HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been getting heaps of praise from fans online. The Game of Thrones prequel’s most recent fourth episode is being called the show’s best yet. With a 9.7 rating on IMDB, it stands as the highest-rated episode in the franchise since GoT season seven’s “The Spoils of War.”
One factor that fans have seized on is the show’s faithfulness to author George R.R. Martin‘s source material (something that was extremely important to Martin as well).
But showrunner Ira Parker (who has been refreshingly modest during interviews about his experience working on the show) admitted Tuesday he made one mistake in adapting the material.
During a Reddit AMA, a fan chided Parker for omitting an exchange in Martin’s novella The Hedge Knight between Dunk (Peter Claffey) and the blacksmith Steely Pate (Youssef Kerkour). In the novella, Dunk is on his way to the joust — and, he assumes, his doom — and is greeted respectfully by several Smallfolk. Confused, Dunk asks the blacksmith, “Why? Who am I to them?” Steely Pate replies, “A knight who remembered his vows.”
“Many readers consider [this] to be the soul and the moral of the entire novella,” chided the fan. “The impact comes not just from the exchange itself, but its careful placement at Dunk’s lowest point, before he realizes any champions have answered his call … It’s an odd choice given how faithful you’ve otherwise been to the novella.”
It’s the sort of gripe many showrunners would have been tempted to ignore. But Parker replied, “Honestly it was a mistake on my part. Not my first, not my last on this show. That scene was in the script at one point, then fell out. I agree that ‘a knight who remembers his vows’ is the soul of this story, but I think that is still very much at the core of the show, even if I stupidly left out this scene … it may not be said explicitly, but Dunk’s actions remain the same.”
At the risk of suggesting Parker might be wrong twice, the cut is understandable as Dunk shows he remembers his vows, so it’s easy to see why the showrunner might have decided against having a character tell the audience that. But given it’s such a standout line and the show is often rather sincere, including it would have worked as well.
One reader praised Parker for his candor: “I have to say I think your honesty is really refreshing.”
Parker previously told THR about the show’s second season, which has already been greenlit: “It’ll still be six episodes. I think the scope will be the same, maybe even smaller. The budget has stayed the same, but everything is more expensive due to inflation. Plus, book two takes place in a drought, so we can’t shoot exteriors in Belfast. We have to go to a sunny location with no water, which costs money — that’s a major expense that we did not have in season one. I’m having a lot of fun with season two. It’s going to be a different season, and, I hope, for the better.”