The showunner and stars of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms have spoken about that surprising Episode 5 death which changes everything.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been building towards violence, and the show finally delivered, during the Trial of Seven at the Ashford tourney.
The Episode 5 fight pitted Ser Duncan and six cohorts against Prince Aerion and his crew in a battle at dawn, with their conflict juxtaposed with tragic scenes from Dunk’s childhood.
The Trial ends in bloody fashion, while a death that comes out of nowhere proves to be the season’s most shocking scene. SPOILERS ahead…
The death of Prince Baelor ‘Breakspear’ Targaryen
Prince Baelor (Bertie Carvel) sides against his family and with Ser Dunk in the Trial of Seven, and he fights bravely, but a blow to the head crushes his helmet, and when he takes it off, we see that the back of his brain is missing, and Baelor dies from the injury.
It’s a shocking moment, but one that showrunner Ira Parker says his life has been building towards. “At so young in his life, he became this war hero, this savior of the kingdom and the realm,” Parker tells EW. “Because of his nature, everybody’s telling him how honorable he is and how he’s gonna make the greatest king that Westeros has ever had since the Conqueror.
“Then finally a moment comes for him to actually put up when his honor is tested in truth. Virtue untested is no virtue at all.”
Bertie Carvel says that his character’s death is about both honor and heroism: “It really made me cheer inwardly when I read it and wanted to make people feel the same thing when they see it,” he says, pointing out that Baelor asks Dunk “How good a knight are you?” then “must ask the same question of himself when push comes to shove.”
Comparisons with Ned Stark
Baelor’s death has been compared to that of Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, and Carvel sees the similarities while not agreeing 100%.
“I suppose the difference is that there’s something about the way that the Stark family defines itself and its story around the kind of steadfast, stoic, responsive, moral responsibility,” says Carvel. “‘Winter is coming.’ Whereas the Targaryens have different words. But there’s a correspondence there.”
Meanwhile Parker doesn’t see it: “I would say Ned Stark was a little bit more naive than somebody like Baelor Targaryen was. It’s not that Baelor doesn’t understand what could happen to him. In my mind, he’s doing this because it’s always been said about him that he is this person, from the time that he was the hammer and the anvil.”
What Baelor’s death means for brother Maekar
Baerlor’s deadly blow comes from his brother Maekar, and the intent behind that hit remains ambiguous.
“We did slightly different versions of culpability, I guess; whether it was accident or whether he meant to kill his brother,” says Maekar actor Sam Spruell. “I think that was really exciting for me to experiment with and to discuss with not only Ira, but [director] Sarah [Adina Smith].
“There is that kind of deep, deep desire to be number one in Maekar that might be realized by the death of his brother. So all the guilt or all the sadness or all the grief he feels is kind of bracketed by this realization that this means he’s next in line to the throne.”
While Parker believes the Prince’s sacrifice to save Dunk’s skin will have far-reaching consequences, referencing Dunk’s belief that he will one day be useful to the realm (in the forthcoming Episode 6), as well as the Game of Thrones scene where Joffrey points out the Hedge Knight’s importance in the Book of Brothers.
“As we see, Ser Duncan has four pages in that white book one day, you know?” Parker says. “So [Dunk] wasn’t completely wrong with what [Baelor’s] sacrifice was gonna be worth.”
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