**Warning: Spoilers ahead
The Game of Thrones franchise is back on our screens with another installment from the mind of George R. R. Martin.
Based on the Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows low-born aspiring knight Ser Duncan the Tall, otherwise known as Dunk, and his 9-year-old squire Egg.
Set 100 years after the beginning of House of The Dragon, the story acts as a prequel to Game of Thrones, occurring roughly a century before.
However, following the release of its first episode on Sky Atlantic on Sunday night, the HBO series has drawn some mixed responses from viewers for it’s rather disturbing projectile defecation scene.
Despite the world of Game of Thrones being known for containing shocking and graphic scenes, no viewer could have expected what happens just a few minutes into the show’s season premiere.
Grieving the death of his liege lord and mentor, Ser Duncan (Peter Claffey) decides to enter a jousting tournament.
As he makes this decision in his mind, the music is accompanied by HBO’s iconic Game of Thrones theme song, but just as the music begins to crescendo, it is interrupted by a shock cut of Duncan graphically taking a dump behind a tree.
Writing on X, @WilfLukas said they felt ‘personally disrespected’ when the theme song was ‘just about to drop we LITERALLY get s*****d on… not a good start for me’.
@Super75 also wrote: ‘That is not what I needed to see five minutes into your brand new show. Not sure gross out is how you hook people.’
What did Metro think?
Our Deputy TV editor shared his thoughts on the new series…
New Game of Thrones spin-off looks nothing like the original show – thank god
If I were to ask you what the essential ingredients of a Game of Thrones show are, think about what you would say.
Fire-breathing dragons and grand battles would likely feature. As would the relentless political backstabbing that makes what happens in the backrooms of Westminster look tame.
Or maybe you just really, really like pointy chairs.
Meanwhile, @OutkastCard questioned whether they ‘really needed’ to show this as @Kavalden said: ‘Talk about taking a s*** on the theme music.’
@shubmik added: ‘What the f*** knight in the seven kingdom? I was eating food.’
However, not all fans seemed to be as equally disturbed, as @TimmyMKE described the opening as an ‘interesting way to start’, while @dyokbokai said: ‘Okay poop scene love that.’
Discussing the moment, co-creator Martin said that it ‘was a bit of a surprise’.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he said: ‘Not to say that my characters don’t take s***s, but I normally don’t write about them at any length.
‘When I saw the rough cut, I wrote, “What is this? Where did this come from? I don’t know if we really need the s***”. But [showrunner Ira Parker] liked it for whatever reason.’
Explaining the reasoning behind the moment, Parker told the publication that it was not meant to be disrespectful to the original show.
He claimed that when Duncan hears the hero theme in his head ‘his guts turn to water’ because he is ‘not a hero yet’.
‘All we’re trying to say here is that Dunk is not a hero yet. He’s just a nervy kid with a nervous stomach — just like me.
‘And as badly as you want to do something great, as soon as you actually have to go off and do it, it becomes trickier. And that’s what the whole season is for him.’
Episode two of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms airs on January 26 on Sky Atlantic.
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