Episode 3 of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," titled "The Squire," focuses on the revelation of Egg's true identity as a Targaryen prince and explores the developing bond between him and the hedge knight Dunk, highlighting themes of honor, identity, and destiny.
Mind Map
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Episode 3, is called The Squire.
Cause it focusses on Dunk’s squire Egg. Egg reveals his secret identity. Dunk
attacks Prince Aerion. And we get a surprising glimpse of Dunk and Egg’s futures. So what’s
happening, what’s the lore in the books, and what does it all mean?
This video has no spoilers for future episodes. Except
in the spoiler zone at the end of this video. This episode reveals that Egg is not some random
peasant. Egg is not a stableboy. Egg is actually a Targaryen prince. Egg is the youngest son of
Prince Maekar Targaryen. Egg is one of Maekar’s two sons who recently went missing. “The prince's
sons are missing”. Egg is the grandson of the king, Daeron Targaryen. Egg is a brother of Prince
Aerion. And Egg is the brother of Aemon, from Game of Thrones. “Egg”. “Egg. Egg laughed like that”.
Egg’s real name is Prince Aegon Targaryen. Egg is short for Aegon.
Aegon Targaryen is the same name as King Aegon the Conqueror who took over Westeros
two hundred years ago. The same name as Aegon the Second in House of the Dragon,
eighty years ago. Ninety years in the future, in Game of Thrones,
Jon Snow’s real name is Aegon Targaryen. In the books, there’s another Aegon Targaryen called
Young Griff. There’s a whole lotta Aegons! It’s like in real history, where there were
lots of King Henrys and King Edwards. Now that we know that Egg is a prince,
there’s a lot about Egg that makes more sense. Like, Egg is very confident, and talks fancy.
He doesn’t say “m’lord” like a peasant does. He says “my lord” like a proper fancy lad.
Egg is knowledgeable about the knights of the realm. Like, Egg knew about Donnel’s father,
Egg knew about Valarr – cause Donnel is Egg’s family’s Kingsguard, Valarr is Egg’s cousin.
In Episode 1, Egg didn’t pick up the penny that Dunk gave him. Because Egg’s a prince,
he doesn’t need a penny. Egg said he’s from King’s Landing – cause his family rules from that city.
In Episode 2, Egg avoided the Targaryens – because Egg doesn’t want to be recognised
by his family. Egg ran away from them because Egg wants to hang out with Dunk and be Dunk’s squire.
Egg is excited about fire multiple times. Coz Targaryens love fire.
Egg doesn’t like eating hard salt beef, cause as a prince, he’s used to fancy food like grapes. We
see grapes next to Egg’s cousin Prince Valarr. There were so many hints that Egg is a
prince. But Dunk the lunk wasn’t smart enough to figure it out.
But the reveal’s at the end of the episode – let’s start at the beginning.
In the morning, Egg sneaks out with Dunk’s warhorse, Thunder. Egg practices being Dunk’s
squire – at the tourney, Egg will need to pass Dunk his lance, and wrangle Thunder.
Egg says his father Maekar doesn’t talk to horses – Maekar trains horses by hitting them
with the crop. Maekar is harsh. But Egg is more kind and emphetic. He says horses and men don’t
want to be ordered around. Egg’s brother Prince Aerion acts superior, and treats people like
they’re beneath him. But Egg is respectful, he listens and learns from lowborn people like Dunk.
Thunder nods like agrees with Egg. Thunder also nods in Episode 1.
He seems a very agreeable horse. Then Egg meets Ser Robyn Rhysling.
House Rhysling is a minor house from the Reach. The name Rhysling might refer to
Riesling wines. Because the Reach makes wine. Years ago, in a joust, Robyn lost an eye.
When lances break, they shoot dangerous wooden splinters like shrapnel. But Robyn kept riding,
even with an eyeball hanging out. So like the pooping in Episode 1,
and the penis in Episode 2, this is our shocking gross image to start Episode 3.
In the book, we see Robyn joust in the Ashford tournament. He rides against Leo Longthorn,
and Robyn loses his helmet – but instead of surrendering, Robyn keeps jousting,
even though his one good eye is exposed. Dunk wonders if Robyn is brave or foolish.
This story explores the connection between heroism and romantic emotional foolishness.
The book also mentions Robyn praying. And that’s kinda all we know about Robyn in the book. Robyn
doesn’t talk in the book. But the TV show adds this scene, and expands Robyn’s character.
In the show, Egg says Robyn is mad. Robyn says he’s “a vessel for the Warrior”.
The Warrior is one of the seven gods in the Faith of the Seven religion. People pray to
the Warrior for strength and bravery. Robyn seems to think he’s chosen by the gods to
be a badass madlad warrior. He says “When it is madness bid, it is madness delivered”. As though
Robyn’s madness reflects the madness of this world. Like, jousting is crazy. Hitting people
off horses with sticks for fun is so dangerous and unnecessary, like a lot of dumb shit humans
do. It takes a crazy man to do this crazy sport in this crazy world. So Robyn delivers madness.
When Robyn talks about himself, he doesn’t say “I”, he says “we”. He says we’ll be fair,
we are a vessel. Maybe “we” refers to Robyn and the god, the Warrior. Like god is within
him. Or it’s like a.. split personality. Robyn’s unusual pronouns are like how Red
and Beony call Dunk “it”. This show plays games with language.
Dunk is stern with Egg for running off with Thunder. But instead of getting angry,
Dunk teaches Egg how to stitch. Prince Egg and the humble hedge knight Dunk have very
different life experiences and skills – so Dunk and Egg have a lot to learn from each other.
Egg sings a funny rude song. It’s about Egg’s uncle Baelor and Egg’s father Maekar, who are
the firstborn and lastborn sons of King Daeron. Daemon Blackfyre was King Daeron’s half-brother.
King Daeron is trueborn, because he’s the son of King Aegon he Fourth with Aegon’s
wife Naerys. But Daemon was a bastard, because he was King Aegon’s son with another woman,
Daena Targaryen. But King Aegon legitimised all his bastards, putting Daemon in line for the
throne. And Daemon claimed that Daeron wasn’t really King Aegon’s son. Thirteen years ago,
Daemon started a war for the throne called the Blackfyre Rebellion. The war ended at the battle
of the Redgrass Field – it’s called Redgrass because the grass was red with blood. Baelor and
Maekar crushed the Blackfyres between Baelor’s cavalry charge and Maekar’s defensive line. So
they call Baelor the Hammer, and call Maekar the Anvil. Egg’s song mentions Baelor’s “giant veiny
host of Dornish spearmen”. King Daeron had made an alliance with Dorne. So Baelor led an army of
Dornishmen and stormlanders at the Redgrass. Baelor and Maekar’s uncle Bloodraven also
fought at the Redgrass. Bloodraven is the three-eyed raven in the Game of Thrones show,
90 years later. Bloodraven killed Daemon Blackfyre with a rain of sorcerous arrows.
We’ve made a video all about the Blackfyre Rebellion, link below.
While Egg sings, you can hear Dunk puking in the background. When the actor Peter Claffey
met showrunner Ira Parker, Peter puked with anxiety. “I went to the toilet and I puked
everywhere in the production office, because I was just so”. So now Dunk is doing the same
thing, anxiously puking coz of the tournament. Then Egg says Dunk can’t even compete today, cause
the first day of jousting is only for noble and famous knights. So Dunk was anxious for nothing.
Dunk buys eggs. But it’s difficult, because the merchant doesn’t speak the Westerosi language,
the Common Tongue. The merchant has a blue beard, so he might be from Tyrosh. The Tyroshi
are famous for dying their hair – we saw colourful Tyroshi in House of the Dragon.
Dunk makes a goose of himself in front of his crush Tanselle.
Dunk and Egg enjoy breakfast. The director says that Egg is learning that food tastes better when
you’ve gone hungry. He’s learning the value of hard work. For the first time, this prince is
experiencing the joys of a simpler humbler life. We see more jousting. Humfrey Hardyng defeats
Humfrey Beesbury. In the book, the two Humfreys clash twelve times, in an “epic
struggle” called “The Battle of Humfrey”. We see Androw Ashford defeat a Stokeworth
knight while the Stokeworth isn’t ready – his squire is still handing him his lance.
This shows how important the squire is – if Egg messes up, Dunk could lose everything.
In the book, we see a joust where Jon Penrose unhorses Tybolt Lannister,
but Tybolt Lannister defeats Penrose on foot using just his shield to fight with.
Dunk and Egg chat and joke – they’re becoming close, like brothers. Egg asks Dunk about
the hair growing on his balls. Egg feels so comfortable with Dunk, that he asks personal
questions, like you might ask family. Dunk is the brother Egg always wanted. While Egg hates his
actual brother Aerion. This pays off at the end of the episode when Egg saves Dunk from Aerion.
Dunk and Egg fantasise about having wives, owning land, and farming. For Dunk, owning
a farm would be a step up from his job as humble hedge knight. But for Prince Egg, farming would be
a step down in social status. Maybe the best life isn’t the life of a prince, or a humble knight,
but something more balanced in the middle. Egg wants to stay as Dunk’s squire. He wants
to get away from his shitty family. Dunk almost agrees to keep Egg. But Plummer interrupts.
Plummer is the Ashford steward. He says Lord Ashford needs money. “Tommy wants money!”. So the
Ashfords want to do some match-fixing. They plan for Androw Ashford to deliberately lose a joust,
so they can make money by betting against Androw. Plummer asks Dunk to challenge
Androw. Since Dunk is a nobody, while Androw is a good jouster, people will bet on Androw. So the
Ashfords will make money betting on Dunk. This is a huge opportunity for Dunk. Dunk
desperately needs money. And if he loses his first joust, he’ll lose his horse arms and armour,
he won’t be able to be a knight any more. Dunk is not skilled so he’s not likely to win against a
champion. An easy win against Androw could be Dunk’s best hope. But it would also be
corrupt. It’s a lie if Androw takes the fall. And Dunk doesn’t want a fake corrupt victory.
Dunk wants to be moral and honourable, a true knight like Arlan taught him. Dunk
tells Plummer that the tree about his camp is an elm, not an alder. Dunk is
proud of his humble heraldry. He’d rather be honest and poor rather than rich and corrupt.
But later, Dunk does consider challenging Androw. An easy win might be the smart
choice. This is a moral challenges – will Dunk be smart and corrupt? Or an honourable heroic fool?
This subplot with Plummer and Androw isn’t in the book. In the book, Androw Ashford is defeated
by Tybolt Lannister. Androw isn’t a champion any more. This subplot was added to the show to deepen
the themes around honour, pride and morality. A new challenger joins the tournament – Prince
Aerion Targaryen. The douchebag who was rude to Dunk earlier. Aerion is the second
son of Prince Maekar. And is the brother of Egg. Aerion wears dark fiery armour. And Aerion’s horse
has a chanfron, like a helmet, that looks like a dragon skull. Dragons went extinct fifty years ago
– their skulls decorate the throne room. Aerion wishes he could ride a dragon. But riding a horse
dressed like a dragon is the best he’s got. Until Daenerys hatches dragons ninety years from now.
Aerion salutes his uncle Baelor. And Baelor looks nervous, fidgeting with his fingers.
Baelor is worried that his dipshit nephew might do something stupid. Raymun says Aerion
only behaves himself when Maekar is around. But Maekar is out looking for his missing
sons Aegon and Daeron. Aerion might misbehave. Aerion gets to choose one of the five champions
to joust against. At first, it looks like Aerion will challenge his cousin, Prince Valarr. Baelor’s
son. Valarr isn’t great at jousting. Aerion’s tempted to embarrass Valarr by defeating him.
But Aerion wants his Targaryen family to seem strong. So Aerion challenges the formidable Ser
Humfrey Hardyng. The book says that Hardyng recently “won a great melee at Maidenpool”,
and at the jousting he defeated Lord Arryn, Lord Royce, and the Kingsguard Donnel of Duskendale.
Here at Ashford, Hardyng has defeated fourteen knights. So Hardyng is a skilled opponent.
As Hardyng faces Aerion, it gets ominously windy and cloudy. When the knights charge,
Egg shouts “Kill him”. Egg hates his brother Aerion so much that Egg wants Aerion dead.
Aerion deliberately wounds Hardyng’s horse. Which you are not meant to do. Hardyng’s leg gets badly
broken. This is a major dick move. In the book, Aerion even draws
his sword as though to attack Hardyng. In the show, Aerion just smirks. He enjoys playing
the villain – like how Tyrion plays the villain in the books. Common folk throw things at Aerion,
and try to attack him til the Kingsguard hold them back. It’s like when the smallfolk riot
against Joffrey in Game of Thrones. Aerion’s shitty behaviour is politically dangerous.
Prince Baelor came here to improve relations with the people. He wants to be diplomatic,
a strong but fair leader. But Aerion has fucked it up, and turned people against the Targaryens.
Dunk wants to believe that Aerion hit Hardyng’s horse by accident. Dunk is naïve and idealistic,
he believes knights and princes are honourable. But Egg says Aerion killed the horse on purpose.
Egg knows how cruel his brother can be. Aerion’s cruelty is part of why Egg wants to get away
from his family and be with Dunk instead. Manfred Dondarrion and Lyonel Baratheon party
hard. They sing a song about a woman called Alice who had three fingers. Alice would stick her hand
in men’s arses for sexual pleasure. And Egg gets philosophical about this bawdy song. Egg says
Alice represents honour and hope. Cause Alice was disadvantaged from missing fingers, but she still
did her best, she tenaciously gave everything she had. And that’s just like Dunk – Dunk is a
disadvantaged orphan from the streets, and he’s kinda dumb. But Dunk does his best, he gives
life his all. [Brienne and Jon Snow are the same.] And that is heroic. Egg says Alice’s name doesn’t
matter. What matters is her legacy, her story, what she represents. Just like it doesn’t matter
if the name is Dunk or Ser Duncan the Tall. If the name is Egg or Aegon Targaryen. It doesn’t
matter if Florian the Fool or Serwyn of the Mirror Shield ever really existed. It might not matter if
Dunk was really knighted by Arlan. What matters is the values that you live by. And the legacy
you leave behind. Honour and hope can be found in the humblest people – in a hedge knight like Dunk,
in a madman like Robyn, or in a three-fingered girl who sticks her hand inside bumholes.
Egg says he doesn’t really know his father. We’ve seen that Maekar is harsh,
he’s not kind and empathetic like Egg. So it’s easy to see why Egg is avoiding Maekar.
Dunk never knew his father. He thinks his dad was a criminal. In the books, Dunk wants
to go the Wall, because they send criminals there. Dunk hopes to find his father some day.
A fortune teller tells Dunk and Egg’s futures. She says Dunk will “know great success” and
will be “richer than a Lannister”. She says Egg “shall be king” and will die in a fire,
and that people will “rejoice” in Egg’s dying. If you wanna know if this comes true,
watch the spoiler zone at the end of this video. Dunk doesn’t take the fortune teller seriously.
But Egg is shaken. Egg is a Targaryen, and many Targaryens believe in prophecies and
dreams of the future. Like Viserys and Helaena Targaryen in House of the Dragon. In Westeros,
prophecies often come true but in unexpected ways. The fortune teller is played by the same actor who
plays the innkeeper in Episode 1. So is this the same character? Is the innkeep secretly a witch,
reappearing to dispense prophecy? In the books, there are magical characters who
might appear in disguise. The mysterious ghost of High Heart. The child of the forest Leaf.
And Egg’s grunkle Bloodraven – in the books, he appears in magical disguises and gives cryptic
advice. And this fortune teller does have a red mark on her cheek – like Bloodraven’s red
mark. Maybe this fortune teller is Bloodraven in disguise! Or maybe they’re just reusing the actor.
Egg meets Raymun Fossoway. But Egg is shy, and lowers his head. He’s avoiding highborn people so
he doesn’t get recognised as Prince Aegon. Raymun and Dunk drink cider. Cause the
Fossoways make cider at their castle, Cider Hall. Showrunner Ira Parker says Raymun is highborn,
but he’s also “basically an apple farmer”. In the book, Raymun is more confident
and well-spoken. But in the show, Raymun is more awkward.
Dunk and Raymun complain about Steffon Fossoway and Prince Aerion are corrupt and terrible.
Raymun has an outburst against the Targaryens. He says the Targaryens are “incestuous aliens”,
“Blood-magickers”, tyrants who brutally conquered Westeros. Dunk is shocked by this treasonous talk.
This bit isn’t in the book. But the rant is mostly true. The Targaryens came from Valyria,
an eastern empire that used blood magic and enslaved thousands of people. When the Targaryens
conquered Westeros two hundred years ago, the Targaryens burned tens of thousands of people,
especially in this region, the Reach. Some Targaryen kings were brutal tyrants, like King
Maegor the Cruel. Some Targaryens are mad, like Prince Rhaegel, and Daenerys’ father the Mad King.
Targaryens caused several wars, including the failed conquests
of Dorne, and the Blackfyre Rebellion. The current king Daeron the Good is one of
the better more peaceful kings. But Raymun’s right that many Targaryens are terrible. And that’s why,
seventy years from now, the Targaryens are overthrown in Robert’s Rebellion.
In the book, Raymun is more sympathetic to the Targaryens. He says “Poor Maekar”,
coz Maekar is not as “bold” as his brother Baelor, he’s not as “clever” as his brother Aerys, not
as “gentle” as his brother Rhaegel. And now his children are publicly embarrassing him.
Raymun also mentions Maekar’s son Aemon, who is currently about ten years old. Aemon has a slow
sword but quick wits, so they’re sending him to the Citadel to become a maester.
The puppeteers perform a play about Serwyn of the Mirror Shield. Tanselle plays Serwyn, and
slays a puppet dragon. Aerion is angry about this play. Because Aerion sees himself as a Targaryen
dragon. He sees this play of dragon being slain as a treasonous attack on his family. Or maybe Aerion
is just in a bad mood because he got disqualified from the tournament for hitting Hardyng’s
horse. Maybe he Aerion just wants to hurt someone and uses the play as an excuse.
Aerion attacks Tanselle, and breaks her fingers – a particularly cruel punishment for
a puppeteer and painter who needs her fingers. Egg brings Dunk to help. Dunk sees Aerion
attacking his crush. So without thinking, Dunk attacks Aerion to protect Tanselle. He
doesn’t think. He doesn’t plan. He just takes action, punching and kicking the prince. In
the book it says Dunk might have kicked Aerion to death there and then, but guards stop Dunk.
Aerion reacts with some curiosity. He’s genuinely puzzled why Dunk would risk everything to protect
someone else. Dunk will probably be killed for attacking a prince. And Tanselle will probably
still be hurt. Dunk may have achieved nothing. Attacking Aerion was foolish. But it was also
undeniably heroic. A true knight swears to protect the innocent. And that’s what Dunk
does. He acts from emotion, idealism, romanticism. He’s as foolish and heroic as Florian the Fool.
Aerion wants to kill Dunk. But Dunk is saved by Egg. Egg reveals that he’s not a random commoner.
Egg is Prince Aegon Targaryen, son of Maekar, brother of Aerion. Egg rejects
his cruel brother Aerion, and sides with the brother he chooses, Dunk.
Dunk is shocked, and feels betrayed by Egg. Egg lied or at least hid his true
identity from Dunk. Egg is not who Dunk thought he was. And after their closeness, that hurts.
So this revelation changes everything. Will Dunk be killed for hitting Aerion? Is Tanselle safe?
And will Dunk and Egg still be friends? Most of this episode is not in the book.
The scenes with Egg and Thunder, and Robyn. Egg’s song, the Alice song, the fortune teller,
Dunk and Egg’s conversations – all that stuff is invented for the TV show. The stuff that is in the
book is Aerion’s joust with Hardyng, Raymun’s scene with Dunk, and Dunk’s fight with Aerion,
that stuff is mostly the same as the book. This episode also adds a lot of fun
cinematography, with Egg whinnying, quick comedic cuts, and the dramatic music in Aerion’s scenes.
My unchivalrous brother Alt Schwift X made a 22-hour-long video about Jon Snow with Glidus.
They made lengthy videos about every episode of House of the Dragon. And they’re making
videos about each episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms – a series called Dunk Time. This week,
Glidus and Schwift have a theory that Aerion’s clash with Dunk is
actually all Gwin Ashford’s fault – and this theory kind of makes sense!
You can listen to Dunk Time each week right after A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
airs, on Nebula. Nebula has Dunk Time early and full-length. Plus over 60 more hours of
exclusive Alt n Glidus videos. You can listen to all of these as audio on podcast apps,
using the Nebula podcast feed, linked below. Nebula is an independent creator-owned site.
Signing up helps support Alt Shift X. And you can get 50% off an annual subscription with my link.
So if you’re a trueborn Targaryen, sign up at nebula.tv/altshiftx.
Or, if you’re a Blackfyre bastard, sign up at nebula.tv/altschwiftx. Links are
below. Thank you. And enjoy Dunk Time. Now let’s talk spoilers. Spoiler warning.
In this episode, Egg says he wants to be a “war hero”. And in the books, years from now,
Egg does fight in several wars, including the third and fourth Blackfyre rebellions.
The fortune teller says Egg will be king, and will die in a fire. And that’s also true – in
his thirties, Egg becomes king. He rules well, and tries to make the realm more fair for
common people. Then Egg dies in a mysterious fire at Summerhall. The fortune teller says
people will “rejoice” in his dying. There’s a few possible reasons for this. It sounds
like King Egg might go mad towards the end. King Egg gets obsessed with hatching dragons,
and fans speculate that Egg might sacrifice his own family to hatch dragons. So if Egg becomes a
murderous madman maybe that’s why people are happy when he dies. Summerhall is mysterious – watch
our Summerhall video to learn more. The fortune teller says Dunk will “know
great success”. Dunk eventually joins King Egg’s Kingsguard, so that’s great success.
“Ser Duncan the Tall”, “Four pages for Ser Duncan. He must have been quite a man”.
But she also says Dunk will be “richer than a Lannister”. There’s nothing in the books
about Dunk getting rich. But Dunk and Egg do get close with some rich Lannisters – maybe author
George Martin has plans for a story there. Or maybe this means metaphorical richness, the
spiritual richness of a humble fulfilling life. [Or it’s just because Duncan has more pages in
the Kingsguard book than Jaime Lannister.] Thanks for watching. We’re making weekly
videos and livestreams, so please like and subscribe. Check out Dunk Time on Nebula,
linked below. And thank you to the Patrons, including John, Mouthy, Casper,
Cliff Lytle, theebenegesserit, franek Cabanowski, RayceARoni, and HalfIndianBurtReynolds. Cheers.
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
