Game of Thrones’ Latest Trailer is Like a Greatest Hits Compilation

The Upcoming 7th Season Looks Familiar, Which Could Mean Either a Return to Form or Just More of the Same

 

Anyone who has been looking forward to the new season of Game of Thrones purely for the spectacle of the many battles that are sure to come has forgotten how this show began. In Season 1, GoT was an ambitious but, in its own way, humble prestige drama. A little-heralded fantasy gem, in the early going war and skirmishes were a mere distant rumble surrounding the small-scale squabbles that were taking place amongst a deeply involving cast of characters. It was a show just as in love with political intrigue and familial secrets as it was its own setting, best described as “Tolkien, after a bad break-up”. Needless to say, though, shit done changed.

This latest trailer – a further extension of the #WinterIsHere campaign the show has recently been engaged in – recognises this. And, honestly, it’s hard to blame GoT for pushing a more action-oriented agenda this late in the game. The Great War, much like the fabled Winter, is finally upon us, and it was never gonna be anything less than a balls-out display of the show’s hugely inflated budget at its finest. The long-arse build-up, the assuring suffix “…is coming” has plagued us all for so long that we kinda deserve a violent, wide-reaching battle at this point, right?

Still, it’s hard not to feel a pang of nostalgia for what may come to be known (when this is all finally over) as Game of Thrones‘ Golden Years. I’m thinking specifically around Seasons 2 through 4, the days when ten whole episodes could hinge on Tyrion’s wily machinations, Arya’s resourceful pluckiness, Daenerys’ inspiring resilience and Jon’s stubborn sulleness, growing towards a mass conflict each year that played out with unexpected turns and far-reaching consequences.

Because what’s truly sad is that, even though on a plotting level that exact description could be applied to Season 6, the thrill seems to have worn off some. The characters, which once seemed excitingly capable of anything while teetering on the precipice of life and death, have become well-worn shadows of their former selves, repeating the same beats over and over while the all-too-visible strings pull them clumsily together for one final showdown. Don’t get me wrong: we all love the classics, but some new material is sorely needed at this point.

Look, at the end of the day, there’s a part of me that’s as excited for this latest season as the staunchest supporter of this show. Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum of fandom for GoT, I’d imagine it’s a pretty universal feeling to want to see the last two seasons pull everything together in a satisfying manner. We all want to know who ends up on the Iron Throne, and we’re all desperate for our curiosity to once again be matched by our emotional investment. And, goddamn, would it be nice for this show to rise to the occasion, to give some resolute meaning to the eight years we have all spent wandering in Westeros, waiting for whatever is coming to be here.