HBO’s marketing for Game of Thrones hasn’t always been on point for past seasons (often fan-made posters and trailers have looked better and been better received than official ones). However, the premium network has done a neat trick with its Twitter account, allowing fans to declare their allegiance to one of three houses by using each hashtag, and are then rewarded with a short promo video for that house. (Votes/ravens are also being tallied, and so far House Stark is winning).
If you remember the glory days of Tywin Lannister’s rule before Cersei and Joffrey mucked everything up (to say nothing of Tyrion, who slayed him), you may choose House Lannister, which delivers to you a threat from the High Sparrow: “Every one of us is poor powerless. And yet, together we can overthrow an empire.” The “Shame!” septa of course is also heard ringing out int he background, with the Lannister flag in tatters.
For the beleaguered House Stark, it’s a dark and stormy “Winter Is Coming” kind of night (the night is dark and full of terrors!) and its flag is in much the same shape. Ramsay Bolton declares “Winterfell is mine, come and see!” Er, no thanks. (But the North Remembers!)
Those still hanging on to Daenerys’ Fire and Blood claim to the Iron Throne get no glimpse of hope in the Targaryen video, either, which is in Dothraki: “You are nobody, the millionth of your name, Queen of Nothing.” Cheerful! Check out all 3 promos below:
Unfortunately, if you identify more with House Tyrell, House Martell, or House Greyjoy, you are out of luck. But will Season 6 see more of those families rising out of the ashes of these other great houses? We know that Season 6 will likely revisit some book material skipped over by the show so far (casting calls for Greyjoys seem to suggest that), but otherwise Game of Thrones is fully on its own now, without source material. Things are getting darker by the day, and these promos certainly remind us that nothing in Westeros is ever easy (except dying … and even that is complicated).
Game of Thrones returns to HBO April 24th.