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Was Aerion Brightflame really mad?


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On ‎2‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 2:36 PM, Universal Sword Donor said:

I'm not a doctor or clinical therapist, but drinking a wildfire is probably on the "mad" side of the clear by such a large margin you can't see the line. 

Ahh, but he was only mad in hindsight because it didn't work. If Dr. Boylston's son had died from the pox after the good doctor smeared his open wound with the pus of a dying victim, he would have gone down as mad as well. But it worked, so he's a genius.

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On 2/5/2018 at 11:45 AM, John Suburbs said:

Ahh, but he was only mad in hindsight because it didn't work. If Dr. Boylston's son had died from the pox after the good doctor smeared his open wound with the pus of a dying victim, he would have gone down as mad as well. But it worked, so he's a genius.

No it was mad either way. He knew Targs weren’t fireproof. His own family members had died by it or been hurt.

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On ‎2‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 6:03 PM, Universal Sword Donor said:

No it was mad either way. He knew Targs weren’t fireproof. His own family members had died by it or been hurt.

Dany survived the fire. If she had been burnt to a crisp she would have been just another mad Targaryen. Instead she's a queen with dragons.

It's only when you fail that hindsight declares you a loony for trying.

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2 hours ago, John Suburbs said:

Dany survived the fire. If she had been burnt to a crisp she would have been just another mad Targaryen. Instead she's a queen with dragons.

It's only when you fail that hindsight declares you a loony for trying.

And hers was a one off miracle as described by the author and happened sixty years later.

This isn’t difficult. Wildfire burns stones. His family members had, in living memory, died of fire exposure.

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16 hours ago, Universal Sword Donor said:

And hers was a one off miracle as described by the author and happened sixty years later.

This isn’t difficult. Wildfire burns stones. His family members had, in living memory, died of fire exposure.

All true, all true, although for accuracy's sake, Martin said that the birth of the dragons was a unique, one-time event, not Dany's survival in the flames. But I believe it is in the same conversation where he says point blank: "There is no Targaryen immunity to fire."  And yet for some reason Targaryens from time to time get this idea that they are in fact immune: Aerion, Aerys, and who knows what Aegon was up to at Summerhall. So mayhaps there is something in Targaryen lore that we are unaware of, besides having been descended from dragons, that would cause some to have a reasonable suspicion that they might, just might, survive even the hottest flame.

And we might also consider the possibility that any fire immunity, such as the one time exhibited by Dany, might not come from her Targaryen heritage at all, but from her Dornish blood. Think about it: who would have a greater interest in infusing their bloodline with a resistance to fire, the ones who control dragons or the ones who are fighting them? The Rhoynar battled the Valyrians for well over 200 years before Chroyane finally fell, and they were highly practiced in the arts of water magic. Nymeria, of course, eventually made her way to Dorne where she married into House Martell, which eventually merged with House Targeryen a few generations before Aerion.

So, was drinking wildfire a really stupid idea? Sure. Was it madness, like someone who jumps off a building thinking they can fly? I think it's possible that it was not, considering the belief that he was "blood of the dragon" and that the person who actually did produce dragons did so by walking into a bonfire. He was wrong, but I don't think that necessarily makes him mad.

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Yup. No need to tweak the Ashford Tourney story, and impossible to fake it. Breaking Tanselle's fingers and intentionally killing ser Humfrey's horse establishes sufficiently establishes Aerion as a psycho, even if you discount Egg's tales or Aerion's reputation as recounted by others. So no Egg propaganda, Aerion really was a bad piece of work, just probably not 'legally insane', meaning not someone who can't be expected to control himself, who doesn't know good from evil etc.

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