Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 163 — ASOS Prologue, Chett aka THE CHETTISODE featuring Micah

Episode Date: June 3, 2022

One of the coolest chapters of ASOIAF focuses on probably one of the worst dudes ever, it's the Chett POV! Micah, resident expert on Minor Characters in ASOIAF, joins us to talk about his favorite prologue with one of the most dramatic and game changing endings.  Where to find Micah:  Micah's Twitter: https://twitter.com/Micah_ofClark  Planetos Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlanetosPodcast  --- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: www.liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Read A Song of Ice and Fire, episode 163, A Storm of Swords Prologue, chat featuring Micah. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And today's guest is maybe an expert on minor characters, but is not a minor character in today's episode. Ha! Ha ha ha ha! Hey, Micah! hey micah hello everybody i'm micah you can find me on twitter at micah underscore of clark where

i make numerous amounts of shit posts or just posts about minor various minor characters that you've never heard about i'm also a co-host on planetos podcast which you can find under the same name on twitter we're not doing that much right now, but there's a lot of stuff on various minor houses and minor characters on that. And it's a total blast. I think my favorite is probably the Barbary episode?

We had a Barbary. They had a Barbary episode before I came on, and it was really good. Yeah. BM, before Micah, but it's a great episode. But, you know you guys are great all of y'all are good friends I've gotten to meet actually oh my god I've gotten to meet everyone

all of them right yeah I've selected them all wow sorry Micah that's okay I was lucky enough to meet Micah Micah the tall I was lucky enough to meet

small Micah I was like Micah's tall? yeah taller than I am insane like I said not a minor character not a minor character I want to minor character. I want to say

you told me during like a brunch or some sort of hanging out on Discord how tall you were. I was like, wait a second, how tall are you? And you told me and I was like, wow. Interesting. And I got to see it in the flesh and you were not kidding around. Yeah. Not kidding around, folks. No, I am Groot. I am Groot. I am tall and

lean. Well, I couldn't think of a better person to come on for the storm of sorts prologue. We're going to talk a little bit about this prologue and, you know, get talking about what's to come in the prologue for our favorite character chat. But without Micah, we could not do it. There are a bajillion named minor characters in this chapter that Micah is going to blow me away with reminding me about today. So I'm excited. Yeah, I cannot keep them straight in my head. I read the chapter, I looked some of them up again to remind myself and that's all gone. I lost it all. So Micah will be here to keep us on track. I got you so not only that we are also kicking off a new month it is june and that means that this month

there will be a new patreon episode for patrons in the stranger tier and above that is to be determined yeah tba tba however at the time of the release of this you can access may's episode which was on the imagination chamber by philip pullman that was a fun episode we got to kick back with a drink and just kind of unravel the new material pullman gave us so if you're into the his dark materials world in the outer trilogy books check that one out at the patreon feed if you're in the Outer Trilogy books, check that one out at the Patreon feed if you're in the Stranger tier and above. We will also be announcing later on this month our Discord brunch, probably in our next episode we'll let you know when that's going to be, so stay tuned. But I'm very excited for our next episode because we're going to kick it off into gear

here with Micah after having a great episode with Alex last week on Crescent or last episode. Our next episode that we're coming back with is Pate, of course, the A Feast for Crows prologue. And this is so exciting featuring Nate from the Brotherhood Without Manners. I'm very excited to have Nate on, to have one of the duo of the Brotherhood Without Manners on. excited to have Nate on to have one of the duo of the Brotherhood Without Manners on so yeah and you did recently actually I don't know if it was recently or not I lost all sense of time but you did do an episode with the Brotherhood Without Manners regarding perhaps like a Jason topic when it comes to characters who overlap with the Faceless Men really funny now that you say that yes it was Aa 8 in Storm.

One of my favorite chapters, of course. You can guess why I liked it because one of my minor characters is talked about in it that I tend to gravitate towards. Micah, you may know. Yeah. I have no idea who that is.

We all know who it is. Purple, falls off buildings. Falls off, yeah. Normal things that happen in this series. This is a better death by childbirth, okay? I mean, my god, pick one. Yeah. She was handed two options.

Fall off the building or die in childbirth. Yeah. That's just it. That's all anyone ever gets, you know? And then of course, at the end of this month, we have our final His Dark Materials

episode, which is super sad in many ways. Final of the main trilogy, at least. Our final Amber Spyglass episode. We just put out our penultimate episode for the amber spyglass so i'm excited to get to the end i'm sad as well but we're really excited because we're going to have hayley bowery the front woman of the manimals and a wonderful artist and musician

and a really dear friend of mine come on and talk about the saddest part of the main trilogy of His Dark Materials. Yes, and of course, we'll be talking some of the stuff with the upcoming final season of the show, as information is now coming out about that. Yeah, we're getting some good previews on the final season of the adaptation. We're finishing up a fun rewatch discussion on series two of his dark materials every Saturday at the discord. I'm excited to see what comes when we get to season three and we'll start putting out some episodes on that when it happens in the autumn. Yeah.

Now, as for some emails and tweets of note, actually everyone you've done great. Now there's actually a couple that we've gotten, especially in regards to a couple of other episodes, and we will definitely have some for next episode for Pate, including one from Micah. But I think we're gonna have to double back on some of these thoughts sometime. I'm now backlogged. All I had to do is neg the audience a little. Not only that, but let's be real who's the coolest

prologue chapter the aleris chapter everyone i mean sorry the pate chapter it's aleris's chapter like who's pate we don't know pate literally we don't know literally don't hate dies yeah yeah no one knows that boy ripped to him but yeah aleris is different though yeah obviously yeah aleris is gonna outlast everyone in this fucking story so i think the true movie character i mean i think aleris is going to be like our gender non-conforming leader of dorne in the end that's all who's gonna be left yeah that's possible everyone else is gonna die yeah literally everyone else they're going to king's landing where nukes are underneath the ground and cersei is the queen basically what do you think is gonna happen all of those all those old people that would argue are also gonna die so you know rip to them but i'm different i'm alive. That's different.

Speaking of people who aren't alive, let's talk about Chet. Oh man, that bitch dead. An off-screen death though, right? As we're going to get to. Yeah, actually, that's true. Like Varamyr, he's one of the few prologue characters that does not die immediately. He dies about five minutes afterwards.

Amazing. Very true george wanted to break his streak right he was getting he was like all right i'm starting to get predictable here let's kill him off the page yeah but let's talk a little bit about chet's life unfortunately we'll start off what we missed you know our lightning round and this one is in fact a brief this time it's just a tiny little flicker. Stick your hand in a socket. As a child, Chet collected leeches with

his father in the Riverlands. He later killed a woman who refused to sleep with him. Now he's at the Night's Watch. This is his story. Bum bum. Bum bum. Bum bum. Yeah, not much to tell. And we're going to unravel all of that as we go along and we start

off at the very front with a of course a little bit of a chilling scene the weather is horrible yeah chilling get it and the dogs aren't catching the scent one of the dogs smells a very large black bear but returns in fear the dogs are huddling together. What could it mean? Chet feels the cold, too, twisting his face. Never good when all you feel is the cold. Love the bear right at the front also. I love looking at these prologue chapters as kind of what they're encapsulating for the rest of the book, right?

You know, you get a lot of the vibes in Pate chapter throughout the entire Feast book and kind of what the direction of the book is going. Here in Storm with Chet, you have Jaor right up in center, the big black bear spooking their trail right at the front of the story. All covered in hair. Oh, very reminiscent that we open with the dogs fearing him. Very nice. And just as the dogs never find that bear bear chet and his gang never get to finish

their plans also as as you all know we might have actually mentioned this before but we do see that bear white later so i wonder if that means anything for jay or we might have said that before also but yeah i mean his skull it is not a drinking implement in george r martin's adaptation he didn't like that and so he threw that out uh yeah sam chapters i think great we talked about that i want to say probably it came up i think so we talked about that yeah which wasn't even that long ago i have no excuse i should be safe back at the wall tending the bloody ravens and making fires for old maester amen it was the bastard john snow who had taken that from him.

Him and his fat friend, Sam Tarly. It was their fault he was here, freezing his bloody balls off with a pack of hounds deep in the haunted forest. That was amazing. Thank you. Thank you. That was good.

So, uh, Yookboy actually pointed this out, you know, again, in those same chapters that he did with us the very first same chapter which pretty much directly follows this in terms of that storyline and you know like how the fuck is it Sam and John's fault

that Chet is here when Sam who took over Chet's old job and probably feels much less physically equipped for this ranging and the fighting is also on this ranging and the fighting, is also on this ranging LMAO. You, I mean, I'm just saying, Chet, you're gonna go on this ranging no matter what, dude.

It's true. And it's kind of funny because I had never even considered it till now, but there's even a little bit of little finger in chat right like had little finger not risen through the ranks and been ambitious had he gone this way for example and just bend the boy from the fingers maybe even go to the night's watch for his horrible crimes against humanity his guy is balter ass crime he'd be with like the sister men right now yeah yeah yes so he's like a non he's like a less fake new money version of Littlefinger, I guess. This is interesting.

It is interesting. We'll dig into that throughout this chapter. It's the only one I guess. Yes. Chet, who is also scolding the dogs for their fear, but that makes the dogs only huddle more and then mentions that dog meat would taste as good as bear meat and i'm just like not sure of that i just feel like the dogs especially right now are very i don't know spindly and thin and the bears probably like got a lot of like fat on it especially for the cold and it's probably just more delicious

chet's also a poor dog owner so no that's true these are very undelicious dogs i mean yeah you've been starving them as we're gonna hear like they're not even fattened up first of all you haven't treated them right i also never hear about people eating bear meat now that i think about it i'm sure people do i just like don't hear much about it like we've discussed wall was it walrus no we've discussed seal meat seal meat before that one sounds good anyway i will also add the other thought that comes to mind there is like the eating of the dogs this is something that is kind of an abomination in some ways that you're raising dogs to eat them right people don't just you know do that usually and obviously it's last chance like they're hungry and they're cold yeah and they need there's no

meat people's teeth are getting loose you know i mean that's you need a little protein out there in them winters but it's interesting that you have this versus varamir later right yeah like that varamir you know he's not going to eat his own demons he's not going to eat his uh his animal he's connected to yes absolutely lark the sisterman as we pointed out earlier is also here wearing black wool gloves but always complaining of his frozen fingers and he backs up the dogs he's like you know what the dogs are right it's too cold and the bear isn't worth it he doesn't say it like that he actually says it like much more words because he sucks but it is kind of funny that you know lark the sisterman as the three sisters as you were saying, right, where Lark would be from. Those are just north of the fingers.

And his fingers are frozen. That's all. Just thought it was funny. George! Pun. George, clever. Small Paul doesn't want to go back empty-handed. He has frozen snot and a spear. We love him. Lark says

bugger that old bear too, very cleverly, hinting that Mormont will die soon. Is this foreshadowing? Is this foreshadowing? Is it? Looks at butterflies. In fact. It feels like it.

A bearter fly. Wait. Oh my god. Chet realizes that Paul might have forgotten the whole plan right he's like oh maybe maybe small paul's not still on board and lark reminds everyone you know this is why we have to kill mormont he's gonna chase us down and kill us if not which is maybe true maybe not i don't know i don't think they're actually that important But the irony is that they are all already being hunted. Everyone. But the others.

The ice zombies. And the beautiful ice demons. Small Paul acquiesces to the plan. And Lark reminds them that they have to kill all of the officers. And Chet sighs and recounts the whole plan. Maybe he does it for the others and Small Paul. But really he does it for us, the reader. Because I definitely don't remember it because I didn't

know it. So here's how it's going to go. These are the following people who are going to die. The old bear, Blaine of the Shadow Tower, Grubbs and Ethan because they're on watch, Diwin and Bannon as trackers, and Sam while Charlie because of the ravens.

And most of the targets actually do die eventually. The obvious exceptions being Diwin and Sam. We see Grubbs, who it sounds like, it's like, ah, unfortunately Grubbs is going to have to be killed because he's on watch. But he actually does end up betraying the watch anyway at Craster's Keep. And then Bannon dies getting to craster's and of

course georg gets john snowed early and and at some point during the fist fight blaine dies somewhere we don't know where yeah that is like off off page yeah there's a lot of those especially at the fist fight which we'll get around to some of them later it's a really good way at how george balances all of his minor characters for the most part where he introduces a whole lot of them and keeps them around just long enough and starts killing them off bit by bit so as it doesn't seem too crowded all the time like he'll just mention grabs off handedly once and then never again and he does this extremely delicately and in this case we're given a lot of characters who mostly die soon like with chet lark soft foot and several people at the fist yeah the balance is really

important because it's like having too many minor characters that you're just keeping around gets really boring. You have to have some sort of spice or do something with them, even if they're being used as a device to move around or vehicle to move the plot around. The wall has a lot of that. There's a lot of plot that needs to be driven around at the wall to make things kind of set in motion, especially for John and Sam. And, you know, I'm watching a lot of The Walking Dead lately because it's been a good fun re-watch and that whole cycle like you're bringing in side characters and you need us to be attached to them but also need you to like forget about them enough so that when we kill them off it means something or it's surprising it gives a little bit of shot but it's not just for shock

value it's just for tension cohesive tension in the story and storytelling and i really like that i think george does a great job of balancing that and to sort of reference a different series that is as big as a song waste and fire wheel of time which is something that i'm currently reading through and i'm 10 books out of 14 through wow my god damn. Micah, I'm so proud of you. I am. I'm proud of myself too. I didn't think I would do it. But it has more minor characters than A Song Wasted in Fire does.

There's around 2,700 characters in the entire series. But they're not dealt with as delicately as we see here. A lot of them, it does feel like they take up space so it's very interesting to read that and then look at the two series and be like it's interesting to see how they're both approached and what's done with them yeah yeah i can understand you know the

the desire to include a lot of minor characters in a book like wheel of time right for the world building to make the world feel fleshed out but as you said right there's a delicacy yeah in terms of not that kind of delicacy not like eating bear but um to balancing it and making it feel full and real yeah oh yeah that's a great point chat reminds everyone that silence is important so they don't get caught and then to paul that it's third not second watch remember that paul will be with soft foot then during third watch he thinks the moon will be black tonight they mess the watches so they'd have eight on sentry two horses. They want to escape before the free folk come for the wall. So this particular prologue is pretty interesting in how it's different from the other ones.

All of them basically follow the same structure, right? Where something is introduced and there's a lot of world building slash exposition that is done through the storytelling that happens and sets things up for the rest of the book. And obviously this sets things up for this book, but in the first one, it's pretty obvious, right? Like literally the whole world is being set up. And the second one, as Alex pointed out in the Crescent prologue chapter, introduces us to Dragonstone and Stannis and Davos and this entire set of characters and what they're dealing with. The fourth prologue introduces us to Old Town, the Citadel, and other characters for Sam's magical school arc. And the fifth one is the most similar, I think, to this one in terms of we're already introduced to some of these concepts, and there's less need to build location

and some of the characters characters but it builds out more things more role building in terms of the skin changing mechanic and the magic of the world whereas you know this one not so much right after all of that role building happens in terms of the structure of these prologue chapters each one of these ends very suddenly like very very close to the ending right and very specifically with a supernatural twist that often entails like the death of some sort of our prologue character. I feel like this third one stands out in that a lot of this isn't new to us at all, right? We're already familiar with this area north of the wall, thanks to John's POV, thanks to Will even, right?

And to many of the big players in this cast. And we're familiar with the Night's Watch again because of the first prologue and Jon and those all already introduced us to the threat of the Others and the Whites. So most of this exposition in this chapter ends up actually going solely just to Chet's characterization and to his plan to escape. and in regards to that structuring and dramatic tension because we are told the plan we know that it's going to fail because that's just how the rules of writing are I don't know why I mean I do know why but also that's just how it is even the way he draws like the moon across many of these chapters together like Will has the half

moon across the black sky there's no moon in the prologue for Clash, but there is a comet. And then, of course, here we have the moon would be black tonight. That shutdown and void of color that goes so well with the Night's Watch and, of course, the three horns. One thing I love about how this entire book is structured with its prologue and epilogue are the direct connections between the two both with like frays and deaths for example we start with someone who's from the fray lands in the prologue and end with another character who's from the fray lands being a literal fray and this chapter of course with its supernatural ending, as you referenced earlier, is the arrival of the literal personifications of death in the form of ice demons and zombies. And the end of this book ends with the reveal of a resurrected major character.

It's literally a perfect book. That's so great. Yeah, that's that's a great call out of how it echoes from the start to the finish, full circle. Yeah. Yeah. But in regards to what's happening here, it was the biggest ranging in living memory. It's a third of the Watch's strength. I mean, you already know this, but let's go over it again. 300 brothers of the Night's Watch from the world, all seeking vengeance, Stark, Sir Waymar Royce.

And then we have, like, like it literally says and the other rangers who'd gone missing you know as they were finding out where the free folk had gone and they hadn't learned more about the rangers but learned about the free folk who fled to the frost fangs but they're now coming down the milk water and i'm like damn it's just the other rangers who got missing i was like gary and bill don't even get named hurtful which is a shame will and chet both work as very interesting contrasts to each other in the class system of westeros given that they're lowborn we'll discuss it more but we'll see will is sent to the watch for unfair reasons as wanting food not terrible and then there's Chet, who is sent for murder.

He killed somebody. Right. Absolutely. They're equal. They're equal. They're supposed to be, but Chet just clearly does not give a fuck about Will or Garrett. He's like, well, they probably weren't on his side. Yeah, Chet was like, I'm not here to make

friends. Yeah. Will's just like, is there there food can i have some gloves yeah i don't want to lose my ears like old ass garrett over here my life i love that we get this view of the milk water, right? Chet is looking up at it and it flows from Frostfangs and he thinks of Mance and the Free Folk. They're so worried about these Free Folk. They are. They are. Until they aren't at the end of this chapter. But I thought a little bit more about the name of the milk water this chapter just because it stood out to me, especially as we hear the wind later and it's described as howling like a hungry child which is which is relevant but i'm like oh yes babies drink

milk the milk water is really great i think it's like the minor character of the rivers in terms of what people talk about it's very very important. Appears often. Like, we explore it throughout A Clash of Kings. I quite like the milk water a lot. I like that. That's a great point. Yeah, throughout Jon. Yeah. Who was a child?

A baby once. An important baby. Well, not just that, but also it reminds me of a very certain sword with the color that it is, right? Milk water. Yes. Not unlike Dawn. It reminds me of the color that it is right milk water not unlike dawn it reminds me of the

color of dawn milk glass yep exactly so it makes me think of you know four and half hand and how he's arthur didn't know i'm just kidding i'm just sorry sorry do you think that george came up with the name for the substance for milk glass when he was just like, you know, he had a cup and he's like, my milk glass. It's popping. Yeah, while he was drinking his milk one morning. I don't know. And he looked down at his turtle and he was like, it's brilliant. Brilliant.

Brilliant. Great job, Moira. You're going in the story. I was going to say, Moira, we've done it again. We've done it again. You know who else has done it again?in smallwood god damn it god damn it thorin he came back recently with the report to the old bear of what had happened kedge white eye told everyone else he warns that harma dogs had had the van goatee crept up on harvestma's camp. Tumberjohn wanted to aim an arrow to kill her, but Smallwood warned against it.

There were about 20,000 to 30,000. Harma had 500 in the van alone, all with horses. This makes the men uneasy, as it was so rare and large. They're moving slowly. More than half are women and children, driving their animals, goats, sheep, even oryx. They're loaded up with seemingly everything they own. more than half are women and children driving their animals goats sheep even oryx they're loaded up with seemingly everything they own following the milk water will take them by ancient fist of the first men where they're camped chet thinks it makes sense right sense means to

leave for them to go but mormont has camped even harder and it's like no we live here now they'll be engulfed and outnumbered, though, if they fight here. By, of course, not thousands of fighting live men who have families and animals with them, but actually it's going to be undead, unstoppable hordes of wights. Yeah.

Little bait and switch, right? Like, they really don't get it? One of the things that are so great about this chapter is the constant bait and switches. Yeah. Const constantly thinking about the mutiny incoming free folk and then boom here's the others and it's great because while they're so worried about it you see the uh intelligence is not fully like it hasn't clicked for him that it's a pilgrimage like they have packed up everything they own and they are making a move to run from something that is not the wall they are running to not from you know they're running towards castle black to make one last call for

what it's not worrying anyone in this chapter like no one here is worried about that they are so busy thinking about killing jr yeah yeah except small paul he wants a bird yeah yeah that's true that's the big picture it's a mood he's got a bird's eye view of the whole situation oh my fucking god and yeah that's a great point like none of these people have the foresight to think like oh that should be concerning right they even have they've even got their butter churners packed up which i never even thought about it of course they have butter churners and gotta eat yeah well i mean like i don't know i don't like think i i i take for granted how we all have butter you know i made

chloe watch a lot of videos about butter this past weekend they were good videos they were good they were really good so thorin smallwood who also is not thinking ahead is like we should attack we should kill them and we also get a few character mentions like sweet donald hill squired a sir malador lock who went to Locke's tent. Malador and Sir Oaten Withers want to retreat, but were convinced otherwise by Smallwood, saying that they have the element of surprise on our side. And interestingly, with Malador Locke, he is, of course, like, Locke is the house that's, like, a subset to House Manderly. And Malador Locke is, out of all the commanders at the site, he's the one that we don't get confirmation of what happened to him at the fistfight. So, he's very probably definitely dead.

But I always find it interesting that George just didn't bother to give him like a, he got devoured by ten whites at once or something. Yeah, that is interesting, especially because we do have a Locke character, not this one, though, in the television series that we do know. There's a Locke at the Red Wedding. Yeah, that's true. Hmm. Yeah. That's true. I wonder if that might come back later, or he forgot.

That'd be interesting because you were saying that we kind of end up knowing what happens to all of those other minor characters, right, and how they end earlier on. So this one... Well, we didn't see him die on page. He's with Stone Snake.

That'd be interesting. I'd be happy if they came back something would be nice right i don't know it's an idea something anything so donald says most of the host is useless and unused to battle

easily sent back chet feels like the numbers aren't looking good for them that this is mad and matter that that Malador was convinced and Mormont was on the way. Smallwood says, we may never get a chance like this again. We have a passage. Against that, Sir Otten Withers said, we are the shield that guards the realms of men. You do not throw away your shield for no good purpose. But to that, Thorin Smallwood said, In a sword fight, a man's surest defense is the swift stroke that slays his foe, not cringing behind a shield.

Mormont is still waiting to hear from other scouts. Jarman Buckwell and Men on the Giant stare for Corrin Halfhand and, hey, Jon Snow, we know him. Buckwell and Halfhand are late in returning. Halfhand, as we know, is neverwell and Halfhand are late in returning. Halfhand, as we know, is never returning. Chet thinks they're dead, picturing it and kind of hoping it for Jon and he's like, I hope they killed ghosts too. Asshole. What the fuck?

What the fuck? Who says something like that? About a dog? A big fluffy boy. I mean, he would do it himself, I guess, if he could. Yeah, that's true. He's just jealous. He's just jealous because he's like, that's way cooler dog than mine.

Yeah. Chet decides that there is no bear, and they should start back. Not with that language, I just thought that would be fun. To the fist! are back. Not without language, I just thought that would be fun. To the fist. The dogs also seem to like that idea, and Chet thinks, oh, maybe

they think they'll get fed, lol. And I'm just like, um... What the fuck? We have this passage of Chet had to laugh. He hadn't fed them for three days now to turn them mean and hungry. Tonight, before slipping off into the dark, he'd turn them loose among the horse lines

after sweet Don L. Hill and clumped-foot Carl cut the tethers. There'll be snarling hounds and panicked horses all over the fest, her rutting through fires, jumping the ring wall, and trampling down tents. I'm trying to channel Micah's energy here. With all the confusion, it might be hours before anyone noticed that 14 brothers are missing. Again, what the fuck? Yo, what the fuck?

This dude sucks. He's the worst. These are like casual thoughts. You know what I mean? These aren't even casual. It reminds me of somebody else in this story. Who could it be chloe it's real ramsey hours right like a lot of this is very ramsey chat has also also so there's a lot

like you kind of touched on micah there's a lot to connect this to some of the other characters in the story and some of the other broader themes of the story especially in storm and he also kind of reminds me a bit of theon in his very charming ways during clash uh even something about this right here with the panicked horses though makes me think of smiler and ramsay's arrival with winterfell right save me the phrase the bastard was shouting as the flames roared upwards and burn the rest burn it burn it all the last thing theon grayjoy saw was smiler kicking free of the burned stables his main ablaze screaming rearing i'm sorry smiler that's and like speaking of saving save me the phrase chat makes me think of little walder fray who is in case everyone forgets which one is big

wilder and which one's little walder little walder is the shorter, or he's a big bully boy and is basically mentored by Ramsay in A Dance with Dragons. So like, I think that if I were to imagine Little Walder grown up, he would resemble Chet. He would just be Chet. Interesting. That's a great way to look at him,

especially because like, there's some setup, right? Like Chet coming from H hagsmeyer as we mentioned the book actually has a really great mirror that it blends with the fray epilogue because we have merit going kind of towards hagsmeyer and the rivers uh it's a literal hagsmeyer because you have stoneheart a witch or a hag an old crone waiting at the end of it at the mire. And Asos Cat 5, the fifth chapter for Cat and Storm of Swords, takes partial

place there. They're on the way toward there after Oldstones to meet with the group and that's where everybody is kind of going to go from for the next move. There's some great connections there with the Merit epilogue versus this prologue and it's well rounded, especially since we come right back to Oldstones and Hagmire and walter rivers is the one who sent him to the watch right he comments

on it this is such a perfect full circle he comments how he's like it wasn't even walter fray that did it it was walter rivers yeah walter rivers is even these there's this whole through line throughout this book about bastards hating bastards and whatnot and walder rivers is another one of those i i'm like there's an au somewhere where chen walder actually sat down talked things out and they became like frenemies pals roommates or something i don't know yeah something absolutely because's even, there's all of this, like, obvious foreshadowing for maybe some Jon stuff to come in the future. And also the obvious foreshadowing setting up Jaor's death by betrayal. And also Jon's later betrayal following that same thing.

Yes, exactly. Betrayal. But there's even outlines of Bolton betraying Robin this, right? Like, wedding mirrors are really strong in this first area. We'll get into it in a bit, but there's even like an exact line that matches some of the stuff Roos does. So interesting, interesting, interesting. It is interesting that we're getting that perspective now, you know,

Chet as a stand-in for all of those people. Walter Rivers is interesting though. I do hope we get more of him. Definitely. And then less well he's around where uh he's searching around for like the blackfish in the brotherhood right now at the end of feast so he's he's in with all that right now he's in the the fray shenanigans well back to north of the wall lark wants twice the amount of people but chet thinks you can't tell too many people like secrets right you can't tell too many of the secrets either because that's

gonna leak he's like 14 is a good number most of them were actually recruited by chet natural born leader yep although i think chet should have gotten about six more, and I think he could have pulled it off with efficiency. Yeah, 20 really good men. Yeah, that's what he needed. He needed a good middle ground between Lark's idea and Chet's.

Yeah. And it's a bummer, because we know that Small Paul is their strongest, right? Thick as a castle wall, as we hear he is probably a descendant of donkey dunkaroos but also like we know he died and he goes to the other team so rip but he died valiantly yeah nobly val the same, my god. Yeah, he died saving one of the people that he had planned to cook. Had planned to kill. He didn't know better.

He just was promised a bird. That we see that he's just, this is bullshit. Leave him alone. Oh, I know. We did. Now he's, anyway. Now he's gone. They also have Dirk, who's good with a Dirk, which is why he's called Dirk.

Shocking. And Sawfoot, a rapist. And not just, like, a rapist, like, the rapist. Like, he hundreds of rapes rapists, just to clarify. Very, very horrible character. Also, I know it's not quite the same, but the 14 recruited people is interesting. He has, like,

12 is how many were there for the Last Supper, right? So almost like Last Supper betrayal vibes, but also reminds me of the Bastards Boys. is interesting uh that he has like 12 is how many were there for the last supper right so almost like last supper betrayal vibes but also reminds me of the bastards boys yeah having his own little group of fucked up mini assassins the bastards boys even have their own kennel master with ben bones oh yeah you have damon dance for me who's kind of like lark yeah very similar that's interesting and so many echoes and then here's soft foot who soft foot gets what i am hereby dubbing the benfray treatment tm where someone who is superbly awful just the worst gets to die off page like a total loser and benfray of course is the fray that daisy

mormont clubs over the head at the red wedding with a wine bottle and he later dies to the injury thanks micah yeah reminding me of that today yeah i know right appreciate it yeah that was nice always gotta give daisy her dub dub. She got one. Oh my god. I like that, though. The Benfray treatment, as opposed to, you know, like the Kristen Cole treatment. Dying on... I mean, there's a lot of things, I guess, that he fits. But one of them is dying on page.

Yeah. Chat, of course, is none of this because he's actually the mastermind, right? Chat is not like Softfoot. He is the mastermind. He's the main character. He's meant for big things in this chapter. He had to be clever, having stewarded for Aemon, until John and Sam came along to ruin it.

He's like one of those minor villains from a rogues gallery of Batman or Superman who just goes, curses, foiled again. Every time he loses, and he loses all of the time. He really does. i think about uh what is it the dad from fairly odd parents here's where i'd put my steward's apron if i still had one uh he has this whole like ruse-like plan to say give my love to john to lord snow when he kills sam that's his whole goal so again very ruse very ruse there's more ruse to come in him too he's not worried about the ravens he knows them very well

and he thinks a knife will make sam pee with fear and then he's just gonna free the birds and really cause chaos sawfoot and smallpaw are supposed to kill mormont dirk blaine lark and his cousins bannon and old diwen. They've been storing food for a fortnight and Donnell and Carl will ready the horses. Then, when Mormont's dead, command goes to Otten Withers, who's old, and will quickly head back to the wall. Heading back to the Fists, though, it's dark, Mormont's lit torches are like a ring wall on the hill, and the icy water in the brook is suckling so when i read the bit of the prose here for the ring wall it made me think of a certain thing about how you have the big like

fence the big ring wall around it and then torches lit along top of it it specifically is mentioned to resemble a crown i can't help but think of a certain crown of flames that's intended to be used for defense against the free folk it looks like stannis yeah like i love these types of things where george does his foreshadowing that's not just from dialogue it's from prose and imagery and here we have a crown of flames that's standing against a long night i love that that's really that's a great call out yeah i wonder how we're gonna, I think you're onto something and that'll come back to play somehow. It's all echoing somehow and one day we'll know.

We'll know. Well, it even reminds you of the glass candles later too, you know? Yes. Some good candle themery in these prologues. Yeah. I also appreciate how Micah keeps calling it the fist fight. I'm like it is. I was waiting for somebody to catch that I was planning before this episode

I'm like I'm only going to call it the fist fight I think that's another thing that I feel like you've caught on to something I feel like George thought that would be very clever I feel like that's something that he had in his mind yeah panic at the fist fight there is panic there's

a lot of panic there's a lot of panicking yeah not yet though lark is not panicked yet he's thinking to the future and he's got this idea of like where he and his cousins will head to the coast and like make a boat and sail back to the sisters because I guess some of his cousins got sent to the watch too. Then Chet thinks, And at home they'll know you for deserters and lop off your fool heads, thought Chet. There was no leaving the Night's Watch once you said your words. Anywhere in the Seven Kingdoms,

they'd take you and kill you. All the lop hand now, he was talking about sailing back to Tyrosh, where he claimed men didn't lose their hands for a bit of honest thievery, nor get sent off to freeze their life away for being found in bed with some knight's wife. Jed had Wade going with him, but he didn't speak their wet, girly tongue. And what could he do in Tyrosh?

He had no trade to speak of, growing up in Hagsmyre. His father had spent his life grubbing in other men's field and collecting leeches. He'd strip down bare for a thick leather clout and go wading in the murky waters. When he climbed out, he'd be covered from nipple to ankle. Sometimes he made Chet help pull the leeches off. One attached itself to its palm once, and he'd smash it against a wall in revulsion. His father beat him bloody for that. The maesters bought the leeches at twelve for a penny.

for that. The maesters bought the leeches at twelve for a penny. Part of what we'll see happen later is that what Chet says does technically come true for all of Lophand, who stays behind at the craster's keep and does the betraying there. Bran notices a one-handed man

is one of the hunted watchmen that Coldhands gets and feeds to people. Y'all! Move over, bear meat! Move over, dog meat and feeds to people. Yum! Move over, bear meat. Move over, dog meat. We got people meat. Delegacies. Uh, yes. Great follow-up on what happens

with Alola Pand. And I just realized this. The one had attached itself to his palm once and he'd smashed it against the wall in revulsion. Is there some wordplay there about this like fist oh and then a wall i don't know could be looking too much into it no no i think i think that's kind of the language used right in the fist of the first men and them being smashed on the fist is often used, so that's interesting. I don't think it means anything deep besides

George being like, oh, this would be funny. It goes back to the sword and shield thing that Thorn Smallwood were talking about. The big shield is what protects everybody, and Thorn brings out the sword, and it gets broken to a million pieces like

Waymar Weiss's sword. Oh, yes, and then they're left without a shield and without a sword that's an interesting yeah way to see that metaphor and how and the ramifications right yeah so something that's in this passage right it's chad is an idiot for many reasons one of which is him thinking that the tai roshi dialect is stupid which it is it is a dialect and not a language by the way right it's not its own tongue wholly and also for being an allegedly girly tongue and he's like i hate that language because of that i'm like that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard many ways that he is dumb and in some ways i mean yeah i do feel for chet feeling stuck in his

position at the night's watch we've had a lot of discussion about class in the night's watch and he didn't have access to some of the other stuff that comes with nobility not just like connections and station but also things like literacy right or even trades or classes and as you all know that is a big part of why he lost his job as Aemon's steward, not being literate. And I've just been kind of mulling like why I feel so annoyed at Chet's thought process here. And a big part of it is that he just is horrible. And I feel like that could stand on its own. But the chapter does go through a lot of lengths to show us how terrible he is. So let's talk about it a little bit with this.

He's very clearly entitled. We'll talk a bit more about that. And I think there's merit to thinking like, yeah, why would I go to Tyrosh? There's nothing there for me or whatever. Like, how would I survive when I don't know anything or any trade? Instead, like his plan is I'm going to take Craster's Keep, which is worse than running away to Tyrosh. And I think there's respect, right?

Like, Olo is going back to Tyrosh because he's trying to escape a system that was killing him, that took his hand and his freedom. Just, you know, a little bit like how the Free Folk, they are migrating to escape a huge enemy that is killing them. This large mass exodus. a huge enemy that is killing them, this large mass exodus. And all these people from all over to the free folk, they are picking up their whole lives to try to start over somewhere else that's unfamiliar. And Chet's like, oh, that's too hard. And I'm like, no, you just didn't want to try. You thought you deserved to get laid for picking flowers. Like even I've put in more effort than that to get laid, Chet. Like you said watching Eamon was the easiest job you ever had to do.

Like, you had so much free time. You didn't have to do anything. And it was super lucky for you. And you weren't qualified for this job. And I'm just like, well. And you still beefed it. You still beefed it. Right, you still fucking beefed it.

He had a chance to, like, make good on it. Because, like, Ola lost a hand for thievery and that's a little bit like davos who loses a bunch of fingers for being lowborn and for smuggling even though he saved everyone's fucking life right and he's helping run the circus of a kingdom while learning to read he is not qualified initially and you know what he does he steps up he's like i'm gonna learn how to read i'm like chet you had all this fucking free time you could have learned to read and you didn't all right if he wanted to he could learn a new language yeah it's hard okay and you could learn a new trade somewhere else people do it all the fucking time people immigrate or they're refugees or people just literally like learn new skills to survive all the fucking time and find honest hard work and you just didn't want to.

Devolution. Two. Yeah. It's just life. It's long long long and hard hard hard Chloe but you got it Aliana. This guy sucks. I mean that's the thing it's like it's literally evolve or get eaten. You know get yeeted out of life dude. Like the ice zombies are coming for you. So if you

don't keep up they will. Like that seems pretty pointed chat you dumb bitch yeah he should really read these books is all i'm saying he should yeah but he wouldn't that's again because that's yeah if he did he would be the one to be like well you shouldn't read modern things into this series he'd be that because i can't yeah no one else should see yeah yeah he doesn't understand it so therefore you can't do it oh yeah and through all this he actually decides he's not going home right he's like i'm going to craster's keep craster has the right idea he fancies making a banner of leeches on pink and going for kingship, not just lordship. I mean,

Mance did it. Why couldn't he? He starts thinking about ops, putting the old woman to work, cleaning, cooking, harvesting, raping the young ones.

Uh, small Paul will hug Craster to death is what he thinks. This is the Bolton. This is so much that line that he actually thinks he goes, why stop it being a lord? Maybe he should proclaim himself king. And even his banner reminds me of the Boltons. It reminds me

of Roose's cloak at the Red Wedding. A man in dark armor and a pale pink cloak spotted with blood stepped up to Rob. Jamie Lannister sends his regards. There's so much of, as we keep hinting at there's just so much red wedding in this chapter because chet is not only from the freelance he's also got all this bolton stuff with the leeches and pink and it's so clever of george

clever george great job yes there there is like i've until this reread i never noticed how much was in there and i'm sorry everyone if you can hear the ice cream truck that is outside my window chat thinks the only women he knew were sex workers in mole's town when younger the village girls were too disgusted by his face and his boils retinol would fix that chat no i'm just kidding i'm so sorry the worst was slatten besa she'd spread her legs for every boy in hagsmeyer so he figured why not him too he even spent a morning picking wildflowers when he heard she liked them, but she just laughed in his face and told him that she'd crawl in a bed with his father's leeches before she'd crawl in one with him. She stopped laughing when he put his knife in her. That was sweet, the look on her face. So he pulled the knife out and put it in her again. and put it in her again.

When they caught him down near Seven Streams, old Walder Frey hadn't even bothered to come himself to do the judging. He'd sent one of his bastards, that Walder Rivers, and the next thing Chet had known, he was walking to the wall with that foul-smelling black devil urine to pay for his one sweet moment they took his whole life.

But now, he meant to take it back, and Craster's woman, too. Wow, so unfair. This is his payment for the one sweet moment of a murder. Now he meant to take it back and crassers woman too. Wow. So unfair that this is his payment for the one seat moment of a murder. I have many to read throughout this chapter. One of them is there is something to be said about how Chet, who never sees women and girls as people, but as some thing to be used,

taken, put to his work, put to work for his benefit gets turned turned into a wight, aka a body that is being used by the others. And Micah, as you pointed out earlier, Chet is here for actual murder, unlike folks like Will or Aulo or even Darian the singer from Sam's chapters. And let's talk about him in the context of Ao and darian there for a moment in catlin storm one i discussed the spectrum by which women's bodies and west rose exist for the use and pleasure of men right the sex workers who died for sleeping with lannisters and the other

low-born women that the other men or high-born men take pleasure from in order to you know preserve the purity of the highborn women right it's just accepted and that is to protect the highborn women as being like these pure vessels and again still all of all of them all as property all existing on that same spectrum of patriarchal subservience and it's telling that allo and darian are sent to the night's watch for sleeping with women or or with girls because darian and his lover were both teenagers and very young and puberty is, you know, it's time, it's time. And that both were the wife and daughter of nobility, respectively, or of more highborn people, respectively. wall, it's not that different from when Will was sent to the Watch for poaching, nor Allo losing a hand for thieving. The logic that sends Allo and Durian to the Wall is that they took something that was the property of someone of Hyar's station.

That being women, right? And this is incomparable to Chet because, again, Chet murdered someone, which is, in the context in which it happened, it was an act of sexual violence. But sexual violence doesn't necessarily always get punished nor get you sent to the wall, which is why Softfoot is brought up in the chapter because he raped hundreds of women and never saw punishment until, we don't know how many, what, what hundredth, you know, hundreds is that's a big spectrum of people, right? Perhaps the reason he finally got sent was because he raped the wrong woman in terms of was she some high class person's wife or daughter property, right? Or there's also that, was it that his crimes were so numerous that he could

no longer go ignored because he was disrupting the Lord's order and peace? Law, the word of the king, right? Anyway, Chet is a bad person who was sent to the watch for murdering someone because I guess she didn't want to sleep with him, and he blames her for being disgusted with his boils when probably it was actually his personality. And even if it was his boils i'm like besa still didn't deserve to die because people's sexual advances get rejected all the time sometimes rudely i have had my sexual advances rejected and did anyone die only me a little bit on the inside but actually no i'm fine i am fine and chet is entitled and lazy and thinks that craster is living like a king because he's being served versus coming back to things that happen in this book, right? The argument that Davos makes to Stannis of, you know what kings are actually like?

They should be protecting the realm. Or, for example, he's like, I want to be living like Mance Rayder, who's a king, and that's Craster. And it's like, no, they're literally like different people. Like, they're living very different lives. And Mance worked very, very hard. Yeah, like, Mance literally had to fight at least a few of those chieftains we get to meet. He's fought Styr, we know that. He probably had to fight Tormund, probably through drinking with Tormund.

He's probably had to fight Harmut Dog's head, the Weeper, loads of them. And like, the life that Chet wants to see for himself, we do see a version of that in Adelwada. When Bran sees those nice watchmen that Coldhands hunts down. They had to leave the keep because they had to go out looking for food because they queued it all up because they're all greedy assholes. Yes. And they end up wandering around and starving

and dead and completely left behind in the story. Dead and terrible and dead. Indeed. Wait, they are those things. Wrong quote. But they're all connected but that's a that's a great point of how they use up they just consume everything they don't have any idea of how to protect how to make things work right they just want to take take take and maybe it's because it's

all they've ever known i don't know but i don't think so i think they just kind of suck some of them just kind of suck yeah yeah well the other part of that that i find so interesting even like again back to storm of swords as a book you know we have a really big scene of violence against shay later right shay's death at tyrian's hands uh sexual do. Sexual violence there and her dying. And so to start the book with this big declaration of the violence that he's committed against someone, it's also interesting in looking at the Pate prologue and looking at the way Pate

idolizes Rosie, right? The way that he loves Rosie and he's showing up with flowers every day, buttercups for Rosie himself. And it's almost like a nega Pate, right? Like,

yes. If Pate had gone a little bit, leaned a little incel on it, this would have been what Pate would be like if Rosie had declined his advances. Instead, Pate died. Yeah. Which is even more interesting given that Pate is an alternate universe

Samuel. Yeah. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Yeah. interesting given that pate is an alternate universe samuel yeah whoa whoa whoa yes there's layers to this listen there are layers to this and haxmeyer a swamp a bog there's a whiteboard with sticky notes and red yarn attached to all the different ones. Connecting it all. Yeah, absolutely. It's in the shape of a rose. Yeah, absolutely. Regarding everything that you said. And it all comes together.

Pate's a dingus. Chet's a worse dingus. Chet sucks. Chet, I don't know. He deserves stronger words than a dingus. But he fucking sucks. And he's terrible. And he deserves stronger words i think this fucking sucks and he's terrible and he deserves to die and he does yeah really he actually i don't know true not that i'm like being like death penalty but like he's he's a murderer i don't know he's like

almost he's like almost there right like there's an aspect in which he's like oh i could be like man so i'm like i see it you want to survive you were trying to survive from this thing and then he just picks the worst fucking way to go about it yeah that's uh again shen he's like i'm gonna get it all back i'm gonna get back everything that was ever taken from me using crassers women he's like no more wooing women or trying to get them to like me only taking slash raping them. And I'm like, wow, that was the lesson you took from this. Interesting. He reassures himself of their plan and that Otten's command will outweigh all the rest. Besides, he'll be gone if Smallwood wants

to make attacks. Then he has a new idea. If everyone dies, everyone will think maybe they did too and never look for them. But then they'll have to just kill so many people, and that just sounds like a lot. Chad reminds me of a far worse version of a character from the hit, and very, actually, it's kind of a hit, but it's very underspoken of cult classic Megamind by Dreamworks. Interesting. And there's a character in there who is a bit of a, you know, quote,

a nice guy. Who gets rejected by the girl and then he is given superpowers because plot. And then he goes on his wild tangent and is like, if I can't have you, I'll just take you. Which is making me think of the character that Jonah Hill voices

in Megamind. That's really funny. It's a perfect animated voice actor for it, personally. Yeah. Jonah could play Chet. Jonah Hill could play Chet. I should have done a Jonah Hill impression. Shoot.

Small Paul brings to the center of the table the most important thing the fucking bird he's like who's gonna kill mormon's bird if mormon's dead chet's like well i can kill the bird and paul's like no what if the bird tattles on us and lark calls him thick as a castle wall which paul doesn't take very well but he really should he has some of the best genetics in the whole entire country the genetics that come from the line that fucks when chet says people will know mormont's been murdered on account of the slit throat and blood without the bird so paul's like you're right the best idea is for me to keep the bird and they're like yes paul that is the best idea lark says they

could eat it but paul's like no that's my borb that is my literal bird friend how dare you and Paul's actually right because the bird would absolutely like yell at Chet and just scream traitor traitor traitor the entire time I mean the bird would tattle on them what happens if he

eats the bird while Bloodraven's in it dude while Varamyr POV there you go what happens if the bird while blood raven's in it dude well there you go what happens if the bird dies while someone's in it dun dun dun i'm sure blood raven's been through that many times just some more trauma about it yeah what's one more trauma more trauma yeah well it's that's what he's gonna tell bran in the winds of winter but that's the thing what's one more trauma that's a lot of what veramir's pov covers you know some of that craz. But that's the thing. What's one more trauma? That's a lot of what Varamyr's POV covers, you know? Some of that craziness. Yeah. So, that's

a great connection. Is Bloodraven unhinged from having died so many times? Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I would like to buy a couple vowels, couple consonants. We're gonna go, yes. Absolutely.

Absolutely. So, finally they near the fist and they see some of the watchmen practicing firing arrows at carvings on trees i was like oh how funny they are carving outlines of peoples into the trees when we know that the Weirwoods have faces carved into them. Speaking of, you know, Weirwood-y things. And then they suck even more because they make fun of Sam and his weight, calling him a pig and Sir Piggy. And just seeing Sam makes Chet mad as he thinks about the role that was stolen from him. And again, how easy his life was under Eamon who had never hit him once welcome Chet's dad to the very very very long list of Westeros's bad dads yeah

I'm just like on one hand I understand this is supposed to make me feel bad for him but I'm like I don't know other people have worse dads like sam who got hit a lot by sam yeah exactly get murdered by his dad exactly exactly just like oh he had it so easy and i'm like he did not he has this little internal passage think he can just walk in and shove me out on account of being highborn and knowing how to read might be i'll ask him to read my knife before I open his throat with it. That sounds like a line I would come up with. Wow.

Chet stays back to watch and then he kicks a dog. Again, if you, yeah. It's Chet. Just gotta make sure we know that he sucks. Kick a dog. Yeah. Gotta make sure it's in there.

Yeah, absolutely. He laughs at sam's difficulty shooting when an arrow disappears ed is less pleased he says that he'll probably be blamed for it going missing like the last time he lost a white horse in the snow it's in king's landing it is in king's landing watch season eight grun is coaching sam who complains ed makes some seasonal snow jokes. Chet's still laughing. On his last arrow, Sam hits the outline in the chest, and he's excited and proud until he sees Chet. Chet's like, it's just a tree.

Now try it with a manse whose men will kill you. Sam is shaking with anger, but Ed calms him with a good comeback. And Ed asks, is that what happened to Chet? That an axe split his head and half his wits spilled out? Mood. I can't believe Chet dies twice in this series. The second time is to the ice zombies.

He becomes white. The first time is right here when he gets burned. Chet was a true sound of ice and fire. Sorry to break it to everybody. Yes. He dies to both. Chet should go around in that snow to deal with that burn. I'm on Wikipedia right now trying to find him the closest burn center to Hagsmeyer. Oh.

I'll call Callan. I'll get him an appointment. Get him an urgent care appointment. Oh my god. Molestown urgent care. Don't send him to Molestown. I'm worried if Oh my god Molestown urgent care Don't send him to Molestown I'm worried if he goes to Molestown Worried for those people

We like Molestown Yeah So from this fantastic burn From Ed, Gren laughs and Sam smiles And then Chet just kicks another dog And then yanks The dogs up the hill And Chet just kicks another dog and then yanks the dogs up the hill and Chet wishes he could kill Ed too

for making this like fantastic joke and everyone laughing and I'm just like Chet's disgust at Sam, Gren, and Ed laughing at him for being mean which to be honest Chet brought on himself he could have just stood there or like moved on with his life keep his big ass mouth shut

but no he had to go and insult sam for like and for what you know for what being happy that sam made progress for once and like because of that and how he wishes that ed would die like and all these people die for laughing at him he's really motivated by this injured pride and that's what opens this book and also i think kind of paves the way for tywin right tywin ends up being a really big deal in a storm of swords and also if you can't take it don't dish it chet yeah that's for fucking sure chet keeps kicking dogs as he goes up the slope like this is just a personality trait which is ugly it's ugly honey and he explains to mormont later the dogs wouldn't follow the prince probably because you know

anyways jayward is sad because fresh meat would have been good for all and the raven says meat meat meat which again that's not a raven voice meat meat intimidating me! More like, yikes! Yikes! Because we have that cannibalism through line. We have that Varamyr chapter right there again. Chet thinks they could eat the dogs, but it's the last time he'll bow to J.R. and it's growing colder?

It's probably just the winds. Of winter. Of winter. It's here! Impossible. Absolutely impossible. Under your chair. Look under your chair. Everyone. Of winter. Of winter. It's here! Impossible. Absolutely impossible. Under your chair. Look under your chair, everyone. Chet's tempted to join the dog cuddle puddle for warmth.

He doesn't deserve it, though. They should eat him or reject him, hopefully. Instead, he does a circuit to keep moving and keep warm. The wind was rising as the shadows lengthened it made a high thin sound as it shivered through the stones of the ring wall i hate that sound little giant said it sounds like a babe in the brush wailing away for milk yeah the wind sounds like that because that's probably what it is oh i mean literally literally yeah probably baby white walkers oh shit speaking of craster oh shit yeah shit yep it's craster's sons they're coming after his circuit chat meets lark and the dogs lark says the officers are all

in jay or's tent with serious talk if chat was cerseiannister, he would just bomb the tent, but he's no brave soldier. That's what they do, said Chet. They're highborn, all but blame. They get drunk on words instead of wine. So this is a great line, but made even greater by Micah's delivery.

But a fantastic example of Chet's distaste for the Highborne. It comes from jealousy. And it's not because he's revolutionary, which sucks, because again, great sentiment, you know. But he wants to recreate what he thinks that the Highborne people have

at Craster's Keep. And I don't know, Chet would just absolutely 100% be a class traitor. And this comes in remarkable contrast to Will, who is, they're both like lowborn, as we've said, but Will is far more surrendered to where he is put. He knows that it's wrong and everything, but he's more concerned with his next meal, having some gloves because it's cold out. And whereas Chet is far more bitter and he's taking it out on everybody else

and he's not seeing the big picture for what it is, even though he literally just laid out the problem just right there at his feet. He just said what the problem is. Yeah. Yeah. If he could like put that brain to use he could have actually made good change but chet's just a terrible person who kicks dogs he kicks down you know time to channel that energy you've all been talking about how he's a lot like ramsay and

it's because he's a bully yeah yep yeah lark complains about small Paul and the bird. Food for the bird. And Chet's like, a raven eats corpses. Lark jokes, maybe Paul, maybe Paul's. But Chet hopes it's Lark's corpse. And both Chet and Lark are going to get taken out by cold-hands ravens later. Lucky them. Good. Poetic. Poetic. cold hands ravens later lucky good good poetic

chet thinks that paul seems more useful than lark which yes we love small paul also much of what annoys chet when it comes to lark i think it's just a reflection of chet's own meanness but i don't know well that's true and it's twilight soon and by that time lark goes away and it's still really cold the dogs whimpered when the sun went down he gave them water and curses half a night more and you could find your own feast by then he could smell supper damn he's just gonna abandon them? My god. Animal abuse. I know. This guy is the worst. Chat gets hard bread, bean, and bacon soup from Haik.

He doesn't deserve it. And Daiwen says it's too quiet. There are no frogs, no owls, nor wolves out there making noise. Chat thinks they must have gone someplace warm. Yeah, it's true. The Storks went south. And also, like, Daiylan is such a great constant of being the one in north of the wall and around the wall who's like guys this is suspicious

this is weird and and then john sent him away and well that is what he tends to do isn't it that johnny boy yeah that johnny yeah we like that i do like that i went a lot actually yeah four of the dozen brothers by the fire are part of this plan dirk sweet donald hill saw wood and maslin the last whom chat thinks he has to keep an eye on and watch i'm gonna turn the camera on to sweet donald hill for a second because i think he's an interesting minor character even though he appears all of four times but later we're gonna see him make it back to the wall and not be a traitor in fact he's gonna be one of the guys who's willingly following john's orders and doing stuff. But he's also a bastard of the Westerlands and he's rumored to be a bastard of a

Lannister. And I like the idea that he could be Jirion Lannister's bastard. Oh, I like that. And that also adds another bastard into the through line of this chapter of bastards. Ah, the battle of the bastards truly. Interesting. Indeed.

Yeah, he just got roped in because he wanted to live ain't that how it goes my god yeah my god well unless you're soft foot the name is so funny it just makes you think of little foot from land before time and i'm like soft oh my god he's nothing like little i don't want to connect those two. How dare. But I like Littlefoot. I was thinking, you know, Mike has made a lot of great parallels of, you know, like Will and Chet. And Will was also soft afoot. Ah, that's true. But not a rapist.

Yeah, not a long neck. Not a rapist. Eating tree stars. No tree stars for him. He could have been. He could have been, though. I mean, he was in the tree. What was he doing up there? He was eating tree stars, No tree stars for him. He could have been. He could have been, though. I mean, he was in the tree. What was he doing up there? He was eating tree stars, Eliana.

Yeah. Oh my god, that's what he was doing. He was holding it up, and then the water would pool in the middle, and then he would drink that. Yeah. Oh my god, that looked so good. I always wanted to do that. Shiera tree star. Suddenly, there's a shout to assemble

at the center fire. It's J.O.R.E. with Smallwood, Locke, Withers, Blaine, and the Raven. Chet squeezes between Brown, Bernard, and some shadow men. Shadow Tower men. J.O.R.E. explains the Free Folk are marching and will be here in ten days with big name fans

like Harma Dog's Head and Mance Rayder. Yes, my favorite bnfs but elsewhere the forces will be thin and on foot untrained with flimsier weapons and women children animals all vulnerable and unaware or so they hope chet thinks they must know because obviously corin's not back nor jarman buckwell smallwood says mance wants to break the wall and bring war to the seven kingdoms, but they'll bring war to him first, at dawn. They'll fall on the free folk in several places, hitting hard. The Night's Watch seem unconvinced. They think of the numbers, and they're sure they're all gonna die. The Raven, screaming, die, die, die, does not inspire confidence. Jaor is like, yeah, probably.

does not inspire confidence. Jeor's like, yeah, probably. And then we get this line. But as another Lord Commander said a thousand years ago, that is why they dress us in black. Remember your words, brothers, for we are the swords in the darkness, the watchers on the walls.

The fire that burns against the cold, Sir Malador Locke drew his longsword The light that brings the dawn, others answered, and more swords were pulled from scabbards Then all of them were drawing, and it was near three hundred upraised swords and as many voices crying The horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men Chet had no choice but to join his voice to the others sleepers. The shield that guards the realms of men. Chet had no choice but to join his voice to the others. The air was misty with their breath and firelight glinted off the steel.

He was pleased to see Lark and Softfoot and Sweet Donald Hill joining in, as if they were as big fools as the rest. That was good. No sense to draw attention when their hour was so close. Well, this whole speech of why we should fight the free folk is not, in fact, why the Night's Watch is called all of these different things and say those words. But that's okay.

That's going to get fixed soon by the end of the chapter. Yeah, they're about to get a rude awakening. Yes. yeah they're about to get a rude awakening yes oh the even like the raven is like die at the end just to just to put that one in there you know and i will say we talked a little bit about the horn and what the horn kind of represents like as far as biblically right that we kind of think there's some biblical you're blowing the horn here comes the apocalypse but also big sleepers awakened energy right very much so a little bit of dune in there the sleepers awaken the horn that wakes the sleepers absolutely and that's interesting i wonder i know that there are a lot of reasons

right that people feel that all this is coming together and right now i wonder what role this plays in it well it is indeed an invigorating speech. It would work on me. I'm simple. And you just want a bird. I'm like, yeah, I'll do this for a bird, whatever. Noah, who came on for our Sam episodes, wrote another wonderful essay recently, breaking down masculinity, cowardice, and especially how that manifests in that first will prologue and

about the others as a reflection shadow of the violence patriarchy in westeros and i'm also gonna say like i i don't know anything about war strategy or any sort of combat strategy or like anything to tell you if smallwood's idea of like we gotta go now we gotta attack now uh whether that's a good or a bad idea. All right, go listen to Not A Cast for that because they do that. Yeah, they do that. And they do it well. And I do not. But there is something to be said about this display, right? And the reminder of their penal colony militias like founding, and this appeal to honor and courage and living up to the Westerosi masculine ideals and manifesting that by attacking the free folk as like the sacrifice or in service

to the realm, allegedly, rather than falling back when sometimes falling back is the braver choice. And it's something that Noah wonders in that essay, right? About how is Weymar's sacrifice or about Weymar's sacrifice being a waste of life, that Weymar is just a boy. And in that context of Westerosi masculinity, it necessitates this performance and action of violence in order to reaffirm it, right? This conquest. And they're doing that against the free folk. And Chet knows that he cannot live up to that, not without dying. doing that against the free folk. And Chet knows that he cannot live up to that, not without dying. And he can't live up to these ideals, right? He's insecure about whether anyone actually means them. And part of that is why he insults Sam, right? Sam is easily seen by everyone else as being less manly because he doesn't fit those ideals. And Chet, in order to feel more secure in his own

role, his hierarchy in the masculine order must kick down at Sam again, in order to reinforce his place and it's also part of why he's so horrible for his fantasy, where he's like, I'm gonna be Craster 2.0 and for killing Bessa because the way that he, again, reaffirms his own masculinity is by inflicting violence upon

women and dogs yes he's definitely bad well the dogs aren't part of the order it's just um it's just bad no but it's also it is though like that's a sure i'm sorry but anyone who treats their dog poorly even if that's like that's like a sure tell sign of abuse i'm not even kidding i dated a guy that was like his dog would cower when he got mad like the guy had an anger problem yeah like you could just tell like that's a horrible sign and says a lot about that person like that he looks at all other beings as lesser than he right yeah yeah chet does the Jurassic Park meme, and he goes clever bird in his head, and then he kind of starts to get some anxiety, right?

He's like, wow, that was a pretty good speech that the Lord Commander gave. What if that speech makes someone change their mind about the plan? So he listens to the wind instead, which it turns out is worse because it sounds like a wailing child. Dang. Hello, sons of crasters. How because it sounds like a wailing child. Hang. Hello, sons of crasters. How you doing? So young, so sweet. Bad! Oh.

Then he remembers Bessa. He could see Bessa's face floating before him. It wasn't the knife I wanted to put in you. He wanted to tell her, I picked you flowers. Wild roses and tansy and golden cups it took me all morning his heart was thumping like a drum so loud he feared it might wake the camp ice

caked his beard all around his mouth where did that come from with besser whenever he thought of her before it had only been to remember the way she looked dying what was wrong with him he could barely breathe had he gone to sleep he got to his knees and something wet and cold touched his nose chat looked up snow was falling he could feel tears freezing to his cheeks it isn't fair he wanted to scream snow would ruin everything he'd worked for all of his careful plans ah he's gonna keep ruining it too wait wrong snow wrong snow i love this line it wasn't the knife i wanted to put in you he wanted to tell her i picked you flowers wild roses tansy and golden cups it took me all morning the biggest thing that stood out to me there as we

see how a storm of swords is being introduced in themes to everyone uh tansy we closed the book with the big declaration of tansy right i gave you my maiden's gift i would have given you a son but they murdered him with moon tea with tansy with mint and wormwood honey a drop of penny royal even the actual rhythm is similar right i picked you flowers wild roses tansy golden cups a gift is what he wanted to give her right she had a gift taken from her her maiden's gift so very well put together with the language and it does wrap you into some of those broader themes later on. The first Tansy mention. It's all coming up, girl.

Checks out. It is. Checks out. Checks out. Good thing he gifted her Tansy, you know? That was some forward thinking, even though I'm pretty sure he doesn't know. He doesn't know. So there's a moment here towards the end where Chet's like,

eh, this isn't fair and that snow both this literal snow and john as mentioned earlier in the chapter seem to have taken everything from him and he's like it's so unfair that my plans to like i mean it is right for his plans to live and survive they're thwarted i guess by natural currents but it's actually supernatural but we don't know that yet but we we do because it's a reread and that it happens right after he thinks of Bessa I mean whether or not the snow is actually making his plans harder is fair whether it's fair or not Chet just seems to be unable to feel empathy especially for for Bessa, because he just feels like Bessa owed him, right? Just because he bought her some flowers. And like, again, I've gone through

way more effort than that to get laid and for not, you know, and he can't seem to comprehend that whatever this is might actually, I mean, maybe it's a little bit of justice because what happened to Bessa, that was actually unfair. Like that is literally very unfair and he is the cause of it. The snow didn't take it all from him. It was his entitlement, feeling entitled to Bessa, and his lack of, like, doing anything to better himself that did it.

Uh, the, uh, life's so unfair thing only works for so long, right? It only works for so long. And it's not the snow though the heavy snow will make their lives harder it'll make it harder to find the stores make it easier to be tracked by enemies like the free folk or you know the unfree folk the others it hides the ground it makes traversing very dangerous done before we began we lost. There'd be no lord's life for the leech man's son.

No keep to call his own, no wives, nor crowns. Only a wildling's sword in his belly, and then an unmarked grave. The snow's taken it all from me, the bloody snow. Snow had ruined him once before, snow and his pet pig. Ah, yes, a perfect little ramsey pov for us right uh it does make me think john's gonna have to kill ramsey now like when reading this slowly like it's just all there there's so many through lines of bastards versus bastards whether like you know the patriarchy's like lineage bastards of sons and actual like horrible people yeah type usage of the world or rivers or john and and really just feels like it is just positioning a person like chet which is ramsay versus john yeah it's just so clear with this chapter yeah even just no

no lord's life for the leachman's son no keep keep to call his own. No wives, nor crowns. Only a wildling's sword in his belly, which we know Jon gets very much so referred to as a wildling when he comes back, right? After having been a wildling lover, supporter. We're gonna, I'm gonna be the one to say it. We're gonna have a battle of the bastards. Oh my god.

I didn't used to think so, but now I'm like, I 90 on board earlier i'm like after this chapter 100 on board it's gonna happen oh yeah it'll just be like more like taking out the trash than like a season finale will the battle of the bastards also have a fist fight get out of here. Possibly. You're all horrible. You're all horrible. You might just lunch on him. Jump on him like a dog.

I mean, he should. I think a lot of people could actually take Ramsey. Yeah. I think Sam could take Ramsey. Knock him down and that's all you really need to do. I don't think I could take him anywhere, honestly. Horrible bedside banner. Do not want to go anywhere with Ramsey.

Could you? Would you? In a box? No. In a boxing match. Oh my god, green eggs and Ram. Ugh. Ugh. I don't want that. I don't want that.

Nah. Nah. Nah. No. So, Chet gets to his feet. His legs are stiff. Feeling like they've been attacked by cold bugs. And I was like, what the fuck is this?

The snow is everywhere, but he can deal with Sam. He spots Sam through the heavy snow beneath mounds of furs. The snow is covering him. And a raven quarks, Now! A few times in the background background and then another one joins. And he's getting ready to cover Sam's mouth in order to stab him when

the first horn blast. It's inconvenient for sure. Yeah, are you going to make the noise for us? It's inconvenient for sure the rangers returning especially if it means that john is among them but sam sits up waking animals everywhere scream chet waits for the sounds to die still holding the dagger when the second horn blast i'm thinking like silent hill siren you know I don't know oh I was thinking

Boo Boo Zalas but oh man the second blast Sam whimpers but gets up wondering if he's dreaming Chet's like no it's the second blast piggy call to arms for foes approaching the free folk and Chet begin to curse them all when suddenly the third horn

blast the sound goes on forever it keeps going it keeps going bomb ah you know ramsey did murder dumb eric for stealing his birthright oh but chat what did you call i mean it's dumb eric he was very dumb about what he was doing but chat tries to murder his brother for stealing his position as steward not unlike dumb eric and ramsay's little uh tiff when you think about it yeah interesting poor dumb eric interesting oh agreed the sound went on and on and on, until it seemed it would never die. The ravens were flapping and screaming, flying about their cages and banging off the bars.

And all about the camp, the brothers of the Night's Watch were rising, donning their armor, buckling on sword belts, reaching for battle axes and bows. Samuel Tarly stood shaking, his face the same color as the snow that swirled down all around them. Three, he squeaked to Chet. That was three. I heard three. They never blow three. Not for hundreds and thousands of years. Three means others. Chet made a sound that was half a laugh and half a sob and suddenly his small clothes were wet and he could feel the piss running down his leg see steam rising off the front of his

breeches see other people piss themselves it's not just sam i would piss myself exactly i would absolutely piss myself oh yeah yeah everyone that night did be scary yeah this is one of my favorite moments of a zombie's fire in like you know one of my favorite chapters and i genuinely think this is actually one of the best written moments because of how george implements the reveal that the others are here when we've gone through books of not getting them and now it's not just like an inkling they're here and they're gonna attack and it's such a clever way of doing it in this prologue because we've had we mentioned before all the betrayal that's about to go on and it's distracting you from the fact that the apocalypse is literally nigh apocalypse now right

now favorite prologue one of the best moments i just love everything about this and a little fun fact side note because i am obsessed with this factor of it's always been fired there are 43 named characters at the fist of the first men right. And only 29 of them get to live. Only 13 return to the wall. Interesting. Huh. It really, I like that you called that out because it really shows just how devastating, you know, Atreza's stakes and that balance you were talking about earlier before of what happened on this ranging.

Yeah. Yeah. Complete disaster. Indeed. balance you were talking about earlier before of what happened on this ranging yeah yeah complete disaster indeed uh i'm gonna come back to chet peeing again and yeah he made fun of sam earlier in the chapter saying like sam i bet you would piss yourself if the free folk ever attacked or he said wildlings whatever the wildlings ever attacked and uh i mean probably sam does also pee himself here so does chad i also think every single person in this camp has pissed themselves but that's just what i think there's this description of the sound of the horn low right like it sounds like it would never die i'm like huh that's funny it's just like the whites

funny funny you should say that about that horn rip literally everyone but not at all oh god oh god um and lastly regarding chet and his name turns out chet i'm sure you all know this chet with two t's is just derived from chet with one T. Oh my god. I'm well aware. Halyana. What? Egad. What? Allegedly, it's like a nickname for the name Chester, which, like,

It is. You renamed that? It, yeah, like, refers to being specifically, like, from this specific place, but it also came to mean, like, I guess, a fortress or a camp, which is kind of what the the fist was supposed to be and you know what the fortress here and it all it all goes bad it's bad

yeah i i can vouch that chet is a nickname for chester because that's my dad's name oh oh there you go about your dad, Micah. Oh no, oh no. Is he anything like, please tell me, please tell me your father is nothing like this, He doesn't have an affinity for leeches, right? My dad is a dog person. A good dog person. I was like, what do you mean by dog person? That's like a little too ambiguous for me right now.

Yeah, right? Chat says that he's a dog person too, Micah. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah yeah we'll keep an eye on it my dad loves dogs good good no kicking no kicking up the hill no kicking yeah i feel like the misdirection this chapter is great it's so strong like you're supposed to really think the free folk are bad which that's actually the end of the plot for the north of this right is stannis coming down on them with steel and stannis being the hero for taking down the big bad free folk that they've been so afraid of since the prologue chapter uh but then we learned that's not it that ain't it

friends that ain't it that's not the real problem here i i really love that flow of plot then as we get to dance the real issues are starting to arise rick grimes i mean john snow has to you know corral everybody in the new world coral sorry yes yeah yeah and even like with with how the structure of the book is stannis comes in to fight the free folk at the end and then in the epilogue someone comes back from the dead anyway that's true because that that threat of the death is still there absolutely and the and the lingering threat of ramsay right it's funny that as you said, this gives us a peek into his perspective

throughout this chapter and I guess he's in the background, right? Because he's not here. He's not in this book. Yeah. No? He's just chilling. That's one way to describe what he is doing, yes. Yeah. Overall,

I do love this chapter. I know Mic you know you said this is one of your favorites of the prologues right and it is my favorite yeah and i i think it's a it has a lot of merit a lot of it doesn't have a lot of merit that's that blog but but it still does what is your ranking what is your ranking micah of prologue was my ranking yeah if you know for sure this is favorite after the first one i do this thing where i'll just be like this is my absolute favorite and then i have a difficulty choosing the rest that's like that's storm prologue the second one is probably crescent because. Because George is like, here's three major characters in this chapter. And nails the intro to each one of them.

And then, I want to say Varamyr is another favorite. Oh, no. No, I'm going to put Feast on third. Because Alaris is third. And then probably Dance and then probably Game. I think.

I might switch the last two every now and then. Yeah, depending on how you're feeling. But the series is good for that. The series is great for that. It's kind of flexible. Fluid. I always say it's not a best to worst. It's a best to least.

Yes, yes, yes. It's a best to slightly also best. Yeah, that's a good way of looking at it. So yeah, Storm, Clash, Feast, and then Dance and Game are tied. Hmm. Okay.

Cool. Well, any other thoughts, everyone? I think that's it for me. Softfoot doesn't get enough hate, but maybe that's a good thing, because no one cares about Softfoot.

Yeah, you know, we could celebrate other characters instead of discussing how much we fucking hate softwood because we do fucking hate softwood yeah ed was hilarious in this chapter yes yes he's like just because the same thing happened to you chet doesn't doesn't mean it's going to happen to Sam. Then it will. That's great. Yeah. It's also, I guess, because Softfoot doesn't really... Softfoot doesn't reappear again, right?

You said he dies off... Yeah, he dies off, Paige. Yeah. After this. Good. So maybe it's good that he doesn't get enough hate, because that means we never have to hear about him ever again. Thank fuck.

Thank fuck. Yeah. He is dead he probably got like trampled by that big bear that shows up probably eat it i hope so probably gets eaten i hope not i don't know i don't i think that'd be bad for the bear's digestion it would give exactly exactly i feel the same oh my god yeah micah it has been such a great time getting to have you on finally for this chapter for your favorite pov of the prologues uh please let us know everyone online again where they can find you and check out the podcast and of course your wonderful shit posting i'm on twitter and you can find me at micah underscore of Clark, where as Chloe said, I do shit posting currently reading through the wheel of time book series,

which has been a journey. And I ramble on there about it often right now. I'm also a member of the planet host podcast, which is not doing that much right now, but you can find our great episodes on YouTube and Spotify, SoundCloud, iTunes, and all those places. Alright. Thank you.

And be sure to give Micah a follow and find him in all those places. And of course, we are also in the usual places on social media. You can find us at Girls Gone Canon, C-A-N-o-n on twitter or if you have thoughts we have a couple of thoughts like i said we're gonna go over them next time

including some for micah you can shoot us an email at girls gone canon at gmail.com yeah and make sure you're subscribed to us on a podcast streaming platform that best works or suits you whether that is podbean where we're hosted apple podcasts google play acast stitcher audible we're on all of them you can find us yes and of course you can always find us on our patreon at patreon.com slash girls con canon where once a month patrons in the five dollar tier and above the stranger tier and above get access to bonus episodes this month is still TBA as is the date

for our discord brunch yeah keep an eye and an ear out for that on your feed as always I have been one of your hosts Chloe and I have been another one of your hosts Eliana thank you everyone for joining us.

And thank you, Micah. Yes. It's been a pleasure. Not for chat. Not for chat. Not pleasurable for chat. Which is good. Not at all.

Which is good. Love to see you. We'll see you next week. How come no one shits themselves? chat, which is good. Not at all. Which is good. Love to see you. We'll see you next week. How come no one shits themselves? Oh my god, end record.