A Frame-By-Frame Breakdown of the Newest Game of Thrones Promo

Charlie3/30/2017 7:47 PM

7.16.17#GoTS7 pic.twitter.com/0QyWbFBukt
— HBO (@HBO) March 30, 2017

No one, and I mean no one on this Earth deserves a raise than whoever the creative director is for Game of Thrones advertising and marketing. He/she is better than the person who takes photographs of food for fast food commercials or composes the music for NFL Films. Every single Game of Thrones promo sends the Internet into a tizzy to decipher any possible meanings and parse out potential hints of the upcoming season. Game of Thrones has all their fans popping off and hyping each other with every commercial clip like the world’s nerdiest virtual mosh pit. Of course, it would be stupid to try to breakdown a simple 90 second-video that probably took an afternoon’s work to make. It would take someone extraordinarily nerdy and obsessive to read into any of it, let alone try to analyze it. Luckily for you, the reader, I am both of those things. Let’s do a frame-by-frame breakdown.

An establishing shot of fire helps open up the video. Fire was a huge motif in Game of Thrones last year, both for symbolic and practical plot reasons. The Lord of Light has been the most visible and prominent of the Gods as religion and the supernatural have gradually taken on a more and more significant role in the show. Fire going out is what helped signal Jon Snow was coming back. Arya putting out a candle and fighting in the darkness is what saved her from the House of Black and White. Dany’s biggest moment of triumph came with the use of her dragon’s breath torching the slaver fleet. Cersei used wildfire in spectacular fashion to consolidate power and the Iron Throne. With this show, I expect that theme of fire to continue. Which means that it’s equal and opposite element, ice, also is likely to have a role (the book series is titled A Song of Ice and Fire, #PeopleForgetThat , shoutout to PMT)

Jon Snow striding purposefully and seriously. The metamorphoses of Jon Snow from a marginalized bastard to the hero we have before us now is finally complete. Snow started off in the lowliest of places but was able to scratch his way to respectability with the Night’s Watch. A trip beyond the Wall taught him what he was truly capable of as a warrior and man. His time as Commander of the Night’s Watch taught him his capability as a leader and moral compass for the North. His death and resurrection hardened him. Now with his legitimacy and name finally given to him, the last piece of the puzzle, he has finally evolved into the man capable of saving the land that has went from shunning to embracing him, the North.

Dany walking down a long, caravan-like corridor. Obviously she isn’t in Essos anymore. So where is she? My best guess, given the rocky nature of the room she’s in and past Targaryen history, is Dragonstone. Dragonstone is an island off the coast of Westeros which the first Targaryen to take Westeros, Aegon the Conqueror, used as his launching point for the invasion which would eventually unify the Seven Kingdoms. Dany being in Dragonstone shows she has a strategic launching area for her effort to seize the Iron Throne, but from a symbolic viewpoint, solidifies her status as the heir to Aegon’s legacy. It also shows how the stature of the family that supposedly controls Dragonstone, the Baratheons, is all but nil.

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Cersei finally has what she’s always wanted: The run of Kings Landing. Cersei with short hair is somehow 1000x scarier than otherwise, a constant reminder of the humiliation she has suffered. Her all-black get up is also sending out strong “don’t fuck with me” vibes as well. More on Cersei later, but she is the #1 person to watch this season, hands down.

The empty seat from which Jon will control the North. The haunting, eerie emptiness of the room and sparse lighting is indicative of the loneliness and gravity of the task at hand for Jon. He might have the support of the North right now, but he can’t expect it’s all going to be friendship and sunshine for him. He has a cold, lonely road ahead of him.

Cersei striding into the throne room. The detail to notice here is the design on the windows. Those aren’t stags, they are lions. Technically, Cersei is still a Baratheon by marriage and that’s where her allegiances lie (please hold your laughter). By her taking on the lion instead of the stag as her emblem, she is outwardly acknowledging what everyone already knows: She’s as pure Lannister as they come and is completely her own woman. I think Cersei is done with polite fictions and niceties at this point. Does this necessarily mean she’ll rule with even more ruthlessness and incest than ever before….? Ummmmm yes, yes it absolutely necessarily means that.

Dany sits as she usually sits when ruling isn’t always as simple as it seems from reading the history books: With a veneer of confidence that shields a “holy-shit-what-am-I-doing-what-if-this-all-blows-up-in-my-face-fuck-fuck-fuck-FUCK.” How well Emilia Clarke is able to subtly shift between those two conflicting mindsets with facial expressions and body language is nothing short of masterful. She earns every penny of that $1.1 million an episode or whatever it is.

And next on our tour is Cersei looking like a complete and utter sociopath! Cersei on the Iron Throne should scare everybody. When the chips were down for her, no one had her back because everyone gave her as much of a chance of wielding any sort of political influence ever again as I did the Patriots to win the Super Bowl when they were down 28-3 with 18 minutes left. I don’t think she’s forgotten that. The look Jaime gave her when he saw her on the Throne was a mixture of many emotions, but the prevailing one was terrified. The last time Jaime was besides an unhinged ruler who used wildfire to burn his enemies and was politically and militarily isolated in an increasingly hostile country to rule? Well we know how that turned out. It’s a distinct possibility, or even a probability in my opinion, it’s going to turn out the same way again.

Fire motif again. Except this time it’s going out. Extinguished fire usually means one thing…

It’s winter baby. And it’s not Jon Snow breathing it out. It’s Cersei. Which means the fact it’s winter is about to become pretty undeniable for everybody. Making it winter in Game of Thrones is like when a college football game is moved from the afternoon slot to primetime on ABC: It makes everything THAT much more intense, raises the stakes THAT much more, and makes the whole thing feel bigger. And the stakes for Westeros can only be raised one way, which means after all these seasons and years, it’s finally happening…

White walkers. The white walkers have been the looming threat for all of Game of Thrones, the proverbial Chekov’s gun, the plot element we were all waiting to rear it’s head. The White Walkers the past two seasons have been a huge PART of the story, but haven’t been THE story. This might be the year it all changes. And that has the potential to change everything.