Note: This story contains spoilers from “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” Season 1, Episode 5.

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” Episode 5 brought the Trial of Seven front and center and delivered one of the most brutal brawls in the broader “Game of Thrones” on-screen universe.

While a good chunk of the episode was taken up with flashbacks to Dunk’s time growing up in Flea Bottom before joining Ser Arlan, it works well in tandem to how the trial battle plays out. It’s a gritty, exhausting affair right from the start, and showrunner Ira Parker told TheWrap he wanted viewers to feel that exhaustion and fear for Dunk – even though he has a size advantage over his opponents.

“Because we’re solely in Dunk’s POV, I wanted everybody to feel what it’s like to put on that armor, to put on that helmet,” Parker said. “Dunk is not going to be good at this. As much as we want to think, ‘Oh, he’s a big guy and he’s the hero of the story, he’s going to get out there, he’s going to kick some ass.’ First thing he does is get a spear in the guts and get knocked off his horse.”

Getting unhorsed early on forces Dunk to fall back on fighting for his life the way he did before he met Arlan. Fighting like a knight and fighting like a beggar and thief in Flea Bottom, and Peter Claffey explained to TheWrap that the distinction was important. Its Dunk’s grit and fortitude in adversity that gives him the edge over his size.

“That’s kind of a direct sort of piece of writing from the book too, from the fight in ‘The Hedge Knight’ – George’s words, this is not Sir Duncan the Tall here, this is Dunk from Flea Bottom,” Claffey said. “The adversity and grit that he had to manifest to overcome and he puts every ounce of that toward this well-skilled super-fighter of a high-born Prince – a Targaryen who believes himself a dragon. When it comes down to it, that grit and that fight is what overcomes and defeats him. I think it was really important to sort of portray that.”

Although size is a factor, Aerion is better trained and better armored than Dunk. And it’s clear he’s quicker on his feet than the Hedge Knight. It was important to Parker that despite being an annoying Targaryen prince, he was still skilled and the danger for Dunk remained.

“Aerion, even though he’s much smaller, is very finessed and very quick, and has been trained by the best people in the whole world,” Parker said. “So Dunk is in some trouble. So we wanted to feel that all the way down until the switch that Dunk gets one good hit in real late in the game. You know, it’s an important one. And all of a sudden, Aerion’s little veil has been shattered, and he’s just like, ‘I’ve been pretty seriously injured here.’”

Those “good hits” were another emphasis for the episode. The stunt coordinators for the trial wanted to make sure each of Dunk’s blows against Aerion – and vice-versa – felt like they were hitting hard. This was a knockdown, drag-out brawl in the mud rather than a knightly battle, and the moment needed to rise – or lower – to the occasion.

“When we talked about it as well with Florian [Robin] and C.C. [Smiff], the stunt coordinators on the job, is we have to throw these almost ground and pound smashing punches,” Claffey finished. “It was cool, because I felt like it was almost a tribute to Jon Snow getting his final revenge on Ramsey Bolton after he kidnaps his brother and stuff. It does really sort of symbolize that grit and ground and pound in the dirt. It’s just like you probably would have done to try and survive and eat in Flea Bottom.”

Finn Bennett recalled the days shooting the Trial battle. Director Owen Cooper told him and Claffey that showing how tired both Aerion and Dunk were getting as they beat on each other would sell the fight more than anything else. That was easy when Bennett remembered how much of those days were spent.

“It was just rolling around,” Bennett said. “I remember being dragged through the mud, on like a pulley, and Pete’s got one of my legs and he’s dragged me. I remember just kind of looking around me like, ‘Remember this moment, this is a good thing that’s happening to you.’”

He finished: “You really do get a sense of how brutal things are. I remember Owen saying, ‘What’s really going to sell this moment is how tired you both are. You start standing up and look at each other again when you’re going back to fight again.’ Like, how exhausting. I’m really proud of that section.”