【Dear Utol (2025): Doctor, Doctor I'm Sick Episode 41】

If there's one thing we know about Game of Thrones,Dear Utol (2025): Doctor, Doctor I'm Sick Episode 41 it's that it does not exist to nurture your feelings. Hard, grim truths are its currency. Prepare for the worst.

And what would the worst be for you, gentle viewer? Prepare.

Because from everything I've seen of this show through the years, for all its feints and sly manipulations, one through-line has held: The very real possibility that the Lannisters will prevail. Which may be a bitter taste for you. But it's more than fine by me.

Fair of hair, blue-green of eye, averse to debt, enamored of fine metalworks and fundamentally evil as I am, there's never been any doubt that I'm a Lannister. Not a good and noble one, mind you -- I'd be one of their layabout, good-time-Charlie cousins, handy with an eloquent toast or a bit of prose for any occasion, and not much else.

(I'd always wondered what it would be like to root for the Yankees, or Duke basketball, or Microsoft or the current administration. With Game of Thrones, I've now had that experience.)

So it gives me good cheer to see my GoT family dominating HBO's new trailer on this day, still operating from a position of strength, confident, rich with resources, and holding more than a few tricks up their sleeves.

"Whatever stands in our way," Ceresi says, "We will defeat it."

Such poise. And those impeccably appointed soldiers! The majesty and strength of a well-trained, well-outfitted army! The impenetrable quality of an entrenched position! The visceral thrill of us-against-the-world!

Ahhhh, the goosebumps! They are real.

Daenerys has her dragons, but dragons were meant to be slain. Littlefinger has his designs, the White Walkers have their un-deadeness, the boat people have their boat stuff, and the Starks have your hearts.

(Most of your hearts, anyway, since Game of Thronesled you to believe that this was their story. Ha! Ha ha. Is it your first time here, Stark fans?)

who will win?

— Angie J. Han (@ajhan) May 24, 2017

But the Lannisters have something far more powerful in this game. They have Tyrion. And from everything I've seen of this show through the years, this is Tyrion'sstory.

No one has achieved greater victories against longer odds. Yes, he's currently serving as Daenerys' hand. And yes, he would sooner see Ceresi's head on a pike than her gently sloping shoulders.

But Tyrion is a Lannister -- he's grouped with his sister and brother right there at the very top of the trailer, lest we forget -- and the most cunning of them at that. Whether it's defeating Stannis' invading navy in one stroke, evading punishment and captivity after being falsely accused (twice!) of crimes, or his own stunted stature, Tyrion alwaysfinds a way.

Do you really think his fealty to Daenerys is real and abiding? Does this look like the face of a man who is sure of what he's doing?

And over that shot, Ceresi's voice again: "We're the last Lannisters ... the last ones who count."

Count on this: Ceresi's grip on the arms of the Iron Throne may be feeble -- theories abound that Jaime will be the one to remove and, ultimately, replace her there -- but as long as Tyrion is on the board, the Lannisters are in a position of strength.

And remember, it was Jaime who helped Tyrion escape certain death.

Tyrion owes Jaime a debt.