A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms doesn’t feature an opening credits sequence, let alone an epic introduction like Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Before the prequel series debuted, showrunner Ira Parker explained why his show would begin on a quieter note. That reflect the series’ only point-of-view character, Ser Duncan. He’s a lowborn knight with much smaller ambitions. A big showy intro wouldn’t work for him or the series. But that didn’t stop Parker from still using the most famous song in the Realm. He employed Game of Thrones‘ iconic track in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ first episode. It then played again at the end of the show’s explosive fourth episode.
Why those two moments exactly? During a pre-season round table discussion Parker shared why those two scenes called for the Game of Thrones theme. And once you hear his rational you’re going to want to fight alongside Dunk in his Trial of Seven.
The show’s first use of the legendary HBO track was not part of the original plan. “At the beginning, on the page it was written as, ‘Dunk hears the hero theme in his head.’ We didn’t know exactly what the hero theme was going to be at that point,” said Parker. “When we tried a whole bunch of things out, Dunk’s hero theme that (composer Dan) Romer developed for the show, felt like Dunk in this moment now. But what he’s hearing in his head is that call to greatness. That call of a potential something else in the future. And what is the best call to greatness in the whole world? The Game of Thrones theme, the most iconic theme that’s ever been laid down.”
No lies detected. But that first use of the Game of Thrones theme serves another purpose. It’s then immediately contrasted in a way that fboth urther develops its main character while establishing why this spinoff is a different type of show for the Realm. Once Dunk decides to answer that call to greatness the epic moment is instantly followed by something….less epic. “Of course, as soon as he hears that music, the reality of what it takes to actually go off and do that, and how terrifying it is, hits him,” said Parker. That terror manifests itself in what the showrunner politely describes as an “unheroic crouch” where we see the hedge knight dealing with a nervous stomach.
There’s no such bowel movement after the show’s second use of the song, which comes under very different circumstances. It plays when Ser Duncan the Tall finally finds the final knight he needs to fight on his behalf in the Trial of Seven. Parker says that powerful sequence was the perfect spot to use Westeros’ most epic song. His explanation is just as perfect.
The reason (the song) is revisited in episode four is because “the call” is there. This is the moment. This is fucking “Go Time.” And it hits, obviously, very different at this moment. We feel like, “Yeah, okay, we’re getting to Game of Thrones that we remember.” Hopefully everybody, like I am, even though I’ve seen this a million times, is getting a little bit of that goosebump feeling that something nice is coming. Or something bad is coming depending on if you like all of this shit or not. Baelor Targayen arriving through those gates, and hearing that music and that jog up and starting it early. And, “I will take Ser Duncan’s side.” Fuck man, if you’re not jumping out of your seats, then you’re not a fan of Game of Thrones.
Something tells us a lot of Game of Thrones fans were jumping out of their seats at that scene same as Ira Parker. And we’re sure many of them got goosebumps again reading his explanation. We know because when that song started playing we were ready to fight for Ser Duncan ourselves.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He would die for Ser Duncan. He’d lose a limb for the Game of Thrones theme. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.