Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 154 — ASOS Samwell IV

Episode Date: February 18, 2022

Sam reunites with his brothers at the Wall and contemplates the ethics of lying as he watches some dubious dudes advance in the Watch's democratic proceedings. --- 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 154, Sam 4 in a Storm of Swords. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. Welcome. We don't have a throuple thing going on this week. It is just us. We have stopped. Stop with that.

You're stuck with us this week for sam four as we get back to the wall back to basics back to black indeed indeed we are back to you know a place where we can our celibacy can be documented nurtured embraced even yeah no not embraced shit shit the opposite of embraced but speaking of you know the night's watch we do have some news for our next episode sam 5 yeah sam 5 it is going to be coming out for the public for the public on the 4th, right? The 4th of March. And we have a very special guest coming on for that. Maybe not from the Night's Watch necessarily,

but our friend from the Hypes Watch, James. Yes, James, our friend from the YouTube channel, the Hypes Watch, will be joining us for Sam 5. James has had some great thoughts about Sam, and I'm excited to have him on. I haven't spoken to James in a while also, so James and I used to play D&D for like two sessions together before I quit.

I was like, it's too long on the computer. And we can talk about that more when James comes on. I was just like, I want to hang out with people because this is the before times. The before times. Before times. So thank you so much, James, for overlooking my efflipant nature and coming on. You know, not many can. Not many can.

But you can. The ones that do. Yeah. Oh, I can do something, Eliana. I can do something. I can't even say that they're rewarded. I was like, the ones that do, God bless them. Well, yeah, I'm excited to have a friend over back to the thruple life.

We've got actually a handful of guests still for Sam. So get speculating, get jotting it down. You're going to see some people soon. Next week, of course course we will be off of a swath just for the week we'll be putting out our his dark materials the amber spyglass episode getting very far along there if you're into philip pullman at all check it out if not if you want something to read it's a good read the main trilogy and there is an outer trilogy as well two out of three are done waiting on that last book don't

you know it don't you know it yeah it sounds like promising progress is being made on it so i'm not worried there was actually like a part of a chapter that came out for the third book of dust from philip pullman yeah and it wasn't i don't think it was supposed to it was like released from a college like he spoke at a college or something or some sort of signing or something and the snippet got published and i didn't it wasn't advertised anywhere and it literally had all these asterisks and like bright lines that were like do not distribute do not distribute and i'm like oh i don't feel like i'm supposed to be reading this i'm also like it's gonna get i've been in a book fandom long enough to know that that was going to leak, but...

Oh, yeah. Yeah, come on now. Come on now. Really, Eliana? Are you talking about Balticon? Worldcon? Anycon? Anycon.

Yeah, all of them. But, yeah. Anyway, so clearly progress is being made on that so that's exciting and also speaking of other book series this month we do have a special patreon episode yes we are going to be covering cersei from mythology not a song of ice and fire the madeline miller novel actually it's a great retelling of the myth of cersei i really just forced Eliana to do some extracurricular reading. This bitch reads all the time though. Like I don't I don't know this this girl's always telling me about these books she's read. She's like I just finished this book the other day.

I'm like where are you getting this this time from Eliana? You're amazing. Astonishing. But we're gonna read Cersei. It's a great retelling of this myth patrons in the stranger tier five bucks and up usd at patreon.com slash girls gone canon have access to a bonus episode every month from us what is in the bonus episode it could be a song of ice and fire we've been covering the free cities lately or it could be a his dark materials related kind of special episode. Or, like this month, something miscellaneous. A book that we're reading, something we're into lately. So, pick up the book. I will say, I think people can expect more miscellaneous episodes from us moving forward.

Probably. Yes. Absolutely. Not like solely, not like percentage-wise. but it's going to be in the mix. Yeah, you know, I love A Song of Ice and Fire. I love his dark materials, but I've loved them for a very long time, and there is a lot of room in my heart for them to live there rent-free, and for them to live in my heart rent-free.

I've made a little space for other things other things dear readers, dear listeners we've been doing this what, nearly four years now you said right so I think it's okay for us to graduate onto other stories more

every now and then yeah we were pretty much conceived about four years ago right now, around this time we were recording Dr conceived about four years ago right now that's around this time that's crazy we were recording drunk a song of ice and fire history we were drinking while doing so because it's in the name we actually were conceiving this we were conceiving this podcast like literally like this week yeah four years ago that it's in the aquarius um oh my god no it's not it's not because no that's only conception it's may what's may what's may may i thought i thought we were april

we don't even know our birthday fuck maybe we're terrible parents reach out and let us know what you think our podcast not us but our podcast which has been personified into a child what it's rising its sun and its moon is because i have i have some questions this is some questions this is like our second or third iteration of this challenge for the last time was which what is your rising ass off character your ace was yeah has yours changed do you think is yours still what was yours i don't even remember what my original was so i think mine is like a asha sun bran moon sansa rising something like that i don't remember what the original was um i'd have to think but anyway so we are doing circe this month and of course some other things that

we are doing this month is our monthly brunch slash happy hour on discord that is happening if you are listening to this uh on the release dates whether you know of this week it will be this sunday february 20th 2022 and it's gonna be a little bit of a you know it's valentine's week yes happy valentine's to you yours yourself whatever and i ate chocolate i ate food i ate wine you know i'm happy it was valentine'sy but we're gonna do it kind of you know valentine's theme bring your valentine. But we're going to do it kind of, you know, Valentine's theme. Bring your Valentine. One slide. We're going to do a PowerPoint potluck, but it's a one slider. Make a Valentine to your ultimate Valentine.

It doesn't have, it can be like, you know, real. It could be a real Valentine, but it could be like, you know, a pet. It could be like, I don't know, like Matthew Broderick. It could be like. It could be food. It could be Jon Snow. Oh, yeah. I was going to say it could be, you know, like Matthew Broderick. It could be like... It could be food. It could be Jon Snow. Oh yeah, I was going to say it could be, you know, garlic sausage. Yeah, that's mine.

That might be Sam's. It's kept him alive thus far. Thunder to your patrons and above have access to our Discord where we have events like that, right? Weekly, we are doing a His Dark dark materials rewatch and discussion of the bbc hbo adaptation our patron pete is hosting that on saturdays and our brunch is once a month for brunch once a month for brunch and happy hour and thunder to your patrons and above we just hop in we hang out in the discord we we get in the voice chat and pull some shenanigans it's a good time 1 to 3 p.m on sunday come on by and free for folks uh speaking of other series that we are doing

chloe has been joining our friends ara and gray over on either our and gray's channels depending on the week to discuss euphoria as you all know the hot thing going around the hot thing yes i am living my best young gen c lifestyle right now oh my god every week i have been i have i've spent money on like glitter this month did you i didn't know you bought it for this i thought you already had that glitter huh no i didn't own that glitter if you haven't watched euphoria it's intense i sent you some glitter that's true you did send me some glitter i actually have been using my sailor moon makeup set thank you very much uh yeah euphoria is fun it's an intense show it's kind of uh it's like

degrassi you know like really took some molly it but it's fun it's fun uh and it has some really good stuff on addiction and on self-love and being a teenager and whatever and so it's fun it's fun uh and it has some really good stuff on addiction and on self-love and being a teenager and whatever and so it's just been really fun to be over at the channel with this gray area we love gray and ara i eat zebra ara we'll throw the links in the details monday night we are live at you know 9 p.m, 9.15pm on one of their channels. So subscribe to them and maybe you'll get a notification. But season's almost over. That's true.

And then I'll be back to you only, my love. Back to you, Eliana. I can share. Whatever. Yeah. You're a switch. You're a sharer. There's a lot you're doing today.

Oh, there's a lot. There's so much. Well, things that I'm not doing today. Emails and tweets and notes. Sorry. Still behind. So anyway, let's just, you know, jump into our lightning round. Yes, this is an altered lightning round. There are POVs removed from it. We're just gonna make it work, right? Because there's so many goddamn chapters between sam 3 and sam 4 my fuck there's a lot of book in there holy damn there is and to kick us off we have aria 9 aria confronts sandor who in turn kidnaps her as bait to get some sort of recompense on his lost money. John 6. John evacuates Molestown and hears of Jeor's fate.

Grunt tells him he saw a gray wolf beyond Castle Black. Hmm. Who could it be? Who could it be? Arya 10 and Arya 11. Sandor and Arya try to enter the twins, but something feels off. Later, Sandor sniffs out the lie and gets them out of there just in time I'm sorry I have all these Sandor chapters

to read aloud and you don't Chloe did I mess up your order? I like to see you enjoy him too I like to see you enjoy Sandor as well casual Sandor enjoyer Eliana Davos 5 Salador San brings word of the red wedding to court melisandre hopes

to sacrifice edrick storm to davos's dismay davos's reading lessons pay off and he finds a rather chilling message from the north john seven here's here's the notes, the stage notes. Say something by A Great Big World plays as John cradles Ygritte's lifeless body amidst flying arrows and weaponry. Branforth. Sam and Gilly help a raggedy group of plucky northerners through the Black Gate. Recognizing their protagonist, Sam swears to keep Bran's whereabouts a secret, even from Jon. Davos 6. The gang frees Edric Storm. Davos almost dies, except he gives Stannis another chance to be a hero.

Jon 8. Davos almost dies except he gives Stannis another chance to be a hero John 8 After recovering their dead from the tunnels in the yard John accidentally gets himself a promotion Arya 12 Sandor tries to figure out where to ransom Arya finally deciding on Riverrun John 9 and John 10 Some of the brothers of the Watch don't necessarily agree with John's new promotion.

He gets imprisoned in the ice cells, and he is freed only for a dangerous mission, going to talk to Mance Rayder. His meeting is interrupted, however, with steel-gloved men bearing down on them, shouting, Stannis! Stannis! Stannis! I'm like, where's Matt from Davos Fingers? Arya 13. The inn at the crossroads rings Arya and Sandor face-to-face with some McGregor's men at arms. Arya delivers some poetic justice, retrieving Needle, but the damage Sandor takes is too much, and he begs her to do the whole entire murder thing, and she's like,

no, Sephardago, and then she boards a ship to Braavos. And see you then, Arya. I just got somehow like almost all Arya chapters this lightning round. I don't know. Every time. It depends on who chooses to go first. It's like a game of Chloe roulette. You might get some serious stuff. You might get some jokes.

I don't know. And this might turn around. You know, I'm hearing Eliana wants to write a lightning round yeah again switches oh my fucking god this all takes us to sam for in a storm of swords asos sam is back at the wall but things have drastically changed new faces new kings new politics that's right baby it's democracy in action is it definitely not next chapter but we'll find out more actually definitely is the next chapter it's the most i've ever seen like a democracy the lying the cheating uh well it's literally just like the last season of veep so actually gilly and sam it does remind

me of the convention like the lying the cheating the going back and forth the the selling favors it's great it's great very political i love you i do too gilly and sam traveled from night fort to deep lake and deep lake to queensgate and finally they they're found by Dennis Malister on the road, Bowen Marsh, and other Bridge of Skulls survivors. When Sam sees his friends, he breaks down and cries. Stannis had landed at Eastwatch, and Cotter Pike led them to capture the free folk unaware. Mance had been taken and his camp as well. Had they not gotten lost, they probably would have walked straight into battle. Gilly had been nursing mance and dallas son ever since alongside her own the boy nameless like hers had a very fierce hunger

for the titty good for him um there's this moment where sam notices john watching like this whole display with a sad smile and sam notes that it's like john hasn't smiled at all since sam returned so i don't know i just wanted to call that out i just it's such beautiful love and compassion on sam's part to note that that behavior in his friend and to like be thankful for this one moment but also to like kind of be sad for his friend yeah and there's actually a lot of really sweet sam and john relationship stuff in this chapter that i really didn't remember prior to but i took that sad smile a different way when i read this because to me i took it as john sadly smiling and watching like gilly feeding the babies and dallas son right and thinking like wow that kid's gonna grow up without a mom just like i did

that's true yeah yeah i wasn't sure what it meant and i only say that because i think there's a lot about john's like childhood in this chapter that previously i didn't really realize so that's all but it could be both i think it's probably like a lot of things i think there's a lot of things for john to sad smile about it's it's sad like these boys have been through it for sure and even though you know john's been through it and sam clearly has been through it nothing prepared him for what was that castle black like the common hall has been burnt down. The wooden stairs are now just like scorched timber and like broken ice. Also, Donald Noy, Rass, Steph Dick, Red Allen, and many more are now dead.

But somehow the castle is more crowded than ever with Stannis' men. The king's tower was occupied for the first time in living memory, and banners are flying from the Lance, Hardin's Tower, Grey Keep, Shield Hall, and more. Sam gave Gilly the rundown on each banner, explaining Stannis' bannermen, but he

draws a blank for obvious reasons at the fiery heart sigil that many of the men sported. And I just really like the way that George put together this one paragraph slash two paragraphs of, you know, juxtaposing these concepts of the destroyed watch and the glory of Stannis' troops. And I also like this line where Gilly says,

the banners are as bright as flowers. And we've seen, I think, George use a similar idea a couple of times, right? We, I think, called this out, again, in that first thing we did together of the Hedge Knight. Junk Nag! I believe the tourney's tense are described as being like bright flowers, but there is, you know, there's just something there to Sam leaving his home, like his real home for

now, you know, the watch, and for the first time returning traumatized after the whites and the others, and then finding so many of those loved ones gone and the building where the memories that he's formed now, just destroyed and still somehow teeming with this like new life from the king's occupation. And I think this is a sort of mood that George ends up hitting a few times again in Fire and blood yeah that's a great point a lot of the rebuilding after all that war and a lot of like just the terror that was stricken through the land from the dragons dancing for so long right and like utter devastation right to the economy and to the people and and that's something that the north is really

about to be dealing with for a lot of it on top of everything and it's very obvious of all the brothers that are gone because the chapter feels actually a lot emptier as far as night's watchmen go it's full here of like all of these people with stannis's crew but the night's watchman it feels very scarce yeah raggedy i don't know if this is like maybe you can tell me more like is it a similar tone to like that ending scene and lord of the rings you know i don't know yeah um i think this is i mean that's pretty much what that's a lot of their relationship and a lot of the Castle Black stuff and a lot of, like, I think the major themes feel like that, right? And I'm more than sure the actual battle will be, in the final books in the North, will be, like, very much so, like the scouring.

But I do think this is very terribly hard because they're all coming to terms with like, wow, we had to be in fucking emergency mode for the last three weeks for our lives from the ice zombies. And now how do we even process that? Yeah. How do we process that loss of our sworn brothers? They're just gone. Yeah. Some of them, they lost their brothers to the ice zombies and then come back and lose them to the free folk. Right. So it's been a wham bam for some of them not for sam in a way and obviously not for john he's he's dealt with they've dealt with different things but i wonder which king in living memory

they're talking about if it's the first time since a king had been there in living memory it's probably what ally and jake yeah the cats um the cats. The cats. But Egg, right? Yeah, wouldn't Egg have visited Eamon? Is my assumption. And like, just because Egg is dead now, I don't think that counts as in living memory. I mean, if people remember him, that's living memory. Also, Barristan has seen like 800 kings. He's a little king slut.

Well, I was going to say living memory, like, would that include Eamon, right? And Eamon would remember his brother visiting him. Are you, does this mean? Right. I was going to say, does this mean that include amin right and amin would remember his brother visiting him are you does this mean right i was gonna say does this mean that egg never visited amin but at the same time i guess amin could have visited his brother but but i and i thought that was actually like one of the novellas i don't know am i just making it up or like i really thought maybe there was going to be something in one of the novellas about taking like the prisoners to the wall i feel like i would have assumed i would have assumed that egg visited the wall at some point but i mean this could just be like amen erasure on sam's part for a second and i i mean again george is not a perfect writer he's made mistakes with eye colors etc things like that so this might just be a slip i don't know that might also be like the further that's really the answer

is probably it's just something he was gardening and didn't think about at the time and was like you know how would sam know how would sam know well i do want to talk about gilly because i love her i love that little gilly flower so fucking much and can we just talk about how quick she is and clever and that like you know she has to be observant she's always been observant living and surviving in craster's keep like she did but she also immediately understands and connects the westerosi sigils and how the men are wearing them and if it's on the banner and where it is on their actual outfit right and she notices the relore sigil sam even didn't really know he's like uh-huh yeah i don't know what that's all about now

that you pointed out no clue uh i thought that was really interesting and clever that gilly has just such a keen sharp eye already absolutely i'm as you said right she had to be quick and i think it's important for her to be able to discern like, okay, what teams where do people stand? Like she's she's had to know that. And I mean, in general, right? Like, she's been like big, brave, and also, I think, big enough as a person to feed both her child and Mance's child right now. And I know that's like probably common practice you know the whole like wet nurse thing and ghillie acting is that for Mance's child but I it just seems quite quite good of her I mean breastfeeding can hurt a lot

I've uh never experienced it but I've heard that it can be a very painful experience and also like as they discuss later this chapter you know gilly's feeding a child that like manson crassler did not get along so i think that there's something important there of this like kind of

symbol of putting aside those differences for like the sake of the survival of the next generation and also just like understanding that some things are more important than that and i think it's going to be part of the series going forward i loved that because that's exactly how i felt there was some sort of metaphor there right of like you have to come together when the long night has come uh and there's even something of like Mance's kind of fire in Craster was ice, right? You know, in some aspects. And that idea of the two babies, the dichotomy of the two children at Gilly's breast. Ah, fuck.

Well, they're not going to come together. They're going to be separated again. I'm so sad. But in a terrible way. Horrible. Fucking horrible. Yeah. They don't even look like each other you guys are idiots i'm just kidding i mean i don't know i don't know i guess babies are just fucking babies i think i could have been would it make more sense my kids i don't know i'm like sam here i'm like i don't know baby so later sam learns what the fiery sigil is it's for queen's men pip tells him uh but don't go

asking after the queen because she was left at east watch with his daughter and fleet he brought the red queen instead his sorceress melisandre of ashy she rode beside him in battle too and gave him his magic sword light bringer they call it wait till you see it it glows like it had a piece of the sun in it they all say that yeah right i'm like it's a fake even amen knows yeah everyone exaggerates like honey let me tell you what a real Prada bag looks like, okay? Okay. Oh, I was talking about, anyways, dicks. Oh, Jesus Christ. Put it away, Eliana.

Sheath that sword. Sheath that sword. All of this info came, of course, after they have a very hearty embrace. You love to see it. And, of course, when Sam enters, they shout, bar the door, lads. It's Sam the Slayer, back from the grave i'm crying i'm shouting i'm screaming they love him sam you stupid idiot they love you so much you dumbass these are the boys the fucking lads the mother yeah the lads they went on a lad strip half more than half the people died in the grain ranging lad strip you know it's straight up you know in um in hamilton the scene

when john lawrence and them are in the bar and they're rapping with i'm not throwing away my shot oh yeah it is but i mean they're all like being boys they're drinking a beer in the bar that's that's how i feel about the night's watch boys they're all like drinking a beer in the bar they would probably watch soccer football they would oh absolutely yes football footy footy footy footy so john had been super happy to see sam but very tired like seems very different, very changed, right? A little sadder than usual, a little more mopey than usual. He had told Sam that Sam did very well in escaping and bringing Gilly.

John did well too, they all had heard, but Sir Alistair Thorne and friends didn't seem to think so. And everyone was kind of calling John a turncloak. So that's not going great for john and you know his surface wounds are healing but not the deep deep scars within him for his dead brothers and his dead girlfriend that he loved big sad deep sad gilly yeah deep sad john gilly and sam reflect with val and toe on the entire Again, Craster had no love for Mance and vice versa, but Craster's daughter is now feeding Mance's, and Gilly says she's happy to give the milk because her son takes very little.

Val then turns the conversation to politics, and how Melisandre plans to burn Mance once he has recovered, and Jon gives her a weary look, reminding her that, wait, no, Mance is a deserter and the penalty for that is death and he would have been hanged then if the watch had captured him and no one knows what the king plans val demands to see mance and show mance his son and sam explains that no one can see mance but maester amen john apologizes but says it's out of his control they leave the women for

they have duties on the wall and promise to ask about letting man see them and sam squeezes gilly's hand and off they go down the hall and john comments that so sam you're a little more than fond of gilly huh and sam turns pink in the face calling gilly good and kind oh and sam's happy to be back from his freezing nightmare, but some nights alone in the cell, he thinks of how warm he and Gilly and the babe had been. He tells John that Gilly makes him braver. Not brave, but braver. I have to say, the scene in season 8 of The Bad Show, where it's Gilly, Sam, and the baby in the bed the night of the battle or the night before the battle. Oh, man, that fucking wrecks my fucking ass every time. Just that still of them just laying there.

I'm just like, it's a family. I love them so much. They are such a family. They are a family. I'm so proud of Sam right here. He said he's braver. Not brave, but braver right that actually implies sam that you have an understanding that you have become brave you have shown bravery and

you know it's funny because the brand chapter that sam's in before this uh it feels actually like there's a lot of really great stuff crucial to that just seeing sam in someone else's plot when we see him in aria's plot it's kind of minimal obviously but that with bran there's a lot of magic going on and there's the moment where he speaks to the door right and the door says who are you and the well whispers who who who behind him and he says the whole mantra the night's watch mantra right he says i am the sword in the night's watch mantra right he says i am the sword in the darkness the watcher on the walls i'm the fire that burns against the cold the light that brings the dawn the horn that wakes the sleepers i am the shield that guards the realms

of men and it's almost like sam is kind of able to say this with a little more confidence now right than he has because he is those vows he's done those things he is the sword in the darkness he has been the watcher on the walls the fire that burns against the cold he did that out in the woods on the way back that confidence is probably really what leads him to that next chapter and why he's able to pull off the falsifying of the election so well yeah you just gotta go in there you know believe in yourself act like you own the place sam but i i absolutely i think that's a great catch that when he says those words now he can believe it i mean who else like who better to say that

they've done all these things than sam the slayer but don't call him the slayer tarly and as you said right there's confidence and i think there's i think in my opinion it takes a bit of courage to be able to own the good things in yourself in a way too yeah especially when you've been told you can't the way sam has like you don you know what? Fuck you. He can. Yeah. To be able to say, I deserve to take up this space. Yes. Deserve to exist. To live. Exactly. Exactly. Well, Jon kind of says, Sam, real talk, you can't keep Gilly, right?

Like, no more than I could be with Ygritte. Like, I couldn't keep Ygritte. You can't keep gilly right like no more than i could be with egret like i couldn't keep egret you can't keep gilly we swore the vows we can't wed and sam hesitates and he's like john is that oh is the honor and a lie if told for a good purpose send the ravens um please ask little finger at around the same point of this book uh is there wait or is it next yeah uh a lie can be okay told yeah and feast or whatever oh yeah it's feast yeah it's feast it's with sweet robin right with elaine elaine and sweet robin well john says it kind of depends on the lie kind of depends on why you're asking this lie. I wouldn't really advise it. You're pretty bad at lying.

And Sam's like, well, not in a letter I'm not bad at lying. Oh, my God. He reveals his plan. What if he sent Gilly and her son to Horn Hill to stay with his mom and sisters? Maybe Randall would be secretly impressed that he fathered a bastard on a girl. He has this memory of his dad calling him a virgin forever. Like, he's die a virgin it comes out that's fun that's fun that's how you become a wizard you stay a virgin until like 30 and you become a wizard i know that gilly's like been like are you a wizard and she's ruined it for him now he can't be a wizard um send her back beyond the wall Chloe's like where is Ileana going who knows

I don't know where I'm going but anyway I will say in this area you know Sam says that he'd be better at lying with Quill and I'm like oh very interesting that you are going somewhere that people expect to receive letters from Sam

where a lot of people expect to receive information and letters from after you have tampered with other information next chapter. But also, I mean, exactly right. Like Sam gets some pretty good on the job, long experience in person, in person. Yes. Very exciting. And I will say also one last thing, lying about babies,

not just a Sam thing, maybe also a John thing. I will say also, one last thing, lying about babies. Not just a Sam thing. Maybe also a John thing. Yeah, maybe also. Maybe also a Ned thing. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Oh. It's just like, maybe that's just what really good friends do. Chloe, should you and I

lie about babies more? Eliana, I don't want to do anything about babies right now that's true I'm just being honest with you I had to think about it for a second to give you my most honest take here and I just don't I don't elect to sign up for that

you can take the baby back now I don't want it I would like to wave all baby stuff control all baby oh god so uh sam asks john if you know he thinks like this child would like have a good life growing up on horn hill and john says growing up a bastard in his grandfather's castle and john comments that you know some men may show a bastard some honor you know like if he's good with the sword and maybe he can get a job in the household guard or as the squire or like knighthood even but gilly would need to be utterly convincing and from what sam has told him randall doesn't seem like the kind of guy who's fond of being deceived. It's funny because

first of all, John's like, you ask me my opinion of what it would be like to grow up as a bastard in someone's castle? A nobleman's castle? Hmm. Funny you should ask me that. And then it's also like, Sam, first of all, he didn't even like you.

How's he gonna like your bastard son? Second of all, I don't know, know sam do you think you turned out great by growing up in that court just a couple questions to throw out there i don't know i am kind of like i get it like you can't he's just looking for anything for them and he's trying to convince himself you know it'll be okay he's trying to just convince himself, you know, it'll be okay. He's trying to just convince himself. It's fine. It's a place for them to be. Sam's coming up with solutions. You got to throw out and brainstorm a few bad ideas before you get to good ones.

That's what I tell Chloe every week when she has to listen to me. Every week. You know, so this baby gets switched, right? So if he sent the baby to Horn hill after switching it out you're technically telling me that sam is coming home from war with a king's son that he's lying about and calling his bastard interesting there's even this line right here between him and john where john says uh this depends in great part on your father and what sort of boy this is if he takes after you dot dot dot uh and sam goes he won't craster's his real father you saw him he was hard as an

old tree stump and gilly's stronger than she looks but i just imagine this is exactly the conversation net and howland had at the tower of joy after digging all these cairns around and you know getting all the bodies buried and then he's like what if he fucking takes after you dude dude what if he takes after Rhaegar they're like I don't know the baby's eyes are this

color so I fucking hope not that had to be what they were doing this exact conversation at Prince's Pass I mean dude I bet the moment Jon started showing baby hairs Ned just thanked the old gods. He was like,

I've never been more relieved than in this moment. Or maybe Jon was born with hair. Some babies I hear are. Well, I mean, that's why Oshara exists, though. She was the excuse for the Valyrian-ish looks. Yeah, just in case case that got pretty lucky and you know as you were saying right yeah sam asks john how do you think

this is gonna turn out john having that experience and i i appreciate that john i think sam knows this and recognizes this. That's why he's like, John, what do you think from your, again, experience? And John points out, it's not a guarantee of a good life. I mean, yeah, it's theoretically like opportunity, but like, it really depends on Randall's mercy and the kid's personality. And I do think in a couple of ways, this shows growth on john's part because like thanks to donald noy r.i.p he's dead now john has learned that you know comparably he did get a lot

of things pretty good compared to like his common born lights watch brothers especially when it came to like training but i think sam has also shown to john another side of things right and he's like an important and I think pretty interesting argument that forces growth on John of being like, you know, also being true born and first born isn't a guarantee of happiness. If John thought like, you know, just being true born would have changed things. And he's like, well, no, I could have had a dad like Randall. That would have sucked. And yeah, Sam has all these status symbols that john kind of coveted right uh but was denied growing up yet sam was still like violently abused by randall and yeah i honestly don't know how randall would take to a bastard because

i mean he doesn't seem like the kind of person who likes it when people defy proper social convention first of all see how he reacts to brienne but then again he also does break those social rules and conventions for dickon just because dickon seems to be growing up as the kindest son that randall wants so truly a coin toss it could be a chance to fix it right like a chance to to do it again and fix him he could accept it if he's just like wow this kid's such a chad you know and he's like really into that i don't know i don't know how it would go but on on a last note sam does say you know like of course gilly's child is going to be strong because gilly's super brave and craster is his quote-unquote real father but i think again in the context of having this conversation with john like real father doesn't necessarily mean biological and also in regards

to that like in general like i don't know like sam shouldn't you be looking at yourself as evidence that just because someone contributed like dna doesn't mean you're going to end up being the same as them? That's exactly what I was thinking. Like, literally, case study. That exact way of looking at it, I'm like, Sam, the evidence that just because parents are one way, you turned out completely different from how Randall wanted you to. So why would you put another baby into that machine, right? Do you think it's going to come out different out different it's gonna come out traumatized that baby is gonna be inbred and traumatized god oh my god yeah thank god he's just gonna get burnt alive instead yeah i mean he could have

been frosted alive and turned into a beautiful undead or not undead a beautiful like fairy ice demon it's not the worst thing that could happen to you i think yeah they seem like they're having fun they laugh like almost like every time we see them they are laughing at like way more voice they're having jokes their voice sounds like icicles good for them how cute how quaint so part of Stannis being here means that there are guards posted all around the place. And there are Kingsmen posted outside of the tower. Earthy and pious and quite different from the devoted Queensmen. Jon's planning to go train in the yard and Sam's like, is it wise for you to train with your legs still pretty fucked up?

Jon literally has nothing else to do because nobody trusts him anymore, you know, and all that. So he's been removed from duty. Sam assures him no one believes that shit, man. But no, Jon thinks everyone does. Sam says, you were brave. You captured Mance's son in the Horn of Winter. And Jon's like, I didn't do those things. I just protected val and the babe

against looters and then rangers found us stannis keeps his men mostly well enough in hand he let them plunder some but only three free folk women were raped and the men who did it ended up gelded john thinks maybe he should have killed a few of the free folk maybe then alicer would quit yelling at him right and telling him that he was defending the Free Folk over the Watch. Sam tries to comfort him, and he's like, Alistair might have been a contender for commander, but everyone knows that he's an actual prick, John. Yeah, that's what you get when every single person who's gonna vote

has to go through you, Alistair. Alistair's just a great example, I think, of that other thing in Song of Ice and Fire. He's like ruling by a fear versus the I will make them love me and look at you now. Not getting a promotion. Definitely not getting a head. Definitely not. Or hopefully

I mean, he does get one head. Jano slints. But there's also the Sam method of I will trick people. Sam is the doc sam's going in there just i will cause problems on purpose and hope it works out to my benefit it it did just not to john's benefit i guess i don't know if it was actually to his benefit babies got switched anyway That brings us to the next event happening at Castle Black, Beyond the King Arriving. The vote for Lord Commander.

We've been talking about it. Again, Thorin has been proposed, but withdrew to support the new Watchmen. Lord Jando's slit seems like a bad move. Jon Brood said he is a bastard who killed Corrin and fucked his spearwife. And Alistair is a noble knight from a noble line but again like no one

likes him and anyways they also call john the warg but he's like i can't even do that anymore how could i be a warg without a wolf i don't even know if like that's a line but his dreams are full of the crypts with a brah or ned's voice as if at a feast and but there's a line but his dreams are full of the crypts with a problem or ned's voice as if at a feast and but there's a wall between us and i know no place has been set for me but sam thinks the living have no place at the feast of the dead and sam thinks that internally but i also feel like yeah normally this would be very promising you know for that exact reason like congrats john you don't have a place with the dead you're not dying yet that's good yeah i mean i think you're really misinterpreting these dreams we need to get john to know a dream book so that when he wakes up in

the mornings for those dreams or uh we should get him wake i was gonna say we gotta get anna delvey's boyfriend's app on here got to get that app uh which might have been actually shadow irl it was it was what up hunter i uh i felt this dream was a really like he actually kind of delves into some of his dream with sam and i think it was just such a great symbol of their relationship and how close they are and also as you kind of mentioned they have such a common ground of having this family that can't love you unconditionally right a family that has conditions about how they love you and when they love you and having a wall built between you and your family for john it was rob and ned right he wasn't a true born son of ned and never could be and rob yeah rob was his best friend and his brother but

he was never a true born brother he was still always the bastard brother and for sam sam was never allowed to love his brother right he was literally discouraged from loving talking giving affection to anything with his brother dickon from a young age and especially with randall the dream specifically just makes me think of them that language the wall between them and both of them really have their legitimacy hidden right being called into question for their character like john is a bastard yet he's secretly son of a king sam is noble but forcibly he's having his nobility and status stripped from him by his father there's also this line that really sticks out to me from the brand chapter before this with that disconnect with ghost and john uh in this little passage that

he speaks about the wall is more than just ice and stone, he said. There are spells woven into it, old ones and strong. He cannot pass beyond the wall. I feel so bad that they're going through all these similar experiences, right? Like loving a free folk woman and battling ice zombies and like right down to the magic. And yet Sam and John aren't able to confide in one another fully right especially because each of them feels like they are so alone right now and instead they have to isolate themselves further and john has to kill the boy there is a wall

between them but actually though i it's a metaphor but i mean it sucks because honestly that is what being 16 feels like that's what that age like literally feels like and i can't imagine doing it in the middle of an ice zombie apocalypse nope it was bad enough enough in the before times. In a war where your girlfriend dies. So all of these things together make being an adolescent that much worse. Hallelujah. Sister.

Well, we're talking about the Black Brothers of the Night's Watch. Sam somehow doesn't tell John, but it shatters his heart not to, that Bran is alive, and that Bran is going north with friends to find a three-eyed crow on a giant elk. Normal shit. But Sam also swore to keep the secret three times. That seems pretty important.

Yeah! Once to Bran. Once to Jojen. And he calls, like, it's hilarious, he's like once to strange boy Jojen Reed, I'm like okay wow, way to just call him strange, and then also to Coldhands and we have a line from

Coldhands of the world believes the boy is dead his rescuer had said as they parted let his bones lie undisturbed, we want no seekers coming after us, Swear it. Samwell of the Night's Watch. Swear it for the life you owe me.

And so for that, I just riffed that voice. Sorry if it's not up to par, but two things. First, Jon asking if Sam can even lie earlier. And again, Sam is already lying now, but kind of through omission. Our boy is just naturally

talented second in a way as you said earlier right sam paralleling ned uh in terms of lying and keeping secrets and you know ned keeping the secret of john's birth and parentage and i feel like here there's something with sam swearing so many times that reminds me a little like promise me ned Ned, though we don't know if that's what Ned promised. We don't know that yet. Maybe one day we will. But anyway. this is where the theme of dead lost forgotten gone starks really is right um davos is dealing with edrick right now but eventually it will become rickon in the next couple books and you know his disappearance the jamie chapter before this introduces the fake aria plot with jane the aria chapter right before this we get word of Sansa's escape and Sansa's last chapter is her losing her identity going into hiding and now we're getting that other side of the Bran meeting where Bran must remain dead now I love I love that also the weird the weird boy Jojen Reed

comment by the way that that Sam's like wow this kid's fucking weird but mira's the one who stabbed you and threw a net over you like jojen's probably pretty normal right now like he's a little ominous but mira's the one that stabbed you yeah i just like that that's he can't forget or shake that he's like at the strange boys jojen reed like that's how it shook that's amazing uh i do love that like maybe he's just used to sisters then you know also is the other thing maybe he's just used to sisters you know he's like oh mira yeah that's normal behavior from a girl maybe i mean he's just he's gone through a lot of strange things the past few days so i just think it's pretty funny oh yeah that's for sure said right now sam is telling john that Janos would never be chosen as commander.

And Jon calls him a sweet fool and says that it's been happening for days. You know, that happened to me once in 2016. Anyway. So I understand Jon's point of view. Jon excuses himself to go angrily beat things with a sword, and Sam watches him go off to the armory and practice in the yard where John spent most of his time lately, and Castle Black currently has

no master at arm, so John has taken it upon himself to work with the newbies, such as Satin, Horse, Hop Robin, Arryn, and Emric. And when they were busy, John would train alone. So Sam wonders, like like if he's right is John right is Janos

really being set up for the job and you do need two thirds of the vote to become the Lord Commander but after nine days no one's close to that Janos is gaining but he is creeping past Marsh and Othell Yorwick

but Dennis Malister and Cotterpike are still in the lead, and Sam thinks, you know, one of them is probably more likely to win. But Sam then enters the Maester's quarters, where Stannis has posted guards outside as well, and they're crowded with the Black Brothers, Queensmen, Kingsmen alike, all wounded. He goes to help, along with Lydas,

and Maester Aemon is still out talking to Mance Rayder. As he hangs his cloak, Jon's words nag at him. Sam, you're a sweet fool. Open your eyes. It's been happening for days. Jon's brooding cynicism is very loud. He is definitely a changed boy

since he went beyond the wall and met Ygritte, right? And they're both going through these existential crises and neither of them are truly understanding the other's hardship this chapter is especially highlighting that relationship like we said for me but you know it's funny you said that in a way sam reminds you of ned which i agree but i actually kind of think that john and sam's relationship is a lot like what Ned and Howland would have been, right? Full of secrecy, magic, yearning, heartache, so much like Ned and Howland. Sam and Howland both were bullied, right, pretty extensively at the start of their stories, and they aren't very athletically inclined.

And then you have Ned and Jon the sad brooding wolves warriors only by necessity only when made to be yeah that's interesting i can definitely see that dynamic reflecting them and i mean it'd be interesting if you have those moments where john's like i'm alive now just because of sam right the way that Ned says it but for Howland Reed yeah but for Howland Reed and I feel like some of the things that maybe we're seeing in Sam that reflect Ned maybe there's some things

that he's kind of gotten learned through Jon yeah who obviously learned from Ned I mean again as we've said Sam holds his best friend in such high esteem which makes the next handfuls of chapters that much meaner As we've said, Sam holds his best friend in such high esteem. Which makes the next handfuls of chapters that much meaner. Yeah.

An hour passes, and Sam goes to tend to the birds. He checks the tally he made the prior night of the vote. Thirty names had been put forward at the start of all this, and now only seven remain. Most of the men's votes are falling, except for Jano's slint, who is beginning to climb. The birds are squawking at him, so he puts his tally away and feeds them. Three more ravens had moved in, had flown in, crying, snow, snow, snow!

But the ravenry seems pretty empty otherwise. Very few of the birds Aemon sent off had returned. One had reached Stannis, though though the king who still cared speaking of best friendship apparently sam taught the birds to say snow and i i'm just proud of him for that and now i'm just like if i get ravens should i teach them to say Chloe following that same spirit I know like he says he taught them but part of me is like that's Blood Raven and I know it could be

I know what you're saying Eliana and everyone at home Chloe you can't just point at birds and say Blood Raven but here I am pointing at birbs going Blood Raven I mean I pointed birds and I'm like that's Ned Stark right Bloodraven, but here I am pointing at birbs going Bloodraven. I mean, I pointed birds and I'm like that's Ned Stark, right? Exactly, see if you're allowed to do it.

That's our dad. But that is the thing because the next episode when the birbs fly into the kettles, you know, and they say Jon Snow! I'm pretty sure that's Bloodraven. That's definitely Bloodravenven but I like to think that Sam played this

elaborate prank on his friend just like I'm gonna teach all the birds to say my friend's name it is great and I also like to think that Sam thinks he taught them but it's actually Bloodraven so like here he is thinking it's happening and Bloodraven is like ugh that Tarly boy needs me to talk in the birds again

i mean i feel like blood raven's down to do that though he's absolutely nothing else to do exactly he's got jokes based on the personality that we saw in brands if he in like a brands like dream blood

raven's into it he's like i'll do this hell yeah he's bored of shit yeah it's got nothing but time and he's running out of series to stream i mean he loves pranks that's what i learned from the mystery night it's a prank bro blood raven in the car pranks that's blood raven blood raven loves pulling car pranks. Exactly. You know, down south, Sam knows that his dad has joined House Tarly to the boy king on the throne. Because, yes, in case you missed it, Joffrey has died. It is Tommen now. But the throne hasn't stirred to help them.

What good is a king who will not defend his realm? He thought angrily remembering the night on the fist of the first men and the terrible track to craster's keep through darkness fear and falling snow the queen's men make him a little uneasy but at least they showed up right that is what sam's about at least they came that night sam doesn't see john at dinner he sits on a bench near his friends pip telling ed about the contest they had made of shooting free folk arrows into the straw soldiers and pip says watt of long lake had been leading um but ed jokes then that he never went to anything and that the gods always smiled on watt it's the funniest exchange in the fucking world everything adds as his gold so i had to include the entire quote here

it's pretty great when the wildlings knocked him off the bridge of skulls somehow he landed in a nice deep pool of water how lucky was that missing all those rocks was it a long fall gran wanted to know did landing in the pool of water save his life no he was dead already from that axe in his head still it was pretty lucky missing the rocks fucker oh i love ed so much i mean uh he's not wrong no he's not wrong at least he didn't bash the rock still dead as fuck though hobb had promised them roast mammoth after the battle maybe in hope of getting more votes and it turns out it's a pretty old mammoth it's very gristly sam can't deal he pushes his food away and prepares for the vote that's soon to come tension is thick in the hall thick as the smoke cotter pike is in

one corner dennis malister is near the door and janos is over between the flames and drafts and sam specifically comments like janos is in the best spot of the room he can be seen by everybody and Bowen Marsh is beside him I like that Sam's out here being like ugh this mammoth sucks but I also think it's just I just like it it's a warm scene that exchange with

Doller's Ed not this part where everyone's like waiting all tense but earlier kind of shows why Sam sees this place as home now but now it's like all weird and awkward and shit and pip notices too telling them to watch alliser whispering with yarwick and bowen with janos and after the meal amon offers the brothers a chance to speak ed rises glum and pleads his case saying that he would be a horrible commander but so would everyone else who's in the running. And Bowen Marsh withdraws his name

due to his wounds, and then recommends Janos with his great resume. It's actually a terrible resume. Cotterpuck and Dennis Malister mutter and shake their heads in the corners of the room, and Sam wonders where John is. Why has John stayed away? And the men drop

a token into this, like, large iron kettle from the kitchens in a corner behind a drape for privacy, and you are allowed to vote for a friend if that friend was on duty. So some of the men take, like, two to five tokens with them, and when the hall is empty, Sam and Clydus upend the kettle, and the count begins.

Eamon is very good at doing this, like, with his hands, sorting the pennies, shells, acorns, stones all to the side it's like how my grandmother tells me that she and her friends they're just so good at mahjong that they know what the tile is even without turning it over just by running their thumbs over it but anyways, that's what Eamon's doing

Sam and Clyde just keep count Dennis Malister has 203, Cotterpike has 169, Janos Linton has 137, Othell Yorwick has 72 Three Finger Hob unfortunately only has

5 and there's only 2 for Ed you don't like my new nickname for Three Finger Hob? I didn't get it. It's a five-finger death punch joke. Three Finger Death Hob is my new favorite nickname for Hob. I'm going to use that one. Okay, I'm just not sophisticated enough. Yeah, I know.

It's not your fault. It's just who you are as a person. It's just who I am. It's just who I am. So there's technically 589 men across all of the watch left. That's what's left, right? And they're actually one vote short because John didn't vote, but it didn't matter. No one was close to having two thirds anyways,

and Sam is super relieved. How do you feel about John's non vote? Do you think he thinks he's just like, I think it's a few things. I don't I don't think we're getting a lot of his background in these chapters on how he feels about the vote. But it does make me wonder, like, does he feel unworthy of voting because he knows that everybody hates his guts and thinks he's a turncoat? Or doesn't want to start a scene by going there or does he just not respect any of the men that are up for it it's interesting because we just don't get his emotions on the vote until after the matter of the fact so like that's true the next chapter in fact is taken like any chance

we would have gotten to see his emotions is taken away because it's stannis offering winterfell he has bigger fish to fry yeah it's a pretty big deal pretty big uh emotion like personal emotional thing yeah yeah that's true we don't really see him think on it and i think it's a mix of some of what you said of all of it like he doesn't he probably feels unworthy of a vote doesn't want to be in the hall with everyone like being like super gossipy about him and as you said doesn't want to start a scene i don't think he doesn't respect any of the men but i think he respects i think he respects dennis mallister and cotter pike yeah he has like a respect for doler said but he's obviously not gonna vote for him because he's not like

full of pranks and jokes like pip but i think you know he doesn't know if he would vote maybe then for Dennis or for Cotter so that's part of it he's obviously not going to vote for like Jenna so I think and I guess he doesn't care enough for Hobb so I think there's like a number of things at play it's okay no one does poor Hob poor Hob I mean you know who thinks that Hob would be a perfectly decent leader Stannis, Stannis does yeah which says a lot about

anyway so Sam does wonder who does keep voting for Three Finger Death Hob as you have written here and Clydus jokes that it's probably the brothers who want him out of the kitchens and also again I mean maybe Stannis is campaigning for him

Dennis and Cotter are down from the night before his votes and Sam said it's not good Eamon says maybe not for their ambitions but in the end perhaps it is good for the watch and amin explains that you know this choosing might seem long but there's been longer ones such as the choosing that lasted two years that that required like 700 times of voting sam continues to worry about the outcome of the vote though that that made me gasp at that just thinking about it

because i'm like america's bratty we're brats we wouldn't sit for that two years years oh my god this democratic process is very interesting it's funny because like they're doing statistics the long way out loud imagine what they could do if they had spreadsheets. Oh my god. I'm just saying, imagine Sam building a pivot table for Maester Aemon. The world would change. The world would be amazing. A little V lookup. Just

think about it. Isn't the name of the voice also Microsoft Sam? Microsoft Sam reading it aloud to Aemon? I don't know. That might be it. That might be it. I hear it in my head.

Sam is the paperclip. Oh my god. The word paperclip. No, that paperclip is cursed. Okay, but real talk. I think George might be, maybe it's not a specific reference. I know he's obviously humorously poking fun at the electoral process, right? George famously who likes to make meta commentary about politics and war. the election of 1824 because the election of 1824 lasted eight years and it was the end right of revolutionary stand-up war heroes james monroe was the last of them the two-party system has broken down the federalists which is like hamilton and john adams's party was disgraced by opposition in the war of 1812 and in 1816 they only won three out of 19 states it was their very last campaign very

pathetic and anyone who aspired to kind of fill monroe's shoes belonged to the same party of him which was the republican party the first one that would soon name itself the democrats so there are all these candidates floating around since there's no federalist party now and it kind of opened up the whole vacuum for everybody. And so many more states were involved. And some were nameless, some named, some insiders, some outsiders. And John Quincy Adams ends up winning. And he was elected as president without getting the majority of the electoral vote

or the popular vote. He is the only president to have been elected that did not get the majority of the electoral or popular vote he is the only president to have been elected that did not get the majority of the electoral or popular vote ever i think that's that's interesting and could very well be john quincy snow i mean i i mean i think what you've got here that's just in general like the the bones of it feels very much like inspiration for what's yeah like jr on the way out all of the revolutionary war heroes are leaving yeah this is it's a whole new era for the watch and yeah i can tell you john does not have the popular vote

no he does not he has said to himself he's like I'm very unpopular right now you know who likes me you that's it well no that's not true there's Pip and Grunt but yeah yeah things are yeah

not going well for Jon really bad yeah they get worse on one hand you're like what a great friend thing of sam to do on the other you're like damn john's dead now huh well he'll get to sit at that other side of the feast table maybe anyway while drinking in pip's cell sam gives his own political commentary about pike and malice are losing votes and yet between the two of them they still have like two-thirds of the entire vote like

so someone he's he basically says has to do something and then like pip and gren are also like what do you mean by someone and they also like flirt a little uh you know between themselves and gren points out that pike and malister fight about everything but that's because they have different visions for the night's watch and then sam's someone as he's like saying you know someone has to do something it kind of becomes a we and pip's like whoa whoa whoa whoa let's change that like plural back into a singular and instead of someone let's say you you sam you can do something poor sam poor sam he talked he talked everyone into this plan though he talked himself through it you now you're a lord's son and the maester's steward. And Sam the Slayer. You slew another. It was the dragonglass that killed it, Sam told him for the hundredth time.

A lord's son, maester's steward, and Sam the Slayer. You could talk to them. Might be. I could, said Sam, sounding gloomy as Dolores' Ed, if I wasn't too craven to face them. There goes all that bravery we talked about. Oops, it's gone. It's in waves. Take it in turn. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I... It's a great setup for next chapter, but also you know, none of the things that Pip has listed are actually what motivates Sam to take action next chapter, because as we've

discussed, right, being a lord's son only brought him pain, and being a maester steward, I would say kind of led to be, like, one of the most traumatic events of his life north of the ball in that great ranging and i'm gonna say you know same in regards to slaying another seems pretty traumatic but sam does find the courage because of who sam is and his faith in john like again he does it not as a lord's son, a maester, a steward, or as the slayer.

He does it as just Sam. It's just Sam, a good friend and a brother. And I will say there's an emphasis on that entire, like, word of someone in this conversation here. You know, Sam being like, someone has to do something. And they're like, what do you mean by fucking someone? Right? And next chapter, the someone, instead of being like, someone has to do something, and they're like, what do you mean by fucking someone? Right? And next chapter, the someone, instead of being like, someone has to do something about the election,

Sam uses the word someone to be like, you know, someone might be a better leader for the Night's Watch. Oh, you know, someone could be better, and by someone he means John, so I think it's interesting that someone in turns means Sam or John, but in general, I think it's interesting that someone in turns means Sam or John

but in general I think it comes down to the message of someone and that someone could be anyone brave enough to do something just like the message of Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse anyone can wear the mask but I was also going to quote

No Man is an Island by John Donovan you know and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee, but also anyone can wear the mask. And that's what I think someone is about. The word someone. Yeah, we're all just fucking pretending. I mean, all the time in real life and in book life. So, yeah. And Sam is learning.

Sam's learning. He can just pretend to be someone. And it's the same thing. No one will ever fucking know the difference. Literally, though. It's all provided. You go in there with enough confidence, yeah. Charisma, baby. Charisma.

Come on, Sam. We have a podcast, you know. Anyone can do it. Oh, Elia. Anyone can and that's part of the problem someone well we'll be back with this podcast no one can stop us you know it's like the end of

the end of veep it's like that last line of veep no one can stop me from coming back walking for my podcast. Only we can stop. And we're never stopping. This is it forever. So if you want to keep coming back for Sam, for Sam.

Sam's a facet. POV. For someone. For someone. If maybe someone could come listen to us again. Maybe someone. Is that you? Is that you? Is that you?

Oh. No. It's me, Margaret. Oh my god. Thanks for listening, guys. We'll be back with Sam 5 with our friend James of the Hypeswatch Notoriety in early March. Yes. And even though it's a day before

the Ides of March, we are not going to kill him. That's not what we're recording anyway. That, I guess, doesn't sound promising for Gus, huh? That's probably not a great segue, no. No. Don't do it, Eliana. Don't do it. Someone. For the watch.

No. Yes. Absolutely. We are going to have James on and it's going to be a good time. But if you want to keep up with when that comes out, because again, we are having our His Dark Materials episode next week to close off the month, be sure to subscribe to us on social media. You can

find us on Twitter at Girls Gone Canon, C-A-N-O-N, or you can shoot us an social media you can find us on twitter at girls gone canon c-a-n-o-n or you can shoot us an email if you have any thoughts or a dm at girls gone canon at gmail.com yes and if you hit the subscribe button over at a podcast streaming service near you you'll get our episodes straight to your feed so you never have to wander and look for them every Friday morning. They come out Eliana time zone Friday morning. You can find us over at Spotify, Podbean, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iTunes, whatever it's called. Audible, Amazon, Pandora. We're at all of them.

We're there. Just look us up. And of course, you can always find our episodes in content on our patreon patrons in the five dollar tier and above again get bonus episodes every month and this month it is cersei circe the book by madeline miller it's so good you gotta read it guys you gotta read it and hey uh check out if you're a thunder to your patron or above over at our patreon you can get involved on the Discord where we host events weekly. We have a His Dark Materials rewatch discussion going on and a monthly brunch slash happy hour.

So swing by, come chat with us in one of our many, many channels over there on the server where we talk about everything and anything under the sun. As always, I have been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I have been another one of your hosts, Eliana, aka someone. Someone. I don't want it. We? That is how Sam feels right now.

We. See you next week. We. Whoa. we see you next week whoa snow goodbye