No doubt Egg would have been proud to know Dany brought dragons back to life in Westeros, even though her attempts to reclaim the Iron Throne went almost as badly as the last season of Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones also added more detail about Jon Snow’s Targaryen parentage, making it clear that he’s the son of the secret couple comprised of Dany’s older brother, Rhaegar, and Ned Stark’s younger sister, Lyanna, who had been previously married to Robert Baratheon.
Rhaegar dies in Robert’s Rebellion, and Lyanna dies after giving birth. As we saw in Game of Thrones, Ned pretends Jon Snow is his own bastard son and raises him at Winterfell with his other kids. At the end of Game of Thrones, which famously extended its plot far beyond Martin’s existing books, Jon Snow—born Aegon Targaryen, as it happens!—is the last known surviving member of the once-great house. In the books, any connection between Jon Snow and the Targaryens has yet to be explicitly confirmed, although it’s long been an enduring fan theory.
Egg Back to Rhaenyra
Going back in time to the House of the Dragon era, the connection is as follows: Aegon, aka “Egg,” is the son of Maekar; Maekar is the son of King Daeron II; King Daeron II is the son of King Aegon IV; King Aegon IV is the son of King Viserys II; and King Viserys II is the son of… Queen Rhaenyra and Prince Daemon.
So, while that is a bit of a House of the Dragon spoiler—we aren’t saying what it takes to get Viserys, Rhaenyra’s second son with Daemon, on the throne, mind you—it means that Aegon is the many-greats grandson of the characters in House of the Dragon. Add a few more “greats” (depending on whether you’re going with the family tree from the books or the Game of Thrones show), and you can see Rhaenyra’s generational link all the way to Daenerys, too.
What Happens to Maekar After A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Egg’s father moves up in the line of succession after accidentally killing his brother, Baelor, during the Trial of Seven in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Maekar and Baelor (RIP) were the sons of King Daeron II, the ruler in power during the HBO show’s first season.
But Maekar is still pretty far from the Iron Throne, even after Baelor’s passing. We meet Baelor’s son, Valarr, in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms; Valarr becomes the royal heir after his father’s death.
Due to a series of unfortunate events, however, Valarr never gets crowned. Another of Maekar’s brothers, the eccentric King Aerys I, ascends to the throne after Daeron’s death instead. More unfortunate events after that bumped Maekar up to being next in line.
Long story short, Maekar becomes king eventually. But when he dies, there’s a great deal of confusion over who should take over—not unlike the succession quandary that sets House of the Dragon in motion.
Daeron and Aerion, our pals from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, are both dead by that time (let’s face it: those guys were clearly not built to last).
Aemon, by then a maester, doesn’t want the job, and the other potential contenders are deemed to be supremely ill-suited, including Daeron’s “simple” daughter and Aerion’s infant son.
A Great Council, an event nearly as rare as a Trial of Seven, was therefore convened. It’s there that the kid once known as Egg—by then in his 30s—gets anointed King Aegon V, appropriately dubbed “Aegon the Unlikely.”
Brynden Rivers, aka Lord Bloodraven
This Targaryen-adjacent character with extra-spooky vibes doesn’t appear in season one of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. But if HBO stays the course with its adaptation, we’ll meet him in that world eventually.
He appears in a Daemon Targaryen vision in House of the Dragon and as a very old man in Game of Thrones. In the latter, he’s the mysterious “Three-Eyed Raven” (crow in the books) who helps Bran Stark develop his psychic abilities.
In the family tree, Brynden is one of King Aegon IV’s many illegitimate offspring. On his deathbed, the king proclaimed that all his children were legitimate, a chaotic move that soon kicked the door wide open for uprisings and civil wars.
King Aegon IV’s successor was King Daeron II, the ruler during season one of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Daeron is the victor in that first Blackfyre Rebellion, whose aftermath we see in the flashback scenes exploring Dunk’s childhood in Flea Bottom.
Brynden chose sides wisely; after staying loyal to the trueborn Targaryens during the Blackfyre Rebellion, he became Hand of the King to both King Aerys and King Maekar. But after an act of unsanctioned violence, he runs afoul of the newly crowned King Aegon V, who sends Lord Bloodraven to the Wall as punishment.
Brynden’s travel companion on the long journey north? A member of Aegon’s Kingsguard—some guy named Ser Duncan the Tall.
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Original Source: https://gizmodo.com/game-of-thrones-targaryen-family-tree-explained-2000724656
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