Summary
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is all about introductions in “Hard Salt Beef”, setting up various angles for later, but some late action is a nice reminder that for all its personable charm, this show still exists in a brutal universe.
If we’re being honest, there isn’t a great deal going on in Episode 2 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It’s one of those classic, early-season “getting to know you” outings, making necessary introductions and setting things up for later. But a late flurry of action in “Hard Salt Beef” is a nice reminder that, even though it doesn’t define the show in the same way, brutal violence is still an intrinsic part of this universe, and even charming characters like Dunk and Egg are unlikely to avoid it forever.
Dunk and Egg’s evolving relationship is central to “Hard Salt Beef”, since this is the first time since late into the premiere that they’ve formally been a knight and his squire, instead of two strangers trying to find their way in an unfamiliar environment. Not that the environment seems all that unfamiliar to Egg, who seems to know everything about everyone — a clue, obviously, to whatever secret he’s hiding, but I’m under pretty strict instruction from HBO’s PR people not to reveal what that is (despite it being heavily spoiled online and strongly alluded to even here in this episode.)
The upside of a chilled half-hour like this is that it allows the characters to really bed in, and the audience to get attuned to the specific vibe the show’s going for. If there’s a big difference between this and Game of Thrones, it’s a sense of earnestness. That quality wasn’t something that any of the characters in that show — except, perhaps, some of the northmen — possessed. But Dunk embodies it wholeheartedly. As he explains, it was learned from Arlan, who was good, generous, and always tried to help people (despite often being drunk). This is why the idea of none of the lords whom he pledged his fealty to remembering Arlan doesn’t sit right with Dunk. In fact, he sees it as a pretty profound insult.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place about 100 years before Game of Thrones, and Episode 2 provides a nice reminder of that in the form of a Targaryen retinue arriving at the tourny. That’s something you might have seen in House of the Dragon, but not Thrones. Even then, though, Prince Baelor Targaryen isn’t exactly the quintessential Targaryen. As the eldest son of King Daeron II Targaryen, he’s next in line to the Iron Throne, but he’s pretty chilled out. His hair is dark. He makes for a stark contrast to his brother, Maekar, who’s a much more traditional Targaryen, but he’s also a bit salty because two of his sons have gone missing on the road.
It’s Baelor who finally recalls Arlan, having jousted with him in a tourney at Storm’s End. His endorsement allows Dunk to enter the lists, but since he’s not blood to Arlan, he needs a sigil of his own. This is what leads him to Tanselle, a pretty puppeteer whom he immediately has eyes for and enlists to paint an elm tree with a shooting star above it over the chalice on his shield.
Dunk has other allies, too. Lyonel enlists him and Egg in a drunken tug-of-war, which is a fun moment but mostly a reminder that Lyonel is still here and will become an important character down the line. He also forms a nice relationship with a smith named Steely Pate, with whom he negotiates for some armour. He gives him two stags to rent it for a day, and sells one of his horses, Sweetfoot, with a promise to buy her back if he wins. This is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in a nutshell, I think. Dunk is so impossibly earnest and likeable that you can’t help but root for him. It makes a nice change from Thrones, in which, after a certain point, it became pretty much impossible to root for anyone.
But actually winning the tourney will be easier said than done, as the end of Episode 2 is a nice example of. The action is brutal, choreographed for real seriousness instead of slapstick, and is enough to give even Dunk second thoughts. But he’s determined to make good on Ser Arlan’s name, and really, is there a better justification for staying the course than that?
