A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Premiere Recap: Season 1, Episode 1

If “Game of Thrones” ever proved too long, too fanciful and/or too self-important for your tastes, have we got a spinoff for you.

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” a “Thrones” prequel that premiered tonight on HBO, is a smaller, gentler, more comedic tale set roughly 100 years after “House of the Dragon.” The Targaryens still hold the Iron Throne, but it’s been a while since they’ve had dragons at their disposal. We enter this epoch in Westerosi history via a commoner named Dunk (played by Peter Claffey, “Bad Sisters”), the young, hulking squire to a hedge knight named Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb, “Pennyworth”).

As the premiere opens, Ser Arlan has recently died; Dunk digs his mentor a grave and cries a bit as he eulogizes him. In the aftermath, Dunk realizes that Ser Arlan’s sword “fits my grip as well as it ever fit his.” And there is a tournament coming up at Ashford Meadow. As he gazes into the middle distance and the “Game of Thrones” theme song starts playing on the soundtrack, it feels like the beginning of a hero’s journey… until the next shot cuts to Dunk, crouched by a tree, suffering a sudden onset of diarrhea.

Regardless, Dunk is determined to make a name for himself as a knight, so he saddles up one of Arlan’s three horses and heads toward Ashford Meadow. Along the way, he stops at a tavern where some of the only other people around are a drunken noble and a precocious boy with a shaved head. The boy, who says his name is Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell, “Emmerdale Farm”), is dubious about Dunk’s claims of being a knight, but he eagerly offers to serve as his squire at the tourney. Dunk turns him down, though, and heads on to the gathering alone.

Once there, though, there’s a small problem: No one recognizes him as a knight — in fact, he isn’t one; Ser Arlan never dubbed him so — and worse, no one remembers Ser Arlan. And even if the old man had knighted his squire, Dunk would be nothing more than a hedge knight, claimed by no noble house. So he can’t enter the lists and joust… unless he can get someone of noble blood to vouch for him. And even then, he’s woefully under-resourced and therefore ill-prepared to take part.

As Dunk wanders the tourney camp, he meets a few notable characters. One is Raymun Fossaway (Shaun Thomas, “Emmerdale Farm”), a timid knight attending to his cousin, Ser Steffon. Raymun leads Dunk into the well-appointed tent of Ser Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings, “Sex Education”), a devil-may-care forebear of “Thrones” King Robert who offers a hearty meal and an unhinged party, but offers little in the way of actual help or guidance.

A dejected Dunk returns to his horses and bedroll and is shocked to see that the boy has followed him, built a fire and cooked some fish for dinner. The boy introduces himself as Egg, says he’s from King’s Landing — but not Flea Bottom, as Dunk assumes — and proves his usefulness. Before you know it, Dunk is begrudgingly inviting Egg to stay with him and serve as his squire for the tourney.

That night, as they sleep on the ground, they witness a shooting star. Egg points out that it’s a sign of good luck, and that the other knights — sleeping in their fancy tents — likely didn’t witness it. Dunk threatens to clout the boy if he doesn’t hush up and go to sleep, but then realizes what the kid is saying. “So the luck is ours alone?” he wonders aloud. Egg just rolls over on his side and smiles.

Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the premiere? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments!