The series, based on the first book in Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novella series, AKOTSK: The Hedge Knight, takes place 90 years before the events of Game of Thrones, following a wandering knight named Duncan the Tall and his young squire, “Egg”, who hides his identity as Aegon Targaryen, a familiar name in Westeros.
George R.R. Martin Is Obsessed With The Targaryens
As excited as I am for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, I can’t help thinking the same thoughts I had when I first read the comic adaptations of Martin’s novellas: Martin sure does love the Targaryens. The fantasy author has constructed a millennia-spanning world, and he’s populated it with all sorts of peoples.
Yet, all he talks about is the Targaryens, this one family with a history that only becomes relevant 114 years before Aegon the Conqueror lands in Westeros, which is about 215 years before the start of House of the Dragon. It’s not that the Targaryens are irrelevant; they certainly are, but do they need to be included in every story?
If you didn’t know better, you would assume that the Targaryens are the most important family in the entire history of Westeros and Essos. Martin jams them into every story he can think of, despite other families, like the Starks, being more critical to the themes of his stories.
Anytime he has the opportunity, Martin inserts the Targaryens. For a world that has everything from giant kingdoms to stand-ins for an East Asian empire, Martin really only focuses on the Targaryens, and while it’s not thin yet, the idea is beginning to wear.
Every Game Of Thrones Spin-Off Has Been About The Targaryens
So far, every Game of Thrones spin-off has been centered on the Targaryens. For a family who was supposedly so hated that even their loyal guards eventually turned on them, they sure do appear in many of the most important moments of the world’s history. This is a bit unfair, I suppose, as the spin-offs are all prequels.
If you set a TV show before Game of Thrones, which is the case in House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the Targaryens will likely be around, and as kings and queens of Westeros, their house and progeny will be more far-flung than other houses, resulting in their constant presence.
House of the Dragon, of course, needs the Targaryens; the whole story is about them, but A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and Tales of Dunk and Egg, for that matter, didn’t necessarily need the Targaryens to play such a big part in the story. Egg could have been the scion of any other Great House.
While it isn’t the biggest concern, more of an irksome inclination on Martin’s part, his constant need to center his stories on the Targaryens does make the world of Ice and Fire feel a lot smaller than it should. Hopefully, if the Game of Thrones sequels ever come to fruition, they’ll focus on some other family for once.
The Targaryens Are Only One Piece Of The History Of The World Of Ice And Fire
Back to what I was saying earlier, the Targaryens history only starts to become relevant 215 years before House of the Dragon, and really, the stuff we as viewers care about only occurs 101 years before House of the Dragon. The timeline of A Song of Ice and Fire begins some 12,000 years before Game of Thrones.
There are stories that could cover so much more of George R.R. Martin’s world. There’s Yi Ti, the mythical kingdom in the far east of Essos; Princess Nymeria and her voyage to and conquest of what would become Dorne; and the mysterious Night’s King who the Starks and Wildlings teamed up to defeat thousands of years before GOT.
That’s not even to mention “contemporary” Game of Thrones stories that could be about the many other families in Westeros. They don’t even need to be stories about the Great Houses. The Daynes, the Reynes, and the Blackwoods all have excellent stories that don’t involve the Targaryens.
