So you just got through watching the all-new Game of Thrones season 8 teaser, “Crypts of Winterfell,” for the hundredth time, and you’re wondering where exactly you’ve heard those lines before. We’ve done the research and have all the answers. So follow us into the Winterfell crypts as we overanalyze the new footage:
We start with Jon Snow walking past the statue of his (unbeknownst to him) mother, Lyanna Stark. “You have to protect him,” she says. That’s Lyanna line from the season 6 finale, when she made Ned promise to take care of her son by Rhaegar Targaryen. That son, of course, is Jon Snow.
As he passes, the feather in Lyanna’s hand falls to the floor.
This is the same feather that Robert Baratheon placed in Lyanna’s hand back in the series premiere:
Later, in season 5, Sansa finds the feather on the floor and walks away with it. In its place she places a candle.
So why does Lyanna’s still have the feather rather than a candle in the teaser? Maybe Sansa replaced it, or maybe it’s symbolism.
Next, Sansa walks past Catelyn’s statue. “All this horror that has come to my family. It’s all because I couldn’t love a motherless child,” Catelyn says. This is part of Catelyn’s speech to Robb’s wife Talisa in season 3’s “Dark Wings, Dark Words,” as the Northern army marched to Riverrun.
By the way, we don’t think there’s actually a statue of Catelyn in the crypts; that privilege is usually afforded only to Starks by birth. Again, the teaser is taking some symbolic liberties.
Meanwhile, Arya walks down a hallway, looking like the badass assassin she is.
Next, Jon passes Ned’s statue. He looks up at it:
“You are a Stark,” Ned says. “You might not have my name, but you have my blood.” Ned says this way back in Episode 2, “The Kingsroad,” as he and Jon part for the last time. In this scene, Ned promised to tell Jon about his mother when next they met. It was a promise he would take to his grave.
The lines spoken by Lyanna, Catelyn and Ned all have to do with Jon’s secret identity as a Targaryen prince. We can assume it will play a big role in the final six episodes.
The three Stark kids meet:
Is there a reason Bran is left out of this reunion? Well, as he explained to Meera in season 7, he isn’t really Bran anymore…not really:
Jon, Sansa, and Arya turn to find statues of themselves in an alcove.
This should probably be a creepy moment, because statues means they’re dead, but we can’t get over how unflattering these renderings look. Arya looks like a frozen child in the White Witch’s palace in Narnia…
…Sansa just looks like someone caught her grabbing an extra lemon cake from the pantry…
…and Jon looks like old man Wolverine:
Next, the torches blow out and a cold mist — ever the herald of the White Walkers’ approach — creeps across the floor, freezing Lyanna’s feather in its path.
This is a lot like the cold mist that envelops the Painted Table at Dragonstone in HBO’s last teaser:
Jon and Arya draw their weapons and step forward. What good steel will do against ice, we’ll have to wait to see.
Structurally, this teaser was similar to HBO’s “Long Walk” promo for season 7: three people walk down hallways, and it ends with a reminder that the White Walkers are lurking in the background ready to exterminate mankind.
“Crypts of Winterfell” was directed by David Nutter, who directed three of the final six episodes. It features music from series mainstay Ramin Djawadi, which is a nice change from the pop songs HBO tends to like to use in its promos.
So is HBO trying to tell us Winterfell gets overrun by White Walkers in season 8? Will our heroes make their last stand in the crypts, or is this more symbolic? Let’s discuss below!
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