A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: A Mesmerizing Prequel
Set a century before the events of Game of Thrones, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: ’The Hedge Knight’ tells about the journey of the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg. The Targaryens continue to rule on the seven kingdoms, the Iron Throne with the mere whispers of dragons in remembrance. The story intertwines their story and presents a viewer with awesome and unexpected events they are going to face to shape their own fates.
Having explored the notions of the main characters’ trust and the nature of power, this series is representative of the author’s vision of the grey world which became a tradition. The realism is kept in a medieval context, leaving no room for long-haired pretty-boy barbarians but keeping enough of the epic romance and fantasy that the saga fans love so much.
Finn Bennett does an excellent job as Ser Duncan the Tall and, despite the odds, Bertie Carvel portrays the character of Egg excellently. It is the personification of the core of the series: courage mixed with innocence, or naivety, and wisdom as well as humor. Helping performances from Peter Claffey and Sam Spruell provide the depth, making characters immediately plausible and, for the audience, resonantly realistic and tangible, effectively pulling them into the world of Westeros.
Beholden to directors Owen Harris and Sarah Adina Smith, the series has been successful in maintaining a spectacular adrenaline and an emotional intensity. Their direction finds the excitement and the contemplations, then maintains it mutual to create an excellent narrative structure.
The music – orchestral – lends the expansive quality to the narrative. It mimics the plot’s rhythm, growing strained during dramatic fight scenes and stirring during poignant moments and encapsulates the essence of the series at its best.
The visuals are awe inspiring, there’s enormous landscapes intertwining with close up moments matching the grandeur of Westeros and the personal transformations of its inhabitants. Each shot is well staged by choreographing character relationship as well as the heightened sense of the fantasy world.
The set decorators also do a good job in recreating the opulence of Westeros while the props provide depth to this fictional city with its historical background. It makes viewer to annihilate into an age when Targaryen ruled effectively adding on to the epicness of the series’ storytelling.
Special effects are limited yet relevant complementing the shows themes rather than becoming the principal focus. This makes it that the diegesis stays realistic, making the intricate themes of the story arcs and character development serve more than as points of intrusion.
The editing in the series is perfect to make sure the narrative flows cohesively and with a certain pace. It manages to pace both intense fight scenes, and rather dramatic moments of inner monologue and drama relatively fluidly and interestingly. Nevertheless, there are some instances in the series where the events get more expository than featuring the flow of dialog. Some moments could benefit from visual storytelling rather than dialog-heavy explanations, allowing the viewer a greater sense of discovery.
Watching A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The significance of this creation can be proclaimed as tremendously rewarding, reading ‘The Hedge Knight’. It is a show that invites you back to the world of Westeros again with enticing the imagination and the heart through well-made characters and alluring plots. It is for this reason that one can consider the series as a worthy prequel to the saga, which will appeal to both, new and old comers to the world of the game.
