HBO is just another Game of Thrones Prequel, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It is the next big Game of Thrones prequel. I will explain what’s going on, where it fits in the timeline, and what their plan is for how they’re going to adapt the book material for this story.
George R.R. Martin talked a lot about this. He is heavily involved in writing the episodes right now, so it’s not like they’re just making up a whole bunch of stuff on their own. It’s kind of the same way that they built House of the Dragon with George R.R. Martin, helping them build out the stories because the original book material for that stories is relatively scarce.
Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Story
But if you haven’t read the books, A Night of the Seven Kingdoms is the name for the collected series of novellas about the adventures of Sir Duncan the Tall and Aegon the Fifth Targaryen, affectionately known as the Tales of Dunk and Egg. But George R.R. Martin already said We’re not going to call the show Tales of Dunk and Egg because that would make it sound like a sitcom. This sounds funny like HBO doing a Game of Thrones sitcom series.
One of the major differences, though, just in the way the show would feel, the way it would work, from, say, House of the Dragon right now or the main show Game of Thrones, is that it mostly just follows Sir Duncan the Tall and Aegon the fifth when he was a boy serving as Duncan’s squire, about 90 years before the events of the main show.
So whereas House of the Dragon in the original Game of Thrones series follows this massive cast of characters. And there’s not one single main character like Jon Snow, and Daenerys are arguably the two biggest characters. But that was only right at the end. And you could argue for most of the shows, all the characters were an ensemble together.
During a Night of the Seven Kingdoms, Dunk and Egg are the de facto main characters. There are a lot of other really important characters in the story, but it mostly follows those two.
Dragons In Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms picks up just after the first Blackfyre Rebellion. So we’re about 80 years after the Dance of the Dragons, which they’re starting on House of the Dragon right now.
So it’s a couple of generations after the characters we’re watching on House of the Dragon. Pretty much all those characters would be dead by this time, including those Dragons. Because one of the other notable things about this period in history is that it picks up about 50 or 60 years after the death of the last Dragon that belonged to the Targaryen family while they still sat on the Iron Throne.
We know Daenerys’ dragons were eventually hatched from some stolen dragon eggs taken from Dreamfyre many, many years earlier when Dreamfyre was still alive. We saw her in the Dragon Pit during House of the Dragon Season One, when Aymond tried to prove himself by actually claiming a dragon from the pit itself. Later, Dreamfyre winds up being ridden by Helena, who has a Dragon dream. So Dreamfyre-Dragon dreams, you get the association there.
But for about 150 years, there were no dragons alive. There were dragon eggs because we know about Daenerys’ dragon eggs, but none of them had hatched.
Maester Aemon In Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
The major conflict during the Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms in the realm just during this period in history is the second Blackfyre rebellion. The Bloodraven is very active before he becomes the Three-Eyed Raven. He’s also one of the Targaryen bastards who’s related to Maester Amon, who is also very active at this point in history. Maester Aemon was the older brother of Aegon the Fifth, The Egg in the title Dunk and Egg.
The funny thing about Maester Armon is that he told it to Jon Snow during the early seasons of Game of Thrones when Jon Snow was getting worked up about what was happening with the War of the Five Kings. Maester Aemon had to set him straight, like, “Look, kid, I’ve been through this before. I had to watch all my family die, and meet horrible ends”. But because they had taken the black base, Draymond was trying to tell him, “No, you can’t rush to help out. You took an oath”.
Master Aemon was supposed to ascend to the Iron throne. Remember, he is Aegon, the fifth’s older brother. So he was ahead of him in the line of succession. Their oldest brother had died from pox, and their second oldest brother was Aerion Targaryen, the one who infamously died after drinking a cup of wildfire, claiming that it would transform him into a dragon.
So when Aemon was going to be recognized as the heir apparent officially, he formally took the black becoming a Maester to the Night’s Watch because he didn’t want another situation like the Dance of the Dragons to come around again, where it turned into a battle of succession within the family. Again, he didn’t want to have to fight his brother for the iron throne again.
And that’s how Egg from Tales of Dunk and Egg became Aegon the Fifth. But that didn’t happen until many, many years later in his lifetime. Pretty much everything that they would cover in a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms series, even through like four or five seasons, would be when he’s a young boy.
But the idea is that there are still a lot of conflicts, a lot of really big things, and really important figures in the realm during this period, even though it seems like a relatively chill period within the Targaryen family.
We had the later Blackfire rebellions, a very young Maester Aemon like the Chad version of Maester Aemon, the Chad version of The Bloodraven, and the Boy Aegon, who would eventually become Aegon the fifth ascending to the Iron Throne when he was much older.
If they do wind up doing the first Blackfyre rebellion, they might do that as their own show. Just because so much happens during that period, you could turn that into four or five seasons of its own show, but it feels almost like what they’re doing right now with the Dance of the Dragons, which is probably why they’re skipping past it.
Maybe they’ll circle back around or do it in some flashbacks during the upcoming night of the Seven Kingdoms series. Like they’ll probably refer to it because it’s relatively recent after the first Blackfyre rebellion when the series picks up.
The Two Blackfyre Rebellion
Assuming there aren’t a bunch of big-time jumps during a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the first Blackfyre rebellion was about 15 years before season one would begin. That Blackfire rebellion started because King Aegon the Fourth sired a ton of bastards like more bastards than Robert Baratheon did.
Aegon The Forth legitimized a bunch of them, and his favorite one, the most powerful one named Daemon, took the name Blackfyre after he’d been legitimized. The same name as Aegon the Conqueror‘s Valyrian Blade, which had been passed down since Aegon the Conqueror from King to King.
It was intended to be a sign of the right to rule. Like each king would eventually pass it to the heir apparent. Eventually, Aegon The Fourth gave the valerian sword Blackfyre to his bastard Daemon, instead of his legitimate heir Daeron The Second. They wound up fighting a bitter war over the iron throne, which was the first Blackfyre rebellion.
Then eventually the second Blackfire rebellion, which does happen during a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Like we’d actually see a version that plays out during a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. That was Daemon and some of the other Blackfyre children who had come back from Essos after they’d formed the Golden Company. That’s basically what happens with a lot of bastards from Westeros is that the Golden Company is made up of a lot of Highborn bastards from Westeros or people who are exiled.
So during the second Blackfire rebellion, it’s a lot of the same energy, but it’s just Daemon’s Children and people from the Golden Company.
How Many Episodes In Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms
George R.R. Martin just did a big blog post explaining what’s going on with their plan is for adapting the books and how many episodes are going to do per season, how many seasons they have planned. He said that each season would be about six episodes. There’s a bit of a shorter episode count, but there’s less book material to adapt in.
Right now they have at least three Seasons Plan, which would adapt each of the three Dunk and Egg novellas that he has already written. He did say he planned on writing more Dunk and Egg stories, so it does sound like they want to go for like four, maybe even five seasons, but the episode count would stay a little bit shorter.
The first season would adapt the first novella, which is called Hedge Night. He did say that the title of the show would probably change. Like right now, HBO has the longest title in the history of show titles ever, and they’re just using it as a working title. So they might just call the show The Hedge Night.
Trial By Seven
But that’s the story of how Aegon became Ser Duncan the Tall Squire and how Ser Duncan The Tall became a knight. There’s a whole bunch of drama they get up to in this story. Like it all goes down at this famous tourney called the Tourney at Ashford, where a bunch of people winds up dying. There’s a lot of chaos in the line of succession. A whole bunch of shit just goes down.
They also do something really cool that they haven’t done on any of the shows yet. They actually have a trial by seven, like the Seven Gods of the Faith of the Seven. We’ve seen Trial by Combat Before, which is two parties either fighting each other over an actual trial that they’re having.
Like someone accusing someone else of something with the defendant having a chance to win their freedom, if he can kill the accuser or force them to submit. Or they both choose champions like Tyrion in Searcy, each choosing Oberyn Martell and the mountain to fight in their stead.
But trial by combat is just a one-on-one thing. Trial by Seven is a full-on seven-on-seven. So you have 14 people on the field of battle just fighting it out. The terms of victory are the same, though. The winner is the last man standing.
Story Of Duncan The Tall
One of the other interesting things about Ser Duncan the Tall is that he’s also the ancestor of Brienne of Tarth. And his story, especially initially in his life, is very similar to Brian’s in that her only wish in her entire life is just to become a knight, and she eventually becomes the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard to Bran.
Basically, the same thing happens with Ser Duncan the Tall, who never knew his parents. He was raised in Flea Bottom as an orphan, and during that period it was almost impossible to become a knight if you weren’t of noble birth.
Eventually, he’s able to start out as a squire to a Hedge knight, thus the title of the Sir book named Sir Arlen Penny Tree, who teaches him sword fighting, How to take care of Horses. All the basic skills you need to be a knight.
The Friendship Of Dunk And Egg
Then the story takes a Very Knight’s Tale kind of turn. If you remember the movie, A Knight’s Tale with Heath Ledger, the story of Ser Duncan the Tall plays out a little bit like Heath Ledger’s story in that movie.
We’re on the way to The Tourney at Ashford This very famous tourney where all this drama goes down. Sir Arlen winds up dying and Ser Duncan The tall wears his armor, trying to compete in his stead. When he gets closer, he winds up running into a bald boy at an inn, who he allows becoming his squire. And at the time, he just calls himself Egg. But he eventually learns that that is Aegon the Fifth, like the heir to the iron throne eventually.
When he becomes a squire, though, like when they actually become a pair, he isn’t the official heir. Like there are still other brothers that are older than him in the line of succession.
Without getting into big spoilers or anything like that, a bunch of drama goes down at The Turning Ashford, this trial by seven happens and Aegon’s father Maekar officially allows Ser Duncan the Tall to become part of the royal family and become the official Knight of Aegon the Fifth.
They go on a bunch of adventures together, he eventually ascends the Iron throne, and once he did, Dunk became his Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, like Brienne, did later in the timeline to Bran. So the core of the series is all about the friendship between Dunk and Egg. That’s why most people who read the books think of the story as the tales of Dunk and Egg.
Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Release Date
It sounds like HBO’s plan is either to release this during the final season of House of the Dragon or the year right after House of the Dragon ends. So there is no yearlong break. We don’t wait three or four years before the next Game of Thrones spin-off or sequel series.
George R.R. Martin also said all the other sequels, prequels, all those other spin-off shows are still in contention. They’re still working on them. So we’ll probably hear about more than being greenlighted in future years too. He did make a big deal about clarifying that nothing has actually been canceled, as none of the sequels or prequels that you’ve heard about have actually been canceled. They’re all still being developed, which includes the Jon Snow sequel series.
Also Read: Aegon’s Conquest Explained: The New Game Of Thrones Spinoff
