HBO's Make-or-Break Moment: 6 Game of Thrones Mistakes A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Can't Repeat

Westeros is about to get a lower-key hangout. HBO's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is only a few months out, and with six episodes and a tidy, character-first story, it has a real shot at avoiding the stuff that torpedoed Game of Thrones near the end. It is based on George R.R. Martin's 'Tales of Dunk and Egg' and aims to be a fresher, more intimate slice of this world.

Timing-wise: the series premieres on HBO in January 2026 in the U.S. Martin has said this one is character-driven, and showrunner Ira Parker has already set expectations that the season sticks tightly to Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and young Aegon V (Egg). Good. Keep it small, keep it focused.

What this spinoff needs to dodge from Game of Thrones

• Fast-tracking characters for shock value – Daenerys' final turn felt like someone hit the skip button. Eight seasons and not enough groundwork for that finale pivot. With only six episodes here, the solution is simple: let Dunk and Egg breathe and earn every beat if this really is a character piece.
• Setting up major subplots, then ghosting them – Arya's whole Faceless Men training arc in Braavos basically vanished from the endgame. It's one of the coolest corners of the lore and then... nothing. This season does not have room for that kind of detour. Parker has said the show focuses on Dunk and Egg; stick the landing and resist the urge to wander.
• Changing who characters are, not just how they look – Budget can explain a wig or armor tweak; it cannot excuse turning book Euron Greyjoy, an eldritch-obsessed nightmare, into a smirking drive-by. Martin has reportedly been happy with the episodes he has seen, which is a good sign on the personality front. Also, with no dragons and fewer massive battles on deck, the show can afford to get the look-and-feel closer to the page.
• Going rogue on the source material – Martin's long-standing gripe was the series drifting into its own thing: cutting Lady Stoneheart, and in one infamous case, turning a consensual on-page encounter into a sexual assault on screen. The blowback was huge. With Dunk and Egg, please no headline-grabbing deviations. Let the books be the blueprint.
• Leaning on gratuitous nudity and violence – Thrones often over-indexed on raunch and ugly, especially violence against women, which wore thin with audiences. Dunk and Egg operates in the rougher corners of Westeros, so tough moments will happen, but the point should be the story, not how far the envelope can be pushed.
• Basics: watch the set – Yes, the coffee cup. Tiny mistake, eternal meme. This time, no modern props teleporting into the shot. It is a small thing, but it screams sloppy.

For what it is worth, Thrones still lands with the crowd: it sits at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and 9.2/10 on IMDb. The appetite is there. Just give people characters they can track, choices that make sense, and a season that knows what it wants to be.

Game of Thrones is streaming on Max (the HBO Max app). A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres on HBO in January 2026 in the U.S.

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