The flow of this scene’s conversation, from Baelor’s death as a deep loss to the kingdom; Dunk’s insignificant worth as a common hedge knight compared to a gallant and beloved prince; and to the topic of Egg and Maekar revealing his son’s insistence on squiring for Dunk at Summerhall is one of arguably three moments in the show in which Maekar as a character is showcased front and center:
The slow, throaty, taciturn grief pouring out of Sam Spruell adds so many more dimensions to Maekar. I had quite honestly expected Maekar to be a man who buries grief so deep underground that one would think of him as made of stone, to strike Dunk with venom and fangs sharper than he flashed here, to throw his weight around as a Targaryen to compel Dunk to pledge fealty because everyone in ASOIAFverse is flawed and doesn’t know how to properly manage their feelings. I had expected Maekar to be waspish, to counterproductively rely on his anvil-headedness to get Dunk to say yes a la “We’re shipping out tomorrow. You’re coming with to train my son”, a sort of “we both get what we want, so let’s not waste time with niceties”. In other words, impress upon Dunk once again that Targaryens are an insufferably entitled and domineering bunch and he’d do well to turn around and walk to Dorne to get as far away from their influence as possible.
But he didn’t. With Sam Spruell speaking in a raspy, creaking, grief-worn voice, beleaguered beyond all measure, he attempts to wield Baelor’s specialty weapon, ungainly and ill-fitting as it feels for him: diplomacy. “Will you have him?” The agony of the loss of Baelor leaks into his tone.
“There is a place for you at Summerhall.” Generosity that Dunk now feels is no generosity, for Dunk has seen the Targaryens up close and personal and immensely dislikes what he’s experienced.
“You will swear your sword to me and Aegon can squire for you. While you train him, my master-at-arms will finish your own training.” Parameters and limits. Maekar will not cede full control or custody of Aegon over to him, which is understandable from a father’s perspective, but it means that whatever lessons Dunk may want to impart will be vetoed by Maekar and the master-at-arms, and naturally this means Dunk’s more down-to-earth, simple-straightforward moral philosophy will be at odds with the highly political and subversive courtly mores.
“Your Ser Arlan did all he could for you, of that I have no doubt…” Baelor’s memory controls his tongue. He is trying his utmost to be diplomatic, to scrounge up nice words the way Baelor always did to foster amity and accord, what made him so beloved and adored. It’s an awkward coat Maekar is slipping on, it doesn’t come naturally. His words are slow, deliberate, as if the very act of trying to put a believable pleasantry together is complex math for him, because it is. It’s like pulling teeth.
A half-breath pause. The words he wants to say but doesn’t: ‘You beat my foolish son Aerion with brute strength and dumb luck. Aegon really likes you and he will have no one else. Your mentor Ser Arlan didn’t train you well enough, I saw as much during the Trial. With my master-at-arms you would turn out to be a half-decent knight, and you should be grateful that a lowborn like you is being granted this opportunity.’
Instead his tongue behaves. Instead he says, “…but you still have much to learn.”
Because he is trying to be the man that Baelor was for this conversation, the most pivotal conversation in his life as of this moment, the one that will decide Egg’s future because despite everything Maekar is and notably isn’t, his love for his brothers and sons is still unquestionable.
He is not happy that he is asking a hedge knight to be taken on; he’s very much not happy at all that Egg adopted this lumbering lowborn like a puppy and now can’t bear to part with him. The fact he is asking a man who assaulted his son (technically rightfully by the code of chivalry but blood of the dragon trumps ethics), whom Baelor fought and died for, to train Egg is one of the most absurdly unorthodox things Maekar has ever experienced. And yet he does because even he recognizes that something needs to change with Egg’s upbringing. Chivalry can be found within Dunk, much as Maekar is probably loathe to acknowledge it (I personally do not know if Maekar sees in Dunk what Baelor did, or if he’s still bemused as to why his brother and youngest son are so enamored with him. My gut says no and Maekar is feeding his instinct to indulge his sons). It is the classic “money can’t buy me the one thing I desire most, which is a person with a good heart and morals” dilemma that one runs into when they are nested deep in a system of corrupting affluence.
And perhaps, this offer from Maekar is a way for both Maekar and Dunk to atone for their role in Baelor’s death. Maekar takes Dunk on to train him to be a chivalrous knight for the realm as Baelor wanted, and Dunk serves the Targaryens to repay for taking their beloved prince.
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