Maekar is a dick, at least in public. That doesn’t mean he’s cruel. He appears to be a loving and caring father to Egg.
Are you sure you’re not thinking of Ser Arlen?
He was, absolutely. But he seemed to be your typical “lord addressing a scrubby hedge knight” level of being a dick, and not “Nazi movie supervillain who drowns puppies” level like Aerion or Viserys or the other “coin landed tails-up” Targaryens we’ve seen.
He’s not a nice guy, but he’s not a bad guy, either.
What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or was he just born with a heart full of neutrality?
I just watched it again and that was clearly a flashback to the day of Arlan’s death. Dude looked rough, there was thunder rumbling, that was the same damn tree. Also, it doesn’t actually clear up anything because we still don’t know if he knighted Dunk or not.
I read an interview with showrunner Ira Parker who stated that scene is deliberately left ambiguous, the knighting question unresolved, to make viewers question what the true nature of Knighthood is.
Article is linked in this post:
You guys are throwing character names around like you were paying attention, and have the Song Of Ice And Fire memorised. I get lost with these names very easily, they suffer the Tolkien all-sound-the-same-to-me syndrome.
The only name I internalized is that there’s a guy named something like Beesbury whose house is obsessed with bees.
I am a Song of Ice and Fire nerd, and I’m really good with character names and place names, until you get to the Targaryens, then forget about it. Their names sound so similar, and there are a lot of folks with the same name in different generations (much like real life kings), and I get lost too.
Some of us have been discussing this stories for decades.
I’m another ASOIAF nerd and have been reading the books since the 90s. Alleras is Sarella Sand! Frey pie! The Hound is the grave digger!
I used to be a big nerd about ASOIAF (forums on westeros.org, first read about Jon being Rhaegar’s son on a geocities page), but my memory is terrible. I know Frey Pie and the Hound being the grave digger, and Alleras rings a bell but no recollection beyond the name.
Helps with HOTD because I don’t remember which side wins.
Martin doesn’t make it easier by reusing names over and over. I get that is realistic but it doesn’t go easy on the reader. What is helping me keep it somewhat straight is I was reading some stuff about the Targaryen family tree because I have been re-reading Blood & Fire.
Given his story - that peasants pounded their pennies into the tree when they were dragged off to fight - have we considered the possibility that Arlan was never actually knighted?
I have NOT read the books, but I could totally see someone like Arlan getting knighted after some battle where he showed his mettle - probably by another hedge/hired knight rather than a noble.
Yes. True. But I could also see him picking the armor off of some dead knight and taking his horse, and just deciding he had earned his spurs. Because he had.
Fair enough. It appears that GRRM and the show runner(s) are deliberately keeping all that to themselves. I actually like the choice they’ve made since it does focus the story on the question of “what does it mean to be a knight” as opposed to “what does it take to be a knight”.
That’s exactly it. Dunk is a “true knight”, or at least on the way to becoming one, because of his choices and actions, not because of a ceremony.