In the season finale of HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the dust has barely settled from the brutal Trial of Seven when Prince Maekar Targaryen summons Ser Duncan the Tall. After losing his brother, Baelor, by accidentally killing him with his own strike, Maekar tries to talk to Dunk about Egg’s future. In a desperate plea, he requests Dunk to make Egg his squire and train at Summerhall (one of the Targaryen residencies), as Egg had refused to squire for any other knight.
However, Dunk refuses living in a royal place and proposes a counter-offer to Maekar. He later agrees to take Egg as his squire but not in some royal place but on the open road, just like him and Arlan. However, Maekar refuses to see his son living in dire conditions like smallfolk. On the surface, Maekar’s refusal of Dunk’s counter-offer seems like simple Targaryen pride. He says that a prince of the blood cannot “sleep under a tree with a hedge knight or live off hard salt beef like some commoner.” But as the official Inside the Episode breakdown reveals, the real reason runs far deeper and is far more human.
Quick read:
• Ira Parker gives insights into Maekar’s decision concerning Egg
• Sam Spruell himself comments upon Maekar’s mindset in episode 6
• Egg sneaks away without Maekar’s permission
Ira Parker and Sam Spruell’s comments upon Maekar’s decision
In episode 6’s Inside the episode, showrunner Ira Parker comments upon Maekar’s character and his decision:
“He can’t stand his son, a prince, sleeping under a tree with a hedge knight… and he doesn’t want to turn his last chance to have an honorable son over to somebody else.”
Actor Sam Spruell, who plays Maekar targaryen, elaborates the scene saying,
“Maekar wants to keep his family together. And if Duncan is there, he has more of a chance to do that. Egg (Aegon) is his last chance to rear a son who is representative of the Targaryen family in a good, noble, chivalrous way.”
Credits: HBO
Why Maekar offers to send Dunk to Summerhall?
Having already failed with his eldest two sons; one a drunk, the other a sadistic villian, Maekar sees Egg as his final opportunity to create “a legacy that is worthy of the throne.” This isn’t arrogance. It’s desperation. Maekar has watched his brother Baelor die defending a hedge knight’s honor. He has exiled one son and despaired over another. Now his youngest son, who has already shown a stubborn loyalty to Dunk is slipping away.
Hence, offering Dunk a permanent place at Summerhall wasn’t just generosity; it was a calculated bid to keep the family intact under Maekar’s watchful eye. Dunk would train Egg but Maekar’s master-at-arms would finish Dunk’s own training, and Maekar himself could still shape his son’s future. Dunk’s counter-offer shatters that plan. For Dunk, this is the only way to raise a boy who understands the realm he might one day help rule. For Maekar as a father, it is however unacceptable.
Hence, Maekar’s refusal is about control, legacy, and raw paternal fear. He cannot bear to hand his last viable son over to an outsider; especially one who represents everything the Targaryens have tried to rise above. As Spruell notes, Egg leaving would feel like “a kind of rejection” of everything Maekar has tried (and failed) to build. This interpretation adds heartbreaking layers to a character who, in George R.R. Martin’s original novella The Hedge Knight, ultimately allows Egg to depart with Dunk.
However, despite Maekar’s refusal, Egg sneaks away anyway, making the prince more tragic and the father-son tension more visceral.
