Screencap breakdown: The Game of Thrones season 7 promo trailer

Again, I’m struck by how natural Cersei looks on the Iron Throne, even more than Dany looks on her throne. Of course, Cersei’s been imagining this day for a long time, so it stands to reason she’d be prepared.

“Oh god, why do people keep putting me in charge of things?”

Next, we get quick close-ups of all three characters, bam bam bam.

Then they all close their eyes in quick succession, but it happens too fast to easily screencap so you’re just going to have to imagine it.

And the stage is set! The three leaders are in place, and we’re ready to watch the wars to come.

But there’s another king we’ve forgotten about. As he arrives, we get a shot of candles guttering out…

…and then Cersei exhales, her breath freezing in the air in front of her.

It’s a chilling image, and a great segue to the next image: the camera pulls out, the image goes black, and suddenly we’re in the iris of an ice-blue eye, which is extremely similar to what happened at the end of the “Statues” teaser trailer.

We pull out, and of course it’s a White Walker! (Hard to tell if it’s the Night King specifically.)

The message is clear: while Daenerys, Cersei and Jon Snow may be getting ready to face other, the White Walkers have all of them in their sights. They would do well to join forces, and the trailer seems to be encouraging them to do that. As they all take their places, we hear “Sit down in sympathy.” But on this show, alliances are precarious at best.

Is it important that it’s Cersei, rather than Jon or Dany, who’s exhaling the icy breath? I’m honestly not sure. The producers could be telling us that she’s the least prepared for the White Walker onslaught, or maybe they just wanted to get the image of the Red Keep throne room being very cold, signifying that winter will reach far south. In any case, it’s a cool moment.

It’s a terrific teaser, and should tide us over until a proper trailer comes out. The final two images pretty self-explanatory.

Winter is coming.