A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episode 5's book change highlights the show's biggest problem

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

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms tells the story of a Hedge Knight called Dunk and a boy named Egg. Yet this is a story of men, and only men. More than any other visit to Westeros, HBO's new Game of Thrones prequel is overwhelmingly fuelled by testosterone from the get-go.

To be fair, that's also true of George RR Martin's novella that the series is based on. Attempts to flesh out that world with more women have been pretty minimal up to this point, including a few sex workers here and there to tease Dunk. Beyond that, the only female character of any significance in the show so far is Tanselle, an artist and puppeteer who paints a new sigil for Dunk's shield.

"I think there's maybe two or three sentences [in the novella] describing what she looks like, and maybe one on her personality," actress Tanzyn Crawford told Polygon. There's more in the end product, true, but Tanselle's impact on the story is still quite minimal when it comes down to it.

Such sparing representation is somewhat improved, however, in the penultimate episode of season 1 when a new character is introduced via flashbacks.

Mid-tournament, Dunk's mind ventures back suddenly to his time in Flea Bottom before Ser Arlan of Pennytree took him on the road. There, we meet a girl named Rafe (played by Dune: Prophecy star Chloe Lea), who hangs out with Dunk in this medieval hellscape.

In the book, they're both described as beggars and thieves, as well as "little monsters," yet their connection here is a tender one. The pair are clearly close, talking of plans to escape and start a new life for themselves in the free cities. There's friction too, but their love is clear still, whether it's romantic or forged in friendship.

Of course, this being a show set in Westeros, their plans for a better future together don't pan out. And that's because the people they encounter are so much worse than the "little monsters" that Martin's writing described them both to be.

Just as the kids scrape enough money together for salvation, thieves attack and steal their hard-earned coins. That would have been devastating enough, but then the show takes this one step further when an attacker ends up slitting Rafe's throat right in front of Dunk.

Yep, the only female character of note was killed just a few scenes into her very first episode. And what's worse is that this didn't even happen in the book. The writers actually went out of their way to introduce a female companion for Dunk, only to brutally murder her almost immediately after.

To be clear, death is nothing new to the world of Westeros. Characters die all the time throughout this franchise, often in brutal fashion. That's just par for the course. And yes, these would, of course, be dangerous times for women especially. The men in Game of Thrones are, for want of a better phrase, extremely messed up, and that will often manifest itself in violence towards the opposite sex.

The issue here is when the scales are tipped so strongly in favour of men. Without a Daenerys or Rhaenyra to balance things out, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is unrealistically skewed against women, reducing them to walking tropes who lack agency and depth. And when they do appear, they're simply included as window dressing in service of the men at this story's centre.

That's true of the sex workers, that's true of Tanselle, and worst of all, that's true of Rafe. Dunk might have treated her as an equal, but the writers did not, choosing instead to kill her off in service of his story. Things could have ended so differently for Rafe, especially given how much freedom the show had to expand on her role, yet they went down the most boring, obvious and offensive route they could.

Season 2 will hopefully do a lot better when it comes to female representation, considering the prominent role of the Red Widow in the second novella.

However, when it comes to season 1? It seems that the gender politics in the writers' room are just as medieval as the time and place in which this show is set.

Just because A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a story by men, for men, shouldn't automatically mean that women get short shrift too. It's not true to the world we live in, and it's not true of Westeros either when you take the other shows into account.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms airs weekly on Sky and NOW - find out more about how to sign up for Sky TV.

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