“One need not intend harm to do it. Aegon should have come to me when he saw what his brother was doing to these puppeteers. Instead he ran to you. That was no kindness. What you did, ser… well, I might have done the same in your place, but I am a prince of the realm, not a hedge knight. It is never wise to strike a king’s grandson in anger, no matter the cause.”
[...]
“I hate Aerion,” Egg said with vehemence. “And I had to run for Ser Duncan, uncle, the castle was too far.”
“Aerion is your brother,” the prince said firmly, “and the septons say we must love our brothers. Aegon, leave us now, I would speak with Ser Duncan privately.”
The boy put down the flagon of wine and bowed stiffly. “As you will, Your Grace.”
I can't stop thinking about this scene... Of course Egg wouldn't run to him. My theory is that Baelor has likely proven himself untrustworthy in these matters already.
It's a common theme of child narratives—none of the parental and authority figures will listen to you, or if they do, they give useless solutions, or even make the situation worse. So you learn to stop, and you learn to suffer and seethe in thwarted silence.
I think even if Maekar had been there, Egg wouldn't have run to him too. I don't think Maekar would ever put Egg before Aerion:
“[Maekar] has placed all his best hopes on Aerion since Daeron has been such a grave disappointment to him.”
Not when Egg is only nine, and the fourth son. Not when Aerion is bright and puissant and has the Targaryen look, and sixteen and second eldest besides. And not when Maekar already has a history of not taking his sons well into hand, notably Daeron and Aerion—Daeron with his wild drinking and whoring, Aerion with his near-infamous cruelty.
And as I said, I do not think Baelor, as chivalrous as he may have been to champion Dunk, would have done so either. Baelor's response to Aerion's cruelty now, about a commoner girl, is “The septons say we must love our brothers.”
Baelor also chides, “It is never wise to strike a king’s grandson in anger, no matter the cause.” Baelor does sympathize with Dunk’s actions, but ultimately he does not sanction it. Nor do I believe he would ever do something similar himself, as much as he says he might.
Can you imagine how Baelor, in the past, likely responded to Aerion's cruelty towards Egg? And there is no doubt for me that Egg has told at least him and/or Maekar. Egg has no compunctions blurting out all of it to Dunk in Fossoway's tent, with Daeron only nodding along and Raymun himself still there and listening.
“Egg will tell him, I have no doubt,” said Prince Baelor, “but the boy has been known to lie too, as you have good reason to recall. Which son will my brother believe?...”
So: even disregarding time and distance. Why would Egg run for Baelor to save a commoner girl, when he won't even save a prince of the blood?
That was no kindness, Baelor says chastisingly, and that is also true. Dunk himself admits the folly of it, practically speaking—by all rights, Dunk should have died, if not for Egg's intervention.
But the difference between Dunk and Baelor is that Dunk would still have done it anyways, because he is a knight who remembers his vows. Because Dunk knows that though there may be no chance, there is also no choice.
Egg is only a nine-year-old boy, only the fourth son of a fourth son. I do not think Maekar and Baelor can afford to take drastic measures against Aerion on Egg's behalf. But in Dunk, Egg finally has someone to champion him—Egg finally has someone who will truly put him first.
