Seven years on from the end of the hit television show Game of Thrones, some fans, myself included, were left with a bitter taste in their mouths.
A rushed and lazy conclusion that failed to both satisfy fans and match the excellence of earlier seasons. Hopes were high for spinoff project House of the Dragon, but the relationship between showrunner Ryan Condal and author George R.R. Martin soon soured, being described as “Abysmal”, further frustrating fans after another disappointing adaptation. Hence, hopes were low for any newer instalments.
Yet, it is this latest spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, that has been able to finally recapture the magic that the Game of Thrones franchise once had during its prime.
How did they do it? Simple – they stuck to the source material.
[Spoilers from here on out!]
The source material to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms consists of three novellas: ‘The Hedge Knight’, ‘The Sworn Sword’, and ‘The Mystery Knight’. Each season of the television show is intended to adapt each respective novella, with this newest season being its first. We follow our protagonist Ser Duncan the Tall and his little bald squire named Egg, who is secretly a Targaryen Prince and a member of the royal family of Westeros. The story of Ser Duncan begins at a jousting tournament, where he finds himself in a brutal trial by combat after defending a female puppeteer from the sadistic Prince Aerion Brightflame. He prevails, but at the cost of the heir to the throne Baelor Targaryen. Egg sneaks off from his family to travel around with Ser Duncan, squiring for the hedge knight and experiencing the life of the smallfolk.
What the show does so well is how it takes the pages from the novel and adapts it perfectly onto screen. The source material is respected, with even the dialogue in some parts being kept the same. George R.R. Martin notably stated that “I (he) visited the set in Northern Ireland in July and loved what I saw. Dunk and Egg look as if they walked out of the pages of my book”. Such praise is a far cry from his previous statements regarding earlier adaptations.
As a massive fan of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels, I adored seeing my beloved characters be represented on the big screen. It is clear to me that showrunner Ira Parker had demonstrated excruciating levels of research and attention to detail in order to authentically portray such worldbuilding. The love that was put into this project was clear to see for any fan of the source material.
There have been talks to continue portraying the adventures of Dunk and Egg on the big screen, and if the first season is anything to go off, I can’t wait.
