A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Somehow Found Someone Worse Than Joffrey

A falling star brings luck to those who see it, but spoilers don't. This article discusses major plot details from "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" episode 4.

George R. R. Martin's Westeros is full of great villains. We have cunning and brutal tacticians like Tywin Lannister, chaotic gremlins like Petyr Baelish, sadistic psychopaths like Ramsey Bolton, and supernatural monsters like the Night King. And, of course, there's the biggest and best villain of all: Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson). 

From the moment he appeared on screen for the first time, Joffrey immediately became a memorable and despicable villain. Even when he's just a prince, he's still a prick posing as a gallant noble. The more we get to know him, the more it becomes clear that Joffrey is a raging psychopath. He's cruel, he's violent, he's despicable. It's no wonder Joffrey's death is one of the show creators' two favorite death scenes in "Game of Thrones." We've had many villains since Joffrey, but none have managed to be as evil as him ... until now. 

"A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" feels like a miracle. It is a spin-off whose vibes are completely different from the original without it being mismatched. Playing the "Game of Thrones" theme while a guy poops doesn't feel out of place, even if it is jarring at first. Despite the initial levity and the smaller scale, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is still very much a Westeros show. We still have a lot of violence, smallfolk suffering, and a prince who is the absolute worst. This last bit is important, because, somehow, this show has given us someone who is worse than Joffrey Baratheon. Meet Prince Aerion "Brightflame" Targaryen (Finn Bennett), your new love-to-hate character.

When we first meet Aerion (Finn Bennett) in the third episode of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," he uses his first joust at the Ashford tournament to commit animal cruelty, dishonorably and mortally wounding a horse. Though Dunk (Peter Claffey) initially believes this was a tragic accident, it's clear Aerion took a calculated decision that would help his performance in the tournament. He ends the episode by becoming enraged at a puppet play featuring a dragon. Rather than being a normal audience member and politely voicing his concerns on social media, Aerion attacks a puppeteer and brutally mutilates her hand.

Much like Joffrey, Aerion shows his true colors early on by harming animals, and then innocent women. Bennett also knows how to portray a character with just enough evil that you are immediately repulsed by him, while making it impossible to look away. Granted, Aerion is nowhere near as stupidly entertaining as Joffrey, but he also didn't have King Bobby Baratheon as his pretend daddy.

Episode 4 is where it really becomes clear what kind of monster Aerion Targaryen is. We hear from Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) that his brother Aerion killed their cat when they were younger. Not only that, but Aerion apparently used to sneak into Egg's room at night, hold a knife between young Egg's legs and tell him that he'd cut him to make him a sister he could marry. You know, the old Targaryen tradition.

Joffrey was many things, but we never saw him be cruel to his siblings. At the very least, he never seemed to want to mutilate and then have an incestuous relationship with his brother. At least we know Aerion will get his comeuppance, that's because Joffrey himself spoiled Aerion's fate in "Game of Thrones."