It’s the final season of the long journey that has been Game of Thrones, so naturally, we are thirsty for all loose ends to be tied up in complex little knots. One of those loose ends might just be the Mad King’s story arc, which we thought was ancient history.
Buried beneath the many, many, Game of Thrones theories inundating the internet and conversations everywhere, there are some suspicions about the role Aerys ‘Mad King’ Targaryen plays in the final season. There are two key theories that you should be across.
The first is unashamedly my own, and it explains the identity of one of the only non-generic White Walkers we’ve ever seen. This guy:
This was the first White Walker leader we were introduced to and in early seasons he was even mistaken for the Night King. As things progress we meet the actual Night King – a baldy – and this white-haired undead dude appears to be the leader of the Night King’s army.
This is seen clearly in the season seven finale when white-hair leads the troupes from the ground while old mate Night King rides his newly-zombified dragon and destroys the wall.
So who is this White Walker heading the undead army? Could it be no other than Aerys Targaryen, the Mad King of the famously white-haired Targaryen house?
The connection to the Targaryens fits in with the resemblance of the White Walker spiral symbol to the Targaryen house sigil, and contextualises the White Walker’s motivation to march onto King’s Landing.
Those flowing silver locks just seem too Targaryen to be a coincidence, and we know the Targaryen’s can be unforgiving.
The second theory involves our very own Brandon Stark and the supposed madness of Aerys Targaryen. It’s complex, stay with me.
So the core of the theory is that Bran is talking to the Mad King from the future, and the Mad King can hear him, just as Hodor heard into the future, and a young Ned Stark heard something when Bran tried to communicate with him.
Variations of the theory have garnered new life on Reddit, where the evidence is being collated. Aerys Targaryen was said to have heard ‘voices’. Aerys Targaryen descended into a paranoid obsession with collecting wildfire and was killed by Jaime Lannister after his outbreak of repeatedly demanding to “burn them all” – seemingly referring to the people of King’s Landing.
But as the theory goes, the calls to “burn them all” could be a message from Bran from the future, perhaps attempting to set up the capital to defeat the inevitable coming of the White Walker army.
We know Bran visited this moment in history during his vision at the end of season six. He sees the Mad King gone ‘mad’, and he sees Jaime kill him.
Whatever ends up happening, I hope it’s as wonderfully complex as these theories that are cropping up. Game of Thrones’ final season has definitely brought out everybody’s flair for creative writing and we will miss it when it’s over.