Any universe as sprawling and filled with lore as George R.R. Martin’s A Music of Ice and Hearth is certain to be filled with unanswered questions, narrative gaps, and unconfirmed theories. Granted, the smaller scale of one thing like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms doesn’t lend itself to the scope of the theories followers usually debated so vigorously on Sport of Thrones (R + L = J, Maggy the Frog’s prophecies, Cleganebowl), however that doesn’t imply there aren’t comparable lingering questions from the unique novellas that readers are hoping the present may at some point clear up. And one of many largest (no pun meant) facilities round Ser Duncan the Tall.
No, it’s not whether or not he’s really an ancestor of Brienne of Tarth, one in all Westeros’ different well-known tall knights. (That appears fairly effectively confirmed, really.) It’s the query of whether or not he’s really a knight in any respect. The present opens with the loss of life of Ser Arlan of Pennytree, the knight whom Dunk served as a squire. However whereas he nearly instantly begins referring to himself as a knight in his former grasp’s place, we by no means really see the ceremony that made him one. That is, in fact, as a result of it could not have occurred in any respect. Or, it may need. We simply don’t know. And that’s on goal, apparently by the use of a direct request from Martin himself.
“There isn’t any affirmation, in some way, popping out of that scene.” Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker stated throughout a current interview with Collider. “That’s precisely how Mr. R.R. Martin requested it. It stays [ambiguous], and folks can determine for themselves.
The sequence could be very cautious to by no means decide to both reply. Dunk tells folks Ser Arlan knighted him, however provides no precise proof. He’s referred to as away earlier than he has to knight Raymun Fossoway previous to his trial of seven, leaving the responsibility to Lyonel Barathoen and permitting the present to neatly keep away from the query of whether or not he can even carry out the duty legitimately. Within the season finale, we see a flashback through which Dunk asks an ailing Ser Arlan why he’s by no means knighted him, a query Pennytree doesn’t reply. However that’s not the top of Ser Arlan’s life or of their story collectively. There’s each chance he knighted him later, within the gaps between this second and the one through which we noticed Dunk bury him. In brief, it actually might go both method.
