Pacing Through Errants and a Big Reveal (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms S01E02-3)

After taking a liking to the first episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, I happened to watch episodes two and three in one go. Did my predictions hold true? What’s my impression after reaching the turning point of the season?

As it turns out, Dunk and his strange squire Egg don’t participate in the tourney just yet. Instead, they run errands and do world-building along the way. Tall Guy gets a little bit more complex; apparently, other people besides myself have called him stupid. Reckless and naive would be more precise, and he is equipped with a moderate amount of plot armor, as basically everyone important takes pity on the last truly chivalrous knight in the Seven Kingdoms. We learn that two Targaryen boys are missing, and people start asking questions about why the squire doesn’t have any hair… where might that lead?

It’s a Game of Thrones show after all, so there has to be graphic violence. We get that when knights ram wooden sticks into each other and a Targaryen bully decides to kill a horse because of Douche. But Dunk himself doesn’t see any action until the very end of the third episode, when Mean Douche decides to torture Tall Theater Lady because she killed a dragon doll. At this point, we are confronted with two major reveals: Tall Guy is also a seriously capable brawler, and Small Guy is one of the lost noble boys belonging to the House of the Dragon.

I rate these two episodes around 6/10. They were fun, but the pacing seems off. I realized that the first season only has 6 episodes to show for itself, and nothing really happened yet. If you ask me, the plot could have fit into one episode. Right now I don’t quite see where this is going because, at this rate, we’ll be stuck at the tourney set piece until the last episode. Not enough meat on that bone, at least if the next episodes don’t pick up the pace.

Predictions: Most of mine were wrong. Instead of standard tourney struggles, Dunk will probably have to face off against Bully Guy more or less directly. I still think that Fun Baratheon Guy has some role to play; maybe he helps the pair escape, and this is the point where season one ends.