New trailer for GAME OF THRONES Season 6

HBO have released a second trailer for the upcoming sixth season of Game of Thrones. This trailer has a lot of new images and footage that hints at the future direction of the season.

After the images I look at some possible directions the season may take. Beware MASSIVE SPOILERS AFTER THE CUT.

 

From the already-released preview, it looks like the Night's Watch is keen on burning Jon Snow's body at Castle Black.

Lord Davos Seaworth, Hand of the Late King, isn't having any of it. He's helped out here by Ghost and some of the Night's Watch loyal to Jon.

Yes! Jon Snow is dead! For now, that is.

Tormund: "I thought he was the man to lead us through the Long Night. But I was wrong."

Tormund has lost the faith.

Unknown: "Do you like games, little man?"

Looks like there'll be some nice establishing shots this season, like this one of the Great Pyramid of Meereen.

Tyrion is still in command in Meereen.

High Septon: "You would spill blood in this holy place?"

Jaime Lannister: "The gods won't mind. They spill more blood than the rest of us combined."

Jaime seems to be modelling his hairdo after Brienne, which is interesting.

Melisandre looking moody and contemplative.

The Dothraki are awed by Drogon, but not panicking. This maybe a sign at this point that Daenerys has already seized control of the khalasars.

Bran Stark returns! Now doing some tree-merging crazy magic stuff.

Jaqen (I think): "Who are you?"

Arya: "No-one."

Arya's more vigorous training continues in Braavos.

Daenerys Targaryen returns to Vaes Dothrak to take her place among the dosh khaleen, the widows of great Dothraki khals. Daenerys seems thrilled by the prospect.

Jaqen H'ghar: "A girl has been given a second chance. There will not be a third."

Arya's training does not seem to be going well.

Sansa Stark: "It's all I think about."

Sansa, openly wearing the emblem of House Stark, here apparently surrounded by loyalist Stark soldiers.

Sansa Stark: "What was taken from me."

It looks like Sansa has got her own version of Arya's list going on, with Ramsay Bolton and Walder Frey clearly on it.

Walder Frey apparently hosting a party with more wine and dancing, and less carnage and mayhem.

Walder seems to be hosting a horde of Lannisters. Perhaps to celebrate the fall of Riverrun? Hope they cleaned off the bloodstains from the last party first.

Littlefinger looking confused in a snowy forest. Where is he now? How did he get there? Will we see Littlefinger's personal teleporter this season? What accent will he be using this week? Tune in to Game of Thrones to find out!

 

Ser Jorah Mormont: "I know what happens."

Ser Jorah's greyscale is clearly getting a lot worse.

 

Jorah clearly looking thrilled by his lot in life.

 
Ser Loras Tyrell - looking more like Theon after he's spent a few weeks with Ramsay - being comforted by his sister Margaery, presumably still in the custody of the Faith.

Lord Davos Seaworth: "There's no hiding from this. We have to fight."

Davos now seems to have joined Team Stark and is with their army.

The Stark loyalists confront the Boltons outside Winterfell. The Boltons have prepared a welcoming committee: six crosses with flayed and burning men on them.

Lord Varys looking discombobulated for once.

Tyrion and Varys look like they've just lost a battle of wits with what appears to be a red priestess of R'hllor.

The Greyjoy stronghold of Pyke makes a return appearance this season.

Enter Euron Greyjoy, Balon's younger, more psychotic brother and Yara and Theon's uncle.

Cersei Lannister: "Stand at the head of our army where you belong."

It looks like Cersei gives command of the Lannister army to Jaime to ensure the downfall of Riverrun and finally finish off (or so they think) the War of the Five Kings.

A flashback to Robert's Rebellion. One of Lord Eddard Stark's soldiers gets run through by a Targaryen soldier, probably a member of the Kingsguard.

Cersei Lanniser: "Show them what the Lannisters are."

It appears that captivity was good for Cersei's arrogance and temper.

Cersei Lannister: "What we do to our enemies."

It's good to see she's not harbouring any grudges either.

Some people have suggested that this is another flashback, showing the death of the Mad King. However, the figure on the right hand side is huge. I think this is actually someone getting the drop on Ser Robert Strong and stabbing him. This probably doesn't end well for the assailant.

To whit.

Yara Greyjoy and a supporter attending the Kingsmoot.

Ser Jaime Lannister and Lord Mace Tyrell arrive at the Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing.

Interestingly, these aren't Lannister guards or City Watch. They're probably troops sworn to House Tyrell. Jaime, cannily, maybe trying to spread the responsibility for any religious mayhem between the Lannisters and Tyrells.

Lord Davos Seaworth: "The real war is between the living and the dead."

Davos is trying to rally support for the Starks by filling people in on the threat of the White Walkers. Interestingly, the Night King is here shown to be wielding a massive horn. The Horn of Joramun that, it is rumoured, can bring down the Wall?

Lord Davos Seaworth: "And make no mistake, the dead are coming."

Davos appears to be in the hall of House Mormont on Bear Island.

The White Walkers striding through a wall of flames. It's unclear where this is, but I do wonder if they are attacking the Cave of the Three-Eyed Raven and the children have done their fire-lobbing trick again.

The ship carrying Samwell Tarly and Gilly to Oldtown.

Sam doesn't have natural sea legs.

One of the more interesting things about the trailer is that this scene seems to show Yara Greyjoy in Volantis. This raises the likelihood that Yara is taking the role of Victarion from the books, taking the Iron Fleet to Slaver's Bay. If so this is an interesting and time-efficient move of condensing plot points together.

Our first really good look at the living legend that is Max von Sydow, playing the Three-Eyed Raven.

The archers of House Bolton prepare to attack.

General Ramsay Bolton, it appears.

Oh, the Sons of the Harpy. I know everyone missed these guys.

Theon appears to be around this season.

Brienne and Pod travel to Riverrun.

A member of the Faith displeases Ser Robert Strong.

Tyrion Lannister: "Dragons do not do well in captivity."

Missandei: "How do you know this?"

Tyrion Lannister: "That is what I do. I drink and I know things."

Tyrion gets the best line of the trailer (shocker).

The Stark loyalists, apparently including the Mormonts, attack the Bolton army.

Someone's clearly watched The Last Kingdom and decided some shield wall action is needed.

The wildlings appear to be uncomfortable with this style of fighting. I assume the wildlings are with the Stark loyalist army, but this is not confirmed.

Podrick Payne has a painful meeting with someone, possibly Bronn.

Wun-Wun shows up at Castle Black, probably not impressed by what has been going on.

Meera Reed not looking too happy at whatever she is seeing.

Tyrion confronting Rhaegal and Viserion, who get a bit flame-happy. Either Tyrion is a fast mover or we may be about to find out if Tyrion is a secret Targaryen after all.

There's a lot going on in the trailer, but at least it seems to hint at a sequence of events for the season:


The North
Early on, the Night's Watch try to burn Jon's body but Davos defies them, perhaps encouraged by Melisandre. It's possible that Wun-Wun and the wildlings show up to help defeat Ser Alliser and his coterie. At some point after this, Jon is indeed resurrected by Melisandre's magic, perhaps involving Ghost (and, according to some rumours, sacrificing Olly in the process). Once resurrected, Jon decides his oaths to the Night's Watch no longer hold true. One of two things happens: Jon accepts Stannis's legitimisation and becomes Jon Stark himself, or he ends up supporting Sansa. Jon adopts Davos as his second-in-command and realises he needs to raise an army to unseat the Boltons and then stand against the White Walkers. Davos becomes his chief ambassador, winning the Umbers, Hornwoods, Karstarks and Mormonts to Jon's banner. Eventually the Stark loyalists confront the Boltons at Winterfell. A great battle is fought and Jon and Sansa are victorious. It may be that the Boltons actually win the greater part of the battle, but are then defeated in turn by the armies of the Vale that Petyr Baelish leads onto the field.

Beyond the Wall
Having been victorious at Hardhome, the White Walkers and their undead army now march south. Bran Stark is trained in the ways of greenseeing by the Three-Eyed Raven. At some point, the White Walkers may attack the cave. Based on the fact that the Night's King is carrying a massive horn, it might be that the season ends with the White Walkers blowing the horn and bringing the Wall crashing to the ground.

The Iron Islands
Balon Greyjoy's younger brother Euron returns. Balon is killed, plunging to his death from the rope bridges of Pyke, and Euron holds a Kingsmoot. Theon and Yara attend, but Theon is no longer "whole" enough to be declared king and Yara is ruled out on account of being a woman. Euron becomes king and sends Yara to Slaver's Bay via Volantis. What happens to Theon is unclear; I wonder if he takes on Aeron's role in sowing dissent against Euron on the islands. It is also unclear if Euron launches an assault on the Shield Islands as he does in the books.

King's Landing
Jaime returns to the capital with Myrcella's body. Cersei, fresh from her captivity at the hands of the Faith, orders Jaime to resolve the situation. Jaime uses the Tyrell army to apparently quell the Faith into surrendering Margaery and Loras. Cersei's trial by combat takes place, which she wins handily with her own person Mountain Death Monster. She orders Jaime to take command of the Lannister army to crush the last remnants of opposition to her rule. According to some rumours, the season ends with Kevan and Pycelle being murdered by Varys's "little birds" after Varys secretly returns to the capital to pave the way for Daenerys's arrival (Aegon VI in the books, but I think we can assume that Aegon is out of the show at this point).

The Riverlands
Having delivered Sansa to safety (presumably with Jon and/or Davos), Brienne and Pod return to the Riverlands and make their way to Riverrun, possibly to take service with the Blackfish. However, Riverrun is under siege by the Lannisters. Jaime compels the Blackfish to surrender by threatening to kill Edmure. It looks like Brienne and Pod may be acting as go-betweens, allowing Jaime and Brienne to be reunited. At one point Pod is dragged off by (probably) Bronn, who is still hanging out with Jaime. It's unclear what the end game of this storyline is: possibly the return of the Brotherhood Without Banners and the resurrected Catelyn Stark? I think if that doesn't happen this season it's never going to happen, but the rearrangement of the timeline of the Siege of Riverrun and Cersei's arrest really makes it unclear what's going to happen here.

Braavos
Arya starts out the season blind. She spends some time begging in the streets, but eventually satisfies Jaqen and has her sight restored (it's hard to see this but in the scene where she does her flip she appears to have normal sight again). Again it's unknown what the endgame of her storyline is, but I suspect it involves her being sent to kill someone important (Daenerys/Cersei/Jon/Sansa/who knows).

Meereen
Tyrion and Varys rule in Meereen but face renewed opposition from the Sons of the Harpy. Tyrion releases the dragons (probably not the best idea ever) and gets advice from a red priestess. According to rumour, Varys departs Meereen mid-season to return to King's Landing.

The Dothraki Sea
Daenerys is taken by the khalasar that captured her back to Vaes Dothrak, where she is forcibly inducted into the ranks of the dosh khaleen, the widows of Dothraki khals who have to reside for the rest of their lives in the city. Daenerys is unimpressed by this idea. Drogon shows up and burns the dosh khaleen tent to the ground. Daenerys walks out unharmed and the Dothraki are completely cowed by Daenerys's awesome radness. She unites all of the khals present and heads out, meeting up with Daario and Jorah (whose greyscale is rapidly spreading) along the way. They either return to Meereen or head west directly. Either way, Daenerys is finally heading back to Westeros...or, with only two seasons and 20 episodes left after this one, she'd better be!

We'll start getting some answers when Game of Thrones returns to HBO, on 24 April.