Which was always the Hound’s philosophy.
I’ll have to rewatch that scene, but is Arlan just describing the town he’s from or did he say specifically that he was a peasant pressed into service?
He alluded to it, but didn’t explicitly say he was a peasant pressed into service.
The open disdain and hatred towards Targaryens by several of the nobles was a nice little touch to show the decline of their hold on the empire.
I really enjoyed this show but if there is one thing from the books that I think is massive mistake that they didn’t include is this.
After Dunk gets his armor from Steely Pate, they exit his tent and there is a huge crowd of peasants cheering him on as he gets ready for the fight. Dunk is stunned and says “What am I to them? Why are they cheering me on?” Pate answers “A knight who remembers his vows.”
For me at least I thought that was the entire heart of soul of the story. It is such a good line and moment, and encapsules the story so well, I am amazed they didn’t include it. The entire point of the story was who gives a shit if he was actually knighted. Being a knight is so much more important and frankly rare than if the actual ceremony had happened or not.
I agree that was a great moment, but I think they did capture the intent, if not quite the timing and impact, with the conversation with the armorer as well as the cheering, supporting crowd at the end of the fight.
Good nitpick, IMO.
I seem to remember that there was an scene to that effect.
I guess kinda sorta. I just think they massively undercut this by
- Right before the fight having a peasant stand up and pretend to support Dunk only to then fart.
- Having the cheering crowd and peasants be mostly after the fight making it harder to differentiate between cheering for a good knight vs just cheering for the winner vs just cheering for a close hard fought fight.
I agree that they captured the sentiment with the Baelor scene’s “don’t all knights take the same vow” and then the peasant crowd cheering at Dunk to get up. I also agree that the book scene is good and that it’s odd they didn’t include it.
They probably would have put it at the beginning of ep5?
Both reasonable criticisms.
That was no peasant, that was Otho of House Bracken!
The lords and ladies were up in the seats; the peasants were at ground level.
That wasn’t a peasant, it was a knight/noble. No hoi polloi in the stands - that’s for “people of quality.” Peasants stand around on the outskirts of the field, jostling each other for a better look.
ETA: Damn, ninja’ed. But it’s important to remember that for many raised in the gentry/nobility standing up for a peasant is not going to register as a great thing to do. A minority that have fully bought into the chivalry/knighthood propaganda as an ethos will commend it (probably the more naive and less bright among them on average). But most of them are cynical people used to shoving around and maybe casually abusing the common folk, even when not being directly malicious. Most of them don’t really give a shit - they’re the fucking mafia.
Taking on the highly-trained royal family with their superbly trained bodyguards is lose-lose. Win and you gain the potential enmity of the most powerful people in the realm. Lose (which you’re likely to - elite body guards are elite bodyguards) and you can end up dead or crippled.
It’s frankly ridiculous for Dunk to be asking most of those cynical bastards. Luckily he got a new buddy who hates his shitty cousin (friendship/personal animosity), a guy with a grudge (Sir Broken Leg), the grudge guy’s brother-in-law (family ties), the 1 in 100 chivalric exception, the other 1 in 100 chivalric exception who also knows said elite body guards aren’t going to try and hurt him and a very high noble buddy who’s a devil-may-care type who’s largely immune to royal intimidation.
This is a change that I really liked that wasn’t in the books. I totally agree with your reasoning that there are going to be at least some nobles who object to the Targaryens now that they no longer have dragons. The incest isn’t just against their religion it also means they have almost no prospect of marring into the Throne. Prospective sharing of power in this way is how many kingdoms kept their nobles in line.
(Pushes up my glasses) Technically about a hundred and fifty years before this time, the Church was strong armed into sanctioning the incest of the Targaryens through the BS concept of “Exceptionalism” where some people can do things you can’t because they are your betters.
I can agree with you that in the vast majority of what happened in the story wasn’t realistic. I just don’t think that matters very much. Telling a good story is massively more important than telling a realistic story. Having Dunk save the day by pulling out a light saber and killing everyone would totally destroy the story. I would also argue that forcing everything in the story to be realistic and the most likely thing to happen would equally destroy the story. The vast majority of fiction is about that 1/1000000 event\person\situation that would almost never in real life but that this character pulled off.
I was a fan of this show. I enjoyed being in Westeros with relatively low stakes and especially where 80% of the characters aren’t morally reprehensible or any decent character is in utter misery. I’ll have to check out the other Dunk and Egg stories, and I hope GRRM can finish book 6 cause he said he wants to go back to Dunk and Egg when he is done. survive.gif
The last one was actually published before the last ASOIAF book, so this suffers from exactly the same writers-block on a much smaller scale (and with probably far less complications too). Apparently there was another one due to be published in 2013, a deadline which he missed (She wolves of winterfell, which ties in with the idea that Hodor is a descendant). A fifth one was sketched out around then too (The village hero), and a further four: The Sellsword, The Champion, The Kingsguard, and The Lord Commander, which probably refers to Dunks future career.
And in 2023 he further reaffirmed that no more dunk and egg stories would be published before Winds of Winter, so there won’t be any more. At all. I have more chance of writing the Winds of Winter than him, with the word count stalled for about four years and he wasn’t exactly chucking them words out at speed before then.
GRRM’s own words and predictions about future writing are meaningless. Maybe he won’t publish any more Dunk and Egg books, but it won’t be because he says he won’t before Winds. He might easily change his mind if he decides he wants to stay ahead of the TV series.
I read that GRRM shared his notes for the unwritten stories with the show’s writers.
I am starting to think that even if Martin finishes the books or has finished them, he will publish them posthumously just so he won’t have to deal with the inevitable “fan” bullshit.