Warning: The following contains spoilers of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Ser Duncan the Tall gets his moment in the spotlight in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episode five, “In the Name of the Mother.” Despite a brutal fight to the death against Aerion Targaryen during the Trial of Seven, Dunk manages to get the monstrous prince to yield and rescind his accusation. While this would constitute a triumph for Dunk, episode five’s finale shows it is anything but.
Apart from barely surviving the Trial of Seven, episode five ends with Dunk potentially losing his most important ally: Baelor Targaryen. Despite looking okay at first, when Baelor starts feeling disorientated and begins losing sensation in his hand, it becomes clear that something isn’t right. When Ser Raymun Fossoway and the blacksmith help remove Baelor’s helmet, he is shown to have a severe injury to the back of his head, seemingly from a mace. This causes Baelor to pass out in Dunk’s arms.
Photo: Steffan Hill/HBO
Though episode five doesn’t confirm if Baelor is truly dead, the extent of his injury strongly suggests he is a goner. However, apart from having a split skull that exposes the back of his brain (and there is no coming back from that), there is another strong clue that suggests Baelor isn’t destined to survive: Daeron’s prophecy from episode four.
As fans may recall, Daeron Targaryen appeared for the first time since the premiere midway through episode four. Apart from confirming that he was Maekar’s missing son and the sole drunken customer seen at the inn in episode one, Daeron also disclosed the real reason he wanted to avoid the tourney at Asford Meadow.
During his conversation with Dunk, Daeron revealed he has the rare Targaryen gift of dragon dreams. In contrast with regular dreams, dragon dreams are prophetic in nature and are often (if not always) fulfilled. However, far from being straightforward premonitions, dragon dreams are metaphorical in nature, with the fates of Targaryens often symbolized by dragons. As such, it’s hard to know which member of the Targaryen bloodline will fulfill these prophetic dreams.
Photo: Steffan Hill/HBO
Since Daeron had already dreamt of a Targaryen fighting bravely and dying at the Ashford Meadow tourney, he decided to play it safe by hiding at the inn until the tourney ended. But the way Daeron described the dream strongly suggests he predicted Baelor’s death. In the dream, Daeron saw fire, Ser Duncan, and a giant dragon in battle. The dream ended with Dunk surviving the battle, but the dragon died when it fell on top of him.
Applied to episode five, much of the battle plays out almost exactly the way Daeron described. Given Aerion’s arrogance and impulsivity, he was always going to fight dirty to win at all costs. He does exactly that during the Trial of Seven, effectively confirming he is the “fire” in Daeron’s dream. Likewise, Dunk survives the brutality of Aerion’s attacks, from being repeatedly stabbed to having his eye gouged to being hit multiple times in the head with a mace.
Though Dunk manages to overpower Aerion, he doesn’t kill the prince. That leaves Daeron and Baelor as the only Targaryens left to fulfill the prophecy. Since Daeron described the dragon as “giant”, this easily rules him out, as he is thought of as the drunk of the family. He’s also never actually shown fighting or being taken out, but he was clear about wanting to exit the Trial of Seven as early and quickly as possible.
Photo: Steffan Hill/HBO
The only true “giant” in this generation of Targaryens is Baelor since he is both the heir to the Iron Throne and the Hand of the King to his own father, King Daeron II. He’s also the noblest member of his family, effectively making him the more well-liked Targaryen. The final detail that confirms Baelor is the “giant dragon” that dies in Daeron’s dream is the fact that he literally falls on top of Dunk when he loses consciousness. He also doesn’t respond to Dunk’s pleas to wake up when he passes out.
Viewers will still have to wait for episode six to drop to find out if Baelor is really dead or if it’ll contradict the source material with a surprise revival. But as of episode five’s finale and the buildup to it, all arrows point to Baelor not surviving.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms debuts new episodes every Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max at 10:00 PM EST.
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