Notes on the first ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 trailer.

The board is set. The pieces are moving.

The first trailer of Game of Thrones Season 8 promises a Helm’s Deep-like hellscape of death, and shining moments of the heroism, ugliness and beauty that can result when thousands of people are locked up in the dark with no chance of escape.

The Stark girls stand alone.

One of the most genuinely unnerving things about the Season 8 trailer is its portrayal of Arya’s contrasting view of the White Walkers. ‘I know death,’ she declaims, ‘he’s got many faces. I look forward to seeing this one’. This is said with stunning, Faceless detachment that is consistent with Arya’s behaviour in Season 7, but is contrasted with visuals of her fleeing through the pitch-black halls of Winterfell, her breathing denoting absolute panic, her entire demeanour channelling the childlike despair of her flight from King’s Landing at the end of Season 1. This tells us several things. First, the White Walkers are so terrifying that they frighten the wits out of a person who has been trained to purge herself of emotion. Second, the White Walkers are so terrifying that they frighten the wits out of a person who has already survived a fight in complete darkness against an enemy who had every chance of killing her. Third, there is something about the White Walkers that reminds Arya of the time in her life when she was at her most vulnerable and helpless. The White Walkers have rendered her a ‘mouse’ once again.

This doesn’t mean that Arya is going to spend all of Season 8 crying and screaming in a corner; what we know of her character, and the general badassery of her comment that ‘I look forward to seeing this one’ make that very unlikely. Rather, the White Walkers have a way of grasping at the fear that she has controlled and lived with her entire life and turning it up to fever pitch, so that in this moment at least, it rules her.

Another Stark who spends a great deal of time alone in this trailer is Sansa. As has been suggested by her dissatisfaction with Jon’s prolonged absence in Season 7 (and by the brief, seconds-long footage of Jon and Daenerys’ arrival at Winterfell released weeks ago), Sansa is struggling with the idea of an alliance (military and otherwise) with Daenerys. It is very difficult to ignore the ominous parallel between Sansa’s coldly polite ‘Winterfell is yours, Your Grace’, and Ned’s warm ‘Your Grace, Winterfell is yours’, in Season 1. Season 8 seems to promise more of Sansa’s reluctance in the scene where Jon and Daenerys are seen approaching the dragons, and Sansa is pictured immediately afterwards, watching them with what could only be described as a precarious kind of caution.

Sansa has good reason to be both cautious and sceptical. Her experience has taught her that seeking alliances with Southern rulers and expecting rationality from inbred would-be Lords of the Seven Kingdoms usually has unpleasant consequences. In addition to this, she has just found her family again and Daenerys’ presence threatens that. In Season 7, Sansa had a chance to rebuild her relationship with Jon, whom she treated so abominably when she was a child. Working with Jon has also led him to declare the North an independent kingdom, which has afforded Sansa the chance to defend her people against the Southern interference she has every reason to fear. Daenerys’ arrival (and beauty) upsets this apple cart and leaves Sansa to navigate a minefield of uncertainty as to what the future holds. How will Jon be able to prioritise Northern independence if he’s allied himself to a Southern queen? And how will he be able to put the North first if he’s too cunt-struck (my new Favourite word) to notice if and when he is being manipulated?

One thing I really like about this trailer is that it presents both Stark girls as being alone instead of teasing the multitude of reunions that could take place, i.e. Arya and Sansa with the Hound, Arya with Gendry, etc. This seems to demonstrate that the showrunners are shedding some of the fanfictionesque tendencies of Season 7 and portraying the Stark girls as individuals rather than incomplete halves that need to be paired up in order for their wounds to be healed.

I was also very pleased that the silly rumour about Sansa fighting in the final battle does not seem to be a factor at this point. Not only would this be out of character, but it would also betray Game of Thrones’ message about ‘a woman’s courage’, and how one does not need to hold a sword to be brave.

The fate of Jon and Daenerys.

As discussed in my post Who Will Survive Game of Thrones Season 8?, there is an awful lot that can go wrong in Jon and Daenerys’ blossoming romance. I cannot, for example, quite shake the feeling that when Daenerys discovers the truth of Jon’s parentage, she’ll hand him over to Drogon to make barbecued Stark on toast. The Season 8 trailer, however, seems to indicate that things are going rather well between them.

First, they are pictured riding side by side; unusual in itself in that it is the Queen who should traditionally take precedence over those who have sworn allegiance to her. Second, the two of them are seen to be confidently approaching Drogon and Rhaegal, who are surrounded by the skeletons of small animals: is Daenerys taking Jon’s obvious affinity with the dragons a step further, and allowing him to ride them? Does she know of his parentage, and decide that it’s his birthright to ride them? Or is Daenerys simply off somewhere and Jon is saying goodbye?
Third (and this, for me, is compelling proof that they are going to stay together), there is the fact that Daenerys and Jon are together in the crypt as Jon presumably pays his respects to the Starks who have died.

Jon wouldn’t take just anyone down there, and certainly wouldn’t allow just anyone to see him at such a vulnerable moment. This, above all, seems to suggest that the two of them are in it for the long run, and one can’t help but think of Ned and Robert grieving together in the crypt in Season 1. It is also rather haunting, in hindsight, that Ned would later be executed for treason against Robert. When Daenerys discovers that Jon’s claim to the Iron Throne is stronger than hers, will she do the same thing? Will they defeat the White Walkers together, then inadvertently start another war – against each other?

This trailer is big on Jon standing in Ned’s shoes: let’s hope that hanging about in crypts and godswoods is where the similarity ends.

Cersei on the wall.

Cersei spends most of this trailer looking like the cat who got the cream, and by the looks of things, she has every reason to seem so. Not only has she got her dressmakers to make her another batch of absolutely stunning outfits (where’s the fun in being Queen if you can’t look fabulous?), but Euron Greyjoy seems to be upholding his end of their bargain. We see ships bearing the sigil of House Greyjoy, we see from the shiny armour of the occupants of said ships that this is probably the Golden Company being ferried across from Essos, and immediately afterwards we observe Cersei on the walls of King’s Landing, ignoring a concerned-looking Qyburn and seeming immensely pleased with herself.

‘Our enemy doesn’t tire, doesn’t stop, doesn’t feel,’ Jon says in voice over, a statement that seems to apply to the White Walkers until the camera comes to rest on Cersei, elegantly clutching her usual glass of wine, but paralysed in a vulnerable moment that seems to draw a deliberate parallel between the Queen in the South and the White Walkers. While this could be interpreted as a way of saying, ‘Cersei might be cruel, but she is still human’ or ‘if the White Walkers don’t destroy us, Cersei will’, the glass of wine is by far the most interesting thing here. Why is she drinking if she’s pregnant?
I have always thought the baby was fake; a way of manipulating Jaime’s thwarted desire to be a real father to his children and (perhaps) assuaging Cersei’s own grief. Having a child is also an excellent way of ensuring that one’s power will live on after death, and Cersei’s pregnancy can only assist in keeping her armies loyal. If they desert her, her child may live to seek revenge. So my question is: if the baby is a lie, is Cersei faking the pregnancy to keep Jaime loyal, and to maintain a sense of power and legacy? If the baby isn’t a lie, one cannot help but wonder why she is drinking. Did she miscarry? If so, how will this affect her ability to lead, or inspire fear? The answer lies in those brief seconds of wine-clutching introspection. In that moment, what or whom is she thinking of?

Oathkeeper.

I’m so excited to see what witticisms and wisecracks will ensue when Jaime eventually arrives at Winterfell. In this trailer, however, the manifestation of the nobility that Jaime has gradually developed over the years is all we get to see. He is seen fighting in the midst of the flames, cutting down enemies and declaring with charismatic conviction, ‘I promised to fight for the living. I intend to keep that promise.’ I have a theory that he says this when he inevitably gets chucked into prison on arrival, however, his presence on the walls seems to suggest that Daenerys either reasons that there’s nowhere for him to run to, or decides to give him the benefit of the doubt. Or Tyrion decides to pay him back for helping him to escape King’s Landing.
Also, while Jaime is seen to be fighting despite the difficulties of only having one hand, it is significant that Brienne is pictured in the vanguard next to Pod, while Jaime is shown to be on the walls. Is this an acknowledgment of his disability, or an accident? How will Brienne and Jaime end up fighting together if they’re on different parts of the battlefield? All this is endlessly frustrating, and is probably designed to be so.

Is Tyrion ever going to be happy again?

We only see Tyrion once in this trailer, his neck craned upwards as though conversing with someone on a dragon, and he does not look happy. This could be a continuation of his obvious reservations about Jon and Daenerys’ relationship and his distaste for Daenerys wanting to burn everything in sight. As I discussed in Who Will Survive Game of Thrones Season 8?, there is no indication that Tyrion serving as Daenerys’ advisor is going to end well for him when the truth about Jon comes out, and the trailer’s distinct lack of Tyrion’s usual repartees only makes me fear more for his safety.

Conclusion: The night is dark and full of terrors.

In the South, the sun still appears to be shining. In the North, however, most of the scenes appear to have been shot in complete darkness. Is this because the White Walkers only attack at night (unlikely), or at some point in this season, is Westeros going to be covered by ‘a darkness that will swallow the dawn’? Perpetual darkness makes for great, atmospheric storytelling. It is known. We will have to wait for future trailers to see if this darkness is linked purely to day and night, or if it denotes a winter in which the characters we love will die like flies.