A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Morrow

Six episode season…thirty minute episodes. Like three hours of total content…and guess what? It totally worked! The entire season was great, and I cannot wait for season two. 

I enjoyed the changes the show made to the novella in this episode. So for those of you that died d not read it…Maekar makes his offer to Dunk, who basically turns it down and then counters with the offer we see in the show. But, in the book, Maekar agrees, but says that Aegon is to continue going by the name Egg, and no one should know he is a prince. I liked this change because it gives Maekar more depth as a character. He is an asshole, but he does care about his kids. This also gives us a chance to see Maekar some more, since he will most likely be looking for Dunk & Egg. Plus, Egg makes another mistake of lying, and he will have to deal with how his lies affect the common folk. 

I am curious to see if the next season takes place in Dorne, or if the story follows the next novella. That story finds Dunk & Egg in the Reach, in the middle of a dispute over a stream between Standfast and Coldmoat. There is all sorts of Blackfyre stuff happening in the background, but this story is more interesting because it gives us a deeper look into the smaller Houses, and what life is like for the small-folk. I could definitely see the season focusing on that, and maybe Maekar is in Dorne looking for his son. 

Who knows, I am just excited!

Okay, a few stray thoughts…

-Lyonel Baratheon saying the only good Targaryen is a dead one is kind of funny. Lyonel’s son, Ormund, will marry a Targaryen…and their son will be Steffon, who is the father of Robert. One of the reasons that Robert becomes the king (and not say…Ned Stark, or Tywin Lannister) is that it is weirdly agreed upon that Robert at least has some claim to the throne. You could laugh at this and say “you just waged a rebellion, who gives a shit about your blood right to kingship at that point?” but honestly, read about English succession issues during the War of the Roses, and you see where GRRM got this stuff.

-Raymun! Can the boy really be this stupid? Oh well, he is start his house off the proper way…at least they will have some good cider.

-Maekar never mentions Aemon, and for good reason. Aemon is two years older than Aegon, but he is already at the Citadel training to become a maester at this point. I wonder if we will meet a young Aemon at some point? I believe Aemon’s grandfather, King Daeron (maybe?) realized that Maekar and Baelor had too many kids, and that succession issues could start (they always do!)…and he forced Maekar to send Aemon to the Citadel. I cannot remember if any other kids were sent elsewhere….Egg’s dream was to be a member of the Kingsguard. 

-And finally we have the Nine Kingdoms bit at the end. Egg is sort of correct, but during the olden times, when Aegon the Conqueror did all of his conquering, there were no Crownlands (the area around King’s Landing–since it did not exist back then since Aegon I built it). And during those times the Riverland and Iron Islands were all one big region under the control of Harren the Black, once he was defeated, the Tully’s took control of the region as Paramount of the Trident, while the Greyjoys became the Lord of the Iron Islands.