Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 213 — ASOS Arya VI

Episode Date: January 19, 2024

The year is 2024 And here is Sandor Doing trial by combat for R'hllor Beric died... but wait there's more! --- Background music:  "The Pyre" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ --- Check us out on Bluesky! https://bsky.app/profile/girlsgonecanon.bsky.social --- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song Of Ice And Fire, episode 213, Aria 6 in A Storm Of Swords. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And are you ready for another year of Girls Gone Canon? First episode of 2024 for the historians. I am so... I thought you weren't gonna do it i was like i didn't want to remind you either i wanted to see what happened just for fun really fire her this time i'm like man 2024 already canceled hard life eliana no you know i think you were innocent of these crimes i'm sorry i didn't didn't mean to perpetuate a stereotype which might happen with

sandor clegane later this chapter whoa whoa we are here in a storm of swords with aria we have sandor clegane on board you know it's about to get real in girls gone canon world you know that it's about to get thirsty and sad the two biggest themes for the podcast thirsty and sad yes critics are calling it Chloe's been waiting for this moment for I don't know years here we are yeah 2024 really delivering for you it's your year already already it's the year of the dragon but it can be the dog in a way too must be must be some sort of way it's got me feeling something something dog-like I don't know animal I don't know all right guys before we jump forward to the meat of the episode the

exciting shit we got to talk housekeeping it's been a minute we're back thanks for letting us have a holiday we did it was wonderful uh many travels for both of us I'm sure you'll hear us chatting about them throughout the episodes to come this year. But first, there are some travels in our podcast world. Wow, this is like an Aljana segue. We have a Patreon episode coming out this month. Bonus episode, patrons in the stranger tier and above. Get these bonus episodes every month.

We came out with the first part of this series last month in December, The Hunger Games, our first foray into it, the first nine chapters, and now we're on part two, The Tributes. So that's coming out this month for patrons. That's a January's Patreon 2024 episode for patrons and the stranger tearing up. And you can get that over on patreon.com slash girls gone canon other things that are happening is of course we have our discord brunch and happy hour brappy hour if you will you can access that on our patreon as well this month is going to actually be on january 21st so you still have time to catch that if you would like join us and ringing, ringing in the new year, old Lang sign. I don't know the words to that song. And

we've also got February scheduled as well. Yeah, we're gonna get back together in February on the back together in February on the 17th, 2.17, 2 to 4 p.m. ET. And yeah, be ours, you know, on that day, a little Valentine's Day action. We're gonna, I don't know, it'll be Valentine's themed somehow. We haven't, we haven't worked all that out yet, but it'll be fun. And this is a reminder that if, if you're in the Thunder tier and above over at our Patreon, that's 10 bucks and up. You have access to Discord pretty much for life and to these brunches. We're trying to get ahead of the game and put the dates out early, but it's kind of like a fun couple of hours to just chat and get to know each other. And sometimes we play some games. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes we just bullshit. Sometimes it goes to like one theme, like whatever everyone's watching at the time. And we end up chatting about that.

Or sometimes we get deep. Sometimes we do astrology, you know? Shit's fun. Yeah. Sometimes we make Chloe broadcast videos of people doing like the Wheel of Death thing at Renaissance fairs. That was a really fun brunch. I don't care.

That was really fun. That was good. Just streaming YouTube videos and all of us were like, what the fuck? Yeah, that was a blast. I've had some good times at Brappy Hour. So here's what you can expect for the rest of this month. Of course, next week, we're going to continue with Arya. We're going to do Arya 7 in A Sword of the Swords.

Yeah, now that we're back, you can expect Arya, Arya, Arya. I think especially now that we know there is an August launch of House of the Dragon. Yeah, Year of the Dragon. Year of the Dragon. I don't know if we're going to be... I don't know. I think we might have finished one more POV by then, but I can't tell. I haven't laid it all out.

But once we get to House of the dragon in the premiere we will be switching over to that this year uh that'll be our august you know our eight episode run yeah so you can look forward to hot d all the time yes every day you're gonna get the hot d every week from us absolutely because we're also in our self-care era this year i think we had a lot of fun you know double fisting uh our our usual read-through with house of the dragon during the first season but we've grown since then we've learned from our past and that's what it's about as eliana is want to say she's no longer the age of catelyn tly stark uh yeah you know i think i like might have gotten that wrong i'm definitely not the age of she was in the books maybe age of

death unsure i'm gonna have to check again but either way um so my god anyways yeah no we uh we're gonna practice self-care i'm not gonna throw myself down the stairs this year uh yeah hot d had us it was crazy and i'm sure you'll get other goodies during that time we haven't gotten there yet we're not even close to the second half of the year so chill out we are still waiting for sailor moon cosmos to internationally release we are still waiting for the official release god yes we are and we will be back at some point this year to wrap up eternal part two with that in mind yeah i mean all these brands like i said they keep putting out these collabs and i'm like but where's the time yeah i'm like does that mean it's around

the corner which I strongly believe it must be but anyway well here's to another year with you and to you all too thanks for listening and let's jump back into Aria I'm kind of excited uh that little holiday vacation got me feeling ready to go ready to jump into Aria's horrible world and this is a this is a pretty big episode we're going to talk about so until we jump up there in case you forgot our lightning round is about to go down and what happens during the lightning round is the lightning lord all those chapters yeah the lightning lord oh my god the lightning lord round today. What happens in between the chapters we missed from Arya 5 to Arya 6. And Eliana, will you start us off with the first chapter we missed?

Sure. Yeah, I accidentally spoiled myself this lightning round and this was stuck in my head like for five minutes before we hopped on this call. But Jon, for It's the Clam! Wow, thank you. You sang that with the vibrato i know you would i that that was written for you thank you i did ghost write that for you uh you wrote it's the climb for me but miley i i turned it down so you gave it to miley Cyrus that's really how it went I missed you uh Jamie four Jamie loses a hand they reach Harrenhal Tyrion four Simeon's silver tongue blackmails Tyrion Tywin shows off his new swords instead of like two chains it's two swords um look at this stuff isn't it neat samwell 2 at craster's keep jay or says farewell that brings us here to aria 6 a storm of swords

with lightning lord and fire dog beneath the fire the lord of light sandra clegane is judged yeah i'm judging you right now what the fuck um i thought it'd be fun they all have elements now i have to critique myself today because i only wrote one funny lightning round quip and like the rest of them are so fucking depressing it's like jr bleeding out dying it's like tyrian's getting blackmailed jamie lost his hand and the whole time we had to say those with straight faces so good job It's like Jaor bleeding out dying. It's like Tyrion's getting blackmailed. Jaime lost his hand. And the whole time we had to say those with straight faces. So good job.

Good job, us. Good job. He did it. So Arya 6. Arya is transported to the Hollow Hill with a hood on her head in darkness. Ooh, that feels like it's going to have some sort of nods at her future plot. And she arrives at a huge fire pit, flames swirling amidst a giant endless cave. The walls are stone and soil with huge white roots snaking through them, and people are emerging from the roots to look at the captives. As Gendry's unhooded, he asks where they are and Lem answers, a refuge from wolves and lions, an old, secret place.

Arya remembers the dream she had just had, and the taste of blood as she had ripped a man's arm from his shoulder. Oh, dissociative. Very good, very good. Things are good. Hollow Hill! Holy shit, way to open up a year and a chapter for us. Creepy-ass hill. It gives me very it's giving

children of the forest vibes uh weirwood snaking through the walls it sounds like weirwood veins weirwood uh veins from the tree and i don't know it just feels important it feels like something important maybe once even happened here right like the pact was happening all across this land like this would have been a land or area affected very much by what was happening out in the god's eye also similar to the three-eyed raven slash crow whatever three-eyed crow the shows corrupted me uh cave description makes me think this was kind of like also an important poignant place for seers or someone alike yeah especially with that little throne in there right and yeah it absolutely feels like this was likely used by the children of the forest and like we we hear that maybe there are tunnels as well and it's huge it's

probably connected to all those like caves and tunnels that we hear snake across like westeros maybe the whole world gendel and gordon's caves as well and yeah it does really evoke the the three-eyed crow you know you've got this language of a thousand slow pale snakes and i'm like yeah yeah for sure pale thousand yeah thousand eyes ah ah a thousand eyes in one. Yeah, yeah. But technically this would be two thousand if they were snakes, but whatever. Maybe they're one-eyed snakes, you know? Just like Bloodraven. Oh, one-eyed snake means something so different.

Oh yeah, shit. Oh god, jeez. Happy New Year, we're back. We were getting a little too smart for my likings for a minute there. I'm glad we dumbed that one down. Greenbeard points Arya toward the fire. Toward the wizard, they're calling him, who will hold all the answers she looks for. Thoros has changed.

The wizard. Thoros has changed. He's not the fat, drunk, happy red priest she once knew. He's droopy. He's thin. His head is full of shaggy gray hair. She thinks he's going to come talk to her. He's looking at her, but the huntsman arrives with his captive and Gendry and Arya are forgotten. And of course, we don't actually really even know

this is Sandor yet. I mean, we do. We're not stupid. No, I'm just kidding. We've already read it, but we don't really know that technically right the big reveal is about to happen here to everyone too i don't think any everyone thinks it's jamie and george cuts it off he's like okay bye so the huntsman's captive is in tow the huntsman tells thorow he caught this hound thanks to his dogs and thorow says betrayed by his own kind yeah i mean like even if you didn't know i guess right prior to it happening they do have all those like dog imagery and being like he was caught by these hounds and hunted by the dogs so like you you know you know and it also it's kind of just fun it's contrasted with aria's memory of being a wolf, right? The difference between wolves and dogs and the freedom that she had in that dream. Yes, I love that.

There's that line that's to come. It's in Arya 7. It's repeated in Arya 8. It turns out these are some of my favorite chapters. I don't know if you knew that. We don't have to talk about it, but I don't know if any of you knew that I like these chapters for really obvious obvious reasons right things i'm like getting giddy and tap dancing about like i had to hold back from writing about the danes today because i'm like it's not

time we have other chapters to talk about the danes this will be sandrick centric yeah but there's that great line nonetheless that great line where says, do you know what dogs do to wolves? And I love that that line because it suggests that he's able to ravage and able to terrorize and be awful and evil. And he constantly is saying that. But his bark is obviously much bigger than his bite is, especially when it comes to those two little Stark girls. Obviously, I just think it's so, it's such a great line. It's so threatening when he says it, but then by the end of the book, he's so cowed,

you know, he's so lost and cowed and shell broken man. I don't know. I love, uh, I love these comparisons of wolves and dogs, but also the comparison of dogs and dogs, right? Thoros says betrayed by his own kind, a dog that has been cast out like Sandor who you know his dad chose his brother over him his brother abused him close an inch away from death right from dying his brother wants him dead his dad doesn't care enough to save his life or to be brave against his brother so he is someone that's been cast out from his own kind they admit it here definitely kind of like balto you know he was a half dog and half wolf part of me wanted to react like i'm not ready for your bullshit yet this year but also part of me like immediately started thinking of

all these dog references i'm like oliver and company like you know just like every yeah it's a good one it's a good one the it's a good one my friends have been bringing up again i think we even like referenced it when we i was on sanri's channel of uh yeah what's his name dodger dodger the dog and his song yeah great song yeah oliver and company so yeah um i love oliver and company and we're getting off topic we'll keep moving we'll keep moving. We'll keep moving. We'll keep moving. I love the poodle too. She's my favorite.

Bernadette. Is that her name? Bernadette? I forgot. But like, I don't know the grip of like when she does her makeup with the one paw and swipes it. Oh, amazing. Iconic. It stuck with me my entire life.

I think about it every single day. I've been chasing that high. I think there was a toy that I really wanted. It was like one of those doll kind of toys, but it was a toy of her and you can actually paint her nails and like with water, like it like changed color with warm water. Cool.

Brilliant. Brilliant. So Thoros rips the hood off of Sandor's head, revealing his burnt face beneath shifting flames, welcoming him to the humble hall. Sandor and Thoros go back and forth remembering one another sandor used to hate thoros's flaming sword and melee he's about to hate stuff going on today thoros used to beat his ass with the sword and thoros also used to shave his head so they get

all caught up in this and i like how they really emphasized earlier how different Thoros looks from the man that Arya associates with that name that she saw on King's Landing and on their journeys but Sandor he isn't thrown off by any of that he really sees Thoros he recognized Thoros despite him looking so different and going off of that like how he's able to see Thoros despite that changed appearance maybe this is about Arya later on recognizing her own mother even though uh Catelyn Stark looks real different now than she used to one of those biggest differences may be being like dead uh or even Arya herself right who is still herself even when her face is literally changed will she will someone be able to recognize

that i love what you've pulled together here my actual note was really like this bro but um that's for us that's for us not for them no i'm just kidding it can be for you guys too i love the that like idea of seeing through you know glamors seeing through people's disguises like even though especially like with jamie just a bit ago right on the road we know he had been disguised his hair had been shaved but like you could still see who he is if you look close enough they're like this man's still really hot what do we do he looks he still looks pretty well fed for someone on the road with fleas everywhere i don't know i don't know i love that for sandor too though and especially i love this idea of the

type of character he is because aria is kind of a lone wolf right now and he's a lone dog right like we said cast out of his pack and it seems like there's a certain amount of vision that aria has because she's able to see things differently than many other people, too. You know, like the way she sees the world, she grasps it. She gets that training from Syrio. But because she listens, because she observes, she's an observer. Sandor is probably the same way, right? He's an observer.

He's always been an observer, even in King's Landing when he was kind of, you know, servant knight to their house. He observed things and he couldn't comment on things. And it's kind of like him, Sansa, and Arya all have that little bit of superpower of like listening and seeing things that are there that aren't actually there. It's kind of like this idea of hypervigilance, right, that he has because he was always trying to look out for what were gregor's moods don't get on the bad side of your older brother or your other family members yeah that's why joffrey comes easily to him yeah being able to read that thoros introduces him to his brothers lem lemon cloak green beard and guy etc sandor asks how long they've been hiding in their little hollow hill, and they all begin to tell him the history of where they've been,

telling him to ask the leech, ask the goat, and they'll tell you where this brotherhood has been. Yeah. There's something interesting going on of Sandor faces this brotherhood of just knights, just men men when technically he was in a brotherhood as well right he was technically Kingsguard and he ran away from that and brotherhood kind of becomes this grotesque mockery of the Kingsguard in a way right transformed these men who are shadows slipping around the cave like the scarecrow lord commander of this Kingsguard

basically which is Berack i don't know there's some like cool language of like an undead kind of king's guard that has no limit to how many knights can join it that are walking around saying they're dutiful and loyal to the king and all that i guess like sparrows you know very good uh all these people uprising and all these knights they're making can be compared to the sparrows going on as well true yeah i think there's like a lot of overlap with the sparrows going on here but also what you were calling out that's right he was part of a brotherhood the king's guard and he was like well all those people they were all false as well but even beyond that like what does brotherhood mean to a guy like Sandor who's like, yeah, I have an actual brother, and he put my face in the fire.

Yeah, it's a laughable concept for him, which I love the tone of this chapter. I mean, this is kind of an iconic chapter, in my opinion. It's like a pivotal, like, it's one of the top, I don't know what number to give it, but it's a top something chapter. It's just, it's giving you a little bit of everything true of the brotherhood of the history of relore aria sandor it's just got all these great concepts of chivalry and how it's fucking dead but i just love sandor clegane we will come back to how chloe loves sandor clegane this chapter and then again we. Yeah, we will. And again.

And again. Yeah, there's something sad about Beric and everything, and something about some of the lines and the dialogue we get from Beric around the Brotherhood without banners that, like, you could almost imagine Arthur Dayne saying them. You know, in Dorne, outside of the Tower of Joy. I don't know, just something I've been spitballing. Like, it's a similar concept of the Tower of Joy. I don't know, just something I've been spitballing. Like, it's a similar concept of the schism of the Kingsguard breaking and the Brotherhood breaking eventually is very interesting.

Oh, yeah, that's true. Because the Kingsguard would have had to split between, you know, Prince and King at that point. Mm-hmm, and who they support. I mean, it was a mini-dance without being a mini-dance, and especially when it was all starting out here in the Riverlands. Yeah, absolutely. a mini dance without being a mini dance and especially when it was all starting out here in the riverlands yeah absolutely so out here in hollow hill we have tons of people that are here to watch the trial some of them are swineherds some soldiers some men of winterfell of dairy of black haven some are knights squires lordsers, six score of them left to bring the king's justice to Gregor, Sandor's brother, led by a young man in a black starry cloak. And that man in the black

starry cloak is now here, folks. Here he is, Jesus Christ himself, Beric Dondarrion, the leader of the pack. He's here. I wish he had done a musical number, that's my biggest complaint, actually. Wow, yes, and then he dances and then like swooshes the black starry cloak it's a tap it's a tap dance it's a tap dance

first of all see i think it's like a fusion and like a modern but we can we can chat okay interesting interesting um this would be if our first musical our our Broadway production of The Rebellion goes well. We would be granted, hopefully, this as our sequel. We're in talks. We're not in talks. We're in talks. We're in talks. We're in, quote, talks.

We have this great description of Beric. A scarecrow of a man, he wore a ragged black cloak speckled with stars and an iron breastplate dinted by a hundred battles. A thicket of red-gold hair hid most of his face, save for a bald spot above his left ear where his head had been smashed in. of how like you know yeah some of them were swineherds it's a good reminder that you know whether or not these men are in the brotherhood or not a lot of the soldiers in the realm especially when it comes to wartime i mean they are made up of like swineherds tanners singers or masons or whatever all these men have said they are right they are called to fight the lord's battles like who who cares if they're like specially trained soldiers or not that's who gets called on when the time comes and at least here they feel some investment in this cause themselves whether or not you know like how true they are but yeah they at least see a little bit of it back you know in the community yeah that's and somebody's

fighting for them that never happens true they usually fight for people so at least here it's like real yeah something that stood out to me this read was george using the scarecrow to describe Beric and also calling Thoros the wizard singularly several times. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's absolutely Wizard of Oz. Definitely some L. Frank bomb going on here that George is referencing. And I actually do think I see it beyond just like that, jokes aside, comparing the Wizard of Oz with the Riverlands, right? Like he's probably just having a bit of a laugh, but thematically it fits.

You can see quite a bit of Oz going on here with regards to the Brotherhood Without Banners. And at the end of the 19th century, we had kind of that collapse of populism and farmers in America. They were being basically economically fucked over, as well as facing environmental challenges like locusts and awful weather that destroyed their crop. It led to a huge rise in the People's Party and populism as farmers started to kind of push back against the

banks and the railroads and seek help. And echoes of that are in the main plot in Oz and outside of Oz, right? They're seeking the wizard to fix all their problems, the president who should be able to make things right. And each of these characters kind of represents the people of America, right? You have the tin man who's industrialism, right? The industrialist workers who have been dehumanized and mistreated and treated like nothing but machines. The scarecrow going and

seeking, you know, respite because he doesn't have a brain, quote unquote, the farmers that were often looked at like hicks. I mean, that's back then it was seen that you didn't know things, you just tended your fields, you plowed your fields. And so in Oz, in the story, the Scarecrow actually ends up becoming the wisest man in all the land by the end of the story. And the brain that he gets given by the wizard is really a placebo because he actually makes really smart decisions and is full of wisdom throughout the entire main plot. And outside of the main plot, you have Aunt Em and Uncle Henry being run out by Elmira Gulch, aka the witch, on their farm as well. So there's some interesting stuff going on here. And like the people of the Riverlands, you know, the tragedy is unfolding.

The fields are all burnt because of the war. The king, either king, whatever king, isn't doing anything to help them. Sees them as a lost land, no longer being cared for, no longer governed under King Joffrey. There's some interesting stuff going on here in the riverlands that kind of fits to the wizard of oz and i thought it was important to call out yeah i i had never thought about the riverlands and all this in in the context of the wizard of oz at all but you know i really like how you've tied together the economic plight of what's going on in the riverlands with what's going on with uh what inspired the wizard

of oz right some of those themes that are there i actually thought you're going to be like oh sandor was fighting for the lions and he needs to find courage but what you brought up was way better yeah i i thought about that too i actually kind of like was just sitting here thinking about it today just because i think it comes up, calling him the scarecrow comes up like 80 times for Beric in this chapter. I thought it was kind of funny. Sandor is like, you know, the industrialism and the machine of Westeros, right? And it absorbs people and it puts them through and it digests them and spits them back out.

And they're these hollow, broken men. Fits really well for the Tin Man, for Sandor. And also we, we have a lion that needs courage. Unfortunately, he just lost a hand. He's also roaming the Riverlands. Don't worry.

Hmm. Yeah, that's right. That's right. And everyone still knows him cause they're like, he's still hot. I guess Aria is, you know,

not in Winterfell anymore. She's not. I mean, she could also be Dorothy with her new dog. Sandor could play every single role in this version. Wow. Amazing. But L. Frank Baum couldn't write Sandor. That's incredible.

Yeah. But there is a musical. Well, The Wizard of Oz is in and of itself a musical. Never mind. Never mind, never mind. We are going to pay homage to the songs of The Wizard of Oz in our adaptation for Beric's musical number. I mean, it was Broadway as of 1902 or 1903, I think, so. It is a musical, and we are Broadway as of 2025.

Yeah, I mean, The Wizard of Oz came out after the Broadway, so. Oh, okay. I mean, yeah, that makes sense, right? They usually take the Broadway thing, then turn it into a movie or whatever. Yeah, I think they probably, I don't remember how many songs were actually taken and cut and whatever, but that's a whole other episode.

A whole other episode. We are not making, please do not take that as us making promises that we are going to do a Wizard of Oz episode. I don't even know if it's really in our field. Maybe either. It's a lot. Stop starting rumors, Eliana. Holy shit. in who has lost an eye and has a dark black ring about his neck saying that they fight on as they can for robert and the realm jack be lucky reminds the audience that ned stark sent them out sitting

the throne but it was with robert's voice that he did so sure sandor calls him the king of worms now which must be why they keep his court beneath the ground i like this line here though of um you know coming back to that idea of appearances of beric don darian had been handsome sansa's friend jane had fallen in love with him even jane pool was not so blind as to think this man was fair yet when aria looked at him again she saw it the remains of a forked purple lightning bolt on the cracked enamel of his breastplate so aria after this whole thoros incident she's starting to see better now the way that sirio taught her and you know we have we have the remains of the bolt it's not the whole thing just part of it and it's

it's fading just like barrick's memory his personality and the purpose of this group starts to fade. Yeah, and I'm just spitballing here, but I wonder if, and this comes off of, I just finished The Ninth House and Hellbent by Leigh Bardugo, which was such a blast, so it's probably influencing things I'm thinking these days. You know, since we're a little book club, we're always reading. I mean, our speaking here on this podcast is usually influenced by whatever the fuck we're reading lately so i've been reading that it's a blast highly recommend it it is not in the shadow and bone series it's

a different series very fun it's like phantasma fiction fantasy at yale it's a blast really enjoy it adult very fun very dark so is it kind of like the magicians? It's got a little magicians-esque to it. It's got, yeah, I would say that's the closest thing it could really. Basically, you're at Yale and all the secret societies have magic. Oh. And so, yeah, so there's a little bit of like some interesting stuff going on. Highly recommend checking them out, though. They're like 400 to 600 pages tops each. Okay. yeah so there's a little bit of like some some interesting stuff going on um highly recommend

checking them out though they're like 400 to 600 pages tops each okay there's two of them right now very good though and it has me thinking you know and examining things differently these days but even just the way when you describe barrick i was thinking of his eye that is now missing, now that he's lost that eye. And now he joins the eyepatch men of Westeros, which most of them, it turns out, have a little bit of a seer power going on. I do think that it's likely he has some awakened seer powers. And I don't know, I think seeing death kind of unlocks some of those secrets of the world

and how you see things dying, that veil between worlds and crossing between like, I kind of think that Beric has probably because he's died a bajillion times seen some shit. And I would think he's probably like, able to see more than even, you know, Thoros through a fire. than even you know Thoros through a fire yeah probably I think the catch is like can you remember it you know when he when he comes back each time but what you're saying definitely makes sense especially when you think about those archetypes of like Odin right who also I think right loses an eye or like his his eye plays a big role and he dies he's hanged and then comes back so yeah there's definite odin imagery going on the like one-eyed all-father right is kind of because i mean he's definitely i mean he's got all the jesus stuff going on too i mean he dies again soon there's yeah there's something going on there and and the fall to fly kind of idea, right? I think of Bloodraven, I think of Bran, I think of Euron.

Yeah, yet another little Jedi seer going on out here. There's definitely something about the near-death experiences thing. Or actual death. Yeah. Arya thinks, as she looks at Dondarrion, she calls him the Scarecrow Knight in her head. And she listens to him say that they are still king's men, although the kings died, that they defend her, Westeros. The hound,

of course, laughs at that. Rocks and trees and rivers, that's what your realm is made of. Do the rocks need defending? Robert wouldn't have thought so. If he couldn't fuck it, fight it, or drink it, it bored him, and so would you, you brave companions.

Oh. Whoa. Outrage. Outrage at the Hollow Hill. That is a diss track being formed. Uh-oh. No one likes being called brave companions. I mean, he's not wrong about Robert.

Yeah, like, that's great that you made Robert your figurehead, mostly because you couldn't make Ned your figurehead, but, like, he kind of sucked, too. Yeah. Robert did not care. They're like, yeah, Ned spoke Robert's words. I'm like, Robert didn't give a fuck what you did.

Yeah, which is, I guess, better than the alternative, but... Yeah, true. But, anyway. It turns out Rhaegar might have been an okay king. Probably. Sucks. Probably.

So, yeah, none of these people apparently enjoy being compared to assholes. Y'all know who the brave companions are. They, instead, say that they call themselves the Brotherhood Without Banners. Holy brothers, knights of the Hollow Hill. And so Sandor, of course, sneers at that, telling them that they're the sorriest lot of outlaws and broken men that he's ever seen. Beric reminds him that, no, any knight can make a knight,

and every man here has been knighted, dubbed with a sword, a forgotten fellowship, Beric calls them. Sandor tells- Irresponsible also. Yeah, right? dubbed with a sword a forgotten fellowship barrett calls them sandra tells irresponsible also yeah right like oh yeah you're a knight now you're a knight now just giving it like line up take a number what is this joanne's fabrics oh my god yeah it also i mean i get i completely get where sandra's coming she's like what the fuck sandor tells them to either kill him or be done with it. They took his horse, his sword, his money, and now he has to listen to their garbage

sermon. But instead, they decide to list the crimes that they think Sandor did, like raping girls of six and seven at the Mummer's Ford and Sharer, which Sandor was at none of these things. Yeah, like, he has crimes, but let's focus on the real ones here

guys the real ones yeah we have a back and forth with uh some of these crimes do you deny that house Clegane was built upon dead children I saw them lay Prince Agen and Princess Rhaenys before the Iron Throne

by rights your arms should bear two bloody infants in place of those ugly dogs. The hound's mouth twitched. Do you take me for my brother? Is being born Clegane a crime? Oof. I love this back and forth of all these like assigning him these crimes because I think it's likely, yes, his generation of House Clegane was very much built on dead children and not just Rhaenys and Aegon, his sister, right? Like there is absolutely no reason that George decided to make the Clegane sister a mystery unless we should feel that Gregor killed her or Sandor accidentally killed her or Sandor

witnessed her death or something, right? Like there has to be some tragedy underlying that. We're literally told that in the very first book that there's some sort of tragedy underlying House Clegane that no one knows about, but they pretty much think it had to do with Gregor. And then of course there's Sandor's face that speaks for that as well. It's devastating to think that at like 12 years old, he was sent off to go start training to be in war for House Lannister. And that was the safest place he could go because otherwise it was just waiting for his brother to come home and murder him. Brotherhood doesn't mean anything to him. Brotherhood means danger.

And it's actually kind of interesting like this, this back and forth as well, in that it's kind of Tyrion at the Vale, right? They're like, hmm, these are all your fault. And he's like, I literally had nothing to do with any of these. And, yeah, like. I was getting down at the brothel. Yeah, like the, do you take me for my brother, right? And it's the series exploring again and again this theme of like yeah one's family the family you come from provides context for who you are and who you become but that's not

indicative of you being exactly like all your other family members like people are not interchangeable within one family that's a great point and like the sins of the father's sins of the family exactly all of it are you responsible for the entire sin of a house and what is a house right i think that's an interesting idea of like the family unit in westeros and what it stands for like i think about i don't know even like kevin lannister it's important what he does for house lannister tywin views that as like if you fuck up brother i'm not gonna be happy with you but if you keep it up then good you keep the house name and I'm like dude I don't look at my uncle like that yeah you know I don't view my family in that way of like it's a very um it's a heavy way to have to hold people to and like it ruins those family

bonds or it makes them very fragile and very raw and breakable yeah and I mean like you know people can't be appreciated for who for who they are right Tyrion is seen as a boy solely for the way that he looks, right? Yeah, the Westerosi family unit is, like, literally abusive at its very core in the systemic way, like, there's no way it can't be. different and loving them for who they are which i think is kind of why it's fun that you have all the stark siblings except for rick and and now rob of course well we never had a rob pov but like you get to see how different each of them are and the different perspectives that they have even if they all share that family bond and name i mean we had a rob pov so yes that's right we had a rob pov which we did release yeah you've probably listened to it by now i hope you have it's a fun episode it's a long episode but it's fun it's fun i'm like don't be saying we didn't

because we as in you and me did yes everyone else didn't but not we from george but in a way maybe kind of okay more crimes more crimes they accuse him of murdering lord lother mallory gladden wild jack the lucky siblings and a bunch of other people people from fieldstone mouse down mouse down sorry and all sorts of people there was just naming names at him and sandra's like who the fuck are these people and i'm also like who the fuck are these people he just goes you're making noise these names mean nothing who were they people said lord barak people great and small young and old good people and bad people who died on the points of lannister spears or saw their bellies opened by lannister's swords it wasn't my sword in their bellies.

Any man who says it is, any man who says it was, is a bloody liar. But Sandor serves the Lannisters, they say, so he is guilty of their crimes. I feel like there's an argument to be made of you are complicit in the system and holding someone guilty for all the crimes of that thing, you know?

It does say a lot about, and I think you have some good stuff to come. No spoilers, just teasing. But like, obviously, we're not quite at the schism yet, but there will be a schism when this group of people splits. Just like we said with that Kingsguard, there'll be like a schism when this group of people splits, just like we said with that Kingsguard. There'll be like a schism. It'll split off because people can no longer follow what it stands for. And these are some of the warning signs of like, okay, I know that you guys have started small,

so you're trying to really go big with your accomplishments, but like, how is this helping? By killing someone for all of the crimes of a Lannister army that, spoiler alert, they think he was just out there with them, hacking away at people when Sandor's been on the run since the Blackwater. Yeah, and I mean, you know, his family did. Like, as you were saying, his family is built on these things. Like, he was raised in a system that absolutely killed the kids and shit.

But at the same time, I'm like,'m like why is that like the thing that he's on the stand for all these random ass people's names so anyway we'll get to that more yeah back to some of the great dialogue and passages from this chapter i had to include this all it's just so good so good um So good. Ah, um... Clegane spat. Might be your knights after all. You lie like knights. Maybe you murder like knights. Tondarian raised a hand for silence.

Say what you mean, Clegane. A knight's a sword with a horse. The rest, the vows and the sacred oils of the lady's favors. The silk ribbons tied around the sword. Maybe the sword's prettier with ribbons hanging off it, but it'll kill you just as dead. Well, bugger your ribbons and shove your swords up your arses. I'm the same as

you. The only difference is, I don't lie about what I am. So kill me, but don't call me a murderer while you stand there telling each other your shit don't stink. You hear me? this is the year i go egot thank you uh the crowd goes wild that is some of the best writing right there i just have to i gotta reiterate the rest the vows and the sacred oils and the ladies favors their silk ribbons tied around the sword maybe the sword's prettier with ribbons hanging off it but it will kill you just as dead has there ever been better thematic writing george my god it's just so good that is just so damn damn yeah i it's interesting that you that those are the i mean yes those lines are great but for me i don't know why i just love the, like, don't call me a murderer while you stand there telling each other that your shit don't stick. Oh yeah, I love that too. I do love that too.

Absolutely. They're just pot, meat, kettle. Kettle. Black. sorry but that's what it's like you know but actually though poppy kettle this podcast is canceled podcast oh that must exist already anyways um yeah there's a lot of i don't know there's some really great stuff going on here, right? Of tying silk ribbons to knighthood, ladies' favors to men who once would have been knights like Jane in Sansa 2, A Game of Thrones, in love with Beric Dondarrion. But Beric's dead and so is the Hound, and both of them will die again. Get ready. Bringing Sandor and Beric especially to face one another, these two men that are really similar in their place in Westeros in legend, right?

When you think about it, they're men that disappear and die, or they're seen by people even though they died. For the Hound, that's more than just him, the gravedigger, the Houndhelm being passed around by so many other people to come. That's kind of being etched out here in this chapter already. And that dynamic of being a knight, Sandor rejects being a knight in theory and in choice, refusing to be called one, running away as an outlaw, but yet he still tends to keep some of those values of being a knight. And Beric takes that name of knighthood, but he breaks away from the societal values, right, from the kingdom to do so and breaks some of those values to do so and

will continue breaking some of those values as he goes along as the humanity fleets uh drawn by the silk ribbons that lady's favor that sandor's never had that barrick did right sandor is i mean the whole thing is he's the beast he's the phantom of the opera, which is A Song of Ice and Fire. Beric threw away having the handsomeness, the favor, the lady's favor, the handsomeness, the knights, the jousting, the life in the name of justice. He chose to go on Ned's word and to uphold justice. And there's also that great difference that Sandor was not commanded to bring justice to the Riverlands. He wasn't given a noble duty. He wasn't given a chivalrous task to rise to. He was given directions to kill a kid on a lie. There are two different commands issued by royalty.

Barrett got to follow the Ned path, right? The rules and do the right thing that Sandor could never have that path to do. He was always set on a path of immorality. He was dealt that awful hand. I think that's interesting when you look at like what happens here that Beric was commanded to go do this and take a team to bring Gregor to justice by Ned, who stepped in for the king. But Sandor, his whole life has been commanded to be by Joffrey's side and to take the prince's command and do whatever the fuck he wants and soon the king's. Yeah it's very much like how the I mean you're talking about the king's guard earlier right and Sandor refuses to become like a knight but the king's guard are seen by many to be like the epitome of knighthood right. to be like the epitome of knighthood right whereas beric was just some he was just some knight they sent him out he wasn't like there at the highest station and you reach the highest

station of the king's guard and essentially what you are is glorified thug right you are the bodyguard and the hitman or whatever of the royal family all the chivalry as you said is stripped from it yeah systemic like you said too you know it all stems from like who your boss is how you behave how you act i mean barriston is a very different story obviously he comes from like generations of generations of this is just too far and he quit out of his honor but Sandor had a breaking point too yeah and I mean I guess Beric did too he's like I don't want to follow that system as you said right they're they're great mirrors to each other in a way too I mean yeah there's a lot of probably there's a lot of damage to Beric's face as well and and as you said right he he breaks from the system of like how

Westerosi knighthood is set up creates his own because in a lot of from the system of like how Westerosi knighthood is set up, creates his own. Because in a lot of ways, the chivalry of Westerosi knighthood is tied literally to the faith of the seven. And he's like, we've got a new faith now. That's true, actually. Now that you say that, I forgot about the religious choice being kind of affecting there, too. And back to Sandor Clegane. There's a soundbite. you think about him you know and like when you think about him when i think about him no i i think there's something like

sandor you know the isolation of being that sworn sword to joffrey and eventually elevated the king's guard and that isolation from his family and that he knows his father won't stand up for him against his brother because his father doesn't want to fucking die and that gregor will always be able to bully him and to hurt him and abuse him and that he's always going to be afraid of him and fire like all of those things compounding in the isolation it's interesting that barrick goes out with men that become and gets more men even that all these men that are loyal to barrick and loyal to the cause that they serve whether we're lore whether or not but then obviously once you see a fucking miracle you gotta follow jesus you know i mean that's just how it fucking works i guess if i saw yeah yeah

i'd probably do it too like i fucking get it you, you know, my God. Uh, and then fucking Catelyn, like Jesus, Jesus, again, Jesus is a woman. Jesus wept. But back to Sandor. Uh, but yeah, like Sandor is isolated and like, he has to be on the run and survival. And like, he doesn't make those bonds. He doesn't have those bonds. He's never been allowed to make those bonds. And he's never like had gotten to make them because of the way his life was even before like he never went past the me stage you know he's isolated he's very like he would never understand that that's what him and aria's whole thing is as they get together on the road as they paper sun it it's you know learning that you to be able to take care of

another person his sister was probably the closest thing he to be able to take care of another person his sister was probably the closest thing he would have had to taking care of another person in his life and that was taken away for two absolutely he doesn't understand these kinds of institutions he's kind of a lone wolf incidentally mm-hmm wolf wolf but all that being said aria does know someone that Sandor did murder, and she comes out of nowhere, and she's like, you killed Micah! He murdered her friend, a butcher's boy, cut him in half, and of course, the hound could almost die laughing because Arya is alive. He's like, El Maffeo, they're all looking for you. That's so funny. And I think it's kind of pointed that he recognizes Arya from that accusation. He doesn't even see her.

He knows who this is just from the accusation. And there's also something here that's kind of interesting of both saying to each other that the other person is dead, right? to each other that the other person is dead right because that is a part of both of their stories killing an old version of themselves maybe uh to become a new one yes yes yes that's interesting the old them can't come to the phone right now why because they're dead uh i also want to read out this copy how the lord intended it to be read yes i didn't want to read it i just it's not it wasn't written for me you know i just know that and then you took it so that's why i'm gonna do it justice for us all it's okay our podcast along nope now i'm this is important to me of course the hound could almost die laughing because aria's

alive he's like lmfao they're all looking for you oh my god that's so funny damn girl hey that is that is how you read that line that note thank you thank you thank you for letting me have this moment uh yeah so sandor shrugs and he's like i was joffrey's sworn shield and the boy attacked a prince of the blood but aria begs to differ revealing it was i aria who attacked the prince not micah but the narrative had already been given can't go back micah did it so micah is who clegane killed and sandor reminds her hey i was following orders and your sister said the same thing. That girl sang about that same exact story. Like, don't don't look at me.

I guess I never really thought about it. But yeah, how would he have known? Right? Like, how would he have known? They told him Micah attacked Joffrey and then they said, go kill him. Like Sansa's lie at the time too was somewhat to protect aria not that sandor would have killed aria but who knows you know snow white huntsman plot in the woods but joffrey you know maybe would have ordered even his second execution of the book he's a little he's a little wildfire iral reincarnate right right there in that book he's crazy no one knows what joffrey's gonna do but i never thought about it like how would Sandor know I mean he wouldn't and also it's I don't even know if it's like to protect Arya right it's protecting Joffrey's masculinity because you

can't be going out there like the little girl attacked the prince and ended up like this so it's PR it's PR yeah I mean I think that's the thing right like when we're talking about the complicity in these crimes he is guilty of being like i was just following orders which we condemn embarrassing and we can condemn that for this too but yeah we got yeah that's true we have more on that aria aria also has her thoughts on that too, as we go on. Because right now she's furious at Sansa all over again, calling her a liar, saying that what she said wasn't even true. Meanwhile, Thoros and Beric chat to the side and return to the Hound, telling him that only the Lord of Light can bring judgment. And that he sentences him to a trial by combat, that if he can prove his innocence by the blade, they'll let him go.

And Arya's like, no, you idiots! He's gotta go free! him to a trial by combat that if he can prove his innocence by the blade they'll let him go and aria is like no you idiots he's gonna go free he's really that's the thing he's good at fighting and the hound is also like so true and laughs a long rasping laugh asking who their champion will be will be yeah but then jesus steps forward it's barak who's going to be the champion and with no armor only his sword barak commands ned which startles aria she's like what my dad uh but no it's edric dane 12 years old what up it's your boy edric probably hanging out somewhere he shouldn't be to remove his breastplate. And when he pulls the steel off of Beric, the quilting beneath it falls away.

It's rotten with age and sweat. And Beric's body, I guess. I don't know, right? And Beric's body is revealed. Sexy, sexy, gaunt, ill, dying Jesus. There he is. He's got a bunch of scars, like where Lance went through, where he died a bajillion times, you know. That's so strong, Bella's coated.

Oh my god, that is Bella's coated a little. So, yeah, speaking of does he sweat, like, I guess obviously, my guess, I think we've seen like maybe maggots and stuff can still bury in flesh and eat it, but I'm like, does being undead staunch infection yeah i i was thinking a little of that too right like of the body chemistry and makeup changing you know like john fertility uh discussion of if he'll be able to knock someone up after he's you know undead you know john babies that's usually the biggest everyone wants to talk about whoever john's gonna have babies with my god i'm just kidding i don't care

like who's gonna breed john snow right um john snow breeding kink 2024 is that anything i don't know welcome happy new year things were getting too serious around here so i don't know yeah just like you know along the lines of that functionality like other functionality where like the proto molecule you know just like is it interesting what's going on how much does it change as it becomes undead lots to think about more to think about to come. Yeah. Arya also has stuff to think about. Like, she's wondering if the Hound is afraid of Jesus and all his wounds. Watching them all get prepped with their sword belts, we have a line of,

Arya wanted him to be scared before he died, as scared as Micah must have been. Thoros asks Sandor if a dog has honor. And I'm like, yes, every dog has honor. Duh. Have you ever met a dog? God. Every dog goes to heaven. Every dog. All dogs go to heaven. Masterpiece of a film. Yeah, every single one. All of them. Giving him

the benefit of the doubt unless he decides to cut his way free of here or sees some child as a hostage. So he commands the archers to feather him if he decides to bolt. love this and it's like don't give him ideas right like oh my god bestie no love the stolen child language though nice yes he steals aria later as hostage he's like oh money hostage these people are not serious people i am taking aria stark and it reminds me also a little bit of liana taken as hostage from the riverlands quote unquote when we get their next chapter so much to think about much to think

about as we enter uh these beautiful passages coming up of dialogue yes finally thoros has a prayer before they begin lord of light look down upon us. All around the cave, the Brotherhood without banners lifted their own voices in response. Lord of Light, defend us. Lord of Light, protect us in the darkness. Lord of Light, shine your face upon us. Light your flame among us, R'hllor, said the Red Priest. Show us the truth or falseness of this man. Strike him down if he is guilty and give strength to his sword if he is true. Lord of Light, give us wisdom. For the night is dark, the others chanted, Harwin and Angai loud as all the rest, and full of terrors. This cave is dark, too, but I'm the

terror here. I hope your god's a sweet one, Dondarrion. You're going to meet him shortly. They met a lot of times. They're so close. They're besties. It's real. Beric cuts his hand, though, with a sword,

and then the sword takes fire pretty sick uh the hound curses barak and thoros to the seven hells lord barak himself waited silent calm as still water his shield on his left arm and his sword burning in his right hand kill him aria thought please you have to kill him quick call out of the calm is still water right like aria being like oh barracks embodying those lessons i learned yeah interesting right seeing without seeing you kind of have to if you're fighting the hound yeah also yeah makes me think of obrin and gregor in this book as well oh now that i say that is in this book it's a good parallel i guess speaking of that battles speaking of that like this battle begins and aria is watching the flames naskendri is at wildfire but he says no it's different this is

magic which is true the hound is driven back and the shouts are heard around the circle watching like at him at him he's yours and one of the lines actually of the earlier damage done to the clegane shield is about like a painted dog losing its head and i'm like hmm so gregor yeah but you called that out that had me i was like what the fuck that's so fucking good because that is what happens to gregor eventually there yeah i don't know whose head is there who whose head we don't know we don't know what's up and well what are you talking about that's a totally different person sorry yes that is sir robert strong sir robert strong he's new here he moved here from imagine mean girls the plot of mean girls it's for sir robert strong

it's so funny that like cersei's so delusional that she had to like create her boyfriend she's like oh my god like raniera's ex-boyfriend no i'm just kidding all right so there's something very the dynamic here is kind of fucked up because like everyone who isn't sandor knows that this trial is not about to be fair because this is like going to a comedy show but you're the only person who hasn't been told it's a magician comedy show like it's kind of fucked up and worse because there's like you know damage be happening to you but like Sandor thinks yeah right like also like it's violent it'll it's probably worse than that I guess

Sandor thinks this is going to be a regular old trial by combat, right? He's like, I'm the terror. You're going to die, et cetera, et cetera. But when we see Sandor a couple of the first times, we learn about his tragic childhood, right? That's Sandor's big fucking thing in Agat. We're being shown that it's Westeros's worst kept secret, that the Cleganes are fucked up, right?

So them, also the fact that the people know this is a trial by R'hllor's light, quote unquote, that's so fucked up. And also Sandor doesn't really know much about R'hllor slash doesn't believe much in magic really, or doesn't seem open to it, right? He's like a depressed alcoholic. He is just trying to survive his PTSD, et cetera, et cetera. But he doesn't really have time to like worry or care about magic. He's like more like, where am I going to sleep? I need to find beer.

He doesn't know R'hllor. He's busy trying to avoid fire and feel nothing at all, at all times, all the time. All of his energy goes into survival. So it's what makes that like childlike bit from Arya of please let this horrible villain die so bittersweet because it's something that she doesn't quite understand the complexity of. But she's on the brink of understanding, right? Like she's starting to understand the complexity of some of these situations as she, you know, ages into a 40 year old woman before our eyes. Just kidding. But she's, you know, internally, she's like 90 now. As soon as she gets like to dance, I would say she's 97 years old.

She's seen some shit. But it's all there, this new learning, like this new understanding of people and why they make the choices they make. And she can't quite pull herself to kill him at chapter's end, nor when she leaves at book's end. something interesting here like that whole the uh unfair unfair dynamic that like everyone obviously knows that it's about to be a trial by fire and sandor does not know like that's not very fair that's kind of a fucked up way to punish this person for their crimes to prove their innocence like i don't know it's it is unfair but part of me kind of almost thinks like they didn't like as you said worst kept secret but i think like because sandor is so good at putting on this persona of bravado right of nothing's gonna scare me

like in playing brave i almost seem like they didn't know it was gonna fuck him up like that psychologically as badly you know i think everyone's kind of surprised that it like the way ari is surprised she's like wait wait what he has trauma like bro feel shit yeah pretty much pretty much because I mean you're not supposed to have emotions or fears or feelings especially amongst like to be big masculine man in Westeros so well and that's part of it too the masculinity right like I think of all these men that would have been attorneys and at events in king's landing and like come and seen sandor and seen gregor and like talked shit and been around and heard the gossip like sandor that's why he has that bravado to your point so like he's not allowed to be weak because then his brother wins there's a lot of that erin and euron dynamic going on there as well

yeah great call yeah the masculinity of it all is fucked up too yeah but you're right it is like an inside joke everyone's like we got magic but you're right it is a magic show but literal magic now and when was sander gonna worry about is magic real or not most of the people don't because most of the people are like i don't know probably not anymore yeah most of them are adults who have to like you know survive and get some money to pay their taxes yeah they're all on their maester luin thing you know they're like i don't know maybe i thought magic was real once but big sad it's not now i'm old as shit and i'm waiting to die so barrick also edges sandor this is one of chloe's lines chloe's writing the the fanfic as we speak um closer to the fire pit and sandor gives ground until he feels the heat aria watches the whites of his eyes as he bulls

forward desperate to get away from the flames and you know more on that white white biology barrack moving quickly and seemingly untired right like it's they're all like wow this is remarkable how he doesn't seem to fatigue like so does this mean that the fire whites also don't fatigue in battle same as like the ice whites because the ice whites don't and maybe that's the case because mel does say she doesn't melisandre does say that she doesn't feel hunger or the need to sleep so maybe i think of cold hands too who might not necessarily be but you know we don't know but some sort of ice white some sort of of ice white that Bran has reanimated. Probably.

His hair is stuck to his face in a sheen of wine sweat. Arya realizes, remembering he was drunk when they captured him. He's sent staggering, and Arya thinks he's going to die, and Sandor ends up on one knee, jerking his shield up just in time to protect his head from Beric's

sword. His shield splinters and Gendry hushedly tells Arya it's on fire. We get a line. The flames had spread across the chipped yellow paint and the three black dogs were engulfed. Wow, symbolism. Amazing. Wow. George, wow.

Sandor fights his way back to his feet but the fire roars near his face and he hacks savagely on the broken oak of his shield splintering it and then greenbeard shouts finish him and ari on the rest shout guilty kill him guilty and just as barak goes to end him the hound raises his sword and brings it crashing down barak blocks the cut but his sword snaps in two you know like this fire like even if it's magic cannot be good for the structural integrity of the swords anyways and Sandor's sword lands at Beric's shoulder cleaving him

down to the breastbone the blood comes out in a hot black gush and Sandor jerks backwards still on fire he flings his shield remnants off rolling in the dirt to smother the fire on his arm which is what And Sandor jerks backwards, still on fire. He flings his shield remnants off, rolling in the dirt to smother the fire on his arm, which is what you should all do if you ever catch on fire.

Remember, everyone, stop, drop, and roll. Oh my god. There's something there, too. It could just be the prose that George is calling his blood black, gushing blood. But, like, it might be the poor lighting, obviously. But also, like, if if it is i don't know if it's just an exaggeration but also that it's black because he's undead oh no i think it is because like it's supposed to be i think george has said right in an interview like the blood is it doesn't really flow so like it's dead and congealed and yeah yeah and black and dark and whatever i don't know but it felt yeah when you said that i was like oh like obsidian you know

the color of obsidian i was thinking cooked cooked blood stew but yeah sure that too congealed but sounds kind of good too at the same time congeal but anyways it's it's black blackened yeah i was talking to you about it recently anyway barrick bleeds into hollow hill where the flames crackle around them dying once more definitely took note that you know he's dead in that cave but his blood is feeding the weirwood in the walls and the weirwood's probably like this is gross this is rotten blood i have refined taste. Arya could only think of Micah

and all the stupid prayers she'd prayed for the Hound to die. If there were gods, why didn't Lord Beric win? She knew the Hound was guilty. Please, Sandor Clegane rasped, cradling his arm i'm burned help me someone help me please aria looked at him in astonishment he's crying like a little baby she thought i am too oh my god isn't that? Terrible. It's such a short like amount, like lines within this, within this chapter.

Yeah. It's really powerful. That contrast. And like through her eyes too, especially cause she's like learning empathy as a child, you know, learning how to empathize with people. Like the,

the journey you go on from the beginning of the chapter of her being like fuck him kill him in middle of chapter like kill him and then like you get to the end and then like he's like sobbing from the fire and then the very end barrick here as we're gonna do it soon as barrick says you know feel bad for him bitch he is in hell every day. Yeah. Terrible and sad. Sandor's trauma and this scene. I mean, my favorite artwork by Boo Bug of Sandor with like the shadows of a child on the wall. And it's like the PTSD from when he was a child. It's like, it's just horrible. This is what broke him during the Battle of the Blackwater.

You know, this is the straw that broke his back finally then it's hard to be around and everything is on fire constantly all the time and it does not look like the forecast for fire in westeros is going down any day soon yeah i think of like is this the exact words that he used to like when it happened when that first burn happened and he's like saying help me someone help me and you think like what's his family all around him and no one helped him yep exactly big and gregor just pushed harder right into the fire grate just harder yeah and his mom's dead sister gone dad weak yeah not brave scared well these strangers help him yeah thoros commands melly to see to sandor's burns even though he

really wants his mommy and calls for lem and jack and ned to help him with barrack they carry barrack to a fire pit in the darkness of one of the tunnels and thoros and ned follow which of course they have done this before so we'll let them go off with their professionalism on it you know they know what they're doing bringing them back they got a whole entire routine yeah meanwhile the mad huntsman wants to take sandor back in a cage or to a cage and aria agrees he murdered micah greenbeard calls her a very angry squirrel and harwin says relore who aria does not know she's like i do not know that girl who is relore'hllor? Harwin says R'hllor has judged Sandor innocent. Arya yanks Greenbeard's dagger from its sheath

and spins away before he can catch her. And she runs, flying past Greenbeard toward where Tom Sevenstrings and Mellie are patching Sandor up. And we have a closing passage. When his eyes met hers, his mouth twitched. You want me dead that bad? Then do it, wolf girl.

Shove it in. It's cleaner than fire. Clegane tried to stand, but as he moved, a piece of burnt flesh sloughed right off his arm, and his knees went out underneath him. Tom caught him by his good arm and held him up. His arm, Arya thought, and his face. But he was the Hound. He deserved to burn in fiery hell. The knife felt heavy in her hand. She gripped it tighter. You killed Micah,

she said once more, daring him to deny it. Tell them you did. You did. I did. His whole face twisted. I wrote him down and cut him in half and laughed. I watched them beat your sister bloody too. Watched them cut your father's head off. Lem grabbed her wrist and twisted, wrenching the dagger away. She kicked at him, but he would not give it back. You go to hell, hound! She screamed at Sandrag Legay in helpless, empty-handed rage.

You just go to hell! Yes, said a voice scarce stronger than a whisper. When Arya turned, Lord Beric Dondarrion was standing behind her, his bloody hand clutching Thoros by the shoulder. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow wow what a badass chapter like that is a set like george rr martin knew what he was doing with this one and i don't know if i wrote this chapter i'd be feeling myself let george finish his blunt yeah this is this is that chapter what a great setup. Boom, boom, boom, dead alive at the end. That's so... cunty.

Yeah. I just fucked up idea, though. Just now you're like, let George finish his blunt, and then he has his magic blood. Then he lights his blunt. Wow. That's it. Magic blunt. Blunt with wildfire. That seems wasteful. True. But anyway.

So, I like how the ending of this calls back to of course one of the earliest lessons that ned gives his sons but not his daughters um if you would take a man's life you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words and if you cannot bear to do that then perhaps the man does not deserve to die and aria i mean she hears what are presumably the hound's final words you know the first time around and cannot look him in the eyes and do it yeah that's the first time too you know like that's what's crazy is the arc from here that she can't do it this time nor the next time yeah and it's kind of a first for her on her list, right?

To be faced with the opportunity to murder the shit out of someone and choose not to do it. Yeah, that's true. I mean, she's done it before in the past, but I guess it's the hearing their lines or, I don't know, seeing the humanity in the person that you're going to have to kill. And I think that's such a big part of what this chapter is about, right? Part of what you're saying is why it's so great it's about that duality inside of us the grays inside of us inside of you yeah that learning to empathize yeah yeah well and it's being able to distinguish between the dogs between the lines you know that the chihuahua and the golden retriever inside of you oh my god i don't know if those are the dogs that would be inside of me inside all yours would be like a you would have like a corgi i would definitely have a chihuahua

yeah i guess a chihuahua and a corgi or something yeah so not a lot of span there huh um i'm like i'm out here like a saint bernard and like an australian shepherd i feel like those kind of have similar vibes though well i don't know an australian shepherd does not like an australian shepherd seem more let's herd the sheep they're fun yeah like we're gonna see regards are more like we're gonna save the people it's like when i play click click vibey games like i'm so saint bernard i'm not saint bernard about it i'm very um australian shepherd i'm like yeah click click click click gain my dopamine i'm a i'm an australian shepherd here i am yeah bury me bury me those are the two dogs inside me let us know what the two dogs inside you are

yeah please send us emails we've got a lot of we got a lot of dog chapters coming up you know got a lot of hound chapters i guess we should have said you know one of the dogs inside of sandra clegane is the hound what's the other what is the other what kind of hound there are also so many different kinds of hounds anyways yeah he's like giant black Labrador. Basset hound. And also like, oh yeah, sad old hound. What kind of hounds? I don't know. Anyways. Well, this is the first of many episodes where I will get to be devastated about Sandor Clegane.

And I'm so glad that you all were here to witness it. Sandor Clegane from here on out. That's it. You might think that we'll continue Aryria's chapters after the sandor chapters but we are actually going to just restart the aria sandor chapters after we get there oh my god you know like a skip in a record exactly exactly we're stuck in you know groundhog day is just around the corner well this is our gift to you for groundhog Day. Oh, man. No, I'm glad to be back. This felt good.

I missed you all. I missed you, Eliana. Even with your poor behavior today. I don't even remember what you did, but there were times. There were times. That was so good. Well, I didn't read the line as emphatically as you would have liked me to. And for that, I...

Oh, we don't need to talk about that. I'm just rusty. I'm just rusty,'m just rusty you know i'm getting back to strike one of 2024 uh never forgive no i'm just kidding i don't give a fuck uh thanks for listening 2024 give 2020 forget yeah so this was a blast. We will be back for Aria 7 next week. I hope you all had a wonderful new year and are ready to kick into Aria Overdrive with us. Hey, Eliana, where can they find us on social media?

Yeah, we have social media. If you like, you can find us on Twitter at twitter.com slash girlsgonecanon, that's C-A-N-O-N. Or you can also find us on blue sky at that long ass url they got it but just search girls gone canon again c-a-n-o-n or of course you can send us an email with some of your thoughts and i mean we just said let us know the two dogs inside of you that's that's something you can email us with girls gone canon at gmail.com yes and if that's not enough you can find us over at patreon patreon.com slash girls gone canon c-a-n-o-n a stranger tier and above five dollars

and up get special episodes bonus episodes monthly and that includes our hunger game series that we've been releasing and our patrons are also going to tell you a little bit more about what you can get over at our Patreon right here, right now, and where to find us. You can catch Girls Gone Canon on any of the following streamers. On Podbean, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Acast, Spotify, Overcast, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Audible, and Amazon Podcasts. You can also join us on Patreon, where if you join the Thunder tier or above, you have access to a bunch of great channels, including but not limited to memes and shitposting channel, Fashion Hour. There are multiple channels for Historic Materials, A Song of Ice and Fire. There's a pets channel, which I think is probably the most important channel of all. Respectful thirsting, because there's a channel for that.

Come by, join the community. it's a lot of fun and you won't regret it thanks again for listening excited to be back eliana don't ruin it uh as always i have been one of your hosts chloe and i have been another one of your hosts eliana see you next week. Goodbye. See, was that so hard? That was perfect. You were so well behaved. Inside of you, there are two hosts. Oh my God. Oh God. Oh God, it's us. I've had a good dream about that once. Goodbye. Interesting. Goodbye.