Jacaerys Velaryon
Rhaenyra's eldest, heir after his mother, rider of Vermax ÔÇö brown-haired where Velaryons run silver, and made to carry the court's whispers about it. Earnest, dutiful, and better than the war deserves.
A soul of House Velaryon, born at King's Landing, sworn to The Blacks ÔÇö the Queen's Party.
The fuller tale
Season One
In The Black Queen ÔÇö Sworn to win his mother the mountain and the snow. Jacaerys flies for the Eyrie and Winterfell, Lucerys for Storm's End ÔÇö envoys, not warriors. At Storm's End waits Vhagar.
Where they stand. King's Landing, Driftmark and Dragonstone.
Season Two
In A Son for a Son ÔÇö Wins the North with honesty, then hears about Luke. Jacaerys treats with Cregan Stark on the Wall itself: the North remembers its oath, and the Pact of Ice and Fire is sworn. In The Red Sowing ÔÇö Won the North with his name; watches the name matter less by the hour.
Where they stand. Castle Black and Dragonstone.
How it ends for them
On the page. Lost with Vermax in the Battle of the Gullet (F&B, ch. 5)
In the Battle of the Gullet the queen's heir flew Vermax too low among the Triarchy's ninety ships. Dragon and prince went into the sea; the Myrish crossbows found him swimming. With him drowned the best of the blacks' next generation.
The series has not yet reached the Battle of the Gullet; Jacaerys's fate remains ahead of the current seasons.
Fire & Blood places his death in that battle, where the queen's heir flies Vermax too low over the Triarchy's massed warships during the fighting. Dragon and prince are brought down together into the sea, and Myrish crossbowmen find Jacaerys swimming before he can reach safety, finishing what the fall into the water started. With him, the book notes bluntly, drowns the most promising of the black cause's second generation.
Their chapters, book by book
Fire & Blood ÔÇö The Dance of the Dragons 1 chapter that name them
Where the page and the screen part
Jacaerys receives substantial development in the show's aired seasons as one of Rhaenyra's most sympathetic and competent children, his diplomatic missions and his relationship with his siblings given considerable screen time. Fire & Blood treats him with similar respect but far more economy, recording his various missions and his death at the Gullet in the compressed, matter-of-fact register the book reserves for even its most consequential losses.
Their journey
Where the two tellings send them to the same place the road runs whole; where they part, the screen keeps the left and the books the right.