Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 107 - ACOK Davos III

Episode Date: November 6, 2020

We're on episode 107, hour 274 of our Battle of the Blackwater coverage, this time with Davos the Onion Knight. As he enters the mouth of the King's Landing beast, this onion finds himself raw for the battle before the fleet gets cooked.  --- 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 107, Davos 3, In a Clash of Kings. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. This week, you know, actually we've been covering the Blackwater, all the episodes that we've done since we started way back in Sansa, all those episodes were also Blackwater episodes. We are on episode 107 of the Blackwater. We have been doing the

Blackwater for literally 736 hours. Yes. So surprise. We're just going to continue what we've been doing for this Blackwater extravaganza. Yes, right back into the Blackwater extravaganza. Yes, right back into the Blackwater extravaganza. That's right.

Far over the original 263 hours of Blackwater you've experienced back when we aired Sansa. And here we are with Davos. But this is our last A Clash of Kings Davos episode. The Blackwater extravaganza. We are going to move on to A Storm of

Swords, Davos, after this, which will be a little bit of a haul and then A Dance with Dragons. So we're getting into the thick of it. We've gotten through the easy stuff, the fast stuff, the first three. We're swimming our way up the river to the next POV, slowly but surely.

Like salmon. But I'm surprised. Too fishy, too fishy for me. I'm surprised we only have three davos chapters in the clash of kings are you surprised we had four episodes are you how do you feel about that that also surprised me that we had four episodes but you know again that's because it's the black water and we've just been splitting up all these black water episodes here and there well it's always important to bring a perspective to these episodes, you know, the podcaster perspective. So let's hop into our emails and tweets of note. We did get an email from our good friend Pete, who said, I have some thoughts about Davos's decision to enter into a

war zone to provide aid to Stannis Baratheon who at the time was under 21 years old but known for bullheadedness I love every email that starts with this if you start an email with I have some thoughts about Davos's decision to enter a war zone to provide aid to Stannis Baratheon I might read that email like interesting I also have some thoughts and this email from Pete. I also have some thoughts. And this email from Pete is about to have a couple facets to it, right? Like, first, we're going to talk about what he calls Davos the gambler. So first, we'll talk about that.

And we'll also move on to a theory he's sharing with us. So first, he says, imagine Davos, no name, smuggler, talking to Salador's son, thinking about entering a war zone to deliver onions, salted fish, and other foodstuffs to the besieged Storm's End. They'd call that crazy or desperate. He'd make that profitable by selling it to the free folk or the free cities, but he decides to go into the one place where if he's successful, he may just be hanged as a criminal. Or succumb to the starvation himself if the siege is longer than he has supplies for because once he crosses the red wine naval blockade davos is not coming out a second or third gamble at this point is that at the end of the siege where stannis expects davos to slink away or face punishment for saving him in the siege he instead dares Stannis to do the punishment himself.

And then Pete lays this line on us, which is, if a firefighter comes to your home to save your burning building, do you care if he has a criminal past? It's a good punctuation, right? Onions for thought. Yeah, that Davos probably thought that. He's like, you know, my chances are probably okay, right?

And that's, I mean, Davos weighs a lot of different choices throughout his entire storyline. So I thought that, you know, this was a really interesting email in terms of Davos as a gambler. And he often takes that gamble, right? But it's interesting because he's like betting on Stannis every time. Yeah, and his prized pony might not bring home the gold anymore. Right? We don't know, but it doesn't look great. Outlook not so good if you shake that ball. He bets on Stannis' conscience.

And we see a lot of the time, he's like, Alright, cool. This gamble paid off. But eventually, you know... Well, we all know. Because it's more or less been revealed uh through that hibbert book bad news yeah bad news bears luck runs out things are bad really bad and the luck bones as we learn that he loses here that is uh it's all downhill from here pretty much or down

river not always down river but down river yes you know well we all float down here i hear that's a popular yeah i was like i don't actually know what that means neither of us know i don't know no i do know what it means i just would never read that yeah it's not for me if it's for you that's fine it's just not for you know some things aren't for me some things i'm very. Okay. And we don't have to talk about it. We don't have to start citing evidence, Eliana, or any of our other listeners who like to cite evidence about what I've been very sad, very soft on the podcast, but I'm not sad or soft. Okay.

I'm more like Stannis. Sure. Robust. Unyielding. Okay. You're so good at that. So I have a theory to share with us. An unyielding theory.

Actually, I'm going to share with us an unyielding theory actually i'm gonna level with you my mind was kind of blown reading this theory only because it's something i wouldn't think about it's just something i also don't care about it's not to say like it's not a negative i don't care it's just there are things i care about and this doesn't cross my head it's not something i would just don't think about stanis that much but actually we actually we do. That's not true. Never mind. I retract that. Yeah, but we didn't ask to think about Stannis this much. I never asked for this. Just like Stannis never asked for this.

I never asked for this. I don't want to. I don't want to, darling. So Pete's theory goes like this. He starts off saying our Davos one in two episodes made him think in robert's rebellion something's up in the background that stannis and davos both don't realize something or someone is keeping their men alive so he wants to explain when the food runs out including everything stannis mentions horses dogs cats in which pete is sure that stannis receives

the lord's cut portion as he doesn't really think about what his men eat we see this in asha right that it might not be a lordly portion but he's still getting the lord's portion of what's left of the rations pete has come to the conclusion in some point in the future there will be a very meta reveal a a Howlin' Reed level reveal, he says, that his men in small groups deserted to Lord Tyrell's banquet tables and returned to their posts later on. He then explains men can only starve for 30 days before they die, and the siege went on for far more than a year. Evidence point one, Mace Tyrell's army is composed strangely. There's enough supplies for two armies, way more men than necessary for the siege that

he's performing. Lord Tyrell and his troops are in no rush to close the siege and move on to a dangerous foe like Robert, Jon Arryn, or Ned Stark, so standing up Stannis' troops actually benefits Mace and his men. It looks like they're helping the Targs, but they actually really want to be on the sidelines. His second thought goes to Gowan Wild and the three other knights that get caught abandoning their posts. Where were they going? Probably to go eat. Their punishment was being held in prison until they died. So there's other incidents he cites like the cannibalism among Stannis' current troops,

the constant smoke of cook fires drifting over the walls to starving men is enough to break them, and the fact that every man just has a breaking point, right? No matter how strong your leader is. And I think there might be something there. The idea that these men join Stannis, it's kind of sad, but they seem to know they can get away with their behaviors everyone we get a close-up on is like i can get away with my behavior because we're under stannis if stannis knew that was his reputation because stannis is a little bit of a hard ass you know what i mean like a little bit of a he drives a hard a hard group there and uh i don't know if

he knew that everyone thinks they could just get one over on him that would be truly the saddest irony of anything ever yeah i thought that this was a really interesting theory and i think i mean i think it kind of makes a lot of sense you know for that to be the case the weakness i on one hand i do think george doesn't know that men can starve for 30 days before dying because i don't know that he fact checks everything case in point height of the wall but also i think like you know in regards to mace tyrell it sounds it's very in line with how mace is right in terms of that siege but also i think it it also kind of helps us understand and contextualize why storms end or a lot of those Storm's End Stormlanders were willing to accept the Tyrells so easily, right? Not just that, of course, Renly was close with the Tyrells, but there's already an established trust if some of them, I mean, were kept alive by

the Tyrell army, right? So I think it made a lot of sense and it was quite great. And, you know, I think Davos obviously, like, I don't know if that minimizes the effect of Davos bringing onions or not. Because obviously, I guess, not everyone was going across. Like, it's not that easy to sneak in and out of Storm's End, but.

Yeah, and we learned that from Davos right in that last chapter when he goes with Mel we learned kind of about those ins and outs in this chapter as well in Davos 3 we're gonna get into how he knows King's Landing like the back of his hand but it was a very big bet for him to bet on right for Stannis and the siege and i do think there might be some merit in this like just thinking about it uh it really does seem that every single man that's following stannis seems to think there's a loophole or an ellipsis after their service to him like ah but i'm a different man than the rest following stannis i don't have to follow the rules but davos from the start has never been like that right like he's always been like all right i probably need to uh atone do some penance here so punish me

oh holy god so i don't know yeah i mean if if all these men in stannis's crew right now stepped up and were like here are my crimes they'd be losing more than some fingers i'd say or some of them think that like it's either that they think that they can get away with it but also some of them think that they're within it right they justify to themselves you're like this is clearly what the red god wants or this is me being very godly by being very rude to you i'm like what yeah absolutely it's very much so that a religious crusade kind of mentality hiding beside the religious crusade it's kind of gross speaking of crusades pete has one last note for all of you back in episode 100 maybe i mean we don't know i there's a question mark because obviously we

didn't know what episode you were on um so how could you yeah uh pete says that we had mentioned ode the deep-minded from iceland and is letting all of you know that ode is in fact a playable character in crusader kings 3 in the 867 year start i just got crusader kings 3 i might have said that in the last couple episodes so maybe that's why it's coming up but i did just get crusader kings 3 a few weeks ago and i have started an ode playthrough so fun fun yes very fun very fun i'm a sucker for the three women characters they put on the starter maps well let's jump in you know here we are no longer in storm's end but we still got a storm going on with our davos

lightning round yes and again this will be a little different we're going to keep it to the black water with tyrian 10 through tyrian 11 tyrian plans to interrupt cersei's plans for tommen shay wants more from tyrian than he's offering her and he scorns her for it he tells her his origin story. Varys and Tyrion are finally aligned in one thing, which is wanting Stannis dead. Sansa 4. Sansa learns that the dudes in her life really put the men in menstruation

and also are the worst ever. Tyrion 12. Tyrion receives word of Theon Greyjoy butchering the Stark boys and later Cersei punishes someone close to his cause Sansa 5 Sansa learns why Cersei keeps ill and pained

among the ladies and makers hold fast and prays with the women that it won't be necessary this throws us into the waves of Davos 3 and A Clash of Kings, where Davos catches wind of a trap, but the Blackwater Bay keeps him busy until it all implodes upon him. And so here we are at Blackwater Bay, as we have been for the past 107 episodes.

It's choppy, blackbathda sails, cracking as it rides through the blood tide. Davos' sons command Wraith and Lady Maria, surrounding the ship by 20 yards, and he's quite proud of his sons keeping the line. Warhorns boom ahead. Damn, already.

Alright, and Davos begins to give commands to lower the masts and put the men to the oars, and his son Mathos give commands to lower the mass and put the men to the oars this son Mathos is repeating it to the men across the sea warhorns boomed deep throaty moans like the calls of monstrous serpents repeated ship to ship

I want to point out that this is another very horny chapter yes and I think later we'll have another language similar to this that you highlighted that's very sea monster-y, so I can't wait to talk about that. Yeah, that, but also horrid. So I didn't highlight every horny moment, but... Just a couple horny moments. Just a couple. They all seem to be pretty tied to Greyjoy kind of language some lovecraftian kind of language it feels like so that's interesting to me the the sea warhorns deep throaty moans monstrous serpents

right it does feel that way especially with the way that this chapter goes later on but also kind of sexual throaty moans yeah and not only sexual but also reminds me of dragons right yeah the language used of the dragons with the monster this is very much it feels like as we get through the chapter it's gonna feel like a forewarning for the power of the dragons to come it does there's even like moments where you know they talk about the ship putting down its wooden wings and And while it's not, it's obviously a ship and on the water, but it starts to really start conjuring

that idea of dragons in the bay once more. But George thought we were going to get there way faster than we did. We did too. Imri Florent has decreed that they'd enter with no sails, keep a low profile, avoiding the spitfire

and scorpions that wait for them in King's Landing. And then Fury is to the southeast. Her shimmering golden sails being brought down. Fury is commanded by Sir Imri Florent. But 16 years ago, Stannis had actually commanded

Fury's assault on Dragonstone. So here we are today with Stannis riding with his army instead and Imri is holding the highest honor here. Boo! Boo! Yeah. But maybe

it's a blessing in disguise for Davos because he very narrowly survives. And how this is framed from Davos is interesting the language is trusting Fury and the command of his fleet to his wife's brother Sir Imri who'd come over to his cause at Storm's

End with Lord Alistair and all the other Florence Davos knew Fury as well as he knew his own ships a little jealousy right and a little kind of a pang of like disrespect that Stannis shows this man who cares nothing for his cause to command his ship. And I didn't really catch this before, but on reading it, the way it's framed really is significant. It feels to me like, okay, Davos, you're noticing that you're in an abusive relationship, but you really can't get out at this point is the problem but you're noticing it it starts to really come out in this chapter right like before he kind of noticed how he was being put aside right by the other lords but now he's starting to like really really notice it after stannis asked him to do this like huge blight on like i mean his conscience in general not just like his honor but literally

who he is so it's a great point uh with imri uh i'm not gonna pronounce i don't know if i can pronounce the word fury like the same time in the same way each time davos describes the ship fury it's got 300 oars scorpions mounted catapults and packed with armored knights and men at arms which costs speed. The warhorns start again, and Davos feels the phantom tingle in his fingers as he tells his men to form a line, and 436 oars,

very specific number, must mean something, but I don't know about that, dip into the water to the beat of the drum. I did a little bit of reading on the Phoenician ships and different things and galleys galleys but there's i i didn't find anything specifically about 436 but that means it's a pretty large war galley you know usually the war galleys would hold anywhere from 150 to 300

oarsmen so i guess that means it's like a super big one. It's the big, big one. But something else notable here is that it's Davos noticing it's definitely at cost to Fury's speed. Fury is the biggest Amaraffer. Like Fury's big. We got 300 oars. We got catapults. We got ramps. We got all of it.

But it's at cost to her speed. And as we learned at the end, they were not fast enough. Yeah. They did not cross this river fast enough. They failed. And I think that's so interesting, the whole time Davos is measuring these things as we're going to get into the speed, and not going fast enough. Yeah.

And time is actually of the essence here, right? I mean, it always probably is in fights, but it turns out to be a huge point in this specific battle, as you all know, because of Tywin Lannister's forces coming in later on, right? Like, every moment counted. Had they left when Salador tried to tell Stannis they should leave, they would have done it. Actually, that's true. have done it. That's it. That's literally it. They distrusted him and he was right and they did too little, too late, too slow.

That happens a lot in the series, right? Like, Jaime Lannister doubling back for Brienne, he could have possibly made it in time for the purple wedding, right? And then he doesn't. Or like, yeah, timing. Just misses just misses it yeah there's so much like just missing of things in in this story well as davos listens to the 436 oars

dipping into the water to the drum uh it sounds like a beating heart it's slow and off they cruise pulling together as one and there's a ton of assonance and repetition that comes up throughout the chapters, right? With the a-oo of the horn punctuating these sentences and the beating of the oars providing that crucial backdrop, that bass beat behind it as they row into hell. And I love the language that Davos is using here. It's a great beating heart because he's the one at the head of the heart. He is the largest artery, the, what is it, the aorta? I don't fucking care about my heart. I eat so much red meat. Holy shit. I'm just kidding. I eat a moderate amount of red meat. But Davos is the one guiding and captaining part of this heart, heart, haha, deer, heart,

against his wishes into the bay. And he's also in his element. He's sensing things as he moves along. He's measuring speed, measuring things from port to starboard, watching along the water, paying attention to different elements in the back and in the left and the right and the front. And it reminds me of Asha's speak of the sea, right? Asha had spent her life on islands and on ships.

The sea was never silent the sound of the waves washing against a rocky shore was in her blood but there were no waves at Deepwood Mott, only the trees yeah, the sound plays such a big part of this chapter and it really sets the tone perhaps even more than the visuals the visual language

and we'll come back to that as it evolves later on. For now, Davos is checking the status of the various ships, such as the Pride of Driftmark, Bold Laughter, Herodin, Seahorse, some of who are keeping up, some of who are not, and Swordfish, lagging the most behind. Swordfish ends up being like a whole thing, but Swordfish in general general as an actual fish are so funny um that's that's that was the aside the men are shouting encouragement to each other

the mood's high men are ready to get their foes and confident of victory thanks to sir imri florence captaining and i'm just like this is the scene in Mulan where everyone's seeing a girl worth fighting for. Also don't call it too soon don't pull the Mayor Pete and Io right here. Oh damn. Topical because tonight's the election. Tonight is the election. It's going great for us everyone. We forgot to mention it's the

US election. We're Davos threeing. We're having a great time on the Black Mar. We're having a great time. This is a little too soon right right? Like, you're calling it a little too soon, guys. There's no victory yet. You might want to hold out, because, uh, your success might be booming

soon, if you get my drift. And three days before, they were at the mouth of the Wendwater, and Imri had held this war council, and Davos and his sons during that were assigned to the second in line of battle. His sons were like, that's so great, dad, a place of honor, but Davos is like, um, no, we're meat sacks, that's a place of peril. He could almost hear his sons thinking he had become an old woman, still a smuggler at heart. women, still a smuggler at heart. Well, the last was true enough. He would make no apologies for it. Seaworth had a lordly ring to it, but down deep he was still Davos of Flea Bottom, coming

home to his city on its three high hills. He knew as much of ships and sails and shores as any man in the Seven Kingdoms, and had fought his share of desperate fights, sword to sword, on a wet deck. But to this sort of battle, he came a maiden, nervous and afraid. Smugglers do not sound warhorns and raise banners. When they smell danger, they raise sail and run before the wind. So, you know, it's interesting, right? As much experience as Davos has, we're seeing that we do need to note how the chapter hammers home that this sort of sailing and fighting is very new for him. And he feels a little out of his league or out of his depth. And I wanted to put both of those in there because both of those puns actually really work in this moment. And I think that should be recognized.

But his experience here in feeling out of his depth, being nervous, right? I think that's true of many of the other men who are here on the Blackwater especially those who are actually worried about their life because there are those, right? Like his sons who are young confident of their victory or the other lords like Imri, they're itching for glory, right?

They're, as Chloe said you know, calling their shots a little too soon but davos knows better than that right he's unsure of their victory because i think that that's a bit of that gambling again right he knows that you can always know the odds right but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's gonna always fall that way there's luck involved and that's why he holds his his lucky charm his finger bones yeah and there's really something to be said with the way that the men here and how the men aren't named in the end right who are

scattered around there's just bodies everywhere some alive some not at the very end of this chapter as we see because we don't i mean davos has just been freaking cannonballed into his imploded into his ship. So obviously he doesn't know who half the men dead or alive are. But it's exactly that from not only this side, but in Tyrion's side of the battle. Not the next chapter, but the next chapter following the next Tyrion chapter. Tyrion finally goes out after giving his big speech in the previous chapter. And it's just men screaming and fleeing and burning.

Yeah. It turns into such a hellscape that they are all men out there. That's all they are. Yeah. When they are together on the ships, they think that they have power, and then apart, they're not. Yeah. Well, had Davos been the admiral, he thinks he'd have sent ships up the river to check out what awaited them.

He told Imri Florent this this and he thanked him courteously, but Imri's eyes didn't really echo what his words said. His eyes were like, who's this lowborn craven? Imri has four times the ships as Joffrey. He calls them the boys' toys. So Imri doesn't feel the need for caution or deceptive attacks. Idiot. toys so emery doesn't feel the need for caution or deceptive attacks idiot like king's landing knows their only way to success is using caution and deceptive attacks you know uh like what else are they gonna do they have nothing you have more ships than them and you're like resting on your

laurels come on emery come on yeah it's that and it's just like why would you not try to get every advantage that you can right like the this is life and death they're not thinking that it's life and death you don't fucking cut corners here and that's like we'll talk about that king's landing knows this is life or death if they lose the castle they're done their legacy's done uh and emory so the way that this is organized and i know we won't go too far into tactics i'll we'll talk a little bit from some of our friends that have a few things tactically to discuss. But Imri organizes 10 lines of battle,

each with 20 ships, and they land companies of archers and spearmen in the walls after the ships. The slower ships would ferry Stannis' host to the south bank and Salador and his Lycene crew at bay in the back in case the Lannisters have ships coming up the coast to nail them in the rear just nail them you know in the rear just yeah ram them but instead you know cut some in half but anyway we'll we'll get to that it is interesting that davos notes how weird the way that the lines are structured are and where

everyone's being placed it's not the most strategic placement and it actually kind of reminds me of what we were talking about in davos 2 in a clash of kings how stannis thought that he was doing a smart strategic thing showing courtney penrose like look i can be merciful right but actually ends up putting the wrong people in front and the wrong people in the back when that wasn't the right formation for all this. And that's what Imre Florent is doing here at, of course, in a way, Stannis' behest because he's been placed in charge. Oh, that's a really good thought. And I didn't think of it this way. But had Imre Florent actually arranged it so that Stannis was in the front, we wouldn't have to talk about this chapter. You mean because he'd be dead?

Yeah, sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I said it. I just thought we needed to laugh. It's been a hard day. It's an election. I'm glad that that hit for you. I'm glad that joke worked for you.

So, okay. That's mean. That's mean. Two Emory's credit and stanis's that was too far even for me i don't know no maybe it wasn't far enough uh to stanis's credit with picking emory to emory's credit he had to be quick the winds were really shitty and they'd actually already lost two cogs in shipbreaker bay i don't know why it's called that the day they set sail and then they ended up losing a galley a mirish galley and tarts straits and all but 12 ships

regrouped at massie's hook but they also lost time during that so just like we talked about in the asha episodes stannis's trip across the land he should have been to King's Landing days ago, just like him in the north. Joffrey's waiting for him here, and when we get to A Dance with Dragons, A Feast for Crows, Ramsay is waiting for him in the north, right? And losing days, ships, and people, Melisandre left behind.

Yeah. It's not great. Stannis' theme song maybe should be like Too Little Too Late by Jojo. Too little too late. I still like Leave Got Out more. Yeah, that one's a classic. The route to King's Landing

from Storm's End is much shorter. It's a straight shot, especially for a mounted host like Stannis'. There's 20,000 knights on Light Horse and Freeriders, Renly's legacy is in hand and they would be camped on the South Bank impatient, waiting for Ser Imri and the fleet. And I just want to throw it out there, like

I mean, besides the fact that this is a reread and we know how it's gonna end because it's a reread, we also know that this plan is going to fail because we are told the plan. We are told all of it pretty much and what they think is going to happen and every time i'm just throwing it out there every time

you're told the whole plan it's going to fail right that's just how suspense works that's always how it is so yes and failure is imminent yeah and that's why we don't know what's happening at the crofters village right and that's why maybe sanis's plan will probably work there yeah nobody is uh giving it away which means it's a plan and it'll work for once but again uh you might survive the battle but will you win in the end hmm wow they come across fishing skiffs at merling rock and they take the fleeing Fisherfolk captive, questioning them for the defenses at King's Landing. Imri says, A small spoon of victory is just the thing to settle the stomach before battle. It makes the man hungry for a larger helping.

I- Okay. I just want to pull us all back for a second, because I think a lot of people like to say, like, Clayton sucks is, you know, oh, well, that's just one of the newer men that Stannis has left after the Black Water but it turns out his men sucked on the Black Water too like this is

they straight up take fisher folk captive poor people that are just doing their job in the water and are like tell us about the defenses at King's Landing shaking them down and I don't but it seems that this is to appease not only for data gathering, obviously. They don't have Facebook or Twitter, so they can't just gather what you like all the time.

But also, Stannis' team seems to need to once more, as Imri says, appease the Southerners before a battle. Kind of like when he burns the Peasberry men, right? When those guys get burnt by the Queensmen, it's not for relore, it's because they wanted to burn someone. And Stannis says, yeah, sure, whatever. Here, Imri says, this will make them hungry for a larger helping. Yeah.

It's a different way of that sacrifice and also it it's just like dude these people were just fishing they don't they don't even have that great of information right like they're like giving multiple accounts because they don't really know they're not there and it's kind of ineffective compared to like davos's ideas most likely because davos is like why don't we just go find out for our fucking selves and go faster we see davos obviously in a dance with dragons when he goes out he obviously kind of just speaks to the the guy at the end you know uh and gets info and uses his i don't know charms empathy charisma he seemsathy? Charisma? He seems pretty charismatic. Things Stannis doesn't have? Yeah, I think you have to be a little charismatic to be a smuggler.

Yeah, Stannis wouldn't survive that. But the captives end up telling them the dwarf built a sort of boom to close the mouth of the river, though they're unsure if it was actually completed. Davos is like, I wish it was so Imri would be forced to take stock of this fucking situation that he's putting us in. Be careful what you wish for, Davos. Yeah, you're about to fully realize that situation. So the sea is full of shouts, it's horny, there's wind, and Davos has to shout to tell the men to keep their line,

and the wind tugs at his war outfit. It's boiled leather and a green cloak because heavy steel in the sea would cost your life before saving it yep the other highborn don't share that view right and they're glittering on their finest armor also victorian grayjoy does this but also he does victorian grayjoy things so yeah i mean that's it's to be expected but again this reminds me of stanis and a dance with dragons and a feast for crows his crew then especially with asha with the snowshoes yeah just put some snowshoes on don't wear your goddamn bejeweled vajazzled outfit okay you know what i

mean like that's all i can think about is like what's with all the fake swarovski crystals that you have in this armor do not wear this on the sea during battle and it slows them down and exactly it completely slows them down which again that's kind of the theme of the chapter is they're going too slow they're not going fast enough and it does remind me of the chapter before this believe it or not which was sans. I'm sure we'll be drawing a bit from our other Blackwater POVs we've been talking about for the last 107 A Song of Ice and Fire episodes, but there's the part from Clash of Kings. Won't your guards protect us?

And who will protect us from my guards? The queen gave Osford a sideways look. Loyal sellswords are rare as virgin whores. If the battle's lost, my guards will trip on these crimson cloaks in their haste to rip them off. They'll steal what they can and flee along with the serving men, washerwomen, and stable

boys, all out to save their own worthless hides. It's not a direct comparison, necessarily, but the end of Sansa's chapter focuses on fake knights, which kind of feels represented here all that glitters is not gold with these southern knights and they look gallant in their sparkling tinsel

but the armor as we see does nothing but drown them who let's face it they're probably not the truest of knights as we learn see and know there's that and also I mean like they're not used to this kind of warfare right no one's been able to train them they're just like yeah just go on ships it's like the same thing and they're like

it's not turns out yeah as we move on we'll talk about how they're chivalric right they're they're known for being horsemen like light footmen and horsemen and infantry they're not they're not naval the reachmen are not it's not a it's not a thing yeah and i think we'll that might come back around for the dothraki right like a lot of things are going to have to be fought uh on the sea and the dothraki obviously that is not their strong suit so i think that'll be really interesting um for now though we've got these other ships piety prayer and devotion they are lord Sunglasses galleys, but they've been seized by the state as he's a prisoner. And they are just beyond the starboard of Lady Maria, which is full of archers.

And everyone is coming in a hat, right? But they're still lagging, and Davos is very frustrated watching it, understandably so. is very frustrated watching it, understandably so. Though I do think that there is something poetic going on here with the way that these three ships particularly are named and operate throughout this chapter. Again, Lord Sunglass, if you'll remember,

stopped supporting Stannis after they burned the Sept at Dragonstone, and they're like, hmm, hmm, not about that. So the names Piety, Prayer, and Devotion here are likely named for actually Gunther's own devoutness to the Faith of the Seven. But it's really quite meaningful in the context of how much religion is a big part of, or

the question of faith is a big part of Davos's story. And there's this backdrop of R'hllor, of course, and the undertones of, again, Davos's god being Stannis, but I think there's also a different tone here going on with the names and how it ends up getting blown up or whatever throughout this chapter.

Yeah, interestingly enough, there's a couple things we'll talk about with those ships, but, once more, Stannis is burning the gods. Yes, yes, that's true. He's like, whatever, but once more Stannis is burning the gods yes yes that's true he's like whatever just use these fucking ships that were about the seven but now

maybe they're about me also I just want to put out there y'all's king supports seizure and civil forfeiture of property you're into that y'all are into that that's your king? Yeah. Come get your king. Come get your

king, everyone. Come get him. I mean, they're all kind of, I guess, into that in this story, but yeah. I mean, it's borrowing. So there's a bunch of action stuff that's gonna go on throughout the second half of the chapter as we get to it. Action, lights, camera. We're gonna skip

some of it. We'll summarize it best we can. You know, the action's boring to talk about, you know, in length. We'll tell you what's happening. Don't worry. Stick in there. Put your seatbelt on. It's going to get a little dicey.

But I did want to talk about some language that's used as far as boating. We don't really get a ton of it for Asha. We don't get her as much in captaining on a boat as much as on land which is so different for her so now that we have Davos on a boat doing what he's good at we have the definition of what starboard means starboard is the right hand side of a ship boat or aircraft when you're facing the front or fore or the bow so it's basically referring to directions according to the sides of the vessel rather than those of a crew member or object, almost like theater directions, right? When you

look forward towards the ship, port and starboard refer to the left and right sides perspectively. So in the early days of boating, before the ships had rudders on their center lines, boats were controlled using a steering oar and most sailors were right-handed, so it was placed over or through the right side of the stern. Sailors started calling that the steering side, which became starboard, because old English words stay oar, meaning steer, and board, meaning the side of a boat. As the size grew of boats, so did the steering oar, and it became kind of easier to tie up a boat to dock on the other side of the oar, the opposite. So that side became the loading side, and over time it was larboard, too easily confused with starboard, and they replaced it with port. That was a side that

faced the port, allowing supplies to be ported aboard by porters. So in The Kraken's Daughter, there's a little bit of a joke where Asha says, Does that mean we must live and die as thralls to the Iron Throne? If there are rocks to storeboard and storm to port, a wise captain steers a third course. Meaning that in that moment, Asha and her group are between a rock and a hard place. They're between starboard and port. And we actually see that echoed here because davos the language is very strong his boat goes through the middle of boats uh he's sneaking in between different boats that are port and starboard and kind of between that rock and hard place here

using some of his smuggler techniques and also not only that but the whole entire event is very hammer in the anvil because they get pushed up and they have the barge show up with all of the light on fire shit. And it's between port and starboard. They can't. There's nothing they can do about it. They get trapped. So it describes the trap and it's kind of a funny little joke as far as that goes. But I thought that was interesting. That is interesting.

George really likes these naval references here. really is getting into it yeah he i mean that's something that he's obviously into right davos notes that the swordfish's ram is probably slowing the ship down and that she has no balance because of it uh i can see why they would have thought thematically that there should be a ram though on a ship named the swordfish but the wind may be gusting from the south but the Lannisters would have it to their favor not Stannis Davos thinks that they're fools

to meet them on the black water if it was open water their battle lines could envelop both flanks of the ship but in the river their numbers count for much less and also things like turning of the tides or downstream. Those kinds of puns. You're risking a lot there.

He can see the Red Keep and Aegon's High Hill, dark against a lemon sky. The mouth of the Rush is open below, and the shore is thick with men and horses, stirring like angry ants at the approaching fleet. Trumpets and shouts soon sound among them, and Davos mouths a prayer for luck to his finger bones, and the ships come out in formation.

I love that we get a little bit of prayer time with Davos. He's praying to the warrior in this chapter, because the last chapter, we have Sansa singing with the woman within the walls to sing to the mother, exactly for the same thing Davos is hoping for, right? Gentle mother, font of mercy, save our sons from war, we pray.

Stay the swords, stay the arrows, let them know a better day. And then there's also the moment where she thinks, surely the gods must hear us. Ah, maybe you, Sansa, but not the men outside. They are not being heard out in these fiery waters. And now we start to get some ships being announced. Yeah, that's an interesting call out because, I mean, the warrior, right? That's more associated with this glory fighting, right?

As opposed to mercy. And maybe what they needed here was some mercy because shit goes really bad. Yeah, it's not great. As we go along, it does not get better. Not great. Fury herself would center the first line of battle flanked by Lord Stefan and the Stag of the Sea, each of 200 oars.

On the port and starboard wings were the hundreds. Lady Hera, Brightfish, Laughing Lord, Sea Demon, Horned Honor, Ragged Jenna, Triton III, Swift Sword, Princess Rhaenys, Dog's Nose, Scepter, Faithful, Red Raven, Queen Alysanne, Cat. See, same thing. Courageous, Dragon's Bane. From every stern streamed the fiery heart of the Lord of light, red and yellow and orange. Stag of the Sea. Hilarious name. Makes me think of Chicken of the Sea. Yeah, the names really

hammer home. The dragon stone fleets behind them come hundreds more, commanded by knights, captains, and the smaller, slower mirrish contingent. That's because they all hire fucking sellswords. Anyways, further back come sailed ships, carracks, lumbering cogs, and then Salador in his monstrous Valyrian, with the rest of the striped hulls following them. Davos feels bad that Salador is in the rear as, you know, he's like that's a waste

of what he can do in his experience, but Imri Florence sucks and doesn't trust Salador, which I mean I guess Salador doesn't inspire faith either, but. Yeah, I mean just putting it out there that this is the best possible thing that could happen for Salador as we learn, right? Like

he's like, bye, you know, we were out of there good luck! And i'm not really interested in the technicals of the naval warfare here and whatnot i know i'm a bad person for that i'm bad i should feel bad but we have friends who are much smarter about it who understand care etc i like it i just prefer to see it you know i prefer to see it. You know, I prefer to see a beautiful battle on a screen with CGI and a waste of resources. Let's look at it. But our friends, Brendan B. Fish from Not A Cast

and the Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire blog and Stephen Attawell over from Race for the Iron Throne have written about this stuff, so read their blogs. They've done the work, so I don't have to, which I think is badass. And Attawell has said some really interesting things about Imri Florent as a commander. From his Davos III, A Clash of Kings analysis,

None of these decisions are moronic. In each, you see military logic at work. Collectively, they represent a giant mistake. To begin with, relying entirely on ore power and loading down his biggest ships means Sir Imri is choosing defense over speed. It's a cautious move, hyper-cautious arguably as we'll see in a bit. The land-based artillery is nowhere near accurate enough to make the sails a big enough vulnerability

to make up for the lost knots. But the consequence is that when the clash between the fleets happens, it's close enough to the city Stannis' crossing lane gets turned into a chaotic nightmare of burning ships. Had Ser Imri piled on the sails, the clash would take place much further up the river, allowing Stannis an open river to get his barges across before the current carries the flaming wreckage toward the boom chain. Salador tells Davos in Davos 1 that it's now or never strike hard and go and emory is

afraid to fuck it all up now uh and they're as we mentioned a couple weeks late right that was a few weeks ago davos went around the realm giving the incest letter when stanis should have used that time to strike emory orders the fleet in a manner that makes it so he focuses on his own glory his own battle rather than the scheme of things which we watched Davos address through his commentary throughout the episode from his interiority. Yeah. I mean, you can't

focus on your own individual glory, especially like, I mean, a ship, right? Davos doesn't refer to individual men on the ships, except for when he thinks of his sons. He thinks of it as a whole, and that's what everyone needed to be operating as, but let's what everyone needed to be operating as. But let's get horny again. You know, the oh, the horn, the deep moan, as they say, sounds the attack.

I thought that was just so funny that that was how that was described. And Davos, I don't sound like that when I get horny. Davos barks a fast cruise to the men. The drumbeat speeds up and the stroke of the blades increase. Splash swoosh, splash swoosh. Soldiers bang their swords against their shields. Archers pull their bows and ready the first arrow. And Davos can't see ahead the first line of battle so he paces waiting for a

better view there's no sign of any boom that they'd heard of the river's mouth is open ready to swallow them whole and again you know we're not super into the military action stuff i love cinematic fighting choreography very into martial arts films but it's uh difficult for me like written granted it kind of works for me in like for example the poppy war right but that's because i like that genre but anyways um the imagery with how george uses sound in this chapter though again really great the beginning we have as you said like that sound of water and it's kind of quieter, right? You only have the sounds of the oars, but it's soft enough that a man's shout carries across the water to all the ships. And then you have those horns continuing to signal and recur throughout this chapter.

And then it also ends up signaling a turn in that soundscape, especially right here as the battle moves to those drumbeats. It's almost like those summer soldiers, right? It's how they imagine the battle. It's orderly. It's a drum beat of courage and their hearts. They're like, ooh, yeah, our hearts. And the fiery heart. And there's a line somewhere earlier of the sound of the oars

that it was like the beating of a great slow heart and the oars moved at every stroke, a hundred men pulling as one. And it's kind of poignant with again that flaming heart for stannis uh in their sigil but also with the great big blue heart of the house of the undying kind of in the back of our minds because we all read that uh when you read this whole book as a one thing and then as the chapter builds and closes that soundscape becomes much more horrific, right?

The drumbeats disappear. They're gone. No one's like, yeah, woo, war cries anymore. They're just crying. It's just the sounds of burning, rushing water, and voices don't even carry anymore, right? Like, even the screams. And everything just becomes like, all of the sounds of the

water and the burning, especially as Davos gets thrust into it, it becomes isolating. Yeah, it's almost like the whoosh if you've ever been to a water park when you go down a slide. It's like the whoosh. Like a suction. It's literally the power vacuum.

It's a literal power vacuum! But no, that's that whoosh is like big. Actually, sorry, it's that whoosh is like big yep the actually sorry it's a woof that we hear but we will get to it absolutely the girls gone canon water park episode i'm not going to water park anytime fucking soon hell no no i mean water parks are usually gross let's they're all yeah they are already gross well davos' bragging rights had been knowing the city like the back of his hand, but two new towers had spouted at the mouth of the bay,

which were, in George's opinion in this metaphor, like two foreign fingers spouting on Davos' hand. Too small to hold a garrison, but deep enough to make it difficult to assault from the bank. The attackers would have to wade through the water or bridge a channel. Stannis puts bowmen here to fire at the defenders, but otherwise he hadn't really troubled with it. Davos notices a flash. Low where the water swirls the towers, though, and he realizes it's because it's sunlight on steel. A chain boom. But he wonders, why hadn't they closed the river? He could guess that as well, but he had no time to guess,

because suddenly the horns are blowing and the enemy's in front of them, and he watches a thin line of galleys draw across the river, the ships he knew almost as well as his own. When he was a smuggler, he felt safe knowing whether the sail marked a fast ship or a slow ship, or a young captain who's hungry for glory or old and full of patience, but today it's different. The warhorn punctuates his thoughts again, and he commands his men to shoot for battle speed, his sons echoing his commands on their ships. Dale salutes him from Wraith, and the river that had once seemed narrow began to expand, feeling wide as the sea, and the red keep glows down from Aegon's Hill over them all.

It looks like a ferocious beast, actually, above the river and streets, with iron-crowned battlements and redstone. It's got gnarled trees and rocks below it in the bluffs, and it's described like a big ol' dragon. And they would have to pass below the castle in fact to reach the harbor and city beyond this reminds me again a lot of the last chapter of storm's end because they had to get within the walls and enchantments to be able to do damage so for them right now they cannot succeed unless they get through that channel unless they get through that chain but this time it's with a

ship it feels just as impossible as last time to tell you the truth and there's no melisandre to birth a shadow baby and fix it yeah i mean i also don't know how she would have done that there right does she just grab someone and is like bang me now and then like it would have had to been like the day before i think the night before yeah we've never you know as we've discussed we don't know the gestation period for a shadow baby but what you're saying with storm's end and sneaking things in right i think that really ties this chapter together uh with that one really strongly especially when you do the read-through like this that last chapter that we discussed in davos 2 it's the idea of davos right returning to an old familiar place there at the storm's end but in

very different circumstances and as a changed man. Now he's got like four grown sons who are part of this. And what's happening, that's exactly what's happening here, right? With the Blackwater. And it's interesting in the context of, again, Theon's and his story in A Clash of Kings, because he returns home to the Iron Islands, finds it completely unwelcoming, finds it unrecognizable and unfamiliar, including the people, right? They've all changed and grown, and here we have Davos of Fleabottom

coming back home to King's Landing. But rather than it being welcoming to him, it's completely hostile, right? He's coming to King's Landing because of the king that he's backed, and he's in a position where he has to be the aggressor against his home. He's got to take his home

by force. And as Pete up top discussed, Davos is a gambler, right? And the entire chapter feels like, one, they intentionally sail into this mouth of the beast and the men around him are like, oh, it's fine. We're just going into a cave. And Davos is like, no, this is a mouth. And the jaws are going to close at any moment. Davos is like, no, this is a mouth, and the jaws are going to close at any moment. Yeah, Davos thinks that the jaws of this cave, just from the way that this is going and the way the chain is, he's like, oh, this is probably a trap.

They mean for us to do this. He's like, oh, fuck. He notices this will constrict them with no way to sweep the flanks with the boom behind them. And he cranes his neck to kind of get a better look at the boys' toys that they have to face, Joffrey's toys, which include God's Grace, Prince Aemon, Lady of Silk, Lady's Shame, Wild Wind, King's Lander, Whiteheart, Lance Seaflower. This is just like when Margaery goes to the Sept in the bad show and she's like, but Cersei's not here. He looks around and he's like, the Lionstar, Lady Lyanna, Hammer, they're missing and those are the only warships that could have even matched Fury. He tastes a trap.

Yes. And again, a great moment on the heels of Davos 2. Strings a really interesting parallel with Courtney Penrose, right? Questioning Stannis' camp and the validity of his cause and especially taking up Renly's seat. And most importantly, Stannis' intentions towards Edric Storm because he's like, All right, sure. Fine. You got a bunch of Renly's men. Where are the most important ones? Where is Loras? Where is Brienne of Tarth?

Those who loved Renly. And you know what? As we've said, Courtney was right because Stannis does not have good intentions for his dear old nephew Edric. It is in fact worse than Jack Bass towards Chuck Bass. I'm making references now. Davos asks himself, himself right where are these very key ships that

are part of the baratheon lannister navy and it mirrors penderose's questioning and gives credence to davos thinking that this is a trap because obviously like i mean they're not putting out their best ships so they're clearly they got something planned yeah he's wondering if they're going to raise the chain and cut them in two but he doesn't think that would serve the Lannisters any good pots of burning pitch start to arc across the water and the waters eat most of them some of the ships do light on fire men on Queen Alysanne and Dragonsbane are scrambling archers from the Lannister faction rain arrows down upon them and the first man dies from Stannis' side.

Davos thinks he won't be the last. Atop the keep, the Baratheon stag on gold and the lion on crimson stream and more pitch comes flying down, along with shrieks of men as the fire spreads. The men below deck on Courageous were safe, protected by missiles, but the men at arms on top were not. Davos thinks, soon it'll be our turn.

Black Betha was in range of the fire, and Starboard, Allard's Lady Maria, the Swordfish, very far behind them now, and Piety, Prayer, and Devotion. They sweep past the two new towers, and he gets a better look at the chain that the towers wear they have one door each tower 20 feet off the ground bowmen on the roof firing down and he can see three links of chain coming out of the hole in the water

his son mathos tells him to don his helm dad put on your hat and And as they hear, men die on devotion. The pinch pots are next, and Allard's crew quickly beats one of them out on Lady Maria. Warhorns continue to ring, horny, and oars spray water as they move. They begin to rise, the scorpions, as the first line of ships reaches forward, reaches both sides of the enemy south of the black water davos sees men dragging rafts toward the water beneath streaming banners significantly stanis's the fiery heart was everywhere though the tiny black stag imprisoned in the flames was too small to make out oh it's it's foreshadowing. It is. We should be flying the crown stag, Davos thought.

The stag was King Robert's sigil. The city would rejoice to see it. This stranger standard serves only to set men against us. Yep, bad PR, as we've said, and it makes them look like they're just attacking the city as foreigners with a foreign religion. And not only that, but again again the language here is literally the foreshadowing for what's about to happen to them the tiny black stag imprisoned in the flames that

is the trap set i thought you meant shireen but also that oh i think that is also the next uh foreshadowing of that but it could be both yeah it it definitely that. Honestly, it could have been argued that he didn't use that banner because it could be confusing with the other men, but they're not using that. Right? They're using the combination Baratheon and Lannister sigil.

So, Stannis, you done fucked up, as always. So, Davos is glad that they fight this battle clean, without Melisandre, and Stannis had shipped her and Edric Storm back to Dragonstone as the bannermen. We went through all this fucking effort to get Edric Storm, right? And we don't see him this book. I just want to point that out. We went through a lot of fucking trouble to get this boy, and we don't see him until next book. through a lot of fucking trouble to get this boy and we don't see him until next book anyway the bannermen had not appreciated melisandre on their battlefield or council because why would we ever listen to women stannis was going to refuse them but bryce karen told him that men would say it

was her victory not his victory and stannis is like hmm can have that. Don't know why that's the problem. Like, why is that what convinced him? It's pretty dumb. I mean, that swayed him. Yeah, that's what sways him. At first he's like, yeah, you know, we should definitely have Melisandre on the battlefield. But then it's like, nope, they're gonna say it's her victory. And, you know, Davos is like, you know what, whatever. He doesn't say much in this argument because he's not Melisandre's biggest fan.

He's like, sad to see her go. Had a pretty awkward time last time we hung out. Me and Mel. And like, I don't know. Yes, awkward, but personally, if I was a man in this army, I'd be like, I'll take all the witch help I can get.

It's, you know, it's that right like between the way emery is fighting all this by prioritizing glory and then stannis's decision here and then also like that's all punctuated by davos thinking of the mistakes that the navy's making it it's kind of dumb right there's that feeling that stannis in general not just imri is prioritizing glory over actually winning and like this is not the time all right you gotta play to win they were not and because like at night in the shadows as we saw in Storm's End Davos is entrusted to be the leader for this mission kind of and do whatever it takes for the things that Stannis secretly really wants and desires like Edric Storm

but when it comes to the really big political battles that are very public Stannis pretends to honor right? He pretends that he has honor and that it's all like the songs. He puts the kinds of like lordly leaders, the glittering leaders

in front rather than people like Davos or Solid or San who are actually experienced when it comes to things like this. He's willing to trust Davos in the dark but not in the light of day where everyone can see. He's out here paying political favors for

all this instead of like doing what it takes and it's also interesting that in this chapter right while davos is glad that melisandre isn't here he doesn't ruminate on he doesn't ever think about the shadow baby much in this chapter he's like push that down which i i also does make sense because he's got to have his head in the game here, but I think that ominous mood does kind of carry through with the beast in the mouth and dark scary vagina mouth. This is very

as you've talked about, the vagina dentata is showing through here. It's a new crowning of glory happening. It is. It's not the same. It's just the mood. The canal is birthing them. The delta is birthing them. It is a rebirth for Davos, which we'll probably end up discussing more next chapter. Yes.

Starboard, devotion drives to the shore, sliding out a plank and the archers are scrambling. They hold their bows to keep them dry above their heads and splash ashore, greeted by rocks that are being thrown down from the castle along with arrows and spears prayer and piety are just landing when defenders arrive to remove the holy trio the warhorses sending up water the knights rush the men and they're actually led by sandor in his white cloak so interestingly enough the first place that sandor goes is the deck of prayer the ship prayer hacking down those in reach. I thought that was very interesting to highlight for Sandor, who then, when he deserts battle after the next couple Tyrian chapters there and he goes to Sansa's room, she sings him a prayer. Yeah, that is interesting.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, you thank you sandra clagane hour uh it becomes blood and chaos everything around them is blackened and desolate and davos is like can't land our ships there then and he can't see the battle join up but he can hear it across the water the furious catapult thumps he hears the scream of splintering wood two more impacts The stag of the sea splits one of Joffrey's galleys in two, but then the dog's nose is on fire, and Alysanne is locked between Lady of Silk and Lady Shane. Allie, get out of there. The crews are fighting rail to rail,

and Kangslander, which is a ship, a very creative name, drives between Faithful and Scepter, and Scepter ends up with destroyed oars and scythes. Kangslander's captain dies, and Davos tries to recall the man's name, but can't. So we never actually do learn that captain's name, but it's obviously heavily, heavily implied here that Davos might have known this man, right, or had met him once before. And that really, I think, shows that this is Davos's home. before and that really i think shows that this is davos's home and along with that that he's likely fighting among or against men that he would have known from his days along the shores of uh king's landing as a smuggler but it also really serves to highlight that there are real stakes

here for many of the people it's not just glory there are lives lost and the captain ends up being not the only one and we're meant to feel that i think especially later in storm of swords with the death of davos's sons and there's even something here in uh that way of thought from sansa from the tourney in the first book with the boy from the veil right when she thinks there would be no song sung for him that was sad uh and that of course is young 11 12 year old sansa thinking silly things about a tourney about a boy that dies from this sport and this is not anything like the tourney obviously in that manner uh but just that idea of like the ladies inside king's landing are singing songs for the soldiers right now right and there won't be any songs or of prayer sung for this man on the king's lander and this

whole battle screams broken man especially considering as we've mentioned sandor's semi told story throughout tyrian and sansa's chapters and even here in Davos. And Davos and his men barely survive. We get that line in The Broken Man, right? The broken man lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne's not wrong. In times like these, the traveler must beware of broken men and fear them,

but he should pity them as well. And a lot of men are drowning out here in the Blackwater today, and a lot of men won't have songs sung for them prayers sung for them it's over yeah a lot of them are like davos and his sons or even the ones who aspire to glory right well you know what no one sings songs about the losers so i know that's not true it's not true you're right you're right sometimes they do but they're not singing songs about those losers. We kind of forget about them after this chapter.

We only care about Davos' sons. I don't mean that like in a, we actually only care about Davos' sons. I mean that the story only really remembers them from here on out. Yeah. The trebuchets rise and rain, hundreds of stones through the sky, smashing, planking, turning living men into bone and pulp and gristle. Real, real attractive. Arrows and rams and hooks are flung out, the first line completely engaged.

Men are dying, but so far, none of his. Thumbs up. It erupts into confusion ahead, separate struggles, and Davos prays to the warrior, biting his tongue by accident, as Betha and Maria crash into another ship, Lady's Shame. And this is the first time in 40 years Davos has actually hit another ship. He commands the men to back paddle, and Lady's Shame falls into pieces before his eyes, spilling men into the river. Some live live some float some sink he sees men in heavy plate uh sink to the bottom of the water because that's how that goes

the pleas of drowning men echoed in his ears a flash of green caught his eye ahead and off the port and a nest of writhing emerald serpents rose burning and hissing from the stern of Queen Alysanne. An instant later, Davos heard the dread cry of wildfire. He grimaced. Burning pitch was one thing, wildfire quite another. Evil stuff and well nigh unquenchable. Smother it under a cloak, and the cloak took fire. Sl slap it a fleck of it with your palm and your hand was aflame piss on wildfire your cock burns off old seamen like to say yep imbry had warned them to expect to taste the wildfire but assured them that they would soon run out as there were no real pyromancers left since aries's reign i can see why you would think that this was a good assumption on their part but you know queen aliceanne's wildfire was consuming her quickly

and men wreathed in green flame were shrieking spitfires on the walls are belching death and trebuchets are throwing boulders rocking the ships and soaking them. This is definitely through the fire and flames, right? Like this is some fucking... This is straight up... This is what we call dragon force. You know what I mean? The dragonstone dragon force. Oh my god.

We've talked a lot about how Davos feels they look attacking here. He obviously thinks they look like shit in this attack, but it's interesting to turn and look at Tyrion's chapter that follows this chapter where we see Team Dragonstone and Reach kind of from

the opposite side. Do you hear them shrieking, Stannis? Do you see them burning? This is your work as much as mine. Somewhere in that seething mass of men south of the Black Waters, Stannis was watching too, Tyrion knew. is your work as much as mine somewhere in that seething mass of men south the black waters stannis was watching too tyrian knew he'd never had his brother robert's thirst for battle he'd command from the rear from the reserve much as lord tywin lannister was wont to do like as not

he was sitting a war horse right now clad in bright armor his crown upon his head. A crown of red gold, Varys says, its points fashioned in the shapes of flames. I think Team Kang's landing really felt the weight and necessity of this battle, particularly Tyrion, of what surviving it meant. Tyrion was willing and had to risk it all for their survival, including the wildfire, the chains, most of the royal navy, all the rest of his tricks, sending Tamin off. Even the last chapter shows us that Cersei has well thought out all of the scenarios of battle, right? Like, we know Cersei knows what's gonna happen one way or another.

The barges of these old shitty ships and the fact that they reserve the fleet tips Davos off, but it's plain to see the southern men don't take this seriously they're too concerned with glory and battle and they're very obviously men from Renly's army for the most part right their strategy is surviving on chivalry and those kind of tactics not guerrilla tactics but it's not just the southern men who take part in that behavior even Lord Valerian underestimates the Lannisters. They think this was supposed to be the easy part. Remember?

The boys' toys. Yeah, it was the easy part two weeks ago. In fact, George makes a joke right after this because the Valerian galley bold laughter explodes like a child's toy. That's literally the quote that's used. explodes like a child's toy that's literally the quote that's used so it goes off and i think that's so funny because you have all these highborn men who were chortling at joffrey's boys toys and here's bold laughter that was rather bold laughter and now it's kapoom there's your boy's toy yeah it's interesting that you thought you said that uh cersei has thought out a lot of the scenarios she's got she's got other plans right she's like if it all goes south i have one last plan it's suicide

i mean like she has right and yeah because they did they couldn't afford to lose this they had it all on the line and they weren't playing to win sanis's people weren't playing to win they thought that they had it in the bag because they had 200 ships and i mean dragon stone of course right was for a long time they were the kingdom's navy so yeah and i mean like it's not just like lord valerian's not necessarily doing it for glory but like you put the people who prioritize that in charge. Everyone else ends up following that. Through the smoke and green flames, Davos glimpses small boats, ferries, wherries, barges, rowboats, all bearing downriver, pure driftwood. Davos thinks, this smells of desperation, right? He's underestimating it.

He's like, that's not going to turn the tide. It's only going to get in the way. like that's not going to turn the tide it's only going to get in the way and i kind of think that after davos too in a clash of kings davos should know better than to underestimate the small boats after all it's how he started out right as a smuggler and the onions turned the tide for stannis and davis's own career trajectory look at him now a seaworth and it's his small boat right that smuggled melisandre into storm's end that turns the tables for sanis there but davos isn't like in that headspace right now he's too distracted by everything the battle his own sons who are part of this battle how the battle isn't going the way

that he thinks it should based on his own experience and he doesn't end up questioning what's really going on here right he's not really seeing it so we have all that but there's also i wanted to highlight another bit of imagery there's a moment when one of the decrepit ships rammed by swordfish splits open and it's described as this rotten fruit and like the green blood and flesh of the fruit is like seeping out of it and it's just such this this really great metaphor of the idea of these poisoned gifts but also somehow conjures the in my opinion it just reminds me of the poor fair that served at the red wedding and those um within that prophecy and i think george just really loves that idea of food suddenly sloughing

away or the joy turning to ashes in one's mouth in general rotten food metaphors for all this so i just liked that off to port lord stefan ragged jenna swift sword are sweeping up river but the starboard wing of ships is heavily engaged theory doesn't have enough range for her catapults to reach scepter lost her oars faithful is rammed and breaking davos rides blackbatha between them, stealing a strike at Queen Cersei's pleasure barge, laden with soldiers instead of its usual sweetmeats. A dozen of the soldiers are put in the river. The archers pick them off, but Matos shouts of danger approaching. Lannister galleys, ready to ram from behind. Davos commands the men to push them off to starboard, and for a moment they're about to be sunk by the white heart, but it's only a glancing blow thanks to the current. A sharp piece of wood flies by his

head, and he flinches, but commands his men to board the ship anyway, leading them himself, and they sweep over the crew quickly with steel. The captain's dead before Davos could even reach him. Someone catches his head from behind with an axe, but he's wearing his helm, thanks to Matos, leaving him dazed and his head ringing. This definitely feels like a couple things. First, it's a Tyrion parallel, right, with Nanden more and Podrick saving him when he gets his nose chopped out. But I think there's also something else much more devastatingly sad here because if earlier matos hadn't reminded davos to put his helmet on davos would have been either concussed passed out hurt dead right here from the axe being slammed into his head so the last memory they really share before he roars to like get the

ship out of there before matos is dead is that Matos was a good boy and reminded Davos to put his helmet on, which saved his life in this moment. Yeah, damn. That's really sad. Yeah, and I mean, we see helmets can go two ways, right? With the Hedge Knight, but damn. Matos, dad, put on your hat. Well, you know, it's weird you bring up the Hedge Knight,

because I was just going to say, Matos and Davos are on Black Bethel, right? Which this is probably not the first Black Bethel who died amidst wildfire. And Davos losing his children in this wildfire is not too different from that either, right? Yes, very much. Yep. Just thinking about egg five wow

well you're welcome after they successfully take the other ship Davos returns to Blackbeth the calm in the middle of the green inferno raging around them but it's only a bit of fire they don't know that that's like hardly anything yet

right everything's kind of on fire the crew of dragonsbane pours It's only a bit of fire. They don't know that that's like hardly anything yet, right? Everything's kind of on fire. The crew of Dragon's Bane pours ashore with archers and men to join at the walls. And many of the ships were fighting other Lannister ships. All of Stannis' fleet was in the river, except for Saldor's Lycini. Soon, though, they control the Blackwater and Imri would have his victory, allegedly. But Davos thinks the cost has been so great. It's been so high.

Don't think it's so fast, Davos, because the cost is just gonna get higher. Racking up those charges. Mathos alerts Davos to the swordfish ahead. Her rose lifting and falling. Her sail is still up, and the burning pitch is in her rigging. They watch the flame spread,

and her iron ram parts the surface before her. Drifting ahead toward her was one of the shitty Lannister hulks that Davos thought looked suspect, floating low in the water. Easy meat. Davos' heart stops beating as he sees green blood leaking between the boards of this low ship, and Davos screams, no, no, no! But no one hears him except for Mathos.

He screams at his men to get out of here as fast as possible. He's clutching his finger bones, disconnecting them from the white heart, and he hears a sharp woof in his ears as if someone had blown in his ear. Half a heartbeat later, the roar continues, the deck vanishes beneath him, and he's choking, drowning, wrestling the river until he breaks the surface, blackened bodies floating beside him, choking men clinging to the wood. Ah, and if we flip the chapter right now to where Tyrion is at this exact moment, Tyrion is basically giving a war speech right about to go down into the fighting take men and lead them to go be ready for Stannis because Stannis's crew is about to be there they're about to be breaking down the doors

not as we see they are uh late couple days late dollar, but Tyrion is currently giving his speech saying, they say I'm half a man, what does that make the lot of you? Many feel pretty sympathetic to Tyrion in the first couple books, me included, but in this part of the story, Davos is not actually in the same position of leadership as Tyrion is. Tyrion's involvement in the Battle of Blackwater feels much closer to an Imri, Florent, or even Stannis level of involvement, right? Because of the conjoining of magic and politics that we're seeing playing with R'hllor. Tyrion is in command, and Davos must follow Imri here in lieu of Stannis. There's no motivational speech for Davos to give. There's no time for him to organize the men to get their best effort against a giant

beast. This is a giant bomb going off. What Tyrion's ignited here is the first taste of what we'll see later down the line for fuller dragons in battle, and it's a little insane. The closing paragraph for the chapter, compared to Tyrion in the next bravely going out to battle moment, is such a different tone. The chapter following the next Tyrion chapter the next bravely going out to battle moment is such a different tone. The chapter following the next Tyrion chapter, of course, ends a little closer to Davos's chapter end with the Mandan, Morin, Pod moment. But this is a, it's a big difference where Davos and his men are compared to Tyrion right now. Yeah, I mean, before they thought that they were winning. Tyrion, Tyrion's convinced they're gonna lose here, right?

And Imri Florent doesn't give a speech. Not even, like, at the beginning when they thought they were gonna win. They're not even like, let's go get those fuckers. Because they're just like, whatever, we got this. It's like, do you? Cause now we've got 50 feet high, a swirling demon of green flame danced upon the river. It had a dozen hands, in each a whip, and whatever they touched burst into fire. He saw Black Bethel burning and Whiteheart and Loyalman to either side.

Piety, Cat, Courageous, Scepter, Red Raven, Herodin, Faithful, Fury, they had all gone up. Kingslander and God's Grace as well. The demon was eating his own. Lord Valerian's shining pride of driftmark was trying to turn, but the demon ran a lazy green finger across her silvery oars and they flared up like so many tapers. For an instant

she seemed to be stroking the river with two banks of long, bright torches. So we're going to talk a lot more about this scene and this specific uh imagery in just a second but quickly just a thought then letting go kind of reminiscent a little of a kraken with the tentacles of fire maybe i don't know but just a thought yeah oh yeah yeah all of these descriptions which of course we're going to read them out because they're just so good.

All of them have kind of represented very mythical, very Cthulhu-esque, fire-flamey squid creatures, and I love it. Horny. Horny. Davos kicks and kicks to avoid flowing patches of wildfire, thinking about his sons, knowing he can't look for them in this chaos. Another hulk heavy with wildfire goes up behind him, and the black water seems to boil. He began to be swept out to bay, where it wouldn't be as bad or fiery, and he thinks maybe he'll get picked up by Salador's galleys, but then the current turns him around, and he sees what awaits him downstream. The chain.

God save us. They've raised the chain. Where the river broadened out into Blackwater Bay, the boom stretched taut a bare two or three feet above the water. Already a dozen galleys had crashed into it, and the current was pushing others against them. Almost all were aflame, and the rest soon would be. Davos could make out the striped hulls of Salador San's ships beyond, but he knew he would never reach them. A wall of red-hot steel, blazing wood, and swirling green flames stretched before him. The mouth of the Blackwater Rush had turned into the mouth of hell. What a metal chapter, though. Yeah, that's why you said Dragonforce.

Yeah, I listened to a lot of Dragonforce while writing this episode. Did you really? I did actually listen to a little bit because I just kept thinking about it. The mouth is the metaphor because the city chews people up, spits them out, eats them. Davos is the son of Erebus and Nix here, right? He is ferrying his men over the river Styx, bringing the souls of the deceased,

which reminds me a bit of His Dark Materials, and some of the scowlers and their coins in their mouths, but we won't go into detail on that. The Styx isn't quite right for the Blackwater though and I think there are some much better parallels in Pyra Phlegathon or Phlegathon uh it's the river of fire that leads to Tartarus the dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and the prison for the titans there's also of course lore that says the goddess Styx was in love with Phlegathon but was consumed by his flames and sent to Hades,

and that eventually, when Hades allowed her river to flow through again, they reunited, which created this stream of fire. Of course, this mythos provides something romantic, right, as mythical romances go, like Azor Ahai and Nysa Nysa or Lyanna and Rhaegar, but as we see in this chapter, it's not very romantic, right? If all this war is built on the romance of these great myths of Nysa Nysa and Azor Ahai or of Aemon and Neres or Lyanna and Rhaegar, the actual men that are fighting them are living in hell. They're the ones in the hell. Dante described the river as a river of blood that boils souls,

just as George kind of describes it above as boiling. The depth each sinner stands in in the river in their afterlife is determined basically by the level of violence they caused in their life. So Dante would see Attila the Hun and Alexander the Great standing up to their eyebrows in the river. In some mythos, it's guarded by centaurs, firing arrows at those who try to rise above their allotted level in the river. In some mythos, it's guarded by centaurs firing arrows at those who try to rise above their allotted level in the river. Dante and Virgil actually end up crossing it with help from their friend Nessus.

And I think there might even be something here in the way Milton describes it in Paradise Lost, that this river is where bold, adventuring demons explore while Satan's flight to Earth begins. It feels very much like what king's landing has become ripe for the taking as we see with this battle absolutely i mean it explicitly says like the mouth of hell but it really you really get that sense like you can see a lot of those paintings right that depict the mouth of hell here for For me, my first touchpoint is its depiction in The Adoration of the Name of Jesus by El Greco. Really weird. And, I mean, King's Landing in general, right?

It's turned into a hellscape, and I think that really gets hammered home with the wildfire being described as a demon, specifically. It is hell. There's also an aspect of that many-armed giant that makes me think of, to talk about other religious figures, the Hindu god Shiva doing his dance of destruction and the

destructive side of the flames versus the life-giving one, those two different ones. And here, fire. How it's consuming, right? We are told that ice preserves, fire consumes, but here, that's that fire, and it's mixed with the mouth. We've been talking about consumption a lot in Stannis' storyline, but here

it's doing that with Stannis' fleet, gobbling it all up. Cooking it first. But up until now, Stannis has been Davos' god, but you know, why has his god led him into hell? That's pretty weird, right? Like, suddenly, if anything, Stannis god led him into hell? That's pretty weird, right?

Like, suddenly, if anything, Stannis seems quite more like a devil. And arguably, people think that he's made quite the deal with the devil. And Davos is going to lose his sons next chapter. We're going to see a moment of rebirth for Davos after coming through the river. Really, the most intense baptism that you can have probably. He questions his actions up until now. And we're going to obviously discuss that. When we're doing that chapter. But I think in this moment.

As they descend into hell. Because they weren't planning to win. Stannis. Stannis now becomes a man. Instead of a god. To Davos. Davos is still going to serve Stannis, but especially Davos

starts becoming an angel on Stannis' shoulder. I mean, the way that God goes, usually he doesn't need an angel to tell him to do what's right. That's the whole fucking point. Stannis is a man. He needs his better angels like Davosos and we talk about turning

points for characters and i think for davos the black water is one of those turning points though i will say i don't know this is a critique that i have of the way that uh davos's story is written especially um later on i don't think that we really really feel the full weight of the loss of his sons i i know that there's four of them they got names but i do think we could have used maybe like one more chapter of their interactions to really i think uh solidify their relationships and personalities we had just some i think in that first chapter but it's kind of removed in terms of like how many pages happen within this book and here we see that he's quite worried about them we see the impact of mathos being like dad It's kind of removed in terms of how many pages happen within this book.

And here we see that he's quite worried about them. We see the impact of Mathos being like, Dad, put on your hat. But that's not at the forefront of Davos' story or mind. In the previous chapter, he kind of thinks of it in like, this is good for my family at large. But I think that, yes, this is a big turning point for him. But I don't think it's going to be the biggest character point for Davos, especially because he continues to keep faith in Stannis. Yeah, a lot of what you're saying feels like the inverse of Ned, right? This is Ned had he stayed with Robert and been loyal to Robert, you know, losing your family, losing, you know, your wife's trust and love eventually probably i mean i don't know about you but if i came home to my wife and was like well lost four of the kids she'd be like

where are they and you'll be like haha dismembered in the black water like i just don't think that could go very well right you know choosing your work over your family doesn't usually turn out great, I've learned. And I just feel like it's the inverse of Ned. Had Ned stayed with Robert, stayed loyal to Robert, followed Robert's every whim. You know, every time Robert said, I want to do this. Like, had he gone with him to go be a rando sellsword in the East, right? When Robert was just like, what if we went and were sellswords again ned uh i think that ned could be in the opposite position ned might be alive but all of

his children dead yeah just like what davos is seeing and i think there's a lot more of this big turning point in dance but again just like you said i have some criticisms of the structure because he still doesn't turn and go home. I think the winds of winter, as we are bound to get into as we go into A Storm of Swords and A Dance of Dragons Davos, I think the winds of winter, we're going to see that final break possibly where Davos is like, dude, what the fuck? Yeah, like what is your fucking deal? Yeah, I think we'll see that where he's like what the fuck did i do tying my ship to this crazy ass um yeah and it's it's sad that it's gonna take that long but it's

also the pacing like he's in storm he's obviously like there and then he's in jail and then he's a lord uh and i think he's riding the high of that lordship is really what happens right like he is like okay well stannis bought me some really expensive flowers that give my family a legacy, what's left of it. And I will just hang on to that. You know, I'll take this hand job and I will just hang on with as few fingers as I have. And I think that high gets him to the point in A Dance with Dragons where he's like, yes, sir. But I think he's going to get to skagos i think there's going to be some stuff that happens that we will speculate on another time

because i don't want to reveal my hands too soon oh and oh oh oh and i think that uh he will learn then like i think the turning point is going to come in the winds of winter but it does feel like oh here's a turning point just kidding oh here's a turning point just kidding i kind of wonder you said something about maria right how can you go home and tell maria yo i lost four of our sons and i wonder if that's part of why he hasn't gone back home like how do you tell someone how do you so yeah i think i mean i think that's what the letter in a dance of dragons is really about you know that's the first time he's attempted to atone for this sin because uh think of him with melisandre like not only when he's saying to her i've known other women it's not just a giving penance of that but also of the

mistreatment that he knows is about to happen to her because i'm not saying he could know his sons could die but like he knows devon is gone you know what i mean like he knows devon is he's like devon's been radicalized um yeah so yeah it's all of that and i i don't think so i think yes davos is kind of riding the high of that lordship but not in a way that he like loves the power of it it's that you know he feels indebted in in many ways to stannis and is riding it because he's like this is what he's supposed to do but at the same time it's like you know we see throughout these first two chapters that a lot of his motivation is fear for his family's station but it's like well how valid is that fear right and obviously davos is our moral compass i'm not saying that he's bad but i'm like how valid is that fear of like

you're doing this for your family's security when four of them just died and that's a big part of his own questioning that happens i think in the next chapter which uh you know he he does he does really regret that and we'll see we'll dig into that more and and this this internal rebirth turning point for davos yes next week we will be back to baptize Davos. So stay tuned for that. Very excited for that. And not only that, but starting soon. Well, we'll see how soon. It might be a week and a half, but we will be back also with covering His Dark Materials season two.

The United States is getting it a little delayed from the United Kingdom. Luckies. So make sure you tune in for that as well if you're following along with the show as it releases. Yes, it's... I don't want to talk about it.

It's going to be so fucking good. I wish I could see it on time. I know. I'm, like, really excited about it, but I'm just, like, so upset about the timing. It's... You know, we're like Imri right we're Imri we're fucking slowed down everyone else out here the UK is I guess moving shit on time going

as fast as they can right and like speed up well thank you so much for listening to our final Davos and a Clash of Kings chapter next week we'll be back starting a storm of swords with Davos and I'm starting to feel a little fishy about the stuff we talked about today so I hope that storm of swords sets us on a straight path we'll see we'll see yes stay tuned for uh when we cover the Blackwater episode 108. Thank you very much. And of course, if you have any thoughts about that, or want to keep up, you can find us on social media at Girls Gone Canon, C-A-N-O-N, on Twitter, or shoot us an email like Pete did at girlsgonecanon at gmail.com. on canon at gmail.com If you have not

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And of course, for our patrons, $5 and up, we do have special episodes each month for the month of october we did lyra's oxford as part of the historic materials universe and this month we you know every month we say it we're like yeah we're gonna finally finish our lease right we're gonna finally finish the dance with dragons thing going on in fire and blood and cover those last chapters about lease and this time we are actually going to do it. All right.

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and again again we talk about food a lot so this month might actually be a little bit about food feasts and uh as it is november we have this holiday here in the u.s you know we might not get we might not get episodes on time in the u.s but we do have thanksgiving so yep full of food full of food Full of food. Full of food. Full of food. Thanks so much for listening. I have been one of your hosts, Chloe. I have been another one of your hosts, Eliana.

Talk to you next week. Everything is suffering me. In the US of A. Dude, I don't even know what next week is gonna look like. What is next week gonna be like? I can't...

This is what the people of King's Landing wondered too as Stannis descended upon them. Will Renly come out of nowhere and save us? Save us, Renly! Save us! Maybe we should have our own Ill and Pain running. Goodbye.

Bye.