Your Honor, They're all Autistic
Please gather round while I scream about my dearly held headcanon that the 4 sons of King Daeron II Targaryen are ALL autistic as fuck. Seriously, you can pry this hypothesis from my cold, dead hands. Unscrolls my completely normal number of notes on the topic.
Maekar was the canary in the coalmine for me. That man is neurodivergent as hell, and you can take that to the bank. He's prickly, not charismatic, and known as "stern and unforgiving". Maekar is extremely blunt and a very black and white thinker. Seriously, in the show Maekar says it's not Lord Ashford's fault the king told them to attend his "miserable little circus" right in front of Lord Ashford AND his daughter. Jesus Maekar. Tell us how you really feel dude.
He doesn't seem to accept easy answers, questioning the High Septon about the will of the gods- Maekar wants TRUTH, not flowery words. He also supposedly has a "sour" demeanor- Maekar can mask but only to a point and he thinks it's an incredibly stupid exercise.
We don't know a lot about him, but Rhaegel was know as "sweet and gentle". There were also rumors that he "danced naked through the halls of the Red Keep". That's... a very weird and very specific rumor so there's probably some truth to it imho. I think this could easily be explained as stimming, possibly spinning around in circles, and not wanting to wear clothes that scratch, itch, or are otherwise sensory nightmares. So, why not just rip them off right off? He's a prince, who's going to stop him? Rhaegel would be considered level 3 or very high support needs today. Do we really think a high support needs autistic individual would not be called "touched by madness" in Westeros?
Aerys is pretty self-explanatory, I think. His love for reading was well known but it honestly went beyond love. It was WAY more obsessive. Aerys would become so focused on what he was reading/researching he would literally forget to change his clothes! Can anyone say hyper fixation with me? Aerys would probably be considered someone with level 2 autism- he would need a good amount of support mostly with atypical social behavior, high interest in specific topics and distress with change or disruption.
Baelor is a bit trickier. At first glance, he seems almost neurotypical. But if you look a little bit beneath the surface, I think it becomes clear he's low support needs but still an autistic king amount men. The ring spinning, anyone? Oh, that man found a socially acceptable way to stim and regulate himself. But even better, the eye contact?? Jesus take the wheel.
Someone clearly told Baelor as a boy, you HAVE to look people in the eye when you talk to them, you don't have a choice, stop looking away, stand still, and LoOk ThEm In ThE eYeS!! So, Baelor trained himself to always maintain eye contact but it's definitely not natural. He just…maintains the most intense, focused eye contact and never breaks it. It actually works for him in the end, unnerves people and throws them off guard almost like he's doing it on purpose when he's just trying maintain "normal" levels of eye contact.
The strong sense of justice? Knightly honor? I would argue perhaps a bit of a hyper fixation on jousting, history nerd facts? Yeah, that man be an autistic who's learned to mask very, very well through necessity.
(I would argue Dunk himself is very autistic coded and that is why Dunk and Baelor fit so well together and why they seem so drawn to each other. Have you ever met a fellow neurodivergent in the wild?! It's a religious experience. But that's a post for another day.)
