Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 120 - AGOT Catelyn III

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

In the midst of her grief-induced stupor, Cat meets a catspaw who injures her catspaw. After resting and returning to life, she realizes that someone must tell them at King's Landing and she knows just the woman for the job.  --- 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 Reads A Song Of Ice And Fire. Episode 120, Catelyn in a Game of Thrones, the third chapter. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. Yes, episode 120. 120, do not blaze it, Renate. There ya. You know, it feels comfortable. I like being in Catalan chapters. I do feel comfortable, maybe sad, but comfortable. It's interesting, again, it's like kind of a different territory, trying to do something with a character who's doing a lot of the work of building the whole story and the whole world at the same time, alongside their own character being built. Because, you know, we've had the luxury of Westeros being built out for a lot of the characters we did recently right for Davos for for Ario and for Ares Asha all of those are kind of much later in the books Davos

you know second book but still yeah there's a lot of framework in this chapter that just screams early George R.R. Martin. A Game of Thrones in general. So we'll talk about that soon. Yeah, there is a bit of him finding his footing. But in terms of establishing characters and also characters' voices, I want to go to our emails and tweets of note.

This one's technically not an email or a tweet. This one comes from our iTunes reviews and has been there for a while, but I wanted to bring it to light this week. Shout out to Sweet Melisia on iTunes who said that Chloe doing Jon Snow's voice is podcast gold, like in all caps, because yes, like I know that there were people who didn't love it and that's fine. You know, everyone's entitled to their own opinions. There are things that like, you know, some things that I like that other people don't like and vice versa right but the reason that i feel it was

podcast gold is because i i feel like chloe really did it for me from a place of love because i'm not even sure that she fucking liked doing those voices like i would stop her and literally again make her do quotes over entirely in the chunk voice so thank you sweet Melisia for recognizing that recognizing our dear Chloe thank you truly because I don't know I've never actually thought

about did I like doing it that's a great can androids feel where is Chloe's agency That's a great question. It's like, can androids feel? Where is Chloe's agency? God. So thank you, yes, for that recognition, Eliana. That does wonders for our relationship. Yes.

That you appreciated that. That means a lot to me. I grew into it, I'll be honest. If we're being honest with each other on this podcast, I grew into it. I'll be honest you know, if we're being honest with each other on this podcast, I grew into it I didn't love it at first, there was many of the time that you probably didn't even hear because I'm sure Eliana had to remove

a few of them where I would attempt not to do it, sometimes out of rebellion sometimes just out of pure forgetfulness, ignorance and she would yes, go tut tut you must do that the john snow voice glory or suffer send her back to her room and do it all over again oh thanks sweet melisia i really appreciate it we got a message from our friend micah over on

patreon micah is the guru on the minor characters, but he wanted to shout out a fact in this chapter I thought it was pretty relevant to bring up regarding the cat's paw, specifically being called a cat's paw when it's Joffrey, a lion, who sends him to kill Bran. Not a big catch, but just something recently figured out. I love that, especially in light of, you know, also Cat's Paw. Yes, it is Cat's Paw that gets injured. You know I like the wordplay from George on those, right? Like the Catalanes

and the Kettlewents or Kettleblacks or whatever you want to call them. Whatever we're calling them. Yeah, and George really does love his puns. y'all think i love puns uh read the book series read the books utter shet is one of the names of a character um what else yeah the cat's paw stuff there's layers you know like onions i want i didn't know i wanted

this until this moment i want george to put a shrek reference into song of ice and fire that's something i'm never getting um i don't know why that came as a as a desire just now i'm gonna be really honest with you i don't know if you've seen shrek the musical but shrek is pretty much sandor clegane isn't shrek already a musical maybe it's not no no i'm just thinking that smash mouthrek already a musical? Maybe it's not. No, I'm just thinking that Smash Mouth makes it a musical. No, they have, and Holding Out for a Hero.

That's right, and at the end. They have musical numbers, but it is not largely a musical, but Shrek does have a musical, an actual musical. I don't know if it's still on Netflix. I spent a good amount of time watching it on Netflix personally there are there's a song that is

I didn't know oh yes and there is a song that is absolutely very much like a has all these lyrics that could be could be Sandor Clegane straight up

I don't remember what it's called, but I do recommend it. Check it out. Sandor is Shrek as hell. Shrek is kind of Sandor. Are you into Shrek? Oh, I love Shrek. I respect good cinema. Do you see his green skin all mottled and scarred?

Yeah, that's the deadliest thing I've ever heard one. Oh my god well with that thanks again Micah for the email that somehow led us into talking about Shrek yeah I'm sorry about that I'm not sorry

we have a lightning round today our lightning rounds of course give us a little bit of filler info of what we missed as we go from POV chapter to POV chapter and today it's kind of chunky right we're in a game of thrones we have a good stretch of chapters we're getting warmed up for clash and for storm someday but first we have aria one feeling a bit sidelined aria doesn't know if she'll ever understand needlework she joins her half-brother john who makes her feel a bit better as they

watch the boys at play in the yard brand two brandon stark sat on a wall brandon stark had a great wall all the king's horses and all the king's men left winterfell they did oh shit they did oh aliana improv queen tyrian one tyrian tries to convince his royal nephew to offer his Oh shit, they did! Ah, Aliana Improv Queen. Tyrion won. Tyrion tries to convince his royal nephew to offer his grace to the Starks in their hour of need. He declines. He breaks his fast with his brother and sister, who don't seem too happy to hear Brandon Stark will live. Jon too. Jon must say several goodbyes.

First, a painful goodbye to Bran Bran with Catelyn present. Ugh. Then he has to part from Robb and Arya as well, but not without a few last surprises. Daenerys too. Daenerys marries Khal Drogo, exchanging her body to uphold her brother's kingly alliance. Eddard too. Eddard and Robert stroll down memory lane. Ow.

Tyrion too. Tyrion and Jon travel to the Wall, arguing about their lifestyles along the way. And that brings us to Game of Thrones, Catelyn III. Catelyn's grief in the wake of Bran's accident consumes her until she is reawakened by an assassin, Bent, on murdering her son. The framework of this chapter is so tight. Yeah.

These were the good old days, right? Like, this is the golden era before George let his garden get a little crazy, a little massive, with beautiful weeds weeds of knowledge i've been playing a lot of uh the sims too i can tell i can tell sometimes and my sims have been doing a lot of gardening and let me tell you it's not a bad thing i love how much gardening they're doing but it's gotten to a point where it takes them all day right to do their garden and by the time they're done tending their garden it grows all over again and that's where george sometimes finds himself it's not a bad thing

sometimes we get the most beautiful flowers out of it but we appreciate the simplicity here right the minimalism uh it's a very sad chapter but also a very fast chapter catalan starts in immense grief over bran refusing to move the assassin shows up which forces her hands literally and by the end of chapter she's back in action boom boom boom it's tight it's detailed it sets the plot in motion and it's fast moving honestly a lot of cats chapters are like that and And I think that's part of what makes them really strong, especially here in the first book. And we get a bit of setting of the time,

right? It's been over a week since that and the girls left, and that helps us sort of figure out where we are in the story. Maester Luwin finally dares to enter Bran's sick room with a reading lamp and some accounting books. He tells Katlin, like, we need to review the figures after the royal's visited.

But Catelyn only has eyes for Bran, who's comatose in the bed with his hair growing long. And she thinks she's gonna have to cut it soon, and tells Maester Luwin that no, she doesn't wish to see the figures. Yeah, there's this line she already knows what the

visit cost them, and it's it's everything right it feels like she's lost everything right now it has i mean bran and and the rest of her family all gone and just to give another sense of time of how intense catlin's warning has been but also how long bran's been in a coma and to to give you a sense of like, why is Catlin at this state and completely spiraling? Like, it says she's here that it's been over a week since Ned and the girls left. So we don't have a set number of days. That shows that she's using count of days. But also it's been much more than over a week, right?

By the time that Jon visits Bran before he heads to the Wall, that's already been about a fortnight, he says, that Bran's been in that coma. So that's like two weeks, and who knows how long ago that was, and we do see Cat for a pretty significant portion of that chapter. But Jon obviously left before Ned and the girls did. So Catelyn's been in this state for a long-ass time. As for the cost, again, we have Catelyn's chapters doing a lot of the foundational work in the series, and that theme of the unexpected hidden cost to what we want rears its head here, right?

Coming back again in the very same book with Daenerys' chapters, I would say that's one of the strongest ways that it shows up in this book uh with the death of her unborn child as she tries to bring back drogo and miriam was saying something to her kind of like you knew the cost and she wonders did i and she thinks maybe deep down i did yeah that's something really poignant and i think it's interesting how catalan evolves i don't. I don't know if he decided. I think George has always wanted a Stoneheart type character for Catelyn in the end. We'll talk more about that and how it relates to the 93 letter throughout her arc, I'm sure. But I find it interesting all the magic that is associated with these kind of exchanges for the women in the series.

As you said, he kind of always wanted something but it's interesting as you said that a lot of the magic does come in through women characters but not not only right a lot of the stars in general but not quite yet for sanza interestingly all the magic died for sanza a... So Maester Lewin tries to talk a little more sense into Cat, and she's like, no, I'm gonna need you to leave, and the steward can attend to my needs, and he's like, we don't have a steward right now,

my lady. Vayne Poole went south to King's Landing. No! And she just wants him to go. She really doesn't care right now about the steward, about the money. She thinks, like a little gray rat, he would him to go. She really doesn't care right now about the steward, about the money. She thinks like a little gray rat, he would not let go. In the last chapter,

we learned deeply that Catelyn is compassionate about Maester Luwin and his role in her life. And she trusts him and his council, right? She proved that in her trust in him when she strode naked from the room and the whole letter thing and letting him know all the secrets. So Lewin knows everything. He's walking around with all the knowledge in his little secret sleeves and secret brain. Right now, he wants her to do work, but she can barely hold herself together.

She's resorting to these generalizations out of grief and anger made by people all about the maesters, which is akin to Barbary's speech in A Dance with Dragons, which it seems George has kind of evolved from this. Barbary says, injured, or distraught over the illness of a parent or a child. Whenever we are weakest and most duly grateful. When they fail, they console us in our grief, and we are grateful for that as well. Out of gratitude, we give them a place beneath our roof and make them privy to all our shames and secrets, a part of every council, and before long, the ruler has become the ruled. She goes on talking about maester wallace rickard stark's old maester before lewin who was the bastard of a high tower and an arch maester and to speak about how baseborn children are quick to shed their bastard names she goes as far to speculate he and his maester

father plotted to fill lord rickard's ears with poisoned words as sweet as honey, and the Tully marriage was his idea. First of all, Luwin is real, right? Like, we know Maester Luwin. We've seen him firsthand through Brand's POV now extensively. He's not a bad guy. Catelyn needs and appreciates his counsel. Catelyn doesn't feel this way about Luwin right now. She is deep within her grief, but I find

the contrast of both these characters and statements really interesting because let's face it, Rickard Stark was war buddies, right, with Hoster and Jon Arryn, and they just wanted to attack and dethrone Targs and instill their king on the throne and fight against the

injustice done. And as Catelyn and most people know know daughters are valuable coin to exchange in wartime right broker deal with uh uses coin she was used for coin used as swords basically and i think it's uh it's a really interesting comparison for these two characters for barbara to cat that is an interesting comparison between the two of them and and you can kind of see it right in the way that they are smart they're shrewd women they even were betrothed well not betrothed but he there was a there was a connection with the same stark man in a way but as you said there maester lewin does seem trustworthy and he kind of does die

for the starks right uh the language of the Grey Rat is interesting because it is a lot like the same language that Barbary uses. I would say on a meta level, maybe like George went back to these scenes or something and was like, I like that, and reused it, kind of giving this a different twist. I also want to give a quick shout out. This one's a tweet of note to me.

First of all, a couple of people pointed out last week they were quite tickled at the idea of maester lewin being quite swole and david becerra on twitter sent us this hilarious tweet and it just killed me um and and we'll share you can find it on our twitter we retweeted it of this swole as garfield with chains around him as a maester of fluid. It was amazing. It really was. I think that there's something really great about Barbary being compared to Catelyn with their kind of shrewd mentality about politics, like you said.

Barbary later stepping in as a showcase for a woman in the North who can hold her own, who has learned and rolled with the punches after being dealt with some crap also has not come out great you know on the other side at the same time she she has a family and all but she what happened to catalan with losing brandon was kind of like that ironic luck right of well i can't have him no one does right yeah like haha like i'm sure barbary felt that bitterness in her mouth like world's best cock sorry cat but i don't know i just find it interesting that she is a northern woman and we we think a lot about the politics in game of thrones of like north dumb south smart and that's not true. The North is different. And we see that navigated differently as we go along. And we're gonna see it

navigated differently through Robin Kat too here. Yeah. And I also kind of wonder as you're drawing connections between Barbary, Dustin and Kat, a way that they contrast though is he was a ward who slept with the lady of the house, whereas Catlin, who was the lady, right, did not sleep with their ward. Yes, that's true. It's a way that their paths diverged. Well, speaking of different Brandons right now, this is actually quite jarring. We're going to jump forward back to now this brandon who's a little boy looks quite pale and catlin thinks about moving him under the window for some sun why you think he needs some

chlorophyll catalin yeah it's a good call because your tree son needs to fucking eat in out of context like just pulling like i need to move him under the window for sun i'm like just hold your horses for four more books, okay? That is kind of, yeah, that is how we feel about plants. We're like, oh, what's wrong with the plant? I'm imagining, like, Brando's, like, a little chlorophyll, like, opening and closing, like, the stomata, like, of his arms. That's exactly how plants make their food. Good job.

Exactly. make their food good job exactly luin tries to reach cat once more tells her you have several appointments to attend to a new captain of guards a master of horse and she retorts she cracks her voice is sharp as a whip and says my son lies here dying and broken and you mean to discuss a master of horse with me she says do you think i care what happens in the stables do you think it matters to me one wit i would gladly butcher every horse in winterfell with my own hands if it would open brand's eyes do you understand that do you so sad because like this is such a mean way that george formats this chapter because he establishes Kat's grief through this because the end of the chapter, she very much so shows she does know what's going on and cares

about what's going on in the stable. So let me learn about the cat's paw. But here, it's meant to establish like this is Katalin lost in grief. She's hurt. She's lashing out. Absolutely. and by introducing us to Kat's grief early on, it's setting the stage for what we can expect for those later Kat chapters. When she does some very drastic things to save her children,

especially when she thinks that Bran's dead, right? And the deep toll that grief is going to take on her. But it's kind of interesting, this line of, I would gladly butcher every horse in Winterfell with my own hands if it would open brand's eyes and bring him back it again coming back to those hidden costs of what does it mean it makes me think again of denarius being like you know fuck it i know that drogo's horse is very sacred in the culture, but if it will bring him back to me, let's do it. Yeah.

Absolutely, I immediately thought, only death can pay for life. Well, Bran turns out will survive, but she doesn't know that. And she won't. Wow, that's sad. Okay, anyways, things that are uh also sad the battle is about to go on between her and lewin and arguments but rob enters and he says it's okay i will make the

appointments he's taking responsibility on and and cat suddenly realizes shamefully she's like she's been shouting she's like like, why am I shouting? And we have this line. It's a surprise. Life's like that, man. Sometimes I'm just like, why am I crying right now? I don't know. Yeah, that's true. Especially, I mean, actually, it's not just especially, just in general. Right now, she, yeah,

the line is she was so tired and her head hurt all of the time. Haha, this is a serious mood. Lewin gives Rob a list of men to consider for the vacant offices, and Rob says they'll discuss them in the morning and to leave them for now. His cheeks are pink from cold, his hair is shaggy, windblown. He closes the door behind them and turns to his mother, asking what she's doing. She realizes he's wearing a sword. She always thought he looked like her, like Bran, Rickon, and Sansa, but now she sees her husband in his face, stern, hard, like the North.

This is Rob growing up, right? It's his lord face. like the north this is rob growing up right it's his lord face he's he's starting to separate his family from childhood and from lordship and from ruling and he's starting to take on that role already i also do want to come back to lewin's sleeves here he puts the paper back into his sleeve uh he goes very good my lord and puts paper. It says the paper vanished into his sleeve. So yes, his magical sleeves have returned to the page. But the paper's not heavy, you know? The paper's not going to give him muscles. Other things are in there.

How many papers is Lewin holding? I mean, probably a lot, because Catelyn has been out of it for two weeks. That's true, he's probably got full-on binders in there. Yeah, he's got many binders. Poor Rob. Yeah, like, his mother, right, asks him, she doesn't understand how

Rob can ask her what she's doing, and she goes, I am taking care of your brother. I am taking care of Bran. Is that what you call it? You haven't left this room since Bran was hurt. You didn't even come to the gate where father and the girls went south. I said my farewells to them from here. And watched them ride out from that window.

Catelyn, that's not the fucking scene. I know, right? She's so out of it, she doesn't realize that's not even saying bye. That she couldn't, I mean, Bran wasn't going to wake up. And I think she was worried more about that. She begged Ned not to leave after what had happened. Everything had changed, right? She had begged him so much.

And that's the saddest part, that yes, everything had changed. But the stone's already been cast. The decision was made. This line is so heartbreaking. It has to to be included because it's just so sad he had no choice he had told her and then he left choosing it's got such a strong connection to that brienne line that everyone of course knows the no chance and no choice and because of that it really shows you know to an extent obviously the characters have choices in world right i mean obviously it doesn't the ink is dry uh except for a book six seven eight

nine ten eleven so on right um but george and you already wanted to say and what the characters had to do and it's this kind of idea of like do we choose or is it like all right do we just do this because it's who we are but i also want to call out this moment here for my own other reasons you know obviously while cat is imperfect which of course is the point right that's something that that George is passionate about in regards to these characters. I often see people lay the blame for Ned going south at Kat's feet because of the events of the previous chapter where, yes, the writing does focus that exchange between them while glossing over this moment, say, where Kat is telling Ned now, and she begs him, right, which seems so much more impassioned,

so much more fervent, even though we don't get to see it on screen, than perhaps what happened in the previous chapter. And people will say that Kat telling Ned not to go south is a show-only invention, but here it is in the books, it's not. And Kat's intuition, which obviously, you know, is not, like, in tip-top shape right now. But somehow that kind of works out to her benefit anyway, in this chapter. It's right, right? In telling Ned, you know what, going south is a mistake. And the language here shows that ultimately it is Ned's choice to go south. And again, Ned gets to make the final say in their Westerosi house.

Yeah, it is Ned's word at the end of the day. She has no control, no way. And there is something about the way that this chapter goes on, even with that in mind, that with Ned not there, she starts to make those calls once she does wake up after the assault. Yeah. She kind of puts her pedal to the metal and is like, all right, time to make some choices.

Where here, obviously, she begged everything to stop changing, right? Like, that's the biggest thing. Everything is changing at rapid speeds right now. Everything is revolving and she's just sitting here begging for it all to stop. And then there's a force that makes her change with it. Absolutely. It's a turning of the seasons for all of Westeros, not just for the children

growing up. Catelyn holds Bran's hand. So frail, so thin. No strength in it. But she feels warmth in his skin. She tells Rob she couldn't leave him, not when any moment could be his last. Rob's voice softens and he tells her

Lewyn says the greatest bit of danger is past. He won't die. But she asks, what if Lewin's wrong? What if he needs me and I'm not there? Isn't that kind of the greatest worst part of motherhood, I guess, huh? That's what I hear. That's what I hear. Rob changes his tone kind of sharply and tells her, Rickon needs you. He thinks he's been deserted. He follows me all day clutching my leg. Rob has no clue what to do about all that.

He chews on his lip like he did when he was younger and tells her, I need you too. I can't do it all by myself. She remembers through her grief suddenly he's only 14 and she wants to go to him but bran is still holding her hand and she cannot move yeah which is interesting because technically bran can't be in this moment yeah and and it really shows that that's what she wants right and the language throughout this first part of cat's chapter, does such a great job of showing and not telling us Kat's mental state. Both Ned and Kat, I think, serve as great introductions or examples to

George's use of unreliable narrators. I know they're not the first touch points people go to, but I mean, for Ned, right? We talked about this a lot way, way, way back then. Not in episode 120, maybe episodes 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Girls Gone Canon, right? That Ned is hiding Jon's parentage from himself and therefore from the reader. And until the second half of this chapter, Kat believes her actions are rational in terms of her motivations. And the way that George demonstrates her mental state is quite contrary to the Kat that we had in the previous two chapters, who really just thinks things through analyzes all this information right uh is looking at the bigger picture and a lot of

the language here is just her only passively hearing what other characters are saying in terms of her responsibilities but the narration itself doesn't address what they're saying or other characters show the unreliable nature of Catelyn, right? Because Catelyn in her head can see why she's doing it. And she's like, why can't they see? But the other characters are telling her, what the fuck are you doing? And one of the best examples of how the text shows us the way that Cat isn't processing things early on in this chapter. I love this where she's like, let the steward take care of it.

And Lewin says, pool went south to establish Lord Eddard's household at King's Landing. Catlin nodded absently. Oh, yes, I remember. Bran looked so pale. She wondered whether they might move his bed under the window so he could get the morning sun, as Chloe was talking about earlier. And though she, like, responds to Maester Luwin, obviously, her mind is somewhere else entirely. She doesn't think about anything that Maester Luwin said just now. And here with Rob, even though her eldest son is speaking and pleading

with her, she's not really processing what he's saying or his body language, just kind of seeing him. Whereas later on, she really sees him and understands and notices how he's changing. Whereas later on, she really sees him and understands and notices how he's changing. Those are really great observations. She is a completely different, a cat of a different coat in the beginning of the chapter, you could say. Hmm. And later on, she's gonna bow so low, I guess. Get skinned?

Okay. So, outside, one of the wolves begins to howl she trembles rob says it's brands he opens the window letting the night air in and the melancholy wolf song as well she tells him not to and that brand needs to stay warm but rob says he needs to hear them sing a second wolf joins in then a third shaggy dog and gray wind rob says and that you can tell them apart if you listen close i love this line because i'm a personal believer that rob was actually quite adept at being a borg i think he was better than john um obviously no one's as good as Bran, because that's the whole point of the story, but I think he did have some control over it, and we'll see that more

as the chapters go on, but I feel like this is a hint that he can tell their voices apart, and that all of them can. Yeah, Rob ends up being very in tune with his northern self, right? Like, with the northern side of himself. With dogs. And I think there's even kind of, to an extent, a lot

of Catelyn projecting those feelings of isolation onto her kids, where Sansa, for example, is more southern than Catelyn could ever hope she would have to be, right? Like Catelyn's like, good job, go breathe over there, you did great, I don't have to work on you anymore. And Robb in her head, maybe

she always just was like, you know, maybe if you guys and me are together and look the same and no one accepts you, we'll at least be rejected together, you know, in the heart of hearts. And here she's realizing throughout the chapter, no, it's just her all alone. Yeah. And that was her fear in the last chapter. She's like, wow, I'm going to be in a long distance relationship. They don't have the internet. They don't even know how to use the weirwoods to talk to each other.

Not yet. Catelyn shakes from grief, from cold, from the howl of the wolves, which never ended. Every night. And Bran still lies there, broken. And she thinks of how he had been the sweetest of her children, who loved to climb climb and who wanted to be a knight.

And all of that is gone now, and she thinks that she's never going to hear him laugh again. And you know what? Interestingly, this does in fact end up being true, but... Okay, Satan. Wow. That was uncalled for. Who the hell hurt you?

What the fuck? Is this maybe Gallo's humor? Which I think has a double meaning with this character i'm gonna ruin the joke by explaining it i can't even fire you because i'm so disappointed in you she's too she's too sad she can't say anything she's gonna just sob like catelyn here cover her ears cry out to make me stop yep and that she can't stand it and she's like kill eliana if you must but make it stop actually cat says this about the wolves not not about me catalan doesn't remember falling to the floor but rob is lifting her helping her to her bed

in the sick room he tells her to rest that lewin says she hasn't slept at all and she's like i can't what if he dies what if he dies what if he dies the wolves continue to howl and she screams she begs him to close the window and he says he will if she sleeps but as he reaches for the window another noise joins the chorus of wolves dogs they've never done that before when he looks back up his face is pale fire he whispers she springs immediately into action asking him help me with bran but he doesn't seem to hear her it's the library tower on fire he says which by the way is probably not the only library that's going to catch fire in this series all those beautiful big books sad catalan sags with relief when she hears it's the

library though she's like fuck those books she's like fuck them books as long as it's nerds she's like fuck them books as long as we're nerds she's out there hanging out with ariane martel she's like fuck them books uh no obviously she's only in a one-track brand mind right now and rob's like what the fuck mom there is still a fucking fire like just because it's not here you still should be a little concerned and he's like stay put while i go deal with this shouts of fire start to ring in the yard frightened horses barking dogs but the howling stopped catalan said a silent prayer of thanks to the seven going to the window watching the smoke rise and thinking sadly of all the books the starks gathered being gone now she thinks the books i get why there are 18 part series about Catelyn sucking now book burning book burner Catelyn Stark

she's like books rip turns around oh my god wow sure is real sad about all those books if only we could just buy more with all our money well some of those might be like what the only version of that book ever but you know

whatever you know again books are for nerds sad girl hours only as you said that that killed me that arianne martell killed me thanks i thought you'd like that she's out there like fuck them they're both in towers being sad yeah and you know this actually kind of reminds me a little bit of sansa the black water too with all the smoke rising and turning from the tower uh even down to what is about to happen right that she turns and a drunk dirty gross man is there which is what happens to sansa stark in the black water i mean i'm not wrong this is true it's shrek it's shrek it's shrek oh my god Shrek's here!

Never mind. Catlin does shut the windows, and when she turns, there is a man. Like I said, dirty, small, he stinks of horses. She knows the men who work in their stables, and he's not one of them. Now, right before this, in her grief, Catlin shut the windows, right?

Not wanting to see the fire, wanting to block it out, wanting to only be with Bran, ignoring what else is happening. But she is quickly awakened from that. Yes. And this actually goes to show how uncharacteristic this spell that's going on with Catelyn is, right? Because as we said previously, Ned trusted Catelyn to be capable with running the household, usually including its finances, and that she thinks here that she knows everyone who works at the stables and does not know this man shows that her outburst earlier about who fucking cares about who's the master of the horse is not typical for her and for how conscientious she usually is in maintaining Winterfell. The difference is staggering when Catelyn's on versus when she's off and I'm kind of still reeling that this is one chapter because

it's two different Catelyns we see from the start till the end. And that's true of this whole technically this whole series. Shut up, Eliana. Shut up, Eliana. Oh my god. Jesus. I know, it's Lady Stoneheart not Jesus. I get it it the man mutters that she

wasn't supposed to be here dagger in his hand and cat looks at the knife and then to bran and she goes no and he must have heard her because he responds to her like that it's a mercy he's dead already and she says no again and that he can't and that that line of it's a mercy he's dead already already, feels very important. I can just imagine you change that pronoun a little of, it's a mercy, she's dead already, which is technically true of that other Catelyn that we meet.

Do you know where the heart is, girl? Mercy, mercy, mercy. Yeah. Look, we are building up to something big. During Davos, we waited and let the world have it at the very end. You know, the good stuff.

The discussion on Davos' future. And I think that we'll talk about the big good mercy stuff as we get toward the end of Catelyn. So buckle up. Tons of months to go. Like eight, nine months to go. We're going to have a Lady Stoneheart baby together. But if you're shrewd, Chloe's already put this out on the internet. Yeah, and if you're even more shrewd than that, like Miss Catelyn Stark,

you will know that we're adding to that theory as we go. We're on a journey. A journey, an arc, the friends we made along the way. So Catelyn spins toward the window to scream for help, but this man moves quickly, clamping a hand over her mouth and yanking back her head. He brings a dagger to her windpipe, his stench overwhelming her, and she reaches up with all of her might to grab the blade with both hands and pull it away from her throat. Interesting, interesting actions, but...

Do you think that Catelylyn's stench like do you think that they both have like a force field of stenches right now because cat's like super stinky right now like she hasn't bathed in so long she's nasty like are there force fields just butting up against each other trying to break through as they fight i think that her adrenaline is her adrenaline is probably blurring it out right now. However, I think she is actually the most disadvantaged here because Catelyn is the least... Well, okay, but she's a mother, so she's dealt with smells, right? Her whole life. However, I'd say that she's probably less.

Like, this man has slept in the stable for weeks, we come to learn. So, like, he's used to bad smell right now he's good he's gucci but her she's waking up out of her own mini psyche coma right now so she's probably like her adrenaline's gonna blur it out but when she comes out of this in a few minutes she's gonna be like what the fuck yeah what what is going on this is disgusting why does everything smell like this so So that's my personal take. I think she smells worse than that guy, but as you said, he has a higher tolerance. I'm surprised we don't have a

moment in this chapter where she wakes up, you know, she sniffs her armpits, and is like, oh my god. That's what I would do. I don't know that she would smell worse than him, though. She's sleeping in new sheets every day in a room. I mean. I guess. He's sleeping in a stable.

Interesting. Interesting. I'm just saying. You're right. It's a class thing, Eliana, okay? This is classism 101. I'm just kidding. Yeah. Anyway. It was a thing, a discussion I wanted to go explore.

We did. We explored. Catelyn hears the man cursing in her ear. Her fingers are wet and slippery with blood, but she won't let go. She twists to the side, trying to get a piece of the man's flesh between her teeth, and bites down hard, grinding her teeth together and tearing, and he lets go while the taste of his blood fills her mouth. Yeah, and while Catelyn might be a Tully, there is very much i in my opinion quite

starkish about her there's a lot of mother wolf imagery here in her actions yeah and it even kind of brings to mind uh brienne in this moment right the the tearing with the teeth and the biting especially with that happening to brienne's face later on but she also does some biting in her battle and doesn't want to let go either. Yes. Well, we have this quote. She sucked in air and screamed, and he grabbed her hair and pulled her away from him.

And she stumbled and went down, and then he was standing over her, breathing hard, shaking. He repeats, you weren't supposed to be here, stupidly, and that's just such a haunting refrain here um and cat sees a shadow suddenly slip through the door behind him a low rumble calls it's a whisper of a threat and the man begins to turn just as the wolf makes its leap

and then they go down together sprawled over cat and the wolf takes out half his throat and like the blood is like warm rain on her face a lot's happening a lot's happening for catlin right now the wolf is looking at her its eyes glowing gold and it is of course bran's wolf i kind of forgot bran hadn't yet named summer that this is just a wolf not summer it's just a wolf yeah it's got big dog vibes right dog from from a for Crows, not the other dog with a locust. Oh, not locust from A Dance with Dovah. Except in Maribold's friend. My friend, too.

Well, soon enough it will be summer. This wolf will become summer. And I think that's really fitting, right? The boy who almost fell but flew. Bran the Rebuilder, the king who was once thought to be dead, that he doesn't name his wolf until after his big third eye opening. It's kind of fun. This reminds me a little of the Free Folk not naming their kids till later.

That is interesting. I didn't think about that, but it's kind of like that too. We're building on this journey together chloe as you said well catelyn thinks the wolf partially by feeding it her blood maybe i don't know she lifts her hand towards it it looks at her blood cleaning up her hand and silently then jumps up to lie by bran's bed and this is my personal opinion but letting the wolf eat up her blood like that that seems like a big red flag like that you don't do that like don't train the dog to eat human blood thoughts oh i i thought opposite i thought it i don't think it was like eating it so much i mean it's also a wolf so what do you want it to do go make a fucking four-course

vegetarian vegan meal eliana yeah dude the wolf should know that she needs a bath and pather but i i took it more for that right like dogs have cleansing properties when licking right they have microbial properties in their tongue or whatever people tell you to make it okay that dogs lick you or some shit yeah but not like my blood right and especially because we know that there's the risk of brand breaking those taboos later that's true I suppose I didn't see it that way just cause like I just figured her wounds are open as hell and this wolf was like I'll fix you

I just don't want to take any risks that they'll think I'm delicious well we both have wild takes on it and that's what I like about you Eliana well Catelyn begins to laugh hysterically, maybe at us. Maybe at what's going on here.

And that's the way that Rob, Lewin, and Roderick find her. And I thought that language was interesting. Reminds me a little of Ned's fever dream. That's how they found him at the Tower of Joy. Anyways, when the laughter finally dies down, they take her off to her quarters where Old

Nana dresses her and gets her into a bath, finally finally and then lewin arrives to dress her wounds and her hands were cut nearly to the bone her scalp raw and bleeding where the cat's paw pulled out part of her hair and then she tastes some milk of the poppy because lewin's like you know the pain's just only started oh my god that is for sure and i'm in pain just hearing it i don't know if you're that kind of person like i am but when i even hear about pain it just makes me go get some bdbs yeah it makes like my legs feel like jelly i'm sensitive you know i'm just very sensitive i'm fragile if you haven't learned this about me she is something interesting here is that we talked about how in A Dance with Dragons, Barbary Dustin gets that similar language of the gray rat of the maester that George probably went,

Ah, I like that language. Let's bring it back. But George actually comes back to this chapter in a couple other ways. He uses the Catelyn III imagery and reflects it strongly in the red wedding but bit by bit it's it's actually close to one to one right uh the wolf taking out the assassin's throat red blood raining down like catalan cutting jingle bell's throat and red blood raining down or her neck her hands cut to the bone her neck cut to the bone later. One hand clamped down over her mouth and yanked back her head. The other brought the dagger up to her windpipe. Even down to her hair being partially pulled out. Yes. Right. As they pull her hair back and yank her head up.

Ned loves my hair. And there's even a little bit of earlier where Catelyn was screaming for someone to make it stop about these wolves howling. Her wanting it to stop later when the bells are ringing, ringing in her head. All her babes, Ned. In the literal sense, there's something big here about Grey Wind and the wolves in general being rejected and how it brings harm into the children right like by choosing the political sequence later of not bringing Grey Wind in Grey Wind probably could have done a lot of damage at the Red Wedding and helped them but maybe not enough and rejecting the wolves in general seems to be a really strong theme for the children having harm come to them, right? Like Ned and Sansa with Lady. Between Catelyn III and Catelyn IV, almost simultaneously, Ned is killing Sansa's wolf. Catelyn comes to the realization of how important summer is in this

scenario here, but Eddard doesn't really come to that same realization until Catelyn visits and tells him everything. We have this quote. So he listened, and she told it all, from the fire in the library tower to Varys and the guardsmen and Littlefinger, and when she was done, Eddard Stark sat dazed beside the table, the dagger in his hand.

Bran's wolf had saved the boy's life, he thought dully. What was it Jon had said when they found the pups in the snow? Your children were meant to have these pups, my lord. Yes, and I think that's such a great point. And Ned killing Sansa's wolf is also very much him kind of trying to silence some of the Starkness in him and his family and things like that. And those northern omens, whereas we see Kat, again, really, really embrace a lot of that symbolism and, again, omens of what's meant to be for these Starks. Yeah, embrace the wolf. Don't kill the wolf. Kill the boy, not the wolf. Wait, no, don't kill the boy.

Hug the wolf, put your face into its fur. In its floof, just get in there. Get the fur up in your nose, take an allergy pill. floof just get in there get the fur up in your nose take an allergy pill um there's something else here that kind of interested me which was the milk of the poppy catalan doesn't necessarily have a big effect from it right but she is administered milk of the poppy here for her pain and ned is given that obviously in a handful of ned poVs, right? When his leg meets a rather unfortunate accident. And then he meets a rather unfortunate kind of accident. It's all pretty tragic.

But I think that milk of the poppy is used really interestingly in A Game of Thrones, not even looking at the scope of all of the series, almost used as symbolism for clouding judgment. Pycelle gives it to Jon Arryn, which doesn't help anyone figure out what the fuck Jon Arryn was actually ill with, right? Like poison, that kind of, that milk of the poppy, like, here you go, that will help you feel better

and no one will ever know that you died of poison. Not that Pycelle, like, knew, but... He thought he knew. He also thought it was serious. He's like like i'm helping robert's given milk the poppy after his accident to relieve his pain let him rest which is of course when shit is hitting the fan in king's landing i always love that that like the handful of chapters where robert is on bed rest as he's dying after the boar and everything in the city is going to shit.

Yeah, that's like Robert's whole life. He's not even dead yet. Yeah. Bitch hasn't even died yet and everything is just like, oh, interesting. Death everywhere. John ends up taking it for his hand, which is another good comparison in parallel to Catelyn's hands in this chapter.

And he has some pretty strange dreams, and later, Daenerys, to come back to Daenerys' story, tells Khal Drogo not to have milk of the poppy to help avoid infection, but he doesn't listen, and he dies. Catalin doesn't have any crazy dreams here that we know of,

but she does sleep for four days, which is a major need, I do this. Absolutely, and maybe it's because she's, like, had a crazy enough awake time But she does sleep for four days, which is a major need. I do this. Absolutely. And maybe it's because she's had a crazy enough awake time. They're like... Or maybe her dreams were just so crazy she doesn't remember them. She's been exhausting. They all get siphoned into Bran's dreams if we want to get real tinfoil-y.

Obviously that's not what happens. But these are all like great points i've never really thought about how the milk of the poppy operates but it's absolutely goes together with clouded judgment well less cloudy now after four days of sleeping one should hope right uh a cat sits up remembering only blood and grief but feels weak light-headed and strangely just lighter she calls for bread and honey and maester lewin comes to help her change her bandages and they are kind of surprised at her lucidity and then she remembers in her behavior before her like four day long nap she was ashamed. She feels like she let them down

and vows that it would never happen again. She has to show the Northerners how strong a Tully of Riveren could be. Rob arrives with Roderick Cassell, Theon Greyjoy, and Hollis Mullin, who's announced as the new Captain of Guard by Rob. Rob is wearing boiled

leather, ring mail, and his sword is at his waist. He's looking a man. No one knows who the assassin is, but they can agree he was no man of Winterfell. He had been seen around, though, in the past few weeks around the yards in Catelyn's Lake. Well, he was a Kang's man, or maybe with the Lannisters, and stayed after their departure. Hal says maybe, but there's just no way to know with all the strangers lately around here. Theon says the man smelled

like he'd been hiding in the stables, and Catelyn asks Hal how this man could go unnoticed. Halas Mullin is ashamed at not catching him sooner, and says, I just don't know. Maybe Hodor saw him. He's been acting off lately. I thought that was interesting. I mean, first of all,

I guess it was partially incumbent on cat right to to check in on all those but also this detail about hodor acting a bit off um i i never noticed it until this read of like this is around the time right that brand's powers would be starting to awaken a little so just feels very pointed it could have something to do with that I didn't really put that together I did wonder I just thought it was a throwaway line but it could it could have something to do with Bran's powers

wakening he can sense like oh it's all happening for me or this is the moment they're connected in a way yeah like it's online yeah suddenly you know it turns you on remotely i'm always nice siri i'm just always thinking about that dial-up noise you know i think of it much more like

maybe that's why dubstep was so big during during that time period people were just trying to get back to our aol roots um millennials really are the worst we really are someone thought i was really 23 recently and that was that was cute thank you thank you so sweet you're my favorite listener um rob adds that uh they found where the man was sleeping and he had 90 silver stags in a leather bag buried beneath a straw. And Kat bitterly says, at least my son's life was not sold for cheap. And the men don't understand. They all say it's madness to suggest that the man was paid to kill Bran, but she confirms it because he kept muttering she wasn't supposed to be here. And I will say, to be fair, I would also want my wasn't supposed to be here and i will say to be fair i would also want

my own assassination attempt to be expensive i would too so if you think about it right at least splurge for a faceless man on that shit come on now that's true that's true well rob doesn't understand why anyone would want to kill Bran. So Catelyn starts to play a little thought experiment. And she's like, well, Rob, why would anyone want to kill a sleeping child? Her food comes, which is actually kind of a bunch of stuff she didn't ask for, but that's okay because she totally needs the protein. I need it.

Blackberry preserves, hot bread, honey, bacon, soft-boiled egg, cheese, mint tea. And another thing she didn't order, which is Maester Lewin. He comes on down, and she asks how Bran is, but he responds unchanged. She expected the answer, but her hands throb with pain. She sends the servants away and asks if Rob has the answer yet. the servants away and asks if Rob has the answer yet. Rob says someone's afraid Bran might wake up of what he'll

say or do of something he knows. Catelyn is so proud. She turns to Halas Moulin to command he put more guards on Bran and she says that while Lord Eddard is away, Rob is master of Winterfell. Rob stands up a little taller at this.

In terms of the asking Rob to work out why someone would want to kill Bran, I actually think this is a really in my personal opinion, good example of Kat showing good parenting using this sort of semi-Socratic method here going on, right, where she's asking Rob

she lets him come to the conclusion himself and then tells him when he got it right thus building his self-esteem for figuring it out on his own and that's a great example of the sort of training that Ned of course wanted Catelyn to give in his absence and what I'm going to say next is going

to ruin a couple of lives but it's also kind of what Littlefinger does when he asks Sansa, alright Sansa so why did I do all these weird things with the Lord's Declarant in the Vale toward the end of A Feast for Crows? Yeah, this is a great way of that parenting, like you said. And I don't think it's a big negative

to bring the little finger thing up, because it's true. That is what he does with Sansa. He makes her go through each question and test it out and the fact that Catelyn has returned kind of to that mindset to be able to offer that training is amazing she's giving him this agency as well to exercise power and letting him choose to lead in teaching him a lesson it is an active hands-on lesson uh and it's sadly as we're about to see uh it's what she kind of i think has wanted for him to an extent but as we've seen she isn't able to overstep her bounds rob tells him to put a man in the sick room night and day one outside two at the bottom of the stairs no one sees bran without rob or Kat's permission, and his wolf is to stay with him.

Katalin agrees so much, she says she agrees twice, she's so happy. And again, this is that agency, right? Like, she gives the nod and says, Rob, you're the lord, you tell him exactly what it is. And he makes a good decision with how he arms the rooms with Bran. Yes, and she backs him up on it, not just that, right? Because beyond Rob gives the go-ahead, but he doesn't say the when and things and Kat's like, do it now, right? In order to

help push that training. Yes. When Halas leaves, Roderick asks Catelyn if she noticed the blade on the dagger used by the killer. She didn't, but they did. The lyrian steel. But the dragon bone hilt. Someone gave this man this dagger. It was not the man's dagger. Catalin commands Rob to close the door and makes the men swear oaths to what

they are about to hear. This must not leave the room. So Kat is conscientious, as we see, about getting people to swear first, right? In order to create this sort of bond or sense of accountability from them before she herself makes an ask or takes action of them. And it's actually kind of similar to what she does at the end of The Crossroads when she's like, All of you, you swear fealty to this house, right? Yeah, it's loyalty, right? She makes them swear loyalty because that is the honor code and the societal code that she and her family lived off of. Yeah.

And here it works, and at the end at the crossroads, it works, but we also see it not work, you know, because she does. I mean, in a very big way, yes. Yeah, a pretty bad one, you know because she does i mean in a very big way yes yeah a pretty pretty bad one you know uh we often joke things go real good for a while and you get a bad one but sometimes you need just like tiny bad things i actually know that doesn't make sense she had tiny bad things peppered through her whole life never mind i mean it wasn't good for a while then it was a bad thing and that was the rest of the while it was you know it fluctuated it fluctuated until it did well in a way this isn't the first time we're gonna get oaths right we're

gonna see her make brienne swear an oath as well and charge her with some shit uh charge mr lannister i've heard of him with some stuff as well so before we get to those oaths eventually down the line here we have the first oaths theon swears saying ned was a second father to him lewin swears roderick swears and rob as well she then tells them liza believes the lannisters murdered her husband and she's learned jamie didn't join the hunt when Bran had fell. Whenever it was out on the hunt, Jaime was in Winterfell. He remained in the castle. Catelyn therefore does not believe Bran fell.

He was thrown. Roderick calls it a monstrous suggestion that even the Kingslayer couldn't do that, but the Angrayjoy wonders. Cat then says there's no limit to lannister pride or ambition so as we talk about these are those early chapters for george and this is one of those moments where i'm like this was written for the plot because i mean roger's kind of right i'm like that's a fucking ridiculous suggestion it's a big ass castle There were a bajillion people here, right? Like, how do you just jump to uh, Jaime Lannister

tried to murder my kid? And you know what? It ends up being true, as we all know. It is true. But it's a ridiculous fucking suggestion. It's a crazy thing to just jump to the conclusion of. Like, how do we suddenly jump to, like, yeah, Jaime Lannister threw my kid out of

a window like how do we know it was jamie right like why doesn't she think it was cersei cersei was here too but i obviously jamie has a reputation preceding him um as being the king slayer and all but but like and again it did indeed happen but there's no proof and it reminds me of like later in this book when ned just suddenly jumps to sosei, you and your twin brother are fucking, right? Like, and he's like, I know. And I'm like, how did you get there? How did you get there from the fucking book? Like, anyone could have given them blonde hair. And that's the conclusion he jumps to. And again, that ends up being correct because the plot, and these are not real and artificial constructs, but like jumping to yes, I think Jamie and Lena sort of threw my kid out of the window. Or yes, I think that the queen is fucking her twin brother. These are not usually people's first conclusions. And I just want to say that A Song of Ice and Fire is just as much about George's growth as a writer as it is about the characters themselves growing. It's such a silly jump.

Like, it's so hard, but no base proof that the bad show, you know, the show these books were based on, they have Catelyn find a strand of blonde hair if you remember oh no i don't remember but that makes sense i'm vaguely remembering i'm pretty sure that there is a scene where catelyn goes to the tower and finds a long strand of cersei's hair because how the fuck do you show this on a page you know on screen like how how do you have her suddenly go i think with no evidence and i think george might not have known how to mold that relationship right uh that dynamic of catalan and jamie or other things maybe this is a loose string he was playing with to help boost his later planned sexual tension as a jamie and catalan crack shipper that we know george is here and me uh they'd have amazing hate sex it's canon i mean but let's face it here the funniest part of these plots really is like no none of you are right but

you are like you've got parts of it right and ned figures out the incest at the end jamie pushed bran out of the window the cat's paw was sent by a Lannister. It was sent by Joffrey. It was the Lannisters all along. But Lysa's the one who killed Jon Arryn. And I don't know much about the legal system as far as how like charging people in crimes works. Maybe Marion Clint over at Learned Hands could help me out here. But isn't it like a thing that you could get all the evidence in the world on misdeeds by people, but if you can't use that evidence to get them charged on the thing, if it has nothing to do with it, it doesn't matter.

It's thrown out. You know, like all these things are true on the Lannisters, but you can't charge them for murdering Jon Arryn through fucking and having incest babies. You know, you could get them charged for treason if that was what you were charging them for, but you guys are trying to charge them for murdering John Aaron as your big overarching plot. They aren't that stupid. They probably were just waiting a couple years

until he just died. And again, I also do not know anything about the legal system, but like you were saying, right? None of these are technically connected to John Aaron. Maybe you could build a case of motivation. But also each of these are their own separate charges, right? Like attempted murder of child.

As you said, treason. But... And also even Cersei's like, I don't understand what the fuck's going on. Like, yeah. Fuck my brother. But she's not... she must be so confused she's like why does everyone think i killed john aaron like no i just like orgasms and she didn't

deny it right she's just like i mean whatever weirdos yeah fucking weirdos let me go back to fucking my brother in peace yeah right and again something's up I mean as we know Ned and Cailin have they have their kinks they're not like out there but I mean Ned's an exhibitionist so maybe that's part of how he gets

to the oh yes incest conclusion but anyway coming back to Winterfell and people somehow building a case against Jaime Lannister that again doesn't feel like it's the most logical conclusion with what we have here

Lewin thinks out loud that Bran had always been sure handed and Robb swears like that if this is true he'll make them pay and waves his sword in the air saying that he will kill jamie lannister himself and roger commands him to put that sword away and to never draw it unless he means to use it calling him a foolish boy and then rob sheets his sword and then becomes a child again yeah

there's something here that reminds me a lot of you know the the arrows words are like arrows when loosed you cannot take them back kind of training when it comes to doran and arien uh and even even a bit feels like a warning in face of what's to come for the karstarks with rob right drawing it unless you mean to use it and being the man to swing the sword and what rob will come to have to pass as we get through to clash interesting i wonder if it's also a contrast to maybe some of how we see joffrey later on right he yes draws his sword out and he's like kiss my sword sansa and we're all like oh bruh it's not a toy bro well catelyn observes to sir roderick that oh interesting rob has live steel now and roderick's like well i thought it was time and catelyn says it is past time and that

winterfell may need its sword soon and not the wooden kind i love this i like the way that rob kind of anxiously watches, like a child about to get in trouble for playing with his dad's toys, but Catelyn subverts the expectation from him, and is like, no, this is the best thing anyone's finally done. Obviously she doesn't want Winterfell to go to war, but at this point, these actions are kind of all pointing to things going south, no pun intended.

Ned just went south literally to the lion's den with their daughters to a place where people possibly these people who want to kill at least one of their children live and ned begrudgingly accepted a job he didn't want to take none of these things are good right like this is not going to hold up for two smart level headed ish parents they're not going to put up with this bad scenario and this is not going to hold up for two smart, level-headed-ish parents. They're not going to put up with this bad scenario. And now they are going to go into action, which will unfortunately kind of muck things up a little worse, as we know. But hey, what the fuck are you supposed to do?

You raise your swords, you hope you can protect your people and your family and those you love in the moment. This also kind of points out in these further differences in how Ned and Catelyn want to raise their children. In this moment, Catelyn kind of gives away, personally, I want Rob prepared for the worst case scenario, where Ned dreads the worst case happening. These two kind of fight with that constantly, right? That's where their forces clash. And the boys have been fighting with wooden blunted swords. She's throwing caution to the wind, hoping her shrewd action can save their family extra pain in the long run ahead of time. These differences we see are kind of highlighted in Arya's first chapter, right?

With the Stark boys' inexperience against the strong boys. Get it? You know, the bastards in the yard, lol. At Winterfell. It feels like an analogy for Ned's relationship through his trauma with his children that he kept them on these stunted swords, which stunted them and their personal growth. It's past time. It's time for them to be armed with steel. Yeah, I think that's a great point. And that's one of the biggest differences between Ned and Catelyn that we see here and also in the previous chapter right catelyn's very proactive she's like time's gonna come eventually she wants to position her family as well as she can knowing what she knows a westeros society she

takes action and we see her do that in this chapter and decide that she needs to do something whereas ned is very defensive he's reactive to the things that happen around him and and wants as much as possible to not have to do anything for things to kind of try and stay the same and to remove himself from the situations where that sort of change can happen yeah well theon is killing me in this chapter he's got this like schoolboy earnestness he's like I'll save you Mrs. Stark oh he does

he says that House Greyjoy owes them a great debt and I'm like thinking face emoji I'm like interesting it's interesting that you think that House Greyjoy owes a great debt to House Stark cause I'm like they kinda don't what'd they give you death trauma? they stole you yeah like

lifelong trauma technically house stark owes them a great debt anyway i mean i think that might even be a nice little setup point right like house stark gave me lifelong trauma let's see what i'm gonna give them back next book haha right like him saying that's like a second dad to me, a second dad to me, I'm like, he doesn't mean that, I guess. I mean, as we see, right? And I do honestly believe that about the end chapters, as we said. Like, he's afraid of Ned, and is Ned, like, a second father to him, and that he has daddy issues with

both of them? I think so. Yeah. I think so. Well, Lewin says what you and I have been saying this whole time. You guys need some proof it's a crazy i have conjecture this is this is the queen and her beloved brother they accuse and i'm like lol exactly that's the point it's her beloved brother uh sir roderick says the proof is in the pudding just kidding it's in the dagger and she realizes someone must go to the only place we can get truth

king's landing rob immediately is like i'll go and she's like no there must always be a stark in winterfell because she understands the importance of that she looks around at this group wondering who best said or who would be best believed but she knows the answer she has to go herself rob is like what the fuck woman you literally just said bran can't be left alone you literally you just threw a tantrum about this like 20 minutes ago what's the truth woman what's the truth technically it was four days ago but yes it's 20 minutes ago for me okay 20 minutes ago in terms of like her waking life and it is a bit strange i think rob's right to call her out

on that it's he's gonna say and it's gonna come up in like a second right but like yeah a moment ago literally early this chapter as you said 20 minutes ago uh rob pointed out to his mother that i mean not just brand like rob said he needs her and thankfully for him they do rejoin later but it does make me think of what you were saying last chapter about the ways that the parents disengage from their children you're talking about ned disengaging from Sansa, but we see Cat learning to disengage from Bran now. And in Cat's defense for what she means, in the upcoming quote we're going to do

of having done everything she can for Bran, I mean, yeah, her being there when the cat's paw came, it almost feels faded in a way, right? She was meant to be there and has done all she can for him. But also part of and has done all she can for him. But also part of her doing everything that she can for Bran

is going to King's Landing, and it is seeking justice for her son and this attempted murder, and actually technically two attempted murders. Bran's got a lot of things happen for Bran. That is doing

something for Bran and for her family at large. And, I mean, she thinks that she's prepared Rob, but I really do feel for Rob. He's a poor boy who's been thrust into this position at 14 years old. And this chapter, again, reminds us of that. He's pleading with his mother to come back, and he's suddenly in the position of lord of a house. And not just that, like, the North, in a way. He's this parentified child for his brother. He has been for all of his siblings, kind of, as they look up to him.

And he's the one who's had to have been, in a way, probably caring for his mother since his father left over a week ago. in a way probably caring for his mother since his father left over a week ago and regardless of what the world asks of him regardless of like west or east society saying he's almost a man and we've covered this in our sansa chapters he isn't he's just a boy yeah i think it's apt that she did the most she could like you said i mean as we're about to see she's not wrong what is grieving over his body going to do waiting for him to wake up now uh she she left her depression enough she realized that this isn't going to help anyone they have bills stacking up they have security breaches uh things aren't going they have a burnt down library it's not going great she is not helping right now here her her livelihood in winterfell she's not going to be able to help anyone if she

stays here she did help as much as she can and i think she realizes she can do what she was raised to do best right southern politics none of the people in the north have what she thinks is the perfect uh you know finesse on the subject like you said assist in bringing justice to her family but unfortunately we know the story that she never gets that justice right not in her living state and those are the building blocks of lady Stoneheart, that line where justice for your family turns into vengeance and hatred. Absolutely. Well, that brings us towards the end of this chapter. I have done everything I can for Bran, she said, laying a wounded hand on his arm.

His life is in the hands of the gods and Maester Luwin. As you reminded me yourself, Rob, I have other children to think of now. You'll need a strong escort, my lady, Theon said. I'll send Hal with a squad of guardsmen, Rob said. No, Catelyn said. A large party attracts unwelcome attention. I would not have the Lannisters know I'm coming. Ser Rodrik protested.

My lady, let me accompany you at least. The King's Road can be perilous for a woman alone. I will not be taking the King's Road, Catelyn replied. She thought for a moment, then nodded her consent. Two riders can move as fast as one, and a good deal faster than a long column burdened by wagons and wheelhouses. I will welcome your company, Sir Roderick. We will follow the White Knife down to the sea and hire a ship at White Harbor. Strong horses and brisk winds should bring us to King's Landing well ahead of Ned and the Lannisters. And then, she thought, we shall see what we shall see. What a way to end a chapter.

We shall see what we shall see. Yeah. Fuck around and find out. We're gonna fuck around, and we sure are gonna find out. It's gonna be a three book process. There's gonna be a lot of finding out.

Finding out now, finding out after, finding out in the afterlife. We're still waiting to find a lot of things out. It's been years. T-Wow next week. I actually really like the way that this ended with the idiom, right? Especially as a callback to last chapter when Luin produced the Mirrish lens. Catelyn shivered. A lens is an instrument to help us see.

Indeed it is. I think Catelyn spends a lot of time throughout her POV trying to see people for who they are, right? She's able to perceive the truth about certain characters like Stannis and Renly pretty easily but

it seems the familial close to people characters or characters she thinks she knows are the ones that end up fooling her like little finger liza and walder fray so embarking on this journey to king's landing and saying we shall see what we shall see once more put sight as a theme for cattle and seeing as a theme that's really interesting yes and i mean she does a lot of seeing she does a lot of reading she's pitted against one of the big readers in the series and her judgment around those such as little finger and liza and sure walter fray with whom she's not close it's clouded right it's like the milk of the poppy and love are the same thing, clouding her judgment about them.

Yeah. As for how Catelyn's gonna get south and her assertions that, you know, two people on mount are faster, I will say that I think this is true. Our friend Maddie was streaming

Game of Mountain Blade, the A Song of Ice and Fire edition, that mod, and it was just one person running on foot all the way from Harrenhal to Winterfell. And it happened very fast,

and I believe that this is a factual statement that Catelyn has said based on that single evidence that I have seen. My God. It is true. I i mean you have to stop for everyone it's like taking a road trip with two people versus four i mean except this time it's like versus 40 but i mean i think that that it sounds to me like they should be one person just running on foot right for maddie but yeah oh my god i don't know if that's how it works in real life.

If you or a military member near you want to weigh in with your cavalry, please do. I mean, is this real life? We're just jumping to oh yes, incest. I mean, I just don't think they can get him on this. I don't think they can charge

them on murdering John Aaron. You can find them guilty for incest and treason if you charge them with that, but it seems like that's not what you're trying to charge them for. Unless, well, she burned the only evidence, right? Liza's letter. Because that could be submitted, but. And Paisel, if you called in Paisel as a witness, because Paisel was like, yeah, I think Cersei did it and I love her for it.

Paisel, you walk into his house. Remember in Hey Arnold when Hilgadjie Pataki had the shrine for Arnold? Yeah, it was the best. It's just that about Lannisters when you walk into Pycelle's room. He has a Lannister shrine. Absolutely. He's lucky he died before anyone found that. Oh my god, how humiliating.

How embarrassing for you Kaisel thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of A Song of Ice and Fire reread Catelyn 3 in a Game of Thrones we will be back in April with more Catelyn next week we will be back with our His Dark Materials episode.

However, we'll be covering La Belle Sauvage another few chapters, so stay tuned for that. But it is not our only Song of Ice and Fire episode left for this month. We do have a special Patreon episode for patrons $5 and up in the stranger tier and above

with our good friend Joe Buckley. Yes, I can't wait uh this is an episode that should have happened years ago we're making it happen now and we'll talk more about it yes just like the winds of winter i georged this episode so hard so i'm really excited that we got another opportunity to try to do it all over again can Can't wait to have Joe on. Make sure you check out his podcast at the Isle of Faces. He's covering scraps and scrolls from Valar Ririthas from History of Westeros, and he does some great writing for them,

as well as his writings over at the Tower of the Hand. And if you are free at all and in the Thunder tier and above on patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon, our Thunder tier members, $10 and above, will have access to a Discord brunch this weekend, March 21st, 2021. If you are hearing this Friday or a day or so before or after, please come join us. On the 21st of March, we'll be doing a brunch happy hour where we hang out, play some Jackbox

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