'Game of Thrones' back in April; Jon Snow too?

"Game of Thrones," HBO (and Jon Snow, RIP) are playing with you again, fans.

At least we may know one thing for certain: The series will return next April. 

The network and huge hit have released the sixth season promotional poster, but that's hardly the big news. The big news is this: Jon Snow commands the image in the center, his face bloodied, but otherwise he is apparently still alive.

Or maybe it's all just a promotional Rorschach test -- he's alive if you WANT him to be alive.

Or perhaps, just an optical illusion, friends. Perhaps. 

More on this subject below.

Either way, he looks like he's in pretty bad shape. We can all agree on that. 

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Coincidentally, of the two outstanding plot twists of the 2015 TV season, one was answered as recently as Sunday night: Yes, Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun) is in fact alive and well on "The Walking Dead," having escaped a herd of walkers and certain death... 

Now, HBO seems to be implying that Kit Harington's Jon Snow -- (apparently) killed by Alliser Thorne in the fifth season finale because of Jon's heroic and reviled efforts to make peace with the wildings -- may also be alive. 

Snow's fate -- is he alive? Is he dead? (Is he in the Westerosian version of the witness protection program?) -- has been debated for months, and by planting him so prominently in the first official glimpse anyone has of the new season, HBO may well be toying with all those overheated heads yet again. 

But look closely and realize that nothing has been given away, and nothing even particularly implied. That Jon is covered in blood makes perfect sense -- exsanguination, after all, was the nature of his purported death. That he should be so prominently displayed makes sense too, given that his was the last image most fans have remembered...

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In fact, this poster is all about "looking" -- and demanding that you look closely as well. Appearances aren't exactly as they would seem. Recall that the fifth season finale was shaped by the idea of vision, specifically eyes -- and that what the characters THINK they see may be not all that it would appear, or what they thought they saw.. "Vision," in the "GoT" firmament isn't just about seeing but foreseeing -- that seems important in the context of this poster as well. (I wrote about eyes and vision as it related to "Mother's Mercy;" you can revisit that post here, if you choose.)  

 The poster is full of optical illusions -- it's not quite a blivet, but almost a duck-rabbit, where the closer you look, the more certain you are that the image isn't what you think it is, or was, but something else altogether. 

A duck...

Or a rabbit.

For example...in the poster, I see a mouse (sitting upright) in Jon's "coat"; an owl, and a dog, possibly wolf. You can see them too if you look for them. I'm sure if I spend a few more hours on this, I'll find a shadowcat, wyvern, and zorse.

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Why animals? The "GoT" bestiary is vast and important. Of mice and men, and direwolves too. Animals are almost more important in this yarn than people.Consider that a bird, specifically a raven -- one with many eyes -- is the reigning symbol. 

And what of the blood? It's coming from...Jon's eyes.

That word again.  

So let's call this poster a clever bit of gamesmanship that says nothing, offers nothing, other than one key fact: The word "April," which appears prominently at the bottom of the poster. 

"GoT" will return in early spring -- April -- thus ending another subject of fevered fan speculation, that the show might return as late as May, or even June.

Meanwhile, congratulations HBO. You've done it again -- got us working overtime.