Don’t look now, but Game of Thrones is suddenly a comedy. Not just because A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms stars the franchise’s best protagonist since Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), but because we’re no longer treating the world of medieval knights and royal family squabbles as anything but a wild and dirty place to live. It’s also exactly the tone that Game of Thrones needed right now. There’s only so much forced seriousness that House of the Dragon can dole out when the fanbase isn’t there to support it. So, poking a little fun at all the pageantry, drama, and “Winter is Coming” disappointments is exactly why the first episode of Knight of the Seven Kingdoms worked so well.
Not to mention: I already love Dunk (Peter Claffey). He’s like a big, sulking toddler who falls in love with the first woman he sees and thinks that the first knight to ever show him kindness is also one of the most honorable men in all of Westeros. Forget the fact that no one remembers Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb), or that he has more in common with a member of Jack Sparrow’s drunken pirate crew than a legendary knight. For Dunk, the big-dick-swinging oaf is the father he never had. Frankly, it’s Dunk’s love for Ser Arlan that makes him so endearing. He sees the good in everyone right away—which is certainly a rarity in George R. R. Martin’s world of kingly backstabbings.
So, after a glimpse of the largest prosthetic penis since last week’s episode of The Pitt, let’s set the “__ Days Since a Foot-long Penis Appeared on My TV” sign at the office back to zero and continue with the second episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
When we left Dunk in the premiere, the hopeful hedge knight was searching for someone to vouch for him so that he could join the jousting tournament in Ashford. He struck up a new friendship with another one of my new favorite characters, Ser Lyonel Baratheon the “Laughing Storm” (Daniel Ings). Although they drank the night away together and play-fought on the dance floor, Dunk doesn’t ask Ser Lyonel to vouch for him. Instead, he spends episode 2 seeking out Prince Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel), the heir to the Iron Throne.
The Targaryen prince arrives in Ashford looking for his younger brother Maekar’s missing sons, Daeron and Aegon. So, as usual in Westeros, this is the week that the Targaryens arrive to make everything more complicated. Insanely, Dunk is right to ask them of Ser Arlan. Prince Baelor remembers him, recounting jousting tournaments from Ser Arlan’s younger years when he defeated the former lords of House Stokeworth and Lannister. He even agrees to vouch for Dunk—though he’ll need his own crest. “Ser Arlan used to say I was as thick as a castle wall,” Dunk tells him. Still, he’s suave enough to think of asking the tall theater actress/puppeteer to paint him a new crest on his shield.
Dunk doesn’t know what he wants for a crest, however—it’s the classic case of mustering up the confidence to approach your crush, but then losing all brain functios once you start talking to them. “You must think me a fool,” he says. She responds: “All men are fools. All men are knights.” Her retort doesn’t register with Dunk’s smooth brain. Knighting is all he knows. Either way, she agrees to paint him a nice elm tree.
“Was that ill handled, the puppet girl?” Dunk asks Egg right after. The kid tells him that they’re both tall, which is a decent start. “Everyone’s always told me I was stupid,” Dunk says. There’s no follow-up—no, but then I proved them wrong by X, Y, and Z. He’s all muscle and no brains, which is why he’s better off currying favor around town by winning tug-of-war games and—eventually—joining the tournament. So, like a video-game character in their home base, he trades whatever he can for some armor, a new paint job for his shield, and supper wherever he can find it.
Who needs a whole Targaryen family when you have one Dunk.
“If I could call myself a champion of Ashford Meadow, even for an hour, maybe some great house would take me into its service,” Dunk tells Egg. He says it like it’s the first time he’s had the idea, and not the whole reason why he even came to Ashford.
Dunk isn’t quite ready yet when the first night of jousting commences, and the action surprises him more than anything. He thinks back to Ser Arlan, of course, and questions what he’s done with his life so far. “Do great knights live in the hedges and die by the side of a muddy road?” he wonders. “He lived nigh on 60 years and never was a champion. What chance do I have?” Well, he’s a 6-foot-5-inch ox of a man with everything to prove. So, I’d say he has a decent chance! Plus, it seems like he’s already revving himself up.
“He raised me to be an honorable man, and all these noble lords can’t even remember his name,” Dunk says. “I am his legacy. And on the morrow, we will show them what his hand has wrought.” Awesome words, lad. Give ‘em hell.
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