Maegor I Targaryen

And that was the ultimate mistake.

Like, Maegor objectively did more damage, but a lot of people followed Maegor for longer than they did Aerys, because even at his worst, until the end, Maegor could at least kind of perform the role of king and leader, and Aerys never could.

And I think, as Ian said, Helaena's sin was not what she was going through mentally.

It was her inability to process that into a role which could become socially acceptable.

Maelys probably planned on choosing a bride from a great house to shore up his rule after he invaded, possibly multiple brides.

We don't know huge amounts about him, but he definitely gives off Maegor the Cruel vibes, which means that there would be doubts as to his ability to even father a child, given his grotesque physique.

But Maelys wasn't trying to win over the Lords of Westeros so much as he was trying to beat them into submission.

Any objections would be answered by the sword, or with a twisted-off head.

The future was sacrificed for the present.

With regard to size and strength and brutality, I earlier mentioned Sir Gregor Clegane as a possible parallel, but the mountain never aimed for a crown, never dabbled in magic or prophecy.

In truth, had Maelys succeeded in taking the throne, the closest parallel would have been Maegor the Cruel.

Maegor, Maelys, and Gregor are all kinslayers, and two of them did it openly.

For Other, you could write in another king, and you can even explain why.

For worst kings, the choices are Aenys, Maegor, Aegon II, Aegon IV, Aerys II, and Other.

The results were fascinating.

For Best King, there were five votes for J. Harris I, one vote for Daeron II, and one for Aegon V.

Ned Stark walks through it, his sword at his hip, wearing no armor.

They march through Maegor's holdfast and begin to advance through the halls.

The sound of these footsteps echo, but there is no one to hear them.

The few Lannisters awake to see this are swiftly cut down.

I was reminded to do so by Stephen Adewale's coverage, which again, I recommend you all go read That coverage, he was amazing.

But this coverage or this lore video has Maegor as the first king to offer service to the alchemists.

And then they originally could transmute metals into gold, right? But he was like, no, no, that's worthless.

I want wildfire for sieges, for torture.

Oh, worm.

And actually kind of a big deal, right? Like we see in Fire and Blood and the world of Ice and Fire, the repeated nature of like religion being used and leveraged against the monarchy.

And looking back at like Maegor's reign, right? And of course, the wheat hold, the Aenys.

really had on the throne, too, after his father left.

This is me bringing in Game of Thrones guys.

They remind me of Aenys and Maegor.

Yeah.

Where I feel like a lot of people, I mean, also we have limited lore on Aenys, but I feel like because like Aenys is very like meek and not buff, people always kind of assume he's like nicer and gentler, sort of how Colm is.