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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Literally S**ts All Over Game of Thrones
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is nothing like Game of Thrones – and really goes out of its way to prove that early in Season 1, Episode 1. The differences will be pretty stark to audiences from the premiere alone, and not just because there’s no sign of House Stark. There are no dragons either. No sign of the Iron Throne or the Wall, no Winterfell or King’s Landing. This is still Westeros, but not as we knew it.
Perhaps most notable of all is what it does include: humor. Game of Thrones certainly had funny moments, mostly from the wit of characters like Tyrion Lannister and Bronn, but it was by no means a comedic series. House of the Dragon is even less so, as it’s much more self-serious than its predecessor.
By contrast, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is practically a riot: it’s lighthearted, silly, characters crack jokes, and there’s a fair degree of toilet humor (spoiler: there’s more to come after the first episode). And that’s clear right from the off, when Dunk – after too much wine and hard salt beef, as actor Peter Claffey told us in an interview – takes a rather explosive visit to the toilet (in this case, just behind a tree), right after the iconic, epic Game of Thrones theme tune had started to swell.
Why A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ GOT Theme Song Scene Matters
This is absolutely a funny gag, and showrunner Ira Parker is self-admittedly a fan of poop/fart jokes and the like. But it’s also, without trying to read too deeply into a graphic scene of a man emptying his bowels, a statement that this show is not Game of Thrones. The time may come when that sweeping music is necessary to add to the feel of the series, but right now, this isn’t it.
This is a show about a different side to Westeros, and a very different character. Dunk isn’t a noble lord, nor even a knight in service to one; he’s a hedge knight, without a roof over his head or a pot to piss (or s**t) in. These are the common folk realities that the main characters of Thrones and HOTD rarely have to face, whereas it’s simply everyday life for someone like Dunk. The theme song scene is the perfect way to showcase what it’s about: that it is funny, that it does have a lighter tone, and slightly weirder vibe, and music is important in building that out. It should be folksy and fun, not grand and dramatic.
There are several more moments like this to come across the show, but Parker also revealed one moment that didn’t make it into the series, thinking it might’ve been taking the toilet humor too far. In a roundtable interview ahead of release, which was attended by ComicBook’s Chris Killian, he said:
“Very early on in the writers room, we were talking about where people have to go to the bathroom in the middle of a tournament. Back in the day, trenches were dug, and it was just a big long line. There were also these things that were set up, like if you did it in the woods, sort of ropes attached to trees so that you could lean back in a crouched, squatting position over the top of the trench. And [the idea was] Dunk and Egg having a conversation while people were next to them doing that, and somebody’s rope snaps and they fall in. That was too far for us, so there is a limit as to how much poop and fart jokes we will allow in this show.”
Again, it sounds pretty funny if that fits with your sense of humor, and true to realities of life in Westeros for these people, but it’s also easy to see why it was dumped from the story.
New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms release Sundays at 10pm on HBO and HBO Max.
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