This article contains spoilers for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as well as The Tales of Dunk and Egg. It’s no secret that fans are saying that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the newest Game of Thrones spinoff from HBO, is the greatest adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire content to date. With its beautiful cinematography, stirring music, and lovingly faithful dialogue, it’s easy to see why the series is now boasting one of the highest-viewed episodes of television ever, averaging nearly 13 million U.S. viewers per episode and helping it to become the third-largest series debut in the history of HBO Max.
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And so much of that success is thanks to Ira Parker, the series’s showrunner and longtime fan of George R.R Martin’s work. In his hands, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms brings to our screens exactly what made the books so beloved—Westeros on a smaller, less grand scale, with a focus on the smallfolk that keep the kingdom running despite all the ills that befall them at the hands of the ruling class. It truly comes across like a love letter to the material that spawned one of the greatest franchises of all time, and it remains incredibly faithful to the original IP, with the majority of its dialogue and character work drawn directly from the source.
Which means that it’s not surprising at all that the show’s characters are also incredibly book-accurate. Read on for the characters in the show that are most like their book counterparts.
5) Ser Duncan the Tall
Ser Duncan the Tall. Dunk. Dunk the Lunk, Thicker Than a Castle Wall. All monikers that Dunk has more than earned in his time as a squire to a hedgeknight, and now in his own tenure as a hedgeknight preparing to compete in his first tourney. And the version of him that we get on screen, despite being a decent amount older than his book counterpart, who is only 16 in the first novella, is exactly the Dunk that book readers have come to know and love. Peter Claffey brings a sense of earnestness and guilelessness to the role that was required to even hold a candle to book-Dunk. And while large and looming, there’s an innocence in his performance that perfectly matches the Dunk readers were hoping for. Truly a 10/10 performance.
4) Egg
“Dunk and Egg have always been favorites of mine, and the actors we found to portray them are just incredible,” says George R.R Martin. And that would be enough for us to know that Dexter Sol Ansell absolutely smashed the role of Egg, or Prince Aegon Targaryen, in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, even if we hadn’t watched him embody the character’s trademark tow-headed precociousness ourselves. Despite his oft-soft-spoken nature, there’s a subtle, violent ruthlessness to Egg that comes out in unexpected moments, and getting to see those same moments, with words and gestures from the book to bolster them, felt entirely unique and special in Ansell’s performance. Really, there is no other Egg.
3) Raymun Fossoway
In both the novella and the show, there is something so special about Raymun Fossoway of the Green Apple Fossoways. This is a man who, despite only knowing Dunk for a handful of days, having no armor and only his honor, chooses to step onto the closest thing he might ever come to a field of battle—all for the simple reason that it’s the right thing to do. Raymun, both in the book and the show, is tired of the status quo, tired of what he perceives to be the injustices laid upon the realm by the Targaryens. And Shaun Thomas’ performance, alongside the script, perfectly brings not only his loyalty, but the humor and geniality that the character possesses, to life.
2) Baelor Targaryen
Baelor Targaryen, man that you are—the man who had to die so that the plot of Game of Thrones could happen unimpeded, for if he’d lived, there never would have been the chaos that came after. In both the book and the show, there is a quiet gravitas to Baelor’s presence, and Bertie Carvel’s performance as the heir to the Iron Throne seems to lend credence to the floated theory that it’s thanks to his Dornish mother, Myriah Martell, that Baelor grows into the kind of man that comes to be beloved by the people despite his status as a Targaryen prince. Despite differing opinions on just how honorable he was in stepping up to fight alongside Dunk in his trial of Seven, both the show and the book version of the story portray Baelor as the kind of man who would have made an incredible king—and one who rips our hearts out with his final moments.
1) Aerion Targaryen
Add this man to the Top 5 Worst Targaryens list immediately (right between Viserys I and Viserys III). And while Finn Bennett, the actor who plays him, is nothing short of delightful off camera, he perfectly brings to life exactly how terrible, how cruel, how spoiled Aerion is—his performance elevated by the book-accurate lines, as well as the incredible acting. While there were a few changes made to Aerion’s appearance, they don’t detract from all the ways in which he’s exactly like his book counterpart (who more than earns his terrible death by drinking wildfire in hopes of becoming a dragon).
Which character from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been your favorite so far? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to check out the ComicBook forum to see what other ASOIAF fans are saying!
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