Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 178 — ACOK Bran VII

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

Feeling trapped both at home and in his body, Bran spends more and more time in his wolf. Luwin says farewell for the last time with one last plan to keep the boys he loves safe: Bran and Rickon must part ways and leave the safety of home and darkness for the unknown.   Many thanks this week to Pete and Warren for this special gift that we hope you all enjoy! --- 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 178, Bran In A Clash Of Kings, Chapter 7. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. Can't believe we did it. We have finished Bran 7 In A Clash Of Kings today. This is it. Yeah.

This is it for Clash. We go on to Storm next year. Next week. I'm so funny. No, no, no. It is next year. Week after next. Yeah.

Today is Christmas Day, Sa. Oh. Well, just right before. So go enjoy the rest of your year. Take a break from us. We do have stuff, though. Like, if you want to check it out, there's other things from from us we do have stuff though like if you want to check it out there's other things coming from us but we'll see you in storm next year storming into the new year oh my god a

storm of swords into the new year and if you are looking for something to listen to on your great journeys after you finish this podcast you should check out our Patreon. Over at patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon, we do a bonus episode every month for patrons in the stranger tier and above. That's five bucks and above. This month, we are discussing the Ice Dragon. So to keep your wintry mix going, that'll be up for you by the end of 2022 over at Patreon. And it is a novella by George. I'm very excited. It's actually in Dream Songs Part 1. If you have Dream Songs, I'm liking it so far. I'm only about halfway through. I don't know if you've picked it up yet, but we're going to be chatting the Ice Dragon. There's a lot of fun themes that actually kind of cross over into this chapter. Yeah, a lot of the language and

stuff seems pretty similar. You know, you can see howorgia it likes to chew on certain concepts over time and readapt them to different things i've started i'm not as far in as you are but yes we are going to cover it very excited and some other things that we have coming along are you know not just these bonus episodes which are again available for patrons in the stranger tier and above but let's say you're a thunder tier and above patron right you get access to our discord where there's always hijinks always hijinks yeah you just missed out on our brunch slash happy hour that we hold every month every single month we gather and it is a fun time sometimes we just like bullshit sometimes we talk about the state of the world for like two hours but i'm sure uh we've been pre-recording a couple episodes lately. So I'm sure that this brunch was every bit as amazing

as I expect it to be with my new, my new jackbox game I want to play. God damn it. We're playing games. You know, my mom, this is a good Christmas anecdote for you all. My mom every year used to hold Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve. She wanted it to be fun and she would do her own reindeer games. Right. So like she'll always buy little lottery tickets and do like a game to raffle them off and always coming up with silly games like stuff with cups to move like, you know, money around or lottery tickets. Little like you have to win the lottery tickets. Right.

And every year. No one likes them. you have to win the lottery tickets right and every year no one likes them i have to play them it's really sad i it's not that they don't like them i think maybe they're just i don't know they're very set in their ways and she just wants to do something fun and engage the family and i do like them but i must be just like getting that from her because every year people like we don't want to play the reindeer games. And I'm like, I'll play them. No one said that, have they? No, I hope not. They better not. All of our friends at Discord better be ready to play the new reindeer game.

Oh, yeah. I was like, wait, I don't remember hearing that. No, but at Christmas at my house, everyone is like, we just want to watch the game or whatever's on or whatever we're doing. We don't want to play your reindeer games, mom. And I'm like, oh, I'll play them. Is it a football game? No, I mean, there's just lots of games she makes up.

They're very arts and crafts-y, right? So there'll be like, like I sent her a new version of one where you put the lottery ticket on like a cup or on a plate and you actually have attached to the plate like string. And so the way it's laying, you have to pull a string to choose a plate, but you don't know what plate you're choosing and that plate will have what you win on it. So there's like mini athletics. She made a big, huge candy cane that you have to hang ornaments on and a huge candy cane, very large and wide. And if you lose, it it's like laying on something and if it comes unbalanced

and all the ornaments fall then you lose but whoever gets the most ornaments on gets the prize for example yeah yeah little reindeer games yeah it's kind of like but not exactly but it's kind of like uh the the drinking game kings you know you try to put as many cards as you can under the tab but then when you lose and you pop the tab you have to drink the whole thing it's basically that it's basically a drinking game without the drinking except we are also drinking yeah but not in conjunction with the game yeah yeah the game doesn't involve the drinking but it's basically imagine drinking games but with like holiday arts and crafts that's what my mom does all right all right but instead of lotto mom shit yeah yeah sometimes cash sometimes cash mom's out there mom's out there i hope next

month we will have some fun too and maybe it'll be more relaxed maybe there will be no reindeer games next month but stay tuned to find out when next month's brunch will be indeed so something else that we're also doing right is we are covering his Dark Materials, the television adaptation. We finished reading the main novels, the three original trilogy, earlier this year, earlier in 2022. That's something that we can look back upon this year. But the final episode will basically be airing Monday, right? Yeah. Oh my god, Monday for us here in the US. That's nuts. I know our BBC UK friends definitely already have it. They are already

hot to try. I'm sure they have hopefully been binging it all since it all dropped on the 18th, but I've had a really good time so far this season. I think they've done a beautiful job. I look forward to, well I wouldn't say I look forward to, it's pretty devastating. I look to the end of the series to see look forward to it's pretty devastating i look to the

end of the series to see how they do it i'm sure they will do a great job though yeah i i mean i look forward to it you know i want to see how they how they adapt it and i i think i just like things that emotionally devastate me i've been re-watching the evangelion rebuild movies because i'm as of recording this i'm going to get to finally watch the fourth one but I'm doing it in theaters because I don't know yeah for some reason like even though it came out last year and I waited like 12 years for it I didn't watch it or not 12 years I don't remember like actually 10 years right 10 years for it or something like that I didn't watch it but I tried to convince some friends I'm like do you guys want to watch the movie with me and they're like no we haven't like watched it we don't feel like being depressed we don't feel like i'm doing this like emotionally taxing thing for several hours just to watch the

whole series i was like no eliana only you like to be depressed is what they said like i was like oh okay yeah i feel that i get that and i was like do i get that me doing my song of ice and fire podcast do i understand that feeling i don't know we just don't know yeah lots of sad themes hitting up this winter yeah hdm that yeah so i mean like i said check out our his dark materials coverage and then not just that something else we're doing as we kick off the new year is our friends on the Discord are going to be hosting a rewatch. Yeah, they'll be rewatching and discussing weekly. We'll definitely put out the word once we know when that's going to happen.

So you're all invited. Come on through at Patreon. Well, we haven't had any emails or tweets of notes in just a little bit, right? No emails and tweets of note in a bit. But we have been saving a super special one for today for the end of Bran in a Clash of Kings from our friends Warren and Pete, who are always in those HDM discussions Eliana just mentioned. And actually, Warren came on to hang out with us for uh his dark materials so with that in mind warren and pete sent us something special that we are going to share with you today which is

yates the stolen child a reading of it it's an 1886 poem by william butler yates where a fairy lures a child from the only world he's ever known out into their wild. So a little bit of that secret commonwealth kind of feel coming through here of fairies and of all of these creatures and really coincides well, in my opinion as well, with Bran, right? As he leaves Winterfell to go find the three-eyed crow. And I also have to say, I'm very excited because Pete edited this together. And he did such an expert job. So great work, Pete, and great work, Warren, for recording this up.

And I can't believe we finally got to Bran leaving Winterfell. Excited to check out some of these strong Celtic influences in his arc that Warren is bringing up through this poem. Enjoy. this poem. Enjoy. Where dips the rocky highland of Sleutwood in the lake, there lies a leafy island where flapping herons wake the drowsy water rats. There we've hid our fairy vats, full of berries and of reddest stolen cherries. Full of berries and of reddest stolen cherries. Come away, human child, the waters in the wild,

And the fairy hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand. Where the wave of moonlight glosses, The dim grey sands with light, Far off by furthest rosses, We foot it all by night, Weaving old and dances, Mingling hands and mingling glances, till the moon has taken flight. To and fro we leap, and chase the frothy bubbles, while this world is full of troubles, and anxious in its sleep.

Come away, you human child, to the waters in the wild, with a fairy hand in hand, with a world's more full of a weak being than you can understand. Where the wandering water gushes from the hills above Glencarr, in pools among the rushes that scarce could pay the star, we seek for slumbering trout and whispering in the years give them unquiet dreams, leaning softly out from ferns that drop their tears over the young streams. Come away you human child the water is in the wild with a fairy hand in hand the world's more full of weeping than you can understand. Away with us he's going the solemn oid he'll hear no more the lowing of the calves on the warm hillside,

or the kettle on the hob sing peace into his breast, or see the brown moist bob round and round the oatmeal chest. For he comes a human child to the waters in the wild with a fairy hand in hand the wild with a fairy hand in hand the world more full of weeping than he can understand wow chilling i am chilled right now. I am absolutely chilled. Is your hair, I was gonna say your fur, but hanging out like that's too much. Is your fur standing up on end? A beastling? Yeah, you are. Oh, it is. It is. I was that was just so good. Thank you, Pete and Warren. That was amazing. And I don't know, like, I feel like if you like that poem, also, again, check out Historic Materials because it's something that's like a huge influence there that inspired, I think, to an extent, Pete and Warren reading this poem.

Even that line, away with us he's going, the solemn-eyed, he'll hear no more the lowing of the calves on the warm hillside. Very, you know, they're leaving home. This is it. We're leaving home. we're leaving winterfell uh innocence is absolutely destroyed everything sucks yeah it's a perfect poem yeah well let's talk a little bit more about being a stolen child right uh but by jumping into our lightning round this is a long one it is a long one while winterfell is burning king's landing does as well

right we have a lot of chapters in between that last Bran chapter where he's now kind of assumed dead after Theon's chapters. We're going to skip anyone who's not a Stark in the South, just to keep things a little concise, and we'll start that off with Arya 9. When Northmen are brought to Harrenhal as prisoners, Arya thinks of freeing them and rising up. Her friends won't help, but Jaqen H'ghar will. Arya takes a new name, Nan. Daenerys IV. Daenerys trips balls on Shade of the Evening. You might be like, oh, I thought you were skipping these. We kept Daenerys because obviously, as we've been discussing, so many, so many parallels between her story and Bran's. Yeah, I said south, not east, so.

That's true. Just saying. It's southeast, I southeast i guess or is it it is a little southeast probably yeah what is it in the north yeah theon for theon organizes a hunt to find his escaped prisoners and grows desperate taking reek's advice burn other kids burn Burn more kids. Okay. John 6. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man

does not deserve to die. Sansa 4. Sansa bleeds. Mood. John 7. Squire Dalbridge's sacrifice lets John and Corrin live another chapter. Ghost is wounded by a skin changer. Catelyn 7.

Vows are sworn at sword point outside Riverrun. Are those valid? Bring in Lawyer Maester Luwin, but not for long. Theon 5. Asha pleads for Theon to see reason. Theon gives Reek command of the hunt. Shot chaser. Shot chaser.

Reason indeed. Sansa 5, 6, and 7. Hold on, let me stretch before this one. Sansa tries to boost morale in the Sept as the siege deepens. They part to the Holdfast where the Queen gets drunker, calling Joffrey back from battle. deepens. They part to the holdfast where the queen gets drunker, calling Joffrey back from battle. Lancel brings a little chaos to the holdfast, and Sansa

escapes to her tower where a beast awaits her. Na na na na na Beauty and the Beast Daenerys 5. Daenerys learns the true desire of Qarth. Her dragons. Duh.

Arya 10. Arya and co. flee Harrenhal. Sansa 7. Sansa's escape plan is finally set in motion. Theon 6. Theon refuses to yield Winterfell and the Northmen begin to transform in front of his eyes. Jon 8. In the Scrolling Past, Jon must kill Corrin to advance the cause. And in Bran VII and the Clash of Kings, Bran and his cohorts escape the crypts to find Winterfell has burnt to a crisp, but it's only broken, not dead. We open the chapter with ashes falling like a soft gray snow and summer pads around, seeing great piles of man rock and the swirling flames, the smell of blood and burnt meat, fire and blood we should say, blowing strong, men, horses, and fire.

I love that opening scene of the ashes being described as like snow and it really speaks to that idea that Jojen brings up next book of how if ice can burn then love and hate can mate right that the two are are actually the same that they can be like the other and I also want to bring up a story of how this one time a volcano blew in the Philippines and this was this was many many years ago I think probably like before I was born or I was a baby and apparently some of my family members were like whoa oh my god I'm so confused how is it snowing here in the Philippines it's snowing and turns out it was not so it was ash from the volcano wow that's you know it's uh it reminds me of the show in that, you know, you had that great moment of Dany seeing the throne, right, in Qarth. And then in the actual show, when you show up, you know, the ash versus the snow of what's falling.

Is it destruction or is it snow? And I think this chapter especially has such a great, I mean, the imagery, right? We're going to get into the imagery this entire time of just so much possible foreshadowing for what we might see in the long night and who knows here you know it's not snow it's ash it's worse right yeah what's worse than the longest winter oh everything's burnt down to a crisp yeah so now that I think about it it could also be about Jon snow Ned yeah snow Ned and that, like, being Jon Snow and then actually being fire or something. I don't know.

Oh, yeah, Jon Targaryen versus Stark. There's a lot of things going on with this little opener. Yeah, honestly, I kind of wanted to read it against the House of the Undying, just because I feel like there's a lot of that metaphorical imagery going on. I'm sure Dany's tripping balls, as we said, but, like, there's a lot of that

imagery especially here right because the ash clouds his eyes and in the sky he sees a great winged snake whose roar was a river of flame he bares his teeth but the snake is gone and the night fires remain it says which amazing incredible imagery and it's kind of a widely debated topic i guess in the fandom which is funny because I've literally never thought about it that deeply. And I was kind of discussing it with that guy I live with, my roommate, husband, roommate. And he was like, oh, yeah, everybody always talks about that. You know, like, is it a dragon? Is it imagery? And I'm not sure how I feel like it could. Honestly, it makes me wonder if Bran and Summer are seeing through the flames and seeing a vision. Right, because they're looking through the flames. Because it's like all the same pool of magic, right?. You won't need that aid to see things. So it would make sense to me that

he was also being able to see through the flames, not unlike Mel. And it's like Davos seeing the gargoyles in the fire recently, right? Similar. Maybe he's seeing what could be or what is at Winterfell at the same time, especially with that double vision later. I think what you said is like the best explanation that I've heard for that. That isn't just, especially with that double vision later. that it's like about an ice dragon and i'm like well it's clearly making fire right or how there's theories that there is a dragon below winterfell and that's what is uh heating up the hot springs and i'm like i don't see that making any sense within the context of the story that we have and those themes it's also so unfair because george is so funny about it because he keeps being like oh yeah and then who knows maybe they were eggs at winterfowl and fire and blood we just don't know george george george stop it you stop this madness now in the name of your queens

and so like i think what you're saying makes the most sense to me other than it being like the the wolves not having the language to describe a plume of smoke because it does seem kind of kind of suspicious like i feel like they would just say it's smoke yeah so i do feel a little differently about that than i used to and i think what you said like i said makes most sense it could be both yeah i think that double vision later also sells it for me that like he's seeing outside and he's seeing his companions at the same time so like here brand seeing through summer is a already looking through other eyes so what he sees would be already kind of subjective to him i don't know it also to me it reads so much like what we'll see in the future above winterfell and agree read the ice dragon you guys because

this imagery right here it feels so much out of the ice dragon to me it's nuts it's just nuts it was like it was a very good choice what we did there, Eliana. Good job. Pat yourself on the back real quick because we just it was a good choice to read that novella because it really just is fun to read and then to read Aeswaf and like, no, they're not connected but they are in the way that George wrote them and this is his style. And these are the things

that he likes to put into his storytelling. And it felt festive. Yeah. For the season. An ice dragon for the season. Yeah. But the season. An ice dragon for the season. Yeah. But the ice dragons are kind of described like this in that story, in that, like, they, you know, everywhere their flame touches, it desolates. So, I don't know, the great winged snake whose roar was a river of flame in the sky, to me, just feels significant. It does. Who knows what it'll mean?

We'll find out maybe one day. Oh my god, 500 more pages. No beast was as noisy as man. Boy, do we know that. Summer pricks his ears up, listening to the howls and screams from dogs, horses, and men. And he and Shaggy prowl along under the trees, watching the flames dwindle. When the sun rises, it's gray and smoky. We have this line here.

Many and more were burned, and many and more were collapsed. Others stood as they had before, yet nowhere did they see or scent a living man. I like kind of this ambiguity right here, the nowhere did they see or scent a living man. Obviously they go and they find Lewin, but this shows A, the destruction that's happened here. But also since we're still seeing through Summer's eyes, it reminds me of earlier when we were in the wood where the entrails looked blue.

Right? Instead of looking red or looking like normal, they looked blue as the wolves tore them out. Just similar language and similar playing with others stood as they had before really gives you the idea of what would happen if all of these dead men just click, rose. Yeah. I don't know if these ones will or not, because I still, like, am on the fence about that scene in the show when they, like, had, I don't know, the skeletons popping out of the ground.

And I'm like, I don't know if that's, like, how it works with the whites in the books. the skeletons popping out of the ground and i'm like i don't know if that's like how it works with the whites in the books but in general as you said right like it's the idea of what will happen and what it'll be like when winter comes oh like in the children in 410 also like with the whites when they get to blood raven that scene yes literally that scene and then i was like i love that you like you like the the i love those spooky skeletons. They're just popping out. Pop, pop, pop. I just don't know if that's how it works. Right.

Like, no, I don't think it's how it works or wait, do you think it's going to be a super sexy blue guy with like weird horny head thing? And he's going to like do the shimmy and be like wink and all they stand up. I mean, I think that could happen in the books. It's Euron. I'm just kidding. I just think that like, there's some aspect of it that still requires enough of the body to be intact in terms of like the connective tissue and the

muscles like that's kind of what they're controlling and not just holding together skeleton creatures right which is also kind of what they did in uh the long night of the show right where they pop out of the crypts as well and it's they're too disintegrated to do that i feel like they're too far south too without the wall coming down for that to happen yet yeah like if the wall came down and that spell was broken maybe but i feel like that spell keeping the wall intact is keeping winterfell safe from this however like it's interesting because it really is that whole entire refugee metaphor right you have the free folk who are like we are fleeing from this zombie that you've stuck us with on the other side but now we're starting to get some of these zombies trickling through into the white gated fucking community of winterfell it's a problem yeah no i i agree like

all that needs to fall i'm just saying that these guys will probably be too rotted to be the ones who are brought back up but as you said it's like giving us a glimpse a lot so much of this chapter is giving us a glimpse of what the long night's gonna be like this could absolutely you know interesting enough my feelings out there about how the show did their zombies and that i think it's different interestingly enough i mean this, if you cut out the significant Clash of Kings bits of it, it could just be a chapter from T-Wow. I mean, I think The Winds of Winter is going to have a lot of Clash of Kings-esque chapters in it. Oh, interesting. Because it's going to be building towards, well, because we just had a Dance with Dragons, which was all these peak of plots, right?

Shit happening, shit popping off. You got Dany flying in the sky. You got Jon dead. I think the beginning of the winds of winter is going to be there will be a couple battles right like we have stannis obviously on the march but i think there's going to be a lot of rebuilding up that peak that hype yeah a lot of those battles that got moved from the end of last book into yeah absolutely top of the story yeah and you will get like you, a lot of this destruction.

Yes. Crows blanket the bodies and they find a horse in the throes of death. Shaggy circles the horse and then tears its throat out, you know, just taking care of it. And Summer tries to get a bite, but Shaggy fights him off, instead fighting until both of them feed off of the horse. It's a big horse. Both of you can eat. I'm glad they figured that out it's like my cats they like to eat from like the same bowl and i'm like you have four different bowls of food in this entire house why can't why are you just eating from

the same bowl go to the other side of the room come on the dark place was pulling at him by then the house of whispers where all men were blind. He could feel its cold fingers on him, the stony smell of it was a whisper up the nose. He struggled against the pole, he did not like the darkness, he was wolf, he was hunter and stalker and slayer and he belonged with his brothers and sisters in the deep woods, running free beneath a starry sky. He sat on his haunches, beneath a starry sky. He sat on his haunches, raised his head, and howled. I will not go, he cried. I am wolf. I will not go. Yet even so, the darkness thickened until it covered his eyes and filled his nose and stopped his ears so he could not see or smell or hear or run. And the gray cliffs were gone, and the dead horse was gone, and dead horse was gone and his brother was gone and all was black and still and black and cold and black and dead and black bran a voice was whispering softly

bran come back come back now bran what a fucking intense chapter i love the back and forth of how george describes the darkness there the black and cold and black and dead and black. And then, of course, he struggled against the pull. He didn't like the darkness. He was wolf. I will not go. I am wolf. I will not go. Oh, God.

The horror of having to return back to your life. Mm-hmm. Like, holy shit. That really comes through in this chapter. And I also love the imagery and imagery and like that use of color it reminds me a little of an even more intense version of she was red and terrible and red right very similar devices uh being used there poetic devices of repetition he's been doing a lot of that a lot of that in this book and i know obviously he's talking about with the House of Whispers where all men are blind, the stone kings down in their crypts, but it kind of reminds me of Arya's plot coming up,

right? The House of Whispers where all men are blind, the House of Black and White much? Yeah, especially because it goes through all these other senses, right? You can't smell or hear or run. And the House of Black and White does tell Arya like, yeah, we took your eyes, we're going to take everything else like in a bit as part of your course. We'll practice it one at a time, each of those senses. You'll serve, they tell her. You'll serve in every way that you can of your body. And that's what Bran will do, too.

And then so much of the language of this chapter and this paragraph, right? You think, like, when you hear summer suddenly being in danger and dragged, like, into the darkness, you think it is about Summer. You're like, oh my god, something's coming for Summer, what's happening? But no, it's actually Bran losing himself, right? There's this ambiguity. He's like, no, I'm a wolf. And it's like, wait, no, no, no, this isn't Summer talking anymore, is it? Mm-hmm.

Yeah. You can see that that's what gives it away that it's him. Right there. No, I am wolf wolf don't make me go absolutely he feels arms around him and he wakes to hodor singing hodor hodor hodor and mira asks bram what he saw he tells her he saw winterfell on fire and that they killed everyone so as bram is struggling to try and get those words out he thinks his tongue felt strange and thick in his mouth one day when i come back i won't know how to talk anymore right in terms of how much he's losing himself and i don't actually know i think this is kind of a little bit of a of a switcheroo right i don't know if bran is the one who's going to return without knowing how to talk anymore considering that the text just a few lines earlier has hodor singing only hodor it's

actually hodor who bran skin changes who ends up being the one who forgets how to speak thanks eliana for hurting us today it's painful oh of course i'm in pain. I love pain. Fucking love to suffer. As you describe. In my suffering, what else I love of my suffering? I agree with that. But also, it's interesting because that's just three days, right? That's just he's been gone for three days. Yeah. Damn.

And Mira gives him a drink and they tell him that, right? He always comes back thirsty and hungry, it's said. Of course, since he hasn't had real food he's just had brain food this whole time he remembers the dying horse on his lips when he was in summer's skin he asks how long he was out jojen says three days they were afraid and jojen says it's too long mira had dribbled honey and water in his throat but if he keeps this up he'll starve himself there's a lot of this language that really reminds me of that idea of depression right like wanting to be anyone but yourself being in that darkness not being able to go anywhere and and the lack of care that he's able to give himself right that he's starving himself and in terms of not having that energy

and you know depression happens differently for some people for some people they rather than starving themselves they'll eat more it's it's all different everyone deals with it differently but brand's got a lot to be sad about or it's not just sadness but brand's got a lot to be depressed about in general yeah i mean just him ripping himself from summer saying no don't make me go back holy shit that's the saddest thing that right there tells you he feels useless. With only himself in the darkness waiting. Hiding and waiting. Nothing they can do to leave yet, right? I mean, they've been in these crypts in the pitch black for three days.

And they're running out of food. Also, of course, three days. He has awakened after three days and come back to life. Because Bran is, you know, the old messiah here. Good to keep an eye on. Jesus himself. Just like his mom. here. Good to keep an eye on. Jesus himself. Just like his mom. Yeah.

And probably like Jon. Yeah. So Bran argues that he ate, but Jon says, no, the wolf ate. You did not. We have him cautioning, take care, Bran. Remember who you are. Oh, interesting. Remember who you are.

The trees know, do you? Yeah, there. That's what it is. And Bran does remember he's Bran the boy, Bran the broken. It's like better Bran the beastling. And deep in the tomb, Bran's eye had finally opened. He's able to reach Summer when he wants and even had touched Ghost and spoke to Jon. He thinks maybe or he just dreamed it, but no, it happened.

It was for real. It was in Jon seven absolutely yeah the the line didn't in daenerys too in a dance of dragons remember the undying daenerys remember who you are is great and of course theon right with reek oh yep yeah reek my name is reek it rhymes with bleak he had to remember that serve and obey and remember who you are and then of course and brand helps remind him yeah to an extent through the trees kind of obviously lion king right remember who you are lion king but there's also uh i want to say it's in clone wars in one of the seasons yeah darth ma Maul. Someone says, Darth Maul, you're lost, my brother.

Do you remember who you are, where you came from? Very Star Wars-y indeed for Jojen to tell him that. And that makes sense because Darth Maul really looks a lot like the Night King's portrayal in the show. We finally did it, Reddit. We did it. I love that this show is such a passage of time because obviously we don't have a brand chapter for the past handfuls of chapters.

So you're kind of wondering where in time, where in place we are with Bran. And that shows you how long it's been, right? Since Jon was able to speak to him. And also without that omission of chapters, you actually still see Bran in the plot, which is so neat to actually see him show up. Not unlike later when we start to see him kind of show up. The passage itself from John 7. A weirwood. It seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures

and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky. Weary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him, fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother's face. Had his brother always had three eyes? Not always, came the silent shout. Not before the crow. He sniffed at the bark, smelled wolf and tree and boy, but behind that, there were other scents. The rich brown smell of warm earth and the hard

gray smell of stone and something else, something terrible. Death, he knew. He was smelling death. He cringed back, his hair bristling and bared his fangs. Don't be afraid. I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them but first you have to open your eyes see like this and the tree reached down and touched him boop actual quote boop boop and then because of this and opening his eye bran helps john to see the free folk and the mammoths in the distance thousands of them right And that's kind of what shapes Jon's next choices in his plot and what happens with Corrin to come as well, that like, this is more important for them to attend to. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Coming back to what you were saying of like, is Bran seeing and like,

both in the future and the past for some of these, I remember when I first like, not when I first read this but um early on when I kind of forgot that Bran brings it up in this chapter and so that shows that it does happen at this time period in the book but there's still something about that language that feels like a brand of the future so it could still be like he's seeing some of those dreams and what he does in the future I don't know um but also doing it at the same time because of that idea of like don't be afraid i like it in the dark no one can see you but you can see them but first you have to open your eyes like this this wisdom but also brand has such a different attitude towards the dark in this in that line versus the way that we see him feeling here yeah it's like's like the in-between is what is horrible, right? That ripping in between.

And it's kind of interesting because that's kind of the veil that they get a chance at opening their eye within, right? Living in between life and death and animal and man. And that's what helps them to be able to open that eye. But here he's totally afraid when he must be forced back into his body in the dark. But when he's out of his body, the dark is his friend. It nourishes him, right? Oh, interesting. Yeah when he's out of his body, the dark is his friend. It nourishes him, right?

Oh, interesting. Yeah. It's his mother. You think darkness is your ally? But I think that's, this is a brand that we probably would see later on, right? Like when he's below in Bloodraven's cave, it is very dark there. And this seems like something where he understands the wisdom and the help that darkness brings and i guess that long night shed again but anyway yeah it that is like the biggest thing that i'm taking from this right because he's totally it shows you how he's going to flourish i don't know that's not the right word flourish during the long night

i think it is considering that he's a tree he's a flour. Well, and it's like what Leaf teaches him in Brand 3. I mean, this chapter directly connects so much in Brand 3 when he finally gets his real Jedi training of Leaf touched his hand. The trees will teach you. The trees remember. He raised a hand and the other singers began to move about the cavern, extinguishing the torches one by one. The darkness thickened and crept towards them.

Close your eyes, said the three-eyed crow slip your skin as you do when you join with summer but this time go into the roots instead you know darkness has to be embraced embrace it that's what he tells him blood raven says never fear the darkness brand the strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth darkness will be your cloak your shield your, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong. And that's so much of his plot of choosing the darkness or not choosing the darkness so far.

He's just like Bane, who's born in the dark. Molded by it. Molded. I didn't see it until I was a man. Molded. Yeah. For you. Yep, exactly. Anything for you, Eliana. Anythingiana anything for you thank you thank you so brand doesn't understand why now why is everyone pushing him back into reality i thought

we went through all this effort to push me to not be here and he says he has to tell osha what he saw is she there where is she and she answers saying that i didn't go anywhere uh i'm tired of just fumbling around in the darkness and he thinks that he can smell her but he's not really sure because everyone's really smelly right now yeah i love that their smells all seem to combine and that like his senses are off right he comes back from summer and he's like that's so weird i could smell everybody distinctly individually and i knew them by scent by trace by skin by everything even in the darkness while i was out but now that he's back he just has bran the boy's senses it only smells just bad yep osha i bet it's like musty too in there right like think of crypt it's got to be musty as fuck three whole days yeah that's true osha jokes

she pissed on a king's foot last night or this morning who's to say we don't know bran isn't the only one who slept a lot there's not much else to do but sleep eat and whisper so another moment that likely feels like a scene of the winters right that they would experience in westeros but also especially the long night with that darkness and having nothing to do but sleep and eat just to survive right and also And also whispering, right? Because you don't want to speak too loudly or else who knows, maybe the others or the whites will hear you. Absolutely. You have to stay quiet. Yeah, the winters especially, not just the long night,

but then thinking that people of the north have had to do this forever. There's been nothing. It's just been quiet and full of snow and dark until it finally goes away. Yeah. While others sleep, Bran tells Osha he saw Winterfell burn nothing it's just been quiet and full of snow and dark until it finally goes away yeah while others sleep brand tells osha he saw winterfell burn and he smelled it too blood men horses dogs osha says if she goes to look for him she may get caught and stripped of her skin hmm that's a probably i mean if you look at the record yeah probably so brand says he'll go if she's afraid, and he hears fingers fumbling at leather and steel on flint. Meera squeezes his hands, a spark flies, and Osha blows softly.

A long pale flame awoke, stretching upward like a girl on her toes. Osha's face floated above it. She touched the flame with the head of a torch. Bran had to squint as the pitch began to burn, filling the world with orange glare. The light woke Rickon, who sat up yawning. When the shadows moved, it looked, for an instant, as if the dead were rising as well. Lyanna and Brandon, Lord Rickard Stark, their father, Lord Edwile, his father, Lord Willem and his brother Artos the Implacable, Lord Donner and Lord Beren and Lord Rodwell, one-eyed Lord Jonel, Lord Barth and Lord Brandon and Lord Cregan who

had fought the Dragon Knight on their stone chairs they sat with stone wolves at their feet. This was where they came when the warmth had seeped out of their bodies. This was the dark hall of the dead, where the living feared to bodies this was the dark hall of the dead where the living feared to tread and in the mouth of the empty tomb that waited for lord eddard stark beneath a stately granite likeness the six fugitives huddled around their little cache of bread and water and dried meat i feel like that that that line it's kind of obvious again regarding the the dead coming alive but random thought is this like lord donner uh those spelled differently maybe like a donner party reference especially

because next they're like when we run out of food we're gonna have to eat hodor yeah that feels like a reference and it's spelled differently but whatever that could still be a reference especially with all the cannibalism to come i love what we get here as far as all of these different characters, and they definitely give me a few thoughts. There's some people that we don't actually know much about, right, that are getting mentioned in this chapter as we keep going down. There is a line, though, that really stuck out to me this time. A long, pale flame awoke, stretching upward like a girl on her toes. a long pale flame awoke stretching upward like a girl on her toes it sounds just like the visions in a dance with dragons where bran has the vision of a girl on her toes with dunk then there came a brown-haired girl slender as a spear who stood on the tips of her toes to kiss the lips of a young

knight as tall as hodor i just love the imagery though too because then it was like osha's face floated above it how creepy how beautiful the little bit of light and what it shows. Yeah, that's a great call out. It probably does connect, right? Like it could be anyone. Obviously, like Hodor is probably, yeah, descended from Dunk, but also I think could be Miss Nan. Oh, that's true. It could be old Nan, right?

She could get it. I don't know. I do think that there's got to be some sort of reveal for old nan having said she's been around for so many gens yeah yeah and she she used to have like children they just you know all died she outlived them all maybe hodor is the end of them no yeah i know it's fucking awful they're running out of food which is also awful osha will need to go up and get more she mutters and wonders what time it is. Bran tells her it's day, but that the smoke makes it look dark. Never moving his broken body, he reached out all the same. For an instant, he was seeing double. Broken Winterfell, but also his fugitive friends. He declares that he's certain. I love this double vision. I love that he's seeing

here with the torch and seeing Osha and seeing them surrounding him but also then he's seeing winterfell laid in the background them against it that's a new move right this is a new move that he gets in this chapter he's not done double vision yet he just learned that tm he's leveling up absolutely yeah also tm little technical machine action for you i'm playing a lot of pokemon violet lately so you need to get it. I still need to find my Switch. You need to find your Switch and you need to get it because I'm really getting sick of your shit.

It's not my fault. It feels like your fault. It's not my fault. It really is starting to feel like it. It's my partner's fault. How could your partner do this to me? I don't know. And also, I want it because the Hades 2 trailer came out

and something also awoken me me again and i'm like i want to play hades again i want to play video games so good we need to find it because it's getting out of control i mean how are you going to level up and get this tm for the darkness i don't know how i'm gonna live so bodies float in the boat the gates charred and skewed and osha says she'll risk a look telling telling them to get close behind. Riken says that he wants his horse, applecakes, butter, and honey, and shaggy, and Bran makes him a promise to be quiet. He says, yeah, we're gonna go there. And, like, it's like a half-promise.

He's like, yeah, we're going to shaggy, but all that other shit, I'm not gonna promise it. So, but he doesn't say that to Riken. And Meera straps him into his basket on Hodor. He knows what awaits them, but still feels fearful. He turns to look into his father's stony eyes and sees there's a sadness there, as if he doesn't want them to go. And then Bran thinks, we have to go. It's time. And so there's that follow-up on what we were asking of like so how did this art project of dad statue go and i still need to know i just need to know who did they find who just like knew ned well enough that they could recreate his likeness right especially that brand could like

kind of feel that way about the statue who made it we need answers george well i'm gonna answer it for you that somebody who worked at winterfell who was a stone carver probably made it but i want to know who that was but like we know micken right we know micken's name we know all these other characters i think you would have met them if george had known before he had it happen i think he should have known god okay well whoever it is there are other details we can kind of glean here that whoever it is likely would have seen Ned in his final months stressed and sad to his limit. Like, very sad about Lyanna, probably,

knowing that Robert was coming to town, etc., because the sadness that are in Ned's eyes is Bran seeing it himself just because of his subjective, you know, feelings that his father might have been sad? Or does Ned's statue actually look really fucking sad? Probably. He probably has a great deep silence and sadness in those stone eyes. I think it's a little bit of both, right? Bran is seeing it, but also like, I mean, Ned was pretty sad. Yeah. Silent. And that solemnness leads to the sadness.

He was a surviving member of his family, right? As so many of them died and like left Winterfell, which is very much also kind of Bran's story too. Yeah. Osha carries a spear in one hand, a torch in the other, a sword hangs on her back. One of the very last Micken made swords having been made to watch over eddard's tomb and keep his ghost at rest but micken's dead the iron men guard the armory so grave robbing it is mira had claimed lord rickard's blade though too heavy and bran had taken uncle brandon's even if he were no good in a fight it felt good in his hands

metaphorically right here i mean this is such a big metaphor for like what the stark children have to do right they have to settle ned's ghosts they have to take ned's goals and they need to complete them all of them kind of split this in a way right aria splits it sansa splits it john has it bran has it in their hearts they know that they have to put their father to rest in a way, and here, Osha's taken the sword, so now they need to spend the next two books getting his soul back to rest, you know? Ned's soul is out there just sobbing everywhere. Absolutely, and Barbarie Destin's like, not on my watch! No, I don't know, I don't even know if, like, there's an aspect of that that could be true or not but it's it's a very interesting scene with her and Theon but yeah well even though Bran feels good

having steel in his hands right he knows that this is only a game their footsteps echo and the old great kings in the watch the old great kings in the north watch them tauren who knelt i mean we get through like we have so many like listicles in this chapter tauren who knelt edwin the spring king theon the hungry wolf brandon the burner brandon the shipwright jorah and jonos brandon the bad walton the moon king elder john the bridegroom iron benjen the sweet the sweet, and Benjen the bitter, and we have King Edric Snowbeard. We have a line of, their faces were stern and strong, and some of them had done terrible things, but they were starks every one, and Bran knew all of their tales. He had never feared the crypts, they were part of his home and who he was, and he had always known that one day he would lie here too but now he was not so certain if i go up will i ever come back down where will i go when i

die yeah like into your wolf that's something that your brothers have to play with huh yeah i was like uh well according to chloe not into your wolf okay well he'll be dead listen leave me alone we have a jorah stark in there there's a lot of new names i love that brands like i knew all their stories and i'm like what about me can i know all their stories george give me a fucking bone here but we have a jorah stark that feels a little significant in fact all of these starks kind of seem somewhat significant to the stories to come so that we have a jorah Stark. That feels a little significant. In fact, all of these Starks kind of seem somewhat significant to the stories to come. So that we have a Jorah Stark, especially with Jorah's upcoming betrayals, and that Bran says that some of them did bad things, it makes me wonder what Jorah Stark did. Was he also bad? I wonder if he was into slavery.

Theon, of course, the hungry wolf we know a little bit about and theon kind of currently is the hungry wolf at least for less than a fortnight in winterfell as his reign has ended and brian is kind of talking about some of these the unnamed kings for us or unstoried i should call it kings for us we don't have all these stories but a couple of them really stood out like edwin the spring king that could be any of the starks and winterfell come the dream of spring right and adarian the bridegroom makes me think of john who may be a bride groom situation coming up for him and daenerys someday in these books uh just different roles we might see fulfilled throughout the story and i look forward to george kind of expanding on some of the histories of these kings.

I would love a Winter is Coming Stark history book. Just putting it out there, George. Not yet, but someday. Yeah, I don't know if you'll, he just seems so much more interested in the royal history. You know, he's always kind of like, think been into that but agree with all of what you said and i kind of wonder if he had the name like the the sort of epithet of like the hungry wolf thought of before because he's like wouldn't this be a fun easter egg to put into my story and then was like oh you know who would go perfectly with that the name theon so ties in really well with this stuff here and like you said those other the other stories going on and that that really stood out to me that idea of you know some of them had done terrible things and it really comes back to something that the

that the book is showing us right that the people from the same family like they might be different from one another right your family informs who you become but it doesn't define you yet it's so difficult here in west rose and it's something that aleria calls out like you're born into a family and everyone thinks that you're like this fucking animal you weirdos and that you must be a certain way just because you're from that family and people distrust you and so i had that that really ties in well with the themes of this book right we see like tyrians got a big struggle about that and then that question of like as you were saying like where will i go when i die like is it the second life but also it's this idea of belonging in general with the story right if i leave my family home like where is my home where do i go who will take care of my body who will love me where what will happen to me when i

die and fascinatingly it's not just like you go into a second life in your in your animal right like if your animal is gone what what happens? And we know that some of the greenseers, a lot of them live on in the trees, right? Or they live on in these crows. Or also even beyond that, you go into everything else as we see when Varamyr is in that limbo. He's one with everything at that time.

Yeah, there's no tree down here that Bran could go into. Will there be a place for him? Which is something that we see Jon with the crypts struggling with. And Theon also has some kind of thoughts about the Winterfell crypts that align with that. As, you know, they walk through here. Is there a place for you? Will there be a place for you? These are great men, terrible men that have done great and terrible things. And what about you? What will you do? And it's the idea of legacy crushing you. And here, it's crushing him in the dark. It is, he doesn't know i mean how can he even think about

his legacy like that's a lot for a nine-year-old kid to think about goddamn but every day what did they tell him you'll be a great lord someday bran a great lord of winterfell i want to be a knight and here winterfell is burnt down and he was the lord how would how would that feel that must feel really shitty of course he's depressed right now it's not just being stuck in his body it's also because it's like winterfell's legacy is burning in front of him and he feels like it's his fault when it's not it's not it's rob's fault and theon's fault it's a lot of and rancy yeah yeah all those people it's their fault not everyone except bran's fault. But actually, literally, it is. You know whose fault it probably is?

And the Lannisters, also the Lannisters, it's their fault. And we should just throw in Sansa, you know, that bitch. It's her fault, too. It's her fault, too. Yeah, definitely. Like everything else in the story. They reach a stair that goes down to further kings or up to the surface, and Osha hands off the torch, ready to grope her way up the stairs that are very narrow bran hates hiding in the dark he wants to ride his horse he wants to see the sun but he's

also very afraid of emerging at the same time he felt safe in the darkness he thinks when you could not even find your own hand in front of your face it was easy to believe no enemies could ever find you either long night vibes can't wait for that because they can now i'm kind of rethinking what i was saying earlier i was like i guess he did feel safe in the darkness but then he didn't i don't know darkness is weird but also what he's saying here of emerging back into the light it is kind of nerve-wracking right like to leave something that you've grown used to, even if it's not... Even if what you were doing wasn't truly living, because you were just, like, sleeping, eating, and whispering.

But, you know, being cooped up and then going back outside... I was recently sick and just lived in a very small portion. And I was like, oh god, the outside, when I went back out there. Free! Freedom! and I was like, oh god, the outside, when I went back out there. Free, freedom! It seems a long time until they hear anything again, and Bran worries something happened to Osha. But she returns, looking grim, thinking that the door is blocked ahead.

Bran suggests that Hodor uses strength, and it's not very effective at first, but he keeps at it, and then he opens it. Open the door, Hodor, Bran said. The huge stable boy put both hands flat on the door, pushed and grunted. Hodor? Don't do it, Hodor. God, obvious foreshadowing is so obvious now. Like going back, I'm like, ah, yes, I see.

I'm like, we will get this and the wind's a winner and it will hurt. That is fun. This is fun for me. It's fun. I'm having fun. Thanks, George. Ha ha. a winner and it will hurt that is fun this is fun for me it's fun i'm having fun thanks george haha the light is blinding and they squirm their way out of the narrow passage the reeds carry bran up the last steps to a gray smoky sky and they stand in the shadow of the first keep or what remains of it crows pick at a dead body lying face down nearby and we are reminded of that

messianic kind of imagery right with the fact that the door was blocked after three days i mean it very much reminds me of the cave being blocked and then you move the rock and then what jesus is gone what do you mean jesus is gone very much so they're like i don't know he's not here they're like there's the scraps he undressed my god exactly well unbombed i guess yeah unbombed yeah there's this kind of imagery of the gargoyles being splayed apart and broken on the ground right and i think that's great because they had played such a big role for brand they were once his friends that he used as footholds right while climbing he looked to them as you know kind of comfort as he got up those walls

and now here they are turned to flame smoke an enemy in his dream right with the lannisters where the gargoyles transform into the twins and here they are strewn on the ground no more the last enemy on this threshold finally defeated yeah i was trying to see if there was anything significant about that and i and i couldn't really understand it but what you said works really well not just with the gargoyles were his friends right but now that they come back as an enemy in a way his fall symbolic of his fall being an enemy fall in the lannisters and if especially when you think about the 93 letter though it's probably different right it seems that theon eclipsed tyrian's role but it does

seem as though tyrian will be standing against the starks he will be something of an enemy when he sees them again he's got he's got his own agenda and it's revenge but also against his own family so it's really wishy-washy he's just like against everyone all right he's truly lost theon is i was thinking tyrian he's also kind of truly lost but that is like it's the same position because he's like wow i really love my fucked up family but wow i love daenerys what do i do yeah what do i do and he's also like but i hate a lot of other people especially i guess kind of myself right now and i'm gonna make that everyone else's problem on purpose

which is which is yeah which is a big point that the books are trying to make. The floors had burnt out of the keep and Rickon demands that they take him home. Osha is shocked that no one has come to fetch them yet as they made a ton of noise, enough to wake a dragon. What does that mean?

And she cuts off her next sentence as two shapes emerge from the tower and rubble. It's Shaggy and Summer. Jurgen says, well, we should probably go before the death attracts all of the other wolves. And Osha agrees, but first they need to find food and see if there are any survivors. So they enter Winterfell eventually. The great granite walls remained, blackened here and there by fire, but otherwise untouched. Within, all was death and and destruction the doors of the great hall were charred and smoldering and inside the rafters had given way and the whole roof had crashed down onto

the floor the green and yellow panes of the glass gardens were in shards the trees and fruit and flour torn up or left exposed to die of the stables made of wooden thatch, nothing remained but ashes, embers, and dead horses. I'm so sorry to read this, Eliana. Bran thought of his dancer and wanted to weep. There was a shallow streaming lake beneath the library tower and hot water gushed from a crack in its side. The bridge between the bell tower and the rookery had collapsed in the yard below, and Maester Luwin's turret was gone. They saw a dull red glow shining up through the narrow cellar windows beneath the great keep, and a second fire still burning in one of the storehouses. Osha called softly through the blowing smoke as they went, but no one answered. Okay, so I got a dumb question, and it's because I just, like, don't understand how warfare works, I don't understand how medieval warfare works, other people know these things, and you can listen to their podcasts about how it works, but, like, I don't understand how the fire could make, like, the literal stone turrets fall.

doesn't burn but stone like substances can burn right so like ancient greece and rome some of these stone structures that burnt down is kind of a similar it's a similar feeling or like i think it's a similar situation and what happens i think is that everything else burns and creates enough heat that the stones expand and crack which means that they can kind of crack and break apart and fall apart if that makes sense yeah that makes sense yeah i just i'm not doubting that like this isn't this is realistic i just don't understand it also because like mortar for example might be holding it together so heat might damage the mortar and cause it to fail and weaken the joints in between the stones causing them to fall right i was thinking like is that how it works but i don't know but that

that makes sense that would be how a lot of the ancient roman and greek buildings fell so it makes sense for here and it almost sounds more like something exploded right like i know it didn't but which is possible i guess so it also holy shit they're so fucked for winter ramsey fucked them um the glass gardens the storehouses like all of their food is fucked it's destroyed that's a huge problem it is it is and yeah they're they're fucked everyone's fucked for the upcoming winter but also even beyond that like the imagery of it just because we talk about this idea of the garden of eden a lot uh with our coverage of historic materials it really feels like, you know, these ideas of spring, these ideas

of life, right? Like crumbling and the loss of innocence for Bran. That's a great point, especially then because you have the hot springs gushing out, like where it was damaged, and it's like a life force, right? Like Winterfell is just like Maester Luwin bleeding out right

now with those hot springs kind of gushing out of them it's very it's sad did you say that the hot springs are like maester luin's blood did i like i did that winterfell winterfell and maester luin are both bleeding out right now their life force is leaving them though they are it's so sad a dog eats at a corpse but runs at the wolves the ravens are chowing down as well, and Bran starts to unfortunately recognize some of the corpses, like Poxy Tom, some of the Iron Men, Theon's warhorse, Black Loren, a Bolten Guardsman. The wolves run off, and Meera realizes they're heading to the godswood, so they follow. They see that while there are a few pines that burnt on the way, the deep, damp soil and green wood won out against the flames. Jojen says there's a power in living wood, almost as if he knew what Bran was thinking.

A power as strong as fire. Oh, I see. Something that could stand against fire. Realistically, though, I mean, I think this might be how the children survived. The children of the forest, right? I mean, I think this might be how the children survived. The children of the forest, right? They survived because of the deep, damp soil and the green wood,

the damp, moisturized green wood holding out against flame. Yeah, against flame and maybe even against frost a little after a while, but not as strong. And I do kind of wonder if this is what kept the Valyrians from conquering Westeros during the time of the Freehold. They were like, let's just keep going east. Let's not even fuck with Westeros. That's too much effort. That's a possibility, actually. They find Maester Luwin on his belly, in the dirt, at the edge of the water, and beneath the heart tree. He made it all the way to the heart tree in the Godswood. Sorry. A trail of blood behind his body summer stands over him and bran

fears that he's dead but mira touches his throat and he moans so they prop him on his back his robes which are usually always gray they are now dark with the blood on them and he smiles when he sees the boys and he goes oh gods are good i knew they are They are not good. You are bleeding out. The gods are not good. You've been murdered. He doesn't care about himself. He loves them. And that he fought to stay alive just in hope. And that he got himself to the tree, to the heart tree, so that he could go.

Yeah. He could be a part of everything, right? When he dies, he could be a part of Winterfell still. He could be something that keeps it safe as he dies and bleeds out into the tree to the roots even though he said he doesn't believe in magic yet here he is in one of the most magical places in winterfell and like you said he could go in the tree and here he is bleeding out over it and the tree's like om nom nom well it's like liana dying she gave a magical blood protection to john right in that moment like there's nothing there's nothing bigger than that last dying breath magical protection kind of trope and they're he's doing that for the boys he's protecting them in Winterfell in his final moments. And with the with the mercy killing is that considered a sacrifice?

Yeah that's what I'm thinking it's a sacrifice to protect them in Winterfell. Or to the hungry old gods. Yeah, right. The hungry wolves. Lewin elaborates. He says that the clothes had fit the boy, but the legs had been nothing like Bran's. He's astonished. He's like, how did you vanish into the woods? Bran's like, well, we kind of just pretended. We doubled back, sending the wolves to make a trail hiding in the crypts i love this that lewin sees through the switcheroo right because he i mean he knows about the human body right he knows how muscles work and that brand's muscles just like meant that his legs would be very very spindly and just as

amon can see it's it's the same as how amon sees that stannis's sword is not the true thing it's not really light bringer because it gives off no heat. And it's coming back again to the House of Black and White. Reminds me of how the Faceless Men warn that people who know how to look, who really, really know how to see, for example, how Syrio Forel taught Arya about that story of how he saw through that cat, etc. People like Luin and lewin and amen they can see through glamours yeah they can see through like disguises and and the magic i imagine that

comes from their training at maester academy right the old maester academy i think that not all maesters see i wonder if some of them but i wonder if it comes with the valyrian steel link it could it could it's not only that but they say said something like you know someone would like can might see through it which is part of why jockin who may or may not actually be named jockin the man formerly named known as jockin needs pate's face because otherwise the macers would see through just the glamour of pate's face. They need the real deal. The artist formerly known as Jaqen H'ghar. He is something of an artist.

There's something interesting in what you're saying, though, that makes me think on a side thought of Varys, Jon Conn, and Aegon. And understanding the baby switch and that Jon Conn doesn't have this kind of training. Jon Conn cannot see through that baby switch. Does not know if that's Aegon or not. Where Varys, who is a mummer and who dresses up and is in disguise constantly, not unlike Jaqen, he who is able to kind of skin change in a way, he probably does know that Aegon's not real. He probably does. He might even be part of like the whole plot right and for jon con it's not just that he doesn't have the training it's the way that glamours work and that

were explained by the faceless men is people see what they want to see and that's kind of what varies says as well with those trappings of power people see what they want to see yeah and jon con wants that boy to be aegon and luin didn't want this boy to be Bran and lo and behold it wasn't. Magic. You're a genius, Luwin. Genius. Yeah, but Tyrion's like, I don't care. I see maybe what's going on here, but he doesn't really because he's just like, I don't know. It doesn't really matter

to me. Let's just make chaos. Luwin chuckles a little bit at their cleverness. A froth of blood on his lips. When the maester tried to move, he gave a sharp gasp of pain. Tears filled Bran's eyes. When a man was hurt, you took him to the maester. But what could you do when your maester was hurt? Oh god, kill me! Take me instead of him, please! Take me instead of him!

He doesn't deserve to die. I'll die, George. i'm your bravest soldier take me take chloe wait wait what wait what wait what what what this is painful this is like it really is what do you do right it's like when you find out for the first time your parents are human right and you realize you're like oh you're not just mom and dad super mom and dad like you're actually human with real lives with things wrong with them what do you do you can't save him this is the most helpless brands probably felt today just today it's like a sad version of who watches the watchman us not like that you know it's like who heals the healers? Who's gonna take care of Lewyn? This is... We got this.

We could do this. It's just painful. You know, we've talked about it for such a long time, even before the brand chapters of how wonderful Maester Lewyn is, and then how he dies, and we're here. Osha says they need to make a litter to carry him, but Lewyn says, there's no use. I'm dying, woman.

Rikken gets angry and says, you can't! And Shaggy growls, too, kind of echoing his anger. Scare him into staying alive. I know, right? Luwin smiles at this and he hushes them and he says, I'm old. I can die as I please. Hodor lets Bran down,

and then Hodor goes to his knees next to Luwin, and they're all kind of crouching around him. Luwin instructs Osha to take the boys, but because they're Robb's heirs, she needs to separate them, speaking of switching things up, that they are safer apart. Osha agrees, asking where she should take them, saying what about the Kerwins. Luwin says no, Kerwin's dead. Roder dead roderick tallheart hornwood all of them are dead he says there's white harbor there's the umbers but i don't know there's war everywhere i don't know osha now has to get creative yeah so what i like about this is throughout the books we saw that osha and lewin they were kind of at odds with each other at times, right?

They believe different things, but I think you could also see that they respected each other. And that comes through especially here. And I love, I just love seeing them collaborate and like, treat each other as equals in this moment as they think about how are we going to keep these kids alive. Because that's what matters to them in the end is saving the children they could have the differences all day long on magic and what's true or what's not about the children of the forest and all of that but at the end of the day they both know that these boys have become such a big part of their lives and that this is the most important part is keeping them safe and osha knows with the long night coming right she's seen it she's been beyond the wall and she knows that keeping them safe could mean something to the north that's true

for everyone and that's the one truth for them you know like their love for these kids luin reaches up with his final life force and he tells them to be strong telling bran that he's a good boy his father's son and telling them to go. Jesus fucking Christ. Osha gazes at the weirwood, at the red face in the trunk, puzzled to leave Luin to die here, and he begs her for a drink of water, and he whispers, and another boon. She tells Meera and Jojen to take the boys.

They understand. Hodor follows, and Osha joins them moments later, saying no word of Luin. Osha gave him mercy. She gave him the the gift of mercy and now he feeds the roots not unlike jojen who will probably feed the roots of the tree as well agreed agreed and it's what he wanted that's what he wanted though and because like why else would he just stick around to bleed out slowly, miserably, getting an infection, etc. Sansa is literally just singing of mercy just a couple chapters ago, right? Yeah. So Osha creates an action plan.

She'll take Rickon. And then the Reeds and Hodor will go with Bran. Osha plans to take the East Gate and Meera will take the Hunter Gate. And I thought that was interesting because this is the Hunter Gate, just like how earlier in the chapter, Bran, while he's a wolf and wants to stay as a wolf, thinks of himself as hunter and stalker and slayer. Ooh, yeah, that is a good connection. They stop at the kitchens, they fill their bags with burnt bread that's edible and a cold roast fowl. Meera finds a crock of honey and some apples, and then they make their farewells. Rickon sobs and clings to Hodor.

Osha smacks him off with her spear butt. He follows her with Shaggy stalking after them and then they vanish behind the tower. No! No! So sad. And then he's sobbing because he has to say bye to everyone

and he's just a baby and he doesn't know what's happening. You know, for all the show did, bad or wrong for the bad show, that goodbye with rick and and brand was always really terribly tragic just when he's like i'm your brother i'm supposed to protect you and it's like no brand's your brother he's supposed to protect you shut up rick and i'm so upset right now i hate this fucking series so much i fucking hate it it's bullshit so

we end the chapter. The iron portcullis that closed the hunter's gate had been warped so badly by heat, it could not be raised more than a foot. They had to squeeze beneath its spikes one by one. Will we go to your lord father? Bran asked as he crossed the drawbridge between the walls. To Greywater Watch? Meera looked to her brother for the answer.

Our road is north, Jojen announced. At the edge of the wolf's wood, Bran turned in his basket for one last glimpse of the castle that had been his life. Wisps of smoke still rose into the grey sky, but no more than might have risen from Winterfell's chimneys on a cold autumn afternoon. Suit stains marked some of the arrow loops, and here and there a crack or a missing Merlin could be seen in the curtain wall, but it seemed little enough from this distance. Beyond, the tops of the keeps and towers still stood as they had for hundreds of years, and it was hard to tell that the castle had been

sacked and burned at all. The stone is strong, Bran told himself. The roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground, the kings of winter sit their thrones. So long as those remained, Winterfell remained. It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I'm not dead either. This is the worst. I just need a moment. I love that it's something that we're seeing in Bran's plot, right? The idea of him flying over everything, seeing everything from a distance, and the idea that no matter what, life does move on, things move on, and Winterfell is strong. It can survive this. It's survived other things and from afar he sees it and he sees what

it could be again and he sees that it will be again and that's so hopeful i mean he's opened his eye now and this is the end of this book and the whole book is that like me i'm not dead either from winterfell to king's landing to the wood that's burning across the black water to sanza who just gets a little bit of hope at the end of her chapter, right? With Dantos, with the hairnet. To Jon, who unfortunately just had to kill one of his dads, but he didn't have to kill Ygritte. And he's gonna find a way to maybe save people and maybe eventually get them together. And to Arya, who gets to flee Harrenhal.

They're not dead. Just broken. But you can always put it all back together and that's what matters yeah or even if it's not put back together you know it's uh yeah like those cracks are and what makes uh things different it's a it's still alive right you move forward you learn to live and it's really fascinating when you consider it in the context of the enemy of this book right and you consider it with the themes of brand as a spring king and that dream of spring right and the the heading into summer because that is very much the same idea right it's it's things die in the winter but they they're not really dead they come back and how the whites in general are in the sense of perversion of that,

but there is a way in which things come back to life and you keep going and you keep living that that is truly wholesome. Yeah, staying still in the dark, never moving, doing nothing isn't living, right, is the other part of that. So while everything's horrible and burnt right now, like you said, in the the spring things emerge and then things can live once more i mean everyone can come back together to fix and to rebuild i think that theme of rebuilding especially for bran the builder is a very strong yeah absolutely and then i mean as part of his journey in general right we really get that first part of the hero's journey those first few steps closing here as he crosses the threshold right because he looks back at

Winterfell and and thinks of it as as his home that he's saying goodbye to and the only place that he knew so that's he had been getting that call to adventure since like last book. Bran's call to adventure lasts a pretty long while in his story. And then we have his refusal of the call towards the beginning of, or like the middle here of Clash of Kings and his story there when Jojen's like, you gotta, you gotta open your eyes. And he's like, nah. And then finally he does get that supernatural aid, right? He learns to actually skin change. And so what's left for him? You got to take that first step. You got to cross the threshold and leave your home and go on the adventure. Yeah. And I really like the way actually Stephen Attawell talked about

this really well too, that we also get commentary kind of on Campbell, that it's not just the hero's journey, but also that it's a little false in some ways right like the limits and costs steven adebel says of looking at the world that we might expect a story structure invented in a pre-modern world the hero's journey is a fundamentally aristocratic way of seeing the world where those with special abilities or from special bloodlines are better empirically and born to rule and that we're kind of living in this world between chosen ones and background characters then very few are getting handed plot armor and their deaths are required by the gods e.g. the writer

George to increase the stakes for our main character like Llewyn and the odds of being chosen really aren't better than the odds of being a nobleman right 90% or more of the population are peasants bound to the soil Attawell says and I think that's a great way to look at it too, that yes, he is crossing that threshold and going into initiation and going into these rites where he's going to work with Bloodraven and hopefully the atonement with the father comes for him and he gets the ultimate boon before his return, before bringing all of that to everyone. But I think there's just an interesting way that George does kind of subvert it so it's not exact for that hero's journey

and I love that. Absolutely. Well, are you sufficiently sad? I am. You're getting fucked up right now. George, why you gotta do that to us? We really did Brandon in the winter, huh? Yeah, we really did.

We really did. That's it. That'son of clash kings if you want to keep up with uh when we come back our birth in the new year or we are even worse we're more like whites you know as opposed to like springtime anyways you can follow us on social media at twitter.com slash girls gone canon that's c-a-n-o-n or you can send us an email at girls gone canon at gmail.com yes we are like the skeletons rising from the ground in season 4 episode 10 of the show these books were based on game of thrones if you want to hear more of the skeletons rising from the ground that we are you could subscribe to us on your favorite social media platform where we encourage you to leave a like a follow a subscribe or even a five

star review whatever you want to do check it out at spotify google play itunes stitcher acast audible amazon podcasts pandora you it, we're on it. We are on it, but here's somewhere that we're definitely on. We are always on Patreon, where you, if you subscribe, get an RSS feed, where the episodes get delivered to you. But also, especially if you are in the Stranger tier and above, you get a bonus episode every single month, and this month is the Ice Dragon. Yes, and of course as mentioned we

do a monthly brunch slash happy hour december's has already passed but i look forward to the new year when our patrons in the thunder tier that's ten dollars and up will have access to the voice channel where we'll all be hanging out and just chit-chatting more to come on that including an announcement date so check that out at patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon. We would love to have you join up with our motley crew. As always, I have been one of your hosts, Chloe.

And I have been another one of your hosts, Eliana. Like me. I'm not dead either. I'm really not, I guess. But Luin sure is oh it's so sad i can't believe we were here and just think if this is how sad lewin's death makes you wait till summer dies eliana i don't i'm leaving goodbye