Desperately Seeking Spoilers In Season 6 Photos

As the Game of Thrones production continues to play their cards extremely close to the chest, fan theorizing with what little has been officially given to us is spiraling.

It was probably inevitable as we got closer that the lack of information that has been coming out of official channels would start to make fans go crazy en masse. After all, the production dropped what everyone is calling “the biggest cliffhanger” on TV. (At least, the biggest since Poldark ended their season’s cliffhanger on an actual edge of a cliff.) We’ve joked about Schrödinger’s Crow Jon Snow, despite the production’s insistence from all quarters that the character is dead. But it’s been pretty obvious the show has something to hide. One could argue that now that they’ve gone completely off-book, there was no reason to tell fans anything, and leave everything to be spoiler fodder. But even the channels that used to drop odd tidbits here and there (never spoilers, not even when the show was adhering tightly to the novels) went dark this year. Making Game of Thrones, for instance, used to actually be a useful website to source year round. The official blog of the production up until last season would drop cute little stories from behind the scenes filming. This year? The website was dormant from July’s San Diego Comic Con through December, when that first poster of a Bloody Jon Snow dropped. Not one iota of info from the official sources on filming this season. Not one.

With tonight’s first televised footage reduced to yet another teaser instead of a full trailer, and still zero sign of a pre-season special promoting Season 6 on the HBO schedule, all fans have to go on is the 20-something photos that were released over the last couple of days. (Including images from HBO’s releases to foreign markets, we’re up to 28.) And some of the speculation has started to take a wilder turn.

Game of Thrones fans, now let’s have speculation, I slay
Game of Thrones fans, now let’s have speculation
You know you that show when you cause all this conversation
Always stay gracious, best revenge is your air date

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As I pointed out in the Small Council, these photos don’t tell us much. Some of my favorite freaking out from certain quarters has to do with “Bran Stands,” as if somehow we didn’t have the January teaser where he and Max von Sydow voiced over images from the previous seasons, followed up with Isaac Hempstead Wright, in the only “official interview” we’ve had from anybody so far this season, telling us that Bran will be seeing the past in flashbacks. Yes, Bran is standing in Winterfell. No, he’s not about to face off with Ramsey Bolton. Sorry.

Next up! The “Sansa is pregnant” rumors. I will give you this–that’s a bad angle on the heavy gown. I will also give you this: of all the real spoilers that slipped out of filming this season (which we rounded up here), Sansa is one we know very little about. Her outdoor scenes were filmed in such a way that fans couldn’t get any clear footage to confirm if it was her, and the rest was done in studio. What we do know–which is that she and Theon will part ways–was more due to seeing Alfie Allen filming without Sophie Turner anywhere to be seen.

But! We do know some things. We know, for instance, how human pregnancy works. (Well, you do if you paid attention in Health Class anyway.) We know that Sansa was probably not pregnant at the end of last season. (Or if she was, it’s so early days yet she doesn’t even know it/kept it utterly concealed.) We know that we are picking up mere days, if not hours after that desperate jump. (Which a pregnant women who was looking to keep her baby probably wouldn’t attempt.) We know one does not go from nothing to “second trimester bump” in a matter of hours. Sansa being pregnant with a Bolton baby would make for a helluva twist. But this picture doesn’t show that.

Really, it’s the cut of the dress.

And now my favorite–because fans really did spot something I’m betting the production didn’t notice, or they wouldn’t have released it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I called this picture so boring it was like a f-u to fans. I was wrong.

Because there’s a small speck of white on a black horse that is not snow.

It’s not a snowflake–too big.

It looks very much like the pommel of Longclaw. Attached to the saddlebag of a black horse. As Melisandre and company are getting ready to go….where?

Now, there are so many places we could go with this. Starting with the fact that just because Jon Snow is dead doesn’t mean his sword is now defunct. That is a Valryian steel sword. That is a valuable weapon.  Someone is going to claim that sword, if not several somebodies. That sword hilt could be attached to their horse. Some candidates to claiming Jon’s sword:

• Alliser Thorne, who would see wielding the sword now carried by two Lord Commanders as a good visual cue that he should be next in line. The problem with that answer though, is that he’s got no reason to be leaving Castle Black.
• Edd, who as one of Jon’s few true friends would fight to be allowed to have it. He might also be ready to quit Castle Black considering the horrid mutiny that just occurred.
• Tormund Giantsbane, who saw what that sword can do to a White Walker. He also has WunWun to stomp anyone who tried to take it from him, and he would definitely be evicted from Castle Black along with the Red Woman by the Night’s Watch once the dust settled from Jon Snow’s murder.

But of course, the real candidate to wield that sword? I believe that’s the man wearing it in this very spoilery photo right here. Who has every reason to be leaving Castle Black with Melisanadre, and heading south.

Did the production actually let slip a tiny clue to the worst kept secret of Season 6? Despite all their precautions and all their playing it very close the vest, and their refusal to post anything anywhere that could be considered official? It seems hard to believe. Perhaps that’s not the pommel of Longclaw at all. Perhaps it’s just a blurry corner of some insignificant prop half out of focus in the background of a photo of Melisandre that gives nothing away. We report. You decide.

Now, let’s see if that teaser this evening has anything to add….