The first Game of Thrones season eight teaser gave us nothing. The second gave us three whole seconds. This third teaser is over ninety seconds long of atmospheric Stark scenery, and though it’s clearly not actual footage from the show, let’s dissect it as if it contains all of the answers for season eight. First, there is JON SNOW. This is a clue that Jon Snow will be in season eight. And then there is SANSA STARK. Followed by ARYA STARK. So three of the four surviving Stark heirs are for sure going to appear in season eight. Actually, the question is, where is Bran? Why isn’t he down in the crypts with his siblings? Is it just because he can’t really fight alongside them, or because, maybe, Bran will be off doing other things? Will he get his own teaser later, maybe?
So in this teaser, the three Starks are walking through their family crypt. Jon passes by the statue of Lyanna, disrupting that feather that Robert Baratheon left all the way back in episode one (and that Sansa later found in season five). Thrones has its issues, but one thing it is very, VERY good at is foreshadowing. Could the feather tumbling to the ground be a sign that Jon’s lineage will finally be revealed, thus destroying the image of Lyanna Stark as a tragic victim and Robert Baratheon’s lost love?
That f-cking feather has already been called back once, and it was Sansa who found it. In this teaser, as Sansa passes by her mother’s monument, Catelyn’s line about not loving “another’s child” plays in voiceover. Think back to season one and how F-CKING AWFUL Sansa was to Jon Snow. She took her cues from her mother, who shut Jon out of the inner family circle. More recently Sansa has reconciled with Jon, but he has never, in the whole of their truce, truly given Sansa her due as an intelligent and strategic thinker. They’ve reconciled, but they’re still not really in synch. Is the echo of Catelyn’s words a warning, that if Sansa doesn’t embrace Jon—if she actively turns on him—more “horror” will visit the Starks? I’m not saying Jon is blameless—he REALLY needs to acknowledge Sansa’s value. But Jon has already made the point that he thinks all the politicking and house sh-t has to be set aside in order to deal with the White Walkers, and he’s not wrong about that. Is this bit in the teaser foreshadowing events to come if Sansa can’t see past politics?
And, finally, Arya, who is as quick as Jon Snow to draw her sword. I love how the siblings are positioned, both in person and their crypt statues. Sansa is in the center, as she is the de facto head of the family. And Jon and Arya, the warriors, flank her, as the representatives of the battle strength of House Stark. Bran is not in the configuration which raises some interesting questions about his role in the coming fight, and just how much his family can really rely on him for assistance.
Also, shout out to Meghan O’Keefe at Decider who has been thinking about the Stark crypt for a while. She makes a good point, that the Starks are about to fight an army of undead, which can raise the dead, and their home is built on a massive graveyard. Maybe the Starks will have to fight their own zombie ancestors! But I look at it from a different angle. Like, what if the Stark land is somehow enchanted? Winterfell was built by Bran the Builder, who also built the Wall (according to legend). The Wall is—was—some kind of magic. Why should Winterfell be any different? What I’m saying is, Jon Snow has two legacies. He went to Dragonstone, home of the Targaryens, and took dragon glass to fight the White Walkers. He is on his way back to Winterfell, home of the Starks. What will Winterfell give him?
