The Horrific Death of Aerea Targaryen | ASOIAF Theory
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ก.ค. 2024
- Analyzing the tragic death of Princess Aerea Targaryen. After years of frustration and parental neglect, Aerea Targaryen fled from the Targaryen island of Dragonstone on the back of a dragon. But not just any dragon-- Balerion. The rebellious princess chose the Black Dread as her mount. For over a year, the realm wondered where could she have taken the dragon when in actuality they should have been asking where did the dragon take her? Did Balerion go back to Old Valyria with the princess upon his back? Did she contract some sort of illness or parasite while there which would explain the circumstances surrounding her death? A song of ice and fire is full of many mysteries and the horrific death of Aerea Targaryen remains one of the more difficult to discern...
The Horrific Death of Aerea Targaryen | ASOIAF Theory & Game of Thrones
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🎥 Chapters
0:00 - Intro
1:04 - The History of Aerea Targaryen
5:12 - Aerea's Disappearance
5:59 - The Rumors
6:13 - Aerea and Balerion Return
6:45 - Aera's Condition
7:43 - The Truth About Aerea
11:59 - The Parasite Theory
13:14 - The Firewyrm Theory
14:32 - The Xenomorph Comparison
15:28 - Balerion's Wounds
16:33 - Conclusion
🎨 Artwork Sources
Aerea's Death - Naomi Buttelo
A firewyrm - Kevin Catalan
Aerea Targaryen and Balerion the Black Dread - naomimakesart (ArtStation)
Aerea & Balerion Over Old Valyria - nalustrepalustre (Tumblr)
The death of Princess Aerea as Grand Maester Benifer tries to save her - Douglas Wheatley
Aerea Targaryen and Balerion the Black Dread - naomimakesart (DeviantArt)
Princess Aerea in disguise - Shen Fei
Grand Maester Benifer and Septon Barth trying to cure Aerea Targaryen - thewatcher0nthewall
Aerea and Balerion - Jota Saraiva
Rhaena Targaryen - Hylora
Elissa Farman - Douglas Wheatley
The Red Keep over King's Landing - Ted Nasmith
Aerea Targaryen - Riotarttherite
Aerea Targaryen, with her mother Rhaena and twin sister Rhaella - Chillyravenart
🔈 Nicolai Heidlas - Lost Souls (HookSounds)
#asoiaf #agameofthrones #asongoficeandfire #asoiaftheory - บันเทิง
Oh great. Horrors beyond my comprehension
Lovecraftian almost, I'd say ;-)
😳
For real, I did NOT need to see this
No doubt she loved horses among all the other villains....🤔
My headcanon is that Balerion picked up on Aerea's immense desire to go home. Only Balerion took her back to his home, Valyria, instead of King's Landing, where she really wanted to go
That makes the most sense
@@KevinPendragon Makes even more sense if you factor in that she was a child who had little experience outside King's Landing. If a bonded rider tells their dragon where to go by feeling, then where could she other then "away". So Balerion got his chance.
That's not a bad theory considering dragon. And rider do have some kind of bond despite her just mounting him. He probably could feel her desire and he probably has that same desire thus allowing her to mount him
Your theory makes the most sense by far and not to mention they don't really control the dragons as much as we think they do
This is one of those book stories that should always remain a hidden gem for readers but would be amazing if it got the “last voyage of the Demeter” treatment as a stand alone film
Aerea's life would make for a good movie that could premiere on HBO Max
I could imagine something like an anthology show called "Tales of Essos & Westeros" - similar to Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi - with such standalone stories from GRRM's books.
Aerea's fate would be the Halloween episode.
@@KevinPendragonI'd absolutely buy a month or two's use of a streaming service to watch it if/when it comes out
No doubt she loved horses among all the other villains.... 🤔
@@KevinPendragonthis honestly would work best in animated form like an anime or a Castlevania animated style imo
What if Balerion was infected with the same parasites, but in his case as a dragon he was a perfect host and didn't die, and the fully grown parasites exited in time leaving behind the wound in his side? Because if so... they could still be out there.
Damn, that makes sense. The Targaryens can be human-Dragon hybrids, that's why Aerea's body acted so strange and was able to withstand the heat no normal human could. If I remember correctly, there was an outbreak near Valyria of a similar illness that the one that killed Aerea in one of the Books. Another lore-theory ytber describes some passages from the books that seem to point it out 😊 JRR Martin had created one hell of a universe 😂
If Balerion was the perfect host, why would the parasites leave? Parasites don't leave their host until the host dies or is removed by the host. Your theory would only work if you suggest they left Balerion once he died
@@markbrennan212 I'm no parasite expert, but aren't there parasites that only spend some stages of their life in a host?
More so they killed him overtime because vhagar is very old and still moving
Such a good comment!!!!!!
Honestly, Aerea suffered a horrific fate and Balerion never recovered from her death. Septon Barth and Bennifer were traumatised by what she said, but whatever she said it was terrifying.
What if she and Balerion encountered a demonic like creature in Valyria? Similar to that of a balrog?
Some speculate that since the septon described the wyrms to have HUMAN like faces soecifically that what mightve happaenwd was no ordinary fire wyrm, but rather an experiment of the valyrians. An experiment that impregnated her, and that is what she told the Septon and why he said what she said was sooo horryfying.
@@YwY-ct5yq That’s just terrifying
@@YwY-ct5yq this fits horribly well with the theory that all Targ babies start out as dragons in the womb due to Valyrian blood magic melding the two species
This is one of the scariest stories in all of ASOIF lore
@ 10:20 "The blood magic and Dark Arts they practiced were a pathway to many abilities, some were considered unnatural." I see what you did there ;D
"...a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural."
Thanks for that.
To me, it is the most terrifying death in the world of ASOIAF.
I remember reading this and crying out of pure despair! 😰
Aerea's story is just overwhelming sad even before her fatal illness. I do not blame you for shedding tears. She had a life full of despair with few glimpses of hope
I don't think Aerea died of xenomorph parasites, or larval fire-wyrms. I think the solution is even more horrific.
Two things: Valyrians have loads of miscarriages and stillbirths. Often the unborn are described as hideous human-dragon hybrids and sometimes like worms even. Dany's son Rhaego is an example, he was said to have wings and a tail, and scales and to be full of worms.
Secondly: Valyrians did weird hybrid shit with animals, and humans. They invented the sphinx. But to them it wasn't a myth, they actually made them.
This gives me the solution to Aerea: She did not get worms. Whatever the Valyrians did to cause hybridization of animals still exists in Valyria. And it accelerated or messed with Aerea's genetics and reproductive organs.
The worms had faces, because they were HER face. Because they were her genetic material that was hybridized with dragons and whatever else the Valyrians mixed into their DNA. That material became unstable due to the inherent "magic" (science/radiation) that lingers in Valyria and caused her gametes to start growing into those dragon-worm-human things and grow inside her. Dragons emit heat from their bodies and that's what caused her to cook alive. No natural parasite would do this as parasites by definition need a host to live. They were her mutated genes that created such hideous offspring and grew inside her and killed her. That's my theory and I'm not changing it.
The idea of Valyrians being interbred with dragons is an old story from Moorcock, who is one of George's inspirations. He wrote about the Melniboneans, a supernaturally beautiful people who ruled their empire from their volcano-fortress island and rode dragons, called Phroon into battle. They were also genetically linked and interbred with the dragons and they evolved from lizard-bird-creatures to look like humans, whereas all the other humans of that world came from apes.
Good for you
Ever since I heard this story I have wondered if this was some blood magic experiment that gave Valerians their dragon blood.
I still think the Fire Wyrm theory makes more sense. One battled and injured Baleryon and infected Aerea.
The white hot blade that Azor Ahai stuck into Nissa Nissa was a dracolarva. And that was the Blood Betrayal. Which caused the Long Night, hence the Quartheen legend of the dragons hatching from the moon (moon destruction -> Long Night + emergence of dragons w/in short period of time)
Great video, btw!
It’s crazy. Aerea begged for the gift of death. Arya learns to give the gift.
Why is it crazy?
Unintentional namesakes. Plays on karma or a cycle. Just occurred to me because of the little bit of history we get about Aerea uses the same language as the slaves of the old valyria mines “begging for the gift of death,” and it’s primarily theorized that is Balerion took her.
This is whats gonna happen to show Arya for going out and exploring the world.
there are things in Valyria that men shouldnt mess with
It's also entirely possible that she was infected by a parasite that normally would have infected a dragon. Some parasites don't want to kill the host but instead live out their life in the host or are expelled through fecal matter. It's also possible that valyrian was infected as well, possibly shortening his lifespan.
It would make sense, she was burned from the inside in what I’m assuming is the incubation stage for the wyrm or parasite that probably wouldn’t bother a dragon with how hot they burn but would be excruciating for a human
Balerion? You said valyrian…
I've recently finished the main series about a month ago, so i've just reached the start of Jaeherys' reign. I cannot wait for, in the middle of "and he was rulling and living and stuff" to get this horror story.
Really does make one question how Euron got that Valyrian Steel Armor set though. Like, if Valyria is this FORSAKEN, how likely is it that mad man Euron manged to navigate his way not only into there, but also out, with only the rewards and not a single piece of horror or death visibly scaring/killing him?
It's quite possibly one of the most bizarre and horrific things in this series. And it kinda comes out of nowhere. Fire and Blood is pretty tame otherwise and then Aerea dies in the worst way possible and the story moves on like this totally weird thing didn't just happen.
As for how Euron survived, there's a lot of ways I imagine it. Aerea was a reckless child and Euron was an adult with more control of how he traveled so it makes sense he was able to make a better course than she did. Euron also doesnt care about his crew so he could sit off the coast of Valyria and send his crew to find the safest routes on land. He used that guy to blow the dragonhorn and the guy burned up kind of like Aerea did. Not saying there's a connection but it just goes to show Euron treated his crew as expendable in such a way before.
I'm guessing euron made his crew explore for him and bring back treasures. And he let the survivors keep the rest of the stuff except the valyrian steel suit of armor
Or probably never have been there... Rodrik Harlaw, being this literate and esceptic character, had a good point asking in the shield islands when euron was bragging that he went to Valyria "Oh, have You?", and euron is clearly pissed off the response. Maybe he has been like dangerous close but in the literal like center of the valyrian peninsula I don't think so either.
I think Euron has this drive that only some crazy careless people has. For some reason I also suspect that Targaryens might more susceptible to Valyria's unstable environment due to their genes
The unimaginable horrors of the freehold strike again!
He could have taken her to Sothoryos or Ulthos. These jungle continents are home to many horrifying diseases and parasites and also fearsome creatures like giant bipedal lizards and apes the size of King Kong that could have injured Balerion
Gogossos, I think in the Basilisk Isles off of Sothoryos, could be an option too. According to the history and lore, the Red Death plague killed 9 of every 10 people, but hey that was a few centuries ago....we don't as of yet know what might have survived. I always think of that every time I read F&B.
I think they swapped, Rhaella was taken by Balerion really
As a side point and addition to my other comment it could also be the case that as you say dragons and firewyrms share features but rather than sharing ancestry instead dragons ARE firewyrms or at least used to be and are the the parasite being bred from firewyrm hosts and perhaps crossbred(?) with other animals to give them things like wings and legs while the fire breathing ability and base body is of firewyrm origin and then when the valyrians finally got their flying firewyrms they used sorcery to keep the parasites from needing hosts to being incubated inside stone eggs but needing a significant amount of fire and a blood sacrifice in order to hatch although the exact specifics on how to hatch dragon eggs has yet to be fully revealed so that part is still foggy, this could also be why valyrians have a special connection with dragons; they used sorcery during their creation to mix some of their blood in the process so only those with valyrian blood could ever truly master them
Yeah, it’s widely believed in the fandom that dragons are a result of breeding, through a mix of traditional means and blood magic, firewyrms, wyverns, and humans together.
One of the best side stories. I am sure if GRRMice gets around to fleshing it out it will be something completely different than anything we could theorize. I like the idea she was the vessel for the physical being of R'hllor, or sets in the Temple of Fire waiting for the Great Other to reveal his face. Or he made love to her and this happened to her.
I am calling him GRRMice until he sells me a copy of TWOW. Cause he's got feeling as down as Thanos did.
Fantastic video covering Aerea, excellent ly edited and narrated with great theories. Good job!
Thank you!
The magic from those creatures kept Aerea from dying until the creatures met their faith in a cold water
Balerion most probably died from these parasites too😮
Fyrewyrms, either from the Slave Pits or Valeria itself, probably from trying to find fresh water.
Its probably some sort of Valyrian fire wyrm experiment that was melded with human genes...
And given this, the whispers that were so horryfying to the septons were probably of how the creature impregnated her...
Heck yeah! ❤ great job
Thank you! 🙏🏾
I think Balerion was badly wounded after arriving wherever they went and was unable to fly back so they had to stay. Perhaps Aerea managed to find a good water source but they moved away from it for some reason (like trying to fly home when Balerion's wounds aren't completely healed yet). She found a contaminated source and that happened, forcing Balerion to fly with half-healed wounds because his rider is... not well.
My theory is that balerion found and fought the dragon of that Valyrian lord who named himself emperor and tried to retake Valyria. But I think that Wyrms interrupted the fight which caused the tragedy.
I had no considered that. But wouldn't that dragon be older than Balerion when he died of old age?
@@KevinPendragon some cats and dogs get to live many years, some get to twenty. I guess a dragon with enough experience would thrive in Valyria.
@@KevinPendragonYes that is true!!
My head cannon is balerion didn't die of old age, and that dragons were essentially immortal. And would live forever unless killed by weapons or other dragons. Maybe because he was so big and strong the parasites just took much longer to kill him, his wounds never did fully heal, and after that is when he started to become weak and not fly. Pretty sure he only flew once more and that was right before he died(my guess is that the parasites had reproduced so many by then that they had basically taken over his body bu then and he just couldn't fight them off anymore)
Nice little Revenge of the Sith reference. But yeah, I really DO hope that we get one real chapter of what Valeria is like in depth in WoW or DOS. If Martin ever finishes his series, that is....🙄 great video and man this was a creepy AF death, poor kid
The cannonical welding of ASOIAF and the Alien franchise. Glorious!
I think it was theorised that since its stated that dragons are bigger than wyverns then whatever they were mixed with to create dragons must have been bigger than a dragon to even things out. So to make it simpler 4 would be the size of a wyvern 8 would be the size of whatever they mixed to make the wyverns breathe fire. If this is true and going by caraxes and sheep stealers mutation the creature that is mixed with the wyvern must be some sort of fire breathing snake or earth worms (i imagine them as dune worms but breathe fire)
I like the palpatine line added in
I love the theory that he was not attacked but instead scared from bad rider... Help me out though, did they spent 1 year there and she just got sick towards the end or do you think there's more to it?
My theory is that Aerea encountered a mutagen of sorts through the doom of Valyria’s magical fallout, that if we follow theories caused the dragon dna in her blood( because a theory says the targaryens and valyrians have actual dragon dna), to activate and go out of control, literally taking over her body.But this was literally killing her and cooking her from the inside, because dragon fire and the transformation into a dragon are things no human can handle, no Targaryen is fireproof.And the worms were actually a result the mutation activating the seemingly present ability of dragons to reproduce asexually( the last dragon could lay eggs even with no male dragons present), creating fire wyrm like monsters which burst out of her.As for Balerion, he was likely attacked by some monsterous deformed dragon mutant, which may have left some kind of crippling effect, like komodo dragon saliva, which would cause a body to shut down overtime and impact his lifespan, healing factor, strength etc.And this is why Balerion suffered such a marked decline after this event, and it wasn’t detected, it wasn’t some venom or infected wound, it was a saliva that was slowly killing Balerion, every time he moved it got worse.
I saw what you did there, niice star wars reference. I take it you have heard of the Tragedy of Darth Martin the Obese?
If those worm creatures had human like faces and hands then my theory is that she went to Southoryos - and more specifically, she was taken to Gogossos.
First, why would she go to Sothoryos? Bc there was a female dragon rider who is claimed to be the only person who flew over Sothoryos farther than anyone else - no doubt a girl like Aerea had heard tales of this adventurous female dragon rider and saw her as her idol and wanted to follow in the footsteps of her idol and hero.
Second, why Gogossos? The dragonlords used it as a penal colony for the worst criminals of Valyria and the prisoners were tortured with in various ways including with blood magic where slave women were forced to mate with beasts to produce twisted, half-human offspring. So that’s why I’m curious to know whether those worms’ faces that killed Aerea could in any way be described as humanoid.
It would also explain why these religious men treating her aka the Septons immediately eliminated all traces and evidence of this form of evil, sick and twisted blood magic by destroying all traces of those worms - they can’t allow anyone to get any kind of ideas (such as someone like Qyburn)
Gogossos grew powerful through slavery and sorcery during the Century of Blood, with some calling it the "Tenth Free City" and its slave markets rivaled those of the cities in Slaver's Bay.
However, after the Doom of Valyria, the Red Death emerged from the slave pens of Gogossos and 90% of people died from the plague. This red death disease is different from whatever happened to Aerea but it shows that there’s all kinds of messed up diseases that come out of Sothoryos and especially the region around Gogossos and was one of the reasons the enslaved criminals of Gogossos would rather stay and take their chances with torture, being worked to death and being experimented on with blood magic than risk going out into the wild where even a worse fate awaited them. I think that’s the wilderness that Aerea somehow ended up being dropped off by Balerion into or landing in and then she somehow got infected.
Very interesting. I think your hypothesis about how Aerea contracted those parasites makes a lot of sense. Also, the theory that Balerion might have suffered his injuries because of an unexperienced rider giving him direction and/or the unfamiliarity of his surroundings. Belerion left Valyria before the doom so how did the doom change Valyria to make it more difficult for a dragon as old and big as Balerion had become to navigate?
That picture of Septon Barth has a middle finger painted in the between his eyebrows, and I Love that, and I am here for it!
th-cam.com/video/hA20hVTZIzg/w-d-xo.html
10:26 well done, bravo
My personal theory is that the oily black stone is a living thing akin to the Thing or Venom. Sci-fi would consider it a grey goop of nanomachines.
It came from space on falling stars.
The dragons, the stone flesh disease, the living dead with black blood, and a few other things are all connected by this magical "stone."
Other Question is what Attacked and wounded Balerion..must be a pretty cool beast or monster lol.
What if valyria was destroyed by those worms. The transformation for her sounds alot like ceremorphosis from dnd. Mind flayers.
I mean hydrothermal vents on the seafloor are havens for life so I feel like this tracks. I do think balerian got ganked by something though. Well maybe I just like that scenario the most.
This seems to me like Valyria's blood magic. It always requires some sacrifice to create something. She might have been the host for a hybrid. Damn, the Valyrians were fucked up
Fire and Blood was so fuckin gold on audiobook
Qyburn would've had a field day, and we'd have a lot more answers
So she was becoming a stoneman. Would the same thing have happened to Jorah? 🤔
Palpatine would have thrived in Valeria
True. Exegol is basically Space Old Valyria
The remains of Old Valyria does sound like the type of absolutely horrible place whose very nature has been corrupted by the presence of absolute evil for years a Sith Lord would enjoy as their summer residence. Everything about it screams "Old Sith World from before the Rule of Two".
@@ghirahimlefabuleux8984 oh absolutely 😂👍
chimeras in mythology are a kind of half-man/half-beast but there exist another type of chimera. In actual science terminology, a chimera is a single animal that has genetic material from 2 people. Think about in utero twin absorption (like with maeyls), it is possible to have sets of DNA because of that. Valyarians (or some at least) are often called the
blood of the dragon" and I cant help but think is something like that. That would also explain why sometimes they have half-dragon stillbirths.
Hi my brother from another mother big love from Libya
sup mo
Nothing much just chilling like villains we are my brother
Awful and I bet this is also what killed Balerion too
I think it was fyre wyvrens we know they lived in the volcanos I'm thinking maybe the changes in climate from the volcanos might have allowed them to live outside of it and possibly grow even bigger
She had no control but came back on Balerion after how long?
She was gone for a little over a year, I believe
W video
Thanks brother
Very nice video! However it does have the same flaw as most theory videos which is taking records for granted. The ASoIaF record keeping is notoriously unreliable and full of agenda the further back you go. This is not a narration from the author explaining what happened but simply the account of two maesters and the probability of them lying and misrepresenting facts is more than likely. I would really want to hear someone explore the theory that she was pregnant and the maesters deliberately mistreated her in order to kill the baby because it was somehow a threat to their views and/or plans. Aerea was very special in terms of genes (which were not present in her sister) even among the Targaryens and the child could have had super special potential which the maesters did not like. Sure that creates more questions than it answers and does not explain the wounds on Balerion but is still a far better theory than ones out there and is more in line with the writing style of George.
Has anyone thought that perhaps that this minor story could be a cross over of Elden Ring’s world. George RR Martin did also create that story and with many horrors not unlike what Aerea went thru
The WWnet, the worms/wyrms, the dragons, the spacerocks - It's all one thing.
I like this stream of thought. And maybe if we take it a step farther maybe the crows eye knows what they are and will use them in the battle of fire.
Isn't he headed fk Oldtown?
@@kevinerives8975 But he came from their.
@joshuavincent3515 right but he's in oldtown now at the battle of blood, the battle of fire is in mereen
They are wyvern nit dragons
They should do a mini series based on just this incident. This is one of the better offshoot stories in my opinion
I'm sorry for being "that" person, 😭 but it shouldn't be pronounced area, more like ah-ray-ah like a ray of light
I'm always gonna be Team Maegor the Great 💪🏾
Weird stance but alright 😭
@@KevinPendragon History is written by the victorious and thus heavily bias sources and folks who are of course going to paint their enemies as the worse possible. Plus who is foolish enough to trust a Maester to be honest 🤣 The facts are:
King Maegor won his trial by seven fair and square earning him the right by arms to rule the realm. Yet the Warrior's Sons dismissed the Gods holy judgement (when convenient for them) in granting Maegor the right by victory.
Prince Aegon would have definitely been unable to defend the Targaryen Dynasty from the coming war with the faith. He was an abomination in their eyes and basically a kid still with a small young dragon. He would've been destroyed and then Uncle Maegor would've still had to come along, claim the throne now at a disadvantage as Prince Aegon would've been unable to hold anything together.
I'd stand with King Maegor the Great to the end and would never bow to the Faith, the Maesters or the Old King. Take my head if you must, for I've grown tired of it.
@@King_Steffon_IIhe's a rapist bro
Dune sandwoms
CHESTBURSTERS
A
Dude stealing lines from Star Wars 🤣
Learn to read.