During the Golden Globes awards ceremony on Sunday night, HBO debuted a sizzle reel for the upcoming year, and the highlight was a brief yet tantalizing glimpse of Game of Thrones season 8. The clip is five seconds long, and features Daenerys Targaryen’s arrival at Winterfell. She walks up to meet Sansa Stark, who’s standing with Jon Snow. “Winterfell is yours, Your Grace,” Sansa says.
Okay, those are the basic facts. Now let’s dig in and overanalyze everything.
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Let’s begin with Ser Jorah Mormont, who’s standing next to his queen across the courtyard from Sansa and Jon. He’s back in the North for the first time since his exile years ago, and he’s donned some warmer clothing compared to the last time we saw him in “The Dragon and the Wolf”:
Daenerys has changed her look a bit, too. She’s wearing a variant of the white coat she wore in “Beyond the Wall,” only there the coat was white with black stripes.
And if you’re wondering, yes, there are already fans theorizing that Dany is pregnant in this photo. Although if her waistline seems bigger to you, it could just because she’s wearing an extra layer of something under the coat. You can see it peeking out of her collar here. The red suits her:
Also, note the Unsullied soldier tucked away in the upper right-hand corner of the frame. Dany has not arrived at Winterfell without her retinue.
Moving on to Sansa’s line, fans noticed that it’s the same thing Ned Stark said to King Robert Baratheon when he arrived at Winterfell in the series premiere.
"Full circle from freefolk"
We’d already heard that the first episode of season 8 would mirror the series premiere, with Daenerys and her posse standing in for Robert and his, so this makes sense.
That said, Sansa is a fair bit less warm about welcoming her guests than Ned was. This moment almost certainly happens immediately after the first bit of footage we saw from season 8, where Jon hugs Sansa upon returning home:
As you can see, Sansa is glaring at someone. Now we know for sure it’s Dany, a foreign queen to whom the King in the North Jon Snow has bent the knee. Sansa likely has some misgivings. The side-eye is strong with her:
Also, can we take a moment to appreciate Brienne’s total lack of facial expression? This situation could go sideways at any moment and she is ready for it.
If we can wring all that from five seconds from footage, we can’t imagine what a new trailer will bring. The final season of Game of Thrones debuts in April.
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