[P&Q spoilers] Prince Maelor

[Nezzer]

Does anybody know what happened to Aegon's last living son Maelor? Last thing we know about him, he was being sent to Oldtown, but then I checked the Wiki of Ice and Fire and it says that Aegon the Younger inherited the throne right after Aegon II, because Aegon II had no sons left to inherit. Did Maelor die on the sea but GRRM forgot to mention it?

[RumHam]

Does anybody know what happened to Aegon's last living son Maelor? Last thing we know about him, he was being sent to Oldtown, but then I checked the Wiki of Ice and Fire and it says that Aegon the Younger inherited the throne right after Aegon II, because Aegon II had no sons left to inherit. Did Maelor die on the sea but GRRM forgot to mention it?

By nightfall, a darker tale was being told in the streets and alleys of King’s Landing, in inns and brothels and pot shops, even holy septs. Queen Helaena had been murdered, the whispers went, as her sons had been before her.

It seems he died off screen.

[Nezzer]

It seems he died off screen.

That was just what the smallfolk thought. He was never murdered. Not by the Blacks, at least. His sister Jaehaera survive, somehow, and married Aegon the Younger years later. So it's not like Aegon abandoned his children either, because he sought Jaehaera and brought her back later on, but what about Maelor?

[Arataniello]

There are so many seeming continutiy and/or editing slip ups in tPatQ that it is hard to use anything from the text as proof of anything.

IDHTBIFOM, but doesn't the quote above about Helaena occur earlier in the text than the information concerning Maelor and his sister being sent to separate destinations? Which just underlines the apparent internal inconsistency within the story.

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

IDHTBIFOM

Ah yes of course. I know what that means.

:leaving:

[RumHam]

That was just what the smallfolk thought. He was never murdered. Not by the Blacks, at least. His sister Jaehaera survive, somehow, and married Aegon the Younger years later. So it's not like Aegon abandoned his children either, because he sought Jaehaera and brought her back later on, but what about Maelor?

I think he was killed and it was just edited out. Here's another quote:

Yet no war can be counted as won whilst foes remain unconquered. The Kingmaker, Ser Criston Cole, had been brought down, but somewhere in the realm Aegon II, the king he had made, remained alive and free. Aegon’s daughter, Jaehaera, was likewise at large.

No mention of Maelor.

[Nezzer]

Yeah, I heard that the memorable duel between Arryk and Erryk, that was never talked about in the tale, was also edited out. Strange to see such important info being left out just like that. GRRM could've at least reduced it to a couple of sentences, like "by the way, Maelor's ship never reached Oldtown" instead of leaving it all out.

[The hairy bear]

Yes, judging by this last quote, we have to conclude that Maelor was murdered shortly after fleeing from KL.

Ser Rickard Thorne was supposed to bring him to Lord Ormond Hightower, crossing the enemy lines. I guess they were killed by some band of broken men.

ETA:

Yeah, I heard that the memorable duel between Arryk and Erryk, that was never talked about in the tale, was also edited out. Strange to see such important info being left out just like that. GRRM could've at least reduced it to a couple of sentences, like "by the way, Maelor's ship never reached Oldtown" instead of leaving it all out.

The thing is that it wasn't GRRM who edited the text, but Gardner Dozois. It seems he refused to add any writing of his own (although I suppose that at least the last paragraph must be his).

[History of Westeros]

It's a near certainty that Maelor died offscreen, but I think we'll learn the details in WOIAF. If not, we'll have to wait for the GRRMarillion I guess... He was Aegon's heir, so when Jaehaera is mentioned as still alive and Maelor is not mentioned at all, that seals it for me.

IDHTBIFOM = I don't have the book in front of me.

[Ran]

The world book will certainly illuminate the matter.

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

IDHTBIFOM = I don't have the book in front of me.

Yeah I googled it in the end, thanks anyway.

[dotheknifefight]

Maelor was sent by Larys Strong to Ormund Hightower. Ormund Hightower was, at the time, engaged in battle at Tumbleton IIRC.

Not long after Maelor is sent there, Ormund and a crapload of other people die.

I always assumed that Maelor died at about this point, and that Larys sent Maelor into an area of battle purposely hoping he would die.

[The hairy bear]

Maelor was sent by Larys Strong to Ormund Hightower. Ormund Hightower was, at the time, engaged in battle at Tumbleton IIRC.

Not long after Maelor is sent there, Ormund and a crapload of other people die.

I always assumed that Maelor died at about this point, and that Larys sent Maelor into an area of battle purposely hoping he would die.

When KL fell and Larys sent Maelor to Ormund, the Hightower army was still far away from Tumbleton. They still hadn't crossed the Mander.

I find very hard to swallow all theories suggesting that Larys sent Maelor away to die. If he wanted to betray the greens, he had a thousand better opportunities to do so. If he wanted Maelor dead, he had a thousand better opportunities to make it so. Just to illustrate this: he somehow convinced two memebers of the KG to leave the king alone with him. Surely, if he had wanted he could have ordered them to stay protecting Aegon II and flee with the two kids (and murder them afterwards).

Going to join Ormund at the Reach was doable, and ceratinly no more risky that hiding in Dragonstone. Larys couldn't predict that the plan would fail.

[Lord Varys]

Maelor was supposed to go to Oldtown, not to Lord Ormund personally. Sending the boy in a war zone/army would be stupid. Larys must have intended to get him to Oldtown by ship. And then the best guess is that this ship sunk on the way to Oldtown.

It may be that people only realized that Maelor was dead much later; sunken ships seldom send any messages. But in the longer version Gyldayn may have told that episode earlier, although I'm not sure at what point. The fact that only Jaehaera is mentioned at two times in the story as the sole surviving child of Aegon strongly suggests bad editing since I don't think Dozois would have indicated that Maelor is dead if he died post-TPatQ.