Yesterday, HBO dropped the first teaser trailer for Game of Thrones season 7, an evocative number that featured stone renderings of many of the House sigils, all of which crumbled into dust at the end. Have a watch.
Today, let’s go through it shot by shot and see what, if any, insights we can glean.
First up is an image of the dragons of House Targaryen. Daenerys’ line from “Hardhome” plays over it. “I know what my father was. What he did. I know the mad king earned his name.”
Then, we hear what Bran heard when he was deep down a greensight hole in “Blood of My Blood”: “Burn them all!”
Okay, first of all, I’ve gotta say that this teaser is already more intriguing than the one we got ahead of season 6, when we heard old lines play over images of long-dead characters in the Hall of Faces. We were already familiar with the Hall of Faces a that time — giant stone statues of House sigils are new.
#GameofThrones returns 4.24.16https://t.co/WmTxQJJWzZ
— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) February 15, 2016
Beyond that, the choice of quotes from Daenerys is interesting. Last season, Tyrion had to talk her out of burning down the entirety of Meereen after she returned from the Dothraki Sea, so there’s definitely a bit of Mad Queen firestarter in her. (She and Cersei may have more in common than they realize.) Hearing Daenerys talk about her crazy father while he screams his signature line…well, I don’t think it bodes well for Dany’s sanity come season 7.