Small Council: What did we think of the second trailer for Game of Thrones season 7?

This week, HBO gave us the second trailer for Game of Thrones season 7. What did we like? What didn’t we like? Let’s talk all about it. The Small Council is in session.

DAN: There are some fans who think the quality of the dialogue on Game of Thrones has gone down since the show ran out of books to adapt. I’m not going to weigh in on that debate overmuch, but I will say that when I hear an iconic line from the books in the show, it sends a shiver down my spine. So I thought Sansa’s parting shot for this trailer was terrific: “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.”

Sansa’s slow power walk at the beginning was a nice moment, too — she’s clearly contemplating what Littlefinger is saying about the war of the mind. It looks like the internal battle that was brought to a boil in season 6 isn’t over.
Beyond that, what I mostly enjoyed was the sick shots of action scenes we got. And I don’t normally use the word “sick” to describe things unrelated to illness, but c’mon…Jaime Lannister riding pell-mell through a battlefield scorched by dragon fire and heaving a lance? It makes me wanna find religion or start a metal band or something. Ride like the wind, Jaime!

That whole scene is going to be next-nevel stuff. This battle at sea, featuring Euron Greyjoy and a lot of fire, also looks like a barn-burner. And who do we think Jon was talking to during his speech about banding together?



SARAH: SANSA!
I mean, that’s basically my reaction to the trailer but since I need to go into detail…

Jaime’s angry dash across the flaming field best signifies, in my mind, the complexities of his inner struggle as he longs to leave his volatile, scheming sister and follow his heart to our Lord and Savior, Brienne of Tarth. Also that his army was probably just obliterated by Drogon, but I’ll take a dual-meaning wherever I can. I’m hoping to see some of that anger directed towards Cersei and some of that determination sending him north.

I’m scared for Yara Greyjoy. I’m scared that she’s going to suffer the same fate as Margaery Tyrell — an important-but-important-enough character who gets killed off because there are no slots available to fit her into once the show ends and the White Walkers are defeated (probably). Because it’s pretty clear that Theon fits the ‘what is dead may never die, but rises again’ mold better than any other Ironborn character. Did I get all of this from a split-second shot of her looking worried? Not entirely. Is it relevant still? Yes. #PrayforYara
Back to Sansa, though. I know that some people (Corey) are talking as if she’s going to betray Jon in season 7, so I found it both pertinent and AWESOME that one of Ned’s most iconic lines was given to her. It is blisteringly clear to me that the hardened and mature Sansa Stark who last year told us, “Back then I only thought about what I wanted, never about what I had” would never choose to turn her back on her family. So what if she’s pissed at Jon for not giving her credit in public? The Starks aren’t the Lannisters, where falling out with your brother means passive-aggressively urging him to die for years.

The juxtaposition of her looooong beauty shot and Petyr’s insight into, perhaps, how his own mind works, was something I also enjoyed. I can’t wait for her to take all of his advice and turn on him.

Finally, I am beyond relieved that somebody at Winterfell thought to get Bran a wheelchair, though why they couldn’t have done this back in season 1 — instead of making Hodor carry him around everywhere — is completely beyond me.



COREY: It’s incredible that mere weeks after the first trailer was released, one some of us hailed as a benchmark in the world of trailers, we are talking about another home run from HBO. This trailer was downright breathtaking. I could barely keep up.

I will agree with Dan that Jaime’s ride through the field of fire was pretty damn awesome. That was the most determined and badass we’ve seen Jaime in the whole series as far as I’m concerned. And yet it wasn’t even the first or second best moment in the trailer for me.

I believe someone else is ready to gush over Beric’s flaming sword/lightsaber, so I’ll praise the whole montage of shots of Jon’s mission north of the Wall. From the trio of characters facing down a horde of wights to Jon squaring off with another White Walker to Jon cutting down a wight with a single blow and being all “what?”, the whole sequence has me already perched on the edge of my seat.
The expedition north of the Wall looks to be the biggest scene of the season. No way everyone walks out of that alive. It’s probably going to be one long adrenaline rush akin to the Massacre at Hardhome. Game of Thrones season 7, get hype!



RICHARD: Helluva trailer, tis true. Like all TV show good adverts, it delivers a cinematic and visceral wallop without giving away too much. HBO knows its fans are expecting a big serving of high action and emotional payoff in Season 7, and with only 13 episodes remaining, a number of storylines need to intersect and/or conclude. Here’s what I sensed might happen from what I saw in the trailer:

• For starters, using “Light of the Seven” as the background music is significant. It heralds another massacre of characters, just as it did when Cersei’s blew up the Sept of Baelor. I think here be parallels with Shakespeare’s Hamlet, meaning the stage will be covered in dead bodies in the final scene.
• Sansa walking out of the godswood looking like she just shot a puppy, with Littlefinger whispering to her about the great game in the voiceover…The girl is going to do something she feels is necessary even it it’s distasteful, and she knows a lot of people (Jon Snow) aren’t going to like it. The shot of Littlefinger leering reinforces this. The “lone wolf” in Sansa’s ending voiceover may be Jon, but she is going to make sure the Stark pack survives.
• It looks like Daenerys, now fully installed at Dragonstone, will link up with the Starks to wipe out the Lannisters. Jaime Lannister’s wild ride across the burning battlefield may be the result of Cersei’s death and the fiery, dragon-fueled destruction of the Lannister army.  If so, then Jaime’s last ride is a suicide charge.
• Yara and Theon’s Ironborn ships are defeated by Euron’s fleet, but Theon manages to survive. Yara does not, and that breaks my heart.
• Bran and Meera travel south of the Wall.  Jon, Tormund and the Brotherhood Without Banners travel north of the Wall and get into the kind of White Walker-realted kind of trouble one would expect. Why would anybody journey north of the Wall now? I guess we’ll find out.

RAZOR: “Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire, Ooh!” There wasn’t one single thing from this trailer that I didn’t love. We’ve seen two official trailers for season 7 now, and I honestly feel like I’ve watched two films.
The cinematography was once again on point, as were the heart-pounding action sequences. But the fact that HBO revealed so much in this trailer has me a little bit worried. We already know we’re only getting seven episodes this season, and for the trailer to reveal that Bran returns to Winterfell (complete with a new wheelchair) and that Jaime charges directly at what I can only imagine is a very hungry dragon feels like we’re getting too much sizzle for our dollarbizzle. (Sorry. I’m so sorry).
Some high points that gave me goosebumps from stem to stern, in no particular order:

• Sansa’s opening slow-motion walk.
• Bran’s murder of crows spying on the Night King.
• Bran in a wheelchair at Winterfell.
• Jaime charging madly into the jaws of certain defeat.
• Drogon and Dany flying over the Dothraki horde.
• Drogon getting up close and personal with someone off screen while Dany, a tiny speck, sits atop his back.
• Beric Dondarrion igniting his sword with what seems like a mere thought. With mind bullets!
• Jon fighting a White Walker.
• Jon and his group being swarmed by the undead.
• Jon chopping a wight in half while Sansa delivers one of the best lines in the history of the series: “When the snow falls and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.”

Ned would be proud.