A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a heartfelt "Game of Thrones" comedy

“Within every man, there are many men.”

HBO has returned to the world of Game of Thrones with its second spinoff series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which debuted over the weekend on HBO and Max.

Audiences expecting the familiar mix of palace intrigue, sex, bloodshed, and gratuitous violence may be surprised to find something very different here. This version of George R.R. Martin’s Westeros is gut-bustingly funny, quietly charming, and softly melancholic—often all at once. It keeps a careful tonal pace with the beloved Hedge Knight novellas on which the series is based, revealing a side of Martin’s world only occasionally glimpsed in Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon.

Set roughly 100 years before the events of Game of Thrones and about 80 years after the Targaryen civil war depicted in House of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows Dunk—short for Duncan—a towering, sweet-natured, and slightly bumbling hedge knight of lowly status. Having just buried his master, Ser Arlan of Pennytree, Dunk sets out to chase glory at a local tournament.

Arriving in the town of Ashford, Dunk quickly learns he must have someone vouch for his knighthood before he can compete alongside lords and kings. As he wanders the tournament grounds in search of proof, he encounters the gleeful Lyonel Baratheon (ancestor of Robert, Stannis, and Renly), a mysterious young boy called Egg who wishes to become his squire, and an exotic young woman whose presence sets into motion a chain of events that will alter all of their lives in ways both large and small.

Showrunner Ira Parker, working closely with Martin, has brought the “Dunk & Egg” stories to life with remarkable care. Watching the series feels much like reading the novellas themselves: like opening a worn paperback on a dreary afternoon, wrapped in a blanket near the fire, and getting lost in a world more colorful than your own—full of adventure, romance, and hard-earned lessons. Unlike the moral murkiness of Martin’s other works, this is a story populated by characters who are not simply black and white, but vivid in every shade between.

The heavy lifting—figuratively and literally—in the premiere episode is done by Irish actor Peter Claffey as Dunk. His earnestness anchors the series and cements Duncan as one of Martin’s most endearing characters, both on the page and on screen.

Opposite Claffey is British actor Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg, who is utterly charming and already adept at balancing wide-eyed wonder with a wisdom beyond his years—something Martin often demands of his child characters.

The episode’s standout performance, however, belongs to Daniel Ings as Lyonel Baratheon. Played with a Jack Sparrow-like swagger, Ings quickly establishes Lyonel as a future fan favorite. (He also finally gives audiences a Baratheon wearing a stag-antler crown.) During a drunken late-night conversation in Lyonel’s camp, Dunk confesses his doubts about competing against knights trained by masters their entire lives.

“Within every man, there are many men,” Lyonel explains, referencing his nickname, the Smiling Storm.

That bit of drunken wisdom becomes the emotional core of the series. Dunk is shaped not only by his kindness and compassion, but by the people he meets—their fears, their hopes, and their influence. As with all of us, each encounter leaves a mark, helping shape who he is meant to become, despite his insecurities and anxieties.

While blood and battle are surely still to come, fans of Game of Thrones may be delighted by just how different A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms feels. Tonally, it owes as much to HBO comedies like The Righteous Gemstones and Veep as it does to its darker predecessors.

Visually, the series is just as distinct. It presents the most book-accurate Westeros yet, complete with extravagant costumes, vibrant colors, and richly detailed armor. These flourishes—often muted or omitted in the early 2010s—embrace a more fantastical aesthetic than the grimdark realism audiences once expected.

Whether the remaining five episodes can maintain this excellent start remains to be seen. But based on its confident and heartfelt debut, I have higher-than-normal hopes that the adventures of Dunk and Egg may ultimately stand as the best Game of Thrones offering yet.