Game of Thrones season 8 spoilers: Putting the budget to use

What does this latest look at Game of Thrones’ season 8 sets reveal about the show? First, things might just slow down, and second, the spending is up.

Warning: Game of Thrones spoilers are below, although there are not plot spoilers (just speculation). 

Game of Thrones fans will not be denied their sometimes-grainy, always-intriguing looks at what’s going on in production. And, as we are also fans of Game of Thrones (as is our sister site, Winter is Coming, which published these photos initially) … well, let’s break down the latest, shall we?

To be completely honest, we totally agree with WiC on the interpretation that this is all for a massive confrontation. What we’re more interested in is how this will affect the pacing of season 8, because, again, as WiC points out, there’s a trebuchet on site now, which suggests that things might be a little … extended.

The show’s limited to six episodes to wrap up a story that’s still ably described by the word sprawling, albeit six presumably longer-than-normal episodes.A long-term attempt to take a fortified castle could really bog the season down. Although the show has done this before with Riverrun, the Blackfish is no longer around to side-eye and sarcastically take everyone down, which helped to keep things moving. In that sense, it could be that we’ll first hear about the attempts off-screen, and maybe cut to them a few times before the final confrontation.

Additionally, it doesn’t seem like the Night King and his army would use such tools, so it might just be a war on two fronts for someone. That’s a large commitment of troops and time for, to hazard a guess, Daenerys. She’s proven her armies can handle it by diverting forces to Casterly Rock and Sunspear alike, although we all know how that turned out for her (not well).

Next: Game of Thrones season 8 spoilers: Will Winterfell fall?

Which army is in possession of the trebuchet? Do you think it’s someone other than Daenerys? Perhaps some more Game of Thrones spoilers will clue us in soon.