Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 104 - ACOK Davos I & Intro to Davos

Episode Date: October 9, 2020

Setting sail (again) with a new POV, this time it's the Onion Knight: Davos Seaworth. From the start, Davos's chapters set the tone for a story of sacrifice, faith, and the burning of old systems.  --- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: www.liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon, A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 104, Davos Introduction, and Davos 1 in a Clash of Kings. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. Earlier today I was thinking about the time. I don't know if it actually happened twice. I don't remember because clearly we didn't remember our numbering. I was thinking about that as I was scrolling through things. was like remember that time we forgot the numbers of our episodes so yeah and because we forgot the numbers of our episodes we were like hey by the way this is our

100th the song of ice and fire episode i guess congrats to us we did it look i do math a lot at my day job you know what i mean like i'm always doing math i feel like i puzzle you sometimes when i'm like eliana here's the math i'm doing so i deserve a break at night davos can do my math for me he does know his sums that he does that he does his little sum something that's how he has seven sons. Little son something. You know? I'm excited to be doing Davos. I did not...

There was a new surge in excitement today that shook the fandom. Oh. Truly shook. I don't... Truly shook. The whole fandom was shook today. Today is 10-6 that we are recording this in the evening october 6th 2020 and a certain person james hibbard released a book called fire cannot kill

a dragon it's the official untold story of game of thrones from the filming some of the production the interviews some very specific quotes by george you know yada yada the whole shebang whole nine yards and basically the big thing that happened today is that there was a reiteration of a quote by george rr martin stating that stannis will decide to burn his daughter george rr martin himself was quoted saying this i mean mrs yeah ge George said it and you know what for many of us we already knew as we have said in previous episodes

but you know it's good he said it before but people didn't believe it because of paraphrasing and they believed it wasn't good faith yep and you know George proved it he said it and I'm just glad that we can move past it put that to rest and we are no we're not gonna move past it we're gonna revel in it all fucking episode

i'm just i mean like rereading this episode especially like this chapter rereading this chapter very closely just sets some of the beginning uh obviously the prologue which yes for those of you asking someday yes yes yes we will do the prologues i promise they will be a pov that is the spoiler you can get from us right now uh we will do prologues as a pov and epilogues as well a different time however i digress i think george had like rephrased it right like it had been said from george dnd the the big showrunners for the the bad show had constantly said like george told us this and people were like no and now george is quoted in a book that has a sign off from official hbo yada yada saying it yeah and the same dissenters feel the same way so I feel

like we're not going to gloat about it because that would be awful because I feel like Shireen does not deserve this horrible fucking fate but like it's just a penchant for where this story is going that I think is important to keep in mind while we read. Indeed. Indeed. So, you know, that happened and it's something that, you know, now that that has been put out there and put to rest, we can, I think, really dig into some of the themes in a lot more depth and a lot, knowing that end point concretely from George,

you know, knowing that it's driving towards that action, I think that allows us to really get a bit of clarity in terms of how we talk about these chapters. Yeah, I don't like being censored and it feels, it feels right. But, you know, somewhere where we talk about Stannis, and not just Stannis, a lot of other things about A Song of Ice and Fire, but most importantly, how Nellie Furtado's song I'm Like a Bird intersects with Stannis' storyline, as well as exchanging food recipes, if you want to know how my attempts at making dim sum went, the answer is poorly and we have a discord where we have a lot of these discussions yes if you are in our thunder tier or above the $10 tier on patreon at patreon.com

slash girls gone canon you have access to discord which is really cool there's a lot of voice interfacing, some streaming and video interfacing. We play some video games and hang out and chat with people. There are kind of some message board style channels on it, a la Slack. It's just fun.

It's a really fun way to connect. We're kind of hanging out and we've been doing a fun thing that we're calling brunch and happy hour, depending on where you are in the time zone land and last month's was on the fuck boys of westeros yeah it's a fun just casual hanging out conversation we have slides but they don't mean anything no we don't really need the slides but i feel like they add good value yeah they set the tone they make people laugh and we include some really cool fan art from around the fandom right and credit them except for darian the singer apparently who uh will tell you that that was included in the slideshow and did you know there's doesn't

seem to be much fan art of him so i had to pull some fucking clip art you know what it was free for use yes well if you haven't snagged it yet and you are a member of patreon and the thunder tier and above make sure to get your discord link link your account for discord to your patreon you should receive a link and we will give you a tier to get you launched into the program and get you out of the privacy restrictions or if you're having any issues send us a dm over on twitter at girls gone canon or an email at girls gone canon c-a-n-o-n at gmail.com and we will get you hooked up as soon as we can yes and so something that we'll probably be discussing a lot there and here is Davos. Yes, I'm so excited again to jump into Davos. I don't know that I've examined him closely before on this level as in like chapter to chapter to chapter.

So this is fun. I'm seeing a lot of new stuff and a lot of new dynamics. And today we are going to do a modified lightning round. What that means is we are going to talk about Davos before the books, as a youth during Robert's Rebellion, and Davos before A Clash of Kings as well before we get into our main lightning round, which is the chapters that lead up to Davos 1, beginning in A Clash of Kings. Yes. So first of all, just setting the stage in my opinion just to remind everyone davos is i think a bit younger much younger in the books and he is in the

television show but going much much further back to when he was way way way younger as a child as a youth he was born in flea bottom he mentored under a tyroshi smuggler slash pirate roro uhorus until roro was caught and executed by the night's watch for trading weapons to free folk then he sailed on the coppel cat eventually he married a woman named maria and had seven sons with her. Seven sons, a holy number. Then we move on to Robert's Rebellion, the big event where Davos smuggled onions into Storm's End about, oh, a year into the siege. He sailed around the Redwine fleet's blockade that was stationed in Shipbreaker's Bay. As a reward, he gets knighted by Stannis, but as punishment, Stannis cuts his fingers down for his past crimes. He trades his fingers

basically for a step up in society for his family. Yes, and then Davos before a Clash of Kings. He captains Black Betha, which is one of Stannis' war galleys, and he actually was in King's Landing for Joffrey's named day tourney, which

occurs before A Song of Ice and Fire starts, and also for what it's worth. For what it's sea worth. I would say it's quite significant that of all the characters, Davos is actually, I think, our very

first new POV that the readers are presented with as we read through the books and as more get added to A Song of Ice and Fire and then right after Davos we're followed with the other new POV Theon who

continues the idea of like I don't know things about the sea but I think there might be a couple more connections we'll touch on them I got you I got you Valiana the ocean well that launches us into our actual lightning round uh with a clash of kings and what we missed that starts off in the prologue a very dragon stone uh centered chapter

maester crescent thinks the only way to save Stannis from the new red god he's chosen is to poison Lady Melisandre. Unfortunately, Lady Melisandre is a little too sharp, and it results in Cressen's death by his own poison, his own hand, and on Stannis's journey goes. Arya I. In A Clash of Kings, Arya is traveling north under a pseudonym with Yoren and recruits for the Night's Watch. After getting into it with some of Ahri's new brothers, Yoren punishes her and reveals her father was not supposed to die. His original sentence was to head north with the Watch. Sansa I. Sansa attends Joffrey's really shitty birthday bash and saves Danto

Hallord's life. Tyrion enters at the chapter's end to take post as acting Hand of the King. Tyrion 1. Tyrion and Cersei discuss the capital's state of being. Later he travels to the Broken Anvil where Varys has learned of Tyrion's paramour. Bran 1. Prince Brandon Stark's wolf dreams begin to increase, but Maester Luwin shrugs them all off with some potions. Arya 2. Arya speaks with Jokin Hagar. Goldcloaks come to take one of the recruits away, but Yoren resists.

Jon 1. Jon pours over the maps Sam has found in the library. He presents them to Jeor Mormont who tells him of Aemon Targaryen's history. Catelyn won. Rob presents terms to Cleos Frey and later Catelyn argues with him over Jaime

and Theon. Later she plans an alliance with Renly with her uncle Brynden. Tyrion too. Tyrion takes Jano's slint out for dinner before he fucks him over. He also shows Varys that he's really not fucking playing around.

Arya three. Yoren's crew must step off the path to avoid the gold cloaks. Arya is frightened by a wolf pack in the woods. Euron says they should have taken a ship. Ah, Davos won. The gods burn in front of Davos Seaworth, who has given and traded all to his king.

The Red Woman proclaims Stannis Azor Ahai, but later Davos meets with his colleague, Salador San, who says, Stannis is a fake. Much later, Stannis explains to Davos he seeks a higher power on his side and plans to follow R'hllor wherever

it takes him. And so, it opens. The morning air was dark with the smoke of burning gods they were all afire now maiden mother warrior and smith the crone with her pearl eyes and the father with his gilded beard even the stranger carved to look more animal than human wood and countless layers of paint and varnish blazed with a fierce, hungry light. Heat rose, shivering from the chill air. Behind? The gargoyles and stone dragons on the castle walls seemed blurred, as if Davos were

seeing them through a veil of tears. Or as if the beasts were trembling, stirring. So, Davos and his second son, Allard, which kind of sounds like Mallard, not important, watch and- Davos and his second son Allard which kind of sounds like Mallard not important Davos duck whoa scrooge

oh duck tails this is duck tails and Allard this is disappointment Allard is actually his most rash son and Davos thinks Allard would end up on the wall had Stannis not speared him then he thinks I guess I owe Stannis for that one too this is a lot different than the Davos thinks Allard would end up on the wall had Stannis not speared him. Then he thinks, I guess I owe Stannis for that one too. This is a lot different than the Davos that a lot of us are thinking of in our minds.

Maybe the bad show plays into that for some people, or maybe it's just lack of a reread. But this is Davos before losing his sons in the Blackwater, and to Stannis before having to truly choose against Stannis, his god, and what's morally right. I think it's well placed with Arya too, where they enter a village that's barely surviving with the war that's tearing about the Riverlands, and a Baratheon bastard's on board there, no less. Davos later says he saw nothing in the flames during this ritual, but that's untrue.os saw war also I would like to point out Stannis and Melisandre burning the gods in this first big chapter besides the prologue

kind of feels like a red flag am I right I'm sorry did you say red flag not red stag the red stag is a red flag okay god eliana have a heart okay we didn't because you know a stag well i'm impressed with us we didn't write these ones these jokes these are just off the off the stag cuff that one's not as good off the antlers oh my god um stop me now i'm never gonna stop oh yeah um because we are just starting right we are just starting Davos and while he is not the first POV of this new book it is

you know still still like kind of the opening of a clash of kings it's on the heels of a game of thrones and of course it comes after Sansa's chapters and Arya's chapters which as you said are well placed They really show the devastation that has befallen Westeros. And it comes after all these chapters that are full of trauma and grief and how the whole nation's been destroyed. And we, ourselves as readers,

we're still reeling from the death of Ned Stark. Like, what the fuck? Did that really happen? And the Burning of the Seven ends up kind of feeling like a burning of those old systems of belief it's it's a burning it's a the death of this narrative justice that we all expect from our stories when it comes to ned stark but also it's davos in many ways he takes up that mantle that ned has left behind that vacuum as another sort of patriarch right he's the one who's now stepping in as this everyman archetypal lens and comes to sort of be that moral compass that Ned had originally filled in.

Yeah, he very much carries the devoted father vibe from Ned. And even in the way that Davos has sacrificed and given Devon to a Baratheon, right? Like how Ned gave Sansa to the Baratheons. She was the bargaining chip to marry Joffrey to tie their families together and so that Ned's family could see a little bit of that political gratiation and the way that Ned disconnects from Sansa when he realizes he can

no longer protect her like when he has to kill her wolf and realizes oh my god what have I fucking done it's much like Davos with devon after the black water right after he's lost everything else we even see davos following that version of eddard's the seed is strong plot on dragon stone trying to save the children and save a bastard when it comes to adric storm yeah that's a great point and saving the children that's how you know someone's the moral compass in this story as as we've discussed before. And this chapter and all the chapters to come with Stannis and Melisandre are in many ways, I think, an interrogation, right, of those systems of faith and belief, including those in terms of the order of things and the order that we expect out of the world, as as of course religion it's something that we've already started to bring up in the discussion around stannis whom you might remember from the previous chapters that we did about asha um that we broke down with alicia and wendy especially in terms of

that idea of faith but the language throughout this chapter i think really harkens to that and that those ideas of belief you have davos seeing the burning of the seven through a and it says veil of tears but veil here so v-e-i-l like a a cloth that covers one's face it's obscured but it is actually i would say a play on this term veil of tears veil spelled d-a-l-e which I assume, have in your vocabulary because it's like literally a place in the story, referring to something like a valley. And the Vale of Tears, as in V-A-L-E, is actually a concept from Christianity, or a term from it, of something that one would pass through before entering heaven and interestingly is actually something that people

that the characters pass through in harlan ellison's story i have no mouth and i am a scream which you know george was really fucking into harlan ellison but that's coming through here with the burning of the seven is i think significant and we'll see all those different issues evolve yeah notably the veil as we know is very very pro the seven that is their whole thing and on top of that as we're about to learn davos actually is very comfortable with the veil right he spent a lot of time on the outskirts of the veil sailing around so i love that he actually uses that there that's a really good play on words to catch hundreds come to watch the red woman prance around the fire praying in a size tongue valerian and the common tongue as well relore come to us in our darkness she called lord of light we offer

you these false gods these seven who are one, and him the enemy. Take them and cast your light upon us, for the night is dark and full of terrors. I don't know if I can read these Melisandre lines sometimes and not think of the fucking elbow in front of the fire gif. It's all I think about. So we learn that Melisandre has delivered this in three different languages. The Asshaii tongue, Valyrian, and the Common Tongue. And I kind of thought it was interesting. It reminds me of, you know, the original language, right, the one from far away.

And then it reminds me of Italy with, like, the old Latin, you know, that it's being delivered in Valyrian, and then the Common Italian, and the language of the people yeah there's a lot of that in here there's a lot of that and we hear queen celeste echo her and stannis just watches impassively but he's still dressed up in his sunday church clothes right to pull back to that he's still dressed up in his sunday best and the sept example, the night before was a very nice place, right? This was the place where Aegon had knelt and prayed before he sailed there at Dragonstone. So Stannis had to make sure he was wearing his best while he let the Queensmen demolish it, right? While Septon

Bar curses them. Yes, unfortunately, Stannis said, sure, go demolish the sept, take your power, have fun. And also, of course, we have some people that are defending the sept. We have Ser Hubard Ramton and his three sons who try to defend it. They slay four queensmen, but then they're overtaken, ridiculously overtaken. And we get a peek at Gunser Sunglass, who tells Stannis, I can't do this, man. This doesn't seem right. And he then gets sent to a cell with Septon, Bar, and the two remaining alive Ramton sons. Davos thinks the other lords had not been slow to take the lesson. Okay, so we're at the beginning of Stannis'

plot, right? Yeah. This is where it really starts. This is where it ramps up. But the story seems to kind of be the same as where we left it in Asha and Jon. It's still the same for this red god with Stannis. Burn your past down or you'll be jailed. It reminds me a little bit of the Dacian persecution of Christians. And many other religious persecutions, but we'll focus with this one just for time's sake.

Stay with me. It's 250 AD, 249-250 AD, and Roman Emperor Dacian, Dacius, who became emperor from a really big military win or several leading up to 249. He issues an edict that everyone in the empire, except for those that practice Judaism, have to perform a sacrifice for the gods and for his health in front of a Roman magistrate and other witnesses, and then they must provide that witness. Christians were not considered to be a religion at the time due to their monotheistic beliefs, and they had to choose between their beliefs and the law.

It was seen as non-traditional, disruptive. Christianity was kind of seen as a fad back then. It was a new religion. An unknown number of Christians ended up executed or just died for lack of resources for refusing to reform these sacrifices, including the Pope, Pope Fabian, at the time. Others went into hiding, but many performed the rituals to survive. And this ended up causing tension between these two parties, some who had performed the sacrifices and those who had avoided and had not. It wasn't called deliberate at the time. And there's no quote unquote evidence that says it was really deliberate and prejudiced, but if you look at the numbers, I'm just saying it doesn't look great. It doesn't look great on paper. And later on in 257, under Valerian's rule, I highlight the name for a reason.

It seems familiar. It becomes deliberate. He passed so many decrees and laws through his Senate saying that Christian clergy must perform sacrifices or face banishment to the roman gods and then the next year ordering execution of christian leaders and senators if they don't perform these acts of worship and then eventually even reaching to roman matrons and civil servants and members of the imperial household basically saying that if you do not abide to these laws and these religious rules you'll be reduced to slavery.

This didn't disinclude the high and well-off Christian kind of lords in the land either so it was kind of a very interesting religious takeover that did not stop it continued on to on and on and on I mean in history it's happening now but it continued on at the time in this rule until 303 or so very very dangerously and increasing constantly a very awful tense religious place to be in yeah and we can see that that only sort of ramps up in stanis's camp right with the lords uh we see it in the interactions that justin massey has in those asha chapters that we had just covered and i really thought it was interesting that you used the word perform the sacrifices that they would perform these rituals and that's something we're going to

talk about a little more what it means to perform faith or belief davos though has uh never really worshipped the gods in full though he had made offerings to them before different battles yes and also he would make offerings to the mother whenever maria grew full of babu you know whenever she was pregnant preggers as some people say yep i don't know who those people are but yes as they says they do. Buns and ovenses. Sea monkeys. Little sea monkeys. The sea monkeys are how it starts. Little seaworth monkeys.

Oh, seaworth monkeys. That makes it almost cute. Davos feels ill watching the gods burn all the same, not just from the smoke. And he thinks that, you know, Creston could have stopped this, but he was struck down for his impiety, and davos was like no it's because crescent fucking drank poison like and he knows this because he saw crescent slip it into his own drink and melisandre's and he knows that crescent did it to free stannis although relore ended up shielding melisandre and Davos is like

for that very moment for that act and he's like that's wild that she survived poison Davos is like I would have killed Melisandre in that moment but he also was like but you know what would happen to me and he's like if a maester of the Citadel couldn't do it how the fuck am I gonna do it

and we have this line here of he was only a smuggler raised high Davos of flea bottom the onion knight and we really see how you know here how davos has faith in the system by his his way of thinking like oh what the fuck can i do if a maester can't do something and it's that system that as we said is burning down around him but as we said, is burning down around him. But as we talk more about sacrifice, which, like we said, big deal in this story. Not that anything has proven us right about that in recent times, but it's part of this narrative, right? From the jump as we get the Azor Ahai legend in this very chapter.

And it's significant to me that C crescent was willing to sacrifice himself for this aim not not necessarily someone else i mean obviously melisandre but he was willing to put himself on the line for it too oh not just his child or his brother's child or he did it to save his child because he was like i love you like a son stannis stannis is my baby now and unpopular opinion but man if they don't got it together at 36 when are they gonna get it together i'm just saying no you're right but ever you're right you're not wrong and here's the thing is davos is 40 yo yeah he's young as you and i have said he's younger than his show counterpart but he's 40 and he's out here trailing after a 36 year old boy i don't even think about that that's true that's true i'm

just saying i'm just thinking about it out loud right now and like yes they have different lives and different raiments and different whatever and stannis was born to be a prince and a king and davos was not uh and i guess that's just how our lot is in life i was not born to be a princess but you know what life moves on you're a queen you're a queen chloe thanks babe thanks babe we do the best we can is what i'm saying and davos is doing the best he can in this system davos is recalling once septimbar had told him about the gods that are burning these gods were carved from the ships that first carried over targaryens to dragonstone i thought that was an interesting detail to call out in terms of the heritage of the targaryens to Dragonstone. I thought that was an interesting detail to call out

in terms of the heritage of the Targaryens, right? In the Spain Tunisian, the Targaryens converted. They turned to a new god, to the Seven, in terms of practicality and to give them a better shot at holding the Seven Kingdoms. And now Stannis is turning from that and going for the Red God for his last shot at the Seven Kingdoms. This is your last one one shot do not miss your

i don't know actually all the words okay eminem sit down melisandre had told stannis relore would find the beauty of these gods pleasing and they dragged them out at the castle gates the maiden lay athwart the warrior her arms widespread as if to embrace him the mother seemed almost to shudder as the flames came licking up her face. A long sword had been thrust through her heart, and its leather grip was alive with flame. The father was on the bottom, the first to fall. Davos watched the hand of the stranger writhe and curl as the fingers blackened and fell away one by one reduced to so much glowing charcoal whoa a lot to unpack in this yes his fingers falling away the fingers are obviously not his

fingers it's the hand of the stranger but they're falling away because you know davos no fingers and there's so much nisa nisa foreshadowing right which we later see come to fruition with the long sword through the mother's heart leather alive with flame the first to fall about the father makes me think of ned right the father who died for our sins who just fell like we've said eddard 15 last book and then you have the maiden who's laying a thwart the warrior embracing her that kind of suggests submission right the maiden has submitted and then we get that vision of killing death let me hear the stranger avoided

in most things in westeros right how many prayers have we heard where they skip over the the patron saint of the stranger because he's just too scary to bring up i thought this was interesting that they actually face death they're killing death in front of us. Oh, and that is something that seems is part of R'hllor's practices or abilities. Not necessarily

R'hllor, but something that the Fire Priests practice. So it's a really interesting catch right there. But yeah, this felt significant and I think you nailed it with the nut thing but the rest um you know i i was trying to figure it out and i think the maiden stuff is on it as well as the stranger thank you yeah no i mean that is really connecting to this right like this is very much the torch has been passed off so to speak and uh we're going to talk

about torches in a bit i know too because there's a lot of fire imagery here. But some of these guys during this whole ritual thing going on, they're not doing so great. It turns out all the charred, smoky wood stuff has Lord Celtigar and Bar-Emmon coughing and turning gray. And the mere men that are present are swapping jokes. But that's about it. Lord Valerian watches the king, not the flames. It's a bleak display. Does not feel very spectacular as far as ceremonies go. Davos wonders what Lord Valerian could be thinking about while he stares at Stannis, but he knows I'll never be on the same level with that guy. He thinks that Lord Valyrian has the ancient blood of Valyria, and he's provided brides for Targaryens, and that the other lords are similar.

Davos had never felt included with their council, and he knows that they scorn his sons as well. But he thinks if he can endure this, his grandsons and, you know, their council, and he knows that they scorn his sons as well. But he thinks if he can endure this, his grandsons and, you know, their looks, maybe, maybe our grandsons could be friends. They could play in the fields and joust together. They can wet each other. Maybe Black Betha could fly as high as the seahorse or the red crab. But then he thinks if Stannis wins his throne. If he didn't, Davos knows that everything that he owes, he owes to Stannis. Okay, I get it. Like, I do get it that his success is directly tied to Stannis bringing

him up in the world and believing in him but I know Davos wants his kids to get into good schools and have good food on the table but do you think that Mario wanted a memory of him with the kids you know maybe being home eating shitty food or does she think that he wanted a memory of him returning home from war with one kid left hope that meal tastes good you know because that's enjoy your You know, because that's enjoy your stuffed duck, Maria, because that's all you're going to get, not sons. Yeah, and we actually haven't

even seen Maria at all this entire book, so something I expect. None of the books. Yeah, well, sorry, yeah, when I said this book, I meant all the books. Yeah, well, I expect we'll see her one day, hopefully, maybe, but it is something to note.

Stannis gave Davos knighthood, a place of honor at his table, and a war galley instead of a smuggler's skiff. And as Davos thinks, his sons were captains and warmasters now, and Devon was even a squire. And he's like, someday they'll even

be knighted they even had a small keep on cape wraith with servants who call maria milady and they have red deer that they're allowed to hunt in their own woods which as you know that's not always allowed that the poachers are the people that jorah mormont was like but what if i just sold them into slavery? Captured them. Davos ended up having to give a few finger joints and some onions in order to follow this position, and he thinks that it was just. He says he flouted the king's laws his whole life, and Stannis earned his loyalty through this. Then he touches his finger bones and their bag on his neck, thinking that, you know that everyone needs a little luck now and then. And he's like, Stannis most of all. Stannis needs some luck.

And everything that's going on here between Davos thinking that Stannis has sort of given him everything that he owes everything to Stannis is I think really great setup for a line that Davos is going to deliver later on.

The thick smoke wafts into men's eyes and mouth which causes them to cough and curse line that Davos is going to deliver later on. The thick smoke wafts into men's eyes and mouth, which causes them to cough and curse and wipe their eyes. Davos thinks it's a taste of things to come, and that many and more would burn before the war was done. This is the worst bonfire ever. I know, it's not fun.

It's not fun! No one's drunk! Well, the only person that seems drunk is melisandre right she's just like dancing around a fire a huge ass fire this is like yeah that's the dream fire festival this is the real fire festival and melisandre is in all these scarlet satins and her ruby is glimmering and she's like in ancient books of a size written that there will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed in the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world in this dread hour a warrior shall

draw from the fire a burning sword and that sword shall be light bringer the red sword of heroes and he who clasps it shall be azor ahai come again and the darkness shall flee before him so stannis responds to her song marches forward and takes the sword he's assisted by squires including devin seaworth who puts a padded glove on the king's hand the squires wear a cream doublet a fiery heart on the breast the other squire is Brian Faring who's probably related to Godry the giant slayer who's fucking sucks

he's coming to earth but I would argue Clayton sucks yes he's a Gilbert Faring's son I believe he's Gilbert Faring's son and it's interesting because it's very highlighted that they're wearing a cream doublet which is totally like the acolytes are wearing white uh sets them apart right from Stannis's crew who is usually garbed in red or black and also kind of serves

almost like an altar boy outfit in a way right Like these are altar boys for Stannis right now. And also, they're dressed like sacrifices. They're dressed in a cream doublet like sacrifices. They're the sacrifices that their fathers sent forward, right? Led like sheep to serve this god, Stannis Baratheon, to gain political favor. Yeah, and that happens to a lot of kids in Westeros, unfortunately. The board system Patchface appears behind Davos

I don't know if I like that someone just appearing behind you and being like bursting into song he sings a song of under the sea smoke rises and bubbles and flames burn green and blue and black Patchface sang somewhere

I know I know, I know oh, oh, oh I think that was too cheerful, I should have probably made that more ominous but I always hear because Shireen in the show Carrie Ingham has that thing

where she sings it in the credits and it's really chilling in the outro I don't remember which episode it is can you sing it for me yeah it's like oh i know that's like the melody i don't know but she sings one of the patch phase songs in one of the credits of the show it might be on her death episode, actually, but it was very chilling. It was like, wow. It was very good, though. It was a nice little call out. I liked it a lot.

But what this does remind me of is Blackwater, right? Which is looming over these chapters. It's really hard to remember that because of all of our time travel that we do back and forth through the POVs. This is still looming over Davos. We do back and forth through the POVs. This is still looming over Davos. We're going to do Blackwater Electric Boogaloo 2 soon, where we do 837,000 hours of Blackwater with Davos Seaworth.

I'm just kidding. That's a lot. And only with Sansa. But it's looming over all of his early Clash chapters. The Doom of Valyria seems to have followed the Kangit Dragonstone, right? Like you have this horrible ash the pale green flames everyone's coughing and sputtering and their eyes are watering and they're wiping their face off it's not great not great things going on here yeah everyone's just having a bad time and it's gonna get worse like why is this happening and then stannis plunges his arm into the fire his teeth are clenched you know

signature Stannis move and he plunges his hand to remove the sword from the mother as you'll remember the mother's in the the sword is in the mother's breast and then jade green flames swirl around the red steel Queen Selyse and the Queensmen

take out the cry a sword of fire it burns it burns and you know I've steal. Queen Selyse and the Queensmen take out the cry, A SORDERFIRE! IT BURNS! IT BURNS! And, you know, I've said that about a lot of things, and not ever about a sordifier. Hmm. Hmm. I have questions.

Don't eat crawfish. And then, okay. Melisandre heals Stannis then as Azor Ahai come again and the sword as the Lightbringer and then calls Stannis the Son of Fire. And ragged waves of shouts begin and

Stannis' glove then catches on fire. He curses beneath his breath and puts it out while Melisandre calls again to her lore, ending the prayers with Selyse and the Queensmen repeating their refrain that the night is dark and full of terrors. There's some pretty obvious symbolism when it comes

to Stannis' glove lighting on fire in the middle of this very important and stoic ritual, right? And we'll talk again about performances later, but this is some really broad Christian imagery as well as just other religious imagery of light and dark being symbolic.

In Christianity, especially from the very first, fire and light are symbols, if not visible manifestations, some believe, of divine nature and divine presence. Light represents a purifying presence of God, and Christ is called the true light. And when he was transfigured, it's said that he personified glistening light and whiteness. Light's prominent in many other religions, like Judaism, Hindu rites, customs. Similarly, there's a big Roman influence, and Greek influence as well. The Romans lit candles and lamps for their tutelary deities, and held offerings to gods through light. The Greek held torches as incredibly sacred and ceremonial obviously now the olympics aren't a real thing anymore for us in our current pandemic

society ripped but uh i mean the torch being passed exists for a reason you know what i mean like that's supposed to be so sacred i mean king of the hill has done episodes of sacredness king of the watch that last week that's a great episode you should watch it okay but i mean king of the hill has done episodes of sacredness king of the watch that last week yeah it's a great episode you should watch it okay it's a sacred thing it's very sacred very ceremonial it's interesting that it's being highlighted highlighted here i've never watched king of the hill but i know people love it and i feel like i should give it loves it so i watch it sometimes with him and it's alright. I like it. Alright, alright.

We're talking about the King of Westeros here, though. Not King of the Hill. Allegedly. So he says. Davos wonders, he's like, should I be speaking the same words as everyone, too? And chanting them?

And he's like, do I owe that much to Stannis to chant the words for his new fire god and then his shortened fingers twitch while Stannis peels off his own glove and then lets it fall to the ground

and this entire thing the entire thing that's going on here as Melisandre tells everyone alright guys this is what the prophecy is, we've set everything up for it to happen, and then Stannis puts on the glove that's fireproof, right, and it

all becomes this huge performance, right, and it's like they're following what they think is supposed to be in the prophecy, they think that if they do it, right, that the prophecy is a recipe and that if they follow what it says,

they can make it happen. And then Stannis will suddenly become Azor Ahai. It's him trying to step into that role by doing the actions of playing the part. And I think that starts to become something really important to A Song of Ice and Fire, especially when you get like that the slipperiness of identity which we've talked about uh more in depth actually i think

what was it a year ago two years ago around this time of year for october where we talk about identity in a song of ice and fire and it makes me think of those lines in the mercy chapter where aria uh thinks back to moments I think actually is it in this book right where she's like you know your lines and I know mine and Astannis knows the lines for being Azor Ahai

but that doesn't actually make him Azor Ahai Arya might know the lines but that doesn't actually make her mercy in that moment knowing the lines she's performing it and doing all that when just because you step into and play a character doesn't make you that character and you know a lot of people have talked about the trappings of power and melisandre our friends at nauticus have talked about how melisandre uses that here in order to bequeath Stannis with the Azor Ahai prophecy, right?

But that doesn't necessarily make him that. And you can see what a farce it is because it's not like anything's at risk. He's preparing for it to the utmost. He doesn't even get burned. He doesn't even take the risk of getting burned. And that's what makes it magical, right? If he were to reach into the fire and come out unscathed. And we know that because we've seen that action already happen with Daenerys.

And we're like, wow, that was a fucking miracle. Amazing. And that Stannis can't even pull that off. It begins to cast doubt, especially for the reader. And especially with all this idea of prophecy. It's like the more you try to follow it to the recipe, as Cersei does, as Stannis does, the more it... Backfires.

Yeah, it backfires. It doesn't really work. Literally. Yeah. As we see at the Blackwater, at Blackwater Bay, it literally backfires on Stannis. Blackfires. Oh, wait, no, that's different.

Blackwaters. They were a whole family, my bad. I thought I had something. Well, to what you're saying at this point in the ceremony as we go along the gods become unrecognizable they're just scarred by fire the smith's head has rolled into the ashes and melisandre begins to sing like the tides of the sea davos says and stannis listens in silence lightbringer glows hot in the ground, but the flames begin to dwindle and die around it. Only charwood remains of the gods as Mel finishes singing,

and the king loses patience, taking Selyse by the elbow to go back to the castle. Lightbringer remains in the shore. Some linger to watch the squires clean up, and the red sword of heroes is now burnt and blackened the lords fall silent when they see davos look at them he thinks they'd kill me in an instant if stannis fell and this makes me think of uh one of the other lines where varies us where does power reside and for davos his power is very much tied up in stannis he doesn't have wealth he doesn't have the old blood to buoy him it's all from stannis acknowledging what he's done and we know that davos of course believes in stannis but it does

kind of raise questions in this chapter that sure these get answered in later later chapters especially in a storm of swords but like what is it really that davos believes in like here you kind of question like does he believe in stannis's values or that stannis has valued him it really does seem to be the latter as we keep moving through this davos was neither king's men nor was he the ambitious queen's men that we see who win their favor from lady actually sorry davos corrects his thoughts queen selise through lore. Davos and his sons end up departing the scene, they make their way to the shore and the waiting ships, and Davos praises Devon's hard work during the ceremony to his other sons. Allard and Dale ask why Stannis' sigil is different than the regular Baratheon

crest, and he explains to them that a man can choose more than one badge. Dale smiles, saying, like a black ship in an onion, father, but Allard is less happy. He says the others take our onion and that flaming heart, and then he quips it was an ill thing to burn the seven. Davos is kind of surprised. He's like, ah, you've become very pious, my rash son. When did a smuggler's son learn about the gods allard responds i'm a knight son and if you don't remember that why should they yeah you tell him allard you tell your dad you give him that confidence yeah we're seaworths dad we're seaworthy oh i don't need no azura high there's a there's an au somewhere where they're all alive and all the sons are like we're seaworthy and then they like do a little i don't know huddle wow i made myself sad why did i say that what the fuck okay um so between how the show portrayed things and that for majority of the

books like davos as you said earlier this episode doesn't really interact uh with his sons as much you know statistically because a lot of them die and then he's away from a lot of them whatever um yeah now what did i do why am i sad now um it is refreshing and nice to see these interactions with davos and the sons you really get to see like they have a they have a good rapport his sons feel comfortable speaking up to him and i think it really drives home Davos's own fatherhood and therefore what he's going to lose and in that sense kind of punctuates Stannis's own storyline. But that sense of self that Allard talks about is I think really interesting as again those lines of identity start getting blurred because you know what does it mean to be a night sun? What does it mean to have

king's blood, right? To be Elaine or to be Reek or to be Mercy and as Allard says, if you don't remember who you are, how the fuck will anyone else remember who you are? And I think that comes back to that idea of performance and roles and especially you know, it's something that Davos keeps

thinking about is like where he stands in terms of the other lords and if you don't remember your knight son how will anyone else and he comes back to this idea of class and consenting to the current system because if there's no one there to perform being the lower class how are the rest of these nobles around Davos going to know that

they're noble and that they're so lordly yeah and Davos kind of reiterates he he's like, yeah, I'm a knight, but, you know, we were given this stuff, so you gotta stop poking your nose in, stay humble, son. Like, if you don't stay humble and stop sticking your nose in places it's not supposed to belong, you won't be a knight. He says they can't question Stannis, they just have to do his bidding. So then Dale immediately changes the subject to further questioning Stannis because he talks about how they have water casks for the trips they have to go on. The cheap green pine are what the casks are made of, and both of them complain our water is going to rot and spoil in that wood through

the journeys we have, through the lengths of journeys we have to go on they comment then that the queen's men laid claim to all of the seasoned wood for their ships first much like stannis's camp when he's in the north with food in ash's pov as we just covered that led to people eating other people by the way since they were out of resources we're already seeing right now that Stannis' teams are reallocating resources dependent upon class and wealth. Stannis is definitely more likable in this chapter than he has been recently in our other POVs, in my opinion, especially toward the end of the chapter, as we're going to get to eventually, because he even kind of snorts and cracks an almost joke with davos right he even

is like haha here's an almost joke davos i like you enough to half smile at you but again we're seeing this attitude that is going to be the end of this camp that the resources being distributed are not being distributed equally all lives are not equal to stannis that's for sure yeah and he's not willing to do anything to fix that and reinforces it but Davos does promise his sons he's like alright I'll speak to the king thinking that it's better if I ask him

because his sons bless them he's like they're low born like I am but they don't know how to speak to lords and I mean Davos' sons right they grew up a little different actually from davos right davos's sons were not taught as davos was to submit to other people's station because for a portion of their lives so quite a few of them have grown up thinking that they are night sons and therefore feel entitled to better which i think everyone should feel entitled to at least like a living wage you, but it means that they do not know how to perform for the nobility around them.

Yeah, and not to be contrarian to you, but I do want to provide, maybe this is just counter argument. But since we know that the Queen's men are mostly assholes who have no manners, right? mostly assholes who have no manners, right? I would say we canonically can say that's a true thing, that the majority of the Queensmen are shifty little buggers and they're assholes. What if his sons would actually fit in fine if he let them try? Because here's the deal. He's afraid to let them go.

What if his sons could do fine on their own? Later he says they're going to have grandsons who joust with the other grandsons, but how are they gonna do that? When is Davos going to let them do that and let them try to do that? It's very Ned with Sansa and Arya in King's Landing. When are they going to do the things you're tasking them with if you don't inform them, train them, and then set them free? We have characters like Margaery who is set free upon the capital to go work her wiles upon joffrey but if you don't teach them how are they gonna learn yeah it's um it sounds to me like you're saying that davos is marlin and finding nemo and his kids are nemo and i think that there's merit to that um but you know sansa and aa and Margaery, they were top of the

class ladder, whereas I worry, and I think Davos' worry is I've recently just started watching Ugly Betty and I think the worry that he has is that his kids are going to be treated the way that Betty's

treated when she starts working at Mode magazine. That's the insight. That's a good insight. He's afraid, right? He wants to protect them, but he's also asking them to step forward into this political world

for him and help him have a legacy. And it's a harrowing task. Yeah, it's like, will they get bullied out of it or not but who knows the port is crowded, inns are packed with soldiers drinking and looking for a companion although it's in vain since all the

sex workers were banned on Stannis' islands he's like if I'm not getting any no one's getting any ships and galleys and cogs line the area the largest vessels taking the most land fury stanis's flagship sits between lord stefan and the steg of the sea beside it are lord valerian's pride of drishmark keltigar's red claw and swordfish and that anchors salad or sans great valyrian two dozen smaller lysine galleys along with it then there's black betha wraith and lady maria they all share some mooring

space down by a weathered inn with a half dozen other small galleys yes for now davos has a thirst and decides to leave his sons to their galleys, heading to the inn where Salador San is introduced. We get this line that out front squatted a waist-high gargoyle, so eroded by rain and salt that his features were all but obliterated. He and Davos were old friends, though. I like the idea of the gargoyle, especially with a lot of the kind of Roman different references we've been talking

about with this plot together. And gargoyles were popular in Roman cathedrals, right? Most commonly used for two purposes, to install a pipe within and redirect water from rain and to ward off evil spirits. Some did see them as demons. I guess that's an interpretation as evil but when you look at notre dame for example they have no fewer than 5 000 gargoyles and as we know the hunchback of notre dame's hellfire a song from its soundtrack is actually written about stannis i'm just kidding it's not it's not a joke but it's uh it's the best disney song um davos pats the gargoyle for luck and then heads in back in dover by the lysini solid or son who's eating grapes and i know it's like a whole thing probably about patting gargoyles um and as you said they're they're quite significant culturally but i do love that davos just pats the gargoyle because it just feels super cute to me and I also used to pet statues

and random things before it became unsafe to touch anything but also I realized later on I was like oh it's like a thing he's superstitious like how he always touches his finger bones he pats gargoyles for good luck but now I'm wondering is this foreshadowing

regarding the gargoyle being so eroded by rain and salt that his features were all but obliterated for tyrian i know that as a twisted stunted little gargoyle yeah like i know it's not great to call him a gargoyle but he's described as such and he's described as grotesque and a synonym for gargoyle is actually the term grotesque when it comes to like those architectural ornaments so it's really weird you say that too because another thing that is kind of noted as gargoyle in mythology is a chimera and tyrian is kind of a chimera of a person as we discussed like the whole he was born with a tail thing that's told about him yeah i mean like we've seen him later on in the black water right he ends up

getting um physically injured on his face and that that alters his features and appearance he's not completely obliterated but i'm also like is that part of his identity right uh him undergoing so much that he becomes unrecognizable as a landowner i don't know something like that i like the idea of that as like an insert that he and davos were old friends though i mean we see a lot with Asha who fought Morgan Little on the field and then after he apologized to her for calling her a crude crass name a cunt and said hey no no no hurt feelings it was just battle and we see people like Tyrion's clan members from the Vale for example who really honor battle and we see the northern clans who are like

battle is really honorable as well so I don't know the fact that Tyrion kind of sticks it out-ish as much as he can during the Blackwater and Salador here in a minute is about to speak a lot about how oh King's Landing is shit I didn't really go on about it in this but he basically says like Tyrion sucks we're gonna be able to get a fast one over Tyrion

fuck Tyrion and Tyrion actually fucks them. Gives a good battle. Yeah he kind of like shows it up at the Blackwater. He does the chain. He's like, here's what we're doing. Tyrion holds it down until Tywin can show up, man. I'll give him that. I will. Yeah.

I mean, Tyrion does a great job there. Salador San offers Davos some of his sweet grapes, and we get our first look at Salador. Sleek and smiling and flamboyant, in cloth of silver with long, dagged sleeves that reach the ground, and his white curls are topped with a peacock-feathered green cap. Very flamboyant, very Lycene-y. Before Davos's knighthood, Salador San and Davos traded many cargos, many currencies. San was a smuggler, a trader, a notorious pirate,

a banker, and a self-styled prince of the narrow sea. Davos thinks, when a pirate grows rich enough, they make him a prince. Salador San is, of course, our, uh, our Damon Targaryen-esque, our Valerian-esque character in this story, right?

Of the prince of the narrow sea. Yes, absolutely. Before Oraine, at, of the prince of the narrow sea. Yes, absolutely. Before Oraine, at least. Before we get Oraine Waters. Yeah, absolutely, and I think that kind of stands out, especially now that we have Fire and Blood. Davos is surprised, though, that Salador

didn't go to the burning. Salador's like, I don't know, I've seen enough burnings on Lys in R'hllor's Great Temple there. He's like, it's not that cool. They're always burning something or someone. He's like, I don't know, I've seen enough burnings on Lys in R'hllor's Great Temple there. He's like, it's not that cool. They're, like, always burning something or someone. He's like, whatever. And he says that the fires bore him, and soon he's like, they'll bore Stannis too, hopefully.

And they don't. We'll come back to that. Salador, though, is able to speak freely, unconcerned with listeners. He just eats grapes and flicks seeds off his face. What the fuck? That's so weird. Saldor waggles more grapes in front of Davos, telling him news of King's Landing. He's like,

Tywin has sent Tyrion to be hand. Tyrion has chased off Jannos Slynt, Jasslyn Bywater, and Sald in his place. The city's defenses, though strong, are missing men to defend them. We have this line of, he picked a grape and squeezed it between thumb and forefinger until the skin burst. Juice ran down between

his fingers. And I don't know if this is supposed to be something that evokes the Garden of Eden and the temptation there. Grapes, of course, are associated with wine and maybe there's something there also with the blood of Christ and this purity. I mean, there are two

different concepts right tempting davos but there's also a sort of like you know take the grapes that solid war is offering keep your moral purity as opposed to like this crazy path you're gonna go down with stannis you know there's two different ways to look at this and so i don't think it's just one i don't know that it really means anything but also it makes me think of like an association with wine those those grapes you know saldor's son enjoys pleasures there's there's that joy there right that indulgence i'd also add that the fact that he squeezes it until the skin bursts feels like a metaphor for king's landing's current state? That he's saying that things are pretty bad in King's Landing, so if we apply enough pressure, it will explode.

Which, as we know, does not happen yet. But it does explode with wildfire. So again, I do feel that the Blackwater is hanging over us once more in this moment. That it is. And Salador, as you're saying, right? He's like, like you know we could just sail we could just sail and take the city by even fall tomorrow if we were granted the wind

and then we'll address the dwarf and motley he's very he's very interested in this he really hates the lannisters which like i understand i totally get you man and like same i get it but damn really hates them and there's this, the line he says is, grant us wind to fill our sails. And it actually reminds me of Numeria Sand's use of House Fowler's words, when she's like, let me soar, uncle, and I'll take care of all of it. I just thought that was unrelated, but cool language. Very cool.

Salador also hopes, going back to the Lannisters, that Stannis would gift him Queen Cersei since he'd been away from his wives while serving Stannis Davos is like you don't have wives you have concubines and you've been paid and Salador's like not really I've been paid in promises

like a paper shield and word on paper is not gold I mean I'd be anxious too if I were Salador's son. Paper's nothing! Yeah, not if it's not going to be honored, especially by, like, what, four out of five kings, right?

And this scene kind of makes me think of Tyrion later on making promises to Bramden Plum and a couple of the other sellsword companies being like, yeah, it's fine. You know, here, I wrote you a piece of paper, we made an agreement and i totally have the gold we just have to go take casterly rock first it's fine it's fine tyrian doing that with anyone throughout the entire series challenge honestly the veil

like listen i have money daddy has money okay and the daddy i hate he promises the entire veil too that's a big-ass promise. For something your daddy does not have. Daddy's dead! Exactly! You don't have it. This is the one thing you guys do not have. The veil is, like, totally in revolt from anything the Iron Throne wants of it.

They're like, oh, sorry, we lost your mail. It'll be five to seven business years. You know? Oh, that's how I feel about these books. So, Davos five to seven business years you know oh that's how i feel about these books um so davos says no man in the seven kingdoms is more honorable than stannis and salador will be paid when they take the treasury salador is like we could take the city now but davos doesn't think they could hold it with tywin and renly gathering their hosts. Salador agrees, saying that king or lord, whatever you call him, Renly, is stirring himself and his armies. And he remembers, of course,

that here Renly is Lord Renly and pardons himself, saying that so many kings, my tongue grows weary of the word. He brings news that Renly marches up the road of roses, bringing his bride with him and a whole set of armed roses.

Salador says, yes, I've told the king. He didn't really seem grateful He suddenly marches up the road of roses, bringing his bride with him and a whole set of armed roses. Salador says, yes, I've told the king. He didn't really seem grateful for the information I presented him, but I did tell him. And then he brings Davos a pretty hot next take, or cold, I guess now, that the sword that Stannis used was not Lightbringer. This leaves Davos pretty uneasy. Salador hadn't been at the burning, but somehow he knew the sword, and he knew that it was burnt.

So we could dig into this, but also I think the symbolism's pretty obvious, so I'm not gonna. Yeah, I mean it's pretty obvious that the sword's a fake. And that's all I have to say about it. Which also means... Yeah. Yeah.

Davos corrects Salador, saying, no, soldier was saying no no no the sword is burning and soldier was like no no dude it was burnt and then he regales us with the forging of lightbringer it was a time when darkness lay heavy on the world to oppose it the hero must have been a hero's blade, oh, like none other that ever been.

And so for thirty days and thirty nights Azor Ahai labored sleepless in the temple, forging a blade in the sacred fires, heat and hammer and fold, heat and hammer and fold, oh yes, until the sword was done. Yet when he plunged into water to temper the steel, it burst asunder. Being a hero, it was not for him to shrug and go in search of excellent grapes such as these, so again he began. The second time it took him 50 days and 50 nights, and this sword seemed even finer than the first. Azor Ahai captured a lion to temper the blade, plunging it through the beast's red heart. But once more the steel shattered and split. Great was his woe and great was his sorrow

then, for he know what he must do. A hundred days and a hundred nights he labored on the third blade, and as it glowed white hot in the sacred fires, he summoned his wife. Nisa Nisa, he said to her, for that was her name. Bear your breast and know that I love you best of all that is in this world. She did this thing. Why, I cannot say. And Azor Ahai thrust the smoking sword through her living heart. It is said her cry of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon, but her blood and her soul and

her strength and her courage all went into the steel such is the tale of the forging of light bringer the red sword of heroes yes so i don't think i need to dig into this too much but the whole forging of light bringer is of course a little reminiscent of the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa which I'm sure you've probably all seen the statue where Saint Teresa is in ecstasy and it depicts

the time that an angel stabs her with a spear and she's like this is fucking awesome and I'm like girl what is it? and so there's some of those vibes here

right? but, you know, in general I kind of forgot that we got this whole exposition from Stalador San and not Melisandre, and I think it raises those questions, of course, of heroes and sacrifices, which is the entirety of what we're going to discuss throughout all these chapters, so whatever.

We'll save that for everything else. But it's also worth noting that, in my opinion, San knows it. San knows the story pretty well and speaks of how in the Temples of Lys and that, as we know, it's in many of the Free Cities because a lot of them are trade cities, right? It's a popular religion across Essos,

and this religion that seems novel right now to a lot of the characters in Westeros is actually quite well known by many in Essos, and I think that really drives home the kind of impact that this is going to have for Dany's storyline when they speak of her as potentially Azor Ahai reborn, besides the fact that everyone fucking knows this religion in SS yeah and even rereading it the tale has that threefold structure that George Kermit likes you

know and I didn't really notice that I don't know I just don't really pay attention because it's like I just don't feel like there's some sort of big mystery to unearth it's in front of us I digress um but the threefold structure two of the three times he tried yes and the third time is when he finally made the big one uh and that feels really significant as well for stannis with his three times he tried yeah he asks if davos understands him now salador says that if that sword is just a burnt sword, we should be glad. Too much light can hurt the eyes, my friend,

and fire burns. Finishing his last grape, Salador says, are we going to set sail soon? Davos says when his god wills it, and Salador notices the difference. Davos has not taken R'hllor as his god. Davos responds,

and when he responds he thinks the inn is crowded and you are not Salador San. Be careful how you answer. He says Stannis is his god and Salador says he'll remember that excusing himself to his beautiful dinner on his Valyrian. Minced lamb with pepper and roasted gold stuffed with mushrooms f fennel, and onion. It is rude that Solid or Sun did not invite Davos. It's kind of a dick move. Yeah, sounds like an amazing dinner. That line seems... I just really like that line,

and that's the one that I was talking about earlier, where Davos says, King Stannis is my god. He made me and blessed me with his trust. And I think that really just closes the loop on all that ruminating that Davos had early on in this chapter of what he's gained since being raised in knighthood by Stannis

as opposed to living in Flea Bottom. Davos has been given a taste of that Eden, of this providence, right? By being entered into Stannis' circle where the needs of his wife and himself are met the needs of his children are met and all he had to do was pay the price of a few fingers after all, it sounds like every god in the story needs a blood sacrifice

so for him it's that and that's Davos' sacrifice to the cause of Stannis it's his performance of justice and allowing Stannis to do that and with faith becoming more important again to the mechanics of A Song of Ice and Fire. Even here, it's part of that power and faith and godhood. These all get mashed together with the human rulers, when it comes to power and being a god and a ruler. And this all gets thrown into the mix with the lines between worship and duty and obedience

from others yeah and we'll talk in a bit about what power is to these two separate people but power for davos is very different than power from stannis and the struggles that davos has faced throughout his life are a lot different than the struggles stannis has faced in many ways right yeah saladware promises that they'll feast together in the red keep soon while the dwarf sings a jolly tune hopefully not the reigns of castamere and salador asks him oh by the way can you remind your god that he owes me 30 000 gold dragons and uh by the way he should have sold the gods he burned they would have made a killing in Lys. They would have made so much money in Pentos, in Myr. He then reminds Davos

all of this debt can be forgiven as long as he has granted Queen Cersei for the night. Cersei, like many women in the story, is being seen as a coin or spoils of war again, and to his credit, Stannis doesn't seem to entertain this request, just as he does not entertain selling

Asha off off as it seems like um when she's a prisoner though he's all like we should do this to val but anyways right but that's that's different life is worth less than a real person's life because she's a free vote well also it's not just selling her as a spoiled war for the night it's he's trying to do the alliance political thing but it's's a game but also is he okay did the show try to mix Solidor San with what they eventually made Euron because Euron in the books is not

interested in Circe for a night but Solidor San won't shut the fuck up about it but Euron's like all about it in the show I don't know it's a thought I don't know that we should spend our energy ever trying to qualify what the fuck they did with Euron and the Shedwell. Fair.

I think that's energy ill-spent, my friend. You're right. I don't think we're going to understand it, you know? I think it's best to just let it fade away because there's stuff like the books here that we can analyze and understand. And as Salador does swagger away, Davos sits and thinks and drinks an ale, and he ponders and remembers another flaming sword he once saw, which was Thoros of Myr's sword from Joffrey's Name Day tourney. This is the infamous tourney before A Song of Ice and Fire, not the one Sans is about to go to, right? This is a little bit before A Song of Ice and Fire. bit before Song of Ice and Fire. He had attended it about a year prior, and his blade, Thoros of Myr's blade, was writhing with pale green flames. In the end, the flame went out, and Bronzion Royce, who was fighting him at the time, plummeted his common mace into Thoros. I thought that was

interesting because it has to be old. Bronzion Royce was in the capital. How weird is that? because it has to be old bronze yone royce was in the capital how weird is that john aaron was still alive the tourney was probably six to ten months before a game of thrones and now yone wouldn't even come near the capital it's a great connection though because the imagery of yone royce who's fighting against thoros with these flames around him almost reminds me of Waymore Royce versus the others, his son. Sir Waymore Royce had found his fury. For Robert, he shouted, and he came up snarling, lifting the frost-covered longsword with both hands, swinging it around in a flat sidearm slash with all his weight behind it. The others' parry was almost lazy. When the blades touched, the steel shattered. Come to think of it,

Bronzio and Royce has quite a tourney record of defeats and wins. He won the melee at Harrenhal, though he was defeated by Rhaegar. He participated in tourney Atlantisport, defeated by Lord Jorah Mormont, and of course the defeat from Thoros of Mir above. I think he might be kind of one of those ascending extras to watch. I'm guessing he'll be in the eight-winged knight's hall tourney over in the Vale. And again, he's another representation of that father-son impressing kind of thing going on in this chapter. Sons doing what their fathers planned for them to try to win their honor, their pride, and help secure the family name. Waymar royce fought truly until the

others took him davos's sons serve their raiments and doing as the king bid them that's that's the big deal here we see it repeated in the next chapter with theon's return to the iron islands where his only hope is pleasing his father his real father the conflict right not ned the real dad yeah and i think that's a great parallel and i think that we see stanis trying to please someone maybe not his father but but his brother and you know what you're not gonna get it because he's dead and then we have this line here from davos where he ruminates on what son said and thinks a true sort. Now, that would be a wonder to behold, yet at such a cost. When he thought of Nysa Nysa, it was his own Maria he pictured, a good-natured, plump woman

with sagging breasts and a kindly smile, the best woman in the world. He tried to picture himself driving his sword through her and shuddered. I am not made of the stuff of heroes, he decided. That was the price of a magic sword. It was more than he cared to pay. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah, brother. Wow.

When Davos leaves, he pets the gargoyle for luck again, and he heads toward Black Betheth. At dark, his son Devon brings summons from the king to attend him in the chamber of the painted table. Davos feels uneasy, although he's proud of his son's squire raiment. He wonders if it's time to set sail after all. He knows that Salador San is not the only captain eager to leave for King's Landing, but Davos knows that they have to be patient. They have no hope of victory if they

go right now, Because there are too few people to take the city. Davos said as much to Maester Cressen when he came back to Dragonstone. He finds his way up to the Stone Drum, a dozen highborn knights and bannermen leaving the chamber. Celtigar and Valerian curtly nod at him.

The rest ignore him, except for Queen Selyse's Uncle Axel. I appreciate that Monfort and Celticard nodded him and I'm realizing Granite Fire and Blood wasn't written yet but is it because they have that history where technically all the Valyrians right now of this house are descended

from bastards. True. We got Axel and his prominent florid features which are exactly that, they're prominent He's got big ears, he's a keg of a man thick arms and legs, lots of ear hair

Imagine if that's your family trait Ear hair! Axel had been castellan of Dragonstone for a decade, but had been the staunchest queensman lately He exchanged pleasantries with Davos, saying that the false gods burned with a merry

light today, and Davos is like, yeah, I agree, they did burn bright, that's how fire works. Yeah, Davos is like, I do not trust this man at all. Talk about red flags. And he's like, House Florid has

declared for Renly after all. And then Axel just carries on saying that Melisandre says that faithful servants can see future in the flames. And Axel's like, I saw a dozen beautiful maidens in yellow silk spinning and twisting before a great

king. He's like, this is a true vision of Stannis' future glory. I'm like, bruh. First of all, Stannis hates women. Yeah. Their presence. He just doesn't like it. Virgins? I don't know, man. I don't know if he wants them near him either.

I'm just saying, like, that's- and Davos thinks that, right? He's like, no. And it's interesting because Axel is absolutely feeling him out here. Like, it's very obvious that the things he's saying, he's like no uh and it's interesting because axel is absolutely feeling him out here like it's very obvious that the things he's saying he's like oh interesting it's the onion knight i want to see what kind of information i can use against him and ruin his life so that i can secure my position by the king yeah and i was just like what is happening oh he's like maybe this is the real reason

why I don't want my sons talking to the lords, because they're fucking emotionally draining. The description that Axel has of the fire, the beautiful maidens in yellow sung, and you end up getting this language of that personification of fire,

and it almost sounds plausible that maybe Axel saw this because it is reminiscent of the personification of the fire and how Danny describes seeing it during Drogo's funeral pyre so who knows or maybe fire just looks like that I mean clearly George seems to

think fire looks like that and none of us are fucking magic I like the touch that it's a yellow silk too trying to embody the Baratheon gold that was saying I thought was interesting that it's you know he says it kind of as a suck ass obviously like brown nosing but

it's like yeah fire is that color congratulations Axel and that's pretty much what Davos says he's like yep I didn't see anything my eyes hurt and watering because of the smoke honestly and he pardons himself then he's like i gotta go talk to the king where maester pylos is assisting stannis stacks of paper are in front of them and stannis asks davos read this letter but davos admits umannis, if you recall, I cannot read maps, charts, I can read and his sons can read, right?

Devon and Stefan and even young Stannis, gross, learned to read already, but Davos unfortunately could not. You can see Davos here begin trying to play that game to curry favor with Stefan and Stannis, right? His sons, which are obviously both named after Baratheons, and we see a bunch of people do this. The Freys fucking love doing this. But he at least had the sons not to name one, Robert. I'm gonna just say that because Davos is emotionally intelligent, as we see throughout this chapter.

Even Asha doesn't have the good enough sense to stay away from it. Yeah, she's like, fuck! Instead, Stannis has Pylos read Davos the letter the letter goes i king stannis think everyone is a duty face the end i'm just kidding but it basically is it is the actual letter all men know me for the true born son of step Stefan Baratheon, lord of Storm's End, by his lady-wife Cassana of House Estermont, I declare upon the honour of my house that my beloved brother Robert,

our late king, left no true-born issue of his body, the boy Joffrey, the boy Tommen, and the girl Myrcella, being abominations, born of incest, between Cersei Lannister and her brother Jaime the Kingslayer. By right of birth and blood I do this day lay claim to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Let all true men declare their loyalty. Done in the light of the Lord, under the sign and seat of Stannis of House Baratheon, the first of his name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the first men, and lord of the seven kingdoms.

The parchment rustled softly as Pylo slated down. Make it Sir Jaime the Kingslayer henceforth, Stannis said, frowning. Whatever else the man may be, he remains a knight. I don't know what we ought to call Robert, my beloved brother, either. He loved me no more than he had to, nor I him. A harmless courtesy, your grace, Pylos said. A lie. Take it out. Thanks, I grit my teeth for that, so I thought it was important.

I love that everyone tries to tone check stannis but stannis is like no i refuse to be tone checked it's yeah it's pretty funny but like in a what dude bruh and it's kind of fun it's funny for me because like stannis is so salty he's like i wanted to be beloved that's the subtext he's like we were not beloved in but deep down he's like i wanted to be loved he's like i was never beloved I would have known had Robert beloved me I know that that's like the appeal of Stannis for people and I understand

that I'm mocking this but everyone he wants to be liked we don't have siblings that's the subtext I mean I want to be liked too but I don't really you know want to burn people about it I don't know so I bring people to

make enemies Stannis tells Davos they have 117 ravens he does some raven math he says I mean to send off all of them with copies of this letter I expect 100 of them to get to their destinations and many of them will be fed to the fire and not

spoken of but I will try to get the truth out there And so Stannis says he needs Davos and his sons to sail north, sail around the country. Dale goes south past Cape Wrath, Davos goes north to Goldtown in the Fingers, and of course his last son, who, may I add, Stannis calls him his other son he's like and your other one too he's gonna go uh they will all go off and deliver these messages but pylos and davos are concerned they're like many men won't be able to read this if you want them everywhere and pylos suggests hey what if we read it aloud stannis is like these aren't very nice words so maybe we don't want to just start yelling them from every square. And Davos is like,

what if we equipped them with knights for protection? We sign a knight with each. So Stannis agrees. He's like, yeah, employ all the tricks, get it out there. If you run out of letters, capture some septons, no big deal, and make them copy more. They come to a plan. Allard will sail the Lady

Maria ship to Braavos and the other free cities. Note Stannis actually calls him your other son. Yep. Hmm. The other one. Your other son. Your other other son. There's like a facility to them, Stannis. I mean, on one hand, it's hard to remember all their names, but

on the other, I'm like, which other one? Anyways, he's like, go deliver the message there, and then stavos stavos fuck and then stavos is like you can tell them davos thought but do they believe yeah yeah and i mean people believing what they want right the power resides where people believe what they believe what serves them from ned having a bastard to stannis uh right and then when it comes to the lannister incest or ned being a traitor or when people are like yeah danny's a witch bathing in blood or if someone tells them that agon is the true king right and people believe

what they want what serves their own narratives and idea of life. And it's not so different from what Stannis is doing with his new proud wing. Yeah, he's just hoping the right people believe in his cause. And Pylos is dismissed from writing letters. And Stannis is like, Davos, what are you holding back? Because it's obvious you're not saying something. And Davos is like, yeah, do you remember that maester that was here until oh a couple days ago when he died of poison i'm kind of mourning for maester crescent says davos and i think that you stannis should give him your personal take on this mess stannis is like look i didn't want

crescent to die i didn't want him to show up to this feast i wanted him to have a couple happy years of comfort but he died and pylos is more than equipped to serve. Davos is like, hmm, I wonder what your lords make of this letter, Stannis. And Stannis snorts. He says that Keltigar called it admirable, but Keltigar also would like sniff Stannis' shit for fun, so who cares. The others agreed because they're geese, they're sheeple. Except for Lord Valerian who says, Steel is going to decide this, not words. There's always one skeptic in Stannis' camp that everyone's like, what the fuck?

But here I am, unfurling my House Valerian banners. I love the skeptics in Stannis' camp, as you can tell. Stannis wants to know what Davos thought, and Davos says, you know what? His words, they're blunt, and they're strong're strong and true and also you have no proof and so this is like of course i have proof i have this boy edric storm robert's bastard as an example of his father in his wedding bed he is the very image of robert and if men saw him they would look at joffrey and tommy in a different light and i'm like you kind of more than one kid but this is a big claim but that's just me that's just me also you can't like take him all over the country and prove'm like you need kind of more than one kid this is a big claim but that's just me that's just me personally

also you can't like take him all over the country and prove it there's no there's only one of him the art like the miniatures that you get in a cameo necklace with Marjorie from Renly to Robert is one thing but like that seems to be the extent

yeah and everyone can be like you just painted him to look like Robert but it's just like you need a book like ned has to go like further back in history but all he's got is like he's gonna what be like the boy maybe he should have answered some summons you know what i mean oh instead of being too fucking crybaby about ro Yeah, he's like, I hate Ned, but Ned actually believed him. So, anyways. Stannis is like, yeah, I got Edric. And he's like, everyone's gonna think of Joffrey differently once they

see this kid! And Edric, though, as we said, he's at Stormsend, which is very complicated for Stannis. What are we gonna do? And amongst many other complications in all the plans he's like you know what everything's gonna go according to keikaku and davos is like no it's not and he knows that davos has even more complications for him and he's like all right fine tell me

continue and davos is like you know what that closing phrase done in the light of the lord he's like you know the people are not gonna like these words and since you might want to change it to like the grace of gods old and new or in the sight of gods and men and davos tells him he does not know this new lord of light but he did know the ones that they burnt and so did everyone else because he's like you know the smith has kept my ship safe the mother has granted me seven sons stanislaw says like the most woman positive thing i've ever heard stannis say and it isn't even that positive because he's kind of mocking it and he's like your wife gave you seven strong sons do you pray to her and it's like it was wood, not flesh. I mean, maybe he should.

Maybe everyone should. I'm just saying. I feel like Davos owes Mario some shit, that's for sure. Definitely. I mean, she's like, what, at home taking care of all these kids by herself? I guess she has servants now, never mind. Half of them. She's got servants. Servants and like a quarter of the kids.

Yeah. Davos retorts that, you know, all right, all right, it's so, but when I was a boy begging in Flea Bottom, it was actually the Septons who would feed me, not R'hllor. And Sans reminds him that I feed you now. And Davos says, yes, yes. And in turn, I give you the truth. He says, your people will not love you if you take from them the gods they've always worshipped

and give them one whose very name sounds queer on their tongue. Stannis disagrees that pronouncing R'hllor is difficult. That's the very first thing that he contests to this, and I think that's very important about his character. He's like, R'hllor, it's not that hard to say. But then he says, the people have never loved me I can't lose something I've never had Davos and he tells the story of the day that he quit believing in

gods which is when the wind proud broke across the bay and he lost his mother and father any god so monstrous to drown my mother and father would never have my worship he says so we're about to get to the heart of the episode and and you know the big emotional climax but right before we get there this this is what kicks it off right and this is a question that i have like now that we we know how sanis's story ends or what it's striving towards he's all like any

god so monstrous right to drown your mother and father sure those would be monstrous gods that you don't worship and i'm like then what if gods that are so monstrous as to demand the death of your daughter at your own hand why Why would they have your worship? And I think Salador San provides a good perspective that not everyone, right, in Essos believes in R'hllor. It is very popular, but he grew up around it and chose not to believe it. He's like, it bored me.

And he says, hopefully it bores your king soon too. And the reason that it bored him and he didn't believe in R'hllor is it didn't offer him anything, right? The Seven and the Faith of the Seven, as Davos points out, have offered this faith. It offers culture. And for

people like Davos, it offered food and survival, right? They've been there. But what does, I mean, what does R'hllor offer anyone in Westeros? I think it offers something very much to Stannis. It offers the one thing to Stannis that every other religion has not. It has offered him a role.

It has offered him importance, a narrative. It's given him a purpose and therefore given him self-worth. It's acknowledging him and saying to him, Stannis, finally you are valued. Finally you are important. Yeah, it's all the power that he's wanted, right? This is what, he's just wanted that assessment from anyone. Anyone that's not himself to say to him, you did good.

Davos asks him why he's signing on to this R'hllor, and Stannis is like, well, Davos, power. Power is why. The Red Priestess gives me power. Davos says, well, Cressen had wisdom, and Stannis says, I trust in Cressen's wisdom and your wiles, and they've gotten me nothing. Davos? Damn. He says he came to the Stormlords a beggar, and they all laughed at him. But Stannis no longer plans to beg, and he will not let them laugh at him. The Iron Throne is mine by rights, but how am I to take it? He asks. Any man who must say he's the king.

Yep. He says that everyone has more men and more gold than him, but he has ships and Melisandre. Half his knights are afraid to say her name. If she can do nothing else, a sorceress who can inspire dread in grown men is not to be despised, but he thinks she could be doing more. Yeah. So, again, we're getting to the heart of the chapter, but I will say, you know, this chapter in general, it's a fantastic opening chapter that really shows you, with the sorcery and burnings, that this dark thing has just been brewing on this island not so far from King's Landing in the first book that we all finished. this is what Stannis has been doing all that time when Ned was like, help! Stannis! So. We close the chapter out, though, with Proudwing, of course, who Stannis has projected all of his issues onto and will be taking no constructive criticisms about. When I was a lad, I found an

injured gashok and nursed her back to health. Proudwing, I named her. She would perch on my shoulder and flutter from room to room after me and take food from my hand, but she would not soar. Time and again I would take her hawking, but she never flew higher than the treetops. Robert called her Weakwing.

He owned a gyre falcon named Thunderclap, who never missed her strike. One day, our great-uncle Sir Harbert told me to try a different bird. I was making a fool of myself with Proudwing, he said, and he was right. Stannis Baratheon turned away from the window, and the ghosts who moved upon the southern sea. The seven have never brought me so much as a sparrow. It is time I tried another hawk, Davos. A red hawk. A sparrow.

The sparrow, that's important. The seven have never given me so much as a sparrow, except they're about to give a lot of people a lot of sparrows, so hang in there. And that's davos one i uh i feel good about reading these chapters together i'm gonna level with you that i haven't really read these chapters together in this format i've read them separately only and i know i liked the guy and that i liked the pov but the family dynamic man yeah heart-wrenching it's interesting and it's something that i'm excited to dig into with davos it's we haven't there's a lot that i feel like we haven't

touched on here that we're definitely going to get to in later episodes i mean it's a long uh there's a lot of detail in it right and i think that it is fitting because george is trying to show us so much with these two men we have two men that are willing to do anything to obtain power, but they both have very different definitions of power. For Davos, power is that his wife wants for nothing. Even if it's not as good as what Lady Valerian down the road is getting, Maria has real food, a real roof, even servants to help her with the keep. He treats her like a queen,

his own queen. Power to Davos is giving his seven sons an opportunity at a better lifestyle that if they stay humble and work very hard and someday they're lucky, a higher power like Stannis will grant well wishes so that they can beat the rich men at their own game and become knights, and maybe even someday their kids will be friends with those lords and ladies' kids. But Stannis has already had this. His daughter is a proclaimed princess. He's proclaimed king. He has men celebrating, well, some in awe, some in fear, his name and his claim. But he still wants more.

He wants to fill that hole that his parents left, this hole that's never been good enough, the shadow of his big brother, the light and sparkle of his younger brother. And he's clearly done playing games because whatever he's been doing before now has not worked. He's making that clear, that this is his one big last chance and play for power

through R'hllor, through Melisandre, that has sold him finally on this huge marketing scheme. But if we flip over to Davos, when Davos was young, his goshawk was begging in the streets of Flea Bottom, right? There's no proud wing for Davos. He was hoping for food and money to survive, hanging out in the ports, employing tricks to get by other smugglers, other lords. It almost reminds me of the Irish emigrating to New York in the 1800s, assimilating into this new world of new ports and new people. Davos spends this chapter watching his step, being entirely careful about what he says in front of lords, never speaking

over them, never dismissing them, always knowing his station, all while figuring out ways to stay one step ahead of them for him and his family. Stannis' sacrifice in the long Game of Thrones is Shireen, and Davos' sacrifice in turn ends up being his sons. In attempting to give them a better life, and by enrolling them in this Game of Thrones, his sons die. And if they don't, they're basically hostage to this political regime that he has now given his life to and his fingers. hostage to this political regime that he has now given his life to and his fingers yeah and i think same as the question the question for both stannis and davos ends up being the same

of like how far will you go to what extent will you sacrifice your humanity later on right after after because the the loss of davos's sons comes early on and davos is going to draw a line somewhere that status won't and i love that uh the way that you really portrayed what stanis is after here because it's not that he wants king because he wants to like rule per se like i mean he has ideas he has things that he can do if he he rules but he wants it because as you said he wants to fill that hole, that emotional hole. Chasm. Yes, that has been left from his family. God damn it.

I just figured we were saying hole a lot and Stavos a lot, so. Stenly. We'll get there. We'll get there someday. Someday. Yeah, it's a rock and a hard place that Davos leaves himself, right? As we know, when we get to a dance with dragons, Davos, it's kind of like he's going off to do this business, but it might be the last task he decides to do for Stannis. Yeah.

And, you know, Davos, as we are reminded, he's a knight, and he's a knight on the quest. Davos, as we are reminded, he's a knight and he's a knight on the quest and we'll talk a little more about that quest as it evolves in later episodes, but for now we're gonna call it quits here and you

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