A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

That show really surprised me how enjoyable it.

I really enjoyed the series.

Looking forward to more.

I'm pretty sure Maekar knows who the brains of the operation is.

That's not why he was on trial.

It was one of the two charges. Daeron alleged that he kidnapped Egg.

Exactly. Duncan was guilty of the other charge, since he had attacked Prince Aerion after Aerion broke the puppeteer girl’s finger, hence not relevant to my point.

Saying he was guilty of that charge is forgetting some pretty key contect.
Aerion assaulted the puppeteer initially, Dunk was defended her, as a knight is "supposed" to. It's intentionally written as a legal/moral grey area.
If Dunk was actually guilty, there's no way Baelor would have defended him publicly like he did.

Sure, it was one of two charges. But the trial by combat/seven proceeding was entirely Aerion's decision.

If they can deliver six episode seasons of that quality each year, I'll mark my calendar and count down the days happily.

This thing is there is source material here, and it's widely consider one of the best stories in the canon. This season was a very close adaption. Season 1 of GoT was also great, and almost a 1:1 adaption. The early seasons of GoT were good, and stuck close to the was source material.

There's 3 Duck and Egg novellas. The next two could easily be a season each. But run's out quickly, and the writers have to start winging it. And even worse, next season probably needs to be a new store to get to novella 2.

…attacking a high-born aristocrat was pretty much unforgivable no matter what the reason, never mind in the defence of a mere female puppeteer.

Except he was forgiven, by the heir to the throne no less. It was Balor who suggested trial by combat after all.

That's a far cry from saying (as a viewer) that he was actually guilty.

So yes of course he could try to make a case that he was "not guilty because morally obliged" to attack Aerion - but that requires some dangerous casting of aspersions on Aerion's characte - or maybe "guilty but mitigating circs", which is not a lot better, but all of that is irrelevant to my original point.

That's literally literally how it played out.

That's the point, it was all about Aerion's incidient. The kidnapping was tacked on. Has it been that alone, there's no way Darion pressed the accusation to trial (by combat).

Moreover I'd expect that if he'd had a legal investigation, rather than a combat to determine guilt, he'd have had the problem of not being able to prove that he had actually been knighted by Ser Arlen. And that's assuming that he really is a knight, which we don't know yet. (Maybe you do, since you've read the books, but I don't.)
Either way, he can't prove it, so his supposed moral obligation to attack Aerion as he did is on very thin ice.

Readers/Viewers know he might have a hard time proving it. But that's unlikely to be relevant.

A) Having to prove you are a knight is not a thing. There's no records of who knighted who. Many people are knighted before/after battle. So the the person who could verify is often, dead. A knight is not be reputation, being seen to compete a knight in jousts, association with a lord, etc.

B) I was referring to your post where you said he was guilty. I'm saying that not the case, it's intentionally grey.
Whether he could prove it is entirely different.

You're confusing the position of viewer in the 21st century

I clearly referred your view/post from the start. Abd the grey area.
It’s not about proving anything. It’s a discussion thread. For discussing the show…

it's not what's actually coming across about you here.

I won’t respond to this. The irony says enough.

Seems like not too long ago when I was asking about Peter Claffey in the Connacht rugby thread. Life takes many strange turns, some for the better.

Casting confirms that S2 will take a similar direction to the second novella.
Meaning Maekar issues you mention will resolve themselves, likely in a better fashion that the book, in episode 1 or 2. Then it'll be on to Tywins granny