I binge-watched A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms last weekend, and it reignited all my old love for Game of Thrones. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is based on the book of the same name – a trilogy of novellas featuring Dunk and Egg (future King Aegon Targaryen V), and it is set almost a 100 years before Game of Thrones but approximately 80 years after the events of House of the Dragon.
The first season focuses on the first short story – The Hedge Knight, where a poor hedge knight Dunc tries his fortune at a jousting tournament. In the process, he makes many friends and enemies from high places, and gets a squire Egg who turns out to be a runaway Targaryen prince. Before long, simple Dunc gets involved in high-level political imbroglios that end in a magnificently filmed trial by seven.
The reason this show is so good is because of the deep character building and the lovely camaraderie and banter between Dunc and Egg. The dialogues are almost word to word from the book, which is a good thing, as if there’s one thing George R. R. Martin does well, it’s dialogue. It’s also not as gory as House of the Dragon (which I also like), but find hard to get through just because it gets darker and darker with each episode, whereas A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is overall quite light-hearted and although there is violence, it’s not as gruesome as House of the Dragon, so hubby can also sit and watch with me (he doesn’t have a high tolerance for gore).
Another reason why I think this show works better than House of the Dragon for me is the main character, Ser Duncan the Tall, played brilliantly by Peter Claffey. Not since Jon Snow (or any of the Stark family) has there been a character that you really root for to win. You could make the argument for some of the characters in House of the Dragon, but I think Dunk is a truly redeeming character. It’s quite rare to find that in the Game of Thrones universe.
The episodes are also short and there are only 6 of them, so it doesn’t drag forever. We watched them within the space of an evening.
In summary: Grounded, small scale, smaller cast. Really let’s you appreciate and soak in the sets, characters and story.
