Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 20 - AGOT Sansa II/III

Episode Date: September 28, 2018

Thrust into a magical world where the line between truths and lies blurs more often than not, Sansa Stark begins to learn that life is not a song, and to use her courtesy as a shield.   intro by Anton Langhage   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

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon, episode 20, Sansa 2 and Sansa 3. I'm Chloe, one of your hosts. You can find me on the internet as at Liza and Arbor on Twitter and Tumblr, and at Drunk A Song of Ice and Fire History. And hello, I'm Eliana, your other host. You can find me as GlassTableGirl on the A Song of Ice and Fire subreddit, on maester monthly podcast and i just realized i should probably tell people my twitter not that you know how to find it it's arithmetic and yes we did it we're 20 we are no longer a teenager but we're still just as angsty next episode we'll be able to legally drink not that we haven't been drinking on every episode. And not that our baby girl Sansa hasn't been drinking. Guzzling wine.

Downing it. She is though. She's getting drunk like every single. Yeah. Spammed. Spammed. Well, we're really excited to be on here. Thank you so much to patrons who have signed up and are listening to the new REN episode that we put out last week from the Winds of Winter. It's been a really great episode.

We've gotten tons of great feedback, and we're very excited to continue on with Sansa today. We are, but before we do that, we have a couple of emails and comments of note, especially those that were in response to our first Sansa episode. So the first email we get comes from Josh Walker, and Josh has emailed us about this crazy thing about Joffrey singing, which, yes, it is wild. Josh says, We don't get confirmation, but we never hear of Joffrey taking lessons with the, it is wild. Josh says, What is Joffrey singing? And he removes the tongue of a satirical singer later, so it's probably not witty.

Lastly, he does not appear to be pious, so probably not a song about the Faith. From what we see in the books, this would essentially leave only the Bear and the Maiden Fair, which Joffrey likely learned it from Robert. The King did love his drinking songs. Dunkthing's better of singing a rape limerick to a noblewoman though, but I doubt Joffrey would. The only other songs that I can see that would appeal to Joffrey would be a war song or a song about hunting, and unless House Baratheon is songs about hunting, defeating the dragons, or the storm gods, ooh I would love these songs, it would appear that the Reigns of Casimir is the other likely song.

With either the Bairn the Maiden Fair or Reigns of Casimir, the song could be viewed as either Joffrey making a threat or just being a jackass. Both fit with his character better than him singing a sweet song to Sansa as presented. Best regards, Josh Walker. I

kind of like this, right? It's true. Almost every Joff reaction we get with Sansa is almost catching him without his good guy act I think he would definitely be singing something more like Reigns or Bear but or even like some rougher song he wouldn't be singing about Jenny of Old Stones right he wouldn't be singing about florian and john quill or queen nares i think the idea of joffrey singing the bear and the maiden ferret is fucked up but also hilarious yeah like squeaky and off key yeah like it's maybe he like goes to hit a high note and his voice breaks i hope he sings terribly and sansa is just like so into him

that she's like oh wow he's so he's so good. It's so romantic. He is the ultimate like it's Justin Bieber fever, right? It's like Bieber fever. Sure, sure. That's literally how Joffrey is. He's just a teeny bopper, right? Like, that's what I see. That's probably what he looks like.

He's like curly hair. What's the guy? Boo Boo from Bob's Burgers. Oh my god, yes. And Louise just wants to slap his face exactly exactly he's boo-boo he's boo-boo from that band and bob's burgers which comes back this coming sunday yes i can't wait that's our new podcast we're quitting this podcast and doing a bob's burgers podcast now i mean actually yeah I'd be down to do that,

cook burgers every- I mean, because me and Emmett have talked about it. Anyways. All right. Anyways, so we also got comments on our Podbean. Did you know people leave comments and actually like have a discourse on Podbean? But these were some really good ones, and they are both from a user named Southeast Kardashian. And I love them. So the first comment says, The beginning of Sansa's story reminds me of a person who does everything society tells you to do, but still doesn't see success.

She paid attention in class, cared about learning the political landscape, and even dresses how she's told. And yet she gets taken captive and mocked for it. The very thing they celebrate. Exactly. We're going to definitely see that in these two chapters that we discuss of how this idea of like play by the rules and stick to it and you're going to succeed is ingrained in Sansa's like upbringing.

The next comment also by SouthEast Kardashian is when Arya says she's looking for rubies I assumed it was a moment of both girls being childish. The whole conversation reminded me of two children not fully grasping the subject they were discussing but having an quote-unquote enlightened talk all the same. At the same time I assumed Rhaegar's rubies were simply a metaphor for his blood, so Arya looking for them was very comical to me. However, Sonda, to my memory, never doubts the existence of these rubies. She is more concerned with missing out on an experience she may never

have again and making a good impression. Besides, who looks for precious stones a decade after they fell on a crowded field? I would say first in response to this, like, I think the idea that it's his blood is interesting, but we know for sure that these are literal rubies, uh, because A we know that Rhaegar wore an armor of- that was black and inlaid with rubies, and I believe this is one of those songs that sung about robert's rebellion how after the hammer smashed into his chest the rubies flew and so this is just a legend that people talk about and i don't know if this is in the house of the undying or if it's really just that much of an embellishment yeah i mean and those that's the other thing is yes his rubies

probably flew no matter what but that vision is obviously a little bit of a dramatization because it is, you know, basically an acid dream of him sinking to his knees with the blood running out of him in the rubies, which I seen some awesome art of that. I don't know if you have, but there are some really cool artwork pieces for the fan art community of Rhaegar in the Trident. But this actually brings us into something that we get from our friend Pat, who emailed us last week, and I'm really excited to read this email from him. I was thinking about Sansa and Arya talking about rubies and how Sansa was initially at a loss. I don't know if I'd say it was a lack of education on Sansa's part, but she might have been confused by Arya randomly talking about rubies of all things. He goes on to talk about how of course Sansa knows the tale of Robert Baratheon defeating Rhaegar, but we know Sansa's pretty much usually on the ball with this

kind of stuff, except when she's being manipulated, which is a situation that gets fixed by experience instead of education. I was also thinking about Joffrey showing up at the Holdfast and demanding food by virtue of being a prince of the realm. He thinks it's a comfortable thing to bust Joffrey on and other acts that point to privilege and entitlement, but he doesn't think that Joffrey was quite out of line in context of society. A Holdfast is firmly part of that feudal structure and held by a minor noble, so we'd expect that character would be expected to show hospitality to their peers and overlords. It's quite possible the owner of the Holdfast, after playing host to the prince, would find it reasonable and not unwelcome to travel to Robert's encampment and report to one of the king's stewards,

asserting he was honored to host young Prince Joffrey and his lady, and for which the steward would thank the Holdfaste for his service and reward him. He also makes a great reference of Sir Duncan the Tall, for example. Lots of Sir Duncan in the emails today. That's crazy. I love that. I love it so much. That he would clout Aegon the Ear if he tried to pull rank on someone like that.

But he can also imagine an older Prince Aegon traveling across the land he would one day rule as agon the unlikely and visiting a hold fest and expecting hospitality without necessarily having the funds on hand to offer recompense did i just compare joffrey to ag i guess i did and that either made my point that what joffrey did was not too bad or it invalidated my entire argument, which also is fair. I love Pat. Yeah. I think he, he does make a good point.

I get that. But I guess in my opinion, it's more commenting on the system as a whole. That's kind of messed up. I don't, uh, maybe it's not just messed up that Joffrey did it, but the whole system that's kind of like,

I don't know. I just, I just don't go to someone's house without telling him I'm coming over. That's all. Yeah. It's rude. It's rude. I think I don't know, I just don't go to someone's house without telling them I'm coming over. That's all. Yeah. It's rude. It's rude. I think I only did that, what, in college, and that was expected, and it was someone's, like, dorm.

Yeah, it's not a real home. It's not a holdfast. Yeah. Let's skip into our lightning round. We've got a lot to cover. Of course, these are already some really bulky chapters with a ton of exposition to go through sansa is a great camera into things happening in the realm or things that have happened in the realm in eddard three in house dairy's great hall aria and joffrey tell different tales of the events that occurred at the trident sansa after recovering from her very first hangover a couple days before, says that she's unable to remember and the queen demands blood, specifically ladies' blood. Bran III, falling in his dreams, a crow offers Bran some flying lessons.

He wakes from his coma and names his direwolf Summer. In Catelyn III, I feel like I never get to read the Catelyn III ones. This is fun for me. Catelyn III, Ser Roderick and Catelyn embark on an undercover mission by sea, landing in King's Landing. They meet secretly with Peter Baelish and Varys, and Catelyn receives information that Tyrion Lannister owns the dagger that almost killed her and her son.

Jon III. Donald Noy has Jon's back when new recruits attack him, but he still lectures him on his snobby attitude. Later, John meets up with Tyrion and eventually learns from Jaren Mormont that his brother has woken from his coma. Shattered IV. Ned attends a small council meeting as soon as he gets to King's Landing, and he finds himself coerced into helping plan a tournament in his name. Littlefinger later meets him, leading him to where Catalin is, and he and Catalin strategize for justice. Arya too, losing her friend, losing her dog.

Arya is unhappy and abandons her dinner. When her father comes to check on her and gives her a talking to, he sees Needle and decides not to take the sword away, but to give her a dancing master to master the tool that she has been given. Bran IV. Pulled from his bed against his will, Bran joins his brother Robb in reluctantly welcoming Tyrion Lannister into the Great Hall of Winterfell. Tyrion gives them blueprints to make Bran a saddle that will allow him to ride a horse again. him blueprints to make Bran a saddle that will allow him to ride a horse again. Eddard V. Ned Stark continues investigating Jon Arryn's death, consulting Maester Pycelle on his final days. When he returns to the Tower of the Hand, Arya is practicing to be a water dancer. Littlefinger visits him later on and informs him that he's found four members of John Arryn's household

in King's Landing. In John IV, John meets Samwise Tarly and stands up to Alistair with his friends. He later speaks with Sam, and he also gets his friends to take it easy on Sam, despite what Thorne was commanding. God, there are so many chapters. All right. Eddard VI. The tourney has brought nothing but trouble to the city, and that trouble must be dealt with by the small council. Joy brings Ned an update on the Jon Arryn case. Stannis and Jon visited a brothel and an armorer, so Ned goes off to see it all himself. First stop, Gendry, King Robert's bastard.

And this brings us to Catelyn V. Arriving at a commonly visited Westerosi inn from other POVs, the inn at the crossroads, Catelyn and Ser Roderick escape the pouring rain. Tyrion Lannister shows up at the inn, bringing a small party, and Catelyn, while attempting to remain anonymous, becomes sighted. She calls upon men that are loyal to the Riverlands to bring Tyrion to Winterfell to face the king's justice. This all leads us into Sansa 2, and there's some interesting things happening here with the spacing of Sansa chapters. Not only do we get Sansa 2, where Sansa sees Harold Rhee, and she recounts different things politically, just like we saw her exercise

at House Derry out on the road, that she knows the banners of different men, she knows different high lords, she knows different bits of history, and Catelyn does that same exact thing in the chapter right before this chapter. The other thing about this chapter that's very interesting is it skips over Arya and Ned's accounts of what happened at the Trident during House Derry and during basically the unfair not trial of Lady this lines up that this goes right into the tourney and it's a lot like Ned's chapters in that way that you start off in the middle of a chapter and skip a lot of the events that just happened. Sansa has just the same thing going on. And so here we are then at Sansa 2. Magic is in

the air once more and Sansa is determined not to let this get ruined like her first date with Joffrey. And how could it? She's the Hand's daughter, and this was the Hand's tourney. She sees her first death, and she's given a rose by the gallant Loras Tyrell. Prince Joffrey acts extremely courteous to her, and her stomach soars with the hopes of change. But alas, the magic dies when Joffrey orders the rough brute Sandander Clegane with his burnt face to take Sansa back to her tower, and she learns a fairy tale that she did not want to know. So Sansa shows up to the hands tourney, decked out, right? She is in the most pimped out ride. She is in the litter, draped with yellow silk. The king and queen's colors, you know, the Baratheon colors. It turns the world

gold. Jane Poole and Septimordain ride with her. In the episode that Chloe did with Not a Podcast on this exact chapter, which you should all listen to because I gave it to you as homework last week, poor Quentin does a great job of pointing out that this is very much Sansa being caught up in that moment, seeing all that gold, everything, the especially gold of the Lannisters, and it's something that works like rose-colored glasses in terms of how Sansa sees the world. But there's also a lot going on in this chapter, of course, that speaks to that good old Shakespearean saying of like, all that glitters is not gold. And we're going to see that play out a lot in terms of who is a hero, who gets to have the main key players around this time in Eddard's plot, which were Peter Baelish and Sandor Clegane and Jaime Lannister, who all have this all that glitters is not gold imagery happening about their outfits, about what they say.

chapters they make a great side along piece as we talk about these chapters eddard has a lot of similarities in his chapters to what sans is experiencing which is interesting because they're a world away from each other at least you know in their mind right now they are just coming from such different places also yes if you did not listen to that noticast episode the best part was when i told jeff she's 12 Jeff, which I think she was actually 11. I mean, I said 11, whatever, but that's the best part of the whole episode. So you should totally listen to it because I just like yell at Jeff a lot. It's really smart. It's fantastic. Hundreds of pavilions are erected. I love that kind of scene in our head. Just close your eyes and you can see just like when Dunk went to the tourney at Ashford,

all the pavilions. Yes. That's exactly what I can see in my brain. That's the same image that I had in my brain too. And that same, it reminded me of that language that they were like flowers. Yes. Especially when you think about how the common folk are coming out in the thousands to watch the games.

This is like a huge event. I know we've compared it a lot to the NFL. We talked about it on Not A Cast Like That as well and Sanza too. And I know you and I talked about it back when we did at 7 and 6 that this is the big deal, the big playoff game. And even in the dunk chapters, we're seeing thousands of common folk that of course as we read cheered for dunk. Sansa sees shining armor, she sees chargers in silver and gold, shouts of the crowd, banners are snapping in the wind, and of course finally she finds the chivalrous knights. It is better than the songs, she whispered when they found the places

that her father had promised her among the high lords and ladies. Sansa was dressed beautifully that day in a green gown that brought out the auburn of her hair, and she knew they were looking at her and smiling. Sansa's finally feeling acceptance at this tourney, and of course with her dress, it is green, which definitely brings out the auburn hair. It brings out that red hair. And as we learn later, it brings out those tully features. But green also symbolizes fresh and new life and fertility, which is perfect for a maiden at court. But it also symbolizes greed sometimes, right, in money. So this dress not only kind of borders on the idea of Sansa presenting herself at court as a young lady, but also kind of as a warning to our main character.

Especially with some other characters who are going to show up later. But before we get to him, let's talk about the rest of the cast at this tourney. They watch the heroes of a hundred songs ride forth, each more fabulous than the last. I love this line because as we go through all of the names here, I want you to remember this, that they are the heroes of a hundred songs. Because at these points, Sansa really only does know each of these names because she's been taught them again and again throughout these legends these stories that have been sung of them because of their role in robert's rebellion yeah we get the great symbolism too of course of seven knights of the king's guard right they're all in white except for if this isn't the biggest symbolism ever jamie lannister who's in a white cloak but with golden

armor his sword and a lion's head helm he's gold from head to toe i'm kind of glad they didn't do the lion's head helm in the show because as cool as all the animal looks are it kind of sounds silly like the hound's look barely worked okay yeah it's it's a lot it would be very extra sir gregor clegane speaking of the hound is also there as we know from this tourney he's described as the mountain that rides which he thunders past he is like a menacing man and i'm taller but i can't like fathom seeing him in real life. I met people in real life who are like almost seven feet tall. They're very tall, right? But they are not almost eight feet tall. And they are not like thunderous people.

They're skinnier. Yeah, I just have never, I can't grasp it. It's nuts. Yeah. And the language that is ascribed to Gregor here, it's not really villainous at this moment. It certainly gives us that idea that he's much larger than life because he's like real big.

But the fact that he's included with this group and all these people are coming in right now, despite those rumors about what went down between like gregor and amory lorge and ellia martel and her children gregor is still kind of seen as a hero of the song that is robert's rebellion then we see lord yon royce lord bronze yon royce who is called as such as sansa explains to j, that his armor is bronze. It is thousands of years old and engraved with magic runes.

So we've only seen armor similar to this in the Valyrian glyph armor that Euron has in the Winds of Winter sample chapter. So that's really interesting that we see in the first story, the very first bit of the story, I should say, armor that's engraved with magic runes. With House Royce's words being, we remember, and their runes being rumored magic, their role in protecting the Bloody Gate and the Eyrie, I can see this armor coming back into play during the Long Night Come Again. Let's look at how the story started. It began with Waymer Royce meeting his end with Come Dance With Me. And of course, we know that Waymer's

branch of the family is directly related to the Starks on Eddard's dad, Rickard's side. Rickard's sister had married into House Royce. So I wonder if we're going to see a little bit more of this armor to come in the future. Sansa remembers him from when he guested at Winterfell two years before. This is a great stage set for where we are at the start of the Winds of Winter and Sansa's position surrounded by the Royces and people who could easily figure out who she was if they sniffed a little bit harder.

Definitely. I'm excited to see where Bronzu and Royces, the Royces, the Royce family, where they are going in general, because there's some interesting stuff going on with Nestor Royce. Yeah, I'm really excited for those chapters, especially with all the history that it kind of parallels. Are there any chapters I'm not excited for at this point in my life? I know, right? I just want any of them. Please. All right. Then we have Jason Malister, who wears indigo chase with silver.

I've never seen this color combination before in my life. He also has an eagle winged helm. And his claim to fame is that he cut down three of Rhaegar's bannermen on the Trident. Yeah, in the role playing book, actually, which I guess people take as semi-canon. George did approve it it said that he cut down three of rhaegar's bannermen to avenge his dead brother i think the imagery of his uh indigo and silver outfit a very like deep purpley blue with silver a very other royal color uh that's interesting it's very interesting just the color scheme it kind of really i mean it

isolates him as a character you know he's stands out in a crowd he also kills roderick grayjoy in the grayjoy rebellion which i think it's really interesting there's not a ton of grayjoy rebellion uh exposition in sansa's chapters of all people she gets a little few hints here and there but the same episode that kind of covers this chapter on the show bastards cripples and broken things which we actually just recorded an episode of overwatched with this gray area this week i don't know when it's going to be out so i'm excited to see it we will totally link it but this episode covers this and we get a lot of exposition in the beginning of the episode on the Greyjoy Rebellion from Tyrion and Theon. Yeah, fun part about this episode is that it covers a journey.

Anyway, we also see Thoros of Myr and he has flapping red robes. He's got a shaved head. It's not how I envisioned him because the show is like really fucked me up. And Septimordain tells him that, well, at first Sansa's like, that guy's kind of goofy. But Septimordain is like, actually, that guy once scaled the walls of Pyke with a flaming sword in hand. So he's weird, goofy, and drunk, but he's kind of a badass. Right. He constantly lights his sword on fire and tourneys and melees, which it scares people and their horses. It's kind of shitty, right? Like you kind of you're just pulling your trick for funsies. He's one of Robert's drinking companions. And he actually, which actually

kind of reminds me of Robert's old drinking companion that disappeared, Richard Lonmouth, from the rebellion, right? We get that in Bran's chapter in A Storm of Swords, where we get some rebellion exposition from the tourney at Harrenhal. We'll get to some stuff on Richard Lonmouth eventually, I'm sure. Okay, but while I'm here just ruining lives, what if, now that you've drawn this comparison in because deep down inside i'm a giant troll thoros of myr of course like melisandre is a priest of ralor what if thoros of myr is richard lodmouth that's not in a glamour but But who's Lem, then, bro? Also Thoros of Myr! Oh my god, you're ruining my life. There are also other writers that Sansa doesn't know.

Such as these rando hedge knights from the Finkers, rando people from Highgarden, also from the mountains of Dorne, and then some other young men who are looking to get a win and they're trying to secure a future. Yeah, it's something that we see a lot in the tourney with Dunk and both tourneys that Dunk goes to. And I do think it's interesting that hedge knights from the Fingers are pointed out because Sansa ends up traveling to the fingers. These men that Sansa and Jane think of as unknown, too young to have done great deeds, but they also think one day that these guys will be commemorated in songs.

And the irony, of course, is that many of them aren't going to get the chance you know this isn't going to get to that point they're not going to join a song they might be part of the battles that maybe will one day be commemorated but they're not going to qualify as a hero not because of them not being heroic enough but just because as a song of ice and fire breaks down the realities of war are very brutal it's not romantic it sucks and you're not always the hero yeah you're not always the heroes you as we see in the dunkin egg stories you might just be some nameless knight that, or nameless other, not even a knight, that your lord doesn't remember. And who's going to remember you that? Right.

And it's lame. Yeah, we see it in Quentin's arc, thinking that he's the hero of the story, that the hero has to survive, and then the hero doesn't because he dies because you know dragons and also dogs locusts um another guy who probably thinks he's his own hero is Sir Balon Swan which he is the white knight that goes with Myrcella to Dorne when Myrcella takes off we just talked about him a bit ago with our Dornish chapters and we'll see him actually again throughout many other people's point of views, right? We hear a lot about him, believe it or not. He's a kind of a important minor character from King's Landing.

We also meet Lord Bryce Caron, who is the Lord of Nightsong, and he eventually dies at the Battle of the Blackwater. There's a lot of that, too. Yeah, so a lot of these people not gonna end up in songs they're gonna die because war doesn't breed heroes it actually undercuts and screws over all these young men in the next generation but before we get to that let's talk about sir andrew royce you know like he's brought in john royce's air he exists i guess but also another Royce that we want to talk about briefly is Sir Robert Royce, who is Ander's younger brother. He wears both silver and bronze runes like their father.

And there's also some, what I would say, interesting foreshadowing of his fate in this chapter, but we're going to get back to that later. Sir Horace and Sir Hopper of House Redwine are there, which become a constant during Sansa's chapters when the Tyrells come to court. They have grape cluster sigils, which are burgundy on blue, and they're nicknamed by many people at court Horver and Slobber, which kind of reminds me a little bit of Blood and Cheese from Princess and the Queen, right? Yeah right yeah it does it has a tick it's a name that tickles me lord jason mallister's son is there patrick mallister nothing to note on

him and then there are six frays of the crossing there so everyone get your booing mitts on get ready to go all of them hashtag not all frays, just six out of seven of them. There's like three cool frays, dude. Roslyn, Sir, Perwin, and like Gatehouse Amy. And Oliver. Oh, and Oliver. Okay, four. There's four good ones. Fat Walda. So, shit, five. There's five good ones. There's five good frays. Don't even, that's it. Don't try to do more. There's five good ones there's five good phrase don't even that's it don't try to do more there's five there's only five good phrase but of course of the ones that are actually at the tourney the six there's sir jared sir hostine boo sir danwell boo sir Boo. Boo. And in particular, several boos for Sir Eamon, who's like eventually going to be like, oh, I'm the Lord of Riverrun now after the Red Wedding,

and he's a total butthead. We also get Sir Theo, and I don't care about him. We have Sir Perwin. Yay. That's the only good one on this list. He is a decent man, as described by others, and he supported the Starks, and because he liked the Starks, he had to be kept away from the Red Wedding.

And we also get Martin Rivers. Boo. Boo. I don't know this man. Jalabar Joe also competes in the lists. He is the Exiled Prince from the summer isles and jane pool is afraid of his look which definitely i think talks about winterfell being sheltered he has he's wearing green and scarlet feathers over teak dark skin yeah stop being like rude

stop being racist jane right she just likes the irish guy speaking of oh yes speaking of him it's lord beric don darian he has a red gold hair and a black shield slashed by lightning jane pronounces himself willing to marry him in the instant well bad news for you ladies while eliana and jane find themselves ready to be taken now by barrick don darian they're forgetting well a couple little things i guess uh barrick don darian we actually learn in a couple books is so totally betrothed to aleria dane she is the youngest daughter of mom and dad mom and pop unnamedes. She's the sibling to Arthur, Ashara, and the eldest Dane, Aunt Padraic Dane.

In fact, Illyria and Beric have been betrothed for three years now. She's just waiting for him to, you know, come home any day now. Right? That's what's going to happen? That's... I'm so sad. Look at how young he is here. He's so whole. He probably even still remembers that he was betrothed at this point, as opposed to later on, which is, like, super sad.

Yeah, there's a lot of interesting stuff that we'll get into, especially in Arya's Storm of Sword chapters, and we'll talk about with Edric Dayne, and just about this marriage in particular. It's a very interesting betrothal, and it's interesting to betroth a lady of Dorne of House Dayne to a Marcher Lord.

Next we get we get the Hound. I've never heard of, who is this character? Chloe. I've never heard of this person. It's a baby boy! I think his name's supposed to be like Pander? Panderander pander to chloe

yeah uh i don't know mander oh my god sander cluckane his name is sander cluckane he's also known as the hound and he's the prince zuko of a song of Ice and Fire like we're gonna go into him later I guess but just go watch Avatar The Last Airbender, the entirety of that series and that's Sandra Cogain I literally, I'm trying so hard to be good this podcast but like

you can I mean it's your podcast go out girl, fall out he's my baby boy my baby boy i uh yeah he just he's my boy he's my baby we're gonna talk about him i'm uh i talk about him like i said about in not a cast on sansa 2 that came out a little bit ago and check that episode out because it's literally just me talking about my baby boy for like an hour so it's it's chloe's manifesto is i i've never i i went on the podcast and someone was like talk about sansa and sandor and i'm like this is my home this is where i was meant to go

so yeah i mean she could do it here too if she wants it's fine it's her podcast but we're now gonna say that renly baratheon of Storm's End is here. And we say a lot of things about Renly later on because he comes back in the stories. We're going to just talk about him later. Because y'all know who he is. Yeah, right. All right. Then we got Jory, Alan, and Harwin of the North.

Woo! Yeah, Northsiders. Septimord Dane comments that Jory looks a beggar among these others. Shut the fuck up, Septimordain. You look like a beggar. God. You're a fucking septa. Get out.

Blue-gray plate without device or ornament is how he's dressed. He also has a thin gray cloak that's hanging from his shoulders he enhorses Horus Redwyne in his first joust and he also unhorses a Frey in a second then he faces against Lothar Brun neither oh I should have said this like a sports announcer not that I know how to do that neither of them win but the king gives the win to Lothar because of his station. Supposedly it's because Lothar Brun has more well-placed hits or whatever, like in boxing. Yeah, but we all know.

Let's be real. We all know. Yeah. I mean, Lothar Brun was better known. He is. I also like Lothar Brun. I like him too, but I love Jory. Yeah.

But you'd think that like Robert would have done it, you know, for his boy, for his boy Ned, who didn't attend his own fucking party. But. But whatever. I guess their bromance is dead. Bromance is dead, bro. It's true. So Septimordain's comment is not cool, right? Like, because Sansa agrees into it and she thinks harshly of Jory. Septimordain is supposed to be Sansa's like it and she thinks harshly of jory septimordane is supposed to be sansa's like moral guidance and the composure of a lady but she comes off really shitty in this chapter she's drunk she's mean she's old is she old i think so i mean she sounds old sure maybe that's show prejudice sneak it in but i'm pretty sure she's old i mean older septa

mordain i don't know i guess this just like it begs the question of do you think if eddard heard the things septa mordain was saying about his men or saw her drunk and asleep at the feast like would he be like yeah this is what i want sansa to be taught i don't think so i think i don't know i don't think that's what he would want but he also doesn't want sansa at court so right he certainly wouldn't want to be bad mouthing people like jory like that's your people like you can't just bad mouth them yeah she's like the worst i okay there's a part of me that kind of is curious about, like, where Septimordain comes from, but... Who are you even?

We'll never know now. Yeah, who are you even? Why are you out here talking shit about Jory? Yeah, I'm wondering, like, how she got hired. You know, was it someone that came from the South? Was it... Did they just call for her? Yeah. I don't know.

Honestly, unsure. Maybe she was so insufferable that whatever, like, Sept she came from was like, yeah, just take this one. I don't know. Honestly, unsure. Maybe she was so insufferable that whatever like sept she came from was like, yeah, just take this one. I mean, same. Anyway, I also really like this idea of Jory and Lothar though being very well matched because as I said earlier, I love Lothar Brun a lot. He's a very, I think, caring figure. And I feel that in Sansa's later chapters, a very, I think, caring figure. And I feel that in Sansa's later chapters, he ends up kind of filling that role that Jory could have had for her

had Jory, you know, lived. Ouch. He also ends up fulfilling that animal protector role, right? Just like Lady did, and of course, just like Xander does. We'll get there eventually, but Sansa even confuses Lothar Brun for the Hound for a split second in later chapters. Alan and Harwin didn't do as well as Jory in the matches.

Harwin was unhorsed by Ser Meryn, Alan fell to Ser Balon's swan. The jousting lasts all day, and even into the evening. Jane covers her eyes when a man falls, but Sansa acts a lady and holds her composure. And Septimordain is very impressed with her composure. She nods her approval at Sansa just to further that Septimordain train. Yeah, it's so weird. Sansa, though, thinks that Jane is such a child for reacting to every one of these men falling

or not falling, whatever they're doing and on the one hand I think this is such a very 11 year old thing to think like oh I'm so mature and grown up and it's very much not knowing anything about the world and having this false idea of what maturity is and that maturity is being able to adhere to the rules and you know going back to what Southeast kardashian pointed out in their comment earlier on podbean that we read aloud but it's also this mindset that's going to continue to persist in sansa's storyline like but it becomes different it's contorted after ned's death like for example when sansa sees like margaery's cousins, like Alia, Eleanor, and Mega, she

thinks of their joy and their laughter and likens it to them being children. She thinks of them as just children. But when she thinks of them as children, it's kind of tainted with this envy because she envies their innocence because they didn't have to go through what she did in terms of losing her father or, you know, being beaten and stripped and humiliated in front of the entire court and insulted all the time. Yeah, and told that she was stupid and made to look at her dead house's family's heads. Yeah, I mean, we can keep going. Do you want to keep going we can there's more the kingslayer rides and he rides very well he defeats andrew royce and bryce

karen easily but he does have a hard time when he matches with barriston selmy i find this to be poignant because both jamie and barriston i my opinion, in my headcanon, they're just like really going at it and they're giving it their all because they have such hard feelings against one another. Like Beirsten's like, damn, I can't believe I have to keep being Kingsguard with this Kingslayer. And Jamie's like, fuck you. You're not that honorable either. jamie good insult yeah it's interesting because of course we see sword fighting and jousting and different kind of fighting in this series likened to sex right like we see that jamie and brienne sexual ass passage where all of the words are just like sword fighting but also it's like this is what would happen if you just pretended it was with a dick you know so

it's interesting to think that you need chemistry when you're fighting in these jousts in these matches better matches are better chemistry right more entertainment etc some tension good tension you know like what i'm saying is barrison and jamie are just like hate fucking each other with swords yeah that's sexual ass chemistry yeah sandor and gregor are also undefeatable the scariest moment of the day is actually when gregor's lance strikes a newly made knight from the veil under his gorget uh which if you've been following along from our ned chapters you'll know exactly this moment straight through his throat immediately he falls pretty much dead in front of sansa right like about 10 feet within 10 feet and he had sparkling new armor like ringing any bells yet his cloak turns from blue like the sky with the moons of of course the veil of erin

but it darkens into red some of the, easiest foreshadowing with so many meanings. It also goes back into that idea of all that glitters is not gold. His sparkling new armor. And now it's not sparkly. It's going to fade away, which I'm pretty sure is a song by Fuel, which I'm going to quote on this podcast. Normally I'd sing it, but I don't feel like singing today. Understandable. Yeah I'd sing it, but I don't feel like singing today. Understandable.

Yeah, the lines go, Because I have found all that shimmers in this world is sure to fade away again. In case you felt like having a throwback on this day. Jane Poole is in hysterics and she's sobbing at the death of Sergio the Veil. And Sansa, she's in contrast, sitting very still while Scepter Mardain takes Jane away. She had never seen a man die before. She ought to be crying too, she thought, but the tears would not come. Perhaps she had used up all her tears for Lady and Bran. It would be different if it had been Jory, or Sir Roderick, her father, she told herself.

The young knight in the blue cloak was nothing to her. Some stranger from the Vale of Arryn, whose name she had forgotten as soon as she heard it. And now the world would forget his name too, Sansa realized. There would be no song sung for him. That was sad. There's so much to unpack that's really interesting in the way this passage is outlined. So Sansa witnesses her first death. With that, it's someone from the Vale, a place that right now, maybe there's nothing in common, but Sansa is of course going to have many life experiences and connections to come from this place. Right. Eventually, Sansa may be coming to see people like Ser Hugh as her own people and hurt when they die, whether it's maybe in the war to come for the long night. I mean, I can just see a passage of Sansa's mind during, you know, a battle against the others and just seeing people from the Vale being butchered and her hurting from it.

But in this moment, she's 11 years old and she's consumed with the loss of her dog and, of course, with Joffrey. But in less than three years, Sansa is going to sit atop that castle on a cloud and worry for the people of the Vale. She already helps to manage the household of the Eyrie. Sure, and as you mentioned in your Not A Cast episode, Chloe, for Sansa to lament that no songs are going to be sung for Hugh, that's not pettiness. There's an actual sorrow there, in my opinion, from Sansa because she went into this day thinking that all of these sprightly young men are going to survive it. They're all going to go on to become heroes, all of these sprightly young men are going to survive it. They're all going to go on to become heroes. But to die on the tourney field is not to die on the battlefield. It's not a true war. It's just playing at it. And so let me say that like no song shall be sung. That makes me think of

some different kinds of stories or like this idea that some that people say sometimes that like everyone dies twice, which i think is a very interesting thing to think about in the stories where like some characters for example barak don darian over there he's literally going to die multiple times you have the dead coming back to life and thus dying twice or maybe you live a second life in your aminal or whatever and the saying goes that people they they die twice, right? Like once when you pass away, and again when people forget you. So poor Sir Hugh, as someone for whom no songs were sung, dies but once.

I think there's also a lot of foreshadowing in this passage for Ned, of course, for Sansa to think that it would be different if Ned were the one to die. for Sansa to think that it would be different if Ned were the one to die because when Ned is sentenced and beheaded beheaded Sansa fucking loses it she loses all of the composure everything that she was taught to do as a lady she's wailing she's screaming and then next she locks herself in her room for days in what's basically a catatonic state yeah it's a huge exploration on that whole I wish you were dead idea, right? Like, saying that to your parents and then, like, you know, just no going back from that

when it actually happens. Ugh, poor Sansa. It's interesting because it also reminds me of that Catelyn chapter quote, you know, of the songs, we're all songs in the end, you know, or so we hope. There's a ton to be said about the amount of foreshadowing for Sansa's plot to come in the Vale, you know, or so we hope. There's a ton to be said about the amount of foreshadowing

for Sansa's plot to come in the Vale. Of course, this is where Ned would have grown up in the same place as young Sir Hugh, so it's something we're going to revisit as we get a little closer to those chapters. Hugh's body is carried away and dirt is shoveled over his blood spots. The jousts resume as if nothing had happened. Which of course a very unsubtle like nudge nudge to the audience from george who's showing that irreverent nature of death of what happens when someone's not a noble and they die there's no pageantry for sir hugh that he died here's his blood saying we're just covering it up with more dirt and this entire day of like chivalry right and chivalry supposed to be a lot based around this code of to whom can

we commit violence and for whom should we be acting and defending and for whom does the bell toll exactly and no one like fucking cares about sir h. And it's just a sort of damning thing. This like one line of this guy throwing dirt over Sir Hugh's body. That's it. Splash. Body splash. Blood. Yeah, the blood. That's what it's called. In Eddard's chapter, when we learn that the armor hadn't actually been paid for, Sansa notes this beautiful, intricate armor. And Ned finds out that he hadn't even finished paying it off.

Much like you see Dunk go to the tourney and risk it all to, you know, get a biscuit, risk it to get a biscuit. You're just, you're a young knight, a young hedge knight. You're upjumped. You're trying to make your way in the world. Whatever you're doing. And you die. This was hughes networking event no one goes to a fucking networking event and expects to die okay he just printed off business cards like tons of them from friggin he just went on vista print and he spent 250 and he paid for his like linkedin premium account and he was trying

to get a job he really like other people in this chapter that we're totally gonna get to eventually oh absolutely but first balan swan falls to gregor and renly baratheon falls to sandor renly's crown breaks in his fall from his horse it was a very intense fall and he hands his broken golden antler to Sandor and the crowd goes wild of course when Renly climbs back to his feet. The hound throws the antler into the crowd and the small folk punch and claw and just fight each other over the scrap of gold. Renly parts the crowd and imposes peace on them which I think is really just an interesting kind of idea to show

you how renly is good with the small folk and why people did take his side although stannis was technically the correct choice yeah but he started that mess in the first place like you don't just well he didn't the hound did whatever the hound's over here trying to like be like chaos you know what this is throw a gold this is actually just like when the Hound breaks the ice and alerts all of the cold others in Season 7. During Eastwatch, which is the most canonical episode that we've ever seen. I don't want to talk about it. We're not talking about this. Sounds good.

What is that episode even? Alright, anyways. This breaking off of the antler, though, is also reminiscent to me of that broken, of that broken, like, staghorn slash antler horn that we see lodged in the neck of that mother direwolf. Ooh, yeah, good call. Good call. I love that imagery, and it's very bold, and it does stick out. good call I love that imagery and it's very bold and it does stick out uh something always sticks out especially when you think about it that antler just like ripped off one of the antlers ripped off

which is exactly what happens with Stannis and Renly super foreshadowing just really good imagery it's a really good this chapter is great this is one of the best chapters in the book for sure Septimordain returns uh deliveringane to the castle because she was two weeks stomach to deal a hedge knight in a checkered cloak kills barrick don darien's horse and is forfeit from the competition which i think is a really good setup to show us that killing someone's steed in attorney is not cool it's kind of bad, right? And we are actually going to see someone do that, like, on purpose. Mm-hmm. Shit's wild. But I also see it as highlighting how the tourney is just playing it more. Like, for example, there are rules, like you said, about not killing horses, and that's not chivalrous here on the tourney field, but, like, on the battlefield,

you have to kill the horses of the opponent like you would be dumb to not but also get out of the way yeah it's a much different thing it's kind of like last chapter with joffrey's view on the wooden swords making fun of her brothers in winterfell right that's uh it's very similar to that whole idea that george is painting that this is playing at war thoros then knocks barak off next then we get sarah erin santagar and lothar brun they go at it three times and no one wins and then sarah erin later loses to jason malister and then lothar brun loses to robert royce, it comes down to the final four. March Madness, The Hound, Gregor Clegane,

Jamie Lannister, and Sir Loras Tyrell. I just want to, like, edit in some music there, right? Like, just some, like, It's a final countdown. Do-do-do-do. Bow-bow-bow. Ba-do-do-do. Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. um i used to be the sports girl for my school news and then i got to upgrade to weather after

suffering that for a year and a half but did you actually like the sports or were you just didn't know what i was talking about i would ask the boys in class every day like hey what happened in sports yesterday for the school and then i would talk to my homeroom teacher who was a football coach and he would laugh he would watch me on the news and he was like every time he's like chloe i know you don't know what the hell you're talking about, but you sound real good up there. You're doing great. So, I mean, I can talk about anything, you know. Your life now reminds me of that episode of the IT crowd. Oh, yeah. Did you see that ludicrous display last night?

Play last night? Oh, Moss. Oh, Moss. That's you. That episode is, yeah, that's me. That was literally me doing news in school. It was really funny. I did suffer for a while, but believe it or not, I got to do weather eventually.

So, you know, I was all winter is coming. And no one knows what they're talking about when they talk about the weather. Let's be real. That's the thing is like, I thought the sports were made up. Like the weather, I literally would just like look at the numbers and then write some stuff. And we just used like AP. So, I mean, I digress. Sir Loras is the youngest guy on the field so he's the new guy he just got drafted he unhorsed three kingsguard in his first three

jousts and sansa thinks he's beautiful his plate is intricate it's enameled with thousands of different flowers and his stallion was snow white with red and white roses linked together in a riding blanket. After each victory, he was giving a white rose to the maidens in the crowd, and his last match was against Rober Royce. Loras defeats Rober Royce, splitting his shield and crashing him into the ground, preparing to give out a last rose. And I would say that this interaction is also foreshadowing

because here we now know that Loras can, or not foreshadowing, but it's in this, it's establishing this dynamic where now we know that Loras can easily best Robar because we know that

Loras is going to do it again because this is a reread and it's going to be in a fit of rage and passion robar royce is one of the knights who sees brienne and catlin after runley's been assassinated by a shadow baby and catlin convinces robar and emin the lemon and by that i mean emin the yellow but you know he was named the yellow because his name rhymes with lemon of brienne's innocence but when loris finds robar and emin standing there he kills them both immediately for failing to protect renly loris's horse also stops from its victory trot right in

front of sansa and so loris a red rose. Sansa makes a super big note in the color difference here. She is the one that alerts us that no one has gotten a red rose yet. She sees what she wants to, right? She thinks it's special that Loras is giving it to her because this is like her day, right? This is her thing. Of course, it's a little different than the rose giving at another tourney we've seen in history, and Ned does take a little note at this as well in his own chapter about the tourney. He hears about Ser Loras giving a rose to his little girl. She's not like daddy's little princess anymore, right? Because he didn't even come to the tourney to be with her. Neither him

nor Arya were at the tourney. There's kind of I think a meta-textual thing here going on now that you've pointed out that Sansa is seeing something special in the redness of the rose versus the other white roses because obviously something that stands out like that means something in the songs right when something is different that's a symbol that this is special and i'm like is this us yep the readers of a saga vice and fire absolutely and of course like i said this is totally liana start getting crowned you know i mean this is what it's like you said it's the epitome of all the songs come together it's the combination of it finally it's the magic the magic of the super bowl of it finally it's the magic the magic of the super bowl sansa that holds the rose that loris has given to her and when she's done taking in its beauty and taking in all of the molecules of scent

she looks up and she sees little finger oh what a buzzkill first off off. Second off, get a job. He's always there at the worst times. Get a job! We haven't gotten to get a job in a while. This is fun. It's less fun. It was less fun the last couple chapters, but this is fun. You all missed it.

We're going to do it a lot of times, obviously, throughout this POV. Dude, we get to get a job for a long time. Like, when he pulls her on his lap at a feast for curls and it's just like, stop. Get a fucking job, dude. God. What a bummer. The worst. He was short with a pointed beard and a silver streak in his hair. Almost as old as her father.

You must be one of her daughters, he said to her. He had gray-green eyes that did not smile when his mouth did you have the totally look she surveys him he has the look of a high lord but she couldn't name him because you know he's an upjumped little fucker like because he's but he doesn't even have real family like get a job a job. Septimordain introduces him as Lord Peter Baelish, and he just immediately starts creeping on Sansa. And he goes like, Your mother was my queen of beauty once, the man said quietly.

His breath smelled of mint. You have her hair. His fingers brushed against her cheek as he stroked one auburn lock. Quite abruptly, he turned and walked away. Dude, what the fuck? Good job. It's so gross. Like, all of this is also not only just a lie but it's the creepiest delivered lie ever this is like the

most unnerving introduction to a character right and even sansa feels uncomfortable yeah i mean i would feel uncomfortable with anyone like stranger danger coming and just like touching my face and touching my hair like what no you don't do that. I'm really uncomfortable right now. But the king decides the last three matches are just going to have to happen tomorrow because he's fucking exhausted. I understand. I know the feeling. Robert, I get you.

We're on this podcast. We out here. The crowd leaves. The moon is in the sky, and the small folk leave leave, so they don't get to stay. They don't get to chill. But court, of course, goes riverside to the feast. They have been roasting six aurochs for hours. Oh my god, I'm so hungry. This is about to be delicious, you guys. They've been roasting six aurochs, butter and herbs all over it, and the meat's been crackling and spitting the tables and benches are

raised outside the pavilions and they're piled with like berries and breads and sweet grass like some real british baking show shit it sounds so good i love the the british baking show the great british you know what i mean that one yes yes it sounds exactly like that and mary berry is about to like come through one of these tents it's gonna be sick yeah sansa sits uh to the left of this raised dais a seat of honor with septum ordain and joffrey takes a seat right next to her like literally to her right and so she feels nervous and anxious joffrey hasn't spoken to her since the trident when he snapped at her then there's like that whole trident debacle and then it was the queen and aria's fault and it wasn't joffrey's and he's just like too beautiful to hate this evening

he wears like his clothing is really interesting i don't have a lot to say about it but i did want to talk about it because he wears a very rich doublet a deep blue with golden lion head studs and a slim coronet of gold and sapphires and of course there's this bright imagery of his hair it's as bright as the metal sansa thinks sansa looked at him and trembled afraid he might ignore her or worse turn hateful again and send her weeping from the table. But instead, he acts courteously. Very interesting, it's that push and pull. Joffrey tells Sansa that Ser Loras has a keen eye and then begins to pour wine for her and septimordain again.

Nice strategy. First first stop get her drunk nice that's like a theme for him right like you guys are seeing this right i mean it's for me too like solve your problems with booze but i think that yes it's very strange that he keeps trying to get sansa drunk but there's a part of me that's starting to wonder if like, you know, you brought it up last time and they brought it up on like in the episode that y'all did. But the models that Joffrey has are Robert and Circe. Like, I wonder how much of him just pouring the wine over and over again isn't. That's what he sees every day. Yeah.

He's like, oh, this is what we do, right? We just drink wine all the time and once it's empty we're supposed to refill it this is like what he thinks he's like life is supposed to be like and there might be ulterior motives but i'm also like what if joffrey just yeah dude he has alcoholism from his mom and dad both but mostly mom because his dad jamie isn't an alcoholic well i mean like it the pattern and the environment which he grew in like that's who he's trying to model himself after robert well and we're gonna see that in a little bit too there is a really good robert moment we're about to get to in just a bit yes it's gonna be great anyway so speaking of people being drunk

sansa is drunk off of the night and the experience and the wine. And I think it's definitely the wine as someone who's thought that before and then thrown up at the end of the night. But you know, whatever. That's just me. And the tourney was every bit as magical as she imagined. The feast has a juggler. It's Moonboy.

And he's dancing on stilts and motley. And there's like also singers and music and shit. It's like a whole shebang. And I would like to point out sansa's astuteness here she notices that moon boy's barbs like the japes that he's making are kind of cruel and a little pointed and she thinks that what if moon boy is actually not that much of a fool he's not that foolish and this actually bears a little bit of fruit in A Clash of Kings where Dantos, who ends up becoming a fool because Sansa saved his life, says that he actually hears like a lot of things now from Moonboy who is apparently, according to Dantos, a spy for Varys.

And Moonboy being clever and saying like all these pointed things is actually very much in line for the role that many fools and jesters played in court in history history like where their positions as kind of being like an entertainer and funny shielded them and allowed them to say some uncomfortable truths to politicians and they were trusted for that which is really interesting when you look at dantos being made a fool and the position he would have been in i mean think of the position and the relationship he has with the crown right like he was the sole survivor of the darkland massacre like it's real sad it is really sad no he's not the sole survivor no he's dead rip he was a little bit of maybe actually a fool he was just a drunk not a fool there. There's a difference. I would know.

While Joffrey romances Sansa with his words, the food courses come and go, and they are so delicious that we are going to talk about it because it sounds great. Like, did I eat a full pizza tonight? Yes. Do I want this? Yes. Right now. Barley and venison soup. Sweetgrass and spinach and plum salad.

That sounds really good. Snails in honey and garlic, clay baked trout from the river that the prince helps her crack open, and the aurochs served by the prince himself, a queen slice for her, which I found that the most interesting part about this passage of how Joffrey attaches himself to Sansa and treats her you know she's never had snails so he explains to her how to eat them he she's never had clay baked trout from the river so he cracks open that clay bake to get the trout out for her and of course he serves her the queen size and a lot of it sounds like very sweet to her, but at the same time, like,

is it sweet or is he just like slow explaining it to her? Like he does because every single time he talks to her, I just feel like he's talking so down to her. He totally is talking down to her. And I, he's kind of, I think just really relishing being like, Oh,

I know all of these things. He's relishing having like an audience yeah absolutely also i want to eat all of these things and i'm curious as to what these sweetbreads you're going to talk about are like sweetbreads again great british baking show well that's the thing i want to point out do they mean actually like breads that are sweet? Because sweet bread is actually in fact a culinary term that means like the throat gullet or the neck um it could include other things like the pancreas could also have be like the heart the stomach um it's parts of like calves and lamb or sometimes like that people don't usually eat sometimes other glands like testicles might be called sweetbread so i'm curious what we're talking about now

yeah we need to know all right the people add this to the list of things to ask georgia martin oh my god the only info we have are that it's sweetbreads and pigeon pies and baked apples with cinnamon and lemon cakes frosted with sugar so i i don't i'm sorry that's all the info i have now that you've ruined sweetbreads for me like you straight up just ruined it you know that right like now i'm sitting here thinking about bread with testicles in it why would you do that to me anyways so back to pretending that the sweetbreads are like from the great british baking show so they probably have like cardamom and cinnamon and stuff anyways the feast is interrupted right all of a sudden all of a sudden king robert is fighting with cersei and he's thundering that you can't tell him what to do

you're not my mom and that he's the king and he's gonna fight in the melee the next day and everyone's staring and it's a scene it's world star right here going on everyone was staring sansa saw sir baristan and the king's brother renly and the short man who had talked to her so oddly and touched her hair get a job but no one made a move to interfere. The queen's face was a mask, so bloodless it might have been sculpted from snow. She rose from the table, gathered her skirts around her, and stormed off in silence, servants trailing behind. Jaime Lannister put a hand on the king's shoulder, but the king shoved him away hard. Lannister stumbled and fell. The king guffawed.

The great knight. I can still knock you in the dirt. Remember that, kingslayer? He slapped his chest with a jeweled goblet, splashing wine all over his satin tunic. Give me my hammer and not a man in the realm can stand before me. Sansa stared as Joffrey laid his hand on her arm It grows late, the prince said He had a queer look on his face, as if he were not seeing her at all Do you need an escort back to the castle? No, Sansa began She looked for Septa Mordain and was startled to find her with her head on the table

Snoring soft and ladylike snores I mean to say, yes, thank you. That would be most kind. I'm tired and the way is so dark. I should be glad for some protection. So Joff totally goes into some trauma, right? Right here, like when his parents start fighting, he gets a weird look on his face and he sends Sansa off.

I didn't really notice that until this reread. He kind of just gets like, oh, my parents are fighting again moment. Mm hmm. Absolutely. And like, he storms off right after he's like, I need to go be alone now, which I totally get. He's just like, also disengaging. And he's just like, I can't deal with this right now. This sucks. It's happened in front of everyone. It's very embarrassing that everyone's seeing my family so broken. can't deal with this right now. This sucks. It's happened in front of everyone. It's very embarrassing that everyone's seeing my family so broken. Yeah. The scene is huge also because Cersei absolutely looks the victim in this scene. And Sansa sees that, of course. But we get the other side of the chapter where we learn she eventually was trying to goad him into participating in the melee. It's also not just that Cersei looks like a victim. The language here is interesting because Cersei's described as having like a mask. So bloodless, she looks like snow. And this is consistent with how Cersei is described in some of those earliest Ned chapters when we first see her.

With language and imagery that depicts her kind of wintry, like she's this ice queen. She's talked about as snow, she's making people lean or making people kneel in the snow and she speaks coldly or she has a cold air about her it gives her that ice queen sort of vibe to lean on some of those like misogynistic tropes of like this is what bitchiness looks like and i also find it interesting in the context of like as we get to know and see Cersei more in later books and she becomes more rounded character we see that she seems very aligned with fire as opposed to these earlier ice queen portrayals Cersei is the real song of ice and fire oh my gosh yes and here I was saying it was gonna be Sandor getting frostbite on the other half of his face. Why would you say that about my baby boy?

I'm just trying to ruin lives. I love my baby boy! I know, I'm just trying to throw out, like, bad ideas. Can we talk about my baby boy now? We can. We can, because now Joffrey sends the Hound as her protection. You know, he sees some locusts and he yells, Dog! and summons i don't i don't have anything else to say to you i don't are you quitting i quit

i do love like joffrey sends the hound as her protection literally that's what the line says and like he does and he protects her just saying i'll go he does he does and we'll see him do that more later on sandra he appears your baby boy appears in a red woolen tunic with a pupper head sewn on the front which totally some red wedding vibes right a leather dog's head sewn on the front i'm like i read that and i was like, excuse me? In this economy? It's also interesting his tunic's red, right? I find that outfit choice really interesting for him, like his nice wool tunic that's red with a doggo head on it. It's like his master's color, right? George might have made this kind of intentional. It's's that it also highlights like his bloody like violent nature and how like

excuse me his face is all right sunza is obviously very disappointed and sandra can tell he's also very drunk everyone's drunk all right everyone's drunk tonight it's a tourney dude yeah this is what you do it's's like the tailgate, but after. Yeah. And then he grabs Sansa to her feet and starts to guide her back. And he's chattering about how he might have to kill his brother tomorrow. They're like hiking through some fucking field because it's like far away. This is how you small talk, Sandor?

Yikes. Like, that's how you small talk, Sandor? That's, it's not, it's not good. Sansa hopes to wake Septimordain. She's like, this is what has to take me back. She's like pushing at Septimordain's shoulder. But Septimordain is still asleep at the high table. The dream is dead, right? Like it's over. The Hound leads their way back with a torch and the ground is rocky and the torch is their source of light but because it's just like a torch it makes the floor move beneath their feet and also she's like totally buzzed right like she's so drunk she's drunk

so that's also making the ground move you know what what I mean? Yeah. I like how she just doesn't know what being drunk is. Do you know what I just realized? That might be why Sansa doesn't remember the name of Joffrey Sorin. But she was drunk. Yeah. That makes perfect sense to me now. All right. I did it.

It's dark and they're walking across the pavilions. And honestly, this scene as they're going back, it's kind of like in Cinderella, right? She's trying to make her way back home and the magic of the ball has faded. And like, you know, the horses are turning back into mice and shit's like a pumpkin. And like, how are we getting home?

I'm drunk. Oh, absolutely. There's even like some really good Cinderella imagery when it comes to a storm of swords when she loses her shoe when she's dangled out of the moon door. Very good Cinderella imagery, especially with this whole class battle back and forth. She's too frightened to even look at Sandor, but she pushes through all the same in extending him her courtesies. She calls him sir. She tells him he rode well today, and he snaps back to spare him her empty compliments and his sirs. He's no knight. His brother's a knight. He asks if she saw him

ride today. Sandor is expecting her to give empty kindness to him, and he mocks her, but he's surprised when Sansa replies that no one could withstand Gregor. Almost impressed, he responds, some sept has trained you well. You're like one of those birds from the summer isles, aren't you? A pretty little talking bird repeating all the pretty little words I taught you to recite. That's unkind. Sansa could feel her heart fluttering in her chest. You're frightening me. I want to go now. Of course, Sandra tells her that his brother is a murderer and that that Night of the Veil dying was no coincidence and that Gregor's Lance goes where it wants to go.

Sandra forces Sansa to look at him, which she's been kind of trying to avoid doing the whole time. And so Sansa does look at him. We all look at him we see Sandor's face I think it's interesting uh this passage about Sandor's face because it's the only chapter we really get in depth besides some of Arya's imagery of him and he's not exactly what you think is like ugly right like he's not just because he's burned doesn't mean he's quite unattractive especially not in this description in this description as i've been known to say he

kind of sounds northern his fingers held her jaw as hard as an iron trap his eyes watched her drunken eyes sullen with anger she had to look the right side of his face was gaunt with sharp cheekbones and a gray eye beneath a heavy brow his nose was large and hooked his hair thin dark he wore it long and brushed it sideways because hair grew on the other side of that face the left side of his face was a ruin his ear had had been burned away, there was nothing left but a hole. His eye was still good, but all around it was a twisted mess of scar, slick black flesh hard as leather, pocked with craters fissured by deep cracks that gleamed red and wet when he moved. Down by his jaw, you could see a hint of bone where the flesh had been seared away. Just a really

gruesome, macabre kind of description, but at the same time, it's showing that there is a man underneath. And because of how macabre it is, Sansa begins to cry. So, Sandra lets go of her and puts out his torch, and then begins to give Sansa the story of his burnt face. He tells her about the rumors that people say about his face, but how it was, of course, actually Gregor Clegane shoving his face into the fire. All because Sandor just wanted to play with his little toy knight.

Only a man who's been burned knows what hell is truly like. My wife is my husband. Sister wife. Gregor was knighted and anointed with ointments four years later, and Sandor grew up with his own ointments that he would use to cover his face, and the trail of his story was covered as well by all the adults around him who should have really been protecting him. Yes, this is a big reason of why Sandor relates so hard to Sansa, especially after seeing that someone should have protected her. She hears his ragged breathing and the silence goes on. She feels bad for him, sad for him.

She reaches out her hand to touch his shoulder and she whispers to Sandor that Gregor was no true knight. He leads her back to the castle and his eyes are brooding and he delivers her to her bedchamber. Sansa thanks him and then Sandor grabs her by the arm and he's leaning in closely telling her that if she tells anyone and like sansa's like i promise i'm not gonna tell anyone she's like interrupting him and then sander says if you ever tell anyone i will kill you damn daddy sansa shows a ton of bravery in this scene, okay? Like where she was afraid of his face before, she overcomes that.

I think it's interesting that he says that she's afraid and he kind of mocks her. And she takes that as a reason to be better than that. She senses the mocking and she doesn't like that. She doesn't like being called stupid. And she feels like it's happening everywhere she turns, right? She's thinking about it anytime she speaks with joffrey with the queen her composing her courtesies which of course eliana discussed courtesies in depth last episode is a lot different here this is hard mode how do you impress a guy who's completely unimpressed with courtly intrigues and fallacies how do you win at this social

situation right yeah and i think she won yeah absolutely sandra is just doesn't know how to talk to him i was like i'm gonna kill you if you tell anyone and man baby i love him it this scene of sansa being forced to look at his face and show courage and looking at even though she starts crying afterwards it also reminds me of when aria encounters the kindly man and his face is that terrifying like skull and what she does is she tries to like pick the worm and eat it but in both cases they're confronting someone and it's a test yeah sansa's finally overcoming that idea that all that glitters is gold, right? As we've discussed, she's breaking down that court life doesn't always mean beautiful, golden, sparkling life. Mm-hmm. Sometimes it's walking home in the dark because you're too drunk and there are all of these steps and you don't have an elevator and electricity and life's real hard.

And your boyfriend's an asshole and he doesn't want to walk you back that's true that's exactly what happened sansa three lightning round sansa three lightning round here's what we missed between sansa two and sansa three in the stark world in eddard seven sir barriston and eddard find it discomforting that robert wants to murder kids they keep him from competing in the melee, and Sansa's prediction that the Hound will win in the tourney comes true when Eddard comes to day two, or sorry, day three of the tourney. Various later reveals to Eddard that Robert was supposed to die in the melee.

This is, of course, kind of the sister chapter, or the father chapter, we should say, to Sansa too. You get a lot of detail from the opposite side of the the father chapter, we should say, to Sansa too. You get a lot of detail from the opposite side of the tourney that you don't quite get in Sansa's side. Mm-hmm. And you get some of that follow-up of what happened to Ser Hugh of the Vale. No one sang songs for him, no one came to stand vigil over him except for Barristan Selmy, and that was good of Barristan. Very much so. He was a true knight. He was. That brings us to Arya 3.

Going unnoticed by Myrcella, Tommen, and many guardsmen, Arya chases cats around the city and finds herself in the dungeons of King's Landing where she hears two men talking about killing her father. She tries to tell Eddard about the conversation, but he doesn't believe her. In Eddard 8, the plot to kill Daenerys comes to a head. Eddard and Robert have a hardcore fight about it. Ned resigns, and just as he's packing up for home, Littlefinger appears with news. He's found the brothel Jon, Arryn, and Stannis visited. Catelyn 6. Catelyn passes through the Bloody Gate, ascending to meet her sister in the Eyrie.

six. Catelyn passes through the bloody gate, ascending to meet her sister in the Eyrie. In Eddard nine, Ned meets one of Robert's many baby mamas and as he returns to the Red Keep, his party is ambushed by Jamie Lannister and twenty good men. Jamie breaks his leg and

kills Jory, and I'm still mad about it so let's just keep going. I'm still mad about how this twenty good men is like actually a thing in this book series. It's the only thing they they read i thought it was made up in the show i was like what the hell is this bullshit anyway bran five about to embark on his first ride since the accident bran learns of jb's attack on his father's group rob rides off to collect the puppers and returns to find bran attacked by outlaws he He and Theon defend Bran, taking one of the outlaws as a captive.

It's Tonks! It's Osha! I love Tonks. Rip. I know. In Eddard 10, one of my favorite chapters and one of my favorite episodes that we actually have done, Eddard dreams an old dream, one that he could never forget. Robert

reinstates him as Hand of the King directly after finding out about Tyrion's capture, and swiftly takes off on a hunting trip, leaving Eddard on the throne to hold court. Catelyn VII. Ser Brynden travels with Catelyn and Rodrick to Tyrion's trial by combat number one, the first one, after learning that the Lannisters are amassing their armies at Casterly Rock. Later, Bronn and Tyrion are set free after Bronn kills Ser Vardis Egan, just like Ser Hugh's death in Sansa 2. In Jon 5, eight new recruits pass into the Watch, including Jon, and a celebration is held. but john doesn't feel like partying without

his best homie sam wise so he convinces maester amen to take sam on as a steward also he's like maester amen if you don't sam's gonna die because everyone thinks he's a little bitch so if you could just help him that'd be rad dude everyone's gonna die if it weren't for sam sam's gonna save the world yeah agreed so y'all should show some respect on Sam's name. Alright, Eddard 11. Ned holds court while Robert is away, and he hears

petitions from the Riverlands. Gregor Clegane is raising through them like hellfire, and Eddard puts together a covert ops team to go out and eradicate him while they can. So, we are at Sansa Stark 3, which is a albeit shorter chapter than Sansa Stark 2. Sansa and Jane discuss Eddard's choice in bringing justice to Ser Gregor, and they wonder why he didn't send Loras to Rell.

Her father tells her and Arya it's time to return home after his small council meeting dashing all of sansa's dreams she can't leave she's marrying a prince this is so unfair he's gallant and kind and he's nothing like his dumb drunk father she's gonna have many golden-haired children wait just a second there sansa what what the seed is strong this chapter picks up right after that other Ned chapter where he makes that decision to not send Ser Loras Tyrell out to bring Gregor Clegane to justice which as a reminder in that tourney Ser Loras and Ser Gregor facegane to justice, which as a reminder in that tourney, Sir Loras and Sir Gregor faced against each other. There's like all this drama about the horses and what was in heat.

And then like Gregor Clegane killed a horse and like he was about to kill Loras. And then like the hound came and he's like, no, stop. And it was like, it was a big deal. And also another reminder that like Varys was like no maybe you should have actually sent Loras to take Gregor back to take Gregor back and not barrack Dondarrion that would have actually been like the politically smarter thing to do because then it pits the Lannisters and the Tyrells against one another but like what do I know I'm just Varys yeah that would have been the move that would lead to Rob and Marjorie getting engaged in

so many of these AUs, you know? That would have been the move to make a good alliance with the North and with Reach. Of course, we later see this move taken by Cersei in Feast Dance. Loras gets to be the gallant hero he wants to be, while Cersei thinks she's going to get rid of him. So it feeds into those ideas, and it's actually a pretty smart move on her part, albeit a few books late. Ned goes to rest his broken leg, and he doesn't eat dinner with his daughter. Instead, he eats with Alan, Harwin, and Vayne Poole.

Septa Mordain complains of her sore feet from the night before, and Arya is off water dancing. So dinner is just Sansa and Jane having some girl time. I wonder if the way that this line had been phrased, we're supposed to see these things like Septa Mordain and Ned in contrast, because they're like one right after another, that Septa Mordain is complaining about her feet. Seems like pretty petty and shitty compared to like, oh Ned, your leg is broken. Yeah, I think we're seeing a lot of these last chapters.

What the hell are we paying Septa Mordain for, Right? Like, other than her institutionalized misogyny. Yeah, I'm honestly unsure. She doesn't seem very smart. That's not who I want my daughter to learn from right now. in this chapter changes a little later that jane comes off a little ditzy and this is i think very much about how sanza is seeing jane it's probably something about them of being different classes and how sanza still sees jane as like this little girl or not grown up enough yeah and jane doesn't have exactly the same societal pressure sanza has begun to feel at court, right? Like, she's not really expected so much to come out of this with a marriage as a steward's daughter, but if she's lucky, and Veyon's probably hoping that Ned will arrange it, and she plays her cards right, hanging around as Sansa's, you know, like, handmaiden or

bedmaid, you know, her friend, her lady-in-waiting, Jane might just land herself a landed knight, just like we see from the terrell group of alla and mega and all of them sansa is super upset about ned not sending loris terrell she's just like dad that was your move man like come on dad like she's getting really into this game little finger shows up and he tells septimordane it's fine that sansa's questioning her dad's decisions that's normal and septimordane's like uh that's foolish chatter because sansa should not be questioning her father's decisions and sure sansa doesn't have the same reasons right for why laura should be sent it's it's not the best reasoning but in theory she's still right.

We see though, but that this is already the second time in like a page that Septa Mordain is telling Sansa to be obedient. She's saying not to think. And again, why are we paying her? Because I think that this is actually a very mistaken guidance from Septa Mordain. Because if Sansa is going to be a lady, like fuck, she's like about to be queen, right? She needs to know how to actually think. She can't just be out here being like, oh, I'm not going to question these decisions. Because there's an entire Westerosi history and tradition of queens actually acting as rulers alongside kings. We see this with Rhaenys, we see this with Visenya,

and especially with good Queen Alysanne. We even see this with Catelyn Stark. She's trusted enough by Robb to act as an ambassador to two self-proclaimed kings, Renly and Stannis. It's only later in Westeros that like these queens have less power, but they were the ones who were dishing things out. Like a good, smart queen has the potential to do a lot for the kingdom, change a lot of policies, make it better,

and Tyrion even notes in Storm that Sansa would have made Joffrey a good wife and an even better queen if the boy had had the sense to love her, and Septa Mordain is not doing Sansa any favors here. Yeah, it really sucks too because we've talked a lot about self-esteem, of being a preteen, right? We've talked a lot about self-esteem of being a preteen, right? And that's also in play here. I mean, how can Sansa build that self-confidence to do the thing that she thinks is the right thing to do or the politically apt thing to do when she has all this stress from each level thinking she's stupid, she's an idiot. But then you sit there and you go, no, Sansa's actually learning at the right pace. She's very smart. She's apt as hell.

Sansa's actually learning at the right pace. She's very smart. She's apt as hell. Baelish urges her to say things because he says that she's wise. This is just like a huge red flag that he's all like, oh no. I mean, yes, she should question decisions. She should think through them critically. But like the fact that Baelish is like, question your parents. Look at how cool you are.

And yeah, I think your dad made the wrong decision like don't go around telling people that their dad's is dumb you know like there's some red flags here there's a big level of disrespect there's that it seems like grooming behavior on bailish's part like trying to drive that wedge and trying to absolutely be where that self-confidence for Sansa comes from because she's not getting it I guess from the other adults in her life and it's no secret that she's the daughter that is into courtly intrigues right like that the word's gone around she's very courteous she's kind she's smart she greets people very officially you, she could name Renly Baratheon and embarrass and sell me and was just,

that word goes around. He knows she's swept up in the beauty of court life and the magic of it all. So on top of grooming her, he's probably using this opportunity that Sansa could help grow dissent in her family. I mean, how he greeted her at the tourney, you know, oh, your mother and I,

we were a thing, by the way. Strokes face, creep ass, like, I don't know. It's just, he knows there's opportunity and he's trying to feel it out. Peter Baelish gives her this advice, which becomes an iconic line in the series. Life is not a song, sweetling. You may learn that one day to your sorrow santa even though it's like a great lie decides not to share any parts of this memory with jane because it makes her feel

super uneasy because again grooming yeah it like fucking shit it was super weird just like the last time that they encountered each other yeah he's real creepy jane makes it good as a suggestion as sansa she thinks illin pain should have been sent echoing various's second piece of advice but even now sir illin makes sansa's skin crawl she describes him as a monster the same as gregor clegane. Lord Beric, though, is just as much a hero as Loras, says Jane. Beric's too old, though, Sansa thinks. Besides, it's like super silly for Jane to like pine over him because Beric's too highborn for her. Beric would never look at someone so far beneath him, even if she hadn't been half his age. Ouch, Sansa. Don't be mean to your low-born best friend. It's not nice, girl.

We need to talk about that. Ladies need to be for ladies, Sansa. But, like, also, he's not that old. He's only 20. There's been a lot of good Sansa checking other people's ages, right? She always thinks people are beyond their 20s or old.

But, I mean, she's the one sneaking around the hallways with sandra clegane but anyways yeah but i mean she is like 11 so yes they are he seems old to me for someone who's 11 and i being a year older than sandra clegane i'm like i don't know i'm not like running around with 11 year olds. That is not my crew. I'm not Drake over here. Oh my God. Right? Right though?

Gross grooming behavior. What is he doing? Leave that girl alone. Okay. Get a job, Drake. Oh my God. Sansa says she dreamed Joffrey had taken the White Heart. Though, of course, this is a lie. She changes the dream from how heroes act in songs to fit with Joffrey had taken the white heart, though of course this is a lie. She changes the dream from

how heroes act in songs to fit with Joffrey's violent nature, so he kills the heart with a golden arrow. Joff only likes killing animals. Allegedly. Sansa says the blame for the deaths of Jory and his men weren't on Joffrey, but his uncle, the Kingslayer. It's just Sansa doing what she does best. It's where she takes a memory that she knows the actual objective truth about and spins it just to be a little bit happier, just to make it better and just to survive it. I also have some fun facts about the White Heart. I tried to look this up to see if there was anything symbolic about it. And one, it was a term ascribed to Richard II. And it turns out I don't actually know anything about Richard II.

So that's your fun fact. The other fun fact is for some reason this term, probably because of Richard II, was popularized and is the name of many pubs. It's a popular pub name. The White Heart. Yeah, isn't that fun? If I had an N, I would name it that. Ooh, you know what we should do? Oh. It's a popular pub name. The White Heart. Yeah. Isn't that fun? If I had an inn, I would name it that.

Ooh, you know what we should do? We should go on a road trip across the UK and go to every single one of the White Hearts. That'll be our new podcast. Oh my god, I'm in. All right. So we're quitting Girls Gone Canon. Moms and their diners. And then Jane discloses that she saw Aria walking on aria's hands in the stables and sans is like i don't know what that girl does aria's gonna just like be aria

and stables are fucking gross and of course we being the readers who know all of the things we know that aria is learning to water dance and this is helpful somehow this is some like karate kid shit yeah she's totally karate kidding right now and she's totally just like walking around and sounds like okay that sounds like her this is her wax on wax off moment sansa records all the petitions that were sansa recounts all the positions that were heard at court today there was a black brother sansa said begging men for the wall, only he was kind of old and smelly. She hadn't liked that at all. She'd always imagined the Night's Watch to be men

like Uncle Benjen. In the songs, they were called the Black Knights of the Wall, but this man had been crook-backed and hideous, and he looked as though he might have lice. This was what the Night's Watch was truly like. She felt sorry for her bastard half-brother Jon. Aether asked if there were any knights in the hall who would do honor to their houses by taking the Black, but no one came forward, so he gave this Euron his pick of the king's dungeons and sent him on his way. And later, these two brothers came before him, free riders from the Dornish marches, and pledged their swords to the service of the king. Father accepted their oaths. Here, we see that Sansa feels bad for Jon because the wall doesn't fit what she thinks to be what

they were taught in the songs of them being the Black Knights at the wall. And this is the same lesson that Jon's eventually going to learn. They aren't the Black Knights, but their role as guards of the realm still is incredibly important, as we all know. And it fits that role of heroism, even if each of those different members on the wall aren't going to be remembered. Then they decide they've had enough of these intrigues. This is boring. So they steal some lemon cakes. That's my girls. Shout out to Emily on Twitter.

A bong of ice and fire on Twitter. Emily for this one. She made some lemon cakes this week. Some lemon bars with some powdered sugar all over. She had a very good amount of powder. It was an adequate amount. I was impressed. So shout out to her.

The kitchen yielded no lemon cakes, but they did find half of a cold strawberry pie and that was almost as good they ate it on the tower steps giggling and gossiping and sharing secrets and sansa went to bed that night feeling almost as wicked as aria this is a cute little passage because it's like this is the height of their friendship, the height of their fun at court, the height of their girlhood. This is the Eleanor and Alla and Mega and Margaery hanging out in King's Landing, giggling and being innocent. This is that chapter. This is the last time they get that. The next morning, Sansa watches the riders get ready to go out, and they have Baratheon, Stark, and Dondarrion banners.

get ready to go out and they have Baratheon, Stark, and Dondarrion banners. Alan carries the Stark banner and Sansa thinks that Alan is more handsome than Jory. And Alan also aspires to be a knight one day. Chloe, can you remind us about Alan? I've been waiting for this for like three POVs, first off, so of course I will tell us all about Alan. If you remember from our Ned chapters, Alan is a member of the Winterfell household guard. He heads the 20 men Eddard gives the city watch. He tries to recruit Ongai in the tourney for Lord Eddard's house and his household guard, but

Ongai of course declines. Alan carries a Stark banner and he accompanies Lord Beric and the rest of his party, those about to become the Brotherhood without banners, eventually, on their mission to bring Gregor to justice. He actually restores ranks during the Battle of Mummer's Ford in A Storm of Swords, and he allows a third of the force to break free that Thoros actually leads, and it eventually breaks on to be the last of the Kingsmen. Alan is the reason we have the Brotherhood Without Banners. So everyone get up for Alan.

Pour one out for Alan. He deserves better. He really does deserve better. He did deserve better. I hope he shows back up. We don't know if he's actually dead. You know what I mean? Really? That'd be sick. I'd love that. Yeah, I'd be into that. After everyone leaves, it's so empty that Sansa's

actually really glad to see Arya. Then Sansa asks Septa Mordain, what's going to happen to the people who left? Like when Gregor Clegane is beheaded, are they going to put his head on a spike? Or is it going to be brought back for the king? And I'm wondering, is this foreshadowing of what happens to Ned? I don't know yeah because septim or dane responds and she's mortified she says i swear as of late you've been near as bad as your sister so in a way with this pair with the jane chapter of them being wicked and just sitting on

the steps gossiping it's almost like song is getting a little too big for her britches right like she's really embracing this court life but a little bit too much she's kind of that wolf's blood is taking her on especially because like septimordane in that mortification she's like i swear a flight you've been near as bad as your sister and i'm about to like make another assertion here while we're throwing a lot of shade at septimordane yes that she might very much be the cause of a lot of the rift between sansa and aria like of course oh yeah there's that whole thing sure over at the trident but like she keeps using aria as this metric of what constitutes as badness or bad behavior or she's always like oh she's willful when she's like

talking about their wolves or she's just always pitting the sisters against one another and creating this dichotomy between them and she makes aria out to be the opposite of sansa instead of building them both up together yeah where we get ned's speech where he says they are half of each other they complete each other septimordane is the worst institutionalized misogyny. Like, every single thing is, Arya's the bad one, Sansa you're supposed to be the good one, what are you doing? It's unfair standards for both sisters.

Because women can also continue to enforce the patriarchy, and that's what Septimordain does. Yes, absolutely. She's paying into it. She's being paid out of it. Arya says Jaime Lannister should be held accountable for his crimes, as Gregor will be,

or that the Hound should see justice for Micah. Sansa says it's not the same and that Micah attacked Joffrey, which of course kind of breaks out some spirit. Only kind of. I mean, like, it's not like this is actually exactly what happens you know where aria calls sansa a liar for saying that because i mean yeah that's not true that's not what happened and aria her hand clenched around the blood orange so hard that red juice oozed between her fingers then aria throws the blood orange across the table at santa who

says that aria ought to have died instead of lady which like damn like everything's like getting so like intense here and then septimordane sends up both the girls to their rooms and then that blood orange leaves a stain on santa's dress which foreshadows santa's period later i suppose because she like balls it up and she throws it on the cold ashes, whereas, like, I believe she tries to burn her bedding later on when she first flowers. Yeah, all of her wardrobe actually smells like smoke later on because of it, and a lot of it's ruined. Of course, this is also the same dress she dyes black to beg for Ned's life in later, which holds a ton of symbolism. We'll talk about about then this is definitely the shitty moments of being a sibling and being young like times you screamed i wish you'd never been born like i said earlier kind of stuff at your siblings that's not good that's not this is the stuff that breaks a parent's

heart it breaks a parent's heart so much they don't actually talk to you about it or about any of your behaviors right like sansa probably feels like she's stuck in that tower much like arianne felt like it yeah no one's really providing her any proper guidance here sansa has this time a real dream when septimordane comes to wake her and she felt that lady's presence was with her then when both girls finally join that stark sansa immediately tries to blame all that shit on aria and aria on the other hand actually apologizes for behavior for her behavior and she begs for sansa's forgiveness she offers to wash the dress as a sign of reconciliation and when rebuked by sansa aria's, I could try and make you a new one. Aww, Arya baby girl. My baby girl.

She really tried. She really tried. She's like, I can try and wash it or make you a new one. And like, she's not, we all know she's not good at these things. So like the fact that she offers to make a whole dress, in my opinion. Right. It's a big deal. It's really sad because it's their last chance at this reconciliation too for a long time ned surprises them both though when instead he says that he called them here not to punish them for in theory to send them both back to winterfell which they think is the punishment

because immediately both girls are like no we can't you can't send us back we don't want to go home from chuck e cheese's yet and sansa says to send aria away because it was aria who did the thing wrong and not her and then ned gets like pretty annoyed about this and he says it's not because they did anything wrong it's for their own safety his impatience is totally understandable to us because we the reader know what danger they're in but they don't know the danger they're in. Arya has a bit more sense of it, especially after overhearing the dungeon conversation, of course, and after Ned takes her aside to give her a lecture after this, but Sansa's pretty in the dark, right?

And Arya's also nine. Arya asks if she can bring Syrio home with them. Sansa responds, Who cares about your stupid dancing matter? Sansa flared. Father, I only just now remembered I can't go away. I'm to marry Prince Joffrey. She tried to smile bravely for him.

I love him, Father. I truly, truly do. I love him as much as Queen Nereus loved Prince Aemon, the Dragon Knight, and as much as Jean Quill loved Sir Florian. I want to be his queen and have his babies and i do think it's kind of interesting here that like sansa says that she only just now remembered that she can't leave because of joffrey because actually she that is how it happened her first thought when she says she can't leave is that she would hate to lose all of these parties

and the pageantry and like the magic of king's landing there's so much that she feels she can't leave is that she would hate to lose all of these parties and the pageantry and like the magic of king's landing there's so much that she feels she hasn't seen yet or experienced yet she loves it it's just like the songs and sansa as we know because she's 11 and doesn't know this boy she doesn't truly love joffrey she loves what king's landing represents and joffrey is just a part of that you can see that in the language that she uses, where she's splicing him into these stories of Aemon and Neres, or like Jonquil and Florian, which I think it's interesting that Sansa has picked, what, these examples of forbidden love? This is what she's fantasizing about? And Sansa is in love with the stories. She wishes to live in them. King's Landing is the Sogs, and Joffrey is just another part of it. He's a useful insert,

especially more so because he's an actual prince. Of course, Ned responds, sweet one, her father said gently. Listen to me, when you're old enough, I will make you a match with a high lord who's worthy of you, someone brave and gentle and strong which of course there are many contenders to that we won't go too deep into that aria says that sansa won't give joffrey lion children that joffrey's a stag and then we get the psychotic line sansa felt tears in her eyes he is not he is not the least bit like that old drunken king she screamed at her sister forgetting herself in her grief father looked at her strangely gods he swore softly out of the mouths of babes so we learn ned's plans get a fast galley out of here because the sea is safer than the king's road

which is of course a pretty funny reversal of the REN chapters. The sea is more dangerous now, especially towards Storm's End. And Balon Swann says the sea is now dangerous with pirates, though Swann of course had his own plans. With war not really breaking out quite yet in Westeros, the sea was really safe right now. What a weird thought with how far we are. He says we can bring Syrio if he agrees to enter our service which of course ari is excited about and septimordane says ned knows best and doesn't allow sansa to question her father of course as we know from the last time sansa tried to question her father she has a new thought in mind from lord balish why i'm wise i should be able to question my dad he killed my dog why should i listen to him i'm a preteen i'm a preteen and like exactly this is literally the third beat in this chapter this is the third

time that says septimordane has said to sansa like don't question your dad which establishes that this is a pattern here that is part of sansa storyline and shows that why yes sansa is a preteen and she's about to question her parents and like they should be thankful they didn't have to deal with her as a full-out teenager maybe that's too soon too soon i don't know dude that was actually a bad joke what could happen worse like she kills ned personally that's true that's true as a teenager i mean like what would Marjorie do? I mean... If she'd been lied to or not talked to, you know, like... That's true. They've...

Think about Marjorie if she wasn't open, you know, if she didn't have that open field of communication with her family, how would Marjorie be? She would not be how she is. is yeah maybe we've also just like already seen the worst of i guess what could happen because sansa's acting out in the way that i guess a lot of teenagers do already i know i know god oh this is such a blast from the past right now with these chapters i try these are all the things that i kind of just bottled down about myself and we're just gonna dig all of the cringiest behavior from that time back up yeah like i'm thinking about cringy behavior that i did right now that's literally what's going on yeah that's how i felt watching the second season of american vandal anyway i haven't watched it yet is it good it's so good did you watch the first one yes oh it's real good it's real good so the end of the chapter comes aria is trying to be cheerful and sweet because she got her way she gets to keep her dancing master and sansa is so mad she's just

like you're gonna fucking marry hodor fuck. And she locks herself in her room. It's like super mean that her insult is like trying to be like, you're going to marry Hodor. But also, I don't know. It's kind of funny. It's not just me. It's a pretty big burn. Like, damn, Sansa. Say what you really feel.

It's kind of mean to say that about Hodor. But just like, it's just the first thing she thinks hodor you're gonna bury hodor yeah yeah it's not nice not nice well you guys thank you so much for joining with us we are so excited for sansa four and five next week we get into the really nitty gritty stuff. We are going to have a lot of discourse, I'm sure, on the internet in between those chapters. There's a lot going on. In the

meantime, you can always find us on the internet as at Girls Gone Canon on Twitter. And you can also send us an email at girlsgonecanon at gmail.com if you're so behooved. And don't forget to check us out on our Patreon, which is patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon.

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