The second Game of Thrones trailer debuted earlier today, blowing fans’ minds with its blending of action-packed season seven footage and the eerie “Light of the Seven” music that first made a big impression in last year’s explosive finale. Now that we’ve watched the trailer a second, third or twenty-fifth time, it’s time for us to break it down, shot by shot. Find out what you missed as we dig deep into “Winter is Here”!



We open with a nervous-looking Sansa Stark walking through the snowy godswood of Winterfell, as Littlefinger intones in voiceover, “Don’t fight in the north, or the south. Fight every battle everywhere, always, in your mind.” Smart words, but is he taking his own advice when he deals with Sansa? The placement of his voice over her appearance isn’t a coincidence.

The next piece of the trailer spoils viewers directly about Bran Stark and Meera Reed. We see the heavy iron gate beneath the Wall lifting up, in close-up, and then from a distance, the small figures of a woman, and a figure laid out, presumably being pulled. This is Bran and Meera arriving at the Wall and being let in, after their long journey.

Jon Snow is bundled up in furs on a journey beyond the Wall, based on the terrain. In the first trailer, we saw him running for his life dressed like this. The man behind him is unfamiliar- I’m guessing he’s a redshirt.

A shot of King’s Landing, with Goldcloaks of the City Watch parading though, seemingly to a warm welcome- the people are clapping. What are they celebrating? Lannister banners hang on the walls.

Queen Cersei turns and see…? Dunno, this is a mysterious and pensive reaction shot.

Daenerys walks through the Painted Table room at Dragonstone, seem in the previous trailer:

The next shot is somewhat unclear, but we do recognize the location as the black sand beach in Vík, Iceland, where GoT filmed in January of this year. Our best speculation is that the black sand beach is the landing point for Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, a Night’s Watch castle. If you want to spoil yourself a lot more, click here and here to find out more about which actors were spotted in that area!

A scene used a lot in promos so far, Arya peers into the distance. She’s acquired a horse and nice gear since the Frey Pie incident, and Needle is in good shape.



Jaime Lannister, seen from behind, walks along castle walls. The really interesting part of this (not that any part of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau isn’t interesting) is the dead Tyrell man lying on the ground ahead of him. This is most likely Highgarden.

Littlefinger. Lord o’ the Lurk. Count o’ the Creep. Maybe he’s in the Winterfell crypt waiting to jump out at Jon or maybe it’s another prime skulking opportunity.

A hand cleaning a spear, same shot as in the last trailer. Some people have speculated that this is Grey Worm. Makes sense to me. Unsullied love their spears, and no that’s not a poor taste joke.

Over the next several scenes, Jon Snow speaks, warning on the danger of not working together. “For centuries, our families fought together against their common enemy. Despite their differences, together. We need to do the same if we’re gonna survive, cause the enemy is real.”

Daenerys walks alone on the beach at Dragonstone. The scenes here were filmed in Zumaia, Basque Country, last fall. The striated rock formations called “flysch” seen here (and reflected in Dany’s new Dragon throne) are distinct, and a unique feature of the Zumaia beaches.

Daenerys faces the flaming-heart stag banner of Stannis Baratheon and tears it down. After Robert’s Rebellion, their ancestral home Dragonstone was lost to the Targaryens, and ultimately awarded to Stannis by his brother King Robert. Now that Dany’s home, it’s time to redecorate.

Speaking of Dragonstone, here’s a beautiful shot of it, as all three dragons play together in the sky.

This shot seems to go with the dragons- we saw in the first trailer that Tyrion watches the dragons flying, and is startled by them.

A glimpse of Theon similar to the one we saw in the first trailer, where there are sparks around him. He’s definitely a part of the fiery sea battle that crops up elsewhere in the trailer.

Grey Worm is on the move, headed into battle, in full Unsullied armor. We saw in the first trailer that he takes part in fighting at Casterly Rock. Is this part of that sequence? It would make sense since we later see Unsullied letting other Unsullied soldiers into Casterly Rock. And long ago, the show explained to us that Tywin had once upon a time put Tyrion in charge of the sewers of the Rock. No one knows them better than Tyrion, and now he’s working for the other side. And here’s Grey Worm near the waters…and an entrance.

Brienne and Podrick at Winterfell, in good health. Is this their return, after their unsuccessful journey to Riverrun? Not very likely, since Brienne isn’t wearing her armor in this shot. It almost seems like they’re headed out again somewhere else.

A teeth-gnashing, mad, possibly-fighting Hound! In the frozen North! With Jon?? What’s not to like here.

The Unsullied are having an extremely bad day, judging by the quantity of nippled Unsullued shields and arrow-riddled Unsullied soldiers on the ground. Casualties of Casterly Rock, or a different fight? The light wall in the background matches what we saw for Casterly Rock in the behind the scenes Locations video.

A cavalry charges at a row of Lannister shields. The line of fire in the background makes me wonder if dragons (and Daenerys’ legions) are in play.

We have a sea battle with the Ironborn to look forward to this scene, and I’m loving it. In this shot, we see someone go flying across the screen. The leather-clad legs, long hair, and feminine shape make me think this is Yara Greyjoy.

Jaime and Bronn stand behind a group of Lannister archers. Behind them, wagons haul goods.

The next few bits appear to be connected. We see ravens flying over a horde of wights, and one of them has white eyes.

Unerringly, the Night King who is leading the wights looks up and finds the warged raven.

Bran snaps out of the bird and back into himself, where he sits in the godswood. Maester Wolkan (who formerly served the Boltons) is likely the one who woke him up. Did the Night King notice the raven specifically because of Bran? It seems very likely that Bran having been touched by the King in his vision has created a permanent and dangerous connection between them.

Also, cool new wheelchair, Bran!

The next image is when the trailer went from cool to straight up friggin awesome.

“It’s always been real,” Jon Snow says of the real enemy. And then Beric Dondarrion‘s sword of fire lights up, and we all lose our shit.

Take notice that the leader of the Brotherhood without Banners is decked out in warm furs just like Jon Snow, in a wintry place, and was last seen trying to convince the Hound to travel north to fight the real battle.



Next up, we have a Greyjoy fleet! But which one? Easy, if you take note of an extra detail on the sigil. Notice that the krakens have a red dot on them? That’s the eye that marks Euron Greyjoy‘s personal sigil. It’s a shout-out to Euron’s red-eyed sigil in the books, married to the more easily recognizable House Greyjoy kraken. These are Euron’s ships, and most importantly: they’re about to make port in King’s Landing.

The Unsullied are in that damn field again.

Hey, now they’re having fun! Except the one on the right who is having helmet issues.

The Unsullied are let into Casterly Rock by other Unsullied, who accessed the inside somehow- we’re not shown that in the trailers, but see our sewers theory up above.

Daenerys, overlooking the coast at Dragonstone:

Jaime riding through smoke and fire. The Lannisters are not in control of this situation- their house flag is in flames to the back left in this photo. The flames are consuming what looks like the wreckage of wagons. The wagon convoy we saw up above? I don’t think that worked out.

Another shot from the sea battle- judging from this man’s costuming, before he’s obliterated, he’s Ironborn.

Tormund Giantsbane, engaged in a hell of a fight, in the frozen north. He’s traveling with Jon Snow, so it seems like that party beyond the Wall is getting bigger and bigger.

There’s a lot of debate over this one among ourselves, at Watchers. It’s a Dress situation, basically, where some of us see the dragon as pale, and therefore the dragon is Viserion, and some see it as dark, and swear it’s Drogon. Either way, Dany’s baby is accompanying the Dothraki into battle, in a breathtaking shot.

Theon and Yara Greyjoy are lit up by the fire-ridden sea battle. Fire and boats do not mix, hence the looks on their faces.

Especially when the masts and ropes go up in flames. Bad for them, but amazing for us as viewers.

I lightened up this shot a little- it’s looks as though someone is boarding, from one ship to another in the middle of the hellish battle.

The Lannisters line up in formation, ready for battle. Especially that one guy on the left.

A swarm of wights have surrounded Jon Snow and his companions. It’s hard to identify them all, but one has a flaming sword so let’s guess that that’s Beric Dondarrion. I can already tell that this scene is going to be unreal.

Grey Worm and Missandei have some face snuggles.

Tyrion is worried. He usually is. But his hair looks good, and that’s what matters.

The face may be obscured but the hair and body shape/height leave no doubt to me that this is the Hound. The location is unmistakably Italica, where GoT filmed Dragonpit scenes last fall. The Hound is about to face some action.



Jon Snow and his right hand man Davos Seaworth standing on those very recognizable stairs on Dragonstone, filmed on San Juan de Gaztelugatxe in Basque Country. The stairs are a real-life feature of the island.

Jon Snow tangling with another White Walker!

Dothraki riding through flames! Dany, don’t set your own people on fire!

Ironmen land on the shore with Theon Greyjoy, who falls to his knees. These scenes were shot in Zumaia last October.

Euron Greyjoy, looking mad in the heat of battle as he is killing a dude in the way we expect from Euron.

Drogon getting up close and personal and say “Heyyyyyyy” to the camera. You can see a teeny Dany atop him:

Dragonstone’s in the background, so I think this is probably part of that Tyrion scene was glimpsed earlier in the trailer and in the first trailer when the playing dragons pop up in front of him.

The circle of people in the frozen North, seen in the first trailer. With what we know now, this is most likely Jon Snow, Beric, Tormund, and the others:

Sansa speaks in voiceover: “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives” And we someone hopping on a horse and making a run for it. It’s Jon, based on the coat, and the weapons matching what we see before and after this.

Jon Snow, fighting more wights! This is going to be a major scene for season 6, with filming on this northern journey taking place at Wolf Hill Quarry in Northern Ireland for three weeks.