Aeyron is not the same person as he was in Book One. He has clearly been affected by his grief for Joanna, in the past 8 months, and has changed.
At the start Aeyron appears as a lonely, isolated figure. He sits on the throne alone and he remarks that Joanna was supposed to be by his side. Aeyron is continually bugged about having to marry someone, after Joanna's death they don't want the king to have to go to a failure like that again. This time when he goes for a queen, it needs to be something much more simple. The elderly figures that he used to have are gone and he feels torment about it. Samuel, Jon Darklyn as well as others have left him - Samuel left on his own regard, and Jon was sent up north by Aeyron yet he hasn't returned yet. The one that Aeyron hates the most is Joanna, Joanna has left him alone in the world. Although he knows she loves Ulthor he struggles to believe she wouldn't be by his side if she was still alive, and he ponders whether she'd be happy with the killer of her husband and children's father. Aeyron feels betrayed by everyone, betrayed by those people he used to consider friends and one of the biggest scenarios of that includes Ignis Swyft. Aeyron begins to push away Ignis in fear that Ignis will eventually go on to betray him like all the others do, he's afraid of losing everyone he knows and it started with Joanna - but this time he isn't going to be caught surprised when someone leaves, this time he's going to be ready by pushing the others away. This is why, all those yes men like Lord Ahriman and The Ghost of Blackfyre are being promoted and see Aeyron so much, because Aeyron doesn't feel like he's vulnerable of being betrayed and left to the side by them. It's painful that Aeyron feels this way, totally lonely without love and totally lonely without a trusted friend. In general he's lost all sort of trust, Joanna made sure of that when she gave him her children. He finds it hard to trust, and that is why he's so easily suspicious of Ignis Swyft.
Aeyron in his neglect for people, neglects his son Cyrus Sun. Everyone else takes care of him other than Aeyron. He also is neglectful of his duties as a king, he refuses to go to Small Council meetings and thinks that he's just a proxy king and that other people rule for him. It makes other people unhappy with him and critical of him, especially Ser Steffon Bracken; who puts Cyrus into Aeyron's hands reminding him that he made a promise to Joanna, Steffon comes off as aggressive to Aeyron and he's seriously disappointed - 'Steffon took a hard look at Aeyron’s eyes'. We can say that Aeyron neglects Joanna and ignores her final pleas before her death, it's a shameless action by Aeyron and terribly cowardly. His refusal to take care of Joanna's son only digs him a deeper hole, and he feels more self-doubt for himself as he can't live up to Joanna's promise and feels pained by the burden she's put on him. Ignis also is very disappointed by the King's actions, his complete refusal to see Ashara and thus shaming him terribly rages Ignis, he feels that Aeyron's attacked an innocent person who actually wants to help him. Aeyron's own withdrawal from Ignis gets in the way of their professional and personal relationship; Ignis feels anger that Aeyron is attempting to replace him with Tywon Casterly and on a personal level he feels shame that Aeyron treats him like he isn't his friend. The people around Ignis, criticise Aeyron too, and due to Aeyron's withdrawal his plan to push away Ignis works; Ignis works behind Aeyron's back and is willing to work to stop his abominations that Lord Ahriman is doing for him.
He's plagued by self-doubt, self-hatred and incredible grief. Aeyron finds no one to talk to, he can't trust anyone to speak to on a personal level because he doesn't want to get close to them. He feels that inevitably people will leave him, no matter what he does. It's either his fault, or they want to pursue something else. You can't keep something as strong as loneliness inside yourself or it will gnaw at you and make you lose any sense of yourself and who you were before. Aeyron feels all of his emotions bottled up inside himself because he is the King, and he thinks he cannot show emotion as King. Aeyron considers that it was his outburst of emotion as king that cause the rebellion with Ulthor, and in book one he considers that if he remains stoic and emotionless he won't make the same mistakes he did before. And maybe he's right, he doesn't make the same mistakes...because he's too busy making new mistakes. Maybe this is why Aeyron likes Lord Tywon so much, because Tywon is the excellance of stoic and emotionless, and he is one of the strongest men in the continent due to it.
Sadly Aeyron's bottled up emotions are released in hyper-emotive, destructive ways. In Aeyron 3, Alice tries talking to him but Aeyron zones out as he is attacked by emotion, and in the same emotion he shouts at Lord Ahriman and The Ghost of Blackfyre in desperation and frustration. In Aeyron 4 he has a mental breakdown, compeltely taken over by emotion and horrible thoughts we see pages of his inner thoughts where he loathes himself and hates everythhing around himself - including Joanna, who he blames for himself being in this state. He's seriously confused on how to view Joanna, he isn't sure whether he should love her or hate her for what she's done. Sadly Aeyron has some suicidal thoughts in this, he want's eternal sleep and wants to burn in the seven hells for what he's done to the Seven Kingdoms. It's really hard to think about because we've seen his good nature in book one and (hopefully) we hate seeing someone we love in a horrible predicament like this. We hate seeing someone so trapped in themselves, and unable to move. The self-doubt comes in when he regards himself as a failure to everyone that has known him, his parents, brother, sisters, Joanna, his subjects. He's a king but Aeyron feels trapped as the king, he has to put on a persona of the King which is slowly consuming him and he can no longer fight it anymroe.
Thank the heavens for Alice Strong, as she saves Aeyron from a horrible fate. She's the only one that Aeyron allows to talk to. Think that Aeyron's chapters are empty with side characters except for Alice, and she makes sure that he knows he's loved. Aeyron i think can speak to Alice, because he can relate to her and she can relate to him. Aeyron feels that he's wronged Alice's family, by getting multiple of her family members killed and letting them be sieged in their own home. He talks to Alice, because he wants to make up for what he has done to her. When she goes through the troubles of telling him about the siege and it's effects, he understands what it could've done to her psyche and so he shares his own terrible experiences because she would understand. Although Alice is the complete opposite of Joanna, she reminds him of her. He notices things that Joanna would do, that Alice doesn't - and so he gives Alice a chance, unlike Ashara who is trying to replace Joanna, Alice is this story is sort of filling in a hole made by Joanna. Alice is trying to help Aeyron get better, they learn to love each other as the story goes on but perhaps for the first few chapters she's just concerned about Aeyron. The deep meaningful conversations the two have makes them grow closer and love eachother, and Alice makes Aeyron learn about what he has done - although Aeyron seems to lack a concious now, thinking that Alice's advice is almost biblical in source.
With Alice and Aeyron getting married now, here's hoping that Alice can bring Aeyron back to the good side again. It'll be a real triumph in mental fortitude for the reader and Aeyron.