A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Creator Denies Confirming Decades-Old Fan Theory in the Finale

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ Season 1 finale seemingly confirmed a major theory about Ser Duncan the Tall, but co-creator and showrunner Ira Parker has revealed that wasn’t the intention. The ending to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was a relatively low-key one after the trial of seven saw the death of Baelor Targaryen, but it still had a few big moments. Egg ran away from his family yet again, Raymun Fossoway married Rowan, and it confirmed Ser Arlan of Pennytree never knighted Dunk.

Or at least, so it seemed. I’ll admit that, to me, there wasn’t any ambiguity in the scene: the flashback shows Dunk asking a dying Arlan why he never knighted him, and the knight dies before we get an answer. It didn’t leave any doubt in my mind that Dunk wasn’t knighted, and that seems to be the general consensus. However, Parker was asked about Dunk not receiving his knighthood in an interview with Collider, and confirmed that wasn’t his intention with the scene:

“It’s fascinating to me that that’s what you got out of that scene. At that moment, Dunk had never been knighted by Ser Arlan. He says, ‘Why did you never knight me?’ And then, Ser Arlan dies, and we think it’s over. But then, he’s back and, as far as we know, the continuation of that scene is, ‘Boy, go get me my sword,’ and then he knights him. There is no confirmation, one way or the other, coming out of that scene. That’s exactly how Mr. R.R. Martin requested it. It remains [ambiguous] and people can decide for themselves.

“Look, Danny Webb is a f**king magician. I love him so much. He’s just become Arlan. It could have been no one else in this whole world. He was just pitch perfect, all the way up until his death. This whole journey is going to be about what makes a true knight, whether or not you’re given the title, or if you have to earn the title even after you’re given it. Can you earn it, even if you’ve never been given it?”

Does It Matter If Dunk Was Never Really Knighted?

There is, of course, a difference between intent and interpretation, and one of the reasons that I took the scene as confirming Dunk wasn’t knighted is because the show wasn’t exactly subtle with teasing that fact before then, and nor was the book (which also makes it surprising that Martin was insistent on it remaining ambiguous). Even prior to the finale, it felt more like an accepted if unconfirmed fact more than a theory, because so many clues point toward it.

Dunk won’t knight Raymun Fossoway, the flashbacks show Arlan doing something whenever he says it happened (and yet never show this), in the book, he thinks of wanting something so bad he’d tell a “monstrous lie” to get it, and even outright thinks he’s “not even a hedge knight” at one point.

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In a sense, it does matter – but mostly just to Dunk himself. If he isn’t a real knight, then it’s he who has to live with that lie, and how heavily it may weigh upon him. But in another, it doesn’t, and it’s sort of the point of Dunk not being knighted, really (or so I thought,): the irony is that while he might not actually be a knight, he is the truest of knights.

He lives up to all the ideals of what one should be – honorable, chivalrous, and a protector of the weak and innocent – in a way very few “real” knights do. And he might strive even harder to do that because he wasn’t knighted, and wants to prove himself, but it’s also because he is just fundamentally decent and was well taught by Ser Arlan, regardless of whether he gave him a knighthood or not.

What will be particularly interesting going forward is whether there is another scene of Dunk being knighted later down the line. Eventually, he becomes a member of the Kingsguard, and a king can make someone a knight. It’s possible that, in secret, he’ll tell Egg (who becomes King Aegon V Targaryen) and actually receive a knighthood from him, which would feel quite fitting. But given that they want it to remain ambiguous, we might never get more of it. Nonetheless, Dunk is a true knight.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 2 will release on HBO and HBO Max in 2027.

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