While the April sunshine on Tulane’s campus is a welcomed change, any “Game of Thrones” fans worth their steel know winter is coming. For Tulane students, it’s coming 7 p.m. Thursday in McAlister Auditorium with TUCP’s advanced screening of the HBO hit, “Game of Thrones” season 5 premiere.

Based on the novels by George RR Martin, “Game of Thrones” has been one of the most compelling dramatic series of the last few years. Last season left fans shocked when Tyrion fled King’s Landing along with Varys, Sansa and Arya were on route to become ruthless rulers, John Snow saw Stannis Baratheon wipe out the wildlings, Dany locked up her dragons and the dreadful King Joffrey kicked the bucket.

“A lot of people are going to die,” Junior Jamie Rosenburg predicted.

Each season of “Game of Thrones” is a veritable mine field and can wreak havoc on a viewer’s mental health. Martin’s ruthless writing style means any season could be a character’s last. The only things we’re guaranteed in Westeros are topless women and dragons.

This season’s trailer hinted at two fan favorites meeting up. Daenerys Targereon and Tyrion Lanister appear to be forming a shaky alliance. The trailer also suggests Daenerys is planning an impending invasion of Westeros.

“My favorite character is definitely John Snow,” junior Sean DeClue said.

John Snow just witnessed the death of his wildling girlfriend and was attempting to make peace with the wildlings before Stannis showed up ready to slaughter them. The trailer suggests John is working to ally with the wildlings to defend against the White Walkers.

“They removed one of the major characters just totally from the show, so I’m interested to see how it goes since they took out one of my favorite characters,” DeClue said.

Viewers could be in for a mother of a surprise if the writers attempt to correct this deviation from the books. Last season received some flak for deviations but still ended on a much stronger note than season 3. It’ll be interesting to see what else is in store for characters whose fates are less set in stone like the Stark Girls. With Sansa in the Veil, and Arya in the yet to be seen land of Bravos viewers can expect some wins for the stark family.

The only low note for the coming season is the lack of Hodor. Since Brandon Stark’s story line finally got interesting, the writers have announced that Hodor and Bran will not be featured in this season. To which we at the Arcade say, Hodor.