Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 105 – ACOK Davos II: Part 1

Episode Date: October 16, 2020

On this episode, we cross a rubicon, a point of no return, open a door that can never be closed: We are splitting this chapter into two episodes to discuss Davos at Storm's End, sailing through the dangerous waters of politics. As he plays therapist to his king, Davos listens to a... s'peach about Stannis's inner turmoil.    LINKS MENTIONED Bidonica's Thoughts on Cannibalism: https://bidonica.tumblr.com/post/631459142598590464/i-was-listening-to-the-latest-episode-about-asha Bidonica's artwork of Arya & Sansa: https://elisapoggese.artstation.com/projects/4brmYk Bidonica's Twitter: https://twitter.com/bidonica1    Peach Essays Unknown Author: https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/24ase4/spoilers_adwd_let_us_consider_renlys_peach_and/   Fat_Walda's Essay: https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/3e8omj/spoilers_all_millions_of_peaches_peaches_for_me/   --- 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;  Background music:  Unnatural Situation by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4567-unnatural-situation License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon, a song that by some fire, episode 105, Davos 2 and a Clash of Kings part 1. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And we've done the unthinkable.

We have split an episode like a shadow baby erupting from a womb. We thought maybe we'd save the crowning for next week. We are, in fact, ooh, crowning, interesting. That's something we should discuss at some point next week. Yeah,

so we didn't think we would ever come to this point. As you all know, we started this podcast and we were like, yeah, we're gonna do two chapters, an episode, really just like blaze on through and then we let ourselves get down to one chapter an episode and now we are

crossing another Rubicon and we're splitting a chapter a trident if you will into two episodes yes we've done the unthinkable we've split it we've taken half the baby and sent it down the

river till next week you're really into this metaphor i think it's really good i'm kicking it old testament here and there's a lot to explore we aren't gonna have to deal i mean we're not gonna have to talk about stannis for a handful of weeks after this if not a month you know we have a handful of Davos chapters. We have some Blackwater to get through, right? We get a little reprieve from Stannis, some heavier stuff to deal with, some other annoying stuff, but we'll get there.

So we thought we'd cover this in full. We get to see Storm's end up close and personal, which I'm very excited about in the second part of the chapter. But the first part, we have some really good stuff planned. Yes, definitely. I think there's a lot of emotional cruxes, more than one, within this chapter. And so

we're gonna end this first half on one of them with the speech. That's speech and peach combined. S-peach. No, this is not what we do

here. This is... I suddenly understand how Stannis could have cut off his partner's fingers. I get it. You know what? My partner thought that was really good. That he cut off the fingers

no the speech oh the sapeech yes I think you're putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable where should it be the sapeech it's too hard to say anyways Eliana is trying to make a pun

between a speech a speech but yes we're ending it at the speech about the peach. The peach. The peach speech. Speeches. The speeches. The teaches of peaches. The teaches of peaches.

Huh? What? Yeah, and actually Stannis does fuck the pain away as we hear so we're gonna get into the teaches of peaches. You know, when you think about it but we'll end next week's with the crowning as we said so this week first with the peach speech next week with the crowning so stay tuned for that but this week i think we want to open with something really interesting something close to eliana's heart, which is cannibalism. Christ. Well, am I wrong?

You're not wrong. It's a fascinating subject. And you know who has made it even more fascinating? Our good friend, Bedonica, on Twitter, but also maybe a good friend of yours on Tumblr as I don't really have one and neither does the podcast. But Bedonica on twitter in reaction to the asha episode that we did with wendy where we dove into a lot of really good ideas regarding faith and also status and then cannibalism badonica wrote about cannibalism in a couple of different senses on twitter and then wrote a more extended version on Tumblr and we will link this.

Absolutely check it out, please, please, please. And that idea of cannibalism being metaphorical and discussing it in the context of incest, right? Badonica was saying that the Targaryens practice incest as a way to preserve their connection to dragons, but that also cannibalizes their own dynasty because it seems to be behind the stillbirths and mental illness that keeps recurring in their history and then also says that craster practices incest as a means of survival and because he's a terrible disgusting person and raping his own daughters to literally produce male children to give to the others even if he doesn't literally eat his sons he is treating them as meat and then bedonica finally talks about the lannister incest and also says that it's the one that least fits this framework but it's also a

relationship that's very toxic and in a way that development ends the legitimate lannister lineage since the kids are officially baratheons but that George is fixated on incest and has presented some more functional examples of what that looks like through Jaehaerys and Alicent but is also using it to show that when a community, even the smallest nucleus of it, a family, folds onto itself

it consumes itself and I thought that was really interesting you also get, again, that self-cannibalization that Ouroboros right coming through and is exhausting its own resources making everyone involved miserable so thank you so much Padonica

I really really love this response not just because cannibalism is a fascinating subject but I think it's just really well thought out and plays to a lot of different things that are coming up in the story yeah it plays really well thought out and plays to a lot of different things that are coming up in the story. Yeah, it plays really well with the idea that fire consumes, which is so prominent in this plot as we move forward for Stannis. I fear it will become more prominent, so we will be linking this below in the description.

Please check it out for some light reading over on Tumblr. It's a good one. I actually just was on Tumblr for the first time in forever before bed. I couldn't sleep. I was doing that old doom scrolling on Tumblr. It's a good one. I actually just was on Tumblr for the first time in forever before bed. I couldn't sleep. I was doing that old doom scrolling on Tumblr, seeing what the kids are up to these days there. The first thing that showed up was that, so I was very excited. I was like, what? Our friend Vidotica wrote this? How amazing. It was really good. Who also, by the way, has a lot of really awesome art. If you are interested in a song of ice and fire art please check them out and follow them for that as well yes i love the aria and sansa piece they did

maybe we should link that too i'll pull it up all right we have a lightning round and it's a doozy this is a major storm so to bring an end to this storm and if you will oh we are going to go through this very thick lightning round i'm so excited and i know you are because of that we are going to cover tyrian sansa and catalan chapters between davos one and davos two starting off with tyrian three through tyrian five stannis' new claim arrives in King's Landing, and Cersei wants to suppress the letters. Tyrion and Littlefinger decide to

treat the letter with contempt and spread their own rumors. Tyrion plays a long game with Pycelle, Littlefinger, and Varys to understand their loyalties, and after meeting with the alchemists in the guild hall, Cersei helps to reveal which of these three men have been informing on Tyrion. Sansa 2 and 3.

Sansa meets someone in the Godswood who promises to take her home, although she's less excited by the prospect of who it is. She's later beaten in front of the court for her brother's victories until Tyrion arrives to put an end to it. Catelyn 3 through 5. front of the court for her brother's victories until Tyrion arrives to put an end to it. Catelyn three through five. Catelyn meets with the two Baratheon kings, hoping to bring them together against the common enemy, the Lannisters. Coincidentally, Shae learns of Joffrey's parentage and puts two and two together, that it has something to do with Jon Arryn's death. But Renly wants her to see his victory, forces her

to stay in the camp overnight, and later she ends up witnessing his death, not his victory. She escapes with Brienne of Tarth, returning to the Riverlands to grieve for her husband and her dying father. Tyrion 69. 69?

Ha ha. Ha ha ha. Tyrion, he wishes. Ha ha ha. 69. 69? Tyrion. He wishes. He does. Tyrion brings news to Cersei of the Baratheon clash of kings happening between Stannis

and Renly. He then poisons her, but not that seriously. It's just diarrhea. I mean, who hasn't done that to themselves at least once, right? So that Tyrion can take care of some work at court, he dismisses the threat of the others, then sends Cleos Frey with new terms to Robb and takes Pycelle into custody.

He's also disturbed in the night by Lancel, who brings Cersei's terms of releasing Pycelle and arresting Jocelyn Bywater. Tyrion also threatens Lancel with a little bit of blackmail and gets him on his side as a spy before heading to spend some time with Shade. No big deal. No big deal. With small council hears news of Renly's murder

and Tyrion advises they recruit the Roses to their side. Littlefinger volunteers to make the match. Myrcella's goodbye to King's Landing turns into an absolute riot. Oh my god. Chloe, what did you write? And Tyrion considers for a moment supporting a different monarch, and that's Tyrion 69. And not only is it Tyrion 69, but I also want to add that's Tyrion the rest of the books.

Tyrion's like, maybe I should support someone else's claim to the throne. Like every book, he's's like what about this one yeah yep i mean be careful what you wish for right tyrian and the last tyrian chapter by the way that last one the nine of the 69 it starts with the line the girl never wept young as she was marcella baratheon was a princess born. I wonder if that could be the start of a certain chapter in the Winds of Winter, but for another Baratheon girl.

Shireen never wept. Young as she was, she was a princess born. Interesting. I was just thinking about it and I was really sad. Yeah, maybe somewhere in there. We know that the prologue is going to have Jane Westerling, but... It could happen.

Well, this leads us into Davos 2, part one, overview. After 800 chapters of delivering Stannis' mail to the realm, Davos returns to a nightmare-ridden king and his corpse brides. One, Melisandre, who has been soothing Stannis to sleep. The threat of Renly may be dead, but Ser Courtney Penrose makes it pretty clear Stannis is on the losing side. By chapter's end, Davos finds out exactly how Melisandre's been soothing Stannis. Now, I do want to add that, do you think this is why everybody said you need to support the post office?

Because of Davos delivering all these letters throughout the realm? Wow, yeah. I mean, like, it sounds to me like he's pretty understaffed. I think this is topical, honestly, and I like to bring politics and how it connects to the story into our podcast, and I think it is topical, honestly, and I like to bring politics and how it connects to the story into our podcast.

And I think it's very important to always highlight politics, you know, relevant politics. And I think that the USPS deserves to be supported. This is a joke. I mean, it's not a joke, but it's... No, it's true. They do deserve to be supported. But I was kidding about Davos being a part of them. Davos is a fictional

character for people tuning into the podcast just so you know sometimes bitches love fiction you know what i mean so the chapter opens with the crown stag crossed with the white quills of penrose's russet field flap above sir courtney penrose he's armorless on his horse his weathered face shows no emotion at stannis's trotting army they're all in mail even davos who does not know why and davos who is all like why am i here and i'm like yeah i know that feeling from a lot of my life not not like in general but there are moments there are some great descriptions here of garb. Everyone is in their finest, right?

Their Sunday's best, glaring fancy armor, war helms in the shape of animals, glittering jewels and plumes and feathers all across Stannis' party. They're glittering. I like the way that Courtney Penrose is described as well. His beard is described in a spade shape, which is kind of like your mountain guy beard, you might think. But when you say it's in a spade shape it makes me think of course of

spades right of a suit in cards and stannis here is the king right when it comes to cards stannis has everyone wear their finest war armor for obvious reasons right he wants the boy he's trying to say look look what I've done. Look at my power, my might, hand over the castle. Renly as a kid, as we know, jumped around saying, look at me, I'm a king. But this is Stannis's, look at me, I'm a king. He wants to show how righteous he's become that, like Robert, he brings his enemies off their knees to unite them under this righteous cause to liberate Westeros, free it. But here to Courtney Penrose, it looks like nothing more than a threat because

he's bringing all these men in their finest war gear to his house. This is where Courtney Penrose grew up. It practically took care of the place for Renly for the last decade and a half, and it's kind of more home to Courtney than it is Stannis don't tell him I know it's not really Stannis's fault but he was sent to live on this island at 21 isolated and Courtney was there as a kid Courtney is there now he has no sons Edric Storm is the closest thing to his son Edric was left to grow up at Storm's End, forgotten a bastard, raised by Courtney. Of course Courtney isn't giving this boy up. I think that's something we see in the last chapter for Tyrion right before this. It ends revolving on the thought of Tommen,

on his royal blood, meaning that they need to keep a closer eye on him, and Tyrion and Bronn cooking up the scheme to quote unquote kidnap him before the Blackwater for his safety and this whole event happening here with Courtney Penrose and all these lies being exchanged all hinge on Edric Storm's kidnapping yeah that's a good political tie-in and also I think that's interesting what you were saying about Stannis not getting to grow up here as a kid, right? Like that's that feels shitty coming back to what's supposed to be your home and then people are like, no,

fuck you. Feels bad man. And you know, to expand the fashion hour just a little, go a little over time. Stannis obviously doesn't like fashion, but to some extent is the way that he's clothed, which is very simply except for his crown, his circlet, kind of reminds me a little bit of Daenerys choosing a simple bench, only it's not because I think probably Stannis just doesn't like fashion.

But it's a way to look at it. But also, is Stannis just a big fan of Coco Chanel,el you know take off the last accessory that she put on thoughts it's it's so funny because i feel like there's a correlation that stannis while he doesn't love fashion personally knows that he can use it effectively to bring a certain sense of power and then you have a chapter in a storm of swords it's actually sansa's second chapter where sansa is very smitten with the dress she's about to get that is obviously a symbol of a big political event and something that has power uh and she thinks of how she can wield this dress and of course she has no agency so she doesn't get to have any wielding of the dress she's used against her but it's just so interesting how garb is used in both of these plots they have very

interesting stories these monarchs they do they do all the all the clothing more like i don't know clash of clothes clothes of kings black betha had joined the fleet eight days ago and sanis had not spoken intimately to davos sins and this was actually the closest that Davos had been to the king since then the king of course as we said looks out a place in the crowd full of finery his wool and boiled leather were plain his only frivolous piece again being his crown which is a red gold flame

pointing with the points moving at his temples when flashing in the sunlight and I think it's a facet all of this right it's just a fascinating setup and opening for this chapter considering that Stannis is suddenly like after being apart from davos for so long goes up and is like davos listen to all of my feelings i have a lot of them yeah he just erupts on him oh yeah how about you pay the guy a little more holy shit yeah is it who's to pay Davos?

Insurance? I don't know. Right? Yeah. Davos is over here accepting these paper checks that Salador has been getting that just say, like, I owe you on them. Davos is like, these do work for me. And I'm like, you idiot.

Interesting. Speaking of Black Bethel, the ship, we had a lot of chatter over on our Discord where our Thunder Patreon members and above are chattering constantly about Aeswaf and some interesting concepts. Like, I believe there was a jade green sea egg from Goop and Melisandre that got brought up by our friend Dibbles and Bits. Goddammit. It's just... Goop, there it is. Goop, there it is. Goop, there it is. One of the topics has been Black Betha, the ship.

Everyone's like, why is it named Black Betha? And I think my take, and I feel like I should present this one to the class, is that it could have been named this already, right? It's a Baratheon ship, which that kind of leg of the family, of course, is related to the Baratheon leg. It could have been named this after

Betha Blackwood, but I think it's fitting, because Black Betha being named after Betha Blackwood, who also likely went up in flames because of a king, right, at Summerhall, just like Black Betha's about to do. This is

foreshadowing. Giving you foreshadadowing the ship and the person go up in flames aliana wow that's sad so that's my take yeah it is a take fuck okay i didn't think about it like that sad but okay i mean she had to be there right like it's a summer home like they don't no one has confirmed who was there outside of duncan egg but yeah i think we know since there's no history true true well davos has been denied audience with his corpse king the past few times until you know when sanis is like no our therapy appointment is now and you know when he arrived and his son devon told him that the king is off and occupied he's been plagued with nightmares ever since runley died interesting and only melisandre was allowed near to soothe him to

sleep and davos is like i dare not ask my sons or stannis of the methods of soothing and then his son is a good boy though devon probably wears his stina's uniform and has been growing ever more religious adopting the king's new faith davos is now like pretty hesitant about this right but thinks that you know it's expected that my son devon will take on this new god of his king that he's so close to and just sort of moves on so george is definitely leaning into the hitler youth thing here with devon like it's becoming more obvious each chapter as i closely read it that devon is being isolated by his outfit being different like an acolyte-esque outfit being this white color this holy color he's starting to uh become more formal with his father no more

familiarity right davos looks at his son and he's like can i trust this kid anymore yeah and this is the very first time right here that davos is like i'm not gonna ask my son about more of this because he just doesn't know if he can trust him and if you're paying attention to our labelle savage coverage from philip pullman we're actually about to cover a chapter i think next month where we talk really in depth about something pullman is referring same thing with the hitler youth too which is the league of saint alexander the children of the league of saint alexander so it's interesting these are coming up at the same time for hitler youth they would be used to leverage against their parents for

their behavior. The Third Reich would isolate the child from their family and indoctrinate them and teach them that their family was bad or be using them as pawns for the Reich when they needed to overcome certain political obstacles or land obstacles. They banned the Boy Scouts and the Third Reich adopts all of their activities, like co-ops, everything the Boy Scouts were doing, all of the scouting activities, camping, singing, crafts, hiking, summer camps, uniforms, pledges. Let's make it all fun.

And then over time, they took that fun and they began to twist it and train the youth into being a militia. And then slowly it became an industrial war machine for the third reich so right now devon is just pouring glasses of water for stannis and bringing him salt and tending to the night fires but he's starting to sing about stannis's god that he had never been raised to know never seen nothing until Stannis. And if Davos so much as slips up in front of this kid now, Davos is like, am I leverage?

Devon will be used against him as leverage or vice versa. If Davos betrays Stannis, Devon could suffer or Davos could suffer, one or the other. We see this used later with hostages in POV with the Miranese families, right? The Gazine, Lorac, Galars, Pals, Marakes, for Dany's cupbearers. She attempts to use it to stop the killings

happening in the city. And while Ned was the one upkeeping a hostage situation with Theon in the north, we see this turned a little bit like Sansa in King's Landing, as we've mentioned. Sansa being co-opted by Cersei to write the letter to the north saying you better bow or else dad's in trouble and I'm in trouble. Ned giving Sansa the Lannisters and not telling her hey house Stark forever by the way like if shit gets weird come talk to me. It's too late. You're in too deep. You lost that kid. The second he kills Lady as we've discussed, he loses Sansa, and Davos has lost Devon. It's gonna be over soon enough.

It is really sad. He's lost Devon, and we see that especially in some of Melisandre's chapters. And it's all as you said, but for Davos, unlike with the Myrnees, they saw to an extent what was happening. Ned didn't, right? Because

he trusted Robert initially. And with Davos, right? He thought this was an honor, you know? He was thought like, wow, my son is going to be cupbearer to Stannis Baratheon. Like, what an honor. And then now, as you said, it's being used against him.

Not only could it be that Devon is used against Abos or the other way around, it could be used against the rest of his family, Maria and the other children that they have. So it's a precarious situation. Also precarious is the situation in Storm's End. They're approaching Storm's End and the walls are thick. They're high. Thick as a castle wall.

You know, maybe even the thickest of the castle walls, if you will. And Stannis begins his not-so-affectionate exchange with Courtney Penrose. Lord Alistair Florent pipes in, unhappy with how Penrose has addressed his king as seer. But

the battle of words seems to ignore him. And Lord Florent, anyway, right? He's in his Sunday best with gorgeous armor. A red-gold fox poked its shining snout out from his breastplate through a circle of lapis lazuli flowers. Very tall, very courtly, and very rich, the Lord of Brightwater Keep had been the first of Renly's bannermen to declare for Stannis,

and the first to renounce his old gods and take up the Lord of Light. Fickle motherfucker. The worst. I don't know if he's the worst, but he's not up there, you know? It's funny because he's just like the start and it gets worse from there.

Yeah, it's like the last chapter when you have Lord Valerian being the only motherfucker that makes sense, being like, yeah, yeah, Stannis, you talk a big game, let's see you do it, boy. Yeah. It's a good thing we started bad, right? And now we're coming in and people are all right compared to Farring and Suggs, but... Yeah, for now.

Stannis had left Queen Selyse over on Dragonstone for this meeting. Her uncle Axel stayed with her as well, but the Queen's men were stronger than ever in Stannis' party. Some could say that these Reachmen are growing strong. Wow! Right? Amazing. Got it? Get it? Oh, wow.

Thank you. Hired. Hired. 401k. Promoted. CEO of the company. Benefits. Jesus.

Healthcare. Christ. Penrose ignores the other lords, especially Alistair and the Trissistanus. In his great company, he surveys each lord, such as John of the Green Apple Fossilways, Brian of the Red Apple Fossilways, the Estervants, the Arrels,

the Varners, Caridin, Giard. I really just wanted to say Giard's name guillard from runley's rainbow guard and alistair he notes that davos onion knight is in the back greeting him with like a semi-friendly manner and says you know i don't know that woman with you she's a stranger and then she introduces herself of course as melisandre garbed in red her ruby drinking the daylight and she says that she serves as king in the lord of light but courtney says you know i got other kings and other gods read it's not stannis and it's not real or courtney brings it and to go back to what we were saying with the fashion hour it's really

clear from the way that courtney reads the room that stannis all of the thought he put into how everyone was arranged he's like okay we're gonna be reverse rainbow order because we don't want to be like renly and we don't want to disrespect his memory so all of the rainbow guard assemble look no i'm just kidding but there's a lot of shitting on going here he's like oh so you have renly's men and you don't have men that follow you so stannis thought this is kind of like what robert would do i guess he would make common peace with his enemies have him join the cause yada yada so i'm gonna show up i have to show penrose my power is awesome but he puts the only guy that penrose even respects all the

way at the back with the witch you know what i mean like no no disrespect melisandre i'm just using it to simplify things but he's like ah the red lady and the onion knight's back there you're telling me you put all these shitty people that i don't want to see because they're cheap as hell in front of me and you put the good person at the back it's disgusting to penrose he's like you're shitting on renly's corpse where stannis like, I thought this would show him I would be merciful. I guess I tried. Yeah. Though I guess they're back there with Stannis, right? This is his white flag. Yeah.

Pretty much. And he's like, take your white flag, fuck that. And Lord Florek's not making it any easier, right? Because he's like, here to argue. He's like, well, let me tell you about our lord and savior of allure at the front doorstep has storm's end and pender's is like whoa i'm not opening this door and then stannis just is like no we're gonna cut to the chase you had over a

fortnight no one has come to save you and stannis is once again commanding him to open his gates and give him that which is his by rights i am once again asking you for storms i'm once again i'm once again asking you for storms i am once again asking you for edric storm okay but stannis is like here are my my terms. If you deliver me Storm's End and the boy, I'll pardon you. Like all these lords that are with me, get it? You can keep your weapons and whatever property you can carry, but your horse and all your pack animals now belong to me. Nice.

So Stannis is allowing him a backpack and a weapon to go on foot and leave Storm's End, where all these men that he just insulted and that also, like, already didn't really like the guy are going to be near. Camping out. Hanging out. And they're good guys, so I don't think anything will happen, but really nice. Just commenting that it's very kind. It's very kind. Hanging out.

Penrose is like, I don't like that, refuses, and Stannis is like, well, I still mean to have the boy. We have this line here. The king clenched his jaw. He said nothing. Melisandre spoke instead. May the Lord of Light protect you in your darkness, Sir Courtney. May the others bugger your Lord of light, Penrose spat back, and wipe his arse with that rag,

you bear. Alistair Florin continues weaving his tail, and he's like, Stannis doesn't mean you any harm, the boy's related to his niece, Delina. He's like, wow, Stannis Baratheon would never harm anyone of his own blood, and begins to say that

Penrose, of course course knows that he's honorable and penrose is like i don't know and i too am like i don't know yeah penrose is like interesting florian you're an ambitious man i know who likes to turn cloak like all the rest of these people out here to gods and kings just like i changed my boots. The king's men are pretty pissed for a moment, but Davos is like, he's not technically wrong. He's got you all there. They all had once plotted against Stannis. In Renly's war room, Lord Florent was among them, even though Selyse was married to Stannis, Florent's niece. Bryce the Orange steps forward, another motherfucker. This guy's like, I'll make it better! And he speaks up for Stannis as the rightful king.

And as Penrose is rightful king too, and Bryce the Orange is still wearing his rainbow cloak. Fucker. He calls Stannis Robert's heir and Renly's heir. But Penrose calls him out and he's like, interesting, if he's Renly's heir, where is Loras Tyrell? Or Brienne of Tarth? Or Thaddeus Rowan or Tarly they aren't here and they loved Renly loved him really I'll actually like 50% of those people did I don't get it I'm gonna be honest I I know you all hear me now weekly bitching about Stannis and I'm sorry for that. I guess not really. There are other podcasts that you can listen to but uh Redley also

sucks. He does suck but maybe I will look at it far more sympathetically when we get to some Tyrion chapters and some Catelyn chapters to see him uh but I just think he also kind of sucks. I mean, you probably won't. I like, I think Loras is interesting. Anyways, Sir Geyerd, which I say it differently from you, and I'm very sorry. That's how I think of it.

It just keeps happening. The different pronunciations we have. We look up at the same stars and see such different ones, Eliana, and I love that about you. Sir Geyerd makes fun of Brienne, and he's like, she's the one who slew Renly! And Courtney argues. A lie, Sir Courtney said.

I knew Brienne when she was no more than a girl playing at her father's feet in Evenfall Hall, and I knew her still better when the Evenstar sent her here to Storm's End. She loved Renly Baratheon from the first moment she laid eyes on him. A blind man could see it. Aww.

So, we've kind of already spoken about it last episode, regarding Davos taking up the mantle, right? Left by Ned Stark, becoming something of a moral compass of the story, especially due to the perspective that he has on, you know, like, let's not kill kids. And also that archetypal every man character that people can just sort of relate to, see themselves in, right? He's not nobility, as many of the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire are. And through this POV, and our understanding of some of the other characters in this story, we're being primed then to perceive Courtney Penrose

as good and right and just, especially in the face of Stannis' demands, not only because Davos is like, alright, alright, alright, Courtney Penrose is legit, he respects him, but also because Courtney Penrose ends up defending Brienne's honor here, right? When all these

other people that we know are fucking dingles are like, no, Brienne of Tarth is a Slater king and is a traitor, right? We were all in the tent when it happened with Catelyn and Brienne. We all know that she's innocent.

We were there, and that also has ramifications for this chapter and Brienne therefore when courtney's like yo brienne's very awesome and nice i can't believe that she slew rendley right in that way by evoking that brienne is lending her own credibility to courtney penrose narratively through that characterization and also in asking after brienne courtney makes a good point like these men try to argue that they're loyal to Storm's End, but, you know, in general, like, they're all like, yeah, we have loyalty to Storm's

End, but the castles have only ever been, like, a metanomic, like, device, metaphorical references for the people who hold it, right? Like, Courtney's like, this is just fucking rocks, it'll defend him, but, like, there's a reason the Northernords don't follow the boltons because they have winterfell they they kind of do but they also secretly many of them wage war right they're plotting against the boltons because of ned's little girl because of ned the starks and not because of winterfell and so courtney makes a really good point in me like all right so sure you're with the other braon, but where are the people whose love would actually provide you legitimacy? The people who loved Renly and would therefore bequeath that same sort of legitimacy to Stannis? Because the people can be as much of a symbol as the buildings, as we see by all the hubbub that's raised about Barristan escaping.

Yes, and I think we're going to get into a lot more of these symbols of power especially concerning edrick storm in the next chapter but that's a lot of what edrick storm is for courtney right like that is the last piece of the baratheon legacy that is untouched and un you know like unperverted uh edrick is a kid and he's a silly kid with big ears and we see him in the future as we get into more davos stuff and he's a good kid he's done nothing and we see him in the future as we get into more Davos stuff, and he's a good kid. He's done nothing wrong. He and Shireen are great little cinnamon rolls, and they share great lives. They're cousins.

One of them maybe will, one probably won't. Yeah, they're cousins. It's sweet. And it's interesting to keep that in perspective as we see these arguments where the boy is being talked about and he's being reduced to a boy and court may continually as we'll hear davos of course say hey his name's edrick and courtney's the same way courtney's like you're not taking edrick this is not it's a non-starter absolutely lord florence says brienne would scarcely be the first maid maddened to murder by a man who spurned her but he believes personally his theory is that lady catalan murdered renly which is hysterical for so many reasons right because catalan actually ends up maddened to murder not by a man who spurns her but because

of the phrase spurning her family and this meeting is going so badly like we've gotten to the point where they're spouting conspiracy theories about whodunits right and not only has stannis stuffed the good guy in the back davos but all these guys are now making a horrible impression they are fighting each other they're like well no i think this and like no no no i i was this and they're starting this infighting and stannis's whole group is just like breaking up behind him where they were supposed to be this glorious glittering gold thing in front of courtney like we're gonna stand strong and show that penrose nope here we are yep it's already broken corny's like what the fuck is going on what have you brought me and it's pretty bullshit that they're like oh maddened to murder by a man who spurned her and I'm like

interesting that you would say that we don't really see that too much in the story and even in real life right it tends to be a byproduct of toxic masculinity we see it a lot in the real world and it comes as men feeling entitled to

women more often than the other way around but you know whatever whatever you know yeah there's only how many you know what anyways lord karen insists that emin kai saw brienne do it and says sir courtney has his oath on it courtney's like what is your oath worth sir and lord karen's like i swore to protect runley with my own life and lord karen's still alive so spoiler it turns out he didn't do a good job the gentleman over at not a cast mentioned that this is like the brendan tolle and jamie lannister showdown in the story there are so many parallels stanis is this mixed bag of ineffective men that have zero respect right

going on like he's like i do not respect these dudes they all suck uh and this is jamie in the phrase at river run but the difference is that stannis does not go in with the same mindset as jamie who goes to river run with the goal to spill zero blood he's very serious about that and he does kind of get away with it right like people do die kind of because of his actions but it's not directly his it's a gray area he's a gray character we get it we're moving on stannis is lying to himself about the blood that he is willing to spill and that he's about to spill but as melisandre later in this chapter says to davos your hand was holding the tiller your Your hand was on the sail. You were as culpable as I am, Lord Onion

Knight. And Stannis sent us both to Storm's End, so Stannis ordered it. Yeah. He did, and we'll get into that, I guess. What it means to order something, whatever, in culpability. Eventually, later in this chapter, Courtney Penrose

turns on Giard Morrigan, the Green, as well, saying that he should be ashamed of wearing the cloak now that he let Renly down. And Giard threatens his tongue, saying that were this not a parlay, he would have it. And Courtney asks if he'd cast it in the same fire where he left his manhood. Oh, interesting. We saw that once with Varys. Anyways, this is the same sort of rationale that's used against Giard right now that is used against Birstin at one point, right? And quite a few

other Kingsguard, especially after Joffrey dies, interestingly. They're like, alright, so what happened to your king that you're supposed to defend? Stannis interrupts, having enough of this back and forth. He clarifies that the Lord of Light killed Renly for his treason, and that, you know, it doesn't matter who killed him, but Renly died for treason.

That's it. We're gonna leave it there. Courtney has also heard enough. He meets Stannis' terms with single combat, with Stannis or whatever champion that he chooses. And, again, other people have covered this, so we're not gonna really do it, and it's been on many different mediums and communities but literally Courtney

throws his gauntlet slash glove which is a signal for challenge it's an insulting thing do you bite your thumb at the noble house of Baratheon sir? do you bite your thumb at thee? I bite my thumb at thee truly truly

I don't want to hug you right now. It's like one good breath. Anyways. Maybe. Stannis refuses. He has 20,000 men with him, and his victory is certain. I give you fair warning. If you force me to take my castle by storm, you may expect no mercy.

I'll hang you for traitors, every one of you. As the gods will it! Bring on your storm, you may expect no mercy. I'll hang you for traitors every one of you. As the gods will it! Bring on your storm, my lord. And recall, if you do, the name of this castle. Pew pew pew! Sir Courtney gave a pull on his reins and rode back toward the gate. Stannis said no word, but

turned his horse around and started back toward his gate. Stannis said no word, but turned his horse around and started back toward his camp. Mic drop! Amazing! I mean, again, Courtney knows the place better, you know what I mean? It's his place.

Sorry, Stannis. I just don't know why we worship R'hllor when Courtney has so much more fire in his comebacks. Anyway. The others follow Stannis back to camp. Lord Eastermont, who is Stannis' mother's dad, complains thousands will die if they storm the walls,

saying the gods will bless whichever champion they choose. Davos thinks, God, old man, you forget. We have only one god now, Melisandre's lord of light john fossoy who we should really be giving eliana more time with because she loves her green apples says he'd volunteer but lord karen and sir guyard are more skilled as knights of the group which i think is the best what a cowardly bullshit excuse that i would use hey you know what these guys are so much better than i am at, like, everything. You should let them do it,

because I think they're going to do a fantastic job, and I would fail, personally. I love being honest about how I will fail, you know? And I think that Jon has that energy, and I like that about Jon Fossway. Someone's got to be honest about their shortcomings, you know? Mm-hmm. I have few, but...

So, Stannis glares at them all, agreeing to this champion duel. Is this like a Pokemon game? And Demian's quiet from the chattering magpies as he thinks of them around him. Then he asks Davos to ride with him, and Melisandre quietly accompanies them, bearing the standards.

Weird chaperone moment. We have a quote here. Davos saw the looks that passed between the lordlings as he rode past them to join the king. These were no onion knights, but proud men from houses whose names were old in honor. Somehow he knew that Renly had never chided them in such a fashion. The youngest of the Baratheons had been born with a gift for easy courtesy that his brother sadly lacked. I like the duality going on that there is something with diplomacy and politics that cannot easily be replicated by

saying I believe this, I think this. Yes, all of these guys are assholes but Davos is thinking you'd do better to at least be nice to him Stannis instead of scolding them like children Davos is absolutely trained to think this way first of all that these guys are his superiors right we've seen this throughout the last chapter and this chapter and the difference is that Stannis actually has has no consequences when he treats these guys like a jerk. If Davos treated these guys like a jerk, it'd be a big deal. He would lose some status because of it, maybe lose some fingers, I don't know, you know, he can't act out. Stannis's consequences when he treats someone like a jerk, they leave him alone, which is kind of what he wants.

This behavior lends itself to Stannis's army as we progress through the story. this behavior lends itself to stannis's army as we progress through the story this is how we have people like clayton sucks in a dance with dragons who tells asha stannis won't do anything about my bad behavior if i commit it uh it's blatant stannis doesn't do anything they don't learn why stannis is bad at their behavior when he kind of scolds them in the camp they just go oh he's moody uh they think that it's still okay so yes stannis touts his justice and his righteousness but he allows these southerners to keep going on because he thinks that their support is so important but also the action and what they bring to your camp is important stannis and your campaign yeah he'll like mildly

insult them but he essentially doesn't do anything to markedly change that system, right? Mm-hmm. Stannis asks Davos what he makes of Sir Courtney with his smuggler brain. He keeps calling Davos the smuggler throughout this chapter, and Davos calls Courtney stubborn, and Stannis

calls it hungry for death, bargaining his life and all the lives of the men within those castles away, and then Stannis thinks Courtney mistook him for his brother with the idea of single combat. Stannis thinks, you know, maybe Courtney was just desperate with that move. He has

no other hope, and I think there's a lot of projection here on Stannis' part considering that Stannis is the one who looks like a corpse right now, which feels a little more hungry for death to me, and is the one who's like a corpse right now which feels a little more hungry for death to me and is the one who's resorting to in my opinion pretty desperate matters when it comes to like i don't know shadow babies and shit like that and like i will try a new hack now davos but besides stannis deflecting to robert at the end regarding single combat it

is quite telling that i think stannis isn't willing to be the one to sacrifice himself to fight Penrose for this castle and the boy that he wants Edric Storm that supposedly means so much to him. Oh but that's his sacrifice right? Edric is his sacrifice that would be a sacrifice for Stannis

that's true. Stannis is so glad to be here today and you know he loves his people so much that he's willing to kill a little boy so that he can be king. God. Pardon me. Stannis agrees the castle will fall

and they must do it quickly. Lord Alistair had suggested he bring Sir Courtney's father, Lord Penrose, here and slip a noose around his neck, much like we see with Edmure Tully in the phrase, right? Davos disagrees with this method. He was more courteous than others when Davos met Courtney, and he's an old done man. Davos thinks that it would be very ill done. Courtney would watch his father die before betraying the trust, and it would just be dishonorable. Yeah, and it is interesting to

hear that from davos which helps frame both the cowardice and eventual ineffectiveness of ryman fray and the riverlands and the jamie chapters that we covered as he parades ed newtoli in front of the in front of river run every morning it's testament to the faith and dedication of the cause which would mean these right, being willing to watch his father die or perhaps his nephew, depending on if we're talking about Penrose or Tully. But, you know, Davos is our lens into this and being like, well, I don't think that that's how it should work. And actually, now that I think about it, it's pretty impressive that he's learned all this politicking so fast in all these houses. Yeah, he's done a really good job listening and copying and mimicking or just mimicking emotion,

knowing how to manage these lords. Even last chapter, we learned this lord is grumpy, this lord does this in the council, this lord does this, and I think that's impressive. Dude, managing up is not easy. Nope, Davos makes it look pretty good. He does. Stannis is incredulous that Davos would spare these traitors, right?

He doesn't understand why Davos is so adamant to esteem Courtney Penrose more highly than the Queensmen that stand with Stannis today. Davos says penrose has faith stannis is like it's misplaced and davos says yeah but it's still keeping faith stannis asks why do the men behind us not keep faith and davos thinks well you know what i've come too far with stannis to play coy now and he gives it to him, right? He goes blunt and he says, Last year they were Robert's men. A moon ago they were Renly's.

This morning they are yours. Whose will they be on the morrow? Ha ha ha ha ha! I told you, Melisandre, he said to the red woman. My onion knight tells me the truth. I see you know him well, your grace, the red woman said. Davos, I have missed you sorely. Aw, the king said.

I have a tale of traitors your nose does not deceive you. My lord's bannermen are inconstant, even in their treasons. I need them, but you should know how it sickens me to pardon such as these when I have punished better men for lesser crimes.

You have every right to reproach me, Sir Davos. Is he admitting that maybe it was stupid of him to cut off Davos's fingers and that it did absolutely nothing and maybe he could have used those fingers now because he's having Davos do things like smuggle? Yeah's trying he is doing that Sundari I mean that's the thing right Sundari starts with a ts and Stana starts with an st coincidence I think not I think so like it's just a coincidence so no it's absolutely what you said and that's something that we will absolutely dig into later in this chapter and i realized that he said in constant even though treasons it makes me think of that line in constant moon in constant moon which is a science fiction short story but it's

also a phrase that comes from shakespeare which as we know george is very into so the moon isn't constant but this scene in general i think is like one of maybe two in my opinion maybe three whatever sympathetic stannis moments let me well i'm allowed to change my mind as we go through this read-through but right now this is how i feel about it one of two- we've gotten through a lot of Stannis moments, and I don't find him that sympathetic, so I'm allowed to say this. Moments just because he laughs, and I didn't read this aloud

because I wanted to really just portray it for all of you. The language of how Stannis laughs is very interesting, because for all of how Stannis says how different he and his brothers are the usage of the the line says and stannis laughed a sudden gust rough and full of score and that idea of a gust and rough in my opinion really invokes the memory of robert and some of the other

baratheons it reminds me of people like the laughing storm yeah the language is very much shared by the proto baratheon in the story even Rojar, to an extent that in my head you have that burly, bearded Borathian laughter, right? Like you can just close your eyes and see, almost like Maya Stone's story of Robert throwing her up in the air and remembering the laughter and always knowing that she'd be caught on the way down. There's that whole idea like in your head you like a Baratheon in a way you know to an extent there there's a there's an extent everyone likes a good Baratheon you're like oh Robert you idiot you ruined everything but you know you could be worse I I don't associate the Baratheon like moniker in my head of a burly bearded guy with Stannis I don't think of that right because he's the Skeletor version of a Baratheon.

Skeletor Baratheon. But for this one short moment, you do. You feel it. It's not as great of a scene as we think, right? As sympathetic as it is, it reads kind of how their closeted lord and love life goes together because

Stannis only asks for Davos when no one's looking he puts a show on the last eight days he has not talked to davos like barely made eye contact short brisk barely talking to him and then his southern knights he has to put on this big puppet show again the guys who he refuses to condemn for what they're actually doing bad uh and he gives that he he like ignores him for a week and then gives davos this dangerous important mission that no one else that he's been paying attention to for eight days is suited for he warms him up butters him up and says well i need you to do this and you have nothing else to do

so you may as well go he says he respects davos more than most but then it also reads as the boss that takes advantage of your work ethic you know and that like i had a boss i will not name them once upon a time who was always like someday i'm gonna take care of you you know like my next place i go or whatever i'm gonna start a business and I'm gonna make sure you're taken care of and would always say that but then also I was always the one working hard and always doing the dangerous missions and always the one putting myself on the line for things right and then one day I realized that boss probably wasn't going to take care of me and I probably had to go take care of me.

And I like got out of that situation. Right. And like later down the line, two years later, this boss has called back trying to hire me. And I'm like, no, but I digress.

That's what I would do to Stannis. I would say, ha ha, no. But that's how I feel about it. Like how could Davos is only good for the things that he's condemned him for before? Yeah. Right?

Like, I'm only using you for the things that I have told you are bad and I don't want in this world. Hmm. Exactly. And then rewards all these other people for all the things that like he hates. And I think that's a big crux within this episode and is a big part of I don't like shish, but... I guess it's about having faith, right? That this paper check that Stannis has given.

Baby. I don't know the words. I know I touch your body. I know not any finger bones um but it does it like it it just feels like he's he's like well it's interesting davos that you're here remember that thing that i punished you for pretty brutally i'm gonna make you do it the rest of your life now and tell you it's bad but have you do it anyway they They're not, like, giving him a chance to escape that past, right?

And it's something that we see as a tension for Davos' chapters, even in the previous chapter, because his sons are trying to remind him, like, hey, dad, you're not a smuggler anymore. You're a knight. And Davos is like, that's right. I'm a knight. I'm here. I'm part of Stannis' guard. And then Stannis is like, so you're a smuggler, right?

And also it turns out that, like, all the the knights in stanis's guard are assholes so like he all of his kids like but dad you're a knight like them and he's like i don't know if i want to be a knight like them do i yeah but his kids like have been sheltered right from what assholes the other knights are and i understandably so i don't want i wouldn't want my kids that do not exist to hang out with assholes i don't want to hang out with assholes fuck yeah i probably wouldn't put them in the situation yeah so you know davos says that stannis reproaches himself right more often than he does i don't know. I mean, maybe. That's why I wish we had a Stannis POV. And that he must have these great

lords to win the throne. Then Stannis comments, their fingers and all, and Davos feels for his luck finger bones at his neck, just touches them sort of reflexively, and Stannis is like, I'm surprised you haven't lost them, and asks, why do you keep them after the time that has passed? And Davos

says, they remind me of what i was where i came from they remind me of your justice my liege it was justice stanis said a good act does not wash out the bad nor a bad act the good each should have its own reward you were a hero and a smuggler well i'm glad that, you know, Davos doesn't need his fingers to remind him where he came from, because people like Stannis are here to remind him all the time where he came from. And all the other knights, and all the other

lords, and the people around him, why do you keep your fingers, Davos? You don't need that. Hey, Davos, you need a hand? They yell from across the fucking courtyard. Shut the fuck up. Leave Davos alone. That is pretty much probably what they actually do. Stannis looks at these lords that are marching behind them and mentions

they ought to learn the same lesson that Davos has kind of learned. Maybe he should chop their fingers off. Good and true men who fought for Joffrey, believing Joffrey the king. Something the Northmen could also say of Robb Stark, but those who flocked to Renly turned their backs on their rightful king for glory and power. Pardoned them, yes, forgiven, but not forgotten. Stannis asks what the small folks say of Renly's death and Davos tells him he was well loved they grieve, he's not dishonest with him Stannis says fools love a fool but he grieves for the boy he was

and not the man he grew to be that's one way to put it but I do think it's interesting that Stannis is just really out here calling all the people that he hopes to rule all the ones that he thinks should choose him as leader and calling all of them fools it's like he thinks he's gonna trick a certain group of people if he just keeps going you know what I mean like all right well I'm gonna trade in these bannermen you know like they're idiots but I'm gonna get the good ones if I just keep going and it's like the difference of leaders as we've said you don't have anyone in Stannis's army

that's going to give a speech saying aye we save Shireen because he's gonna boil her up in a stew in front of him with the witch but no I'm just kidding but like you don't have the Ned the Ned's daughter you don't have that here you don't have this inspiration's daughter. You don't have that here. You don't have this inspiration. And how could you? Wouldn't you want that? Don't you want people that want to follow your leadership? Not people that are there just because they hope they get new land out of it? Don't you?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Stannis wants the reactions. Stannis is like, I'm blocked. I can't read their tweets and I'm blocked, Davos.

I need you to tell me what their feed says. So Davos pulls up Cersei's feed and is like, here's her reaction to the incest. They shouted for King Stannis. They were like, yeah, King Stannis, though, he says, I can't speak for what happened when I left. I mean, I appreciate that Davos said that. That's an honest take. And he knows that people will say one thing in front of the lords and another when they're gone. Coming from that, you know?

I mean, he does it. Yeah. And he also says, you know, some men believe everything and some men believe nothing. And both sorts were there when he was delivering the news. And Davos also mentions, you know, there was a rivaling rumor that was going around as well. And Stannis had surely likely heard that one, that Shireen was followed by Patchface

and Selyse had cucked Stannis with him. And that's pushed by Tyrion. Honestly, terrible, but also smart oppo on Tyrion's part. hatchface and selise had cucked stannis with him and that's pushed by tyrian honestly terrible but also smart oppo on research on tyrian's part stannis thinks it's a ridiculous story that no one would believe but domo says you know whether they believe it or not they do love to tell a story and you know this is very much like what we were saying happened to Ned Stark, right? When people love that story, they love the story about Ned, honorable, fathering a bastard, Jon Snow.

And to be quite frank, Stannis also quite loves to be told a story. It's just that the story's about him. And Davos thinks, in many places, it had poisoned the well for their true tale, the story about Shireen. Precisely what, of course, Littlefinger and Tyrion had hoped for. Then Stannis gives his salty-ass speech.

Robert could piss in a cup and men would call it wine, but I offer them pure cold water. And they squint in suspicion and mutter to each other about how queer it tastes. Stannis ground his teeth. If someone said I'd magicked myself into a boar to kill Robert, likely they'd believe that as well. Okay. Maybe.

And this might be a stretch, so if I am being out of turn, especially Stannerman, I know you want to correct me. I know you're sitting at home waiting for it. If someone said that Stannis magicked himself into a boar shadow, actually, erupt from Melisandre's... Sorry, what's the word? A bigger-than-Stannis-sized shadow erupt from Melisandre's coochie, her vagina, her shadow womb?

And isn't it because Stannis gave the okay? So wouldn't you say that in a short speaking of terms here that stannis magicked himself into a shadow to kill renly and then courtney penrose and i know we're gonna get into like the the did he do it did he not do it as we move forward here but it's just kind of like maybe bro maybe your reputation for killing people magically is happening for a reason because you keep killing people with magic you dumb bitch yeah i just i'm putting it out there like isn't that why those why they think that stannis maybe that's the problem maybe because you're killing people with magic not because they think it's

like when you lie to yourself and you're like they think this because this but like it's actually really because of that like right like for stannis it's like wow you're actually doing this and granted he wasn't at the time you believe your lies like he believes his lies and he needs you know we say this a lot about people in in a song of isn't fire but he needs a better pr team that isn't let's burn the gods that people worship also fire patch face from social media why would you let patch face run your social media status i don't know between that and like so so he just needs a better PR team. And, like, the thing is, you know, the things that people are saying of Sansa, if they say that he magicked into a boar to kill Robert, I mean, he's acting like he's very maligned.

But let's be real. People are making similar rumors of Sansa and Daenerys and Tyrion, right? It's not like he's the first one to suffer bad rumors in which people accuse him of witchcraft, and it's just that he's the only one literally using it right now, but whatever, whatever. Davos says that he can't stop the rumors, but his actions and vengeance

on the true killers of Robert will show them his worth. Also, he's like, the whole time he's like, that's awful. I can't believe't believe so and so would say this what else did he say tell me more i gotta know davos what else did he say that's why oh my god that's horrible he said that oh my god first lesson he half hears everything davos is saying like i'm serious when i say he's like tell me more like he he's half hearing what davos is saying like I'm serious when I say he's like tell me more like he's half hearing what Davos

is saying and he's like he's like I will have justice for Robert, Ned, Jon Arryn and anyone that suffered at Cersei's hand you know like he's getting angry and Davos is like what about Renly he's like are we gonna get justice

for him like that but he's a pretty big deal right he's your brother he was royalty he's like the guy gonna get justice for him like that but he's a pretty big deal right he's your brother he was royalty he's like the guy you killed with the magic board he's like you know you cut off my fingers for smuggling what about the guy who who committed regicide is that guy gonna get the king's justice and then of course we get we get the speech and okay the speech. Oh, okay. The speech? The speech. Am I staying? I'll be staying.

You got a thing. For a long time, the king did not speak. Then very softly, he said, I think about it sometimes. Of Renly's dying. A green tent. Candles. A woman screaming.

Blood. A green tent, candles, a woman screaming, blood. Stannis looked down at his hands. I was still a bed when he died. Your Devon will tell you. He tried to wake me. Dawn was nigh and my lords were waiting, fretting. I should have been a horse. Armored.

I knew Renly would attack at break of day. Devon says I thrashed and cried out, but what does it matter? It was a dream. I was in my tent when Renly died, and when I awoke, my hands were clean. Sir Davos Seaworth could feel his phantom fingertips start to itch. Something is wrong here, the one-time smuggler thought. Yet he nodded and said, I see. Renly offered me a peach. At our parlay, mocked me, defied me, threatened me and offered me a peach. I thought he was trying to blame me for my own. Was that his purpose, to make me show fear? Or was it one of his pointless jests when he spoke of how sweet the peach was? Did his words have some hidden meaning? The king gave a shake of his head, like a dog shaking a rabbit to snap its neck.

Only Redley could vex me so with a piece of fruit he brought his doom on himself and his treason but I did love him Davos I know that now I swear I will go to my grave

thinking my brother's peach thank you thank you I will uh be accepting all the awards for my nomination as stannis baratheon i almost got emotional about it but i'm not because move over steven delane chloe's on the move john snow never heard of him. Move over, Liam Cunningham. Truly, if you want to discuss my performance, I just want you to know that I really was really deep into it. I was thinking of Stannis getting more upset because he was

experiencing an emotion and he hasn't ever experienced one, was my idea. He was like, how do I process I think I'm sad halfway through. So I feel like that's important when thinking about Stannis and how he's never processed an emotion I think he processes a lot of emotions he's just like

bury it down bury it down push push Melisandre soothe an emotion out of me yeah he's like put it in the compartment he's like oops accidentally opened it gotta try and close

that again oversharing with Davos again I gotta stop doing that pretty soon I'm gonna have to make him a lord if I keep oversharing with him he knows way too much so thus the peach thus the peach

thus the peach we got there as you can tell from this episode and the previous that's the peach we got there as you can tell from this episode and the previous one and the one before that and all the other episodes that we've done one of the things that bothers me most about Stannis Baratheon is his lack of self-awareness in a way that many people

including myself but you know many people thankfully I'm glad that more people are pointing this out it leads to his hypocrisy right like a moment ago But, you know, many people, thankfully, I'm glad that more people are pointing this out. It leads to his hypocrisy, right? Like, a moment ago, Stannis lamented that people would trust whatever Robert gave them, even a cup of piss. Yet they distrust anything that Stannis offers them. And we're going to talk about the cup of cold water next episode and what it means to offer a cup of cold water and whether or not it's actually poison, right? But here, coming back to Robert and the piss and then the distrusting of Stannis, turns out this is very much part of the crux of the Baratheon brothers' angst because

they're all angsty just a little bit. And Renly offered Stannis, right, just a plain peach, a normal ass fruit, something that was likely a simple, innocent gesture from Renly, which of course is laden with symbolism. I'm not going to act like it's not very symbolic, because a lot of people have analyzed that, and I think all that symbolism stands in general, and I will link you all to some of those in a second, but it was a normal-ass peach, and Stannis did the very thing that he accuses everyone of doing to him when he offers them a cold cup of water. He was like, oh, I thought Renly had a blade and not a peach. And he thinks that the peach is poisoned, maybe metaphorically, but also, I don't know, not literally, but maybe poisoned with insults, right?

Or to make Stannis flinch when it, like the cup of cold water that he thinks that he has, it's just a peach. And Renly was like, I don't know, I'm just going to share fruit. And which is what I would do if I had a peach. I really love peaches. They're one of my favorite fruits. But, you know, again, Stannis is guilty of doing the exact same thing that he says everyone does to him. He doesn't offer that same generosity to others,

especially within his own family. So it's really, there's a really rich irony there. But again, gonna breeze through this because it's been covered exhaustively by others. The Peach, it's joy, youth, humor, summer, innocence, desire, extravagance, and deceit. And I will link the threads by, one is by a now deleted account on Reddit.

I don't know who it was anymore. And another is by Fat Walda, our good friend who joined us for some of the Ariane chapters, and, you know, this, the peach, like the Agamemnon parallels for Stannis, which we mentioned before in that episode with Wendy, both of these are things that have been covered exhaustively by other people, so we don't really feel like we need to dig into it into our cast. Absolutely. really feel like we need to dig into it into our cast absolutely and it it sucks because stannis refuses to trust or to ally himself right not just with his brothers with anyone with rob

he has a fierce independence and he feels like if he joins it to someone else his victory will be weakened he wants to be able to say he did it himself, and he thinks that people like Renly close to him would want that in ruin instead of trying to help make a sort of peace. The thing is, as a king, you don't want war in your kingdom unless you're power hungry and looking for an opportunity to rise. You want your people to be protected because those are the people that make sure your reign is still happening in the long run, right? Like taxes. Your kingdom runs on taxes. You work together to protect your people when you have common interests that align. Catelyn Stark? That was a common interest, and both of them alienated her. Stannis didn't want a crown. He didn't want rulership.

He wanted a congratulations. You won from a handful of people at once. Four people specifically. His dead parents, his dead brother, handful of people at once. Four people specifically. His dead parents, his dead brother, and his now dead brother. And once more, he's getting it wrong. Something great about getting Daenerys' point of view, where we don't get Stannis', is that we get to see Dany imagining helping people on an intimate level. And we don't see that with Stannis. We don't see him saving a kitten from a tree,

or saving the puppy from the house he accidentally burnt down with R'hllor, you know, like, we just don't see it. And she debatably makes the wrong call in terms of compromising with the people who want to reinstate slavery in the places that she's trying to liberate. But she sees that she has a common cause, she has a goal that she believes is in the benefit of most people and is willing to compromise and make that sacrifice. Yeah, absolutely. And what she's doing is she's making a sacrifice of her own morals not someone else's coming back to the speech on the question of whether or not stannis is guilty for renly's death or what amount of responsibility he bears for it you know this is a this is another one of those things right that's heavily debated in the fandom and to an extent we'll come back to what responsibility means like in a second but i think that what we see in the fandom and to an extent we'll come back to what responsibility means like in a second but i think that what we see in the speech was a conundrum it was a moral quandary that really

intrigued george and he ends up actually exploring it much further in duncan egg and i'm going to talk a little bit like in terms of when all of these books were published chronologically in terms of the real world in time the hedge knight actually directly follows clash in terms of publication and precedes storm and we see that with each duncan egg novella we can kind of see some of those uh ideas being workshopped and it bridges the books that come around it right such as the seeds for the black fires or hidden targaryens right the black fires start getting planted and then we start seeing some of those popping up a little bit in Storm. The Hidden Targaryens and things with Bloodraven come up right before Dance does, but also on the heels of Feast, etc. So this question of Stannis' culpability in the death of Renly, I think very much mirrors

Maekar's own circumstances after the Trial of the Seven. And to start, I want to go back to the language and tone of Baelor's death. We have these lines. Brothers Mace most like, Baelor said thickly. He's strong. He winced. That feels queer. Aye.

Here it comes. Pit lifted the battered helm away. Gods be good. Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods, preserve! Dunk saw something red and wet fall out of the helm. Someone was screaming, high and terrible. Against the bleak gray sky swayed a tall, tall prince in black armor with only half a skull. He could see red blood and pale bone beneath him. Something else.

Something blue-gr gray and pulpy a queer troubled look passed across baylor breakspear's face like a cloud passing before a sun he raised his hand and touched the back of his head with two fingers oh so lightly and then he fell so i want us to compare the way that this action is described and the stilted almost bemused tone of baylor when he first discusses his brother's mace as the likely culprit of his injury and then the aha weird feeling ness that he gives to his death and then the expression on his face all of that body language and compare it to this moment in A Clash of Kings. She heard Renly begin a jest, his shadow moving, lifting its sword,

black on green, candles guttering, shivering. Something was queer, wrong, and then she saw Renly's sword, still in its scabbard, she'd still, but the shadow sword. Cold, Renly said in a small, puzzled voice, a heartbeat, before the steel of his gorget was parted like cheesecloth beneath the shadow of a blade that was not there he had time to make a

small thick gasp before the blood came rushing out of his throat your face when that was done i'm very into this performance today with you yes thank you all for you elliot there's a lot of performances this episode i i mean i'm just putting it out there that this is our relationship was leading to this moment the very first thing we recorded together was the hedgenite that's true that's true it was this is special to me so it's special um so in these two scenes right like moments before baylor collapses he's in dunk's arms as renly suddenly is in brienne's arms brienne a descendant of dunk and then we have again that that similar body language the usage of the word queer strange describing oh this death feels a little wrong or like what the situation is wrong.

And so now let's come back to Stannis' own speech. Sorry, the speech. The speech. The speech and the words that Maekar then utters to Dunk. Some men will say I meant to kill my brother. The gods know it's a lie, but I will hear the whispers till the day I die. And it was my mace that dealt the fatal blow, I have no doubt. The only other foes he faced in the melee were three Kingsguard, whose vows forbade them to do any more than defend themselves. So it was me. Strange to say, I do not recall the blow that

broke his skull. Is that a mercy or a curse? Some of both, I think. From the way he looked at Dunk, it seemed the prince wanted an answer. I could not say, your grace. Perhaps he should have hated me, Kar. But instead he felt a queer sympathy for the man. You swung the mace, my lord, but it was for me Prince Baelor died. So I killed him too, as much as you. So I want to reflect upon that line that Maekar Targaryen says, I will hear the whispers till the day I die, and it was my mace that dealt the fatal blow,

which has a very strikingly similar construction and feel to it, as I will go to my grave thinking of my brother's peach, and I do think it was Maekar. You know, there are theories that maybe Maekar might have been framed or other things were happening, but I do think that in this situation, right, it had to have been Maekar solely for George to pose this very moral, thematic question to the readers, because despite what some men think, themes are very, in fact, important to the story of A Song of Ice and Fire. And it's why when discussing this chapter, he comes back to this idea of morality and often returns with questions rather than answers. George does, because a lot of things aren't meant to be very morally clear, right? Makar gives us a more honest glimpse into some of the questions

that we see Stannis is internally wrestling with, and he shows Davos, like, just a bit, the tip of the iceberg of the moral, like, fucking glacier that's underneath the surface for Stannis right now. And as for that exchange and how it ends with Dunk's words of, so I killed him too, as much as you. And that, you know, Baelor was only on the field because of Dunk, right? Because of the things that were going on. And actually, interestingly, there were quite a few hands and fingers that were at risk there that were at stake. And, you know, I think it comes up quite a bit later in this chapter that we'll probably discuss next episode. But when Melisandre asked Davos, like, you know, interesting that like your idea of responsibility and who's at fault and who isn't, because she's like, isn't that your hand that's manning this boat that's taking me into Storm's End right now? Aren't you the one that's driving this boat along? And Stannis is questioning, right, then of his own hand and Renly's death, right?

It's a much more sinister take here on what happens to Maekar because Stannis does have much more of a desire. There's a very clear benefit on Stannis' side, in part, when it comes to Renly's death that isn't evident in Maekar's. And, you know, know power is of course a looming discussion in this series and I think that to Makar's credit he understands what it means to have

power and therefore the responsibility that comes along with it, the burdens that come along with it. He knows that what happened out there on the trial of the Seven and it is very ambiguous. He loved his brother. We see that, that you know everyone fucking loved balor right but like balor actually seemed like a legit good guy right not like renly everyone loved

renly but balor knew his he knew his lords he knew the people who fought for him he knew arlen penny tree he remembered these people he says he did it's good enough for me i mean he was willing to fight for dunk right and i think that's a thing like he was willing to make that stand and he obviously has some personality flaws in the beginning you see right like just like friendly like he's too uh invested in the system but he's absolutely like the best parts of renly robert ned all these like fucking proto uh uwu they're the best lord like the best of the best, he has all the traits of the best of the best, you can't not love

Balor, when he takes the field, that's like, what? like, a prince? yeah, who's gonna be there and he lays it all on the line, he gives his life for Dunk's cause and Maekar, like how can he not respect that in his brother? And he knows that

the death and his hand in his brother's death is ambiguous, but he takes responsibility for his brother's death. Zanus, of course, has, like, it's also ambiguous, but you can see that in the speech he's reluctant to shoulder that responsibility or face the possibility at that moment, despite

the fact that he desired that power, right? And that's why he feels there's a kind of regret there in his speech when he goes, I love my brother and I know that now. He's like, fuck, I didn't know that before. And I think, you know, the fact that he's not willing, he's still afraid to take responsibility for Renly's death as opposed to Makar. I mean, you all know the famous 20th century American proverb, with great power comes great responsibility. Well, I don't want to sling Webb furiously, but I agree. And before I go back to Makar, because I have so many effing ideas,

because I'm so glad you freaking talked about this. I'm just like really excited about it, because again, this reawakens our lust for each other with the head but but lewd uh but also something you just said is uh it reminds me of arianne in spoilers if you haven't read the excerpts of arianne from tiwau yet the two one and two it's not really spoiling anything but she thinks she's sitting there thinking about quentin and she thinks I love my brother and she thinks all these thoughts she goes I love my brother don't I and it reminds me of

this right like I love my brother don't I uh obviously Ariane's not the one that's going to torch her brother that already happened from the dragons as we know canonically but like she doesn't have that information yet and she's gonna do some crazy things because of power uh until she knows about him being dead and interesting i i can't wait to see that i think that'll be a really interesting thing to kind of see unfold in comparison to this plot especially with storm's end as well as we'll talk about a lot oh yeah the next chapter she is in the Stormlands right now for Aegon so we'll get there Makar is such an accurate look at Stannis and you laid out a handful of quotes earlier but there's so much more than just that in the text

right because every time he's discussed Makar is straight up Stannis. He is disgust as Stannis by George. Prince Makar was a hard man, proud and full of scorn. Earlier, when Stannis gave the laugh that we so famously like as two of our Stannis moments, it's described as scornful and hard. George does this on purpose. Renly and Robert are contrasted. It's like Baelor's The Fusion of the Proto-Best Ruler, like we said, and Maekar is even described as uncharismatic and harsh in the book, even the mannerisms of how he treats Dunk. Dunk tried to stammer out thanks. Prince Maekar cut him off. Very well, sir. You are grateful. Now be off with you. Another fave. Even when Dunk gets made a part of the household by Makar and given a steady job that changes his life,

Makar says, Aegon is to return to my castle at Summerhall. There's a place for you there, a knight of my household. You'll swear your sword to me and Aegon can squire for you. While you train him, my master-at-arms will finish your own training. I think Stannis' fate versus Maekar's fate is also interesting, right? Maekar is said to die about a year after Arian dies trying to drink wildfire. Who knows if Stannis dies or if he lives yet, but his daughter's gonna drink a little wildfire, eh?

Sorry, I'm so sorry that I'm this way. There is a line when Aemon, actually, Aemon Targaryen is speaking about Maekar, his father, to Samwell Tarly, and he says, And my father, he never thought the throne would pass to him, and yet it did. He used to say that was his punishment for the blow that slew his brother. I pray he found the peace in death he never knew in life. I pray he found the peace in death he never knew in life. In a different, perfect world, that's something Shireen could say, right?

I pray my father found peace in death he never knew in life if the roles were reversed and if she survived the Game of Thrones. But the throne will not pass to Stannis. He's going to burn his daughter. He's not going to find peace even when he meets death. And that's sad i don't think he'll ever properly mourn for the childhood he lost for the brothers he lost the parents he lost due to this fucking iron throne right due to suitors for the prince over in the east and due to his brother rising up to take back and rebel in what's right and help the country in a better direction and renly who god damn it Renly uh his lack of mourning and this compartmentalizing and this lack of understanding that has brought Stannis to this moment

it's wrecked him it's sad he's chasing this glory that's burnt his own family down and it's just like the Targaryens who burnt their own family down he's not gonna get out in time to save it fire will consume him too and as amen says about stannis better men have done worse things stannis is great he is great he's righteous and just and he's a big force to be dealt with in westeros but he's also terrible and now he's also red yes he looks down at his hands and he doesn't see it on them but he knows that they're red with Renly's blood or he's not sure I'm like me car that's the question that they both have

and after this after this exchange that Davos and Stannis have where Davos is like what just happened is this patient client confidentiality? Pippa? Someone?

Anything? Osha? Osha? Wait, no, that's in A Dance with Dragons. She's all the way in the north. Yes, yes. They arrive back at camp. Yeah, they arrive back at camp.

And spoilers, that's it. That's it, bitches. That's it for the week because we're coming back next week we are done for the week that is it they are coming back to camp and next week we are going to start off with stannis sending davos on this huge mission to go smuggle as i said i'm not happy about it i don't like that stannis is like what if you just got back into the crime life though davos even though you're trying real hard to be a good guy what if what if i'll give you some

he doesn't even give him anything extra he just says do it no he doesn't bullshit yeah and that needs a whole episode to unpack honestly it does and I mean like it's a keystone chapter right and I need that quite literally within the context of a clash of kings right like the little

stone that goes in the architectural arch there's a lot in here that we'll discuss next episode of why this chapter ties together a lot of little stone that goes in the architectural arch there's a lot lot in here that we'll discuss next episode of why this chapter ties together a lot of the things that are in this book from the beginning to the end so yes and again we want to cherish the time that we spend oh my god stanis in this book you know we just want to hang out with him oppressed you're not what does that mean so next week we'll return for part two of davos davos chapter two in a clash of kinks thank you for listening in make sure you reach out to us with any of your thoughts after this episode via email or social media.

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So romantic that you brought up the Hedge Knights. I love you too, you know, buddy. It's good for you. Anniversary is the last time we saw each other. Good night, everyone. Goodbye.