Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 24 - ACOK Sansa Stark II/III
Episode Date: October 26, 2018Â Â Thrust into a magical world where the line between truths and lies blurs more often than not, Sansa Stark finds herself battling for survival, hidden beneath a veil of her courtesy. intro by Anton... Langhage Eliana's twitter:Â https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account:Â https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog:Â https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/Â Chloe's twitter:Â https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon, episode 24, Sansa 2 and Sansa 3.
I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. You can find me on the internet as at Liza and Arbor on Twitter and Tumblr.
And I'm another one of your hosts, Eliana, the other girl that is also canon, for I guess last episode where we shared our
AUs
you might also know me as
glass table girl
on the mason monthly podcast
or the song of ice and fire separate it
maybe you know me by my unpronounceable username
on twitter arithmetric
it's likely
that's very likely
we have an update I'm sorry this has taken us a while
but patrons your stickers are finally shipping just like our au's shipping yeah i'm excited to
take half that stack and uh what a dangerous weapon i shall have in those stickers am i right
i will be just like doling them out everywhere.
I'll be like, old lady on the street, put it on your walker, put it on your cat, put it on your bell wasps.
So, of course, we have some emails and some tweets of no, I don't actually think we have any tweets this time.
I think it's just some emails.
And of course, Eliana's favorite segment, the iTunes reviews.
iTunes reviews.
But first, Eliana has one to read from you that's actually a little different. It's a message. iTunes reviews. iTunes reviews.
But first,
Eliana has one to read from you that's actually a little different. It's a message.
Yeah, I got this one
by a strange
method by a raven.
It wasn't a raven,
but I got
it actually on
a Reddit DM, and I assume
that this is fine to read aloud, and I think it's going to be great.
So user DurantDuranton on Reddit says,
Hey Eliana, I've been listening to Girls Gone Canon of late, and I really enjoyed you and Chloe providing a new perspective on Aswath by deconstructing the narrative through
a character-driven perspective. One thing that stood out on listening is both of you having
the shared understanding that undoubtedly Arianne will die by dragonfire. In parentheses, I suspect
by Daenerys. Could you unpack that a bit for me? As a long-time reader, my interpretation is that
given Dany having the perspective of a woman in
power and knowing the fate of Elia Martell, that if the Blackfyre conspiracy is unveiled, Dany would
show sympathy towards Arienne, given the history of what happened to her brother's family. And
perhaps some regret based on the repercussions of spurning Quentyn? As someone who rejects the
Mad Queen theories, this seems like a sound conclusion
when you think a dragon may indeed sow seeds. I get how people interpret certain storylines being
cut from the show may allude to those threads not having an impact on the overall storyline.
And since Quentin was cut from the show, Arianne's on her way out. But if you have any further
insight, it'd be much appreciated. They also say some nice words about maester monthly
yeah make sure to check out maester monthly uh those are some really solid episodes last episode
you guys did was actually a favorite of mine probably around this time we have another one
coming out um that doesn't have me but it does have bookshelf stud and fat walda whom we had on
this podcast and it's tough because it doesn't have you.
I was great at having her.
But it also has Mighty Isabel. Oh, shit.
Then yeah, it's better. I'm just kidding.
No, Mighty Isabel's great.
Mighty Isabel's great. We need Mighty Isabel.
How do we get Mighty Isabel?
Do you have her people's numbers?
Can we call her people?
I actually literally do have her number.
Well, let's get our people to call her people i actually literally do have her number well let's get our
people to call her people and hook it up of course right now is not about mighty isabel as much as i
think everything always should be about mighty isabel and fat walda and bookshelf stud uh it's
not right now right now it's about duran durandon which which first, oh my God, Duran Durandan. They are probably hungry
like the wolf, I would imagine. So good for them. I love that name. It's just a beautiful username.
I love a song of ice and fire puns. I think Eliana has kind of a different opinion. So I will,
of course, let her speak about that after this because it's 2018 and we don't silence our wives anymore. But
I don't I don't necessarily think let me at least start by I don't I think you might have a
misconception of what I think is going to happen. I don't necessarily think Dany's going to go mad
queen. I don't also I don't think Arianne dying in Aegon's Ark is something that means her plot's
meaningless or that the show has an effect on my opinion on
whether or not she lives. I mean, even without the show having no Arianne, I don't even think
that's a sign she dies. I think the justice for Elliot arc ends up going like dead end no matter
what, right? It turns from justice to revenge and the blood ends up running cold. Doran's last chance at vengeance is this. After he gets Quentin's
bones back, all he has is Arianne. And the seeds are totally being sown to choose Aegon at every
corner as we went through in our Arianne episodes, right? She keeps sending out her dragon. And in
the end, she's choosing the wrong dragon. I mean, think of Arianne falling to her knees,
sobbing. This wasn't supposed to happen. No, no.
I kind of think it's very possible for her to lose it all in wildfire.
And no, I don't think Dany's leading toward a Mad Queen plot.
Dragons don't plant trees, certainly, but there's no room for dragons to rule in Westeros
after this coming long night.
I think Dany's probably going to bring fire to King's Landing on accident.
And well,
by accident, I mean in war. And leftover caches are probably going to ignite a wildfire. It's something that she doesn't mean to do, though. It's something that happens, which paints her as
a villain in the eyes of people that see her. So not necessarily she's a villain because we're
still going to get her point of view. And we still know Dany as this little girl who is just trying to govern,
trying to rule, trying to take back her home and trying to make a better world.
I think she's going to have to live with some very deep seated issues.
I think the guilt of her never knowing if Aegon was her nephew or not is going to haunt her.
I don't think we'll ever know the truth even of who Aegon really is,
besides probably a Blackfyre or at least
a Blackfyre implement for the throne. I think the guilt of Arianne and Quentyn, all of that will
definitely affect her. I don't think she's going to mean to do however they end. I really don't.
And if she does, it's going to be she's pushed to it via, you know, some sort of parlay, just like,
you know, Stannis and Renly and Stannis accidentally
sending out the shadow baby. He didn't realize what he was doing, what fucking Melisandre would
do. I think there's a huge difference of Dany's not going to have Marwyn torturing people full
on in the cells of the Red Keep. That's not what she's going to have with her weird necromancy
magical person. I hate how Dorne's going to be treated in the end, but their entire plot is kind of like,
oh, and then they began to scream, right? Like that's the arc is Elliot doesn't get her vengeance
or justice. Think of Oberyn taunting the mountain after he thinks he's won and finally brought
the mountain down. And then he dies a gruesome death and the mountain goes on to, you know,
be a zombie for a while until someone finally puts him to sleep. It's Quentin trying to live up to his father, right? And what his father wants him to do,
this man that he barely knows, trying to be the hero and still burning. And it's Ariane claiming
her birthright and trying to bring honor to her family, only having it all come crumbling down
in the end, you know, the blood in the sand. Yeah, so i think there's a lot there that i agree with i
think the only thing that you and i necessarily disagree with is that whether or not arianne
dies but i feel like the way you've positioned this just now is that kind of agnostic on the
whole idea that regardless of whether or not she dies you and i are in agreement that
Regardless of whether or not she dies, you and I are in agreement that Arianne is going to see everything that she has wanted, all of her ambition, and how she has tried to climb this ladder and so forth by latching onto Aegon. But also, I mean, I don't know, they're both hot.
So, like, it's going to be that shotgun, shot axe wedding. And yeah, yeah, just having it all crumble before them.
I mean, they're gonna reach the throne. Like for sure, Aegon's gonna be coronated.
Yeah, I agree with all of that as well. And I think the only thing that we really disagree on is whether or not Ariane dies. But again, you seem like you're kind of agnostic on it. And like, for me, it's just that I think that Ariane lives. Because for me, that's more of a consequence to her actions. Because we see that Ariane struggles, right? With this guilt, she struggles with being alone and not having anyone truly to acknowledge her and like tell her oh you did such a good job but she's gonna be like no arianne you did a terrible
job and now everyone's dead and it's you really fucked this one up so for me it's that i find it to be a more uh it to close her arc better and i also agree with
all the things you said about daenerys like i also do not think that daenerys is necessarily
going mad and i think i don't know that danny's going to think about how arianne is necessarily
from that perspective of being a woman in power i don't know how much that comes into play in in terms of the story and it will definitely
be interesting because she won't be the only one right it's not going to just be denarius
in arianne presumably we might see sans exerting some power and marcella slash Cersei they're not like necessarily exerting a lot of power but they are
of course like
at this moment in the book
still in the game
Cersei's playing
whatever game she's playing
and
but yeah so
I do think though as you said that Daenerys
is going to be perceived
in world as a villain.
There's a lot that's pointing towards it.
And I think that's absolutely necessary for her character arc.
She has a PR problem, right?
She's coming over with a horde of Dothraki.
She's coming over with dragons.
And then maybe...
Unsullied.
Unsullied.
Eunuch slaves.
unsullied like eunuch slaves
yeah eunuch slaves to a
country that supposedly
is like anti-slavery
in name
you got fucking trolls over there
and then you also have
what she may or may not
be coming with some ironborn
unsure like this is not
this is not
nevermind marwyn the mage and mccoro and she's gonna
have you know red priestess or red priests and priests you know like she's not exactly i mean
stannis is just you know paving the path for danny to walk in with his support of her lord
thinking he's the hero i mean there's so many good quotes from Stannis, you know, when he says to Davos, I had the cart before the horse, you know, I was trying to win the throne
to save the realm or yada, whatever, whatever that guy did that dude we know says, like,
Dany is very much so I mean, if she does destroy King's Landing, which I think could happen,
I mean, it's a very possible thing, especially when you think about her house of the undying vision with Agon's,
the cloth dragon on poles.
I mean, that's Agon's coronation parade.
Let's be real.
That's the streets of King's Landing,
a cloth dragon being paraded by mummers through the streets.
That's all I can see on his coronation day.
I mean, if that happens and the animosity from, you know, by the time
Danny shows up and tries to console with him, it's he's already married to Arianne. There's no
second choice. You know, he can't just drop and say, oh, well, I'm going to marry my aunt now.
He already said he's not going to do that. And Danny has dragons. Why should she bow to him?
And Dany has dragons.
Why should she bow to him?
Her claim, she has the dragons.
So in the end, when he refuses her and when he won't, you know, step aside,
of course, Dany's going to awaken the dragon. She's going to be coming back from, you know, leading the Dothraki finally.
And after King's Landing is destroyed, where's Dany going to go?
Well, the only place she can go from there, north.
is destroyed where's danny gonna go well the only place she can go from there north and the unfortunate fact is that i think vanessa cole on twitter made a great point about this what
daenerys has been taught uh in terms of what works in terms of ruling and power is power is violence And it's not always the only path, characterization it's definitely a big part of it
where danny will find herself becoming darker she'll be giving into more of these um these
urges because it's the easy way to try and get things done like using fear as opposed to love
especially with tyrian lannister whispering at her ear eventually um because the Tyrion that we
have in the books is not the same as the one that we have in the show uh the Tyrion that we have in
the books is someone who very much wants to take revenge upon a country and family that has spurned
him and he's going to be pushing Dany towards cutting these ties i don't know that agon is
going to tell danny that he can't marry her i think that agon would probably tell her like
our grand our great great great great grandfather did it and she's giving me like uh as you said, I'm the one with the dragon.
Also, it's my throne.
Like, excuse me, little boy.
You're going to need to step off of my throne.
Yeah. I mean, think of Aegon seated on the Iron Throne,
coronated, wearing Aegon I's crown with, you know, Blackfyre, the sword with him.
I mean, think of, you know, the cloth dragon parading through the
streets and the people just so happy. And Arianne, like you said, finally reached her ambition.
She's, you know, the queen, the queen of Westeros. And just, oh, and then they began to scream.
Yeah, it's going to mean a lot for Dany. It's the hardest thing won't just be,
It's the hardest thing won't just be, in my opinion, seeing that Aegon has the throne and has Arian at its side.
It's that I think that there were, in fact, to some extent, while maybe they weren't sewing Targaryen banners beneath the cover of night as Viserys thinks, we do know that there were Targaryen loyalists, literally Dorne. But all of the fanfare, all of the welcome that comes with coming home that was meant for Dany, Aegon's stealing it all.
And I think that's going to be very painful for her.
Yes, absolutely.
Especially when, in the end, her nephew Aegon, you know, isn't really Aegon.
And she ends up meeting that nephew and that real nephew of quote unquote Aegon.
You know, he never,
he would never have wanted that throne.
That other nephew, of course.
Oh my God, we are on such a tangent.
I know, but I can't help it.
It's so good.
This is so good.
Talking about like Dany's storyline,
Aegon, if he turns out to be a Blackfyre,
or if that turns out to be
a very, very strong suspicion if he turns out to be a Blackfyre, or if that turns out to be a very,
very strong suspicion, is of course going to poison the well in terms of the interactions between Daenerys and Jon. She's gonna be like, well, how do I know that you're fucking
actually Rhaegar's kid? Not even just between Dany and Jon, between Dany and anyone. I mean,
like you said, Aegon took that from her. That was her welcome. These were her
people. She was supposed to show up
and be the beautiful silver queen here to
save the day with her beautiful dragons.
And instead she shows up and she's
just destruction and burns
things in her path without even meaning
to. And dragons
can't plant trees.
And yeah. So
anyways, in Sansa two and three
um yeah we also got other things on
fucking that was worth it it was worth it i love no it was worth it i as you know i'm excited to
we're not gonna get there for a long time we so we have structured structured this in a way anyway whatever
you don't need to know i am being very patient as patient as sansa okay in terms of waiting for us
to get to these dandy chapters yeah it's gonna take a while they're gonna be good i i mean this
was your sneak preview girls gone canon fandom in uh for the future of when we get to Daenerys chapters
because it's, not to
make a pun, which we hate,
but it's lit.
Fuck you.
These
great insights, this
great use of language is what makes
us fandom luminaries, according
to Lady Priss on iTunes.
Yeah, Lady Priss says,
Girls Gone Canon features two of the most respected prominent ladies in the A Song of Ice and Fire fandom.
It's hard to say that with a straight face.
It's silly.
I don't know.
It's silly.
There's so many others.
I want to believe.
No, I'm joking.
When I see this podcast pop up on my feed i immediately
listen to it and share with everyone i can the ladies are knowledgeable funny and you can relate
to them on a personal level they thoroughly break down chapters and character arcs even if you've
read the books many times they still manage to offer new perspectives and insights you might
have missed the first time here's to many more podcasts to come and Sansa forever!
12-hour Blackwater episode.
Whoa, you just added two hours
close. No, I didn't. I was
like, starting, you saw, I sent you
a message earlier this week, I was like, musing like
I guess a 10-hour Blackwater
episode is possible.
It's doable. Is that like a filibuster?
Like a Blackwater filibuster?
Yeah, it's doable. I, 12 filibuster like a blackwater filibuster yeah it's doable i
12 i think is pushing it 10 i think is doable yeah so make sure to tune in for our 16 hour
blackwater episode oh my god um yes thank you lady priss and as she said this is true she does
post it everywhere like on on her networks whenever it comes out.
And we really appreciate it.
And she's been out here standing us from the beginning.
And I really have always appreciated it.
Yes.
Thank you so much, Priscilla.
And then finally, we have our most recent comment called, I love this.
The title is Easy Listening by Kesey the Catastrophe.
Same.
Kesey says, I look forward to listening to this every Friday.
Great discussion.
Sany and a little weird.
Just like all great things.
True.
I like that one.
It's very us.
I like it.
Guys, our lightning rounds are packed full, so we're going to move through this now that we spent 35 minutes discussing things that weren't Sansa.
We're not going to talk about Daenerys in this lightning
round. Anymore. Yeah, not anymore. And
also we cut out Dadvos for the
time being. We do have to keep
Tyrion in, unfortunately,
so we'll keep him brief as he
is. Tyrion won.
Tyrion starts his new job, Hand of
the King, at a small council meeting.
He goes to the Broken Anvil later, and he finds Varys and Tyrion's mistress.
Bran I, filled with resentment in his broken body and his new houseguests,
Bran tells Maester Luwin about his wolf dreams.
Luwin gives Bran a sleeping potion, but Bran still dreams that he is somewhere trapped in the Godswood.
potion, but Bran still dreams that he is summer trapped in the godswood.
Arya too. Arya continues meeting refugees of war on the road north and makes an unusual friend in Jaqen H'ghar. Later, gold cloaks arrive to arrest Gendry, and Yoren refuses
to allow them.
Jon won! Sam pours over maps for the ranging, and Jon and Donald know each other. They present their maps to Jeyer Mormont, and then they discuss Maester Aemon's past.
God, Jon chapters in Early Clash are just a little exposition-y, is a nice way to put it.
In Catelyn I, King Robb extends peace terms to Cleos Frey and argues with his mom about Theon Greyjoy and Jaime Lannister.
The Blackfish later discusses war plans with Catelyn as they plan an alliance with Renly Baratheon.
Damn, Cleos Frey, what a throwback.
Tyrion too.
After hosting a mini dinner party with Jano Slint, Tyrion has Slint arrested and forces him to join the Night's Watch.
They say don't have dinner with
a lannister they say don't be a douchebag to ned stark oh yeah wait that too i forgot he's kind of
a douchebag he's he's like the worst his son his son could be okay but he's grown up so anyways
aria three taking the back roads to be undetected, Arya and company travel west, encountering a burned village and also a wolf pack.
Yoren thinks they should have taken a ship to avoid this mess.
Theon 1.
It's our son! He's a POV!
Yep, that's it. That's a chapter.
In Jon 2, Jon investigates Whitetree, one of the four abandoned wildling villages, and we also meet Dolores Edd.
That's it. That's also that chapter.
Arya IV.
Resting at the god's eye, Amory Lorch and other Lannister raiders demand Arya and her party open the gate.
Euron refuses and orders Arya to lead those left from the battle, and she does, including three criminals locked in a wagon.
Tyrion III. Cersei's kids are incest bastards. XOXO, gossip girl.
Tyrion and Littlefinger fight fire with fire, and Tyrion goes to get some bling made.
Later, he visits the brothel through a secret passageway and has a little chit-chat with Varys.
Bran II. It's Winterfell. the brothel through a secret passageway and has a little chit chat with various brand two it's
winterfell the bachelorette slash harvest feast edition as all of the lords show up and they're
trying to marry danella hornwood and danella worries that ramsey snow is going to try to seize her lands no rose for him clay sarwin shows up bearing stannis's news and then
brand dreams of a golden man throwing him from a tower who could that be i don't know
tyrian four remember when kanye and kim gave different photos of their kid to find out who
they could trust this is like the original version of that, but with Tyrion giving different small council members
different versions of his plans for Tommen and Myrcella.
That was our description for that chapter, too.
Yeah, we don't care.
So this brings us to Sansa Stark at Clash of Kings 2.
Sansa gets a note to come to the godswood tonight after much deliberation
she goes then to meet florian for her jonquil promising to rescue her from the monsters in
king's landing but first she must wait until the time is right and as she flies back to her cage
the little bird has an encounter with a gruff old hound come to the godswood tonight if you want to
go home this is the big repeating sentence in sansa's chapters in A Clash of Kings.
And Sansa got a note.
I'm also very sure.
Okay, I'm going to repeat this sentence for you.
Come to the godswood tonight if you want to go home.
This is a Terminator reference, all right?
It is referencing come with me if you want to live.
It's a similar sentence construction.
Like think of the time period when
this uh series was popular like in culture and like there's no way george didn't fucking watch
it and i'm very sure of this i'm actually really not joking like literally this is a reference to
terminator we're a terminator podcast now it's real this is real life. Sansa, of course, finds the letter beneath her pillow,
like the fucked up tooth fairy, right?
The note was unsigned, unsealed, and the hand unfamiliar.
She is thinking on the note.
She's rubbing a bruise that was given to her from Maren Trant,
and she goes off into thinking about that bruise.
His fist was mailed.
Ugh. His fist had been mailed when he hit her. It was her own fault. She must learn to hide her feelings better so as not to anger Joffrey.
When she heard that the imp had sent Lord Slint to the wall, she had forgotten herself and said,
I hope the others get him. The king had not been pleased also get it baby girl
sansa thinking like this is her own fault and that it's her fault for not hiding her feelings
better this is some like fucked up abuse victim shit like for her to internalize that it was her
fault for angering joffrey because it is joffrey's fault. It's pretty sad because Sansa's self-confidence
is completely shot. That's what makes, of course, Elaine One in the Winds of Winter, the sample
chapter that we will go into eventually on Patreon. That's what makes that chapter so important is
because Sansa seems to have self-esteem in that chapter, right? She seems to be a little more
carefree. In every chapter until then
though sansa is busy thinking everything is her fault that she's stupid she spent most of her
prepubescent years now here you know being told she's stupid and just an idiot and that she's a
traitor and she's awful and getting beat like that's that's not cool that's pretty bad that's not a way to you know
it's not good it's not how we should be treating it's not how anyone should be treating young people
i mean that's when they develop the most you know like that is a very important developmental
age i mean imagine if you were having that happen to you yeah don't be surprised if when the world
tells you that you're terrible and that you're worthless, you begin to believe it.
Yeah.
When you tell people at that age, it's very sad.
Sansa, though, wonders who sent the note.
And she goes through this list of possibilities, including the possibility that this note might be a joke or a hoax.
The fact she goes through these options before just trusting what it is, and which we'll see in a bit, she even leaves with a knife when she goes to meet it.
It's impressive to me for a 12-year-old kid who wasn't trained in arms.
She wasn't getting personalized sword lessons.
She was getting lessons on courtesy and the gods and sewing.
Sansa didn't take a self-defense class, right?
She just took her instincts and went out with them.
That's all she can rely on.
Then this door suddenly opens and a bedmate comes in and like, I don't know, this bedmate didn't even knock.
Sansa obviously is surprised and just goes, what do you want?
And Sansa is pretty sure that all of these maids are Cersei's spies, like they're changed every fortnight.
The maid's all like, I just came to see if you wanted to take a bath.
Then she makes Sansa a fire in the hearth and then Sansa thanks her and throws the note that she's received into the flames,
which is absolutely a Catelyn Stark move, as we saw when Cat received that note from Liza. Oh yeah, and it's so smart. Sansa knows
she's in the lion's den. She can't have a semblance of being herself or letting people know her
thoughts or motives. She can't afford that risk right now. She's tempted to go to the godswood
right away, but she can see Sir Preston Greenfield from her window, and she's afraid that people might
get suspicious if she starts to wander the castle. She wonders what she her window, and she's afraid that people might get suspicious
if she starts to wander the castle. She wonders what she should do, and she wishes there was
someone there to tell her or even comfort her. She missed Septa Mordain, and even more Jane
Poole, her truest friend. The Septa had lost her head with the rest for the crime of serving House
Stark. Sansa did not know what happened to Jane, who had disappeared from her rooms afterward, never to be mentioned again.
She tried not to think of them too often. Yet sometimes the memories came unbidden,
and then it was hard to hold back the tears. Once in a while, Sansa even missed her sister.
By now, Arya was safe back in Winterfell, dancing and sewing,
playing with Bran and baby Rickon, even riding through the winter town if she liked. Sansa was allowed to go riding too, but only in the Bailey, and it got boring going round in a circle all day.
And that's kind of what being a captive does, right? It isolates you, it makes you think these
kind of thoughts of loneliness and, you know, desperation. This is
also something we're going to explore a lot more in A Storm of Swords. But as we've mentioned before,
Sansa spends a lot of her time pushing down and repressing memories and thoughts like as a defense
mechanism. The only way to process all this harsh trauma she's experiencing as a 12 year old is to
pretend it didn't happen or imagine a romanticized or less painful version
of what actually happened i do think it's interesting here like okay first of all every
now and then you see people being like aria thinks about sansa and sansa never thinks about aria i'm
like did we read these books yeah sansa and aria think about each other about the same amount of
times yeah sansa is literally thinking about aa right here and talking about how she misses her.
I do think it's interesting, though, that Sansa's like, oh, and Arya was dancing and sewing because to an extent the answer is yes, but in a different way, right?
Because Arya is doing the water dancing and she's sewing with her own needle.
Yep. All through winter. All through winter.
Very cute. Very cute.
Sansa hears shouting outside and sees that Preston Greenfield is gone.
There were rumors of unrest all around the city, right?
Lots of people were crowding in and running because of the war.
People were robbing and killing each other all the time.
And so we get a glimpse of the effects that the War of the Five Kings has here.
Like, through Arya's perspective, we see what it's like there,
but we also get to see what the effects are on the cities, right?
And we kind of understand what that's going to mean then in the long run for Westeros.
Like we all know that winter is coming.
It means the others.
And a war-torn country isn't any good when it when you need to be presenting a
united front against the magical ice demons but we also see that part of the toll of war here is
that folks who live in those rural areas are fleeing to the city for some sense of refuge
or because they have been displaced by the different raids they have no more homes so they
have no defense,
right? If they wanted to like start a new one or stay where they were before. And so they have to
go where there is protection. They go to the city. And for some, King's Landing might be their choice
because it's the closest fortified city, especially when it comes to the fact that many of these
people are likely coming from the Riverlands, which has always been in that very unstrategic place and lest we forget some of
those who are raiding the villages are lannister men as we learned in ned's chapters in the game
of thrones when he had to send people to like bring gregor clegane to heal and of course the
lannister men aren't going to attack their own liege lord slash king so that's why part of why
they're going to king's landing but along with having that
disunited country like these raids have ruined those farmlands that would support west rose
in the long winter that means that there's no one to replenish those stores or attempt to even
create more food in those last crucial few years before winter fully arrives. Yeah, it's really outlining this tension that's a plot
string in Sansa's arc and Tyrion's arc in Clash of Kings and Storm that, you know, this rising
tension. We see it when the Tyrells arrive, it gets pushed right to the forefront. You really
get to see it in Clash of Kings right before the riot. This thread, this plot just emanates in the background. It simmers
until it bubbles over. Sansa fails to convince herself to go to bed and she gets dressed to run
to the godswood. Before she leaves, of course, as I mentioned earlier, she brings a knife.
If it is some trap, better that I die than let them hurt me more, she told herself. She hid the
blade under her cloak. i find this line kind
of interesting to me because it says it draws a connection to me between like sansa and tyrian
whose storylines are of course very intertwined in this book in the next uh both of them have like i
think these internal smarmy comebacks tyrian of course sometimes says some of his aloud as we're
gonna see soon but they also have these similar mindsets like when tyrian
takes those poisoned mushrooms from alerio initially like in case tyrian's like i might
need to kill myself for some reason and so he thinks he'd he also has these thoughts that he'd
rather die than stay a slave and these things eventually these uh mushrooms and the knife that
sansa grabs these get used against others instead of themselves. But I think there's a similar thought process there.
It reminds me also, I mean,
the show kind of, you know,
pulled Cersei with Tommen with the poison in the throne room.
I know there are a lot of historical analogies and comparisons
you can draw there, like Cleopatra, of course.
I mean, royals had backup plans for when shit went wrong.
For sure.
And then Sansa's running through the Red Keep because she's going to go to the Godswood.
She's decided we're doing this.
And then she comes across this ragged tomcat.
Have we seen this cat before?
Yeah, it's the same cat from Arya's chapters with the chewed off ear.
Which, I mean, it's Balerion the Black Dread.
It is, reincarnated.
With Rhaenys inside Balerion the Black Dread.
She wore Tim
in her last few moments.
Actually, it's skin changing, Eliana.
Is it? Yeah, it's not a
dog or a wolf.
Finally, Sansa gets to
the Godswood.
And Sansa thinks that Lady would have definitely liked this place.
And I think the last time we saw this place, right, was in, like, Ned's chapters?
Yeah, we last saw it while it was kind of more of a sour meeting with Cersei and Ned.
Before that, though, it was Ned and the girls when they were praying for Bran in their vigil.
That was nice.
Aw.
Aw, babies.
Dad, no!
Sansa feels as though
the old gods are there,
watching, and spoiler alert,
they are.
As the words say,
in the heart of the castle, the heart of the city,
you can feel the old gods watching
with a thousand unseen eyes.
Especially maybe Bloodraven with a thousand unseen eyes especially maybe blood raven
with his thousand unseen eyes of course sanza initially used to prefer the pageantry of the
seven but now she feels that the godswood has power to it and this has shown a lot of that whole
like grass is always greener on the other side thing you know all that glitters is not gold now that
Sansa has been you know now that she saw her dad his head cut down and toppling down the steps of
a sept you know in this beautiful land of ladies and lords it's not such a beautiful land it's not
such a beautiful religion you know she loves the pageantry and everything but now she just feels
like she wants to go home and sit under a real tree and just look at the red leaves and play with some snow.
And look at its creepy red face and be like, this is a real tree.
With blood in it.
She prays, help me, send me a friend, a true knight to champion me.
And finally, someone emerges.
It's Ser Dantos.
Sansa is heartbroken.
Which, like, I mean, a little same.
What a disappointment.
Like, wish it were the Hound.
I know you do.
I know you do.
Wish it were the hound.
I know you do.
I know you do.
Sansa asks what Dantos wants of her, and then her hand goes for her knife instinctually.
And then she accuses Dantos of being drunk.
And Dantos is like, uh, I only had one cup.
And like, how big was the cup, Dantos?
Right, was it like Joffrey's size goblet from the wedding? Or like, you know, also me. How big was the cup, Datos? Right, was it like Joffrey's size goblet from the wedding?
Or like, you know, also me.
How big was the cup?
Same.
Yeah.
Like, I'm not going to say I haven't done this.
I'm just asking.
Yeah.
How big was the cup?
Just curious.
I just need to judge the buzz.
And Datos says he needed it for courage, which, same.
I go to networking events. I understand the feeling.
And for him, though, he's like, oh, like oh it's because i too am also at risk here but like what if you were networking dantos it's kind of pathetic
because in the end he needs it for courage because he's selling her out for gold right for the promise
of gold to let him go drink it all away when he's on the run sansa softens the situation
and she starts thinking of course like we mentioned he's her florian she romanticizes it
she processes it to make it normal that this old drunk man is kind of like all over her like i'm
getting home and in the end he's no true knight right he? He's nothing close. And what will they do to me? Sansa found herself
thinking of Lady again.
She could smell out falsehood. She could!
But she was dead.
Father had killed her on
account of Arya. She drew the knife
and held it before her with both hands.
Not a good look, Sansa.
It's not a good look.
It's not great that she blames
Lady's death on Arya. But we do,
of course, get some information, though, about how important the wolves are, but like,
not a good look. And at the same time, again, the only way she can process Lady's death is this way.
And it's interesting because we don't get to see her emotions on at all. We don't get her POV during
the chapter at Derry. We get the aftermath and we don't get
the grieving ever from Sansa. It's like this is the first time Sansa's had time to grieve
on it at all. She, I mean, you see this with how she thought of Arya. Arya must be home already,
even though in her heart of hearts, she doesn't know that. She doesn't know where Jane is. She
doesn't know that Arya's home. In a way, a way she's just saying well Arya's probably home by now and I miss her and yeah I mean it's her fault my wolf's dead but I love my family and
I wish Jane were here and Septimordine even too it's all that regret and all that repression kind
of mixing around in there feelings are complicated dude especially when you're 12 yeah and you're
learning that you can feel more than one thing at once y'all should watch uh inside out yeah absolutely absolutely good good idea
that actually is there's a lot going on in that movie too so i get it like the blue one and the
green one and the sad sadness and that's the movie i'm being serious it is good you should all watch inside out i just don't know
their names they're literally our feelings danto says no one sent him on his honor as a knight and
sans is all like well i mean you're not a knight anymore and i kind of prayed for a knight so like
why would the god send me this drunken old fool i wanted prada they're sending me tarjay
no it's um remember that scene in uh 10 things i hate about you she's like well
i love wait no i like my sketchers but i love my prada backpack and the other girl's like
i love my sketch and she's like well that's because you don't have a prada backpack that sounds like in the scene she's like i wanted a prada backpack and i got sketchy she's like i
wanted fiji water and i got toilet water oh shit no and i got i don't know fucking mud i was gonna
say uh not aquafina though the crown land center mud evian she got evian instead of fiji
oh that's where i was going yeah well actually dantos isn't evian i'm sorry you're right yeah
he's like when you take a brita filter and you run toilet water through it
christ what a waste of a brita filter is what i'm trying to say i know
dantos says that he's finally found the courage to be a true knight because
sansa saved him and he speaks of another fool who's also the greatest knight of all which of
course sansa knows who this is because she knows all of the songs florian she whispers
and then sansa's like wait hold on first of, first of all, Dantos did not find the courage, as we were talking about.
It was the gold.
Sansa, though, at least is like, hold up, hold up.
How is this gonna work?
How are you going to get me out of King's Landing?
But actually, though, Dantos gives the most basic-ass plan.
Yeah, so we're gonna get you out of the castle,
then there's some ships,
and we're gonna use some gold to buy passage for you
where does the gold come from
he's like ah we're gonna find it
we're gonna find the gold and then Sans
is like alright well sure that sounds pretty
straightforward so can we
just go now? Danto
says we need to wait until the time is right
and can you please
put your knife away
yeah that's not weird also like what's he gonna pay in
bitcoin like i don't know santos honey sweetie that's like the giveaway though you know like
how is he planning on getting her out he has no gold he's a fool he had everything stripped of
him when she saved his life he's paid in lodging and food i guess and life not dying
which like isn't a great deal you know like yeah i get it for free yeah i mean i pay health care i
guess but yeah don't those should have some like i don't know benefits like don't this is only
getting paid in benefits right he doesn't have an actual like it's perks he's got perks yeah and the perks are staying alive i guess he didn't have much to negotiate with yeah i mean
sansa did her best did her best he's got to get on he's got to get on linkedin oh my god he should
have been at these networking meetings getting drunk yeah sansa says rise rise, sir. Thank you, sweet lady. Ser Dantos lurched clumsily to his feet and brushed
earth and leaves from his knees. Your lord father was as true a man as the realm has ever known,
but I stood by and let them slay him. I said nothing, did nothing, and yet, when Joffrey
would have slain me, you spoke up. Lady, I have never been a hero, no Rhyam Redwyne,
nor Barristan the Bold. I've won no tourneys, no renown in war, but I was a knight once,
and you have helped me remember what that meant. My life is a poor thing, but it is yours.
Ser Dantos placed a hand on the gnarled bowl of the heart tree. He was shaking. She saw.
I vow with your father's gods as witness that I shall send you home.
He swore a solemn oath before the gods.
And Tantos does keep this oath.
To be fair.
He does.
I like that Sansa says rise, Sare, here.
It's a big callback to
kind of reminds me of Catelyn and Brienne.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The Catelyn and Brienne thing.
Great point.
Because that happens like this book.
Yeah.
You know what's not explored in the story though?
You brought up last time how Dantos
is the last of his house.
And I feel like Dantos' alcoholism, it's kind of hinted at, but it's not really, like, dug into.
It's his way of self-medicating in this, like, really self-destructive manner.
His own trauma, right?
In the system and world that's also failed Sir Dantos.
Because, like, this system's given power to monsters like Joffrey and Ares, and they've just destroyed his entire family and his home, and they've stolen his future from him.
Like, everything.
Yeah, and of course it brings back that Sins of Our Fathers idea and thematic and what kind of it entails for different characters.
And for Dantos, this is all he has left.
It's too risky to send another note.
Dantos says they have to meet up from time to time in the godswood.
It's the only safe place because the walls have ears, but the trees have eyes.
So, hmm.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Dantos apologizes for having to mock Sansa during court, which we will see in the next chapter, actually.
Sansa runs back alone from the godswood, because it's not safe for Dantos and Sansa to be seen together.
But she does give him a kiss on the cheek before she leaves, because she thinks she's supposed to do that because of the songs and stuff.
on the cheek before she leaves because she thinks she's supposed to do that because of the songs
and stuff.
She's also super excited and she can only
think of home as she's racing back to her room
when she runs into the hound
at the top of
some steps. Who's a good boy?
Who's a good boy?
Sansa caromed
into him and lost her balance.
Iron fingers caught her by the wrist
before she could fall, and a deep voice
rasped at her.
It's a long roll down the serpentine,
little bird. Wanna kill us
both? His laughter was
rough as saw on stone.
Maybe you do.
Here,
I think the hound is definitely referencing
that, uh,
final chapter in A Game of Thrones where Sansa, you know, she's about to lunge at Joffrey and she's going to kill them both.
And then the Hound stops her.
He remembers that moment.
He remembers that she was like, all right, we're doing this.
The Hound asks her where she had been at this hour, and she says the godswood, praying for my father and that Joffrey's not hurt, which, of course, is an obvious lie.
for my father and that Joffrey's not hurt.
Which, of course, is an obvious lie.
The Hound asks her if she thinks he's so drunk he'd believe that.
Which, everyone is kind of drunk in this chapter, except Sansa.
So, that's bullshit.
Poor Sansa, she deserves it.
Get that girl a drink.
Let Sansa Stark finish her blunt.
Oh my god.
I said what I said.
Sandor says some pretty creepy gross things, some lecherous kind of things, and he tells her to sing him a song.
He says that Sansa likes songs about knights after all, to which Sansa says, true knights, and Sandor's all like, guess I'm not one of those.
He then offers to take her back to her cage and on the way back they see boros brown and he
fucking sucks and santa's like he's the worst of the king's guard because of his foul temper and
then the hound's like fuck that guy he's a patoot and boros is like sandra where have you been
santa where have you been sandra's like fuck you and Sansa's all like I was praying for the king
and the gods would and she thinks
to herself the lie sounded better this time
and then Sandor backs her up he's all like
I mean how can you expect
her to sleep with all of this noise
you expect her to
sleep with all of the wow shit
you expect her to sleep
with all of this noise
Clegane said what was the trouble fools at the gate Wow, shit. You expect her to sleep with all of this noise?
Clegane said.
What was the trouble?
Fools at the gate, Ser Boros admitted.
Some loose tongues spread tales of the preparations for Tybrek's wedding feast, and these wretches got it in their heads.
They should be feasted, too.
How dare the people want to eat?
God damn.
His grace led a sortie and sent them screwing all right it's more tea
for sure a brave boy cliggy said mouth twitching let us see how brave he is when he faces my
brother yeah girl sansa asked sandor why he lets people call him a dog and of course sandor says
that dogs are better than people true True. True. Very true.
We do not deserve dogs. No, we don't.
We get a lot of exposition
about House Clegane and
how it came to serve House Lannister.
My father's
father was a kennelmaster at the Rock.
One autumn year, Lord Tytos
came between a lioness and her prey.
The lioness didn't give a
shit that she was Lannister's own
sigil. Bitch tore into my lord's horse and would have done for my lord too. My grandfather came up
with the hounds. Three of his dogs died running her off. My grandfather lost a leg, so Lannister
paid him for it with lands and a tower house and took his son to Squire. The three dogs on our banner are the three that
died in the yellow of autumn grass. A hound will die for you, but never lie to you, and he'll look
you straight in the face. He cupped her under the jaw, raising her chin, his fingers pinching her
painfully. And that's more than little birds can do, isn it i never got my song the sexual joke you guys
every time sandor makes a reference and i mean it keeps coming up with sansa more and more obviously
as her sexuality kind of blooms in this book like she i know i hate that go away i'm sorry
you made a fucking frozen reference in our notes so you have literally no
room to stand or talk in okay i have the floor sit down eliana i and it's not as explicit here
it becomes more explicit when sandor is drunk as fuck during the blackwater which we'll get to but
there's certain language in this scene and it's something're going to float on back to when we do our 18 hour episode for Blackwater. It mirrors directly this scene right here with Sansa cupping Sandor's face when
he cries compared to him pinching her painfully and her almost crying here. And of course, this
is one of my favorite quotes and a little sidebar I'll share. I really want to get the Clegane dogs
like all black
tattooed on my leg just against the white and have like in a dark yellow font a hound will
die for you but never lie to you and he'll look you in the face curled between them so just jot
that down on my whole thigh that's what i want that's what she wants slanta offers a song she
offers to sing a song about Florian and Jonquil
because like you know this is top of mind
and Sandra's like no that sounds lame
play Despacito
Sansa's all like she's gonna one day sing a song
for him very gladly
yeah she is
it's a sexual thing
is what I'm trying to say
like when she's older
like okay here's an anecdote a chloe
anecdote we haven't done one of these since last week so obviously when i was three my god yep i'm
doing this i don't even when i was three i went to the indie 500 with my dad and my mom and i saw
girls that were carrying signs that said something about showing their tits. And I was like, Dad, when I get older, I'm going to show my titties.
And then I was like, what are titties, Dad?
What does that word mean that I read on that sign?
So Sansa is all like, I'm going to sing a song for you.
And I'm like, Sansa, sweetie, what I'm trying to say is singing a song for a guy
means something different to the guy than it does for you.
You know, like he's kind of jokingly mocking her like, oh, you're going to sing me than it does for you you know like he's he's kind of jokingly
mocking her like oh you're gonna sing me a song are you and then sandor says that sansa's a shitty
liar everyone in king's landing is a liar and they're all better than she is because the dog
after all can smell a lie i just want to call us back to when sansa, earlier in this chapter, said the lady could smell out falsehoods.
Oh, get the girl a dog. She'll be happier
for it. Get it?
Yeah.
See what I did?
A hound will die for you, but never lie to you.
Yep. I see it.
And no one could hurt you again, or I'd kill them.
Anyways, so our next lightning round.
Again, there are so many chapters
between these Sansa chapters, so we're just gonna
speed through this.
Eliana? Yep, and it starts
out with, of course, Arya Fiverr.
Gendry pulls him
along with Arya when
he finds out, oh my god, you're a girl
but also you're super famous.
And then
they all get captured and Gendry gets captured particularly by Gregor Clegane and his super famous and then they all get captured and gendry gets captured
particularly by gregor clegane and his men so then they all try to rescue him and then
hot pie freaks out and then aria gets caught and then lami dies and like sad face emojis all over
oh yeah tyrian five tyrian gets a lot of shit done in this chapter and the book honestly like
he's just busy and clashed. Today he meets
with the alchemists. He hears Rob's
peace terms from Cleo's fray.
He hears prophets talking about incest
and corruption. And then he fights
with Cersei about sending her daughter to Dorne.
Brand three.
Oh, those are my babies.
Oh, these are Chloe's babies
who are the best secondary characters in the
world. They show up in this chapter and her children, Chloe's babies, who are the best secondary characters in the world. They show up in this chapter, and her children, Chloe's children, she birthed these children, along with Marcella and Tommen.
But maybe I birthed Marcella and Tommen. I don't know.
Chloe's babies, Mira and Jojen Reed, who are okay.
They're like a little homeschooled, and they're socially maladjusted, kind of.
But Bran dreams about the Reeds, right? And they're visiting the wolves homeschooled and they're socially maladjusted kind of but uh brand dreams
about the reeds right and they're visiting the wolves and the gods would i love them so much
they're great in catalan 2 catalan attempts to mediate between renly and rob she doesn't get
that far and she later hears that stannis has besieged storm's end john three john meets the man who makes cersei and jamie look like infants
incapable of sexery the the legend craster
john learns that this dude it's not explicit it's hinted at sacrifices his kids to the white walkers and then later he like has like some
chit chat with jay or mormon about it but also more important part cassie from skin oh my god
we meet gilly and also man's raider has an army me in theon 2 my baby boy has his second pov chapter he goes home but also he has a second
pov chapter my baby boy i really don't plan on anything else except that that's it we birthed
him together we yes we simul i did the top half chloe did the bottom half and they put them
together it was a lot of work it was together. It was a lot of work.
It was a lot of pain.
It was a lot of work.
So that was the unto.
Tyrion sakes.
Tyrion poisons his sister just a little bit so that he can go do some shit,
which is that he sends Lannister demands for peace to Robb Stark.
Then he has to go listen to Alistair Thorne.
Ew.
And he locks Grand Maester Pycelle
the fuck up.
Thank God.
Somebody had to.
Somebody had to.
Arya's six.
Arya's stuck in the creepy torture village still
and no one knows where Beric Dondarrion is.
She gets a promotion
and she ends up working for the man,
Tywin Lannister,
and she gets the luxury
of working under Weiss.
Weiss!
Bran IV.
Jojen
can see some shit,
and he's seen Bran.
He then tries to unlock Bran's secret
powers, and then Summer gets, like, super
aggressive. Maester
Lewin, though though shits on
brand's dreams he's like magic isn't
real he's like totally vernon
dursley-ing it uh but he's
also it's literally brand's
dreams you know yeah thank you but he's not
literally shitting
which is funny considering
you and your connections to the shitadel
um that's true that's true.
In Tyrion 7, Tyrion wins over Lancel in some sparring of scheming,
and then he bangs Shae.
That was it. That was the chapter.
This is quite the lightning round.
You're lightning.
Arya 7. Arya's new job sucks.
She should go to some networking events.
And the new hires
are the prisoners that she freed
like a chapter or two ago, and so that's
kind of cool, but one of them also is
Jaqen H'ghar. He's like, ooh,
I'm gonna kill some people for you.
It's like the best friend you can make in
prison slash wart.
That's true, actually.
Catelyn three.
Catelyn tries to mediate again between Stannis and Renly now, which goes worse than the Robin Renly mediation.
Something about a peach happens.
Then they decide to go to war.
And Renly's like, no, you have to stay and see my victory.
Ha ha ha.
Ha ha.
Ha ha.
It's going to be a fun chapter whenever we get to it.
Someday. Someday. I am excited for that. It's going very fun a little silly but fun i think rob's victory costs sansa greatly in sansa
three tyrian lannister arrives in time to stop boros blount from beating sansa for all the noble
lords and ladies of the court to see sansa star Stark of Clash of Kings 3! Sandra Coghain comes to bring Sansa to Joffrey.
And Sandra says, like, if Sansa keeps him waiting, she's only going to make it worse.
But Sansa is getting ready, and she's wondering if Joffrey actually knows that she's been
sneaking off and meeting with Ser Dantos.
And it's interesting because Sansa took really great care to make sure she was never
found in consorting with Dantos.
She burns the letter in the fire.
She lies her ass off.
And Dantos, as we see later in this chapter, treats her mostly indifferently, as the others do.
And no one ever suspects him.
So in this scene, Sansa's talking about this dress that she's wearing so that, sure, making Joffrey wait will make things worse but she's trying to take care to wear something nice so that joffrey won't like be
super mean to her supposedly and she wears a dress because joff apparently tends to like her in this
specific dress and color and we don't actually learn which dress is it so which dress is it
can we assume like that it's the green one because she's worn this around him a few times already and it's come up in a few chapters yeah i would imagine it's either the green one or
possibly the pale purple silk those are kind of the two options that we get as far as being
mentioned as joffrey's favorite uh if it's the pale purple silk maybe she's wearing her moonstones
etc you never know this is apparently yeah important to me um sansa
then asks the hound what it is that she did this time and the hound comments that it isn't for her
it's because her brother king rob king in the north king in the north the king in the north
the king in the north the king in the north uh has committed acts and sans is like uh rob is the traitor i had
no part in this i've been here literally in my tower like i've gone nowhere i've been here and
that she also fears that if anything happened to jamie lannister though they're gonna have ill and
pain kill her and of course that's her biggest fear right it has
started since the beginning of a game of thrones the sound of the steps on stone the singing of
steel it's plagued her nightmares since the very beginning of course at the end of a game of thrones
sansa has complete reason to be plagued by this image this shows sansa's strong intuition and, again, shows her always kind of having a thought for it.
Mm-hmm. For sure.
Rob's a traitor. Sansa knew the words by rote. I had no part in whatever he did.
God's be good, please don't let it be the Kingslayer. If Rob had harmed Jaime Lannister, it would mean her life.
She thought of Ser Illyn and how those terrible pale
eyes stared pitilessly out of
that gaunt, pockmarked face.
The hound snorted.
They trade you well, little bird.
He conducted her to the lower
bailey, where a crowd had gathered around
the archery butts, but
men moved aside to let them through.
She could hear Lord Giles
coughing.
Loitering stable hands eyed her insolently,
but Sir Horace Redwine averted his gaze as she passed,
and his brother Hopper pretended not to see her. A yellow cat was dying on the ground,
mewling piteously on crossbow coral through its ribs.
Sansa stepped around it, feeling ill.
Ser Dantos approached on his broomstick horse.
Stick horse.
Since he'd been too drunk.
Stick horse.
First of his name.
Second of his name now, right?
Since he'd been too drunk to mount his duster at the tourney.
The king had decreed that henceforth he must always go horsed.
Be brave, he whispered, squeezing her arm.
Man, there's a lot of really gross and brutal imagery in The Yellow Dying Cat. It kind of
sums up Joffrey's entire reign, and rather Tywin's legacy, right? A yellow cat dying piteously,
no lion, a crossbow quarrel through it. It also kind of reminds me
of the sea lord story Syrio tells Arya in A Game of Thrones 4 about a fat yellow cat in the lap
of the sea lord and that the sea lord had asked him, have you ever seen her like of the cat?
And of course, Syrio had said, each night in the alleys of Braavos, I see a thousand like him.
Sirio had said, each night in the alleys of Braavos, I see a thousand like him.
That was a day that he was named the first sword of Braavos, and Arya didn't understand that.
So Sirio says, the cat was an ordinary cat, no more.
The others expected a fabulous beast, so that is what they saw.
How large it was, they said.
It was no larger than any other cat, only her mandolins for the sea lord fed it
from his own table what curious small ears they its ears have been chewed away in kitten fights
and it was plainly a tomcat yet the sea lord said her and that is what the others saw
are you hearing so of course in the end it was just a cat made bigger by talk of others
it also feels like a this is
a reference to of course the emperor's new clothes but you know with a cat cat sounds like a chonk i
invited chloe to this facebook group called this cat is chonky top content um and also the language
here um as you've pointed out regarding that cat it kind of reminds me of that line from
the reigns of castamere right um only a cat of a different coat yeah that's all the truth i know
it's no lion just a cat absolutely a different coat in the end tywin lannister did not shit gold
shit shit he shit cats wait wait. Wait. Cats shit gold.
That would be cool.
Anyways, so Sansa immediately is led to the lower bailey.
Boros Blount, Meryn Trant are both standing beside Joffrey,
and she kneels to him immediately, but he snaps that kneeling won't save her.
She is being brought here to answer for her brother's treasons.
The Hound is commanded to pull her up, and the text says that he does so, but not ungently.
So he's still being gentle toward her.
Lancel Lannister is the one to address her, claiming Robb's army fell upon Stafford Lannister's
with sorcery and an army of wargs.
He claims Northmen butchered thousands of men while they slept and ate their flesh afterward. Joffrey asks what she has to say of herself. He points his crossbow at her
face. He claims the Starks are unnatural, like her wolf that savaged him. And of course, Sansa says
it was Nymeria that savaged him, not Lady. And he just brushes it off and he says how he wants
to shoot her. But Cersei says they'll kill Jaime if he does.
Which of course is the opposite of what Sansa's fear was earlier.
So at least it goes two ways.
Good for her.
Job security.
For now until, you know, Margaery.
During this point when Joffrey's pointing that crossbow at her, he's also boasting about this man that he killed.
That he's like, oh, this man that he killed that he's like oh this guy was bigger
than Ned Stark and then he
says this very concerning
thing about these people
this is in the sortie that Joffrey
quote unquote led probably
like in the previous chapter and he goes
that all the people were shouting my name
and calling for bread like I was some
baker but I taught them better
I shot the loudest
one through the throat then he also boasts about shooting some woman in the arm like uh these people
were held behind by a gate and you know we also have all this news building up especially from
the previous chapter of like tyrax wedding and all this combined is just paints a perfect picture of why the small folk hate
joffrey so much like this is why the riots are happening this is why tyrek gets pulled off his
horse by the mob he's having like a fucking wedding feast and everyone's like ah maybe i should have
anything to eat and the lannisters have shown that they just don't care for those people at all and
this inspires no loyalty it's it's hammered home throughout this chapter with like,
what if you didn't make people fear you?
And it's going to be the downfall of the Lannisters.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
It's kind of, it proves what we learn later from Cersei too,
when she says, oh, fear is the way of the people's heart.
And of course we get our classic queen line from Sansa. If you inspire the people to love you, you don't have
riots in the street. You know, if you help people, if you feed them, you know, look at good queen
Alysanne. It's just very obvious that the Lannister rule is tainted from the start.
obvious that the Lannister rule is tainted from the start. Joffrey commands the Hound to beat Sansa, but Dantos makes a diversive moment where he whacks Sansa with a morning star with a melon
attached at the end over her head. So she's just like dripping melon juice and she's like, fingers
crossed, like, hopefully this awful embarrassing moment saves me from Joffrey's rage. But of course
it doesn't. It doesn't, but
Dantos is, of course, living up to what he said
in the previous chapters to some extent, and I would
say that Dantos suddenly
coming in here, it's a little
convenient writing on George R.R. Martin's
part, because then that means
we still don't know what Sander would have done
with this order, because then
we're distracted from the fact that
Sander is the one who got that
original order to beat sansa i think that's a huge part of it too because for sandor that's the point
this builds him up to breaking yeah george didn't show us whether or not sandor would choose because
sandor doesn't know what he would do if he had to actually do it it's the biggest part of his
breaking to aria i stood there in my white
cloak and let them beat her. I took the song. She never gave it. You know, it's everything comes
crashing down for Sandor when he breaks. And this is part of it. This exact penultimate moment of
Joffrey commanding him to hit her and him just standing there. Thankfully, Dantos took the
moment's opportunity. But if he had had to
what would he have chosen?
He doesn't know. Yeah.
We don't know because then
Joffrey I guess gets distracted briefly
and he's like, you know what, fucking Boros
you do it. You beat Sansa.
Leave her face!
Joffrey commanded. I like her pretty.
Boros
slammed a fist into Sansa's belly, driving the
air out of her. When she doubled over, the knight grabbed her hair and drew his sword, and for one
hideous instant, she was certain he meant to open her throat. Fibes. And as he laid the flat of the
blade across her thigh, she thought her legs might break from the force of the blow. Sansa screamed.
of the blow sansa screamed tears welled in her eyes it will be over soon she soon lost count of the blows enough she heard the hound rasp no it isn't the king replied boros make her naked
boros shoved a meaty hand down the goddamn the front of sansa's bodice and gave a hard yank
hand down the god damn the front of sansa's bodice and gave a hard yank the silk came tearing away bearing her to the waist sansa covered her breasts with her hands she could hear sniggers far off and
cruel beat her bloody joffrey said we'll see how her brother fancies what is the meaning of this
so i would just like to proclaim that it's actually illegal in three countries to hate Sansa Stark.
And if I hear you hating Sansa Stark ever again, I will literally call the cops on you, first off.
Second off, I hope you feel intensely uncomfortable when you read this passage, because I feel intensely uncomfortable.
This passage literally takes my breath out of me.
Like when Sansa's punched in the stomach by a full grown man, when a 12 year old girl
who's barely hitting puberty, hasn't even had her first period, is standing in a room full of adults,
just adults and adults and adults, and is being beat by men who are sworn to be true knights,
beat the shit out of. Like, this is physically painful to read this passage for me. Like,
it is disgusting. Like, when you stop, because Boros shoved a meaty hand down the front of
Sansa's bodice. Like, she is in the middle of royal court and this is what their regime has brought like beating
innocent young girls doesn't matter if her dad was a traitor she's done nothing wrong like nothing
it yeah it's disgusting it's all just the worst this is the worst it's the worst
it's all building on those starving people.
They didn't do anything wrong.
They didn't.
They didn't.
And so we get Tyrion Lannister arriving to court,
and he has brought his tribesmen.
He's brought Bronn.
And he demands that Ser Boros Blount tell him what kind of knight beats helpless maids.
And Blount, of course, responds with, like, one that serves as king.
And so he draws his sword, Sir Maron does as well.
Of course, like, really, really, Boros, really?
You're going to draw your sword and so Sir Maron,
like that's going to happen here today?
Really?
Whatever.
Also, of course,
major Jaime vibes that we are sworn to protect her,
but not from him, right? That's what this scene emanates. And of course, of course, major Jaime vibes that we are sworn to protect her, but not from him.
Right. That's what this scene emanates.
And of course, of course, are there no true knights?
Are there no true knights?
Yeah.
Bronn then warns them all to be careful because like, oh, you wouldn't want to get blood all over your white cloaks which is an obvious rib an appreciated rib tyrian then asks for someone to go get sansa something to
fucking cover up with and so sander wraps sansa in his cloak and the coarse weave is scratchy
against her skin but no velvet had ever felt so fine uh i have feelings about that quote. So I'm going to go ahead since this is our podcast
and I can do what I want. Also, it's illegal to hate Sansa Stark. Just want to make sure we
reiterate that every like passage that we get through. So just make sure that you know the law
in this country. This is extremely important line because this cloak has so much symbolism there's a lot to
come that we'll talk about more with this cloak too like if this cloak survives through the series
to a different point in time uh we do see it come up again i believe and lady gwynn from
radio westeros has an amazing theory we'll talk about in the future about that. But in a way, this this cloak is cloaking Sansa under Sandor's protection.
And it's all been leading up to Sandor and Sansa having some sort of moment like further than this, of course.
But even since, you know, the very first time that Sandor found himself somewhat accidentally protecting her.
you know the very first time that Sandor found himself somewhat accidentally protecting her also it does give some very cloaking a woman under your protection vibes right Sandor who is totally
a virgin of wrapping his white cloak around Sansa it kind of reminds you like Holden Caulfield
like how we like would call sex workers just a chat you know? Sansa being wrapped in this chivalry that she craves from this man that
she refused to look at, who refuses to be a knight, right? Who is the truth, the ugly face,
but not, you know, beautiful. Her declaration that it felt better than velvet also is kind of showing,
just like earlier with the pageantry of the gods and how she's more accepting of her home gods now,
she's disconnecting from that materialistic value of pretty gods and how she's more accepting of her home gods now she's disconnecting
from that materialistic value of pretty fabrics and knights and songs in building on that idea
of like that velvet versus the scratchy cloak right it's it's very much symbolic of what's
happening in this exact scene that we are seeing like the velvet has all those trappings of nobility and richness and it looks beautiful
right but it it is the humbler cloth that scratchy white cloak that serves an actual purpose here
it's the same as like with the different men who come into sansa's storyline in clash and storm
it's sander and tyrian and dantos who they are the ones who are acting in the place
of a hero in sansa's story like they may look like a story a lot but they're the ones who are
showing honor here compared to the king's guard and the royals yeah i mean look at sandor's rough
spun model right like he's always wearing done and just like brown scratchy outfits. But right now he's the closest thing to salvation that Sansa's had in the story so far.
It also is killing me because she's 12.
A room full of fucking adults.
Adults with, you know, protection in their house.
Adults with knights.
Adults with swords.
Adults in armor.
A room full of adults can't speak one word for her,
except for Sandor and Tyrion,
but a 12-year-old tried to save a drunk old man who meant nothing to her.
Like, think on that.
That's pretty intense to think about,
that Sansa had the audacity, the boldness to, you know,
try to help Dantos,
and not a single one of those people
could stand up for her yeah and of course dantos points this out in that previous chapter he's like
no one saved tried to save your dad but you were no one at this point yeah you saved me yep
tyrian is incredulous at Joffrey's behavior,
does like Joffrey have no regard for Sansa's honor.
She's going to be his wife and his queen someday.
And Joffrey responds that he's punishing Sansa for having the wolf's blood.
And Joffrey retorts with them.
Joffrey has the wits of a goose and reminds him that Ares Targaryen did whatever he liked.
And that went really well for him.
Then Ser Boros
Blount, who is a butt,
like Ser Boros
butt, warns
that's it from now on.
That's what I'm calling him. Ser Boros the butt.
Indeed.
Against threatening the king.
And Tyrion replies that he's merely educating
his nephew. And tyrian tells timid
and braun to kill boros if that butt opens his mouth again and boros tries to use the queen as
a safety net saying that cersei's going to hear of this and tyrian's like that's a great idea
let's go get your mom joffrey that's great. And I mean, this is obviously some prime Tyrion
material here, right? Like, this of course is one of the things that causes many readers to love
Tyrion. It's his scathing wit, which makes many readers like him. But it's also why he becomes
a villain in the eyes of so many in King's Landing. Like, this is not how you make friends.
I mean, neither is, I guess, having your wife,
your future wife beat in front of a lot of people, but, you know.
And then marrying the king's ex-future wife that was beat in front of everybody
and then making her married to the imp and, like, damaged goods.
Technically your aunt, you know.
Yeah.
Yep.
It is a good call, though though on tyrian's part and
to cersei's somewhat credit right that tyrian feels that if he had gotten cersei what was
happening to sansa would not have been permitted and i i don't know i don't think joff would have
necessarily felt any shame but it it says something that to say that he would call Cersei would have some sort of
repercussion Tyrion tells Joffrey he should use his mouth less and his ears more or his reign
might end up shorter than Tyrion Joffrey claims Cersei taught him to value fear over love when
Tyrion criticizes his ruling techniques and Joffffrey says, see, even Sansa fears
me. Tyrion thinks it's a pity
Stannis and Renly aren't 12-year-old
girls.
Which is a line that, of course, creates great continuity
as things come to a head at the Blackwater
where we're going to do a
24-hour episode. Am I doing this right?
Yeah, you are. Stannis is not
caught by fear of self.
But his men, they rodman they see
friendly's ghost because they loved and served friendly but also now they're like afraid because
like oh my god spoopy and of course cersei talks about how one should have their subjects fear them
yeah i mean kind of wish stannis was a 12-year-old girl. Probably would love him. For sure. And to be fair, him and Renly kind of act like 12-year-old girls.
So I digress.
That's why Catelyn chastises them.
Like 12-year-old girls.
Also, she's like projecting.
She misses her daughters.
So she's got to mom someone.
Tyrion has Bronn and Temet bring Sansa along with them.
And they travel to the Tower of the Hand.
Haven't been there in a minute.
She's shaking and she's moving like she's in a dreamlike state.
Serving girls begin to tend to her.
Maester Franken treats her wounds.
Note, it's not Maester Pycelle.
Hallelujah, sister.
But she does, she's like,
Maester Franken, you stupid man.
I'm not going to feel better.
Right? Also, like, how could she?
She thinks about how the Hound hates knights, and now she hates them as well.
And she does not believe in true knights.
She falls asleep, and when Sansa wakes up, her legs are paining her.
Which really stuck out to me, this read-through,
as Eliana's written about before.
Sansa has such etered-like language in her chapters.
The way they're written,
the way you're launched into the events after they've happened,
and also in what's occurring in Sansa's trauma.
She's going through a lot in these first few Clash chapters.
These have been heavy chapters.
And of course, just the language that she dreams and when she wakes her legs are paining her finds a woman that's guarding her door
and oh she says that she wants to go to the godswood which i didn't really realize until
this like that had to have been chela right that was chela at her door probably it had to have been
yeah she wants to go find dantos and she wants to leave as soon as possible
she's like i am getting out of this place after yesterday the woman isn't letting her leave her
tyrian so sanza kind of resumes goes back defeated into the tower and she refuses to eat any of
tyrian's food that's brought to her the next morning and later tyrian tells her you're a guest
here you're not a prisoner here and I mean like
maybe not in this tower but that's not like the most accurate nor astute thing to say Tyrion like
insensitive yeah Sansa might not be a prisoner in this tower like she's definitely a prisoner
in King's Landing yeah everyone knows every second she breathes everyone knows it's not a secret yeah
it's not a secret at all tyrian explains what happened to her during rob's battle he gives her
a little breakdown it wasn't sorcery lancel just has kind of a penchant for drama which i bet he
was totally in musicals when he was a kid i I love this line that gets said where Tyrion says,
Sorcery is the sauce men spoon over failure to hide the flavor of their own incompetence,
which does kind of have some Stannis vibes, interestingly enough.
Sick burn.
But also, I'm going to throw this out there.
There's a little bit of sorcery.
Right, Right.
Like, Robb's soldiers, they cut the horse lines, and then Robb sends Greywind.
Greywind.
You know, this is sorcery.
And to rile the horses up, which causes the horses to panic their way into a stampede. And then the horses kill a bunch bunch of people and most of the men left in fear
and some of the people who are dead it's rupert brax lyman vickery lord craig hall and ontario
just 50 of these people are taken prisoner including just sons and martin lannister
and stafford didn't have any sentries most of his army they were like made up of green boys just at
atlantis port and they can't quite figure out how rob got through to the ox cross since the lannisters have they have the
golden tooth and the men there swear they didn't pass through it's like sorcery quote unquote
i mean i'm just saying skin changing kind of counts as sorcery. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Tyrion doesn't really care, though, because Rob's like Joffrey's
problem. Joffrey is Tyrion's
A.
Tyrion asks Sansa how she feels
about Joffrey.
My love for his grace is greater than it's
ever been. The imp
laughed aloud. Well, someone
has taught you to lie well. You may
be grateful for that one day,
child. You are a child still, are you not? Or have you flowered? Damn, could someone lay the
fuck off of Sansa's pussy for once? Like, I'm sorry, you ain't gonna catch me. You're not
gonna be following me around going, have you blood yet? Hey, when's your period? Hey hey when's your period hey when's your period coming my period's coming now
god no uh it isn't that was last week but yeah it's really annoying no one needs to know when
your fucking period's coming like i mean yeah also sansa is learning to lie about her we're
watching it actually unfold in the last couple chapters. And she has to get good at it.
It's the only way for her to survive.
And this is the second time today that Sansa is being told that she's been taught well when it comes to these sorts of lies.
Yeah, it's just, of course, the Hound is smarter than everyone else at court.
And he can smell a lie as we learned so
i mean she's really not stupid she's doing great you're doing good honey i love you
you know doing amazing sweetie tyrian tells sanza that tyrian doesn't actually intend for her to
marry joffrey because you know it it is a shame though because this stark lannister alliance
through sansa joffrey is actually one of the smarter things that Robert had ever suggested.
Sansa's afraid that this is a trick, and she says she only means to remain loyal to the crown.
Tyrion's like, I don't blame you, because when I was your age, all I wanted to do was run away from my family.
Tyrion has noticed that Sansa prays in the Godswood every day, and he asks her what she prays for.
She thinks on how she prays for Robb's victory and Joffrey's death, but of course she can't say any of those things to Tyrion, and she tells him she prays for the fighting to end.
This is where Tyrion gets a little harsh. He warns Sansa that, yes, your brother won at Oxcross, but the next battle between Rob and Tywin will finish it.
And Oxcross was insignificant. If Rob is smart, he'll bend the knee, and Sansa will be home to
Winterfell when there's peace. He offers to have some of his clansmen guard Sansa, maybe Chella,
if having a woman guard her comforts her more. Sansa thinks about Dantos rescuing her, and she says no.
The wildlings frighten her.
But Tyrion, of course, pushes.
He says they frightened Joffrey and his court as well, so no one would harm her.
Which, this is a constant we're going to see,
that Sansa can't trust the men around her that she thinks are savages or untrustworthy.
She resists his pushes and his lies and tells him
she prefers sleeping in her own bed, as this is the tower where her father's men were slain,
and she has nightmares of their ghosts. Tyrion agrees to have her escorted back to her chambers,
understanding. She's smart enough to know she can't trust any of them, never again. Doesn't
matter how kind they act cersei acted kindly
joffrey as well good girl she's learning and along with that learning comes with you know
that lie uh the way that this is written it says that some suddenly something came to her and it
just felt so true and it was easy for her to say that and a lot of Sansa's storyline is going to be about that, right?
Finding something that has a small grounding
that sounds like it's true to who she is in her character
and using that to her gain,
which is something that, of course,
Littlefinger's going to build on later on
when he's like, here's lying 201.
Yeah, absolutely. like here's lying 201 yeah absolutely i love getting to watch the transformation of sansa
politically we're seeing it now right now in front of our eyes it's beginning you know it's beginning
she's learning she's putting up walls she's kind of just learning who she can and can't trust slowly but surely because it's no one oh is it no one
oh you're talking about shira sea star right yeah i am i am shira sea star is no one pass it on
i'm talking about shira sea star i'm talking about quays quays yep agon and achara dane who
had a daughter which was Daenerys yep
yeah those two
wait what
for sure
oh my god
alright
so
Sansa 2 and 3
in the books
save it
export it
we did it
guys
girls gone
canon fanons
haha
haha
thanks for listening
in you guys
this has been
a blast we have episode 25 next week
we are recording this week and it will be out hopefully by halloween there for patrons five
dollar and up patrons will get access to it it is our episode on identity in a song of ice and fire
in disguises and a few thematic identity things we'll touch on here and there uh i personally have
set forward some titles already proposed some titles i think we have 10 more puns to get through
before we choose i haven't seen it i gotta look at these titles and help narrow it down uh i only
have the one that i have it titled as currently that's written i will write the rest of them i
have ideas all right i'm excited oh man yeah we're
really excited about this episode it's gonna be very it's not gonna be that spooky it's gonna be
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Goodbye.
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