Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 91 - AFFC Jaime III
Episode Date: May 22, 2020The 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.... Â --- Â Eliana's twitter:Â https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account:Â https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog:Â https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter:Â https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog:Â www.liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage
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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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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,
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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...
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
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
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
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
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,
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?
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
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
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,
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
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.
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.
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,
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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,
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.
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
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.
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?
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
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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,
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
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
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?
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,
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.
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.
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
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
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?
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
to defend Tommen
without being there
and she tells him
defeat his enemies
by chaining and killing
Brynden Tully
and setting Harrenhal
to rights.
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,
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
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
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,
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.
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,
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.
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.
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
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.
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?
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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,
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
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
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,
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.
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
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
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.
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?
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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,
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.
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
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.
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
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?
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,
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
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.
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
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,
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.
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.
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
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,
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
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
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
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,
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
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
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
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.
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
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,
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,
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?
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,
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.
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,
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,
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.
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.
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
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,
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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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...
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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...
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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,
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
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
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
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,
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,
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.
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
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
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.
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
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?
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,
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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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,
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
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,
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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,
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.
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,
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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,
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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,
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,
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
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.
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?
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
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
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.
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As always, I have been one of your hosts, Chloe.
And I've been another one of your hosts,
Eliana.
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Allie. Goodbye.
Goodbye.