The “Game of Thrones” season six sneak peak was released by HBO Thursday, thrilling fans around the world.
Warning: There are major potential spoilers ahead!
Though there was an emphasis on footage from past seasons — from the stabbing of Jon Snow to the death of major characters like Joffrey Baratheon and Robb Stark — the voiceovers in the video appear to be brand new.
“We watch, we listen, and we remember,” the first voice says. “The past is already written, the ink is dry.”
“They have no idea what’s going to happen,” a second voice responds.
You can watch the full trailer below.
That first voice is that of actor Max von Sydow ("Minority Report"). He'll be taking over the character Bloodraven in season six. The second one is easy. That's Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright).
When we last saw him in season four of the HBO series, he was with Bloodraven.
The focus on Bran and the Bloodraven shouldn’t surprise too many fans since both were noticeably absent in season five. Wright previously confirmed he was returning in season six. "Game of Thrones" showrunner David Benioff explained Bran's absence in an analogy to Luke Skywalker from "Star Wars."
"It would be far less interesting, after 'The Empire Strikes Back' to have an hour-long movie in between 'Empire' and 'Return of the Jedi' where Luke is training," Benioff said. "It's so much cooler to cut from [the] end of 'Empire' to [the] beginning of 'Return,' where he's become the Jedi."
But instead of a Jedi, when we next see Bran, he’ll likely be a “greenseer,” just like Bloodraven. A greenseer is the title given to anyone who can see the future, past, and distant events through “Green Dreams” or by inhabiting weirwood trees.
Essentially, Bran will be able to inhabit the “minds” of trees much in the same way he can “warg” or inhabit the minds of animals and see what they see.
This ability for him to travel years, decades, or even centuries into the past is an exciting one. In the book “A Dance with Dragons,” Bran goes into the weirwood at Winterfell and sees not only his father Ned Stark when he was still alive, but a brief history of Winterfell.
Some fans have posited that Bran’s visions into the past could help explain some pressing “Game of Thrones” mysteries, including Jon Snow’s true parentage.
Bran will also likely see into the future, though whether or not he’ll be able to use these prophecies to his own or anyone else’s advantage remains to be seen.
The teaser ends with Bran hinting he'll indeed have some sort of premonition — "They have no idea what’s going to happen." Will he be able to clue anyone in to what he knows?
Apart from Bran, viewers may learn more about Bloodraven and his history, too. Through Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas, fans learned Bloodraven was once known as Lord Brynden Rivers before he journeyed beyond the Wall and became a greenseer.
He has an interesting life story: Born the bastard albino son of a king, Lord Brynden fought in three rebellions, lost an eye, and was known as a sorcerer. He also became Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch before he was “lost” beyond the Wall and became a greenseer with the Children of the Forest.
By the time Bran meets Bloodraven, he is an old, skeletal man on a throne of weirwood tree roots. Here’s the description of him in George R. R. Martin’s book “A Dance with Dragons”:
Seated on his throne of roots in the great cavern, half-corpse and half-tree, Lord Brynden seemed less a man than some ghastly statue made of twisted wood, old bone, and rotted wool. The only thing that looked alive in the pale ruin that was his face was his one red eye, burning like the last coal in a dead fire, surrounded by twisted roots and tatters of leathery white skin hanging off a yellowed skull.
The sight of him still frightened Bran—the weirwood roots snaking in and out of his withered flesh, the mushrooms sprouting from his cheeks, the white wooden worm that grew from the socket where one eye had been.
Cheery, right?
No matter what, the HBO teaser promises an emphasis not only on Jon Snow, but on a Bran and Bloodraven storyline, which will likely shed more light on the "Game of Thrones" world.
