Dunk and Egg. At face value, these names are rather silly. After all, the two main characters of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms—the latest television show set in the Game of Thrones world—live in, well, the world of Game of Thrones.
The land of Westeros is known for many things, including morally grey characters, gritty geopolitical intrigue and a record number of beloved character deaths. Chivalry—what it means to be a true, honourable knight who defends the weak and fights to uphold justice—is a central theme in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. But that isn’t a typical factor in author George R. R. Martin’s equation of grimdark fantasy. It tends to get a bit hard to see the good in people when your favourite characters are always being killed off.
So, is there room amongst the Jon Snows and Rhaenyra Targaryens for a ‘Dunk and Egg’, who simply want to wander the land at large and do good in small ways? According to both critics and viewers, the answer is a resounding yes.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is the third television show in author George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire franchise, based on a series of novellas dubbed the Tales of Dunk and Egg. The first show, Game of Thrones, was released fifteen years ago. It did not meet a favourable ending—which would be putting things charitably. The second, House of the Dragon, is still on-going, but the cracks in the writing and pacing started to show in its latest season. By contrast, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is proving that it’s no mere spin-off.
Episode four clocked in at a measly 34 minutes—and took the top spot for the highest rated television episode in any Game of Thrones series ever produced. The season as a whole averaged nearly 13 million viewers per episode, making it HBO’s third biggest television debut to-date. How is this possible, you might ask? Everyone loves an underdog, sure, but more than that, there’s something special about small people tackling big themes that we can all aspire to.
Dunk, or in full, Ser Duncan the Tall, played by Peter Claffey, is a simple hedge knight, of no great renown and from no great house. Standing at a whopping 211cm, he is the epitome of the gentle giant archetype—a bit bumbling, a bit clumsy, but endearingly earnest. Dexter Sol Ansell puts on a performance that sets a new standard in child-acting talent as Egg, Dunk’s diminutive squire, a mysterious boy whose sombre appearance—and charming wit—belies his age. The six-episode season chronicles the pair’s efforts to enter, and win, a knightly tournament.
The premise is straightforward and the world is small, boasting an equally small cast of memorable characters. This set-up allows each of those characters’ personalities to really shine, most clearly encapsulated in the almost buddy-cop routine of Dunk and Egg’s relationship. Not only is it impossible not to chuckle whenever they banter, their dynamic is where we see why you can never write chivalry off. It can be found in the strangest of places and the unlikeliest of people.
Against all odds, Dunk walks the straight and narrow path of honour. In the face of injustice, he knows that if you get knocked down, a true knight needs to get up off the ground and do something. Even when he’s ridiculed, scorned and thrown to the wayside by the nobility, his constant desire to live as a true knight inspires Egg, who sees Dunk’s actions as a welcome contrast to the hypocritical behaviour of the knights of great houses like the Targaryens.
In fact, the inciting incident for the show’s main drama takes place when Dunk comes to the rescue of a stage girl, whose performance offends an arrogant Targaryen prince. You know the type—entitled, haughty and all-too-sure of their place in the world. Dunk puts him in his place, but opens a veritable Pandora’s Box of consequences as a result.
Through it all, he stays true to his dreams and never backs down from the responsibility he’s undertaken to be a faithful knight of the realm. It’s the stuff of legends, heartwarming in a way that’s not just refreshing for a Game of Thrones show, but for television in general. Also, I dare you not to smile whenever Dunk and Egg sit down to talk to each other.
Every episode is an exercise in injecting the massive syringe of hope straight into one’s veins. And just a heads up for the fans of OG Game of Thrones—fear not, we do get treated to an incredibly brutal action set piece that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and then some.
There will always be a place for epic, sweeping drama. But A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is here to remind viewers that we should always sweat the small stuff. The small stuff matters, because it’s in those unassuming stories that we feel the human touch most keenly, especially those facets of humanity that inspire hope in our own real-world lives.
At this point, we all know what a performative male looks like. But the path out of performativity isn’t always clear. So when in doubt, be a Dunk. Do good and boast little. Own your honour and when you’re knocked down, always get back up.
