The flashback also explained why Dunc did what he did in the puppet tent. When he looked at Aerion hurting Tanselle, he saw Alester killing Rafe. O course he ran forward in a blind fury; this is why he became a knight in the first place.
I think, more importantly, he saw Ser Arlan rushing in to help.
It does seem a bit strange that you don’t really know what happened in this fight apart from Dunk’s battle.
Or rather, it wasn’t of much consequence mostly.
Sure, the nasty melee was in the centre, and a lot of the rest kept on their horses racing up and down, the three kingsguard seemed to be there to harry Dunk, knocking him down to give Aerion the advantage, though one from his side knocked down Aerion at least once, so it was if they were not to go full killer mode, them being (I assume) the best of the best (mostly, they were more Jamie and Barriston the bold for their fighting skills rather than paid off fools like Blount). So if really necessary those three would have probably owned the other seven.
Piecing it together from other sources, The excellent fighter Fossoway which betrayed Dunk also held back (or wasn’t that much of a scrapper after all), I think we saw one Beesbury get killed just after Dunk was knocked off (by Donnel, a Kingsguard). Maekar was fighting both Baelor and Lyonel Baratheon when he dealt the fatal wound to Baelor.
I was also quite surprised the newly knighted Fossoway survived the battle.None of the opposing seven died though.
I mean, that really didn’t need a backstory. Nobody was thinking “why was Dunk upset that a woman he was sweet on was getting brutalized?” Actually think this cheapens it now that I ponder it a bit more.
It was kind of a bummer not to see more of it. Specially since we met so many of the other characters.
I think the idea was that Dunk wouldn’t have seen much of the battle with his visor lowered, so we were watching through his eyes.
I told my wife he was too noble to survive in Westeros, same with Baelor…
My favorite knight!
Real knife knight fights often devolved into a grapple, with both knights using their swords as levers (held in two hands, thanks to gauntlets) and trying to push in towards their opponent. There were special daggers for stabbing your opponent in the head through his eye slit, misericordes.
So yeah, much like in this episode.
Me, too! I thought his cousin would kill him for sure.
Flashbacks are a bit out of character for GOT. As I recall, GOT never has flashbacks. Third-Eye-Bran’s travels through time not withstanding, I can’t think of a single scene where they flash back to younger versions of characters. Actually I take that back. I believe there was one flashback to a young Cercei visiting Maggy the Frog. Other than that, all other “flashbacks” are spoken narratives in the present.
It wasn’t terrible but IMHO it did screw up the story flow a bit. It may have better if scenes of young Dunk (or more appropriately Dunk speaking of his backstory) were interspersed with the present. So by the time we get to Dunk flashback nap, we have some context into characters we are emotionally invested in.
As it stands, the flashback scene was kind of jarring:
“Is Dunk dead?!!”
“Who are these people? Oh it’s Dunk and a friend we never heard about.”
“What’s going on?”
“Who is this friend? Why do we care?”
“How long is this dude resting?!! Is everyone still fighting around him?!”
…and we’re back.
And by all means, pour some boiling wine on those wounds! It’s a “cure-all”!
I thought it was fine, and didn’t interrupt the flow at all. Flashbacks, and how they’re handled within shows, are so common now, you have very little excuse for being confused by anything. And sometimes the jarring shift is deliberate, as when you get dinged on the head by a morningstar it’s a bit of a shock.
I believe the flashback just replaced a line at that moment that said “he could beat Ser Duncan the Tall but he couldn’t beat Dunk of Fleabottom”.
I liked the episode but that flashback could’ve been an email.
It took too long to impart too little information.
A short flashback wouldn’t have worked - couldn’t have included the combination of desperation, resilience, loss, grief, and new beginnings.
Then we could’ve done without it.
I mean, the longer flashback didn’t do that either, all that was already central to Dunk’s character.
IMO the flashback subtracted from Dunk’s story in that it tried to explain something that needed no explanation. It was good for Ser Arlan, but at that moment? At the cost of half the episode? Glad it worked for some; It must have else the episode wouldn’t be so highly rated. I’d like to read writer / editor debated on adding that to the show.
This, basically.
I liked it. The battle was super brutal and intense, which was great to see, but that meant it needed to be broken up, because the whole episode can’t be a brutal and intense brawl with barely any dialogue, and a more “cinematic” battle would have lost a lot compared to what we had.
It was a duel, not the Battle of the Bastards. You either have the flashback in the middle or wait 10 minutes until it starts.
The latter to me is the real complaint. Positioning was bearable, and suspense is good, but it really doesn’t work for 20 minutes of suspense.
Of course, I can see how it went that way. They needed the last of the seven to end the last episode. They needed to end the next episode with the prince dying. Spacefill in between. It was a moment of dwarves singing and throwing crockery around in the first hobbit movie. Too much.
Not sure what the alternative was, but it was frustrating and bad storytelling to me.
I am confused why people think that that flash back was a waste of time. It was good insight on the how and why of Dunk, especially why he didn’t hesitate to help the puppeteer. How he met Sir Arlan in the first place and not for nothing was our first good look at Flea Bottom outside of the brothels in the Franchise.
And then we had one of the most brutal battles from any of the series from the point of view of someone in it and we had the classic Westeros twist of someone good dying for doing the right thing (a guy who probably would have made a great King and changed the course of History had he lived). It was a great episode all around.
I have been re-reading Blood & Fire and Westeros really only had one great King: Jaehaerys I. Baelor could have been another.