Kevin Also Blogs: Game of Thrones all happens in the eye of a giant, and other theories based on the new promo

Friday, March 31, 2017

Game of Thrones all happens in the eye of a giant, and other theories based on the new promo

Yesterday HBO released a new promo trailer for Game of Thrones season 7, and the fan reaction was immediate and clear.

@GameOfThrones Literally us: pic.twitter.com/pvqQgOIMwH

— Comic-Con HQ (@ComicConHQ) March 30, 2017

@GameOfThrones I SAID YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS pic.twitter.com/L68LkReKRY

— Resha ‍ (@ChefResha) March 30, 2017

@GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/V7foW6aWsZ

— Josh Stein (@steinekin) March 31, 2017

That last one’s disturbing… Anyway, the point is that people were happy.

Other fans, including us, immediately started breaking the promo down and mining it for clues about the new season. Some interesting theories have bubbled up in its wake, including that the entire series takes place in the eye of a giant.

Let’s go back a few years. The giant theory was first mentioned in an offhand way by Robb Stark way back in season 1, when he was talking to Bran about Old Nan’s wacky stories. “One time she told me the sky is blue because we live inside the eye of a blue-eyed giant named Macumber,” he said. “Maybe we do,” replied a sullen Bran.

It was a throwaway moment at the time, but later, in season 4, Oberyn Martell brought up the same idea to Tywin Lannister. “Some believe the king choked,” Tywin said, talking about Joffrey’s recent death. “Some believe the sky is blue because we live inside the eye of a blue-eyed giant,” Oberyn replied.

At minimum, the fact that Robb and Oberyn, two characters who live on opposite ends of Westeros, both know this story establishes that it’s a well-known myth. That doesn’t mean it’s literally true, of course, but the HBO production team has been having fun with the idea in the first two promos for season 7.

First came the statues teaser, featuring statues based on the sigils of the great houses of Westeros tearing each other apart. At the very end, the camera pulls back, revealing that the whole thing is happening inside a blue eye.

Then came yesterday’s “Long Walk” promo, featuring Jon Snow, Daenerys and Cersei slow-walking toward their thrones. Again, at the end, the camera pulls back, and we see that everything’s been happening inside a blue eye.

The obvious conclusion is that the eye belongs to a White Walker. We know they’re coming, we know they’re bad news, and Cersei exhales a chilly breath right before we see the blue eye in the “Long Walk” promo. But others, including the fan behind YouTube channel Alt Shift X, have wondered if that’s really a White Walker’s eye. Alt Shift X notes that it looks similar to the eye of Wun Wun the giant, last seen dying in the Winterfell courtyard in “Battle of the Bastards” (Ramsay puts an arrow through his eye, strangely enough). You can look above at the image comparing the two and decide for yourself. Note the similarity of the brow and the wide nose.

Alt Shift X notes the similarity in the video below — I’ve linked to the point in the video where he talks about it, but the whole thing is worth watching by itself.

If this is Wun Wun’s eye we’re looking at, it could mean that the beloved giant will come back as a wight. We’ve seen the White Walkers revive things other than humans to serve in their army of the dead before — they’ve been seen riding dead horses, and in the books some of the Night’s Watchmen encounter a dead bear. Considering the damage he did in seasons 5 and 6, a zombie Wun Wun would be terrible news for the living.

But Wun Wun died at Winterfell, so if the Night King were going to revive him, he’d have to make his way south. And that’s without bringing up the living-inside-the-eye-of-a-blue-eyed-giant question. I suspect HBO was just reaching for a creepy image to end its promo, but it’s fun to mull over these theories.

And they don’t end there. Redditor dragonmcmx noticed something reflected in that blue eye: the Wall. Take a look at the image below; does dragonmcmx have a point?