Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 221 — AFFC Arya I

Episode Date: March 22, 2024

Arya gets shipped off to magical boarding school in a new (free) city. --- 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 221. Are you one in aast for Crows. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And yes, are you ready for the Aria, Braavos, Aria Feast chapters? My favorites. Oh my god, here we are again at the best of Song of Ice and Fire book in the main five books of the series. Wow, a love letter from George R. R. Martin to me, Chloe. He wrote this for me. He wrote it for you. You are just lucky enough to listen, and I'm going to let you listen to A Feast for Crows.

You're lucky. Very lucky. Also, I was looking through the POVs and, like technically, this is the second to last feast POV we get. That's fucked up. At least until the Winds of Winter. Oh, wait, no, feast POV. No, feast the book. Fuck no, it doesn't work that way.

If the Winds of Winter comes out, they're not going to be feast POVs. They're just, those are Winds of Winter POVs. That is a new, new era. I guess a feast for crows just lives in my heart forever. Wow. That's crazy. What was just completely done with a Feast for Crows? That's wild.

We're going to be someday. You never know when. I mean, depending on all the magic in the air and hot tea and time and how it goes in a linear line. Doesn't it do? and how it goes in a linear line. Doesn't it? We could maybe even beat the boys over at Nauticast one more time to A Feast for Crows, because yes, they are still in a storm of swords.

As of today, March 13th, the boys are in a storm of swords, and we're lapping them with A Feast for Crows, the best book, once more. We could do it again, maybe. We'd have to look at our schedules you never know we could just put out all the episodes a chronological reread podcast that is only of a feast for crows it's not the worst idea actually it's not a bad idea in the words of a hero of

mine tyrian lannister ask me again in 10 years eliana yeah but like i don't know i guess we're gonna have to right like is wins gonna be out then I don't know. I guess we're going to have to, right? Like, is Wins going to be out then? I don't fucking know. I hope so. I hope so. May the historians write this down in 2024. Well, welcome back to us.

And Eliana, there's this thing you always say. Are you going to say it during the next POV? Uh, when we do Arya Stark again? As Warren pointed out. Yeah. I'll do this for Warren. We'll just redo all of Arya all over again. That way we don't run out of feast chapters.

You're saying we could feast again and again. Yeah. I love it. Look, got a little housekeeping up top. First things first for patrons. Patrons over at patreon.com slash girls gone canon C-A-N-O-N

They have access to lots of stuff. If you're in the stranger tier and above, you get bonus episodes. Every month we put out a bonus episode. This month, part four of the hunger games the first book by suzanne collins in the trilogy is coming to a close we have wrapped it up it will be out for you by end of month part four the victor which is actually part two of the victor we did part one that was last month keep up we split it we got a little ambitious uh but yes we've wrapped it we'll come back to catching fire and probably in the next handful of months

you'll see something about it hit your feed you never know and also mocking jay maybe towards the end of the year i feel like we'll see we'll see if we get there uh we will come back though we are gonna take a little break yeah and come And come to George's Worlds again. I mean, like, I would guess, right? Probably Hunger Games. I don't know. Catching Fire maybe in the summer. We'll see.

So you feel. Because as all of you know, big things are happening this summer. And by that, we mean House of the Dragon. I assume you all know this. But. Yeah. And we'll have some news to come for our House of the Dragon coverage because we will be back to talk about Fire and Blood only on the TV screen. Yeah, we're just waiting for news from them, you know?

Please, the podcasters are dying. Please tell us. Please. Yeah, I need to plan. Yeah, I need to plan. Anyway, so between now and June, let's talk about some of what you can expect on Patreon because we've kind of got this figured out, right? So I'm sorry, everyone, for abandoning my Mercy idea. It was like a really good idea for, I don't know, two weeks.

But we thought about it. Mercy just makes more sense in April. Sorry, everyone. And then we will probably come back to bravos in may and who knows may could bring a lot of different things it may it may and i mean actually eliana i think we're starting a new pov like at the end of april possibly uh we will have a couple we will have a couple bonus episodes from patrons released in April, May-ish. Just to kind of appease and let you know what you're missing out on over at Patreon.com with our friends.

But we have a new POV coming. Get ready. And who knows? It could be long, could be short. I think we got a couple guests coming in the future, too. I can't wait to announce them. They're some pretty good friends, so couldn't do it without them. Yeah.

So it's all a mystery. But anyways, let's talk about what else is happening on Patreon. For example, if you're in the Thunder tier and above, you get special access to our Discord. And March 24th, this Sunday, if you're in real time if you're listening to this in real time is going to be uh the march the march happy hour slash brunch brappy hour yes affectionately known as brappy hour i'm excited it's from two to-4ET PM. That's Eliotta time, not Eliotta time. I don't know. I don't know how to classify it, but it's E-T, whatever that

means to you. Probably play some games and chit-chat. Last month, oh my god, I need to tell you I had the most euphoric experience drawing. We were all doodling during brunch last month in the Doodle app on discord oh yeah we were

all jamming i made a little sandworm ahead of dune part two and discord has like a little whiteboard you all can just doodle on and i don't know it was just a fun time i had a really it was just vibes and i really appreciated that so i think march is gonna be fun I think we'll also vibe in March and then coming up in April yeah big vibes in April our brunch will be on 420 blaze it 2 to 4 p.m. ET this is not encouraging you to come blazing it

actively that I can see it we would never encourage drugs never drugs are not encouraged in places it's illegal probably in some places yes we would never encourage you to do crime do not eat the shade of the evening come hang out it's just a fun space people chat about nerdy stuff life stuff do chores hang out we got friends that do like their meal prep and just chit chat friends that do their chores and chit chat it's me i'm the choice

oh man there's an embarrassment i was like what is this state i was like oh god this is not clean this is not clean and you know it's exciting you don't have to be on video everybody you know you can you can come be on voice if you want and chit chat too yeah for sure eliana you included no i'm just kidding some people do day in the life stuff on i don't know instagram tiktok like this is what i did in my day and they give you snippets of the chores no you're getting fucking live you're getting real time and that's probably they should just reserve that and doing makeup and stuff like GRWM, like GRRM. We look forward to having brunch with our patrons both this month, 324 from 2 to 4 p.m. ET and next month, 420 Blaze It from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET. See you there.

Have some fun. Have some laughs. Have some euphoria. It'll be a blast. Okay. Eliana, this is it. It's our 221st lightning round well um i've never done this before but here's how i hear it works we tell you what happened between the last aria chapter and this one. And honestly, a lot of things happened because, like, the last one was at the end of another book. And we're just not going to do all that.

We're going to just tell you from the top of A Feast for Crows because it's the only book that matters. Yes. We're going to start off at the prologue today. You know all about that storm of swords. So, first off, at the prologue today. You know all about that storm of swords. So, first off, in the prologue, in Old Town, we get an introduction to intrigues at the Citadel. The Prophet. Aaron Greyjoy believes in democracy.

The Captain of Guards. Eryoh Hotha shows us Dorne. Dorne locks up the Sand Snakes. Cersei won. Jaime doesn't want Cersei's handjob. Tyrion escapes. Brienne won. In Duskendale, Brienne seeks a girl of three and ten.

Samwell won. Please see. Jon II at Dance with Dragons. Jon II at Dovita. And that brings us to Arya I, A Feast for Crows. Arya is smuggled into the city of bravos i want you to know again this is the 221st lightning round so ah fuck i'm glad you got to read the john to adobada that uh i thought that was some of my best work yet samwell one

john to adobada yeah it is it is but yes we're here what if we had just released the john I thought that was some of my best work yet. Samwell 1, John 2, Adawada. It is, it is, but yes, we're here. What if we had just released the John 2 episode in lieu of that Sam 1 episode? That would have been quite a fucking joke. Oh, we should mash them up together just like how people mash up

and do like a ball of bees or the boiled leather edition sort of, you know, feast for and dance. We can pick random points within each episode and just put them in, splice them together. I mean, actually, let her cook. We're going to come back to that someday. But it's an interesting idea. I'm not against it. Let's open up Arya one in a feast for crows.

Faint and far away, the light burned low on the horizon shining through the sea mists it looks like a star said aria the star of home said daniel what a beautiful opening here we are at this new new place new book for aria new place for us but not really and they are navigating right on a ship going home and they're calling it the star of home and it makes me think of the north star right or just the stars in general and how they're used for navigation especially when it comes to ships that's how people used to get around because i mean it is wild i mean how people did that it is wild like i understand in concept how it works and people still do it honestly knowledge is amazing and in this same book we

also get a couple of other things about stars right like arianne looks at nymeria star and is like that's my star and i'm like i don't know girl but it's reminiscent of Nymeria and the 10,000 ships, of course, which is something that Arya really likes. And then also later on in a few lines, Arya is going to be thinking about like wishing about home. And it makes me also think about wishing upon a star. But coming back to this North Star idea, and that sort of being like a guidance and how you navigate in these two two books right in feast and dance we have a lot of people journeying far from their homes a lot of people are going elsewhere like sam leaving the wall and for aria i feel like this hope of a star that points back to north right

in a way her home is the north star she wants to get back there that's where she's trying to navigate back to i love that you called this out because it makes me think of like i mean i know there's like the idea in a lot of indigenous cultures of like the great spirit in the sky or the great chief in the sky right as a northern star like polaris uh but and and i think of like shakespeare's sonnets too right he has a sonnet that I think is like sonnet 116 it's love is the star to every wandering bark whose worth

unknown although his height be taken and you know as the thing that like somebody who's a wanderer will always be able to find home with that star and Arya is nothing but a wanderer right these past books she's not allowed to go home and there is no home to go to and she's kind

of become a drifter and a wanderer from place to place and it sucks because this this ship this galley the titan's daughter has kind of become home to her too in this past voyage yeah there's actually probably a pretty big time skip like if you think about it because crossing a whole sea think about it because crossing a whole sea probably takes quite a bit of time yeah daniel's father the captain shouts orders to the sailors on the galeas titan's daughter aria's at the prow pretending for just a moment this was home but none of her coins even the iron one could buy her the passage back to the north oh heartbreak right i know it kills me i can't george you gotta stop that you gotta cut this out what you're doing um yeah also they probably don't think her her coins buy her much that iron coin's the most worthy coin she has it's a bummer

i love the the ship in general there's so much description going on of the people and the different like personalities she's encountering and the different jobs and roles that they fulfill on the ship and how she can't fulfill them because she's so fucking small and how they you know woo her and want to be her friend and even the description of

the ship and it's so colorful as you're coming into Braavos you're just at the edge you know this is a journey through the center all the purple sails on the ship and the color and the figurehead on it is gilded right it's a golden maiden with a bowl of fruit it's great because we're just coming off of sansa with little finger with that harvest of persephone kind of imagery right on the ship where he tries to give her pomegranate and she's like no thank you my stomach is you know

upset and you're a creep motherfucking bitch please don't speak to me I'm not my mother weirdo get a fucking job but also there's that myth of Idun's golden apples at Nordic mythology

where basically there's a keeper of apples Bragi's wife and the keeper of apples that give eternal youth she's kidnapped by Loki and the giants at one point and Loki trades her and the apples to these eagles that were holding him hostage and they let him go and the gods immediately like start to grow old because they don't have these eternal youth apples and there's a lot going on of like her being taken far from home and people using like her gifts and using her and exploiting her whether it's just her name or her gifts basically and her apples and being tricked and traded and Arya's kind of you know she's out in Braavos making her own now she has to find a job find somewhere to live

she has no home she has no mom or dad to go back to right now well anyways but big sad but yeah i like that i don't know much about norse mythology can you explain to me why did why did the eagles want the apples what are the eagles gonna do with the apples they're looked at as like you know they're like eternal life. They're like, they keep the gods young. They're magical. They're powerful. And she gets tricked into the forest because Loki is like, oh my God, I have apples just like those in the forest,

but mine are even better. And she's like, what? And he's like, yeah, you should come see them. And she's like, I don't believe you. So she comes to the forest with her apples. Foolish move. And with the trickster god, like, girl. Yeah.

I'm not trying to apple shame. I'm sorry. That's not nice. I'm just trying to understand. Yeah, because I'm like, I assume that the eagles were already magical and maybe immortal. I'm like, what did they want with the apples? Are the eagles trying to look cute and young all the time? It's like he who controls the spice. Oh, okay i get it now because they steal them and the

gods like died like god's me you're like dude i'm dying like i could die any day now because they took the apples from us the apple chick's gone her apples are gone and the eagles are like ha ha ha now we can be the gods oh okay do they get yeah like everyone wants the spice bro yeah she it's a whole thing you got to check it out there's some in prose out i'll we'll talk about this later but it's a whole other story yeah yeah yeah actually literally a whole other book series probably or something like that whatever a whole other a whole other poem epic yeah it's interesting though like there's a lot of mythology in there's a lot of mythology in the prow of this ship as it like comes in and like i don't know you can feel everything's so ginormous

in this chapter like i feel however tall aria actually has like five foot four ten four eight i don't know what she has four five what are kids i don't know what are kids like i don't know i was like five four when i was ten we asked i was tall as shit dude i don't have the same um comparison i was like five four five five when i was ten yeah i don't know that they're very she's very tall though like i don't think that they're a tall family it just happened that sophie turner herself was tall right like eddard's like a real like six foot five ten six daddy i don't know i think he's five ten or eleven yeah not much taller but i think the fur Like, Eddard's like a real, like, 6'5", 10", 6", 5", 11", daddy. I don't know.

I think he's 5'10", or 11". Yeah, not much taller, but I think the fur really, you know, adds to it. The fur really makes you look a little bigger. Because aren't they, like, supposed to be stocky? And especially, like, what? Especially the Tully jeans are stockier, right? Or something like that. So, anyway.

Yeah, Arya thinks of the mentors that she's lost along the way and she wonders if she'll see jacquin in bravos i mean honestly we know that the answer is no but she could have been just not known it but we know where jacquin is from the prologue she decides she doesn't need her old friends here in bravos so long as she has needle she's very lonely on the ship though and a lot of people shun or ignore her but a couple of them give her gifts like a silver fork or fingerless gloves for you know her cool like punk rock phase and a floppy woolen hat patched with leather also works for that too. She learns to tie sailor's knots and drinks fire wine every now and then like little thimblefuls and they name her Salty after the salt pans. They don't bother asking her real name,

but they're always teaching her theirs. It's kind of really sweet. She gets a new nickname, but it's kind of sweet in a way. And these people that maybe don't understand each other are all pushed together in this boat, right? And they learn a language between them. Like this is literally a language learning skill. Before there were apps, college courses, high school courses, middle school, you know, like back like in the day, the long ago times, whenever they were, you didn't like you couldn't just like open a book. okay, this is how I speak. It makes me think of actual linguistic study for new languages or finding things. And I don't know, it's just like you have to find that common ground between you. And Arya shows that she's able to do that with people

that she might not necessarily have a lot in common with to her everyday thought, but she's able to find a common ground and learn their language and learn what they're saying and make out things over time yeah and she she learns a lot more as time goes on but i guess she also lucked out in that at least the sailors and traders can translate a little right they can be like this word means this thing as opposed to yeah they straight up don't because they have to for trade yeah i think there's something really interesting there. And even just like the whole bit with all the different people on the ship,

she's learning how to do knots. She's learning life on a ship. There's a lot of emphasis being put on that in this chapter. The knots seem interesting. I wonder if that'll come into play somewhere. They always feel interesting. Yeah. Like they're important.

Yeah, I don't think the fire wine will necessarily other than for funsies oh it's a necessity on a ship i'm sure sometimes i think about it i'm like obviously you had to sail the ship but i'm like oh my god it must have been so boring anyways they're not for me they're not for me yeah two eyes stare back in the night at the ship it's the eyes of the titan of bravos who old nan had told stories of back in winterfell and i really like how the language of the titan's eyes echoes of course the language used to describe the other's eyes like you know shining stars those are blue stars these are just i don't know normal fucking stars because it's using fire i mean there

are blue stars as well anyways I'm doing a bad job of explaining things about today. No, but that's a great point. The eyes really are glaring. Ha ha! But really, no, they stand out. A lot about the Titan and a lot about the different

statues as we go forward really stood out this reread to me. Just the little details about them and the materials that make them and the noises and and this is a really interesting passage like i actually cut a little bit of this out just for time's sake because i could and we're going to come back to bravos right in our patreon episode eventually so please please check out patreon bonus episodes it will be coming in the future bravos but um we promise we've actually continued this series no i mean we don't have a lot of the free cities left it's this and volantis right yeah we just saved the two biggest most important ones the ones that we have the most information about oh i'm already like picturing the name bravos take a bow oh

let her cook no i'm just kidding. I forgot people say that. There's so much going on here of the arsenal, as we'll talk about, and the different, like, inside of the legs of the Titan of Braavos alone is like a whole mini city, right, unto itself. Like, it has, like, its own economy and its own, like, guard and stuff as we're going to get through. So here, he is tall as a mountain and he went Bravo stands in danger. He would wake with fire in his eyes, his rocky lips grinding and groaning as he waded out into the sea to smash the enemies. But of course, that tale is

only true in the arsenal, as we'll talk about about nan also claimed that he ate little highborn girls i wonder why she would tell aria and sansa this uh but lewin told them no he's just a statue those stories are only stories sometimes so interesting to your other point like sometimes they're only stories i think old nan just has a lot of stories like you guys think that i'm intrigued by cannibalism but but Old Nan even more so. Like, think of how many stories she has that's like, yeah, the wildlings, and then they ate people. Oh, yeah, the Titan of Braavos eats people also. Oh, squishers or whatever?

Yeah, they eat people. Everyone fucking eats people. Oh my god, rest in peace, Old Nan. You would have loved the Criterion channel. We don't know that she's dead. Yes. Thankfully, we've had many years to sit and think about it, Eliana. Yeah, I also love the way the Titan is described with, like, his own hair and shit.

And, like, as you get closer. And I don't know. I also love the idea of Sentinels waking and coming to life and doing battle. I don't know. I mean, necessarily, it's a story we won't see, obviously. If George had time, he'd probably love to write that story. He probably has written that story. I don't want to talk about it, but I also love the little line from Nan,

the highborn girl stuff is great because Littlefinger is literally the titan of Bravo's consuming Sansa right now. Gross. I'm sorry. I know I didn't mean it that way, but I mean, like, metaphorically consumption going on there, like, he's squeezing out

the younger, beautiful... Okay, listen, I'm just not gonna speak anymore. He needs to get a job. Well, I do think, yeah, that's really interesting, and also the idea even of, like, speaking of mythology, right, the Titan consuming. Yeah. Yeah. K chronos is all like i don't know i'm i'm gonna eat my kids that is exactly the angle i was coming to it from not a gross ass little finger eating sansa angle and i'm sorry i've repeated it again yeah yeah i

mean like the the titan it's pretty cool that you have to enter by going under it and that there's all those little murder holes coming from it. It really does defend the city. Like, it comes to life. I kind of wonder if it, like, I don't think it actually walks, right, first of all. No, the people are its weaponry. Yeah. Maybe it's a giant, like, mecca.

It makes me think a little bit of like Howland's moving castle and all. And some of that kind of idea and some of the guerrilla warfare there and in Dorne as well. And I think it's a really interesting way to defend the city and keep it without walls and keep it somewhat free. But we'll talk about that soon. Though I do think that Howland's castle could actually be moving in the way that, you know, it's just drifting. I do think that one's possible. Okay, Eliana, hater of all things magic and fun and whimsy. I don't know.

Is that not... I don't know. Science is also magic. It's like that place. Was it Gen 3? I want to say it was Gen 3 of Pokemon where there were those islands that you would try to get to. Their location would always change. Oh yeah yeah i know what you're talking about what are those called shit i don't know they really played that gen in a while yeah same even though

they made a remake and i bought it but i haven't played it same i know some people love the hohen region but anyway i loved crystal the best so I wish they would have remade Crystal. Yeah. You played Arceus, right? They're coming out, apparently. I didn't realize that when they announced a new Legends game, it was the same vein as Arceus, but for Pokemon X and Y. No, no, no. It's like that was the open world one where you're like, oh my god, these Pokemon are

about to like beat my ass. No, I love Arceus, but I meant the new game. Uh, no, it's the same location as X and Y, I think, but probably in the past. So France. Sign me up. Sign me up. We have a passage from aria here winterfell is burned and fallen are you reminded herself old nan and maester luin were both dead

most like and sansa too it did no good to think of them all men must die that was what the words meant the words that jacques and hagar had taught her when he gave her the worn iron coin. She had learned more bravosy words since they left Salt Pans, the words for please and thank you and see and star and fire wine, but she came to them knowing that all men must die. Taught her so much. taught her so much the crew spoke a good bit of the common tongue but only the captain and his sons speak enough of it to talk to aria yeah um there's a line here where she's like and i'm almost 11 and just every single time we've called it out in multiple chapters but it makes me think of chloe's favorite vine video it's not really your favorite but one of them probably

it's up there yeah denyo the captain's son loves to talk about bravos though and is like listen about my home it fucking rocks especially when aria asked him about religions and he tells her about the sept beyond the sea which is for worshippers of the seven she goes they're not my seven they were my mother's gods and they let the phrase murder her the twins she wondered whether she would find a god's wooden bravos with a weirwood at its heart and Arya thinks about like I don't know the old gods are all dead too because like you know she's going through trauma and the all men must die part because everyone that she like cares about keeps dying so she's like yeah the old gods

are dead just like my family and it's's interesting that this is the companion book, right, to Adelwada, where we really get to learn more about how the old gods definitely are not dead. In fact, like, that's one of their defining features, how they keep not being dead. And Arya's like, well, my dad thought that the lone wolf doesn't survive. You need the pack. But I don't know. I think deep down in her heart, she knows that's not true because Nymeria is like, all right, I'm alone in the woods.

Time to go get a pack. I'm going to go, you know, bully all these other smaller wolves. They're my new pack now. I love this mirror with Nymeria that you've held up. That's what Arya really craves, right?

Her own pack to brat pack around with and I love what you've called out here that yes, if you read the books in the order that they've been published, like A to Z, A Dance with Dragons really does emphasize

that Arya is like the pre-plot to that, right? Of showing you that bit of magic before brand gets full-on caved before he's in that cave motherfucker he's like play-dohing it up um i don't know there's something interesting there like about what you've called out about the way george has actually written these in a row that personally it strikes me but then i'm like maybe he meant it because you know he did write the books in a row ish they probably were going to be in the same book before he was like i'm gonna split it up by geography now yeah yeah it complements each they complement each other really well and i think that's something that when you're reading aria chapters you don't

always think about they seem more like rah rah i'm out there poking people with swords and on the road running from danger but then when you actually get into them there's a lot of magic going on yeah and that's why you should all keep on the lookout for when we remix affek sam one and adota john two into one mashup episode girl Girl talk. Girl talk. Girl talk, Sal. We're the girls. Oh my god. Wow.

We're just girls, gone canon. Oh. Hmm. Anyways, the Moonsingers were refuted as having the greatest temple, having led the Braavosi to the land here, beyond the Dragonlords. And we start going across some of these temples, like the Father of Waters, who is esteemed,

but his house is built anew whenever he takes his bride, which, just need to comment that I know he fucks good. That's what that means. The Father of Waters, when he takes his bride, oh girl, he rips that house apart oh my god that's what this means that's what george is telling us about the father of water more like the daddy of waters if you know what i mean yeah it's he's called the father of waters because of you know how wet everyone is yeah the waters are this pussy Chloe's insistent the rest of the gods

are on the aisles throughout the center of the city like the many faced god I actually really love that this is an island city you know like Venice or Lindau Bavarian Germany which is kind of like it's out like it's in the Swiss area

the Bavarian it's all over like it's in the Swiss area, the Bavarian. It's it's all over. It's in this little like area of all three. It's interesting, but it has like all these buildings there, too. And Lindau, there's a huge lion statue. There's a lighthouse. There's a handful of other buildings that are kind of giving bravos. So it's kind of cool to look at and to see the infrastructure.

I mean, Manhattan is an island city, technically, when you think about it. That's actually true, yeah. Because I was also thinking that the way that Braavos is portrayed, obviously, we do think about Venice, but when Ari's here, she's like, oh, I've been to a city, but yo, this is a city. It's actually one of my favorite parts of the chapter. Yeah, as opposed to, I don know coming from columbus but i just picked a random city farther north than that how dare you well you know what i mean like a smaller

city versus new york yeah absolutely we have a line of aria did not know any many face god but if he answered prayers he might be the god she sought sir Gregor Dunstan Raph the sweetling sir Illyn sir Meryn queen Cersei only six now Joffrey was dead the hound had slain Polliver and she'd stabbed the tickler herself and that stupid squire with his pimple and she she thinks about she's like i don't know i probably should have given sandra the gift of mercy and then stabbed him uh as part of that and yeah i mean again we talked about this a little last episode but yep the mercy from both sisters huh i know someone who wrote an essay on that once yeah i don't know i mean we probably have quoted it on this podcast maybe some of our guests have too

oh my god yeah no though that is it's interesting that I love like the censorship here right of her prayer and how she like adds asterisks to Sandor like well I left him to die so you know that's that I did it

I killed him I knocked one off my list so the guy should have done it kind of makes me think of like how we've You know, that's that. I did it. I killed him. I knocked one off my list. It's like I should have done it. Kind of makes me think of like how we've been talking about in the past few episodes, Sandor being like, damn it, I should have brought that other little girl with me, huh? Yeah. Except hers is like, I should have killed that man, but whatever. I miss that guy.

Don't, I'm grieving. Don't bring him into this, please. That's right. We don't have any more Sandor chapters, really. I mean, maybe. Oh, just a little. It's really hurting me. Small cameos.

So please respect me and my time of grief. So Denyo grabs Arya and points her toward ragged gray curtains of mist. Seagulls are overhead, and then trees, and then sea, and open water, and then the titan of bravos towering above them all green-haired bronze plated his hair is made of hemp ropes that are dyed green and fires burn in the caves of his eyes carrying a broken sword the seagulls really make it the seagulls really make the world building i don't know why they just do and something about the titan of bravos we've been talking about his appearance kind of sounds like the damp hair to me like his fashion and his hair

just sounds like the damp hair and i like that he's clutching in his hand um a broken sword it makes me think of ice ice is a sword that has been broken um actually also makes me think now of the what is this book please tell me you're not a mosquito it makes me even think of the beginning of this whole series right um waymar's sword shattering but it's just it's another like symbol of brokenness in this story that's held up yeah i didn't even think about ice but i know that aria probably would have felt very much about it by thinking about a broken sword or i I guess she doesn't know. Yeah, it's not I guess you're right. It's not like a big secret.

It's not, sorry, it's not a big publicized thing. Sansa only realizes it because she's like, wait, where'd they get a new Valyrian sword from? What the fuck? That's fucking depressing. Thanks, Eliana. Thanks, I hate it. Take it back. Arya notes that the statue is only a little bigger than Baelor's statue in King's Landing.

Until they get closer, and it starts to grow larger. They row through the titan's legs, and Arya realizes the titan could step over the walls of Winterfell. The titan gives a mighty roar, and Arya flinches. Daenyo laughs, telling her, It's a warning call to the arsenal that we're coming. Don't be afraid. Arya shouts, It was just too loud is all.

Back. Sure. Sure. Cute. It is cute. He tells her the arsenal can build a war galley in a day, pointing out all of the ships and weaponry. Yeah, good call out on the

the stepping over the walls of winterfell um and yeah i don't know this thing there's a million different ways that i guess it could play out and be important but the whole build a war galley in a day i'm just like it feels important yeah bravos is definitely gonna support someone right don't know who yet but someone's going to get supported by them and their ships yeah i can tell you who won't be cersei we've ruled out we've ruled out one now to narrow it down for everyone else stannis he's broke so yeah but they're still trying to hit him up they're like stannis do you want to take out a student loan

about but they're still trying to hit him up they're like sanis do you want to take out a student loan because john snow was the student that became the master we're gonna enroll you in the school of hard knocks oh my god there's something in here that i love that like first off as a comparison when you're a kid and like you were saying like when you step off the plane at lax with your dreams in a cardigan right and you're like what is this place that's bigger yeah why is this traffic like this yeah those are common thoughts actually no but when you step into a big city for the first time and you're like holy shit i've been in cities but this is a crazy big city i live in a big city in one of the top populated cities.

I'm in one of those, and it's crazy sometimes. Just the sheer amount of people and places can be overwhelming. And I grew up in a city of 100,000 people. So to go to an almost 2 million, pop is nuts. But for Arya, she grew up in Winterfell, and she went went to King's Landing and she was like, bro, this place is huge. And now she's here in Braavos and she's like, whoa, this is a real city, especially like with all the stacking on top of and it's on an island. And there's also something interesting about like she starts to think about how, well, there's no walls, she says, as we'll talk about in a minute. And King's Landing has walls around it to keep out enemies, right?

But also kind of to jail their people. Like, King's Landing kind of boasts being this grand, greatest capital. Old Town in the same exact nation if you went down there like sometimes Old Town could be kind of a brighter shining sparkling place of culture and epicenter of people more than King's Landing. Oh for sure.

And then you look at you know like I mean even that's kind of everyone's like oh Old Town's kind of nice man. Old Town's kind of nice and then you go to Braavos and it's even grander. It's this giant city in the sea with all these statues and ornaments and all these religions and places to worship and uh it it's just so different and so enriching and it starts to make king's landing kind of

look like a lie right yeah i think something that isn't like stressed enough i don't know how well like the books really convey it or even like the show conveyed it but like the free cities are next level cities which is how it was right during the the renaissance and stuff and and even during the middle ages right yeah you had some of these like cities and stuff on on england britain or whatever it was called but then like you go to the mainland you go to like yeah these italian cities they were they were very uh developed comparably they were the the height of culture at that time and it's not height of they were they were the center of culture for them at that time and yeah she's like i don't know the titan of bravos is not that

impressive and then they get closer and she's like, hmm, okay. All right, all right. And I think it's interesting that you called out the walls of King's Landing and it trapping its citizens. And also Old Town, because they did that in Old Town, right? He was like, hmm, we've got a greyscale, got a greyscale problem. Let's just trap everyone in here so we don't spread it to everyone else. Yeah, it's funny you say that because there's grayscale in the future probably in Westeros, but also because CK3 just put out, Crusader Kings 3 just put out, an update that introduces plagues back in and disease and illness.

Plagues back in. Well, in CK2 they had it and it was pretty well perfected but CK3 they finally have released it with some other stuff that's coming out and it is in a got mod so far it is in the Game of Thrones mod but I was playing it on base game because I don't want to

update all my mods yet and figure that out and change shit I'm like not yet I'm just going to play base game and see what it's like and it's wild they do it historically where you can change the rules and, you know, have it not happen historically. But if you don't wall your shit up, it's over, you know, decimated. Yeah.

Maybe even literally wall your shit up if you're thinking like this. Literally. Yeah. Well, and we'll learn about that, too, for water sources. Right. As they enter, they enter part of the water and aria tries to recall what lewin had taught her about bravos and she doesn't really remember much she just sees it and it's a flat city with only hills of bronze marble brick and granite and it has no walls

denyo tells her that the galleys are their walls they don't need walls because they have their ships to act as walls in the arsenal this is is where the Titan's daughter parts from Arya, though, and they prepare to lower her in a boat to avoid customs inspecting their ship with her on it. Yorko takes her ashore. Yeah, she wanted to stay aboard the Titan's daughter secretly, but they didn't really need a second boy. She can only really do so many jobs at her age, and they're just like, we don't need more child

labor so he says balardo harris he touched two fingers to his brow i beg you remember turnigio terrace and the service he has done you i will are you sad in a small voice so we know from inferring it as we read the rest of Arya's chapters that the faceless men have a rule that you cannot take a job where the hit is someone that you know which is why everyone is actually pretty eager to give Arya their name

they're like this is my name is this remember that remember that if you ever hear someone mention it in a hit you can't take it and you know a running theme throughout the story but especially in arias is that proximity when it comes to death right like the death of a boy like micah who is inconsequential to to a lot of the other highborn people that was a big tragedy for her right this was a boy that she knew and she played with even though she was was like, why did I even care so much about it? Because you knew him. You knew him.

He had a name. You spent time together. But then you have those nameless boys who stopped her in the stables at King's Landing and then this pimply one. She's not worried about them dying. Not really. Like, she was a little shaken about the first one, but she's not worried about this pimply boy. She's like, he shouldn't have gotten in my way she chloe's like yeah on her face dunbar's number man we've talked about it before but it's dunbar's number it is that yeah you can only care about so many people that are in proximity to you and then after that like the names fade away the people fade away and it's what she said to Sandor or about Sandor what she thought about Sandor right when she was like well maybe I mean she hadn't really even known

Micah she thinks and I'm like oh no Arya honey sweetie memories fade people fade it's like what Beric says right are you my mother Thoros I don't remember yeah just like Dany and the characters in her story as well and like I mean for her, the Hound was someone whose death was worth praying for. But like Sandor, that's a guy. That's his name, his real name, you know? That isn't someone anymore that she can look in the eyes and be like, yeah, I'm going to kill him. And I think that's the reason why the Faceless Men have that rule, right? Because they're like, if you know someone, it's going to be much harder to carry out the job.

And that's the case with the Night's Watch and the Kingsguard as well. That's why they have that rule. So it's really about proximity creating tragedy. And that's why it all leads to broken men. Yeah. Because the broken men, like, they are broken off from society. Yeah. That's part of it, too.

They're isolated, man. Yeah. Except for when they form, I i don't know groups with each other but their groups are built on what if we went and fucked shit up more what it is it's big sad no it is but also for everyone for them but also all the people that they make lives terrible for anyway all aria has to bring off the ship are the clothes that she wears uh she's got a pouch of coins gifts from the crew a dagger on one hip and needle on her right we have this line that i kind of like of the wind tugged at her cloak insistent as a ghost i just like it because of all the ghosts

floating around aria's story we also have your reminds me of the veil also it reminds me a little bit of veil with uh sansa going down the mountain and the wind howling like a wolf. Yeah, there's a part of me that also feels like, is this a thing that would be way more poignant to me with the winds of winter? But I don't know. I just don't know. That's the whole podcast, Aliana. Would this mean more to me with the winds of winter? Yes, every single time.

Yorko is the captain's older less friendly son and she thinks that oh shit i should have said goodbye to denyo before i left my bad and she wonders if she'll see denyo again and i kind of wonder if maybe she will maybe he'll show up in the story again and hopefully not as a hit like who wants to kill denyo he's 12 right but i don't know but maybe he's someone that she could encounter while disguised as someone else which is not really something we've seen aria have to do much yet right mostly because like you know for the most part when you meet people like they recognize you that's how the world usually works uh because we just keep our own faces in real life and so it'll

be interesting to see that play out in aria's storyline where she has to pretend to be someone else around him if that were the case and all yet also in this one aria is the one leaving and not saying goodbye to denyo very rude especially but it's also an interesting inversion of her feeling left behind by her other friends oh my god she's in her like tina belcher love them and leave them era good for her oh my god uh no i really think she's gonna see denyo again i love that you pointed out that great uh device of when we find out that you know the faceless men if you know their name you can't kill them i don't even remember the first time i realized that but whenever i put it all together for the first time on a read i remember being like mind blown like oh

my god george you genius you animal i remember feeling that way a lot to be fair but i'm not convinced i put it together or just like quickly read it and then like saw it later on on reddit what chicken or egg you know chicken or egg yeah it's been a long time i don't know anymore i don't either it's been too long it's been 10 years it's been like 10 years ask me again in another 10 years again my favorite quote also i'm like i said earlier i'm really noting how much she wants to stay on that ship and how much she would have loved to stay on the ship and travel around and We should have stayed on that ship, Jon Snow. Live in the sea.

I mean, I'm like, okay, maybe we're on to something. Oh, yeah, yeah, true. For a career choice, you know, maybe she could be a master of ships. She could. Or go adventure. Yeah, hopefully. Maybe she's better at navigating by the stars when she learns that.

Actually, honestly, if she had learned that from the beginning, that would have been way better than relying on the fucking moss. I mean, the good news is at least on land she has Numeria, you know? Yeah, but like on land, I mean, they don't have as much light pollution as we do. So I assume she would be fine using the stars to navigate. Probably. To Arya's right is a harbor of peers, quays, and Ibanez whalers, swan ships from the Summer Isles, and tons of galleys. To her left, another harbor beyond sinking land where half-drowned buildings are thrusting themselves out of the water.

Temples, towers, palaces, all are as are as large if not bigger than the ones in king's landing and she worries that she will become a mouse all over again i'm just like don't worry aria you're not gonna be a mouse you're gonna be a cat we're getting bigger and also i don't know hashtag dude and hashtag my deep yeah right so obviously bravos is very well suited well situated for trade geographically but also when aria notices that they don't really have any trees but are still a very incredible lucrative city it kind of makes me think like wow the ironborn were just making fucking excuses

to raid like that could have been them if they had tried harder maybe throwing it out there but they just really liked the stuff they were like man I really like your stuff they're just thieves you know that's the only lifestyle they have yeah yeah that's all back in the glory day we used to steal with some bigger excuses to steal yeah what

if they had stolen they could have stole better if they had made banks duh ironborn it's like build back better but steal back better you know what i mean like yeah if they had made it's giving a very corrupt opa you know what i mean no because i only watch the show read the books you nerd they head down the great canal of the city. This must be so beautiful. I would have loved to get this in an adaptation. Oh, wow. Fuck. Oh, wow.

They head down the great canal of the city into the many islands that connect Braavos, passing a great stone bridge decorated with sea creatures, another that's carved with lacy vines and foliage, and then a third bridge with a thousand vines and foliage, and then a third bridge with a thousand painted eyes. Ooh, and one? Hmm. Hmm.

Giorgo tells her about the Sweetwater River that brings water from the mainland in for the fountains, so we learn about the second source of water, and then they approach a row of mighty statues of sea lords of Braavos. The next isle we come upon is the Isle of Gods with great statues and the Temple of the Moonsingers, which I have to say is gorgeous. Like it sounds so beautiful. Like I look at it in my brain and I'm like, oh, I want to go there. It's a huge silver dome, milk glass windows with phases of the moons on them. It's snow snow white walls and then it's guarded by

a pair of big marble maidens i just think that's so i just think of the silver millennium i'm like that's what it looks like silver millennium from sailor moon it's beautiful oh i like that like the founding story of bravo since the religion is around those moon singers and the moon maidens right because and how it ties into aria's story right she's a girl who's been likened to the moon by her father and this idea that they are in the darkness with an ever-changing face all ties in with the whole like many face thing and also somewhere else her sister was under the banner of protection of a crescent moon and a bird but whatever let's just focus on the moon part not the bird part no i love that though um there's a lot of connection between the veil and bravos in these chapters and the freedoms that both girls are kind of feeling but also not right like some

of those freedoms are restrictive and they're learning to navigate things and then there's a lot of parallels in you know the finery and the looks of the kingdoms and that palace of the moon you know is not dissimilar in some ways as well and the way that coming down the mountain is described in the chill of winter kind of is described similar to this moon singer temple temple. True, true. Yeah, they're both in places with very interesting geography right now. And a lot of, like, actual architecture and design stuff going on that's similar as far as, like, statues, right? You have the statues and the veil, and you have different, like, pillars, and...

Yeah. Yeah. Well, beyond his R'hllor's temple, which makes Arya think of Thoros and Beric in turn, they also see the Holy Refuge, which is called the Warren. And I'm like, Warren should have picked this. Missed opportunity.

I know! Warren, you should have picked this episode. Not the Warren. The Warren. He's canon. He's canon in this story um wow in aria's story specifically wow next thing that is uh this is getting out of hand and this is where they honor the small gods forgotten by the world so i'm like warren are you the small gods forgotten by the world we remember warren uh so after a tunnel they come to another bridge it's a rocky knoll with a windowless temple of

dark gray stone and yuriko teres leaves her here and bids her fellow to harris everyone's in on this very sick joke that aria is going to the assassin school except for aria aria is the only person that doesn't know so all of them are like speaking to her in these subdued tones very seriously and like here he's like you can go do this thing now and she's like yeah i will and then in her head she's like what am i gonna do i don't know like what am i doing they keep telling me i'm doing something what is this thing my favorite is that i think they all think she knows right yeah they think she knows that's why they're all like she knows that like when i tell her my name she's gotta fucking remember it i ain't

just being nice you know dude you know for weeks they're gonna talk and be like that westerosi girl is the scariest kid i've ever met like scariest little girl i know right that's why they didn't even bother asking her name they were like i don't know we're just gonna call her salty because they're like whatever name she gives us isn't gonna be real anyway i'm not i don't have time for fake names let's just give her one and they probably think she's already like a fully grown human with this little girl's face on like they're probably like oh shit oh my god you're right they think she's like fucking 50 years old yeah they think she's like you know just fucking there's an old person gonna ruin their day here to kill someone they're like straighten up fly right oh yeah they're probably like i can't believe she's bothering to pretend she can't speak valyrian like shut the fuck up little girl whatever she's bothering to pretend she can't speak Beleriand like shut the fuck up little girl

whatever she's like out here plucky as hell on this boat like gee mister can I help you with whatever you're doing and they're like okay scary MRF-er that's the real reason why they're like no you can't stay and have a job on this ship you have a job you have a job it's killing people and she's portraying herself as a boy which is interesting because when we see gilly and sam on the trip right uh some of the people are like oh a woman is bad luck on the ship she's bad luck and so aria is still passing herself off as a boy here because it's easier for travel that's true but also like are you going to be the person willing to tell the faceless person no you're bad luck to have on the ship no they're just gonna steal your face or someone else's face

on the ship and just go on the ship you can't you just gotta say yes and be like yeah yeah you can come on the ship damn it's true though that's what they would what they would do. She hasn't even been hired yet. Well, that's what they would think. That's what they would think. Yeah. Well, as she climbs up the dock, she can hear her heart beating, and she is thinking about Syrio, right? About Braavos

and Syrio and what he has told her. She can hear her heart beating, and she goes, Suddenly, she was somewhere else, back in Harrenhal with Gendry, maybe, or with the hound in the woods along the Trident. Salty is a stupid child, she told herself. I am a wolf and will not be afraid. She padded Needle's hilt for luck and plunged into the shadows,

taking the steps two at a time so no one could ever say she'd been afraid. At the top, she found a set of carved wooden doors 12 feet high. The left-hand door was made of weirwood pale as bone, the right of gleaming ebony. In their center was a carved moon face, ebony on the weirwood side, weirwood on the ebony. The look of it reminded her somehow of the heart tree in the godswood at Winterfell. The doors were watching me, she thought. So,

we have talked about this very interesting door before. I feel like maybe it was in Bran. I know we've talked about it. We've been doing this for several years, many years, so I'm like, it has to have happened. We're 50-year-old women. Dude, dude, wait.

We've been doing this for like six years. My God. So we've definitely talked about this door, but I want to come at it at a new angle, and something I've been thinking about is especially like when we think about the Bran and Jaime chapters where we talked about weirwood stumps

and weirwood paste. These concepts have kind of come up before, so I'm sure this is some land we've plowed together, but we're replowing some aspects and, you know, shaping some crops in a different direction here. Stick with me for it. Something's going on with this door that I find fascinating, and something's going on with ebony doors in A Song of Ice and Fire. And weirwood doors in total. Like, Tobo Mott, who is Kohoric, but he had a door just like this.

Double doors showing a hunting scene carved in ebony and weirwood. So we have both ebony and weirwood. an ebony and weirwood so we have both ebony and weirwood interesting and we also hear about this kind of door in danny four in the house of the undying the door to the house of undying finally the stair opened to her right a set of wide wooden doors have been thrown open they were fashioned of ebony and weirwood the black and white grains swirling and twisting in strange interwoven patterns there's also an ebony bench in both Karth and Meereen that Dany sits on. Doran's wheelchair, actually, in Captain of the Guards is partially made of ebony. The box that Cersei sends Gregor's head in in Cersei IV is ebony.

And then in Ugly Little Girl, the chairs are carved of weirwood and ebony. So really interesting. Otherwise, it's literally used to describe a skin color by George. Those are the only mentions, which kind of stands out to me. I'm like, there are 21 total mentions, I think, in the books with two things in the world of Ice and Fire we'll come to in a second that are kind of similar to using ebony at all. I don't know. That kind of stood out to me when I was looking around at it, especially because we're always focused on the weirwood side of the thing. And I don't think we really talk about the ebony at all. I don't know, that kind of stood out to me when I was looking around at it. Especially because we're always focused on the weirwood side of the thing, and

I don't think we really talk about the ebony. And so in the world of Ice and Fire, we learn that the Summer Isles actually have, they have bloodwood, ebony, mahogany, purpleheart, blumaho, burl, tigerwood, goldenheart, and pink ivory, and other precious

woods in the Summer Isles, as well as some other commodities that are looked at as luxuries. And the Valyrians kind of had a taste for it, so they would love to come to the Summer Isles and take those things. So, interesting because we don't know about where the ebony tree comes from otherwise. This implies to me like they're not natural to westeros or the free cities necessarily uh and they might possibly just be on the summer isles but it brings me back to a tree that we've talked about before from danny four at the house of the undying outside long and low without towers or windows it coiled like a stone serpent through a grove of black bark trees whose inky blue leaves made the stuff of the sorceress drink the carthine

call shade of the evening huh so when aria gets to the door she talks about how the door is gleaming ebony in our real world tree these trees are pretty rare, usually. And if they have fruit, believe it or not, it's persimmon that they have. But they are pretty rare in our world. They're softly textured, and they're super shiny with a mirror-like polish when they're polished up, which makes

them really great for ornamental things. And in Westeros, they tend to be used for ornamental things, too, when they're not being used for freaky fucking magic doors, right? We see them as like a bench or as the wheelchair. So interesting that it's being used alongside weirwood and it makes me think of two possible questions slash thoughts of, is ebony the shade of the evening tree wood i i think it is right it's described as a black barked tree um found near the house of the undying with blue leaves i think i always thought it might have been that right because it seems it and it's also the way it's described reminds me a lot of the way

obsidian is described and i'm not saying that they're the same but it makes me wonder about the magical properties and if used next to the weirwood does it induce magical properties together and why i think that too comes with you know it seems like there was some sort of prescience going on some sort of like the kindly man knew aria was coming. How? Oh, yeah. Right. How does he know that she's coming? Obviously, there's intelligence we have still not learned or been revealed from the faceless men. We're just getting into it now.

We know they have some sort of technique that may or may not be related to magic or something or science, as Eliana so called it earlier. Magic hater. Suddenly she loves magic. I don't know. Interesting. But I'm just kidding. But no, no, I'm curious. Like, I feel like we'll probably get further reveal about this, but it makes me think that the door and the fact that many things built here in this temple are made out of the ebony

and, of course, ivory, the weirwood. Ebony and ivory. We got it. Dual. Look at that. temple are made out of the ebony and of course ivory the weirwood ebony and ivory we get it dual look at that um but but it's made out of the weirwood and the possible tree bark etc and if the leaves have magic properties who's to say that the tree bark does not have magic qualities as well as we know weirwoods have magical qualities yeah i feel like it's always been implied that weirwoods might even like the wood part does because of i don't know people being really intrigued by weirwood bows it's possible like

that the even if this isn't a shade of the evening tree which i think it is um if it is an ebony tree it could have magical properties because like we have obsidian in our real world and it's not magic but it clearly is in this one um so it could be they were also i was looking up looking it up more like they're saying that the black bark trees of the shade of the evening shit um it's unknown if it has a connection with the ebony of the summer isles and also the iron woods of westeros and the night woods of essos that i don't fucking know anything about i don't know anything about that last one um but i don't know i feel like so i don't think this is true i was just like thinking random shit i was like what if like the all of these doors you know like are connected and you can just like open the door to each other

yeah like you could if you open that front door, you can exit out of I don't know. Yeah, the house of the dying dream episode. Yeah. Yeah. Which is also like my dreams lately that I've mentioned that I've had crazy dreams to you lately. I told you about them. I'm not telling you motherfuckers about them. But the most recent one did involve some bears, some baby bears, but we're not going to go into it.

And like there was a belt buckle with like a love note written on it i don't know it's real crazy but i think like it's like some sort of magical consciousness yeah for sure and i think i definitely think the house of the undying door and this door have to be have some sort of connection i don't think like yeah i don't think maybe it's what i said that was just a random idea I was like thinking about but it could even be like an indication of we believe I don't know whatever in this thing or we're channeling I don't know like because it's so interesting that Tobo Mott of House Applesauce has it and no but also because he was known to possibly have known how to make the Valyrian steel. Exactly.

He knows like a non-zero amount of magic. So that to me says there's a connection and I just had to call it out because I'm like something is up with those doors being connected and their magical properties. Random thought. First, there's a lot of things that would have to get us to this point, but there are weirwood bows. What if, if Arya ever fucking learned to shoot a bow and arrow like she's been dreaming of this whole time, she had a bow that was made of the two woods together.

Interesting. Interesting. Or weirwood bow and ebony arrows. Oh, yeah. interesting or weirwood bow and uh ebony arrows oh yeah i mean like step one learn to shoot a bow but it's pretty big tons of time before that happens so don't worry it's it's a pretty big it's a pretty big hurdle she's gonna get over to that point uh i'm sure george thought he could do it in a five-year gap but i don't know what's gonna happen now anyway well it's been more than that so so she pushes on the door we're gonna enter the doors now all right maybe it's also protective i don't know but it won't open so she holds her coin up and says follow morgulis and the doors open

inward in silence no human hand behind them and aria enters i can't get over how this is like a club for people who say they want to die. I just want to go there. Oh my god. That's where I'm going. House of Black and White. And then I go there from the other temple and just bring her back to life. No, you can go there from

the House of the Undying and phase through the door and just show up, remember? That's how it works, right? Yeah, and then I'll use a different magic to bring you back to life then i guess what we're talking about is teleporting teleporting across the planetos yeah that that was what we were saying about the doors earlier sorry everyone if that wasn't clear there's that line the doors closed behind her and for a moment she was blind. Needle was in her hand, though she did not remember drawing it. Uh, long night vibes. I'm like, that could be probably written in the Winds of Winter or Dream of Spring, so. thought what if aria starts wearing an eyepatch apparently the reason why like people wear eyepatches um sailors and stuff is because it makes it easier to adjust to like under the deck the lighting there different lighting conditions anyway so i was like what if aria starts wearing

an eyepatch but also i love that i love how valor margulis is what opens the doors right i think there's a lot about aria's story that can tie into this idea of like magic words right like the idea of open sesame and that's how valor mergulis operates for her in this and i think there are a couple of other ones as well with the constant repetition of these mantras there's been a lot of like with the north star and with the open sesame all these like kind of fairy tale and folklore little bits in her story this chapter yeah and i kind of i do think like you know we're gonna see other ones like stick them with the pointy end i think those are gonna act like magic words for her story as

well as she oh well more of a like it's me john don't you remember who's this random who's this random ass girl right right you have to know right, you have to know your name. You have to know your name, I get it. Yeah, so. So it's very dark inside. There are a few candles burning in the walls, and Arya can only make out a few people. Someone's weeping, someone's whispering.

Water is running too. Her eyes adjust eventually and she sees statues, massive, threatening ones with red candles around their feet. A marble woman who's 12 feet tall, tears from her eyes filling a bowl that she cradled. A man with the lion's head on an ebony throne. A bronze and iron horse. A great stone face. A pale infant with a sword.

A shaggy black goat. A hooded man on a staff. The rest are just looming shapes. And between the gods are alcoves yeah so she can hear water here right and that's because there's a shit ton of fountains it's probably that poison draft that they give everyone and also we've talked about how water operates in aria's story already with the water dancing and also with gender fluidity. So cool that it's here in the House of Black and White, which is very much about changeability.

And also a couple of the gods that we're seeing here, right? Some of these are references to George's other works. Yeah, we're definitely going to come back to these in our bravos episode for patrons but uh to break a few of them down we have the weeping lady of lease lion of night the great shepherd i believe is the hooded man on a staff bacalon is the baby with the sword the black goat you know philip uh and the bronze iron horse which i think is probably a Dothraki god possibly, but I don't think it's named, so. I mean, what do you got to say? It's the horse, you know? It doesn't need a name. The horse, of course.

The horse, of course. Wow, what if that is his name? I hope so. Me too. The next time I'm at a... I should add that to my list of things to ask George. Put it on your list. Yeah, yeah. She moves silently through the rows, passing women whispering together, smelling candles. Something smells like some queer incense to her until she gets deeper into the temple where she smells snow, pine needles, and hot stew.

Good smells. I thought the smelling snow and pine needles in Hot Stew is very interesting and speaks kind of almost to like her life at Winterfell, a memory of Winterfell. And it reminds me of Bran with the smells he smells from the Weirwood Paste and Dany, right, with the flavor of the House of the Undying. Or I guess the flavor for Bran as well. The flavors from the Weirwood Paste and the Shade of the Evening, right? Brought that to memory, thinking about the door and the ebony trees. It also reminds me of another character who takes Shade of the Evening, not in the published five books.

So Bran and Dany eating the Weirwood paste and the Shade of the Evening, and bleep, a character who eats shade of the evening yeah they're cooking drugs basically back there no i do think it i think it's those what if okay yeah if the two doors what if they're mixing the weirwood paste and the shade of the evening together holy shit no i'm being serious i'm being serious what if they're mixing together that would be insane that would be insane it's like an upper and a downer, but no, they're actually both just hallucinogenics. But, bro. What would it do? They're selling God.

Yeah, I mean, it could be part of their rituals for sure, you know? That really could be what they're doing. Yeah, dude. Interesting. Like, that really could be what they're doing. Yeah, dude. Anyway. In the center of the temple, she finds the water. It's a ten-foot pool, black zinc, lit by candles with a young man in a silvery cloak, weeping softly.

Ah, the silver cloaks, of course. In Queen's Landing, he dips his fingers into the water, taking them back out and sucking his fingers. Arya's like, I guess he's thirsty. And there are cups around the water. So Arya fills one and brings it to him. And he steers at her kind of weird. And then says, Valar Morghulis. And she responds, Valar Dohaeris.

For a moment, she thinks that the man's going to fall. But then there's a dark stain below his belt that begins to spread and he crawls toward an alcove and aria realizes like oh there are people sleeping in the alcoves and she's like wait no they're dead or they're dying my god this chapter like devolves into horror so quickly it's amazing what a spectacle it's so gross and i love it and even like how sad is that vision like the man sitting there dipping his fingers into the pool because he's like playing with the idea of dying yeah like exactly what i was thinking dude that's literally it uh oh that's what they make duh well no they make that but it's clear right right? It looks like water. Unless you think it...

I think that they make multiple drinks here. Ah, interesting. There's this thing. This is one, yeah. Well, I just wondered, this is like the clarified, purified version of the Weirwood Paste and the Shade of the Evening together. And if you, like, boil it out enough... Like the ghee. I thought we...

Didn't we talk at the top of the episode that we don't want to talk about drugs. I feel like these are legal. This is part of the state. These are street drugs out here. These are not legal drugs, Eliana. No, this is part of their government system in Braavos. Is that why they call it the free cities? Because they're cooking fucking super math?

Yeah, that's what they're doing. Jesus. I love Arya's character beat here, though. free cities because they're cooking fucking super math yeah that's what they're doing jesus i love aria's character beat here though it's uh it follows up from stony sept right when she gave water to the men in the cages because she was trying to help them she was trying to show them mercy but here she is showing mercy in a much different way without even knowing it and also really lucky that she's seeing it happen first and that she didn't just stroll in and go oh i'm so thirsty i know right because i'm like oh god would anyone have stopped her i don't know probably not a long

trip i mean yeah that is really awkward you can't just have that like that there there has to be like someone's got to warn a sign when they enter yeah especially if only there were warning signs when you enter the house of black and white that this place is creepy and maybe you shouldn't drink their water if only there were signs could it be the secret handshake to get in what about the man you're about to meet with the worm in his eye yeah but he didn't enter he didn't tell her right away he waited until like she could have had all these opportunities to drink first but well it's a test anyway cup bearer shit right she's got that cup bearer role now she's really doing it again yeah yeah so it's just like a big part of her story um also i just

think it's so funny that you know she's like's like, oh my god, you're stabbed. And the guy just like probably doesn't respond to her because he's like, no shit. But also he just doesn't understand what she's saying at all. Just holy shit, you're stabbed. And that's really awkward. He like looked at her all weird. Like, wow, she's, she's like, go on, fucking do it. Fucking do it, sir. on fucking do it fucking do it sir poor guy you coward you know he was just deciding how to do it i know that's so cruel well and there's almost even some tyrian vibes about it right like accidentally poisoning someone from a goblet or yeah that's true or even intentionally and i mean even tyrian right there's an aspect in which he's kind of like he's going through a time where he's trying to drink himself to death a little. Yeah. He also crossed the Nero Sea just now. Tears of Lys, right? Oh, yeah.

Lots going on here. Lots happening. Well, as Arya has her first foray here in the House of Black and White, a gaunt-looking girl grabs her, and Arya's like, Don't grab me the last person who grabbed me died and the girl says some words aria doesn't know and aria's like do you know the common tongue and a voice behind her says i do but it's not the waif it's a tall

hooded man wearing a black and white robe that matches the waifs beneath his cowl all she could see was the faint red glitter of candlelight reflecting off his eyes. What a good buildup. Oh, it's like an echo of the imagery of the Titan. I see it. Mm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. He tells her that she's safe here. This is the house of the

black and white, the many-faced god's temple. Arya asks if the many-faced god is like the seven-faced one, but the man tells her he has as many faces as stars in the sky. But at the end of the day, every road stands him of many faces waiting. He will be there for you one day, do not fear. You need not rush to his embrace. So there's a couple of things going on here. I like this line here of this there's the many-faced god has as many faces as stars in the sky. It makes me wonder if it's a reference from

George to a short story by Arthur C. Clarke called The Nine Billion Names of God which I read in a compilation of sci-fi short stories which is the first time I ever read George and I didn't realize it was him. Again it was Sand Kings and in that story i'm gonna just fucking spoil the whole last short story whatever they're trying to figure out the nine billion names of god and i think they're supposed to be as many as there are stars in the sky and then each star starts blinking out once their computers finishes calculating it anyways so i wonder if it's reference to that but also i love this idea of the stars as faces because this is a chapter that opens with aria thinking about stars right and this idea of the star of home and i'm now thinking of like home is faces for aria right when she

thinks of winterfell and home at the beginning of the chapter she's not thinking of like the castle she's not thinking of the physical place and wanting to go there the last place that she wanted to go to was east watch because at east watch is john right home wasn't about the castle for her but the people and and she's mourning them this chapter oh wow poor aria having to find a new home that's terrible and that she wants to go to her people yeah and she's like she keeps being like all these people are dead. They're all dead. And I'm like, no, Aria, only 25% of the people that you just named are dead. She's really taking her mom's mantle on there.

Actually, yeah. All these people are alive. There's hope. Do you know the song by the Ting Tings? Yeah, I do. That's Not My Name? I do. I want to commit to the bit here and i guess all the

aria tells the kindly man that she came here to find jackan and that he gave her this iron coin but the kindly man doesn't know this jackan and asks her name like the ting ting song instead and she tells him they call her salty salty from salt pans but he says no tell me your name she answers squab she tells him weasel she tells him ari that's not her name that's not her name yeah thank you that's gonna be in your head all day now amazing beautiful yeah that actually was stuck in my head all day now. Congrats. Amazing. Beautiful. Yeah, that actually was stuck in my head a lot back then. Yeah, that song only came out a few years before Edoada, if you really think about it.

Oh, I'm really thinking about it. Anyways, so yeah, that song is going to be a bonus track from, you know, after we release our Roberts Rets rebellion musical and yeah i mean they let her stay here at this place to do so she just shows them the iron coin and i'm just like i don't know did jock and just give her like a tuition fee and boarding fee like it's interesting like she pays for a lot of things with this one tiny ass little coin she pays for passage across the sea with it and yeah that coin's pretty good it's got some weight who knew that the faceless dollar was up so high yeah for real though she

like bought a lot of things with this it's not necessarily the thing she wanted to buy but she bought a whole ass like several school years with it and you're one you're saying earlier like how do they know to expect aria and like maybe it's magic but also i'm like to jock and like right back and it's like i would like to put in a recommendation for this student to join our school our university of death. Or does the coin transmit memory or something? Is it made of something? Is there some sort of magic around it? Interesting.

Actually, maybe there could be. But yeah, there's this whole like stripping away, undressing of names, you know, that Arya goes through until the last one. They're going to be like, you don't got a name anymore. You're no one. Nothing. Ha ha. But anyways, he pushes her to tell him her real name

and she goes fear cuts deeper than swords she thinks i am aria of house stark you are but the house of black and white is no place for aria of house stark please i have no place to go. Do you fear death? No. Let us see. The priest lowered his cowl. Beneath he had no face, only a yellowed skull with a few scraps of skin still clinging to the cheeks, and a white worm wriggling from one empty eye socket. Kiss me, child, he croaked in a voice as dry and husky as a death rattle. Does he think to scare me? Arya kissed him where his nose should be and plucked the grave worm from his eye to eat it, but it melted like a shadow in her hand. The yellow skull was melting too, and the kindliest old man that she had ever seen

was smiling down at her. No one has ever tried to eat my worm before. Are you hungry, child? Yes, she thought. But not for food. I'm just sad that the worm melted away. Arya has been trying to eat worms this entire story. Just let her fucking eat the worms this entire story just let her fucking eat the worms okay just let aria eat the worms she's a tully she's a fish they eat worms that's all

she fucking wants to do also she tries to kiss where his nose should be again feels a little like tyrian but in terms of the imagery but uh just i don't know let aria eat the fucking worms if she wants to i love that call back to her class chapters and of course like knowledge you know the worm and the apple etc eating the worm i also want to say that i looked at a high-res picture of a grave worm because i didn't really know what it looked like in my head not the band grave worm a literal worm from graves and whoa man i don't know that i could eat that worm this i want to see it um yeah google it yourself at your own peril i'm not into this like i'm gonna

level with you all i could probably eat a regular worm i think that the texture could be like like oysters like i eat a lot of sashimi and oysters so i think i could figure it out you know i feel like at the end of the day if i could rinse it maybe i could eat a worm but this little guy has lots of like little hair legs and like pincers and it's not the kind of worm that i could eat i could not do it i will not do it i it grosses me out so aria you are a metal little kid i really commend you how big are these you know like yeah these are not the most appetizing looking worms i feel like you know earthworms earthworms like look like they look promising they look like they could be a little tasty you know they just got that nice little

squishy texture like i could if it went bad i could just swallow it you know what i mean like yeah exactly but i don't know the grave worms so much. Like maybe if they were cooked, right? They look a little like a variation of mealworms. Yeah, yeah. And I've had like a mealworm and it was like the lightest little Cheeto I've ever had. Oh, wow. It was small. It was really small. No, I get it because I like fried shrimp or fried crab, you know? Yeah. I like the tail. You know, it's crunchy. It's yum, yum, yum.

I don't know how big they are, and I'm not going to look or find out. So enjoy. Someone at home can tell us. I'm done. I'm out. Lobsters are like giant cockroaches. That's true. That's true.

You just have to change your state of mind is all. Yeah. Yeah. There's that song that I put on my Arya Stark playlist of, if God didn't want us to snort worms, he wouldn't have made them round. And that's how Arya feels. Oh my god. Of course, you got the life, death, and the rebirth angle of worms, right? Here she is, born again, a brand new character once more.

Her pomegranate in a way, right? Arya, she gets offered a worm instead of a pomegranate, where Sansa gets offered a pomegranate, a way right aria does she gets offered a worm instead of a pomegranate where sansa gets offered a pomegranate and aria takes it sansa eats the worm yeah you know i want to also bring up it kind of makes me think of uh nidagar the dread biter or midgard's worm in norse mythology it's basically like there's a third root of idrisil at the still point of the turning world that stretched over their underworld like basically like a giant worm and the dragon nidug ate it or ate at it tried to eat at it to destroy creation and that's what made the beautiful ever circling or a boros imagery and that created the oceans

so if anyone ever took the tail out of the dragon's mouth they believe disaster would fall and midgard's worm dies at ragnarok huh that's what it ends but yeah very interesting it kind of reminded me a little bit of that especially with all the roots and all the like all this kind of like old architecture and stuff that maybe subconsciously or consciously or magically or presciently connects to all these other portals of the world. Yeah, which may be actually portals. Unsure as we floated, but it's the Avengers portal scene. Yes.

No, exactly. Maybe it really maybe. But in the end of the Winds of Winter, everyone is going to use these portals to get out of winterfell oh my god that was the five-year gap the blip so yeah maybe if these people had apples the worm couldn't really fuck them up that's what it sounds like you're telling me from earlier today this chapter ends with aria saying that she is hungry right but not for food and it's it's this whole thing of consumption that has been going throughout this chapter like he brought up the titan but also as aria enters the house of black and white she's like i don't

know i guess that guy's thirsty he's just like really staring at that pool of water and licking it off his fingers so you have this contrast between hunger and thirst and i'm seeing hunger as like this sort of like desire for life the way that it's portrayed in the story right like hunger and that eating is what sustains you we see it with bran's story where they're like bran you gotta fucking eat and and then thirst and drinking it ends up showing up here as this sort of like death drive if you will and both are sides of destruction in different ways like hunger again appetite violence we see it with the way that the wolves work right they're they're hungry they're they're visceral they're tearing things apart and thirst ends up kind of being this elimination of the self we see it again like here at the house of black and white we see it in tyrian's story and and the way that he's kind of just really

fallen into his cups but both are destruction both are kind of oblivion i love that because it's kind of like the two sides of the coin or the two sides of the door oh yes the door wait doors actually do have two sides if you think about it unless they're revolving no even revolving doors kind of have only two sides if they go around anyway not where i was taking it but i appreciate the sentiment but doors really do have two sides and so it does work with the coin yeah i meant more like the ebony and the the weirwood part of the door but um but it works yes yes it is one one as well think about it thankfully it's the same on both sides i believe so i don't know but i'm guessing so some doors might not be you know they got the carving

anyways and i also love that the hunger that he's asking her about, the Hunger Games, oh my God. The hunger he's asking her about isn't just, you know, like, are you hungry? But it's also, as we see in this chapter, she has a hunger for home, for knowledge, and hunger for vengeance and the tools and training to get her there, to get it.

She's here now for her Jedi training monologue. Take four. Yeah. Wait, three jedi training monologue take four yeah wait three it's take two and a half i mean i guess like each one has been a halfie you know what i mean so maybe it's take two two and a half i don't even know i've lost track but yeah and i i like what you were saying there of that hunger for vengeance. This book kind of ends with that. Fire and blood. Exactly, exactly. But also especially, like you said, hunger for home. Big set.

Yeah, she's comparing every bit of this place to Winterfell and even smells snow and pine needles and stew, which might be her smelling something magically magically a magical memory what if okay throwing it out there what if the smell is also incense from those trees so that everyone has like pleasant memories of whatever the fuck it is as they die yeah oh i mean i think that could be it that's yeah that could be it that makes sense i liked our earlier idea when we were like what if they're mixing the drugs i like all of it i mean they use all parts of the tree in this household is what i'm saying wow wow because they're hungry and that that is i think where we're gonna leave you all with um doors and trees those are really big for us in this episode, I feel like. And hunger.

And the story. I feel like those are pretty big parts of the story as well, in general. Yeah. Trees and doors. Yeah. Good job. We did it. We're in feast. I love it. We'll be back for feast two next week. Oh, hunger to feast. She has a hunger

to feast vengefully yeah we'll be back with a feast for crows next week for you keep your eyes and ears on the feed and we look forward to aria 2 yeah feast boogaloo yes we have aria 2

next time the aria chapter slap in feast in bravos stay tuned We have Aria 2 next time. The Aria chapter slap in Feast in Braavos. Stay tuned for when those come out by following us on social media. You can find us on twitter.com slash girlsgoncanon. That's C-A-N-O-N. Or on Blue Sky as girlsgoncanon. Or you can send us an email.

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