Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "Game of Thrones" season six.
With each new "Game of Thrones" trailer released by HBO, fans have taken it upon themselves to analyze the footage frame by frame (us included). One eagle-eyed viewer has found a curious connection between a shot in the newest season six trailer, and a scene from season one.
In episode three of season one, titled "Lord Snow," Ned Stark arranges for Arya to learn sword fighting from Syrio Forel.
As she begins her first lesson, Ned walks into the room and watches the two practice with wooden swords with a grin on his face. But the sound effects of the fake swords quickly turns to metal clashing, and Ned's face goes from amused to concerned.
He appears to be having some sort of PTSD moment, a callback to a fight or battle in his past. The scene, and episode, ends with no explanation of his mood-change.
But now, we might have an explanation. Redditor funkyfish posted their findings to the /r/asoiaf subreddit, a common landing ground for fan theories and spoilers. Funkyfish points out that people in the past have drawn connections between Arya and Ned's sister Lyanna, who died years ago during Robert's Rebellion. Arya and Lyanna are described in the book series to have similar features, and Ned recalls Lyanna sparring with other children when she was younger.
So what does this have to do with the new trailer?
Based on similarities between the fight choreography in Arya and Syrio's scene, and an image from the trailer, fans now believe that Ned's emotional reaction was due to a memory about the Tower of Joy— the place where Ned found Lyanna dying in a bed of blood.
Here's the Tower of Joy shot in question:
Based on context clues, including the attacker's Targaryen armor, we're pretty sure this violent moment from the trailer is part of a flashback sequence we'll see next season. In the book series, Ned has dreams about the day he found his sister Lyanna in a castle called the Tower of Joy, where Ned and several companions have a brutal fight with Targaryen kingsguard men in order to rescue her.
Only Ned and one other man, Howland Reed, survived the small battle. Ned went inside the castle, only to find Lyanna in her last minutes of life. The most popular theory in the "Game of Thrones" fandom is known as "R + L = J," and it postulates Lyanna was at the Tower of Joy because she was pregnant with Jon Snow. Lyanna and Rhaegar Targaryen (the prince at the time and man who allegedly kidnapped Lyanna, sparking the war that made Robert king) were likely in love, and stole away to the Tower of Joy to hide their secret lovechild. But Lyanna died from complications of childbirth, and Rhaegar was killed in battle by Robert Baratheon.
Ned's memory of this day would of course bring him nothing but sadness. He lost his sister, several friends, and was burdened with the greatest secret he would ever carry — Jon Snow's true parentage.
Take a look at the scene of Arya and then this scene from the trailer side by side:
The combination of seeing Arya, his youngest daughter who bears a strong resemblance to his dead sister, combined with the memory of one of his men being killed in this exact same way was probably gut-wrenching.
While its of course possible this is all a coincidence, we'd like to think the direction of "Game of Thrones" has been this attentive to detail from the beginning.
Watch the full scene with Ned, Arya, and Syrio on YouTube (the PTSD flashback moment happens right around 3:05).
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