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Spoilers for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, episode 1.

As somebody that got into Game of Thrones kind of late, I thought that most of the saga amounted to these dark moments of violence and backstabbery. So when I heard that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was something with a lot of heart, I expected essentially a more comedic Game of Thrones -  something that still had a lot of action but was funnier or more light-hearted. I was so pleasantly surprised, then, when the key moment of the first episode of the series didn't involve any kind of action at all.

Well, not the swords and shields kind, anyway.

Before we continue - you've probably gathered by now that I'm going to be spoiling a central moment in A Knight of the Seven Kingdom's pilot episode. Don't say I didn't warn you, is all I'm trying to convey.

When we meet titular character Ser Dunk (Peter Clafey), all signs point to him being a fighter. We see him with a sword in his hand, he speaks of a tournament he intends to enter, and perhaps most of all, he stands at an intimidating 6'5". Even as we follow Dunk into the town of Ashford, violence surrounds him - a flurry of knights and squires run through practice duels, drawing blood and shattering bones just in preparation for the even deadlier tournament to come.

So in my head (which is admittedly full of D&D combat scenes), I was expecting the biggest character moment for Ser Dunk to be some challenge of his physical prowess - maybe there'd be bandits, an innocent that needed saving, or a mean drunk he'd have to teach a lesson to. None of that, though, was what bonded me to Ser Dunk by the episode's end.

Although to be fair, what did do that had a great deal to do with a drunkard.

At about the halfway point of the episode, Dunk wonders into the tent of one Ser Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings), a knight with a great deal of money and surrounded by revelers. A tiff begins when Lyonel teases the humble, penniless knight, and it looks like the two might come to blows. But instead, Ser Lyonel offers Dunk to prove himself in a different way - on the dance floor.

What follows is a joyous, fast-paced, and undeniably horny exchange between Dunk and Lyonel, set to an absolutebanger of a medieval theme. Leaving his sword aside, Dunk twists, hops, and kicks through the air, and amidst all the fun, it occurs to the viewer that this is the first time seeing him as he truly is. In this moment, kind-hearted Dunk isn't worried about proving himself as a knight, his own survival, or his moral responsibilities. In this moment, which it seems the whole episode has been leading up to, Dunk proves that he isn't about cutting throats.

He's about cutting loose (ba-dum-tss).

I know that plenty of action is in store for both A Knight of the Seven Kingdom's and its main character. But for a show, and even a genre, that is so mired in building up to fights, building up to a dance sets this series apart not just from Game of Thrones, but from what we've expected from fantasy in general. And I'll be damned if that doesn't put a pep in my own step.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms airs Sundays on HBO through February 22, and available afterwards on HBO Max.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is bringing all of us back to Westeros, and Popverse has got more Game of Thrones articles than could fit on a spiky chair. We've got everything you need to dive into the series, including:

• How to watch through the Game of Thrones saga in order 
• How to read George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones books in order 
• The biggest differences between The House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones
• The history of Westeros's greatest houses & families
• Every single dragon in The House of the Dragon so far

Plus much more coming as it gets announced!