Top ‘Games of Thrones’ Questions For Season 8

Goerge R. R. Martin’s choice of title ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ makes so much sense now.

Here at Neue, calendars are marked, circled, bolded and crossed.

At 9pm (US Eastern standard time in the United States) on Sunday, April 14 (or 9am, Monday April 15, Brunei time) marks the return of the one true King of the North! HBO’s magnum-opus ‘Game of Thrones’ unrolled its blood-red-curtains for a Season-8 return, a slap-in-our-faces, the Fantasy-epic series has also announced that the 8th will be its finale, a conclusion (?), and the last performance for their worldwide stage.

Now, with less than a week ahead, anticipation has got everyone on edge; to cull the growing hype, HBO sent fans searching high and low for 6 replicas of the ‘Iron Throne’, a scavenger hunt for a chance to have a seat for Glory, an Instagram picture, and the Baratheon Crown. #ForTheThrone

After expeditions exhausted, HBO harpooned a string of trailers our way – and oh boy, were we all inches-closer to falling off the edges of our comfortable office-chairs. The 2-minute-and-2-second trailer left us with more ambiguous questions than answers, Neue’s here to drag you back to the world of ‘Westeros’ whether you like it, or not, with a cold-hard dissection using nothing but Dragon-glass.

1. What’s up with Arya?

The trailer rolls with a bloodied-faced Arya Stark, running from someone, or something. Panting while trying to gaze at her chaser over her shoulders, Arya seems to be inside a crypt of sorts, seeing how its corridors after corridors of darkly-lit stone. Winterfell? Most probably; her attacker? We can’t say for sure. After a few scenes, Arya is seen gazing at a shard of Dragon-glass, while quoting her Faceless-man training, could she be hinting the death of the top of her kill list – Cersei? Questions over questions.

2. “Our enemy doesn’t tire, stop, or feel”

In chronological order, the next sequence follows up with a Jon Snow narrating how the White-Walkers ‘don’t tire, stop, or feel’, adding a tougher challenge for the mortals of Westeros – but at least they have 2 more Dragons!

Speaking of the Dragons, ‘Drogon & Rhaegal’ took up most of the trailer’s screen-time, flying about and spitting molten breaths of dragon-fire. (well, what else do Dragons do?) Both Jon and Daenerys are seen with the dragons, as they cut from scene-to-scene flying outside the “The Wall”. Are the 2 (closely-tied) lovers exploring the outskirts? A recon before the great war?

3. The Night’s Watch is back

After the grueling ambush by the White-Walkers, led by The Night King, Jon Snow manages to escape by his wits, with a few other Free-folk back to The Wall. But what of the other members of the Night’s Watch? In the trailer, Tormund, and Beric are seen alive and ‘not zombified’, with Beric wielding a freakin’ flaming sword (gotta get me one of those)!

4. The Queen of Westeros has a breakdown

Cersei (Cry-sei?) from blowing up hordes of religious followers to being flogged in the walk-of-shame, Cersei has been through it all. Her children both murdered by the hands of the Iron Throne conspirators. This final season would prove to be her turning point, as in the trailer, she has purchased the help of ‘The Golden Company’, a famous band of 20,000 mercenaries. Would she use her small-army against the incoming swarm of White-Walkers? Or an extra line of defense for the Iron Throne?

In the trailer, early on, Cersei can be seen head-strong like her usual self, leading her new-found army; but by the half-mark, The Queen of the Iron Throne is seen shedding tears, but for what reason? Is she finally realising her mistakes? A gesture for Jamie? Or are those just crocodile tears meant to fool us?

An odd thing to add would be the lack of Tyrion in the trailer. Tyrion only appeared in the trailer once for a meager second, but by the look of his face; guilt and sorrow, we (the audience) can tell that Tyrion has something up his sleeve. But let’s just hope it’s not a crossbow this time.

5. The Final Battle

Upon reaching the climax of the trailer, blades are drawn, blood was spewed, but there was no definite sight of any White-Walkers – until the last second. Hooves belonging to a horse can be seen, and what White-Walker rides an undead-horse? The Night King does. In the previous season of Game of Thrones, the mortals of Westeros have found that Dragon-glass is the only way of bringing harm upon the White-Walkers, but with all the Dragon-glass in the world, they would not have enough manpower to harness their weapons. Would all of Westeros (behind The Wall) finally band together to face the higher threat?

Game of Thrones is a series that surprises even from its first season, with the beheading of Eddard Stark (Ned) by the malevolent Joffrey Baratheon. In this mayhem of gore and dragons of a season, it makes more sense on why George R. R. Martin would give a name such as ‘The Song of Ice and Fire’, with the Ice being the ‘White Walkers’, and Fire would be Khaleesi’s ‘Dragons’.