Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 192 — ADWD Melisandre I

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

Not so terrible, definitely still red, we talk about how this one-hit wonder of a chapter paves the way for a political player.   Cited this episode: Rohanne's guest episode on Melisandre with NotACast Podcast: https://notacastasoiaf.podbean.com/e/guest-episode-rohanne-on-melisandre/ Girls Gone Canon guest episode on Melisandre with Quinn's Ideas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWfbvcfhtQY ---- 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 1922 melisandre one in a dance with dragons i am one of your hosts chloe and i am another one of your hosts eliana and yes we are here with one hit wonder melanie lot seven stage name Melisandre. Oh my god. Melisandre to the tune of Alejandro. Ooh. Yeah, this is so good you only need one. Right?

Well, maybe not. I mean, I'd like more. Well, I don't think that's true. I think that we would definitely like a few more tracks, but I don't know. Something happened. I don't know. Songwriter fallout. Songwriter fallout songwriter fallout yeah well that one name thing right you know how those one named artists are talented but divas i like that we have come to melisandre after erin i liked it when we decided it long long long ago, many years ago.

But I also really like it this time through. I really can see why we chose it. I can feel why we chose it. I feel very connected to us from 2017 right now. Those girls, whoever they were. And coming off of The Forsaken, which we did just talk about The Forsaken and the Winds of Winter for patrons that are in the Stranger tier and above

that is out at patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon but coming off of the Forsaken especially, I am foreshook at this chapter yes, absolutely, I mean we had always planned to do Aaron and Melisandre together. And that's

actually true about all of our reading order. That's not actually anything special. We do that for all of our reading order. It was all pre-planned. But yes, the two go together really well. And we're going to talk a little bit about a lot of other people have articulated well why but you have those aspects of faith those aspects of being tested things like that running throughout both yeah trauma and abuse that we'll talk about all the good stuff is it well before we jump into melisandre, a couple notes up top. Like we said, check out the Forsaken in The Winds of Winter at our Patreon now if you're in that stranger tier and above.

It was a fun episode. I enjoyed it. Coming this month, we will have a new bonus episode for those patrons to be announced. So keep your ears peeled. We have this month, as we do every month,

our Discord brunch slash happy hour and this month is on july 22nd that's a saturday at 3 p.m et and as always this is open to our patrons in the thunder tier and above who not only get access to our brunch slash happy hours but to our discord channel in general where there's lots of fun shenanigans and of course chloe's read-through of the grishaverse lately and most recently watching the second season of shadow and bone yeah those notes are a treat they are want to jump on that private discord server please become a patron because oh boy oh boy did i watch season two this past week oh boy i don't know if there is a season three if i shall be up for the task but we will find out yeah i was

questioning my reality during that season i was like like, am I crazy? Is this really different? wedding drunk stories going on of people that have maybe imbibed with the booze in the hall before and had a time at a wedding this today and that was a very fun time in the random channel we were all thinking of times we've behaved like idiots love that for us um the discord is truly full of so much flavor come on by come on by and discord is fun and you know what else is fun? Another passion project of ours that we've gotten to explore outside of A Song of Ice and Fire. This has kind of been a blast. We've been covering Sailor Moon Crystal season by season. We just wrapped up season two.

We covered it in one episode with Chika from the Shoujo Sunday podcast. And it should be out now at the time of you listening to this episode. So go enjoy it. That's up for everybody on all of our feeds. We will be back at the end of the month, hopefully with Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3. Yeah, and by the time that comes out, so will the Sailor Cosmos movie that will already be internationally released. Yeah, good timing to brush up and get ready to enjoy it. Sailor Moon, the song of ice and fire and thunder and love and time and crystal. Oh, I was just going through all the elements of the century.

Oh. I see. Get it? I see. It makes more sense. Do you see it now? That's when the fire nation attacked well you know what you need to see eyes

oh my gosh that's the segue Eliana we have a new POV and I think that you should introduce it with a quote yes what happens what happens after we finish a POV, so Melisandre is a one-off,

that means there's another POV next. We just hit like three POVs in a month and a half span. And I want to warn you, this one is, we're going to repace. Get ready to repace everyone listening at home. In fact, the POVs that we do have left, before we tell you the new POV, we still have characters like John Connington, the Epilogues, Tyrion, Dany, Arya, Cersei.

We still have a lot of POVs left. Chunky, chunky thick POVs. But this one, this one is definitely going to take us a little bit. And I think, Eliana, you have to take us a little bit, and I think Eliana, you have to read us in with this quote, so everyone at home... Why is this the quote we picked? This is my segue. Eliana,

this is a segue by me, if you don't respect it, get out. I still don't even understand this quote from the show. Anyways. Brown eyes. Blue eyes. Green eyes. Eyes you'll shut forever. We will meet again. Because this is a podcast that covers the books that George R.R. Martin wrote after the show came out. Please remember, that's how it works. I'm sorry. I just wanted to get my trolling in.

Yes, it's true. It's very true. We are covering Arya Stark next. We are covering an acolyte, if you will, of another magic. Maybe several magics. And I'm actually pretty excited because we get to go all the way back to a Game of Thrones. Yeah, I'm so excited to go back there. We haven't been to that part of the story in a long time.

We spent a long time in Feast just now. Like before Victarion we did. Brand storyline. And we were with brand storyline for quite a long time. Because that's the nature of how stories work. But. And I'm just really excited. I think that there's a lot to discuss in Arya's story.

And there's a lot that also really connects it with. Melisandre. And all I have to say excited. I think that there's a lot to discuss in Arya's story, and there's a lot that also really connects it with Melisandre, and all I have to say is, Arya, ready. Oh. My god. Yep, a lot to connect them together, none of which are the quote I made you read, so thank you again for doing that. Everyone look forward to Arya for the immediate future, the long-term future, basically the future. In your flames, she is the gray girl on the dying horse for all of you, if you think about it.

We're gonna have a blast with Arya Stark, but before we go gray, we're going to go red, right? We're going to stay red for a little bit. So see you next time for Arya 1 in a Game of Thrones. But today we are going to continue talking about Melisandre 1 in A Dance with Dragons. And we're going to start in our lightning round today. And folks, I want you to know at home that I almost said let's forego the lightning round because a lot of Melisandre's background is in her chapter. And a lot is inferred from information we know about Asshai and information we know from Davos's chapters, which is slanted or Crescent's, which is slanted. So I almost said no lightning round. However, I was inspired at the last moment

and I wanted to bring those inferences to the front and talk a little bit about Asshai, right? Where Melisandre is a national treasure of, according to Aliana and me. Asshai is a port city. It's mysterious. It's made of black stone that drinks light. I think we know what black stone that is.

It's in the far southeast of Essos, where the Ash River and the Jade Sea meet, called the Saffron Straits. It lives on the southern edge of the Shadowlands, and it's often called Ashai by the Shadow, near the city of the Night Stigai, where only Shadowbinders can travel. near the city of the Night Stigai, where only Shadowbinders can travel. It's a popular destination for trade, exporting amber, dragonglass, gold, gems, but it's not often traveled to by Westeros. All of its food and water are imported, and the fish that dwell in its waters are deformed, but I don't know, are they deformed, or maybe they just look like that? Who knows? In the World of Ice and Fire, it's said that only fools and Shadow shadow binders eat the flesh of these fish i actually read this section and allegedly there's no children yeah interesting

on that yeah i find the fish really interesting because i'm just like if they're all deformed is that not just like the fish form like that's just naturally how they are and then i'm like if only fools and shadow binders eat it does that mean shadow binders get their powers a la like spider-man from these fish that's what i'm wondering i'm like do they eat the fish and it gives them more power because they're radioactive or something that's a good question because now i'm like maybe it's not so foolish to eat the fish anyways yes no children the people of a shyai wear masks or veils. They often walk or ride in palanquins on the back of slaves. Yeah, the origins of Asshai are lost in history, and maesters can't really pinpoint what's real or not either.

Texts from the city often speak of Asshai going back to the Dawn Age, and even cover Azor Ahai's life during the Long Night, claiming he will come again. They also claim the first dragons came from here. Yeah. I mean, that's really what we have on Asshai. We don't have... We have a little other history on it, but we really don't have much. Yeah. I found, I guess, like, shadowbinding in general,

we have very limited information on, right, from the books. That's true, yeah it's kind of a lot of puzzle pieces between melisandre's one chapter and what we get in the story from rumors of a shy and then what we hear of just bits of history from a shy so very very interesting to bring it to the fold before we talk Mal. I don't know if you remember this, and I also don't remember it verbatim anymore, but we did get confirmed in one of the So Speak Martins that we would, in fact, see a Shai one day in the story. And not necessarily that we would go there. It could be through a character's memories or something like that.

So that will happen one day. So metal. So cool. I bet it'll be through mel yeah or i mean i i know people have theorized that denarius would go there one day and i don't know maybe that was like the plan in a previous version of the story until george looked down one day i was like oh my god i have to get these books out one day i mean how is she gonna get to westeros at this point eliana god stop giving her a tour on dragonback just like how aria is gonna get back to westeros on a boat chloe that's a reference to chloe's love life if you're out of the loop deep cuts deep cuts

2017 you had to be there so i was there eliana you literally were just like with the forsaken i'm so proud of you it's an equal event i've been there for some really big times in this fandom you know eliana you sent me a link to a story that you made me read and i want to hear you talk a little bit about this uh oftentimes in my life that's like what i say i'm like well eliana made me read this and but you did you sent a story to me that i want you to kind of tell us about and your thoughts on it yeah one time i had been googling the term succubus on wikipedia and they brought up this short story as an example it's by tanith lee it's called the demoness i wouldn't necessarily say that it really has much of a plot or anything.

It kind of doesn't. But it does describe this demoness who is driven by hunger. And that hunger is essentially, I don't know, this compulsion, I guess, that forces men into intercourse with her and then sucks the life out of them or like you know takes their sanity their consciousness nice and then one day one of them gets away and then she like i don't know chases him down to the ends of the earth and she's described as being very pale with this like super super super long red hair. And I don't think that like George necessarily based the character of Melisandre on this character, but I do think that there's a lot of shades here that you can see how it might

have inspired George in the way that he depicts Melisandre. And of course, like the ways that people kind of interpret her externally as this terrifying person, or even this terrifying creature, as we see in Davos's chapter. Davos does not love her, but she's not evil or anything. This is just who she is. It's just her nature, and she doesn't eat, she doesn't sleep, she can just keep keep going kind of terminator-esque but uh i i'm not saying that george again like said this is melisandre

so much was you know he took bits and pieces of that into creating this character especially because he and tanith lee are kind of contemporary writers to one another and and probably ran in a lot of the same circles what's so interesting about that is i was kind of thinking when i was sitting here before we got on i was thinking about how like there really isn't a one one comparison in literature or mythology for melisandre she's not just a witch she's not just a sorceress she was a slave she's not just a slave though she's also a shadow binder different than just being a witch right like being and we'll talk about that today but that's different so like

you can't really just say she's one character because she is all those bits she's a little bit of cassandra she's a little bit of morgan lefay morgana right uh she's a little bit of some of these famous witches and she's a little bit of some of these famous witches. And she's a little bit of some of these like dark summoning characters that are able to bring shadow into the world in different stories, too, which aren't necessarily feminine coded usually and aren't necessarily slaves or witches always. So I just thought it was really interesting. else I can deep dive read about today in a rabbit hole because I'm like Melisandre is very genuinely just this authentic character that I don't see in other literature especially when you break her down which we'll talk about when you get the first view at her from another character and then a second view at her from another character and the third view her view just breaks that veneer especially because once you get her pov really start to understand that

melisandre like oh she's really genuine in her belief and hopes right and you get the thing where people just kind of assume that she's only in it for the power right which is what people tend to assume or like with these people who are women who have magic right or the or the ones that they accuse of having magic we see that a lot throughout the series and we've talked about it before so let's jump into it the first melisandre chapter and and the last one i mean maybe not the last one but like we just we just don't have the other ones okay we just don't have them dance with dragons melisandre one we learned that maybe melisandre isn't so red and terrible and red yes we open in melisandre's chambers with candles scattered everywhere in a hearth burning keeping the night at bay her servants were always taught never let the fire go out so on one hand

maybe not letting the fire go out is about hope uh but i do want to remind everyone that our friend rowan did talk about melisandre when she guessed it on the not a cast podcast and brought up this great point about how melisandre's aversion to darkness speaks to a history of trauma there and we are probably going to bring up Rowan's episode quite a few times and refer back to it in how we talk about Melisandre. Yeah. And you can see how she kind of clings to the light in general because of that. I think that's something we're going to delve into throughout this app. We will link that below the Notacast podcast.

Yep. And something else that we're also going to link is our... We're going to try not to retread too much of the same ground, but we are going to bring up some points from when we did talk about Melisandre with our friend Quinn over on his YouTube channel, Quinn's Ideas. We'll put that below too, don't worry, we'll get you there. Melisandre prays to the fire, thinking she must be certain that many priests before her were brought down by false visions. So something that I really love about this chapter is, speaking of people who are seen as magical and mysterious but very untrustworthy, you have a lot of language here that's reminiscent of Varies, right? You have Melisandre talking about how she can see better than the other priests.

She's not like the other red priests because they only see what they want to see, which is, and you have really similar language in various chapters where he talks about men only seeing what they want to see as part of what power is. And then you also have like this phrase of trappings of power, which ends up coming back at the end of this book in the that various reveal in the epilogue of dance and then you also have these ideas of faith that are running through both melisandre and various stories like melisandre's unshakable faith in and her champion right maybe that's how various feels about aegon and the black fires yeah it

actually almost makes me wish that we were doing Jon-Con next when you put it that way. And talking about all this faith and false kings, it's a great parallel pulling out that falsehood of kings. Melisandre begs R'hllor to show her their king, Stannis, and then the flames melt in front of her. And I have to tell you guys, I left this entire passage in because you you can't you didn't even break up the paragraphs no it's so good how could i how could i it's so good it's beautiful it's the best passage okay i'm ready feeling mystical i'm feeling about it she saw the eyeless faces again staring out at her from sockets weeping blood. Then the towers by

the sea, crumbling as the dark tide came sweeping over them, rising from the depths. Shadows in the shape of skulls, skulls that turned to mist, bodies locked together in lust, writhing and rolling and clawing. Through curtains of fire, great winged shadows wheeled against a hard blue sky. The girl. I must find the girl again. The gray girl on the dying horse. Jon Snow would expect that of her. And soon. It would not be enough to say the girl was fleeing. He would want more. He would want the when and the where and she did not have that for him. She had seen the girl only once. A girl as gray as ash, and even as I watched, she crumbled and blew away. A face took shape within the hearth. Stannis?

She thought, for just a moment. But no. These were not his features. A wooden face, corpse white. Was this the enemy? A thousand red eyes floated in the rising flames. He sees me. Beside him, a boy with a wolf's face threw back his head and howled.

The red priestess shuddered. Blood trickled down her thigh, black and smoking. The fire was inside her. An agony, an ecstasy, filling her, searing her, transforming her. Shimmers of heat traced patterns on her skin, insistent as a lover's hand. Strange voices called to her from days long past. Melanie!

She heard a woman cry. A man's voice called. Lord Tevin! She was weeping, and her tears were flame, and still, she drank it in. Snowflakes swirled from a dark sky, and her tears were flame, and still she drank it in. Snowflakes swirled from a dark sky, and ashes rose to meet them, the gray and the white whirling around each other as flaming arrows arced above a wooden wall and dead things shambled silent through the cold. Beneath a great gray cliff where fires burned inside a hundred caves,

then the wind rose and the white mist came sweeping in. Impossibly cold, and one by one the fires went out. Afterwards, only the skulls remained. Death, thought Melisandre. The skulls are death. The flames crackled softly, and in their crackling she heard the whispered name, Jon Snow. His long face floated before her, lined in tongues of red and orange, appearing and disappearing again. A shadow, half seen behind a fluttering curtain. Now he was a man. Now he was a wolf. Now a man again. But the skulls were here as well. The skulls were all around him. Melisandre had seen his danger before, had tried to warn the What a great- that line is so fucking good. I'm sorry, but unbelievers never listened until it was too late.

The whole passage is a masterpiece. Like, this is... We're really pulling out the masterworks of George R. R. Martin lately between this and The Forsaken. These are... Holger Mussie. Holger Mussie. Oh, God.

I can't believe I said it, too. I love these little bits of foreshadowing that she is kind of following on. And there are some things that I think we've all picked up before, right? Like the crumbling of the towers not being Eastwatch after all that we'll talk about. There's also the great moment that she sees the eyeless faces staring out at her from socket-sweeping blood. And while, yes, that could be the free folk we see at the end of chapter, I also want to say, what about Euron's ship? Didn't he gouge out? Was it just the mouth he gouged out of the silence? Or was the eyes on her as well? It was, it was, she had no mouth. No mouth. It was just the mouth.

Okay. I just assumed that she had like, maybe never had a mouth carved on. Because who knows, it could be, you know, she could also be seeing that along with old town and we have the great line of the the things she's seeing in the sky shadows fucking basically which right could be john and danny could be dragons could be john and danny we just don't know we don't know what's happening there and there's that great line of foreshadowing right that i always i've seen it pointed out as john dying at the end great series uh but now wolf now man again so it goes between now man now wolf now man again with skulls everywhere which basically tells you he's coming back now man again now wolf then now man again

wolf man yeah man bear man so he's coming back oh man bear pig he is coming back is what i'm saying yeah uh yeah the shadows i don't know the shadows could be like i don't know probably 20 different things or they probably are 20 different things all symbolizing it but just because you you've questioned it i've never really thought about this before but the shadows i mean it also even reminds me of like makoro saying to tyrian right like dragons old and young true and false bright and dark and you a small man with a big shadow snarling in the midst of all so yeah there's a lot of John stuff here. I think we'll probably come back to some of those other prophecies.

I know that you have some other stuff planned later. Also, you know, it's kind of funny how like rereading this and rereading that prophecy about the gray girl on the dying horse. And we've talked about this before, but it really does feel like it could be Asha. Like not just because, yeah,

there's a lot of people running from marriages at this time in the story. And it's like an ongoing theme. But, you know, gray girl on a horse, gray joy. Or like Ash, right? Asha. So, I mean, it's not. But I don't know. It kind of could be.

It could be. I mean, really. But it's not. It's not. It's not. But it could be. You know what I mean? Like, it could have been.

Happening at the same exact time is all. Yeah. They're just parallel lives, as our friend Aziz might say. And then, of course, you have it interspersed with the memory of Melanie Lott's Seven, and it makes me think of what our friend Rowan was saying about intrusive thoughts on that episode. Intrusive thoughts for people who have experienced trauma. Being enslaved seems like it could be pretty traumatic, but there are a lot of things that could have happened. And Rowan was talking about it as these intrusive memories, but it kind of also makes me think of like the magic systems. And

I don't think George is ever going to tell us actually how any of the magic systems work but there's a part of me that is kind of like what if to feed the flames you have to go over give some of your memories as like a price in order to see the future your past for your future that's interesting because and not to talk about the Grishaverse, but you know, there are characters that have to tear it themselves to be able to create magic, right? So do you give parts of yourself for this magic? Is it equivalent exchange? Is it real sacrifice? that we talked about this with Quinn right of does Melisandre have tattoos but the language there is so good and it kind of makes me think of um you read it aloud with the shimmers of heat traced patterns on her skin insistent as a lover's hand so like I mean do the tattoos channel magic kind of like the the transmutation circles that were tattooed onto some of the alchemists in Fullmetal Alchemist or not alchemist, like Scar.

Especially something we'll talk about at the end when it comes to Mance, right, and the way her ruby glows and as she watches someone get burnt, like, and as it's a sacrifice and as she's, you know, doing magic to change those faces

and switcheroo those, if that's the thing is, like, she's probably doing know, doing magic to change those faces and switcheroo those. That's the thing is, like, she's probably doing that at all times herself, right? Yes. With her own looks. Obviously, Game of Thrones shows spoilers here, but we learn, you know, the ultimate reveal, she takes off her necklace and she old. Like, it's obvious she's an older creature. It seems she tailors.

Haha, Grishaverse. It seems she, like, tailors haha rishivers seems she's like tailors herself maybe she is hiding those tattoos maybe that's something that she is subduing in herself to our eye yeah and i think that's entirely possible right i think so something else that we talked about with quinn was like this idea of blood trickled down her thigh black and smoking and i think that we're supposed to find that is really eerie like i don't know she's concentrating was like this idea of blood trickled down her thigh, black and smoking. And I think that we're supposed to find that as really eerie. Like, I don't know, she's concentrating so hard.

But like, I just don't think that this is actually very phenomenal, right? Like, oh, blood's going down her thigh. It's like really not that scary. It happens to me once a month. It's not special. I brought this up on Quinn's channel. If anything, it's annoying really not that scary it happens to me once a month it's not special i brought this up on quinn's channel if anything it's annoying yeah yeah it is i mean it's like great in knowing that i'm not pregnant but that you're not carrying stanis's right oh oh god oh god nightmares uh it's more annoying than anything like i'm literally trying to pack to leave to go somewhere tonight and i'm like looking at the calendar and i'm like well just to be safe should i do i what do i do

like it's just a fucking annoyance you know and then you got you know like when you get your moon blood and a swath all you have is fucking what paper linens fold that shit put it in your legs i think some of them i think belessandra just free bleeds good for her that's so amazing that's like that's power right there I mean that's the thing right she's red and that's why you gotta wear black so that the stains don't show and like yeah I guess she's

doing that and I almost had a fashion conundrum today and that's why it's a good thing I wear black so I refuse to speak to you oh my god around the time of that line we have also this other one of the fire was inside her an agony and ecstasy filling her searing her transforming her and this agony and ecstasy reminds me a little bit of the ecstasy of saint teresa which some of you might recognize as a famous statue of

a woman looking pretty orgasmic as an angel stabs her in the chest with a spear and it comes from the account of saint teresa and i'm just going to read this aloud of like i saw in his hand a long spear of gold and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire he appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart and to pierce my very entrails when he drew it out he seemed to also draw them and to pierce my very entrails. When he drew it out, he seemed to also draw them and to leave me all on fire with the great love of God. The pain was so great that it made me moan, and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than god the pain is not bodily but spiritual though

the body has its share in it it is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and god that i pray god of his goodness to make him experience it who may think that i am lying so i leave you with that that's very much the ecstasy of saint teresa right down to the language i love that So, I leave you with that. That's very much the ecstasy of St. Teresa, right down to the language. I love that. Amazing. God is something, apparently. R'hllor is powerful, according to the ecstasy of St. Teresa. He just makes her have her period. It's not amazing. Anyways.

Yeah, wait, who did write this? I mean, I'm just kidding. Who wrote this fanfic? Devon Seaworth asks her what she sees, and she responds, much and more. Although she thinks it could never describe what she really saw. Seeing was an art of discipline, pain, study, speaking to chosen ones through blessed fire. She had practiced for years beyond count and had paid the price no one in her order had her level of skill but now she can't find her own king in the flames i pray for a glimpse of azora high and relore shows me only snow yes coming back to what you had said el Eliana, with paying that price, right, that sacrifice, it seems that she's really pushing it here, the limits, right? She's practiced for years and years and years, and interesting that she is still a little

blind to what is around her, right? Because in the lightning round, we talked a little bit of how some of those texts that come from Asshai are some of the fabled legends and lore, right, that we hear across Westeros. Azor Ahai possibly originated in those texts from Asshai. So you have to think on a level of A, childhood fairy tale stories, and B, propaganda. They had to be proud of that. That had to be something that they really believed in, something they had faith in being real because it was in these texts that came from Ashai and into their culture so deep.

And because of that, you really get that sense of that religious fervor being so ingrained into their society, deep-rooted in that lore. And for Belle, her life growing up was built on those legends, especially if she's pretty old, right? If she's hundreds of years old, those legends were probably much more important's hundreds of years old those legends were probably much more important those hundreds of years ago when she was growing up there

you know we've seen mel through all these different povs right we've seen her in crescent we've seen her in davos but here you begin to realize just how misunderstood her character is by those two men and how much you know even right here she's seeing in the fire she's saying her logical thoughts out loud we're saying now oh my god look behind you you're seeing only snow for a reason but she's blind to it right because she has one vision in her mind of what it should be like that she's known for hundreds of years yeah that's actually true right like he might have she might have just been seeing him in the fires for all of these hundreds of years. Yeah, that's actually true, right? Like, she might have just been seeing him in the fires for all of these hundreds of years,

and it's finally just like, oh my god, Stannis is born. Okay, enjoy. I mean, maybe, maybe, right? And then Stannis turns out was just the path to get to Azor Ahai, meaning, I don't know, Jon. Jon seems pretty important for a lot of reasons. And I love that you've pointed out that she looks so different in the lenses of

these other men, right? Like Cressen and Davos, who, I mean, they don't really care about, they only really care about Sanus, I guess. And Cressen probably doesn't have very much experience interacting with women as a maester especially like when he was growing up probably not probably not melisandre calls for a drink from devon which i'm pretty sure we've brought this up in the past too like on quinn's but i just want to say like we go a couple of pages and then suddenly you know melisandre's doing all this praying thinking working and like oh by the way surprise devin's here too and he's been here the whole time and he's just here she gives him a smile makes him blush and thinks on how the boy is half in love with her that he fears her and wants her worships her although he doesn't really like

being here and i find that line actually really interesting because this is the way that she goes about the world right this is the way that she kind of cultivates relationships right through through that fear that wanting that worshiping none of it is actually you know uh a deep necessarily relationship it's it's it's still about people projecting onto her instead of like her having that sense of personhood i understand her you know it's hard no but there is something too with devon that he's almost like her little shadow oh interesting quiet a whisper behind her yeah which is maybe more like smoke you know that you try to grab and then he's gone because he's what the next dead kid of davos's i really hope not i mean she's trying for that to not happen okay well's gone because he's what the next dead kid of Davos's I really hope not I

mean she's trying for that to not happen okay well she's also trying to what protect Stannis's heir yeah and I don't know that she's actually going to succeed in that plan because I don't know that people are going to be too happy that Devon is still here in a bit that's fair but uh also I do think it's really interesting that she asks him for water, right? Because she doesn't get hungry, but that means she apparently does get thirsty. So I don't know if it's like anything or like, is it just about discomfort? She's burning it off. I mean, probably from pure body heat, as we see throughout the chapter. She's warm. She melts each step later when she walks with John. That's true. It's just interesting that she needs it, I guess, for whatever the fuck she's doing. Yeah, my husband says I need water too, but I don't really believe him, so. So along with that working and the thing about the blood,

it actually speaks to, like, a lot of people have hypothesized before that Melisandre, like Beric Dondarrion, is dead because Beric is described as not needing to sleep not needing to eat or anything and it's been confirmed before by george regarding fire white like he said it before in talks that like they they don't need to eat or sleep and that their heart or their blood or something doesn't really work it doesn't like really maybe fully function and i just remember there was a lot of discussion a few years ago about the mechanics of it but like

maybe the the blood doesn't flow in the same way so maybe it was i don't know like that and happening in my head right now i'm acting like this was the newest thing i've ever heard and that i've never heard it but i just want you to know that I Googled it and I went on Reddit to the first post that came up. And I absolutely have upvoted every comment. No, I wish. I wish I was this smart. No, it's a post from eight years ago that I have definitely read because I've upvoted all the comments. Have you upvoted every single one or is it sometimes there's errors now with Reddit when you look back?

There's like five to seven different ones that I apparently upvoted not all of them so so i apparently knew this theory is what i'm saying but no that's that's interesting and we know stoneheart doesn't sleep right um thoros tells brienne that she returned when they were sleeping she never sleeps herself uh there's something about Drogon's blood kind of being the same color of her blood, right? Black and smoking, which is interesting. So it seems very spelly. Doesn't seem very human.

Seems like a non-human thing. That's true. Beric Dondarrion's blood, I think, was described as black, too. Probably. Now that you say it in the Arya. Ha haria haha like we planned this in the aria chapters i want to say during her pov when he gets cut in the sandor fight his blood comes out all smoking black yeah so that she could be undead and be like the only one that figured out how to ever last it at a price a horrid price it could be

yeah i think that's possible there's something there and i know that people ask a lot of these because they want to know if john will have rigor mortis or not about his dick anyway so devin he was a king squire before but stan has commanded him to stay and protect the Red Woman at Castle Black. There's a lot of colors going on here. He wanted glory at Deepwood Mott, like the other boys his age, and it's actually probably a really good thing that he didn't go. I mean, he probably would have been eaten by, like, the other soldiers and stuff. But anyways, he maybe felt like it was a rebuke or punishment for failure by him or his father, Davos. But Melisandre had asked for him specifically. Devon is the fifthborn. He's now the eldest of Davos' surviving sons, because if you'll remember, a lot of them died at the Blackwater.

It's not funny, sorry. So he was safer probably with Melisandre than with stannis and lord davos wouldn't thank her for it but she thinks that uh davos has seen enough grief and he is a loyal man despite his misguided nature and chloe hasn't seen the show but whatever maybe someone else has cue the crazy ex-girlfriend song after everything i've done for you that you didn't ask for and maybe also the reply oh my god i'm still not there i'm sorry still not there someday i'm trying i'm trying yeah it's again she really wants to save that kid which makes me think he's gonna die moving on uh another thing that makes me think he's gonna die is how smart and capable he is. He's actually very sharp compared to the men that Melisandre has been left to guard her from Stannis.

All the men he's left her are old men, cripples, geldings, drunkards, and cravens. And, you know, it's still important to have guards, she thinks, but very interesting. We have a line where she says, The last should have been hanged as the king himself admitted but he came from a noble family and his father and brothers have been stalwart from the first interesting that's not very righteous and just of him there's something i'm just saying we haven't gotten to hate stannis in a while so what a hypocrite i mean oh but starving men should just die but you're gonna pop up these assholes that actually are bad yeah where's the

punishment where's the justice stannis i thought you were just i don't know if like i i don't know if like i don't know if this guy is like a deserter or something and that's what happened there's something about it that's what happened. There's something about it that actually makes me kind of think a little bit of John. But mostly, it also really makes me think of Sam, right? With the Kraven stuff. But as we know, Sam's actually super brave, so that can't be him. And we love Sam.

Yeah. And he did not desert. Right. Neither did John. Anyways. This is not great. He is laying with a woman, though, but like, I mean, whomst among them has not. Whomst amongst us hasn't. Yeah.

Anyways, so. These guards would keep the Black Brothers respectful, but maybe not protect her from actual trouble. But she doesn't really fear because she has R'hllor as her guardian. Her eyes, like mine, are tired from staring at screens slash fires all day, and she asks for Devon to replenish the fire. And what hour it is. It's dawn. She spent the night in her chair at the fire. She had no time for sleep, and she feared to dream. She's just like me for real. Oh my god. Oh my god, Melisandre. This is so me. I don't sleep either.

Mood. And we have a great line. Sleep is a little death. Dreams the whisperings of the other, who would drag us all into his eternal night. Interesting. Interesting. So usually, I feel like little deaths is used as a euphemism for orgasms. Le petit mort.

But I guess George, I don't know, is playing with this. But I don't know. Maybe he's just channeling Nas here. Well, no, I mean, le petit mort actually is that. Like, it wasn't all, like, the first use of orgasm wasn't the first use of it. Le Petit Mort actually is. The little death sleep. That's the translation.

It's sleep is little death, basically. Le Petit Mort. Yeah. So, originally it was that, but then it became used because of the post-orgasm. Yeah, yeah. So, it wasn't always. It was just. Yeah, the post-nut clarity. Yeah, yeah. So it wasn't always. It was just... Yeah, the post-nut clarity.

Yeah, it became post-nut clarity. Originally, though, it was the brief loss or weakening of consciousness. So over time, it became post-nut clarity. I guess that is kind of what it is. All right. Yeah. Not everything is sexy, Eliana.

Okay. In etymology and origin. Sleep is very sexy. Trust me. I'm going to get fucked up on it tonight. Don't you worry. So some nights she naps, but never more than for an hour, though. Again. That's me.

And she feared to dream. Chloe. And she prays never to sleep at all, to be free of dreams. And then Melanie, she thought, lot seven. tell us but tells us right the two different voices as experienced by aliana's voice acting earlier show us that there were several people involved in auctioning her off she thinks it again it's her kind of recurring ptsd tick right somewhat like we see some of the other characters have similar of and coming back to kind of rowan talking on the not a cast podcast about Melisandre's PTSD. She talks a lot about how Melisandre meets the criteria for PTSD.

Some examples being like being exposed to a traumatic event that threatens physical injury or harm or death to you experiencing intrusive symptoms. Like Eliana mentioned, like dreams of the event, avoidance of feelings, sensations that bring it up. And then two or more negative changes in thoughts and mood following the experience of the event, and many others. Rowan describes some of these two experiences as like feeling after the event, I am unlovable or worthless, or the world is terrible and bad, and other symptoms similar. Specifically, you can see some of that

religious reaction reflexive response, right? As a trauma response, it's something very common that people after trauma turn to religion, they turn to faith, they turn to wanting meaning, and to guidance and some sort of belief for higher power to be able to put some of your worry and weariness into. We all have that, right? Whether it's faith or something else whether it's an activity some people love exercise some people love alcohol some people love marijuana some people love hard drugs some people love gardening i don't know we a song of ice and fire okay that's a hard drug and some people love other activities right but people turn to things to get through the like everyday horror of the real world uh let alone your traumas. And I think this is such an important context to put around Melisandre and why her belief is so deep.

and so long that every single time that she does something influenced in that belief and relore, she seems to get a response. And so it deepens and so it widens like a chasm. Yeah, that's a great analysis of that. And also from Rowan. And yeah, that religious trauma, the religious aspect informing Melisandre's character is a huge reason for why we put this right after Aaron. And as we brought up in Aaron, it reminds me again of characters like Lancel, Lannister. He's someone else who's kind of going through this whole thing and is

also kind of this truth-sayer character too, especially inie's plot where he's giving a lot of those reveals but you know he's he's got a lot of that uh religious fervor in the aspect and i mean it's a little bit different from it's quite different from how it went in the show he still really goes through the religious stuff, but... Still better than Shadow and Bone season two. Oh my god. I said what I said. While Devon feeds the fire logs, she thinks on the enemy beyond the wall, growing stronger. She wonders if it had been his face she had seen, but no.

She thought he'd be more frightening than that. She thinks on the wooden man, though, and the boy with the wolf's face, thinking that those must be the great other's champions, as Stannis is hers. Lol. Interesting how it frames it, and it comes back to something I think we've talked about here. I know we talked about it with Quinn over at Quinn's Ideas. In Bran, we talked about it, too. The pool of magic that all the

gods are dipping into the pool, right? They're scooping some magic out from many of the same places. And we've talked a bit about how faith kind of creates that god. And as we do talk more about the trappings of power, faith creates kings too, right? Belief creates kings as we look at agan uh belief creates gods and it does make me think of neil gaiman's american gods also had a bad season two just putting that out there don't watch it either i did not watch it because i heard that it had a bad season two they did orlando so dirty i don't even want to i don't have time for this but we'll come we'll talk about it some other time maybe we should i you know you can tell me how about how bad it is because i've only read the book so i know i read the book because

you read the book because you told me to read oh my god was that the first book i read because you told me to read the book really no i think it was it was 2017 it was anyway sorry so american gods eliana did make me read that book. You and SweetYFT Anne made me read that book. That might be why that happened. Yeah. Yeah. We all talked about it together in our cute little group DMs.

I remember everything. Well, except for you knowing about the thing earlier with Melisandre and the undead. Listen, listen. earlier with Melisandre and the undead. Listen, listen. So in American Gods, there's kind of this explanation given by Shadow's cellmate, Loki, who explains that

gods are not entities of magic necessarily, but of focus, right? The thing of being a god is they're concentrated essences of themselves and they aren't really themselves, but the them that people believe in so being a god means that they become one with what the human thinks it is right so if the human thinks of a god that embodies thunder they think the god of thunder they control all thunder that's what they do and they use that belief in those prayers and it's kind of

a certainty that lets them create something. The gods themselves create themselves into a bigger, cooler being. And humans take refuge in that. And they themselves feel more human because of it. And how that belief in a religion grows. And American Gods does a great job of kind of playing that and showing that all these gods actually can exist and do exist on the same plane. But that some of these gods are dying because of that lack of belief and because of that lack of focus and that prayer to focus instead of magic yeah that's kind of how i think the king's blood thing works with like that focus in a way and assuming that it's real great tie in I kind of wonder

if there's like a play on the wording here and that it's saying that like Stannis is her champion in the way that Bloodraven and Bran are the Great Others champions because they're not actually the Great Others champions yeah no I think that is what she thinks I think she absolutely thinks that

that Stannis is her champion against Bran and Bloodra what i'm saying that like that's the champion of the other the irony there is that stannis is not actually her champion because it turns out that stannis is not uh he's like a red herring right and bran and blood raven are not the great others champions that's the joke the language but especially interesting because like they have the same mission that's true not azor ahai necessarily but preventing the long night unless i mean i think they do like i'm pretty sure that they do but we've had that discussion before during the brand chapters check them out who knows with blood raven? Who knows? That's interesting, actually, that they've been around so long together, Bloodraven and Melisandre. Ships passing the night?

They run in the same circles, you know? Maybe. Magic circles. That sounds like, I don't know. The Twitter magic circles. Social media, or like Google circles. Remember Google circles? I will never forget Google+. So Devon asks if she wants to break her fast,

but she thinks that it's Jon Snow that she needs, not fried bread and bacon. Speak for yourself, Melisandre. I want fried bread and bacon. But Jon won't come to her summons. He lived behind the armory in modest rooms that Donald Noy once lived in. And then we have this line of,

perhaps he did not think himself worthy of the king's tower or perhaps he did not care that was his mistake the false humility of youth that is itself a sort of pride it was never wise for a ruler to eschew the trappings of power for power itself flows in no small measure from such trappings. I love the way you related this to bringing Varys up in her plot, right? Even thinking about the sorcerer and what they might have said to him once. Melisandre is so wrapped up in the trappings of power in this chapter, and it's really interesting as someone who really isn't politically into the Westerosi politics scene, right? That she is very, you know, she's very different.

She comes from a very different background, but she's this all-powerful, slightly ancient being that, you know, knows she has to sacrifice parts of herself to create some insane magic, but she also understands that she can't accomplish what she needs to set out to do without convincing some ruler that he needs to be the king and he needs to lead almost in it's almost propaganda right like she's like we need

propaganda to front this cause we need somebody to politically be the face of it in order for the god to win she needs her own trappings which is a king she needs a king to stand behind as we see here she's not fearing for her safety because of her magic and her powers and abilities, but she also needs the trapping of power in men, even if they're men that may not be knights or may not be up to snuff in her eyes. She needs these men to guard her. Those are her trappings of power, King Stannis and the guards that he's given her. That's what keeps her safe and that's what keeps their entire mission here and their entire political mission and magical mission going and as we go through the chapter her smokes become her shields right her fake magic is also her trapping of power just as her real magic she is forced to put on displays and airs literally airs in order to maintain that illusion and the

fantasy of what she's selling right it's also it's illusion and the fantasy of what she's selling, right? It's also, it's complex in the way that like, she's selling a fantasy to Stannis. She's selling a fantasy to all of them. She's selling them this sultry, sexy R'hllor. Not just her, she's just a servant of it, but of R'hllor, of the flames, of the power, and for people to believe they have to see it and here she is it's really interesting what you're saying there and and i'm gonna come back to that i'm gonna say one thing and then tie it in to everything that you were saying about the trappings of power and how she's using it she doesn't really understand what john's doing and to be fair it does totally backfire on him. Anyway he's

following the example of the power that he saw Ned have. The kind of power that like Ned showed him to have of like you know I'm John every people. I'm just a man of the people. I'm just like one of you. It's showing that humility whereas the way that Melisandre understands power and power being really tied into perhaps her own safety is to be feared, to be wanted, to be worshipped, which is actually really similar to the way that the Lannisters wield power, as opposed to that. I want the people to respect me. I want them to love me, which, as we see, is the stark approach to power. Or at least Ned's flavor of it. Like the onion. I get it. It's just like the onion. Flavor?

No, just the difference that like she believes you can't. Oh my God. She believes that there's no if or and. You have to cut it. You can't just cut it out. Like you just throw the onion out. That shit's fucked. And just like that with power, there's no respect.

There's no love and loyalty. You have to sell that veneer. Interesting. Cause I'm like, I know that she did not come for money. So why are you just throwing onions away anyway? But like in regards to wanting to be loved or liked, but it is different how she's getting that power. Like, you know, again, through want, being kept at a distance and being an object, being feared,

wanted, worshipped. Because that's what a lot of people in Westeros see women as. She's not being perceived as a woman. She really isn't. She's in this area of the uncanny. And I think it's interesting when you see that she's surrounded with men as the trappings of power, because people think only men can hold power in Westeros. So they are the trappings of power. And I think that's a really well done observation, Chloe. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'll be here all day just for me yeah no it's she's just like me for real no i'm just kidding it's safety politically too i mean she's doing what everyone i say she doesn't play westerosi politics but she kind of is she kind of is i know

that there are people who theorize whether she's like blood raven and she are a sea star's child and like i don't know about that but I don't know part of what you said makes me wonder if like you know before the story did she like spend hundreds of years studying Westerosi society and their politics before she was like I'm a redhead now I mean again

hundreds of years hundreds of years that would be a fun novella come on George but then again of course with like those hundreds of years I guess she could have learned about, I don't know, different kinds of power anyway. So, John knows better than to come to Melisandre. He summons her. He always chooses to summon her to come to him. Power move. And when she does arrive, he often keeps her waiting. Power move, and when she does arrive, he often keeps her waiting.

She tells Devin to bring her a boiled egg, nettle tea, fresh bread, and to bring the wildling, rattle shirt. And quickly. She checks her pockets while he's gone, making sure that her powders are in place to change color in the flames. Powders that produce a smoke. For truth. Lust. Fear. And one that could even kill outright.

So something that stood out to me in this read-through, I don't know why it never jumped out at me before, was that one about that can just like kill, right? Feels like, I don't know, Chekhov's gun or gunpowder. Yeah, I would be interested if that doesn't come back. Any of those, I imagine that we'll see them. Yeah, that's true. And I mean, you and I have seen powders that change the color of flames. We did a fun little bonfire once or I don't know, like fire pit and then use powders that change the color of flames.

Yeah, I wanted to feel like Melisandre for real. For real. And you did. And we ate too many marshmallows. Oh, it was so fun. But not with the chemical fire. And that was with the non-chemical fire, because... Yeah, we're not like Tide Pod snorters or anything.

Yeah. So Melisandre's stock is growing really low, though, on all of these magical powders, just like mine. I'll have to repurchase it for next time. Her chest from overseas is at 25%. She lacks the ingredients to make more, because they're kind of luxury ingredients from the east. She thinks that her spells should suffice

by now because they're super powered by the magic of the wall. More than a shy ever empowered her, which is interesting. I'm like, ooh, ooh. A shy powered you? Black stone maybe? Is that obsidian that you were being super powered from? I don't know. I don't know. Interesting.

Everything she did here, though, at the wall was even more potent than that. The fish in the black stone. She thinks, such shadows I bring forth here will be terrible. No creature of the dark will stand before them. I just have to say that it's interesting that she doesn't think that the shadows...

I mean, I know shadows are cast by light, so she thinks that it's of the light, but at the same time, I kind of feel like a shadow versus shadow fight won't work, right? Yeah, Chloe's out here like, I have read the Grishaverse, and I know what it means to have darkness powers.

Well, but I'm just saying, right? She thinks that shadow is so good and stuff and i'm like yeah but you're making the shadow creatures how are they gonna do stuff in the they are the dark dude those are dark i think it's arguable that like you know it they would be even more powerful because they're in their own element and unseen but i wonder if it rings out like it's just twisted logic i wonder if in the end it will mean something such as like maybe relore not good question mark we don't know yeah like relore not good or you know the shadows not good to religious propaganda yeah because the shadows we've seen

are like terrifying right like the ones that she's made have been terrifying and they murder which is like if they're supposed to fight the others fight the other fight the darkness how can a shadow that's terrible in murders fight the like is it gonna kill the others i don't know about that to me i feel like there might be a reveal on the way where it's like, maybe not good. Or maybe we just find out as we go through the series that even like, you know, the side of light is not good, right? Which is something that's definitely being explored throughout the series, regardless. True, true. Yeah, I don't know.

Like I said in The Forsaken, part of what I really want from The Winds of Winter is I want to just see how explicit and dramatic the magic is gonna be right how intense is it going to be like because if she's telling me that these shadows are going to be terrible like i want some fucking like strong ass shadows one day the next melisandre chapter and like i i am just very curious to see what kind of shadowbinding we're going to get and, like, how it's stronger here than it is in Asshai. Because, like, as you pointed out, I don't think, like, as you were saying earlier, I don't think that her being a shadowbinder is necessarily the case for most other red priests. Like, I don't think this is a typical red priest thing in their training or in their curriculum. It's not like in red priest seminary school. This is, I think, something that she just did on her own. She like chose to multi-class. And I think that there's some, and again, we need another book with some more Mel chapters. I really want that. But I think it speaks to like her resilience and that she broke out of her situation in search of a higher power and in

search of a greater education in search of more of this right so like to me in my mind what i see happening is that she tried to overcome where she had been put and been bought and sold off as right and she tried to learn power so she would never have to be powerless like that again yeah that that's a good point yeah for two seconds there i was like wondering like is there i don't know it was it something in her training that was really traumatic but then she would just be like i think really afraid of shadows i don't know maybe there's something in her training with darkness that makes her really afraid i i don't know i don't know and of course tons tons we'll get through even more aria kind of parallels coming i feel like for sure many many she wouldn't need the tricks of alchemist and pyromancer soon she hides the key to the chest in her skirts and then

the lord of bones arrives wearing a sleeveless jerkin of boiled leather with bronze studs and a cloak in shades of green and brown not a bone to be seen and then we have this line of he was cloaked in shadows too in the wisps of ragged gray mist half seen sliding across his face and form with every step he took interesting did you say that was what was that called that color was that uh gray mist huh what could it mean what could it be now there's so much gray mist stuff this chapter every time it showed up i was leo dicaprio pointing and being like chloe said that chloe said that as we've as we've talked a little bit about whether it was in our dunkin egg episodes that we was bit about, whether it was in our Dunkin' Egg episodes that we... Was it?

Oh my god, it was in Dunkin' Egg. It was in Bran and Bloodraven. I thought it was recent. And I'm sure we talked about it in other times, but yeah, that was recent. It's been a long life, really, so don't feel bad, Eliana. You know, Grey Mist, I feel like, signifies that something's up, whether it's Bloodraven or whether it's a glamour. We see Maynard Plum in Mystery Night when he is like no one knows what he looks like.

He has a grey mist around him for a second and then he turns and for a second you think he's someone else, but he's just Maynard Plum, etc. etc. But he's Bloodraven. Well, here we go. Melisandre, which again, she feels her rival is Bloodraven, which says that their magic is dipping from the same pool

because she's doing a glamour. Dipping absolutely from that same pool. Interesting to think about. And, you know, I do see where people want to tie the Shiera Seastar and Bloodraven bits together there because Shiera was said to be a sorceress who bathed in blood and cast

spells all the time and probably is the one who taught Brynden how to do the glamour. Oh, yeah, she probably was the one who taught him how to do a glamour. She was known for wearing those stones. Yep. Melisandre tells Rattleshirt Who? that while his suit of bones annoyed him, it protects him.

The Black Brothers don't love him. She's heard as much from Devon. He got into it with Bowen Marsh at dinner. He plays with his knife while he recaps it, and he tells her if a crow wants to slip a knife between his ribs while spooning up supper, he's welcome to try. Maybe not you, but another king might get that to happen to him. Rip, Jon. Jon Foreshadowing is crazy in this chapter. Melisandre pays his dagger no mind. She would have seen it in the flames if you wanted to hurt her. That's the first thing she learned to see

back in the Red Temple as a young slave girl. Yeah, so this is another one of those things where I like kind of wonder, is this part of the curriculum? Like, is flame viewing 101, like learning to find danger against yourself? And then flame viewing 102 is learning to find danger against yourself and then flame viewing 102 is learning to see danger against others or is this something that she wanted to like prioritize in her learnings for her like own self and like her own protection well and not to skip ahead in our aria chapters right but when we get to a feast for crows there's something in that that's reminiscent of aria right that is every other person in the house of black and white getting the exact training she's getting are they all getting also like skin changing warg training on accident like it's obvious that maybe maybe melisandre was selected for having a

capacity or having like showing the potential for it just like aria is kind of being trained differently yeah because like lord knows that doros was not chosen for this yeah that's true that's very true so she warns the man that he should worry about their eyes and not their knives, because of the glamour. On his wrist is a black iron fetter with a ruby that seems to pulse. He says that he feels it when he sleeps. Warm on his skin, soft as a woman's kiss. Melisandre's kiss, and I'm like, oh, how do you know about that? But in his dreams, it burns, and her lips turn turn to teeth every day he wants to take it off

but every day he doesn't so we talked a little bit about that tanith lee story earlier at the beginning of this episode and really how melisandre is not but a lot of people, like, everyone sees her as this kind of succubus-like figure. You have that imagery of the lips turning into teeth, and I'm just like, I mean, it's not that weird. The teeth are just behind your lips. It's not, it's really not that weird. Like, you never bite when you kiss. Mance, have you ever made out with, like, anyoneala but anyways it makes me think of george uh conjuring up again that idea of like the vagina dentata and vaginal teeth and the specter of the womb and it being terrifying and then the element of the uncanny and everyone everyone imposes these narratives on melisandre which is part of what she wants and cultivates because she sees it as power but deep down melisandre is just

she's just a woman a really really really old woman who's just she's just trying her best interesting that when he dreams he dreams of her and everything and it makes me go back to what you were saying about how she wants the fear the respect etc in that way um makes me think about your aunt planting dreams in people's head i know that our friend joe magician has has like an essay about it might also be a video now about whisperper Jewels, tying back the idea of the Whisper Jewel from George's first novel, novella, Dying of the Light. But the dreams and implanting of them, very interesting considering that might have been one of the things that the glass candles could do back then. It seems they still could to be fair yeah yeah that's true or is that something that people still theorize i just know that there's like a list that george

said it could have done i don't know these things whatever it was it was recent yeah i think that we don't know enough yet really i think that he's just really introduced the concept right and feast even more to me that says he wants to do something with them melisandre explains the spell is made of shadow and suggestion uh shadow and boners and that men see what they expect to see the bones are part of that again trappings of bone power of shadow and bone power bone power makeup bone palatian i mean she is a magical girl alessandra she is she is mance i mean the rattle shirt the lord of bones the rattle shirt, the Lord of Bones, the rattle shirt. The rattle shirt.

Two E's. I've sung my songs, fought my battles, drunk summer wine, tasted the Dornishman's wife. A man should die the way he's lived. For me, that's steel in hand. Does he dream of death? Could the enemy have touched him? Death is his domain, the dead his soldiers i love this bit on reread because it's the first wait a second why would rattleshirt talk about the adornishment's wife what could it mean of course and now he's going to transform

into another man able the bard once more uh again coming back to aria right all these ideas of different identities and the identities that melisandre has been before even interesting to think about when we see that mance is going to return to able and this was such a really it's so well played like who is he really going on the whole chapter until now it's an awesome reveal i remember being like what oh my god what i thought you were dead bitch yeah i remember i was like whoa wow you can do that oh my god it's i think one of the really big reveals in this book right yeah and really well done yeah absolutely and it's just kind of exciting because it's like mance mance is alive how is how exciting because he is like a good dude i mean overall like yeah he's not a bad

dude yeah for sure and that's something that we've we've discussed before in like i guess it's been a couple of years now in the john chapters but it right? Like, you get this reveal of man still being alive, kind of alongside finding out characters like Theon are still alive. But I guess also, in a way, Glamour does reek. Yeah, I don't know. Does he dream of death? I don't know that that means, like, that the enemy could have touched him. I mean, isn't that just normal? Like, I think it's just normal to have that. Oh, like season 7?

When Bran dreams of the White Walkers and then the one touches his hand and the crow slams it in? It's basically like that. That's actually what George is referencing because he wrote these after the show. Yeah.

So, but the true enemy is moving, and the rangers she saw in her vision will return. Blind, bloody-eyed, it's the work of the weeper, my friend Bookshelfstud's favorite. And the wildling says that the best crow's a blind crow, as

his motto. That's the wildling's, that's the weeper's motto. And then we have this line from Mance of if it's the weeper, though, that's not good. Not for him and not for us. Melisandre nodded solemnly as if she had taken his words to heart. But this Weeper did not matter. None of his free folk mattered.

They were a lost people, a doomed people, destined to vanish from the earth as the children of the forest had vanished. Those were not words he would wish to hear, though, and she could not risk losing him. Not now. Um. What? And that's why Melisandre and Stannis hook up here, you know? That's why they're buddies, because they believe one thing.

What the? She's willing to sacrifice them in order to save everyone else she thinks uh she doesn't see people as anything but a number in accomplishing those goals she's that driven and that forward for that one goal and it's interesting that she seems to know that she needs john but she can't see around that even when that should tell her something else right that maybe john as you mentioned could be azor ahai or could be such a poignant figure she knows he's important she doesn't understand what for and she doesn't understand that she could be misseeing and misinterpreting these visions when they're yelling john at her all this time uh but yet she knows she

needs him she knows she needs him it reminds me of something that rowan brought up of like i mean it's sad that she sees herself as this pawn like as this piece to be used by the red god but it also speaks to like this idea of the people who turn to religion especially it helps them create meaning to the suffering that they've uh suffered like and that trauma and maybe that's what's happening here maybe she sees all these people as like ways to accomplish the goal because that's what she sees her part in all this as she doesn't necessarily see herself as like an important person she's just a piece and she's been told that she's just a peace especially coming from being a slave she's a prophet she's a shepherd like this is your job your role and you're expendable and so

maybe she thinks that way about other people and like this it's the sort of cyclical nature of again it's like she thinks of herself as just who she is she's just a piece not a person it is kind of funny though now that i think about it like she didn't actually see in her visions i guess that the free folk would be gone just that like she thinks that that they would be gone like that they would be sacrificed but like i mean the children of the forest aren't actually gone as we know so maybe like the free folk won't be and i've i've got hope that's a great point that's a really great point because they're not gone the children are still there

yeah yeah we saw them she she she's seeing them yeah she has she like me changes the topic to the vision of john snow's sister and says they must win john's trust. The Lord of Bones could do this and save her. He says the crows should just send his little crows, and Melisandre says, he's not you. He plans to keep his vows. Lol, me, Jon Snow. I think we best change the plan. Lol.

So the Lord of Bones is not the Night's Watch, she says. He can do what Jon Snow cannot. The visions that she had seen showed her water, with ice forming on it going forever, and he says that must be Long Lake. She describes hills, fields, deer, stones, that she's staying away from villages, throwing hunters off her trail. They plot out the visions as a map, Melisandre realizing this girl's not coming up the King's Road, that she's very clever. So maybe I misunderstood this detail earlier on in the chapter, but didn't she say that she had only been able to see this vision once? And she's able to recreate so much detail for Mance, and I'm just like, wow. Melisandre's memory is amazing.

Yeah, and that she's able to describe these areas she barely knows right it's not like she's grown up here i mean east and west it's like i mean unless she has grown up here right i mean like for her to know all that like i'm my best friend is really bad at saying east and west i mean she takes people into like the completely wrong direction i've i've told you this story actually yeah and i love that it tells us a lot about like alice right that if this is the gray girl who's dying on the horse or on the dying horse alice where she came from right if you look at a map where she was going around and she was not dumb she did not take the king's road and ironically that neither not dumb. She did not take the King's Road. And ironically, neither did Jane, neither did Arya in their escapes out. Arya, maybe eventually when she comes back.

But they were smart enough also not to take the King's Road. But I think it's really interesting too that looking at Long Lake, it could be anywhere. That description, sure, it's Long Lake and that's what he sees. But it could have been

many places. It could be many places around this area. But in the end, Long Lake is not where Arya is, nor fake Arya at all. It's where Alice would be coming by. Yeah, a much bigger body of water or next to one. On a boat? Just kidding, not yet.

No, not yet. On a boat. Just kidding. Not yet. No, not yet. On an island. The Lonely Island. A war horn is sounded and they all hold their breath. Collectively, whenever there's a war horn at the wall,

they all hold their breath. It only sounds once, though, meaning rangers returning, not two. They are rangers, but dead rangers. Melisandre commands the wildling to go put his bones on and that she'll return she tells him to stay out of the limelight because once they discover the dead rangers seeing any free folk will inflame their anger devon returns with her

breakfast as well having waited for the fresh bread it's that's actually super cute uh that he waited for it he's like oh i waited till it was like done and but it makes no matter because melisandre thinks oh mance will eat it and i kind of actually really want this scene of you know devon going in there and scowling and being like the bread was not for you but uh they chose not to adapt that anyway outside the snow falls lightly crows are gathered at the gate and they make way for melisandre and her guard john snow is already there with bowen marsh and 20 spearmen 20 good men a dozen archers are placed on the wall as well to dissuade any attacks from the enemies the guards on the gate aren't queens men but they

pass her all the same the queens men have a good healthy fear of her like morgan and meryl who could be pretty formidable when not drunk. She wouldn't need them today, but she kept guards on her wherever she went to make sure to send that certain message of the trappings of power. When they emerge north of the wall, the snow is falling way heavier. John and his brothers are gathered around the three spears that are eight foot long, made of ash and impaled with a severed head, beards full of ice. Where their eyes had been,

only empty sockets remained, black and bloody holes that stared down in silent accusation. They had been Blackjack Bulwer, Rip, Harry Howe, Rip, and Garth Greyfeather. With the ground so frozen, it would have taken half the night for the free folk to put the spears in the ground. frozen, it would have taken half the night for the free folk to put the spears in the ground. Beau and Marge thinks they could be watching them still. But John's like, no, ghosts would smell them. For me, I'm just like, oh, so these guys get names, but Hagen's daughter doesn't? It's just, it's just rude. True, but I will say, Blackjack Bulwer existed before. I know this because I told the story about the train robber that i could be related to and i don't know remember yeah yeah i remember i was going over

them before in the john chapters but i don't know i just still think it's bullshit oh no i agree like give her a fucking name but i'm just saying leave blackjack out of this we might be related respect my privacy and my family's privacy at this time okay you know okay you know who doesn't respect it ghost who pisses on the spear that blackjack bulwer's head is on it actually so actually really rude delores ed is there and he's like being very eeyore and he's making jokes in the background and it's funny because melisandre doesn't actually know his name at first she's like ah yes the one they call ed and i'm like it's delores ed melisandre doesn't actually know his name at first. She's like, ah, yes, the one they call Ed. And I'm like, it's Dolores Ed Melisandre.

How do you know that? No, I'm just kidding. Yeah. He's like, so you burned the bodies, which is kind of a joke, but also not really a joke. He's like, I don't want them coming back looking for their heads, which I'm like, is that possible? Maybe.

Bowen says they shouldn't have sent the rangers and john tells him not to picket that wound right now john asks melisandre to walk with him and she loops her arm with his ghost is behind them morgan and meryl are ahead of them and so cute i'm like she's trying to get that boy into trouble you know he has step mommy issues already so i mean why not just go full milf full milf Tamiya, she's already, so I mean, why not? Just go full MILF. Full MILF. Melisandre, I'd like to fuck. She's had at least two children over the course of this very series.

We are not the same age as Melisandre. No, we are not. We're not. Everywhere Melisandre walks, the snow begins to drip. Once they move deeper, he asks her, What are the other six? John reveals they've had a raven from Dennis Malister at the Shadow Tower and Free Folk are massing there, maybe to cross the Bridge of Skulls again? Melisandre wonders, are those the skulls that

she saw in her vision? Butterfly meme, and tells John what she saw in her vision. Towers by the sea, submerged beneath a black and bloody tide, the heaviest blow will fall there. John wonders, is it Eastwatch? But Melisandre thinks that the towers in her fire were different. Though that doesn't always matter, the visions aren't always one-to-one. Yeah, she's like, well, it's likely Eastwatch. You know, that's just gonna be our best bet. I think it's Eastwatch, so we're going with that. And it could happen whenever. So we're going with that. She's like, yep. She's like, also, it could happen whenever.

It could be tomorrow, today, next month, next year. You know, if you act, we could avert it entirely. This sticks out so hard to me because, like, especially after Aaron coming off the Forsaken, having those talks about the High Towers and the possibility of Euron versus the High Towers. I say possibility, but it's like, it's going to happen in the winds of winter. 99% sure you're seeing Old Town, Melisandre. Even the language there, right? The black and bloody tide.

It's going to be Old Town, not Eastwatch. Eastwatch is going to be fucked up, though. Like, don't get me wrong. Just like ice zombies. This is a way different eldritch problem i agree it's definitely old town i like how you put the you know if we act now we can probably stop it and i'm like uh well that didn't actually work the first few times that you tried that so it's definitely a conviction though i definitely love the conviction behind it

melisandre keep the attitude up she's really good at northern geography now maybe because she's just kind of been around now and also seeing it in her visions but apparently not so good at southern west roc geography could recognize long lake and east and west there but uh not here not north from south she just hasn't spent much time in the reach you know not Not enough time. When they emerge from the wall, the crows at the gate swell to two score. John tells the men who they lost. Melisandre quietly asks him to come to the King's Tower after for more secret vision info, and he gives Ghost to Ed to go to his chambers.

She dismisses her guard, he dismisses his, and the snow falls as they move towards the tower. She can feel the mistrust rolling off of him and thinks that he might never love her, but, you know, he'll make use of her. The same as Stannis, right, at first. She danced that dance with him originally, and she thinks that Stannis and Jon have more in common than they'd like to admit. Stannis lived in the shadow of his brothers, like Jon, bastard born. But both were unbelievers. They're both mistrustful, suspicious. They only worship honor, duty. She brings up his sister Arya, and Jon says, I have no sister. He's a brother of the Watch. He cuts off short when they get to Mel's chambers, where the wildling is within. In the bone armor, a giant's broken skull, a helm behind him.

The Lord of Bones grins at him through brown, broken teeth, the ruby on his wrist glimmering, and invites John to share the breakfast, but John tensely declines. Love that, guessed right, right there. Share this breakfast with me, John. Oh, that's so interesting, yeah, yeah, yeah. Showing that he is not bad.

Like, what I'm saying is, like, would he have an iPhone? Maybe. The Lord of Bones says he could easily have come and visited John's chambers himself had he wanted to, you know, take care of him. But his guards and windows are a joke, right? Any man could scale that if they've

scaled the wall hundreds of times. Hint, hint, hint, hint, hint. But there's no reason to kill him the crows could choose someone worse he goes on saying john should have sent him with the rangers but john's like you would have just betrayed my men to the weeper the lord of bones is like uh i would not have and you know what's funny about betrayals your wildling wife egret didn't you betray her whoa deep cuts deep cuts whoa literally it was a deep cut um the thrust the thrust even of a spear the lord of bones turns to melisandre and says that he needs horses and spear wives from molestown to help gain the girl's

trust john's confused and mel's like he's going to go get your sister. You can't, but he can. actually like somehow figure it out well i don't know not really because they didn't go to bravos but they kind of figured out they figured out where on aria is the one that everyone's talking about i don't know maybe through gossip or who knows what and then they head to winterfell to go get her and carry it out it's really like interesting that somehow he got the gossip and went to winterfell and heard she was there i'm guessing he had to have figured that out and it's super respectful like Like, I have so much respect for Mance that he didn't turn around, right? Because he could have. He could have just turned around, but they go

get her no matter what. Because they know from what they hear that guy sucks and they need to go get her, pretty much is kind of what it seems, right? Like, that must have driven them to go get her. They're like, oh shit, Arya's in the clutches of a villain? That sounds horrible. Jon will really be happy we're saving her then.

And it's the opposite of how Mel feels about the Free Folk, right? That even though there could be grave danger for them there, Mance and the Spearwives are willing to sacrifice it for Jon's baby sister. Yeah, and I mean, they do, right? As you said, they realize how terrible Ramsay ises and like this guy sucks though i don't know maybe there's part of it that is kind of like i don't know every now and then i'm like oh maybe mance did write the pink letter like maybe the part of the plan was we're trying to succeed in i don't know keeping finding said aria in order to trade for mance's baby that's not actually his

baby just just keep heading south mance. I mean, there, you'll eventually meet your kid there. But actually, though, if he heads to Old Town, where this vision actually is... Anyways, John does not like this plan, thinking that Rattleshirt is someone to be mistrusted. He's a rapist, a murderer, and threatens to take his head off himself and then mel commands devon to leave she's like i've got a plot reveal and so she touches her ruby speaking a word both the crow and the wildling hear different words and neither of them are the words that left her lips wisps of light and shadow fade around the wildling and then it clears the bones remain but the widow's peak the mustache the chin the teeth all change and transform and i don't know i just think it's so interesting that there's like a sound illusion here going on yeah it's changing matter almost it seems like in the way you view

matter right like it changes the reflection and the way your eyes are seeing things and it's very interesting and your ears woohoo intro man's raider that's who this transforms into big reveal we're all like oh my god that's why you said the dornishman's wife just kidding and john's like oh my god what she killed you and like ha ha ha no she didn't that's the truth that's the reveal you're all caught up. The bones help. The bones remember. The strongest glamours are built of such things. A dad man's boots.

A hank of hair. A bag of finger bones with whispered words and a prayer. A man's shadow can be drawn forth from such and draped around another like a cloak. The wearer's essence doesn't change only his seeming she made it sound a simple thing and easy they need never know how difficult it had been or how much it had cost her there was a lesson that melisandre had learned long before a shy the more effortless the sorcery appears the more men fear the sorcery i love this this is how it ties into the whole like men see what they want to see right like people see the

symbols there and they make assumptions about like who's there and that's how the glamours work and also people think that this line is about davos with that line about the bag of finger bones but as folks have pointed out across the internet including you know i've seen it a lot on reddit like aria actually has a pair of dead man's boots a knight's watchman's boots and she's someone who's actually learning to use glamour so the the finger bones could be like a red herring yeah what if she used that and when she returned to westeros to get to the wall she could after she gets back on a boat oh my god and doing other things with it I guess she could like get in places in Braavos maybe that way who knows that's true a lot of things she could be doing with that and

I mean with glamours in general right a hank of hair interesting and so it says that they never need to know what it cost her and i'm just kind of like so what did it cost her and we don't know and again like we're starting to see more about how the mechanics of glamours work in aria's story and i think that could be another great way to tie these characters storylines together right if we get the reveal for what it costs in like aria's chapters as opposed to in melisandre's. Yeah, and once more, I'm loving the idea of the glamour on him, a glamour on a king, when you have Aegon, who is the glamour for a king. Very mind-blown, and there's more to come for that. I have another thought, but we'll come back to it. When the flames licked it rattleshirt

at the burning her ruby had grown so hot at her throat she feared it would burn her but john had cut that short killing mance quote unquote with his arrows doing her a pretty big favor that he didn't know about stannis had been angry but she was relieved yeah how does it work anyway so melisandre reminds john that she holds mance's child hostage and also mance owes john his life and then we end this chapter with only his life's blood could pay for his crimes your laws said and stannis baratheon is not a man to go against the law. But as you said so sagely, the laws of men end at the wall. I told you that the Lord of Light would hear your prayers. You wanted a way to save your little sister and still hold fast to the honor that means so much to you, to the vows you swore before your wooden god. She pointed with a pale finger there he stands lord snow aria's deliverance

a gift from the lord of light and me oh scene well done gene kozunow himself over here i'm like scene great job i am enjoying berry too in my in my, everyone. I have to finish. I think, where are you? I just finished season two. Okay. I'm still towards the end of season three, but we can converge. See? Perfect. When I get back from my little mini vacation.

So I love the way this chapter ends is perfect because it perfectly mirrors Elaine too in A Feast for Crows, right? Yes, exactly. Just the beat and the language. So those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa. Elaine too in A Feast for Crows. Yes, exactly. Just the beat and the language. So those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa. Harry, the air, the eerie. Harry, the eerie, and Winterfell.

That's worth another kiss now, don't you think? Is the only thing missing there? She did not say that to Jon Snow. Maybe she did. Maybe it's off page. Maybe she's like, that's worth another kiss now, isn't it, Jon Snow? Great language, though. And then her lips turn to teeth. Oh my god, Dentata.

It's really good language, though. I like that it matched it. It was the first thing I thought of when I read it the other day. I was like, oh, Littlefinger. It's just the Littlefinger passage. And when you put it explicitly like that, with the ties to Littlefinger and Sansa's storyline, I think that with this chapter, we see so much that

parallels and goes well with Varys's storyline as well. And it kind of seems like... Schemer. Puppeteer. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. Schemers, right? And that's absolutely like, you know, one of the players of the game who's moving pieces around. And a lot of people associate Varys with Littlefinger, right, as opposed. They're playing the game against each other, and that's how the two of them kind of see it too. And in Dance, you start to see a lot of other players come to the forefront, right? Like the past five books have been sort of, I don't know, Tyrion's training arc of becoming a player, and now he's about to be at the forefront of the series as one. A contender against Littlefinger and varies.

But I think that we should also, as we see this, consider like Melisandre. She's kind of been slept on as a political player. She is scary. She is also someone doing the same things with her own like royal pawns. She was a political player this entire chapter. Absolutely. And we had no clue. Yes. And you've done a great job of highlighting that throughout this chapter.

Like, she is. She is. She's on the same level as, like, Littlefinger and Varys. But with magic. She's a stronger player than Cersei. I think that Cersei sees herself having them. Yeah, that's true. She has plans. Like, you see her trying to seduce men in certain ways to get the things she needs or wants, using protection from men in certain ways. But it falls flat for her where Melisandre actually understands and grasps how to use that.

I find that fascinating. And then, of course, the men that are supposed to protect Cersei don't. So that's a whole other story. But yeah, very interesting. And there's something else here. a whole nother story but yeah very interesting and there's something else here coming back to these ideas of agan very and then of course mance and rattleshirt and aria and jane and then of course agan and the piss water prince the irony of the baby swaps and the people swaps going on here you have mance swapped for rattleshirt and john before this even happened he would have no

clue that mance was swapped for battle shirt however he saved mance's baby flipped it with sam well with gilly's baby with stepdad sam and gilly's baby so you've already flipped these babies to save them right and now mance is alive even though you were like oh shit that's too bad they did kill king's blood good thing i sent that kid away what if they come for him next so the irony there you've already sent him away and then you also have in the background those trappings of power with that rise from aegon rising as a fake king over the real king daenerys as well as that baby swap with possibly quote-unquote pre-A Song of Ice and Fire during the rebellion with Aegon and a piss water prince,

so who knows how real that is or if it actually happened. And of course, Jane and Arya, and the irony already of them being not. Oh yeah, that's right. That's technically a baby swap too. Yep, there are major swaps going on here. Four swaps, really, when you look at it in totality. If you count the Dy and egan kind

of thing going on hell make it a fifth one with danny and john but really shake things up i just find that very fascinating and a very fun element that george is playing with that at the end of this you're like oh shit wait a second yeah that baby gone all those babies gone all those babies gone yeah we'll see if Mance makes it back we don't think he will maybe he won't I don't know I don't think he will but I think he gets at least one other scene that would be cool

I'd be into that I would be hopeful for that I don't know that I am but I would be hopeful for it because I just don't think that such a great character should go out that way so hopefully George does him right he's got a little anticlimactic like i think that there needs to be one more reveal of this is man's i think a lot of people more or less kind of know that abel the bard is man's but it's not like i mean i think this is the reveal i mean this is the

real right reveal right like but not everyone is pieced together that the readers don't all know that Abel is Mance. And I think there just needs to be, I don't know, one more scene where it's a little more explicit for that threefold reveal structure of George's. And I mean, I don't know. Maybe that We'll see. I'm just doubtful. I unfortunately am doubtful because maybe, but the, but people who may or may not be re-coinciding with some of these forces. So it could be Asha. Maybe Asha sent the pink letter. That is another theory that is out there. Well, who hasn't written a theory about a character writing the pink letter settle down they're all out there they're all they've all written it yeah pick a character you can find it i don't know that's something i haven't considered you

never know that's an intense ass chapter and it's crazy i think we'll definitely get melisandre chapters in the winds of winter at least a couple maybe a lot, because he doesn't want to overdo it. I mean, this was such an incredible chapter and having it be a one-off is so powerful. You don't want to overpower how many Melisandre chapters you have going on at a time, in my opinion. You should keep it very lean. Keep the mystery flowing at least till the end. And this was also kind of like a you know surprise in the middle of the book right like you don't want to blow the mystique of the whole

character in the in the chapter as opposed to you know like how storm opens up and it's suddenly the first pov is jamie we're switching it up after two books with all these characters. Subtle. It's subtle. Yeah. The Quentin and the Melisandre were definitely the surprises, I think. For this book? Yeah. And the Reek. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I knew he'd be back in my heart.

I didn't. I was like, that boy's dead. Well, maybe I'll be wrong about Mance this time. How about that? I mean, who knows? It's anyone's Game of Thrones, Chloe, until we get that book. My god, anyone's Game of Thrones. Well, I have had a wonderful time discussing this fucking magical chapter,

mystical chapter, powerful, sexy, fiery chapter with you. No, really. It's dark. It's sexy. It's passionate. It's a little freaky. It's, I don's sexy. It's passionate. It's a little freaky. It's, I don't know. It's good. It's good, though. It's raw. Well, thanks for listening, everyone. We will be back with Arya 1 in A Game of Thrones.

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