“Ser Duncan only has us. And if he loses, he won’t even have that.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
It wouldn’t be Westeros without some political intrigue, backstabbing and skulduggery; and after two relatively sedate instalments, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms this week saw all these reliable staples trotted out. On a smaller scale than usual, admittedly – this is a lighthearted comic romp, so we’re not looking at the fates of kingdoms being decided by the deaths of thousands here. Just some infighting and dishonesty at a medieval tournament that Dunk still naively believes will be fought according to the rules of chivalry.
There’s much discussion of chivalry this week, as Dunk’s idealistic idea of it collides with the messy, murky reality of what knights are really like. Again, you’re reminded of deluded old Don Quixote, with his worldlier squire Sancho Panza to shield him from the shattering of his illusions.
Not that it’s that easy. Dunk’s idealistic worldview faces its first challenge when Plummer, steward to Lord Ashford, asks him to be the victor in a rigged joust against Ashford’s son – so as to make a killing betting on this unlikely outsider. Dunk is, predictably, outraged.
“I do not want a victory I have not earned,” he loftily proclaims, showing once again that formal conversation in Westeros does not include the apostrophe.
There’s worse to come, though, as vain, arrogant Prince Aerion takes the field for the first time, and wins by dint of gruesomely impaling his opponent’s horse through the neck with his lance. I don’t know much about the rules of jousting, but judging by the stones the crowd throw at Aerion, this is presumably not cricket.
It’s a nasty scene that marks the return of the franchise’s trademark graphic violence, all the more shocking because it’s an innocent animal on the receiving end. But even in a lighthearted romp like this, violence was undoubtedly a big part of medieval life, and we see it time and again this ep.
Dunk’s faith in chivalry is undented, however.
“A squire must be strong. A mishap may befall me,” he confides to the sceptical Egg, whose rejoinder, “that was no mishap”, turns out to be more significant than we thought. As we later discover, he knows Prince Aerion and his methods very well.
To deal with the ep’s big revelation here, even though I haven’t yet read the original books, I was aware that Egg is actually Aegon Targaryen, fourth son to Prince Maekar, and one of the missing boys that the Prince has now gone off in search of (the other, Daeron, is presumably the drunken sot Dunk briefly encountered at the same inn where he met Egg). I must admit, though, I wasn’t expecting the revelation of his identity to come quite so early on in the story.
There’s a hint of it early on, as the pair encounter a wandering fortune teller (who, oddly, seems happy to tell their future without charging them). While Dunk is wryly amused to hear that his future includes wealth and fame (not even he is so naïve as to actually believe in this stuff), Egg is horrified to hear that, “you shall be King, and die in a hot fire, and worms shall feed on your ashes”.
In case you were wondering, this doesn’t mean that Egg is destined to become the Mad King later killed by Jaime Lannister to save the people of King’s Landing – he’s two generations too early for that, and in any case, the Mad King was Aerys II. No, Egg will become Aegon V, nicknamed Aegon the Unlikely for his distant claim to the Throne after an uncle, a cousin, his father, and three brothers. Fortunately, this knowledge of the franchise’s complex history isn’t necessary to enjoy the story here. All we need to know is that Egg isn’t what Dunk – and the audience – thought he was.
This also explains his odd baldness – he’s cut off his distinctive Targaryen hair, so as not to be recognised; and “so I don’t look like you – brother”, as he snarls to the cruel Aerion. Does this mean that next season, Dexter Sol Ansell will have to don the usual Ridiculous Targaryen Wig?
Whichever, it’s a great way to end the ep, with the zooms into various shocked and/or defiant faces reminiscent of nothing so much as a particularly dramatic cliffhanger in EastEnders. It remains to be seen what the fallout from this will be, but it’s for sure that the fledgling relationship between Dunk and Egg won’t be the same after this. I mean, it’s hard for a knight to mock or threaten his squire when said squire is actually a member of the tyrannical royal dynasty that has ruled Westeros for centuries.
That’s a shame, as I was really enjoying their buddy-buddy bickering and moments of bonding; one of my favourite scenes this week was their earnest discussion of how Lyonel’s crude song about a crippled girl who mastered the art of sexually pleasuring men in the anus was actually a story of honour and dogged persistence.
Presumably, given that there are two more Tales of Dunk and Egg after this one, they find a way to make the knight/squire relationship continue, and it will be interesting to find out how they do that. However they do it, this was the first ep in the series to show the more dramatic side of the story, with Machiavellian machinations and big revelations mixed in among the usual deftly-played comedy. Less consequential it may be, but only three episodes in I’m already finding it way more enjoyable than House of the Dragon.
Simon’s Incoherent Blog 