HBO sure knows how to rally the realm ... and frustrate it. On March 9, "Game of Thrones" got fans going on Twitter and Facebook, asking us to type "FIRE" in the comments to reveal the Season 7 premiere date.

It took several live videos, and more than an hour of staring at melting ice, but we finally got the official date:

Sunday, July 16, 2017.

The way the stunt played out was kind of hilarious.

Twitter sent fans to a Facebook Live video, with each fan's "FIRE" appearing to blast an icy cube melting down to reveal the date.

That's right. A giant melting block of ice being pelted with dragon fire was meant to reveal the date.

But then the live video stopped without revealing a date, just confusing fans further and leading them to keep commenting even though the video said it had ended.

We were just left with this, around 2:20 p.m. ET:

LAME.

Shortly afterward, they returned to Facebook for more melting ice:

During the live ice melting, Bran actor Isaac Hempstead Wright appeared to ask fans to type more "FIRE" comments. Lena Headey later joined to ask fans to type "FIRE" and raise a glass to melting the block of ice. Gwendoline Christie later showed up to say she couldn't reveal any Brienne/Tormund romance, but if we typed "FIRE" it would reveal what was underneath the ice.

"Game of Thrones" later suggested fans type "DRACARYS" to blast two flames and speed things up. But that was already 40 minutes into the melting, and fans were getting testy. Why did they have to make the ice so thick?

Then the video ended again. No date.

A few minutes later, still another video kept the process going, this one promising we were "almost there" and blasting a constant stream of heat to finally get this over with:

That one did the trick. And his doesn't qualify as a trailer, but in addition to the premiere date, we also got this sigils tease:

The stunt followed the reveal of the official Season 7 poster, which certainly fits into the theme of fire and ice. We're still waiting for the big official trailer.

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