This article contains SPOILERS for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 2
Game of Thrones fans are used to some wild nudity on the show. Yet it was still jarring when the second episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms opened with a flashback of a drunk Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb) walking out of a brothel naked. Meaning viewers got a full-frontal look at the man and his…ahem…impressive package.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Ira Parker tongue-in-cheek addressed the first question of whether that was really Webb’s manhood on screen. "Was that a prosthetic? I forget. I thought he just showed up on set that way, but maybe it was prosthetic," Parker joked.
Getting serious, Parker addressed how the scene serves as a fun counterpoint to the sometimes pathetic figure Ser Arlan was, and how he hardly had the most noble of life or death.
“I felt bad for Ser Arlan at some point. He was the only person who's ever looked out for Dunk and really stuck with Dunk. And he died on a muddy road in the middle of nowhere, was buried without ceremony, and now Dunk is going around trying to find somebody who just even remembers him — people that he served for, people that he bled for, these knights and these lords. They can't even remember his name. I felt the need to give him his one special thing, to channel a little Boogie Nights, I suppose."
The scene was a striking one, and that’s on a show whose opening sequence showed Dunk (Peter Claffley) defecating behind a tree. It’s a reminder we’re not among the nobles of Westeros or even the top fighters. This is a show about the lower dregs of society in Westeros, the folks ignored by the higher-ups. It’s a dark and dank world, and Parker pointed out that the series will continue to explore that.
He also addressed a mild complaint of fans in the show not feeling as high-stakes compared to Thrones or House of the Dragon. As Parker says, it’s not intended to be some epic adventure but more a character study in how tough being a knight is.
“I can't say it zips past you at 100 miles per hour because, you know, it's out there, but it's not the story that we're telling. It is just a flourish of the story that we're telling. It changes nothing else," Parker said. "In order to survive to be an Old Man Hedge Knight, you had to be made of solid f---ing iron. Those were tough days for anyone, let alone a fighting warrior who lives under trees in the 14th century. So, you know, he's a small guy and he's slim. I figured he's got something that helps him get through those really intense battles. He's got a certain energy about him, if you will."
Webb will pop up in more flashbacks, and his presence remains huge in Dunk’s mind. Dunk clearly wants to prove himself worthy of Ser Arlan’s legacy, and there's a possibility that Dunk has rose-colored memories of Ser Arlan as far more noble and competent than he truly was.
If nothing else, we’ve seen Ser Arlan exposed more than we’d ever have anticipated. It's another shocking moment in a franchise filled with them!
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms streams new episodes Sundays on HBO MAX.