When last we left the fractious land of Westeros, an evil boy-king had beheaded our hero, a naked lady had baby dragons grazing on her naughty bits, and Tyrion Lannister had shocked the audience by proposing to his leggy secretary, Megan. (I could be fuzzy on some of the details — it’s been awhile.) With Season 2 on tap for April, HBO has released a brand new teaser for what’s to come and it looks … portentous! Borrowing the classic “narrated by a eunuch” technique from older TV shows like Small Wonder, the trailer packs a lot of fury, if precious little sense into its minute and a half. “Some will live, some will die,” hisses Varys as various images flash before us: Jon Snow broods! Tyrion smirks and, what’s this? Someone’s given King Joffrey a crossbow? They grow up so fast!

Amidst all the chest-beating and tunic-ripping it seems safe to assume that Game of Thrones is unlikely to stray from the bloody blueprint that worked so well last year. The reliably topless Daenerys seems ready to snatch the top job, arriving on the mainland temporarily shirt-ed and ready to “take what is [hers] with fire and blood” — a strategy that seems, on first blush, to be more promising than Tyrion’s usual game plan of icy wit mixed with sarcastic bile. The first season of Game of Thrones worked because it had wolf-like focus and a king’s confidence in its own fantastical majesty. Not even an overeliance on sexposition could hide the artfully designed storytelling at the show’s core. “You might find it difficult to rule over millions who want you dead,” says Peter Dinklage, suggesting not only that this season might be better than the first, it also might be more relevant. It’s not hard to imagine Jack Lew whispering something similar in the Oval Office at this very moment.