'Game of Thrones' Season 8 Spoilers: Feather Easter Egg Teases a Revelation

The new Game of Thrones Season 8 teaser may feature three Starks, but it really is all about Jon Snow and his true identity. From the quotes to the fact that his statue stands out the most, everyone’s talking about what it could mean for Kit Harington’s character in the final season. Even that feather you might have recognized could have big implications for the son of Lyanna Stark.

The trailer begins with Jon walking through the crypt and past the statue of his mother, Lyanna. “You have to protect him,” we hear her telling Ned in a quote from the Season 7 scene where she dies right after giving birth. The feather then falls from her hand to the ground. When it lands, Jon stops and looks over his shoulder for a moment, but he doesn’t appear to see the feather before continuing on his way.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen that feather. It first showed up in the very first episode of Game of Thrones when Robert Baratheon placed it in the hand of the Lyanna’s statue. Years later, the feather resurfaced in Season 5 Episode 4 when Sansa found it on the floor next to Lyanna’s statue. However, Sansa took the feather with her so there’s no way it’s still in the crypt, proving once again that the latest Season 8 teaser isn’t actually part of the final season.

Back during Season 5, Game of Thrones co-creator David Benioff noted the importance of the feather in a production blog.

“The last time we saw the statue of Lyanna was in the pilot episode,” Benioff said. “King Robert Baratheon laid this exotic, tropical bird feather in her hand. As we were preparing the scene [with Sansa], we thought: That feather’s probably still there.”

“We thought it would be kind of a great thing to have Sansa wondering about it,” co-creator D.B. Weiss added at the time. “Hopefully viewers wonder: Where did I see that before? — and then remember that in the first episode of the show, this is something that Robert left to remember the woman he loved.”

The feather is also seen near the end of the Season 8 teaser. A frost makes its way through the crypt and freezes the feather. Does that spell troubling times to come for the Starks, perhaps in the battle against the White Walkers? Could it mean something that Sansa held it in the past? It wouldn’t be that surprising if another Stark dies in the final season and as we previously noted, the youthful look of her crypt statue suggests she could meet her end before the series finale.

What we do know is that the feather represents, in some way, the truth about Jon’s parents: Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. The two did marry before Lyanna gave birth to Aegon Targaryen (aka, Jon Snow) and were presumably in love. The feather falling on the path Jon walked could symbolize that he’ll finally learn the entire truth about his parents.

Alternatively, some fans think the feather could represent Bran/the Three-Eyed Raven (even though it’s not a raven’s feather) to explain why he’s missing from the teaser. One redditoreven argued that since the feather gets frozen it could symbolize Bran becoming the Night King, a popular fan theory that probably won’t pan out.

Unfortunately for those fans, it’s far more likely that the feather is a callback to those earlier seasons, meant to amplify the teaser video’s dreamlike nature and provide some insight into Jon Snow’s internal struggle heading into Season 8.

Game of Thrones Season 8 premieres Sunday, April 14 at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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