Who is Rhaegar Targaryen? The dead brother of Daenerys Targaryen has influenced many of the events we see on Game of Thrones.
Works Cited & Consulted:
* Smith, Corey. “Who is Rhaegar Targaryen, and why does he matter?” Winter Is Coming. Feb 10, 2016.
* Walsh, Michael. “GAME OF THRONES Theories: Why Rhaegar Targaryen Fell In Love With Lyanna Stark.” Nerdist. Jun 25, 2016.
* Gennis, Sadie. “The Most Important Game of Thrones Character You’ve Never Seen.” TV Guide. May 6, 2015.
* “Bibliography,” George R.R. Martin.
* Pert, Tom. “Black Princes, Lost Kings and Chivalric Savages? The Historical Inspirations for Rhaegar Targaryen.” History Behind Game of Thrones. Oct 2, 2014.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
00:02
How many tens of thousands had to die because Rhaegar chose your aunt
00:07
Rhaegar targaryen is one of the most important characters on Game of Thrones
00:11
with the least amount of screen time.
00:13
His actions catalyzed most of the events we witness.
00:16
Rhaegar lies beneath the ground.
00:18
So how does a dead man still have so much influence?
00:24
Rhaegar Targaryen was the son and heir of the Mad King Aerys the second
00:28
and Queen Rhaella
00:29
and the older brother of Viserys and Danerys.
00:32
King Aerys had a strained relationship with his son.
00:34
Due to his growing paranoia that Rhaegar was trying to overthrow him and take the Iron Throne,
00:39
which was entirely possible given the mad Kings questionable mental state.
00:45
While Danny was too young to remember what her oldest brother was like,
00:49
Viserys remembers him as a good killer and lover of violence,
00:52
qualities the younger looks up to.
00:54
“Viserys never told you?”
00:56
“He told me Rhaegar was good at killing people.”
00:58
Throughout Game of Thrones history, Targaryens have been marrying their siblings
01:02
to keep their Valyrian bloodline pure.
01:04
But, finding no eligible relatives,
01:06
Rhaegar ended up marrying the Dornish Elia Martell.
01:09
Better known in the show as Oberyn Martell’s sister,
01:12
“The last time we was in the capital was many years ago. Another winning.
01:17
My sister Elia and Rhaegar Targaryen the last dragon.”
01:22
Tywin Lannister wanted him to marry Cersei,
01:25
but the Mad King felt this match was beneath Rhaegar.
01:28
Rhaegar and Elia had two children, who didn’t live long after
01:32
the War of the Usurper, or Robert’s Rebellion began.
01:35
Most importantly Rhaegar had a third son,
01:38
with Ned Stark’s sister Lyanna, who did survive,
01:41
growing up to become one of the show’s most beloved characters, Jon Snow.
01:46
Lyanna was betrothed to Robert Baratheon
01:48
when she was allegedly abducted by Rhaegar.
01:51
“What Rhaegar Targaryen did to your sister, the woman I loved.
01:55
I’ll kill every Targaryen I get my hands on.”
01:59
We’ll get into the question of what exactly
02:01
Rhaegar’s and Lyanna’s relationship was in a bit.
02:03
Lyanna gave birth to John secretly.
02:06
Were Robert to find out about this illegitimate competition to the throne,
02:09
it was thought he would kill the baby.
02:11
“You know it. You have to protect him.”
02:15
So Lyanna’s brother, Ned, took him in as his own bastard son.
02:19
“Lord Eddark Stark is my father.”
02:22
“And Lady Stark is not your mother,
02:25
making you the bastard.”
02:29
Not even telling his wife, Catilyn, the truth.
02:32
Thus Rhaegar’s blood and legacy live on most tangibly in John Snow.
02:38
Because Rhaegar is dead at the start of the story,
02:40
we never get the opportunity to truly make a judgment on his character.
02:44
We only see the judgments of others.
02:46
“In my dreams I kill him every night.”
02:51
“Rhaegar would pick a spot on the hook
02:54
or the street of seeds. Then he’d sing.”
02:57
“He was good?”
02:58
“He was very good.
02:59
Rhaegar never liked killing. He loved singing.”
03:02
“And what did you do with the money?”
03:04
“Well one time he gave it to the next minstrel down the street.
03:07
One time he gave it to an orphanage in flea bottom.
03:10
One time we got horribly drunk.”
03:15
So, what was the man really like?
03:17
The books depict a shift in his personality
03:20
from bookworm
03:21
to fighting night.
03:22
Though he grew up intellectual and peaceful,
03:24
he switched his focus to combat training
03:26
after reading a prophecy in a scroll about the second coming of Azor Ahai,
03:31
a legendary hero who fought off the darkness with
03:33
a sword called Lightbringer.
03:35
With the prophesied coming of the White Walkers,
03:38
Rhaegar first believed that he was the prince that was promised.
03:41
Then later believed the prince would be all three of his future children working together,
03:45
because the Targaryen sigil is a three-headed dragon.
03:48
So more than his intelligence or his strength,
03:51
Rhaegar believed in the power of destiny
03:53
and his duty towards that destiny.
03:55
When Danny sees her older brother in her vision in the house of the undying
03:59
he reveals this prophecy,
04:00
which could foreshadow that three Dragon Riders
04:03
potentially John, Danny, and, some fans have speculated maybe Tyrion,
04:07
are needed to reclaim the Iron Throne.
04:11
The now-proven fact that Jon Snow is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark
04:16
has been one of the show’s most popular
04:18
long-running and now proven fan theories.
04:20
But the reveal of the parentage begs the question
04:23
of how Jon’s parents met and fell in love in the first place,
04:25
given that they were from opposing houses,
04:28
Rhaegar was already married,
04:29
and they’ve never been seen together in public.
04:31
Were they truly in love,
04:33
or was Rhaegar the kidnapping raping monster the Targaryen enemies say he was?
04:37
“And then he kidnapped her and raped her.”
04:40
To get any solid facts, we have to go back to the books.
04:43
They tell us Rhaegar won a jousting tournament at Harrenhal,
04:47
one of the greatest of the time,
04:48
and instead of choosing his wife as the queen of love and beauty,
04:52
he rode past her and placed the crown of blue winter roses
04:55
in Lyanna Stark’s lap, shocking the entire audience.
04:58
According to the books, earlier in the tournament
05:00
there came a masked jouster to defend the honour of a
05:02
man who’d been bullied by a few Squires.
05:05
The mystery man was smaller than the other knights and carried a shield with a laughing tree on it.
05:09
He later disappeared and the king in his mad state thought the night must be his enemy,
05:13
so the king sent Rhaegar to go find the knight of the Laughing tree,
05:16
but Rhaegar returned and claimed he could only find the knight’s shield.
05:20
Fans have theorized that Rhaegar discovered
05:22
the knight of the Laughing tree was Lyanna,
05:24
that the pair fell in love and that he actually lied to the King to save her.
05:28
Think this is too much of a stretch?
05:30
Well it seems to check out.
05:32
Rhaegar wouldn’t have told his father that he found the knight
05:35
because of his shaky relationship with the King.
05:37
Lyanna was a skilled swordsman, but smaller in stature,
05:40
and it would explain why Rhaegar chose her over his wife
05:43
to be the queen of love and beauty,
05:45
a seemingly random and definitely dangerous choice.
05:48
Rather than merely celebrating her physical beauty,
05:50
he was honoring the strength and kindness she had shown by defending the bullied man.
05:55
Some fans have also theorized, however, that this was less a love affair
05:59
and more a strategic move for Rhaegar.
06:01
If he truly believed he needed
06:03
three children to fulfill the prince that was promised prophecy,
06:06
he would have had to have an affair,
06:08
because his wife was deemed unfit to have a third child.
06:11
After the knight of the Laughing tree episode,
06:13
Lyanna was taken to the Tower of Joy
06:15
to give birth to Jon Snow,
06:17
and died shortly after childbirth.
06:19
Rhaegar, his wife, and his first two children were all killed in Robert’s Rebellion.
06:25
So, who was Rhaegar, really?
06:27
Was he a hopeless romantic, swept away
06:29
by his love for Lyanna Stark?
06:31
Another Targaryen obsessed with prophecy?
06:33
Or was he just another adept player in the game of Thrones?
06:37
Or a little bit of all of those?
06:38
Like many characters,
06:40
Rhaegar may have roots and historical figures.
06:42
Henry Stuart Prince of Wales,
06:44
with his reputation of intelligence, and musical talent
06:47
may have inspired Rhaegar’s early years.
06:49
Meanwhile, the English Prince Edward, known as
06:51
the Black Prince son of Edward the third,
06:54
could be a model for Rhaegar’s skill as a jouster
06:56
and military commander.
06:57
Much like Rhaegar, both real-life princes were beloved in their time
07:01
and died before they had a chance to become King,
07:03
causing their countries to mourn.
07:05
As a character Rhaegar is one of the most complex and
07:08
deeply layered examples of George RR Martin’s ability as a writer.
07:12
Without ever physically appearing in the present story,
07:15
Rhaegar Targaryen manages to not only impact the lives of an entire kingdom,
07:20
but also to come across as one of the most three-dimensional characters.
07:23
In a way, he can be compared to real-life celebrities or politicians.
07:27
We’ll never truly know their intentions or inner life,
07:30
yet the results of their actions can be immensely influential and polarizing.
07:35
While audiences can form strong opinions about each of the core Game of Thrones cast,
07:40
we have to imagine Rhaegar for ourselves because we only see the impact he leaves behind.
07:45
“Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly,
07:49
and Rhaegar died.”
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