Whether you’re a diehard Game of Thrones fan or a casual viewer, it’s fun to hunt for any clues you can find from episode to episode. And the eighth and final season is no exception. Here’s a look at many of the Game of Thrones details you missed in the last six episodes of the series.
One of the most unexpected moments of the eighth season premiere actually came in the show’s opening credits, which features an entirely new sequence with plenty of Easter eggs.
The most notable change came right at the start, with a reminder that the Wall that once protected the Seven Kingdoms from the threat of the White Walkers has been breached, thanks to the Night King’s brand-new zombie dragon at the end of last season. The introduction also added Last Hearth, an abandoned Northern castle formerly home to the Umber family, who were loyal to the Starks…right up until they were all slaughtered by wights.
The map even shows us the path that the White Walkers took to the climactic battle of Winterfell, with the white tiles that made up the snowy ground f******* to black to represent their movement. After the climactic battle in “The Long Night,” though, those tiles stopped f*******, indicating that the White Walkers are actually finished after all. It’s not just the events of Season Eight that have left their mark on Westeros, either. Images displayed on the bands around the model sun depict past events like the third season’s infamous Red Wedding. There’s also an image of three dragons looking at a comet, which represents the Red Comet, said to fall when dragons appear, and which made its own appearance in season two of the show:
“That comet means one thing, boy: dragons.”
Finally, in one of the coolest tweaks to the opening sequence, the final episode shows the damage that’s been done to both Winterfell and King’s Landing. Like the actual city it represents, the intricate clockworks that raise the towers of the Red Keep on the map have been broken, leaving the machinery stuttering as it tries to raise them one last time.
The last time we saw Tormund Giantsbane and Beric Dondarrion at the end of Season 7, they were caught up in the Night King’s first strike, watching as he brought down the Wall. When we finally get to check in with them in Season 8, they’re tracking the destruction that the White Walkers have left in their wake as they traveled beyond the Wall, and they find a pretty disturbing message left by the Night King. The young Ned Umber, turned into a wight and pinned to a wall amidst severed limbs, provides the season’s best jump scare when he reawakens and has to be set aflame. It’s one of the most distressing images in the series’ recent memory, with Umber’s dead body at the center of a spiral pattern made up of body parts, but it’s not the first time audiences have seen this pattern.
Since the very first episode of the show, the White Walkers have long been associated with spirals and circles, from arranging the body parts of their victims to their sacred place in the North and the cave drawings that Jon showed Daenerys in the seventh season. Perhaps most crucially, the spirals can be seen in the scene that showed the Children of the Forest creating the first Walker, suggesting that these shapes have more to do with the lore of the Walkers than viewers fully understand.
When audiences first met Theon Greyjoy, he was arrogant and dismissive, especially to Jon Snow, letting audiences know that perhaps Theon needed to be taken down a peg. Keep watching the video to see the GoT moments only true fans caught in the final season!
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The changing landscape | 0:17
Downward spirals | 1:54
Theon comes full circle | 3:04
A dagger with some history | 4:08
The Lannister family tradition | 5:03
Ned Stark’s sword returns to Winterfell | 6:32
Remembering Shireen | 7:51
The Spider’s venom | 8:52
The Mountain’s signature move | 10:18