A little way into watching A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms — I think it was the scene in the second episode, “Hard Salt Beef,” when Dunk meets the Targaryens and asks Baelor to vouch for him in the tournament — I did something I’ve never done before. I visited a Game of Thrones wiki.

For context: My engagement with the fantasy universe created by George R.R. Martin is firmly on the casual side. (Off the top of my head, I don’t even know what it’s called. The GoTverse? The Westerosphere?) I watched every single episode of Game of Thrones with steadily decreasing interest and pleasure. I have never read any of Martin’s books, or watched any House of the Dragon, or played any of the several mysteriously bad video games.

I decided to tune in to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms because I’d heard good things, and because the concept was appealing: a lighter, more grounded, character-focused take on Martin’s world, with shorter episode runtimes. And also with a lot less head-scratching tracking of complex family trees and multiple plotlines sprawling across continents.

So I was surprised to quickly find myself in the position of pondering the line of succession for the Iron Throne, the twists and turns of the Targaryen bloodline, and the precise placement of Dunk and Egg’s adventures in the Westerosi timeline — and turning to A Wiki of Ice and Fire for the answers. Surely this is the exact opposite of the point of the show?

Well, yes. But this is the inherent strength of........

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