Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 190 — AFFC The Prophet (Aeron I)

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

The king is dead (again, another one, etc.). Someone whose name begins with the letter E is back. From the sea comes a holy man with a plan.   Background music: "Procession of the King" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/   ---   Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: www.liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song of Ice ice and fire episode 190 the prophet in a feast for crows i am one of your hosts chloe and i am another one of your hosts emmet wait hold on hold on i'm eliana some of you might have been confused over the past few weeks because i was i called in my stand-in someone else whose name begins the E. I was like, it's like the same thing. It's the same thing. And we covered a different show entirely. Yeah, a huge thank you, listeners, for giving us a little time off there. And I hope those of you that have watched Succession Season 4, finished up the series.

What a great ending. Check out our episodes with Poor Quentin from not a cast a s o i a f podcast he joined me for a handful of episodes it was actually a really fun time for us we we had a really good time and there's a little bit of a swath in some of the episodes you know sometimes make some little a swath refs yeah it is a good time I have to listen to the final episode still as of recording this so i will not be able to make any references to that yet but i i've been listening to the coverage it's been really really fun and i'm like oh this is what it feels like to be on the other end i'm like what is

it gonna come out do i get early release and then when I send you the early release, you're like, no, I'm waiting till Friday. Or no, well, no, sometimes I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm out. I'm at dinner. I get it. I get it. Well, we're happy to have you back.

You were very much missed. It was very fun to chat with Emmett, but more fun to have my Aliana back. I don't know if that's true. Anyways, so. Did you get into the letter E also? Equal. but more fun to have my Eliana back. I don't know if that's true. We were equal as well. You get to the letter E also. Equal. My god.

Well, since we're back, a little bit of housekeeping up top. Patreon episode last month was Victarion 1, the Wins a Winner. We were able to get it out here in May. Thank you, Eliana, for your efforts. I'm saluting you. But yes, Winds of Winter

Victorian, fun time. Patrons in the Stranger tier and above, $5 and up, get access to that episode as well as other bonus episodes from the Winds of Winter and many other different stories and shows and etc, etc, etc. So check that out at Patreon. And next

month, or this month, month i should say we are going to cover the forsaken and the winds a winner uh yeah it's kind of crazy that we're at the forsaken i never i always knew we'd get here someday but it's funny because it's like the most recent winds chapter to have been released i. But it's actually like not... There's still a bunch of other older Wins chapters that we haven't covered yet and won't cover yet until we get to those POVs. So interesting stuff.

Bit by bit. Literally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that'll be available for you if you're in the Stranger tier and above. But let's say you are in the Thunder tier and above, $10 and up on our Patreon. gives you access to our patreon only discord where you get to do fun things like for example join us for june brunch slash happy hour which

the date is yet to be announced but it comes with games giveaways and get to know yous and you can access all of that at patreon.com slash girls gone canon c-a-n-o-n Check us out over there. Thanks so much for your support, patrons. We couldn't do it without ya. And so, some of the other things that are resuming this June,

which is our coverage of Sailor Moon. We were thrown off a little bit by, like, I thought it was so perfect. You know, we were gonna, we're gonna, were gonna get to the last season and so forth. Like the final movie right around when it releases, but life got in the way. Life and death got in the way. So

here we are, back at it. Back at it again with the white fans. We should have the next Sailor Moon episode on season two for Sailor Moon Crystal coming out towards the end of the month. And we're actually very excited, as long as she still wants to, to bring on our very special guest that has been so patient with us, Chika from Shouju Sunday. Yes, I hope so. We need to, you know, resume a lot of our activities. So yeah, again, thanks for your patience, everyone, as we get back to being humans. We did have to remember how to do this whole episode thing, you know?

with Aaron and speaking of which I do want to give a spoilers warning right we always like you know you're here you know it's a reread there's going to be spoilers anyway of what happens in all the published books but I'm going to be real like the the Aaron chapters kind of gain a lot more meaning and weight in the context of the forsaken we're going to try as much as we can not to spoil it but there is some like going to be heavily like hinted at stuff or like some things that we're going to refer to that are kind of confirmed in the forsaken in these erin chapters so i don't know it's kind of big but it's kind of not but and honestly in retrospect i was thinking about it while reading this and i'm like oh it's it's kind of there it's very much there there's a lot of hinting in this chapter towards some of the reveals that come and a lot of people actually and you know much there. There's a lot of hinting in this chapter towards some of the reveals that come.

And a lot of people actually, and you know, I'm gonna just get it out of the way, like a lot of people had already theorized that some of the stuff with the Rusty Hinges meant Aaron had been sexually assaulted by Euron for a long time. Some people didn't, but then The Forsaken confirms it. Yeah. So we will try to, you know, lay off that because we want The Forsaken episode, of course, to be special. I mean, I already have a little bit of, like, apprehension because there are some people in the cinematic Aeswaf universe that have written, like, essays that are 400 pages long about it and are way smarter about it i have written an essay also on the forsaken not about not 400 pages maybe more like you know 10 or less yeah four but it was a good essay so you know what i'm part of the the ass off cinematic universe too wow wow ah well you should read that essay by eliana maybe we'll link it for you. Maybe we'll link it. Someone should. I don't know. We'll talk about it later.

All right. Eliana, how we work on this podcast is we do a lightning round in between characters, POVs, chapters. Which ones should I read aloud? Do I get to pick a special color, too, on the outline? You guys might not know this, but Chloe and I have designated colors on the outline. I'm like a light blue. She's a

mauve. A mauve, a mauve. It's like a purple-y, pinky purple. Yeah. Real Dane hours is really what it is. Well, we'll pop off with our lightning round, which we'll go a little deeper into history with. First, Aaron Greyjoy is born, the babiest of Quellen Greyjoy's second marriage boys.

And he grew up in his teenage years to be a major partier and gambler. More on that in this chapter. gambler more on that in this chapter in the great joy rebellion he raided coasts alongside victorian and euron and nearly drowned off of the fair isle in a trap set by stanice erin was initially thought lost but washed up and was found by fishermen given to lanisport in chains and a prisoner throughout the rebellion it's like a band name. Lannisport and Chains. Move over, Alice. He's returned to the islands later, and sometime after the rebellion,

he once more goes down during a storm, washing up unharmed, and also a new man. Religious, spiritual, he changes from rowdy and ribald to a hardened hermit of the beach, the damp hair, respected by the ironborn and his acolytes.

And then we come to a Clash of Kings where Aaron brings Theon home from Lordsport to Pyke and blesses him with seawater. Did I write that or did you write that? You wrote that. I didn't write that. I don't remember writing that. I too want to sprinkle holy water on Theon, is something I wrote, apparently. Aaron attends Balin's war council against the North, and he's present at the harrying of the Stony Shore with Theon and Dagmar.

He blesses Theon's new ships. Aaron then commands Benfred Taller to be given to the Drowned God when he refuses to cooperate. With permission, he takes six of Theon's ships for future raiding. And that leads us to A Feast for Crows, one of my favorite of the books. Aaron returns to his duties as a priest post-reeving and informs Balon of Theon's defeat at Winterfell. He opposes Balon's desire for Asha to succeed him.

Yeah. And so that brings us here to the prophet, aka Aaron 1 in A Feast for Crows, and the king has died. Dead. Dead as fuck. In the prophet, whilst performing drownings under a gray sky, Aaron is

told that the king has died. Yeah, so weird fake out there from George where he's performing drownings. I'm like, oh, George, you're so edgy. Starting out with making us think that Aaron's killing people at the beginning. Anyway, lol, happy for him.

The way that this book starts, this is like the first of the POV chapters, right? We have the prologue, of course, with Pate, but Aaron learning that the king has died serves as a great parallel with Cersei, of course, learning that Tywin has died in that whole aftermath, especially because Tywin was really framed as being the real king, right? Even though he wasn't actually the king. Yeah, you see it with Dorne, right?

With Oberyn's death and the news of it reaching, that becomes a huge for those chapters so it really draws in some of these new plots I know that's always a big complaint and feast is the new plotting coming from the Dorne and Ironborn but I think there's some great echoes together absolutely Aaron tells Emmond which is the boy being drowned which I do have to say how there's so many fucking Emmots in this story every day I look at Emmot and I'm like dude you're in the story. It's you. The cinematic universe. It's you.

Holding Emmet up to the book. Look, it's you. Have courage, he said. We came from the sea and to the sea we must return. Open your mouth and drink deep of God's blessing. Fill your lungs with water that you may die and be reborn. It does no good to fight. Jesus.

Yeah, so I guess this is like very intense baptism, but I don't know why. I think of, you know, those diagrams of the fish, our first ancestor that's crawling onto land. I think of us becoming the fish with legs going back in. The boy kicks and the strength goes out of his limbs. No more bubbles of air come into the surface. He is pale, cold, and peaceful in the water. Lord God who drowned for us? The priest prayed in a voice as deep

as the sea. I guess it's not very deep, I'm sorry. Deeper! Deeper! Let Amund your servant be reborn from the sea as you were. Bless him with salt. Bless him with stone. Bless him with

steel. I thought that was interesting you know you think of like Sansa's porcelain ivory to steel stuff and like that whole idea of transformation in there too especially because you have Aaron kind of he goes through that journey over his entire lifetime oh okay that's his porcelain ivory steel himself salt stone and steel i think so aaron notices three horsemen on the shore spar stefarian spar's son and another tall youth with dark red fur lined cloak and a good brother

pin so i the the language of the three horsemen stood out because it's one horseman short of having, you know, the four horsemen of the apocalypse imagery. But turns out there is a fourth horseman with them. It is Death, invisible. But he's here in the room with us in this Chili's. I kind of love it in this Chili's. Oh my god.

Yeah, you've never watched that. I've never watched've never watched the hell the first time i finally watched i was like oh that's where that's from huh i knew but yeah it's fine it's it's like not it's not a need but you know what it's actually better like i was very like anti before and then i did watch it i'm like all right it's not actually bad it was it's a okay watch it's okay yeah you know it's like how now i wouldn't maybe re-watch parks and rec necessarily interesting anyway anyway anyway so what you said here about death being invisible though reminds me of the stranger not being mentioned in songs right how they don't say his name but they say seven gods so you might be onto something there erin's drowned men take the drowned boy to shore

with aaron following naked except for a seal skin clout across his privates he's handed a rough spun modeled robe at the shore blue and green the colors of the sea his hair is long black uncut and it falls down past his waist seaweed is woven through his hair and long beard there's a lot going on here in terms of uncut hair and religion beard. There's a lot going on here in terms of uncut hair and religion. Like on one hand you have George's background. He grew up Catholic and these like remnants of the story of Samson from the Bible,

who had a pact with God to never cut his hair in exchange for superhuman strength. But there's also something I think in general, in our real world, we see a lot of connection between religious practice and how people express themselves through their hair, right? Like for example, you might see paintings of monks, right? They used to like shave the tops of their heads in honor of Saint Paul. But also with Aaron not cutting his hair, it kind of also reminds me of the Sikh practice

of Kesh where people let their hair grow out in respect of God's creation. And part of the reason for that practice was it was a command by like a religious figure, Guru Gobind Singh. But it's also a practice that requires care, respecting and caring your own hair, which is kind of different from the way it sounds like Aaron's hair is, right? You don't also let people publicly touch your hair but there's these things called the 5ks in the sikh religion kesh is one of them with the growing of the hair the other is kanga which is like the comb and uh that's because they want to emphasize that neatness because i guess there was a time when everyone wasn't really like maintaining that and so guru gobind sing was like, we don't do that.

So anyways, the way that they use express religion and hair in the Drowned God's religion is by weaving the seaweed, right? And they let the tangles happen. And that's how you show people you're a believer. I love that you've talked about this because I feel like there's so much symbolism with hair in general related to religion i mean i say symbolism but in real life right with real humans and real cultures that exist and people that follow real religions not just fake medieval book but there's also something that it reminds me of with mary magdalene stay with me on this one er Erin Magdalene. There's that

long-standing association, right, of like long unbound hair and sexuality. And Mary Magdalene, for example, is depicted in so many pieces of art during washing Jesus's feet with her hair, for example, with her tears and ointment. And her hair is always being depicted almost like a robe, a chased robe across her and covering her and then you have agnes in the bible who was stripped and taken nude to a brothel and miraculously her hair grew to cover her immodesty and protect her from being assaulted and you know you think of aaron being kind of a disciple of his brothers and the idea of foot washing or of hair being long being part of being humble and loving god and him being

an assault victim comes to mind here with the hair and not cutting it right like thinking back also throughout the different stages of his life of him not cutting his hair like when he's young it's one thing and then he grows up and he becomes kind of a drunk to hide the pain in his life and to not have to face you know what what's happening inside of him. And then depression and alcoholism, and now here he is and it's through a religious choice. Yeah, you kind of have, I like this connection with Saint Agnes, right? It's like the hair and the religion becomes a sort of shield for Aaron. Absolutely.

And we're going to dig into that with this story it comes up a lot and yeah he is washing people i guess kind of literally but very intensely very intensely with cpr you know a lot going on the drowned men a lot the drowned men begin to pray around the dead boy and a few begin pumping his chest. Here it is, the CPR. But make way for Aaron, who prides his lips apart and gives Eamon the kiss of life till the sea erupts from him and he's coughing alive and full of fear. Yeah, he doesn't believe in chest compressions, so.

No, the other people were doing the chest compressions, which is interesting. But that's what I mean. He's like, wait, wait, what? They have to be like really in sync, you for this to work fascinating i don't think george did much research on cpr maybe when he did this which is interesting because like they taught it to us were you taught cpr in health class in school yeah yeah yeah so i remember you know kind of speaks to how many they've lost you know right like the the the little baby dog you go baby baby are you okay i'm like if the baby is like choking

and also is a baby how is it gonna tell me if it's okay anyway if i'm holding its head underwater too you know that's my other question how well that's why you're not supposed to do it with the newborns because they can't really, we'll get into that. Another one returned... Sorry, deep voice, deep voice. What the fuck was that? I don't know. Another one returned. It was a sign that the Trump got in favor.

Men said, every priest lost a man from time to time. Even Tarle the Thrice Drowned, who had once been thought so holy that he was picked to crown a king. But never Aaron Greyjoy. He was the damp hair who had seen the gods' own watery halls and returned to tell of it. Rise, he told the sputtering boy as he slapped him on his naked back. You have drowned and been returned to us. What is dead can never die. Rises, the boy coughed violently, bringing up more

water. Rises again! Every word was bought with pain, but that was the way of the world a man must fight to live. Rises again! Emond staggered to his feet. Harder and stronger! Congrats on your puberty,

Emond. Good job, Emond. You know, it was a total mitzvah i love that for him i noticed during this tarl the thrice drowned who had once been thought so holy he was picked to crown a king that's erin though yeah erin's thrice drowned and he is i mean right here he's called to crown a king for the king's moot yeah absolutely aaron's yeah aaron's story has a lot to do with he's got this kingmaker thing going on too right that pairs with doran kingmaker yeah yes he's very different from kristen cole but you know yeah at least kristen cole made a choice it's true i guess they both were like let's not crown women that's something they have

in common oh aaron tells him he belongs to the god the other drowned men give him a punch and a kiss and put him in a mottled robe and give him a driftwood cudgel which apparently everyone keeps this cool little memento as we'll see at the end of the chapter aaron announcing that he belongs to the sea and the sea has armed him to fight their enemies. Great echoes to the sparrow, right, with arming the faith here. That entire drowning is so chilling. That's such a great passage. It's an incredibly long time, right?

Like, the whole time, I'm screaming. I'm like, someone get that kid out. Bring him back. But especially in the front of the chapter and throughout the rest it's really clear that aaron is like really putting all of his chickens in the faith basket he really believes in the drowned god especially coming off of victorian right where you know that victorian's like just rolling dice and hoping something works for him aaron has given his all here it's not unlike Melisandre's fervent faith

compared to some of these other characters we see that are somewhat religious. This is a very strongly religious and faithful man. Absolutely. And like, that's, I think, such a big part of his arc, faith, the questioning of it, temptation, etc. And yeah, I think it's, it's absolutely right to compare him to Melisandre, and he's gonna be tested. There's a lot of tests for Aaron. It's funny, because I just

picture, even though he's really young, I think that's something that also is forgotten. I think he might be. He's one of those Sandor-esque 30 year olds or some shit it's so interesting for me that Sandor is 27 I'm like

sir go to therapy yeah he would have been born somewhere between 269 to 273 so yeah 27 to 30 somewhere in that range our age yeah very young though and I think that automatically So yeah, 27 to 30. Oh, that's so fascinating. Somewhere in that range. So interesting. Our age, yeah.

Very young, though. And I think that automatically I usually in my head just think of him as like an old priest, but he's young. He's a young priest. He's, oh my God, youth pastor Aaron. Well, he's got a lot of trauma, you know? And also, I guess they have him like, they have him portrayed by much, much older. I don't even know if he's named in the show, but he's like.

No. He's like an old man. He's called like the priest. I'm like, excuse you. I don't even know if he's named in the show but he's like no he's like an old man and i'm like i'm like excuse you i don't fucking look like that it's funny though because i immediately think of like archie from the great who uh was darwin in succession if anyone caught that okay but i think of him as aaron in my head sometimes when i'm watching especially the new season oh my god he's older than us he's like way older than erin yeah so that's what's so funny i'm like he's like 30 what am i thinking yeah me saying us you me and erin you me erin and katelyn so meanwhile the three riders watching from their saddles finally get addressed erin is like did you come to be drowned and he snorts at their responses because he thinks that their drownings were

nothing but fake or false in comparison to what he actually does. And, you know, actually drowning people. And he says that, uh, if you don't die in truth, you can't hope to rise from the dead.

Great words. You know, it is actually, but, um, yeah, now that I think about like Aaron's age and why he feels so much older, I think it has to do with this, with his attitudes about, like, the watering down of the traditions and the religion of the Iron Islands, right? Like, he judges Stefari and Spar, who has drowned only as a child, because, like, you can only dip them in the head, because doing CPR on babies, as we've discussed, is very difficult.

It's a tradition that technically, you know, was it Steffarian's choice? It's kind of his parents' choice, if you really think about it, right? And I think that's interesting because it shows this huge generational rift, which is probably why Eren feels so much older, especially compared to characters like Asha, right? Because we see him and his generation trying to like hold on to the glory of the Iron Islands and like the old way and I'm like when was this glory it was like over 300 years ago like none of you were there or maybe it was

like thousands of years ago like what is this fucking former glory we're talking about and then you see those like Asha and like I think it's just something that i don't relate to that generational rift because there's not that much of an age difference right between us and like the next generation if you think about it or current ones so we see in some of the other areas there's tensions with preserving culture for northerners right like where the starks are but it's not like a sense of conflict in the same way right besides the where does, where does loyalty lie? The Starks are the crown, but that's not a generational rift. That's more of a power grab thing. Free folk, their ways are changing, but kind of out of necessity. And they have this shared generational, there's no like generational ideological divide because survival. So I think the closest that we really get interestingly to this cultural and generational

divide that's happening in the iron islands is within the night's watch which technically is not a kingdom in the way that the rest of westeros's regions are but they do have a shared culture that is changing and it's represented by alicer thorne and by john and i think dance a dance with dragons like has that shows the dip right in the advancement right like the the pushback against it of modernizing with asha of course chased out of the iron islands and john being murdered no big deal and then you have also in a second you have erin silently judging gorman for refusing to get down from his horse for fear of getting his shoes wet and it's interesting right you see these older generations judging young ones for allegedly being fixated on the wrong things you have this iron

price stuff going on which is part of maybe why he's judging gorman um and you also have like it's interesting because you have theon when he first comes back to the iron islands in clash which is part of maybe why he's judging Gormand. And you also have like, it's interesting because you have Theon when he first comes back to the Iron Islands in Kalash being punished, scolded by his father for being too Northern, not paying the iron price, not being ironborn enough, which is fascinating when you see that

other people in the Iron Islands are actually kind of similar to him. It's just like his family that's very traditionalist. Kendall Roy himself. Baby boy. Kendall Roy. Theon Greyjoy. Yeah.

Actually. There's also another Kendall Roy hours for Aaron later on too. Good, good. But it is that, right? He's punishing Theon for his failures yeah his own failures i don't even it's like a failure you know right well in his eyes it is yeah that's true from balin's pov it's a fail and i don't know i think there's also so much

power dynamic going on here right because the other kid here offers his horse to aaron he's like no just take my horse mr aaron grayjoy sir and aaron's like no it needed to be gorman's like he needs to respect me yeah it was like a weird power play and i think we're gonna see a lot more of like aaron using religion as a way to regain power it's like he's punishing gorman for straying and he's like really reshaped this narrative where he's like, I have to go quickly and I must ride this specific horse. Because this is like all he gets. This is the only way

he can take that power. Yeah, but it's pretty effective. We'll talk about that. Yeah. It turns out when you have the voice of fucking God speaking through you, it's pretty effective. Well, he's also a great orator. Also, Kendall Roy ours, but um. speaking through you it's pretty effective well he's also a great order also kendall roy ours but so spar is here to get him lord gerald's son came with the news for him and the boy steps forward

he's no more than 16 and he names himself gorman de good brother here to bring damp hair to his father at the keep to hear news that only aaron's ears alone should hear a maester's bird from pike I love that it's in this moment that Aaron finally asks the kid, like, wait, okay, so which good brother are you? There are many. Home of the good brother. Can I take your order? I can't. I'm telling you. Good brother two. They are coming out with another Good Burger. It's crazy. It's actually filming down

the road from our good friend from one of our patrons was sending us video on it. Oh yeah, that's right. NDA. NDA. Reluctant to leave, Aaron says, anything you tell him, you can tell all my best friends. They can hear it too.

And so they do. The king's fucking dead. I think this is kind of funny, because on one hand, actually, Aaron, you do have secrets from them. And also, I mean, he kind of is right about this one thing. Like, yeah, you don't have to keep the secret from them, because you know what? Everyone's gonna

fucking know. Everyone's gonna know that Balan is dead, sooner or later. later okay there's no fucking stock market or shareholders that you have to worry about all right you're not trying to beat the media it's fine aaron grayjoy had built his life upon two mighty pillars those four small words had knocked one down only the drowned god remains to me. May he make me as strong and tireless as the sea. We'll see how that goes. Aaron asks how his brother died.

He's told that he crossed a bridge and fell, dashed upon the rocks below, the storm raging behind him. Aaron announces that the storm god cast him down using storms that bring only woe and grief. My brother Balin made us great again, which earned the storm god's wrath. He feasts now in the drowned god's

watery halls, with mermaids to attend his every want. It shall be for us who remain behind in this dry and dismal vale to finish his great work. I'm just saying, I watched Futurama, and I just don't think that mermaids attending to your every want

is the wind that they think it is. They're scary. The lost city of Atlanta. That episode. So they plan to ride to Hammerhorn, and Aaron takes the boy's horse to ride quicker he isn't fond of horses but he knows he must ride quickly because a storm is brewing and storms brought not but evil they meet at pembleton beneath lord merlin's tower passing folk who never set eyes

on salt water but it is to his brothers that aaron's thoughts turn to and we get the exposition dump of the nine sons of quell and grayjoy harlan quentin donnell who were all fathered on a stone tree woman the first wife then we have balan euron victorian uragon and erin fathered on a sunderly of saltcliffe his third wife bore him robin sickly best forgotten uh and quentin and donnell died as infants they're forgotten as well and he only kind of vaguely remembers harlan is this like a harlan ellison reference uh and who was taken by grayscale and he thinks that someday they will all feast on fish in the drowned gods watery halls the four of them and yuri too and erin's fixation on yuri that's gonna come back sadly it's very sadly going to come back it's very soon and sad something about the way it's phrased

the nine sons of quellen reminds me a little bit of the 19 sons of david in the bible and i don't know if it's like a reference reference it could be but he has them from numerous wives as well. Even with a couple of the plots of some of these kids in the Bible. Like Adonijah, the fourth son of King David from Haggith. He tries to usurp the throne during the life of David. And Solomon has him executed after being warned to remember his place in the line of succession because of the instruction regarding the crown. So, kind of interesting.

Yeah. Yeah, right? Succession. Succession. Greyjoy succession. succession because of the instruction regarding the crown so kind of interesting yeah yeah right succession succession great joy succession kind of that is what's going on but yes yes it does actually have that feel interesting yeah something about it like stood out i was like wait a second nine sons 19 sons it's got something and i'm sure this could really be looked at for like i mean hell look at what the targaryens the targaryens too but george was just like i need an idea there's an idea that's that's open it in point only four of quellen's sons lived to manhood balen fierce boldest fearless running climbing sailing fucking and captaining his own ship by 17 yeah balan i think we've said this before he's really his family's rob stark discuss that in the victorian chapters and erin kind of feels that way too absolutely he's uh he's all like he was all an elder brother

ought to be though he had never shown erin ought but scorn i was weak and full of sin and scorn was more than i deserved better to be scorned by balan the brave than beloved of euron crozi like okay uh it's true but okay yeah you take the pain where you can handle it after dark they reach the spiky battlements of hammerhorn the gates close and bar for the night erin beats on those barred gates with a rock and wakes a guard and they enter a drafty shadowy hall one of gerald's daughters serves ale one pokes at a fire and gerald good brother himself is speaking with a slim maester when he sees erin arrive without gorman he asks where he's gone and erin explains he returns by foot telling him to send his and then he tells him to send his court away so that

they can speak alone i just love again erin being like which one are you when the other good brother kid opens the door he's like i'm grand part of why he wants the maester out is because like he sees the ravens as creatures of the storm god which I thought was really interesting in the context of Euron, right? And him maybe having had, like, a brush with greenseeing, and then, of course, a blood raven with, I mean, literally all of his ravens and crows, and then also, like, you know, that Melisandre even sees him in the fire, too, and I don't know. Interesting. I love that. I didn't catch that so that's really i think it that is something yeah he probably hates ravens i just don't see like birds as like it's just fascinating that they're seen as as uh creatures of the storm guide because

i as far as i know birds and storms like they don't go well together not for the bird i mean yeah maybe it's just enough to for him to put something on it so he doesn't have to think about it you know yeah bird's the word he doesn't like maesters because one failed to treat yuri which we're going to get a little more of that soon no proper man would choose a life of thralldom nor forge a chain of servitude to wear about his throat. Hmm. Big Randall Tarly hours this time, but also I think there's a lot there in general

that we could unpack about ironborn conceptions of masculinity and servitude and dominance, especially when we were discussing how it wasn't seen as less masculine on Victarion's ship right when on Victarion's ship when some of his sailors were raping the boys, right?

It was masculinity is associated with dominance, but also in terms of like that idea of servitude and thralldom. I'm just like pot meet kettle for Aaron because it's not like, don't a lot of people kind of envision the life of a prophet, you know, a religious figure, priesthood, as being one of serving? Yeah, you're supposed to be

humble and serve your whole life. That's your job now. Yeah. And there's also something crazy about that thought here at the good brother's keep because they straight up it's said you know they live inland uh not actually at the coast but inland and they have their thralls mining iron and gold all day long and it just makes me think of victorian being like thralls are different they're not slaves but here you have people

on your very land that yes are basically enslaving thralls to work in the mines all day long and you think that being a maester is thralldom oh interesting yeah I think I mean regardless he sees both of it as thralldom and therefore

what like demeaning because it's not I guess a position of dominance which yes that's everything obviously I mean maybe Aaron at least understands that thralls are basically slaves unsure I don't know but because

Victarion clearly did not piece that together so he hasn't pieced together that's true that's true uh like his wins chapter which is not complete it's not a full full summary so the good brother wants his maester to stay and aaron's like all right well i'll leave then and then he goes and walks out and he's like they're gonna offer me a better deal they're gonna give me the price i then and then he goes and walks out and he's like they're gonna offer me a better

deal they're gonna give me the price i want and as he reaches the door the maester clears his throat and says that you're on crow's eye sits the sea stone chair and you know what that gets his attention the hall immediately grows colder for erin who learns he arrived the day after balan's death claiming the crown sending ravens to bring the lords and captains and kings to pay him homage. That's probably why he hates ravens. Aaron says, this cannot be because only a godly man may sit the seastone chair and he is not godly.

And they're like, well... Yeah, I'm like, did you install a mechanic to prevent this from happening? Is that what you're saying to us right now? Because if you didn't install some crazy mechanic to prevent godly men from sitting upon the salt throne yes or godless yes the salt throne get the fuck out because a godless man is sitting there yeah what george changed it he should yeah he did you're right he did change it he did change it we're just salty about it

He did change it. He did change it. We're just salty about it. Good Brother asks if Aaron knew anything about the succession from Balin. Aaron recalls that Balin said Asha was next, that Theon was weak, and Aaron had argued it would never be accepted, but Balin was deaf to things he did not wish to hear. Kind of ironic. I think Aaron seems like he was deaf to things he did not wish to hear from

balan apparently but also look it's the dance but also not but also aaron you fool yeah totally the balan uh viserys dynamic here right a little little viserys going on very strong favorite asha wrote theon off her chair gets stolen She must flee. George kind of has a type. He does. I'm imagining Balon going, my only child, which is literally the funniest scene from House of the Dragon for me. I'm like,

they're literally, your other kids are literally right there. They're right there. Asha's standing there. She's like, number one boy. It's me. She is number one boy.

The maester says that the chair belongs to Theon or Asha if Theon is dead. You know, by rights. But Arryn's like, no, we're ironborn and we do not live by Greenland law. You know, his refusal to make a choice and back someone against all the lords he speaks to today. It's really what brings Euron down upon them even more. But it's a bitter irony, right? Like, I think of our own political system law. But if he had just backed one of them, well, okay, but to be fair, if Euron hadn't been like this giant evil psycho figure that he feared, the entire thing could have been avoided in theory. But like, realistically, even if they had backed Victarion Euron could

summon evil ass demons and murder everyone so I don't know uh what's the point right and on one level I think that's it for Aaron Aaron knows the horror he's experienced from Euron and he knows that that horror is limited and that there's more to experience from Euron right like Euron's horror capabilities probably can do more. He fears him. Spiritually, psychologically, physically, all of it. And it's interesting because the only person, you know, when you think of religion, you're told you should

fear God. You shouldn't fear anything else. You should fear God above all and hold his power in awe. And that's the drowned God for Eron. And maybe that's part of his compensation and his path for religion, right? That he is trying to have a greater power to fear than just his brother. But it's very devastating. Very sad. Sad hours. god gives him faith it's something it provides structure for his life after you're on kind of tore it all apart and as you said if he could just make a choice and you talking about that i i have been kind of like mulling that over i'm like why didn't he just fucking pick someone and go with it

and i part of it is i guess he didn't want the responsibility of it but there's something that i remembered was talking to like a trauma therapist and she was talking about how something that she works through with like victims of like domestic violence is that a lot of them don't trust their own judgment anymore and i wonder if like that's kind of going on with erin like there's some times that we seem being so decisive in this chapter but then you get to this really big thing and i mean it is something that i think most people would struggle to make a decision with i i mean granted i have trauma yes so maybe maybe that i'm not a good case but like i think most people most people struggle being like let's let's just fucking pick someone and crown it's it's a big

deal yeah and especially when you know what the answer to your crowning will be you're on yeah yeah i mean i think they could have gone full you know full cersei or something you know been like all right this person's crown let's go grab let's go imprison you're on and go execute him but whatever yeah just slid his throat in his sleep you know? Someone's got to. Honestly, I don't feel bad about proposing that as a path to power. Murder is never right, unless it's Euron Greyjoy.

Yeah, but then they wouldn't do it, because they're all, like, kinslaying, you know? As we see from Victarion's Problem. Yeah, that's Victarion's Problem. There's a lot of people on that island, okay? Yeah. Anyone could have done it. So Goral then asks if Victarion would make a claim, and the maester interrupts again, saying,

wait, Euron is the elder. And Erend agrees, but says Victarion is more godly, glaring at the maester. And the maester doesn't seem to get that he should shut up and asks, so is it going to come to war? and the maester doesn't seem to get that he should shut up and ask so is it going to come to war and again like those lines about erin he's he gives a look and he's like anyone would have been silenced by this look amongst like the iron islands or something like that and it's really hammering home how religion is erin's way of reclaiming masculinity through social dominance

way of reclaiming masculinity through social dominance yeah that stands out really loudly in this yeah i love the uh the silencing him with a look from aaron though i think that uh i think maybe as a not as a fandom but just as an overall when you think of aaron grayjoy and you think of his life maybe you don't see him as this domineering force of power right and here in this chapter when you get kind of in the pages like he's very powerful he's a very like a figure with a presence with an aura yeah yeah he really he really is and that's coming through maybe that's like just scaling because of his siblings you know you you see victorian in your mind and you're like huge hulking big fist you're on you're like psycho, and you're like, huge, hulking, big fist. Euron, you're like, psycho.

And then you're like, Aaron, the priest. But he's actually got a real presence. He does. And actually, I guess all of them do to an extent, and they don't really realize it. It's something that I'm thinking about, like how you brought that up in that Victarion wins chapter, that he is someone that's really respected. He's someone that people want to impress and

please and erin has that i think sense of charisma as well it's interesting how we feel about like the grayjoy brothers compared to how they're actually seen in society it's kind of funny in their society yeah that's true that's true in their society yeah in the book yeah like IRL for them but not for us IRL for us versus IRL for them um in book life IBL Iridal Bowel Movement Aaron says that the ironborn

mustn't shed ironborn blood but good brother is like okay but that's kind of bullshit and Euron doesn't agree because he also drowns the wayne botley who was like the chair should go to theon erin then goes this is so funny to me dude i'm i died laughing when i read this i had to like read it four times laughing erin is like well no blood was shed and everyone's like hmm it's kind of like what dro, Drogo, right? Melting Viserys's head in a...

Crown. Yeah, in Vast Dothrak, so... Loopholes, man. Crown fit for a king. Honestly, Arryn should have just used it and been like, well, there you go. We should execute him for that, but anyway. Gourald asks, what will it be, homage or defiance?

Arryn says, send only silence. I must pray on this. The maester says it doesn't change the law. Theons the heir, Asha next. Send only silence, eh? Eh. Oh, silence is already there. Yep.

He also, like, yells silence at everyone at one point. Interesting, Aaron. Interesting. Aaron gets pretty annoyed at this point, and he, like, yells silence at everyone at one point. Interesting, Aaron. Interesting. Aaron gets pretty annoyed at this point, and he's like, I've listened- Ironborn have listened to maesters for too long. Now we listen to God. He's given the comforts of the castle, but instead he chooses to head back to Pebbleton to sleep upon his fresh horse

on the way in the saddle, dreaming of a nightmare, the scream of a rusted hinge, and of his brother, Yuri. Yuri had died by flying axe during a finger dance, when his father and siblings were away. His mother, who was a piper, chose to give him to her maester instead of healing him the old way with fire and seawater. The maester said he could sew back the fingers using poultices and potions to heal after but instead it mortified. By the time they sawed Yuri's arm off, it was too late. He died. Lord Quellin, their father, never returned from his last voyage, resting with the drowned god at sea, and instead Lord Balin returned and took his revenge on the maester, removing three

of his fingers with a cleaver and sending his father's wife to sew them back on. The maester died raving and the piper woman died soon in childbirth with a stillborn daughter. Aaron's glad that the maester suffered for all this because it's implied he feels a lot of guilt because it was his axe during the finger dance that tore off Yuri's fingers. his axe during the finger dance that tore off Yuri's fingers. It's brilliant how he does this passage because he doesn't tell you it was Eren at the start. He says there's a finger dance

blah blah blah and then at the very end he goes it had been Eren's axe that did it. So you learn they were playing. They were just playing their little ironborn finger dance game. They were kids playing a game. And now his brother is dead. So as now that we are here in the story, there's all the guilt.

There's the second part of the guilt unfolding for you all. Little Stannis hours there, right? With Quellen dying on his last voyage and Balin returning and cutting someone's fingers off. I was like, oh, Stanny. Yeah, that's true i and balin does actually have a bit of you know that stannis-esque thing going on with him so does erin but it what you're saying about guilt is interesting because when i think about it like i mean it wasn't erin's fault you know like it really wasn't his fault but But when we think about his life, again, as surviving sexual abuse and that trauma, perhaps he feels that guilt sometimes as a way to feel control over the situation. Sometimes, like, people will, like, feel guilty for things that aren't their fault.

will like feel guilty for things that aren't their fault yeah and he would have been i mean he would barely have been 13 14 15 maybe when it was happening so you know they were still young they were still boys his brother was a similar age they were kind of like neighbor brothers you know like they had like the is that what they're called year apart couple years apart that's not what they're called but i'm giving it their neighbor brothers they were born really recently you know within several nine month periods of one another they're the closest in age yeah right there in that uh middle bottom so that's got to feel horrible i feel like this is the story's fucking terrible for everyone involved and yeah it all it does like remind me a little bit george likes that kind of ironic reversal or karmic retribution or you know um that comeuppance and punishment that he does where

it has a nice little ring to it like obran with obara's mom do you choose the spear or the crying of your mother and then obara grows up goes with her father and is all tough and has her spear and lady hornwood gets forced to eat her own fingers after yelling how this could happen to her and no one listens or you know uh i don't know i just i think that this is like the saddest thing for the piper lady too like dude of course she was gonna trust her maester yeah that's like the medicine she knows and i mean i understand them wanting to try to save his fingers right she wants to try to save his fingers but i guess what is this supposed to be something about sacrifice you gotta let a few fingers go to i don't know survive because i

can see why fire and seawater would have worked you're disinfected i i mean look at, look at Victarion. That's so true. With his fire and seawater. So true, actually. Look at him. Very strong. Saved a whole hand. He's good. That actually, that is, I think, I think there's something intentional going on there now with Yuri and Victarion and the hand thing.

There's other reasons that he's close to Yuri, but we'll save that. Yeah, this is what sent him into a bender for a handful of years, right? there's other reasons that he's close to Yuri, but we'll save that. Yeah. This is what sent him into a bender for a handful of years, right? At 16, he was basically a sack of wine with legs. I love that line though. Cause I was like saying,

jayping, mocking, singing, dancing, drinking. The drowned God gives every man a gift. Even him. No man could piss longer or farther than Aaron Greyjoy as he proved

at every feast. Once he bet his new longship against a herd of goats, he could quench a hearth fire with no more than his cock. He feasted on goat for a year. My bladder's not that big, but also... There's this insinuation

that with his ship, the Golden Storm, Aaron wanted to shape the ram of the ship like a penis, and Balin was not happy about that. But I thought that was an interesting detail in the context of how Eren is dealing with the death of Yuri. You get a lot of that overcompensation and him like really performing masculinity, specifically with that emphasis on genitals, on the penis, right? Alongside, you know, himself medicating with all the alcohol. Really shows how he's been coping slash not coping with the trauma of his sexual abuse. Definitely not coping. Not coping.

Bad. In Balin's first rebellion, his ship had gone down and he had been carried to shore taken captive to lannisport by fishermen as we mentioned earlier and he's thinking on that now and how that man died later drowned reborn from the sea as damp hair priest who could forget his memories of a rusting iron hinge screaming great and good brother accompanies him he asks if it's gonna come to war and aaron's like if the drown gods will it or if i don't support one person uh if the drown gods will it thinking no woman could defeat iran not even asha and theon was a boy of sulks and smiles you know i think she could have won if he backed her god damn it

the whole idea of like no woman could defeat like you're on i think is interesting like is this foreshadowing also for like denarius right we have victorian doubting her as we see um and proving everyone wrong there's also this idea of you know you're on representing the storm god and of course denarius being known as Stormborn. So I don't know if there's something going on there. I'm just spitballing. I like that a lot. I really do.

Because she is one of the few people that could take down Euron, probably. And thinking back, you know, we talked a little bit about this in our Victarion 1 The Winds of Winter episode. Just kind of speculating on maybe his fate and what happens with what we know and maybe she comes back and what if he shows up and you know what he's so loyal and dies so soon and then she takes his ships and all the freed slaves that he comes upon in marine and goes home with those ships and then she kills iran grayjoyjoy with the Iron Fleet. That would be fun. I wonder if it could work. You know, if they would follow her.

I'm very curious, right? Because in the way that the Dothraki follows strength. I'm unsure. Well, he treats everyone on those boats that are the workers, you know, most of them are thralls, which we know Victarion doesn't understand the differentiation between enslaving people and not, would love a free life i could see denaris

freeing the thralls that he brought to marine yeah definitely and i mean some of them definitely know of her right because some of those thralls are from those kidnapped ships he's like oh you were a slave on this ship now you're a free thrall on this ship? And they're like, uh... Great, thanks. So Euron's ship decks were painted red to hide the blood that soaked them. That's an interesting interior design choice.

Victarion must be king. Shouldn't it be like a dark bra- anyways. Victarion must be king. Arryn thinks, or the Storm will slay them all. Arryn and Graydon part. Graydon is heading to spread the news of the king's death, and Arryn continues alone, pausing to preach in villages, telling them that the storm king has plucked Balon and cast him down, but a king will come again. A king will rise. Many join behind Arryn on the way to Pebbleton,

cute name, home to several thousand fisher folk. Two score of Aaron's drowned men await him there, and they had built him a shelter above the tide line. How cute. He drowns his newest followers and heads into the shelter, praying for God to speak to him.

He stays deep in thought on who must lead them. A younger brother owes obedience to the elder. Victarion would not go against this tradition easily, but Vic wasn't really head over heels for a Euron rule either, he thinks. He was once the weakest of Quellen's sons, weak and frightened as a girl, but now he was strong. Thanks to God, thanks to drowning. He thinks on Naga's bones, on Yuri's bones, on the bones of the Grey King's

hall. He struggles back to the shore, pale, shivering, wiser than he had been before. His body seems to steam in the cold air, but fire burns in his heart, and his sleep is nightmare-free. This is what I'm saying. He goes, he watches the ocean, goes all

the way into the ocean, then comes back out. This is into the ocean then comes back out this is the Kendall Roy hours Chloe this is the Kendall Roy hours it is so Aaron makes the next day eating seaweed and brought the clams breaking the news to the Merlin a fleshy man who calls himself a lord, dressing in furs and velvets. And Merlin asks, where is he supposed to go?

One kraken pulls him to pike, another to ten towers. The princess Asha's tentacles, that is. He reminds me of Wyman Manderly, because Merlin and fleshy and furs and velvets i was like oh wait it's a you know ironborn wyman yeah but also you know i wrote i wrote about this and i was like princess ash's tentacles and now i'm sitting here and i'm like that's way more pornographic than i intended it to be it was like now all I'm seeing is like hentai of Asha having tentacles, which whomst amongst us would not like to experience those tentacles.

But happy Pride Month. Absolutely. Asha tentacles. Absolutely. For me. For us all. That's all. Just too much information for you all. George could have really gone further. With Asha's tentacles? Yeah,orge could have really gone further you know with ash's tentacles yeah he could have the reader was sending ravens to gather folks to harlaw to her cause but aaron says the drowned

god will decide not asha not the reader aaron blesses lord merlin telling him to stay listen and spread the good word aaron speaks to the crowd, telling them they are born from the sea, and to the sea they shall return. The Iron King is dead, but a king will come again. For what is dead may never die, but rises again. Harder, stronger, work it, make it. Wait, sorry. Do you not think that sometimes?

I do actually think it all the time whenever they say their stuff. Work it, make it, do it. What year? Actually, that might have been out. The Daft Punk one might have been out by the time that... What year was that? George. This song by Daft Punk came out, I think, 2001.

So Feast came out later. So I'm just saying, it's possible. Work it, make it. Aaron asks them who shall be their king the men slam their driftwood cudgels and shout damp hair king but no shall not be the damp hair he was meant for the gods to be god's prophet so i was reminded of one of the one of the bangers from the catholic church hams when they were like, who shall be their king? It makes me think of like, especially with the prophet stuff, like, I don't remember the exact name of this one. It's like, whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? Do you remember that one? No. Maybe? I think our friend Maddie will know this one. Maddie knows all of my favorite true chimps. I've made a lot of room in my head.

You know, I've deleted some of that from my memory. That one's a banger. That one's good. I was running out of space. I could only have so many. Well, I think that the parable that Aaron uses here is really interesting to tell them. No, no, I'm not king. Of like, a father gives an axe to one son and a net to the other who does the father intend to be the warrior and that implication that the wishes of the father must be obeyed based on the father's intent with these gifts rather than based

on each child's ability or potential especially you know since since like the damp hair is literally ignoring the axe in a way the metaphorical axe that the father balin has given to asha but you know whatever whatever also reminds me a bit of the conflict with the black fires and the whole sword thing but also even with maegor right like i think euron is his family's maegor or aeneas and maegor especially or even looking at like aegon the older versus uh the younger yeah that's that's a really great i i i didn't even think about the axe for asha but that's literally she was the chosen one she's the heir yeah she's always like this here is my lord husband my axe and then my suckling dave pulls out dirk right and like balon literally intended her to inherit but you know he's all like i'm gonna use this parable and not think deeply about it

and i the parable is interesting right it's about like letting these external narratives which we talk about all the time in in a song of ice and fire it's driving them, right? These symbols, these story symbols. And it's also driving this narrative that Eren has crafted about himself. And when at the same time, it's kind of like Aegon V said, right? Like the sword is just a fucking sword. But I mean, Eren, his name is only one letter off from being Aegon, the one letter change, right? He really could have been king. In this moment, he could have seized it and taken it.

And I think that's really fascinating to think of because as we were saying, right? Like these brothers are all very charismatic in their own way. They're all able to create this cult of personality around themselves in this way. And I kind of am starting to think that maybe Arryn could have withstood Euron

based on religious fervor and the respect that he's garnered throughout the islands if he had chosen to take the sea stone chair. That's so interesting. Maybe. Maybe he could have. He doesn't want it, though, quite clearly. and I will say it's funny that you went Agin with that because I was going to tell you that if you change one letter in his name it makes him someone else a man of learning oh amen oh yeah someone else who gave up the throne it's interesting that each of these families have this dynamic right like you have a pick a Targaryen family where you got six to seven kids and or 13 kids and each one you know has a distinct

personality but one of them is always the one that could have been the king but didn't want it or could have been had the skills required but didn't want it right and i guess if if aaron had pursued it that would make him kind of in the same position as renly right against his older brothers but i mean renly could have done it. He could have taken it, like, with the amount of support that he had versus Stannis. I think Eren, in retrospect, could have done it, which I never considered until rereading. And obviously we see him use that religious power in the way that you talked about the High Sparrow before. And we see that happen in the Victarion chapters when he's like, Alright, well, you fucking give up, Victarion.

I'm not giving up, but it's interesting. Yeah. Well, to close out, personally, it's such an epic last couple pages of the chapter, right? And we'd be remiss if we didn't do the King's Moot in all of its glory. Because we're back. We're so back, baby.

We're so back. Yes. All right. I'm ready. Hold on. Let me get my water here. I got to get back into my booming deep voice. Yeah.

My religious fervor. Deep voice. I'm ready to preach, baby. Woo. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, sister. Hallelujah. Amen. Speaking of, Righteous Gemstones is coming back soon, everyone.

I can't fuckin' wait. Look not to me, nor to the laws of men, but to the sea. Raise your sails, and unship your oars, my lord, and take yourself to Old Wick. You and all the captains and the kings go not to Pyke to bow before the godless, nor to Harlaw to consort with scheming woman. Point your prow toward Old Wick, where stood the Grey King's hall. In the name of the drowned god I summon you, I summon all of you. Leave your halls and your hovels, your castles and your keeps,

and return to Naga's Hill to make a king's moot. The Merlin gaped at him. A king's moot? There's not been a a king's moot. The Merlin gaped at him. A king's moot? There's not been a true king's moot in- Too long a time. Yet in the dawn of days when the Ironborn chose their own kings, raising up the worthiest amongst them, it is time we returned the old way, for only that shall make us great again.

It was a king's moot that chose Uris Ironfoot for High King and placed a driftwood crown upon his brow. Silas Flatnose, Harroghor, the Old Kragan, the kingsmoot raised them all. And from this kingsmoot shall emerge a man to finish the work King Balin has begun and win us back our freedoms. Go not to Pyke, nor to the ten towers of Harlaw, but to Old Wyk, I say again. Seek the hill of Naga and the bones of the Grey

King's Hall, for in that holy place, when the moon has drowned and come again, we shall make ourselves a worthy king, a godly king. Listen, listen to the waves, listen to the god. He is speaking to us, and he says, We shall have no king but from the king's mood. A roar went up with that, and the drowned men beat their cuddles one against the other. A king's mood! A king's mood! A king's mood! A king's mood! A king's mood! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! A king's moot! heard the shouts on Pyke and the vile storm god in his cloudy hall, and Aaron Dampare knew he had done well. I did well. That's all he wanted.

That's all he wanted, a little validation. You know? I mean, he actually wants a lot of things, to be honest. And you were saying this is an epic ending so it's got big king in the north ending vibes yeah no king but the king from the king's boot it's a much very silly it's much harder to say it's much more kind of silly yeah you know irl viking, not in book life, but in real life, Viking culture. I don't know. I don't think the Ironborn are very one-one with the Vikings. I think there are a few differences in their culture, but there's a lot obviously taken from them. They're not one

historical group. There's a lot blended in there. George loves all that shit, but there's a little more complexity than that. But I find it fascinating, and I want to share this. Something kind of similar to the Kingsmoot, not 1-1, but, you know, the Kingsmoot's not a judicial party beyond kingmaking, but Scandinavians had something called the thing, or things, which are basically events. So it's a thing, a event, and we're having a thing. And so it's a gathering where, yeah, we're going to the thing later. They write Viking law and settle disputes during it they would meet regularly and the local chieftains and a Viking law speaker would judge settle cases but all free men of the community would have a say and so more often than not they're compiled of local powerful families that run it. So obviously the Grey Choice would run that.

The Thing would be all sorts of people, though, as far as size. Like, you might have a very small community, and so you'd have a very small community Thing. Or a larger community. Iceland, for example, would hold a national Thing. It was called the All Thing. And then, yeah, any malefactors who were tried at the thing or found guilty were fined or outlawed and to be an outlaw was like a horrible punishment for the vikings you'd be put outside of law

banished from their society all your property confiscated and they like you'd be shunned as a pariah basically like you're not allowed to come back or take anything yeah so and besides like the horrifying loneliness of never being able to talk to anyone of your kind ever again you could just get killed by anyone so they'd usually yeah right flee the country settle somewhere else um interesting though that's that's probably one of the closer things to the king's mood i guess in history things that thing is close thing. That thing. That thing. That thing is poison. Oh.

I was thinking that. Wow. We went two different songs. Similar era. But dang. Okay. Okay. Is that where you were going?

I was going that thing. That thing. That thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. I was on last night at the bar we could also do with the all thing

we could go all things go all things go all things go well man can you imagine the absolute idiocy of giving your election to God who is not a part of this democracy

I mean in a way they did right but turns out the wrong one the storm god oh yeah yeah aaron was he had a lot of faith and um again faith's about to be tested he yeah i guess he didn't really think about the part where like what if the greed of men was stronger than their faith in God and it is it is congrats Aaron it's Euron yeah

you could have had it all you could have had Asha she's very godly you know comparably and rip well coming back to Aaron rip well coming back to Aaron has more power than he or I thought

and yet chose not to wield it wisely Aaron with an E A-E-R-O-N likely the name is inspired by Aaron A-A-R-O-N aka the prophet and high priest brother of moses and i he he was he had priesthood for himself and his descendants and we also have that time

during like the the exodus right where he crafts a golden calf during a moment when the israelites lapse in faith on the way to the promised land which gets fixed by moses but he erects you know a golden calf and is like go worship this idol instead of god uh because because that's what they wanted and i feel like i wonder if that's where what george is hinting at with the story with the idolatry of of euron but erin here is actually being like no no don't do it and so it's interesting when I think of Aaron's story in A Song of Ice and Fire I think we have a problem where Aaron thinks that he is Aaron from Exodus when really he's Moses I think but trauma and fear well kind

of okay I'm being serious yeah I mean no I'm I'm agreeing yeah he's but but trauma and fear, well, kind of! Okay, I'm being serious. Yeah. No, I'm agreeing. Yeah, but the trauma and fear prevent him from, like, really seizing that, and also, as you said, maybe he doesn't want it, maybe he's a little humble, but, like, if there was ever a time to step up, this was it. This was it, sir.

Yeah, this was, like, a very irresponsible showing for him, and it definitely is kind of a trauma response, huh? Well, that and also the cultural part where he's like, we're not backing a woman. But I don't know. There were two ways out of this, and he chose none of them. I'm sure the thing seemed like a really good idea at the time. Well, you know, the good news is next week we'll be back to cover

the rest of the fuck up. The rest of the fuck up. Yeah, we did already cover the Kingsmoot chapter. Back in Asha's stuff, right? Back in Asha's, yeah, maybe I'll revisit that chapter and listen to what we said.

Who knows? Who knows? What did we say? That was actually a while ago. Those were the good days. I miss Asha. Asha was fun. Can we do it all over again? Yeah, let's do Asha again. I'm actually having fun. I don't know. Aaron chapters are fun. Let's be real. They are fun. They're gonna end with a bang. Yeah. In wins. Absolutely.

In wins. In wins. Well, thank you so much for listening in all of you at home we're happy to have our eliana back eliana welcome back i'm am i you're on returning from the journey e e letters e anyways hmm i'm you're on i'm like a bird i only fly away great joy anyway if you want to keep up with all of our stuff and how, I guess, I'm back now, you can on social media, where we are still on Twitter, speaking of birds, you can find us at twitter.com slash girlsgonecanon.

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signing off see you next week no canon but from the canon's moot no canon but from the canon's moot goodbye