Game of Thrones season 7’s new trailer: A brief analysis

Although most of the shots comprising the new Game of Thrones season 7 trailer don’t last long, here’s a brief breakdown of some of the major themes.

What better way to brighten up a Wednesday than by watching a fresh Game of Thrones trailer ahead of the show’s return on July 16? Well, you could throw in some brief analysis as we’re about to do.

Yes, HBO dropped a new trailer for the second-to-last season of the show today.

Without further ado, check it out (probably for the second or third time) below:

Yowza. Did anyone else get the sense that it was really longer than the less than two minutes we ended up getting?

Anyway, here are some brief takeaways here. We’ll start with Daenerys. Speaking about how she was born to rule the Seven Kingdoms while she returns to Dragonstone, where she was born, is a nice touch. Indeed, Dragonstone actually became the seat of the Baratheons, specifically Stannis Baratheon, after the rebellion. You can even briefly spot what looks like the stag sigil of House Baratheon on the castle itself if you look closely. In other words, it’s a moment that works on multiple levels when taken with the dialogue.

As for Jon Snow, he has the least amount of real screentime here, since he has to share with Arya and Sansa. But he gets to deliver the ominous line about the “great war” coming. Incidentally, Sky Atlantic also uploaded its trailer, but with a very intriguing name: “Collide.” That could go a lot of different places, really — collision as in battles, something clearly shown with Drogon flying all over the place and Dothraki fighting scenes, of storylines, of different ideologies, and even of different species. For, interestingly enough, there aren’t really any White Walkers in the trailer, even after that poster came out yesterday.

And then we come to Cersei, who rather dominates the trailer. She’s the first to speak, she gets to deliver cool lines about enemies, and that shot of Lannister soldiers is pretty chilling. Also, how cool is her giant map room? Cersei literally gets to walk over the Seven Kingdoms.

Next: Game of Thrones' pace next season is bonkers

What did you see in this Game of Thrones trailer?