Is House Blackfyre really extinct on the male line?

[Crona]

1 hour ago, Jova Snow said:

He said Serra had grey plague, it starts in hands and feet like greyscale. Her hands were cut so the illness wouldn't spread not to keep them as relics. Illyrio is lying to Halfmaester. 

I know he’s lying about the true reason. We still have to figure out why he has a portrait of a woman, and who was the woman. And what was the reason to mention Serra to Halfmaester? Why did he need to lie at this moment. He could have just said nothing. That’s why I think “Serra” is a real person but Illyrio is lying about Serra. 

[asongofheresy]

On 10/25/2019 at 11:16 PM, Crona said:

I know he’s lying about the true reason. We still have to figure out why he has a portrait of a woman, and who was the woman. And what was the reason to mention Serra to Halfmaester? Why did he need to lie at this moment. He could have just said nothing. That’s why I think “Serra” is a real person but Illyrio is lying about Serra. 

Serra is actually based on a popular Eseosi tale Tyrion hears about before meeting Illyrio, and Illyrio's tale to Tyrion makes him think of Tysha, maybe Varys/Illyrio now about her and using a sob story so Tyrion won't be suspected of Illyrio. If Serra is real and not a woman based on tales and lies then she is more likely to be a descendant of Saera Targaryen, like Mysaria of Lys. 

[sweetsunray]

On 8/15/2019 at 7:15 PM, Daendrew said:

Is House Blackfyre really extinct on the male line?

If you look at the family tree, you will see Haegon had son(s) we know nothing about and Daemon I had two sons we know nothing about.

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_Blackfyre

Unfortunately I do think they're dead.

The illustration of Maelys is a huge tip-off imo. Maelys is a man at least in his 50s if not older in the illustrated fight in which he perishes. That makes it near impossible that Maelys was a grandson (let alone a great-grandson) of Daemon Blackfyre. But it makes him in the right age-range for Daemon's youngest unnamed son (s).

We know he challenged a Daemon Blackfyre for the GC. That one must have been a grandson or great-grandson via one of the older sons of Daemon Blackfyre (likely the last Blackfyre that Aegor backed and crowned). In other words that fight seems to be about a grandson or great-grandson coming before his uncle or great-uncle Maelys.

We can speculate that as the youngest son of Daemon Blackfyre and with disfigurement (the vampiric twin), Maelys likely grew up bitter. On top of that we have another Backfyre brother who expressed a claim on the throne even though his nephew came before him in line. So, at least one younger son of Daemon tried to get ahead in line, creating a precedent for another to try it.

Then next we know that Maelys agreed and helped to attack Tyrosh, the city-state that was the home-base of the Blackfyre family and descendants, where they would have made marriages to gain diplomatic or financial support. Maelus would have been a baby or a small toddler at the time his mother fled to Tyrosh. Tyrosh would have been the city where he woudl have grown up and experience being treated like a pariah. I doubt any love for Tyrosh was lost there, and an attack on Tyrosh would have been Maelys's cover to get rid of any other potential descendant of the male line. People who waver toward the narcissistic, eaten up by envy and willing to kill family to advance themselves tend to expect everybody else to think and feel like they do. So, any male baby Blackfyre would be a potential rival in the future whose future he had to cut short. He probably even tried to target any male issue via the female line in that attack.

And finally, Maelys is a wordplay on "malice". That man was never going to allow a potential rival Blackfyre to grow up into adulthood.

[Lord Varys]

2 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

Unfortunately I do think they're dead.

The illustration of Maelys is a huge tip-off imo. Maelys is a man at least in his 50s if not older in the illustrated fight in which he perishes. That makes it near impossible that Maelys was a grandson (let alone a great-grandson) of Daemon Blackfyre. But it makes him in the right age-range for Daemon's youngest unnamed son (s).

No, Maelys must be at least a grandson - although I agree that it is unlikely he is a great-grandson, although even that would be possible if Haegon or Aenys started to have children rather early - say, in the 200s. Then Maelys as a great-grandson could be born around 220 AC, which would make him about forty in 260 AC, old enough for grey hair.

Not my favorite idea, though.

In any case, he is effectively confirmed not to be a son because the Daemon (IV) Blackfyre he kills to take over the Golden Company is called 'a cousin'. If Maelys Blackfyre was a son of Daemon Blackfyre he wouldn't have any Blackfyre cousins - instead he would have brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, great-nephews, and great-nieces ... but no cousins.

It would be utterly sloppy writing to not give a correct kinship in the text there, especially since we know degrees of kinship are usually given in a correct manner, especially when we are talking close degree kinship like nephews, nieces, and first cousins.

If Maelys' Daemon was a nephew or great-nephew we would know that for a fact by now.

[OberynBlackfyre]

3 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

No, Maelys must be at least a grandson - although I agree that it is unlikely he is a great-grandson, although even that would be possible if Haegon or Aenys started to have children rather early - say, in the 200s. Then Maelys as a great-grandson could be born around 220 AC, which would make him about forty in 260 AC, old enough for grey hair.

Not my favorite idea, though.

In any case, he is effectively confirmed not to be a son because the Daemon (IV) Blackfyre he kills to take over the Golden Company is called 'a cousin'. If Maelys Blackfyre was a son of Daemon Blackfyre he wouldn't have any Blackfyre cousins - instead he would have brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, great-nephews, and great-nieces ... but no cousins.

It would be utterly sloppy writing to not give a correct kinship in the text there, especially since we know degrees of kinship are usually given in a correct manner, especially when we are talking close degree kinship like nephews, nieces, and first cousins.

If Maelys' Daemon was a nephew or great-nephew we would know that for a fact by now.

I think you put far too much stock in how subtle the Golden Company has become and perhaps how much they’ve possibly WANTED to distance themselves from the Blackfyres. 
 

With fAegon he would obviously have to have some Blackfyre blood within him but the plan called for protecting him and teaching him/ keeping him a secret to pass him off as Prince Aegon Targaryen a la Rhaegar. Who is to say that they haven’t done some things to hide the Blackfyre lineage in the past?  We have very little information other than one answered question by George and then acknowledging Maelys was a cousin. 
 

Hell, we still have no idea if there are Brightflames running around.  We simply just don’t know.