HBO is perpetually hinting that the world of Game of Thrones won’t end with Game of Thrones… that the network will eventually revisit Westeros. And well it should—Game of Thrones is the network’s best-rated show ever and Westeros its most vibrant world since The Wire’s Baltimore. However, the most obvious way to get back into Westeros—the “Dunk and Egg” stories—is a dead end. It’s not a good idea. Listen to me now, HBO, if you ever do: Don’t do “Dunk and Egg.” Do the Dance of the Dragons instead.

HBO Shouldn’t Make “Dunk And Egg”

“Dunk and Egg” is clearly on HBO’s shortlist as the inevitable successor to Game of Thrones. After all, the stories were written by George R. R. Martin himself, don’t conflict with anything in the main canon of the show (since the stories are set almost a century before the main novels, during the Targaryen era), and are pretty well-known in the Game of Thrones community.

Here’s the problem, though… the reason why “Dunk and Egg” wouldn’t make a great HBO show: “Dunk and Egg” just isn’t that interesting. The stories are entertaining, but they don’t have anything like the grand scope of Game of Thrones. They are cute, charming tales of a small-time knight and his unusual squire and one of the stories is about a tourney, while another is—literally—concerned with water rights between feuding nobles.

“Dunk and Egg” isn’t filled with questions of war, dragons, white walkers or kingship (well, mostly not). It’s a prequel set in a more peaceful time, and the stakes are far lower. A “Dunk and Egg” show wouldn’t be the Better Call Saul of Game of Thrones. It would be more like, say, Agents of SHIELD: an entertaining enough show with a scope far smaller than what inspired it. Game of Thrones is one of the most cinematic shows ever made. “Dunk and Egg” would feel like it belonged on the small screen. It’s the very opposite of the network’s motto: “It’s not TV. It’s HBO.” “Dunk and Egg” is just Game of Thrones writ small, without much intrigue, politics or war. Nobody wants to see that.

The Dance of the Dragons is another matter. The great Targaryen civil war is, to date, the most epic conflict in Westerosi history (not counting the mythical Long Night). The war—far larger than the War of the Five Kings—saw Westeros split between two halves of the Targaryen dynasty, each side armed with dragons. The Targaryens never recovered from the war, and the dragons died out within a generation after. It was brutal, violent, filled with intrigue. politics, betrayal and nuanced shades of morality. In short, it was very Game of Thrones.

HBO, it’ll be more expensive, but just make that instead. We’ll all be happier.