A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms only two episodes left. Its latest installment, the early arrival “SEVEN,” revealed Dunk’s next challenge, a terrifying one Test of Seven (and the equally daunting task of gathering another six knights to fight alongside our hero). But it also brings a character we met in one episode out of the shadows, shedding some light on why he is, well, what he is.

This is Daeron Targaryen, played by Henry Ashton. He is Egg’s perpetually drunken older brother, so reluctant to fight in Ashford Meadow — as his family orders — that he hides in a roadside inn, losing track of his brother in the process. When he was finally discovered and dragged back to the fold, he told a big lie, accusing Dunk of kidnapping Egg.

When he and Dunk meet again in “Seven,” Daeron admits that he said that to save face for his father, the always disapproving Maekar. But if you think that Daeron is just a greedy lush (a little coward, who promises that he will not resist during the fight), he brings up the terrible dream involving Dunk and a dead dragon, which he believes to be prophetic.

The Targaryens are a strange family, but this ne’er-do-well with mystical leanings is one of the strangest members we’ve met so far. In a new interview with Radio TimeAshton explained that Daeron didn’t know what his dreams meant. He found them as confusing as Dunk did.

“When he had this premonition of a dead dragon, he made assumptions about who it was and what that meant… He didn’t know what it meant, but he knew it wasn’t good for him or his family,” Ashton said.

“It’s a shame that such great power – these dreams and premonitions that he had – (was given) to someone who unfortunately was not able to handle it,” he added, echoing Daeron’s own opinion on the situation.

Ashton also disclosed this A Knight of the Seven KingdomsIra Parker’s showrunner, and director, Owen Harris, have different ideas about whether Daeron is a “good guy pretending to be bad, or a bad guy but pretending to be.” Ashton was with “a good man, but he was so fed up with his own problems and pain that he behaved badly.”

There are also two amusing anecdotes in Ashton’s interview. One is that the description of Daeron’s character specifically refers to the 1987 cult black comedy Withnail and me (“very charismatic and high class, but completely messed up and a complete mess”). The other is that Ashton actually auditioned Game of Thrones when he was a student: “It was for Jon Snow. I think they went to every school and auditioned every teenager!”

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms returns to its regular time this Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.

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