Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 212 — ASOS Arya V

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

Arya listens to disco legend Anita Ward while at a tavern full of girls with her BFF Gendry who is one of many people with black hair. She learns about her dad's history during the rebellion when some...one brings a stray dog.  WOW, END OF THE YEAR. LAST EPISODE OF 2023—SEE YOU IN 2024 AKA TWENTY-TWENTY-SANDFOUR CLEGANE (I really tried there) Image created by Chloe re: Bullratheon: Credits: Attribution 3.0 GoodListener's Stable Noises at https://freesound.org/people/GoodListener/sounds/322443/All other sounds used via Commons 0 ---- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song Of Ice And Fire, Episode 212, Aria 5, A Storm of Swords. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. And I'm another one of your hosts, Eliana. And are you ready for the final Aria episode of the year slash Girls Gone Canon episode of the year? It's not the final Aria episode. She has a chapter in every single book. Yeah, this bitch is popular. Don't worry.
Starting point is 00:00:43 I love her for that. She's so real. This is our last episode of 2023. The last time you'll hear us on your feed with a new episode in 2023. For the historians. Yeah, for the
Starting point is 00:00:56 historians listening, all those maesters at the Citadel. We'll be back. Don't worry, can't get rid of us that easily, unfortunately. We'll be back. Don't worry. Can't get rid of us that easily. Unfortunately, we'll be back next year, 2024. There will be no episode on the 29th of December. Go party.
Starting point is 00:01:13 But we will return. Yeah, go party. Take a shot in our honor. Take two. One for Chloe, one for me. You're drinking for three, everyone. Oh my god. Whether it's a...
Starting point is 00:01:23 Yeah, we expect that you will be with family friends kissing smooching go kiss and smooch your family and friends be safe kisses yeah yeah be safe but we'll be back on january 5th with a special episode that is being sponsored by our patrons because patrons over in the stranger tier and up get bonus episodes. Every month they get a brand new bonus episode based on what management has chosen for them. Surprise, we're management. And they're releasing two eps from the vault for you. So January 5th, 2024, you will be listening to us talk about A Song for Leah by George R.R. Martin,
Starting point is 00:02:04 a novella that, I don't know, I really loved this one. I think you did too. Yeah, I love the jelly people. Yeah. It's just like the mind jelly, the giant Neopets jelly. It's funny because it does have two characters leading the story that have names you might remember, right? Rob and Leah.
Starting point is 00:02:28 But of course, they are not our Rob and Leah. So give that a read. If you don't have Dream Songs by George R. R. Martin, go get it. It's so good. Part one and part two are great. We are reading some of the stories from part one. And, you know, eventually we'll collect them all we'll move on to part two actually yeah i do think we'll eventually move on to part two we are really
Starting point is 00:02:50 enjoying these short stories and we are going to continue reading more of them so you know our biggest announcement in 2024 is that we're starting wild cards i'm just kidding it It is not yet April 4th. But for January 12th, the week after that, we'll be releasing another one from the vault. And it will also have Rob in it. A Song of Ice and Fires Rob, that is. We'll be releasing our Robisode POV for your listening pleasure. Where we do an episode based on Rob Stark. And if, you know, if he had his his own pov what it would look like what we'd learn from him the things we want to learn from him the things you might want to learn from his pov yeah we really look at you know what his the story from
Starting point is 00:03:38 his perspective would look like as well as what sorts of challenges his specific character would face his conflicts of the heart etc thought it'd be nice with these aria episodes yeah i think it goes perfectly i do and honestly i mean there's so much now that two years later this is what 2021 when we recorded this so like there's so much oh my god for 2024 yeah yeah way different and some of the questions and how we're reading aria right now right some of these questions we have and some of these discussions we've been having i could see them really applying to some of these bits from rob too so it'll be a big difference right to hear about rob stark in 21 versus rob in a song for Leah in 2023. And after the 12th, the next episode, we'll be right back on track with Aria 6.
Starting point is 00:04:30 And that's not the only thing to look forward to for next year, right? We're going to finish Aria. We're going to go to a big new POV for the summer. So stay tuned, all of those of you that are trying to figure out how those last POVs come out in order. And I don't know. What else? Part two of Eternal Sailor Moon.
Starting point is 00:04:49 We're going to be back with Magical Girls Gone Canon, the hit series. I'm also hearing that Unleash the D, the other series that top critics everywhere have been rating as 10 out of 10, bold, adventurous, witty, and also a little cutting. Maybe drunk. The critics that are saying this you know they there's a rumor that unleash the d is coming back for season two of hot d there is a rumor and i mean we'll just have to everyone will have to stay tuned to see if the rumors are true if unleash the d will you know unleash if it'll be unleashed. It'll be even more unleashed, even more D than before.
Starting point is 00:05:30 Uncut. Bigger D. Oh my god! Uncut. Uncut. Bigger. Stronger. Hell yeah. So, you guys, we'll be back. Don't worry.
Starting point is 00:05:44 You've got a lot to look forward to for 2024. And hey, December's not over yet for 2023, right? If you're a patron over at patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon, we're patrons in the stranger tier. As I mentioned, get those bonus episodes. You are still getting a bonus episode in 2023. This does not have to be the last time you listen to us. And this is so exciting.
Starting point is 00:06:08 You're getting episode one of our brand new Stranger Tearin' Up patron-only series on The Hunger Games. We will be covering the first novel by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, talking about it, the broad themes in it, and really getting into it. And I think it's going to be a recurring series, guys. I do feel it is going to be. I'm always surprised when you it and i think it's gonna be a recurring series guys i do feel it is going to be i'm always surprised when you make it sound like it might not be i went into this assuming we were doing the whole series all the books and i mean like as for this being a series not only do we hope to cover all three of the main books as well as the prequel that has recently gotten a movie. I mean, it's a pretty, it's a pretty chunky story.
Starting point is 00:06:50 Like, who knows how many each book individually could even be its own series. Who knows? Yeah, we're going to find out together this month. So get ready. It is a journey. Discovery. And of course, for January, we'll let you know what's coming in the front of the year for your patreon bonus episode in january 2024 but mom's the word for now while our last discord
Starting point is 00:07:14 brunch slash happy hour of the year for our thunder tier and above patrons at ten dollar and up tier uh that just happened front of the month in December 2023, but January's date has been already decided. Get excited. We hope to see you next year. We'll be joining up from 2 to 4 p.m. on January 21st, that's a Sunday, to hang out, and that's Eastern Time, E.T., to hang out, chat, brunch, gossip, gab, giveaway, whatever. There'll be some fun shit going on we'd love to see you there absolutely come ring the new year in with us we'll sing I don't know old lang syne and by that I mean we're not doing that
Starting point is 00:07:52 I don't know those words we'll sing something Mary and Gay yeah and it goes without saying but a huge thank you for listening to us this year and every year as we get through these crazy published novels by George R.R. Martin. It has been a pleasure.
Starting point is 00:08:11 It's been a privilege. And do it again next year. Roll it back. Let's do it again. Every single year until the Winds of Winter comes out. When T.W.O. comes out, we get to quit. And then we get to do it again when a dream of spring comes out forever forever and ever there's a lot of things that seem like they're coming out soon
Starting point is 00:08:33 though in 2024 isn't new hades coming out 24 i think so 24 24 hades 2 excited i'm i am looking forward to 2024 again there's hades thereades, there's bigger, harder D. Oh my god. Okay. Wow. Maybe even Sailor Moon Cosmos. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.
Starting point is 00:08:52 I think that actually is going to happen. T-Wow? What do you think about T-Wow? Call it in the air. So thank you everyone for being with us every single year. And for your continued patience and love. We appreciate you. With that,
Starting point is 00:09:10 we'll jump into our emails and tweets of note. We did get a great email. This is really fun. I am excited about this one as a Philly girl. We got an email from our friend Fox who said, I came across your podcast way too late in the game. I've been a pro A Song of Ice and Fire subreddit lurker and meme farmer for years, real, and never got into podcasts. But
Starting point is 00:09:31 now here they are. I found use this year. Yes, use is important. That is a yes, I found use this year, right before I started dealing with some issues that took me down for the count. It was great, like two friends cheering me up. Aw. They love our takes on Sansa because they say it's very refreshing and they say Littlefinger needs to get a damn job. That's so true. They love your bear voice, Eliana and my John voice. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Chloe's got new voices. Yeah, I've really... She's been expanding her range. More voices in 2024 to come, too. I mean, my God. Oh my gosh, yes.
Starting point is 00:10:08 Think of all the voices we can do. Anyways, our hot takes have been a bright spot for them. They're excited to see what's in store. And we've earned their Patreon subscription. Oh my God, we've earned their sword. Thank you so much. Fox has also posted a picture of their pepperoni which is buffy very cute y'all don't get to see it but we do very cute dog that's just one of the bonuses the perks of this job
Starting point is 00:10:34 you know what i mean is dogs more dogs yeah but she is very cute and she says that she likes to call her the queen of love and duty which is very fun amazing oh my god oh i feel that when it comes to dogs thanks sometimes they're like that yeah thank you so much fox and thank you for this photo love this picture of buffy our queen our new queen yeah please send your dogs your cats all those those animal photos to us we love it yeah Makes our day. Makes our day. I mean, I'm not actually kidding, too. Like, how many times do I stop you and be like, oh my god, did you see the dog that someone just emailed us?
Starting point is 00:11:11 Or sometimes people send birds. We get a lot of animals. We will take whatever animal you want to send us that you know and are personally acquainted with. Sometimes, I mean, I'm open to animals you're not personally acquainted with, but sometimes it's your connection with the animal that also truly makes us smile. Yeah. Ghermasi is the neologism I never knew I needed and I'm happy we could do that for you yes yes that was honestly big day big day for the cast boy pussy our friend egg aka egg on the six
Starting point is 00:11:58 was saying that this was like the most unhinged episode it opens with you telling everyone that the podcast is over. And then right after that, we go straight into explaining boy pussy to people. You know, honestly, what's really weird is it was like one of the most fun episodes in the entire fucking universe. We had a blast. Yeah. I'm sure you cut out laughter. I've had a blast in these Arya episodes. No, I think I leave a lot of our laughter in.
Starting point is 00:12:30 I think sometimes they just get caught by Noisegate too. But whatever. Speaking of things that are fun, we also got another Patreon comment from Barbara, whose sentiments are echoed by our friend Rowan in Discord. But essentially, you know, everyone loves, they love the idea of a barrack don darian as an influencer uh idea that you propose chloe and and this get ready with me
Starting point is 00:12:53 grwm series every time i see grrm i think grwm so it tracks yeah we are we've been getting ready with George for years. GRWM, GRRM. George, get ready, Martin. George, get ready, Martin. I have to also comment that Barbara not only laughed at it, Barbara laughed in Eliana speak at this because Eliana tends to say la mau as we've discussed on the podcast and Barbara commented that she was la mau-ing.
Starting point is 00:13:27 So have to point that out. Love that. La mau. Love everything happening there. Especially because I just have listened to you say it for like six, seven years now. So like other people saying la mau, please do. Please. Be like Eliana.
Starting point is 00:13:41 I don't think I, I don't even think about it. I'm convinced other people have said it and i must have gotten it from them but i just am convinced that this is a normal thing people say well now you're convincing others no it's not oh god there's gonna be more of her i don't know if i can do more of her well let's talk more about our girl aria and the other people in this story around her yeah let's jump into our lightning round with what we missed between aria 4 and aria 5 starting with daenerys 2 daenerys ponders purchasing a slave army her advisors won't shut up about what her brother would have done in her place brand 2 brand listens to a tale from mira about a dragon prince
Starting point is 00:14:24 and a wolf maid Chloe you've been talking about this a lot these episodes I don't know what you're talking about Robert's Rebellion Davos 3 Davos is imprisoned beneath Dragonstone but gets a new roommate who fucked up way harder
Starting point is 00:14:39 than he did that's actually true John 3 John parts with ghosts the night before the free folk climb the wall Daenerys 3 Drogon Dracarys Sansa 3
Starting point is 00:14:53 Sansa Stark is forced to marry Tyrion Lannister that brings us to Arya 5 another happy episode in this series Arya shows mercy to caged men at Stoney Sept Arya learns about the Battle of the Bells. We open up at the Stony Sept, the biggest place that Arya's been since King's Landing. She learns her father's history with the town. Aerys was hunting Robert, trying to catch
Starting point is 00:15:19 him before he could join up with Lord Eddard. Robert was being hidden and tended to by friends, and Lord Connington tore apart the townhouse by house, looking for him. Lord Eddard and Lord Hoster came down on the town, storming the walls, battling in streets and alleys, and the septons rang the bells, telling the small folk to lock their doors. But Robert joined the fight when the bells began to ring, slaying six men. One, Miles Mutant, Rhaegar's personal squire. We have a line of, he would have slain the hand too, but the battle never brought them together.
Starting point is 00:15:53 And I do want to say I love the language, right? That you have the hands against the hands, basically. Oh my gosh, you're right. They're throwing hands. Yeah, because he, but going back to our first book right that he if one hand can die then why not another and i think that that language harkens right back here with the hand versus hand like pity i never had the hands face off george is
Starting point is 00:16:18 being kind of cute here i don't even think about that yeah it might have been i wonder if it's like a thing that he's thinking about that and also also, I mean, as we know, there were a couple of other things that were changed that would have happened at this point in the story. Like, I think what Jamie wasn't the one who's going to lose a hand. It was going to be like Joffrey or something. Things like that. And yeah, a lot of hand stuff happening at this point in the books. I appreciate the John Connington mentions. lot of hand stuff happening at this point in the books i appreciate the john connington mentions interestingly even though like the idea of him is referenced i think in some of the previous books
Starting point is 00:16:51 it's only in book three that he actually starts getting named and mentioned by name which really shows how george is now starting to think ahead more of like how he's building the story and foreshadowing what his role is going to be you know in book five where he does finally appear yeah and you start to get all the different things of like ronit for example and building up ronit connington too which is great yeah yeah really fun stuff i also i love the john conn chapters so excited about those one day yeah i mean you even have what in tyrian one in clash other chapters i'm excited to get to someday i'm like john con tyrian we have so much left to go uh where tyrian is telling balish connington died landless and penniless in exile so bit by bit
Starting point is 00:17:39 now we're in storm and here he comes starts to really flesh out the roosts there. The griffin's roost. Yeah. So, of course, Connington didn't just go away with his tail between his legs fully, right? He got a few digs in. He killed Dennis Aaron, who was the darling of the Vale. And because of that death, obviously, the Vale's kind of weak right now, since they just got Sweet Robert. Sweet Robbie.
Starting point is 00:18:07 Robbie Sweet. Oh, that's like a DJ name. Robbie Sweet. Yeah. It sounds like a 90s boy band. He also wounded Hoster Tully, but when the day was lost, he fled. They called it the Battle of the Bells, and Robert always said Ned had won the battle himself. The stony sep doesn't look like it's seen anything but battle.
Starting point is 00:18:26 Arya reflects outside of the town, stacked with charred planks. I have to comment that in our rebellion musical, which we are making, it's going to be an in answer to the play that's being made. And if we can finish it in time, everyone at home that's listening, maybe we could sell the musical instead of the screenplay they're already adapting going on there or not screenplay sorry instead of the play they're already adapting but i'm gonna give you this teaser that our battle of the bells is going to have a handbell choir in the background uh it's gonna be amazing i want you just all to get ready to experience it, because I've really been hearing it in my head.
Starting point is 00:19:08 Just like John Connington, actually. Yeah, just like all of you, absolutely. And I just want to say, like, how do they know that the upcoming play is not, in fact... Our musical. Our musical? I'm just saying, you don't know that the names of what are their fucking names well dominic and whatever it's not the dominic and duncan or is it actually secretly chloe and eliana and those are our pseudonyms and i mean i'm gonna be honest you know mean girls is coming out to Paramount
Starting point is 00:19:46 and it's going to be a musical but they're also concealing from the public that it's going to be a musical by only putting trailers out of mediocre acting and weird angles and they're not telling anyone it's a musical so I mean maybe they're just downplaying it just like
Starting point is 00:20:02 Mean Girls the musical is and by they we mean we. Dominic and Duncan. More like dumb Eric and Duncan. Jesus, we're ridiculous. Real talk. Real talk. Off of our musical.
Starting point is 00:20:19 Nothing against them. Nothing against them. We're just better as musical leaders. No, I'm just kidding. No, real talk in real life life not in musical fantasy land i was kind of rereading the world of ice and fire and just looking over some of the details which to be fair the world of ice and fire is propaganda written for joffrey right and it's it is propaganda like a lot of the a lot of stories are very grandiose and not true so this was
Starting point is 00:20:46 obviously angling to show the world robert your father was so good joffrey he already knows that shit ain't true that said it does have a slant toward robert so eddie um you know anti-rebel leaders in the house you know people that are just antis of that whole faction, bootlicker sympathizers, please don't listen. No, I'm just kidding. The Conqueror, this is something interesting. So like, there's a history here, not just of Robert's conquering with the Stony Sept that I thought stood out really crazily, but also like Agin Visenya Rhaenys, the Conqueror OT3. They also had kind of a setup at Stoney Sept. When they were making moves to go battle between Gardner and Lannister, Rhaenys and Vesenya joined Aegon. They brought their forces from Storm's End and Cracklaw at the Stoney Sept and like gathered
Starting point is 00:21:37 their strength there before they went off to the Field of Fire. I thought that was, I never, I didn't remember that happening. And'm like oh so the stony sept is kind of an interesting place where the conquerors have their big stands right and I know that's odd to put Robert in the shoes of Agin and the OT3 there but interesting to think about it is interesting and I mean it seems like it's the the focal point for a lot of stuff. And that might partially be because of geography, where it's located. But I forgot also, as you said, that it played a role in the OG conquering. Yeah, which obviously from like a meta standpoint, it's the opposite, right? George obviously probably thought the same thing.
Starting point is 00:22:22 He thought, oh, that's interesting. They could go there because it's a good gathering point for armies as we've seen from Robert. But that's not it. It's actually also a very holy place, right? Hundreds of the poor fellows during Maegor's reign came from the chapter at Stonisept.
Starting point is 00:22:38 So Stonisept could have been, like Arya says, it's huge. It could have been another little old town. You know? Oh, as in like, yeah, like a central location where's huge it could have been another little old town you know oh as in like you know yeah like a central location that where people keep coming in and out yeah absolutely it's an interesting point i guess it didn't because maybe it didn't become affluent enough in terms of trade like a port i mean even in our real world you'll see a lot of cities but i don't know it's close enough it could have's close enough. It could have been something.
Starting point is 00:23:05 It's interesting when you think of the people in Old Town that they became affluent and they attached themselves to the Targaryens as well, although they were already affluent. And they kind of took some of that commercial control of the real estate, of religion, of culture. And it's like Stony Sept could have been a miniaturized version of that yeah but only yeah only until later much later on in the targaryen reigns that they started being like you know what we really like religion well but that's the thing right they think yeah anything associated with maegor's reign besides the high towers but you know the the stuff that went on with maegor's reign it turns out soured a, but, you know, the stuff that went on with Maegor's reign, it turns out, soured a lot of people, I think, on
Starting point is 00:23:47 that kind of control, that kind of cultural and religious control. There's not really a house mentioned associated, right? We learn there's a knight named Wilbert in this chapter that's described as kind of being in charge, but there's no lord of Stonisept.
Starting point is 00:24:04 It's just Stonisept, you know? There's nobody keeps this place. It seems that, I mean, Wilbert is what? He's a knight, so he's Sir Wilbert, but there's no house associated. We don't have banners hanging, even though obviously it's being used as the refuge and hideout for the king's men.
Starting point is 00:24:22 Yeah, they're sworn to, you know, House Tully, but I do like the term and by term i do like the name wilbert wilbert that's it i just like it of course this battle that we get in the world of ice and fire is really well outlined we have this line rightly famed is robert's grand victory at stony sept also called the Battle of the Bells, where he slew the famous Sir Miles Mouton, once Rhaegar's squire, and other men besides, and might as well have killed the new hand. Lord Connington had battle brought them together. The victory sealed the entry of the Riverlands into the conflict following the marriage of Lord Tully's daughters to Lord Arryn and Stark, because this was, of course, crucial.
Starting point is 00:25:08 After this came the marriage of mom and dad. There's also the line about the bells ringing for a day and night at Stony Sept, and singers and begging brothers going from town to town to proclaim men of the Trident were their own masters once again. It's something that we see, yeah, John Connington even like reflect upon, right? Like in his chapters. Yeah, so this comes back. It's interesting that we get it in Arya's chapters, and that she ends up over in Essos, which is where Jon's story...
Starting point is 00:25:36 Not that Jon, this Jon. Where Jon Connington's story is picking up. And then I feel like there's some ways that her storyline is going to intersect with john cons in some way like at least the golden company maybe it's through like illyrio's stuff so yeah i feel like it's interesting that she's getting this they both have that draw to king's landing which we'll talk about later too that king's landing is like a a location on their map that they have a quest at that they need to fulfill yeah maybe they could cross paths it's kind of fun that we got to the kids right of two
Starting point is 00:26:11 of the guys who fought this war here right now on their little road trip through here only one of them doesn't know that their dad was in it but aria sure does it's probably cool learning about i don't know nobody really thinks of ned as like this war hero in that way right like they think of him as being part of the rebellion and being instrumental and instrumental to spending the new reign but nobody really thinks of him as like a warrior and i think i i don't think he thinks of himself as one so yeah it's just interesting we talked a lot about it i think way back in the front of the podcast when we first covered the ned chapters yeah i know i'm bringing back the deep fucking lore which uh wow end of year i know looking back in time an r retrospective rr retrospective
Starting point is 00:26:58 pronounced like the vvvvitch retrospective uh no I think we did talk about it a little bit back then, too, because, I mean, obviously, even George has stated, you know, no, Ned's not a warrior. Ned was busy doing a fuckload of things during the rebellion. It's echoed a little bit in Davos, right, where Davos goes north and gets to Sisterton and, yes, grieving. But also, you know, he was doing a few things behind the scenes but Battle of the Bells was Ned's battle this was the battle that he kind of was known for when his harder battle was really in Dorne
Starting point is 00:27:34 God I feel bad for Ned that man went through a lot that man went through so much so much well the gates of the Stoney Sept are pretty tightly closed but they open up for the brotherhood who shows up checks up on their food stores it turns out they're being raided pretty often wolves one day mummers the next and everyone's on lookout for the kingslayer who
Starting point is 00:27:58 escaped from lord edmure someone says the talk of course, that Hoster is dead or dying, true, and everyone thinks that Jaime is making to get by his father's side. We're told of a new character, the Huntsman, who helps bring sheep to the Stoney Sept. He shepherds them. The Huntsman lost more than just family in the war to the Westermen. They burned his crops, ate half his sheep, killed the other half for spite, killed his dogs, raped his wife, and his sister. Arya rides between Harwin and Angai down the street, spotting a sept on a hill in a very small stone holdfast, much too small for the size of the town. But every third house they pass is burnt, and she sees no people. She asks if they're dead,
Starting point is 00:28:42 but Angai points out that some of them are on roofs, some hiding in the rubble, and he says they're only shy. More people come out of hiding. They're just shy. Yeah, they're just shy. They're just, you know, they don't take well the new people. Yeah, they're just introverts. Me too. More people begin to come out of hiding
Starting point is 00:28:59 and Stony Sept comes to life. At the market square, they find a fountain with a leaping trout and woman filling pails and flagons at it. Yeah, then you have these crow cages that are hanging from the wooden posts, but the crows are perched on the bars or splashing in the waters. They are not inside of the cages, because inside the cages are people really squished in there.
Starting point is 00:29:22 The men discuss the Northmen and how the mummers are raiding the village, but Arya, she's horrified. She's watching the cages. And they're not just any men. They are Northmen, caught by the bad huntsmen, stuck inside the cages that allow no room for turning or moving. Carrion crows had eaten out the eyes of the first three cages. And so there are these empty sockets that created an optical illusion,
Starting point is 00:29:43 so it feels like they're following Arya. Really fun in the next cage there's one man stirring he's begging for water and it really really has some like opening of the sworn sword short story vibes oh yeah absolutely and she's egg as hell here egg as hell fat girl egg as hell very eggy I don't know so another dead man who has been castrated and also has maggots crawling out of the
Starting point is 00:30:18 hole that I guess used to be his genitals is in the next cage there's also later on a fat man and the iron bars are digging painfully into him he's also very red from the sun and as he turns you can like see the stripes of the sunburn on him it's kind of terrible awful really grotesque looking and aria's seen a lot of this stuff obviously on the road so far as a prisoner of war at Harrenhal. She's seen some pretty gross stuff, but this is some pretty sad conditions. Like, I just, the way that the cages are described and how tall they are and how you really can barely even be in them, it ain't right. Not good. No, it's not. It's, it's like, literally torturous. And what it's meant to be a prolonged death sentence, maybe. I mean, I think to some extent, it is a prison, right? They're just holding the captives there. But for some of them, it is doing, when it comes to Hunger Games and other series and good old dystopia, it doesn't make it look like the people here that are in charge want justice.
Starting point is 00:31:38 It doesn't make it look like they're seeking retribution for the crimes that were committed. It looks like torture. It looks like control. It doesn't look good. That's all. Not great. Yeah. it looks like control it doesn't look good that's all not great yeah or i mean you're starting to really see since like they're not following any the will necessarily of like a lord or whatever it's as you said it's not necessarily justice it's a it's hunger for vengeance right that's kind of what's happening here our hunger it's like the
Starting point is 00:32:05 five minute hates in in 1984 it doesn't make anyone feel better that's for sure i do want to point out something fun we have the huntsman right the mad huntsman that's introduced here as a newcomer to the cast and it makes me think of the huntsman in Snow White and I know this is maybe like a silly obvious connection but the huntsman is named as one of Beric's followers not Lady Stoneheart's later when the schism occurs in the brotherhood so when they separate he's named as someone that follows Beric we read in the appendix, not Lady Stoneheart. So he follows the queen, or he doesn't follow the queen, sorry. He chooses not to follow the queen, where the huntsman in Snow White goes against the queen's wishes and lets Snow White go in the woods, which I think is kind of fun.
Starting point is 00:33:00 Yeah. And I think if I recall the last time we see him, he's south of the Mander. I think, did he go with Greenbeard, maybe? But he goes south of the Mander with the money they steal from Sandor in this book. So that's the last place he went. And we'll come back to his role later against Sandor, right? I think there's something interesting going on with him and Sandor, because Sandor also very much has a huntsman Snow White kind of plot, right? He shows up at Sansa's room, puts a knife to her neck, but then doesn't kill her. Tries to ransom Arya, but then ends up letting her go in the end. Sure, he's bleeding out. But, you know, he changes his mind on Arya as well, where he should be gunning to turn her in or make money off her or whatever. So I thought that was kind of fun. Kind of a little huntsman plot going on for both of them.
Starting point is 00:33:46 Yeah, I like that you've tied it into the Snow White story. And as you said, Sandor's storyline kind of feels a lot like that fairy tale. And I don't know if this is Brothers Grimm, but I'm going to say, you know, the Brothers Grimm cinematic universe, I think I sometimes also associate the Huntsman. Chloe was like, what the fuck? There for a minute. Bgcu the ggcu ggc cu the i associate the huntsman to an extent with like the story of little red riding hood he might be a different huntsman but he's also some sort of hunter, right? And like, he is kind of helping with the
Starting point is 00:34:27 wolf issue. And these people feel like they have a wolf issue right now. Yeah, they do. I think they have some other issues too, but that is one of them. There's a lot of things going on. I like that. Yeah, the wolf issue. Speaking of the wolf issue, right? She's like, whose men are these? And a townsman tells her and, you know, calls her a boy. But to pay no mind that they put people to the sword at Tumbler's Falls while looking for the Kingslayer. And that these guys didn't find him. So instead, they just did some murdering and raping. And that this was their punishment for that
Starting point is 00:35:05 then the heavy man calls down begging for water again and then for mercy for a swallow for water and i mean there it is you know the begging for mercy and you know you kind of think about or i just think about this obviously hindsight's 2020 but like if rob hadn't put on this farce about like oh jamie escaped i have to tell them jamie escaped because otherwise no one will respect me as king because as we know kat freed him because she wanted to save her daughters and shit like would all of this have happened like would these guys have felt like oh we gotta go find the kingslayer and then felt entitled to go around like murdering and raping and i mean they probably would have right like i think it's pointed for ari to ask who these guys were and for them to not answer because the point is they're broken men and people see them as on the side of the wolves. And she's learning that, as we discussed a few chapters ago,
Starting point is 00:36:08 yes, real-life wolves do hurt people. That is why they are perceived as dangerous. And they probably would, in fact, eat babies. But they don't tell her whose side these guys are really on. It really, again, hammers home that Broken Men idea that they don't care what side they're fighting for. don't care about the games that the high lords are playing they're just there to get theirs it's interesting too that you know harwin stands in as a mentor for a couple of these chapters of like giving aria answers to some of these questions but here they
Starting point is 00:36:42 don't tell her whether out of protection or whether there just isn't time right now and it's a silly question that they don't want to answer for her but it's interesting they protect her because a lot of aria's issue with like understanding black and white gray politics in the beginning and what's been happening in the front of this story is like no one explained it to her well i don't think most people explain it to nine-year-olds in general right you only learn later on this idea of nuance greenness that yeah there were bad people like on the on all the sides and she's learning that now she's like wait i'm sorry we're not the good guys but she's like we're also not the bad guys we're just the guys we're just the guys we're just the guys and i don't know it's also interesting that some of these townspeople think oh those wolves and like rob's
Starting point is 00:37:32 camp they're all just like fattening themselves up over in the westerlands i'm like we've been in those chapters with cat that is not what's happening but and it's uh see it's an interesting echo because it's the same schism that happens to them. Like the Brotherhood has a schism later, and this is the schism for Rob's team. Yeah, that's a great point. So, yeah, they they feel that the Northmen have not been taking care of the Riverlanders who threw in with them because they were tied by I mean you were talking about Sony Sept and the marriage alliance they're tied again by these marriage alliances hell it's
Starting point is 00:38:12 what I said last week with Karm remember that okay well he's supposed to be the king of the river and of the north so this is your kingdom buddy welcome to being a king Robbie boy he's not
Starting point is 00:38:26 doing great at it but that's why he dies Jesus anyways he dies because it was underhanded another fever dream I had was where I forgot about this entire scene and Arya giving the water to him
Starting point is 00:38:44 and I realized D&D gave that to Dany in Astapor they're happening around the same time it's not the show the water's not in the show Dany goes and gives the slaves water that are up and crucified
Starting point is 00:38:59 where I thought it was book I'm like damn D&D interesting interesting that they moved it around. Oh, yeah, I vaguely remember this now. Not that Dany wouldn't do that, right? I look back to Dorea's death. She stays with Dorea the entire time, gives her water from her own skin,
Starting point is 00:39:17 cools her brow, holds her hand until she fucking dies. It's pretty awful. But I just was like, oh, interesting. That's where that plot point went. I was really like, in my head, I was like, this didn't happen in the show. Wow. I do think this would have been a great scene for the show to help illustrate what was going on with the Karstarks. Now that I look back, I'm like, I don't know why they didn't think of it before George did. I think this is so interesting too because there's
Starting point is 00:39:48 that moment where she almost sees amory lorch as a human right like just for a moment and i think that this adds to that for her and to the lesson she's learning and sandor is the next step of that right at the end of the chapter and later throughout the book like was he a bad person yes amory was a bad person but yes but she's also understanding and realizing like the people that do what they have to to stay alive to take orders to survive right like she's so close to realizing the systemic pressures that cause all of this here and i don't know her internal understanding is really important that this man despite his crimes is thirsty and a human and someone should give him water anyone should give these men water water is a very fundamental human right yeah it's it's also like kind of goes together with theon's storyline right theon who was very
Starting point is 00:40:43 close to their family. Theon, who does very bad things. Not as bad as, I think, Amory... I don't know. Actually, Theon does a lot of really bad things. I don't think it makes sense to equivocate. You can all moralize about that. All of the things that... A lot of the characters do bad things.
Starting point is 00:41:00 But anyways, is it justice what happens to Theon in his storyline versus, as you pointed out, right? Like, is what's happening to these men here, like, necessarily justice? Or is this just prolonging circles of pain? Is it justice or is it just us, you know? Wow. What is that from again?
Starting point is 00:41:22 I know that's a meme. Is it? I just made it up. Oh, I thought it, oh. I thought it was. Wow. It is that from again? I know that's a meme. Is it? I just made it up. Oh, I thought it was. Wow. It was so catchy. Thank you. We have a passage where Arya's thinking. Wolves, she thought again. Like me. Was this her pack? How could they be Rob's men? She wanted to hit them. She wanted to hit them.
Starting point is 00:41:46 She wanted to hurt them. She wanted to cry. They all seemed to be looking at her, the living and the dead alike. Arya swings down from her horse and brings a cup to the fish's mouth, filling it with water, moving toward the cages. I love that she's taking water from the fish's mouth, which is interesting with her Tully imagery. The townsmen try to stop her, with her Tully imagery. The townsmen try to stop her, but Harwin and Lem tell the townsmen, leave her be. Beric doesn't cage men
Starting point is 00:42:11 to die of thirst. The townsmen growls that their crimes don't deserve decency, but Arya gives them water all the same, Gendry helping to give her a leg up. The townsman threatens that the huntsman won't like this when he returns. Angai then strings his longbow and gives mercy to the caged men. Valar Morghulis, Arya thought. I did think that was really interesting. We're starting to get some foreshadowing about where Arya's storyline is going to go and the lessons she's going to learn. Because again, earlier that man was begging for mercy.
Starting point is 00:42:41 And honestly, like, that can be interpreted in a lot of different ways apparently right here he's acting asking for some comfort reprieve and therefore she offers him water which is life-giving whereas in guy does a different kind of mercy which is life-taking an end to his suffering and i mean even kind of parallels in the action right because he uses a bow and arrow john giving an act of mercy to rattlemance at the beginning of dance well then it's a perfect mirror to storm chapter 13 right for aria herself because that's where she gives mercy to the squire almost exactly they give him something to drink and then she kills him for the first time as her like final test and then sandor
Starting point is 00:43:30 but she doesn't give him brilliant mercy it's a perfect mirror yeah it is it is actually literally a perfect mirror so wonderful that we're getting this arc like all together in a storm of swords my god i love 2024 i can't wait for more sand bob it's the year it's the year sandor we're starting you know is it the year of the dog what is hold on must be the season of the dog 2024 chinese zodiac oh it's the dragon sorry everyone oh mom that's more signs for unleash the d to come back oh my gosh i really am excited about this next passage uh we have to keep it i love everything about the peach so here we are we're introduced to the peach it's a modest inn with whitewashed walls and
Starting point is 00:44:20 broken windows and a sign above the door a shingle painted as a peach with a bite taken out of it. They get off at the stables where Greenbeard yells for a groom and a buxom, red-headed innkeep comes to meet them. This is Tansy that we've talked about before. Not that Tansy. And we get this back and forth, rowdy, raucous exchange as it's just like the perfect intro to you're going to a hole in the wall in green beard is it or gray beard mother take mercy when'd you get so old Len is that you still wearing the same ratty cloak, are ya? I know why you never wash it, I do. You're afraid all the piss'll wash out
Starting point is 00:45:09 and we'll see you're really a knight of the Kingsguard. And Thomas Evans, you randy old goat. You come to see that son of yours? Well, you're too late. He's off riding with that bloody huntsman. And don't tell me he's not yours. He hasn't got my voice. Tom protested weakly. And don't tell me he's not yours. He hasn't got my voice.
Starting point is 00:45:27 Tom protested weakly. He's got your nose, though. I and the other pods as well, to hear the girls talk. She spied Gendry then, and pinched him on the cheek. Look at this fine young ox. Wait till Alice sees those arms. Oh, and he blushes like a maid, too. Well, Alice will fix that for you. Boy, see if she don't.
Starting point is 00:45:50 Aria had never seen Gentry turn so red. Tansy, you leave the bull alone. He's a good lad, said Tom Sevenstrings. All we need from you is safe beds for a night. Speak for yourself, singer. And Guy slid his arm around a strapping young servant girl as freckly as he was. Beds we got. There's never been no lack of beds at the Peach, but you'll all climb in the bathtub first. Last time you lot stayed under my roof, you left your fleas behind. it's like Paris and their bed bugs we we we we
Starting point is 00:46:38 that's this place so fun scene Gendry also again everyone is always describing him as like the bull he's really he's really taking that on with his like fun armor but apparently everyone feels that way about him too being as strong as an ox i mean oxes and bulls are like they're basically the same creature uh and perhaps slash it's likely I think that he'll start his own house or will change the Baratheon sigil in some way. Because I think if his uncle Stannis can do it, so can he. And I like Gendry more than Stannis.
Starting point is 00:47:19 And unlike those dainty deers of the Baratheons that end up being prey, the ox slash bull is a hard-working animal, alright? And you know what? So is Gendry. He's a hard-working man of the people, but he really is, again, paragon of positive masculinity except for his slight blips in this
Starting point is 00:47:40 chapter. But he's not, like, doing anything bad. He's just being a teenage boy who's frustrated at life yeah ox and bull are basically synonymous except um oxes are male or female bulls are always male and oxes are larger than bulls on average bulls are smaller and oxes are usually castrated for the most part where bulls aren't for breeding is the big difference so yeah um i don't know i think also it comes to like what they're bred for like ox are usually bred for work where bulls are bred for breeding uh which is kind of
Starting point is 00:48:18 an interesting distinction for gundry right bull versus ox like being bred for breeding which is what would have happened if he was a prince. If he was Robert's true-born son, he would have been bred for breeding instead of bred for work. So because he was not more of an ox, I guess, he's bred for work. And I don't know, I think it's really fun
Starting point is 00:48:40 for like bastard sigils too. I love what you brought up that I definitely think he'll start his own cadet branch, you know baratheon oh my god his bulrathian branch and we've seen a couple other bastard sigils right i think of like bitter steel did his mom's sigil where the bracken sigil is like the brown plate or brown shield with like yellow with the horse on it a red horse on yellow with i don't know whatever like red brown yellow is the bracken sigil with that horse and he did the horse and then he did his dad's sigil black wings off of the horse so red dragon wings would have been the targaryen sigil right red on black but he did black. So reverse to show he's a bastard.
Starting point is 00:49:25 So that's kind of cool. Like a very special little thing. And Walder Rivers, who we see in this book actually a bit, he did a little more modern take the phrase sigil being gray with blue towers on it. Instead, it's a gray tower set on a blue shield and there's a red bend or like a big sinister red bend through it across through it. So Eliana eliana i'm showing you maybe we'll put it in the episode for those listening but i made a sigil for you of what gendry sigil could be so maybe the opposite of the baratheon sigil a yellow or gold bowl um like a black plate with a gold border or with like a gold uh sinister on it with a gold slash through it that could be interesting that could be cool yeah that'd be interesting and yeah i like the little gold
Starting point is 00:50:11 accents for him especially i mean he's probably going to play a role in the long night so yeah it'd be good for him to have like much more of that like sort of black field on it and and if john did similar it would be kind of a cool contrast too right if john did like a inverse stark instead of the the white on gray it would be gray on white so kind of yeah contrasting gendry and i mean i love the walder rivers shout out i think he's a very interesting oh yeah ray walder rivers bastard walder he's he's not like fun in that like he's a fun dude but like he's a i just he's i think one of the more interesting phrase so there's also talk of someone right being of someone's kid slash bastard one of tom's kids slash bastards right
Starting point is 00:51:02 but this discussion of bastardy and the discussion of gendry follows like right after and then this idea of well he might not got your voice but he has all these other things that look just like you those inherited traits and i'm like hmm interesting interesting that we would discuss inherited traits right before gendry but i will say like reading the text of the innkeep and how she's characterized it reminds me of like i don't know if you know this like comedian on on instagram and tiktok delaney rowe she does like a bunch of those little sketches of like you know a girl who's convinced you're in love with her she does one of the female bartender
Starting point is 00:51:41 in every movie written by a man and it is i love like the the girl next door friend it's so funny yes yes i like her series i love all of her series she's so funny she cracks me up there's a couple of them like oh you know just very like relaxed and chill and not like other girls but exactly like other girls very funny very good stuff highly recommend watching her tiktok or instagrams yeah she does have some really funny parodies of i mean tropes that you're all familiar with tropes that might embody us once in a while my god wow wow uh self-reflection so tansy the innkeep asks if they want food, which of course they do. So she tells her girls Cass, Lana, and Jyzeen to chip in and get food, water, and clothing all started for everyone. I thought this was interesting that Lana, I'm not saying it's not a popular name. It is a popular name.
Starting point is 00:52:37 There's lots of girls named Lana, especially from the Westerlands. Everyone wants to name them after the Lannisters. Or like Lan the Clever, but Lana is also a girl at the Happyport brothel out in Essos so Arya gets two Lanas for the price of none yeah, and again
Starting point is 00:52:56 that's something that I do like in George's World building, people were bringing up us talking about Pate a few episodes ago and I like that there's repetition of names it probably makes it very confusing but it feels real yeah what's also real is that aria wants to skip bathing because she's like i don't understand i already bathed twice and it hasn't even been like two weeks it's not even been a fortnight and tansy though will not let that pass will not relent so they steal the clothes off of her that lady smallwood gave her and then dress her up like one of sansa's dolls gowning her in
Starting point is 00:53:32 linen and lace which is really sad considering you know the the way that last chapter ended with lady smallwood recognizing i think these clothes would suit you better and then aria eats dinner in her stupid girl clothes but remembers something that siru told her which is the trick of looking and seeing what was there and so when she looks she sees more serving wenches than any inn needs most are young and comely and in the even fall she notices that the men are coming and going and that none of them linger long in the living area she whispers to gendry that it must be a brothel he tells her do you even know what a brothel is and she's like it does it's an inn with girls and she's not wrong frustrated she's not wrong i mean she's
Starting point is 00:54:22 literally not wrong kendra gets a little frustrated and angry during all of this and tells her that well wait you shouldn't even be here because the brothel is no place for a high-born lady and then one of the girls comes over and she's like who's high-born and then laughs when she learns it's Arya so the girl says I'm a king's daughter myself and Arya's like okay so you're mocking me that's cool and she's like no you're not and the girl's like whatever she shrugs and her gown's slipping from one shoulder and she says yeah king robert used to fuck my mom all the time said he was you know that's that was his favorite his favorite one here and aria's like yeah she's like she fucked all the other girls
Starting point is 00:55:01 too but yeah she's like robert fucked her her her but didn't fuck her as much as he fucked my mom look here i am and aria thinks well the girl does have black hair like the kings black as coal but this couldn't possibly mean anything because gendry has the same black hair and you know people can just have black hair uh great mirror, though, to Sansa, right? Who was like, Joffrey's nothing like that drunk old king. Both were so close, out of the mouths of babes, you know? Out of the mouths of babes, my god. It's kind of fucked up that, like, so this is all correct, you know?
Starting point is 00:55:41 There's a joke she's making there that we are in on as a reader of like, people can just have black hair, right? And then George is out here being like, I don't know, you guys, people can just have eyes that are similar colors and similar coloring. And it's like, everyone's thinking too deeply into it when he gives people like similar like coloring or whatever. But it's like, I understand George's point because it's true. coloring or whatever but it's like i understand george's point because it's true i share black hair with many people in this world but also george you did this you did this to yourself
Starting point is 00:56:12 you just know he's winking at the camera right now he's like get it wink anyone could have black hair but it is also fun because gendry is like another shadow of the liana and rhaegar plot right he's a boy when i think of like children born around the rebellion there you go he was born because of sex at the rebellion rob was also conceived very soon after this right which means all these people's parents were fucking right around the battle at Stoney Sept. So not only them, but then you have Liana was fucking Rhaegar literally at that same time as Robert was fucking Bella's mom. So I just thought that was kind of fun, too. Like, this is also a nod at Liana and Jon, right?
Starting point is 00:57:06 Interesting, because Jon has the same hair as Liana, same eyes as liana the same face is there yeah everyone was just really fertile at this time i guess and uh everyone's period synced so oh my god everyone's just like those are synced yeah uh so are you again not wrong about what a brothel is and apparently there are some places so first of all in virginia apparently you cannot have more than like what is it four or five single women all living in a house together oh until it's a brothel it's yeah it's considered like legally a brothel or something mood so anyways aria is not wrong but also i think it's like really interesting having aria learning about what sex work is here especially because as you said like she goes to some other brothels and then she actually spends a lot of time around sex workers in bravos and i mean she
Starting point is 00:57:59 she's a highborn lady but she's also like i don't i don't get it what's the big deal everyone's just chill people hanging out right and it's also like i don't i don't get it what's the big deal everyone's just chill people hanging out right and it's also a good place to get intel as as we'll see yeah i want to add to it's interesting because even though her it's just an in with girls comment is like obviously very young like oh aria you don't know what goes on at brothels it's also you can see it is that like they have a normal life like they're all sitting around all day braiding each other's hair doing chores sometimes they make food and then they have visitors come who pay them gifts and are sweet to them and they have little fun flirts with them and then they
Starting point is 00:58:41 eventually do you know generally fuck but i'm like that's not i mean a lot of us do it for free is all i'm gonna say yeah like i said aria's not wrong and as you said like she just finds out i don't know it's just chill at brothels and it does depend on the establishment and the brothel we see that this one is nicely run and treats their workers well it seems and you know it's a good place to get intel ultimately but also turns out Bella actually is kind of highborn
Starting point is 00:59:13 I don't know if like I don't know I still sometimes don't understand like the bastard rules of like are they highborn are they not when they're a bastard depending whatever and then some of them get to have a fun last name some of them don't anyway but having bella there i mean gendry's all like highborn ladies shouldn't be in brothels but that's not true as we see throughout a song of ice and fire history right like you have characters
Starting point is 00:59:35 such as the black swan and then the black pearl who like is i don't know not really highborn but kind of highborn because again i don't really understand these rules. And then you have another quote-unquote highborn lady, a.k.a. quote-unquote Arya, a.k.a. Jane Poole, who is also, as we find out, like, she's probably in a brothel at mean she's being sex trafficked by little finger and forced to be there for her to learn to eventually play the role of highborn lady aria which is i don't know just kind of interesting to think about and then also you know this is something that i think we brought up during the catalan stark chapters the idea of like gendry feeling that highborn ladies should not be in brothels or whatever and then this dichotomy between highborn ladies and like the lowborn ones and like how bodies become commodified right like the people feel that you know the lowborn bodies are there to satiate our lust whereas we must put all these highborn ladies on a pedestal and that's a different kind of objectification where they're only for procreation and uh sealing alliances and shit
Starting point is 01:00:51 yeah all the rules that are placed on these bodies right and you look at aria really gets a full span of understanding of sex work in essos and in westeros. Oh, true. When you're comparing them, right? Like women in brothels in Essos. Well, I mean, Essos is systemic. Where there's slavery, there's always going to be exploitation. Obviously, it's kind of within the entire bounds of it. And Essos was founded on slavery. And you see a lot of these families, some of the girls like Lana at Happyport,
Starting point is 01:01:23 she's born into a family that her mother is also a sex worker, right? Mary. So, you know, Westeros, it's interesting because not only is it what value that they're putting commodifying on these women and these sex workers, but also that they're putting shame and that they're told people are told that sex workers and brothels are a low rung of society that we do not care what happens to them stony sept is an outlaw town right now you know west rose doesn't care what happens to the people in this brothel you think about like you were saying with bella that she technically is could be highborn she wasn't recognized by Robert, right, necessarily. So she didn't necessarily get Rivers, Bella Rivers as her name. So she kind of unfortunately didn't get any benefit of having her baby daddy there, Bella's dad be, you know, give her anything.
Starting point is 01:02:19 But you think of like, the women that are born to the sex work in Essos and even how the sex work is framed there. There's no way to say one place like Essos is better than the other and vice versa. There's always going to be exploitation. But the shame that's involved in that like only low born scum go to brothels in Westeros is how it's framed by the faith, how it's framed by culture and society. And that high born men shouldn't be going to those establishments highborn ladies shouldn't be seen in an establishment like that these are you know that's the gutter you shouldn't be going there but everyone does it yeah everyone does it and also even robert what you said just now actually like unlocked another memory right from the ned chapters in which you know you're saying hi people think that highborn men should not be going to brothels but we know they're going there all the time right
Starting point is 01:03:08 it's part of like tywin's shame around tyrian even though it turns out tywin does the same thing it's it's this sort of like puritanical culture around around sex and sex work in in westeros but you have that moment where they're like highborn ladies should not be in brothels yet. Remember, Ned visits a brothel and turns out highborn lady Catelyn Stark is being hidden in it. So another fun little parallel between Arya and her mother. you go oh i love god damn aliana i fucking love you well no it's because uh it's because of you you you've been unlocking you've been earlier today in this chapter you were like remember those ned chapters and i was like oh my gosh we did do those no i don't interesting too because ned has that little judgmental somehow he didn't think rhaegar would go to brothel's line you know um that's a good point he threatens Littlefinger for it too he's like how dare you say that my wife is in the brothel and we know that Ned is you know
Starting point is 01:04:10 socially conservative fiscally liberal no I'm just kidding but also I think maybe we should beat up no I'm sure maybe we should beat up Peter Baelish no I do think we should beat him up no but that's why how we ended up in this mess in the first place that's true yeah there's something interesting in westeros looking down on sex workers and condemning those that frequent these establishments but also condemning other opportunities for them it's interesting because i know people like sometimes they'll do like these fun threads of what would you be if you lived in Westeros and there aren't very many options available it sounds like when you're
Starting point is 01:04:51 a woman which is also not necessarily true this is a medievalism right a lot of skilled workers like smiths people crafting leather things like that occupations such as that were made up of women so absolutely you could choose to work at an inn with many with many girls or you could choose to help build the inn there are many options for you available but this one's a perfectly respectable one and again like I just think it's so interesting that they have their own community. They have their own resources. Yeah. They aren't like sitting around, like, I don't know, like they have their own way that their world works, right? Like these girls are every day, they do their housework. They have a town full of people
Starting point is 01:05:40 that they talk to, you know, like they're not strangers um it's just interesting how ostracized westerosi society culture religion tries to make it seem when it's not and you get the difference in that when aria goes to essos and how free and out and about all the women are and i find it very interesting now i'm just worried now i'm worried about these people because you said all these wonderful things about them and what a great life that they fucking have right now. And now I'm worried we're going to come back here in another book and it's going to be like, well, everyone's having a bad time. I don't know that I'd say, I mean, I don't know that I'd say like a great life. I will say that they're definitely like they make it work, you know, like they took their pocket of Westeros and they've made it work for them.
Starting point is 01:06:27 But yeah, I'd absolutely say that John Connington would probably love to come back here and destroy the town for real this time. I'm worried for them. I'm worried for these people. All right. Well, we're going to worry for a lot of the people in the story. So this happens every week. Bella introduces herself she was named for the bells during battle at stony sept and says to gendry do you want to ring my bell uh she runs
Starting point is 01:06:53 a hand down his arm saying for friends of the lightning lord i'm free but gendry says no twice and he angrily stalks away bella's a little shocked and asks aria does he like girls and aria's like oh yeah absolutely he's just stupid he likes to polish helmets and beat swords with hammers she tells her not to take it personally and bella decides to go stake her luck with jack be lucky for the night hope he's nimble and quick as well instead and the men kind of all start to dissipate with different women throughout the night. Yeah, so there's a lot of like, oh no, stuff going on when you think of Gendry and Bella's interactions here. But I will say, you know, if it did, if there was an interaction, I mean, the Baratheons do have Targaryen blood after all.
Starting point is 01:07:43 That's for fucking sure. More than once. One if, like, Ori's Baratheon was an offshoot of, or, like, a bastard brother of Aegon. And the other, with their grandma. Or, I guess it would be Gendry's great-grandma. Mm-hmm. Rey. Yeah. Rey. Our friend.
Starting point is 01:08:00 Rey. A Rey of song. Tom sits at the campfire singing and strumming to a song. The maids that bloom in spring. While Arya sips watered down wine and listens in. Everyone's jolly in the peach. But yet across the square, the dead men rot in cages. She thinks that inside, some of these people are laughing too hard.
Starting point is 01:08:21 And how easy it could be to steal a horse, aka they're drunk, drunk and run away but the captain at the gates wouldn't let her pass and harwin would come after her or the huntsman with his dogs or some other dogs like sandor yeah i like that that's still like on her mind she's like we can steal a horse or we can steal the boat you know she's always just like what vehicle can i steal today all girls want to do is steal horse and eat hot chip. And lie. She does like doing that. Eat worm and lie. Eat worm and lie.
Starting point is 01:08:55 A worm. A worst. I have to say the songs that are being played by Tom. Here first we get The Maids that bloom in spring and we'll move on after that to two hearts that beat as one uh abel also sings this one man sings this one at the wedding in winterfell so i thought that was interesting to bring together those chapters of jane's marriage and i do want to shout out there's a concept album by Alex Ratner called Tyrell, and they do their own version of this with some guest singers. And it's very fun.
Starting point is 01:09:29 I really rather like it. I'll leave you a link below. You guys got to check it out. It's just like a fun little concept album. And it's only a minute and a half long. The song is. But the entire album is basically a concept album called Tyrell, where I'm just going to read this description to you guys word for word,
Starting point is 01:09:49 because I think you're going to like it. Welcome to Highgarden, oasis of female leadership and sexual tolerance within a not too distant medieval patriarchy. A musical parody prequel to HBO's Game of Thrones, this one-act chamber piece tells the untold backstory of House Tyrell before the series begins. Of all the great houses of Westeros, House Tyrell is the only one led by a woman, Olenna Tyrell, who's busy grooming her grandchildren, Loras and Margaery, for greatness. Commenting on Margaery's objectification, Loras' double life as
Starting point is 01:10:21 a closeted knight of flowers, and Ol olena's role as resident battleaxe grandma tyrell imagines what the secondary characters were thinking all along it's very fun oh yeah that is fun that is fun and yeah coming coming to you uh alongside our also we have a prequel to ishmael's reached out to join Alex Ratner in bringing the musical. No, we haven't. No, we haven't. It is us, Dominic and Duncan.
Starting point is 01:10:53 But Alex Ratner, if you're listening and you want to join on in musical creative department, please let us know. There's also something interesting. Two Hearts That Beat It was one. It is also sung by Abel at the Arya wedding in Winterfell. So we get the same songs mirrored back to us in A Dance With Dragons.
Starting point is 01:11:12 And we do hear about this one in The Mystery Knight as well. Lord Ambrose Butterwell marries a Frey daughter and the Frey daughter's sister sings this song as well. But the question I bring to you today about Two Hearts That Beat Is One is, was George inspired by U2's 1983 hit Two Hearts Beat Is One? I think so. I'm going to read you guys the lyrics, you know, some slam poetry. I'm not going to sing it right now. I'm not feeling it. Last week I sang, you got my singing last week and that was off the cuff. Okay. I'm not feeling it last week. I sang you got my singing last week and that was off the cuff. Okay, so
Starting point is 01:11:47 Saving it for the musical but This is off the album war in 1983. I don't know which side I'm on I don't know my right from left or my right from wrong say I'm a fool say I'm nothing But if I'm a fool for you, oh, that's something two hearts beat as one two hearts beat as one two hearts I can't stop the dance, honey. This is my as one two hearts i can't stop the dance honey this is my last chance i said can't stop the dance maybe this is my last chance i do think that he was probably inspired by this song i do think that i do think that i think especially after reading a couple of george's short stories we're really getting a sense of i mean music plays a big role in his inspiration and honestly a lot of the stuff that you two was like reacting to in their music is very political
Starting point is 01:12:32 in nature and like i would not be surprised if uh george did find some kinship in in what what they were singing about yeah i thought it was fun i fun. I listened to it today. I was jamming and I was like, yeah, he had to have been. He had to have been. Yeah. Well, Tom, that old scoundrel, begins two hearts that beat as one and kisses a
Starting point is 01:12:58 different girl after each verse while Lem and Harwin sit under the window with Tansy. I'm sorry, I'm struggling about this in a post-covid world speaking in low voices she's able to make out bits and pieces of the story which seems to be about Catelyn
Starting point is 01:13:13 and Brienne freeing the Kinslayer but also told in a very scandalous way um and then we have this line of her going it's not true she never would she felt sad and angry and lonely all at once. I'm sorry, that line perfectly encapsulates, I don't know if you remember this Twitter account back then, like, something YA author or like, why someone would parody it.
Starting point is 01:13:39 And then it was like, how can somebody feel two things at once or something like that was one of the lines and well aria oh god poor aria what a betrayal this is such a feeling such a mood like hearing a rumor about your parent that seems like a lie and just like how we talked about aria not knowing about the sides and the schism in her brother's armies she doesn't know what happened and it comes back to Ned and his treason right Arya and Sansa with the same reaction he would never he would never do that Kat and her treason now is what this is seen as right without the details the gray in between and it kind of makes me think of john's bastardy as well like
Starting point is 01:14:25 that ned brought home john and said it was his bastard when it obviously wasn't which is fitting considering we're at stony sept where robert knocked someone up had a bastard you know uh but john's bastard yeah where hasn't that happened especially in westeros john's bastardy is probably a little secret like that for Ned too right that's a quote-unquote treason and then also probably what the girls will think about when they hear Jon's been killed right like Jon would never he would never commit treason. I really like how you've called this out because I mean that is what childhood is right like being like oh I don't know my parents would never do that if your parents were you know
Starting point is 01:15:05 paragons of virtue like the way that ned and catelyn seem to do and speaks to why aria is like i don't know is my family gonna accept me after all these mistakes i've made but they've done some pretty big mistakes as well and i don't know some of it is like kind of untrue the way that these rumors are going and i like that the lines that Arya hears are like that Catelyn set Jaime loose for love they're not saying like it was because she loved Jaime even though obviously
Starting point is 01:15:34 that's what they're saying in their gossip because it is true Catelyn did set Jaime loose for love but for love of her daughters and her sons that she thinks are dead but she did it for you aria she did she actually legitimately did and and for sansa and it's i don't know of course she wants you back aria oh she wants you back your mom killed people too it's fine it happens to the best of us it It happens. Your mom did it a lot
Starting point is 01:16:05 later on in this book. It happens. She's still killing today. Yeah, like, that's what the whole story is about this place that they visited. Think of all the people your dad killed, Arya. And now you're gonna kill that many too. Yeah, you've killed, like,
Starting point is 01:16:21 such a small amount of people compared to that. But I mean, it also is, like, what Karn was saying last week, right, of, you've killed, like, such a small amount of people compared to that. But I mean, it also is like what Karn was saying last week, right, of, you know, the gendered aspect of like, it's okay for some people, for some bodies to be allowed violence and- Others not. Yeah, so, big sad. Yeah, so, big sad. So an old man pulls on up next to Arya and starts to hit on her, thinking that she's free game. She is not. Gendry's like, he shows up, best timing.
Starting point is 01:16:54 He's like, that's my sister, get the fuck away from her. And he's like, you shouldn't bring your sister to the peach, man. What's up with that? The man thinks about fighting him, and Gendry's like, I'm bigger, basically. He just he just stands and he's like i'm not gonna take my luck there yeah i i like how gendry's also again an example of uh you don't inherit certain traits from your parents but anyways this scene isn't like about this but it does focus on how aria's forgetting who she is like with this lecherous man when he's like who are you and this man is like way too old for her because she is a baby get away from her you creep get a job get a job get it but i don't know there's an aspect of like
Starting point is 01:17:43 aria forgetting who she is and it plays into this idea i think of dehumanization because of how this old man is coming at her i don't know just something i think about every now and then when um being dehumanized but also it's interesting when you think about it in contrast to sansa right who is often put into these sorts of situations when it comes to for example serdantos who's supposed to be protecting her or marillion right who also does weird creepy shit at her and little finger and like these different kinds of survival that these two girls learn to survive in the world i think aria we can see her throughout the story survive these much more overtly dangerous ones right like when it comes to i mean the brotherhood
Starting point is 01:18:26 and being like uh no but maybe don't shoot me with the arrows or surviving heron hall and then there are these other subtle ones that like the many women and like people who are assigned female at birth know about when you have to be careful when you're turning down someone's advances if you do it the wrong way and you don't like have protection it can be dangerous yeah you can get murdered you can be assaulted and like sanza unfortunately has had to learn to maneuver those kinds of things for her she would not necessarily i mean she freezes a little but like she knows a little more how to react than aria does who's she's like i don't know who i am and and then you have these lines of uh her telling gedry like that he's not her brother which you know it is good in fact he's like why would you
Starting point is 01:19:15 say i'm not your brother i'm like this is good for you dude um because starks don't sibling letter yeah i've read the 93 letter and like this is not an insult sir uh yeah i like what you've called out because aria also isn't at the age where you're constantly looking around expecting to be assaulted as a young woman uh you still get a couple years but she's getting to it yeah she still have like one or two years usually in the real world sometimes less yeah sometimes sometimes it'll start at 10 yeah sometimes 10 yeah mine was probably 11 ish 10 ish somewhere in there but you know you think you'd have just a little bit of uh innocence still left before you have
Starting point is 01:20:01 to start dodging all that but this is that time and to gendry's point and credit right like highborn ladies shouldn't be in this place getting hit on by old geezers but here she is here she is yeah i mean as far as i can tell no one as young as aria is employed here which is again good, speaks to the greatness of this establishment. Alright, Arya asks why Gendry called her his brother, and she gets pissed. She's like,
Starting point is 01:20:33 you're not my brother. And Gendry gets mad back. He's like, yeah, I'm too fucking lowborn to be your brother, huh? She's like, that is not at all how I meant it. You are putting words in my mouth, Gendry. And he sits down on the bench with his wine. He's like, that is not at all how I meant it. You are putting words in my mouth, Gendry. And he sits down on the bench with his wine. He's like, why don't you go away so I can drink in peace?
Starting point is 01:20:53 Go find that black haired girl and I can ring her bell maybe. And you shouldn't do that. I'm just coming to you as an expert. I'm going to let you know, maybe hold off, you know, until you get the DNA test. But Arya, I'm telling you, it's rising up incest-y aria whirls around and leaves him there she's super mad she in her head she's calling him a stupid bullheaded bastard boy she says that's all he is wow throwing the b word around interesting aria canceled oh my god i i will say again gentry it is not bad that she's not letting you call her her brother and also dang where did that come from gentry holy shit ultimate like whoa i did
Starting point is 01:21:39 not say that um i was talking about pancakes why are we talking about waffles? And Arya, I don't know, I think she kind of reacts that way to an extent because she's feeling raw. And Gendry not being her brother doesn't have anything to do with his status so much as like, Sir, Arya actually has brothers, alright? She has brothers that she knew and grew up with. And this is a vulnerable time for her in that she thinks that maybe two of them are dead. One of them is at war and she's worried about him all the time and the other one that she loves
Starting point is 01:22:12 a lot is really, really, really far, far away and he's the only one who supported her and she can't contact him. So she's just having a really bad time and I don't know it makes me also think of like that scene in Never Have I Ever where Davy says to like Kamala, she it makes me also think of like that scene in never have i ever where davy says to like kamala she's like i think of you as a sister and i was like uh i actually have sisters
Starting point is 01:22:30 so i think of you as a cousin and which i relate to as an only child i'm like is this person do i feel like siblings with them and they're like i have siblings eliana no and that's that's what this is gendry chill there's also something here that like aria obviously like we just said she's being forced to age faster than and differently than what she would have been like at home with her family if they had just stayed in winterfell uh her life is going very differently than it was supposed to possibly not going to plan. And Gendry's too, right? For Gendry's age, I mean, I don't think that he saw himself on the road with a band of outlaws also protecting a great lord's daughter that he didn't ask for.
Starting point is 01:23:18 And he cares about her a lot. He cares about her like family. You can see that. He wouldn't have stepped in here. Or not family. Yeah, he wouldn't have stepped in had he not. you can see that he wouldn't have stepped in here. Or not family. Yeah, he wouldn't have stepped in had he not.
Starting point is 01:23:29 But that said, I think also it's that time that, like, he's, you know, 15, 16. He wants to get drunk and fuck a pretty girl here at the brothel. Like, why shouldn't he? He's had nothing but shit his whole life. Why shouldn't he want to do something? But there's something tugging him to protect Arya, to take take care of her and he feels a little bit of resentment at that a little bit of resentment at not having his freedom because he's never had his freedom and now he's like well this is the most free i've ever fucking been and i still can't have that freedom i think it's kind
Starting point is 01:23:59 of interesting like it comes out of resentment and also out of love in a way yeah yeah george wanted his five-year gap and i think this is one of the reasons so yeah if there was a five-year gap it would be easier for me to right now say to you gendry's frustrated because aria is younger and a high born lady and he probably wants to fuck her but unfortunately there's no five-year gap so this is in layman's terms yes so this is yeah i mean it's very weird and i'd be like uh maybe you should also get a job country yeah anyway aria finds a mattress upstairs one for the whole group because i think we discussed this was it in the brienne or caitlin chapters that's the way that ends work you know people
Starting point is 01:24:44 just all stay in the same room. They've only got so many beds. And it's probably cheaper. One for the whole group grabs her real clothes that are hanging on the wall, getting out of the linen lace that she was forced into and puts herself into her tunic. And then she says her nighttime prayers. And we have a line of, she liked to mix up the order of the names sometimes. It helped her remember who they were and what they'd done maybe some of them are dead she thought maybe they're in iron
Starting point is 01:25:10 cages someplace and the crows are picking out their eyes sleep came as quick as she closed her eyes and just a random thought that i had when i was reading that i'm like thinking of doran martell doing the exact same thing as Arya with like maybe he has a little vengeance prayer too oh I love that I've uh I was just I love that for him I do I love like secret vengeful zaddy Doran Martell I actually really love Doran he makes me very sad and gotta shout out and recommend learned hands just put out a Doran Martell episode and at the time of this recording at the front of december i am only one hour in it's about a two and a half hour episode but it's good i'm like we
Starting point is 01:25:52 can't say anything last week's episode was long but long episode but very good and i've gotten two workouts out of it so far so i'm hoping to get a third or fourth you know i think i'm really milking this episode but take a listen to it. It's pretty good so far. I actually wanted to poke some fun at what George put in here, because it's a little meta, that he has Arya say that sometimes she liked to mix up the order
Starting point is 01:26:14 to help her remember who they are and what they did. Arya's prayer is a really cool framing device. I think back to when you pointed out the moon in Bran's plot and how it was kind of like showed a lot for passage of time or different things. I thought that was such a great anchoring point in his chapters. And Arya's prayer is actually a really great anchor point for a couple of things. So one, passage of time. So if it's given more than once in a chapter,
Starting point is 01:26:39 you can kind of figure out the chapter is not just a one day chapter that you're covering several different days or several different prayers. I think of a storm of swords one you get the prayer twice in that and then later in a feast for crow in the second chapter for a feast for crows will come to she says her prayers three times that day very interesting it tells us death of characters right characters get removed from the list when they die it tells us a change of heart that arias had removal from the list like sandor hell had amory not died maybe she would have removed him eventually and then i think there's something interesting about prominence and this is kind of like a very young thing that when news is very prominent so for example uh this chapter
Starting point is 01:27:24 cersei and joffrey come to the front of the list while Sandor and Gregor go to the bottom of the list. And that might be due to the war, right? She's been very centrally located in Gregor in the last handful of chapters. And here she's finally hearing a little bit about King's Landing on and off in this chapter. So I don't know, just some food for thought. She's been very cut off from society and has been very close to the soldiers on the ground so they've kind of had her her priority in her kill list and I will say I made a spreadsheet as I was going through this I don't want to talk about it uh just I have a whole spreadsheet now of the different changes to the prayer and the different order and there were some interesting moments that I kind of saw while using it for research.
Starting point is 01:28:07 Like a Clash of Kings 7, Whis comes in. That was when she started hating Whis. He gets added as number one because she hates his ass. And he's such a dick in her everyday life. How could you forget about Whis? Clash of Kings 8, Chizik dies. He gets taken off the list. Clash of Kings 10, Whis dies.
Starting point is 01:28:23 Amory dies. They get removed from the list. Storm of Swords 1, Arya falls asleep before finishing her list. I don't think it's that important, but I just thought it was kind of interesting that she doesn't finish saying people on her list. She doesn't say Ilyn, Meryn, Joffrey, or Cersei. In this chapter, we have Cersei and Joffrey move to the front of the list, Hound and Gregor at the end of the list. The irony, of course, being the hound is moved to the end of this chapter. And Storm of Swords 8,
Starting point is 01:28:49 she doesn't do her full prayer, but there's an observation of her prayer in passing saying that she prayed it, but we don't get to hear the order. And then Storm of Swords 13, Poliver and Tickler die and she leaves the hound off of her list because she's with him now.
Starting point is 01:29:05 A Feast for Crows 1, hound's been removed permanently. There's a spoiler I'm not going to give you, but something happens in Mercy in the Winds of Winter. If you haven't read it, you should. And I don't know. We will be covering it as a Patreon episode
Starting point is 01:29:20 at some point. Yeah, it's coming for you, patrons. Get ready. At the end of Aria, we will come back to that. And I don't know, I think the, uh, it makes me think about the Order and the Winds of Winter and what it might be like with what's left, right? Especially because
Starting point is 01:29:33 I think there is something about her prayer that we need to think about. In the Winds of Winter, here's who's left. Gregor, Dunsin, Raff, Ellen Payne, Meryn Trant, and Cersei cersei right so gregor we know he's dead but i mean he's undead and he's in king's landing right interesting dunson might be on his way to king's landing we haven't seen him in a long time on the ground. However, in the World of Ice and Fire
Starting point is 01:30:06 app, it's semi-canon, but I think it kind of counts. It seems like it's a little tidbit that George had in his notes. Dunson is following Ronit Connington from Maidenpool to King's Landing. Dunson is heading towards King's Landing.
Starting point is 01:30:21 We don't really know where Raph is, so I guess that doesn't count. Spoilers. And Ilan Payne King's Landing. Well, he's running around the Riverlands. He's got a bro trip now. He might be going
Starting point is 01:30:38 back to King's Landing. We'll see. That he's been forced to go on. Yeah, but I mean, Jamie's off on his own now we'll see he's loose for love yeah uh marin is in king's landing and cersei's in king's landing so all signs in her prayer kind of are pointing towards king's landing so it'll be interesting to see if she i don't think she'll go to king's landing before going home to winterfell i think she'll hit the riverlands and go north i'm wondering if she
Starting point is 01:31:10 chooses not to go which is going to be a big step against her prayer but all signs point to king's landing at some point i also think like it's possible that cersei goes to casterly rock at some point too so i think that her plans are going to get ruined to go to king's landing arias i think that everything's there yeah and one way or another she's not going to be able to complete her list yeah and which also happened to doran right like the list gets completed for him just not in the way that he wanted he wanted it he wanted to have a little more of an active role aria would love to have more of an active role, I think, in the making her prayers come true. But we'll see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. I mean, Gregor is at least easier probably to kill than he used to be. Or is he harder to kill now? I don't know. I don't really understand the mechanics sometimes of undeadness. We'll find out. find out yeah we will find out and i really love um how you've pointed out like that it does serve as as like you said an anchor and it's kind of like a little check-in of like here's what's
Starting point is 01:32:14 happening in aria's story but also here's what's happening in the story overall and but also showing like you said like how her character is changing when it comes to each person who is on or off the list yeah hmm well aria has a wolf dream the smell of blood rain and rod is in the air and she's swift fierce and her pack is around her her brothers and sisters help her take down a frightened horse and they feast and when the moon breaks she howls oh one day comes aria wakes to the barking of dogs she's pressed between gendry and lem in the bed and it sounds like at least half a hundred dogs are out there which i know that feeling and and she like goes to the window of this bedroom and decides to open and she's like oh it's wet and cold and i'm like that's kind of like an asshole move aria why are you opening
Starting point is 01:33:14 the cold wet window while everyone is sleeping very rude letting in the sound of the dogs yeah well that's also kind of an asshole thing to do too why would you wake up everyone else in the fucking room well i mean they gotta get up look we fundamentally disagree on this okay i just i just think let them sleep all right uh let them sleep in well out in the square these dogs have barked and run in circles. They're great black mastiffs. And there's also some lean wolfhounds, black and white sheep dogs, and some dogs that Arya doesn't even know. Well, definitely one dog that she does know, but more to come on that. A dozen riders sit astride their horses, watching the townsmen open a cage, letting a corpse within
Starting point is 01:34:03 fall and become dog food very quickly. Interesting to compare over to, uh, Jane and what she's dealing with in a dance with dragons. Uh, prisoner sits solely beside the townsmen and people are throwing poop at him. That's so cruel. Um,
Starting point is 01:34:19 he's being told he'll rot in these cages while they spend all of his Lannister gold. Damn. They also, like, tell him that they're going to send his remains to his brother, which is, like, another little hint about who this is. And I think it's kind of interesting because it's his brother's remains that maybe, maybe his brother's remains get sent around the country. Oh, I love that. Passing them around. I love that.
Starting point is 01:34:44 My God. We do love that that happened to him this is so learned at hands doran martell wow this is just like their episode coming all in at the same time um yeah because his head question mark maybe might be there might not maybe question mark question mark question mark prophet nothing's better than the fact that like doran you know how doran parties they're so petty they're like oh we're gonna have sugar skulls to accept the skull her question mark prophet nothing's better than the fact that like dorn you know how dorn parties they're so petty they're like oh we're gonna have sugar skulls to accept the skull so good actually that was that was actually a really good move yeah i love a theme you know me love a theme the brotherhood wakes up asking everyone well what's going on eliana's over here aria opened
Starting point is 01:35:22 the window that's what's going on uh tom tells them the huntsman has returned with a prisoner aria comments it's a lannister and gendry's like is it the kingslayer now the poop has transformed from being poop being thrown to being rocks and stones being thrown at the man and then aa confirms this man is not the Kingslayer. Then we close the chapter with, Not the Kingslayer, Arya thought when she saw his face. The gods had heard her prayers after all. Wow.
Starting point is 01:35:58 Who is it? Oh my God. Who is it, Chloe? It's my mans. There he is. Who's the good boy? You know, we haven't seen Sandy since Blackwater Baby. Oh my god.
Starting point is 01:36:11 Yeah, Sandor Theond before Theon Theond. Sandor disappears after Blackwater, and this is his first reappearance into the plot here. I'm so glad to see him. I really hate that he's getting hit with piles of shit and stones. That's kind of cruel don't throw poop and rocks at dogs that's not nice but yeah i also love the way it ends it's very like it's such a storm of swords chapter ending and what i mean by that is like i think of tyrian chapters in storm and how they always end with these big like notes of da da da da and this one
Starting point is 01:36:43 also ended with the da da da da you know like i think of the trial and i think of all these big notes of da-da-da-da-da. And this one also ended with the da-da-da-da-da. You know, like, I think of the trial, and I think of all these big chapters happening and the way George writes them. And the gods had heard her prayers after all. And if you didn't figure it out, you have to wait till the next chapter to figure it out. I think that's clever.
Starting point is 01:36:58 It's cute. George is doing a thing. I love when he does the thing. Do it all the time, George. Please. It feels like we're about to go to a commercial break, right? What's gonna
Starting point is 01:37:09 where are we gonna find out after the commercial? I think like sometimes these endings of these chapters, it either feels like the end of a commercial or the end of like an episode of, you know, a TV series that's coming out. You really get to see his TV writer chops shine. Yeah, it is very, it would copy to the screen for sure. that's coming out. You really get to see his TV writer chops shine. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:37:26 It is very, it would copy to the screen for sure. Like just dramatic. I mean, I think of how they did the Tyrion trial, you know, the I demand trial by combat. Like that is the most,
Starting point is 01:37:39 it's very epic. It's very, yeah. George was absolutely feeling himself in this book. i think a lot of people say that storm is their favorite and it is a good book it's not my favorite i still love it i mean it's in my five favorite a-swath books probably of the top five just kidding but um there's more than that now i guess i guess there's like seven or eight oh god fire and blood did i miss something oh yeah look under your chair.
Starting point is 01:38:06 Oh. I don't know, it's something, like, you can see he's showing off a little bit in this book, and I think it's well-deserved. It's very well-deserved. He's flossing a little. He's like, I'm George R.R. Martin, and I have snappy, flashy chapter endings. Yeah, I mean, he's pretty jazzed about this book, right? He gets to, like, close up some of the plots to move into a new phase of the story. Yeah. He gets to close up one act of
Starting point is 01:38:30 the story. Not necessarily plots. He just reopens a bunch of plots. But anyway, so, I don't know. I like Storm. I think I'm Beast first, Storm second. Hell yeah. But I did used to be Storm first because I'm a basic bitch, too. That's okay to be basic. Yeah. That's okay to be basic.
Starting point is 01:38:46 Yeah, it is okay to be basic. Storm enjoyers who became Feast enjoyers are you know, they're number one. That's all. It's true. I am number one. No, I'm joking. Oh my god. Well, that's it. I mean what a strong place for us to end on.
Starting point is 01:39:02 Oh yeah. What a strong place for us to start 2024 on, for Chloe especially. Oh, my God. I'd like to thank the Academy. I'd like to thank Eliana. I'd like to thank all of you listening at home. Thank you so much. I feel like I've won an award today.
Starting point is 01:39:17 So, thank you. 2024, the first half will be dedicated to Sandor Clegane. It's her year. I mean, I'm going to be honest. Most of my years are dedicated to Sandor Clegane. It's her year. I mean, I'm going to be honest. Most of my years are dedicated to Sandor Clegane. But. Yep, that's true. I'm telling you all a secret here.
Starting point is 01:39:34 It's been a great year of Arya and a bunch of other POVs, right? Bran, Arryn, Mel. Victarion. Victarion. Oh my God. We had a crazy fucking year. Finished a lot. I look forward to next year. I don't know,
Starting point is 01:39:48 I think we might be able to get a few POVs in next year, now that I say it. Yeah, I mean, it's honestly a better start to the year. I mean, like, granted, you know, while I loved starting the year with the His Dark Materials TV show finale, what a fucking bummer, am I right?
Starting point is 01:40:07 Yeah. Sorry about God. Well, now we got Sand Bob. Yes, now we will have Sand Dog. Hello, God, it's Dog. Hello, Dog. Hello, yes, this is Dog. Yes.
Starting point is 01:40:21 Thank you for listening in 2023. We have had a blast with you this year. We look forward to several more years. Several more years. Four more years. Many more years. Wow, honestly, that's pretty optimistic for these last two books. Anyways, we do.
Starting point is 01:40:40 We do. Thank you for being on this journey with us. Wow. New year. Same old us probably but even more us than ever when with this Sandor chapters
Starting point is 01:40:51 see you all on the flip side if you want to keep up with all of that though you can follow us on social media at twitter.com slash girls gone canon c-a-n-o-n or on blue sky at girls gone canon. Or you can send us an email with, I don't know, just fun stuff.
Starting point is 01:41:12 Also pictures of your animals at girls gone canon at gmail.com. And a huge thank you again to our patrons who honestly sponsor the shit out of us. These episodes could not happen would not happen without our patrons ever so grateful this year and every year for your support you can become a patron over at patreon.com slash girls gone canon where you get bonus episodes and other perks depending on the tier that you choose and our patrons are going to tell you where you should listen to us, subscribe to us online. 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.
Starting point is 01:42:06 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.
Starting point is 01:42:40 It's a lot of fun and you won't regret it. It's been a great year and you won't regret it. It's been a great year. Look forward to more. Thanks so much for listening. As always, I have been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I have been another one of your hosts, Dominic
Starting point is 01:42:59 and Duncan. Oh my god. These people are gonna be like, who are these girls? why do they keep claiming to be us sorry women women who are these ladies my little and why should we hire them to do our musical adaptation why should we completely pivot we're gonna fucking all over put them the strumming and air ukulele right now but none of you can hear it or see it but just
Starting point is 01:43:29 know it's being strummed it's being strummed the queen took off her sandal oh are we not? alright goodbye everyone goodbye I don't know the words I don't know the tune happy new year everyone
Starting point is 01:43:43 see you later happy new year goodbye

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.