Welp, here I am back again with another PE removal of a candidate whom a few people are actually anticipating a removal for and for good reason. While this guy doesn't have the red lock, he is currently under the category and I don't believe he qualifies so I decided to make this removal.
Normally I'd mention who I got permission from to do this, but given that this is for a character who doesn't have the red lock, I don't need to even get permission to do so.
What's the Work?
Game of Thrones (or known by many as A Song of Ice and Fire) is a series of novels involving the fantasy genre that are about how a kingdom goes to war after its king dies and several different lords declare themselves rightful heirs to the throne or choose to secede.
I think it'd probably be a good idea for me to tackle what the book "A World of Ice and Fire" in particular is about since that is gonna be a bit of a major focus in this removal since that book goes into detail about his actions and the stuff that prevents him from being PE, so here's my summary for that:
It is basically a book that describes the events that happened prior to Game of Thrones and also how some things came to be in Game of Thrones. It talks about how people in-universe evolve in their society as a civilization and showing descriptions of nations and talking about how some nations go at war with each other and how some kings go at war with other kings to conquer their kingdoms and how some kings are benevolent albeit with a mixed reception from civilians and how some kings are petty and kill whoever they want (like Aerys II Targaryen aka today's removal candidate for instance) with some trying to take them down as a result. So, to put it short, it's basically kind of like a history book except describing fictional events that happened prior to a story.
Who is he? What has he done?
Aerys II Targaryen basically serves as the overarching albeit posthumous villain of the novels franchise. At first, after ascending onto the throne after the death of his father, he proved himself to be a charismatic king, one who would gain many friends from certain qualities, and had a genuine friendship with Tywin Lannister, a friendship that had been stemmed from childhood, and won the support of many. However, over the years he began to go insane, which is fueled by instances like his sons' deaths due to them either being miscarriaged or stillborn or dying for unknown reasons after their birth, him being held captive at Duskendale, paranoia over people betraying him, etc. and would go so far as to commit certain atrocities at either his own kingdom or others like sadistically burning lots of people alive with fire, torturing some, and eventually trying to destroy King's Landing and everyone in it with even his friendship with Tywin being subverted as he would develop hatred towards him and become his official enemy, before his reign of terror was ended by Jaime Lannister himself (which would earn him the title of Kingslayer), earning the title of the Mad King himself.
Why he doesn't qualify?
While I'd say he passes the heinous standards of GOT/ASOIAF with the amount of brutal murders he has through burning lots of people alive, the tortures he commits on a few folks involving them dying from the torture, having a woman's tongue and womanly parts torn out before getting her burnt alive, repeatedly raping Rhaella, his own sister, and trying to destroy King's Landing and everyone in it through detonating caches that he would have be placed in certain locations in the city which would have gotten thousands of folks killed to the extent of where heinousness is not an issue, the main issue comes in the form of care for his sons, or at least some of them anyway.
So, if you read the above "who is he? what has he done?" section, you probably know what I'm talking about. While one could make the argument that it's not made clear if he displayed care towards the first few sons whom Rhaella gave birth to yet died since it's only established that he comforted her in her grief in the book "The World of Ice and Fire" (which is otherwise subverted) rather than explicitly mourning the deaths of the sons, it does get explicit with Prince Jaehaerys, one of the infants Rhaella would give birth to later on. The book establishes that when she gave birth to him, Aerys was filled with joy to the point of where he temporarily became his old self again but when he died later the same year he was born, Aerys was plunged into despair, explicitly mourning his death. Heck, right after that, he instantly blames Jaeherys' wet nurse for his death and had her beheaded and then shortly after upon deciding that Jaeherys' mistress killed him through poisoning him and even went to the extent of having her and all her kin tortured to death, though when discovering that the details of their confessions to the murder were greatly at odds, Aerys fasted for a fortnight and made a walk of repentance across the city to the Great Sept to pray with the High Septon.
Another instance of him displaying care towards another one of his sons is, upon the birth of Prince Viserys, Aerys became worried for his health and did what he can to make sure he did not meet the same fate as his brothers, commanding knights to watch over him night and day to ensure that no one touched the boy without the king's leave, even forbidding Rhaella from being alone with him and when her milk dried up, Aerys insisted that his food taster suckle at the teats of the prince's wet nurse to ascertain that the woman had not smeared poison over her nipples. He even paranoidly burned all the gifts delivered for the young prince out of fear that some of them might be ensorcelled or cursed. He even exemplifies this again when he sent Rhaella and Viserys away to Dragonstone when news reached the Red Keep that Aerys condemned the Dornish on account of him being certain that Lewyn had betrayed Rhaegar, displaying some worry for his safety. This all clearly shows he cares for his sons and is never subverted in any way.
I guess another thing I need to mention is that Aerys might also possibly be too insane as well to the point of MA issues since it does affect a lot of his thinking, with such circumstances exemplifying this being moments like him accusing Jaehaerys' nurse of responsibility for his death, then moments later accusing two other people of his death before punishing them cruelly after they confessed with details being greatly at odds, him burning gifts delivered to Viserys under the belief of them being ensorcelled or cursed, the book mentioning that any sanity he had left was shattered because of his captivity at Duskendale with him not allowing himself to be touched even by his own servants which soon caused his hair uncut and unwashed to grow even longer and more tangled and his fingernails lengthening and becoming grotesque yellow talons, believing that Rhaegar one of his own sons had conspired with Tywin to have him killed at Duskendale (eventually believing that both Rhaella and Rhaegar were planning to kill him), displaying an obsession with dragonfire to the point of deciding to have a lot of his executions be carried out through the process of burning and taking an unhealthy dose of sadism in them, getting himself cut many times on the Iron Throne, him burning those he merely perceived as enemires when they might not have been, it being established that he could go from mirth to melancholy within the blink of an eye and also him having moments of hysterical laughter, long silences, bouts of weeping, and sudden rages, him being convinced that a tree on a mystery knight's shield was laughing at him and without any other proof besides that, instantly used that as an excuse to decide that the knight was Jaime Lannister and trying to have said knight defeated, seeing Rhaegar's skills as a threat, hiim having Stark, his heir, and their supporters brutally slain instead of allowing them to have fair hearing after they demanded redress for Rhaegar's wrongs, and possibly a few other occasions I forgot to mention. While I'm not entirely sure myself if he's too insane, I figured this was worth noting since he is pretty insane (he is called the Mad King after all), and it is a reason as to why some don't believe he counts as well.
Verdict
Definite cut.