What was the Disturbing Fate of Aerea Targaryen from Fire and Blood?

The Fire and Blood novel goes over the entire history of the Targaryen family, and out of all of the deathly fates of the family members, the worst one was Aerea Targaryen. This princess had been going through so much among her family. She was born during one of the best periods during Targaryen rule with the Iron Throne. Jaehaerys Targaryen was the new ruler for the Iron Throne, and he was considered to be one of the best kings in Westeros history. He had chosen to marry his sister to keep the bloodline pure, and she gave birth to his daughter, that he had chosen for the Iron Throne.

Aerea Targaryen was the first princess among the Targaryen family during Jaehaerys rule. She was his niece, and her mother, Rhena, was determined for her to claim the Iron Throne for herself. Once they learned that the king was considering having his daughter take her place, this outraged Aerea. She escaped from King's Landing with one of the most powerful and huge dragons, known as Balerion. He had once belonged to a tyrant king, who was one of the sons to Aegon the Conqueror.

She had fled from her family, and even though they spent so much time searching for her, they failed to find her.

Until King's Landing noticed Balerion making a return, along with Aerea, who was now dying.

She begged for help, and the doctors attempted to save her life, but the state of Aerea was unlike anything they had ever seen before. She was described to be burning from within her own body, and it appeared that something was swarming inside of her body. Her eyeballs melted away, a sight that deeply disturbed the doctors. They then placed her body in cold water, and this eventually killed her.

But not before they witnessed one last brutal sight.

Aerea's entire body went through a sickening transformation, consisting of bugs bursting from her body, which most likely caused her body to burn from within. The dragon Balerion also had his own wounds, which led to theories that perhaps both Aerea and the dragon had gone through their own attack, wherever they had landed after leaving King's Landing.

This mystery was never solved, as to what really happened to Aerea.

I have my own theory, and I think it does make a messed-up sort of sense.

We are very aware that in the Game of Thrones universe, curses do exist.

Perhaps Aerea's anger with losing the Iron Throne led to her becoming cursed.

She allowed her anger to take over, and it didn't help that she decided to leave King's Landing on a dragon that was once owned by a monstrous Targaryen king. Her family life wasn't the best either, being stuck with a mother that always wanted to enforce her beliefs on her daughter. It also sucked that Jaehaerys and his wife attempted to help her so many times, but Aerea's mother kept her from leaving with her family to escape.

Aerea was a thirteen-year-old girl that felt trapped in her situation, and she chose to escape on a dragon that was once feared many years ago. All of this led to Aerea finding herself in a crazy unknown situation, that led to both her and the dragon receiving life threatening injuries. Whoever attacked both of them was meant to happen, or perhaps a curse befell both of them, leaving them weak as they made their way back to King's Landing.

The amount of time that both of them suffered also remained unknown, but whatever happened truly traumatized a lot of people who had witnessed this terrifying image.

Perhaps Aerea could have been saved, but her reckless decision led to her own brutal fate. Maybe she was meant to suffer in such a way, as punishment for making so many wrong choices among her family.

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn