'Game of Thrones' season 8 has new opening credits. Here's what it means
THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR SEASON 8 EPISODE 1
Has there ever been a time that 'Game of Thrones' had changed its opening sequence and it didn't mean anything? Never. Well, this time, the season premiere's opening sequence has some really crazy changeups and it, as usual, delivers some vital information on what is to come.
Unlike the last sequences, this one touched on only three locations: the broken wall, Last Hearth (the seat of House Umber), and King's Landing. It is also surprising how detailed the tour of King's Landing and Westeros is. The Iron Throne inside the palace has a Lannister banner above it, which is fair since Cersei is on the throne. While traveling south of the broken wall, it does swoop into the crypt at Winterfell, the one place where all major revelations happen. The tiles on the floor also change, like how they turn into ice at the Hearth.
This change in the opening sequence becomes clear once you watch the episode, but if it wasn't, here's why it was important. Hearth is the seat of House Umber and Ned Umber is its little Lord. Well, he was. Ned was taken by the Night King and turned into a warning after they took over Last Hearth, something that Jon Snow had predicted would happen if the White Walkers managed to get beyond the wall. Ned's limbs were sawed off and arranged into a circle around him as a sign of warning for the rest of the living army, letting them know that winter was here.
As for the Winterfell crypt, here's why it was important. This is the spot where most of the revelations happen in Winterfell. This was where Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon had decided to wed Joffrey and Sansa all the way back in season 1. This was also the place that Jon Snow finds out that he is the true heir to the Seven Kingdoms and that is he indeed the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and the promised Aegon. A turning point in the story, this revelation paints the picture of a war within the war - that of two riders on dragons claiming the throne is theirs.
The tiles mark the Night King's march so you might want to watch out for that in the next episode sequence. Since this one was so episode centric, there's a possibility that Game of Thrones season 8 episode 2 may have a fresh new sequence that could tell us about what to expect and the Night King's advances.