Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 153 — ASOS Samwell III featuring Noah

Episode Date: February 11, 2022

The past comes back to haunt Samwell and the latest additions to his found family, Gilly and Gilly's son. Dreams of Horn Hill fill Sam's sleeping hours while Small Paul is here here for the waking ones, reawakened from eternal slumber himself. Noah, author of the essay "If It Is Chains You Want: Samwell Tarly, Gender, and War," joins us to analyze Sam's heroism and other elements of his story.  Where to find Noah:  Noah's blog and essay(s)—https://theshieldhall.wordpress.com/ Noah's Twitter: https://twitter.com/samanthatarly  --- 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 153, Sam 3, and a Storm of Swords, featuring Noah. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And yes, we are so excited. We have a special guest this week. We've been looking forward to this one for a while, even from the previous POVs, so. Hello, Noah. Thanks so much for joining us.

If you are anywhere on the internet reading A Song of Ice and Fire metas and essays, you may have read Noah's essay on Sam Tarly, If It's Chains You Want. And it's such an introspective look into everything that makes up Sam Tarly, right? From gender and war to trauma. And it's a really, I don't know, it's a haunting good piece. It's a great piece on Sam's characters. So thank you for joining us, Noah. Please introduce yourself and let us know what you're working on or what your sights are set for AceWaff this year. Hi, besties. It's me. It's Noah. Mostly what I do is write a bunch of nonsense. Big mood. And then maybe make people laugh along the way. I have no plans for like really in-depth essays right now because of school, but who knows what might transpire along the way. It's hard to beat your first. Yeah, you are also a noted Samantha Tarly lover, and I really appreciate that. I love all Sam Tarlys. All Sam Tarlys. Well, that's not true.

Fuck Savage Sam Tarly. I hate that man. That guy's kind of a dick. Kind of a dick. I love Sam Tarly. I love Samantha Tarly. My obsession with Sam Well is kind of a recent development in my love of A Song of Ice and Fire. Notably, I read the series for the first time when I was 13.

Don't do that. But, you know, John was always my favorite character. But I think in my latest reread, something shifted in the timeline and everything changed. That happens. in the timeline and everything changed that happens basically for the past year i've just been on some sort of horrible whirlwind like whirlpool of of loving sam tarley and only thinking about sam tarley he haunts my dreams you are the person for the job yes what you're saying basically uh sam tarly for president. Actually, that's later. That's not now.

That could be good. That could actually work out pretty great. He would hate it. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And reluctant rulers make great rulers, don't you know? Don't you know? Okay. Who has a better story than Sam Tarly?

Sam actually has a pretty good story. Noley no one good story no one so aria aria we'll uh leave some links below to where you can find the definitive sam tarley essay uh and of course noah's twitter which is at samantha tarley and as I said last week, Noah shit posts like the good days. And I really respect that in a person. So just beautiful. Never stop posting. And you post some artwork to some really great artwork. That's another thing that I know our discord, especially we're always whenever a Noah tweet drops. It's like shit Noah tweet just dropped. We're in the chat. I'm so glad my relentless posts garner such respect. I promise to never stop posting in my life. Thank you. The one true poster, never log off, never.

I will never log off. And the timeline is dark and full of tears. Oh my god. While we're very hyped to have you here, very excited, thanks for coming aboard. Before we jump into the kind of meat of the episode, the zombie meat of the episode, maybe, if you're Eliana. Maybe edible, yes, maybe. Maybe. Jury's out. Jury is out because they're dead. Probably undead. I mean, most of the meat that I eat is dead.

Okay, so. Well, that's, so glossing over that, we'll jump into some housekeeping before we get into the zombie episode. Patreon episode this past month. Last month in January, we revisited the Free Cities. We took a little trip over to Norvos in our episode, Hella Norvos.

Eliana, I appreciate you as a human a human patrons in the stranger tier and above five bucks and up get access to bonus episodes every month this month in february we have a very romantic date set to talk about cersei from mythology madeline miller's book cersei we covered song of achilles back in December so that's a fun episode I can't wait to record that one this month with you Eliana and for you to read it yeah that's C-I-R-C-E we're being merciful this week I know that we've broken a few hearts the past few weeks with our

dumbass joke of the Circe POV sorry everyone different golden child different golden child it's a great book great story definitely recommend checking it out i know a lot of people love song of achilles which i do but cersei is my jam that one is it good it good and then also we have of course for patrons in the thunder tier and above our discord where once a month we have our of course, for patrons in the ThunderTier and above, our Discord, where once a month we have our Discord

happy hour slash brunch where people hang out, play reindeer games, do presentations, maybe, and this month it will be on February 20th, but we also have activities every single week. Yeah, every week our patron Pete is hosting a rewatch of his Dark Materials

Season 1 and 2, sorry, Series 1 and 2 two that's a that's a uk faux pas of mine i gotta fix that is across the pond yes yes this week we covered the idea of north we're asking come having watched the first half of the discussion is uh spoiler free we do have some newbies watching along so spoiler spoiler free. The second half is spoiler full. Very spoilery. No fucks are given. It's just very spoilery in the discussion half.

So, every week, over at our Discord for patrons in the Thunder tier and above, this week's I believe we're watching The Spies this week. Season 1, episode, series 1, episode 3. God damn it. And Pete's got the presentation ready. Yeah.

Oh, Pete's like doing a whole thing. It's like, I come, I kick my feet up. It's really great. I have to really, we're gonna have to do something nice for that guy. But he's having a blast hosting it. He's got like sounds in it and everything too. It's kind of cute. The theme song is us singing the His Dark Materials theme song, actually, that he lifted from an episode. So that's fun and not embarrassing.

I think it was from the bloopers channel, nonetheless. And I was like, oh, the thing that I took out of the episode is now in it all the time. And we do not have emails or tweets of note because, again, I am behind. I want to ask permission for a couple of them before we share them. But I do want to quickly come back to what you said no about having read A Song of Ice and Fire, starting it when you were 13. I actually do have a friend who did the same thing. But you know, me being much older, my friend when she was 13 and read it. So there was, as everyone knows, a large gap in the release of some of the books. And also between like, I think my friend stopped reading After a Storm of Swords or or something because like the fourth book wasn't out yet

came out maybe like a month or so after my friend stopped reading and then the show kind of blew up right and so my friends watching the show was like i feel like i know what's gonna happen in this like i feel like i know what's gonna happen next and then lo and behold turns out she had read those books when she was 13 so amazing that man that i live with he he read them when he was 13 as well who that man that i live with who oh you might not know him he's dead already you know he's birthed to a crisp oh poor quentin um my god that poor. That man that I live with. Yeah, he read them when he was 13. He didn't turn out so hot, so I'm worried for Noah.

No, no, no, it's fine. Oh my God. Just kidding. He turned out great. I am so normal. The worst part is, like, I was born in 2000, so I actually was reading them when they were all out. I know, I know.

But while I was reading them, I would simultaneously watch the show. So I think at that point, like the three of the seasons were out. So I'd like read 10 chapters and then I would watch an episode and then I would read another 10 chapters. Don't do that. It's horrible. I had no idea like what was different between them. I lost track of what was going on i thought things were canon and they weren't uh would not recommend doing that i

started reading them season two i want to say it was season two i started reading them and i just launched off i was like let's fucking go and i think i got to the red wedding before red wedding happened but that's good it was very good i was happy for me i was like wow this is a lot different but also somehow just as bad just as horrible to actually view visually but i remember sitting there for season three and season four and having all these plot beats i was excited about and like Brienne fighting the hound I was like what the fuck this isn't what the fuck and then like Sansa

comes down the stairs in the black feather outfit at the end of season 4 season 5 happens what the fuck I was like excited I was like they're gonna do some cool shit cause they don't have books I was sorely sorely mistaken yeah

Chloe would never trust them again after they because they don't have books, I was sorely, sorely mistaken. Yeah. Yeah. Chloe would never trust them again. Oh my god. After they took off the head of the books. Well, you might be a slow learner, but you learned not to trust them. I hate my life. I'm gonna throw myself into the fucking sea.

That said, we're gonna jump over to our lightning round where we cover what was missed between the chapter before and this sam chapter and of course i am altering them i know that eliana did not 100 agree with my altering last week and that's okay i still left danny out yeah or whatever week of war lana but this week we're gonna cover aria john davos and bran and we're going to cover Arya, Jon, Davos, and Bran, and we're going to skip out on the rest. Starting with Arya 6, Arya reaches Hollow Hill, where Sandog Clegane sits a trial by combat under R'hllor's giant, fiery, pervasive eye. I want to name a Pokemon Sandog Clegane now. Davos 4, three very important leeches decide the fate of nations good for them aria seven gendry decides to adopt himself to the brotherhood full time that's just like how

that works apparently what benefits does he get nothing is there like a 401k that's my big question like what what kind of investment opportunities does the brand three, the gang stays in Queens crown and tries to stay hidden from men on the shore. John five, John to trace his fellow free folk to return to the watch and warn them of what is to come. Aria 8 Aria escapes the brotherhood only to be captured by some guy I don't really remember what his name is I'm sure it doesn't really matter

I don't think Chloe really cares about this character so we can just gloss over it who? wounded even Noah wounded sorry glossing over sandbob cocaine Wounded, even, Noah. Sorry. Glossing over sandbob cocaine.

That throws us right into the tundra of Sam 3, where Gilly and Sam are escaping with baby in tow. They are rescued just in the nick of time by a somewhat undead? Question mark? Black brother. And so that brings us over to Sam three in a storm of swords which starts out with white tree sam thought please let this be white tree he would know where they were if it were white tree and he wanted it so badly he forgot about the pain and cold in his body he forgot about craster mormont the whites and the others and there is a huge weirwood growing

in the center of the village, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's Whitetree, Sam tells himself, and he can't really tell if this is THE weirwood, but it does have a long sad face. It is crying red sap tears, and it's surrounded by mossy sod, roofed one-room hovels. There are, alas, no sheep. I really like sheep. There are also no people around to stay in the sheepfolds or the hovels. Sam is grateful for this, though, because it would be nice to sleep indoors. So it's left a little bit ambiguous, but looking back, I'm pretty sure it's not actually a white tree. They share a lot of features, the sheepfold and the village and stuff, but the werewood faces are, I think,

different. White Tree's werewood face was noted as being a jagged, open hollow, large enough to swallow a sheep, you know, worthy of fear. But the werewood face here is long and sad. It's weeping instead of the fearsome maw of the tree at White Tree. And I think this kind of reflects on our changing perspective on wildlings since A Clash of Kings. In the White Tree chapter, we still saw them as a threat. They're angry or dangerous or frightening. But now that John's more integrated into their culture by this point, we more fully understand that their story is a tragedy you know post last of the giants even in a dance with dragons the most dangerous wildling threat is a man named for weeping okay but the weeper is scary i mean i how do you not take someone named the weeper seriously

yeah i i love the way that like he's just not sure because i wouldn't be sure right now at this point in my life out there in the north i wouldn't be sure either which one it is but i think it's only like three or four villages away from white tree if you like go through i think they pass this one on the way when they're originally going through in the john chapters so he was so close sam was so close here so close sam and also like you were talking about how this might not be white tree it if i'm not mistaken and by this i mean i looked at the wiki um john like there were charred remains right in the when they were actually at white tree and i feel like that would have been something that would have been called out in sam's chapter if we had been at the same place especially with the way that last chapter ended with all of this foreboding stuff about hey the boys the

babies of brothers are coming oh yeah good point sam's feet are calloused and blistered and his toes have onset frostbite but it's walk or die besides gilly is being the bravest bitch around she's weak from childbirth and yet carrying her baby she needs the horse he must walk the second horse had died three days into their journey she had been weak and sam thinks well my weight probably did her in. He thought about riding double, but he really doesn't want to kill the only other horse. He leaves Gilly to make a fire in the long haul, looking into the hobbles. She's really good at making fires, better than him. Which is good, because that's what love's all about, you know,

someone has to make the fires. It's a really refreshing dynamic. Sam doesn't rescue Gilly like she's a princess in the tower or anything Because that's not how the last chapter resolved It was Gilly confronting a catatonic Sam Demanding to be rescued She's not a hardened badass or a spearwife brandishing a sword And neither is he But that doesn't mean either of them aren't heroic or strong

Their relationship is meaningful because they rescue one another absolutely i i really love that you've called that out gilly and gilly's like sister mothers or you know like sam you gotta get the fuck up and you made a promise right and kind of encouraging sam to live up to i mean his best his best self slash survive, not give up. So Sam cut himself making the last fire, which is, you know, big sad. I understand, though. It's really confusing. I've never made a fire using flint. And Gilly bound up his wound for him. But unfortunately, now his hand is clumsier than before and cold, cold, cold. He doesn't find much in the hovels.

He finds some rats, straw, smells, ashes. There's no food. And he also studies the face of the weirwood again and decides we're probably not at White Tree. The tree isn't big enough and he doesn't remember the eyes weeping blood. And see, weeping, terrifying. He sinks to his knees anyway, praying for the old gods to help them and that they are hungry and cold. He says he doesn't know what gods he believes in now, but if they're there, help them.

Help Gilly's little son. My God, right? Please. Please. I almost glossed over this, but I didn't really realize that he has a hand injury from almost the same thing as Jon, which is fire. Right. Trying to make sure you have fire as a weapon. Also, for the same reasons, like he's running from the mutineer stuff and zombies. And he because J.R. told him to where Jon was trying to protect J.R. right when he got his injury so it's like a beautiful

perfect friendship injury they both have the hurt clumsy hand in the cold that gets all you know flex flex flex and there's also something here about how Sam is facing religion right like trying his luck with both gods it reminds me a little bit of sanza in the same place earlier on in the same book right praying to the old gods kind of just testing them out test driving them out of course blood raven is listening so i guess that counts as the old gods but it he's starting to feel like the old gods are hearing his prayer just a little bit i really love that connection that you've drawn between Sam and John and their injuries. We don't really see this come up more in Sam's storyline than I kind of wish we did,

because I do think it is a really interesting parallel between them, especially because Sam does feel so close to John. I don't know that John, I'd have to, you know, reread again, I guess, his chapters, but he doesn't really, I think, he cares about Sam, but I don't know that Sam is so full in John Soria's The Other Way Around. Yeah, I will say, like, their arcs actually echo each other so closely, especially in this book. Both of them with the more leadership roles they get put into, going off with free folk women. Yes. Yeah. They're so well aligned just the

parallel of them it's like sam seems to be running just a second later than john on some of these things yeah well sam returns to the long call where the fire is going and gilly sits close to it the babe at her breast her furs open and he's as hungry as they are. Gilly's older siblings had smuggled food for them out at Craster's, but most has gone by now. Hunting isn't Sam's strong point. Definitely wasn't at Horn Hill. And his

fishing attempts didn't go quite so well either, which is a bummer. Fishing seems really fun. And Gilly asks if it's still far, but Sam says it's not so far as it was. He says only a few more days. But truthfully, I mean, he has no fucking clue, right? Maps are hard.

Okay, he has his maps. But again, if this isn't the White Tree, like, then the maps are no use. Who's going to invent GPS? When will it happen? Sam tries to retrace their steps, thinking that if Bannon or Daewon were there, they would be back at the wall by now. But you know what? Bannon is dead, and Daewon had gone with Gren, Ed, and the others. And so he finally resigns his thoughts. The wall is 300 miles long and 700 feet high, and they have to find it sooner or later. They're just

gonna go south, and I mean, yeah, you're gonna eventually run into a giant wall and he certainly will it is insanely difficult it's like everything looks the same every village has a giant fucking weirwood in the center of it and broken down busted down hovels and like no one's there and everything is covered in a blanket of ice and snow good fucking luck good fucking luck the fact that, like, he's using the wall and the constellations and the night to figure out where they are. I think that's something that, like, this entire chapter is a direct response to Sam constantly being like, I'm horrible at everything and nothing's ever going to go well. But yet at the same time, as he's, like, thinking those things, he's doing the actions that are required to make things go well like he's actually being very intelligent his intelligence is like he's proving his intelligence without realizing the importance of proving it to himself constantly in this chapter even if like you can't

fish right now very well i mean i don't know i don't think you could fish right now very well in this extreme cold out here like you'd'd have to really, really, really be familiar with the elements to do so. He's still trying. Yeah. And something I noted was that George's characterization of Sam is really good in this chapter. There's a lot of exaggeration in his narration, and that creates character really well. Sam had been a hopeless hunter. His fishing efforts are dismal failures. You know, this is baked right into the more neutral prose. His self-hatred and catastrophizing is not just in his dialogue and not just in his thoughts, but like basically the entire world he inhabits. Yes. That's a great point. It's almost, it's that same editorialization

that we see like in the songs, but unfortunately, you know, Sam is constantly using it to talk about, as you said, like, how terrible he thinks he is at life. And it really, I think, adds on to that same unreliable narrator aspect that people love to discuss in regards to George, but it gives a voice it gives voice to Sam's character. discuss in regards to george but it it gives a voice it gives voice to sam's character there's been a lot of different little sansa things i've been noticing these chapter like where it reminds me of stuff sansa did at court and she's notorious for that same kind of narration of tearing herself down i'm only stupid like they said you know like i can never do this i could never do that i know i'm like i just have to protect both of them from everything that ever happens to them. Literally. I don't know what else to tell you all. Imposter syndrome. God, yeah, yeah. They had been sheltering at night.

They didn't want the horse's legs to get broken by traveling in the dark and hitting over the wrong route, so traveling only by day. But Sam isn't really sure how east or west he is from the wall, and he just keeps thinking we just have to find the gate. Gilly asks Sam if the wall is truly as big as Craster had said it was, and he tells her bigger, trying to sound cheerful, telling her of the houses and castles crouched behind it. Stone, wood, all of it built into the ice. Tall towers in a long hall with a warm fire. She asks, could me and the boys stand in front of the fire not for a long time just until we can get warm and sam tells her she'll have as much fucking fire time as she wants baby girl okay and food and drink and mulled wine and venison and

onions okay he's starting to over promise things things. And hot bread. Sometimes one of the brothers would even sing. Darren was sent to Eastwatch, but they still had Halder and Toad. Yeah, I think at the time, you know, when Sam was saying this, this was maybe like a little bit possible, but obviously times have changed. Like when Sam arrived to the wall, these were decent promises of food. You know, this is definitely on the menu. But I will say also would they have been that nice to her right and given her all this food because the night's watch isn't really the best place for free folk women women in general maybe and her child it also gets even

less safe when stannis gets there and is like a total weirdo about everything, which again, we will get there one day. Not that long from now, actually. But I mean, part of this is, of course, Sam just trying to paint a picture of hope for Gilly, right? Trying to be like, we can keep going. You can find it in you. We just got to get there. And that somewhere for once, there is hope that there's a place that is safe for Gilly and for her child. Because I mean, even before Gilly's son was born, right for gilly and for her child because i mean even before gilly's son was born right she already feared for his life she has never known safety her entire life

and sam obviously again embellishing a little bit right you don't have to food mag this uh sam this is not an instagram account but i do think that there's an aspect of truth to some of that hope that he sells and by that I mean for him and his experiences because yeah, the Night's Watch was definitely dangerous for him. He did get bullied when he first got there and had Thorne, but it's also the closest that Sam has ever felt to safety. So maybe he's trying to convey that concept to Gilly and that safety has come in the sense of him being able to slowly explore just being himself being a little more comfortable being himself though of course you know some of it is also coming out from and healing from the trauma of his father and that does take a long

time i don't think that's something that could have been addressed in the amount of time that sam was at the night's watch and also also, you know, being a teenager. But we see that come forward in how, again, yes, Sam feels comfort at Castle Black. He takes comfort in John's memory. I'm saying memory because he's like, I don't know, maybe my best friend is dead. Sucks. And he also, it's a place he associates with food and safety because, and he could also read there, unbothered, right?

And we're not completely there yet by how this following conversation about singing goes, right? He isn't at a place of complete self-comfort, of course, with singing being part of what Randall would punish Sam for. We'll get more into that in a second. Yeah, it's so sad because, like, what happens the second they get there to the wall, to this hopeful land, you know, that Sam promised them? Well, Gilly,

you guys have to leave and, uh, not gonna bully you about it, but give me your fucking baby and take this one. Take your kid. You wanna burn your hand? Yeah. Oh my god. Okay.

Yeah, or or you know yeah you guys can come live south of the wall as long as you burn everything that you own and give it to me so i can either sell it wear it or whatever if not what a weirdo huh what a fucking weirdo am i right yeah everyone okay stannis gets there he's a weirdo he makes john a weirdo all right it's contagious being a weirdo. Am I right? Yeah, everyone. Okay, Stannis gets there. He's a weirdo. He makes Jon a weirdo. All right. It's contagious. Being a weirdo. I don't know.

I don't know. Stannis Baratheon just came up to me and he just started talking about crack. So weird. So fucking weird. Gilly asks Sam if Sam sings, moving the babe to her other breast. He tells her he does know some songs, blushing, but Randall never liked him to sing and dance. He had said, if you want to prance about, do it in the yard with a sword. She asks if he would sing her and the babe a song, some southern song, and he chooses one his septon would sing to him and his sisters at bedtime, the Song of the Seven.

The father's face is stern and strong. He sits and judges right from wrong. He weighs our lives the short and long and loves the little children. The mother gives the gift of life and watches over every wife. Her gentle smile ends all strife and she loves her little children. The warrior stands before the foe protecting us where'er we go. With sword and shield and spear and bow, he guards the little children. The crone is very wise and old and sees our fates as they unfold. She lifts her lamp of shining gold to lead the little children. The smithy labors day and night to put the world of men to right With hammer, plow, and fire bright he builds for little children The maiden dances through the sky, she lives in every lover's sigh

Her smiles teach the birds to fly and give dreams to little children The seven gods who made us all are listening if we should call So close your eyes, You shall not fall. They see you little children. Just close your eyes. They shall not fall. They see you little children. Amazing.

All of the awards. This is the Grammys now. Now we can enter the Grammys. Finally. Finally. Used to just be Emmys and BAFTAs, but now, baby, we are in a whole new world. Thanks to Noah. We're gonna EGOT Girls Gone

Canon. Yes. Oh my god. Shit. Bat and a Hugo. EGOT and a Hugo. And a Hugo. Thank you so much. Thank you, Noah. Thank you for letting Eliana bully you. It's fine. I just saw this potential's fine I just saw

this potential and I just thought that Noah could live up to that it's okay I need to be bullied sometimes okay that sounds bad it kind of does sound bad well thank you regardless for humoring me and for doing that

it was very beautiful it was actually perfect it was actually perfect. It was actually way better. Thanks. It was really good. It was actually perfect. Yeah, I definitely wanted it to sound like a nursery rhyme. I'm not sure where I got the melody from.

Something, right? I didn't make that up. It sounds familiar, but also maybe it's just hymns and shit. Yeah. You know those hymns and shit? Hymns and shit. I grew up Catholic, so. Yeah.

Yeah. The Song of the Seven outlines and further encodes gender roles for Westerosi children, as is probably evident. You know, again, we have gender being a very central theme in Sam's chapters. Read my essay. But there are also aspects of Sam in The Seven as described here. And I can't help but think that's intentional. You know, specifically, you have the maiden being mentioned as dancing and dreaming and teaching the birds to fly. And in this chapter,

Sam talks about loving to dance. And he has a crazy crazy dream and he has this relation to birds. He teaches them and takes care of them. And those birds answer his prayers later in this chapter. I feel like I need like a big conspiracy board behind me. And you've got the warrior who's said to be concerned with protecting children, which Sam does in this chapter. So he's both warrior and maiden, which is a brienne moment maybe that's my thought i got excited interesting no there definitely is a lot like that does manifest in sam's storyline and in this chapter as you said there's a protection of children and the birds i'm also now wondering like because you've got like these gears spinning is it also the they see you little

children of like not just the seven but perhaps the old gods wow wow well through and i love like there's also the brienne of that right like it's the same conversation with catalan that just basically happened last book so you have the same conversation with catalan with brienne of the singing and like i mean obviously all i care about is Sam and Gilly supremacy together forever. But like, even not on a romantic level, like it's a familial level, right? Catelyn and Brienne's talk about singing is about that emptiness of familiarity. And same here for Sam and Gilly of like what they're missing from their childhood. Yeah, and, and I think that goes so well, right?

Also with like the way that, you know, as Nova was saying earlier, but how Sam and Gilly also rescue each other. I mean, it's a small act and done to comfort Gilly and her son, but it is sort of a defiance, right? Of Randall's vision for who Sam should be just by singing. right of randall's vision for who sam should be just by singing i love that the song like has such a intimate place for sam too because it just reminds sam of family right like of of the family he wasn't allowed to love the way he wanted to love them because like you know randall's the the way that randall's control and abuse actually extended like stopped how everybody acted around

each other and completely put them into that mold of like this is how you will act and you will never act this way this horrible way to your family members in front of me or in front of anyone ever again so it's like just seeing that simple act of like familial singing a song at bedtime because you're scared because you're in the fucking zombie ice apocalypse that's very mood it's very sweet and it's very sad scared yeah a mood a mood if you will last chapter we talked a little bit about how like sam stealing gilly out of the keep and spiriting her away with her mother giving her away basically that you know they're basically married it's a marriage it's called marriage and all these thoughts of wifehood for g away basically that you know they're basically married it's a marriage

it's called marriage and all these thoughts of wifehood for gilly of like you know wanting to know what she can offer to prove her value or her keep i think some of what sam is singing to her like the seven is like such a better you know oh a better way look at the south and they're you know the south is so civilized with their shiny rainbow religion and yada yada yada and their songs and so it's interesting that some of these aspects that are so ingrained with some of that that like gender base like this is what the maiden sings to and does this is what warriors are allowed to sing to and do and it's of course sam is just like all over it like noah said because his whole life is hypocrisy, right?

Like you're born the first son of this great Lord and you're not allowed to be that first son, even in like the other aspects of reading and dancing and being jovial and going, you know, carousing basically and etc, etc. And he can't marry because he's a black brother now and if he did marry his wife would be frowned upon because she's free folk now you know uh and it's just like the father is judging wrong from right but isn't sam saving gilly right maybe not in the eyes of the father but the way the song goes yeah what sam's doing is right and there's just all of these hypocrisies laced within the seven and what sam has been told to believe since he was very much so born and believe between what he's actually learning in person now right like gilly is such a forbidden thing to him and you see in john's chapters running parallel to this by the time the torch burned out john no longer cared his guilt

came back afterward but weaker than before if it's so wrong why did the gods make it feel so good and i mean house tarly has a lot of forbidden love in its past right it actually does make me think a little bit of lionel hightower and samantha tarly right because they were like they weren't allowed to marry and this it was forbidden because of you know the current laws from the current high septon forbidding it as a form of incest but even that couldn't keep the young lovers apart and it's so pointed that like sam eventually the marriage between sam and lionel is made by a new septon is like yeah that's totally legit and all your kids are legitimized now you guys are good

and it's so pointed with the catalan chapter right before this where she's also talking about bastardry that i'm like is sam going to end up being able to make gilly's son legitimate and he's going to be the air well he's probably going to get fucking eaten and burnt by melisandre god damn it fuck but he might not but if he doesn't if he doesn't okay back on back on lads back on the game plan if he doesn't, if he doesn't, okay, back on. He better not. Back on, lads. Back on the game plan. Fine. If he doesn't, then is he going to get legitimized and be the heir for House Tarly, you know? And, like, Gilly is allowed to marry Sam.

And are all the rules going to go out the fucking window after society collapses and they all, like, reform society? Will they live in a society? Will they? We live in a society. But will they? I don't will they we live in a society but will they i don't know i don't know it's also i haven't thought about this until just now but like is there something there with gilly's son and dallas son and the two sons of horn herndon and I don't remember the other person's name. I only remember Herndon's name. I don't know. Maybe there's something

there, too, with all of that. Both maybe being legitimized and raised as brothers in a way, and Herndon and some other H name. I don't know. Herman. I'm gonna make it up. Herman. It's Herndon of the horn which is interesting because there's some horny stuff going on around there's a lot of horny stuff

yeah sam's sam's storyline gets harlan herndon and harlan harlan i wasn't gonna i wasn't gonna come up with that um like harlan ellison which whom ge George likes not a great dude um interesting makes me think of the veil too where you have a Harlan Hunter and whatever the other one is and they have that whole like dispute going on because one of them is the heir and the other isn't but he wants to be the heir and he thinks he should be the heir and he's gonna kill his dad to get the you know whatever the veil shit normal normal who doesn't do that you know at least one i'm joking but yes their love love it yes the brothers did not age so long as they had intercourse with the woods which whenever the moon was full that's all it takes is that all yes

well you know that's uh ask that man i live with. No, I'm just kidding. I bet that legend definitely didn't contribute to any sexual hangups Sam has at all. Absolutely not. Right? Probably not. Absolutely not. No. Sam's doing great.

He's fine. He's fine. I know I'm sharpening their pencil right now. Well, well, well. Boy, do I have something to unravel. There's like an SNL skit. Completely untraumatized. There's like an SNL skit that is like moms on like Lifetime movies.

And one of them says like, one of them, their like catchphrase or whatever is like, there's nothing wrong with him. And I feel like that every day with Sam. I'm always like, there's nothing wrong with him. He's fine. There's legitimately nothing wrong with Sam. There's nothing wrong with him. No fine there's legitimately nothing wrong with sam no it's like uh what was that story there's some story i read where the kid is like made to believe he's ugly hunchbacked and like the mom like takes him to the doctor is this a show is it a movie is it a story the mom takes this kid to the doctor and like makes him believe he's an ugly recluse hunchback all the time and like literally like gaslights him and it's like telling this kid that he's sick

i know i know this from somewhere and it's not the hunchback of notre dame because i've seen that too many times and i know this is a different hunchback and he has no mom but then it turns out like this yeah exactly thank you you get it but then this kid in this story that i cannot place that i know exists so it's really really important to what i'm saying this kid like then he finds out and grows up that he's just like fucking normal nothing was wrong with him whatsoever and that is exactly what it makes me think of i'm like literally nothing's wrong with sam like yeah the closest like sam gets to being wrong is like what if i messed with this election slightly undemocratic

but that's it that's the most yeah but the night's watch is undemocratic so yeah exactly he was saving democracy at the night's watch first of all yeah he was picking the best leader yeah it's not cheating if it's you know gets the best option there was also the cook with that i stand with stannis the cook could have been good but i also stand with the cook a lot of times you know if stannis thinks the cook could have been so good maybe he'll let a cook be king of westeros huh you know maybe he should so sam pulls up a great traumatic memory of the last time he and his mother sang this together they had been lulling baby dick into sleep the memory of course was ruined as it always is by randall tarley who

barged in telling melessa she ruined one boy with those soft septon songs and asking if she meant to do the same to dickon telling sam he's banned from being near his son and to go sing to his sisters uh fellas is it gay to sing is it is it gay to sing? Is it? Is it gay to sing? The weird thing is, like, Randall can't even bear for his son to sing this song, which is like a conservative, like, women do this and men do this song. It literally outlines the gender roles he swears by. But, you know, he's that fucking macho, I guess. Or maybe because it speaks of love so much. Because it says the father's duty is to love his children.

And he doesn't. Not to bring up succession. But, of course, to bring up succession. It reminds me of that bit where Logan's like, you talk about love. You come for me with love. Yeah. I might as well do my other spiel about Tyrion and Sam, which I love to do. You can read my essay to see me talk about it a bit more.

But the bit where Randall says, I don't want you near my son is a very strong parallel to in Game of Thrones that goes, they have my son, Tywin Lannister said, one of your sons, Tyrion thought. You have this sort of bit where both Tyrion and Sam are degendered by their fathers. They're similar, not just because they have this shared bookishness and they have a terrible self-esteem, but they both have a history of being very brutally abused by their fathers and not being seen by their fathers as their sons. Both of them are emasculated and or degendered by their fathers for their bodies, their inadequate expressions of masculinity or their inability to perform that masculinity. I think their difference probably comes in their bodies in a way. Tyrion's dwarfism pushes him into the idea that if he can't be a hero, it's better for him to be a monster that everyone says he is. Tyrion's body is seen as monstrous

and something to be feared, while Sam is more seen as livestock, something that can be changed or shaped or raised for slaughter. But that's a really interesting parallel that I think about a lot. I think you talked about this in your essay a little bit, but there's also like Tywin and Randall have that bitter resentment, that like suffering porn that they want their kids to go through, right? Because like, I had it hard. Why should you have it easy?

And it manifests in a very horrible way for both of them yep yeah absolutely and i think that's something that'll be really interesting to see as you said there's a lot there that in the building blocks is similar but you know literature explores how small things right right? They're petri dishes to an extent for situations and to see how they'll both progress and develop differently as the story deepens and what elements lead to that difference. Gilly's babe had fallen asleep. Sam watches him thinking what a tiny thing he is

and how he doesn't have a name yet due to the Free Folk's tradition slash superstition and how he just't have a name yet due to the free folks tradition slash superstition and how he just fears for gilly's son it's so sad because obviously the mortality rate is a little different and they handle childbirth probably a little different you know i mean some factors to consider bloodthirsty whites on your trail the others on your trail especially if you're a son you know there's a lot a lot to consider lots to consider but while obviously children are not like horses i don't have either so like to be fair i could be very off base in this i don't have kids or a horse but it does remind me of like how jamie right was, naming a horse is stupid because it's just going to die anyways.

And it's very morbid. It's like a very morbid thought. Not assigning the name that way you don't develop feelings and relations beyond that, just in case it dies, which could happen. Do you think Jamie might be a little fucked up? What? Putting it out there. Interesting.

I'm going to need to see some sources yeah interesting interesting assertion there some sources that are not just horses yeah that is a fucked up way to think about yeah children and horses but it's uh it's just sad like it's very sad because you just think like they don't know that this child is going to survive. And right now, we don't know that it is either. Honestly, I'm going to be honest, once you switch it out for another baby that may or may not have some royal blood in it, I hope not great.

Yeah. They could both live and be in a throuple. Like us. Like us. Like us. Wow, and here's that baby now. Today. It's Noah. No, I'm just kidding. Oh my god. My birth name is actually Eamon Bloodborne.

Oh my gosh. Interesting. Interesting. Wow. Wow. At least it's not monster. You know? Yeah, yeah I mean that's fair kind of a metal name yeah it's a big mountain dew energy so I will say

I'm spilling a lot of tinfoil this episode some of them I'm coming up with on the spot this one I had once I don't know if I ever wrote it or just commented it somewhere like randomly throw away on the subreddit or something i was like maybe two years old is like they pick that because that's when the others can't turn them so easily anymore or something i don't know i don't know how baby development works i think that makes sense

yeah thank you it actually reminds me of his dark materials in that aspect eliana like not obviously puberty but like dust has finished suffering on them but they're done they're they're you know the babby has been formed after two years it's formed yeah you cannot have it they start forming i don't know maybe memories or something i don't again i don't know how childhood development works dude i don't know that thing has fucking fingernails after a couple months inside you, or whatever. A heartbeat, even. Shit. Okay, I thought you meant, like, outside, and I'm, like, looking at my fingernails now, and I'm like, hmm. No, no, those were there.

You came out with those ones. Maybe not those ones, technically. Yeah, I think I cut them off, like, a long-ass time ago, but yeah. Gilly, though, says that Sam sang pretty. Says that he sang good good i imagine like gilly being like you're saying good kid or something like that when it sounds like thanks um but sam instead of saying thank you passes the buck and says oh you should hear darren sing darren's voice is as sweet as mead damn sam can Sam can't even, like, take any compliments.

And Gilly recalls the day that she became one of Craster's wives when- is the day that she drank mead in the summer and it wasn't as cold. This is terrible. This is a terrible memory. And she doesn't have much to go off of. Yeah, that's true. So she gives Sam a puzzled look, asking,

So I know that you keep saying that there are seven gods why did you only sing of six and he tells her that no one sings of the stranger that's the face of death then we talk about food the only food that's left now are the hard black sausages and sam pulls them out a few thin slices for each of them you might recognize uh some of these sausages we've talked about them before. These ones are similar. Their crafters' wives have seasoned these sausages with garlic. We've discussed the benefits of garlic already.

And after you finally chew into them for some softness, the sausages are in fact quite good. They do sound really good. I do have to say that the stranger kind of feels like that messy relative that you invite to events and you don't think they're gonna show up but then they show up like Maleficent style super dramatic big flare like it's me hello

wearing like a 10 foot train or whatever on their outfit messy bitch but technically if you think about it every time you sing about any of the other gods you are also singing about the stranger because they are all one after dinner sam heads out to relieve himself and check on the horse he's met with cold winds and rattling trees he breaks the ice on a stream so that his horse can get water thinking he'd rather not wake up in the morning to a dead horse and he needs to probably bring it inside. The horse seems only mostly important.

I want to talk about food again. Oh my god. And I want to admire the language here briefly when Sam breaks the ice. The language to describe it is the thin scum of ice on top of the stream. And I'm just very fond of that. I don't know if any of you have made soup or stock, especially your broth, from scratch, especially from animals. Scum, it's that layer that floats to the top once you've boiled like the bones or any of your animals, and it's that layer of impurities. Typically, you want to skim the fat, skim the scum off the top of your soup in order to create a more like clean broth or whatever. Sometimes you don't, depending on the kind of broth you're doing.

Sometimes you do want all that fat in there, but it is denatured protein and it does affect the taste of the food. And anyways, I just thought that was like really fascinating imagery, right? The idea of ice as the scum on top of the water. That's like the stuff that you can get off with an ice cube to pick up the fattiness too, I think, right? Eliana, is that a thing? Oh, I haven't tried that. I haven't tried that. I usually just use like a five mesh strainer or something. Interesting. Interesting.

Well, thank you. Thank you for explaining scum to me. I'm like, does it stand for something? Does it? No, I'm just kidding. That's just what it's called. That's just literally what it's called. Even if the horse died sam knows gilly

would keep going she was brave not like him he thinks he has no clue what the fuck to do with her when he gets back to castle black the girl kept offering to be his wife but brothers of the watch can't really have wives besides he's a tarly of horn hill he could never what a wildling he thinks he knows he'll have to think of something, but reaching the wall alive is the first priority. It takes him a while, but when he finally gets the horse into the long haul, he feeds fresh wood into the fire, he gets down into the furs with Gilly, covers all three of them with his cloak, and he takes a big wonderful smell because she smells good to him. She smells like milk, milk garlic and musty fur and he's

used to it they're good smells it makes him think of sharing a bed with two of his sisters at horn hill that had ended when randall said it was making sam soft we have this line of sleeping alone in my own cell never made me any harder or braver though he wondered what his father would say if he could see him now. I killed one of the others, my lord, he imagined, saying. I stabbed him with an obsidian dagger, and my sworn brothers call me Sam the Slayer now. But even in his fancies, Lord Randall only scowled, disbelieving. Ugh. Sleeping alone in my own cold cell never made me any braver though i think that's such a concise and painful thesis statement about the series's view of gender and gender roles and i think it's

just such a lovingly phrased sentence it genuinely lives in my head rent free it's so devastating i mean that's kind of exactly what it means to be gender nonconforming. The sort of violence of existing under those roles within these cages. But being made to sleep in your cold man's cell doesn't actually make you into their idea of a man any more than the beatings do, any more than the shame, the threats, the caging. It cannot change Sam. Randall can't take away his being. His violence is not only cruel, but genuinely useless. It doesn't work. There's really a power to that idea if he thinks it through, but right now, to Sam, it's just painful to reckon with. You know, for Sam, there's such a stark difference between what he can imagine for himself and what he really wants.

You know, he can't actually consciously let himself want anything. Even in his fancies, his father only scowled disbelieving. The dream, at least, that is upcoming can give way to his subconscious desires. And I think the unconscious and the subconscious figure so much into sam's character there's so much that he can't say and what he can't recognize about himself that's just really it's hard for me yeah that's it's so hard

because it doesn't work none of this works like and sam hasn't been able to grasp that yet he hasn't been able to reach out and say, hey, they couldn't fucking break me. And that's really what it is, right? Like through everything, Sam's bravery and his softness isn't a crime. It's not a bad thing. It actually makes him a better person in the face of some of these other very, very terrifying people in the north. The Buteneers, for example, you you know they were out there stabbing raping

murdering eating and sam was cradling jay orr's head in his lap trying to stay out of the way and just give him a peaceful death hearkening back to what we said about john's plot having a lot of these same beats going on it's not quite the same right that he has a little bit of abandonment issues from the whole parent situation going on that he kind of knows, doesn't know, kind of knows about. But John is physically being put in an ice cell in like a handful of chapters, right? Where he can think about everything he's done wrong in his whole life for a hot second. And Sam, the cold second, if you will. It's actually pronounced cold hands.

But John like is about to deal with all that on his own and he has these loyalties he's actually living the loyalties that sam is like imagining in his mind against his father except john doesn't have a daddy he has like 80 daddies and they're all dead but john doesn't have a daddy to really you know put that into perspective with randall is this horrible ghastly figure still out there for sam still controlling his thoughts yeah and and i really love the way that you phrase this of like that the violence does not work right and i think maybe i'm just misremembering but something that you're drawing in your essay of like people think violence right that's the way that Westeros ties it together with masculinity and I think Sam's rejection of it is it's important and also

what you were saying Chloe like Sam doesn't have any father figures really right there's no one to model adulthood for him or what his role should be what um masculinity looks like and and so it's also interesting because as you said noah like and chloe that the violence doesn't break sam and i think that's another way that sam and gilly's stories really go well together i mean what gilly endured very much is also like an everyday violence as well and then like the what brought them together unfortunately was this converging of the different violences of their societies gilly's very like micro society and then of course sam's as well that night sam has a very strange dream indeed he dreams of horn hill but his father's not there thank god sam is the lord now john mormont gren ed pip toad all his brothers are there wearing

bright colors instead of black he feasted them all from the high table cutting off slices of meat with heart spain for them everyone's warm eating sweet cakes and honeyed wine singing dancing and at the end he goes not to the lord's chamber but to the room he once shared with his sisters okay time to monologue again so again like what does this say about what sam wants and what he can only admit to himself unconsciously well he wants a home all his own a place for him and his friends all the misfits of the wall and beyond that that ever ever extended him kindness, free of their duties, free of class distinctions, wearing all these bright, rich colors with enough food to go around. Everyone's free to sing and dance unencumbered and eat what they'd like. And

everyone is safe. He doesn't want the castle because he wants to be a lord or the Tarly heir. He wants to extend it as a haven, as an act of love. Oh my god, I'm sorry. I love him so much. And in the same vein, he wants Heartsbane, the storied blade and symbol of his house's legacy of military might, but not to use as a sword. All he wants to use it for is to cut food for his friends and serve them. I mean, not only is that the sweetest thing ever, you couldn't get a more blaring metaphor if you tried. You know, here's heart's pain, this tool of violence, the pain of hearts, of life, of love. But Sam is the heart in question, beaten down for so long by this legacy of bloodshed and killing and he turns this weapon into a receptacle for giving and nourishing god

and earlier we have randall saying sleeping in your sister's chambers is making you soft as a girl and then in his dream sam chooses to sleep in his sister's chambers rather than the lord's chamber or his own cold cell oh sam you know that's sam basically saying i'm not the lord and heir you tried to beat me into i don't want to be a victim of your violence anymore either you know if comfort love and kindness make sam as soft as a girl he'd still rather have it yes yeah and i mean gilly's soft as a girl and she can do great things so what the fuck does that mean randall what the fuck does that mean so true say it say it again to my face randall yeah i absolutely love that and what you're saying about uh this transformation right of heart spain and i i just the line that stands out for me that i remember most from your

essay that i'm going to butcher myself not with my own sword just with my words um the line that stands out for me that I remember most from your essay that I'm going to butcher myself. Not with my own sword, just with my words. The idea that the sword is a chalice, right? Life-giving as opposed to an instrument of pain. Also yes, this return to the room where his sisters

are. The forbidden place for him. That's forbidden. And he gets to go there. In his mind palace. You can't forbidden and he gets to go there in his mind palace you can't go there the uh girls go there the uh the heart's main thing is the best fuck you though in the world oh yeah it let alone it's like playing with your dad's tools and getting in trouble for it uh is like it's such a childhood thing to imagine you know like the very thing of like playing with something that you're not supposed to from your dad especially his tools or his weapons and like something that your dad so strongly said he will never fucking have this you will

never get this and then using it for that in uh his dark materials when we cover his dark materials one of the rules of a magical knife that cuts through anything is that you don't use it as a common knife. You don't use it to butter your bread. You don't fucking use it to chop your bread. You don't use it for shit like that. That's disrespectful to everything that knife or that weapon stands for. And so the idea of, say, I'm disrespecting the sanctity of the Valyrian steel sword that has been used for centuries for such crazy things. It's so good. It's such a good fuck you, dad. Fuck you, dad.

I love it so much. Yeah. And there's a class aspect to it, too. Not just all that, you know, the cooking and so forth. But I'm also I don't know. Again, for me, there's no higher calling to butter your bread, cut your bread into your food. I mean, yeah, though. Yes. It's such a more sacred thing, right? To use it to feed people than to use it to stab people. Yeah. It takes also more skill. That's how Ice is, like, fucking more ceremonial and ned can't bear to use his blood sword because

it only means like the thing that he doesn't want to use it for and i think that's that's very interesting of the swords of these you know not only are they a weapon of war and status and class but then what that means to each person is very interesting and shattering it burn all the valyrian seal stores you know what they could make a chair out of them i'm just kidding i was gonna oh i was gonna say they could make a line of chef's knives but whatever fuck my dreams and then redistribute them yeah absolutely to all the people over all the land share the resources yeah it'd be actually awesome that's like literally my dream now um thanks comrade yeah and i mean like yeah that's

how ned saw ice and now ned's never gonna use ice because he's dead and it was split into two okay well thanks eliana for that i chose violence this time so again in that mind palace instead of his sisters gilly is the one awaiting sam wearing only a shaggy fur with milk leaking from her breasts. This comes up a lot in Sam's chapters and depictions of Gilly. Sam wakes suddenly, cold, the air itself feeling frozen and the long hall black with shadows, and Gilly sits beside the ebbing fire, babe in her arms. Something is wrong. The hair stands up on his arms.

I'm imagining Miss Clavel. Something is not right. He tells himself he's only cold, but then, by the door, a huge shadow moves. He's dead! He's dead! I saw him die! Sam thinks, and Gilly says he's come for the babe, for the life, and the huge shadow stoops towards them, becoming... Small Paul! I think that's such a great line. babe fresh-born stinks of life he's come for the life and it really reminds me of randall i feel like randall came for the life too and failed you know sam's story is directly about choosing life. It's this eternal struggle of overcoming despair, abuse, marginalization. It's about everyone wanting you dead, even yourself, and choosing to live anyway to take

another step. You know, that's such a recurring theme for Sam. It's kind of why he's so diametrically opposed to the others, the undead. Why is he the first to kill one in 8,000 years? Well, who comes for life? The others, Randall, Tywin, Craster, etc., etc., Westeros, using the lives of children as fuel for war and power. I talk about this a bit more in my essay, but like, what are the others but a reflection of ourselves, of Westeros' undying war. It's thirst for blood. It's armies of broken men who Jon calls the like real living dead at one point. You know, Sam saving Gilly's

baby is in some sense him trying to save himself from his own father. I like that. I like that idea. Absolutely. Doing for others, someone wasn't able to do for you and as you said right the armies of broken men and the real living dead and that's part of something that again ties sam and brienne's storylines together i also think there's something just about sam's character arc in general something really beautiful in like him choosing to be a father to gilly's son like i have a stepfather who chose to be my father like did not have to choose and did choose to be a father to gilly's son like i have a stepfather who chose to be my father like did not have to choose and did choose to be my father and like to be abused from such a young age by a figure like that and then to willingly be able to find a place in your heart to like say i could

raise a kid and i could give it you know what it needs and i could be better for it and you know caring about that child enough to do so and I could be better for it and you know caring about that child enough to do so and actually even though you're afraid that you'll fuck up anything you do at all in your life right that's a really big thing for Sam to be able to put that aside and say I have to take care of these people now they are my family now and choosing that new family and I think that's something really beautiful about like immediately immediately, he's just like, I have to protect them. I can choose that. That's the thing I can choose to propel me forward.

And that's powerful also considering that, again, as we've discussed, Sam doesn't have really positive examples of that, of anyone modeling that for him. To encourage that. You had Benjen, right, saying to Jon, you don't know what you're giving up, you know, blah, blah, blah. And Sam doesn't have anyone to tell him that, to say like, hey, son, you know, your dad was a piece of shit. And if you keep your head up, like you're a good kid, you'll go far. You could have a life and a family. Like he doesn't have that.

He doesn't have those circumstances. And like, he's also in the Night's Watch where it's not encouraged to have that kind of thing happen to you. So Sam had his peers. Yeah. Incredible growth. Incredible character. Honestly, yes. that kind of thing happen to you so sam had his peers yeah incredible growth incredible character honestly yes i'm glad i wonder if george envisioned sam as one of the povs he would eventually introduce her with something he gardened whatever it is i love it keep it up george yeah keep it up please make put up up. Give us chapters. Yeah. I'll just read other books. It's fine.

It's so much worse with Sam because he's one of the ones we haven't heard from since like 2008 or something. I don't remember. Yes. I think it's five, right? 2005 or so. Oh, fuck. I was five years old. Oh, don't say that. I'm sorry. don't say that I'm sorry

respect your elders I'm so sorry but that is fucked up I was half the age that I am now so 15 stop saying that Jesus embarrassing Eliana you embarrass us

I'm embarrassing so fucking old so we have our Anyway. Embarrassing, Eliana. You embarrass us. I'm embarrassing. So fucking old. So we have our white who has shown up, and it is of course, Paul. Paul's hands were coal. His face was milk. His eyes shone a bitter blue.

Whorefrost whitened his beard, and on one shoulder hunched a raven. Packing at his cheek cheek eating the dead white flesh sam's bladder let go and he felt warmth running down his legs he got his bird he did and i do want to give props to small paul for getting the bird props to the bird also for you know putting in an effort to you know help out the situation tries to like tear off some flesh doesn't do much good but thank you bird i also want to call out sam again loosing his bladder because i feel like it comes up every like time in these chapters now like mention of it it feels to me like in historic

material is how like lyra falls asleep i don't know every other chapter that That's Sam. Peeing himself. For fuck's sake, Sam. Pull yourself together. He's trying. You too? Jesus. I mean, I think it's normal. Again, I think every single person in the Night's Watch pissed themselves when the others in the whites came. And I think this is normal. I think anyone else would have done the exact same thing.

It just doesn't seem fun. I'm glad they're in a cold place that, like, I guess it feels terrible because it freezes, but at least it won't smell. I've thought this through. It's the little things. Cold preserves. Sam tells Gilly to take the horse out, that he has the dragonglass dagger, and gets to his feet. He had given Gren the first knife, but remembered to take more months

when they fled Craster's keep. He clutches it tightly, trying to sound brave and confront small Paul, though it comes out a little more like a squeak. He reminds him he's Sam, fat Sam, Sam the Scared, that Paul saved him back in the woods. No one could have carried Sam but him. He begs Paul not to hurt them,

distracting him while Gilly tries to get across the floor. Don't hurt us, Paul. Please, why would you want to hurt us? I find that question really powerful. And I know that this moment of like, oh no, I'm coming against someone like I knew in life, like that's not unique to A Song of Ice and Fire. We've seen it in like all the bazillion iterations of the zombie genre boom that happened like in the mid to late aughts but obviously it was building up even before then but again same idea oh no someone we love returning as a threat how do i deal with this how scary and i i think it's powerful in a song of ice and fire because it plays well with some of the other themes we see like small paul was sam's family right this chosen family that sam has again amongst his peers and brothers

and also small paul acted like family he carried sam and defended his brothers against another and he died for it and this is what you get this is the consequence from that but i think we see this idea of family as enemy recurring throughout the series. As you called out, we have Randall, Tywin, and Craster in regards to the armies that are manifestations of that, but also we see how they harm their children. And we also see it in Viserys abusing a Daenerys or Aerys abusing Rhaella, who is also a sister, and then how Aerys abuses his son. Rhaegar, it's literally what the Dance of the Dragons is about, family as enemy. It's Aragorn and Arik finding themselves on two different sides of that war, and it's Renly refusing to follow Stannis, and Stannis then turning around, using

magic to kill his brother. I know people debate that. It's Arianne fearing that her father and her brother have betrayed her to steal her birthright, and it's Theon never finding love in Ned, who is supposed to be his surrogate father, but not. And then returning home to find out that, okay, so I'm rejected by that family, I'm rejected by my birth family. His father's words and rejection, right? They cut him, and then it's Theon turning around, betraying his chosen family, kind of, with Robb and Bran, because Robb chose Theon as a brother. It's J.R. dying at the hands of his brothers, and it's Jon pushing Sam away. That's hurtful, too, and then becoming a threat to

Gilly's child. The zombies and the wights are just fancy dressing, dragging people into that uncanny valley, and serve as a literal manifestation of that theme of that the people who are supposed to love us and are supposed to make us feel safe are the ones who hurt us yeah yeah absolutely that and it is interesting because it's like putting them into a boiling pot right like how can we put these people to their fucking limit i know our cold pot. Yeah. Oh my god. Cold hands. The white hears Gilly throughout this and turns his head to stare at her and Sam shouts, No! Getting Paul to turn back to him.

He holds the dagger before him while Gilly reaches the horse at the other end of the hall. Give me a little courage, he prays, enough for her to get away. There's something I find really meaningful about how when small Paul appears, it's Sam's first instinct before anything to try and reason with him, to try and bring him back and empathize with him, make him remember. trope in zombie stories but coming from sam you know the fact that he thinks he's a coward for trying to actually engage with this thing that he thinks is a person and then him trying to get gilly and her son away is such a no chance and no choice moment it's almost like a true night moment if i believed in true nights which i don't but maybe i do unless not even sand bob who spongebob yeah yeah the truest night god even in the face the face of a zombie though like sam somehow is prevailing even though he doesn't think he's prevailing he's prevailing right and in Paul the guilt that Sam

has to be feeling right now about Paul like he has to feel so guilty it was his fault Paul died if it's every man for himself beyond the wall Paul would have been fine Paul would have gotten home yeah would have gotten a bird at home that wouldn't be eating his face, and living the good life. And he stopped in kindness to help Sam to keep him going. Ripped to a real one. Yeah. Ripped, literally. Flesh being ripped off his face. It actually is really sad.

Small Paul. It pisses me off that the mutineers were like, Paul, we'll give you a bird if you stab the fuck out of some people right you just want the bird man this is also interestingly the language with jamie and brienne we just had the bear pit a couple episodes ago or chapters of episodes no we're not back in that fresh hell so many no that was 2020 oh fuck fuck nothing's better than i don't know what week it was a few weeks ago when i just looked at you i was like well you know we've been doing this for a couple years we've been doing this for four years um this is parallel though to bear pit

right for jamie protecting brienne and there's even a moment where he tells her to get behind him and snatches up the sword the blunted sword a sword with no point no edge making you in a very shitty shitty place for fighting a bear and he actually picks up a rotting skull in the bear pit something half buried in the sand snatched up with his good hand it was a human jawbone with greenish flesh still clinging to it, crawling with maggots. Charming, he thought. So interesting. Interesting.

Saving. Saving your beloved. And of course, you know, in like what, like several chapters when Ygritte dies, cradle, you know, Jon's arms and yada yada. Sam actually saves Gilly, though, where Ygritte dies. Where John's girlfriend dies. John's girlfriend gets dead, and Gilly does not get dead. Gilly survives.

Hopefully. Who's the truer knight now, Jon Snow? Oh my god! Just kidding! So traumatic for John! He'll be fine. He's gonna have another really hot girlfriend later on real fiery he's not fine he's literally dead yeah john's gonna be really well adjusted about this it's not gonna be weird fine

you thought his girlfriend's political views were weird this time wait till the next one oh my god john is not doing fine christmas at winterfell it's gonna be a weird one i will say like you know you've been talking about these parallels with like jamie and brienne you know saving people against the odds both of you and like the the no chance and no choice it does there was something when reading sam standing up to undead small paul and then like he's getting you know the life choked out of him which again like that is sort of what happens with brienne right like undead and strangling and the language of the head like because like she thought her head was gonna pop off too and sam's like oh god my head's gonna pop off they're gonna pop my head off paul's maybe that's just how it feels maybe george's research on that

i'd love to know what he's researching eliana would you like to uh give us any recommendations to books that we could possibly find at the library about this uh chuck- no, I'm joking. Oh! Well, Paul does move towards Sam, and Sam keeps backing up until he reaches the log wall, and the white doesn't seem to fear his dagger, but small Paul moves very slowly towards him, and we get a reminder that small Paul was a little slow moving already in life, and I've just been playing a lot of video games lately, and I feel like whites you know you get like a bazillion hp that's how it works you know you get like a huge buff to your hp but then you get a debuff on your speed stat um debuff on your deck stats but you also get added strength

and apparently maybe magic damage based on him being like paul's hands are so cold so that's it that's the analysis um gilly tries to calm the garin but it smells like the white box rearing lashing around and paul swings toward the sound completely losing interest in sam and sam has no time to think or to be afraid he plunges the dagger into paul he's stabbing and he's screaming you're're dead, you're dead, you're dead, and tearing through Paul's heavy cloak and the shards of dragonglass just burst everywhere against the heavy iron mail beneath the wool. Not good. Not good. Things are looking grim for Sam Tarly right now. But the next Arya chapter, I'm pretty sure, is at the inn where she fucks him up and she's all, how much gold's in the village?

How much? How much? How much? So your dad really made me think of that, that he's just stabby, stabby, stab, stab, stab, just like she will be soon. Stabby, stabby, stab, stab, stab. Sam wails, dropping the hilt, taking a step backwards, and before he could reach for his other knife, a regular steel knife,

the white's blackened hands lock beneath his chin, burrowing into his throat. He tries to scream run, but he can't. He finds the dagger, but when he slams it up into Paul, it only hits the iron link, spitting from his hand. Paul begins to twist at his neck, and Sam's like, oh my god, he's gonna rip my head off! He punches, pulls, and and kicks but it's no use the world shrinks only a terrible crushing pain is left but then he lurches forward putting his weight into paul because he remembers that whites are clumsy and sam outweighs him they go crashing down knocking one of paul's hands off sam's throat and twists around before Paul can once more get a hold on him, remembering suddenly fire.

Oh my god, right, the fire. He flails around, finding a lit, charred piece of wood, smashing it into Paul's mouth and feeling his teeth shatter. But Paul's hand doesn't loosen. The long haul was spinning around him when he saw the wisp of smoke rising from between Paul's broken teeth. Then the dead man's face burst into flame, and the hands were gone. Sam sucked in air and rolled feebly away. The white was burning, hoarfrost dripping from his beard as the flesh beneath

blackened. Sam heard the raven shriek, but Paul himself made no sound. When his mouth opened, only flames came out. And his eyes. It's gone. The blue glow is gone. God, the heart of the cards. Oh my god. That's pretty fucked up. It actually is, kinda. Well, Sam creeps to the door, calling to Gilly outside, saying

I killed it! Only to find Gilly is now against the weirwood, the baby in her arms, and is encircled by dozens of lights. And I just want to say, I hate second stage boss fights. You think you won, you think you fucking beat them, and they come back and they've got more shit. It's bullshit.

You hate to see that kind of thing happen. Yeah! This is like me fighting my dad to escape the underworld. It's literally wintry. Only succeeded once. It's bullshit. Really?

You only beat him once? Hades? Yeah. I'm really bad. I'm like, am I ever going to see mom again? I don't know. Well, that's on you. I know.

And even if I'm not developing as a video game player, throughout just these three chapters I think we can see big developments in Sam's character great segue thank you thank you I'm appreciated in Sam's first chapter he did not want to die right not unless he was with his brothers that's how he wanted to go out but in this chapter we're seeing a progression of him being willing to I mean more or less like he he's afraid to die, so long as it means that Gilly and her child have a chance. And then we also see something like in the first chapter, Sam is on the verge of giving

up because he can't find the strength and he thinks, oh if only I had a horse to carry me, I could do it, I could make it, and then he basically gives up because he doesn't have one. But this chapter, when the horse dies, he he chooses to walk even though there is a horse and give gillian her son the horse and he himself finds the strength to just keep going and keep walking so i just think it's interesting that this chapter we get a sense of also what sam's last thoughts would have been in this moment right as paul is choking him and sam thinks of his mother and his father and i do wonder how that will change or if it will change like if slash when sam

encounters another near-death experience i think he will like there's a lot of danger i think following sam's storyline there's a lot of danger following everyone because it is a dramatic series honestly it's really messed up that his last thoughts are for the mother who had loved him and the father he had failed even in near death he can't escape his father and the memory of his father that is so horrible and messed up i just can't i can't get over it oh sam yeah i mean it bookends this encounter right because he right before small polish was up he's like how would my dad react to me having killed an other and now he's here he's like well shit guess he's never gonna find out because i'm never gonna tell him so wouldn't believe him

anyway yeah fuck be like zombies aren't real, Sam. Fucker. Fucker. Fucker. And then he gets killed by one. I'm just going to call Randall Tarly so we can let him down one more time before his death. So some of these whites in the circle are familiar faces, which makes it all the more fun for Sam currently, right? Some were free folk, but some had been his brothers. Lark the Sisterman, Softfoot, Riles, Chet, Hake.

Some of the characters, of course, from Sam 2 that we had just been reminiscing about, you know, like, oh no, had Hake been here the herb lore would be fine, or you know, blah blah blah, Chet could have manned other things, yadda yadda. No, they are all zombies. They had torn the horse apart pulling her entrails

out with dripping bloody red hands sam whimpers it's not fair and i mean that's a that's the biggest mood in the whole chapter sam just looking at the whole scene just it's not fair oh hasn't he been through enough I will say that's I didn't realize that it calls out the imagery of their bloody red hands because earlier on in the chapter of course when they look at the weirwood right they think of it looks like a thousand bloody hands in the sky

so to see that recurring here literally is interesting imagery, image patterns it's almost like George R martin is a writer allegedly maybe the absolute no he is a writer pros of it all yeah my god well the raven lands on his shoulders flopping its wings screaming with gilly as the whites begin to descend upon her fair far fear screams the raven are you happy is that what you wanted for me it is what i wanted

jesus christ just musing on the borbs today friendship ended the john voice uh your board voice it's my new best friend uh this is you heard that as a witness as the third tonight you heard this right that was friendship ended with john voice thank god i'm free i'm a free bitch are you free i don't know if you're free just i just introduce you to a new hell just when i think i'm out next week i return and i have to do both of them this is bullshit this is exciting i'm quitting this i'm having a great time i'm having a wonderful time. I'm having a wonderful time. I'm quitting this fucking podcast. The bird, of course, we talked last week about, or whatever week, I don't care, Eliana, the last time we talked about Sam's chapters, we talked about the birb and how it's quite obviously, any of these birds, it's just Bloodraven. Just, you know, chilling, vibing, nothing but vibes blood raven and there's something that i really

loved in the bird stuff going on of what is the line it's about how each of them have a singer within them right old nan had said that each bird has a singer the children of the forest but those who sing the song of earth was their own name for themselves in the true tongue no human man could speak the ra man could speak the ravens could speak it though their black eyes were full of secrets and they'd caught him and peck his skin when they heard the songs and then later when brand meets blood raven the exchange goes do all the birds have singers in them all brindan said it was the singers who taught the first men to send messages by raven but in those days

the birds would speak the words the trees remember but men forget and now they write the messages on parchment and tie them around the feet of birds who never shared their skin so obviously branny boy gets his you know digging into being a bird stuff and being able to spy using the weirwood net on everything at once before his kingship great story we love the show now he has that part but sam like and something noah said earlier really struck this with me but like sam his job his role being about the birds and making sure the birds get off with their messages and get where they're going uh and him being kind of the singer right that makes sam the singer in these birds,

that he's getting the words for their song onto them. And I don't know, it felt very, I'm wondering if we'll get some sort of more magical thing with birds with Sam. I hope we do. Maybe he'll learn to speak their language too. He does move into the ravenry in old town right so so maybe i i don't think there's gonna be like everybody gets fucking superpowers and can warg skin change into everything but it's just food for thought it's really interesting the relationship that sam has with the birds and like

that position of sam being the one to give the words to the birds and the birds of their words. I don't know. I mean, I think you've successfully kind of learned to speak bird tongue recently, Chloe, so I think Sam could do it. Chloe's ready to just die.

Seriously, Chloe, this fucking podcast. But, yeah. No. I'm just like, I don't know. This is probably past your time, Noah. But I'm thinking of also Sam as like Pigeon Man. I don't know what that is.

From Hey Arnold. Did you watch that episode? Do you know what Hey Arnold is? I know what it is. I don't know. I don't know. I'm just very old. I'm just apparently very old. So, I'm like J.R. I don't know. I'm just very old. I'm just apparently very old.

So I'm like J.R. Mormont over here. You're like young Sam. I'm dying. And I'm bearing witness. Yes, you're bearing witness. You've got to deliver this. But I also like what you're saying about Sam is one of the singers, right?

This idea of remembering. I mean, if Sam does end up becoming sam doesn't end up i'm writing down the song of ice and fire that was so stupid but yeah we all saw it coming let's be real i don't know i mean if if sam does something like that right with the chronicling i mean that is eclipsing the same role that a lot of these singers were doing in Westeros by delivering those stories and legends, you know, that oral history. If anything, it does make me think he's going to be like absolutely integral to, but I mean, I already know this. We already know this. He's going to be integral to the rebuild Westeros, rebuild back better Westeros. Oh my god.

to the rebuild Westeros, rebuild back better Westeros. Oh my god. He's going to be integral to that, but just really kind of highlights and expands on that point that like, oh, he is that. Yeah. So we have this quote of, he heard the dark red leaves of the weirwood rustling, whispering to one another in a tongue he did not know. I thought that, okay, okay i'm gonna just interject here quickly i know we're in the middle of the quote but i really like this in the context of

the line that you just brought up chloe of like the tongue of the first men right that humans could not speak and then we have the starlight itself seemed to stir and all around them the trees ground and creaked sam tarley turned the color of curdled milk and his eyes went wide as plates. Ravens! They were in the weirwood, hundreds of them, thousands perched on the bone-white branches peering between the leaves. He saw their beaks open as they screamed, saw them spread their black wings, shrieking, flapping. They descended on the whites in angry clouds. They swarmed round Chet's face and pecked at his blue eyes. They covered the sistermen like flies. They plucked gobbets from inside Hake's shattered head.

There were so many that when Sam looked up, he could not see the moon. Go! said the bird on his shoulder. Go! Go! Go! Thank you. You're welcome.

I almost forgot. I mean, if it was John, I would have remembered go i mean you know i don't forget eliana remembers well i i you know speaking of people being inside the birds you know what if this is jr mormon he worked inside the bird or ned after he worked is jr mormon he worked inside the bird or ned after he worked into the pigeon and then ice he worked into another bird like that pigeon flew north and then he worked into one of these birds that's the story and then he flew east and now he's little pigeon oh my god yes you're welcome yeah i think we actually did didn't we suggest i feel like we talked about this before yeah when we We probably did. When we were talking about Lil Pigeon.

Lil Pigeon. The youngest rapper in the scene out in Meereen. Prose is good. We love prose. I mean, the fact that you can visualize this scene in your head. Like, if you close your eyes. Everyone close their eyes right now. I don't want to.

Just fucking do it. Just fucking do it. close your eyes, everyone close their eyes right now. I want to. Just fucking do it. Just fucking do it. Close your eyes. And, you know, the ravens all around and the big, huge trees and the emptiness and that crisp, cold air. And, you know, when you go outside, when it's so cold and your nostrils freeze, like, that little layer of mucus immediately just, like, freezes and becomes icy. That feeling. Like, you know that's happening. You can just feel it all.

Goosebumps. Go. Go! Whatever the raven said. Go, Quoth the raven. I don't know. Really good. Good job, George.

No notes. Keep it up. Oh, you know that feeling when you go outside and you can see the gobbets inside someone's shattered head? That's so relatable. Yes. Normal shit, Chloe says says everyone close your eyes and imagine it what are we not do you not imagine this normally everyone yeah you know that feeling

birds talk to you i wish i wish birds talked to me all right i guess i need to be called out of my shit once in a while thank you thank you both you both very much. I mean, like, I'm sure, like, the feeling that you're saying is real. I just, like, never want to experience it. I try to never be in places that cold ever. Look, it's a mood. It's a mood. It's not like a bad mood. Oh, that is what they are in, though.

A bad mood, right? As they run awake. They're running with whites flailing at the birds all around them. And Sam and Gilly have nowhere to go. They have have no clue what to do but they have to go whatever they're doing they just have to do it suddenly though a shout cuts through the trees and a man on an elk covered head to heels in blacks and grays shouts brother through the wood i don't know why that was his voice he calls to to them, and they walk toward him. He has an elk, a ten-foot-tall elk with antlers near as wide, and the creature steps down, letting them mount. Sam thanks him, and when he grasps the man's offered hand, he realizes the man's not wearing gloves.

His hand was black and cold, with fingers hard as stone. Oh my god, it's invasive it's danny flint i gotta pull up the the conspiracy board again start adding a bunch of trees unravel this because so i i think i read it from your account after you tweeted about it once i read about it but i hadn't heard it until now and i actually really love this this is so funny because i do have like a whole write-up with like evidence that shit that I never posted anywhere because I got nervous. I left my Reddit era. But I didn't come up with it. I think I saw someone else say it like in a comment on Reddit and I was like, what?

But basically, I think Coldhands is Danny Flint. Don't at me. There's kind of some evidence. So Coldhands has this thing about obscuring his face. And I feel like that is like a Chekhov's gun situation where removing that would make Coldhands recognizable to Bran or Meera. And that's why he's hiding it for some reason. But it's not Benjen. hiding it for some reason but it's not benjen and it's kind of difficult to think of what other sort of historical night's watch person would like be recognizable enough to the point of hiding the

face unless he just has like a gnarly scar and doesn't want to freak out the kids but like you're a zombie you're already freaking out the kids and also you know danny flint is dead and historical and died long ago so there's that blah blah blah blah blah cold hands is not benjen i mean you know the there's a lot of theories about cold hands he could be like a random member of the raven's teeth and it's like yeah he could be but, that's not interesting to me, I guess. Like, sure. But, I mean, what would that really do to the story? Unless Coldhent is just never revealed, which is also a possibility.

That's fine. I also think, so you've got Danny Flint, who is dead, who would be thin, gaunt, not noticeably tall or strong looking, would have reason to hide his face and bundle up in lots of layers, is very old, killed long ago, would self-identify as a brother of the Night's Watch and have some sort of vested interest in proving loyalty to the Night's Watch, even after death. Could feasibly be a skin changer, sure. And it is a character that would be immediately recognizable

to the audience as well as bran you know you've got those sort of like rips off the scarf and mira's like it's a woman and bran's like oh my god it's danny flint because you know bran loves stories and i love that also bonus trivia the arms of house flint Flint of Flint's Finger are literally a dark gray stone hand, which is bold. You know, he has fingers hard as stone, which I suppose would be some pretty flinty fingers. Great joke in my past old notes from a year ago. Thanks. a year ago thanks i mean the only thing that kind of disputes this is that leaf says that cold hance was killed that they killed him long ago which is sort of contextually like the whites killed him long ago and danny flint was not killed by whites but you know whatever right i i actually also like

with flint being the name like i never I never thought about it until earlier on. You had said something that kind of spurred me to think of, like, oh, right. Like, you need Flint for making a fire. I mean, it's in the name. Like, that cold hands would be able to make fire easier and better. There's also some cool quotes. There's also some cool quotes. John thinking in some versions of the song, Danny's ghost still walked the night fort or haunted the night fort or something.

Well, maybe the ghost does still haunt the night fort on the other side of the night fort. And there's one more quote that was really good where Bran thinks. Bran found himself remembering the tales old Nan had told him when he was a babe. Beyond the wall the monsters live, the giants and the ghouls, the stalking shadows and the dead that walk, she would say, tucking him in beneath his scratchy woolen blanket. But they cannot pass so long as the wall stands strong and the men of the Night's Watch are true. So go to sleep, my little Brandon, my baby boy, and dream sweet dreams. There are no monsters here. The ranger wore the black of the Night's Watch, but what if he was not a man at all?

What? Mostly I just think it would be cool. I like Danny Flint, and I think getting sort of narrative justice for Danny Flint, having Danny Flint still sort of identify as a member of the Night's Watch and still uphold the vows even after death, even after such a dishonorable, horrible death, would be so cool to see Danny Flint give an agency within his own story. But whatever, we'll probably never find out. I mean, I think it's interesting, right? Because what you were saying, you were saying that Leaf said that Coldhands was killed long

ago by wights, but you were talking about the Nightfort, and the Nightfort is the seat that the Night's King, not the Night King, as called in the show, the Night's King, who did take either an other or a wight for queen, right? Presumably also thus maybe bringing in others and whites you know to night's watch they could have coexisted at the same time um and danny flint does die at the night fort so i think that there's a possibility for it to converge there but also i think it's interesting in terms of some of the themes that you've brought up and that have also been discussed by some of our friends during the brienne episodes because danny flint to use some of the themes that you've brought up and that have also been discussed by some of our friends during the Brienne episodes,

because Dany Flint, to use some of the words that our friend Lo has discussed, is a gender outcast. And Coldhands is in very many ways an outcast, right? A brother that is not a brother of the Night's Watch, an outcast of that free society, an outcast caught between the world of the living and the dead, and then an outcast from the Westerosi society, an outcast caught between the world of the living and the dead, and then an

outcast from the Westerosi society, right, on the other side of the wall, because you were saying, like, still serving at the night fort, but on the other side. So I think there's a lot there that could fit in well also with, you know, what you've analyzed of Sam's story and this idea of gender nonconformity. So I think it would work really well. And there's actually some evidence that Danny Flint and Coldhands were like, George came up with them at the same time. Because, let me find it.

Basically, Danny Flint is first mentioned in brand four in a storm of swords and basically that's the same night four chapter where you know we hear about cold hands and cold hands name is stated and sam talks about cold hands where it's like chronologically sam meets cold hands and then like pretty immediately after brand thinks about the story of danny flint for the first time and then immediately after that sam introduces brand to cold hands which is a cool coincidence maybe I was thinking that like timing wise he would have like he would have had to be writing some of these Sam and Bran chapters alongside each other for logistics or like understanding some of the details of them and I was thinking that and I mean the night fort is where everything seems to have a weird history of things happening there of awfulness like danny flint stuff and like

the fact that bran and sam's chapters revolve heavily around the black gate and the night fort in these handfuls of chapters there is some sort of connection there i always thought like before that theory i mean i figured it was probably you know the old commander or something or knight's kid whatever who knows i figure it's just gonna be some boring stuffy dead man but now my heart is full of danny flint so i'm pretty sure it's danny flint i'm so happy to raise everyone's expectations super high don't you love doing that isn't it fun yeah isn't it fun and noah will be writing a five-piece essay on cold hands as danny flint 7 000 words long three through five will be out any day now fuck you got me I mean any day

any day now could be any of them any day yeah any day if you turn has a lot of the same letters as Danny

if you think about it what oh my god and why no way wow it's under it's under your chair

tiwau tiwau wow I also want to correct myself. I realized I said gender outcast. Outlaw. Yeah, it's gender outlaw. Sorry, everyone.

I'm a dingus. Same diff. I forgive you, Eliana. There's major ferryman vibes from Coldhands, right? He is Kirin. He is taking them across the quote-unquote river. And there's something interesting. So old Nan said at one point to Bran, and this comes up while talking about Coldhands,

the green men ride on elks. Sometimes they have antlers too. So there's also like a thought, could he have been of the green men even? And MacDead, never know. The other thing is, weirdly enough, I know he's not... The other thing. Fuck off.

He's not described as necessarily... Coldhands isn't described as massive or anything. It's just the elk that is described as massive. But for some reason, I am reminded of Clarence Crabb that we talked about during the Brienne chapters and all of the heads below, but that he is like a giant hulking thing. And I don't know.

For some reason, it makes me think of Coldhands on the elk as well as a mystical creature type thing going on. That's it. They weren't full thoughts. They were just halfies. Halfies. And you got them for free. Aren't you guys lucky?

Yeah. Brienne's also a hulking figure too. Brienne is also like one of the last true knights and Coldhands is like one of the last true knights watchmen I think that's a cool parallel ah interesting yeah okay I like that

like if it was Danny Flint which I'm not saying it is but we're not saying it is it would be like the only person who can be a true knight is someone who's not a knight and the only person who can be a true knight is someone who's not a knight. And the only person who can be a true Night's Watchman is someone who was killed by the Night's Watch. Also, Jon being a true Night's Watchman. I was going to say, that's not a short list there, now that you say it.

Well, yeah. Never mind. Jaor. Jaor, Jon, this guy. Dany. Yeah. Damn. Oh, yeah.

And you have the Jon and Dany Flint parallels, which I. Danny. Yeah. Damn. Oh, yeah, and you have the John and Danny Flint parallels, which I think are pretty cool. But it's kind of whatever. Where's the hazard pay? Black sausages. It's bread so hot you could burn your fingers. I'm hungry. Sorry, everyone.

It is nearing dinner time. It is. it is nearing dinner time it is i want to talk about this chapter and why i chose to guest on it i feel like the previous two chapters are like super iconic because of what happens in them you know you have the others attack and the mutiny and i mean of course sam one is such a showstopper i mean it's like basically the best written chapter in the entire series but i thank you i really like this chapter because it's what establishes basically what sam actually wants as a character or needs anyway needs versus wants underneath all the repression that is like really really strong in the first two because there's just so much happening he can't really

think about himself this chapter is like all about sam's character which is the shit i do like you know rather than sam not just acting as a camera but like just being witness to these like crazy things i like this chapter it's small it's quiet my favorite sam chapters are the ones where nothing happens even though obviously a lot happens in this one yeah i was like a lot does happen in this chapter but i think that's a great great point that it does set the tone for motivations for sam as we dig into the ghillie and her son's stuff it's well paced too like you get a few chapters of zombie and horror and then you start to get back to the politicking and how those things go and deal with once you come back from that war with those men and then it takes you to a whole new adventure on a boat off east and by the time we get down to bravos it's a whole new book on learning on you know life and suffering and living and i think it's a

great to look at which Sam's chapters have ended up versus this beginning of them at the start here to see, like, there is life after all of this for Sam. For sure. Yeah. I'm so excited for him. I'm worried for Sam, but I think Sam will be alive. So there's that.

Yeah, I don't know if excited is the right word. I'm excited for me to read Sam chapters. Oh, yeah. Yes. Exc excited for me to read oh yeah yes excited for me sam's got a little bit of eldritch horror to to grapple with coming his way i think unfortunately but he he got through this just fine just fine i mean he he came out okay yeah he got better than he did i mean he came out of this better and i think that's saying something right better than like how he came out of his father's house yes that's what i was thinking and i think i think that's something that is really intriguing about sam's chapters right like yeah it's very tied into the supernatural elements the others and the whites but

for sam's life the the big challenge wasn't these supernatural horrors. They've been there like a second. The big villain is his family. It's his father. How do you overcome something that is a literal physical and mental part of you? You know? Therapy. Yeah, mostly therapy.

He does not have time for that right now. Got a little from Kojima, I guess. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, on the Cinnamon Wind, they help out a bit. Yeah, Braavos does feel that. That is reconciling what death really truly does mean, where in the North it's a different thing for him out here in the snow. Death means something completely different here in the vast wasteland of cold, but getting out of that actual environment

lets you realize what it's all about man yeah anyone no i'm that bravo c kush all right they don't call it the ghillweed for nothing. Oh my god. Well, you chose a good one. You chose a great chapter. It's like such a succinct chapter. It doesn't miss a beat. It moves quickly and gets all the points across. And it has gorgeous fucking

prose. Maybe you two didn't agree with me fully, but yeah. I mean, it does. It does. Me gorgeous, you guys. Yes, but... No, but pros about brains can be good it can be beautiful maybe we should all just adjust our standards we just wanted to bully

I'm kind of fun to bully we just wanted to bully Noah's like I want to give it a try well thank you for joining us noah you are welcome back to bully me whenever you want truly i would love to have you back open chair for you here thanks for joining us tonight please let everyone know where they can find you online one more time yeah you can find me on twitter at samantha tar Got to keep the brand alive. And my writing on the series at theshieldhall.wordpress.com.

There's only the one essay, and it will probably remain that way for a while. But it's a good essay, so check it out. Please give me validation. I'm so tired. Life is hard, hard yeah leave a comment on the wordpress you know good work good sam work great sam work i mean i know that feeling i'm never writing another essay again i did that for fun i'm a full-time university student and i wrote a 7 000 word essay for fun what is wrong with me nothing everything is right with you no everything is there's nothing wrong with him that's what they call a callback in the biz oh we circled on back yeah

just like um sam's story coming back to the wall we have to okay that was decent it wasn't that yeah no eliana tell the folks at home where they can find us you can find us on social media at girls gone canon c-a-n-o-n where you can send us any tweets or dms and if you would like you can also send us some emails you can find us at girls gone canon at gmail. And if you would like, you can also send us some emails. You can find us at girlsgonecanon at gmail.com. And, you know, we are on many, many streaming platforms that you can find on a device near you. Feel free to leave us

reviews on there. Eliana does love her comments and her reviews over at Podbean, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, Acast, you name it. We're there. Just look it up. I'm sure you can find us. And of course you can always find us at Patreon.

You can find us at patreon.com slash girlsgoncanon where again patrons in the Stranger tier and above get access to bonus episodes each month. Yes, yes. And if you're in the Thunder tier and above, you get access to our private Discord server

where we have weekly events for rewatches for His Dark Materials right now, as well as a monthly brunch and happy hour. This month is on February 20th, 1 to 3 p.m. Eliana time. Don't be late. We'll see you there. If I can, like, get my life together

and streaming things together and, like, being able to play things on a pc new pokemon i was gonna say elden ring oh yes that would be fun watch eliana stream elden die that too that too as always i have been one of your hosts chloe i've been another one of your hostsiana. Thank you so much to this week's other, other host. Other, other, other host. Another, oh yeah, other host. Oh, an other host. Fuck.

You're right. No, are you undead? I really, I didn't want to have to say this. But yeah, it's true. I am Dani Flint. I've been you dead the whole time. Beak. this but yeah it's true I am Danny Flint it's me or not dead you know just turned do you speak the language of crackling ice

oh my god yeah I do I'm sorry I know this must be really disappointing to hear this is actually really exciting you hid your accent really well actually your accent was really well hidden oh my god