Emergency Small Council: Reactions to new Season 6 footage from HBO’s Yearender

This past Sunday, HBO unexpectedly dropped its Yearender video for 2015, which included our first look at new footage for Game of Thrones Season 6. Let’s talk about it.

DAN: HBO is determined to start teasing the season early, isn’t it? First we got a teaser photo, then a little trailer with new dialogue, and now the network has snuck new footage into its Yearender video. All of these things are coming ahead of schedule. Does this mean HBO has an inordinate amount of confidence in Game of Thrones Season 6, or is it just trying to hype its most popular series as soon as possible?

In any case, I think the image that intrigues me most is the one of Ramsay on horseback. The Bastard of Bolton does not look pleased, as well he wouldn’t. He’s lost both Sansa, who he needed to consolidate his hold on the North (I’m still not sure why all the Northern lords weren’t present at his wedding to witness it, but whatever), and Theon, his pet. My first thought when seeing this clip was that Ramsay was on a search party to find Sansa, but he looks a little overdressed for the occasion. Do you need full war regalia and a guy to bear the Bolton banner to go hunting for a couple runaways? I’d think you’d wanna travel light.

It seems more likely that Ramsay is leading an army somewhere, possibly to that epic battle we keep hearing about Also, a couple of people have pointed out that the guy riding immediately behind him kind of looks like the actor who was cast to play Smalljon Umber. I’m not sure we can tell that from this vantage point, but it’s something to think about.

Also, I hope I wasn’t the only person who initially thought that the footage of the dragon around 0:32 was of Drogon, and not Smaug from the latest Hobbit movie. Oops.

CAMERON: I thought that dragon was from Reign of Fire. Oops?

The only significant footage I can see is that of Cersei hugging Tommen, because it means they’re going to have a conversation about Myrcella and I’m just not ready for that kind of emotional damage right now. I can’t really see an army behind Ramsay so I’m wagering that it’s just post-battle clean-up and whatnot. (Mayhaps he stumbles upon Stannis’s dead body?) Also there is a shot of Daenerys. She’s still in the show, guys!

LEXI: The dragon footage also gave me a mild heart attack until I realized it wasn’t Thrones-related.

Seeing a few brief glimpses of what’s to come is super-exciting, even if there’s not much to speculate about. Last summer Emilia Clarke told the L.A. Times that Season 6 is, “Shocking moment to shocking moment. Epic moment to epic moment. It’s mental; it’s epic.” Assuming that’s the case, it’s no wonder HBO has ramped up marketing earlier than usual. Either way I can’t wait to find out and I’m really, really hoping Ramsay finally gets what’s coming to him.

KATIE: My vote is for Ramsay to immediately get his head whacked off after the above shot of him. It wouldn’t exactly be poetic justice, but at this point I’m like, forget the ceremony, I just want to see him bite it. Anyway.

The shot of Cersei and Tommen gives me the most to ponder (although I didn’t initially think of Myrcella like Cameron did, which I feel a bit guilty about since she’s probably dead and all). Tommen’s been an ineffective king at best, and I wonder if this small taste of him in the teaser indicates something big. That is, what’s Tommen going to do next? Will he still be under his mother’s thumb, and how well will she be able to manipulate him from a cell—will she even be emotionally/mentally stable enough to do so? Can Tommen even rule without someone guiding him (probably not)? Who would take Cersei’s place as his adviser and, depending on who that is, would it strengthen Cersei’s thirst for revenge? 

Every question I ask myself only makes more crop up, but any way I look at it, I have a bad feeling about the Lannisters’ future. All jokes regarding the Stark death toll aside, I’m starting to think that more Starks than Lannisters will make it out of this alive.

ANI: OMG OMG OMG. I am heart broken. I am devastated. I cannot with this show any longer. How can it do this to everything I love? How can it hurt me like this? People, it was worse than the Red Wedding when I saw it. HOW COULD THEY?  I CAN’T WATCH THIS SHOW ANYMORE!!!!11! I AM DONE.

Dany’s wig. 2011-2015. (sob)

In happier news, did you see that chic pixie cut on Cersei? That girl is rockin’ it like it’s 1995. The real question is if she can get all her handmaidens to start sporting it, or if we discover them all in rough grey shifts, proving their alliance to Margaery, still locked in the cells beneath the Sept of Baelor.

And finally, can we just kill Ramsay already? Kthxbye.

RAZOR: Well, I caught the new footage the night it aired, so this was pretty much me.  Look, I know it was only three new scenes, but they did show Dany looking very much the Khaleesi that we all fell in love with. And, if you allow your imagination to wander just a bit, then Ramsay could have been riding to the Battle of the Bastards…right? As far as Cersei and Tommen go, they seemed to be in darker clothing, almost as if they were in mourning. Maybe someone close died. Maybe that someone died in the chamber of a Maester with a crossbow bolt buried in their chest. Maybe…just maybe, there was snow falling in King’s Landing when that happened.

See what happens when I let my imagination get carried away? No wonder Ani calls me an excited puppy.

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