The Game of Thrones Season 7 trailer begins, as all great trailers do, with a geography
lesson. Queen Cersei stands on a map, and says there are enemies to her east, to her
west, to her south, and to her north – there’s Daenerys Targaryen with her invading army,
there’s King Euron Greyjoy with his ironborn fleet, there’re the Sand Snakes and Olenna
in the Reach and in Dorne, and in the north, there’s King Jon Snow. We learn a lot about
each of these sides in the trailer, and bout other cool stuff besides, so let’s have
a quick look at what this all means for the future of Game of Thrones.
First off, Daenerys Targaryen finally arrives at Westeros. This is a moment that Dany has
dreamed of for years , that fans have awaited for years, ever since the first book came
out back in ’96. Daenerys was born here at Dragonstone, ancestral home of the Targaryen
dynasty that had ruled Westeros for three centuries – until Robert Baratheon took
over, and Dany had to flee with her brother Viserys. All her life Dany longed to return
to her home, and to her birthright the Iron Throne, and now, after six seasons and five
books and twenty long years, her time has finally arrived to conquer Westeros. This
table in Dragonstone was made by Dany’s ancestor Aegon three hundred years ago – a
map with “no borders” to show that the Seven Kingdoms is truly “One realm, for
one king to rule alone” – or, in this case, one queen – there ain’t room for
two on the Iron Throne. So to defeat Queen Cersei, Dany brings with her three dragons,
a Dothraki horde, an Unsullied army – fire and blood. Dany says she was “born to rule
the Seven Kingdoms”, but is she even the good guy here? From another perspective, she’s
a crazy dragon lady from across the sea, attacking the Kingdoms with foreign soldiers, burning
people alive with flying monsters – is she really the hero? Dany’s often compared to
her father, the cruel Mad King Aerys. Will Dany be a force for peace, or will she go
down her dad’s dark path? Fortunately, Dany has many supporters and advisors around her,
including Grey Worm of the Unsullied, and Missandei, who get it on in the trailer – despite
the fact that Grey Worm is a eunuch. And there’s Tyrion Lannister, who has valuable political
experience in King’s Landing, and who has a curious relationship with Dany’s dragons
– some fans think that Tyrion might ride a dragon. Dany also has Varys, though he’s
barely visible in the trailer – and other characters like Daario and Kinvara aren’t
there at all, they’ve been left in Meereen – these last seasons of Thrones move so
fast there isn’t even time to kill off the minor characters before they’re cut from
the story. But someone else we do see is Melisandre, she’s at Dragonstone, which is a surprise.
Last we saw Mel, she was exiled from Winterfell by Jon and Davos for that whole child murder
kerfuffle last season – seems that Mel then went to Dragonstone where Dany is. Mel has
a pretty flaky record when it comes to supporting leaders – first she says Stannis is the
saviour, then Jon – maybe now she’ll support Daenerys, who other red priests say is the
hero Azor Ahai. Dany and Mel both love flame, so they should get along like a house on fire
– or a girl on f– mm. Anyway, Dany has a great squad and a huge army, and in the
trailer, she goes on the attack. We see Cersei’s Lannister soldiers attacked
by Daenerys’ Unsullied, in a castle that looks unfamiliar. It’s got Lannister heraldry
painted on an archway though so this might be Casterly Rock, the home base of the Lannisters
which we’ve never seen before in the books or show. The Rock is a massive fortress built
into a mountain in the westerlands, and it’s apparently never been taken before. If Casterly
Rock falls to Daenerys, that would be a huge blow to House Lannister. This spot on the
map, by the way, seems to read C A – maybe supporting the idea that this place is Casterly
Rock. So Daenerys is Cersei’s eastern enemy. Her
enemies to the south are Dany’s allies – the Sand Snakes of Dorne and Olenna of the Reach.
These guys don’t actually appear in the trailer, which is a strong hint they might
not last long in Season 7. The first big Sand Snakes episode was the least popular episode
in Game of Thrones history, and ever since the showrunners seem to be pretending that
the Dorne storyline never happened – with only a brief couple scenes in Season 6. So
the Sand Snakes’ll probably be quickly swept under the rug in Season 7 – though hopefully
Olenna Tyrell still has some fight in her. Olenna’s whole family was murdered by Cersei
last season – so now Olenna has nothing to lose – she’s out for revenge. Also,
we see Ellaria Sand making out with Yara Greyjoy, which is fun – though, the last person who
Ellaria kissed, Cersei’s daughter Myrcella, caught a pretty bad case of death by poison,
so Yara might wanna be careful where she sticks her bits – but also, Cersei has not forgotten
the murder of Myrcella by the Sand Snakes. There are a lot of scores to settle in Season
7. Another battle in the trailer seems to take
place in the south – because Dany’s Dothraki are fighting men not from House Lannister,
but from House Tarly – this bowman looks just like the Tarly heraldry. House Tarly
is led by Randyll Tarly, said to be one of the greatest military minds in Westeros . However,
it looks like Randyll makes the mistake of trying to fight the Dothraki not in a castle
but in the open field. That is, like, the one thing you should never do against mounted
Dothraki – cause these guys can run your ass down, shooting arrows from horseback , jumping
from one horse to another, duel-wielding arakhs, running literal circles around you – this–
just– you don’t want that. So Randyll fucked up, and will probably die, which actually
is pretty lucky for Randyll’s son Samwell. Sam, if you remember, took Randyll’s favourite
toy last season, the Valyrian steel sword Heartsbane. And Randyll might not forgive
that – he’s threatened to kill Sam before, and after the theft of his beloved sword,
he might finally decide to quote “hunt [Sam] down like the pig” he is . So maybe not
such a bad thing if Sam’s dad dies. Meanwhile, Sam can keep studying in the Citadel of the
maesters. He and Gilly might uncover secrets in the Citadel library – in this promo image,
Gilly is reading a text about Azor Ahai, the hero prophesied to save the world. The Citadel
is home to Westeros’ greatest experts on history, and astronomy, and on medicine – which
could be very important for Jorah Mormont – in the trailer we see his arm emerge from
within a wooden door, badly infected with the disease greyscale. Jorah is slowly turning
into a stony zombie, but there might be hope of a cure at the Citadel. And this raises
some really cool possibilities. Cause in the books, there’s a character called Victarion
Greyjoy who gets an infected wound in his arm. He’s healed in a magical ritual, and
afterwards, his arm is left bloody and blackened, charred and smoking – but apparently “stronger”
than ever . Maybe the curing of Jorah’s infected arm will do something similar – give
him a red smoking superpowered arm just like Victarion, and like Hellboy, and the Ninja
Gaiden guy, and C-3PO. This might not be likely, but it would be super cool.
So that’s what’s going on in the south. Cersei’s enemies in the west seem to refer
to the ironborn under King Euron Greyjoy – that’s a Greyjoy ship we see in the trailer. Cersei
calls Euron an enemy, but an alliance between the two is possible – that might be Euron
in Cersei’s throne room in the trailer. Cersei desperately needs so allies – surrounded
as she is on by enemies on all sides. And with the Iron Islands behind him, Euron could
prove a powerful friend. In the trailer we see him attack what seems to be Daenerys’
fleet – the Targaryen, Tyrell and Martell ships we saw at the end of Season 6. And this
battle could be huge – Theon Greyjoy is there, Yara and Ellaria are probably there,
and judging by all the fire, Dany’s dragons might be involved. We’ve seen the dragons
kick ass at sea before, but ironborn are famously dangerous on water, and Euron no doubt has
some tricks up his sleeve. So this naval battle could get pretty crazy.
So Euron may be a useful ally for Cersei, but otherwise she’s running pretty low on
friends – having blown up half the capital last season. As tensions rise and her enemies
close in, it’ll be interesting to see if Cersei shows any remorse or regret over her
crimes – or if she’ll remain defiant to the end. Speaking of which, there’s a lot
of speculation over how Cersei may die. A prophecy in the books suggests that Cersei’ll
be killed by her brother. Cersei thinks this means Tyrion – but some fans think Jaime
will be the one to kill his sister. So maybe Cersei’s most faithful protector will prove
to be Gregor Clegane, the undead Mountain, who now looks like a medieval Darth Vader
in some new black armour. It’s cool how the armour has an image of Cersei’s crown
on the chest – previous Kingsguard armour has shown a Targaryen dragon, a King’s crown,
or the Faith’s star – this emblem puts Cersei front and centre. Cersei’s been a
focus of a lot of the HBO promos lately – this season might a big one for her.
So we’ve seen Cersei’s enemies to the east south and west – when she speaks of
her enemies to the north, we get a shot of Arya Stark travelling alone. The show has
spent two seasons training Arya as an assassin, but with Walder Frey dead, her priority now
seems to be to return home to Winterfell . Ever since Season 1, Arya has been cruelly separated
from her family, and it’ll be a hugely emotional moment for her to see Sansa, and Bran and
Jon again. First, though, she might reunite with another close friend – the direwolf
Nymeria, who Arya had to leave in the riverlands back in Season 1. There are hints in the books
that while Arya has been off training, Nymeria’s been busy too – growing from a cute lil
doggo into a “monstrous” man-eating she-wolf, leading a huge pack of wolves across the riverlands.
Nymeria is not just a symbol of Arya’s Stark heritage – she’s a symbol of how Arya’s
changed from an innocent young girl to violent, ruthless killer. Hopefully she’ll find some
peace this season. Also speaking of Bran, he and Meera aren’t in the trailer but they’re
presumably still heading down to Winterfell. Since Benjen dropped them off a fair distance
short of the Wall, Meera has a long way to drag Bran home. Which could get tricky with
the zombies chasing them, though on the upside when they arrive Meera’s glutes’ll be
incredible. But at Winterfell itself, we see Cersei’s main northern enemies – King
Jon Snow, and Sansa Stark, with Brienne, and the lords of the north, and Davos, and Littlefinger,
lurking down in the shadows. We see him in the Winterfell crypts with Jon and Jon slams
Petyr up against a wall. Did Littlefinger just say something about Jon’s mother? They
are standing next to the statue of Lyanna Stark – and while we found out last season
that Jon is Lyanna’s son, Jon doesn’t know that yet – but maybe Littlefinger does?
Also, Jon attacking Petyr mirrors a scene in Season 1 when Ned did the same thing. Starks
are touchy. Littlefinger is also whispering in the ear of Sansa, who he seems to trying
to turn against Jon. On the one hand, Petyr has a point – Sansa is the oldest trueborn
child of Ned Stark – apart from Bran who everyone thinks is dead – so by rights it’s
Sansa, not Jon, who should rule the north. On the other hand, Petyr is a sociopathic
scheming creep who sold Sansa to the Boltons, killed Sansa’s aunt Lysa, betrayed Sansa’s
father Ned, and partly caused the War of the Five Kings in the first place, so it’s about
goddamn time that someone killed this guy already. Davos, meanwhile, plays the voice
of reason, reminding everyone that all this petty politics is pointless in the face of
the coming war with the white walkers. It’s kinda funny how the Starks have so suddenly
come to trust this random southerner Davos, but it’s a good thing they do, cause he’s
one of the only people talking sense in this series. The HBO promos this year make it clear
that the walkers and the wights are the big threat to Westeros. And in the trailer, it
looks like Jon leads a push against the walkers – a group of people run out beyond the Wall,
including Jon, and Tormund, and possibly Gendry – see how one of the blokes has a warhammer?
Gendry is the bastard son of Robert Baratheon, who famously used a warhammer in his Rebellion.
Fans have been saying for years how cool it would be if Gendry took up a hammer and emulated
his father in battle. With all the rowing he’s been doing, he’d probably be more
than strong enough – a shame the weather’s so cold though – he’ll probably haveta
keep his shirt on. Also, we know the Hound has joined Beric and Thoros heading north
– maybe those guys are in this group too. Brienne might be there, and Benjen’s out
here somewhere too – so this might just be the greatest all-star team we’ve ever
seen in Thrones, some of the best warriors in all Westeros fighting together – they’ll
need to be at their best to face the walkers, and the wights, and the Long Night to come.
So there is a huge amount of stuff happening in Game of Thrones Season 7 – and there’s
only seven episodes to fit it all in. Time is running out to wage wars, settle scores,
expose secrets, achieve ambitions, unite with family, bring about justice, to fight to survive
and to fulfil destiny. We’re well beyond the books now, so no one knows how this’ll
end – and every moment might just be a character’s final scene. Make sure to subscribe to Alt
Shift X for more on the Game of Thrones show and books – we got videos about Arya and
white walkers and Varys and Azor Ahai if you wanna go check those out. And if you haven’t
read the books before, consider buying them with the Amazon link below. You will not regret
reading deeper into Thrones. This chart is by Swolf_of_WallStreet, this Victarion art
is by Mike Hallstein, this Vader art is by Roberto Robert – all of the links are below.
Thank you to the translators for translating captions, and as ever, thank you to the Patrons
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