Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 201 — ACOK Arya IV featuring Arah (ieatzebra and Direwolf City)

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

Arya is winning over new allies this episode and so are we, joined this episode with another other host—Arah from her channels ieatzebra and Direwolf City! She helps us read the undercurrents of magic here in the Riverlands that saves the lives of Arya and (some of) the crew.  Where to find Arah Arah's Youtube channel — https://www.youtube.com/c/ieatzebraarah   Arah's Twitter — https://twitter.com/ieatzebra   Arah's Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/ieatzebra/  Direwolf City Youtube Channel — https://www.youtube.com/@direwolfcity  Watch Arah's theory about Aemon being in a secret society — https://youtu.be/F9WcmeTDwiQ?si=Wwy_JRIKeYR84BLl   Check out these other links Ragman's Harbor — a new podcast from Lo and Virginie  'We Are Displaced' by Malala Yousafzai  --- 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: liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage  

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song of Ice and Fire, episode 201. Aria 4 in A Clash of Kings featuring Ara. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And yes, are you ready for Ara? Ara ready? Oh my gosh, that was incredible. Are you ready, kids?

I'm just kidding. I'm so excited. Hi, captain. Captain. Oh, no. I can't hear you. Hi, I can't. Okay, hello. Oh, I'm just kidding. I've been living my whole life, and it hasn't been my whole life, because it's only been since the ARIA POV used to say that.

Yeah. Yeah, it's been what? How many episodes is this now? I don't know 10 something 12 something wherever we are in aria 8 i don't know some range of episodes it hasn't gotten old really yet i know i joke about it but it brings eliana joy it brings ara joy who has blessed us with her presence ara this is great to have you on because the last time you came on, it was for the hit primer series for House of the Dragons that critics are saying really did happen and was amazing, intelligent, and successful.

Unleash the D on Girls Gone Canon. You were on for our second episode. Incredible. And actually, it was like a very fun couple hours of just shit posting IRL with you. And I really am glad that we finally got you on for a POV episode. I'm so excited to be back and to be talking about my favorite child, like murderer. For context, he's my only favorite childhood murderer. So like, there's that. Also, quick little disclaimer. I don't usually sound like this

if you guys have heard me on other things before like my youtube channel i hate zebra all one word or on dire wolf city i usually sound a lot clearer allergies are kicking my butt but you know what we're here we're gonna make magic and i took some benadryl so it's gonna kick in a little bit so i make it a little loopy and who knows where we're gonna go it and i took some benadryl so it's gonna kick in a little bit so i make it a little loopy and who knows where we're gonna go it's gonna get weird who knows we're gonna get those wolf dreams in the middle of this episode i am i'm so excited should we all have popped a bunny for this should we fuck up should i i couldn't pop one i mean this is a different ben is it not no it's this ben this is a much different Ben I don't pop those bennies I just pop this Benny

Benadryl I only pop little pink bennies you know what I'm saying again I love the grape flavor yes if you want to hear Ara's voice as it normally is you can find her on her channel I eat zebra on

YouTube all one word and direwolf city you will still get, though, I believe the same quality thought that she brings to her channel here today as well. Oh yeah, hell yeah. And I have to say that if you want more Aura content after this, I know of a couple other places to get them, right? Aura and I covered Euphoria. Yes, we did. We covered Euphoria on her YouTube channel, season two. Every episode, it was wild.

Eliana guessed it on one. She was there. There was so much glitter in rhinestones. There was so much glitter. Eliana came on for a bit. No, you both told me that y'all were going to dress up the way that Rue's character was in that episode and i did not put on any makeup or very little for that makeup or makeup we worked that whole season i need you to know how exhausting it was like you and i were putting you brought so much makeup for that one i was like

every night every night that we did this every monday night me and pinterest best buddies because i was like i'm gonna hook my face up like maddie perez and yeah i tried i was betrayed it was hard it was like it was actually physically exhausting though to be putting that kind of makeup on every monday night like for two hours like throwing eyelashes in my fucking face, throwing, like, all this eyeliner, glitter, scrubbing it off at the end of the night. Also, oftentimes we were drinking

during these streams because it's euphoria. Because you have to be to accept the very... You actually, yeah, you actually have to be having a very high-level IQ to watch Sam Levinson works you know which Ara and I really appreciate and understand since we are two of the 12 people in the world that probably

watched the idol uh two of those 12 people that's us we are in the top percentile of the idol fans you know yeah it went a little off the rails a bit but it kind of started off the rails and I kind of think of it like you know Ryan Murphy started off American Horror Story really well? And then it's like, that's how I feel about Sam Levinson's work. Oh, interesting. Absolutely. Before it started off very well, and then after

it started, along the way. And the people are saying, you know, the critics, the people are all wanting the idol coverage from me and Ara. I mean, it's out there. People are saying you know the the critics the people are all wanting the idol coverage from me and ara i mean it's out there people are saying it so you never know that might be something we get to cover in full someday i'll be honest i didn't know the people were asking for this no it's just me okay i'm the people i'm people it's just chloe but i i can i can also be asking for it too if that is what people want. If I

can be people too. If that will support Chloe's dreams. Eliana's the number one homegirl. She supports all my bad dreams and my good dreams. I love that for you. No, we did Righteous Gemstones too

with the whole gang over at Dire Wolf City, which was a blast. I loved covering Righteous Gemstones too with the whole gang over at Dire Wolf City, which was a blast. I loved covering Righteous Gemstones. And yeah, we have to get back together. We finally get to have you over to our house because you've always so graciously invited us in at your place. It was time. Honestly, it looks nice in here. Ooh, I'm welcome inside. It's very inviting.

I feel like there's some nice warm tea, some fire in the hearth going. It's cozy. It's like a cabin. Cozy cabin. I love that. I wish it really was. I wish we literally were just talking in a cabin in front of a fireplace about Arya IV together. That could be cute.

We could plan that trip. Yeah. It should happen. We should do that. Into story time. Into story time. Spiced wine. Ooh. we should do that into story times and story time spiced wine oh ara i gotta know why do you love aria slash why did you choose this chapter slash aria in general i mean i know a long time ago we

asked you who do you want to come on for and this was a long time to wait for the aria chapters so tell us about this chapter and aa and your feelings, please. So I love Arya. She's my second favorite character. My first is Jaime because it's Jaime. I mean, so Arya for me reminds me, I didn't kill anybody, but reminds me of myself as a child a bit, like her personality, the way she behaves or like the way she rejects certain like gender norms that are placed on her i was very much like that when i was younger like if i had the option to be riding around on a horse and sword fighting versus sewing all day in a room i'm with aria i'm going outside to play that sounds like a really good time to me so for me i've just always seen myself in her

character and i just like watching her journey because i feel like we see so much of not even just westeros but the world that george has built through aria's travels like she's probably next to like tyrian and maybe danny one of the most well-traveled characters in my opinion. She goes all over the place, which I really enjoy. This chapter in particular for me, I like magic and I think there's a lot of magical hints in this chapter. Not only that, there's some nice little parallels to her siblings I find really interesting that even though they are separate and going on different journeys, there's a lot of ties in their journeys. And it's reflected in this chapter. I see a little bit of everybody that she's been separated from in this chapter.

Also, spoiler alert, we're going to get to it, but Hot Pie, best war cry of all time. Are we serious? Why wouldn't I pick this chapter? It's such a cute little passage in general. Like Winterfell. I just love that. I love that little passage.

You're so right. Thank you for sharing with us why you chose Arya and this chapter. That's a good point. Like I hadn't really thought about it. But besides the fact that I think, yeah, Tyrion and Daenerys and Arya have like the most chapters of all the characters. You're right. They're also probably the ones who geographically get around the most as of all the characters you're right they're also probably the ones who

geographically get around the most as well yeah i love that between catalan and aria alone too you get like you know the riverlands and everything around it now really especially i love that like cats getting the bigger locations while aria's on the ground and you're seeing kind of those smaller in between you could actually detail out a map between those two chapters perfectly i bet it's also interesting because the pov the other ara's other pov that she really likes is jamie who's very very much in the riverlands as his story maybe he was just very into the riverlands i i really am and i'll get to that a little bit later when i go on a sidebar tangent when we get to it. Also, Cersei. I really like Cersei, but that's because she's like half of Jaime, but like the crazy half.

Yeah. I love Cersei. I'm excited for those someday. Yeah. Very reality TV. Oh my God. Real Housewives of Westeros IRL. Real Housewives of the Red Keep. Well, we're so excited to have you on for this chapter. We're going to get into the chapter shortly, but first up, we got to get through a quick amount of housekeeping.

A shout out to a new podcast from some friends. Our friend Lo and Virginie have started a podcast called Ragman's Harbor that is going to be viewing and comparing A Song of Ice and Fire through kind of almost like a folklore lens, right? They're coming at it from different stories from different cultures and locations, not just, you know, some of the Arthurian legends or mythologies, you know, they're going to go a little deeper. Lo talks a lot about some of, you know, Swedish folklore and culture. And I think that's going to be really interesting to come into that a lot of that different, I don't know, different touch to Aeswaf. I'm kind of excited to listen into those

episodes. Part of what they've been saying is they really want to analyze the story also from just in general, like a non-Anglo lens, right? Both of them are, Lo's primary language is Swedish, Virginie is a native French speaker, so. Yeah, I think they have such a great perspective to bring to the story. So I look forward to their first couple of episodes and seeing what they bring out. Yeah, I'm excited. Yeah, same. And both of them always have like really great perspectives and analysis in general. Someone else that we referenced last episode as well is our friend Shiloh Carroll, who joined us for a different episode about someone who's also kind of swashbuckling and bucking gender norms, and I guess not swashbuckling, that's more of a pirate thing, but whatever,

appeared on Aslof episode 143, A Feast for Crows, Brienne 1. Yeah, Shiloh has also written some fucking spectacular shit, including not shit, but books and like essays and some fucking, I don't know, fantastic stuff. You've got to check out their blog. But also, they are the author of Medievalism in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. And she's coming out with another one, The Medieval Worlds of Neil Gaiman, which I'm really excited about. I'm, you know, I'm kind of somewhat into Gaiman. I haven't read all Gaiman pieces, but I've read a handful now and I'm excited just to see what she can pick out after having read Norse mythology recently during brand chapters I kind of read it around that time so I'm interested to see what else is

in there this book is coming out the 27th of September I believe but they don't yet have international release however Amazon UK magically has copies, it looks like, for pre-order. So check that out if you're on there. Hit that up. Enjoy. And you'll be hearing more, for sure. We have some plans with Shiloh Carroll and this medievalism that she

tends to speak on. Exclusive scoop about the Amazon UK drop. It is. It is. It was an exclusive scoop. And I dug for that scoop in Discord DMs, so you never know what scoops could come your way. XOXO. Gossip Girls Gone Canon.

RIP. RIP. Sorry. Okay. I miss it. Don't remind me. I miss that bad show. It was a masterpiece. Speaking of good shows,

not bad shows, not masterpiece bad shows. Speaking of good shows, later this month we will be coming back that last weekend of the month that Friday with Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 Part 2. The second part since we chose to split up that last episode

to give it a great full effect on Magical Girls Gone Canon. So tune in for that episode covering that back half of the season. And then finally, of course, we have our Patreon episode this month, September, which is available to patrons in the Stranger tier and above, $5 and up. This month we are doing George R.R. Martin's short story, Bitter Blooms. Chosen on the name alone but I'm starting to think that it's

fun you know I think it fits into some of our conversation I think it accidentally works so I look forward to it. Butterbumps the book Butterbumps? Bitterblooms? Interesting Man I love Butterbumps. Something's there Yeah

bonus episodes patreon.com slash girlscanon for those stranger tier and above patrons. But there are other tiers if you are aching to spend a little bit of that hard-earned cash and support us. In the thunder tier and above, 10 bucks and up, you get access to our Discord. It's a private discord server and it's basically lifetime access as long as you aren't a dick um and we do lots of stuff there like brunch slash happy hour this month's brunch slash happy hour where you get together with other friends and fans from the online community and just talk about whatever sometimes you watch youtube videos together of people in hamster wheels and cats and hamster wheels. It's a whole time. But this month will be September 23rd, a Saturday, I believe

at 3pm ET. We'd love to have you. Again, if you have any, someone recently also I think tweeted some some photos of their animal, which is very exciting. If you have any animals or things that you would like to send we appreciate emails and tweets about your animals but also about the series we uh again are going to come back to a few because we did get emails and tweets a note we'll cover that a little next week right now we're going to go to our lightning round yeah ara you are no stranger to girls gone canon you have heard of the lightning round you have experienced its majesty once in a while in listening to it, but now it is time to become a part of the lightning round. So for those at home who do not know what the lightning round is, it is where we cover what

has happened between Arya 3 and Arya 4, specifically today, chapter by chapter, beginning with Davos 1. Davos 1. While the seven burn, Davos has reason to doubt that his king is the chosen one Azor Ahai. Theon I. Part I of Theon's homecoming. It's full of disappointment. Daenerys I. Beneath the Red Comet, Jorah, Lord of the Friend Zone and Warden of the Creepy Hairy Old Men Society,

tells Dany, a 13-year-old, that she reminds him of his second wife. The Blood Riders return with a new destination, Qarth. Jon too. At Whitetree, Jeor and Jon speculate how Benjen would feel

about the abandoned villages. And that brings us here to A Clash of Kings, Arya IV. Team Arya finds shelter in an abandoned village. The Lannister men-at-arms destroy that peace. God, they do. It sucks, and we're gonna get to that, but first, we open the chapter with a dead man in the water. Tiny fish eating at his face. Lami announces, I knew I tasted dead bodies in the water. Mmm, delicious. Know it all. Can I just say, he was right.

Yeah. And those other, Lami's kind of an idea guy. Maybe not a plan guy, but he's definitely an idea guy. You know, you calling that out now makes me realize, why does Lami know what dead bodies in the water taste like? He's probably had to get water. Well, where there's been dead bodies of the water tastes like. He's probably had to get water where there's been dead bodies upstream. That's sad.

It is very sad. He's experienced that hardship. Yeah. I like that you called out that he's an ideas guy, you know? Because one time Hannah from Game of Owns told me that I'm a better manager than a doer, and she's like, you should go manage. Interesting.

And I think of that like maybe i'm a better ideas guy you know yeah it's like i can workshop the idea but the actual execution of it we'll leave that to other people well unfortunately for lami there is some execution of all of that this chapter unfortunately womp womp yeahomp womp. Yeah. Death. Is Anne-Marie Lorch a doer? Anyways, so. He sure is. He's the worst doer. Very into execution.

So maybe it's great that Lavi is an ideas guy, but I think you're both an ideas and a doer person, but not in an Anne-Marie Lorch sort of way, like in a, in a Yoren sort of way, you know? Thanks. Yeah. So I really like this language in here they they call out the bodies being like shapeless and sodded and bloated and you know i think it plays with this idea of of course the the soldiers kind of just being seen as bodies they're shapeless and personless by the war and how it strips some of those identities and just uses them as meat fodder but it also you know there's also parts of it that tell you hey this is what we can expect to happen to bodies that are in the river like for example

caitlin stark's body later on when they throw her in there but also it's kind of i think you know a reminder of death as this like equalizer right that strips people of their identity it transforms them and then also how the story is playing on that idea with having people who do try to hold on to who they are when they're reanimated or what happens to people's memories of someone who has passed away right like they're no longer there to be themselves the memories and the identity of who this person is their legacy of the person get reshaped right we're told one version of Rhaegar by Robert we were told another by Ned another by Barristan or even like you know what's happening to Ned's memory as well people like yeah

he was a traitor and it's like no he was not he was saving the kids I like that you've kind of likened it to like shapeless dead people losing their identity because death strips you of everything you had and then and especially there like with the lies that people are then able to put on the deaths and like a blank slate that people are able to kind of propagate what they want people to believe like Catelyn's body etc all the stories that get passed around of what happened to her but then also in a way that like death strips you of your identity and you become no one when you die. And that great idea of no one, yeah, uh-huh, uh-huh.

And how it comes back around for Arya, right? That it kind of likens that experience to her dying in a way, right? That she almost, what she goes through is dying and she like learns that. It's interesting. She learns death. She masters death. Honestly, when you said master of death, I was like, oh, she collected all three Deathly

Hollows. Oh. Vanquisher of death. Yeah. Even like that ego death, right? Losing kind of like that self-identity. And we see her struggling with that throughout the story. Because I mean, this all happens at a very young age, right?

Where they're like, you have to be someone else now so yeah oh yoren commands them to strip anything of worth from the man going back to that same idea and collects a guard to wait while wath and garan head downstream to find a good place for them to try to ford and cross they find a leather purse with four coppers and a blonde curl of hair and a red ribbon. I actually love that little detail about the curl of hair because looting the body, and especially when it's just practical stuff and supplies, it becomes easy to kind of dehumanize them. It's all just the stuff that any person could have. I've been watching my partner playing Baldur's Gate 3. There's a lot of looting of bodies and, you know, it's just like you just go on with the storyline, right? But the hair being on the body, that's not a leather purse

or whatever. It's not about survival. That was something that was emotional, right? It's the writing is re-injecting that personhood and reminding you that this was someone who loved someone else, a reminder of that survivor's loss, even though you know this person gets a lot of characterization even though hagen's otter still doesn't have a name but whatever that is my hill to die on also it kind of is a testament to how like aria definitely through her journeys it kind of reminds me of egg in a way like they get all these connections to the small folk if you will when the big lords descend from upon high i'm just getting those lion king reference but essentially yeah getting on the crown level and like seeing

these day-to-day people like these faceless soldiers for the most part they're a part of these lords armies and they're just doing what they're told trying to feed their families and this person i like that it wasn't just somebody. Like you can tell that, like you mentioned, like this person had a family. They had loved ones. And I like that little touch. Yeah. There's also that like wartime relic kind of feel, right? Kind of romantic.

Yeah. Not that war is romantic, but it's a very romantic kind of era of like, you know, you go off to war, you take a lock of your sweetheart's hair because it was like a sacrifice that she cut a piece of her hair for you to keep while you couldn't be with her and it reminds me of that right of like that very intimate detail of this person's life that they know nothing about just that they cared about someone who this hair belonged to and it makes me think also at the same time and coming back to what aro was saying earlier of some of the hidden hints of magic because while i don't think that necessarily is magic oftentimes like davos's finger bones for example and that being a symbol of luck in him

losing them or um coming to the lord of bones which we just covered in melisandre one a little bit ago and how those important bones of people and people's the essence of them right is important for being able to cast a different visual on your body you have to be able to kind of use the other parts of people to disguise yourself and glamor yourself it was interesting it stuck out to me that uh ara used the term faceless soldiers i was like oh okay what an interesting turn of phrase um when we think about especially Arya's storyline and the facelessness of that is kind of what the faceless men are, right? Like they gave up. They're kind of just very specialized soldiers, if you think about it. And what you were

saying about magic and hair, I was like, initially, I was reading, I was like, oh, interesting, someone could make a little doll out of that or whatever. Yeah, that's true. Control someone, but why would they do that to this rando? Yeah, nothing well i mean there you go jacquan's here maybe he could convince someone to go take that hair so he could you know ultimate weirdo cosplay yeah he's real weird like that but yeah interesting that's very i i think the hair sticks out like as such a great it could be any of that in this chapter like a cowlick oh my gosh what if that was that she was alfalfa oh my god she got off her little cowlick she was like one of the little loo-hoos like cindy loo-hoo she cuts off her little like thing on the top oh it makes me even

sadder oh sorry i'm over here cracking up like that's no it's because i'm like picturing cindy loo-hoo giving this to her sweetheart and now he's in the water's no it's because i'm like picturing cindy lu who giving this to her sweetheart and now he's in the water and lami's like i told you so like dang your sweetheart died to be a gotcha for lami it makes me kind of sad oh that is kind of sad ladies settle down damn in the meantime the soon-to-be men of the Watch, quote-unquote, have a mud pie fight. Lami, Tarber, and Hot Pie all play. Roj curses them and he's like screaming that he wants to be unleashed, but everyone ignores him. Arya watches Kurz catch a fish with his bare hands, working to mimic his graceful moves and copy him and learn.

It kind of reminds me of Imlan and the... Yes! The Amikamana view sequence, yeah. learn it kind of reminds me of in mulan and uh yes the omic command of youth sequence yeah it's exactly kind of like that because you know if you think she's also masquerading with people with recruits as a man so it's almost it's pretty much exactly like that sorry as long confirmed yeah there's a line when she describes uh curse's movement as quick as a snake and i'm like oh that's literally from her mantra she's like oh so that's what it looks like to be quick as a snake but oh that's kind of funny because doran martell is not very fast moving anyways so aria thinks that the fish are easier to catch than the

cats which have no claws and i was like oh that's kind of funny because later on aria slash nymeria do you catch a fish that is also a cat out of the river. A catfish. Yeah, a catfish. Oh my god, are you saying that Nymeria catfishes them? Is that... If anyone's catfishing, technically it's Arya. If you really think about it, you know,

she shows up with a different face all the time. Is being a faceless man, like, just catfishing people all the time? Yes. Essentially it is, yeah. Everyone's just definitively yes it is that's i mean you asked a yes or no question yeah that's true that is true yeah we're being very affirmative with the whole entire ordeal me and ara are at midday the others return they find a bridge burnt up downstream but nothing else uh smoke is surrounding them, north, west. Jorn thinks maybe we're on the right part of the river after all.

He draws a miniature map in the mud, which again, is just a circle. So everyone knows. Remembering a hold, well, I mean the whole thing. They're just, bloop, it's a circle. The god's eye, you know. Jorn remembers there's a hold fast nearby and that maybe they could follow the north to get there. He means to get there, possibly hire a boat, that maybe they could follow the north to get there he means to get there possibly hire a boat sell everything they have jump aboard and sail to heron town

across the god's eye to kind of not have to go around the entire death clock of heron hall and the god's eye he hopes to buy new mounts there or maybe even shelter with lady went at heron hall who's a friend of the watch well structurally iurally, I didn't realize this, but I get it now. We always should have known it was never going to work. Why else would they tell us the whole plan if it was going to work? They never tell you the whole plan in stories when it works. No, I feel like he's like, you know when villains go on their huge little monologue when they have the hero and then they ruin the moment for themselves?

That's exactly what happened here. Yeah. If their plan did work, Lady Wend went isn't at harrenhal anymore sir yeah they'd be walking right into it she lady went away i'm so sick of you do you see what i deal with no it was funny i like yeah she. Yeah, she's alright. It was punny. Pun intentionally. Yeah, they would be walking straight into the trap if they did that into Harrenhal and

straight up get captured and tortured and then probably killed. So, I mean, they could die here and run some of them or they can die there. How fun. That kind of sucks, right? And, of course, Arya, wrong place, wrong time. This happens to her all the time in these books. She's always just missing her

family members as we see at the Red Wedding. And this also starts that mystery of like, where in the world is Lady Went, right? Which I still think she's the chick in A Feast for Crows that we see in Brienne's chapters on the road with a bunch of people surrounding her. But we don't know, right? Like, gone? Hiding? Hurt? We don't actually know where the fuck she is. She went awake. Yeah, that's where she went. Yeah.

Have a nice trip. See you next fall. Enjoy your fall. See you next fall. So you know how, like I said, I like magic, right? I love magic. I think the Riverlands is one of the biggest hubs of magic in Westeros next to

the Wall. Actually, I think it's a little bit more powerful than the Wall. And I'll explain why very briefly. As we know, we have the gods. I have a lot of werewoods. I'm one of those believers of the werewood net. I think that is kind of where they draw any and all magic, I think, comes from that root system. Because even if they chop down the trees, the roots are still there.

And from what we've seen with Bran, like, they kind of learn how to see through, like, by touching the tree itself. touching the tree itself but in my opinion i just again i think the werewolves themselves in their roots is where magic essentially derives from in this area not in this area but like in westeros as a whole and people just have their different ways of pulling from it but in the riverlands especially during wartime that magic is even more potent because all the blood's going into the roots and as we know the werewolves love blood. So as we'll see later in this chapter, Arya's, not even just in this chapter, but a little before that, Arya's warging in wolf dreams increase the more she is in the Riverlands or the closer she gets to the Riverlands. I've noticed the frequency of it. Also, Rob has been running like essentially destroying everybody

and from what we get from like second hand accounts everybody's like oh it's his wolf and he's controlling the wolf and personally I do think he is somehow powerful enough to warg into Grey Wind while still being able to like fight and I think it's because he's

in the Riverlands like all their powers just exponentially increase and then like with um thoros amir he couldn't really do much in king's land and he gets to the riverlands all of a sudden barak don darion's like a cat and has a bunch of lives interesting yeah the magic is stronger there yeah so i think the magic is very strong there and not only that that wolf connection is kind of like what saves them or if they listen to their wolves it will keep them alive like we'll see later in this chapter Nymeria kind of gives Arya a signal to wake up essentially and she actually listens to it but if we look and especially when you guys get there down the line soon to uncle Edmure's wedding, if you will, Grey Wind was going absolutely like bonkers

and they weren't heeding his warnings. And I think by Arya being more intuitive and especially that training with Cereal and how she mentions here later on, you know, to look a little bit better. I think that combination is kind of what's really honing her skills here. Yeah, I love that because, and as we get to that part of this chapter, obviously we'll talk a little bit more about it, but the actual like waking up, just like you've said,

it's almost like a less graceful, elegant version of Bloodraven waking Bran up in the first book, right? Like this is Nymeria saying, hey, stupid, open up, I'm here, which I would love to have that interiority. I would this is Nymeria saying hey stupid open up I'm here which I would love to have that interiority I would love for Nymeria to just be like hey idiot I'm in your head uh just be listening to her talk very effective alarm clock I wish they could talk man that would be so cool it's kind of like so I found out in Baldur's Gate you can take a potion to speak with animals but it makes me think of In naruto when he finds the the nine-tailed fox inside and talks to him side of him it's like i'm

there the whole time chloe's like nope don't get it but no clue i had never considered what you were saying about the roots and that makes actually a lot of sense in terms of them chopping down and why they're insistent instead of chopping the trees down on burning them or a lot of them chopping down and why they're insistent instead of chopping the trees down on burning them or a lot of them are because then that covers a larger area and potentially even damages the roots as opposed to just cutting the stump and as you said there i you know i didn't really consider that the riverlands could be like a hotbed of magic but that makes complete sense especially like you were talking about the blood there's more death here you know we've got that rotten body water you know just soaking up and everyone but also like i don't know if any of you have watched full metal alchemist

but it makes me think of like a lot of the magic being powered by those dead bodies and like maybe when the hammer of the waters came down that also created a lot of death that powers this place as well and it makes me think of like with brand's last chapter right what what does he say in this book the roots are strong right winter fells burnt but the roots are strong like you said these are all these stumps are still there the roots are still intact yeah and then as you said barrick bringing back catlin he's not even a priest he was just like i'm gonna give magical cpr yeah or would jamie's some where would dream oh that's true yeah on the stump like still having magic yeah interesting and that's just a contact high you know yeah like imagine if he could really get like high off the werewood net.

Imagine if he cut his hand over it, you know, and like just like put his hand down like full metal alchemist style. Well, and it reminds me of the magicians actually, Kalyana, where or like other magic kind of sci-fi-ish shows where they do like rituals and blood rituals that bring magic. Like there's a scene that's very graphic where crazy magical powered god basically does a huge blood ritual and just slaughters a bunch of people. And it's supposed to be to power this great magic. And eventually this character gets god powers, which is cool, but she suffers through hell to get it, which sucks. But all the idea of just a big slaughtering being what power is shit amazing

did you watch the magician zara i did not that sounds fascinating you should you really should i think you would like it what's it on right now it's on netflix i think okay you can get it on netflix yeah it's a sci-fi show technically but it was the wise the channel yeah it's it's a fantasy show but on was on the sci-fi channel oh gotcha gotcha gotcha yeah yeah it's uh it's got books the books are decent they're very different than the show very different very vastly different but some stuff is similar but like very different like they very much you know they cw it you know they change some shit but it's really interesting it's well done yeah very well done i haven't read i recommend it but i hear like yeah it's very different but like the show i think stands on its own it very much becomes its own thing there are musical numbers um musical numbers

see you know what dan and dave could have did if they want to make all these changes give us a musical number cowards honestly wait i heard that they might be doing a play version right of robert's rebellion what if that were that could be a musical it could be but i don't know that they're doing a musical imagine the battle of the bells sorry the battle of the bells nope with a bell sequence huh i don't imagine they use hand bells yeah for the like a yeah like could be interesting carolers. Yeah. Yes. I'm just hearing Hark have the bells in my head while picturing Robert in his glory. And then obviously Rhaegar, like some of his motifs and stuff would have harps.

Oh. I've planned this whole musical out. They should hire me. I mean, I cannot write music. I don't know anything about reading music, but I'm an ideas person you know like lami yeah anyway sorry i took us on a journey but um i really like this idea of the riverlands having more magic and it makes a lot of sense too with the reeds and shit too yeah and the ghosts in harrenhal. Oh, interesting. And the curse. Yeah, oh, maybe that's why they fucked up. Why would they do such a cursed thing?

Or is it because all those people died there that makes it even more magical? What came first, chicken or the egg? Who knows? Yep. The dragon egg. Oh my god. So, Hot Pie is scared that there are ghosts in Harrenhal,

speaking of. Yoren spits on the ground at that, though. He's like, ah, ghost schmosts. Meanwhile, Arya remembers the stories that old Nan told her of evil King Harren walling himself up inside while Aegon roasted the keep, burning everyone up within the blackened walls, creating that great magical force field we're all talking about. Hot Pie was being silly.

It wouldn't be ghosts at heron hall it would be knights aria could reveal herself to lady went and the knights would escort her home and keep her safe that was what knights did they kept you safe especially woman it's very hard to read this with a straight face aria maybe lady went would even help the crying girl i thought that was really interesting actually like i don't think i noticed until this read through that aria up until even this point the story still holds the belief that knights protect people and then also having that call out of kept you safe especially women when put in the context of like the king's guard and sansa's first clash chapter um but i mean the

lady went thing her thinking yeah lady went being there is good that makes complete sense for aria to think i kind of wonder if this is one of those parts like the the line about the knights where george wasn't really he wasn't thinking too hard when he wrote that line and didn't really come back to it yeah why not because i'm like she wouldn't she be disillusioned about that at this point? But I guess neither the Gold Cloaks nor the Lannister guards killed Cereo. I mean, they're not necessarily knights. So I don't know. Maybe Arya just has had less encounters with them, but seemed weird.

Yeah, because as of now, the most she's had besides her father's household guard was just the Lannisters. And the bad side of that was obviously that big slaughter that, you know, of her household. But she kind of only saw men at arms killed. Yeah. She didn't see any of the women being harmed. Like, she doesn't know that, you know, the scepter got her head kind of detached from her shoulders. So she doesn't really, I think think understand the levels of the brutality that

knowing that but i don't think ned kind of gave her the rundown of like hey this is what happens when uh you know town gets sacked birds and the bees speech which isn't really a birds and bees speech it's gross yeah i'm gonna come back to more of that too because i think there's a lot of that in this chapter like that you realize aria absolutely got the gendered Westerosi education of it all, and that did not get, you know, the most talking she got to from Ned about reality of life was right before the end in Agot. So her and Sansa didn't get the speeches. They got told, well, knights will protect you, sweetie, don't worry.

Men will protect you. That's what the society is for. All the men, all the knights, they will take care of it. And it's interesting because then he turned around and said to the boys, listen, you're going to kill someday. And when you do better mean something and you better mean it and look them in the eye and hear those last words. And like, he's like, also men can only be brave when they're afraid. Being afraid is okay. Girls look at the boys see those boys they got you they got you you know i mean that's just like what they're taught of course they're gonna sit there and be like well knights are good you know i think it's like how for america a lot of kids are taught that cops are there to help and protect and serve when

they don't necessarily always do that it's just interesting because i think she knows that because the gold cloaks, right? She doesn't think, I just had never thought like, yeah, she doesn't encounter many knights. So it was just interesting because we don't, I mean, I don't think of Arya as a kind of POV who's like, yeah, the knights will protect me. So it was such a strange line to notice this read through. Yeah, it stands out. It really does. But I definitely think a lot of it

has to do with most of the people she's encountered have always been under Lannister control. So she is... Lannisters don't count. Lannisters don't count. She's assuming it's, oh, Lady Wentz knights. These aren't Lannister people. That's a good point.

Yeah. And I kind of forgot that not all gold cloaks are knights. You know, they're just as you said they're men at arms they're not knighted you know they're no fucking elton john or yeah most of them are not the higher born like you think harwin strong is a sir right you think damon targaryen is a prince right obviously who was leading the gold cloaks so it's kind of interesting yeah not everyone decided to go for that you know extra tassel or whatever they find a village abandoned no animals no coin

in your inventions they probably pass them on the road already no corpses or fields have been burnt and they find a garden so they pull onions radishes and cabbages into a bag later they pass a forester's cabin more fields more weed and finally they come upon a town with a cluster of white houses a sept and a lord's tower house but no people how queer not a single person to be found i love this little bit of the chapter and this moment of peace so much because it's almost like they're Little Eden, right? Like they find an untouched place, they find a garden, they find food, they could hide out here, they could stay a bajillion years here if they really needed to, except it's all interrupted by the Gold Cloaks who are burning everything no matter what.

So that peace is just fucking destroyed and all these people die and it's horrid right but even the language is so similar in the last two chapters right before this with john at white tree and bran as well as danny so specifically right before this john to at white tree we're seeing people fled from war this beautiful paradise is still here. But why? Question mark, question mark, question mark. That's the big one here. So at White Tree, we hear that John didn't find it much of a village. Four tumble down one room houses of unmortared stones surrounded an empty sheepfold and a well. The house is roofed with sod. The windows shuttered with ragged pieces of hide and above them, the great dark red leaves of

a monstrous weirwood. And of course, later he says, White Tree was the fourth village they passed, and it had been the same in all of them. The people were gone, vanished with their scant possessions and whatever animals they may have had. None of the villages showed any signs of being attacked, though. They were simply empty. so the question on John's tongue as well as the question here is what happened to all these people and when we go visit with Daenerys right out at the city of bones and the red waste we have a couple lines of two nights later an infant girl perished her mother's anguished wailing lasted all day there was nothing to be done the child had been too young to ride poor thing not for her for the endless black grasses the night lands she must be born again

and then they find the deserted city with white walls similar here to the description of the city aria finds beautiful from afar cracked and crumbling up close everything was white as if the people who lived here had known nothing of color. They ride past heaps of sunwashed rubble where houses fall in and saw the faded scars of fire, and at a place where six alleys come together, they pass a marble plinth. Then, you know, they get the whole group kind of starts making camp and using the grass and the different bits, and they find a garden themselves. They find figs, they take and they rummage for the figs in that garden slash orchard their own little bit of eden before they too have to go to karth where shit gets bad there's a great connection of family about it yeah exactly sodom and gomorrah yeah literally

uh there's a great connection of that family going on right danny wanting to know of westeros of her family and benjin talking about benjin with yoren for aria and benjin with jay or with john and then of course daenerys who takes care of the little girl who dies to the very end and durea who passes away in that chapter with aria taking care of that little girl i love the connections that you've drawn here um absolutely really i mean it parallels well like with what aria was saying um did i say aria with what ara was saying i was like hang on um it parallels with uh you know what ara was saying earlier aria's siblings and john's storyline

and i i want to quickly you know give a book recommendation I mean like we know why these people well with vase tolero kind of but like we know for example why the the free folk left their village we know why this village is abandoned right like there was just too much violence the people couldn't risk staying anymore for their own safety or for their children's their families and I want to recommend this book called we Are Displaced by Malala. It's a couple of different stories of or accounts from young women and girls who have been displaced. Some are refugees, some aren't because being a refugee requires crossing country borders. I've harped on this before but people think you know it's an easy decision to be like yeah I'm gonna just up and go

leave my home and run in the face of violence but it's hard you know like everyone doing it collectively as well like that's your home it's not an easy decision to make and it's not it's it's difficult so highly recommend people checking that out it's also you know it's a pretty accessible read as well yeah eliana we'll have to link that below i think that's a great point of all of these places that people have been pushed out of by war by war by other things there's a couple different reasons that people would have to leave but yeah war's a big one war's up there violence climate change is next well violence war climate change as the you know as resources become more scarce, violence increases.

Well, and that's a lot of what this chapter ends up being about, right? What the Gold Cloaks are doing. They take a careful look around to see if anyone's there to attack them when they come to the town, but they find no one. They head to the lakefront to see if they can locate a boat, and Arya gets goose prickles. Where did the people go? Why were they scared? The only boat they find is upside down, rotted out, and abandoned at the inn. Lami wonders if there's food or ale there, but Wath, who was once a sailor, says don't you mind the inn, we need to find a boat. Somehow Arya knows though that they could search the entire town and never

find a boat. The people that lived here had, of course, taken them. Ugh, that's not good. Because we know where that leads. Sucks. It's probably a lot of the people that are at Heron Hall. Yeah, I didn't think that. They went there for protection, right? Look at King's Landing, the people going to King's Landing for protection. They went to their

biggest house, their big flagship that should keep me safe place, and nope. I mean, your first mistake is harren hall but they had no other choices they're the same plan as yoren and i will add it's interesting that the tollies kind of run everything right and we see edmure you know take care of his people during war obviously that's a big point of contention in these books but it sucks that harren hall is not the seat of the riverlands anymore solely because of that like they're at a very central place where a lot of towns are looking for shelter

and there's no lord to provide it for them i mean no one can run that place anyways on its own it's too big to be fucking run as we learned but heron hall's like you know when when they turn the the sports arenas into shelters. Yeah. Only it's all gone awry. But in theory, it could have been that place. That's funny. I'm reading a book where it uses some of that. Or I've read a book recently where it uses some of that concept.

The Zoe Ash books by Jason Pargan use that concept of like big corporate kind of like buildings like that that have just been turned into like basically a shelter yeah so aria plunges her face into the water wishing she could take a full plunge and swim around can she swim when jordan and the others reappear they say they found the tower empty snails nails buckets of hard tar a mother cat and kittens but no boats and no people but they do find some animals to eat and cost says he may be able to repair the bottom of the rotted boat which would fit four people and lami suggests why don't we just build boats we have trees and nails and jordan's like um i'm sorry are you a boat

builder is this what you do now and i'm like lami is just me playing tears of the kingdom just making raps be like yeah i'm you, he's an ideas guy. Like, I didn't see Yoren coming up with a good plan. Lami's like, how about we build some modes? Like, you know, spitball in here. At least he's trying, you know? He tried. He is trying.

I understand this reference now, Eliana. I've watched a lot of Tears of the Kingdom this week. I've watched my roommate play a lot of it so I understand that reference you too might be able to watch Chloe's roommate play Tears of the Kingdom if you're lucky during Girls Gone Canon brunch perhaps it will be on the wall behind Chloe yeah that does happen often dude that are like titty movies my god art house movies everyone's like what's going on behind you I I'm like, oh, a blur background. Sorry, you're getting a free movie. That's what's going on.

Just enjoy art. We have an explicit tag on our, we actually do on our podcast. Yeah, we say fuck too much. Because of all the F-bombs we drop. Fuck. I've been trying to do really well with not tapping into my trashing New England ways and using sentence enhancers every other sentence. You should abandon it.

I'm fighting against my nature. Just be yourself. Just be yourself, Ara. That's what we do, you know? Do your podcast too today. Oh, yay. You don't have to be faceless around us. You can just do your New England things.

I didn't want your listeners hearing me drop F-bombs like every five seconds because, you know. It's just how we grow up. That's why they listen to us. Are you trying to say something about people who drop F-bombs every other second? No, I'm just how we grow up are you trying to say something about people who drop f-bombs every other second no i'm just saying like growing up here you just like get like at kindergarten it's like oh here's your all exclusive pass to say fuck every two sentences and here's some dunkin donuts like welcome i was born in the wrong place beautiful

so gendry actually stands up for lami and is like, no, we could at least make rafts possibly. And Yoren's like, all right, well, I'll sleep on it. We'll think about it tomorrow. No, you won't. So they decide to sleep in the holdfast with the gates up and barred. Arya's like, maybe we shouldn't stay here. The people who lived here might have been on to something.

And Lami's like, ooh, you're afraid, Arya? and lami's like oh you're afraid ari and joran's like actually ari is smart so even though ned didn't give her that lesson that you mentioned earlier about when a man is afraid it is only time he could be brave she somehow knew it she somehow knew it yeah yeah she's brave she's definitely that yeah yeah the night's watch doesn't take part in the war though so like everyone's like no man is our enemy what what do we gotta worry about and aria thinks uh no man is our friend either but holds her tongue right that goes both ways you have no allies and no friends and no enemies but that kind of means you have enemies when it comes to war because war throws

the rule book out of the motherfucking window. Arya had mentioned not staying there, right? And had thought that was a smart idea, which I'm like, maybe now, maybe. Where would they have? I don't know what they would have really done in retrospect. But I love the language and the way Yoren says, no man is our enemy. And Arya thinks no man is our friend, especially with that connection at the end of the chapter where Arya frees no one right she frees Jaqen and she takes a chance even though no one is your friend and no one is your enemy it might do to free no one because it turns out

she gets three fucking favors from no one it's like a genie yeah yeah it turns out it was good to free the genie from the burning cage after all even if he wasn't really her friend or enemy i think they're kind of friends sweet boy come here sweet boy like yeah they're friends i think i think they're friends like the their relationship later on you know he goes a little above and beyond for her i mean they're not friends right now though so well yeah friends right now, though. Oh, right now, yeah. I thought we met later on.

I was like, I think it's a strange relationship, but I think it's friendship. Friendship is magic, and Jaqen is magic. I haven't read this book, but I remember during the Sam chapters, which, of course, intersect with Arya's, Yoko Boy referenced this book called the gift of fear i've heard other people discuss it since then and maybe it only stood out to me when people talk about it because yokoboy brought it up but it's by gavin de becker and i believe that the book is kind of about learning how to identify fear maybe in contrast with anxiety or something in in order to avoid slash survive danger. And I thought that was interesting in the context of this chapter. And, you know, it comes back to what you were saying, Ara, about the lesson from Ned about, you know, being afraid is normal fear, is a normal feeling that maybe you should listen to

sometimes. And how these people ignore it and lami mocking aria for when i think heeding that fear and like really heeding it could have saved their lives but she ignores it um that instinct because of this authority figure yoren it also makes me think of later in this book right davos ignoring his fear being like this is weird this is suspicious and the fleet sailing into the trap and um part of the fear kind of you know as you said like it it's maybe magic is stronger here but it's kind of like this base animal instinct right fear as a survival mechanism and um i don't know i just it's something that I think about, that whole gut instinct thing. I hear stories of women being like, I don't know, I had a bad gut feeling about this guy. And then finding out later on, like, oh, that guy was a serial killer. And like, they're like, I just felt something. Like, that happens. I hear stories about that. And I'm like... intuition i always tell people to listen to it not to get super witchy woo while here but as somebody with you know 12h stellium and i'm a pisces with some aquarius going on my third eye

is like super open i don't know why i'm doing all these hand motions but yeah i'm very intuitive like i usually like if i have a gut feeling nine times out of ten i'm usually right about it i like to call it my aura tingle so for now i I'm going to give it the Aria tingle. I like that, like spider senses. Yes, exactly where I got it from. Or wolf senses. See, I like that better. Her wolf senses are tingling and saying, yeah, I don't think we should stay here.

But at the end of the day, kind of where else are they going to go? Because I feel like at least that's a fortification something that they can use to protect themselves rather than being out in the open because figure if they were out in the open especially in the dark in the dark like they have to just scatter like they scatter and then they really lose formation you know you're better together stronger together so dark fear men run scatter yeah yeah but no no you're right like they like this was probably one of the best places they could have chosen but i know just stood out to me because i also think of like i i have in theory an intuition or gut instinct and i am the person who always tells it shut the fuck up you're wrong

and does it bite me in the ass all the time because i'm very good at ignoring danger my god no you laugh in the face of danger i need to learn to trust myself no i know it's um i need to learn to trust myself more so that was a lion king reference i was like oh my god but you're a leo so you're like simba and you laugh in the face of danger she squints in the face of danger i squint and i'm like that's not dangerous right my friends have joked they're like oh you just gaslit yourself I'm like, that's not dangerous, right? My friends have joked. They're like, oh, you just gaslit yourself. I'm like, I did. I trust my intuition. I know. If I say, if my gut knows, I know.

Eliana knows that too. I trust that bitch. She knows more than I do. She's been right a lot, Chloe's intuition about people. People. I'm good at it. I know. Fuckers.

So I'm just saying you learned from Serial Pharrell is what you're saying. Swift as water. I will say there's a little bit of that intuition. A lot of these chapters remind me of cat chapters in that way too because cat is has a very strong intuition and i think aria very much gets that from her mom trusting that gut of like oh something is up something's up yeah but i think cat is a little like me like no that must be in my head i'm just being emotional see cat needs a needs a me. Because, like, I'm over here. I'm the person to kind of gun you up. I'm the one to be like, no, you should worry about it.

You should be listening to yourself. Like, I will gas you up on that. Kat, you need a Chloe. Well, now you dead. Undead. But you need a Chloe. Yeah, I was like, I have a Chloe. I have one.

They fortify their sleeping place. It's no red keep, but it'll hold for the night. He divides up the team into three watches, sending them out to the tower house. They drive wagons and animals out to the gates, barring the gates and bringing in all the gooses and chickens, lighting a cook fire at Yoren's permission. Arya gets put on cook duty with Dabur and Gendry. Dabur tells Arya to pluck the bird and Gendry splits the wood. When she asks, why can't I split the wood?

Everyone's like, anyways. Like you have little baby arms, Arya. Let's maybe let the, you know, the, you know, blacksmith apprentice do that. Splinter toothpicks. Like, okay. Not saying she couldn't, but i'm just saying like can you probably get done faster you know more efficient yeah more efficient production when the food's ready aria eats a chicken leg and a bit of onion no one really talks the crying

girl whimpers and cries until hot pie feeds her some goose same gendry goes off to shine his home after aria takes a second watch finding a straw pallet to sit upon. She borrows Yoren's stone to sharpen Nymeria with. Hoppie watches her work and asks where she got her sword from. She tells him that her brother gave it to her. He's surprised that she has brothers

and she tells him she has lots of brothers. She remembers that Yoren told her to shut her mouth and tells him that her brothers are all much bigger, that they have big long swords and they taught her how to kill people who bug her he says he was just talking not bothering and he leaves aria curls up on the pallet listening to the little girl crying wishing she would be quiet i just i find this seems so soft you know hot pie's trying to prove wrong earlier like the thought that Arya had earlier

of no man's our friend, and I'm like, no, Hot Pie wants to be friends. It's kind of sweet, and it's sad in a way that she's pushing them away, and it's kind of how Arya spends the next bit of time, right? Like, this is the last time that she has, like, a family, quote-unquote, that she's just starting to get used to them obviously she gets away with the group out of this and they have a couple more adventures but after that over the next books she ends up so isolated with no one that she can really confide in or be friends with no one yeah i mean the sex workers and you know down in a feast for girls are kind of like her friends like those are the people she feels comfortable with because all of them have their own lives and secrets

and she feels like she gets to be let into it a little bit, but she's not really allowed to be friends with anyone in Feast for Crows and on, especially after she starts losing her family. As soon as they start dying in that pain more and more, it's sad because it shows kind of as she hardens herself and becomes kind of that child soldier and warrior and ends up getting put on this vengeance arc and turned into kind of a mini machine, a fun size mini machine. You know, she loses out on that humane part of herself. It's very sad. Also, I just want to say the crying girl only stopping to cry when she eats.

I'm like, I can't use this so much. Same. Mood. I don't get, I think, well, maybe I get a little hungry, but I'm more of like a sad hungry person. Oh, a sad hungry. I'm a bored hunger person. Oh. I'm like walks around the room and is like, what did I just do?

Like, I just got my commands of the Sims canceled. Like, I'm like, what was I doing? And then I'm like, better go to the fridge. Don't know why I'm here. I'm definitely, I get hangry. Ooh. I get real hangry. I get irritable.

I'm like, my eyes start twitching. I start foaming out the mouth. And then I have Snickers. And then my day goes back to normal. Fuck yeah. Like, the world is hopeless. See, maybe that's what Arya needed. That's what Arya needed. She needed

a Snickers. This was the true three heads of the dragon. She had to go out there, she had to hunt a little Snickers, you know, stick it with the pointy end. Arya must have fallen asleep, but she doesn't remember falling asleep, and she dreams of Wolf howling a terrible howl, and it wakes her

she asks everyone she's like did you guys hear that wolf and they're like nah we didn't hear a wolf saving the day once again i'm telling you guys those wolf dreams yeah you pointing out that this was like an alert that was crazy to me because it is it was a wake-up call a literal wake-up call again makes you think of catalan having some of those like cassandra like thoughts and fears that she tells people and they're like nah you're just being crazy cat and these keep coming in handy as we get to a storm of swords down the line we start to see that she's tapping in more than realizing some of this stuff maybe not fully realizing how she's tapping in but like she's pretty much directing namiria in a storm of

swords like when the brave companions are hunting her and she's hunting them yeah uh she doesn't quite fully realize it but i it really makes me and you kind of made me think of this ara coming to rob ignoring gray wind i really wish i had that from a pov right just to see his connection and thoughts like what he felt from gray wind and if his connection was deeper than ario's at this point or not i'd be interested i wish we had at least just one rob pov yeah just one you could have made it a prologue or an epilogue and he's gonna die anyways so could it that way but like just just inside his head one time just one time i i actually do believe that rob was uh more adept at skin changing than aria was at this

time he's not like a green seer the way that bran is but i do think that rob was probably the most proficient i absolutely agree because i think he actually tapped into it yeah like he's like oh this is fun he's like, ooh, this is fun. He's like, I love dogs. Or wolves, whatever. I know they're all like, dogs and wolves are different, but I'm like, whatever. He's a fucking dog. They're big dogs.

I don't care. Not for the Starks, right? They're really not that different to the Starks. Oh, not at all. The Starks are like, this is what dogs should be like. What are you talking about? Yeah. She yanks her boots on, yelling that something's wrong.

Something is coming, and then a sound comes shuddering through the night. Cur is blowing a horn, sounding danger. Yeah. runs, scrambling to the catwalk on the parapets. Trying to see over, she thinks it's lightning bugs for a moment through the town, but realizes men with torches are galloping through, lighting buildings as she goes by a hundred, two hundred. Gendry points where a column of riders comes through and she can't quite make out the banner, but it looks red. Everything did. Yoren shouts commands, everyone is running or struggling with animals. The little crying girl clings to her leg and she shoves her away. A knight in a tall helm demands they open their gates in the name of the king. He asks if they are one of Lord Beric's cravens or if Thoros the fat fool is in there.

Fun fact, Thoros lost some weight, buddy. Yoren shouts back, they're only lads of the Night's Watch, hoisting up their black banner, but one of the knights shouts back, or maybe black for House Dondarrion. It's fucking so stupid. Like, there would be purple and lightning, you idiot. You

motherfucking idiot. What the fuck? Also like, yeah, okay, Amri Lorch, you fucking fatphobic motherfucker. Leave them alone. Leave them alone leave them alone yeah i think he's just jelly yeah you wish you had powers and light pink robes yeah agreed and a top knot do you say because i just noticed this aura do you say lightning bugs or do you say firefly fireflies i also say fireflies chloe do you say lightning bugs? Fireflies. Interesting. Like the song. Yeah.

I can't believe my ass. A thousand fireflies. There are some regions where they use lightning bugs, so I thought that was an interesting... It stood out to me in there. Yeah, I'm kind of looking at it now, and it seems it's more of a southern, southeast, and that fireflies are more, like,

west, northwest, the entire, entire like west side of the map however the um top bits you know like the top of the midwest to the northeast so ara is like a light bluish like more firefly than lightning bug but it like it's mixed so interesting yeah it's like a regional dialect thing and i it's just interesting because, what, George is also... He should be saying Firefly because he's from New Jersey. Well, it makes it very different. That's all. That's all I wanted to talk about, everyone.

Well, it's like the, you know, the regional dialects are my lord, I guess, versus my lord. My lord? This is not... Yeah, this is not class, I guess. This is just... This is just, yeah, this is not class, I guess. This is just, this is just region. Anyway. Arya remembers the morning that she had thrown an orange at Sansa and her ivory gown that she wore and that Jeyne had been in love with a Beric Dondarrion. He had a lightning bolt on his

shield and her father had sent him out to behead the Hound's brother. It seemed a thousand years ago now, something that had happened to a different person in a different life. To Arya, the Hand's daughter, not Arya the orphan boy, how would Arya know lords and such?" So yes, Arya learning to think about what she's saying compared to what she's thinking. Very good, very well done Arya. Except as we get to the moment of battle soon, you know, you can't really help but let loose then. Yoren asks if he's blind, and the knight answers by night. All banners look black. He says open, or you'll be named outlaws

in League of the King's enemies. And he names himself as Ser Amri Lorch Tywin, the Hand of the King's bannerman, which I'm like, Tyrion's technically Hand of the King. I know he's taking that for his dad for a moment, but excuse me's true that's true he is um interim interim hand of the king if you will but uh that that actually when you read it aloud stood out to me um amory lorch in his like in a twisted way is kind of saying what should be happening when the long

night happens at night all banners look black they will all be part of the watch in maybe book 6 or 7 that's gonna be horrible no they're gonna band together kind of maybe hopefully but probably not because it's never gonna be that simple of course wouldn't that be nice they're not all gonna die but a lot of them

will also or at least not then Yoren is gonna die now rib so you're in scowls and tells them that the town is nothing to them and they're no foes of the king look with your eyes aria wanted to shout at the men below can't they see we're no lords or knights she whispered i don't think they care ari gendry whispered back duh he's like uh sis i'm not sure if you checked um they really don't care i mean this is her first real like obviously maika was an injustice and she saw that on the smaller scale but this is her first big scale watching

injustice happen to people and watch people that should not be hurt at all by the gold cloaks being just fucked up like that this isn't what they're supposed to do like it's one thing to enforce the king's will but they're just burning whole entire villages and hold fasts and homes of these people and worse it's their realm like yes they're splitting right now and there's war but it's so funny because you're burning down what you want to be left over afterwards when you win you want to be king of scorched fucking ground idiot asshole like you're gonna have no food you're going into the winter you're burning down one of the biggest food sources the only place that's gonna have food left is the fucking reach at this point like smh smh uh aria looks at amory's face and she's like yeah gendry's right he's fucking crazy they ask once more to come in

and they're like in the name of king joffrey and yoren defies him which reminds me of in john 2 that chapter right before this uh jarman buckwell says a year ago, Robert was king and the realm was at peace. Much can change in a year's time. Well, here we are, King Joffrey, in all that is good and great, commanding across the realm, and these are his acts he's commanding, quote unquote. No, I just thought of when you were mentioning that,

I believe it was the last chapter or maybe the chapter before that when jordan's talking about he's been traveling the king's road for 30 years i only had three people die on that on those travels and joffrey's been on the throne for maybe a couple weeks like wow you mean to tell me eris had better management than you did of these roads pal pretty much also aren't the gold clothes out of their jurisdiction anyways are they supposed to just be in king's landing yeah they just don't care as you said you know or like as as gendry points out yeah they just you know amory lorch not a not a big ideas guy definitely an executor definitely a doer yeah of kids he loves killing kids kid executor yes and

that is like especially for aria growing up in this world being told knights should protect her this is a big eye-opening moment where she sees that the people that are supposed to protect king's landing and do the king's will are burning down the fucking country like oh interesting that you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing quote unquote this is a big awakening chapter well also i mean that or they are doing like is this what taiwan strategy is right where you you burn down the fields, etc. Are they doing what they are supposed to be doing? Well, but that's what I mean. What they're supposed to be doing by their job description is not what they're doing. That the government is misusing their resources to burn down the countryside, even though the government is supposed to protect them is what I'm saying. Yeah, gotcha. Yes, yes. Just like, it's all turtles all the way down, you know?

I can't believe my tax dollars are going to this, is what I'm trying to tell you. Tywin's fucking drone striking the Riverlands. Christ almighty. It's horrible because that's so much food! I'm sorry, I'm really... It's a lot. I love food. No, that's what I was thinking of, especially with winter coming.

And there's a lot of... I think we went this out last chapter. There's a lot of food in these Arya chapters. Mm. Oh, yeah. Like, there's food in this one, too. Yeah, there was. Chicken and onions. And geese. Yeah. And geese. And that's gonna go

away. Oh, yeah, that food's done. Like, that garden that they just picked food out of, like, gone. Gone. The radishes and the cabbages. Yep. Howdy. Those stood out to me. I was like, they got radishes and the cabbages yeah outie those stood out to me i was like they got radishes and cabbages amory is bored basically of all this back and forth and just commands the men to scale the walls kill them all aria yanks hot pie out of the way of spears flying showing she does love hot pie after all a torch flies above their heads thumping into the dirt of the yard and

yoren commands them defend the wall yeah the you know again with these john mirrors right the not knights watchmen outnumbered by an invading force and trying to survive in some ways this kind this is kind of like the battle at the wall in miniature that's next book though i love that though because it is it's very um the darkness the banners in the dark as you said the uh the torches especially that's one of the very big strategies at the wall right that they're using torches and putting barrels of shit rolling them down to hit the enemies they have to kind of think like that out of the box here it doesn't go well but we have these scenes we have we have again one of the most iconic scenes in the whole book series coming up in a second hot pie drops his sword when trying to take it out and aria

puts it back in his hands he tells her he doesn't know how to sword fight and she lies and tells him that it's easy i'm like oh she's gonna tell him stick him with the pointy end but doesn't as a hand grabs the parapet climbing up to get them she slashes at them with needle blood spurting the fingers fly off the hand and the face disappears. And Hot Pile's behind as another man appears and she drives needle at him. For every man that Arya cuts or stabs, another one comes over the wall. Interesting. Over the wall.

She sees the Lannister sigil and imagines driving needle into Joffrey's face. That's our girl. That's our girl. She sees Kyle, spelled with a Q, beg for mercy from, I needed to call that out, from a knight with a wasp on his shield. He smashes his face in. Everything smells like blood, smoke,

iron, and piss. Horrible. And at one point, the smell becomes one. I think she forgot a certain smell. All Kyle's are, you know, infused with monster energy drinks. Oh! Even the ones with a Q. Oh, urine sorry bull urine drink with a cue at the end uh a skinny man gets over the wall but gendry aria and hot pie fall on him gendry shattering

the man's helm and taking off his head. Ara, I will let you would you like to read this iconic moment for us? Oh, heck yeah. Yes. Underneath, he was bald and scared looking, with missing teeth and a speckly gray beard. But even as she was feeling sorry for him,

she was killing him, shouting Winterfell! Winterfell! While Hot Pie screamed, Hot Pie! Beside her as he hacked the man's scrawny neck. him she was killing him shouting winter fell winter fell while hot pie screamed hot pie beside her as he hacked the man's scrawny neck hot pie it reminds me of when donkey says donkey and shrek oh my god it is the exact same energy they're making shrek's shoes um oh i saw yeah the shrek crocs the shrek crocs know. I'm so mad your birthday's already gone. So I'm like, damn, should have gotten you those. Yeah, I think throughout the books, the scene always stays with me.

And I love like in my head or sometimes I'll reenact it. People just yelling, hot pie, hot pie, making slashing motions. I love that it's like, Arya actually has a lot of fucking humor in her chapters. Real fleeting. Like there's that line about Pia in the buttery in A Storm of Swords, where she's like, Pia was always seeing ghosts in the buttery. It fucking, it's horrible in retrospect, because we know Pia doesn't have the easiest time, but it's really just like a fucking whirlwind of a comment, like sharp, snarky.

She's like, whatever. She's always seeing men in the buttery. Her chapters just have this great commentary and snark. I love it hope it continues in the winds of winter someday you mean today look under your chair yeah today today i mean there's stuff in this that does tie into the the winds chapter that we have yes there is there's something that i actually didn't even fucking mention because i'm like ah we'll talk about that way later in a spoiler-controlled environment. Though, if you haven't read Mercy, what are you doing? Go read Mercy. It's such a fucking good chapter.

They're waiting for it to come out in the book. So, they fought their way off the parapets, ending up in the yard, and Arya looks around, death surrounding them, wondering where to go. And then Euron was there, shaking her, telling her that they've lost, and to herd who she can and get the boys out through the trap door in the barn.

Yes, tell the little kid to do it. I'll just say, insert George Lucas. It's like poetry. It rhymes. But Jon, for me, I think it's interesting because I feel like there's a nice Jon, Arryn, Robb, and Ned parallel here between Joran, Gendry, and Arya, where both Jon and Yoren have these two essentially wanted children. Because realistically, they're there for Gendry, but if they figured out Arya was there too, it'd be like two for one special. So with that being said, it's like, all right, their protector, their guardian is putting their life and their honor on their line to protect their wards.

Even though Euron kind of dies here and doesn't, you know, die later from poisoning from his wife and, you know, how that went. But I just find it very interesting, the little connections there. I feel like there's a lot of ties between Gendry and Arya with, like, Ned and Robert. I love that because then later Jon even does the same thing, right? Where he has to save the lives of two kids or try to and switcheroo him and Davos, of course, we'll talk about also does that, but lots of... And Aegon, right? The entire switcheroo of Aegon

of trying to quote-unquote save Aegon that comes up, that gets gardened in. But I love the... I like that. That shows you the way that these characters act when it comes to hiding the identities of wanted children in injustice that says a lot about the character of those characters i just love you calling that out because you know we see those similarities between ned protecting john and and you know what's going on here with gendry but absolutely with the john aaron one aria gathers as many people as she can. They find Lami bleeding and there's a spear in his leg. Garen is too hurt to move. Arya finds and grabs the little girl, having to drag her in her right hand. So I hate to be that

guy, but you know, at least Arya tries to help her crying girl in her, you know, chapters as this parallel Sansa with her crying girl being jane who's her bff and she's like yo this girl's kind of like annoying me can we do something about that yeah and i mean it's interesting because again jane pool's story ends up right really intersecting with arias in a in an unexpected way um to put it lightly but i kind of think that's's the point of Sansa's story and the growth, right, and why I was surprised that Arya was trusting of knights earlier on, because Sansa, I think, she trusts that the system is going to work for people versus the disillusionment, which later on becomes her disillusionment with the system

and realizing, oh, we have to look out for the people around us because and comfort people around us because you know people aren't going to look out for that right versus how aria has always been rejected in many ways by that system and therefore is like oh it's on me to take care of this and to save people and we see sanza later on being like taking care of people like dantos even though it it endangers her and the black water right um being like these people are being really weird and dramatic and annoying and then being like oh that's because we're scared because they're war there's war and then you know stepping up and comforting everyone but you know i think that that growth and that contrast between believing the system works versus not it intersects even with Joran's own story, right?

He's like, I don't know, we're the Night's Watch. We're supposed to be protected. Like, this isn't supposed to happen. People are supposed to leave us alone and let us just go along our way. And then they don't because Amriel Lorsch is a really, he's an executor. I was going to make a really so unserious thing here. Sansa does not have a fun genie at King's Landing.

Her King's Landing genie is the worst. Yeah. At least Arya's, you know, genie, Jokin, listens to her and does exactly what she asked, well, them, no one, whatever they are to do. Sansa's is like, hey, can you grant me this wish

and it's like i'm gonna give you the worst possible outcome that wish yeah it's like poisoned mentors right she has poisoned mentors in king's landing sansa is stuck with cersei in the first book as her mentor how the fuck do you think that's gonna go she's in the second book stuck with dantos and littlefinger becoming her new mentors for the next couple books or for well until dantos you know in regards to the genie aspect it's like yeah you get your wish but first i'm gonna sexually harass you yeah absolutely it's uh there's also it comes back to that idea of like the immaturity for both aria and sansa not being in a war ever and not understanding right Arya is stuck in a

very physical part of the war right now on the road uh in the midst of it and Sansa is stuck in more of the psychological warfare part of it in holding hostages in politics at court right I mean Arya finds the little girl annoying she quite clearly says it in this chapter and in the last chapter she says she rode ahead of the wagons as far as she dared. So she wouldn't have to hear the little girl crying or listen to the woman whisper. Or in this chapter, she could hear the crying girl from the far side of the Haven. I wish she'd just be quiet. Why does she have to cry all the time? We know, right? Like obviously she's a small child traumatized by war. Same with the woman who was also possibly traumatized and freaking out from the war,

the violence they've experienced, hunger, malnourishment, etc. And Arya doesn't really understand or contextualize that, of like why that's happening and just thinks, oh, I wish they'd shut up. And Sansa's similar, right? She thinks that she's joined the nobles now. She thinks that Cersei is her protector. She thinks that Cersei is a good queen, which is, I mean, that's what she's been shown thinks that Cersei is a good queen which is I mean that's what she's been shown that Cersei is a wronged party she's a victim she's a good queen who's gonna set rights now that her bad drunk husband is gone uh and she thinks she's

joined that that Cersei is on her side and we see that that like she's portraying herself as a woman of the court we see it in Sansa too in a game Game of Thrones at the tourney when Jane's crying at the tourney because it's a little horrible and gory. Sansa's like, I don't, I can't cry because then they see me cry and I'm a lady of the court now. Um, when obviously we know, no, honey, you're a hostage soon. You don't know it yet, but you're going to be a hostage. We see that mask, right? Like Sansa's toying with understanding that mask at the end of A Game of Thrones. Uh, she does absolutely think that Jane's being annoying and not being a lady about it. She thinks she thought the kindness might lift Jane's spirits, but the other girl just looked at her with red swollen eyes and began to cry harder. She was such a child. But also Sansa

thinks that Jane's dad is just downstairs. She thinks that Jane's dad is off, you know, downstairs being held and that he's going to be let go. She doesn't Jane's dad is off, you know, downstairs being held and that he's going to be let go. She doesn't get they're slaughtering her whole family. And she still does choose to stand up for Jane. I will defend her on that, Ara, listen, because she does. I mean, she does ask. She goes, Cersei, please, won't you do something? Jane just wants to see her dad. She just wants to see her dad. She's scared. She won't stop crying. Can't she just see her dad? And then when all of a sudden Cersei's like, huh, Littlefinger, can you take care of that for me? Thanks.

Because she's just, she's scaring poor little Sansa. Obviously, that's what's happening. And Sansa's like, wait, no, that's not, I don't understand. Yeah, it's really unfortunate that I'm like, a lot of people do not have empathy for others it seems like especially like how you pointed out like Sansa and Arya both find these two people crying like to be annoying not realizing like maybe if we had a little empathy and realize the trauma that they just experienced we'd be a little bit more understanding of that but unfortunately just the way they're brought up especially as like ladies empathy's not really something they like afford to people not only that but especially to people below their

station they're like should be all right and it's really sad when you look at it i think it's also a world that like they've never had to experience it like it's never been something that Arya could experience violence from war there's never been an opportunity for Sansa to experience the violence of war and be a hostage ever they're very much fish out of water in this scenario wolves out of water other crying babies Rickon's a crying baby and Bran and Rob find him so annoying yeah I mean everybody's stuck with a crying kid crying kids can be annoying dude I get it I mean Rob and Everybody's stuck with a crying kid. Crying kids can be annoying, dude. I get it. I mean. Rob and Brynn are stuck with a little crying Rickon for a while.

Yeah. And then when Rob disappears, Brynn's still like, still crying a lot. Can we do something about that? And I'm like, guys, they're sad. It's okay to be sad, guys. It's okay to cry. Yeah. I want to have a poster in Westeros saying it's okay to cry.

Honestly, a lot of them would benefit from that they would problems would be solved if people cried more in westeros yeah it's funny because those lessons that ned didn't teach them they have to learn them the hard way right where the brothers were handed these lessons and said you know when can a man be brave you know this is when when when, when he's afraid. And both Arya and Sansa do, in the moment of fear, stand up for Jane slash save the little girl, which is good. But unfortunately, in the situation Sansa's in, there's no saving anyone because they have power over those girls that those girls don't have an escape from. Justice for Jane.

Yeah. Yeah. I think, I don't know know there's also an aspect of like you pointed out that aria does do all this even though she finds the girl annoying she she sucks it up and she does the the thing to save her anyway um and that dovetails with something else later on this chapter but just like the only time a man can be brave is when he's afraid sometimes like i i don't know like that it's necessarily always bad to think that the crying is annoying but like as people who live in a society and to demonstrate empathy sometimes you just got to be like as you were saying you got to show that understanding like yeah you might think it's annoying but

we show up for each other regardless even though we feel bad about it or being an adult is sometimes you just got to manage your own feelings and be there for people anyway i mean not that they're adults four-year-olds start to learn empathy right like it really starts developing around three four so i don't also expect a nine-year-old a seven-year-old or a 12-year-old to have like immense understanding and empathy so i guess that's fair but but i'm like i so i'm not a parent right but i don't know i imagine if i had a kid i'd be like this is fucking annoying that they're crying but you still got to take care of it anyway i don't know unfortunately you kind of learn how to tune it out it's like a certain frequency you're like really

yeah like i can interesting actually like i know if we're in public and i hear the the cry i'm like oh that's my cry like that's my response oh but if we're home and it's just like ah my video game isn't working i'm just my cat has one of those i get it i get it my cat has a yell that like doesn't mean anything it just means he's being annoying and wants me to throw a ball for him and i'm like i can ignore that shit all day long i'm not gonna listen to you bud bud so the night is a sullen red and aria realizes the barn is on fire but not in a fun way thought pie tells aria to leave the girl that lami's already gone they have to move but gendry arrives in time at least to hoist the girl on his shoulder and yell run in

the flames the animals are screaming and the trio of bad guys in the wagon are also screaming Jockin calls to Arya saying sweet boy Gendry ignores the three men and tells Arya to go first Arya's like where did you leave the axe that axe you were splitting wood with and Gendry's like out by the haven I'd rather save the donkeys than those men though if you're gonna get the axe and she's like get the little girl and then she goes outside she sees men dying around her she grabs the axe and as she's grabbing it a hand actually grabs her rather roughly which is almost like book ends her last chapter of storm with the axe when you think about it but she throws spins around drives the axe at his legs good for you

she runs back into the barn and smoke is pouring out and she gets super low to the ground she smells burning hair the roof's gone burnt off and she crawls toward the sound of screaming from biter throwing the axe inside of the wagon and then she runs coughing with the sound of steel She's like, good fucking luck. You were weird. She's like, I don't know, figure it out. Yeah, it's your problem now. Which, honestly, that's good enough, right? Jamie was always like, just give me a fucking sword, I'll figure it out.

which honestly that's good enough right Jamie was always like just give me a fucking sword I'll figure it out um this moment kind of made me think this is like not necessarily important but I don't know I was just having a little little thought experiment of you know the what is the life of one bastard boy against the kingdom especially because we get Edric this book um and the decision of whether or not to save these three men in that context because Arya makes this choice right which is very nice of her to potentially endanger herself right she delays herself being able to get to safety potentially even sacrificing herself for these to save these three strangers one of whom is a total weirdo the two of whom are total weirdos all of them are weirdos never mind and they are all decidedly guilty and wretched roger's an asshole biter is very weird and scary um i would say arguably

cotton like categorical imperative shit might say that the moral choice is you have to save them from burning but i think if you look back on it kind of like utilitarian style like when i think about the rest of the books i'm'm like, damn, a lot less people would have died in this story though if she just let these people burn. And I mean, we wouldn't have gotten cool murder genie Jockin and Arya who escape from Harrenhal

and who are definitely friends in my opinion. But the people that Jockin killed would all be alive. But also like all these people that Rorjan Bighter terrorized. And I know I'm like, it just really makes you think. Brienne's face would, you know, be a little bit more whole yeah that's true that's true or less of a whole okay but look at the first book okay are we gonna argue what about killing daenerys um robert over here i'm just kidding well that's different i know special she's special that's different. Wait, what? Dani's special. She's special? That's different. Dani's a POV character, first of all.

And she's, like, cool. Yeah. No, she should live. She also helped save a bunch of other people, too. Mm-hmm. And I just think it's interesting, because Rorge and Biter, only one of those people was worth saving, in my opinion. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

But you can't just only save one i mean you could but it would be really really kind of nasty be like i'm slamming the door on you else you can't pick you know well and it also comes to that great line right men's lives have meaning not their deaths so aria gave them a chance at life to see if they could make their lives have meaning and if there would be something they would do with their lives. Obviously we learn Rourj and Biter do not do anything spectacular with their lives after this, but Jaqen proves very useful and well too bad about little weasel girl but. Great. Weasels just live. I have a note that I left in like my phone from years ago

and I was like what does this mean and I was like what apparently years ago i was speculating what happens to weasel this should probably be in next chapter and i was like does she like run off meet the wolves become come back as like princess mononoke anyway i hope she comes back i do but i don't think that we'd know that's all uh they'll reference it in the future like someone's crying. It's like, oh, founder. Arya's returning to the Riverlands, a small four-year-old girl sobbing. I know who sobs. Imagine with a time skip, she'd be like 10. And that's this girl now.

That girl grew up to be Jane Heddle within two weeks. How did that happen? Wow, she's like a Rennesme or whatever that baby's name yeah which i've never like gotten to that part i only watched the second movie out of this entire like storyline freaky looking how have you only watched the second movie which to be fair that's probably one of my favorite of the four books i've read them all i was i was pre-teening once okay like i mean it is what it is but i love new moon of the four i'm I've read them all. I was pre-teening once, okay? Like, I mean, it is what it is. But I love New Moon.

Of the four. I'm like, New Moon and Breaking Dawn. That's it. So, I've only heard about Renesmee. Aura, play us out. She rolls into the tunnel, dirt in her mouth, cool and dark. She begins to crawl. A dozen feet down the tunnel she heard the sound like the roar of some monstrous beasts and a cloud of hot smoke and black dust came billowing up behind her

smelling of hell aria held her breath and kissed the mud on the floor of the tunnel and cried for whom she could not say i will say the monstrous beast kind of reminds me of when they escaped Winterfell oh interesting yeah yeah yeah the wolves being like oh there was something in the smoke or whatever yeah cause you think of like what Daenerys with the shadows on the wall in her tent from the fire and the smoke

and the light it makes me think of that a little bit in the first book ooh yeah I love that last line it's so sad ugh In the first book. Ooh. Yeah. I love that last line. It's so sad. Ugh. Yeah.

Or could it be, like, she heard, again, like, those wolf dreams. Like, she heard the roar of the wolves being like, you did it. You did good, kid. I love it. Either way, it's, like, such good prose. He's so good at that. He kills at all that. Yeah, I love that like, if you imagine the kissing the mud, when she finally gets in there on the floor of the tunnel, that cool, you know, that cool taste of ground and like that air that's very like,

earthy. I can smell it almost myself. So he does a great job of describing it. I remember reading the story of this one refugee woman when she got to safety i remember she gets off the bus and she kisses the ground of the new place that she got to there's that line and this comes back to bran in bran to a storm of swords one of my favorite chapters when they talk about howland we often make fun of them saying he could run on leaves uh because anyone can fucking run on leaves but there is that line he could breathe mud oh and it makes me think of aria no i can't do that but that makes me think of this line with aria and especially as we've talked about her kind of with some of those in the past couple

chapters some of those children of the forest-esque things and makes you think of Howland who's small and has a connection, is a seer in a way, and breathing mud. On a different note, it made me think also of like the blood, it's full of life, and there's all these animals living in it. And you know, Barristan being like, oh, Daenerys should have chosen mud, you know, Quentyn's mud, and he, maybe he thinks he's like full of life and nurturing. I'm like, shut the fuck up. Let Daenerys... Let Daenerys choose whoever the fuck she wants.

God damn it. Like, Barristan, like, you have so much experience in that department. Right. Like, stop projecting, Barristan. Interesting, Barristan. Maybe your only crush also chose mud. Have you ever thought about that?

Ooh. True. Interesting. Interesting. maybe your only crush also chose mud have you ever thought about that true interesting interesting yes that is a quote that i know by heart due to ashara dane thank you yes yeah put the fuck out barriston i'm like you're quoting all of my favorites yeah hashara is canon hashtag hashtag hashtag uh i love this very end and, you know, I've been reading The Expanse. As Eliana knows lately, I've been digging into The Expanse. And it was funny because there was a quote that was used in The Expanse that comes from poet Thomas Babington Macaulay, who has a great epic poem, Herodias, a long narrative ballad about Herodias Cocles. But he's a legendary hero from early Roman history, and famously, he says in the poem,

to every man upon this earth, death cometh soon or late, and how can man die better than facing fearful odds for the ashes of his fathers and the temple of his gods? So, long story short, because it is a long-ass fucking poem, it's about honor and dying for what you believe in, right? And we come back to that thought of Arya saving lives, but also condemning some lives by saving lives, right? And choosing not to just only save the little girl, but also the three men stuck in the wagon, even if their character isn't really indicative of being worthy to be saved. stuck in the wagon, even if their character isn't really indicative of being worthy to be saved.

Because who is Arya to speak for the gods or who is Arya to judge what a life is worth? That's not her job. Their father never told them, right? The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. Arya didn't want to condemn them to death. She could not condemn them to death. She felt guilty to leave them there to die. Because if you would be the person to decide it's time for that man to die, you should look them in the eye, their final words right and if you can't bear to do that maybe they don't deserve to die Arya wasn't ready to go in there and end their lives or to leave and end their lives the the right way I'm not saying that you should just kill people there's really not a right way to kill people I guess pointy end but um you know it's wasn't for her to choose for people to die

and if she could save people she chose to save people and I think that's overall indicative of her character she also is kind of going with Yoren's last words to her which was essentially get everybody out yeah get anybody you could get out get them out and those three men are included because

say they did make it to the wall they would have become brothers of the night's watch which i could not imagine them at the wall i was like i would not want them at the wall like you like imagine oh my god it's actually really devastating because the other men were good of this group like they'd all become a group a good group yeah yeah we needed those men not these men yeah i just think of like poor sam imagine poor samuel tarley having to interact with origin biter oh my god like awful i was imagining your line of imagine origin biter at the wall and

i'm like thinking of origin biter turning to each other and be like imagine us at the wall and be like right because no matter what they were going to try to escape. Like, let's be fucking real, they weren't going to try to stick around, were they? Oh, no. Those men were not made for the wall. And they know it. Yeah, it kind of does like actually play along, though, again, with Jamie, your other POV, right? Like when Brienne has to make that call and be like, all right, fuck it. Yeah, he gets a sword now. I I mean I guess he kind of fought her so maybe it wasn't exactly like that but whatever but he kept being like you should free me

and she's like no I like our little kink or you and chains thing I think Jaime likes it too oh my god it's just like Clarissa Mao oh Jaime definitely was into it question in aura especially I want to hear from you Eliana you know neutral on if I want to hear no I and Ara, especially, I want to hear from you.

Eliana, you know, neutral on if I want to hear. No, I'm just kidding. Of course I want to hear from you. Who do you think is Jaqen's number one on the kill list for? Like, what do you think he's up to in Westeros since Arya gives him life? Yeah, I know. That's a big fucking question, right? What do you think he's after?

Honestly, I'm not sure if it was necessarily a direct person to kill, but I think he, with infiltrating the wall, in my opinion, the person I would want to seek out the most at the wall would be Aemon. Aemon's knowledge and wealth of knowledge was so extensive, especially if you buy into the Faceless Men being part of the destruction of Valyria. And it's like, well, we got one dragon up north. I know he's old, but still smart.

And that could come back to bite us in the butt at some point. Unfortunately, it does not because Aemon dies on the way to go see Daenerys, which is the worst thing in the world. On the way to the Faceless Men, really, when you think about it. Exactly. He's going to go right to them. Wow. Arah, it's making sense. Oh my God. What about now that he's like technically in Oldtown, right? What do you think? What do you think he's doing there? I think Citadel goes straight to the knowledge, just learning more because it's like,

you guys have different books over here. We'll go check your library. So you think he's rogue. I like that. He's on a rogue. I think he wants a universal library card. Yeah, that's why you should really have free libraries for all. Your bright Westeros really needs to, I hope under good King Bran, he really brings that policy home. Less people would die.

I really wish you didn't say that. Less people would die if they could just go to the library instead of having to kill someone to get in, you know? Yeah, because for me, besides obviously being assassins, one of the things with the Faceless Men we see in, like, Arya's training is observation, intelligence gathering, kind of like a little spy system. So I could see him being, like, CIA shit. I know people, like, think he's also looking for a specific book for the Faceless Men as well because yeah i i do think that they had a hand in the fall of valeria but yeah do you think he's looking for a specific book i don't i don't really know what jock ends up to i'm like this is beyond me it would make sense because if the

specific book he's looking for has anything to do with like especially with danny just waking dragons and that news spreading like wildfire, especially like in Essos. And I don't know what type of weird magic system that they probably have to communicate internationally with the Faceless Men. I'm assuming they have a system in place though for some reason or another. Well, and they have like some books. I think one of the big theories is like Barth's book, right?

Barth's dragon book and possibly him looking for that because you know they do have, they have a copy of Lives of the Four Kings. They have a partial collection of the Fires of the Freehold. There's the locked vault, right? It's said to contain the sole remaining copy of Blood and Fire, which technically I want to say is the like Death of the Dragons book. And it's like basically blood soaked scraps. Only surviving copy is supposed to be in a locked vault beneath the Citadel so i'm curious if it could be that i don't think

it's the only copy oh oh i i think amen has a copy like i'm telling you guys i have this whole thing i think amen actually it's a theory on my video um one of my old theory videos about amen being part of like a secret society and then house of the Dragon came out and I was like oh yeah Prince that was promised like all of it all comes together in dragons and Night's Dark and Full of Terror cause he gave the Jame compendium yeah I think he definitely has some like nice

like volumes cause I figure he's like a hundred years old so like he he's probably found some really cool books and not only that the library like when Sam goes through it he's like there's like scroll books. And not only that, the library, like, when Sam goes through it, he's like, there's, like, scrolls that are, like, thousands of years old. I'm so excited for T-Wow. Stop.

Stop. I'm sorry. I just, like, if I could go to a library, I'd want to go, if not to the Citadel, I would love to explore the library at Castle Black. Just because where they stay out of the affairs of the realm, I feel like their book supply didn't get as tampered with. That's a good point. That and

Dany's books, too. That stack of books she got, I want to know more about. I wonder if there's anything in those books that we're going to find out. I don't know, maybe weird Jorah propaganda. I'm joking. All blonde girls should marry a mormon especially

if they're hairy and gross black and the cold temperatures would also be good for preserving preserving books as well books bodies oh yeah so you don't have to taste it in the water oh my god exactly ara you're so fun i'm so glad you're here to go through all this with us thank you for taking my um my you know little question i was just curious i don't know what i think but i think maybe he's gone rogue though well you know i wanted to see what was up in there you know what she was into what she's about but i don't know i think that you're on to something that maybe he's looking for the books right uh but i'm wondering too is he on a rogue mission now is he not doing something like was he given something and instead he's trying to learn something i don't know i just don't know

or maybe he's gonna kill someone at the citadel soon another someone not just pate the big boy oh interesting because obviously he didn't kill pate because he had to he killed it because he had to like he didn't kill him because it was his assignment he killed him because he needed his body to continue his assignment marwin oh yeah marwin marvin's like a good that ship sailed i don't know about like killing but you know knowledge you were you were saying like are they trying to get a knowledge from him one knowledge please they're like all right who's into magic? Who's left?

I think that's where my brain's at, because I like magic, and I like to think Jockin likes magic. I like to think of him as a magician from kids' parties. Yeah, I mean, he wrote a book. He wrote the Book of Lost Books, you know? And we actually see Roderick, the reader, reading that book. Jockin as... Wait, did you mean Jockin, right, as the... At kids' parties, or Marwyn? No, I meant Jockin. as the kids parties or marwin no i'm a jockin yeah sorry i meant jockin was a magician marwin too they're both magicians but he's like i think

marwin's like the magician from vegas but like jockin just goes to kids parties and does like rabbits out of the hat and like basic job yeah he is like job isn't no i No I'm joking Jobin Hagar He's um It's Rick and Morty you know We just need to get Sam with Marwyn Marwyn is straight up Rick One day Shout out to Pork Quentin on that That's really his

He's always seen Marwyn as Rick I can definitely see it Because they're really smart But they're also like assholes to the highest degree. Like every other word, yeah. Every other word, he's just puking.

And burping a little bit. I can see it. My god. Ara, thank you for joining us. I want you to tell us what's coming up in new for you, whether with Dire Wolf City, if you guys are doing anything coming up or with your youtube channel what's coming up soon and all the other places we can find you yes so for dire wolf city that's a tbd there's a lot going on behind the scenes guys

but anyways i could speak to what i do know which is my channel for i zebra i've been on a little hiatus you know there is a writer's strike i'm not not a part of the WGA, but like I want to be one day maybe. In the meantime, I do plan on covering some more Hunger Games stuff because we have a movie coming out in November for Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. So that's been on my docket. I do have a couple little outlier Yellow Jackets theories. And actually talking about this magic stuff, I should probably revisit my very shaky old outline on my big tree system theory

regarding the magic in Westeros that I kind of lightly touched upon here. It has inspired me. I might have to go back to my notes. Just might. Do it! Please! I would love to be able to link that whenever it's done. Tell us. Please, please. Yeah. I haven't read that specific Hunger Games book, but the movie looks good. Amazing. Do it. whenever it's done tell us please please yeah i haven't read that that um specific hunger games

book but the movie looks good amazing do it it's actually really good i mean i really liked the hunger games so i've reread it fairly recently and i planned on rereading it again right before the film drops but i figure not a lot of people have like read the books yet and with the movie coming out i want to you know provide some context for people out there yeah i'm really excited for it i read it on the on a whim that handful of months ago and me and you were very excited when the trailer came out i was so excited freaking out that oh my god the costumes in that movie looks so good already and i have to say back to our euphoria home girl hunter shaffer looks amazing as tigress amazing uh hunter shaver's character is gonna be a great character oh yeah that character poster they released recently with mother hunter and

that like pink like matching power skirt set i loved it she's everything to me she's barbie we're all just 10 did you literally did you see binonica? Because some people were like, which Targaryens are they? And Bidonica's like, these are Lannisters. But it is kind of funny because Bidonica also pointed out, usually I do think of Hunter Schaefer as being Targaryen coded, but in that poster and in that specific role, she does look very Lannister-y. Yeah, I would like to say that I had actually commented with Bedonica about it, and I will say that to tell the difference between a Lannister and Targaryen in your brain when fan casting, one uses purple toning shampoo and the other wants to be brassy, and that's how you're going to figure it out every time. And these two, girl, they're brassy. They look so brassy in these photos. So accurate, even though they should be using purple shampoo. Right? You would think Cersei would be all over it. But no, Lannisters are brassy and bossy. Targaryens are purple toner. That's knowledge for you guys right there. Some

knowledge you can only get on Girls Gone Canon. But yes, thank you, Ara. Where can the people find you once more? And I know you've told us some of what you're up to, and I'm excited. I'm excited for those. Yeah, you can find me on all socials at IEatZebra. All one word is not part of the name. I'm just saying IEatZebra is just one full word together. So yeah, I'm not that creative, and I just like to make things easy for myself. So it's the same on all platforms.

Hey, that's smart. It's not laziness or not creativity. It's smart because I wish I had flatlined all my media. You're a smart cookie. Yeah, I just was like, I don't feel like I could do something else's work. So let me take it with me. Way easier. Way easier.

You're branded consistently, sister. I love it. Branding. Well, thank you again for joining us. To everyone at home listening, you can catch us next week with Aria 5. And Aria is the first of many wonderful guests we hope to bring on for Aria. So we couldn't have asked to break it in with anyone better. She's leading the pack. Now we are. She's leading the pack. She is. She yay now before we let our sponsors who are our patrons lead us out today eliana once more can you tell everyone at home where they can send

their pet photos their quips their witty quipicisms uh you name it yeah you can find us on girls gone canon that's c-a-n-o-n over on twitter or on blue sky Or you can email us at girlsgonecanon at gmail.com Yeah, and now for a word from our sponsors, who will lead us out and tell you where to find us on the web. Make sure you go to patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon if you do want to support and sponsor

these episodes. You can catch Girls Gone Canon on any of the following streamers. On Podbean, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Acast, Spotify, Overcast, Apple Podcast, iHeartRadio, Audible, and Amazon Podcasts. You can also join us on Patreon, where if you join the Thunder tier or above, you have access to a Discord and monthly happy hours and things like that. And by joining the Discord, you get access to a bunch of great channels, including but not limited to memes and shitposting channel, Fashion Hour. There are multiple channels for Historic Materials, A Song of Ice and Fire.

There's a pets channel, which I think is probably the most important channel of all. Respectful thirsting, because there's a channel for that. Come by, join the community. It's a lot of fun and you won't regret it. Thank you again to our patrons. As always, I have been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I've been another one of your hosts, Eliana. And thank you. And I've been the other other whore. Horst.

I'm like the other other host, Ara. Ara's like, I'm leaning into the horse face aspect of Aria today. I'm leaning into this Aria name. Aria the OG horse girl. Thanks, guys. We'll see you next week. Or hear you. Or you'll hear us. Oh my god, no one knows. see you next week. Or hear you. Or you'll hear us.

Oh, my God. No one knows. Thank you. That made me so happy. Your horse? No, no. The other host. She just came in with it.

I was so happy. She was ready. I know. She was so ready for that. Are you ready? Oh, my God. Are you ready? Not today.

Goodbye. Bye, folks.