‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Review: Can ‘Game of Thrones’ Be Good?

Wielding shorter episodes and a lighter tone, HBO's latest "Game of Thrones" spinoff follows a nice knight and his young squire as they try to live honorable lives in a treacherous world.

“Motif” sounds too sophisticated for the pattern that emerges across the early episodes of “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” HBO‘s third and latest “Game of Thrones” series. First, a knight’s urgent secretion plops to the ground behind a tree that offers far too little. Then a swordsman’s god-given saber lets loose the dogs of wee. Finally, a horse ignores his master’s orders — or perhaps misinterprets them as, “Poop! Now! And make it a big one!”

Yet for as crass as these designed defecations can be, they’re not without grander purpose. Based on George R.R. Martin’s fan-favorite novellas, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” aims to expand the “Game of Thrones” franchise by tweaking its tone. Where the original series and its spinoff (“House of the Dragon”) are callous and their characters largely craven, Martin and co-creator Ira Parker’s six-episode season is compassionate and its lead, Ser Duncan “Dunk” the Tall (Peter Claffey), a class act. His initial adventure focuses more on making friends than fighting battles, and the only dragon to be seen is a finely designed puppet.

While “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” stands on its own quite well — as someone averse to the original’s misanthropic worldview, even before that disastrous final season, a lighter perspective is just what the maester ordered — what connects the tales of Dunk to the vaster “Thrones” franchise may be hard to spot at first. Sure, the universe is recognizable, what with the nonsensical names, medieval accoutrements, and Ramin Djawadi’s rousing score (sparingly used, thankfully), but the established scale is markedly, smartly, miniaturized.

Rather than a sprawling cast of competitors for the Iron Throne, there’s just a knight (Dunk) and his squire, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), who don’t really know what to do or where to go. Instead of kings and queens cunningly maneuvering their armies against their enemies, there’s only an ox of a man and a bald little boy, neither of whom exhibits a clearly superior intellect. “GoT’s” hourlong episodes are cut in half, its pessimistic plotting is reversed, and the big, make-or-break, season-defining battles are pruned to a single jousting tournament orchestrated by a party bro with an antler crown (Daniel Ings, a treasure).

Deliberately dumping so many franchise staples is a creative choice for which Parker, Martin, and HBO in general should be commended, as well as building a season around mourning the dead by nurturing the living. (Season 1’s perspicuity can’t be overstated.) But, returning to my original point, its potty pattern suggests deeper parallels between this new nice show and its old naughty predecessors — a motif, if you will, that may well be enough to keep existing fans from, if you’ll pardon my French, shitting a brick.

For starters, “Knight” and “GoT” share a sense of humor. Lest we forget (and believe me, I’ve tried), Season 7 featured an (in)famous montage of Samwell Tarly wiping up dung. I’ll let literary scholars decide if poop jokes are one of Martin’s calling cards, but for as undermining as each visual gag in “Knights” can be to its buoyant storytelling (not to mention good taste), they fit franchise expectations. Plus, taking broad comedy (like toilet humor) and giving it an illicit edge (aka full-frontal dong shots) helps “Knight” live up to what audiences expect from HBO, as well.

More importantly (for artistic purposes anyway), each boorish gag supports the series’ dominant themes. If “Game of Thrones” followed the various houses in their pursuit of immortal glory, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” follows one guy in his pursuit of everyday dignity. Young Dunk operates with the ideal blend of naïveté and courage. When he takes up the mantle of his fallen knight, all the former squire wants is to remember his mentor, honor his newly sworn oath to the seven kingdoms, and feed himself and his horses (which, given their comparable sizes, calls for many small feasts). Dunk has no greater agenda, no schemes, and no dreams, really. He merely wants to be a good man, and “Knight” makes clear there’s nothing wrong with that.

But it also makes clear being a good man in a world with too few of them isn’t as simple as it sounds. Dunk is dismissed by his “betters” and mocked by his peers. When he tells the truth, it’s refuted, and when he does the right thing, a reward is far from guaranteed. And yet despite our hero’s deference toward those of noble birth, “Knight” consistently hammers home that we’re all equal. Whether you’re the mother of dragons or a father of daughters, we all only get the one life to live. Everybody bleeds, everybody sleeps, and, yes, everybody poops.

While establishing that baseline of human worth, the series then proceeds to show us exactly why we’re following Dunk in lieu of Westeros’ other knights. You may have noticed I used the word “hero” in the last paragraph, which may seem out of place in a “Game of Thrones” review. But much like Vince Gilligan sought out a hero’s story after so many years in the “Breaking Bad” universe, Martin, Parker, and HBO recognize 2026 is not a time to elevate villainous men fighting for power in their sequestered castles. The age of antiheroes is what got us here, “Game of Thrones” very much included, and it will take heroes, many of them, to get us back out.

“Game of Thrones” and “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” still occupy two sides of the same coin. Where the former tried to illustrate the danger lurking in the hardened hearts of men by baring witness to their darkest nature, the latter acknowledges those bad men are out there before steering its horse in the other direction. Dunk isn’t ignorant of what doing the right thing could cost him. He sees the Lannisters and the Littlefingers of this world, and he’ll confront them when he has to — he just also knows better than to be tempted by their same sirens. He’s got other things to occupy his time, be it befriending Egg, nourishing his steeds, or finding a nice quiet place to poop.

It’s the little things, and in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” the little things add up nicely.

Grade: B+

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” premieres Sunday, January 18 at 10 p.m. ET on HBO. New episodes will be released weekly through February 22 (Episode 6).