After the death of his master, Dunk finds himself at a loss on the series premiere of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. What can he do next? Well, how about prove himself as a knight?
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1 episode 1
The new Game of Thrones prequel series gives us the story of Dunk and Egg. Told from Dunk’s perspective, we learn about his life as a squire to Ser Alyn of Pennytree, and his journey to become a renowned knight of the Seven Kingdoms. He has dreams like so many others, but can he reach them?
Dunk figures out what to do first on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
The episode opens with Dunk burying his former master in the rain. He shares a few words, including how he will look after the horses, and now it’s time to figure out what he should do next. It turns out that the horses are all that Dunk and Alyn had, and so, Dunk needs to figure out how to make money without becoming a beggar on the streets.
There is one option: to become a knight. He decides it’s time to journey to a tourney to prove himself, and while the journey to The Reach isn’t too problematic, he runs into issues while at the tourney.
However, there is a notable moment at an inn, where he meets Egg. This young boy is far too well spoken to be an innkeeper’s son, but Dunk doesn’t pick up on that, just judging the book by its cover. Egg doesn’t mind the assumptions, it seems, though. All he wants is to be Dunk’s squire, but he isn’t in need of one for now.
Dunk needs someone to vouch for him
When he gets to the tourney, it’s not just as simple as signing up to be a part of it. He needs someone to vouch for him as a knight, as there were no witnesses to Alyn knighting Dunk before his death — and it’s not even clear if that happened, as we don’t get to see it.
Ser Alyn of Pennytree isn’t a renowned knight, but Dunk realizes that Manfred of Dorne may know of his master, so he should be able to vouch for him. However, it takes time to meet with Manfred, who likes to sleep all the time when he’s not having his way with various women. By the time he does see Manfred, the man doesn’t have a clue who Alyn of Pennytree is and won’t vouch for him at all.
It looks like the whole journey has been for nothing. It also doesn’t help that Dunk realizes that he doesn’t have the coin to buy back his armor and horses if he fails, so he does wonder a little bit about whether it’s going to be worth it.
While he figures out his options, he finds himself in the tent of Lionel Baratheon, who ends up taking a liking to just how tall Dunk is. After some drinking and dancing, the two have a bit of a heart-to-heart, but then Lionel gets on with the party. Just as we wondered if there was a chance Lionel would vouch for Dunk.
By the end of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms series premiere, Dunk seems to be at a bit of a loss. When he gets back to the camp he’s made, Egg is there, cooking a fish that he’s caught. Egg really wants to be his squire, and he even shares that he was going to put up Dunk’s pavilion if he could find it. Dunk doesn’t have one, using the tree as coverage, and so starts the journey of Egg becoming Dunk’s squire, and it’s sure to be just as hilarious as their initial interactions have been.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms airs on Sundays at 10/9c on HBO and streams on HBO Max.