The evidence that Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was never ...

What’s Happening

Listen up: Martin’s novella and the HBO show Knight of the Seven Kingdoms handle that differently.

Follow Followed Like Thread Link copied to clipboard Add us on By Tasha Robinson Published Feb 22, 2026, 9:45 PM EST Game of Thrones Was Dunk ever knighted? Heres how his novella and the HBO show handle it differently The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is lying about being a knight. (let that sink in)

Photo: Steffan Hill/HBO Early in “The Morrow,” the season 1 finale of the Game of Thrones prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms , battered knight Ser Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings) tells even more battered series protagonist Dunk (Peter Claffey) “The gods don’t favor a fraud.

The Details

” “Then why have they favored me? Viewers who’ve followed the show to this point will understand what Lyonel is talking about — Dunk is despondent over the death of Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel), the heir to the Iron Throne of Westeros, who was mortally wounded while defending Dunk in a trial by combat.

Lyonel is furious at Dunk’s response, insisting that Baelor “risked nothing” in the fight, since the men on the other side were his family members and Kingsguard “sworn to protect him. ” Even though Baelor died from the beating he suffered in that fight, Lyonel still feels the prince’s participation was a sham, and that the gods punished him for it.

Why This Matters

But the reason Dunk calls himself a fraud is more complicated — and it involves a secret that subtly runs throughout all of George R. Martin ’s stories about Dunk and his squire Egg , aka future Westeros king Aegon Targaryen V . The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms finale foregrounds that secret more directly, though it only comes out in a few lines of dialogue.

This is the kind of news that gets gamers talking across social media.

The Bottom Line

The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms finale foregrounds that secret more directly, though it only comes out in a few lines of dialogue. The truth is that Dunk was never actually knighted, and is lying about being a knight.

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