Despite making his first-ever on-screen appearance in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 1, Lyonel Baratheon was actually responsible for kicking off the main conflict in Game of Thrones, as he played a crucial role in the HBO show's first season in a scene involving Ned Stark. Game of Thrones was always known for tying together obscure plot threads and connecting different people, aspects, and time periods throughout Westeros. This has been proven time and time again, even with the spin-off shows, as characters have literally spoiled things in the flagship series that have not come to pass yet in shows like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Recently, HBO released the premiere episode of a new Game of Thrones prequel titled A Knight of the Kingdoms. In that episode, fans were introduced to a character named Lyonel Baratheon, the lord of the Stormlands and an ancestor of Robert Baratheon (the king in Game of Thrones Season 1). After viewing the series and going back to watch Game of Thrones, some fans noticed that Lyonel's name came up in a very important moment in Season 1, and that he helped kick off the main Game of Thrones narrative.
Many Thrones fans will remember that the big revelation in Season 1 was that Robert Baratheon's legal children, Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen, weren't actually his biological children. Instead, Sean Bean's Ned Stark found out that they were instead the children of Jaime Lannister and born out of incest, meaning that, after Robert died, Joffrey was not the rightful heir to the throne of Westeros.
Ned came to this conclusion when he looked through a book that explained the Baratheon lineage. He saw that Robert and all of his ancestors had black hair, but that Joffrey had golden hair. When Ned was reading through some of Robert's ancestors, he mentioned Lyonel Baratheon by name. As told in the book and then seen in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Lyonel has black hair, just like Robert, which helps Ned figure out that Joffrey is not Robert's true son.
This moment is extremely important in Game of Thrones, as it is this precise point and revelation that causes Ned to confront Cersei about Joffrey's birth and her secret affair with her brother. Because of Ned's actions, Cersei orchestrates his arrest, which then leads to Ned's death.
After Ned dies, the War of the Five Kings starts, sending all of Westeros into a bloody uproar. So, without Lyonel's contribution to Game of Thrones, the events of the show may have never happened, making Lyonel one of the most important characters in Westerosi lore.
Notably, this is not the only part of the overarching story of Westeros that Lyonel plays a key role in. As fans will see in A Knight of the Kingdoms Season 1 and potentially beyond (depending on how many seasons the show lasts and what events it covers), Lyonel finds himself at the center of a lot of major storylines and plots.
How Other Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Characters Connect to Game of Thrones
Lyonel Baratheon has already proven to be an extremely important character to Game of Thrones, but he is far from the only one. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been marketed as a standalone story, and most of Season 1 has no direct impact on the flagship series.
However, without giving away any spoilers, fans of the source material know just how crucial a lot of character become to the world's history. Specifically, some characters are involved in events that completely shape the entire future of Westeros.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms may seem totally different than Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. In a lot of ways, it is different, but without certain characters and events that happen in the overall Dunk and Egg narrative, Game of Thrones would not remotely play out the way that it does.
