HBO's new 'Game of Thrones' spinoff 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' ditches dragons for heart — and it works

• "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is a 'Game of Thrones' spinoff based on three George R. R. Martin novellas.
• Showrunner Ira Parker described the new HBO show as "'Game of Thrones' without all the stuff."
• With a smaller cast and limited budget, the show presents a more grounded vision of Westeros.

Day-one "Game of Thrones" fans who are itching to relive their early memories of Westeros would be wise to tune in Sunday, when "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" premieres on HBO.

The new spinoff series is a welcome return to the grounded storytelling and lively characters that initially set "Game of Thrones" apart from other fantasy shows — before the budget ballooned, the source material ran dry, and CGI spectacles became a key selling point.

Based on the first novella in George R. R. Martin's "Tales of Dunk and Egg" series and set about 70 years after the events of "Game of Thrones" prequel "House of the Dragon," "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is firmly focused on the travails of an everyman: Dunk, aka Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), a low-born orphan with no riches, no status, and no lord to pledge allegiance to. He's an ordinary guy trying to make his way in the world — a medieval, oft-ruthless world at that — forging his path using little more than instinct.

The series' deliberately narrow perspective lends itself to lower stakes and more comedy, making it a refreshing departure from both "Game of Thrones" and "House of the Dragon." With just six episodes all under 45 minutes, no epic dragon battles or undead armies of White Walkers, and about a quarter of the budget, showrunner Ira Parker described "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" to Business Insider as "'Game of Thrones' without all the stuff."

"We are certainly very character-driven because we have nothing else," Parker said.

Ultimately, that ends up being a good thing. Shifting the perspective away from the mega-battles, magical creatures, and machinations of the Westerosi elite allows Parker to tell a grounded story that offers a different view of the sprawling world Martin created.

"The only promise I made to George was that we would never be in the POV of the lords and ladies, kings and queens, the upper echelon," Parker said, referring to Martin, who served as an executive producer on the show and called it "as faithful as adaptation as a reasonable man could hope for" on his blog.

Instead, his protagonist's strength is his ordinariness.

"We see Dunk having the same sort of issues that we might have in our daily life, which is trying to figure out what's next," Parker said. "He finds himself all alone out in the middle of nowhere, and he just sets a direction because that's what people do. They put one foot in front of the other, and they see where it takes them. And that's really Dunk's only superpower."

Dunk is an instantly relatable character in a fantasy world

Dunk is far from the most talented fighter or the smartest strategist — at the start of the series, he doesn't even have a squire. As a hedge knight, he's more of a roaming mercenary than a trained hero. But despite the lower stakes and compressed scope of his tale, Dunk is not unfamiliar. His dogged loyalty, compassion for strangers, and steady moral compass are reminiscent of fan-favorite figures from "Game of Thrones," particularly season one's Ned Stark, a character synonymous with integrity.

But while Ned met an untimely end in one of the most iconic and tragic twists in TV history, Dunk's endearing qualities shine through far more outside the cutthroat world of King's Landing. In the rural town of Ashford Meadow, Dunk's good heart doesn't feel so gravely out of place.

"A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" explores themes of honor and duty, what they mean, and what they cost — especially for someone with no family or wealth to fall back on. The fate of the world may not be at stake, but Dunk's life often is, and the show quickly succeeds in making him someone to root for.

"The reason I decided to come on board with this was because of Dunk. I want to say I relate to this character, but the truth is, everyone will relate to this character," Parker said. "That feeling of impostor syndrome, the feeling of wanting something better for yourself… he's an easy guy to like."

This characterization is particularly effective in Claffey's scenes with his young costar, Dexter Sol Ansell, who plays Egg, a scrappy, conspicuously bald stable boy who soon becomes his squire.

When the pair meet en route to Ashford, Egg offers to join Dunk on his travels, telling his soon-to-be mentor, "Every knight needs a squire, and you look like you need one more than most."

The sharp, sometimes brazen character is a fitting foil to Dunk, whose optimism can sometimes come across as naivete. The pair soon grow as fond of each other as they are exasperated — a time-honored dynamic in the "Game of Thrones" universe, where scenes between duos like the Hound and Arya and Brienne and Podrick provided levity, emotion, and crucial character depth. Grisly violence and gratuitous nudity notwithstanding, this is the stuff that breathes bittersweet life into the story and makes Westeros worth revisiting.

Apparently, HBO executives thought so too. "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" season two is already in production, scheduled for a 2027 release. The next batch of episodes will adapt "The Sworn Sword," the second Dunk and Egg novella published in 2003.

Parker said he was eager to get back to filming, and not just because Ansell is a "ticking time bomb of cuteness." He hopes the series will give him the chance to chart Egg's coming-of-age story, to confront the tenderness and brutality of growing up that are universal whether you're in Westeros or the real world.

"At what point does the person start becoming responsible for who they are, rather than a function of the environment that they were brought up in?" Parker hinted, wondering aloud. "It feels like we're finding Egg just right at that turning point."