Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 160 — AFFC Samwell V & Outro

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

Sam has grown a lot since we first met him, and he's going to continue developing as he enters a new arc: magical boarding school. We meet a new cast of characters with new kinds of magic before leaving off on a long, long cliffhanger. Links mentioned: (Spoilers Extended) How Sam the Slayer is being forged by the narrative into the ultimate weapon against Euron by u/GenghisKazoo PoorQuentyn's Eldritch Apocalypse essay --- 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, episode 160, Sam, in a Feast for Crows and outro to Sam. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. Yes. What a journey. Indeed. What a journey we have taken on this ship, on this ship here to Old Town. I can't believe we're at the very end of Feast, the last chapter of this Feast for Crows.

I'm excited to jump into it. I think we have some rather exciting news that we're going to get to in just a few minutes about what comes next after Sam. I know everyone at home is just dying to hear it. Yes, they are dying to hear it. But I think that the news that we're going to tell them might give them life. First, though... Look, look, chill out for a second, Eliana.

Chill out for a second. Let's talk about our Patreon episode. I'm trying to play it cool. So we'll start out, yeah, with our Patreon episode. We've made a few adjustments to this month's concept. As we said, it's going to be april fools inspired by our queen oh my god chloe chloe nira aries season aries season ends when you're listening to this aries season is gonna be over oh no but only in only in real life not in real life

yes so as we told you all before we are going to be talking about the fools in a song of ice and fire we've already covered the biggest fool of all much march shroom and we had also said before that we are going to do the mummers and the mummer troupe when we do the bravos episode but we realized that you know song and singers are such like a big part of a song of ice and fire so yeah i honestly i pressed for bards and songs you know that that i feel like could be a whole episode onto itself i don't want to take away from that and i think there are so many fools to talk about and we're finding like some very great real life fools

to talk about as well like there's this one guy that's like the farting fool or something I don't know we're gonna talk about it on our Patreon bonus episode it's gonna be me later man if you're not already patrons in the stranger tier and above get access to

bonus episodes every single month we did March Shroom for march and that was a blast it's really getting me excited for hot d getting me excited for ice and fighter con this weekend i'm excited i know we're visiting hdm for our bonus episode next month right we'll be back in the world of philip pullman so keep your eyes peeled there for our friends that are both patrons for both. And patrons of the $10 tier and above get a few perks, right, too.

Yes, patrons in the $10 tier and above are being recruited for a war. Oh my god. Jesus. So, we are having our own Dance of the Dragons Civil War. Kind of, not really. Our own House of the dragon civil war kind of not really our own house of the dragon and by that i mean the brunch this month is split between two factions the greens versus the blacks

in one corner it's alicentiana or ellie i can't i can't don't know. We're working on it. And Clinira, which just sounds like an STD. Actually, that sounds really bad. Or like, I don't know, like a, you know, erectile dysfunction medication or something. Something you get prescribed for not fun things. I feel like Clinira should not be said. Yeah. Where's the Clinira-ists? I don't know.

We're doing brunch slash happy hour. Every month we do it. However, this is a little different different it's with a twist with the green and the black twist april 24th at 11 45 a.m i will be hosting a live brunch at ice and fire con what does that mean brunch slash happy hour will be meeting in the lobby 11 45 a.m come with your mimosa your bloody mary your coffee your tea uh whatever you need the hair of the dog the sunday morning of the con hang out for an hour 12 45 i gotta skate i have a panel with that one guy from not a cast whatever and i'm just kidding it's poor quentin you know of him i know of him uh we're we're doing a panel oh You know of him. I know of him. Allegedly. We're doing a panel. Oh, I know of him. And we're doing a panel

on what comes after the snow, right? After Tiwau. What happens in the Endgame of Thrones? That's gonna be fun. We're gonna argue. Doing a panel with Zach from Game of Owns, as we talked about last week, and Hannah. That's gonna be a great reunion.

But this brunch will be right before that Sunday 1 p.m. panel. So come hang out for an hour. Get to know you in person. I have a very, very tiny gift for you if you come hang out at brunch. And I won't lie. I think this brunch we're going to leave open, not just to patrons, but anyone at Ice and Fire Con, if you're listening and you want to stop by, swing by and hang out in the lobby

Sunday, 1145, I'll be there. But Eliana, for those of you that cannot be at Ice and Fire Con, which I know is a lot of you, Eliana will be here at our Discord for our patrons in the Thunder tier and above. I see how it is. Chloe said not just the patrons.

She's amassing even more banners. Okay. Okay. Chloe said not just the patrons she's amassing even more banners okay well and I have dragons bitch they have more dragons

so on the side of the greens those of us online on the discord we are going to be playing a different kind of reindeer games I have new reindeer games for us to play uh on 11 45 eliana standard time as chloe likes to say again that's accessible to folks in the thunder tier and above on our discord where there are also other fun things throughout the days that are not just those days yeah you, you know, it's interesting because I know one of the best parts

of a point of view in our Song of Ice and Fire series is Sam, for example, we're at the last chapter and patrons in the Thunder tier and above already know. They already know what's next, what's to come. They know where we're starting next. I guess it's time, though. it's time for the public to know you know we can't keep our secrets forever almost not quite yet so i will i will remind everyone that you know the next pov starts after our his dark materials episodes with which we are going to close out the month so next week is going to be a his dark materials episode yes april's fools and his dark materials and we're getting to the end of that book and when you get to the end of the books eliana you tell people what the next pov is

unless you're really mean eliana doesn't want to tell you guys she's looking at me like why are we telling them we have to tell them we have to tell them and so so you know we should just we should start back what wait aliana wait are you telling me that we're starting that far back like like back to the first prologue back yes oh that's exactly what she's saying wow yeah. Yeah, we are doing a very specific POV, which is all of the prologues, all of the prologues as one POV. I'm excited to start with Will in a Game of Thrones and move from there. We will have a couple of excellent guests on. I'm really excited, actually, about our guests. We will be announcing those in the time to come and we'll

go through each of the prologues i i what are you most excited for of the prologues well first of all it's kind of funny you know we got a couple of different wills we got our will in hdm we got our will for the prologues of agat and i mean as you said like i'm actually really excited to go through this with some of our friends. It's going to be like a fun sort of anthology, you know, like, we usually spend so much time in like one perspective in POV. So it's gonna be really something to go through this kind of rapid fire between a lot of different perspectives.

We haven't really gotten to do that. It's like a lightning round of all lightning rounds. It's like prologue, prologue, prologue, prologue. We will, with this knowledge, we will be doing the epilogues also as a POV. Keep your eyes peeled for when they happen. Fuck, I mean, it could be, you never know. Keep it peeled.

It could be under your chair, just like Tiwau. It could be. Was that a hit, technically? It's not. Because Tiwau's not there? Yeah, I know that we will do what Cressen's next. That's going to be fun. We'll get Stannis out of our system once and for all.

No, I'm just kidding. We have a Melisandre chapter someday, too. Yeah, we have a couple of people lined up, and, I mean, we're just going to torture them, you know? It's fine. I'm excited for them hey you know if you find me at ice and fire con i could be bullied i could be fed or drank to you know give out a name a girl says a name yes but then i'll be in big trouble with heliata so keep that in mind i mean i don't i don't know

i think we give out the names of maybe maybe if you if you try hard enough you can get winkle a few names out of some folks for the guests but i don't mind that i only mind the reveals the gracious queen alicentiana oh my god uh but we might uh pass the gift of torture on to a few other people for other things coming up after okay there you go they don't know what's coming keeps on giving girls gone gifting yeah they don't know they don't know well as we start back we must get to the end for sam but before we do so let's talk about what we missed between sam 4 and sam 5 in a feast for crows cersei 8 cersei decides to plant seed to prove marjorie's treason what the fuck is going on here these words are Brienne 7 Brienne protects innocence at the inn

at the crossroads Jaime 6 Jaime parlays with the blackfish later leveraging the lord of riveron to get what he wants sounds way sexier than it probably was but you know him and those tollies Jaime and those tollies Cersei 9 Tyena helps cersei plot

asking to keep some of the tyrell innocents out of her line of fire osney kettle black agrees to cersei's plans with a stipulation of his own his dick oh yeah the princess in the tower after watching her very careful plan smash the smithereens and brains on the sand, Ariane is confined to a tower. Doran reveals part of his master plan to her. Probably a few years too late. Oh, Doran.

Elaine, too. Sansa's rewarded for doing so good at her professional babysitting gig that she gets the offer of a maybe husband good for you i guess i don't know little figure loves to give people shit that he can't give them you know what i mean like that's not yours to give bro right brianne eight brianne is sent to meet mother merciless who gives her two options sword or noose dick or mommy wait what isn't that always the question is it is it cersei 10 cersei is arrested by the faith and we're caught up on the happenings

in king's landing by kyburn jamie 7 cersei is sent for her brother lover but he decides to put it in the fire sam five sam's first day of school at break bills or hogwarts or the citadel whatever magic school you want to refer to it as is very intriguing indeed and of course we get off of the ship right before we get to old town and get into the magic the end of the journey had been perilous the iron man had taken bases in old town to prey on the inbound ships koja moe's archers shot great bows of golden heart and sam was loosing arrows as well to keep them safe so you're asking like you know which which school this is i like to think of it as the one in Shokugeki, which is actually a food anime. But a lot of it is about working hard, right?

So Sam's arrows actually seem to reach the ship, showing his improvement. So Sam throughout his story shows an aptitude for reading and studying and thinking, we know this, we know this. And I do like that his storyline explores also the idea that just because you aren't good at something to start you can become good at it if you keep working hard at it you know a lot of like our characters are like they're special and destined for this special thing right that they are very good at like with swords or even aria also with swords and sam is another way of looking

at it of like it's not just about having courage, but also practice over talent. Yeah, and the application, practical application, and when you should be applying said practical application. That makes sense. Yeah, I think like, not to be cheesy, but it is kind of like Sam goes to wizard school and he's going to learn who he truly is inside. Or culinary battle school. Yeah, absolutely. And obviously he shows up and he's stumbling into all sorts of magic and horrible bullshittery right away. And some of it he actually is kind of already sensing, right?

Like we'll get to later with Peyton. He does sense something odd about the boy. I think that's gonna bubble up real quick that's gonna be some fun confrontation around all these little obstacles he has to play with i think that'll be we can talk about paid more but i think that'll be interesting being like i made really good friends with this person and they're not who i thought literally he is wearing someone else's face who is this i uh i love the the way that some of these themes like the faceless man and the faces are kind of bopping through povs right i i really like yeah george does that with through lines of

like throwing an idea like a stone on the water and it's skipping across plots like it's gonna land on aria gonna land you know can you see that see what i'm saying boom boom yeah i like that i think it's like a really nice flow to the story it's really just pleasing very pleasing to be like ah this thing exists in this pov now it's a smart way to keep the whole story cohesive very much so it keeps it flowing speaking of things flowing the ship as they approach the coast sam points out house costain seat three towers to gilly it's gorgeous but sad their voyage was almost at its end and gilly thinks that it's tall and seems like

wait till you see the high tower dallas babe had begun to cry but gilly was able to comfort him easily a vast contrast to the start of their journey and sam thinks that gilly's come to love this child almost as much as her own and he really hopes that the gods are kind to both of these children and it really like has a big like the vision of ned praying at the godswood vibes which might be happening at a similar point in this story yeah i actually want to come back to that in a little bit because I thought about that chapter and those visions so much during this chapter just with the scenery that we're about to get to. I really love that. And I mean, you know, my heart breaks every time I watch that in my brain play out. I read it, close my eyes.

I'm like, oh, God, it's so sad, right? Let them grow up as brothers let my lady wife find it in her heart to forgive i mean that is how sam's feeling right sam you know hopefully she'll forgive me and john for what we did to her right maybe they'll be able to grow up as brothers still amen and i think gilly hasn't forgiven him is she having like hate sex is that what it's happening right now they're having hate sex i mean i think it's still amen and i think gilly hasn't forgiven him is she having like hate sex is that what it's happening right now they're having hate sex i mean i think it's still honeymoon but hate sex might start next week great could be fun really like sam can get a lot of experience

oh my god uh you know i i don't think that we've talked about house castane much before and they have a decent role. They have like some side characters. There was like a singer at Joffrey's wedding, yada yada, a handful of side characters. But House Costain is a reference to Thomas B. Costain, who was a Canadian journalist turned history novelist. The arms actually are like black and yellow, and they reference two of his novels the black rose and the silver chalice interesting very cool i love all of those little i try to catch as many of them as i can i love finding those little author references it's very cute yeah they are fun they

are fun you know why not yeah it's your book i'm excited to read uh how he how he you know references and incorporates the winners of those wolf sweepstakes one day. That's true. That's true. We've had a couple books that get to do that now, right? You had George do that, and then you had Philip Pullman do that with The Secret Comet Wealth. Yeah. So in the morning, the cinnamon wind continues to Old Town, bumping into corpses, drifting through the sea.

Big fun. And some of the bodies are accompanied by crows. They are swollen like grotesque rafts, and they pass burnt fields and villages, as well as shattered ships, and I know Chloe has more thoughts on this, but it is a little sounds a lot like the imagery

of what's going on in the north by Hardhome. Yeah, I was really taken by that as well, and it also reminds me of tyrian right on his voyage in the east a little bit of some of the stuff that he kind of came across or like just even soaring across the waters being like blood right yeah um spooky yeah and those are i mean as we get into this next bit here euron's presence is so fucking all over this as we're going to talk about. It reminds me of the vision of him sailing on a sea of blood, right?

This is a sea of blood. It's bodies right now. But what the Iron Men are doing that we're going to talk about is wild. It's very intense. Zondo points out the wreckage from a battle not long ago. And he's like, who would be mad enough to raid this close to Old Town? Who? He points out the remnants of a banner that Sam has never

seen. It's a red eye with a black pupil and a black iron crown above it. Butterfly meme. Is this not the Shuriken? Eliana, I'm not reading Lord of the Rings. Eliana, this has to be from Narutouto this is truly the knowledgeable podcast everyone this is we are knowledgeable the only naruto we is kind

this is the only naruto x a swath podcast i don't know but i'm not saying it's not i don't know anyway i'm not gonna rule out yet, but until anyone tells us otherwise, I mean, feels like it. Zondo doesn't know the banner either, Eliana, so don't worry. He doesn't know the banner either. The next day, it's cold and misty, and we pass through plundered villages. A war galley comes out of the fog slowly toward them. They come alongside. Its name is the huntress and

has two other galleys with it the captain is a tall man in a smoke gray cloak with red satin flames on it he appears and announces uh from alongside that he's coming aboard he's going to inspect it so they describe the sigil of the tower of old town as having like a crown of flame which i thought was really interesting. And it reminds me of that vision that Stannis has that he relays to Davos. That's presumably of himself. It's probably him. Of a king being consumed by a crown of flames. And I don't think that Stannis necessarily makes it to Oldtown, but the sort of repetition of that imagery. I think that's just kind of interesting, you know, like big,

important things being consumed by fire themselves i don't know what if you know the doom that they were really supposed to avoid was this doom that's impending on old town and all of them took it differently and no one thought about old town well you know what if the doom was really wants to come here because maybe did you see this tweet from a few days ago my partner really liked this and for some reason sent it to me um someone quote tweeted about after 50 years guitar center finally makes the correct decision to stop using a guitar as a g in their logo why it took that long is still anyone's guess but the person this person yuri rondo quote tweeted that and said

when they burned the library of alexandria the crowd cheered in horrible joy they understood that there was something older than wisdom and it was fire and something truer than words and it was ashes and they just made that up about this fucking guitar center logo change but wow and people just believed it i don't know people is that from something no it's from this guitar center you know it's funny that you say that because I didn't really think about this. I really liked this guy that boarded, right? Wearing the gray cloak with the red satin flames on it. It's very neat. It actually reminded me of Tytos Blackwood's fashion sense a little bit.

I was like, this is something Tytos would rock. But I was curious. We don't see this guy. This is it. And I'm like, who is he he and then i realized he's wearing his sigil he's probably just some rando a high tower right probably because you have the gray with the flames i mean they're all like he's a tower they're all rich enough to just be out here just wearing red satin flames, you know, just every day. It's interesting fashion. Yeah.

I don't know. Interesting fashion. It makes me think that he's literally dressed up in his sigil. Like he's that proud of his Hightower heritage. Almost like, you know, we got lazy Leo at the Citadel. Yeah. So maybe he's just some Hightower cousin, but George doesn't name him. Hightower cousin, but George doesn't name him.

I mean, maybe what if he shows up again and Sam's like, it's you, you know, when we get another Sam chapter one day. Could be. Could be. It is a cool outfit, though. Yeah. So this guy, though,

this very fashionable guy, is looking for Iron Man. He's apologetically asking to check the stores, lamenting that they had killed a Tairoshi merchant ship where the people on it had disguised themselves with the Tairoshi dyes, and they meant to open a gate and set the port afire, but then they ran afoul of the lady of the tower, whose oarmaster's wife is Tairoshi,

and they were unable to fool the ships with their fake Tairoshi look because they did not speak Tairoshi. In a horror, Sam realizes, oh my god, these people meant to raid Old Town. But the captain of the hunters says, these are no mere reavers. They had also taken Stone Crab Cay, the Isle of Pigs, Mermaid's Palace, and even Horseshoe Rock and Bastard's Cradle. I wonder if the Isle of Pigs is a reference to the bay of pigs thing in cuba um i was thinking so yeah i was like why does this name sound so familiar to me real life and interestingly what their plan was reminds me

a little of like a failed version a of the trojan horse but b a failed version also of danny's plan and taking marine a little but also the idea of people kind of donning disguises is something that is ramping up with these two books right we've discussed that a long time ago in a patreon episode about the slipperiness of identity but we're also seeing it here with these nationalities especially Especially because I think that the others. Should probably lead people to unite. But they probably won't. Especially considering that Sam. Has just met someone.

Who's also pretending to be. Someone else. And we have this. And by that I meant Arya. But we have another one in this chapter too. But the disconnect of the Iron Men pretending to be Tyroshi and not speaking the language between that outward appearance and their inner life

I think that's a lot of what we're seeing in Sam's story too so he's gonna wind up trying to learn more about his own identity who he is, who he's gonna grow up to be yeah it's really sad when you think about it too because for the tairochi that's such a hit right like had they actually gone in and had they been allowed like had those tairochi not realized oh these guys are frauds um think of how they would have suffered for that in the trade right

like old town would have probably closed its ports up for a bit and been really policing what they do at the ports. Old Town doesn't need that right now. They have enough issues underneath their nose. We have to delay it for the plot. For the plot. Some of these locations, obviously, some of them

were crafted just for this chapter. Some of them are, you know, places that he hadn't dreamed up quite yet, or some of them he has dreamed up mermaid's palace though i realize is likely from the manderlees that's part of their old land i think so they lived in the south i do think so old fish foots old haunts it's a it's got to be at least you know, reminiscent of them. And they are kind of reminiscent in this chapter, as we'll get to. Because Sam blurts out after this, he's like, well, wait, so what the fuck is Hightower doing about all this? Because Lord Hightower is loaded.

Fucking rich, rich. He has tons of swords. And the captain says that swords are no good on the water. Not against the Iron Men. But to be sure, Layton Hightower and the Mad Maid, Melora, are be sure latent high tower and the mad maid melora are locked atop the tower consulting spell books i just want to tip my little fedora melora um you know every time i hear your name melora indeed we have this line might be he'll raise an army from the deeps or not fun fun line tiwa would be such a great book to read real cool we have the high towers on one side you're on on the other and

sam and everyone else of the reach trapped in between you're on as we said is hanging around this chapter around corners around water we'll see his sail right crows littering the weirwood soon and these dead bodies in the water it is very um getting a little eldritch as some people may say some men maybe some maybe probably is and i definitely think it's going to go in that direction in the story but something that i've never considered before until reading this i'm like whoa we always talk about krakens and you're on summoning one but like this chapter and like that language made me think wait what if we've been all wrong and it's layton who summons one against your own and not the other way around you know You know, I guess. I mean, I suppose. I will say, first of all, you know, I did marry someone who wrote extensively about Euron Greyjoy.

He did offer that if I really needed his support to just snap my finger and he would come and recite everything he's ever thought about Euron Greyjoy. I'm not doing any of that. I'm good. But, Eliana, are you trying to get me in trouble are you trying to get me like in divorce court about this who's the real shit here anyways but also i i for what it's worth it's probably you're on it could be like you're on like holding like hostage me like they didn't do it for me but i don't know it's just like um i was like oh i never like really paid attention to that line before that it like Layton you know Melora investigating it yeah I never paid attention

to specifically might be heel raise an army from the deeps or not uh and for what it's worth I do think that the or not says a lot there or. George likes to kind of play with that stuff, right? Like you have like Mira and Bran hiding the Lyanna story within the Night of the Laughing Tree and saying, but that was a sadder story. And just like cutting it off and saying, or not. That's a very or not moment. I feel like there's also, you know, Kettle Black's Arwen's theory. Just to plug and bring that back.

There's that moment where he says, look closer when Littlefinger and sansa meet oswell yeah black kettle black i'm bringing kettle black and yeah thank you so i don't know that or no just feels so pointed like when he likes to do little things like that and point just a short sentence out it makes you think makes you kind of draw your eye to it uh i do really like the idea of the idea of him like holding layton hostage and melora hostage and like being like do it that's kind of crazy i never considered that i'm out of my element when it comes to some of that theorizing and just like speculation i'm really excited to actually get more of it eventually and

team out with you guys because I want to explore it on kind of a more visceral level. Yeah. But if you haven't read it, of course, please read the whole entire history, universe, etc. of the Eldritch Apocalypse by the poor Quintin, the guy from Not A Cast that I've told you about that I know. Yeah. It's amazing. We'll link it. I mean, we'd be rem about that i know yeah um it's amazing i will link it i mean we'd be remiss not to reference it because it's covered a lot of these themes a lot of kind of this eldritch theme going on with some of this in old town that i'm fascinated by this whole waters filled with blood concept and the witchcraft and sorcery to come and this is you know we're just stumbling into magic and we're

not even really um we're almost halfway through right we're just stumbling into magic yeah and part of why we are not covering that in this chapter is because per quentin's already covered it and i don't feel like yeah swimming through the same waters he already did plopping through the same squid marks you know yeah if you want to read what that squidly boy had to say head over to his blog we'll link it below it is like the definitive analysis

on it all at least an exploration of it I think it's a very very great exploration very thorough and it covers stuff that I would never think of but holding people hostage. Sounds like something Euron might do. I've never heard of Euron

doing that ever. Anyway, so the captain says that the best they can do is guard and wait for King's Landing's bitch queen to let Paxor off his leash. Sam is pretty shocked. If King's Landing lost Old Town and the

Arbor, that means that the realm would fall to pieces. And also the Tarlylands might not even be safe, which the Tarlylands are like a hundred leagues northeast of Old Town, away from the coast. So they really should be beyond the Iron Man's reach and then he's like but you know i bet that john's other brother who is not me probably had the same thought of winterfell being safe before theon had scaled its walls and sam though cannot bear the thought of endangering gillian the babe and thinks maybe they could just stay in old town with him and the city has formidable walls and thousands of men to defend them, where his lord father would just, like, have much fewer. Especially if he took his armies north.

Glossing over what we just discussed about, you know, the Eldritch Apocalypse happening in this city, in this city and like possibly like hot molten pools of blood erupting and a kraken coming out to like you know eat the universe and swallow old town or whatever's gonna happen and all the blood lust and all the battle happening here in euron and how the the raiders are coming closer and closer glossing over all of that right just just you know gloss over that with me this still feels like a trap to like talk about how formidable and how tall these walls are and how great they are at keeping things out kind of makes me think that they're probably great at keeping things in too and as horror is about to rain down upon this city a city of distress right being stuck within walls. I'm sure this is a theme we might see in other cities, major

cities, in a song of Waste and Fire in the future. I think it was landing. These walls can keep things in, like the Grey Plague, right, that they've experienced in the past that Pycelle says, you know, swept through a fuckton of maesters. Or maybe a new Grey Plague

come via JonCon fighting in the reach uh also there's this huge reveal of pate later so there's this huge emotion in this chapter of that reveal being that we're now stuck inside this tower with pate a killer and sam is once more stuck inside walls with a murderer right or a a faceless man he doesn't know that he has somebody disguised and his motives but he is now in a building with that um i feel like sam old town you guys are stuck and not safe i do not feel safe for you in old town at all yeah i don't feel safe for sam in old town at all. Yeah, I don't feel safe for Sam in Old Town. I think it's going to be like, you know, one of those day after tomorrow kind of situations.

It's going to be like a post-apocalyptic feeling. And yeah, when you were saying about the walls definitely feeling like a trap. I mean, as you said, right, the Great Plague, that's the same thing that comes to mind. Like, yeah, they were all like, what if we just kept everyone in and just let everyone in the city?

Like, that man was ready to sacrifice that city. So, anyway. I'm watching them do this. I haven't watched The Walking Dead, as I've told you, in forever. I watched it when it was airing. And I'm doing a very slow rewatch to see how far I can get. Right? Like, when I rage quit.

Yeah. And once we get there, I'll let you all know where I land. Right now, we got to season four. My husband never watched it. Like, not all of it. He's watched, like, some cinematic moments from it that everybody has talked about. Because it did a lot for TV. I'll give it that.

But we're on season four. And there is a little bit of a plague going through and they're in close quarters. And today they put them all in a fucking room, like all the sick people in one room. And I'm like, bro, wouldn't you want them in separate rooms in case there's a chance for them to like actually, you know, like, yeah, you're just really. I gotta you gotta figure this out, this housing out. really i gotta you gotta figure this out this housing out it was just rough to watch also uh but it makes me really nervous about these walls that they're just putting everyone within

oh my god yeah these formidable walls definitely and yeah yeah i want i stopped watching it in season two when i got bored and i was like this isn't what happened in the books so i've always stuck it out you know what's funny is i stuck it out to season five season six just like thrones and i was like this is too much even for me just like thrones and i quit uh i quit on an episode that i knew was the highlight the peak that i wasn't gonna i feel, I didn't want to ruin it after that. I read recaps. I read episode recaps for like a whole season or two after that. I don't remember them, but I did read the

recaps to understand who's where and who's still alive and like, did my faves die? Just curious. And now apparently they're really bringing it back for the end. It's still going? It is finishing up the last season yeah i think they had a mid-season finale for season 11 or something oh my god

i was in college when i was watching boss yeah i know i was in fucking high school when i was watching it because you were in college i'm old yeah i watched it with my mother i lived with my mother still when i watched it i watched it with my roommate. I lived with my mother still when I watched it. I watched it with my roommate who introduced me to Game of Thrones. Whoa. Yeah. Man, what a flashback. You'd like her.

Well, I can't watch this old town shit going down here without thinking. I know. I know something's going to happen. This is, I mean, this is all the makings of a good horror plot soon that's true it's so set up for a horror plot all of this is like horror is going to happen here horror slash post apocalypse

there was already a murder there was already a murder and a body snatching true there is body snatching so true and he's like where am I gonna hide Gilly he can't take her to college and honestly if he doesn't figure out what to do with her he's like he am i gonna hide gilly he can't take her to college um and honestly if he doesn't figure out what to do with her he's like he might not ever find the strength to leave her in awe and he thinks like he had to leave her or desert i said the words sam reminded himself if i desert

it will mean my head and how will that help gilly interesting it's a really interesting dilemma coming up in sam's story that is reminiscent of some of the stuff we saw in john's story but also sam's you know another another echo of the things that we were right examining in john's story and jamie's story and aries's story so yes yes and you know if you loved her why'd you leave her right and Rhaegar and Lyanna yeah exactly yes very all of them all the echoes all of the echoes uh everything that Jon thought out of guilt you know every time he'd fuck Ygritte I really feel it echoed in some of Sam's thoughts and Sam had thought about asking Kojima and her father to keep Gilly at the summer

isles maybe or on the boat but he knew that would be just as perilous and she could be carried off for a thrall or salt life when they leave through the red wine straits and the babe would probably be chucked into the sea so it has to be Hornhill Sam knows

he knows and he's gonna take her there himself he has resigned to it which I am so proud of him um brave black Sam he's finding that bravery because he's finding it not just in others but here he is forming a positive relationship he's like I have to conquer my worst fear for them yeah and we're really seeing that a lot I think in this chapter right there is a big shift in Sam's mindset and the thought patterns that he had kind of dug himself into previously, and we'll

talk about that in a second. They reach Old Town on a cold, foggy morning, and they get a glimpse of Hightower's fleet, including his towering four-decked bannership, the Order of Old Town. Get rid of your yachts, you rich motherfuckers.

I'm just kidding. Yeah, right. Once they reach port, they submit to another inspection. This time it's Gunther Hightower. Leighton's son comes aboard. He wears a cloth of silver cloak and a suit of gray enameled scales.

They've all got like amazing fashion here. And he had studied at the Citadel for several years and he speaks the summer tongue. So Koharu, Moe, and Gunther speak to one another while Sam tells Gilly his plan. First, they're going to the Citadel to present John's letters and the thing about Eamon's death. And then we're going to get horses and a wagon to get Gilly to Sam's mother at Horn Hill sounds good I have to say I'm reminded of Pokemon these uh Hightower guys on the ships are like you know the the guys you get to before the gym leader before you get to the main one they're like walks up do you want to battle Sam Parley he's like no uh they even the outfits right yeah true true, true, true, true.

And I will say he's almost dressed in like dragon-y kind of outfit, right? The scales, the enameled scales. Like the dragon gym. And we're already, we are at the dragon gym. Lance, let's go. Let's ride, daddy-o. And there's something interesting of like

just the dichotomy, like dragons being so prominent in this chapter and everyone taking a side which way on a dragon. So for him to be out here dressed like a dragon, it makes you think, are the Hightowers actually receptive to dragons? Would they like dragons? Are they happy for dragons to come back? And then you have the maesters who are like, ooh, no dragons. So for him to embody both the maester, like he went to school at the citadel for a while got some chains and now here he is wearing a dragony outfit you can kind of see does that

mean that's his side that's what he chooses knowledge and dragons interesting interesting especially because we just curious high towers covet dragons before interesting i was thinking that as well. As a green, I thought you might have an opinion. Yeah, I mean, I agree. We've seen that there might be a power

struggle that we haven't gotten to dig into yet between the Hightowers and the Maesters, right? And, yeah. i also agree about it feeling there's some stuff here that just really feels a little like a video game yeah yeah sir gunther emerges and gives them the thumbs up to come into the city and in they go to tie off at the plank the summer islanders don their land feathers literally and sam wears his faded baggy blacks he's feeling very unfashionable right now and he has how long the summer islanders

will be at port and if gilly can stay until he returns yes they actually responded when they're like gilly can do whatever she wants because she's a fucking angel and doesn't eat all the food oh it's kind of mean yeah it sounded like yeah they they apparently eat like as much like a lot of fruits and fish which is fun and it isn't lost on me that the summer islanders what they're wearing right they have these cloaks with all these bright and varied colors of feathers right especially kind of reminding us of these beautiful and free birds whereas sam of course is a crow that's all yeah and i also am glad that we get to see them now and their feathers right after immediately sam drowned the feathers on the first take turns out um sam they probably still had feathers. You just got swindled.

He's really good at that. I get that. Yeah. And so Sam's lost a little weight, as we said, and they jest about that. And then Sam and the archers head in, parting ways at the shore. He hopes he can find his way through Old Town. It's a maze. He is excited to have real stone beneath his feet instead of a ship floor though right that is exciting he feels eyes on him and realizes everyone's a stranger out here

and then he's like wait worse what if someone knows me mood it's a big mood that's like how i feel when i'm in my hometown and i haven't put my eyebrows on yeah that takes you up like two whole notches you need that yeah i'm, I... I'm no one without them. I don't... Yeah. No, I agreed. I didn't give my work anything but lip for my first day back on site. I didn't even give them a foundation.

But if I went back to my hometown, I get you. I would need a brow. I'd need a lip. I'd need at least a little bit of something. I might give up on everything else, but I'd at least do the eyebrows. Like, that's the one thing that I'd be like i guess we can do this we have a really beautiful description of old town the gates the citadel were flanked by a pair of towering green sphinxes with the bodies of lions wings of eagles and tails of serpents one had a man's face one a woman's

just beyond stood a scribe's hearth, where old towners came in search of acolytes to write their wills and read their letters. Half a dozen bored scribes sat in open stalls waiting for some custom. At other stalls, books were being bought and sold. Sam stopped at that one that offered maps and looked over a hand-drawn map of the citadel to ascertain the shortest way to the seneschal's court the path divided where the statue of king darren the first sat astride his tall stone horse his sword lifted toward dorn a seagull was perched on the young dragon's head and two more on the blade so we've been talking a lot about Sam's many names throughout the story, right? His Sam the Slayer, Sir Piggy, Black Sam, blah, blah, blah. But I see that a little bit now in him maybe being a Sphinx too, as we get introduced to that Sphinx. Because, I mean, yeah, Eamon says all that stuff about the Sphinxes, and we're gonna see, like, it's probably about Alaris, whatever, and Riddles. about the sphinxes and we're gonna see like it's probably about aliris whatever and riddles but i i just think you know sam's becoming a little bit of a sphinx himself right with all

those different parts coming together to make him one person one powerful wise being all of the elements being able to bend all of them yes yeah i love that and there's also something really mystical just about and it kind of again coming back to the faceless men being so prominent but not in this chapter one had a man's face one a woman's just beyond stood scribes hearth where old towners came in search of acolytes to write their wills and read their letters. Very administrative and not unlike the House of Black and White. Oh, yes. I mean, the comings and goings, writing the wills, reading the letters, and just that having the sphinxes, one with the man's face, one a woman's,

and thinking of our first entrance at the House of Black and White and how that looked from the inside and the faceless men's ways. I found that really interesting. That's a great point, especially as we flesh out more of those cities and the world building and yeah. Yeah. No one, for example.

The Seneschal's Court, coming back to kind of the Manderlys, believe it or not, it reminds me of the Mermaid's Court. There's similar plot beats here for Sam and Davos, right? Being made to wait, being imprisoned, all of the animal statues outside. And of course, that Sam's here trying to decode a secret truth, right? Hit the right button and get magical support.

And Davos kind of was as well. And this is just a bit downriver from where the manderleys were from as we've talked about uh earlier on found that interesting similar vibes similar vibes to the mermaid's court at the seneschal's court very much very interesting especially yeah we've got two people running into maybe running into probably running into starks yes yes faceless starks here you know king darren statue was great because john's here even you know even when he's not john's here the boy king who tries to unite westeros by taking dorn unsuccessful loses his life by treachery at 18 and of course surrounded by the weeping dock and the bloody isle uh yeah i think john's here in spirit i mean his first clash of kings uh chapter actually i think also he talks about him in

game of thrones maybe with benjamin maybe i'm making that up but he does talk about darren and john one in clash of kings learning all about him and learning about Amon's background, right? And Daeron has the connection, of course, with Amon there. Amon's great-grandfather was Daeron, I think. And I might be missing a generation somewhere in there. But it's Amon's great-grandfather,

and I think that says something, too. I was thinking of how it reminds me a little of not just John, but also Rob, right? And these were the two figures that the two boys used to play as, if I'm not mistaken. Mm-hmm. So, kind of funny.

Kind of funny. And we also just saw a, while not Darren, a Darian. Yep. That reminded us of the other Darren. Probably 18. Yeah, that reminded us of the other Darren. Probably 18. Yeah, that reminded us of the other Darren.

He just died by treachery at 18. Shit. That's true. Now that you say it. Treachery. I mean, it was kind of his own doing, but kind of not, you know. Well, who's treachery? That's the question.

Yeah. So it was a little complicated. We'll get there one day. Sam watches some acolytes at work at the weeping dock and he thinks i should have come here when i was their age i should have just done it run off take a false name i could have disappeared among them i think this is really interesting and shows us a lot of growth in sam's character because that he is entertaining thoughts of just like even defying his father and then realizing damn i could have just done whatever i wanted been my own person like that's that's so big that's so big considering that sam

at the beginning of this book right compare that he was like uh no john you can't just send me to become a maester my dad like literally physically tortured me a lot and psychologically for even considering becoming a maester and now he's like what if i just like outright straight up disobeyed my dad and just lit like intentionally embarrassed him in order to do whatever the fuck i wanted like that is such big growth it is though i do have to point out that like he couldn't have actually technically disappeared because as we learn at the end of this chapter he's been watched and as we kind of know he's probably being watched as well by other eyes in westeros but we learn like all of his comings and goings were already known by marwin yeah but like marvin would have been like interesting yeah

this seems entertaining how far marvin does like to keep some interesting company as we'll get to. I did think that there was something very interesting here in the phrasing because he has I could take a different name, you know, lose my identity and go blend in amongst the novices. Not unlike what Arya Stark is doing right now, right? Taking a different name, blending in, quote unquote, she's not doing a good job at the novices. That's true. The acolytes. And they both kind of reflect each other. That's a great point.

Like Arya, being all these different people. Because again, Sam is doing that, but like in a less dramatic scale. Yeah. And obviously he's kind of just battling himself as usual in these thoughts and he thinks you know at least then randall could have pretended dickon was his only son and he thinks randall wouldn't have even searched for me unless he took a mule to ride then he would have hunted him down and he's like he would have only hunted him down to like get the mule back right he's like i could have probably just gotten away with it and just got in the way scott free give him back a mule who knows interesting you know while we move to

the seneschal's court and outside we see an older novice being locked into the stocks for stealing food from the kitchens glossing over that institutional commentary on how we're trading one failing institution for another sam strides, and beyond the door is a hall with stone flooring, high-arched windows, a Sims 4 builder's dream. He reaches a man at a raised dais who scratches on a ledger with a quill. He has a maester's robe, but no chain.

Sam clears his throat, and the guy's like, you smell of novice. And Sam hands over his letters, explains his purpose, and amon's death and then he waits he waits he gets lapped by five or six people that definitely came in after him uh and finally he like gets a little courage like what is the fucking hold up going on here yeah this is just the dmv i think like george wrote his experiences at the DMV. They say write what you know. Absolutely.

And it's, like, horrible. Hours. Hours pass. Hours pass. Sam picks a blister on his hand. He watches the dust. It's sunset. He closes his eyes.

He falls asleep. And he awakens to hear yet another person called before him. And he freaks out. He's like, oh, it's not me. And another voice beside him is like hey you need to give the gatekeeper a penny and he's like whoa what what the fuck uh the voice beside him says what brings the night's watch to the citadel and we get a look at the speaker they are slim good looking with light brown skin and tight black curls and a widow's peak. What could it mean? And big black eyes.

We meet Alaris. Alaris. Sam tells Alaris that the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch is restoring abandoned castles and they need maesters for ravens. Alaris says, while Lorcas, the gatekeeper, was an acolyte for 50 years and obviously can tell that you are noble born and particularly hates novices, especially noble ones. Sam is like really surprised. He's like, how can you tell that I'm of noble birth?

And Alera says the same way you can tell I'm half Dormish. So I think that is kind of interesting, right? There's a lot of things that have told us throughout the story that people can tell what station of birth you are born in and that's something that again is also comes up in aria's story learning how to change the way that she speaks so that she can blend in with some of the different classes and that sam carries it so obviously it's kind of reminiscent and that that Lorcas doesn't like novices who are from nobility reminds us again of the Night's Watch and how the Night's Watch is also allegedly a meritocracy, but we see that those class systems from Westeros still hold true. class systems from Westeros still hold true. Yeah, and there's a lot

of that commentary, like we said, in the stocks with the novice that stole food. That commentary just tells you everything about this place already. And you can tell that Lorcas here has obviously been shunted for his 50 years. He's not happy.

He's a little like Will, maybe. Or Garrod. Garrod from the pro a little like Will. Or Garrod. I was thinking Garrod. I was also thinking of Mord. But that's more of a personal thing. I'm just like. He's the gatekeeper. He's having a time Mord.

With his teeth. Yeah. Olyris says they are an acolyte, and some call them Sphinx, even. The name gives Sam a jolt. The Sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler, he blurted. Do you know what that means? No. Is it a riddle? I wish I knew. I'm Sam Tarly. I'm Samuel Tarly. Sam.

Aw. New friends. Aw. New friends. Cute. New friends. I love it. Alaris asks what business he plans to bring before Theobald, Archmaester Theobald. Sam's surprised. He's like, I thought the Seneschal was Maester Norrin. That's what Maester Aemon said.

Alaris is like, well, every year they change. They fill the office by choosing an Archmaester, and most see it as a thankless task because it takes them away from their thesis and their master's final project at the Citadel. The Blackstone was drawn this year by Archmaester Walgrave, but his wits had begun to wander, read the prologue, so Theobald volunteered to serve his term. He's gruff, but he's good. So Theobald volunteered to serve his term. He's gruff, but he's good. Yeah, so it does remind you of a, I guess, university department or something. And I believe we've spoken a bit about Shirley Jackson's short story, the lottery in some of our Free Cities episodes, particularly the ones about Pentos. But I am reminded of it again here. And also, you know, this nature of leadership, being thankless and the responsibility, which is why no one wants it.

And I'm like, lol, Sam, this is what you did to John. Yeah. Hey, at least you only had, he didn't even have to do it for a year. I don't know what you're complaining about. That's true. John got out of it early. Gotta die to get out. That's what I say.

So. early gotta die to get out that's what i say so aliris recognizes amon and sam's like how did you know him aliris says amon was the oldest man in westeros dude i'm not uh he lived through more history than even archmaester periston lived through they lament amon could have told them so much about his father's reign and his uncles and ask how old he was at his death sam says 102 hilarious asks what we've been asking for you know the last book why the fuck did you put a 102 year old on the sea and sam hesitates sam is like i don't know if i should say anything and then he's, the Sphinx is the riddle, not the Riddler. And he thinks, could Maester Aemon have meant this Sphinx? It seemed unlikely.

Or not, to quote earlier. Yeah, or not. Well, and then of course, Sam lets the floodgates open, right? Sam's like, okay, well maybe I'll just tell you. And he tells him everything. He's like, Jon sent us away to save his life. Then he's like, Stannis and Melisandre. And he's like, sent us away to save his life then he's like

stanis and melisandre and he's like i'm gonna stop i'm gonna stop and then he just keeps going and he's like man's raider the free folk king's blood dragons the whites of the fist the other on the horse the murder of lord mormont this is a clip show episode gilly white tree paul cold hands the ravens john's election win darian bra, Zondos and the dragons in Qarth, the cinnamon wind, and Maester Aemon's whispers. The only secrets he held back were the ones he was sworn to keep, Bran Stark and the baby swap. He concludes with what Aemon had said. Daenerys is our only hope. The Citadel must send her a maester to bring her home before it's too late. When he finishes, Alaris touches Sam's arm and says,

Save your penny. The Seneschal won't believe you, but I know who will. So, how much did Alaris get paid for this therapy session, first of all? And think next. Sam's meeting with Alaris actually reminds me a lot of Sam's meeting with John, right? As Sam enters a new place, a new order. Busted. Yeah, right? Exactly, exactly.

Sam's meeting another noble bastard because, I mean, let's be real. We know Alaris is Sorella, okay? Like, we all know it. What? Oh my god, what? What? Oh my god, this is scandalous what but they are they are it is it is the same if you if you take a lyricist and you turn the

letters backwards would you would you know it is sorella oh my god then they've got the same widows oh my seven oh my gosh right because it's the only family in all of westeros that has a motherfucking widow's peak is obran's blood here yes that's so funny yeah and i mean widow's peak it's obran's oh yeah definitely here definitely and i mean let's be real so i it's just kind of fun right because sam's like suddenly finding himself he is spilling his entire life story right to john in that first chapter and john just like very understandingly and quietly listens and it's really beautiful as we've discussed and eliris's reaction is a little different but i think there's some similarities right in the way that sam spills his guts out to this person and and again reminds me of that fateful first meeting

and i i think that once more we are seeing sam growing here right he's he finds it easier to open up to new people and therefore is kind of learning to make friends on his own here and again the boarding school arc yeah fancy lad school it is yeah i'm excited to see what growth he can have in his first two chapters before euron blows the shit up hopefully he gets two chapters of school man or at least like uh here's what was happening while you were on summer vacation guys like a shitadel montage shitadel give us the shitadel george anything i'd take it at this point season seven uh i'm just kidding no worse than season well and i said what i said i i don't know I don't plan on re-watching them to find out.

They were both bad, and they are related. And they should feel bad. I agree. And season six was pomp, and it fooled everyone into thinking it was good, and it was not. Anyways, Sam hears Eamon's words in his head. You must tell the Archmaesters. But he could always return to the seneschal tomorrow with a penny in his hand

interesting pennies coming up at this time of the story anyways they head to the isle of ravens which connected to the bank with a wooden drawbridge to the oldest building in the citadel the ravenry Eliris tells Sam in the age of heroes it was a stronghold of a pirate lord who robbed ships that came

along. The building is covered in moss and creeping vines and ravens walking its battlements instead of archers, and the drawbridge had not been raised, at least not in living memory, and an ancient weirwood filled the yard instead. Its carved face is grown over by purple moss. The branches seem dead, but a few of the leaves still rustled, and birds love to perch on that. It's full of birds actually, quirking to one another. So, what a vivid scene.

I have to break down that, like, interesting that the weirwood is covered with purple moss, because usually moss is green, and purple is the completely complementary color, right? The opposite color on the color wheel to purple. So it reminds me a little bit almost of those ones outside Karth,

the black and blue weirwood outside of Karth, and how it's like the opposite inverted colors of the white and red completely. And now you have purple moss growing like decay on it right like taking over creeping so you get this great passage about in the age of heroes this was a stronghold of a pirate lord who robbed ships that came along suggesting this pirate lord would probably know the secrets of the magic of the citadel uh and the weirwood alone, right? Suddenly you have all these crows perched on it, quirking, almost as if Sam never left the wall. How nice of this arrival. Is it Bloodraven? Or is it Euron? That's the question of the day, right? Because Euron is all over this scene. A busted down Weirwood. yeah Euron is all over this town. Crow's watching. This is literally like he could make this

right here the citadel. This might be his evil you know tower that he takes over right here. He might have the Weirwood right there as his central base. Damn. Is he gonna like Transformers plug into the Weirwood and fight? It's his night fort. Yeah a little

bit. This is kind of I think it could be his night fort. Where else is he going to kind of i think it could be his night for it where else is he going to battle against the high tower you know yeah it is interesting that would be great hmm i don't know interesting and just full of the imagery of everything surrounding blood raven bran and uran and what ties them together with these burbs and these trees and the tree being busted down i mean that is just like real euron hours yeah i didn't think about it like that i was thinking of it as like blood raven you know kind of just cling on to life but you're there's definitely something

there right of what you're saying of like euron as the fallen student yep the pirate lord that would steal and reave around here i mean that is him that's literally what he's literally doing yeah yeah get it guys we're talking about you're on he's reading heroes he's reading and here he's something they are reading different sounds similar though oh he got it wrong i get it it was just one letter difference you're on you fucked up you meant to read read more it's totally an understandable mistake man it's such a mistake absolutely that happens to the best of us just stop killing everyone so laris's archmaester walgraves chambers are in the west tower below the white rookery and

we have this line of the white ravens and the black ones quarrel like dornishmen and marchers so they keep them apart wow some commentary right in the reach on you know race yep uh totally some reach shit expertly delivered from aleris who knows this very well themselves being partially dornish i thought that was really well snuck in there good one george sam wonders if walgrave will understand what he's telling him, but Alaris says he won't see Walgrave. They begin to climb the north tower filled with flutterings and mutterings of ravens waking up. At the top of the stairs, a boy of Sam's age with blonde hair stands at a door of oak and iron,

staring into a candle flame with his right eye. Alaris teases the boy boy asking what he looks for in the candle destiny death the boy blinks telling aleris naked woman who's this who dis and i like this scene because george i think kind of just wrote what the internet is you could be looking for anything but you're looking for naked people so aleris answers this is a new novice come to see the mage yes we have a little passage between the blonde where he kind of says some mean things and he says the citadel is not what it was they will take anything these days dusky dogs dorn dornish men, pig boys, cripples, cretins, and now a black-clad whale.

And here I thought leviathans were gray. Oh, you're gonna get a leviathan, you little fucker. You bratty-ass little fucker. Yep. I think I saw someone... I wish I had grabbed this now for this episode. It was good. Made a really interesting post about leviathans recently on the subreddit.

And that coming up in sam's story oh sorry that i didn't grab your post and credit you person it was interesting but i love again that this chapter is kind of just like in a way a redo of our introduction to sam but it's kind of the way that we're ending his story here in a feast for crows and because it is again just the wall people saying oh this place isn't what it once was we used to get heroes and people volunteer now we're getting like i don't know all these random ass people and i mean again you can tell that it's the boarding school arc because not only do we have plucky cool friend hilarious we also have our jock right we don't just

have nerdy people with books here at this school or else it would be a different kind of thing right it's a boarding school art because we have a jock the boys hands it's like are they gonna get saturday detention i have to know yes they are the post that you're talking about is by Genghis Kazoo, I think. And I believe they say that, yeah, it was best. It was recent. And it was basically saying that being described as a Leviathan is important because the Leviathan is the natural rival of Krakens. Oh, very fun. And another interesting point they make is we know Sam was blessed by warlocks of karth as a child oh that's right it was remember yeah his father hired them to dip him yeah and they had

the white skin and the blue lips so just like as we discussed that tree reminding me a little of karth and these are the same warlocks that have issued unspecified threats to Euron, right? Who, as Genghis Kazoo writes, was not impressed. One presumed to threaten me, so I killed him and fed him to the other three. Um, it could be a Sam Tarly kill. It could be that Sam Tarly is our magical transforming boy, like Sailor Moon style. You know, he could be Sam the Wizard. Do you think they might recognize him because we're just gonna spoil things now from the forsaken do you think that they're gonna recognize him because there are warlocks on your own ship are they gonna be like

you're that kid that i poured blood all over maybe they already know yeah that's true. I mean, Marwyn knew he was coming, and that's just Marwyn. That is just Marwyn. Well, our blonde guy, our blonde asshole, he's handsome, sly, cruel, in a half cape, striped in green with gold draped across one shoulder. We know those colors. It's Leo Tyrell. Worse, Sam knows that. He knows those colors, and he knows Leo. And he feels like a boy of seven all over again, ready to soil and wet his small clothes.

And he says, I'm Sam Tarly. Leo says his father told them that he was dead or maybe it was only he wished you were dead. Ooh, sick burn, Leo. He asks if Sam was still craven. Sam lies. He's like, no, remembering John's command. And he says he fought in many battles across the wall and that they called him Sam the Slayer.

He doesn't really know why he said it. It just came out. Did it anyway. Before Leo can respond, past laughing, a man appears at the doorway growling for them to get in. I, again, I love this. This is growth. Sam is just doing so well with these new people, new old people, whatever, compared

again, to that boy we saw in the Game of Thrones who was just gonna let them take it when they called him Kraven, and he calling himself Kraven, and now he's standing up for himself. He's owning his accomplishments rather than playing them down, and he is speaking up for himself. I'm just, I am so proud of you, Sam.

You tell him. you're sam the slayer you've had sex yeah good for you i do love that and it really is reminiscent to me of brienne's arc uh where we start with a lot of her childhood trauma and remembering these boys in the reach in her recent years that have been so cruel to her as she goes through some of that being able to own that right we just got her no chance no choice a few chapters ago in a feast for crows before this i think that's really important that both of them are having those kind of moments in their art absolutely absolutely oh so proud there's a lot of things that are like steadily different about sam already proud moms

he's gonna i bet he's gonna he's gonna stand up to the bullies in the boarding school oh my gosh congrats sam oh my gosh he already is i love it who else will sam thrust into a position of authority and get them anyways aleris introduces sam and us to archmaester Marwyn, who wears a chain of many medals around his thick neck, looking more like a dockside thug than a maester. His head is too big for his body, his jaw thick, and he is short, squat, heavy in the chest with a round beer belly straining at his jerkin. White hair sprouts from his ears and nostrils and sour leaf stains his teeth he also had the biggest hand sam had ever seen and he has seen hands like hams fists like hams

pounding at him before he inks sam in to the large round room full of books and scrolls and tapestries and maps with the fire burning in the hearth there's something about his description and his introduction right may marwin and his introduction is not lost on me that kind of is like you meet the elder brother right and he doesn't look like what he is he looks different than what he is and same with septum marabal that they were probably warriors right before this uh and marwin doesn't seem the type to have wanted to take up a book he's very thick we've heard about him for a very long time he trained miri mazdour kyburn uh you know respects the fuck out of him wrote books that were read by the reader as we talked about in our asha chapters we'll talk about today and he's now working closely with alera slash sorella very well connected we have seen marwin

throughout the books his book that he wrote he's an author he's going to get you to try to buy his book so sit tight the book of lost books already sounds like a scam marwin uh the accounts of his travels are confirmed reports basically and they actually have confirmed some of the stuff that there are no living animals in ashi because he went to ashi we don't have a lot of characters that have kind of you know been that far besides what you're on he claims he has three pages of signs importance as well the dragon dreams from danis and some of the prophecies we'll talk more about that in a bit when marwin leaves because i do have something to say about that it's a great entrance for him

formal entrance absolutely a whirlwind of a man i'll never unsee him thanks to poor quentin as rick from rick and morty uh the beer belly really sticks out this time literally uh it's very visceral i can just see it in my head I'm very taken by his straightforward no nonsense no bullshit attitude on this reread and how he might be a little blinded because of that too yeah and besides you're on also allegedly Melisandre of

Asshai it's in the name but yeah different body type as Rick but same energy absolutely that's such a great description the puke at the mouth kind of thing you know the dribble yeah the old person dribble going i mean i could see marvin being like i'm pickle marvin you know yeah i could see that he has that energy yeah the only other light in the room came from this tall black candle which is unpleasantly bright the flame doesn't flicker,

even when Marvin slams the door shut. We have this description of the light did something strange to colors too. Whites were bright as fresh fallen snow, yellow shone like gold, reds turned to flame, but the shadows were so black they looked like holes in the world. Sam found himself staring. The candle itself was three feet tall and slender as a sword, ridged and twisted, glittering black. Is that Obsidian? said the other man in the room, a pale, fleshy, pasty-faced young fellow with round shoulders, with soft hands, close-set eyes, and food stains on his robes. Call it Dragon Glass! Archmeester marwyn glanced at the candle for a moment it burns but it's not consumed what feeds the flame asked sam what feeds a dragon's fire what feeds a

charmander's fire fuck that's a great question it is a good question i think i i learned that i learned that when i was a kid that was in an episode wasn't it they might have told us I just know you can't let the flame go out and that's why Ash yeah it's fucked up and he had to let the Charizard go to you know find himself and he came back

yeah they're best friends it's beautiful I actually really love the Charizard arcs the Char-iz-arc Charizard yes oh great philosophical questions honestly like what feeds the flame i don't know what fucking feeds the dragon's fire we're trying to find out and then capitalize on it uh marwin hops a squat and he's like sam valyrian sorcery was rooted in blood magic or fire magic the sorcerers of the freehold could see across mountains seas

deserts with a glass candle enter a man's dreams give them visions speak to others across the world all from the candle he asks sam if he thinks the slayer if he thinks that that may be useful and sam's like well we wouldn't need ravens anymore marwin asks for sam to tell marwin the story that he told aleris that he knows much and more of it but he wants to make sure he has all the gory details and of course he tells him that maester amen believed denaris was the fulfillment not stannis not rhaegar nor the prince that had his head dashed against the wall that we're going to hear more about in a dance with dragons right born amid salt and smoke yada yada marwin knows the prophecy he's like don't speak to me you know of the fucking prophecy i

know of it it was there when it was written no he wasn't i mean he says he basically says i mean basically yeah he says gorgon of old geese once wrote a prophecy is like a treacherous woman she takes your member in her mouth and you moan with the pleasure of it and think how sweet how fine how good this is and then her teeth snap shut and your moans turn to screams and that is the nature of prophecy said gorgon prophecy will bite your prick off every time so true bestie oh my god so true so real marvin this is interesting marvin is super realistic so i'll give him that the glass candle does not seem to be akin to melisandre reading the fires right like melisandre has a

clouded version of the glass candle this is the real deal like an actual visual tunnel to just see things happening or do things with it cast visions read visions see things uh i think it's important that george shows us that weirwood earlier with the ravens positioning sam to be spied on by brand blood raven maybe you're on and now we're seeing another form of these direct visions through the candle right it almost makes melisandre's magic a little diluted in the face of like being able to click on the tv candle and just take a look or put something out through it it's interesting that game of owns last week we talked about a feast with dragons with zach and they put this chapter close to the very end of their series in their read-through uh they changed it to the sacrifice victorian one the ugly little

girl cersei 2 tyrian 12 the king breakerer, John 13, oh, I get that, oh, uh, Samwell 5, and then the epilogue, The Queen's Hand, and Daenerys. It basically gives you a little bit of magic at the front there, right, and gives you the travelogue distance in between this chapter and those, but then positions all of this magic happening around it and makes this chapter completely magical. you were talking about the brand chapters earlier i would have moved this to be next to a brand chapter next to the visions i think that would and maybe that would give away the whole game but i feel like that would be such a highlight of thrones yeah i i see that yeah it would make sense next to and because there's a lot of shared themes, right?

Again, with that Bran chapter and the connections between Aemon and Bloodraven. You were talking earlier about the Weirwood being reminiscent. And they talk about how, yeah, Aemon was the oldest living man in Westeros and knew the most history. And it's like, well, I mean, I guess technically Bloodraven's not in Westeros and knew the most history and it's like well I mean I guess technically Bloodraven's not in Westeros if you think about it but even older than Aemon more access to history and stuff too

because you're kind of like wait that's not true kinda and so yeah and I like that idea I didn't think about that that the glass candle part of what makes it so much better than looking in the flames is because you got, as you said, a flame that holds still and is clear, has way better resolution, is basically what I'm being told.

It's true. It does sound like that. They're like, yeah, the colors are way brighter. It's better resolution, dude. Of course you're not going to understand what you just fucking watched if you have to adjust the bunny ears every few seconds, right? Melisandre doesn't have the best connection. She doesn't have a good signal. She's reading in maybe a, you know, lesser version of how to read it.

Maybe there are better ways for her. We could teach her. Yeah, Melisandre's got like dial up, right? And she's just waiting for it to show up and it never fully works. ways for her. We could teach her. Yeah, Melisandre's got like dial-up, right? And she's just waiting for it to show up and it never fully works. Yeah, that's her. And I like that you brought in that line about prophecy. People love talking about this line

about what Gorgon of Old Geese said about prophecy. But it's kind of funny that this is the book where we really start to get a view into Cersei's psyche. And I mean, in many ways, Cersei is that treacherous woman. And she is not gaining any pleasure whatsoever from this prophecies that she got as a child. Like, she never got a chance to ever sa her and think oh how sweet how fine she's like i regret this from like the moment that it happened i don't know if she knows she regrets it but she does uh so it's true i feel for her yeah she's like i'm gonna marry the king and then that blew up in her face anyway so

o'leary steps up saying amon wanted a maester sent to danny to counsel her marvin says maybe it was good that amon died before old town or else the gray sheep might have tried to kill him and made the poor old deers wring their wrinkled hands we have a great great little passage here marvin smiled a ghastly smile the juice of the sour leaf running red between his teeth who do you think killed all the dragons the last time around gallant dragon slayers armed with swords he spat the world the citadel is building had no place in it for sorcery or prophecy or glass candles much less for dragons ask yourself why amen targaryen was allowed to waste his life upon the wall when by rights he

should have been raised to arch maester his blood was why he could not be trusted no more than i can yo this is some look some conspiracy theory shit going on here, right? Like, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is a lot of truth and knowledge that we have not done enough acid to listen to. You know what I mean? Like, what? They tried to kill the dragons? Now, I do have some questions because, as you and I both have, we've read Fire and Blood.

I would say that the dragons dying out kind of felt more like self-fulfilling there in that the Targaryens maybe had a civil war that killed a lot of them and then there was also that whole time where you know all of king's landings cometers came out and was like what if we killed all the dragons because we're supposed to and they stormed the dragon pit now what marwin is suggesting is an alternate history of events here right that it was actually the maesters that plotted to make this happen weakened them etc etc now i used to feel like maybe it was more the fire and blood stuff but that line earlier that we get going all the way back to the novice getting put in the stocks for stealing food from the kitchen.

That really stood out to me that like, A, why was he stealing food? It seems the Citadel is pretty well provisioned. B, why are we jailing him for stealing food? Right. And it makes you wonder about this place as an institution and what it's covering up. Like when you think about how the Night's Watch is covering up that great mystery of what's beyond the wall so that people don't have to deal with that. There are great truths in power and some of the mysteries they study at the Citadel. And I'm sure some of those

truths and powers are probably very awful, and they don't want them to get out. So I feel like the novice in the stocks could just be the kind of the tipping point, because Marwyn here even kind of implies like, oh, they'll kill you. You know, bro, if you think about this stuff out loud, they'll just kill you if you get too close to the truth, man. So you just got to find the truth, man. It's just interesting to think the old town is like thinking to preserve life right keep the dragons away to keep the wars from happening and not decimate westeros again but as we watch the gray rats from the story and we even have like barbary's own damning thoughts on them as well as seeing them imprison their own for food stealing food just makes you wonder what these ulterior motives are. Yeah, it is. I mean, yes, the Targaryens did that on their own. And by that, I mean us in our civil

war. But it seems like the implication is they kept them from returning right after that civil war and everything that happened. And I wonder how far back it goes right because now i'm like thinking and like like what if they saw a you know a prophecy or something that was like if the dragons ever dance again everything's gonna fall apart because we did see you know someone have a vision that was basically like that in one of the arianne um sample chapters but you know speaking of people named darren we did have a darren anyway so i'm just kind of wondering like it what if they're also like doing this because they're going off of a prophecy too which would be kind of well that's kind of what it seems like like they're all going off of a

prophecy everyone is but they're all interpreting it themselves. We had Marwyn just give that speech, and he's like, fuck prophecy. And then he's like, I'm a head out because of prophecy, though. You know, history was like, bye. I'm a head out. Yeah. And that's what he says here. He says he'll go to Slaver's Bay and Aemon's place.

He's like, I'll do it. Someone has to, so it will be me. And he'll go on the ship that brought Sam the Slayer. He's like, the gray sheep will send their own men, but I'll get to her first. Will you go? He tells Sam to stay, forge your chain, forge it quickly. He'll be needed

back at the wall. Yeah. And I mean, again, Sam's had 15 years to forge a chain. I think he should be done by now, but anyways. So he tells the pasty-faced novice that was already in his room to find sam a dry cell and sam sputters asking what he's to say to the other archmaesters and marvin says what they want to hear that they're smart and clever that even commanded he put himself at their hands and i'm like oh sam's had practice with doing this already already when he swung a whole election.

Anyways, but say nothing of dragons or prophecies unless you fancy poison in your porridge. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. So we talked about how Asha's POV, we learn Marwyn claims to have three pages of signs importance, which is Dany's dragon dreams, right?

With the doom, everything, all the good shit, all the good shit is in those dreams. We want to know what that is. I kind of think it's absolute corroboration that he gets up to get the fuck out right here. And he's like,

all right, thanks, Sam. Thanks for the corroboration. Just wanted to get the thumbs up that what you heard was the same as what I heard. And I'm going to go act on that now. He took one third of Sam's story he didn't even

finish the whole story right he cut him off and he said so it's true i must go to slaver's bay and be an archmaester hero i also want to speculate that those three pages of science importance seem to have some sort of variation of the prophecy right some sort of variation of the prince that was promised prophecy. They seem to be the three pages. It's pretty safe to assume that this is on a, like we've talked about on a thematic and narrative level, these stories are all running around this prophecy. So Marwyn has seen and researched similar things to what Sam is telling him. And now he's come to his conclusion that it's time to make his move. Maybe some of his hatred for Maesters is blinding, right?

I guess once you've seen the truth, that probably changes who you are and how you kind of associate with your colleagues. But there is something interesting here that like Marwyn is responsible for some of the monsters in the story right miri mazdour kyburn people doing great things but horrible things he's also harboring a faceless man that he is not maybe he has realized that pate isn't pate but it seems he hasn't figured it out

yet uh and his club also has Lazy Leo in it. So, like, Lazy Leo's not awful yet. We don't know if he's horrible, but we know he bullied Sam when he was younger. So he's horrible to me, and I don't like him. I just wonder about his perception of those around him, because he's so focused on prophecy. It really seems that, like, he's got the dog with the bone in front front of him and he's chasing the bone and it's all the people he's amassed around him to support chasing that bone but the next question i have is if he reaches danny is he gonna even be able to affect her plot is he gonna even reach her is he

gonna be blinded by things around him that's such a great point about like what we've seen of marwin's effects through miri mazdor and kyburn because i mean it doesn't if these people learn this shit from ky from marwin i'm like marwin does not seem then to really care that much about people i guess yeah kyburn got kicked out it makes me wonder like did miri mazdor leave then intentionally right because mary mazdour was acting as a healer for a lot of that time and she says she did the actions that she did to denarius's child in order to save her people she like marvin i don't like your shit so i don't i don't know like and it's possible that marvin i think marvin could affect Dany's plot. Maybe not positively. Exactly.

But we'll see. I'm worried. Especially because Dany's probably going to have some dancing of her own with some of these other characters he's affected at some point. Whether positive or negative, right? You have reading it in Ash's plot, having that come to the surface. You have Qyburn possibly being around for Dany coming to Westeros. Who knows? You never know if the the show had any fun ideas kyburn makes the big dragon killing machine again

so you know just interesting very interesting i don't know what to expect i'm worried that you know in a sitcom it would be a lot different this isn't a sitcom i know exactly how it would go in a sitcom i am worried about his effect for danny it could be i mean beware the perfumed seneschal it's not him could be anyone though could be anyone i will say uh you did point out lazy leo is he bullied sam i wonder if it'll be like one of those arcs right where they become really good friends in the end. Oh, like Heil Hunt and Brienne? No, not quite

like that. More like, um... Well, I guess he didn't neg him romantically. No. I think it was just, you know, childhood bullying. Not as bad as his dad bullied him. Yeah, that's true. It doesn't help when your parents are not on your side, you know.

Yeah, out there being like, he just said you were dead. Yeah. Fucker. Marmon tells the Sphinx to look after Sam and off he goes. Or as Chloe might put it, off he fucked. And Sam is bewildered, asking, where is he going? And Hilarious says to the docks that the mage did not believe in wasting time and i'm just like marvin's just like an npc you know speaking of video games he comes he says

his whole thing and he's like off to go on my quest see you later yeah it was very reactive it was like bye very strange not the most elegant of i guess George's plotting but you know thank god we got that moved forward in fact uh Alaris has a confession our meeting Sam was not a coincidence the mage saw Sam coming in his candle and sent Alaris to grab him

uh the pasty faced novice says also there's an empty cell under his in the west tower leading to Walgray's chambers if you know if you abhor the quarking and i'm like okay all right so maybe i don't know i have to rethink some of the things that we said in the past few towers may chapters maybe amen didn't have dragon dreams maybe it was glass candle visions which i know other people have suggested to you but like i don't know maybe he did i don't know i don't know. I don't know. It's ambiguous. Also, there's a view of the honey wine. Very exciting. The novice wants, the novice warns that the stones turn cold at night. And so he's going

to bring Sam woolen coverlets, which is very nice. I mean, Sam is very used to cold, but whatever. And we have these lines. There was something about the pale, soft youth that he misliked, but he did not want to seem discourteous so he added my name's not Slayer truly I'm Sam, Samuel Tarly. I'm Pate the other said like the pig boy like the pig

boy that is the best part of that like the pig boy but I'm not actually the pig boy isn't that funny how that works yeah you know that is that is some stuff right there that is i'm like the pig boy he ain't that ain't him we we know we've been there we're gonna get there in a couple weeks but we've yes pate is there and my husband

thinks it's just to steal the dragon book maybe, but he is sticking around. So it makes me think he's being set up for something bigger narrative-wise, especially because we have the maesters on one side, Euron and Sam's kind of possible brewing feud on another, and then you also have the Faceless Men coming in. I don't know, Sam feels a weird aura around him, right? He mislikes him. Sam already has noticed something's off about this guy. And we end on this reveal that we know it's him, but Sam doesn't, which is great because we're told in the prologue, we are not really given much about Pate, except that he's pink necked and he has gold hair. We don't learn anything about him beyond that. So like you don't get a view of his face or what he looks like.

You get a view of everybody though around him, really detailed. You get a view of Alaris, of Lazy Leo, of the alchemist. You know, here he's described as pale and soft, which almost feels bloodless in the description,

right? Which would maybe explain like, you know, since it's his face drained of blood on a faceless man's face interesting yeah i thought it felt like a detail that might be in there and i might just be making it up and imagining it uh since you know paint seemed more full of life when we last met him and now he's very much so not full of life as we know yeah or maybe just pate saw himself that way clearly pate had a very different view of himself than maybe other people did what if everyone was always like i hate that incel

probably i mean probably we'll discuss that more when we get there but valsal valsal yes kind of yeah and i kind of wonder if i i always kind of wonder this about the faceless men. Can they change their height? I always want to know. I always want to know. And I think it's all about illusion, right? It's all about illusion. When we look at like, what Aria is learning, and then you look at like Melisandre, right? And her bag of tricks. It feels like about illusion. It's both they're using both. They're using all of the skills that they've learned right because we learned that at the yes from the faceless men that they learned all the skills and i mean if this guy was going to be next to marvin no wonder he had to take pate's face because marvin has a sharp eye probably and would have seen through the glamour

and i know that our friend thunderclap asked on Patreon if we think that this faceless man might be Zondo. But I'm going to be honest. I think we have a very clear answer of who this faceless man is. Yes, we have met him before. And I didn't come up with this. Many other people have because we have indeed had not just 15 years. I really gave you a rounded down version when I said how much time Sam has had to get his chain, get his maester's chain. It's been 16 to 17 years, all right, since the Feast for Crows came out. And so a lot of people have had time to discuss this.

And the Faceless Man, aka the Alchemist that we we see in Pate's prologue is pretty much almost the exact same description of the one in Arya's chapter, of Jaqen H'ghar as he's leaving Arya. So I think that's another way that it ties really nicely and neatly with Sam having met Arya, and again, creating those connections between these chapters. chapters and of course we see that same alchemist and pate like biting the coin right and it gives us that like tie of that like action that motif when we see aria also do it in her chapters so i think those are meant to like remind us hey these are the same yes these are the same faceless men so it's not not Zondo. I'm pretty very sure it's Jaqen H'ghar. Yeah.

I thought that Jaqen H'ghar and the coin and the connection with the alchemist, and we'll revisit this when we get to this prologue. I thought it felt very, very, like I caught the connections. I was like, aha, aha, now he's in Zem's plot. And it's so clever because we catch it, right? And only we know. And you're like, no, Sam, he's right behind you. Take out your AirPods.

I think narratively at this point in the story, I mean, look, we only have eight more books left. So like, we can't just keep, we can't keep adding mysteries. I think there are some things in the series that are fun to speculate on, but I also think it's very obvious when like some of these narrative choices are you know we only have so many stories left to tell we got to get somewhere with them yeah and I will say that like you know

yes this pate seems very off and scary but like what if he ends up being cool right Jockin ended up being like a total homie to Arya that's my question though is what's his end game of thrones and why is he here and is he gonna make life shitty to sam or be a homie yeah that's what i want to know yeah you know as we kind of discuss the outro for samwell tarly of his future what's coming in the future that's one thing i definitely want to know. And I'm excited that this was the last chapter because that means there's no lightning round for our outro, Eliana. This is

it. We could technically say like the Jon stuff and whatever, but also we did the Jon chapters and you can just go listen to those. I mean, but he's not in this book so technically this is it until the next book, yeah. I think it's a great bookend especially with the prologue you could see what george wanted to kind of affect it's so perfect with build up there are so many hints littered to what we can expect for

his chapters in the winds of winter and i'm sure we'll be wrong on half of it because a we're not poor quentin but b i'm sure i'll be wrong on some of those like old town like thoughts and theories uh but man it pisses you off like if I had to wait for a dance with dragons thankfully I did not I was catching up during that time period it was already out uh if I had to wait though I probably would have been pissed because this is a good chapter a strong chapter you feel the hype you're at a brand new location uh i don't want to go too far in the prologue since we'll get there but i love that paint opens up as a version of sam miserably in love with a girl despite his circumstances of not really supposed to be loving tending to an arch maester that's losing his wits and senses and

then he gets brought into the matrix of wanting to make something happen in his life, frustrated, and dies. Right? Which Sam, thank God. Thank the gods. He's here. He's good. He's Gucci. Something is so striking, though, about how Pate wanted to get out and marry Rosie and run away from all of this.

And Sam is doing quite the opposite, right? He's running to his duty. He got to that shore, to that horizon that Kojima told him to look at. He fought his way to this shore to be with Gilly, to find the truth in King's Landing for Eamon's memory and Jon, and find bravery within him once more. And poor, poor Pate doesn't quite see that light. Yeah, I like what you said of Pate sort of being like a dark reflection of Sam. And it was a weaker echo, right? dark reflection of Sam.

And it was a weaker echo, right? Yeah. Yeah. And kind of throws up what Sam wants into like this contrast and really helps us see more, you know, Sam wants to do his duty. Unlike Pate,

right. And Sam has seen that him doing his duty is the only way to really save like Gilly and the babe. And, but there is something interesting here about pate wanting to marry rosie i was listening to the radio westeros um analysis of sam and as as everyone knows a lot of samwell tarly's inspiration comes from samwell from lord of the rings and isn't like samwise sorry samwise comes from samwise from lord of the rings. And isn't, like, Samwell's... Samwise? Sorry, Samwise. It comes from Samwise from Lord of the Rings. Jesus fucking

Christ. But you know every character in Naruto. Every single one. No, I don't. No, I don't. There's so many of them. There's so many of them. I don't know all the frogs. George could never. George could never. But, like, isn't Samwise's,

like, girl back home named rosie yes yes that is the whole little joke yeah and she's got blonde ringlets and she's short and she's mary you know indeed yeah but not that mary yeah very similar no no nor pippin see i know the name i know the names of some characters look at that look at that you smiled you showed recognition she smiled folks let's talk about the future of sam as we close out right i think we've got a lot in the future to look at uh old town in general old town is going to be a setting for the winds of winter someday aleris slash sorerella being here, I want to examine those motivations a lot closer

in the future. Yeah, I think we're going to get a chance to do that in the prologue episode, so I don't know. We're going to get there soon, so we'll just think about that later. We'll talk about them in a few weeks, so tune in to our prologue episode. You're on Greyjoy?

You're on Greyjoy? Ob, you're on Greyjoy? Obito Uchiha? I need a divorce from you. I'm quitting this podcast. I don't even fire you anymore, I just fire myself. It's the only way to free yourself. You have to remove yourself from the system. Dessert, dessert.

I like the idea of Sam being able to bring down the downfall of your on right uh personally i've always kind of subscribed to some of the theories that bran would be frying him with his mind maybe and danny would be frying him with her dragons and i don't think i ever really considered sam killing your on or being the cause of his death before before this uh slow reread yeah and i mean you linked me um and i do think that this makes a lot of sense right you were talking about uh genkis kazoo's thread on reddit which i think this did win one of or it was definitely nominated for one of the best of 2021

i know because i had to help compile not had had to, I helped compile the best of awards this past year. I don't know how Jen Snow did all that on her own. Like, oh my god, what a hero. But it's called How Sam the Slayer is Being Forged by the Narrative into the Ultimate Weapon Against Euron, which I want to point out is different from the Leviathan post I saw earlier this week. But this is still a good one. This is still a good one. And it's also something that our friend Noah talked about quite a bit too, right? sam's importance in this plot and standing against like all these larger evils um and you're on great joy definitely definitely is that daddy of all evil and there's something to be said of like, Sam is someone who has kind of lost, right, and relinquished his birthright as a first son, kind of forced to, right, as the Lord.

Whereas Euron is kind of just trying to force himself there and gain all this power. And Sam's just like, Sam only wants it to be able to protect the people he loves as far as we can see well and that's like a lot of the lord of the rings point right of the power of wanting the power is always those that are consumed by it in that story with the whole ring thing the ring lords the ring consumed by it the ring takes you over and the desire for that power takes you over and sam doesn't want that and i think that's really important about his character and him being in the citadel you know being able to say i don't want to wield this power which is why sam you will be wielding this magic against everyone interesting i i think we'll seem tempted by it

but in a different way like with a twist right Like we've seen him already use that power to completely influence an election. And he lied. He lied a lot to do that. And I think the Citadel is somewhere where you can affect a lot of politics. And he might be tempted to do some of those big changes in order to you know save the world from euron or who knows what else he'll see and do it do it um for the people that he loves or for what he sees as the greater good who knows but i think the wall too is so important that choosing to go back to the wall and i think we've seen Jon make that choice already, right?

In his desertion and coming back and choosing to go back, choosing to evacuate everyone. We might see Sam choose to evacuate everyone in Oldtown that he can, and we might see him choose to go back, right? We might see him get Gilly and get out. We might see them choose to get back after getting some of their knowledge. We might not see him forge everything i hope we see him forge a lot more though i do i think we would have if we had had

like you know the time skip of course but it can't we don't have that well i do think that george will open it you know yeah i think every character is gonna have a mini time skip not a lot but enough to where he's gonna be like sam had been doing this i'm sure it's gonna get really funny too at a couple points like we're gonna be like yeah george we get it yeah you know when we get the book and we do see like a little bit of that time skip too already from what we see of some of those characters like for elaine and for uh mercy and we also i think what you're saying right it makes sense for Sam to want to return to the wall because this person he cares about greatly, Gilly, Gilly has a huge motivation to return to the wall. To go home.

Her son. And if John comes back to life, right, he might want his boyfriend back. So we need to get him back. Yeah, or he might not. He might be like, what the fuck? Why did you put me in this position? Who knows? And I think Sam will be mad if he sees Undead John.

He'll be like, why did you do this to Gilly? And I think that'll be good for them. I think it'll be good to see a little tension between the BFFs like that. Oh, the girls are fighting again. The girls are fighting. The girls are fighting. Tyrell brothers, we're're gonna meet them right like we have to see them uh sam the cam are we gonna see high garden lazy leo's already in sam's plot and where there's one rose you generally can find

another growing uh weirdly enough he doesn't really talk about the tyrells much until leo he's like oh this is my history so it makes sense that he might have known maybe some of the older tyrells are known of them maybe new loris right loris is closer in age uh that's sensible yeah he probably did he probably did grow up around them i mean we know that randall charlie hung out with all these people a lot we saw the red line thing happen and i will say i just in terms of like character ensembles for again the boarding school arc we do need someone like leo for our new gang of heroes and i do think you know maybe usually in a show like i wouldn't be surprised to see someone like this be like i'm coming around

we're like friends and the bullies like put they put things aside i'm thinking more like i'm thinking like in um stranger things but you know yeah or breakfast i'm curious yeah like we said saturday detention right exactly uh i wonder what pov sam is going to meet with after this, right? Is it going to be in the Winds of Winter? Will he meet someone? I would love a Sansa POV. Like, maybe they arrive in White Harbor or something at the same time at the end of the book. I just think we have to get another Stark intersection POV and she's it, right? That would be interesting.

And you did say POV explicitly. I think that would be fun if he ran into Sansa. And we have seen little inklings of mermaid things going on in Sam's arc already. And we've discussed this before in some of the prior chapters. It could be fun if he also ends up running into Davos and Rickon. Yeah, that would be a blast. So, the big daddy of them all. Oh my god. Not Euron Greyjoy? Other daddy. Fuck.

Sorry, it's hard to keep track. Father. Father. Oh god. Less sexy. Good, good. Take it back, I don't want it. We don't want it, but we have to get it because we also want to see sam we want to see sam grow right and like during our rob pov discussion on our patreon episode

we discussed how i see caitlin in many ways as one of the main antagonists of Rob's story in terms of like she's not evil or villain but she stands in the way of Rob as a character his goals and desires and again that's some of that like teenage rebellion stuff turned up to 11 George likes to do that but for Sam I see a similar dynamic especially interestingly you know he is also John's brother and it's it's similar but randall is actually a villain right sam's main antagonist for his personal storyline and growth it's not the others and like even though as many people have pointed out and also as radio westeros pointed out sam is likely poised to play a big part in this narrative as a hero against youuron like I I just don't see Euron as being like as big of a villain for Sam as Randall is right because we've seen Sam's Sam had to start his

storyline standing up to like John who basically represents a family member all right but it's in a safer spot because John is someone who knows and loves him but Sam is risking their friendship in doing that that's that's a big deal and then he goes up against pretty much like the scariest thing ever which is the others and then also the political leaders in the night's watch and you know then sam learns about finding courage to care for the people he loves during this ship journey and and i think sam's been building up a lot of experience to go up against his big bad which is randall and i think it's going to be for himself and for the people that he loves somehow and i think you're on is going to be a cakewalk after randall for for sam to be honest yeah because that's the point right like i agree with this so much

it's all been leading to him uh as he said earlier right like i could do this i could do this randall is scarier than you're on to sam uh he looked at that flag and was like huh don't know what that sigil is better move on he's he's good he's gonna survive this i mean god if anyone survives this story it's sam and gilly dude uh those two kids deserve it they will they will survive it i don't think that george could possibly put them through the ringer much more than he's going to next book i don't know about the babies but i do think i don't want to talk about it i don't want to talk about that right now Eliana it's not important that's not important don't want to hear that

definitely scarier than Euron to Sam and it's funny because I think it won't be right like once he can conquer Randall Sam can conquer anything and then choosing again to go back to the family he chose to the brothers at the wall I think that's going to be really beautiful.

I do think he's going to get interrupted, though, in all of this by Euron. He's probably going to see his dad because of that. Oh, interesting. That Euron drives him that way. Or that he flees and his father's camp or something, he comes upon it. Yeah. I wonder if, like, it comes back around to everything right so randall absolutely is i think the big bad of sam's storyline but what if we get a twist

the human heart in conflict with itself and we're starting to see him uh begin to feel some resentment towards john john's going to be a little different and i think things are going to get a little complicated with the Daenerys romance as well. Not exactly like in the show, but I think we might be seeing some inklings of how things go there. Is

Sam going to have to learn to stand up to John again, and a different John than the one that he started the story with? Yeah. That is definitely a place that it could be taken. I think that Sam is going to play a lot of that moral consciousness that John has lost, right? I mean, coming back changes you, we see how it's changed Stoneheart.

Maybe ice will preserve, as we've seen from maester amon's body that he thinks the wall is why he survived maybe that will preserve john and maybe he won't quite be as gone as far gone as stoneheart however he's probably gonna come back a little rough around the edges right not gonna be a pretty john snow boy anymore oh my god you're not your pretty boy Jon Snow anymore. He's gonna come back a little colder. And I expect to see that reflect on how Sam's attitude toward him changes and Sam probably holding him

a little accountable emotionally for a lot of things. Yeah. You know, families, sometimes they butt heads and this is Sam's chosen family we love a chosen family arc I hope Sam's been getting good at

archery so I hope that motherfucker just pops one in Euron's eye you know his other eye it is impressive it does kind of look like a target if you think about it I want to see what's under that eye patch. What if it's nothing?

It's a smiling eye. It's his breakthrough eye. He's just being silly. It's daddy's other eye. He's just like, I wanted to cosplay. Oh my gosh. Sam Tarly, Euron Greyjoy, Bran Stark, all these characters milling about. We have, what, four, all these characters milling about.

We have, what, four characters, five characters milling about coming up soon in our prologue chapters. So get buckled up for that. We say goodbye to Sam today, for now, on his published chapters. Goodbye! It's the last Sam chapter for the past 16 to 17 years.

Eliana, we didn't ask. None of us asked for that information. None of us. Thanks for listening, everyone. We'll be back. We'll be back, gosh, in May. In May with a prologue. And after we get that prologue out for you,

we'll move on to the next, on to the next, on to the next. So keep your ears peeled for any guests coming up yes and if you want to keep track of when those episodes come out or who those guests will be be sure to follow us on social media you can find us at

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I don't know where we are. I believe we're everywhere that you've said. And also, we are always on Patreon, of course. Patreon.com slash Girls Gone Canon. And patrons in the Stranger tier and above, $5 and above, do get bonus episodes every month and this month is april fools yes and of course next month we'll be visiting the his dark materials worlds once more however if you are in the thunder tier above you have access to brunch

and happy hour this month it'll be april 24th at 11 45 either online or in real life at ice and fire con we'll see you then as always i have been one of your hosts clonera targaryen you really said it again interesting interesting you really decided i've got the disease i've got the disease you decided to own that okay um and i have been another one of your hosts aliana sent i like that one thanks for it makes me sound innocent i'm gonna put you in my dungeon aliana oh a sexy right as our friend maddie says mommy oh my god it's gonna be a sexy war see you guys next time