How Maekar Targaryen's Story In A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Sets The Stage For Daenerys

The Fourth Son Who Had Everything to Prove

Maekar Targaryen enters the story as a man living in the shadow of his older brother, Prince Baelor “Breakspear” Targaryen (Bertie Carvel). Baelor is the heir to the Iron Throne, beloved by the smallfolk, respected by the lords, and widely considered everything a future king should be . He even looks the part, inheriting the dark hair of his Dornish mother rather than the typical silver-gold of their Valyrian bloodline, which makes him seem more relatable to the people of Westeros.

Maekar, by contrast, is the spare. He is a capable warrior who fought bravely alongside Baelor at the Battle of Redgrass Field during the Blackfyre Rebellion. Together, the brothers were known as “The Hammer” (Baelor) and “The Anvil” (Maekar), a testament to their effectiveness in battle . But in peacetime, Maekar fades into the background. He has his own seat at Summerhall, his wife Dyanna Dayne, and his gaggle of sons, but he lacks the natural charisma that makes Baelor a favorite wherever he goes .

This dynamic creates a quiet, underlying tension between the brothers. Maekar is proud, and he wants his sons—Daeron, Aerion, Aemon, and Aegon—to achieve great things, perhaps even outshine Baelor’s own children . But his parenting style and his fierce defense of his family’s honor lead directly to disaster.

The Trial of Seven: A Family Tragedy Unfolds

The pivotal moment in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 is the Trial of Seven. The conflict begins when Maekar’s second son, Aerion Targaryen (Finn Bennett), brutally attacks a puppeteer named Tanselle after she performs a show that features a dragon. Aerion, who is cruel, prideful, and widely called “Aerion the Monstrous” behind his back, believes the performance is an insult to his house . When the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) intervenes to protect the woman, he punches a prince of the blood, a crime punishable by losing the hand that struck royalty .

Aerion, rather than face Duncan in single combat, invokes an ancient and rarely used tradition: the Trial of Seven. This requires seven champions on each side to fight before the eyes of the gods . Duncan must find six other knights to stand with him, or he forfeits his life.

What happens next tears the Targaryen family apart. Prince Baelor, believing Duncan’s cause is just and disgusted by Aerion’s cruelty, agrees to fight for the hedge knight . This places him directly opposite his own brother, Maekar, who joins the seven accusers to defend his son’s honor. The fight is brutal. During the melee, Maekar—wielding a mace—strikes a blow that accidentally kills his older brother, Baelor Breakspear .

The moment is devastating. The heir to the Iron Throne lies dead, killed by his own brother’s hand. In the aftermath, Maekar is branded a kinslayer, one of the most cursed titles in Westerosi culture. The guilt is overwhelming. In the series finale, Maekar meets with a grieving Duncan and admits that he will hear whispers accusing him of murdering his brother until the day he dies .

The Crucial Decision That Changes Everything

The death of Baelor is where Maekar’s arc becomes critical to understanding Daenerys’s eventual rise. In the aftermath of the trial, Maekar is forced to confront the monster he has raised. Aerion’s cruelty and pride directly caused the chain of events that led to Baelor’s death. Maekar sends Aerion into exile in the Free Cities for a few years, hoping distance might temper the boy’s nature .

But the more immediate and significant decision involves his youngest son, Aegon—the boy known throughout the series as Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). Egg had run away from his family, shaved his head to hide his silver hair, and served as Duncan’s squire without revealing his true identity . After the trial, Egg wants nothing more than to remain with Dunk. He loves the simple life of the road and the honest companionship of a true knight.

Maekar initially offers Dunk a place at Summerhall, promising to complete his training if he swears his sword to House Targaryen and keeps Egg as his squire within the castle walls . But Dunk refuses. He tells the prince he is “done with princes.” Heartbroken, Egg confronts Dunk, believing he has been rejected.

Then Prince Daeron, Egg’s eldest brother and a drunkard plagued by prophetic “dragon dreams,” intervenes. He tells Dunk the truth about Aerion and pleads with him to understand . Eventually, Dunk returns to Maekar with a counter-offer. He will take Egg as his squire, but not at Summerhall. He wants to take the boy on the road, away from castles and servants, believing the hard life will teach him what no maester can.

Maekar is horrified. The idea of his son, a prince of the realm, living like a peasant, sleeping under hedges and eating whatever they can find, is almost unbearable. He reminds Dunk that Egg—whose real name is Aegon—is his last son . But in the end, perhaps broken by guilt and recognizing that his own parenting has failed his children, Maekar relents. He allows Egg to go.

This single decision changes the course of Targaryen history. Egg grows up on the road with Duncan the Tall. He sees how common people live, he learns their struggles, and he develops a compassion and wisdom that none of his siblings possess. Years later, after a series of unexpected deaths in the royal family—including Aerion’s own bizarre demise after drinking wildfire, believing it would turn him into a dragon—Egg eventually ascends the Iron Throne as King Aegon V Targaryen .

The Chain of Succession Leading to Daenerys

Here is where the direct line becomes clear. Maekar Targaryen becomes king after the deaths of his brothers Aerys I and Rhaegel, ruling as Maekar I until his own death in 233 AC . He is succeeded by his son, Aegon V—the boy who rode away with Dunk.

Aegon V, known in history as “Aegon the Unlikely” because he was the fourth son of a fourth son and never expected to rule, marries and has children. His descendants include his son Jaehaerys II, and his grandson Aerys II, the man who would become known as the Mad King .

Aerys II Targaryen is Daenerys Targaryen’s father. This means Maekar Targaryen is Daenerys’s great-great-great-grandfather. Maester Aemon, the wise old maester of Castle Black whom Jon Snow befriends in Game of Thrones, is Maekar’s third son and therefore Daenerys’s great-uncle .

The tragedy of Maekar’s life—the accidental killing of his brother, the banishment of his cruel son Aerion, and the reluctant decision to let his youngest son roam the countryside—sets in motion the exact sequence of events that leads to Daenerys being born in exile across the Narrow Sea.

The Mad King’s Bloodline and Daenerys’s Burden

Understanding Maekar’s story helps explain why Daenerys Targaryen carries such a complicated legacy. The Targaryen madness that Aemon mentions in Game of Thrones runs through this family line. Aerion, Maekar’s son, was clearly unstable, believing himself to be a dragon . That same instability reappears generations later in Aerys II, who descends directly from Maekar through Aegon V.

But the line also carries wisdom and compassion. Aemon Targaryen, Maekar’s bookish son who chooses the maester’s chain over a crown, serves as a moral compass at the Wall for decades . Aegon V, shaped by his years with Dunk, becomes a king who genuinely cares for the smallfolk, even if his efforts to bring back dragons ultimately lead to the tragedy of Summerhall.

Daenerys inherits both sides of this coin. She has the Targaryen ambition and the capacity for ruthless violence, but she also spends her entire arc in Game of Thrones trying to break the wheel and free the oppressed—a value that her great-great-great-grandfather Aegon V might have understood, having once been a bald boy sleeping under the stars with a hedge knight.

Why This Connection Matters for Viewers

For fans watching A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on HBO and HBO Max, Maekar’s story adds layers of meaning to the original series. When Daenerys walks into the fire and emerges unburnt with three dragons, she is fulfilling a destiny that began with her ancestor’s mistakes. When she struggles with visions of her father’s madness, she is fighting against a genetic legacy that traces back to Aerion Brightflame.

The show also makes clear that the Targaryen dynasty was not always the distant, cruel monarchy that Robert’s Rebellion overthrew. Maekar is a complicated figure—proud and stern, but also grieving and deeply human. Sam Spruell’s portrayal in the series captures a man haunted by the brother he killed and desperate to save something good from the wreckage of his family.

In the end, Maekar allows Egg to follow his own path. That decision gives Westeros a king named Aegon V, whose grandson becomes the Mad King, whose daughter becomes Daenerys Stormborn. Without Maekar’s arc in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the entire timeline of Game of Thrones looks different. His tragedy is the hidden foundation upon which the last dragon’s story is built.

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Stories like these, which connect the dots across generations of Westerosi history, are exactly what VvipTimes brings you to deepen your viewing experience and appreciation for the world George R.R. Martin built.