Game of Thrones season 8 trailer over-analysed: are the Starks destined for downfall, and where is Bran?

The moment Game of Thrones fans have been counting down to has finally arrived with the release of the first trailer proper for the final season of the swords and sorcery (and wobbly naked bits) epic.

As devotees would expect and demand the 100-second teaser is packed with winks, allusions and Easter eggs. But beyond that it sets the tone for the concluding six-episode run of the HBO smash, in which the warring houses of Westeros will confront the ultimate threat of the White Walkers.

The major breadcrumb dropped in the trailer is the centrality given to Jon Snow (Kit Harington), who is once again primed to be the closest GoT has to a conventional hero (albeit a conventional hero who always looks as if his trousers are too tight).

“Crypts Of Winterfell” (yes, trailers now come with their own titles) sees the bastard scion of House Stark returning to the ceremonial burial chambers beneath the family keep, wielding a torch.

He passes the statue of Lyanna Stark, previously confirmed as Snow’s true mother (he was the product of a forbidden liaison between her and Rhaegar Targaryen of the dashing Duran Duran hair).

”You have to protect him,” whispers Lyanna. This is the pledge she extracted from her brother Ned – Snow’s adoptive father – when he tracked her down to the Tower of Joy in that fateful season six flashback. Does it mean that the secret of Snow’s parentage – that he is both an heir to Winterfell and to the Targaryen claim on Westeros – will be significant in season eight? Yes it does!

There’s a hefty dose of symbolism, meanwhile, as a feather falls from the hand of Lyanna’s statue. Eagle-eyed watchers will recall that Robert Baratheon – besotted with Lyanna before going on to become King of Westeros and a competitive eating champion – pressed the very feather into her statue’s hand on his visit to Winterfell all the way back in series one.

The same feather made a reappearance in season five when Sansa Stark held it up while lighting a candle to Lyanna’s memory (shortly before Littlefinger married her off to charming Ramsay Bolton). Did Sansa later swap the feather back, perhaps as she was about to feed Ramsay to his own dogs?

Or might the feather symbolise Snow’s possible downfall? Could it even be a portent of romantic pain to come given that his new lover, Daenerys Targaryen, is both his aunt and his potential rival for the throne of Westeros? Robert Baratheon never got over losing Lyanna. Does a broken heart similarly await Snow?

The next arrival is Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), the half sister with whom Snow has already had disagreements over how best to rule Winterfell. She passes the image of her mother Catelyn Stark – which suggests this is indeed a dream sequence, given only full-born Starks are commemorated beneath the castle.

“All this horror that has come to my family,” whispers Catelyn. “It’s all because I couldn’t love a motherless child.”

That line is surely directed to Jon Snow rather than Sansa. Catelyn, after all, originally voiced her regret over her disdain for Jon in season three to son Robb’s wife Talisa, shortly before the young couple went off to enjoy the rest of their long and happy lives together.

The trio of Starks is completed by Arya (Maisie Williams), looking even more serious than either of her siblings (by dint of her having qualified as a ruthless assassin presumably). Meanwhile Jon is still hearing voices in his head – this time his dad/uncle Ned, who says, “you are a Stark… You might not have my name, but you have my blood”.

That utterance goes back to season one episode two and Ned’s promise that the next time he and Jon met he would share the truth about his son’s mother (consider the trouble everyone would have been spared had he simply blurted it out then and there).

The tension reaches a crescendo as Jon, Sansa and Arya arrive at the end of the crypt and are confronted with crumbling statues of themselves. Setting aside the unintentional comedy – the half-melted likenesses look as if they were left in front of a gas heater by accident – the implication here is that they too may shortly join the dead of Winterfell.

But we are spared further close-ups of the joke shop statues as their torches are extinguished and an icy mist sweeps down the catacomb, turning Lyanna’s feather to ice. The effect is similar to the demonic frost that crept across the table – before being met by Targaryen fire – in the teaser HBO dropped last year. Swords are drawn and the Starks prepare for action.

A glaring absence is the fourth Stark sibling, Bran (setting aside poor dead Rickon whom we’ve obviously all forgotten). He was last seen mooching around Winterfell creeping everyone out with his prophesies. So why hasn’t he joined his sisters and brother/cousin?

One reading is that Bran surrendered his mortal identity when taking on the mantle of the undying Three-Eyed Raven and that he is no longer human, much less a fully-fledged member of House Stark. Or perhaps it is he who is represented by that frozen feather – ravens have feathers, after all – rather than Lyanna.

Is it significant, moreover, that HBO has abandoned its tradition of soundtracking its promos with repurposed pop songs (Ms Mr and James are among those to previously feature)? Instead, there is the familiar swell of Ramin Djawadi’s score.

The consensus is that the trailer does not contain any actual footage from the forthcoming season and that it is a stand-alone appetite whetter (directed by David Nutter, who oversees the first two episodes of the up-and-coming run).

Also of interest – or at least it is if you’re the sort of person who watches Game of Thrones trailers 15 times in a row – are parallels with the season seven promo. There, Jon Snow, Daenerys and Mad Queen Cersei Lannister were similarly shown striding towards their appointment with destiny.

The difference is those three were rivals for power. Whereas now it is the unseen White Walkers that pose the threat. What does it all portend? We’ll have to wait until Sunday April 14 for the answer. For now, it is comfort enough to know that the clouds are gathering, that winter, finally, is coming.

What are your predictions, hopes and fears for Season 8 of Game of Thrones? Tell us in the comment section below.

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