In episode 1 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, we were introduced to Dunk, an aspiring knight. After burying his mentor, Arlan, and emptying his bowels near his grave, Dunk embarked on a journey to Ashford Meadow—with his three horses, Sweetfoot, Chestnut, and Thunder—to partake in the tourney that’s happening there. He made a pitstop at an inn where he encountered Daeron and Egg. While Daeron got drunk, Egg followed Dunk all the way to Ashford Meadow to be his squire. Once Dunk reached his destination, he learned from the gamemaster that he needed to be vouched for by another knight in order to partake in the tournament. Since Arlan had fought for Manfred Dondarrion, Dunk spent the entire day looking for him. When he finally found Manfred, he was crestfallen to learn that the knight hadn’t even heard of Arlan. His spirits were somewhat lifted by the fact that he got to befriend Raymun Fossoway and Lyonel Baratheon, and that Egg decided to stick with him even though he knew that Dunk was just a hedge knight. That gave Dunk the motivation to keep searching for a knight who remembered Arlan’s contributions in battle. Did he succeed, or did he fail? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Dunk Tells Several Knights About Arlan
Episode 2 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms kicks things off with a flashback scene of the days leading up to Arlan’s death, which was caused by an injury on his forearm that wasn’t properly tended to, which is narrated by Dunk, of course. And with that, HBO has completed its trifecta of full-frontal nudity moments. I don’t know if there were such instances in other HBO shows. But I have watched The Chair Company, The Pitt, and this Game of Thrones spinoff back to back, and for me, yeah, the trifecta is complete. I’ll say the same thing that I say when a penis appears on-screen: it’s not real; it’s a prosthetic. Anyway, it becomes clear that this flashback has been triggered by Dunk reminding House Florent, Hayford, and Tyrell about Arlan’s contributions during all the wars that had been fought back in the day in order to convince any of them to vouch for Dunk, thereby allowing him to enter the tourney. Sadly, that doesn’t work, because nobody really remembers Arlan. While returning to their camp, Egg posits the theory that maybe Arlan wasn’t that good of a knight, which is why nobody remembers him, and Dunk only thinks so highly of him because he was his mentor. Dunk doesn’t exactly have a rebuttal, but Arlan not being a pop-culture icon doesn’t affect the degree of respect he has for Arlan.
The Targaryens Arrive For The Tourney
Egg and Dunk’s conversation about how the latter should just forget about the rules of the tourney, enter it forcibly, and teach everyone a lesson is interrupted by the arrival of the Targaryens. That causes Egg to tense up, because he is a Targaryen, and he makes up an excuse to take Chestnut to the camp while Dunk butters up the Targaryens. The convoy of dragons includes Baelor Targaryen, his brother, Maekar, and Maekar’s son, Aerion. While Ashford introduces Baelor and Maeker to his daughter, Gwin, and then ushers them all into his castle, Aerion has a brief chat with Dunk, because the prince assumes that the hedge knight is a stable boy. Dunk tries to clarify that he’s a knight, but when Aerion’s horse starts to act up, he takes its reins and guides it into the stable because Dunk’s a good lad. While he’s doing that, Ser Roland and Donnel Crakehall of Duskendale, knights of the Kingsguard, approach Dunk, and it seems like they want to know why such a tall dude is tending to the stables instead of being in the army. Turns out that Roland just wants to know if there’s a proper bathroom in the tourney grounds. Dunk says that there isn’t one, and once Roland takes off, Donnel comments on how Roland is too posh to do his business behind a hedge. Dunk assures him that a few days in Ashford Meadow will bring down his snobbery a few notches.
Dunk Spies On The Targaryens
Donnel admires Dunk’s down-to-earth nature and his ambition of becoming a knight despite coming from nothing. He tries to come off as a relatable guy by making it seem like he and his brother had started their journey to knighthood as humble crabbers of Duskendale, which certainly gives Dunk a morale boost, but later on, Egg kind of pops that bubble by informing Dunk that the Crakehalls are the leading company in the crabbing business of Duskendale, which means that Roland and Donnel come from privilege, not nothing. After Donnel has left Dunk’s company, he sneaks into Ashford’s castle and eavesdrops on a conversation between Ashford, Baelor, Maekar, and the gamemaster, and he hears them arguing about the absence of Maekar’s other sons—Daeron, Aemon, and Aegon (that’s Egg)—at the tourney. We know that Daeron is in that inn getting drunk, Egg is at Dunk’s camp, and Aemon, well, we have no clue where Aemon is. Gwin spots Dunk eavesdropping, but she just says that maybe Maekar’s sons are all dead, then makes a mean comment about Dunk’s physical appearance, and runs away. Going back to the conversation between the Targaryens, Aerys and Rhaegel, who are Baelor and Maekar’s siblings, are name-dropped. A stray comment from Baelor about Aerion slightly offends Maekar, but he knows that his son has to improve a lot in order to be considered a true royal.
Baelor Remembers Arlan
The back-and-forth between Baelor and Maekar comes to a screeching halt when the latter notices Dunk spying on them and tells him to enter the room instead of listening to them from afar. Dunk gets straight to the point and asks Baelor if he remembers Arlan, because if he does, that’d mean he could vouch for Dunk, and he could partake in the tourney. For a change, Baelor does recall his encounters with Arlan, which finally gives Dunk some semblance of hope. Maekar is particularly surprised that Baelor knows about “some hedge knight” that he came across over a decade ago, and Baelor essentially says that he has a habit of remembering his most formidable foes because it keeps him sharp and humble. Anyway, once Dunk and Baelor are done talking about Arlan, the latter asks the gamemaster if Dunk can participate in the tourney, and the gamemaster approves of it because this meets his criteria. That said, Baelor points out that since Dunk isn’t Arlan’s son, he can’t wear his sigil; he needs to get one that’s unique to him. Dunk promises that he’ll sort that out in no time and then takes everyone’s leave.
Dunk and Egg Meet Tanselle
Dunk and Egg attend one of Tanselle’s shows, because not only do they enjoy her and her troupe’s work, but they also want her help to paint a new sigil on Dunk’s shield, given how she has painted all the puppets that her uncle has built for the show. After a lot of deliberation, Dunk and Egg come to the conclusion that the former’s sigil should be an elm tree before a sunset with a shooting star atop it. Arlan loved sunsets, so that’ll be an homage to the dearly departed knight; the elm tree is a reference to the spot where Dunk and Egg are currently camping; and the shooting star is something that Dunk and Egg saw the night they formally became friends. By the way, many have pointed out that the shooting star could have been something like the red comet that we saw in both House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones; it could mean nothing, or it could signify something related to the Targaryens. Anyway, Dunk hands over his shield to Tanselle and then goes to the makeshift pub with Egg to discuss how well he handled his conversation with Tanselle. Given how Dunk almost said something sexist while trying to compliment Tanselle’s height, I think he did a good enough job.
Dunk sells Sweetfoot to afford some armor
Dunk asks Egg if anything romantic can happen between him and Tanselle, and although Egg clearly wants to say that they are totally incompatible because she is so smart and talented, while Dunk is an idiot, he limits himself to pointing out the only “commonality” they have: their height. Egg then wonders if he can ever be a knight, and Dunk tries to say that if he has reached where he is currently despite being called stupid by so many people, Egg can become a knight as well, but that doesn’t come out as smoothly as Dunk probably intended to. The duo’s conversation is interrupted by Lyonel, who ropes in both of them for a tug-of-war match against the Tyrells. How does that go? Of course, the side that has Dunk on it wins. Later on, Dunk meets up with the local armorer, Steely Pate, because he needs proper protection now that he’s partaking in the tourney. Unfortunately, Dunk doesn’t have the money to afford the kind of armor that Pate makes. Pate sees that Dunk is a genuine guy, so he gives him a discount. Dunk can’t exactly afford the discounted price as well. So, he decides to sell off Sweetfoot so that he can get his armor; he promises to buy him back once he wins the tourney, though.
The Tourney Commences Violently
Dunk sits down with Egg at the makeshift bar to lament about how much he’s sacrificing for just a chance at achieving some kind of success in this oversaturated market of knights, and how he hopes that it’ll all be worth it. Just when he tries to dream too much and starts talking about being accepted by the Targaryens, Egg brings him back to Earth by saying that the Targaryens don’t actually recruit hedge knights. Before Dunk can figure out how Egg knows so much about the royals, the announcer directs everyone’s attention to the inaugural round of jousting, and Dunk and Egg head off to the arena to watch all the celebrity knights, which includes Manfred and Valarr (Baelor’s son), have a go at each other. Much like the rest of the audience, initially Dunk and Egg greatly enjoy this violent form of entertainment, but then Egg starts to notice some of the nuances of this whole process. He sees that the squires have the great responsibility of equipping their respective knights with lances after each round of jousting. That not only involves a lot of running around but also carrying those massive weapons. Egg becomes aware of the fact that he’s too small to do all that for Dunk.
Dunk Vows To Immortalize Arlan’s Name
When the duo returns to their camp at the end of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episode 2, it becomes evident that Dunk has also gotten a reality check as well, because he has gotten a close look at what a jousting match actually entails. Maybe he had heard about it through stories, but after seeing these knights falling off their horses, getting battered by lances, and even being run over by other horses, he understands he has a long way to go before he can call himself a proper knight. He acknowledges that he can’t treat Arlan as an ideal to strive towards, because he wasn’t all that proficient at what he did. Yeah, Arlan was a good guy, but what has his goodness gotten him? Everyone has forgotten about him, and Dunk has to give specific references to jog people’s memories of him. So, Dunk comes to the conclusion that, in order to uphold Arlan’s legacy, he not only has to win this extremely difficult tournament, but he also has to put on a show that’s so memorable that Arlan’s name becomes etched in the history books alongside his own. He essentially makes a vow to himself to make Arlan a household name. Well, since Joffrey Baratheon had already revealed in Game of Thrones Season 4, episode 1, that Ser Duncan had four pages dedicated to him in the White Book, we kind of know that Dunk is going to win the tourney and then go on to garner many more accolades. Whether or not Arlan’s name will be there as well is something that remains to be seen. What are your thoughts on this show so far? Let me know in the comments section below.
