Game Of Thrones Season 8 Premiere: 8 Ups And 3 Downs From 'Winterfell'

4. The First Episode Callbacks And Parallels

It'd already been reported that the Season 8 premiere would have echoes of the show's pilot, what with a royal procession arriving at Winterfell, but it's great to see just how far they go in making this episode feel like and call back to that very first instalment.

Right from the off we have the little boy pushing his way through the crowd, like Arya, and then climbing a tree, like Bran on the walls, just to get a glimpse of Jon, Daenerys, and the armies following them. Then we have Sansa's "Winterfell is yours" line, the same her father said to Robert Baratheon, and the lineup there, with Jon hugging his family much like Robert greeting the Starks.

There's the general sense you get from so many different characters walking and talking around Winterfell, those shots looking down on the courtyard, Jon underneath the weirwood tree like his father, and, of course, the Crypts (they couldn't have found two characters to better mirror Ned and Robert, in a physical sense, than Jon and Sam).

Hell, even the titles do it: Winter is coming, and now, Winter... fell. These callbacks aren't just for the sake of it, but to hammer home how far everyone has come since those early days, how some things are coming full circle, and a reminder of the true threat: lest we forget, that pilot started with the White Walkers.