Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 198 — ACOK Arya I

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

New book, new hair, new identity, and a new cast of characters for Arya's story. Some kids make fun of her hair and sword, so she shows them what's what.  Links Mentioned: Eliana's essay, "Mane Characters: Presentation & Identity" — https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/5n5p3a/spoilers_published_mane_characters_presentation/  Check us out on Bluesky! https://bsky.app/profile/girlsgonecanon.bsky.social Music credits:  "Dark Times" 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 and Fire, episode 198, Aria 1, in A Clash of Kings. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And yeah, are you ready for another book of Aria chapters? Please, my children, they're dying. How many times will they hear, are you ready? Yes, I'm ready. I'm ready. As many chapters as there are out, which we do have the number for, I just don't feel like looking it up. Many, numerous, multiple. But there should be more. There should be more.

Hey, we are back into A Clash of Kings. A Clash of kings is like my underwhelming fave book i think a lot of people sleep on a clash of kings in my opinion everyone's like dance feast dance feast or storm but i'm out here waving the flag we're back a clash of kings are you one yeah it's just you and also i don't remember the last time we were in a clash of kings are you one yeah it's just you and also i don't remember the last time we were in a clash of kings it's been a long time probably like the brand chapters right yeah i suppose it would have been braniel braniel braniel day lewis yeah braniel l jackson yeah i miss that boy it's been a little little bit. We've got a lot of Clash of Kings in the future. We do. There's actually I was surprised at how many Arya

chapters there are in this book, because so rarely does any character get that many chapters in one book. But I guess it makes sense considering what this is, I think, anecdotally, like, I think this might be the shortest Aswath chapter we've ever done. Anecdotally, I think this might be the shortest Aswath chapter we've ever done. Possibly, yeah. It's definitely up in the shorter tier. A lot of these chapters are shorter of Arya's in the front of this book, and in Storm. She's got a handful that are a little shorter. It kind of reminds me of that A Game of Thrones cadence, right?

Like, Bran chapters were also pretty trim in A Game of Thrones. Yeah. But it will get more complex and i'm excited we have a lot of good guests lined up actually for a clash of kings so those 10 chapters we will not be fully alone for they're coming they're coming i think there's four people all together that are going to be coming on throughout this book at least some other people might you know come out of the woodwork or pop out of the snow king's popping out of the snow ned snow snow snow yeah i'm excited to have some friends over to talk about aria but first let's start off a clash of kings together wedded bliss right wedded bliss you and i no one else just you and me doing revenge oh my god doing revenge hey that is our patreon episode this month right we have a special bonus episode every month for patrons in the stranger tier and above. That's $5 and up.

This month, we're going to talk about the hit Netflix film from 2022, Do Revenge. I'm remembering now, I don't think this got like enough marketing, but that's the case for so many Netflix things. I'm seeing some folks in the Discord mentioning that they're like, wow, how have I not heard of this movie? It's amazing, which it is but also i don't know netflix what are you doing it is weird it's uh directed by jennifer caton robinson and it's starring camilla mendez maya hawk austin abrams and sophie turner right sansa stark is in it so So she's really funny in it. As Eliana mentioned last week.

She's so fucking funny. So if you're a patron. Or if you'd like to become one. Over at Patreon.com slash Girls Gone Canon. Watch this movie. It's on Netflix. I enjoy it. I'm excited to re-watch it actually.

I think I'm going to re-watch it tomorrow. I'm definitely going to re-watch it this week. I think it feels like a good week to do it. But it's, I don't know, it's such a fun movie. I haven't rewatched it like yet in general, but I've always intended to regardless of whether or not we did this episode. So very excited. It's one of those rare films. It's kind of like a teen comedy, technically, like it's based on teenagers, quote unquote. And when I say teenagers, in this instance, I mean 30 something of those rare films it's kind of like a teen comedy technically like it's based on teenagers quote-unquote when i say teenagers in this instance i mean 30 something year olds and 20

something year olds that look like quote-unquote teenagers but you don't get a lot of these kind of fun rompy comedies anymore as much as i love our comic book of the week movie you know they kind of suck up a lot of bandwidth out there in hollywood so and you're not going to get any movies anymore right now really like this because you know strike strike 2023 for you historians out there but that said it's a really fun movie and we need more fun just fucking rompy ridiculous movies like this absolutely crazy unhinged i love an unhinged i'm excited bottoms is coming out soon i'm excited which one's another unhinged one maybe we'll uh both see bottoms i think you'd like it the description is unpopular best friends this is rachel senate and ao itabiri pj and josie start a high school fight club to meet girls and lose their virginity and then they

find themselves in yes over their heads when the most popular students start beating each other up in the name of self-defense so it sounds fucking amazing hilarious yeah it's definitely us coded so maybe we'll talk about that one of these months after we watch it absolutely sounds good it's out in August August 25th here alright well not only do patrons get perks like bonus episodes but if you're in

the thunder tier and above the $10 and up you're gonna get even more perks like access to our private discord server it's kind of like a lifetime access i'm not kicking you off unless you're an asshole don't be an asshole that's our golden rule don't be a dick but yeah that's fun but what else do we do there eliana well once a month we do brunch slash happy hour. And this month, it's scheduled for Sunday, August 27th, from 3 to 5 p.m. Eastern Time. There's sometimes games and giveaways and get to know yous, but I'm not sure.

I'm not sure if we have games yet this month, but we haven't done one in a while. Could be the time. Could be. Could be the time. We're kind of spicy this month. I don't know if it's the big Leo energy. It could be the time could be the time we're kind of spicy this month i don't know if it's the big leo energy it could be but yeah it could be you know like barbie's giving us the energy to do whatever we want yeah finally feminism is real yeah yeah i told my mom i was like mom i need to take you to

see the barbie movie so that's how i told my mom that too and she was like I don't want to see that my mom was like but I thought someone said like it was she was like no mom it's not I cried three times and she's like oh okay oh that's wonderful that's beautiful back to brunch there for a hot second I don't know where we went

but to Barbie we're all over the place. Shit's happening. Hey, back to that Discord brunch. If you can't make it to this month's Thunder tier and above, Discord brunch slash happy hour. There's also next month, September. I don't know what month we're in. There's also next month, September the 23rd. It's a Saturday from 3 to 5 ET. So we've got next month picked out and we'd love to see event two. I have fun at those. I like to chit chat with everyone, hear about their lives, what they're watching.

Maybe someone else will have seen Bottoms. Yeah, maybe someone will. It comes out a couple days before brunch. I'm probably going like opening day. Oh, dang. Okay. I guess, as you said, that's happening soon. Yeah. Get on it. comes out a couple days before brunch yeah i'm probably going like opening day oh dang okay i guess as you said that's happening soon yeah get on it get on it something else is as we said last week we are returning to emails and tweets of note i don't know i feel like for obvious reasons people have not been tweeting at us that much so maybe that's like good because um it just feels twitter is it feels so weird being on x now um i can't believe you're

calling it that i only do it to be annoying there's the the box right where you put in whatever your tweet is one of mine like on desktop it says what are you what are you doing or like what's what's happening or something? And it has like, not just a question mark, but an exclamation point right after. I'm like, why is it so emphatic? Aggressive. Aggressive. I really loved the part of the transition over for X slash Twitter, where some of the

stuff was changed. So like the X, Elon uploaded that icon real hastily, right? That was so fast. He's like, they can't change it. All of the stuff was changed. So like the ex-Elon uploaded that icon real hastily, right? That was so fast. He's like, they can't change it. All of the different, yeah. But all the different search fields, you'd still go to and be like, search Twitter for something. And I'd be like, it still says Twitter. But now, no, now it's all changed over on that too.

He finally covered all those little nooks, crannies, those gaps, those holes. And it still has all like the Twitter, I i don't know like so much of it still has like a lot of the twitter identity it's you have you have a logo that is like a serif x like a serif font x and then everything else is not it's like he took a 1967 corvette that like it's old but it was loved and he took it and he painted it a flat black matte, like, color with a spray paint, right? And then he, like, I don't know, put a lift kit on it and was like, this is so much cooler. I don't know why he did this to it. I don't know why he did this to me, specifically.

I don't know why I related it to cars. I don't know what's up with that that but enjoy the fucking simile everyone so even though we haven't gotten that many tweets of note we did get a book recommendation though via DM Red Rising which I think I have heard of so thank you to Rachel for that recommendation but we did get

a lot of emails and we got one we got a Patreon comment regarding our recent episode about road trips about how we did not discuss star trek and i would like to answer this one if i can can i answer this one eliana yes yes you may you may this one comes from james thank you hi james thank you so much for commenting uh james had commented on our road trip episode and said he was disappointed that we did not talk about anson mount's role in star trek because that is like a big road trip episode and said he was disappointed that we did not talk about anson mount's role in

star trek because that is like a big road trip technically and while i appreciate that and i didn't talk about dr who much because as you know eliana refuses to move on with it uh but james i have watched maybe nine episodes of ds9 i could tell you the plot of like maybe two of them specifically about data. I really love Data. That's like the only character I really like, but I'm going to tell you a secret, everyone. When I was wooing my husband, I watched it to try to, you know, be on his level and understand his likes. You know, you do that like in relationships or whatever. And I just don't know that it's fully for me i respect it i appreciate

it but we didn't talk about star trek because we don't fucking watch it yeah nerd that's god yeah i'm just kidding we're all nerds we're all nerds we're all nerds i mean i'm not like who would just do that you know like there's a lot of seasons and episodes of star trek and like who has the time to like i don't know dive into a story for all those hours and time and like all those years um but you know we can get back to episode 100 198 of aria that's fine yeah i was simply relaying my personal experience with antsson Mount everyone has their own Anson Mount experience no James I'm sorry you know us we're sassy we're gonna sassy you a little

we're gonna sassy you a little if you leave us a sassy comment I would watch Star Trek for Anson Mount I just pulled up his face I don't know who this is because I was like who is this but okay yeah he's aight I see you James I sent you a picture of him last week

when we recorded the episode i forgot clearly he didn't he wasn't memorable i guess but um yeah he's memorable to me in hell on wheels so memorable i don't remember the plot to hell on wheels but i remember ants and mount so keep that one under your hat. Thanks again, James. Thanks again. Our first email from the old inbox comes from our friend Carmen, who said, I thought the point Eliana made about Arya temporarily rejecting the role of womanhood as it fits into Westerosi society was interesting. It made me think about people arguing that Arya's story cannot be a transgender one, rather a rejection of the confines of misogyny that women face in Planetos. She doesn't fit the typical roles of womanhood, needlework, dressing ladylike, sitting in the litter with the queen and princess,

marrying a lord, and while I think that can be interpreted as a story of breaking stereotypes, I do not think that it is mutually exclusive with one of gender dysphoria. She actively rejects the things that would constitute womanhood in her society. I'd argue that, at least from Carmen's perspective, as a twinkie little lesbian t-boy. That is in itself a manifestation of being trans. What is transitioning if not declining the expected performance of the sex you're born into? Of course, it means something different to every individual trans person transitioning, so what I'm saying doesn't begin to cover that entire trans experience, but it's something I've been thinking about with characters like Brienne, Cersei, Samwell, all characters whose cisgenderism I've seen fiercely defended online,

and I think this comes from a latent gatekeeping of transgender stories, that a character cannot be read as trans unless they lay out their identity explicitly in neat terms for the reader and said identity must be a plot point in their arc that comes with unique and all-encompassing lgbtq struggles not every character who doesn't conform to gender roles is trans and why can't they be why must cisgenderism be the default i just wanted to send this over. I have a lot to say about Arya and appreciate the conversation. I love this. Actually, I just finished The Grishaverse, right? We've been talking and reading a lot of books lately. I read the whole Grishaverse,

yada, yada, yada. And there's a character in the last two books in the King of Scars duology that has kind of a great experience and is more or less said to be trans on off page kind of some of it's in between the lines, but it's really beautifully done. I think it's a really great I like the way that Leigh Bardugo did it. And I appreciate this because like, I think there's also that blatant like, man, gender and so much of what we put into it in everyday society is so fucking made up and so funny. It's so funny in some ways, like the way, like if you just stop and examine it. Yeah. I mean, why is gender in general the fucking norm, you know? I mean, I know why. I see why. I know history. It's something so different from who everyone is as a person and something so

important. And i don't know i just think like the bounds of gender are something very interesting in our society in westro society which in a meta way is of course built from our society yeah i i thought that this was a great email from carmen you know i think that this is a discussion that people have been like having ongoing in our discord i don't know know that I've like, I'm sure people are discussing it elsewhere, right? But like, I like seeing what people have been saying about it in these channels and in our discord, because I think people are bringing like great perspectives on like, is Arya's story? Like, is Arya trans? Is Arya not? There are good points being brought up like, well well the idea of being a boy is kind of like thrust upon her by other people who are external but

at the same time Arya does really embrace that and I kind of see Arya's story personally as a cisgender woman but like I see Arya's story as like one of like gender fluidity which for some people that is like and everyone gets to decide that for themselves right if as a gender fluid person like are they trans are they not right but i see aria's story as one that's kind of like that i don't know i think like every person kind of brings their own experiences and what they want like out of this story and yeah that's been an ongoing discussion and it's cool how people have unfolded that another email that we got that is kind of stark-esque but not really but a little bit all right there's a

wolf kind of in it nana emailed us some pictures of a senior pug they are amazing they are amazing so sweet very sweet i had a neighbor who had an older pug and we used to take care of them once in a while whenever they would go like on vacation or leave for a couple days or for the night and it had a lot of health issues but it was like so sweet it was the sweetest little creature i loved it so much earth ranger i miss you yeah its name was earth ranger that's a pretty great name i saw that's a fucking great there was like this wonderful like senior dog i don't know what kind of dog this dog was like i don't know some mix like on on a walk yesterday like on this hike and like they were moving so like slow

and close to the ground and like he you know like he was kind of trotting along but and the other two dogs were running along but like and sometimes he had to be picked up and carried but like he he's 17 years old but he just he just wants to go on the walk sometimes anyway even though he can't always do it but he just wants to be out there because he's been doing it ever since he was a puppy so he just knows it anyway so sweet ah well last but not least of the emails that we've gotten during this most recent round is our friend Warren of course like is it an Aria episode

without some input from Warren who read ahead in order to be prepared for this insight for this this episode and chapter and a lot of these are some things that you know will echo this chapter. Warren talks about Yoren sneaking Arya out of King's Landing and how Arya dons her first formal alter ego. She will, of course, have more. And this one is Arya, the orphan boy, and she silently fills the role for a time. And then also how Arya thinks about

Jon and her family and the similarities between Jon and Arya during this point in the book which I know Chloe's gonna dig it into. We have a bit of that stubbornness and like entitlement how it's not really like the most endearing of these Stark siblings characteristics but how both show self-reflection and move away from it and also of course a big theme of Arya's arc after you know her dad basically died in front of her is trauma and how it really comes through in this chapter and in her confrontations um and how that manifests as fury warren also really likes the point about

how aria and sanza interpret Ned's sense of morality and justice, but they haven't had the same exposure that we saw Bran get, and how this is central to Arya's story, and part of her learning to understand the lesson that Ned taught Bran, but also how this ties in well with Sansa's arc, right? Which is more about maneuvering and being subtle in a political sphere by using grace and manners.

But also still seeking justice for Ned, even though she's not quite yet in the position to deliver it. And you know, a lot of Arya's learning is about the difference between justice and vengeance and how this is very skillfully handled by George. It's justice as she seeks but it's often vengeance she delivers do revenge

and there are some key moments when we see her learn this lesson going forward most prominently in her decision not to grant sander mercy and to remove his name from her prayer the concept of mercy is particularly evident in her wins chapter which, which there are some spoilers there, so I'm not going to say that. But anyway, a lot of things going well together with Sansa's obtaining justice for Ned and delivering the ultimate punishment to get a job, Littlefinger. For two moments, I'm continually- that O Warren is continually looking under. And not to trifle with semantics here, obviously, I'm not trying to be pedantic

Warren, but I would actually argue that Arya isn't seeking justice, and maybe we'll chat about it in this chapter. I would argue that she doesn't yet know the difference between justice and vengeance, having had Ned not teach them, really, that lesson, and i think she's seeking to learn the difference because this chapter alone she kind of starts her little

vengeance arc i would say honestly justice is like a very i think expansive topic that i don't even like that if you speak with any law experts you, I'm sure if you spoke with our friends on Learned Hands, there's like a lot of different kinds of justice. And even into adulthood, like, it is a very complex idea that took me a long time, I think, to even understand the difference between the two when I was a younger adult. So I understand a nine-year-old not knowing. Yeah, no, I agree. But that's why I'm saying i don't agree that she's looking for justice she's she wants to hurt the people that hurt her and her family and a lot of adults also think do see that as justice right that's why there's a lot of

different theories of what justice is so anyway i agree it comes back to illaria's speech in Feast. I mean, it is killing Sir Ilyn, Sir Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei, Dunstan, Polliver, Raff, Gregor, the Tickler, and Sandor is killing these people bringing justice to what was done to your family and how the North was slaughtered. No, and she doesn't understand that as a youngster. Like she's not able to conceptualize what war really, really means yet. She's learning it every fucking day, as we're about to chat about in these chapters throughout clash but you know how could she how could she understand and conceptualize that again nine years old but i wouldn't necessarily say that killing all those people is getting justice so and again that's a big concept we'll talk about. I'm sure. As the years go by here.

We have so many books. We have a lot of Arya chapters. We'll finally get to this one. When we finish Arya. When we finish this chapter, we'll have more. In 2028. Well, let's talk about what we missed and how we got to this chapter. You might be wondering how I got to this chapter.

It starts in a game of thrones. Yeah, let's finish out A Game of Thrones, right? Arya's last chapter in A Game of Thrones wasn't the last chapter in A Game of Thrones, so we'll run through the end and hop over to Clash before we begin with our lightning round. Up first, Bran VII. Bran and Rickon dream the same dream and their father dies. Sansa 6. Depressed from watching her dad viciously slaughtered in front of her, Sansa

is made to leave her room and go stare at the heads of everyone and everything that she used to love. Fun. Just girly things. Just girly things. Tyrion 9. Tyrion's dispatched to King's Landing as the next most eligible Hand of the King, which is a totally great and real job that you will not get killed at.

You will not get killed at. Jon IX, determined to join his brother's war. Jon deserts, but his friends bring him back. Hmm. He is invited to go ranging beyond the Wall. Couple turn of phrase there did you mean to do that I didn't but here I am

I'm always good Catalin 11 northern motherfucking independence Daenerys 9 and 10 Daenerys copes with the loss of her child and must say goodbye to Drogo she builds a funeral pyre for Drogo adding Mirri Maz Duur for a little extra spice, and awakens dragons.

And of course, that lands us at A Clash of Kings with a chapter that we have covered and know very well. The Prologue. Under the red light of the comet, Maester Cressen tries to save Stannis from his own demons but he fails dang and that brings us here to episode 198 in the fifth year of Girls Gone Canon

because we have spent many hours on this series Arya won in a clash of kings on the road again why'd you have to fucking say that on the road again are your heads north five fucking years yep year five uh yeah are we one in a clash of kings year five years later chapter one this is chapter one i like when we get to do it maybe it's just like a weird like

the way my brain works and the the things that please my brain but i like when we get to do a chapter one of a book and it's a character recovery yeah it's rare so it's very fun yeah and of course the prologue which we covered that's chapter zero prologues are chapter zero in my book you know i don't count that as chapter one the fuck yeah but i find that those there's there's kind of like some interesting combos and duos when you look at prologue chapter one prologue chapter one and some of them are pretty simple to grasp some of those parallel themes right you have a game of thrones with will and then the first chapter is bran i feel like there are some themes that can

be captured there with the north literally recurring characters yeah yeah and a clash of kings is the crescent prologue and aria so we'll come back to that in a second. A Storm of Swords is Chet and Jaime. I'm sure there's some stuff to think about there. Pate and the Prophet for A Feast for Crows. And then Adawra is Varamyr and Tyrion. Definitely some connections to draw there. Right? Some of that hatefulness happening in A Dance with Dragons. right? Some of that hatefulness happening in A Dance with Dragons. But Arya Cressen is kind of weird. Right? There's, from your first look, there's not, the biggest things they have in common, of course, are the comet, right? And we're

going to talk about this comet a lot in this chapter and next, and I'm sure we have lots of comparisons to draw, but the first comparison to draw there is that Cressen's opens with the comet, where the comet's tail spread across the dawn, a red slash that bled above the crags of Dragonstone like a wound in the pink and purple sky. And Arya's chapter actually closes with the comet.

It doesn't begin with it. So we have at the end of this chapter, That night she lay upon her thin blanket on the hard ground, staring up at the great red comet. The comet was splendid and scary all at once. The red sword, the bull named it. He claimed it looked like a sword. And the blade still red hot from the forge.

Ooh, is Gendry Azor Ahai? Anyway, um, interesting. Wrong graphian. You know what? We do have a character in this who does kill the Night King. So. You never know. You never know you

never know yeah uh i thought those were some interesting connections and you get an ensemble of characters introduced in each right we talked a lot about how crescent's prologue back in the prologues how that's kind of it was a great ensemble introduction you have to do a lot of work to introduce stannis's people, Stannis, the people surrounding him, all sorts of stuff. Dynamics, you know, belief systems in play with Melisandre. You have to do a lot of lifting in that prologue. And here we do have a new ensemble of characters. We have a Baratheon, right? We have Gendry, the bull. We have Lami Greenhands with his green hands in Hot Pie, so that's kind of your patch face, question mark. Yoren as a Crescent or a Pylos or some sort of, you know, official character, and then, I don't

know, Arya, Shireen, I'm losing it, it's not that. Ifocally, it's interesting. Melisandre versus Jaqen and the trio in the cart, I don't know, I don't know. But realistically, no, like, it doesn't have a big connection, right, other than setting up some of the book two players. It's maybe the most disconnected amongst all the prologue first chapter duos. I think thematically, it does align and kick home that message of like, especially in A Clash of Kings, introducing the chaos of war. And interestingly, Arya's plot develops to be more like the Crescent chapter when you think of it, right? First, Harrenhal, the largest, most magical, fucked up, burnt out castle there is. And then Storm, you get the Brotherhood, you get people coming back to life, you get fire and fights.

And then, of course, Feast and Dance with some of the magical plot going on with Arya. So she inherits the magic eventually from that plot, but this plot, not so much in this chapter to connect it to. Yeah, but I mean, like, what, we get the introduction of Davos in the previous chapter too, and we've already discussed a couple of similarities between Davos and Arya's story. And I like to call it there of Gendry, because it does kind of connect and make him stand out more in this chapter. You're like, oh, the Baratheons. Wait, that's... isn't that kid?

Isn't that kid who's in this chapter a Baratheon? And George does some really cute things with that. Like not just that, but other things in Arya's plot of removing name or removing identity in this chapter that I just think is fun. We'll talk about him. Yeah. But now Arya's got of like removing name or removing identity in this chapter that I just think is fun. We'll talk about him. Yeah, but now Arya's got a new name. At Winterfell, she was Arya Horseface, and she thought that was the worst nickname that she could have until now. On the road, she gets one-upped. The orphan boy Lommie Greenhands names her Lumpy Head because of her lumpy-headed haircut. She she's like my head does feel lumpy and at first i was like did she hit her head and then i realized oh no they meant the hair

anyways yorin had razored through her matted hair with his dagger the fistfuls of hair falling across the stones as he yelled at her to stay still telling her that she'd be named ari the orphan boy orphan anyways until they get to win her belt chloe's just like her face is like why is this happening right now anyways hair is a very powerful way as we've discussed with other characters but it's absolutely true here for Arya's story as well to signify character change Arya gets. Also I would say not just one new name but two. Same as how she did in Winterfell like she was both either Arya Underfoot or Arya Horseface. It really makes me think of you know this idea of the Jungian shadow. You have the persona, right? What one's self is or that others think they are versus what's hidden and repressed.

And, you know, Arya Horseface was kind of that thing she didn't want to be seen as. It was that part of her that was jealous of her sister and made fun of but still would long to be close to her here. She's got lumpy head and I don't know if there's like much more I can dig into that other than she doesn't like that name versus the name Ari which is kind of still close to her old life. And I think you know you start to kind of see Aria gets more and more names usually sometimes only one at a time and the parts of her life that shadow part of her what's hidden and repressed really starts to become integrated into who she is and as we a lot of people have noted and discussed about ari's chapter over the years because these books have

been out for a really long time this last one's been out for over a decade her identities start to get really muddled in like who is she and she's still trying to figure that out because she's also like only nine yeah the lumpy head name is funny because it reminds me of like when dudes shave their head and they're like my head's all weird shaped and i'm like yeah it's lumpy as shit you know or like when you when someone shaves their head for the first time and you're like i wonder what's gonna be under there and you just wouldn't know you wouldn't you wouldn't and that's what i thought it was gonna be like like is her head like actually lumpy but it was just the hair is lumpy the hair is lumpy it's uneven it's a pretty bad bowl cut it's not even it's not even a bowl over

you know could he uh they were in an alley anyways wow aliana I worry about you when it comes to these kind of moments. A bowl of brown, put it over her head. Greasy. I think there's something kind of sad in that, like you said in the last chapter, she was underfoot at the statue, and that was kind of, that name can't live anymore, right? You can't be underfoot when, you know, you coined that name from your dad and his legacy and the people around him and they always call you underfoot well your innocence your youth just got bled out in front of you so now she's no longer underfoot she's no longer horse face she's a lumpy head she's ari and something interesting you brought up her name how it was very close to her past life

having ari aria you know when you take on a secret identity whether it's like witness protection or you're in high some you know crazy shit you want it to be similar with at least like a similar consonant or letters in it so that you still respond to it here i've heard this somewhere i cannot tell you where i cannot cite my sources but i hear that you want to have like a front of your name oh it's from weeds never mind it's not a real thing it's from weeds i'm sorry i mean it makes sense but also it's like it makes sense so that you at least still respond to it because like it shows her character growth and that later on she has wildly different names from her name and learns to respond to them as part of you

know like her training as spy assassin rogue leveled up yeah in some aspects right like cat isn't cat would make her turn her head i would say weasel and nan not very similar? Yeah, that wouldn't... No. There's a lot going on, right, with her hair being chopped off. You've actually written an essay that I will have you link below in the description. Go read Eliana's essay. It's just about hair in the old... It's about main characters. Sorry. They weren't all main characters, but I needed a pun.

Okay, everyone? And this was important. Main, as in, like, M-A-N-E, like, but I needed a pun, okay, everyone? And this was important. Main, as in, like, M-A-N-E, like, what's on a horse. That's why I said nay. Yeah, it's a great essay, though. Give it a look. Highly recommend about hair and what it means for characters and transformative experiences. But we just came from Daenerys right who burnt her hair off and birthing

dragons burying the husband she had to kill and the woman who may or may not have done something about you know her womb uh we just came from Daenerys then just you know burning her hair off in that process not meaning to obviously and that was kind of a big I'd say there was some transformation happening in that arc I don't know about you, right? I mean, a lot of things, she goes through a lot of changes. But I think, yeah, the end of Game of Thrones is absolutely a transformative moment for Daenerys. And it makes me think of Cersei at the end of A Dance with Dragons. That's a pretty transformative bit for her as well.

And of course, makes me think of Duncanin' Egg with Rowan Webber. Going back to Samson, right? The easiest of the hair mythos. Samson losing his strength when his hair is shorn. Arya's hair too, when it's cut, it kind of, it's interesting going back to that language of her mom's hair, you know, when she thinks, no, not my hair. Ned loves my hair when they hold her head up to cut her neck and ned's head being chopped off you know there's uh there's

something kind of crazy about that imagery that then moments after her hair is being chopped off and losing her strength right that her father was just murdered in front of her killed in front of her and now she's lost a big part of her, her identity. And there's, of course, the pretty common, like in Corinthians, there's a bit about long hair being the glory of a woman. It's disgraceful when men keep the hair, but long hair is a sign of modesty. Like in many depictions of the Bible, when there's illustrations brought to life, that's always shown the hair covering the body. Or Mary Magdalene, right, pictured with hair covering her shame through the desert and also to dry the feet of people whose feet she washes, etc. I don't know, there's something about that, right?

Like Arya being cut out of that path, that path to originally she was supposed to be a lady, right? Like her dad says, you are going to be a lady, right? Like her dad says, you are going to be a lady and keep a castle for your husband. She's like, no, that's not something I'd fucking do. I would never do that. That life for her, you know, she's being cut away from that life. She's being literally cut out of that, almost like ejected from the fucking garden. And there's also that extension of herself coming back to some of those ideas of you know gender and fluidity you talked about and aria even stating in the first book the woman's important too and for more than having hair right and more than just being an extension of herself it's like

sirio said the sword becomes a part of you you're're not a boy. You're not a girl. You're a sword. And Arya, to become that sword, she's losing kind of that hair that ties her to some of those confines of societal femininity and Westeros. And it's kind of like the first step in almost achieving, like, Westerosi gender nirvana, maybe. I don't know. Yeah. Absolutely. For two seconds, I thought you were saying, yeah. And, like, head ned gets his head

chopped off i was like is she saying that like the beheading was a haircut because i'm like i guess so like a very intense one no just similar motions right like if you put them in your mind all three moments put catelyn in one screen hey if you could think for a moment, Catelyn dying on one panel, Ned dying on another panel, and then Arya in the middle of them. That's what I'm asking you to do with your brain. Does that make you happy? Are you happy? Yeah, sure. Is that what you want me to feel?

But absolutely with this part about Syrio and the sword you know you're not a boy not a girl you are a sword but there's also there's an aspect of it that now makes me even think of like the degendering and therefore dehumanization of someone as they just become a weapon and george talking about writing aria's story being as one that's inspired by child soldiers. And, you know, I think we'll see a little bit more of that later on and how George explores that. I'm curious about how much knowledge George has about this topic, because there are some things he's really good at, some things I'm like, did you do your research? But we'll see what i'm being honest today no it's very true

it just i liked the way that you put that it made me laugh thank you we'll just see how it goes but anyways so yoren warns her that the gate isn't hard to get out of with him leading but on the road it is a different story. There are men and boys bound for the wall all from the dungeons and half of them would turn her over for a pardon and the other half would also still turn her over for a pardon but would rape her before doing so. Yoren warns her to keep to herself and make sure that she pees in the woods far away from everyone else and don't drink more than she needs to, which is honestly good advice.

And Yoren was right because King's Landing was easy to get out of. We have a line. No one spared Arya a glance. They were looking for a highborn girl, daughter of the kink's hand, not for a skinny boy with his hair chopped off. Arya never looked back. Ooh, actually that line kind of stands out,

you know, with the never looked back and the hair chopped off. You were talking about Daenerys just now, right? And a lot of Daenerys' stories, a lot of her telling herself, like, if I look back, I am lost. And some parts where where there's later on in Daenerys' story right where we do the sacking of a couple of cities which is interesting here with Arya saying she wishes the

entire city Joffrey his mother Flea Bottom all of it be washed away by the black water rush but remembers that oh wait Sansa is still there so she decides to just wish for getting to Winterfell instead and the hardest part about the road turns out it's not peeing. Hot Pie and Lami are the hardest part. They are orphan boys plucked from the streets, the only two who aren't chosen from the dungeon and the worst of the men that Yoren had found, they are kept fettered in the back of a wagon, one with no nose, and then there's apparently, according to Arya, a gross fat

bald one with pointed teeth and sores, and... A secret third one. Yeah, there's a secret third one that he doesn't fucking talk about, which I love, and I actually didn't notice it on this chapter. I'll probably bring it back up next week. I'll be annoying uh i noticed it on the second chapter because i read both of them this

week and when we meet jack and for the first time we'll see him next chapter but this chapter we don't even get a description even though he's there he is no one yeah i i think it's interesting that like how do they know that rorge and biter right are the most dangerous and therefore should be fettered as a lot of people have like asked over the years what did jack and do what did jack and do that he would like be there and everyone's so scared of him like rorge and biter are also scared of him so i want to know i mean who was he when he entered those dungeons is she yeah i'm serious though like what happened or like did he kill someone else and then like that person was still alive the next day they're like whoa what what's happening here uh what happened to the other guy anyway also roarage having like just they're talking about this hole where his nose is supposed to be interestingly i felt stood out

how it ties to like tyrian's story and how tyrian loses his nose at the end of this book and then also like some of that backstory that maybe rorge like was involved or forced to have been like some fighting pits so oh interesting yeah that's a good call i didn't think about that so on the road they're packed up to the nines with fabric food medicine spices for the road and yoren bought two coursers and half a dozen donkeys too aria gets a donkey she's the youngest two years younger than the youngest orphan and smaller and skinnier naturally that only makes the boys bully her more they all wonder where lumpy head got his sword aria tries to shut up about it maybe he's a little squire hot pie said his mother was a baker before

she died and she would push her cart through the streets shouting hot pie hot pie which is where he gets his name from aria of course defends herself saying it's castle forge steel stupid and i just feel like anything she says probably as stupid on the end let's be real uh and hot pie and lami speculate and lami's like oh i bet he stole it they talk about how we should steal it back then, since Lumpy Face obviously doesn't know how to use it. Arya holds back, knowing she has to be discreet, though she's thinking about her first kill. So I just wanted to call out, I thought it was really funny how Hot Pie is like, yeah, Lumpy Face, and then Lami corrects him and goes, no, it's lumpy head. You have to get the insulting names correct, apparently.

Ah, man. You know, I forgot about Lami and I'm rereading these chapters. What? What the fuck's a Lami? Pete would be so disappointed in you. No, no, no. I didn't forget about him, just like more about him. Like, I forget that his hands are actually fucking green. Like, maybe it's a nod at him descending from the green hand yeah but like his hands are

legitimately actually green and it's never touched on again touched on uh yes lumpy face see i totally even i forgot uh she thinks about how yoren doesn't know about her first kill and she kind of thinks oh no i'd be in so much trouble if he knew which is kind of funny right because like yoren would be like well you fucked up but hey everyone gets their first kid you know yoren probably wouldn't say anything about it and it's so funny because it's like the world is ending war is starting that's such a cute little kid thing for her to be like, Oh, I would be in trouble if someone knew, because like, who is going to hold her accountable anymore? That's going to be a little chaotic, right? As we see over the next books, there is no accountability,

there is no adult sitting there telling her Arya, you're doing the wrong thing. There's no one saying Arya, maybe you shouldn't be joining the murder cult. Maybe that's bad. There's no one saying Arya maybe you shouldn't be joining the murder cult maybe that's bad there's no one to tell her that there's no one to say brush your hair there really isn't anyone to tell her like that killing people is bad like anymore and that's like her story very much becomes about that right like the lines between what's right and good blur they're no longer black and white she's hanging out with people who are like no killing is good well like or like it's necessary it's practical right like i mean and they a lot of them it's real are very much killers warg and biter very much killers what do you think his teeth are fucking filed for honestly actually no sandra has a whole fucking essay about it to i am actually curious what why who decided who decided to file at his teeth.

Anyways. Well, again, fighting pits, you come back to fire and blood. Yeah. But speaking of Sandor, you know, like what you were saying, there's an aspect of it in which like, would Arya be held accountable for killing a stable boy again? Like as Arya Stark, as someone who's a member of her class, would she be held accountable for killing a stable boy again, like, as Arya Stark, as someone who's a member of her class? Would she be held accountable for killing him? In the way that Joffrey and Sandor were not. No one was held accountable for killing Micah, right?

And so there's something really interesting there in Arya wondering, will I get in trouble for this? And no, you know, again, Kendall Roy. Like, no real person involved. Big agree. The boys make fun of her. Lami's saying, lumpy head. All right, getting the name right. Probably wants to cry now.

And Aria actually had cried the night before in her sleep waking up red-eyed and dry dreaming of her father she couldn't shed one more tear now and she's out see there's another one right no one's held accountable for ned's death right why that's what i'm saying a boy with shaggy black hair interrupts and tells them to leave him alone the bull lami had named him oh i get it lami is the kid who names all the other kids i see that's how he's like getting social power here a boy that was older and no i'm serious for his age you know with strong arms and a broad chest lami continues saying ari better give the sword to hot pie

because hot pies kicked a boy to death and would do the same to Ari. Oh my god, it was probably an accident, right? And ironically, probably, just like Ari's first kill, is really more over it. I don't even think it's true. I think Hot Pie made that up.

I think Hot Pie, especially, I do like that the show characterized that pretty well it was like hot pie is soft actually oh yeah he's soft he is he's a good boy aria hands her practice sword over and is like you can have this one and they're like no that's just a stick hot pie wants the real sword hot pie tries to get needle from her but aria lays the wood on his donkey's butt and the animal bucks him to the ground uh she whacks him across the face and she whirls towards lami and is like you want some of

this too and he raises his dyed green hands in the air to get away he does not want any of that uh the bull warns her hot pies behind you and she spins seeing him carrying a big jagged rock this is kind of very shagwell and brienne they dance for a moment him stumbling after her and his face is smeared with blood and mud aria goes into her water dancer stance waiting and when he gets close she lunges between his legs yeah so i love that moment it shows that it's not necessarily like the weapon it's what you're saying that sirio said right the sword is not just you become the weapon because just because aria wasn't using castle forged steel doesn't mean that the stick on its own was not deadly she was very good at beating

him up with just a stick but also it makes me think like i mean we just like did all those aria chapters very quickly there were like only five of them and i'm like how long were all of those king's landing time skips slash the time between each of those aria chapters because i mean i know that aria is precocious and like a bit of a prodigy i guess when it comes to sword fighting but no like how is she this good already like how many fucking lessons did she have how long were the time skips between everything in that whole book i have a take on this it's not that aria is really really good here and i'm not saying she's not good she's great she's wonderful prodigy for sure but it's not as much about her being good as it is that hot pie relied on being a big boy he relied on being

the bigger boy that could take this scrawny little kid right i mean to him he's like aria's a little waifu boy so he relied on his brute strength as a man and he underestimated her which is exactly what sirio told her and exactly what brienne's mentor told her right he underestimated her based on her size and didn't understand her speed or how skilled she actually was right they keep saying she doesn't know how to use this or he doesn't know how to use a sword he doesn't know how to use a sword well what they don't know is she just trained with a fucking bravosy water dancer so i think it's also moreover she has more training than these two younger orphan boys that you know grew up poor yeah i it's i do think that's part of it as well but i'm still even just like you know she dodged i don't know a fucking rock no matter how much you trade me

i'm gonna get hit by that rock i'm sorry uh but also like that and you were you making those like you were making those um comparisons it also makes me think then of because you're talking about hot pie relying on his size and then it's reminiscent of oberyn as well right and and the mountain yeah and gregor absolutely not his name absolutely sir robert strong yeah no absolutely big agree i uh i just think that quite obviously hot pie was relying on his own image to be yeah but hot pie actually i don't think he's killed anyone. No, he's soft as shit, and I love that about him. I would want him to stay that way.

Yeah. You know? But I get it. I would lie about- Get your bakery, my poor boy. I'd lie about killing someone too if I were in his shoes. Well, that's part of it, right? It's all-

That is part of the plot. That's about appearances. Like, Syrio said, what do you want them to see? Hot Pie wants people to see I'm big and mean and I've killed people, when all he wants to do is fucking bake a pie. Absolutely. Believe in yourself. So, by the time that Yoren breaks up the fight, Hot Pie has of course

shat his pants, further supporting my points, and crying on the ground. Yoren pries the stick sword from Aria and chastises Aria for almost killing the boy and Lami and the others squeal in the background. He yells at them to shut the fuck up or he'll shut them the fuck up. He doesn't say that.

Those are my words, but he basically says that. And I just added the fucks, really. And he says that if any more of this happens, he'll tie them to the wagons and drag them to the north. So commands Arya to follow him, drags her into a tangle of trees, and is loudly yelling, if I had sense, I'd have left you in Kang's Landing. And he's like, unlace your breeches, press yourself to the oak tree. And he's like, scream loudly. So he lays the wood on her thighs, and she shrieks. He gives her three hits, and she jumps and howls, and she thinks, I won't cry. I won't't do that i'm a stark of winterfell

our sigil is the dire wolf and dire wolves don't cry she could feel a thin trickle of blood running down her left leg her thighs and cheeks were ablaze with pain he says the next time she takes a stick to one of her brothers she'll get twice what she gives again goes right back to john right and his fitting in at the watch with his brothers and kind of um i think that is kind of apparent right like obviously she's had more training than these boys even that are being sacrificed to the wall all because they were at the wrong place wrong time right uh it's it's the same lesson john had to learn about the men at the wall the boys at the wall and that he is no better than them yeah because it's the same lesson john had to learn about the men at the wall the boys at the wall and that he is no better than them yeah because he did the same thing right he showed

off by taking on a bunch of them at the same time and and humiliated them he just didn't get spanked by jr yeah i do find urine as a mentor really interesting interesting. A lot of Arya's story is about having mentors, but he contrasts a lot with, I would say, particularly Septa Mordain, because I think that was a very formative part, you know, of, like, when Arya was not only a girl, but also nobility. Like, Septa Mordain could scold Arya, but she never actually laid hands on her, and I don't think she could.

Maybe she could, maybe she couldn't. You hear those stories. But besides the part where I think the class difference would make it unseemly for Septimordain too, there's an aspect in which for noble women and noble girls, bodies are part of the package, right? And you have to be careful not to damage it too much for marriage so she couldn't quite strike them but also coming back to class you know and the contrast like with john at the wall like i think john doesn't quite get beaten uh in the same way by some of the leadership because of his class he does like enjoy some favoritism by not alice or thorn because you know i mean it's ned stark's kid allegedly

and also like same with sam but it kind of cuts the other way right he gets called a lordling a lot because i mean there is i think an envy understandably of of his class and that's i think part of like how aria is being made fun of here. And in fact, I think a lot of the bullying that Arya sustains here is kind of similar to Sam's chapters, especially when they're picking on the one who's the smallest, right? The one who least conforms to what it means to be masculine. Euron also like doesn't step in to stop the bullying. But also I would say even Septimordain didn't either when Arya was being bullied. Septimordain didn't stop Sansa or Jane in particular.

Right? But I think they do it for different reasons. Septimordain was kind of reinforcing it because she thought it would, I don't know, make Arya be better. Yoren doesn't step in because he knows that if he does break it up and stands up for Arya, she's going to get branded as like a teacher's pet kind of thing. And that's going to put even more of a target on her, which obviously he does not want because he's already hiding her. And when the time comes, he scolds both parties.

He scolds both Hot Pie and Lami and also Arya, unlike how Mordain didn't do that with Sansa and Jane again I think that's crucial for making her and integrating her into the rest of the group because like you know I think it's not the first time that she's like been punished physically as we see from Syrio Forel's training like you fuck up in combat class like obviously you're gonna get hurt right whether that's by cat scratches or a sword but but as Syrio pointed out, like if it's live steel, like you're dead and that's way more painful and lasting. And I'm not so sure that like maybe physical punishment is necessary here from Yoren in this circumstance and I am not advocating

for physical punishment for children, but what it does do in the context of the story is similar right like a social mistake rather than a combat mistake it could also cost aria's life as yorin points out earlier and like i mean whether it's right for him to have let this happen or not yorin letting it escalate to the point that aria beats up hot pie is a necessary right in a way to perform masculinity and therefore remove the target from her back again like you can see the respect that sam gets when he's seen as sam the slayer in his chapters versus otherwise and i mean yoran knows how these things go right like he knows how one gets to be assimilated into a group of men because it is his literal job slash whole life yeah i like what you've brought up here especially

because in westeros society getting hit getting beat is a very masculine yeah coded punishment it's all about humiliating you as a man and it's not as we see in clash soon right when sans is beat in front of the court it's a big deal it's really fucked up everyone's like oh my god what the fuck like you don't just beat a young woman especially you're fucking betrothed in front of the entire court that's kind of maybe not you know very it's not very pc yeah it's not very pc to beat a woman in front of a court uh it's why it's so fucked up i mean it's fucked up to beat someone okay in real life I'm talking in the fictional world of Game of Thrones here in Song of Ice and Fire

look at Ramsay right like it starts an entire uprising of we can't let Ned's daughter be beat and it comes again to class it comes to class right like this didn't stop everybody was too busy seeking the pussy instead of defending Lady Hornwood, right? It

comes to class. Arya is a princess. Arya should not be treated that way from class. But I like the point you've made that it removes that target from her back and the fact of the matter that it also lends the credence to, yeah, this is just some boy we have. We're treating him and it's a performance. As he walks Arya out to the woods, he saying why'd you do that boy really loudly and he's reinforcing what everyone sees what everyone sees is that he's being treated or he's treating aria like a boy a normal boy who's joining the watch he's keeping her cover by doing this as you were saying earlier it has to do with like because you're talking about how the punishment physical punishment is more normalized uh for for boys right and it almost

like equalizes and there's something weird about it like granting respect in a way that i don't truly understand like i'm thinking of like you know fukes in that scene before the time some of the time skips and very you know what i'm saying you know what i'm saying yes it's like a weird martyr drum of masculinity right it's a martyr drum of masculinity there's your next book title the martyrdom of masculinity by george rr martin but it is like it's like if i can take the most pain it shows that i am the strongest person and i can endure the most if i can have the best endurance which means i am the leader of the pack yeah yes like kaz brekker even in fucking shadow and bone six of crows greciavirce like kaz brekker is kind of like that he's like a fucking he's a pain in strong bell was who is who there you go

the best it's because he's actually the best anyways um so aria thinks uh in regards to what jordan said like they're not my brothers but she knows better than to say that aloud jordan reminds her that hot pie didn't kill ned and lami didn't either and that hitting them won't bring him back i don't know have you tried again coming back to that well and that's kind of what aria takes off right even when she goes to the brotherhood she's like you know could you bring back a man with no head i've been trying for two books anything uh nothing kills that pain it's like any vice you can't just keep killing people to fill the hole of someone that died and it's the first lesson that she you know she ignores it for

several books it makes her own little cute little kill list because she's nine years old. Cute. Aw, baby's first kill list. So cute. Ooh-woo. But that is, that's part of it right there. What he said, they didn't kill Ned. Hitting them won't bring him back.

And that's the lesson she has to learn over these following books. And Yoren actually reveals to us something interesting here right he's like well by the way this wasn't supposed to happen a man had come to me with the boy a boy so the bull i'm guessing and a purse of coin and it's like eddard's to take the black he'll be going with you so i'm pretty sure from the way that it's described this was veris maybe sounded like veris was going to spring Ned, I think, connecting it.

Some of the language is similar to the man that brought him the boy. If you go back to like Eddard VI, A Game of Thrones, we have that kind of stout, round of shoulder, not so tall, brown beard with a bit of red, wearing a rich cloak and heavy purple velvet. And the hood shadowed his face. I never saw him clear. Sounds a lot like Varys then, as we talked about way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, up, I'd urge to take the black, and here's this bastard boy that I need out of the city for now. For my plans. Yeah, yeah. The red sounds interesting, like George had maybe initially thought of

and then un-gardened out like a Connington maybe or something. Mm-hmm. Because... Agreed. Well, it kind of seems like he was putting his bastards in different nests, right? You had Connington going with Aegon you had Ned could take Gendry is kind of what this implies almost so Ned would go to the wall and be with Gendry

Robert's bastard oh that's kind of sad and nice yeah and then he like swoops up grabs Tyrek or something yeah he's fucking grabbing Ares up dude I guess he's not one but anyways and great call out but as we all know something went wrong joffrey of course a lot wrong aria says

someone should kill him and joran says that oh someone will but it won't be either of us he tells her that there's sour leaf at the wagon and it'll help with the sting and so it does as well as make her spit red and i just thought it was funny that joran says you know someone will kill him it won't be me it won't be you and the person who kills joffrey it literally isn't either of them um technically in some ways it is little finger but whatever what i'm going for here is that it's sansa okay it. It's Sansa. Kinda. Yeah, that even comes up later when she hears that quote-unquote Sansa killed the king with a spell, which I love

that line. She killed the king with a spell and she flew away with her black leathery fucking wings. What a girl. I love that how she's just incredulous. Like, Sansa wouldn't do that. Sansa loves songs. She can't murder. This kind of comes back

to those Sandor-Yoren comparisons we talked about in the last chapter. I kind of was reminiscing here, right, of Sandor protects Sansa during the shitty birthday tourney happening for Joffrey, and Sansa won

a clash of kings right and kind of lies for her and joran kind of the beating and protecting quote unquote quote unquote here uh in a way he's having aria be protected from the boys discovering who she is and having to upkeep appearances and sandor upkeeping his appearances of cruelty with sansa in public but then in private almost being as kind as he can be as he's capable of obviously you know like him sticking up for her out of nowhere at the the tourney you know and being like oh fuck why the fuck did i say that yeah that's a lie it's totally a true thing a true thing what she's saying my king i don't know there's something there something there with sandor and joran protecting the girls at the same time here

well yeah in different ways yeah and i mean that's like that chapter is very similar soon to here as well yeah it's next it's literally next which we'll talk about very soon very soon because we're gonna do sans and that's no i'm just kidding that's the next pov um so aria walks for the rest of the day and hot pie is far worse off unable to ride sitting in the back of the wagons lami wasn't hurt but he stays far the fuck away from aria the bull tells her that every time she looks at lami he twitches i would be drunk off that power that were her um that night aa lays on her thin blanket, staring at the comet, the bull named the Red Sword. For it looked like a sword, hot from the forge.

When Arya squints, she's like, I guess I can kind of see how it's a sword, but it's not a new sword. It's ice, and it's her father's sword, Valyrian steel, and it's red because it's full of eddard's blood and i'm like oh okay cool there's aria's trauma shouldn't even see it and that's what she's seeing you know yeah i love the little hints too that of course gendry is it's gendry uh but that it's gendry right that he's like oh no it's like a sword when it's hot from the forge.

Huh, what boy that would have been, you know, offered up with some coin to go take the black very quickly during a power vacuum. Who could it be that worked in a forge? Do you think that Ned- And there is something about- Do you think Ned was just like, you know what? We sent one

royal bastard to the wall. Seems like a good place to send royal bastards. Let's just- Maybe that kid should just go there too i don't know i don't know it seems that was a varus's plan is my guess that's that's a varus yeah yeah it looks like it's kind of funny though because varus would be sending a royal bastard to the wall yet he doesn't know about the other royal bastard already there the The secretest of all Aegons. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, he says. I love, uh, I do think there's something in there

like, maybe it's also to the future, right, of Gendry maybe being able to forge Valyrian steel. I could see that happening, but there's even that Nysa Nysa forging language, Azor Ahai language with the sword, and that he's seeing the comet as a sword i don't know i don't know yeah everyone brings a little something what it is i'm just they see what they want to see in it you know it's just like power

it's a metaphor just like a swath we look up at the same stars we see such different things absolutely absolutely it is no but actually literally um i do think that's the matter and one day as a reminder george has said that if he ever gives up he's joked that while the comment is there i can just you know insinuating he could just blow up everything anyway we have this this line of like when ari sleeps she dreams of home and then the end of the chapter because we're here already this is the shortest fucking chapter she yearned to see her mother again and and Rob, and Bran, and Rickon. But it was Jon Snow she thought of most. She wished somehow they could come to the Wall before winter fell,

so Jon might muss up her hair and call her, Little sister. She'd tell him, I missed you. And he'd say it too at the very same moment. The way they always used to say things together. She would have liked that. She would have liked that better than anything.

For those of you listening to the final cut of however the fuck Aliana just did that, I want you to know for historical purposes, this bitch could not stop laughing and it was my fault. I'm sorry. I'm sorry on air oh i'm sorry man i love the way that this chapter melts straight into sansa right i remember the first time i read a clash of kings and you finish aria one in the next page of sansa one and that was a great feeling because after reading a game of Thrones, I mean, those are my girls.

I cared about Arya and Sansa chapters. I was excited to read them. So I just, I don't know. I just have that like giddy feeling when I read Arya one because I get to the end. I'm like, oh, there we go. The girls, of course, very mean of George after they've been pried apart to put them next to one another. And I love some of the insights of the comet that carry from this chapter over to Sansa's chapter, right? We have kind of that look at what the comet means to

Gendry and what she sees the comet as here. But then you have Sansa one, Bran one, Jon one, and Catelyn one all giving their own takes or giving some sort of look at the comet. In Sansa one, on the morning of King Joffrey's name day tourney, Aerys Oakheart comes to take her down to the tourney grounds and she asks him what he thinks it means. He says immediately, with no hesitation, Glory to my boss, your betrothed. He's like, yeah, haha, the guy that pays me and doesn't murder me.

But yes, he's like, it's glory to him. See how it flames across the sky today on his grace's name day as if the gods themselves have raised a banner in his honor the small folk have named it king joffrey's comet doubtless that was what they told joffrey sansa was not so sure and she mentions it being called the dragon's tail dragon tail dragon's tail yeah aries then is like yeah because he's the heir to the dragon it's the castle built by you know his ancestors he's the dragon's heir questionable and crimson's the color of house lannister another sign and she's like what really because i just don't think so. And Bran mentions it.

It's interesting because I feel like Sansa, Bran, Jon, and Catelyn don't really actually have takes on it at all. It's people having takes at them about what it can mean, right? Bran now thinks about it and he asks Luwin. Or Luwin says to him, you know, the wolves are howling at the comet. Maybe they think it's the moon. And Bran says it to the moon and bran says it to osha and she's like no it means blood and fire boy and nothing sweet and then septon chale says it's the sword that slays the season so similar to gendry's but in a different a different place

again like you said everyone's seeing it the way they wish to see it john doesn't really seem to believe in it which says a lot about him it's literally in the sky John's an anti he's a common anti no John doesn't think it means anything he's like it's just a fucking comment like the Netflix movie

don't look up the other brothers you especially that title probably affects you don't look up Eliana you know what it almost happened anyway so the black brothers john's brothers have said that the comet is mormon's torch only half in

just saying the gods must have sent it to light our way through the haunted forest interesting though and interesting right a guiding light and catalyn uh kind of mentions it and she says her uncle brindan says that his men call it the red messenger and he wonders what the message is and catalyn says the great john told rob the old gods unfurled a red flag of vengeance for ned edmure thinks it's an omen of victory for Riverrun. He sees a fish with a long tail, Tully colors, red against blue. But of course, Catelyn thinks crimson is a Lannister color. Brynden, though, says

that thing's not crimson nor Tully red, the mud red of the river that's blood up there, child, smeared across the sky. So we don't really actually get a stark take on what they think the comet means because they're like, it's just a fucking thing in the sky. Interesting. Yeah, they're all like, I don't really actually get a stark take on what they think the comet means, because they're like, it's just a fucking thing in the sky. Interesting.

Yeah, they're all like, I don't know, I feel like I have a bigger problem right now than to philosophize on the comet. Like, Jesus Christ, everyone. Like, what are you all doing? Where do you have all this spare time? Yeah, you don't fucking say, right? Yeah. Oh my god.

There's a war. Or seven. Yeah. Or five. Whatever. Brendan saying, though, that's the red mud of the river it makes me think of uh quentin being described as mud that's quentin's blood up there child smeared across the sky i don't even know if there was blood i think it was more like sauce that boiled there probably wasn't blood. It all evaporated. It's like how you can't put if you put a frog in water

that hasn't boiled yet and you turn it up and you start boiling it, it'll live through most of it until it gets too hot. But then if you throw it straight in and it's like, oh god, it kills you from the shock. It's kind of what I think happened to Quentin. But it took him three days, right? He was flame broiled.

But you're right. That boy was done for. There was no bleeding. You days, right? He was flame broiled. But you're right. There was no bleeding. You're absolutely right. He was burned. Cauterized the wound. Probably. Honestly, probably actually. Yeah. He must not have been that delicious. He didn't like...

Why did they eat him? Maybe too lean? Maybe. I don't know. were maybe they were full or they just had not yet developed taste for people i mean as much as we talk about cannibalism again we're we probably don't taste that good so no i know my diet i don't know like lambs and shit so i mean i'm gonna be really honest with you a good proportion of my body is fat and i love fat but you can only eat so much of it you know you can't like but what if we just like don't taste good like i hear we taste like pork but tougher so like i don't know but

what if we're like i hear possums are super greasy and they're therefore not great where are you hearing this possum where are you hearing possums both i don't know oh the possum thing i heard from my friend's dad who um he i guess was driving through you know i forgot which like place it was some of the southern states you know he was forgot which like place it was. Some of the Southern States, you know, he was like in some off roads areas and they were like, we got possum. He was like,

uh, okay. Wow. I know where to get gator and some other things, but yeah. Well, gator is like also a little chicken ish, you know,

it's fun. Yeah. It's very lean chickeny. It's because chicken are reptiles. According to some. No, but actually. So, anyways. A great call out on the comet. It's a great way to tie

the second book together across everything. Honestly, do you think, in your opinion, do you think George knows what the comet means? I think that he thinks that there is a big... Wait, hold on. Or do you think that the comet even means anything yet?

Or is George going to make that up later? I don't... Oh, I don't think the comet really... Oh, because some people think it means... I mean, if it has to mean something, it's that are fucking back if anything yeah i don't know that it actually has to mean anything right like it's comets are just huge cosmic snowballs right that orbit the sun um when they're frozen they're like size of a town and when they get close to the sun, it heats up and it spews dust and gases. Maybe it's some sort of magic reawakened because the dragon's awakening. The others were already

awakening, right? We've already seen wights in the first chapter and others. So I don't necessarily think the comet has to mean something. I think it could also just be there's a fucking comet and it happened at all the same time and things align i don't know maybe george is gonna have it time magically that would be the only way that i see it mattering like i wouldn't even be surprised if we never fucking hear about the comet again that's true no that's the thing like i i'm not sure it's ever gonna come back or if it meant anything but um i think it's interesting that he has this whole comet thing right and comets and asteroids are not the same but it is the same year that the movie armageddon came out that's all oh interesting everyone was thinking about that you know i guess

in that year i like i don't think it was influenced by that movie because like i don't think the timing works out but i'm sorry absolutely works out in the same way that never mind never mind um i know game of thrones so there's there's yeah it's interesting yeah i do think that maybe that's a really interesting it's something i don't think about and and maybe this is just years without a book talking right this is always years without a book talking honestly uh and it could be because i'm reading the expanse now too you know so I'm like in space so I just comets to me are something very different yeah dime a dozen

my friend dime a dozen but with that said it's funny because maybe I just don't think magic first and I do think that the magic is there I think it's all over the place in these books and I think that George has methods to its madness and maybe the comet is aligned with something with the season change

and something with the long winters or whatever but i don't think that it's bringing something about that's not already there unless it's connected to dragons you know yeah i just don't see a reveal in like the 14th book where george is like and that is why the dragons were born and why the others came back and da da da da all and that's what the comet meant the comet had signified all this stuff that was gonna like i don't think it's gonna be neat in a bow in a box like that i don't think there's gonna be some great reveal of george's like and that was my mastermind theory about why i showed the comet in the second book i don't think it's that important in the end yeah i don't know unless george does give up and use it

to destroy like hit planetos and blow it all up. As he said he could. about themselves are people like king jothri for example right uh people that need to hear that superstition and need it to further their political careers or stannis that's stannis's comment it's meant to shepherd him in as the rightful king of westeros like azor ahai it's him he's like that kind of shit like it's a false thing to need in order to further your cause and no one that matters quote unquote when i say matters i'm not saying characters don't matter but like people that are essential to the end game of thrones that i think are going to be at the very end of the story still alive and rebuilding this country from war like the magical war is kind of a metaphor right yeah you know the broken man speech

is literally designed to be just like the war against the others in a way. Zombies that have been made zombies because they're giving their fucking lives, their bodies to men who don't give a shit and waste it away, gamble it on the wind, right? Like a gold coin to them is nothing. The wind's a winner. Yeah. I don't know. So that's just a little ramble. I just think that from what we see from the important people who don't actually give a shit, you know, Catelyn doesn't give a shit. She's like, whatever, I'm busy. Sansa, Arya, Jon, they're like, yeah, yeah, okay, well, these people say this, but I don't really have a take on it. I don't know. I think the people that need to see something in it maybe are less important than the people that move on with their life from it well you said something there that i thought was really interesting of how like there are some people who need to make the comment

about themselves and what the comet does again like it's something that strings together all of these early chapters and really holds the beginning of this book together and gives it continuity with the previous one and what it does besides like being a connecting device it it it tells you it's a device that tells you a lot about the characters themselves the state of their mindset it's and as well as like by showing you how they would interpret the comet but also like the circumstances of where they are like this is the most important event in this arc this is the most important event in this arc etc etc oh i like that that it defines what's happening in each plot and how they related to the events around yeah and

and i get it signs importance right this is a major sign important but i don't know i guess we'll see in the winds of winter which should be coming out right now under your chair look under your chair right now he said aria has a lot of chapters it's the winds of winter she has even more now aria has 28 chapters in this book and i can't wait to read them with you all. Let's dig in. Let's dig in. One day, maybe. Thanks for listening to Arya 1 in A Clash of Kings. That was a fun, short chapter. I think next week will be a little bit longer, but still pretty quick.

And we'll be getting into the meat of A Clash of Kings soon. And not only will we get into the meat, but you will meet some of our friends who are going to come over to chat Arya. Absolutely. And if you want to keep up with those episodes, or if you have something that you want to let us know, you can follow us on social media.

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we'll see you next time for yet another aria stark chapter or did you mean lumpy face slash lumpy head do you want to be lumpy face or a lumpy head and i'll just be the other one i don't really want to be fine fine i'll be horse face bye