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Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2014, Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin laid out what he called his “quibbles” with the father of the fantasy genre, J.R.R. Tolkien. “Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy,” says the Fire & Blood author, “That if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it’s not that simple.” 

To be clear, Martin is on the record plenty of times as having great respect for The Hobbit author, but his sentiments do a pretty good job of explaining the difference between Tolkien’s Middle-Earth and his Westeros. In the former, there’s a clear, mythical distinction between good and evil, and in the latter, more historical world, there is not. But as I finished watching Martin’s latest television adaptation, I couldn’t help but feel there was a particularly Tolkieny character at this show’s helm - specifically, Ser Duncan the Tall.

Or as I like to think of him, Westeros’s Samwise Gamgee.

Above their humble origins, so much of the characters’ similarities come from how dissimilar they both are to the a “fantasy hero” trope. Neither Sam or Dunk are particularly clever, like an Odysseus might be. They have skill, but it’s not the kind that wins battles à la Geralt of Rivia. Think about, too, the fact that they’re so far away from the Luke Skywalker/Harry Potter “chosen one” type; it’s almost fair to consider them sidekicks in their own stories. 

But where the characters line up the most, and what made A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms a great watch for me, is that both Samwise and Dunk exist in worlds defined by power as characters with little to no interest in it. For both of them, their loyalty isn’t to great causes, but to the individuals in their immediate orbit - and whether it’s House Targaryen or Sauron himself that threatens those individuals, both our heroes would put themselves in harm’s way as a defense.

You might remember Popverse reporting on Peter Claffey’s own thoughts regarding the difference between Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, especially in relation to his character. “In George R.R. Martin’s world," he says, "People get so far in positions and status and stuff by doing hideous things and being part of and stabbing people in the back, literally, figuratively. [...] Navigating trying to be a decent knight like Dunk, a knight with some status, must be a truly difficult thing.”

As you know if you’ve finished A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1, Dunk’s arc is full of that kind of “difficult thing,” but I have fairly high hopes that his story will not end in the same tragedy that the other Game of Thrones characters’ did. Why? Well, to paraphrase Mr. Martin, maybe a good man doesn’t always make a good king. But a good man does make a good man, and that’s all that Duncan (and Samwise before him) needed to be.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1 is streaming now on HBO Max.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has brought Westeros back to HBO Max, 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:

• Popverse's Game of Thrones watch order 
• How to read George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones series 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!