Posts Tagged ‘Game of Thrones’

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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The Dad-Focused Breakdown for the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Trailer

Posted: October 11, 2025 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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Thursday, October 10th 2025, HBO released the trailer for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, an adaptation of The Hedge Knight, the first of three (so far) novellas about a lowborn hedge knight named Ser Duncan (the Tall) and his scrawny bald squire, Egg.

George RR Martin, the author of the (unfinished) A Song of Ice and Fire series, wrote these novellas roughly sometime after the third ASOIAF book (I have not researched this) – as part of the background for his main series. The Dunk and Egg novellas take place close to a century before the events shown on HBO’s Game of Thrones series, and roughly 70 years after the events in the still-ongoing House of the Dragon show, detailing the Dance of the Dragons or the Targaryen Civil War. Alright, that’s enough detail. Why am I posting this shot-by-shot breakdown of the trailer?

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Erryk Vs Arryk, After-Action Report

Posted: June 27, 2024 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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House of the Dragon is in full-swing on HBO, having aired its second episode, “Rhaenyra the Cruel” – if you don’t want to be spoiled by an event that happens in that episode, please stop reading, right now. (I’m sure you’ve already been spoiled though. BETRAYAL!)

Near the end of the episode, an assassination plan involving Aegon Targaryen’s kingsguard, Ser Arryk Cargyll, comes to a violent conclusion. Arryk came to Dragonstone to kill Rhaenyra, but is foiled when he’s recognized by secondary-character-on-the-rise Mysaria, who gets word (we assume) to Arryk’s brother Ser Erryk Cargyll that the Green Faction twin is up to no-good.

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In Defense of Blood and Cheese

Posted: June 19, 2024 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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House of the Dragon is back, HBO’s show adapting the historical narrative of Fire and Blood, George RR Martin’s fictional work. The Dance of the Dragons civil war period, the time period of the show, is set before his famous A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series (and HBO’s juggernaut show Game of Thrones) by roughly 200 years. (Give or take several decades, don’t check my math.)

And back with it is the DISCOURSE that plagued Game of Thrones and the showrunners, who did a solid job adapting Martin’s books (if we kind of ignore much of book five) and were then forced to complete the uncompleted and incredibly complex series, more or less from whole cloth.

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For Your Situational Awareness: House of the Dragon Geography

Posted: April 27, 2024 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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We’re another month closer to the premiere of the second season of HBO’s House of the Dragon. I’m trying to ease in to writing about the show, one blog post a month. HBO helped me out last month by releasing two trailers for the season, featuring the opposing perspective of the two factions: the Blacks and the Greens. My write-up of the trailer for my dad counted as my monthly blog post submission.

This month – since the show doesn’t have the cool traversing-the-globe opening credit sequence that Game of Thrones had – I wanted to lay out some of the geography for those not fully up on where things are located in Westeros.

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House of the Dragons’ Dueling Trailers (a Trailer Breakdown for My Dad)

Posted: March 24, 2024 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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The last trailer for the second season of HBO’s House of the Dragon came out in December 2023. We’ve been patiently waiting for a new trailer to drop, and HBO obliged recently with not one trailer, but two.

When these opportunities arise, I like to write up trailer breakdowns for my dad. He’s read the main series books and has seen Game of Thrones and has watched House of the Dragon, season one. But I like to provide him with a non-spoilery breakdown to get him pumped up. And that’s what I’ll be doing here too.

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Rhaenyra’s Ex-Boyfriend and X-ed Boyfriend

Posted: February 17, 2024 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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We’re another month closer to Season Two of HBO’s House of the Dragon, but there’s still plenty of time to write about Season One. In particular, about two men in Princess Rhaenyra’s –

Rhaenyra Targaryen: That’s Queen Rhaenyra, thank you.
Me: My bad, I’m sorry Your Grace.

– about two men in Queen Rhaenyra’s dating history – Ser Criston Cole and Ser Harwin Strong.

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Rhaenyra and Relationship Roulette

Posted: January 31, 2024 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, TV
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HBO’s House of the Dragon will be returning this Summer, and with it return the complicated relationships between its major players. Complicated Relationships is an illustrative phrase when describing Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen’s role in the show.

Rhaenyra: That’s Queen Rhaenyra, actually.
Me: I regret my error.

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