14 Years Later, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Makes Game of Thrones’ Huge Cut Daenerys Scene Even Worse

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place long before Daenerys Targaryen is born, but still impacts her Game of Thrones story. The franchise’s latest prequel continues to have some focus on House Targaryen, albeit from a very different perspective than both its parent show and House of the Dragon. Still, while Dunk and Egg are the central figures, the latter’s family members play a crucial role, including in ways that are more prophetic in nature.

In A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, this comes in the form of Daeron Targaryen’s dream of Dunk, wherein he saw a great dragon falling on top of the hedge knight, only the dragon died while Ser Duncan survived. The show hasn’t revealed exactly what this means (though it will get to it), but it’s yet another example of one of the biggest strengths in both Game of Thrones spinoffs, and an area that the original series neglected from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books.

A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms & HOTD Make Targaryen Dreams & Prophecy More Important

Daeron’s dream is the second prophetic warning of a Tagaryen’s death that has occurred in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, following on from a fortune teller revealing to Egg he’ll die in a fire. Even if audiences don’t know exactly what they’ll mean, they succeed in adding more intrigue to the story, and help make what’s largely been a lighter show feel weightier too, a portend of doom lurking below the comedy.

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This is something House of the Dragon has done very effectively as well. Firstly, it revealed Aegon the Conqueror’s Song of Ice and Fire dream, in which he foresaw the White Walkers and the need for a Targaryen on the Iron Throne to defeat them. It not only recontextualized House Targaryen’s entire history in Westeros, but also served as a driving point for the Dance of the Dragons, showcasing the dangers of chasing destiny and how prophecies can be so easily misunderstood and misinterpreted.

Helaena Targaryen has also been transformed into a dragon dreamer, giving vague (and sometimes not-so-vague) teases of events to come that add another layer to the series and make her character more tragic. Finally, Daemon Targaryen’s vision in House of the Dragon‘s Season 2 finale was a fascinating glimpse into the future of the family that was still used to push his character forward.

Game Of Thrones Ruined Daenerys’ Most Prophetic Moment

While Game of Thrones‘ bigger problems started when David Benioff and D.B. Weiss ran out of source material, it’s not like everything was perfectly adapted before that point. Even the early seasons have their issues, and one of the most egregious, or certainly one that’s always bothered me the most, is Daenerys’ House of the Undying visions from Martin’s second book, A Clash of Kings.

The full sequence in the book is incredible, and some of my favorite of Martin’s writing: there’s foreshadowing, it’s surreal and foreboding, magical and haunting all at once, and dripping in symbolism and thematic heft. From a tease of the Red Wedding to hints of Jon Snow’s real parentage, it has layers upon layers that are still being unpacked by readers to this day, and that have been important throughout the story and will be in The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring as well.

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In contrast, Game of Thrones massively reduced this down to just the Iron Throne in the snow (later revealed to be ash), and then Dany seeing Drogo and their son, Rhaego. It’s fine, but it lacks the same sense of purpose and weight as what we get in the books, not to mention missing all of that fantastical imagery. These visions underpin Daenerys’ story – there are clues to betrayals, pretenders, three-headed dragons, and destiny, all of which could and should have factored into her quest for the Iron Throne and would’ve made her “Mad Queen” arc stronger.

Game of Thrones often reduced or even ignored a lot of the fantasy elements of the books, instead keeping the focus on the political machinations around the Iron Throne. It did occasionally dive into prophecy, but it was usually in quite a superficial way that missed out a lot (the Prince That Was Promised is only paid lip service, Maggy the Frog’s prophecy to Cersei Lannister cuts a lot out, and they had to retcon Melisandre’s “eyes” line to Arya Stark into her killing the Night King late on for it to matter). It’s great that the other shows are now going harder on it, but it still makes me frustrated that what could’ve been one of the best Daenerys scenes ended up so disappointing.

New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms release Sundays at 10 pm ET on HBO and HBO Max.

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