by The Collected Mutineer

The night is dark and full of terrors.

Winter is coming.

All men must die.

And now his watch has ended.

These famous Game of Thrones phrases, so familiar to so many fans, will seem like fairytales by the time GOT is done with us. Yesterday and today, the HBO titan dropped dozens of exclusive photos and interviews via Entertainment Weekly, followed by the first full-length trailer for the final season.

Unlike most of the previously released teasers (which appeared to be filmed for promotional purposes and likely are not scenes included in the actual series), this provides our first real glimpse into season 8. We see most of the major and important supporting characters at least once, in various scenarios ranging from wonder to terror. I don’t want to speculate too much, as the Collective Team will be sitting down shortly to share our predictions with you—but here are three of the major points the trailer has given us.

epic battles ahead

We already knew this season would be full of intense battle scenes, but the trailer (and the Entertainment Weekly interviews) confirmed it. We not only see characters like Jon and Jorah actively fighting, but we also get glimpses that are reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Those who will be involved in combat are lined up in neat rows as they await the icy enemy. Others, like Gilly and Varys, are hiding in the crypts beneath Winterfell. According to the writers, the climactic battle will be the longest ever recorded on film—outranking LOTR completely.

Jon learns of his parentage

Though we don’t see this explicitly, there are more shots of the Winterfell crypts. Jon and Daenyers appear to be in front of Lyanna’s tomb, which to me implicates that Bran and Sam have told Jon who he really is. I can’t imagine that this will be good news for the couple—and not just because of the aunt/nephew incest. As a true-born son of Rhaegar, Jon has a closer claim to the throne than Dany does. This will certainly put a strain on multiple characters that they can’t afford to be distracted by—after all, the Night King isn’t going to wait for them to figure out their personal problems before trying to take over the world.

Cersei and Jaime have definitely split

At the end of the last season, Jaime swore to uphold the promise to join Jon and Dany’s forces, despite what Cersei commands. We don’t see them together at all in the trailer, and it appears that Jaime is fighting with our heroes at Winterfell. Meanwhile, Cersei seems to remain in King’s Landing…where she is drinking wine. Previously we were given to understand that she stopped consuming alcohol because she’s pregnant. The shot of her drinking probably means one of two things—either she lost the baby, or there never was one to begin with.

There’s more, of course, so stay tuned for our upcoming video. What do you think the trailer entails? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below, or over on Twitter.

Game of Thrones premieres on HBO April 14, 2019.

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