The interesting thing about a show like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is that it isn’t concerned with an ever-longer list of characters. We have our two central characters – Dunk and Egg – and then the rest of the folks at the tourney. Now, some of those folk – including the ones we meet in this episode – are pretty important in the wider world of Westeros. But our focus remains on Dunk and his mysterious little squire Egg even in the face of the heir to the Iron Throne.
The main bit of story this episode is watching Dunk start to take concrete steps to turn himself into a knight of the realm. For one, he manages to get someone to recognize him as a knight – that would be one of the Westerosi VIPs, Prince Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel), heir to the Iron Throne and current Hand of the King. Shockingly not blond (although we did see several blond Targaryen princes this episode who were much bigger jerks than Baelor), Baelor is exceedingly kind to Dunk in accepting his claim that he was made a knight by Ser Arlan (who once fought Baelor in a joust) and even offering our gentle giant advice that he must change his sigil to truly be a knight (as only trueborn sons can use the sigil of their families and Dunk is very much not that).
The arrival of the Targaryens also marks the first real sense of outside politics in a series that doesn’t seem to be all that concerned with the wider world of Westeros. We can glean that there is some unrest amongst the Targaryen heirs and while Baelor clearly has a good head on his shoulders, some of the others are spoiled brats. We’re several generations removed from the action of House of the Dragon (dragons are now extinct from the land) and several generations before the events of Game of Thrones, so things are heading into an era of Targaryen rule where their name alone must hold claim to the Throne. And we know that, down the line, as the madness of the Targaryen line grows, so will the unrest in the land leading to Robert’s Rebellion and the end of the Targaryen dynasty. But, as I mentioned, the show isn’t particularly concerned with all of that.
Rather, it’s more important to see Dunk make the decision to sell one of Ser Arlan’s horses (that he promised to keep as he buried his knight) in order to secure new armor to fight in the games. And he managed to talk with Tanselle, the narrator of the plays he and Egg have been enjoying, to see about getting a new sigil painted on his shield. Egg, naturally, comes up with the perfect image: a tall Elm tree, like the one they are currently camping under. It’s a simple sequence, but a necessary one. And by the time we get to the actual first round of jousting at the end of the episode – which scares Dunk a bit, wondering if he has what it takes to be a real knight and not just a hedge knight like Arlan – it’s clear that this is a new world for him but not necessarily a new one for Egg.
From turning tail and heading back to camp as soon as he sees the Targaryen banners arrive to asking to be put down once things get going at the joust, it’s clear Egg has some connection to the royal family. What is it, exactly, the series hasn’t tipped its hand to show us just yet. But I suspect the revelation is on its way. And for folks who are in the know, there were several clues dropped as to just what that relationship might be.
This wasn’t a particularly flashy episode, but it was an interesting one. Getting to spend time with a small repertoire of characters, listening to them, learning about them, and not be whisked into a huge set piece has been a welcome change from some of the spectacle-driven storytelling in other Westeros series. Let’s see what else this show has in story for us down the road.
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