Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 109 - ASOS Davos II

Episode Date: November 20, 2020

Davos is almost back to Dragonstone and tells everyone on his good friend Salladhor Saan's ship, "I think I will cause problems on purpose." But — as everyone warns him — causing those kinds of problems is harder than he thinks.  --- 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 109, Davos in a Storm of Swords 2. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. You'd think after like 150 to 170 episodes of a podcast, that would be a muscle reflex like saying the intro saying i'm so and so this is my name this is what we're talking about you'd think that'd be a thing but it turns out folks it's not no uh recently chloe forgot to tell us who she was as we were closing out an episode so everyone was left in the dark maybe no one is left as in the dark as I am, because what if I never know who I am? But I am Chloe, as I said.

But also, who am I recording with? One of your hosts, Eliana. We are here and I am actually, I am enjoying this Davos-ness. Davos-ness. This Davosity. Davness. This Davosity. Davosity. The Davosity. I am really enjoying sinking below the sea with our friend Davos

and coming, emerging from the sea. Coming from the sea. That's a little lewd. A little early for that, but I am and I'm excited to talk about it today. We have lots of things to discourse, lots of spicy takes at each other, a little arguing, maybe some debating, but some making up at the end. And that's what everyone should stay for.

First, we have a rattle roll call of things to talk about. Some housekeeping notes, if you will. Yes. So, you know, this is a big month for us here at Girls Gone Canon this November 2020. We've got a couple of things coming up, specifically also this week on our Patreon. Of course, as many of you know, we do have a Discord now for patrons $10 and up, Thunder tier and above, if you will, depending on if you think of this in terms of monetary, like, increments or horses.

And we have- We prefer horses. horses we do i'm gonna be honest with you we have a discord brunch of course coming up and this month in honor of thanksgiving and bringing people together we are doing a powerpoint potluck and discord members are submitting slides three to four slides on the topic of their choice and they will present to the group and i i enjoy these these are fun i do have sneak peeks on these topics and you know by the time you're listening to this episode if you're not a patron i'm sorry we're teasing something that you can't probably time travel to tomorrow but uh this this is really fun i've seen some good stuff we have hippocras that ruse bolton drinks we have someone our patron maddie is phenomenal bringing us she's bringing us this awesome awesome handful of slides about it and

our friend warren is talking about some celtic mythology and i'm just so excited about it. It's going to be a blast. Every month we do a brunch and happy hour. We call it brunch and happy hour because no matter where you are in this world, in this planet, in this time zone, you can hang out and either have a drink,

have a snack, sit around and bullshit with us. So we do that and it has been a blast. Once a month, come hang out with us we also talk all the time in the different channels on our server about everything food especially lots of food we keep talking about food uh one of our patrons courtney she has an array of roots she

is the root queen she has root calise if you will she has everything everything she's always posting produce just really good produce so come over hang out in addition to our discord we do have our weekly his dark material episode coverage if you haven't been watching it his dark materials great series by philip pullman trilogy and there's also a companion trilogy that rocks. A sandwich trilogy. A sandwich trilogy, if you will, and some outer works. Really fun. Lots of new fantasy if you have not read it.

If you have, hang out with us. Come watch it. We've covered up through the end of The Subtle Knife. It is the Northern Lights, Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass are the three main books. And we are on series two with bbc hbo we're covering that weekly comes out on mondays kind of a a compromise for our united states friends and our united kingdoms friends a treatise if you will of us releasing

the episodes between worlds indeed and as Chloe was saying, we do have, of course, a companion trilogy that goes along with his dark materials. Also by Philip Pullman that covers some other material from this world. One's a prequel. The other is a sequel to the his dark materials series. And we are covering La Belle Sauvage, which is a prequel to the His Dark Materials series each month.

So next week, as it is the last week of the month, you will be getting a La Belle Sauvage episode. But for those of you who want more Song of Ice and Fire, we also still have our Patreon episode. Finally, finally, finally finishing up Fire and Blood with the Lysine Spring. Now you say finishing, but we did leave out some parts of Fire and Blood in our coverage. We only covered the Dance of the

Dragons. That's true. Rather thoroughly, rather completely thoroughly, we have done a lot of covering of the Dance of the Dragons. In fact, those dragons are so exhausted and so are we. We are finishing it up with the lysine spring but we could return we could return there's some jaharis and alicean aka my cats uh and there's some other stuff there's maegor targaryen if you care about him some do and there may even be some agon visenya rady stuff we can bring up and everything in between.

So stay tuned. You never know what you can hear over at the Girls Gone Canon Patreon. We're $5 and up patrons in the Stranger tier. Again, horse monetary value. Stranger tier and above. Get access to special episodes. And next month, of course, will be a Historic Materials episode. We alternate those every month. But

you know, you mentioned a topic that Maddie is going to present upon, but here's something else. You know, we have emails and tweets of note this week, and one of them does come from Maddie. It does. Maddie is excellent, excellent to contribute

to the discourse in our Discord all the time. The Discord discourse. And Maddie sent us actually a really eloquent email, and I'm going to summarize it and speak some of the beautiful quotes from it as best I can. Maddie wrote us and said they enjoyed Davos 1 in A Storm of Swords because they forgot how much they enjoyed it, right? She said his Storm plot can be a little forgettable.

She enjoys Dance Davos. And a lot is happening in A Storm of Swords, which I can agree with. You have Jamie, Kat, and of course, Maddie's favorite POV, Sansa. Maddie assumed Davos died in the Blackwater, just like Theon in Winterfell. That's the assumption, right, if you don't know.

And that George was setting this up purposefully as reflections of the other. She thought Theon would die from petty jealousy and disloyalty, turncloaked, drowning in his myriads of sins, sowing his own demise from greed for power and desire to be a Stark, as we know, while Davos would die from being too loyal and subservient to Stannis, not being jealous enough for Stannis' ridiculous slights to him. Letting a Florent fail son, Florents don't deserve to have specific names, sidebar, she says, I agree, command the navy instead of loyal Sir Davos. Renly's B-tier losers flocked to Stannis' side and keep their lands and titles

whilst Davos saved Stannis' life and was punished for it? If Davos was more measured and less loyal, he and his sons could have snuck back with all his men on the Lycene ships who, as Maddy has said before, are truly Davos'

men and not Stannis'. Agreed. And survived the battle battle but Davos makes it out and he then reckons with survivor's guilt this chapter opens with him trying to survive and this chapter of course being Davos one lapping rainwater bashing crabs and he doesn't think about the mother right he thinks about the gods of the waters and everything goes down to one kind of solid feeling storm life death sea that's all he remembers when it's all stripped away Yes, Maddy goes on to say that I view his finger bones similar to the iron given to Prince Andrei Volkonsky before he leaves for war by his sister Maria, sometimes spelled Maria for what it's worth.

The icon worn around the neck is a good luck charm of Russian Orthodox believers, but the skeptical and worldly Andrei wears the icon, and not for the protection of God and the saints, but for the comfort and protection of his sister and his family. The Fingerbones are the opposite. They are Davos's good luck charm, but they are an icon in a false god. They replace the protection of Maria and his family with the protection of the false god Stannis, whose failures magnify day by day. When the false god's icon has been stripped away from him and he now recognizes that he could get off this island, thus allowing him to abandon the gods of nature, he reverts to the faith of his forefathers. The wisdom of the Septons had told him while handing out crusts of bread to the children of Flea Bottom. Then Maddy goes on to say that it's important that davos is treating the truths he believes as from the seven instead of his own interiority he knows that burning the seven was wrong and he

knows that courtney's fate is wrong and it's because that's what he was taught when he was young and to this day many people feel this way about their own gods when misfortune befalls them oh that's a great point and maddie finishes email, again, eloquently and elegantly by saying, fuck home doesn't tell him destroy the false god or stannis it tells him blame the foreign woman who we learn is just telling stannis what he wants at this point absolutely and you see this with cersei maddie says the real problem with cersei it's that her wealth makes her treat others like worthless pawns less than people but the sparrows go after her because of sexual impropriety and femininity yes maddie finishes the email with some very very kind things too sweet too sweet also hoping that her bets are right on our next pov and also says more people need to talk about maria and how dad

should come home and i agree dad come home i agree uh our last dad did not come home. And I agree. Dad, come home. I agree. Our last dad did not come home. In fact, when he didn't come home, he died. So, yeah. And we see a lot of that choice to go home, to literally go big or go home, I think, in a way, this chapter. And we're going to talk about the choices that Davos makes here and you know it's been interesting reliving it as Maddie said you know Davos feels a little overshined except for like those key plot moments with Edric in Storm of Swords and him convincing Stannis but as to how he actually feels his journey as a character and his motivations and his relationships that's something that

we're i'm excited that we're really getting to dig into here yeah and edrick storm being the introduced in this chapter right like we get edrick shireen patch face again uh that's really nice it's it's kind of bright and airy right before something bad goes down, as we'll get to. But Edric and Shireen's entrance is really important here because it reinforces that for the children mentality for Davos that we're going to explore, that Davos is projecting that pain of his children and instead trying to save some other kids because of it. And, you know, here in the story with Edric, it reminds me of Bran and Rickon and Catelyn's pain, right? Where she is in clash and where she is in the beginning of Storm with the fact that she's lost her kids. That all of her children are dead or married off or gonna die.

Very similar feeling right now. It's a bummer. Right down to the projecting, because Catelyn has some good projecting as well yes and a lot of those same instances right of of communicating with her faith and looking for that as to how did this happen and i will talk on some of the comparisons between davos and catelyn but also i mean you have quite a bit of things like comparisons with Davos and the Lannister. Not Cersei, but the other one throughout this chapter. Which one? Could be any of them. That's true. It could be, as Davos returns to Dragonstone, which is commanded by a Stormlord or a Storm King, he is going to face the lightning.

So here's our Davos lightning round for the episode. Sansa 1. Sansa sups with the new Queen B2B and is fed a morsel of hope. Jon 1. Jon learns the tale of Mance the Bard, shedding his black cloak to join the exiled Free Folk King. Daenerys won. Daenerys' dragons sail overhead as they all make for Pentos. Jorah and Arstan test their boundaries.

Bran won. Bran learns to see through Summer's eyes at will. Jojen warns him to practice in moderation. Which throws us into the dungeons at the end of Davos 2. Davos learns Devon still lives, but that much else has been lost and changed from the battle. He plans to kill Melisandre himself, but is deterred by Shireen and Edric, who meet him on the beach after returning from Salador. By chapter's end, he lands himself into a brand new hell, the Dungeons of Dragonstone. A fresh new hell. Another one! Every book

Davos and the Dungeons. Go. That's kinda true. Can't wait till Tiwau and Skagos. Oh my god, that's true. Before he gets into the dungeons, though, he's sailing past Driftmark, which becomes smaller in the rear view as Davos is

approaching Dragonstone while on his good friend Salador's ship. A wisp of smoke comes from the island and Davos thinks that Dragonmont must be restless, or Melisandre might be burning someone. She'd been on his thoughts all morning in Shiala's dance, navigating

against the winds through the gullet. And he also sees a fire atop Sharppoint Watchtower, which is in Massey's Hook, that looks quite like Melisandre's ruby. And the dawn and the sunset was her same shade of red as well. Davos should be an artist. He's very, very observant, right? And he thinks that she would be waiting on Dragonstone for his arrival with his king, Stannis.

Oh, Davos, honey, sweetie, honey. Like, it's very sad when you think that, because it's like he thinks, he fucking thinks that Stannis is waiting for him, but it turns out everyone thinks he's dead, because it turns out everyone's dead, honey. Except for Melisandre. it turns out she's kind of waiting and that's why i'm like i don't understand why florid was so surprised he's like oh you're alive well you're arrested yeah like how would you know he was gonna do that if you thought he was

dead anyway it seemed disbelieving right like maybe melisandre did see it in her fires maybe she's like ah yes the charred onion will be rolling its way back any day now, sir. Charred onions are delicious. It sounds great, a roasted one. Anyways, Davos thinks she'd always been loyal to Stannis until now, but now she'd broken him like a horse. He thinks she would ride him to power if she could. And for that, she gave my sons to the fire i'll cut the living heart from her breast and see how it burns whoa davos whoa whoa whoa whoa so this is a reread

all right so we have all read melisandre's chapter in a dance with dragons and we know that melisandre does not in fact feel this way about stanis mel Melisandre doesn't see Stannis as a path to power but is truly devout, right? Believes in her religion and that Stannis is a Zorahai We talked a little bit before about how we get shades of

that broken man theme in Davos' story in the previous chapter and we also see that phrase arise just now when he thinks about how Mel has broken Stannis. Stannis is not a broken man yet, but I do think we're going to get there. And it is interesting because we haven't even seen Stannis yet, like since the Blackwater, but I mean, he kind of sounds like he might be a broken man based on the accounts, the rumors that we're hearing, but it's not that he's broken by Melisandre, the way that Davos is

thinking here. And again, there's a lot of that projection of that guilt that I think he internalized last chapter, as we discussed. And he's taking that and putting that on Melisandre now. He's at that stage. I do want to question all of this language, right, on Davos's part, because when you really, really think about it and the dynamics that are at play here who's the one who's actually riding Stannis to power is it Melisandre or is it the man who has gone from a smuggler to rise to a knight

to a lord then to a hand yeah it does feel at this time that Davos will and I'm not going to call it getting lucky it doesn't feel lucky he's been burdened oh yeah God burdened the hand wipes the shit

yeah he is wiping shit and he's going to keep wiping shit and even after Stannis is gone Davos will continue to wipe shit to help better people's lives which is what he does want right but it's interesting to me like I think he's going to get lucky somehow when stannis is gone

and he'll still retain his lordship obviously and be able to do some good in the goddamn realm but uh i think he'll get his his gambler's luck right his gambler's luck will not run out on that one but it is an interesting look like you're the one that's still going buddy with the dead kids anyways Davos has a lysine dirk he was given it by captain Corrine Sathmantes who picked him up Corrine has the lysine pale blue eyes which are set in a weather-worn face. But he's no stranger to Westeros. When he realizes who Davos is, he is very, very gracious. He insists on sharing his clothes and his cabin and his rich food, which are lampreys and, of course, snails. Regional with Davos.

But the food doesn't really agree with Davos, so the line, which I love, is, He spent the day with one end or the other dangling over the rail. And that's another thing similar to that Dany chapter in Dance of Dragons. He shits. The more she drank, the more she

shat, but yeah. You know, speaking of rising in station, we're seeing some of that payoff here, I guess, for davos with corin despite all the things that davos thinks he is but also regarding that pooping i want to come back again to that pooping after having said that maybe i just like don't know how ships look in terms of bathrooms but i feel like dangling over the rail to take a dump is like i don't know the riskiest

way to poop like you've got to have some force behind it is how i feel yeah and it's gonna dribble strong yeah i got strong legs you know and he doesn't right now not right now usually like davos daddy davos does usually. Does he tie himself somewhere? Or like, how does he do it? God. I mean, like chamber pots are one thing, but my lord, a rail? Who's holding your hands? Okay.

Yeah. I digress. I get why he's doing it. I mean, I get it. I get it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

No, no, no. I get it. I totally get it. And he's just like, I got a puke. I got a shit. We've all been there at least once that's true i have felt the sensation for both yes i've been there at this moment i i can only tell you one two times two times total in my life where i can tell you off the top of my head it

happened but holy it's horrible so let's leave davis alone but something interesting i know you're connecting danny with this in that joking way for that Dany chapter like aha they did chat but also not joking in a way and I do think it's for a reason like not that George was like I'm gonna parallel

shit right now but I think that George maybe I think he could have at least thought of it because there are some similar themes. We are near Dragonmont at this point. It's looming closer, and the gargoyles and the dragon towers

are sprouting as we get near, and Davos is leaning his weight against this ship, which is Shiala's dance. He's not in the best health, right? He has kind of a bloody phlegm coming up when he coughs, and he's shaking if he stands too long but he thinks surely the gods did not bring me safe through fire and sea only to kill

me with the flux remind you of anyone's arc in a song of ice and fire it reminds me of denarius a little bit it does it does it is something that i thought about you know like she's been through a lot including fire and sea and so it's interesting to see i mean yeah will she think that or whatever you know and that's kind of how tyrian frames her too right when he's describing she's dealt with the flux now aegon yeah exactly multiple ways, as having to deal with it as a public health issue and Pupin herself. Yeah. All the Pupin. She's been out there. She's been shitting in that grass, you know what I mean?

She has. So Davos listens to the pounding of the drums and the oars and he begins to think back to his younger years, back when Aerys sat the throne. These were the sounds that old Ser Tristamon Seawatch used to make. It was deft smugglers.

But that was a lifetime ago. And now he's an onion knight raised high by Stannis. Yeah, so we're digging again into those like born again vibes, as in referring to like that born again Christianity vibes, I think with some of that language there but something else in the language that i want to call out is the way that dragon stone and dragonmont are described at the beginning of this chapter or the this general area not just dragon stone but at the at the start it says dragon stone is restless this morning davos

thought or else melisandre is burning someone else and you get that immediate tie in a few lines we have the great fire that burned atop the sharp point watchtower at the end of Massey's hook reminded him of the ruby she wore to her throat and when the world turned red at dawn and sunset the drifting clouds turned the same color as the silks and satin of her wrestling gowns and then here in this moment, as they near, we have, the mountain grew taller, crowned all in pale smoke.

The sails sang, the drum beat, the oars pulled smoothly, and before very long, the mouth of the harbor opened before them. So you see George strongly employing the device of personification in describing Dragonstone and

the Corollary Islands close to it. And in doing so it really shows us how Davos now is kind of seeing Melisandre in this area this little kingdom as one and how he's perceiving therefore her influence on Stannis' kingdom.

He likens that watchtower to her ruby and all the rest of her clothing and then as the mountain's growing he's talking about it as you know earlier he was saying that it feels restless and mountains obviously aren't fucking restless except for maybe in that one pixar movie that is pixar short that's pretty adorable but then it's the mountain grows and it's crowned just like Stannis is crowned. A person gets crowned, right? But there's also that in the way that Melisandre now holds a position of power.

And as we'll see, is described as actually Stannis' true queen, especially amongst the whispers at the wall in the Jon chapters. And then, you know, the people begin to disappear, right? As the sails sings, the drums beat in the oars pool. And it's just interesting language because it's not the people who seem to be conducting this ship or anything or driving it.

It's as though the ship itself is alive. And I think that's more of just like beautiful imagery, but the mountains and the way that Dragonstone is described, I think really drives home this conflation that Davos is doing. God, the imagery alone in this chapter is gorgeous. Something that I'm appreciating even more than I ever have before is the imagery of Dragonstone.

So I'm seeing the ways, and we'll talk about it, the ways Daenerys is going to be seen here when she finally does land because she has to come home. She has to go to Dragonstone. And I'm sorry, just the way Aegon's garden is described, for example, as we'll get to, like there's gotta be some good Dany scenes there. But I will say that I did like the way,

the contrast of the way the show portrayed Dragonstone for Stannis' scenes versus Daenerys' scenes. And that moment where she first enters Dragonstone, I think is just a fantastic sequence yeah the thought also that like it's so dusty and that it's never used and that it's been so long since he's been there and that it was never home

for him anyways the idea that halls could be closed off and places could be unused because he probably wouldn't have used it anyways to me is very interesting too but I digress the other interesting thing you said is that here yes he thinks ah she's burning people in the mountains once more yes that's immediately what he thinks and as we're going to get into it's not her that was burning

people in the in the mountains uh but corain Corain, had told Davos about some of the aftermath, not that, but some of the aftermath of the battle. Stamus's bannermen abandoned him by the hundreds. King Renly's shade came back? Question mark, question mark, Garland Tyrell in his armor. To haunt him, and he slayed men in the glow of the wildfire. Davos has a thought. Renly's shade.

Davos wondered if his sons would return as shades as well. He'd seen too many queer things on the sea to say that ghosts did not exist. Yes, you've literally seen a shade on the sea, Davos, first of all, like with your eyes, in the shape of your king anyways I digress uh I find the way he's processing this guilt really interesting uh it turns out dead kids are a really big theme in these books especially this one too yeah yeah uh and vengeance themes for these dead kids or for the dead right are really big like tyrian one that just happened tyrian reminds tywin hey you promised dorn vengeance for princess elia and her babes

and then when we move to the north or to the riverlands with catalan ricard car stark's vengeance kind of ends the stark campaign, right? He wants to kill children and does for vengeance for his own son, which, of course, all of this increases tensions that help lead to the Red Wedding, which is more dead people. And later on, we hear Davos say that he has a belly for vengeance, and he's kind of projecting this grief and pain, as we've implied, over at Melisandre,

who for once actually did not do anything wrong he cannot bear to blame his gods that's the big problem can't bear to blame any of his eight gods uh you know there there's interestingly enough there's another dad that has kind of suffered some trauma from war he's lost a lot in my opinion especially at this point in the books he's lost a child he feels something probably different than what you'd expect though because i'm talking about someone else that dealt with wildfire even jamie lannister yes yes not the lannister you thought but it's the Lannister you're getting and there's a line that really comes to life here for me with Davos and his children because Davos is upset I'm not

saying he's not upset he's absolutely upset as we explored in Davos one in a storm of swords but here he's kind of all bets are back on with stannis and jamie thinks he was curiously calm men were supposed to go mad with grief when their children died he knew they were supposed to tear out their hair by the roots curse the gods swear red vengeance why was it that he felt so little So little. Yeah. That's more where Davos is. He doesn't think that way, but that's more similar to a man that just survived wildfire just barely. Yeah. all of them, cursing himself in the light of the gods, as well as kind of swearing literally quite red vengeance this chapter, as we'll talk

about in a bit. For now, though, the remaining faithful to Stannis were few. We have, of course, the Florence that were in charge. They're still around and Lord Florence is now the king's hand. Hooray! Hooray!

Please clap. and Lord Florent is now the king's hand. Hooray. Hooray. Hooray. Please clap. Near the mouth of Dragonstone, now much emptier than how they had left the harbor, and Davos sees Saldrassan's Valyrian, the ship, and the Lysene companions, and searches in vain for the ship's Lady Maria, or Wraith. And, again, going off of what you were saying about his grief,

especially in contrast to Jaime's, it's a large driver for Davos in this chapter. We have it set up, of course, in the previous one, and we see that that grief is defined again as vengeance later. and we see that that grief is defined again as vengeance later and it's another way right that we are setting the stage for lady stoneheart at the end of this book yeah and honestly i think it's quite remarkable how much of actually davos's early storyline in a storm of swords is in fact setting up that emotional foundation for the epilogue i've never really thought or like noticed that until now and part of me kind of wonders if Davos would still

desire to kill Melisandre so fiercely had he found out that his sons were still alive. I mean, they're not. But if he found that two of them lived, right? I know he finds out one did, but more of them did.

Would he? Three, three kids. Right. The number I'm looking for is in fact three. I was like, I'm not going to add these numbers together. I was like, he finds one, two more.

What number is that? So if he finds out that three had survived, or four, if he finds out that three more of his sons had survived the Blackwater, and that includes Devin, he does find out Devin, of course, is alive, besides the two at home, would he still want to carve Melisandre's heart out? If he knew that Dale- Oh, if he found out more than those? Yeah, no, absolutely. That's what I mean. I don't know if he knew that dale and like allard and and like had survived

or mathos like all of them like if he saw their ships there would he still feel that way but that's the thing is he knows obviously when he's done with salla as we'll get into he knows devon is still alive but he also has ned style disconnected right right? He's like, it's okay. I've lost you. It is what it is, kid. I know I won't get you back. I'm just going to kill Melisandre. Like, what are the repercussions for Devon if you kill Melisandre, Davos?

And he's not like at that now, right? You know, he thinks there's nothing left to lose. He's quite like Lady Stoneheart or even in some ways, Catelyn at the bedside of Bran in this moment, like in the same mental state as he's quite like Lady Stoneheart or even in some ways Catelyn at the bedside of Bran in this moment like in the same mental state as he's he's like still recovering from what dehydration

exposure etc and the way that Catelyn was just up for days so well and that thought so what happens to Devin do you think he dies I think he might have to. Ugh.

I don't know. I don't know if it's that he dies or if he's there to be like, I hate you, dad. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Because he loves Melisandre and Stannis so much. Well, if Melisandre was your babysitter, wouldn't you love her and her big boobies?

Again, I just love that we get like three pages into Melisandre was your babysitter, wouldn't you love her and her big boobies? Again, I just love that we get like three pages into Melisandre's chapter and she's like, and Devon was here the whole time. Devon is learning so much from the king. Let me just tell you, his education is next to none. Okay? My God. So, okay. back to the story back to the books davos is with captain corain who docks they tie up the ship corain is like hey salad or son we'll see you before you go see the king and davos can't defy him he's too weak so he's like all righty and he gets on a pentoshi cog he passes the valyrian to get on bountiful harvest as he gets on he finds

Salador counting cargo with two eunuchs wearing a wine-colored tunic and a bleached pair of white leather boots with inlaid silver scroll works, sniffing spice, auditing counts, holding a wax tablet and lanterns, and complaining about the Pantoshi. He tells Davos, they think they can get one over on this sale with me. When he sees, oh, holy shit, it's Davos! And he's like, is it pepper stinging my eyes? Or tears?

Is this the Knight of the Onions who stands before me? No! How can it be? My dear friend Davos died on the burning river. All agree. Why has he come to haunt me? And again, kind of a parallel of lady stoneheart right returning

from death i'm sure people will be like whoa what the fuck she died we all saw it it's absolutely that but now that you say it it reminds me of kind of the way that zaro zoan doxus regards danny the playful language of how like, when he's telling her like, you should leave forever. He doesn't say it, but he's like, this is bad and you should go. You know this, right?

Like you're gonna fucking die, Daenerys. A lot of this reminds me of that, of that kind of play with language because then he embraces Davos. He's like fiercely embracing him, kissing him on his cheeks and forehead. And he goes, you're still warm, sir. And I feel your heart thumpity thumping.

Can it be true? The sea that swallowed you has spit you up again. And I do think Salador is authentic to be fair. I do not think that Zaro is authentic as we know, but I do think Salador is semi-authentic, at least a little bit. But I just found it kind of like the behavior. Interesting. He's authentic to Davos in a lot of ways. You know, I think he does love Davos. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's his man. That's his man. It's like day one, you know? And in regards to that line about Davos being spit up again by the sea,

I do want to nod to our friend Warren, who in response to last week's episode had likened Davos' chapters at the beginning of A Storm of Swords as not like a phoenix rising from the pyre, but he says a kraken from the sea, and I thought that was a really good summation. I mean, obviously, you know, krakens are associated with the Greyjoys, but I like that. I just like that.

Yeah, what is Dad May Never Die? Oh! That is, I mean, that's a thematic thing going on. A little bit. A little bit here, huh? Especially as Maddie pointed out, both Davos and Theon seemed to die at the same time

in A Clash of Kings. And you know, it works really well when you bring up Patchface, who Davos is thinking about right now. He's thinking about Patchface because Patchface also drowned, returned alive, but mad. And he goes, am I mad as well?

He coughs into his hand, which... Yeah, oh, he's mad. Oh, that boy mad. But He coughs into his hand, which... I mean, he's mad. Yeah, oh, he's mad. Oh, that boy mad. But he coughs into his hand, which, as you and I have previously discussed, suspicious. A little suspicious now, you know? Yep.

In the year 2020, like, a lot of that, and I'm like, you're just gonna cough into your hand, dude, like that, and just hang out with people? It hits different. I know that's not what's happening, but it hits different i know it's i know that's not what's happening but it feels different we're applying a modern lens to a published work from years ago is what we're saying i was watching a television show and like it was a comedy but like the doctor comes out to tell the

family something and pulls his mask down and in that moment i like kind of forgot the context I was like why is he pulling his mask down we're traumatized I feel that today I put a mask on to go yell outside when cars were honking I was like what the fuck it's going on for five minutes people are trying to live Captain Corain has abandoned him right to Salador so he's off of saladore davos and

saladore are hanging out davos gives the spiel about how he survived he's like i swam i did the whole thing captain corain saved me and saladore is like captain corain is gonna get a great reward for this good for saladore and he directs Mazo Mar to take Davos to a cabin, instructing him to take care of Davos, give him some hot wine and some food for his cough, and he sends him off. He warns Davos, don't eat all the olives before I join you,

because I'll be mad, which I am in agreement with. I mean, he gives Davos both olives and cheese, and like, again, Saladro-san good friend. The elder of the two eunuchs that escort Davos they bring him to a furnished cabin at the stern of the ship

with stained glass windows and great leather chairs. This is a fancy ass ship. And he receives his snacks and hot wine. He sips it gratefully while he waits for Salador, who appears soon to apologize for giving him pentoshi wine.

But Davos doesn't mind. He says it's gonna help his chest. Salador then asks him how does he like that huge comfy chair that you're in, and says that actually you know what? It is in fact Illyrio mopatis's chair and then he calls illyrio like a whale with whiskers which is uh that's a description uh and he mentions that illyrio doesn't often stir himself from pentos to sit in these chairs and then davos was like wait how did you get this ship again

and i'm just i thought this was really interesting. And I'm like, so what's up with this? You know, what's Illyria's plan with the Licini? Yeah, there's something interesting happening here. And it could be nothing. The explanation we're about to get from Salador is that Stannis has basically given him a paper shield because Stannis cannot afford to pay him. Right. So Salador basically basically says i'm a

captain pirate now you know like i'm an official i'm a lord pirate now i'm a prince pirate now for stannis uh and gives him this whole spiel but it's interesting because it seems that he's claiming he seized it through these credentials but he's also referring to it in some really casual language that Illyrio doesn't often stir himself from pentos to sit in these chairs. Mm-hmm. It seems a little familiar. So we get this big passage

where Salador gives us a Han Solo smuggler passage, right, and he says, Vile Calamee, who has suffered more from pirates than Sal or son i ask only what is due to me much gold is owed oh yes but i am not without reason so in place of coin i have taken a handsome parchment very crisp it bears the name and seal of lord alistair florent hand of the king i am made lord of blackwater bay and no vessel may be crossing

my lordly waters without my lordly leave no when these outlaws are trying to steal past me in night to avoid my lawful duties and customs they are no better than smugglers so i am well within my rights to seize them he basically then says i'm not taking fingers. Those are worthless. I'm taking goods. So he seized Illyrio's ship. Now, this ship ends up going north. It carries Stannis' fleet to the wall. It encounters storms and ends up being lost in the shivering sea. It could be nothing. It could be Salador seizing a ship. Salador seizing a ship. But Lord Eastermont is very eager to get Edric Storm off to lease. Seems they have a plan for the Narrow Seas.

Pretty set up. And it feels a little injured. Is Salador counting his chickens or making sure not to count his chickens before that? Is he stacking chickens? I don't know i mean there it could be connected it could be connected especially if you consider you know it is going to lease which is where varies us from right and you know as our friend brindan beefish has theorized that i think this is his theory um that varies has spirited away away Tyrek Lannister to provide

proof of things so all of that together is something, and it just comes up again, that Illyrio comes up again in this context especially because this book, Storm of Swords, is our first mention of John Connington

and we start getting a lot more of that setup of the Blackfyre Rebellion, especially because on either end of this book, we have those novellas from Dunk and Egg that do a lot more of that setup of the Blackfyre Rebellion. So we see that George is actually starting to really build that up and flesh out,

garden those seeds are coming to bloom in this book. So all of that is i think feels really intentional it really does i mean even house easter mount right you get them in the tourney at ashford which i feel like is very familiar to all of this yeah i mean i feel like easter mount is is like sleeper gonna be something interesting. You know, their sigil is a turtle and as we know, George's background is in turtle plots.

I don't know if they'll ever be serious, but I do think they'll at least be involved. I think they're involved in the Blackfire plot. I think that has to be it because I don't know, Lord Eastermont took Edrick over there i think that storm lord theory is strong that's all need a storm lord and they were trying to they were trying to court arian martel

at one point as a wife so uh as i mean the martels don't know about the plot, they think they're probably going to get a real Targaryen but it's interesting, especially because the Martells do have that strong tie with them coming back to Salador though, in this passage where he talks about his whole role here, I think that Salador's

lines, they do something interesting where they do a lot of work to set him up as an alternate choice to Stannis for Davos from creating a sort of parallel in that desire of that line of I only ask what is

do me and you know Stannis seems to think that that's what he's asking right and then that Saldor is seizing those who violate laws where we heard those kinds of ideas before. But then he shows that he's quite different from Stannis. He's like, but you know what I'm not into? Ticking people's fingers.

And he's only interested in punishment by disposing of material goods. And I think back to our friend Lo, who joined us to kick off the second season of His Dark Materials, the television show recently. So go check that out in that discussion. But in that episode, Lowe was talking about the French philosopher Michel Foucault, who talks a lot about different power structures in Foucault's Discipline and Punish. He talks about the function of the king's power, right, and how the king exerts power over people's bodies. And here we see a sort of counterpoint, right, to how Stannis exerts that entitlement over punishing people's bodies, whereas Sann's like, I'm not about that. I don't do that. And the alternate choice that Sann offers

throughout all of this chapter kind of reminds me of Robert Baratheon being like, Ned, let's go away. Let's become sellswords. But Salazar's like, let's just fucking go back to smuggling. That was chill. And it's kind of actually more responsible than Robert's proposition because Salazar's also like, look, we'll go back to your old job, right? It wasn't always like legal, right? But you can provide for your family and now you can actually go visit your family. Isn't that great? And like, it also kind of reminds me in that aspect of the alternate life path that Quentin could have taken but then he dies but like Ned Davos doesn't accept the offers of going to Essos

yeah Salador is surveying Davos' declining health he's like oh your finger bones are gone from your neck not your hands which Davos explains different figure bones he's been like this. But Davos explains he lost his bones in the river

and Salador is solemn. He's like, oh, the river. Smokes a cigar, you know, lights it up. And he's like, I haven't heard that in about two days. Davos is like, okay, so what did we lose? Tell it to me straight. Part of him was really hopeful, but Salador is like, ah, no. even the ships who made it out of the madness were struck inoperable due to

the chain that came down on all of them not by fleetwood mac different chain and even davos's last hopes of wraith and lady maria being maybe alive smashed salad or squeezes his arm, says, I'm sorry, Dale and Allard were good men. Devon remains, though, as he never once left the king's side in battle, says Salador. Davos says, the mother's merciful, readying to go to Stannis, and Salador's like, you'll want to maybe sail home to Maria. And your two little sons, you'll need a new ship and davis was like i can get a new ship from stannis and salad was like no no no no you you don't get me you need a new ship and you need to go home buddy yeah you do i agree but salad or then goes on to say of ships his grace has none salad or son has many The king's ships burned up on the river, but not mine.

You shall have one, old friend. You will sail for me, yes? You'll dance into Braavos and Mir and Volantis into the black of night, unseen. Dance out again with silks and spices. We'll be having fat purses, yes? You are kind, Scylla, but my duty is to my king, not your purse. The war will go on.

Stannis is still the rightful heir by all the laws of the seven kingdoms. Yes, he is. All the laws are not helping when all the ships burn up I am thinking and your king well you'll be finding him changed I am fearing since the battle

he sees no one but broods in his stone drum I just really wanted to convey to outposts in his current state yeah no you did a great job and this is definitely like there is a lot of subtext

we're gonna get into but like Davos is not listening at all not one bit I think Maddie also said this go home go home we've said it Maddie said it Salador San said it.

Davos is not listening to us, everyone. And Salador then kicks this one off. And he's like, by the way, Solis is keeping Stannis' court. Lord Alistair is Hand. He named himself Hand. And he's continuing to fix Stannis' seal to letters. The money's run out. The only ships that are left are Salador's,

and Stannis is like, I will not see anyone, only Melisandre. Salador reluctantly is like, also... Salador is like, also bad news, even Shireen and Stannis' wife aren't allowed to come near him. Servants put meals out and no one eats them. Huge fires take place in the mountain where he and the Red Woman watch. All I'm imagining is just like, is it some bloody sex ritual? No one knows.

No one fucking knows. Salador tells him rumors of secret stairs and shafts within the mountain. Melisandre can walk across unburnt. That is kind of interesting in the context of what we know about the mythos surrounding Daenerys, right? The unburnt. I do believe

Melisandre can do it, or she just doesn't care because... Well, actually, no. She says that the ruby burns her throat at times, but anyways. It's interesting. We have this quote where Davos is recalling the time at Storm's End, you know, with the shadow baby, and thinks it is enough and more to give an old man such terrors that sometimes he can scarcely find the strength to eat. Melisandre, Davos shivered.

The Red Woman did this. Sorry. The Red Woman did this. Sorry. The Red Woman did this to him. He said. She sent the fire to consume us. To punish Stannis for setting her aside. To teach him that he could not hope

to win without her sorceries. Yo, who was gonna tell him it was Tyrion? Is anyone gonna tell him it was tyrian is anyone gonna tell him it was it was not i'm so tired it was the other sorcerer not for once it was not her it was a pyromancer we're paid she's not even getting paid she's a freelancer that pussy is freelance that's true that's true absolutely powerful freelance truly powerful she's got a powerful pussy you know and you know i'm just like if melisandre could in fact actually like just send the fire to consume you at the black water like goddamn you know she wouldn't need all of her tricks and trappings of power

that she has to do for all of it. Like, that's pretty literal power. That's, uh, that's, like, dragon-level power, practically. And it's a lot of hoops that are being jumped through here, but as we know, Davos is grieving.

And I will say, maybe it's Liam Cunningham's performance as Davos, as this really lovable, trustworthy older man. And I'm not saying that Davos is untrustworthy, right? But he's not being completely honest with himself, I think, in some of these chapters. And yes, Davos's later acts are technically of treason, but light treason, good treason. But when Davos tells us that he isn't, like, a super, like, all-around, an all-good man, I think we should take him at his word, because I think, you know, what he's doing here, it is human, right? Again, he's grieving, but he refuses to, again, lay any blame at Stannis' feet.

We talked about this last episode but like he's only blaming Melisandre and he's foisting all of the sins and guilt of like everything that's happened throughout this time onto her and I think there's an aspect of that that is a bit misogynistic right like how Cersei

what Madi was saying right about Cersei's punishment and it coming down to misogyny as opposed to like anything that's actually happening or what she's actually guilty of. series of results from stannis's choices from again who he put into leadership choosing to go along and choosing choosing to go along with a plan to murder his brother renly which is part of what lent such gravitas to the whole oh my god renly's ghost is at the blackwater thing and then also for not choosing to ride to king's landing when he should have and then when davos and solidor sawn you know they advised him to do that which had he should have. And then when Davos and Salador saw him, you know, they advised him to do that, which had he done so, would have meant that maybe Tyrion's chain and the wildfire wasn't all ready yet, you know, or Tywin wouldn't get there in time. All of that is

a result of Stannis' choices, not Melisandre. And beyond that, I think there's an element of Davos and the Shadow Baby where he's kind of intentionally forgetting what the mother just told him in the previous chapter which is like well Davos actually you were a little bit culpable right in the death of Penrose which is something that Melisandre points out to him as well he's the one rowing this boat it's not just Melisandre and Davos refuses to acknowledge that that case right that it wasn't just Melisandre who killed courtney and sully davos's armor and i think that's a big part of what's going on here because like it was stanis who gave that command not melisandre and davos is just so keen on his like fixation on protecting stanis's purity and i think the finger bones play a role in all of that, as well as Stavros' cessation. It's a way for him to kind of justify Stannis' actions and taking his finger bone, his fingers.

Rationalize that. No, that's, that is absolutely it. And it's interesting because the finger bones are not the only signifier, as we're about to discuss. There's definitely some other really blatant hypocrisies right uh from things melisandre has said i mean even down to the fact that davos is who we learn through that melisandre is not here on the black water because some guys told stannis then people would say it was her fault like davos literally highlights that inconsistency and right now out of his grief out of his anger and out of his refusal to blame stannis for what happened davos is like it's her

fault and it is and it always is fault yeah it's always her fault and it's glaring as we get through this there's definitely a few more hypocrisies to cover so stay tuned as we keep going. But first, Sala is eating an olive, which is my favorite because it sounds delicious. It's plump. It's described as a juicy, plump olive. I love olives. Have you ever had feta-stuffed olives or blue cheese-stuffed

olives? I might have. I just like olives in general. I love all of them. Olive. Olive. Olive. I think I only used to have bad olives, but when you have good olives, like when it sounds like Salador San here,

it's like, damn. Amazing. Olive season two. I've had real olives, like fresh, fresh, fresh, like not in a can, like the real stuff. And that's a good season. But Salador eats this olive and he tells davos you know you're not the first to think this way about melisandre but you need to definitely shut up about it and be quieter because

it turns out the queen's men have sharp ears and sharper knives he says interesting that's an interesting way to say that by the way yeah sharp knives sharp ears speaking of the the daggers in the dark we accompany earlier you know yes davos tells salad or he has a sharp knife as well and he pulls the dirk that captain corian gifted him a knife to cut out melisandre's heart if she has one. Salador spits out the olive, total waste of the olive, and is like, you can't joke about that kind of stuff, man. You know, it's like

yelling fire in a theater. Davos is like, I'm not joking, man. He doesn't know if she can be killed, but he's like, I can try. He thinks a knife in the heart, though. Even demons can be killed by cold iron the singers say oh interesting in this book where we see that not iron but oh that we do see that yeah that happens

solid or son tries to talk davos into resting but Davos refuses no olives for him and no cheese he's like I'm not gonna stay with you I'm going to the castle to my bed to my son to murder and Melisandre is in the castle warns Soledad Orsan

while Davos shoots his jerk and he's like fucking good no he doesn't say that and he asks Davos oh my god Davos but what do you even actually like know like sit me down you know tell me about your plan I guess Davos

what do you even like know about skulking and stabbing and he's like you know what I think I think you are too ill for this battle and you know what he is Davos needs to quarantine right now Christ he reveals that the queen was burning

traitors while they were out there burning in the black water themselves and calling them servants of the dark and Melisandre's songs accompany the flames and the queen burnt Lord Sunglass and Hubert ramped in suns

and solace says you know she's gonna burn you too tapos if you don't succeed so don't fuck this up he's like i think he's gonna fuck it up and he warns she will sing and you will scream and then you will die so there's definitely something happening here once more with the glaring hypocrisy and it is laid out very blatantly bringing you back to when davos and mel spent some very quality time together in his second chapter in clash of kings davos and mel on the water are discussing shadows, and Davos says that a shadow is a thing of darkness. And Melisandre answers, you are more ignorant than a child, sir knight. There are no shadows in the dark. Shadows are servants of light, the children of fire. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadows. So in what saladore is telling davos he said the queen is

burning traitors and calling them servants of the dark this is basically telling us that this is not for a religious higher power not a sacrifice for the religion but it's actually for feudalistic power right she is burning people because she's calling them servants of the dark, but we literally have a passage where Melisandre explains to Davos that's silly. Shadows are servants of the light. We're of the light. We're of the fire. Melisandre has explained to him how her religion works, and he is yet still choosing to say, ah's the red woman's fault the queen is burning people I think that this is something really interesting George is doing

with this chapter this is probably something and especially with Selyse being revealed here that she's just burning some traitors you know for funsies like this is what Dragonstone has devolved into but maybe George is saving more Selyse burning stuff for

early the winds of winter when Jon is still dead and will open and the queen's been burning some non-believers or some dissenting watchmen because you know she may not have planned the mutiny but she definitely didn't turn around look the other way and say I won't see anything if you all stab Jon Snow um I'm in a couple minds about why he added salise burning people at all in this and why he didn't follow it up in a dance with dragons a little stronger i think he might have thought he was making the stannis bad argument a little too obvious maybe make it a little grayer. I do think he probably pulled back because Stannis, we know his story might be a little foreshadowing for the future, right? And if you frame him as desperately evil, how is your ending going to stick? I get it. I do. And I do think

that having Selyse just burn people left and right for 80 books straight is not a good idea. Gotta use it sparingly and in dark times like right now. Now, that being said, Selyse also is ugly on the inside. George describes her, as we've talked about, as very ugly on the outside, which might be unnecessary, you know, because she's already pretty ugly on the inside

and cares only about status and power. I think Davos's comprehension of all of this is frightened, right? He's comprehension of all of this is uh frightened right he's frightened of what his king is becoming what his king has become of what davos doesn't know he's frightened of the unknown he refuses to trust to have faith to see and in these moments he is clinging to what he knows the seven and the mockery of whatever their faces is now and stannis his other god yeah absolutely i think i think that's an interesting point on um george maybe pulling back on how he's framing stannis

and i think he kind of needs you right especially with what's going to happen in the next few chapters to make it more you know believable that seems to be like you know what it's fine that you committed this treason i guess and you're right maybe we should go north because that's the sort of act that i guess george thinks of as defining stannis as a righteous man and what's interesting here is how davos interprets i think that there is melisandre is doing multiple things in these burnings, right? Yes, there's a part of it that is the performance for that feudalistic power. But I also think that, as we see, Melisandre's devout. I think that she thinks it's effective on some level.

And there's also an aspect of, like, I feel like this is also in terms of comprehension, as you were saying, where Davos should have thought for two seconds, like, you know, it's interesting. If Melisandre is burning people or was burning people during the black water in order to help stanis at the black water maybe she didn't in fact bring the wildfire to spite him but you know i i don't know he yeah he's mad with grief right now and also i mean that's adding a hundred percent you know he's not batting a hundred percent but this is a denial thing he's been doing for like a while yeah this is more than just his current injuries i mean yeah definitely salador thinks that davos is wasting his second chance at life and davos is is like, no, no, man, this is why I was kept alive.

He's like, the mother sent a wind to Shiala's dance to get her to come find me. He goes on saying the mother blessed him with seven sons, but yet he let them burn the mother. Again, his guilt is coming through. He tells Salador on the mother speaking to him that they called the fire in the shadows that Melisandre birthed. Because again, this is a lot of him accepting that guilt. Like I did have something to do with this.

Davos says Melisandre killed Crescent, Lord Renly, brave Courtney Penrose, and that now someone must kill her. And Salador's like, yeah, but it doesn't have to be you buddy you're pretty weak right now if you just stay here eat we could sail to Braavos we could hire a faceless man to do it

hang out Davos let's just get you you know like a day of sleep that's all buddy but Davos does not budge right like maybe like one day it'll be fine Davos won't budge and Salador's kind of angry now yeah he is making this much harder thought davos weirdly and it was perishingly hard to begin with

i have vengeance in my belly sala and leaves no room for food. Let me go now, for our friendship. Wish me luck and let me go. You are no true friend, I am thinking. When you are dead, who will be bringing your ashes and bones

back to your lady wife and telling her that she has lost a husband and four sons. Only sad old Salador San. But so be it, brave Sir Knight. Go rushing to your grave. I'll gather your bones in a sack and give them to the sons you leave behind to wear little bags around their necks.

He waved an angry hand with rings on every finger. Go, go, go, go, go go davos did not want to leave like this sala go or stay better but if you are going go he went and i will say you know again solid or son actually seems like a pretty good friend. He's like, you know, I guess I'll just take his bones then back to his family. That's a big deal. And he gives him olives and cheese. He's offering him a new job. I mean, he offered him a whole new life.

Yeah, or his old life. It's like Maddie said. Yeah, but, you know, newer. I mean, it's like Maddie said earlier yeah but you know newer i mean it's like maddie said earlier these are his men you know this was his chance he could have left he could have had a better life and it's also very obvious davos is out of his fucking brain right now okay he's exhausted he's been surviving off of like bits of crab and shit and he's burnt he's thirsty he's hungry he's tired and salador's attempts at talking him into resting have gone completely unlisted to and he's burnt and he's thirsty he's hungry he's tired and saladers attempts at talking

him into resting have gone completely unlistened to and it's it's very obvious saladers not just warning him like hey you should keep your voice down when talking about controversial things he's warning him the whole game has changed since you've been gone for a week. Stannis is a different person now. Things are different. If you go there to Dragonstone in this manner, it will not turn out okay. But he's trying to say it in a subtle way so that if anyone's eavesdropping and trying to find out valuable information about some of the Kingsmen, Davos would not be caught or Salador would not be caught. But he doesn't even have the energy to think about that at this point, right? Yeah, I think Salador's on speech here is like Ellaria's sand speech.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's a great point. See, Izzy's like, come on, this is the option. This is the most peaceful option. This will avoid that. We can just live in peace. And this did read us some other moments,

not just Ellaria, which is a great call, but a couple of other ones, right? Like Asha and Theon, for example. This reads very strongly Asha and Theon to me when she comes to him to the Wolfwood. And later his thoughts on Theon V and Clash. Come dawn, he dressed and went outside to walk along the outer walls. A brisk autumn wind was swirling through the battlements it reddened his cheeks and stung his eyes he watched the forest

go from gray to green below him as light filtered through the silent trees on his left he could see tower tops their roofs gilded by the rising sun the red leaves of the weirwoods a blaze of flame along the green ned stark's tree he thought and stark's wood stark's castle stark's sword stark's gods this is their place not mine i'm a grayjoy of pike born to paint a kraken on my shield and sail the great salt sea i should have gone with asha i can hear that echoed from Davos now. Stannis' gods, Stannis' castle, Stannis' swords. Should have gone with Salador, right? I imagine we'll hear him think this very same thing

in the Winds of Winter that he should have gone. And I think not only that, but in a way it reads like Theon that Davos already had some of what Theon experiences right Theon loses parts of his body for his god and he

worships his god this might be controversial but there's another character in this story that cuts off fingers for fun I mean I don't know that it's not fun but you know what i mean controversial i think that it's set up that way right i don't think we're the first i forgot someone else has pointed that out too that the ramsey's trying to set himself up as like this

controller this god and a cruel god in theon's world uh which it reminds me a little of. I forgot the name of the character. But the character in George RR Martin's novella. Novella? Short story. Short story Sand Kings. And. The idea of a cruel god. And Ramsay of course you know kind of parallels.

Euron's. The way Euron frames himself. As that sort of god. I think so you, when it comes to all of what you said here. I think Davos will find that he loses faith. I mean, I think a lot of people are going to find themselves losing faith in Stannis.

I'm sure he finds himself losing faith in himself all the time. But we don't get that. Well, that's very kind of you very magnanimous eliana for you to think so highly of stannis in this podcast uh davos trudges a very lonely trudge to dragonstone after this right no no salad or he goes through the deserted dockside streets oh my god he goes past rats dragonstone i'm about to walk past a rat if you don't stop. His legs are like pudding. He's coughing.

It's not great. Yeah, again, hits different. And no one looks out at the noise that he's making. No one actually seems to care. More than half the houses in the street display signs of mourning with barred windows and doors. And thousands sailed up the Blackwater Rush and hundreds came back. Davos reflected, My sons did not die alone. May the Mother have mercy on them all.

The way that Dragonstone is described here, right, with all of this emptiness, it kind of makes me feel like it's turned, as Davos enters, from symbolizing Melisandre to really, I think, portraying Davos' state himself right now. It's a play, you know, playing on how he's almost died and he's barely clinging to life now and is quite changed. I know you were singing Green Day about this lonely road Davos is walking along. However, a more canonical song that comes to mind is, again, as we mentioned last episode, the Mother's Prayer, right? Oh, yeah. That's actually in the series. Literally, in series music.

Well, the gates are shut at the walls of Dragonstone and Davos has to pound on the iron studded wood over and over until a crossbowman finally appears and he does not believe who Davos has to pound on the iron studded wood over and over until a crossbowman finally appears. And he does not believe who Davos is. Davos starts naming people. He's like, Jate Blackberry, Lord Chittering, Hookface Will, Hail the Hog, get them, they know me. And the crossbowman's like, I know these men. All of them are dead, but I know of them.

Yeah, so he doubts himself. He's like, maybe maybe could be him maybe and i don't know that this is actually davos learning to be nobility but it's that same sort of test of someone who's come back from the dead or reappeared they make jane take a similar test when she arrives to winterfell to prove herself as aria stark right but it reminds me a little bit of how other people's names can be used as sort of a way to legitimize someone in the way that Courtney Penrose was looking for Brienne again and Loras to legitimize Stannis' camp and Davos

is doing the same in employing these names. Yeah, it reminds me a bit of Sansa when she met barryson and redley of course earlier on and figured out who they were and it actually reminds me of the bad show uh when aria comes to winterfell finally oh yeah that's right the guards don't know her yeah so interesting that they kind of had that similar idea to use but i don't know if they stole it from the booksies or they just came up with it I would never let them have any merit but I'm sure we'll see that

we may see something like that with Arya or with someone else in Winterfell or any of the other long past places the man at the gates directs Davos to wait and he grieves while he waits thinking of these men that he was just told died that he used to battle with.

He thinks, drowned or burned, with my sons and a thousand others gone to make a king in hell. Wow. That's some shit. That's something. The crossbowman returns. He instructs him, hey, you're going to need to go to the Sallyport. You'll be admitted there. And he's ushered inside by strangers with a florence sigil on their breast escorted to agan's garden

and to his surprise he was expecting to be taken to the king to the stone drums that's our first kind of a poke saying hey something's wrong not right not right Not right. Aegon's Garden is, again, a very interesting setting. I think we're probably going to see some scenes with Daenerys here, as I mentioned. It does feel the closest thing to a godswood on Dragonstone, right? And probably the prettiest part of the place because it is kind of overgrown with big old dragons and gargoyles and sweeping hot magical rock it has tall dark trees in this garden wild roses towering thorny hedges and cranberries it's very distinct it has a pleasant piney scent i i i imagine we'll get a generous scene here. I'm just putting it out there. Yeah, I imagine there'll be a generous scene. And

it's not like a I just think we will kind of thing because I think I have a reason. First of all, this is a perfect setting for Shireen and Edric to first appear, which we'll get to soon. It's beauty, it's purity, innocence amongst smug and metal and heat. It's magic

growing from the ground not from flame but at the same time this is absolutely a garden of eden scenario right especially with temptation for davos the temptation being stannis that he continually chooses and of course he receives punishment for this temptation which is sir fl Florent, as we'll get into. More on the garden, though. I thought that the contents of the garden were just kind of interesting because it's so distinct. There's a heavy pine scent, which we're getting a lot of greenery as we get into the Stormlands. But in ancient Greece, the pine was actually sacred to Dionysus and his worshippers.

It meant life, longevity, immortality. And in the ancient city of Corinth, the Corinthians actually were ordered by the Delphic Oracle to worship the pine, along with Dionysus as a god. The pine was a sacred tree of the Mithraic cult, and it became pretty widespread in ancient Rome. I think it's a symbol of immortality and being present in this garden, this garden of dragons, right? This ancient garden that's been around for a while now. Felt really strong. And, of course, having wild roses there felt really strong,

not just for in-universe as far as the North goes with their love of blue roses, and, of course, the tyrells with their roses which feels kind of significant here for the baratheon reign against the tyrells and they're creeping uh their passion right roses are usually ferocity but more importantly they've been really strong symbols in christianity for the virgin mary or as someone we've been talking about, the mother. Yes, the mother. Yeah, that is exactly what they come to remind me of, especially like when you think about the most famous miracle for Virgin Mary involving roses,

Our Lady of Guadalupe. When believers would say Mary arranged roses in an intricate pattern in the poncho of a man named Juan Diego to form a supernatural imprinted image, which depicts Mary and an angel symbolically illustrating the gospel message, which was basically sending illiterate Aztec people to come in faith to Jesus Christ. Look, I didn't write the religion. Thank God. Okay. But the one that I found really interesting was cranberries. The fact that there were cranberries in this garden.

Cranberries are an autumn fruit, right? They are basically symbolizing the Earth's abundance. They're usually autumn and winter, and they grow when you don't think things would grow, like winter. But I thought it was most interesting because Salador's ship is called the Bountiful Harvest that they were on.

Interesting. The Pento-Chicog. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, what is Illyrio gardening? But I think the idea that Daenerys and Jon will have a scene here is interesting, especially with, like, you know, Shireen. As you said here is interesting especially with like you know Shireen as you said Shireen and Edric Shireen

fairly obvious at the moment like female heir and another bastard potential other heir with another strong tie to royalty so yeah

but Davos you know as you said it's kind of weird here that he's in this garden he's told to wait and he asks the guard if his grace knows that Davos has returned and the guard's like I don't fucking know dude and reiterates you need to wait and Davos

skizzes around at those cranberries that you were mentioning and the foliage and is wondering wait why am I and Davos skizzes around at those cranberries that you're at those cranberries that you're mentioning and the foliage and is wondering wait why am I waiting here and he hears a faint ring of bells and children giggling which are Shireen and Patchface they're playing

and running and chasing one another and Shireen yells at him you come back now she was shouting after him Patches you come back that! She was shouting after him. Patches, you come back! It's my daughter. I'm sorry. I love her so much. It's so sad she's gonna die. It actually really is. And I think this is like one of our first

scenes seeing her. It's definitely our first in Davos' POV directly. Patchface halts because he sees Davos. Must be a drowned man thing and uh we get this passage when the fool saw davos he jerked to a sudden halt the bells on his antlered tin helmet going tingling tingling hopping from one foot to the other he's saying fool's blood king's blood blood on the maiden's thigh but chains for the guests and chains for the

bridegroom i i i i i why is he saying this to the children oh my god i don't know but i committed you did you did i love the addition of the eyes but three more it felt balanced i'm pretty sure everyone knows what this is about i think well the red wedding it's been discussed quite a bit I've never heard of it I don't know it foreshadowing I get it exactly and it being about the Red Wedding you know it's just something else tying Davos

and Stoneheart's storylines you know I appreciate that because there is nothing I like more than getting Stonedheart oh wow that's what happened you you know, with that deer that Joffrey was looking for left. I just hope that I get to be

Lady Stoned Heart often in the future. I hope so, too. I hope that happens for you. I hope that Shireen, you know, catches Patchface, but she only almost catches up because he hops and vanishes into the trees and she runs after him. Feels very

Alice in Wonderland. Anyways, Davos can't help but smile at them, turning to cough into his glove. Davos, please quarantine. Go home. When another child comes bowling out of the shrubbery, it's Edric Storm. Yeah, Edric Storm is here. His eyes

are bright blue. He has dark jet black hair that falls to his collar. And he's like, you shouldn't get in my way when I run. And Davos is like, I agree. I should not get in your way when you run. Davos is, of course, seized by a rough course of coughing. He's brought to his knees. And then Edric, because he is a good boy leans down takes him by the arm

helps him right back up after and i just want to say kids are asymptomatic we have learned that during the pandemic in 2020 so as far as we know but some of them are having long-term uh later down the road issues oh good things are great things are fine edrick is literally crashing into our story right now and i love his entrance it feels like this reminder to us hey davos something is important here and guess what it is kids davos once he is able to get past that bargaining stage with the survivor's guilt he's gonna be able to focus on the children again. Can't wait. Can't wait. Yeah. And as we know from Ned's storyline, saving the kids is pretty important.

It's a big part of George R.R. Martin's moral compass that he sets up in this book. And, you know, as you said, Edric Storm, he's a pretty nice boy. You know, he's worried that Davos is unwell. He's like, should I go summon the maester? And Davos declines. And should I go summon the maester? And Davos declines. Davos, go see the maester. Get medical help.

You have insurance. You literally have insurance for the first time in your life, Davos. Oh my god. And Edric tells him he interrupted a game of monsters and maidens and Edric was the monster and he kind of finds the game

childish apparently but he's like sure he likes the game he's like asking Davos' name and Davos tells him he's Sir Davos Seaworth I have to laugh at this because today my partner you don't know him but today my partner was like he was like I love how edrick just storms

haha end of the story and is like you look sick i'm rich i'll call a doctor it's very funny it's very funny to me but he's just like it's not in a bad way edrick doesn't know he just is this silly royal bastard uh and something very interesting here we're about to learn about is edrick's knowledge of his father right we've already met one bastard in the story of roberts on a more personal level maya stone who was like i kind of remember my dad he was there for me once i was like six months but he threw me in the air once it was was awesome. And Gendry's like, I don't know anything. Gendry's like, my dad sent me a weapon.

He's like, I got a job. We can see, you know, where the importance is in Westeros is all. Adric says, well, you don't look quite knightly to Davos. And Davos is like,

I'm the onion knight. Adric's like, yo, you don't look quite knightly to Davos. And Davos is like, I'm the onion knight. Edric's like, yo, I've heard all about you. You fed Uncle Stannis when he was under siege from Lord Tyrell. And basically, Edric gets all tall. He's like squinting. He's like, I'm Edric Storm, Robert's son. And Davos is like, no fucking shit. And Edric is like, did you know robert my father davos is very polite he's like i knew little enough of him but he called on stanis once in a while edrick is very proud of his dad he's like robert taught me to fight and we'd train

once a year he even sent me a war hammer, just like his, but smaller. He gets right to the chase, right? He's like, is it true my uncle cut your fingers off? And Davos is like, just a little bit of them. Not a lot, just a little. Edric's like, that's ill done, onion knight. You smuggled and fed my uncle and he chopped your fingers off. True.

I agree, Edric. You're doing great. He's like, my dad wouldn't have chopped your fingers off. Yeah, it's a pretty cute exchange in many ways. Davos is pretty uncomfortable, but it's, I think, in my opinion, it's a heartwarming exchange. But Davos is kind of caught up in thinking that edrick reminds him of both robert and renly and i guess that makes sense uh edrick would have grown up quite a bit around renly at storm's end the and these are as we all know the brathian brothers that davos doesn't think as highly of and that kind of concerns him about Edric, because he's still like, you know, all rah-rah status. And I think, interestingly, this is, again, the first time that we've actually seen Edric Storm, considering that this is the boy that Davos has risked his honor, his morality, right, in order to secure this boy for his king to be a hostage and sacrifice as we'll find out later on and who

later on it's going to call davos's honor and morals into question in a different way as davos has to think of like how do i save this boy's life and i'm like sure you know sure there are aspects of him that are a bit like both robert and renly in that edric idolizes his father he worships him but I mean who amongst Robert's children who knows that Robert is their father adopt allegedly child you know in terms of the Lannister children

like or not like who among them didn't idolize him he's got this huge mythos around him and you know the way that Edric wields his lordliness true board or not he does at that beginning you know kind of come off a little smug and entitled he he questions davos's knighthood from his appearances at first and then when he finds out about him being the onion knight he orders the davos to show me when he wants to see his fingers yeah also when you think about it aren't most of

robert's kids allegedly his kids like almost all of them are allegedly his kids that's true this one's confirmed because everyone caught them but there's like uno confirmed yeah that just the one but also also i did find this interesting because edrick of course is just boasting about his dad and remember when davos just last book was like lol bad move everyone like do not talk about his brothers like even davos is like guys messed up don't talk about his brothers having edrick at court is fun i bet it's probably a fun time i bet edrick's just leaning over stannis's shoulder all the time like uncle stannis don't you think my father would have done it this way yeah or he'd be like well uncle stannis my dad

and he must hate that no wonder he wants to kill him but yeah and then I mean interesting in this moment where Edric's talking about his dad Davos is not thinking of his sons they don't remind him of his own kids but you know coming back to Edric himself in this introduction

despite all of that despite his likeness to Robert and Renly, which I don't think are the greatest sins that one could have in terms of likenesses to them. There are worse things about both Robert and Renly to be like.

These are not them. I think there's a very real innocence and goodness to Edric. He sees Davos ill, and when he crashes into him, as you said, helps him up. And his first thought is like, I should get this man help. He doesn't shy away

from this dirty old man. He helps him up and despite all that, tries to get his tries to find him aid. And then when Davos tells him that he's the Onion Knight, Edric is just like in absolute awe of davos he's like suddenly this man has transformed into a knight in front of his

very eyes it's very much like the songs in that sort of way right like oh oh this man who doesn't look like anything is is this legend like this is like meeting Barristan the Bold to him. Especially in the context of what Robert's rebellion would have obviously meant for Edric Storm in this regime. The thing is, I think that makes

Davos uncomfortable is that Edric questions the sort of justice then that's delivered by the lords and authority rather than blindly following and i think that this is to edrick's merit he decides that compassion is better and maybe he's just following his father's like footsteps though but he decides that compassion is better rather than being like davos your fingers definitely should have been cut off he's like that was ill done and davos can't see past this sort of rationale at first because he sees, again, he's blinded by all these references to Robert and Renly, gets defensive about Stannis' punishment when it gets called into question.

And I think Stannis just isn't ready to let go of Stannis the god yet and see Stannis the human. He's held on to those finger bones for a really long time, partially because I think he needed to buy into his own personal myth that what Stannis did was just, and that he, Davos the smuggler, was in fact a sinner, and has been righted from that, and that the atrocities that Stannis called on him to do in that last book, that those were sort of these heavenly mandates, heavenly orders. But now that he's lost

these bones i think we're gonna see davos then have to not only let go of the bones but with it the myth of stannis's divine justice something interesting in this introduction of edrick as he mentioned with the physicality of him reaching down to pick davos up is that that's also what robert did right especially throughout the rebellion he picked his enemies up off the ground from their knees when they fell to the knees yeah there's a lot of things that i thought that was really interesting visualization like you just reading it i said oh yeah he did what his father did he picked up davos from his knees and said come on up onion knight I respect you.

Yeah, and I think there's a lot of things that I hate about Robert. There's a lot of things I really, really dislike about him, but he was a great dude to other men. This is one of those things, and like you said, picks them back up. I think that's a big part

of A Song of Ice and Fire. We can be the better parts that we learn from our parents. We don't have to, just because we emulate that doesn't mean we have to emulate their shortcomings. Yeah, I mean, that is the brightest part of Robert, right? That is pretty much it, that Robert was a great king slash lord to his men and said, Ah, we'll do a great job. We'll make it happen, gentlemen. We'll make it. He's the good boss, you know? Everyone has one good boss

in their lifetime, right? And that's the good boss. He was like, yeah, alright. He wasn't so bad to work for. Like, yeah, he wasn't great, but like things didn't suffer as much as they could have under him. And for that, we're grateful. Unlike Stannis. Stannis hated him as a boss

and that man did not appreciate what he had. That's for sure. Davos lets Edric win this whole conversation. Right? He's like Alright kid, you win. Edric's about to get all chatty and say something else but they are then

interrupted by Axel Florent himself with a dozen guards dressed in the lord of light uniforms the queen's uncle he had served as castling of dragonstone for a decade and had always treated davos courteously knowing he enjoyed the favor of lord stannis but there was neither courtesy nor warmth in his tone as he said, Sir Davos, an undrowned, how can that be? Onions float, sir. Have you come to take me to the king? I have come to take you to the dungeon.

Sir Axel waved his men forward. Seize him and take his dirk. He means to use it on our lady. Wait, whose lady is that? I thought you were queen's men. Oh, interesting. Well, we all know, as they say in the Jon chapters, just which queen that is. Oh, Davos.

His fingers, his son, his relationship, his body, his soul. He fought, he swam. He avoided the fire, avoided the chain. And yet some dude with some ear hair is locking him up. Once more, he is imprisoned. Maybe it was Melisandre's fires. What a bummer. Ear hair is such a visual, but... It's all I can think about is his ear hair is all...

I know. Sprouting. I don't know. Would your ears be itchy? Would they be better? Anyways. But, like, yeah, Davos is imprisoned for an act that he hasn't done yet.

Very minority report subplot. Versus, you know, the way that he was kind of rewarded in the past book for the very real crimes that he committed or played a part in such as smuggling um or you know playing a part in penrose's murder so so it's quite interesting being arrested for something you haven't done yet. But on the other hand, he has full fingers, first of all. Second of all, on the other hand, it's a joke, I'm so funny. Promote me.

Promoted, promoted. Get it? On the other hand, he has different fingers. You can negotiate, Chloe. Good boss, I'm the good boss. Lift you up. 3% above what you're offering me yeah I I feel that about

last chapter he was praised and this chapter he's a few chapters ago he was praised sorry and now he's being punished for his acts but I also am like hmm guess you should have kept your voice down Davos as salad or fucking told you because someone there sold him out yeah oh someone sold him out for talking too

loud waving a fucking eight inch knife around and yeah i mean he wasn't subtle it wasn't a subtle knife yeah it was not a subtle knife not ace a hater uh it's interesting that we have jamie in the next chapter right who ends a chapter having a dream and i want to read you this passage from the jamie chapter i was going to present it real anonymously and be like i'm going to read you this passage tell me what chapter it's from. Because you can't. In his dreams, the dead came burning, gowned in swirling green flames. Jaime danced around them with a golden sword, but for every one he struck down, two more arose to take his place.

So the next chapter ends with Jaime and the Aerys dreams. He's dreaming of Aerys, and Davos and the Wildfire, interestingly, is like this world where Ares succeeded, right? The last chapter, we get this recantation of Davos drowning in the fire and suffering and trying to just get... It's horrible.

Drowning is awful. I can never read about it. It's horrible. Hope I never drown. That's the one death I just really don't want to have. The rest of them... I hear once your lungs fill up with water... Everything's peaceful when you die. I hear, yeah. Once once your lungs fill up with water your brain goes into a mode

that is like very zen i just hope it's like the simplest one i hope it's just like in my sleep loved ones are like so sad by loved ones i mean like you guys are my zombie cats and that's it but even in the next davos chapter that we get through we get stannis who's kind of now described after aries right he's shrunken he's paranoid and he has someone whispering in his ear melisandre the fact that davos pulls up to the castle after saying fuck melisandre an hour ago shows that she just like varus has her own little birds huh but aries never had a davos interestingly enough so maybe that's what stannis is doing right what's aries with the davos i guess we're finding out i think that's such a great question especially when it comes to the to king's power and what people are willing to do in order

to check them right uh did people davos i think does for some reason really love stannis and actually i guess aries does have braar too, but I think that's a complex relationship. Anyways, Davos does love Stannis enough to try to stand up to him, right? But I don't think anyone loved Ares enough to check him. They only feared him, coming back to that dichotomy of rulership. I would say that Ares did have a Davos at one point. For just a brief fleeting second it was Tywin right Tywin was willing to tell him hey you're being an idiot

hey you can't do that shit dude hey you gotta knock that off until Ares crossed him and Tywin said fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you I'm going back to Casterly Rock with all of my gold so what happens when Stannis fucks Davos over more?

Because apparently this isn't enough. I mean, like, that is a thing, right? Yeah, obviously they had a falling out, and it was very personal and very ugly in ways that anyone would be like, no, fuck this. But that's the thing, right? Tywin, I think there's a question for him as there was for a lot of the people who might profess to love aries as besides the fear did they love aries or do they love aries's power and we see that stannis is surrounded by people who love his power

but not yeah protecting that soul unlike davos Davos, Davos, Davos you had your men they were ready to take you you could have gone and swung by home and grabbed your lady and grabbed your kids I know, it's just like Sansa at the Blackwater, right? she wasn't ready, he's not ready

he's gotta hurt a little more I thought he does and he's got quite a few things you know maybe he ends up being in the right place right time for people like edrick yeah hopefully he'll get the chance to save some other kids in a song of ice and fire and if you want to keep up and find out about that you will keep tuning in to girls gone, which you can find on social media at girlsgonecanon, C-A-N-O-N on Twitter, or you could send us an email and let us know what you think about Davos 2

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We will be back for Davos 3 and Davos 4 after that. And there may even be a special, like very special guest in your future. So sit tight, hang in there. I have been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I have been... My voice cracked. And I have been another one of your... And I have been another one of your and I have been another one of your hosts

Eliana oh you're right it is hard yeah I was like shit we do this every week at the beginning and end of the episodes holy shit not so easy Eliana is it? no it's not

it is not that's what I thought we'll see you next week goodbye