“All men are fools. All men are knights.”
(SPOILER WARNING – and probably NSFW!)
More fun Westeros-based shenanigans ensued in this week’s instalment of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which, suited to its lightweight comic style, was a mere 33 minutes long. Presumably after the hour long first ep, we’re looking at fairly short episodes compared to the often epic-length sister shows. That’s lucky, as having started to read the books they’re based on, they really are short – about 150 pages each. That’s not much plot even to fill three seasons.
Still, some kind of a plot did start to get going this week. True, the tourney has only just started by the end, and Dunk spends much of the ep continuing desperately to find someone to vouch for him so he can compete. But the arrival of the official Targaryen delegation (still the ruling noble House, remember) puts the cat among the pigeons. Well, a bit.
It also means that we’re going to have to start remembering who is who, in a bewildering assortment of names that include “ae” and “o”.
Baelor Targaryen (heir to the throne, seems decent enough)
Maekar Targaryen (Baelor’s younger brother, bitter and unpleasant)
Aerion Targaryen (son of Maekar, young, pretty and vain – also the only one to possess the trademark Targaryen platinum blond hair)
Valarr Targyaryen (son of Baelor, so far only seen doing a bit of jousting)
Got that?
To be fair, it’s less confusing than House of the Dragon, which includes the easily mixed up Daemon, Aemond and Aegon. And there’s talk of other Targaryens too – a missing son of Baelor, who may be dead. “Wars have started over less”, whispers the young Lady Gwin Ashford, instantly established as a novice political shit-stirrer who makes the mistake of trying to influence events through the guileless Ser Dunk. At this point, it’s worth remembering the common diminutive form of the name Aegon in the franchise…
Much of the ep, though, is spent with our heroes wandering aimlessly through the tourney, which comes across as a kind of medieval Glastonbury Festival (complete with mud). Now firmly established as a comic duo, Dunk and Egg have a fun chemistry – Dunk is clearly well-meaning but none too smart, while Egg punctures his naïve seriousness with acid barbs disguised by his childlike apparent earnestness. “You are a knight of the realm, sir,” he firmly asserts. “You can say fuck their permission, ride into the lists, call out Longthorn Tyrell and turn his arsehole into a lancehole.”
It’s great fun (and more than a little surprising) to hear lines that might have come from Game of Thrones’ fondly remembered Bronn coming from the lips of a quirky-looking, well-spoken child, and Dexter Sol Ansell continues to be a great find as Egg. One minute solemn and earnest, the next experiencing a puppet show with genuine childlike wonder, he’s perfectly cast in the part.
Peter Claffey continues to be great as his foil Dunk too. There’s a hint of a love interest for him this ep, as he commissions young Tanselle, the puppeteer, to paint a new emblem on his shield – at which point he realises he has no idea what it should be, and Egg once again comes to his rescue. There’s a definite spark between Dunk and Tanselle, but of course his attempts at flirting are as endearingly clumsy as you would expect.
“The boys used to call me ‘Tanselle Too Tall’”, she confides, to which his stumbling response is, “you’re not too tall, I mean you’re just right for… er…”
“Puppets!” Egg completes for him, once again pulling his arse out of the fire.
“That was not well-handled,” Dunk mutters to him later. Comedy gold.
As were his flashbacks to his life with the now-deceased Ser Arlan, related to any Lord who might remember his surly mentor. I’m glad we get to see more of Danny Webb, who can be funny without so much as uttering a line, as Arlan – though it’s going to be difficult to imagine seeing any more of him than we do early this ep, as he provides this week’s example of gratuitous (and full-frontal) nudity.
“He was not like other men,” Dunk earnestly asserts, over a shot that shows the grizzled knight, stumbling out of his hovel for a morning piss, to be hung like a horse. You got that right, Dunk. Kudos to Danny Webb for actually making gratuitous nudity funny, though I imagine the internet will be buzzing over whether that prominent member was the actor’s own or a flattering prosthetic.
Daniel Ings’ charismatic Ser Lyonel Baratheon was back in evidence too, recruiting Dunk and Egg to his tug of war team, which he promptly deserted to have a drink, returning to clinch victory only when he’d finished his wine. Lyonel is a great character, who you can imagine being played by BRIAN BLESSED in his younger days – Ings may not be quite that large, but he’s just as capable of chewing the scenery.
At least the tourney is in full swing by the end of the ep, with some well-staged jousting scenes that look very dangerous. Obviously the very tall Dunk has no problem seeing over the crowd, but it’s noticeable that Egg, helpfully perched on his shoulders, asks to be put down and blend into the crowd when he realises he’s visible to the assembled Lords in their pavilion…
Again, this was a lot of fun – rather than being embroiled in Westeros’ Machiavellian politics, it feels more like spending time at a good party with its more likeable denizens. The plot, such as it is, is starting to get going; but the real entertainment here is in watching these well-drawn and well-played characters interact. So far there’s not a hint of seriousness to it – long may that continue.
Simon’s Incoherent Blog 