Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 90 - AFFC Jaime II

Episode Date: May 15, 2020

After their father's funeral, Jaime finds that the more time he spends in King's Landing near Cersei, the further apart they become. Jaime relives a lot of history, both some he's lived through and so...me he's read about.  --- 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: www.liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon A Song of Ice and Fire episode 90. Whoa. JB2 in a feast for crows. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. I'm dropping the internet. Who needs the internet? I agree. Who needs the internet? I am Eliana though, another one of your hosts. Jamie 2 in A Feast for Crows and I didn't realize I was gonna be really into this chapter Eliana I didn't realize we were
Starting point is 00:00:48 gonna go ham but it turns out Jamie's into some shit I'm into you know I think that we always knew that we would have in depth discussions on Jamie I just didn't realize it was gonna be this chapter right I thought it was gonna be we definitely talked about him in some of those late Storm chapters
Starting point is 00:01:04 and of course the Brienne chapters that he has in Storm, like a lot of those are super meaty. And I think those are some of the most iconic Jaime chapters. I didn't realize I was going to talk about him so much in this one. I mean, of course I am because it's literally his chapter. But you know, and some of the other ones where he's at Riverrun, those are like, I think famous ones. But I think it really does boil down to a lot of the history i think we are gonna unfold a lot i mean something that's crazy that i've been noticing as i've been analyzing just different bits of jamie is that right now during a feast for crows george is putting so much history into these chapters and it's you know in of years, the world of ice and fire is coming out, right? Handful of years here. Handful.
Starting point is 00:01:48 And then fire and blood as well. And there's so much more history then. So I'm seeing a lot of these ideas kind of bloom in that gardening style that George has. I'm seeing him plant these seeds. I'm seeing Jamie talk about these Kingsguard members that are briefly expanded on when we get to the world of ice and fire or fire and blood and i don't know i like it i like it a lot it's also just and we're going to talk about this in a bit it's just a very well structured book in my opinion and i think that's part of why you and i love feasts so much yes all the chapters mean something to each other it all means something i
Starting point is 00:02:23 love when things mean something there's a really great relationship between the chapters and in feast so that's the problem with like game of thrones right it's like it doesn't always mean something but song of ice and fire it's like george carefully was like listen if we can't publish these books together at the same time i want these chapters to be together and these chapters like George is telling a story so important at first I thought you meant the first book and I was like damn why would she throw shade at the first book like that then I realized
Starting point is 00:02:54 you meant the show that these were based off of and I think George has really improved upon what Game of Thrones wrote well I regret to inform you while we have a severely packed episode okay i just kid like maybe it's a good thing maybe you're here for this we have such a packed episode there are god what like 24 pages of google notes we're gonna talk about i i found so much crap just
Starting point is 00:03:22 thinking about it sifting through it. There's just so much at the end. Jamie is just, he thinks, man. He thinks a lot. He does. You don't think it's that deep, but then it is. And I think everyone knows it kind of is. That's why he's one of the most
Starting point is 00:03:40 interesting characters for a lot of fans, right? Yeah, he is. Well, because of of that no emails or tweets a note this week we're gonna cruise through next week we will read some of your emails and tweets be sure to send us some over at girls gone canon on twitter c-a-n-o-n or at girlsgonecanon at gmail.com but first eliana how about you kick off our lightning round today yeah so we start off with Brienne 2 on the heels of Jaime 1 Brienne searches Duskendale for Sansa Stark meeting two honorable men along the way maybe some less than honorable honors a horse Sansa 1 all day and night
Starting point is 00:04:20 Sansa's dreams are haunted by song. The eerie turns into yet another nightmare. The Kraken's Daughter. Asha prepares for her queen's mood. Cersei III. How could I have ever loved that wretched creature? He was your twin, your shadow, your other half. Once, perhaps, no longer, he's become a stranger to me. The Soiled Knight. once perhaps no longer he's become a stranger to me the soiled knight ari's oakheart has sex you know the whole thing that he's not supposed to do as a
Starting point is 00:04:52 knight of the king's guard arian martel asked him why don't you just stop being a king's guard and become a queen's guard to this other lannister child that's really funny because i feel like that is exactly what gets put in jamie's chapters why don't you stop the king's guard and protect the other lannister child huh brianne three continuing her quest brianne runs into some other characters from her past and also a crab mr crabs samuel too Sam's on a boat I'm on a boat and it's going fast and I've got a nautical theme
Starting point is 00:05:30 pass do you not think of I'm on a boat am I the only one that always does I do think of that and I realize I might have put this on the wrong chapter listen oh wait no we can just call it Sam had just had sex when we get to that chapter I like that all lonely islands oh my
Starting point is 00:05:48 god i feel like that's what we should have listened to what was it saturday this saturday we were on history of westeros did a ice and fire con benefit stream for quiplash we did quiplash and we were hysterical it was very cards against westeros the song of ice and fire themed and that was a blast but i feel like there were a lot of lonely island a song of ice and fire songs happening that night for sure yeah they're fun they're fun it's a blast well that brings us to jamie too in a feast for crows to our overview tywin's body is paraded by Septon, Silent Sisters, and his loyal followers through the city. Will Jaime forge his own path, or will he follow the Lannister name? Conversations with Kevin, Lancel, Cersei, and Loras all seek to solidify this answer. That we don't get. We still don't get the answer.
Starting point is 00:06:42 We don't, but... So, as Chloe and I were were saying up top feast very interwoven book and i think before jumping into this chapter i wanted to do something a little different for a second and talk about brienne and circe's chapters both of which are very close uh in terms of distance right in terms of how they're structured within this book. And I understand, of course, that Feast and Dance were both split. They were originally one book, as you all know, but they were split due to length. George literally writes it in the beginning of these books and tells us all that.
Starting point is 00:07:18 But I do think it's worth pointing out that the book was split, for the most part, geographically, right? He could have chosen to split it chronologically, and he doesn't. He picks up some of that chronology in Dance, of course, but I think that shows that there was quite some thought put into this decision, and there's obviously a very deliberate structuring of Feast 2,
Starting point is 00:07:35 where we get a lot of these Brienne and Cersei POVs for the first time, and their POVs are actually often following one another or right next to each other. But our first Jaime chapter in this book is actually directly followed by Brienne's second POV chapter. Not the first, where she's actually on the heels of Cersei's chapters. And you end up with some really great ways that all of these stories compare and contrast with one another,
Starting point is 00:08:08 especially as they themselves do, as Brienne and Jaime do, as knights that can never really fully live up to knighthood or honor due to different reasons. One of those being that both are living as kingslayers, one who actually did it with no regrets, and the other is a legend as one, which affects her ability to navigate Westeros. And she regrets, of course, her inability to protect her king. So you get kind of those two sides of idealism from from jamie and brienne and how they go through the world but just as jamie is kind of running this farce of an investigation in king's landing as we talked about last chapter because you know he kind of already knows where like the missing half of his part of the wanted
Starting point is 00:08:38 poster couple is uh since you know he like his brother. Brienne's also running an investigation herself, only she actually doesn't know where Sansa is, and you get this really interesting narrative effect where there's this irony in Brienne's knight-errant story, because we as the reader know she's looking in all the wrong places because we do know where Sansa is, right? And I think that's put up against Jaime's investigation of him knowing where Tyrion ended up going, kind of, because he's like, yeah, I freed him
Starting point is 00:09:12 and I'm kind of the culprit. But at the same time, by the time Feast is published, we actually don't know where Tyrion is anymore as readers. So there's kind of a difference there. And just as Jaime has a long talk with Longwaters about having royal blood, Brienne's chapter also has something very similar right after, where she's speaking with another person who claims to have royal blood through the darks, who are another one of she comes up against that legacy of House Starkland, which had seven sons, interestingly, that joined the Kingsguard. And House Stark had, of course, one who was something of a Queensguard, Jonquil Dark, the Scarlet Shadow, as we learn in Fire and Blood. They were also very closely tied to the Targaryens because, of course, they were Kingsguard. And eventually kind of end up stabbing them in the back in a way in the Defiance but
Starting point is 00:10:07 at least Jaime did it in the front which I think says something. I do think it does and Brienne thinks of him so much in that second chapter following Jaime's first and is kind of comparing every fighter she comes against or thinks of and remembers their journey
Starting point is 00:10:24 together a lot. Yeah, I think there's a sharpening of wit there for Brienne, especially right? Jamie kind of drilled into her. Jamie was the Sandor for that for for the Sansa, right? For the girl that believed in songs and knighthood. Jamie drilled into her. Hey, that's not all it is. We're in a real world right now. Beauty and the Beast for sure.
Starting point is 00:10:42 all it is we're in a real world right now beauty and the beast for sure and there's a lot of framework that's laid out throughout this not just on strong thematics on I think something you touched on very lightly the scarlet shadow dark you know being queen
Starting point is 00:10:57 protector I think that's something really bold through all of this discussion and that idea of legacy because this chapter not only is framed in legacy when it comes to tywin and what the lannisters are about to do each of them but also legacy for someone like brienne as you discussed and her seeing i mean she might not think about it but jean quill dark this lady knight who was very very bold in history what will brienne live up to right and that's kind of
Starting point is 00:11:27 something we're going to explore as we get to the end of Jaime's chapter today but the framework is laid well also for location uh specifically throughout this Jaime chapter there are so many references and connections that are littered throughout about the defiance at Duskendale it's kind of like we're slowly getting that backstory of Aerys unfolded across these books in A Storm of Swords. Daenerys started to get kind of a little bit of family backstory, not a lot. In Dance, she starts to get a little more and then she's gone, right? Right now, we the reader are being told that and with this idea of legacy and what a legacy means and in the dark lens case a destroyed legacy right like look at dantos hollard being all that's left of that
Starting point is 00:12:12 segment of the crown lands brianne chooses her own destiny in this chapter and that kind of coincides with jamie not understanding and kind of starting to think about what his is about to be absolutely and i do want to point out you know he hasn't drilled into her yet that's that's all you got yes because it's like not yet not yet chloe i'm sorry i'll never make sex jamBrienne jokes again? Oh, you will. I didn't even meet you this time. But it's foreshadowing, I guess. You saying that. I think so.
Starting point is 00:12:52 Absolutely, with what you were saying of Dusk and Dale being a big part of Jamie's chapter as well. At the same time, though, what's going on in this book with Jamie and Brienne's like, Brienne's memories of him right as she thinks back on it she starts to see it in a more positive light jamie's risen in her esteem and continues to do so as she reflects on their time together
Starting point is 00:13:16 whereas in circe's chapters right we see her reflecting on much more recent memories of her interactions with him and he's very much falling in her esteem comparably especially as he finally decides to like put his own search to an end by cersei's third chapter which is a little before this chapter and we have a lot of cersei and jamie clashing and arguing in cersei's chapters also in this one of jamie's especially over tommy's protection and i mean maybe maybe that has to do with jamie actually knowing what happened to arguing in Cersei's chapters, also in this one of Jaime's, especially over Tommen's protection. And I mean, maybe that has to do with Jaime actually knowing what happened to Tyrion, who knows, whatever. But you also have Cersei beginning to see Jaime as worthless without his
Starting point is 00:13:54 hand. And a lot of that is going to carry through into this chapter, which we'll discuss in a bit. Yeah, I love that not only is it Cersei's worthless without Jaime's hand, right? Like, she's like, Jaime, useless, useless, piece of trash without his hand. But you get the commentary that Cersei says that a weak king is useless without a hand. And she says she's not a weak queen. And he has to remind her, hey, our dad helped the king for a reason.
Starting point is 00:14:19 Like these people are needed. So Jaime's recognizing that Cersei's a dumbass. I mean, that's like the biggest part of this whole book, I guess, is that Jamie like wakes up kind of right. He's like, oh, wow, Cersei does suck. She's like the worst parts of our dad. She's the person on the reality TV show who says, I'm a messy bitch and I'm not here to make friends. And she knows it. She's the girl in Flavor of Love that answered the door and was like,
Starting point is 00:14:47 I look like Beyonce. And Tiffany was like, Beyonce? Beyonce? I'm sorry, Beyonce. It's a long thing. We get this bit in Brienne 1 in Duskendale. They stood for the seven sons of Darklyn who had worn the white cloaks of the Kingsguard. No other house in the realm could claim as many.
Starting point is 00:15:09 They were the glory of their house and now they are a sign above an inn. So we got these sigils of these men of House Darklyn, right? From Brienne 1. That's all that's left of House Darklyn. That's not even a house, right? It was Hollard was the next house that was going to take over. And then we know what happened to Dantos. Obviously not good things.
Starting point is 00:15:30 He dead. That's all you had to say. He dead. But there's nothing going on there, right? Like that's not really nothing going on in the Crownlands. As we've learned, the Crownlands have been very quiet throughout all of a song of ice and fire honestly as far as the different kingdoms go and other than the black water true that was pretty big yeah but that was a big deal we did 100 episodes on it we did literally 372 episodes but none of them really mentioned the crown lands so
Starting point is 00:16:01 the actual lords i mean they were there ish they fought ish and some of them bent mentioned the Crownlands. So the actual lords, I mean, they were there-ish, they fought-ish, and some of them bent the knee, some of them didn't, some of them did this, that. Eh, I don't know. Anyways, accounts vary. So when we talk about legacy throughout these chapters, I kind of felt like the outside of this inn having the shields of the seven sons
Starting point is 00:16:20 who had served the Kingsguard with seven being a holy number and all that jazz, reminded me of a place we've been before in the books which is the shield hall at castle black interesting we have this passage back from the old john days if you remember then as now when a knight took the black tradition decreed he set aside his former arms and take up the plain black shield of the brotherhood the shields thus discarded would hang in the shield hall hundreds of knights meant hundreds of shields we get a big descriptor of lots of shields with lots of animals and different sigils they had adorned the shield hall walls blazoned in more colors than any rainbow ever dreamed of i thought that was
Starting point is 00:17:03 interesting just because the rainbow seems to be associated with the gods, right? The new gods, the seven. So, interesting enough, the chapter that we're about to embark on is very much spent on Jaime critiquing and analyzing Kingsguard of the past from his own but
Starting point is 00:17:19 different penal colony, and what they stood for, wondering where his place really is in all of it and i think that in brienne's chapter is the shield hall right like that right there is what was it all for why do we send our sons into this industrial machine why is it honorable to us what does it mean uh and jamie is here in the middle searching and wondering, what does it all mean? What can I make it all mean? Right? Especially because for so long he's been like, shit, it didn't mean anything.
Starting point is 00:17:52 It was all a lie. And he has to decide, of course, if it's going to mean anything and what it means for him, what he himself means, his life. I mean. And I think you make a reference to this, that thing. What was the line? Wasn't it a line that made me sad? Wasn't there this quote in the books? Which line?
Starting point is 00:18:14 All of them. Oh my god. It was like, all of them. I think the line goes whatever he chose, whatever he chose. I didn't cry this time so yeah she's gotten all her tears out
Starting point is 00:18:29 let's start the chapter let's do it now that we've gotten all that out of our system and set the stage set the tone lord Tywin Lannister had entered the city on a stallion his enameled crimson armor polished
Starting point is 00:18:46 and gleaming bright the gems and gold work he left it in a tall wagon draped with crimson banners with six silent sisters riding attendants on his bones there's so much just in this first passage alone that i want to tear apart so i'm going to monologue like an evil villain like i even like an evil villain like i do for just a minute uh the silent sisters really stand out here they're so prominent in this passage and they're kind of prominent as we move forward in cersei's plot kind of a stain on it when you really think about it. Cersei seems to inherit all of these Tywin trials. In a way, it kind of reminds me of how Ilyn Payne loomed over
Starting point is 00:19:31 Sansa's plot as a silent foreboding. And they're actually pretty Sound brother. They're actually pretty prominent before this for the Lannisters. If you remember way back when, the whole Reign Tarbeck debacle that Tywin solved with brute force and violence,
Starting point is 00:19:53 Tywin actually sent all of the Tarbeck daughters to the Silent Sisters. So in the last Cersei chapter, she complains about the Silent Sisters not knowing what tywin had looked like and how he's smiling which we learn from maester pisel it's literally his skin is drying so his smile just goes creepily up uh it's likely that the silent sisters did know tywin because some of them might have been the tarback daughters the ages line right up oh i think that's really interesting i like realized that i was like huh i don't think anyone's talked about this ever i mean they did the silent sisters didn't they don't talk about shit dog no but cersei is sitting there all pissed
Starting point is 00:20:37 and all that they're not doing this they're not it's just like when she's complaining about how her maids are you know shrinking her clothes but it's really like when she's complaining about how her maids are, you know, shrinking her clothes. But it's really like, girl, you're just drinking too much boxed wine. You're a little too curvy right now. Yeah, embrace it. Body positivity, Cersei. Yeah, come on, Cersei. You know, shaved head, who cares?
Starting point is 00:20:57 This is something also playing maybe on something from Clash of Kings, though. Buckle up. I wonder if there's anything to make here about Ned's bones in this chapter surrounding that with what Catelyn experienced back in what Catelyn 5 in a Clash of Kings
Starting point is 00:21:16 because it took an incredible amount of effort to get Ned's bones back, right? Like Tywin just dies Tyrion kills him and overnight his bones are available and the Silent Sisters are making him look all warriorly. But Cleo's fray brought these bones back. We have a couple passages from Clash of Kings. I'll shorten them a bit for us. Outside her chambers, she found other Edie's wane waiting with two women clad in gray,
Starting point is 00:21:42 their faces cowled save for their eyes. Catalin knew at once why they were here. Ned? The sisters lowered their gaze. Take me to him. They had laid him out on a trestle table and covered him with a banner, the white banner of House Stark with its gray direwolf sigil. I would look on him.
Starting point is 00:22:03 Only the bones remain, my lady. I would look on him, she repeated. One of the silent sisters turned down the banner. Bones, Catelyn thought. This is not Ned. This is not the man I love, the father of my children. His hands were clasped over his chest, skeletal fingers curled about the hilt of some longsword, but they were not Ned's hands, so strong, so full of life. They dressed the bones in Ned's surcoat, the fine white velvet with the direwolf badge over the heart, but nothing remained of the warm flesh that had pillowed her head so many nights.
Starting point is 00:22:37 The arms that had held her. The head had rejoined to the body with fine silver wire, but one skull looks much like another, and in those empty hollows, she found no trace of her lord's dark gray eyes. Eyes that could be soft as a fog or hard as a stone. They gave his eyes to crows, she remembered. Catelyn turned away. That is not his sword. This narrates the chapter in kind of a different fashion right the the plots are similar jamie thinks tywin entered in a huge beautiful display of grandeur but his his horse actually shit very publicly on the ground when tywin came into the kingdom right and when tywin left the kingdom you know when he died he shit like that that's tywin like the joke is that it's not that deep
Starting point is 00:23:27 they're both framed as very tragic chapters in very different ways by the end of a storm of swords a bunch of the good guys die but also the bad guys are killed by what we the readers kind of associated as a good guy someone we were kind of rooting for hoping he would do good things and go far like yes tywin is a fuck and yes he totally deserved it for the record she didn't but anyways uh watching the lannisters first chapters in a feast for crows there's this harsh or stark contrast you might want to say between uh aria and sansa sansa opens in A Feast for Crows with the story about when she was a little girl, when a singer stayed with them at Winterfell, and that he was old and he wasn't really beautiful,
Starting point is 00:24:13 but he sang him knights and ladies fair, and Sansa cried and Eddard was like, Sansa, honey, I have to let him go. We can't, like, kidnap the guy. Best story ever. Please go check that chapter out. We've covered it but aria's chapter opens with her frustrated upset her home's gone her parents are dead
Starting point is 00:24:31 everyone's dead but john snow and she keeps telling the ship captain she wants to go to the wall but he won't take her the starks don't get their own funeral service. Gilded by the gods, with crystal crowns, and people praying and crying in the streets. But Arya and Sansa actually do grieving, where Cersei and Jaime really don't seem to. Arya and Sansa's home is smashed and burnt, but they're able to build and hope. Tywin's legacy has shown that he has built up this giant palace with titles for them all to have.
Starting point is 00:25:07 But when he's gone, none of them care. They don't grieve for him, for who he was. They're realizing that he's ruined their lives. Yeah, and they're only starting to really come to grips with that right now. And they're doing it in awful ways, right? Like Cersei's not. Right, and I think that's absolutely understandable and i think that's something that i love about the way this is written that's so
Starting point is 00:25:28 realistic right to to jamie doesn't understand why he's not grieving yeah he because tywin's damaged him so much tyrian thinks he's not grieving but in a way he very much is cersei's burying those emotions they are just so damaged and I think another way that that kind of manifests with imagery is you know I like that you called out how Tywin's body they're all like well that doesn't look like him at all even though it is actually
Starting point is 00:25:56 his body there right and it's smiling and they're like that's not his likeness whereas when Ned passes right one of the first things that Maester Luwin says when he tells Bran is we must find someone who knew his likeness because they're getting ready now to recreate him as one of the statues to go in the crypts of Winterfell. And they're,
Starting point is 00:26:18 they're having someone who knows him to do that honor. Whereas here with the silent sisters, they're kind of strangers, both literally and figuratively in terms of the the seven but also as you said they they might not be probably don't love tywin in the way that maybe a stonemason from the north would love ned and that legacy turns out that like maybe if you treated people better they might treat you better in death too you know you never know you never know and you'll be dead so who cares as she told tyria she's like you're
Starting point is 00:26:51 not gonna know if i cry for you or not it does feel like a scrooge chapter right like this is the ghost of tywin's future like this is what you get tywin this is your legacy it's on fire there's flames up and down it this This is what you get. Yeah, and I think that's a great tie into how this chapter ends with Jaime talking about legacy. We'll get there. But first, we got to get through Tywin's funeral procession. They went through the Gate of the Gods with Fifteen Nights surrounding his wagon and the High Lords of the Westerlands following as well. Yes, and Jaime sees a bunch of different sigils. We're going to talk about them right now.
Starting point is 00:27:28 He sees boars, which are Crakehall, badgers, Lydon of Deepden, beetles, Betley, green arrow, Sarsfield, red ox, prester of feast fires, crossed hellbirds, which are Yarwick. You might remember Othel yarwick from the watch
Starting point is 00:27:46 cross spears the stack spears a tree cat which is my a strawberry turnberry a maunch hamel four sunbursts kennings of case which i really only know these because of ck2 i just want you to know are you sure it's not probably i was like yeah oh my god it's like a tree cat anyways also there's a green arrow reference uh george has a couple of these there's like a blue beetle in one of the other chapters or something later but anyway comic nerd uh nerds who would do that who would be a nerd not us there are a couple of houses that kind of noteworthy some of these are complete placeholders and we're gonna see that a lot you can definitely feel george gardening some of this westerlin stuff like ah let's just give these ones a name and there's these guys you know elio and linda came
Starting point is 00:28:38 up to him and they're like george we have to fill a whole section in the world of ice and fire and he's like rolling the dice. But some of them stuck. And the Crake Halls have a good amount of history that are embedded. You might remember them from the Freys. We have Hastine, Lythene, Simon, Danwell,
Starting point is 00:28:55 Merritt, Jeremy, and Raymond Frey. And they all come from a Crake Hall mother, which is Amory. Amory is little Walder's grandmother. If you remember that little fucker. And he uses her sigil in his quartered shield because it's kind of that influential uh before the rebellion the
Starting point is 00:29:13 martell stopped at crake hall when they were searching for a betrothal for their kids and of course currently shiura crake hall is married to damian lannister cousin to the lannister fam he's a like second davin you know what i mean he's like the other davin yeah i have a question is uh amory cray call the one that amory fray aka is named after yes i think so i really do think so and she's like sassy we're gonna talk about her later in this book actually so i love her i do too she's very sassy she is uh she's all just like middle fingers up we have the turnberries we only know one person from the turnberry family that's alive right now which is sir lambert who is one of the accused that hangs out with marjorie by the book's end and this is a good good one. You're going to like this.
Starting point is 00:30:07 One of Sarah Targaryen in Fire and Blood, Jaehaerys and Alysanne's daughter. Her companion was a Turnberry, Alys Turnberry, and she got pregnant out of wedlock and moved to the Vale and got married off to Lord Pryor. Very Ariane vibes. That seems like one of those,
Starting point is 00:30:23 yeah, it also seems like one of those things where george was like this would have been interesting once in my story but i can't make it work yeah i mean the idea of like him being a companion to a queen or like a eventual queen and you know getting pregnant it sounds very sarah targaryen so he had ideas he had ideas this is one that i want to know more about House Kenning. And I'm sure there's more to read. I'm sure I could have looked it up. But they were originally an ironborn house, if you can call them a house, I guess, that took over case.
Starting point is 00:30:57 And they became ingratiated in the Westerlands and just kind of like lived there and existed. I'd love to know that shit in full right like dalton grayjoy apparently took a case as like a salt wife i want to say i'd have to look at the book again it was interesting to me i was like oh that's weird that the iron and it makes sense the iron islanders have been able to come a little east right inch their way over but they just kind of stuck like everyone just accepted them as a lord of the westerlands hmm they're like the manderleys of the westerlands a bit maybe i don't know but yeah that is interesting i didn't really know much about house ken and case neither case nope and
Starting point is 00:31:46 yep and so one of the ones that are mentioned here there's a house that's got a sigil called a manche and I had to look that up I was like what the fuck is a manche and apparently it's derived from like a French word and it's basically like
Starting point is 00:32:03 a woman's detachable sleeve but it's heraldry and you would and it's basically like a woman's detachable sleeve, but it's heraldry. And you would think it was for cool costume changes, but no, it's to give to boys. It's like a token thing. And they don't deserve things. I mean, they're like, here, have a sleeve, cover yourself. We have some high lords that are attending this funeral as i mentioned lord brax unicorn man lord jast they attend lord banefort lord plum lord prester lord
Starting point is 00:32:38 moreland all in their finest house colors but they each wear a crimson silk cloak to honor tywin the man he was after the lords come crossbow men and men at arms also come and they're in crimson as well and jamie's like well this sucks because i'm wearing white you should never wear white to a wedding ah you mean a funeral same thing yeah i do find that interesting i kind of wonder if we're ever going to see Jon feel this way when we see him later with his family, the Starks. And it speaks to me about how much camaraderie the Night's Watch has versus the Kingsguard. Because the Kingsguard are so few and so esteemed that everyone knows their name. Whereas with the Night's Watch, you get to have that anonymity to an extent. Like what they go through
Starting point is 00:33:26 forges those familial bonds between them with Jon and Sam. Of course, being some of those top of mind examples like we're brothers now. And, you know, Jon's like, yeah, I wear black now. We're part of the Night's Watch. This is my family.
Starting point is 00:33:40 And for the Kingsguard, right? As we see with how Starklins claim to fame, part of it is that joining the Kingsguard, right? As we see with how Starklins claim to fame, part of it is that joining the Kingsguard is very much an honor individually and to your family versus how sometimes it's kind of a disgrace to join the Night's Watch except for in the North where they're like, yeah, this is still cool.
Starting point is 00:33:56 So it's kind of no wonder that Jaime's having this identity crisis right now. Yeah. I mean, for Tywin, we know that was the biggest, most shameful thing in the world for jamie he thought he was doing the right thing he's like everyone still knows you're a lannister yeah and it's not like his relatives do much to help especially throughout this book i'm talking jenna etc but kevin who's here right now does not do much to help. He's like, ah, Lord Commander, when he addresses him.
Starting point is 00:34:26 And he's like, what does Her Grace want? Jaime is here to grieve-ish, like the rest of them. And they start going back and forth, tension high. Jaime informs Kevin of the differences between Jaime and Cersei, just in case he forgot. You know, he's like, oh, just in case you forgot, I am a different person. The conversation then turns to Tommen and Jaime says, Balon Swan is currently defending him.
Starting point is 00:34:51 He's a good and valiant knight uncle. And Kevin's like, hmm, kind of being a dick. He's like, interesting. Well, that didn't have to always be said back in the day. You know, you didn't have to boast about what a good knight he was. He was just supposed to be one. It's his job. And Jaime's like about to respond. He's like, no, no. But in his head, he's like, let me pick a new seven. I would pick new, better people. And he's like,
Starting point is 00:35:16 it wouldn't matter because I'm the Kingslayer. I have no honor. No one will respect me. And he lets it go as he didn't come here to argue he really didn't he came here in peace and we'll come back to some of what kevin says later with some of what jamie says towards the end of this chapter but there is an interesting contrast once more between how this goes with john versus jamie because i think john has like a similar problem right of being unable to choose his brothers we've discussed this before same as jamie meaning both uh their biological brothers or for john who he perceives as his biological brothers or within their like own military order thing but the night's watch is somewhere that people go to have their slate wiped clean whereas
Starting point is 00:35:58 the king's guard is somewhere that you go to like have everyone fucking remember you and your last name and your legacy follows you. And I mean, granted, a lot of Jaime's was established during his time as a Kingsguard, so it's a little different, but like, it becomes a big problem for him, of course, because Jaime doesn't always demand the respect that he thinks he should as a Lord Commander, partially because of his past as a Kingslayer. He does do it sometimes, as we saw in some of his Storm chapters, where he's like, everyone shut the fuck up, listen to me,
Starting point is 00:36:30 do as I say, not as I did. Whereas Jon demands it despite his past, and the accusations leveled against him of betraying the Night's Watch, because he was, you know, ultimately successful in saving the Wall against this giant invasion. And Jon has already had to learn to move past shame,
Starting point is 00:36:50 because he carried this shame that was put on him unjustly for being a bastard. No fault of his own, right? And Jamie's still wrestling with this idea of shame because it was his own actions, and that's what kind of got him here it makes me wonder where these actions are going to take jamie for his end game and vice versa for john because when you think about it yes john's moved past that shame but like jamie has to make decisions someday john's gonna have to make decisions too and that's just an interesting comparison uh jamie does come up with a reasoning right and in
Starting point is 00:37:27 approaching his uncle he in his head he's like all right i got this and out loud he's like i want you to make up with cersei kevin it is only helping the enemies of our house he's trying really hard to be like political and like open-handed and like listen we're only hurting ourselves right now not wrong as we know because there's Varys who exists out there just setting off ravens he's like here you go Illyrio get ready it's all going down Kevin really just wants to go home right like he's like I just want to go to Derry with Lancel help my son build this castle back up help him rule see him wed gatehouse amy lancel is behind them about 10 yards he looks like a ghost himself and jamie looks at him and he feels his phantom fingers twitch and we get that iteration of the phrase that tick that is haunting him
Starting point is 00:38:19 she's been fucking lancel and osmond kettleblack and Moonboy for all I know. Yeah, Jaime's recent attempts at communicating with Lancel, they've all gone poorly as he was never alone. I think that was probably intended by Lancel, whatever. Intended by Kevin or by a septent. People know. People aren't that dumb. Lancel's not dumb. He thinks Tyrion must have been lying to him, though,
Starting point is 00:38:42 and that he meant to wound him. Kinda. Jaime asks if Kevin will remain at Derry once the Lancel's wed and Kevin's like yeah I mean to for a time unless you know he goes and helps relieve the salt pans for Cersei where Sandor Clegane is said to be raiding
Starting point is 00:38:58 we have this quote Jaime had heard about salt pans by now half the realm had heard the raid had been exceptionally savage. Women raped and mutilated, children butchered in their mother's arms, half the town put to the torch. Jamie goes on to say that Randall Tardly can handle all of that, as he's out there in Maidenpool and he'd rather his uncle move toward Riverrun, but Kevin says that Davin has things under control, does he, as Warden
Starting point is 00:39:28 of the West. Does he? I'm just saying. Does he? Yeah, agreed. So this is another one of those nods, I think, towards Bran's storyline, where in her chapter before this one, she's actually just encountered Randall Charlie again
Starting point is 00:39:44 and is at Maidenpool. And marveling at how different it is since she and Jamie last went through here through, I guess, Randall Charlie's efforts. But I don't know. I don't want to give Randall any credit for anything because I hate Randall Charlie and he sucks. Never forgive, never forget.
Starting point is 00:40:01 So that's all. Jamie then like Melisandre's Kevin and is like, daggers in the dark, uncle. Keep your swords around you. And Kevin's like, excuse me, is that a threat? And Jamie's like, well, no, no, no, no. I love you very much. You're very cool.
Starting point is 00:40:18 And I think you're super chill. I'm just like, Sandra Clegane's dangerous, sir. Kevin reminds him, Jamie, I am old. I'm taking robbers and outlaws while you were busy, like, shitting yourself. Yet this line of, I'd not like to go off and face Clegane and Dondarrion by myself if that is what you fear, sir. Not every Lannister is a fool for gold. Ooh, Jamie's like, is this a subtweet uh jamie reminds him of the many lords that are near them right now riding that would be competent and dealing with outlaws
Starting point is 00:40:55 but none of them would make a good king's hand like him kevin of course argues he says hey cersei knows my terms they haven't changed and you should tell her that next time you're in her bedchamber. That's not even a subtweet. That's straight up quote, tweet, or reply. That's an aggressive QRT. That's a quote retweet. Kevin? I guess it's not a quote because he's not telling everyone.
Starting point is 00:41:19 He doesn't want everyone to know about his house. I mean, y'all know other people heard it though, right? That's true. That's true. That's true. He puts his heels in his courser, gallops ahead, putting an abrupt end to the conversation. And Jamie lets him go and his sword hand actually twitches, right? His missing sword hand, a phantom twitch. And he thinks he had hoped against hope that Cersei had somehow misunderstood.
Starting point is 00:41:42 But plainly, that was wrong. Yes, Kevin knows that they're fucking. And Jaime worries. He's like, Cersei's gonna have Kevin killed. Because she cray cray. And Kevin knows way too much. And then he's like, you know what? Maybe Cersei's hoping Sandor's gonna cut him down
Starting point is 00:42:00 like we were just talking about. Yeah, I like how Kevin doubles down on that. And you know, this is not the first time that a character has proposed something like this as an outcome of sending someone to go deal with someone else. As we pointed out in Jamie's last chapter and how it ends with his discussion with Cersei regarding Mace Tyrell.
Starting point is 00:42:16 Yeah, and Jamie actually finally sees a window of opportunity to go shoot the shit with Lancel, his favorite cousin, and rides over to him. He congratulates him on his marriage, sorrowful that he cannot attend, and says, you know, I'm sad to miss the bedding. Although, you know, good thing Amory
Starting point is 00:42:32 will likely be able to guide you because it's her second marriage. Ouch. Like, I don't know. I couldn't tell if Jamie felt like he was being sincere here or not, but some koof, Jamie. Some lords are in the background and
Starting point is 00:42:45 kind of laughing about this and i think jamie is really overall trying to feel out lancel here right like understand what's he thinking there are septons that are giving him disapproving looks and lancel is squirming in his saddle lancel's like i know enough to do my duty as a husband. Thank you very much. And Jamie's like, oh, enough. That's exactly what a woman wants on her wedding night in her bed. And we get this line where Lancel's blushing and he says,
Starting point is 00:43:16 I pray for you, cousin, and for her grace, the queen. May the crone lead her to wisdom and the warrior defend her. Why would Cersei need the warrior? She has me. Classic. Interesting.
Starting point is 00:43:31 Yeah, interesting choice of words, Jaime. And I guess he's waiting for Lancel to be like, I've had sex before. For proof. And yeah, to confirm it, but Lancel's not like that, right? Anymore. Jaime turns his horse and off he fucks, deciding Tyrion has to be lying.
Starting point is 00:43:54 Cersei would rather have fucked Robert's corpse before Lancel. Oh, Jaime. Yeah. Special boy. I don't think he really sees also I don't think he really also sees that like part of it the appeal of Lancel to Cersei was like he was like kind of looked like Jaime it's really flattering if you
Starting point is 00:44:14 think about it really flattering really flattering anyway a few chapters ago Lancel actually was trying to tell Cersei that he loves her but she she shushed him. And, you know, along with really flattering, I stand by this other bad take of the fact that Jaime and Cersei never defined the relationship, right? I honestly don't see why Jaime thought he and his twin sister were exclusive. I kind of think that, like,
Starting point is 00:44:42 what's wild to me, you know, part of Tyrion's speech that Jaime's fixated on as a falsehood, that he's like, no, that's definitely a lie. And it kind of reveals to us what matters more to Jaime, right? Because Tyrion's done a bunch of shit just to hurt Jaime in that moment. And the only big lie was the one about killing Joffrey.
Starting point is 00:45:02 I think that the Moonboy thing was just rhetoric. I don't count it. Jaime, on the other hand, is so much more hurt about the part regarding Cersei. And I think it makes sense, considering all he gave up, thinking that this was, like, their great romance. But, I mean, same as he was a young knight, right? Chasing glory and heroes and songs. He romanticized what he had with Cersei.
Starting point is 00:45:26 And I think that's a very entirely human thing to do it's a thing that teenagers do and it's very relatable i just you know it's just a lot easier for most people when it's not your twin sister yeah to to romanticize things i get it's definitely adding a layer of complexity to it all that's for sure and it's it's sad right because he's never been allowed to love in general like it's not that jamie isn't allowed to love as a king's guard it's that before he was a king's guard he was also taught by his father that love is wrong and that he's not allowed to love and the only love he ever remembers feeling besides the vague hugs he can almost remember from Joanna
Starting point is 00:46:10 are Cersei and that's not love that's poison and it'll kill you all the same and the one that he had with Tyrion and it killed their dad all the same everything's made up and the points don't matter in the Westerlands is what I'm trying to say
Starting point is 00:46:25 no i agree and i think it's sad right like it is sad man it is sad he doesn't have any models for what healthy love looks like and that's why he can't recognize to an extent he's like why do i think about brianna when i think about the silk street but and i'm not like i would never uh promote tywin obviously but that's why they say about tywin like you know lady joanna was it for him that was that was what he had yeah and it is sad because it sounds like he couldn't even love his kids yeah and all that was left of her because he probably looked at them all the time and all he saw was Joanna and them I almost wonder if when Joanna was gone
Starting point is 00:47:10 Tywin isolated his kids so much right like Joanna was trying to foster more of those alliances with some of the other houses and as we know that's kind of women's work in Westeros right that some of that alliance building we see it with the Tyrells very heavily we're going to see it alluded to a little bit in here and Cersei's chapters.
Starting point is 00:47:26 Is that part of why Jaime's like, this is love, right, with my twin sister? Because he didn't know what it was to have other connections with people. Isolated. Like you said, that's perfect. Not for them, but it's a good observation. They were isolated and it's a lot like Ned. It's a lot what
Starting point is 00:47:42 happened with Ned. Ned didn't let Robb marry out. Robb was 15 and leading a rebellion because Ned had died at the hands of Lannisters, but Ned didn't have lords that were 100% sown to the cause marrying just like he had when he was forced to marry Catelyn.
Starting point is 00:47:58 Not that it wasn't, like, you know, an easy force, but... Anyway, right now the streets of King's Landing are pretty empty as jamie comes back to the red keep garland had taken half of the tyrell strength back to high garden and allery and elena went as well the rest went to storm's end with mace tyrell per jamie and circe's plans in his previous chapter also is second time the charm yeah for mace tyrell and storm's end, it is not.
Starting point is 00:48:26 In case you were wondering. Anyway. The army is broken down much further. There are 2,000 Lannister soldiers mounted outside the city walls waiting for the Redwine fleet so they can go siege Stannis' small amount of men at Dragonstone.
Starting point is 00:48:44 The Westermen all go back to their families after this to rebuild and to grow new harvests. This is their very last chance before winter comes to get food. Cersei brings Tommen around to their camps before they march home, letting the lords of the Westerlands cheer him, and we get this passage from Jaime, and I thought it felt very bittersweet. She had never looked more beautiful than she did that day, with a smile on her lips and the autumn sunlight shining on her golden hair.
Starting point is 00:49:12 Whatever else one might say about his sister, she did know how to make men love her when she cared to try. Damn. Well, that's the whole book, so. That's sad. Jamie comes upon men at the gates
Starting point is 00:49:27 who are practicing with a lance, something he no longer could do unless he practiced with his left. He stops to watch Talad the Tall lose his mount, and Strongborn, cracking his shield, he watches Kenos of Case, Germit of the Rainwood, Lambert Turnberry, all take their turns, and John Bentley,
Starting point is 00:49:43 Humphrey Swift, and Alan Staxpear, as well as Red Ronit Connington, breaks his lance clean. Sorry, I just thought booing was important at Red Ronit Connington. Kenos of Case is named, actually,
Starting point is 00:50:00 in real life after one of George R.R. Martin's really good friends. Interesting. I didn't know that. Yeah, he names him in several books, and it's cute. It's cute. I like it. A couple other ideas. Dermot, Benton, and Anita Joffrey, if you remember him, he originally fought for Stannis. And a few of these men actually end up heading out with Jaime to the Riverlands, but we'll definitely get there as we move along. For now, Loras puts these men to shame. Jamie reflects that jousting was 75% horsemanship, and Loras rides well. He handles the lance like it came out of the womb in his hand, which Jamie kind of describes.
Starting point is 00:50:40 That's why Allery looks like she does because you know her child represented a lance that came out of the womb uh but he has the balance of a cat and i think this is a great little piece of evidence you could put towards liana as knight of the laughing tree believe it or not this and the booming lord's voice liana was half a horse herself as we hear if jousting is 75 percent horsemanship and the lance is attached to the arm and they have a booming voice, I mean, that is, you win every time. Absolutely. Yeah, I do think this is pointing towards that. Absolutely. Jaime does think that it's a shame that he'd never have a chance to prove himself against
Starting point is 00:51:20 Loras again. And I, once again, I'm going to compare this to john who no longer feels he can practice sparring with the men in the yard at the night's watch different reasons and circumstances of course but also gonna come back to this in a bit later does it seem like jimmy's starting to kind of view loris like a younger brother or son definitely feels very close to home like possibly like a son like he's trying to be like a core and oh i guess he is missing a hand whatever anyways half hand to to loris anyway one more thing i don't know that it means that much on a deeper level but it is an interesting thing to think about that jam Jamie finds so much of himself who is a Kingsguard of Robert reflected
Starting point is 00:52:07 in some of the Kingsguard of Robert's younger brother, Renly. That's a great call-out. I didn't think about that. It's in different ways, of course, right, between Brienne and Loras, but Yeah, and we are
Starting point is 00:52:24 reminded of of happier days when it comes to Jaime very soon he leaves this yard and he thinks he left the whole men to their sport hmm that's a bummer
Starting point is 00:52:40 he gets into Maegor's hold fast and arrives at Cersei's solar she's drunk tom and tyena and pie seller there they're laughing at some joke jamie shoves in right at the laughter and asks yo what did i miss what's so funny
Starting point is 00:52:56 tyena is kind of courteous she's like uh your brave brother has returned cersei and cersei says most of him damn harsh i can feel Your brave brother has returned, Cersei. And Cersei says most of him. Damn. Harsh. I can feel that. It's a lot.
Starting point is 00:53:10 The heat of that interaction. My blood is boiling. He's not a part of her world. He's not a part of her life. He's an outsider. That's what that was. He's not allowed this lunch table anymore. You can't say that! That's actually kind of this feeling. That's what that was. Yeah, he's not allowed this lunch table anymore. You can't sit with us! That's actually kind of this feeling.
Starting point is 00:53:27 That's actually this feeling. Jamie's like, on Wednesdays, we wear white. Actually, though. We have this line of late, Circe always seemed to have a flagon of wine to hand. She, who had once scorned Robert Baratheon for his drinking, he misliked
Starting point is 00:53:44 that, but these days, he seemed to mislike everything his sister did. Hmm. A. Finally. B. We won't go into this much now because we have some plans for Patreon this month with Mir, but the Tyena scene is literally Robert.
Starting point is 00:54:00 Like, it's Robert fucking Cersei, but it's Cersei fucking Tyena. Yeah, and Cersei's channeling that. But again, we gotta save some content for some of our other stuff. Not only for the Mere episode, but also Cersei's episodes. So, besides how horrible
Starting point is 00:54:16 Robert was to Cersei, I find that he's kind of this fascinating figure within Cersei and Jaime's relationship, where it seems like they kind of just projected their relationship problems onto him they were like it seems kind of like they were thinking oh if robert weren't here everything would be dandy right but then it turns out he's gone and things suck yeah right like because in one of these previous chapters when circe's thinking
Starting point is 00:54:42 that like was all of jamie's wit in his fighting hand and thinks like I mean Robert was like that and then while here Jaime's finding fault in Cersei's drinking and is comparing it to Robert and yeah like Robert's fucking god and as Jaime points out to Cersei he's when he's like oh Robert's gone let's just make ourselves official uh so he's like no why would we do that? And the cracks in their relationship are starting to show without Robert to just put everything on. It's kind of funny that before it was Robert that dictated their relationship, right? But now it turns out that Cersei actually dictates their relationship.
Starting point is 00:55:20 It wasn't Robert, it was Cersei this entire time. And that's what Jaime's uncomfortable with. It's not on his terms anymore. Before it was Robert, he could blame. You know what I mean? It wasn't, it wasn't. Yeah. I can't figure out.
Starting point is 00:55:37 I don't know that it was on either of their terms. There was a weird... Cersei... They have a weird... Guarded her cunt like the gold of Casterly Rock. So Cersei commands Pycelle, who is looking extremely uncomfortable, to tell Jaime what he told them. Pycelle tells them Lady Tanda of Stokeworth had her bastard child. And Cersei pops back in because she actually did not want Pycelle to tell the story.
Starting point is 00:56:03 This moment's really about Cersei, not about Pycelle. So she's like, what do you think they named the child, Jaime? And Jaime's like, well, I think they originally said Tywin. She's like, yeah, you're right. But actually, I banned that because I'm powerful. And it turns out that Bronn, Lolis' husband, actually chose the name. Lolis had little choice in the matter, though. Pycelle makes sure to add. And Jaime,
Starting point is 00:56:26 of course, already knows and he's like, oh, so it's Tyrion. And he can't help but laugh. And he makes a joke saying Cersei should have checked Lallis' womb for Tyrion the entire time since she's been looking. And Tyene is like, oh, maybe the bastard
Starting point is 00:56:41 resembles Tyrion in deformity or noselessness. Cersei declares to Tommen who, yes, maybe the bastard resembles Tyrion in deformity or noselessness. Cersei declares to Tommen, who, yes, by the way, is still here on a school night, that they shall have to send the baby boy a gift. Of course, a gift in Cersei's eyes are a little different than a gift in Tommen's eyes. Tommen suggests a kitten. Love you, Tommen. Sweet boy.
Starting point is 00:57:03 And I don't know. It's so toxic. cersei has tommen here jamie wouldn't have been worse to leave tommen with ever cersei's out here getting bombed and plotting murder and shit and patting tommen and being like be a good king ignore mommy's plotting you know it's a it's a bummer sad watch. Taina suggests a lion cub instead of a kitten, and she kind of smirks, and Jamie notices the smirk, knowing that, like, she's not talking about a cute lion cub. No, she's not.
Starting point is 00:57:37 And it's kind of a cringey joke. As someone who makes cringey jokes and is an expert in them. Not in a fun way. Circe says she has just the idea. Jaime knew the look in his sister's eyes. He had seen it before, most recently in the night of Tommen's wedding, when she burned the Tower of the Hand. The green light of the wildfire had bathed the face of the watchers,
Starting point is 00:58:04 so they looked like nothing so much as rotten corpses, a pack of gleeful ghouls, but some of the corpses were prettier than others. Even in the baleful glow, Circe had been beautiful to look upon. She'd stood with one hand on her breast, her lips parted, her green eyes shining. She is crying, Jamie had realized, but whether it was from grief or ecstasy he could not have said the sight had filled him with disquiet reminding him of aries targaryen and the way a burning would arouse him that discomfort and that split for jamie from cersei is like i feel it do you feel it it's a coming yeah they feel it on both ends but a little differently obviously
Starting point is 00:58:46 yeah and this flashback actually just a few days ago launches jamie into a full flashback remembering aries and rayella they slept apart in the rebellion towards the end and avoided each other during waking hours but if aries burnt burnt someone. He would rape Riella that night. And Jamie remembers it. He remembers when Ares burnt Chelstead. His hand. And how John Derry and Jamie were standing guard. Outside the door.
Starting point is 00:59:15 And through the door they hear Riella cry. That she was being hurt by Ares. But Jamie pipes up. And says aren't we sworn to protect her too? And Derry responds, not from him. Jamie thinks that had been worse than Chelstead screaming.
Starting point is 00:59:33 Mm. Yeah. Defend the innocent, protect the weak. His first charge after becoming Kingsguard was to go spend time with Rael and her kids imagine wrapped up in those crimson cloaks that jamie can't wear right now there you go is this shame
Starting point is 00:59:51 there's the crimson cloaks that the western lords were all wearing and jamie is standing there in white the last time jamie sees rayella uh she's climbing into a wheelhouse to depart for dragon stone the rumors were swirling around of course that she looked like she had been savaged by a beast clawed up on her thighs and chewed up breasts a crowned beast jamie knew you know this isn't exact but it does remind me a little bit of cersei and robert right That he was vicious and wild when he was drunk. And I mean, we understand that part of what I think doesn't sit well with me with Jaime's chapters, especially towards the beginning of Storm, is he doesn't think of Cersei in these same terms as Rhaella. He thinks of it as Robert taking something that's his. Yeah, that's my problem too.
Starting point is 01:00:44 And I think that's something that continues to also disquiet me. By Ares's end, though, his paranoia had been at its peak, and no blades were allowed near him, of course. His hair was long, tangled, gross. His arms and legs were covered in scabs because he would cut himself on the throne constantly. Let him be king over charred bones and cooked meat jamie remembered studying his sister's smile let him be the king of ashes gruesome i guess aries was saying that interestingly about robert right especially
Starting point is 01:01:18 so you kind of get twofold things here right cersei being compared to robert and then jamie wondering is she comparable to aries and against the backdrop once again like uh brian's chapters right she was so recently at dusk and deal and that's one of the places that many cite as aries's breaking point where he becomes this person and i think we've addressed this before a bit this memory of jamie regarding rayella right it's very formative for his philosophy on what's wrong with the Kingsguard and of course his anxieties about serving a very ruthless ruler, and he fears that Cersei is becoming one, as we can see.
Starting point is 01:01:54 Like, so much of Jaime and who he was in A Storm of Swords goes back to his past trauma, especially his helplessness in it, and I think that's very tied to why he loved being on the battlefield, at least there on the battlefield, he knew what he was doing, and i think that's a very tied to why he loved being on the battlefield at least there on the battlefield he knew what he was doing and he knew that he could do something about it it's like his escapism with the things that he couldn't change it's simple out
Starting point is 01:02:14 there right and it's why he doesn't feel regret about killing aries he was finally able to actually fucking do something about this man that he saw hurting people like Rickard Stark, Brandon, Rayella, and almost all of King's Landing. Charlestead cited a moment ago. And the whole time he's like had to stand aside as Ares does all this stuff. But ever since then, because of the stories about Jamie as a Kingslayer and because of his sister and his family, right? Jaime is a Kingslayer, and because of his sister and his family, right, they had to kind of acquiesce to Robert's power, and Jaime felt like he couldn't do anything. So I think it's really interesting that we don't have Jaime as a Kingsguard or Lord Commander with Joffrey as a king, right? He's not in King's Landing during that time, and I think that's very significant in terms of how the story is structured.
Starting point is 01:03:03 Because, you know, you put your characters in certain situations to see how they'll react right because i think jamie would have had very much the same frustrations that he had with aries with joffrey his own son as a king and i think that's structurally why we get his point of view here at this point in the story with a lannister regime and a weaker king than joffrey and And of course, Jaime now is Lord Commander because he can finally make those changes that he wants. In a way, he's kind of following in the footsteps of one of his heroes, Rhaegar, and living up to those promises.
Starting point is 01:03:33 And I think that's why when he gets back, right, as we've said, he's trying to consolidate management and being like, hey, you gotta run shit by me before you go around hitting little girls or just murdering random people. He's trying to right the wrongs of when he was powerless to make change or felt powerless to change things during Ares' reign and even Robert's. But you can see that anxiety that he has with Cersei,
Starting point is 01:03:58 and in a way it kind of reminds me of Jojen's line of if love and hate can mate. And to be fair, this happens in a lot of breakups those two emotions being very wrapped up in one another one following the other a lot of non-incestual relationships that's like a normal thing that happens for many people in breakups
Starting point is 01:04:17 and I think and I think this one though has that added layer of both twin-cest and if Cersei is starting to mirror And I think this one, though, has that added layer of both a twin cest. And if Cersei is starting to mirror a different kind of hatred within Jaime's life, that old king that he hated so much and feared so much that Jaime felt compelled to stop him. Yeah, and it's that question of, is he going to stop this one? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:04:42 He asks for a private word with this new mad queen, Cersei, and she sends Tommen off to his daily lessons with Grand Maester Pycelle, and today's are on Baelor the Blessed. I loved this little Easter egg because Tommen's plot is very likely to be involved with the High Sparrow moving forward, but with all of the trials and Tyene joining with the pure septas and if you haven't listened to our
Starting point is 01:05:09 Maiden Vault episode on Patreon for our Stranger Tier Plus, you definitely need to. We talk about Baelor the Blessed at length, and the gist of who Baelor is, to give you a quick little rundown, is that Aegon III's second son
Starting point is 01:05:25 is Baylor, who ruled after Daeron. He was super pious. He refused to consummate his marriage to Diana Targaryen, the mother of Daemon Blackfyre. He had the Septon dissolve their marriage, put his sisters in a vault where Margaery and her girlfriends
Starting point is 01:05:42 are currently staying at King's Landing because they were too sexy and they might tempt him. He would fast to rid himself of his lusts, but also attempted to birth dragon eggs by praying over eggs for half a year, which probably what he was really trying to starve out of himself was maybe some magic or some birthing of dragons. Let's be real. He dies by fasting too hard on the 41st day
Starting point is 01:06:06 of the fast, of course. So who knows what we'll actually get some parallels to in the Winds of Winter, but I have a strong feeling that Tommen's arc will be wrapped up in this. Kind of has to be. Yeah. And I thought that was a great nod that he's going
Starting point is 01:06:22 off to lessons about Baelor the Blessed. And religion's just becoming lessons about Baylor the Blessed. And religion's just becoming a big thing within the story. Taina now leaves, asking if she should return for supper, and Cersei's like, of course, definitely. And Jaime watches Taina walk away, thinking every step and swing of her hips is a seduction. Hmm. And then Jaime comments on the queer menagerie of people that Circe is keeping around her
Starting point is 01:06:47 now, like the Kettleblacks, Kyber, and Tana, and says that Tana's informing on you to Marjorie. You know she's like Marjorie's companion, but Circe reminds him, you know, she is too clever for his bullshit or Tana's bullshit
Starting point is 01:07:03 and that, in fact, I am the one playing marjorie with this sweet serpent of a mirish slut as circe says george seems to have fun with that right like with tiana being a sweet serpent we know another sweet serpent in a song of ice and fire who's mirish serala the lace serpent from the defiance of duskendale hmm i thought this was just such an interesting connection because we get the actual mostly full-blown story from a very exhausted maester in brienne's last chapter right before this uh she shows up, the maester's like, oh, God, you want to know too? Tells her the whole story.
Starting point is 01:07:49 People in the Crownlands largely blamed Seralla, the Lace Serpent, for the defiance of Duskendale and mostly rightfully. She was the one who was whispering in Dennis Darklyn's ear to spurn him into rebellion from the crown. Once Aerys was free free he gave them the dragon's justice beheading the darklands burning serala alive ripping out her tongue and then her female parts we'll discuss like i said so much more of mir in general in our patreon episode but
Starting point is 01:08:20 all this foreign influence in westeros from the Free Cities is all this blatant power grasping, right? We see it in the Lycene Spring. It's obvious Seralla might have been doing just what we're about to talk about with Tyene and Meriwether. Yeah, I think that there's a lot of similarities. One's definitely setting up the other. Cersei says that she's feeding things that she wants Margaery to know to Tyene. Cersei says that she's feeding things that she wants Margaery to know to Taina. Some are true, some are false, and then Taina tells her maiden Margaery's moves,
Starting point is 01:08:53 and Jaime asks, what do you really know about this woman? Cersei says that Taina Meriwether wants to rise high and have good things for her and her son. She makes herself useful to Cersei, and also, I'm Cersei and I have more power than Margaery. This is such an intentional connection for the Meriwethers. This need for Tyena to grasp onto power. The connections we're seeing between Aerys and Cersei. If you recall, Tyena is married to Orton Meriwether. Orton's father was the son of owen merry weather who went into exile in mere after ineffectively being aries the second's hand of the king aries suspected owen was plotting against
Starting point is 01:09:35 him he stripped him of lands and titles and exiled him replacing him with john connington and eventually robert forgives this family and gives some of the lands and titles back to Orton when he comes back with his merish wife. Hmm. Hmm. Interesting. There's this thing that Cersei thinks about also where she feels like all mothers are the same
Starting point is 01:09:56 in what they want for their children and kind of projects that on Tana and I'm kind of like, I don't know. I think this kind of speaks to part of the dysfunction in Cersei herself, but also her perceptions of Jaime now in that, I mean, like, okay, the way that Circe perceives gender lines in Westeros, I don't think is that uncommon, right? The way that she thinks of it is very much how many in Westeros do. And I think that's a big part of her own internalized misogyny and that's kind of shown
Starting point is 01:10:25 in her thinking yeah all mothers are the same uh when i feel that a song of ice and fire deliberately and strongly makes a case for how no they are not all the same through all the different facets of motherhood that we explore from a lot of these characters but then again of course that makes sense that circe thinks this because she also thinks that men that of men too which is why she uses the same strategies on them all the time she tries it on ned and she's confused also like about jamie no longer meeting her own ideas of what masculinity is right why don't they want it she well cersei is constantly learning some information in this book and she actually conveys and boasts some of this information over to jamie she learns that olenna
Starting point is 01:11:14 kept a chest of pre-conquest gardener coins in her wheelhouse to pay tradesmen who named golden prices basically olenna's cheap because gardenener Gold is half the size of a gold dragon. None of them would complain because she's a little old lady, right? So good for her. It's called a hustle. Agreed. They argue about the use of Kevin, Jaime and Cersei.
Starting point is 01:11:38 Jaime says Kevin Leinster could be more useful, and Cersei argues otherwise. Jaime thinks he'd be great to use against Lord Stannis in the north with his experience, but Cersei already has the north wrapped up in Roose Bolton's hands. Kevin will be worth more than Lancel, she says, as they already have Davin and Damien, name dropped earlier, in the west. Jaime's like, I still think you should name kevin hand and he's like hmm let's think about who else we can name as hand she then name drops orton merriweather and jamie's like oh his grandpa
Starting point is 01:12:12 really sucked at his job so is this because she's your friend seriously responds like no she governs the realm and jamie thinks internally seven save us all you do his sister liked to think of herself as Lord Tywin with teats but she was wrong their father had been as relentless and implacable as a glacier where Circe was all wildfire especially when thwarted she'd been giddy as a maiden when she learned that Stannis had abandoned Dragonstone
Starting point is 01:12:40 certain that he had finally given up the fight and sailed away to exile when word came down from the north that he had finally given up the fight and sailed away to exile when word came down from the north that he had turned up again at the wall her fury had been fearful to behold she does not lack for wits but she has no judgment and no patience so yes but also to be to be fair when jamie's like how the fuck is the North going to be in Lord Roose Bolton's hands? Cersei's like, it's fine. His bastard son's
Starting point is 01:13:10 going to take care of it. And, you know, she wasn't wrong. They did in fact figure out how to get Roose Bolton through with Cailin. And I'm also realizing right now that Cersei has not told Jaime what the terms are that Kevin gave her for him to be hand.
Starting point is 01:13:28 She hasn't. Jaime has no clue what's coming there. And I love this line. She had been giddy as a maiden when she learned Stannis, a man in Dragonstone. It reminds me of Joffrey and how Joffrey was reacting like when the Starks were killed. When he was all excited and all like, oh, a drought at the wedding. Waving it in the air, right? Yeah. Interesting. like when the Starks were killed when he was all excited and all like, oh, I drowded the wedding! Waving it in the air, right?
Starting point is 01:13:48 Yeah. Interesting. Very much so wonder where he learned that one from. Jaime reiterates that Cersei needs a strong hand to help rule, but she argues only a weak ruler like Robert or Aerys needs strong hands. Jaime once more reminds her Aerys needed Tywin, and she comments that, well, maybe I'll choose Lord Hallein, the pyromancer. XOXO.
Starting point is 01:14:12 No thanks. There's this classic Jaime aside, though, here, where Cersei's like, he would be our first pyromancer hand, and Jaime's like, true, I killed the last one. And in his head uh also i think that jahari's and sept and barth right are a strong counter argument to but what if we had a
Starting point is 01:14:31 strong hand and a strong king yeah that's true we've seen lots of that butted heads the conversation slowly drift marks over to orane waters the master shipssei's like, oh, who's been informing on me to you, Jaime? Cersei explains Aurain has experience in ships. He's been on them half his life. And Jaime's like, he's only been riding for 20 years, tops. And Cersei's like, no, 22 years, tops. She's sick of old wrinkled assholes, she tells him. But he realizes maybe that's literal and thinks
Starting point is 01:15:07 lancel and osman kettle black and moon boy orian waters is like 21 22 years old yeah i don't think i realize that it's very young that's like raygar with a butt chin right before the rebellion started yeah i i wouldn't leave anything like that in the hands of 21 year old me gonna be real yeah me either the production of a whole navy absolutely not you can barely produce an island in animal crossing don't attack me i'm just kidding i love you i am struggling i am struggling what do i do with like three-fourths of my island i'll come over and consult for about 20 000 bells i had an idea as i was falling asleep last night and so i'm gonna see if i can try and execute like, three-fourths of my island. I'll come over and consult for about 20,000 bells. I had an idea as I was falling asleep last night,
Starting point is 01:15:50 and so I'm going to see if I can try and execute that, but it seems like a lot of work. If only my pockets were bigger. Jamie recommends, what about Paxter Redwine? But Cersei refuses to hire a Reachman on her council, which is quite counter to the strategy, right, that Jon Arryn and Robert had when wedding- counter to the strategy, right, that John, Aaron, and Robert had when wedding-stanned us to the Florence. Jamie finally loses it,
Starting point is 01:16:12 telling her that she's making shitty choices with Orin Waters, Haline, and Qyburn especially. Qyburn has made himself most useful to me, and he is loyal, which is more than I can say of my own kin. The crows will feast upon us if you all go on this way, sweet sister. Cersei, listen to yourself. You're seeing dwarves in every shadow and making foes of friends.
Starting point is 01:16:37 Uncle Kevan is not your enemy. I am not your enemy. Her face twisted in fury. I begged you for your help help i went down on my knees to you and you refused me my vows did not stop you from slaying aries words are wind you could have had me but you chose a cloak instead get out sister get out i said i'm sick of looking at that ugly stump of yours get out to speed him on his way, she heaved her wine cup at his head. She missed, but Jamie took the hint.
Starting point is 01:17:11 Yeah. I think it's kind of funny here where she's like, you chose a cloak instead. I'm like, Cersei told him to do this! This was your choice, Cersei! This was your plan. She's just like floating from plan to plan
Starting point is 01:17:26 as they each fail and like jumping off of it to the next one you know like oh saving my asshole here I am it's been in quite a few chapters but I think George is doing a great job of showing like a breaking down relationship right a breakup
Starting point is 01:17:40 and I think he's having fun while doing it that sick fuck he's having a blast is very much that that's sick fuck he's having a blast i i do with uh especially with jimmy being like uncle kevin's not your enemy i am not your enemy that was emotional right like i'm not your enemy cersei like don't you get it and of course she does get it and that's the problem there's this transition between this section right like it ends so emotional like that. And Cersei throws the wine glass at him and the next passage starts. And I just think it's kind of emotional as well. Evenfall found him sitting alone in the common room of White Sword Tower with a cup of Dornish
Starting point is 01:18:18 Red and the White Book. Just that transition between him leaving Cersei that harsh air between them and then suddenly the cut of the next passage starting with evenfall so I know this is not the case but I think it would be kind of funny if the cup that he's drinking the Dornish Red out of is the same one that Cersei threw at him I mean I hope, you know? Right. I think that'd be like a great cherry on top at the end of a fight. Reduce, reuse, recycle king. Pretty much. So Jamie's not alone. Loras enters the tower.
Starting point is 01:18:54 He hangs his accessories up right next to Jamie's and Jamie compliments him on his riding earlier in the yard. Loras doesn't really answer very modestly. He's like, I know. Loras is then like you know renly always said that books gestures at white book are for maesters i kind of feel like renly saying this is maybe something that like he heard or learned from robert oh yeah considering that joffrey cites that ro Robert didn't have time for books at all and
Starting point is 01:19:25 Jamie is like Jamie's like this isn't like regular books it's the book for us Loras for our weird ass motherfucking role in life it's the history of the white cloak Loras is like I've glanced at it but
Starting point is 01:19:41 he says he prefers picture books and then he goes on to talk about how fucking Renly had the Kama Sutra in full color, painted, like full scale. No, I'm just kidding. But he did. He was like, Renly had some drawing, some books with drawings that turned a septum blind,
Starting point is 01:19:59 is the exact quote. And Loras is like, I would rather look at picture books. And Jamie's like okay uh jamie says you should know the histories of these men and loris is like well i do know them and he starts naming off men he's like amen ryan great heart who's made up it's only a reference uh and baristan and jamie then finishes his sentence it's like this great back and forth he's like Gwaine Corbray, Alan Connington who's also made up, world building the demon of Derry made up world building, Lucamore Strong
Starting point is 01:20:32 and Loras comes back at him and he's amused, he comments on Lucamore Strong Lucamore the Lusty's gelding and I'm very interested in how George wrote this and then went on to write bits for the World of Ice and Fire or had some bits already written. And then, of course, Fire and Blood.
Starting point is 01:20:50 He initially puts Lucamore the Lusty in Feast. This is Lucamore Strong's very first appearance. The next mention Lucamore gets is in Fire and Blood, though, where his stories expanded. And there's a great parallel because Lucimor took three wives. The three wives gave him different kids. Each of the kids that Lucimor Strong has with each wife, there are three wives, have a different brand, right? You have the rivers from the Riverlands, the storms from the Stormlands, and the waters from the Crownlands. And depending on where the wife was sent after the whole mess, that was what
Starting point is 01:21:25 their kid was. So that number three is strong, it's a bold reference, and we know of another man, of the Cityguard, not the Kingsguard, who was a strong, like Lucimor Strahd, Rhaenyra's unsaid baby daddy, Harwin Breakbones, who also
Starting point is 01:21:42 had three bastards. Right? Three bastards. daddy harwin breakbones who also had three bastards right three bastards and then of course you flash forward to jamie lannister the father of three bastards so there's something going on with this number of three something going on with how strong and i think we're going to see more of it as we move forward because jamie quizzes him again he says says, okay, what about Terrence Toyne? And Loras responds, Terrence Toyne bedded the king's mistress and died screaming. Men who wear the white breeches should keep them laced. Terrence was found abed with Aegon IV's mistress, Bethany Bracken. They proclaimed their love after being caught, and Aegon IV has Terrence Toyne dismembered bit by bit, IV has Terence Toyne dismembered bit by bit, making
Starting point is 01:22:24 Bethany watch until he then has her killed too. His brothers try to avenge him, but are cut down by Aemon the Dragon Knight in the process and then House Toyne is basically ended. It makes me wonder if there's almost a little bit of that whole Kettleblack kind of
Starting point is 01:22:40 feeling going on here. Being found as part of Cersei's conspiracies etc. There's something more interesting in Guile's Grey Cloak, who's called a traitor, kind of feeling going on here. Being found as part of Cersei's conspiracies, et cetera. There's something more interesting in Giles Greycloak, who's called a traitor. We don't really get full information on him. However, there is a Giles who was a Kingsguard in history,
Starting point is 01:22:58 Giles Belgrave. Cregan had him executed, Cregan Stark in the Hour of the Wolf. Of course, a parallel here is that Giles Belgrave was Kingsguard on duty when Aegon II was poisoned. So it's very, very strongly disputed whether or not he was the poisoner or involved, but he's kind of our Boros Blount in a way, right? Hmm. He kinda is. We get some talk about Oroville the Open-Handed, who was a coward. No information on him. He's
Starting point is 01:23:23 made up for worldbuilding. But then Loras begins to fail the test because he doesn't really recognize some of the obscure names that Jaime pulls out. And some of these are major throwaways, absolutely. But there are small characters George has scattered throughout these histories and stories now that could very well be related. We get long Tom Costain, who was a Kingsguard for 60 years, and there's not a lot of information on him unless you look at Tommen Costain, who was a Knight of Costain during the Hedge Knight. We see him very briefly in the Hedge Knight. There's Donald of Duskendale, another man from the Hedge Knight, escorting the Targaryen crew into the Ashford tourney. Addison Hill, he was one of the very first knights of the Kingsguard.
Starting point is 01:24:06 Visenya chose him, and he rose to Lord Commander. The White Owl, Michael Mertens, no backstory. Geoffrey Norcross, never yield, no real backstory. Red Robert Flowers, no real backstory. And Rollin Darklin, the youngest to serve
Starting point is 01:24:21 until Jaime, who died within an hour of donning the cloak. That's unfortunate. That's it. That's literally the information on him. That's pretty good trivia. We've discussed in the past that as Jaime had, you know, at first felt unworthy or
Starting point is 01:24:37 daunted sitting in that really well-made chair, might I emphasize once more that it's lasted a long-ass time through all of these fucking people that jamie has mentioned right perhaps not all of the king's guard were so gallant we went through some of those names many of them were just as flawed as he was i mean they didn't like fail their entire job of killing the king that they're supposed to protect but but many of them of course were also very flawed as as we've pointed out, and I think
Starting point is 01:25:05 that makes it worth it that Jaime's calling all of this out to Loras, which I think fits in very nicely with Jaime remembering the history a moment ago of a bunch of the different hands of the king, and just as Jaime's story is, again, against the backdrop of Rhiannon and Cersei's, one of the POVs that we also get at the beginning of A Feast for Crows is Ari's Oakheart. Also very flawed. Also breaking his vows. Gonna die
Starting point is 01:25:33 in a moment. In a second, though, Loras is going to say that, like, many deserve to be forgotten. Heroes are remembered. And Jaime's like, yeah, both the heroes and the worst, like, the best and the worst get fucking remembered, right? And again again I just can't help but think once more of the Night's Watch where many of the best
Starting point is 01:25:50 members of the Night's Watch go forgotten right like besides us and the reader like the readers and John who else is gonna fucking give a shit about Donald Noy or Corden Halfhand they're not gonna be remembered in songs no one's gonna write songs about Cotter Pike or Yorin or Stonesnake that only John knows
Starting point is 01:26:06 is out there. Jamie is, for some reason, obvious reasons in my opinion, trying to father Loras as he sees himself reflected in Loras and teach him that thing that our good friend poor Quentin is always saying about how men's lives
Starting point is 01:26:21 have meaning. It's holding true, right? Even when the songs are not sung about them, especially when, as Jamie has experienced and knows, oftentimes those songs are very wrong. A lot of brave men have worn the white cloak. Most have been forgotten. Most deserve to be forgotten. The heroes will always be remembered. Most deserve to be forgotten The heroes will always be remembered The best The best and the worst
Starting point is 01:26:47 So one of us is like to live in song And a few who are a bit of both, like him He taught the page he had been reading Who? Sir Loras craned his neck around to see Ten black pellets on a scarlet field I do not know these arms. They belonged to Kristen Cole,
Starting point is 01:27:08 who served the first Viserys and the second Aegon. Jaime closed the white book. They called him Kingmaker. Oh my god. It's a good ending. It's a really strong ending.
Starting point is 01:27:23 It tells you a lot about this story. They called him Kingmaker. whatever he chose pretty much i i think it's so funny this part sounds to me like jamie's a giant fucking nerd like he's over here like laura's don't you know all these obscure characters you're gonna call yourself a king's guard you don't know this person and this character like jamie who would expect someone to know all of that? What kind of person would ever do that and just learn all of these obscure names and characters and what they mean?
Starting point is 01:27:51 Who does that? Interesting. Me, who has pulled apart every single one of those characters Jamie mentioned. Interesting, Eliotta. I'd love for you to talk about it more. Oh, that is the point. That is the point
Starting point is 01:28:08 that I'm making. Am I the nerd? Is it me? Jamie's one of us. Jamie's one of us. Are you saying that... I don't even like him. Listen, I want to talk about Kristen Cole. We talked about the Kettleblacks having kind of some toying strong imagery
Starting point is 01:28:23 earlier. No one called Joe Magician, who you might remember from our Jon Snow chapters. He would love this conversation. But I think George is playing with this kind of sandbox format for this male character, especially when you bring in this context about Kristen Cole versus Harwin Strong, and Jaime Lannister versus the Kettlebox. So if you haven't read Fire and Blood, I'm really not exaggerating this at all. I want to tell you about Mushroom, who is a fool who gives us a story in Fire and Blood. I know I am hyperbolic as a person.
Starting point is 01:28:58 You all know I'm hyperbolic as a person. You've heard us. The points of the story that I'm making right now are not hyperbolic. Like this is sensible, according to Mushroom. But Mushroom claimed that Rhaenyra Targaryen loved Kristen Cole, but he was too true a knight, too pure to do anything with her. She went to her uncle Daemon for lovemaking lessons, according to Mushroom, when he returned from the Narrow Sea.
Starting point is 01:29:24 She went to bring these lovemaking lessons to Criston, and he spurned her angrily. When Rhaenyra was made to marry Laenor Velaryon, Septon Eustace spins this tale. Ser Criston Cole slipped into the princess's bedchamber to confess his love for her. He told Rhaenyra he had a ship waiting on the bay and begged her to flee with him across the Narrow Sea. They'd be wed in Tyrosh or Old Volantis, where her father's writ did not run and no one would care that Ser Criston had betrayed his vows as a member of the Kingsguard. But Rhaenyra refused him. If he could set aside his Kingsguard vows, why would marriage vows mean any more to him? Mushroom tells us a little
Starting point is 01:30:02 different of a tale. In his version, it was Rhaenyra who went to Ser Criston, not him to him. Mushroom tells us a little different of a tale. In his version, it was Rhaenyra who went to Ser Criston, not him to hurt. She found him alone in Whitesword Tower, barred the door, slipped off her cloak to reveal her nakedness underneath. I saved my maidenhead for you, she told him. Take it now as proof of my love. It will mean little and less to my betrothed. Perhaps when he learns I am not chaste, he will refuse me. Yet for all her beauty, her entreaties fell on deaf ears, for Sir Christian was a man of honor and true to his vows. Scorned and furious, the princess donned her cloak and swept out into the night where she chanced to encounter Sir Harwin Strong, returning from a night of revelry in the stews of the city.
Starting point is 01:30:43 returning from a night of revelry in the stews of the city. Anyway, there's a tourney. Kristen's now giving his favor to the king's wife, Alison Hightower, instead of the king's daughter. Reminder, green is the color here to remember. And he breaks break bones. It's literally when he gets his name, Harwin Strong's collarbone in the tourney.
Starting point is 01:31:06 And then Lainer, Rhaenyra's husband, his boyfriend Joffrey Lawnmouth, is killed by Criston. So that's how you know it's war. Criston's like, fuck you, Rhaenyra. Fuck you forever. And we get a couple different lines, too. This is before King Viserys died. King Viserys was most wroth as well. A joyous celebration had become the occasion of grief and recrimination. It was said that Alicent did not share his displeasure, however. Soon after, she asked Sir Criston Cole be made her personal protector. The coolness between the king's wife and the king's
Starting point is 01:31:37 daughter was plain for all to see. Even envoys from the free cities made note of it in letters sent back to Pentos, Braavos, and Old Volantis, which, as you and I know, there are probably letters right now in the story flying to Pentos, Braavos, and Old Volantis from Varys. I don't think this is a perfect parallel, of course. I see a lot of Cersei and Rhaenyra going forward, but I also see a lot of Daenerys in her as well. Or vice versa, Rhaenyra and Daenerys, however you want to say it.
Starting point is 01:32:06 But the idea that publicly people think Jaime is being spurned by Cersei while he's finally almost making his own choice is interesting. The mushroom rendition of what we just saw would have been Cersei came to the White Sword Tower begging in her village maiden outfit, taking out his dick, trying to seduce him,
Starting point is 01:32:24 telling her no. Oh wait, that did happen though, right? Like that did just happen. That happened like a few chapters ago, yeah. Yeah, the sources differ on what happened next for Kristen, but I do think Septon Eustace's takes are kind of middle of the road. I think maybe add two or three dashes of Mushroom's takes to Septon Eustace's takes and we'll be closer to true. Kristen Cole is said to have told the council at the time of Viserys's death, if we seat a bastard on the throne, they'll turn the Red Keep into a brothel. No man's daughter
Starting point is 01:32:55 will be safe, nor man's wife, even the boys. We know what Laenor was, yada yada, homophobia. And then it said that Kristen cut down the only opposer against them in crowning Agen II, which was Lyman Beesbury. Mushroom agrees on this death. He doesn't agree on the manner, but he agrees that he did die during this. Kristen is sent along with other men to spread the word on foot about the new king, Agen II, in the morning because they didn't want to send ravens in case they were intercepted. He comes to find Aegon. He's not there. Helena, my angel, is there. She dies later. It's sad. Anyways, he goes to actually find Aegon with his paramour, and Eustace gives us this account back and forth. My sister is the heir, not me, he says in Eustace's account. What sort of brother steals
Starting point is 01:33:43 his sister's birthright? Only when Ser Criston convinced him that the princess must surely execute him and his brothers should she don the crown did Aegon waver. Whilst any true-born Targaryen yet lives no strong can ever hope to sit the Iron Throne, Cole said. Rhaenyra has no choice but to take your heads if she wishes her bastards to rule after her. It was this and only this that persuaded Aegon to accept the crown that the small council offered him, insists our gentle Septon. No, doesn't match completely with Jaime. Here on out, that we know of, I think the idea Jaime's trying to decide what his legacy is in spurning Cersei himself, refusing her in his white sword tower and in her solar, refusing to be her hand, it's very reminiscent of Rhaenyra and Criston's debacle. We won't ever know what happened, right? Because damn it, George, he left it vague on purpose.
Starting point is 01:34:40 But I think we could draw some very interesting interesting hard parallels here between Jaime and Cersei and Criston and Rhaenyra. Definitely, and especially because one of these plots, right, regarding kingmakers is happening to one of their children. Yes. Who's being made a pawn in someone else's kingmaker, queenmaker,
Starting point is 01:34:59 in fact, plot. So it's interesting that Jaime's thinking of this right now. This is his chance to shape history. He's been a kingslayer. He's been a kingmaker. He literally made kings also. That was clearing the way for Tywin to choose whoever they wanted.
Starting point is 01:35:16 That's true. And then he had sex and made kings. Literally, with his penis. Yep. Yep. With his penis yep with his penis he did that well I know that like I've been very sympathetic towards Jamie lately
Starting point is 01:35:35 I would like to comment on that I want everyone to pat me on the back for it and be like Chloe we're so proud of you I didn't think you were going to come this far I cried once and it wasn't even really about him in the end. So I digress. It really was, though. I just don't want everyone to think it's going to get better for me from here.
Starting point is 01:35:56 I'm not proud of what Jamie does in this book, necessarily. He tries. He doesn't know what he's doing either. Yeah, I think he's trying, and I think that's something that's interesting to explore. George is wondering that, like, whether trying is enough or not. That's something that we would have seen put up against one another, right? Had Jaime and Theon's chapters been in the same book. Yeah, that would have been fun to explore.
Starting point is 01:36:21 That's something that I think George was trying to put up against one another but it makes me wonder if their deaths will come up near each other at all maybe not maybe they're both so tied in with Bran so yeah that's very true that's a great point well that's She-Me 2 baby we did
Starting point is 01:36:40 it episode 90 10 more but maybe maybe you want to stay tuned for episode 91 you can keep track of when that comes out by subscribing to us on social media as we said earlier up at the top of this episode you can find us at girls gone canon c-a-n-o-n on twitter maybe you have something to say that uh we could read it on one of these episodes at some point in time uh via email or dm girls gone canon at gmail.com make sure you're subscribed to us on all
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Starting point is 01:37:22 and of course we have a Patreon episode this month. This month, it's about A Song of Ice and Fire. We are going to talk about Mere, and we're going to dig in a little bit more about Tana Merriweather, whom we touched on this episode, but we'll talk about more in depth. We have chosen Mere, the free city, because it has three letters.
Starting point is 01:37:44 It has the letters M and Y, just like this month, May. I am excited, besides the three-letter theory. I'm excited to continue our Free Cities series. We had a really good time talking about Tyroche last time. I'm surprised by
Starting point is 01:38:00 that. We somehow loved it, so I think Mir can only get better. I'm excited to talk about it with you, Eliana. Yes, and that episode's gonna come out for people for patrons $5 and up. Yes, in the Stranger tier. And if you aren't already following us on Patreon, check it out
Starting point is 01:38:16 at patreon.com slash girls gone canon, where for our Stranger tier of patrons, we do a special episode every month, whether it's a Song of Ice and Fire, or whether it is his dark materials. As always, it has been a joy to speak about a song of ice and fire about Jamie Lannister with you all.
Starting point is 01:38:35 I have been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I've been another one of your hosts, Eliana. she says it sarcastically but she had a lot to say this episode i wasn't being sarcastic i was being truthful i love you guys so much i thought you were i'll never be sarcastic goodbye okay goodbye bye guys

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