Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 91 - AFFC Jaime III

Episode Date: May 22, 2020

The twins get into one last quarrel before Jaime ventures into the Riverlands and revisits a place of import for him: Harrenhal. He's got some interesting travel companions, some who are quite quiet....   ---   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 91, Jamie 3, in A Feast for Crows. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. We don't tell you where to find us anymore. Absolutely. You have 90 other episodes that you can listen to to figure that out. However, if you don't know, we have blogs.
Starting point is 00:00:40 There's links in the description. There's Twitters. There's all that jazz. And one of those ways that you can find us is via email. You've got a few of those this week that we want to go over. Yeah, we did get a really, actually a really in detail email. Ooh, that rhymed. From our friend Maddie, who is a good friend, a patron actually, I think stranger to your patron.
Starting point is 00:01:01 Watch out. Who has sent us a couple questions, a couple really interesting just thoughts that she's having. And she did say she's now a permanent Queen Sansa supporter because of us. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Maddie, for your drunken impulse subscription to our Patreon. I know this because Maddie said that she was drunk and also was quite openly so on Twitter.
Starting point is 00:01:27 So thank you. She was kicking ass. I think I was too that night. So good for her. She also is stanning, quote unquote, which is what the kids all say, chapters of whoever we're going through. Not necessarily them, the characters. Big mood. I agree because I've never cried about
Starting point is 00:01:45 jamie lannister in my entire life if you say i have that's slander or libel aliana you're arrested so goodbye arrested i digress welcome to girl gone canon welcome to girl gone i have nothing better maddie wants to comment on the Jamie chapters and also says that they are our best chapters yet, she thinks. Interesting. I'm glad that people think so. I'm surprised. I was really intimidated going into them
Starting point is 00:02:17 because I think Jamie is one of the characters that I was really looking forward to getting to. And I've said it multiple times, that like a huge part in what George is trying to convey in A Song of Ice and Fire. So I'm going to kick it off with some of the thoughts that Maddie shared with us in her email. One of them is about Maddie speaking as a trans woman and talking about Cersei's internalized self-hatred and how Maddie's reading what might be trans vibes from Cersei. Maddie says though Cersei obviously hates the social thrust upon her by Westerosi society in general and Tywin Lannister in particular, I often felt that Cersei's hate and despondency about her gender went deeper and was more internalized than someone like Brienne. Maddie also then points out how
Starting point is 00:03:03 Cersei reacts with hostility every time that it's pointed out that Cersei is a woman which tracks with gender dysphoria in a way that Maddie points out that Brienne does not. Here we have another thing that Maddie says. Cersei says she has a lot of frustration with being a woman in general and we see glimpses of this in both her drunken rant to Sansa at the Blackwater and the fear and rage that filled her eyes when Jaime rejects her in his last chapter of A Storm of Swords. I feel like Cersei doesn't take much power from her femininity. Rather, she views it as a burden. And whenever she is reminded of it, she reacts with rage or breaks down in fear or even suicidal behavior like her plan at the blackwater yeah absolutely
Starting point is 00:03:48 it feels like brienne is she is more dissociated from the concept of uh the structure of being a woman right everything that a woman does that we see women like cersei catelyn etc do in society and that's what she's very disillusioned with, and that role that kind of is waiting for her, much like the crypts in Winterfell, for example, right? Those stone lords waiting. And for Cersei, it's nothing like that. It's all wildfire and how she should have had the sword. Yeah, and I think, you know, Brienne obviously is just like,
Starting point is 00:04:22 fuck it, I'm going to hold a sword. And I think that these are good points, especially as I've been reading Brienne and Cersei's chapters alongside Jaime's. And you see that in some of the chapters in between the previous Jaime chapter and this one, how, as Maddy points out, some of this rage that Cersei feels when it's pointed out, whereas Brienne's like, I'm gonna just ignore that remark from you, Randall Charlie. And carry on. Also, I felt this was kind of meta because like Cersei at the Blackwater drunkenly rambling to Sansa. I thought it. Maddie is rambling to us and I love it. This is so good. Maddie always rambled to us. I thought it.
Starting point is 00:05:01 I thought it. I'm so glad we were on the same page because I was like, aha, just like Maddie as soon as she said in the email, Cersei. I'm like, mm. So thank you, Maddie. Another thing that Maddie talks about, again, regarding Cersei is Cersei's use of green and how Cersei portrays that image
Starting point is 00:05:18 of beauty and courtly power, of course portraying that good queen towards the beginning, but is also very vengeful, right? Cersei dresses in these morning clothes, and Maddy has teased for us an essay that she may or may not be completing.
Starting point is 00:05:34 And I noticed a line in Cersei 2 and A Feast for Crows. Black had never been a happy color on her. With her fair skin it made her look half a corpse herself. To me, this seems like foreshadowing of circe's failures to govern like or model herself off tywin maybe foreshadowing her death continuing to wield this power it's an interesting line from circe because you know some people some people want that look circe all right some people want that high contrast
Starting point is 00:06:03 circe's not Gothcore. Absolutely not. Actually, you're right. Cersei is not Gothcore. Cersei is Scarletcore. I don't know what that means, aesthetic-wise, but it does. Maddie goes on to ask
Starting point is 00:06:15 if we had any further thoughts on Cersei's clothing, what it might mean for her art going forward, and I think we'll touch on this in the very first bit of the chapter, so stay tuned for that, because unfortunately, I was very inspired by this email and then I made like a spreadsheet and I data filtered it and I did some percentages about it you can go look at it Eliana it's in our
Starting point is 00:06:38 google docs anyways it's all about emeralds and rubies on Cersei. Interesting. Data, data, data, baby. Cersei's into Christmas is what I'm hearing. But yeah, I think it's a good thought. There's part of me that's like, yes, we can talk about it a bit now and in these chapters, but also there's a lot of Cersei thoughts that I have as I read Jaime's chapters and I'm also like I gotta save some I gotta save some
Starting point is 00:07:12 for when we get to Cersei so I know I think we'll still have a ton there's a ton those chapters are a wild ride rereading them right now with this Jaime stuff alongside like you're saying, is just... I'm itching to talk about them, so...
Starting point is 00:07:27 Me too. Maybe after. Maybe after. So Maddie did ask one more question that I found really interesting, especially with its increasing presence as far as the King's Landing plot is going in the story, which is about the Faith of the Seven. Yeah, Maddie talks about how Maddie loves the beauty and mystery that's described in the Faith of the Seven
Starting point is 00:07:47 and the gender fluidity of the Seven, as we see with Brienne, who can be the mother of the maid or warrior, as can Jaime or Catelyn or even Ned, and how seven gods make a stronger whole, which, you know, as Maddie points out, is a central tenet of its theology across the story. And on the surface, the religion seems to be, like, false or corrupt
Starting point is 00:08:05 and Maddie enjoys that. But she's also worried that religion may be cheapened in the Winds of Winter through Endgame, especially with the brand rising and for the Faith of the Seven to end up, you know, kind of being dunked on or even rejected by the masses for the old gods or maybe even as they turn turn to relore so maddie then asks i'm curious as to your thoughts on this especially chloe's as i know she likes bran and his pov
Starting point is 00:08:31 quite a bit i'm being called on the carpet right now this is my moment to shine yeah remember how surprised you were when i was like bran um me i was never surprised a little bit I was like Brienne is my second favorite POV and you were like what oh yeah that yes yeah a little surprising but this is actually a pretty legitimate question I think religion is becoming like I said an increasing
Starting point is 00:08:57 force in the story as Daenerys comes closer and as we just met some of the Red Gods followers that want to preach the good word of the dragon queen and stannis right we just explored a lot of the plot with stannis when we talked about john and i think that however bran is explored he probably won't be pushing religion on people i think the north in general while yes most are adhering to the old gods you have people like the manderleys who have moved and become functioning members of the North, etc. Very welcome. And vice versa in the South,
Starting point is 00:09:30 right? The Blackwoods still worship. I wonder the contrary even about the Seven being cheapened. I think we're going to see the push of R'hllor, the pushback for the old gods even maybe backfire on protagonists, not just Bran, but Dany, Jon. We've seen the microcosm of Stannis violently proselytizing the free folk to his cause, rewarding them with life in exchange for abandoning their culture. And we're hearing whispers of what a witch at Stannis' side, blood magic, armies. If Daenerys brings that to the realm, or if that's what's brought to the realm in her stead of her coming, do you think maybe the people in the north might be a little wary?
Starting point is 00:10:10 The south as well. We're seeing the road the sparrow and many people of the faith are laying down on, speaking out against abomination, much like I'm sure is going to have some parallels in the Winds of Winter to Fire and Blood, right, with the preachers speaking out during that time against exceptionalism, against the Lannisters. And it's probably going to coincide with Dorne and John Connington's plots, right? If they do get wiped off the map, the Faith of the Seven, I think the best hope for the story is that it reforms kind of a parallel
Starting point is 00:10:43 to what's happening with Bran the Builder, right, if that's really the end game. And this all begs the question, though, in the end that when the lords and the kings aren't burning the small folks' crops, slaughtering and raping their children and wives and husbands and etc for resources like will they need a faith sure people need faith it's something that we all some people believe some people don't but when you take all of that away hmm i agree with that especially i don't think that we'll necessarily see an eradication of the faith of the Seven. No, no. And this is something that we had talked about in other chapters, and I think we talked about quite heavily when we
Starting point is 00:11:28 joined Quinn from now called Quinn's Ideas. I'm so glad you just said this. I was thinking this about the Melisandre episode. Exactly. And power. Yeah, we joined Quinn to discuss Melisandre, and we had a deep discussion about power,
Starting point is 00:11:44 and again, now it's called Quinn's Ideas. Not Ideas of Ice and Fire, but I'm sure you can still findisandre. And we had a deep discussion about power. And again, now it's called Quinn's Ideas, not Ideas of Ice and Fire, but I'm sure you can still find it at that. And a lot of the religions explore different things. And I think that the idea that, you know, R'hllor, yes, you can see a demonstrative like power through the fire and like the miracles, etc. And then the old gods, we see that maybe there aren't necessarily the old gods it's a sort of uh something where people as they transcend whatever right uh the children of the forest and this magic they are part of that old god this sort of ancestry thing that's going on but the faith of the seven is, and I think we cannot forget that the Faith of the Seven might not have power in terms of magic, but it has very strong, not only political
Starting point is 00:12:31 power, but the will of the people. We see it come up very strongly within Feast for Crows, and we're going to see it not, I don't think it'll be cheapened in the Winds of Winter. I think it's going to actually only become stronger as George explores it more. We saw that he's been playing with this idea a lot in Fire and Blood. We saw it come forward, as you said, during the reign of Jaehaerys and being a huge force for the Targaryens to wrestle with when they first came to Westeros and trying to find that sort of balance.
Starting point is 00:13:02 It was a huge turning point within the Dance of the Dragons and will be, I think, in the second dance, especially as Aegon courts the Faith of the Seven and has studied the Faith of the Seven in depth, right? And I think that's the thing, right? When it comes to faith, we have a personal exploration of faith in the face of hardship with Aaron, the damp hair.
Starting point is 00:13:25 And the thing is faith isn't necessarily about miracles and seeing, seeing is believing, right? That's the whole point. That's why it's faith. And granted, a lot of those miracles are portrayed in things in, in order to inspire faith,
Starting point is 00:13:41 right? But the whole point in many ways, as we see with Melisandre, is devoutness. Part of that test is there even when you don't have proof. And I think that the faith of the Seven will continue to persist. And I think
Starting point is 00:13:55 it's just as strong a power when you have that huge political and will of the people. And I think that a broken Westeros in the end end game whoever it's ruled by i think it's looking likely that agon and arien are not gonna have a long reign right probably not so long might have a little bit of a reign but might be some wildfire under that city right right i don't know i don't know it's an idea anyways so glossing past that you have melisandre's
Starting point is 00:14:27 smoke and mirrors right which is power quote unquote and we learn from her plot in a dance with dragons like some of those are just for show some of those are to keep the belief and like you said like you and i spoke with quinn from qu Quinn's ideas about power in a lot of people believing in something is just as magical as Melisandre's smoke and mirrors absolutely as magical so I don't know I think the
Starting point is 00:14:55 this is not the way I want it to come out I was going to say the best thing that could happen is King's Landing blowing up and the religion reforming but no I just think like it's going to be a better, eventually a better thing would happen if how the faith operates right now and the corruption and the rot that has seeped
Starting point is 00:15:13 into King's Landing specifically, as we see the poor fellows and the stars and swords joining up, I think that rot being kind of out might reform some of these religions in general and bring them back to fundamentals. You know, just like with COVID, all the nature is returning. Right. We've seen all the hoaxes. Those are not hoaxes.
Starting point is 00:15:34 They're all real. I saw the brave little toaster go back to Ikea. Okay. To nature. Anyway. But you know what I mean? I think like it's anabolism and catabolism
Starting point is 00:15:47 it's like the build up and the break down and the rebuild your muscles are going to be stronger after you break them down and rebuild them just like working out I don't know I just don't see the religion staying how they are
Starting point is 00:16:02 they have to change because Westeros has to change. And the people that live in it will have a faith in something or someone. And the something and someones are changing. Yeah. And I mean, of course, it's possible that it disappears, right? Many religions have disappeared. Sure, sure. And R'hllor, I think R'hllor would be the most likely, but I don't think it would because it's very popular in the Eves.
Starting point is 00:16:27 But the old gods and R'hllor have so much in common. We could do this for hours. We should do an episode about this. Yeah, maybe we should. Anyway. Anyway, so Maddie thanks us and has clarified that these were thoughts produced after three glasses of wine. Big mood. I'll drink to that.
Starting point is 00:16:45 And is looking forward to getting into Jamie and the Riverlands, and that's what we're gonna do today. Thank you, Maddie, aka, you can find Maddie on Twitter at Abakazia, and that's spelled A-B-H-A K-H-A-Z-I-A on Twitter.
Starting point is 00:17:01 Yeah, and she is a patron of ours in the stranger tier. The best horse, in my opinion, which is why I made it the most accessible. And if you all want to follow us on Patreon, we do have a Patreon. Patreon.com
Starting point is 00:17:18 slash Girls Gone Canon. This month, we are continuing our free Cities content for patrons. $5 and up. Yes. Yes. I'm so excited. Eliana.
Starting point is 00:17:29 What are we doing? What city are we doing? Yeah, this month we are doing Mir. And you too can get this episode if you two down three glasses of wine and then make a life decision to subscribe to us. At patreon.com slash girlsgonecannon. But, you know, until you get that episode first, we gotta do a lightning round. Oh, I'm excited.
Starting point is 00:17:55 This lightning round is a bit long. It's been a hot minute since Jamie's last chapter. This chapter's a bit long. I know. The first chapter we missed is Circe 4. Rulings tiresome, but still, someone must do it. Cersei sets up safeguards and schemes to secure her power, and none of them will backfire.
Starting point is 00:18:14 Not one. Not one. The Iron Captain. Not like the Iron Giant. Asha tries to get Victarion to go straight, but they both intend to fight for the Salt Throne. You said it. I know.
Starting point is 00:18:30 Can't believe. I was like, what is this doing in here? The Seastone Chair. It's from the show that the books are based on. Yeah, that's true. This is the actual original canon. Hasha Cannon! The Drowned Man.
Starting point is 00:18:46 Eren oversees the Kang's moot, but the Crow's Eye sweeps them all. Brienne IV, ambushed by some of the Bloody Mummers. Brienne's party suffers a loss. Brienne digs for what they've lost, and for her honor. That's a horse. The Cleanmaker.
Starting point is 00:19:02 Arienne Martel's attempt at scheming is shattered before her, with blood staining the sands of Dorne. Aria 2. Aria advances to novice and is allowed to enter the open world looking for an NPC named Brusco while wearing her cat disguise outfit. Elaine 1. Elaine won. Elaine, the other half of Cat get it? Cat-Alaine because Feast is the best book ever
Starting point is 00:19:32 must hold her poise in front of the Lord's Declarant. Once they leave, she begins to understand the game that's being played. Of Thrones? Ah! Share game. I like that episode of Sesame Street. Cersei V,
Starting point is 00:19:49 observing Margaery's effects on Tom and Cersei reflect on Maggie the Frog's prophecies and how one by one they've come true. Brienne V, dismissed from Tarly's brief service, Brienne, Hyrule, and Podrick come across a Septon who will bring them to the Quiet Isle, a place of broken men.
Starting point is 00:20:10 Samwell 3. Sam's juggling a lot on his plate. He takes a sword into the city. Then he's accosted by Braavos. But thankfully for him, an 11-year-old no one appears to save him and then he's thrown into a canal he's saved by someone else now jondo a mate from the cinnamon wind you know i keep yelling about all those jamie sam parallels and look at that they're right next to each other well that brings us to jamie three jamie embarks on a friendly journey to revisit his ghosts with a band of men to bring the
Starting point is 00:20:49 queen's justice. He performs justice at River Rudd, quote, quote, quote, unquote, and a much better, quote, unquote, justice outside of the hall. My favorite justice, truly. Yes. And so the chapter starts off with Cersei commenting to Jaime about how much she hates his beard. And it reminds her of Robert. And I want to set us up here with a line from Cersei IV, which directly actually follows the last Jaime chapter that we did, Jaime II.
Starting point is 00:21:18 She's talking to Tana Meriwether. Tana says, A hundred times I told him no, and he said yes, the other woman told her. Until finally I was saying yes as well. He was not the sort of man to be denied. I know the sort the queen said with a wry smile. Has your grace ever known a man like that, I wonder?
Starting point is 00:21:34 Robert, she lied, thinking of Jamie. Hmm. Eyebrows raised. I mean, also, not wrong. I mean, also, not wrong. I mean, like, that was the point. And it's something we've discussed in previous
Starting point is 00:21:48 episodes, and that's gonna come back a little in this chapter, but we'll get there. Especially right now, thinking of Jamie. And that reminds me of when she says to Marjorie, when Marjorie's like, oh, Robert won tourneys? And she's like, yes, very many. Goodbye.
Starting point is 00:22:04 I wasn't thinking about my brother, who I fucked. I think that was's like, oh, Robert won tourneys? And she's like, yes, very many. Goodbye. I wasn't thinking about my brother who I fucked. I think that was like either in this chapter or the one right after it. It's this or the one after. Yeah, I think it's five. I think it's five. It's in one of the two in this lightning round. You know, Cersei's costumery here,
Starting point is 00:22:17 her dresses are so fabulous, darling. They're like Diana in Animal Crossing. No, just kidding. Cersei looks so fabulous. She's no longer in her morning clothes. So she's like happy, right? She's like, I hate morning clothes. Jade green gown, silver mirrish lace, a pigeon egg sized emerald on her neck. And you know, we really haven't done fashion hour in a long time. So why not break it down for a little bit, you know, like sit back, break it down.
Starting point is 00:22:45 This is where I want to address a lot of what Maddie was talking about, actually, in our emails and tweets of note, as she so called them. She's very astute. Jewels are very much seen as woman's armor in this book. We see Cersei with her very own Rhaegar's rubies and these huge emeralds. And my god, I don't know if maybe like the Lannisters just have a really good investment in an emerald like mine. I don't know. Whatever. I didn't look up how emeralds. I don't know how the sausage is made, Eliana. But Cersei is very much replicating Tywin by adding all these jewels because jewels mean wealth.
Starting point is 00:23:24 Wealth means power. His wares are so exemplary of the extraness of costuming in these pages. Not only in his burial, but in life, right? Like at the end of Blackwater where Sansa sees him and she says she never had seen such armor. Burnished red steel inlaid with golden scroll work and ornamentation. His rondels were sunbursts. The roaring lion that crowned his helm had ruby eyes. A lioness on each shoulder fastened a cloth of gold cloaks so long and heavy it draped the hindquarters of his charger. Even the horse's armor was gilded, his barding shimmering crimson silk emblazoned with the Lion of Lannister.
Starting point is 00:24:00 We take it to when Tyrion asks him to help him outfit all of the clan with swords from the Vale, right? He makes sure there's a ruby on each sword and says, if it's a garnet, I'll know. You know, not that cheap shit. We learn the origin of Ilyn Payne in this chapter and how he dared to say that Tywin was more powerful than the king, and what happened to Ill and Pain because of it. We leave Cersei desperately trying to hold onto power in King's Landing with Joffrey dead, Tywin dead, a sweeping power vacuum, and Maddy's question on further thoughts for Cersei's clothing really made me want to dig in today, speaking of the spreadsheet
Starting point is 00:24:43 I mentioned. And I learned a lot. There are 28 mentions of the word emerald in the books, and precisely 15 of them are related to Cersei. There are 100 Ruby mentions. Not going to go through it much today, but we'll get there. Cersei wears emeralds in these events in the story. Pre-Game of Thrones, the tourney where the dagger passed hands, her emerald
Starting point is 00:25:05 pendant also passed hands in a bet. A Game of Thrones Winterfell feast, she wears a jeweled tiara. Eddard's execution, she wears a jade green dress with a pigeon egg ring that's an emerald. In a clash of kings at the Blackwater, she's wearing an all-white innocent dress, snowy like the Kingsguard armor, with a diamond and emerald necklace roped around her neck. In the Riot of King's Landing, she's also wearing an emerald necklace. In the revenge against Tyrion's mistress, quote-unquote, Alyaia, she wears a woven belt of emeralds studded with them and a low-cut green velvet dress. In a feast for crows, holding court the
Starting point is 00:25:46 morning after telling Margaery of the fate of Loras at Dragonstone when Orien Waters returns, she wears a jeweled emerald crown that she had requested Dorcas spring for her while speaking to Tyena. And in A Feast for Crows, visiting Margaery and being imprisoned by the Faith, she wears a green silk gown with emeralds. Out of the 105 mentions of rubies in the story, Cersei wears rubies only in mourning, specifically the following events with the same dress both times. A game of thrones when manipulating Sansa to write the letter to her family, black silk mourning gown, 100 rubies on the bodice, and then during period sex in a storm of swords on the altar over Joffrey's body. Same morning gown, hundred rubies on the bodice, and then during period sex in a storm of swords
Starting point is 00:26:25 on the altar over Joffrey's body. Same morning gown, same rubies. Eliana and I have talked before about the kind of similarity to Rhaegar, right? In those rubies. It's like Rhaegar's rubies right up on that bodice.
Starting point is 00:26:39 And we talked about wealth and jewels meaning power and the rubies feel representative of the Targaryens in a way with Rhaegar's rubies and the rubies in Aegon's crown. We even see some of this symbolism through Daenerys and Illyrio's machinations with Young Griff through JonCon's point of view as well. Illyrio gifts Young Griff a red-on-black ruby necklace, signifying kind of that Blackfyre connection. It feels like the rubies are kind of reserved for royalty, right? It reminds me of like Mean Girls when Gretchen Wieners explains she's not allowed to wear hoop earrings anymore because they were Regina's thing.
Starting point is 00:27:16 Yeah, but also it feels like it represents the Targaryen's enriched history. While some were ill-suited to the throne, some did make enormous progress for a nation that before was war-torn, not just free of Targaryen rule. And it took work for that to happen. A lot of that work was against some of the natural environments, like incest and supernatural pet stuff.
Starting point is 00:27:38 Cersei detests, you know, natural. Normal stuff. Everyday Kang shit. Everyday how to train your dragon. It's, you know, natural. Normal stuff. Everyday Kang shit, okay? Everyday how to train your dragon. Absolutely. Astrid as hell. Cersei hates wearing the morning dresses, as Madi noted,
Starting point is 00:27:57 and A Feast for Crows Cersei too, when she says it's bad enough to wear a morning gown. That's not the first time that she's hated it. She talks about it in A Feast for Crows 1 as well, where she says, at least I will not be expected to die mourning for Tyrion. I shall dress in crimson silk and cloth of gold for that and wear rubies in my hair. Right now, Cersei kind of wears these rubies as her own armor, as a penance, as work, that it's work she must have the small folks see her mourn, she thinks. It's work to smile at lords. This is her lord's work she must have the small folks see her mourn she thinks it's work to smile at lords this is her her lord's face she puts on right to be fair funerals are definitely
Starting point is 00:28:31 a lot of work and cersei sees rubies as a duty like how jamie dons his kingsguard armor it's a costume for her though in the dance with dragons epilogue we get this line that really ties into a lot of what maddie spoke about regarding dysphoria and resenting being in this useless shell of a body for Cersei. And it's a line in the epilogue with Kevin. No queen could expect to rule again after that, the walk of shame. In gold and silk and emeralds, Cersei had been a queen, the next thing to a goddess. Naked, she was only a human, an aging woman with stretch marks on her belly and teats that had begun to sag as the shrews in the crowds had been glad to point out to their husbands and lovers. So looking at that and looking at the
Starting point is 00:29:17 future for Cersei, I really expect that we're going to see her start to don more ruby and black and crimson. She has two kids that still have to die, if y'all remember them. And I think that she's going to distance herself from wearing emerald for a few reasons. It feels like shedding a skin, right? A phoenix reborn from the ashes. It turns out when you parade a woman naked around town to humble her, it probably won't humble her. It might enrage her, especially one that's been dealing with misogyny, whether it's her own internalization or those who deal with her and consider it all her life. And we know she's, how do I put this lightly?
Starting point is 00:29:59 Like a like a lion, right? When she's mad. Yeah, very prideful. She just like reaches out with her big' claw and fucks your shit up. With Dornish influence coming to court, I can't imagine that Nymeria Sand is not going to encourage Cersei to be the worst Cersei she can be. The Tyrells have grown their emerald vines across the shitty city of King's Landing,
Starting point is 00:30:23 and this is basically Cersei, what we think is her lowest, but we know that it's not humbling her. She's about to get right back on that one way train to wreck everything and leave the doors open for Arianne and Aegon to take the silver screen. And as Cersei says above, she can't wait for her vengeance so she can don crimson and rubies. She dreams of herself above them all. She preferred emeralds the first four to five books, but it's time for her storm to finally match. It's time for a storm to match her rage.
Starting point is 00:30:57 You know what I mean? Lannister Crimson, baby. I think she's going all out. I think we'll see Cersei decked out in some rubies and we'll see. I think we'll see her in that for sure a lot more. I also think she just kind of wore emeralds because they brought out her eyes.
Starting point is 00:31:13 Well, I think that's another thing. It plays the queen. Wearing emeralds for her is a much more demure choice than wearing rubies, right? Wearing rubies is a little out there. It's a little loud. Wearing emeralds is accepted and expected, even for her as a queen, she should be beautiful, she should be fancy, she should be quiet, she should be docile. Yeah, there's a part of me that as you were
Starting point is 00:31:37 talking about this and thinking about emeralds and that color green, first of all, it's very opposite. It's opposite on the color wheel to red, but there's also an aspect of Circe that's very the greens, yes, of course. True, true, from the rest of the book series. But Circe's very envious
Starting point is 00:31:57 and jealous of others, their power, attention that they get, and especially of the privileges that have been afforded to men within Westeros. But that I think I kind of want to save that for discussing in Cersei's chapters. Yes, but I will say, you know, thank you for this in depth discussion on emeralds. Did you know it is the birthstone for this month that we are in May? In May, mere May. Did you know, Cersei literally has almost exactly 50% of the emerald mentions in the entire book, including eye color?
Starting point is 00:32:30 She's hoarding it in her eyes. So Lannister hoarding all the wealth. Yes. But Jaime, you know, coming back to away from Circe's dress and to Jaime's beard, counters her insults, says that his beard is gold, it's not black, unlike Robert's beard, and then she plucks a grey hair out and says, silver.
Starting point is 00:32:55 Implying that he's old, but also I thought Cersei was into silver haired guys. Who knows what she's into, it depends on the day. Good for her. She calls Jaime, though though a crippled bloodless ghost and says that she prefers him in crimson and gold and he thinks now he would prefer her with golden light on her water beaded on her skin then he remembers that she's fucking other people
Starting point is 00:33:18 first and with this ghost-like imagery of jamie i kind of wonder what this chapter would have been like close to maybe the ghost of winterell, had they all been one book. I don't know. Yeah, I can see that. I do like it being next to Samwell, though. I'm glad we don't know, I guess. I love reading this as one piece, as both books together. It makes A Dance with Dragons very palatable, in my opinion.
Starting point is 00:33:42 It's not that it's a bad book. I'm not saying that. It's just sometimes it can get a little monotonous i think that cutting it with the feast stuff really creates this beautiful build and it gets you so excited but i could see it being by the ghost of winterfell especially because there's a lot about jamie's identity in this chapter as we move into it and jamie was cersei right now he he begs her relieve me of my duty you can control my razor all you want okay and he smells mulling spices on her breath from the wine she's been drinking interesting that he notes that I think that's a pretty bolded moment
Starting point is 00:34:19 for him like ugh she reminds him though that he is sworn to obey he corrects her and says i'm sworn to protect tommen and they continue to fight he asks why did you name davin lannister warden of the west if you can't trust him and then he stares out behind her at the burnt tower of the hand i thought you're gonna say stares out behind her into the camera oh my god also also that. She asks if he's a chicken, but he reminds her he vowed never to take arms against the Starks or the Tullys again. She calls it a drunken promise that was made at sword point, words that once upon a time, Jaime Lannister described it as too, you know, but he argues against it. you know, but he argues against it. Yeah, and I think that's really interesting that it comes up again in this way in Jaime's chapters. It's one of those lines that's meant to signal, of course, a change in Jaime's outlook.
Starting point is 00:35:11 It's one of the reasons readers interpret this big change and feel this big change in Jaime's character. We've heard this, like, vow before, of course, right? And we saw before that Jaime was like, yeah, I don't know, I kind of made that. And as Cersei says, he's like, yeah, I was on the short point, I don't know i kind of made that and that's as seriously says he's like i was at sword point i don't know and i'm gonna be real it's actually a pretty hard vow to keep like who do the whole fucking kingdoms at war how are you gonna know if like so and so's for the tullys or for the starks but i guess technically it means just
Starting point is 00:35:37 not trying to like actively go against either the starks or the tullys. Not like, oh no, random person who's for them. Anyway, but I mean, for him to say it here and to say it to Cersei and seem like he's standing by it in earnest, it's quite different from before Jaime. And it's kind of a rock and a hard place, right? Because keeping that vow with Cersei saying, hey, can you go fuck brendan tully up it's hard to end with not end with the up and i was like jamie's like yes he's like my
Starting point is 00:36:14 dream since age nine you know i had a poster of justin timberlake in his ramen hair an insane poster on my wall and i kissed it every day for at least two months with a different lipstick, Eliana. And I digress. Jamie Lannister had a poster of Brendan Tully that Cersei drew for him on the wall and it's like a stick figure with some red scribbled on the face.
Starting point is 00:36:38 That's true. Cersei did used to draw things. Yeah, her and Rhaegar on the dragon. Dragons are dead, idiot. Oh, Alessandra Jaehaerys? I mean, their hair's similar. So, Jaime asks how is he supposed
Starting point is 00:36:53 to defend Tommen without being there and she tells him defeat his enemies by chaining and killing Brynden Tully and setting Harrenhal to rights.
Starting point is 00:37:03 She's had no ravens in return to the ones that she sent to Harrenhal, which Jaime is like, probably because Gregor's idiot men are cruel, stupid, and hungry, likely, so they probably cooked your ravens up and ate them. Threw the letter out for kindling. Yeah, and I get- The context for this being that in one of Cersei's chapters preceding this one,
Starting point is 00:37:25 she's heard word that Manderly has kept his promise and he beheaded Davos and Circe is trying to get Manderly's son and send that son back to him as a reward, which on reread we know is meant to show us the difference in Jamie and Circe's perceptions of reality and loyalty and very much to show us that Cersei's mishandling ruling as everyone's telling her like Cersei chill absolutely she knows also that like
Starting point is 00:37:54 she knows all of this information and she says that's why I'm sending you you're gonna go Osmund Kettleblack is gonna rule the king's garden you're dead and of course he's immediately like, she's been fogging the Lancel and the Kettleblocks and Moonboy for all I know in his head, which repeats constantly throughout this arc. He argues it's not her choice, Loras
Starting point is 00:38:18 will hold the command instead while he's gone, but Cersei takes that as a slight, like she does most things, because it's putting the Tyrells in power, even though the only two worthwhile Kingsguard were sent to Dorne, Swan, and Oakheart. Cersei says she needed Swan and Dorne, because the Dornishmen can't be trusted, but at the same time,
Starting point is 00:38:38 didn't Cersei just threaten to invite a Dornish master at arms to the capital? Yeah, yeah, she did. She did. She, keeping consistent, she just wants people that she feels is, like, Team Circe. As opposed to Team the Realm.
Starting point is 00:38:54 Whoever promises they'll get shit done for her, you know? If it's, uh, cheaper than, I don't know, a shake of a salt shaker. Yeah, she's not necessarily concerned if, like, they really, really fall through. She kind of is, the appearance of them falling through. Anyway, we get this line,
Starting point is 00:39:10 this great passage of, between Cersei and Jaime. Ser Loras is thrice the man Ser Osmund is. Your notions of manhood have changed somewhat, brother. Jaime felt his anger rising.
Starting point is 00:39:25 True, Loras does not leer at your teats the way Sir Osmond does, but I hardly think- Think about this! Cersei slapped his face. Good job. Jamie made no attempt to block the blow. I see I need a thicker beard to cushion me against my queen's caresses. He wanted to rip her gown off and turn her blows to kisses. He'd done it before, back when he had two good hands.
Starting point is 00:39:49 The queen's eyes were green ice. You had best go, sir. Lancel, Osmond Kettleblack, and Moonboy. Are you deaf as well as maimed? You'll find the door behind you, sir. As you command. That line, uh, your notions of manhood
Starting point is 00:40:10 have changed somewhat. Yes. Yes. True. Big mood. Yes. Good call. Yeah, there's a lot of ways in which that is. One of which, uh, we said we would come back to that quote up at the top of the chapter.
Starting point is 00:40:26 It's rearing its head a bit here with that big yikes of wanting to turn her blows to kisses. A bit of this exchange, though, reminds me of, we had talked about that sonnet before, one of Shakespeare's sonnets regarding the Dark Lady, and all those kind of backhanded compliments, right?
Starting point is 00:40:41 And the Queen's Cross kind of gives me that vibe but i mean like this is not so it kind of uh reinforces a lot of things that we've been saying about jamie and circe's sexual relationship in the past few chapters and uh and how it's portrayed uh how consensual or non-consensual depending on what it is it is uh but you know as as we were saying about jamie's notions of manhood having changed i think you know jamie he's defending laura cersei makes those jabs and like there's a part of me that's like wondering like going on a tangent for a bit is this how jr mormont felt when he was like talking to alice
Starting point is 00:41:20 or thorn and all of them when he told everyone you you know what? I'm going to take Jon Snow as my steward. Everyone was like, what? Jon Snow? This is so clearly Jaime showing favoritism and grooming Loras for command one day. Of course, because he sees himself in Loras very much and he's trying to be one of his dads. And congratulations, Loras. You were getting the Jon Snow treatment.
Starting point is 00:41:39 Oh my god, you're adopted, Loras. Congrats. Congratulations, Loras. You have multiple dads now. But like, the other Kingsguard aren't gonna take it well, right? Like, we saw the Night's Watch how well it goes when you're like, hello, yes, the 17-year-old boy who has never seen battle. At least Jon Snow had seen
Starting point is 00:41:55 battle. I think Cersei has a misconception he's a green boy. He's not, um, Loras Tyrell, congrats. You're in charge of all these much older men? Like, they're already like, yeah, we follow a boy king. Like, congrats! You're in charge of all these much older men? They're already like, yeah, we follow a boy king. Jamie's not gonna get in their best graces by putting Loras in charge, even if he believes in Loras' ability. But I do think it's true, coming back to that. Jamie's ideas of manhood or honor have changed in general. How could it
Starting point is 00:42:22 not? The whole thing that he measured his manhood by this whole time like he's failing by that metric system and he's like i need a new metric system for what manhood is absolutely he leaves knowing he may have swayed her if he was softer in his approach but at the same time he's like ah fuck this city fuck her shitty council i'm out of here that's how you know they broke they're like in the middle of a break i don't care what you think anymore we're gonna just fight yeah and okay so her shitty court is not actually named that it's being called the smallest council actually so kind of worse kind of actually worse uh by adam Marbrand has told him this and
Starting point is 00:43:06 Qyburn, of course, is hanging around. And he warned Cersei against his secrets. And she told him, look, Jamie, we all have our secrets, except Jamie kind of knows her secrets. I mean, he mostly believes her secrets. And he has some of his secrets himself, but he won't admit it to himself, you know? Yeah, he won't. He's still trying to get there and reconcile his vision of Cersei with Cersei.
Starting point is 00:43:36 Not just Cersei. The retinue to the Riverlands has 40 knights and squires, half-Westermen, sworn to House Lannister. We have Ser Dermot of the Rainwood, who's carrying Tom and Sandard, Red Ron at Connington, holding the Kingsguard banner, and then a page,
Starting point is 00:43:52 not a page, but last name page, P-A-E-G-E. We got a Piper, we got a Peckledin, and they would all share the squiring honors for Jaime. Jaime's like, how the fuck did I get three squires? What is this? What am I, a daycare? Anyways, Jamie remembers
Starting point is 00:44:08 this line from a former mentor. Keep friends at your back and foes where you can see them. Sumner Crakehall had once counseled him. Or had that been father? It's funny that he thinks this because in the last chapter, Jamie 2, he pleads with Cersei
Starting point is 00:44:24 about friends and foes. He says, Cersei, listen to yourself. You're seeing dwarves in every shadow and making foes of friends. Uncle Kevin is not your enemy. I am not your enemy. I think the echoes here of him thinking about friends and foes,
Starting point is 00:44:38 it feels a lot like getting back on the horse, right? Like, how do I politics? Yeah. And he's just trying to remember like, ah, this is what be doing but who said this was it sumner was it my father yeah and it's hard right to tell who are your friends and foes especially now as a ruler circe is learning and who knows how well she's taking that lesson right but it even status baratheon right struggled with this didn't say something like, friends and foes all around me? Something like that? Yes.
Starting point is 00:45:08 Yes. I know it's because I have a Sanrixian shirt. Jamie has two horses awaiting him. He's got a Palfrey, which is a Blood Bay, and his Destrier, a magnificent Grey Stallion. Jamie doesn't name his horses since too many of them die in battle, and it
Starting point is 00:45:24 makes him super sad. Big mood. The Piper boy names the horses Honor and Glory and Jaime laughs and he's like, you know what? Fine. Whatever. We can have some nice things. Glory wears the trappings of Lannister Crimson and Honor is wearing Kingsguard
Starting point is 00:45:39 white. It's so perfect because this kind of ties back to that beginning of the chapter with some fashion hour for Jaime. Cersei tells him she prefers him in crimson, and then you kind of have that idea of Brienne, right? Full-on honor, the angel on his shoulder.
Starting point is 00:45:56 She probably prefers him in white since he, you know, was desecrating the name of the Kingsguard in her eyes. But what if Jaime, like Cersei got to so many times, wants to be rid of his identity? What if he just wants to don a traveler's cloak? How come Jaime doesn't get to go exploring like Arya and be no one?
Starting point is 00:46:16 And to bring our analysis of Jon into this, Kingsguard honor is supposed, heavy emphasis, supposed, to be similar to the Night's Watch in protecting the king and its kingdom, right, as knights. John 1 in A Game of Thrones has this line from Benjen, the Night's Watch is a sworn brotherhood. We have no families. None of us will ever father sons. Our wife is duty. Our mistress is honor. And bringing up this idea of honor the horse, which I'm sure we'll be talking about for chapters to come not just today in depth amen kind of fits here as well you all
Starting point is 00:46:52 might remember when we covered this with joe magician in a john chapter i wonder if jamie can fit into this at all what's honor compared to a woman's love? What's duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms or the memory of a brother's smile? Winds and words, winds and words, we're only human and the gods have fashioned us for love. That's our great glory and our great tragedy. I think talking about honor and glory in those terms is also very interesting because it's always separated in this story it's always two things and for jamie those are two very important things for the man who didn't get to father his own children the man that the woman that he loves won't give him healthy love and he can't give her healthy love this is the great tragedy that
Starting point is 00:47:45 amen speaks about yeah and then he's choosing between those and brienne herself is starting to go through a journey as we're seeing those chapters of questioning like what is honor right and besides a horse and her idea of honor is very wrapped up in jamie as she thinks of him making her a member of a Kingsguard with the rainbow cloak. She dreams of it and she thinks of all the ways in which she's starting to fail as a knight, even though she's never been knighted, so you're kind of scot-free. But whatever, Brienne. And how she's not living up to a lot of these oaths and therefore being dishonorable. So it's interesting to see how he sort of symbolizes that for her
Starting point is 00:48:26 and the different embodiments of honor i do want to say you know as as you said like why can't jamie wear a traveler's cloak i will say that jamie did try he tried to don the dot the traveler's cloak he shaved his head grew a beard but apparently everyone was like no you're still too hot we know who you are and he was still very recognizable like that literally happened they're like nope still truly still super hot sorry everyone westerosi dudes are just easy they get focused on the boobies which i would too honestly i'd be focused even malnourished they were all like oh interesting like cersei she gets away with it yeah she can get away with being a maid. That's true.
Starting point is 00:49:05 They're like, she's a hot broad, wear a cloak. Yeah, Jaime, you know, they just had to, they took in all of him all at once. Anyways, back to the story. One of Jaime's other squires, Jasmine Packledon, I love Pack, is skinny with greasy brown hair and soft peach fuzz on his cheeks. is skinny with greasy brown hair and soft peach fuzz on his cheeks. He wears the Lannister crimson cloak, but is also wearing a surcoat of his own house, house peckled in, 10 purple mullets on a yellow field.
Starting point is 00:49:35 You're not going to tell me these are different mullets. Nope, because I didn't look it up, and I know they're a different mullet, and I know if I saw them, I'd know, but I'd rather think about, like, the Joe Dirt wig. Yep, yep, yep. Yep. He asks if Jamie wants his new hand, and Kenos of Case is like, yes, wear it, Jamie.
Starting point is 00:49:54 Give the small folks something to remember and think on. But Jamie's like, I think not. He thinks it would be a golden lie of who he is as a person and who he is as a cripple. He calls for Illyn Pay pain to ride alongside him illin wears no heraldry a blank boiled leather slate with rusted busted chain mail he could pass for death himself so throughout this chapter i've realized i'm an illin pain apologist slash stand now oh my god but first i want to talk about the language that's used to describe Illen Payne's shield here it's called So Hacked and Battered it was hard to say what color Payne might once have
Starting point is 00:50:30 covered it, we know from a lot of the other chapters including Brienne's right that the shield kind of says something about the character holding it in to an extent I think that's what we get in this especially as we learn these flashbacks about Illen Payne and how he came to be this way, he's been through a lot and he's been subjected to a lot and I think it's the whole idea of it's hard to see what color
Starting point is 00:50:49 paint or has to do with like who he stands for like or feels loyalty towards it's really murky for everyone and you also have this line uh this is not important of jamie telling ill and pain you'll ride beside me and i'm just saying it has big big Mushu telling Kriki, ooh, very nice. You can sit by me. And he sets Kriki down on the back of the horse. And it's kind of nice that he gets kind of a companion, a male companion, since we
Starting point is 00:51:16 haven't seen that. I mean, of course, Il and can't speak. So it doesn't really do much character development wise, but I like to get this insider look on your favorite character. Mushu's on a redemption arc cersei hadn't put up a fight in jamie's requests for the men he wanted on this journey she gave him adam marbrand easily and ill in pain as well adam marbrand was his boyhood bff ill in pain of course a lannister man at origin, as we remember as the reader. Payne was boasting Tywin was the real king. Aerys takes his tongue out for it. Jaime commands the gates to be
Starting point is 00:51:51 open, and Strongbore repeats his call louder with a lord's voice. When the Tyrells had left, drums, fiddles, and cheering people lined the street. None of that happens today. Sex workers call out, meat men and sparrows are business as usual around them they like the smell of roses but have no love for lions jamie observed my sister would be wise to take note of that sir illin made no reply the perfect companion for a long ride i'll enjoy his conversation interesting you know rereading these jamie chapters i have this pet theory i'm working on that everything jamie thinks about cersei along these lines like cersei should do this she will directly do the opposite of as we move forward in the plot and they will help lead to
Starting point is 00:52:39 her doom that's what i think is going to happen so like right here my sister would be wise to take note that they like the roses Cersei going to fucking ruin the roses life next book yeah yeah it's all being kind of seeded in all this but for sure there are some fun and interesting moments though
Starting point is 00:53:00 between Jaime and Ilyn Payne in this chapter in the next ones especially I think because Brienne's chapter is right they have her traveling with and Payne in this chapter and the next ones. Especially I think because Brienne's chapter is right, they have her traveling with another Payne, Podrick, who is very different and much less silent than Il and Payne.
Starting point is 00:53:16 Very, very opinionated. Smart. Young boy. Learning to be confident. It's hard. I didn't actually notice that. That's a really good catch. Like, duh. Both have their own pain in the ass.
Starting point is 00:53:29 Oh, wow. Both have their emotional baggage. Most of Jamie's men are already assembled outside of the gates. We got Marban, Stefan Swift, and his baggage trade. Not emotional. Bonifor the Good and his Holy Hundred. Sarsfield's Archers. Maester Julian and his Ravens, Flemmant
Starting point is 00:53:48 Brax and his 200 horses. There are fewer than a thousand of them in total and hopefully he's like it shouldn't take that many men, we don't want to like show up rolling too deep right? There's already Lannister armies there and Frey armies as well and the last correspondence they received from Riverrun was that the besiegers were unable to stay fed. The Blackfish had scared the land before retiring within the walls of the castle, but the land itself was sacked,
Starting point is 00:54:12 burnt, and no longer fertile as war has gone through it. Now Jamie's coming! He's gotta finish the work that Amory Larch and the Mountain started! They're so good at doing things! Yikes! Not good to have to end their work. Can't be that clean.
Starting point is 00:54:28 That's like Game of Thrones after season 5 having to finish. Jamie sends Marbrand and Co. to go scout ahead because he doesn't want to get whispering wooded again and it's not sexy. The wood net is not sexy. I thought there was an interesting
Starting point is 00:54:44 note here how Adam seemed to be relieved to be out of the city watch in his gold clothes and into his own house colors, which were smoke gray, and on a horse. He's free now. There wasn't much more than that. I don't know. Thought it was an interesting note that Jamie thinks. Jamie had commanded no man leave the column without his knowing, as he knows young lords would be trampling crops, scaring the animals, playing a field in their horses, and from the outside of the Riverlands, things are looking luscious. Animals, oats, barley, looking sexy, looking green, but Jamie knows that as they enter, not so much. As he rides next to Illyn, he feels content, almost peaceful.
Starting point is 00:55:27 The sun's at his back, and his squire, little Lou Piper, brings him some blackberries. Very cute. It's very sweet. This is a very cute moment. And he tells him, go share with everyone else, like Illyn Payne and the other squires. He begins to ruminate on Illyn pain as lou piper goes off and how illin's place as headsman was a gift from robert to tywin to compensate illin for his tongue as well illin had been happy quote unquote to join jamie who gave him the choice ish to come yeah i'm always kind of confused about this you know i'm like the choice between what this and staying as a headsman where ill and had sort of been confined and forced to be in for many years and like we don't truly know how ill and pain feels which is why i so badly wanted ill and pain prologue or epilogue george give me this but it is interesting how you know these lannister boys right jamie and
Starting point is 00:56:21 tyrian perceived generosity when it comes to choices because it reminds me of Tyrion sort of patting himself on the back in A Storm of Swords. The choice that Jaime gave Illyn is about as much of a choice as Tyrion was like, Santa, which Lannister, the family that you hate, who killed your family, do you want to marry?
Starting point is 00:56:40 Me or Lancel? And, like, Illyn may not be disloyal, though the text kind of seems to be warning us between this and the shield that like, maybe he's not like 100% sold on the house, Lannister Kaz. But I don't know,
Starting point is 00:56:56 perhaps he wants something else. Maybe it's not a Lannister. Maybe it is. I don't know. But I don't know. Well, maybe, maybe. Jaime had gone to his room.'m like aliana go off about your prologue wishes that won't happen just kidding he's too main character you know what not main but i mean like he's too prominent he's not more prominent than kevin kevin was quite prominent and
Starting point is 00:57:20 he got an epilogue yeah i don't know i love the idea i just really think it's probably poorly pressed her at this point i just want nice things i know i know but we can't have nice things and jamie can't either and ill and pain really can't apparently because jamie goes to his room which is located at the end of traderader's Walk. And it kind of looks like a 23-year-old boy who plays nothing but Xbox and pees into pot bottles, right? Like, looks like his kind of room. Literally. Literally. He describes it like that.
Starting point is 00:57:54 Like, imagine that plus COVID. You know what I mean? Like, hmm. Illyn can't read or write. His position as headsman was slightly split across the other jailers until the most recent made the mistake of conspiring to put stannis on the throne of course enjoying the antler men which we all know how that went for him retiford longwaters became illin's better half and brought jamie up to the room that stank of rotten food vermin and piss broken wine bottles
Starting point is 00:58:21 everywhere the only beautiful thing in the room a gleaming steel sword next to his whetstone. Okay, so this chapter almost feels like it has a lot of ghosts of Jaime's present future past going on. Illyn is one of them. Kind of this idea of Nega Jaime in the Kingsguard 20 years down the line if he had stayed under Cersei's rule. Confined to his tower most days when he's not protecting whoever's ruling-ish. Rotten food, vermin, piss, broken wine glasses, broken, crippled, no longer a man with something to live for, depressed because of his sword hand. A Feast for Crows is really busting out this whole broken man thematic, right, as we speed along,
Starting point is 00:59:01 specifically with Brienne encountering her broken men recently and the empathy we as readers are told is important as we consider the construction of this chapter and of this whole book with these men these females these children that we encounter in war. Jaime next thinks that the man cares for naught but killing as Sir Ilyn emerged from a bedchamber that reeked of overflowing chamber pots. Just like what we hear from Sandor in Sansa's plot, killing is the sweetest thing there is. And this is all men who have been prisoners and mindless drones have been sold and bought to do, to kill, to have, to have. This is the only thing they are worth. This is how they weigh their worth.
Starting point is 00:59:45 Yeah, you used this word earlier, and I think it's very much what's going on in illin's chambers it just screams to me of like depression and like is it that killing is all there is to earth or like the only thing that he has maybe it's the only thing that he feels right it's it's the one purpose that he has here and it's interesting to read this and take that long hard look at him and here's where you know you find out wow aliana what happened to you how did you become an ill-informed apologist because in a way like yeah sure right he's had great job security and a place to actually live. He's had food, drink the past few years. All that he could probably mostly want. Yeah, it's just enough.
Starting point is 01:00:30 But it's not a life, right? The text points out that, right here, that he wasn't fit to be head of the dungeons, which is kind of part of the job duties, apparently, of being the king's justice. But he couldn't keep track of the list. And the reason
Starting point is 01:00:45 he couldn't do that is, I mean, he was unqualified for this specific job because not only is he illiterate, he cannot dictate to the people who work for him literally because he's had his tongue cut out. And like everyone just sort of projects this idea of death onto Ilan Payne because of his job, and also because Ilan Payne can't speak for himself to be like, I'm a person. But it seems like he had quite the sense of humor. That's part of how he, I guess, lost his tongue and it was taken from him. ill and pain's life of course he lives in this squalor like he's really lonely he he can't connect with people he has no means to communicate his thoughts yeah with anyone else around him and many are too scared to talk to him it's not like someone made like fucking american sign language or any sign language to communicate with him he cannot read or write he He can't even just write things to people. He's just stuck in his head with his own thoughts. And I think throughout these chapters, we're gonna see there's definitely a weird power imbalance between Jaime and Illyn. And I mean, Illyn knows why he's here,
Starting point is 01:01:57 but in a way, I think there's sort of a charm to their interactions. Not to talk of Jaime's generosity too much in here, because there's obviously a pragmatism in choosing Illyn as his companion versus literally anyone else but I mean this is probably the most genuine human interaction Illyn Payne's had with anyone like in a while and it also speaks to a lot of the turn we're going to see in Jamie's story especially after with his interactions with Brienne and one in where he sort of swaps roles with Tyrion, because Tyrion had once fancied himself, framed himself as this champion of bastards, cripples, and broken things. That's the famous line. But as Jaime starts to come to grips with no longer having
Starting point is 01:02:36 his hand, no longer living up to Westerosi standards of manhood, he's the one who's been making connections with these sort of societal outcasts. It starts off with Brienne, but here he is bonding and taking time hanging out with Ilan Payne. We're going to see it later on as he shows compassion towards Pia and defends her versus Tyrion, who mired in all of this self-hate has started rejecting all of these societal outcasts in the same way that societies rejected him and acting out against them yeah and it wasn't hard for jamie to get pain to agree again it's not like he could verbally disagree besides clacking he agreed to come win the riverlands back with jamie and now here they are they're making camp right now as we read beneath the hayford's hillside castle jamie set the sentries even though things seem
Starting point is 01:03:27 safe because things always seem safe when bad things happen he's then invited to sup with the castling of hayford and takes illin marbrand bonifer hasty red ron con i feel like everyone should call him that i do too i was like red ron con rrc red ron con i don't actually think that anyone should call red ron con just putting that out there oh i i bought into it why would you tease me like that i was sold i mean why would you call him would would you i wouldn't strong boar a handful of other knights and lordlings are there and he says, Alright, Peck, fetch my fucking golden hand. It's lifelike, inlaid with mother-of-pearl nails, which sounds
Starting point is 01:04:10 really creepy, formed to be able to hold a goblet. Jamie thinks, I cannot fight, but I can drink. Jamie, reflected as the lad, was tightening the straps that bound it to his stump. Men shall name you golden hands from this day forth, my lord,
Starting point is 01:04:26 the armorer had assured him the first time he'd fitted it onto Jaime's wrist. He was wrong. I shall be the Kingslayer till I die. The first thought of a golden hand forever will make me and probably others think of King Midas or Aladdin shit and his golden touch. Oh, yeah. I mean, I was a kid first when I heard of this you know mythos
Starting point is 01:04:48 so now as an adult yes of course I've read this but as a six year old I was like fuck yeah everything's golden here but King Midas is cured of his golden touch eventually when Dionysus points him in the direction of a river
Starting point is 01:05:04 that'll heal him and really moreover Midas gets known for his poor judgment and music taste between Apollo and Pan he chooses Apollo, Pan of course thanks him by giving him donkey ears and my favorite part of this mythos is that when
Starting point is 01:05:19 these donkey ears are revealed by his barber to everyone everyone starts chanting, Midas has ass ears. Midas has ass ears. Which I'm like, oh, Lord Tywin doesn't shit gold. So similar, similar thought, similar thought. But also, Midas has ass ears.
Starting point is 01:05:36 Midas has ass ears. Midas has ass ears. It's got a ring. It does have a ring to it. You know, Eliana, you said something in our Etterd three and etterd seven episodes if you can even believe it yeah lamal very funny very freaking funny if you can believe it you spoke about achilles and it made me think a lot more about achilles in this chapter
Starting point is 01:06:01 especially here with what jam Jaime is thinking and feeling. And to sum up what you had said, you told the story of how Achilles' mother, Thedas, renders him immortal by dipping him in river Styx, holding him by the foot, which makes that his weak spot, the only spot that is not immortal. He gets hit in the foot by an arrow and dies. You referred to Cersei's weak spot, or Cersei's ankle, and Jaime holding it being the weak spot between them. To expand, Achilles is actually kind of a really good Jaime parallel in many ways. Known for his war exploits, his speed, and his strength in combat. And there's a really good scene in the Iliad where Hephaestus creates an intricate shield displaying the moment of human life that Achilles is going to miss out on if he returns to battle,
Starting point is 01:06:49 and that it fates him to die at a gloriously young age. With this set of arms, he wrecks the Trojan army and savagely slays the Trojan hero Hector in single combat at the end of the war. I've seen some people liken kind of some of the stuff going on here with Helen and Hector to Rhaegar, Robert, Lyanna in this little love triangle. But I think exploring this golden theme for Achilles is really important because the shield that he had made for him is symbolic of the relationship with his mother, his divine parentage, his connection with the gods, and also that his mother specifically had connection with gods. In a way, we can liken this to the idea of Valyrian steel swords, with Hephaestus being the god of masonry, but the gold for Achilles symbolizes kind of Jaime's journey in a way,
Starting point is 01:07:37 in that he will never again be able to experience ordinary human life, much like Achilles, Achilles chooses the glory of this young death in battle. And even now, Jaime sits astride the crimson horse and the white horse with his golden hand. Do you choose glory, Jaime Lannister? Or do you choose honor? Which is it? Which horse will he take? A horse, of course. A horse, of course. A horse, of course. I hate myself. Which tier are you, Jamie?
Starting point is 01:08:14 But yeah, I think that's a really great comparison. I haven't thought of Jamie much in the context of Achilles or anything that has to do with the Iliad, which is really interesting considering that it maps so well in a lot of ways to the rebellion. And other than, you know, talking about the birth of Cersei and Jaime. But, yeah, I don't know if you'll choose glory or honor. Maybe you will find that, like many other things,
Starting point is 01:08:38 right, they're not so different, and we might see how they wrap together in Jaime's story. Right, if love and hate can mate, can glory and honor be one? Yeah, be one. It doesn't rhyme as well.
Starting point is 01:08:54 I was trying to think of something cute like love and hate can mate, but you know, I'm not a poet. Neither are all the people who are admiring Jamie's hand at dinner until he knocks over a goblet of wine. And then he lets his temper take over for a second. He bitches out,
Starting point is 01:09:09 telling him if he loves Jamie's hand so much, why don't you just fucking marry it? You dig it? That's all I thought when I heard that chapter. I was like, oh my god. Jamie. People do make those jokes about people's hands in general. But anyways, after they avoid all this hand talk,
Starting point is 01:09:27 we have Lady Hermesonde. She's all of a year old. Tyrek Lannister's toddler wife, in quotes, who's trotted out for the court's approval. She's wearing a gown of cloth of gold, the Hayford sigil, and jade beads. And she cries because, you know, she's like a baby, and they're like, we gotta put her to bed.
Starting point is 01:09:43 The Cathelon and Jaime discuss now 14-year-old Tyrek. I love to say, get Tyrek'd, Lannister. He's been missing since the King's Landing fights in Clash. When Jaime was a prisoner in Riverrun, so he missed all of that excitement. Adam Marberin offers that, you know, I actually led a search party looking for him at Tywin's command, but unfortunately we found nothing. We found his palfrey, but not his body.
Starting point is 01:10:12 Most like they pulled him down and slew him. But if that's so, where's his body? The mob let the other corpses lie. Why not his? Why not his? Strongbore agrees. He's like, yeah, he's worth much more alive. He's a lannister and marbrand is also an agreement but no ransom had been made who was taking care of the money
Starting point is 01:10:31 for tywin i don't know i was just thinking about that i'm sorry uh kevin probably well not anymore uh jamie who's three cups of wine in says the is dead. They likely killed him when they realized who he was and threw him in the river to avoid Tywin's wrath. Tywin always paid his debts. I love this language of how Jaime's hand seems heavier and clumsier as he gets drunker. That's something that's called out. But also,
Starting point is 01:10:58 a thought, just gonna put it out there and then let it go. Had this been alongside a Dance with Dragons chapters, but Jaime's golden hand donning it and uh danny's floppy ears okay i like that a lot and there are a couple other parallels here we'll talk about in a second for danny that i think as we move forward we're definitely gonna see more happening uh because jamie's being forced into leadership. And it's funny you say it reminds me of Danny because in a way how that language of his hand is
Starting point is 01:11:30 heavier as he gets drunker. It reminds me of John drunk in his first chapter. And being like, you know what? I will make big life decisions drunkenly like subscribing to a patron or pledging my life to the night's watch
Starting point is 01:11:47 hey i mean jamie understands that he was drunk on glory that's true and his sister's pussy i was gonna say pussy but i didn't strong boar agrees with me the conversation's over just kidding he agreed that the conversation was over regarding Tyrek, etc. But later, Jaime's alone in the tower room and kind of thinks more about Tyrek because Tyrek was kind of prominent. He served as squire to King Robert with Lancel. Lancel. Knowledge could be more valuable than gold, more deadly than a dagger.
Starting point is 01:12:22 It was Varys, he thought of then, smiling and smelling of lavender. The eunuch had agents and informers all over the city. It would have been a simple matter for him to arrange to have Tyrex snatched during the confusion, provided he knew beforehand the mob was like to riot. And Varys knew all, or so he would have us believe. Yet he gave Cersei no warning of that riot. Nor did he ride down to the ships to see Myrcella off. I'm going to be real. This passage right here, that's all the proof I need to believe that Tyrek is whisked away by Varys. I don't need more than that.
Starting point is 01:13:00 That feels right. I mean, that theory is something that's passed around the fandom obviously because it's literally presented right here as a theory that jamie goes huh and again i think jamie is right about a lot of things in a feast for crows that are going to translate to the winds of winter i mean even here the dornish are coming to king's landing dornish are in talks of hooking up with agan blackfirere's campaign. Let's just call it what it is, you know what I mean? Aegon Blackfyre. Varys and Illyrio are plotting out
Starting point is 01:13:30 Young Griff's campaign. Cersei is going to have to deal with the Dornish, who are in leagues with Illyrio and Varys, who have been the puppet masters for ages, and then a dance with dragons ends with Varys revealing to us yes, I've been puppeteering this city for so long.
Starting point is 01:13:46 Jaime was right. Again. Yeah. I mean, he notices things. And he's not he's not only a pretty face and a good hand. One good hand. I'm sorry, it wasn't nice.
Starting point is 01:14:02 No good hands. I should really reach out to him sometime give him a hand but yeah I just feel like with the Edric Storm going into Lys right with Eastermont that feels also shady
Starting point is 01:14:17 really just feels like Varys as I've mentioned before I'm very on to that theory that Varys is totally just stealing side airs. Just in case. Just in case. Varys onto that theory. Chloe's gonna ignore my joke while Jaime
Starting point is 01:14:34 surveys out a shuttered window. And now that it's late enough, he finds Ser Ilyn to train with him. His hold on the shield is loose with his golden hand, and he takes his blunted tourney sword, telling Ilyn that, you know you know we were both once knights and let's see what we become pain after 15 years of just sort of like beheading people and living in depression where he yeah in in depression and where he has been is very rusted as a
Starting point is 01:15:01 his own ringmail but he meets meets each of Jaime's attacks. They dance under the horned moon to their steely dance song. Ilan hits him several times, though Jaime notes he's not as strong as Brienne. And by the end, Jaime's bruised, battered, and exhausted enough to worry about it later with wine. He tells Ilan, you know what, we're going to play every day until he's as good with his left as he once was with his right. Illyn makes a clacking noise. Haunts me.
Starting point is 01:15:32 Yeah, Jamie realized he's laughing in his remark. I kind of like the clacking noise idea. Of course you do, because you stan Illyn Bain, whatever that means. I think I also just like weird things. I'm like, yeah, of course the bear eats the person. Yeah, of course. That's wholesome, right? You know what, Eliana? Honestly, I'm a little disappointed in you because Illyn Payne
Starting point is 01:15:51 ethically kills people and if you're gonna stand that for your morals, that's very on you. Okay? Yeah. No, I mean, like, his job is terrible, but also just, like... Interesting. I feel bad. I feel bad for him. Jamie is...
Starting point is 01:16:06 He's my Sander Clegane, okay? Chloe? There is... I don't... Fuck you. Is it not? Just because I made a comparison about them already doesn't mean you can use it against me.
Starting point is 01:16:18 Anyways. Is it not? Am I wrong? Am I wrong? I feel like all you do is use things against me. God. So Jamie's really bruised up the next day. No one says anything about it, but he knows they look.
Starting point is 01:16:31 When they get back to the camp, little Lou Piper is the only one brave enough to ask Jamie about it. I'm really excited to talk about Lou Piper. You all might recognize the name, of course, because of House Piper. And there are actually, like I said, a couple Danny parallels for Jamie here moving forward. Lou is the brother of hot-headed Mark Piper, best friend to
Starting point is 01:16:52 Edmure Tully, captive at the twins' post-red wedding. So we will definitely get there to see that. But Jamie tells little Lou Piper, the wenches in House Hayford gave him these lovebites and boy, are they lusty wenches. Jamie only likes
Starting point is 01:17:08 lusty wenches. Just kidding, it's maidens. Yeah, I was just like, what's the truth, Jamie? I don't think people believe this about Jamie. Yeah, right? Like, okay, we all know the only girl you fuck is your sister. Yeah, right. The days turn from blustery to cloudy to rainy, but the column moves
Starting point is 01:17:24 along, north on the king's road jamie ends up finding more love bites every single morning because he's dancing with the lusty wenches each night and by lusty wenches we mean ill and pain a stable a stone barn on an island an open field in the rain out of the rain it made no matter because they did it every night he makes excuses for what he does at night although he's sure adam and his other captains probably suspect it that he's in love with illen pain no i'm just kidding but he chose illen for a reason and now no one will learn jamie's garbage swords thank the gods yeah there's actually something that i feel is kind of a either a
Starting point is 01:18:02 great callback or continuity in terms of some of the metaphors that George is using in this book that Jamie calls these practices dancing. with my left hand as ever I was with the right. And it reminds me very much of the secret dancing lessons or practices that Arya was having when she was studying water dancing under Syrio. It's the same language. But there's obviously something of a joke in here as well. Like, obviously, one layer of it is, yes, Jaime's not actually fucking getting lovebites, and there
Starting point is 01:18:40 isn't actually an explicit sexual tension between Jaime and Illyn, I think? I think? I'm sure that fanfic exists. I was just gonna say, I'm like, Eliana, is this your new thing? Because I feel like it should be. They can't tongue kiss. It doesn't have the same...
Starting point is 01:18:57 They passed the bench-dell test. I guess. It doesn't have the same appeal to me as, like, Gren and Pip. Like, this one, I'm like, I don't know. It's, like, something I'm sure exists somewhere. I guess. It doesn't have the same appeal to me as Gren and Pip. This one, I'm like, I don't know. It's something I'm sure exists somewhere, but anyway. It's not for me. I'm reminded of our analysis, though, of Brienne and Jaime's fight.
Starting point is 01:19:16 Their fight was basically a sex scene. It had a lot of that same language and charge tension, and after all, towards the beginning of this, right when Jaime and illin start dancing uh jamie does compare illin to brian he's like brian's better anyways um and all this time right brian again is thinking of jamie dreaming of him as her idea of honor is getting wrapped up with him and to tie all this back also to his relationship with circe and jamie's previous views on fucking and fighting i think there's something to be said for
Starting point is 01:19:50 also this language around sex in his chapters being tied to fighting maybe even uh very wrapped up in these emotions of hate and fear yeah and something you just said actually clicked with me that this whole time brienne he thought the whole time you know oh Cersei Cersei I have to get back to Cersei it's all about Cersei but now that he's with Cersei he's disgusted and it's all about
Starting point is 01:20:16 Brienne yeah cause he's emotionally cheating on Brienne yeah I mean Cersei's actually cheating but I don't think anyone's cheating because they haven't actually defined their relationship again all of them are cheating on each other with other things
Starting point is 01:20:30 wow amazing they creep oh go ahead they creep further into the riverlands where the signs of war have become much more obvious there's weeds, thorny, brushy trees wolves prowling dusk till dawn. They even
Starting point is 01:20:45 kill one of Marbarin's horses. There's a hilarious wording here that goes into Jamie's practice. Soon the signs of war could be seen on every hand. Weeds and thorns and bushy trees grew up so high in blah blah blah, whatever, imagery.
Starting point is 01:21:03 Heh heh. Heh. No beast would be so bold declared sir bon for the good of the stern sad face oh these are demons in the skins of wolves said to chastise us for our sins this must have been an uncommonly sinful horse jamie, standing over what remained of the poor animal. I never noticed that Sir Boniface's face is stern and sad right there, which we'll talk about, I'm sure, soon.
Starting point is 01:21:34 I'd like the commentary though that there are bad wolves or men of the wolves out there, right? That kind of implies that double entendre, but at the same time, of course the wolf is going to eat the horse. It's trying to survive in the midst of a war. Also, literally,
Starting point is 01:21:49 of course the wolf will eat a horse just in general. Yeah, it's hungry, bitch. You guys literally eat the horse after this. That's the other thing. Like they literally have the horse cut apart, salted in case they need the meat as they go. And they stop at this inn, the Sowshorn, where they find
Starting point is 01:22:06 an older knight, Roger Hogg, squatting in his tower house with six men-at-arms, four crossbow men, and a score of peasants. Kenos wonders if he's a long-lost crake-hall, as Roger resembles the brindled boar, and Strawboar wastes an hour
Starting point is 01:22:22 genuinely questioning Roger Hogg about this. But Roger has more interesting things to say about wolves, and not furry ones, but rather furries. The Karstarks, the white star wolves. Turns out they came looking for Jaime Lannister, but
Starting point is 01:22:37 Hogg and his men put them in their grave. And before that, Amre Lorch had led lions to his keep, although Jaime comments that Tywin had told him to harry the riverlands, but Hogsfield, he isn't to the riverlands, it's to House Hayford. And Irmessand, the baby, bends to the throne. But that doesn't stop Lorch, right? He just slaughters half a hog's sheep, his three milk goats, and he tries to roast him in his tower,
Starting point is 01:23:05 and then he's like, ah, this is boring. And he leaves, and Hog's like, okay, cool, great, well, we got thick wool, so eventually the fire goes out. The four-legged wolves, though, eventually come, not like the metaphorical Stark people,
Starting point is 01:23:21 literally wolves, and they eat the rest of his sheep so that actually really sucks he asks jamie what they should do and jamie says plant and pray for one last harvest i have some mixed emotions here so let's just chat it out let's just get it going um so part of me is kind of annoyed because that's like their whole livelihood right like everything that they lost that's their livelihood that's their sustainability the milk uh of the goats and the sheep's fur he can sell but the whole sheep eventually he could have butchered to feed the family for a while or keep shearing it and selling it. Exactly. I mean, that was their everything.
Starting point is 01:24:06 Jamie couldn't throw him a couple gold coins because that could really change things. I mean, I don't know, you stingy fuck. And no, at the same time, it's wartime. Gold coins aren't going to do much good when you're hiding out in your tower house. I get that, okay? But it just sucks because Jamie looked away from
Starting point is 01:24:21 Amory Lorch here because he couldn't I mean, obviously A, Amory Lorch here because he couldn't. I mean, obviously, A, Amory Lorch is dead. B, Jamie couldn't come for Amory Lorch and try to give justice to this rightfully. He can't do that as a Kingsguard member right now. And he also can't himself can't look down on his family name. Right. Like he still cannot separate himself from being Jamie Lannister. And when you see Roger Hogg is taking care of his meager amount of small folk
Starting point is 01:24:52 in this tower, it's kind of similar to Edmure, right? My people, they were brave taking his small folk in, but pride did motivate that a little bit. Just putting that out there. I don't know. The other thought I have is that while Jamie can't publicly condemn his father's man, this almost reminds me of some of the conflict for Ned in King's Landing that we'll get into in a second. Interesting.
Starting point is 01:25:16 I'm excited to get to those thoughts. But yeah, he could have given them that or maybe found another sheep. It would be kind of hard. But provided them another means of provision, but I think another difficulty is like, what, if he gives them
Starting point is 01:25:32 a gold coin, who else does he have to give as they go through the rest of the battered riverlands? And the Lannisters obviously have a lot. They could give some to everyone. Yeah, I mean, I was like sitting here and you're like, what will everyone else want?
Starting point is 01:25:47 And I'm like, a gold coin. Yeah, I mean, they could all do it. They have minds, Eliana. They do. But that's the thing is he sent Brienne off with a bag of gold to get whatever she wants in the king's name to accomplish finding Sansa Stark. So as he comes to this place,
Starting point is 01:26:02 and especially as he gets to Harrenhal and sees people like Pia, etc. that a couple gold coins could probably change their lives it's like when's the last time you had to use it, Jamie? Probably never because as we also saw, right, like way back then in Sansa's chapters with Joffrey
Starting point is 01:26:19 turns out when you're rich people also just give you things. Joffrey's like, hello random cottage. I'm the prince. Feed me. Give me wine. Whatever. So yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 01:26:33 They though cross the street the next day between King's Landing's sworn lands and Riverend's, the blackened land they ride upon was once held by the Brothers Wode. According to Meester Julian, and no small folk or Woads appeared, though. They only find outlaws camping out in the root cellar. One is wearing a crimson cloak. Jamie actually hangs him along with the other outlaws and he calls that justice. He thinks this was justice. Make a
Starting point is 01:26:57 habit of it, Lannister. One day men might call you Goldenhand after all. Goldenhand the Just. Is that the name you really want for yourself jamie golden hand it's like a bad uh what it's like a bad uh bond or austin powers depending on how you're feeling that day villain and to be fair it's better than uh kingslayer you know i mean i'd probably take that, but... Kingslayer's kind of cool. The hanging is so prominent in A Feast for Crows throughout his plot and Brienne's, it definitely reminds me of Stoneheart.
Starting point is 01:27:41 But I want to come back to the idea of Ned serving justice in King's Landing and him sending Beric Dondarrion and company out to deal with the Mountain. This kind of feels like a similar journey to Eddard XI. Eddard sends out Lord Beric Dondarrion with the charge of Thoros of Myr, Ser Gladden Wild, and Lord Lothar Mallory. He specifically does not take Ilum Payne or Loras. People think it's overreaching, right, that a man of his position, the hand of the king, can't technically be exacting justice. He's not the king. And he has to be careful with how he approaches exacting this justice as his good family, quote unquote, is basically on the throne, Robert, the Baratheons. And the Lannisters are very involved in what's going on in the Riverlands. And vice versa, if Ned doesn't commit this justice who will no true knights
Starting point is 01:28:26 amongst him right etc now jamie when you flip over he takes marbrand stephen swift and his baggage train better for the good and the holy hundred sarsfield and his archers maester julian and the ravens and flemmant brax and the horses he specificallyyn Payne, which is a change from Ned, because as Varys told Ned, saying no to Illyn Payne going is an insult. And he specifically leaves Loras in charge, which Ned also leaves Loras specifically. People might think Jaime's actions, reacting to Amory Lorch's misdeeds, might be overreaching, right? It's that same split loyalty that if he acts publicly about those misdeeds, it shames the Lannisters and says that he
Starting point is 01:29:09 does not condone their actions. But this also feeds for that split identity of who Jaime is as a Lannister and also as a Kingsguard and also as himself. Yeah, and you can see a lot of Jaime like Ned, right? He got a lot of that training and uh to an extent he knows what
Starting point is 01:29:28 political pageantry looks like and how to do it the jury gray weather frames the trip into heron hall he wonders if brienne went this way if she went to look for sansa in her mother's ancestral home had they encountered other travelers he might have stopped to ask if any of them had chance to see a pretty maid with auburn hair or a big ugly one with a face that would curdle milk. But there was no one on the roads but wolves, and their howling held no answers. He should have tried asking the wolves, honestly. I think so. I mean, I hear Numeria is very full with Micah, so.
Starting point is 01:30:06 Maybe. Which, again, I'm like, yeah, that's wholesome, right? I'm just saying, it's a very wholesome theory. If, uh, yes, Sandor cut up Micah and all, but, like, and he delivered him to the butcher, but what if, like, the butcher put it out in the trash and then Nymeria found him and ate him?
Starting point is 01:30:21 Anyways, we're getting off topic. Another one. Anyways, a lot of this language, though, and imagery from Jaime's chapters, it does feel very similar, right, to Brienne's foray as she goes through the Riverlands. It's a lot of the same idea. And in a way, it's kind of like suddenly they're traveling together through it again, kind of.
Starting point is 01:30:38 I mean, they literally intersect in their chapters later. We'll get there sometime. We've all been waiting for the aftermath to that encounter for years.'s fine years it's fine little thinker might be the lord of heron hall but he's far too busy to take the greatest castle in the country and do some work on it so jamie is left to sort out river run and seriously gregor left the place a mess in ruins and it turns out the mummers don't really clean up after themselves either after passing through the dim murder holes he finally reaches the very courtyard he last gave his farewells to the bloody mummers in the last book the mountains men come out and one significant
Starting point is 01:31:15 man shit mouth a very grizzled gray man says fuck me jamie lann, the bleeding Kingslayer, boys, fuck me with a spear. Iconic. I just love the inflection and enthusiasm you brought to that line. I mean, that line might be iconic, but you really raised it. Thank you. You elevated it. I don't even know if that's my favorite shitmouth. It wasn't very grizzled.
Starting point is 01:31:40 I'll work on it for the future, all. That's fine. I loved it. Jamie asks, who is the command? But Shitmouth is laughing too hard until Jamie really offers to fuck him with a spear and asks, who the fuck was commanding? Another man answers that Polliver
Starting point is 01:31:53 was in command, but the Hound had killed him. Jamie asks if he had seen Sandor himself kill the men, but the Mountain's man says the Enkeep told him the tale. Jamie asks if they sent men after them, and they look pretty confounded about it, and they say, uh, no. And Jamie has this line of, When a dog goes mad, you cut his throat.
Starting point is 01:32:13 Okay there, of mice and men. Right, that's exactly what I thought. Okay. And to be fair, when he looks at the flowers, the mad dog is actually slayed, right? By Brienne, soon enough. Not Sandor. I don't know. I love this song.
Starting point is 01:32:29 It rhymes, this whole entire story. It rhymes. This song of ice and fire. This ice fire song. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that Jaime, who knows the importance of knowing your name, so to speak, calls Sandor, Sandor. I think that's so special. Like, I just think it's special. I don't know.
Starting point is 01:32:46 Maybe it's silly. But the fact that he humanizes Sandor as like a fellow broken man knight and just says Sandor Clegane, Sandor Clegane. You wouldn't want to face Sandor Clegane. Yeah. And I mean, it actually was Sandor for this one. And there was good reason behind it. We were all there.
Starting point is 01:33:04 This is a reread this is different though because fuck Paliver and the Tickler no exactly I mean like there was a reason behind it we were all there because someone has to bring justice for the Lannister misdeeds and then take care of the child now having an emotional breakdown Arya she fucking goes off
Starting point is 01:33:20 and stabs people multiple times in there and then he has an emotional breakdown so yeah I think that's a good off and stabs people multiple times in there. And then he has an emotional breakdown. So yeah, I think that's a good point, and that's part of, you know, Jamie being like, oh yes, broken things. I get it now. And they say they didn't really like Paul over in the tickler, though. Same.
Starting point is 01:33:38 And they say it was actually Sarah's brother. The unnamed man says that they're mad, but not mad enough to face the hound. Jamie says they were afraid in the man comments that they were saving him for their betters. Like, Gregor,
Starting point is 01:33:53 are you Jamie? Though Jamie thinks that Sandra would make short work of him now. Yeah, he asks the man that's been speaking out's name as he's gone unnamed, and he seems more competent than most of them. His name is Rafford Sweetling. It's Raff Sweetling. Jamie commands him to gather the garrison and captives in the Hall of a Hundred Hearts, where he once dined with Roosie Roosie, and asks if they can bring Vargo Hote as well.
Starting point is 01:34:22 Why don't they call him Hody Goaty? Oh my god, Hody Goaty. They ask him if he can bring Hody Goaty as well. Because he'd like to look upon his dead, mutilated body outtie. Are you happy? No. Yes. Oh yes. You wanted it. So now it's over. This is every sentence. What have I asked for?
Starting point is 01:34:39 You did not ask for this cup to pass to you but yeah. I did not. So look, Jamie does at vargo hoat sliced off lips ears nose the eyes eaten by crows of course because we're reading a feast for crows all he asks where the rest of him is which they respond oh probably rotten or uh digested because it turns out sir gregor clegane had them feed the goat to some captives that were begging for food and of course then fed Vargo Hope to himself.
Starting point is 01:35:11 This is not wholesome. Now it's funny because just earlier today, Eliana, you were saying to me, like, I will always consider the cannibalism option. Well, I think it's worth considering and thinking about deeply. This is not wholesome. The Nymeria Micah thinking about deeply. This is not wholesome.
Starting point is 01:35:26 The Nymeria Micah. Wholesome. This. Not wholesome. Something else not wholesome. Jamie's interiority where he thinks, Father, Jamie thought, your dogs have both gone mad. He found himself remembering tales he had first heard as a child at Casterly Rock.
Starting point is 01:35:43 A mad lady, Lothsten, who bathed in tubs of blood and presided over feasts of human flesh within these very walls. Somehow revenge had lost its savor. I can imagine. He commands Peck to go toss the head into the lake. Kind of reminds me of Tyrion's dwarf head that keeps showing up in King's Landing there. He gives Ser Bonifor Hasty command of Harrenhal in the name of the crown and tells the men that those who would stay on with Bonifor stay,
Starting point is 01:36:13 but the rest ride the river run. The mountain's men begin to talk about the rewards that they're owed from Gregor, rich rewards. Bonifor tells them any man who remains will have a hide of land and receive a second when he takes a wife. But Shitmouth is like, that's bullshit, because they can go squat anywhere they want. They want gold. Jaime says they can take their grievances to his sweet sister, the queen, and asks to see the captives, basically stating that if he does not see an alive Wylus Manderly, things won't be so hot. Not so good.
Starting point is 01:36:47 He sees he has no hopes of finding the companions in the dungeon. They've all abandoned Fargo by the end. Yeah, but he also finds that after seeing Hoth's head and hearing about his fate and seeing what's become of Harrenhal, as it said earlier, right, Jaime's lost his
Starting point is 01:37:03 taste for vengeance. And I think something that's interesting is we have Jaimeie's one of the few povs at this point in the story who have had the privilege of returning to somewhere they have had been before brienne is another one of those most of the other povs are like all just still scattered to the winds or dead but in returning to the riverlands for both brian and jamie we kind of get again something we brought up before this idea of no man can step in the the riverlands for both brian and jamie we kind of get again something we brought up before this idea of no man can step in the same river twice for he is not the same man and it is not the same river and that's how it is right for both of these povs they found the riverlands a little bit better than it was before depending on whose pov you're looking through like
Starting point is 01:37:41 through through brian's povs? She's seeing life come back. She's seeing some of these towns rebuilt, but she's also seeing the aftermath and how people's lives are broken because of it. And Jaime's seeing the other ways in which it's a little bit worse than before. Both of them are seeing better and worse, right? For Jaime's POV, you know, we're digging in a little bit more into the politics of that outlaw part. And that's obviously going to rear its head more in Brienne's story.
Starting point is 01:38:05 But as he finds the taste for vengeance gone after you know this learning experience and seeing the horror of what's happening what i think we're seeing in jamie is like this is meant to show part of his growth and he doesn't exact it now that he's returned that revenge he's like now you know he's come back to heron hall now Now he's beautiful again, though apparently everyone still thought he was before. But he's shaved. He's probably got a little bit of hair again on the top of his head. He's clothed in the Kingsguard garb, probably. Now he's handless, though, but he has all that power.
Starting point is 01:38:41 Harrenhal's under their control and he's not at the mercy of Roose Bolton. It's more sad, the feelings that he has when he's coming back. Harrenhal had been really horrible last time he was here but was so much more lively. Now Harrenhal's just this really sad, desolate place. It's full of all of these hurting, aching
Starting point is 01:38:59 people, all very much broken. It's empty, too, right? as he goes back to here and how like you said it's all died again only three house went people remain there the cook who had opened the gates for gregor a pie cell so to speak a bent back armor named ben black thumb and pretty pia who unfortunately had suffered a broken nose and about half of her teeth are gone since Jamie last saw her, which is very sad. Very sorry, Pia, because you're a good
Starting point is 01:39:30 girl. When Pia sees Jamie, she falls sobbing at his feet, and he tells her, no one's gonna hurt you now, but she cries even louder. Most of the other captives have been better treated. Wylus Manderly's one of them. The other highborn Northmen taken by the Mountain and the Trident are there as well.
Starting point is 01:39:48 Similarly, ragged, filthy, shaggy, some have cracked teeth, missing fingers, but the prisoners are alive and worth a decent ransom. All of them are broken, exhausted, no longer defiant. Jamie tells Willis he's going to be escorted to Maidenpool to make for White Harbor, and Willis he's gonna be escorted to Maidenpool to make for White Harbor, and Willis collapses. He's sobbing on the floor louder and longer than Pia. Yeah, Jamie hates this castle, though. He's like, I fucking hate this job.
Starting point is 01:40:18 I fucking hate this place. Jamie, only bad memories. Ike has one good memory. He sends the cook to prepare a hot meal for his men. Anything but goat. Literally, figuratively. Both. He sups with Bonifor, a holy man who declares he
Starting point is 01:40:34 wants none of Gregor's men. He's cutting up a pair very neatly. He says he won't have such sinners in his service. Jamie argues that his septon said that all men are sinners, and Bonifor agrees, but says some are more foul and black than others in the eyes
Starting point is 01:40:50 of the seven, and Jamie caves, saying alright, you know, fine, fine, I'll take the men with me, and Bonifor urges him, you know, take Pia as well, and Jamie remembers the last time he had been at Harrenhal when Qyburn had brought a much different girl to his bed than who Pia has now become.
Starting point is 01:41:08 And he learns that she made the mistake of speaking when Gregor wanted quiet. And he punched her with his chain-mailed fist. A lot of other things actually happened to Pia since then. I think we learned about that at another time. But Boniface's condemnations of Pia, after all she's been through which is super shitty and then he calls her like a font of corruption uh whereas jamie welcomes her and and shows compassion towards her right like it reminds me of john's treatment of gilly and monster and john's doing what he can to protect them, even if they are considered
Starting point is 01:41:45 abominations, according to Stannis. Yeah. Jamie thinks about the atrocities Gregor would have committed if Cersei hadn't called Gregor to stand against the Red Viper, and thinks, well, I won't really miss him, which I don't really get, because it's like, how could
Starting point is 01:42:02 you miss him? He's giant. Moving on, Jamie argues this is Pia's home. She was born in this castle. But Bonifor again calls her a fond of corruption and says she won't be tempting my men. Jamie knows Pia's likely not throwing her cat at men right now anymore and thinks he could give her a position as washerwoman. The task of having his squires and men care for his clothes felt unmanly to them. Hmm. Interesting. Have, uh, dirty clothes to own masculinity.
Starting point is 01:42:32 Jamie changes the subject. He asks if Bonifor's Holy Hundred, though 86 after the Blackwater's losses, could hold the castle, and Bonifor says that, well, the warrior and the crone will guide us. And Jamie darkly thinks that, you know, the stranger could show up instead, and wonders who
Starting point is 01:42:50 convinced Cersei to appoint this man as his castle in the Harrenhal, and thinks that, you know, this kind of reeks of Orton Meriwether, as Hasty had actually once served Orton's grandsire, but at the same time, Jaime wonders if Orton isn't actually correct in his choice, like Hasty is from the Stormlands, and he has no debts, he has no enemies in the Riverlands,
Starting point is 01:43:08 which also means he has no friends in the Riverlands right now. He has no cronies, he's just sober, just, and dutiful, and his soldiers are very well disciplined. They're on tall, gray geldings. Jaime weighs the army, thinking that they are neither disgraced nor are they distinguished themselves in battle, and that Bonhoeffer had once been a promising knight in his youth, but in quotes, something had happened to him, a near defeat or disgrace
Starting point is 01:43:34 or brush with death. And he put away his lance for good. So as this is a reread, there are some connections to be had here, and we're going to talk about Sir Bonifor Heisty and Rhaella Targaryen. From A Dance with Dragons, Daenerys VI. As a girl though, she was once smitten with a young knight from the Stormlands who wore her favorite attorney and named her Queen of Love
Starting point is 01:43:59 and Beauty. A brief thing. What happened to this knight? He put away his lance the day your lady mother wed your father. Afterward, he became most pious and was heard to say that only the maiden could replace Queen Rhaella in his heart. His passion was impossible, of course. A landed knight is no fit consort for a princess of royal blood. So we know from the World of Ice and Fire app and some of these connections in the story that Sir Bonifor Hastie and Riella had a little love thing going on, but it was probably found out.
Starting point is 01:44:38 He had to resign. He had to go. He swore never, ever, ever again after she married her brother-husband would he love, right? Like that. And we get kind of this film view of this story from both Jamie's perspective and actually also from Barristan's perspective.
Starting point is 01:44:59 Barristan tells Daenerys about Rhaella that the queen, your mother, was always mindful of her duty. Jamie, however, when thinking about Rhaella that the queen your mother was always mindful of her duty. Jaime however, when thinking about Rhaella, says that the queen's eyes have been closed for years in regarding the atrocities that Aerys committed. Jaime's likely comparing Rhaella as a queen to Cersei in his mind and her autonomous nature in comparison to Cersei is much different, but both were abused and both did not have agency in their marriages outside of their family name and their husbands. How they deal with the abuse differed, quite obviously, but that doesn't mean that the queen's eyes were necessarily closed.
Starting point is 01:45:37 She was powerless, much like Jaime is against Cersei burning the Tower of the Hand, for example, or basically anything else she does. So it's interesting to consider that if Jaime realized this was Rhaella, was the love of Ser Bonifor Hasty's life, and he quit everything he loved because of her, well, wait, didn't someone do something similar? Didn't Jaime sign a life sentence for the woman he loved that married some other man? Yeah, I mean, who would ever do something like that?
Starting point is 01:46:05 But maybe that's why Bonhoeffer doesn't hold J.B. Sins against him. Yeah, well, that much. Yeah. Not the killing of Ares, maybe. Who knows? Anyways. I imagine, yeah. Yeah, I think that's a great point raised.
Starting point is 01:46:23 I kind of forgot all that about Bonifor Hastie, so thank you. I kind of wonder if the whole way his 100 are portrayed reminds us of some of the other things we're seeing in Feast, but also does it remind me of the Unsullied, as you were talking about the Annie connections, but thought throwing out, moving on. Baelor Butthole is the man Cersei chose to hold this place, apparently. Like, this is
Starting point is 01:46:47 apparently what, uh, Jaime calls Bonifor Hastie, uh, heralding, of course, to, um, Beeler the Blessed. He, he's like, I guess this guy's gonna have to do- He warns Bonifor Hastie about the defense against the dark arts curse, i.e.
Starting point is 01:47:04 the Harrenhal curse that befalls anyone who comes across Harrenhal. Chloe gets credit for this joke. And to be careful, I just perform. Chloe writes the songs, I just sing them.
Starting point is 01:47:21 And to be careful, because each band who's held it, that's not true, you'll know when I write careful, because each man who's held it that's not true, I mean, you'll know when I write something, because each man who's held it has had an ill fate. Boniface is like, not to offend you, but they're all actually super unholy so I'll be fine. He's like, I can rely on Lancelot, Daria, Randall, and
Starting point is 01:47:38 Maidenpool, and Maester Julian to assist and help destroy the outlaws and guide good folk into their villages to start living their lives again. Jamie's like so let me know if you find the companions and boniface like why do you want to torture them jamie supposes boniface would probably forgive them and boniface says yes i'd embrace them as brothers and pray with them before i send them to the block because crime requires punishment he says even if you forgive the sins. So I think a lot of this comes back to what we were saying about Jaime returning and also growing
Starting point is 01:48:11 this visit of Harrenhal. It kind of makes me wonder, is he going to come back to Harrenhal another time? Like, three's an important number, whatever. A lot of important things have happened to Jaime here. But it's an interesting conversation that he has here with Bonhoeffer around forgiveness because earlier Jamie thought he was administering justice and hanging
Starting point is 01:48:31 those outlaws, and here there's a discussion of forgiveness and how it balances out with justice, i.e. that line of crimes require punishment. And something that's not said in this chapter or said a lot in Jamie's chapters, but that's going to in this chapter or said a lot a lot in jamie's chapters uh but that's going to be i think very important in his storyline is an idea that actually is very
Starting point is 01:48:52 prominent in quite a few of the other povs that idea of mercy and eventually it is going to come up in his storyline right especially as the chapters that we currently have of jamie uh and with lady stoneheart aka mother merciless we've been waiting for years jamie is here though i'm so tired i want the book can i please george give me the book we're fine this is fine we're here jamie is here he's thinking that uh if Bonhoeffer would judge the mountains men should he not be judging Jamie's sins which Jamie perceives
Starting point is 01:49:33 as were sins there's of course Jamie's original sin in the series the whole you know fucking his twin sister throwing a kid out the window to try to kill him both acts that are kind of I would argue are one and the same because those two moments are very much wrapped into one another. Not every moment that he fucks his sister,
Starting point is 01:49:50 just the very first one where we learn of it. And we touched on it lightly with some of those comparisons to Theon in some of these earlier episodes, and maybe in some of our GOT recap sorry, episodes from last year during the final season of the original HBO hit series.
Starting point is 01:50:16 Experience. Experience Game of Thrones. It's not TV, it's HBO. Oh my god, it's not TV. It's not TV, it's HBO. Oh my god, it's not TV. But something I do think that the show might have hinted at, though it's going to be way more complex and not like an all-five-minutes thing,
Starting point is 01:50:32 that will happen in the books is, will Bran show mercy to Jaime, as in demonstrate that full forgiveness to Jaime, without punishment, undeserved, on Jaime's part. And that's something that Jaime cannot earn. It's something that he couldn't redeem himself from, right? And that's something that Jamie cannot earn. It's something that he couldn't redeem himself from, right? Because that's what mercy is. And I think that's, there's a part of me that as we go through Jamie's storyline, you know, he is a sinner, right? That's the whole point. That's how he's perceiving himself. And he's going around now
Starting point is 01:50:59 trying to punish people. I kind of wonder, like, are we supposed to get something that's kind of like the Paul in the Bible or something that's kind of like the Paul in the Bible or something? Wondering if we're going to see some of that? Yeah, after he has his encounter with Bran and experiences mercy. I don't know. A thought. I'm interested to see if
Starting point is 01:51:17 it's anyone's Game of Thrones. Yeah, you know, we've been waiting. So it's interesting you say mercy, because Bonifor Hastie asks Jaime what happens if they find Sandor Clegane, and Jaime thinks pray hard and run, and says send him to join his beloved brother
Starting point is 01:51:37 and be glad the gods made seven hells. One would never be enough to hold both the Cleganes. So true. Cleganes. So true. Clegane bull, get hype. I'm not hype. I'm not hype at all. Jamie, Jamie's kind of projecting during, I don't know, most of this whole dinner thing.
Starting point is 01:51:56 A lot of things that happen in his life. And I do think there's really something there that Bonifor Hasty is like totally a-okay with having dinner with him. He's like, oh yeah yeah you killed the cock block dude. Little late but you know can't be helped. I'm fine I almost choked on my water it's fine. Jamie in this is trying to save Pia which interestingly
Starting point is 01:52:18 enough there's another little girl who's been hit by men in chained male gloves right? By men who are supposed to be knights in the story that we might know. While he battles his turmoil between honor and glory, Pia is the closest physical thing to Sansa Stark that Jaime has right now. She's a young girl who believed in knights heroes and believed in Jaime Lannister. He's her knight in shining armor.
Starting point is 01:52:40 He sees Baelor Butthole Hasty as almost a version of what he could be and a version of what he was bonifer was a successful tourney knight we've connected now that he's in love with rayella targaryen or was who had to marry her brother husband and this crippled bonifer he swore never to throw a lance again and now here he is taking over this haunting doomed castle, which is the same castle that loomed over Jaime and haunts his youth and now his adulthood. Maybe this sober, pious, disconnected man who Jaime thinks has no friends, no foes in this new land, this blank slate of bringing justice, no connections, maybe that would be nice. And to top it off, he asks Bonifor what to do to off he asks bonifer what to do to the companions or what he would do to the companions asking for forgiveness right and there's that imagery those gray geldings all synchronized in a way it reminds me of the king's guard but it also reminds me of
Starting point is 01:53:37 ned's gray wraiths at the tower of joy oh interesting or that image of the others melting like ice in danny's dream yeah i mean they are something about the synchronicity that's all and and i think that's part of what makes me think of the unsullied when it comes to them um and all that but also you know the the lack of glory and them being there and as you said, the Grey Guildings, it kind of makes me think of, I mean, I don't know, they're like ghosts, right? Harrenhal has always been full of ghosts. They're just the latest iteration.
Starting point is 01:54:15 Jaime does say that Beric Dondarrion is a different captive story, though. If he gets Beric, he's like, you gotta hold him for Jaime's return. Because his death, we're gonna parade him around King's
Starting point is 01:54:30 Landing with a noose around his neck. You're too late, Jaime. And he's like, but Thoros, I don't care what you do with him. Bonifor, you can kiss him, you can kill him, you can do whatever you want with him. Bonifor's like, I will not kiss him. And after some further. You can do whatever you want with him. Bonifor's like, I will not kiss him.
Starting point is 01:54:45 And after some further quips, Bonifor they part. Bonifor goes to go pray. Jaime goes to go dance some more. He passes the yard where his men are cheering Strongboar and Flemming Brax on in a battle. Jaime already knows. He's got his bets in his
Starting point is 01:55:02 head that Lyle's gonna win and trails out of the noise and light on autopilot toward the bear pit. This reminds me of Jon in A Dance with Dragons a lot, when he doesn't go sit with his men when he passes them in the yard training, and he goes to go do Lord Commander shit. Yeah, yeah, definitely. There's a lot of vibe throughout jamie and how he starts to feel more disconnected from people but he's making new connections with people john wasn't quite able to do that because i mean their positions are a little different yeah well the glow of a lantern is coming from the stone seats at the bear pit because of course that is where jamie goes right and jamie wonders if illin had decided to come here as well if it was weird fate but
Starting point is 01:55:45 it's not Illyn it's bearded husky adorned in his griffin surcoat red ron con run it I was hoping you were gonna make it happen again red ron con I was like please I will always say red ron con commit commit it's so fun to say it red ron con I was like, she's gotta... We're making it happen. So the bear's remains still decorate the pit, although only bones and ragged fur can be seen. Jamie kind of feels pity for the bear, you know? At least he died in battle, though. I feel bad for the bear. I felt bad for the
Starting point is 01:56:18 bear the moment it died. I was like, damn, that bear was scared. I felt bad in general. Like, you shouldn't have a bear. I just don't think you should have one. I don't think that Fargo Haute was responsible. I don't think anyone at Heron Hall is responsible enough to have a bear. Also true. Also true.
Starting point is 01:56:34 No one. Most people. Most people in general. Jamie asked if Sir Ronit lost his way, but Red Roncon wanted to see where the bear and the maiden, not so fair, he says, had danced. Jamie smells the wine on his breath and Ronit goes on, asking if it's true that Brienne fought naked. Jamie, of course, I know, right? I was thinking, I was like, Jamie wishes.
Starting point is 01:56:57 So is Ronit. Jamie, of course, corrects him. He's like, no, it was a pink silk gown because if she was naked, I would have known. Ronit says that otherwise the sight of brienne may make the bear flee in terror and we get this line and this line i just i want some context here this line is the biggest you fucked up moment you like lady stoneheart who no one cares this is this is this is fierce get ready are you ready, Alia? Yeah, Connington, like, read the room. Read the room, Connington.
Starting point is 01:57:26 Read the bear pit. God damn it. The line is, Connington laughed. Jamie did not. Oh. Yeah. Jamie's like, interesting that you know my girlfriend, huh? And Red Ron Con's like, actually, I was engaged to her once.
Starting point is 01:57:44 And Jamie's super surprised. He's like, she's never said she was engaged to you. Oh, whoa. Yeah, Jamie, you've had other boyfriends? I thought you were a virgin. You were engaged before? Connington explains he was the second betrothal of Brienne's three. Jamie's like, she had three?
Starting point is 01:58:03 You had three boyfriends, Brienne? He had told his father the wench was ugly, and his father had said all women are the same when you blow out the candle. That's not true. Jamie eyes Red Ronkon's surcoat, remembering Red Ronkon's dad was the late Han's brother, but Ronit corrects him that he was John Connington's cousin. And then Jaime's like, I guess. John Connington.
Starting point is 01:58:31 Interesting. Rhaegar's friend raised a handshake to correct Merriam-Ether's failures during Robert's Rebellion and in Rhaegar's absence. Then he was stripped of his honor, lands wealth, packed off in exile to die, and allegedly drank himself to death. Allegedly.
Starting point is 01:58:48 Allegedly. But Red Ron Khan's dad, the cousin, had joined the rebellion in the late stages and been rewarded with only griffin's roost after the battle. He had given most of the Connington lands to his more loyal supporters and kept the gold. So Storm was published in 2000, and the earliest mention of John Connington is technically in Storm. In Dany 1, Barristan tells her about Rhaegar's friends,
Starting point is 01:59:13 young Lord Connington's included. In Arya 5, the story of Stoney Sept is told to her. And in Jaime 8, we hear about him when he's in Barristan's entry in the White Book. In Feast, we get this fleshed out a bit more. Red Rana existed in Clash, his first mention in Catelyn's Clash journey actually at Renly's tourney happens, and then we see him later in Sansa 7 at court. It does feel like George kind of had ideas for the grifts and how they were going to be included, right? He just needed a way to use them. It's likely the scraps of baby Aegon
Starting point is 01:59:45 being unrecognizable after death that got spawned into some sprouty plant, so I thought that was kind of interesting. Not a lot as far as interviews and stuff that he's talked about with it, though. Ronit was no more than a landed knight and apparently
Starting point is 02:00:02 Brienne would have been a sweet plum. Excuse me? Yeah, she's... I mean, I do like plums. I'm not trying to... and apparently Brienne would have been a sweet plum excuse me I mean I do like plums I'm not trying to I mean yeah but not for Red Ronnet no not for Red Ronnet definitely not
Starting point is 02:00:17 Jamie asks why the marriage didn't work out and he answers that he had to merely see her we have this line and it closes out the chapter. When I went to Tarth and saw her, I had six years on her, yet the wench could look me in the eye.
Starting point is 02:00:32 She was a sow and soaked, though most sows have bigger deeds. When she tried to talk, she almost choked on her own tongue. I gave her a rose and told her it was all that she would ever have from me. Coddington glanced into the pit. The bear was less hairy than that freak.
Starting point is 02:00:49 I'll- Jamie's golden hand cracked him across the mouth so hard the other night when stumbling down the steps. His lantern fell and smashed, and the oil spread out, burning. You are speaking of a highborn lady, sir. Call her by her name. Call her Brienne. Connington edged away from the spreading flames on his hands and knees. Brienne, if it please my lord.
Starting point is 02:01:16 He spat a glob of blood at Jamie's foot. Pfft. Brienne the Beauty. A, it does please your lord. Thank you. Thank you for referring to her by her proper name, Brienne the Beauty. A, it does please your lord. Thank you. Thank you for referring to her by her proper name, Brienne the Beauty. Second of all, Red Roncon, it's only okay when Jaime calls her a wench.
Starting point is 02:01:35 You know what I mean? Like, that's foreplay for them. You don't get to just call her a wench. He's all like wench and she's all like kingslayer. You meet her once and you think you could just call her a wench get the fuck out get out get out they traveled across the entire riverlands to get to that point where they were like yeah this is nice now but i do think interestingly we get that answer here of where brianne's victory uh where she got the force to
Starting point is 02:02:02 eke out that victory when she faced Loras. As everyone remembers that was a very intense scene. She like tackles him on the ground. Brienne's chapter before this one actually speaks of how when she saw the roses on Loras' shield she was very angered because she hates roses. And here we find out why.
Starting point is 02:02:20 It's because assholes like Red Roncon. And that's another way, way right that their stories are slowly coming together physically they stay intertwined emotionally and jamie uh it was something of the night right rescuing that maiden brand the beauty here in the bear pit here he is again defending her honor and we have jamie kind of keeping his calm right throughout the rest of this chapter it's a very mellow chapter in many ways revisiting karen hall very somber it's a place of trauma for him and he's wrestling with this lack of anger as he comes to this place it's actually ongoing throughout jamie's storyline
Starting point is 02:02:54 right we see it earlier on in feasts he's like i should be angry right now i we see it in storm he's like i should be angry for all these things that are really sad that should be that are very traumatic for him. The death of his father, kind of his son. And Jaime's trying to parse out what does it mean? What do these feelings or lack of anger mean? But the anger comes out here, right? When it's regarding Brienne, because of love, he feels anger towards Cersei also as well.
Starting point is 02:03:22 So it's interesting how that manifests for Jaime. Yeah, it's a very complicated and toxic relationship, as I know we've just been like drilling like a broken record home. But it is a very new feeling. And Jaime sits at this precipice, kind of like we talked about last episode with Kristen Cole, of sitting on this edge of change about to occur. And he can be the factor that changes it all, right? He could be the queen maker.
Starting point is 02:03:51 His help for Cersei, as we know, would be phenomenal for her right now at where we are in the books, right? I know Dance with Dragons, she needs him. Obviously, we know this from her letter where she says, I need you. And him throwing this in the fire and feast is like. So bomb as we're going to get to, but it's the final choice and it takes chapters and chapters and chapters to break this toxic learned behavior that Jamie has lived through this abuse and made adjustments to his life and also abused back and made adjustments in his life to displace emotions to not deal with them to have all these different mechanisms set up so
Starting point is 02:04:29 he just doesn't have to actually feel things and here he is finally feeling yeah because he can't just react in anger as he usually does and i think that's a big part of it right normally he would just be like whatever i'm gonna just break shit kill things go get into fights but now he's gonna lose those fights so now he's like i have to sit here with my feelings and there's something sad there's something there about how uh by feeding you know vargo getting fed to himself is kind of like sending him a message, right? Like getting his limbs cut off. And you have Jamie, Jamie was,
Starting point is 02:05:08 had his hand cut off to send a message to Tywin. And now Vargo Holt's getting himself chopped up to send a message to Tywin as well. But now Tywin's dead. You know, it's all of these, just the crows gather and they dine. And on one hand,
Starting point is 02:05:23 Jamie's like, all right, all right. But on the other hand, he's just kind of disgusted by it, right? And I think that speaks a lot to the way that Gregor reacts to that and the slow cutting off of Argo Hoad's body, the
Starting point is 02:05:36 forcing of him and others to partake in this monstrosity has something similar to what's going on in Ramsay's torture of others. And I think we're supposed to kind of see those together. And just as we, as the audience, are kind of like, oh, fuck, when we see what Ramsay's done to Theon.
Starting point is 02:05:55 I think even though on one hand, there's sort of what feels like a poetic justice with what happens to Vargo Hote, Jaime is showing us like, hey, whoa, that was a lot. Maybe that was too much, everyone. Yeah. And I think watching it kind of, it feels like slow-mo, right?
Starting point is 02:06:14 Watching this feels like slow-mo. Like, when are you going to break, Jamie? When are you finally going to break? When are you going to break away? But watching all the layers of complexity that are being added, like, I really don't think that I've appreciated Sir Bonifer hasty's plot added to jamie's until now and hog right like sir hog from earlier that was that scene has a lot more to it than you think it's it's glossing you go
Starting point is 02:06:37 past it on the king's road just like they do but if you stop and look i think that says a lot that jamie is truly struggling uh internally with who he is with who he wants to be and this is his moment to change it is and and it's another thing that is driving him further from cersei as cersei is still hung up on this idea of vengeance right she gets back at her enemies and jamie's like i don't know yeah i do that he's like but i don't know is that still what i want in life so oh heavy episode damn it was these feast chapters are insane and i think they're only gonna get thicker so buckle up get ready to tune in with us next week we will not be having an episode out for public on the 29th because we
Starting point is 02:07:26 will be covering our his dark materials podcast series next week but we will have our patreon episode out for mirror for the free cities for patrons five and up so keep an eye out on that yes and of course we'll touch on some things that are going on in King's Landing around Jamie with some of the Mirrish, more of a Cersei storyline. But yes, keep an eye out on that. You can stay up to date with all of that and all our episodes by following us on social media. You can find us at Girls Gone Canon, C-A-N-O-N, on Twitter, or you can shoot us an email. Same as Maddie and some of our other friends, right? At girlsgonecanon at gmail.com.
Starting point is 02:08:09 Hey, make sure you're subscribed to us on your nearest podcast platform. You got Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, you name it. We're on all of them. Podbean, where we're hosted. As always, I have been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I've been another one of your hosts, Eliana.
Starting point is 02:08:35 We only have two hosts, Eliana. And an intern, Allie. Goodbye. Goodbye.

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