12 Times Game of Thrones Sneakily Foreshadowed the Future

While the stag-murdering-a-direwolf foreshadowing is obvious, there's another instance where Game of Thrones uses animals to symbolize a power shift a bit more subtly.

When we're first introduced to Tywin Lannister in season one, he's skinning a stag as Jaime watches. At face value this does plenty to establish Tywin as a menacing character, but it also foreshadows the Lannisters taking power from the Baratheons.

Later in this same episode, King Robert Baratheon dies, leaving Joffrey to take the throne. But this isn't actually a Baratheon succession. Ned has just confirmed with Cersei the truth he suspected about the new young king: he's not Robert's son at all. He's pure incest-borne Lannister, which technically means the Lannisters now have real control over the throne.