A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: S1/EP1 "The Hedge Knight"

For our first episode of 2026, Minwa and Tony review and analyze the premiere episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms titled The Hedge Knight. We discuss this character first return to Westeros, exploring how a smaller story can feel larger through honor, humor, and lived-in detail. We also unpack adaptation choices, Lyonel Baratheon’s impact, and what GRRM’s latest comments in the Hollywood Reporter article mean for future seasons.

Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Open: Dunk Meets Egg
• 1:52 New Season, New Spin‑Off Context
• 5:16 First Reactions of Dunk & Egg Premiere
• 15:09 Dunk crap on GOT & HOTD?
• 21:21 Is Dunk truly a knight?
• 23:41 Production design
• 26:13 Lyonel Baratheon
• 32:24 Tanselle Too Tall
• 33:19 Last scene with Dunk & Egg
• 34:56 Episode rating for Hedge Knight
• 36:23 Emilia Clarke media blitz
• 41:27 George R.R. Martin and The Hollywood Reporter article
• 53:43 Outro

Transcript

SPEAKER_05: 0:09

My lord. You thief! I did not mean to offend you.

SPEAKER_00: 0:13

Take that armor off you. Now be glad thunder didn't kick you in that fool head of yours. He's a war horse, not a boy's pony.

SPEAKER_05: 0:21

I could ride him as well as you.

SPEAKER_00: 0:23

Close your insolent mouth!

SPEAKER_01: 0:26

I'm a knight, I'll have you know.

SPEAKER_05: 0:29

You don't look to be a knight.

SPEAKER_01: 0:31

What? All knights look the same, do they?

SPEAKER_05: 0:34

No. They don't look like to you either. Your belt's made of rope.

SPEAKER_02: 0:40

So long as it holds my scabbard, it serves.

SPEAKER_05: 0:44

You mean to enter the list?

SPEAKER_02: 0:47

Yeah, I suppose I do.

SPEAKER_05: 0:49

Take me with you, sir. Please.

SPEAKER_02: 0:51

And what might your mother say to that?

SPEAKER_05: 0:53

Not much. She's dead.

SPEAKER_02: 0:56

Is an innkeeper, not you? You're an orphan boy. I was. Once. Then my sir took me in. Taught me arms and writing and taught me everything, really. Best he could.

SPEAKER_05: 1:20

If you could bring me to Ashford, I could squire for you, sir. And you can teach me. Best you can.

SPEAKER_01: 1:26

No, I've no need for a squire, lad.

SPEAKER_05: 1:28

Every knight needs a squire. You look like you need one more than most.

SPEAKER_00: 1:35

And you look like you need a good clout in the air.

SPEAKER_03: 1:52

It's our first episode of 2026, the first episode of a new season of our podcast. Welcome back, everyone, and to any of you listeners tuning in for the first time. Welcome. This is Dancing with Dragons, your go-to podcast for everything related to Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, and everything else from George R. Martin's world of a song of ice and fire, which now includes a third show, The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Yes, the new Game of Thrones spin-off The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has officially and finally premiered. This is a show that Tony and I have been building a pipe for for a while now. We've been so excited for its premiere and we're finally here. As we did for Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, we'll be diving into Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, episode by episode, week to week. As the season rolls out, breaking down everything you need to know about the show. So whether you're here for the lore, the characters, or just to see how the series fits into the wider world of Westeros, you're in the right place. So excited to talk about this, but first, let me take a breather. Let me pass the mic to my co-host Tony for a bit and ask him, How are you, Tony? Hope you had a great start to the year so far.

SPEAKER_06: 2:47

I have. Happy New Year to all. I know it's already January or third week of January, but that's fine. Hoping our 2026 uh is great. And I think we started off on a good note with this first episode. As we've done with so many of our House of the Dragon podcast episodes, we don't tell each other our thoughts until we start recording. And I was watching this show and I'm like, what is she thinking right now? And uh guys I don't know if you're watching it when it was it came out. Like it came out at 8 p.m. my time and I know it's 6 a.m. your time, so I don't know if you woke up at 6 a.m. to watch, did you? Or did you get up in your normal?

SPEAKER_03: 3:27

No, no, I watched it at about I watched it quite late actually, at about like five, four or five p.m. our time. I couldn't watch it before then, um, since I was busy during the day. But um yeah, I finally did, and I I think it was a good time to watch it as well because I was very excited, but at the same time, because I had like a tiring and busy day or like a the past couple of days, when I just sat down to watch it, I was just immersed and just ready to to relax in my favorite fictional world, you know. I think that it was like a relaxing moment for me rather than being so hyped and and excited. I I just felt in a way like I'm coming home, you know, I'm watching like a piece of my favorite fictional home. So uh it was it was a nice uh way to spend the afternoon today.

SPEAKER_06: 4:18

You were able to stay off social media and see any kind of r reviews or people's takes or all that?

SPEAKER_03: 4:23

Yeah, actually, yeah. Like I I just didn't look at my phone for most of the day. Um and it wasn't even intentional, actually. I I didn't even think about it. I was just preoccupied and busy that I didn't really look at my phone at all. Like I just answered any urgent messages and and then by the time I had free time, I just sat down and watched the show. So uh it worked out well.

SPEAKER_06: 4:47

For me, I was ready to watch it right once it premiered. But watching an NFL playoff game that went into overtime, it kind of pushed it so I didn't end up watching it to probably 45 minutes after it premiered. And you know, when it comes to these shows like this, I never go online or I go on Twitter or X or whatever because I don't want to see anybody's uh even if it's good or bad, I just want to formulate my own you know thoughts and stuff. But anyway, so uh who wants to go first? You want to go first? You want me to go first?

SPEAKER_03: 5:23

I started the episode, you start the coverage of the show.

SPEAKER_06: 5:26

Okay, so for someone or like for people like us who are entrenched in the lore of a song of ice and fire, we love Duncan Egg, we love the novellas, and for me, I think it was just a near perfect introduction for these characters, especially for uh Sir Duncan. We get some of Egg. I want it more, but I I get it. Uh, we're gonna get more of him throughout the five more episodes we get. That's that's the one thing I kept thinking about my mind, like, wow my god, I just want to get five more episodes. Uh but this episode, I think, was to establish what kind of person Dunk is.

SPEAKER_04: 6:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 6:05

Uh the shift in tone is can be called drastic when you compare it to Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. We're so used to the political scheming, the backstabbing, betrayal, major houses, SOs, and of course, who's gonna control the Iron Throne and the magnificence and the majestic dragons. But here's none of that. Here we're we're focusing on one guy, and I think it was a breath of fresh air to for me. Now, let me just say one little thing before I pass it on to you. Um, watching it with my son, who's never read any of the books, the shows. I think it's gonna be hard to adjust because the first thing he told me when the episode was done or concluded was like, I thought we were gonna get the tournament scene. Like he thought he thought already like we were gonna see the tournament, and I go, I think that's gonna be the finale. And he goes, What?

SPEAKER_03: 7:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 7:07

So that's my thinking of what non-book readers are. Like I said, he's he he does a good job. He's not one of those um uh what your secondhand watchers, because he does focus on on the shows. But I can't even imagine people who are those secondhand viewers who are just scrolling through TikTok, oh, this is just boring. There's nothing is happening.

SPEAKER_03: 7:29

Oh yeah, I think that's um, I mean, obviously, I think if you're listening to our podcast, then you're probably not one of those viewers um because you want to know more about the world, so um you have like a uh deeper interest in in the you know in George's world and want to know more, so that's why you're tuning in. Um but yeah, I think that this is not really a show for the for that audience at all. And I think that your son, like that anecdote of you and your son, is actually like a perfect uh description kind of for for setting up setting up what to expect with the show and and the way you describe it of this being an introduction to Dunk because it's going to be such a slow burn. I mean, I just reread the novella a couple of days ago um at the start of the year, and and the whole thing, like all of season one, the first novella, takes place like over a few days, like what is it, four days maximum. I think I I when I was writing my notes, I remember I divided them into the days, so like day one and then the next day, and the next day, the next day. So it doesn't even reach a week, I think. So um it's going to be a very slow burn. They're taking their time with it. And I'll say that usually when we say, Oh, you need to pay attention, you can't keep your phone aside for this. Usually when we say that it's because viewers are going to be sort of like overwhelmed with information and a lot of lore and they need to be paying attention. That's usually the case for uh when we put that disclaimer and say, Oh, don't watch your phone while you're watching it, you know, like it's not made for you. You have to watch it. But I think the reason why this won't appeal to that audience is just because of the slow burn rather than the information, because this was a very simple episode. We're not really overwhelmed with anything, we're just introduced to one character, stay with him the entire time. And there is practically no lore. We know that it's set between the events of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, about right in the middle between those two shows. We're introduced to like one familiar house already, which is like there's a Barathean character and there's another other house, House Fossaway. And there's not really much else to take in in terms of information. So if you're the type of person that needs like constant, I guess, stimulation or something happening and big action pieces, then you will get bored if you would just want like that type of entertainment to watch on the screen and then go back on your phone. It's just it's a quieter show, it's something that you can relax to and just watch and and and immerse yourself in rather than okay, you need to stay and focus and take in all the information and absorb all the houses and make a note of everyone and everything. It's not that type of show. So I hope I explained, I hope I got that across. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 10:10

I think that I remember saying when we were covering House of the Dragons season two, I said, please, for those complaining about Host of the Dragons season two being slow and boring, please don't watch a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms because you're gonna hate it. And uh the last I checked maybe 30 minutes ago, IMDB had it at 8.6, which is pretty high. Yeah I was gonna I'm when I when the episode finished, I go, Oh my goodness, I bet you it's gonna get bombed. It's gonna be like a 6.1, or you know, that was my thinking. So I'm I'm happy to see that it's high eights. You know, the book is very small, like 100 pages, or the the first novella, and it has minimal characters. So Dunk in the book is all often is talking, uh, he has this inner monologue with himself, yeah. And you can't really do that in a show, you have to do some kind of you know audible expositions for us, the audience, who don't know. So I think to have him giving a eulogy and talking about Sir Arlen and the give giving out those microscopic flashbacks of you know Sir Arlen hitting him in the head for being dumb or whatever worked pretty well and you know gives it some a comedic tone. And then when he's he's talking to the horses, that's another way of giving you some information of who he is, tells you that he has nobody in the world, and now without Sir Arlene he's truly alone and he has no money, so he's saying he's thinking out loud. Okay, do I go to King's Landing? Did I go to Lannisport? And boom, right there. Oh, King's Landing, Lannisport, we know those places. Yeah, the City Watch, we know the City Watch. I I think they needed to figure out a way for him to say that out loud, you know, kind of like cast away with Tom Hanks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He needed Wilson because if without Wilson, it's just gonna be a silent movie.

SPEAKER_03: 12:09

That's a good like link that you mean. I think that that's like that makes a lot of sense and translates that relationship really well. And um, having just read the book as well, there's a lot of like inner monologue going on. So I think that that was the best way that they could kind of get that across. Or, you know, when like it's just written in prose, like Dunk was a the story is being told plainly, not through any dialogue. And um it's not just an exposition dump as well. It's just we get a bit of his mindset and some descriptions, and then the way that they translated that onto the screen made a lot of sense. Um, and it was the best way forward. But also, I think what I loved about it was that having him talk to the horses and uh kind of communicating all of that in the show in that way also is very true to Dunk because Dunk wasn't a very serious character in the book as well. He's kind of like, I don't want to call him like I I hate to use this word because it's bad. Like it's it's not a good word to describe him as, and I don't want to use it, but I can't think of any other word. But he's like a level below, you know, like he's this like tall, you know, he he messes up and and uh you know, you will see in the show, even this episode and and the following episodes. And as you might have seen in the trailer, there is a comedic tone to Anit Seven Kingdoms way more than we've ever seen with Game of Thrones and and House of the Dragon. And that's so true to Dunk's character. Like when I was reading the the story, having just watched the trailer as well, it felt funny to me. This was a like it was funny, it's lighthearted. There are those moments of levity and kind of dunk also calling himself stupid, like, oh dunk, you're so stupid. What do you do? So what did you do that for? You know, you would never really get that with Game of Thrones where it takes a very lighthearted approach. So it just adds to I think Dunk's innocence because that's actually a uh a key quality of his in the book as well. He's and you see it in the show as well, but he's very innocent, he's um he's not scheming, as you said, like there's none of that um uh type of character or dynamics in in in this show so far with any of the characters, and especially not with Dunk. He's just like you see what you see is what you get with Dunk, and he's he like he's just he's funny. So I I I like that. I like that there's a sense for his character.

SPEAKER_06: 14:25

For him to be so respectful and humble and being brought up by somebody who always gave him a clout in the ear, like he told Egg. What I saw for the next episode is that we might see flashbacks of Dunk as a child, young Dunk and Sir Arlen, and maybe they'll give a more of a perspective of their relationship to see how he became this way, because in the few shots that we see of Sir Arlen with Dunk, it's him being bad to him, basically. So for him to be him is kind of a miracle, and to see somebody give a eulogy when there's nobody around kind of shows the person he is. There's a moment, okay. Here's my question. Okay, and it came. I know you know what I'm gonna say. There's a part where I go, Oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to bring this up because she is not gonna bring this up, and it's right in the beginning, and it took me by surprise. So what you know, we have this scene where we have a a knight who is standing tall looking at these grand vistas and thinking about his future, and then we hear the Game of Thrones music.

SPEAKER_03: 15:39

Oh my god, you're right, wait. This was one of the only notes. I didn't make a lot of notes for for the episode. This was one of the only notes that I wrote down. Oh my god, wait, wait. You slowly my jaw dropped.

SPEAKER_06: 15:55

They're slowly building and building, and you go, Oh, here we go. But we're gonna get an intro. Are they gonna use the same music? And then you see there's an episode of South Park where Cartman is doing the same thing when they're playing World of Warcraft anyway. Uh now, was there any meaning to that? Like, let me ask you. Let me ask you. Yes, okay.

SPEAKER_03: 16:18

I had to pause the show. Are you joking? I when when that happened and and Dunk did that, and that's what they showed. I gasped, my jaw dropped. I had to pause the show and look away and like think of what I just saw. Are you kidding, Tony? That was so intentional because it's the same uh song that's being used for Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, and George has beef with both of those shows. Yeah, what those adaptations was a very clear message. It was a very clear message, and I don't blame them, obviously, but oh my god, I can't.

SPEAKER_06: 16:50

So you think it was them, Ira and George taking a shot? Yeah, D D.

SPEAKER_04: 16:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 16:57

Okay, okay. So I I or them, or is it them saying, look, we're not gonna take ourselves serious and we're gonna have some fun showing you this.

SPEAKER_03: 17:05

Yeah, both, both. It has a dual meaning. I think that's both.

SPEAKER_06: 17:09

Yeah, and I think what once we get after we discussed the this episode, we're gonna talk about Uncle George's uh skating article in the Hollywood Reporter because he gave us a lot of uh juicy nuggets to think about. But anyway, yeah, I I I couldn't believe it. I go, what is going on? Because I was getting all hyped. I got the goosebumps. I go, are we gonna get an intro? And then we see that it was just kind of like, well, I don't think I've seen that before on TV.

SPEAKER_03: 17:37

But anyway, uh I love how you were like, uh you're not gonna mention it. And I was like, what is it like what there was nothing like wildly inappropriate because those are the things that say usually avoid, you know? Some of there was something like yeah, racing 18 plus that's the things I don't talk about on the podcast. Like, I just did to take care of all of that. So I was like, there was nothing, there was nothing because I can remember. And oh my god, like the shock that Tony just saw on my face was equal to the shock that I had when when I watched the episode. My god, I completely forgot about that.

SPEAKER_06: 18:09

Um, I do want to talk about the music a little bit because, like I said, we we it got the tease of the Game of Thrones, and you know, Raman Drawadi is the the composer. Um, he did do the music for House of the Dragon, he's not doing it for this show, but I did learn that he did score the scene of the music and the Brathi intent when they're dancing, so he did compose that. But other than that, I think Dan Romer is the lead composer for the series. And what I felt, I don't know if you've got this. Um there's a part, it kind of sounded a little westerny with the fantasy motif, like a western little bit, a tiny bit. I can see that's a bit a different, a different style of music which we need. Uh, I I kind of like the little motif. And I don't think that you're gonna hear grand scales of music because it's maybe we'll get it when we get to the actual finale in the tournament. I do want to ask that. Um, I see a lot of people online, the biggest complaint is why is the finale only 30 minutes? If if you're gonna do this, why not why not give us a three-hour movie?

SPEAKER_03: 19:25

I mean, I uh in a way I see that, but honestly, we thought that this was enough. Like when we when they announced that the Knight of Seven Kingdoms would be a mini-series, and a season for each novella, and it's gonna be 30 minutes, six episodes. We were like, that's perfect, that's more than enough, that's that's great, that's wonderful, we don't need more than that. On paper, that looks good to me. Like, I still think it's fine. But I think that once the season rolls out and we see more episodes, then we can judge if this should have been better as a as a three hour film versus a miniseries. Because I there could be them adding like a bunch of scenes. That are kind of unnecessary, and they could have just gotten straight to the point and trimmed the fat, kind of. I don't I don't like to say that, but you know what I mean? Like it could have been that that that's a likely option, or we could be like, Oh no, everything that they added was perfect, it's added to the world. So I think that I'm gonna reserve my complete judgment until the the entire season's out, and then we're gonna come back to that question. That's what I that's what I think.

SPEAKER_06: 20:20

Your first impression of Dexter Anself as I explained. Perfect. Perfect. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 20:26

Yeah. What about you?

SPEAKER_06: 20:28

He just critiqued everything about but that's how Egg is.

SPEAKER_03: 20:33

Like Egg is kind of annoying. When you when you read the book, you're reminded that he's he's a little brat, and I I don't mind him being that way. If anything, I thought that he was less bratty in the book, in the in the show than he was in the book. Because we see like we get that shot of him in the end um away from Dunk's like uh field of vision. Whereas in the book, we only get like Dunk's POV. We don't get see egg at all without Dunk. So having even that shot of him just kind of like smiling to himself makes him less bratty, in my opinion. But I think that it's necessary considering where the show's going. So that was I loved him. I loved him.

SPEAKER_06: 21:11

Yeah, because I think him pointing out every flaw he had, I was like, Yeah, you're really a knight. Look at you have a rope as a belt.

SPEAKER_03: 21:19

Yeah. I love that.

SPEAKER_06: 21:21

Which we have to talk about is like, is he truly a knight? Are you a knight if nobody witnesses you being knighted?

SPEAKER_04: 21:29

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_06: 21:29

I mean, because and I think that the way that Dunk is, he's very honorable. He just thinks that people are gonna take his word. Like, well, I'm telling you, I'm telling you the truth. Isn't that enough? The man who like the man who's in charge, Plumber, his name, in Ashford Meadow, is kind of like, well, anybody can just come and claim to be a knight. We can't have that. You need somebody to vouch for you.

SPEAKER_03: 21:52

Obviously, as you said, Dunk is the type of person where he would trust someone's word because I think you mentioned um in one of our episodes of the shore talking about tonight of the seven kingdoms. You were like, Yeah, we're gonna get we're gonna see Dunk. And Dunk is a very honorable guy, he's like similar to Ned Stark. Yeah, like you said something like that. So it's gonna be reminiscent of something like that when he when you see such an honorable character. And I see that in Dunk as well, where like they they're so honorable and uh innocent in a way that they assume the world is gonna be the same. Um so I don't think that Dunk is even questioning that people are like he never would have doubted that. He's surprised basically what I'm trying to say. He's surprised that they are questioning his his knighthood. Um, because he wouldn't do that. And I think uh I don't know, that it's it's a fair point to make, I have to say, in George's looking. I and I think that he's the way that they are no one else would believe that, you know.

SPEAKER_06: 22:51

And I think he is completely um disappointed on how these knights act. He he wants to be a knight, he considers himself a knight, and a knight should be noble and humble and and you know respectful. And every knight that he's seen so far has been basically a dick. He gets to meet the fossil waves, who was a knight. He's just you know big baddie who wants to fight, and then he meets Dondarian. Monford Dundarian is kind of like, Well, how can you not remember Sir Arlan? He took a wound for your house, and they're like, Well, so like many other people have gone worse, basically saying, killed for my house, and I don't remember them. Why would I remember your so-called knight? Uh, so I think that was kind of a um shocking slap or cold water to his face. Like he wasn't expecting that. I think he was expecting something different. And I do want to say quickly about how the camp or the turning site looks. It looks really good, looks lived in. Like we mentioned earlier, it's just gonna be set in this camp. I see a show's dedication to production design, it makes all the difference in the world. Like, I'm not saying that product, you know, the design is a shield to crappy writing because it's not, but it does not hurt. It can only help.

SPEAKER_03: 24:07

Yeah, I think that for this show, production design isn't really going to be as extravagant as the other Game of Thrones shows, obviously, but they did a really good job, I think, translating that um tourney jousting like uh environment to the screen. Because in Game of Thrones, when we saw tourneys and uh the jousting, it was just like a quick thing with a horse, you know, and like a like a tiny little stand with with like a family on it. It wasn't this grand thing that George wanted it to be on screen as well as because that's how it is in the book. So it feels more like a grand event, even though we never really saw it on screen to this extent before. Um, but this is true to George's world.

SPEAKER_06: 24:48

They did do a better job in House of the Dragon when compared to the jousting and the tournament.

SPEAKER_03: 24:54

I remember well no, we haven't seen enough yet, but I mean just the setting.

SPEAKER_06: 24:58

Yeah, yeah. I'm just saying, like the Game of Thrones was so puny, the the set. And you had just Robert Baratheon sitting there, but then you get to the first uh episode of Host of the Dragon, it was a little bit more elaborate. Uh but yeah, I'm dying to see this when we get to it, hopefully. Um, we forgot to mention there is a character in the in uh the show begins, who a lot of people are gonna be like, well, some drunk guy. Um I don't I'm sure people noticed the coin that he left on the table and had the Targaryen sigil. And this, I don't know if should we just say who he is?

SPEAKER_03: 25:33

I mean, I've seen people mention who he is online, so I don't know if we should talk about it, but I think maybe it would be nice to keep it a secret just in case. But I don't know. I guess that's I I have seen like many many people talk about this online and say, Oh, this is this person.

SPEAKER_06: 25:49

He is the only tip off I've seen is that he does say I saw you in my dream, and then so I think we can leave them with that without because it it won't make it like let's since the episode focused on Dunk, it won't make sense to explain who he is just yet.

SPEAKER_03: 26:06

You know, there's like there's no connection to Dunk yet. Just bookmark that person.

SPEAKER_06: 26:10

Don't forget to get the Raymond Fossaway comeback who's a squire. Raymond uh shows up after a night, invites Dunk to a tent, and this tent happens to be a Baratheon tent, and we get to meet the laughing storm Lionel Baratheon, played by Daniel Ags. I think this might be my favorite scene of the episode. After the wine and dining, we get uh drunk Lionel and and uh Dunk and the What also took me off guard is once once they start dancing, Dunc's dancing was it felt contemporary.

SPEAKER_04: 26:52

It did, it did, it did, it did.

SPEAKER_06: 26:54

It kind of felt out of place, but funny. Like I gave it a pass. I just thought one, he can dance, he was in rhythm, so it looked pretty good. And seeing this Lionel Baratheon, I don't know, for some reason I saw Peter Dinklich's face. Oh, in uh this guy's face, like okay, the how he does like his expressions a bit, his expressions, and and he's a he's drunk, you know, he loves to drink, he loves to party, and the hair. And I don't know. For some reason, I I got some Peter Dinklich out of him. Um I see that.

SPEAKER_04: 27:30

I see that.

SPEAKER_06: 27:30

So there's Lionel Baratham, he has a magnificent helm, and uh he is the Lord of Storm, you know, Storm's End. But we get to the part where they're having this drunken conversation. You I don't know, you I don't think you've ever been drunk, Minois, so I'm not gonna ask you.

SPEAKER_03: 27:46

Obviously, not obviously not in the past myself.

SPEAKER_06: 27:51

I have in the past, and when you get to the point where it's late at night, you're hanging out with somebody, and you start talking philosophical things about what does the world mean and what is the universe and blah blah blah, and you get to unwind, and that's what they kind of felt they had this conversation of. They start talking about how not to agonize, and he's saying I agonize too much, and then I start thinking about how I agonize about agonizing. It was kind of funny, and I just think that it's so the contrast into these two men is so profound. You have somebody who is attending this tournament because he wants to have fun, this is part of his life. He's just he doesn't need to be there, he's just there to have some, you know, drink, have fun, dance, and to dunk in or to dunk, this is everything to him. This is his life, this is everything depends on entering, not just entering the tournament and to win it. It it's all about his future, and I just think that the contrast in between these two characters was kind of brilliant to see on screen because it's kind of like, okay, how do I do that? And he goes, Well, you're you're not how do I fare well against these people who have trained all their life with masters of arms, you have, and how can I win? And he's like, Well, you're not, you know, but you can go out there and try to prove yourself against these, you know, opponents and stuff like that. So I thought that was a after the dancing, I thought that was a really good scene between them. Quiet scene.

SPEAKER_03: 29:22

It was a nice scene, and I actually think that it was a nice addition to the show because that scene um with Lionel, you know, Dunk attending Lionel's feast, it was not there, none of that was in the books. Um, it was just purely made for the show. And uh I mentioned earlier where I said, Oh, you know, down the line we're gonna figure, we're gonna look back and see whether the added scenes uh prove to be worth it or not. I think that in this case it's probably a good it was a good thing, this edition, just because um Lionel is going to come back. Uh he's gonna be present, he's gonna be a present character, but uh the role that Lionel will play I think would be a better improved or like he would be a he would it would be better the more that we uh spend time with Lionel earlier on, because they mentioned him in the beginning of the novella, but something like oh Lionel uh Baratheon, the laughing storm, and he's so mighty and this and that. And then uh when it comes to the end of the novella, I felt like I wish I'd seen more of him. I thought that I wanted to see, considering he was a Baratheon, I wanted to see his like Robert like presence, if that makes sense. Like I wanted that from the book, from the the novella. And we didn't really see that uh except for like a few uh written lines. Like he he's he plays an important role, don't get me wrong, but we just it's it's uh it's meant he's mentioned almost in passing. It's not really fleshed out, he's not a very present character because we're just mainly there with Duncan Egg rather than most of the other characters. Uh so I think it was a good addition because the more we see Lionel uh presence, I think he's going to turn into uh he's gonna have a like a better role later on. Adding these scenes and making him memorable in a very familiar Barathian way now is going to come in handy later on. It's going to make us appreciate him more. Let me just say that. It's going to make us feel like he's a memorable character. Not that, by the way, this this might I want people to misunderstand this and be like, oh, we're gonna appreciate him. That means he's something's gonna happen to him. No, it's not like that. I just mean that we don't get enough of him in the Novella, considering he's a Baratheon, but considering how we see him in the show and how memorable he already is, it's going to be it's a good thing. It's it's a good he's a good he's a good presence in this show, and this will add to fans, I guess, appreciation of the overall show rather than just him as a character to be him. That's the show. So yeah, that's what I have to say.

SPEAKER_06: 31:56

I try to see who he was in the lineage of Baratheans. It's not been confirmed in the books. He's probably Robert Stannis and Riley's great-grandfather. Robert's father, Stefan, was the son of Armin Baratheon. But while Armin is of the right age to be Lionel's son, it hasn't been specified yet. So it's possibly Armin was, you know, he could be his nephew. So it's not confirmed that you know Lionel could be um Robert's great-grandfather. But let's talk about Tansel Tutal. She comes out in the one scene. There's no, she gives a little uh they're doing a show. And I think in the novella, she they performed this puppet show, and it's very elaborate and intricate. But what they did in the show is they changed it to a dragon puppet. They had like a half a dozen people working this. It looked pretty good. So I think that that makes and I I don't know if they did that. So they go, hey, this here's a dragon here. Here's your dragon is spinning a little fire. This is your dragon for the show. Uh, yeah. So the other thing that you can notice how tall Dunk is. He goes into the tent to see the show for like a minute or whatever, and he is towering over every single person that's there, at least by a foot. We get to reference his tallness or his height when he keeps hitting his head on the doorway. So that's another way of saying, let's have some funny moments. He's too tall. And I mean, we get the last scene with Egg, and I think it's just perfect because we get to see him again not being uh I don't know, he's not being a brat, but he's being very persistent. He wants to be his squire, and you're like, what's wrong with this kid? So uh the the funniest moment to me is that he goes, Well, I'm gonna just take you home. And egg is like, well, that would be King's Landing, and you'll miss the tournament. And then Dunk's like, oh, flea bottom, and he goes, No, like very posh. No.

SPEAKER_03: 33:53

You know, I really like that scene, and I remember it being differently in the book. Um, in the book, there's no moment where Egg tells Dunk that, like, oh, a falling star is good luck or anything like that. It's just dunk in his head. Um, the exact line says, A falling star brings luck to him who sees it, dunk thoughts. But the rest of them are all in their pavilions by now, staring up at silk instead of sky. So the luck is mine alone. So it was a moment where he was just completely I don't know in thinking that and um having that moment to himself. But I like the inclusion of egg there just because now it kind of makes them it it's it solidifies them as a duo in our brains, being like the luck is there, that they share something. It means something now a bit more to uh them and us. You know, like it solidifies them as a duo, and there's something between them now, uh, rather than it just being dunk on his own. And that would have, I think, alienated them from one another a little bit in our minds a bit more. So I I really like that like small change that we see.

SPEAKER_06: 34:55

We're gonna stop here and um give our rating of episode one of season one, a knight of the seven kingdoms hedge night. What is your rating, Minwan?

SPEAKER_03: 35:05

I'll give it an eight point five. It was a solid episode.

SPEAKER_06: 35:08

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03: 35:10

Same.

SPEAKER_06: 35:11

Yeah. I didn't I didn't want to.

SPEAKER_03: 35:14

We could have the same rating, it's fine. It it's because it's a very 8.5 episode. It wasn't like it wasn't bad in any way, but uh it was it's a good it was a good premiere. It's an 8.5 is a very fair rating, right? So it's fine if we have the same rate.

SPEAKER_06: 35:30

Yeah, and oh one last thing I wanted to mention. I should have known they were gonna do this, because they did it for House of the Dragon season one and two. After the first episode, they show you clips of the entire season, and it kind of spoils.

SPEAKER_03: 35:45

I didn't get that. I didn't get that at all.

SPEAKER_06: 35:47

I hate it, and I don't know why they do this because they show big time events in these that are not gonna happen until episode five and six. And I'm like, why are you doing this? So I didn't get it. Uh yeah. Well, good for you. I should just say it out loud right now, just to spoil it.

SPEAKER_03: 36:06

As if I didn't just read the book.

SPEAKER_06: 36:08

Uh well, I mentioned that um the Baratheon scene was my favorite. Did you have a favorite scene?

SPEAKER_03: 36:14

Probably the last. Uh is it not is it the last scene? The Luck is Ours scene. I like that even in the in the book. Uh like I thought it was short but memorable.

SPEAKER_06: 36:23

Before we end this episode, we wanted to talk about George's uh article, the Hollywood Reporter. And we also wanted to mention uh Amelia Clark. She has a new show called Ponies, I think is the name. It's on Peacock. I was started to watch the first episode and then it was just too late. Uh, I didn't want to like I wanted to focus, so I'm gonna start watching it um today and see uh I think all episodes are already released, so you don't have to wait. Oh, okay. That's good. Um, I'm hearing a lot of good um things about it. The reviews are really good. I'm happy that she's doing this. I'm just I feel like she's been stuck in the she's just the dragon queen kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04: 37:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 37:05

And she needs to like branch out and do other other uh projects. So she has been doing a blitz of of media interviews, and a lot of good things kind of came out, and a lot of uh things that get you upset. So I think she says something about but you probably have all the notes because I I had some notes and I can't find them. Okay, so I'll let you know. Once she's once you say it, I'll remember.

SPEAKER_03: 37:34

Okay, so actually, I think maybe what you're referring to is her reaction to Danny's death. Because she recently talked about that again in uh an interview in the promo for her new show. Um describing her reaction to it, she said, What, what, what? Because it comes out of nowhere. I'm flabbergasted. I absolutely never saw that coming. I sound sarcastic about it. Me and why I sound sarcastic, but but she is not, she's serious. So she says, Yeah, I cried, I went for a walk, uh, walked out of the house and took my keys and phone and walked back with blisters on my feet. I didn't come back for five hours. I'm like, how am I going to do this? Now I don't know if I'm just so like obsessed with Aminia Clark if I just love her that much, but I feel like I heard that story before, so it doesn't feel like news to me. Yeah. Um, like her reaction and her going for a walk. Like I knew that that was her reaction. And like um, you know, it sucks. We're all upset about it. And I just feel, you know, what what can I say? I don't want to talk about I don't want to talk about George just yet. I don't want to jump, but he mentioned something recently where he said, Oh, no, my books are gonna be completely different than the show. Some people that are dead in the show are gonna be alive in my books by the time the series, like he the last book is out, and uh the people like some people that are alive in the show are gonna be dead in his book. So I'm like, I don't know what George is planning and writing now. I feel like maybe he's just is he just trying to keep us on our toes? I don't know, but either way, um, like it's it's a sad thing about Danny's character. But I think maybe also what you might be referring to is about her saying that she's probably not gonna be in a fantasy thing anymore. She said something like, You're highly unlikely to see me get on a dragon or even in the same frame as a dragon ever again. I don't blame her.

SPEAKER_06: 39:10

I mean, she did come out in um Star Wars. She was in um Oh my gosh, I'm blanking. Um in uh Terminator, Genesis. Oh, I watched that. She uh it was not good at all.

SPEAKER_03: 39:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_06: 39:28

And she also came out in uh MCU. I forgot what she was.

SPEAKER_03: 39:32

Oh, right, Secret Wars.

SPEAKER_06: 39:34

Yeah, so it's kind of like she's I think she wants I think this is a perfect kind of project for her. No uh special effects, no um IP. This is a completely different thing for her. Uh what I was talking about is when uh she they said something about her Dothraki, which I was Oh, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_03: 39:55

Um I have the quotes here. So I think she was on Seth. Mars, when she said this, she says that she once read in an article that the creator of the Dothraki language for Game of Thrones thought that she sucked at speaking it. She said, I was like, What, bro? It's not real, it's not a real language. Me saying it on TV, that's how it goes. And then did you see the the guy's like defense when he was defending himself?

SPEAKER_06: 40:18

No.

SPEAKER_03: 40:18

Oh, so he he responded to her saying that. And he said, Um, no, Emilia Clark did a fine job with Dothraki in that she was portraying a character who, through incredible hardship, is forced to learn a language she's never heard before and eventually becomes functionally fluent in the manner of a non-native speaker, and in a relatively short amount of time. So he said that, like basically because Danny is new to Dothraki, Emilia sounded new to Dothraki as well, and she thought, and that's why he thought was a good portrayal. I think that that makes sense. I feel like he's still kind of like she wouldn't be happy with that, but I don't see it as a as a as a big criticism. And then he also praised Emilia's High Valerian and said, High Valerian is the language her character was supposed to speak natively, and her delivery and accents when speaking Valerian is one of my cherished memories from the series. That feels fine to me.

SPEAKER_06: 41:06

Yeah, she's the only one that spoke three languages, right? She has to speak Luthraki, English, and High Valerian.

SPEAKER_03: 41:11

Well, uh Missande too. Probably. I don't know if she spoke to Thraki. I don't know if I remember that, but I don't remember.

SPEAKER_06: 41:17

Well, we know Jorah spoke to Thraki.

SPEAKER_03: 41:19

She probably did.

SPEAKER_06: 41:20

Yeah, that scene of her speaking High Valerian is still one of the greatest moments of the show, of any show. Anyway. Yeah. All right. Uh let's move on to Uncle George, who uh had this it's like a tell-all book he did. I saw the five-minute uh audio uh video clip. He is in his um restaurant or bar called The Milk and the Poppy, which hopefully one day you'll visit Santa Fe and I'll meet you up there and we can go to his bookstore.

SPEAKER_03: 41:49

I'll go. Oh yeah, I'll go to his bookstore, not the bar.

SPEAKER_06: 41:52

I'm sure they have some drinks that you can have, like water.

SPEAKER_03: 41:56

No, I'm staying in the bookstore and and trying to. I'm gonna look through his doors and try to find the the winds of winter, and not be leaking it online. I'm joking.

unknown: 42:04

I'm joking.

SPEAKER_06: 42:05

Well, a little um funny moment from the article is that they're talking about, you know, Storm of Swords are talking about Winds of Winter. Say in the article that Astormers, the book published in 2000, was adapted into season three and four of Game of Thrones. Um it's a thousand pages. Right now, uh George said that he had like 1,100 pages in the manuscript for Winds of Winter, and he's still not done, maybe another 400 pages, which is a massive book. So obviously, you know that when he was at WorldCom, that idiot said, you know, what if you die, blah blah blah blah, stuff, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04: 42:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 42:37

And also stated that a lot of his um friends who were novelists and writers were were dying in the recent years, and that um last year he sat with Robert Redford, who is uh a co-producer of that show that I talked about, um Dark Winds, which is on Netflix.

SPEAKER_04: 42:55

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 42:56

Uh Redford came out of acting retirement, and they did a brief cameo in the show with George R. Martin. I don't know if you ever seen the clip, where they're they're sitting uh playing chess, and Redford alibs the line, George, the whole world is waiting. Make a move. It was kind of like a meta joke about how long it's taking him to write, you know, what in the world. Oh, okay. I thought it was funny, but that was uh I think Redford passed away last year, right?

SPEAKER_03: 43:26

Oh, yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_06: 43:27

Yeah, yeah. So, but anyway, that that's not the biggest thing that came out of this article. And the the the biggest bombshell was how his relationship with Ryan Condell and all those people kind of deteriorated. You know what what really sucks is that I've seen everybody talking about, well, season three is gonna suck, right? Because there is a moment let me know. Let me let's go back to the beginning. He said he hired Ryan, and he thought, well, we're partners, and we were all gonna get through this through season one. You know, Miguel Shaposnik was also the co-uh showrunner, and apparently Ryan asked for support in their dispute, but he like was siding with Miguel, and that's what kind of led to the split. What got me infuriated was when I was reading this, is that apparently all came to a boil. They had a Zoom call, and the purpose for the call was for Kondo to present his vision for season three. After Condo spoke, Martin detailed his many objections and allegedly declare, this is not my story any longer. Which is really scary. Because we always talk about the fire and blood, like, oh, what's gonna happen? Now I'm like, we're gonna see a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with fire and blood.

SPEAKER_03: 44:49

Yeah. And maybe we can't be prepared and no, yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 44:53

So for for all the time we say, Oh, read the book, we're not gonna say that any longer when it comes to seasonal. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03: 45:00

No, no. I think that season two kind of erased that. We it was it wasn't like loyal at all, you know, from the whole thing, like uh Damon at Harrenhall is one sentence. Damon went to Harrenhall and got an army. What did become in House of the Dragon? Damon is stuck in Heronhall for the entire season and is experiencing nightmares like it was completely unnecessary. And then at the end with Annacent, like that's just like so many, so many things were completely different from the big things to the big details. So I th from the big things to the big details, I mean from the big things to the small details, um, they come they completely changed House of the Dragon. So I I think that maybe the only thing that they'll stay like loyal to is maybe some big events, like the Ned Stark's death kind of big events like that that's due to happen. But I think that they'll only keep like uh two or three. Everything else would be changed. So I'm not like I'm gonna treat it as something completely different. As like that's how we're gonna approach it going forward. I think on the podcast as well. We're not going to we could say in the book it was just like this, like this, like this, but yeah, I think that's what I'm gonna be doing.

SPEAKER_06: 46:10

And I I'll just finish this. It says that Condo didn't comment on this um Hollywood reporter story, but he did give a statement last year to EW. I'm thinking that's Entertainment Weekly.

SPEAKER_03: 46:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 46:23

Uh I made every effort to include George in the adaptation process. I really did, but at some point he just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way. I just have to keep marching forward for the sake of the crew, the cast, and for HBO, because that's my job. I can only hope that George and I can rediscover the harmony someday. Okay, so um, like I said, it's so hard to be 100% faithful to any adaptation, especially when it's the book is so grand and scale. Like you obviously cannot do everything. You want to keep the heart of it. So I don't know if that's if George is being a stickler of like you have to keep this, this, this, this, this. You know, he had issues with blood and cheese. You know, we had issues uh uh of him uh not having the three kids, but also you we have to figure out a way to be pre uh practical in our thinking of whoa, we can't spend 50 million dollars in an episode. Uh so I I wish we could know the full truth. Um I wish as well.

SPEAKER_03: 47:29

I wish as well.

SPEAKER_06: 47:30

But but this this, I mean, I I'm not gonna say he's anybody's a liar, but I just feel like after having Ronera and Alison be the same age, we knew that the story was gonna be completely different from the the novels.

SPEAKER_03: 47:47

Um sorry when you said uh I'm not gonna call them a liar. I was gonna be like, but you weren't calling them a truther as well. That's uh quote.

SPEAKER_04: 47:54

I'm just saying, like we don't judge. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 47:56

I don't think we'll ever know the truth like behind what's happened with them. And I think that's you know, I could see them both changing a lot. Like I could I or I'm sorry, I could see them both being hung up on certain things to the point where it just derailed everything. Like George, you know, made a whole blog post during season two saying like, oh, they omitted this character and like this isn't so wrong, and uh they omitted um like one of one of the twins or something something like that. I forgot what it was, and there he explained it, but I th I I could no disrespect to George. I think that that point that he was talking about was kind of those things where I would be like, but it's it's a TV show, it's okay. Like there's no like they don't need to I thought that maybe maybe the show could have done without without it. He disagrees and like he is correct, obviously, but I thought that the bigger things that changed for me raised the more raised more flags because it felt like they were setting uh they were just thinking of how to solve the current problem without maybe thinking about the the how it affects everything else. This applies to according to George, this point applies to that tiny detail that he made a whole blog post about. But for me, I just think that changing the big things and like how big things happened, like it freaks me out because you're changing something huge. And do you have like the the a plan for the rest of the of the series? I don't think you do. I don't know, it freaks me out. So I would rather like they did it completely faithful uh faithfully to George, because at least George has a a plan, an end site. And even if they say we're gonna do this with this big plot point, but we're gonna change how we get there. By the time you get to that big plot point, some characters are probably supposed to be dead, they're supposed to be somewhere else geographically. So so many things are supposed to be different.

SPEAKER_06: 49:50

I'm thinking out of I'm just thinking uh right now, and I'm thinking, okay, there's at least six major deaths that are coming. Yeah, at least and are they gonna keep those deaths in the show? Because you know how characters are, people are get um attached and they don't want people to die. Because I I you know. But you have to do it, you have to like yes, you have to be ruthless, and like I don't know what would happen if um, let's say I'm thinking about all the stuff that happened the first four seasons of Game of Thrones, and I go, wow, they pretty much stuck to all the big events in the book. So I don't know if there would have been any kind of uh um issues with George starting in season one of Game of Thrones, if they would have been like, you know what? What if we don't kill off Rob?

SPEAKER_03: 50:44

Imagine what can you imagine?

SPEAKER_06: 50:45

What if what if we you know don't kill off Joffrey? You know, it's just kind of like people love Rob. We can't kill him any.

SPEAKER_03: 50:52

But like just to give the give the listeners like a uh an idea, for example, Blackwater Bay, the like the whole incident that's happened, like Davos, if I don't know if I can remember correctly, he just like washes up on a rock somewhere, right? Like he's assumed dead, washes up there. Imagine if they make him ally with Cersei and betray Stannis. That's what they're doing with House of the Dragon. You know what I mean? Like it's that extreme. Like that's so uh that plot point or like that happening is so far-fetched, and it doesn't make sense for Davos's character. It feels a bit confusing as why would Davos do this? That's what they're doing with with House of the Dragon.

SPEAKER_06: 51:29

Um, one last thing, I think you said uh something about this. Well, George just said in the arc, I was gonna kill more people. He muses. Quote, not only they killed in the show, they made it more of a happy ending. I don't see a happy ending for Tyrion. His whole arc has been tragic from the first. I was going to have Sansa die, but she's been so appealing in the show. Maybe I'll let her live.

SPEAKER_03: 51:51

Wait, what?

SPEAKER_06: 51:53

You didn't see that?

SPEAKER_03: 51:54

No, he said that. Yeah, George, I thought you had a plan. I was defending you.

SPEAKER_06: 52:00

I think what he he here's the thing with George. I think what you already just read, Feast of Crows. Writing that book kind of derailed a lot of his storylines because he added so much in that one but that one book.

SPEAKER_03: 52:11

He did, he did, he did, yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 52:13

And it was so much like, okay, so how do I connect this? How do I connect that? That's all gonna flow or be very fluid. Uh, yeah, so I thought that was kind of uh and that set off a firestormer. People say, How can you do this? Sansa, we love you know, Sansa's a queen now, and and uh even um uh talking about Sophie Turner, she goes, Well, I love my ending.

SPEAKER_03: 52:33

Yeah. Like I have to admit, you know, I'm we're what we're those people that love Sansa's ending too. We have I I think that it's one of the few great things about the ending of Game of Thrones, because I think it's a perfect end to our character. But uh I did say that, George, I was defending you. What do you mean? I will let it slide if this is what he like changes from his original plans. I I trust that he has a plan, but if he got inspired by the show to give sounds of the ending that she got on screen, I'll let it I'll let it slide. I'll let it slide that he changed his original plan. Just because it's a perfect enter character, I think. I can't think of anything better for her than what we saw. Um that's a big competition.

SPEAKER_06: 53:13

How that even happened. It's gonna have to take some clever writing to get her to that point.

SPEAKER_03: 53:19

Maybe that's what's taking him so long.

SPEAKER_06: 53:21

Yeah, I think we could talk about every time George has an article, it's big for us because we can we can get to talk about this forever. And I see we've had two episodes of his blogs, uh podcast episodes, so you guys can look that up. One is called George and his blog, where we talk about how he uh had a lot of issues with season two of Boss of the Dragon. But we're gonna stop here and I want to thank you all for listening to our review of the first episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. We hope you all continue to listen to our coverage of the show to stay updated on the podcast. Follow us on Instagram on Dancing with on Discord Dragons. There, you'll stay informed on when we'll drop our episodes. Also, follow us on your favorite podcast platforms. Subscribe, rate, share, all that good stuff. Thank you again for listening. Peace out.