A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been doing a lot right to bring George R.R. Martin’s source material to life. From sticking to the pacing and tone of the original novellas to occasionally lifting direct lines of dialogue from them, so far it’s arguably the most faithful of the A Song of Ice and Fire adaptations we’ve gotten on TV so far. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t occasionally miss out on pulling some key lines… even if their absence was actually an accident on the show’s part.
When the latest episode of the series, “Seven”, set the stage for Dunk’s trial by combat against Aerion Targaryen, fans were expecting a small, but special moment from the first Dunk and Egg novella, The Hedge Knight, to make its way to TV—only to find it was nowhere to be seen.
In the original novella, just before the scrap begins (and Dunk even realizes that he’s been able to find some champions to join him in the Trial of Seven), Dunk is visited by various commonfolk leaving him tributes, leading the confused hedge knight to ask blacksmith Steely Pate, “What am I to them?” only for Pate to simply respond, “A knight who remembered his vows.”
It’s one of the defining moments of the novella, a reminder that Westeros still believes in the just cause of knighthood, and that Dunk has come to completely embody those values—regardless of whether or not he was truly knighted by Ser Arlan before his death or whatever machinations are at play among the Targaryens visiting Ashford Meadow for the tourney. The common people’s support of Dunk, even before he finds himself with some unlikely allies for the trial, tells the audience and Dunk alike that there’s still some noble good in a world that usually trades it for politicking and subterfuge.
But it’s not that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms chose not to include the exchange in its adaptation. It’s more that it apparently forgot to stop it from getting scrapped.
“Honestly it was a mistake on my part. Not my first not my last on this show,” showrunner Ira Parker admitted during a Reddit AMA this week when asked about the moment’s absence. “That scene was in the script at one point, then fell out.”
But to save a little face, Parker defended that, even if the line itself was accidentally cut from the script, its spirit still persists throughout the rest of the show. “I agree that ‘a knight who remembers his vows’ is the soul of this story, but I think that is still very much at the core of the show, even if I stupidly left out this scene,” Parker continued. “It may not be said explicitly, but Dunk’s actions remain the same.”
Considering how good the rest of the show has been about bringing The Hedge Knight to life, we can perhaps forgive Parker for the mistake.
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