Better Men: Bias and Bastardy in the Blackfyre Rebellion, part 1
“Aegon the Fourth legitimized all his bastards on his deathbed. And how much pain, grief, war, and murder came from that?....The Blackfyre pretenders troubled the Targaryens for five generations, until Barristan the Bold slew the last of them on the Stepstones.” (ASOS, Catelyn V)
Bloodraven might not be a real lord, but he was noble on both sides. His mother had been one of the many mistresses of King Aegon the Unworthy. Aegon’s bastards had been the bane of the Seven Kingdoms ever since the old king died. (TSS)
The interplay between political legitimacy and the legal legitimacy of individuals, as used in the Blackfyre conflict and throughout the narrative, is specifically about in-group/out-group sorting, about who is worthy and who isn’t. The images, actions, and rivalries of the sons of Aegon the Unworthy sharply illustrate the political and psychological effects of abstract concepts like implicit bias, normalcy versus otherness, and the costs and benefits of the choice or refusal to cover. This part of the story weaves the political questions of the Rebellion in with deeper lines unwittingly drawn, people’s subconscious assessment of status and the unfortunate tendency to assume that might makes right.
This is not to claim that these are the only forces driving the Blackfyre conflict. Throughout the post, I will link to other perspectives and reads on the story, much of which is convincing and all of which is thought-provoking. My point is that these social forces, which predated and outlasted House Blackfyre, and which often don’t seem to have anything to do with the war itself, are always involved in how these characters chose their sides, formed their habits, and spun their plots.