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Quick Answer: The Game of Thrones March Madness promo hints at the series’ biggest battles and bleakest season to date. And while a number of things are in store for our characters - from Daeneyes’ imprisonment, to Sansa and Theon’s escape, to the Night’s King getting ahold of Bran - massive battles, as indicated by Jaime Lannister and Ramsay Bolton’s fighting garb, are sure to be at the forefront of Season 6.

With Game of Thrones’ (2011 - 2019) penchant for its all-too-exhilarating teasers, I’m fairly convinced that the HBO team is actually trying to kill all of the Game of Thrones fans. The March Madness promo in particular is packed with tons of important new footage, so it’s time to break this thing down.

In the promo, our beautiful Mother of Dragons (Emilia Clarke) is looking more ragged than usual. Unfortunately for her, it has been confirmed that she’s been taken captive by the Dothraki.

We see Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) with his army behind him, preparing for one of the many battles that appears to be happening this season.

Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Theon (Alfie Allen) are running for their lives. Given their intertwined, complex histories, this storyline in particular presents a number of possibilities for the show. Hopefully they stay together for some time (and Theon stops getting tortured).

In a speech that The High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) appears to be delivering to Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman), he says, “We are sinful creatures. We deserve death. We all do.” If he is indeed speaking to Tommen, then this presents a conundrum for the young king. Will he heed the advice of The High Sparrow, his mother, or Margaery?

Donning gold armor and with an army in tow, Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is back. Does this mean he’s going to war, too? King’s Landing against Dorne, perhaps? Or within the city itself, against the High Sparrows? Either way, there’s no question that the Lannister twins are as determined as ever this season.

Drogon is looking huge while flying over the Dothraki. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that they are going to deeply regret taking his mother prisoner.

If one thing is clear from this promo, it’s that we will be seeing massive battles this season, perhaps bigger than we’ve ever seen. Now that Winter is here and everything has boiled to the surface, is it all that surprising?

Though we see a giant barrel through a wall, his identity remains to be seen. Is this Castle Black? Winterfell? If he can give a good fright to Alliser Thorne or Ramsay Bolton, I’m happy with either.

Is that the Night’s King? Surrounded by fire? Ice and Fire, anyone? The Night’s King is undoubtedly one of the most highly anticipated characters to return next season, and his being engulfed in flames only intensifies his sinister disposition.

It wouldn’t be Game of Thrones without at least one earth-shattering death. On this topic, the promo doesn’t fail to pique our interest. In the second half of the trailer, Jaqen H’ghar says, “One way or another, the gift will be given. One way or another, a face will be added to the hall.” Directly after, we see flashes of some of our favourite main characters, which begs the question: who will die this season?

And finally, perhaps the greatest, most important moment of the trailer.

In the promo’s final, heart-stopping moment, Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) is grabbed by the Night’s King. Is Bran in danger? Could the Night’s King somehow be a friend to Brandon Stark? Or is he in more harm than we could possibly imagine? These questions are sure to leave all of us reeling until the Season 6 premiere on April 24th.

As per usual, Game of Thrones has packed an inordinate amount of action and information into a thirty second trailer. If one thing’s for certain - and not much is - we’re in store for the most exciting season yet.