A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms fans devastated by episode 5 tragedy – star breaks down "heroic" scenes

**Warning: Major spoilers ahead for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episode 5.**

No one can say A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is missing the violence from Game of Thrones after that brutal scene in episode 5.

After coming to Dunk's (Peter Claffey) rescue in the Trial of Seven, Baelor Breakspear (Bertie Carvel) endured a gruesome demise in the latest episode of the Thrones spin-off.

While helping Dunk to a bloody victory in the trial by combat, the Targaryen prince and heir to the Iron Throne is struck by his brother Makear (Sam Spruell) in the midst of the fight.

Afterwards, not realising the extent of his injuries, Carvel's Baelor requests help removing his helmet – only for it to be revealed that the back of his head is all but missing, leaving a bloody mess in its wake, with Baelor falling to the ground and dying before our very eyes.

While many fans who love George RR Martin's novella knew that moment was coming, they've still been left devastated by the scenes.

"The way Bertie Carvel played Baelor seconds before death was perfection. The anxiety you get watching this natural king speak so fondly of Dunk, accepting him, reassuring him. Struggling to speak, even facing death, Baelor never broke composure," one fan said.

Another added: "Grieving baelor today," while one more went on to say: "I’ll never forget you baelor targaryen."

Recently opening up to Radio Times and other press, Carvel revealed how important Baelor's heroism was to him.

"The moment that lit me up when I read the scripts was Baelor arriving on the tourney field," he explained.

"One of the things I loved so much about Game of Thrones is that you're continually being wrong-footed about where protagonism sits. It feels very like our world in which you shouldn't attach too greatly to your heroes, because the world is unstable, it's unpredictable, and they might get hit by a truck.

"But, in this corner of Westeros, I was delighted to find that heroism can still exist, in a world of hard-bitten cynicism. There is still such a thing as goodness and champions, and that is a story I want to see today. I want to believe that in this darkening world, there is still such a thing as goodness and there is still a space for heroism and truth.

"And so the moment where Baelor turns up and does the right thing really answered something I needed. And I cheered and I wept and I wanted that for an audience."

Meanwhile, showrunner Ira Parker also spoke to EW about intentionally playing with Maekar's intentions.

"We did slightly different versions of culpability, I guess; whether it was accident or whether he meant to kill his brother," he explains.

"I think that was really exciting for me to experiment with and to discuss with not only Ira, but Sarah [Adina Smith, director of episode 6]. There is that kind of deep, deep desire to be number one in Maekar that might be realised by the death of his brother.

"So all the guilt or all the sadness or all the grief he feels is kind of bracketed by this realisation that this means he's next in line to the throne."

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