(Viserys): The Battle of the Trident
may have been an important victory for the Usurper,
but it was the treachery and barbarism of Tywin Lannister
that sealed the fate of the Targaryen dynasty.
My father, King Aerys,
had ever been a friend to the Lions of the Rock.
Aerys graciously brought Tywin to court,
making him the youngest Hand of the King in history.
He gave him power.
He gave him respect.
He made it possible for Tywin to restore House Lannister to glory.
Aerys and Tywin governed side by side for 20 prosperous years.
Still, when the Usurper called his banners in rebellion,
Tywin Lannister ignored his king's pleas for help,
and stayed holed up in his stronghold of Casterly Rock.
In time, my brother Prince Rhaegar was dead.
The realm was in turmoil...
and the Usurper's forces were said to be riding for King's Landing.
What a glorious sight it must have been
when a force of 10,000 Lannister men
showed up at the gate of the capital
with Lord Tywin at their head,
pledging support to his beleaguered king.
Aerys opened the gates for his old friend.
Instead, Lannister and his men
proceeded to plunder and destroy
the city that he had called home for decades.
As the capital was ravaged
and its people terrorized,
Jaime Lannister, son of Lord Tywin,
proved every bit as treacherous.
He killed my father, the king, at the foot of the Iron Throne.
The Lannisters entered the Red Keep
and Tywin ordered the deaths of the rest of the royal family.
It is said Princess Rhaenys was found cowering under her father's bed
and put to the sword.
She was only a child.
As for Rhaegar's widow, Elia,
she was forced to watch
as Lannister thugs dashed her baby son's head against a wall,
before being raped and murdered herself.
As I was the heir to my father's throne,
I had been spirited away to Dragonstone
with my mother, Queen Rhaella, who was with child.
As a raging summer storm battered the island fortress
and destroyed the Targaryen fleet as it lay at anchor,
my sister Daenerys was born.
My mother, the queen, died giving birth.
Now, some 17 years later,
the rightful king still lives in exile.
But a day of reckoning is coming.
I will sail west, as Aegon the Dragon did centuries before.
I will take back my father's throne with blood and fire.
And I will punish the treacherous dogs who sought to destroy my family.
And the people shall rejoice.