Game of Thrones episode 2’s opening credits hid a clue about the Battle of Winterfell

How can the Northern troops take down the White Walkers?

The Battle of Winterfell is expected to take up all 82 minutes of Game of Thrones season 8’s third episode, and almost every second is expected to offer surprises. While the season’s second episode, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” focused on battle plans, we didn’t actually get to hear, you know, the actual plan, leaving many to wonder what kind of defenses our heroes have in mind. Thankfully, there were a few hints about the battle to come littered throughout the episode.

The first hint actually happened during the opening credits. The camera pans over Winterfell, as it has done for nearly every episode in the series so far, offering a glimpse of a new feature surrounding the castle: trenches filled with spikes.

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Winterfell’s new trenches

We even get what might be a brief glimpse of these trenches when we see the Unsullied testing out a trebuchet in front of the castle.

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The Unsullied testing weapons outside of Winterfell

Though these spike pits look similar to the ones in the opening credits, this one-second peek makes them look even bigger and more intimidating. Trenches, of just about any size, are sure to be useful against the wights in the army of the dead, if only because they might get stuck in them when the raid begins, cutting down their numbers significantly. But let’s be honest: spikes won’t stop them for good.

But our defenders are well aware of this. During the battle planning scene in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” Tyrion expresses his desire to find his place in the fight. He suggests that he and Ser Davos could “give you the signal to light the trench.” If the spikes — and the trenches they’re in — are on fire, it’s very likely that they’ll take down any wight that gets stuck on them for good.

There’s even a possible glimpse of this strategy in the episode 3 preview:

HBO

Based on the image it’s hard to tell what exactly is happening here. We know Dany and Jon are out with the dragons preparing for the fight. But we can also see a large amount of fire in the fields just outside the fields of Winterfell. It seems entirely possible that these are torches carried by the army, or they may be the trenches from the opening credits after they’ve been set on fire.

While these traps are sure to be helpful for the Winterfell defenders, it’s safe to assume the troops of the North will have a few more tricks up their sleeves that we won’t see until the episode. Whether they work or not, and who goes down in the fight, remains the toughest question of them all.

Source: Polygon