How Baelor's Death Rewrites the Targaryen Line

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms keeps its focus on character, but the fifth episode, "In the Name of the Mother," stages a moment with far-reaching consequences: Prince Baelor Targaryen, Hand of the King and heir to the Iron Throne, is killed defending Ser Duncan the Tall during a trial of seven, struck unintentionally by his younger brother Maekar.

George R.R. Martin has pointed to this exact death in The Hedge Knight as a turning point: Baelor might have been a strong, competent king, and his loss redirects the succession. At the time King Daeron II sits the throne with four sons—Baelor, Aerys, Rhaegel and Maekar—and Baelor’s early death eventually elevates Aerys to heir and then king after Daeron’s death and the subsequent deaths of other heirs.

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