A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 6 will be the Season 1 finale, and if you were hoping for a Game of Thrones level epic, we have some news for you.
The HBO series had been building up to the latest Episode 5, showing Dunk (Peter Claffey) duke it out against Aerion Targaryen (Finn Bennett) in the Trial of Seven.
While they both make it out alive (just), there was a shocking death, one that will have far-reaching consequences for the Targaryen line.
The upcoming finale will deal with the aftermath of this fight and what’s next for Dunk and Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). Just don’t go expecting an extra long goodbye…
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms finale runtime explained
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ finale, ‘The Morrow’, won’t be getting a bumper runtime. On the contrary, it’s one of the shortest episodes in the entire first season, clocking in at 31 minutes minus the adverts.
The show has been celebrated far and wide by George R.R. Martin fans and newcomers alike, who have enjoyed the grounded story and excellent cast performances. But the one main complaint that has emerged each week is that the episodes are too short, averaging around 30-35 minutes.
It’s a stark contrast to Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon’s debut chapters, which both contained 10 hour-long episodes.
There is a good reason for this: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 is based on Martin’s first Dunk and Egg novella, The Hedge Knight, which itself is less than 100 pages long.
Showrunner Ira Parker has repeatedly emphasized that the team didn’t want to drag out any plot points or deviate from the source material too much. But some think all episodes should have been dropped in one go to save having to wait a week to watch a half hour of content.
It’s a small gripe, and one that has been set aside due to how well the show has been received. However, fans hoping for an extra-long finale have been left feeling disappointed.
After the release of the Episode 6 trailer, one asked, “Episode runtime?” To which another replied, “30 minutes for the final episode.”
“This is HBO’s new thing,” added a third, with a fourth quipping, “In 10 years it’s just gonna be seven second Vine episodes.”
Over on X following the release of Episode 5, one wrote, “It’s a disservice A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a half hour per episode.”
Another said, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is great. Incredible episode. But six episodes 30 minutes each in a season? Should’ve just been a movie.”
A third added, “A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms: 60 minutes long. 2 minute ad for the Chinese made mobile game clearly from 2015, 3 minute recap of previous episode, 10 minutes of credits.
“Your episode is somehow 30 minutes long in total and you get only 6 episodes. What a f**king joke.”
Episode 5 flashback brings rating down
Others have complained about the fact that the first half of Episode 5 features a flashback, including this person who wrote, “A flashback on a six episode 30 mins each episode season, nah HBO don’t respect us.”
In fact, it’s one of the key complaints that has led to the latest episode receiving a 9.8/10 score on IMDb. Prior to this, it had a perfect 10/10 score, the highest of all Game of Thrones TV shows.
Among those giving it 1/10, one said, “Fight is amazing. But the flashback? Why!” Another called it a “filler episode”.
A third stated, “I expected too much more from this episode, and what I got is a 15+ minutes useless flashback and cheap battle where they ignored all other knights that they kept building up and focused only on Aerion and Duncan.”
Let it be known that this is a minority, and for the most part, fans have nothing but praise for the series. Among the many 10/10 ratings, one described Episode 5 as “one of the best episodes in the entire Game of Thrones franchise.”
As for the finale runtime, it’s not all bad news. “Really? Damn. Hope it’s not two years before Season 2,” wrote one, to which another stated, “It’s scheduled to come out in 2027.”
Yes, filming for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 2 has been underway since December 2025, with plans to release it next year. So Episode 6 might be short, but at least it won’t be a multi-year wait to find out what’s next for Dunk and Egg.
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