Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 208 — ASOS Arya I

Episode Date: November 17, 2023

Adventure! Skinchanging! Moss! New book! The opening chapter to a new arc for Arya has it all.  --- 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 208 Aria In A Storm Of Swords 1. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And yes, are you ready for me to not fuck it up this week? No, are you ready for Arya's storyline in A Storm of Swords? I like you even if you don't say it, you know that? I think you'd like me more if you don't say it you know that? I think you'd like

me more if I don't say it I don't care to comment on that I'm glad to have everyone back in a storm of swords we are ready to get in the nitty gritty of the Riverlands get back on the road with Aria and company but first we have

some housekeeping up top we have come to a very important decision on our Patreon bonus episode this month. And before I tell you what that decision is, every month we record and put out a bonus Patreon episode for our patrons in the stranger tier and above over at patreon.com slash girls gone canon c-a-n-o-n it's five dollar and up tier we really recommend you check it out this month's episode is going to be a short story from george rr martin a quickie in the lost lands covering gray alice which i think is perfect i'm pretty sure eliana you were saying they're they're making this a thing, right? They're turning this to TV? Movie?

Yeah, yeah. It says silver screen, so I think that means movie. You would think I would know, but... Yeah, it does. I don't. Yes. You were right. Good job. In 2021, but I think George has released an update since then.

George announced that it is coming to the silver screen in The Lost Land, specifically starring... I feel like this person person mila jovovich she's gonna be playing uh gray alice and paul ws anderson director of monster hunter pompeii and several resident evils is gonna Resident Evil is going to helm the film. Also, Dave Bautista is going to be in it as well as Boyce. A.K.A. her husband, Paul W.S. Anderson, by the way. She's, that's Mr. Mila Jovovich. I did not know that.

So that's why she was also in those movies too. Oh, I didn't know that either. In The Resident. Yeah, Mr. Paul William Scott Anderson. You can also just call him mr mia jovich yes you know yeah so that's yeah like amanda pete's husband exactly exactly so that's that's what's going on with this i don't know when the release date is but probably you know face a few delays which hopefully are all over now but dave bautista, like I said, he's been playing voice.

I don't know who that character is, but we're going to find out. Yeah, I'm excited to find out with you. It'll be good just in time. And, you know, we've got a lot of Alice's around us. Aria, right, is also an Alice at one point or is seen as Alice Karstark on the gray girl on a dying horse. And Alice is kind of a gray girl in this

one too so Alice the first sentence is you can buy anything you might desire from gray Alice so excited to bring another gray Alice into the realm whether it's at Harrenhal or not at Harrenhal now we're pre-A Song of Ice and Fire right? We have Alice rivers as well. Yeah. So this is also kind of depressing, but I will say that the end of this blog post from George goes, and who knows if the movie is a big hit, maybe there'll be sequels. Great. Alice will finally get her series after all.

Then in parentheses, so many years have passed. I no longer remember why I never finished that second story. Okay. Oh, George. Oh, George. Oh, George. Anyways.

Well, that's not all we have. Eliana, can you tell them about our Discord brappy hour? Oh, God, I want to die when I say that. Can you tell them about brappy hour this month? Yeah, so that means Discord brunch slash happy hour if you are new here to Girls Gone Canon you tell them about brappy hour this month yeah so that means discord brunch slash happy hour if you are new here to girls gone canon once a month on our discord patrons and the thunder tier and above that's ten dollars and up can join for games get to know you's activities this month's

brappy hour is on november 19th sunday nove 19th. And it does have a theme. It is bring your own meme. We haven't done one of these like little potluck-esque things, the info potlucks in a while. And Chloe, can you please explain to them why this theme has been chosen for this month? Here's the reason we need you to bring your own meme. We want you to bring your absolute favorite meme, whatever just cracks you up, because it turns out Eliana does not know memes like we think she does. Sometimes you could be referencing a meme and she'll just laugh along. And then you find out months later, she had no clue what you were talking about. So we need to educate Eliana. Now that she's back, it's time for workplace training.

And we're going to workplace train her with some memes. You know, I have a couple memes in line. I'm ready. I'm going to bring a few. Yeah, I shared a meme. I know some memes, okay? I don't want people to think I don't know any memes. I do know memes.

It's just like, I think some people are surprised at which memes i know and which ones i don't and by people i mean you know you me my podcast partner and then my other partner irl yeah well no you're also this is irl too so anyways you know the podverse, the data world, you know, you can put on the Microsoft goggles and here you are, the GGG. You are a podcast wife and his boyfriend's wife, as we've discussed in regards to how your household is set up. Yeah. Yeah. Am I Rainies or Visenya in this scenario?

You tell me. Hmm. We'll come back to that. Probably Rainies. You tell me. Hmm. We'll come back to that. Probably Rangies. Yeah, 3pm Eastern on the 19th is

where you can find us in our Discord, hanging out with everyone at court, you know? Yeah, at court, please present your tribute, aka meme. Yes, please. Your liege demands submission in a form of lealalty in the form of meme

in the form of funny image uh like do you know hello yes this is dog uh yeah yeah from fortune okay good yeah i mean from way back in the day that's uh it's one of my favorites because whenever i look at it that dog is so Like, dogs can't talk on the phone. That, but with a picture of Sandor Clegane. I mean, maybe it probably started there. There, a lot of things started there back in the day. I don't know. The internet's really a circle.

Like, once it gets to Facebook and 9GAG, you know that it's over. You know what I mean? Like, most things start elsewhere i think a lot of things have started now on like reddit though instead of 4chan as you know reddit eclipsed it as i mean it's a place where more people are it has its own its own little gags too yeah so we'll see you all at brunch with your memes until then we have an email of note from our good friend jimmy and they say as you may know i have a passion for breath of the wild and other zelda games i think what i love they also say please don't stop reading lmao uh i think what i love the most about breath of the wild and many other open world games oh oh, like Sims 3, is the exploration. Link wakes up alone

and has to explore an unknown wilderness. I often spent time in my childhood exploring unknown places in nature where the signs of human activity were at most a rusty old beer can. The joys I found were in the little streams or the rocks to climb on,

obviously not at risk of danger like Arya is. Arya, who has suffered so much in the first two books, has finally escaped servitude with a little help and a little murder. The contrast between the cruelty at Harrenhal to the wilderness is, well, jarring. She's once again on the road, working with her friends to find her family, and does this in open wilderness, even at times wishing she was alone, in order to stay the path she believes is the way. Her survival shifted from surviving awful people to surviving awful wilderness. Aria has been in a constant state

of fear since she left Syrio's dancing class. Weeping as I type, Jimmy says. She tries to cope with these fears, be it wolves or the distance or being lost, by remembering her mentor's mantra, saying it much like a religious person may say a prayer when they're fearful just like her nightly prayer if you have not been lost in the woods alone i do not recommend it it's not as dramatic as it sounds though there is such helplessness and yearning to find the people you've left behind i want to hear more about this in the woods stuff jimmy what happened to you are you yeah jimmy are you okay bud Arya's fears have changed, but the danger has never stopped. I've heard people in the past say things like, there's not much to these chapters, or this is the boring part.

I argue this part is critical to her journey. Hell yeah, get them. Finally, she is with her found pack, searching for her people from the before times. Even though she's no longer at the whim of anyone besides her friends, yet she still wants to be on her own. Be careful what you wish for, Arya. To the early ASOS Arya haters out there, get lost, Jimmy says.

Co-signed Chloe. It's funny, see? Co-signed. I get it. Get lost. Get lost in the woods. To get lost, you can truly understand the story. I think that's interesting. I didn't know that there were people who hated these chapters just like how i didn't know there were people who hated brand or not hate i don't know whatever but those are also like didn't appreciate that they don't appreciate it

right like aria clash gets a little of that too because i think there are some chapters that get a little much but i like all of them i'm an a swap-swap enjoyer, though, to be fair. I was an Arya clash unappreciator, as we all discussed together. And by that, I mean you and me at everyone else when we were starting Clash and also the Arya chapters. But I think reading them all in succession together like this really helps bring out- The TV show? Yeah. You're such a multitasker. out what's yeah um you're such a multitasker but it really helps bring together the strength of the story and i think keeps it more compelling than when it's interspersed not that i don't

like the pov structure but you know what i'm saying also very much appreciate jimmy's thoughts on you know traveling going through the woods as well as tears of the kingdom and breath of the wild those were those were for me if you are interested you can also every now and then get a glimpse of Chloe's roommate playing Tears of the Kingdom in the background or boobs anything could be happening back there

and he's a cinematic film appreciator thank you but yeah the Rusty Can is that like Jimmyimmy's korok and oh is it like finding a korok but i was thinking like busting a vase oh interesting no the i feel like breaking vases doesn't really lead to much for me in the breath of the wild game so it's fun it's fun i mean there's just like not i haven't found anything in them maybe i need to break more anyways yeah i love the exploration

aspect of it because i don't know you can just keep going and going it's great i also really like what jimmy has said about aria feeling safer away from the people at heron hall how like there's such cruelty there that but it was just such a bad vibes place that even being lost and not knowing where the fuck you are is actually way better than having been at heron hall absolutely i'm just on the aria appreciation side of things so i love it i like zel Zelda but the newer games have been hard for me they take a lot of hand-eye coordination that I don't have uh honestly I think that the combat system I actually really struggle with the combat system in the Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom games it's like a mix between trying to be very accessible and easy but at the same time has all these like mechanics that don't work that well

yeah i'm like stuck in the water getting assaulted by dudes and i can't aim my arrow right at them and i'm just like and i keep drowning yeah i'll come back to it i'm great at archery in it but like all the other like hand-to-hand combat things i don't know i'm used to i am used to role-playing games where there is like combat that, but it actually fucking works. That's all. Appreciate that. Well, thank you for the email of note, Jimmy. And let's hop into our storm

lightning round. Now, we left off with Arya in Clash, and there are a handful of chapters we've missed from the end of A Clash of Kings. Let's start with Clash before we bust into the sauce. Sansa ate in A Clash of Kings. Sansa is free-ish of her monster fiancé. Dantos gives her a very magical hairnet that's meant to go over her head.

Oh, is it? Not a necklace, you mean? Theon 6. Theon ignores advice from those around him. Ramsay sacks and burns Winterfell. Boo. Tyrion 14. Tyrion wakes after having part of his face sliced off and he fires his maester.

Jon 8. Corrin commands Jon to join the Free Folk. Bran 7 Bran wakes from his wolf dream to find Winterfell burnt We say a very teary goodbye to Maester Luwin It's fucked up Yep horrible fucked up Storm of Swords

Prologue Three horn blows indicates one thing to Chet Piss yourself No others That is how the chapter ends. Same thing. Mm-hmm. I actually thought about doing that instead.

Using that, not peeing. Anyways, Jamie won. Jamie is Brienne of Tarth's very valued prisoner. Catelyn won. Catelyn's crimes are brought to light in Robb's court. But it was all for her daughter's uwu. Uwu, which leads us into Arya 1 in A Storm of Swords, Asos. Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie are back on the road again, being chased, probably.

On the road again? We open the chapter with, The sky was as black as the walls of Harrenhal behind them, and the rain fell soft and steady, muffling the sound of their horses' hoo them and the rain fell soft and steady muffling the sound of their horses' hooves and running down their faces. They rode north, away from the lake, following a

rutted farm road across the torn fields and into the woods and streams. Hmm. Lovely prose to open up with and the great storm of Zord's rain begins, right? I love tracking the reign from chapter to chapter in Storm and seeing where it starts, where

it peters out. It starts off inconsistent and it gets very consistent in the later chapters in the Riverlands and yeah, it's a very different meteorology of ice and fire, huh? That's a great point. Yeah, I didn't even realize that. I didn't even realize it's raining in all these opening chapters in Storm these opening chapters.

Yeah. It starts. It's begun. Except for Sam's. Lots of different things happening there. It's so prominent in the Catelyn chapters, right, that we did. So much of this first chapter in Storm is reminding us, this is where we left off at the end of Clash. Like, we're running from Harrenhal. Here's who these people fucking are. Here's how we got here. This is where Rob is.

You know, being like, they're going to Riverrun, because that's where Rob is, because he's fighting a war. Lots of reminders. Great job, George. I think he does it very well without, especially because he has all the different POVs to spread it across. I think that really helps

being able to just spread it evenly, but it's never too much of recap. And I think that's really the sign of a skilled author. Yeah, very seamless. Arya is sure that they're being pursued because, you know, they did steal three horses, a dagger, a map, killed a guard, left him in a pool of blood. And when Lord Bolton

woke, a baker boy, a scrawny cut bearer, and an apprentice smith would be missing. You know, it's gonna be curtains for them, basically. Roose would stay abed, but he would give the commands Arya thinks steelshanks may hunt them, or Vargo Houghton sell swords.

Yeah, steelshanks sighting, I appreciate you know, steelshanks may hunt them or vargo houghton sell swords yeah steel shank sighting i appreciate you know steel steel shanks mentioned the railway cat like the image here of bruce they're like he would be dotted with leeches he was uh steel shanks was in the last chapter oh i didn't notice him there i was too busy atoning for my sins he was uh in the leech room with i think i do remember that and being like steel shank i think i might have even been like steel shanks what's interesting i mean i actually i remember this only because i called him steel shanks in episode when we said it but only because he was mentioned by first name oh yeah he was mentioned by walton which was weird i just like

as you all know the name steel shrinks because it sounds like a fucking cat from cats yeah we know jellicle eliana let's go jellicleana uh anyways that's it that's different anyways i'm thinking now of the giant jelly in neopets i was just gonna say the omelet or the jelly from neopets. Yes, the omelette or the jelly. So Arya's still wearing the Bolton sigil and her page garb. When they cross the first stream, they head off-road, and they are hoping to throw everyone off their scent if they had brought dogs. Honestly, she's really- this rain is so lucky for her. Staying on the road means death, and, you know,

in regards to throwing everyone off her scent, first of all, she does a great job here. But in a way, granted, that guy is kind of like on the verge of death in the moment, but she does towards the end of this book, run away from a different dog and crosses an even bigger river. And by river, I mean, the sea. Oh, that's really a great point. Everyone off her scent. Anyways. Yeah. She really fucks her tracks up so no one can follow her then. I love that.

Mm-hmm. The ultimate way to disappear, honestly. I did the same thing when I left my home state. Bye. Is this what Gone Girl is about? Literally. Arya is that Gone Girl gone canon. Which we should do eventually for the lulz.

I still haven't seen it. We keep talking about it. Or read it. Oh, you need to. It's time. As we've discussed. But yeah. It's time. Okay.

You know, Mamma Mia, Theater Camp, it's time for you to get into the classics, Eliana. Is Gone Girl a musical? It should be. Should be. Wait.

Are we going to make the Gone Girl, Girls Gone Canon, Girls Gone Canon, Gone Girl musical? Gone Girl isn't a musical. wait are we gonna make the gone girl girls gone canon girls gone canon gone girl musical gone girl isn't a musical but isn't it kind of kind of okay oh my god uh the boys don't question aria about where they're going really because she has a map right and like a woman with a map that's serious shit also it's not just that like oh my god she's got the map she's the map she's the map she also just murdered a dude so that also could have something to do with why

they're paying her kind of a little like mind they're like okay yeah you're the boss are you they're like she's she's lost it she's lost it nothing like a mad woman there's this great internal monologue she has it's better if he's scared of me, she told herself. That way he'll do like I say, instead of saying stupid. She should be more frightened herself, she knew. She was only ten, a skinny girl on a stolen horse with a dark forest ahead of her, and men behind who had gladly cut off her feet. Yet somehow she felt calmer than she ever had in Harrenhal.

The rain had washed the guard's blood off her feet. Yet somehow she felt calmer than she ever had in Harrenhal. The rain had washed the guard's blood off her fingers. She wore a sword across her back, wolves were prowling through the dark like lean gray shadows, and Arya Stark was unafraid. Fear cuts deeper than swords, she whispered under her breath. The words that Syrio Forel had taught her. And Jaqen's words, too. Valar Merkules. Okay, girl boss. Yeah, sashay, go Arya. Blood rinsing off of her fingers in the rain, paired with the last chapter when she also said at the end,

you know, it made no matter. The rain would wash them clean. Faces melting off and changing in the blink of time it's kind of a common theme in her plot but there's a lot of ease in which she gets to deflect death right like death is all around her yet she's found a way almost to navigate it emotionally mentally physically yeah she really has and it it's becoming more and more prominent in her story you know she's becoming it's becoming much easier for her to kind of deflect it part of that is the desensitization you know because gonna say she's had a rough go of it as a little 10 year old i thought that it stood out to me

how she thinks like it's better if he's scared of me that way he'll do like i say right that's this aspect of control and aria learning to rule by fear some of that is of course from her time with ruse but i think there's a lot of it that also comes from her time with tywin in harrenhal and you know that's something that tywin is famous for that's something that's part of his legacy both in world and amongst readers he's associated as ruling by fear versus how we see a lot of the starks associated with ruling via you know i will make them love me as sanza says and i kind of think that it is good to have that balance between the two and i kind of think that if she and sansa end up partnering together to rally everyone there they'll balance each other out with that isn't that interesting too that aria is desensitized from everything she's seen from being a prisoner of war and you

know servitude and serving other these men how desensitized she's becoming to death to murder and to to ruling by fear right and she's very shrewd she's very calculating she holds her it's like what bran said right that he sees them holding their secrets to their chest and i did like also with that line of uh let him be afraid of me it It's very Alice Karstark, right? When she marries later, when she ends up marrying Sigourn. There's that line she says, let him be afraid of me. Yeah. It's also even like kind of, you know, Melisandre-esque, right?

A lot of her work is in the whole idea of illusions. And so there's that aspect too the rain stops and starts but they have nice cloaks to keep the water off and make a steady pace neither of the boys are horsemen and Gendry's horse actually even goes down at one point but thankfully neither the rider

nor the horse are injured because otherwise you're going to have to put that horse down ugh it's bad enough when you have to put the dog to sleep at the end of this book you know thank you and we're just starting baby i gotta say we're in the good book storm isn't like my favorite of them as we've talked about it's probably like my second or third i'd say it's up there though i like it i'm just a feast clash storm kind of person in that order but something i love about storm

is not only do we get sandor clegane face time or half face time uh we also get uh we also get rebellion face time everything's got the rebellion steeped in it right you get robert's rebellion all over again we're on the ground in heron hall in the riverlands everywhere where you know all those that walked before aria were i mean what just several many years ago they all were dancing around in these riverlands and drinking and being young and fucking and fighting whatever so this chapter really showcases a lot of Arya's skills in survivalism, her riding skills, especially too, and her skills with horses. All these things come as major advantages of her highborn upbringing. The longevity she's able to display on the horse

in like the aftermath of Harrenhal, that's so impressive because A, she's underfed. She's malnourished. B, it's a strenuous thing to do riding a horse it strains your thighs i mean think of the metal glutes she's gonna fucking grow someday she's got to be exhausted right now but in five days if her thighs ever stop like hurting they're gonna be like fucking barrels that you could knock someone out with literally like if you're if you're riding some of the best exercises are like lunges and like deadlifts and push up like walkouts to push up all these annoying things that I don't do. I'm a daughter of an ex horse girl. I'm not a horse girl.

Please don't get it twisted. But like you have to have a lot of strength in your hips and your back and your legs in order to ride a horse for as long as she does in this chapter. Yeah. And she that's a that's a great point she's built up that that leg strength but also i think we get the sense now that i think about it like we've seen her practicing for fun or like as her recreation right she unwinds she's like the person who goes to the gym to unwind basically i think is what aria does because that's what she did with needle or like not needle sorry the gods would yeah in the gods would with like random stick

or broom or whatever knock off needle yeah practicing practicing but like those exercises that she would do i'm sure also very much kept the rest of her like in shape or being able to you know do things like this right prepared for fucking any physical activity kept her on top of it yeah yeah at least better than hot pie svc she's having a way easier time i think hot pie probably you know again bringing in pita from the hunger games i think hot pie is probably like not like maybe he doesn't have a lot of like leg strength hot pie skips leg day which is important you gotta keep in leg day but i get that's why i walk to the bar every week i assume that you know because he's probably like carrying bags of flour whatever in the kitchen as well and from kneading dough he's probably got some good upper body strength but that does not fucking

help you on the horse i not well i'm sure it does but not enough yeah but her strengths on the horse like and they're various it's not just right here we see it over the next couple chapters but we also start to see something else we start to see similarities between her and her aunt liana crop up there's a lot bigger of a reveal of that that comes in aria 3 but not just in a storm of swords throughout the other books we hear what a great you know horse rider that liana was in a dance with dragons ruse calls her half a horse herself in the turncloak, Barbary calls her a centaur, which is fucking hysterical. I'm like, yeah, get her. Get her, Barbary. And depending on how canon you take the World of Ice and Fire app, which like, yes, it's marketing, but I mean,

it's still canon. Like it's literally made with little tidbits of ideas from the books and from characters. They say, and this was really interesting to me i forgot about this the world of ice and fire app says that she would tilt at the ring so running riding tilting at the ring it's an equestrian tournament activity originally practiced in european royal courts uh derived from like the quintain etc and it literally involves a rider galloping towards a small ring that's suspended in the air with the aim of piercing it with their lance and that requires precision control and really great horsemanship so putting together knowing that and then seeing all the training aria gives herself like that kind of also tells you the strength you'd need possibly as a knight, right? Or a mystery knight.

So Arya's in the Riverlands, hiding her identity, right? On the run after Harrenhal. Joining outlaws who are on the run from the crown. Kind of sounds like Lyanna's journey, right? When she's constantly trying to go north and go home, but not being able to because, you know, of reasons. And then finding out half your family's dead, which also happens to Liana.

Arya, don't look at Gendry. Don't look at that boy because I know what happens when girls look at possible royalty like that, okay? They get pregnant and they die. I learned that in Mean Girls. You will get pregnant and you will die. So I'm just saying, though, it's very, um... I mean, we even meet Richard Laudemouth.

I mean, Lem Lemoncloak later on. It's canon at this point, but I just take that one as canon. You know, it's like... Kind of is what it is. Yeah. I don't know interesting interesting parallels that we're starting to get throughout a storm of swords i love that i i love uh all those reminders of as you said the rebellion i hadn't really thought about how that comes up so much in in aria's storyline as well so absolutely i mean they're going to the inn at the crossroads oh that's true i mean a lot of i mean a lot of things happen at that inn so many things and yeah i think something else

that we're really seeing come out in her is as you said right she's being very good at like survival and actually also that she's very pragmatic when it comes to again using fear but she is also a leader right she's not only relying on fear she's just like guys we gotta she she's using her intellect to show hey i know how to do these things and she's trying to lead her pack to safety like nymeria whose namesake wolf is appearing later in this chapter and also this is not related but I just wanted to call out I've seen you know people say that they think that Arya will become a queen like Nymeria and I'm just like I think I made it kind of clear that I do think Arya will absolutely be some sort of leader.

I'm not sure in what capacity, but I do not think she will be a queen, especially for basing it on Nymeria's storyline. Because I also think it's important to acknowledge that a part of, like, part of the point of Nymeria's story in many ways is that she isn't a queen like some people kind of refer to her as such they call her like a warrior queen there's that book like the many loves of Queen Nymeria but I feel like part of the point is that she stayed with the title Princess Nymeria and that matters especially because as we talked about last chapter, it comes up quite a few times like, Princess, Princess. Oh, that's you, Arya.

You're the princess. Yeah, that's a good point. But you can still absolutely be a leader with that title, as we see by Nymeria, and very impactful for people. Well, and I also think there's something like, not everybody has to be a queen or a king to have power you could be in a position of power and exert your power like i think of like lord commander right like duncan the tall or maybe brienne in the future if that happens or

you know being a commander or reina obviously people joke she's the queen in the west when she took heron hall and was there but she was a princess she was not the crown queen she was a princess yeah and she could have been she makes a point absolutely i think that's that's important part of i think reina's leadership is that she doesn't press her claim for the good of the realms and she sees how they rally behind jaharis and doesn't want to go through another war again after an internal family civil war that she just lived through but you know you were saying you can still be a leader and not be called queen or king and that even makes me think again of tywin literally tywin is seen by everyone as like this king-like figure the real power behind aries and yeah and it comes back to what you just

said with her and sanza right that they need each other to balance each other out like she might be the grounding realistic taiwan-esque even in some ways pragmatic and shrewd and calculating and effective not that sanza isn't those things but like sanza might need that dark shadow of a person on her side when she's a little more of the light yeah and by the light you don't mean like good like she's just yeah because i think aria as we see her commitment here like there's definitely a lot of good in her we'll talk about that too in a second but yeah they don't have to be a little like dad was yeah exactly they can be together and rule together they have each other something he didn't get to have he lost his pack young

big sad yeah and his younger brother was like and then benjamin was guilty and benjamin went to the watch and couldn't bear to be there anymore because the sadness probably because Probably because he knew. Oh, God. He's like, I'm running from my problems. Okay. I mean, he knows. Like, there's no way Benjen doesn't fucking know who John is. Come on. Benjen fucking knows. Yeah.

But who knows where that man is? Somewhere in the north. I'm starting to worry about him because, you know, they say after 48 hours, like it's not likely they live. Yeah. They've disappeared. And it's been like 30 years. So they come across wolves devouring a fawn at one point and Hot Pie's horse bolts. Two of the wolves flee, but the third bears his teeth defending its kill. Arya talks Gendry slowly down and away so they don't spook

the wolf, and once clear, they chase after poor, poor Hot Pie, who is clinging for life on his horse. So, part of me wonders if the wolves devouring a fawn and then one defending its kill is meant to be, like, some sort of symbolism, especially because we do have

Gendry here, fawns, baby deers, and Gendry is in a way baby deer i don't think that this is about gendry though but it does make me think about the other baratheon children and by that i mean like robert's bastards and shireen that's all i i don't know what it could mean but it makes me want yeah because obviously the lion cubs are Cersei's babies so it's not them but it could be it's because you know the whole story starts with like

the finding of the dire wolves and the stag's antler granted dire wolves and wolves not the same one is bigger than the other but anyway I do love the symbolism there because it's very feast for crows in a way like a feast for crows feast for wolves on the faun or on the baratheon regime and the remnants

of it in a way too yeah we see i mean bolton is truly feasting on that and that becomes the theme right because we come up to the brotherhood in the next couple chapters so uh who are trying to like hold on to the remnants of robert's reign and they are for the king the good king the quote unquote okay and uh whatever whoever that was but they're the last remnants of the stags of the fauns of the deer and you have the wolves or like ruse who's a lesser dire wolf right he's kind of like a northern wolf he's haunting the woods and attacking lions uh i don't know i could see it being kind of of that yeah interesting we'll never know what did keep him from writing the second story about great alice anyway me they pass through villages and hanged men and hot pie praise the mother's mercy over and over but aria prays her own little prayer this time ending it with valar mergulis touching

jacquin's coin in her belt and reaching up to eat an apple from among the dead men the apple is mushy overripe full of worms and all. Aha. There's your first feast glance, right, with the kindly man and the worm in his eye. She's unafraid. She's eager. She's ready. Yeah. She also, I think, I'm starting to get the sense that Arya just likes eating worms, and that's okay.

People can like different kinds of cuisines and things but i think she might just like eating worms this is not the first time she's done this like remember amongst the night's watch recruits and stuff in class she's all like i don't know i'm gonna fucking eat worms if i have to and i think she might just like eating worms i want to introduce her to gummy worms but oh my god worm sign she has the worm sign my friend i think she just likes eating worms well i do see a little bit of like even the apple when it comes to her in general right she's unafraid she loves to she's out here ready to lick temptation in the eyeball and you know through worms the knowledge and the hunger she has being satiated here, you know?

Interesting enough, she's eager to learn. I think of, like, Jaqen. And how she's like, yeah, sure, whatever. I'll do whatever. I'm weird, you know? A little bit like that. Holds up spork. I'm so quirky.

The just day of Westeros. Also, there's that line about Mother's Mercy gotta point that out of a hot pie singing of the mother's mercy yeah that's what mother's mercy looks like right hanging men that's what they told me at the end of this book yeah yeah i don't know something about the mushy overripe apples also makes me think of the imagery of like the overripe blood oranges too right and then in dorn but yeah i like what you're saying about knowledge because that is like a lot of what her next job is going to be about getting knowledge yeah i guess killing people learning to kill people is a bit of a forbidden knowledge too now that i think about it you know what they say boys go to jupiter to get more stupider

girls go to college and bravos to get more knowledge yeah and eat worms there's a lot in this chapter also like even from the start of it that feels a lot like a glimpse of the impending you know long night redux like there's this line here that goes that was the day without a dawn slowly the sky lightened around them but they never saw the sun black turned to gray and color colors crept timidly back into the world there's also like another line later on in this chapter you know where they're like not able to sleep during the night when it's dark because they fear being pursued even in the dark or also again like at the beginning of the chapter as they're running away from harrenhal they're like it's huge and black

right and i imagine that the wall at night would feel very much the same like behind them riding away from it whether north or south yeah and it makes me wonder if he wrote the john chapters alongside or similar timing to these because a lot of the language is similar in the Jon chapters, right? Like, there's that great passage about how the dawn looks with Corrin Halfhand. If you'll remember when we talked about it ages ago, it was the chapter we talked about a lot of that symbolism and parallel of, you know, Corrin Halfhand and Mance and Rhaegar and Arthur Dayne. Yeah. I would even say, you know, like, it goes well with Sam's chapters, right? Which very much are a glimpse into what the Long Night would be, especially

here at the beginning. And her story does intersect with Sam's. That's true. Very soon, too, in a book. Yeah. In a book. Well, Gendry and Hot pie want to know where they're going over breakfast and i'm using the word breakfast here pretty loosely uh they're splitting cheese and bread they're watering the horses i'd eat it though and aria tells them they're going north she shows them the moss growing on the south side of the trees.

Yeah, I... Okay, maybe I'm just, like, doing it wrong. I have also been in a forest, and, like, I feel as though the whole moss is more on one side of the tree thing is very overblown. It is not as, like, obvious or dependable as books would make you think. I, like, go to it, and I'm like, this moss is equally thick on all sides of this tree. And it's actually the opposite. Most mosses grow on the like north-facing surfaces because they're like a darker more humid environment. So it kind of symbolizes almost that they're going the wrong way. Fuck. Rip. Didn't we just loud her on her skills oh i mean she doesn't seem like she's got the best map reading ones she maybe she's like my best friend one time we exit the subway in new york i

think i've told you this story about her and she's like all right we'll go this way and i looked down at the map i was like that is literally the opposite direction or the other time we left the bar on her birthday and i was going home and she tells everyone the bar is this way i head in the opposite direction and i'm walking i'm like there goes the bar that they were all supposed to go to goodbye it's really funny i can get around and i'm i'm great i'm a good driver i can navigate. In my city, though, I don't know where I am half the time. Even though it's just a grid, I'm that. I'm your other best friend who does the same

shit. That's so fascinating. I'll get to the dentist and then I'll leave the dentist and I'll be trying to figure out if I'm going the right way or wrong way. I'll go four blocks out of my way until I'm like, this was the wrong way. Better double back, I guess. That's so fascinating. I might not every time able to

talk about my left and my right aloud and like be able to tell someone the right directions using those words but i can i can read a map and i know how to get where i need to fucking go yeah that's why i just hand the phone off usually like you were my partner that's pretty you were the roommate here you go one of you figure it out. I have people that can do that for me is what I'm trying to tell you. Yeah. I don't have to do that. I'm way too pretty to do directions.

You are. You are. Don't you worry about your little head. I will get us there. But not using moss, apparently. I wonder. Please not. Could it be like, is it like a fantasy world thing where George, you know, in the way that

Obsidian has special properties, he's like, moss just grows on the other side of the tree, but probably not. Maybe she really is just leading them the wrong way i don't know oh aria oh aria gendry asks why they're going north and she outlines well i want to go here on the map to river run gendry and hot pie are kind of like okay and hot pie's pretty surprised he goes you can fucking read? What the fuck? She tells them, listen, we'll be safe there. When they ask why she wants to tell, wants

to go there, she bites her tongue and she's like, ooh, I can't tell Hot Pie the secret, even though she knows that Gendry knows why she wants to go there. And him asking it is interesting, like that they're still poking at her. Gendry's keeping his cover here. But Gendry knows she can't trust hot pie with the secret but gendry has his own secret sure he doesn't know what his secret is but he has one that's how secret is that's how

fucking good gendry is at keeping secrets he's kept it from himself that's some pretty little liar's shit you know got a secret got to keep it whatever the theme song is i oh it's like i don't remember i i watched like four episodes i don't know about that yeah i think i watched like the same amount anyways i think it lost its luster uh after a couple episodes i had this horrible teacher and pedophilia and like teenage dating thing going on i'm like i think i'm good without that shit yeah i was like what has happened i was like that's not for me uh the only real incest and pedophilia it's called a song of ice and fire that is true um if i want to watch teachers getting in relationship in their students i'm gonna watch

the bizarre fucking thing that happened in gossip girl yeah gossip girl gen 2 or gen 1 actually one really both yeah you're right yeah yeah anyways so i i believe i believe that aria will learn how to read maps better one day that's it that's my insight she can she she's getting there, but it feels important for her story. Especially if, as you said, famously years ago, Arya gets back on a boat. Oh my God. Quote, Chloe. Quote, Michael Scott. Quote, Ian Gretzky.

Okay. Arya quickens their pace that day, spurring to gallops when they find a big stretch of field. But the land is becoming much hillier endless tiring once in a while she would send the boys on ahead while she scurried back to clean up their trail a little i imagine her with like a little you know branch doing like this anyways watching out for signs of pursuit once she saw shapes crossing a stream behind them but realized oh they're only wolves she let out a big oh to them this is just like an isle of dogs when the dogs and the wolves do the fist bump in the air you gotta watch this movie it's great but a wolf then howls back making

her shiver uh and by midday hot pie is complaining he's sore he's tired aria asks gendry who he thinks would kill hot pie first wolves or bloody mummers? Gendry's like, ah, the wolves, they have way better noses, way better snoop boots on them. So it rains again. It becomes cold, pale white mists start threading between the pines. Gendry is too stubborn to complain,

but also he is suffering as well. Yeah. We have this line here of, she had been riding as long as she could remember, ponies when she was little and later horses, But Gendry and Hot Pie were city-born, and in the city, small folk walked. Yeah, but also, I'm out here, I'm like, yeah, pro-walkable cities. That's it. Me too. This is some very, like, at-manuclear-bomb behavior going on in the story. You know, walkable cities hashtag. Yeah, I'm very pro-walkable. going on in the story you know walkable cities hashtag yeah very many provocables aria would

make better time alone apparently but she can't leave them they're her pack she thinks that if the mummers catch her she'll reveal herself to save them and then she's like doesn't sound great and therefore vows she won't let the mummers take them she's just not gonna to do it. This whole passage is so... It is sweet, and it's deep, and it's so sad. Arya has started to become really wrapped up in this survivor's guilt and this fear of failing and failing others. She's starting to feel like things have been her fault, maybe even Lami's death, right? She's kind of questioning, like,

I jokingly say it's Gendry's fault for getting us fucking caught, and she's like, but wasn't it kind of my plan? Didn't I get us fucked over? Wasn't Harrenhal my plan? Didn't I get us fucked over? She doesn't want to let them down by letting them die. And more than that, she's very independent, right? Arya has a fierce independent streak of ferocity in her.

She has to have freedom. And she's also finally free of harrenhal and it's kind of ordered disorder right it's chaos and it's many villains she's trying to outrun it she's refusing to be caught refusing to rest she wants to get there get out of there you know and stay alive yeah there's a there's a desperation in how she's feeling absolutely i didn't even realize but you're right a lot of it is like the survivor's guilt and honestly that's kind of like her dad right like yeah even her very first instinct when she's like okay what would i do if we were captured which again she is like wow let's just not do that let's just not get captured sounds bad but it's very much showing that she is ned stark's daughter like her plan if that were to happen

is to put herself in the vulnerable position by revealing her secret i mean it's her it's her best hand but revealing her secret to protect her friends and honestly it's a gamble and that specifically puts her in the most risky position in the most danger as we see by what happens to jane pool but she also knows that it's her best hand if she wants to protect the people that she loves yeah man now i'm just sitting here thinking about how ned had to watch all of his men, except for Howland, die at the Tower of Joy. And then he had to watch the Kingsguard members die. And then he got to see his sister and then she died.

Oh, yeah. That's on top of all the other people that also died during the rebellion. And then also later on when she, he watches all of the other people that he cares about die in King's landing to in the first book. I'll forget that. Thanks. I didn't,

but also maybe for a moment I did. So thanks. I like to be reminded. You're welcome. I'm catatonic right now. You're welcome. I love to remind. I'm going to be sick. I'm going to be reminded you're welcome i'm catatonic right now you're welcome i love to remind i think i'm gonna be sick i'm gonna be fucking sick but anyway i like that we out hurt

each other you know hey eliana do you remember this traumatizing thing hey chloe do you remember this one that's 10 times worse oh i'm i'm like oh how interesting and you're like it was very sad and i'm like what if i made her more sad it's kind of messed up huh anyways oh you're frozen no i'm not that was just my face but yeah ned sacrificing himself to protect you or putting himself in vulnerable positions to protect people he loves. Anyways. So, last episode, we were discussing Needle versus Dark Sister. Would Arya switch swords? And I think there's kind of a tenderness here in how she describes the sword that she has right now. Right?

Like, she's swearing that she won't let them get caught. And she, like, calls out in her head that this sword is one that Gendry stole for her. And I kind of wonder then. Like maybe if Dark Sister came to her. In a like meaningful way. I don't know. Maybe it was gifted by a different brother Bran. Maybe she'd be open to switching to it.

Because I think Arya actually is a very sentimental person. Yeah I think so. And it could be interesting too. Yeah, I think so. It could be interesting, too, for going from King Jon to King Bran in the gifting of swords. Yeah, but I feel like she would have to get Dark Sister... For it to be most useful,

it would have to be before Bran were king, right? Because it would have to be before the whole war against the...cromancers. Well, that's why I mean, like, now you have King Jon and then King Bran after. Yeah, or maybe they both give it to her together. Swords from your king. Interesting when you think about it that, too, if he follows, if he then would, like, follow lineage, the next, if he doesn't have kin, and if they want to keep it, you know, and with heirs what if aria was queen after him

what if that was his heir i mean i guess it could be but it seems very again it wouldn't happen but actually i like what you said though about john because what if john was like i gave you a sword before to protect yourself i give you this sword now to protect your realm. There's something about the idea of a Kang giving a Valyrian steel sword to their sibling, right? Like I'm thinking Blackfire with Daemon or Blackfire with the next Daemon.

Oh wow, interesting. Funny how that happens. Or Maegor having the sword from Aenys, right? That declaration of airdom almost through it. So that's kind of where I was going. That's where my brain was heading. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, they reach

a body of water, but it's not the Trident. Hot Pie insists, well, we rode all day long. We should be there. But Arya looks at the map and is like, yeah, there's many, many miles before we get to Riverrun. Yeah. And I'm like, I told you, Arya. It's not that close. But now map and is like, yeah, there's many, many miles before we get to Riverrun. Yeah. And I'm like, I told you, Arya, it's not that close. But now I'm also like, after what you pointed out, I'm like, did she just take them the wrong fucking way?

It's funny because when they start riding with the Brotherhood, Arya's like, we're going the wrong way. And I'm like, are you? Do you know? Do you know? Do you know? They obviously seem to know the woods better than her uh i mean they've they've been around for a few years now in there so yeah but i mean they can't navigate by the stars which i think she seems like she might be a little bit better at but or she could learn one day but

it's cloudy because of the rain so rip rip aria thinks that the rivers they've found might be the Little Willow, but Gendry's like, well, that means it runs up to the Big Willow, which runs to the Trident. But we'd need to go downstream, not up, unless this river's rippled down real, which goes all the way back to Harrenhal. They decide to neither go up nor downstream, but they find a place to cross, and they keep going north. Except here, to Eliana's point yeah moss is growing on like three or four sides of the trees now whatever it's gonna cross that river yeah it is hard i don't know about that nature you know aria's gonna cross the river one way or another so she rides half a mile she finds a place she can ford the water comes up like past the horse's belly they struggle across they find the next river which is way easier to cross way smaller

yeah i don't know how but i think this whole idea of rivers being very difficult for horses to cross and therefore cavalry is going to come into play with the dothraki storyline at some point whether it's here in the riverlands or like the skahazadan or something um or like those other rivers over there in essos yeah that'd be a great echo with the phrase right like that we have the the toll i think that's a great i mean that's definitely got to have some foreshadowing for all these rivers for the phrase to come with having to pay the troll toll to get inside the boy's soul. But also I could see that being an echo for Dany, who in a lot of ways is very Rob-like.

Ooh, yeah, that's true. That's true. Won't be here necessarily, but again, warfare and rivers, something. There's something in that. Something in that, Eliaba. That's a new meme. New meme just dropped.

That one you gotta join the Discord to understand. We have our own memes. Dusk is setting and Hot Pie says, we should light a fire. But Gendry and Arya immediately look at each other and then him and they're like, no.

Same time, simultaneously. And Arya thinks about this and she thinks, Arya gave Gendry a sideways look. He said it with me, like Jon used to do back in Winterfell. She missed Jon Snow the most of all her brothers. All right, first of all, booyah, Bran, booyah, Rickon. He ain't even a real brother. Got him.

You just got got sons, you dead ass bitches. Also, wait a second. Those are the dead ones are you what the fuck you don't miss your dead little brothers as much as you miss john well maybe that's the thing maybe she can't miss them right because they're dead so obviously it's either between john or rob there of course and she's like she's on her way to rob so yeah can't miss him you know how can you miss him he's right there there's a little bit of like original trilogy outline in there right with the uh initial romance

ideas going around like john and aria and now she's like oh me and gendry have the same romance as me and my half brother yeah or yeah or maybe it's just you know george like redoing it and it's like you know it makes sense you know someone that she gets along with well like she did with john oh maybe she'll brother zone him later after fucking him i mean maybe maybe you know that's how the dark areas probably would have done it you know i gotta, women are the devil. Wow. You know, they're not really, it's like for women, and this is like a very crazy take, but, you know, their friendship isn't really worth much. Why would you just want to have that? You know, it's like, wouldn't you want to win?

Don't you want a prize for being their friend? I was so confused what was going on here for a second. I took you on a ride. I went on a ride and I was like I don't think I've trained enough to ride this horse right now I don't know what is happening on this journey build up your thighs baby build up those thighs

I have been I have okay anyways I think that this aspect of the fires it will be really interesting when the political plot of a song of ice and fire starts intersecting with that supernatural one with like the others because then you got to decide like first of all i already struggle with making decisions but now they got to calculate

do i light a fire in this darkness in order to keep the others in the whites way or do i risk being in the darkness and not lighting a fire so as to not give my position away to the opposing houses you can't fucking win you can't win what a terrible catch 22 this is great too coming right off that john chapter uh where he has the same issue and the brand chapters etc when they start getting on the road but especially that john chapter that just happened because i think corin tells him you can can't light a fire. If you light a fire, they'll be down on us immediately. Yeah. Hot Pie begs to sleep, and Arya says they have to keep going and presses them on. She needs sleep too, but if they sleep, they could be descended on by the mummers.

All the same, she falls asleep twice. Her horse wanders around in a circle and eats grass. That's me. It's time to stop and nap. For sure. Gendry takes first watch as Hot Pie is already on the ground asleep with a chunk of cheese in one fist. That's also me. Before Arya sleeps, though, she says her prayers like a good girl. Aw.

Aw. Aw. Aw. Baby, mommy's a little psycho, you know? And then she's thrown into her dreams, which are very vibrant tonight. The mummers are actually on the trail, riding through the rain. Wow. What could it mean?

We have this line of, They thought they were hunting her. She knew with all the strange, sharp certainty dreams but they were wrong she was hunting them she was no little girl in the dream she was a wolf huge and powerful and when she emerged from beneath the trees in front of them and bared her teeth in a low rumbling growl she could smell the rank stench of fear from horse and man alike. Ow! Ow! Or am I the horse like... I'm trying to stamp away.

Whatever the fucking onomatopoeia is. Oh my god. You can always come here for your daily dose of onomatopoeia folks i love that line uh george loves that motif of like the rank stench of fear the stench of men's fear you know whether it's like john yeah the p john when he's warging or brand three a storm of swords you have that line the wolf went wide around him behind a dripping thorn bush and beneath the bare branches of an apple tree he could hear them talking and there beneath the sense of rain and leaves and horse came the sharp red stench of fear he just loves the scent of fear george is like a slut for that he loves that yeah i didn't i didn't notice that but that's so true

and i've i've heard i've heard often that the animals can smell your fear. So. Oh, yeah. It's probably from that. Dogs. Dogs can. I know that. They can smell that I want to be their friend.

You know, shout out to the chunk of my ass that got eaten by a dog. Oh, okay. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. They know fear, dude. Yeah. The fight is short but bloody and the four men are torn apart.

Yeah. The fight is short but bloody, and the four men are torn apart. Her brothers and sisters fall upon them, snapping at horse and riders alike. We close the chapter with, Only the belled man stood his ground. His horse kicked in the head of one of her sisters, and he cut another almost in half with his curved silvery claw as his hair tinkled softly. Filled with rage, she leapt onto his back, knocking him headfirst from his saddle, her jaws locked on his arm as they fell, her teeth sinking through the leather and wool and soft flesh.

When they landed, she gave a savage jerk with her head and ripped the limb loose from his shoulder. Exulting, she shook it back and forth in her mouth, scattering the warm red droplets amidst the cold, black rain. Who is a good girl in them area? Who is a good girl? Who is a good girl?

Shaking the arm, right? Dogs with their toys. While I was doing it, I was trying really hard not to shake my head like a dog with a toy, but I'm like, but it's an arm. Well, we know who that is, right? Obviously the Dothraki member of the group with his Arak. That is what she sees, I believe, with his bells and his hair.

And now he is Edith. And hey, Eliana, she was being chased, turns out. You're right. You're right. And I think it's mostly, I guess, because they killed someone. I kind of wonder if they would have gotten away with it if she hadn't. But, you know, I can't believe that the Bloody Mummers are wasting tax dollars on this. I think it's Roos, man.

I'm telling you, he's trying to like, you know, there's that great theory, Littlefinger's bankrupting the crown. But I'm like, I think Roos is bankrupting his crown. I think thatos is bankrupting his crown. Big time. That's true. There's a lot about the fight at the Green Fork and stuff like that and how he definitely did it in the least

effective way. Yeah. But I mean, at that same token, I'm like, if, I'm like, I don't know, if men are doing all this murdering for you, shouldn't they live in luxury? I don't know. But maybe they deserve things. But then I'm like, no, it's Roos Bolton. They don't know if men are doing all this murdering for you shouldn't they live in luxury i don't know but uh maybe they deserve things but then i'm like no it's ruse bolton they don't dotted with leashes i mean again he's a fashion and skincare influencer

catch him on tiktok at leech lord yeah he's getting paid in sponsorships i hear that ruse bolton does commercials for hair for bravos he does though i hear that he anyways uh oh to burn book he is burn book oh my god a burn book if you will or multiple of them wow i'm just uh. I'm absorbing this. Roost Gina, George, R.R. Martin. If you listen to the Mean Girls musical soundtrack, I would be singing right now for you from that soundtrack. I have songs in my head.

I have like eight and I'm not doing it. They're putting it out as a movie. Yeah, they're doing a movie musical. It'll be fine. It is what it is. See it if you can. If it comes to your theater, if it comes near you, go see Mean Girls a musical. I actually fine it is what it is see it if you can if it comes to your theater if it comes near you go see mean girls a musical i actually think it's very charming i guess maybe that's like a lowbrow opinion but i don't know i have a whole a swath musical in my head to

mean girls a musical so maybe that's part of it too like i've already written it we have already written it for robert's. Yeah. We have two musicals now. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. True. True. True. Get ready.

Get ready. Get ready. Big productions. 2024. It isn't home, but it's kind of. I love that we have Stark exultation hour here. George really loves to write that the Starks are exulting. He loves like having a little inner monologue and having a Stark be like,

I'm exulting. And this is one of my roommate Emmett's favorite things. Like he always is like, I love that line. I love that line. The emotion behind it. Mwah. Chef's kiss.

He really loves it. So I have to call it out because I do too. It makes me like pay attention to it. It's like whenever they say that they want to be like Rob, I'm like Eliana. But this one is Emmett. Exulting, expressing pleasure or happiness at someone's defeat. So last chapter, it kind of reminds me of the last Arya chapter when she thought about Edmure winning the battles and she was like, he'll beat you.

You know, like Edmure will kill you guys. Just like Sansa thinks rob will kill you all and here she's exulting as well she's exulting ripping apart this body and interestingly enough out of the six times george uses the phrase exulting it's like two-thirds of it is stark based i thought that was real fun bran won in clash when he's working into summer and walking i'm walking he thought exulting. Part of him knew it was only a dream, but even the dream of walking was better than the truth of his bedchamber, walls and ceiling and door. And then Sansa too, in Clash, one of Emmett's favorites.

Rob will kill you all, she thought, exulting. And then here, exulting, she shook it back and forth in her mouth, scattering the warm red droplets amidst the cold black rain and it actually comes up again in Aria 6. She thought she could see the beginnings of fear wake in his eyes, Sandor. He's going to lose, she told herself, exulting as Lord Beric's flaming sword whirled and slashed. Interesting. Yeah, I like that. I like the use. I wish George

would come back. Tiwau with some exulting for me. Tiwau exulting, please. I would exult if it were announced. Tiwau is under your chair, Chloe said, exulting. Ha ha ha. You know,

this last, this end of the passage is really brutal for her first full-on wolf dream that she seems to be mostly aware of what's going on. The past have all been kind of blurred, but you can see it comes across so raw and authentic. Like, if you're a warg, of course these lines are easily blurred between death and life. Of course it's easy to just snap your finger or your jaw and eat a motherfucker you know of course it is it's easy look at this dream like this is the only time she's ever been able to take power have power you know outside of her body experience just like tearing into a villain a bad guy that wants to hurt her and protecting her and it's interesting

you can see in comparison to like dragons, right? Like you can see where it's very easy to let this power out of hand. Out of pocket. Yeah. No, that is not. Well,

is it maybe I use, I don't know, out of pocket. Just let me have it. Just let me have it. It's a callback. It's a callback. It's a callback.

But yeah, it is. And, and it really does tie together with that exalting like i like that one of the other examples that you brought in of them using exalting it is brand working as well and i just think that there's a lot of parallels now as we see aria like when we see aria slipping into nimeria i feel that you can see its connections with Bran's chapters and because they're like at similar-ish ages

there's something there to be said about like their stage of childhood development and how warging serves as this kind of wish fulfillment for them you know it very much allows them to access power in different forms we talked about power a lot in brand storyline over others etc and we talked about it

last chapter as well with with aria and uh power and violence but power doesn't always have to be violent right like sometimes power it's it's ultimately the ability to do something in many ways like having power over your own life and for obvious reasons that i don't think i need to discuss because we've read these books aria and bran do not have power over their own lives in fact kind of being a child is very much not having power over your own life in general and it gets worse for them it does does get worse for them. And so like when Arya wargs, right, she ends up having safety and physical power to kill those who would do you harm. That's what she gets the power to do. And when Bran is warging, it's also about physical power. But for him, it's literally just being able to run right it's him

being able to eat and feel a full belly you know he doesn't shake the arms off he just eats it because he's starving because they're also on the run and you end up with like warging in their storylines being very much about power through escapism power over their own realities in a way like through escapism and it's something that also where they can access comfort whether that's again safety via physical power or or food and i don't know that that's kind of what working lets them access so i just think it's really interesting that it does happen in these two youngest characters, besides Rikken, who I think has a very different relationship with his wolf, because he is so young, they are so intertwined, it looks like,

and, you know, that Worging lets them have control over their reality, and how they have this inability to cope with it and how it's kind of like affecting their development yeah i'd even say that like warging is a coping skill for them right like being able to skin change and warg this as you were saying it's escapism it's a coping method it's like a you know when you're in having severe trauma sometimes the only way is to like get through it is to dissociate through it right or to do something else and warging is like dissociating into another world into someone else's life and i wouldn't be surprised if rickon actually has a very interesting bond with his wolf considering he's going somewhere

where skin changing wargingging, cannibalism, all these very taboo things and ritualism seem to be possibly something behind the curtain, some sort of like unlock. And I mean, why else would he be off the board? If it's information we shouldn't probably know at this time, I'd be interested if he is going to be raised somewhat spiritually a little

differently than the Starks, right? Who were not raised spiritually magically like this they weren't raised to believe that there's magic but rickens with people that are very open about the magic in the world right now he's at least with osha yeah that's a good point and like even osha is very i think like yeah duh magic this idiots like for her it's very very normalized. Rikken is like four-year-old me who was told,

yeah, you absolutely can grow up to become a dog. But that's really possible for Rikken. That's a meme right there. What? The Rikken wants to grow up and be a dog. I wanted to be a dog. No one told me I couldn't.

You're very memeable. Well, I think you could still do it thanks i do thanks i think uh that coping mechanism for aria too like it's interesting right now when she's her most exhausted when her body's it's most worn when like they've run for dear life and they can't keep running it comes once more like jacket in the night like a saving grace like here's your three wishes by the way and namaria saves them right like namaria and her hooking up in the night like thank god she fell asleep and got into her wolf because if namaria hadn't fucked their shit up they'd be on them yeah yeah absolutely and like that aria does it like on this very unconscious level you know well that's the thing right

the wolf side to them kind of especially for the children it's the id right it's that part of desire she desires safety and to you know kill her enemies and for Bran he just he desires

access to his legs and fucking food and and then when he's uh skin changing hodor it's again desire to be a knight and it's a way of like being something else right like literally being something else whereas what you can see the relationship between john and ghost like he might into Ghost, but he knows they're different. Like, he has a sense of self that is not Ghost, but that might be very different soon when, you know. Death, rebirth. And I mean, Rob is also, he and Grey Wind are separate as far as we can tell, but he has a close relationship with Grey Wind that is like using Grey Wind as a tool, not in a bad way, but in a like, help me find goat trails. It's almost interesting too, like at this point, especially for Arya looking at this interaction and this like passage about her warging, who's really warging into who? Oh, that's a great point. You know, it feels like Nymeria is waking her warging. Who's really warging into who? Oh, that's a great point. You know, it feels like Nymeria is waking her

for this. Nymeria's like, hey, stupid. Hey, idiot. Yeah. Let's howl at the moon. Yeah, let's go play. It's my cat at 5am. Yeah, my friend's cat also. She's like...

She's singing she was howling she was straight up howling she was howling at night and in the morning and I was like this cat is a dog which is my favorite kind of cat

5am everyday everyday get the fuck up bitch that's what my cat says she's just yelling don't know why she's just yodeling she's out here like hello what are y'all doing right now and we're like sleeping like video every fucking night at this time

that song is clearly stuck in my head uh what a banger of an opener for Arya we will return with Arya 2 in a storm of swords. Keep your ears and eyes peeled. We will also be coming back at the end of this month with Sailor Moon Eternal. We will talk a little bit about that.

Movie part one. Or movie one, sorry. The first movie. Part one, movie one. Yes, sure. Yeah, like that. Part one, movie one. You guys, part one before we get to the movie one yes sure yeah like that movie one that you guys cosmos is right around the corner i can fucking feel it everyone's putting out collabs all right hot topics got one color pops got one it's any day now i bought the color pop sailor moon collab solely the second part of it solely because a i wanted

to complete my sailor moon collection eliana got me part one but also i got it because i thought maybe they would release cosmos if i buy it it's gonna it's right around the corner i can feel it well so is t wow and i can't wait to watch and read them both with you all. This one's already made. They just have to English it. So's T-Wow. Absolutely true. So true, Bestie. Alright, everyone. If you want updates on when our next episode comes out, and also when T-Wow comes out,

which is right now, please follow us on social media. We are on twitter.com slash girlsgonecanon. That's C-A-N-O-N. Or you can send us an email at twitter at girlsgoncanon at gmail.com. We had a giveaway for our friend Shiloh Carroll's new book, The Medieval Worlds of Neil Gaiman. And something historic fucking happened when we chose the winner in that someone named Neil has won. Our friend Neil has won.

It is not Neil Gaiman. He can buy the book. He can afford it, you guys. So Neil, congratulations. You are getting a signed copy of Shiloh's book. Thank you, Shiloh, for offering to give away a copy of your book. I'm excited. Can't wait to hear how much you enjoy it.

Neil, hopefully we'll come back with some other giveaways. And you can find out about giveaways and all the different things we do throughout the year. We especially offer some of these things to our patrons. Sometimes we'll do fun things during brunch and give away some book gift certificates and other things. So check out any of that over at patreon.com slash girls gone canon. And I want you to know that our patrons actually are the sponsors of our episodes we are ad free in order for them to uh have a great time they they are the reason we're here you know so if you want to become part of that community please head over

and do it and also uh very exciting here are our patrons right now to lead us out and tell you where you can find us you can catch girls Gone Canon on any of the following streamers. On Podbean, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Acast, Spotify, Overcast, Apple Podcast, 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 posting channel fashion hour there are multiple channels for historic materials, A Song of Ice and Fire.

There's a pets channel, which I think is probably the most important channel of all. Respectful Thirsting, because there's a channel for that. Come by, join the community, it's a lot of fun, and you won't regret it. God, those kids, they keep me young you know they really do ah thanks everyone for listening we'll be back with more aria in the next week and uh sailor moon after that and oh man here we come holidays until then i have been one of your hosts chloe and i have been another one of your hosts eliana thanks everyone we are exulting exulting reading maps touching moss touching moss is the new touching grass oh my god please go touch moss you guys please moss is actually harder to find than you would think too though like what if you're in a dry area? Where's the fucking moss?

Well, maybe then you'll really get some mental stability going on if you go touch moss. That's true. How will you know, though? But I guess the sky might be clearer. Who knows? I don't know. Anyway. Good luck with the moss.

We'll see you next time. It's going to tell me how to get to the fucking river. Let's... To river run. Goodbye. Goodbye.