Baelor Breakspear Targaryen is officially dead, and fans can’t help but compare his death to Game of Thrones’ Ned Stark. Baelor lost his life while fighting in the Trial of Seven for Dunk. Meanwhile, Ned Stark was executed due to a false confession he made to protect his family. Both characters are killed off in season 1 of their respective shows while trying to protect others. The parallels are unmissable, but A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker believes that Baelor is not like Ned.
Quick points:
- Showrunner Ira Parker argued that Baelor Targaryen was less “naive” than Ned Stark.
- Parker insisted Baelor volunteered to fight for Dunk because he was trying to prove his worth.
- Bertie Carvel sees the “correspondence” between the two stories.
Ira Parker doesn’t believe in the Baelor Targaryen-Ned Stark comparison
Baelor Targaryen in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on HBO (Image: HBO)
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms introduced Prince Baelor as the kind, just and wise Targaryen. The odds of him getting killed off were high, but it still left fans devastated. It reminded them of Ned Stark’s fate, but Ira Parker cannot relate, despite his love for Ned.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Parker explained, “I would say Ned Stark was a little bit more naive than somebody like Baelor Targaryen was. It’s not that Baelor doesn’t understand what could happen to him. In my mind, he’s doing this because it’s always been said about him that he is this person, from the time that he was the hammer and the anvil.”
The “hammer and anvil” reference comes from the strategy Baelor (hammer) and his brother Maeker (anvil) implemented during the First Blackfyre Rebellion. They won the battle, and Baelor was labelled as the war hero. According to Parker, Baelor took the Trial of Seven as an opportunity to live upto that reputation.
Bertie Carvel sees the similarity between Baelor and Ned
Ned Stark in Game of Thrones (Image: HBO)
Bertie Carvel, who portrays Prince Baelor in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is unmistakably the only other Targaryen determined to stand by Dunk. Carvel acknowledged the difference between Baelor and Ned, but also sees the parallels.
He told Entertainment Weekly, “I suppose the difference is that there’s something about the way that the Stark family defines itself and its story around the kind of steadfast, stoic, responsive, moral responsibility. ‘Winter is coming.’ Whereas the Targaryens have different words. But there’s a correspondence there.” Regardless of how different the two characters are, they both died for causes they believed were noble.
Read more: Why Baelor’s death is actually worse than if Dunk had died
