A Knight of Seven Kingdoms: Knighthood for the Modern Man

This essay contains key plot details for Game of Thrones and A Knight of Seven Kingdoms.

A Knight of Seven Kingdoms is HBO's newest series that has rekindled excitement for George R.R. Martin's world of Westeros, which has been famous and infamous for infusing realistic, almost cynical, realpolitik into the dragons and castle fantasy genre.

Through the immensely popular series, Game of Thrones, and its high-budget prequel, House of the Dragon, he has deeply informed pop culture, reinforcing a view of politics that is amoral, violent, and merciless. He often punishes characters for showing an ounce of virtue or heroism.

While it portrays existing political realities, viewers informed by Martin's work may emulate the amorality rather than reassert morality.

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The ideas of Knights, embodiments of chivalry and male strength, have long been an object of irony and satire.

This dates back as early as "Le Morte d'Arthur" and other stories of Camelot, where Lancelot, a supposedly virtuous knight, betrayed King Arthur by bedding his wife, Guinevere. A more modern example is Shrek 2 and 3's Prince Charming, presenting as the stereotypical knight, is the story's narcissistic villain.

Even more recent, Ridley Scott's The Last Duel portrayed knights as petty adulterers making their immorality a violent public spectacle. Following this trend, throughout Martin's Westeros, knights are often corrupt characters who abuse their power and routinely break their oaths.

The exceptions to these are outliers like Brienne of Tarth, who is a woman, and Barristan Selmy, a renowned veteran knight only used to show how the days of true knights have passed.

This changes with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

Based on a series of novellas entitled The Tales of Dunk and Egg, the series follows the friendship of Ser Duncan "Dunk" the Tall, played by Peter Claffey, a tall, aspiring hedge knight, with Egg, a young, scrawny, bald child with a secret identity. Stripped of special effects and its trademark dragons, the series re-examines morality in fantasy.

Westeros is still a cruel world. However, Martin stress tests morality in the same world and allows it to shine in Dunk and the few honorable knights in the story.

Here are some lessons from key moments:

Duncan begins the story as timid and deferential, often bowing down, lowering himself from his true height. Though he tries to pass off as his mentor's heir, he spends most of the early episodes constantly asking permission to be there. He then meets Lyonel Baratheon (played by Daniel Ings), a renowned knight who becomes his unlikely ally. Lyonel notices his slouch and tells him to be tall as the gods made him.

This allows Dunk to recognize his innate physical strength, which he utilizes as the story progresses. Despite his strength, he is humble and kind. In his gentleness, he forgets his natural gifts and remains ineffectual. However, at this moment, he does not know what he is standing for. He remembers his strength when duty calls for it.

Knights are defined by the oaths they take. Martin's version of a knight's oath is a recurring theme across the story. Due to the untimely death of his mentor, Ser Arlan of Pennytree, Dunk does not know the full vows of the knight and was not fully trained.

The line he does remember is "in the name of the Mother, defend the innocent." At the end of episode 3, Dunk assaults Prince Aerion, played by Finn Bennett, who was assaulting a puppeteer. Though this gets Dunk arrested for assaulting a member of the royal family, many other characters notice this and take his side in his trial.

When questioned on his actions, he simply states that he did what knights must do: defend the innocent. Even with his incomplete knowledge and lack of prestige and social standing, he demonstrated the instinct and spirit of a knight and his vows.

After overcoming his trial, Dunk offers his gratitude and his life to his new patron, Baelor "Breakspear" Targaryen, played by Bertie Carvel. Baelor responds by saying the realm is in need of good men. Westeros remains a cruel world where the good are not always rewarded. Dunk's life is no longer indebted to a single man. He is charged to serve the realm, to be a good man in a cruel world.

These lessons remain an antidote to the "realpolitik" that Game of Thrones had popularized. There are clear costs to being good. The good are humiliated, rejected, and even killed. Good is still worth being, not for one's sake but for all. To quote another story of a knight, The Man of La Mancha: "to march through hell for a heavenly cause."

Even with Ser Duncan's unnatural strength of body and character, he cannot be good on his own.

Other characters, Egg as his young squire and conscience, fellow knights and even Baelor, a prince, were willing to die for Dunk's idea of good. Dunk then owes his life to serve the realm in need of such good, moving beyond interpersonal morality but a public morality.

Contemporary media is often suspicious of clear moral discourse in favor of "gray" characters and relativism. Alongside superhero fatigue, the rise of the anti-hero, and the general disdain for tradition, the current culture is left without a clear moral framework, leaving each political tribe to assert their respective ideas of good.

Dunk offers a different model of masculinity, one that combines physical strength with humility and honesty. He protects the vulnerable not to dominate but to serve.

He pursues honor not for glory but because it is right. Most of all, he honors oaths and promises in a world that does not. This makes him look naïve and foolish. The modern man values competitive intelligence and cunning. Modernity has men abandon such oaths in favor of advantage and winning,

"Might makes right." We Filipinos often bemoan corruption when it is simply the product of weak oaths or their absence. Political Philosopher Hannah Arendt says, "Every organization of men, be it social or political, ultimately relies on man's capacity for making promises and keeping them."

Oaths are as strong as the men who make and keep them. As citizens, from ordinary to elected, we are charged to follow and uphold the laws of our land. Our laws and Constitution are oaths made public and must be kept with the same commitment as Ser Duncan for our nation to prosper.

In a modern reinterpretation of Arthurian legends, T.H. White's The Once and Future King uses King Arthur as a response to the old adage "might makes right" with "might for right," which uses strength guided by good. His round table represents equality among knights so they would not compete for it and use their strength to defend the weak. George R.R. Martin's revival of the knight through Dunk and Egg recaptures old notions of honor and goodness in the face of real tragedy.

However, most importantly, the show demonstrates that goodness requires community, that even the strongest man needs allies who share his values. It is not only important to embody these virtues but recognize these virtues in others and learn from them. For this, Dunk has Ser Arlan, Ser Lyonel, and Prince Baelor. As we learn from these stories that are becoming increasingly rare, we must hold them tight and live them in our own lives in public.

In our polarized age, this may be the most radical lesson of all: that being good is not a solitary act of willpower but a commitment sustained by others who believe the same. The modern man needs not just personal virtue, but good men around him.

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