*The following post includes spoilers for all five seasons and all five books, as well as some speculation for the next season.
As finals rapidly approach, it’s important to take a break from studying to focus on the most important part of the end of the semester: Game of Thrones. Season six of HBO’s hit drama premiers in April, but December notoriously builds the hype that was promised for Game of Thrones fans, as the first images of the new season begin appearing. The network has wasted no time building hype as the production crews wrap up filming. Last week, the Game of Thrones Twitter posted the first piece of marketing materials for the new season:
Courtesy: Twitter
The two most obvious reactions are he lives! and reassurance that Game of Thrones will not be pushed back into May, as feared. Before I destroy hopeful celebration, I’d like to say that as a book reader, I’ve long been reassuring show watchers that Jon Snow’s death is not as simple as it looks. However, that is not to say that we’re getting the Jon Snow we once knew. Whatever happens is going to be traumatic, and knowing Game of Thrones, we’re going to regret wishing for Jon Snow to be alive.
Fans have commented on the strange placement of the blood on Jon Snow’s face, and with reason. The placement of his head and hair makes it hard to imagine that he’s lying on the ground, but either way, it looks like the blood is coming from his eye, which is, again, a little weird. Overall, the image bears more than a passing resemblance to the poster for The Passion of the Christ:
Courtesy: Imgur
Even more exciting news is the first official teaser trailer! Here are some key observations, in case you don’t have time to watch it 30 times in a row:
1. Again, he lives!
To which I say: not so fast. HBO is being pretty deliberate by bookending their teaser trailer with more images of Jon Snow. However, they could have chosen any number of scenes of Kit Harrington staring into the distance, so I think it’s important to remember that the teaser begins with the scene where Jon Snow has realized there is nothing he can do to fight the White Walkers and the mysterious Night’s King. This is not a hopeful moment and is not exactly reassuring.
2. No new footage was included, which makes the choice of scenes especially interesting.
It isn’t surprising that there is no new footage, this early in production. But with fifty hours of aired television, there had to be some method to narrowing down which scenes to show in that rapid succession: Brothers of the Night’s Watch stabbing Jon Snow, Arya watching as Ned is beheaded, Catelyn’s throat being slit, Arya going blind, Tormund Giantsbane fighting a skeleton, Ice being split into two Lannister swords, the Purple Wedding/Joffrey’s death, the Red Wedding/Robb’s death, Jaime losing his hand, the Three Eyed Raven cawing, Drogo, and then…
Okay, it gets really fast here, and that list is getting long, so I will switch into speculation mode. Many of these snippets are a second long or even shorter, to the point where if you watched the end of the video without pausing, you wouldn’t be able to process the difference between the transitions. I think it’s interesting that several gut-wrenching moments from the last season were omitted. If this is a montage of the worst things that ever happened on Game of Thrones, leaving out Ramsay and Sansa’s wedding, Shireen burning at the stake, or Barristan Selmy’s death seems a little strange. However, I think this does lead the watcher to wonder specifically about the Starks/the North. After so many years of watching our protagonists get beat down by circumstance and evil guys like Walder Frey and Roose Bolton, is the show trying to remind us that the North remembers? Is it finally A TIME FOR WOLVES?
Courtesy: Twitter
3. “We watch… we listen… and we remember. The past is already written. The ink is dry.”
The beginning of the trailer was made especially foreboding by Max Von Sydow’s narration. The talented actor was cast as Bran Stark’s creepy tree-mentor, Bloodraven (aka the Three Eyed Raven). As the only new content we get is the words, I think these need to be torn apart. Game of Thrones has a habit of teasing the theme of each season within teasers. So it stands to reason that this dialogue (which is likely bound to reappear within a conversation at some point) is speaking directly to us. The wording seems a little too deliberate to me. It’s as if the showrunners are reminding us that we were no more prepared for any of the atrocities of the last five seasons than we will be for the terror of the next.
One other comment I’ll make is that this is a reminder to book readers that the show is venturing into new territory that even we are not prepared for. I have doubts as to how much of Season Six will really be “new material,” but this is a good reminder nonetheless.
4. “They have no idea what’s going to happen.”
That line was narrated by Bran, in case you didn’t recognize his actor after an apparently puberty-filled two years.
Courtesy: Twitter
So I think this gives us a clue as to what’s happening in this conversation. In case you missed it, Bran’s warging powers occasionally allow him to have glimpses into the past and future during his wolf dreams. Now that he’s arrived to the Three Eyed Raven to receive his training, he’ll be able to tap into what fans call “weirwood.net” and begin deliberately going back in time… and maybe even forward.