This article contains spoilers for Season 1 of HBO’s House of the Dragon.
Aegon II Targaryen is the eldest male son of the lateKing Viserys Targaryenin HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel seriesHouse of the Dragon. Political schemes and internal division among his family and the ruling houses of Westeros led to Aegon inheriting the Iron Throne and becoming king of the Seven Kingdoms instead of his elder half-sister Rhaenyra Targaryen. The downside is that Aegon wanted nothing to do with his royal duties as a prince, let alone the responsibilities of a king.
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With Aegon finding himself on the side ofThe Greensand his elder half-sister and her immediate family and allies asThe Blacks,Aegon has inherited a kingdom on the precipice of open civil war. But even before this conflict arose, Aegon was uninterested in the powers of royalty. Here’s what we know about why Aegon II Targaryen is displeased with becoming king.
Aegon II Targaryen In Season One
Aegon II was the first male heir of King Viserys Targaryen and his second wife,Queen Alicent Hightower. He grew up in an age of growing dissension, with decades of relative peace leading to brewing tension and disdain among the houses of Westeros. His youth was mostly unremarkable until his teenage years. He was mostly referenced and seen as a contentious yetfavorable heir to the throne, as he was technically7th in line to the throne behind Rhaenyra Targaryen and her five children. Otto Hightower, a high-ranking assistant to King Viserys, doubted Rhaenyra’s ability to lead as Queen and pressured Queen Alicent Hightower to try and prepare Aegon to ascend and take the throne after Viserys passes away.
In his teenage years and young adulthood, Aegon seemed content with his place far down the line of succession, often engaging in pranks and devious activity. Rhaenyra’s sonsJacerysand Lucerys Velaryon once helped him tease his brotherAemond Targaryenabout not having his own dragon by gifting him a pig with fake wings attached to it. Alicent rebutted her son for this, telling him that as an heir to the throne, he must be respectful of his siblings and family when in public.
Aegon objected to the notion that he would ever make it to the throne and that he had no plans to challenge Rhaenyraand her children’s inheritance of it. Alicent told Aegon that his very life was a threat to Rhaenyra’s ascension to the throne, and she’d have to kill him before she or her children could guarantee the Iron Throne for themselves. It was around this time thatAegon’s alcoholism began to develop, often leading him to be found passed out in staircases, dining halls, or his chambers.
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Soon after, he is wed to Helena Targaryen and produces two children,Jaehaerys and Jaehaera Targaryen. However, his promiscuity with women leads him to seduce and coerce sexual favors from maids, common folk, and prostitutes. Several abandoned children involved in cage fights sported the snow-white hair of Aegon’s royal bloodline, suggesting he had several bastard children he either did not know about or had disowned and denied knowledge of conceiving. Upon the death of King Viserys to old age and medical complications, his last words are mistakenly spoken to his wife Alicent, whichshe interprets as his desire to see Aegon take the throne instead of Rhaenyra.
Aegon soon finds himself on the run, desperate not to be dragged into the political machinations of his mother and King Viserys' former councilors. He is dragged back to his family by his brother Aemond, drunk and afraid, loudly declaring his unfitness and unwillingness to be king of Westeros, pleading to be let go, so he may flee and escape the fate those around him have crafted for him.
Aegon’s Ascension & What’s To Come
Aegon is dressed and brought before a mass gathering of the civilian population, where thedeath of King Viserys and Aegon’s succession are announcedand presented to the public. As soon as Aegon is crowned and the crowd cheers, for a brief moment, Aegon seems to come around to the power and position as king as heembraces the adoring crowd and family sword in his hand. But the moment is short-lived, as Rhaenys Targaryen escapes captivity after refusing to acknowledge Aegon as the heir to the throne and flees to join Rhaenyra to ensure that her line of succession is upheld.
His crowning ceremony is nowfilled with corpses, and the situation between the Blacks and Greens is destined to become full-scale war after Aemond kills Lucerys Velaryon during negotiations –Aegon II Targaryen is now king in a world ready to burn itself to the ground.
Aegon’s desire to avoid becoming king is likely a mixture of rebellion and self-realization of his own failings. His education has been tailored to try and ready him to ascend the throne, something Aegon knows can only happen with the deaths or imprisonment of Rhaenyra and her children.The alcoholism and disgusting behavior towards women are likely a coping mechanismand a sign of his deteriorating mental health. The bottom of a bottle and the arms of a one-night stand are the only refuges he can find from scheming, uncaring family members burdening his every waking moment with backstabbing plots, political arrangements, and impossible standards.
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This destructive relief from a toxic household likely only further emboldened his desire to avoid the throne altogether. If he’s seen as a womanizing drunk that makes a scene wherever he goes,maybe enough people will be turned off by his actions that one of his siblings or peers could fulfill his role instead.
Unless Aegon finds a way to acclimate to the role of a wartime king, he will likely face harsh rebuke from the people he now leads and those around him, hoping to use him as a pawn for their own political agendas. Worse still, if his behavior and mental health continue to deteriorate as the situation becomes direr,he may find himself in an early grave next to his father.Those who put him on the throne in the first place can find a more stable and cooperative puppet to carry out their bidding. Fans will have to wait and see what the fate of Aegon’s turbulent reign will bring about, as season 2 of House of the Dragon is scheduled to begin filming in early 2023. It won’t be until late 2023 or early 2024 that the fates of Westeros and the newly appointed King Aegon II Targaryen will be revealed.
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