A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1, Episode 2 begins in rather startling fashion, which is fast becoming something of a trend for the show. Early in the first episode, there was a graphic poop scene with Ser Duncan the Tall as the Game of Thrones theme song played. The second installment comes out swinging with Ser Arlan of Pennytree, who gets his own toilet humor scene as he steps outside for a pee, completely butt-naked. Only it’s not his butt anyone is paying attention to.
The prequel revealing that Ser Arlan is a knight carrying two swords isn’t entirely unique in the Game of Thrones franchise, which has previously had full-frontal male nudity with the likes of Hodor (Kristian Nairn) and Aemon Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell). But the scene with Danny Webb’s Arlan is perhaps even more eyebrow-raising, not least for how large it is. Speaking with EW, showrunner Ira Parker remarked (jokingly, one assumes!):
“Was that a prosthetic? I forget. I thought he just showed up on set that way, but maybe it was prosthetic.”
The Meaning Of Ser Arlan’s Full-Frontal Nudity In A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
Image via HBO
For years, nudity on TV, and particularly Game of Thrones, was largely female and often gratuitous. Both of those things have shifted in recent years – indeed, it was true later in Thrones‘ run, and has continued in other House of the Dragon and other HBO TV shows, most notably The White Lotus. AKOTSK is a continuation of that as well. And while the scene with Ser Arlan’s appendage is designed to bring more of the kind of humor we saw in Episode 1, it does carry a greater purpose. As Parker quite humorously explains, it was partly because he felt bad for the knight, whom almost nobody remembers:
“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.”
That itself highlights the reality of a hedge knight in Game of Thrones‘ universe. There’s little glory in that life, only making your way and surviving as best you can, fighting with honor, although it’s something Dunk wants to fix. But it also, like the poop scene, is simply a showcase of how life is for those characters. They don’t have castles or keeps held by some noble lord to stay in, and so we’re getting an insight into what’s everyday life for the smallfolk of the Seven Kingdoms.
It should also be said that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms does a great job making Arlan a bigger presence (and no, I’m no longer talking about his penis). While Dunk thinks of him throughout the story in the book, the use of flashbacks serve to make him feel much more present in the narrative. We get a stronger sense of him as a person, and better insights into his relationship with Dunk, that actually elevates what’s on the page, and is the kind of expansion the show is proving so adept at (Lyonel Baratheon being another example). If it can keep it up, then it’ll continue going from strength to strength.
New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms release Sundays at 10pm ET on HBO and HBO Max.
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