Created by the author and showrunner Ira Parker, a House of the Dragon veteran, Seven Kingdoms takes place a century before the events of the original Game of Thrones series. Though the Targaryens still rule Westeros, the towheaded dynasty is suffering through a dragon drought thatwon’t end until Daenerys comes into the picture, generations in the future. This is all well above the figurative pay grade of Dunk, a simple, hulking youth who grew up squiring for Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb). A chronically intoxicated but good-hearted master, Arlan has just died. But first, he knighted Dunk. Like his surrogate father, Dunk is a hedge knight—that is, an itinerant, often penniless and disrespected swashbuckler for hire, rather than a well-compensated, ornately armored, widely venerated defender of a noble lord. As one scornful character puts it: “There are as many hedge knights as there are hedges.”