Tyrion is “smitten with his employer,” and more season 7 teases from the cast and crew

TV Guide recently published a preview for Game of Thrones season 7, complete with interviews with the cast. What fresh teases can we find within?

To start, Sophie Turner and Kit Harington continue to tease I  for Sansa and Jon Snow. “There’s a part of Sansa that feels very hard done by, and because of that, she is going to make not-so-honorable decisions,” Harington said. “Jon still sees her as just his kid sister. But he’ll start listening to her more this season.”

For Turner’s part, she says that Sansa is being “tested like never before.” Gone are the days when Sansa was being ground underfoot by whatever schemer she was with at the moment. Sansa’s turned into a schemer herself, but moving in that world has some drawbacks.

"[I]n a world where everyone is a manipulator—Sansa is one of the best—it’s becoming more and more difficult to tell who is loyal…even family."

The takeaway from all this is that there’s going to be some serious Stark family drama this season. Let’s hope everyone comes out the other side of it intact.

The issue may be that Jon is focused more on the big picture. “Jon sees his mission this season—to save people’s lives,” Harington said. “That’s it.” As showrunner Dan Weiss points out, the threat from which Jon is trying to save everyone — the coming of the White Walkers — is bigger than any one squabble for power, so perhaps Jon can be forgiven for making that his focus. “Everyone is facing something more dangerous to all of them than any danger they are to each other,” Weiss said.

But the factions remain. Daenerys Targaryen, for example, has no idea about the White Walkers — at the moment, she’s trying to take back the throne once occupied by her father. But while some see Dany as a tyrant, Emilia Clarke emphasizes that she at least wants to try the diplomatic approach before lighting the whole thing on fire:

"She wants to break the wheel, to get in the power seat, enact change. She doesn’t simply want to wipe out anyone who disagrees with her."

Helping her out is Tyrion Lannister, who faces the prospect of fighting his family members. Tyrion’s history with his family is spotty at best, but is there any possibility his loyalties might be torn? “We’ll deal with how much Daenerys can trust him [to stay on her side against the Lannisters],” Peter Dinklage said. “But he’s smitten with his employer. How good can he be at his job while having those feelings?”

And what of Tyrion’s family? How are Jaime and Cersei going to handle the coming of Daenerys Targaryen? Lena Headey didn’t provide specifics, but did say that it’s “a big season” for the show’s longest-lasting and most twisted couple. “If you thought it was complicated before, just wait. He blindly, wholeheartedly loves her; she [emotionally] vampires him.”

"She wants to run the world. She is enjoying sitting on the throne. And she fells, for the first time, like ‘Hear me roar.’ But Jaime wants to discuss the death of their last surviving child."

Family drama knows no region.

And in between all this drama, there will be fighting, including a sea battle that will “sail past Season 2’s Blackwater in scope,” per TV Guide. “”There are magnificent action scenes, different from anything we’ve ever done,” showrunner David Benioff said. “[T]here might be some surprising hook-ups this season.” That’s nice, too.

Talking to TIME, Game of Thrones weapons master Tommy Dunne agrees that we can expect some major action sequences this year. “Obviously, it’s a show that creates a lot of new armies, a lot of new characters,” he said. “This year, we have a lot more armies, a lot more numbers. You’re replicating armies and adding new ones as well. And it seems to have worked.”

"My big thing is the numbers. I hope it won’t frighten me…I might be worried about season 8, we might be in trouble on that one. But it has to finalize somewhere."

Dunne also gave some more general info about how the sword-fighting sausage is made, telling TIME that anytime you see someone swing a sword on horseback, that sword is made of rubber. “For harder action, it might be aluminum. We only ever use the steel ‘hero’ for close-up.”

The Dunne interview is fun, and reinforces that the crew members put just as much thought into the show as the actors and writers. For example, as originally scripted, “Oathkeeper” was originally scripted as having a wooden scabbard, but Dunne, keeping the Lannister’s love of luxury in mind, decided that “you need some bling in there,” and changed it.

Next: Lena Headey: Cersei is “a horrible cow to one particular character” in season 7

“Every single character is putting that first step into the absolute unknown,” Clarke said, summing up. “Everybody means business this season.” Not long now.