Have we all recovered from the excitement? The Game of Thrones Season 6 trailer hit the Internet on Tuesday. Finally—we thought—an answer: is Jon Snow really, really dead? OK, so that isn't exactly given away in the trailer but there certainly appear to be some clues about his fate sprinkled between Cersei and Jamie's quest to rebuild the Lannister empire and Bran Stark's sudden re-emergence.
Read on for some of the "hidden" teasers in the trailer:
The death and life(?) of Jon Snow
Let's cut to the chase: we all really want to know what's going on with Jon Snow, last seen bleeding into the snow after being backstabbed by his Night's Watch brethren in the closing moments of Season 5. Kit Harington wasn't lying when he said he'd be playing a corpse in Season 6 as he can be seen lying on a slab, sharing only scenes with Ser Davos Seaworth and, we assume, the Red Priestess, Melisandre.
With the Night's Watch trying to barge their way through a reinforced door, the implication seems to be that Ser Davos has locked himself—and Snow's body—inside a room in a Castle Black, protecting Snow from his mutinous murderers. Davos must be holding on to the body for something, right?
Which brings us to Melisandre, who is clearly at a loss after backing the wrong horse (R.I.P. Stannis). In a brief shot we see her undressing and a second later a pair of rather feminine hands float over dead Snow's face. That can't be a coincidence. Could Melisandre be performing some kind of ritual to resurrect Jon Snow? With Stannis gone and her belief in the Lord of Light apparently wavering, it would give her some redemption for all the evil—poor Shireen—she has been party to. Please, Melisandre, save our Snow.
Another resurrection—sort of
Eagle-eyed Westeros fans have spotted perhaps the Season 6 trailer's biggest spoiler: the return of Ned Stark. In flashback form, anyway. There's no coming back from a beheading.
There has been plenty of speculation that this season will include a flashback scene taking viewers back to Robert's Rebellion, which of course predates the starting point of the series, and in particular the famous Tower of Joy sequence from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice novels. The Tower is where Ned Stark discovers his sister, Lyanna, dead after being kidnapped by Rhaegar Targaryen.
Quite the coincidence, then, that a figure resembling Ned Stark can be seen on a sandy plain preparing for battle as he unsheathes his sword. A later shot appears to confirm this is a Tower of Joy flashback: a soldier bearing the Targaryen sigil on his chestplate. The Targaryens' rule is long over by the time the series begins and only Daenerys—whose Unsullied wear very different armor —is left standing, so there's no way the scene can take place in the present tense of the show.
"You're in the great game now"
A sinister line from Tyrion Lannister accompanied by a shot of Sansa Stark looking pensive—another foreshadowing, maybe? Recent pictures released by HBO appear to show actress Sophie Turner sporting a prosthetic baby bump, something that would bring her to the political dance given her marriage to Ramsay Bolton. The Boltons, of course, have emerged as one of Westeros' most powerful clans, while others have fallen, and have taken over Sansa's home of Winterfell.
You'll notice that Sansa appears to be steely and determined in the trailer, something Turner has already teased: "She, this season, really commands the respect that she deserves and she grabs hold of it and she runs with it and it's really good."
With Daenerys now seemingly a prisoner of the Dothraki, Arya Stark blind and Margaery Tyrell locked up by the Faith Militant, this appears to be Sansa's year.
A Bolton battle
No season of Game of Thrones would be complete without an epic battle and this year, it looks like the aforementioned Boltons will face revolt from the Northerners, from whom they've usurped land—including Stark territory Winterfell. Soldiers can be seen galloping on horseback, wearing what appears to be Bolton armor. A later shot of the same battle shows archers firing arrows into the air, and their armor certainly resembles that of the Starks' Northern army in earlier seasons.
From the looks of it, Westeros' never-ending quest for the Iron Throne is about to be turned on its head...
Game of Thrones Season 6 launches on April 24 on HBO in the U.S. and April 25 on Sky Atlantic in the UK.
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