Three episodes in and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms continues to prove itself to be a winner. The newest Game of Thrones spinoff, based on George R.R. Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, offers humor and heart, bright colors, and smaller scale stories to the wide world of Westeros.
The show follows a hedge knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, also known as "Dunk," (Peter Claffey) and his young squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), recently revealed to be Aegon Targaryen. Dunk, unlike most of the rest of this franchise's protagonists, is low born. As such, the series places a greater emphasis on his personal financial struggles than Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, which feature wealthy nobles as the leads.
However, three episodes in, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has continued a bizarre tradition, catching audiences off guard each time. The series' signature gag helps separate it from Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon even further.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' use of potty humor
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' third episode, "The Squire," opens with Egg preparing to squire for Dunk in the upcoming Tourney at Ashford Meadow. Egg takes along Thunder, Dunk's warhorse, to work with him. However, after a little bit of training, Thunder defecates. The camera comedically shows the poop falling, and this small but disgusting moment is played for laughs.
The previous two episodes of the series also feature similarly gross bathroom related jokes in their opening scenes. The first episode, "The Hedge Knight," contains the now infamous "poop scene," in which the show abruptly cuts from the always recognizable Game of Thrones title theme to focus on Dunk using the restroom behind the tree. Meanwhile, the second episode, "Hard Salt Beef," opens with Dunk's eulogy for his late master, Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb). However, rather than glamorize Ser Arlan, the series shows the impoverished hedge knight as he lived, kicking off the episode with a butt naked Ser Arlan peeing.
Potty humor in two consecutive episodes felt like a coincidence, but Thunder's poop sequence establishes a pattern. Potty humor seems to be a series staple for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms vs. Game of Thrones: What's Grosser?
Game of Thrones featured its fair share of gross out moments, such as a disgustingly memorable cut to a knife going into some food in season 7 during Ser Jorah Mormont's (Iain Glen) greyscale removal surgery or Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) murdering his father Tywin (Charles Dance) on the toilet in season 4, but these bits are never played for laughs. They exist to showcase the horrors of Westerosi war, often eliciting pity from the audience.
This directly contrasts with how A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms utilizes its own most disgusting sequences. Rather than using gross scenes to repulse the audience, the newer show steers directly into the comedy, emphasizing its focus on humor over the other entries in the franchise.
What does this mean for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms?
The casual comedy of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' now signature poop and pee scenes surprisingly emphasizes an important theme of the series, especially in contrast to Game of Thrones. While these moments are certainly funny, they help create a different kind of grit and gore that even the original series doesn't usually include. It's quickly become clear that the newer series is more interested in laughs than its two predecessors, but the importance of its potty humor goes beyond its jokey elements.
In their squalor, Dunk, Ser Arlan, and Egg don't always have access to restrooms like the one in which Tywin Lannister is killed. As such, showing Dunk pooping behind a tree, Ser Arlan peeing out in the open, and Thunder leaving his droppings in the middle of training with no one to clean them up but Egg further emphasizes their status as wandering hedge knights. They don't have access to the simple, basic necessities that their counterparts in Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon do, meaning that the bathroom humor that's become such a staple of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms actually illustrates one of the series' core themes, that you don't need to come from a noble family or have a powerful last name to someday become a great hero.
Make sure to tune into A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which airs new episodes on Sunday at 10:00 p.m. ET on HBO Max.