After the Long Night between seasons, the nonstop whirl of activity since Tuesday’s big Game of Thrones trailer release is almost too much- but nahhhh it’s just enough. And why stop now? I’m loving it, and the flood of interviews and fun follow-ups forthcoming. There’s more goodness today, freshly rounded up here for your reading enjoyment!
- Entertainment Weekly reports that according to HBO, the Season 8 trailer was viewed a staggering 81 million times total across YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter within its first 24 hours- a record for the network. This beats the previous record, which EW notes naturally was the season 7 trailer.
- As part of the lead-up to the new season, EW also has a spread with a new oral history of the infamous Red Wedding in season 3’s “The Rains of Castamere.” It features interviews with George R.R. Martin, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, director David Nutter and actors Richard Madden, Michelle Fairley and Oona Chaplin. There’s a great gathering of old and new quotes from them all about their experience making the Wedding. Benioff, for example, comments:
“We’re used to, in books and movies when a major character dies, we’re used to a bittersweet final moment. The death speech. You don’t get that here at all. There’s no redemptive moment. There’s just horror and slaughter. You want revenge so quickly for it and you’re not getting it, so you’re deprived of even that satisfaction. It’s just like a kidney punch. That’s the feeling we got in the books and that’s what we’re trying to emulate on screen.”
- The leading ladies of Game of Thrones quiz each other in the newest video from Vogue! For more from the magazine, check out their interview.
37 Days! #ForTheThrone
Trailer’s now at 98 million combined views!
Been avoiding this site and all sites to avoid spoilers (especially after last season)
Assuming it’s safe to be in here
Personally got a real LotR Helms Deep vibe out of the whole Trailer
While I wish they had gone two more seasons and properly fleshed out the Riverlands and Blackfyre plots – and thrown is some proper Dorne House Martell/Yronwood intrigue, am nevertheless looking forward to it all
Loved the Vogue girls video – on international womens day! Hodor btw
I’m going to spend the weekend eating chili, drinking Scotch and catching up. 😃
I love all of their outfits. Maisie looking very Westeros but glam inspired. Lena a Victorian devil-may-care rebel. Sophie the magazine editor-in-chief. Gwen with a blazer that isn’t too big. Yay!
O Brava! Sophie Turner looks simply smashing in her molto elegante getup! Love them all, but where is my Queen, La Clarke? Hannah Murray would have been nice to see, also.
After nearly two years, I cannot see, hear, read, do or say enough shite about the show.
Pigeon,
I cannot believe this is me saying this:
Maisie Williams’s outfit has a Darth Vader/Spaceballs/sci-fi B-movie vibe. For the very first time I’m not impressed by the Many-Faced Goddess’ fashion choice.
Sophie Turner looks absolutely beautiful in her outfit. (“Magazine editor-in-chief”, as you described it.)
Running time for the season premiere has now been changed from 60 to 54 minutes. I guess that’s the actual runtime. Quite a short first episode.
Oh wow. If the others get cut at all we could be looking at 30ish fewer total minutes then anticipated. Is that new runtime on the HBO guide? With the red carpet 24 days away, they are probably locking in a final cut.
Edit: Yeah just checked the HBO schedule. It is 54 minutes. Episode 2 will go up on the schedule tomorrow, so I wonder if it’ll be cut as well.
Well the good news is that means you can rewatch it 186 times before the next episode instead of only 168 times.
Jack Bauer 24,
You know about the red carpet date?
Damn, Jack, I’m going to set my watch by JB24 Time rather than UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and its atomic clocks.
Jack Bauer 24,
Well, maybe Episode 1 will be preceded by ~ 5 minutes of “Previously On” snippets to set the stage.
😀 I’m just going my Mamoa’s comment where he mentioned the 3rd. I think that’s the LA one, because it seems the Radio City Music Hall premiere in NYC will be after that one. That’s the one with the Omaze contest with Emilia. The Season 7 red carpet was July 12th, so that was 4 days before the premiere. This NYC red carpet could be around April 10th then. A week after the one on the 3rd. We’re getting close!
Or maybe not lol. According to our very own Shelle, the NYC one is the premiere on the 3rd. http://watchersonthewall.com/season-8-premiere-game-thrones-emilia-clarke/
If you read the comments on the bottom she mentions it being on the 3rd. Not sure why Omaze is announcing the winner so late. Maybe they just put the 3rd there since it’s the red carpet date and they are announcing the winner a little earlier.
That’s probably why I like it – Darth Helmet is a hero of mine! Sophie’s hair kind of looks like she just got out of the shower, but I love the suit. When I wear that colour, I’m invisible.
Ten Bears,
Last night, I responded to your clothing question on the other thread.
It makes sense that the premier is short. It will be played ahead of the rest in big media events and although secrecy is expected I am sure the main plot points will leak out into the media. So it makes sense to keep it short, tightly focused on the reunions and checking in on where everyone is and doing. It may end with Jaime arriving.
So we should see NK killing the Umbers etc; Cersei losing her baby; everyone meeting and greeting at WF; Euron and GC on the water or landing in KL, Theon doing whatever, Tormund etc making their way to WF; Gendry in the foundry; several views of exhausted Jaime riding through bad weather; Lyanna Mormont etc on the move; the battle planning going badly; WF hearing about the night dragon.
The second episode should be much longer I think.
Mango,
I know. It was brilliant. 🤗
Ten Bears,
ta, glad it made some sense to you.
(I was not begging for the compliment. I wanted you to know that I was responsive evn if late!.)
Mango,
“So it makes sense to keep it short, tightly focused on the reunions…”
———
I hope Episode 1 focuses on reunions. Dragons, White Walkers, and big battles can wait.
54 minute run time for Episode 1? Well then, there should be enough breathing room for:
Jon & Arya – 10 minutes
Jaime & Brienne – 4 minutes
Sansa & Sandor – 6 minutes
Arya & Sandor – 8 minutes
Jon & Sam – 5 minutes
Jon & Bran – 4 minutes
Hello dragons! – 3 minutes
Welcome to WF, Queen/Aunt Dany – 5 minutes
Jon & Ghost – 2 minutes
Gendry & Arya – 2 minutes
Sam & Jorah – 2 minutes
Everyone else – 3 minutes.
Mango,
Not to reply to myself but to add…
I also expect to see Tyrion start his realignment. Up to know his role was to restrain Daenerys from mass killing. Now she is positioned where she was always intended to be – dragons against AOTD. In Episode 1, I expect to see Tyrion start focusing on the wider community in Westeros and start serving their wellbeing. I desperately they do not undermine his character further by going for a bitter love triangle.
Mango,
Oh, I know. I got lost in a rabbit hole trying to unravel the LF/dagger attempted assassination mystery in a comment on another thread. (I gave up – for now. It doesn’t make sense.)
Jack Bauer 24,
Hey, do you know if any of the premieres (NY or LA) or red carpet events will be televised?
Ten Bears,
Like me – you left out Tyrion.
Jon & Arya 10 minutes????!!!!!! Doing what?
Do you have Jon for about 20 minutes? Wow, only if he hears the parentage story in episode1.
I have no idea how they will use the time but Jon for 20 out of 54 in a lot of time.
hexonx,
Haha, good one! 🙂
Mango,
BTW, regarding Tyrion: the trailer (especially LoL version) shows him fighting on the battlements of Winterfell next to Brienne (or rather Brienne rushes to his aid and slashes a wight). Which kind of implies, that Brienne and co. will manage to defend that section of the battlements, cause Tyrion has to survive at least till ep 6.
Inga,
Thanks. Everything was so dark and confusing and incomplete that I decided to wait to see what happened in the episode.
Ten Bears,
Sansa and Tyrion meeting will be interesting. More so to me than Sansa – Sandor.On the clothing discussion, I thought of adding another idea but did not as I am still thinking it over. It is this – Jon has pledged the North to Daenerys but strictly speaking the Vale and Riverrun are not a part of his Northern kingdom. A bit unclear. Sansa’s attachments exceed Jon’s scope of authority to pledge. Expect her to be civil/cooperative to everyone but keep her own counsel. Sansa/Tyrion may be interesting here. Let us see how the season develops.
In the past they haven’t, but they do live streams on their Facebook page and have interviews with the cast.
The trailer shows Tyrion fighting?
Mango,
You’re right. 20 minutes of Jon is too much. Reapportioning a few minutes to Tyrion & Sansa, and maybe even Jorah and Lyanna Mormont, would be okay.
I know Cersei’s got to have some time allotment, though I don’t know if there’s anyone with whom she can “reunite.” She’s pretty much alienated everyone. And I am so not interested in Euron. Especially with his 21st century costume, he’s like a refugee from a different show in a different universe. Theon chasing after Yara doesn’t excite me: live or die. his destiny lies with the Starks of WF.
Jack Bauer 24,
Crap. I boycott Facebook. Moral grounds.
Ten Bears,
maybe the miscarriage for Cersei?
Could be.
• Until we see otherwise, I’m sticking to my 75% tinfoil prediction that looney Euron forces or tricks Cersei into drinking moon tea to abort the baby before it comes to term. I don’t see Euron as willingly accepting the role of loving stepfather to Jaime Lannister’s incest bastard child, Crown Prince Tyvek Lannister.
At least in the GoT universe, one of the main benefits of marrying into royalty is so that your child is heir to the throne, with no competing claimants. (I thought that King Robb’s agreement to marry a Frey daughter was the key to the bridge-crossing deal, and Robb’s reneging on his promise was one of the reasons Walder Frey betrayed Robb and orchestrated the Red Wedding as payback. Similarly, Joffrey sought to exterminate all of King Robert’s bastard children to eliminate any competing claims to the throne.)
Especially if, as has been mentioned throughout the show, e.g., by Olenna, Cersei is nearing the end of her fertility, the main benefit to Euron of marrying the Queen will be in jeopardy if she’s carrying another man’s child. Euron’s supposed to be a sadistic, homicidal maniac, right? In his mind, he’s already kept up his end of the bargain with Cersei. He’ll have command of her navy, and with Jaime gone, probably her armies too. He’s got lots of leverage over her, and every reason to want or demand the termination of her pregnancy.
• An unlikely alternative – and as a non-book reader I’m going on second-hand information – is that there will be some secret last-minute baby-switch, e.g., swapping out Cersei’s child for a peasant’s stillborn infant. As I understand it, in the books GRRM resorted to supposed or actual baby-switching more than once. (Something with Mance’s baby exchanged for Gilly’s baby? Something about Elia Martel’s infant son being switched out before the Mountain killed him?) The show hasn’t resorted to baby-switching. Yet.
I doubt this will happen on the show, not only because Cersei’s alleged baby will never be born, but because Maggy the Frog’s prophecy said Cersei will only have three children. (Don’t ask me about the show-only black-haired son who died in infancy; that doesn’t square with the prophecy.)
Besides, a miscarriage won’t have much impact. Sort of like Jorah contracting greyscale, which seemed to portend an epidemic – but fizzled out into “Jorah got sick. Jorah got better. The End.” (I suspect the showrunners originally planned to have this highly contagious disease spread throughout the population, but applied the “Dornish Solution” when they realized a greyscale subplot would take up too much screen time or detract from the central storylines. In the books, I think a different character had contracted greyscale and had already made his way across the Narrow Sea – and that’s where GRRM had left off. I could be wrong.)
So, what does the collective wisdom of the crowd say? Miscarriage? Voluntary termination of pregnancy? Involuntary termination? Baby swap? Baby kidnapping? Wouldn’t dueling pregnancies (Dany vs. Cersei) be too soap opera-ish?
Jack Bauer 24,
After Brienne hacks down what is presumably a wight on the battlements there appears to be a short figure beside her, much shorter than Brienne and no taller than the battlements themselves.
It’s not definitvely Tyrion. Too dark to tell.
Personally, I think it may be a wight trying to climb over the battlements, which is why they appear so short.
You can see other figures fighting in the background of the shot, so this may be the moment the Winterfell walls are overcome.
Ten Bears,
Well, very interesting ideas.
(i) I assumed that the miscarriage would be spontaneous. However, it adds more tension to the story if it is Euron that forces it either by blackmail or by slipping her a potion. Yes, that is a more interesting path.
(ii) I am waiting on some-one to get that disease from Jorah…
(iii) Baby swapping – my head hurts just to think about it. I am already puzzled by the continued existence of Incest Baby Sam. They would need two more episodes for baby to be born and then left carelessly lying around so it can get swiped. I agree that this unlikely.
(iv) I wonder how Jaime and Tyrion (both busy up north) will know Cersei’s baby is dead – especially that she was forced to abort. Maybe that is why she is weepy when drinking in the trailer. That would give them a very personal stake in fighting and killing Euron, even more so than getting him off the throne if he manages to grab it.
Ok after watching the trailer again in slow motion and brightened, I’m 99% sure that’s Pod next to Jaime and I’m fairly certain that was the wolfpack running. Unless they’re horses and there’s 1 white horse mixed in, but I think it’s Ghost.
I name-dropped a few months ago that Rose Leslie had recently moved into an apartment in my Lower Manhattan apartment building. Since then, I’ve seen her twice, the latter when we made small talk in the elevator for a grand total of 20 seconds or less. (Please don’t tell Kitt about this. The last thing I need is yet another jealous neighbor.) A very charming Scottish accent, as you can imagine. Anywho, just last week I was arriving home from the arduous task of picking up some munchies at 7-Eleven, and I could swear that in the lobby Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was chatting with the concierge about something. And then he was gone out the revolving (nice accent on him as well).
Jack Bauer 24,
I wonder if they can add some dragon glass to Ghost’s teeth. So far direwolves haven’t survived very long against WW’s. They are great against human enemies like the Golden company!! If history repeats itself, Ghost will save Jon from a WW coming from the blind side and that could be his final act of loyalty and bravery. D&D may have budgeted for one big direwolf scene. I doubt Nymeria’s pack made it up from the Riverlands but I have to admit that would be pretty cool if they help out Arya when she most needs it.
Just watched the episode “The Watchers on the Wall” again for the 5000th time. What a great slab of writing, acting, cinematography, directing, and the crew!
Now I’m on “Valar Morghulis” and it’s even better than the previous episode! But as a fan of subtle writing with tons of dialogue, the last season episodes are usually my favorites.
“You’re not the man you’re pretending to be. Not yet.”
Jack Bauer 24,
It’s there. Episode 2 will be 58 minutes.
Jack Bauer 24,
Ramsay’s 20th Good Man,
Yes, that’s the figure I mean. Sure, it’s too dark, but to me it really looks like Tyrion: the shape of the head, short arms, the whole silhouette, etc. And it makes sense: despite of his dwarfism Tyrion has never sat out a figth. IMO, initially he’ll be commanding/coordinating defence from the battlements. As we have seen in te trailer, the battle will start outside the walls but later the survivers will retreat into the castle (for instance, Brenne and Pod will definitely make it). And when the fight on the battlements begins, it makes sense for Tyrion to stay on the battlements and get engaged, cause there hardly be enough time to run to the crypts (and hiding with women and children is not Tyrion’s style anyway). And placing Tyrion next to Brienne implies, that Jaime is also somewhere near, cause Jaime has been shown coupled with Pod. So, all of it makes sense – at least to me:)
S3e10 Valar Morghulis
Arya & Sandor vs. Frey Doofuses
at 2:06 – Sandor in the background always cracks me up.
Ok that’s better. So we’re at 54 and 58 to start. Episode 3-6 are the beefy episodes in terms of minutes. Episode 3 will be up next Sunday on the schedule, so we’ll see how close the final cut is to the original 80 minutes.
Jack Bauer 24,
I wouldn’t expect Ep 3 to be 80 min. For all we know, it’s a battle episode and action sequences tend to take less time than “talks”. So, all in all I expect the episode to be like 60+ min. Unless the showrunners add some other plot to that, but that would be kind of excessive IMO.
Inga,
Oh, I get where you’re coming from. Don’t worry. I could definitely see it being Tyrion. I just don’t think it’s conclusive from that brief shot.
Ramsay’s 20th Good Man,
Sure, it might be an illusion. But to me it looks like 99% Tyrion. And Tyrion is not with Varys in the crypts. So, where else would he be?
60 minutes cut to 54 and 58 is one thing, but 80 to 60ish is a huge difference. Plus, 803 is supposed to be TV history and the longest battle ever.
I’m starting to get sad. I’m in season 7 of my every 5 day re-watch, and it’s amazing how quickly season 7 goes by…. I can’t imagine how fast season 8 will fly by with 6 episodes, even though 3, 4, 5, and 6 are hopefully close to 80 minutes. It’s really going to fly by though. I’m so excited for the season to start, but at the same time it’s going to go by really fast…and then there will just be the re-watches… I have to say a few of the episodes have grown on me in my several re-watches. Season 7 is really having a much more positive impact for me this time around.
Jack Bauer 24,
But Sapochnik did say that less action is better. So maybe the acton has lots of little moment. And if field of fire part 2 is anything to go by, episode 3 will not be that long.
Jack Bauer 24,
Well, Helm’s Deep was 40 min. Here we can expect some 50-60 min including all the good-by kisses, shots of the amy marching out of Winterfell, wating for the dead to show up, hiding in the crypts etc. If the episode is 120 min. long, that still leaves some 20-30 min. for something else. And that’s quite a lot of screentime.
Tron79,
I know. A mere five weeks from start to finish.
Yours truly,
Mr. Buzzkill
I can’t imagine episode titles are that far off now. At least for 8×01, and possibly up to 8×03. Although I suspect we might not know the titles of the final three until we see the preceding episode if they may in any way be spoilery.
I also assume that HBO will continue to put out the 30-second teasers before each episode, so we’ll probably get another mini-trailer for the premiere a week or so before April 14.
Season 7 episode titles for the first 3 episodes were announced July 7th, 2016. 9 days before the premiere. The red carpet was July 12th, so the episode titles were 5 days before that.
If the red carpet is April 3rd, the first few titles could be end of this month.
Really curious what the season poster will be at this stage
Jack Bauer 24,
The way they’ve been holding things close to the vest this year I wouldn’t be surprised if they withheld all episode titles until the week each airs. That would be in the fashion of the S7 finale when they released the title on the 22nd for the 27th airing date.
Like the synopsis, the titles don’t always spoil or give much away, but bits can often be gleaned and give us a focus we might not have. For people that weren’t following production or we ignored leaks to include pap photos for S7, a few of them did just that. We knew Daenerys was heading to Westeros but there were a lot of early guesses where she would/should land. Titling the premiere “Dragonstone” put that to bed. The last three titles would have given us something too if we’d know them days or weeks prior to the premiere. “Eastwatch,” “Beyond the Wall,” and “The Dragon and the Wolf,” all slightly spoil some things with just the titles.
I think it would be a wise decision to withhold each title until a few days before each episode, as much as many wouldn’t like that. We all like to see the titles early… but that’s also because we want to try to figure out what they refer to.
Yep buzzkill. Sorry for bringing it up but I can’t help but use another word again that is probably banned on some sites by now….”bittersweet”. That is the way it feels. I can think of one other feeling that is similar. This was a very long time ago for me. It’s like being a senior in high school getting to see your best friends everyday and then realizing graduation is coming soon and everyone will be going their separate ways. Of course I went to high school before the internet so we lost touch more than today but I digress.
Catspaw Assassin,
Cool!!!!!
https://i.imgur.com/Wk6lyQ7.jpg
(*Runs away from “Why does every thread have to shoehorn in Arya?” commenters*)
Clob,
The best episode title fakeout was “The Door.” I had no inkling what it might be about.
Tron79,
• I wish we could ban the word “bittersweet.”
• Anything less than dancing Ewoks with smiling apparitions of killed off good guys will seem like a “b*****s***t” ending to some of us.
Ten Bears,
I’ll take dancing Direwolves all brought back by the Lord of Light as Arya gives Jon a huge hug and goes off west of Westeros with Pod as her squire with benefits. Nobody probably guessed that one so I could be right!
How about.. “switterbeet”?
Ten Bears,
😂
I think I’ve reached Arya-fatigue-capacity in all honesty, so I don’t seem to be affected by Arya-thread-derailing like I used to. I think I now expect every thread to boil down to her on this fandom, but I love it here more than ever, so maybe I am a secret ASNWP…… something or other (sorry if I left out letters!) pusher too.
Shoehorn away!
Ten Bears,
Che,
If Ten Bears is so desperate to discuss Arya, we can discuss whom she’ running from. I agree that she should be running from someone special, probably from someone she knew in life, cause all we see is one (later two) men. But I don’t buy into this crazy “dead Starks will rise from the crypts” theory. IMO, there’s a much more simple explanation. The battle will start outside Winterfell, then the survivors will retreat into the castle leaving the fallen behind, then there will be the Hardhome-type moment Vladimir Furdic teased which implies that the Night King will wightify everyone he’ll find outside the walls, and then these new wights will breach into the castle. So, the probability that Arya will be chased by some newly wightified acquaintance is very high. But whom?
IMO, there’s only one wight that could put her into such a state: Gendry. Currently, he’s the only person in Winterfell with whom she shared a close relationship and that relationship is kind of foreshadowed to develop even further in two episodes before the battle. But somehow it doesn’t feel like Arya will have a happy ever after as a lady of Stormsend or as a blacksmith’s wife. So, Gendry’s survival is kind of unnecessary. Moreover, from what we saw last season, it’s legit to assume that Gendry will go to meet the dead in the open field just like other fighters; therefore, the chances of him dying increase. One of the men chasing Arya also looks like Gendry or at least there’s no contradition in his looks. And finally, Fricidoctor suggested that the person Arya was talking when she said she knew death and was looking forwards to see his new face was Gendry. So, what if the “face of death” will actually be Gendry’s face? That would parallel Osha’s tale about how she fled after hed dead man Bruni returned to her and would be totally heartbreaking.
I would be glad, if someone could talk me out of this theory, BTW.
Inga,
“So, the probability that Arya will be chased by some newly wightified acquaintance is very high. But whom?”
________
I agree with your premise. For Arya to get a head wound like that, it’s got to be somebody who could get close enough to her before she realizes that “friendly face” is a wight.
You’re right. Gendry would be the top candidate. Maybe Pod? If it’s Nymeria, I’m turning off the TV.
Inga,
There is no reason why she could not just be fleeing from wights. I am not sure that the dead in the crypts will be used: after all, most of them would be dust at this point. However, perhaps well-embalmed corpses can be turned, too.
At any rate, my bet is that the crypts are involved in one of three ways. One, Arya discovers that some of the dead are rising while down there, and she’s desperately trying to get past them to warn the others. Two, the secret passage out has turned into the wights/walkers secret passage into Winterfell. Three, Arya is one of the last survivors of rearguard action after Winterfell falls, and she is desperately trying to get to the secret passages out of Winterfell after most of the others have escaped through them.
And, of course: it could be something else altogether!
The last possibility is why we should never state “only one thing could do X”: we’ve read that over and over again here over the last several years in response to trailers, and it pretty much always has been something else! The only thing it tells us is that some pretty horrible things have happened because Arya is one of the most unflappable characters in the tale at this point: and she is well and truly flapped in this.
Or Arya encountered multiple enemies, and one was able to wound her while she was dispatching the others. Or Arya was outside fighting wights and sustained the wounds (or got splattered in someone else’s blood) then. There are myriad possible ways in which Arya might be in her condition.
The only things that this strongly suggests are that: 1) Winterfell gets overrun; and, 2) the events involved at some point leave Arya isolated from the main body of people. If I had to bet, then I’d bet on Arya being the last survivor of a rear-guard action of some sort. However, I would not want to bet a lot on that!
Me too!
Do you think they’ll start calling him Aegon or just stick with Jon?
Wimsey,
I agree that something was probably able to wound her but two things point to her not just running to get away; her two weapons. She still has two weapons that can kill WW’s. She wouldn’t just run unless it was something worse than WW’s or there were just too many of them to take on herself. . My theory is that she is on a mission of some kind and she has to quickly get to the other side of the castle to save someone. At some point she will stop and fight. I think she has a mission such as opening some secret door to let her troops through. If she lost all of her weapons then I would say she was just running for her life. But she definitely still has two good ones. It reminds me a bit of the no one chase where she has a plan to lure the waif in the dark. She looked defeated in that chase until the very end. Please show us what happens this time. I can’t take another off screen scene. She also calmed her breath in the no one chase just like she does in the trailer. She did this in the no one chase right before she got the waif just where she wanted her. She also practiced chasing cats in the first season and warged into cats in the books I believe so she will be hard to catch.
Wimsey,
OK, correction: Gendry is the best candidate to put Arya into such a state. Just look at her: not only she’s terrified and shocked – she has tears in her eyes. So, it’s not just random wights and it’s not just fear for her own life: we saw her fighting and running for her life in S6 and she was very determined and collected, nothing even close to this.
Look, that’s how I imagine things will go based on what we saw in the trailer. Arya will stay in Winterfell (we can see her on the background of Davos standing on the battlements next to Sansa before the battle). She’ll get engaged into the fight only later, when the wights will start climbing the walls. She’ll be fihting in the section of the battlements near a tower: you can see a door behind her while she is swinging her spear and someone is already retreating through that door. Hard to say for sure, but based on the height it might be Tyrion, whom we can also see next to Brienne. If I am right, Tyrion, Jaime, Brienne, Pod and Arya should be fighting on the same section of the battlements. At some point, Arya will get an almost fatal blow. Like Ten Bears suggests, it should come from someone special: Karsi lost control, when she saw wightified children; so, I expect something similar here and Gendry is my best guess. Sure, Arya won’t be overrun like Karsi: she’ll block the blow with her spear, which will break leaving only the spearhead in her hands. Arya will be only lightly wounded; however, she might lose consciousnes and that would explain her isolation – she’ll be assumed to be dead. One way or another, she’ll get on ger feet, make it to the door and through that door into the corridors of Winterfell. You should have noticed, that she is not running in the crypts: there are wintdows, and there’s light and snow comming through them. As for the crypts, I think they will be the last resort and/or the pathway to the secrwct passage leadeng out of Winterfell and Arya will be running there (and she should succeed).
As for Winterfell being overrun, partly – yes, but at the last minute some “cavalry” should come to the rescue (an we’ve seen a bit of some cavalry in the trailer and in the leaked set photos, too:)
Tron79,
I agree that Arya is not only running for her life but also leading her chasers into some trap (the crypts could work, if they have a similar magical barrier as the 3-eyed Raven’s cave). And yes, Arya becomes more and more collected while she runs. But I am concerned about the first shot: we haven’t seen Arya so distressed since the Red Wedding.
Wimsey,
I’ve been thinking the same regarding the corpses of Winterfell. Most of them would be nothing more than bone at this point, so if they were raised, they would be more like the wights that Bran encountered outside the Weirwood tree at the end of season 4. I’m not sure that would strike the kind of fear into Arya that we see in the trailer.
Likewise, Catelyn and Robb have been dead for a good 4 – 5 years at this point so I highly doubt they would come back as anything more than skeletons (sorry, LSH fans). Ned is even less of a possibility for obvious reasons (though there are still people theorizing about this?). Rickon would be the only one that could make sense at this point, but.. I have my doubts. (Also, poor Art Parkinson if that’s the case. He’s brought back in season 6 with no lines just to get killed off, then back in season 8 as a wight chasing his sister?)
To me, Arya looks shaken. Especially in the first shot. Like shaken to her core. It’s not just fear of death or the determination of getting out to warn others, or to get to a safe spot. So the suggestion that it could be a recently wighted character that she cares for does make sense. Gendry. Brienne (please, no)? … Nymeria (if so, I will let out expletives that will be heard wide and far)?
The other possibility being the revival of a character that she’s killed; coming face-to-face with one of her victims could be a pretty terrifying thing. It could work into her arc too, as a kind of facing up to some of her actions. Littlefinger would fit the bill given that he’s recently deceased and at Winterfell. I know that there’s been some speculation that it’s Jaqen as well, but I doubt she’d run in terror from him unless he came back wearing the face of someone she killed. MFT (aka Meryn Trant)? Or the Waif? That’s perhaps a little tinfoil-y, but..
After all that though, I can’t say I’m very confident with any of those predictions. So yeah.. I really don’t know. 🙂
I have no idea who is chasing Arya.
But it would be hilarious if she was being chased by 50 very angry Frey men.
(No, I have no idea how they would get be in WF but if this is in KL then the NK could have picked them up along the way.)
It’s been understated just what a good fighter Rhaegar was. Rhaegar beat Arthur Dayne, and we know just how good a fighter Dayne was. Rhaegar also beat fighting legend, Barristan Selmy. It’s astonishing that Robert was able to beat Rhaegar on the Trident, but I suppose that rage can make an ordinary man do superhuman things.
I think that Elia liked Rhaegar well enough, as he did her; but they were not in love. We see in the show how unconventional and sexually liberated the Dornish women are. I could see young Elia already having a lover, or six, then being forced into a marriage with a man she doesn’t love. The two don’t find each other objectionable, so they do their duty and produce two children.
Elia endures those two labours which almost kill her…and which no doubt were long and excruciatingly painful. I could see them talking it over and saying I don’t love you and you don’t love me and you almost died two times…let’s give each other our freedom. Such a decision would be liberating for a woman in her circumstances.
Of course, having come to such an agreement in private, Rhaegar would have thought nothing of handing a garland to another woman…while onlookers gasp in horror.
I don’t want to deify the man, but there is a clear pathway here for his actions being rational and understandable.
No, Gendry is not the best candidate: the best candidates are her family members. After all, if the Walkers are in Winterfell, then they can raise the corpses there. So, if Arya sees some of skeletons crawl out of her parents’s and/or sibling’s crypts, then even she would be freaked. (Although I, for one, would find it hysterical if Wight-Ned hurls his skull at her!)
That stated, I don’t think any of this is needed to explain what we’ve seen. Arya will have just seen many people die. If she has been fighting any amount of time, then she is mentally and physical exhausted. It could well look to her (and to the audience) as if the dead are a foe that simply cannot be defeated. And, biggest of all, Winterfell is lost again: and after she thought that they had won it back. That alone would be more than enough to explain everything: and add the other factors, and even the Ninja Queen in the North would be shaken and distressed.
And that returns to the annual issue that arises from these trailers: without the context of the preceding scenes, all we can do is enumerate possible causes. Most of the time, it’s pretty much every idea that people here propose that turns out to be wrong, never mind the most popular ones, save for those ideas that are very general ones. There simply are too many paths that could lead to things like what we are shown.
Robert was supposed to be a very good warrior in general. When it comes to one-on-one fights between two competent warriors, then chance factors often would play a huge role in who won. It would be much like sports competitions, in which lesser teams defeat superior teams over a third of the time.
Ha! Nedd got lucky too. Nedd’s luck was named “Howland”…but I take your meaning.
Wimsey,
“Ninja Queen in the North.”
I like it!
Sandor: I bet you do.
Inga,
I hope that Gendry being the last Baratheon descendent in the show, is going to be more than just a frightening wight for Arya.
Wimsey,
I appreciate your efforts to talk me out of my theory and I’m glad it trigerred you to come back – haven’t seen your wise comments for some time and missed you terribly;)
However, back to the point. True, that wightification of a family member would distress Arya most of all. However, we can see that her chaser(s) are male. So, Sansa can be ligitly excluded (and Nymeria, too:) As for Jon and Bran, they should survive till Ep 5-6 and play a part in the ultimate endgame; so, it’s legit to exclude them, too.
Ned and Rickon comming from in the crypts is a stupid idea for a number of reasons. First of all, Ned would be a headess corpse. As for Rickon, Arya would hardly recognise him: he had grown quite a bit before he died. Moreover, if the dead Starks were risen in the crypts, they would have to make it past all those women and children and Varys, which should keep them occupied for quite some time. And in general, it’s not the direction of the action sequence we see: Arya will start her fight on the battlements and then retreat deaper into the castle. Allowing her to reach the crypts to confront sceletons crawling from her ancestors graves and then run back to the upper level sounds like nonsense (and you know how stories should be written).
So, I stick to my theory that Arya is running from some newly-made wight(s) she used to love and care about and Gendry is the best option from the drama point. Brienne (and Pod) could be another, but her story lies with Jaime and for this reason I tend to exclude her, too.
Sure, there is an alternative option. As you say, it is possible that Arya is distressed by the very fact that Winterfell is being overrun or that she was left behind alone. As I said, based on the fact that she is wounden on her forehead, it’s legit to assume that she was knocked out for some time. However, I don’t think that Arya would run like that, if she comes back to conscoiusness and simply sees no living man around and thinks she’s the last woman standing. I imagine, she would stay low pretend to be dead and look for the chance to take out the Night King. However, here we see her running for her life anfter some initial shock and “all is lost” moment, which implies that there’s still some defence line in Winterfell – just the battlements have been overrun.
Chilli,
From what we see and also based on the trends of real history, all the great houses should be extinct by the end; therefore, Gendry hardly has a purpose as a Baratheon descendent. If he lives, I expext him to continue as a blacksmith and build and corporate empire based on the mass production of rediscovered Valyrian steel. He’s a craftsman, not a ruler (and he would make a terrible ruler, if someone puts him into Storms End). However, I don’t see Arya as a happy blacksmith’s wife, either. So, Gendry must die.
But I don’t think he’ll be “just a frightening wight for Arya”. IMO, Arya’s end game is becomming a real “no-one” able of granting the gift of death to the Night King. In my imagination Arya should depose him and take his position as an incarnation of the death. She’s the only candidate for that role and I assume she’ll be a more merciful and just version of death. However, to fulfill this destiny, Arya has to forsake life and become truly no-one and that requires some major push, some tragedy, so that even the viewer cound fell that “nothingness” would be better to Arya. And losing Gendry would do the work.
I’m replying to several, and even though technically the following isn’t a spoiler, since I’m speculating, some of my speculation may be due to things I have heard online, so….
I do think there could be something to the NK wanting to get back Baby Sam, so the NK could be headed for the crypts.
Do you recall when we found out the length of all the episodes from season 7? I remember we knew those well before the episode’s titles and I’m dying to know if were are looking at 80 min episodes for 3 – 6 lol
June 8th, 2017. That was 37 days before the July 16th premiere.
We’re at 34 days until premiere now. I don’t think we’ll get the all episode lengths this time around until they get added on the HBO schedule. Episode 3 will be added this coming Sunday. The HBO schedule goes 6 weeks out. So the first 2 episodes are currently listed.
Tron79,
The Night King may be headyng to the crypts because of both baby Sam and Bran. Grey Area has juas made an excelent video about Bran being the Night King’s target https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W6hkSUk59I
And I would add my Tin Foil that the crypts will be protected by the souls of the dead Starks starting from Bran the Builder.
Meraxes,
Jack Bauer 24,
I’ve red someone claiming that he/she got the full HBO shedule by some computer trick. and that Ep 3 episode is being listed 60 min; Ep 4 – 118 min, and Ep 5 and 6 – still 120 min. If that’s true, I asume that Ep 3, 5 and 6 are still in the process of the final cut (which would make sense).
Catspaw Assassin,
This is all fascinating to me.
Episodes 3-6 were rumored to be 80 minutes, so going up to 120 is way too much of an edit for episodes 5 and 6. And going down from 80 to 60 minutes for episode 3 is also a massive cut. Usually the final cuts change a few minutes, not that drastic.
It also can’t be Catelyn or Robb because Catelyn’s body was thrown into the river and I doubt Walder Frey was respectful enough to send Robb’s body back to Winterfell.
Jack Bauer 24,
It’s not 120 minutes, it’s 1 hr 20 minutes. You can find it on the site that cannot be named. Not sure if it’s legit of course.
Episode 801: 54 minutes
Episode 802: 58 minutes
Episode 803: 60 minutes
Episode 804: 78 minutes
Episode 805: 80 minutes
Episode 806: 80 minutes
Jack Bauer 24,
I checked myself, seems to be legit.
Episode 3: https://www.hbo.com/schedule?focusId=811557
Episode 4: https://www.hbo.com/schedule?focusId=811558
Episode 5: https://www.hbo.com/schedule?focusId=811559
Episode 6: https://www.hbo.com/schedule?focusId=811560
Jack Bauer 24,
It’ seems to be legit, checked it myself on the HBO site. Just change the last number of the url to see it.
Hmmm. Both 805 and 806 are exactly 80 minutes? Just seems off. Don’t they still edit pretty much up to the episode? I guess it could change, but yeah not my much. I’m surprised 803 went from 80 to 60 minutes. The overall minutes total for the season is around 30 minutes less then what was first reported.
Chilli,
Yes, sorry. That’s what I ment.
Inga,
Could it be Hodor whom Arya is running away from? His corpse might have been “recruited” by the AOTD. And he was one of the more beloved members of the Stark household, which would explain Arya’s distress at seeing him as a wight.
Lunaselene,
Hodor might be an option, but we’ve never seen Arya interact with him and therefore we don’t know whether she was close to him or not. And we can assume that Bran has already told her about Hodor’s tragic demise; so, she would know what to expect. If my interpretation of Arya’s facial expression is correct, it should be someone more recent – someone who was alive just five minutes ago and whom Arya would expect to see alive, not dead and blue-eyed.
I know these are your priorities and it just shows where your interests lie, but a 10 minute reunion for Arya and Jon is a little overkill imo. And the Arya and Sandor reunion time too. (I noticed that a couple of comments later you already said you would adjust total Jon time for Tyrion & Sansa, as well as Jorah and Lyanna Mormont reuniting/meeting.) For me, Jon and Arya reuniting, an estimate of 5 minutes is realistic. Jon and Sansa got two consecutive scenes in season 6 episode 4. In total: 4 – 4.5 minutes.
Given the circumstances of their relations and separations, I would say Arya’s own priorities probably tend more towards seeing Gendry again than Sandor. But she will be happy to see both and both will get a similar reunion time, I guess. A lot to catch up with in both cases anyway, but it doesn’t have to happen in this episode, though…
If Arya were to have seen them actually emerging from the crypts, or if they are wearing things that in some way designated who they are, then Arya would know to whom the skeletons belong. Just skeletons in Stark regalia really ought to be sufficient: after all, Arya (like all of the Starks) is really big on family loyalty, so seeing her deceased family members turning on her would be doubly distressing.
Sure, that could be it. However, the fall of Winterfell and the defeat of her forces also would be sufficient to so shake Arya. After all, she really cares about Winterfell and her family. Unless one wants to make an argument that “only seeing Gendry as a Wight would shake Arya,” then the only thing we can conclude is that something has shaken and/or terrified and/or exhausted Arya. The list of possibilities is very long!
(Indeed, I seem to recall that, two years ago, some trailer shot of Arya “could only have meant ______” for many people: only to have it turn out to be Arya seeing Hot Pie, which was not anybody’s ______!)
One other reason I would lean in the direction of corpses from the crypts is that the crypts are a gun that’s been hung on the Wall. Bran having used them as an escape years ago might have been enough, but it seems that the gun has been subsequently rehung. Given the way that B&W work, I would not be surprised if the firing has 2+ bullets: and escape + Winterfell dead turning against its denizens would be two big bullets.
(I also expect Gendry to live and wind up with Arya, simply because this was foreshadowed in the very first episode!)
Yep! Fair enough.
The thing that really throws a wrench in it for me is the opening shot of her. There’s something there that’s beyond the normal fear that we saw in her being chased by the Waif. If it wasn’t for that shot, I could 100% get behind the theory that she could be running from a group of wights, or a White Walker or two. I just get the feeling that since that shot is right up in her face that it’s something more personal as opposed to the defeat of her forces or something else on a broader scale.
I would very much prefer him to live, and it would be great if he ended up with Arya in some capacity. My secret wish should Arya decide (or be forced) to sail west is for Gendry to go with her because there may not be anything for him after all this is done, and I don’t know that he’d be the type to want to stick around and play politics. Although, if Arya does let him come with her, I hope it’s on the condition that he grows out his hair. 🙂
If this is true 54 minutes is still on the long side for a season premiere and even average run time, it’s definitely not short.
Wimsey,
Good to see your posts again 😊
I am fearful what is going to happen in the crypts.
I’ve always hoped the old Stark Kings’ statues would defend Winterfel & it’s people, but I’m not holding my breath.
As far as Arya & Gendry foreshadowing, are you referring to when King RB told Ned, “you have a daughter, I have a son…”
Enharmony1625,
Same for me: it’s all about the opening shot. And Winterfell can’t be completely overrun by that moment: Arya chooses to run – to retreat, so there still should be some line of defence she intends to reach. I’d bet on the crypts: indeed, it’s a hanging gun and they have already worked as a hiding place for Bran and now we also see non-combatants hiding there, so no-one expects the dead Starks to rise and kill them all (and that would be a terrible storytelling, cause the crypts have always been presented as a sanctuary).
As for Gendry, I also agree that he’s not a political type. But he’s a craftsman and a successful one. From what I gather, he loves his work and enjoys making good things for good purposes. Post-war Westeros would be a paradise for a man like this, and Arya might find happiness as a blacksmith’s wife. But once again: “that’s not her”. I would be happy to be wrong.
Enharmony1625,
…Except in S7e5 and e6, all Gendry talked about was Mel, Mel, Mel. “They sold me to a witch! She turned me into a newt! I got better.”
Not one word about Arya – who had saved his a*s more than once.
Yeah I remember a lot of speculation on this site about the S6 episode titles and absolutely nobody had any idea what was coming. Sadly I think the episode itself leaked on HBO Nordics a few days before though.
I hope they continue to call him Jon! I doubt they will change it but it may change for his coronation should that happen.