Let’s talk about the opening scene of Game of Thrones season 8—Who’s going to meet for the first time?

So yesterday, Entertainment Weekly decided to try and break the internet by releasing the first official photo from the set of Game of Thrones season 8, part of a splashy cover story that revealed all kinds of details about the final six episodes. It was a pretty big deal.

The most interesting part of the story may have been the description of the premiere episode:

"Season 8 opens at Winterfell with an episode that contains plenty of callbacks to the show’s pilot. Instead of King Robert’s procession arriving, it’s Daenerys and her army. What follows is a thrilling and tense intermingling of characters — some of whom have never previously met, many who have messy histories — as they all prepare to face the inevitable invasion of the Army of the Dead."

Way back in the series premiere, “Winter is Coming,” King Robert Baratheon arrives at Winterfell with a lot of pomp and circumstance, joined by the royal family and trailed by a large assemblage of knights and members of his court. The entire Stark family was there to greet him, all in a line:

I’m excited to see the mirror of this scene in Episode 801. Things are very different now. Of those who received King Robert all those years ago, only Sansa, Arya and Bran Stark remain, and they are much changed. Meanwhile, Jon Snow, once shuffled to the back of the crowd so as not to offend Queen Cersei with his bastardy, will likely ride alongside Queen Daenerys Targaryen at the head of her procession, the returning King in the North alongside his new queen. It’s a naturally occurring callback that will make us consider those earlier scenes in a new way, and drive home how long and transformative this journey has been.

There will be first-time meetings Game of Thrones fans have been waiting years to see. Sansa and Daenerys’ first encounter sounds like it’ll be especially fun, as the Lady of Winterfell is immediately suspicious of this new queen to whom her half-brother and king has bent the knee. When HBO released the first footage from the new season a ways back, that’s how we interpreted Sansa’s off-camera glare, and the EW article confirms it. We don’t know how these two will get along down the line, but at first blush, there’s no love lost between them.

Speaking of Sansa, she’ll also come face to face with her first husband, Tyrion Lannister, and with the Hound, who did what little he could to protect her in King’s Landing and even offered to help her flee the city during the Battle of the Blackwater. The Hound will also reunite with Arya Stark, with whom he shares a warped sort of mentor/mentee bond. At this point, the two of them are on more of an equal playing field, and I’m looking forward to seeing how their relationship settles.

Jorah Mormont will arrive with Daenerys, as well, sort of filling the role the Hound did back in the series premiere: as the protector of a member of the royal retinue. He’ll reunite with Samwell Tarly, who saved him from greyscale in Oldtown, and with his cousin Lyanna Mormont, now head of his House. Will she accept him back into the Mormont fold even though he disgraced the family years ago by engaging in the slave trade?

Then there are newcomers like Grey Worm, Missandei, and every member of the Dothraki horde. How will the Dothraki get along with with the Knights of the Vale and the armies of the North? Both groups will see the other as foreign and strange. There’s a lot of potential for conflict, but will it be resolved peacefully or violently? Can these two incredibly different groups of warriors learn to coexist and fight for a common goal?

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And finally, there are the dragons. Rumors of the Mother of Dragons and her children will have proceeded her, but it’s one thing to hear about it and another to see a dragon the size of Drogon land on the Winterfell keep. It should be memorable, to say the least.

Who are you most looking forward to seeing interact for the first time?

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