Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 199 — ACOK Arya II

Episode Date: September 1, 2023

When the Gold Cloaks catch up to our Night's Watch recruits, Main Character Arya finds out that she's not the main character (but lbr, she is).  Chloe every episode meme Check us out on Bluesky! https://bsky.app/profile/girlsgonecanon.bsky.social --- 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 199. Are you too? In a clash of kings, I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts. And yes, are you ready for this episode and also right around the corner from 200? Do you know that one screen cap of Lisa Simpson, where she's kind of sitting with her jaw open slack jawed looking credulous. Every time you say are you ready, we're gonna find that meme and we're gonna put it in the details. It's the most important thing I've ever said on this podcast. It's my podcast. I can say that. But yeah, that's me. Every time you say are you ready? This is this is me. I hope everyone at home has opened the details of this podcast in order to see this meme

and to understand that it's me. Eliana hasn't even seen it. You might even be seeing it before. I don't even know. I'm not sure I know what this meme is. I'll find it for you. Okay. Yeah, this is, once again, Aria in the Riverlands, traveling, starting to warm up to this band

of friends. Maybe I have. Oh, wait, no, I think I have. I have seen this meme. Chloe posted it in our notes as we were recording. So, I'm not sure I get it, but I have seen it. Every time you say, are you ready? Just know that is my face.

Yeah, we have traveled around. We're in the Riverlands. We're not on a great path. Things are gonna get bad from here on out, but we're in the riverlands we're not on a great path things are gonna get bad from here on out but we're excited to be here with you all just like we were excited to have brunch this past weekend with our discord friends in that thunder tier and above that was that was a blast actually we watched a lot of great youtube videos we made a meme oh my god did we you we ever make a meme all together the spirit of friendship made a meme which unfortunately for some reason involved kristen cole but like all good memes do like uh how good of a meme could

it have been i mean it was a great meme it just sucks that the subject was Kristen Cole, you know? Yeah. Please log on to our Twitter, or I guess I need to post it on our Blue Sky. Oh! Blue Sky account as well. You haven't posted on our Blue Sky? I have to post our Kristen Cole mall cop meme. That is the joke is a good one. It's better when you see it.

More to come. Thanks to all the patrons for hanging out. If you are a patron of ours, there are some perks. Patrons in the Thunder tier, and that's the $10 and up tier, they get a chance to come hang out on the private Discord server as well, as well as well as attend monthly brunch slash happy hour. August has passed, but September 23rd, Saturday, at 3pm ET, we will be gathering once more on the

Discord server to chat, maybe watch YouTube videos like the youth do, or once did. More like youth tube. Yeah, youth tube makes me feel young. They were good videos, you know? It all started with an idea, a thought, a prayer, and it carried on

from there, so I loved it. We talk about stuff. We play games sometimes. We do a lot. It's a fun crew, but we'd love to have you there as well. And that's not the only perk for patrons. Patrons in the Stranger tier, that's the $5 tier and up, get bonus

episodes. And Eliana, what episode did we just record? I know you're still chopping it up. Diligently, you're getting that puppy out there. Yeah, we just recorded Do Revenge, which is a Netflix channel original movie. We just thought it would be really fitting with Arya's storyline as she learns about, you know, doing revenge. And also includes Sophie Turner, a.k.a. Sansa Stark, making a little, little sashay across our screens. Yeah, but this time, the snow that Sansa Stark has isn't in Winterfell. Oh my god, it's in her nose.

And I don't do cocaine! It's a great film. Yeah. Such a great film. Yeah. Such a good film. You have to watch it, everyone. Get on Netflix. Give it a watch. It was a fun episode to record, too.

We talk a lot about influences. Lots of teen movies, right? Like, Your 10 Things I Hate About You, Your Heathers, Your Cruel Intentions, Some of the Greats. We talk a lot about that. And I think that you will all enjoy it. Not even just teen movies. Chloe flexes a little bit and talks about a lot of other classic movies that are part of any film canon. Aw, thanks, babe.

You all can't see her, but Eliana's hair looks great today. It's just been cleaned. It's just been washed. You did a really good job on it. So keep it up. Unlike Aria in this chapter, who has not cleaned her hair in a very long time and still won't. I did message you before this and I was like, oh, you're not going to method act. You're not going to method podcast this one and just stay really filthy.

I thought about it. I showered too today just for this. Yeah, just for this, just for all of you. Well, we did get some emails and tweets of note, but I'm really stressed this week. So we're going to come back to them next week. Yeah. Because we want to, as usual usual be able to give it the time and attention and response that your emails and tweets of note or skeets on blue sky deserve of note yeah may or may not deserve asterisk asterisk i feel like i retain that right yeah we always. It's our podcast, as Chloe's reminded us at the beginning. Yeah.

And another really fun thing I get to do on my podcast that Eliana lets me do every single week, my god, she's an angel, is a lightning round. You probably remember this if you've listened to any of our other episodes. But here we are at the front of another lightning round where we catch up on the chapters that you may have missed between the last time we were with Arya Stark in Arya 1 and A Clash of Kings. Those chapters start off now with Sansa 1. It's King Joffrey's birthday and he's the whopping wise age of attempting to murder people at tourneys for a lark. Woo.

Big age. All you say, it's your birthday. Gonna kill someone. Oh, I was about to be like, it's your birthday, boy, I know it. Oh, okay. But then I'm like, maybe not. Maybe not birthday sex. Go, Joffrey.

It's your birthday. We're gonna kill people like it's your birthday. Yeah. But nobody dies, thankfully, because that would be bad luck, obviously. Yes, little bird. Tyrion won. Tyrion is accepted, reluctantly, by Sam as the new

Hand of the King, and then also Varys discovers Shae. Dun dun dun. Bran 1. Things that are cool in Winterfell. Comets. Wolves. Wolf howls. Wolf dreams.

Things that are not cool. The phrase. Boo. Boo. I mean, they're not that bad of a band. They're fine. They're like pop alternative, you you know how to save a life someone pointed out that like

that song it's been out like what 15 years now or something like that and I was like why would you say that to me worse is like one of my really vibrant memories of that song is hearing it all the time when I was working retail when I was a teenager so I'm like not only has

it been out 15 years 15 years when I was working retail when I was a teenager so I'm like not only has it been out 15 years 15 years ago I was young I actually do like that song but as you said are like saying like it's it was just overplayed I bet I could listen to it again it holds up I listened to it drunk a few weeks ago and uh it holds up that and oh the other the other ones that sound just like them the script that's the other one that sounds like I remember the script we'll catch up offline so okay so back to this song of ice and fire thank you aria 2 in a clash of kings the gold cloaks come to take back a member of the night's watch to beers the troop has traveled from dawn to dusk. At night, they make camp and eat by the light of the Red Sword Comet, as they've called it. They watch the firelight flicker through the trees of other campers.

More camps have appeared each night. More people on the King's Road. Old folk, children, men, women, girls, babes. Farm wagons, ox carts, all of them bump along. But more often, these people are riding. Ponies, mules, horses, donkeys, anything that can run or roll. Yeah, look at all these different kinds of horses and horse adjacents. There's also a cow, which is not a horse.

They're just missing the mu'lefa. Yeah, that's true. The mu'lefa. Mu'lefa. Most of the travelers were walking toward the city, towards King's Landing, and one in a hundred spared even a look or word toward the group going north. Arya

wonders, why is no one going north? Where we're going? Most of the travelers are armed also with daggers, dirks, scythes, axes, and here and there, a sword. Some had carved clubs from tree limbs, I understand this from playing Zelda, or knobby staffs, all giving lingering looks toward the wagons as they go by.

Couple things from the series that come to mind for me here. Just the language of Arya wondering why no one else is trying to go north is reminiscent of Osha with Bran. She had just told Bran recently right that rob should have been going north that he's going the wrong way so there's kind of a little language there that makes me think about that with the real war being in the north especially as we go through this chapter i'll likely point out some of the language that is pretty reminiscent of the north and i know you might too uh there's a lot of language. I think

it's something that you may also be pointing out today, how there's a lot of language about the battle-torn land that they're going to come across and the lack of resources and how people are dying out and disappearing. It definitely seems to keep coming up as a motif. And of course, all these people are heading towards King's Landing because they're looking toward the king for safety as the war and hardship begins to be refugees in the capital because they don't feel safe anymore in their homes. And especially with that and the carved weaponry that we're hearing described, it reminds me a lot of the Free Folk as well when they cross the wall with their weaponry and they give their weaponry to, of course, Stannis and his men and Jon and the Watch.

Kind of a pilgrimage of sorts. I think there's a lot of great bits of these Clash and Storm arcs aligning. I was looking ahead to like Bran and Arya IV and a lot of crossover there as the war is chasing them in these complete opposite directions between the Lannisters and Robb's armies and the others in the north. What you're saying about the refugees and like how people are seeking refuge in the cities, right, in King's Landing, part of it has to do with the walls, but it also reminds me of another character we've discussed

as having a lot of parallels with Arya's story too, Davos, when he goes and he visits the Manderlys, right? Because White Harbor is also full of lots of refugees from the war. And it really makes me think of like, what? I mean, what is it going to mean for winter and when the others do come? When the war does come south, right? And now you've got all of these people pulled together in one place with these walls. I just read the fourth Expanse book. And I have to tell you that it has a lot of stuff about

this too in there. Very interesting. Very interesting. I won't spoil you. It's okay. I'm a shunli, so I kind of know what happens. Aharia remembers Syrio's words to look with your eyes, listen with your ears. On one of the days in the travel, a woman on the road had screamed at them. She was scarecrow thin with hollow eyes and bloody feet. Another day, a merchant on the road had screamed at them. She was scarecrow thin, with hollow eyes and bloody feet. Another day, a merchant on a grey mare offered to buy all of Yoren's wagons and their products for a quarter of their worth, saying that in war, they'll be taken anyway. Better to make the money now. Very Littlefinger vibes there, truly. Aria noticed the very first grave, that day. Dug for a child, a crystal set in the earth to market

lami had wanted to take the crystal but the bull told him leave the dead alone after that aria sees graves everywhere yeah they start becoming more frequent my note here says big sad i feel that oh it is though big. Big sad. That is the feeling. Thank you for such a lovely, expressive way to declare your sadness, because I, too, am big sad. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Big sad over the little grave. Well, more to come.

Yeah, there is more to come. Like, for example, Arya waking up in the dark once, frightened the Red Sword, a.k.a. the Comet, is above all of them they were just calling it red sword with capital letters here now here's the ambience of the camp and the snores of urine and the donkeys and she's like oh the silence it makes her shiver she's like that's weird and then she wakes up in the morning clutching needle and she realizes the reason the silence felt so uncanny to her was because of prayed one of the men who had passed away it was her coughing that she realized was missing the previous night so she's she's really actually even learning to listen and see even with her unconsciously while she's sleeping she digs a cell sword they dig that

cell sword praed a grave and strip him of his valuables before they bury him and one man takes his boots another his dagger and then his male shirt and his helm are parceled out the bull is given his long sword they toss acorns on his grave in hopes that an oak may grow to mark his place and i don't know i just i thought that was nice amidst that kind of sadness you know they grow they throw this oak on there like this hope that even amongst all this death there can still be life, can still provide something. And it also makes me think of, granted, they are not doing a revolution right now. No one is doing that. But that line from Les Mis, the song, and rain will make the flowers grow and that the rain being blood, eventually hoping that beauty and freedom will come from it.

That's not what we're at here yet. I think we are far from that point in the story. We're still just that big sad, but there's hope. I like that a lot, especially with the oak like that it's something hopeful and something a way to mark him almost as human right and you think of the the popular phrase the phrase that dunk the tall made so popular of oak and iron serving him well or else he's damned and doomed to hell oak is like a like a totem right something that people can hope upon and that they feel like it's a recurring thing if it grows it's strong it's consistent it's like a rock and there's something i think it was at a well actually that talked about like the crystal being placed on the grave being you know an old pre-war human

tradition it's a form of solace and them growing a tree is almost like a bigger example you know a crystal is something that can just be stolen it's just a shiny rock but a tree can provide shelter it can provide a home to more than one animal right several animals could live within it it can provide a house if you cut it down it can be part of a home you know it can provide a home to more than one animal, right? Several animals could live within it. It can provide a house if you cut it down. It can be part of a home. You know, it can provide a lot of things. I don't know. So I think that's something interesting that they're planting something so much more than just a crystal.

It's persistence. It's life. Because a tree is alive, right? And you think about then the children of the forest, right? Where the weirwoods placed upon dead bodies and then the idea that sure the weirwoods are an example of something literally living on in the weirwood but like even then someone like prayed who never comes up again in this story but still the idea that we still live on through other people and leave a mark in this world and the

trees the tree is a signifier of that i love that acorns become such kind of like a symbolic thing right because then we go to acorn hall and then aria wears the dress with the the embroidered acorns all over the bodice that she gets borrowed i don't know it's something hopeful about her plot too right the acorns keep appearing in it oh yeah that's interesting little motif to pay attention to i'll try to dig out those acorns more a couple other things popping out here to me gendry getting his long sword here from prey dying and yoren giving him the sword happens uh that stood out to me because not too long ago, Jon had the chapter where he got Longclaw, right? So we have some swords being gifted down here.

It's not really a victory for either, right? Like, for Gendry, they lost the first man in their retinue and shit feels not great. And for Jeor, it's like, my son failed, could you be my new one? Ha ha ha ha! It's great, but

they are both, like, the new father figures, you know, in their lives, and Jon does earn it, yeah, for what it's great, but they are both like the new father figures, you know, in their lives. And Jon does earn it. Yeah, for what it's worth, I would say he does earn it. I was just gonna say Jon's just a better son than Jorah as far as I can tell, so. Yeah, well, low bar to stumble over. Okay, Alyanna? I mean, that's why Dany's gonna choose him and not Jorah. I'm just saying.

It's interesting to have Yoren be kind of a paternal father figure for these brothers that he's bringing this new generation of brothers, sons to him, right? He kind of is one of Gendry's new father figures considering the other father figure he really had was Tobo Mott because he seemingly took him in once his mother had died, right? He was just a fucking orphan running around King's Landing until then. until then tobomat was probably one of the better things to happen to him rather than being in the castle where he'd probably get poisoned and die yeah actually and i mean he's got a skill right and it's a good skill it's a lucrative skill especially because he's strong enough to do it and i call him gendry here but

i gotta point out we don't know what's gendry quote unquote we don't know what's gendry here, but I gotta point out, we don't know what's Gendry, quote unquote, we don't know what's Gendry yet, right? Like, till the end of the chapter, we don't hear his name. It's really well done that we don't know he's the bull. Yeah, we do kind of know because of the helm, right? But at the same time, you're right. It's not told to everyone yet, the name, and that

that isn't, that thread isn't drawn, and even his true name, right? Like, he doesn't even know it but you were talking about the distribution of the sword and not only is the sword something that he gets like everyone they distribute the boot and the dagger and like on one hand it can be seen as scavenging right but on the other hand there's something like kind of great about it in terms of i mean they're sharing this they're trying to survive during this difficult time. But beyond that, it does also even remind me later on, right, of Arya taking the boots off of a different Night's Watchman much later on,

Damien. I mean, she kills him, so it's pretty different, but. But we use every part of the animal when you kill a man, you know, like, we need those spare parts you don't just throw out goods yeah my god that's what i do in medieval dynasty oh yeah that too that too oh two different people very very different people in this world they stop at an inn that night and yoren has just enough for a hot meal for everyone they plan to sleep outside but they at least get to eat and they take a shower. Aria does not dare, of course, but some of the other boys line up.

The rest of them crowd into the common room. Lami is sent to feed and water the jailed trio out in the cart. Yeah, there was this line, you know, you're talking about the method acting of Aria, and it was kind of cute. It said out to me of the some of the creatures living in her clothes had come all the way from flea bottom with her. It didn't seem right to drown them and I just thought this is like there's a sweet childishness in this thinking from Arya

and I think it's really sad you get to a point where she's like man I don't even want to kill the fleas to the point where Arya's like yeah we'll kill this guy. Whatever. I wonder if she would even feel differently about animals in general. Granted, she's been killing pigeons to eat them, but she's just so lonely and friendless right now amongst all these people that she's like, I'm going to keep these critters alive.

Yeah, interesting what survival does to a human, right? Bit by bit, you lose a lot of those morals if it means eating. My God, just the other day in medieval dynasty i was thinking how horrible it is when i kill some of these animals in the game and then like it gives you like an up close like you're skinning them it's gross you hear the noise you see them collapse i'm like should i should i stop eating meat this is horrible but aria loses that real fast especially when it means she gets some rabbit, some good ass rabbit. And you get that, you know, you got to eat. And I will say, after a while, you know, the skin starts to be irritated from not cleansing.

We see how it how it works for Theon. True. You know, doesn't have a great time. And he's, you know, you shave, you don't feel great. So I'm praying for that chapter that i know is coming where she finally gets to wash yeah yeah praying for it washed or unwashed they do eat hot pork pies baked apples and drink beer from the innkeep the innkeep tells them that oh he had a brother who took the black after being caught stealing some pepper from the lord that they served's table.

It was just a pinch of pepper, too, right? Not a lot. But Sir Malcolm was a hard man, and off he went to the wall. He asks if there's any pepper at the wall, and the man shakes his head, and the innkeep goes, shame. Link loved that pepper. Reminds me a bit later that John thinks about getting some spices and a few things when he gets the money and the the innkeep goes shame link loved that pepper reminds me a bit later that john thinks about getting some spices and a few things when he gets the money and the loan he thinks about all the different things he could get for the wall spices make a motherfucker happy you know yeah those little luxuries keep your revolting colony in order i'm just saying

honestly yeah i think well granted this night's watchman I guess would know better if they have pepper or not but like it's possible it could happen things wash up there and I don't know it just makes me so sad like every read through even the first one right how this really shows that wealth inequality this man just wanted a little bit of pepper something that we as modern people would take for granted like I'm over here being mad that my pepper mill which is not like like, a good one. It was, it came with it, right? Like, with all of it from the grocery store. I paid, like, three dollars for this, and it doesn't even, like, make my pepper. It doesn't even crack it

well, and I'm just like, dang, this guy got sent to the wall just for a little pep. Girl, I got one, and it broke out of nowhere, and for, like, two months I complained, and you know what I did finally? I ordered it online, and it came the next day. And for like two months I complained. And you know what I did finally? I ordered it online and it came the next day. Yeah. And Link went to the wall. Yeah. And he's never going to get Pepper again, you know?

It's just so sad. And he can't even order a Pepper Shaker. He cannot. And if he did, it's going to come from the other side of the world. He'll probably die by the time it gets there. There's ice zombies. He might actually have already died to them. He'll probably die by the time it gets there.

There's ice zombies. He might actually have already died to them. And that's why today I'm asking you to donate one stag every week. If you donate one stag every week, you can sponsor a Night's Watchman today. Please call me at 1-888-JOHN-SNOE. I repeat, 1-888-JOHN-SNOE. No, I'm just kidding. He does have a perfect amount of letters in his name for a phone number. That's so true. I know. It came to me as I said it. It came to me as I said it. Thank you. Thank you. It's too bad we don't see Link at the wall. I was kind of looking through and I really don't

think we see him again. I was hoping maybe we'd see him in the background in another chapter, unless it's like a nicknamed guy. But maybe we'll meet him in the Winds of Winter. I had a cat named Link. He passed. He's not with us. But Link was very old, my cat. He was like 19, which is pretty old for a cat.

And that is, I believe he passed at 20 and he was blind and arthritic and crazy. But that's kind of what I imagine this link as as well. Spelled a little differently. But George should introduce link maybe links at eastwatch maybe we'll meet him in t-wow oh yeah if he said eastwatch he has even more of a chance of getting pepper and then dying that's true too but you know what gets a taste of pepper i guess i don't know i thought you were gonna say earlier everyone just donate a single peppercorn if you donate one silver stag a week you can pay for link's peppercorn addiction addiction again that's 1-888-JOHN-SNOE thanks uh this chapter index though coming back to kind of what you said about that very sad inequality going on. There's a lot of that peppered throughout the chapters. I'm so sorry. There is a lot of that peppered through these chapters, though, where you learn that the watch was once celebrated, I think, of what Alysanne convinced Jaehaerys to do.

san convinced jaharis to do and now the watch is just fleeing on the road as if they're well they are criminals but like they're you know they should have some decorum and they're fleeing on the road like the other people fleeing from war they're living their lives providing through basically crime right like these chapters deteriorate fast they run out of food they have to go a very long distance and they start poaching basically there's a moment there's a moment in these chapters where yoren sends out and it kind of reminds me of stannis a little bit i'm sure i'll call it out i think it might be next chapter but a very stannis like yoren sends poachers who got caught and sent to the dungeon and now have to go live their lives in the night's watch because they were poaching on someone else's land to go poach.

He's like, alright, go ahead and go hunt. Because, like, that's the thing. When you're hungry, when you're dying, when your people are hungry and dying, you have to eat, you have to hunt. Like, the irony that you have to go do your fucking crime to get by as you go to be jailed, basically, for your life at this colony

for doing a crime. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, like mean like jordan's like i don't know fuck it just you're already doing the time anyway who cares how many more sins you do and yeah i don't know it's like it really is messed up you know it's not like the the lords need those animals it's not like they are hunting them to death as far as we know because environmental protections are important but i don't think these lords care about the environmental protections. They're just... What gives that away? It's just greed. Yeah, right? Like, I mean, you know, people are getting locked up for things that other people get to enjoy and for what, right? It's like, you know, the thing about

parking tickets. It's not that you're not allowed to park somewhere it's just how much does it cost to park there i have to tell you it's my favorite quote you know what it reminds me of no it reminds me of egret right her speech you call us thieves but at least a thief has to be brave and clever and quick a kneeler only has to kneel it's one of the best fucking quotes in the whole thing my god go listen to the john chapter that it happens in because i know we quote it because i know i was like it's my favorite quote in the whole fucking thing it is it's it's uh it's such a great back and forth right of like okay you draw a fucking imaginary line and you say this is my territory i decided it's here you can't come past it this is my woods you can't

have the animals that all of a sudden wander into it this is mine this is this like oh okay where's everyone else gonna fucking live homie yeah and aria i mean she's not really pondering any of this yet right like she still doesn't truly get it she she sips her beer and all that it really inspires her is remembering the time that her dad would let her have a cup and Sansa would make a face and say that wine tasted finer, but Arya's like, I don't know, I like beer well enough, but like,

glad you had potable drink. And she gets sad though, thinking of her father and Sansa. Not everything in Arya's life is going good, right? Like, her family's dead. Well, her dad. In front of her. And like, her brother and mother are gonna be dead soon too so you're fucking fun at parties what's happening here not at podcasts yeah i mean i don't know i think it's because she got sad thinking of like those good times

with her dad and sanza and i was like dang same I'm sad thinking about you thinking about them and it is sad right like it's such a natural pang you drink a beer and you're like oh this makes me think of so and so they hate beer she's like pour one out for dad pour one out yeah dad would love this beer Sansa would have fucking hated it miss that bitch

she does think about Sansa wow amazing amazing who knew I thought she hated her thought aria was this i feel like you're very aria coded here but i'm sansa coded that i would drink the wine you would drink the beer i thought about that but i've seen you drink a lot of beer so i was like no really i mean so here's a memory that someone loves of Chloe, right? Our friend, I don't know if she wants her name out on there, but I remember once upon a time at one of the cons, she was below your room and she throws up, not vomit.

She literally like with her hand throws into the air a national bohemian and a natty bow, our craft local beer in the mid atlantic and you caught it catch it yeah and you drink it so write that in there well i will say i don't hate beer i like beer there are some beers that have my heart but they are very filling for me and i get heartburn easily so i have to be careful because like I'll drink three beers and I'll be like, I'm good. I'm going to bed. You know, I'm full. It's liquid time for bed.

Yeah, it is liquid bread. So I have to be in the mood and it has to be the right one. But Natty Bohemian is very close to my heart. Our friend, our friend that brought it every year, she would bring me a box of wine to the convention we will be seeing each other at. And Natty Bohemian, because I can't get it. Natty Bo. Yeah.

Natty Bo is the guy. He's the man. And I went to a great, it's actually like the classic, some of the people that started MAGFest and supported it and worked for it for many, many years. The Bros, the Baltimore Rock Opera. It's one of their favorite beers. Yeah, right. A great, great abbreviation. Who knew?

But it's one of their favorite beers. And they also put on a really amazing con slash event really called BitGen, where it's they've rented out the auto bar in Maryland before, in Baltimore before, and a couple other places. And they haul in a bunch of consoles and they have two stages oscillating going back and forth where bands are playing the whole time so you have music video game music bands whether they're metal or you know rock opera or there's some acoustic some great classical acoustic players some of my buddies they're called the super guitar bros they rock they're from

michigan um bands like that that are just like fucking fantastic are playing while you can get drunk and play video games. So it's basically an amazing event, like one day event. A long time ago, I swear it was two days, one year, but they had a green room that I was in with some friends one year and they opened a fridge and they had a barrel too filled with ice and just natty bohemian and it was just fucking stacked like to the rim of the fridge to the rim of the barrel it was amazing that little man with his beautiful fucking mustache is just staring at me yeah and his one eye i love him so much you know he's just looking up at me god and um it also became a little bit of a meme

in some of the friend group. We had masks one year. We had Natty Bohemian masks on popsicle sticks we were wearing. It was a time. But Natty Bo was always involved. It was just the beer of choice. And I think it's more of a nostalgia than it is, which is what our beer drinking is, to be fair. But it is good. It's also good.

I enjoy it. It's a very great, simple, like if I need a simple water. Water, yeah, basically. Yeah, I don't drink beer if it doesn't have a flavor, okay? So if I'm drinking a Miller High Life, as Eliana may like, or a Light as my family may like. No, no, no, Miller High Life is not a beer.

It is champagne. Oh my god. Yeah, see, I'll drink one of those, though. Like, I'm not against it. It's just, i will say i won't do an ipa if you ever offer me an ipa i'll laugh in your face it's like heartburn in a bottle i just can't do the hops man i can't do it i usually can't do ipas i like some of the citrus ones like i like um this one's also a baltimore beer i think it's called bloodline yeah this one's also from a baltimore brewery um bloodline from flying dog and yeah i can do that

one i i know that like oh what is this this brewery this one's like a san diego based brewery i can't remember the name anymore but the the grapefruit sculpin i loved that one but I hear like their stuff has been less good lately since that brewery got bought out. But anyway, Natty Bow, also a Baltimore beer. So though that brewery actually no longer is based in Baltimore, but we don't we don't need to talk about that. It's like how Yingling isn't actually in Pennsylvania. It's in Ohio. Boo. It wasn't.

Oh, interesting. I remember I was like in the town close to where it was made. I don't know when it moved, but it was so cheap. It was like 25 cents for a beer. Anyways. That's amazing. While we're out here, I got to promote my some of my favorite beers just because Michigan also has a great amount of brewers that rock it's like a total beer state highly recommend and shout out to michigan beer soft parade by shorts brewery is one of the best beers in the entire world they did come out with a slightly less abv because it was a gravity ale it's a fruit gravity ale it was um you could drink two to three and you'd be like okay have a nice day gotta go

gotta get my uber home and maybe finish this last one at home um it was like a large percentage of booze it was a lot for an ale and they did soften that so most of the time now if you're getting it it might not be the heavy abv i think they do carry the heavy ABV. So look for it in stores if they carry shorts still. Duclos out here on the East Coast in Maryland as well. Sweet Baby Jesus. Oh, the peanut butter one. Oh, peanut butter chocolate porter. It is one of my favorites. God, it's fucking amazing. I'm a porter and stout person. So I also have to really recommend Atwater Brewery in Detroit does a dark chocolate and a vanilla Java Porter. So two separate beers, but they are delicious.

I also love a Neapolitan stout that I want to say is Saugatuck, another Michigan. But basically, I like to drink dessert. Yeah. I can't help who I am. I mean, it's almost that season, right? For all those dark beers, which is very exciting. I can't help who I am. I mean, it's almost that season, right?

For all those dark beers, which is very exciting. Yeah, I'm sure they're drinking like a, here in this bar, more of a, you know, a Pilsner maybe or a Wheatie or a, what do you think? What do you think they're drinking? Um, so my understanding is that medieval beer actually didn't really have hops, right? They were just like, we need to make a beer because the water is unclean so it's like probably only one to two percent abv the whole point is just killing bacteria so miller light yeah essentially or if even wow our friend tana thinks i don't like good beer but i do like good beer tana thinks i don't like good beer because i ordered like i think a pbr when i went drinking with her that one time no shame in a pbr yeah right anyway god um tana i'm

shaming you i'm shaming you and then now we're out here being like but what about champagne in the middle of high life so i probably have not dissuaded Tana's impression of me. Anyway, so the common room erupts in scornful conversation when Yoren tells the innkeep that they're going north. The innkeep tells them there's no going north. Fields are burnt. People are holed up inside their holdfast. And you were talking a little bit earlier about how it reminds you of stuff going on with with the others and osha telling them they're going the wrong way they got to be heading north i think you only are supposed to head north if you're planning on fighting the others everyone's going the correct way if they're

trying to run from the bad stuff and you know this refugee situation you're talking about it really mirrors the situation that john is encountering soon right all the free folk who are also migrating south they are not going north because like no why would i go north that's where the others are they're fleeing that violence same as what this man says there's no going north anymore but there's no burnt fields obviously right it's just ice instead because it's a song of ice and fire and there's also no graves either for them right aria sees graves everywhere as evidence that things are going on and for them it's not it's just a barren wasteland and there's no graves because their loved ones aren't being buried they're dead and coming back to life hey they're alive wow i didn't know you were gonna end that

on such a crazy note thank you i'm kind of breathing it's true they're they're alive wow i didn't know you were gonna end that on such a crazy note thank you i'm kind of breathing it's true they're they're they rise they're like oh the oak you know one of my vendors is on the west coast and i always whenever i like send them an email i'm like when you rise when you awaken today when you lift and i always send a picture of nosferatu with it you know just really when you rise they think that's pretty funny uh no this is such a great mirror all throughout this right even the way that through these chapters and it maybe it comes back to like bran especially you realize that they're going around the god's eye almost in like a three-quarter circle because they have to avoid the violence they come upon, right? So it feels aimless and pointless, not unlike those long icy fields and rocks and trees we

see beyond the wall in these Jon chapters and later the Bran chapters. The burnt wasteland really isn't that different from the icy one. But Yoren insists it doesn't matter what banners any of these places fly. Tully, Lannister, the Watch takes no part. Hmm. Arya thinks it matters to me. Her grandfather is Lord Tully, but she keeps her mouth shut and listens instead. For a minute, at least. For a minute.

I think this is another way, you know, we are told constantly that the small folk don't care about the games that the High Lords play. And I'm like, so this is a reminder that Arya, you are a little bit of a High Lord here, right? She's like, it matters to me. That's my grandfather. And also, I'm not sure if she's ever met him. Yeah, probably not. Probably not.

Which is sad. He's just not in great health. And she's not very old. So I don't know like when it would have happened in that time period. It doesn't seem like they did a lot of traveling to Riverrun. Yeah. Not in the last decade, at least. It seems like Rob might have met him. I think so, but it sounds like they did, but in everyone's defense, it's a really long trip.

Yeah, absolutely. It's a whole book or half a book worth of a trip the innkeep goes on to explain it's not just the war the clans of the mountain of the moon are at it again and he's heard the dead hand's son is riding into battle on a wolf one man adds my god like in fucking anchorman god brick you killed a man with a trident. On a wolf. He killed a man with a wolf. Yeah, little known fact.

That's actually where George got this line from. On a wolf. Yeah, just like he got this whole story from the television show. He's like, King's Landing, whale's vagina. Oh my god. So Arya, of course, is listening intently. Yorn is spitting and saying that it's all fool's talk. Another tale ends up being told.

At the god's eye, speaking of wolves, there's a wolf pack led by a giant, vengeful she-wolf. And they say, a bitch. From the seventh hell. From the seventh hell. And I'm like, oh yes, the brewery. Raging bitch. Of uh beer which is a different beer also from flying dog brewery anyways uh we have a aria wondering if it's nymeria and unfortunately aria does not have a map she cannot just pull out her smartphone

to figure out the lay of the land that they speak of and remembers her and jory throwing rocks at nymeria screaming for her to leave i forgot jory helped her with that that was really nice of him yeah jory was a fucking good one it's a real one shit ow uh we have this exchange i heard this hell bitch walked into a village one day a market day. People everywhere. She walks in, bold as you please, and tears a baby from his mother's arms. When the tail reached Lord Moten, him and his son swore they'd put an end to her. They tracked her to her lair with a pack of wolf hounds and barely escaped with their skins.

Not one of those dogs came back. Not one. That's just a story. Wolves don't eat babies. And what would you know about it, lad? Asked the man in the green cloak. Before she could think of an answer, Joran had her by the arm. The boy's green sick on

bear. That's all it is. Good cover. Uh, thank you. I wanted to really take you by surprise with where I took that. I'm glad that it went well. The Wild West. Well, I'm just simple country folk out here in the rearlands. You know what I'm saying?

Migrated up from, you know, the Reach. My family came from the Reach. We were simple farmers. So, very sad. Big sad going on here um bummer for all where aria kind of i think did a lot of the old repression when it came to namiria and having to throw rocks at her and then like a couple weeks later her dad is like a traitor and dying and now she's eating pigeons on the road and in case landing but all that stuff happened really quickly and it's interesting because in a game of thrones after it happens not only are we so removed from aria until that first chapter that george like waits and makes us wait for the aria

chapter but then also she doesn't really think about it a lot in a game of thrones and now it's like a memory that's awakening it's rushing to the surface a traumatic one right uh one memory that makes her feel ashamed to have done that not only to Nymeria but to herself to an extension of herself to a part of herself right like if Needle is a part of her Nymeria is more than that absolutely and yeah she repressed all that trauma and she's gonna have to repress all this one too from all the all these dead people the next few books if you just want to mark those off

all these are things that Arya will get trauma from so you don't really get I think as you said that that deep view of what happened with her and Nymeria until like it's very sparse right she's just that was a really painful time at the trident for her

not only did she have to make her wolf go away her friend died and she doesn't even have the heart to touch on that she lost a lot of important people and animals in her life that day she wonders if Nymeria would even recognize her now and she thinks that Nymeria would probably hate her for everything she did and this line of thinking kind of feels like a mirror for how Arya feels about her mother wondering like with will her mother still accept her after everything later on and I will say to be honest I do think that both Catelyn Stark and Lady Stoneheart would accept her i think lady stoneheart obviously would be like wow your body count is so low let me tell you and let me show you how it's done kid this is how we kill people but honestly

truly i do even think that the catelyn stark pre-death right that we meet early in storm and even by the time she dies the catelyn who also also has lost Bran and Rickon. And not yet Rob. Because that's literally at the end of her life. I think she would actually understand. Or even. Kind of envy. To an extent Arya's very. Her pragmatism when it comes to murder.

Yeah. That's a great point. And it's so sad. Because of everything Catelynalin does to get her back, you know, that Arya was made to feel this ostracized from things that are being, you know that they also led her to that feeling, right? That she felt that way in her family and felt so separate from her mom's ideals of what a lady should be that that affected her so much. Like, that's so unfair to put on her. Yeah. Like, of course Catelyn would take her back.

Catelyn fucking freed Jaime Lannister on a whim and was like, please fucking find them. Fucking find them. And Jamie almost didn't if it wasn't for the weird fucking boner he got about Brienne. Honestly. Yeah, that's true. If he hadn't woken up with a weird boner for Brienne. And I mean, like, I mean, Catelyn even is like, I would like to kill them.

I would like to kill the Lannisters. So I think she gets it. Gotta point out, wolves do eat babies. In fact, in Dance with Dragons in the prologue, a wolf eats a baby. Just floating that idea. Just saying, Arya, no big deal. It's cute, though, to pretend.

And I think there is a lot of that, right? Like, she sees that happen real time at the Red Wedding wedding where some of the wolves turn and are no longer loyal not all wolves are loyal it's cute to pretend though she'll learn unfortunately they are not the whole thing about alpha wolves and that kind of loyalty was done in faulty experiments that has been debunked but anyways um yeah wolves i the only reason i could imagine them not this is not a helpful line of thinking eating babies is i guess they might be like this is not that tasty there's not very much meat they would not go after that but yes they absolutely would and as you said they do in dance and yeah i don't know just sad about her being like will nymeria even still like me or will she hate me honestly i don't know i do wonder that

because animals do not understand feelings in that same way thankfully her animal is psychic connected and linked to her body. True. True. Doesn't mean she'll forgive her, but we'll see. I think she will. That's interesting to think about, too. I love that Arya, you know, has all these moments where she's accidentally outing herself in the journey.

And bit by bit, Yoren's like, bitch, you need to shut up and get out. What are you doing? You are giving away your status and who you are so easily. And it's these little things that she's learning how to counteract and how to act right uh it kind of reminds me of sansa in the last chapter that you know her jaw dropped as joffrey almost murders dantos when to survive yeah she has to shut her mouth a little bit and we see it in elaine chapters too where she forgets herself over john snow is lord commander uh kind of these little moments where they're not very good at being in hiding they're working on it they are and i think it's actually great to see that in these

class chapters when you compare it with who they become in the later books and how adept they become at it i do like this reminder though of the ferocity of nymeria and then like that whole bit about the wolves defeating the dogs and like all the dogs like being gone because i do think it is meant to be foreshadowing perhaps or likely a showdown with ramsay and i'm actually going off of the notes that george rr martin left um in the screenplay when he wrote The Lion and the Rose, the Game of Thrones episode. He actually had left a note for the producers that meant absolutely fucking nothing in the long run, unfortunately,

because of the way the show went and the fact that we're still waiting on these books. But we have a note here that he left of a note for future reference. A season or two down the line, Ramsay's pack of wolfhounds are going to be sent against the Stark direwolves. So we should build up the dogs as much as possible in this and subsequent episodes.

Think of what they stole from you. Think of what they took from you, everyone. Think of it. We're gonna show up at Amanda Peet's husband's house. And we are gonna... I'm just kidding. We're not going to do that. But think of what they took from you can you imagine the battle of the bastards but with this and a plot and with dogs i don't know

i mean i guess i would be sad about the dogs dying yeah me too it would be i don't know it would be really interesting and cool like i feel like what what did it mean what was actually going to happen why did we not bring back the wolf pack to do cool things? And not just, that's not you. I don't know. I feel there's an argument, though, for that, too. But I agree. Yeah.

So I agree what you're saying. Wolves do, in fact, eat babies. But Arya adamantly saying wolves don't eat babies. When you think about it in the context of the Stark family, the part where yes the Stark soldiers also do bad things I it feels a little bit like wolves don't eat babies we don't kill kids Ned Stark's commitment to protecting the innocents especially children right when he was all like all right all right Cersei Lannister I'm gonna give you a chance to escape the city so that your kids survive which actually now that I think about it if if Cersei had done that, maybe her kids

really all wouldn't have died instead of what's going to happen now. Anyway. I haven't thought about that until now. But because of prophecy, they were always gonna die, so he was always gonna tell them. And that's on Doctor Who. That's on, you know, we're writing this plotline in ink.

This is a fixed point in time. The prophecy. I think they're writing this plotline in ink. This is a fixed point in time. The prophecy. I think they're gonna learn to change it somehow. I don't know how yet. We'll figure it out. One day. Those kids are gonna get out of there. I mean, look at that. They changed the future of everything in Game of Thrones. The wolves were supposed to fight the dogs. Anything could happen, Chloe.

We could still win. Yoren kicks her out until she learns to shut her mouth when men are talking, and she goes to the stables, which is where we meet the third of the very dangerous locked-up wagon trio, finally. George cleverly does not reveal the third's name until now,

because he's no man. He is no one. Until the first moment where Jaqen H'ghar speaks. He lifts an empty tankard and asks Addy, the lovely boy, to quench his taste for beer, saying he could use a bath, too, that a boy

could make a friend. Arya's like, I have friends, thanks, and the noseless man says, not that I can see. Rude. He's like, no you don't, you loser. You don't have any friends. So the lovely boy, it's an interesting phrase, right?

I think he's kind of hinting that, oh, he knows that Arya's in disguise, right? They're not terms that usually see put together unless, I don't know, something else is going on. It kind of tips you off that, oh, interesting jockin can see through the disguise knows it when he sees it and is very well trained in it because that's his job disguise oh that's a great point yeah his job is beach so then we have uh we have this line he was squatting thick with huge hands black hair covered his arms and legs and chest, even his back. He reminded Aria of a drawing she had once seen in a book, of an ape from the Summer Isles.

The hole in his face made it hard to look at him for long. The bald one opened his mouth and hissed like some immense white lizard. When Aria flinched back, startled, he opened his mouth wide and waggled his tongue at her. Only it was more a stump than a tongue. Stop that, she blurted. When Arya flinched back, startled, he opened his mouth wide and waggled his tongue at her. Only it was more a stump than a tongue. Stop that, she blurted. A man does not choose his companions in the black cells.

The handsome one with the red and white hair said. Ooh, some great interesting visuals going on. Questionable and interesting visuals. The way he speaks reminds her of Syrio, but different. The noseless one calls Arya Lumpyhead and calls the red and white haired man Lorath, saying Arya will hit him with a stick if he isn't careful. Yeah, so on one hand, it's probably because the Lorathi dialect, it's probably a little similar, right? But not exactly based on their religion. And as we discussed in our Free Cities episode on Lorath, that series that we will get back to at some point. But yeah, dialects across the Free Cities, they're related. They've

got this shared culture. But on the other hand, I think there's an aspect of which Syrio, let's be real, Jaqen H'ghar also lived in Bravo, same as Syrio, because that's where the House of Black and White is located, so he was there for a long time, and I'm kind of like is Arya actually just learning to listen very well? Like maybe Jaqen's not super great at practicing, who

knows? Also, I just can't believe that Rorge corrects Jaqen and is like, no this one's not named Arya, it's named Lumpyhead! Rude! What do you mean you can't believe it? It's true. Oh yeah, that's right. That is, uh, this character's Christian name given at

birth, Lumpyhead. Christian. Oh my god. Jaqen introduces himself, once of the Free City of Lorath. His companions, Rorgege and biter who bears his sharpened teeth though unable to speak for the lack of tongue yeah there's a line i thought it was kind of interesting and fun the are you charmed in terms of meeting and it feels like

this whole thing right you're meeting someone who turns out is magical it's like a twisted fairy tale there's three of them in there now that i think about it jock and hogar is kind of like a fucked up genie murder genie i think other people have called him murder genie before but It's like a twisted fairy tale. There's three of them in there. Now that I think about it, Jaqen H'ghar is kind of like a fucked up genie, murder genie. I think other people have called him murder genie before, but he's like a fucked up genie slash fairy godmother, you know, but for murder. Almost like a Rumpelt Stiltskin kind of character. Yeah, yeah. Because we don't get the reveal of who he is until now. We never get his real name, really, if you think about it. Mm hmm. Arya says no, though. He's like, no, this is not charming. I don't know.

Something about Bider makes me think of, like, Ill and Pain, right? Bider is what Ill and Pain could have become. Someone who, without the ability to write, to speak, and in that isolation, just completely loses his humanity. But we see that Ill and Pain, despite being very scary for obvious reasons, in that he killed Dad. He has a lot of humanity there. And in that Ill and Pain, despite being very scary for obvious reasons in that he killed Dad,

he has a lot of humanity there. And in Sansa's plot, yeah. Interesting. I like that, especially with the ghosts of Sansa's plot, too. For her, it's a lot to see Ill and Pain all the time, and so this is almost a mini-reminder for Arya as well, with the tongue.

Arya backs away, telling herself they can't hurt her. They're all chained. This is me in a haunted house. I hate haunted houses, and whenever I go to them, you'll just hear me murmuring to myself, being like, you can't touch me, you can't touch me. Don't fucking look at me.

Fucking hate haunted houses. I just don't go in haunted houses. I won't. I stopped. I tried. Never again. No more. It's funny. Emmett won't do roller coasters. I won't do haunted houses. Don't know how that works.

I just, I guess, don't do anything. I'll just sit outside and be mom when all of you go to the theme park. You'll just get a little beer? Her job is her job is yeah my job is beer roge flings his cup at aria commanding her to get them beer and aria's like what would sirium do and she draws her sword and gets closer roge threatens to fuck her bloody with it if she comes closer but aria pushes herself to approach them repeating her mantra

in her head biter grabs for her irons clanking and rattling and comes up short half a foot from her face she hits him between the eyes uh this fight especially has great language of the back and forth of her moving and i feel like there's something here similar to jane heddle and brienne right and of course gendry meeting this same exact crew of rorsian biter once more at the end at the And I feel like there's something here similar to Jane Heddle and Brienne, right? And of course, Gendry meeting this same exact crew of Rorj and Biter once more at the end at the crossroads. There's just something about that where we have yet another brunette Jane who isn't Arya Stark, though she's confused as Arya Stark for just a quick moment from Brienne. And of course, Gendry gets to meet the crew again. All over again.

Yeah, that's right. He does. He's there. He is. He is. And, I mean, he's acting kind of like a true knight, right? Helping everyone out. A blacksmith. Whatever. Both. A little of both. The smith himself.

Oh, true. Jaqen says that a boy has more courage than sense and they are interrupted then by the bull asking what she is doing and reminds her Joran says don't talk to these prisoners cause Arya's like they don't scare me and Gendry is a smart

person who says that no actually those people do scare me I am very big but Gendry he's confident you, he's confident, you know, he's confident enough to be like, I don't have to put on any bravado. They are very scary. Also, I think Gendry has street smarts and is like, I don't go looking for trouble. Arya doesn't quite have that yet at all. But she does follow him for what it's worth to the inn asking if he wants to fight with her and he's like i would hurt

you ari argues this is good steel and they pose ready to dance but in come interrupting the day the gold cloaks i don't know if this is like a gendrya thing moment i don't know them getting ready to dance and spar makes me think a little bit of jamie and brienne when he gets out of his chains and then they fight with swords and it's actually very sexually charged i'm not saying this is like a sexually charged moment but i'm like is it meant to be i don't know some sort of romantic thing george might be into that i think there's something there especially when you think about the in at the crossroads framing with the characters that are there i definitely think there's something drawing aria back to the Riverlands later, and

Jaime and Brienne's central plot being located here. There's something kind of connecting their plots, I would say personally. I would say personally, yes. Dun dun dun. All rivers lead to a home

and by home I mean my mom's home. Yep. Look with your eyes, Syrio's voice echoes in her head, and she watches the men and their horses who look like they'd been ridden too hard and too long. She draws the bull behind a hedge, and they watch the gold cloaks

questioning some of the men in their group outside of the bathhouse. The gold cloaks say they have a warrant for a certain boy, and Yoren steps out to deal with the gold cloaks. Arya whispers to the bull, they're looking for me! And the bull's like, why the fuck would they want you?

So, I thought this was a fun detail where Arya, right after saying they want her like suddenly the next line for no fucking reason is she notices the smell of soap coming from Gendry's ear and I just thought that was a nice way that George shows and doesn't tell what's going on right she thinks that they want her because she's in hiding and that's shown by the fact that she cannot get clean she smells real bad because she's in hiding and the

dirt keeping her safe gentry though presumably until this moment is safe enough and can be a man feels that he can just be public about that and therefore bathe can just go about the world with that strength without fear funnily enough he's not wearing his helm much right yeah uh and we see that becomes a state of identification. Why would you wear that helm when literally your nickname's the bull and everyone knows where that helm came from? It came from you working at the smith because you were Tobomod's apprentice. True.

And that's identifying, you know, that's a dead giveaway of he's the person they're looking for, that bull helm. Kind of makes me wonder if something will change with his identity, same as with the hound. But also, unfortunately for Gendryry his face is also a dead giveaway because he looks just like robert baratheon and friendly yeah it makes me think about aria's sword too as the identifier for her when she comes home against the jane aria the janes of the world all the different janes the aria pretenders though yeah it makes me think you know there's a little cinderella story in sanza losing her shoe when she gets like shaken over the fucking veil by her aunt and for aria her trying the shoe on is that she has the sword that's her indicator that she's who she is

yep same as how rickon has his wolf for now meanwhile yoren is looking at the warrant ribbon sealed with golden max and calls it pretty but spit saying this boy's in the watch now and no one can take him ari is thinking about running but she knows she wouldn't get far and she's just so tired of running if she was better faster stronger harder uh she would head out there and kill them all with needle and never have to run again this reminds me of that line from bran especially now that he can no longer walk when he dreams of like he wants to become his wolf and fight everyone because he can't get out of bed and how depressed he is but he's just like so mad and and fierce and just the only thing he has in the world is to fight right to to kill

fight anything just be the wolf not feel that pain and for aria that's that first reaction for her too right she's choosing like i could fix it by killing everyone i could just kill everyone fix it get out of here that's not the solution baby girl interestingly that is i guess kind of what tywin thinks right he's like i just have if i could just kill them all my problems will be solved it does not solve the problem and he dies thank god the gold cloaks threaten yoren that they have five men and yoren's like i've got 30 yoren's charges then all start standing up to fight saying that they're first and then hot pie scrambles out on all fours to find a big rock to throw and then we have this little line here of aria could not believe what she was seeing she hated hot pie why would he risk himself for her the one with the broken nose still thought it was funny i love this i want to call it out because

aria's like i'm the main character and of course why wouldn't she think she is i mean she why wouldn't she think she is yeah it's very funny though and i love that hot pie's doing what he's best at getting the rock and the emotion she swells with thinking it's about her, when in reality, no, like, we don't know it's about her. Though also really funny, Gendry has a lot more leadership cred than she does, so I'm like, Arya, Arya, Arya. It's Gendry, though, right? Hysterically, this is Gendry, and Gendry has that same problem as Jon, right? Like a quote-unquote king's quote-unquote bastard. But Arya doesn't know that. Very funny that she's like, it's me, I'm the

princess. They want me. Defend me. And it's like, no, Arya, don't give yourself away. Almost giving herself away again, right? Just like with the wolves, like when everyone was talking about her dad and talking about the wolves and Rob. If someone started adding these clues up,

they'd figure it out, which Gendry kind of does in a way he knows something's up yeah later he's a smart boy who knows to be scared yeah that's that aria was never taught fear settle down well that's the thing right she wasn't really taught fear until now right and she thinks that they're after her because that's all that's been happening the past few weeks she's like oh god they're after me like what what trauma that's just what she falls back on she's like they're after me she's got such anxiety something that i think is really beautiful though in this moment is actually you know we do the first time around of course assume that it is aria that they're looking for because that's what we think and actually no one in the Night's Watch except for Euron knows who the gold cloaks are looking for yet they have no idea whom

stid of among them is the person in the warrant yet they all come out and they defend whoever the fuck it is anyway and I love that because they are acting as brothers they are defending each other that's their new family and aria you know her impulse is to run or to kill right to fight or flight literally fight or flight those are her options the instincts she's going back to those base animal instincts as a wolf i guess um and she thinks that safety and power is being able to just kill all of her enemies right that's that fight the gold cloaks a little bit like ned but in a different way they think that this paper is gonna be what defends them or maybe they're like are you right they're like well i have a

fucking sword and i have five people and we're all gonna kick your ass right they think that power comes from the sword violence or or that law but i think what's beautiful about this moment with the knights watchman brothers i'm gonna call them brothers now even though they never fucking make it to the wall is they show that there's a different kind of safety and it's this right standing up for each other protecting each other it's family dom teretto comes out he makes a cameo oh my god. Family. Kendall Roy comes out, banging on the door, family therapy. Oh my gosh. That's a crossover I need. Dom Toretto and Kendall Roy.

Interesting. Yeah, that's a great point. It's kind of their first banding together, their first bit of solidarity since Prairie died. That's true, yeah. There are a few defining, yeah, like, a moment that, of stress. Positive masculinity. Hmm. It does exist. It actually does exist. We found it.

Arya stands up, too, thinking she won't let them die for her like Syrio. Oh, poor girl. She steps forward, brandishing her sword one of the gold cloaks says put the blade away little girl and she shouts furious saying i'm not a little girl in a voice that's very convincing i'm sure she's starting to get mad now poor aria she's so small she is she's nine years old brandishing her skinny, you're like, I'm not a little girl. That's what my cat Allie sounds like.

That's her voice. I can hear it. She's Aria. She's starting to get really mad about it, realizing they don't get it's her they're chasing. She's like, I'm right here. Why are they not chasing me? She's like, I'm the one you're looking for. And they laugh again and they point at the bull and they say, no, no, no, no, no.

It's him that we're looking for. Yeah. Arrested development when they play on the gag him. For real. Nobody expected it to be Gundry. And Yoren takes this moment of confusion to press steel against some of the throats of these cloaks, telling them. Yeah, right. Yoren is the man.

He's like, I have more men in the inn, so get the fuck out. One of the men's swords falls to the ground and Yoren's like, we'll be keeping that. We need some good steel on the wall. Thanks for the respect. The cloaks threaten that next time they'll kill Yoren too when they return,

as well as the bastard boy's head. And Yoren says, who wants the sword? Hot Pie claims it. And Yoren's like, please don't use that on Eri. LOL. Lumpy head. The gold cloaks. Lumpy head.

Don't give her any new lumps, is what I'm saying. The gold cloaks leave. Yoren tells the bull, the queen wants you bad. Arya's like, why would the queen want you? The bull returns that, and he's like, I don't know. Why would she want you, you dirty little gutter rat? Which is the cutest nickname. I'm going to call you that, my little gutter rat.

So you, bestie. Oh my god. You filthy little gutter rat, Eliana. I'm going to say it all the time. This is starting to get dirty in a different way. Wow. And that's for free. Imagine what you get on Patreon.

Oh my gosh. You know? It's just that. It's more gosh you know it's just that it's more of that it's just that because this exchange well you're nothing but a bastard boy or maybe he was only pretending to be a bastard boy what's your true name gendry he said like he wasn't quite sure i just think it's funny because that's still not his true name right yeah it's not technically i guess he doesn't know he has rivers i guess waters oh no you're right waters yeah he doesn't know that he's a waters even because you only get a cool like element thing added onto your name when you know that you're like a highborn bastard otherwise you're just you were just your first name like prince i guess he's our first royal bastard that we meet in the flesh yeah wait maya oh wait no in the book no in book one in book one he is the first nevermind

yeah yeah he is then maya yeah then blood raven i hope we meet more of them oh yeah would you argue that blood raven is actually the first because we meet him as a borb no in flesh that's why i said in the flesh yeah like i see yeah i'm not being specific for that purpose i actually kind of wondered if i could gotcha if you would say it yeah if you could sometimes i like gotcha gotcha i like to get a couple gotcha moments in sometimes like that thing on your ceiling right now. Yeah, you like to you like to try and get the gotchas and I just like to get a rise out of you. See what I can do to. You know, I have to say before we finish out the chapter, there was a great conversation on Blue Sky the other day, where I think it was our friend Josh mentioned.

I think it was our friend Josh mentioned, he was like, he said, you know, there are these great moments that get me every time where Eliana will make a joke. And I don't know if it's the editing or if it's actually you guys, but Chloe just doesn't respond. And she just like takes a beat and then she just jumps into the next thing. And I'm like, oh, no, that's real. That's not edited. That's yeah. Because they can't see. There is a reaction. It's just only on chloe's

face it's it's a little like what am i doing here there's a slight smile because she's like giving up on life but it's also a little bit like that lisa simpson meme she was telling us about earlier make sure to check the episode details so you can see the meme and understand the live action of me going. Anyways, so Yoren says they can't have either of them, regardless. But he puts both of these kids onto two strong coursers, saying that if the Gold Cloaks come knocking again, Ahri and Gendry need to ride for the wall like a dragon's on their tail. Ahri reminds him they threatened to take Yoren's head. She's like, new dad,

what are you gonna do? They wanna chop your head off too, just like my old dad. Yoren says that if they can get it off his shoulders, they're welcome to it. And that's how we end the chapter. Yeah, I am realizing now that Yoren being like, you idiots, we didn't fucking win

when Hot Pie is whooping. And he's like, we have to leave. Now. That is, again, another good example of, hey, turns out fear is sometimes a good thing, Arya. Sometimes we should be scared and do things and run away. Like, this is the flight- Yeah, and save our own lives. Yeah, this is the flight response after they almost did the fight. Yeah, the goal was de-escalate

and run. Not strong enough to win. Yeah, and unfortunately they do. They should have just killed those five guys now. Honestly, maybe Arya was right. They should have fought. They should have killed those guys. And then those guys would have never caught up to them later on, and then Yoren would have not died.

If you really think about it no not five guys your burgers are so sexy that's right we should have killed them and eaten them like burgers like burgers that's moral I mean it would have given them

more of a lead time but also once they found them it could be a big problem they wouldn't find them if they ate them as burgers oh my god all right all right wow speaking of burgers you have something to tell us of value this has nothing of burger that was a that segue makes no sense but thank you uh i would have said speaking of the morals i guess i don't know you know we do get a clash of values here right in this chapter we have this old way chloe's like that little lemur you know the lemur gif where he's just like holding his hands up like

what is what what uh so we have the old way not necessarily that of the north or the first men but this idea of like values that make up what the night's watch should have been or the idea that the night's watch once you're in it you kind of get your sins washed away but in general like these core principles that run deeper than any sheet of paper or law or ruler kind of like the ones that ned followed right ned who was like, this is more important than the law, when he goes against his king's final wishes, when he uses different wording than Robert gives him when writing that will, or when Ned's like, I have to go hide children, specifically a royal bastard and a Stark, just like Joran is also doing,

but Joran, the royal bastard, and the Stark are actually two different people at this time, like Yoren is also doing, but Yoren, the Royal Bastard, and the Stark are actually two different people at this time, unlike it was for Ned. And then you have those people with a different set of values, right? They've kind of forgotten that these laws are meant to protect people, that they're supposed to be

upholding justice, these gold cloaks, right? And those who follow a law, you know, they're following the law just because someone told them what to do, someone who wields more power than them and believes that the power derives from that person right again varies this riddle and and that power derives from this paper just because of that person's blood or maybe because they as the gold cloaks feel that they can spill blood so yeah they feel empowered right

they feel empowered that they can kill but to yeah they feel empowered right they feel empowered that they can kill but to the point of what you and i just discussed you know the night's watch can't kill them in defense without being in trouble i mean what are they gonna do send them to the night's watch but i mean honestly yeah they could just send them to the night's watch but yeah they'd probably be executed they're already on a perilous journey with no guard, no honor guard sent from the capital. No one cares where they're going. They have to make this entire trip going north. Well, like, by virtue of being Night's Watchmen who have taken that pledge, right,

which back then was seen as something very honorable, that's supposed to be its own protection and honor guard. You know, people are supposed to respect that and these people are not right because no one gives a shit about them anymore it's bullshit unfortunately people do give a shit about them i guess which is why gendry and aria are in hiding my god oh that's Well, another chapter gone by. I look forward to our next Aria chapter next week. We'll be back with Aria 3, our 200th A Song of Ice and Fire episode. Wow.

Official. Official. Yes. Quote, unquote. I mean, many, many more. Many more. I look forward to that. We'll have our first guest coming on for Aria 4.

I wish we had a who's that pokemon segment who's that pokemon so you could guess but they're amazing the person that's going to come on i want you to speculate till next episode because they're awesome you know we've worked with them before in a couple capacities but never had them on for the main a song of ice and fire shindig and i look forward to it so me too i like this is interesting back then we used to only hint at who's the next pov now we're now we're playing guessing games who's the next guest listen we're getting down there on povs so i have to have fun where i can get it now we're using real people oh what is this? Saw? Thanks for listening, everyone.

This is not like Saw. This is not like Saw. Coming on the podcast was not like Saw. As always, we are going to let our patrons lead us on out. But first, make sure you're following us on the social medias. Right, Eliana? Yeah, because it is growing. Not only can you find us on Twitter at Girls Gone Canon, that's C-A-N-O-N, you can also find us on Blue Sky. But maybe you

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There are multiple channels for historic materials, A Song of Ice and Fire. There's a pets channel, Fashion Hour. There are multiple channels for historic materials, A Song of Ice and Fire. There's a pets channel, which I think is probably the most important channel of all. Respectful Thirsting, because there's a channel for that. Come by, join the community. It's a lot of fun and you won't regret it. Hey, thanks again for joining us on this perilous journey around the god's eye i've been one of your hosts chloe i've been another one of your hosts eliana or gutter rat fucking filthy little gutter rat what the fuck lumpy head no is that me am i lumpy no i gave you a choice last episode do you want to be lumpy head or lumpy face and you're like i don't want to be ether and i was like fun we'll figure out my name maybe i'm just no one

maybe i'm just no one wow see you next week