Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Just Accidentally Spoiled One Character’s Fate
When you’re thick as a castle wall, you can survive a little fire.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms may be a completely new tone for the Game of Thrones universe, but it’s still a prequel book, meaning when we meet many of the characters at the tourney in Ashford, we already know how they meet their end, at least in book canon. Aerion Targaryen is burned alive when he decides to drink wildfire to activate his inner dragon, and his brother Daeron perishes after contracting an STD, an apt ending for the royal family’s party boy.
However, a recent slip-up during an interview suggests that what we once thought was a fatal accident for Dunk and Egg may actually have a different ending altogether.
Warning! Possible spoilers for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms ahead!
During an interview with Decider, Dexter Sol Ansell and Peter Claffey were making little felt dragon puppets when Ansell was asked about Summerhall, the palace built by Aegon when he becomes king. In the books, something mysterious happens there that results in a massive fire and the loss of multiple Targaryens, including King Aegon himself, his eldest son Duncan (named after Dunk) and, presumedly, Dunk himself.
Dunk and Egg are supposed to meet their end in the same tragic fire, but will that be true in the series?
But Ansell told a different story. “I do know a bit about when Egg’s trying to make dragons in the Summerhall, and there’s a huge fire,” he said. “But we know from George [R.R. Martin] Dunk survives, but we don’t know if Egg survives yet.” This is actually new knowledge to everyone, and Peter Claffey shows a bit of a panicked response.
There are two huge reveals here, so let’s break them down one by one. First, if Dunk survives, then where did he go after escaping? He doesn’t pop up again in Westerosi history, which suggests he used the event as a convenient way to escape life as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. If Dunk was looking to just retire and live a quiet life, there’s a leading theory about where he would go: Tarth.
Ser Brienne of Tarth is a fan-favorite of Game of Thrones, and she does share a lot of similarities with Dunk: they’re both tall, both knights, both discriminated against because of who they are, and both hold honor above all else. But in the books, there’s yet another connection. In A Feast for Crows, Brienne decides to have the sigil on her shield repainted, and she chooses one based on a sigil she saw in her father’s armory as a child, something involving a tree and a shooting star. If Dunk survived, could he have run off to Tarth and actually be related — blood or otherwise — to Brienne?
Ser Duncan may be an ancestor of Brienne of Tarth.
But there’s another major theory. In the A Song of Ice and Fire books, Samwell Tarly and Gilly are saved beyond the way by a mysterious figure Sam names “Coldhands,” an imposing figure with black eyes who rides an elk and commands a flock of ravens. In the Game of Thrones series, Coldhands’ character is merged with Benjen Stark, but George R. R. Martin has confirmed that in the book canon, Coldhands isn’t secretly Benjen. There are a few issues with this theory, mainly that by the time Sam and Gilly escape Craster’s Keep, Duncan would be well over 100 years old. But Coldhands is meant to be a mystical figure, so age may not be a factor.
Regardless of Dunk’s fate, there’s also the question of Aegon’s survival. When the pair met the fortune teller at Ashford, she suggested he wouldn’t survive Summerhall at all, but could Egg have faked his tragic end too? It makes sense, since he lived most of his life in cognito with Dunk, for him to want to live his final days in a quiet life. Will this series last long enough to show that chapter? We can only hope.
