Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 143 — AFFC Brienne I featuring Shiloh Carroll

Episode Date: November 5, 2021

Saddle your horses: We're going on a new journey across Westeros in search of a maid that is definitely-not-Sansa-Stark-but-sounds-exactly-like-her with the truest not-a-knight of them all—Brienne of Tarth. Often mistaken for a POV where nothing happens, Shiloh Carroll, author of Medievalism in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones, joins us to set the record straight with insights about chivalric romance literature and the knight errant character. Where to find Shiloh Carroll: Shiloh's Wordpress: Musings on medievalism in pop culture: https://shilohcarroll.wordpress.com/ Books: Medievalism in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones: Boydell & Brewer | Amazon | Barnes & Noble Medievalism in Gaiman: Upcoming Essays on Jaime and Brienne, Chivalric Romances, and Arthuriana Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Shiloh's Twitter https://twitter.com/medievalismish   Link mentioned: Lo the Lynx's essay on Brienne and Arya as gender outlaws https://lothelynx.wordpress.com/2020/08/27/brienne-and-arya-gender-outlaws/ --- 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, Read A Song Of Ice and Fire, episode 143, Brienne 1, in a Feast for Crows, Brienne introduction, featuring Shiloh Carroll. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And yes, it is a super, super exciting day. And we're really glad that we have Shiloh here. I I mean I've been waiting for this to happen for a long time I'd call it an honor honestly we are you know in a chapter all about honor our friend Shiloh dropped by to bring her knowledge Shiloh hello thanks for coming on and hang out with us tonight I know we've been talking about it for what, two-ish years at this point? Finally managed to find a spot, you know.

An RPOV order doesn't allow us sometimes to straight up go message people because it's very secretive. As you know, you've already been served NDAs, you've been served all the litigation that Allie and Jake could send you, my cats. So, look, no one's paw's perfect but it's very secretive you never know who the next pov is gonna be yeah many people were speculating on who would be the pov to follow up kathlyn and shiloh shiloh kept it under wraps so that's we run a very secret operation here. Yep. We're like fairies.

Very, very heavy, yeah. Well, and we like to ask people, you know, like ahead of time, like, hey, what's your fave POV? Oh, that's good. We'll see you in six years. No, I'm just kidding. We're just like,

we're just like, shit. Shit. Shit, don't say that one. Don't say that one. So if we haven't gotten back to you, now you know. Thanks for coming on. Tell everyone, everyone well tell everyone a little about you and where they can find you and some of the really exciting works that you've created hi i'm shiloh and i'm a chocoholic wait

wrong group um my book medievalism and a song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones is available. Most, I think most fans probably have it by now, but in case you don't, that is out there. I'm working on another one, another book called Where Shadow Meets Grendel, Medievalism in the Works of Neil Gaiman. That one will be out in 2023 is what we're planning. In the meantime, I have little like mini essays on medievalism and various pop culture things at shilohcarroll.wordpress.com and my just complaining about shit over on twitter at medievalism ish oh that's the perfect it's honestly the perfect handle for that but you do have to get that book if you don't have that book in your shelf and you're in a song of ice and fire fan you should have it on hand just to reference i like to read i like to read some of the good stuff especially the good stuff on our girl here brienne i mean

it's a great book and not only is it very enlightening for the series i just learned new things through it like as as you've discussed in other things about medievalism kind of up end that what we've been taught about it. So I want to make a quick aside. You said chocoholic. I don't know if any of you have seen, and I was going to get some, but I haven't yet.

There's like this new chocolate brand where the bars are based off of different books and like the flavors. Yeah. So like, for example, like inspired, like I forgot like the one for like the little princess which chloe there's a little princess chocolate it's inspired by like i forgot

one of the teas or something that's like someone really loves in the book they have like a call of cthulhu one which is like has like nori in it and then they have like a couple of other ones i'll see if i can find it and send you all the link, but I'm just curious. Oh my god, I would eat all of these. I would. Shiloh, what's your, I guess we're coming right off of Halloween for us here, so what's your favorite chocolate? Probably those little Dove dark chocolate bites.

Oh, yes. Do melt in your mouth. Yes. I love dark chocolate. I am a dark chocolate. You can just feed me dark chocolate I'm good so I just wanted to bring that up I feel like this is the crowd

I started eating chocolate I'm keeping it in I had mine before we got started we don't get trick-or-treaters but every year we think what if we get them oh you don't interesting we don't either no so we don't really sit outside our house waiting though and i think that's kind of the norm for us around this area so plus succession was on last night you know we aren't that late. We had a drink of champagne. You started earlier.

One of the houses on our block was also giving out wine shots for the parents along with candy, which was very sweet of them. I'm trick-or-treating at Eliana's next year. I'll find a kid. I'll find some kid. I mean, they would have given it to adults, too. I think that they offered some, and I was like, no, thank you. Which is probably, I probably should have taken it. But I was trying to meet a cat. Anyways.

Halloween is over though. It is now November. And that means we have a new Patreon episode coming out later this month. But last month, because it was Halloween, was about the spirits, creatures, and magical features in His Dark Materials.

And that was a great episode. I had a lot of fun in that episode. We actually, like, we got into some really great folklore, some Commonwealth lore, if you will. And this month, I think we're going to get into some good lore, too. It's going to be in a Song of Ice and Fire episode. In fact, it's going to be such a fun episode, we had to ask for two of our friends who have been on the cast before to come back and help us do it. It's Nymeria, Nivember. It is indeed Nymeria, November. I like to say Nivember. And then as we were coming up on the month, I was like, Nivember is Nigh. And I thought I was very clever for that. But, yes. And, I mean, so we're going to be talking, of course, about Nymeria's voyages.

And we're going to maybe talk a little bit about, like, if I'm not mistaken, we heard that maybe it's being considered for one of the television adaptations. bring on to talk about Nymeria besides our good friend, AK, the Lord Commander, Alicia Kingston, and Ashea from History of Westeros. Yes, the perfect Nymeria guests to bring on, in my opinion. And, you know, even before you and I really got rolling rolling, we were just getting rolling with Girls Gone Canon. But I did an episode on Nymeria with A'shea over at Drunk Aeswaf History way back in the day. So this is like, that was foreshadowing. This is, it's happening in full.

The prophecy is fulfilled. Indeed. And yeah, I'm excited to get into that. But more details about that will come out as we go. That is our $5 tier and above. You have access every month to a new bonus episode, whether it's themed on A Song of Ice and Fire, whether it's themed on His Dark Materials, or other books. There may be other books and stories in your future, she said.

There might be, but who knows? Maybe. What is assured is that we do have other things also on our Patreon. For people in the Thunder tier and above, the $10 and up level, you have access to our Patreon Discord, where we, once a month, get together and do brunch slash happy hour with games and giveaways and get to know yous. our games and giveaways and get to know yous. Yes, our Thunder tier patrons,

$10 patrons and above, have access to that and like over 30 channels on the Discord to chit-chat in your heart's desire, talk about whatever you want, whether it's shitposting or books or media, all the fun stuff or a swap.

But this month we have not decided on the date yet. Maybe we'll bring that next week to you. I think we'll have a date by next week. We probably should. November is getting filled up. I mean, it's a busy month as we get towards the end of the year. People

make plans and shit. Yes, yes. And we also will have His Dark dark materials the amber spyglass an episode coming out for you at the end of the month last week of the month last friday of the month we put those out so keep an eye out for that on your feed if you are into the his dark materials trilogy or not just that trilogy but the books of dust trilogy which we've covered the very first one of all right housekeeping it's over the house is in the trash it's kept we've kept the house thank god i don't know where we'd put all these kids if we didn't elliana what kids the bodies the children oh my god okay it's halloween halloween's over it's over

without further ado drum roll you know like the big state i feel like this is this is the moment and we're stepping up to the podium because we are here to talk about brienne she is the moment she is the moment she is literally the era. She is literally the era, the culture. She is. We're here to talk about the eldest daughter of Selwyn Tarth, and we're going to do a lightning round and introduction for Brienne before we get to A Feast for Crows, because it's been just a little bit since we were with her. Not too long, right? Leaving off with Catelyn. We just saw her. We just waved goodbye to her and here we are again brienne's mom died when she was really young brienne doesn't remember her

her older brother galadin drowned when she was eight and has two younger sisters who died in the cradle as we first meet her in a clash of kings feels like it was yesterday gosh we meet brienne supporting renly fighting her way through a melee at bitterbridge and becoming brienne the blue of the rainbow guard she becomes his standard bearer and arms him for battle prior to his death by shadow baby she escapes with cadeline stark arriving with her to river run though wanting to take vengeance for renly's death instead she remains in river run to defend it through the Battle of the Fords and swears a vow to Lady Catelyn with Jaime Lannister to find her daughters.

And then that brings us to A Storm of Swords. Because of the really fleshed out perspective we get of Brienne through Jaime's chapters, we actually get a lot of Brienne's character arc and transformation like beginning even before we get to her chapters, right? We get the setup from Catelyn, we get changes and shit in Jaime's chapters. It's kind of like Jaime, right? Whose journey picks up from Catelyn's final clash chapter. Brienne, Cleos, Frey, and Jaime are sent by Catelyn to barter for Sansa and Arya to come home to the Riverlands. Brienne defends them ably, even saving them from being tricked into an ambush from an innkeep. Later,

while Brienne and Jaime spar, they end up ambushed by different outlaws near Maidenpool and Cleostise. It was a very dramatic sex scene. They're captured by the brave companions, who chop off Jaime's hand. Brienne

coaxes him through this, reminding him of the vengeance he can take in order to survive, and in turn, Jamie protects her when the companions look to assault her. They take her armor and then Renly's sword from her, but Roose Bolton winds and dines them from the clutches of the companions, allowing them an incredibly steamy bath full of post-traumatic stress to wash away their sins. Jamie is let go by Ruth, but Brienne is kept as a hostage. Jamie dreams of her, though,

and comes back to her rescue as she is left in Vargo Hote's clutches to dance with a bear. You want her? Go get her. So he did. Iconic. Yeah, yeah, it's fine. It's iconic. I don't like it.

I love it. Finally, they are escorted by Steel Shanks Walton to King's Landing, where Brienne learns along the way Lady Catelyn was murdered. Betrayed. Betrayal. When they arrive in King's Landing,

Brienne and Jaime are accosted by Loras Tyrell, who accuses Brienne of murdering Renly. In order to protect her, Jaime has her arrested, like any sensible boyfriend would do. Jaime then pulls his own Catelyn-style scene, freeing Brienne, charging her with part of the sword,

ice, in the form of Oathkeeper, to go seek Sansa Stark, not the dead one, Arya, who's totally dead, he says, and sends her with a Lothstan shield, male hauberk, and some major cash, like major cash, Ola, and a paper shield from Tommen. God, I love Brienne so much. She's shy, and she's awkward,'s awkward and has like no self-esteem, but by the God, she's going to live up to her own expectations,

regardless of the cost to herself. I know a lot of people give her chapter shit because they don't think anything happens in them. And I mean, they're wrong, but the structure of them is so very medieval romance that they, they have a special place in my all things medieval loving heart. For a modern audience, medieval romances can be really hard because they don't follow that Aristotelian structure that we're all familiar with. The rising action, climax, falling action, blah, blah, blah, blah.

climax, falling action, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're a lot more episodic, and the structure is almost circular, with the protagonist returning to people or places or encounters. Romances focus a lot more on character development and the knight becoming who he's supposed to be, and if I can get a little bit academic here, and quote from Jonathan Evans's article, Episodes and Analysis of Medieval Narrative, medieval romance narratives tend to display a loosely knit sequential structure of individual adventures strung serially along the line of action in which the only stable factor generally is the identity of the main character himself. He also notes that romance protagonists seem to ride interminably from place to place beset by by an unending string of foes challenges tests and other obstacles does that sound familiar at all

a little bit a little yes absolutely absolutely to a t and brian's struggle with her identity as sir lady son daughter is also very romance hero because identity is a major part of romance, just like it's a major part of A Song of Ice and Fire. And my prediction for the end is that she'll find a place that fits her, rather than fitting herself into a prescribed place in society. I'm rooting for Lady Commander of Sansa's Queensguard myself. I have done more work specifically on Brianna's Galahad, and that's up on my website if y'all want more of me

going on about, like, romances and knights and Arthuriana and shit. Yes. I do want to say, because I know Eliana has a lot of thoughts on this too in return, but I do want to say, like, I hear a lot of people say that sam is like

the nerd pov right like everyone is sam and uh i love sam and i relate to sam a lot however brienne for me is that pov you know like we've all been that character in our minds you know us three especially i think in reading fantasy and fiction as children through now. So I really love what you said about Brienne and her insecurities, because that feels like that's just the reader, right? Like that's the camera that when she showed up as a POV, that's our camera. Absolutely. She's, as you said, really, really relatable. And we're also going to link the essays that you wrote on Brienne as Galahad and all those other thoughts

on Arthuriana regarding A Song of Ice and Fire in there too. Not all of them, just the ones about Brienne and dreaming. I was like, wait, I'm sorry. I over-promised. There's a lot of those. But yes, of course, check out Shiloh's blog. There's a lot of extensive, great thoughts and yeah I mean my thoughts here are more of like less of thoughts they're more of just a summary of this thing that actually this was a story I heard about when someone

that I met at the comic book store they were leaving to go do their like masters and they were deciding what they wanted to like do it on and I forgot what the other one was but this is the one that they were also considering. And it does dig into a little bit of what you were saying about identity between a sir, lady, and a son and daughter as a hero of the chivalric romance,

because this story called Le Roman de Solence is a 13th century text. And I thought it was really fascinating when I heard about it um it's like also Arthuriana but very very relatively recently rediscovered considering how old a lot of these stories are and how old a lot of them like how long a lot of them have been in like public discussion because people were like I don't know this they didn't care about this manuscript and thought it was like weird and had it in a crate marked unimportant documents in like someone's room

until like 1911. All right. It is rude because it's like kind of blowing people's minds. You're like, wait, this is a story from, from like the medieval era. It's authored by Audrey de Cornwall and it's written in old French and it follows like the air of the Earl of Cornwall, Cater, who weds the Earl's daughter, Euphemia. And King Evan has decided that daughters cannot inherit because these other two counts who marry twin daughters, they kill each other, fighting over the inheritance. And King Evan was like, I don't like that men are killing themselves over women so therefore decides to punish the women and like it's like women can't inherit anymore and kador is like i don't like that and decides hey even if we have a daughter let's tell everyone she's our son and raise her as our son and that's what they do there's a lot of fun interesting things like nature and nurture get like personified in

the story they argue with each other of like oh this is how like silence aka silence is supposed to be nature's like i'm gonna make her like super beautiful and so i guess she's technically named silencia but for a lot of the story goes by the name silentius well she's living her life as a man both as a knight and later a minstrel. And it's like this masculine form of the name. And you know what? Like, he's really good at being a knight and being a minstrel. Way better than everyone else. And because it's in Old French, it's really also fascinating how they do it

because it's a gendered language. More so than English is because even like the adjectives and the nouns have genders. um more so than than english is because even like the adjectives and the nouns have genders so the story even speaks of silencious using masculine pronouns a lot of the time and using a lot of the masculine form of these words and adjectives there's also like a traveling and evil queen like euphem and i don't know why her name is so similar to like like, Silence's mom. Like, that's really weird. Because she's also, like, really, really into, like, Silencious and gets rejected by Silencious and then makes up, like, a false rape accusation. So, like, I'm not gonna say, like, this is a bastion of, like, progressive thought in regards to this. It's also the 13th century, so, like, things are

clearly, clearly different. But they're also're also like then she's all like oh well i'm gonna get back at celentius and like they have to like send him to capture merlin who can only be caught by the trick of the woman and therefore like that works because celentius has like secretly also a woman and then ends up like going by celentia by the end and wedding Evan, the king. And anyway, it's a lot of twists and turns happen clearly. It's also surprisingly very, very, very, very similar to the manga

Princess Knight by Osamu Tezuka, whom some of you may know as the creator of Astro Boy, despite Tezuka never having read this work at all. There's a lot that's incredibly similar. And I'm gonna be honest, I don'tuka never having read this work at all. There's a lot that's incredibly similar. And I'm gonna be honest, I don't think George has read this work either. But it has become a much more popular text like in the 90s, as people have been like looking towards it to

study in terms of like, gender and sexuality. So it's become a something that has made its rounds more in gender studies lately. So y'all are always asking for people to ask George questions. And this is mine. Like, how much medieval lit has he actually read? I mean, he's obviously familiar with the medieval history through the historians. But I can't tell if he's read more than, like, the Martyr Arthur. And I would just love to know how familiar he is with the literature and not just the history

I think that's a good question I'm not brave enough to ask that one but I think it's a good question and I also like think that a lot of people and that's why I'm saying I don't think George has read this I think people give George a lot more credit in terms of like knowing all these stories from around the world than I think he necessarily has read or has had the time for, you know?

Like there's so many things that we didn't have the internet back then, you know? But yeah. Anyway, so like just the idea of Brienne, who's like a knight, right? As you pointed out, like meandering, going to all these different places, meeting people and challenges, right? And Brienne's meandering not just geographically through these adventures, but also meanders across gender. It's not strange at all for a chivalric romance. Like literally history has one. Yep.

That's such a good question because there's so, I mean, his work is so easily paralleled to so many others of his time like not of his time but before his time and it's just it is easily paralleled to a lot of different stories that it's like is it storytelling itself is it or has he actually read something and that's i would love a little checklist like george could you just do this quick 200 book survey for us 200 literature piece. This BuzzFeed quiz of what you've read and what you haven't. How well read are you, George? Listen, George, really important.

Just so I can understand moving forward. No, but, you know, there's even one, and I think Shiloh, you'll have something to say about this too. But Robin McKinley's books throughout the 70s and 80s, it makes me wonder, first, I mean, there's Beauty, a Beauty and the Beast retelling from 1978, The Blue Sword in 1982, and its prequel, The Hero and the Crown, that came in 85. They're heavily Arthurian, a good nod to Brothers Graham,

a clear call to adventure adventure a call to heroism and there's something really really interesting in it just a few things and just themes of female knights and honor right and the Beauty and the Beast retelling her name is Honor Beauty's name is Honor

and as a child her sisters get prettier and they all marry off but she stays plain and i'm like okay yeah yeah the rest is classic beauty and the beast stuff it's nothing really interesting but the blue sword is the one that makes me think the most of brienne a the blue sword i mean that one's that that sticks out and even a little bit of aria like when i was thinking about it deeply i'm like oh wait a second there's a lot of aria and a lot of brienne in these stories because the blue sword

follows harry an orphaned young woman to a desert outpost where her brother is stationed in the military uh and she meets a mystical king unlocks her own powers saves the desert outpost from invasion but she brings peoples together to do so and she becomes a king's rider and heir to the blue sword which no woman has wielded since the legendary heroine lady erin of the history books ari the orphan comes out in that and also the blue sword for brienne but also stitching and needlework and all of these i'm not like other princess tropes that again makes me go like is it the storytelling and is it the genre or this one feels like an homage you know in certain ways is it an archetype or is it a direct influence exactly it's hard to find that we do know he is really into beauty and the beast that one we do know for sure that gave me alarms that makes and that's why

i'm like this one might actually be something that he's thinking of because like beauty and the beast and the time that that was released 78 which people think that that actually influenced the disney one a lot because there's a lot of direct polls like her being very bookish is a direct poll from that people have said in the past like i think disney copped a little bit off that so it wouldn't surprise me since george was very beauty and the beast minded at the time before he you know yeah had the television show he had to write his own beauty and the beast fanfic so i'm sure he's seen every beauty and the beast iteration let alone read as many as he could honestly that's possible that possible. That one, I'm like, maybe.

Maybe he did. I mean, he literally has. I mean, Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, though. La Belle et la Bête, that one is straight up. I mean, the Blackwater episode, he literally parallels Sansa and Sandor's scene as Beauty and the Beast from that rendition. And it's like, it's completely one for one. It is intense. And he loves Cocteau

obviously so I just think I'm sure he's seen them all he's seen them all that one I wouldn't be afraid to ask I'm just that ready out there to spit fire hot takes you've got a long list of questions

I do actually well that leads us into You've got a long list of questions. I do, actually. Well, that leads us into our actual first real live lightning round for what we missed between the start of the book of A Feast for Crows and Brienne chapter one. Yes. Prologue. Pate the pig boy hopes to win Rosie's heart, but meets an alchemist on the way who leads him quite astray. Human transmutation, not even once. That is leading people astray. The prophet, Aaron Greyjoy's brother, has returned to claim the salt chair

I'm sorry for who I am I'm gonna quit Aaron calls for a king's moot to occur in Old Wyke the captain of guards, Prince Doran takes a temperature check of the sand snakes and they're locked up for being far too spicy which now that I realize it these days

that could also be bad cersei one cersei dreams of herself on the iron throne ruined only by tyrian's mocking face and also all of the throne devouring her flesh she wakes to news of her father's death and tyrian's escape and that brings us to Brienne 1, A Feast for Crows. I am looking for a maid of three and ten, highborn, with blue eyes and auburn hair. And that's it. You know, that's the driving thing. That's the driving goal for a lot of Brienne's plot. Obviously, more things happen because there's other internal plot,

but that's the external driving factor. And I find that kind of funny about Brienne's story, because along with those elements of chivalric romance, George has kind of returned to like, he kind of just like loves coming back to this detective mystery novel thing that he started the series out with, with Ned. And then to an extent also catelyn has that too but brienne is now playing detective to chase down their daughter wow it's like is this about surrogate parenting like becoming a detective i don't know anyways none of these people have been trained as private investigators though as we can tell by how the investigation goes and its success or lack thereof but it is fun to see that that all fleshed out much more

explicitly as brienne's like thinking through the reasoning and questions it's a ned all over again right she has her own little ned neddard plot going on but no one has seen this maid not the blacksmith the good wife who calls brienne sir nor nor the septon, nor the girl pulling onions in her garden, nor anyone in the huts of Rosby. Romances often start out with the hero leaving the familiarity and stability of the court and going out into the world to have adventures and encounters with people who are not of the court, which is what Brienne's doing here. We did see her do something similar with Jaime in A Storm of Swords,

but this is the first time we've seen her out on her own as a knight errant on a quest. Yeah, she's building up her character on her own. I love it. She does go through a lot. Oh yeah. Example now. Still she persists.

This is the shortest way to Duskendale. And she continues her trek, asking the guards at the castle gates if they had seen her either. If she's on the roads these days, she won't be no maid for long, said the older man. The younger wanted to know if the girl had that auburn hair between her legs as well. I will find no help here, Brienne thinks. Jesus, literally out of the gate, Brienne's like, wow, what pile of misogyny do I want to deal with today? Which coming off of Cersei's first chapter, you know, in the last chapter is the perfect place to be. Perfect place to just turn to a

new brand of misogyny. Yeah, George really subjects Brienne, like more than any other female character, I think, to this sort of frat boy bro code level of misogyny that just reminds me of any story you've ever heard of a girl or a woman trying to do something male coded, like be a knight in Brienne's case. Yeah, that is exactly how to put it. be a knight in Brienne's case. Yeah, that is exactly how to put it. You know, it's the local chick joining

the football team story in the news is here, and here we are, and it's apparently not acceptable in Westeros, and it's like, it ranges, right? Like, some of it is god-awful. Some of what she deals with is god-awful, but some of it is like this monotonous

bit of misogyny. Itotonous bit of misogyny it's just like a misogyny oatmeal that she has to trudge through the entire time just enough to be utterly annoying and bring your spirit down every day hourly intervals and it's almost really fitting that she has to start her plot off going to duskendale which is exactly where the northern campaign kind of failed and lost right where we left catalan's chapters that they'd all been tricked over in duskendale and grief overcame them and uh wait a second wasn't it ruse bolton who did all that betraying same guy that betrayed brienne too right when you think about it i also think this is like comparable to the first chapter of storm for jamie starting the book is that riverlands quest chapter for

jamie and now brienne is beginning her riverlands adventure but going the opposite direction right going the exact opposite direction they're both on very opposite paths. They are, but yet their paths will converge later on. Anyway, she tries to talk to a boy on a horse. Hi, Pod! But he vanishes, and she doesn't give chase.

Sans is not here. It's time to move on to Duskendale. She had lingered too long, and learned too little in the city. I should have set out earlier. Sansa Stark had vanished. Brienne wonders where she would go, a maid newly flowered, alone, afraid. She thinks she'd go home to Tarth to her father, but Sansa was made to watch her father lose his head. Her mother had been murdered at the Twins, and Winterfell was sacked and burnt.

And this gives us a quick here's what you missed in a storm of swords check-in to remind us of Sansa's predicament and how impossible this quest is going to be for Brienne. Yeah, it's difficult. It's difficult, and I know that readers struggle with it because they're all like, wait, oh, where Sansa is? And I think

for some people that takes the wind out of the sails for Brienne's narrative, but it's irony. Anyway, where Sansa is. And I think for some people that takes the wind out of the sails for Brienne's narrative, but it's irony. Anyway, so Sansa, as you all know, has no home, no family, allegedly. She could be one town over or on a ship to Asshai. And I do think it's interesting that Brienne wonders where Sansa would go as a maid newly flowered, because Brienne can actually wonder that for herself. She has once been considered newly flowered, and having had to go through those same predicaments and having had to learn to deal with this question of safety on the road, which pretty much pervades her entire POV and also this chapter, how she would be able to have that freedom of movement. And then realizes that well despite that exercise and empathy turns out sansa's options are actually real different from

mine lol because her family's dead allegedly um which i also find just as amusing but it is interesting just to see brienne put herself in sansa's shoes considering that kat has seen them as similar in their love of stories and many readers point to similarities between the two of them. We are going to, not just the similarities between Brienne and Arya, though those are also there. The show seemed to really want us to see that too. And those, some of the conclusions, interestingly, that Brienne draws about where Sansa could have gone, aren't that far off from the choices that Arya made. And she comes so close every single time. She's always like, right there.

She's always like, well, I guess I would have gone to the Vale. And I'm like, yes, yes, but not like that. But yes, yes. God, we're so close. And no one remembered her leaving at the docks or any ship leaving in King's Landing. When she was there, she had learned the ships they did see were all heading to Duskendale, which is why we are too. And this is where we see Peter's sneakiness really paid off because we're shown how he avoided questions like this being answered.

Because, for example, he didn't push off from from a dock but he used a sneaky boat to get sanso way out into the bay to his ship instead so it's perfectly designed to make sure nobody will ever figure out how sanso got out of the city right down to killing the guy who rode her over yeah yep uh poor dantos you sad motherfucker actually though the poor yeah i know i mean i especially and we're actually i feel bad for him here especially as we go to dusk and dale right like the memory of him as a little boy being spared by aries right at the defiance really rings through these couple chapters for Brienne, for me, whenever I read it. I think about that, and I think about how Littlefinger was like, yeah, you'll do. You'll do. You'll make a good arrow-punching bag for the day.

The port at Duskendale is busy. It's full of begging brothers, silent sisters, ox carts, an old woman in a horse litter with mounted guards. None of them have seen a maid of three and ten, and one man has warnings for her of the road ahead. Outlaws and broken men remain in the woods. And I just wanted to just pause here for a second because I think George does something really clever here with the begging brothers and the Septon on the Palfrey that reminds me of Chaucer a lot. And Chaucer's so anthologized that I think we can assume that he's probably read some Chaucer, at least. In the Canterbury Tales, we get a bunch

of different characters at different walks of life, but there's several different types of clergy that Chaucer's using as commentary on the church, and this section in particular reminds me of the monk. Monks were supposed to take vows of poverty and live in their monasteries and stuff, but Chaucer's monk is big and loud and he loves hunting and wine and basically doesn't hold to any of the rules that he's supposed to. But Chaucer's narrator doesn't call him out, he just tells us about him. And it's up to the reader to recognize that the monk is derelict in his duty. And here

George has a blink and you miss it moment where he contrasts the begging brothers with a septon on an incredibly expensive horse during wartime when people are literally starving to death. And it's such a subtle yet effective call out about how the upper echelons of

the faith aren't taking care of the people at all. That's a great catch. Not at all. Not at all. And we see a lot of contrasts of, I think that's such a great catch and a great call out because we see, yeah, different kinds of allegedly people of faith,

right? Throughout Brienne's journey journey i do think it's interesting that she doesn't regard them personally like any different for who they are too you know like of the people she comes across she doesn't really treat them at all i mean she kind of stays silent and surveys for safety but you don't see her think any different way on any of them they're just people she beats on the road, which is interesting. She gives us like a really fair analysis of them all. She wants us to choose.

Choose your own adventure. And choose we have. Oh, that. Choose we have. Turn to page 786 and yell sword. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah. She just keeps choosing the different path.

We're like, the veil, the veil. As you said she starts to wonder if jamie giving her this task was a cruel joke sansa could be dead beheaded in king's landing in an unmarked grave how better to conceal her murder than send brienne to find her but she reminds herself sir jam Jaime wouldn't do that. He gave me the sword and called it Oathkeeper. Anyway, it made no matter. She had promised Lady Catelyn she would bring back her daughters, and no promise was as solemn as one sworn to the dead. It's an interesting contrast between Jaime's sense of honor and Brienne's, because Jaime's is very outward focused and depends a lot on what other people think of him, which makes sense when you consider his personality and his psychology,

but also the actual medieval definition of honor being your reputation and your place in the pecking order and sometimes a horse. But Brienne's is inward focused and more about her being able to live with herself and think of herself as the kind of person who protects the weak, keeps her promises, all the things that, all the things that knights are supposed to swear to do, despite her not being a knight.

Yet. Yet. And I mean, that is kind of like the biggest, we'll talk about Duncan the Tall, this entire POV. Let's be real he'll come up he'll come up and this chapter is very sworn sword I mean right down to the feast

for crows imagery going on obviously they're one in the same hand in hand but I do think that she is more of a knight than most knights yeah and you know I think that's the big thing and the big question people say well no one legitimately really knighted dunk is the theory but in my head i'm like yeah but he's still i'd go to him first yeah i pointed that and maybe that's the big dummy thick himbo muscles but i'd go to that guy first that's all i'm saying a lot of people do all i'm saying yeah exactly it was a good idea egg was like i'm going to him. Egg was like, this guy got it. I'm over here like, this guy fucks.

And then his family's like, you just fucked this man. And he's like, oh. It's in my blood, isn't it? It is, Egghead. It is. Oh, and you'll kill so many other men, too. Oh, my God. Well, all the happiness going on. Okay, I didn't notice this line before until Shiloh was, you know,

speaking about the promises and all these great things, but solemn as the one sworn to the dead. Solemn? A solemn promise? For silent sisters and stoned hearts hearts is that what's going on there that line really struck out to me this time i don't know feels intentional you know yes well that promise is gonna come back to bite you that's for sure yeah yeah that's for sure and for stoneheart wouldn't it be more, promise me?

Yes, it would. And also, I mean, could she be like, this isn't solemn anymore now that you're back. Happy for you, Kat. Also, like, now that you're hissing things through your fucking throat hole, that's not solemn either. It's not a very solemn mood. God. solemn either it's not a very solemn mood god so something about this and about her thinking of jamie and jamie wouldn't do that to me makes me think of cersei's chapter that we just passed while doing this chapter and of course this is the chapter that opens with cersei dreaming she's

above the courtiers only to be slashed and gouged into pieces by the Iron Throne, which she then blames on her brother somehow as the barbs of the Iron Throne bite into her flesh and blood runs red down her leg. Steel teeth gnaws at her buttocks. Just some really dark imagery. The last sentence of it is, the more she struggled, the more the throne engulfed her, tearing chunks of flesh from her breasts and belly, slicing at her arms and legs until they were slick and red, glistening. It's still Halloween in this house, is what I'm saying. But that stood out to me in the last chapter, because is that not unlike the end of Brienne's feast chapters? Right? Biter's mouth tore free, full of blood and flesh.

He spat, grinned, sank his pointed teeth into her flesh again, chewed and swallowed. He is eating me, she realized, but had no strength left to fight him any longer. Very similar in just the grotesque biting and stabby, fleshy, grossy imagery. And the other things that I noticed in that chapter that stand out really heavily is their exact opposite kind of situations. That Cersei is surrounded by knights in King's Landing and her dead father. And she doesn't know where her creepy little brother that she thinks is responsible for everything is. And she's kind of stuck with jamie who she's not really he he's a centerpiece of the chapter in some aspects because he's refusing her hand job and for brienne you know she's wondering is he

dooming me is he fucking me over uh but brienne and cersei are in opposite situations cersei's stuck beneath the iron throne that she dreams of, right? She's trapped beneath power where Brienne feels that she's not welcome to come home, right? Without dishonoring not only herself, but her father in some aspects. And she's kind of trapped on this road looking for A, her existence, right? Hoping to find her existence and forge her existence on the road amidst the throes of an oath and both of them are wishing for those opposite things Brienne for peace and safety and Cersei lusts for a storm to have wrath shake through the seven kingdoms I do love that we get

these opposite lines where Cersei is begging Jaime saying we're his heirs Jaime it's up to us to finish his work you have to take father's place as a hand you see that now surely and at the same time Brienne is thinking Jaime would not do that he was sincere he gave me the sword and called it oath keeper so you can kind of see where Jaime's sitting in the middle of these two POV chapters many times throughout this book which is just chef's kiss when george lines that shit up in a row for us uh you can see what he's sitting between it's very clear his family probably won't bring him honor unlike for other people jamie as we all know, put Brienne on this quest, and as he did so, told her that Arya was long dead.

And that, you know the Arya that we sent north to the Boltons? That one is fake. So all we really want to do is find Sansa. We only got Sansa, right? Because the other one is a deepfake Arya. And I haven't really thought about this much before but I kind of feel it's important I mean like yeah of course Theon knows that Jane isn't Arya but like

does both Jaime and Brienne knowing that the Bolton claim through the Starks isn't real would that ever mean anything I think it definitely would if all of the Boltons weren't gonna die before anybody could actually call this claim into question.

Yeah, that's true. And yeah, it would take like post-Circe Jamie for that to happen, I feel like, or for him to... Because like he pretty much, in this chapter too, she thinks like, oh, he was like, Arya's dead, bitch. That bitch dead. She's dead. That girl is bitch dead. She's dead. That girl is dead as fuck, Brienne. He's like, I know dead motherfucking kids. She's one of them.

He might not, all right, because he failed to kill that one kid. So maybe he doesn't know dead kids. I know, that's what I'm saying is he's not very good at it. He's not as good at dead kids as he thinks. That's true. By the end of The Wind's a Winner, I'm sure he'll be a master at dead kids as he thinks but by the end of the wins a winner i'm sure he'll be a master at having dead children he has one now yeah um yeah two more i guess brand would find out anyway through the brotherhood like they'll be like right but you know who he saw

funny story aria stark that's uh that's so funny she, man. She was just here a couple books ago. Imagine them telling that to Lady Stoneheart. You know what's so funny? I saw Arya. Just the other day. Well, near dusk, Brienne sees two men grilling trout, and their armor is stacked beneath a tree. The younger man greets Brienne, inviting the sir to come have trout with them. She thanks them, takes off her helm, and they're shocked at her being a giant armored lady this trout feels meaningful

what does it mean eliana i don't know yet but it feels meaningful i do think it's it's a meaningful interaction right It's one of the many we'll come to with characters like Nimble Dick, with her and her having to trust these men that we'll talk about. I meant the trout of House Tully. I mean, she's already accepted eating a trout if she's going to be like, thumbs up, Jamie Lannister. Maybe she just chomps on Lady Stoneheart. I mean, she did to Byter.

Well, Byter did that to her cheek, and she could learn it from there. Anyway. She ate Vargo's ear. stoneheart that's how she i mean she did to bite well biter did that to her cheek and that she could learn from there anyway she ate vargo's ear oh that's so true she's practicing she's been waiting all her life to eat a real trout uh brianne thinks freakish is the word most people would use to describe her broad in the shoulder broader in the hips thick and long arms and legs her chest more muscle than bosom her hands big her feet enormous and her face freckled horsey full of big teeth all right i just have a couple thoughts you know stay with me no really why does she sound so hot though right like george might not be bisexual but i am and big feet and hands to stomp on me with mommy

and i i won't go much farther than this but i i get in trouble you know when i act like brianne might be unconventionally attractive on the internet so maybe everyone else who thinks anyways but there is this line in the front of the books between ned and aria that it makes me think of right because ned says of liana you remind me of her sometimes you even look like her liana was beautiful aria said startled everybody said so it's not a thing that was ever said of aria aria was called horse face by Jane Poole and Sans all the time and Arya is generally accepted as a good looking kid. That's all. Have a nice

day. I think it's worth pointing out that in this particular case they only comment on her size. She goes from there to freak, ugly, horsey because she's heard it her whole life so any comment on her look

sends her into that anxiety spiral about all of it yeah it reminds me a little bit of tyrian's lecture to john at the beginning of all of these books where he's like talking about like armor yourself in it and it can be never used to hurt you and i'm like yeah i guess but but the way that we see tyrian do it and and that kind of echoes what you're showing that brienne is doing here you're not letting other people hurt you with it because instead you're hurting yourself with it they use it to to punish themselves and as you said go into this spiral not unlike kendall in season three episode three of succession last night, honestly. Yeah. Wow. You're just going to spoil this.

Did you get spoiled? Did you all just get spoiled off of me comparing? I have seen zero of succession. So Kendall Roy breathed in succession. I mean, he does that every episode, so it's fine. Spiraling. Exactly. Yeah, that's, that is really pointed.

Like, throughout it, I mean, it's not, you know, that's self-imposed right there. That just, you know, you're just freakishly tall, like six foot something, George said. He's like, not even that tall. She's not like six, seven. He said she's like six, one-ish, six, two-ish. You know, a normal tall, a sexy tall.

Get on, girl. Go ahead with yourself. She asks these men if they've seen Sansa in her quaint little way, maybe in company of a portly red-faced knight, but they haven't seen either. They invite her over to eat and she surveys them, coming to the conclusion they are hedge knights and don't look dangerous. She asks their names, and I do love this line that she thinks, a hedge knight and a robber are two sides of the same sword, it was said. With how Brienne's arc comes around later on with the broken man speech that we get from Septon Meribald, the contradiction of being a daughter born a woman trying to become a knight,

she's always walked that edge of being a daughter a son a maid a knight but she also kind of is tilting between these worlds of class right whether it's being with jamie and having you know getting that sugar daddy sword on the side you know what i'm saying or uh whether it's her being a hedge knight not quite a real knight not yet a robber knight maybe later maybe that comes later with the Brotherhood. Who knows if she goes rogue. But she has to fit in and at the same time be aware of all of these classes of knights and people. And in some aspects, she does feel a sense of superiority when she surveys them, right? That she is morally, ethically above them.

Because she is. And she has her own little space. I mean, she should be. She should feel that way. But she has her own little space. I mean, she should be. She should feel that way. But she has her own space where no one is like her. There are no women like her. Just her. There are some. They're on Bear Island.

Yes. But she doesn't know that yet. Alas. But, yeah, I love what you pointed out here about class, and there is, I'm surprised, I'm like, Brienne, chill, chill, they're just poorer than you. Hold up. But I mean, there are definitely ways that Brienne holds a morality

better than others, and that comes from also, you know, her seeing those other aspects. You were saying she's not a knight. She's not a lady, not yet a night like britney spears says in her song i knew where you were taking it that's where i wanted you i wanted you to take me there okay anyways so a lot going on with brianne's identity and also with these people's identities because the men are Crichton Longbow, famous from the Blackwater. He has a green shield with a brown chief and a battle axe gouged upon it and Ser Illifer the Penniless. Wearing gold and ermine, journey, rough sun mantle,

and mail, Brienne stands ahead taller than either of them and thanks them saying she will gladly share the trout with them, stacking her arms and shields and saddlebags below an elm. As they eat, the knights tell her that they're heading to Duskendale, and she should probably ride with them because the roads are very dangerous, and when she thanks them, they insist because she is the gentler sex and they must defend her. She touched her sword hilt. This will defend me, sir. The sword's only as good as the man who wields it. I wield it well enough. As you will.

It would not be courteous to argue with a lady. We'll see you safe to Duskendale. Three together may ride more safely than one alone. It's probably the most benign sexism she'll face in her entire story but it's still sexism like you're saying that oatmeal just this this cloud of oatmeal oatmeal sexism she just has to deal with everywhere it's like the infantilizing work environment yeah yes yes when she obviously does not need to be infantilized like thank you so kind but there's no need to like i know you're feeling a little short today but no need to talk down

at me toward me yeah no need to talk toward me in this manner i could pick you up and rock you like a baby she should pick him up and spank him that's what she should do she should do like mulan when mulan first gets to the camps that might also be part of why i love brienne so much because i really love mulan um creighton and illifer i i find them really great characters with which to open brienne's story and they're just fun in general they feel kind of like physical embodiments of some of those questions that brienne is facing or responses to them because physical embodiments of some of those questions that Brienne is facing or responses to them, because Crichton very much feels like the concept of idealizing knighthood, right? He's lost, trying to live his life as a song, so much that he cannot see, as we've said, that Brienne could

definitely kick his ass. And Illifer kind of feels to me a little bit like a version of Jaime at the start of A Storm of Swords-like figure. He's jaded and he sees lies around every corner. And Brienne's story feels a lot like trying to find a different answer to the problem or this question that's posed. Something that's more of like kind of this in-between or this mediation between the Nevada of being really into the songs versus the pure distrust and cynicism of those who find life falls short of the songs like there doesn't need to be a dichotomy between like the creighton philosophy and the ill-offered one that's interesting i didn't uh i didn't think about them like that but i kind of love i thought about them a little differently and i'm going to talk about it later

on and come back to this because i have some thoughts but i think i want to hear a couple other things first but i didn't think of them as these separate things of like him as an idea of knighthood i saw it more as creighton as kind of jamie and the sarcastic assholeness that he sometimes does and illifer uh i i saw a little bit more as the Cleos fray of this. Oh, interesting. But that's a different trio we'll come back to. And for now, Brienne remembers them, actually. She does remember thinking of Jaime, who had just lost his hand, and Cleos, who had just lost his life.

And she tells them that these guys, their steeds, they can't keep up with her steed, which it's true. She's not being dishonest. She's just rich. Creighton, she's like, I'm sorry, I'm just mad fucking rich right now for my sugar daddy, Jamie Lannister. Didn't even have to fuck him. Amen. Creighton starts name dropping all of his great deeds and ransoms on the Blackwater.

And Illifer's like, she doesn't need you, dude. And Brienne's like, what do you mean? And he's like, well, look at your shield. You carry a lost shield. And it's the one Jaime had taken from the armory at Harrenhal. He calls it a liar's shield. Says that she has no right to it. His grandfather's grandfather helped kill the last of the Lothstens.

She tries to explain she lost her own shield, and Creighton says, A true knight is the only shield a maiden needs. And Brienne's like, I am a true knight. What aren't you getting about that? Exactly. I only need me. Real eyes recognize real lies. Oh my god.

Illifer ignores him, though, and says, A barefoot man looks for a boot a chilly man a cloak but who would cloak themselves in shame lord lucas bore that bat the pander and manfred of the black hood his son why wear such arms i ask myself unless your own sin is fouler still and fresher and then he says for that you freakish woman who hides her true colors i name you the maid of tarth who opened renly's throat it feels like we need a i would say it feels like we need a law and order right or like the fucking objection but what is there to object to i I mean, she is, right? Not the other part.

The murder part, maybe. I have objections. Not that murder. Other murders, maybe. I kind of love the way that Illifer turns this around and identifies it as, like, I named you the maid of charth kind of thing.

And he doesn't do it using Renne's name per se right he her size and the quality of her armor and i guess how nice her horses act as signifiers they're symbols that add to the narrative of like who she might be and i mean like why not right considering that by the class of these hedge knights brienne herself has woven these narratives about them without even knowing them. She's decided that they're one step away from dishonor or thieves. They're like pretty decent, but together with that symbol of shame,

the Lost in Shield, and Illifer recognizing it all, while Brienne actually doesn't recognize it despite her education, it feels kind of like an inversion of the scene where sansa names barriston and renly's like i name you barriston the bull i name you really blah blah and it kind of plays on our assumptions of class and even brienne's that illifer is the one who

recognizes this this house because i mean brienne's like i don't recognize their shields at all like i don't know them and using all of these symbols, Illifer then summons an identity of Brienne that is also laden with a narrative. It's a false one, as we know, because we were there in Catelyn's chapters when it happened. But again, he doesn't use her name.

He bestows her a title that comes with this character and story, the Maid of Tarth. And there's also something about it very much so in the the history of his grandfather and so on fighting against this and what he's referencing is of course the blackfire rebellions that's what he's referencing here we learn in the Dunk and Egg stories, we learn that Danielle Lothston, of course, shows up during the mystery night.

And we also learn in The Sworn Sword, Manfred Lothston had proved true instead of treacherous during the first Blackfire Rebellion. So not only did they then support the Blackfires, but then betrayed them. Betrayal. Exactly. First of all that. Second of all, on top of that, we've seen a lot of betrayal

in this book lately, right? There's been a lot of houses betraying houses betraying houses, going back on your word. So it's not only that you're a treacherous bitch because you supported the wrong king, but you're also a treacherous fucking bitch because then you killed that king and you broke your vows and then you supported another king and now you're supporting another

king and i get why stoneheart zombie ass isn't into it you know she's like i don't know if i can trust you it doesn't look bad i don't know it doesn't look great on paper right like your resume three months at each job girl we gotta talk uh but there's something deeper too going on in that rich history there's something that feels going on in that rich history there's something that feels really prominent in that it's a lothstan shield right indicating kind of riverlands heritage and loyalty and brienne may not have thought that but lothstans of course had heron hall way back in the day one of the the many houses to have had, loved, lost here and all. And Danielle Lothston right now is kind of a stand-in in this for Lady Stoneheart, right? Turning to the dark arts and quote-unquote going mad,

kind of representing Lady Cat in the story. And you even have from The World of Ice and Fire, Their line was ended in madness and chaos when Lady Danelle Lothston turned to the Black Arts during the reign of King Maegar I. Houth Lothston and Brienne evoking those arms doesn't really help when it comes to that Blackfire Rebellion for her case. But I do love in the background on top of that, that like it's another extinguished house of the Riverlands, not unlike the most recent king of the Riverlands in the north, that, you know, quote unquote, everyone's gone or dead or whatever he or she is looking for the last of them. And what's interesting is house went just got kind of rushed out of the Riverlands to our knowledge unless they were kettle blacks and there's a big theory

earlier on when we saw the septon that shiloh brought up we also saw an old woman in a horse litter with mounted guards and a lot of people have theorized what if that's lady shallow went that she was just chilling going by out there Not a lot of just singular ladies on the road with mounted guards that you see. Very interesting. Very interesting. No way to know, but thought it was fun. I wonder where she went. Flapped off with her big black wings, right?

Just like Sansa and her big black bat wings. Like that family that lost in Harrenhal. All. In the war well brienne responds that everything that they've heard about her that is a lie she had loved renly since the first time he visited tarth during his lord's progress to mark his coming of age but she doesn't tell him all that you don't go out there just spilling all your shit strangers some people do but selwyn had welcomed him with a feast and commanded her to attend she had been sansa's age more afraid of snickers than swords she had begged her father not to make her attend worried they would know about the rose and then they would

laugh at her but renly shows her every courtesy he's like I don't care about the bachelor and later the other men fall in the dance and here we get another romance thing so I just like add to the list of romance stuff for Brienne which is her pining after Renly which matches up with courtly love traditions in the medieval romances which usually involves the knight pining after an already married woman. In Brienne's case, this translates to a man who's inaccessible because, well, he's gay, and then he's dead. In lots of the romances, the lady in question ends up not being quite as inaccessible as she's supposed to be, and that's how we end up with, like, Lancelot and Guinevere. But Brienne's love interest is completely unavailable.

That's such a great call out in regards to the elements of a chivalric romance in Brienne's story. And it kind of persists, right? Because the unavailability aspect of that courtly love tradition you were talking about continues with jamie who is also considered unavailable besides the part where he's going through a breakup where they're just kind of ghosting each other because they never again define the relationship he's also unavailable because he's a king's guard which is peak every everyone knows not supposed to fuck Brienne especially knows and that's like part of it I mean because if she chooses

people to devote herself to that are completely unavailable in one way or another or another in either of those cases then she never has to be vulnerable as we said she can armor herself you know she doesn't have to actually face it

until her zombie mom her oath keeping zombie adoptive mom cat comes back and makes her face the noose music this is the worst way to deal with her romantic feelings lead him to his death

what? truly I hope she fucks him in the woods, you know? I hope they just run away and they at least fuck it out of your system because I get it. You know, I used to only date emotionally unavailable men too, so I get it, Brienne. I get it.

Well, Brienne, while self-sabotaging, had only wanted to serve and protect Renly for the kindness he showed her, but instead, she feels like she failed him. She thinks to defend herself against the allegations, but she knows they won't understand. She says she did not harm him and swears by her sword, but Illifer and Craiton are like, only a knight can swear by that. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. She must swear it by the seven. by her sword but illifer and creighton are like only a knight can swear by that fuck you fuck you fuck you she must swear it by the seven they're not even real so like at least this sword is literally real in fucking front of us god jesus she believes in that sort of lot but instead she has to go to each of the seven and go i did it's bullshit i did not hit her i did not

oh my mark like that's that's the scene but it also is very much analogous because tommy was so did not hit her he did not um it's a parallel jesus i will say there's something really special later that we'll get to when she pulls her sword sword out, right? Like, this is not that sword, and it's very obvious, and would swearing on this sword really mean that much to her? You know, because later when she opens up her sword from its wrap and holds it in her hands, it's like the real sword. That's the real god of her life right there she's like this symbolizes jamie's dick it's important oh my god it does after she swears it by each of the seven creighton says that she swears well for a maid

and illifer relents to this putting his dagger away and saying that if she lied, the gods will sort her out. Jesus. So he gives her the first watch of camp, and she paces, listening to the fire. She doesn't know these men, but she can't bring herself to leave them undefended. Gets an easy watch with little action, and when Illifer wakes to relieve her, Brienne lays on the ground, swearing to herself not to sleep. Even in Renly's camp, the risk of rape was always there. She had learned this beneath the walls of Highgarden, and again

with Jaime and the brave companions. I just want to take a quick aside and point out she talks about the cold seeping through the blankets, and I recently went camping for the first time in decades, and that shit's real. It sucks! It's so cold! I thought i was gonna be like this is great

wilderness outdoors i was like i hate this i'm so cold it's so cold i want to call out how important it is that rianne highlighted that the risk of rape was still there in renly's camp because sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war it's been brought up obviously in previous books before Rien's chapter because you know the first three books I was all like it's grimdark but and that's part of it and anyways it seems a lot more centered in this chapter and And obviously, we've seen an escalation of that sexual violence and rape being used as a weapon of war and being used to humiliate and therefore assert power over not just women's bodies, but over men, using that sexual violence to emasculate the men

for failing to protect women. And we see reference to the Rhodes all around being unsafe now, along with this discussion of broken men. It does get a brief mention in this chapter. And a lot of that discussion about broken men, even in the Septim Mar when it gets redirected, especially when they feel that power has been stolen from them. And that's how you get that increase in sexual violence from these broken men seeking to reassert their power, and they do it using harmful patriarchal ways. They take it out on women and their bodies. They redirect it to those who are weaker than them. And it isn't only along the road, and it isn't only among the soldiers, because that stress and the financial strain of war lead to more stress in the household, which leads to abuse and sexual violence against women, not just on the roads, but also inside the home, where men take their frustration out on women in extremist patriarchal societies, which, I mean, that's what Westeros is. But back to Renly's camp. The war had not escalated as much yet when Brienne was there, and it also shows more of that pervasive harmful patriarchy. It shows the cracks in the supposed

code of Renly's, like, shiny camp. They were supposed to be, like, the knights from the songs. They fancied themselves as these really, like, honorable heroes, but as Catelyn points out, they were knights of summer, and they couldn't abide that a woman would be there to break the veneer of who they're supposed to be. Our good friend Lo, Lo the Lynx, we've referred to them a lot, we're going to refer to them even more throughout this character reread. Lo speaks in their essay about Brienne and Arya as gender outlaws and how gender nonconformity is punished by reinforcing heteronormativity, and that's the case, right, in terms of this risk of rape. And Renly's camp, of course, is so entrenched in adhering to these roles of what

they think are the shoulds of westeros society especially andal traditions which makes it exactly the sort of place where this sort of reinforcement this weaponization of heteronormativity which is often like weaponized all the fucking time anyway um would happen but it does make me wonder um you know considering we never got the povs of the mormont women in rob's camp i wonder if they also felt the same risks we're sold that the starks are better they're more egalitarian but i actually imagine that it would be a risk for them as well yeah i'm sure it is because war is war and i mean we only got a look at the top of the camp that was always being paid attention to you know that someone was always there that could be held accountable during i mean we didn't see

you know what went on between the 10 000 men that were over at the bastard feast you know what i mean we didn't see how camp followers were treated because we weren't there and i mean to an extent we start to see that when you get some of the outer phrase right like ryman uh with bringing a camp follower to all these normal events and we see some of that so you wonder past that what's happening you know men with power that are already that's obviously different but i'm saying past that point you don't see past that so if you see at the top people that are just you know using their power which is fine if the other person is willing and happy to do so as well or looking to follow a camp on it but you also don't see the

men at the bottom with the 10 000 men on the other side of the river but what we do see is they lay with lions yeah yeah and we do see the perspective of when we see rob's camp we mostly see in terms of like the class and power system um because i was wondering you know would the mormon women who like brianne are are perhaps seen as trespassing when it comes to the gender roles of being a warrior and we know that like the north is more accepting of it but we only really see the Northern highborns, the Northern nobility, and their power is not threatened. If anything, the risks or the danger that the Mormont women might face are maybe perhaps from those who feel that they need to reassert their power and their place in the structure versus the Mormont women who not only get to have class and wealth and

land, but also then get to enter into this male sphere. And they wouldn't face that same, I think, hostility from those who already have power. And Kat doesn't talk to lowborns, really. Sure. I do also just want to put out that i don't think the north is that much more accepting of it i think the mormons are and that's not a necessity as we've seen because look at how alice karstark was treated as a highborn woman in her own home being chased after by her uncles so they could sell her hymen off to whoever said hey you know or whoever of themselves got the claim from it. And I mean, Ned's dad would not have let Lyanna have a sword. Like that's something that he said, like letting Arya have that sword.

And he literally says, I should have it taken away. But he doesn't. And that's a big change for the head honcho of the North to make in my opinion. And I mean, I'm not saying like, yay, Ned gender rights, but I i am saying like that's a big that shows you where the north is and when we get the look into john's pov and perspective and seeing all the women of the free folk that are just somewhat integrated but also still face you know sexual harassment from camp on a normal

everyday level i just think that that's closer to it that's closer to what we could see with the mormons in their own homes when they're comfortable but i wouldn't imagine that it was easy for the mormons i mean cadeline herself looks at daisy and thinks it's kind of strange that the girl wants to wear mail but okay she wears it fine you know she fits in semi-normally so i'll let it be uh but she thinks it in her own kind of way of just what she's used to so imagine how the men are thinking yeah especially of a pretty girl you know a girl that looks willowy and pretty when she's in a dress versus being in male and she's not really freakishly large or yeah yeah and we see them

perform hyper masculinity throughout anyway too not not the mormon women the men so yeah i'm sure it was yeah they probably made some like shitty comments to her constantly and she's like i don't the other side of that is like you have mage right like staring them down like you want to i'll eat your fucking face off i mean i think there was a mage probably wouldn't stand for that i think there was a risk against mage too i'm just saying for, for both, for all of them. And I,

whoever else they brought to, I mean, that's part of being in the King's protection though. Right. Like being as honored guard, honored advisors to the King. Yeah. I mean, that's part of that.

I mean, Brienne's theoretically honored too, but look at that. So it's always a risk. People say. Honor's a horse. Yes. So Brienne,

terribly cold. Like Eliana was when she went camping, wonders if Sansa Stark is cold right now, too. Probably. Elevation's a bitch. Lady Catelyn said Sansa was a gentle soul who loved lemon cakes, silken gowns, and songs of chivalry. Yet the girl had seen her father's head lopped off and been forced to marry one of his killers afterward. If half the tales were true, the dwarf was the cruelest Lannister of all. Okay, if she did poison King Joffrey, the imp surely forced her hand. Brienne learned Sansa was alone and friendless after she had hunted down one of her maids, Brella. There had been little warmth between the dwarf and Sansa, she discovered. Brienne sleeps very briefly,

and she wakes cold but unmolested. The hedgenites are out cutting up squirrels for breakfast and relieving themselves on trees. Hedgenites, she thought, old and vain and plump and nearsighted, yet decent men for all that. It cheered her to know there were still decent men in the world. What a mood. But also look at how low the bar is. They didn't rape her and steal her stuff so they're good men because the men she's used to dealing with are complete assholes. Yeah. Yeah. dealing with are complete assholes yeah yeah speaking of the barbie glow like that's how she ends up devoted to redley right because he like shows her the bare minimum of kindness by dancing with her i'm like i feel like that was expected for royalty seeing the expectations of rob at the red wedding and after that like tiny act of human decency Brienne's like I'm gonna risk it all I feel bad she was so

deprived of just like any any decency that that's it that septa was terrible yeah that septa was the worst and this is how you lead to having a very slutty couple of years at age 19

in my opinion I'm speaking from experience here, but that's living a life with no self-esteem where someone blinks at you and you think it means they love you. She's got to watch out because she might have a lot of Jamie Lannister's dick in her future.

She's holding it right now. Oh my god. It's on her neck. So, they eat roast squirrel, acorn paste, and pickles for breakfast. That's like a Bran-Arya kind of meal going on there. And Crayton tells of his deeds on the Blackwater, slaying knights she never heard of. He even praises Illifer's battle behavior, though Illifer says very little. People with names that begin with

ill they be like that um and yeah i don't know she calls him plump i'm like not everyone can be cut like you brianne and i obviously i think illifer is the foil to to creighton clearly takes into joy and violence and killing it seems he's just like yeah i don't know that kind of sucked and i again i'm kind of just like damn brianne just because you don't recognize like creighton and illifer and they don't brush shoulders with royalty it doesn't make them like less of knights especially compared to those in like runley's camp like yeah they were like big names but i'm like that's all they were and you know even even how like joffrey right was shuffled off the battlefield during the black water and yeah so you've never heard of creighton

song but you know what someone wrote a song about him okay just because it's on someone's obscure like soundcloud or mixtape doesn't mean that he's not like cool he was actually out there fighting compared to these highborns who weren't and just because you've never heard of these knights that like he fought nor of him and just because the other highborn nobles also don't know about his exploits doesn't mean that like other people don't and i i don't know why there's just something about the dismissiveness and belittling of like what creighton did at the blackwater that rubs me wrong i understand that we're supposed to see it as sort of like pompous and self-important but i'm also like yeah but that man fought and survived yeah it was it was bad like it was it was very a difficult battle well and there's

also something of like earlier when you were saying how illifer remembered you know hey my fucking grandfather and his grandfather fought against these people there's a line in the broken man speech where he's like and then the men just all go over you know to the other side and it's easy to feel that way for some of them but some of them also remember these kind of grievances right these family grievances and what their dads and their families threw away to give them kind of this better life or give them a chance at a better life and maybe you know distinguish themselves and maybe get a little bit of land and maybe a tiny scrap of money to pay for this kid you

accidentally fucked into your wife or whatever or some chick uh i don't know i mean i think it's just like such a different life because brienne and all of them, they haven't had to think about that. Brienne, Jaime, none of them have had to think about what that would be like. They've never had to enlist in a war, you know, because... Because. Yeah, like, in the Hedge Knight and so forth, they're like, one of the lords didn't remember Arlen of Pennytree. And it's like, well, that man, like, fought pretty hard for you.

Yeah, that is exactly how it feels. Especially with, like, that penny... Granted, it's Pennyless, not a Pennytree. Pretty different vibes, but also, in some ways, similar spirit. Yeah. No, it's a very similar feeling, though, it is. Like, just because you don't know him doesn't mean

it's not real. Yeah. That was their entire life. It might not seem like a lot not real. Yeah. That was their entire life. It might not seem like a lot to some people, but it was their entire life. Man. Do you think War's bad? Is that? Subtext? Do you think he's trying to say something? What does he say?

This might just be how he deals with trauma because, like you were saying the black water was really bad and if he gets through all of that by going i was there and it was great and i killed people and it was awesome and did you hear my song yay let him have his thing man i know and like it was clearly bad because if Illifer was there, it like doesn't want to speak about it. Yeah. Like, apparently it was traumatic. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because to be fair, I don't know. It's not, it is a little belittling, but at some point here that we'll get to, as they go along.

So to the journey, the men flank her, protecting her kind of like she's a great lady not unlike the woman that had the litter that we just talked about though she's absolutely like 80 times taller than them and better armed literal belittling she's very big it's not her fault

this is how I feel Eliana Chloe belittles day all the time yeah we barely have legs to stand on so how is that my fault uh brianne asks them if they had seen anyone during the watches but they're like no we didn't see not sansa stark just a couple farm boys or two one of them's pod maybe even some small but rough bandits but their steel warded them all off creighton boasts and he says yes they feared the great creighton and brianne has to hide her smile so that's sweet it was good to have companions she thought and creighton

doesn't notice her mirth as she's too busy telling his epic tales of the battle with the knight of the red chicken i meant to look this up do the battle with the knight of the red chicken. I meant to look this up. Do we know who the knight of the red chicken is? I just, I meant to and I forgot. I was thinking about it too. And I was wondering if it was like, I think the bastard of Hurston is someone that people have like thought maybe it could be,

which is a, I think it's like a Baratheon sworn house, a noble house from the stormlands yellow roosters head on red maybe uh i bet maybe a reversal yeah well that's it though i think that's like maybe a reversal of the hurston arms but i don't think it's like that griffin right in the very first book that blue silver griffin our friend warren always asks us about and i never know i don't know i don't could be a that could be a connington bastard house or like branch house too yeah it does sound like one especially if they're i mean that that could make sense too if they're uh from the stormlands sworn to either renly or stannis yeah some bastard from that house

yeah and it sounds like they might have been on the side of the lanister slash tyrell's cretin i mean so mm-hmm yeah i'm coming up with stannis maybe i don't know you know it's interesting because again there's that focus on the heraldry right that's just gonna keep plugging through this chapter as we get to the mad mouse i love that focus on the shields and the heraldry that keeps coming up of what people's sigils were, even if they're very vague sigils that don't actually matter in the scheme of things. I do love this chapter while paralleling Jaime 1 and A Storm of Swords. I do think Creighton and Illifer are very much Cleos and Jaime, and I know earlier Eliana had split it the other way.

I thought Creighton bragging kind of of his feats is kind of like cocky jamie you know when she first meets him he's kind of cocky asshole still before he gets all the joy of life you know chopped off of him and creighton bragging reminded her of that but illifer is kind of like the backstory of the land which is kind of what kleos was doing the entire ride right like kleos provided this pulsing heartbeat of information and exposition as we went on that journey and illifer kind of feels like that um and i also think that jamie was kind of kind of a little more of a silent asshole so i can see the illifer comparison in that that like he would just quip witticisms once in a while but otherwise it was all in his head that we

were reading of how no they're incorrect i'm right here brienne's doing that very often she's pulling the jamie move she's withholding these thoughts she has on their legitimacy and their ability to fight and their accomplishments as well as constantly being judged for who she is who her loyalties lie with as she's been here with her loxton shield and her half tarth half lannister one quarter stark loyalties add that one up something doesn't work it's interesting because she's now jamie she is straight up a book later now she is jamie on the road thinking oh these guys don't know what they're talking about. And accused of regicide.

And I mean, to be fair to her, I also often don't tell men what I'm really thinking. Yeah. You don't even tell me what you're thinking. I'm so little. All right, we, be little then. So by midday, they hear voices raised in prayer through the trees. People are asking the warrior for protection, the crone for light.

They rein up their horses, hearing the sound come closer, and the chanting filled the woods like pious thunder. I love that line so much. Is that not such a great pious thunder i love that line so much is that not such a great pious thunder i wanted to go see if he had done anything else with that this is the only time he uses that pious thunder ahead begging brothers appear leading three score ragged men women children cows sheep as you healed wane of gray piled high with skulls and bits of bone. The begging brothers greet them, saying the mother loves them. A big man introduces them as poor fellows,

shirtless with a carved seven-pointed star on his chest. Andal warriors had carved such stars in their flesh when first they crossed the narrow sea to overwhelm the kingdoms of the first men. That's not ominous at all. Ooh, that's a little, uh, is that's a little uh is this a cult this feels like a cult is this foreshadowing is this what they're calling the financial exploitation topical humor yeah yeah it feels like it i just don't know i don't know about that i'm not sure about that you know like if i chose to carve my skin that'd be one thing i don't know about that I'm not sure about that you know like if I chose to carve my skin

that'd be one thing I don't know about carving your logo in my chest that's a permanent billboard my friend permanent billboard I don't think anyone like really said they had to do it too they were just like I'm gonna do it you know maybe we should

call David and Dan on this one I'm curious because they show it you know maybe we should call david and dan on this one i'm curious because they they show it you know they showed us actually up close yeah they did god poor lauris tyrell slash lancel i don't know who those people were anymore were they real characters they all kind of blurred together a tall woman says that they are all marching to bring these bones to the blessed baler and seek the king's protection they urge the knights to join them that westeros needs their sword the knights counter offering their protection for coin and the septon says sparrows need no gold explaining the sparrow is the humblest of birds like they are of men

the septon had a lean sharp face and a short beard grizzled gray and brown his thin hair was pulled back and knotted behind his head and his feet were bare and black gnarled and hard as tree roots they explained their bones are the bones of holy men that were murdered for their faith, starved, tortured, and that their people are suffering. Maidens and mothers were being raped by godless men and demon worshippers, even silent sisters. If they loved the Seven, they would come to the city with them. Illifer responds he does love the Seven, but he also loves to eat and live, and they are heading to Duskendale. Same. Mood.

Also loves to eat and live, and they are heading to Duskendale. Same. Mood. A begging brother spits at them, and the big man with the starry boobs says they are false knights. But the barefoot septon says, don't judge them, for that is the father's role. Let them pass in peace. I kept thinking of them. First of all, I imagined, and this is painful, they had carved each of the stars of the seven around their nipples, and that sounds painful. The other image that

came to mind was they had pasties. Little shiny iridescent pasties. That's what they were wearing. Weird enough, I thought the former. I was thinking the former, weirdly enough. It seems... I mean, I guess maybe it's getting a piercing there or something.

Oh, no. Meanwhile, my brain's on star-bellied sneetches. Ah. Star-bellied. What else is in the teaches of peaches? Oh, from Dr. Seuss. Yeah. Oh, that could be the sparrow. What if that's the

sparrow? Oh, my God. Oh, man. These sparrows are not very humble though because they're all like you suck for not joining us and uh the people who pass brienne and company they kind of remind me a little bit of like varies his riddle of like all right so who does the soldier follow the king the septon or the rich man and obviously brienne's already left king's landing and has decided like i'm not really following any kings i did that once and he died and it was big sad um she's like kind of following orders from the crown she does have like that that paper

from tommen but in a way she's also kind of searching for a different loyalty so it's it's like a weird gray area i'm i'm gonna say she's not really following a king at the moment, though the crown does lend her quest legitimacy. She does refuse the septon, so she refuses the holy men, right? And the call from religion at the moment. And she's also refusing the rich man, the merchant later. So it's just interesting that something else is driving Brienne. None of the things in Varys's riddle. Yeah, even when she goes to the aisle, the quiet aisle.

Yeah. She's looking for something something deep within which is jamie's anyways no it's the quest all right it's the knight errant quest oh it's the knight errant quest baby she's looking for a knight to make some errands she's running i thought she mentioned that she's running errands. Ugh. She's running. I thought she meant that she's running errands for a night. Oh, I was playing on what you were saying. Isn't that what this is?

I was playing on that of like one night in Jamie, but pegging. I mean, it could be both. He would like it. I think so. As long as she went slow and like was gentle with him and she like, you know, made sure there was, I mean, she would, he'd be into it. Yeah, I I think so. As long as she went slow and was gentle with him and she made sure there was... I mean, she would... He'd be into it.

Yeah, I do think so. I mean, there's a G spot. What's your analysis on this? I can see Jamie as a bottom. Look at his whole life. I mean, look where he is right now. You're gonna tell me that man's a

top? Just because we've seen it once, I mean, look where he is right now. You're going to tell me that man's a top? Just because we've seen it once, I mean. No, Brienne brings up to the faith, which this is just the most fucking faith answer I've ever heard in my life. She's like, have you seen a maid? 13, auburn, blue eyes, you know the whole drill. And they're like, oh, no, no. And he goes, all the mother's children are fair to look upon. May the maiden watch over this poor girl.

And you as well, I think. Which, first of all, Brienne's beautiful. That's what he just said. You guys heard it, right? He just said. God said so. God said so. God said Brienne's beautiful.

I can't change the facts but he also said thoughts and prayers he also straight up was like oh all children are loved by jesus thoughts and prayers though thoughts and prayers for this girl and for you thoughts and prayers we must move along yeah he fucking said all children matter to brienne and we're like that's not brienne's like oh that's kind of fucked up this is the first conflict for me my boyfriend says all children don't matter my boyfriend says no children matter jamie says kids actually a corruption kink. Actually. A corruption kink. They pull their wane away, and the knights wait for them to pass on to Rosby.

The chanting returns, fading out as they leave. Sir Creighton scratches his ass and wonders aloud, what sort of man would slay a holy septon? Brienne thinks she knows the sort. The brave companions, for example, had just strung up a septon near Maidenpool when they had been with them, using the corpse for archery practice. She wonders if those bones just went by her. Reminds me a bit of Ned's bones, eh? Sir Creighton is, meanwhile, in shock that even Silent Sisters are getting assaulted, saying,

a man would need to be a fool. The Silent Sisters are the stranger's wives, their female parts cold as ice. Which is another reminder that the social order and the social bonds are seriously breaking down. The Red Wedding was the biggest sign of it, but it's been breaking down since Robert's Rebellion kind of sped up with Ned's arrest, and it's been going really downhill ever since. We're at the point where even those supposed to be completely

untouchable are being harassed and murdered and raped. People are losing faith. And some of them are finding it, but they're cults. It's also telling that the rationale that Creighton gives to not rate the silent sisters like it's not based on their humanity or anything moral um there's like this implied shock like

right you said that disintegrating like social bonds but he's like oh you shouldn't assault the silent sisters because of who they belong to that they're the stranger's wives and though the stranger is supposed to be like genderless or non-binary it they're the stranger's wives. And though the stranger is supposed to be, like, genderless or non-binary, it's, like, the stranger's often used with he, him pronouns or referred to as a man despite. And then also points out, oh, the silent sisters shouldn't be raped because they have unsatisfying genitals. And I'm like, this would actually, and they're saying it would rather detract

as opposed to enhance a man's pleasure. So they're saying all these things rather than, like like it is just wrong to rape the silent sisters i'm like i feel like that was that was it you could have stopped there so gross even to that like it's even like why would a man want to no man would want to feel that like completely not understanding that the point of assault is power usually you know not just because want take um well on a very fundamental level want take but that's all you know that's in our genetic code yeah that's that's kind of the the fucked up part for sure and also that he like afterwards he immediately is like oh sorry and he assumes like her genitals are also ice because of the way that she acts is kind of how he relates

it he does kind of relate this to her like oh i'm sorry are you offended you're kind of a bitch with an icy cunt too like that's pretty much what he apologizes for immediately assuming she's offended though i will give him at least he realized his he was being inappropriate and his opinions are bad so brienne spurs her horse along she's like all right i'm just gonna trot off this is fun for me three hours later they come upon a struggling party with their own hedge knight heading to duskendale a merchant riding a mare with six servants pulls his cart behind them although they're struggling they still draw their weaponry immediately when this trio appears

the merchant apologizes for being so defensive and says he only has the good sir shadrich to defend him he asks who they are and creighton and illifer introduce themselves the merchant however looks at brienne is like oh honey why are you out here in this outfit and not at home? And she's like, I'm searching for my sister. The merchant says he's seen roads full of drunk fools and despoiled maidens, and that portly knight may have been with her sister, but he hasn't seen any fat knights that it would contradict their vows when so many lack for food. Though Sir Creighton here has not hungered, says the merchant. Of course, Sir Creighton's like, I have big bones.

Which like, yeah, rude. And everyone just keeps assuming that Sansa would have been raped by now. Which is, again, is speaking to the breakdown of society, that the idea that a girl, even when accompanied, as Brienne keeps saying that she might be, might not have been assaulted within five minutes is absolutely unthinkable for all these men. Yeah. It's... it's sad. It's sad. She kind of is assaulted by this point. Like, she's not like she hasn't been like penetratively raped, but she has been sexually assaulted quite a few times

by this point. Yeah. Yeah. The merchant invites them to ride with them. They're like, three blades are better than one. And Brienne holds her tongue. She's like, it's four blades. I'm very strong, but.

I'm standing right here. I know, right? Literally could pop that watermelon with her thighs. Maybe he was talking about. Y'all know. Shadrick agrees, though. He's a fox-faced man with a sharp nose and the shock of orange hair. No more than 5'2", and he's cocky AF.

I love Shadrick. He's gonna be so much trouble later. I know. And if only she had gone with him, right? It almost is like... It almost reads like a Catelyn X Tyrionrian 2.0 because he's such a saucy little motherfucker and he's just like quipping every few seconds at her and he's smarter than he should be and you know he's up to shit and she's very distrustful of his nature but she's

like i know he's up to shit if only she had followed him if only that would have made for a good detective story too that happens sometimes in detective stories but it's like if you cut the bullshit of like nimble dick and all the stuff in between and then you just took like heil hunt shrug him down about four inches boom but she didn't want to do like the dive bar detective noir story. She had to go be in a chivalric romance. God. Yep. She's a hero, goddammit.

She is a hero. Well, Shadrick says he does not fear this group. And off they all go. During the journey, he eyes Bria in like a piece of meat, meat calling hurry strapping healthy wench and she says uh yeah a giant compared to some and he laughs saying he's big enough where it counts you're not jamie so stop trying to be jamie shadridge or torment who's also renowned for being big where it counts he introduces himself fully then as sir shadrick of the shady glen some call him the mad mouse his shield has a white mouse with fierce red eyes on bendy brown and blue for the lands he roamed

rivers he crossed and of course himself the mad mouse who seeks out battle and enemies saving his valor for the battlefield or for the tourney field, as we're probably going to see next book, right? He's going to definitely be in the winged knight tourney. We will see him come back. Next book when? Under your chair right now. Look under your chair, everyone. I'm on my own knight- night air quest for the winds of winter

there's something really cool about his shield in that there's like an obvious northern and riverland connection going on here you see the brown and blue for the lands he roams the rivers he crosses but a white mouse with red eyes who does that sound like ghost oh uh very much you see a little north but also a little bit of that riverland brown and blue in there and there's something else interesting happening in this run of three chapters that in cersei's chapter the front of the cersei chapter right before this it starts with cersei looking down at the people who are small as mice. And Sam, in the next chapter, opens his chapter.

Something very cunning, in my opinion, because it kind of feels like a pay attention hint. Sam was reading about the Others when he saw the mouse. His eyes were red and raw. So a fun little motif running its way through these three books. Chapters. Some people think being a mouse makes you a messiah. Sir Shadrach? Sir Shadid? Shadrach Kholud.

This is all culturally relevant now. I'm hip. House of the Sh glenn rise so he says you know what yumi brianne i think we share the same quest because i too am hunting for a 13 year old blue-eyed auburn hair girl her name is sansa stark and brianne's like i don know her and he's like are you sure are you sure her hoomst there is just so like bad she's such a bad liar she's like

who she's like are you fucking kidding me I imagine his look when he looks over is like are you sure she's like really this is the first time it's like been like two weeks right on the own and she's like really this is the first time it's like been like two weeks right on the own and she's just like this is it's been two motherfucking weeks yeah it's like that's that's a good wake-up call at least she got it now you know like brianne you are not being subtle

that doesn't stop her though he seeks sansa out of love. He says his love for gold. And Lord Varys is offering a plump bag of gold for her. He offers to split the coin if she helps him find the child and the knight or fool that he knows that she seeks too. And he tells her that Sansa disappeared at the same time as a certain fool, formerly of Duskendale. And he hopes that Brienne's sister isn't mistaken for sansa stark and then he trots off mic drops god how frustrating is that she's like god damn it now i'd start all over uh also just copy his homework i love that he's like oh and that's why you're going to duskendale right like he's just like hmm beginner's shit walks away she thinks even jamie lannister had seldom

made brienne feel such a fool you were not the only hunter in the woods the woman brella had told her joffrey had stripped sir dantos of his spurs but sansa had begged joffrey for his life he helped her flee brianne decided when she heard the tale kind of find sir dantos and i will find sansa you got a long way to look in that oh my god long way to look in that ocean. Jesus Christ. Brienne realizes others, maybe even less savory than this one, would come to that conclusion.

She hopes Dantos hid her well. But not too well, because how would she find them? Right, like her hair isn't even auburn anymore. Now it's burnt auburn. Auburn. Exactly. i won't they stay at the old stone bridge an inn that creighton was very familiar with

brienne offers to pay for illifer has no money jamie had sent her with two very fat purses one with silver stags and copper stars and a smaller one with gold dragons and of course her paper shield from tommen signed in his adorable little boy handwriting poor boy that kid's gonna die yeah so hibbled and his men are happy to stop as well and they dismount at the stables she loosens her saddle and a boy comes out the stable door saying let me do that sir and brian says i'm no sir but you may take the horse ordering him to tend to their mare and it's interesting how this don't call me sir kind of aligns brian with sandor in a way though hers is because she hasn't been and for now can't be offered the title and his is because he doesn't want it. They're opposite ends of this spectrum.

She sees the honor and the justice and he sees the hypocrisy and the murder. Love that. Love that. So the boy apologizes, calling her m'lady and Brianne calls it a common mistake. I love that line so much. It's a common mistake. She heads in,

she heads in inward, her bedroll under under one arm sat her bags on her shoulder and joins the common room where a roast spits over a fire six locals sit at a table talking and stopping when the strangers enter this is so much different than her last inexperience it's only the locals staring at them while they talk but at the end of the kneeling man, they were almost ambushed, if you recall, from the innkeep. He was no innkeep, she hunched gracelessly in the saddle, but seemed to have a sure seat nonetheless.

The man took too great an interest in our choice of route. In those woods, such places are notorious haunts of outlaws. He may have been urging us into a trap. Here, there's no trap in fact everything's too good too easy so easy she's gotta ghost them later yeah but that's because she's learned her lesson she's like time to ghost yep i stopped trusting long ago brianne can immediately feel

their eyes on her and she feels naked because she knows they're staring at her, not Sir Shadrach. The innkeep offers them beer, the merchant requests rooms, and the innkeep, Nagel, says, well, if you have coin. Creighton pulls out his big connections and he's like, but it's me, Longbow. And Nagel's like, yeah, and you owe me, Nagel, seven stags. Brienne pays for two rooms, one for her, one for Creighton and Illifer. The merchant pays for himself in Shadrach and says his serving men will sleep in the stables. Hibbled calls for bread and drippings for his men, and the innkeep invites them to the goat. Ha, roast goat.

Brienne orders goat for her companions. They drink ale, but Brienne drinks goat milk, listening in on the table talk. I am just like kind of mad because I feel like the merchant could have afforded goat for all of his men. But that's just, that's it. Not if he wants to stay rich forever. I guess, but...

He could use those pennies. You're right. Those coppers, okay? Anyway. The conversation is varied hibbled in a local talk about the Kingslayer being crippled and Creighton says chewed off by a dire wolf I hear one of them monsters come down

from the north not that's good ever come from the north even their gods are queer and Brienne finds herself going well actually she's been around men long enough. So Jaime lost his hand to a Qohoric sellsword. And then they're like, okay, fine.

Whatever. And they bicker about sword fighting, and Brienne's thoughts then wander over to her and Jaime's very sexually charged sword fight, which you can we covered how it's very sexually charged already before, and also how good Jaime was. There's a line.

Jamie has done many wicked things, but the man could fight. His maiming had been monstrously cruel. It was one thing to slay a lion, another to hack his paw off and leave him broken and bewildered. I love that line so much. Absolutely. And of course, she's thinking of him as his sigil. Girl, you got it bad. You got it bad. You got it bad when you're on the road.

If he's a lion, I'm the sun and the stars and the moon. And I'm like, girlfriend. The lion sleeps tonight, Brienne, okay? Not with me. I love that the entire time that they fight in that book, in A Storm of Swords, the time when they did fight, he's thinking the exact same thing about her, right? He thinks that she's stronger than he is,

and the realization chills him. He thinks of all these other people that had also been strong but this was a woman jamie thinks a huge cow of a woman to be sure but even so by rights she should be the one wearing down so here she is thinking jamie had still been so splendidly glorious as he fought but yet he was thinking of her glory. Her gloriousness when she was fighting him. Interesting. Interesting comparisons, that's all. Sometimes love is just

trying to kill each other. That's what Mr. and Mrs. Smith is about, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, totally. The noise in the common room becomes too much. God, absolutely. Yeah, totally. The noise in the common room becomes too much. God, mood. And Brienne says goodnight. Going to bed.

Also mood. The ceiling in her room is low, so she must duck to fit with a large bed and a stubby candle. She lights the candle, bars the door, and hangs her sword belt, a a plain scabbard wood wrapped in brown leather and a planar sword she bought the sword in king's landing to replace the blade that the companions had stolen renly's sword i'm interested in whether we see renly's sword again or if this is a symbol of how she shifts her allegiance and her interest over to jamie because it seems like getting a specific sword back in the middle of wartime would be impossible but aria got needle back so clearly george isn't above a

little bit of convenience when it comes to especially meaningful weapons interesting well the brave companions took that right so it could come back up uh depending on where if we ever see any remainder of them but or it could be heron hall still possibly it could come back up depending on where, if we ever see any remainder of them, but. Or it could be at Harrenhal still possibly. It could be still at Harrenhal. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, Zolo, Togjoth, and Three Toes are on the run. Rorj and Biter get killed in the confrontation with Brienne. And Brienne kills the first three companions, Timmy and Shagwaw and Pig when we get to the whispers later. So maybe one of those last three

are going to have the sword. Maybe that's part of it, you know, like getting back that other part of her. Yeah, I wonder. I don't know. Because you're right. I don't think she wants it anymore. Needle comes back.

Yeah. And if she doesn't, like Needle still has like symbolic value right like narrative value for aria's like character and i mean if we're speaking solely of like what it means in terms of the narrative and especially just like relating it to brian's story i mean as you said right it's possible that this is mostly what you were saying symbolizing the shift in allegiance and interest to Jaime so

yeah I don't know that allegiance is so clear too is the sword I don't remember is the sword Valyrian steel? the blue sword is just her sword from Renly but it's her Brienne the blue sword so it's like the loss of innocence having that sword taken from her by the

brave companions in my opinion I don't think she's getting it back just because they ripped it from her but also maybe she'll get it back and she won't fucking want it anymore maybe she'll be like fuck that sword yeah fuck that sword I got a Valyrian steel sword now it's cool

it is cool it is cool we're gonna talk about it i loved that sword though i did love the blue sword and the armor it was much uh in our catalan run that was something that really stood out meeting brianna again and seeing her beautiful sapphire blue armor and that's just it right it's like very it's pure it's like a very pure like her and her blue dented armor and her blue sword. It was like very aesthetic for Brienne, but I guess

it was also who she was. She's no longer a night of summer. She's about to be a night of winter. Fell? Maybe even. And you need that fire sword. Well, let's talk about the fire sword, right? Ugh. What it looks like. It was hidden in her bedroll,

which is one way to talk about it. And she takes it out. Gold glimmered yellow in the candlelight and rubies smoldered red. When she slid Oathkeeper from the ornate scabbard, Brienne's breath caught in her throat. That's not the only thing. Black and red the ripplesipples ran deep within the steel, Valyrian steel, spell forged. It was a

sword fit for a hero. When she was small, her nurse had filled her ears with tales of valor, regaling her with the noble exploits of Ser Galadin of Morn, Florian the Fool, Prince Aemon and the Dragon Knight, and other champions. Each man bore a famous sword, and surely Oathkeeper belonged in their company, even if she herself did not. You'll be defending Ned Stark's daughter with Ned Stark's own steel, Jaime had promised. Kneeling between the bed and the wall, she held the blade and said a silent prayer to the crone whose golden lamp showed men the way through life. Lead me, she prayed.

Light the way before me. Show me the path that leads to Sansa. She had failed Renly, had failed Lady Catelyn. She must not fail Jaime. He trusted me with his sword. He trusted me with his sword. He trusted me with his honor. Fuck off, Alyanna, first of all, is how I feel about that.

It's canon, though. It's there. It's written there. Jaime's sword is bain-y. Bain-y. That ripples ran deep. Something's sliding in her throat. Sorry, Shiloh.

Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for joining. I really like your book a lot. I hope you've really been made to feel welcome, Shiloh. I hope you're feeling real intimate with us. Us, Jamie, Brienne. Poor Brienne thinking she's not good enough for this sword when honestly she's the best knotted knight in the entire series.

But also people give Sansa a lot of shit for believing in the stories and saying that makes her stupid or something. And here's Brienne also using them as role models, but having seen enough of the world to not expect most people to live up to them. I think that this mix of belief and expectations are going to be what puts people like Brienne and Sansa in a better place to see out the end of the story because despite everyone else being assholes, they hold themselves to a higher standard.

Absolutely. Yes. Yeah, I love the comparison that you've pointed out between brienne and sansa and how they look to the songs uh because that's very much there and it's how they think that the world should be and like you said they've grown enough to realize that it isn't right we follow the both of their journeys as they move from like the songs and as shoulds to but not are in terms of the world not how the world is but in general i do uh feel that stories tell us a lot about a person i feel that way in real life like what people's stories that they relate to tell us about them and george uses that to great effect here and uses it well

for characterization across the entire um series and the stories that brian says she remembers and listened to are ones that are similar to the ones that fascinated bran who also has had knighthood taken from him as a dream uh they're similar to rob and john you know remember them screaming like i'm aiming the dragon knight and i'm like is that what you want um anyways they're they're similar to Rob and John, you know, remember them screaming like, I'm Aemond the Dragon Knight. And I'm like, is that what you want? Anyways, they're people that we associate as being great warriors in the series, just like Brienne. And so we see which set of roles Brienne has internalized and the values that she wants to live up to. And to come back to some of that Arthurian legend stuff, it feels significant that Sir Galadin of Morne is among those stories and listed first of

them because Galadin is remembered apparently as being a perfect knight much like as you've pointed out in your essays how Galahad is like that perfect knight and very much has parallels with Brienne and she also apparently

had a brother named Galadin, and Galadin of these stories of Morin may have been from Tarth. Morin might be in Tarth. And his sword is interestingly called the Just Made. I don't know if I understand how sword names work.

I do have to ask. Well, I mean, I do because if it's a Just Made and you're just plunging into people. I don't know. Actually, I don't know either. To change my mind. For assholes, according to Sandor, but... That's true, too. Well, while Brienne's bed is large, it's not large enough for her, so she has to lay across it sideways sideways trying to avoid the fleas in a bed

that's not like a possible thing to do if you're laying in a bed that has anyways she could hear hibbled and the knights coming upstairs later on she hears creighton drunkenly replaying his glory story of the blood red chicken shield man and his voice fades out she waits until the men are all and then she ghosts the fuck out of them packs Packs up, gets on her mare, heads the fuck out. Absolutely. And we have the closing line of, Then the trees closed in around her, black as pitch and full of ghosts and memories. I am coming for you, Lady Sansa, she thought as she rode into the darkness.

Be not afraid. I shall not rest until I've found you. Such a great closing line. Yes. So good. So George does this with a lot of characters where they have kind of a running conversation in their heads with people who aren't there.

John thinks that a grit, Kat thinks that Ned, Tyrion at Tysha and Shay. And I think Brienne might be the only one who does it at someone that she's never actually met and I wonder how that'll affect their meeting their meeting when they finally do meet

because I don't think it's gonna be like in the bad show where they made Sansa this ice queen yeah there's a lot of things that I don't think they're gonna do like the show oh yeah absolutely but there Yeah. There's a lot of things that I don't think they're going to do like the show. Oh yeah, absolutely. But there are also a lot of things I think

George will end up. Anyways, I will say the dubbing into Sansa's service scene was really nice, especially Echo and Cat. I think we'll probably see some variation of that. And part of me thinks we might have her meet Arya first or see Arya first before Sansa.

But I think no, I think her ships in the night are going to get just missed for both of them. Right. Like I think she's just going to miss Arya. She's just going to miss Sansa. And I think she won't meet them till she goes north. Maybe. Maybe I'll be wrong. We'll see. I am curious to see when they finally join up. And I love that this chapter ends talking to sansa like you said who she's never met after having laid a lot of her own

worries at sansa's memory and thought throughout the whole entire chapter right of like what sansa would do what brienne would do if she were sansa uh sansa's probably doing this and you'd think that she would end the chapter thinking of Jaime, right? Because that's pretty much what she always does, is think about Jaime throughout a chapter. But she thinks of this girl, this girl who's so alone, much like she is in these moments. A girl who believes in Sans, both of them do. And I do think there's something in the line, be not afraid. I shall not rest until I've found you. Much like the Catholic hymn, be not afraid i shall not rest until i've found you much like the catholic

hymn be not afraid uh something feels like brienne throughout this entire chapter has openly been having to embrace the faith that they want her to embrace for the reasons they want her to embrace it right like you'll need to vow to the seven because you're a woman vow to the seven this way you need to pray to the seven like this if you want to be forgiven for your sins uh for you know your crime of being a woman and at the end of the chapter she has that moment to herself of be not afraid i am coming for you uh almost of her like being able to worship in her own way of what she believes of her own faith and right now she believes in that sword right and somewhat in herself and i do find her ghosting these men awesome obviously because that's what everyone should idealize too but i also i've talked in

the past about how this this moment right here maybe even her ghosting people and not trusting might be flipped in the winds of winter right like ghosting her duty to do a man instead of ghosting a man to do her duty i think that could happen in the winds of winter get him get him you know maybe she'll ghost jamie instead that could be cool too not like stoneharding him that's a different kind of ghosting uh but i don't know i'm interested to see and i love that closing faithful remark be not afraid i mean ghosting your duty to have sex is pretty fun she should try it at least once she should try it at least once she might like it um i i love what you've pointed out here about like

her talking to sansa and also like when will she meet sansa and how she's kind of pinning as between what both of you said like she's also pinning a lot of her hopes on sansa like and and she's kind of made sansa i don't know if you can say more about this also Shiloh but like she's projected a lot on Sansa in a way that people projected a lot on her because of her gender in that like Sansa oh no she needs to be protected she needs like me there because she's also

very gentle even though Brienne's the gentle sex me find like Sansa is learning to be she has been a survivor for all this time has had to already survive a lot of violence and assault um physically and sexually combined but do you have any thoughts on like what it what it means like in terms of sansa being like that holy grail that object at the end that is being quested for and obviously that maiden right she's positioned as the maiden who

must be rescued it'll be really interesting to see i guess just how far george sticks with the whole arthurian thing because i don't think it's gonna i don't think he's gonna finish up quite the same as like the morta arthur or anything sure but it'll be interesting to see if sansa ends up having any parallels with like a grail maiden or something being that everybody's trying to find her kind of like the holy grail and yeah with the whole brienne galahad thing but shadrick finds her first not brienne so hmm is shadadrick going to die? That's what happened to everybody else who tried to find the grail. I mean, Shadrick doesn't strike me as a like, he doesn't strike me as like, he's got to be here for the long haul kind of character.

But he could surprise me. Yeah. Mice are supposed to do that. One of these lines that we read as we were nearing the end of like she had failed Renly had failed Lady Catelyn she must not fail Jaime but she probably does kind of fail Jaime

a little she fails a lot can you expand upon or would you be willing to expand a little bit upon this idea of like this constant times of her failing and the knight errant quest the knights in the romances fail all the time and it's always about failing in ways that then they have to come back from and be

better men afterwards so yeah she'll probably it's kind of a learn from your mistakes fail again fail better kind of a thing. That's true. And she might, she'll probably fail a lot, but she'll end up coming back from it. I think, I think she's one of the ones who survives. So I don't think that she ends up dead from all of her failures. But it will essentially temper her and make her the person that they need at the end of the story to help fight all the bad stuff. The truest knight.

Yeah. Yeah, the truest knight. The one true knight. She is. Are there no true knights among you? Brienne stands up. Brienne. Bitch.

I hope that for her. Brienne. Bitch. I hope that for her. You know, before we close out, Lise, I did think of something else. You know, she keeps talking about how she talked to Brella. Wasn't Brella under Varys's employ? Just like Shadrach being under Varys's money?

Brella was one of Varys's handmaids, I think, that was planted there, or one of the women who reported to him. So, was Brienne fed some false info? Hmm. I don't I don't know, like, because I'm also like, Varys, I guess Varys is very into

like, just try different things, you know, something's gonna yield. Maybe, like, they would still give brienne good information to be like i mean if she finds her that's us also like at least knowing where she is maybe you know sure yeah maybe yeah um i did find it's the line is various had suggested the woman to him in former days she had run Lord Renly's household in the city which had given her a great deal of practice at being blind, deaf, and mute oh

she was Renly's housekeeper as well oh interesting kept some house very quiet I bet hmm very interesting very interesting poor brienne yeah well i mean like it's not like she gave terrible information because it would have let her to dusk and deal which is where sir shadwick is going and then right who knew this is like the one person

varies probably didn't think he had a discount for. He was probably like, yeah, Brella, here's a few stags. Just make sure to misguide her a couple ways. She'll be easy, not formidable. Yeah, or maybe he thought Brienne would want the money. Maybe. Yeah, why not? And obviously he thinks that Brienne's quite tied, perhaps, to the Lannisters. Yeah.

She did do that one thing decently. She thinks she, like, failed. But I'm like, he's alive, he's back there. You did it. You delivered one person. Yeah. Yeah. I think that about wraps us up on the end of Brienne 1 in A Feast for Crows.

Shiloh, thank you so much for coming to hang out with us today. We could not have done this episode without you. Thank you for having me. Oh, always. There is always a host spot open whenever you're in the neighborhood. Swing on through and we'll be more than

happy to have you. The honor was all ours and it was a horse. It was a horse. Let us all know at home where to find you. The honor was all ours and it was a horse. It was a horse. Let us all know at home where to find you on the internet and in print as well. So I'm at ShilohCarol2Rs2Ls.wordpress.com and on Twitter at Medievalismish because Medievalismist was taken. So I had to get as close as I could. medievalism-ist was taken, so I had to get as close as I could. And we'll include

links to all of Shiloh's stuff in the notes for this episode. And of course, if you would like to find us on social media also, you can find us at Girls Gone Canon, C-A-N-O-N. Or perhaps you have thoughts that you would like to share with us.

Maybe you have thoughts that you would like to share in response to the things also Shiloh has said you can shoot us an email at girls gone canon at gmail.com you can also dm us on our social media or like send us a message like tweet there too that's also possible absolutely and of course if you haven't already please subscribe to us on a podcast streaming platform near you you can find us at Spotify, Google Play iTunes Acast, Stitcher you name it, we're on there

yes places we are also on, Patreon you can always find us there and get your own personalized RSS feed and if you are in the stranger tier or above, the $5 or above you get a bonus episode every month last month was his dark materials

and this month is going to be a song of ice and fire and it is going to be about Nymeria Nymeria November pew pew pew as always I have been one of your hosts Chloe and I have been another one of your hosts

Eliana once again thank you Shiloh for joining us to have been another one of your hosts eliana once again thank you shiloh for joining us to be another another one of your hosts am i now officially a girl gone canon yes you have now gone fully canon this is how it works this is the end uh this is you oh my god a grail you're a knight. But maybe we'll send you on another quest and you can have a raunchy thing that happens to you. You can disregard your duty to go have sex also.

We dub you a girl gone canon in the name of the mother. We dub you a girl gone canon in the name of the father. We dub you a girl gone canon in the name of the maid. I dub you a girl gone canon in the name of the father we dub you a girl gone canon in the name of the maid i dub you a girl gone canon in the name of the crone of the warrior of the smith of the stranger am i missing one i don't know but you're dubbed you are dubbed we'll see you all next week for brienne too have a great day slash night slash etc but would it be better if she were subbed

as a girl gone canon dubbed versus subbed the great debate oh my god goodbye goodbye