Rhaegar Targaryen is a fictional prince from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books and the Game of Thrones TV series, remembered as the doomed Targaryen heir whose choices helped ignite Robert’s Rebellion.

Who Rhaegar Targaryen Is

  • He is the eldest son of King Aerys II Targaryen (the “Mad King”) and Queen Rhaella, making him crown prince and heir to the Iron Throne.
  • His formal title is Prince of Dragonstone, the traditional title for the Targaryen heir.
  • He is the older brother of Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen.

Personality and Reputation

  • Rhaegar is portrayed as a serious and melancholic figure: highly intelligent, bookish in youth, and later a skilled warrior and musician.
  • Many characters remember him as noble, honorable, and beloved by common folk, yet also driven by prophecy and a sense of destiny that led to disastrous choices.

Key Relationships

  • He marries Elia Martell of Dorne and has two children with her, Rhaenys and Aegon.
  • He later falls in love with Lyanna Stark; they secretly run off together and marry in at least the TV canon after an annulment from Elia, which is revealed as the origin of Jon Snow (Aegon Targaryen) in the show.
  • His relationship with Lyanna, seen by many as abduction and by others as elopement, is the immediate spark for Robert’s Rebellion.

Role in Robert’s Rebellion

  • After Rhaegar crowns Lyanna Stark “queen of love and beauty” at the Tourney at Harrenhal instead of his wife Elia, tensions between great houses explode.
  • When Lyanna disappears with Rhaegar, Robert Baratheon, Eddard Stark, and their allies rise in rebellion against the Targaryens.
  • Rhaegar commands royal forces and ultimately faces Robert Baratheon in single combat at the Battle of the Trident, where Robert kills him with a hammer blow that smashes the rubies from Rhaegar’s armor into the river (later called the Ruby Ford).

Legacy and Why He’s a Trending Topic

  • Even though he is dead before both the books and TV show’s main timelines, his actions shape almost everything: the fall of the Targaryens, Robert becoming king, and Jon Snow’s secret parentage.
  • Fans debate whether he was a romantic idealist, a selfish aristocrat who destroyed his family, or a tragic figure crushed by prophecy and politics.
  • With prequels like House of the Dragon keeping Targaryen stories in the spotlight, forum threads and articles still regularly revisit “who is Rhaegar Targaryen” and what his true motives were.

In many fan discussions, Rhaegar is treated less like a background character and more like a ghost whose choices haunt every major event in Westeros.

TL;DR: Rhaegar Targaryen is the tragic Targaryen crown prince whose love for Lyanna Stark and obsession with destiny helped topple his own dynasty and secretly created Jon Snow’s royal bloodline.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.