Aegon II: An antagonist but not Joffrey
The newly crowned "king" is a different, more nuanced villain than his sadistic Game of Thrones counterpart
“We’ve had vicious kings and we’ve had idiot kings, but I don’t know if we’ve ever been cursed with a vicious idiot for a king.”
-Tyrion Lannister
Most of “The Green Council” was spent trying to track down prince Aegon as the eldest son of the late King Viserys opted for debauchery over duty. Nothing that we’ve seen from Aegon — heavy drinking, sexually assaulting chamber maids, neglecting his wife — suggests he will be an effective king. In fact he seems poised to be the kind of utter disaster that the rest of the greens will have to bend over backwards to mitigate.
And yet, he’s not Joffrey.
As soon as adolescent version of Aegon made his window wanking debut, comparisons to Game of Thrones’ sociopathic teenage tyrant have followed. On the surface the comparisons make sense. Both were neglected by their royal fathers. Both have a history of sexual violence. Both smirk in a way that makes you want to punch them. And of course, both end the first seasons of their respective shows atop the Iron Throne.
Yet while Aegon may indeed prove to be a monster, he’s one of a different sort. Unlike Joffrey1 he is not a sadist who is cruel for the sake of being cruel. Joffrey revels in the pain of others from the moment we meet him — hiring an assassin to kill Bran, slicing open the butcher’s boy’s cheek, the list goes on. Aegon seems more interested in sophomoric jokes whether it be picking on his younger brother’s insecurities with “the pink dread” or taunting his nephew with sarcastic lovemaking tips. And despite being an ass, he still appears to bond with his nephews in his younger age — a level of peer connection we never see from Joffrey.
With regards to his most overtly villainous quality, Aegon is initially presented as a horny adolescent prone to pleasure himself. In isolation this makes him pretty much just a normal teenage male. Aegon might leer at passing serving maids but we don’t witness any actual sexual assault. By the next time jump however, he’s graduated to full fledged sexual predator. When he’s revealed to have raped his chamber maid, we are meant to understand it is not an isolated occurrence.
Aegon’s own agency and culpability is not to be excused — ultimately he is the perpetrator of those actions and bears the guilt. However, in contrast to Joffrey’s sadistic tendencies Aegon’s behavior is unlikely a manifestation of an underlying personality disorder2—and rather his circumstance may have further fanned the flames of his most depraved urges. Alicent reprimands her son when she finds out what he did, but any rebuke is undermined by her silencing the victim with a bag of coins and a healthy serving of intimidation. The queen’s actions prevent her son from facing consequences and thus are ultimately enabling.
The words Alicent chooses in her reproach of Aegon — “no son of mine” — probably only feed into his other pathology—abandonment. Between his father’s aloof neglect and his mother’s paranoia regarding his role as potential threat to Rhaenyra’s claim, Aegon becomes increasingly isolated. The tension between his parents also drives Aegon apart from his younger nephews, with whom he seems to get along better than his own brother and sister initially. Without friends or parental affection to help steer him away, Aegon circles down further into his own depraved tendencies. One could even argue his habit of watching the horrendous pit fights between children in Flea Bottom ties into this obsession with childhood abandonment.
On the way to his own coronation he himself states plainly of Viserys “he didn’t like me,” then goes on to ask his own mother if she loves him. Aegon seems downright miserable at the prospect of being king — until the moment the crowd erupts in applause as he hoists Blackfyre into the air whilst wearing the conqueror’s crown. He seems genuinely surprised at the reaction, but also happy for the first time.
The fact that moment of glee was interrupted by Rhaenys — presumably now aligned with Rhaenyra — may indeed give Aegon reason to invest in a conflict in which he has been hitherto uninterested. He will likely continue to chase that high and with the crown atop his head, he may prove even less inhibited than he was before.
Aegon II is not vicious in the manner of Joffrey. But the fact he wasn’t born a villain doesn’t give him immunity from becoming one3. In fact it makes him a much richer and more complex antagonist as the “Dance of Dragons” finally begins in earnest.
Dragon of the Week: Meleys
I was anticipating featuring another dragon here, but alas no Sunfyre this week4. Instead our first repeat dragon of the week goes to Meleys, who has already been featured in this section, but owing to her controversial appearance in this week’s episode gets the honor. Opinions on Rhaenys’s decision to defer incinerating the greens are understandably mixed5, but it was great to see the Red Queen a bit more up close and personal this week.
And Ramsay Bolton for that matter.
Joffrey never displays much in the way of actual libido, and even when presented with a prostitute opts to murder her with a crossbow. He’s pretty much textbook antisocial personality disorder.
To quote from another genre “Its not who you are underneath, its what you do that defines you”
In Fire and Blood there is no surprise appearance by Meleys and Aegon triumphantly flies his dragon Sunfyre over the city after being crowned.
I am still undecided on the inclusion of the scene as a whole, but I think Rhaenys not pushing the “dracarys” button — which would have made her a bigger kinslayer than Maegor the Cruel — makes sense