Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 146 — AFFC Brienne IV

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

Whispers, Crabbs, and fools... for a moment, the water transforms into whispers. The songs are alive as is the magic in the sword. But Brienne's innocence dies: "I'm sorry I didn't trust you. I don't know how to do that anymore."  --- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl] Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: www.liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon, Read a Song of Ice and Fire, episode 146 brienne four in a feast for crows i am one of your hosts chloe and i am another one of your hosts eliana this is a great episode this is a fantastic i don't know if it's a great episode but this is a great chapter right we are joined by a couple of other hosts the talking Talking Heads of The Whispers. Not the Talking Heads of the band, that would be sick. Oh, that would be so sick. Seriously, that would be once in a lifetime, you know? But we do come upon some psycho killers in this chapter.

And we do get water flowing underground in this chapter as well. Oh my god. This is actually an iconic chapter. I agree. What year was the Davos Fingers A Song of Madness polls on Twitter where everybody suddenly rode for Nimble Dick? Once upon a time, friends here in the fandom, Nimble Dick became an iconic hero for for a season of a song of madness

the march madness poll that our pals at davos fingers run and he we were trying to get him to everyone was trying to get nimble dick to the top you know he didn't get there that year but i do think that really opened people's eyes though to the glory that is Brienne 3 and Brienne 4. I was just telling my husband and you tonight that my favorite ten chapters of A Song of Ice and Fire, I could at least tell you eight of them off the top of my head, and it's Brienne 1, Brienne 2, Brienne 3, Brienne 4. You know what I'm going for here. This is a great run of chapters.

This is nimble dick and the sadness, the crushing, horrible sadness. Yeah. There's a lot going on. It's, I think a really dense chapter that tells us a lot about Brianne's character, but also speaks to a lot of things going on in the story.

Like nimble dick. I know he's, he's kind of a meme, but also he's a little more than that, you know? Yeah. I think it's also a really, really great predecessor to our

chapter next week that we'll be covering right uh because you get all of those looks at broken men and we'll see some of that in this chapter as well kind of the the precursor before that chapter but next week's chapter is going to be more special than just being the broken man chapter i mean that's just that's one thing the broken man speech chapter is obviously iconic for so many reasons but it's going to be made even more iconic when we're joined by our friend sam of the rainbow guard yes i'm so excited i really love the things that sam has said about brienne even before we started this Brienne read-through and we were like we've got to have Sam on we got to have Sam on to talk Brienne with us so

really really excited for that and you know he's written a lot about Brienne and about other characters in A Song of Ice and Fire and you can find some of that over at therainbowguard.com and learn a little bit more about sam before we have him on next week yes absolutely so we got a lot of guests coming on we actually do this is not the first one we haven't you know sam is just the first of the rainbow guard this is a tease yeah this is a wonderful tease of the rainbow guard. A whole melee, a whole tourney of people coming up. This is the Lord Commander of the Rainbow Guard, I guess. That's true.

To start us off. I think so. Starting off strong. We can't tell you the other cloaks that you'll see and hear from, but you're going to find out soon. They're good. I promise. I promise. Brienne is actually going to join.

No, I'm joking. Brienne's with us every episode. Oh my god. We got Brienne of Tar going to join no I'm joking Brienne's with us every episode we got Brienne of Tarth ladies David Byrne the talking heads Brienne of Tarth again once in a lifetime

this is a once in a lifetime oh my god alright this must be the place I love y'all speaking of naive melodies let's talk about another another thing that we're doing

well hey last month we had a really great time talking about Nymeria for Nivember with our friends Ashea from History of Westeros and AK from YouTube channel of the Lord Commander, Alish Kingston's YouTube channel. And it was a blast. We had so much fun. We got to talk about actually some stuff that is resonating in this chapter. I didn't think it

would, but there are a few things that I kind of thought of and remembered. So I'm glad to have gotten such a fun refresher. If you are a patron over at patreon.com slash girls gone canon, $5 and above the stranger tier, you get bonus episodes every month about A Song of Ice and Fire, His Dark Materials, and sometimes other books. For our December episode, we're so excited to announce that we are going to be doing a different song, a different song, not of Ice and Fire, but a song of Achilles. We're going to be doing the Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I'm so excited for this. This is my book. I pushed for this one and Eliana let me. She said, you get to have it. Yes, I will give you this thing. to let me she said you get to have it yes i will give you this thing well it's not justice but um we'll we'll keep little things under wraps but yes i'm i'm excited to do this book because also i mean chloe's been talking it up i know that other people have spoken to the virtues of this book already in the past and it's always been on my list so i'm glad to finally get to read this and

close out 2021 with this book and with chloe i mean hopefully i read other books right like there's there's also other there's time to read more books but i'm just saying what if there isn't enough time oh my god oh my god you know i'm gonna be traveling over the holidays so i hope i get some time to read you know i think holidays are a great time to read they are it's cozy you know curl up with a hot mug of tea or cocoa or something read a book some nog you've been really pushing like this nog like chloe's all like we're gonna drink eggnog and like you know do our brunch our patreon brunch which yes besides a bonus episode every month for patrons in the five dollars here and above our patrons in the ten dollars here and above get

access to our discord and and our brunch slash happy hour you do not get access to our eggnog you have to get your own eggnog yeah b-y-o-e-n and this month we're so excited we always joke that over at discord and the voice channels we play reindeer games and eliana and i have decided just now just recently just very very recently before we recorded we were like we're doing it we're doing reindeer games the theme this year december 18th 1 to 3 p.m is reindeer games there will be reindeer games of a sort show up you're going to be surprised it's going to be a holiday miracle and i'm excited we're it's going to laid back. We're just going to play reindeer games and have fun. No one has to present anything unless, I don't know,

you want to make a reindeer game. I don't know. It's holiday season. Everyone's going to be pooped. We're just going to vibe. We're just going to hang out in the chat. Come and go as you please. Drink, be merry, do whatever

you want, lurk. i don't know just hang out yeah hang out that's gonna be this month it's on a saturday it's saturday december 18th from 1 to 3 p.m eastern time yes yes we will be there we hope you will be there if you're in the thunder tier and above come check it out you know come check it out patrons get their own private rss feed where their bonus episodes load right up certain tiers get early release plus the discord is honestly a riot it is it's a real riot it's out of control it is it is well in terms of not as great news it's like okay news

it's a holiday schedule it's medium news yeah it's a holiday schedule right and you know yes you get reindeer games but no you don't get a historic materials episode at the end of December but you do get two of them you have all been naughty

yes you've all been a little too dusty episode at the end of december but you do get two of them at the beginning naughty yes you've all been a little too dusty and you have all been so naughty and you do not get hdm for christmas this year but you do for january when you turn over a brand new leaf your resolution is that you're gonna get two episodes of of His Dark Materials in January, right? One at the front, one at the back. Hit it from the front. Hit it from the back. That's gonna be...

That's what we're doing next year in 2020. And we're going to be joined by our good friend Cassidy, who is a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire as well, but a bigger His Dark Materials fan. And I'm excited to kind of chat with them about His Dark Materials in the new year, because we're going to be finishing up the Amber Spyglass in 2022. Just in time for the final series of the hit HBO experience and BBC experience, His Dark Materials. Yes. Told you guys you thought I was

going to talk about Game of Thrones. But no, she did not. We're talking about different book adaptations that are mostly pretty faithful for people who actually like the books. Anyway, if you like the books watch it

watch it we also are starting a new pov right we're gonna finish brienne in january and we're hopping on to some new some new beginnings jumping into some beginnings with our friends so it could be the start they actually sing that at new year's that movie you know it's on point on theme we're not gonna tell you not doing hdm we're doing hsm oh my god no we're not doing high school musical that's why we're not doing it no spoilers on the new POV y'all gotta wait y'all just gotta wait they've been theorizing already people used to theorize about the books

now they theorize about our next POV it's all gone too meta at the discord I'm telling you, too meta it has we have some exciting things lined up for that new POV, but we also have some things right now, right? We got some

emails and tweets of note. We haven't covered a few of those in a while. Yeah, we got an email from our good friend Britt, aka the Queen of the North, over at Patreon. And she messaged us and said, Hey, Canon girls, long-time listener, never-time messenger,

sometimes fangirl tweeter of the podcast. I came to your pod a year ago, have been listening to characters in somewhat random order, depending on my ADHD whims. Same, I feel that. This has led to the happy coincidence of me just finishing Jamie as you're releasing Brienne. She's my favorite character, so I started listening to her eps as you release them

as I finish up Jamie's episodes. Oh, that's fun. Seeing Jamie end as Brienne begins has me see George really created the most beautiful dichotomy between these two and the lessons they teach each other. In the end of it all, Jamie, I believe, will come to show Brienne the honor in breaking a vow if done for the right reasons, while Brienne shows the disillusioned Jamie the honor in keeping a vow, even if that vow appears futile. Thanks for all the laughs and great content. Aw, I love that.

I'm so excited that they get to read in the order they want. There's enough out there that you guys can read whatever the hell you want. Or listen, you know, you can listen to Jamie and then come over and see what hypocrites I'm being in the next, you know, POV. I mean, that is part of why we like did the POV structure.

You know, we were like, yeah, people after a while can choose their own adventure. So, yeah, go to page 627 if you want to hear Chloe not cry about Jamie Lannister. Listen to it in any order you want. Truly. Listen to it from back from like the most recent episode to the first. Whatever. Go backwards with us.

I'm not going to. Yeah, me neither. Never going back. If I look back, I am lost. I'm lost. Lost as shit but i like thank you so much brit for this email slash message and yeah there's a lot i think we're going to touch a little bit on that idea of honor but in different ways this episode it does come up yes honor not just the horse. Not just. Well, let's gallop on that horse, right?

Let's get up on that honorable horse real quick. And yee-haw our way over to the lightning round. Jesus Christ. Sorry. It's okay. We're gonna start our lightning round off with Samwell 2. The trip to Braavos is a hellish one, and nothing Sam says can console Gilly.

Jaime 2. Jaime and Cersei do their own version of battle, and Jaime schools Loras on Kingsguard lore. Cersei 4. Cersei enacts chaotic decrees during council, like ordering assassins on john snow tries to steal spicy secrets from her mirish lover in the eve and then adds a little seduction to her evening playlist convincing kettle black to do her bidding are any chapters as busy as cersei chapters good for her they just lots going on there lots going on That was a storm right there. What of my storm?

What of my wrath, Cersei says. Indeed. Reindeer games. Shut the fuck up. Reindeer games of thrones. We should have fucking called it. It's not too late. It's reindeer games of thrones now, everyone.

It's reindeer games of thrones. You know, edit it it put it in there you can do this no no i'm leaving it right here the iron captain victorian emerges as the newest combatant in the throne game and we learned some of his backstory he gets a boner for his niece and he starts to think about a new plan. The Drowned Man. A queen's moot is turned into a nightmare's moot. Brienne IV. Brienne must not flinch in the face of terror at Cracklaw Point.

East of Maidenpool the hills rose wild, and the pines closed in about them like a host of silent gray green soldiers love the introducing prose right the uh the beginning prose of george in these chapters has been gorgeous i thought cat's prose at the start of her chapters were really really good when we just got through them but this is pretty good this one is uh very beautiful and really sets the stage it shows the landscape right the war is torn through the riverlands and it's apparent as ever the trees encroaching fallen and standing soldiers and as we go through this chapter it breaks down the environment breaks down everything becomes kind of in ruins or covered in moss or mud and pine needles.

And as we get into Brienne 5, they end up reaching a land that's so poor in resources, wealth, and land that the war has barely even touched it, right? There's not enough for the soldiers to want to go after or for their commanders to tell them to go after. Which kind of makes me think about Brienne's journey because she's kind of going after no winnings, right? She is seeking something for no winnings at great cost to herself and those who aid her. The only thing that there is in it is honor for her. It's just like this real sad day crescendo as everything starts swirling around

like from here on with Nimble Dick. The land is showing us so much. It's telling us. It is. swirling around from here on with Nibbledick. The land is showing us so much. It's telling us. It is. It is. And as you said, it's a great way to understand what's going on, not just outside in the environment, but also inside of Brienne.

She's searching for a lot on this journey, honor, meaning. And right now they are following the coast, right? That's where they're searching along they follow nibbledick's advice trying to keep out of sight of the bay the villages grow smaller and they seek they seek shelter at night nibbledick crab sleeps with other travelers in a common bed while brienne and pod share a room dick jokes that if they shared it'd be cheaper and she could just put her sword in between them. But Brienne doesn't trust him enough. She tells him, trust is earned. Like, gold.

But Dick says she'll need to trust him when the road gives out. If he had bonded to take her gold at sword point, who was to stop him? And she's like, you don't have a sword? And then shuts the door, remaining silent until she is sure he has left the hall because he might be nimble but he is no jamie lannister and no mad mouse not even a humphrey wagstaff he is scrawny ill-fed with rusted old armor and a nick dagger you gotta feel for him and later when she does give him the sword oh man it's so touching very touching that she's like all right i trust you enough to give you this fucking piece of metal yeah and to let you also like

come into this with me right because uh yeah it didn't doesn't work out right yeah he's also not like a very reassuring character i get it you know like he's kind of like the singing every few minutes and not taking things seriously or answering questions straight I could see we're traveling with this man for more than three days may grate on you that's all that's all yeah absolutely all the and the like looks at her chest I'd be like no I will deck you a lot of their conversations right it's just like them speaking and it's just Brienne replying with no and it doesn't seem like she ends it there because we go into her like thoughts

but that's it she just goes no I do love that I do love that yeah the dialogue is scarce for her she's very quiet she's very reserved and guarded. But not as much with Podrick anymore, right? She's starting to really develop a relationship with Podrick, especially because she does not trust Crabbe. She later asks Pod on the road to be her guard when they have to run out of inns later on the road and shelter in rocks or in ruins.

He offers to kill him if Crabbe tries to mess with him. She's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's a 10. Bring it back to a five. Bring it back to a five, Pod. Don't fight him. Wake me if he tries anything suspicious. The next day, she catches Dick in her saddlebags while she goes to make water.

He finds only flour from the cook of the seven swords, and she tells him, I keep my gold on me. And he says, I was only checking to make sure you have the gold you promised me and that you weren't going to cheat me brienne's like hope you're a better guide than a thief because you suck at stealing buddy suck at stealing yeah he's actually he is a better guide than he is a thief anyway he'd make a great tour guide he did find he did find the person they were looking for you know he told her so much lore right yeah that's true on the way he's a great tour guide he actually would be a really good tour guide oh man that was his calling shit and i mean he provides yeah he

provides entertainment you know he as you said he often sang as they went along which maybe it's like entertaining when you pay a person when you want to be sang to yeah when you want to be serenaded and sing that he's she like, you are actually not the talking heads. No, they're going there. They're going to go see them. And she suspects that he meant to take her off guard and charm her, often asking

them to sing along. But Pod is too shy and Brienne doesn't sing, and we have this great line. Did you sing for your father? Lady Stark had asked her once at Riverrun. Did you sing for your father? Lady Stark had asked her once at Riverrun. Did you sing for Renly? She had not. Not ever.

Though she had wanted. She had wanted. I love the trailing off she had wanted and where it falls in our other ladies in the story that have been saying it, right? Like Catelyn crying out that she wanted versus Cersei's crying out during sex that she wants. And also just how it sits against that. Brienne always craved that approval and that kind of, it's like that unconditional love,

that feeling of being unconditionally loved and cared for and safe and home. And that while Brienne, you know, seems to love her father to an extent and who he is, and he obviously seems to love her to an extent to let her go off on her journey without trying to stop her. I just think it's so sad that her want here is that feeling of that unconditional safety and love that she hasn't felt necessarily in her own body. That lack of judgment. And it's, I love that you brought up this line in that she'd wanted comparing it with Kat and Cersei. Arienne also has her own moment of, I only wanted,

I wanted, right? And it's so interesting. I didn't realize that we actually had this moment also in Brienne's chapters. We've talked about it in Kat's and Cersei's and Arianne's. And it really manifests in a lot of different ways. And a lot of it, it is tied to gender in many ways. It's tied to power and what's accepted, right, for Catelyn. I mean, we covered all that, so I'm not going to rehash it all. And Cersei will get there more one day, but obviously she... There's a sort of bloodlust involved in that, too, as we find out. And then with Arion, I'm not convinced she knows what she wanted, but part of it is that she, I think, wanted, as you were talking about, that unconditional love, that parental approval. She wanted to be Princess of Dorne, and she wanted her father to see her as Princess of Dorne and all that to prove herself. And Brienne's kind of like on that journey too,

right? Both of those POVs we get for the first time in this book and those same lines, right, of both of them wanting. For them, it's sort of wanting to go beyond what they're allowed to do or expected to do as women, what they're permitted to learn and do. For Brienne, she wanted to have the freedom to do this thing that is often feminine coded without being mocked. She had wanted to sing. And I think there's another loaded aspect there too, right? Especially within this chapter, which is about legends. She'd wanted to sing, she wanted to perform the songs. and this chapter is a little bit about performing the songs too but in a different way and there's that aspect of her wanting to be able to do the things she cares to do be a knight yeah and also there's toxic masculinity and that she

can't sing you know songs happily and we kind of see that since nimble dick has been rejected from society in some manner like he's either on the run from uh being like a broken man as we'll talk about or you know it's kind of interesting that he's on a horse next to her singing happily and she can't she can't yeah not if she wants to be taken seriously as a knight as you As a person in this skin. It completely contrasts with what her society says. That she can do and be. Like oh you want to be a knight? Well you can't be one.

Yeah. Speaking of when Nimble Dick sings. When he wasn't singing. He spoke of tales from Crack Claw Point. As Chloe said. Best tour guide. For the rest of this chapter and talks about how they had the blood of the first men in their veins he tells his two customers captive audience yes captive audience

about how the antles tried to take crack claw but they bled them and drowned them in the bogs the darklands the mutants and the caltigars had all tried to rule cracklaw, but they bled them and drowned them in the bogs. The Darklands, the Mutants, and the Celtigars had all tried to rule Cracklaw Point, but the people knew their land more than anyone else and could vanish into caverns, hiding. But when they weren't fighting, those who sought to conquer them, they would fight each other, until some champion brought peace to the Point, Lord Lucifer Hardy and the brothers brune and old crack bones but the crabs were mightiest of all especially clarence crab crack bones made me think

of break bones me too me too i i was thinking about it there's nothing else to really chase on that but it made me think about it brienne doesn't really believe that any of this is real she's like clarence crab never existed but lets it slide, telling him of her own local non-existent hero, Sir Galadin of Morn, the Perfect Knight, a champion of valor that the maiden herself lost her heart to. She gave him an enchanted sword as a token of her love, the Just Maid. Galadin only unsheathed the sword three times. He refused to use it against a mortal, but I don't know if I could piece it all together. is another callback right we were talking about galadin and likening his legend to sir galahad that perfect night that shiloh had told us about from our thorian legend when we started brienne's chapters yeah it's so it's something now that sticks out so hard whenever i see it

sticks out so hard just like dick who laughs at all of this. And he says, what's the point of having some magic sword if you don't bloody well use it? Why am I imagining him with Shrek voice? She tells him honor. Honor is the point. The point is honor. And there's something here that really embraces the next Arya chapter, right? The Arya chapter that comes up in a couple chapters is Arya giving up Needle. And Brienne

has been rejecting this sword. She has been only taking it out in secret, rejecting this part of her, and now she's embracing it, with Arya coming up and having to hide that part of herself. And I feel like this is also probably a little bit of foreshadowing that Arya will also get to

embrace that sword again, you know, fully in that part of herself again. Yeah, that's a great connection. And I think there's quite a bit, right? And you're going to talk a little bit more about those Arya connections later this chapter. And I will say regarding, I don't know why you think of Dick as Shrek. If anything, nimble Dick is donkey and Brienne's kind of shrek oh my god anyways right i would also say uh thinking about aria's chapter that chapter also has all of the creepy faceless men and the whispers like jacquin says she must whisper to her him or something like the to you know understand more of what she's learning

and then she you know is taking on all the black and white stuff so it's also kind of spooky because brienne also as she ascends up the cliff to the ruins to the whispers and you get all below the caves and caverns creepy i just feel like the chapters actually mirror each other really well well done george well done dick says my dad can beat up your dad and by that he means clarence crab would uh kick the shit out of gallatin and brianna has a smile on that she tells him gallatin was no fool and actually even slayed a dragon but dick is unimpressed saying crackbones also fought a dragon brianna asks all right what crackbones did when agan and his sisters came and crab says well duh he was dead by then agan sent his sisters up to crack claw and the lords had already heard of herod's end so they laid their swords at visenya's feet

and they were dragon men from that day forward they bowed to their own lords and the king the real king not robert okay interesting interesting thoughts and foreshadowing so he goes on that there were crabs broons bogs all on the trident with rhaegar and in the king's guard too you have a hardy cave pine three crabs clement rupert clearance is short then we have a line of we're all good dragon men up crack claw way which is also like donkey donkey is in a relationship with a dragon i love that clarence crab is called out as the tall one right and then he's like clarence the short is still pretty tall though i loved that it made me smile and as we've already talked a little bit about clarence crab

last week i do want to say we talked about those Tyanna and Maegor kind of vibes with Visenya and Gregor right even some undead Gregor vibes especially with the heads and the fact that now we have a mini Clarence Crabb it kind of represents Sandor right like you have the taller the mountain and then you have the hound and here he said that Clarence the short was a Kingsguard member so interesting interesting I mean especially because my boy is splattered across these pages right like we get a bunch of the hound in name in this chapter and then next chapter it's Sandor city pew pew pew I'm so excited pew pew pew she's never gonna shut up about this pew pew pew you guys

we'll even get some I think hints of him towards the end of this too we'll come back to that yes yes absolutely agreed and I can't wait to come back I love coming to Sandor and I'm sorry my god whoa who said that so you're telling me you're a Sandor

fan girl I do love this exchange of the local stories. I love the folklore. I love the my imaginary person could beat your imaginary made up person up. That's very funny. And I also forgot about all of the elements of the dance that took place in Cracklaw, right? The crabs and the brooms join the blacks

and assist Wallace Mooton, the Lord of Maidenpool in retaking brooks rest uh cracklaw also seems to just like their blonde warrior woman right visenya brienne raniera maybe they'll love danny right i'm expecting we're gonna hear some cracklaw nation you know everything out this way rise maybe for dann. We don't know. Maybe it'll split, because they seem to have quite a bit of emphasis on how they were with Rhaegar, right? At the Trident.

Allegedly, Rhaegar's son is coming to Westeros. Allegedly. That's true. We'll see. That's true. For now, they shelter in a fishing village at night, Brienne paying a few coppers to bed in a barn, claiming the loft for her and Pod in pulling the ladder up.

Dick teases her, saying she best get her horse up the ladder, too. And he also reminds her that it's gonna rain, and that her and Pod, oh, they're gonna be all snug while poor old Dick freezes downstairs poor nimble dick he's like yeah he's so bummed i do feel bad for him but i get it i mean you just can't trust him apparently but you could have i mean as a woman i do get it yeah absolutely like i'm not just gonna invite a dude on the street that totally has a dagger on him. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know. I mean, I don't have Oathkeeper, to be fair, but. I also don't really know how to fight, so. There's that. That would be a problem, too. Yeah. Even if I had Oathkeeper, I would probably be more empowered. Yeah. Even if I had Oathkeeper, I would probably be as empowered. There's a lot in this fishing village about the environment we're seeing as they go along. We see a lot of wet bogs, moss, green marshes, forestry.

The homes that are described as treehouse-y and floating on the water in some of these places. And we get all these mentions of the First Men coming here and later we'll even see a weirwood uh and it makes me think of the north or maybe the knack right just in the way the land is and it makes me think which which land wasn't but they likely had children of the forest flourishing here right long long ago and there's also something interesting in the way that Dick is talking about squishers throughout the chapter that kind of mirrors this and other aspects. There's something there we'll come back to in a bit. And of course, there's the thought of like Galadin being an Azor Ahai figure, as you kind of mentioned that there's all this legend and lore, right? It's all like the same exact stories. And I think telling stories is like a big theme of this chapter

of those local folklore aspects, right? Like it's all about the same story with different names for the same thing. And we're talking a lot about this over at His Dark Materials right now. No huge spoilers, but in some of these chapters about creatures called the Mulefa, a people called the Mulefa, and about how they have the same things, just different words and different actions to describe those.

And Galadin is to Clarence Crabbe here for them, right? Yes, absolutely. The local legends, right? And those are valuable too, right? It tells you a lot about a culture and what they value. There's something of that, as you were saying, right? There's a lot of magic here. So we see that there's a lot of people here still value that sort of magic and mysticism.

Yeah. He makes his bed on a pile of hay below them, below the loft, and Pod and Brienne yawn and curl up. Dick calls up to her and says, I never knew such a mistrustful maid, and Brienne thinks of yelling back, I was not always wary. She then thinks, when I was a little girl, I believed that all men were as noble as my father, even the men who told her what a pretty girl she was, how tall and bright and clever, how graceful when she danced.

It was Septa Roel who had lifted the scales from her eyes. They only say those things to win your lord father's favor, the woman had said. You'll find truth in your looking-glass, not on the tongues of men. It was a harsh lesson, one that left her weeping, but it had stood in her good stead at Haron hall when sir hyle and his friends had played their game a maid has to be mistrustful in this world or she will not be a maid for long she was thinking as the rain began to fall while the lesson that brienne learns is painful in its own like different way it kind of reminds me again of Sansa's current journey as as Brienne's remembering her own and like the dispelling of those myths that we grow up with I know that like we Brienne

we all know is actually in fact very tall so I don't know why Septa Ruel like said this thing like that's like an objective fact right she's probably as we can see pretty bright and clever and arguably pretty depending on the beholder and I don't know Scepter Ruel seems like she sucks and is dumb but it's the moment that Brienne learns that people say things to win her father over uh and her claim and again it's just like Sansa despite many you know actually attesting to Sansa's beauty when it comes down to it like it's all still a stand-in for her claim and how this objectification really cuts across for females in Westeros and that is part of her being her father's heir right that that pressure of that she somehow still is his only

surviving child and that she still does have a duty if it so falls to her and there's also something in it i don't know you might know this term but having something under your belt to fall back on right you know this term this idiom i wanted to go to college for the things i wanted to go to college for i wanted to go to college for the things I wanted to go to college for. I wanted to go to school for the things I wanted. My mom always said, you should have this under your belt though. Choose something more sensible so that you have something under your belt just in case to fall back on. That was a phrase commonly tossed around. And it's like the worst phrase because it's like, have you ever been told follow your dreams but do it less

follow your dreams but don't you know but make sure you don't just in case and there is something like that like she's not free with that lifestyle but she still has to protect herself and protect her honor you know of being a maid in case it's still that cup falls to her and she's forced to come to do that duty yeah that's a great point she's got a lot on her shoulders good thing they're big she's carrying a lot like the plot is carrying a lot well at bitter bridge she had sought out her suitors in the melee battering them one by one you got pharaoh ambrose bushy i bushy sucks but i like his name i like just saying bushy mark molendor raymond nayland will the stork that one's a good name too harry sawyer robin potter oh i see that this isn't george shitting on Harry Potter because of the Hugo Awards.

That's not a joke. I'm being pretty serious. I know. So we have this line from that time of and when the last of them had fallen the mother had delivered Connington to her. I am gleeful.

I am full of giddy joy at this little passage. I fucking love Brienne. What a great, can you imagine all these men that ain't shit, that you hate so much for what they've done to you, and you get to beat the shit out of them in a melee? Oh, girl, good for you. And also, the way this line is phrased is amazing and when the last of them had

fallen the mother delivered connington to her it's interesting because if the father is for justice is the mother in this instance and in other instances for vengeance because that's how brienne embraced it here that the mother delivered her justice which is really just some merciless vengeance the mother's merciless vengeance i'm just spitballing it no i think you're onto something because if you have to pray for the mother for mercy right like that means mercy isn't always a given right like mercy isn't always given it can be taken and i think that's what we see in cat's chapter i love that you've like called this out because later in this chapter right she it's a little bit of vengeance right when she she comes up against

the bloody mummers and you're talking about the mother i mean she had that conversation with catlin and she was like when we get there if I see Standis you promise not to hold me back. There is that streak of vengeance in Brienne. She's willing to do it here to those people who wronged her like Bushy. Hey it's just a game. It's just a game

you guys. I don't know why you're so upset it's just a game bro. I'm sorry. It's just a game you I'm sorry it's just a game you loser you fucking loser it's just a game what's wrong you're not winning son are you winning son Brienne with

her sword in the middle with her blue sword in the middle of battle what's wrong aren't you winning son she deserves to do that well yeah I mean he wasn't winning right sword in the middle of battle. What's wrong? Aren't you winning, son? She deserves to do that. Well, yeah, I mean, he wasn't winning, right? Connington shows up, he held a sword and not a rose this time, and every

blow she dealt him was sweeter than a kiss. Poor Loras Tyrell gets his ass kicked, as you'll all remember. He was the last to face her that day, and he actually had never looked at her, which we all know why, let alone ever courted her.

But because he had three golden roses on his shield, that... Yeah. Brienne fucking hated roses. She did. she really did yo this girl has so much style oh

it was pretty stylish though remember when Catelyn watches she's like wow damn what's going on here she's like that that night won why are they booing she's right it's just really funny that all these guys were fighting for her pussy. And they're like, yeah, hey, fellas.

Hey, fellas, is it okay to, you know, chase a girl for her pussy, but then pretend that she's really just really ugly and that's why you were doing it? And she's like, no. Men love to chase pussy. And some men. Brienne falls asleep in the present dreaming of that fight and sir jamie fastening a rainbow cloak around her shoulders oh it's gonna happen y'all it's happening i'm just saying there's gonna be a cloak around them shoulders and they break their fast in

the morning the rain coming down nibbled dick suggests Dick suggests they wait out the rain, but Brienne says no, we ride today. The track, though, turns to mud beneath their feet, and the trees are naked, leaves fallen from the steady pour. Dick's cloak is soaked through, and Brienne sees him shiver. She feels a little bit of pity for him and thinks he probably hasn't eaten well. She wonders if there actually is a smuggler's cove or even a castle called the Whispers. She thinks that hungry men do desperate things. I love this so much. We're going to talk about it more next week, but in the next chapter, the septid tells her what he does with hungry men when they find hungry, broken men. And earlier when podrick said to her

well i'll kill him if he tries anything and she says no just wake me up and i will deal with it podrick the septon says the same thing to their group when they get their next chapter he says no if we are come upon by broken men in the night let me deal with it wake me up and i will talk to them help them pray get them some food because they're probably hungry uh and so here just from watching nimble dick and when she kind of is struck with that realization of oh he probably hasn't eaten well he's probably hungry nimble dick i mean he's described as having a torn patch on his outfit right he's probably a broken man he's probably a broken man from one of the sides of the war out here he's probably on the run after leaving his regiment absolutely it's a great it's

a great observation um in the way that he ties into the rest of this story and yeah goes to show he he's a complex character for as little as he is in the books yeah his two chapter stint like one and a half one and a third chapters yeah or less uh she watches dick's movements throughout the day suspicious as always and as the night falls they're forced to make shelter among rocks no trees are around to shade them but at least the rocks kept the wind off dick says they should watch out for squishers in a place like this and and Brienne's like, what the fuck is a squisher? And nimble dick crab says they look like men, but up close. Their heads are too big. They have scales, and they've got fish belly white, always damp and fishy smelling, with rows of green teeth sharp as needles they come by at night and steal bad children

paddling them with webbed feet and the girls that they keep to breed with but the boys they eat oh wait sorry he teases Pod saying that they'd eat him raw Pod touches his sword saying he'd kill them and nibbled at Crab winks at Brienne saying alright you try that

they don't die easy there you go. Poor Pod! Pod's like, what? Why me? Pod just keeps being told you weakling throughout this chapter. But he proves himself a little. Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Actually, he proves himself at the Blackwater, to be honest, but yeah. Yeah, but again here, Pod, and who had the best story then pod the brick oh my god podrick and morty is that hey is that what this is that's something that feels like something that could be something that could be something uh this is actually kind of fun. I'm not usually like a squisher person. You know, some people are squishers. They're into squishers.

Grape squishers. Squisher sweet. Wait, no, I'm sorry. That was a cigar joke. A cigar paper joke. A blunt rolling joke. Squishers. I'm not into that stuff usually. I don't get into like the little creatures

as much it's not my favorite part of a swath always i appreciate it but with recording november recently with ashea and ak and you uh we talked a little bit about some of the different creatures or peoples of ancient civilizations like the isle of Toads, the Basilisk Isles. There are modern inhabitants there that kind of seem like they're from the people who carved the Toadstone, which were described as remnants of a forgotten race with an unpleasant fish-like aspect to their face. Many had webbed hands and feet. Interestingly enough, there are a bunch of other people this is described exactly alike.

First off, the Cranogmen are almost exact to Nimble Dick's description. There's the joking of the, oh, Cranogmen look like this. They allege that Cranogmen can breathe water, have green teeth, have webbed hands and feet like frogs. Then there's Merlings and Deep Ones. The Deep Ones are a queer queer misshapen race of half men sired by creatures of the salt seas on human women and the merlings have a couple of different semi-origins first of course and actually in the chapter right before this damp hair we get exposition on the gray king and he had wed a mermaid and became king of the Western Isles and sea beyond and had merlings. Ursa Upcliffe herself, who was the Lady of House Upcliffe during the Battle of the Seven Stars, the Andal Invasion,

she called herself the Bride of the Merling King. And then we have Lorath. In the legends of Lorath, the Lorathi mazemakers were destroyed by creatures from the sea, In the legends of Lorath, the Lorathi mazemakers were destroyed by creatures from the sea, and folk of the Thousand Islands sacrificed sailors to fish-headed gods, of which stone idols emerge when the tide is low. So, stories with names for the same thing. Again, right? Like, did some of these peoples get it on back in the ancient day to give us what we're hearing about now

interesting maybe and yeah kind of similar stories all across and I was thinking it reminded me a little of what we see going on in the north with Craster for a bit

and with the others of how the male children though get taken but also you you brought up the crannog men right who as we know are first men we know that the crabs here first men and that the free folk culture they steal girls from other tribes right and this reminds me a little of that right like is this a story that got passed down of the old customs that eventually they stopped adhering to but are still practiced on the other side of the wall or something? Yeah, I definitely think there are also some major Others vibes,

just the way the squishers get talked about throughout all of this. vibes just the way the squishers get talked about throughout all of this yeah and also they've got a fun name it's a good name i don't love all of like the names but squishers bushy maybe i just like sounds anyways So yeah, something interesting going on there. And also, I feel like Pig, who we're going to see later, emerged from the wood. He looks a little like a squisher, in my opinion. Yeah. The way he's described, he looks a little monstrous. Well, right now, it's too wet for a fire fire so they resign themselves to the cold night and brian

thinks about nimble dick crab stories that they were lively tales but she'd met amusing men before like mark mullendore with his little monkey like honestly i don't really know anything about mark mullendore other than like that he is a monkey and i guess brian thinks he's amusing so fascinating that he keeps getting brought up he must not be that great right if his entire personality is just that he owns a monkey he's like one of those guys right he doesn't have a personality anyways um so soon podrick snores and she's left alone to think in the darkness and she thinks are you there sansa waiting at the whispers for a ship that will never come who's there with you she sleeps twice the second time she wakes

heart pounding convinced someone stood over her only to see that nimble dick crab is curled on a rock and pawed asleep as well it was just a dream and her cloak got tangled on her ankles this is stressful uh she wonders if she made a mistake abandoning sir creighton and illifer and thinks they were honest men she then thinks that, would that Jaime had come with me. But he was a knight of the Kingsguard, and his place was with the king. Besides, she wanted Renly. She thinks, I swore I could protect him, and I failed. Then I swore I would avenge him.

I failed at that as well. I ran off with Lady Cately cadeline instead and failed her too oh baby girl oh baby girl besides she wanted renly honey no you don't you don't you don't you and i like made a face like uh do you you'll grow out of that we read that aloud girlfriend and also who's gonna tell her that she has a giant crush on jamie's cock uh it's not gonna be me that tells her someone needs to tell this girl but someone you know displace that shit for now whatever you gotta do brienne get through it you have a lot on your shoulders like to be honest like i think i was also dating an almost married man when i was 19 now that i think about

it but my god she's taking on too much trying to prove herself here right like all she's doing is trying to prove that she can be a knight that she can be with the greats that she can do that she can slaying sword but she's taking on so much she doesn't have to prove herself to anyone yeah i love you she doesn't uh you know you're asking who's gonna tell her and i forget who it is but at the end of her chapters right that's who tells her the fucking like the brotherhood without banners and like in the worst way possible they're like yeah we caught you and you wouldn't shut the fuck up about jamie so like you're in love with him she's like no i'm not and they're like you, and we're gonna kill you for it.

Worst way to find out you have a crush, I'm pretty sure. What do you choose? Murdering your crush or being with him? What is this, Squid Games? Oh my god. Wait, this is the Reindeer Games of Thrones. Oh my god, this is the- We're putting this in Reindeer Games.

Only ultimatums, Only ultimatums. Terrible ultimatums. Chloe, Jamie or sword? Sword. Every time. And, I mean, you know, there's- regarding Renly, and coming back to that, there's a

lot in this chapter, as we've been saying about the stories that Bram's, like, learning and unlearning about the world, and, like, the songs and those myths and i she's just like not ready yet to let go of the myth of renly she wasn't even ready when she got woken up and was told we're gonna kill you for liking jamie she's like no i like renly um because like she's not ready to like replace the myth with something real. And that's a lot of what this chapter is about, right? Her journeying between the two.

And as you all know, as we relive her life with her, and also from what we've seen, she's realized reality isn't beautiful. It's not like the songs. It's not safe. There isn't necessarily honor in it. And you know what? Unfortunately, there isn't necessarily honor in it and you know what

unfortunately there isn't that much honor according to everyone else and the man that she wants to but again allegedly she does not want him so she lets Renly become this comfort story and and when I say that I mean you know he's a fairy tale like it's not that he's like comforting to her right it's not that he's comforting to her it's a story she tells of herself about herself as a failure because it's comfortable to her it's comfortable to just think of herself as a failure because that's what she's been told

her whole life because there are no stories of maids like her and the ones that are kind of like her like Danny Flint, those end terribly and it's just really heartbreaking to see how much of her story is driven by this feeling of failure and like you said like needing to prove herself and and it's very hero's journey-ish yeah need to prove oneself it's like at least i'm failing as a knight if i fail if i am stripped of life, at least I did it as a knight.

Yeah. She did it on her- she's trying to do it on her own terms. I did it my way. So. She's gonna do it. She's gonna rewrite those books, man. She's gonna rewrite them all. I'm so proud of her already.

You go, baby girl. Doing amazing, sweetie. She is doing amazing. Brienne hacking a guy with Oathkeeper at the end of the chapter. Me, you're doing amazing Brienne. Keep it up. No, really, please. Keep it up. Sir Goodwin's shade.

You're doing amazing, Brienne. Did you see that? So good, but... Yes. Yes. The next day, the road dwindles down to pebbles, and then it dwindles down completely. They land at a wind-carved cliff where a small castle stands. She asks if this is the Whispers, and Nim dick crab is like no that's dire den that's where

lord brun sits the road ends here and then it's only the pines ahead to guide them brienne asks how do we get up and into those pines and dick says you stay close to me which she doesn't like to hear the brunes of dire den uh they are distant cousins to our favorite lother broom distant cousins they actually rejected him don't awe don't yeah be sad be somber no i'm i'm excited about lother broon okay as you said he is our fave he is we love lother broon uh i do love that it's dire den because he is kind of a bear right right? So it's like the bear man, the bear cave, the bear den. I don't know. It's sad that he was rejected from Dire Den,

but I will say here he is appearing kind of in the background in our heads. He's appearing rent free in this episode. He's an ascending character. We've talked about that great series of ascending characters. He's one of them for sure. He off we see him in agot real small at the tourney and now look at him now he is an actual feast for crows character but it is a great connection since he comes up in the elaine chapters yes great point great point great her chapter is oh my god fuck he i can't even fire you i'm so annoyed um i do think this chapter is littered with aria and sansa right like everything pertains to them which is really well done that it's not just sansa but it's all these connections to aria as well yeah absolutely and it's it's really really prominent yeah the steps have been carved

into the rock to help the climb they pass through walls of rock eroded by wind and water in some spots there are fantastic shapes carved like an ogre and a stone dragon podrick however notices something else a rider ahead a real one not made of rock because brian's like i don't see it following them in fact. I'm glad Podrick was keeping watch. Someone had to. Crabbe says, Don't squid at me. He's not to do with old Dick. He is

at least not a squisher, Dick says, very optimistic. And they can all agree on that. They climb the last bit of the climb, and when they emerge, they are beneath the castle walls. They see a face peer down from a parapet above, possibly a woman, as Lord Brune is too old to walk the walls, and his grandkids and sons all left to fight in the wars. Brienne knows this means they will receive no hospitality from the castle. Old men, women, children, were not likely

to open their doors to strangers. She asks Nimbledick if he once knew Lord Brune, and Nibbledick Crab says he may have. She looks at his raggedy outfit and sees a patch of torn fabric where a sigil may have been. He was a deserter, she did not doubt. Could a rider behind them be his brother in arms? Nibbledick Crab urges them to ride the four brune has wenches on crossbows and they continue through limestone hills and streams and nimble dick crab says to stay close to him for he knows these roads and brian can think nothing but this is a fucking trap brian asks what of our rider she wonders if it wouldn't be smarter to meet him here with blade in hand but

she could look a fool if it's merely a singer or a broon son. She decides if the rider still follows them the next day, she'll deal with him then. They leave, the castle growing smaller behind them, sentinel and soldier pines cropping up around them again. The floor of the forest is fallen needles, thick as a castle wall, and pine cones, softening the sound of their horses the going is much slower in the green gloom weaving among the trees everywhere brianne looks kind of starts

to look the same there's this line that the very air seemed gray and green and still love the dunk connection of course uh but something about that line also reminds me of dunk uh there's actually a similar line in ariane in one of her the winds of winter chapters that the very air was green and still but this line particularly kind of reminds me of summer hall oh interesting yeah you know smoke and green and stillness and who oh you know just sad just being sad yeah yeah another one of those legends and i mean a connection to rhaegar who was brought up earlier in this chapter yes as they creep through the eerie stillness it becomes evening and dick begins to sing bear in the maiden fair a much different song than jenny song. The pines drink his song,

and they drink the wind and rain. He stops after a while, and Podrick breaks the new silence, saying, this feels like a bad place. Brienne feels the same, but she vows not to admit it, and she says, it's just a wood. There's not for us to fear. Podrick's like, uh, okay, but what about the squishers and all the heads? And Dick laughs and he's like, oh, you're a clever lad to Brienne's annoyance. She tells Pod there are no heads and no squishers. Stop bonding!

She finds herself praying that Dick was being honest about where he was taking them. They make camp at the edge of a green bog that night, but the ground is too soft, so they fight their way out to find solid footing. The next day is a lot of the same, past ruins, sinkholes, blanketed moss. Every heap of stones had a story, and Nimble Dick told them all. To hear him tell of it, the men of Cracklaw Point had watered their pine trees with blood. Her patience had begun to fray, but nimble dick crab tells her

that the wood is narrowing and thinning. They're close to the narrow sea. Brienne's starting to feel like she's the fool, that she should just leave, and they'd come so far. She's definitely feeling weary. Her thighs were hard as fuck and steely from riding. Jesus, Brienne, please step on me, please.

And she'd only been sleeping about four hours a night, same, even with Podrick standing watch. It's that confirmation that she's as thick as a castle wall right there. Thick as a castle wall, right there, cannon Duncan Egg is now cannon. So powerful. It's real. It's powerful.

They're powerful thighs. I agree. And at least she was pretty sure that Nibletick probably wasn't going to kill them at this point. If he was, he'd have done it by now. Maybe he was looking to take them to a robber's den, though, with treacherous kin, or

leading them in circles, waiting for the rider to catch up with them, but they hadn't seen the rider since Dire Den, though Brienne knows that she may have to kill this rider at some point. The notion makes her queasy. Sir Goodwin had told her more than once that she is a man's strength

but her heart was soft as any maid's. We have a line of It is one thing to train in the yard with a blunted sword in hand and another to drive a foot of sharpened steel into a man's gut and see the light go out of his eyes

I was trying to channel that yes that I said earlier but I don't know if that was the same accent sorry everyone you're workshopping it it's okay we are workshopping it we'll find ourselves see him again probably I mean when will our reflection show

oh my god is that a line actually in this chapter basically is it actually it might be it actually might be i think i remember thinking that something like that we'll come back to this and sing it i like that this is showing us brienne has some similar values as what's kind of been instilled in the stark story, right? Man who passes the sentence, swing the sword in some aspects, a similar kind of value. And I do also love the idea of like putting what Sandor says to Sansa in Clash that killing is the sweetest thing there ever is against this.

Because it's not. It's a very different thing and a very different mindset. And we continue on and get that to toughen her up goodwin would have her slaughter pigs and lambs with her father's butcher but when the butchering was done she'd been blind with tears her clothes all bloody goodwin had doubts still he said a piglet's a piglet it's different with a man he told her when he was young he had a friend who saw a champion in the yard but when war came to the stepstones he saw that same friend drive a foam into his knees and then hesitate which cost his friend his life

because his foe found a chink in his armor again reminds me so much of sandor in uh even the butchering right the way that sandor rode down micah, rest in pieces, Micah Mintz. And the idea, again, killing is the sweetest thing there is. A piglet's a piglet. It's different with a man. Goodwin told her that his friend's strength and speed had been worth nothing.

It had been worth less than a mummer's fart, he says, because he hesitated. And he told her to remember that. Here in the Piney wood she promises his shade that she would she sits on a rock holding her sword's edge and swears to herself i will remember and i pray i will not flinch so it kind of sucks that uh sir goodwin says that brianne might not be able to kill because she has like a maid's heart but I guess that like kind of like sexist comment is softened by the fact that the real life story that he gives is actually of a man so he's kind of comparing her to like this really awesome knight that he knew

who was like amazing at fighting and and very talented and still failed so maybe it's not as bad I don't know. But Sir Goodman just in general, though, I want to give him props. He seems like a great teacher because he falls in the same camp of the men that Brienne realizes, like, oh, maybe not all men are good like my father or maybe like Sir Goodman, right?

He seems like a pretty supportive teacher and recognized her strength and skill and was willing to take her on as a student better than scepter roel yeah and look at her now she's she's done amazing she learned much more confidence from him than she did from roel you know for sure for sure yeah and she lives up to the lessons this chapter i guess yeah there's even something kind of like parallel in that it reminds me a little bit of lord tarly but obviously this is a much different aspect of how he used to try to make sam toughen up you know the different manners in which he was like sam we

gotta toughen you up with your maid's heart and uh brienne hearing this from goodwin that she has to toughen her heart up in order to kind of pursue this hobby this you know side gig as a knight the little sketches that she performs with her friends on the weekends yeah side gig turned her side hustle is now her main gig though this is just a night open mic yes an open mic wow hedge knights are just open micers someone should make that comic an open mic night like a knight who goes around doing stand-up anyway they saddle up the next day and a castle comes upon them without warning ancient tumbled down abandoned they found the whispers dick tells them I actually love this moment. the waves rumbling through caves and tunnels that it's carved out over time. still left over and dick crab dies which is a pretty big deal this is actually as we've said a very dense chapter for brian and her interiority like her story same as the stark children's povs

or even denarius's in many ways it is still a coming-of-age story quentin's probably like similar age-ish or younger but he doesn't count because he dies he comes of nothing and anyway so this scene chloe's face is just horrified so quinton for real though for quinton so this scene where she realizes there are no talking heads the whispers is just the sea running through the little holes it shows us kind of where brienne's head is at i think leading up to her taking out the magic sword later right because despite having really deeply internalized the story of galadin brienne doesn't believe at all in the story of clarence Crabb and she's starting to like be like on Galladin right she she doesn't believe in the magic of this place or the things that have shaped who Dick Crabb became and what he values she's losing faith in the stories and the songs and

you can see it in the disappointment with like how mundane it turns out that the whispering is like when she realizes oh it's just the sea and she's convinced that there's nothing more to it until later i'm gonna come back to this yeah the magic does come a light later i love it and i can't wait for you to highlight that for us and i think there is a lot of build-up here right like the coming of age uh having goodwin kind of be the background the little inside voice here for as she's about to basically have her first real kill right like not real kill and not just self-defense her first real you know gutsy kill some could say it's very gutsy

yeah and like you said last chapter or chapter, this chapter kind of has her magical girl transformation go on when she uses the sword for her first real kill. Very card captors, like you said, but also kind of like when Sailor Moon finally gets her vape pen that transforms her. Yes. When am I going to get my Sailor Moon transformation vape pen wand? When am I going to get my Sailor Moon Transformation Vape Pen Wand? I'm trying to remember one of the ones that has a sword. I want to say Akazuken Tracha might have one.

Utena definitely has one. Rayearth, maybe? Maybe Rayearth? Anyway. One of Sailor Moon's scepters is pretty swordy, to be fair. Yeah, that's true, the way she wields it and i mean like i guess sailor uranus kind of has like this like thing similar to the dornish sword

the iraq in my opinion uranus has some similarities to i guess tall blonde yeah absolutely yeah genderly ambiguous i would say yeah absolutely very neutral androgynous amazing attractive to everyone yeah step on me actually though yeah all right sorry neptune i'm sorry i'm sorry respect respect respect i am only giving respect to sailor Uranus and Brienne. I mean, I think they share. They definitely share. I think that's canon, too. Maybe a little. Anyway.

Brienne gazes off the cliff, tying her horse to a tree and watching the waves swirl around what Dick calls the old beacon tower. It fell when he was just a child. The cliffs collapsed as well, which had stopped smugglers from landing there after that. Dick puts his hand on her back, trying to show her something far off with his other hand, and she steps back immediately, telling him to unhand her.

Get the fuck off me. She asks where the gate is, and then she's like, is this fool of yours, the type of man to hold a grudge? And he says, well, I don't know, maybe. On account of I did sell him some bad maps and left out that smugglers don't actually come here anymore.

Brienne can't imagine Danto's posing a threat, and she's like, well, we can ply him with some of your gold that I'm going to give you. That is, if he's here with the girls. The gates of the castle are rotted, half come down when she tugs at them. The iron's rusted, covered in poisonous ivy, and they look for another gate. They find one next to a picked blackberry bush that's been hacked down to cut a path to the door. Brienne realizes someone has been here recently. Dick says it must be the girls and the fool. fool. Brienne could not believe it. Even a wine-soaked sot like Danto's holler would have better sense than to bring her to this bleak place.

You know, Littlefinger did bring Sansa to his crumbling-ass MTV Cribs pad, though, so don't- I'm just saying, don't give these men too much credit, Brienne. Please. Agreed. Agreed. Ugh, that's so typical.

Anyway, um, Brienne is filled with unease knowing that she won't find sansa here but she has to look someone who needs to stay hidden was here she tells pod to watch the horses and dick to come with her pod's upset but she reiterates the horses are extremely important to their mission that he's the getaway driver i mean the horses are in fact important transportation so they jerk the poster door open its hinges screaming and brienne draws her sword the sound of the sea echoes through the castle's caverns almost a whispering for a moment she thinks she can see the heads she's like i should have used the magic sword she thinks and asks podrick to, she thinks she can see the heads. She's like, I should have used the magic sword, she thinks, and asks

Podrick to get her sword. She gives Dick the sword she was using, and pulls out the ornate scabbard with its lion heads, and Dick's like, oh shit, inside of his head, but you can kind of see it. Anyway, so she swings it around and it's like, even the sound of it is sharper

than an ordinary sword. I love that. it's so mystical there's also a reference in there you know Damp Hair had his chapter right before this and the line pull that a rusted iron ring its hinges screaming in protest

and of course his line is as a thousand voices shouted out his brother's name all he could hear was the scream of a rusted iron hinge. So screaming hinges, screaming hinges. And it is, I mean, that does signal what horror is to come because there is a lot of terror at chapter's end. But before we get to that, what a magical and suspenseful little passage. You can just hear it, right? Your hair on your arm kind of sticks up.

And I do feel anytime Oathkeeper is unraveled, it's a masterpiece, right? It's so mystical. And Brienne really respects the tools of her trait. Just like Galadin the Just, her sword is kept only for sacred occasions. And just this once, she's swayed by the stories and song

that she should use her magic sword. And if she hadn't used her sword, she have died she would have died here her story would have ended at brienne for yeah absolutely she it actually would have you're right and it's it's a great passage and like you said like the oath keeper moments are great and how it's imbued with this like really sacred moments with I mean yeah right like part of the chapter is realizing you know honor is a horse because she's like I guess Galadin doesn't use the sword because of honor right and and she's striving to defend her own life here though and I don't know maybe dicks definitely pods and hopefully the future of the stark girls and finding them and the scene demonstrates through action you know what is honor compared

to a woman's love right like she's like fuck that i've got to use the sword also but it it is a moment where you need to wait we're coming across these big baddies in this chapter like the bloody bummers fucking suck like they're terrifying as as you said right they're kind of monstrous and you know it there is still honor in what brianne's doing and how she moves through the world and there is still hope we see we see that hope come out in that she does share her regrets with Dick Crabb's corpse at the end of the chapter. And I do want to revisit the quote of this very moment when she decides to bring the sword out in regards to the songs. She was all like, what was she waiting for?

Brienne told herself that she was being foolish. The sound was just the sea, echoing endlessly through the caverns beneath the castle, rising and falling with each wave. It did sound like whispering, though. And for a moment she could almost see the heads, sitting on their shelves and muttering to one another, I should have used the sword. One of them was saying, I should have used the magic sword. And so for just a second in that moment when she

is like it's not just the sea there are heads, there is whispers she allows magic to come back into her life again and to believe in the songs she finds just enough faith that yeah, it could be whispers

and yeah, the sword could be magic. And I, Brienne, can be a hero. In this light, she could be a beauty. In this light, she could be a knight. Yes. Oh my god, that's a perfect comparison. Exactly what this moment is. In every light, I love you, Brienne.

Sorry. That's analysis. That is analysis. She is graceful. I don't know Brienne. Sorry. That's analysis. That is analysis. She is graceful. I don't know why I accept her as well, since she isn't. She's never really danced. Let's be real. Not really danced. That's true. But Jamie has.

He's like, wow. This is amazing. What a woman. She keeps Crabbe to her side and they slip in, past the collapsed shell of the stable. She sees steps that head to a dungeon, a yard of weeds and pine needle, and even a slender young weirwood with dark red leaves sprouting up. A sapling, it's described as. I love this.

This is the most mystical part, right? In this place that is so steeped with not only dragon lore but first men lore and even magic we have a weirwood that is scarce here in the south weirwoods are not common common in the south sprouting through the roof of these ruins and it's a young one it's not an old one we don't know how young we don't know how old but it's a young one and it's kind of like brienne's here in the middle of what's feeling like a fucking pointless journey right so this weirwood is kind of mocking her in some sense like lol they're not here the girls aren't here the stark children are not here but it's also this sign that's symbolic of the stark children the sapling right it's a sapling weirwood a young

weirwood uh just like sansa and aria it's super symbolic of the stark girls and it's a sapling weirwood a young weirwood uh just like sansa and aria it's super symbolic the stark girls and it's a sign of hope right like keep going yeah keep going on your journey keep going the magic's still alive and sobbing she took another step pretty much that kind of is what's going on in her chapters. Beyond, she sees the remnants of a fire. Someone had been here last night, or tried to signal to a passing ship. Dick calls out, Hello! And Brienne hushes him.

He says, Someone may be hiding, and he calls again. And Brienne sees a sapling sway. And out comes a man, caked in dirt with a broken sword. She knows this face. It's Peg with a Y. In a heartbeat,

a second man slips out as well. In an iron half-helm and stained red silk, a throwing spear in hand, a third man drops from the weirwood. It's Shagwell. He swings a morning star, then all of a sudden at nimble dick crab's knee and it explodes into blood and bone and he laughs wow yeah he's really creepy he's the horror aspect of this

chapter right he's like hopping around in his gross motley with his morning star instead of a fool's flail um it's definitely very haunting when you think about it. And Shagwell comes forward, completely remembering the map Dick gave him, obviously. Brienne tries to protect him, but Shagwell brings the spiked ball straight down on Dick's face. Shagwell dances from foot to foot, spinning his morning star, taunting Brienne,

saying she must want them, saying he's going to fuck her up the ass, pump her full of motley seed. Tymion, the other one, reminds him, like, you can't actually impregnate via the butthole, just so you know, Shagwell, what a good lad, you know, going out like a hero here. Brienne remembers suddenly passage for three, and she realizes these are the three. The companions are now much fewer though. Timmy and shrugs and he says they all went their separate ways after she bit

Vargo out to death. Good times. Rorsch tried to slip out at Saltpans and Yerswick went down to Oldtown. Interesting. So we're gonna see Yerswick again in Sam's plot in The Winds of Winter. I never thought about that till now that we will see him come back.

And maybe he'll be fighting the men from the Brotherhood who went south of the Mander to look for food. I don't know. We'll talk about that in a minute. Interesting. They suck. Shagwell's like that guy who's like, oh, a woman looked at me. She must want me. And it's like, no who's like oh a woman looked at me she must want me and it's like no that was disgust it's interesting that Brienne is coming across all of these brave companions

and I know we've kind of thought and wondered where her plot's gonna take her and it also makes me wonder if she's gonna go back to the reach during this back to old town area and if she'll finish off the rest of the brave companions because as as we see, as we get to the end of her chapters, she does a couple more in, a couple more men that have been in her past, you know, on the road, she does them in. But I wonder if she'll be the one to kill your Swick too. Yeah, it's kind of, again, like hunting down those men at the melee.

Like Arya's list as well, you know, her list at the melee and her list here, and this is her list. That's a great person. She's got a blank list. Or a blank page. Brienne's gonna write your name. Blank space, Chloe. Blank space. Whatever it's called. Girl.

Darn. Oh no. I've been found out. How will I go on? As a fake fan. Credibility shot. I've been found out. How will I go on? As a fake fan. Credibility shot. I'm out of honor. You're wasting my honor. The rest of them hoped to board a ship at Maidenpool. They tell her that the mountain killed the goat,

piece by piece, a hand one day, a foot the next, stump by stump. But a bird then called him to King's Landing, so he just finished it all off and rode off, and Brienne comes clean, saying that, alright, you know what? I can't really convince you all that I'm a sister, so I'm looking for Stark of Winterfell. And they tell her,

like, oh yeah, we know that girl. She's with Sandor, allegedly, and she was headed off to her uncle's in Riverrun. And the hounds stole her. They heard it from Beric's bunch. He was looking for her, too. We have a line of, we chanced on three of them after Harrenhal and winkled the tail from one before he died.

I want to know who they killed. Maybe it's nobody, right? Like, it could absolutely positively be absolutely no one. No one important. Could just be red shirts, but it real curious yeah nrpi but it's curious that we don't actually know because timeline wise this would have been like after the battle at the end of the septry end of asos right before feast uh and that there's also the idea that the Brotherhood just split up too. So maybe they got some of the outliers from the Brotherhood, like the Stoneheart faction exists, and then there's the other faction.

So maybe it's not just Edric Dane and Stoneheart faction, but maybe there's also the split. I do think because Yerswick is an old town, it is likely that there might be a meeting between Yerswick and the men searching for food out on the Mander, Greenbeard and the Mad Huntsman. Yeah, I could see that, that they've split up and we'll probably see I mean, right, a lot of roaming bands of outlaws, so

wouldn't be surprised if some of them just knew who this was. Yeah. So, later they heard that the Hound slew three of the Mountain's Men at the inn by the crossroads. And this is a great thing to bring up here to remind us of things that come later. Rorge pulled the info out of the innkeep before killing them, and Brienne realizes they're trying to distract her as they edge closer. And they would actually edge her off the cliff if she let them.

And she's like like I don't do edging and she tells them to stay back and they threaten her some more with various fucking of holes of her body they say if she gives them gold they'll let all of them go once they've

each fucked her though like a proper sex worker and a silver for each fuck. Or they'll take the gold and rape her anyway. And then they're like, what's your choice? These choices suck. I hate this reindeer game. No chance and no choice right there.

But she does make her choice. She decides to fuck them up with Oathkeeper. First is Pig through the throat. She thinks, I did not flinch. Did you see, Sir Goodwin goodwin timian's next but shagwell covers her back and she's surrounded shagwell says she's mad with moon blood i'm so glad that his death was the the most drawn out of the three choose one and kill them quickly she thinks not doing so hot being surrounded but then suddenly out of nowhere a rock hits shagwell

in the head go podrick yeah he has proven himself he's battle worn a little and it turns out i think like pods climbed a wall or something right to throw rocks to create this distraction and it reminds me a little bit of like when brienne and jamie are escaping some of those like people from reveron uh who are definitely named characters that i've forgotten because i'm a fake fangirl uh and she throws like rocks on them to distract them and by rocks i mean like actual boulders because she is very strong but it reminds me of that yeah that's a great point to bring up. And this is kind of a mirror to Tyrion, too, right? When he saved Tyrion at the Blackwater. Yeah, with the distraction of the bad guy again.

Yep. That's a great sidekick. Yeah. He's very plucky. I love him. I love him. He is. The blade became a gray blur.

Timian wounds her in the shoulder, but she slices his ear and half his cheek off first, hacking his spear apart and plunging the steel into his belly. He claws at his belt for a dagger, so Brienne chops his hand off. That one was for Jaime, she thinks. Get him, girl. And to be fair, that also makes me think of Tyrion.

That one was for Jaime. That's a very Tyrion thing to say, right? That's like Tyrion would think while doing something. That one's for my brother. And also, there's something very interesting in the way that she slices Tymion's ear and face because, A, isn't that the injury she gets later? Yes. Yes, absolutely.

It's the exact injury we get in the very next chapter in Queenmaker for Myrcella when she loses her ear and part of her face. Also in Dorne, it's Tymion who's Dornish. Really fun connection. And I mean, there's even there's a lot of the stuff we talked about earlier with what we learned from Nymeria, right? The trip with the broinar and going to the basilisk isles but we also have garen of the croyane in the next chapter right of the orphans of the green blood yes lots of dornish connections in the end could brienne go to dorn are we going to dorn are we going to dorn next i mean we could we're out of we're out of dornish

characters aren't we we're doing sansa next i thought that was clear that's right that's true we're discussing we're doing sansa next um that's that's a great connection and like what she even gets a scratch on her face too right so a little foreshadowing and i mean the scene right i think it's funny that you pointed out it's similar to something tyrian would say which which kind of, you know, puts Brienne in, like, the position of maybe one of Jaime's siblings, and we know how Jaime feels about his siblings. And he also gets slashed, now that we mention that, Tyrion's face. Yes, yes, I was just talking about Jaime fucking his sister, but, you know. Oh, fucking shit. Jesus, Eliana. Sorry, I missed that oneana sorry i missed that one apparently it's okay it's

okay a lot of things go over my head well i'm gonna talk about a serious thing again and so at the same time right as we were talking about we get this magical sword the scene of brienne's heroism itself it's actually not very magical right like it's really gruesome and the language of how she like goes through pig and then like she pulls and slices through him in order to block right like one of timian's spears it's very visceral and so we have brienne finally getting to like live up to her values and the songs but it is a question of what cost maybe it is better to

live just as a maid rather than as a just maid the sword and that is something that she's always wondering would she be happier being just as a maid we discussed in the previous chapter and probably not but also

living a half life rather than dying a full life but also yeah is it better than becoming a broken man right with all this killing then you know starting off as the hero and seeing yourself become the broken man by the end

like with the smiling knight like with the joker yes yes that that too that's where george got that from i mean i mean you live long enough probably see yourself oh my god die the villain um timian begs for mercy for her to finish him and she does when she turns shagwell is looking dazed on his knees trying to stagger to his feet with the morning star another stone slams him in the ear and he tries to crawl away crying i yield i'm too droll to die he begs and whimpers and he says i make men laugh and she says you make women we. He asks if that's his fault and says,

women have no sense of humor. Kill him, Brienne. Fucking kill him right now. He's fucking... I'm getting heated. You're mad with moon blood. I'm mad with moon blood. Instead of killing him outright,

like I'm telling her to do, she instead tells him to dig a grave beneath the weirwood, which is working smarter, not harder. I agree. I'm not doing that shit. This was your fault, Shadwell. I agree. He's like, I don't have a shovel, though.

And she's like, you have two hands. Dickface, get with it. And then she thinks, too. She's like, that's one more than you guys left, Jamie. You'll be fine. It's so sad that here nimble dick is bleeding out right at the weirwood and then he gets buried in front of the weirwood so earlier we had that line that the way that he told the stories it was as if his people watered their pine trees with blood and here nimble dick is watering the weirwood with his

blood technically a sacrifice at the weirwood with his blood. Technically a sacrifice at the weirwood, right? A blood sacrifice to christen her sword. Wow. That's interesting. Just saying. Maybe activating that tree even. Activating, yeah. Maybe it's going to grow real big now, motherfuckers.

Also, like, Brienne can probably see everything happening. Cool. Yeah. Or is that a metaphor for her the tree is she the tree now you know being christened also and fed the blood i mean it does feel like she's not a maid anymore even though like not by hymen but just by like you know sword yeah with i mean there's sword and there's blood involved right so this is absolutely very much a i mean this is a loss of innocence this innocence and like you said it's interesting to think of it

like that in terms of her virginity but in terms of killing i mean her and jamie was just over the pants foreplay dry humping they were dry humping with swords this is the real deal i mean she's orificing it you know she's like i guess not but i mean like in terms of the innocence thing right like it's interesting that's moreover what i meant yeah like it's innocence loss like this is this is very much so her having to shed a skin of hers that had been on for so long right yeah and she like really goes all in on it because as you said she's working smarter not harder because she makes this man dig the grave uh and and then kills him right after right because he's like also why bother leave their bodies for the crows he's like i don't fucking care about my teammates she's like it's not for you you idiot the other two can feed the crows fuck them dick's gonna have a grave he

was a crab this is his place and night falls by the time shagwell is done and then brienne sheaths her sword to gather nimble dick crab into the hole and there's those Sandor vibes right because she makes I mean yeah she makes Shagwell the gravedigger not herself and one more time to reiterate Chloe smarter not harder but there is like also like besides the Sandor echo this thing this line of the ground was soft from rain and even so it took the fool the rest of the day to dig down deeper so obviously in a literal sense the fool is shagwell but i love that phrase of dig down deeper because it is a common phrase i would say in like everyday speech referring to introspection right like you got to dig down deeper inside yourself to find whatever the strength to do

blah blah blah and a lot of this chapter has brienne thinking of herself as the fool on this journey with dick crab like what the fuck am i doing here and so she's digging down deeper enough to realize that line that everyone loves from this chapter i'm sorry that i never trusted you I don't know how to do that anymore. Sobbing, screaming, throwing up. That's analysis, right? I'm just... It's so sad.

That's analysis. This is so sad. I'm so sad right now. My god. It's sad. It is sad. Because she wanted to. She wanted to trust him.

But, I mean, she gets that thought, like, maybe I should have stayed with Illifer and Crichton. And it's weird that she says that to me, because I'm like, those guys, I mean, they were fine. They were harmless, but I also feel Nimble Dick is similar in that. However,

he's not. Like, I mean, he was able to fool fools, and able to fool these men and get away with it till he didn't i mean he caused trouble he had debts he was you know but that doesn't mean he's a bad person and yeah she was just starting to like trust him like she was just starting to trust him and it comes out of nowhere that shag will just crunch bye that like yeah morning started the face was like within two minutes yeah she kind of led him on this wild goose chase on this goose chase as you said and he kind of dies for it and it's like fuck and yeah i i mean as you pointed out when she was like maybe i should have stayed with Creighton and Ilfer. I mean, the same line applies to them, right?

Because she didn't trust them. She doesn't know how to do it anymore. It's just now she's really facing that with Nimble Dick Crab. How would it have gone, right, if they had accompanied her this way? Well, if she had gone with them, she probably would have ended up with the Mad Mouse and found Sansa. But she actually would have succeeded in her quest and nimble dick crap

nimble dick would be living his best life he would have run off like I fucked them but nope that's not a thing he's dead and Brienne puts him in his grave

Sansa's not found nimble dick's not found. Nibbledick's dead. Brienne puts him in his grave, and she knows that Shagwell will take his chance now. Sure as shit, she hears his breathing before Podrick can even warn her, and she has a dagger up her sleeve that she pulls to counter his jagged chunk of rock. And despite what you think, she says dagger beats rock every time, which, George, rock, paper, scissor? Oh, I was thinking steel type beats rock type. Oh yeah, steel type beating rock, yeah. That's true, that's true.

That's one of George's influences, as you know. Oh my god. Only Pokemon Ruby Red. Oh, Rekhar's's ruby red version. Or, no, just ruby version. Anyway. She knocked aside his arm and punched the steel into his bobbles. Laugh, she snarled at him.

He moaned instead. Laugh, she repeated, grabbing his throat with one hand and stabbing at his belly with the other. Laugh, she kept saying it over and over until her hand was red up to the wrist and the stink of the fool's dying was like to choke her, but Shagwell never laughed. The sobs Brienne heard were all her own. When she realized that, she threw down her knife and shuddered. Podrick helped her lower nimble dick into his hole. By the time they were done, the moon was rising. Brienne rubbed the dirt from her hands and tossed two dragons down into the grave.

Why'd you do that, my lady? Sir? asked Pod. It was the reward I promised him for finding me the fool. This is so good. the tension here is amazing it's so parallel to Arya's kill right the very in conversation they just talked about where Sandor and Arya killed three men that came

up between the three men here that when she killed and she said is there gold in the village how much how much it's exactly that that when she killed and she said, is there gold in the village? How much? How much? It's exactly that, that culmination of all the frustration and stress of this journey and what they've been allowed

and not allowed to do and having to give away parts of themselves they don't want to give away too soon. Absolutely. And it's really smart of George to have primed us to remember that scene earlier with that with that reminder of aria and it's it's an emotional scene but like you said like it's absolutely absolutely reminiscent of

that moment and i love that in this version of this playing out, Brienne's final words to Shagwell are commanding him to laugh, playing up how he says that he is very funny, but women don't think his jokes are funny because they allegedly have no sense of humor. And, you know, I took that really personally. But it's because it's jokes. They're not really jokes, right? They're just like violence or sexual violence.

But it's almost this really, what Brienne does, visceral like manifestation of when people tell you to ask people who think that they are joking, but are actually just being very offensive to explain the joke. And then as they explain it, you know, it like becomes very clear. It's not funny. to explain the joke and then as they explain it you know it like becomes very clear it's not funny and brienne's turning those same jokes on shagwell as the audience and performing them the same way that he would as a man or whatever in what's assumed to be a more violent sphere right the

men are supposed to uh to inhabit this violent sphere in west rose and she turns it into a question of like is it that women have no sense of humor or like, do you just fucking suck? And I, I'm just going to tell you the answer. He like sucks. He sucks. No,

it's true. And, and that, that violence, the sexual violence that they like volley at her, just the, you know, we're going to tear open whatever we wish on your body.

It's gruesome and it's horrifying. And I mean, it's not something that the other male knights face constantly when they come upon trouble on the road. Like being assailed by, you know, another person with a sword is one thing being attacked is another thing. by, you know, another person with a sword is one thing, being attacked is another thing. But the sexual violence and the threats that she experiences are very, you use the term visceral, very visceral. Yeah, it's awful. It's enough to like, how do you go on trying to be a hero after hearing that vile, you know, that vitriol spit at you?

How do you go on every day trying to be like i'm the just made takes a lot yeah and and that's the thing right that's why i find in this chapter i'm like oh it is an interesting sword name right because you said how do i go on being the just made when again everyone's telling her she's just a maid and yeah can never be anything more than that and she's like fuck you laugh laugh is it funny now is it fucking funny now how's my moon's blood now this is the joker story you were talking about right chloe yes exactly some people either die the hero or live long enough to see themselves you know i i do think there's also a little parallel there's a little parallel with this live long enough to see themselves. You know,

I do think there's also a little parallel. There's a little parallel with this with the Victarian chapter that just came two chapters ago where we get the story of him beating his wife to death at Euron's command and the no tears kind of thing going on there. It's kind of anti-parallel.

And it's also so sad because as she breaks down from killing this on there it's kind of like anti-parallel and it's also so sad because like as she breaks down from killing this guy it's not only from killing him in defense but killing him was to protect nimble dick's honor you know she was protecting dick's honor yes the honor of yes yes the honor of his nimble dick and and the honor of this place right this is his homeland and these people just came here and like i don't know attacked him on it but this is something that i think george is interested in he he kind of explores this in a couple of other stories so that's a great call out

of why she's doing it. And that's why she makes Shagwell dig the grave, you know? Well, she hears laughter behind them, whips out Oathkeeper, expecting more of the brave companions, but it's how Hunt is sitting atop

the wall, legs crossed, laughing crossed laughing oh is this the joker um oh but he thinks she's funny he's laughing he's laughing anyway he calls this a waste of gold and she says i keep my promises so she's, I guess she's just fucking loaded. Brienne's out here just making it rain on corpses. He tells them Lord Randall bid him to follow them in case they find Sansa Stark. Follow the wrong people, Highland.

And asks what she'll do now about the girl. Brienne says that allegedly she was taken by the Hound on the Trident if what the men said was true. I mean, kinda. It was half true. Just the wrong girl. We end the chapter with... If I find him...

He'll kill you. Or I'll kill him, she said stubbornly. Will you help me cover up poor crap, sir? No knight could refuse such beauty sir hyle climbed down from the wall together they shoved the dirt on top of nimble dick as the moon rose higher in the sky and down below the ground the heads of forgotten kings whispered secrets what a great last line yeah goodbye goodbye nimble dick oh no what is this feeling is it tears am i feeling sorry for other people is this real is this am i going crazy am i feeling things oh sorry i just got emotional about thinking about, you know, it reminds me a little of that line of, and the night was alive with the music of dragons, but I completely fucked up the line. But it's kind of like that. But it's not, it is actually magic, and it's not actually magic, you know?

Exactly, because it's like then in the meta sense, that is what the magic is, too. You know, like it doesn't have to be fire and relore and sparks and magic to be magic. Like the fact that this castle that people used to live within and thrive within is standing here with the weirwood growing in the middle of it out of fucking nowhere, a young weirwood. And that like the elements have carved this castle out, right? Like the caverns below the castle weren't always there. That was carved out by the tide. So like it's nature's magic it's the land's magic. The land has

reclaimed it. Nature is healing. A weirwood is growing. Nature is healing. And now Nimble Dick has gone to become part of that cycle right? Like that circle of life. Like he's fed the Weirwood. And just that she would believe, you know, as in his death and think, oh, it's the king's whispering secrets and not thinking it's a sea. There's something really beautiful there of how by believing in that and that story, that's how she's keeping Nimble Dick Crab alive.

Because no one's going to sing songs about Nimble Dick Crab, but believing about his family legends that's that's a way to honor him as you were saying a very good honor yeah absolutely big sad very beautiful eliana very good way to put it nimble dick crab who knew he should have won out for a real motherfucker you know he should have won and now it's the part of the episode where we discuss how hopefully in an alternate universe where we relaunch the books hyle hunt dies instead i'm sorry no we don't say what then what if we'd feel bad about it you know yeah that's true it's not like he's still gonna try to make us feel bad about it when he does die because you know that bitch isn't gonna live there's something that reminds me of like Arya Hotha being like I feel like I'm gonna have to kill Arya's

Okart one day right because Brienne earlier was like I feel like I might have to kill her one day well on the day that she does I will be here as her support friend I will be here to support her. Oh, God. Thanks for tuning in to Brienne 4 with us. I had really fun.

I had a really fun time talking about this one. And a sad time. I'm very sad. I'm somber. And it's going to be sadder, but but fun but sadder next week right it's gonna be yeah a lot more emotions before we get to the end

of this POV just like we're only halfway we've kind of just started we're halfway though we've only just begun yeah we are halfway white lace and promises oath keeper We've only just begun. Yeah, we are halfway. White lace and promises. Oathkeeper.

That could be. Okay, yeah, that could be. We're going to workshop it. Workshop it for next time. Jury's out. Laugh. I should start doing that to our listeners. Laugh.

Please clap. Big Jeb vibes. Oh oh my god thanks so much for listening in this week we will be back next week for Brienne 5 with our good friend Sam of the Rainbow Guard excited to have him on yes and if you want to let us know

your thoughts about Nimble Dick Crab or anything else Brienne or Song Ways in Fire or whatever, be sure to let us know. You can shoot us an email at girlsgonecanon c-a-n-o-n at gmail.com or you can shoot us a tweet or a DM at girlsgonecanon on Twitter or

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And of course, please remember this month, we are doing something very special, very different. We're going to be doing The Song of Achilles. A much different song. Let's call it A Song of Achilles. A-S-O-A. It's close. It's close. It's close. It's very close.

Yeah, I'm so excited to read the Song of Achilles with you all. And I hope you at home take a read yourself. Listen in. It'll be great. And don't forget, if you are a Thunder Tear or above patron over there, you can join us for brunch December 18th, 1 to 3 p.m. Eastern Time. It's going to be some Reindeer Games of Thrones. As always. These Reindeer Games.

As always, I've been one of your hosts, Chloe. I've been another one of your hosts, Rudolph. You've got Chloe, Eliana, and that's all you have. I don't remember all the rest of the Reindeers, only fucking Rudolph. Do you recall?

Jaharis and Allison are small. We'll talk to you guys next week. Bye.