Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 151 — ASOS Samwell I featuring Yolkboy

Episode Date: January 21, 2022

Sobbing, we started another POV.  As the supernatural threat rises, so does Sam's courage, whether he knows it or not. Yolkboy of Radio Westeros joins us to explore Sam's psyche as his childhood trauma gets a dose of even more trauma, thanks to the wights and the Others chasing the Night's Watch (or what's left of it). P.S. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming Radio Westeros episode all about Samwell Tarly on their channels! Where to find Yolkboy:  Website: https://radiowesteros.com/   Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/radiowesteros  Radio Westeros Twitter: https://twitter.com/RadioWesteros  Yolkboy's Twitter: https://twitter.com/theyolkboy  --- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: www.liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song Of Ice And Fire, episode 151, Samwell Tarly, Sam 1, In a Storm of Swords, and An Introduction to Sam, featuring our friend from Radio Westeros, Yolkboy. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And yes, yes, we are joined today by our good friend, Yolkboy. Hello, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us and helping us kick this off. Hello. Thank you so much for having me on. It's truly a great honor to be on Girls on Canon with you two, who I rate so highly.

When you invited me, I'd been writing about Sam for an episode of Radio Westeros. I really connect hard with this character. He's one of my favorites. So I jumped at the opportunity. Thanks so much for having me on. I'm so glad you're here. I'm so excited to have you. And like, as you said, right, like you've been digging into Sam's life a little already. So where can people hear about that? Well, we do have this Samwell episode on Radio Estrus that is coming out very shortly. It goes on a

Patreon rollout which will start in the next couple of days and then after a week of Patreon it goes to public release so wherever you find your podcasts you can come and hear our take on Samwell but of course that's, we do Sam in one episode

so it's not like putting the magnifying glass that we're going to do today. Yeah yeah we're getting the sneak peek of the Radio Westeros Ultimate Sam episode the sneak peek today we're very very grateful for that and very excited to hear kind of some of your deeper sneak peek look at Sam and some of your feelings on him since he is one of your favorite POVs. I know Eliana, Eliana also very much so connects with this chapter. This is like, I think my favorite chapter in the entire series. Like in all of the books, this is like, I think one of the best written chapters. It's just, it's just so good. So I'm excited that you're joining us for this. And we'll obviously talk about, you know, part of what makes it such a good chapter as we go through it.

Yeah, I think for me, Samwell is the character I identify with the most. I really realized that only recently, you know, after years of sort of reading through these books, I really connected hard recently. So I'm really primed to talk about Sam today. Isn't it so exciting to have a series so beloved that you can read over and over again without mending for years at a time? Oh, we're so blessed. We're so blessed. My face is just like not moving as you say that. I'm like, I don't know how to feel.

I'm trying not to remember, just like Sam in this chapter. Trying to forget. one step at a time eliana that's so true though oh my god each shaking sobbing crying i do feel that way sometimes uh well we are gonna jump into all things samwell tarly before we get into the first chapter right so we will jump into Sam and just a little background on him in just a moment. But first, of course, housekeeping up top, our Patreon episode coming out this month for patrons in the stranger tier and above the $5 and above tier is going to be a trip back to the free cities, we're gonna be talking about Norvos. And as excited as I am for January,

I didn't think much could top a trip to Norvos. I'm also really excited for February's episode, bonus episode for patrons that we're going to announce early because it requires a little homework, right? A little reading ahead of time. We're going to be covering the other book by Madeline Miller. We read Song of Achilles last month with patrons and we're going to be covering the other book by madeline miller we read song of achilles last month with patrons and we're going to be covering cersei not that one so sorry so sorry to those of you god we gotta quit doing this eliana cersei pov but not that cersei the cersei pov but not that cersei the episode title's already done. That's great. That's going to be February. We're going to be reading that,

and it's amazing. Come check out Helios' daughter. My favorite of his daughters, truly. Yeah, I'm excited to do that. I really liked the Song of Achilles. Sorry, I was like, a Song of... Again, I keep getting confused with my articles. The Song of Ice and Fire. The Song of Achilles. Again, I keep getting confused with my articles.

The Song of Ice and Fire. The Song of Achilles. But yeah, so excited to do Circe in February. And I mean, just to get to experience this book, even really talking about how good it is. And it sounds like it's one of those wonderful moments where again, the second book tends to be better than the first. A magical moment, indeed. And if you're a patron, there are some other perks you can kind of take part in.

Like Discord, we do have our private Discord server for patrons in the Thunder tier and above. And every month over at Discord, we do a brunch slash happy hour where we do games giveaways get to know yous this month's version of that is going to be on the 30th of january throw it on your calendar 1 to 3 p.m eliana standard time oh my god i believe is when we're starting that right yes uh i guess i guess so st e s phone home oh my gosh yes we are doing that on January 3rd no theme yet we haven't settled on a theme I thought you came up with one but yeah maybe maybe not we'll see we'll figure it out

new year new us same us new year same us probably the theme something like that we'll work it out we're workshopping it other things that are happening towards the end of this month because last month we did not have a his dark materials episode we are having two this january we kicked off the year with his dark materials and we're

gonna end january with another his dark materials episode we are covering book three right now the amber spyglass so go subscribe to keep up with whenever that comes out i can't believe we're getting to the end it's it's a good ride though it's a it's a sad ride it's all getting very sad and about death and stuff so if you want to read a book that's sad about death and stuff come read his dark materials the the ot3 the first three books they're good they're good well now we have this episode where it's about sad stuff uh let's talk about sam tarley let's get back into it talk about samwell tarley a little background on him before a song of ice and fire is kind of where we can start with Sam. He's Randall Tarly's firstborn. He was kind of born similar time frame around the second half of the Rebellion, right?

So like so many of his book peers around the same time as Rob, Mira, John, it seems war gives men that last call bell, you know, so you say. But unlike Rob and Mira's childhoods, Sam's father sucked. Really fucking sucked. Like, badly. Which you'll remember from every other interaction you've seen with the guy in this entire book series. Like, John IV in A Game of Thrones, you might even remember Sam tells John his dad went to a bajillion lengths to make him a man. Master at arms trying to toughen him. Randall having him dress in his mother's clothes

forcing him to sleep in chain mail making him bathe in Oryx blood while Carthene warlocks try to magic him brave. Do you think that could have been Pyatt Pri? Maybe I don't see why not. Probably because how many Carthene warlocks are there? Yeah

Well, probably won't be as many. It's an all-expenses-paid business trip. Company reimburses, man. Yeah, right? Well, Lady Melissa gives Randall only girls for three years after Sam, but finally, at long last, she births a boy, and Randall turns all of his attention to this new chance he ignores sam for once which sam actually loves and then only pays attention to dickon i mean if he loved his

kid that much first of all he wouldn't have named his child dickon but anyways that said randall forbids sam from joining the citadel because he's just truly absolutely mean like the most heinous man ever as we also discussed during the Brienne chapters at age 15 Randall basically tells Sam that he's kicked the fuck out has to go get a job but not get a job he's like I found a job for you and you have to take it or renounce all claims to Hart's home like all everything and you're gonna go move to the night's watch and you're gonna go suffer in the cold now or you can suffer an accident or attack on the road the next day and so sam quote unquote chooses the watch it's really kind of like a no chance no choice moment but like in the worst way possible and so that's where we find Sam shortly after Jon Snow

arrives at the wall so let me begin some analysis by telling you all how much I hate Randall Tarly this guy wanted to toughen up Sam as we heard with this catalogue of abuse this brand of toxic masculinity is just plain awful you know how you really toughen up a child? Guess what? It's through showing love, encouragement and support. You know who I think is the real coward? It's Randall Tarly for being a child abuser. It's no wonder that Sam is a walking pile of anxiety after this one.

But of course, brave Randall blames his wife. this one. But of course, brave Randall blames his wife and he's just too ignorant to understand that Sam is in fact a very talented young man with huge potential, as we're going to see in this episode and further on in your reread too. I don't care that Randall is a storied military general and apparently the finest soldier in Westeros, according to Kevin Lannister. If you can't be kind to your own child, then it's you who's not the real man, in my opinion. He might be my most hated character in this saga, perhaps because there really are people out there just like him. He represents every hard-ass, overbearing, anti-intellectual parent who just won't accept their nerdy child for who they are.

Yes. Go off, Yokoi. I will. Thank you. Yes, go the fuck off. I love this rant because it was something we were discussing in the last chapter. I was like, is George trying to make us think like, oh, maybe Randall's kind of cool because he's good at military stuff?

And we're like, no, that's stupid maybe Randall's kinda cool because he's good at military stuff, and we're like, no that's stupid, Randall fucking sucks. And there's also, it makes me think of this week, in the episode of Euphoria, the hit HBO television show, maybe also award winning, and Chloe has been also sharing thoughts on Euphoria recently over on our friend Ara's channel and she can talk about that but there's this line of like and i'm paraphrasing because i don't remember it exactly and didn't feel like trying to search through the episode of like you know if you hate your parents like that's kind of like acceptable and fine because you don't really get to choose your parents right but if you hate your kids like that's your own fault and that's like your fault randall

charlie because i mean you sucked right like you said, he's the real coward. Like, he was so afraid that, like, his masculinity was so fragile that he was like, it cannot bear having, like, a child like this, right? Or, like, he can't bear Brienne being able to be a warrior. Yeah. He really can't abide women or anything feminine coded uh and like there's this really weird thing that he immediately assumes that it's melessa's fault that sam turned out like this that she softened him and it's weird because also her womb is regarded as this gold mine to him to keep like blasting children into over and over until he gets a perfect son.

So it's just really weird. He's like, you horribly ruined her. And it's kind of like there's that line that like when Joanna died, you know, Tywin, that was the last good in him. Blah, blah, blah. Paraphrasing. And it's weird because Tywin's still a dick. Obviously, like we see him be a total asshole through this entire series until his death and even after his death his ghost is like haha bitches but randall tarley has a woman who obviously is a loving wife devoted wife does her duty by westerosi societal

standards and terms and he is like wow everything about you is awful you're the worst woman in the world you ruined our children. Goodbye. It's interesting. Like, he's that much of an asshole. There isn't even the Joanna Lannister defense for Randall Tarly. Like, he's just truly heinous. Yeah, cowardly. Cool. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like you said, Yokoi. Like, if you want a child to, you know, know become confident you give them encouragement and support and yet the worldview that randall has taught sam that the world is very cruel who wouldn't be afraid of a world like that where you can't trust anyone and especially you cannot even find comfort in your family like that is a terrifying world yeah but instead of arming sam he sort of places this curse on him by you know all this abuse in effect is like a curse on his emotional landscape yeah yeah and what's really great about this chapter right we kind of see that in a game of thrones and we'll

talk about that in a second but you really get insight into how that has permeated every moment of Sam's life and his interiority once you get his POV. But as you all know, in a Game of Thrones, Sam's intro, he comes to the Night's Watch and he's slow to make friends except for his buddy, Jon Snow. Jon gets the mysterious firebolt broomstick, though, and everything changes. Jon persuades Maester Aemon to put Sam in the stewards and Aemon kind of takes him on as a mini apprentice. He ends up taking his vows with Jon beneath a heart tree despite being raised in the light of the

Seven and then he shows great bravery in getting his friends together to stop Jon Snow from losing them the Gryffindor house. God damn it. He's never long thought him with a dagger. Which takes us into Clash of Kings. I'm quitting.

Right. That's a Game of Thrones. You're not quitting. You literally cannot quit. You need this. You need this as much as I do. So Sam in a Clash of Kings, he has a kind of a limited plot as well. In Clash, he spends his time studying

the many books and papers in the library before the great ranging under eamon's tutelage and then he goes to craster's keep meeting craster's daughter wife gilly and makes an extreme effort to save her child from its fate or impending doom at the hands of the others when no one else gives a fuck and that is everything we don't know from before sam's pov is born because today sam tarley's pov is born right in a storm of sorts a star is born when he stops john running off uh near the end of game that he really stands in front of his horse and it you know this is a guy who is just absolutely convinced that he's the biggest craven in the seven kingdoms which he keeps thinking to himself as we're going to see today but you know he stood in front of a horse to stop his friend you know running off and putting himself in danger of execution he's giving something back

to john john has helped him so much but sam's ready to return the favor and you know that doesn't sound like a craven to me that's a great point especially especially considering like this chapter is the direct answer to everything his dad stood for against sam right like every time that his father's called him a coward or said like, you could never do this, this could never be yours, like everything the light touches, not your Sam. That's been the entire existence for him. And this is the answer to all that, right? Like this chapter showing like when a man can be brave. And it's not the first time Sam's been brave. He's totally downplaying himself. That takes courage, especially to stand up to Lord fucking Snow, right?

Yeah, it's hard to stand up. God damn it. It is hard to stand up against your friends. I'm pretty mad now about comparisons in a Game of Thrones, because it is like that. And he's risking not only his life by standing in front of the horse, but he's risking his friendship. That's scary. And he'd put john before himself you know he cares that much about his friend it's great yeah and you know you were saying chloe how it's like everything

the light touches it's not yours well good thing it's nighttime in this chapter because the light is almost nowhere the belly of the beast i am reminded like when we chose to do sam after brienne we we chose him for a handful of reasons and we did pre-choose this order 2017 2018 we have not changed it like this was when we started putting it all together this was our definitive. This is the order we're doing the POVs in. So the guesswork to what's next, it has a lot of reasons, right, that it could be the next POV. And we chose him after Brienne for a lot of the gender analysis, right, some of these societal standards placed on Brienne versus what's been placed on Sam, a lot of body dysmorphia. Randall Tarly, of course,

and contrasting Randall and Selwyn as fathers is something really to keep in mind, I think, through some of this. And we focused a lot in the last POV on how it affected Brienne to constantly be pigeonholed, sometimes, oftentimes for Brienne accompanied by violence from expressing themselves in a way that stunts them emotionally and causes trauma and Sam is a direct answer to that I feel like he has suffered a lot of those same kind of relationships in being a child of a lord and rejecting his path that's been laid for him because it literally pains him to take that path whereas I guess Brienne you know there's sort of an assumption that because they're

like assigned female at birth, right, that they are going to have to constantly be subjected to violence. Whereas for Sam, it's almost an expectation that well, manhood means that you will inflict violence like that's the assumption within Westeros and what they expect of men. And so, as you said, Sam's a direct answer to that, but also feeling very much like these outcasts, these misfits in society and how they come into their own. And Sam is one of those fun POVs

that we don't get his POV right away, just like Brienne. We get his introduction in another point of view through Jon. So another fun, fun little catch. And I'm sure we're going to have a bunch of different things that remind us of Sofrien's chapter throughout the chapter as we talk about it. So we'll come back to some of that. Yeah, and we finally get the other side of the exchange that Sam and John have after many, many years. I'm excited for that, actually, to flip those chapters and kind of look at what we talked

about when we did the John chapter and come back to it. That'll be kind of fun. Well, before then, we've got our lightning round. Yes, and because it is a storm of swords, which is just a storm of POV characters, we are trimming down our lightning round to keep it to a nice, a nice drizzle. A nice drizzle, if you will. So we did remove for the time being Jaime, Tyrion, Sansa, and Catelyn chapters. And we will go from there as we move forward in Sam. Starting with the prologue in A Storm of Swords.

Chet and some of the other suffering men in the Night's Watch have had it with upper management. They want change in the form of a mutiny. Their mutiny is interrupted, however, by an impending attack by the others. Arya won. By day, Arya and her brat pack seek the trident. By night, she battles mummers through her wolf. Davos won.

Davos washes up in Blackwater Bay after battle. He is saved from dehydration, hunger, and hardcore sunburn by Salador San. Damn right, don't fucking forget it. He did, apparently. Jon won. Jon is brought before the the cake beyond the wall, and he must convince him he's turned his cloak. Bran won.

Bran and company hide in the Tumbledown Tower, where Jojen says they must keep seeking the three-eyed crow north of the wall. Davos too. After learning his son Davon lives, Davos plans to kill the true murderer behind all of this war, Melisandre of Asshai. Before he can do so, he is taken into custody by Axel Florent.

Her power. She's so powerful. Arya too. The gang arrives at the inn where the Brotherhood Without Banners borrows or steals their horses. A little steal from the poor, give to the poor. That kind of action. They're just shuffling things around. Jon 2. Jon is asked some personal details about the Watch's plans. Later he gets more personal details from Ygritte

in her bag. Ayah 3. Ayah is captured and brought before the Brotherhood without banners. Sam 1. Sam moves between memory and reality as he and his remaining brothers of the Night's Watch are pursued by

ice zombies. And so we open Sam 1. Sobbing, Sam took another step. This is the last one, the very last. I can't go on. I can't. But his feet moved again, one and then the other. They took a step and then another and he thought, They're not my feet, they're someone else's. Someone else is walking. It can't be me. Yes, I like this. Opening with Sam sobbing yet taking another step really sets up this whole

chapter, I think. And I don't want to get ahead of myself, but George does use these same words six times to begin paragraphs in this chapter. Clearly, the theme is that Sam is suffering tremendously, but he's doing what needs to be done just one step at a time. And as he does so, notice that he feels as if his feet shuffling forward are someone else's. On the one hand, he's cold and he's numb. On the one hand, he's cold and he's numb step throughout the chapter is actually one of the reasons why this is my favorite chapter i just think that the way it's woven in like it's so well executed and really goes to show like how the drudgery of doing this and just like how

difficult and repetitive and horrible it is and as you said right the idea that it's someone else that dissociation not just that he can't believe that he's someone also who's able to do this. So clearly someone else must be able to do this, not him. Get in the eve of Shinjuku. Oh my god, that is... Someone else's piloting, Eliana. It's you. I think this is, oh my god, this is such an expertly constructed chapter for so many reasons. A lot of what you're talking about with the repetition is so effective, the very end and then another. As much as this is a horror chapter, right? Like this is kind of straight up chiller horror, chiller horror we zigzag between memory and reality and horror the entire time and it's so traumatic that he can't bear to tell it all in one

go right like you have to keep switching realities to understand what has happened to Sam what has happened to these men where the men went it's very great how George plays the cards keeps you on the edge of the seat doesn't drop those cards until it's very great how george plays the cards keeps you on the edge of the seat doesn't drop those cards until it's time to he loves that as we know as we know i'm waiting on some cards from that man right now if you know what i mean to the tune of some pages oh my god next wild cards the anthology that's what it sounds like to me chloe now i'm quitting holy shit uh but there's also like that that

effective part of horror is that like there's still hope so sam is the main character of this horror story that we're reading in this chapter in this very contained chapter under a microscope he's the main character and he isn't gonna die right we see people die around him in this chapter and so very much so like the last hero very you know everything has broken and died and all he has is this flinty little dagger that he's gonna hope is best for and sobbing he takes another step and it's hopeful it's horror but there's still hope laced in those footsteps. Absolutely. Well, the snow is rising. His sword belt won't stay on. And he has also lost his main sword back on the fist.

Big bummer. And I don't want to take credit for this thought, but I've seen folks suggested over the years on the subreddit how Sam constantly needing to pull his belt up and it doesn't even fit on the tightest setting. Sam constantly uses his fatness like as a bludgeon against himself and to insult himself and sees it as part of him being craven and because he was told it was bad because randall charlie told him it was bad but the

description of the sword belt falling off actually implies that i I mean, he's probably, I guess, like, losing weight because, I mean, it's been a couple of days and he's doing a lot of moving. He's carrying the weight of all of this armor. He's got the weight of all of the clothing to keep him warm. He's been walking through snow, which is very difficult. And that's why I don't do it. And he hasn't rested in several days and also likely hasn't eaten very much because when are they going to eat? Because they are being chased, as Chloe pointed out.

It's a horror story. When do people eat during horror stories? I don't watch horror movies. Anyway, there are many things working against Sam's nutrition right now. And I mean, Sam is, I think, a really great example of what is meant when we talk about an unreliable narrator, because I think especially

Sam is unreliable in regards to how he sees himself. He struggles to see himself clearly. He constantly sees himself refracted through the lens of his own father. And what I really love also about Sam's story is i think a lot of it is about learning to see and acknowledge your own self and your own strengths and it's one of the most difficult parts for sam's internal story like even in the chapters that we have so far in a feast for crows he still hasn't even accomplished that yet and again it's one of the most powerful parts of his story to learn to love yourself despite everything that the world tells you that you are. Yeah.

Sam's so powerful. He doesn't even know. I know his power. Yeah. I wish he would know. I hope he learns. Yeah, I do too. That's like my big hope.

I don't really care about Rhaegar and Lyanna and all that and Jon Snow. I just hope that Sam Tarly learns to love himself. Did you mean bragger? Bragger? So, we get a little exposition, a little sword play here from Sam on what he has, what he's packing

in his pockets, which is the dragonglass dagger that Jon gave him and a steel one for cutting meat. Gren had laughed at the sight of his sword slipping down him many times and Ed too. Ed said, I knew a man once who wore his sword on a chain around his neck like that. One day he stumbled and the hilt went up his nose.

Oh, Ed, this chapter has some golden, golden Ed lines in it. Really good. Do you think the worse the golden Ed lines in it. Really good. Do you think the worse the suffering, the better his jokes? Yes. Yes.

It's kind of like a dark humor. It's like the guy that's worked at the company for several decades, you know, and he's seen the revolving turnover come and go and he's just always there you know in the break room like oh yeah man this guy's not gonna last he's gonna be gone within the next couple years the last guy they brought in here like that's ed he's just cracking the most dark

humor in the back he's seen where all the bodies are buried dude well it's out here and they're not buried yeah i have bad news about those bodies but uh sam is stumbling things are not going great for our protagonist over rocks beneath snow roots and sometimes deep holes that he wishes he could just fall into forever it feels like falling instead of walking but never hitting the ground. He wants to stop, but plot twist. If he stops, he dies. They all knew that. Well, by all, he means the few who are left. They had been 50.

Some wandered off, some bled to death. And sometimes Sam hears awful shouts and screams. And when he hears that, he runs as fast as he can as far as he can they are behind us they're still behind us they're taking us one by one chills yes even under three pairs of hose two layers of small clothes a double lambswool tunic a quilted coat a loose surcoat and a triple thick cloak what he needs is one of those puffer jackets i hear those are great oh it is fucking cold out here he's got heavy fur mitts and a scarf but yet cold cold cold he can't feel his feet

but he knows that they are hurt and all the days are blending into one another. We have this quote of, If only I was stronger. He wasn't, though, and it was no good wishing. Sam was weak and fat, so very fat he could hardly bear his own weight. The mail was too much for him. It felt as though it was rubbing his shoulders raw, despite the layers

of cloth and quilt beneath, between the steel and skin. The only thing he could do was cry. And when he cried, the tears froze on his cheeks. Sobbing, he took another step. Yep, another step. And George is putting real emphasis on just how much Sam is struggling and suffering, which immediately helps put us in his shoes. We can really feel the cold. I can when I read it. My wife once wore chain mail at a museum and she assures me that it was extremely heavy and restricting, even more so than you might think. extremely heavy and restricting, even more so than you might think. And he's wearing a huge backpack and he's got all these layers of clothing, which Eliana mentioned. So he's loaded up like a mule. There's this biting cold and the others are behind him who are, of course,

responsible for the extremity of the cold because we know that they bring this supernatural cold with them george is really making life incredibly difficult for sam but it's often in such conditions where we learn the most about our characters and by overcoming obstacles well it's a great way to initiate some character growth isn't it yeah. It's been really great to actually revisit and isolate these chapters and Sam's psyche. Because everything we know about Sam, like before his POV chapters does not come from him. So actually getting to see those layers of how his childhood affected him as well as like how it's etching out his thoughts throughout the rest of his chapters. Yeah, it's really sad. This chapter is incredible because Sam gets the chance finally to defeat some of the odds that he has always perceived to be against him.

And he doesn't recognize it yet, right? And as you said, Yokeboy, overcoming obstacles is a great way to initiate character growth. And my god, Sam is going to face a lot of obstacles throughout his povs he's got a lot of growth to do then that's true that is so true oh to be 15 no not really i don't know i do not want to be 15 again that's a lie couldn't pay me to go back sounds good on? Yeah, all this is bad enough to live it through another lens. Makes me think of that Sky High villain.

She's like, I went through puberty twice for this. For this? So Sam thinks of wanting only fire, and someone, Gren, Ed, who knows, reminds him, well, you know what, you had a torch, and you dropped it in the snow. I also want to call out, Ed, who knows, reminds him, well, you know what, you had a torch, and you dropped it in the snow. I also want to call out, like, when they talk about the torches, right, it's called the Old Bear's Ring of Fire. And I just wanted to acknowledge that detail because I love it.

It just feels so heroic. That ring in general is so symbolic during this chapter as you get to, like, the flashback. I like J.R. Mormont. It's like the beacon of light yeah i like you know 80 80 to 90 of more months there's like one one one that i could do without yeah sam feels fat and weak and useless but yet he keeps going mother have mercy he repeats to, thinking of his own mother in Horn Hill and his little brother Dickon. So this idea of mother have mercy gets repeated throughout the chapter as well, not just here.

And I find that really interesting because Sam's returning to his childhood faith in this moment of hardship. Despite, as we all know, it was like a big where he converted and pledged to the Old Gods, but I don't think the Old Gods really care about who you worship that much. But this moment of hopelessness and just hoping to survive and also wondering why you, of all the people who were there, survived this horrible thing, and then praying to the mother for mercy it just really reminds me of Davos who survived the Battle of the Blackwater and who we learn at around like a similar time in this book and by that I mean a few chapters ago we had a lightning round

right but at a similar time is alive and though his traumatic moment of big loss was you know one from fire sam's is of ice but they both really turn to the same line yes it struck me this read through how similar just after we did davos not too long ago there before cat these chapters are so tonally similar there's kind of this thought that like davos has the island burning death pit of awfulness after black fire but the fire and sam just has the snowy version right it also makes me think

about how davos is heading north he's going to have maybe his own sam one in a storm of swords happen to him soon as soon as the winds of winter comes out next week next week look under your chair uh there's this line it's here look under your chair there's something interesting about the stone wall ring right and how davos scrambles up the rock as the tide is rushing in on him to keep from being swept into the bay and Sam has to kind of keep an eye on the stone wall throughout this entire exchange back in the struggle. The stone wall was the place where everyone's gathering. It's where the enemy was coming over.

So even just the language of the tide rushing in, but instead of the tide, it's whites. The sea washing them away is the whites washing them away. And even that, like like davos wants to die and davos won if you recall he very much so is like please my god just murder me the passage is so funny because it reminds me not it's not dissimilar to sam at all thirst hunger exposure they were his companions with him every hour of day, and in time he had come to think of them as his friends. Soon enough, one or the other of those friends would take pity on him, and free him from this endless misery. Or, perhaps he'd simply walk into the water one day,

and strike out for the shore that he knew lay somewhere to the north beyond his sight. It was too far to swim, as weak as as he was but that did not matter davos had always been a sailor he meant to die at sea the gods beneath the waters have been waiting for me he told himself it's past time i went to them sam is calling for his own snowy death hoping he gets buried beneath the downfall the flurry snow, and just stays there and dies. Not unlike each other. Yeah, finding hope in hopelessness. It can be done, guys.

Yeah, and then someone comes along and is like, no, we're not letting you die, sorry. Yeah. The mother was merciful, all the septons agreed, but the seven had no power beyond the wall this was where the old gods ruled the nameless gods of the trees and the wolves and the snows he whispers mercy me remembering that maslin had whispered mercy as the white had killed him just whispering mercy and then his his mind shoots to this other moment of mercy. It's a great example of how Sam's mind naturally conjures up sort of intrusive thoughts and negative

associations almost automatically. To me, this is typical of how a traumatized mind can operate. And we know that even before the events at the fist that Sam was extremely anxious due to his prior abuse at Randall's hands I mentioned that Sam has a habit of dissociating when under strain well the problem is that there are so few safe places in his head his memories are almost always associated with pain and now he has this added layer of ptsd that witnessing this carnival of horrors that the fist has brought him soon he's caught between the terror of the real world and the terror of his memories and he attempts to block out unwanted thoughts it says the dead have no mercy left in them and the others no i mustn't think of that don't think don't remember just walk just walk

just walk i love that observation of sam and these intrusive thoughts i i never really thought about it that way but that is very much how it's written right like the the as you said traumatized mind conjuring those moments and he's got trauma upon trauma now yeah it, it's just layered up. Yeah, like the snow. Just layered. Lots of trauma. At least Sam hasn't made up a memory of kissing another yet, you know? The un-kiss. That could be sexy.

The other un-kiss. My erotic friend fiction. Yeah, the other. Yeah, I mean, like, apparently that was enough for one of those kings. The knight's king. Not the knight king. The boyfriendsfriends him and his four boyfriends the riders of the apocalypse him and all his knight's king boyfriends that's kind of it but anyway so i i do also think that this line that you've called up here at the end is interesting right the the one of the dead have

no mercy left in them because i mean it's fresh in our minds right we're coming off this chap we're coming to this chapter like on the heels of finishing brian eight and of course she encounters mother merciless who is also dead and again has no mercy yeah there's definite commentary on you know george is dealing with mercy and i take it his message is to find mercy in your heart. You know, if someone wrongs you, then being merciless is a poor reflection of your character. So right. It's just like the season one finale of The Righteous Gemstones. That's an interesting thought of like people people the living finding mercy in their hearts i wonder how we talk a lot about how mercy will manifest in the stark kids storylines i wonder if it'll be something that happens with like salmon is dead but anyway

for now salmon's fallen to his knees thinking that this is the end of voice growling back on your feet piggy but he lays there, thinking, you know, it may not be so bad to die, that the snow would cover him like a blanket. He hadn't wanted to go, anyway, but Maester Aemon was too old, so then he had to tend to the ravens, ordered by the Lord Commander. And Jera told

him, you know what, write out a letter if we are attacked, one to Castle Black, one to the Shadow Tower, and stay out of the way, saying that Sam would be sorry if he didn't. We have this passage. to die too but better men had died on the fist good men and true not squeaking fat boys like him at least he would not have the old bear hunting him through hell though i got the birds off i did that right at least it's just so heartbreaking to finally get inside sam's mind in this pov and witness what we could have all guessed firsthand that he blames himself for his abusive upbringing he totally thinks that he's to blame which yeah that's very predictable really

Randall expected Sam to be a certain way which of course is you know associated with gender roles but when he grew to be something different Randall effectively denied him a sense of self and identity. It's a shame that Sam believes these so-called shortcomings are his fault, as if a child can choose their aptitudes and personality at will. I think we can compare Randall to Tywin, who is obviously disappointed with Tyrion and perhaps contrast him with Ned Stark who I thought was thinking about this he realized Arya didn't fit his expectations of her but he decided to adjust expectations rather than forcing her to fit into this mold even with the the very little that we know of Selwyn Tarth obviously selwyn isn't sitting around at fucking bridges like a troll like randall is being like oh you want to take a different path for your

life my daughter did that and look what happened to me because that's all randall's doing right like he's just sitting around being very negative all the time with obvious issues going on that's why he hasn't gotten promoted in so long you know what i mean like this is his newest opportunity but tywin tywin didn't play those games he was like i'll just burn your life down at least tywin did stuff uh yeah sam is actually really bright in this chapter though right because he when he's writing these letters for the birds he writes them ahead of time in all different scenarios and outcomes uh short messages describing the attack and different outcomes and he gets prepared just in case because you never know what bird you need to send sam is great at using his brain randall didn't see it, but it's true. And his anticipation

here proves it. Although it seems that Sam is useless, you know, trudging through the snow, hoping to die. Don't fall into the same trap as Randall in thinking that therefore Sam is a fatally flawed character. George has made him a fish out of water here placing him in the worst possible environment for his skill set and abilities but how for example do we think Gren would fare if he was left in a library to research I think getting the messages together in advance shows Sam has a very capable mind that it's always working and don't forget that on this trip he's done other useful things for the night's watch such as draw intricate maps beyond the wall so john snow was right when he told maester amen that it takes all sorts to run the night's watch. There's a tool for every task and a task for every tool, you know.

As a horrible man once said, it's Tywin Lannister. What is with you and the, like, Tywin praise this episode? I don't know what's going on with him this episode. Who are you? I don't know. When you bring Randall into the frame, everyone else

looks a bit better. Yeah, it's true. That's how bad he is. Yeah, he's just so awful. That's more what I'm saying. He's making Tywin look D-. That's still like a D is almost passing, right? I don't know what grades are here anymore.

I haven't gone to school in so many years. If you were 15 again. Well, there you go see if I was 15 again like Samuel Tarly in the US of A god bless him I would have at least a D here when the horns

blew Sam had been asleep he opened his eyes to snow and the brothers start grabbing weapons and running to the ring wall. Chet, Eamon's old steward, is nearby, full of fear, asking for help to get the birds out. Sam dug out his own message, attaching them to ravens with shaky hands, and then struggled to catch one, losing a couple of them. But finally, he gets them to stay still so he can get a message out. Sam doesn't realize that chet was going to

kill him of course we know about chet's plan because he had that single pov prologue chet has always believed that it was sam's fault that he was on the ranging in the first place due to him taking his place as amen steward despite Sam actually being on the ranging and going through this suffering too. The leech's son was angry because he perceived that the class system was working against him, with John and Sam being highborn. And Chet really believes that he's somehow superior to Sam. He sort of, in his own way, looks down on him. But we're learning that

fear is a great equalizer in the crucial moment it's Sam who manages to get his shit together and Chet begins to go into a blind panic I think Sam showed more backbone than Chet yet he's so steeped in doubts and self-loathing that he never thinks of it in those terms he never looks outside himself and thinks well pat myself on the back what i did was pretty cool just then yeah and there's something great that like in the face of death chat who in the prologue talked his big game calling sam a coward and saying you know oh one touch of the knife that craven would piss his pants and start blubbering for his life chat in this moment of call to action he's like i don't want to die dude i don't want to die and he like runs and he doesn't do the duties sam stays to get the birds

off which is i mean his work ethic you have to give Sam that that like the things that he is good at doing and his responsibilities he does do them and he does them well and so him actually staying despite the fact that the dead are crawling over the walls they are here they're in the backyards that's really indicative of his character yeah and it wasn't easy because in the description it says that the birds were sort of pecking and clawing him drawing blood they're going really crazy in their cage and you can imagine how difficult it was to sort of focus his mind on what is ostensibly a simple task but it really wasn't a simple task in that moment and it's like meaningful task like this is like do or die like this is like you may never know

what happened to those 50 men that went north. They may have never come back. That's a good amount of the Watcher's power went out on this ranging. And a good amount did not come back. And, I mean, they could have been worse off had he not made sure communication was sent and backup was kind of called for. Yeah, absolutely. And, I mean, it's, first of all, grabbing birds is hard, okay?

And in this scenario, probably much harder, difficulty level turned up. But also like what you're saying, comparing like Chet's reaction and Sam's, I think it's kind of funny because Chet, not only is he full of self-loathing, he's got this very intense sense of entitlement, right? We see that in his prologue. He feels entitled to this girl's affections, and when he doesn't get it, he kills her, right? And he feels entitled to better in The Night's Watch.

And I don't think he's wrong. He's not wrong that the class system does work against people in the Night's Watch. And I think Corrin Halfhand does a great job of explaining that to Jon, right? What that privilege looks like when it comes to class. But Chet's almost like this dark mirror to Will in the Game of Thrones prologue, right? Where Will hides in the tree and doesn't do anything in that like do or die moment when the others come and and chet does a similar thing right he flees and sam on the other hand doesn't really feel like he deserves anything and i also just like love how charitable he is to like his perception of chet he's like oh chet must have run off because he has to go care for the dogs not because he's like oh chet ran off because he's acting craven also, because I mean, anyone would be scared

in that moment. And I just love that Sam extends that grace to Chet and thinking that, you know, Chet's role is also important, right? You're talking about every tool having its use. But I mean, it's one that Sam never really thinks about in regards to himself and the importance of his own duty he thinks highly of others but low of himself yeah yeah big sad he's judging them on a different rubric yeah exactly yeah well the warhorn had stopped the clash of steel has not after that sam packed as quickly as he could spare clothes dry socks dragonheads, the old horn, and a sausage that he'd been saving since the wall. Honestly, he does a great job of packing. And I also appreciate that George gives us the detail specifically that it is a garlic sausage.

Like, I don't know that it was important, but it is to me. It is to me. Yeah, maybe that helps, you know, with the cold. Does that, you know, a bit of garlic in your blood a little spice a little warm well garlic is uh it's an antibiotic it's a natural antibiotic when you chew into garlic it releases allicin which is kind of like that's you know you got a toothache chew a garlic clove put that puppy right there get through a few more days you know the old medicine.

So well, and that is something that I noticed in this book, like they talk about, you know, if you don't have enough meat in the winter, those teeth are gonna get loose. Whenever I'm sick, Chloe convinces me to eat a raw clove of garlic. I don't know how much it helps. But I've done this on more than one occasion because chloe's like you gotta eat a raw clove of garlic eliana i'm like okay it at least clears up the chest and the nose a little at least at least it burns a lot though so it does you know be warned if you're gonna try this one at home sam realizes that he doesn't actually know what he's supposed to do next after doing the birds. He can't see anything beyond three yards in either direction, and the horn had been ringing three times. Three long blasts means others.

The white walkers of the wood, the cold shadows, the monsters of the tales that made him squeak and tremble as a boy, riding their giant ice spiders, hungry for blood. Awkwardly, he drew his sword and plodded heavily through the snow holding it. So later in this chapter, Sam refuses to sing any songs like internally or externally, especially the Bear and the maiden fair which was suggested by gran and also this song pops up a lot throughout this book uh it it kind of acts like that sobbing sam took another step in holding this book together and it makes sense because now sam is traumatized by the undead bear but there's also an aspect of it in which i kind of feel like maybe sam refuses to sing the songs

because we are seeing here something that is recurring throughout A Song of Ice and Fire of like, so the legends, they are fun to hear and to think about, but turns out living through the legends and the songs yourself, like really fucking sucks. I mean, obviously, yeah, he's just too tired and scared to sing. But I think there's an aspect of like that sort of deconstruction going on as Sam is now living through this legend that tired and scared to sing. But I think there's an aspect of like that sort of deconstruction going on as Sam is now living through this legend that is not supposed to happen. The songs aren't as fun to live in. And, you know, there's also something, I don't know exactly what it is,

but there's something there about the Tarly Sigil being a huntsman and like the bear being kind of a very focal villain in this chapter for Sam. I don't know what it is. I'm playing with it. We're workshopping it. But something interesting there with the huntsman sigil. And I do think that there's also something to singing that reminds me of a couple things.

Later in Sam's plot, we get the memory of the last time he sang to his mother. And he had been lulling baby dick into sleep and his father heard their voices and cubs barging in and says like he won't have any of that he says to his wife you ruined one child with your soft septon songs do you mean to do the same to this babe and he told sam to stop singing near dickon it kind of is a memory that reminds me of Brienne and Catelyn. Looking back to some of our Brienne episodes and chapters on reread when Catelyn asked Brienne,

did you sing for your father? And will you sing for me? Brienne's like, no, fuck no. I will never sing ever again. I do not sing. That is not for me. I'm not going to be performing at your fire fest, Catelyn. Your fire white fest. So, I don't know, there's

something in those two characters with their singing, right, and their fire white fest and their singing here that Sam does not want to sing that. And, of course, we're opening Sam's plot with the bear and the maiden fair, and Brienne's plot in Storm ends with the bear and the maiden

fair, this book, right? Good book caps going on there. It does. Mm-hmm. Well, Sam follows some very large bearded men with eight-foot spears, feeling safer, and when he sees the torches still lit on the ring of stones, he is relieved as hell. He stands behind the others, he's looking for Gren and Ed, and thinks, if I have to die, let me die beside my friends, he remembers thinking.

Yeah, it's so, so good to see Sam thinking of his friends, even in this hopeless context and situation that he's surrounded in. Given that Randall actively chased him away from his natural family, Sam really needed to fill that void with kind strangers. And I think this is something that happens in the real world, right? Nerdy people seem to find family in strangers if they don't have it at home. With John's help, Sam did that at Castle Black. And those friendships have really endured. It is both sad and heartwarming to see him crave their company and give some meaning to his potential death because he's probably thinking, God, you know, Randall doesn't give a shit about me. Who's going to care about

me? So he's thinking, just let me die beside my friends. Afterlife at Horn Hill, he's just glad anyone cares about him at all. However much he continues to view himself as a misfit, I think it's very plain that he's found some sort of belonging with the Night's Watch. Yeah, it's been so great, especially having this POV open, you get to also see those friendships a little more closely in ways you don't see those characters relate to john because john is just such a different level of character and he he's you know he's brooding a little more than than sam does sam gets some really great little scenes throughout this book i really love that i love them getting to explore their friendship and sam having these friendships like in a non-toxic way

you know an environment that strips a lot of those titles away that the Tarlys would care about so much and all of those it's like when I was a kid my mom wanted to send me to private school because of the uniforms because she's like then kids don't fight because they all have the same clothes and I think about that when I think about the Night's Watch. They still fight. Kids will always fight. I don't know what she thought that would do. Hey, listen, I didn't get that part of her brain, apparently. But I think about that with the Night's Watch because I'm like,

they still fight. But, you know, now you've stripped out the finery of it all. You know, what if we played kings and queens, except took out all the queens and all the kings, and it was just people wearing the same outfit at a cold wall? I don't know how I feel about that. Yeah, it sounds pretty, it sounds miserable, sounds really goth. But what if they made friends with one another? That's beautiful.

That part's beautiful that part's beautiful and and like in regards to that you know i love it reminds us right like in terms of him finding his people elsewhere i mean like in their very first chapter together in that introduction john is like no we're brothers now yeah and and and like i love that the bonding that they have right the friendship is one of the first moments is he's just like talks to sam for a little and he just lets sam cry he sam just cries a lot he's crying a lot in this chapter too and sam and john just like sits quietly and lets it happen and like that's that's just so beautiful of course sam would want to be with those people like that's love yeah they really listen to each other from the outset because

john talks to sam about his weird dreams of the crypts and you know sam's intently listening so it is a two-way thing two-way street yeah that's a great point and something and that's a good lesson too now that i think about it i know this is a tangent but sometimes a way to get people to feel comfortable opening up to you right like to to make a space for those kinds of conversations as john demonstrated that by being vulnerable and that gave space for sam to also yeah exactly that's it because um john's talk of the winter frail crypts comes before Sam sort of confesses all the horrors of his past. It's directly before. And it's like John made him feel, you know, comfortable by confessing some of his own sort of personal demons.

And then, you know, Sam just comes out with it all. I think that's a really beautiful scene between those two early on. Yeah. I think that's a really beautiful scene between those two early on. Yeah. Well, and we see it in this series as a metaphor as well for like forging a knife or a sword or, you know, etc. But that's how the way to forge metal and steel, right? Like you have to beat it.

You have to put it down to its most vulnerable. And that's the way the strongest bonds are forged. And I think we have them. They're vulnerable, right? They're teenagers. They're so fucking vulnerable they have not a very steady parental thing going on for either of them and any of them and they all find a way to bond in the middle of a fucking ice blizzard that they have to live in forever and ever and ever until they die yeah and then they come back hopefully when they die yeah yeah except yeah never mind that was big sad

eventually he'll come back in the winter eventually oh my god but well and these are beautiful relationships but we actually get some very fun little minor characters in this chapter, right, that come back. Like we have Thorin Smallwood later, Rip, and we have Blaine, who's a ranger from the Shadow Tower right now, who's directing brothers to notch, draw, and hold their arrows. Sam can't see what they're aiming at, and he does not want to. Sam can't see what they're aiming at, and he does not want to. Hundreds are beyond, coming out of the wood, crawling to them. And it had been colder that night than he was now in the present day, buried in the ground, the snow growing on him. Sam sees someone pass him in real time on a horse, and he finds himself jealous, thinking,

If we had a horse, I'd make it, but they're running low on horses, and the horses are reserved for the wounded and their supplies. Which Sam thinks he's not wounded, just fat and weak. Soon after that, there's like this line and moment when Sam is just like lying down in the snow, and he thinks that he's the greatest Kraven in Seven Kingdoms. And I just want to say that that is just false. That is just untruerue because they are not in the seven kingdoms that's all i have i like it but but even if they we get this line even if they had been in the seven kingdoms you're still wrong right yeah absolutely absolutely i could think of at least 10 characters motherfuckers we have this passage sam was his heir but he had never been worthy so his father sent him away to the wall his little brother dickon would inherit the tarly lands and castle and the great sword

heartsbane that the lords of hornhill had borne so proudly for centuries he wondered whether Dickon would shed a tear for his brother who died in the snow, somewhere off beyond the edge of the world. Why should he? A coward's not worth weeping over. Yeah, that word again. Sam is fixated with the notion that he's a coward. We see it time and time again in this chapter and elsewhere. And yeah, it's obvious who planted those seeds what i think sam doesn't do is sort of balance things out by giving himself any drop of credit for dealing with the extreme fear he feels you know he goes through this but he never pats himself on the back

and says you know you got through it we know from from Ned that the only time a man can be brave is when he's afraid. But Sam defines himself by the amount of fear that he feels rather than his success in coming through that fear. And in spite of his precarious position, he is succeeding because the immediate danger is around him and his character goal is simply to survive at this point he's just got to get through it somehow and we're learning through all these flashbacks woven into the narrative that surviving was no mean feat after that attack by the others we are in a horror story the monsters are close behind they're chasing and yet here sam is thinking himself the greatest craven ever you know because he's frightened and

afraid there's a self-help book called feel the fear and do it anyway and i always thought that was a great title and it really reminds me of sam in this moment in this chapter i love that i like that title absolutely yeah he's taught that fear is something to be ashamed of feeling as opposed to as you said right like embrace the way that ned acknowledges like people feel things and that's important because it helps you understand like i mean like he's in danger right if you weren't feeling fear i'd be like you're broken yeah like he's not a daredevil daredevils do that shit and he's not so he you know what sam you're actually

you're extraordinary but you're closer to normal than you think you know he probably doesn't acknowledge that everybody else is feeling the same kind of shit that he is he's just absolutely fixated on the idea that you know he is feeling this great fear and probably promotes everyone else around him in his mind that they're doing much better than he is but of course we don't have their povs the one pov we have is chet and he was terrified so what's the big deal sam hearkening to what you were saying with their their bond right john and sam's bond when they craft that bond in such a vulnerable time it's so interesting that both of their plots directly involve the others so much when you have so much emotion that being vulnerable

affords you with that other person human connection in the light of these ice zombies right with zero human connection left it's really such a stark contrast and it feels significant like intentional even thematic it does and in regards to like again those those interactions with john and in that first chapter i mean part of it is like because people in westeros and especially the men right they're conditioned to not talk about their feelings everyone's fucking scared in this moment, clearly. I mean, you can see like, Blaine's kind of scared too, because everyone's like, we did it, we hit everyone, we hit all the whites, and then they're like, oh my god. They're not stopping. There's like, no break. And, you know, like, I remember in that first chapter, Gren and Pip are just

so astounded about Sam. They're like, I can't believe he is willingly calling himself a coward. And I'm like, a lot of people are afraid of things. They feel cowardice and it's just that Jon and Sam are willing to talk about it. And that's kind of brave in and of itself. Yeah. And then Sam remembers the Night on the F fist when Jormormont commanded they fire arrows and give them flame. He had told Sam to get out of the battle, that his place was with the ravens. When Sam said he'd sent them, the commander had said, good, telling him he's in

the way and to go man the ravens. You know's his duty go and do it Sam. So Sam went back to his birds writing his messages with frozen ink and frozen fingers he writes attacked in snow and cold we've thrown them back with arrows still safe and the next letter he writes is less certain still fighting heavy snow result uncertain he hears diwin singing brothers cheering cursing he writes his next whites on the fist but we drove them off with fire and then whites all around us spears and sword don't stop them only fire oh I love this because he's like he's writing out exactly what he's going to like combat at the end like he's doing

it in practical theory here on paper you know first and he's gonna go practical the hell out of it in real life soon and he has no clue go Sam I love how the whites are displayed in this chapter because they're almost like not really dangerous. Like they are dangerous, but like if you have three of them, you can light them on fire, keep them back.

You're good. It almost makes sense to that whole good old season seven plot where they took the white to the capital. Anyone remember that one? That show was fucking off the rails. Like Sam, I am trying to forget. Trying to forget. But you can see where like with the couple with the right flame

on hand, you could probably keep them back. But they're very soulless, very clumsy and when there's a lot of them swarming over the wall, it's not as easy and you cannot keep them back. And they're kind of just clumsily portrayed, right? They're these little icy skeleton boyos. But they really compared later when we get the beauty and the elegance of the others compared to the whites.

The others are like Slick's icy skin and hair and hair back hello i'm here with my blue spear uh it's such a different moment like it's very chilling very slow the whites are just like a nightmare these are just a nightmare but the others are a trip a whole entire trip and sam doesn't know he's meeting that other yet or what the others will look like because they're just in legend like they are not a normal thing white's normal when the others come that's real time baby we're in trouble they are they are big trouble it's true i i'd be like oh my god i'm intimidated. They're just beyond me. And I'm pretty sure that's how everyone felt in that moment, too. There's these moments that really show us, again, everyone's fear of voices shrieking.

There's a giant and a bear, a bear. Literally, it says a bear, a bear. I'm like, oh yes, of course. The horses are also shrieking. They're shouting. Sam writes even faster, note after note, surrounded by this soundtrack of steel. So some of those potential notes that could have been sent out were, We've won! We're winning! We're holding our own!

We're cutting our way free and retreating for the wall. We're trapped on the fist, hard-pressed. One of the Shadow Tower men came staggering out of the darkness to fall at Sam's feet. He crawled within a foot of the fire before he died. Lost, Sam wrote. The battle's lost. We're all lost. So Sam wishes he could think of something else in the present. He's lying on the ground, and he'd rather think about his sister tallah his mother or gilly from craster's keep i think it's interesting that sam thinks of the women and girls in his life when he's seeking like these happy memories right to block out the fight at the fist

or also even like you know as you pointed out earlier yoke boy like that he thinks of his friends slash brothers as a sort of way to keep going to not give up and just die yeah now he's thinking about gilly that's interesting yeah already a good woman will do that to you sam a good woman will do that to you i uh i i will say it does especially after you mentioned the unreliable narrator aspect earlier eliana i will say it makes me think of sanza a lot here of her at the black water just at the end of clash praying for everybody right and thinking of everyone in that moment that like hard-pressed moment of like oh shit is real shit is going down here he thinks of that too of like the things that really truly matter to him there's another i don't know if it's here i think it's around here line where he's thinking of like how he doesn't want to remember the battle

now and he kind of questions like why must he remember right and we see as he's writing down all these letters i i kind of feel maybe this is something that i don't want it to be like the way that it was in the show though but like obviously like, obviously, it's important for Sam to remember. Someone has to remember these people and what happened. Yeah, he's the historian of Ice and Fire. Yeah, he's writing a book. Makes Sam a very valuable character as a witness to all of this, doesn't it? Yeah. First-hand accounts are important.

Yeah. Well, Gren shakes him to reality, telling Sam that he has to keep moving and that he'll die if he does not and he tries to convince Gren otherwise he's like, I'm just gonna rest then I'll be fine, and Gren's like, no you won't and Gren with his frozen beard and gruff voice is not having it Sam remembers the night before they left the wall

Gren was stocky and strong and he was being teased by Pip who said that Gren would be great on the ranging because he's too stupid to be terrified and then Gren like countering that realizes what happens face turns red and it's just great because Pip and Gren are in love and

no one can tell me otherwise it's very cute it's cute to have them as the echo to Jon and Sam you know yeah but Sam and Jon as far as I can tell, they're not in love the way Pip and Gret are. That's my, one of my

really big ships. Not sleeping in the same bed role. No, Eliana, I'm sorry. No, but they do. Oh my god. Pip and Gret. Log off, AO3, Eliana. God, get it, keep your head out of the gutter here.

It's legitimately the first, and I don't know if this is embarrassing to admit that Log off, AO3, Eliana. God. Get it. It's legitimately the first, the first, like, and I don't know if, like, this is, like, embarrassing to admit that I haven't read that much of Song of Ice and Fire fanfic, only a little bit,

but the first ones that I ever saw it were Pip and Gren. Very formative experiences. Yeah. Wow. Nope, I agree. They are in love, Eliana.

I agree. that's all alicer thorne is less in love with pip and gren he calls he calls gren orax a slightly nicer name than sir piggy and lord snow right slightly nicer on a scale of one to ten i'd say it's like a three the bar is low niceness yeah he just rolled over it just rolled over that bar gren had always been nice to sam but sam thinks that's because of john he literally thinks if it weren't for john none of them would have liked me it's so hard because like he goes and flips between it throughout the entire chapter of his status of friendship. And you can see that he equates others love to being currency because of the way Randall Tarly brought him up in that, right? Like, because John told them to, it's not a true exchange of friendship. You know, he doesn't see that as an authentic friendship because it's just because Lord John said they should be nice to me.

And some of the things John experienced while being, you know, a Lord's bastard does not suit one at the wall. Being kin to what Sam would have seen his father exact against people, right? Because like Randall doesn't really have friends in his rulership life, it seems. Not real friends. have friends in his rulership life it seems not real friends and i don't know it's interesting to see the way that randall would have brought or not brought friendship into sam's life and how sam would treat it because like randall sees people as currency yeah so sam has this suspicion of friendship doesn't he and he he can't concede that people might actually like him and see value in him his self-esteem is just so goddamn low he's always seeing life through you know quite a depressing

lens he's choosing to believe here that gren doesn't like him really you know it's this sort of paranoid social thought he has this is an aspect of himself that he can improve, I believe, somewhere down the line. I think one of his main sort he will allow himself to accept love from other people. Back to Randall, I think fathers are just such important figures to the self-concept of young men. And so we reach an age that we can come to question our own fathers. We just sometimes straight up believe what they tell us. believe what they tell us this becomes very difficult when your dad is in british terms a knobhead like randall charlie yes randall charlie is as you said a knobhead he is not to use another british term that i've learned from love island he's not a lad no he's not one of the lads like sam and his his friends and yeah this this lad's trip is fucking terrible right now um but

yeah i that's that's such an interesting contrast of like you know how sam has gotten to this self-conception because of randall charlie that's i think that's interesting what you said chloe that randall has no friends because we see other lords have friends right like ned had friends robert had friends they were each other's friends right even even ty tywin is what kevin right yeah that's true yeah tywin has friends and i mean pisel clearly felt like he was friends with tywin but who wants to be friends with randall ew yeah not even randall he doesn't seem to value friendship for any other reason right like the friends in the reach might be him but it's not really friends people call him when they want to kill people you know yeah he's really good at killing people dead call

randall he's an asshole he can clean up some crime for us I have never seen him kill someone I think he might have made that up also to be honest he's I know we'll probably see it eventually yeah it sounds like a reach

but in regards to like Sam learning to value himself and like friends like and how he doesn't believe that Gren could really like him, I mean, obviously he does. And it's not just Gren, right? A lot of people have told Sam to just get up already. And I feel like if you didn't care about someone staying alive, you wouldn't have been like, dude, you need to get up.

Gren is literally risking his life and safety to try and get you to stand up right now without john around so clearly it's not just completely hinging on john and there is the fact as we go forward like they think john's dead because they haven't heard from him in ages but they're yeah soon soon but like they pretty much are like don't know john's probably dead haven't heard from that fucker in a while so john really doesn't matter in this sam this is all you got they're your friends now they're your brothers now yeah yep john was lost with corey in half hand probably dead Sam would cry, but his tears would only freeze like him. A tall brother with a torch stops besides them and says, you need to leave Sam. If he can't walk, he's done.

Gren needs to save his strength. Gren says he just needs a hand, and he begins to pull Sam to his feet the best he can. The moment Gren lets go, Sam falls right backward into the snow. He kicks Sam up, telling him he has to get up, and Sam curls up, protecting himself from the kicks. And then he thinks the most relatable line in the entire song of any ice nor fire. I thought Gren was my friend. You shouldn't kick your friends. Why don't they let me be? I just need to rest, that's all, and sleep some, and maybe die a little. So relatable.

So relatable. It is, like, I've never related to a sentence more in my life. This is coming from the woman with six alarms set in the morning, you know? Yeah. No, I legitimately believe this is, like, one of the most relatable ones. Yeah. No, I legitimately believe this is like one of the most relatable ones. I was like out here yesterday talking about how I relate to Gollum, just giving up at the smallest hardship. And that's how I relate to this. And I honestly, I continue to be surprised that there are people who dislike Sam, who dislike his POV. And I think maybe it's just like this, it's too real, in my opinion, and like controversial take. I just low-key think that the people who dislike Sam, it's because they're dishonest with themselves about who they are. And like, this is just relatable content.

It is relatable. I use the phrase every nerd with Sam sometimes. Yeah. So the other voice told Grant to leave him. That voice comes back in and helps to carry Sam. It's small Paul, who once carried a calf that was heavier than Sam. Sam is just muttering in Paul's hand, telling him to put him down, just let him die. Yeah, Sam is almost ready to give up on himself. It's like a suicidal wish. just let me rest here and you know

forget about me I'll die I'll be on this blanket of snow nice and warm and he's tempted by that but fortunately his friends don't let him his brothers and it brings to mind this quote from Tyrion in game that I really like he says death is so terribly final while life is full of possibilities so sam just needs to get through it little does he know that if he overcomes these gigantic obstacles the author might just throw a few rewards his way well one of them being a girlfriend sam so i see real life in much the same way. If you're in really tough times, everything is really difficult. Sometimes you just have to buckle in and hang on because no matter how damaged you feel you are, wonderful things can

happen to anyone in this world, believe it or not. I love that. I love that. Thank you. And something else I see in this too you you kind of touched on it his friends don't let him just succumb because i think something else that this chapter shows is like it's okay to get help sometimes when you're in your really dark moments and you know sam is just so down on himself and struggles to go on. But thanks to his friends, Small Paul and Gren, he is eventually able to keep going. Because I think getting help, it's not a weakness. But because Sam has just been told all of his life that he's a burden, he's afraid to ask for help from his friends.

I'm relating hard to this. So many aspects. The closer I look at this, the sound the more things i'm like whoa yeah that is a bit like me sometimes well and it's so hard because like when you've been told your whole life that you were nothing but a burden on others right like of course you want to just curl up in a ball and die in the snow and tell them to please just go on because you feel like you're that much of a burden and sometimes everybody just needs a hand a help like mirror reed says in the show the books were based on

whatever that line i like that she says that i say all the time on this podcast you guys know you heard it a couple weeks ago you hear it like once a pov she says it yeah just because whatever someone need help doesn't mean they're not worth helping. I don't know, whatever. Pile, good or bad. You know. Yeah. And it's again, like every single time Sam is like, my friends hate me.

They're not my real friends. George disproves that in the text, right? Because Gren then tells him, save your strength, Sam. Think about your sisters, your brother, Maester Aemon, your favorite foods, songs, but do that in your head. Please, he asks. I like that one. That made me smile. Very grand. It's so sweet because

they know him. These are the things that Sam actually cares about. If they didn't like you, Sam, they wouldn't be out here saying, well, think about your sisters. They don't give a fuck about how many sisters someone they don't like has out on the wall. Very true. Nobody has that kind of capacity for someone they don't like.

Yeah. And if they do, it's thinning every day. So not saying this to anyone in particular. Eliana. No, I'm just kidding. And here I was thinking, damn, everyone needs themselves a friend like Chloe to eat raw garlic. Shit, guess not. Fuck.

I'm a burden. I'm just kidding. I'd pick you out of the snow any day, babe. I'd probably drop your ass, though. You know I'm a weak bitch. I'm a weak motherfucker. Is she able to do that? Like, ten minutes ago I was just telling Yokeboy I pulled a muscle. So I don't know. I don't know. I pulled a muscle podcasting.

Gren just wants that garlic sausage. He's just sort of playing Sam for the sausage. There truly is a great theme of brotherhood in this chapter going on. great theme of brotherhood in this chapter going on. And I love that coming off of the chapter located right before this, Arya chapter, that insight from Sam into family for the first time from him and Arya with the brotherhood in the last chapter. We know that Sam's assimilation into the watch wasn't easy at first.

And this whole brotherhood theme becomes so significant between that chosen family versus the family that rejected you and society that rejected you as well as this idea of men coming together from different religious backgrounds and choosing to follow one thing together so with the brotherhood they're all following relore but not just relore they follow it because they believe it, because they've seen it work, right, and bring back the dead. And you even have between Arya and Harwin, where he's telling her, these are my brothers now, you know, Lord Eddard's dead. These are my brothers. I belong to the Lightning Lord. We mean your brother no ill, but it's not him we fight for.

He has his own army. The small folk only have us. Do you understand what that means, Arya? And that's what Sam is learning, right? Like, out here in the Ice Zombies, when you're north of the Wall, your religion becomes the undead out here right like you believe in what's real the heart trees aren't going to do anything but soak up your blood beyond the wall right maybe brand can send like some vision ravens to come save your ass or something or cold hands can show you a secret passage but uh you know out here you have the cold and each other and that's it.

Yeah. Sam has got the sort of social equivalent to imposter syndrome. He just doesn't doesn't think he's can possibly be good enough for other people. He thinks that, you know, it's some sort of mistake that people are making when they judge him. But nothing could be further from the truth. Because as you say, you know, in this environment, who's going to stop to pander to Sam if they really didn't like him? Yeah. Yeah. I love that he finds his place there eventually.

Thankfully, Chet's plan did not. I don't know, because I'm like, I'm glad Chet's plan did not go through. But then a lot of more people died, guess because of what actually did happen and i think it's interesting when you're saying that there are no gods beyond the wall just the whites and the others and that becomes the religion because that's what the power and the magic that's there because this does intersect with sam's storyline later on and we'll obviously talk about it more later on, the stuff at Craster's Keep, and they talk about how Craster kind of serves these cruel, cold gods. They talk about the others as, like, those gods as, you know, he sacrifices.

Speaking of, like, dysfunctional families with no brothers at all, Craster's family. What a nightmare. Family reunions suck. Well, Sam says he doesn't know songs anymore, but Gren reminds him of the bear in the maiden fair. And Sam is then instead reminded of the bear that came up the face with hairless, rotted flesh and bags for no songs at all. Ever again. hairless rotted flesh and bags for no socks at all ever again yeah this i think is the same bear that chet was trying to hunt down in the opening section of his prologue because he's

with his dogs and he's trying to track this bear and we have his pov obviously but the dogs won't take the scent so he can't find the bear so you know to butcher and eat so it's this this sort of minor mystery but you don't even really realize that it is a mystery on your first read through because it's quite subtle but i think that the answer to the mystery is that chet's hounds can't take the scent because the bear has been whited in the haunted forest and it's poised to attack. So I do love how George threads these things through the story like this. And yeah, a normal bear would be terrifying, but an undead bear? Yeah, we talked earlier about the layers of trauma in Sam's head and this is a whole new layer

yeah and I love how it's from the past I mean I always love how George folds in different times of events happening into one POV chapter and takes you back and says let me tell you what happened three days ago while Sansa was stuck in her tower. But it's expertly done in this, especially with all the horror vibes we've been talking about. And there's something interesting in that both his bear, Sam's bear, is from the past, right? We're getting Sam recollecting this bear in the present day and when he saw this undead bear. And it's not unlike Bririanne's bear right because we don't get brianne's bear through her pov originally we only get recollections from her and we see it through jamie's pov so i'm loving all the storm bears it's uh almost unbearable this song you're nice don't encourage her behavior

thank you you're welcome anytime here friends look after each other exactly exactly leave me here to die in the snow Snow. Snow, Ned. Snow. Yeah, I mean, there's such an interesting tie-in between Brienne's bear and Sam and the timing of when those show up in this book. I mean, Brienne's bear is covered in hair, like in the song. Sam's is like a lewd naked bear. But as you said, it is a layer of trauma for Sam. The bear ends up also being a layer of trauma for sam the bear ends up also being a layer of trauma for brianne at some point too because why wouldn't it be i also kind of

wonder like is the bear i first of all i love that you've pointed out like i didn't realize that or catch that that the bear that they were tracking is the same bear um it's a good thing i guess they didn't track it it tracked them that's actually less good but is the undead bear or the dead bear in general foreshadowing for the death of jay or i don't know random yes thought i had absolutely absolutely i think so i think that's a great call out bears okay i also am wondering because like if they're trying to find the bear to eat the meat something i wonder is can you eat undead no eliana you can't eat your undead meat i guess you're putting first yeah it's also rotten is what we find out it is rotten flesh no one wants to eat that all right so i'm glad i've what do you think sam sausage is made out of um but that's fresh maybe if you get to the undead maybe if the undead is brought back soon enough before it rots you can eat them yeah it's it's a gray area

chloe's face is just like why is this happening to me i'm just the virgo rising in me is like this is so improper that you're speaking of this right now while we have guests over. Gren tells Sam to think about the birds. Think about your bravens, Sam. And Sam's like, they're not mine. They're the Lord Commander's. They're Castle Black's. The Night's Watch's.

Oh, Sam. He has no ownership over anything or like feeling of wanting it because his dad probably told him that everything he had in life was not his and never was to be his and that he's worthless and had nothing and would never have anything of his own because of that so um just so funny to think about like that's why sam is like they're not not mine! They're basically yours, Sam. Yeah, kinda. I also think it's kind of funny that Grendt suggests this as a happy thought because he's just kind of assuming Sam has this really close kinship with the Ravens, and I don't know that Sam feels that close to the birds or the Ravens. Apparently that's small Paul. Sam's just kind of like i don't know yeah the

ravens are there um and now they signify failure to him things are going great yeah small paul suddenly is like frowning and he's like well chat said that i could have more months talking raven but he forgot he asked sam if he could have one of his ravens but sam's like no dude they already left they're flying they're gone yeah just as we convince you guys that sam's friends really do love him for who he is small paul starts carrying him probably because he wants that bird yeah and small paul has like some flavors of lenny you know put down the rabbit small paul obviously just because of his size and the way he speaks and this is again another one of those

little hints of the mutiny right cropping up that sam and them they're obviously running for their lives and they don't think about it but they're like what do you mean chat promised you a rent what why would he promise you what and for us if you think about it you're like oh shit right because shit was supposed to go down until these zombies attacked um i feel really bad for small paul because i do think he's like being a little pushed and taken advantage of by the boys who want to start the big bad mutiny right and he's like i'm just in it for the bird man i'll do whatever you want if i can have a bird because i'm lonely someone should just give him a bird and he shouldn't have to mutiny you know

i mean there are worse reasons to join a mutiny i think a bird is one of the more admirable ones and interesting if they had made it back to the wall i don't see why sam couldn't give him one of the birds because the they would just meet the birds there eliana and where do you draw the line is my question for mutiny um i i feel like chet had a bad idea like chet's ideas he's like yeah i'm gonna mutiny and then i think i'm gonna try to live like craster that's not a good reason to mutiny a bird a bird is a good i'm i'm with the bird i like the bird chaotic neutral i respect this more one's got a raven so you know there's precedent yeah yeah there is precedent it is pretty cool well yeah unfortunately again sam had released all the ravens when the battle

felt close to lost the horn sounding with two short blasts and a long one to mount up and go and also unfortunately um in the hubbub he did not attach any of the messages that he had written

oops big mood this is me sending an email and being like attaches blah blah and not putting the attachment yeah yeah in that moment he was like be free be free hurry get our messages there and the birds are like okay bye and i'm like wait what never mind we'll ask you later we'll get you later sam i just think anyone who's forgotten to attach something to an email has like no right to judge sam none none this is like way more also the anxiety of realizing that you've sent the wrong thing or the wrong email is highly relatable

yes also true also true so much harder i do that at work sometimes i send the wrong attachment to the wrong person and they're like oh you're getting this from so and so interesting you know giving out the personal info it's not good hopefully i give them nothing yes queen give them nothing i hope you know i hope that these messages don't just blow into the wrong hands. You know, you get a really smart other walking down the road, picks him up. Interesting. Night's watch nearby. That's how the other gets to the end of the chapter. He found the messages.

Sam is stumbling through the snow and remembers the dead coming over the stones, arrows through them. Some in ring mail, some some naked many of these whites were free folk some were also infated blacks he remembered one of the shadow tower men shoving his spear through a white's pale soft belly and out his back and how the thing staggered right up the shaft and reached out his black hands and twisted the brother's head around

until blood came out of his mouth. That was when his bladder let go for the first time. He was almost sure. Yeah, that's interesting. In Chet's prologue, Chet tells Sam that when the wildlings approach, they'll come right at you, screaming in your face. And I'll, I bet you'll piss those breaches so he's really sort of poking fun at Sam saying he's going to wet himself but when the others attack the fist

it's Chet who first wets himself we know this because it's literally how his POV chapter ends and later Sam does the same thing but clearly he held on a bit longer so he wins no really i think that george is showing that anyone can be overcome by fear and chet is not quite the hard guy that he thinks he is and sam is certainly not alone in his quite natural reaction to this unmitigated zombie terror although no doubt he gives himself a really hard time for it. Like you said, right, anyone can be overcome by fear, and I legitimately believe that every single person of the Night's Watch, they're on the fist, wet themselves. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's pretty scary. Especially, like, if you've never seen an other or a white, which most of those men had not. Absolutely. And, again, we're back the the trauma of it all because sam is missing memories from some of this time right he doesn't remember running but he remembers suddenly arriving to the next camp uh and this camp is struggling hard in the battle everything's dark but flame is engulfing beings around him. Whites, bears. Finally, Sam finds a horse. He mounts it and he heads toward the sound of the horn.

At the sound of the horn, he finds Ed, who sits atop a horse. Thorin Smallwood is ready to call out the reserves, but Mormont's like, no, no, we have to cut our way out. He calls them into a spearhead formation, but Smallwood shouts out the slope is crawling with others. J.R. begins to shout a new command, but the horse throws him as the white bear comes staggering back. Sam pisses himself again. The bear was dead, pale, rotting, its fur and skin all sloughed off, and half its right arm burned to the bone, yet still it came on. Only its eyes lived, bright blue,

just as John said, they shone like frozen stars. I just want to see the naked, rotten bear. Smallwood charges, almost taking the bear's head off off but then instead loses his own head to the bear um literally his head was like probably ripped off the lord commander tells them to ride and they galloped to the stone wall sam had never jumped a horse before but you know

first time for everything the horse takes over gets through. The rider to his right is not so lucky. Whites swarm him and his horse. They all plunge down the hills, men and horse, swept into a tumble, axes and swords hacking at flesh, and Sam clutches his horse harder than ever, sobbing. The whites hold on for dear life, too, clutching

or not dear life, but you know, whatever this is, clutching at swords and horse legs as they pass even clawing open the belly of a horse hurtful as it passes overhead sam feels relieved until a man in black leaps from the brush and pulls him from his saddle and then gallops off on his horse yeah the fuck yeah i would really like to know who that was. I hope it was one of the mutineers who end up, you know, not with the best ending. I've read, like, people speculate it could have been Chet, which he could have noticed, maybe.

But also, again, trauma and things were moving fast and it was pitch black besides the fire here and there. And I guess it doesn't matter, but it would make sense if it was chet we should ask george that should go yes that's the number one question who was it who pulled pulled sam off the horse throw it on the list we need to i need to start writing all these down um i have some written down and i also want to like call out that there's like this brief mention that there's this one dog that was doing a great job bounding in and out of the horse's legs and trying so hard to keep up with the fleeing brothers and their horses, but then eventually gets lost because it can't keep up. And that just makes me real sad. Yeah, we can blame Chet for that as well, because he's the dog guy. Actually, though.

Yeah. Goddammit, Chet. Getting sick of Chet's bullshit. Blame Chet. Not as well, because he's the dog guy. Actually, though. Yeah. Damn it, Chet. Getting sick of Chet's bullshit. Blame Chet. Not for long. Don't worry. Sam tries to run after the horse, but he falls on a root and falls hard on his face, weeping until Ed finds him.

That was his last coherent memory of the fist of the first men. Later, miles from the fist, Sam and the other survivors shiver, some mounted, some foot. Diowen had lost, I think, two out of five, three out of five of the pack horses that carry resources, and they take time, they redistribute the loads, so losing revisions doesn't, like, ruin their lives. Next time, next time they lose a horse. So losing revisions doesn't like ruin their lives. Next time, next time they lose a horse. Healthy men are demoted to walking.

The wounded are promoted to horse and torches are set to guard the front and the back. All I need to do is walk, Sam tells himself. But within an hour, he begins to struggle. And that is where we meet him in his chapter. The present, the real present yeah i i really love how these apocalyptic scenes of the fist of the first men are intricately weaved into the chapter in these flashbacks i don't know about you two but when i read this chapter sort of casually i struggle to know where i am in the timeline sometimes and to knit together in my head where I am about I am and I need to sort of keep my eye on it and study it to make proper sense of

it but you know perhaps that chapter format has had the desired effects perhaps that is what George was going for to convey the spinning mind of Samwell in this disorienting blur of action i i absolutely agree and i that's one of the reasons why like this is you know my favorite chapter as you said right like it's it really thrusts readers into that same like state of temporal confusion because sam keeps being like i don't know how many days ago that was three days four days he's like lost track of it and you know like even more confusing is to some extent it's written sort of stream of conscious like not entirely but to an extent because you pointed out right like the times that we go into some of those flashbacks are flashbacks are those like intrusive moments as you said, that suddenly pop into

Sam's mind, and then he pops back there, he's put back in the middle of the chaos, and then comes back to the present. And we have several different moments of temporality in this chapter. Not only do we have the present, we also have that past in that singular moment of the attack on the fist, and then we also jump every now and then even further into the past into like this large amorphous like duration of time of sam's life before the watch and his childhood and like bounding between all of that it really gives you again that same sense of how sam feels like he doesn't know when it is it would feel overwhelming if it wasn't done right and that's a testament to how it's written yeah agree absolutely

it's a lot of back and forth and the confusion isn't overly confusing it's enough to disorient you the reader to put you in the exact same tone of the chapter which i think is also really well crafted yeah the sobbing sam took another step like operates in that way also being another tool to bring you back into the present and to give a rhythm and sense of time as the chapter moves forward because of the, I think, intended confusion. Yeah, it's another, you know, the thrum of the crossbow and moon boy for all I know, the ringing of the bells for John Khan. It's another one of those that grounds the chapter. And every time it goes off, it brings you back to the start. You're back to the ground.

I like that. The snow is growing deeper, the ground more treacherous, and even Paul's strides start to grow shorter as he carries Sam. He gets tired. The men on horse pass them staring after sam and some of the torchbearers pass too saying you're falling behind no one's gonna wait for you paul you should leave that pig for the dead men but paul says sam promised him a bird he didn't at all and the torch men call him a fool, leaving. They're not wrong. A while after that, Gren stops suddenly.

They're alone. That was the rear guard. Paul's arms tremble and he puts Sam down. He can't keep carrying him. The torches are all gone. Only Gren's torch remains and it's close to burning out. I love the language there. It's actually phrased as close to burning out. And it reminds me of Jamie's fever dream when his torch goes out. I love the language there. It's actually phrased as close to burning out, and it reminds me of Jamie's fever dream

when his torch goes out. I think the language is very similar intentionally to who knows if it's foreshadow or what, but it's very fighting the others, and when the others arrive and you have no light left. But there's no Jamie or Brienne, unfortunately, here.

There's no one.'re alone they have no food no fire no warmth but wait they're not alone someone's there an other on a very creepy horse hoarfrost covered it like a sheen of frozen sweat and a nest of stiff black entrails dragged from its open belly oh boy we were talking about it being a horror story and we're heading towards the climax and yeah there's theories that the others are you know going for the horn that we saw john give to sam so that is one theory it could just be sort of bad being in the wrong place at the wrong time for sam or it could be that these others are sort of sniffing for this horn interesting i i like that because it does happen more than once i guess and

the horn i that horn has to be significant like Like, I strongly believe that horn is important. Yeah, and there is something action movie and horror movie-like in that, like, the killer keeps finding you, you know, and that you have to keep escaping and that you're on the run. It does give kind of a sense of, like, Sam being on the run and that horn being a magical tracking device beeping away in your pocket a radar for them to discover i find that very interesting i could see that being yeah that reminds me of no country for old men they've got a literal beeping tracker

device in there yeah that's quite i was just we just re-watched that this week so i think that's actually like subliminally where I'm coming from right now. That's really funny. Yeah. So back to the other Sam whimpers and the other slides toward them. Paul asks the other, why'd you kill that horse? This is Eliana.

Why'd you kill that horse? That's one of our brother's horses. And Gren flashes fire toward the other. The other moves towards gren quick slashing and the ice blue blade brushes the flame making an awful terrible screech i as

you said right i just love that small paul he loves birds i feel like small paul would get along with our friend cassidy small paul is worried about the horse you know he's just like why did they have to be so mean to the horse? And he even remembers whose horse it was. He remembers exactly.

It's amazing. I talked a little bit about the Game of Thrones prologue earlier. And something that I think is interesting that people have pointed out is that the others do kind of seem to be playing with Waymar Royce, right? He's just so below them that they're like this this doesn't mean anything and when they find him

and i kind of feel like that might be what the other is doing here too right like who fucking cares about these humans and their stupid torch they don't bother to kill gren at this moment because it again it's like that predator playing like he just flexes on him and is like oh you think some fire is gonna scare me and just cuts it off and is like who do you think i am yeah it's very much like freddy coming towards you to end your fucking day you know it's totally villain stuff it's very much scary movie villain shit happening here i love that it's very like the danger not only are they beautiful but they're dangerous and they have some sort of some sort of like ability to think where the whites are not they are thoughtless they are just a mess honestly honey they are messy let's be real those whites yes yeah they are just

stumbling ass over apple cart over walls yeah the others are gorgeous they have entrance music when that other got off his horse you know a song was playing i don't know what it is but there was entrance music going on the song of achilles oh my god, the head of the torch tumbles sideways. Now, Gren has a glorified stick, which he then promptly throws at the other, running off. I respect that. I respect the last-ditch effort of, like, fuck this. Small Paul charges in with his axe next. We have this line. The fear that filled Sam then was worse than any fear he

had ever felt before, and Samuel Tarly knew every kind of fear. Mother, have mercy, he wept, forgetting the old gods in his terror. Father, protect me. Oh, oh! His fingers found his dagger, and he filled his hand with that. Thank you, Yokeboy, we love you so much. I'm gonna make you do all of them now. I do love this entrance of the other, especially compared to the end of Sam 3 that we'll get to in a few weeks, right? Because when he shows up on his elk, they expect it to be an other since they've been running from whites and others this whole time but then it's cold hands question mark this is classic horror and i love that george immediately as we get closer the story goes but that's not

what this is about anymore for sam he's on a bigger journey now yeah and they eat the elk speaking of eating oh that's true is that why you asked the question earlier eliana about the okay the elk's not undead no but the other ripples its body away from paul's axe and it twists its sword through paul's flesh Sam heard Paul say, oh, as he lost the axe. Impaled, his blood smoking around the sword, the big man tried to reach his killer with his hands and almost had before he fell. So, may the mother have mercy on small Paul's soul. Because if I'm not mistaken, I believe Small Paul is among, like, the many people who are theorized to maybe be, like, a descendant of Duncan the Tall. Gren is also included there. Obviously, Brienne.

Though that one was confirmed. The Cleganes. But I just, I bring that up because I really admire Small Paul's character. And maybe, like like he doesn't think much about it right in the same way that he's like I'm doing this for a bird but regardless like I I just think he must be afraid right yeah I mean all of them are he's afraid but he's motivated by the killing of the horse he's so pissed that the horse is dead true wait you're right you're right part of it might be vengeance for the horse part of. That's true. Wait, you're right. You're right. Part of it might be vengeance

for the horse. Part of it is also maybe protecting his brothers. And, you know, it's a little bit like Sam's courage in a moment, but small Paul does die here, as we know, but this feels like a no chance and no choice moment, right? Paul trying to protect his brothers and I think we see that in these sorts of no chance no choice gambits I mean, there is a cost to that choice. Brienne obviously paid a big cost small Paul paid a very big one also

so I respect that. Life he paid with his life is what Eliana is trying to say so delicately so delicately Well Chloe, you have to do this part Life is what Eliana is trying to say so delicately. So delicately. Well, Chloe, you have to do this part because there's more I didn't hear for you. It's very important for Eliana's happiness.

Sam tells himself to do it now, and then he hears voices in his head. First, he hears his father, Alistair, Dickon, Rast, saying, Craven, Craven, Craven. He laughs hysterically, thinking about how he'll look as a big fat white white, and then suddenly he hears John's voice in his head saying Do it, Sam!

But wait, John was dead, that's impossible You're welcome, Eliana Hope you're happy The return of the John voice There will be more Yeah, Sam's been mocked so much in his life Eliana, I hope you're happy. The return of the John voice. There will be more. Yeah, Sam's been mocked so much in his life. His head is just full of these negative voices that impede him and drive him down into the dirt.

However, hearing John shows the value of just one single positive, supportive voice encouraging him. It's what he always needed another guy to slap him on the back and say go on you can do it john's kindness and empathy really changed the direction of sam's life and taking nothing away from sam john's voice really helps to save his life here and yeah it makes me love love john and Sam all the more. Yeah, that's such a great point. It does save. Someone believing in you can save your life. I love that. And the sort of encouragement that John shows to Sam, I think we see it start coming from others in the camp too, right?

As we see in Chet's chapter, Sam is learning to use a bow and arrow, and he's making progress with some positive reinforcement from people who are not chet yeah he does well with people that don't do the negative reinforcement and the asshole shit right like he doesn't do well with chet he doesn't do well with alicer and rast there's a reason these people are coming to his mind saying on one side of his mind right now you can't do it sam uh and then you have john on the now, you can't do it, Sam. And then you have John on the other side. You can't do it, Sam.

He finds himself stumbling forward, closing his eyes, shoving out the dagger, and then he hears a crack, a screech, so shrill, so sharp, and he opens his eyes to see the other's armor running down its legs, pale blue blood hissing and steaming around the dagger in its throat it tries to pull out the dagger but its fingers begin to smoke on touch

i just think some of the language here around these sharp objects is very interesting like in a moment the dagger is going to be described as also smoking after all of the other body is gone and just a few moments before as small paul died the other sword right is described also as smoking with paul's blood as it's pulled out of him obviously this is probably steam which is a different chemical phenomenon than smoke but i i just find this really interesting in regards to like the obviously the azorahai and nisa nisa legends yeah that loops in with what you're saying of small paul's sacrifice for them right and letting them kind of get away he dies for their sins here yeah during this like long night ish thing there's gonna be a lot of horses up in heaven and a lot of birds.

Small Paul. You can run and play with them. I think so. Yeah. First, I mean, who knows what happens to his soul, right? Doesn't he come back, like, dead, big sad? Yep. Yeah, it's a bummer.

Who knows? Who knows? A bummer for all. That's a different series. That's his dark materials we don't got to worry about souls here sam watches the others shrink into a puddle and his bones of milk glass whirl away in a fine white mist which coming back to that mist like you said that steam arising off the the body of the other it's kind of interesting. It stood out on this read,

especially with the idea of like gray mist showing Bloodraven usually in the text, as we've kind of found and talked about. Every time there's gray mist, it seems like it could be Bloodraven and Bran watching through a tree, or they're involved at least. And this white steamy condensate,

maybe it's another type of magic, you know, a similar force, but a different brand of magic. Yeah, I mean, this is definitely magic. Something magical is definitely happening. For sure. Gren touches the dagger saying that it's cold, which is interesting because it's smoking and Sam struggles to his feet saying, obsidian, dragonglass, then subsequently giggling, crying, and puking in the snow. All of these also are moods. Mood. Total mood. Gren pulled Sam to his feet, checked small Paul for a pulse, and closed his eyes, then snatched up the dagger again. This time, he was able to hold it. snatched up the dagger again. This time he was able to hold it. You keep it, Sam said. You're not Kraven like me. So Kraven you killed an other, Gren pointed with the knife. Look there, through the trees, pink light. Dawn, Sam, dawn. That must be east. If we had that way,

we should catch Mormont. We should catch Mormont. Wow. When was the last time a human killed another that we know of? To my memory, I think the only one that we know of is the last hero that's said to have killed another, unless I'm forgetting something. But I don't think there's been one since the Age of Heroes, certainly. So what a boss Sam is. certainly so what a boss sam is although with the element of good fortune involved you just know that he's going to downplay and even undermine himself at every opportunity immediately call him himself craven when he's puddled the shit out of another must be the most samwell tarly thing ever randall has truly

done a number on this kid sam has got to realize that you can be a coward and brave at the same time like you said he's like downplaying himself and it's just sad because like grand's like you're like this is the most incredible thing i've ever seen in my life it's probably how greg feels right now and in regards to being both a coward and brave at the same time i feel like sam should watch this show that aired a lot when i was younger it was also very scary very horror movie ish so i think that he might find that interesting it was called courage the cowardly dog and it was about a dog that that was veryly, but did very brave things all the time.

That is Sam. Sam, Courage the Cowardly Dog. That's Sam Tarly. Sam Tarly is Courage. That's amazing. Pack it up, folks. We don't need to finish this episode. Eliana did it. We don't even need to finish this POV. Let's just not watch Courage the Cowardly Dog. I think this is it.

I think that that's our peak. We've peaked. We want to go out on a high note. Thank you for being here for the last episode, Yolkboy. Please let everyone know where they can find... I'm just kidding. I also have a real thought, and I mean, I love the way that this chapter ends, right? It feels kind of obvious,

but I do want to call out, of course, that dawn cresting at the end of the chapter. Because, turns out, this chapter has very much been sort of like what we can expect from The Long Night, likely. But in miniature. You know, after Small Paul and Sam's acts of bravery also grin, being like, here's a torch, and then throwing the stick. It shows that there's still hope. That's very much what the dawn at the end is. And if there's hope from people who do courageous things, even when they're afraid, perhaps eventually the dawn will come. And I mean, there is still work to be done.

Like how they still know that they're going to need to head east if they're gonna catch up with everyone else but if you keep taking that next step eventually morning's going to follow i love that so much that that rings through especially with the following lines to end the chapter like it's just all it ends in such a hopeful place where they've been chased by zombies for like weeks it ends hopeful and sam is so quick to reject that he has slayed an other, you know, that that means anything, where we're sitting here like, dude, you killed an other. That's insane, Sam. But it is in his blood, right? Savage Sam Tarly is one of the historical House Tarly figures. So Sam, you're a savage. You're a straight savage. He is.

And the end of the chapter is, of course, again, so hopeful. It ends with Sam saying, If you say. Sam kicked his left foot against a tree to knock off all the snow. Then the right. I'll try. Grimacing, he took a step. I'll try hardacing he took a step I'll try hard and then another so I love that the chapter ends with Sam continuing to take small steps I did mention that George uses this sobbing Sam took another step six times in in this chapter well the author went even further and chose to bookend the chapter

with the same sentiment and for me it creates a nice sort of circular feeling to it like I experience when I read some short stories it might seem to Sam like all those steps are tiny and insignificant, but there's defiance, determination and perseverance in every small step. Whatever Sam thinks of himself, he is confronting adversity and achieving this simple goal of survival, which, of course, is not such a simple goal in this setting. Yes, absolutely. Yes to all of this that you said like as you as you stated right it is so much like a short story and like a very clear emotional arc that comes around and the language you know coming back around and tying it all together and it kind of makes me think of the sentiment from stormlight Archive. That book was published

after Song of Ice and Fire, the specific book I'm talking about, which I'm not specifying in case it's spoilery. But anyways, it kind of hits a similar note that this story is, that this chapter is talking about, like, of course, and the idea is like, the most important step a person can take is the next one. And that's especially true in hard times, like obviously what Sam is experiencing now. And as you said, right, that goal of survival, which is very complicated in this moment. And, you know, I think that's a really relatable concept in general. And I just love that lesson, though. Hopefully we are all never caught in like a wintry zombie apocalypse.

It's going to come for you first, Yolk Boy. But it's a great example for how stories can be allegories for our own experiences. And then also like this action that Sam does at the end where he like kicks the snow off his boots. It feels like he's like shutting like the burden of how he's felt from himself and also like maybe kicking off that fear it's like an end and a beginning you know he's he's freshening up yeah yeah and ready to take those next steps again new year new sam tarly you know oh my god kinda yeah it is he's fresh he's new he's peeled off that that chrysalis that he was trapped within and that chrysalis was snow and now he has shaken the snow he's born anew a phoenix in the snowy ashes and i love that for him

yes and snow net uh i love that i like that sentiment from stormlight archive that's really nice eliana i'll read it someday i promise promise. Someday. It's like really long. But I do think it's going to be finished one day. So there's that. Don't tease me with a good time. Jesus. She knows how to talk dirty to me right there, that girl. A finished series.

Finishing. So love what you both have said about finishing. I love what you both have said about finishing i love what you both have said here uh just about like the emotional arc for sam through all of this and that beginning and end and how this is like an end but also a beginning if you look at this as a pocket story in the universe it does tell a story like who sam is what he's doing where he's going why he's going there and how he gets there right it gives you all the w's and it introduces characters that are tangential to him and kind of makes them you know it gives you kind of the understanding of why they're important to his plot i i like that a lot as a mini story and then george turns it on its head and keeps it going as a great pov that unravels

more about sam and shows sam living to learn and love right and grow and learn to love that he's never been allowed to do as we'll go forward with gilly uh and loss right losing maester amon later on and what an emotional time that is and there's something in that kind of coming of age for Sam that I find really interesting in Brienne's plot and in Jon's plot that comes back to the sword, right? For Brienne, it's the magical sword. We just went through this with Brienne that, you know, I have to have my magical sword

and she doesn't unravel and use the magical sword until the last moment, until the more end of her feast plot for john long claw is a big emotional piece of turmoil right it's everything that his own dad never handed to him or never said to him the things that john wishes he could have known about his life the things he doesn't know that he wishes he could have known. There's a lot in there. So Longclaw and the emotions with Jaor having a failed son in his eyes, those are really, really emotional beats.

Yeah, in my eyes as well. Really emotional beats. And then ice, of course, is so important for both Brienne and Jon as well as just the connection to Ned and ice being split. as well as just the connection to Ned and ice being split. But Sam, Sam and Heartsbane kind of rings really interesting to me here. Sam and Heartsbane and kind of the fact that Sam doesn't kill an other with a huge Valyrian steel sword. Sam does not do that. Sam kills the other with a tiny little arrowhead dagger flint piece of obsidian right like a in your hand

bloop stabby stab it's not a huge two-handed great sword it's not a boastful piece of a family legacy he kills him with this piece of obsidian and that's actually kind of braver right like from a from a tactics i mean he's not just lopping off the other's head from afar with this huge sword. He's up close and personal. He's a moment from death. And he's stabby stabby with the obsidian. And there's something that like Randall

would never let him have hearts vain. He even says to him at one point, we got a memory. You have given me no cause to disown you, but neither will I allow you to inherit land entitled that should be Dickens. Heartsbane must go to a man strong enough to wield her and you're not worthy to touch her hilt. That's so dark because it's like you've already done. He's already done more important things with a weapon. Then Randall's done, done you know by killing that one

other i think that's a much more important purposeful use of a tool of a sword of a weapon and it's not even a sword not even heartsbane it makes me think that he will have the opportunity to get heartsbane back maybe pass it up maybe danny brings heartsbane to sam you know after being like hey sorry about your daddy here's his sword have an emotional grappling problem fest with that one sam enjoy that mental breakdown sam i'm not sure what happens with heartsbane because but i i do like what you said, that contrast between what heartspain is and the dagger, right? As you said, there's a lot of bravery that goes into using it. And like Sam, right?

It seems at first people are like, oh, what is this for? What is this glass, this obsidian dagger for? Why do we have these? And it seems like an unassuming weapon just like sam right unassuming over underestimated yeah very important yes just like sam our underdog he is very important overall it's been a really exciting start to sam i think this has been such a strong chapter to Sam. I think this has been such a strong chapter and I'm excited to

kind of watch Sam's isolated growth and see how Sam grows from the beginning of Storm through to Feast and the Trials and Tribulations he's going to go through out on the road. The lonely road. And the seas.

Seizing the opportunities in front of him. It's a fantastic story and your listeners have got a lot to look forward to because there's so many good chapters in his pov today was a you know a really great chapter but it's not the only one it isn't the only one i mean obviously again i'm biased it's like my favorite chapter so it's not like it's all downhill from here it's not there's a lot of good no and it's not like it's all downhill from here. It's not. There's a lot of good stuff. No, and it's all building.

It feels like it's building and Sam's progressing and you're seeing change before your eyes. You're seeing growth. And you and your listeners are going to pick up on that and follow in it. I think it's very satisfying. There's not many sort of growth stories. There's a lot of tragedy and stuff. But here we go. There's something nice and pure growth stories. You know, there's a lot of tragedy and stuff. But here we go. There's something nice and pure.

He's definitely pure. Sam is kind of a very great pure character with a lot of, like you mentioned, Yokoi, just really realistic and really close to home hitting kind of insecurities and flaws and feelings. And I think that's a great character. That's a well-written character. Absolutely. and feelings and I think that's a great character that's a well-written character absolutely and and I'm sure you know same for you like people if you want to start looking at that growth and Sam's story right away check out Radio Westeros's episode also out this month yeah absolutely and Yolk Boy please let us, where are people able to find Radio Westeros across the internet and yourself?

You can find Radio Westeros at any of the places that you find podcasts. We've been going for quite a while. You know, we're always welcoming to people coming to try us out, try out a new podcast if you haven't heard us already. And yeah, look forward to, look forward to trying to entertain you. Yeah, the next episode we're doing is Sam. That was just pure coincidence, but it meant that I was very, you know, sort of primed to do this episode. So good timing. And, you know, I really enjoyed myself today.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm at the yolk boy. And it's yolk like egg yolk, not yolk, the other yolk. So there. Not like the burdens that we all must carry. Oh my God. And but more like delicious.

We'll have links below in the description. So please make sure to check them out. Thank you so much again for joining us today, Yolkboy. We had such a blast with you. And we look forward to hopefully seeing you at Ice and Fire Con this year as long as life works out. Yeah, thanks for having me. I've had a great time today. And I've really enjoyed your two perspectives on Sam because I've studied him so closely it's

really nice to hear sort of new thoughts and yeah you give me plenty to sort of chew on so thank you and same to you I think you know I haven't like considered some of like the perspectives you brought here in terms of like how Sam has like those intrusive thoughts or the way that the trauma has really like changed the way that his brain and thought processes work. And I think, you know, I'm going to go into the next few chapters now carrying that. Carrying that in mind. Well, we will return with Sam 2 in a storm of swords at the start of next month, at the start of February 2022. Next week, we will be out with His Dark Materials.

So if you're following along for the Amber Spyglass, tune in for that episode. And if you want to keep up with those episodes, you can also find us on social media. Stay subscribed for our news. You can find us at Girls Gone Canon, C-A-N-O-N, over on Twitter. Or perhaps you have thoughts

that you would like to share with us. You can shoot us a DM on Twitter, or you can also shoot us an email at girlsgonecanon at gmail.com. Yeah, and make sure you're subscribed to us. We are pretty much on any podcast platforming stream you can get your hands on, notably on Google Play, iTunes, spotify where you can now leave reviews so make sure to throw us five stars if you're on there you can find us on any of those iheart radio amazon pick one we're there pandora podbean where we're hosted yep and you can also always find us of course on patreon patrons in the five

dollar tier and above get a bonus episode every month this month we are visiting norvos next month we are doing cersei not that cersei and again patrons in the thunder tier and above get access to our discord and once a month happy hour slash brunch yes this month January 30th from 1 to 3 p.m Eliana time zone Eliana time zone and hey again that's patreon.com slash girls gone canon as always I have been one of your hosts Chloe and I have been another one of your hosts Eliana thank you again to our other other hosts this episode oh thank you sobbing we took

another breath sobbing I guess I'm not taking any other steps I'm sitting on the ground I'm Sam lying down being like let me just rest and die that's me uh goodbye everyone goodbye