Here there be dragons — and death! 'Game of Thrones' final season trailer brings ultimate war to Westeros

Winter has arrived in Westeros, and with it … a storm of swords. The final battle between the continent’s warm-blooded population and the icy invaders is nigh, and none of your favorite characters are safe. That’s the general thrust of HBO’s latest trailer for the final season of Game of Thrones, which is big on war imagery. Ships packed with soldiers sail the high seas, dragons soar in the skies overhead and giant armies assemble in castle courtyards, waiting for the moment when they can cry havoc and let slip the Direwolves of war. (Watch the trailer above.)

And how do we know that the final season’s casualty count will be high? Because Arya Stark — who carries Westeros’s most famous kill list — tells us so. The two-minute teaser opens with the youngest Stark daughter speaking about her up-close-and-personal experience with Death. “He’s got many faces,” the Faceless Men-trained assassin muses. “I look forward to seeing this one.”

Many on Twitter are concerned Arya’s comments might mean that she herself will be shuffling off this mortal coil, but hopefully not before taking more than a few guilty parties along with her.

Death will have a strong presence at Winterfell, where Arya and her surviving Stark siblings — Sansa and Jon Snow, along with his lover/aunt Daenerys — are currently waiting to stop the oncoming horde of White Walkers. As Entertainment Weekly recently revealed, this battle is going to set a new record for on-camera warfare, exceeding the 40-minute runtime of the climactic fight in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

By the way, you know who else is at Winterfell? Robert Baratheon’s bastard son, Gendry, who has his own claim to the throne. Eagle-eyed viewers immediately noticed his presence, as well as his newly-ripped appearance.

But the real stars of the trailer are, of course, the dragons. Even though poor Viserion has been forcibly recruited to the icy side, Daenerys’s two remaining kids — Drogon and Rhaegal — are patrolling the airspace above the Stark refuge, keeping their mom and cousin safe. As The Hollywood Reporter noted, it’s sure looking like Jon will get to take his first dragon ride, thus fulfilling the House Targaryen “prince who was promised” prophecy.

If either one falls, we’ll finally find out what it sounds like when dragons cry.

Game of Thrones premieres April 14 at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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