A Little Game of Thrones Season 7 Costume Analysis

Last Week Tonight crossed over just a bit with Game of Thrones in a new HBO promo, and let’s look in detail at some of the costumes shown.

If nothing else, the costuming of Game of Thrones came up with some distinct styles of dress for the Seven Kingdoms, and when there’s deviation from the norms, trouble usually follows. One need not look further than Cersei’s season 6 finale look after her penchant for wearing reds and other bright colors throughout earlier seasons, but it’s just the most obvious example.

We say all this because the costuming for season 7 looks to be absolutely ominous, keeping in theme with the promo already released. Our sister site, Winter is Coming, has all of the promos HBO has put out since that feature the cast, but we’ll focus on this one with John Oliver because it’s funny.

We held out hope that John wouldn’t give in, but he did. Now, let’s get to what we’re really here for: clothes.

Still from HBO promo. Image via HBO.

This is a lot more militaristic than even what we saw Daenerys wearing at the end of season 6. Check out that three-headed dragon clasp at her shoulder, by the way. Additionally, see the fur trim everywhere? Fire cannot kill a dragon, but winter sure can. We can’t help but wonder if she’s wearing an actual dress or something more suitable for riding a dragon, since sidesaddle probably wouldn’t work with Drogon.

Still from HBO promo. Image via HBO.

Are those straight-up neck spikes? I think Cersei is wearing straight-up neck spikes. As WiC notes in the above-linked post, these two women are dressed very similarly, and I think the point about the smallfolk not really being able to tell them apart may be a very cogent one indeed. After all, both Queen Cersei and Queen Daenerys have used fire. However, it’s also important to see that they both have symbols of their houses very prominently displayed. They may look similar at first glance, but they are different.

Speaking of prominently displaying things, here’s the last of the three major rulers:

Still of HBO promo. Image via HBO.

WiC cracked a joke about Jon Snow wearing dark clothes again, but there are some things to be gleaned here, too. Because everything that Jon Snow is wearing is so dark, the eye goes straight to his silver-gray breastplate and to the pommel of Longclaw, which just so happens to be a white wolf. There’s some detail on the breastplate as well. It looks to be wolf heads facing each other. Other than that, this is just an excuse to look at Kit Harington for a couple moments.

Still of HBO promo. Image via HBO.

Well, look who decided to join the party! Interestingly, Tyrion is visually tied to Daenerys, obviously and as noted by WiC, since he’s her Hand. (The silver pin as opposed to the gold in Westeros is a nice touch.) At the same time, though, the shapes created by the stripes actually remind us a bit of the silver detailing at Cersei’s shoulders.

Still of HBO promo. Image via HBO.

Now, for a lot of reasons, Jaime is one of the more interesting people here. He and his brother Tyrion are both wearing leather, but Jaime is the only one of the three Lannister siblings to have red and gold represented in his look. With Tyrion on Team Dany and Cersei basically embracing her inner tyrant, it seems like a reasonable guess to say that Jaime will need to pick up the Lannister banner, especially when you take recent Coster-Waldau interviews into account.

Still of HBO promo. Image via HBO.

Can we just say that Sophie Turner made the creepiest sound of all of them? Anyway, it’s interesting to note that she, too, has prominent shoulders like Cersei and Dany. However, hers come from a cloak instead of being part of her actual clothing beneath. It isn’t to say that it makes her weaker, and we use that term loosely, but her power is a little more … precarious. She doesn’t have the fancy queen title like the other two do. She also has a wolf head pelt on. That’s not scary at all.

Still from HBO promo. Image via HBO.

Here’s another woman with prominent shoulders. The half-cape style almost looks a bit like that of Dany’s. It’s also more practical in that it’s a fur cloak. Arya’s about ready to stab someone, basically.

Next: 25 Reasons We Want Daenerys on the Iron Throne

What sorts of things can you conclude from these brief looks at some of the Game of Thrones looks for next season?