‘The Hedge Knight’ TV Show Faces the Same Problem as ‘Game of Thrones’

As far as spinoffs in Westeros go, The Hedge Knight is not the first and will not be the last, but it might end up one of the riskiest. Perhaps the biggest problem Game of Thrones faced over the years was the unfinished nature of the story, which constantly undermined the second half of the series. While a show like House of the Dragon has the advantage of a complete historical outline, there are huge gaps in the life stories of Dunk and Egg that make a full adaptation difficult to portray properly. We may know some of the broad strokes and the ending, but this was also true with the original series, and it did not make the struggles any less apparent. Even George R.R. Martindoes not know how many short stories the series would take to tell, so how would the showrunners be able to know? This dilemma might be a distant one for a series that already has three novellas, but it already looms large and must be addressed before it escalates into a deeper problem.

Game Of Thrones

Nine noble families fight for control over the lands of Westeros while an ancient enemy returns after being dormant for millennia.

Release Date

April 17, 2011

Creator

David Benioff, D.B. Weiss

Main Genre

Drama

Seasons

8

Studio

HBO

‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Has Great Foundations, But So Did ‘Game of Thrones’

Like the original series, The Tales of Dunk and Egg initially seems like the perfect prequel to adopt. Taking place a century after the Dance of the Dragons but another hundred years before the War of the Five Kings, the books detail a new era with unique characters and through a more grounded perspective. The time Aegon (Dexter Sol Ansell) spends with the smallfolk beneath the watchful eye of Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) provides the chance to explore the values of chivalry and the world of Westeros from an angle rarely covered before. The series also has its own set of lore, taking place in the aftermath of the First Blackfyre Rebellion fifteen years earlier and features locations which should be very familiar to any fan of the franchise, like Winterfell and Riverrun.

The problem is that only three stories have been published so far and even the extent of the full series has been unclear. The number of potential future novellas has ranged from six to twelve over the years, and they remain on hold until Martin finally completes The Winds of Winter, which itself has been in development hell for more than a decade now. Regarding the two leading characters themselves, only a short period has been covered, and both are known to have lived for fifty more years overall, creating major historical gaps. Compare this timescale to House of the Dragon, which covered twenty years in the first season for the sake of buildup but whose remaining seasons will take place over just two years. Finally, the books themselves are only as long as the first book of the main series when combined, meaning they will need shorter episode counts for each season. While this prevents the need to divide books between seasons in an awkward fashion, it also means the showrunners will catch up to the unfinished stories much sooner.

We Know Some Future Stories of Dunk and Egg, But Not Enough

One advantage A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has that Game of Thrones never did is the historical nature of the actual characters. Thanks to the many historical reference books, we have at least some details about Dunk and Egg during their later years, especially after the former became king and the latter was named Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. The younger brother of Maester Aemon (Peter Vaughn) and an unlikely king, Aegon’s story during his time on the Iron Throne involves more wars against House Blackfyre, an unexpected martial scandal involving his eldest son, and his battles with local nobility over his reforms to help the common people. Notably, these events remain close enough to A Song of Ice and Fire that major characters from that series are often seen, like how Walder Frey (David Bradley) appears as a child during the third novella but is in his early nineties by the time of the main series. During his two decades as king, Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) served him as a teenager, while Duncan himself is a confirmed ancestor of Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) and just as honorable as she would later become.

However, just because we know about the main points of the series does not mean enough is present to adapt the story of Dunk and Egg with efficiency. For example, we know David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were both told about three big moments in the books that had not yet occurred in the story when they were making Game of Thrones, which was then later included in the series. Some of these, like the death of Hodor (Kristain Nairn) in Season 6, was executed perfectly and had the added effect of shocking even readers of the books. Others, like the burning of Princess Shireen (Kerry Ingram) by her own father, lacked the necessary groundwork needed to pull off the scene, while also being too graphic and horrifying for viewers to stomach. Trying to create the journey when you already know the destination is a hard needle to thread, especially for an incomplete series, and risks being rejected by your audience as feeling unnatural. The ending, for example, caught everyone by surprise in the worst way and this prequel could walk the same path as Game of Thrones.

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The Ending of “The Tales of Dunk and Egg” Is Only Known in Fragments

One of the most mysterious and tragic events in the history of Westeros is the burning of Summerhall, which took the lives of both King Aegon V and Ser Duncan the Tall. From what little we know, the disaster involved the attempted rebirth of the dragons that Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) achieved decades later and involved varying degrees of magic and wildfire. However, we know nothing of the exact nature of what occurred, and important factors, like whether it involved the Azor Ahai prophecy, remain unclear. Even the official Westeros history book, The World of Ice and Fire, deliberately obscures the details by claiming a Maseter spilled ink on the book pages. For a show like House of the Dragon, the end of the Dance of the Dragons is already known and has been referenced in earlier stories, it also has the detail and backgrounds required to explain and execute it, thanks to the exhaustive detail Fire and Blood has provided. This is not the case here, as the event almost certainly seems to be kept under wraps for a future story, making a potential conclusion difficult for future seasons.

Keeping this crucial historical event ambiguous for a story that may never get published not only feels maddening but also brings the ending of the original series back to mind. While not revealed at the time, the final crowning of Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) as the new elected monarch of Westeros was the third and final “big moment” that Martin apparently told Benioff and Weiss about. Regardless of how it will be portrayed in the books, however, the lack of any warning or foreshadowing left viewers baffled and made the finale confusing at best. Without the proper context, the ending of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms could very easily risk repeating the same mistake and turning a tragedy into a farce.

Overall, while the problem might not be apparent, the unfinished nature of the story of Dunk and Egg makes it a risky adaptation to create. While there are certainly many new things to explore and connections to the original series, there is also simply too much we don’t know about the characters in the long term. Instead of a complete but contained story, the sheer amount of variables could lead to major problems for the show later down the road, especially given its shorter nature as a series of novellas. The showrunners must prepare to face the inherent obstacles of adapting A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms into a long-running spin-off series beyond the first three stories. Nobody wants a repeat of the chaos brought on by later seasons, despite their quality, and if the series is here to stay, we can only hope that it can find a way to overcome this unique challenge.

Game of Thrones is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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