Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 181 — ASOS Bran III

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

After maneuvering Queenscrown's fortifications and discussing its history, the gang worries their position may be revealed when a group sneaks closer to their shelter. Bran reaches for Hodor—and gets him.   ---   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 181, Brand 3 in A Storm of Swords. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. We're at Queen's Crown today. We are staying at a castle overnight. This is like an Airbnb or something. It's one of those like Airbnb experiences.

There's one that keeps getting advertised to me. It's kind of neat it's like a castle in the poconos is it airbnb like h-e-i-r because the brand is the air that's just raw that's just raw eliana folks that's what we have to offer you this episode. It is just a brief glimpse into the wit and the passion, the wisdom from Eliana the Bard here. I'm excited for this chapter because it's kind of a low-key

chapter. I don't know that people would say it's a low-key chapter. A lot of things happen this one. A lot of world building, but yeah, it's kind of a lot of lore and then next chapter's got some action. It's like vibes, vibes, vibes, and then it's kind of a lot of lore and then next chapter's got some action it's like vibes vibes vibes and then it's like bad vibes bad vibes bad vibes creepy vibes but yeah next chapter is all creepy vibes and we actually have a guest joining us that we're

gonna tell you about in just a few minutes but first but first, but first, let's talk about up top here, some housekeeping, right? Like our Patreon episode this month. I'm kind of excited about it. I'm pretty excited about it. I think it's going to be really fun. I know people talk about this story a lot, and we are continuing our coverage of some of george rr martin's short stories this month is going to be a song for leah slash liah i'm going a song for leah personally

but if you want to go song for liah that's on you it's just foreign to my tongue i don't know that i don't know about that it's funny because i say liana. I know some people say Lyanna, but obviously, for personal reasons, Liana makes sense to me as a name. Yeah. There's something about a song for Lyah that I think is kind of fun. Maybe because I'm coming off of that historic material stuff, Lyah kind of sounding like liar. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And there is something in the story. I'm not going to get ahead of myself. Okay. Absolutely. And there is something in the story. I'm not going to get ahead of myself. First of all, Patreon episodes, patrons in the stranger tier and above are going to have access to What the Fuck We Are Talking About, which is a song for Leah by George. You can get it in the Dream Songs anthology. I really enjoyed it. I read it, I want to say, 18, 19 for the first time.

18, 19 for the first time. 2018, 2019, sorry. But Dream Songs has this story, and it's a little longer than The Ice Dragon. We talked about The Ice Dragon last month, which is kind of a breeze, an icy breeze through. But this one is not.

It's a little longer. I think it's like 60 to 70 Kindle pages or something, if you're reading it in an e-book. But I really enjoy it this time through especially. It's weird. It is different. If you are going into it expecting characters like Lyanna Stark, there are some mannerisms maybe that we might compare. However, the two main characters are not Leah and Robb Stark, but they are Robb and Leah, which is a little jarring from reading these books, obsessing over these characters. It's funny, though, because I'm like, these are not the same characters. And it's a little sci-fi.

There's some great ritualistic stuff going on underneath the surface. And there's some stuff that's a little silly. But all in all, it's a really interesting read in true George R.R. Martin fashion. I'm excited to discuss it with you. It'll be my first time reading it. So other things that are available for our patrons is our Patreon Discord, where once a month we have brunch slash happy hour that includes games, giveaways, and get to know yous this month. When is this month, Chloe? This month, the Thunder, Tear, Patrons, and above

will be gathering on January 21st, Saturday, at 1 p.m. ET, which is not Eliana time this time, for some strange reason. Eliana time has changed briefly. She's in another world, many distant places, and all of a sudden has a different time. But it's E.T. for all sakes and purposes. Eastern time. So come

join us. I think it's going to be really low-key. I think we're just going to hang out. Everyone's going to chat about their weeks. Maybe we'll play some games. Who knows? Just going to keep it real easy. Let everyone catch up. Yeah, keep it easy. it's been crazy make everyone

tell us their new year's resolutions and if they've broken them no i'm joking i'm not gonna do that my god i'm not doing that at all uh that sounds like a traumatic experience i don't know eliana likes to really bust people's chops and and put them on the spot and get them to to come forward and say something so much so that i started doing it so she wasn't always the bad cop and now i've become partly the bad cop but i'm doing it for her this is the true joker and harley quinn story all right yeah it's uh come for more of that you know come hang hang out 1pm. We'll hang out a couple hours and chit chat. Indeed. Well, now that we've covered some of the housekeeping, let's come back to that exciting announcement. We have a very good friend. I haven't recorded with this friend in a very long

time. In fact, the last time I recorded with this friend, I want to say the next day I started Girls Gone Canon with you, basically. And it was a very fortuitous thing. Like, this person actually, I kind of got to meet you in the flesh, in real life, and this surprise mystery night, mystery guest that we have coming on. And we had a really fun time. We did a little, like, makeup exchange at one of the Aeswaf cons. And I don't know, it was really cool.

Cause it was a very, I don't know. It was just a very fun activity between the three of us. So I got to know both of you better through one another and together. That was a very, it was a very special year. That was 2017. I really loved that year.

That was a good year. That was a good one. Yeah. And that was also the first time that i met the special guest as well and i i was like gonna get in this car for what three and a half to four hours you know which is a number we'll come back to in a bit uh with her having never met her or the other person that i was gonna get in this car with but it all worked out it's fine it's fine we're alive we're here we do this together. And yeah, I've recorded with our friend a couple of times, and I don't know how timelines work anymore, right? But I know that I joined her a lot of times with The Hypes Watch on YouTube. We've

had a couple of folks from The Hypes Watch join us before, such as James and Don Willie. And now we are going to be joined for a storm of swords brand for with sweet YFT our friend and I'm so excited because she is I know she's really into like D&D and critical role. And I have a bunch of friends that whenever I have to know something about critical role, I just go check out her profiles on stuff. And I'm like, Oh, this is what Anne thought. Do you guys, what does this mean? Does this mean something to you? Because I'm just not hip with the lingo, but she is so clever. And she has this kind of dry wit that I really love. She does. The way she examines the world. We haven't really gotten to see her in a while. I think I saw her

last at Ice and Fire Con, but I'm really looking forward to spend time covering Brand 4 with her. She specifically actually, it was really cool. What Anne said was Brand 2 is like the obvious choice, which it is. She's so right on that. Brand 2 is such an obvious choice, but because

of that, she said, I want to do something different. Can I do Brand 4? She's like, I want to do that. That chapter is creepy. And it's awesome. It isn't awesome. It's a metal, creepy, weird chapter. And she chose such a good chapter. I can't wait to have her on next week or next episode. Right? Why did we say it like that? Why did we say next episode? And that's because in keeping with what we were doing before, we are not releasing in a song of ice and fire episode for the last friday of the month so we'll we'll put something out we don't know yet what but it's it's just a little different you know both as a treat for me as a treat for chloe as a treat for

all of you that was our his dark materials episode on the last fridays of the month has kind of been our release schedule in the past for finishing the main trilogy, which we have completed, as well as we were pumping out some episodes on the TV show that just had its final series, and that's wrapped up. So we're taking a little break from our His Dark Materials coverage. There is another book that we kind of have our eyes on covering from His Dark Materials from the Companion trilogy, if you will, that has a sequel and a prequel and hopefully a final sequel coming out to wrap it up in the following year. So you'll hear more on that book from us. Yeah, I'm excited to do the following chapter with Anne, right? For a couple of reasons that I've covered a couple of different characters with Anne,

but Bran is like, Anne loves Bran. Like that is her baby boy. And then Anne's also just got like a fantastic mind for like analyzing and looking at things from that like literary perspective. And the next chapter is so full of all these different kinds of ideas of stories. And also just getting to talk about Bran in general with her. I'm very excited. Yeah, I love where her head usually is on magic, and especially the prose and just different little bits of the book

that also some of the way she looks at things, I don't think I always necessarily look at. So she pulls out things that I would never think of. I'm excited. Me too. Me too. Well, here's a couple of other things that we've gotten from our friends. Thank you everyone for writing in recently. We've got some emails and tweets of note. One is actually a comment, not technically an email or tweet or note, but a comment from our friend Tana on our Patreon, where, as you all know, last week you were discussing the different usage of helms, right?

Especially when it comes to the culinary arts as opposed to the, I don't know, martial arts. You know, you could say we got helms deep in that. Oh. If you were a Lord of the Rings fan. Actually, it's kind of messed up. I'm going to bring up some sort of Lord of the Rings thing later on too,

but yes, we did we did and tana says aria uses the hound's helm to boil wine and bandages for his wounds i think it's a bad type of stew maybe we're perhaps being medicinal it doesn't count as cooking shrug emoji i think it passes and honestly that's a really good catch and i don't know why I didn't think about it except for maybe the trauma of those chapters and how I blacked them out of my memory thank you very much Tana for bringing

up those memories I'm just kidding Tana would do that to us though yeah it's out of love you know when she hurts I hurt so she gets it she totally gets it I miss that girl where you at Tana where are you Tana she's living life living life man It's out of love. You know, when she hurts, I hurt. So she gets it. She totally gets it. I miss that girl. Where are you at, Tana?

Where are you at? She's living life. Living life, man. So coincidentally, we also got an email from someone named Anne, but a very different Anne. A completely different Anne. We got a couple of other emails from folks, too, and messages. And we'll get back to y'all at some point but this ann is giving us a quick bonjour from france and ann is interestingly still in the middle of the john povs i've noticed a lot of times people tend to write to us from the middle of the john povs i

don't know if that's like in my head or not is that where you guys just get us you know what i mean like like when people say you have to listen to like eight seasons of schitt's creek till you like it is that us are we the schitt's creek of podcast it's like the john pubes or is it like because there's so many of them people just get bored and they're like let's mix it up and write in because there's so many episodes right but yeah and says i'm still in the middle of the Jon POV episodes, and I can't wait to continue this journey with you. She also says that she grew impatient waiting for the release of Wins, Mood, and wanted to stay in the GOT universe. And, you know, I thought this was really interesting.

Started listening to our podcast as a way to practice English in their everyday life. So started to look for a good podcast and found ours. So thank you very much for thinking that we are a bomb podcast to listen to. And we were exactly what Anne was dreaming of and looking for. And that Girls Gone Canon has been all over Paris. Thank you so much, Anne. I have recently started Duolingo-ing. As I think you know, Eliana, I've been very into the lingo of the duo. Lingo al duo. I'm doing Italian. You know, got to get a couple romance languages on.

I'm getting very into Italian. But I've been thinking there's a couple of our friends at different Italian podcasts for Song of Ice and Fire that I've been thinking about starting to try to, you know, get into. So I got to look that up. I know of this Spanish one, La Cancion, right? And then there's Le Gardinouille from France. There is Il Podcast del Ghiaccio e del Fuoco.

There's a handful of people, actually. There's Wolfie Starks on Twitter,aine stone three and domenico andrea and i feel like i should be listening to them so that might be on my little duolingo extra credit work for myself it's a good idea i i know it's like pretty obvious and a lot of people do that to practice languages but i was like wow that's awesome brilliant yeah i also Brilliant. Yeah. I also think that we speak very colloquially. So if you want to know very conversational English, that's us. Conversational as shit. Very. That's for sure.

Very. And we teach them all the good words too, right? Like F-bombs. The fucks and the fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Yeah. Yeah. What a dream. What a dream. Of spring. Every week, living my life with you. Well, let's talk about living a little more. And by that, I mean our lightning round. That was not a good segue, everyone. I'm sorry. That made no sense.

You know, it wasn't your worst, but it wasn't your best. It was. It wasn't. I wouldn't say it was in the middle i think it was closer to worse than in the middle but let's just keep going if i need to split back i am lost chloe before she unleashes her storm that let's get into what we missed with the lightning round between bran two and bran 3, which will not include Davos, Jaime, Tyrion. We'll catch up with them later on. There's a lot of chapters to cut through as we get through A Storm of Swords. Not a lot of Bran chapters, but a lot of chapters.

Jon 3. Jon must sever. From a ghost. He becomes one with Ygritte beyond the wall. You win some, you lose some, you know? Daenerys III, where Daenerys wins some. All men must die. Dracarys. What an iconic chapter.

Banger. Just nothing but bangers for her in Storm. Actually, for real, though. For real. Sansa III. Willis. Willis. Willis. Willis? Sansa says, but Tyrion, Tyrion, Tyrion, Cersei replies.

Arya 5. Arya learns her own stories of the rebellion from Harwin. A prisoner is brought to the Brotherhood. Jon 4. It's the climb! Samwell 2. Craster's generosity wanes and Sam must help Gilly escape. Aria 6.

At Hollow Hill, Sandor is tried for his crimes against humanity. Oh, the huge manatee of it all. Catelyn 4. Hoster Tully dies and is put to rest. Arya 7. The Brotherhood attacks a septry of bloody mummers. Bran 3.

Bran and team camp out in a very special holdfast called Queen's Crown. Why? You're gonna find out. Bran is pushed to finally fly, choosing to enter Hodor, kind of, to try to calm him at the threat of men outside and watching the folks through Summer's eyes. Okay, maybe it's a little busy. I guess you're right. There's a lot popping. A lot happens.

So the chapter opens with, again, some of that scenery. The tower stood upon an island, its twin reflected on the still blue waters. When the wind blew, ripples moved across the surface of the lake, chasing one another like boys at play. Oak trees grew thick along the lakeshore, a dense stand to them with a litter of fallen acorns on the ground beneath. Beyond them was the village, or what remained of it. It was the first village they had seen since leaving the foothills.

As we've always said, you know, the imagery opening a lot of these chapters is awesome. I love that line of chasing one another like boys at play. It really reminds you of the innocence that was lost for these Starkids. And what has gone from Winterfell? I love that the landscape fills before our eyes as you read it, right? Like the acorns being scattered on the ground, taking up all that negative space and the trees starting to rustle in and more and more of them. My grandparents live in Northern Michigan and it reminds me of going to visit my grandparents

as a kid. And you get to a certain part of driving on this trip where the freeways close up and become smaller roads and they become kind of encased in trees and especially if you're doing it in the winter the snow starts to fall as you travel through the state north through the state and it's really kind of magical and creepy and eerie and quiet so so so so quiet it's so cool it's like such a cool feeling and that's what this reminds me of yeah it sounds like a good place for with that quietness animals and i say that based on the conversations i've had with your grandmother yes it is there's they have deer in their backyard and turkey she was talking about all year round yeah i love the turkey yeah they're cute the gobble littleers. Mira had scouted ahead to ensure the ruins were safe, startling

some deer, speaking of, which Summer immediately goes off after, but Mira waves them all ahead. Bran reluctantly has Hodor follow. He wants to slip into Summer and chase the deer. From here to the wall is grasslands. Fields,

hills, meadows, bogs. Easier than mountains, but an open space that makes Mira pretty nervous. Jojen asks who holds the land, and Bran explains that this is the gift. The new gift, and north of that, Brandon's gift. The land had been gifted by Brandon, the builder to the wall, 25 leagues, but thousands of years later, it was doubled by good queen Alicent, who visited the wall on her dragon silverwing and had Jaehaerys, the old king, give those lands to the Watch, thus becoming the New Gift. Very fun, and I know that Chloe's talked a lot about ideas for the New Gift, and we'll return to that in a bit, but I think that there's something kind of fun on a wordplay level here with the idea of Brandon's Gift. I think that there's something kind of fun on a wordplay level here with the idea of Brandon's gift.

Some Brandon Stark gave it to people and they were like, go farm this and stuff. But it ties a little with Bran Stark. I think that's pretty obvious. He also kind of has a gift, if you will. It is very magical as we've been exploring. But I wonder if there's something else going on here, too, when we talk about these themes of mercy and justice and how it runs through the stark family right what is brand's gift going to be like when he talks about mercy right because aria gives the gift a couple of times so i think i think there could be a brand's gift that gets explored through the story too i'm thinking his gift may have a lot to do with the end

and the middle and the whole throughout, but I could see it coming up pivotally. Maybe even the past, yeah. Whoa. Whoa. Settle down, Doctor Who. Whoa. So there's 50 leagues and not much to speak for it

because the houses are all falling down, even the inn. There's cracked walls and rock all set in apple trees and one tree is actually even growing through the inn, very Ithaca, and rotting apples and wet leaves fill the floor and the air with a decaying cidery scent. Mira tries to find good apples with her spear, but they are all too wormy.

I like the obvious idea, of course, of like, you know, the apples. The forbidden fruit. Apples of knowledge, though, for Bran, right? Because what he is seeking is that knowledge, that apple from the knowledge tree. And, of course, I'm reminded of Arya in Feast with that plucking the worm from

the kindly man's eye. That we will sometime talk about. It could happen any day. It could happen any day it could happen any day yeah any moment any day aria stark you never know she could be next she could not be that said well we're getting closer to the end of bran i have to have some fun we're gonna do sanda next and we gotta do we gotta do the other sister at some point you know the idea of the apples full of this knowledge that bran is seeking on this trip and still him being unable to attain that knowledge him being unable to get to the crow and until the end of this chapter him being unable to fly

right like how he should be with uh no chains. And there's also something about Queen's Crown itself is supposed to be this perfect place. Like it was raised by the good queen and the good king. And not to be a hater, but sometimes it's funny because I'm like, Jaehaerys was the best you guys had to throw at us. That was the best one. That says a lot. I've read Fire and Blood. We're going to talk a lot about Fire and Blood today.

God. But there's also something about it, right? This should have been perfectly kept. The castle itself is very well formed, right? You get all of this description of each level and what it used to be, like a tiered little fucking castle cake and murder holes

and this and that. Very interesting structural discussion. But something's off. The apple's full of worms. The place is falling apart. No one's kept up with the place. It was left to just rot in the middle of the lake. Womp womp womp. Just like that legacy, I guess, for them.

Watching that breakdown of Jaehaerys and Alysanne's family and what they lost. It made it at the end. Like, it was one great sacrifice of an entire family. For America, I mean Westeros. But at the end of the it was one great sacrifice of an entire family for America. I mean, Westeros. But at the end of the day, like, were they fulfilled? We'll never know.

I think we kind of will, right? A little. We'll see how that all goes. If it was all, I don't know, aiming towards a certain prophecy or whatever. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. I really love what you're doing with tying it with the apple of knowledge. That's

a recurring motif in a lot of the world, and a lot of religions and beliefs, etc. And George brings that in with like that tree of knowledge to with a blood raven, but also because the apple of knowledge is something that's forbidden, right? It's a taboo in a way to eat it. And Bran keeps trying to gain that knowledge, the things that he probably shouldn't be doing throughout his story. He breaks a lot of rules. He doesn't know that they're there. And there's even that element of the apple of discord too, having fallen here, right?

If you want to bring in other apples, or the golden apples, I guess basically. How about them apples? How about them apples? There's something interesting in that Queen's Crown is the metaphor. That was the rain. That was supposed to be what fixes the North.

New North now, new Selina now. That was what's supposed to have fixed it. Alisanne's supposed to have fixed it. It was like Alysanne was supposed to be pumping some money and some troops in, and we'll talk a little bit about that, historically how that landed. It's definitely been discussed in the fandom before, but there's some merit in bringing it up here

of the new gift being kind of likened to the New Deal, with FDR, Franklin, Delano Roosevelt. You might have known of this man before, but he was very influential in the United States for he was a president, which only a specific portion of people could ever be at any point in their life. That's actually very true.

I mean, it is very true. It's a slim pick here. Statistically, yeah. But after the Great Depression, there was something called the New Deal, which aimed at promoting huge economic recovery, putting Americans back to work with federal activism, creating federal agencies to help control and stabilize production wages and prices. And in the short term, it helped in recovery for people that were suffering.

But in the long term, there was also a precedent it set for the government to play kind of a key role in day-to-day affairs, socially and economically, right, for the U.S., which, I don't know, maybe there's a metaphor in there for Brand's CCTV, you know, his police state brain thing he's going to have if he becomes king and he can see everything. Who knows?

Maybe there's a metaphor in there. But the North doesn't have this kind of infrastructure in place. And if they didn't have it firmly into place while Rob was down in the South, or when Ned was down in the South getting his head chopped off, or when his dad was down in the South dying, if they didn't have some of these things in place, like Social Security came from this,

unemployment insurance and federal agricultural subsidies, expanding projects that already existed, like roads and postal workers and engineering and arts and cultural programs and even historic preservation. If all this doesn't already exist in the North, which in some elements and degrees, there are some of these things, but not a lot of them.

There's not a lot that's going centrally to improve this. That's in a program in a place that we hear about. I know Aragorn's tax policy, George doesn't have a sitting hearing all of that. He gives us some things in meetings and little Lewin and roderick and bran moments in clash for example but they didn't have this already set up in this infrastructure firmly into place so by the time rob is going down they really don't have it as we know this entire book

into place shit is not great at winterfell right now. Right this exact moment, the North is kind of... Some people are holding their own, but that's the North right now. If you're not holding your own, it ain't good. Things aren't good for you. And in dance, I would argue to say they're getting worse. They're very much breaking down. Society in the North is starting to get a little stabbier every single day. With nothing good coming from the tax dollars. Just like real life. down society in the north is starting to get a little stabbier every single day with nothing

good coming from the tax dollars just like real life um i mean there are good things that the tax dollars could and should go to but then people are like let's just stab each other and like not actually you know invest in our communities but whatever we should just stab the north yeah people are like libraries fuck that that's big huron energy am i right burn that shit and i'm not saying like fucking turn it into a liberal arts campus on this shit jesus i'm just saying you know there's no jahiris put these beautiful roads throughout westeros and as you go farther north they're not kept up with and furthermore no one can go down them because they'll get stabbed if they go down these roads. The Little told us that there was a time that this was probably more kept up, right?

Like, and that was happening. But part of the issue is, you know, you're talking about how the New Deal helps create some of these departments that keep these things going. So much of, turns out with feudalism, so many of the policies are kind of hinged solely on one person right they're not made to be perpetual john is kind of implementing ideas that are a little like this right thinking forward and ahead of you know this could be a good idea for us here at the wall and then they're like as you said just stabbing people in the north yeah like these are great ideas john but here's the deal you have no support and no one gives a fuck and there's no money to get it done so literally you have no

people well yes so i think there's a lot there that's similar and george is interested in that time of history there's a great preservation too right like of course there's a there's a bit about preserving northern culture preserving also the diversity of these houses that want to keep their house differently than that. But when you look at the north versus the south, they both do some things better than others and worse than the others. You know, there's some southern things that the north could adopt that maybe could bring them a little bit of, you know, beneficial vibes, just beneficial economic vibes that's kind of the significance of manderly he's got he's got some good ideas there if everyone can keep him

in check and by that i mean first he has to survive step one survive step two profit no but literally that is kind of the plan that he has. Eventually. Yeah. And if not for him, legacy, right? His family and yeah. Legacy. Legacy. Legacy. Speaking of legacy and growing a tree that you may not ever get to see,

I completely butchered those lines, but that was the general idea of that song. Eliana Lin Manueliana? Lin Manueliana. A song for Lin Manueliana. So there are apple trees here. And as pointed out, a lot of these trees have those rotten apples, which kind of speaks to that idea of the gift rotting, as you were saying. It reminds me of a couple of things.

For example, it reminds me a little bit of Face Tolero that Danny finds that is full of trees that are full of life amongst death, right? And here you find an empty town that should be able to survive or should be able to sustain life, yet the apples are rotten. They're past their time, sustained life yet the apples are rotten they're past their time no longer good and full of worms full of death and it also reminds me of then a little of in this next book a feast for crows the rotting blood oranges that are all plopping plopping as doran has waited too long for his own plans to come to fruition they've been ripe ripe for a while. Too ripe. Too juicy. That's great, especially with the journey to Bloodraven. We're gonna get a lot

more into his motives and into his backstory as we get into dance as he becomes super super critical to the plot, but it's kind of a cute shortcut to Targaryen that we stop here with Jaehaerys and Alysanne because bringing the three-eyed crow, bringing Bloodraven into the fold is a very different history.

But all of it revolves on that core fire and blood. Yeah. Hodor and Bran both feel something sad about the empty inn, even though it's tranquil here. I wonder if this is what the inn at the crossroads will be one day. Hopefully not. Jojen is impressed with the land. He's like, wow, a village, an inn, a whole fast apple trees, what luxury. But where are the people? Why did they leave? And Bran says they were afraid of the wildlings. That old man would say that wildlings would raid, steal, and make your skull into a cup for blood.

And the watch is now much weaker than it was during any one of those other Brandon Starks' days. Or Alisanne's day, and the small folk had moved south into the mountains or in with the Umbers to avoid being raided. Sure, Bran. That's why they moved. That's it. That's it? I mean, I don't know. Get ready. The zombies come. There's a lot happening. There's a lot coming.

Jojen says that they should shelter here because a storm is coming. Of sorts. They choose to go to the holdfast and Mira scouts the holdfast. Bran mentions, oh, it's okay. There's a stone causeway hidden under the water.

I'm full of knowledge. Jojen asks how he knew. And Bran says, well, actually, old Nan told him, right? And to look for the golden crown on the crenellations of the holdfast. They were painted in honor of Alysanne sleeping there. Why doesn't anyone paint things in honor of me just like napping somewhere? Someday. Now I have a like napping somewhere? Someday. Now I have a dream, a vision.

I think that Queen's Crown stands so symbolic of a time when there was a king and queen who gave any fucks. Not the king and queen who cared, but the king and queen who gave a fuck. That's a good title. The Watch during their time, it was great. Things were good, booming. They had 2, were good booming they had 2 000 poor fellows they had to get rid of they had just gotten disbanded the whole swords and stars thing apologized about maegor pretty publicly you know my bad my b but compared to the night's watch now i mean there are like 600 at the start of the series at castle black dwindling every moment

that i'm speaking it dwindles more. Yeah. Oh, that's another one that died just now. Yep. Every four seconds. You can help prevent a Night's Watchman from dying if you just go to patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon. That's right. For just $5 a month.

They have maybe, at the start of A Game of Thrones, 1,000 across all of the keeps, and far, far fewer now. And we get a little bit of backstory in Fire and Blood. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. You're going to hear a little excerpt today. It must not be thought the queen's days and nights at Castle Black were entirely taken with such idle pursuits. She was here for the Iron Throne, she reminded Lord Burleigh,

and many an afternoon was spent with him and his officers discussing the wildlings, the wall, and the needs of the watch. Above all, the queen must know how to listen, Alisanne had often said, and she proved those words at Castle Black where she listened and won the eternal devotion of the men of the Watch by her actions. She knew that they needed a castle between Snowgate and Icemark, but Nightfort was crumbling, overlarge, and ruinous to heat. Not unlike Harrenhal, huh? The Watch should abandon it, she said, and build a smaller castle farther east. They couldn't disagree, but the watch lacked the coin, so Alysanne had anticipated that objection, and she paid for the castle herself,

pledging her own jewels to cover the cost, saying she had a great many jewels. So it takes about eight years to raise the new castle, which becomes Deep Lake, and they have a statue of Alysanne outside to this day. I hope we get to see it in Tiwau. I think we might have to. I think we might have to.

The Nightfort was abandoned before Deep Lake was completed, and Snowgate, which is where we are now, was renamed to be Queensgate. And later, Jaehaerys does join them. Jaehaerys and Lord Stark aren't really friendly with one another because of the past with Lord Walton Stark, but good Queen Alysanne kind of becomes the mediator. She visited Brandon's gift south of the wall

that Brandon the Builder had granted the watch, and she tells Jaehaerys that it's not enough, the soil is thin and stony, the hills are unpopulated, and that they have no coins, so when winter comes, they'll lack for food. And she proposes the new gift, the further strip of land south of Brandon's gift. This doesn't please Lord Larrick, because although he is, you know, a buddy to the Night's Watch-ish, he knows the lords who have the lands will probably not be happy that all of a sudden the king and queen who don't live here came north and were like, hmm, you should give this

to the watch and take it away from all those lords you have. They all want that land, man. They want to live there. But she is like, come on. Aren't you the man? The hombre de la casa? Aren't you the guy? Aren't you the one? And he's like, yeah, you're right. I am the man.

He's like, lo lo amo so he agrees and goes swimmingly and now we have this great abandoned land here ages later soon not to be abandoned though right like soon we're gonna fill some of it seems important it seems significant and yeah yeah okay. Yeah. Okay, crazy idea. Hot D spoilers here. What if Reyna never told Jaehaerys, because, you know, she would have been air. What if she passed the prophecy to Alysanne, not to Jaehaerys, just out of spite? She seems petty like that, which is why I love her. Anyway.

Damn, I love that, though. But, I mean, a lot of what we're seeing here, right, with Alysanne and Jaehaerys coming, visiting the Wall and preparing for things really speaks to them having some sort of knowledge of the things that are happening in the current story. There seems to be like a very small flurry of activity in the North for a lot of these different kings and queens we have a little bit of background on, right just one event one little event so now i'm kind of picking them apart i'm very interested and you know an effect of george's gardening which there's a little bit of that throughout this chapter actually i feel like there's a lot of gardening that has come to fruition in this chapter in the in the passage that you called out earlier they're talking about the staffing of the wall why would alice and say like oh we should staff all these other castles and we might need In the passage that you called out earlier, they're talking about the staffing of the wall. Why would Alysanne say, like, oh, we should staff all these other castles and we might need to forego the night for it then? I mean, maybe she knows that someday Stannis Baratheon's going to kill his daughter there.

I mean... She could. She might. I don't know. I don't know what people know anymore. It's, yeah, I'm just kind of like why how does that all like make sense and maybe there is a logic to it and i just don't see it yet i think it's definitely like the heron hall of the north which we'll come back to next week with ann for sure but it's totally the heron hall of the north and that it's huge and it was too ambitious of a castle for its environment and for the condition of the north in the world of ice and fire we hear kind of a little variation on this that in these days it said lord ellard stark was glad to aid the night's watch with the gift and took little convincing but the truth is otherwise

letters from lord Stark's brother to the Citadel asking the maesters to provide precedent against the forced donation of property made it plain the Starks were not eager to do as King Jaehaerys bid. It may be the Starks feared that under the control of Castle Black the new gift would inevitably decline for the Watch would always look northward and never give much thought to their new tenants to the south and as it happens that soon came to pass and the new gift is now said to be largely unpopulated thanks to the decline of the watch and the rising toll taken by raiders from beyond the wall now i love how politically this is written in that it It's so funny because, yes, the Night's Watch has declined. Therefore, the people that live there have also declined.

Why, yes, people do die. People do work and die. And the Night's Watch has lost its prestige, right? As people got further and further away from the reason why they were even there. And it's bad that they do not have a staff night's watch to protect against the ice zombies but at the very least we have some small comfort that when the ice zombies cross the wall all these lands will not be full of dead people for them to to take over there's that i think we got that to think about you know i'm so glad you're always here

to keep me positive aliana but yeah the new gift seems significant and brandon's gift all the gifts i wonder if there will be a third one things come in threes gifts of three child of three exactly exactly so sure enough there is a pathway right the causeway it's three feet wide but you know i kind of forgot that's actually a little bigger than i thought which is good carefully though they cross it's not like a lot but it's better than nothing uh heading into the holdfast door the causeway though is not in a straight line it zigged and zagged treacherously on slimy rocks and it left those below open to arrows the war fire from above behind and aside and hodor actually has almost fallen twice so again three feet not huge but still still bigger than i thought and

i don't know something feels so magical about this, right? Very much like walking on water. That's a sort of story that could get kind of twisted into, and then our magical king walked on water. Yeah, it makes me think a lot of the last chapter with the Crayonog Man, you know, breathing mud and walking on leaves. This would be one of those kind of flip those. Oh, yes. And then he walked on water exactly and it is very jesus like this is straight up he's walking on water yeah he's not yeah and as you wisely pointed out because i kind of forgot i too can run on leaves so i guess it wasn't that interesting

um bran thinks briefly maybe they should have stayed at the inn but thankfully there is no third time that Bran that Hodor almost falls and like hmm seems significant the water never reached too high though the reeds were up to their chest in it and so specifically that line that that Bran thinks of is maybe we should have stayed at the inn under the apple tree he thought but by then it was too late it's's like, no turning back now, too far gone. If I look back, I am lost, if you will. Because there's something about this that actually reminds me of Daenerys and the regret or like the longing that she feels for the house

with the lemon tree, the house with the red door, when you think about it with that apple tree. And even tying it to another Targaryen, you know, Jon and Ygritte later in this book and Ygritte saying, we should have stayed in that cave, right? And all these regrets of places that people should have stayed. Ygritte's a secret Targaryen?

I'm just kidding. Well, it kissed my fire, you know? I know you meant Jon, who's been switched with baby Aegon. I mean, Alysanne and Jaehaerys went up to the wall. There's no saying that they didn't, you know. Jack and Jill went up a hill, actually. Yeah, there's a lot.

These chapters are great. They make me want to go back and reread the Jon chapters against them because they align so well and they have a lot of similar themes coming through. And they're dealing with a lot of the same concepts but from completely different angles. Right? Brienne and Jon's eyes are both opening but they're in different places

with different people while that's happening and very different kinds of people. So I love that effect. Until next chapter with Sam. Then similar kinds of people. Intersecting plot lines.

They pass a heavy oaken door. Warped through the years, and in they go. There's this line that I had to call out. Mira shoved it open all the way, the rusted iron hinges screaming.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. And nothing else to note. I just wanted to call. I was just, I found that interesting. Really?

You don't want to call out what it reminds you of? It reminds me of some T-Wow sample chapter shit. Yep. And some Feast for Crows. Yeah. Shit. It is in Feast, so. Yeah.

It is in the Damp Hairs POV. Just found it interesting that it showed up. I was like, oh, it's one of those things that I pay attention to whenever I see it now, even if it has nothing to do with it. Yeah, yeah. But turns out it was significant for those. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes here.

Hodor doesn't duck in time so Bran gets his head slammed and they find they've appeared in kind of a gloomy storeroom. Steps are built into the tower that curve up to their left and down to their right, gated with iron and Bran sees a grate above his head. A murder hole. He's glad

no one's there to pour boiling oil on them. i found that really interesting uh that this castle was actually built well that if people were there they could guard it right if it came under attack they have a murder hole i like that there's a lot of focus on murder holes in this book actually considering sansa 7 right the giant murder hole in the wall in the veil that is a murder hole that's so true and it's right? The giant murder hole in the wall, in the veil. That is a murder hole, that's so true. It's just a very big murder hole. Yeah, yeah.

A lot of them, I guess, a lot of castles, I guess, maybe have things for boiling oil. I don't know, but you're right. This is a really well defended castle, not just because of the murder holes and what else is built in it. You have the heavy doors, but I mean, literally the lake and the murder holes and what else is built in it you have the heavy doors but i mean literally the the lake and the causeway and stuff but why yeah that why that is a great

question actually aliana i'm like hmm i guess we made it really difficult for zombies to come into yeah or even escape room if you think about it too. Yeah, that's true. Unless they can freeze all the water. But yeah, it is tied to all that. I also think it's made obviously so that a small amount of people can hold it, right? That if you're there with a small, because we see that these castles

and that people are scarce. When Jon starts sending some of these people out, we're going to notice that, you know, garrisoning these places is hard. This makes it easier to protect it. Hodor gives a pull to the left door, but nothing happens. Instead, he kicks the rusted iron gate, which also won't budge. The gate below doesn't budge either, and they resign. There's no way in. Instead, Hodor pulls at a heavy iron grate, which comes down, banging into Bran's head,

and Meera laughs, calling Bran stronger than Hodor when Bran, like, pushes it off of him, and I don't know. I think that Hodor struggling with this heavy iron door, it feels important. Oak and iron guard me well, or else i'm dead and doomed to hell he he he is that that is probably the case him against the oak and iron door while fucking whites tear into him who will win hodor or door or me tearing your heart up i'm tearing up your heart about Hodor. Hodor. I guess I could have just gone Hodor, Hodor, Hodor for the rest of those lyrics.

You could have, actually, now that you say it out loud. It kind of works. Well, shit. Shit. They climb up through the murder hole. Getting Hodor in is kind of the harder part. At the end, they find some large rocks for him to climb on, and they land in a maze of small cells and find steps that climb higher,

finding more light as they go, and they land on floor five, which is a big round chamber with arched doors on three sides and small stone balconies, as well as a privy chamber with a sewer chute to the lake yum yeah summer loving oh summer's outside so don't drink that water summer i i don't know i'm just like so mad on behalf of hodor i guess not mad but i'm just like so worried about everything regarding hodor like you know it's kind of bullshit that they're like to get through the murder hole hodor is the one who lifts everyone to go through he lifts mira

he lifts jojen he lifts bran to go through and then they don't all find the rocks they're just like wow hodor we can't bring you through uh why don't you go find some rocks and get yourself up pull yourself up by your bootstraps hodor and he And he's like, I don't know, there's so much that almost feels like when the time comes, he's almost left behind. So I'm just sad, Hodor, hours. I'm sorry, let me send the sanguine twink, Bran, and then little Miss Bubblegum Pop, Mira, to go form a human ladder so he can climb up them. Honestly, I don't know.

Where was Summer? Just whoosh Hodor up on your giant wolfy back or something. Summer's hungry, bro. Actually, Summer is hungry and eating. On the roof, the sky is overcast and they look out.

Mira says she feels almost like a giant standing above the world, and Jojen reminds her there are trees even taller than these in the neck. She insists it's different, though, that the world presses in on them in the neck, but here it's open and free. You know what, I think Mira's right. It is different. The language, though, here of how high up on this queen's crown

and being able to see all around, feeling just kind of isolated, nothing on par with you, really reminds me of Daenerys again, right? And what it feels like to be alone at the top of the world, but also how she feels at the end of Storm when she looks out from the Py the pyramid of marine right and again feeling lonely but also you know because there's a different loneliness of being high apart from others jojen's like yeah that bill we got trees higher than that but it's different when it's just you at the top especially coming off of the climb right up the wall in the past chapters. Thank you, Miley. And coming off of that and all the imagery and some of those similarities, and we'll be back at the wall next chapter.

Mira will see from the top of it. All of the thoughts of spells being woven into the wall and into some of these castles. There's a lot of great parallels with Dany and Bran right now, even the bits about trickery, right? The last Dany chapter was the Dracarys chapter, where they're using their environment or surroundings as trickery, and here we're going to get that with the causeway, right? Where the free folk won't be able to come up the causeway. So a little different, but kind of similar, right?

We have some trickery appearing, some magical things. but kind of similar, right? We have some trickery appearing, some magical things. And I also kind of love that those steps, those causeway steps are very practical trickery. Like they're not really magic. They're just, you know, they're in the water and they're slippery and they're in a zigzag pattern. Rickon should have used it.

And those will, you know, those are trickery enough. Like you mentioned earlier with the Cranog stuff coming to play. And I also love the Cranog stuff here that they are telling us about how much taller the trees are in the neck than here because this is supposed to be

a very old place, right? This is considered vintage in Westerosi years, at least if not fucking historic. This place has not been touched. It has been a long time. And the trees here are still not as tall as in the neck. Let that sink in.

Think about the neck, right? How much that land must be untouched of those trees. If the trees in the neck have been growing for that much longer, that thicker, that much denser, that's fantastically interesting to me that it's a protected kind of place by other spells in nature's ground. And that kind of makes sense, too. For the neck to have taller trees, it's something that they would have cultivated for their own culture and for hiding hiding whereas for here some of them might have been felled before for farmland or even for building out that that village that no one lives in yeah that untouched land in the neck is protected by the children eliana first of all yes the children have abandoned this area because of

the first men that still live here chopping bullshit down. That's true. You're right. I am sorry. I didn't connect that. That's okay. I forgive you. I'm big dumb. Just like how Bran feels. All right. The other thing is that it reminds me very much of Ygritte's speech in the last Jon chapters about freedom.

Right. When she says, you know, like kneelers just have to kneel. Some guy came along and said, this is mine. That tree's mine. That rock's mine up here. It's no ones.

When you're standing at the end of the world, but you're standing on top, looking out at all the nature in the North and there's no one around. It's no ones. You can't just claim that that's not yours. And there's even those echoes in Ygritte seeing a castle for the first time and the wonder from up here. Queen's crown is not very impressive impressive, right?

Like, it's not Winterfell. But it's still a castle for the first time, and they're seeing it in the wild, like, this amidst all these great big space and open trees. And I guess Gilly in the next Bran chapter too, right? She sees the Nightfort and she is astounded by it. It does seem astounding. And...

Yeah, Queen's Crown may not be Winterfell or big, but it's good enough for a queen. So... Well, as I said earlier, Bran feels stupid and disappointed. He had hoped to be able to see the wall from this vantage but turns out it's like 50 leagues away

this is such a tourist feeling right like when you're like if you go straight to Washington DC and you're like where's the White House where is it where is she I should see her in front of me or uh you know Philly you drive into Philly and you don't see the bell immediately what the fuck am I even in Philly

where's Rocky Where's Rocky? Where's Rocky? Where is he? I'm running up those steps. So 50 leagues away. That's like 175 miles, 241 kilometers, if you want to translate that out of leagues.

So that's like a three and a half hour road trip by car. A lot longer if you're the dynamic team here without a car but probably three and a half hours by car yeah sounds not fun on foot but in a car i think that's like a i think that is a good length for a road trip good any longer and i need a break yeah but i could do three hours four hours yeah. Yeah. I can do that. Easy. It starts to get exhausting after that, though. Like, you start bit by bit draining your HP.

Yeah. Three and a half, I think, is like a nice solid, you know, you went on a journey. Yeah. Still have energy when you get there. Yeah. These guys will not have energy when they get there. No, they won't. Unfortunately.

No, they won't. Bran asks what they'll do with the wall, and his uncle had said it was big. 700 feet high, and the gates are more like tunnels because of how thick the wall is. How are they going to find the three-eyed crow, he wonders. Not with a car, but with an elk.

Jojen hopes that one of the abandoned fortresses along the wall may give them a way through the wall. The ghost castles as old nan had called them lewin had made brand learn the names of each of the 19 forts though no more than 17 had ever been manned at any time which is interesting and just like bran i will take from this lesson and i will tell you them at the height of the watch with all of the forts functioning at least 10 000 men were sworn to the watch.

So let's pour one out for the abandoned forts and the manned. As you know, actively, we have the Shadow Tower, Castle Black, and Eastwatch by the Sea, here in the published ASOS chapters. and the abandoned castles Reed, Westmarch by the Bridge, Sentinel Stand, Greyguard, Stone Door, Hoarfrost Hill, Icemark, The Night Fort, Deep Lake, Queensgate, once Snowgate, Oakenshield, Woodswatch by the Pool, Sablehall, Rhymegate, Longbarrow,

Torches, and Greenguard. I'm kind of curious about Rhymegate, if that has to do with something, right? I don't know. I feel like this is a really fun place for George to put probably a handful of things that he likes from other stories and from games and different things and different references

and he always likes these little spare things and truth be told, I think he just had 19 fucking names to fill. That's true. You know what I mean? Yeah. He's like, oh God, I made all these. And yeah, Rhyme. Rhyme Gaeta is...

Rhyme is frost-formed on cold objects by the rapid freezing of water vapor in cloud or fog, which might explain why... Is there not... There is now a Pokemon. Okay, so... So... There's a Galarian Mr mime galarian mr mime now evolves into a mr rhyme because galarian mr mime is an ice type so oh i didn't know that yeah and

you know it's also it wasn't it rhyme town in Town in the Detective Pikachu? Oh, it might have been. I forgot. I forgot. Hmm. Interesting. Interesting. So now look at that. George isn't the only one here with trivia.

We also have trivia from Pokemon. Move over, George. Yeah, there's a lot of interesting castles there. And I kind of, I want to know more albeit knowing that george had to make things up here yeah the ghost castle thing sounds significant though i don't know there's something about the name that sounds significant with like the story and how spooky it's gonna get but i don't know maybe a different supernatural creature with these castles like a zombie castle probably oh yeah that's the thing, as I'm hearing all of these different names,

I'm also thinking about how all of these abandoned-ish castles, because a lot of them are being manned. We'll talk about that in a moment. But all I'm thinking about is how they're going to be overrun with zombies, right? Yeah, no, literally. All of them. Yeah. Literally, every single one of them.

Greyguard, guarded by gray ass whites maybe like this is the sentinel stand i'm curious about that because i don't know if you're you know you remember the 72 or next chapter we get the story of the sentinels yeah the 79 the 79 sentinels yeah you know they're just 10 off from being a nice number, but the 79 Sentinels that are stuck in the wall. Yeah, I imagine it would have been named for that. So when we do get to dance, next book, we're not there yet in our ever loving game of ping pong through these chapters. Westwatch has been remanned with a few people thanks to Jon. Sentinel Stand, Greyguard is where Jon tries to send Janos Slynt in regarrisoning

it. Its castle has fallen in on itself. Jon settles Sorin Shieldbreaker and his people at Stonendor. Icemark, Jon sends 10 of Stannis's men there as well as 20 Night's Watch men. Jon wants to regarrison either Deep Lake or Sable Hall with freemen under Halleck, but neither are really ready for habitation. Later, we hear him tell Torgon Flint that Deep Lake is garrisoned, though undermanned. Queensgate is actually given to Morna Whitemask to settle her people.

Tormund gets Oakenshield. He is our Thorin. Our Tormund. Our Thorin. They have similar names. Rhymegate is on the waiting list with no VIP option for management. Iron Emmet and Ed get longbarrow with a bunch of spearwives torches has a small garrison now and devin seal skinner say that 10 times fast settles his people at green guard so we are starting to fill these castles up albeit

in a very small manner because there's no people yep none of them none of them but uh yeah i mean john was doing a pretty good job with it was a good idea you know except no one supported him and so brand recites all of these castles when his uncle benjen had visited during king robert's welcome feast at winterfell and benjen had laughs saying that maybe Bran should be a first ranger and that Benjen should stay at Winterfell in Bran's place. And I'm going to be honest, I think that Bran being able to name all of these 19 castles in front of everyone is pretty impressive. I think that is very impressive of eight to nine year old Bran. And I know that you just rattled it off for us, but still, I would be a proud uncle Benjen. It's different. You know, when you're a northern woman in your 30s, it's expected you know that you just rattled it off for us but still i would be a proud uncle it's different yeah you know when you're a northern woman in your 30s it's expected you know that

so i didn't ever really get any accolades for it but thanks eliana you you will hear these are your accolades this is my legacy uh yeah it's good to know, too, because a king should know his people and the places that he plans to settle them, right? Yeah, and a lot of this chapter shows that Bran knows the things. He knows how to get to Queen's Crown, right? He knows all the castles. And not just for Bran, but I think it has so much knowledge that could possibly be shared across his family already. The reason he knows there's a causeway, for example, is it's from his lessons as a child with their family tutor. So interesting stuff that could come up in other plots as well now that George has presented this knowledge to us.

And I love the gardening effect at times like this because we really didn't get Bran in that welcome feast. But here, George has time now to write a little ditty about a little side thing that happened. You know, it's a nice way to write. It affords for a lot of cool moments. I really like that. It does. It does. Well, that time that Bran was very impressive with his knowledge was unfortunately before the fall.

And by the time he had awakened from his fall, his uncle Benjen had gone. A lot of people were gone. Bran mentions his uncle said the gates were sealed with ice and stone when a castle was abandoned. And Meera says, well, we'll just have to open them up again. And Bran is concerned, like, I don't know if we should do that. And we have a line of bad things may come from the other side. Mayhaps they should ask the Lord Commander to let them through. Love this as a very Pandora's Box imagery going on. The second you open it, you might be afraid of what

comes through because it might not be free folk, right? I'm loving the driving home going on of like it was the free folk. The free folk came through and they would suck the marrow out of your bones and then pick their teeth with them all the time for funsies and, you know, whatever. Yada, yada, yada. But it's not purely true.

Like, when we see the Free Folk come through, they're ragged, wan-thin, and like a sad group usually. This is the first time we've gotten to see them kind of start to get into formation. Get into formation, Free formation free folk as they come raiding through but i don't know to me it's like sealing the gates with ice and stone to keep the free folk away sure but also some of these castles have done it and maybe they did it for legend and lore for other reasons like others yeah literally other reasons capital literally other reasons literally yeah yeah i wonder if it's not just ice right and and stone sealing those gates but spells too and especially because we you know we do get the night for it and i i think it is

interesting right that they're like let's just it up, because you have to weigh the risks of opening it up versus closing the gates, which is exactly what happens in John's chapters. Right? He's weighing the risks of, well, we should leave this gate open and let all of these other free folk through as refugees, basically. But what about all the other ones who might attack right or also what about the others and literally the others and and versus closing the gate and it's it's a an issue that we actually come up against a couple of times throughout a song of ice and fire you know think river run where ed muir is like you know what fuck it let's let everyone in and turns out he gets chewed out for that very good decision. Or Old Town, right? Where they're like, okay, what do we do? We have a grayscale outbreak. And they decide to seal the gates and just keep it in there. Or even like, for example, we'll see later on when Daenerys leaves Meereen, right? Barristan's like, I don't know, let's just seal the gates.

Like, do you let the people in or not and how long do you keep the gate open yeah we probably will see it come up in king's landing eventually as a hot to trot task list item hot to trot if you will i didn't even mean that but i guess i did ha ha ha i'm hysterical but i think there's and this is kind of an effect from gardening, but we learn in Fire and Blood that Cregan goes out to kind of do a battle against Silas Grimm, who comes with 3,000 free folk, which is kind of after the fact, George kind of going back and writing some fun little things.

Fun little things for George. You know, I like to imagine him like Bob Ross, but with his word star, he's like, fun little things for me. This is during Aegon III's reign, and it gets closed up probably, is my guess, after that, after the Free Folk come and raid through here. Because this is literally what they come through. But again, and thinking back to some of these revelations that House of the Dragon is bringing up as far as prophecy

and who knows what and what secrets were. Was it like Gossip Girl secrets? Like, did we all know it was, spoilers, Gossip Girl, Dan Humphrey or not? You know what I mean? Like, was it a well-known secret? I don't know, but it makes me wonder if House of the Dragon might expand on Cregan and even include this

in their final season someday. Who knows? You know, maybe having him being shaken beheading a deserter or something and hearing the truth of what was beyond the wall having that shaken to his core who knows what we'll see but it makes you wonder I also think that obviously George is pointing out the use of this in the future like where we'll get with the watch right when the free folk attack the wall they do seal off the gate exactly seems difficult maybe everyone should just have like a mouse gate thing oh that sounds weird when i say it like that um

i didn't make it up george did so i i do like Mira suggesting it should be open and I'm probably reading too much into it in terms of her characterization but it feels true of her who's someone who's like I don't know there's a problem and I think we can fix it everyone and isn't resigned to things staying the way that they are yeah that's such a great point because I really love

how representative of different minds they already are in this group. Jojen is very closed-minded for a reason. Mostly because he's already seen things in his mind and he's like, that's enough mind for today, let's shut it down. So different kind of closed-minded. But he's very straight and narrow closed-minded where mira is infectiously optimistic sometimes

where you know she really is like we can do it team maybe after a few days i might get annoyed with her i love her but like maybe if stuck in the wilderness with her i might growl at her i don't know i think i think it she's like just the right amount she's if anything, seems annoyed that everyone's not positive enough and therefore would be less positive, tempering it. She straight up is fighting Jojen. Jojen, what the fuck? Try harder. We can try harder.

Because Jojen is more, as we've discussed, resigned and cautious. He repeats to them, we're not going to take the King's Road, okay? We're not going to castle black just just get rid of that idea but he says even if those people took vows to the knight's watch and to hold like you know no loyalties he's like who's to say that they're not gonna sell the secrets off to like bolton or the ironman i mean literally jano slint is there you know or or even hold them back from passing like family or family or not, they might not let us through.

And I think he's got a good point. Because Bran, no one is just going to let a bunch of kids go through to the other side of the wall with no escort. It's dangerous. And much less the Prince of Winterfell. Like, that's just not going to happen. That's a very silly thought. And you feel for him, right? Because he had secretly just wanted to see Jon.

It's very... I get that. In the mind, in the shoes of Bran, I can obviously get that as a kid. Just wants to see John and maybe his uncle to find out if his uncle's alive or not. But all those wants and wishes and whims are totally interrupted by a rider outside,

it looks like. And I'm just saying, imagine if this man didn't exist out in that village and John fell upon Bran and their group instead and the Free Folk are like, bro, you gotta kill him. Whoa, different story. It's not that story. And it's not deep. I just was thinking about it. And I was like, damn, would have he wanted. You know, I much prefer the masterpiece from season four. No, I'm just kidding. I can't even say it with a straight face. Bitch.

Bran squints and sees a man on a horse, Hodor Hodor's, and Meera watches the man make for the village. They decide to go inside before they're seen from atop the crown. Bran worries after summer and Meera says summer will absolutely be fine against one man on a tired horse. If only that was all that there was. Their timing's perfect because rain begins to come down,

that great rain from a storm of swords finally has hit our chapters. They sit in the empty round room amidst the gathering gloom, watching out into the village where Mira is keeping tabs on the man watching him make a fire. Bran wants to make a fire too, but Jojen says no, because again, King's Road, no.

Mira argues, maybe we should, but Jojen says no. We have a line that I really liked of, one man would be enough to betray Bran to his enemies if he's the wrong man. And that just feels really important for the themes of the story. The whole like one man or one person tilting the scales to quote the Disney movie Mulan. A single grain of rice can tip the scale. One man may be the difference between victory and defeat, which then cuts to Mulan studying for the matchmaker.

So we know that she's the one who tips the scales and it's a play on like all that gender stuff. But also, you know, we see Theon, one man who betrays and ruins everything, the wrong man. Jamie Lannister, one man, the wrong man for Bran. But also in this book, Walder Frey, Roose Bolton, who work together,

so therefore are not just one man. But either way, in a way, kind of one man, wrong man. That's so great. And it comes back in terms of the entire book, right? Davos becomes the one man in the opposite direction, the man that saves everything, the the one man in the opposite direction, the man that saves everything, the man that learned to read and said, Stannis, what the fuck?

You are ignoring all of this mail? You have so many credit card bills. You know those don't get paid on their own, right? And also the watch is in trouble, he says. But I digress, glossing over all that. He's like, Stannis, let's run away from the bills. I digress glossing over all that he's like Sanus let's run away

from the bills and Davos is selfless in some aspects where he also puts others in front of him

like Edric right what is one bastard boy he says Ned Ned right

looking at what is what is one child against his kingdom the most important thing in the universe even all of the Starks specifically as we zoom back into their

plots, each of them have their one man that they have to trust. Just trust completely. Osha with Rikken, Dantos, ha ha ha ha, and therefore Littlefinger, Sandor and the Brotherhood with Arya. I mean, these are some really

great explorations of what happens when someone tells because someone always tells yes except for when you said that no one told because it was just very obvious how dare you bring that up right now first of all but also yeah no

really though literally I mean yeah like all of the servants as they saw what was happening and they whispered to one another come on Arianne and they're like so everyone knows right it's obvious yeah

to me it's like Arianne who didn't sell you out maybe we should start with that list it might be a lot smaller speaking of things that are small they have a duck to divide between the two of them caught the day before

sounds so good it's not as tasty cold though it's not as tasty cold as what they say Speaking of things that are small, they have a duck to divide between the two of them caught the day before. Sounds so good. It's not as tasty cold, though. It's not as tasty cold as what they say, as it was when it was hot. But at least they don't go hungry. Yeah, it's Bran's turn to tell the story at dinnertime. So he tells them about Bran and the shipwright who sailed off beyond the sunset sea. Sure, sure. We've all read Numeria.

When the story and the duck is done, dusk has fallen, rain pours down. Hodor starts to grow restless, walking around the walls, and suddenly the rain turns into storm. Lightning strikes across the sky. We're back at the lightning round. Wait, no, fuck. And Hodor's pretty frightened. He begins to yell, Hodor, Hodor, Hodor, and he snatches his sword as if to fight the storm. Mood. Bran tries to hush him and quiet him, but he's pretty upset, looking confused, and Myr's like, what is it? Jojen turns darkly. There are men in the village with axe and spear. That Jojen can see this from that far away, apparently, like, he might not have greensight

and only green dreams but apparently he has way better eyesight than me is what i have to say i also kind of wonder what is it about this storm that triggers hodor right he's he's so perturbed by it like was he traumatized in the middle of i don't know the giant storm that rocked dragonstone that i assume affected a large part of westeros is it some sort of i don't know euron related thing i'm just spitballing crazy ideas but also i don't know maybe it's not a storm when it comes to like the loud noises and stuff the first thing that hodor does in the middle of the storm is he grabs a sword in order to fight it off and and then he's confused when they're like hodor put

the sword down right it's fine he's like i don't understand why we're not fighting so maybe it's not actually a literal storm but i don't know a storm of swords of some sort but still i just i what is it about this that that so disturbs Hodor? I also thought maybe he could sense the people below and saw the people below as well and was anxious knowing knowing like for Hodor. It's very obvious. I think that they are in a predicament where they are on the move and they don't want to be seen by people. So it could be as simple as that as well. But I do think that the storm is also anxiety-inducing in a heavy way. Fair.

Fair. I like the idea of the great storm of Dragonstone and it causing lake effect, basically. Lake effect. You know, just extra snow. I like that one. I do like lake effect. Thank you. It's a Midwest thing.

I like that one. I do like like a fact. Thank you. It's a Midwest thing. And worse, these men that are appearing that they see are definitely going to be looking for shelter. And we know this from John's side of the story where very soon he will be pressured, right, to be killing this old guy that showed up first. That showed up first. And in his passage. I actually think it's a great callback. Because it calls back.

To Bran's chapter. To his very first chapter. He is an old man. John told himself. Fifty. Maybe even sixty. He lived a longer life than most. The Thens will kill him anyway.

Nothing I can say or do will save him. Longclaw seemed heavier than lead in his hand. Too heavy to lift. The man kept staring at him with eyes as big and black as wells. I will fall into those eyes and drown. The magnar was looking at him too and he could almost taste the mistrust. The man is dead. What matter if it is my hand that slays him? One cut would do it, quick clean long claw was forged of valyrian steel like ice john remembered another killing the deserter on his knees his head rolling the brightness of blood on the snow his father's sword his father's words his father's face uh so many john chapters in this book right

are just streaked with guilt from his father from ned and for what he's doing with egret right there's even that line when he lays with her and he's thinking like is this what happened when my father disgraced my mother right whoever she was is this what happened isn't it isn't it just thinking i'm my father's son aren't i aren't i? And here he's imagining and telling himself, right? He's almost rationalizing with himself like this man has lived a longer life than most. He's going to die anyway if I don't do it. May as well be me. And thinking the whole time, is this what my dad thought when he killed that man? Kind of powerful as Bran and co hide up here quietly or trying to be quiet in order to you know have to avoid this carnage for now and come to deal with kind of the politics of this

idea later in the story really great call it of you know it does tie back to that first brand chapter and i don't know it kind of reminds me even of like, right? He's able to do it for the deserter for Corrin, but Corrin chose that for this one. As you said, he's wracked with guilt. And I wonder if we'll see Bran feeling that way too, eventually, as he gets older with more life experience. And you can really tell that George grew up Catholic as you dig into all of that guilt and the family comes back a lot to mercy right like you said earlier brand's gift what will brand's gift be will it be mercy eventually and for who for whomst yeah it's a that balance between mercy and justice and john can't bring himself to do this because it's neither a mercy nor is it justice yep Arya Arya gives the gift of mercy a lot she's like I don't know mercy that girl's a little stab happy we gotta we gotta work on her well when we start her POV any moment now so Meera says they can't get past the iron gate and worries about the door being unbarred and that they'll climb through the

murder hole just like they did the thunder and lightning clash on the lake and hodor hodor begins to hodor now in all caps and bran tries to calm him mira tries to but it's no good and now he's screaming hodor hodor i don't mean to laugh hodor i'm sorry i'm sorry i have to say though this chapter I think has like the second or third most hodor-ing in the entire series so far published. Interesting. To date, 2023. For historians that are listening to this for some reason, psychological I'd hope, at this point. But yet they persisted. Yeah.

Some of the most hodor-ing occurs in this chapter and I think next book is the most i'd have to think about it and count them out interesting so then we have this exchange it's actually you know very pivotal one it's quick be quiet bran said in a shrill scared voice reaching up uselessly for hodor's leg as he crashed past reaching reaching, reaching. Hodor staggered and closed his mouth. He shook his head slowly from side to side, sank back to the floor, and sat cross-legged. When the thunder boomed, he scarcely seemed to hear it. The four of them sat in the dark tower, scarce daring to breathe. Bran, what did you do? Mira whispered.

Nothing. I don't know. But he did. I reached for him. The way I reached for Summer. He had been Hodor for half a heartbeat. It scared him. Damn right. Yeah, it's scary. It's scary as shit. It's super scary. I don't even like being in my mind, dude. Someone else's? I don't want someone else in here. Yeah. I'm bad enough. This place is like I could sweep up a little more, but Jesus, I don't want to be in your brain. I have anxiety. Everyone else's voice in there would just make it worse.

I already hear what I think they think. Anyways. So Thank you for sharing. Wow. I'm glad to be on this journey with you, Chloe. Bran. Yeah, that he does it so easily without trying, you know, speaks to what we had heard earlier, right?

Of like a horse or something once broken is easier to mount. It's interesting that Bran had been physically reaching for Hodor in his leg, yet ends up mentally doing so instead and kind of speaks to that idea of like, against that mind and body duality, right? Like how could he have reached with his hand yet accidentally done it with his mind?

It's really interesting to think about. But anyway, it's the thing. It finally happened. We've discussed it before in previous chapters. And obviously we're going to come back to it more as brand story progresses as maybe we get more hodors in chapters but oh now you don't have the entire speech prepared on brand's crimes i've already i have split it up throughout the past few chapters all right someone can go take it out splice it all together if they must the master cut alright we'll come back to it

I have to go now that Bran's finally committed crimes we'll come back to it thank you Eliana glad to have you back this week for this episode by the way Jojen sees a commotion across the lake and sees a man pointing at the tower which Bran gets a little scared,

but he has to comfort himself. And he's like, I am not baby boy. I am Prince of Winterfell. I am Eddard Stark's son, almost a man grown and a Borg too. Not some stupid little baby boy like Rickon. Summer wouldn't be afraid. I'm like, okay, Bran.

Bran, you're a baby boy. He's baby boy. He's hopeful that the men outside are maybe just Umbers or Knots or Norries or Flints or basically any of the bannermen that live out here and not free folk or even brothers of the watch. He's like, are they wearing black? But by night, all cloaks are black. So he can't really tell.

I just liked that line that all the cloaks are black when it comes to the night, right? It speaks to what's going to happen later on in the story during the long night. Everyone kind of has to stand together. They all have to kind of be a member of the Night's Watch to stand against the others. I think it's interesting because, right, you have white is the absence of color, but black is the absence of light, right? So, like, you have the idea of white being completely nothingness, but even in the night, you can stand together, right? Just because you can't see it doesn't mean

that there aren't people bound together in protection in battle, which is kind of cool. And also gives that broken man vibe when you come to the cloaks not being visible and turning cloaks not being visible and turning cloaks and men going from side to side interesting interesting i like the symbolism good job george yeah props so bran remembers something else none of this matters unless they have a boat right he's like wait they don't have a boat They don't know about the causeway.

Mira musses his hair up and kisses his forehead and is like, they'll never find it in the rain in the night. Jojen is worried, though, because he's like, what if they are early risers? What if they, you know, after they're done feeding their fire here in the morning, they stay when the rain's over and they get into some tourism, which is kind of funny because had the free folk pressed john that night he might have given the secret away about the causeway

because he might also know about it having grown up in that household with a similar education yeah though it would be harder and more dangerous for them regardless to try and do it in the rain at night and and they do it without him yeah and also like i don't know jojan why are you being so negative you don't know that it's gonna stop raining in the morning what are you a meteorologist they're not even right most of the time he has the meteor site oh wait wait wait he's got radar yeah i guess he was funnier in my head it's okay it's probably funnier in his head too yeah in the morning it will be vulnerable and it does though speak to that idea of bran finding safety in the darkness you know very very bran or bane who POV are we reading? Bran! Darkness is your ally.

That's basically what Bran said in The Clash of Kings. He's like, I was born in it, molded by it to Jon when he said that he felt safe there in the darkness of the crypts. And it does make me think, though, about what's going to happen after the Long Night, right? Like, do they feel more powerful and able to tackle this enemy that they're kind of all against during the long

night but what happens afterwards once the day breaks and they all see each other again not all cloaks are black and then they're all on different sides kind of like that scouring of the shire idea that so inspires george i told you don't spoil me come back to Lord of the Rings. Don't spoil me. I'm only on chapter three. Please don't spoil me, Eliana. We're the worst. Yeah. That's a really great point, though, because

I always consider, like, what happens after the snow melts, right? What happens when our biggest threat is gone? We're our biggest threat, gone? We're our biggest threat, right? We all tear ourselves down and that's going to be interesting to watch happen on a book. When I get it in my hands. I mean,

always have been right. The others were perhaps people's ones too. Yeah. And you got to really respect that, right? You just don't know. I really don't know. They have a culture. Well, George says they don't.

So I'm like, what does that fucking mean, George? And I mean, I just don't know because I don't have the book. He's starting to sound like Jojen. That's close-minded as fuck. Well, we close out this chapter with hodor rocking back and forth humming and bran feeling summer's fear suddenly and this metal fucking passage he closed two eyes and opened a third and his boy's skin slipped off him like a cloak as he left the tower behind and found

himself out in the rain, his belly full of deer cringing in the bush as the sky broke and boomed above him. The smell of rotten apples and wet leaves almost drowned the scent of man, but it was there. He heard the clink and slither of hard skin, saw men moving under the trees, a man with a stick blundered by, a skin pulled up over his head to make him blind and deaf. The wolf went wide around him, behind a dripping thorn bush, And that is where the John chapter begins and the Bran chapter ends. Ooh. And that is where the John chapter begins and the Bran chapter ends. I love that beginning line there that he closed two eyes, opened a third, and his boy's skin slipped off him like a cloak as he left the tower behind.

Because it's that passage and transition of him flying on his own completely, right? In that moment moment he flew and it's not just queen's crown that he's leaving behind which is so cleverly stated by saying the tower he's leaving the tower at winterfell behind right he's flying he is left behind where he was thrown to the ground and stunted oh yes yes great call out of yes absolutely no notes thank you thank you as you said this is where John's chapter picks up and I assume we all know what happened there this is a reread

but it's one of the saddest actually saddest rereads? the saddest chapters like it makes me very sad this is where he makes his choice yeah a pivotal time because everything that happens the saddest chapters like it makes me very sad this is where he makes his choice yeah yeah a pivotal time because everything that happens after this is sad in this book well there are some

happy moments right sansa escaping joffrey dying is theoretically supposed to be happy Joffrey dying is theoretically supposed to be happy. Let's see. There are some happy moments. I still think that's just sad. It's pathetic and sad. I don't know if I'd say it's, but that's just, you know, apples, oranges.

Yeah, there are a couple of happy moments, but we're, I mean, the next Bran chapter that we're going to get to, and keep in mind, I in brand mode right so i'm skipping kind of across the book in my brain because we only have this handful of chapters for brand and storm and there's a lot of chapters in between but with that said between now and the next brand chapter i mean the entire brand chapter for brand four is kind of a long allegory about the Red Wedding. It is.

But so yeah, that obviously is something that goes very downhill and is not happy in this book. But this is not a happy moment, but it is a twisted hopeful moment. I think at first blush, it seems hopeful, the Lady Stoneheart stuff. But then as you know, you reread the series a lot you're like well maybe actually that's bad but and it's cleverly done right that we end this chapter here with the wolf dream yeah with him flying in summer and go to john where it is kept you know i'm not going to say it's unclear once you've read the story a couple times it's pretty clear what's going on but when summer joins in on the battle and john's confused it's filling in those blanks right of what bran is doing and where bran is and it kind of begins that start of bran appearing and all these other plots

albeit briefly in some of them and longer and others like theon's plot as we come into a dance with dragons and him kind of bouncing around to be things in people's plots. Yeah. Well, that's Bran III, Storm of Swords. And as we've said before, we've already been jumping ahead a little talking about Bran IV, Storm of Swords, but that's just because we are so excited to talk about it

and we are going to discuss it with our friend, Anne, aka SweetYFT, whom some of you may recognize from the Hypes Watch over on YouTube and we will be joining Anne when we return with Bran in February. Yeah keep your eyes peeled for that on your feed. And a way you can keep up with that is by following us on social media. You can find us at twitter.com slash girlsgoncanon that's c-a-n-o-n or perhaps you have thought you can send us an email at girls gone canon at gmail.com have we helped you practice your english i hope i hope in a good way a positive way i have lots of hopes and if you are looking to make sure

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Yes, not that song. Different song. And if you are interested in dropping a little dollar on us, feeling like you want to tip us, you can join the Thunder tier where you'll get an access granted to you for our private Discord server where people are in there chatting all day about all sorts of things. monthly brunch and happy hour that is taking place 1-21-23 if you're keeping score for this is coming up tomorrow coming up hot at 1pm ET but we'll be back next month with brunch

as well and we have friends that are starting a rewatch for series 3 of his dark materials this is going to include watching an episode on your own come having watched and having a discussion in the voice slash video chat with some fans that are hanging out chatting on the series and just want to have a good time just want to have fun so please come join over at

patreon.com slash girls gone canon as always i have been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I have been another one of your hosts, Eliana. And next week, we'll be back once more to continue being your hosts. Sorry, next episode. I don't know. Maybe. We might be back next week as a treat.

As a treat. As a treat. Like a deer in your belly. Or a treat. As a treat. As a treat. As a treat. Like a deer in your belly. Or a cold duck. Or pig, right? Pig. Oh, yeah. That you got.

The ball, yeah. So common. So common there. Pig that you got. Yep. Yep. Pigs are native. We'll see you next time with pig.

Bye. Bye.