Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 167 — AGOT Bran III

Episode Date: September 16, 2022

Fly or die.   Background music credits: "Dragon and Toast" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/     "Final Battle of the Dark Wizards" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/   --- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: www.liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song Of Ice And Fire, episode 167, brand 3 in a Game of Thrones. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. You know, I didn't realize how short this chapter was. It is so full of only just banger quotes. Yeah. It is like a quick dip.

It's such a famous chapter that people have, like, discussed often for obvious reasons that I forgot that it was so brief. It's funny because the first two chapters feel so iconic for Bran. Like, they're very much like, this is a Game of Thrones. But this is, it's the Awakening. It's the fucking moment. It's the moment for Bran. This is the moment. It's the awakening. It's the fucking moment. It's the moment for Bran. This is the moment. It's not that.

It's not that. It's very poetic. Lots of prophecy, poetry, creepiness. Can't wait to talk about it. But first, let's get through some quick housekeeping. Speaking of houses. Oh my god, we'll join our houses so patreon episode this month we are working on getting that announced for you uh patrons will hear about it probably before

the next episode the next brand episode i would say so keep your eyes peeled but patrons over at patreon.com slash girls gone canon have access to bonus episodes every single month in the stranger tier and above the five dollar tier and up last month was mothers of the dragon or affectionately milfs of the dragon talking about the mothers of some of the targaryens in fire and blood part one and we still don't know what this month will be but it'll be good it'll be good i'm'll be good. That's it. I'm fully confident in that. I think we're just a little, we're off track because we, God, we've been doing Hot D. We've been riding Hot D all the last month. House of the Dragon, the Fire and Blood. Exactly.

So as part of housekeeping, be sure to check out those episodes. Of course, we are speaking in full about Fire and Blood. Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers. But this is a spoiler podcast too i mean we're pretty i mean it's a reread it would be very difficult i think to do the order we are doing yeah the way we are formatted for the first time you have not read these books at all yeah we are an acquired taste but we taste fucking good do we i don't know i don't know i'll connect it to cannibalism later i'm sure i'm sure uh every friday you know what tastes great house the dragon weekly episode discussions hosted by our friend maddie at our patron discord for

patrons and the thunder tier and up and that's a ten dollar tier and up if you join this tier you get a handful of perks uh you get a gift every year it's a lifetime discord membership basically we're not kicking you off and uh there's events every week 2 p.m et house of the dragon discussion for till the season ends oh god it's horrible also monthly brunch slash happy hour. Yeah, and this month's brunch slash happy hour is this coming Sunday, Sunday, September 18th, from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time, so be sure to check it out. Yeah, we'll be gallivanting this weekend. First, we got a trip out. We're taking a little trip together, just like Bran here. He's taking a trip or a fall i mean uh that doesn't happen to us i hope not oh my god uh and then sunday's brunch hyped we're excited can't wait to see you there again that's patreon.com slash girls gone canon and otherwise

we're back with bran right now we are we are And I know we read a couple of emails and tweets and notes last time. I haven't gathered any sorry for this week. So we didn't have too much, you know, our good friend, Jimmy, they're back at it with their reviews every week on Twitter. I always,

I always love seeing what Jimmy has pulled out every week. Yeah. They really do a good job of capturing some of the stupidest stuff we say. That's why I like it. Yeah. I know. a good job of capturing some of the stupidest stuff we say. That's why I like it. Yeah, I know. I know. Check it out. You'll always see it if you follow us over at Girls Gone Canon, C-A-N-O-N, on Twitter.

You'll see under the episode, the weekly episode poster announcement, our good friend Jimmy, they are always there with those little reviews back at it, and I love it. Let's get into it, right? Let's fall right into it just like bran let's start with our lightning round which is a little like this episode in terms of you can really see everything that's going on tyrian one tyrian pays respects

to the starks and hopes bran may yet survive same john two john's respects to Bran go less smoothly after an uncomfortable encounter with his stepmother. He says goodbye to Winterfell and Robb and Arya specifically. Daenerys too. Daenerys marries Khal Drogo. Eddard too. Ned remembers the sack of King's Landing for what it was when Robert is called to make a decision regarding Daenerys Targaryen. Tyrion too. Tyrion heads north with Jon to see the wall and gets off on maybe the wrong foot with him.

I wasn't sure where you were going with gets off. Gets off. Yeah, I thought about that too. Catelyn three. As Catelyn reaches her emotional limit, she must summon a greater strength and delay Bran the would-be killer with an assist from his wolf. Sansa one. Sansa won.

Sansa goes on the perfect date with Prince Joffrey until they come upon her ever-so-wicked little sister that is siblings. What a drag. Allegedly. I hear. Don't quote me on that. We're living life. Eddard III, eye for an eye, or wolf for a wolf, goes down at the Trident when Joffrey,

Arya, Sansa, Micah all have a little scuffle. God, a few weeks from now we'll probably see another Joffrey on a screen having a scuffle. Oh my gosh. A wolf for a wolf. That brings us into Bran 3. Trippy as hell, fly or die, the time is now. Bran felt like he'd been falling for years. A voice whispers to fly, but he doesn't

know how, so he keeps falling. Like Maester Luwin's clay doll Bran. And as we've discussed in the previous episode, you're getting already those ripples of the broken man theme coming through, especially with Bran's storyline. I kind of forgot that the clay doll has such importance for the first couple episodes. And having it be Bran is one thing, right? That Bran is falling, the doll falls. But also it's a literal loss of innocence with the doll, right? The show did something interesting with Sansa where Ned gives her a doll and she's like, this doll's fucking stupid, dad.

And then he dies. Rip. And one night, Blackwater Sandor comes to her room and she's holding the doll and drops it. And like, it's a very small detail, but that D&D remembered the doll, but didn't remember a lot of other things. But that they remembered the doll, that was very interesting to me. That was, you know, obviously loss of innocence, blah blah. And right there, Bran's plot. There's not only a doll doll brand but also a doll his his childhood has been smashed upon the ground just like him just like him just like him uh the ground is so far below barely visible through gray mists i'm just putting that out there gray mist what did it mean

a couple of times blood raven uh three-eyed crow. Through Greymus, he knows what awaits him below. Even in dreams, you can't fall forever. There's no sun, no stars, and only the ground. Cold, dark. I can't fly, he says. The voice asks him, how do you know? Have you ever tried? A crow is spiraling with him, following him, and he asks for its help but the crow responds and says say got any corn so i think that this is likely barley corn which uh refers to like you know grains of barley and not maize like the new world crop of corn on the cob it's so interesting you say that eliana because i specifically walked over to you today to record this just to argue with you only to argue in that I don't agree absolutely don't agree and here is my proof of why I don't

agree and I'm going to break it down not only from book canon but in a symbolic way as well now for my opening argument crows are known to fuck people's corn and lives up, Eliana. They are so good at fucking people's crops up. Now that could still be barley corn, you are almost right, yes, in that. But I do think it's corn because of the last chapter. There were crow's nests atop the broken tower where no one ever went but him, and sometimes he filled his pockets with corn before he climbed up there, and the crows ate it right out of his hand. None of them had ever shown the slightest bit of interest in pecking out his eyes. I feel like this paragraph

is really important in the climb to this chapter. The climb, like Miley Cyrus. But corn also, you know, associated with harvest, fertility, bounty, like the harvest feast that's upcoming. And I mean, really symbolic in Bran's storyline, right? The harvest king himself or Khorne king, Khorne king. But the language is kernels following this to top off that imagery of plentiful harvest. It's golden kernels not unlike bran as the the harvest corn king himself falling through time with magic surrounding him bran reached into his pocket as the darkness spun dizzily around him when he pulled his hand out golden kernels slid from between his fingers into the air they fell with him i think that everything that you've said though like in

regards to harvest and fertility like those can all be associated with wheat and grains and barley as well. And it does occur like that in a lot of literature. That is how it's used. And also, I think George does a bad job of this, but he tries to not use new world crops, right? Like we don't have tomatoes, tomatoes etc but we do have peppers and we have a turkey even though george forgot he had a turkey that's true he literally forgot he had a turkey he's like yeah you'll you can tell there's no turkeys and we're like i don't know george that's wrong so realistically my argument on its own sounded less bare than just telling you he fucking says kernels in the next line i don't know yeah but it could be like a different kind you know colonels like like i don't know i don't know i just think it depends but also since george isn't consistent with what's in the new role that he's decided to put in this it could very well be like the maze kind of corn i would say the colonels give it away. Okay. I personally am a colonel stance on this. You're a colonel stan.

Vote in at home, you know. Email us at girlsgonecanon at gmail.com. Tweet at us. DM us. Get in our Discord and fight. This is a new schism. Yeah. I mean.

Corn. This is what's tearing us apart. I mean, we're a pretty corny podcast. What do you think about it? Jesus Christ. Bran goes to offer the crow some corn from the dreamscape. This is what's tearing us apart. I mean, we're a pretty corny podcast. What do you think about it? This is crazed. Bran goes to offer the crow some corn from the dreamscape. And as you said, golden kernels slide from his fingers. As George said.

And the crows eat from his hand. Bran asks if he's truly a crow and asks if he's truly falling. Just like I ask, is this truly corn? Bran says it's a dream that he'll wake when he hits the ground. But the crow disagrees and says, oh you're gonna die. So he goes back to eating corn and Bran begins to see a world below him with mountains peaked with white, rivers in the woods, and he closes in his eyes and cries and the crow tells him, this won't do. Fly, not cry, you dumb kid. The crow crow's doing it why can't he it's funny because looking at this

from the outside looking at it now like imagine how frustrated blood raven is with him all the time he's like you stupid idiot i'm being metaphorically literal like what don't you get about it because it's such like kids don't think like that yeah kids don't if blood raven really really cared about it happening he would have been way more helpful than just being i'm just gonna eat a snack and hope it works out this time right like i don't think blood raven's a super serious dude well and he hasn't really been around kids in a while that's also true like years and years and years and years and also to top it off like he never seems like he has the demeanor that he would have understood a child in that candor but i all i'm sorry i'm now i'm just

imagining blood ray and being like fuck you sent me a fucking savior but it's a child i think yeah i just think he's a jokesy dude right or also does he like not care he's just like i don't know it might work out this time it might not because if you look there's so many of the the dreamers down there who didn't fly and you see like here's another one yeah there's another one for those for those rocks and then maybe afterwards after he wakes up bran he's just like we did it finally we did it. Finally. We did it. Yeah, Euron was a hard one to his self-esteem, probably. It's gonna get harder, too. Yeah. Bran feels like the crow is being really unfair.

He's like, you have wings. The crow says, maybe you do, too. Bran gropes around himself for feathers, and then he sees his limbs, wondering if he was always this skinny. No. You're in a coma. And a face swims out of the gray mist to him shining with golden light the things i do for love it says bran screams and the bird screams back telling him to forget that for now and the shining face disappears as Bran falls even faster, afraid, asking the crow what he's doing to him. So, obviously, we've been waiting for a long time for Bran to remember this memory,

which has been suppressed in this supernatural coma dream. But I do think it's telling, right, that the crow tells Bran to put this memory away. And as he does so, Bran starts to see his family like in real time. Because otherwise, with the limited amount of time that he has before, you know, he hits the ground, he'd focus on what happened in that like super terrible moment, and on the pain and like how it broke him or whatever. And that would lead for him to fall and die. Instead, he sees the Starkss he ends up seeing the danger in the north and those of the those together like the crow tells him that's why

he must live and it's not just about addressing the danger because again the crow's redirecting him of like don't pay attention to that look at all these look at all these people that you love and who love him and that gives instead brand something to live for and therefore to fight for when it comes to that danger, right? Like it's the connections that Bran has that end up keeping him tethered to this world and life. And you'd never see any of that if you focus instead on that moment of pain and hate, which is what a lot of characters do in this story and it's kind of interesting that the last the last lines that he remembers of it are the things i do for love because that's what keeps bran alive the things that he will do for love yeah it reminds me of when i was a kid i got my tonsils out when i was four i thought you were gonna say like you were thrown out a window when i was thrown out of a

window when i was four that's what it fucking felt like i remember going in i mean i remember a little bit about it i can see it in my head and I can see like the days surrounding it which is interesting because now as an adult I mean I'm just thinking of like the first invasively traumatizing thing I can think of and that was age four and I remember like going in and they gave me the strawberry gas they're like it's gonna smell like strawberries she's gonna knock you the hell out and they count backwards and they ask you to do it with them like count with me backwards ten nine by eight I was out by the way I was like completely out but it's a very like anyone who's been put under for anything it's a very disorienting experience and I remember coming to and I remember like I do remember eating

mashed potatoes for like a week and popsicles because that's all I could but you know you have to go under because it's such an invasive thing that's happening to you that your body has to react to and then your body has to heal from and with you being alive you wreck it because your body's natural response is to fight against it yeah and brown himself is like having to fight against dying and living right now and blood raving distract him it helps and it's a greater metaphor like you kind of implied of as adults too that happens like you have to get over your fucking bullshit in order to excel in life and i think that's interesting that on a magical level here in a body level for bran and it almost sidles him in and glues him into what's to come because when he wakes up, he has to get over all that too.

He's going to have a lot of frustrations over not being able to use his body anymore and about the limitations of his world and how he no longer has that bodily autonomy that he used to enjoy. And he had to learn to fly a different way. So in a way, it's a blessing. In a way, it's going to be a curse when he wakes up too. And for understandable reasons, he's going to mostly think of it as a curse, those first few chapters as we read them. And I think the first time I was afraid of laughing gas, I was like, what is this going to be like? But I, it only happened to me when I was much older. I was like, oh, this is just like smoking weed. And maybe I, that was, uh, I said that too much. And it was was very lame and embarrassing of me.

I wonder, like, it's interesting. So I haven't had laughing gas like that, the good shit. Is that not what the strawberry gas thing is? It basically is. I mean, but when I was a kid, like, I spent so long. Wow. Anyways, I spent so long of my life, of my childhood, wondering what fucked up surgery or whatever do I have to have in my life next that I get to be put under with that again you're like hell yeah strawberry yes every surgery or anything I've ever had since that has been with annoying like not even the good

stuff the last time I was put under was like completely under was like a shot in the mouth in my roof of my mouth I don't like that it was horrible and then my mom was like a shot in the mouth in my roof of my mouth. I don't like that. It was horrible. And then my mom was like in the recovery area with me afterwards. And you know, I'm gushing gross, bloody, whatever, you know, because like, they have to change your gauze out, whatever was going on. I had like, weird things, teeth growing, peg teeth growing in wrong places. They were like, Oh, we got to fix you. So my mom like was sitting there and they came to give me more pain medication because it was time and they do it again and it was very crazy because they were just like they just like shot it in the roof of my mouth and it was so weird because you have a different

response to that medication usually and some people get you know really giddy or weird or loopy and then some people get horribly upset I'm gonna let yeah yeah I remember crying and like look at my mom like sobbing like mom and she's like honey what's wrong I'm so sorry she was like so emotional because I was like 13 or some shit she's like I just want to help like how can I help I'm so sorry and she's in tears she's like what's wrong I'm like I don't know it was it was classic it was classic but this does remind me of that it's like surgeries and like being in between I mean because I've never been in a coma necessarily and like those are the only fun things I have those two stories I don't have you know the rest of my health history I'm sure we'll

talk about it over the next POV, but horrible. I hope you never have an experience like this, so. It is horrible. Fly or die. Fly or die, mom. So, anyway, yeah, the

crow tells Bran, oh, you're doing it, you're flying right now, and Bran's like, uh, no. I'm falling. I'm falling. And the crow's Bran, oh, you're doing it, you're flying right now. And Bran's like, uh, no. I'm falling. I'm falling. And of course, like, every flight begins in the fall. And what does Bran, oh, look down. And so Bran does. And I do really love that.

I love that line of and the idea that flight begins in the fall. You know, that leap of faith stuff from Spider-Man, the Spider-Verse. And also, you know, that idea of bravery that comes back in at the end of this chapter. Life is flying slash falling, whichever way you look at it. I love that. I do feel like I'm just falling through life sometimes.

Yup. When I was younger, it didn't really feel this way. Like, it didn't go this fast. Now it's just, it's gone. Oh my god, where'd it go? Last week was last week and now we're here yeah we are here fucking shit we're here so we're gonna do something for the rest of this episode that hopefully doesn't get us in trouble with any sort of copyright oh my god i

really don't think that great now they're gonna hear copyright and scanner episode eliana uh we're just gonna read pretty much the quotes of the rest of the chapter, because this is a banger. It's a classic. There's no way that I can just paraphrase for you what it is, because there's so much language, imagery, everything is just crucial to all of this, and it's a very short chapter.

So, why don't we kick it off? The whole world was spread out below him, a tapestry of white and brown and green. He could see everything so clearly that for a moment he forgot to be afraid. He could see the whole realm and everyone in it. He saw Winterfell as the eagles see it, the tall towers looking squat and stubby from above. The castle walls, just lines in the dirt. He saw Maester Luwin on his balcony, studying the sky through a polished bronze tube and frowning as he made notes in a book. He saw his brother Robb, taller, stronger than he remembered him,

practicing swordplay in the yard with real steel in his hand. He saw Hodor, the simple giant of the stables, carrying an anvil to make its forge, hefting it onto his shoulder as easily as another man might heft a bale of hay. At the heart of the godswood, the great white weirwood brooded over its reflection in the black pool, its leaves rustling in a chill wind. When it felt Bran watching, it lifted its eyes from the still waters and stared back at him knowingly. He looked east and saw a galley racing across the waters of the Bight. He saw his mother sitting alone in a cabin, looking at a blood-stained knife on a table in front of her. As the rowers pulled at their oars, Sir Roderick leaned across a rail, shaking and heaving. A storm was gathering ahead of them, a vast, dark roaring, lashed by lightning, but somehow they could not see it.

He looked south and saw the great green rush of the Triton. He saw his father pleading with the king, his face etched with grief. He saw Sansa crying herself to sleep at night, and he saw Arya watching in silence, holding her secrets hard in her heart. Wow, things do not look good for the Stark family right now. There's a lot in there that, like, when I read this, I don't think I read it with the idea that, like, damn, this family's about to die off. I was like, everyone's real sad. idea that like, damn, this family is about to die off. I was like, everyone's real sad. Maybe, maybe that has something to do with, sometimes I wonder, like, does that have something to do with what Brant did see in the heart?

You know, like in some like gooey hatred kind of way. Gooey as in feelings of love versus hate, which we're always talking about. Like he's looking into the dark side for a second of it all. Yeah. Because even when you talked about like how he looks at his family and he stops it to stay connected you know it's that yeah that beginning the pack survives mentality right like that's what anchors him and draws him back but here maybe because he's feeling hurt and broken within him like he's also seeing their hurts their pains their tragedies right now.

And they're broken. They are. Up right now, apart. But they're all anchored around him. He's the roots right now that's sewing them into what Winterfell's heart is, the heart and hearth of it. And even that symbolism, right, of the storm that they see, a vast dark storm and the lightning strike in the middle of it that reminds me very much of robert oh and interesting it says what does it say here the exact is lashed by lightning but somehow they could not see it so he's watching them in their grief and above them a dark storm has started to gather lashed with lightning and they don't see it coming but he does yeah

how very interesting so this is great because this is the first thing he sees he doesn't quite see what that means and later the sea coming to winterfell he starts to understand does this mean something are these metaphors which you know to brand's credit he's like seven and i don't think they started teaching me metaphors till i was nine what and i'm still out here trying we're still out here trying to teach people what and and and me yeah i'm still learning every day um but i mean yeah like that's a pretty complex idea for a kid uh jojen reed tries to teach him this is a metaphor brand when i tell you this story are you sure you don't know this story because i was pretty obvious about it all jojan reed like didn't you read the wiki before

we got together i sent you the links brand yeah check out the spark notes oh my god um also i like that hodors of this isn't that interesting especially carrying the anvil because to me it's very strong and maester lewin yeah where's old dan ungrateful ungrateful so before he sees all of his family right when he looks up for that first moment he sees the whole realm we have this line of for a moment he forgot to be afraid and that feels important considering, again, how this ends and what he learned from Ned about bravery. And I'm kind of wondering, like, does it work? Because, like, is flying meant to be a moment of bravery, right? Like, the kind that happens even when you're afraid. And maybe it's like some of those other dreamers who are down there, maybe they couldn't fly

because they reveled too much in the power of being able to see everything and they were distracted and they couldn't fly because they wanted to in one of the moment and there was no bravery in it yeah like the connection having your heart connected to it like because bran has an emotional stake in what he's seeing and the events unfolding below him and that yeah the three-eyed crow at this time of when it was written but blood raven basically that blood raven knew to have the sense that like honestly this is such a stupid reference but it reminds me of being a vampire in twilight right because they have sensory issues or being adhd like me that i have sensory issues too much at

once i get distracted people talking at the same time as I'm trying to think or trying to do something while also other things around me, motion, people. It's a lot and you need to be able to focus on one thing. I guess for the heart of it to be that he can anchor himself to his family and come back to Earth at least in that way. Planetos. At least in that way. I think that makes him more focused on one mission and the purity of it right like there's something very pure in a child just like experiencing something so vast and huge for the first time and how they filter it yeah let's get into some of that

metaphorical language right there were shadows all around them. One shadow was dark as ash. With the terrible face of a hound, another was armored like the sun, golden and beautiful. Over them both lived a giant in armor made of stone. But when he opened his visor, there was nothing inside

but darkness and thick black blood. This is such a passage that's been picked to death by everyone. Yeah. I mean, everyone has a take. Everyone has a take. It has. And I don't really know.

I think there's like some obvious takes of it, but at the same time, maybe not. I don't think I have anything new to add to it. I'm going to be real, but I'm going to talk about it anyway, because I just feel like it, right? Obviously, one of them is pretty fucking obvious yeah one of them's very obvious and

the other one right the giant in armor made of stone that's probably gregor but also i think that's something george garden the the whole robert strong thing and i don't know on some days like i think that the person armored like the sun is Jamie and then on other days I decided like through some crazy finangled way I was like the armored shadow in gold is Littlefinger because you know he's got a lot of money and gold and all that stuff but I don't know rereading this chapter and how Summer's eyes are like into the sun and how this person is like armored like the sun I'm wondering if the golden and beautiful figure should be seen as someone who's like actually good like good for them and then again on the other obvious assumption and that I feel in other days is like that's just Jamie because he's

described as golden and beautiful a lot especially in this first book and again how that positive imagery about the Lannisters is playing on the idea that all that glitters isn't gold right beauty isn't inherently meaning good and especially because that's part of Bran's story as he wrestles with the idea again a feeling like he's broken and doesn't fit into how the stories say things should be and has to grow and find the goodness in himself it's funny because you said it and immediately i was like are you saying you don't think jamie could do good because good isn't a thing you are sure that's true i mean he could be right you thought you're gonna finish it for me i don't know because don't know because- What you do. They're intertwined, right?

And again, we were talking about the things I do for love, right? And how that might influence Bram. I can't believe you haven't come to the other side of this, though, because you were so close and I'm going to make you come to this side. Come to the side that I see of it, that you were like one step away from, I think, a really cool idea. And again, this is probably gardened in a lot of ways what about someone that is good being armored like the sun as an off-the-wall choice like

someone with the sun in their sigil i still don't know who yeah beauty only being skin deep you were literally just talking about bran and some of these ideals of ways he can't fit into society or the things he doesn't see and I'm like oh like Brienne oh and I don't think it's actually Brienne I mean I think it's Jaime but I think it's about Jaime and I think it actually but in duality it's funny because it could be about Brienne armored like the sun it could be like all these things you just said about beauty being skin deep and finding the good and these acts of good. And it's not a pile of good and bad, but, you know, the way you approach things and what you stand for. And Jamie may be finding something to stand for in Brienne's way of life, too. What she teaches him and what he teaches her.

I do think it could be Brienne because I do see a lot of ways in which brand story intersects with brienne um as you're saying right like people who don't feel like they fit into society right for for several different reasons but the only thing is like as you said right like george totally gardened garden i'm not convinced george knows what any of these figures are except for the hound i'm not sure he actually knows. It's funny because a lot of people formulate theories off of this, right? Or they use certain parts of it to formulate this is going to happen, like Clegane Bowl, for example. You know, this was always, well, I mean, just in the Sandor Clegane community, Eliana, I'm going to tell you about

this. In the Sandor community. In the Sandor Clegane. The Standor Clegane. The Clegane community. Oh, that didn't work. Clemenity? No, that sounds like Cloacan. It sounded bad, but I needed to see if it would work. It didn't. I know.

Clemenity. Yes. The Clegane community. Ooh, Clegane. Interesting. That's your new ship name. Adorable. But there's a lot of theories of like what will happen with sandor

and his brother and cligainbull it always comes up and this often is used because you know sandor's in it in the front now again it's funny because now yes it's face of ash dark as ash right the shadow is dark as ash that's how you know fire it's the hound yeah but again in the future that could have been brienne if it weren't for the ashen face you know with her scarred face the terrible face of a hound with her taking the hound helm and reclaiming it that's so true yeah yeah interesting coming back to some of these broken men vibes it's definitely gardened he abs i don't even know that he was convinced about brienne being such a big character at this point i think maybe she existed in his mind but i just

don't think you know i wonder yeah i don't know because like she is introduced pretty early right book two is pretty early but yeah i just i i don't know because like a lot of people say oberon right armored like the sun i don't know that he's already yeah i don't think he existed either i i'm not convinced george knew what this meant i think he had thoughts and ideas, but I mean, no, I think it's really Jamie and he can, obviously he might change his mind and retcon some of it,

right? Like, uh, the John, John, the heading Janos slant ending up tying back to Sansa saying that she hopes some hero will behead Janos, right?

Because originally he was going to hang him, but yeah, I don't know. It's fun. It's a fun passage. I like this one. I mean, that's the most fun about this entire chapter is all of it is just chock full. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So next.

He lifted his eyes and saw clear across the narrow sea, to the free cities in the green Dothraki Sea and beyond, to Vase Dothrak under its mountain, to the fabled lands of the Jade Sea, to Ashai by the Shadow, where dragons stirred beneath the sunrise. Finally, he looked north. He saw the wall shining with blue crystal, and his bastard brother john sleeping alone in a cold bed

his skin growing pale and hard as the memory of all warmth fled from him big sad what's interesting about this passage is that idea of he sees a shy by the shadow where dragons stir beneath the sunrise i always thought that was an interesting line because i always was like until i saw something else that basically confirmed that danny's dragons are the only ones currently living in the world i was like so there are other dragons that people can just like go all the way to the other side of this continent and go get and bring back. That doesn't seem that hard. I mean, we do learn there are eggs.

There are eggs. To be fair. But I also took it that there were dragons stirring when I first read it. I guess it makes sense that the magic that awakened the dragons or the blood magic that was awakening them possibly could also be of shadow binding right so maybe the magic is connected to a shy by the shadow because of that especially with like melisandre in the next book etc i just realized right now as i looked over at you and looked at this as with us talking i think i've been reading this line wrong my whole life until this very moment and i think it's because it's ambiguously written.

To the fabled lands of the Jade Sea, to Asshai by the Shadow, were dragons stirred beneath the sunrise. It means were dragons used to stir beneath the sunrise. Had stirred. Having had stirred. Had stirred back then. But because everything else is in the same tense, this kind of past tense, it was very confusing. There's also something interesting. So later with Quaithe, right, the language of the glass candles are burning Daenerys and telling her soon they come, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But also the locations, like obviously we haven't gone to a shy by the shadow with daenerys quay kind of references it you know and it makes you wonder this is another one of those like this passage house of the undying quay these are all some really interesting prophetic kind of passages going on that we get to analyze and it almost free cities danny's there. The green Dothraki Sea and beyond to vase Dothrak under its mountain. Been there. And then the Jade Sea, Ashai by the Shadow. She hasn't quite gone there. The Quaith kind of almost references, girl, these places.

I don't know if she'll go or not, but I know George has told us that we will see Ashai, but he didn't say that we will go to Ashai. So a vision or a prophecy or someone's memories yeah oh like mel i forgot about mel for a second oh how dare how dare i'm sorry god no i'm sorry to the melisandre fans i'm sorry that i've sinned it's been 10 minutes okay one minute 10 seconds since i sinned and yeah i, I do think that the, the John stuff is also interesting. Again, evokes that language from House of the Undying with the blue chink in the glass ice.

This does seem like initial John death foreshadowing. Absolutely. And I, I think he knew that he planned to kill him at some point. I think, yeah, I think he knew that. Yeah. He knew that. Maybe not the in-between, which is why we have a dance with dragons, but he knew that he planned to kill him at some point. I think, yeah, I think he knew that. Yeah. He knew that. Maybe not the in-between, which is why we have a dance with dragons, but he knew that. He did know that.

And it's interesting that he's likened to an other himself, right? His skin growing pale and hard as the memory of all warmth fled from him. And it's not lost on me that also that line reminds me of Rhaegar dying. Oh, interesting. that also that line reminds me of Rhaegar dying. Oh, interesting. What's that line? You know, a man sank to his knees and murmured a woman's name. You know, that's how that feels. Very similar romantic, poetic kind of imagery.

Well, also, as you say, like the memory of all warmth. And it kind of feels like there's a lot, especially in this book and the next book that uses cold and warmth right as as metaphors for love and the absence of it love and hate mating not necessarily hate but absence of it right because or loneliness coldness being loneliness especially in denarius's story and i'm like isolation exactly the memory of all warmth fleeing from him speaks to his isolation in this moment but also you know we've discussed what kind of memories do whites retain and that being different in fire whites and ice white so interesting so the next the next passage that we have here for you um please do not take us down

and he looked past the wall past endless forest cloaked in snow, past the frozen shore and the great blue-white rivers of ice and the dead plains where nothing grew or lived. North and north and north he looked, to the curtain of light at the end of the world and then beyond that curtain. He looked deep into the heart of winter, and then he cried out, afraid, and the heat of his tears burned on his cheeks. Now you know, the crow whispered as it sat on his shoulder. Now you know why you must live.

Why? said Bran, not understanding, falling, falling. Because winter is coming, Coming, coming, coming. Bran looked at the crow on his shoulder and the crow looked back. It had three eyes and the third eye was full of a terrible knowledge. Bran looked down. There was nothing below him now but snow and cold and death. A frozen wasteland where jagged blue-white spires of ice waited to embrace him. They flew up at him like spears. He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points. He was desperately afraid. Can a man still be brave if he's afraid? He heard his own voice saying, small and far away. And his father's voice replied to him.

That is the only time a man can be brave. Now, Fran, the crow urged, choose, fly or die. Death reached for him, screaming. Fran spread his arms and flew. Bro, this chapter was so good. When I read this chapter for the first time, I mean, all respect to David and Dan for writing the entire story and George adapting it from them back in the day. I'm just kidding. This is a joke.

God, the joke has gone too far. Yeah, well, I love that George put this in, you know, that David and Dan didn't put this. They didn't adapt, you know. George, yeah, really expanded upon this. Really, really fun stuff. No, jokes aside, this is like, it is, jokes aside, scholarship aside here, it's just so good. I read this for, I mean, this and winter is coming when he says because winter is coming, like, throw the fucking book kind of. he says because winter is coming like throw the fucking book kind of it it feels so crazy because all to this point of the book you know you're like all right meet the characters meet the families

meet the people oh intrigue incest okay okay and then this and you're like what the fuck did i just read yeah what absolutely and you're like what's happening? I can't believe people no offense if you're one of these people, but I can't believe people don't think Bran's storyline is interesting. Like, you get this chapter and how can you not find Bran's storyline, like,

interesting? Can't relate. I cannot once relate to that. This is, I mean it's everything a fantasy story should be. and obviously we had like snow zombies ice zombies at the start right so that sets off the fantastical bit and got the incest and the intrigue and the feasts and the the different places and locations and the lost princess that's great it's all good i love all that but this is the moment where you realize it's a different kind of fantasy series. This is my moment.

God, not again. But it is, though. Like, I do think it's the time you realize that it's different. This is a different story than what you've read. And it's not in some aspects that will break down. This seems pretty typical. Yeah. Having a prophetic, like, crazy dream seems pretty typical of fantasy.

But it's a great dream. it's wonderfully written and how it also ties back to that first chapter right and and really creates this emotional arc about choice but also you know he has to choose he has to fly or die and choice is something that as we'll see right is a big part of the story you were talking about brian i was like wondering is there a way that this kind of ties in at all with um no chance or no choice but i mean he does have a choice here right it's a shitty choice though but fly or die well okay well it's one or the other we got to do it and also that Bran takes that choice seriously after what he's seen he doesn't decide like oh this is some crazy dream whatever he was shown makes him realize like this is real and I have to be brave and also I just love the language here right as we were saying like it's

so wonderfully written I love that line of death reached for him screaming and that he escapes it right and then right after this passage also as like the wind comes below him and it's so beautiful and i also find it just like this interesting personification of death it's it's not just like on the intellectual level of like religious level of the stranger and we don't really see death portrayed like that too often like the entire concept of death personified through like in that way i love that he's running from his death in this manner right like death came for him oh that's interesting it makes me think of so much different poetry right like yeah that came for me and i'm just nope out goodbye not today not today if you will not today the entire passage the entire chapter in my opinion and even Bran's entire arc really

is reminiscent of T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland it is a 20th century modernist piece I mean one of the greatest of its times from 1922. It's about 64 pages. It's five different parts and contains a ton of allusions to Ovid, Dante, Shakespeare. It goes from prophetic to satirical. You know, it's emotional. It's also funny. I mean, we get a scene of voyeurs at one point that we'll talk about. It still loops into Brand's plot in some aspects, I would say. we'll talk a little more about the fisher king at the end of the episode right but of course there's the general fantastical bit of he's the last in a long line charged to protect a holy grail becomes physically disabled

and is sometimes represented as you know spending his time fishing waiting for a chosen one to come heal him through a test of sorts. And I find The Wasteland, it's very litty, despite T.S. Eliot's general horribleness as a human being, you know, his anti-Semitic qualities. He fucking sucked, but man, that goddamn man could write a fucking poem or two. It's so reminiscent of Bran, and I want to break down part of it. Bran's arc, as well as some of the other seers in the story, has a lot of those same themes. So part one is the burial of the dead, introducing disillusionment and despair, and this feels so important, especially to the passage we just read. Yet when we came back, late from the hyacinth garden your arms full and your hair wet i could not speak

and my eyes failed i was neither living nor dead and i knew nothing looking into the heart of light the silence so definitely evokes looking into the heart of winter part two this is all right stay with me on this eliana it's called a game of chess I mean George really likes chess yeah and that seriously I'm serious when I say like oh it's literally a game of chess like from pawn to player also our friend Hamfest uh was gonna once upon a time write a couple essays about George Aswath and chess yeah well there's also something more that a game of chess the way it's written it's actually written from povs from alternating narrations and they're just like vignettes basically addressing the different themes so the song of ice and fire that book called a game of

chess i mean a game of thrones one of my favorite bits from this is you know nothing do you see nothing do you remember nothing I remember those are pearls that were his eyes are you alive or not is there nothing in your head just really great language especially the pearls in the eyes makes me think of the sapphire and the blue crystal that's associated with the north and it does remind me of simeon star eyes yes that crystal in the eye northern motif that starts to come up or amen wow um the fire sermon is the next part which is very much about death and imagery and self-denial and it's actually inspired by augustine of hippo and uh lots of buddhist themes tons of buddhist themes and there's this great part from teresius one of the great prophets so that's interesting because you know prophets and watching someone fuck total voyeurism which

we'll get in this story from bran in some aspects uh also for those listening at home this is the part the fire sermon is where isle of dogs stems from. The movie? Movie slash book slash show. Yeah it's uh also a book but it's yeah it's amazing though it's the best movie and you need to watch it because it will be your favorite. Hmm I don't think so I have a new favorite movie. What is it? It's Everything Everywhere All at Once. No you'll love this though it's all about dogs. Yeah but I don't think it'll eclipse that. We'll see. Well that's true that does it's yeah i get that but it is good like it might it might be up there okay so the poem not about dogs believe or not i teresias though blind throbbing between two lives old man with wrinkled female breasts can see at the violet hour the evening hour that strives homeward and brings the sailor home from

sea i just love what it evokes with him being blind and throbbing between two lives because that's what brand's doing right now he's throbbing between two lives somehow existing yeah and i forgot there's that line right like that's something he speak in many voices what is that he do the police in different voices. That's what the line is. He do the police in different voices. That kind of speaks very much to, like, what you were saying of, you know,

there's a POV structure, but also in regards to how Bran will be able to really see the lives of different people, right? Like, the Wasteland is a verbal collage, I would say. And it's interesting the way that you've tied it to, again, those alternating POVs, because I kind of have always felt that George's writing of A Song of Ice and Fire and how it leans into that subjectivity as opposed to that objectivity

is very much in the tradition of modernist literature modernist literature was a break from uh a lot of the way that literature was done before in which there was the idea of an objective truth and and there was less of a focus on that like the way that a professor described it is like uh you know previously writers might write about like the glass modernism was interested on the fingerprints that were on the glass yes oh i love that and i fucking love that the fingerprints on the glass and a lot of it was in reaction to the way that world war one broke the world and and i mean even tolkien's writing is in that is a reaction to that though i wouldn't necessarily call lord of the rings which i've not read uh modernist right um it's not

written in that same genre and style but i mean george is writing he's writing in that way of a the way that war is a shattering and brand's life right now. Very shattered. Yeah, it evokes I mean, themes that are modern, but that are timeless. These are timeless themes that he's evoking through the classic story of Bran in a way that, yeah, it's not like you said, objectivity, it's subjectivity. And the final

two parts of the poem, of The Wasteland, also really remind me of Bran's plot. Death by Water, which has lyrical petitions and then what thunder said the final section which is about judgment so that feels significant but so death by water i am one of my favorite bits from this forget the cry of goals and the deep seas swell and the profit and loss a undersea, picked his bones and whispers as he rose and fell. He passed the stages of age and youth.

Which Bran is, you know, he's ascending, transcending through that. Bran is transcending age and youth right now. And the final section, what Thunder said on judgment, to me that ties it together. Especially because of this passage and the exact quote in the language when Bran wakes up. When Bran wakes up, the first thing he's focusing on is the servant with the long, dark hair. Right. It's an exact kind of passage. This part of what Thunder said, this shook me. Man, when I read this today, I was rereading it.

I was like, you know, George read The Wasteland for this. I mean, The Wasteland is literally in passage of up. He says wasteland in it. So it just makes me, it really evokes that you read this. Yeah. A woman drew her long black hair out tight and fiddled whisper music on those strings. And bats with baby faces and the violet light whistled and beat their wings and crawled head downward down a blackened wall. I mean, that's Winterfell. That's him seeing Winterfell and coming back to Winterfell as he awakens and sees the servant.

Yeah, you can see the way that poetry like this and this one likely influenced the way that George was approaching writing this. It is prose. It is prose, but he's drawing on poetic devices in order to write it, which is why there's such strong metaphor. It's clever, actually. Yeah, and again, that idea of it being fractured in a collage it's seeing it all at once and i also want to say you know i i we will probably revisit this poem one day when we if we

ever cover the poetry of his dark materials oh absolutely absolutely i would love to talk about this in that episode someday yes when we When we curate it for Patreon. Yes, and that would be a bonus episode, yeah, for patrons. Stranger tear and a fuzz. But not that stranger, we're talking about the horse. Oh, that stranger. Well, suddenly invisible wings carry him upward and Bran realizes, oh, he's flying. And then the three-eyed crow flies alongside him.

He was not helpful. At all. Right? Especially because he cuts Bran's ecstasy short, right? He's like, nothing was better than flying. It's kind of reminiscent of when Dany finally flies. Yes, yes, take me. Yeah, but not quite like that. But it is though.

It is, but not as sexual. This is not a sexual scene especially as um you know is it like does the bird cut it short because bran cannot let the world fall away too much let everything become too small become too distant from the people we still need to see them but also is the bird just an asshole it's like you're having fun let me cause you great pain and flap and so you can't see anything i don't know he was still gardening blood raven's personality okay i think this is his personality like no he is kind of just a prick and i love that like a silly prick i think he's pretty funny

and wry in the mystery night i like that he does well he is he's like sarcastic and dry i think that's funny like he he's amused and bemused at the same time that's what he's like yeah i think actually blood raven was gardened from this crow to be fair like the crow became blood raven over time blood raven should be so lucky yeah to be as bored i love the idea that he's pulling him back out because later what does he tell him you know if you stay too long, you get lost. And you can't dwell also on your family the whole time, especially if he has a greater purpose. And it is for other people than just the remaining Starks.

Like, you have to go back and focus. But he used it to totally bring Bran, you know, bring him on that vibe. Vibe this way for a second. You're going to get overwhelmed if you look at everything at once. Okay, now that you know you're real, that you exist. This is just like doing acid. Now that you know you're real, Bran, and you exist, and you're not fake. Everything is real.

Look, I'm showing you real things. You're real family. Now let's go back to the task at hand. Yeah, and then gives him no guidance from there on after. No, not for a couple books. He's like, good fucking luck getting up here. Let's talk about that final passage that we have. Well, it's not the final one.

We have one more after this, but. It took to the air, flapping its wings in his face, slowing him, blinding him. He faltered in the air as its pinions beat against his cheeks. Its beak stabbed at him fiercely, and Bran felt a sudden, blinding pain in the middle of his forehead, between his eyes. What are you doing? he shrieked. The crow opened its beak and cawed at him, a shrill scream of fear, and the gray mists shuddered and swirled around him and ripped away like a veil. And he saw that the crow was really a woman, a serving woman with long black hair, and he knew her from somewhere, from Winterfell. Yes, that was it. He remembered her

now, and then he realized he was in Winterfell, in a bed high in some chilly tower room, and the black-haired woman dropped a basin of water to shatter on the floor and ran down the steps, shouting, he's awake, he's awake, he's awake. Bran touched his forehead between his eyes. The place where the crow had pecked him was still burning, but there was nothing there, no blood, no wound. He felt weak and dizzy. He tried to get out of bed, but nothing happened. And then there was movement beside the bed, and something landed lightly on his legs. He felt nothing. A pair of yellow eyes looked into his own, shining like the sun. The window was open and it was cold in the room, but the warmth that came off the wolf enfolded him like a hot bath.

His pup, Bran realized. Or was it? He was so big now, he reached out to pat him, his hand trembling like a leaf. When his brother Robb burst into the room, breathless from his dash up the tower steps, the dire wolf was licking Bran's face. dialogue was licking Bran's face. It's gonna eat him. A hand trembling like a leaf. Interesting. I didn't notice that until you read it aloud. A little reminiscent of Leaf.

Leaf themselves. Leaf her alone. Also, I mean, a weirwood leaf is what it reminded me of. Truly. And the leaves rustling constantly with wind beneath between them i mean when they rustle it's supposed to evoke like someone's watching you and like there's something spiritual moving up there so his hand trembling like a weirwood leaf well also because uh i remember our friend joe magician like really writing and calling out that

the leaves look like little bloody hands yeah and then there's that like one scene we didn't i don't think we grabbed that one but where he does see maybe we did and then i just like forgot he looks at the weirwood and then like its eyes turn it looks at him yeah we talked we read it yeah that one was so that one i mean that entire passage is so good sorry a tree staring at you. We're coming back all the way to the beginning again. Oh, I wonder if all the trees, like, would see him in this dreamscape world or something. Probably.

Terrifying. Everything can see him, I'm guessing, in that scape. Oh, kind of like a, from my knowledge, you know, of watching the movies, is it like the Nazgul can see you in Lord of the Rings when you put the ring on it's interesting because we do talk about like how everything could possibly have one power source but all transmuting that power differently yeah as far as religions and yeah yeah because like this isn't a religion at the moment right this is just him this is just a spiritual world or whatever you know and later you know he and Melisandre do see each other in that spiritual world. Exactly.

On that plane. This is just one plane that we all come to in life. You know, there's one spiritual plane. Everyone can walk it. They just have to learn how. To fly. To fly. Everyone can fly.

Don't fall. That's the thing. It's a choice to fly. We're all falling, but we can also all fly. Just got to open your eye, Eliana. Yeah, gotta- Wait, wait, hold on. None of you at home can see this, but- Boop!

Ugh. A booster. She did, in between the eyebrows. Pack, pack. Thankfully she did not clot it. I thought about it. But, I mean, yeah, absolutely, right? Like, the place, that area, right?

The third eye, eye knowledge you know being able to see the supernatural and spiritual sense i feel like i don't need to explain this to all of you um listen to our hdm episodes well also i just feel like people kind of you all know you all know what this means and also i want to talk about call call out Stephen Atwell's coverage of this chapter, right? In it, he discusses the change in Bran and talks about the context of how Bran seems to be going down like the storyline, this archetype of a wounded mistake, but also connections with the Fisher King from Arthurian legend. And I'm sure that we will discuss all this further but I do want to you know get that in here talk about it mention it now and also call out that uh clash of critics has a great extended discussion on disability in a song of ice and fire there's also that double

entendre right it's very cute very fun if he's awake not only speaking to oh he's literally coming out of this coma but awakening of, of course, that third eye. And there's also something kind of fun here. I don't think this is something that George is doing intentionally, but I don't know. Probably not. Of how Bran, he looks down and sees nothing there. No blood, no wound. Then you have another line that says nothing happened and how he felt nothing.

Right. And I think that's really interesting, that hollowness that he's feeling and how everything has like fell away but you know that those changes versus the everything that he has just experienced through this power the nothingness of the waking world the everything of the dreaming but also there's this thing in shakespeare and the language English spoken during the early modern period in which nothing was pronounced like noting or whatever and it was a pun meaning vagina because the idea was like that there's nothing down there right this idea of nothingness and it's it's quite uncanny if you think about it but brands see nothing down there really i think if if we look at it in the context of that pun on vagina speaks to something we will probably talk about more throughout brand storyline of emasculation and disability right it obviously comes up a lot in tyrian's storyline it's an ongoing discussion within the text of a

song of ice and fire in general right we see it in doran's storyline as we've discussed of how men and boys who cannot perform martially right are seen as not true men what makes a man i mean brand's plot starts with that right when can a man be brave dad what makes a man super fucking brave and masculine? Like, what's a man? Yeah. What is a man? And etc. Like that is literally part of the very beginning of his plot. And then this happens to him. And now he has to make that for himself. He has to design what a man is in his life, because then his male role model is dead. So, and then the next one. And then the next one. And then the next one. He has one that is dead, but is still around.

For example, cold hands. For now, yeah, that's true. Technically dead, but here. Great role model, too. Really knows how to cook some pork, if you will. Teaches him how to think and eat our friends back oh my god this is back in 2019 eliana and i did an episode and i kind of remembered it we actually talked about it the other day in passing i almost remembered this happening but she even forgot that we did a

i have no idea what you're talking i know i'm about to blow your mind get ready i'm gonna open your third eye right now. Oh my gosh. Third eye blind over here. I am. Well, before Eliana goes like Bran and is a jumper on it. Get it? Because falling?

Yeah, yeah. I was like, this is a lot. This is a lot right now, Chloe. It's a segue. What, you can make them and I can't? Oh, it's only okay when you make bad segues? Bullshit. We did an episode on prophets, prophecies, and seers.

It was our 10th Patreon special bonus episode. It happened. I'm looking at the outline right now in my hands. I'm trying to remember this episode. I'm so sorry. This is so bad. It runs with the Halloween episode to me. I remember the Halloween one.

You know? I don't know why. That one, like one. You know? I don't know why. That one, like, I always remember. I don't remember. You need to brush up on your Jujutsu lore. But we did an episode discussing prophets, prophecies, seers. If you want, you should check out our back catalog of these episodes. I should check out our back catalog.

Take a leaf out of that book. We talked a lot about Bran and the Three-Eyed Crow and a lot about some of the Taoism elements there, right? The mind's eye tuning into the correct vibration of the universe and in return gaining a solid foundation to reach, you know, more advanced meditation levels. Or Hinduism, where the third eye is the higher state of consciousness, you know, referring to the gate that leads to inner realms and spaces of higher consciousness, and specifically Shiva. Shiva destroying the world by opening his third eye. So a lot of what you're saying that, like, there's also darkness that Bran's seeing. He's not just seeing the light, he's seeing that absence of light. And it is a fine line, right, that when he, if he opens his third eye, it could destroy the person who happens to see the vision like Shiva and even seeing that tree see him right where he looked into the dreamscape

and the dreamscape looks back it reminds me of that tree of knowledge we discuss in the prophecies prophets and seers episode which is like diners drive-ins dads but prophecies prophets seers we discuss good and evil right in kind of the regard of the tree of knowledge and the fall of man with flight versus falling like man's fall the entire fall of man and eating from that tree of knowledge and all of those thousands of bones of the seers down on the ground that you talked about and we read about i mean they fell they were the fall of man because of that power and knowledge exactly yeah yeah yeah all right you said this so thank you i did you said this you're so fun you didn't connect it to the bones but you literally you did talk about the tree of knowledge and brands fall a long time ago

uh and i think notes are incomprehensible to me yeah well these are so short i know they're weird i don't know what my thought i i'll have to listen to the episode to find out check it out episode 10 on patreon back catalog of special episodes prophets prophecies sears i'll put a link in there for you eliana i'll send it to you tonight thank you thank you my god stream girls gone canon eliana yeah right subscribe hit subscribe hit that like button I'll send it to you tonight. Thank you, thank you. Stream Girls Gone Canon, Eliana. Yeah, right? Subscribe. Hit subscribe, hit that like button. Oh, God. I love kind of

the Holy Grail and Fisher King elements that are coming to this. I mean, hell, Oedipus is technically a Fisher King when you think about it. Yeah, absolutely. Right? Infertile Kingdom. Watch out, John. No eyes, though. No eyes. Oh, pack a pack. Oh, God. I think there's something interesting about

Bran and John you know we've talked a lot about John and Bran's plot because he keeps coming up I mean he's a very interesting and recurring theme in Bran's life that he lives with him for a long time and Bran and John both have these elements of the Fisher King and the Holy Grail

right the Fisher King's the Holy Grail right the Fisher King's whole thing is that I mean he's kind of more like an NPC in my opinion the Fisher King is like he doesn't get in legends yeah he doesn't get his own plot like he's just chilling injured by a lake and your hero like Percival for example stumbles upon him and the whole thing is that you have to say mayhaps to the fisher king if you reveal to him i say the question about the grail and here's my question i state the question he suddenly you know in many legends he heals his injury heals which is not going to happen obviously and his kingdom becomes super fertile and booming again and you like awaken the secret kingdom and so there's a lot of that element with Bran especially as he

leaves Winterfell and Winterfell is sacked burned and pass his hands that like this was once a fertile place the Starks were the fertile people they provided harvest they provided hearth and safety to the north and now with them gone things are bad we learn right things go terrible and bran i mean even to you know the food he leaves uh you know the corn for the crow is one thing that he always takes corn to the crows but then the littles leave him food you know and he says, someday I'll repay them. This means so much to me. I understand what this means. I understand what this means to the people of the North, not just to him. And so there's something really amazing about the idea of that lost kingdom returning because the Fisher King has been revealed.

And we talked in our Alaris episode. I mean, our Pate episode. talked in our Alaris episode, I mean, our Pate episode, we talked in our Pate episode about Strider's riddle in Lord of the Rings and how, you know, the Sphinx, what's the riddle? Is it the riddle or the Sphinx? What is the actual riddle? And Strider, you know, in disguise and being revealed to be Aragorn with the poem. I know you don't know what this means, Eliana. Some people will. We talked about it a few weeks ago. But that's also kind of the Fisher King. Like, the Fisher King reveals himself as a king. So there are elements of Jon in it as well, like a lost kingdom, you know, a bloodline lost.

But there's also something interesting in the hero that meets the Fisher King and reveals the Fisher King and brings this back and asks the question of the Grail. king and reveals the fisher king and brings this back and asks the question of the grail because percival for example he lives his whole life not actually having asked the right question and so he like goes through life with this small punishment of like i could have revealed and gotten the grail and brought all this magic back to the world but i didn't and now i just have to live with it and the fisher king himself is sometimes seen as like being punished for his injury for having reached too far in some ways of the legend. Like sometimes it's because he took a wife when according to the grail and the guidelines

of the grail, he's not allowed to, which is very John, right? And he's kind of made to suffer as a punishment without his kingdom, which does remind me of John's possible exile in some aspects. So I think it's interesting that, you know, the literal character Bran in Percival's lore, there is a character named Bran and he has a cauldron that brings back the dead. So some of these powers have been shifted around and little just like ideas that George is playing with from mythology

and from different stories in the lore and our three and legend i do think it's interesting that you have to ask the question though and it's like if you don't say mayhaps you don't yeah if you don't say something about the grail i don't know i really uh thought there was something interesting in something about bran and john as being those mixture of heroes in a way. Yeah, them sharing so many similarities, right? And how, yeah, Jon is a Targaryen Arryn king, but also a red herring as well. Like, even though he's real, he's a real red herring.

Yeah. Well, also, like, the idea of him, even now in the story, him not taking Winterfell, right? That feels like the question that you ask when you find the guy with the grail you're supposed to ask the question you could take immense power you could have it all by saying give me the grail where is the grail reveal me the grail he could have that immense power in a heartbeat even later with his lineage he could have the throne and for him to reject his own claim to Winterfell, to his family, to having happiness, to the throne maybe? I mean, that's a very big mayhaps not to mayhaps.

And Bran being kind of involved in that. Yeah, and I mean Bran also, right? Being probably the Fisher King himself. Having that echo also with even Theon's storyline, right? Because sometimes the Fisher King is interpreted as being a sign of impotence and uh theon literally cannot bear heirs anymore so all of that echoing for these young men and boys in the winterfell and kind of like i don't know but brand's really not an NPC none of them are NPCs no but I could see but it's just interesting yeah it's not that they they become the focus

right yeah because they have their own plots and heroics to play out like Bran for me I see the last hero you know that kind of archetype for him strongly but I do see the Fisher King elements as well but there's something about the the reveal and the awakening of the magic and that, like, especially for Jon, like, all Jon would have to do is ask his brother, you know, or push his claim with his brother, and that he doesn't would be something interesting. That Bran could be that NPC at the end of the game

that all you have to do is ask, my cousin. Yeah. Well, speaking of the last hero, let's talk about the last line of this chapter. Bran looked up calmly. His name is Summer, he said. I love them. I love you, Bran.

Okay, now that I'm sad about Bran and Summer because my eyes are, full of tears of joy. Because I'm just like, his name is Summer. It's beautiful. But he's going to tear that joy from us. I'm going to make it even worse. So I'm so sorry. You know how we talked about wolves dying? I don't know this. I refuse to know this.

It was literally like last week and the week before. I refuse to know this. So last week on Tuesday night, you and I were recording. And we talked about it again about about how Summer's gonna die someday. And in the first episode, we also talked about it. The week before that, we did it. It was the Tuesday, actually, seven days before that, you and I recorded. Anyways, glossing over that.

You know who just died in the literal last chapter? No. Lady. Interesting. So, Ned kills her right yeah it does the blood sacrifice gives her a death looks her in the eye and here's her last horrible fucking whimpers i hate you so much cersei and dad right now hey you guys but lady dying and bran awakening in the next chapter isn't that interesting that only death can pay for life,

that Bran wakes up after Lady dies? That is really interesting. And part of it is like, you know, really hammers home that narrative, like, sense of where Ned later on is like, what have I done when Catelyn's like, these wills are actually really important. And you murdered one.

And that's like, oh, fuck. I mean, it's kind of like when danny is gonna give the dragon away everyone thinks they're like no no no don't give your magical fucking mythical beast away except ned did he killed it he did yeah just fed cersei to that beast not yet but soon god so unfair um i don't know there's something interesting too in the idea of like bran having rulership later and sansa also leading and like sansa's plot being linked with his magic that like he was able to awaken this eye and sansa is you know i mean she doesn't get the same opportunities for magic in the series as her siblings i mean her connection with magic has you know that was cut off with lady right away you know i mean yeah there are still definitely some moments that maybe or maybe not could be her having some

connection to skin changing or warging but she loses some of that and gets lost in the king's landing of it all and doesn't have a mentor magically she has a political mentor she doesn't get a magic mentor like bran does and her connection to her heritage to everything gets cut off but bran does awaken yeah sansa's heritage right she loses that in terms of the wolves but she starts relearning it right she she starts relearning winterfella she sculpts it, and then also spending time with the old gods amongst the weirwood trees, and that's pretty, it's very northern culture. And that they build Winterfell everywhere they go. Yeah, so I don't know, I don't know, I guess, I don't know, you're probably right that Bran is, Bran's wolf, like, summer's gonna die,

and like, but I'm just just like but does he have to because like unlike with D&D you know we have the budget it's just the words you know he could just be in there I mean that's what's gonna make it that much better though like because it's gonna be fulfilling I guess just the aspect of right like especially after reading the Vamir prologue you see how those deaths really i mean they're painful they impact you and something happens each time it prompts you like right remember when he dies inside a thistle he sees the whole world but granted that's also his true death but does i don't know summer dying trigger something like that? Like where Bran can reenter some dreamscape or some shit?

There's definitely like, I think it's got to be out of survival, right? And you bring up a great point with Varamyr. Varamyr chooses, I mean, cowardice instead of facing his death. That's true. Bran here kind of ran from his death, but he did face it at first, you know? I mean, he was falling. He was ready to just embrace his death until he was shown another way. But Varamyr runs from his death. He's a coward. He goes into thistle to avoid his death, you know? He's like anything. And I do think that when the moment comes Bran isn't a coward, he could either abandon his body and go

live in Summer which saves Summer and maybe in some ways he'd want it but he'd be lost forever to Summer I mean it's not a real life to live out as we kind of have had implied already and Summer

I mean Summer would just have to spend Summer wouldn't have a life anymore that's it yeah that's true that's i mean not and it goes back to kind of some of the stuff bran is learning about consent and just skin changing he hasn't learned it yet he's in the middle of the lesson he needs to stay in the middle of the lesson uh I mean, and I just want to bring back about the last hero, you know, because one by one, his companions died. Then his horse. Lastly, his dog until he's all alone. Well, Chloe's companion is about to die right now.

It's me. That's the episode. Can you shut up about the wolf shut up about the wolf well here's to many more thankfully summer hasn't died summer's dying here right now yeah actually that is true that is true it is almost fall almost we're almost falling well if you would like to fall into the ggc catalog please be sure to follow us fall oh us on social media you can find us on twitter at twitter.com slash girls gone canon that's c-a-n-o-n or if you have any thoughts since you know nobody emailed this time, you can email us at girlsgonecanon at gmail.com. Weigh in on the corn competition.

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deep, obscure GGC episodes that are so obscure, I don't know about them. Like episode 10, Prophets, Prophecies, and Seers. Yeah, it sounds like it was a banger, though. Baby us. We had some takes back then. I don't know if we agree with them now.

Or ourselves now, today. Apparently I still agree agree with that take because i apparently said the exact same thing and you're like oh yeah you said that so i was like i have one uh on earth all that glory and more over there at patreon and hey if you're in the stranger tier and above you'll get those special episodes it's five bucks and up but if you get into the thunder tier and above you'll get a lifetime access to our private discord server as well as weekly events like house of the dragon episode discussions or monthly events like brunch slash happy hour which is happening on sunday 9 18 2022 from 2 p.m 4pm or so. Yep.

Till they kick us out of our own Discord. As always, I have been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I have been another one of your hosts, Eliana. We'll see you next week. See? With our third eye? Oh my god. You know, it's hard for me not just to sing Summer by the Manimals the whole time. Oh, I thought you were going to say by Olaf. Oh my god. You know, it's hard for me not just to sing Summer by the Manimals the whole time.

Oh, I thought you were going to say by Olaf. Oh my god. Two types of peoples.