Dunk and Egg all the way

Even with such strong source material from George R R Martin, it's been a sheer fucking delight to see how thrilling and entertaining the Dunk and Egg TV show has been. 

It has the kind of perfect casting that has been the secret strength of all the Game of Thrones shows, while fleshing out characters by seeing them sing and drink and fight and fuck - the Laughing Storm finally comes across as a real person, not just a convenient plot point.

And it's a show gets straight to the point, with a laser focus on a far smaller cast of characters than anything else in Westeros, and is all the richer for it. There are still depths, especially once they really get into the whole Blackfyre thing - there is a monstrous amount of history and battles and romances lurking behind the simple story of Ser Duncan and his squire Egg.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has already been renewed for a second season, but my hope is that they keep going past the end of the third novella that has been published so far. The large picture has been there in the various histories of Westeros for some time, enough for the television version to tell many of those stories that fill in the gaps with some certainty.

Prose is always better - I am a book man, first and foremost - but why not show what happens in Winterfell when they finally get up there; or the story of young Prince Duncan and Jenny of Oldstones; or the fight between the Laughing Storm in his rage and the Hedge Knight in his duty? Why not go and meet young Maester Aemon - arguably the greatest character in all the song of ice and fire - in his prime; or go all the way up to Dunk's final moments, saving Jon Snow's dad from the flames that consume some of the greatest of Targaryens. 

We will, of course, miss the interior thoughts and ideals inside Dunk's head that you get with Martin's marvelous novellas, but you can see it all on Peter Claffey's giant jaw, and I hope we see a lot more of it in the coming years.