Spoilers ahead for “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” season one and the book “The World of Ice & Fire.”
Although HBO’s newest “Game of Thrones” prequel series features fewer characters and shorter episodes, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” packs plenty of subtle details into its first season.
Fans of George R. R. Martin’s original novella “The Hedge Knight” may have caught some book references in the six-episode arc — but the show also includes loaded winks and moments of foreshadowing that tie into Martin’s other works about Westeros.
The “Game of Thrones” theme music is meant to represent Dunk’s inner fantasy.
Season one of “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” opens with the protagonist, Dunk, reeling from the death of his mentor, Ser Arlan of Pennytree.
As Dunk debates his next move, he decides to enter a nearby jousting tournament. It could be an opportunity to make a name for himself — or at least to make some pocket money.
The iconic theme music from “Game of Thrones” swells as Dunk gazes into the distance, contemplating his future. Then, the music abruptly cuts off, and Dunk is shown having diarrhea.
In an interview with Business Insider, showrunner Ira Parker explained how the “Game of Thrones” theme is used to evoke illusions of chivalry, destiny, and a higher calling — and how the sudden interruption evokes a reality check.
“[It’s] the hero music that we all hear in our heads. That call to, ‘I want to go off and do something else… I want to be greater,'” Parker said. “But then you’re hit with the realities of it, how hard that is, how scary that is, how daunting that is. And that’s what turns his guts to water. And he’s just like one of us. He’s not a hero.”
The innkeeper says, “I never knew a joust to change the price of eggs,” recalling a quote from “Game of Thrones.”
On his way to Ashford Meadow, Dunk stops at a tavern to eat. There, he meets Egg, whom he mistakes for a stable boy, and the kindly innkeeper.
The innkeeper scoffs at the hype for the local jousting tourney. She says knights are no different than other men, and their pageantry does nothing to change the lives of smallfolk.
In “A Game of Thrones,” the first book in Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, Ser Jorah Mormont says something very similar to Daenerys Targaryen. At this point in the story, Daenerys still believes the common people in Westeros are “sewing dragon banners” and are praying for her brother to reclaim the Iron Throne.
“The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends,” Jorah tells her. “It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace.”
“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” drives this point home. While “Game of Thrones” focused largely on fancy Westerosi lords and political schemes, this spinoff is more concerned with the struggles of ordinary, low-born people like Dunk.
“The only promise I made to George was that we would never be in the POV of the lords and ladies, kings and queens, the upper echelon,” Parker said.
Egg’s eldest brother is known to history as Daeron the Drunken.
Egg’s eldest brother, Prince Daeron Targaryen, is first introduced in the series premiere as a sloppy drunkard.
After Dunk arrives at Ashford, he chats with Raymun Fossoway about Daeron, unaware that Daeron was the same man he saw passed out in a tavern. Raymun explains that Daeron was meant to compete in the tourney but went missing en route, along with his youngest brother, Prince Aegon.
“There’s rumors going about that the boys are dead,” Raymun tells Dunk. “But most like Daeron, he’s probably just drunk again.”
Some book readers speculate that Daeron drinks heavily to cope with his dragon dreams — prophetic visions that have plagued Targaryens throughout their family’s history.
“I dreamed of you,” Daeron tells Dunk in the tavern. “Stay the fuck away from me.”
Dunk doesn’t realize that Daeron is a Targaryen because he doesn’t have the family’s signature silver-gold hair. As Egg explains in the book, “It was him shaved my head. He knew my father would send men hunting us. Daeron has common hair, sort of a pale brown, nothing special, but mine is like Aerion’s and my father’s.”
Tanselle’s puppet show mirrors Dunk’s own story.
When Dunk first meets Tanselle, a puppeteer from Dorne, she’s performing a poem about Serwyn of the Mirror Shield, a mythological figure who slayed a dragon.
“Our brave hero forges on, leaving all he knows behind,” Tanselle recites. “Fate has set his lonely path through corridors of chance. A boy from nothing risks it all, ignoring looks askance.”
The story echoes Dunk’s own. After the unexpected death of his mentor, he’s left to forge his own path with only his bravery and nerves to guide him. Dunk is definitionally lonely; there’s no one else in the world who even knows his name. He’s also forced to ignore “looks askance” due to his run-down appearance. Multiple characters in the show make fun of Dunk’s clothing, calling him more of a farmer than a knight.
Tanselle’s story also foreshadows Dunk’s conflict with Prince Aerion Targaryen, who nearly kills Dunk in a trial by combat: “If his humble shape is bared, a foul and fiery demise, should the dragon discover none but a man in great disguise.”
In order to beat Aerion and survive the trial, Dunk must wear the “great disguise” of knighthood, even though he has no real training — and in fact, Dunk may never have been knighted at all.
Raymun calls Dunk “halfman,” a callback to Tyrion Lannister’s nickname.
Raymun uses “halfman” as an affectionate term for Dunk’s height, meaning “half man, half giant.”
In “Game of Thrones,” however, people call Tyrion Lannister “halfman” to mock his short stature.
Tyrion is well-practiced at brushing off these insults and even using them to his advantage. Early in the series, he advises Jon Snow to brandish his identity with pride.
“Never forget what you are,” Tyrion says in the show. “The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.”
In the “Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” series premiere, Dunk receives similar advice from Lyonel Baratheon: “The Seven above gave you tallness. So be tall.”
Dunk says of Lyonel Baratheon, “I thought he’d be taller.”
Dunk’s remark about Lyonel’s height is a cheeky reference to the books, in which Lyonel is described as “a swaggering giant of a man” and nearly as tall as Dunk himself.
Both actors who play Dunk and Lyonel — Peter Claffley and Daniel Ings, respectively — are shorter than their characters are supposed to be. Ings told Vulture that they both wore heels in their first scene together.
“We were both in heels, which, what was the point, we canceled each other out,” Ings said.
Ser Manfred is an ancestor of Beric from “Game of Thrones.”
Dunk asks Ser Manfred Dondarrion to vouch for him as a knight, since Ser Arlan served in the Dondarrion army a few years back.
About a century later, in the “Game of Thrones” timeline, Manfred’s descendant, Beric Dondarrion, plays a major role in the Great War against the white walkers.
Leo Tyrell is an ancestor of Margaery and Loras.
Dunk also pleads his case with Leo “Longthorn” Tyrell, the Lord of Highgarden.
“Game of Thrones” fans will recognize the golden rose of House Tyrell on his flags and armor, worn later by characters like Lady Olenna, Queen Margaery, and Ser Loras.
Medgar Tully bites the head off of a dead fish, the sigil of his house.
Medgar Tully — the Lord of Riverrun and an ancestor of Catelyn Stark, Lisa Arryn, and Edmure Tully from “Game of Thrones” — competes in the tourney’s first round. To get the crowd riled up, or perhaps as a show of strength, he chomps down on a dead fish and rips off the head.
The episode’s director, Owen Harris, revealed that the actor Russell Simpson bit into several real fish while filming the scene.
“He might’ve thrown up at one point, but he was just totally up for it,” Harris said.
Baelor mentions his brothers, Aerys and Rhaegal.
As a last-ditch attempt to enter the tourney, Dunk decides to ask Prince Baelor Targaryen for help, since he jousted with Arlan long ago. (Baelor says they broke four spears before he unhorsed Arlan. In the books, the prince is aptly known as Baelor Breakspear.)
Just before he enters the room, Dunk overhears a conversation between the royal brothers, Baelor and Maekar.
Baelor says that Maekar’s eldest son belongs on a tourney field “no more than Aerys or Rhaegel.”
At this point in history, King Daeron II Targaryen sits on the Iron Throne. He has four sons: Baelor is the eldest and heir, followed by Aerys, Rhaegel, and Maekar.
Only Baelor and Maekar appear in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.” In Martin’s fictional history book, “The World of Ice & Fire,” Aerys is described as bookish, weak, and obsessed with ancient prophecies.
Because Baelor dies protecting Dunk in the Trial of Seven, Aerys becomes the next king of Westeros. (Baelor’s son and heir, Valarr, dies in a plague.)
“Daeron’s second son, Aerys, had never imagined he would be king, and was singularly ill-suited to sit the Iron Throne,” the history book reads.
Episode two, “Hard Salt Beef,” repeatedly foreshadows Dunk and Egg’s future.
“The World of Ice & Fire” reveals that Egg grows up to become King Aegon V Targaryen. Since he was born the fourth son of a fourth son, far down in the line of succession, he’s known to history as Aegon the Unlikely.
In episode two of “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” Dunk calls Egg a “likely lad” in a sneaky bit of foreshadowing.
There’s also a moment where Egg is captivated by Tanselle’s fire tricks. Not only is this an Easter egg for his secret Targaryen identity, but it also hints at his fiery death.
Meanwhile, Dunk has a telling conversation with Ser Donnel of Duskendale. Dunk seems inspired by Donnel, since he wasn’t born a nobleman but still managed to become a member of the Kingsguard. Eventually, Dunk will follow the same path, rising through the ranks to become Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.
Egg sings a song about the Blackfyre Rebellion.
In episode three, titled “The Squire,” Egg sings a profane rhyme about his family’s victory in the Blackfyre Rebellion, a recent war in Westerosi history.
The war began when Daemon Waters, a bastard son of the previous king, was legitimized by his father on his deathbed. Daemon adopted the new surname Blackfyre and attempted to overthrow his half-brother, King Daeron II.
The rebellion ended when Daemon died during the Battle of the Redgrass Field, about 13 years before Dunk and Egg meet. Egg’s uncle and father, Baelor and Maekar, were instrumental in his defeat.
Thousands of men died during the uprising. The flashback scene in episode five, “In the Name of the Mother,” shows a young Dunk scavenging for leather and scraps of metal among the fallen soldiers.
The prophecy about Egg’s future comes true in the books.
Dunk and Egg cross paths with a fortune teller at Ashford Meadow.
She tells Dunk: “You shall know great success and be richer than a Lannister.”
She tells Egg: “You shall be king and die in a hot fire, and worms shall feed upon your ashes, and all who know you shall rejoice in your dying.”
The books don’t offer much insight into Dunk’s finances, though he does become a member of the Kingsguard — an unlikely outcome for a low-born hedge knight — so it’s certainly possible he stumbles into vast wealth as well as great success. The prophecy could also mean “rich” in a non-literal sense, as in fulfilled or esteemed.
We do know from the books that Egg’s prophecy is spot-on. He becomes king of Westeros, though his reign is strongly opposed by the great houses.
“Some lords distrusted him,” according to the history book, “for his wanderings with his hedge knight had left him ‘half a peasant,’ according to many. Enough hated him.”
Egg ultimately dies in a massive fire at Summerhall, a small castle belonging to House Targaryen, after a presumed attempt to hatch dragon eggs. Book readers have long assumed that Dunk dies at Summerhall, too.
The inkeeper and the fortune teller are played by the same actor.
According to IMDb, both the inkeeper from episode one and the fortune teller from episode three are portrayed by Jenna Boyd. Is she a real witch using magic to keep a watchful eye on Dunk?
Raymun mentions Egg’s third brother, who appears later in “Game of Thrones.”
While chatting in House Fossoway’s tent, Raymun tells Dunk that Maekar’s “misbegats” are widely disliked.
“Daeron’s a sot. Aerion’s just vain and cruel. The third’s so useless, they were gonna ship him off to a citadel to make a maester of him,” Raymun says.
We meet Daeron and Aerion in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” but Maekar’s third son, Aemon, doesn’t attend the tourney. Viewers meet him as an old man in “Game of Thrones,” when he’s serving as a maester to the Night’s Watch.
In the show, Aemon even calls out for his brother on his deathbed. His last words are, “Egg, I dreamed that I was old.”
When Baelor volunteers to fight for Dunk, the “Game of Thrones” theme music is mixed with Dunk’s own theme.
At the end of episode four, titled “Seven,” Baelor’s arrival on the battlefield is marked by the familiar “Game of Thrones” theme song by Ramin Djawadi — but this time, if you listen closely, it’s mixed with a new score created by “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” composer Dan Romer.
“There’s a little bit of the revisitation of the main theme that we all love so much, and then we tie it into Dunk’s new theme, and in the most beautiful way I’ve ever heard,” Parker told Business Insider. “It’s one of my favorite songs.”
Dunk hesitates to knight Raymun because he may not know the vows.
In episode four, Raymun asks Dunk to knight him, so that he can take his cousin’s place in the Trial of Seven. Dunk hesitates — possibly out of fear or compassion, but possibly because he doesn’t know how.
There are several hints that Dunk is lying about being a real knight. He tells people that Arlan performed the ceremony just before he died, but there were no witnesses. If Dunk never actually took the vows, he likely wouldn’t be able to recite them for Raymun.
This scene also includes a shot of Dunk looking up, as if he’s on his knee being knighted, immediately followed by a clip of Arlan, who looks down at the camera and shrugs.
The question of Dunk’s knighthood remains ambiguous by the season’s end, which Parker said is “100% the way George would like it.”
“A lot of the exposition around whether or not Dunk was knighted is internal thoughts in his head. And we get pretty, pretty close to him coming out and just saying it. It’s just like, what else could he be thinking of? What else could he mean by this?” Parker said of the source material. “But it’s not said in black and white.”
Lyonel foreshadows that Maekar and Dunk are the biggest threats on the battlefield.
Baelor and Maekar are known together as the Hammer and the Anvil, thanks to their victory in the Blackfyre Rebellion. They’re both renowned as war heroes.
Still, Lyonel seems less than impressed with Baelor. Just before the Trial of Seven begins, he says to the prince, “Mother loved you best, huh? Shame. No man fights so fierce as one neglected by his mother.”
This comment foreshadows Maekar’s threat in battle. In fact, it was most likely Maekar who dealt the deadly blow to Baelor, whether or not he intended to.
If Lyonel’s theory is correct, the brothers’ power imbalance makes sense. Little is known about their mother, but Baelor is indeed beloved — hand-selected as his father’s Hand of the King — whereas Maekar is the fourth son in their family. He’s characterized in the books as harsh, bitter, and eternally overlooked. Parker described his portrayal in the show as a “curmudgeon” with “many, many flaws and jealousies.”
Lyonel’s comment also foreshadows Dunk’s victory. In the same episode, we learn via flashback that Dunk was abandoned by his mother at a young age. She probably died, but Dunk’s friend Rafe tells him, “If your mother was alive, she’s not coming back for you.” Perhaps a mother’s neglect really does produce fierce warriors in Westeros.
The green accessory on Daeron’s armor is taken straight from the novella.
In Martin’s “The Hedge Knight,” it says, “A green silk plume trailed from Daeron’s helm.”
In a flashback, Dunk and Rafe walk down the same path as Brienne and Podrick.
In episode five’s flashback scene, young Dunk and his friend Rafe return to King’s Landing by walking down a wooded path.
In “Game of Thrones,” Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne travel down the same path while riding away from King’s Landing.
Parker confirmed that both scenes were filmed on “the exact same road in Belfast,” as a nod to the fact that Dunk and Brienne are related.
Rafe accurately predicts that King’s Landing is “tinder waiting to catch.”
In the flashback, Rafe tells Dunk that they’re stuck in a cycle of violence and desperation. She wants to escape King’s Landing because “No one forgets shit. You hurt someone, they hurt you back… Flea Bottom is full up on people hurting. It’s tinder waiting to catch.”
Rafe uses fire as a metaphor for fear and danger, but she’s also correct in a literal sense. The capital city of Westeros is under near-constant threat in the century that follows, and in “Game of Thrones,” Daenerys burns King’s Landing with her dragon.
Dunk beats Aerion with the fighting style he learned in Flea Bottom.
During the Trial of Seven, Dunk quickly realizes that he’s out of his depth. Aerion is a well-trained and skillful swordsman, whereas Dunk has little to no battle experience.
He eventually overpowers Aerion using his raw strength, perseverance, and the scrappy fighting style he learned as a child.
In the book, Dunk realizes that Aerion “could vanquish Ser Duncan the Tall, but not Dunk of Flea Bottom.”
Daeron’s prophecy is likely fulfilled by Baelor’s death.
Before the Trial of Seven, Daeron explains why he recognized Dunk when they first met.
“My dreams are not like yours. Mine come true,” Daeron tells Dunk in the show. “I have seen you, ser. And a fire. And a dead dragon. A great beast with wings so large they could cover this meadow. It had fallen on top of you. But you were alive, and the dragon was dead.”
In the “Game of Thrones” universe, dragons often symbolize the Targaryens in visions and prophecies.
Daeron fears the dead dragon is an omen of his own death. In the book, he tells Dunk, “I don’t care to die today. The gods alone know why, but I don’t. So do me a kindness if you would, and make certain it is my brother Aerion you slay.”
In reality, the dragon who dies is Baelor, the heir to the Iron Throne.
However, Daeron also mentions a fire — suggesting that his vision might have actually been about Summerhall. Although this tragedy is decades away, it wouldn’t be the first time a Targaryen dreamt about an event in the distant future.
If this were the case, the dead dragon in Daeron’s dream would be Egg.
Lyonel asks Dunk if he’s ever been to Tarth, another nod to Brienne.
“You could come with me. We’ll hunt and hawk and sail. Make merry. I’ll sharpen that iron of yours so you don’t make such a grand fool of yourself next time,” Lyonel tells Dunk in the season one finale, in the aftermath of the Trial of Seven. He adds, almost as an afterthought, “Have you ever been to Tarth?”
At this point in history, Lyonel is the Lord of Storm’s End and the head of House Baratheon. His sworn bannermen include House Tarth, who rule the Isle of Tarth in the Stormlands.
Dunk doesn’t take Lyonel up on his offer. Nonetheless, in the main book series, Brienne recalls seeing a shield with Dunk’s personal sigil in her father’s armory — so it stands to reason that Dunk does make it to Tarth eventually.
Dunk’s conversation with Lyonel in episode six, titled “The Morrow,” doesn’t happen in the original novella. It does, however, foreshadow a major event in their future.
“The World & Ice and Fire” reveals that Lyonel is a great friend and ally to Egg during his reign as king. Egg’s eldest son, Duncan, is even promised in marriage to Lyonel’s daughter.
Instead, Egg’s son decides to renounce his royal title and marry a commoner. Infuriated, Lyonel leads Storm’s End into a bloody rebellion against the crown.
To settle the dispute, Egg sends Dunk to defeat Lyonel in single combat.
The set is drained of warmth after Baelor dies.
When Dunk has a private meeting with Baelor in episode four, the castle is lit with candles and warm flickers of light. But when he returns to the same room in episode six to speak with Maekar, the lighting is cold and harsh.
In a behind-the-scenes interview with HBO, director of photography Federico Cesca said the contrast was intentional.
“It was very deliberate [to] make it feel like the castle is colder,” Casca said. “There’s something about mutating the way a place feels, depending on, where is your character?”
The season’s final scene answers a pressing question from the books.
In Martin’s “The Hedge Knight,” Dunk offers to take Egg under his wing while traveling across the realm.
Egg’s father, Maekar, is offended by the very suggestion. Egg is a crown prince, after all; he can’t wander around Westeros, bald and vulnerable, trailing after a hedge knight he met less than a week ago. After Dunk delivers his final pitch, Maekar takes a long pause, then walks away without saying a word.
In the next scene, Egg suddenly materializes and says that he’s gotten his father’s blessing to squire for Dunk.
The novella is told from Dunk’s perspective, so the reader is left to speculate about why Maekar changed his mind.
In the show, however, it’s made explicit that Egg lied. He defied his father’s wishes, choosing to follow Dunk rather than return with his family to their comfy royal life.
“He’s failed with his eldest two sons. Aegon is his last chance to create a legacy that is fit for the throne,” Sam Spruell, who plays Maekar, said of the change. “[Egg] leaving is a kind of rejection of that.”
Parker also said it was a natural extension of Maekar’s character. Thus far, Maekar has proven incapable of raising his children, but he’s still a prideful man who can’t bear to cede control.
“I actually do think he really does love his children. I do think he cares about them, even though he’s not able to raise them well, he still wants to,” Parker said of Maekar. “The idea of letting Egg go off with someone else just felt like too much for me. It felt like he could reasonably say no in this moment, even though he knows it would be better for Egg.”
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