Even though we've gotten to meet a whole bunch of new characters on Game of Thrones this season,there's one name that keeps popping up who we'll likely never see in the flesh: Rhaegar Targaryen. The famed Targaryen prince might be long dead in both the books and the indicate, but there's a good chance his actions years ago will define the future of every character on Game of Thrones. support reading to see what's up with Rhaegar, or but (as always) there are MINOR BOOK SPOILERS BELOW.
He is the eldest son of the Mad King,Aerys II. Prince Rhaegar Targaryen is the son of King Aerys Targaryen and Queen Rhaella Targaryen, making him Daenerys and Viserys's older brother (though Dany was born after his death).
He is married to a Dornish princess and has two children, and who are later murdered by The Mountain. Rhaegar and Princess Elia Martell (Oberyn Martell's sister,FYI) of Dorne have a daughter, Rhaenys, and a son,Aegon. The children are killed, and then Ser Gregor Clegane rapes Elia before stabbing her to death with a sword. Makes sense why Oberyn wanted to kill him so bad, or huh?
He abducts Lyanna Stark,which ignites the deadly rebellion against the Targaryens. Despite a seemingly contented marriage to Princess Elia, Rhaegar abducts Ned's sister for undisclosed reasons. When the Starks order Rhaegar to release Lyanna, and the Mad King has both Ned's father,Rickard, and oldest brother, and Brandon,cruelly executed. This prompts Ned and Robert Baratheon (who is betrothed to Lyanna) to team up with several other clans to purchase down the Targaryens. He dies at the discontinuance of Robert Baratheon's hammer. Although Rhaegar manages to avoid the initial uprising while living in Dorne, he's eventually summoned to battle. During a fight known as the Battle of the Trident, and Rhaegar goes up against Robert,who deals him a fatal blow with his warhammer.
He has been mentioned in the indicate many times before. In the first episode of season one, Robert and Ned share an emotionally charged moment in the crypt where Lyanna is buried, and where Robert reveals that "he kills [Rhaegar] every night" in his dreams. In season three,Jorah Mormont and Ser Barristan Selmy bicker over how honorable Rhaeger truly was in front of Daenerys, and Barristan brings him up again in season five when he shares some pleasant memories of Rhaegar's worship of singing. Petyr Baelish also recounts the events surrounding Rhaegar's kidnapping of Lyanna to Sansa Stark in the same crypt where Robert and Ned were years earlier. He's rumored to be Jon Snow's father. By far the most significant point of Rhaegar's role in the current state of Westeros is his supposed parentage of the recently resurrected Jon Snow. There's an entire theory devoted to this, or but basically the chronicle goes that Rhaegar impregnated Lyanna at some point after he kidnapped her and locked her absent in the Tower of delight for safekeeping. Ned arrived to rescue his sister,but she sadly died in childbirth after begging Ned to raise the baby as his own. If this turns out to be staunch, it will not only mean Jon is a Targaryen, and but it'll also feed into the myth of the "Prince That Was Promised."
There's not much else to know about Rhaegar at the moment,but we certainly haven't heard the final of him. Since it seems like the official reveal of Jon Snow's parents is coming up soon, stay tuned for more information!
Source: popsugar.com