Other way around, the one who backed Dunk, Baelor, is the heir to the throne. Maekar, the father of Aerion is the fourth son of current king Daeron, while Baelor is the first. Which makes Egg the fourth son of a fourth son.
Right, it might be slightly confusing in the show because the actor portraying Maekar looks older (to me), though actually both actors are approximately the same age.
So he’s “unlikely” to inherit a throne…
Apparently a scene was cut, with the small folk leaving presents for Dunk, and he asks the blacksmith why, and he replies “You remember your vows”.
Lame, they certainly got plenty of time to fit those in.
Yeah, it seems as if the small-folk are against him in the tv series. Which isn’t supposed to be the way. Why would they be?
Perhaps it made the fart scene less “hilarious”.
That wasn’t the small folk though, they were on the other side of the field. The people up in the stands seemed like lesser nobility.
Yeah, but the detail might be confusing, and in general they seem to want to fart belch spit and shit a lot in this series because it is “hilarious” and one of the best lines of the novella could be lost to expulsions.
100%.
That’s why it was so significant when he asked if there were any true knights that would stand with him, and a huge guy stood up as if to join him (before farting). If those were the “poor seats” that wouldn’t have mattered. Also, why would he be asking a bunch of peasants if any of them were a knight?
I thought they couldn’t have made it any clearer.
Really think the flashback was a terrible decision. Everything present day was great (haven’t seen a fight that felt so exhausting and brutal in a while), but that killed the momentum for me. Yes, the “get up” transition was good, but not worth half the episode.
I disagree. It showed a great deal of character development. And it gave meaning to the whole episode “Get up.”
Loved it. The fight was just absolute brutality, very little fancy choreography… which is probably how a fight like this would really go. I was expecting to see more of the fight around them, but they really did stick to Dunk’s POV… which is how the book was, and also might have been friendlier to the budget.
No complaints.
I’ll admit I was starting to get a little worried.
I was definitely surprised about Baelor, although I guess it was bound to happen.
Who were the other two they said died? I’m no good matching names with faces on this show.
Ser Humphrey Hardying (broken leg guy) and Ser Humphrey Beesbury (mustache guy without a line until this episode) both died on the first charge, according to Ser Raymun.
Ah, Ser Not Appearing in this Film.
Plus, it was just funny as hell. I actually laughed, thinking of the thousands of heads exploding all over the world as they just got settled in to watch The Big Fight, only to be immediately spun off into a flashback.
Realistically, I think the producers needed the flashback to pad out the episode, because other wise, the season could have wrapped up in five episodes rather than six. But yes, long term, we need to see where Dunk came from.
I was a bit disoriented by the flashback at first and sort of wondered how long Dunk was napping in the mud dreaming about his youth. But (echoing the statements of the producers after the show) I think it was really good it framing Dunk as no longer in some chivalrous knight duel but in the sort of brutal life or death battles for survival he grew up with in Fleabottom.
The Dunk POV view was also great in portraying the confusion, noise, claustrophobia and terror he would be experiencing going into such a battle for the first time. He wouldn’t necessarily have the awareness of what the other knights were doing.
I also think this was one of the few fictional knight battles I’ve seen where they armor actually did it’s job. These guys are walking tanks. Moreso when on horseback. Usually movies and tv have knights insta-killing each other by slashing and stabbing through plate and chain mail like it was nothing. I would expect that IRL knights had to whale on each other pretty hard with blunt weapons like maces and hammers or find a joint or weak spot for blades to actually hurt each other.
Maekar delivering the fatal blow to Baelor in the background was an amazing touch. I wonder if the other deaths are there as well. I think when I rewatch this episode I’ll watch more of the background details and see if I can spot them.
The Dunk POV was reminiscent of the Jon Snow portion of the Battle of the Bastards when he was buried under a pile of fighting men, alive, dead or dying. All we in the audience could see were occasional flashes of the sky through the melee.