In Defense of Ser Criston Cole

Posted: June 10, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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HBO finally released a longer trailer for House of the Dragon, Season Three (there’s been a few teaser trailers, but this was a proper one.)

With the third season airing almost at the end of June, I found myself with the time to write another Westeros-related post for #WesterosWednesday. I decided it was time for another entry in my series of questionable In Defense of [Problematic Character] posts. This time, about Ser Criston Cole.

Hold your boos until after I’ve made my case, please. (Feel free to boo me in the comments. Lack of comments obviously means Criston Cole is beloved.)

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A Tall Tale Turns Ten

Posted: May 27, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones
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I’m still waiting for House of the Dragon season three to air, and so I’m still obligated to posting articles every two weeks related to HBO’s recent series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, featuring the lowborn (but exemplary) Ser Duncan the Tall.

But, this post will not be talking about that TV show.

It’s the ten-year anniversary of Balticon 50, which ran from May 27th to May 30th in 2016, at Baltimore, Maryland’s Inner Harbor Renaissance hotel. I’ll be talking about author George RR Martin’s appearance there and some misinformation that sprung to life immediately afterwards. And also why Artificial Intelligence is bad.

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The Pretense of Serwyn

Posted: May 13, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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Hello, lovers of live puppet-based entertainment! This latest post about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO’s stellar adaptation of George RR Martin’s The Hedge Knight novella) will be focusing less on Ser Duncan the Tall (I’ll be talking a little bit about him though), and more on a guy named Serwyn, whose story might have been told on the show by the Dornish puppeteer Tanselle Too-Tall.

But I don’t want to provide spoilery details for the show without giving fair warning. If you haven’t see A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, you should give it a go, right now. I mean you, Peter.

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Choosing the Hedge Knight Life

Posted: April 29, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This blog post is another in a series talking about the HBO show A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. (I needed to occupy my time while waiting for the next season of House of the Dragon, another HBO show set in George RR Martin’s fantasy realm of Westeros.

This post is going to be talking about plot points in the finale episode, so consider this your spoiler warning.

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Ser Duncan the Tall vs Dunk the Lunk

Posted: April 15, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post will be talking about events from the recent HBO series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and the novella it was adapted from: The Hedge Knight.

I encourage anyone reading this who aren’t aware of the source material to read this post no further, as I will be discussing plot points and honestly, why be spoiled? Just get caught up and then come back.

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In Defense of Aerion Targaryen

Posted: April 1, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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Over the years, while writing essays and articles about Game of Thrones, I’ve enjoyed the challenge of writing up spirited defenses of characters who have done some questionable things.

ME? Questionable?

Everyone deserves their day in court.

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In Defense of Ser Steffon Fossaway

Posted: April 1, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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This post will be talking about a certain character’s decisions in the recent HBO show A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms – in particular talking about Ser Steffon Fossaway, a knight from the Reach and the older cousin to fan-favorite Raymun Fossaway.

Ser Steffon of the Punchable Face-aways.

If you have not seen the show and don’t want to be spoiled, stop reading now please.

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Kingsguard Identification: Here’s the Thing (Hair’s the Thing)

Posted: March 25, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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Last week, as part of my Westeros Wednesday series (filling the time between now and the House of the Dragon season three premiere) I had a long blog post (sorry for the ridiculous word count) talking in-depth about the big Judicial Jousting the happened in the penultimate episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

In that post, I took pains to try and track (mostly) the fourteen combatants in that trial. Part of that account included tracking the three Kingsguard involved, who are largely indistinguishable in their identical white armor and feature-covering helms.

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Some Misty Morning Exercise in Ashford

Posted: March 18, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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One of the major events of HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ first season was a dramatic Trial by Combat.

Hold on a moment, I should really have put out some spoiler warnings before I started getting into details.

You should watch this terrific HBO show before reading this blog post. Go watch right now, we’ll all wait. It’s roughly a three-hour time commitment – a very short season of television.

Everyone, take five while people get caught up on the show.

Okay, now that they’re gone, lets talk about the Trial of Seven, and maybe another related (sort of related) melee from George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

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A Knight of the Nine Kingdoms

Posted: March 4, 2026 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TV
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HBO has recently finished up a season of its latest A Song of Ice and Fire offering, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

The six-episode season largely covered the events told in The Hedge Knight, the first novella from George RR Martin detailing the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and his diminutive and bald squire Egg. There are three written novellas of Dunk and Egg stories, currently collected in a single volume called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. I recommend it as reading material for anyone who would like to enjoy some stories that are set in Westeros but that aren’t quite as grim (for various levels of grim) as the narrative that kicks off in A Game of Thrones.

I used to blog heavily about Game of Thrones and slightly less-heavily for House of the Dragon. I won’t make any promises on insightful content, but I do want to write some essays over the next few months about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and a reasonable place to start is with the end of the final episode. (Look, I do what I want to do. Anyone can start writing about the beginning of things…)

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