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	{{Infobox character		{{Infobox character
			\| image = https://archmaester.site/portraits/got/viserys-targaryen.jpg
	\| name = Viserys Targaryen		\| name = Viserys Targaryen
	\| title = The Beggar King; King Viserys, the Third of His Name (self-styled)		\| title = The Beggar King; King Viserys, the Third of His Name (self-styled)

Archmaesterjimmie: Red-link character article, book-canon (Corvus)

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Red-link character article, book-canon (Corvus)

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{{Infobox character
| name = Viserys Targaryen
| title = The Beggar King; King Viserys, the Third of His Name (self-styled)
| house = [[House Targaryen]]
| race/culture = Valyrian
| status = Deceased
| region = Free Cities; originally [[King's Landing]]
| born = 276 AC (approx.)
| died = 298 AC, at Vaes Dothrak
| fate = Killed by [[Khal Drogo]] with molten gold
| quote = I want what I came for. I want the crown he promised me. He bought you, but he never paid for you.
}}

'''Viserys Targaryen''' was the only surviving son of King [[Aerys II Targaryen]] and Queen Rhaella, and the elder brother of [[Daenerys Targaryen]]. Driven into exile as a child after [[Robert Baratheon|Robert's Rebellion]] toppled his father, Viserys spent his life as a penniless pretender wandering the Free Cities, styling himself King Viserys, the Third of His Name, and clinging to the dream of reclaiming the Iron Throne. Embittered and cruel, he was mockingly known as '''the Beggar King''' for the way he begged hospitality from one magister and trading prince after another.

He sold his sister Daenerys in marriage to the Dothraki warlord [[Khal Drogo]] in exchange for the promise of an army, only to grow increasingly desperate and unstable when the army he was owed never materialized on his timetable.

== Background ==
Viserys was born to [[Aerys II Targaryen]], the Mad King, and his sister-wife Queen Rhaella. As a boy he lived at the [[Red Keep]] in [[King's Landing]] and was the heir to the Iron Throne after the death of his elder brother [[Rhaegar Targaryen]] at the [[Trident]]. When the rebellion turned decisively against the Targaryens, loyalists smuggled Viserys and the pregnant Rhaella to [[Dragonstone]]. Daenerys was born there during a great storm, and their mother died in the birthing. Soon after, threatened by Robert's fleet, the children's protectors fled across the Narrow Sea.

== Exile ==
For years Viserys and Daenerys moved from one Free City to another, sheltered by those who hoped to profit from their cause. They sold the last of their mother's jewels and eventually their family's possessions, sinking into poverty. Viserys came to believe utterly in his right to rule the Seven Kingdoms and nursed a conviction that the smallfolk of Westeros prayed daily for his return. He spoke often of "the dragon" he carried within him and was prone to terrifying, vindictive rages, which Daenerys learned to dread as "waking the dragon."

In [[Pentos]], the wealthy magister [[Illyrio Mopatis]] took the siblings into his manse and conceived a plan to marry Daenerys to [[Khal Drogo]], a powerful Dothraki khal, so that Viserys might gain a horde of warriors to retake his throne.

== Death ==
Viserys traveled with Drogo's khalasar but grew ever more impatient, contemptuous of the Dothraki and resentful that Daenerys was now honored as a khaleesi while he was treated as a hanger-on. At [[Vaes Dothrak]], drunk and humiliated, he drew his sword in the holy city, threatened the pregnant Daenerys, and demanded the golden crown he had been promised. Drogo answered that he should have his crown, and his bloodriders held Viserys fast while the khal melted his golden belt and medallions in a cooking pot and poured the molten metal over Viserys's head, killing him. Watching, Daenerys observed that he was no dragon, for fire could not kill a dragon.

== Character ==
Viserys is portrayed as petty, abusive, and self-deluding, a hollow inheritor of Targaryen pride without any of the grandeur. His cruelty toward Daenerys, his refusal to grasp the dangers around him, and his belief in his own destiny make him a study in the corrosion of a once-great house in exile. His memory haunts Daenerys, who recalls both his kindness in their earliest childhood and the violence he later visited upon her.

== In the television series ==
In HBO's ''Game of Thrones'', Viserys is portrayed by Harry Lloyd. His arc closely follows the novel, ending with his death by molten gold at Vaes Dothrak in the first season.

== Quotes ==
<blockquote>''You don't want to wake the dragon, do you?''</blockquote>

== Appearances ==
* ''[[A Game of Thrones]]''

[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Game of Thrones]]
[[Category:House Targaryen]]

Viserys Targaryen - Revision history

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