Ranking the Game of Thrones Trailers: Seasons 1-5

Season 1: “The Game Begins” Trailer

One might say this trailer is as misleading as the one for Season 4, but then again, one might say that’s the whole point of both the opening novel in the Song of Ice and Fire series, so that the trailer is merely being true to the spirit of the piece.

Unlike the preceding trailers, this one assumes that the person watching at home has no idea what A Song of Ice and Fire is. They’ve never heard of Eddard Stark, or Westeros, and therefore this trailer has to do the work of introducing the most ambitious foray into sword and sorcery fantasy on pay cable that ever was.

It also has to set up the bait-and-switch while it’s at it. After all, as we all know, it is the rare show that is willing to kill the big-name actor who leads the show and whose face is the one on the side of the bus. And Game of Thrones was preparing to do it before we even reached the finale. Setting up Eddard Stark as the noble righteous hero we would cheer for so that his death provided the proper punch in the gut was paramount, as was establishing that these blonde characters are somehow evil, that Littlefinger is not to be trusted, and that there is some “Dragon Girl” with a “Horse Lord Husband” that will need to be attended to at some point.

What I had forgotten is that the White Walkers were such a focus from the very beginning of the series. Also wow, oh wow, those Stark kids are so young. Maybe I’ll go start with Season 1 instead.

Next: Number 1: Seven Devils