At long last, we're back in Westeros! Tonight HBO premiered A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, its brand new Game of Thrones prequel based on The Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas by George R.R. Martin. The first episode, titled "The Hedge Knight" after Martin's first Dunk and Egg book, wastes no time introducing us to the fledgeling knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his precocious squire, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). But they aren't the only fun characters we meet.
One of the standout faces in the series premiere was Lyonel Baratheon, the Lord of Storm's End, nicknamed "The Laughing Storm" on account of his penchant for laughing as he dives into combat, He's boisterous, loves to drink and party and fight, and is also refreshingly blunt and fond of a good joke.
In short, he's exactly the sort of Baratheon you could imagine King Robert descending from. But how exactly is Lyonel related to Robert, Renly, and Stannis? Let's dig into the Baratheon family tree.
Robert Baratheon and Lyonel Baratheon's relationship, explained
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set roughly 100 years before Game of Thrones. While the time difference is still substantial, it's not as extreme as House of the Dragon; this show is closer on the timeline, and because of that only a couple of generations separate characters like Dunk, Egg, and Lyonel from their descendants in the original series.
Despite that, there are still gaps in the family tree. George R.R. Martin is known for his exhaustive worldbuilding, but even he leaves spaces sometimes if they're not relevant to a given story that he's writing. Martin has not explicitly spelled out the relation between Lyonel and Robert in the books, but there are enough breadcrumbs to get a good idea.
Lyonel Baratheon ruled Storm's End until the year 239 AC, when he was succeeded by Ormund Baratheon. We know that Ormund is Robert's grandfather; what's not clear, however, is Ormund's exact relation to Lyonel. Lyonel is recorded as having a daughter in Martin's books. but there's never any mention of a son. So it stands to reason that Ormund is either a son of Lyonel's whose relation Martin hasn't written publicly about yet, or Ormund is Lyonel's grandson by his daughter.
That would make Lyonel either King Robert's great-grandfather, or great-great grandfather. Given the resemblance, it's no surprise that they're so close on the Baratheon family tree!
Lyonel Baratheon actor — Daniel Ings
In A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Lyonel is brought to life by British actor Daniel Ings. Ings has appeared in a number of film and TV projects, including the Netflix show The Gentlemen, Sex Education, Lovesick, The Marvels, and the Bernard Cornwell adaptation The Winter King.
If the rest of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1 sticks as closely to "The Hedge Knight" novella as closely as the series premiere, I'd expect to see a lot more of Ings and Lyonel before the curtain falls on this leg of Dunk and Egg's journey.
The first episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is available now to stream on HBO Max. New episodes premiere Sundays at 10:00 p.m. EST on HBO and HBO Max, until the season finale on February 22.