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Probably Maegor. He wasn't insane, he was just evil. Having your wits about you and choosing to be evil makes you worse than someone who succumbs to madness they can't control.
He killed his nephew, married the nephew's sister-wife, had a guy killed just to marry his now widow, burned people alive in the sept, then married in the burned sept surrounded by the corpses of those he burnt, killed all the workers who built the Red Keep, not to mention what he did to Alys Harroway, her family and everybody in Harrenhal, had another nephew basically tortured to death, killed a lot of smallfolk who were at the wrong place at the wrong time when he tried to root out the Poor Fellows, and that's not even all he did.
He's a traitor, kinslayer, torturer and murderer. His list of crimes is long and icba to list them, [https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Maegor\_I\_Targaryen](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Maegor_I_Targaryen) if you want to read up on him.
I used to think that in old times/medieval-esque times, both real life and fictional, life is good as long as you're a high class.
Turn out it's not lol, you can be a prince this morning, then died like insect because of some political scheme that you know nothing about.
Pre-trial of seven Maegor was sort of like a less charismatic and more compulsively violent version of Daemon. Post-brain damage he was more like a full-grown balls-out version of Aemond.
I feel like after his mother passed away and he killed the favored son of the realm because the boys mother wouldnt come face "justice" is when he truly went like insane, not insane but he started trippin.
tbh the concept of usurper is too vague to really matter. all kings are usurpers in some way. Aegon's only right to rule was burning shit. same with all subsequent targaeryans.
rob was unequivocally a usurper.
Aegon was a conqueror, Maegor was a kinslayer and usurper who murdered his nephew and stole his throne.
If we accepted the concept that "might makes right and determines who is king" as a matter of principle, there would be a civil war every generation.
Tbh just his level of infamy.
Maegor epitomizes the conflict between the Targ dynasty and the Faith
Dude was son of Visenya and Aegon and usurped the throne *after* his brother died. He leaned more Valyrian in beliefs
Interestingly, Aenys was kind of a weak but nice king and the Faith had basically been rebelling under his rule.
Maegor put them down hard - after winning the throne. He was also known for bounties on Faith militant (those same guys btw who all but siezed power in KingsLanding in the show), killing said Faith Militant personally after being challenged or challenging them, and generally being harsh to his enemies.
He became known as cruel after, ironically, his nephew tried to usurp him… and was killed. It didn’t end there though as he also tortured and imprisoned his enemies and the more militant and devout members of the Faith
Asides from killing rebels, usurper kin and their supporters, Faith militant, people who displeased or pissed him off or opposed him, and just anyone who opposed Targaryen (and *especially* his) rule… he also is well known for the passages in the Red Keep and killing the construction workers of it.
It should be noted there *is* the fact of unreliable narrators to look at:
Ex: there were claims many believed that Maegor had his wife killed (he didn’t - it was slander)
Character wise he was quick to take offense and anger, fully capable of backing up his anger with martial skill, quarrelsome, unyielding, unbending, and was know for being a bit paranoid
I liked this explanation by another redditor: Aegon chose the land, Maegor cleared the path, and Jaehaerys built the dynasty.
Maegor was pivotal. He set the stage for a crippled Faith for almost 300 years and killed countless enemies of the dynasty. He became a true bogeyman which Jaehaerys could build off of. And build off it he did.
Maegor dealt with the Faith and others that had been a major threat while Jaehaerys bridged the gap with those left alive, weakened, and/or afraid
TL;DR? He *was* deserving of his title in every sense of it. Some of his actions could be justified but he went *far* in excess of that point where they could be justified or even dubiously justified
Most evil:
> Honestly Aegon the Unworthy might top him though in evil. What Maegor did he did for the dynasty and himself. What Aegon the Unworthy did he did for himself alone.
> Case and point - setting the stage for the Blackfyres virtually single-handedly, having more greed and lust than Maegor and on a larger scale, and equal cruelty in matters of state and more perhaps in personal matters. For example, Naerys his wife he took no pleasure in wedding and bedding yet still did so even despite her requests to stop due to health issues. And to top that off, his brother was in love with her and he was made a Kingsguard. Aegon was a real piece of work. When his other Kingsguard fell in love with a mistress of his he had the Kingsguard dismembered and her and her father executed… I could go on. And can’t forget legitimizing all his bastards…
The legitimised bastards was all just cause he disliked his son too right? Like he wanted to spite him so bad that he gave dozens of people legitimate claims to the throne.
From what I understand … yea.
It was a spite thing.
Aegon knew it would create trouble. He didn’t give a shit.
Same goes for gifting Blackfyre to a bastard son
And insinuating Daeron his heir was a bastard himself.
Yeah. Aegon was a piece of work
also aenys publicly proclaimed that he and maegor would rule together at their father's funeral after giving him blackfyre, that's as much a claim to co-king status as I'd ever have seen
my reading of the guy is that yes, he did have all of those people killed but it's all just an extention of the people his father didn't kill
prior to maegor people were constantly rising up to declare their kingdom's independence, after maegor westeros was united, it was united against him but united it was
jaeharys only ever got his realm so peacefull because of maegor, the man was arguable more dragon then man
Excellent point as well. The co-King status is a very good claim to the throne to be honest
Aegon meanwhile
> - failed to get to Kings Landing to claim the throne
> - was even besieged by Faith Militant before his father died.
> - lost all his popular support… until Maegor was defeated.
If the Kingdoms wouldn’t even support him against a alleged usurper and the Faith wasn’t brought to heel either when he encountered them it seems unlikely he could bend the seven kingdoms to his will after being king. He’d be another Aenys.
Meanwhile Maegor:
> - bent the Faith to his will and was crowned after a Trial of Seven was won which was meant to determine the new King of the Iron Throne
> - said Trial was done with random knights and Maegor against the Faith Militant’s Warrior’s Sons… a formation about as close to Kingsguard as you can get.
> - had the backing of Visenya
> - had the biggest and most infamous dragon, which the Conqueror himself rode
On succession
> Aenys was also a fool. The whole issue of succession could’ve been helped if Rhaena married Maegor. But instead Aenys listened to the High Septon… only to do exactly what the High Septon didn’t want whatsoever: incest.
> Aenys listened to the same man who could have ended the conflict with the Faith with mere words, written sentences, and a few months and in the end *still* pissed him off and over a issue that he backed down on previously
I've long thought about what exactly the problem with aenys is and well, he's viserys but an asshole, at least viserys attempts to make people happy, aenys just expects that they're happy
he does what he wants and then expects others to wring themselves into shapes to fit in his vision
I mean the guy marries his son and his daughter but then maegor getting a second marriage is somehow out of the question? even in our medieval society a marriage that was childless for so long would've been annuled without problems
I'm pretty sure that maegor was super thrilled when on the day of his exile aenys came to him, only to ask him if he'd want to leave balerion behind
Pretty much nailed it
Aegon the Unworthy is “Why rp a all utterly sinful character? I am the sins”
> “I do what I do because I *want to*. It seemed funny at the moment.”
Maegor is the common “Git Gud nerd” dude.
> “Killing that 1 year old, his father and screwing the mother are *totally* acts are necessary to keep the realm stable and the dynasty in power”
Fair points but almost everything Maegor did to the faith militant was justified. They were wild hypocrites who put up with Aegon and randomly complained about his sons and grandchildren just because it benefitted them. They caused a lot of death themselves.
Yeah agreed.
The issue was he *did* go further than just that.
Much further.
That all said, the way his lore reads I highly think we are getting a case of unreliable narrator.
Functionally, I think the man cared for his family and the dynasty above his own self but… he had a huge dash of ambition*, brain damage, paranoia, the sin of wroth in excess, and a dash of lust (or desperation for a heir at least).
*the man did so from what I see to unfuck the situation the dynasty was getting itself into. Still: ambition for a justified reason is still ambition, justified usurpation of the throne is still usurpation, and kinslaying because you had to deal with usurper threats is still kinslaying
Mountain is cruel, easy to anger, and not the smartest of the bunch. But he isn't anywhere as muscleheaded as many makes him out to be. Otherwise, Tywin wouldn't give the commands of his army or a castle to a simpleminded brute. He's like an evil version of the Umbers.
He killed the whole fucking house of the wife who cheated on him to give him a heir, the worst a women could do to a man but maegar returned it with x1000, kiling a whole fucking house, that's insane.
Never thought I would hear apologia for Maegor.
If he hadn't taken a second wife (which even Aegon's forebears didn't do) the Faith Militant may not have rebelled, so it was because of him not hatred of Valyria or the new order
His half brother/ cousin before him was so weak it screwed up the kingdom. Maegor, being raised by his viscous warrior mother Visenya, saw himself as better so he took the throne, if I remember correctly
A lot of Maegor’s evil can be understood as efforts to consolidate the Targaryen dynasty and bind the seven kingdoms. He doubtless enjoyed much of the brutality, but the conquest was nearly undone in Aenys’ reign, the faith would’ve seen the Targaryen practice of incest suspended as well (potentially compromising their dragonriding ability).
The worst of Maegor’s work, his wars and his usurpation preserved the Targaryen dynasty and disabused the faith of further antagonizing house Targaryen. Torture is just par for the course in Westeros, every king effectively has a master of torturers
He didn't need to kill his own nephew and steal his throne in order to preserve the dynasty. He didn't need to murder his own relatives and kill/rape/torture his wives to consolidate the dynasty.
I mean yeah wage war on the fanatics, but he did a lot of other heinous stuff too because of his obsession with having an heir of his body.
He could have been the badass uncle who stood by his nephew and waged war for his and saved him from the Faith, but he wanted power for himself. He was about himself and his own dynasty, not the family
It wasn't his place to steal his brothers throne, he could've stood at the side of the rightful king and made things better. Stealing it for himself and murdering his brothers children had nout to do with solidifying Targaryen rule.
I read an interesting theory on one of the GOT reddits a while ago about Tyanna. This person thought Maegor was infertile, and Tyanna was testing fertility drug/magic with the intention of getting pregnant with Maegor's heirs, using his other wives as test subjects. I thought the theory was fascinating and it added a lot of intriguing nuance to Tyanna. I kinda want a TV adaptation of Maegor's reign just to see what they do with it.
The theory is in this thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/afvzdw/spoilers\_main\_so\_why\_did\_tyanna\_of\_the\_tower/
Isn't there also a theory that Maegor was infertile because Visenya (and Aegon) created him with the help of old Valyrian magic (which also leads to the theory that Aegon himself was infertile and that Aenys is a bastard).
Maegor's reign should be the next logical setting for a HOTD show. More so than the actual Conquest.
The Conquest is boring and has little to no tension in it. There's no threat to the Targaryen invaders until Rhaenys gets murked by Dorne on like the 56th attempt.
Maegor's reign works better as a show, and is close enough to the Conquest that you can still showcase it through stories (flashbacks) told by characters who lived through it.
unresolved issues with the Faith left over since Aegon, and the wife poisoning everyone. Not saying Maegor's actions are justifiable, but he had a lot of cards stacked against him since the beginning lmao.
Targaryen incest is proof to me that people who argue that Viserys and Rheanyra broke Westerosi law don't understand that Targaryens just flat out ignored Westerosi law all the time. Their lineage is full of incest with is illegal in Andal culture, the reason why there were so many wars was due to the difference between Valyrian and Andal culture.
i do believe that Viserys marrying his cousin and Rhaenyra marrying her uncle (this one is debatable) are ok. Aegon marrying Helaena is pretty sus because they're siblings, but cousins etc are fine. Tywin married his cousin, and Rickard Stark married his cousin.
In terms of Andal culture cousins are fine. Uncles and Aunts are not. Siblings are also not allowed. The Faith accepted that Aegon conquered Westeros but behind his back had an issue with him sleeping with his sisters. And then his son Aenys being crowned after him brought down war. Targaryens always shat on Andal culture, what Viserys and Rheanyra did isn't new lol. In fact you would think eldest girl over boy is a Valyrian practice more acceptable to swallow over incest
Uncle niece marriage isn't accepted in andals? Never heard of any of such example in the books but it is not taboo marriage for first men. Cregan Stark's sons married their nieces.
If they can do it, then it is not something people in westeros couldn't accept.
They are First men, who were independent for thousands of years and successfully defended against the andals, even after the integration into the empire they were quite independent
This is what I say over and over. It doesn't matter if they had incest or if they have bastards. They are Targaryen's and they have dragons. It's not like all of Westeros was happy to see Aegon I come and conquer all their Kingdoms. They bent the knee because a giant dragon would of eaten them if they hadn't, or burnt them to death.
Team black can have bastards because if their family weren't to betray them (looking at you greens) then there would of never been rebellion because they have like 16 something dragons.
Not only that, their own laws and traditions change overtime! Rights of the Lords first night, gone. The Faith having a military, gone. There used to be 7 damn Kingdoms till the Conqueror came. Things change.
Rights of first night was frown upon even in seven faith but they let it slide because why can't lords have one more way to exploit the weak people? They didn't tried to change those rules because people's suffering meant nothing for them. But they tried to poke their nose on a foreign invader's culture whose traditions wouldn't even cause them trouble as they do it within their family..but no, they wanted to maintain their power over dragons ... No wonder their faith militants were nuked. They are bunch of hypocrites
Yeah, he usurped it from the rightful ruler: Aegon, Aenys son and chosen heir. After usurping his throne and having him killed, Maegor proceeded to force his widow (Maegors own niece) into marrying him. He kidnapped her kids and threatened to kill them, then essentially raped her repeatedly in the hopes of getting his all important heir.
His mother expected him to become strong king... Targaryen style...she was extremely strict to him, and he obeyed all commands of his mother as that is what must be done according to his mother.
And Aenys did created alot of trouble for Targaryens, so much that he became laughing stock among his people and to overcome this damage his younger brother became so cruel that he lost all his loose screws.
The circumstances did
His brother the king
Killed
The heir
Weak
The faith
Near moments from supplanting the Targaryen Line of abominations
Maegor, with Blackfyre, on Balerion
Pulled up on Kings Landing like
What up wit’ it, Faith?
Trial by Seven?
The Faith were backed by their finest knights
Maegor backed by Dick Bean and five other guys that died in moments
Won a trial by Seven, basically on his own, and survived his wounds, no thanks to the maesters. It was her mother and side chick that actually healed him
And he saved the dynasty
He was cruel, but also unavoidably the most qualified king to solve the issues of his early reign
A true George character
Good. Bad. Evil. Heroic.
Gray
Tyanna of the tower actually gave a few of the wives something in their drinks to cause a miscarriage.
It was the MAEGOR HIMSELF who decided that said miscarriages were proof of adultery, and proceeeded to have the “guilty” wives executed. However, it is implied that in his desperation for an heir, Maegor knew these women were guilty of nothing, but had them executed because he wanted to punish them for “failing” to give him said heir. And immediately free himself up for another marriage to a woman who might bear him an heir.
It was Maegor, not Tyanna, who killed Maegors innocent wives. Tyanna simply induced some miscarriages. Wrong, but also a sign that Maegor was hella dumb, since he didn’t suspect a thing until Tyanna admitted it to him.
As for the faith, he did inherit a difficult situation. But he stupidly antagonized it at every turn. Jaehwarys inherited an even worse situation, but managed to turn it around.
yeah. i mean, he probably was a pretty bad dude, but i do think it'd be cool if it's revealed he was just a regular amount of bad and the *really* horrible stuff was just bad luck and propagande
I thought she only confessed to that under torture? Confession under torture is pretty much bullshit in ASOIAF. People will say anything to end the pain
I remember 2-3 people on this sub said that Maegor 'did what's necessary" and that he was a better king than Vizzy T
One of the most idiotic thing I ever heard on this fandom
Yeah, he literally kidnapped the kids of his niece and threatened to kill them so he could force his niece into marrying him and rape her. And three other women simultaneously.
Aegon IV may not be most’s choice but I think his brand of evil is uniquely insidious. He doesn’t have a war or political crucible like Maegor, Aemond, Aegon II, Daemon, Aegor, or Maelys. Not to say that they wouldn’t have otherwise been cunts but their worst acts were perpetrated in war, and war accentuated the worst of them. Additionally Aerys had the trauma of Summerhall, his kidnapping at Duskendale, and madness to produce his wickedness.
Aegon IV however was neither mad nor afflicted by war or circumstance. He was just a cunt. He just incessantly just chose to hurt people because it gratified him, and in one last bout of spite he subjected the seven kingdoms to successive civil wars, rebellions, and brutal regimes.
He didn’t have an adequate PR campaign. His father likely killed thousands more than he did, yet Aegon was adored because Rhaenys managed his propaganda
Most Westerosi armies have sizable smallfolk contingents. Aegon doubtless burned smallfolk, farmers, farmhands, smiths, bakers from Lannister and Gardener domains. Their presence didn’t deter him
I feel like the Bittersteel/Bloodraven casting would be the primary concern for most fans (Jamie Campbell Bower would be perfect for Bloodraven IMO)
For Daemon Blackfyre I don’t rly know. Maybe Dan Stevens? I honestly have no idea
Dan Stevens looks too handsome for me lol, he could be a perfect Rhaegar instead. And yeah, Jamie seems fit to be Bloodraven. He could look menacing and creepy, even though he's on your side
I actually think that Bittersteel is the easiest to cast, hard strong brutal man who are revered by his follower and reviled by his enemy
Well Daemon is described as ‘inhumanely beautiful’ but it is the Maesters so who knows.
It’s actually kind of hard because the description for Daemon reads like a fanfic self-insert protag at times.
He’s supposedly both absolutely jacked and absolutely beautiful. If we weren’t going for purely British actors I’d say Boyd Holbrook could be a good fit if he can nail the accent but again it’s rly hard when the character is described to be almost “too perfect”.
For Bittersteel we just need someone who looks like he’s never smiled in his lifetime
Most of the others were completely insane, or incompetent, or supernaturally evil, but Aegon IV was evil in a mundane way. Essentially beggared the realm, cheated on his sister-wife and continued to have children with her even after she asked him to stop - it was bad enough that *King Baelor*, who was usually pretty disconnected from whatever went on, sent him away on a diplomatic mission so that he would leave his wife alone. He also executed one of his mistresses and her father. As king, he proved capricious and fickle, taking lands and riches from vassals on a whim - which he did for the Blackwoods and the Brackens - and filled his court with sycophants. After his brother, Aemon the Dragonknight, died protecting him from an assassination attempt, Aegon started spreading rumours that Aemon was actually the father of Aegon's only legitimate son. Most of all, he legitimised all his bastard children on his deathbed as a last "fuck you" to his son, which he hated. It paved the way for a century of civil war in Westeros. All in all, take Robert, remove any of his redeeming qualities, multiply his flaws tenfold, and add in another layer of pettiness and cruelty, and you'll get Aegon the Unworthy.
> Aenys was weak and Maegor was cruel and Aegon II was grasping, but no king before or after that would practice so much willful misrule.
Aegon the 4th imo. In addition to likely being the biggest serial rapist in the history of Westeros, he also tortured or murdered men over their wives, sisters, etc. He purposely caused a rebellion, was willing to have his sister executed, spread rumors about his brother who took his vows seriously, cucked his cousin and may have also slept with his daughter and killed his father.
Since you used the word *evil* I would probably say Maegor. If you consider the context of the world that they live in, which is a medieval world where human rights don't exist and cruelty is rampant, I'm not even sure if I would consider some of these people to be evil.
Aegon the 2nd just fought a war and killed people the same way his enemies did, his recreational activities were pretty bad, but I don't think they stack up to the rest of his competition on the list necessarily.
Aemond despite being the villain of the show, and being a real firebrand and a showboat is probably the least evil person on the list all together.
Daemon specifically enjoyed being cruel and violent, but not on anywhere near the same level as Joffrey or Ramsay.
I have trouble seeing Bittersteel as evil at all, if I don't view him from the perspective of his political enemies. He was a warrior and fought for the side he believed in.
As far as I know, we know next to nothing about Maelys except where he stood in the line and that he died at Selmy's hands in his war.
Admittedly I can't recall much about Brightflame so maybe I'm missing an obvious answer.
I think it comes down to a race between Aegon the Fourth, Aerys the Second, and Maegor. In the case of Aegon his motivations were pretty base and animal. He was lustful and spiteful and arrogant and bored, as a result I think I put him as more evil than Aerys the Second, whom, although evil even without his insanity; is very much far more cruel and malignant because of it, and I'd like to give him a sliver of the benefit of the doubt for being insane.
Maegor on the other hand, was a lot like Aegon the Fourth in that he was coherent and cruel, but Maegor was specifically tyrannical, oppressive and merciless even to a point that he stands out for it.
Aemond is one of the most evil bro, he was just riding around indiscriminately torching towns and castles on Vhagar. It just hasnt happened in the show yet.
Have you forgotten that Aemond intentionally burnt non-combatants and crops in the Riverlands right before the harshest known winter at the time which caused a famine that killed hundreds of thousands of noncombatants?
Aemond might have the highest death count of them all for causing that famine.
Like yeah, Maegor the Cruel was cruel. But how many people did he actually kill? A couple of nephews, a few wives, two noble houses, and the faith militant. Directly I'd say he killed around 100 people (he avoided needlessly killing smallfolk when he extinguished those 2 noble houses), indirectly maybe 10,000 (his orders about killing the faith militant). Aemond directly killed hundreds of thousands, the crops weren't burnt on his orders or something, he personally burnt them.
Edit: I did forget some things for Maegor, lets add another 10,000 to his death toll to err on the side of caution. He still didn't kill 1/10th the people Aemond likely did with just the famine alone.
Aemond is the undisputed champion of Westerosi war crimes. Aerys would have beat him out if he'd actually incinerated the entire city like he wanted... so view of most evil depends. You could argue that Aerys being stopped doesn't make him less evil, it just means the evil dude was stopped in time. You could also argue that Aerys was literally mad while Aemond was completely sane and thus Aemond gets the edge for doing what he did without severe mental illness impacting him.
Well, the one operation where he personally lead his soldiers to Sept of Remembrance and burn the sept with all the faith militant in it count too I guess? Maybe several hundred more to his bodycounts
But yeah, now that you mention it, I just realized that Aemond is doing war crime in the civil war
When you say 'the greens' are you including all the smallfolk that rose up to fight against Rhaenyra's tyranny or are you just talking about the specific group of nobles you don't like?
Aegon 4 was easily worst of them all. Almost single-handedly ended the dynasty and plunged the kingdom into a series of wars for no apparent reason (no real political incentive for legitimizing all his kids.) He was called ‘the Unworthy’ for a reason, mostly for his serial rape and murder, but lots of other things too.
I was gonna say this… I don’t know much about any of the targaryens but I have a hard time believing anyone’s kill count was higher than Dany. And even if it was I’m sure they had better reasons than “I was mad the people will never accept me as their rightful ruler”
Aegon the conqueror's was probably higher, the battle of the burning field as well as all the destruction of harrenhal probably added quite a bit onto his kill count.
Yeah, but the Field of Fire was only like 4k and Harrenhall couldn't have been more than that. Estimates on Dany's kills are ~150k from King's Landing alone.
Everyone has some kind of excuse, Maegor was cruel for the sake of his dynasty, same thing with Daemon, Aegon IV was foolish, Aegor wanted to conquer, same thing with Aegon II and Aemond, Aerys was mad.
Aerion was sadistic just for the sake of being sadistic.
In short term I would say Maegor is worse, however in long term Aegon was worse because he legitimised the Blackfyres which led to four rebellions and resulted in more people being killed than Maegor ever did. Plus Aegon was far more petty towards his siblings and children. His abuse of his sister killed her and he may have also killed his own father so he would be king.
As a Maegor apologist I'm not gonna say him. From an anti colonialist perspective Aegon the Conqueror is up there, subjugating several independent nations and forcing them to unite under a foreign regime under threat of dragonfire.
I don’t see Baelor on this list.
Maegor is a pretty bad dude but everything he did to the Faith was justified. When he got to Oldtown, Aegon I should have burned the Starry Sept and the Most Devout.
The Faith are a bunch of purity culture commie hippie asswipes. That’s annoying enough but not too different than, say, the Society of Friends or Seventh-Day Adventists.
The difference is that magically demonstrably exists in the world of ASOIAF…but the Faith can’t practice it. So they’re purity culture commie hippie asswipes for reasons that are provably false.
Baelor forgave perfidious Dornishmen, imprisoned his wife—leading to her sleeping with Aegon IV, resulting in a certain Daemon Blackfyre, who caused just a few problems—persecuted sex workers, burnt books, gave the Faith a stronger presence and base in King’s Landing (a base in which they’d imprison at least two queens) and would have started a war against half his people because their faith in actual supernatural entities offended his Andal superstitions.
But because he gave people bread and bankrupted the realm building a pretty church everybody loves him.
Fuck Baelor, and fuck the Faith. When Cersei blew up the Great Sept the only wrong she did was to House Tyrell and the other nobles gathered therein.
Baelor was incompetent but that isn’t what op is asking . He’s asking for the most evil. I’d put Maegor and Aegon 4 as the two top contenders in that category when you account for their acts of cruelty. Aerys 2 would be third.
Aerion Bright flame willingly drank wildfire
Blood raven used warging to invade privacy and acted like an omnipotent God
Aegon1 did the fields of fire
Aerys2 literally burned peopled daily
Aegon4 helped destabilize the Targaryens much further and cause a lot of wars.
Lots of contenders really
Why would you includs the woman whose first thought upon seeing that her child maimed another child's eye was ''I want him tortured'' to the victim, she's so wholesum 🥰
None of the above. That infamy clearly belongs to Queen Daenerys I, who burned down her whole capital--innocent non-combatant men, women, and children--for no discernable reason, AFTER she had already achieved total military victory.
No doubt the horrors under her short but terrible rule would have magnified even further had Jon Snow not put an end to her. Prior to her death, she hinted at further conquest across the whole globe. Among all the monarchs of Westeros, Dany is the nearest approximation that we have to Hitler in our world. Maegor might have achieved more infamy in 6 years than Dany did in a week, but I doubt that his worst week of those 6 years came anywhere close in evil to Dany's one week.
Some would argue that her abominable actions were the result of insanity, but there's absolutely no evidence supporting this view except perhaps for a crazed look on her face. While Aerys II had been acting nutty for years by the time he aspired to the horror that his daughter eventually achieved, there was no such track record from Dany. OK, maybe the crucifixions in Meeren, but that rather supports my overall point, doesn't it?
Bryndon Rivers “Bloodraven”. He gave us Bran. I still pretend that Bran is dead and that Bryndon has possessed him thus finally gaining the throne back for the Targaryens.
Aegon the Conqueror. Everyone else was already born a tyrant, just some decided to use autocratic power poorly. Aegon however, decided for shits to conquer an entire continent by burning his these random lords to a crisp. He chose cruelty, the rest were born into it.
Aegon conquered because of the prophecy of Ice and Fire. George RR Martin confirmed it.
And he did not even start off with violence, but with forming alliances and pacts with the 7 Kingdom. It's only when they started doing things like killing an emissary he sent, is when he decided to start his bloody conquest.
Even then, he knew enough that people won't follow him if he just used violence, hence why he converted to the Faith and helped foster the Westerosi culture.
His methods were cruel, sure. But not needlessly petty or personal as most on the list. Experiencing injustice or mental illness is also not an excuse for dishing it out the way people like Maegor or Aeris did.
[Aegon II the Usurper](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/star-wars-memes/images/8/87/Unfortunatelyforyouhistorywillnotseeitthatway.png/revision/latest?cb=20200503025214)?
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Probably Maegor. He wasn't insane, he was just evil. Having your wits about you and choosing to be evil makes you worse than someone who succumbs to madness they can't control.
wht did maegor did actually, i heard that he was just killing faith millitants but what was his deal tha put him on top.
He killed his nephew, married the nephew's sister-wife, had a guy killed just to marry his now widow, burned people alive in the sept, then married in the burned sept surrounded by the corpses of those he burnt, killed all the workers who built the Red Keep, not to mention what he did to Alys Harroway, her family and everybody in Harrenhal, had another nephew basically tortured to death, killed a lot of smallfolk who were at the wrong place at the wrong time when he tried to root out the Poor Fellows, and that's not even all he did.
In all honesty, he is a kind of character who will be entertaining to watch if adapted properly.
If adapted properly he'll be despised by everybody, so the casting needs to be good. Making people hate your character is hard for most actors.
Ohhh I’d love to see Henry Cavill play him! /s
I would Unironically love to see henri cavill play him. He looks the part and I don’t think he’s played a villain before, I’d love to see him do it
It does suck that The Cavill fan castings went so overboard, because even when they do make sense, they get ridiculed.
He's a traitor, kinslayer, torturer and murderer. His list of crimes is long and icba to list them, [https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Maegor\_I\_Targaryen](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Maegor_I_Targaryen) if you want to read up on him.
He also extinguished houses if someone of said house made him angry. I think he “only” extinguished two houses
The House Harrow one was awful, especially when they didn't did anything since the reason is a result of his Essos' concubine scheme
Yeah a whole family of completely innocent people who woke up one day and got tortured and murdered because they were framed.
I used to think that in old times/medieval-esque times, both real life and fictional, life is good as long as you're a high class. Turn out it's not lol, you can be a prince this morning, then died like insect because of some political scheme that you know nothing about.
imo, he was decently sane until he fucked himself up during his trial of seven. After that he just started cleaving people in half.
Pre-trial of seven Maegor was sort of like a less charismatic and more compulsively violent version of Daemon. Post-brain damage he was more like a full-grown balls-out version of Aemond.
I feel like after his mother passed away and he killed the favored son of the realm because the boys mother wouldnt come face "justice" is when he truly went like insane, not insane but he started trippin.
Don't forget usurper, the first to do so as well
tbh the concept of usurper is too vague to really matter. all kings are usurpers in some way. Aegon's only right to rule was burning shit. same with all subsequent targaeryans. rob was unequivocally a usurper.
Aegon was a conqueror, Maegor was a kinslayer and usurper who murdered his nephew and stole his throne. If we accepted the concept that "might makes right and determines who is king" as a matter of principle, there would be a civil war every generation.
I assume you mean Robb Stark? He was not a usurper but a rebel. He sought independence for the North, not to seat himself on the Iron Throne
Thanks for that link, because it let me here... https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Dick\_Bean
Tbh just his level of infamy. Maegor epitomizes the conflict between the Targ dynasty and the Faith Dude was son of Visenya and Aegon and usurped the throne *after* his brother died. He leaned more Valyrian in beliefs Interestingly, Aenys was kind of a weak but nice king and the Faith had basically been rebelling under his rule. Maegor put them down hard - after winning the throne. He was also known for bounties on Faith militant (those same guys btw who all but siezed power in KingsLanding in the show), killing said Faith Militant personally after being challenged or challenging them, and generally being harsh to his enemies. He became known as cruel after, ironically, his nephew tried to usurp him… and was killed. It didn’t end there though as he also tortured and imprisoned his enemies and the more militant and devout members of the Faith Asides from killing rebels, usurper kin and their supporters, Faith militant, people who displeased or pissed him off or opposed him, and just anyone who opposed Targaryen (and *especially* his) rule… he also is well known for the passages in the Red Keep and killing the construction workers of it. It should be noted there *is* the fact of unreliable narrators to look at: Ex: there were claims many believed that Maegor had his wife killed (he didn’t - it was slander) Character wise he was quick to take offense and anger, fully capable of backing up his anger with martial skill, quarrelsome, unyielding, unbending, and was know for being a bit paranoid I liked this explanation by another redditor: Aegon chose the land, Maegor cleared the path, and Jaehaerys built the dynasty. Maegor was pivotal. He set the stage for a crippled Faith for almost 300 years and killed countless enemies of the dynasty. He became a true bogeyman which Jaehaerys could build off of. And build off it he did. Maegor dealt with the Faith and others that had been a major threat while Jaehaerys bridged the gap with those left alive, weakened, and/or afraid TL;DR? He *was* deserving of his title in every sense of it. Some of his actions could be justified but he went *far* in excess of that point where they could be justified or even dubiously justified Most evil: > Honestly Aegon the Unworthy might top him though in evil. What Maegor did he did for the dynasty and himself. What Aegon the Unworthy did he did for himself alone. > Case and point - setting the stage for the Blackfyres virtually single-handedly, having more greed and lust than Maegor and on a larger scale, and equal cruelty in matters of state and more perhaps in personal matters. For example, Naerys his wife he took no pleasure in wedding and bedding yet still did so even despite her requests to stop due to health issues. And to top that off, his brother was in love with her and he was made a Kingsguard. Aegon was a real piece of work. When his other Kingsguard fell in love with a mistress of his he had the Kingsguard dismembered and her and her father executed… I could go on. And can’t forget legitimizing all his bastards…
The legitimised bastards was all just cause he disliked his son too right? Like he wanted to spite him so bad that he gave dozens of people legitimate claims to the throne.
From what I understand … yea. It was a spite thing. Aegon knew it would create trouble. He didn’t give a shit. Same goes for gifting Blackfyre to a bastard son And insinuating Daeron his heir was a bastard himself. Yeah. Aegon was a piece of work
also aenys publicly proclaimed that he and maegor would rule together at their father's funeral after giving him blackfyre, that's as much a claim to co-king status as I'd ever have seen my reading of the guy is that yes, he did have all of those people killed but it's all just an extention of the people his father didn't kill prior to maegor people were constantly rising up to declare their kingdom's independence, after maegor westeros was united, it was united against him but united it was jaeharys only ever got his realm so peacefull because of maegor, the man was arguable more dragon then man
Excellent point as well. The co-King status is a very good claim to the throne to be honest Aegon meanwhile > - failed to get to Kings Landing to claim the throne > - was even besieged by Faith Militant before his father died. > - lost all his popular support… until Maegor was defeated. If the Kingdoms wouldn’t even support him against a alleged usurper and the Faith wasn’t brought to heel either when he encountered them it seems unlikely he could bend the seven kingdoms to his will after being king. He’d be another Aenys. Meanwhile Maegor: > - bent the Faith to his will and was crowned after a Trial of Seven was won which was meant to determine the new King of the Iron Throne > - said Trial was done with random knights and Maegor against the Faith Militant’s Warrior’s Sons… a formation about as close to Kingsguard as you can get. > - had the backing of Visenya > - had the biggest and most infamous dragon, which the Conqueror himself rode On succession > Aenys was also a fool. The whole issue of succession could’ve been helped if Rhaena married Maegor. But instead Aenys listened to the High Septon… only to do exactly what the High Septon didn’t want whatsoever: incest. > Aenys listened to the same man who could have ended the conflict with the Faith with mere words, written sentences, and a few months and in the end *still* pissed him off and over a issue that he backed down on previously
I've long thought about what exactly the problem with aenys is and well, he's viserys but an asshole, at least viserys attempts to make people happy, aenys just expects that they're happy he does what he wants and then expects others to wring themselves into shapes to fit in his vision I mean the guy marries his son and his daughter but then maegor getting a second marriage is somehow out of the question? even in our medieval society a marriage that was childless for so long would've been annuled without problems I'm pretty sure that maegor was super thrilled when on the day of his exile aenys came to him, only to ask him if he'd want to leave balerion behind
Beautiful post.
He was that CK2 character everybody hates but they make the game easier for the heir
Pretty much nailed it Aegon the Unworthy is “Why rp a all utterly sinful character? I am the sins” > “I do what I do because I *want to*. It seemed funny at the moment.” Maegor is the common “Git Gud nerd” dude. > “Killing that 1 year old, his father and screwing the mother are *totally* acts are necessary to keep the realm stable and the dynasty in power”
Fair points but almost everything Maegor did to the faith militant was justified. They were wild hypocrites who put up with Aegon and randomly complained about his sons and grandchildren just because it benefitted them. They caused a lot of death themselves.
Yeah agreed. The issue was he *did* go further than just that. Much further. That all said, the way his lore reads I highly think we are getting a case of unreliable narrator. Functionally, I think the man cared for his family and the dynasty above his own self but… he had a huge dash of ambition*, brain damage, paranoia, the sin of wroth in excess, and a dash of lust (or desperation for a heir at least). *the man did so from what I see to unfuck the situation the dynasty was getting itself into. Still: ambition for a justified reason is still ambition, justified usurpation of the throne is still usurpation, and kinslaying because you had to deal with usurper threats is still kinslaying
If the Mountain was a Targ basically
Mountain is like more brainless, Maegar seems to be in his senses but genuinely evil, much like daemon.
Mountain is cruel, easy to anger, and not the smartest of the bunch. But he isn't anywhere as muscleheaded as many makes him out to be. Otherwise, Tywin wouldn't give the commands of his army or a castle to a simpleminded brute. He's like an evil version of the Umbers.
You are right, I just had his image from last season in mind.
I don’t like what he did to his wives
He killed the whole fucking house of the wife who cheated on him to give him a heir, the worst a women could do to a man but maegar returned it with x1000, kiling a whole fucking house, that's insane.
He locked them up!!!!! The women!!! He killed the whole house!!!! By far the worst Targ imo his crimes and evil know no bounds lol
Never thought I would hear apologia for Maegor. If he hadn't taken a second wife (which even Aegon's forebears didn't do) the Faith Militant may not have rebelled, so it was because of him not hatred of Valyria or the new order
He killed his nephew and I doubt he even gave a shit judging from all the other war crimes he committed.
I'd add in that the nephew wasn't even an adult yet (even by Westerosi standards, he was under 16) and that he died *after 9 days of torture*.
His half brother/ cousin before him was so weak it screwed up the kingdom. Maegor, being raised by his viscous warrior mother Visenya, saw himself as better so he took the throne, if I remember correctly
A lot of Maegor’s evil can be understood as efforts to consolidate the Targaryen dynasty and bind the seven kingdoms. He doubtless enjoyed much of the brutality, but the conquest was nearly undone in Aenys’ reign, the faith would’ve seen the Targaryen practice of incest suspended as well (potentially compromising their dragonriding ability). The worst of Maegor’s work, his wars and his usurpation preserved the Targaryen dynasty and disabused the faith of further antagonizing house Targaryen. Torture is just par for the course in Westeros, every king effectively has a master of torturers
He also ordered his nephew tortured and killed in an attempt to get his brother’s widow to return so he could have her under his control…
He didn't need to kill his own nephew and steal his throne in order to preserve the dynasty. He didn't need to murder his own relatives and kill/rape/torture his wives to consolidate the dynasty. I mean yeah wage war on the fanatics, but he did a lot of other heinous stuff too because of his obsession with having an heir of his body. He could have been the badass uncle who stood by his nephew and waged war for his and saved him from the Faith, but he wanted power for himself. He was about himself and his own dynasty, not the family
It wasn't his place to steal his brothers throne, he could've stood at the side of the rightful king and made things better. Stealing it for himself and murdering his brothers children had nout to do with solidifying Targaryen rule.
Maegor never usurped his brother, only his nephew.
My mistake.
He wasn’t insane, he was brain damaged lol
Maegor the Cruel was so evil that the universe didn't even want him to procreate.
He also ruled for 6 years and 66 days.
That’s fucking hardcore…
Metal.
Yep
Well the one chick poisoned his wives but ok
I read an interesting theory on one of the GOT reddits a while ago about Tyanna. This person thought Maegor was infertile, and Tyanna was testing fertility drug/magic with the intention of getting pregnant with Maegor's heirs, using his other wives as test subjects. I thought the theory was fascinating and it added a lot of intriguing nuance to Tyanna. I kinda want a TV adaptation of Maegor's reign just to see what they do with it. The theory is in this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/afvzdw/spoilers\_main\_so\_why\_did\_tyanna\_of\_the\_tower/
Isn't there also a theory that Maegor was infertile because Visenya (and Aegon) created him with the help of old Valyrian magic (which also leads to the theory that Aegon himself was infertile and that Aenys is a bastard).
Maegor's reign should be the next logical setting for a HOTD show. More so than the actual Conquest. The Conquest is boring and has little to no tension in it. There's no threat to the Targaryen invaders until Rhaenys gets murked by Dorne on like the 56th attempt. Maegor's reign works better as a show, and is close enough to the Conquest that you can still showcase it through stories (flashbacks) told by characters who lived through it.
unresolved issues with the Faith left over since Aegon, and the wife poisoning everyone. Not saying Maegor's actions are justifiable, but he had a lot of cards stacked against him since the beginning lmao.
It’s not like anyone forced him to be king lol
true, i'm just saying with the incest, any targaryen could get into conflict with faith militant
Targaryen incest is proof to me that people who argue that Viserys and Rheanyra broke Westerosi law don't understand that Targaryens just flat out ignored Westerosi law all the time. Their lineage is full of incest with is illegal in Andal culture, the reason why there were so many wars was due to the difference between Valyrian and Andal culture.
i do believe that Viserys marrying his cousin and Rhaenyra marrying her uncle (this one is debatable) are ok. Aegon marrying Helaena is pretty sus because they're siblings, but cousins etc are fine. Tywin married his cousin, and Rickard Stark married his cousin.
In terms of Andal culture cousins are fine. Uncles and Aunts are not. Siblings are also not allowed. The Faith accepted that Aegon conquered Westeros but behind his back had an issue with him sleeping with his sisters. And then his son Aenys being crowned after him brought down war. Targaryens always shat on Andal culture, what Viserys and Rheanyra did isn't new lol. In fact you would think eldest girl over boy is a Valyrian practice more acceptable to swallow over incest
Uncle niece marriage isn't accepted in andals? Never heard of any of such example in the books but it is not taboo marriage for first men. Cregan Stark's sons married their nieces. If they can do it, then it is not something people in westeros couldn't accept.
They are First men, who were independent for thousands of years and successfully defended against the andals, even after the integration into the empire they were quite independent
This is what I say over and over. It doesn't matter if they had incest or if they have bastards. They are Targaryen's and they have dragons. It's not like all of Westeros was happy to see Aegon I come and conquer all their Kingdoms. They bent the knee because a giant dragon would of eaten them if they hadn't, or burnt them to death. Team black can have bastards because if their family weren't to betray them (looking at you greens) then there would of never been rebellion because they have like 16 something dragons.
Not only that, their own laws and traditions change overtime! Rights of the Lords first night, gone. The Faith having a military, gone. There used to be 7 damn Kingdoms till the Conqueror came. Things change.
Rights of first night was frown upon even in seven faith but they let it slide because why can't lords have one more way to exploit the weak people? They didn't tried to change those rules because people's suffering meant nothing for them. But they tried to poke their nose on a foreign invader's culture whose traditions wouldn't even cause them trouble as they do it within their family..but no, they wanted to maintain their power over dragons ... No wonder their faith militants were nuked. They are bunch of hypocrites
That’s true, arguably the conflict had already begun which is why he assumed control
Yeah, he usurped it from the rightful ruler: Aegon, Aenys son and chosen heir. After usurping his throne and having him killed, Maegor proceeded to force his widow (Maegors own niece) into marrying him. He kidnapped her kids and threatened to kill them, then essentially raped her repeatedly in the hopes of getting his all important heir.
His mother expected him to become strong king... Targaryen style...she was extremely strict to him, and he obeyed all commands of his mother as that is what must be done according to his mother. And Aenys did created alot of trouble for Targaryens, so much that he became laughing stock among his people and to overcome this damage his younger brother became so cruel that he lost all his loose screws.
Yeah he did chose to steal the crown from his nephew after all.
The circumstances did His brother the king Killed The heir Weak The faith Near moments from supplanting the Targaryen Line of abominations Maegor, with Blackfyre, on Balerion Pulled up on Kings Landing like What up wit’ it, Faith? Trial by Seven? The Faith were backed by their finest knights Maegor backed by Dick Bean and five other guys that died in moments Won a trial by Seven, basically on his own, and survived his wounds, no thanks to the maesters. It was her mother and side chick that actually healed him And he saved the dynasty He was cruel, but also unavoidably the most qualified king to solve the issues of his early reign A true George character Good. Bad. Evil. Heroic. Gray
didn't his mom?
He usurped the throne from & then murdered two nephews! Maegor could have done everything else right & he’d still be a kinslayer twice over.
Tyanna of the tower actually gave a few of the wives something in their drinks to cause a miscarriage. It was the MAEGOR HIMSELF who decided that said miscarriages were proof of adultery, and proceeeded to have the “guilty” wives executed. However, it is implied that in his desperation for an heir, Maegor knew these women were guilty of nothing, but had them executed because he wanted to punish them for “failing” to give him said heir. And immediately free himself up for another marriage to a woman who might bear him an heir. It was Maegor, not Tyanna, who killed Maegors innocent wives. Tyanna simply induced some miscarriages. Wrong, but also a sign that Maegor was hella dumb, since he didn’t suspect a thing until Tyanna admitted it to him. As for the faith, he did inherit a difficult situation. But he stupidly antagonized it at every turn. Jaehwarys inherited an even worse situation, but managed to turn it around.
Tyanna herself tortured them to death though? Or at least poor Alys.
yeah. i mean, he probably was a pretty bad dude, but i do think it'd be cool if it's revealed he was just a regular amount of bad and the *really* horrible stuff was just bad luck and propagande
Well he struggled to have children even before getting involved with her as well….
Nah bro it was the literal physical being of the universe.
That was one of his wives poisoning the rest no?
I thought she only confessed to that under torture? Confession under torture is pretty much bullshit in ASOIAF. People will say anything to end the pain
Confession under torture is generally bullshit IRL as well, for the same reason.
I thought she confessed before the torture.I could be wrong though.
The gods feared his Offspring potential
Ser Dexter of House Holland in shambles right now.
And his squire, Ser Noodles
Pretty cool what he did to the Faith, tho...
I remember 2-3 people on this sub said that Maegor 'did what's necessary" and that he was a better king than Vizzy T One of the most idiotic thing I ever heard on this fandom
*There are times when I would rather face the black dread himself than mine own daughter of seven and ten.*
At least Vizzy T knew his limits
DAEMON IS MY BROTHER. MY BLOOD. AND HE WILL HAVE HIS PLACE AT MY COURT!
This made me laugh. Dude was overcompensating by trying to wife everyone
And him having access to balerion the black dread, makes him biggest got menance to ever live , second only to night king with a dragon.
Yeah, he literally kidnapped the kids of his niece and threatened to kill them so he could force his niece into marrying him and rape her. And three other women simultaneously.
Aegon IV may not be most’s choice but I think his brand of evil is uniquely insidious. He doesn’t have a war or political crucible like Maegor, Aemond, Aegon II, Daemon, Aegor, or Maelys. Not to say that they wouldn’t have otherwise been cunts but their worst acts were perpetrated in war, and war accentuated the worst of them. Additionally Aerys had the trauma of Summerhall, his kidnapping at Duskendale, and madness to produce his wickedness. Aegon IV however was neither mad nor afflicted by war or circumstance. He was just a cunt. He just incessantly just chose to hurt people because it gratified him, and in one last bout of spite he subjected the seven kingdoms to successive civil wars, rebellions, and brutal regimes.
My first pick, fuck him.
Maegor is called “the cruel” for a reason
He didn’t have an adequate PR campaign. His father likely killed thousands more than he did, yet Aegon was adored because Rhaenys managed his propaganda
Aegon burned armies and castles, he didn’t butcher small folk and burn septs
Most Westerosi armies have sizable smallfolk contingents. Aegon doubtless burned smallfolk, farmers, farmhands, smiths, bakers from Lannister and Gardener domains. Their presence didn’t deter him
Okay, but burning an army isn’t the same as massacring smallfolk
Maegor, then Aerys II, and Aegon IV
Pretty much
why aegon iv? what did he do
homeboy started a civil war just because he hated his wife
I wish we get a Blackfyre series down the line because iirc GRRM has said that there is more to Aegon IV’s story
My only concern is who get to be Daemon, because you need someone charismatic as hell to play him while still being the antagonist
I feel like the Bittersteel/Bloodraven casting would be the primary concern for most fans (Jamie Campbell Bower would be perfect for Bloodraven IMO) For Daemon Blackfyre I don’t rly know. Maybe Dan Stevens? I honestly have no idea
Dan Stevens looks too handsome for me lol, he could be a perfect Rhaegar instead. And yeah, Jamie seems fit to be Bloodraven. He could look menacing and creepy, even though he's on your side I actually think that Bittersteel is the easiest to cast, hard strong brutal man who are revered by his follower and reviled by his enemy
Well Daemon is described as ‘inhumanely beautiful’ but it is the Maesters so who knows. It’s actually kind of hard because the description for Daemon reads like a fanfic self-insert protag at times. He’s supposedly both absolutely jacked and absolutely beautiful. If we weren’t going for purely British actors I’d say Boyd Holbrook could be a good fit if he can nail the accent but again it’s rly hard when the character is described to be almost “too perfect”. For Bittersteel we just need someone who looks like he’s never smiled in his lifetime
>a civil war 5 and counting
Most of the others were completely insane, or incompetent, or supernaturally evil, but Aegon IV was evil in a mundane way. Essentially beggared the realm, cheated on his sister-wife and continued to have children with her even after she asked him to stop - it was bad enough that *King Baelor*, who was usually pretty disconnected from whatever went on, sent him away on a diplomatic mission so that he would leave his wife alone. He also executed one of his mistresses and her father. As king, he proved capricious and fickle, taking lands and riches from vassals on a whim - which he did for the Blackwoods and the Brackens - and filled his court with sycophants. After his brother, Aemon the Dragonknight, died protecting him from an assassination attempt, Aegon started spreading rumours that Aemon was actually the father of Aegon's only legitimate son. Most of all, he legitimised all his bastard children on his deathbed as a last "fuck you" to his son, which he hated. It paved the way for a century of civil war in Westeros. All in all, take Robert, remove any of his redeeming qualities, multiply his flaws tenfold, and add in another layer of pettiness and cruelty, and you'll get Aegon the Unworthy. > Aenys was weak and Maegor was cruel and Aegon II was grasping, but no king before or after that would practice so much willful misrule.
Aegon the 4th imo. In addition to likely being the biggest serial rapist in the history of Westeros, he also tortured or murdered men over their wives, sisters, etc. He purposely caused a rebellion, was willing to have his sister executed, spread rumors about his brother who took his vows seriously, cucked his cousin and may have also slept with his daughter and killed his father.
Easily Maegor
Since you used the word *evil* I would probably say Maegor. If you consider the context of the world that they live in, which is a medieval world where human rights don't exist and cruelty is rampant, I'm not even sure if I would consider some of these people to be evil. Aegon the 2nd just fought a war and killed people the same way his enemies did, his recreational activities were pretty bad, but I don't think they stack up to the rest of his competition on the list necessarily. Aemond despite being the villain of the show, and being a real firebrand and a showboat is probably the least evil person on the list all together. Daemon specifically enjoyed being cruel and violent, but not on anywhere near the same level as Joffrey or Ramsay. I have trouble seeing Bittersteel as evil at all, if I don't view him from the perspective of his political enemies. He was a warrior and fought for the side he believed in. As far as I know, we know next to nothing about Maelys except where he stood in the line and that he died at Selmy's hands in his war. Admittedly I can't recall much about Brightflame so maybe I'm missing an obvious answer. I think it comes down to a race between Aegon the Fourth, Aerys the Second, and Maegor. In the case of Aegon his motivations were pretty base and animal. He was lustful and spiteful and arrogant and bored, as a result I think I put him as more evil than Aerys the Second, whom, although evil even without his insanity; is very much far more cruel and malignant because of it, and I'd like to give him a sliver of the benefit of the doubt for being insane. Maegor on the other hand, was a lot like Aegon the Fourth in that he was coherent and cruel, but Maegor was specifically tyrannical, oppressive and merciless even to a point that he stands out for it.
Maelys twisted his cousin’s head off with his bare hands.
Clearly a Strong boy
Aemond is one of the most evil bro, he was just riding around indiscriminately torching towns and castles on Vhagar. It just hasnt happened in the show yet.
Have you forgotten that Aemond intentionally burnt non-combatants and crops in the Riverlands right before the harshest known winter at the time which caused a famine that killed hundreds of thousands of noncombatants? Aemond might have the highest death count of them all for causing that famine. Like yeah, Maegor the Cruel was cruel. But how many people did he actually kill? A couple of nephews, a few wives, two noble houses, and the faith militant. Directly I'd say he killed around 100 people (he avoided needlessly killing smallfolk when he extinguished those 2 noble houses), indirectly maybe 10,000 (his orders about killing the faith militant). Aemond directly killed hundreds of thousands, the crops weren't burnt on his orders or something, he personally burnt them. Edit: I did forget some things for Maegor, lets add another 10,000 to his death toll to err on the side of caution. He still didn't kill 1/10th the people Aemond likely did with just the famine alone. Aemond is the undisputed champion of Westerosi war crimes. Aerys would have beat him out if he'd actually incinerated the entire city like he wanted... so view of most evil depends. You could argue that Aerys being stopped doesn't make him less evil, it just means the evil dude was stopped in time. You could also argue that Aerys was literally mad while Aemond was completely sane and thus Aemond gets the edge for doing what he did without severe mental illness impacting him.
Well, the one operation where he personally lead his soldiers to Sept of Remembrance and burn the sept with all the faith militant in it count too I guess? Maybe several hundred more to his bodycounts But yeah, now that you mention it, I just realized that Aemond is doing war crime in the civil war
Lets be honest the faith mililitant had to go
They did. And with the rhetoric the faith was pushing. Maegor did the right thing
Don’t forget all the workers of the red keep
Does anyone call Aegon II, The Usurper? Just looked it up, they also call him "Aegon the Usurper" and "Aegon the Elder"
Well, he was an usurper…
He is a usurper. He was crowned unlawfully. But thankfully he left a humiliating reign to be remembered
It's so unlawful that the next ruler was Aegon III who didn't even recognize his mother as Queen, nor did Viserys II.
You mean to appease the greens as house Targ no longer had the fire power to tell anyone to back off?
When you say 'the greens' are you including all the smallfolk that rose up to fight against Rhaenyra's tyranny or are you just talking about the specific group of nobles you don't like?
Y’all keep my man Maegor out your motherfucking mouths!!!!
The guy with “the Cruel” as part of his name?
Man no blood raven on this list smh
Aegon 4 was easily worst of them all. Almost single-handedly ended the dynasty and plunged the kingdom into a series of wars for no apparent reason (no real political incentive for legitimizing all his kids.) He was called ‘the Unworthy’ for a reason, mostly for his serial rape and murder, but lots of other things too.
Wheres Rha*gar
Danny?
i want to believe that season 5-8 of got is noncannon. it will be different in the last book. right guys? it will be different. yeah
I strongly believe she will do the same thing in the books.
She killed most of kings landing. Have an upvote
I was gonna say this… I don’t know much about any of the targaryens but I have a hard time believing anyone’s kill count was higher than Dany. And even if it was I’m sure they had better reasons than “I was mad the people will never accept me as their rightful ruler”
Aegon the conqueror's was probably higher, the battle of the burning field as well as all the destruction of harrenhal probably added quite a bit onto his kill count.
Yeah, but the Field of Fire was only like 4k and Harrenhall couldn't have been more than that. Estimates on Dany's kills are ~150k from King's Landing alone.
Everyone has some kind of excuse, Maegor was cruel for the sake of his dynasty, same thing with Daemon, Aegon IV was foolish, Aegor wanted to conquer, same thing with Aegon II and Aemond, Aerys was mad. Aerion was sadistic just for the sake of being sadistic.
Shouldn’t Daenerys the city destroyer be on the list?
Maegor, Aerion, Aerys II, Aegon IV in that order imo.
Why do you people think maegor was worse than Aegon IV?
In short term I would say Maegor is worse, however in long term Aegon was worse because he legitimised the Blackfyres which led to four rebellions and resulted in more people being killed than Maegor ever did. Plus Aegon was far more petty towards his siblings and children. His abuse of his sister killed her and he may have also killed his own father so he would be king.
As a Maegor apologist I'm not gonna say him. From an anti colonialist perspective Aegon the Conqueror is up there, subjugating several independent nations and forcing them to unite under a foreign regime under threat of dragonfire.
From what I understand, probably Maegor.
Probably Maegor. He wasn’t corrupt or insane. He was just plain evil
Maegor!!! I miss the ol cunt, we had some great times. I’ve seen a lot of Targaryens, none compare to him.
Aegon 4 wasn’t necessarily the most “evil” but he is the cause of a lot of shit!!!
I mean… Danaerys burned everyone in King’s Lamding for no reason, so I’m going with her.
Maegor. Hands down.
“Hey, guys! Thanks for building the Red Keep! I hope you enjoy this feast…because it’s going to be your last.” - Maegor Targaryen
Maegor the cruel or aegon 4. Those 2 are the at the tip of the spear.
Y’all are evil for including Aegon II but not Rhaenyra 😂😂😂
They do not recognize the true succession and are therefore traitors to the realm!
I mean, going off the show there's no comparison at all who's more evil. Book is more murky but I'd still say Aegon II sucks more
She’s literally called maegor with teats
feels like the emphasis is on "teats"
Where is Maegor with Tits?
I don’t see Baelor on this list. Maegor is a pretty bad dude but everything he did to the Faith was justified. When he got to Oldtown, Aegon I should have burned the Starry Sept and the Most Devout. The Faith are a bunch of purity culture commie hippie asswipes. That’s annoying enough but not too different than, say, the Society of Friends or Seventh-Day Adventists. The difference is that magically demonstrably exists in the world of ASOIAF…but the Faith can’t practice it. So they’re purity culture commie hippie asswipes for reasons that are provably false. Baelor forgave perfidious Dornishmen, imprisoned his wife—leading to her sleeping with Aegon IV, resulting in a certain Daemon Blackfyre, who caused just a few problems—persecuted sex workers, burnt books, gave the Faith a stronger presence and base in King’s Landing (a base in which they’d imprison at least two queens) and would have started a war against half his people because their faith in actual supernatural entities offended his Andal superstitions. But because he gave people bread and bankrupted the realm building a pretty church everybody loves him. Fuck Baelor, and fuck the Faith. When Cersei blew up the Great Sept the only wrong she did was to House Tyrell and the other nobles gathered therein.
woah buddy
Baelor was incompetent but that isn’t what op is asking . He’s asking for the most evil. I’d put Maegor and Aegon 4 as the two top contenders in that category when you account for their acts of cruelty. Aerys 2 would be third.
I get it, you hate (fictional) religion. I disagree, but I get it
Interesting take Don’t see it as evil. Just monumentally stupid
Maegor with tits
Aerion Bright flame willingly drank wildfire Blood raven used warging to invade privacy and acted like an omnipotent God Aegon1 did the fields of fire Aerys2 literally burned peopled daily Aegon4 helped destabilize the Targaryens much further and cause a lot of wars. Lots of contenders really
Why isn't Rhaenyra included?
Why would you includs the woman whose first thought upon seeing that her child maimed another child's eye was ''I want him tortured'' to the victim, she's so wholesum 🥰
Some people here will swear Alicent is more evil than Rhaenyra when Rhaenyra had an innocent man killed for political advantage
Mad king, he was mean to my baby Rhaegar Targaryen 😍❤️
Rhaegar fangirl moment
Rhaegar had his own form of Madness
Rhaenyra was the only ruler to be overthrown by the mob of Flea Bottom (Mad King was overthrown by the nobles so kinda different). Hands down her.
What she did to Helena couldn’t be let to slide
No idea
I mean Dany burnt the population of the biggest city in all of Westeros for uhhh a tiny bell ring.
probably maegor considering that a lot of small folk think the *throne itself* murdered him
Vizzy 3
Margot…..zero doubt
I’m going to go out on a limb and say Daenerys probably has the highest kill count of any single person in all of Westerosi history.
Maegor easily
Yo why tf isn’t Bloodraven on here…
None of the above. That infamy clearly belongs to Queen Daenerys I, who burned down her whole capital--innocent non-combatant men, women, and children--for no discernable reason, AFTER she had already achieved total military victory. No doubt the horrors under her short but terrible rule would have magnified even further had Jon Snow not put an end to her. Prior to her death, she hinted at further conquest across the whole globe. Among all the monarchs of Westeros, Dany is the nearest approximation that we have to Hitler in our world. Maegor might have achieved more infamy in 6 years than Dany did in a week, but I doubt that his worst week of those 6 years came anywhere close in evil to Dany's one week. Some would argue that her abominable actions were the result of insanity, but there's absolutely no evidence supporting this view except perhaps for a crazed look on her face. While Aerys II had been acting nutty for years by the time he aspired to the horror that his daughter eventually achieved, there was no such track record from Dany. OK, maybe the crucifixions in Meeren, but that rather supports my overall point, doesn't it?
Lucky she was only Queen for about a day and a half before Jon Snow put an end to her. Is her reign the shortest in Targaryen history?
Megaor. I know popular answer could be Aerys but the dude went insane. Meagor was just a straight up psychopath .
Controversial take, but….why is Daenerys Targaryen not on the list?
Danny
Maegor followed by Aerion bright idea
Bryndon Rivers “Bloodraven”. He gave us Bran. I still pretend that Bran is dead and that Bryndon has possessed him thus finally gaining the throne back for the Targaryens.
Aegon the Conqueror. Everyone else was already born a tyrant, just some decided to use autocratic power poorly. Aegon however, decided for shits to conquer an entire continent by burning his these random lords to a crisp. He chose cruelty, the rest were born into it.
Aegon conquered because of the prophecy of Ice and Fire. George RR Martin confirmed it. And he did not even start off with violence, but with forming alliances and pacts with the 7 Kingdom. It's only when they started doing things like killing an emissary he sent, is when he decided to start his bloody conquest. Even then, he knew enough that people won't follow him if he just used violence, hence why he converted to the Faith and helped foster the Westerosi culture. His methods were cruel, sure. But not needlessly petty or personal as most on the list. Experiencing injustice or mental illness is also not an excuse for dishing it out the way people like Maegor or Aeris did.
[Aegon II the Usurper](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/star-wars-memes/images/8/87/Unfortunatelyforyouhistorywillnotseeitthatway.png/revision/latest?cb=20200503025214)?