This post will be talking about a certain character’s decisions in the recent HBO show A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms – in particular talking about Ser Steffon Fossaway, a knight from the Reach and the older cousin to fan-favorite Raymun Fossaway.
If you have not seen the show and don’t want to be spoiled, stop reading now please.
George RR Martin loves to have surprise betrayals.
- Petyr Baelish setting up Ned Stark in the throne room.
- Walder Frey betraying his guest Robb Stark at a wedding reception.
- Jon Snow being shivved by his Night Watch brothers.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is no exception in featuring a dramatic betrayal.
To recap: Ser Duncan the Tall (I’ll just call him Dunk from hereon out) is in need of six companions to support him in a Trial of Seven, to be held at dawn. Dunk’s friend Raymun Fossaway brings our hedge knight protagonist to see Raymun’s cousin Ser Steffon, who makes a rather sincere-sounding speech in support of Dunk. Steffon not only agrees to be part of Dunk’s team but agrees to go get more allies to try and fill the required seven.
What a guy, right?
Then, as the matchup is about to begin, Ser Steffon announces that actually he’d recruited no one and he’s personally fighting on Aerion Targaryen’s side. He’d set Dunk up for failure.
*womp womp*
(We all remember that the terrible Aerion had accused Dunk of crimes, Dunk had requested a trial by combat between himself and Aerion to settle the matter, and Aerion had ratcheted it up a notch to a full on Trial of Seven (seven versus seven.) We all remember this, right?)
Ser Steffon’s defense is that Aerion promised his a lordship for rail-roading Dunk, and that honor is a small price to pay for that. And that more honorable men had traded greater honor for lesser rewards.
Is this a worthwhile defense, one worthy of me penning my support for Ser Steffon?
Of course not, he sucks. He’s a bad person and should feel bad. Booooo that man!
So what is the point of these words in this post if I’m not defending Steffon’s bait-and-switch on Dunk? Patience, y’all. Let me lay out more charges against Ser Steffon.
The Charges
In the final episode, Ser Raymun refers to his older cousin as “Lord Steffon” but the way he says it has a certain ironic edge, like Ser Alliser Thorne calling Jon Snow “Lord Snow” as an insult.
Ser Alliser Thorne: I’m a comedic genius.
I was curious if the known histories had any details on the Red Apple Fossaways getting elevated thanks to Steffon’s deal with Aerion. After all, I don’t think Aerion had the juice to make a lordship happen. Maybe Maekar did but I’m not sure I’d try to get such a proclamation notarized right after Aerion’s team had lost and Maekar had manslaughtered his brother.
Ser Steffon: Too bad about your brother, my prince, but about that lordship?
Maekar: *staring at his mace* Too soon.
I didn’t do too many exhaustive searches; the usual reliable sources mostly just mentioned Steffon’s betrayal of Dunk leading to Raymun’s defection from his service, Raymun getting knighted and eventually creating the Green Apple cadet branch of the Fossaways.
But, less reputable sources stated that Steffon Fossaway was socially ruined and lived in shame with the disapproval of his family and peers for attempted kinslaying.
Okay, hold on. That’s just defamation and slander (or libel, when written.)
It is true that Steffon was on the opposite side of his cousin in a supersized Trial by Combat which absolutely could lead to death. That’s also true of Baelor facing off against his brother Maekar and potentially his nephews Aerion and Daeron.
Was Baelor called out as a potential kinslayer? No one but Maekar complained that Baelor choosing to be on the opposite team was weird, although there were comments from members of Team Dunk about Baelor’s questionably dishonorable advantage over the Kingsguard.
Pious Ser Robyn did not caution Baelor that the Gods might view him as a potential kinslayer for lining up against his nephews (and brother.)
As well, Ser Steffon did not even get into this fight with the intention of charging at his cousin, he expected squire Raymun to be on his side.
Raymun chose to be part of the opposition force, even though it could have led to him killing his kin Steffon. (Maekar will tell you that accidents happen.) There doesn’t seem to be anyone online charging Raymun with attempted kinslaying.
Egg: Surely, a pardonable crime.
But that doesn’t matter, and it isn’t really my defense for Ser Steffon. Raymun is above reproach and so is Baelor. And we can continue to boo Steffon for setting Dunk up, but not necessarily for ended up in combat versus his cousin Raymun.
And maybe we can a good thing about Steffon.
We have to acknowledge that newly-knighted green fucking boy Ser Raymun had his own personal guardian angel during that fight, who was doing his best to keep Raymun relatively safe. What’s that angel’s name, I hear you ask? Ser Steffon Fossaway, of course.
The Defense
Here’s my thought process on this:
Most of the time spent on the field of battle, the Fossaway cousins were engaged in combat directly against each other.
Other than the one time Ser Raymun rode by and knocked Aerion off of Dunk and reciprocally Ser Steffon rode by and dealt a blow to Dunk’s helm, they otherwise were locked in their own personal trial by combat. This is not that out of the ordinary: they were both used to facing each other in a form of lower-stakes combat.
Ser Steffon and his squire Raymun sparred as part of their professional relationship. My guess is that Steffon won those matches, all the time.
Raymun even mentioned to Dunk when they met that Raymun believed Steffon was going easy on him, despite being kicked through a fence.
Raymun: I should not have urged you to try my cousin. He’d have broken your hand or a knee if he could. He likes to batter men in the yard, you know, in case he meets them in the lists.
Dunk: He did not break you.
Raymun: I’m his blood.
— A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Episode 1 “The Hedge Knight”
In the trial, Raymun and Steffon remained mounted throughout most of the combat, ending up on the ground only near the end and after most everyone else (save for Ser Robyn and the last of the Kingsguards) had been dismounted. If Ser Steffon had been intent on knocking Ser Raymun off his mount to then murderously ride him down, he certainly wasn’t trying too hard to do that.
Although maybe Ser Raymun is a fighting prodigy, a natural, and before just hadn’t tried to outclass his cousin on the battlefield. Maybe his allegedly murderous cousin just wasn’t able to take Raymun down because of a skills issue.
Let’s examine this assumption.
Near the middle of the fight, the Fossaways had been charging at each other without really getting an advantage on one another; the two remaining Kingsguard are occupied in mounted combat against Ser Lyonel and Ser Robyn.
Ser Raymun takes a passing shot at Aerion as Raymun rides by, heading towards his cousin who is riding towards him for another jousting pass.
Raymun is looking back over his right shoulder to keep an eye on Dunk and Aerion. Clearly Raymun is invested in Dunk’s success. Raymun is literally ignoring his cousin charging towards him.
Steffon is approaching from Raymun’s left side, the blind side. Does he take the opportunity to impale his cousin with the lance, while Raymun’s unprotected?
No. Instead he lays his lance across Raymun’s path so the top of Raymun’s helm hits the lance’s shaft, breaking off a foot or so of it. Raymun isn’t even knocked off the horse. That exchange looked more like a move done during “jousts” at modern Renaissance Faires or the Medieval Times dinner show where the jousting riders aren’t trying to actually hurt each other, they’re just trying to make it look good.
I’m not saying that riding head-first into the equivalent of a tree branch (while wearing a helmet) sounds all that pleasant, but if Steffon had wanted to do a Ser Gregor Clegane vs Ser Hugh of the Vale type of move, that pass would have been the time when Raymun was defenseless. Clearly, Ser Steffon wasn’t feeling murderous in the moment.
In the final part of the trial, Steffon and Raymun are fighting one on one on foot. Steffon doesn’t have his shield, Raymun still does and it looks to be in excellent condition.
Almost as if no one has been coming into contact with that shield.
No one else who was fighting on foot still had a shield.
Dunk’s beautiful shield gets destroyed by a lance.
We see Maekar losing his from the forceful takedown delivered by Baelor.
Aerion still had his shield initially, since his unhorsing wasn’t actually caused intentionally by Dunk; Aerion did such a sloppy job crashing into Ser Duncan while hitting him with a flail that both opponents hit the ground. Eventually Dunk did rip the shield away from Aerion and used that shield as a weapon.
(You can do that when you’re bigger than your opponent.)
However it happened that Sers Steffon and Raymun ended up on foot, Raymun did not have his shield smashed nor suffered its loss. Seems like Raymun didn’t quite have that tough a time when he been charging back and forth with Steffon, and even when they somehow mutually unhorsed each other, he managed to hold onto that shield. (I just find that interesting.)
Since we’re observing Raymun’s gear, we should really take note that although Raymun is indeed wearing armor, it’s just studded leather with a bucket helm (one that probably doubles as a container for carrying apples in more peaceful times.) Steffon is wearing bespoke armor that might be more fancy-looking than Steely Pate would have crafted, but it seems like it could be offering more protection than Raymun’s leather.
Since Steffon is better armored, if he’d wanted to hurt Raymun he could have been fighting a lot more aggressively without putting himself at too much risk. Instead, we see Raymun being the one fighting with a more offensive posture between the two of them. Steffon must be holding back, like he did on horseback.
Dunk briefly watched Steffon and Raymun fighting, which allowed the audience to see the cousins scrapping. Note that Steffon has maneuvered inside of Raymun’s shield – the shield isn’t really offering anything defensively now. And Steffon doesn’t take advantage of this, he just lets Raymun attack him – attacks that he blocks without counterattacking. (He also doesn’t try to wrestle the shield from Raymun like Dunk had done to Aerion, even though Steffon is bigger than Raymun – just saying…)
Then Raymun tackles Steffon (or Steffon allows Raymun to tackle him) making it harder for either knight to use their swords at such close range.
Ser Steffon: I’m just running out the sundial, coach. This match is going to end soon, I hope.
In the end, the lightly-armored Raymun is not even sure if he’d injured Steffon at all, and although the new knight seems bruised and sore, he does not seem much more injured than when we saw Steffon kick Raymun through a fence.
Raymun: I think I broke one of my cousin’s ribs!
— A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Episode 6 “The Morrow”
“… I think I cracked a few of my cousin’s ribs. At least I hope so.”
— The Hedge Knight
It seems clear to me that Steffon wasn’t trying to actually harm his cousin and was keeping the rookie occupied so no one else (like the deadly Kingsguards) would have a reason to take Raymun on. And that’s a real danger since the white cloaked knights couldn’t go after Baelor and none of the Kingsguard seemed interested in actually helping Aerion versus Dunk. Steffon likely saved Raymun by keeping him engaged, so the Kingsguard went after Ser Robyn and Ser Lyonel rather than let them run about unopposed.
On the charge of attempted kinslaying: Ser Steffon is innocent! Blameless! But still possessing a punchable face.
In Conclusion
Ser Steffon Fossaway sucks, and we’re right to say so. Even if it was in his nature to be a sneaky bastard who seeks advantage (Raymun told Dunk (and us) this) – that doesn’t excuse him from willfully betraying Dunk. Boooooo! Boo that man!
But that’s enough. We don’t have to invent more charges against him or act like his melee against Raymun was all that notable or notorious. (In some ways, his behavior on the field of battle was meritorious, but I’m not requiring anyone to sing his praises.)
Besides, it somehow waters down the true tragedy of the similar Baelor/Maekar conflict by trying to make something more out of Steffon and Raymun’s.
Maekar: I hear the whispers of those who say I meant Baelor ill.
Steffon: Relatable! I hear that too, about me and Raymun.
Maekar: Raymun, who still lives? You pretend our experiences are comparable?
Steffon: Not really, but it just goes to show that people will whisper all sorts of nonsense. Hey, I’m still waiting on that lordship, your Grace.
Maekar: Too soon.
(Comments are always welcome. Super welcome! But if you want to talk spoilery Game of Thrones talk with me (also welcome) I’d invite you to visit my Safe Spoilers page on my backup blog. That way my non-book-reading friends won’t be shocked with foreknowledge.)
Images from HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. I make no claims to the artwork, but some claims to the text here – at least the text that isn’t my transcription of the show or novella dialogue. So there.
If you liked this article, thank you! I have all of my Game of Thrones related articles on my handy-dandy Game of Thrones page should you want to read more but don’t want to navigate around my site.
© Patrick Sponaugle 2026 Some Rights Reserved
I Can't Possibly Be Wrong All the Time 