After just six short weeks, the latest installment in HBO’s Game of Thrones franchise came to an end. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is by far the shortest, funniest, and least political within the world of Westeros of the saga so far, and quickly became a big hit among viewers in the 2026 TV schedule. Fortunately, Season 2 was already in production by the time the Season 1 finale aired with some big decisions for Dunk (and a fun post-credits scene). On the flip side, however, Season 1 also only ended with two characters guaranteed to return: Dunk and Egg.
Despite thinking I’d pretty much had my fill of Targaryen brutality after two seasons of House of the Dragon (available streaming now with an HBO Max subscription), I found myself getting attached to Prince Aerion, a.k.a. Aerion Brightflame, played by Finn Bennett. Game of Thrones was at its best when there were really great villains to be struck down, and Aerion was a great villain for the smaller scale of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Like Jack Gleeson as Joffrey and Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Bolton before him, Finn Bennett was really good at being really insufferable in his performance.
