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\n Dunk might have caught a break just as the Targaryen family arrives on the scene, but he\u2019s finding that knighthood isn\u2019t all it\u2019s cracked up to be.
\n Photo: Steffan Hill\n <\/p>\n
I have a confession: As much as I like George R.R. Martin\u2019s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, I feel they\u2019re a little under-Egged. They\u2019re mostly just the tales of Ser Duncan, as he tries to find a place for himself in Westeros, with the occasional aid of his tiny bald squire. Egg shows only flashes of personality in the books \u2014 and even then, his character is broadly defined by precociousness and a fan-ish devotion to all things knightly.<\/p>\n
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms clearly means to correct this imbalance. In the show\u2019s second episode \u2014 titled \u201cHard Salt Beef,\u201d after the staple of the hedge-knight diet \u2014 Egg starts becoming more of a true companion to Dunk. He\u2019s still very much a little kid, but he also shows wisdom beyond his years. Plus he\u2019s adorable.<\/p>\n
One scene in particular this week illustrates how the TV version of Egg asserts himself more. Dunk and his squire return to that wonderful puppet show to watch a lanky young lady named Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford) lead the troupe in a comic tale about knights and fools \u2014 and about how they are one and the same, where women are concerned. After the show, a smitten Ser Duncan the Tall flips Tanselle a couple of coins and asks if she\u2019d be willing to paint his shield. But he fumbles his way through the conversation, even when she tries to bond with him by saying she has often been teased and called \u201cTanselle Too Tall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Egg aims to cheer his boss up after this miserable attempt at flirting, saying that at least he and Tanselle are \u201cgigantic.\u201d (\u201cIt\u2019s a commonality?\u201d Egg offers.) And in the Martin books, the conversation might\u2019ve ended there. But Egg presses on, saying that he too has been made fun of for his height \u2014 for being \u201cpuny,\u201d even for his age. The still-distracted Dunk replies, \u201cEveryone\u2019s always told me I was stupid,\u201d then offers no further lessons or reassurance \u2026 which annoys the heck out of Egg.<\/p>\n
The point is there\u2019s much more of a give-and-take between these two characters in the TV series, to the benefit of both. Egg is like the embodiment of the voices in Dunk\u2019s head. One minute he\u2019s defiantly hailing the honor of hedge knights. The next, he\u2019s mocking Ser Duncan for being a na\u00efve underclass lunk, as thick as a castle wall.<\/p>\n
Although not much happens in \u201cHard Salt Beef\u201d from a plot perspective, the episode is essential to the larger story this season is telling, about someone who\u2019s technically a knight (or at least claims to be) but who doesn\u2019t receive even a baseline level of respect from the noble class. Indeed, when the haughty royal Aerion Targaryen (Finn Bennett) rides onto the castle grounds with his father and uncle, he takes one look at the idle Dunk and starts bossing him around, demanding that he see to his horse and fetch him \u201cwine and a pretty wench.\u201d When Ser Duncan mutters that he\u2019s actually a knight, Aerion scoffs, \u201cKnighthood has fallen on sad days.\u201d<\/p>\n
As in the series premiere, Dunk spends much of this briskly paced, refreshingly concise half-hour of television trying to find someone who remembers Ser Arlan of Pennytree and will vouch for Ser Duncan as a genuine knight, worthy of entry in the Ashford Meadow jousting tournament. Early in the episode, we hear an audio montage of Dunk pleading his case to lord after lord, reminding them of Ser Arlan\u2019s sacrifices in their service. The process wears on Egg, who complains about having to keep hearing over and over about \u201cyour shit knight.\u201d He asks, \u201cWhy do you treat these royal lapdogs like they\u2019re your betters?\u201d It\u2019s a question that speaks to the class tension at the heart of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.<\/p>\n
Dunk eventually finds help in an unexpected place. He barges into the castle to see Prince Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel), the Hand of King Daeron II and next in line for the Iron Throne. Baelor\u2019s cranky brother, Prince Maekar (Sam Spruell), has no memory of Ser Arlan and is unimpressed with Ser Duncan. But the much kinder and more gracious Prince Baelor recalls a valiant Ser Arlan performance at a tournament, when he unhorsed a member of the high-and-mighty Lannister family. Baelor later defeated Arlan but took no ransom\u2014a kindness Dunk\u2019s master would recount for the rest of his life, according to Ser Duncan.<\/p>\n
Prince Baelor\u2019s warm reception provides a welcome respite from the litany of rejections Dunk received through the first episode and a half of this series. It also sparks the young giant\u2019s imagination. What if he performs so well himself at the tournament that the Targaryens ask him to join the Kingsguard? After all, earlier that day he met a guardsman who was born into a family of crabbers before donning those resplendent white Kingsguard robes. The impish Egg laughs this off. The dragon family isn\u2019t in the habit of hiring hedge knights, he says. And that guardsman? Egg happens to know that his family members aren\u2019t crabbers \u2014 they own half of the crabbing fleets in Westeros.<\/p>\n
Egg doesn\u2019t mean to be mean. It\u2019s just that he thinks what Dunk does \u2014 roaming the realm, righting wrongs, tilting at tournaments \u2014 is more impressive than any boring lord\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
We see more of Egg\u2019s \u201cnerding out for knights\u201d when we finally get our first big jousting sequence, which is thrillingly staged and shot. As the horses gallop and the lances shatter, Egg whoops like a ringside spectator at WrestleMania. (He also steals a glance at his small hands, as though wondering whether he\u2019ll be physically able to attend to Ser Duncan when the time comes.) The first set of combatants \u2014 nobles, all \u2014 flash their fancy gear and show off obnoxiously for the crowd. One of the riders actually bites the head off a fish.<\/p>\n
Dunk, though, can\u2019t enjoy any of it because his mind\u2019s awash in self-pity and grudgefulness. Later, back at camp, Egg tries to keep his new master focused. \u201cSplendid riding tonight,\u201d he says, adding, \u201cthe part with the fish was disgusting.\u201d But Dunk can\u2019t hear his squire because he\u2019s too busy contemplating his master\u2019s undistinguished, unsung 60 years of life.<\/p>\n
Sure, Ser Arlan tried to do what was right wherever and whenever he could \u2014 when he wasn\u2019t drinking or whoring, that is. But he was also \u201ca hard man to know and made no friends.\u201d His legacy, intended or not, is his former squire. Dunk is now feeling the weight of that responsibility. He wants to punish every cocky noble who has forgotten Ser Arlan.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the morrow,\u201d Ser Duncan says in a voice both seething and stirring, \u201cwe will show them what his hand has wrought.\u201d Hell yeah.<\/p>\n