Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 203 — ACOK Arya VI

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

Arya learns two new prayers as she enters Harrenhal, shepherded by the Mountain.   Background music: "Tempting Secrets" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/   Check us out on Bluesky! https://bsky.app/profile/girlsgonecanon.bsky.social --- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song Of Ice And Fire, episode 203, Aria 6 in A Clash Of Kings. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And are you ready for this actually very, very dense, it's a sweet little chapter, but nothing about it is sweet. It's just really dense, you know? Yeah, it's a horrible chapter, actually, Eliana, I would say. It's a little number. They did a little number on this one. Yeah yeah it's a horrible chapter actually eliana i would say it's a it's a little

number it's a they did a little number on this one yeah it's depressing it's short but it's very dense there's a lot in it for a small chapter and it's good because the next chapter is loaded the next chapter we're gonna do aria 7 is super loaded and i think we have a surprise for you guys about it but you're gonna have to wait till after we talk about the other housekeeping oh so get ready get ready now you have to listen yeah yeah i'm edging them towards our special surprise but before we get into the tragic horrible episode that's going to talk about violence you know there's going to be lots of domestic physical about violence you know there's gonna be lots of domestic physical rape there's a lot of bad stuff in these chapters did you know this there is really bad also specifically in this one just

this one yeah six and seven are like very like you know that aria six is a dense sad fucked up chapter because not a cast did it in one whole episode instead of instead of combining the three chapters not it's a big i actually said that to my roommate i was like wait you guys didn't split these or did you join these chapters he's like no i did it as one i was like that's how you know it's a big fucking chapter it's not just that this chapter actually like there's a lot of the class chapters that have a reprise right and this is one of them that definitely comes back and gets callbacks in a couple of different chapters yeah absolutely there's a lot going on here a lot of political stuff that you know the tyrian chapters that surround it for example yeah true i think there's

so much that connects right here that we see happening in King's Landing and then echoing actually in Arya's plot. So, I'm excited to talk about that. Something I'm actually really excited for this month, though, and it grew on me. I want you to know that sometimes Eliana says things to me

and I immediately roll my eyes and say, no, Eliana, we're not doing that. Some of them deserve that reaction i'm like but what if we did what if we did uh some of them deserve the reaction i give you to be fair but some of them are really good i'd say it's like you know it's 50 50 depending on the day that your genius is out you should should put it away though. Tuck that back in. But every time Eliana has an idea, the gods flip a coin and the gods are me. I'm the gods, by the way.

This time I flipped that coin and I fucking loved what I saw. Eliana came up with an amazing idea for our Patreon bonus episode this month, which if you are not a patron in the stranger tier and above, I highly recommend you become our patron where, you know, you got that five bucks burning in your pocket, you can get bonus episodes every month that the public does not generally have access to. So very exciting.

And this one, this one's exciting to me. Eliana has a very specific title. Eliana, will you read the title of this episode this month? Yes, it is The House That Went Away or The House Went Away. I can't decide which one I like better. No, it's that. Oh, okay. It's that. I like House That Went Away because it did. The House That Went Away, they did. They gone. You know, if you want to get really, you know, about it. Yeah, The House that went away. I'm excited to talk about Housewent. I fucking love Housewent.

I know you do. We've talked about them on and off this entire, you know, past five years. True. And we'll continue talking about them, I'm sure. But there's a lot of mystery, a lot of mystique, and it's our kind of spooky-themed episode

for the month. There's that and, okay, I would like to point out, I also had a second good idea. And maybe we'll do it. Maybe we won't. I was, it was, it was a strange day. It was a strange day that Chloe liked both of the ideas that I put in front of her for the Patreon episode.

She's like, both of these are good. What's happening? This one, though, I think it really fits. As you said said it goes with halloween we're here at heron hall now and also of course like house went like their their blood flows through aria's veins as well yeah that's like they're related bruh house went minnesota went yeah i'm excited for that episode it'll be out at the end of the month for you all. So patreon.com slash girls gone canon. That is C-A-N-O-N.

Yes. And also something else is that on our Patreon for the Thunder Turn Above, that's $10 and up, you can get access to our Discord, where we have fun channels in which i ask everyone should i be watching the clone wars in release order or should i be watching it in this chronological order that was also released in a different blog but there's also these brunch slash happy hour brappy hours once a month that you can join that has games giveaways and get to know you and this month is of course halloween themed halloween themed is gonna be so exciting i am working my little tush off on a you know a little discord reindeer game so i'm excited i think we're gonna have fun indeed and

by reindeer game is it like i don't know it makes me think is this nightmare before christmas shit and it's not about it oh my god there's also a couple of other things that we have that it's kind of a packed october i'm thinking about if i should use this thing that you sent me for my birthday create a costume yeah i'm honestly please come in costume it's gonna be october 21st 3 to 5 p.m. for the Thunder, Tyrion, and above patrons. So please wear your costumes. I'm going to be wearing my costume. I am hyped. I actually got myself a little costume this year.

It's not even like just a cosplay that I already had or anything. It's a costume. I'm taking it to a party. I'm going to a Halloween party and I'm wearing my costume. So you all should too. Also, Chloe has roped her roommate into being part of this costume as well. Yes, he's a fucking very central and imperative part. No, he's not.

Of this costume? Yes, he is. When, listen, once we get to the big reveal, I'll tell you guys, for the historians out there, you know, we've always say it's for the historians that are jotting all this down. So for those listening in the future, we'll reveal the costume in due time. I'm actually really excited. It's from one of my favorite movies. In fact, if you ever have watched streams like a couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure

of being on Sanri Scribbles from our dear friend Sanrixian. You may have seen a poster of this movie that's my favorite movie in the background at my household. And that's what I'm dressing up for Halloween from. So more to come. More to come. Yes.

And speaking of our friend Sanrixian, Sanri Scriblin and also Surprising People. Yeah, we are going to have Sanriksian on next week. Mallory will be joining us for Arya 7 in A Clash of Kings. And I'm so excited because she loves Arya Stark. And we always talk about how we got to do like a Sansa-Arya duo costume at a con or something together. So Arya is Mallory's big fave. costume at a con or something together. So Arya is Mallory's big fave. I can't wait to hear what she has to say about next week's devastating, depressing, awful episode. It is an interesting

choice. And you know, love that she picked a Clash chapter as well. I actually really love these Arya Clash chapters. So it feels special. She's coming on for them. You know what I before was not an appreciator enough. First of all, I am not enough of an appreciator of Clash. Between me and Chloe, Chloe is the Clash lover. Is it because Clash and Chloe start with similar sounds? Unsure. Maybe.

Maybe. Maybe. But yeah, I'm really enjoying it. They are kind of short. They all really flow well into each other. But it fits. It works. And maybe this goes against, you know, our order.

Obviously, our reading order that we're doing is different because we've read these books countless times already in the regular order. But it is giving me an appreciation for those chapters surrounding it because i think it complements those chapters really well we were talking a little before this and the tyrian chapters for example you're going straight from tyrian giving the commands slash talking about what's happening in the riverlands to on the ground with aria actually living it and this episode today you know i, it's prisoners of war being carted around and Arya is on the ground in that and it gives you a great, not a great, not great in that way, but like a terrible vision at what's coming for everyone in the Riverlands.

True, true. And it's also been really enlightening to read these chapters alongside as we've been doing our read throughs of some of george's short stories and kind of like i don't know the way that they're all constructed it's very interesting to see them together and if you haven't checked it out last month we got to cover for patrons in that stranger tier and above in the bonus episodes a novelette by george bitter blooms as eliana likes to lovingly call it butter Butter Bumps. Yes, I was anticipating you there. But yeah, it was a great, a really great story, a short story, a really quick read. And I think we found a lot in it and a lot that complements these chapters. And of course,

more as we go forward in the story. Yeah, absolutely. I thought it was a really good one. I think, I don don't know i've liked all the other ones that we've read but in a way kind of i wanted to say it was my favorite of the ones that we've read but i don't even know if that's true they're all they're all like strong in different ways yeah yeah well check out our next episode with mallory can't wait to give that one to you guys we look forward to having her on and we'll speed on ahead to get to the episode but first, an email from one

of our sponsors. LaCroix. And by LaCroix we mean Warren. LaCroixin. LaCroixin. LaCroixin Halfhand himself. Oh, I don't know why it made me think LaQuarantine, which is what's happening to Arya and all these prisoners.

Anyways, so Warren has sent us another message and acknowledges that yes, it is a short chapter this week, but nonetheless a powerful one. one of the more morose feeling of Arya chapters where her depression seems prominent and Warren points out other observations such as how meek she becomes as she is exposed to the horrors of life in Gregor's camp Arya's nightly prayer is very prominent meek as Arya appears her fight is still there she tries to get herself a position in Tywin's stable and imagines escape just how George is using Arya to show us the cost slash impact of war on the small folk it's short without a lot of exposition but still for this biased aria holic as as warren says a very powerful chapter which serves strong purpose and setting slash maintaining the overall tone for the story at this point which. Absolutely. I do want to add his sign-off,

which was, my little ears are tingling in anticipation. I love that for you, Warren. I'm now going to make fun of your little ears all the time. My little ears. His wee little ears. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of that cost of war

on the small folk we're seeing, and I do think that aria's spirit gets a little dampened in this chapter but thankfully next chapter she gets a little genie in a bottle so to speak to bring it back so we will chat through this episode and see if she gets a little comeback in confidence next week with her you know jack and. Yeah, it's actually kind of a good reminder of, you know, all the horrors that Arya's experiencing. Multiply that by, like, thousands, right? Every single one of those people in that line

that we're gonna see. They are all experiencing the same horror and trauma. Like, everyone's having a very, very bad time. So imagine Arya's POV times a bazillion. Well, today you'll only get it once, but before that we're gonna take you through a quick spin on the POVs in what we missed between Arya 5 and

Arya 6 in our lightning round, starting with Tyrion 5, where Tyrion decides to play with fire. Brand 3, hashtag harvest feasting with the reeds. Catelyn 2, at Bitter Bridge, Catelyn attempts to knock some Baratheon boy heads together. three hashtag harvest feasting with the reeds catalan two at bitter bridge catalan attempts to knock some baratheon boy heads together bitter bridge interesting bitter blooms bitter blooms bitter blooms john three the night's watch arrives at craster's keep speaking of bitter blooms theon two theon is seduced and played by Asgrad, who is, in disguise, his sister! Except not at all in disguise. He just doesn't know what she looks like. Cause you know. Child hostage. Child hostage, you know? Oh, that's the theme. That's the theme. I see it. I see it. That's actually something we should think about more. Anyways, Tyrion 5. It's all in a day's work deliver great news poison your sister arrest paicelle he's always doing so much in his chapters every time i'm like trying to do the

lightning round i'm like tyrian can you do less he's so accomplished i know he really i'm serious though every time i look at a tyrian chapter in this book i'm like holy shit you do too much there's always like legitimately i think until, where it slows down a little and becomes much more about his interiority. I guess this doesn't matter. But there, as you said, like, Clash is the fucking Tyrion's getting shit done book. CEO of King's Landing. Kinda. Or COO.

Enough with that COO, truly, with our coup from Tyrion. Arya 6, A Clash of Kings. Prisoners of war are being marched to Harrenhal to serve Lord Tywin and his men. And so we open the chapter with Arya repeating her fear is the mind killer mantra, but it doesn't make the fear go away. Fear is now a part of her days, so she's kind of not been sticking to that mantra as much. She had once been afraid on the god's eye, kind of not been sticking to that mantra as much. She had once been afraid on the god's eye,

but now she's a new girl with new fears. Isn't being a girl so fun? There's that girl. It's Arya. She's been there eight days, and every day someone has been picked to die and is taken for questioning. One girl shared a soldier's bed, three nights running,

but was still picked on day four to be questioned. The soldier said nothing. A smiley old man who mends clothing for everybody babbles about his son loudly and he would say, he's all for Joffrey, a king's man, through and through, but he was still picked on the fifth day. A young woman with pox scars offers to tell the Mountain everything she knows, as long as they don't hurt her daughter. He chose her daughter the next day to be sure that the woman wasn't holding anything back. Dang, that's pretty messed up. Honestly, I would have tried all these tactics

too if I were these people. Yeah. I mean, I get it, but it's all just luck, you know? It's all just chance. And it really positionsregor clagain as a mountain right like this force of nature and to an extent it even kind of puts him in this position of godhood because he's deciding life and death for these people like at a whim right this is one examination of power and and what power means it's the ability to do something it's power over other people and there's i think kind of a really interesting irony when it comes to gregor clegane's character and his eventual fate because while he has all this power over other people he ends up having no power or control over his body and it becomes this really full arc

for someone who has to an extent had an illusion of power right like but if you even look at it now where he's seemingly got his full senses he's he's a land of stir puppet and he ends up becoming one in full so when you look at gregor clegane's character and that version of power it really makes sense then for aria to also later intersect with his brother sandor i don't know if you know this you guys gregor and sandor clegane are brothers holy shit holy shit holy shit um but sandor he's strong like gregor and very big and while he might not be as physically powerful as Gregor, who also exerts that sort of violent power over Sandor, like Sandor ends up being able to reclaim his own power over his own life

and defies the orders of the Lannisters and the Kings. He is not a puppet or a servant. And I think that's also a big part. And we'll talk about it more later on in Arya's chapters of why the hound stops being the hound, right? The Lannister dog, thanks to his time with a little wild wolf. With both wolves, really, right? But the other one's a captive. Two wolflings.

Not wild right now. I love that because, like, if you look at it I don't know there's something about literature of like imagining it in more of a you know like a physical way like if I close my eyes and I see the arcs as actual lines on paper and where they diverge and where they're joining together I don't know I'm crazy I like see shit

I like close my eyes and I see the shape of stories but the shape of the story yes the hound becomes Sandor and gregor becomes a total mindless puppet which he already was exactly already was in all but actuality and this chapter specifically right at the front it's doing something wild where it's showing every type of captive and their type of bargaining each woman we hear about in this chapter bargaining promising to do anything,

licking their boots, or putting up a fight, saying, no, you're gonna be murdered either way. As we learn in a moment, the only constant that never changes is Gregor, right? And his men, they're ruthless and evil, and every single one of the people that gets chosen, so lucky to be interviewed here,

dies. They die. No matter how hard you lick their boots, the best you're going to be rewarded with is death or rape in this camp. And that's really awful. It's really horrendous. It's usually kind of both, I guess, is what it

seems, you know? Death or rape. Yeah. Or rape then death. Yes. It's... rape yeah or rape than death so yes and it's it's a really like it brings this chapter brings a lot of physical reaction out of me there's so much that haunts me in it it's gross and you know they go on to the questioning right the tickler is introduced it's kind of interesting because you can almost again take all these roles and put them into like a corporate office in your head in a way right except they're like murdering people and torturing them for answers but i was like i was like what well because like the way

aria introduces them no no she's introducing like the tickler here he is the torturer he tortures these people in front of all the other captives, gets an active audience to make sure they see what's happening and what will happen to them to scare them and intimidate them. And then you meet Chiswick. He's stoop-shouldered. He's the one that last chapter called Arya a fierce thing and then hit her in the head, if you remember. He tells all of the captives, oh, the tickler makes people howl so much they piss themselves and sometimes chiswick helps the tickler or others help him gregor watches and listens while the victim dies and as aria says they all died and their bodies get left out for the wolves to eat i really like

what you said though about them kind of seeming like a corporation i know that you or i don't know one of your friends have have described you know a lot of the lannisters corporation i know that you or i don't know one of your friends have have described you know a lot of the lannisters and the way that they run is kind of like a a mob yeah but the way that you described it really makes it seem like this very cold cold machine well and that's the thing right like it is a mob because the mob like the biggest thing about the mob is like getting like the godfather the godfather the entire thing was how can i get my son to be legitimate how do we legitimize this business and take it from the streets where currently we're just killing people and crushing their skulls on a curb for funsies to get our money but how do we legitimize it how do we make it an llc and incorporated well i mean

joffrey's on the throne there's your legitimacy this is the legitimacy they now have and at the same token they're still doing it through illegitimate ways they're just trying to legitimize their ways to make it the thing that's accepted and normal across the countryside yeah and you can kind of see the desperation that they're trying to like really legitimize themselves with this line of questioning all just to get this like one man this this holdout camp right yeah it's and we're going to talk about that in a little bit because i have a lot to say about that because it is a regime right like yes joffrey is the puppet on the throne with the crown on his head doing dumb shit but

tywin is the man calling the shots and this is his legacy that it's all fucking with his goal is that this will be the Lannister legacy that he can make right his father's mistakes by doing this yeah we have overcorrected

we have a passage that it's gonna come back eventually in a couple of ways so maybe it's important so we'll read it the questions were always the same was there gold hidden in the village silver gems was there more

food where was lord barak don darian which of the village folk had aided him when he rode off where did he go how many men were with him how many knights how many bowmen how many men at arms? How were they armed? How many were horsed? How many were wounded? What other enemy had they seen? How many? When? What banners did they fly? Where did they go? Was there gold hidden in the village? How much? Silver? Gems? Where was Lord Beric Dondarrion? How many men were with him? By the third day, Arya could have asked the questions herself.

Find that line very interesting. And I love that you called out at the beginning of this chapter By the third day, Arya could have asked these questions by heart later because yes these do make a reprise and yes later this chapter Arya develops her kill list of people she wants to die and that does become a sort of mantra itself punctuated by the Valar Morghulis and I think there's an aspect of Arya's character and story that that is very religious or if not religion in the way that we think about you know this organized sense it's very spiritual in a way that I think is different from Arryn and Melisandre's but still kind of related like whether or not Arya believes in any god she is currently serving at a religious institution or training at one, and she acts in the capacity as a, you know, quote unquote, servant of that God, right? Or carrying out that God's will and answering the prayers of people there.

The repetition of so many of these different mantras, which are, yes, prayers, as Hercules is called later on throughout her chapters, like really gives it that spiritual effect. It becomes this prayer as a sort of meditation or ritual. what prayer becomes in Melisandre's chapters or even Aaron's later chapters where it's prayer as pleading, prayer as a way to manifest things as opposed to meditation and comfort. And so I think it really makes sense in the context of how Arya's story is examining power and therefore godhood when it comes to, again, her role at the House of Black and White or even here with forces of nature like gregor i love that you've brought aaron into this too because i was thinking of him even with the language of the people being chosen to be questioned being chosen right or having you know being passed

over and i think a lot actually about how they visualized it in game of thrones because it was well done you could feel the fear you could see the people huddled and waiting, waiting to be chosen, waiting to be chosen. And that's a lot of what Aaron's plot revolves around. It's kind of interesting, the waiting to be chosen, especially for torture and then like the flip side of that, right? When it comes to like chosen ones, things like that. Yeah. Very interesting. So the torturers find gold, silver, copper, and they learn that Beric had 10 starvelings or, I don't know, maybe 100 mountain knights. Who knows? Maybe even 20 good men. We all know. We see their camp later on. Anyways, they went west, north, south, crossed the lake in a boat, or strong, or they're weak. Something that's really interesting about Arya's story also is her further learning the role of intelligence and i don't mean that like as in you know she's smart i mean that in like the cia usage of the term

intelligence by watching this interrogation because we have this sort of build-up right first we have her overhearing varies in illyrio and then we also have that this whole scene this whole fucking chapter and the lengths that the lannister army will go for intelligence they're going pretty fucking far. And then later on, we have her training with the Faceless Men and coming back with, you know, what are three new things every single day? And it really starts to feel like I know that a lot of people have speculated this, but you can really see the thread if she is being built up for maybe a master of whispers sort of role

and i think that would be really interesting if she were especially when you put her alongside characters such as varies right like or i mean we talked about varies and aria a few a few chapters ago but if you look at the master of whispers which i have for a long time kept calling master of whispers turns out it's whisperers okay three out of six of them so fifty percent of all of the known ones are from estos you've got tyana miss aria and fairies melisandre kind of fulfills a similar role for stanis but she isn't like exactly a master of whispers. She's made her own job title. And so it'd be really interesting for Arya, who is a Sosi trained, but Westerosi born.

And then you also have this aspect of master of whispers who tend to be like gender outlaws, right? A lot of them are women with power and magic, or they're maybe like foreign others or gender outlaws in different ways for example like how varies yeah he's foreign but he's also a eunuch right we have larry's and blood raven they have other bodies and disability uh with larry's i know people have discussed that in in terms of masculinity before and there's an aspect of that with blood raven as well and also blood raven is a bastard and he has magic.

So the magic part's a pretty big deal, especially when you look at someone like Qyburn, right? Who again, when it comes to that gendered aspect and masculinity comes from a celibate institution that he dropped out of. So I guess he could just keep having sex if he wanted to, but he doesn't feel, I don't know what Qyburn's into. Anyways.

He's not into sex, honey. He's into torture. It turns him into. Anyways. He's not into sex, honey. He's into torture. It turns him on. Yeah. He edges to taking someone's, like, bowels out, okay? Like, that gets him off. Actually, it legitimately might. Ooh, wait, hold on.

Idea. He's a sadist. Qyburn, I don't know, POV. Like a pro-epilogue. An epilogue would be good, yeah. Yeah, I could see it. Anyways, Aryaria of course practices magic what what my god um yeah i don't know it's the master of whispers is one of the few like

high-level positions that is often occupied by someone who isn't from the usual westerosi power structure and therefore it's a position that comes with a lot of distrust because it's from outside that usual system, both in the position but also because of, again, the identities of the person who holds it because they tend to be these very other identities. Yeah, I'm so glad you pulled this out because I was thinking a little bit about that as we talk about some of these kind of Essos versus Westeros things.

And, I mean Tyanna is a very central character around a time when a king dies and is revived in a tower true interesting Misaria

she may have swayed the dance of the dragons slash civil war where a brother with a claim is fighting a half sister over her claim right being a targaryen dragon mizaria had some good point maybe some dabbling in there and this is you know this is a very vague parallel but look at you know game of thrones season eight right whatever Arya also could be in a position to influence the way that the war is going with her siblings, who very much would respect her opinion probably at this point. I don't know. I think that's a big role for her in the Winterfell court, right? That she will probably become the mistress of whisperers when the wolves

come home. Maybe not forever. The bad show should have done that. I don't know what their problem is. They're stupid. That would have been so cute. Couldn't you imagine a scene where Sansa is like sitting there with her and Jon and Bran? She's like, well,

Arya, we need a master of whisperers, you know, you know, just something stupid and cute because Sansa loves titles. She'd be like, well, we should have it. I don't know. It'd be adorable. But she might have to also

pull double duty, right? Because Sansa can't do any of that coin shit whatsoever. Actually, that's not a bad idea, considering like, could Arya amongst like, you know, her various training in Braavos, could one of her things be masquerade as intern at the fucking Iron Bank? It's like literally right there. I mean, what else is she gonna do? We only have 14 more books to go. Oh my god, I'm imagining what is that show that you got me into what is that show that you got me into with the banking and shit which one is that the the cut the cutthroat girls the girls who are so cut industry industry i love industry i'm imagining aria i'm imagining aria in industry and trying to sell

fucking hedge funds to people at the iron bank. Hedge Knights? Oh my god. Oh, interesting. Leave them out of this. Interesting. But they're going to work together somehow. Like, the show got it all fucking wrong. Or Master of Coin thought Ricken. I mean.

There's literally no, there's literally no, I just thought it'd be funny to say Ricken as a joke. What's he going to do? That boy can't even count. Bring a fucking abacus from Skagos?'m so for real right now like what are you talking about um no realistically i have this all laid out in my head though like i know who's what like i'm gonna be honest with you when sansa takes her throne which is gonna happen so i don't know why anyone's rolling their eyes at me through the screen right now at home but when sansa takes her throne uh master of coin is gonna be one of the manderly girls either winifred probably yeah i mean that's my guess i mean they they're going

to be in charge of the mint and the men will be dead so i'd say it'll be wyler winifred that's interesting oh yeah i mean i'm still holding out for our lord manderly to fucking make it but i don't think he's uh that man needs to take like family medical leave right now like definitely medical right now all right i have no comment let's move on from that one i'm like eliana don't take this from me that bitch is gonna be dead and the wind's a winner within three chapters that bitch is already bled out in the snow here's how lord van der lee can still win so when they begin the march to harrenhal aria knows that she's no water dancer syria wouldn't have let these people kill Lami

or take his sword or meekly shuffled about. Arya feels more like a lamb than a wolf, and she hates the sheepishness of the villagers just as much as she hates herself. We have a line, the Lannisters had taken everything. Father, friends, home,

hope, courage. Eh. I just like this language language it gets real fucking dramatic there when they're like the land is just to cope and courage but i get it from the position of aria's especially very childlike story right i think don't get me wrong there's a lot of mature things that happen in her story like also this is this series after all, but the Lannisters are this monstrous evil black hole of a villain to her that does seem insurmountable for beating. And like, yeah, Arya isn't a water dancer. She doesn't feel like one right now.

Maybe it's a good thing she isn't or she would have fucking died protecting, trying to protect all these people. But her story is not done yet. Not yet. No, that's true. I like the language a lot, though, in in that line i'm glad that we pulled it out because it reminds me of john snow motherless damned it actually is kind of literally the same kind of vibe same construction and everything yeah that that just that little bit of word word word word actually it is kind of literally the same it's her version construction it's aria's

aria's version instead of taylor's version yeah thanks so no chatter is allowed and aria had learned that the hard way you wouldn't have survived uh and now she has a broken lip me she watched them die when the raft the sweetling was smashing in faces or killing mothers you know normal shit and then we have this line of what good did it do you to be brave one of the women picked for questioning had tried to be brave but she had died screaming like all the rest there were no brave people on that march only scared scared and hungry ones. Most were women and children. Devastating, I'm sorry, that is so fucked up. No, it is. So sad, there were no brave people, just scared

people. Well, Arya, you know when a man can be brave? When they're afraid. But what about for women and children? Fuck them, you know, that's what Ned said, Ned was like fuck women and children. Yeah, actually, that's why he never took them to go see, you know, the very fun Ned said. Ned was like, fuck women and children. Yeah, actually. That's why he never took them to go see, you know, the very

fun beheadings. Fun! Everyone had fun dad day. Fun, like, dad trip. Yeah. With that. Yeah, we do get a little bit of that, right? There's a little, uh, in this chapter, actually, I think it is, there's a little is it this one? It's either this one or next one we'll come across where there's a little bit of a, um,

I don't know, we can call it a retcon, in a little way that george is like aria had heard about when her brothers went out to see the deserter slayed i'm like oh did she did she hear about it george thanks for letting us know that a book later yeah she only hears about it but you know who else never had any like father dad trips gantry Father-dad trips. Gentry. For real. He's been spared from torture because he could forge armor so he has use. And very

excitingly they are all going to serve Tywin and the mountain reminded them that they were all traitors and rebels and they are lucky to be getting this chance to obey serve live hold on does the mountain think that this is the mountain like do you think he ever felt like this guilt or something he's like i'm so lucky i get to be here to obey serve and live no i mean no thoughts i don't think so necessarily but maybe probably i mean look i don't think so necessarily, but maybe. I mean, look.

I don't know. Look at him as like a lower corporate person, right? Like, yeah, maybe. He fucking, he just fucking loves that shit. I don't know. Yeah, there's something. I legit don't know. Well, I mean, that's kind of what he gets doomed to as a Kingsguard member, right?

To obey, serve, and live. He becomes a Kingsguard member, as you serve and live he becomes a Kingsguard member as you said a mindless puppet and there is something there like the obey serve and live obviously very cops but also very Kingsguard and it definitely brings those Kingsguard lines to life of like especially when you get that that view into the tower in Jamie's chapters of like, yeah, they have nice quarters to live in or whatever. But they don't really have much the Kingsguard like they don't have much this is their life now obeying serving and living. And it's interesting that this language is used here for everyone there who is lucky to be serving Tywin. That's so interesting because they don't have much else, right? They're

not allowed to really have any other connections emotionally. It's kind of, are they like the Jedi? But also, it's kind of goes back to Daenerys' story of like, look at what your life is worth when all the rest is gone. What do you actually have at the end of the day? Yeah. And there's something else here that I've been kind of thinking about, especially in this chapter, the Kingswood Brotherhood. I want to bring that up because I think it reflects, as we start to get the Brotherhood Without Banners going,

there are a lot of similarities, right? And there's something here with Tywin and with Gregor and with this, chase for barak and how it becomes so all-consuming for their martial order like that the number one goal is kill barak right like get barak make an example of him because no one does that to us to to westeros to the crown and in a way it reminds me me of something in America that happens with presidents where they have one or two martial matters that to them are like, this defines my legacy. Right. So Bush, for example, and the war on terror, which, you know, went really great. which if you know went really great bush's war on terror and you look at him you know trying to capture the ringleaders for the war on terror that was so important for him to do before he left

office right that became like a this is my legacy i will be known for stopping the terrorism is his goal obama had him trump even had some of his own, right? Whether we're looking at, you know, finding the leaders, etc. Whatever you can do to make that part of your public, you know, this is what I accomplished while I was in office. And that's what I think this is for Tywin, right? The Brotherhood Without Banners has become, if you look at Ares, Ares' big accomplishment in office was getting the Kingswood Brotherhood dealt with. Now, let's talk about the Kingswood Brotherhood and what that means, though. They were sheltered by the small folk in the Kingswood, right? And they had a huge battle between the Kingswood Brotherhood and Jamie Arthur Barristan and

co. And most of them were killed or took the black. And the only way all of this had any breakage because they couldn't be touched because they were in the kingswood being sheltered by small folk arthur dane petitioned eris for better rights for the small folk and swung the scales to give them rights in exchange for impunity so that the king's guard could enter the kingswood and go after the brotherhood so before that they were roaming free under their protection right so they just couldn't nail them down now this was kind of born though out of a time of injustice and

disparity for paying food in westeros as well as far as war and as far as you know you look at what happened with what duskendale that the people were like lower taxes please and he was like no and they were like kidnap please obviously the. And he was like, no. And they were like, kidnap, please. Obviously, the lords were not happy. Obviously, the lords and even not the lords were unhappy and not able to live. And in times of disparity, in times of poverty, crime goes up because people have to fucking feed themselves and their family or they die. And so let's look at the legacy of

the Brotherhood Without Banners for Tywin and Joffrey. The Brotherhood Without Banners was literally born of Robert, which Tywin is trying to kill off. He does not want anyone to think anything good of Robert. It's all about Joffrey. This is a new PR campaign. In Robert's name, the Brotherhood Without Banners was born, pledged to bring down the mountain and his injustices across the Riverlands and Crownlands. So while they end up broken up after this fording, the Brotherhood Without Banners, they attract other broken men to their group that have experienced similar issues. Beric knights each of them when they join, and they begin to try to take control of bigger territories and kind of start their own miniature economy, right?

Look at the Inn at the Crossroads, though. It's Robin Hood shit, right? Like they are blocking off, you don't just go to the Inn at the Crossroads right now in A Dance with Dragons. It's dangerous. Lords can't just go there. They are, you know, cutting the means to supply to make the king give a fuck. Yeah, absolutely. That's, that's a great point. and they never do really succeed right in in getting barrack and part of it is a combination of like i don't know if they have the small folks protection right now some of them they do some they don't mostly they just have a they got magic they do have some small folk support but yeah it's a great point of like tywin's really making this his his hill to die on close well it's it's a threat it's a threat to i mean to the legitimacy of the crown yeah

absolutely exactly literally i mean everything that tywin does especially in this book can pretty much be seen as defense or offense on keeping Joffrey's legitimacy as king. That's his biggest thing in this book. And I think that the barrack and the Brotherhood Without Banners and the guerrilla warfare, the fainting and the fact that they can't catch them and get him strung up in town square in front of everyone, it kills Tywin. I mean, you know, before Tyrion does, but it kills him inside. Especially because those are supposed to be like Baratheon men, you know?

Those, so, it's like, what are you saying about Joffrey? The truth. Yup. Yup. We see the ramifications of that in Arya's story. There's a great passage back and forth where we kind of see how the small folk feel about it

that Arya is surrounded by. Great. It's not just. It's not. She heard one wizened old woman complain to another when they bedded down for the night. We never did no treason. The others come in and took what they wanted.

Same as this bunch. Lord Peric did us no hurt, though. And that red priest with him, he paid for all they took. Paid? He took two of my chickens and gave me a bit of paper with a mark on it. Can I eat a bit of raggy old paper, I ask you? Will it give me eggs? She looked about to see that no guards were near and spat three times.

about to see that no guards were near and spat three times. There's for the Tullys and there's for the Lannisters and there's for the Starks. It's a sin and a shame. An old man hissed. When the old king was still alive, he'd not have stood for this. King Robert aria asked forgetting herself king eris god's grace him the old man said too loudly a guard came sauntering over to shut them up the old man lost both his teeth and there was no more talk that night uh first of all the teeth trauma in this book is killing me i'm like oh god all the time yeah i love and i don't mean i love that it's happening but it is kind of nice for aria sansa and the starks in general to hear like conflicting things about their house on the road or from others when they're in disguise because it's good because like aria even here she's fighting like growing up as a noble right like

everything about this situation is like, but I'm a noble. But I'm a noble lady. Like, what are you talking about? This shouldn't be happening to me. And no, she's been, you know, downgraded to just be a normal person like everybody else and is being treated normally. Just normie. Yeah. In fact, being a noble is dangerous in this situation.

More dangerous. So, very interesting. And, yeah yeah this conversation especially is very sad i feel for that man and his dead two teeth that are gone now and that moment where aria's like king robert it reminds me of sansa and the veil when miranda's like oh and there's some new commander of the night's watch john snow i don't know him who said that uh made me laugh but the irony of course of all of this especially as we've kind of heard Oh, and there's some new commander of the Night's Watch. Jon Snow? I don't know him. Who said that? Made me laugh.

But the irony, of course, of all of this, especially as we've kind of heard over the last few chapters, is they don't know Robert's dead. Probably. You know, most of them probably don't even know Robert's dead. They don't even know who the king is or who the boy king on the throne is. It's such a whirlwind of Robert died, get Joffrey on the throne. I mean, most of them don't even know who the king is. Yeah, that's true. I mean, some of them don't even know who the king is. Yeah, that's true. I mean, some of them might, some of them might not.

Like all the information's all loosey-goosey. You know, speaking of who's the king, was this a pun or something? Like, can I eat a bit of rag-yield paper? I ask you, will it give me eggs? And like the bit of like a paper with a mark on it. You know what it is? It's word for word what he copy-pasted

and put in Ellaria's speech is what it is it's word for word what he copy pasted and put in a laria's speech is what it is oh i was thinking i was thinking like is it about how using a piece of paper and just being like this is an egg on ah egg on their face okay i like that that's interesting oh no no i think it is just uh it's just like uh it's like the paper shield you know like we owe you i owe you here's your fucking chickens and showing that you know barrick and them stole all their fucking food and was like sorry we'll pay you back you know if we don't die we'll come back yeah like that's great that they're trying to be honorable but they can't fucking eat and live off of honor it's like it's

like what you're saying or like we were saying earlier you know some some of these small folks support them some don't yeah well it just depends it makes no difference to them it doesn't it really embodies what jorah was saying about the high lords playing their game of thrones now the small folk don't really care and like you said they literally don't know who the fucking high lords and kings are right now who's alive who's not alive no one fucking knows i guess some of them might know that robert's dead because that's why they are like that that edward stark he's a traitor he tried to seize the throne but anyways i will say like let's be real as as you were pointing out when it came to aries's reign right he was only kind of pinned by arthur dane to like do good shit and like if any of these people

happen to be in aries's line of sight like he would not only just stand for all of these things to happen I don't think he would really care but he might even be like oh I need Viagra tonight let's burn he like waves his finger in the air and he just like points at someone random he's like let's burn that one let's burn that guy and I'm not saying that Gregor is better I think they both suck I'm just saying that it's a pr thing it's like you need pr was a bad guy look at look at marjorie when she marries joffrey right out in the streets giving alms to the poor and doing good names the tyrells are out there giving food out all for the good name of a boosting the trellis but also boosting joffrey's image even though we know he's a little fucking

shithead but we feel sympathetic towards his upbringing but a little fucking shithead. But we feel sympathetic towards his upbringing, but still a fucking shithead, which I think is the GGC official stance. Yeah. And then they were like, we can't redeem his image. Let's just kill him. Yeah, I mean, that's how I feel, honestly, in PR.

No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, it's interesting because you think about like Elia and the Martells, you know, they probably did a lot for the Targaryen image and Rhaegar, but everything for Aerys was, you know, they probably did a lot for the Targaryen image and Rhaegar, but everything for Aerys was, you know, others revamping that image. I mean, it's not great when you have vassals kidnap you and hold you hostage just because they want their taxes and feudal obligations lowered. Like, that's a bad sign, I'm saying. I'm just saying. I'm just putting it out. I'm putting it out there, Eliana, okay? That's a good point. I'm saying, I'm just saying, I'm just putting it, I'm putting it out there, Eliana. Okay. That's a, that's a good point. Did this all, does he like think that Ares was kidnapped for no reason? I mean, he might not.

They might not know. He doesn't know Ares was kidnapped. They probably heard that he was kidnapped and thought, oh no, our good king. That's true. Again, he's just a figurehead. He's a puppet on the fucking iron throne. Like they don't care. He's just another blonde motherfucker. Yeah. That's probably why Joffrey gets no,. Like, they don't care. He's just another blonde motherfucker. Yeah. That's probably why Joffrey gets no, you know, shit from them. They're like, yeah, whatever. Another blonde motherfucker. Who cares about that king?

They're also like, who's Joffrey? Seriously. So, Gregor had brought livestock with the captives, and he and his men rode on horses while all the captives are walking during this pilgrimage, and the weak and those who attempt to run are killed at night women are taken out to the bushes most go meekly one girl prettier than others was raped by four or five men every night until she hit one with a rock and gregor took her head off and told them to leave her for the wolves yeah it's really sad to see the the women have such this blasé attitude towards sexual violence, right? It's expected. They expect the gender-based violence, especially in this context of war. And then, you know, this woman, she hits one with a rock, and I guess that's her way of going down fighting, right? right when tyrian was all like i would rather i would rather die than be used as a slave and

i think you know if she had chosen not to and chosen to survive either either way that she chooses to go about it it's valid right what are you gonna do in this fucking situation and then afterwards her body is left to be eaten by the wolves and it really just goes to show how within this context the women's bodies are just merely objects to consume, whether that's sexually or literally. Flesh for a pound, right? I mean, the wolves aren't paying for pounds. Yeah, they got a free fucking ride. I thought the Lannisters hated the Starks.

Yeah, that's true. They are feeding. They are feeding these wolves. They're so fat. Oh my god. Arya watches the man-at-arms, Poliver. feeding these wolves. They're so fat. Oh my god. Arya watches the man-at-arms Polliver. He has a needle

on his hip, and she's kind of glad she doesn't have it, because she thinks that she would tear them all to shreds or die trying. She learned the names and the faces of the Lannister camp, knowing some were cruel, some were smart. Shitmouth was foul, but he'd give out extra bread. Chiswick is,

you know, he's, uh, Chiswick, but he and Raph seem kind ish but they would beat you way easier than shit mouth would so just a handful of little examples of things to learn at camp and secrets aria's learned exactly the secrets and the intelligence but it also kind of seems like a twisted way of ned's lesson right of know your men she knows them so we have this pastor's i'll be like aria watched and listened and polished her hates the way gendry once polished his horned helm dunstan wore those bull's horns down and she hated him for it she hated palaver for needle she hated old chiswick who thought he was funny and rack the sweetling who'd driven his spear through lami's throat she hated him even more she She hated Amory Lorch for Yoren, and she hated Sir Meryn Tramp for Syrio, the Hound

for killing the butcher's boy Micah, and Sir Illyn and Prince Joffrey and the Queen for the sake of her father and Fat Tom and Desmond and the rest, and even for Lady, Sansa's wolf. The tickler was almost too scary to hate. At times, she could almost forget he was still with them. When he wasn't asking questions, he was just another soldier, quieter than most, with a face like a thousand other men. Every night, Arya would say their names. Ser Gregor, she'd whisper to her stone pillow. Dunsin, Poliver, Chiswick, Rath the Sweetling, the Tickler and the Hound, Ser Amory, Ser Illyn, Ser Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei. Back in Winterfell, Arya had prayed with her mother in the Sept,

and with her father in the Godswood, but there were no gods on the road to Harrenhal, and her names were the only prayer she cared to remember. Every day they marched, and every night she said their names, until finally, the trees thinned and gave way to a patchwork landscape of rolling hills, meandering streams, and sunlit fields where the husks of burnt old vests thrust up, black as rotten teeth. It was another long day's march before they glimpsed the towers of Harrenhal in the distance, hard beside the blue waters of the lake.

Harrenhal in the distance, hard beside the blue waters of the lake. Thank you. Thank you. E got one. E got one. Yes, thank you. Should I have sang a little? Made it really E got worthy? I don't know. Yeah. Oh, oh, yeah. Really? Go for a Tony. Sir Gregor, Dunstan, Oliver, Chiswick, Raph the Sweetling. I can see it. Or I've learned recently, thanks to Only Murders in the Building, about the concept of a patter song.

This could be a good patter song. It kind of makes me think of Chicago. Cell Block Tango in Chicago, where they're each whispering the name of the person they got that put them in. So I would love that for aria the sir gregor dunstan palaver chiswick yeah i think that could work they're making that robert trebellion play which again i think should be a musical yeah it's fucked up that it's only a play honestly i would not be surprised if like in i I don't know, 30 years, this ends up as a musical.

I hope so. Hey, they should hire us. We can make it happen. I literally have none of the skills to make this into a musical. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. I can paint the sets. That is my skill.

See, you're in. You're hired. You're hired. If you would like to apply to be on the team to make the roberts rebellion musical please reach out to us girls gone canon gmail.com c-a-n-o-n i was like i cannot write music i got you i got you don't worry okay okay well aria hopes slash thinks that things will be better once they get to Harrenhal, but memories from old Nan's stories fill her mind while calluses fill her feet. They continue their great walk toward Tywin's encampment until Harrenhal rises beside the

lake, and the smell of the camp tells Arya that, oh, they've been here for some time. There are flies swarming around the camp, and its gatehouses are scarred. The shortest tower is as tall as the highest tower in winterfell but something's just off about the castle it's bad vibes and it looks like an old man's gnarly fingers groping at a cloud i love that i love that imagery i do especially because like you know my hand problems sometimes like if i overdo it with my hands if i do too much of them i'll wake up and they're claw like so it makes me think of my hands. I'm like, oh yeah, you gross bitches.

I love that imagery. And I also love this entrance that like, because the sewage is backed up, like the sewage is backed up and flies everywhere. They've been there for so long because they're just shitting all the time. Like that's how long they've been there. And that's so fucked up and gross. I love it. I think that's such a cool way to measure time through shit.

And it also goes to show that like, they don't fucking care what happens to this. This isn't their home. They're not planning on staying here. They didn't even fucking bring people to clean this place. They're trashing their Airbnb. First of all, their Verbo. They're trashing it, which is it's like a shitty bachelor pad. Yeah, it is. And it's funny because nobody means to keep this bitch, right? Like, no one wants this castle. Honestly, I think they're just preparing it for its owner, Littlefinger, you know? This is what he

deserves. This is actually what he deserves. Also, you didn't see it, but Chloe and I just kept like like gnarling our fingers. Just making hands. Groping at the air. Ooh, heavy balls. You see that? This is what it looks like. It's like groping at the cloud.

You know, it's ch-ch-ch. We have a little line. Arya thinks. She remembered Nan telling her how the stone had melted and flowed like candle wax down the steps and in the windows, glowing a sullen searing red as it sought out Harren where he hid. Arya could believe every word. Each tower was more grotesque and misshapen than the last, lumpy and runneled and cracked.

Lumpy. Lumpy. Like, lumpy head. I'm glad you're on the same page as me, huh? We're literally on the same page. We're on page, what is this, seven of this document. It's funny that it says Nan and not Old Nan. Like, show some fucking respect, Arya, to your elders.

I think she was going for, like, the Nan being the last name, Old being her first name. You know, that's her sure name. Last name Nan, first name Old. That could be a rap. That will be Old Nan's rap in the musical version. So, Harrenhal really, really i think throughout the series but especially within the main one kind of serves as the symbol of hubris and the following need for humility afterwards like it's about humbling those who think that they could defy the gods

whether or not that's the targaryens or not but just in general this idea of like i don't know it's a tower of babel kind of thing right heronhal also kind of feels a bit like this uh i don't know it's like a physical manifestation of the mountain we were talking about the irony of his story and how he becomes humbled but in general like this this it's colossal it's huge it's cursed and the mountain really feels like that especially as he becomes robert strong because let's be real it's probably fucking him and the heron hall isn't its own master right it's an empty vessel of a castle just like robert strong strong heron hall actually it's funny because i was thinking about how robert strong's name came about and like you know george was really deep into the strongs at that time for a couple reasons, right? Like,

he totally is playing with that. Of course, Rhaenyra in the original Princess and the Queen, she's marrying Lionel Strong was her first like iteration of her husband. So the very beginning, George originally had said she was marrying Lionel and had kids with him. This was before the Bastards. So for those of you keeping up with the old House of the Dragon and the Dance of the Dragons, before Rhaenyra's kids were Bastards, she married Lionel Strong and had his kids, and that was just normal. Those were her first three sons, and then

she married Daemon and had the other two. Well, then that changed. It's a little bit of a somewhat of a garden, but also it's more like an abridgment. That changed. He decided to change how that worked just to get the story right but how strong doesn't get mentioned in the main books until a feast for crows and george kind of you know 2013 is when he put out that first iteration of princess and the queen so that's a little bit

you know following yeah i know i don't want to talk about it. It's a decade ago. And then Feast, of course, had Kristen Cole and the Kingmaker, right, kind of referenced for Ares. So we have a few of those dance themes coming in around Storm and Feast writing time. So I do think that he decided to garden a little bit for Robert Strong and make him a strong and I think it's connected to this. strong, and I think it's connected to this. But that said, a lot of the changes from the original Princess and the Queen story, not just the very original iteration, but the actual first published come and the Fire and Blood come from it being abridged. That's why in the world of Ice and Fire, you still have some things like Mailer's death, for example, are in there, because the authors of said book knew a little more than the public knew. the princess and the queen was abridged to be published at the time to be shortened and put out yeah and and sometimes like in my like in world head canon i'm like oh these are different because as you said they're abridged or maybe like someone was just recreating the the information and the research you know from scratch or something and made like a shitty

counterfeit with wrong information oh interesting interesting interesting yeah it could work it could work i'm liking your head just like how there's there's different maps right like the show's version of the known world of the map is different than the ones in the books and like the the official ones and i'm like oh it's because like you know a bunch of the maps is different than the ones in the books and like the the official ones and i'm like oh it's because like you know a bunch of the maps if you look at them in our real world olden days they change they all look a little different some of them are wildly inaccurate as you know um as everyone knows hot pie squeaks that he doesn't want to go in because who the fuck does and chiswick tells him to join the ghosts or become one and it kind of makes me think of the ghost in winterfell and also of

jenny of old stones dancing with her ghosts that's the furthest i got with that thought i cannot expand on it more no you you that's pretty much what you should be thinking about good job good job i like it and also it furthers in the next chapter when aria really becomes that ghost in harrenhal herself you know of going around and ordering people to die and it does remind me of the ghost in winterfell it reminds me in general of uh the tyler durden thing going on out there you know oh interesting yeah yeah and we we planned this back then for this to coincide with the halloween month of this year we really planned it all leading up to this we planned for these chapters to come out this month you know it's kind of weird it's funny like the tyler durden fight club references right are one thing to make but

have you ever seen boondock saints it reminds me of boondock saints a little especially with her creed it's been so long it's been so fucking long i don't remember either but her creed you know her prayer and everything kind of reminds me of that so it's really funny we can bring the fight club in and we can bring the boondock saints you know two popular movies of their time in for aria yeah those were really big oh yeah i mean i just remember like they're still they're still big but i remember like being in middle school and high school and those being the cool things like those were so cool yeah yeah i also read a lot of them yeah i also like read a lot of chuck

palinuik in those days interesting yeah yeah we don't have to talk about that time in my life anyways but i yeah i only read i only read that one short story guts i i obviously i watched my club and i had like written an essay on it or something for for class but um yeah guts took me a long time to get through even though it's a very short story because it's a fucking nightmare painful ass story also recommend choke that was a good one they made that into a movie apparently 14 years ago i saw it last week i don't remember this but i did that's right yeah i did i started it i have it somewhere i don't think i like i got like three pages in um not like it was bad i just yeah didn't work out distracted as i do yeah yeah yeah so hot pie goes in with the rest of these captives they're all stripped and scrubbed

and they're scraped with hot water two older women are supervising and when Arya's turn comes up, good wife Amabelle clucks in dismay at her. She then has good wife Hera check her calluses and both of the good wives decide, oh you must be a farmer's child, you'll have a chance to move up in the world if you work hard here. And she's like, my name's Weasel. And they're like like oh we see why what uh they tell her that they'll cut all her hair off due to the lice and the fleas living in it and then they send her to the kitchen yeah so you really have again those that slipperiness of

identity which we did we did do an october patreon episode once on identities a few years ago we did talk about the slipperiness of identities especially aria's storyline as she here becomes weasel and then jane later on becomes aria everyone taking each other's identities and then it reminds me of like jack in killing pate the pig boy and taking his identity right like this is aria's first like i'm taking that identity because weasel is quote unquote dead to her i mean probably dead i'm gonna be honest that kid's dead no she's gonna mononoke it back she's gonna fucking marry rickon i was just gonna say she's gonna come back marry rickon it's gonna be great it's gonna be great uh that's a that's a really good call out and point of the

taking taking other people's identities existing ones and there was something here that stood out that that you put here in the quotes of the chance to move up in the world right if if aria works hard and it's kind of funny and ironic because we know that no matter how fucking hard aria or someone in like aria's position works they're actually never going to move up as far in the world as the position that Arya was actually born into you cannot work your hard your way into fucking can't bootstraps your way into Lord Paramount even though Janos Slynt really fucking wishes no we actually see that throughout the story with all like Janos Slynt is a perfect opportunity to talk about it because you look at

that you look at Pycelle right Graham Maester Pycelle he worked his ass off and the farthest he got was this court where Tyrion's putting him under arrest yeah and then he loses his beard and you know later on in his life but also his beard yeah and you worked really hard on that one you know honestly I mean it though like I'm not actually trying to be a dick about this like It's emasculating that that's the one piece of his shield that he had, right? He's like, my beard, too? Fuck. I totally get that.

I mean, our friend Rowan talks about how violating it was for Dunk to cut off Rowan's, the character's, braid. That was confusing. Our actual friend Rowan, who had their braid cut off? No, I'm just kidding. That was confusing. Our actual friend, Rowan, who had their braid cut off. No, I'm just kidding. That was confusing to say aloud. And so imagine that for Maester Pycelle. Arya like hates it. She does not want to go to the kitchens again.

She hates this. She's like, great, gonna move up in the kitchens. And she says she'd rather tend to the horses. Of course, she's imagining she'd be able to run away. And good wife Hera slaps her, breaks horses. Of course, she's imagining she'd be able to run away. And good wife Hera slaps her, breaks her lip back open, and tells her, no one asked for your opinion. Keep your mouth shut.

We have grooms that attend the horses. Like, you do not get to tend to the horses, little girl. There's something interesting here, and this is coming off the Tyrion chapter 2, of Arya being delegated, even back in the camp with the Night's Watch men where she was a quote-unquote passing as a little boy to them she gets delegated to the kitchen work due to her size due to her stature interesting that she keeps being forced back into this feminine coded lifestyle right no matter what she does she gets put in the kitchen put in the kitchen and interestingly enough it reminds me kind of of what's happening with Shay in a Clash of Kings. They're kind of similar. They both, you know, they got a mouth on them. Love those two because they mouth off and they are fierce and they can withstand a lot more than maybe those around them think. Maybe even an anti-Shay,

right? Because Shay's coming up from the opposite. She's trying to become someone slash being Tyrion's mistress slash now she has to work in the kitchens where Arya is becoming no one. on there with it being feminine coded especially when you look at it alongside characters like hot pie but or weas yeah true aria i mean aria doesn't want to work in the kitchens right because she's this is this is a story about the wolf and not the bear shut up chef thank you thank you thank you thank you fuck fuck. Fuck. You think you're so funny sometimes. God damn it. You weren't expecting it. It came completely out of left field. Chloe didn't even see this one coming.

Yes, chef. Yes, chef. So, Amabelle says she would have done well in the kitchen, but quite obviously she isn't a clever girl. They say they'll be sending this one to Weiss, who is a squat man with angry red boils on his face. The Lannisters are generous to those as serve them well, an honor none of your sort deserve, but in war, a man makes do with what's to hand. Work hard, and mind your place, and might be one day you'll rise as high

as me. If you think to presume on his lordship's kindness, though, you'll find me waiting after my lord is gone, you see. He strutted up and down before them, telling them how they must never look the highborn in the eye, nor speak until spoken to, nor get in his lordship's way. My nose never lies, he boasted. I can smell defiance. I can boasted. I can smell defiance. I can smell pride.

I can smell disobedience. I catch a whiff of any such stinks. You'll answer for it. When I sniff you, all I want to smell is fear. Please do not sniff me. So, a fantastic ending to this chapter which you pointed out

starts out with fear and Arya's own litany of fear so chapter opening meet chapter ending smell fear and it's kind of interesting because as far as we can tell honestly yeah all the camps do bad stuff but the stark encampments do not seem run the way that this place is run and i do think that we

are supposed to perceive a kind of like irony in that the lannisters are they're saying that they're so generous to those who serve them well because i mean they're really not right they're actually like pretty stingy compared to what we've seen from the other houses yeah like the the idea of camp followers and picking up people on the road and you know low board on the road that's something we do see happen obviously during war in all camps but we don't see prisoners of war being put into indentured servitude to the Starks and maybe Catelyn just doesn't focus on that because she's a little busy but we really don't see them parading a line of prisoners

of lowborn prisoners and putting them to work i i think like they legitimately probably wouldn't have stood for it and i don't think like i think you were saying earlier tywin is giving the orders tywin knows i think tywin's like this is how we're going to fucking run it. We're supposed to be doing this sort of indentured servitude thing. Whereas I think Rob wouldn't do that, especially considering that Ned was like, I'm going to go after one of our most prominent lords for selling to slavers. Right. Yeah. for selling to slavers.

Right. Yeah, and again, we don't have actual clear view of that, but somehow I agree with you. Somehow I don't think that's what would have... Hey, just like Ned thinks about Rhaegar, right? When he's like, is Rhaegar the type of guy that would have visited brothels?

True. Somehow I don't... He didn't think so, and that's how I feel. Somehow I don't think so. I'm not saying they've got perfect camps, but... Right. And, you know, we do critique the way that the Starks

hold things. They are still nobility, but I'm not gonna fucking both sides this. Yeah. It's pretty clear. Yeah. There's also something here in the language and the condescension, you know, the normal shit, where they're speaking the normal shit in a Lannister camp. Each condescension, you know, the normal shit, where they're speaking down the normal shit

in a Lannister camp. Each of these people, and like, Whis, for example, middle manager, not corporate, not going anywhere. This is it for him. He's always gonna manage a kitchen. Whis is never gonna go anywhere. Never in his life.

So him and the good wives, the way that the good wives speak to Arya, they say, oh, you're not a clever girl are you and it's coded so it reminds me a little bit of the way yoren speaks to her at her dad's beheading when he's like oh you're not a very clever boy now are you because i think he pretty much kind of does similar language but i kind of was thinking about it and i was looking it up and clever girl is only used exactly in this way like five times most of the time it's used towards sanza right whether it's danto saying that she's a very clever girl his his jean quill and then there's some

little finger you know oh clever girl gross get the fuck away from her get a job but it's like this line that's being used you know and it's used in real life when you do something that makes the grown-ups happy usually you know like you're in a bad circumstance so don't fuck it up more be a clever girl is how it's being used in this story it's kind of a threat it's not really actually like a nice thing to say about someone like you're not saying usually oh there's a clever girl like melisandre for example in a dance with dragons says about jane aria alice whichever one at the time she was thinking about obviously we learn it's alice after but she calls her a clever

girl for avoiding the king's road that was a true compliment she was truly saying wow what a clever girl your sister aria is john because she's not taking the King's Road. But no, most of the time it's a threat slash a condescending phrase being used. So I was really surprised at how little that phrase is actually used, clever girl, throughout the story, and that it really is only used to condescend to Arya Sansa and used about Alice Jane Arya. It's kind of interesting. Like, is it kind of giving us this insight into their culture of like, I mean, we don't fucking expect girls to be clever. We don't give a shit if they're clever or not. We just need them to.

Clever is meant to be like obedient. As you were calling out in this quote of like, if you were a clever girl or like this idea, you wouldn't do X or you'll get beat. Yeah, it's obedience. It's absolutely obedience. It's doing your job. Submitting. submissive be meek serve whatever the last the third one is live laugh love oh my god they serve live what is the other obey serve live laugh love yeah yeah that's it that's that's the decor decor that Gregor Clegane has.

Stop. Throw pillows. Except he keeps breaking them. He keeps breaking them on accident. Feathers everywhere. Oh my god. His Pinterest has got to be crazy. One board is all about torture and the next one is home decoration. That would be the Pinterest. Yeah. He writes it in blood.

Obey, serve, live, laugh, love. Oh, man. That's why he's the tickler. Is one of his friends. It just tickles him. It really does. It just tickles him. Well, honestly, like very solid solid chapter despite how short it is.

Very dense chapter for being a small one. And it's crazy because next week is a big one, in my opinion. It's Arya's first Jaqen kill. And it's thick. And it's full of interesting, juicy stuff. So I'm excited to share that chapter with you and Mallory next week and with the whole world. that chapter with you and Mallory next week and with the whole world. Yes, it's an exciting chapter for so, so, so many reasons. And again, we planned it. We planned it to fall during October of this year. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. So if you want to know more about our plans, you can follow us on social media at Girls Gone Canon. i guess it's not even twitter.com anymore is it i'm still gonna keep calling it twitter.com slash girls gone canon that's c-a-n-o-n or on blue sky also at girls gone canon but then it's got like i don't know girls gone canon dot blue sky dot i don't know it's too hard for me to tell you all so just search for us there and then of course you can send us an email as well with your thoughts I mean there's a lot to respond about and send

emails about for next chapter I'm just saying yeah we'd love to hear your thoughts as well just like Warren sent us on Arya in A Clash of Kings or Arya and the rest of the story so please feel free to send us an email we would love to hear from you it's at girls gone canon at gmail.com c-a-n-o-n as we have already stressed twice now thrice this episode and of course our patrons here are going to probably stress it for the third time the they're stressing it thrice for us uh but every episode we do is sponsored by those bad guys over there at Patreon.com. The ladies, gays, theys, thems. They are out hot to trot. And they're going to tell you where else you can find us.

You can catch Girls Gone Canon on any of the following streamers. iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Acast, Spotify, Overcast, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Audible, and Amazon Podcasts. You can also join us on Patreon, where if you join the Thunder Tier above, you have access to a Discord and monthly happy hours and things like that. And by joining the Discord, you get access to a bunch of great channels, including but not limited to memes and shitposting channel, Fashion Hour. There are multiple channels for historic materials, A Song of Ice and Fire. There's a pets channel, which I think is probably the most important channel of all. Respectful Thirsting, because there's a channel for that. Come by, join the community community it's a lot of fun

and you won't regret it thank you again to our patrons for telling us where to go to listen to girls gone canon big thanks to them and of course thank you for listening we'll be back next week with san rixian to cover aria 7 in a clash of kings i have been one of your hosts chloe and i've been another one of your hosts eliana see you next week it's egot time bitch i know i was literally just thinking i was like some musicals some musicals in the rebellion in the rebellion in the rebellion or like imagine like les mis style you know like they're out there can you hear the people sing but not those words because that's already used in the musical but that vibe that vibe thinking something funky like he's a young

stag i don't know. Oh, interesting. And I've also already, as you remember, floated my idea of the bells song, right? Where you have hand bells. Yeah, I'm into it. I'm already into it. So we'll be back next week with this musical. Rhaegar harp solo. This is only for the Robert's Rebellion part.

Like, imagine, imagine. I guess there was already a Westeros musical. Never mind. Ignore me. That already happened. The second or third Game of Thrones musical ever. Can't wait to produce it with you. See you next week.

Okay, goodbye.