Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 215 — ASOS Arya VIII

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

Arya gets a few history lessons that hit a bit too close to home before a dog snaps her up.  For more Hunger Games and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes coverage, check out Arah's YouTube channel, ieatzebra: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGu9dGopzdFfXUhoMP2BNAchBWIkx0AGX Where to find Mira aka LostWolfling, next week's guest:  - Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lostwolfling  - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostwolfling/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lostwolfling Eliana's "girls rock" songs for Arya:  SAOKO by ROSALÍA Shinigami Eyes by Grimes if god didn't want us to snort worms he wouldn't have made them cylindrical! by MIMIDEATH All My Girls Like to Fight by Hope Tala Bog by Be Your Own Pet Standing in the Way of Control by Gossip Black Eye by Allie X Haunted by Laura Les Immaterial by SOPHIE ---- 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 215. Arya ate in a storm of swords. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Aliana. And are you ready for Ashara Dayne hours? Oh my god, real. So real. I'm very excited to ration out a little more ashara dane for you this week and maybe not

even just ashara maybe we're gonna talk about the dainestatives wow daines of our lives i'm excited daines of our shit like sands sands in the stone door in a shower glass whoa i don't know that one i don't know uh what you're referencing right now that's the line before you say that it's the intro to days of our lives and it's like i've never watched like sand in the hourglass so are the days of our lives and it's like yeah i grew up on that sorry i know you did you've told me about it before so i was like well i will appreciate it nothing is better than like being sick when i'm a kid and my mom and it comes on at like 1 p.m et so like my mom would like make me ramen which now as an adult i'm like damn you made me a lot of ramen mom i know what that means

yeah i mean i do but she made me a lot of like in the packet with the packet ramen when i was a kid and i see this now i'm like easy to feed me easy to feed me uh yeah it would just be like ramen and days of our lives that was a sick day i love that shit yeah i feel like aria would like instant ramen too oh she'd probably eat it like raw hard oh yeah i mean you can do that you can do that like a lot of people do that especially nowadays you'll take the packet and you make it into a little snack you take the packet you put it in crush up all the little noodles and it's like chips you can do it over a salad as a little crunch in like a salad too true yeah yeah it's delicious yeah i used to eat them raw in my room hiding from my parents because i was a weird kid

just like aria stark so yeah so this is a food podcast speaking of food but the lack thereof let's talk about briefly like this month we are continuing our Hunger Games coverage yeah if you're a patron in the stranger tier and above at patreon.com slash girls gone canon that is c-a-n-o-n well you're gonna get this episode at the end of the month on the hunger games this is our second episode of a three episode series on the novel the hunger games which probably will continue with the rest of the books in the series yeah nine part nine episode over the following year we're really back in our hunger games era it's 2024 not 2013 but it sure fucking feels like it and this will be out for stranger to your patrons end of month and it's going to be on the games part two of the book it is of course broken into

acts three acts suzanne collins is a playwright at. So it will be broken into those acts. It's very easy for us that way. And I hope you enjoy listening. I am enjoying doing these with you. We are having a blast. We are having a blast. Also, I think like they're releasing what a special illustrated version later this year of The Hunger Games.

So yes, I've seen a few of the artworks so far and they're beautiful it's back and also of course the prequel the prequel book the ballad of songbirds and snakes yes she did was adapted as a movie recently so if you want to know more about that, please check out our friend Ara's channel. She joined us for some of our Aria coverage at I Eat Zebra, spelled I-E-A-T-Z-E-B-R-A over on YouTube. She's covering Tibosass, as Chloe has called it. When you were unavailable emotionally for me during my Tibossass phase, Ara was my emotional support. So huge shout out to ara you should be

following her listening to her for sure absolutely absolutely she's doing a lot of like really in depth coverage on that and also like how it relates to the hunger game so go check that out we'll link it yeah and of course for those patrons that are in the thunder tier and above they have access to our private discord server invite only and if you are in the Thunder tier and above. They have access to our private Discord server, invite only. And if you are in that server, you will find a lot of things, whether it is channels to chat within with other fans that are like-minded like yourselves to talk about video games or different-minded, TV shows, movies, etc.,

bullshittery, memes, respectful thirsting, very respectful, bitch about your job. There's a lot of stuff going on at Discord, but also one of the big events that happens every single month is Brappy Hour. What's Brappy Hour, you might be asking yourself at home. Brappy Hour is the cute name that Eliana

has named our brunch slash happy hour. And that brunch slash happy hour is happening in February. You just missed the January one. But in February, on February 17th, 2 to 4 p.m. ET, I think we're going to play some reindeer games at this one. I feel some Jackbox games coming on. I feel some good, very lighthearted fun to come. We hope to see

you there. And that's not all the fun that there is out here. I'm so excited for next week. Look, this is going to be a really fun episode. It's one of my favorite chapters for Aria. There's so much history. It's so rich with lore. I actually went on with our friends over at Brotherhood Without Manners a while back when they covered the chapter and I had a really good time with it's so rich with lore i actually went on with our friends over at brotherhood without manners a while back when they covered the chapter and i had a really good time with them so you have to check it out they were around back when we did prologues if you remember but next week we have another guest and it is someone near and dear to my heart it is the first person that can maybe stand anywhere near me with Sandor, right?

Because Eliana, you're not really a Sandor. You don't love the man like we do. The man-child. But my good friend Lost Wolfling, Mira, is coming over to play, and Eliana said we could play. Eliana said we could. I'm so

excited. I'm excited to have Mira on, and while you know, I will let you two play about the stand door being stand doors, Mira is just so funny. I just really like Mira. She's so smart. She's so funny. I remember playing Animal Crossing with her during the thick of the pandemic. And I'm excited to hang out with her again.

Yeah, we share Sandor as a boyfriend. You know, it's a great relationship we have with each other and him. She's so funny. And all jokes aside, like she's also incredibly intelligent. She has a great perspective on Sandor. I'm sure she's going to bring a lot of different talk about trauma and about some of the personalities at play between Arya on Sandor. I'm sure she's going to bring a lot of different talk about trauma and about some of the personalities at play

between Arya and Sandor and their relationship, and I couldn't be more excited to have her on. So take a look on social media, Twitch, etc. for Meera Lost Wolfling. Link that below, and look forward to having her next week for Arya 9.

No, I'm 10, so shut the fuck up that's a vine reference oh it's a vine reference oh my gosh yeah chloe we we discussed that what last episode and then chloe sent me the vine she resurfaced it it's hysterical it's good you have to like archaeologically dig for vines nowadays i think you have to go on youtube to get vines these days oh so for some of you listening if you don't remember what vine was it's what tiktok is but better because it was smaller and more authentic it was yeah it was much like shorter form which is it's fascinating it was like the hit clips of humor you know it really was hit clips wasn't it it was like hit clip sized for sure i don't know if we can also like

describe something as hit clips yeah yeah that's what i was thinking i'm like maybe describing something as hit clips but whatever like maybe that's not good maybe it's like this is a very millennial thing well we you guys have google yeah we described hit clips to Karm a few episodes ago as well during that Aria episode. These are callbacks. With Lady Smallwood. Yes. All right.

It's time to jump into the lightning round. The Lord of Lightning round. If you will, if you won't. What we've missed between the last aria chapter and this chapter and we're going to start with bran three where at queen's crown bran skin changes hodor john five john flees from the free folk wow that was hard to say yeah these are kind of little those two were were kind of... What's a tongue twister? Sorry. Daenerys IV.

Daenerys strikes a deal to free Yunkai in the night. She learns more about her brother Rhaegar. And that brings us here to Arya VIII. The Brotherhood Without Banners visits High Heart again. Arya escapes the Brotherhood, but ends up in the clutches of evil, terrible, bad, not at all handsome, definitely not tsundere Sandra Cliquet. Did you? Did you? Write this for you.

This was a trick. This is a trap. That's my secret. I'm always writing them for you. Yeah, she like times it. She'll time who starts the lightning round it's like it's like those memes of like if you start this show at this time this character will say this thing at midnight for new year's it's just like that for real is it not like that i don't know it has similarities it's a like i don't know if it's anyways broken all right let's go we return to high heart with the brotherhood

and aria making camp by sunset and a great fire atop the hill aria walks around the circle of weirwood stumps with ned dane whoa some symbolism a stark some weirwood stumps, a Dane. Oh, true, true, true. Feels real, feels really legendary. Watching the light fade in the west, a storm gathers to the north, but High Heart stands above the rain. Arya still feels the wind, though, grabbing her like someone yanking on her. Ghosts, she remembered. High Heart is haunted. Wow, so I guess, I never realized High Heart was that high. It's like a fucking mountain. We discussed this before, but just pointing out great opening for a chapter

about the ghosts because like Arya's father and the ghosts that haunted him, now they're haunting Arya the past. And also, of course, as we've discussed before the ghost of high heart is haunted herself by jenny whom she loved yeah we're definitely going to talk a little bit more about that today it's very sad oh my god so sad played aspicito also the way this is kind of described reminds me of the eerie it reminds me of when liza is yanking on sansa at the gate the door the moon door right even just like the language it's interesting it's like you know it's not too far off from when this is happening to sansa yeah that's true that's true and that moment that people think the prophecy in this chapter describes but it it's not that step two of the threefold reveal,

obviously, which I guess we might have discussed that during our Prophecies Patreon episode that I don't remember doing. Yeah, I think we did a little bit. I think we did. Yeah. And if not, I know that we did talk a little bit more about this prophecy when we got to some of the Sansa chapters, which for those of you listening and waiting for kind of a reveal, we are doing Sansa next. Yes. Sansa is the next POV. We just thought it made a lot of sense to go from Arya to Sansa. It does actually, though, make sense.

Right. When Arya turns around, no one's there, so she feels like it's very, very creepy. And then Thoros gazes deep deep into the flames and aria is like ned dane what is this man doing and ned's like oh he sees things in the flames you know like a past a future a present things in the distance things nearby he sees stuff that's not impressive my phone does that okay walks on leaves walks on leaves whatever these are so unimpressive um aria doesn't see anything in those flames though at all like she looks she's like what the fuck could he be seeing yeah well i mean he can't see anything right now right and the ghost of High Heart is going to tell us soon why but Gendry

asks Thoros if he can see the future and he responds that not now but some days the Lord of Light grants him visions Gendry says that my old master Tobo Mott said you were a drunken sod and a fraud especially for setting his swords on fire and Thoros

laughs at that remembering that Tobo charged him twice as much. And he even said he was kind of a fraud. And I don't know, I just really appreciating Thoros' vibe, this read-through. Like, I really love that humility and good humor from him being like, true, but unkind. That is the quote, true, but unkind. And I like that Gendry also volunteers that, hey, by the way, we've crossed paths before.

Yeah, Gendry's opening up. He's trusting the brotherhood a little bit now, which is nice. It's true. I guess he's part of them. He's like, I'm going to join y'all. Yeah. So. Yeah.

Thoros was born youngest of eight, and his father gave him over to the Red Temple. But that's not really the path he would have chosen. He loved girls, booze, food. Oh, my God. He's just rock and roll. father gave him over to the red temple but that's not really the path he would have chosen he loved girls booze food oh my god he's just rock and roll but he had a gift for tongues yes like that no i'm just kidding and once in a while he would see things in the flames he ended up proving more bother than good though so the red priest sent him to king's landing to convert aries but aries was more in love with his pyromancers as we know king robert however grew very fond of thoros they loved drinking fucking fighting you know all that shit the first time he rode into a melee kevin lannister's horse bucked

kevin off in fear of thoros's flames and robert laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and then they were best friends yeah just kind of special it's a special bond you know getting drunk and laughing at Lannisters seems right actually though you know yeah we do it we talked a little bit about Thoros's background in our Patreon episode a long long time ago mirror mirror on the wall but what a good title we are not serious people i don't know if any of you knew this but not serious people don't forget about it's a mia dario from tyroche inspired just fucking wired we know a lot more about what mirror produces than its people that it produces right like we know about mirrish lace we know about mirrish glass or lenses these are exports that the higher members of westerosi society get a chance

to enjoy but we don't know tons this is like a very big flash into you know having a huge family having to give this child up and send him somewhere because he's a troublemaker i just find it fascinating that we're getting a little bit of that background. You actually talked a lot in this episode about how you think that George is kind of withholding Mere stuff because they're going to come back into the fold, whether it's the three daughters at war again, or what. And I do think Thoros's background starts to give us a little color to Mere. Yeah, and I do still hold to that view.

I do think we're going to get more stuff about Mere as Dany's storyline starts, you know, making its way back towards Westeros and whatnot. I also kind of think we might get even a little bit about Mere this summer on our televisions as House of the Dragon returns for the historians in season two. It's coming. It is. So yeah, like he's sent away as the eighth child, right? Like because they're like, what are we going to do with eight kids? I don't know. We don't know what his family's like economic standing was, but we kind of see that happen with Aryrio hota so you know also being given away as

one of the younger siblings yeah i was really struck by the parallel to ario hota and to the norvo stuff as well i also think that there's something kind of obvious about like the trajectory of thoros that he really didn't believe until barak and not just in his religion that he's serving but also in court in knighthood and everything right like he made a joke of the jousts he thought it was and it is kind of funny but like melee's joust like that was just a joke to him he was just getting drunk with the king and hanging out in the capital but once he worked with barrack and once he saw what could happen with barrack he really started to believe that's pretty interesting yeah especially because this isn't like the whole knighthood thing that's like not even his culture you know like he was sold

twice if you think about it like sold once by his family into religious slavery and then sent on a like mission that he didn't want to be on and i mean he's basically like really unwanted you know there's some ways that like his storyline actually fits really well into aria's aria is very wanted by her family her mom basically through a whole war it was not her fault i'm not saying it's caitlin's fault i'm joking but she was willing to risk it all for the hope of aria but you know someone who's forced into a role he doesn't want to be in like and also likes to lead raids on the kitchen he's got like kind of i think a mischievous mischievous spirit like aria and he's also like gifted clearly but not he's unable to fit like the dogma of what he's supposed to

same as how aria fears like what her family would do she doesn't fit into being what a lady is supposed to be and then he fails at that job and then he fails at this next one too of like being like go convert the new king of westeros and as you said he he really just kind of wanted to enjoy life and i think there's something almost even though robert sucks like kind of beautiful like robert was the only one who let thoros actually be a person and who found joy and like who thoros was and not who thoros was supposed to be and i think what you're saying if he doesn't believe until like barrick maybe he doesn't even believe in whoa himself until he like is like whoa i brought this guy back from the dead what what it puts what you just said puts a whole new spin too on last chapter when aria's like what if

my family doesn't fucking want me anymore dude like thoros would know yeah thoros is like then they would have fucking sold you already they would have already betrothed her or something you know they would have handed your ass over to some religious sect like don't get it twisted they would have sold you off ned loved them so much that he never let them leave ever that's actually like really sad then like being like wow aria how can you say they don't want you know like thoros knows what it's like to not be wanted what if she doesn't want me and just tumblr style gift set like just seeing everything catalan did trying to get her daughters back yeah fuck dude this is okay we gotta survive the whole episode man we can't go getting sad like this like we got pages to go guys snap it together just to go

before everyone before we sleep uh listen miss frost everyone take a deep breath deep breath we're back to the game here of thrones thoros agrees he actually says you know your master was right too Matt was right a blade deserves more respect and then Beric shows up behind him and is all cryptic and it's like fire consumes it consumes and when it's done there it's nothing left nothing and Thoros is like bestie why so cryptic right and Beric is like Thoros bro i've died so many times and i keep coming back too many times six times is too many bro six times don't seem like a lot he's like oh my god let me rest let me rest i love that he also says the fire consumes though right just be we brought it up last

time and maester aemon he said the thing he said the thing uh just like first season of house of the dragon sorry clearly i'm looking forward to that i guess um kind of miss it i mean yeah it's kind of fun well he said the thing and he was like oh my god he said a feast for crows the fourth book that they never adapted they literally didn't um yeah oh my god that was so wild remember all those moments wow in a feast for crows well we're gonna remember them again i meant all the book references in hot d and how we got to look at each other and be like yo did you hear that at the same time yeah uh rip rip yeah so so barrack says the thing and you know like it makes me think of also that that line from Jojen

you're gonna bring up other Jojen lines later of like fire and ice being the same you know if ice can burn because I don't know I've been thinking about this idea of fire consumes and ice preserves but turns out ice preserving isn't like always the best either i think it's not like you know one is good one is bad they're the same because like fire consumes everything until there's nothing is what beric is saying but we i think are going to see when it comes to the others this other thing well this theme come forward of the preservation but it being like hate right hate and vengeance being the thing that's kind of like keeping you going preserving you and we can kind of see that in aria's storyline but also that hate can also and the desire for vengeance can be a burning desire

as well we see that in sandor right and so consumption and preservation being two sides of the same coin. And now I'm going to be like, you know, Beric's like six times as too many. And I'm thinking now, like, why does Thoros keep bringing Beric back? Because clearly this man does not want to come back. And I'm like, does Thoros bring Beric back because he believes that he should due to his faith. Like his God is like, clearly I want this man alive. Or is it because it is the one special magical thing that Thoros feels he has actually done? Or is it because like Beric is Thoros' only friend now? And what else do you do but keep the one person that you love here in this world with you, as Daenerys tried to do? Questions I have.

What the fuck, Eliana? Why is Thoros doing this? Why are you attacking us? Me and the listeners are being attacked by Eliana. No, that's a depressing and beautiful way to put it especially bringing cal drogo into it there's something like yeah there's something about a the way you said that makes me know that you would bring me back to life even if i begged you not to be that you'd be like leona why the fuck am i here i definitely think they understand that bigger purpose right especially as we go through this

chapter you can see like it's bigger than them. They're able to put aside their more human emotions to conquer that. And I like to that fire and ice are the same in a way, right? Like it's true because when you think about ice, like ice holding food, yes, it can preserve food, but the food starts to degrade bit by bit, right? The taste of it, the flavor of it starts to go until nothing's left like i think about freezer burnt food like if you have like a hamburger patty in your freezer is really specifically what i'm thinking about right now for some reason and like you can still eat it if it's freezer burnt it's fine it's just not going to taste as good and bit

by bit it gets worse and worse the more you leave it there forever and i'm like barracks probably falling apart oh he literally is so like fire and ice obviously fire consuming sure ice doesn't just preserve and like save everything though you know it still still deteriorates too yeah absolutely the wind howls like a wolf all night, and real wolves to the west add their voice to the sound. Everyone's fast asleep except Arya, who spots a shape creeping among the horses. It is the ghost of Highheart,

no more than three feet tall, her eyes red like John's wolf ghost. Thoros and Lemon Beric sit at the fire, and she sits down uninvited with them she calls them the ember the lemon and his grace the lord of corpses barrack really doesn't like that one and she asks them to give her wine or she will leave so real so real wine or i'll leave yeah i i also like that she gave them all little uh screen names little handles the lemon i love the lemon his grace the lord of corpses I also like that she gave them all little screen names, little handles. The Lemon.

I love The Lemon. His grace, the lord of corpses. Beric offers her a silver stag for her dreams, still more than he gave Sandor, and she says she can't ride nor eat a silver stag. Give her a skin of wine and a sloppy kiss from the oaf in the yellow cloak. File an HR complaint against the ghost of High Heart. I bet she's a good kisser. Probably. She's got a lot of years of experience.

Lem refuses, so she demands instead for payment a song from Tom of Seven Strings. She pounds some wine and starts to give them prophetic musings. This is so mean. This is cute. I'm thinking of you holding court while like drinking your bottle of wine like me at fucking conventions just like yeah yeah at any event

i found a picture the other day where it's like me in the corner of the picture not even in focus it's focused on other people but you just see me and my head is completely back and there's a bottle of wine protruding from my head straight from my mouth and i'm like that's so real yeah it's so me so the king is dead and they're like wait which one and they're like she's like the wet one the kraken which one the wet ones the the wipes um the wet one the The Kraken King. Dead. And he died. And the iron squids now turn on one another. Calamari. Hoster Tully's died too. And goes in the Hall of Kings.

The goat sits alone and fevered as the great dog descends on him. And Arya is on stage and she's like, does that mean Sandor or Gregor? I think we know though, right? Like all of us have knowledge she doesn't know. It's Gregor, it's Vargo, the goat, and of course we know the squid's fighting, what's going on there. Kraken King, dead,

thanks to his brother. Yeah. I don't know if we, like, knew it yet, like, first read-through this time of the book, so that's... No, but right now we know. Yeah, we know, because this is a reread. If you're not reread if you're not rereading and you're here you're so brave brave so brave i thought it was interesting that they called heron hall though the hall of kings high in the hall yeah the kings who are gone so

i don't know it's just interesting that it's Heron Hall is called that still. Right. Especially after Egan, you know, gave it the old one-two. Yeah. I don't know everything about it. It's like, you know, you think about like the Great Council, but also the tourney and like what's going to happen. Anyways, that's all. Then we have, of course, the prophecy that, I mean, this this is famous you all know this song i made chloe do this she's just better at it i dreamt a wolf howling in the rain but no one heard its grief i dreamt such a clangor that i thought my head might burst drums and horns and pipes and screams, but the saddest sound was the little bells.

I dreamt of a maid at a feast with purple serpents in her hair, venom dripping from their fangs. And later, I dreamt that maid again, slaying a savage giant In a castle built of snow Snow, Ned, snow Ooh, interesting Obviously Grey Wind howling in the rain Shit sucks, no one hears his grief

That motherfucker unfortunately is like the saddest death in the whole series That shit gets me sad when Grey Wind dies That's like Yeah Yeah, it actually is Well, you mean when rob dies a second time yep yep thanks for talking about it now um clanger headburst drums pipes the sound of the drumming the red wedding yeah and of course listen if you don't think that the last part represents sansa you've just got to turn off the podcast and walk away i just don't think there's a way we can all be friends um i'm open to many diverse ideas and opinions from many people

but not this one this is sansa you know slaying littlefinger now the only thing that i used to think was interesting was that was that of course it's a castle built of snow so it's winterfall i mean there's no her rebuilding winterfell confirms this theory that she will take down littlefinger later but then they named that fucking waypoint castle in the eerie snow and it brought all these like what if it was that castle and she held the trial there and murdered his ass but no i doubt it i mean i guess yeah i guess it could be it's probably winterfell but regardless it's about sansa defeating little yeah that's the most important like don't yeah yeah don't argue semantics with me right like the again as we said earlier later on the part with like sweet robin's thing that is more foreshadowing for that

god that is not the fulfillment that is not the fulfillment that's all so uh the ghost of high heart beckons aria closer now through the gloom and tells her she cannot hide from her and uh fear cuts deeper than swords aria reminds herself as she draws closer and then she goes chloe please And fear cuts deeper than swords. Arya reminds herself as she draws closer. And then she goes, Chloe, please. I see you, wolf child. Blood child. I thought it was the Lord who smelled of death.

She began to sob, her little body shaking. You are cruel to come to my hill. Cruel. I gorged on grief at Summer Hall. I need none of yours. Be gone from here, dark heart. Be gone. I imagine now you greeting me if I visit

you with, you are cruel to come to my hill. Be gone. So awkward, though. Like like it's so awkward this moment for aria i feel i mean i know she's afraid i i forgot to tell everyone i followed up on girls rock anthems we can go over them at the end of this episode or at the end of the chapter i uh i did the task and also here i guess when she's like saying you know about the grief and not needing any of aria's i guess it's both aria's grief because you know a lot of people have died in her life as well as the grief she's gonna cause because she's all like i'm eight and i've killed people yeah it's an interesting

warning we really don't know like what it means i'd be interested to see what it actually is gonna bring it's a better warning than blue eyes brown eyes i feel shot forever. Yeah, whatever it is. And then them being, like, retroactively. I mean, George also retroactively changes things, too, to be fair. Yeah, it was okay. I didn't really care. I actually kind of like her stabbing Night King. Yeah, I don't mind it. I don't mind it.

I don't know. No, I mean, the actual setup is. But I mean, like, I don't mind it being her had they done it better but I don't I feel that way about a lot of stuff to be fair but I just think like her conquering death is a great idea and then it really ropes in great to her later plot why are we talking about this um anyways I like her later plot too in King's Landing I like Arya's plot Arya's plot in season eight is actually probably one of the top things about season 8. But it gets ignored. Because the whole show is stupid. It was going

downhill earlier. Season 2. All the cracks in season 2. Season 1! You're right. It's probably also season 1. But season 1's at least like... Anyways, so back to this book. Book 3. Arya steps backwards and Thoros is like, whoa, don't scare the little kid, ghost of Highheart.

She's right. And Beric is like, we're taking her to her mommy at Riverrun. But the ghost of Highheart is like, the hell you are. The blackfish holds those rivers. The mother is at a wedding at the twins. The ghost of Highheart tells Thoros to look to his fires and he will see, but not here, not now, as this place still belongs to the old gods. They linger here, as I do, shrunken and feeble, but not yet dead, nor do they love the flames for the oak recalls the acorn the acorn dreams the oak

the stump lives within them both and they remember when the first men came with fire in their fists oh i love that line this This is a From Software intro. You know, there's something interesting about this line. It is not new language to us, right? If you go back to Bran IV, The Clash of Kings, you have the line from Jojen where he says, With two eyes you can see my face, with three you can see my heart, with two you can see that oak tree there,

with three you can see the acorn the oak grew from and the stump that it will one day become with two you see no farther than your walls with three you would gaze south to the summer sea and north beyond the wall um so three eyes we're talking about having your eyes open here and the ghost of high heart has said that too and then later when we're in a daura a dance with dragons brand three we hear from blood raven we are trapped in its flow hurtling from past to present always in the same direction the lives of trees are different they root and grow and die in one place and that river does not move them the oak is the acorn the acorn is the oak and the weirwood a thousand human years are a moment to a weirwood and through such gates you and i may gaze into the past so the ghost of high heart is setting us up here telling us that here their fire gods

have no dominion this is a place of the old gods old blood old sacrifice and old trees that have lived here forever and even remember when the first sacrifice, and old trees that have lived here forever and even remember when the first men came. And I found that language really striking too, right? That the trees remember. It makes me think of like House Royce with their words, we remember. And their runes, their ancient first men runes.

And also kind of makes me think of how Stark's words are a warning, right? Winter is coming, a reminder. So something about it, very rich in spirit happening here. Well, that's a very ice preserves as well. You know, like the, we remember, we preserve this memory and that can be a good thing, but it can be a bad thing when you let it like rule your life again,

like in terms of vengeance or whatever. But it can be a good thing as well. So that's cool. That's cool that the trees are about that. And as you said, the remembering of the fire, I'm like, intense. But I actually had like another thought of like this idea of them saying, you know, intense but i actually had like another thought of like this idea of them saying you know all of these things are one the past the present and the future like who you are who you who you'll become but the moments that make you who you are being part of you and i'm gonna tie it to sandor um it makes me think of like how in that moment after he was burned right he's not just like this scary man he was also still that little boy still that scared little boy and also at the same time he dreams the person he'll become a not broken man the capacity to heal so that's it yeah that's great and like the not even that but also

like the propensity of what it can become and what a person can become and what a tree can become over its life. Yeah. We're all the things that make us up and, in a way, all the things that we'll become. The ghost of High Heart finishes her wine and demands her payment. Damn, she's out of here.

She's like, I'm going to drink and run. Mood. I love that for her. Tom sings and the ghost of High Heart rocks back and forth, crying, murmuring the words. This is so like me at the Mitski concert I'm going to. Oh my god. I'm excited for you. Thank you.

I'm really excited. I didn't want to name drop my friend Mitski, but yeah, I'm going to see her. My friend Mitski. We're rewatching The Good Place, so i'm very tahani right now okay just name dropping my good friend mitski yes tom is going off on jenny's song you know tom florence did a great job so i'm gonna just let you take a break and let florence and the machine the machine's there too yes the machine yeah yeah the that song bangs one of the also the other good things that came out of that season yeah it's really fucking good as you kind of inferred at the front of the chapter this chapter is about the history right history and

the past and we're wrapping it back up with that quote we just came from with the acorn and the tree and the oak all being one and this chapter is about history in the past and all becoming one right if we go back in history we have jenny of old stones and her prince of dragonflies who was not supposed to fucking marry her whatsoever and he set aside his duty to the crown and chose to be with this low-born girl jenny of old stones and of course jenny and her prince perish right at summer hall uh a very mysterious event steeped in so much who knows what happened i do they were trying to bring back dragons motherfuckers i mean i feel like it's almost canon at this point yeah it used to be some mystery but i'm like yeah they left their woods witch behind right when they left this world at summer hall now we have the ghost of high heart a shadow and echo of jenny's Duncan the Prince of Dragonflies. And of course, we're about

to get to the next historic event, right? Ashara Dayne jumping off a tower for love, some say, or maybe something else. And then we're of course reminded of Lyanna in the Riverlands, probably with Rhaegar riding horseback with him on the run. And it's all punctuated by aria being kidnapped herself in the riverlands by a ruined exiled kengsguard swordsman not a knight uh it's perfectly just all folded together we've got a dane we've got a stark we've got a baratheon we've got the riverlands we've got all sorts of stuff going on here you really do and i'm realizing now the ghost of high heart probably hates fire as well, because I mean, that took her Jenny. That's great to wrap that up with all of the wildfire being

mentioned from the pyromancers with Ares this chapter too. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's a good little hint. I didn't think about that. But that is a hint at what happened at Summerhall. Yeah, don't play with fire especially not wildfire because you will get burnt and you will die yeah actually i think probably that's what it sounds like or don't have sex with the targaryen prince because you will get pregnant and die also true probably these could be all true things so aria asked soros what she meant about her mother, and he is introspective, saying,

wherever she is, Lord Beric will find her. Well. Well. Well. Well. Well. The sky opens up, and a storm erupts. The ghost of Highheart disappears.

It rains all night, and Ned, Lem, and Wadi the Miller awaken with chills. They're sick. They're feverish. They set out to find an abandoned village, half a day's ride to the north, where they can shelter from the worst of the rain. Guys, you get it. It's raining a lot. Serene's a castamere, and it's a storm of swords.

Wow. Who are you? Wow. Who are you? who are you luminary that dane complains about the rain hitting his helm and giving him headaches but it's like but if i take my helm off then my hair gets all wet life's hard dude gentry doesn't give a shit about the rain or ned's headaches and frankly finds this 12 year old highborn kid a nuisance maria likes him enough though and thinks i don't know he's good natured

she's also surprised that ned has blonde hair and blue eyes considering what she thinks she knows about dornishmen she's like uh i thought that they were all small swarthy and black haired and black eyed she even says that his eyes are so dark they're almost purple ned tells her though his history when aleria and barrick got engaged and ned was given as a page and then he was raised to become a squire at age 10 and aria's like oh so have you killed someone which is you know she's like this is a normal question to open up with. And Ned, though, is pretty startled. He's like, I'm 12. Arya, in her head, goes, okay, but I'm eight. She doesn't say this, though.

And I think Arya suddenly realizing internally, she's like, wait, is that not a flex to have killed someone at a young age? These Westerosi girls having to grow up real fast, real young. Yeah. teenage these westerosi girls having to grow up real fast real young yeah i love that line about how his eyes were so dark they're almost purple in this light because they are and i actually really love that we get a little dornish expansion here and just a little world building that like oh dorn is actually like a pretty diverse place there's a lot going on down there that aria has no clue about because she was raised and shot within the walls of Winterfell. Yeah. I mean, it's like the completely opposite side of a huge country, I guess.

Yeah. Well, and now she's going to go somewhere else very interesting and diverse. I mean, she's going to go to Braavos and learn tons. I think that's a big point of her becoming a little less sheltered. It's super diverse there, too. There's so many different people trading so many different people to meet and learn secrets about oh true true true well ned has been in battles though he's not proud of that like the mummers ford where he dragged

barracks broken body into the bank and guarded that body until the battle was over what a good boy very podrick pink you know he and podrick are in the good boy club good job guys i mean gedry is too he's just moody right now yeah he's a good man he's old now you know he's graduated aria feels a little lost thinking about the men she's killed and she realizes the connection between ned dane's name and her own father's name and she's like oh like my dad ned and ned says yeah i saw him at the hands tourney and thought about saying hi to lord eddard but didn't know how i was named for him then he starts talking about sansa being at the tourney and getting a rose from Loras and Arya's like yeah Sansa's BFF was in love with Beric now obviously not Ned looks a little uncomfortable about this and he was like oh it was before before you know and then he's like don't you have that bastard brother Jon Snow he

was my milk brother Wyla the wet nurse in Star, nursed him and also Jon Snow once when he was very young because she's Jon Snow's mother, Ned says. A new twist. What? Her? Her? Her? Ned was really out here gambling in terms

of Jon's looks. He's like, hopefully he looks like one of these girls that there's a rumor about, you know? Yeah. Wyla, Azshara, someone. Holy shit. Ned was out here pulling, like, Tyrion Lannister levels of, like, I will spread misinformation. He's like, intrigue, intrigue, intrigue. He's like us, for real.

Misinformation. Kind of a dead, literally, giveaway here, right? Edric's mom didn't have milk so wyla was his wet nurse liana was dead and couldn't fucking nurse john ned and howland didn't know what the fuck to do with this baby and they had to go to fucking starfall anyways to return the sword of the dead fucking night that they you know murdered and then wyla or someone would have had to travel north with them because ned and howland cannot take care of a baby on their own how are those two i want to see a movie of this bullshit of them on the road with a baby on the way back to the north like just road tripping it with the baby wyla or someone had to have gone north with them i think

of this like all the time this passage gives so much of it away that something's weird there how did john spend enough time with the wet nurse from starfall it is it's just weird because also but dang that's kind of funny you know as you said the movie like i mean they just literally cannot take care of the baby on their own no they don't have they're not set up with supplies to do so they don't like even i mean like look they had ned had siblings but like they don't have the stuff to take care of babies the wherewithal also they're traumatized they are traumatized from war and his sister dying oh yeah that too see oh and his dad and his brother died too i forgot though yeah that too that was bad too yeah and he just got into a fight with his other best friend things are bad for ned right now yeah

things are bad for ned howland's got and does this let up yeah right actually howland's bringing his new wife home like different it's different he's like i don't know her yeah i mean i'm just saying quite obviously there were probably four people that went back just saying yeah so but and like how did they dig all those cairns i just am like grief grief can really feel some strength for things like that i guess i don't know yeah i need adderall for that or maybe the land's like not very I don't know. Yeah. I need Adderall for that. Or maybe the land's like not very, I don't know. I've tried to dig a grave for a Chihuahua and let me tell you, it was hard. I'm like in the sand. Oh yeah. Fuck. In the sand at like Prince's Pass. Maybe it's easier in the sand actually than like the hard like dirt ground. I don't know. Do you think they buried them and

then like literally they left and like the wind blew and just like, there they are. Hopefully not. I mean, you got to dig deep enough so that I mean, I'm sure that they actually know that I think about it. By this point in the war, they're probably very used to digging many graves. Shit. So big sad. Arya makes Ned Dane promise that he's telling her the truth or or she'll punch him in the face, and he swears it on the honor of his house. Because, drumroll, he reveals he's Edric Dayne, the boy lord of Starfall. Gendry, of course, is in the background rolling his eyes.

He's like, fucking lords and ladies. And Arya turns and throws a crab apple at him, good for her, which he remarks, that's not very ladylike. It's not. I like that Ned's, he's kind of bashful about it. He's like he remarks, that's not very ladylike. It's not. I like that Neds, he's kind of bashful about it. He's like, oh my God, so embarrassing.

Anyone can throw an apple. I don't know. I'm the lord of Starfall. He's very sheepish. He's very sweet. He's very embarrassed about a lot of things. Yeah, he is.

He is very sweet. And Gendry's just going to be so disappointed when he finds out he's not just a lord, but he's like a prince. That's embarrassing too, dude. You and John can mope about it i know right aria apologizes to ned for being rude calling him oh sorry my lord my bad and he calls her it's okay my lady and meanwhile aria thinks about how she'll have to tell john eventually about his mother and she learned about her from ned wyla and thinks about oh should i like send him a letter and i don't know yeah ned seems like a nice humble kid you've been talking about like throughout these past few chapters with aria how liana might have felt in the riverlands

and i'm kind of thinking about like the thoughts aria has here she's like wondering will john still call me little sister i'm not so little anymore and the things that she'd say next time she saw her family and like all these might have been things that liana would have thought chloe's like why is eliana attacking me emotionally throughout this whole episode it's bullshit dude it is i think about it all the time too i think about this like all the time eliana do i think about it yeah i think about it every day of my life like when her big brother showed up and how she probably knew she could die now that he was here and he'd take care of her and her baby just like he always took care of her as a brother and like that he'd protect her and yeah i think about it every

fucking day of my life eliana thanks thanks welcome you. I fucking swear to God. So, Arya suddenly remembers that, oh, Dane, wait, there was an Arthur Dane, right? The Sword of the Mourning, and Ned... Have you heard of that guy? Do you know him? Do you know him? And Ned's like, yeah, he was my uncle,

and Azshara was my aunt. His father had been their eldest brother. Yeah, we have a back and forth passage between Ned and Arya. I never knew her, though. She threw herself into the sea from atop the palestone sword before I was born. Why would she do that? Said Arya, startled. Ned looked wary.

Maybe he was afraid that she was going to throw something at him. Your lord father never spoke of her. The Lady of Shara Dane of Starfall. No, did he know her? Before Robert was king, she met your father and his brothers at Harrenhal during the year of the false spring. Oh.

Arya did not know what else to say. Why did she jump in the sea, though? Her heart was broken. Sansa would have sighed and shed a tear for true love, but Arya just thought it was stupid. She couldn't say that to Ned, though. Not about his own aunt. Right, that is kind of...

Man, I feel that about Arya. I'm always saying insensitive shit, man, so I get it, Arya. I finally learned in my old age. It only took me 33 years to learn. Like, oh, that would be like a rude thing to say, wouldn't it? Just a little uncouth, I guess, socially. Yeah, there's also this song. I can't remember which chapter it's in. But Arya hears one of those like songs. It might even be in class. She hears a song about a lady throwing herself out of a tower. And I like oh but it's about shara i am kind of thinking though like is this gonna be inspo for aria later on i know you have like thoughts but like will that be inspo for her of like oh

so that's how you do it disappearing oh disappearing yeah absolutely aria was never heard from again but then she goes on to have whatever happy life she wants yeah exactly yeah writing her own story yes which i think will be a big theme for the end of the story of people writing their own tales they become the legends oh just like the end of this book where jamie's like whatever he wrote or whatever he whatever he wanted yep yeah shut up i don't know what you're talking about i've never read that chapter so aria asks if someone broke ashara's heart and ned hesitates before telling her his aunt aleria said ashara and ned were in love at farron Hall, Arya argues that, well, Ned's wrong. Her mother was the only woman Ned ever loved.

Gendry comments, oh, he must have found that bastard under a cabbage leaf then, and Arya wants to throw another apple. Yeah, right. I'm like, don't fuck with her right now, Gendry. If the cabbage leaf was named Lyanna, yes. Arya wants to throw another apple at his big, dumb aria defends her father's honor

and tells gendry to go back to stony sept and ring that girl's stupid bells he ignores this and he's like at least ned raised his bastard i don't even know my dad who was probably some smelly drunk oh i mean it's kind of sad because like, yeah, that's kind of true. And also Robert did beat his kids. And his wife. And he was probably a smelly drunk most days.

Isn't it wild to think that Gendry actually had a better life? I think we've talked about this before. He literally had a better life because he was not Prince whatever. Yeah, absolutely. He lived a far better life doing like other work, normal, like just learning a trade. Yeah, it's a bummer.

Anyway, so Gendry goes, but he's dead, I figure. Your father's dead too. So what does it matter who he lay with it mattered to aria though she could not have said why oh yeah we're gonna come back to that aleria dane though i'd like to talk about aleria dane not to be confused with aleria mo patis no less patis more dane i'm excited to get more. You know, there's a big timeline that I made a very long time ago about the Danes trying to place their births and deaths and etc. and different things just to understand their family a little more on an intrinsic level.

You know, on a poster board with markers. But that said, I played around with Illyria and I thought it was interesting that like when it would have happened, probably the betrothal probably would have happened like 294 ish somewhere in that range of time. Illyria would have been betrothed to Beric. She would have been at least 12 to 15 years old at the time. You know, it's a betrothal. It's a promise. It's not like a. Yeah.

Placing her there. I'm interested if we're gonna get more aleria and see her i'm guessing we'll meet her in starfall through maybe erio hota's eyes and interesting yeah i'm guessing we have to see her uh maybe edric dane again when we go that way to starfall and i'm also wondering like we'll probably get more Ashara Dane little blips when we go to Starfall I'd imagine or little like hints but something interesting is I feel like it's not like one-to-one with numbers but you know George likes to do the two truths and a lie or like two lies and a truth with her where he puts a story out that has a little bit of an edge

of maybe a truth somewhere in it in you know any of her 11 by name mentions in the story, everything is always like false about her, right? Like Cersei, was it for the brother you slew or the child you stole from her? Like everything is like, oh, you're so close to the truth, but you're not quite there. So I imagine in Tiwau, we'll get further misdirection when we go to starfall yeah but maybe closer to the truth but further misdirection stuff about ned visiting ashara and ned i don't know i don't know i'm interested in that yeah i do yeah yeah i do think that aleria and barrack's marriage is really interesting because Beric is a Marcher Lord, right? And the Marcher Lords are often at odds with Dorne, especially the stony Dornish there on that western part of Dorne.

Always causing trouble, coming down. You think of the Vulture King, right? And all the stuff that went on around there and just different wars happening in Dorne. So politically, it actually makes a lot of sense to tie together the Stormland Marcher Lords with Illyria, with the Danes who kind of, you know, they're second or third managers of Dorne. You know, they support the crown in Dorne and they do what they can. But it makes me like kind of think about that, like, oh, okay, politically, that's great. That keeps, you know, war from happening, little scuffles from happening, territory problems from occurring. You have some leaders from those areas that all band together.

And then it really makes me wonder even more about the eldest Dane brother because he doesn't have a name. And we just know he's the eldest brother. Like, this passage was so important because it did that. Mr. Everdeen. Yeah. Yeah, Mr. Everdeen. Yeah. Yeah, Mr. Everdeen here. And it also makes me wonder if there was a very focused attempt.

Because Edric has fairer features where Ashara Dayne has dark hair, right? We're told that she has long, dark hair around her shoulders. And Edric has these fairer features i wonder if the eldest dane brother married like a fowler or maybe even someone in the stormlands with fairer features to help tie together that marcher lord and dornish contract geographically but this match i would say had to have been done by the eldest dane brother because edrick was obviously too young and not head of house at the time and by the time the rebellion's pretty much over it seems that like lord dane at the time i think he ends up you know dying either after the war around that so

it seems like the eldest dane is the boss at this time yeah and i wonder if it's something like even that he did in conjunction with like doran right because obviously doran has been making some political plays as well so like that between the two regions kind of thing is very interesting yeah do you think that like now aleria is betrothed to lady stoneheart so sexy i think that's how it works so huh because of ned and brandon is that why you're saying this that there's always got to be a second well because lady stoneheart now has barrack's life force so they are betrothed now it's interesting how barrack does speak of it like oh yeah we're not really betrothed technically

anymore and i'm on just like the zombie mission and i have the lord of house dane with me yeah well that's true he's like i'm just dragging this kid around on all these missions i think like ned believes in the cause right but also i think barrack's like all that's done for me i'm there's no way he's like i can't live a whole like life being undead yeah how do you go back to that i mean it's something to think about for john eventually right if he comes back how do you go back to life life isn't normal when you come back dead we see it with stoneheart we see it with barrack and there's even something in the way edrick was like hesitant slash afraid talking about barrack and how jane pool had a crush on him like he was like before that was before before and he trails off and he can't even speak about it because he's 12

and like i know we like talk about aria who's eight here but like net is 12 and that's not that much older than eight when you think about it and like i haven't seen someone come back to life and i'm old that's true i mean and it would fuck me up it's technically possible but it and like i haven't seen someone come back to life and i'm old that's true i mean and it would fuck me up it's technically possible but it does like really fuck you up resuscitation yeah i mean that's pretty traumatic for dead you know and he had to like defend that body so that what they could fucking bring it back to life again it makes sense why he's like when we come back to it later and the schism that tears through them that he's on the other side of the schism he was like i'm done with that shit i'm just a 13 year

old boy he's like i have a job he he does have a job he does have a job yeah and also like his teacher you know because essentially when you're if he's a squire right barracks like his mentor and his mentor's just saying like all this weird sad shit at him all the time probably like fire consumes ned fire consumes he's like and he probably tells ned shit like you know i don't even remember your aunt anymore what does she look i mean he literally said it in the last chapter and i was like bro he's right there that's probably like that's so awkward i just feel like he might even be afraid like poor baby boy yeah understandably i mean also barrett kind of looks scary yeah it's only aria who doesn't like think he looks as scary because she's like i'm gonna eat the worm i was just gonna say she's ready to go lick

his eyeball she's like i'm down she's like whatever weird kid Fucking weird kid. I'm not afraid. I love this kid. Well, Ned's just a soft boy who tries to apologize for upsetting Arya with all his gossip from like 20 years ago. But she rides ahead and asks Aangai. She's like, so Dornish men are liars, right? And he grins and he says they're famous for it. But he's like, well, then again, so do marchers. So who eveners so who even knows and he says ned dane he's a good kid though and aria's like no he's a fucking liar splashes away trying to get away from all of them and harbin rides up and intercepts her he's like whoa no more running away and i think you know speaking of people's ages it really does show

aria's age here though like yeah she's eight she's not at the like level of mental development yet or like childhood development where you get to understand like oh my parents are fallible and human they have like whole lives that they've had that's like a whole thing that's like a whole part of development i have to say i really love that we get a little shade on the marcher lord versus the dornish thing right there too right that on guys like yeah of course dornish men are always lying but you know us marcher lords lie a lot too you know that was kind of funny now that i think about it i'm like oh ha ha ha we can be happy good about it but it also shows like how far we have to fucking come in westeros on this prejudice dude like aria knows nothing about dorn nothing about them and obviously

i mean obviously ned was like i'm not gonna say a single thing about dorn because i a don't want to bring all the trauma and talk about the babies and talk about liana and talk about john and also like don't want to bring up a shara dane and piss my wife off that's also true but also now that i think about it that's kind of fucked up aria you're a big ass liar too yeah dorn dornish people lie marcher lords lie northerners lie it's hard to think maybe everyone lies dude is what every single one here they're all liars here they're all better than better than you that's not the like that's not the line but it's close enough i'm i'm with you i'm absolutely with you thank you so aria starts to tell harwin what ned said but ned already told him he had talked about ashara dane and harwin says ah i knew of that tale when i was no older than you myself. I doubt it's true, but even if it was,

Catelyn was engaged to Ned's brother. And we have a bit of a passage. Ahem. Ahem. Oh yes, your Harven voice. There's not like a tourney to make the blood run hot. So maybe some words were whispered in a tent of a night. Who can say?

Words or kisses, maybe more. But where's the harm in that? Spring had come, or so they thought, and neither one of them was pledged. She killed herself, though. Ned says she jumped from a tower into the sea. So she did. But that was for grief, I'd wager. She lost a brother, the sword of the morn.

He shook his head. Let it lie, my lady. They're dead. All of them. Are they? Let it lie. And please, when we come to Riverrun, say naught of this to your mother. Are they dead? Are they dead, though?

Are they dead? I mean, are they dead? But also, Lamel, please don't tell your mom. Please, my god, don't bring this up again. Please never bring up Azshara in front of your mother, and please, please do not tell her that you found this out from fucking Ned Dane. There's just no reason to bring this bad blood to the surface right now, especially when it's already going to be awk.

Oh man. Yeah. Like the entire village is begging you not to bring it up. Harbin's right though. Like no kids disclaimer. I don't have any, but if I had kids, if we had kids,

they'd be real disappointed in me. They'd be like, mom, you gave it up all over town. Oh my God. Like smooched a lot of homies of all genders is all i'm saying uh aria would be really disappointed with me if she was my daughter she'd be like my mom my mom she fucked how much uh but neither of them were promised

right like in a meta sense it's interesting for all the different theories around ned ashara tower of joy because like i think in universe and in a meta sense like ned and ashara being a flirtation never happening again is fine like that's a thing when you're a teenager like not everybody ends up kissing someone as a teenager they're gonna marry and be with forever in fact it's not often the kids these ages get to live in westeros they don't get to live their lives usually so like you know i don't know little romantic moment with someone where it was like a special time i think that's fine it can be that yeah i agree like i don't know it's it's a little fling at a fucking party at Coachella. Oh my God.

Yes. But also it's, I guess it is kind of awkward now that I think about it. Cause she's like, dang, I just found out about this one woman. I mean, I don't know if Ari knows how babies are made, but,

uh, I just found out about the one woman my dad banged and made a bastard with, allegedly. And then I found out that he broke this other woman's heart, maybe? Like, I guess that is a lie. How could he? That is a lie. Yeah. Now that I think about it.

So, I can understand her being a little upset now that I think about it. I haven't really considered it. But as you said, I don't know,'t know like as harbin said this was even before they were betrothed but it'd be it'd be weird for a child and it's hard for her to like understand those concepts i think on a whole too on like the duty that when you're betrothed to marry someone for the good of your house versus like love which which I mean, those are great themes in this book that are important to think about too, is like duty versus actual authentic, raw love and nature versus nurture and all those fun things.

But also like here, she's like, but she killed herself though. And it's like, suicide is also, and death is like different for children to grasp, especially Aria, who has a very different concept i

would say of death than most children but that's true yeah also the like the idea that her dad could have like instilled that kind of pain like that is kind of i don't know that'd be kind of jarring yeah and also as as you were saying something about like or maybe you didn't say it say it, but it inspired the thought of, like, I mean, she thinks that her parents had this, like, great romance. Which, in a way, they did. Right? But, like, to find out, like, that maybe they weren't married for love initially. Like, because they see their parents as very loving to one another. So, that's kind of all lies

forever yeah and i think aria like hasn't really grasped that like you know to an extent that's what it would mean to be a lady she'd have to marry for duty and obviously she doesn't want that whereas you have sansa coming to the realization as you said but it's all lies like pretty soon after this of like oh no one's ever gonna fucking marry me for love. There was never even an option for that, unfortunately. So. Well, they find the village, as promised, and shelter in a stable.

Arya asks if the Lannisters killed the people here, but Aangai tells her, uh, no, it was put to the torch long before. You can tell by that tree growing out there. It's like, by your grandpapa. Ah, so dramatic. By your grandpapa. Ah, so dramatic. Buy your grandpapa. Papa. This had been Lord Goodbrook's village, and Goodbrook stayed loyal to King Ares.

After the trident, his son ends up making peace with Robert and team, but it doesn't bring their dead back to life. And then Gendry gives Arya a very odd look. This is a great bit of conflict it's a reminder that yes even the familial good guys right the tollies the good guys they do bad things right good people can do bad things and sure it's not like hoster is out here drowning an entire house in their castle where they live but it's almost kind of worse that he destroyed a huge village of this land that was like a large part of their wealth and they'll never have that again he cut them right off at the stem like that's affecting them true

as much as their small folk and the people that live there and it's all framed really well against the idea of ned having a bastard right something that Arya's mind simply can't compute. Ned being dishonorable and having a bastard and her grandfather being dishonorable and burning down part of his own kingdom to maintain control. It's too much for her to try to kind of, you know, work with next to one another. Everything's a lie. My entire childhood, everything my foundation of belief was, it's a lie lie this is a big part of what's stemming her to run away at the end of the chapter i mean like to be fair her brain literally has not developed to the point to be able to hold that kind of complexity mine barely has yeah so i don't

know big sad but as you said right like and she hasn't even met this grandfather she's like what what do you mean the grandfather i've never never met that I thought fucking rocked, who's now dead, did this? Yeah. He sure did, buddy. I do wonder, is the look that Gendry is giving her, is it like a, how is she going to react to this? Because she is so young and obviously fucking struggling right now

with all these news. Or is it a, dang, your family family's scary maybe a little bit of both right you're not just a little aria that we know this is a reminder of what lords do yeah absolutely the rain is coming down outside and thoros cheerily dec, we need a fire for the Lord of Light. It grows warm and Arya watches him closely, noticing him mouthing, Riverrun, Riverrun, Riverrun. Tom of Seven, meanwhile, whines about going back to Riverrun. He's never had good luck there and he tells a story about Lysa, even once sending him up the high road when he first lost his gold and horse

and clothes to the Men of the Moon. Walking up to the Bloody gate naked with his harp the guards made him sing the name the name day boy and the king without courage before giving him entry we have this back and forth with him and thoros uh but first he goes i haven't been back to the eerie sense and i won't sing the king without courage either not for all the gold and casterly lannisters thoros said roaring red and gold he lurched to his feet and went to lord barrack i just know george was having fun there having a little cut off line you know how he is he likes to have fun george the others join, and Tom keeps glancing at Arya. Beric gestures her closer, and finally Beric tells her what Thoros saw.

Riverrun, ringed with a sea of fire, leaping lions with crimson claws. A sea of Lannisters attacking Riverrun. Arya cries out, no! But Thoros says the flames don't lie. Sometimes he can't read them, but they aren't wrong. Rob will beat them. Arya got a stubborn look. He'll beat them, like he did before. Your brother may be gone. Your mother as well. I did not see them in the flames. This wedding, the old one spoke of. A wedding on the twins. she has her own way of knowing things that one

the weirwoods whisper in her ear when she sleeps if she says your mother is gone to the twins interesting that thoros like understands these little metaphors from the fire and visions he's getting a little more than what we see with melisandre right or differently he sees roaring red and gold engulfing everything yeah I think it's kind of he just like doesn't make other leaps in logic too he's like well this is what I saw this is what this means at its basis level he just doesn't like say it probably means that like it must mean x other thing and decides like the gray girl on the horse is aria who else could it be right he just says what he's seeing and also much different yeah and there's also taking into account the other information

of like well i mean the ghost of high heart she's got good intel you know he's putting together the info he does have so yeah i uh it's interesting to see somebody else read the flames you know i kind of forgot that we get that. Actually, now that I think about it, that's part of it too, right? He is using intel from other areas. Melisandre usually only relies on one source to an extent, it seems. He's a better researcher, is what we're learning. Whoa.

Whoa. Thoros, come on the podcast. Thoros, our next guest. So I'm sorry, I know we said Lost Woofling was coming on, but our next guest will be Thoros. Thoros of Myr. Arya is upset. She says if they hadn't caught her, she would have made it to Riverrun in time.

Beric ignores this and he's like, would the Blackfish recognize and ransom you? She says she doesn't know what he looks like, and Tom's like, of course not. Of course not. The Tullys wouldn't ransom her from us. They'll be too suspicious of us. Too suspicious.

Because he's such a little bitch. He's like, I don't want to go to Riverrun. They were mean to me once. Okay, that was his own fault. Yeah, this is always his fault. It's like a really funny backstory there. Lem Lemoncloak is like, oh, we'll convince them, or Harwin will. And they're like, we should get the gold and get out.

Tom mentions it would be dangerous for Beric, but Beric says he doesn't mean to be taken. There's this great line. A final word hung unspoken in the air. Alive. They all heard it, even Arya, though it never passed his lips. He's not going to be taken alive. Well, well, well. Never is, it turns out.

Well, well, well. There's a great bit here of the fake Arya plot being laid, right? What do you know what you look like, perchance? It turns out a lot of people don't know what Arya looks like, whether that's because Ned doesn't take his children out of Winterfell ever or she hasn't gone many places slash met many people or that she'd like to play in the mud instead of go meet people at political events I don't know but yeah it turns out it's really easy to fake an Arya that's a good point that she wasn't attending the political events and that's part of why she's so obscure.

She's very underground, underfoot. Also, I guess they just don't fucking care. They're like, whatever. That's Arya now. This is great foreshadowing for the two. There's a lot of foreshadowing in this chapter, dude. A lot of foreshadowing in this chapter dude a lot like this one is

it's heavy yeah and post shadowing question mark question mark question mark also notable like they're in war and so their first responses aren't the same as hers right so they and she's like oh my god no my family, my family! And they're like, all right, who's the next person who might pay for you? Because that's, like, what children are in Westeros during war. They're either nothing, dead, or worth money. Yeah. In theory, Arya is worth a lot of money. At the very least, at the very least, they're never like, let's sell her to the Lannisters. But I also think they won't, they know they won't come out of that alive anyway. banisters. But I also think they know they won't come out of that alive anyway.

Yeah, I think that you're right there. But you never know, maybe the other side of the schism would get desperate enough. That's true. But Harwin wouldn't let them at least. Yeah, absolutely. As long as he can. So they plan to first check with Sharna and Lord Vance's maester, and then shelter with Lady Smallwood first. But it's more than Arya can stand. She wants Riverrun, her mother, Rob. Honestly, I'm going to just read this line because it's heartbreaking.

It's heartbreaking. His words beat at her ears like the pounding of a drum, and suddenly it was more than Arya could stand. She wanted Riverrun, not Acorn Hall. She wanted her mother and her brother, Rob, not Lady Smallwood or some uncle she never knew. Baby girl. Oh, fuck. It's so sad.

It is really sad. She's just a girl. She is just a girl. Just a little girl. Not like us. We're just girls. She's just like me. She's gone canon.

But she is gone in a second. She breaks for the door, spinning away from Arwen, quick as a snake, and keeps running, thinking that all she wanted to do was go to Riverrun. And she thinks she should have just gone alone. Gendry and Hot Pie deterred her, and they were never her pack. If they had been, they wouldn't have left her. As the storm thunders, technically she left. As the storm thunders around her, she hears

someone call for her. But who cares? She's running. She hears a horse whinny as she scurries past. And then she shelters around a tumbledown house. And so we end the chapter. A mailed hand closed hard around her arm. You're hurting me, she said, twisting in his grasp.

Let go! I was going to go back! I... Back? Sandor Clegane's laughter was iron scraping over stone. Bugger that, wolf girl. You're mine. He needed only one hand to yank her off her feet and drag her kicking toward his waiting horse. The cold rain lashed them both and washed away her shouts, and all that Arya could think of was the question he had asked her. Do you know what dogs do to wolves? Dun-dun-dun!

Dun-dun-dun! I'm worried about this Sandor clugging guy uh oh uh oh being weird kidnapping kids kidnapping kids I mean who's amongst us

she is kidnapped who is not kidnapped at least one child in this story in this story I gotta figure that out Who is not kidnapped? At least one child. Me? In this story. I gotta figure that out. I mean, even Arya's kidnapped a child. Weasel. Oh, that's true, she did kidnap a kid.

I mean, the kid had nowhere to go, to be fair. Yeah, yeah. I won't hold that against her. Again, she's eight i guess sanza hasn't technically kidnapped a child but she did kill that kid's mother of all she didn't kill that kid's mother but she was part of the plot a little i mean that and she's poisoning the kid and you could say she's coercing him but you know this is we don't need to be assigning these crimes this is i'm just saying who hasn't kidnapped sam sam kidnapped a kid oh my god everyone's kidnapped a kid john switched the kids which is technically maybe also kidnapping yeah that's kidnapping for sure yeah there's

probably no word for what that is uh maybe the learned hands could chime in is there a word for what john did yeah there's a lot of kidnapping eliana can you close us out by telling us a couple of the songs on your Aria playlist you made for Girls Rock, Rocking Girls? I thought we were supposed to make a playlist. I think I misunderstood the assignment. No, I just happen to have one, unfortunately, is the problem. But Eliana made one. Yeah, it's great. It's more vibes.

It's more of, vibes of like girls rock um because there are other songs that could fit aria's vibe of course but i was told girls rock anthems as opposed to sad hours and so tell us some of the tracks eliana that fit with girls rock so i need the people to hear this one all right So the first song on the playlist is Saoko by Rosalia. Then it's followed by Shinigami Eyes by Grimes, which I thought made a lot of sense here. And then it goes to, so the title of this song, some of you probably heard it, is if God didn't want us to snort worms, he wouldn't have made them cylindrical with an exclamation

point and that is instrumental but that title is literally aria she's trying to she's trying to snort and eat worms let me have all my girls like to fight by hope tallah bog by be your own pet standing in the way of control by gossip because i don't know i just felt like a vibe for it black eye by ali x haunted by laura less and then it ends with immaterial by sophie oh also a good one those last two um are ones that i really like in fact i think i have haunted on mine oh did you i think so it's on my playlist. I'll have to look. It's on one of my playlists. It might be on my Lady Stoneheart playlist. Who knows? It makes sense there, too.

I was like, why can't I see Arya, Girls Rock, killing people, too? Haunted, you know, her riding her bike to Haunted, just like Lexi in Euphoria. Oh, I also forgot, I didn't put this on the playlist, but another good one would be when Arya is doing, like, her, like, practicing, right? Remember she was, like, calming herself down and practicing, like, sword fighting with, like, a stick or something? You could do the New Wave song that happens when Mulan decides she's going to steal the coat steal her dad's like conscription letter i love that new wave jam it's a good one it's a jam so that's some good choices i love them i'm sorry i was late it's better late than never yeah no i think that you did so good

i'm giving you extra credit thank you wow amaze you were done on time and you i mean you were done you first saw it you've prophesied my fires yeah i saw it in the fire in 2017 i knew alex was going to send us an email asking us for our aria stark music choices so here here we are. I don't think, I'm trying to think, I don't have a playlist for our next POV. And that's all I'm going to say. I don't have one. I should get one going, but I don't have it yet.

Oh, interesting. You could make a playlist for that. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Well, thank you for listening to Arya 8 in a storm of swords with us.

We have had a blast talking about all the good stuff like Westerosi history, Jenny of Oldstones, Ashara Dayne, Illyria Dayne. My God, Dayne-stative. Such a blast. Eliana, where can everyone go online to chit chat with us at? So you can find us on twitter.com slash girlsgoncanon. That's C-A-N-O-N. And I guess theoretically, you can find us on twitter.com slash girlsgonecanon that's c-a-n-o-n and I guess theoretically you can find us on blue sky as well

at girlsgonecanon and you can send us an email or tweet of note especially an email at girlsgonecanon at gmail.com we didn't read any aloud this week because we've mixed up our recording schedule a little

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uh alright everyone thanks guys we'll be back goodbye probably hushara's cannon should i have said i was gianna l-e-l-e-g-i-a-n-a oh my god waluigi hats waluigi hats are in this year. I don't know if you saw. They're in.

They're in fashion. No, it's canon for the year. Yo, you should wear it. You should wear it. Yeah, it's from Prada. Oh, we're done recording. We stopped.