Game of Thrones became such a popular series, in part, because of the many epic battles and thrilling fight scenes it produced over the course of its eight-season run. Through its first 18 episodes, House of the Dragon has had a few of its own, even if much of its second season merely built anticipation for the bigger battle yet to come. On Sunday, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms supplied its first true taste of combat as Dunk stood his trial of seven, and the clash didn’t exactly go down as many Game of Thrones fans might have anticipated.
When last week’s episode concluded with the iconic Game of Thrones theme swelling as Baelor Targaryen arrived to declare himself as the seventh and final warrior to join Team Dunk, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms set the stage for a spectacular conflict that would go down in Westerosi history. However, the reality of it proves to be anything but glorious. Before the fighting commences, Dunk and fellow fledgling knight Raymun Fossoway vomit their guts onto the ground where blood will soon be spilled. And when Dunk enters the fray (the last to do so, after having a brief panic attack), he immediately gets impaled by a lance, all but deciding his fate just as the battle is starting. Just four minutes into the episode, Dunk is hit so hard in the head that the series travels back in time to his childhood.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been a refreshing change of pace in the growing Game of Thrones TV universe thanks to its smaller stakes and irreverent tone. Much to George R.R. Martin’s surprise, as the spinoff series introduces its central hero in the opening minutes of the premiere, it smash-cuts to him projectile defecating, set to the Thrones theme music. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms frequently deploys comedic cutaways in a stylistic departure from its predecessors, and it shifts its focus away from Westerosi royalty to center on a lowly hedge knight who’s trying to make a name for himself. As per Thrones tradition, the series dedicates its penultimate episode of the season—“In the Name of the Mother”—to its first epic battle. Yet as Dunk lies unconscious on the muddy arena floor, the better part of the episode features a flashback that follows how he left Flea Bottom to become Ser Arlan’s squire when he was a child.
In returning to Dunk’s past, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms provides more context to his sad origins and his relationship with Ser Arlan. Young Dunk witnesses his best friend and first love, Rafe, get killed after she gets caught stealing a knife from the man who had just robbed them. Arlan saves Dunk from meeting the same tragic fate and avenges Rafe in the messy confrontation that ensues, all while in a drunken stupor. With Rafe gone, Dunk—whose leg was injured in the incident—follows Arlan out of Flea Bottom, maintaining his distance until he finally collapses from his wound and the hedge knight is forced to save him again. And thus begins Dunk’s life as a loyal squire. (Which is not how his knightly journey begins in the novella.)
By the time A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms returns to the present, a little more than 10 minutes remain in the episode. The rest of Dunk’s trial of seven unfolds about as brutally and clumsily as it began. As he stumbles across the arena like a fawn taking its first steps, Dunk falls victim to an absurd medley of attacks, which (factoring in his rough opening act) includes:
- A lance impaling his stomach
- A mace bludgeoning his helmet
- Another mace bludgeoning his helmet
- Multiple stab wounds to his torso by a knife
- A knife through his hand
- Various slicings and stabbings from a sword
- A sword thrown into his upper thigh
- Several shield hits to his helmet
- Multiple slices to his left eye
Although his fighting prowess is anything but impressive, Ser Duncan the Tall should become a legend in Westeros for surviving this improbable laundry list of injuries—because that’s exactly what he does. Dunk bests Aerion Targaryen in an ugly, muddy duel after appearing to have finally fallen for good. By the end of the fight, the hedge knight can hardly stand or see, let alone swing his sword, yet he still musters enough of his strength to force the Targaryen prince to yield and end the trial at last. “One moment I felt drunk,” Dunk later tells his friends. “The next, like I’m dying.”
“In the Name of the Mother” might not have the epic scale of “Battle of the Bastards” or feature the skillful (if unnecessary) fighting flourishes of Oberyn Martell in “The Mountain and the Viper,” but the episode’s trial of seven is wonderfully fitting for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It doesn’t reach for the grace or glory of the likes of Jon Snow’s or Arya Stark’s bolder achievements but for something more grounded and personal to the show’s unlikely hero. The series leans into Dunk’s first-person perspective to capture his jarring, visceral point of view as he’s overwhelmed by the sudden thrust of a gruesome battle.
“The idea was to feel what Dunk was experiencing,” showrunner Ira Parker told The Times about the show’s combat scenes. “We wanted it to be muddy and tired and slippery and ungraceful. He’s not a great fighter, yet maybe one day he’s going to be one of the greatest swords of the kingdom.”
Dunk gets battered and beaten from every direction, and he loses more blood than anyone else in or outside of Westeros could survive. Yet he comes out of the trial victorious in more ways than one: Not only is Dunk cleared of his crimes, but he’s proved himself worthy of serving Baelor Targaryen, who’s next in line for the Iron Throne. However, it doesn’t take long for Dunk’s brief taste of good fortune to run out once again.
After Baelor tells him, “I need good men, Ser Duncan,” the prince begins to stumble, both in his words and his step. When Raymun and Steely Pate help remove Baelor’s crushed helm from where it clings to his head, they look in terror as they see that a sizable chunk of his skull is missing. The fact that Baelor could coherently function for so long with such a grisly injury may be even harder to believe than Dunk’s near-superhuman durability, but the Targaryen royal meets his demise all the same. Baelor collapses and dies in Dunk’s arms, realizing Daeron Targaryen’s prophecy of a dead dragon falling on top of him. It’s another cruel twist of fate that leaves Dunk’s—and the entire realm’s—well-being in doubt once more.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms may have a smaller budget, shorter running times, and lesser stakes than its Thrones predecessors, yet it continues to turn these potential disadvantages into strengths that distinguish the series.
Even an episode devoted to the show’s biggest battle to date still carved out ample time to prioritize character development by revealing Dunk’s origins and his introduction to a humble knight who lived by his vows to protect the innocent. Although the show has hardly left the confines of Ashford, the finale is next. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms forged its own path to a familiar position for a Game of Thrones show: an impactful penultimate episode that sets up an exciting finish to the season.
