Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 145 — AFFC Brienne III

Episode Date: November 19, 2021

Brienne returns to Maidenpool and has a few reunions with folks from the late King Renly's camp. Like many reunions, her meetings with Hyle Hunt and Randyll Tarly are unpleasant. But it's not cause for getting crabby: That happens later with the entrance of Nimble Dick Crabb. Links Mentioned:  - JoeMagician covers Dying of the Light Chapter 10 with guests Eliana and Michael (Bookshelfstud): https://www.patreon.com/posts/58792118  --- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl] Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: www.liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song Of Ice And Fire Episode 145, Brienne 3 In A Feast For Cr crows i'm one of your hosts chloe and i am another one of your hosts eliana thank you everyone for joining thanks thanks for tuning in this week i brienne three's a fun chapter we're gonna get into it for some of these chapters as bland as they might feel like at first, you're like, oh, not a lot's happening. There's so much little stuff going on. So I'm excited to talk about some of the little stuff and the details and the view of the farm folk we get. Lots of little stuff to check out.

Yeah, and we get to meet quite a few of the characters right who play quite a role in Brienne's story and her history in this chapter so big stuff going on that's her story to you oh I'm sorry her story as Brienne girl bosses her way

sadly through Maidenpool and then she goes and she gate keeps at the gate fuck now all that's left is to gaslight at the gallows you know what I mean oh that's a good one gaslight at the gallows I'm into that one

oh my god fuck well before we go into all this lovely girl bossing and gate lighting and gas keeping, wait a second. We're going to do our housekeeping. So first up, we are doing such a fun Patreon episode this month. Every month, our patrons in the stranger tier, the $5 and above tier, get access to bonus episodes.

get access to bonus episodes. This month is an A Song of Ice and Fire episode featuring two of our great friends that have come back to the podcast just for this. Our friend Ashea from History of Westeros, and our friend, aka Alicia Kingston, the Lord Commander. You may know her from many different YouTube channels she's appeared on, as well as her own. Yes, I am very excited to have them on. We are going to talk all things Nymeria, she's appeared on as well as her own. for November, right? Every month for our Patreon Discord members

in the Thunder Tour and above, we have a brunch slash happy hour. I am excited about this month's brunch because it's themed this month. We like to do a potluck presentation over on our Discord once in a while where patrons can feel free to send over three to five slides on the theme of the month.

And this month's theme is harvest you know harvest feast because you know harvest because it is the time of harvest and we're a food podcast we are a food podcast in which we are all gathering together to harvest the souls um no that's that's not what we're doing but it's a thought that's completely different it's a consideration and

that is the theme everyone's welcome to come in and riff on that for their potluck presentation however they like and when we're done perhaps we will all gather around the fire and play some reindeer games. But not reindeer games because it's not December yet. Well, I was going to say, what are you, Stannis Baratheon?

Jesus. Yeah, the Discord is really fun. I'm Sandy Claus. Our Thunder tier. Jesus. Stanny Claus. Oh. Talk about Krampus.

So our Discord's a blast. I have so much fun with our patrons there. talk about Krampus so our discord's a blast I have so much fun with our patrons there, Thunderdeer patrons and above they're very silly, they're always, I don't know we have a respectful thirsting channel which I mean, it stays lit

up all day long, everyone respectfully thirsts and I mean we have a patrol, a patrol there just to do we to make sure it's me i'm not very good at it either i was like do we wow me wow her titties are so pretty good picture no uh it's fun there's a lot of fun little celebrity crushes that we've learned about in our community so i like to i like to visit the respectful thirst channel to highlight that channel this week though aren't they all respectful thirsting channels especially whooper rights yep oh my god all right last but certainly not least every month we put out an

episode on the amber spyglass a his dark episode, the third and final book in the main trilogy by Philip Pullman. We're past the halfway point, so keep an eye out for that. The last Friday of each month is when you can see that in your podcast stream. And next week, as it will probably be like the last Friday of November, you will be getting a His Dark Materials episode. That's also part of the harvest. Oh my god, reap what you fucking sow, am I right?

The Grim Reaper. Stick those carrots in your ears. What? Carrots in my baby girl's ears. I don't know that. And speaking of other series, which I know we keep hinting that one day we'll do some other ones um i also want to plug our good friend matt aka joe magician michael aka bookshelf stud and i went and joined him you know got got the gang back together for

a little bit to go talk about dying of the light over on Joe Magician's Patreon. So go take a look at that. I read a whole ass book for Matt. Please, like, I mean, do this for me also. Yeah, absolutely. Dig into that for Eliana because she did it for me because I couldn't tear myself away to do that. And now I kind of have to if I'm going to listen to this episode. Well, you know, our good friend Mary, Maester Mary,

up from under Winterfell, who we've had on before from Learned Hands, they were also on the episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, go check that out. Well, let's hop into our lightning round, starting with Sansa 1. Sansa watches Peter take advantage of the giant power vacuum that murdering Liza has caused in the Vale. The Kraken's daughter, Asha, awaits her supporters at Ten Towers and encounters Christopher Botley on the way to her queen's moot.

Wow, just like Brienne, encountering really- Anyways. I know, I was like, interesting parallels. encountering really anyways i know cersei three cersei three everyone annoys cersei uh cersei orders a rather spectacular light show take place at her remaining son's wedding she also spends the night having several panic attacks mood speaking of panic attacks the soiled knight handsome stupid sad Ares Oakheart is convinced by Arianne to become a kingmaker

I'd be pretty convinced too dude he has like panic attacks like everyday oh god oh no I had sex oh no I didn't have a spiral leg panic attacks on those titties it's actually kind of sad because he dies

that brings us into brienne three brienne has a pretty busy chapter she meets randall tarley and ends up choosing to go back on the path with nimble dick crab. Yes, and so Brienne three starts. Brienne thinks she's passing through the place where Cleos died, where Jaime snatched Cleos's sword, maybe even the woods they had fought in. But at the same time, it really all is looking exactly the same in the backdrop, and she can't actually tell. Podrick calls her out of her memories,

asking what is she looking for? She says it does not matter and tells him to stay quiet because outlaws roam these woods. Those outlaws are pretty dangerous and he says he can fight with his long sword, but Brienne thinks not well enough. Just from the start of the chapter, the interiority of what Brienne's thinking about Podrick

versus what she's saying to him and how she's gentle with him, but also like fair with him and how she treats him. I really love that. She doesn't speak down to him. She still promises to train him and work with him, even though she's not really, she's not amped about his abilities.

She's like, I don't know if this boy's gonna make it, but I'll try to train him too. You know, she's like, I'll try. And I kind of like their relationship. We're about to learn a little more about Podrick's background. But because of their hardships, we kind of see how this has molded each of them. They really seem to get along due to this, right? to be made with Tyrion and Brienne in this moment that Tyrion didn't really seem to get through Podrick's shell. In fact, he thought this was a jape. He thinks he did not have the patience to try and coax a thought out of the lad whom he suspected had been inflicted on him as a cruel jape. Which we know that maybe it wasn't, you know, thoughtless. Maybe he's just fucking scared shitless at being tossed around from family member to non-family member to lord to lord uh from war he's just trying to survive

you know and it's interesting because tyrian thought this too about sansa right when you think about it like sansa he thought is she weak is? Is this a joke that I've been inflicted with her? No, Tyrion, it's a joke because they were inflicted with you. But he underestimates her too due to that. He gets left on his ass actually because of that underestimation of his wife and what she was capable of. And Podrick now has joined Team Brienne

in search of the wife that you know he thinks will help tyrian you lost pod too tyrian shit's not good for you right now yeah shit is in fact very bad for tyrian right now but we don't know that because that's book five um okay we do they were one book once god once upon a time but upon a time. But then God split them apart. Zeus split them apart. Zeus was like, it's too mighty with their four arms and four legs. Anyway. So I like what you were bringing up about Tyrion,

because there is really a comparison there, right, between Tyrion and Brienne, too. And we've talked about it a little in the previous few chapters of how he sort of reacts in terms of the way that people have ridiculed him and he actually like develops from it very differently from Brienne right because obviously they both grew up with a lot of people making fun of them and and we've talked about them making it their armor but Tyrion as said, right, he underestimates Pod and he isn't really able to extend the same sort of like sympathy or empathy even to him. Because as you said, like he assumes that Pod's been inflicted upon him.

And we'll see of Brienne throughout this chapter and the rest of her journey, the way people act towards her sort of leads her to assume that, I mean, no matter what, she's going to be ridiculed. It's always going to be people's first reaction towards her. And she just assumes people want to cut her down. I mean, I understand why she's had a pretty traumatic life. And that's kind of how people have acted towards her. But in this instance, maybe she reacts differently to pod because she wasn't really obligated to take him on in the same way as tyrian was like no one told her to she's just like you poor kid and so i kind of wonder if that's why her reaction's a little different to him but i also think that

partially it's because brienne sees a bit of herself and her own shyness her timidity in Podrick and this sort of like as we're seeing through her chapters and her perspective she has this large hidden world inside of her and she sees that reflected in Podrick as she realizes oh he's clever he's just like not great

at speaking which not everyone can be and versus Tyrion right he's been primed to assume insult first as well because his family is admittedly like really terrible to him and so he's kind of too focused i think on nurturing and protecting himself to really get to know podrick in that way yeah there's also like for tyrian that performative aspect, right, of like trying to prove himself at every moment. And Podrick has, I mean, Tyrion passed the point of hiding to stop inflicting himself on others. And he's kind of crossed the line over to everyone is being inflicted on me.

You know, I was already a monster. We already knew this. And I think there's really something to say, like about how Brienne in this chapter specifically, she actually really can relate to that as she is sent back to being eight years old again. Yeah. Because Pod's 10 to 12 years old, right? He's Arya's age. here of her being sent back to feeling like she's eight years old is so key to part of what's going on in this chapter right the chapter starts off with brienne revisiting somewhere she's already been and we've called that out in other povs right where jamie's revisiting places that he was in the riverlands and seeing how he's changed and caitlin has done the same too revisiting other places and

we're seeing that with brienne now she's revisiting a place from her story where we've seen her but as she goes through that part of her past we're going through even deeper into the past into her memories and people from that past in this chapter yeah ghosts are haunting this chapter for sure Brienne had gotten Padraic's life story on the road. He's a lesser Payne, impoverished. His father had squired for rich cousins, siring him on a Chandler's daughter before going off to die in the Greyjoy Rebellion. His mother abandoned him with those cousins at the age of four so she could run after a singer. And Sir Cedric Payne had taken care of Padraic, though more like a servant than his own son. When Casterly had called its banners,

Cedric brought Padraic along to Squire, but then he died in the Riverlands. In return, Padraic joined Sir Lorimer the Belly, a fat hedge knight in Lord Leffert's group. Lorimer had liked to say that those guarding the foodstuffs always eat the best until he was discovered stealing ham from tywin's personal stores and then he was hanged as a lesson to the other looters and we have this thought from brienne padraic shared the ham and might have shared the rope as well but but his name saved him. I thought that was so interesting,

especially with his future, right? Sharing the rope. Which he doesn't get out of that with Brienne, right? He shares in food and drink with her throughout this chapter. Has this boy not suffered enough? Holy shit. And he was at the Blackwater. Oh my god.

He better survive, dude. I'm real worried about pod uh i think he survives because david and dan told us so chloe's ready to quit right now she's like fuck it i'm not even gonna fire her she's just risk it all i'm putting in my one hour right now this is my one hour i'm quitting uh my one hour notice there's something about this that does remind me i hate to say the name there is something about this that reminds me of stanis's camp question mark uh in that he would not have been spared by stanis though like he's very lucky

his name saved him and they saw some sort of worth in that or some sort of, you know, don't really want to fuck with house pain energy, especially after, you know, parts of house pain just died for them in the Riverlands. And I also suppose that the Lannister camp is a different camp, right? When you think about the North, which we will talk about more of this chapter as we see taiko nestoris's ships when you think of north they have no food winter's coming zombies on the horizon but the lannisters are fighting in the south and they're just trampling people's food supplies for fun yeah it's they're gonna regret that later truly yeah everyone's gonna have many regrets

i always regret when i don't eat yeah same so that's why you gotta steal the ham i get it i get it what if it's the rum ham from always sunny did you ever see that episode i don't think i don't know it depends on when it was but also i forgot like i watched like i don't know literally three seasons of it's always sunny in like a i don't know, literally three seasons of It's Always Sunny in a 48-hour period or something like that. Basically, they go to the Jersey Shore. They go to the Jersey Shore. And Frank has this ham that he has drenched in rum and pineapple and stuffed. And they end up at sea, long story short.

And he loses the rum ham, but it comes back to him full of seawater and he eats it but he just calls out it's very much so like castaway like davos you know with the you know rum ham just calling after it that's what i'm thinking i'm just wondering if they were chasing after that rum ham it's a big moment in pop culture yeah all right um i will i will have to i need to catch up i need i know there's like 12 seasons probably from when i stopped watching it's always sunny i'm probably like eight seasons in is where i left off at like and then i didn't come back for season nine but i I need to catch up as well. It was like a decade ago. This show's been on a long time. Well, when you're done with Vampire Diaries,

now you have something new to... Yeah, I've been watching Vampire Diaries. So in season six, when you quit it... Well, I thought that it ended in season six, right? No, it goes eight seasons? I don't know. Either way, the most fantastical part is that they use Bing as a search engine in earnest,

and I'm like like that's not real so Kevin Lannister takes charge of Podrick next and then as you all know he goes on to squire for Tyrion and Tyrion had dispatched him to learn arms from Arryn Santagar but unfortunately Arryn Santagar was killed in the riot so there goes pod's training and that's why he's like not so super great at sword fighting but i will say there is something interesting going on here with pod's story and the class part is touched on in regards to what brienne has said it has protected him in a way that it wouldn't many of the other kids and the other war orphans and his story is also very much about the consequences of war right and what that looks

like for that next generation and each of pod's mentors and parental figures they've all been stolen by war and because of that he's been very lonely right he's been deprived of companionship and guardianship because again the war keeps killing uh his his dad and all his like other semi-surrogate dads i mean we're seeing that along the way for so many others right like edrick for example storm uh being passed around from his mentors and then brought up to die and whisked away again uh but it also reminds me like john and aria a lot throughout this story we've seen that happen for them right like aria and sirio and john with his eight dads at the wall and beyond and north you know all the different fathers he has um there's just some sort of correlation here between

broken children left to suffer in war and they're guardians that are dying trying to impart with them something to help them survive yeah or keep dying for them to keep them alive like corn half hand well and there's something else yeah that was that was the worst one you know that was oh don't get me started i miss those chapters i can't believe i'm saying that um there there's also something that like as we've talked about a bit that you know he he wasn't treated like a like a squire he wasn't treated you know nicely he was treated more like a servant brianne notices uh and I'm sure that his, kind of his faculties and the way that he approaches people, that's also part of why he's quiet.

You know, like his family wasn't great. I mean, he didn't even have great mentors. Aaron Santagar's good, right? That was good for the couple lessons, but... Yeah. I mean, he didn't have good mentors. The poor boy is probably shaking in his boots. Anyone breathe near him hard enough, you know?

Yeah, I remember there's a scene where Tyrion's like, let's try and give him some confidence by helping him, like, you know, testing him on the banners, but then, I don't know. Yeah, he hasn't had anyone to teach him to be confident. He's never been in one place long enough also probably to like make friends. Yeah. And then.

Or when he was treated like a servant, he probably didn't have as much time to have friends. Yeah, that and like he can't be friends with the other servants because he's not actually a servant. Right. There's that class disparity, which is like we see in aria's story and john's story so we probably just had to like stay quietly at attention with his shitty cousins that were dicks if he was even like with them and then like we've seen what happens in tyrian's story he's just kind of like i don't know hey tyrian what's up jiren's like hey and then they go to a battle. And then they're like in a battle.

And that was a traumatic battle for many people. Specifically this freaking 11-year-old, 12-year-old boy. But also especially, and then now that I think about it, he also saw that in his mentor. Maybe he was like, not again. As he sees Tyrion's face get attacked. And he's like, fuck, fuck. That is a bit, i think you're right there i actually do think that might be like a big pivotal someday in the future maybe it's near

future maybe it's late future maybe it's tomorrow under the books oh i oh my god look under your chair winds of winter and that being addressed no never mind no uh but tyrian's chapters there's a lot of pod in there to look at so yeah we'll definitely see that more pod is underfed skinny not strong and brienne of course warns him if you're gonna stick around you're gonna have to give it your all you're gonna get bloodied and bruised and he says he wants it and so far so good he hasn't complained at all to their training he's showing off his wounds proudly which is very cute brienne thinks he is still no squire but i am no knight no matter how many times he calls me sir she would have sent him on his way but he had nowhere to go yeah i probably should

have said this in the previous time we were talking but i i really just want to bring up this quote from miranda priestly from the devil wears prada because my friend keeps talking about it in regards to her and her dog um but i think it also uh applies here for tyrian and podrick and all of podrick's mentors of and it's just another disappointment, another letdown, another father figure gone. Thank you, Meryl Streep. What a poet, you know? Yeah. What a poet.

Miranda Priestly. It's true, because it is a letdown. I it's true because it is a letdown and there is something in this as we kind of see Brienne confronting you know the crossroads of not only where she is and where she's going but also of her gender right and not being able to be a knight the difference between Dunk and Egg where Dunk you know we mostly believe he's not a knight that he wasn't properly knighted but only a knight can make another knight so like podrick being put with brienne after being put with tyrian which was already like the best worst placement they had left for him they're like you can be with tyrian i guess kid yeah now he's stuck with brienne who like can't make him a knight because she's not a knight

and it's like it's such a dead end right like she would have sent him on his way but he had nowhere to go and now she's stuck with this kid she can't he's similar to how dunk is stuck with egg the opposite predicament but like she can't bring him up in the world you know like your job as knight if you have a squire which is the opposite way of his cousin cedric treating him is like you're supposed to bring them up in the world and like lift them so they can be strong and you're all stronger as one knighthood and all that shit and he didn't do that yeah that's a great point because obviously I mean Tyrion's not a knight right like he like Brienne they don't have the right body that people consider for what knights should be like and therefore they don't get to have that honor or whatever and i do think and maybe we can talk about this more as the chapters go along despite brienne taking in podrick there isn't like a

dynamic in which anyone ever reads it as like her playing a motherly figure to him which i think is interesting you know that is the only child she will ever have i mean maybe probably in all likelihood and but like for that brainy brunch i'm not i'm not i'm not saying that she should be treating him like her son um i'm just saying that it's interesting that it's not assumed or looked at that way and obviously like the age difference that they have older sibling slash mentor figure makes more sense but instead of her sister it's her brother ah yes

that's her sibling her brother that she chose kind of not really he was kind of just I mean again like you said from the fabulous writing of David and Dan

Pod is her brother right? according to the hit TV show that the books were based upon A brother in arms Pod's gonna live, you know Oh my god, is that why Jamie and Brienne are canon? Because technically they were brother and sister

of the Kingsguard, which meant they could Wow Anyways, so I'm just kidding i'm sorry as as brienne and pod go down the road they find an ox cart being dragged along by farm folk a man and woman toward maiden pool brienne tells podrick they should approach very cautiously as these people might think they're outlaws haha the farmers allow them to ride beside them once they realize they're not dangerous and they go together through the wreckage

the couple tells them they used to have an ox but the wolves made off with him and their daughter too oh see this is about both sides we've already talked about this though but hashtag yes both sides of the war also i wonder if in a sense this is foreshadowing right about outlaws you've talked about this i think already a little but with the hanging stuff as we all know they do encounter the outlaws later on in the story it's a reread and largely though like many of the other POVs, including Catlin's, whose POV we did before this one, Brienne's arc is also very much about the disillusionment of the songs. Podrick, as we all know, is still very young. He's still hoping for a romanticizing adventure, like many of the boys his age do.

And as many of the other POVs we've seen have done, and characters, even Brienne. And they were like that at the start of the series and then you can see podrick thinks like wow being an outlaw sounds cool and exciting i'd love to be mistaken for one and i'm like i get it it does seem like very cool and broody and sexy i i feel that and i would want that for me too pod but turns out outlaws actually suck and they're super mean to him like really mean and especially when they decide even though they're the outlaws that brian and pod are also outlaws like doubly outlaws and then try to hang them yeah there's almost something to it of like you know outlaws are being outside of the law and this chapter is very much so you should live

within the law says randall tarley so maybe what i'm saying is that capitalism in westeros has got to come i'm just kidding it's feudalism feudalism in westeros but what if we just stopped with the family feud olism. Ah, god, you know, there are many types of outlaws, Eliana. They make you outlaw and outlaw. No, I was gonna say just as there are many types of birds, can you keep up? Oh, wow. No, I can't,

apparently. Ah. I cannot. The couple tells Brienne their daughter came back after Duskendale's battles, but the ox never did. The woman is 20 years younger than the man, and she has very little to say. The maid of Tarth had seen such eyes before. Lady Stark had been kind to her, but most women were just as cruel as men.

She could not have said which she found most hurtful, the pretty girls with their waspish tongues and brittle laughter, or the cold-eyed ladies who hid their disdain behind a mask of courtesy. And common woman could be worse than either. I have a couple things to say about this. First, the term that's used to describe the look the woman gives Brienne is that she looks at Brienne as though Brienne is a two-headed calf and i just really want to share this poem because it's a really nice poem from laura gilpin in 1977 and it's actually probably kind of popular because i've seen people circulate it and someone made like a nice comic of it and it's it's quite nice but it's called the two-headed calf and it like, Tomorrow when the farm boys find this freak of nature,

they will wrap his body in newspaper and carry him to the museum. But tonight he is alive and in the north field with his mother. It is a perfect summer evening, the moon rising over the orchard, the wind in the grass, and as he steers into the sky, there are twice as many stars as usual and i'm like wow brienne what if you being a two-headed calf and when people think you're a freak of nature it's really because you're the best and there are twice as many stars as usual uh leona that that can't be our only analysis of brienne for the next like like, however many weeks. You know that, right? I'm just kidding.

Well, I have another analysis. The point is, you're good. Okay. Well, I like this one. I do. Well, no, we said that she was a little bad last week. We did. In projecting on Redley. We were fair.

I think. She's a little bad this week in it too i feel for her because there is something double-sided there right like she thinks the cold-eyed ladies who hid their disdain behind a mask of courtesy and i'm like renly renly did hide his disdain behind a mask of courtesy girl that's true that's true i guess i wonder it seems like well she spent a lot of her more recent years it sounds like around men and has been isolated and i used to think that this was george maybe intentionally writing women in westeros as being more isolated and that being part of like the patriarchal nature of their society but now after reading dying of the light i realized as there was only one woman character and everyone

projected on her i was like no this is george's writing it was not an intentional choice but um i mean she's surrounded by men and i i think that what you say what you said is true it's unfair but at the same time it is like and this is something that we discussed in our ella enchanted patreon episode about how women right just as much as men can also very much be those gatekeepers um you know of gender right and reinforce gender roles impose them on women and, and that's part of how the rigid gender structure gets reinforced in society. But also regarding the statement that common women could be worse, I thought that was interesting because of something that we had brought up a few chapters ago, and by chapters I mean episodes,

because this was during the Catlin chapters of how uh the women exist on this same spectrum and how the violence against common women is used to reinforce the the sanctity or whatever of the upper class women and so there's something interesting there about like women common women being worse and i it's because what could they get away with what brienne's doing i don't think so absolutely not in the same way she's protected and we see later on right she's partially protected by having connections like heil hunt who's like yeah that's the maid of tarth or even jamie trying to be like you don't want to rape her because you'll get her weight in sapphires yeah or you know rand Tarly, who subscribes to the idea that, you know,

she's someone's daughter, man. Or he's like, just wash her out with lye. He would have done that if she weren't Brienne of Tarth. He would have, no, he would have done that if she weren't Brienne of Tarth.

Yeah, he would have. He would have. And speaking of Lord Tarly, our guy here with the ox cart has some things to say. He's like, Tarly's a hard man, but he's brave, much braver than Lord Mooton. He explains that he had hunted down the worst of the outlaws and shortened them with his big sword. He asks if they'd seen any outlaws on their trip, but surprisingly it was quiet on the journey.

Again, because you guys are the outlaws. They did encounter one of lord randall's patrols the day before and they surrounded them and questioned brienne they had let brienne and podrick go on after that with only a warning and they say be wary as the next men you meet may not be as honest as these lads jesus jesus fucking christ there was even word that the hound had crossed the trident with a hundred outlaws raping and reaving whatever they come across brienne was obligated to warn this couple about him and the man spit saying the others take them all they won't dare come to maiden pool with lord tarly ruling so sad because that's all they know you know like they don't know really what these

people are and what they do. They're just like, that one's going to help. Mood. What a mood. Yeah. Don't. What is the word? Don't put your politicians on a pedestal.

Ox cart man. Yeah. Brienne thinks of her own experience with Lord Tarly and she does despise him, but she also thinks she kind of owes him a debt ish and she prays that they pass around maidenpool before they can meet again yes she tells the farmers that lord mooten had been pardoned that he'd be coming back soon enough and the old man laughs saying for what we have this line of he sent men off to river run to fight but never went himself

lines sacked his town then wolves and sellswords and his lordship just sat safe behind his walls his brother had never hid like that sir miles was bold as brass till that robert killed him we never really get clarity on if miles had been the Lord at the time. I don't think he was. I think he was the second brother. But this Miles was one of Rhaegar's squires. He was actually knighted by Rhaegar. Yeah, he was one of six men Robert killed in the Battle of the Bells. And it's very obvious that Mooton, the current Mooton, William Mooton, is a different brother.

William has sent these men off to die across the Riverlands and Crownlands. We see that later. We come across dead men with salmon sigils on their outfits hanging. And you see he just sat up in his tower. In a way, though, there is something interesting with the way he's brought out later that we'll talk about more in detail of his outfit, too. But he kind of reminds me of edmure with tarly here uh tarly's obviously moving in on this land space right as we're about to learn and it's a different fish but he's a hostage in his own home that's such a good point that's a great comparison

the man says that mootin's daughter is a maid until she marries tarly's son dickon and i'm like same as brienne who's just like uh dickon's like eight or ten maybe and then she thinks of her own first proposal at age seven to a boy three years her senior lord karen's son he dies two years later from the same chill the rest of his family died from. And had he lived, her life would probably be much different. She would not be here dressed in armor, looking for Sansa Stark. She'd be

at Nightsong, swaddling her own child, nursing another, and there's this fantastic line of it was not a new thought for Brienne. It always made her feel a little sad, but a little relieved as well. Yeah, there's something really sad in that, like bittersweet sadness going on there of, you know, she's thought about it, but it's not her. It's not what she wants.

That's not you. It's not me. Not anymore. I was thinking of Nymeria the wolf is that what she says? I don't remember the lines from that show

the one in season 8 she's like not anymore could have been her anyways a very serious moment that we, you know, did what we always do, too. Yeah, that's such a bittersweet thought. I mean, no matter what, like, everyone's thought about it, you know? Whether you want a child or not, you've all had that thought somewhere. I know I've thought about it. I'm not particularly sure I want one, but I've thought about it, you know, whether you want a child or not. You've all had that thought somewhere. I know I've thought about it.

I'm not particularly sure I want one, but I've thought about it. Everyone's thought it before. And for Brienne, it is, again, that confrontation and that crossroads of who she is and what she wants to be and how Westeros, you know, smooshes down on her and doesn't let her do that. Yeah. Yeah. I love that line just because i mean i get it she's sad because would her life be easier would she face less ridicule if she was able to fit into that mold but also the relief in that i mean yeah that's not her. Yeah, and she doesn't have to force herself into that. That is relieving. Or force that out of her is also relieving.

Yeah. I mean, all of it. Like, the relief of just being able to try and figure out what her authentic self is. Yes. And speaking of marriage and babies here, I found this marriage going on in the background very interesting, that Dickon Tarly is marrying Mooton's daughter, right? Yeah.

So let's follow this. Mooton obviously is a weak-ass bitch, and he has a weak-ass bitch hold on his lands, and he's being held in a tower like a fucking prisoner, right? So Tarly is married to a florent the florents just lost all their fucking land so this is likely a trip for him to get his portfolio back in positive standing right and there's more to come on that because we also again noticed some ships in the background who knows maybe there's more to come on that because we also again noticed some ships in the background who knows maybe there was more investing going on in this city at the time than

we know but looking at the history for the mutants especially in targaryen history as a house in the riverlands not too far from the crown lands which is an interesting border you know for these houses to kind of be around uh the mutants were always richer than the tollies but they stood against agan the conqueror so they were not named the lords of harrenhal like the tollies were which i find kind of interesting i'm like that that kind of shades our current story in different tones they started the dance on the side of the blacks but then they were the ones that hosted nettles for that time and like hid nettles from raniera refusing to give her over and then manfred mooten ends up serving egg three for life as as a uh what should we call it advisor regent yeah reg. Yeah, whatever Manfred did.

And then we see kind of an echo of that hostility between Tully and Mutant in Robert's rebellion because they supported Aerys. They didn't support the Tullys. They didn't fight for their liege. And I wonder if we'll see this to come, right? Because we have the switching allegiances going on mid-dance already with

Tarly possibly being the friends in the reach for Aegon right and if Daenerys comes to Westeros maybe the mutants will stand for or against her we'll find out it'll be interesting but if they're married to Dickon then maybe not this time which I think is kind of the hope right I think Tarly is positioning himself into these places, he's giving Dickens a home. But it does really seem like he's straight up there to just, like, monopoly that shit. Like, all right, I'm taking the deed to the city. Here you go, son.

Stamp, stamp. Yeah. Yeah. Especially because Dickens is so young. It's very... Mm-hmm. Tommen. It's very much like Tommen, who just got married four chapters ago.

Yeah. He just married Margaery. It's desperation. Yeah. Because, like, usually if you're not desperate, you wait a little. So yeah, that is interesting and really solidifies what you're saying of the mirroring the two fishes, the two different fishies. Fish eat fish world. I mean, trout and salmon. They're both delicious fish fish but in different ways

but no i don't know if they eat fish i'm saying they're delicious oh for me i eat fish yeah me a person who eats fish i'm the fish eating the other fish we're all just fish in the end it turns out they actually though uh they actually belong to the same fish family, I think, now that I'm Googling. That makes sense. That makes sense. Good job, George. Good job. Love me a smoked trout. George R. R. Martin, zoologist. And smoked salmon.

So they reach Maidenpool, Tommen's banner flying above its gatehouse, and Tarly's banners are prominent as well. And that red salmon of Mooton flies only on the castle at its tail. I don't know why when I think of Mooton, I think of Moomin. Guarding the castle are men from Tarly's host, though none that Brienne knows, nor Tarly's own. There are two centaurs, a thunderbolt, a blue beetle, and a green arrow, but no huntsman, but get it, get it, George is putting in the things that those superheroes he likes, such as blue beetle and a green arrow but no huntsman but get it get it uh george is putting in the things that those superheroes he likes such as blue beetle and green arrow maybe the thunderbolt also but anyways those are all easter eggs leading them is a man with a peacock on his chest who's

rather rude with the farm folk flinging pennies at their feet and trying to take all of their eggs the woman stands up for them but he starts to say no. He plans to buy her with those pennies too. And then Brienne steps in and she protects him. And the man says, you smell like an outlaw. And I bet she smells great. And he says what Randall does to outlaws.

And Brienne's like, yeah, well, I know what he does to rapers. And he's like, excuse me? And she's like, raper.

And anyway, so the sergeant commands his men to spread out and they surround her with their swords i had to remind myself who the peacock was and we see the peacock in clash of kings and it's uh house sarit we see them in clash of kings and aria's chapters we see them in thrones brought up uh i want to say really tyrian when his dad is like tyrian do you you're gonna be hand of the king for me now and tyrian's like why don't you ask lord sarah instead of me um i don't know yeah they're they're a westerland house i have no rival is their motto and they seem pretty respected by the lannisters you know by their leashes apparently apparently to have a prominent position still

in these battles, though, you know they can take what they can get at this point, I'd imagine yeah anyway, yeah Brienne's ready to fight him maybe this is foreshadowing for later

with no chance, no choice, I don't know but another voice comes to support Brienne so she does have choices and chances here but you know who doesn't have chances Heil Hunt he's the one who comes in he wears a once white surcoat stained from grass

and blood his sigil on his chest a brown deer dead and bound and slung beneath a pole it's kind of weird it's a weird sigil oh he's a weird kid it's weird uh i also love that he's immediately got his jamie lannister cosplay on a once white surcoat stained from grass and blood what you think that's gonna get her hot you think that's gonna do it anyways yeah she's like i've seen dry cleaning and that's not it jamie lannister introduced me to a new life um hyle does stick in he sticks up and in for her oh god i'm sorry uh he gelds them or sends them to the wall sometimes both and he cuts fingers off

thieves so when brianne hears his voice she thinks it's a punch in her stomach, his face a blade in her bowels. And she greets him very stiffly, and he calls her Brienne the Beauty, the maid of Tarth, who slew Renly and half his rainbow guard. She's as mean as she is ugly, and there's no one uglier, except perhaps for you. Piss pot, but your father was the rear end of an oryx so you have a good excuse her father is the even star of tarth interesting are you saying that you're hot for selwyn i that would be interesting that'd be quite quite the twist he is a i bet he's a thick powerful man you know what i mean there too i guess he did get a lot of women yeah he fucks apparently he does and you know what if he also i don't know which side of

the family it is that's descended from dunk but as we've as we've established long long ago dunk fucked yeah and there's a little bit of Tark blood in there probably too, somewhere now. Cause there was a Tark down that line. So, you know, when will Brienne get to fuck? When will this gene pass on and be activated in her?

The winds of winter. When her and Jamie are on the road as outlaws together, they're going to be fucking. It's going to happen. And Pod's going to just be covering his ears like, oh no. the row as outlaws together they're gonna be fucking oh it's gonna happen paul's gonna just be covering his ears like oh no god because jamie has to have time to like you know have a total mental breakdown about it so it has to happen next book true god the next book in the series uh well before this the soiled Knight was the chapter right before this, as we so eloquently talked about

at the top of the episode. And the whole topic of gelding coming up reminds me of the story of Lucamore the Lusty, right? It was brought up in the last chapter, so that actually, it kind of flows well into this, especially with Brienne who dreams of Kingsguard ship. What of Lucamore the Lusty with his three wives and 16 children? That song always makes me laugh.

The truth is not so funny. He was never called Lucamore the Lusty whilst he lived. His name was Sir Lucamore Strong and his whole life was a lie. When his deceit was discovered, his own sworn brothers gelded him and the old king sent him to the wall those 16 children were left weeping wow that's very intense aries it's very intense it is and that's why he has a panic attack every time he has sex um because he just thinks about Terrence Toyne's. Yeah he's like.

Oh my god that could be me. At any moment. Any given moment. He's like I'm not going to give them the chance. Runs into the axe. But yeah. That's a great comparison though. To bring up the soiled knight.

And like that soiled. Cloak with this mhm yeah with Hyle's cloak mhm the Hyle High Club sorry oh my god so the surgeon though is confused he's like why aren't we killing her then

for murdering King Renly we supported him and they're like get with it Renly was We supported him. And they're like, get with it. Renly was a rebel and we are not rebels anymore. We serve King Tommen. And then they wave the farm folk through and the old man says,

Thanks, my lord. You're a true knight. It's plain to see. Come, wife. These people never get names. Just come, wife. I mean, they're lucky they even got some money for those eggs that brienne stood up for him and before i talk about that i just have to say you know this guard you can't blame this sergeant because it's that line from the broken man speech right like and then the man yells for him and he comes the line you know in the speech where's like a lot of fingers there's so many fucking lions i don't

uh it's the line about when the brothers break apart you know to the new man who's like you are mine now that line and that comes through right there right like that man doesn't even know who they serve anymore yeah understandably so yeah i get that that's just like my work there's turnover like crazy i don't know who i serve yeah and that's this man i'm him that's me i'm the real him no he's the real me oh no I don't know coming back to the farm folk and the old man being like thank you gentlemen

kind knight for helping us through all this and like it's like the fable of the little red hen that I like so much. I don't think that I brought it up in a while. I don't think I brought it up in a while. You know, if you haven't heard it in a while,

sit back, kick back, you know, the red hen is like, okay, well, the red hen's a little different. It's Brienne,

but Brienne's like, you know, I'm going to take care of you guys. I ask nothing of you the blue hen I don't know she's turning red let's let's be real and red for lusty gonna be Brienne the lusty if she don't cool it with this next book she's in well anyways the hen makes bread her friends don't help her then at the end of the day they're like i want some bread but it's like the inverse of that because brianne did like all the work to get them through she stood up and protected them like stood up and got in the middle of it and was

like whoa you are being really cruel and callous and underpaying my new friends that i got all the way here from the road. And she was like, she was ready to fight these. She was going to risk it all for them. No chance, no choice for those eggs. I know, right? Dunk loves his eggs. The eggs!

Oh my god, it's so... That's Brianna and the eggs. Dunk and the egg. Oh my god. Dunk and egg is all over this book. God. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I guess the man obviously knows that he

is a farm folk and no one respects women so like since women don't have the same power i get why he wouldn't be like thanks ma'am lady sir you know i get why he wouldn't like turn out and be like thank you for helping us since obviously these people aren't liking her like he's probably reading the room but also i'm like hylod didn't do shit yeah he didn't he did in a way he used his power to make the guards like chill the fuck out but like he would have just had to tear him up yeah I mean like while Hunt went there he swung around his like high class dick

and then they were like I mean that's literally what happened and then they were like you know what we should give that man credit maybe I don't know maybe I just think people should get credit for when they accomplish things and that other people shouldn't steal that credit

for not accomplishing those things that they worked on. Sue me. Yeah, but also, I mean that man, he should have given given her the credit. A true knight would have A. Held the door open. No, I'm just kidding.

Would have, you know, a true knight would have doffed his cap to my lady I mean a bunch of the other knights as we saw like these fucking surgeons would have been like let's steal the eggs yeah I'm just being petty whatever it's fine no no you should be another slight no it's just like another slight on her like how many slights a day like i don't know it's bullshit but what can brienne do so she just we just have brienne trotted after them with podrick at her heels a true knight she thought frowning she's like fuck him fuck that guy and she doesn't say that that's not what the book says.

But we can tell. We can tell that's what she's thinking. The subtext. Once inside, Heil makes fun of Podrick's horse, which is like, what the fuck, dude? Like, what the fuck? He's like a little kid. And he's like, oh, your horse is so ugly.

Why isn't Brienne riding it? As she apparently is too, quote unquote, hideous to him. And then he asks if she planned to thank him for his help and she says I don't know maybe one day I'll thank you in a melee and he's like oh the same way you thanked Red Ronit yeah I would like her to thank both of them again

repeatedly yeah we get this description of Hyle he's a head shorter than her go off short king i guess with a rich laugh but a plain face once she had thought it was honest but she learned better brown hair hazel eyes a scar by his ear cleft chin crooked nose but again she she thinks a good laugh he explains he's stuck guarding the gate here in town and that his cousin, Alan, is off hunting outlaws. He points her to the stables and asks her to give him,

you know, her whole alibi about Renly's death. And as soon as she starts in, he's like, I knew it. It was totally the Loras that killed the Rainbow Guard, not you. You're not strong enough to take down more than one or two, especially not Robar,ar he says he then says that robar was twice the swordsman wait swords wench that she is so glossing over that heil is very much jamie light which is why i don't like him because we already had jamie light at the front of her arc in his own chapters where he did the whole like I'm half an asshole but now I'm actually nice whoo-hoo what is it whoo-hoo uh that whole thing both of them tell her that she can't take that many men on at once right like that was something Jamie said to her like you're crazy but you're not crazy enough to fight 20 good men Brienne and here he's like you couldn't have taken on

that many men. And I love that because it's what makes it so fucking exciting when she does take on a bunch of men at the end of her chapters. And she lives to tell the tale, albeit without half a face. But she lives to fucking tell the tale.

No help from Heil. No help from Jaime. Thank you. She's like, watch me, bitch. I'm trading half of my face for glory, motherfuckers. I mean, that's what the songs say she should do, right? And she fucking did it. Yeah. But you're right about the Jamie Light thing,

because, like, okay, you can call her a wench, but you're not the first, all right? And it's not as special from you when you call her a wench, so... Mm-mm. Oop! Anyways, he asks why she's here, and she almost blows her cover, and she's like, Shit, he's a real person that knows my life, I can't just say it's my sister. He knows I don't fucking have a sister.

So instead she's like... Right? Shit i don't fucking have a sister so instead she's like right shit we don't have a sister oh no god instead she says she's looking for a man at the stinking goose he says first she'll come with him to see randall tarley and then he'll help her get to the goose hyle tries to touch her arm and she wrenches away from him because you know don't fucking touch me i get you brian and off we go to go see randall hooray sad trombone yeah i'm not excited but i I you know, regarding Heil Hunt, I don't know he seems so surprised that him negging her makes her

hate him. It's very like, when do you play shitty games, get shitty prizes, Heil Hunt? Like, what do you think's gonna happen? It's what you motherfuckers taught her. Actually, no, literally and we're gonna get to that part soon. They pass the soldiers rebuilding the town and Brienne's surprised to that part soon we pass the soldiers rebuilding the town

and brianne surprised to see so much growth and the besides desolate town yeah uh it seems that the industrial military complex was put to use here by tarly and you know at the front here of the chapter we kind of get these soldiers rebuilding the broken town but i i think there's something interesting when you contextualize it against the end of the chapter where you have clarence crab and his woods witch bringing the dead back to life yeah to work for them and i don't know between like dorn in the chapter before where all the tensions are buzzing and vengeance is stirring to then sam in the next chapter who's leaving the ice zombies

and heading south i think it's so well placed just to watch the structure of westeros since you have these two separate places right sam's heading toward the citadel right and then you have tarly in the middle of it warring Playing war and reconstruction in the middle of war. That's a great connection between these two Tarlys, which, especially what you were saying about the zombies, because I think there's definitely a metaphor to be said there of the broken men and the zombies thing. Yeah.

Heil explains Tarly put the idle men to work, and he guides her to the busy harbor, to her surprise, where a few ships are in port, as well as fishing boats. She thinks, hmm, I guess I'll take passage on a ship if the stinking goose does nothing for me. Goldtown isn't that far, and then she can just climb the Erie. Lord Tarly is out there, cosplaying as Justice in the fish market yard, where a platform stands next to a long gallows.

Enough for twenty good men jesus that that's actually what it says four corpses are swaying below it and then a crow comes along and just strips the flesh off one of the men just like pulls it off like string cheese i assume randall and lord mutin share the platform and then we have a fashion hour. Mooton is wearing a white doublet and red breeches, and his ermine coat is pinned at the shoulder by a red gold brooch in the shape of a salmon. I want that. I want a brooch in the shape of a salmon.

Writing it down. Hold on. Writing it down. Christmas is coming up. You know, it's not often people say what they want to me, so I'm just gonna write it down just in case.

Yeah. Yeah. Versus Tarly's attire, which is very practical. It's male in boiled leather and gray steel, and Heartsbane is poking out from his shoulder. Unfortunately, not literally, because I would love that.

I thought that too. When I read it, I was like, I wish. Very like Maegor on the throne. So while Tarly is very... Oh, well, actually, yeah, Maegor on the... While Tarly is very practical, Oh, well, actually, yeah, Maegor on the... While Tarly is very practical, we have Mooton showing it out in his house colors, full decked out outfit.

But again, this is for show because he was kept up in his little cell for the last few months. And as we heard from the farm folk earlier, they said that no one had seen him in forever. So here he is looking fabulous for the people to let them know things are under control again much like edmure being pulled out to the to the gallows himself every day because nothing says in control like pulling the same person out to the gallows every day i know and that is kind of

what's going on here but yeah he's not like tarly knows better and knows that looks like a sign of weakness so instead he's bringing him out to puppet him which is brilliant brilliant and you know that he's just like sitting at a desk giving very casual directions almost monotonously right like a very just like vague just like cut off his finger do this this is a normal day this is him doling out justice this is doing paperwork for randall right and look listen if you're doling out justice like opioids at a doctor's office in the aughts that's not justice right like what are these people learning from this what lesson are they learning what about the root cause of the crime how do you stop that crime

from happening again is there anything you as a government can do to stop this crime from happening no it's just cut the fucking fingers off and look maybe it's because it's a port town and maybe it's because tarly is married to a Florent. And maybe because this other person doesn't have a son, which is good because he would have fucked that kid up. But this all really reminds me of Stannis, right? This is probably what Stannis was doing when he was holed up at Dragonstone, as we know from him chopping off Davos's fingers, right? as we know from him chopping off Davos's fingers, right? This is probably what he was up to.

Sending people to get themselves washed out with lye, chopping off their fingers, eye for an eye. And I mean, there's so much conversation we could have about Westeros broken, because if, you know, this is what lords are supposed to do, and none of them are doing this because of war, things are too on fire things are crazy no one is sitting down and giving a shit about the small folk but if this is what they consider hearing the small folk and listening to them and like working for them and then killing them for the problems that they created for the small folk right yeah and and there is that connection right the ships that they created for the small folk. Right. Yeah.

And there is that connection, right? The ships that we see in the port, I'm pretty sure are Tycho Nestoris. It's a Gali, a Galeas, and Cog. Oh, yeah. That's T-Nasty. That's T-Nasty. Oh, my God. So that's on his way north.

Yeah. So he's on his way to the north to Stannis, where he's going next, right? So maybe Randall took a loan out i mean like we said he's probably trying to seize this town through his son's marriage and since he's fucking broke maybe he took a loan out maybe that's something maybe he's financing agon yeah or even like to the wall right if if brienne had gotten on that, then she could have, I guess, crossed that off. Like, not at the wall, not with half-brother. Yeah, man. But that's absolutely, I mean,

the whole thing is very disturbing. You're like, this doesn't feel very just. What's going on here? Off-putting, off-putting.ting it is but the trotting out of mooten right and and trying to and making him look nice to act like everything's fine and very normal here it's kind of like what they do to theon at uh maybe a similar time in the books uh right when they have him taken out right and he looks very very cleaned up for the wedding

yeah they're like here wear these gloves no one can tell that we chopped off all your fingers lucky justice was served though it was served allegedly well as they approach Charlie's getting ready to chastise a man

who sold who stole leftovers from the septons who ran away and tarly's like usually i would just take a finger from a thief but because you stole from the sept you stole from the gods and you should have seven fingers taken and he's like leave that man's thumbs just take from the other ones and it's like what the fuck and Brienne's like watching thinking of Jaime's scream when his fingers were taken but by that we mean his hand

but also his fingers and then next is a baker who's accused of mixing sawdust in his flour which does kind of suck and he's fined 50 silver stags for every sag that he was short tarly says well if you can't pay it you can pay and getting whipped instead what something that really cements um the the not fair quality to this going on the non-justice qualities happening here is the commentary on what a stag means to someone

right later with nimble dick brienne is constantly putting a stag down like all right how about another stag for this information and she's putting it down like it's nothing because she has the magic bag of coins right from jamie yeah uh but here the man immediately is like i don't have that kind of money because none of these people have that kind of money. And just thinking about like the root cause, why was he mixing sawdust in his flour? Was it to lengthen the use of the flour because he's broke? And now you're having him whipped in the square for all to see because he's broke i'm just saying yeah or like i mean it's kind of like the guy right he stole leftovers from

the septons clearly that man is hungry and the septons didn't they were they didn't want it well no like they they yeah and like i mean the septons remember they were the ones who like tried to guilt brienne they're like oh why aren't you gonna protect us and it's like she's like i got other shit to do yeah i mean also the religious people and folk like wouldn't have given a shit unless they were giving you know in cahoots with the government which there is a separation of church and state for a little bit longer in this book but just a little bit longer uh yeah yeah it's it's all like all of these problems are being caused by class disparity

and also because you've burned down all the land out here from war so it's worse than usual and it's heightened and there's like there's no relief coming for these people how are they supposed to catch up when they've been behind for their whole lives how are they supposed to pay the bills that are just piling up that you just keep making out of thin air for fun while you go and eat like they found that sawdust doesn't kill people it just you know isn't good for you they found that they can survive off a little sawdust in their flour and like you know make extra money yeah i mean like what would be better is rather than like first of all we probably shouldn't be eating the sawdust but like yeah yeah they they should just give than, like, first of all, we probably shouldn't be eating the sawdust, but, like.

Yeah, yeah. They should just give this man, like, it's like you don't have enough to survive. They should be giving these people, like, money to, like, if they want to revitalize their economy and also, as you said, relief. There's, like, no food coming in. Like, yeah, they're helping, like, maybe, like, rebuild buildings, but... But also, like, why are you taking that money? And, like, it's not really helping. Like, any relief or food that might be coming in, what?

It's all being bought up by, what, Lord Tarly's, like, cook for himself? Like, all those eggs? That's not getting redistributed to other people. That's for a wedding. Otherwise, it's getting stolen by yeah like his soldiers so the stags that baker did have like are going to tarly so where is that money going wait a second are you telling me that the government is taking my money and not giving it in the proper way that they say out loud they're gonna give it to other people this westeros sounds like a fucking scam i mean it is but also to what you

were saying about like the the crimes being caused by class disparity right and he finds 50 silver stags um there's like i i'm not getting this saying exactly right, but I've heard it as a good saying. It's like, if the penalty for a crime is a fine, then that means it's only a crime for the lower classes. Yeah, it's interesting because I think in economics the idea is like a fine is a price and it is logical like rich people for them it doesn't matter that's a drop in the bucket like somewhere

that you're gonna be fined $125 for parking they're like it's not a fine that's like the parking fee yeah yeah well next up in the punishment is a sex worker accused of giving pox to four of tarly's soldiers she's punished with having her privates washed out with lye and thrown into a dungeon dragged away sobbing tarly stares at podrick and hyle and even

sees brienne but he doesn't really give any recognition to them. He follows up with the next one. An archer from Mutin's garrison and a sailor off the Galleus come forward. The archer says the sailor stabbed his hand with a dagger, accusing him of cheating at dice. Tarly says that for theft he takes a finger. If he lies, he'll be hanged. And then he says, show me your dice. And the man is like uh they're just

lucky is all for me which is you know keyword for i was cheating tarly charges him with losing a finger the sailor is charged with having a nail through their palm and then announces they're done he's done justicing for the day and he'll be returning the rest of the people to the dungeon. He really is a peach. You know, that Randall. He's a piece of fucking work. He's, um... He is. That's...

That's just hard. It's hard shit. The nail through the hand is hard for me to think about. And it's just like, it's like you said, that's a great way to sum it up with the fine is hard for me to think about and it's just like it's like you said that that's a great way to sum it up with the fine is a price and kind of interesting that like tywin tarly kind of subscribes to the code of hammurabi you know eye for an eye the commandment in exodus not dissimilar from the roman law of retaliation exact reprocity basically but gandhi was known to have a response on that saying that an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth would leave the whole world blind and toothless and it's

hard because you see brienne dueling with these two parts of herself the two wolves within her of eye for an eye tooth for a tooth leaves the world blind and toothless but also the world isn't fucking fair and like both of these things are just converging throughout this entire chapter let alone her whole arc and it's so hard for her to uphold the the purer statement right that that leaves the whole world blind and toothless and not bend and not break yeah and i mean like that this person like who as we know was horrible to sam super terrible to him like gets to decide oh yeah this is what good means this is the moral code and justice that we should be following like what but also i i'm not sure because it also comes up

again in a few sentences. Is that like a little kind of nod, right? The whole like, oh, he'll lose a little finger. And I'm like, yes, yes, little finger. It's a clue. It's a clue. That's it. As much as I hate Tarly, like a lot of the stuff he says feels true in this chapter in some aspects just like

delivered with the hardest most grating annoyance of him delivering it it's interesting oh I was just saying it's a clue regarding like where Sansa is oh well those are all throughout yes the chapter but I'm like oh they say little finger here then they say little finger there

later on and I'm like put put it together, Brienne! But how could she? She's real close. How could she? How could she? Yeah. He hid his tracks very well. The cat was stewing in her grief. I mean, how would she have known? Yeah.

And I mean, like, that's the whole thing, right? Because Littlefinger's a gambler. He's a gambler, and then the Littlefinger... Dice. It's all coming together, Brienne! And the lucky dice! Yeah, the gamb the little finger. Dice. Oh. It's all coming together! Brienne, how could- And the lucky dice! Yeah, the gambler with the dice. Wow. Damn. Damn.

Alas. Tarly beckons the group forward, and Brienne feels like she's eight years old again. And he asks her why she's come. She hesitates and stumbles over who she was sent to look for, and Tarly asked well like how do you plan to find him if she doesn't know his name and then finally she's like

well he doesn't let her answer and then asks if it's true if she's a kingslayer and she says no he considers this looking at her instance and instead says all right well you just let him die and she's like what it was sorcery sir she doesn't say it like that i say let him die and she's like, well, it was sorcery, sir. She doesn't say it like that. I say it like that. And she's like, and she would never. I'm sorry, but I just have to know why is Brienne Kenneth Parcell suddenly from 30 Rock?

Oh my god, yeah. That's who she sounds like when you say that. Oh, sorry, my bad. Why are you Kenneth Parcell, Eliana you kenneth parcel eliana i don't know i don't know everything makes so much sense now interesting tarly takes that as his moment to then start in on her saying that he should ship her back to tarth and that she had no right to don mail and sword but brianne has something more powerful than a dick and more powerful than control of Maidenpool. I guess she has the king's favor.

Podrick pulls out her little parchment and Tarly's like, what sort of business do you have with the king? She answers Sansa Stark and Tarly's like, well, you're wasting your fucking time. She's not here. She's probably in the north with a bannerman. Brienne, who is is close like we said proposes the veil instead to aunt liza and tarly's like a singer murdered her so probably not he says little finger holds the eerie now though not for long the lords of the veil are not the sort to bend their knees to some upjump jackanapes whose only skill is counting coppers. Again,

not wrong. He sucks, but he's not wrong. He has a decent business sense about the world and what's going on here. I hate when people I hate are right. The worst person in the world just made a valid point. Well,

Randall Tarly tells her to do what she wants and must but when she ends up raped he's like don't look for justice from him and that she would have earned it with her folly and again like i i don't know i'm just like randall tarley sucks and nothing's gonna change my mind about it like i feel george is trying to show me like these parts where the town is getting rebuilt and it's lively. And it's like, wow, it's all thanks to his efforts. And like, oh, my God, he was right about this. And like people now feel safe coming here. And those farmers love what he's done.

And George is like, he's a great character and there are redeemable parts about him. And I'm like, no, he sucks. And I hate him. I don't know i don't really think that george is trying to make him a gray character though okay well good because it's not working well i just i i just mean like why would you have the guy shout he wants to wash out a woman's privates with lie yeah where's the gray and i mean like literally watching he has the idol soldiers working to rebuild the town which is great but then it's showing that the actual people who live in the town are suffering under him so i don't know i mean maybe it's gray if you

have bad opinions but i would say he's rich that's also true which is a better label than the others I said he's rich in that he fights and they're like we love that he fights yeah no that makes sense well that's actually like sidebarring again like I was thinking that Maidenpool is just full of Trumpies

the whole time the guy the ox cart guy like I'm like oh so he's an always trumper interesting um but that is what i was thinking yes yeah uh the politics here and randall like i just don't think he's a great character personally i don't know he put his son in chains because he wasn't masculine and strong and prideful enough and living up to his image and like hanged him on a wall for a very long

period of time I don't know I just don't find that gray Eliana maybe you find it gray maybe that says something about you and not me I don't I don't but I think George wants me to think it is and that's the thing you know this is between you and God R.R. Martin Eliana

God R.R. Martin, Eliana. Not us. God R.R. Martin. That's not true. God R.R. Martin. It is. It is. Well, Randall scolds Heil for leaving his gate and then leaves. And then we just are left with this line of,

Brienne stood beneath the gallows, the precious parchment in her hand. I love that line i think it echoes the very end right when she meets stoneheart so well just standing beneath the gallows the precious parchment in her hand like her precious sword you know her precious sword for the precious kingslayer this is like her in the middle of the gallows where do you go from here it's basically her whole plot good foreshadowing for later i don't know where we go from here because i don't have the next book anyway under your chair the crowds reduced but the crows had returned oh that's another thought i have also you have a fucking gallows that can seat 20 at a time

and you're only using four of it. That's shitty use of space. Anyways, like that's obviously showing that you're cruel. Why are you hanging 20 people at a time? Why do you need industrial hanging? What the fuck? Anyways. I guess he just hangs four and uses the threat of the other 16,

I guess, to scare everyone into obeying. He just likes hanging out. That Randall Tarly. He sure does. So the crows have returned although the crowds have reduced and for a moment Brienne ponders

if the crows dined on Liza too. Likely. She was out there for a little bit. Heil tries to tag along. Or the vultures. Or the vultures. Oh, the eagles. The eagles. That's so the errands.

I'm just kidding. So all of the people in the veil. Heil tries to tag along to the stinking goose. And she's like, no. And he's like, fine, if that's your wish. And then he starts to say, hey, we never meant real harm, you know. It was only a game. Most of them died anyway.

Ben died on the Blackwater. Pharaoh, Will the Stork, Mark Mullendore lost an arm. Brienne wants to say, good, he deserved it. Good for her. But she remembers Mullendore. Yeah, I should have. I know. This is hard, though, because she has this memory of

Molendor and his little monkey in a suit of little chain mail making faces at each other outside a pavilion and Catelyn had called them the knights of summer she remembers that but now it's autumn and they're falling like leaves I don't know I feel like remembering a guy with a monkey wouldn't like make me think oh that was so good of him but maybe i'm just like mean or maybe i just haven't i haven't been through what brienne's gone through you know not in that way so um i will say that in terms of what we were talking about of returning to the past Brienne seems to no longer hold the same views that she did when Catelyn first met her right like she was all like we're not knights well you could tell that Brienne was included in that idea of knights of summer but it looks like

now she's kind of growing to agree with the Catelyn that said all that but as we know Catelyn uh has definitely moved on from those views since then she's got a very different philosophy now uh yeah she's definitely moved on from being humane in any shape or form and yes there is something in humanity and like brienne is extending in some aspects a little empathy to these men of that they have now gone through war and they have been forged in the fire of the rage of war and you know that's unfair to human beings in general like war and putting someone through that no matter how that's not a fair thing like that's yeah so like understanding that

but like at the same time it's also doesn't excuse their behavior beforehand blah blah blah but she's finding the empathy and the sympathy to them that now maybe like their change you know maybe mark mullendore is changed and that that little bit of humanity was there like she could see that between mark mullendore and his monkey i don't know why she there like she could see that between Mark Mullendore and his monkey I don't know why she couldn't choose to see that between Mark Mullendore and any other human but she saw some great bond like a his dark materials demon bond like a real

human would have been a great bond to see I'm glad he could treat a monkey nice but can he treat a human nice anyways I don't know I don't know she is she's doing what sansa did at black water you know she's praying she's out here yeah praying for everyone else she's like all right you suck hope you die but if not you know may the father aid your fucking arm yeah she's uh holding

on to that hope yeah but she hopes to not have to see hyle anymore because she turns her back on him as she and pod begin to leave on their journey hyle gives them advice on which way to head and off they fuck you can tell that chloe wrote that line um pod asks if she knew where the goose was and pod says that hyle to show them, and then Podrick obviously notices that Brienne is upset. And asks, so what did he do to you? And Brienne tells him

that at Highgarden, when Renly first called his banners, the boys played a cruel, hurtful, and unchivalrous game on her. Sir Heil was one of them. She doesn't go on, and instead goes to check the gate and the buildings to find the stinking goose. It takes her almost an hour or two and they find the cellar first and it's low enough that Brienne ends up banging her head on it.

I've heard a lot of discourse before in my time on the internet. Oh god, it's been so long. Oh god. internet oh god it's been so long oh god uh a lot of discourse about how the game isn't really a big deal the game these boys played to get her maidenhead that we're going to talk about and kind of shoving it off like ah boys just being boys in war this was like a year and a half two years ago tops this is when redley first called his banners start there and end the clash slash game precipice so this isn't like a game they were playing as children most of these men are the men they're gonna be forever right like they probably aren't gonna change that much except for maybe like get ptsd brienne was like 18 a young woman and these dudes are mostly her age grown around her age group and like you know they just

uh i don't know it's not really it just doesn't feel like a young fun game when it's like it was just two years ago the sting of it's pretty hot I agree it's it's they're old enough to have known that this was a cruel thing to do and to have that sort of empathy and to to not do that to her but I guess it's also like I don't know if these are all the kind of people willing to

what just randomly assault women, I guess. They're like, whatever, we'll do it to Brienne. And they're not willing to, like, hurt her yet, right? Because she is highborn. But I will just say, like, regarding this is who they're going to be forever, which is not what the book is about. You know, again, I'm not the same person that i was at 18 so there's that but yeah but most of them have died so i'm serious when i say this is the way they're gonna be forever for real that

that is true that is who they're gonna be forever i'm just saying like if they lived they could have gotten better but obviously this was very shitty and terrible of them but thank you i accept your apology for brian i mean like i never thought this game was good i'm just saying that i'm just saying if we're always like i'm a different person i'm like they could be different people one day if they lived but they're not reading these books you know they're reading yeah no that's true i mean i don't know i don't think i don't think they're reading they're not reading no they're fucking murdering other people for money and you know life and survival or whatever and glory so i don't know i just find it interesting

i just find it interesting that this wasn't that long ago. Yeah. It's like literally, I mean, people were probably like there. Yeah. It was within the time it was within the time frame of the story. Yeah. Yeah. Well. There are no stinking geese in this bar, but there is some

smell coming from it. A few stools, a bench, the tables are old wine casks, but there's definitely a stink, like a dampness, a mildew, a little bit like poop, a little bit like wine, and even a little bit like death. There's death in the air, and

only three men are drinking. Tairoshi's semen with green and purple beards. Ah! I do think that we might have seen one of these guys in the Davos 2 chapter when he has the Galleus and Cogs. It's the same people on the way to White Harbor.

Interesting. Yeah. After taking a look at the place, it is kind of fun. Go, George. Brienne knows that she can't have water at this place. She's like,

oh, can't drink the water here, and she orders wine. And she starts to ask after Nimble Dick. the innkeep says he comes in every night and if she's gonna kill him please do it elsewhere they don't want tarly's wrath brianne's like i just want to talk to him and she offers a copper star to the woman if she'll nod when he enters um i do find it interesting that brianne notes the appearance of the proprietor, you know, the innkeep, right? That she's a bald woman who, and she describes her as looking like uncooked dough. And I find that in and of itself, right?

The appearance of this woman is very much in defiance of what Westeros says women should look like, but that Brienne doesn't really dwell on this or give it much note because, I mean, we know Brienne wouldn't ridicule or judge this woman based on her appearance because, I mean, she's not like that, but also Brienne doesn't really seem to think about it in terms of like, wow, interesting that she doesn't care what she looks like or like doesn't project any sympathy on her on the innkeep based on her own experiences of how people have treated her appearance um because i mean brienne herself when people like she knows notices every slight and giggle and like really amplifies and takes that because becomes very socially anxious and spirals about it but

that she doesn't think of this woman's appearance doesn't remark upon it slash normalizes it i i just think it's interesting that she doesn't note her own lack of reaction i i think it's interesting that she doesn't uh also like she doesn't comment like you said on these kind of things like she just sees it and she doesn't ever make any snide comments or remarks on it where you know like when catelyn first met her she immediately was like oh girl you're freakish okay you poor thing wow this is sad yeah and you know brienne thinks on her like oh she was so kind to me uh brienne doesn't ever remark on other people though either like so she keeps it in her head if so even she doesn't show us well even yeah well i'm just thinking because i'm like maybe if she could realize like oh i don't think that way about

this woman maybe she would and i get that i get amplifying every time someone like laughs at you and like that making you feel small but i'm also like if only she could realize that there are a bunch of other people who are like oh interesting and like accept it maybe i mean maybe i don't know if that actually exists because she doesn't note it but maybe i don't know i don't know maybe everyone does well that's true that's true you know what sucks? This wine. Oh my God. This wine that she gets. Brienne gets a spline and it turns out it's not the good stuff she hears from some other patrons later.

There's a hair in it. It's oily. And so she instead tries to savor the taste of wondering what the fuck to do about Sansa Stark. And she's like, is she in the Vale? In Winterfell? In the East? And she's like, God, I hope she's's not overseas that would make my journey a lot harder she also thinks she would look like more of a freak there uh that they'd laugh at her like they did in Highgarden she thinks about Renly

and he had been very courteous but his lords and knights were different she had expected hostility and mockery but that was not something that left her confused. What confused her of Renly's lords and knights were the kindness that she did get from them. Big Ben Bushy sent his squire to clean her mail, gifting her a silver drinking horn. Edmund Ambrose brought flowers and asked her to ride with him. Heil Hunt outdid them both, gifting her a beautiful illuminating book of tales of chivalry, apples and carrots for her horses, a silk plume for her helm. He'd gossip with her, telling her clever things from camp, and even train with her. Because of his behavior, she thought the others would follow suit, and that that's why they were treating her this way.

Giving someone gifts with false intentions is shitty. I'm just saying. It doesn't make it better that you had a good gift you know like shitty i agree it's it's super shitty and then that it like spirals out as we see and like that he that he went in on it so much only to hurt her but i wonder if there's something there about like you know they do I kind of wonder also if there's something else there like he gives her the you know the tales of chivalry and then it all turns out to like be a lie but the songs

the songs on the tales of chivalry those are also a lie everything's a lie everything's a lie everything's a lie everything is bad for prian right now we do get to learn everything else that happened right like she had men basically fighting to be next turn serve her we had richard farrow play her love songs on his lute. Hugh Beesbury brought her a pot of honey as sweet as the maid of Tarth. Mark Mullendore made her laugh with his monkey.

From, uh, his monkey, of course, is a cute little black and white creature from the Summer Isles. A hedge knight called Will the Stork, the fuck, offered to rub the knots from her shoulders. She refused him. She refused them all. When Sir Owen Inchfield seized her one night and pressed a kiss upon her, she knocked him ass backwards into a cook fire. Good for her.

There's an Inchfield in Duncan Egg, and he's a dick too. I can't remember his name, but he's a dick. Great call, George. Hmm. After this, Riyadh looked at herself. Yes. Well, and that's the thing right like these are all i mean this is exactly how people treated dunk at the pavilions at the tourney right just without the sexual connotations brianne has exactly that pressed upon her like the life of a hedge knight but also as a woman yeah exactly well later that night after

brianne looks at herself in a glass thinking that her face is broad and ugly freckled big lipped all she wanted to do when she came here was like join runley and serve and she also is like i don't understand why this is happening because i'm not the only woman here. There are camp followers who are way prettier, and the highborn maids and the ladies are also here, and they dance to the music each night. We have a line. Why are you being kind to me?

She wanted to scream every time some strange knight paid her a compliment. What do you want? Such a compliment. What do you want? Such a mood. What do you want? It's really sad because it just makes me think about what Loras had just told Jaime recently, right? He said to her, Renly thought she was absurd. A woman dressed in man's mail pretending to be a knight?

Yeah. poor Brienne it's better that she doesn't know that yeah I hope she never finds out me either but she probably will somehow who knows she might not we talked about Brienne

in comparison to Tyrion earlier but I want to bring up a different Lannister to compare Brienne to, especially in regards to this ridicule. It's Tywin. A twist. It is Tywin. Because I feel like a lot of the backstory and characterization you get of Tywin, right? It's about his pride because he was so humiliated about his father's weakness father's weakness which i'm like oh that's kind of like selwyn because he had a lot of women too i don't know maybe i'm sure but also like so much of tywin's story is like oh he hated that people laughed at him everyone laughed at him and his family so like i guess

it's interesting that tywin reacts to it by basically just trying to spite everyone who ever laughed at him and becoming like super violent whereas for brienne when people laugh at her she just really internalizes it and she assumes that she is the problem and just tries to be better than anyone else anyway and just lives by her own like code that is like a good code as far as i can tell that that's a great way to like obviously the internalization of the pride and like also not being able to fulfill like for tywin he's trying to cover up that legacy of misdeeds from his father right and uh of failure and not failing and for brienne it's like the total yeah opposite she's like i'm failing and i must cover

it up for my legacy of my family and she's like i don't really know how to cover it up i'm gonna just try to be a really good knight and it's like wait but this is what everyone is laughing at so i don't know it sucks for her yeah well randall tarley had ended the game. He ended the entire game. Dickon actually had overheard the truth that Ambrose, Bushy, and Hunt all had a competition. A golden dragon buy-in, whoever took her maidenhead got the lot. It was only a matter of time before someone took the prize by force. Brienne had been stunned. All of them were anointed knights and Tarly's men.

Brienne had been stunned. All of them were anointed knights and Tarly's men. And he put the blame on her, despite her protests of doing nothing to encourage them. Tarly said that her being here encouraged them, and if a woman behaves like a camp follower, she can't object to being treated like one. Dear listeners at home, Brienne behaved exactly unlike a camp follower. Very true. Brienne behaved exactly unlike a camp follower very true Brienne behaved like a knight it's just I don't know Randall she was asking for it Tarly I fucking would hit him with my car

ah I think that's fine I mean I don't think I could really do much damage unless I was really going you know that thing's small he's got armor I mean, I don't think I could really do much damage unless I was really going, you know? That thing's small. He's got armor. I think you could break the armor.

Randall's a total dick, because then, to ice this cake, he told her to abandon her knighthood, go home to her father, and allow him to find her a good husband. And he says the gods made men to fight and women to bear children. A woman's war is in the birthing bed. Hmm. Hmm. This line really stood out to me because we've heard a similar conversation,

including Brienne, with this before. And there's an irony to that because when Brienne talks about that topic from this really horrible man who refuses to accept that Brienne is refusing to bend to these gender roles, because the other person that we saw her talk about this with was Catelyn. And, I mean, just to give you all a refresher, we might have- I don't remember if we did this during Catlin 6 in the Clash of Kings, but we're going to do it for you all again. Fighting is better than this waiting. You don't feel so helpless when you fight. You have a sword and a horse, sometimes an axe. When you're armored, it's hard for anyone to hurt you. Knights die in battle. Brienne looked at her with those blue and beautiful eyes. As ladies die in childbed, no one sings songs about them. Children are a battle of a different sort.

A battle without banners or warhorns, but no less fierce. Carrying a child, bringing it into the world, your mother will have told you of the pain. I never knew my mother. My father had ladies. A different lady every year, but...

Those were no ladies. As hard as birth can be, Brienne, what comes after is even harder. At times I feel as though I'm being torn apart. Would that there were five of me, one for each child, so I might keep them all safe. I feel like I was a battle.

You still are. I'm very sure. I'm very sure my mother would agree. I think she would. We'd get along, she and I. Maybe, probably. So in this passage, Brienne trots out that comparison again right of the women's

battles being the birthing bed which is what randall tells her here before brian met cat she kind of has her own take on it since then she's like thought about it she's had time to think about it i'm sure she's decided that neither is really i guess better than the other except for the part where you can actually do things if you're in battle but she realizes that there is an inequality, despite the two being equated with one another, and that only one of these kinds of battles is valorized by society

and the other goes forgotten and ignored, even though so many women die. And though at the time of her discussion with Kat, she prefers aversion, right, that Ensign song, again, she was a Knight of Summer at the time and now she's not. She's going from one season to the next of her life and the

stories and her feelings, right? About her own role and gender. They become much more complex, just like her own views of knighthood and motherhood. Then you have that line where Cat says, like, I never really thought about Selwyn's womanizing, I guess, until this chapter.

But Catelyn says of the women that Selwyn no ladies yeah she says that they're not really ladies and I feel like that takes on a really different tone in the context of this of Brienne's chapters and it's reminiscent to the idea of like

when it reminds me of Sansa telling Sandor that Gregor was no true knight right and I think it's all more complex question than that though because of like you know it's a question of what does it mean to be a

lady what sort of codes does a lady have to live by to be accepted as one versus the codes of chivalry and knighthood and how that is part of Brienne's story there's something going on too where that you have someone like Cersei who did everything and more that was asked of her right as a lady like speaking of that code and where that fits in Cersei exerted herself and when you brought up Tywin earlier it made me think of Selwyn and thinking of Selwyn against Tywin in that, you know, Selwyn lost all his children except for his daughter Brienne.

So if Cersei was the only one left, right, like those duties would have changed. Kind of like how Catelyn was seen as the heir for so long. And Selwyn obviously doesn't have quite the pride but there is something in Joanna right in Tywin and Tywin not being the same since Joanna died and that Selwyn is seeking a different lady every year you know a different woman coming around every year and that like back to the Cersei train here always back to the Cersei train that also frowning down at those ladies isn't okay in my opinion either or the Nata ladies uh because you know they're also trying to fulfill their duty to their own homes wherever they come from whether it's a noble house whether they're you know a

lesser house whether they're not housed uh they're trying to fulfill their duties by you know cashing in and seeing if this romance could work and if they could have a domestic partnership that would work out uh and i don't know so there's something of like selwyn's grief at losing brianne's mom i'm sure that's in there although we don't get it uh and i wonder if we will i hope we get a little more of that especially because like we have brienne who's just like runaway night girl you know uh skirting her own duty in that manner that she was never going to fulfill for her father that's not her obviously so i think there's just some interesting shades of what it means to fulfill that code for a lady. And like we said earlier, Brienne's never fit into that peg.

She's never fit into that star-shaped hole in the box, you know? Yeah. And maybe she'd never fit into that peg, but she could peg. She would. She's gonna. she could peg. She would. She's gonna. She would peg. She's gonna be great at it. I can't wait till she pegs Jamie, because of all the characters that love getting pegged in A Song of Ice and Fire, Jamie's up there.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. That's, like, not a question. I know. That's why I declared it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just fact it's canon it's canon um but yeah uh you were saying something about like selwyn and and the ladies right and and the demeaning i guess it's i mean it's it's interesting because like the way catlin says it i understand that the literal meaning is like yeah class wise

they're not ladies right because I guess ladies are you know capital L ladies but the way she says it makes it sound like and I do think that's intentional that they're not real people you know no real person involved

to talk about succession a little bit it good it's very it's like that yeah we've been slipping that in every now and then now well and that's the thing like they aren't even to her she's like oh those aren't suitors those aren't ladies that are actually respecting themselves those are just chicks your dad is fucking like that's straight up what that means just rando chicks your dad But, like, we don't even know that. Yeah. She doesn't even see them as, like, living by the codes of, I guess, womanhood or whatever.

And how do you know it's them and not Selwyn, is what I'm saying. I agree. What are the chances that a rando woman every year, for as long as Brienne can remember it, has an issue with him? Yeah. It's very, you know, all too well. I don't know. To bring up. I was just bringing up.

Okay, Taylor. I know. It's very much like that song, All Too Well. That's very. Wow. Yeah. We're very hip on pop culture here. Wow.

This is House Tarth's red moment. Oh, my God. it's their red era um i also briefly wanted to say you know caitlyn's since i'm talking about caitlyn we got randall here speaking of people who are being weird about justice caitlyn's justice pretty weird right now lady Lady Stonehearts, I mean. Sorry, my bad. She's not a real lady. She's not a real lady. Of what? Of what? What keep? Anyway, I'm joking. Brienne shakes it off.

Shakes herself out of it. See, I made another Taylor joke. When someone comes down the cellar steps and then keeps nods at Brienne. It's him! Brienne offers to buy Nimble Dick his wine and he accepts. She asks him about fooling

a fool and he asks, who wants to know? And she puts down a silver stag with Robert's head on it and says, King Robert. I love this because while she's referring to the coin having King Robert on it uh and especially with some of the talk earlier that they were like should we kill her because she killed King Renly and they're like no he's not king anymore here she is putting down an ex-king King Robert and she's slowly becoming considered an outlaw as we we talked about, despite her king's elder scroll, whatever.

And the Brotherhood Without Banners have kind of a similar end goal, as Riyadh in some aspects, right? A little twisted outlaw knight situation going on there. And it's just like when Arya meets them and they call themselves Kingsmen. Robert, right? And here she goes, King Robert's asking. Robert, right? And here she goes King Robert's asking So even though her scroll is signed by a Lannister puppet

she too is sharing the same goal as the Brotherhood and still subscribing to King Robert Yeah It is, especially because some people thought Renly was Robert come again, which yes and no, as we've discussed

and I like what you're saying about it inching towards that outlaw moment come again, which yes and no, as we've discussed. And I like what you're saying about it inching towards that outlaw moment. I will say, I was just like I was kind of proud of Brienne in this moment when she says King Robert. I was like, ooh, very smooth. Very well done, Brienne. She's not the

best PI, but she's got some good PI lines. She's like, King Robert wants to know. Ugh. Good for her. She's not the best PI, but she's got some good PI lines. She's like, King Robert wants to know. Ugh. Good for her. She's getting a little confidence. She's getting a little bit of... Don't get too cocky, kid. That noir talk, you know? She's been watching some films.

Yeah. Yeah. So Nimble Dick tells her that Fool had two girls with him and the man looked afraid and then dick sings it in between all this with that hey nonny hey nonny ho i didn't realize at first but i'm pretty sure this is false in the fair right that uh marillion is singing when liiza is dangling Sansa out of the moon door. And yeah, so the song, we don't get lyrics besides, hey nanny, hey nanny, ho. Like that's the only thing we hear.

So it's funny he's using that as like a little interlude. And the song is probably inspired by the song of Balthazar in Much Ado About Nothing. Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more. Men were deceivers ever. One foot in sea and one on shore to one thing constant never. Then sigh not so, but let them go and be you Blythe and Bonnie, converting all your sounds of woe into hey nonny, nonny. So the false of the fair is literally kind of Brienne's entire arc with that in mind, right? We hear it here from Nimble Dick,

who she's unable to trust after being reminded constantly of the cruel, horrible game played on her when she was just out here trying to be a true knight. Her whole entire plot has kind of just been discerning who's false and who's fair, right? Who's being righteous. And I can't believe it, who's being righteous and I can't believe it

but nimble dick is just taking Brienne on a stinking goose chase Eliana yep you sent this to me I was like wow amazing amazing brilliant stinking wild goose chase

is he false or is he fair I mean I think he's fair I think he's false that nimble dick he's a. I think he's false, that nimble dick. He's a great character, I guess. What George did with nimble dick, I love. I want more of that. More nimble dick.

Less Heil Hunt. Less Randall Tarly. Oh, yeah, also that. I mean, at least Randall Tarly's fun to hate. That's true. Heil Hunt. Yeah, he's just kind of annoying hey nani hyle hunt is a great a great character so yeah no he is a great character you're right for hey nani hey nani hey nani ho i was like isn't it kind of weird that like nimble dick just like

sings in what he's saying then i remembered we do that. So I was like, hmm. Gotta take a long, hard look in the mirror. I'm wondering if it's very Dave Matthews band, right? Like if it's like, Hey Nani! Hey Nani! In the middle of conversation out of nowhere he's just like, ah, Nimble Dick is Nimble Dick's gonna show you how to get there

though. Nimble Dick's gonna take you. Hey Nani! Oh my god. I don't know. I think it's like a happy span. Which would make no sense in this context. I was thinking of it as, like, someone saying it, like, they're into sports or baseball. Like, hey, Nani! Hey, Nani! Hey, Nani!

Ho! Oh, that. Or, like, even, yeah, like, sports announcer or even auctioneer, you know? Oh, yes. Hey, Nani! Hey, Nani! Honey! Yeah. Going for one. going for one going for one yeah

nope i think it's shakespeare actually but good idea so too but i don't know what that i don't know what that tune sounds like probably someone's probably put it to music somewhere yeah it's somewhere on youtube i'm sure look check it out on out on Shakespeare Sunday out there on the internet. Hmm. Well, Nimble Dick says the man was looking to exit Maidenpool without being taken by Tarly's men, and so he offered him help. Brienne pays him for more,

putting another stag on the barrel. And speaking of auctioning, you know, the price just keeps going up for this, and he explains that he knows a smuggler's cove but there had been no ships in 30 years and asks for another stag to go on and explains oh how he fooled a fool

he sent them somewhere a stag may never find though a dragon could and then Brienne's like and forks over some gold too bad I didn't get a dragon to come here and eat your ass nimble dick she i'm sure she feels that way yeah she's probably really annoyed it's funny as hell he says he put them in cracklaw point a wild land of hills and bogs where he had been born

nimble dick says he has the noble blood of Clarence Crab himself within him. Clarence was eight feet tall, could uproot trees with one hand and chuck them a mile. This seems kind of like an exaggeration, but you know, Clarence Crab does have a similar ring to it, right? Just like Dunk the Lunk. Clarence Crab, Dunk the Lunk. I don't know, eight feet tall, right? Uprooting trees. So, I mean, a couple other connections.

Dunk marrying Egg. I mean, Dunk being best friends with Egg, and Egg is very witchy himself with Summerhall. But also, you have another one of Dunk's kind of relatives, the Mountain, right? With Qyburn as a woods witch bringing him back but his head does kind of become a pretty big point of contention in the plot he's a talking head that comes back to life yeah yeah uh interesting i didn't realize like i never

thought about that you're right clearance crab something's going on there with brian's backstory and and the dunk stuff well and and even back to you know the what should i call it what's the short story sons of the dragon uh maegor it reminds me of tyana in the tower bringing maegor back to life with and yeah interesting and his his wife was a woods witch and whenever he would kill a man his wife would kiss the head and bring it back to life uh which again cat cattle and reminders are everywhere here so much cattle and reminder going on yeah here we get yep lords wizards famous knights pirates one was even the king of duskendale they all would give him counsel they can't talk too loud but they never shut up either he said interesting they can't

talk too loud so crab's keep got named the whispers still is though it's been a ruin for a thousand years a lonely place the whispers yeah it does sound lonely it sounds like very creepy and i don't know i just get this like image when they're describing oh clarence crab coming home bringing like a head back for his wife and then like be like honey we're gonna bring this one back to life or whatever it just reminds me of miracle max and valerie from like the princess bride that's how i imagine their dynamic and how they act to one another oh my god give me Billy Crystal now for

Clarence Pratt some platforms will be needed but I'm out here like I'm not a witch I'm your wife I love that I do love that real talk though I want to come back to real things that aren't just movies. I'm sorry, Eliana.

The Princess Bride could be an influence. Me. The Princess Bride is real, Chloe. I do think this chapter is so well laid out with tons of foreshadowing about the brotherhood without banners and further foreshadowing for some of the stories in this book right like cersei's plot having a bit of a woods witch to do with uh the prophecy george putting contacts you know having he purposefully is having these wood witches kind of pop up we had storm of swords with the ghost of high heart but specifically the cat foreshadowing is jumping out especially with aria's storm chapters kissing

the head bringing it back to life not six times just one kind of this reverse thoros barrett cat as clarence and his wife specific to this book's end even even with the whispers, right? Because that kind of reminds me of the whispering wood for Catelyn. Here was a hush in the night, moonlight and shadows. But all of that Catelyn stuff said, it kind of feels a bit

others-y, too. Right? Reanimating the dead to serve them. Kind of like the soldiers. That feels like a hint. Yeah. That feels like a hint about that, but also

what you were saying about Kat and the whispers, I get it. It took a while for me to click, I'm sorry, of how she can't speak very loudly because her throat's been... Oh, that's why they can't really talk, because their head's cut that's why they can't really talk their heads cut off so they don't really have their vote i get it i get it now it's coming together um it does feel i wonder if the others i mean especially with the timing right because he's a

hero i don't know feels possible that is interesting but it also feels very R'hllor-ish because of the kissing I don't know it's all of it it's all these themes yeah well and the kiss really is what seals it I think the kiss is like seal it with a kiss she don't speak but she remembers yeah

the heads didn't talk too loudly it's all interesting though I mean it's all building up this kind of bone structure right for the chapter to as it ends and continues on by the end of Brienne's arc we know where she's going which is to the woods witch to her own Clarence Crabs yeah well

before we get to those Clarence Crabs. Yeah. Well, before we get to those Clarence Crabs, Nimble Dick is, like, negotiating himself a new salary. He's like, alright, I will take you to the Fool for six dragons. And Brienne's like, well, only if we, like, find Sansa, then you can have some. And if we find the Fool, you only get two dragons. And she's like, if we don't find anything, then you get fucking some and if we find the fool you only get two dragons and she's like if we don't find anything then you get fucking nothing because you've given me nothing

and so we end the chapter do not play me false you'll not find me easy meat when she let go crab rubbed his wrist. Bloody piss. You hurt my hand. I am sorry for that.

My sister is a girl of three and ten. I need to find her before- Before some knight gets in her slit. Aye, I hear you. She's good as saved. Nimble Dick is with you now. Meet me by East Gate at first light. I need to see this man

about a horse i like that line though at the end i need to see a man about a you know it's quite pointed though of nimble dick to say you know before some night gets in her sled because turns out that's what happened to his sister she got raped by a knight well and that's why like real talk nimble dick and brienne although she cannot trust him unfortunately later she does not trust him in time like that's why they get on because they know knights are bullshit that's true that's a great point yeah great point greatlaw point. I'm gonna fucking fling you off Cracklaw point. She's like,

thank god, we're at the end of the episode. Thank the seven, thank the old, thank, you know, R'hllor, R'lyu, Red R'lyu, no, I'm just kidding. Thank the great other. It's gonna be real sad when Dick dies.

It is. It is. Every time it gets my ass. Can't wait till Brienne won. The win's a winner when Heil Hunt dies. Wonder if it'll get my ass. I mean... I doubt it. I doubt it, but like, wow, what if it did, you know?

I'm interested. If he can get my ass in the first quarter of T-Wow with Heil Han if I give a shit, that'll be really interesting. I would be very interested. It'll be very impressive. I'm ready to be impressed.

I just want to be impressed. I just want to read T-Wow. Maybe I won't be impressed. I'd be impressed if it were done with me. I'm fine my god well we'll be back in wow in december i guess right yeah you won't hear from us for those of you celebrating a harvest of sorts you know this this november hope you enjoy have a great holiday i hope you get to see some friends and family we'll be back december 3rd with our next brienne episode chapter 4 episode 146 yes and if you have any thoughts on this episode or

anything else you that you want to say to us be sure to find us on social media you can find us on twitter at girls gone canon c-a-n-o-n or shoot us an email at girls gone canon at gmail.com yes and make sure you're subscribed to us on a podcast platform streaming platforms streaming nearby you whether that is itunes google play spotify stitcher acast podbean where we're hosted you name it and of course you can always find us on patreon where patrons five dollars and up get an rss feed with all of our episodes plus a bonus episode every month, and this month is Nivember. Yes, Numeria November. I'm excited for it. It's going to be a blast. It'll be a great episode, and we can't wait for you to hear it.

Yes, indeed. As always, I have been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I have been another one of your hosts, Eliana. Stay honorable. Hey, Nani. Hey, Nani. Hey, Nani. You know, hey, Nani. Oh, my God. Ho. Why is it just Thundercats, though?

You know, like, ha! Like, that's all I... Every time I read it, Thundercats. Huh. Hey, Nani. Hey, Nani. Hey, Nani.

Ho! Hey, Nani. Ho! Goodbye. Bye!