Small Council: Reactions to the Game of Thrones Season 6 teaser

HBO dropped the first teaser trailer for Game of Thrones Season 6 yesterday. Let’s talk about it.

DAN: This teaser managed to pack quite a bit of excitement into 41 seconds. We didn’t get any new footage, but I’m already excited to see Max von Sydow’s take on the Three-Eyed Raven—that deep, resonant voice should be pleasant to listen to next year.

My favorite part of the teaser is the rapid-fire montage of scenes from the show’s past—the Red Wedding, the Harpy statue coming down, Jaime’s amputation, Ice being melted in the Season 4 premiere—one of the show’s greatest strengths is its rich history, and I want to feel like the producers have it firmly in hand and intend to build on it. There are a lot of debts that have come due over the past several seasons, and I want to see some payment.

BEGIN SPOILERS FOR A DANCE OF DRAGONS

Another note on that montage: are we to believe that Bran is seeing all of those images flash before his eyes, or did the editors just want to remind us of the show’s bloody past so they could set up Bran’s chilling final line: “They have no idea what’s going to happen.” I suspect it’s a bit of both. Book-readers will know that, as a greenseer in training, Bran will learn how to see into (but not alter) the past by looking through the eyes of weirwood trees. There’s no way weirwoods would have been able to see, for example, Ice getting melted down, so I’m guessing the montage is a mix of stuff Bran sees with his new powers and important things the producers would like us to remember. It’s all about those debts coming due.

(Twitter follower Corey Smith resolved this question for me with a quote from A Dance with Dragons. Here’s what the Three-Eyed-Crow says to Bran: “The singers carved eyes into their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new greenseer learns to use…but in time you will see well beyond the trees themselves.” I guess Bran could have seen all that stuff, then. Thanks, Corey!)

Finally, I think it’s great that the first teaser places so much focus on Bran. The rightful heir to Winterfell may have sat last season out, but it looks like he’ll be returning in a big way for Season 6.

LEXI: My first reaction when I saw the news that the Season 6 trailer was out was YESSSS. Then I watched it and had a slightly different take, more along the lines of wamp wamp. I was a bit disappointed there wasn’t any new clips. I agree with Dan though that it’s definitely exciting to see that Bran and his super powers will be back after a lengthy absence.

We’re getting into that time of year when HBO typically releases new trailers so I’m hoping that in a few weeks we’ll get something with a little more substance and some brand new footage. Even without anything new for us to dissect, between the trailer and the Season 6 poster, HBO is succeeding at re-energizing the fan base and generating buzz. All of a sudden April doesn’t seem so far away after all.

KATIE: I think we’re all jonesing for some new footage, but for the time being I really dig this teaser. It’s a reminder of how far the characters have come, whether they’ve made it through alive or not, and reminds us all of what these families have lost and gained over the years. Taking us through the past reignites our excitement and trepidation for the future.

“They have no idea what’s going to happen,” the voiceover says. Too true, and that line sort of breaks the fourth wall in that the “they” can refer to both the characters in the show as well as the audience waiting on tenterhooks to see what new tragedies and triumphs befall them. Those 41 seconds certainly got a little chill going up my back, so now I’m even more pumped to see what new footage HBO will eventually give us.

ANI: So Dan, Lexi and Katie weren’t here this time last year, but for me, this teaser was one raven caw short of getting trolled again. The difference (the blessed, blessed difference) is that this teaser showed up on YouTube so that we could watch it over and over, instead of the terrible “one and done” Snapchat-style teasers HBO insisted on last year that held little new footage and few clues.

As to the trailer itself, let’s look at the breakdown. Max von Sydow provides the voiceover, which means that whatever it is we’re hearing is new. Moreover, we know Von Sydow is playing the Three-Eyed-Raven, so we know this is related to Bran and his apprenticeship to a tree. As he intones “We watch, we listen and we remember. The past is already written, the ink is dry,” we see that last shot of Jon Snow as he was rowed away from Hardhome, a reminder of the real stakes in this Game.

Then the flashes: Jon being stabbed, Ned dies, Cat dies, Arya is blind. These are all things Bran were not present for. Meera fighting the wight outside the tree, on the other hand, he witnessed firsthand. Ice being melted down, and the Red Wedding: not so much.

Note that all of the images are Stark deaths or otherwise directly related to Bran’s life. That’s why Jaime’s hand coming off seems a bit out of left field—how is that related? (Oh hey look, there’s that goddamn crowing raven. Are you sure we’re not being trolled?) Dany and Drogon, and the Harpy of Meereen falling also seem like they were just slid in to remind us of last season. The Night’s King turning the baby though? That’s important. (Maybe slightly less so than dead Jojen and the exploding wight, though that goes back to Bran’s lived experience.) Also important: the collapse of the Hardhome gate and the Nights King raising his arms. Sansa being kissed by Littlefinger returns us to the fate of Bran’s family, followed by another shot of Ice being melted and then poor stabbed dead Jon Snow.

No Bran. We have no idea what’s going to happen.

RAZOR: Maybe it’s my “excited puppy” approach to anything new from HBO regarding Game of Thrones, but I was geeking out all day over the teaser trailer. Yes, none of the imagery was new, but the narration definitely was, and the editing left me with one conclusion: this was a purposeful clue about what we can expect in Season 6.

First of all, hearing Max von Sydow basically give us the rules of greenseeing was a real treat, because that man is a living legend in the world of acting. Secondly, to hear Bran say: “The have no idea what’s going to happen” sent a wave of chills up and down my spine. That phrase, coupled with the scene of him warging after Jon was stabbed, sent my brain into overdrive regarding the method of Jon’s resurrection.

We already know that Melisandre is at Castle Black, and we are all familiar with the power of the priests and priestesses of R’hllor to raise the dead, so it’s safe to assume that Mel with have a hand in raising our favorite bastard. But will Bran now have a part in said resurrection? One of my favorite theories regarding the Three-Eyed Raven is that he has been guiding and watching over Jon Snow through the eyes of the late Jeor Mormont’s raven. Without getting into a whole Game of Thrones Theorycraft post, the gist of this theory is that the Three-Eyed Raven (Brynden Rivers/Bloodraven) has been trying to warn Jon of the impending danger that he has foreseen in the future, through weirwood.net.

If Bloodraven teaches Bran to use Old Mormont’s raven to see these events, and Bran sees Jon die, then his comment from the teaser really carries a lot of weight. I am convinced that Jon will be raised from death and seek bloody revenge on the men who betrayed him. Alliser Thorne and his cronies have no idea what’s going to happen. Think about the teaser poster with Jon Snow. Many feel that poster showed blood weeping from Jon’s eyes. I disagree. I feel that the blood on Jon’s face is splatter from his going buck wild on his traitorous former brothers.

Of course, this is all just speculation, and as I said, I am probably being an excited puppy over this all, but for the nonce, I just cannot be convinced otherwise.

CAMERON: I find myself mostly shrugging about this teaser. It seems to frame all the big events from the past five years as “peanuts compared to what’s about to happen,” which I think is a problematic trend in the way Thrones approaches its storytelling. I’m sure framing it with Bran and the Three-Eyed Raven was intentional, but with no new footage, we can only speculate on what that connection might be—and as everyone else has already enthusiastically done so, I’ll leave it to them. I do like hearing Max von Sydow, though. There’s a trailer voice for ya!

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