As one of the few women in the the cast of A Knight of the Seven KingdomsTanzyn Crawford stands on Game of Thrones spinoff. Her character, Tanselle, also made a big impression on the show’s awkward hero, Dunk (Peter Claffey). Wandering around the camp that turned out for the Ashford tournament, he finds her performing with a puppet troupe and is instantly smitten.

Tanselle looked her own, but the show she was part of was also arresting, involving costumes and intricately detailed props, including a fire-breathing dragon. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is the located in a Westeros where the actual dragons died several generations before, after the events described in House of the Dragon. So the audience knows that dragons once existed, but they have never seen them.

At a recent press day for A Knight of the Seven Kingdomsio9 was part of a roundtable where Crawford was asked how the pups shown in episodes one and two—and will be seen in future episodes—come together. The performances only get moments of screen time, but it has the feel of a complete show happening that we see, just like Dunk does.

“The choreography we built (for) the puppet show, everything worked together,” Crawford said. “There were, I think, five or six people inside the dragon, controlling each wing and then the head and then the body and tail. Everything was so big and so heavy. So that’s it—props to them. I feel like I got the credit, but I didn’t do the puppet.

Like Tanselle’s part in the show, Crawford carefully works around the dragon crew. “I just tried my best to make it easy for them to fit in between the choreography,” he explained. “The other puppet shows we did, with more human stories, and of course the version where Tanselle played the knight, we all choreographed (them) together. Basically we planned a stage show like you would do in any production; we just made sure we were facing the audience. I think (we) had to tweak it a little bit to work for the camera, but it’s a real show.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms focused on Dunk’s adventures, so we didn’t get a ton of Tanselle’s background. Such is the case with George RR Martin’s original novel. (Her nickname carried over from the page to the screen: “Tanselle Too-Tall,” a quality that endeared her to the tall hedge knight.) But Crawford had a good understanding of the character that helped flesh her out the role.

“His role within the troupe—I thought he was a very creative person and creative spirit,” Crawford said. “I think he gets pleasure from painting and from taking quiet moments and being himself, which I think is why maybe the stage part is not his favorite aspect.

We see a little shyness on his face when he is on stage. But Tanselle is still confident in his talent and experience, said Crawford. “I think he’s a leader in this group, someone who knows a lot and someone who’s been part of this troop for a long time with his uncle and his aunt.”

New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms arrives Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.

Want more io9 news? Check when to expect the latest wonders, Star Warsand Star Trek releases, what’s next for DC Universe in film and TVand everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.