Please share your thought on the trailer! I'm so excited and overwhelmed so I might missed some detail here and there. (Also I saw someone posting a screenshot of the throne room and say that it was sansa standing in front of cersei, but the image is so blurry, I could barely see anything)
Wellllllll since ya asked…
Helps to do sequencing to identify themes:
1) Arya voiceover and running down the hallways interspersed by -
Davos pacing the ramparts nervously and
Varys in a safe tunnel space presumably as battle ensues
and concludes with Arya saying she knows death and he has many faces
Guess: I think the Arya running in terror scene happens AFTER her voice over quote. It seems a little too self-confident and her look is such a wild contrast to her running away in terror (something we haven’t seen from Arya since the waif I would guess). So Arya has some hubris about being able to handle the threat of the dead - and figures out it’s different than anything she’s experienced. She’s also holding dragonglass as if it’s her first time seeing the substance which makes sense if Jon is getting them equipped and warning them about what’s to come.
2) Bran’s voice over interspersed with:
Greyjoy ships approaching with Golden Company
Beric/Tormund/Edd walking with Beric’s flaming sword
Sam peers over his shoulder while talking with Bran with noticeably cold breath
Bran says “everything you did brought you here (sort of Beric-ish in that way) .. where you belong”
pans to a shot of the Red Keep
a smirking Cersei with Qyburn (is it a happy or sad smirk? seems like a moment of fleeting happiness to me)
ends with “home” as the Unsullied and Jon and Dany arrive
ominously shows the dragons flying over Sansa and she looks concerned
Guess: this seems like a scene where Jon offers a mini-confession or a mini-apology for being WHO he is and doing WHAT he’s done. He’s not Ned’s son after all, and he’s brought a lotttttt of outsiders to Winterfell with him. I think this is in the same moment he learns about RLJ as Bran is stressing “home” and that Jon belongs there, something he’ll really need some reassurance regarding. Also a solid callback to Bran in ep1.
Jon approaches but did he bring danger to his home?
Also note how “where you belong” pans to the Red Keep. I happen to think the Red Keep is largely destroyed, maybe even all of King’s Landing - yet the implication is that he belongs on a pretty significant seat of power.
3) Jon voicing over that the enemy doesn’t tire
Jon starts saying “they’re coming” while someone is coming towards him
aaaaaand it’s Daenerys coming towards him as he says “our enemy doesn’t tire”
Nothing to see here, move along
“doesn’t stop” - cuts to Gendry directing the castle forge
then Jorah riding in rather urgently
“doesn’t feel” - cuts to GW/Missandei passionately kissing before what looks to be a pretty dangerous conflict
then cuts to Jaime and Brienne I believe fighting on the ramparts of WF
then it cuts to Cersei…and…
Guess: so clearly this is Jon in the moment talking about the Dead…perhaps this is even the same sequence where he’s warning people about what’s coming and Arya says she looks forward to seeing what they have to offer. I’m really thinking Arya is going to have her confidence shaken.
Next, it’s really BIG EYES EMOJI that they chose to have Dany approaching as Jon says the enemy is coming because you can see how his words fit with the other cuts. “the enemy doesn’t stop” - so Gendry is forging with a lot of urgency, Jorah is riding hard back into some base of operations (whether it’s actually in WF or the outskirts) / then we get “the enemy doesn’t feel” with GW/Missandei showing their feelings, Jaime and Brienne fighting and showing their human emotions / THEN WE GET CERSEI MOST DEFINITELY FEELING.
Cersei’s reputation is that of an unfeeling, sociopathic monster. And yet we’re shown her in a very very vulnerable state. I very strongly feel like part of the resolution to this story is making peace with the Lannisters. Perhaps Jon’s words were meant to show us that the Lannisters really aren’t their enemies in the end. I still think House Lannister is lucky if one survives (Jaime), it would be rather bittersweet to see the Stark-Lannister conflict end not in the destruction of one, but in peace with each other.
4) Then we get big epic GOT music...
Dragons flying through Beggar’s Canyon back on Tatooine
I mean...some canyon in the North
Arya’s teaser shot looking up as the small folk look utterly terrified
Jaime voicing over “I promise to fight for the living”
would almost have to be in the first moments he arrives at WF as we are then shown that Jaime definitely fights for the living. Jaime gon’ have a mini trial and survive it
Greyworm donning his Unsullied helm
Jon in front of the heart tree
The Hound with fire
Jaime saying he intends to keep his promise
someone closing their hand around a blade!?
Hope they have spare bactine
Then we get a sequence of...
Jon and Dany approaching the dragons and a pile of bones
Strong imagery associated with the dragons
even down to picking up the small deformed jaw bone of one of the last dragons in the Dragonpit
Drogon looks a bit aggressive
Sansa looking sad
Notice the high neck and the way it’s more of a defined blue color and goes straight across? It’s different from this outfit:
Which seems to be what she’s wearing during this shot:
and it’s different from her other new dress
but it’s most similar to...
It’s true that the neck of the dress comes higher in the new clip, but the material and style fit the Wolf Bits dress the best. Interesting...
Arya fighting as a fire burns around them
Dany looking really upset...and I think she’s in the Lord’s Chamber doorway:
Because of the silhouette of the window:
doesn’t really match any other window frame I’ve been able to dig up on the show. She looks very alone and very upset. Maybe she got that Lords Chamber but no one to share it with.
Then we get sad Tyrion:
it looks like he’s standing on either sand or ash. If it’s sand, it’s either Dragonstone or the beaches to go into King’s Landing. He’s looking up so he’s either looking at a castle or a dragon.
So alternatives:
1) Sand + Castle = Red Keep probably2) Sand + Dragon = RK about to be attacked3) Ash + Castle = RK utterly destroyed4) Ash + Dragon = something very bad has happened
If he were going to King’s Landing, he’d probably be going in secret and probably wouldn’t be wearing all of his team!Dany garb and Hand of the Queen pin. Soooo my bet is that he’s looking at a Dragon which makes the ground mostly likely ash. Queen of the Ashes stuff again? That’s my bet.
WHICH MAKES THIS NEXT SHOT TERRIFYING
This is menacing.
Turning into horrific. And it’s from a POV as if we are the thing being burned. Soooo where have we seen this before?
It’s almost exactly the execution of the random former master under the pyramid in Meereen. I mean it’s almost EXACTLY the same.
So Tyrion’s worried look (during the day time so not sequential) which evokes the worried look he had during the Tarly execution transitions into the image of a dragon burning SOMETHING with a POV using the same visuals we saw when Dany fed a random guy to her dragons. Eesh.
And then we jump to shots of the Unsullied, Brienne, Pod, and I believe the Knights of the Vale, followed by Jorah all watching as the army of the dead approaches Winterfell.
Basically - we’re getting all the bitter in these promos and really none of the sweet. For the voice overs, we got Arya, Bran, Jon, Jaime which is interesting in itself as many believe Jaime could serve as Jon’s Hand after the war.
Not to mention this huge battle is episode 3 - the visuals are heavily framed as fighting the dead but there’s always fire around AND we’re shown what’s almost definitely a dragonfire execution. The people caught in between Ice and Fire. That’s the emotional fulcrum of the story right there.
