WILDCARD:

“Don’t fight in the north or the south. Fight every battle everywhere always in your mind.”

Do you think that’s good advice, Littlefinger? That’s not good advice. It barely even makes sense, be everywhere but only ever in your own mind? And how exactly does one fight a battle in their own mind – this isn’t some psychiatric trip here, there are very real battles to be fought. Overcome your own demons and you’ll overcome the snow demons, is that it? Then bloody say that, you obfuscating arsehole. Always trying to sound like the smartest dude in the room and instead he comes off like a muppet with a couple licence-free beats trying to rap in his bedroom.

There’s a new Game of Thrones trailer, the second one they’ve released, but it doesn’t really tell us a damn thing we don’t already know. Three major armies are converging: the Lannisters, the Targaryens and the Starks. Smaller families have pledged allegiances with these bigger families but most of them are lining up with the Targaryens and if Ice + Fire = Salvation then Stark + Targaryen = Hope. Just gotta get to that point, though the rest of the narrative chatter here leaves that long-opined possibility very open.

Sansa gets a big feature here. Strolling through the snow, listening to Littlefinger’s voice in her head. As the rightful Queen of the North, as the heir to Lay Catelyn’s legacy, she’s placed to be a defining character now as the series rounds the bend after mostly being trod on in a series of unfortunate marriages so far. How ruthless is she, though? Seems like she might have a little more vengeance in her heart than Jon Snow – perhaps she’s going to inherit the Lady Stoneheart stuff that got flicked from the show…

Although those nervous looks over the shoulder might betray a more innocent mind.

All the living Stark kids get spotlights. Well, except for Rickon. Whatever happened to Rickon? They probably shoulda just written him out of the show, hard to remember anything essential that the child ever did. Anyway, Jon’s going north of the wall. An opening gate and a shivering Snowbags suggest as much, at least. Arya has herself a horse and her skies are a lot sunnier… though you’d assume she’s on her way to Winterfell, right? Meanwhile Bran has gotten himself a wheelchair.

I mean, it’s not like he’s got Hodor there anymore to carry him. It’s only practical.

The thing about trailers is that they allude to so much without ever telling you anything. Just glimpses, little blink and you’ll miss it visions. They also tend to play pretty formulaic and there’s nothing very enlightening about seeing soldiers in the streets of King’s Landing while Cersei struts around in her palace, seeing Dany plotting another military act and talking up her impending dominance and there’s especially nothing to be learned from seeing Littlefinger smirking in the shadows. Oh, he’s being a devious scoundrel again is he? What’s next, Jon Snow’s gonna keep moping? Tyrion’s gonna say something funny? Maybe Winter’s gonna keep being cold?

War is coming, that much is clear. As Jon talks about biding together to fight the real enemy, as for centuries their families have done, we see shots of Dany and her cohorts and the many Stark hombres. Lots of armies, the unsullied and the northerners especially. Theon stares off camera, Grey Worm too. Tyrion does the same. Podrick and Brienne. The Hound. Earlier Dany walks up to some old cloth bearing a coat of arms which… is that a horse? Whose coat of arms has a horse on it? Hers is a dragon so that suggests a little more collusion somewhere along the way. Nah jokes I googled it, she’s at Dragonstone tearing down the Baratheon colours.

And then we have the most important bits, the portends of evil. Blue-eyed Ravens all flying through a darkened sky… is that a sign of winter or something even more frightening? What’s telling is that shot cuts into a look at the Night’s King who sharply turns to attention before cutting back to Bran in Vision Mode all in a few seconds. These things are connected like the fire and battle in other segments are connected.

Who’s this guy with the flaming sword? Isn’t that the dude with indie red priest joker (Thoros) that Arya and the Hound ran into a few seasons back? (Beric, his name is – last seen chilling with Houndy again, I believe… I think… I dunno) The one eye sorta gives him away but I could be wrong there. Flaming sword’s a handy accoutrement too.

War ships at sea, armies standing to attention, armies charging into battle. Busted gates, explosions… suddenly Jaime storming on his lonesome before fire and fury. All these evocative images which we’ve got no idea of the context of. Could be that Jaime is charging home to save himself, could be that Jaime is going kamikaze on this sucker and sacrificing himself. The grimaced look on his face sorta suggests the latter.

Oh and dragons. There are dragons.

But the main thing I’m gonna take from trailer dos is this creepy hallucination. A White Walker at arms with… well, we can’t hardly see can we? Could be some poor joker in the wrong place at the wrong time or it could even be our lad Jon Snow. Perhaps Brandon Stark? Doesn’t really look like Jon, he’s got the wrong cloak on, although he could always have taken it off. Probably not the best for fighting in, to be honest. That shot is contrasted with one of what seems to be dothraki riders charging from out of some engulfing flames before Dany’s voice begins a poem or prophecy of sorts.

“When snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives”

Didn’t we just see some lone wolf hacking at the Night’s King? Doesn’t that look like the same person racing wounded upon a horse now as Dany says these words? Somebody’s in need of urgent medical attention. Jonny Boy then hacks a bugger down with his back turned to the camera and the screen fades into promo crap.

Only four more weeks to go. I'm cold.

DIGGITY DOC:

One would assume that this is our last glimpse at any Game of Thrones stuff before we get up to our neck in absolute shenanigans. And by the looks of things we are going to have copious amounts of absolute shenanigans to enjoy as this trailer only reinforces that shit is about to hit the proverbial fan.

We know that there are going to be some hefty battles in and around Westeros, which tanatlizes the taste-buds as it'll offer plenty of viewing pleasure. Just the sheer fact that we will enjoy some of the best battle scenes to grace the big or small screen is enough to get fans around the world excited, let alone draw in new fans and these battle scenes are highlighted throughout the trailer. Obviously we see Jon Snow and his homies (GoT All Star Warrior Force) north of the wall, there's also Greyworm approaching what appears to be Casterly Rock given that we saw the Unsullied fighting a Lannister army in the previous trailer.

Then we've got a whole lot of ships sailin' which is accompanied by a brief snippet of what looks to be a battle on the water, there's Dothraki steaming forward in the open battle field that the do their best work on (oh and some dragons) and with explosions left, right and centre, I think we all know what to expect this season.

The joy however is still in what we don't know. We all know that Cersei appears to be fucked and the same could be said for Jamie Lannister - who is super like-able these days - as it looks as though Greyworm has some fancy new armour.

I'm certainly not convinced that the Lannisters will simply be beaten to a pulp though and vanish, around the same time than the likes of Jon and Dany turn their attention to the real threat. That vibe has crept with me all off-season as I pondered how easy it would be for Dany to show up with dragons and burn the Lannister force (rather easy), I'm still intrigued by what resistance the Lannisters will offer and that's especially the case for Cersei.

At this stage I'm not convinced that Jamie is 1-hunnit percent supportive of Cersei's antics which could play a part. Counting out Cersei at the moment is dangerous and I feel as though we've had so much time invested into building up Cersei as a villain, that there's a twist coming and given what is at stake in the wider war, how influential Cersei is in that regard could be a funky side-plot.

We've had it drilled into us from these trailers that Dany will base herself at Dragonstone. This isn't just a case of Dany finding herself a vantage point, just off-shore of Westeros that she can pull strings from. This is effectively Dany's home and from the name you probably guess that there's a strong dragon connection here. Dragonstone ticks all boxes as Dany's (actual and) spiritual home and it also holds dragon-glass, which Jon Snow needs if he is to hold any hope of killing wights and White Walkers.

Across these trailers we have seen Jon appear in the north (where there is snow), yet we've also seen Jon appear further south and you can bank on Jonny-boy appearing at Dragonstone to seek assistance in acquiring dragon-glass. This will bring Dany and Jon together, a scene or multiple scenes that will be as enticing as any battle scene. Up to this point we have only really chopped between main characters and their various locations, now we're going to be treated to these main characters coming together, wheelin' and dealin' to get the job done.

The stuff north of the wall looks crazy and I'm still frothing over what the White Walkers could bring with them to their encounter with Jon, as well as what could save Jon and his friends. Jon's siblings though are where I want to centre my attention as they all get brief, yet notable features in this second trailer, thrown in there as side-pieces to the main dramas which only adds to the intrigue.

Throughout previous seasons we have enjoyed the respective journeys of Sansa, Arya and Bran. Sansa has been forced to learn the political side of this game and when you think about it, she's the only Stark who has been given an unfortunate insight into how to deal with the lunatics that hold power and then how she will use that power when she is graced with such a position. This has happened while Arya was learning to be an assassin and Bran was learning how to be a mystical master.

What I took away from this last trailer is that although Bran clearly has a key role to play with his unique gifts, Arya and Sansa will contribute just as much as Bran. Jon Snow may view himself as a lone wolf, or he may be viewed as a lone wolf, perhaps the second-coming of Azor Ahai even and he may enjoy the support of a certain blood-relative who has dragons; Starks hunt in packs and they are all primed to play their roles.

The similarities between Sansa and this ol' geezer are a bit creepy though...