What Evidence Proves Aerys Ii Plotted Against His Advisors?

I get the chills every time I reread this part of the story — the evidence that Aerys II plotted against those around him is scattered through the narrative like broken glass, and it’s impossible to miss once you start collecting the pieces. First and most damning: the executions of Rickard and Brandon Stark. Their deaths weren’t mere formalities or battlefield casualties; they were cruel, theatrical, and politically charged. The way Ned and others remember the events in 'A Game of Thrones' makes clear these were acts of a paranoid king lashing out, not the impartial justice of a ruler listening to counsel.

Then there’s the wildfire plot, which is the smoking dragon in the room. Jaime Lannister’s confession — the turning point — tells us how Aerys had caches of wildfire hidden under the city and planned to ignite them rather than let the rebels take King's Landing. Jaime’s account of finding Aerys by the levers and the king’s cry to 'burn them all' is direct testimony that Aerys intended mass murder, and crucially, it shows he was willing to destroy his own capital (and thereby betray or eliminate any advisors who might oppose him) rather than surrender. Barristan Selmy and other recollections back up the pattern of delusion: Aerys withdrawing from counsel, growing distrustful, and making catastrophic secret preparations.

Finally, look at behavior towards his supposed advisors. He verbally humiliated and suspected Tywin, ignored sober counsel, and surrounded himself with those who fed his fears. The combination of political murders, secret preparations for catastrophic action, and testimony from people who witnessed him planning the city’s destruction forms a coherent picture: Aerys wasn’t just capricious — he plotted against the very people and institutions that should have guided or restrained him in 'A Song of Ice and Fire'. It feels tragic every time I think about how many lives that madness ruined.

I still picture Jaime’s hand trembling as he tells it — that image is the core of the proof. The wildfire caches beneath King's Landing and the explicit testimony that Aerys intended to light them are hard facts from the books, and they show a king ready to kill his people and, by extension, eliminate any advisors who stood in his way. Add the barbaric executions of Rickard and Brandon Stark, which were political acts meant to cow or punish nobles who questioned him, and you have a consistent pattern: Aerys growing ever more paranoid and willing to use extreme, secret measures.

Beyond those events, the testimonies of people who served him — scattered comments about insults to Tywin, the sidelining of sober counsel, and the increasing isolation of the king — make the motive clear. He didn’t merely disagree with advisors; he prepared to destroy the city rather than heed them, which is about as explicit a plot as you can get in 'A Song of Ice and Fire'. It leaves me thinking about how fragile institutions are when a ruler decides to turn on his own foundations.

If you read the accounts like a detective, the clues add up fast. One of the clearest pieces of evidence is the fate of Rickard and Brandon Stark: their arrest and execution were widely understood as driven more by Aerys’s paranoia than by any measured advice from his Small Council. That kind of politically motivated cruelty signals a ruler who sees conspiracies everywhere, even among his advisors.

The most concrete proof, though, is the wildfire scheme. In 'A Storm of Swords' and through Jaime’s later recollections, we learn that Aerys ordered vast quantities of wildfire stockpiled under King's Landing and intended to ignite it when the city was at risk. That plan would have killed countless citizens and officials alike — essentially eliminating anyone who opposed him, including his own counselors. Jaime’s intervention, killing Aerys to stop him pulling the levers, is literally the last-act confirmation that such a plot existed. Other witnesses — like members of the Kingsguard who later talk about the king’s temper and distrust — reinforce the picture: a monarch who increasingly sidelined honest counsel and prepared secret, catastrophic measures to maintain power.

So the evidence is both direct (witness testimony like Jaime’s and Barristan’s) and circumstantial (political executions, open contempt for experienced hands). Taken together, they support the conclusion that Aerys II was actively plotting against those around him, and not merely making bad rulings.