Correction: I believe I credited the wrong artist for a portrait of Baelor (4:54). It should be credited to Myles Toyne (www.tumblr.com/mylestoyne). Sorry about that!

This dude almost caused the most cursed thing ever, a Stark-Greyjoy alliance

Baelor was literally the meme “he’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit”

Baelor was like: I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 hundred more

Best thing Baelor did was keep his Uncle on as hand.

Baelor was clearly addled by visions. He tried to avert some kind of prophecy about Daemon Blackfyre and ended up causing his birth. Then he unlived himself.

This man was so religiously devoted even priests look at him unhinged.

Imagine being Uncle Viserys in this situation. You've just watched one idiot nephew get himself and 50 thousand others hacked to pieces in Dorne for no good reason, and now you've got another idiot nephew going full cult leader and bankrupting the realm for his Holy Vibes.

Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that, by giving so much power and wealth to the faith of the seven, Baelor is directly responsible for the corruption that soon festered within it. The religion had never been perfect of course, but figures like the high sparrow would later remark that it was under his reign that the decadence of the faith increased dramatically. He despises how luxurious the Great Sept is, preferring simpler, humbler places of worship. In his uncompromising worship of the seven, Baelor did more harm than good to the religion.

I feel like there could be less sinister reasons to hatch dragons in Westeros than just to have power. Maybe Aegon III wanted to see if he could try raising a dragon to be more gentle and less destructive. I also think that Aegon V wanted to hatch dragons simply out of awe and wonder for the creatures. However, I agree with the idea that Baelor would use dragons for a religious crusade.

1:04 DAEMON BLACKFYRE MENTIONED RAHHHH 🔥🔥🔥🔥🦅🦅🔥🔥🔥🦅🔥🔥🔥🔥🦅🔥🦅🦅🔥🔥🦅🦅🔥🔥🔥🔥

Interesting how one of the few Targaryen kings who was actually clearly mad was far from being one of the worst. To be fair, that's because a good chunk of kings were THAT bad. In the end, I have a quite mixed view of Baelor. For all the crazy stuff he decided, he also went insane lengths to make peace with Dorne, which ended up benefitting the realm later. His general pacifism put him some places up in my ranking. But yes, who knows with what ideas he might have came up if he lived longer. Of course we are missing some parts of the story until now, but from everything we know about Lil' Vizzy, I don't believe his first instinct when his nephew he serves as hand plans something stupid would be "kinslaying time". But let's see what we'll learn about that in the future.

"Baelor did not care about education or science" given that it's been several thousand years since steel was introduced to Westeros and however many thousands and thousands before that when the first men thought that swinging bronze at each other was the hottest since since Brandon the Builder, I can't blame Baelor for not attempting to push forward on a tech tree that clearly doesn't exist.

The fact that Daena reminds me of Arya does not bode well in the slightest.

I like the prophecy explanation for dragons, it's plays nicely into how prophecy fucks over literally everybody who tries to figure it out. Love the videos! Keep up the good work!

Member of the 27 Club, along with Jimi, Kurt and Janis.

What more evidence do u need of Dornish dishonour, Baelor literally walked up to lord Wyl with the returned Dornish nobles on horseback behind him and asked for his cousins freedom, literally asking for the freedom of one kingsguard, in comparison to the freedom of 15 Nobles, more than a fair deal anyone can agree. But nope Lord wyl wasn’t having it. Then When order by his liege lord and Prince, Lord Wyl tried killing the king with Vipers and still refused to free Ameon in good faith.

You’ve quickly become a must watch asoiaf KZfaqr for me keep up the great work!

Baelor would've been great as a High Septon but... not a king. His first acts were pretty good though, I'll admit. Dorne couldn't be taken, so he made good peace terms Shoot, why did he even bother to marry Daena in the first place? Could've married them off to other lords at the very least. Or to Aemon before he became a Kingsguard. (On a side note, Daeron marrying Daena would've been cool tbh) 4:43 Lmao, the Dune joke is hilarious. Maybe Timothee playing as a Targaryen could work here 😅

Fucking love this series! Keep up the great work.

Finally another video for the Targaryen King series. Also one of the few actually insane ones.

Interestingly, Daena was wed to Baelor when Daeron was still alive, which raises a lot of questions. Most interesting theory I’ve heard is that Daeron wanted Daena as his heir until he had a son, but he knew from the Dance the realm wouldn’t accept that, so he wed her to Baelor so that if he died in Dorne she could rule and continue the war effort while Baelor kept to himself praying - grossly underestimating his peaceful brother’s strength of will.

I believe that Baelor may have a point in making sure that the Targaryen dynasty and Faith of the Seven became even more closely associated with each other, and without the Dragons to make sure that their rule is secure he made it his mission to make the Faith even more dependent on the Targaryen Kings. Though that not to say that the man was insane because his piety was to the point of pure madness, but religiously he was a being of purely divine individuals who looked to be blessed by the Gods themselves.

I think the first video I saw on this channel was the aenys one, I’ve been excited everytime a new video is released. One of my favourite ASOIAF channels.

Hands down one of you’re best !!

However good each may seem, every king wants dragons because they give them the power of the final word. The nuclear bomb of their time (as someone, somewhere, said). Great video! Glad I found your channel😊

Obviously Baelor did horrible things like the rest of his family (especially the book burnings) and was likely insane but comparing him to most Targ kings I'd rank him as a positive one, at least as positive as an absolute monarch can be. Building the great sept and makint KL the center of the Faith and putting down the groundworks for Dorne entering the fold were his greatest acomplishments. And the dude walked barefoot to Dorne and then through a desert. I respect that

I would call him near the top of the list. He was far from perfect, and clearly zealous and nearly mad. But he wasn’t violent nor destructive, mostly. So the lack of direct violence helps his case. Although, throwing prostitutes out of the city to die was too much.

Imagine Maegor and Baelor in a room together ☠️☠️

great video i love this channel

He kinda reminds me of Tsar Fyodor I, although unfortunately he was more active and did a lot of harm. Fyodor was mostly just chilling and praying while his wife and brother-in-law ran the show and his younger half-brother died under Mysterious Circumstances(TM) (see also False Dmitri for the fAegon parallels).

My current head cannon is that rhynera will be the last Targ to hear the original aegon prophecy and her children may have the vague idea that targ’s are meant to rule to save westeros and they need a dragon to do so. I think that that idea is pasted down through the generations so everyone tries to hatch an egg to see is the world going to end? No? Okay i can do whatever i want then as long as i have heirs. Idk just a stoned thought.

Dragons are in my opinion are Nuclear Weapons. It's main goal is for destruction. but the other effect was a lasting peace where nobody will act on each other like the Cold War. Baelor brings the dragon's for peace in the realm.

The speculation about Baelor's motivations for hatching dragons, and those of Aegon V, is very interesting. Personally, I think it can certainly be argued that Aegon V was an *uncommonly* good and well-meaning king who sincerely wanted to improve the lives of his humblest subjects. However, we should remember that this is still the Seven Kingdoms which is heavily inspired by and derived from the politics, history, and culture of mediaeval England. Even a truly good king who was uncommonly progressive and forward-thinking by the standards of his society is still ultimately the product of a deeply repressive and brutal political system. Moreover, within the constraints of his situation, it's difficult to imagine how Aegon V could have enacted his reforms unless he had an overwhelming advantage on his side to force recalcitrant lords into obedience. Reformers whose ideas are genuinely radical (or, in other words: significantly challenge the interests of those in power) often struggle to enact their ideas within the constraints of their existing system. Pushback from entrenched power sources (i.e. the nobility, who in Westeros are often powerful enough to raise armies of their own) as well as the limitations of one's own power (i.e. there are simply things that are beyond the capability of a mediaeval government to achieve, these are not powerful centralised states) make it hard if not outright impossible to implement such sweeping changes. In a situation such as that, it is not unimaginable to see why a man like Aegon V might turn to something desperate to secure his position and force through his reforms. Dragons are creatures of terrible destructive power and neither armies nor castles can withstand them. But they're also, for a Targaryen, an indisputable symbol of their own power and destiny. When the Targaryens reigned, there was a tendency to see them as something more than mortal. As being almost akin to demigods because of their connection to dragons. After the Dance, the Targaryens lost a great deal of power not only from the loss of their dragons, but also from the attendant prestige and influence that having the dragons gave to them. For Aegon V, having dragons at his command would have empowered his reign to new heights and very possibly allowed him to intimidate the lords of the Seven Kingdoms into accepting his reforms. For as good of a person as he was, ultimately, it's hard to avoid falling back on the same old traditions of power and politics that had been employed by the Targaryen kings who came before him.

the wojaks in between keep killing me lmaooo, another great vid chris

Baelor the Based

If the seven where actual entities in SoIaF then one thing is for certain. Baelor loved the Seven, but the seven hates Targaryens

Daeron the second got carried by baelor's political descions.

I think all of the kings who wanted to restore dragons had the same reason: The song of ice and fire. In HOD, KIng viserys mentioned that the song was passed on from king to king. They knew they needed dragons for the long night.

Love your videos and what your favorite house? My is stark

Baelor's burning of Septin Barth's Dragon book maybe was a good thing in universe. No chance of someone understanding dragon creation and letting them run wild. Bad for us good for the realm.

For all his faults he was instrumental in bringing Dorne into the Seven Kingdoms he betrothed his nephew Daeron to the Martell princess which would lead to the unification of the Seven Kingdoms.

Cue synths! Let's go!

Sorry man but i find this guy so unironically blessed (or just so absurdly lucky) that i can't help but love him. Like he faces zero consequences for what he does, his actions are either neutral or fully beneficial to the realm, while those of his hand which are constantly portrayed as rational and competent are actually always wrong. His shenanigans are so funny to read about that i honestly believe it's some kind of meta joke or reference to some DyD joke character on George's part.

A crusade against the North is stupid, but still not as stupid as the show iteration of the Faith Militant

i love Targaryen jesus

I wonder if Baelor and Aegon brought dragons back because they understood that was the only reason they were in power. Or that was an underlying motive? I'm not sure, but it's interesting to know that even someone like Aegon III didn't like dragons but still tried bringing them back

Baelor trying hatching dragons could be a dream of a dragon born from an egg A dragon call Blackfyre 😮

I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more, just to be the one who walked a thousand miles to forge a peace with Dorne!

Baelor the fanatic

Been waiting for this. Baelor was really crazy. I do think the targaryens thirst for power was the main reason for some of them going mad.

Baelor is the only dragonspawn worthy of the respect ! For the Smallfolk! For the Faith !!! Now truly, the guy was a crazy, but were the only king besides Aegon V that cared enough about the smallfolk to be noted in the history books, thats already many leagues better than most of kings of westeros.( lets remember that the nobility and clergy were less than 10% of the population in a feudal society)

So, a theory and an impression: Theory: Baelor had dragon dreams that foretold that his wife Daena's son would be a problem for the realm and the dynasty. He locked her away in the Maidenvault without realising she could escape and get pregnant. The dreams never showed her the boy's father. He may also have been privy to the Conqueror's dragon dream (or maybe he had the same dream). The supposed knowledge that his son would bring terrible things to the realm led him to be chaste and take refuge in his faith, ultimately being pious so as to appease his gods. This also led to him choosing not to father sons nor daughters, so as to let the throne go to his uncle's side of the family, thus averting the prophecy. Of course, prophecy's a double-edged sword... Ultimately, when Daena got pregnant, he didn't panic. But when he saw she had a son (and a Targaryen-looking son at that), he fasted so hard he unlived himself. Also, an impression: when Viserys II got to the throne, he sought to skip Aegon IV in the succession, which ultimately forced Aegon to murder him. I partially agree with your point about Aegon being able to do many things as a prince, but he also did many things during his reign that wouldn't have been possible if he hadn't been king.

These are the Targaryen’s Team Black fans are proud of being Rhaenyra’s descendants

"A burse in this guy's eyes"... no? I tried.

Baelor the Blessed ... more like Baelor the Barmy!

Baelor walking through Dorne was lowkey pretty cool. In fact, Baelor was pretty decent until he gets bit by those snakes and goes into a coma. He totally got Blood Ravened BEFORE there was a Blood Raven! There is some common themes though-Baelot locks his sisters away. He outlaws prostitution AND makes them ALL leave KL. He rewards chastity. ALL of what Baelor was doing reads like he was trying to prevent the possibility of ANY bastard Targaryen taking the throne. Aegon the Unworthy-when he legitmizes his bastards-he is trying to do the SAME thing as Baelor when he did that. Baelor went even more mad when he realized he had failed-war was coming for the Targaryens. How was Baelor Blood Ravened? Baelor replaces Ravens with Doves and other weird crap with Ravens. He clearly had a raven theme in his post snake-bite-coma-madness. Ravens and Bastards. To me it reads like he was trying to prevent Blood Raven/Daemon Blackfyre from being born. A lot of Targaryens have a thing for preventing bastards.

I don't think you trust In My Self-righteous suicide...

Baelor stans rise up!

I like the theory that the marriage because Baelor and Daena was because if he didn’t have a son (which he didn’t), Daeron actually favored Daena as his heir, but he, and especially Viscerys, knew too well from the Dance that that would never be accepted by the Realm. The marriage to Baelor was meant to put the sibling who would actually follow in Darron’s footsteps executing the war with Dorne in a position of power to do so - but everyone mistook Baelor’s peaceful piety for weakness of will, and we all know what happened next instead (in terms of Dornish policy for the betterment of the Realm, but not so great in many other ways). Given how Fire & Blood part one treats its princesses though (which can certainly be read as more Gyldane’s in-universe misogyny than a mistake on Martin’s part) I don’t know if we’ll get that much depth on the marriage in Fire & Blood part 2 if it ever comes out. But it’s telling that Daeron didn’t marry Daena himself as Targaryen tradition would indicate he should have. Him remaining unmarried or betrothed by 18 is actually quite odd.

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Maybe someone can answer this for me because I’ve been confused about it. Why do Aenys, Baelor, Maegor, and Maekar have “the first” in their title if no other kings were named after them? I know other members of the family might have had shared their name but I thought you only received the number if you were king.

Maybe he wasn't praying that the dragons would return, but that they would remain lost to time and legend. Preferring to rule by love, respect and faith over fear, fire, and blood.

Baelor definitely stands out; he doesn't even have a powerful name. If you look 0:21 at all the rest of the Targaryen kings, none of their names have L or B. He definitely feels like the weakest king since Aenys. I think GRRM was incisive in that the full impact of the Dance of dragons didn't hit the Targaryens during the time of the war. That trauma passed on to the next generation, Aegon III, who presided over a lot of the winnowing of his family's power, from the deaths of their dragons to the way he let his sons run amok. It's interesting that both Daeron and Baelor had delusions of grandeur and were really basic, but chose divergent paths. Under different circumstances, they might have combined their loves of conquest and religion to lead like a Faith militant-infused holy crusade to conquer Dorne. But thanks to their upbringing, they clearly weren't tight like that or smart enough.

Big fumble not producing an heir, big L on that

Feel like baelor ate sum bad bread and got a dose of ergot and ain’t been right since

I don't think Viserys had Baelor assassinated. This is the one time I believe the Inlore history books.

So basically Baelor was Westeros’ Woodrow Wilson

I wouldn't blame Balor for the Blackfyre Rebellions. Aegon IV was probably already lusting for Daena and he still had a multitude of bastards. Even if Daena hadn't given him Daemon, he would have given Blackfyre to some other bastard, like Aegor. Aegoin IV just despised Naerys (and by extension Daeron II) for some reason and wanted to insult her in every way.

personally I think after what happened to daeron in dorne the reigns of Baelor, Viserys, aegon and especially daeron should have been significantly more turbulent than shown I mean look at how the son of Henry v was treated when he made peace with France now imagine if the French assassinated Henry under a peace banner their would be blood to pay and the idea of peace would have had to be strong armed in and I think george wrote the blackfyre rebellions to be lesser than they should have been like imagine if Henry vii married a French princess and invited French men into places of power after Henry v was assassinated in this hypothetical he would not have lasted an hour

It would have been a pretty powerful motivator for all the people who worship the Seven to side with Baelor if his praying made the eggs hatch. No better sign to them that the gods are on your side when praying brought back living siege weapons.

I think Balor is a good example of why religion and governing shouldn't mix.

Has Westeros ever had a decent ruler?

I’ve seen a lot people who believe Baelor was like some of those people who use religion to excuse their bad behavior, who act all righteous and stuff, but I never got that from him. Yes the Maiden Vault was absolutely terrible, but I say that instead of it being the product of a guy who struggles to keep his pious image, it’s instead just because Baelor truly believed in his convictions, and was just kind of insane. From what I know, people who use religion to hide behind dint tend to go to the lengths that Baelor did (i.e walking to Dorne, helping the poor, fasting till you die, etc.) Those actions don’t scream master manipulator, but rather just insane.

Idk about there not being enough info on the first few, specifically half the goddamn book is about Jizzy J, the objectively best Targ king ever.

Ive never understood the rationale behind forced conversion. If you are the believer, you are perfectly aware that it probably wont surpass forced compliance for at least a few generations. Their faith isn't genuine. So is it ever actually about beliefs and faiths or is that sinply a tool used by psychopaths when they want stuff?

Fans like to say Baelor was a great King just bc he wasn't cruel in the way Maegor or The Mad King were but the man was totally batshit insane and imo was not a great ruler bc of his religious insanity

Aegon wasn't a prince until viserys became king

Baelor the based

He was pure evil, been holding for so long now i'm glad someone said about it

Nah it was bloodraven doing tree targ time travel stuff.

Best King Westeros ever had

Im all for being a believer and i have nothing against church but you can go to far with anything and a fanatic is not good usually

Religion is always dangerous. Even in the real world.

There are necessary things to keep power as king and unnecessary things to do as king and the shit baelor pulled was so damn unnecessary

yeah F Baelor the blessed my most Hated king of westeros Daeron the young dragon now thats a king

More like Baelor the Based, am I right?

Yeah, no.He is absolutely the worst targaryen for not finishing off dorn

I don’t think the Sept of Baelor had a statue of Baelor originally. I assumed Baelor built it to aggrandize the Seven - and the statue of him was probably added in Daeron II’s reign.

so, Baelor was an idiot....

Baelor was an insane religious fanatic so of course he was a horrible king

Baelor hates sex workers booooo

m

Horrible 'King'

The numbers were fudged, its 20,000 not 50,000 if you took notes on AFFC you would see that. Why am i watching thess youtubers who just read from the books? Unreliable points of view, coupled with KZfaqrs who just read from one book and state it as fact, ohhh thats a great combination!

He should have been called Baelor the Zelot

my boy maegor rolling over in his valyrian grave like rotisserie chicken