Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 217 — ASOS Arya X

Episode Date: February 16, 2024

Arya's made it just in time for her uncle's wedding, and she's brought a dog as a plus one and pickled pig's feet as a gift.  --- 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, episode 217, Aria 10, In a Storm of Swords. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And are you ready to do episode 217, Chloe? There's a really funny thing you might not know, but before this- You definitely don't. I definitely intro'd this as the wrong episode. So that's a peek behind

the emerald curtain at me being awful. No, I am ready to do this. I'm excited. It's gonna be an interesting two chapters, right? These are very brief chapters. The next one even briefer than this one. We are not joining them. We are being stubborn. We are keeping them separate.

I think we're on a separate a swap episode till the end trajectory right now which is like somewhere around 104 episodes left yeah if we look back we are lost chloe we can't go back to two episodes two episodes two chapter episodes like what who are they eliana's been obstinate about it but there are opportunities like i will tell you reading these there's been some opportunities that I'm like wow we could have but we're not gonna we're gonna keep moving and give it

the you know the look it deserves all of it like even if it's short I know that sometimes it might feel like a break for you guys if it's a little briefer so get ready. It's like when you're listening to a musical album right and then like you know sometimes they have the little interlude songs

think of them as fun little musical interludes except these are like depressing musical interludes that are sad and awful I guess the next one does literally have music though I mean a lot of musicals are sad and awful that's true

like Mean Girls the musical i was gonna say that fuck all right well we're gonna jump in but before that little housekeeping uh if you're listening to this you should be listening to bonus episodes too right and how do you get those bonus episodes from girls gone canon patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon in the stranger tier and above. That's a $5 tier and up. Get bonus episodes every month and watch out. We are finishing the novel, The Hunger Games, a reread for both of us. We've taken it all the way back to 2013, 2014. You know, we're really just hitting it, hitting our stride. But no, I'm having a blast. We're rereading The Hunger Games. We are just finishing the first novel, the third act, The Victor, that will be out for all

patrons at the end of this February. And next month, I think we already know what we're gonna do too, because now that we finished The Hunger Games, we need to take a break, you know, fulfill ourselves and not be hungry that was a really stupid joke i'm sorry yeah we're gonna move to i mean this is big we haven't come back to this in a while to this series but i think we're gonna go across the sea to bravos i think we're gonna board that ship because we're about to cover it with miss aria very soon yes we're bringing back the free cities series if you don't know what that is, it's a series that we were also doing on Patreon and you can catch up with

some gems such as mirror mirror on the wall. And it's a me. Dario, the Tyrosh episode. And we did actually split up the lease episodes even because there's just a lot to cover in that one so anyways we're gonna we're gonna go to bravos in march it's spring break and then we're gonna come back to catching fire probably like probably in april but anyways it'll be after the bravos

episodes just because i find it confusing that the hunger Games is the name of the first book and the series, so we are continuing that series, probably. Yeah, we definitely want to continue through that, and for those of you His Dark Materials fans, we are working on coming to the Secret Commonwealth as well, but we feel, I feel like we're waiting for a little more announcement from Mr. Pullman is all. Yeah, which I don't think is far off, but... No, it's soon.

A lot of priorities to juggle is all we're saying. Yeah. And... I just... Malcolm... Alright, anyways. Anyways, anyways. That's a whole other series. We'll talk about that some other time on those podcasts.

Go listen to our HDM is dark materials podcast. But if you are a patron in the Thunder tier and above and you were not hanging out with our Galentine's Day brunch and happy hour this month, we would love to have you next month. Right. You just missed it to 17. I'm guessing it was a blast. We're pre-recording this, but I'm guessing we have a fucking good time because our patrons fucking rock. So join up, become a Thunder to your patron,

get access to Discord where we do a monthly brunch and happy hour where we just fucking bullshit. We hang out, sometimes we play games, sometimes we stream videos that are really dumb. Those were cool videos. The hamster wheel for cats and humans. And sometimes we discuss our personalities, unfortunately, like our Enneagrams, our friend Roland, the bastard of Night Song.

We know him IRL. He is our Enneagram ambassador. He always brings the Enneagram discussion. So that's been constant. And sometimes I'll get drunk and pull out my astrology book. It's fun we're having fun i think you should have fun with us on march 24th from 2 p.m et to 4 p.m et where we hang out for the next brappy hour yes so hope to see you there or be square but maybe you just like are not a person who enjoys i don't know being in video calls you

can send us an email or a tweet of note we have a couple of emails we've been we've been stockpiling them and here's here's a fun one from our friend brandon not that brandon but maybe that brandon could be could be any of them. You're a monster. Brandon said, I really enjoyed your most recent Arya episode. It had many of my favorite things. One, talking about Sansa's chapters being next. Yes, we did talk about how they're next.

Just kidding. This is a great way to ensure we get more Sandor content in the near future. I can't wait. I haven't actually sat down to think about it, but I'm like, there's not a lot of Sandor content in my future, so I need to get it out of my system now. Two, emotional attacks from Eliana. I'm really glad to hear about Greywyn's death and Rob's double death before we even get to the Red Wedding. I look forward to a good cry.

Oh, God. Oh, God. Three. You'll like this episode. I don't even need to explain why a Shara Dane's awesome. I'll just remind everyone her name technically rhymes with Sandor Clegane. Nice. I guess it does.

That can be. Yeah. That's a new poem. That's a new song. We're working on it. Maybe the prequel to the rebellion musical anyways thank you for all your work he says i hope 2024 is treating everyone well you know brandon 2024 has socked me in the fucking face like 10 times but i really love you and appreciate you all the

same all the same not your fault you know every single year i should just go to no expectations but um yeah just stumble over the bar you know just roll just roll right over it. That's what I'm doing. It's pretty much, that's pretty much what happened. But yeah, I'm thinking about this, like a Shara Dane, Sandra Clegane song. We start out, we're saying something, something a Shara Dane. And then we're like,

and recently not yet born is Sandra Clegane because he would not yet be born. But I'm loving the overall show tune vibe that you're already putting into it i think it has some merit some weight some merit fray oh i think it has some merit fray some way i don't know wow yeah well thank you for your email brandon we really appreciate it and we did get a message from our friend warren the Hedge Knight. You never know, you might see that guy around these parts once in a while. You just might. Well,

Warren says, I'm just composing a quick catch-all mail on the topic of Sandor and the Stark girls, as you're covering the mentorship of Arya at the moment. One of my favorite parts of Arya's arc is her mentors and the direct influences and lessons they leave with her for a long time. I thought this was a concept George explored in her arc.

Listening to your podcast in the POV style became very evident early on that this is not the case. And in fact, actual mentors play a very prominent role in all the Starkling POVs. Of course, you guys emphasized this point by leaving Arya the best Starkling, not that it's a contest. you guys emphasized this point by leaving Arya the best Starkling, not that it's a contest, until last as you can see everyone warns very objective about this one thing that does interest

me through these chapters though is how Cinder's the only one who has been a mentor to two Starks. As we went through Sansa's chapters it was very evident that she was having as much, maybe more of an effect on him as he was on her and it's interesting to observe the same dynamic develop during his time with Arya too.

His determination in those early chapters to ransom her and maybe take up service with Robb as he had for Joffrey, resorting to all he knows in a bid to regain some kind of sense of himself not just after the Blackwater, but after the Brotherhood without Banner stripped him of all his worldly goods the only redemption he can see is a return to type but while he's with aria they both come to realize that they are broken in different ways i think in the red wedding chapter i love slash hate so much and they demonstrate the same behaviors and realize they've actually got things in common interested to hear your observations on the subject and my ears will be finely tuned.

There's Warren's ears. Someone's gotta tune those ears. My god. Warren, thank you so much for this email. I think this is great as we head into the tragedy of the Red Wedding one last time. Actually, no, that's not true. We'll get some of it in

Tyrion's chapters, too, to talk about someday. Could be tomorrow. Could be next yearion's chapters, too, to talk about. Someday. Could be tomorrow. Could be next year. Could be never. You just never know. You just never know. No one knows.

The wind's a winner. No one knows. Look under your chairs. Yes. Thank you, Warren. Lovely to hear from you, always. Well, that's gonna throw us into the lightning round. For what we missed between Arya 9 and

Arya 10 in A Storm of Swords, I will start us off with Jon 6 where Jon tries to evacuate Molestown. Jon then learns of Winterfell's fate. Dead. Kellen 6, at the gates to the twins, something feels off

miss clavelle something is not right follow your instincts girlfriend oh my god stand up listen to stone heart when it's saying some shit

that's what she's saying sorry everyone I'm so sorry are you ten shit. That's what she's saying. Sorry everyone, I'm so sorry. Arya 10. Overview. As Arya and Sandor arrive at the twins where he plans to ransom her to her family.

Listen, this is a crazy chapter. This chapter is just like foreshadowing on foreshadowing on foreshadowing on foreshadowing on foreshadowing on foreshadowing there's so many watch out look behind you moments don't you see what's happening like oh no they have their airpods and they do not see uh and for real and and reading this like back to back with aria 11 which i did today and then i stopped and went back with all the cattle and stuff too just to reread george was crafting this area of the book so carefully, right?

Like, you know, he spent hours and hours and hours and hours as he went through this. And we could have easily done this chapter. It was like a Cat Arya, Cat Arya sandwich chapter. The length of the chapters, like we said, is short, right? But it adds a certain percussion of rhythm. It ramps up the tension. You don't just kill Catelyn and Rob off in one chapter. You get a couple chapters together with other chapters that add that suspense, add that tension.

And it turns into this like rhythmic, shocking reveal and betrayal. And you start to kind of see George's background with his experience in writing for TV, right? You see where everything is almost picturesque. Everything is almost cinematic. Everything is playing out on a screen in front of you and stoking the fire that is the tension, the drama. And even as we get to the end of Catelyn VI, right, he does all these fake outs.

And we'll talk about the fake outs as we go. But Catelyn, we're going home is the end of Catelyn VI, right? Arya 10 is like, I'm here. I'm going home. The next chapter is Can 7 lol and then uh the chapter after that is aria 11 lol as well like ha ha you fucking lowercase lol yeah lowercase lol yeah to signify she's the child and catalan is the mother um thank you thank you i'll be here all day but yeah i think it's like really interesting to string it all together and to watch as this plays out how george wanted it to be presented you can see how you can see why we

don't have a book like you can see he cares so much about the way the reader interprets how these chapters come across and the feeling right like i remember when i read the red wedding i remember how i felt i remember like not being able to put the book down first of all you know when you're reading a long book and you're like okay i can go a couple more chapters i'm almost sure that i was like i can go a couple more chapters and then i got in and i was like i have to finish it tonight i cannot put this book down i have to finish tonight that's probably what happened to me which is why i try to read boring books before i go to sleep because otherwise i will be up and it'll be four in the morning and i'll be like i've made a huge mistake but i needed to sleep because otherwise i will be up and it'll be four in the morning and i'll be like i made a huge mistake but i needed to know what happened and i finished most books at 4 a.m yeah

yeah i remember i read storm like a very fast so that was probably also the case and i i someone had spoiled rob's death for me like some rando like in some facebook comment like on like i don't know a public thing and so i knew it was gonna happen at some point i didn't know exactly when but like so what did happen at the red bedding i was like okay that happened it wasn't as shocking does that make sense like it wasn't as shocking as i knew something like that was gonna happen but it was still like pretty intense i think the stuff, like, that happens next chapter was a little more shocking. And of course, I mean, Catelyn dying, I didn't know. And I mean, the lines of, not my hair, Ned loves my hair, iconic. Yeah. So. Pain. Pain. Oh no, no. Everything so pain pain oh no no everything was not there oh my god um yeah yeah it's an emotional you know

we're setting the scenery because this is an emotional ass couple of chapters and it's also different to be there from aria's perspective on the ground but outside of where the real battle is kind of going the big battle but also this is like a real battle it is just as real as what's happening inside and that's what makes it even more of a tragedy what's happening on the ground is just as bad if not worse than what's happening inside yeah well aria and sandor are about an hour out of the green fork with a wane slogging down a muddy road hoping to avoid outriders that are spurring towards them and stranger follows them tied to the wagon we have some of that mentor advice from sandor he

tells aria keep your head down and your mouth shut and it makes me actually think of the one of the main characters in his dark materials will who's really good at just sort of blending into the background right he's good at being unseen and i really love that this is sandor's lesson to aria because there's a lot of different ways that we see her kind of you know also blend into the background but this one's part of it as well like just don't stand out this is some rote like everyday thing and it also makes me think like this is a lesson that he himself had to learn to keep out of Gregor's sights and it's interesting because we don't think of Sandor like that right right? He's always got something snarky to say. He plays such a big role in two of the characters' POVs that I don't think of him as someone who

keeps his mouth shut. He says a lot of things all the time. He's always got comebacks. So this is kind of, I think, a young Sandor lesson. You know, a long time ago, it's interesting you say that because we see it in his clothing, right? You see it in his muted wardrobe, even when he was a Kingsguard, quote unquote, court in clash right like he refused to wear the uniform he didn't wear everything until the end right like he slowly kind of transforms into it and it's interesting that now that he's broken from the king's guard you see him in all these muted colors that we're going to talk about right like he's always wearing gray his eyes are gray there's a lot about him that sticks out as gray quiet luxury yeah quiet luxury it means oh my god soft gentle but also hard but it's interesting you say like him having to learn to keep out of sight although being like

huge hulking and scarred and learning to blend into the background that's definitely something you see in how he's dressed here because he's wearing green rough spun and suit gray mantle and hood. These are all colors that blend in with some of the northern wear, right? They don't usually wear bright colors in the north blends in with the surroundings because everything's super gray. And he actually looks kind of like a big farmer under the clothing. He's just wearing boiled leather and oiled mail. No sigils, you know, his helm's been put away. He could be anyone. He's just wearing boiled leather and oiled mail. No sigils, you know,

his, his helm's been put away. He could be anyone. He could be anyone like a farmer and Aria could be a farmer's son. And she still, she still does not love playing this role, but anyways, they could be swine herds.

Also. That's also one of the things they're pretending to be an inside their wagon are casks of salt pork and pickled pig's feet these outriders though a knight and two squires are carrying a spear and a sword and some long bows and the badges on the squire's surcoats are a black pitchfork and a golden bar sinister on a russet field aria had considered several times revealing herself to these outriders that they encountered on the road but each time they had such unfamiliar standards and she was like i don't know i don't know so there are no white and gray wolves no umber giant no glove or fist which makes me sometimes think of the little fist on

gregor's helm and such an interesting fashion statement the knight asks if they have business at the twins and sandor mumbles his reply that they got salt pork for the feast. It's not really like a connection connection but something I've really liked when Rob comes to the twins the phrase are like well we'll give you a leg of mutton for your wolf and put him with the master of hounds obviously to like get rid of him so he's not a threat and Rob says he's a dire wolf not a dog and dangerous to men he does not trust not that dogs aren't that we look at sandor you know he's dangerous to men he doesn't trust but there's almost like a little dichotomy there like this was just the

last chapter now aria and sandor are here with that whole theme of do you know what dogs do to wolves etc and here's another dire wolf who's come to the twins and she has shitty salt pork not mutton but shitty salt pork with her own master of hounds sandra clegane it's a cool entrance like parallel i don't know i like it i like it yeah yeah like the food is really interesting in these like few chapters you know with the they're not like appetizing food so it is interesting like the way that people react to this salted pork and pickled pig's feet and i don't know i haven't had pickled pig's feet i don't i don't know if i'd like it or not but uh salted pork i've had pig's feet i mean i've had i've had fried pig's feet delicious delicious yeah that one time me and you went and fried pig's feet. Delicious. Delicious, yeah. That one time me and you went and had pig's ears too, and that was fucking awesome.

Oh, yeah. Remember that? That place fucks. It was Laotian. Yeah, we went and had Laotian. Yeah, yeah. I think about lob every day. I haven't had that in a while.

Anyways, salted pork. I assume it's like ham, but I'm also thinking of like, it's not a pickled pig's foot, but now I'm thinking like salted pork foot, ham's hock, fantastic in, you know, collard greens, red beans and rice. So this is not about the chapter. The knight pays no attention to Arya. Now we're just hungry. Yeah. Sorry everyone. We'll talk about this more, unfortunately. I'm sorry, but I have a lot to say later about it, but please, Eliana, take it away. Yeah, the knight pays no attention to aria but

does stare long and hard at stranger who obviously is not a common plow horse so i think that's really interesting and the knight asked how they came across this horse and sandor lies saying like oh his lady told him to bring the horse as a wedding gift for the young lord tully and he says that his lady's old lady went and the knight says does she think she can buy heron hall back with a horse god is there any fool like an old fool and i'm like where is she went where has she went okay i refuse to believe lady went is dead i think we discussed this a little in our heron hall episode our house went episode and in brianne chapters there's that little theory like we think we see her maybe maybe yeah you never know i think

that yeah i don't think she's dead for sure i hope not but i guess maybe sometimes people are dead but i just don't feel like that's true i just i agree sometimes people are dead but not her there's also something to to pay attention to here, right? And maybe some of this might come from George's gardening, as we've discussed with the Wentz in that episode. For example, we talk about it on our Patreon. Again, patreon.com slash girls gone canon. See ya, you know when.

But this feels like a hint, right? Like we know that eventually, and also like literally in the next bit, but also you know that eventually, and also, like, literally in the next bit, but also, you know that Donald High doesn't report into the Tully's like that. Like, he's not there to be besties with them. He here right now like that's a big like what why are you talking shit about edmure's mom and her family you know what i mean like not but like the wentz and then also it's showing how out of touch of information that sandor is because he doesn't think anything of it and he also hasn't really been around and hearing what's going on with heron hall you know he knows his brothers out there but he doesn't think anything of it. And he also hasn't really been around and hearing what's going on with Harrenhal.

You know, he knows his brother's out there, but he doesn't know that Lady Wendt was like pushed out. He was gone. Yeah, he has. I mean, he's just been busy also trying to survive, I guess. But yeah, that's a great point. Like, he doesn't really think much about Gregor being out there. He's kind of just surprised when Arya's like, yeah, duh, this is what's been going on.

I've been all over. Yeah, I think a lot of that comes from that went gardening that we've talked about too that george just absolutely wasn't fully ready to flesh all that out and was kind of focusing on the main stuff but this is kind of where things start to develop out of that gardening and we see that feast and dancer where he really expounds on them uh he wasn't quite ready he had enough on his fucking plate here also they're bats you know bats are like super great they're very cute they're like dogs with wings oh rabies yeah i was also gonna say like and disease but it's fine so sir donald high lets sandor and Arya pass, and they continue their trek. Once the men are gone, Sandor snorts and says,

Sir Donald High, I've taken more horses off him than I can count. Armor as well, once I near killed him in a melee. Nice. Arya asks, why didn't he know you then? And Sandor says knights are fools, and it would be beneath him to look twice at a peasant. Keeping your eyes down and your tone respectful can, it turns out, keep you out of trouble. He may have noticed Stranger if he had ever seen Sandor ride him, but they got really lucky. Arya thinks he would have known your face, though, and that Sandor's scars were hard to forget, and his hound helm, too.

I love this is foreshadowing towards her journey in Feast, right? Sandor is kind of following that believe-what-you-see logic that Arya has started to learn about, but Arya also notices that, like, okay, but your face is kind of a dead giveaway. If you had just lifted your chin up, you would have been fucked if only there was a way to change your face but that's impossible that's impossible the same could never happen uh yeah yeah and i'm sure he knows that right that's why he like goes in with the hood and he's like you know dark kermit hours and the daemon uh targaryen hood but also i mean great call like on this and also with the helm stuff and there's foreshadowing around that too how it like stands in for sandor and we'll discuss it more

later probably but like this ability that you can define your own narrative versus letting others define it it's a big part of jamie's storyline and because he's like let others kind of define it for him this whole time and kind of let people get carried away with the story there's now this like whole narrative around like the hound based on whoever's wearing the helm and now he's gonna get in trouble for all this shit that he hasn't done when he has he has like as we've discussed actual things things he's done. But anyways. It might even play a part in Arya deciding to remove herself from the story at some point. Them not recognizing Sandor, though, and not really looking. Also, it just reminds me of the TSA. That they don't check Sandor's face.

Because apparently, if you look at studies at the TSA's effectiveness, they're actually really bad at screening things that go through security and like including actual weapons and guns they miss when guns go through security apparently a lot because they're looking for things that like could maybe be a weapon like all of my makeup and my lotions and every single fucking time my microphone like i get my bag pulled every single time and i always know and i shout at them it's a microphone this literally happens to me all the time i feel like this is gonna happen to me sometime this year yeah i'm always like it's a microphone anyways so that's my rant about the tsa Let me bring more than 100 milliliters of facial product.

Sandor also saying that they might have recognized Stranger if they'd ever actually seen and paid attention to Sandor riding him. I think that that's interesting that they might recognize the horse because there are different kinds of horses, but also it's the same energy as like, I sometimes will see dogs around the neighborhood and I'll be like, I know this dog, but I don't know the person with them i don't recognize this person even if i've seen them but i'm like i do know this is pancakes the pug no this happened to you i was

like i know this dog i have actually seen you in action when it comes to like a dog on the street and it's real though like i'm laughing she's whimsical she's quirky everyone but no this is real like eliana with the dog she will literally stop and like the world melts away before her and nothing matters but just telling it how good it is yeah it's real i have a picture or video of you doing that uh last a while ago that was a long time ago now jesus who are we who are we oh my, we'll take new dog videos this summer. I feel it coming. It's coming.

Eliana will find some dogs this summer and I will bear witness to it for you all. For you all. We take a quick rewind to how Sandor and Arya got here. You're probably wondering how they got here. Sandor said he wouldn't be brought before her brother in chains and that he doesn't want to cut through men to get to them, so they play a little game. On the king's road, they meet a farmer who gave them his wain, horses, garbs, and casks. Just he didn't give them willingly. It was taken at sword point. The farmer curses

him for a robber, but Sandor says, no, no, no no i'm a forager that gets me eliana's into foraging these days so she'll get it trying to be by the evening they're close still trudging towards the twins aria thinks she should be excited but she's nervous she had a bad dream the night before but she can't really remember any of it just that looming feeling of dread so real yeah actually now that you say it i think one of the biggest distinctions when it comes to when i forage or try to is it's from like plants in the ground and not from other people so seems like a pretty big distinction anyways um another distinction is one is stealing the other is just foraging you know you know he's hunting and gathering oh my

god what a king i go hunting and gathering sometimes which is where i order pizza and make my husband go get it hunting people yes so yeah aria has this like bad dream here and then they're all like oh but she doesn't remember it and i'm like what is the dream i want to know and i mean i think we can all kind of assume and guess what it's probably about it's probably something sort of like green dreamy red wedding related or maybe it's even like nymeria sensing things going awry and like the fray camp or whatever who knows i don't know but either way like clearly it's some sort of warning she definitely feels super connected to nymeria through these chapters,

but she doesn't feel like she's accepting the connection so much, if that makes sense. Like she sees it as kind of like an issue or like a, like something getting in the way and she's not opening up to it. But like, it feels like Numeria is like in her brain so hard during all this. Yeah. Arya's just like,

well, that was weird. What a vivid dream. Interesting. Fear cuts deeper than swords. She knows she needs to be brave, strong, like her father had told her. All there is between her and her mother is a castle gate, a river,

an army. But it's Rob's army, so it's not dangerous, right? Right? Right? Those were a lot of things. Yeah, those were like a lot of things to get through when you're fucking nine she remembers the leech lord is one of rob's men though and it makes her uneasy she had fled harrenhal from him as much as she had fled from the mummers and she had even cut one of lord bolton's men does roost know that she did that or did he blame gendry or hot pie would he have told her mother she then thinks wait he won't recognize me because i look like a drowned rat not a cupbearer

a drowned boy rat tattle on me it's kind of funny yeah she definitely like thinks he's gonna care to remember her when it's like no he doesn't he doesn't care about anything except um you know his leeches yeah he only cares about his skin. And winning. He doesn't even care about his son. Yeah, his Trinitohan prescription is up, man. Yeah. It is.

I didn't really think anything of that symbolism of the drowned rat. Maybe you did because you're rat-coded. That's just who you are as a person. I'm not insulting her, everyone listening. I know Eliana deserves better, but this is what she has. It's me. But, um,

I'll never forget that one person who just was like, I think they like DM me on Tumblr. They're like, Eliana deserves better. And I'm like, okay, then she should go get better. This is what she has.

What does that mean? I don't know. I don't know. But the people, the people want to free you. Eliana is what I'm trying to tell you. I know. Free Eliana. Oh, my God.

This life chose me. This woman's work. I'm an adult. So, yeah, stop lubifying Eliana. Holy shit. Just because she's just a girl, she's also an adult. Thank you. Look, Eliana might be just a girl, but she's also an adult.

I don't know. It's interesting to think how she was like a cat in King's Landing. And here, outside her brother and mother's death, she's a drowned rat moving her down the food chain. Right? And soon she'll return to being a cat in Feast, which is exciting. A different cat. A cat of a different coat someone might say which i feel like you're gonna talk about that next chapter but but but but but she does feel like you know

i don't know i love the look from the front of the series to a storm of swords like she's at a low right now this is a very low point in her life it's not good not good like you just make it sound like she's at a low point in her life you know she lost her job she went through a breakup she's eating Ben and Jerry's better than I am damn I want Ben and Jerry's just kidding they're like worms she's just eating worms

she likes the chocolate with the worms a little pudding bowl like a mud thing I'd eat that oh that sounds good but that that's a good point like how she's moving down the food chain right now and i love i love that symbolism and yeah she goes through a lot of fellow rat yeah well she was a weasel at one point too you know interesting all of them i go through different animals. Not all. You know those Westerosi.

Just the girls. Well, Sandor had given Arya a haircut two days ago. Turns out he's not a great barber. And now she's like half bald-headed. And she's like, what the fuck? This is even worse. I hate being Sandor's son. My hair is stupid. He's stupid. My family probably won't even recognize me. And then she also thinks about how she was a little girl the last time that she had seen Rob and Catelyn.

And it was the day that Lord Eddard left Winterfell. Isn't it so funny that both Arya and Catelyn get haircuts in these back-to-back chapters of Arya 10 and Cat 7? What an interesting way to phrase that. Yeah, absolutely. They only get one haircut, you know, and that hair happens to be for one of them for their life.

Oh, that hair happens to be the thread of her life. Oh, God. I want to talk about this, though, on a serious level, not just me playing on our emotions. I want to talk about this from a couple ways, so stay with me,

stay with the vision, everybody. You know, just cozy up, gather round. It's time for a mini essay. There's a lot of symbolism in haircuts, in hair. We've talked about it before, right? We've talked about hair and how it can represent certain society, class, expectations of gender roles.

I've talked about Ashara Dane's hair before, actually, believe it or not, I've talked about Ashara Dane, and the symbolism in her hair and how it's depicted in kind of a relation to Mary Magdalene and into paintings from the past, and hair covering shame and indecency. But I want to bring a different angle today to talk about this through kind of a fairy tale symbolism from Grimm's Rapunzel. And there's something of, like, her hair being cut off, especially when she's so close to meeting her mother and thinking about the way that Catelyn expects her to fit

within the Westerosi society and the ways that Arya feels alienated and isolated from her mother and disconnected from her mother, right? And obviously none of this is 1-1. Grimm's Rapunzel is where we get a lot of symbolism actually for hair in our little human world these days, like a lot of the ideas come from that. And I have to kind of quote a very interesting essay. It's Jeffrey J. Anderson's Rapunzel, the symbolism of cutting hair. That's a psychoanalytic essay, basically. So some of it goes into a lot more of psychoanalytics of patients and programs. But also there's a lot of talk about Rapunzel. And Anderson identifies basically the plot of Rapunzel and recounts that maternal link between mother and daughter and how it's so symbolic in the themes, depending on what you're reading, looking at, watching.

Obviously, in Grimm's, the woman who steals Rapunzel, you know, isn't technically her mother, but raises her as her child. And in the fairy tale, Rapunzel ends up choosing to venture out and have a life beyond her mother, an unsheltered life, right? She cuts off her hair, severing the link between her and her mother, and chooses a man, a different, a new family that she can make, a man, and a kingdom over her mother's overbearing love, quote unquote. So not one to one. And Jeffrey Anderson says, in a different language, we know the three symbolic meanings of cutting hair to be are castration loss of the mother and reparation obviously neither of these women choose to leave their mothers right their mothers are taken from their lives far too early but i think of this alongside catalan and the loss of her mother too her promotion to being lady of the family and take on this maternal parentified role to her siblings and kind of embrace duty once that link was severed between her and her mother.

And for Arya, I see a little bit of it too. Here, Sandor cuts Arya's hair, almost resembling his hair, right? Cut wonky on one side, bald headed, long on the other. Right before he also saves her from heading into that devastation of the Red Wedding, where Catelyn herself is pleading to the phrase not to cut her hair in madness her connection to this world to her family her hair serves as almost an umbilical link between her and her wolflings her starklings sandor almost makes aria in his image right which is almost the only way he knows how to make it sufferable for aria like the only way she's going to be able to get through this horrible event that's happening of her losing her family

this idea also comes of the loss of a mother figure for a pack whether that pack is dog lion or wolf the unraveling of the pack too once you lose that member of the family sandor was also torn from his mother it it seems, at her death, right? A loss of a protector, a loss of someone who should shepherd you through class and gender dynamics in the world. And I kind of presume that's what the last light in his family must have been right before her death, before Gregor and his father, who was too afraid of Gregor to do anything before it was just them three after the sister died as well almost like a loss of that character like joanna lannister we hear that she was the only person that made

the lannister's world tick the clock in their life tick that quiet echo that none of us see in the story but we presume is there and sandor making aria and his image in this moment kind of feels like his way of saying like look you'll get you'll get through it. This is what I did. We're going to get you there, disguise you to come in. Except then, like, it all unravels and it's horrible. And yeah, yeah, it's bad. It's bad. But something interesting going on here with the haircuts.

Obviously, there's Samson and the idea of power in hair. We talked a lot during our, yeah, the castration. Yeah, yeah. I like what you're saying and like are we making i mean he's he's taking a wolf and changing its coat and uh and hair to look like dogs right balto jesus but but as you said right the changing of the hair because i mean like both of them do get those haircuts so in a way like she's straddling those two worlds you know because what is it isn't catelyn's hair like some of it is torn out also when we see her when we see her next and modeled and yeah yeah yeah because of all that so

there's the severing but also at the same time that connection and i mean honestly aria like I mean, honestly, Aria, like, this haircut, what it sounds like you got, was really in in the early 2010s. What was that called? I'm thinking of, like, you know... Asymmetrical? The Skrillex, yeah, little, like, shaved part of the cut stuff. The undershave that, like, you know, mohawk but not. Yeah, I had one. I don't want to talk about it. I also didn't have eyebrows. I don't want to talk about that either. I drew that. Your eyebrows are so perfect.

How could you not? I know. I know. It was a phase. It was a phase. If you want to see pictures, I guess join the Discord. Maybe I'll show you. Yeah, I don't know.

I was going to say you can't. So, you know, speaking of that separation from her mother, right? And the way that she's looking and that, like, tearing away the umbilical cord, I mean, she really gets fucking torn away from her family again here, first of all. But she's, again, worried that her family isn't going to want her back. And I'm thinking of also, like, you were talking about the gendered aspects of hair as well, but her thinking that last time that these two members of her family had seen her she was a little girl right and now now we're seeing that she feels like she has grown so much she's like lived dozens of different lives how many lifetimes has she lived until she's gotten to this moment how many people has she been like who is she anymore right at least she's alive and

not dead like those family members but anyways there's also this this painful reminder there that the last time she saw them it wasn't even like at king's landing it wasn't the last time like she had seen them before her dad died it was like at the very beginning it was when she left home and i don't know wondering if they'll know her because also there's that aspect of you recognize people when you expect to see them in certain contexts right like you when you're a child and you're like whoa whoa, I'm sorry, is that my teacher at the grocery store? That's weird. The gas station. Who are you?

What do you mean you exist outside of here? So, very interesting. Yeah. There's definitely something, too, in that idea. there's definitely something too in that idea especially like in the next book as we get into her being at the brothels and starting to like befriend some of these sex workers and learn about their lives and even finding some power in what they do right and starting to kind of contextualize her place within all these people and getting secrets and sharing them and the house of black and white there's something there with hair too and something about that reparation and

growth to come. Absolutely. Well, let's get into it. The wedding's starting a little, we have this line of, they heard the music before they saw the castle, the distant rattle of drums, the brazen blare of horns, the thin skirling of pipes faint beneath the growl of the river,

and the sound of the rain beating on their heads. We've missed the wedding, but it sounds as though the feast is still going. I'll be rid of you soon. No, I'll be rid of you, Arya thought. The northwest road turns west, between an apple orchard and drowned ears of corn. They crest a rise, and suddenly castles,

river, and camps all appear. Hundreds of horses, thousands of men, all milling about three giant feast tents. The musicians inside are playing different music than the musicians at the outdoor feast, so it sounds more like a battle than a song. Arya says out loud, that isn't very good, and Sandor gives a harsh laugh, saying, There's old deaf woman in Lannisfort complaining of the din I'll warrant. I'd heard Walder Frey's eyes are failing, but no one mentioned his bloody ears. Hmm.

Now I'm like, are they going to take his ears and add it to a chain of things? Anyways, I don't think so. Oh, yeah, Shagga, get in there. Yeah, I don't think so, but it's just a thought. Yeah, so it probably sounds like a battle because it is a battle and not a song. Yeah, so it probably sounds like a battle because it is a battle and not a song. So there's, again, all of these things in Arya's storyline that it's really interesting with how it plays upon our assumptions versus what's actually happening and that disconnect between not just learning to see things as they are,

but also what it means to be a child and learning to understand the world as it is. And she is learning to look with her eyes, but she hasn't learned to do that with all of her senses yet. For example, she hasn't learned to truly hear. To be like, well, if it sounds like a battle, it must be a fucking battle, right? And it sounds off. And Catelyn knew.

Catelyn knew something's wrong immediately. And Arya doesn't think about it yet. Yeah, she's clouded with the hope of reuniting with her family. You know, like that's a predisposition she has in this situation. I can't fault her. I would be too. But every sign around them is pointing to things being off. Because like not only is the music bad, it's because they aren't musicians, right?

It's because they're all warriors. They're here for battle. They're not here to play music. Yeah, I mean, even Sandor doesn't pick up on it immediately, right? And he's the one that we would expect to have like this really heightened sense, I think, of maybe danger. But he thinks that his future is just beyond that. He's so close. He can taste the money. He can taste like having a home. Yeah. And I mean, it's understandable. Like you want something to be real so bad you try and manifest it. Oh, yeah, that must be how Peter

Baelish feels weird. Gross. Yeah. I don't want to feel any of that. Okay. Arya wishes that it were daytime, right? So she could look for the northern sigils she knows by heart but in the gloom of night all the colors look gray again that same idea of like everyone's in different factions in camp but when you throw them into the long night against the others everyone's gonna be the same and on the same side ideally but maybe not but also that lack of black and white morality. They are all gray. Especially because gray is like the stark color. And yet here it's used against her.

Like she can't see through the gray. I like that. I like that. Thank you. I like what you said too, but I just was thinking because of what you said, you're very inspirational. Wow. Wow. Wow.

You do this to me all the time. I'm joking. Free her. What the fuck? Free her. Free her. What the fuck? Arya and Sandor come to the entrance where a hedge of wagons and carts

are drawn to create a wooden defensive wall from the outside. But oh god. I'm sitting here reading it and I'm like, yes, that's what you would think, that they're making a defense so no one can come in. But it's not for the outside, it's to keep the people in.

Whoa. Oh, just like the Blackwater. Yeah, exactly exactly they're hurting them god and they think aria and sandor could be swineherds layers oh man fuck fuck well the guards stop them and the guards are decked in the flayed man of the dreadfort on their uniforms sandra tries their same story on them but these guys are a little smarter than donald high they say salt pork isn't fit for a feast nor are pickled pigs feet disagree and the feast is almost over anyways okay well that's kind of you know that's a fair point the guard says he's a northman not some milk sucking southern knight yeah for sure amen brother

i love i love the reflection here of the men who are not knights right or stuck in that southern nicety uh they're smarter in some ways street smarter than men like hi uh they understand pigs feet and salt pork isn't made for a lord's feast not that the food they're having is much better inside as we know but likely because they've had to eat salt pork a lot more than the lords have eaten it before and it's not bad right like you and i were talking already about it but i think of like pancetta right super salty pork bacon that has been super super salted so that it can be preserved the whole point of salted meat is the preservation. And to your point, like it's something that can feed people, something that could feed a lot of people. And especially when things like winter come, it's harder to feed people. Salting your pork to make

it last longer and having a good harvest and all these things are very important for preservation here in the areas that change in their temperature and their climate. These guys have, of course, also had to look and see more than what the eye sees. And I think about, there's this line in the Mystery Knight from Dunk about salt pork. Suckling pig was served at the high table. A peacock roasted in its plumage. A great pike crusted with crushed almonds. Not a bite of that made it down below the salt. a really fun phrase. It kind of originates-ish, I think, from medieval times.

It could be before, it could be after. Salt was a class-dividing line for the table, right? Between the lord and his family who were seated above the salt, where the salt is on a table, and then the servants, guests, etc. would sit below the salt. So salted pork is looked at as something that's probably not served for lords. It's something that would be served below the salt at the table. Yeah, it's really interesting because it is, yeah, obviously very salted, but it's using that salt for preservation as opposed to for flavor,

even though it probably imparts that flavor. Honestly, the salted pork in the almond milk pepper, like, that sounds intriguing. I'm intrigued. Oh, yeah, I'm so interested in that. I'm intrigued. Obviously, I love a suckling pig. Sorry, everyone.

I'm sure some of you do not eat meat, but I love a suckling pig. Sorry, everyone. I'm sure some of you do not eat meat, but I love a suckling pig, so... Anyway. Yeah, that's my insight. Beautiful, beautiful. You've watched Party Down, right? I watched an episode. I keep thinking I'm gonna watch it one day.

I will. You definitely go back. Are they rebooting it? I think so. I think so. Like, they're bringing the folks back right yeah i think you got to check it out i i think you'd like it if they do reboot it but even if not i mean at least it's a quickie oh is it okay i thought it had like quite a few quite a few seasons but that's right i think it was pretty what one to two seasons or something right two seasons yeah but this is basically party down at sandor and aria's catering service

that's why i asked also speaking of salt pork and the winter and them preserving it i mean maybe you can't always find salt pork but maybe you will find maybe there's just frozen pork lying around somewhere around especially when winter comes. Yum. I'm getting a little hungry just talking about it. Yeah. And I'm telling you, like, pancetta's great. Like, sometimes if I have pancetta, I just go by and, like, take a little quick knife

and just take a little chop and chew on it and walk around the house doing chores. It's great. Yeah. I mean, I was talking about cannibalism, but it's okay. Oh, that pork's good, too. I mean, just don't tell me cold hands this is a i found this pork out there yeah i don't know why those kids were bitching well they weren't because they don't know but they're just all right whatever

tastes weird but okay yeah okay mr cold hands sandor tries to get into the cook or seward and says that i can unload by the feast tent to ask for such and they say to ask for suchkins the men roll a wagon aside to let them enter and inside are these brightly covered colored pavilions they're glimmering there's all sorts of sigils on them it's like pink gold green striped freddy check, beasts, chevrons, stars, wheels, weapons, and then Aria spots Lord Smallwood's tent. She remembers Acorn Hall. But for every shimmering tent comes a dark, opaque, or canvas tent. And I'm just saying, Sedgekin's name, it just sounds like a plushie.

That's it. It does kind of sound like a plushie. That's really funny. Sedgekin's, the new plushie. Yeah. S sound like a plushie. That's really funny. Sedgekins, the new plushie. Yeah. Sedgekins plushie when? Well, we'll never meet him, so we won't know. We'll never know.

Interesting that all these sigils Arya doesn't know, and you can already tell the Starks are outnumbered here. These are all sigils that Arya doesn't recognize. There is no place here for Stark's support going on. It doesn't feel great. Also, I feel like this is reminiscent to when Catelyn goes to Renly's pavilion before his murder.

She feels very much like a stranger as she walks these tents, so now Arya is a stranger among these tents while a king gets murdered. Yeah, that's a great point. I love that that connection bad things happened both of them i mean bad things happen at both of these okay for catlin to quote a philosopher bummer for real bummer for all yeah i mean at least catlin made a new friend

out of it aria's family's about to die aria makes a new friend too sandor i think they really get on after this they met before then you know catelyn made a new friend she's like wow we're in the tent we witnessed this murder we're bonded for life but her life's not gonna last that much longer as we see uh i mean depends on what you consider alive yeah that's also the argument many people make about john and i am like i don't know i think he's still he's still sworn i don't i don't buy this loophole still dead so barrack tents are also there and they shelter two score foot soldiers oh my god again this is a sign uh biggest of all though are the three great feast tents where men have been

drinking for hours also a sign aria hears the clash of cups toasting wagons horses and dogs in the dark the music grows louder as they trudge forward but under that is a deeper darker sound of the green fork we have a line of growling like a lion in its den we get it the lannisters are sending their regards. Arya is looking around for a direwolf badge or a grey and white tent for a Winterfell face, but all she sees are strangers. Not the horse.

Yeah, him too, though. We have this line of She stared at a man relieving himself in the reeds, but he was an ale belly. She saw a half-dressed girl burst from a tent laughing, but the tent was pale blue, not grey like she'd thought at first, and the man who went running after her wore a tree cat on his doublet, not a wolf. Beneath a tree, four archers

were slipping wax strings over the notches of their longbows. But they were not her father's archers. A maester crossed their their path but he was too young and thin to be maester lewin aria gazed up at the twins their high tower windows glowing softly wherever a light was burning through the haze of rain the castles looked spooky and mysterious like something from one of old nan's tales but they aren't winterfell oh this is not home for sure it's really not dorothy click your fucking heels together yeah get the fuck out no place like fucking home uh aria's watching the men crowded under the tents but they're happy warm and dry some of them are even singing she's like oh this is a fun. There's that line in that passage that you said,

four archers were slipping waxed strings over the notches of their longbows, but they were not her father's archers. Well, that's a sign, too. Because why would you be in the rain at this wedding slipping strings

onto your fucking bow and arrows? You're quivering, going, going oh time to load up the fucking long bow yeah i didn't think about that yeah yeah you're right and it's it goes back to what you were saying earlier right if she just wants to go home so badly she's like throwing out all those lessons she's throwing out art serials lessons she's like whatever fuck my eyes i'm going home yeah dude willing to believe it yeah she's just like whatever that's weird haha but i don't know some of the language also makes me think like will we see it echoed when she does return to winterfell right actually when any of the stars return to winterfell not just her you know being like oh

who are these people they They're wearing gray, but I don't know that man. Or there's a maester, he's young and thin, but he's not Maester Luwin, right? Maybe instead of, like, different sigils, they will be wearing those, like, wolves, or they'll be different Northmen sigils, but all of the things that made it home,

turns out it's not, like, a building. It's the people. Oh, you can rebuild it anywhere. winterfell can be rebuilt but not the roots are strong not right here but the roots are strong yeah they haven't even died yet again all right we have a little mini passage i wanted to shout out here's to lord edmere and lady Roslyn! She heard a voice shout. They all drank and someone yelled, Here's to the young wolf and Queen Jane!

Who is Queen Jane? Arya wondered briefly. The only queen she knew was Cersei. Yeah, Arya's like, who? I'm sitting off. And I do think it's fascinating the way that Jane Westerling has kind of been kept pretty hush

in all of this and i guess they don't want the whole queen jane thing getting out especially if they're you know really sworn to the lannisters but whatever anyways presumably aria i don't actually know if she knows that her brother has been crowned or if she does she hasn't internalized it because obviously she knows that her family's at war and they're considered rebels everyone fucking tells her that it's often framed as like just the north or north men are fighting but not as much as of a new king so i think that's really interesting the way that that's been suppressed especially because she hasn't put together yet that she's a princess now not a lady so i don't know if she actually knows about that so she's

like who the fuck is Queen Jane? No, I don't think she does, because you think back, too, to Elmar Frey, when he was like, I'm not gonna marry my princess anymore! And she's like, boo-fucking-hoo, bitch, hope your princess dies! Well, she does in a way. And it's reminiscent of when we hear about Sansa later, right, where

Sansa doesn't know any spells, what the fuck are you talking about? And kind of some of your points you made earlier, too, like her not seeing here she's packed with all these familial like predispositions that like last time she saw rob he was a boy he wasn't a man he wasn't even a king let alone had a girlfriend let alone a wife let alone a queen right like he's just rob that's how catelyn felt too though i think when rob came home with a wife you don't even have a girlfriend let alone a wife who is she's like and you've had sex and you're married you're a metro to someone else um oh god rob oh rob rob rob but anyways yeah i don't know it's fascinating how that

that bit of him being crowned just didn't make it to like i don't know the brotherhood without banners or something no one really even brought that up to her harwin you'd think that harwin would mention that well but they don't they don't serve rob to be fair they don't but it see it just feels like something that you know would come up but yeah uh it's interesting anyway they're gonna serve mommy, though. Haha. She's just a lady there. Some of them. Not a queen. Fire pits are outside the tents, sheltered under wooden canopies, but the wind is blowing

the rain sideways, causing the fire to hiss. Serving men are turning meat on spits, and Ahri is starting to get real hungry. Girl, I feel that. She asks Sandor if they should stop, that she sees Northmen in the tents, clad in bear skin and seal skin and bearded faces. Her father's men, the young wolf's men, the direwolves of Stark. Your brother will be in the castle. Your mother, too, you want him or not. Yes. What about Sedgekins? The surgeon had told them to ask for sedgkins. Sedgekins can bugger himself with a hot poker. Clegane shook out his whip and sent it hissing through the soft rain to bite at a horse's flank.

It's your bloody brother I want. Haha. Haha. Get it? Because he's about to be full of, well, maybe less blood than he had before. Yeah, I was like, I think it's the opposite of full of blood, right? It's such a buildup. Like, I feel like we're at the top of a roller coaster waiting to come all the way down to the very, very, very bottom where everything's horrible and everyone's dead.

Yeah, I hate that feeling. I hate being at the top of the roller coaster. Yeah, I hate that feeling. I hate being at the top of the roller coaster. Well, you all are going to have to sit at the top of this roller coaster until next time when we're back with the next Aria episode, which is when you get to come down the roller coaster in Aria 11. So you will not actually get to come down from that roller coaster next week. Next week, we are going to be putting out Sailor Moon Eternal Part 2 just to make you sit and wait for it. We planned this.

So, come back week after next. We'll be back March 1st with Aria 11 for the public in A Storm of Swords. Yeah, we're kicking it off. March. March Madness. With Aria. March Madness. Basketball. She's going mad.

Make an end to it. Aw. Someone's going mad in these chapters. Thanks for listening. It's us. Yeah. It's us. It's us.

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And as mentioned, this month we'll be coming coming out in march with patron episode for bravos can't wait but catch up with our hunger games coverage as well as we continue on to catching fire later this year patreon.com slash girls go on canon as always i've been one of your hosts chloe and i've been another one of your hosts, Chloe. And I've been another one of your hosts, Aliana. Goodbye. Goodbye. Ashara Dayne. Her name rhymes with

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