Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 222 — AFFC Arya II

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

Arya finds out that she's not on a full-ride scholarship to her magical (assassin) boarding school. "Tempting Secrets" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Check us out on Bluesky! https://bsky.app/profile/girlsgonecanon.bsky.social --- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song Of Ice And Fire, episode 222, Arya 2, and Feast For Crows. Sorry. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. I'm host number two, if you will. Whoa. Yeah, that was just crazy lottery. Welcome. Welcome aboard. Welcome. And are you ready for Aria to put needle away are you ready that like we're at the end of Arya already this is soon it only a dance with dragons to go and I'm like I just can't it passed you know I feel like we talk a lot about POVs in advance together obviously because we can't reveal yet and whenever

we talk about them we're like oh this is gonna be so long and aria's blinked by dude this has gone by really quickly yeah i thought this was gonna last way longer i'm kind of surprised i'm pretty sad i've been really enjoying the aria chapters and yeah i i can't believe we're almost here at the end that i think part of it is like because you think of her pov as being in all of the books but then you remember that she has just compared to the first three books so few chapters in the final two. Yeah. And I know that if George had his way and if Paris had her way, that would be different, right?

That would be way more. He could write novels and novels upon stories of Arya, I'm sure, especially in Braavos. He could write probably another trilogy. Please don't't but not now you know i mean come back to that idea not yet not yet but not yet not yet let it sit but it's really rich stuff lots of rich history and lore from a song of ice and fire's world coming in here a lot of heart a lot of sadness and those chapters gapping really does keep you coming back you're like okay where's my next Arya chapter?

I think that's like some of the excitement of the books when you read them for the first time, right? Like flipping and being like, oh, when am I going to get another blank chapter? This character I'm starting to like, when am I going to see so-and-so's chapters again? I love that feeling. So I remember that with Feast for Arya.

I do feel that way actually about our next POV. When are we going to get another chapter of this character? story too, I guess. I don't know. I'm very excited because, you know, we're in the bottom of the POVs as a lot of you have realized. We're at the end of the POVs. We have only got like, what, four or five POVs left, depending on how you count them, I guess. Some of them are big, some of them are small, but no POV is small in character to me. Yeah. And I actually, I think, have realized that as we've come to this point, like there are characters that I would have been like, oh, yeah, small POV, right? Like, for example, Arya Hotha, even Victarion, but I feel like I got a lot out of doing those character rereads. I actually loved our Hotha run and that Aerys and Jaime and I loved that section of time.

That was so long ago I would love to revisit them someday and and maybe we'll do refreshers for Tiwau on many characters before Tiwau comes right yeah Sansa Stark all the way down well I'm just like Tiwau and I've said this multiple times definitely will do one on Barristan but uh yeah i really loved the the hota chapters me too if anyone asks us like our favorites that's gonna be there like not like as in favorite characters but favorite runs that we've done yes yes yes yes because it is different right reading the books in a normal fashion versus this fashion obviously has been a very interesting five to six years whoa six years whoa it's been a little crazy so still a couple years to come on the main pov cast so don't worry and who knows

if tiwau comes out as we said that'll probably chain us back to this desk to this microphone for a little bit of time to come you just just never know. And hey, there's some other stuff coming in your future Aeswaf related from us. We are starting to plan the hot D season. We're still waiting for the release date. So just know that things are flexible. Things are fluid. Things are moving. But we've got plans on plans on plans.

Chloe, tell us about some of your plans, right? Because obviously, we're going to be covering Hot D and those episodes. And I think we've already warned you all before. Please remember, we will be pausing the reread podcast for our personal sanity. It's our podcast and also our mental health. So we are going to do only one episode a week and it will be the hot D episodes. But what about leading up? What people really care about, what the critics want to know, is what's going to happen to Unleash the D?

Will we unleash any D this year? Yes, the critically acclaimed podcast Unleash the D. Will it be returning? Award-winning podcast. It has wonash the D. Will it be returning? Award winning podcast. It has won so many awards. Will it be returning? You are asking me. And the answer is, it's a surprise.

No one knows. A surprise D. A surprise. And that said, we do have some content we can tell you about leading up to that for now, right? As we get into the spring season for girls gone canon that's summer that's summer you know that's the long summer ahead i don't plan on throwing myself down the stairs this year for hot d like i did in 2022 so it's

important that we do one a week i think yeah very important so we'll come back to all that scheduling but up next, this month for Patreon, it is, oh my god, we're releasing this. It's end of the month. April's upon us. So here is your shout out that you should be downloading, streaming The Hunger Games, Act 3, Part 2, The Victor. Yes, Part 2. Glossing over that and who we are as people. Part 2, The Victor. We are finishing it up, wrapping up that first Hunger Games book for patrons in the Stranger tier and above. That's five bucks and up.

And if you're not interested in the Hunger Games, you should still log on to patreon.com slash girls gone canon for hours upon hours upon hours of bonus content like A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin's other pieces, his novellas, novelettes, etc. fire george r martin's other pieces his novellas novelettes etc and next month in april we will be releasing mercy mercy the winds of winter the unpublished chapter aria chapter that george put out from the winds of winter that will be at patreon.com slash girls gone canon where you can find the other winds of winter chapters from characters we've done in the past, like Elaine or Arianne, Barristan, who else? All of them. There's tons over there. Theon. Yeah. Victarion. Yeah. The Forsaken. Yeah, the Forsaken. Exactly. We've only

got one other, I think, left after this of unpublished team-out chapters, right? And that's Tyrion. And that one's interesting. Because it's piecemeal. Interesting. interesting so and then you know hopefully one day we'll get like a whole slew of winds of winter chapters yeah i can't wait till they're published man it's gonna be really cool you know like i just know under your chair i just know college is gonna be so cool man look under your chair. And hey, in May, I believe we will be possibly taking a trip back to Bravo. So watch out for that, patrons. And that's not the only thing that patrons get.

No, it's not. So if you are a patron in the Thunder tier and above, you get access to our Girls Gone Canon Discord, where we have fun channels. A lot of people, again, relaying their ck3 runs and also once a month you get access to our happy hour slash brunch brappy hour this month has already happened yeah if you're listening to this in the present tense we have had brunch if you're listening to this in the recording tense we have have not yet had brunch, but I bet it's a real gas because it always is. We always have the most fun, whether it's vibing and doodling as we did last month or

playing Jackbox games. So please come hang out. It's just two hours of vibes. Mostly you can vibe. You can have camera on camera off. You can even have audio off. You could just be lurking, hanging out, be in the text chat that comes with the brunch channel.

A lot of people like to just text chat, which is fun to, you know, listen to your friends. It's like a casual podcast of all your buddies being goofballs. And next month in April, we're doing the unthinkable and we will be holding our next brunch on 420. It's actually the day that worked best for our schedules. I'm not going to lie.

It actually legitimately is. As we said last week's episode, please do not do not at us. We do not approve of drugs. Drugs are bad. In this podcast. They're bad. They're bad for you. As we talk about drugs constantly, they're bad for you.

So that said, it will be 420.ze it two to four et not eliana time but kind of eliana time and uh that's thunder tearing up like you said l you you said that shit yeah well speaking of timing let's take a little trip back in time back back back in time with this email and tweet a note yeah we uh i believe a handful of episodes ago you made a comment about girl scouts right you said uh so many vows they make you swear and swear like the girl scouts and our our friend elise from patreon commented on that one i think that was during during our episode with Warren a couple weeks ago, actually, the Aria 13. But Elise commented on that, that she laughed at that very much. Five-year-old Eliana and Girl Scouts. Yeah, I did say that. Elise is the one who I think gleaned, like, that is the vibe that Eliana at five years old was feeling. And I was

like, yeah, I don't know. They made us, like, say all these things, this, like, whole pledge and Girl Scouts. I was like, I can't live up to that. And Elise was like, wow, I don't know. They made us like say all these things, this like whole pledge and Girl Scouts. I was like, I can't live up to that. And Elise was like, wow, she's really channeling, channeling Jamie right there. That's like a multi-episode threaded together comment too. So that's pretty impressive. Yeah. That's very impressed.

And I have to tell you, we were sitting here troubleshooting Patreon and Elise did something insane for us and joined the discord and troubleshooted it for us without us even telling her to so thank you elise for your comments your many comments she's always commenting over there and you guys can comment too you know like come give us comments tell us about your pets funny stories your heart's desires fire blood vengeance uh you know whatever they are we want to hear from you too. Always appreciate Elise's comments. So thank you. This one. This was a good one as well. And yeah,

thank you for fixing this problem for us on Patreon. Well, okay, testing the thing that we weren't sure how it was gonna work. And it did. Amazing. Amazing. And what's funny is I must add, that episode we talked with warren and our friend shiloh also just commented on discord and said i want to hear about the girl scout thing and also i had to do the flower baby thing in high school so it's not a myth oh you did flower baby is a real thing yes yeah the girl scout thing it was like it was a really long time ago would you all believe it almost 30 years ago and no it really is it was like 28 years ago now if i think about it or 27 either way like a long ass time ago so we're gonna do the best we can to remember it

and i guess all i can relay is you know i guess i went to one meeting and they're i guess inducting you kind of in the way that you know aria is trying to be inducted into the house of black and white right now and she's like i can do it i can do it i can be whatever you all want me to be and i was i apparently had a very strong sense of self at that time i was like i just don't think i'm responsible i'm not responsible enough to live up to all the things that were in that pledge. I don't even know what's in that pledge, but I was like, I can't live up to that. I mean, there's even some themes in this chapter where I'm like, it's exploitative to make a child have to say these things. I mean, they're probably all very good things. Hold on, it was like Daisy's.

Like, Daisy pledge. What did I fucking tell you? Oh, okay. No, there's no way it was that was it no there's there's other okay here we go on my honor i will try and then this one i guess you can include or not include i don't remember this in the pledge to serve god and my country to help people at all times and to live by the girl scout law i'll do my best to be honest and fair friendly and helpful considerate and caring courageous and strong and responsible for what i say and do and to respect myself and others respect authority use resources wisely make the world a better place and be a sister to every girl scout so i think this is like what they're i assume this is what I was asked to say. Yeah. And I was like, I can't be all those things.

Which is, these are all good things to be. So I'm like, damn, five year old, what was wrong with you? Maybe it was to respect authority and use resources wisely. I don't know.

Or all of these, I don't know. I just was like, I can't do it. That's kind of fucked up i think it's a lot of pressure to put on a kid dude i get what you're trying for but it's a lot of pressure i agree well i think that you are courageous and you disrespect authority that's a problem but you know no i'm just kidding i don't actually think that's actually one of my better traits yeah i kind of like that about you. Yeah. Kind of a firecracker.

Eliana, I'm starting to, you know, every day I learn more about you whenever we're here, obviously. We've done this for a very long time. We've been podcasting together since, oh my god, like seven years, eight years now almost. We do still learn about each other. E, GGC. Yeah, so we're still learning about each other. I think that's special. And we're still learning about each other. I think that's special. And we're growing

together. And I think you fit a lot of those terms now, whether you were Girl Scoutin' or not. Thanks for this, Eliana and Elise and Shiloh for your comments. Let's hop on over to that lightning round. Let's get into Arya too. We've got a lot to crunch down in this first beautiful chapter in Braavos. but to get to that chapter we got to start with cersei too where managing a kingdom is hard especially when your uncle refuses to be the hand of the king after you've insulted him continuously for several chapters uh i'm on episode two of the sopranos i'm like is'm like, is this related? Anyways. Yes. I'm gonna make it. I intend to watch it this year. Oh my god, I'm so proud of you.

This is so exciting. I'm excited. Jaime 1. Jaime rejects Cersei's handjob again. Brienne 2. Brienne dons a very familiar shield and then takes on a squire. Sansa 1. Merillion haunts the Vale. Sweet Robin haunts

Sansa's bed. Oh no. Like one of those annoying little Victorian boy ghosts, you know? Just the worst kind. The Kraken's daughter. Asha prepares for her queen's moot at Ten Towers. Asha refuses Triss's advances. There's a lot of that going

on in this beginning. This is really interesting as a lightning round feast is about women who don't fuck no i'm just kidding cersei three cersei has the pyromancers put on a display for everyone incinerating the tower of the hand with wildfire no one's gonna have hand jobs ever again oh jesus what a sad world we live in that was what the message yeah that is actually literally that chat that's gonna be a fun chapter it's gonna be a fun Oh, Jesus. What a sad world we live in. That was the message. Yeah, that is actually literally that chapter. That's gonna be a fun chapter. It's gonna be a fun POV. Someday, someday. The Soiled Knight, Eris Oakheart, attends his princesses.

Brienne III, Brienne and Podrick join up with nimble Dick Crabb. Samwell II, Sam realizes the cost Gilly has paid on the voyage east Jamie too Jamie schools Loras Tyrell I actually love their dynamic me too Cersei prepares to send Gregor's head to Dorne Cersei schemes against the Tyrells using Tyena as a tool

this could be like every chapter fuck the Iron Captain Balon was mad erin is madder and euron is maddest of them all the drowned man euron grayjoy is proclaimed king rip brienne for dick crab dies against the bloodymers. Brienne buries him in the Heil Hunt, joins the party. Boo. I was like... Subtle booing.

You stole my face. I was like, oh no, gross. The Queenmaker, crowning a new queen, goes horribly wrong. Oof. And that brings us here to episode 222, Arya 2, A Feast for Crows. Expected to give up her past personas, Arya gets a history lesson in the House of Black and White. Each night before sleep, Arya says her prayers. Aw, like a good Girl Scout.

One day, the priest asks who the names are that she whispers, but she claims she doesn't say anything. He calls her a liar and says, all men lie when they are afraid. Some tell many lies, some but a few. Some have only one great lie they tell so often that they almost come to believe it, though some small part of them will always know that it is still a lie and that will show upon their faces tell me of these names uh okay i'm sorry i think five-year-old me could have lived up to a murder prayer i do think i could have done that um so aria i i think there was something really pointed here saying like all men lie when they are afraid and it feels as though aria has been trying to run from her fear for a lot of the

this arc and story right but she's always lying and telling herself to not be afraid but what we're seeing now is that she has been afraid this whole time she's afraid of being herself because it's not safe to be Arya Stark and she's been trying so hard to escape that fear which is part of what's brought her here to the house of black and white and I'm trying to think of like you know this idea of this one great lie and I know you've got like some really good ones to talk about but we know of some but I'm trying to think of like other POVs that like have a lie that they keep telling themselves or not just POVs and you know I'm thinking is one of those lies Aria telling herself that she doesn't need anyone else she just needs to be

by herself everyone abandons her and that's a really sad narrative to carry around as a child and then also another one has to do with like the lies that Littlefinger is telling himself about Sansa and about Catelyn. I love that so much because then you have like Sansa telling herself lies about Sandor. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, like the ability to just really believe something. And like Reek and Theon is one of those too, right? Theon has been forced to absorb and live this one huge lie, and you can see how ingrained it is that, like, he does come to believe it.

But yet, in a mirror of Arya's storyline, Theon is still there in, like, a fist pump moment at that end of dance. There's also, I don't know know it also feels kind of culty right like is the house in black and white trying to get aria to believe one great big lie of you know that there is no you there is just the servant of the house of black and white and i don't know it's interesting yeah i feel like there's a lot of, like, the idea of an institution owning you that we're going to talk about throughout this chapter, because it's weird because they're selling her freedom, but they're not. Yeah. They say they stand for liberation, and we get to some of this history as we go, but then at the same time, they aren't liberating. It's very, there's something going on here.

Yeah, they're not. Oh my God. Yeah, they're just continuing some of the systems that are going on, which we'll talk about more. But with regards to the liars, the many liars in this story, God damn it. I definitely know that the easiest one to think about here is Ned, right? With Jon and a little bit of Catelyn, right? Catelyn having to lie to herself all the time about ned and his bastard quote unquote though she doesn't know the truth but that's an interesting part of it but yeah one great lie so much that they almost come to believe

it i love that and it kind of goes back to ned's philosophies too like when can a man be afraid is interesting against men lie when they're afraid. It's a continuation, right? Of his theology for his family. Ned is afraid. Ned has to lie. Ned has to start to try to believe the lie

in order to not give it away. Actually, there's some really great stuff in Children of Dune about this, but with Ghanima, it's very awesome. I'm in the depths of rereading Children of Dune and God Emperor, and I'm just having a fucking blast. So everything I'm like, ah, God Emperor, ah, Children of Dune. Yeah, Ned, especially, you have that beautiful vision at the godswood that Bran gets to see, right, where he's praying and he says, let my lady wife find it in her heart to forgive,

he's praying and he says let my lady wife find it in her heart to forgive let them grow up as brothers right and praying for forgiveness from this lie which is kind of what a lot of these people coming into the temple are doing right they're begging for forgiveness from their lives of deceit and whatever or the deceit they've had to hold in their heart and they want to get rid of it and it also makes me of what he tells catalan right especially because here he's like talking about all these facets of a man all all these faces of a man, right? And we have Ned and all these faces where he used to be harsh or the Lord or the father, you know, all these differences with him and that line where she had asked him about

John and Ashara Dane. And he said, never ask me about John. He is my blood. And that is all you need to know. And now I will learn where you heard that name, my lady. Interesting, right? Like that turn of him turning cold, like she even says that was the only time in years

he had frightened her ever. So like suddenly a face out of nowhere, that's Ned's tell. Ned's tell is literally how he speaks about John to his wife. Ned's tell about John is all over him. You can always see a lie in a man if you just look at what his tells are. And that's Ned's. he doesn't say it outright that like john is not his son like that's how strongly he has forced himself to believe this lie for i mean baby boy's survival and for a man like him who like needs to tell the truth or else it shrivels him up inside you know like it beats you up inside like that's so hard for quote honorable ned who's quote doing the most honorable thing right by keeping Jon safe

keeping him out of the fire of Robert Baratheon keeping him out of the fire of the throne keeping him safe as a Targaryen bastard or maybe not bastard we don't know because we don't know yet and even that against you know I'm rereading a lot of the Tyrion chapters right now I've been kind of deep in them and you know I'm thinking about like JonCon and Aegon, right? Like JonCon knows Aegon's not his son. He has to pretend that he's old Griff, young Griff, right? And he can't, JonCon's not allowed to be himself anymore. And he has to pretend Aegon's his, but he knows Aegon isn't his. And deep down, he probably also knows that Aegon's a fake. Aegon's not even the real deal. He just hopes it is against hope because of Rhaegar.

Yeah, I love that because it's a combination of like, all of the lies that you said, but also the lie that he can redeem himself in terms of Rhaegar's legacy. And that he can serve, like, that he is doing this out of love for Rhaegar as opposed to I mean you're doing it for yourself sir and of course it's interesting because Arya's having her own version of that lying arc that Sansa kind of had with Sandor in Clash of Kings right Sansa learned to lie because Sandor was like hey they're all liars here better than you and if you don't fucking pick up your pace i can't save you

from getting yourself killed girlfriend uh that's basically a clash of kings right and aria's now here and she's being told that if you want to live here you need to start lying for your life sister and doing it in a way that they can't tell yeah or like it's either that or you you have to lie so hard to yourself or you have to fucking believe it, right? Like, either you lie and keep Arya or you give up all of your truths. Mm-hmm. So weird. Arya discloses the secret of the prayer, right?

That there are people that she wants to die, there are people that she hates, and he tells her that this is the wrong place for that attitude. The gift of choosing who dies is only for him of many faces and they are but servants aria asks okay cool so which god is he in this temple and he's like all of them she doesn't know his name nor the waif who reminds her of weasel somehow when aria and the waif live below the temple with three acolytes two serving men and oma the cook whom aria cannot understand no one else has shared their name ah and aria is not given the black and white uniform she's given rough spun undyed woolen clothing and cloth slippers. Oh, it's like a hotel. Level one mage. Yeah, I'm like, oh, cool. And she says that what she wears is servant's

garb. And it makes me think of some of these other orders, right, where they ask you to sort of give up yourself and parts of your name, such as the maesters in order to better serve yeah i love that especially it makes me think in fire and blood and uh i guess probably in the world of ice and fire for some of them if it was released at this time or this information was available but you know you have some of these targaryens that end up going to the citadel like vagon or maester amon here and them giving up their name, their niceties, etc. to do so and to kind of earn this respect and earn this position. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Aemon, see, it's, he's also got time on his side. After a while,

everyone who really knew was dead, you know? So only the kindly man speaks the common tongue. And every day, Arya tells him when he asks who are you, no one, but inside she knows she's been many people and has held many faces, but in her heart, she's Arya of Winterfell, and she remembers her family, though that's not the answer he's looking for. Arya can't speak to any of the others at the temple, but she listens to them and she tries to learn the words that they speak. The youngest blind acolyte would often walk the temple in charge of the candles in his slippers,

using the scent to guide him and the warm air of the candles. Arya decides she'll try this method out herself and starts to learn some of those skills, which is interesting. Again, all this stuff is going to be really useful in the long night. I'm like, you girlfriend are getting a training course in how to live during the zombie attack on Winter the long night. I'm like, you, girlfriend, are getting a training course in how to live during the zombie attack on Winterfell, so I'm so excited for you. And then I never noticed the youngest acolyte being blind, and now I'm like, oh, is he passing the next part of his training,

background foreshadowing for what she's about to do? Because, of course, to her, she's like, he's just a blind kid. But, Arya, you're about to be that blind kid in just a couple chapters yeah watch out aria no you're right i didn't notice that one until to this reread either and i do think it is part of the training and i honestly rereading aria's chapters i can really understand why this needs to be part of the training because we've seen her really rely on sight a lot because of sirio's lessons of like learn to really look but she hasn't learned to really see yet right or like sense and it really makes me think of you know when they're like yeah he's lighting the candles

because he can feel the warm air around them maester amen and him being like yeah that's not the real light bringer if it was i would have felt it literally i would have literally felt the fire from it oh yeah good call yeah i didn't even think of that holy shit yeah i guess it's this book maybe or like just right before so yeah sam's chapter sam intersecting with aria it's fun times seeing what's not there yeah yeah every dawn they prayed but aria doesn't know the words well aria have i got a pledge for you so she prays her own prayer respect for authority the worshipers come daily to the house of black and white mostly alone to pray at the pool weep a few would drink and go to sleep but most would not the temple is never full sometimes worshipers ask for a priest and the

kindly man or waif would take them to the sanctum but not often 30 total gods line the walls the weeping woman who's preferred by older women line of the night rich which rich men prefer interesting oh it's kind of like a little nod right lannisteryister-y, but not. The Hooded Wayfarer. That's the sheepherder from last episode, by the way. Or not the sheepherder from last episode that I said, by the way. Sorry if I believe this is a reference to one of George's other stories. And the moon pale maiden, reference to one of perhaps our stories. We'll get there in a second. And the Merlin King, which is a sailor's favorite. And the stranger.

The stranger was there too, though. Not well loved. I love that the stranger is there, even though he doesn't fit in. Because the stranger's fucking everywhere. And every culture is like, yeah, best not disrespect loved. I love that the stranger is there, even though he doesn't fit in because the stranger is fucking everywhere. And every culture is like, yeah, best not disrespect him. You know,

may as well just throw him in there just in case, just in case. Yeah. I respect it. The stranger is the same in every language. And I think that's beautiful. Also, I have to say about the prayers.

It's so funny. The Aria is like, she doesn't know their words. So she does her own prayer. And I'm like, don't worry. They probably change the words every 10 years to fuck with you like catholicism yeah you know it was messed up i was like i know the words and then i went back and i'm like damn now everyone can tell i don't usually

come here to catholic mass unless my family makes me because they changed the words it's fucked up dude like i know the sentiment like do my years of catechism mean nothing now thanks also also here are my opinions this is not regarding the nice thing they just switch the creeds but like so here are my thoughts it used to be before uh communion lord i'm not ready to receive you but only say the words and my soul shall be healed. And then they, they switch it to like, what is it now?

Lord, I'm not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word. And it's not the same. And I liked it better before because there were double entendres and it had more poetry to it. I think that's my bigger problem is the new ones suck the old ones were really good like they had it right why did they change it it had

like a really great i think layers layers to it whereas this one is like really literal in like a not cool way yeah because like religion's supposed to be fucking weird like that's what's so cool about it you're like holy god i am your creature absorb me into your fucking weird like that's what's so cool about it you're like holy god i am your creature absorb me into your fucking flesh like that's something like catholicism can be really metal when you think about it like they really went and fucked it they dropped their they were they fumbled that bag like catholicism it's over for you i will never never this was like a benedict right i think benedict was like i don't know they have to remember me for something i should do something and nods your amount of things as pope and like he decided that was

going to be the thing he did um no i'm being i'm like he was just like this is gonna be the thing i do a nominal change or ceo ever yeah for real that's it so thank you everyone for coming here and listening to chloe and my thoughts on catholicism and the words recovering catholic lyrics um speaking of gods right uh uh wasn't moon pale maiden one of your monikers somewhere else once we're gonna dig we're gonna dig into chloe's lore now we've already dug into my lore yeah you bravo so now it's time for chloe equally as important as those two things in my opinion yeah yeah uh way back when i ran a cute little facebook page with some buddies called the page of many faces we were very obsessed with this part of bravos like we loved

it so that's why i'm so mad at myself for forgetting the hooded fucking wayfarer because i'm like i should remember it because our friend dan went by the hooded wayfarer but yes mine was moon pale maiden i chose moon pale maiden uh a good friend of ours elena was um lion of night so what was shelly again yeah shelly was the weeping woman yes yes very fun it was a fun time. We made some really silly book lover memes. It was in my D&D hate era, which I've ascended from and it's like still hate them, but understand how they got there. And like some of my friends don't understand the story either. And they pretend they do. So it's okay. Okay. Do you want me to leave that in there? No, I think you should leave it so everyone can wonder which friends they are. Fascinating. I i mean if that describes you if the shoe fits chloe's in her chaos era

i'm out of my hate dnd era i'm in my projecting on everyone else era yeah yeah i remember that i remember that page that's so crazy that's so funny you used to post a lot i remember seeing that um yeah this is like on this is like facebook era too anyways yeah it's still there i mean you guys can all go look at it in your free time if you feel like and stalk it it's got silly memes it's got bad memes it's got good memes it's got it all you know it wasn't it was also but no you're right it was a facebook era like this was like 2014 through 2016 like at its peak probably like that was the era that was the time with game of thrones when people cared yeah and no one talks about it anymore so oh i mean we don't we're bugs we're a

bug podcast chaos era so they talk about the the the many god, you know, and like there's this thing that they say like he has many faces and many ears to hear and like how it doesn't matter where you say your prayer of death because he's gonna hear it because he's got many ears to hear and it makes me think of the language that's used to describe fairies. And I

mean even Bloodraven, right? Like when it comes to master of whispers and how people fear being observed. So I just thought that was kind of fun. Ooh, yeah, I love that. I feel that there's a lot of Varys in these chapters, even though he's not here, you know? Yeah. Yeah, actually.

I mean, like, that's the thing. That's why I was like, oh, I don't think, and I know other people thought of it and have said it before. But I'm like, wow, there really is a lot of merit to her being a mistress of whispers yeah i see it completely now she would love she would have loved tain of the tower oh absolutely she would yeah absolutely she would love to go learn everything from her or like from misaria yeah i mean she just like i guess those weren't gardened yet as characters but like the way that she feels about nymeria i feel like she could have been like yo what a cool historical figure bacalon is from george's seven and seven times never kill man by the way yeah

and it's basically telepathic creatures who live in a consciousness and they influence dreams through domes instead of trees so if that sounds familiar interesting maybe we should we should put that one in like a list yeah of uh ones to read next because we are still doing i i was having a really good time doing some of those george short stories yeah we're actually talking about releasing one for you guys for the public in a handful of weeks so or maybe next week so keep an eye out for that we don't know how time works yeah aria is allowed to wander amongst the vaults and storerooms of the temple as long as she stayed within and didn't go to the lowest level the sanctum she finds a room that's filled with weapons and armor and another with clothing.

Interesting. Arya had imagined treasure chambers originally with golden plates, silver coins, and precious gems. It kind of is a treasure chamber in a way. She doesn't know that yet. This is the costume department, I believe, or part of it. Once the kindly man catches her prying in the vaults and she's like, oh, I'm lost. And he's like, you lie. And he sighs and he kicks her out of there. She tends to work in the kitchens with Amma. And sometimes she gets her hand smacked for getting in the way by Amma. But otherwise, no one hits her, which is kind of nice and very sad for her to say that. Like, oh, it's kind of a nice place to work compared to my previous places of employment in the last two years from nine to 11 years old. She even starts

to learn cooking skill, which is really important. She learns tons about the fish and the shellfish of the waters here. These are important. I just, I don't know, I kind of giggle when I think of stop being the first Braavosi word that she learned. Because I think it's more funny that George didn't bother to come up with a word for it right uh because as he said he's not very good with languages so he just never made that word actually yeah he also doesn't give us for example the words for any of these animals which we're gonna find out that uh aria does know the words for these later on clams and cockles mussels and muskfish frogs and turtles mud crabs and leopard crabs

climber crabs red eels black e black eels, lamprey, oysters, all with spices or garlic, sometimes even saffron, or like what Uma is cooking. And yeah, George was like, fuck it, it's too many animals. I'm not gonna make up words for all those. And being in the kitchens, though, really makes her think of hot pie. She's like, ah, hot pie would have loved it here you probably would have definitely isn't it so sad that she spent like the last however many books being like fuck you hot pie and then now she's like i really miss that guy yeah where are you yeah you don't know until they're gone that's actually literally how she feels about her siblings

damn yeah that's how she feels about sanza she's like fuck sansa and she's like i miss that bitch yeah we don't know how that feels um i don't understand so um like my favorite time of day aria's favorite time of day is supper she asks the kindly man why people at the temple are so peaceful unlike all of those that she knows back home in Westeros who are afraid of death. And he says, well, death isn't the worst thing there is, and it's kind of a gift to end want and pain to be able to stop that suffering. He tells her about a dark angel that's sent by the many-faced god to lead people to the nightlands. Arya pretends to smell candles, and she tells him what she smells, and, you know, but what she's supposed to say is nothing, so she's like, oh, nothing! Even though we know what it smells like, we've already heard from Arya one, it's snow and pine needles and hot stew. Mmm, that sounds good. like that dark angel or something that walks beside them makes me think of every single person being born with their deaths in the his dark material series and we learned more about that

in the amber spyglass so that just kind of made me smile i don't think they're related at all but also aria thinks of i don't know are you sure people want to die because i think about that pimply squire i killed and he definitely did not seem like he wanted to. And all the people that she saw screaming and not wanting death. And I think that comes back to that idea that we've been talking about of choice, right? When you choose to give yourself up versus not, right? There's definitely a difference between seeing death as a way out also, or versus wanting to keep on living and someone taking that from you or even like having something to die for which is again kind of speaks to the idea of sacrifice versus self-sacrifice as ned did right when he died for one great big lie for his daughters

yeah also have to say but men's lives have meaning not their deaths aliana okay but we flip flop on this every five povs or so we're like but do they have meaning maybe but oh no they don't have but maybe look we barely have five povs left so like this is it i don't think we can flip flop again can we i mean we could we probably could we also got hot d so and unleash the d there's a lot of things that could happen we could even get wins during sorry i should just if i don't talk about it we'll like that manifest that i'm going to start coming up with some like magical thinking rituals now see precision we do not want the wins a winner we do not want the wins a winner it is not gonna happen for us looking under my chair yeah to make it come out wear your clothes inside out and t-wow

comes out tomorrow throw some ice cubes in the toilet spin around three times tomorrow so the kindly man calls aria by her full name making it clear she could leave the temple anytime but she isn't going to be welcomed back if she does so she says she wants to stay and he reminds her all men must work valar dohaeris and be obedient that's some girl scout shit for sure yeah i'm like just that like light little slip of like in there like oh yes we're so happy and control respect for authority jesus aria has other tasks at the temple she has to sweep the floors sort the clothing count coins she helps the kindly man find the dead in alcoves which they're pretty easy to arrive to find because they arrive they pray they drink the water and then they sleep

quote unquote yeah and then we have the kindly man being like, the gift of the many-faced God takes myriad forms, but here it is always gentle. There's a lot of dimension in here. Your voice is very creepy. You're such a fucking creep. I've been leaning into the creepy ones. I don't know if you remember what I did for the tickler,

but I don't know. I feel like what's kindly and gentle, like too gentle, you know? Yeah, yeah yeah i haven't found my voice for him yet i'm still working on it like i'm trying to channel like how they're like yeah ruse bolton spoke in a whisper yeah i figured it was kind of ruse boltony for you nice i like i like thanks there's a lot of dimension here there's aria kind of starting to see the difference between murder and mercy and her povs and that's being outlined here right like aria sees killing as vengeance or justice when she murders someone it's because they deserve to die for the crimes that they did yeah right to her or to others around her wow that kid that kid the kindly man is trying to teach her that's not what we do quote unquote we don't kill in anger

our killing is a kindness that comes before the anger or when it's all a person has left is what he's saying but i'm also cognizant that like the kindly man is selling her this vision of peaceful euthanasia what we do is peaceful euthanasia we're helping but also we're watching them sneak their employed assassins back in down to the sanctum and change their faces and like the fact that there's this lower level the sanctum that aria can't go to and she's not allowed to see and these people that show up on and off and she doesn't know why but they're always like coming in speaking to the priest going downstairs and the creepiness that will come to here of pork in a moment. Like there's an uglier underwing of this business, the underbelly of the business that she

doesn't know about, like freedom of choice, liberation. That's not enough to power this society. If freedom of choice and liberation were so freedom of choice and liberation, why is Arya here doing the bureaucratic side of things and why is there a part of the business she doesn't know which spoiler alert it's where they murder people to stay afloat in the business and they make money off of it like hey you don't know that those people who go down there didn't have organ donor checked on their driver's license and the organ is their face listen oregon tax policy um got it instead of aragorn's tax policy oh i thought you were talking about oregon the state oregon trail it's like what am i missing here and yeah no i i really like what you're calling out of like it is i mean they're they're hiding it because it is an ugly

business and they want you to be in too deep before you get to know the secrets like yeah and but i also really love the way you've put mercy and justice against one another here again and how it manifests and in aria's storyline and i mean it is a little hypocritical right they're all like yes peaceful euthanasia but like let's be real they're gonna kill if they have to kill like people are always saying is Jaqen H'ghar a rogue and he is a rogue in terms of class in Dungeons and Dragons the other D&D but is he has he gone rogue from the tenants of the House of black and white but it very much seems like he's probably there on a mission for them of some sort and that might mean yeah sure let's kill all these people just to get there or even like killing people in order to indoctrinate aria into being like yeah

killing is normal and fine right well and killing is like part of cult initiation, right? Sometimes. If you murder someone, it gives you blackmail. Oh my god. So then you're stuck doing and leveraging for them and you're stuck in a cycle for them. Like Sansa and the Hairnet and Littlefinger. Yes, exactly like Sansa and the Hairnet and Littlefinger. Whoa. Anyway, so yeah, the kindly man would pray after finding a body and aria would fetch the

serving men to take the body to the vaults the acolytes there strip and wash the bodies and take the valuables and clothes for sorting in a temple the dead are taken to the lower sanctum and she begins to suspect the meat that she's eating is human flesh but the kindly man claims that it's pork i think this one probably is they have enough but like let's say aria one of your siblings is not eating pork let's just one of your siblings definitely not you can share stories later her bed is made have you ever tried this dish her her delicacy delicacy is made of stone but is also stuffed with rags instead of straw and she keeps her treasures in her room from the titan's daughter as well as needle she practices

sword play or needle work when she can in the shadow by a blue candle but one night the waif sees her the waif doesn't say anything, but obviously she narcs on Arya because the next day, the kindly man is like, you need to throw all this shit out. And he's like, you're a servant and you are playing at being a servant, but you are still a lord's daughter in your heart. Yeah, so it's a less brutal version of it, but it makes me think of the Unsullied, right?

When they're like, here's a dog that you will love and cherish and it is yours to keep alive. And then they're like, you have to kill it. And in the way that they're making whoever joins the House of Black and White give up all of these personal belongings in order to join, it's very much this idea of erasing the self. And again, speaks to that indoctrination that's going on here. And it does make sense, though, for, I think, what they are doing as part of their process and making them all into one order,

as opposed to what we see when it comes to the Night's Watch, the Kingsguard, and the Maesters, right? in the maesters right like for example with the night's watch it's really clear from the get-go from the prologue that you can see the difference between the new members of the night's watch and the old ones by how worn the clothing is but also in terms of the quality right like you can tell easily who comes to the night's watch as a high-born person versus a low-born person by their garments they don't give them new fucking cloaks or anything. You go there with the black clothing that you have, or maybe someone will give you, or you'll dye your stuff later on, right? As opposed to here where they're like, no, we're all the same. We're all no one. And in the Kingsguard, everyone knows, like you keep your name. And by being part of the Kingsguard, you're bringing

honor to that house. And the maesters, they very much retain, even though they say that they give up part of their name, they definitely retain a sense of self, which is explored in A Dance with Dragons. Yeah, I like what you've called out here, especially with Jaime too being before this, right? In that conversation with Loras Tyrell and Jaime. It seems George really wanted to bring more of that maester and you know some of these orders some of these orders whether they're more militant or more um academic depending on the order he wanted to bring a lot of that in with Oldtown being the front of the book right yeah I think that there's definitely a little there's

something interesting about him putting all these orders in this book and having eris oakhart and his kingsguard vows and jamie and his vows and amen and old town with sam and sorella and everybody and then here now with the faceless men i see what he's doing i see the blueprint here yeah and that is interesting because that prologue does have that convergence of the maesters and the faceless man well the kindly man tells her that if she can't give up her mind body and soul to him of many faces she must leave and worse this is something that you cannot buy with gold you have to buy it with you you have to pay the tuition by giving all of yourself and we have this line here uh from aria i have a hole where my heart should be, she thought, and nowhere else to go. I'm strong, as strong as you.

I'm hard. I love this. I love her saying to him, no, I'm hard, I'm strong. But inside she's like, I'm not strong. I'm fucking dying. I have nothing else. Nowhere else will take me. This is all I have.

I've come this far. I mean, oh my my god she just came all the way over here she made it all the way over here she kind of does feel that she has to do it and we talked about this in Arya 12 and a storm of swords but more cat parallels in the language here right cat seven in a clash of kings there's an empty place within me where my heart once was I have a hole where my heart should be she thought thought. Of course, then Arya 12, A Storm of Swords. She could feel the hole inside her every morning when she woke. It wasn't hunger, though sometimes there was that too.

It was a hollow place, an emptiness where her heart had been, where her brothers had lived and her parents. Her head hurt too. And then there's that later line in that same chapter. The hole will never feel any better, she told herself when she went to sleep it is just emptiness yeah interesting all of those together with something clicked for me when you just said like the way that aria is describing this it sounds like she's dying on the inside right and that's kind of what's going on in this chapter of like i guess the kindly man is trying to say in some ways that we are the same as those people

who are out there asking for the gift of mercy but they've just gone through the process of killing their selves obliterating the self to be servants of him of the many-faced god and he says that there are he says that there are that death is not the worst thing that can happen and as we see right like her mother is one of those people who is in that between of death and life essentially he's saying you have to kill yourself you have to kill aria stark in order to be here and it is still a death but the body's still there which is the same same as with Catlin and the other zombies. Oh, well, and it comes back to,

like you said, yeah, broken man. It comes back to what you were saying about like dying and having a reason to die versus living and men's lives having meaning and not their deaths, et cetera. Like in a way, you know,

it really encompasses like how you live, who you love. That's the important part of life, not how you kill yourself and become this soulless shell. Yeah. Like, those were des, like, the people who are here in this temple. Like, they're des of people who are losing that sense of desire, right? Versus Arya's here because she has something that she wants. And they're trying to be like, you can't fucking want that if you're going to be here.

Arya's here because she has something that she wants and they're trying to be like you can't fucking want that if you're gonna be here and very much that Robert Frost poem of from what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire oh she's a very fiery little girl despite being born of ice anyway

we love fiery little girls on this podcast to be fair yeah that's true a good fiery ruler or leader or follower. Oh. The kindly man offers to find Arya another place in service of a merchant's household or with the courtesans

or maybe marriage and children or Westeros. They could take her to Goldtown, Duskendale, King's Landing, or even opposite to Tyrosh or on Luko Prestain's Ladybright ship. Hoomst. Name-dropping people I don't know. God. He's a minor character, maybe you just don't get it.

I'm just kidding, clearly don't. We should check on our friend Micah, I think I was channeling him for a second there. So I think it's interesting that all of these placements that the Kindly Man offers, they just, like, do not suit Arya in the least. Like these are none of these things that are appealing to her, right? Like he doesn't offer her like, oh, you like doing shit with your sword? Why don't you become a Bravo, right? Why don't you learn fucking swordplay? Even though that is an option here in this town, and by town I mean city city he doesn't offer to you know send her to a kitchen and be like oh it seems like you've been having a good time with umma like why don't you go work

in a kitchen um maybe that goes under serving in lord's household i don't know or he doesn't he isn't like oh you can become a scholar i mean this is a city there's a lot of things that she could fucking become all right he doesn't offer to help her become a sailor even though we know that's something that she was enjoying being on the ship it's kind of like manipulative because the only options that he offers her are like very gendered and also to an extent of a sexual nature he's like oh do you want to be a courtesan and people will praise your beauty with me no aa's never cared about her looks really in that way other than like at the beginning of the story when people told her it was important like do you want to your body to be used for breeding or to sate men's lusts like these are

the two options that he really fleshed out for her and these are also the exact reasons that she was struggling to be Lady Arya of House Stark because she didn't want to live by those gender roles. I'm like, damn, you could have offered her anything that actually mattered. So it seems really weird. Right. Like King's Landing was a lie, but now Braavos is another lie, right? This is a place that's supposed to be freer than King's Landing and these cultural and societal values. And yeah, what you've picked up on here is great because it's like he's saying this is your only option to be free he's leveraging the other box that you can get put in if you're a female right if you are a woman in westeros he's leveraging

he's leveraging that like guess this is all you could be if you weren't here and coercing her into realizing this is the only place for you. You can only be with us if you want to truly be free. And it's, it is exploitative, right? Like considering he's about to tell the story of the Valyrians and the enslaving of the faceless man, like, is this actually freedom giving your body for the faceless men, working for the faceless men, giving them your heart, your soul, your priceless memories. Like, is that actually freedom? Are you really free? What are you free of?

Yeah. No, for real. Because you're not free to like live your life there. And that's cool if this is the path you've chosen. And I guess he is trying to make that clear, right? He's like, I mean, if you don't want to be here, you can go. But at the same time, he's like, ah, this is your, I don't know. It's weird.

It's this weird tension. Because he's right. You really don't have to go to this school. Yeah. But they do really want her. They see a lot of promise and potential in Arya Stark. No, I think they do. They do.

The Kindly Man tells Arya, God might have brought her there to be his instrument, but the kindly man sees her as a child. A girl child, at that. Worse. Women can bring life into this world, but we, the faceless men, bring the gift of death and no one can do both. So she would need to give up all of her body. All of it.

Even that part of it. But aria's not scared of these words that's really weird what do you mean no one can do both i thought that was the fucking point we are no one anyways anyways i mean liana stark did it yeah that's true she brought life and death into the world at the same time well yeah and only death can pay for life that's there's a lot going on sacrifice bitch yeah that's like going on that i think we are supposed to question that and there's like a lot of tension but also like can't believe that the kindly man is sexist but i can most men are i'm sexist too though so oh my god against men i'm just like why do we even need that in the house of black and white but i think like thematically so i think it's in the house of black and white but i think

like thematically so i think it's doing a lot of things now that now that we've like talked it through and it's supposed to be responding to other things that are happening in in the story like right like how we say oh liana stark well maybe we don't say but i i'm realizing as i read through like liana was wrong that love cannot change a man's nature. The story puts things out there and then it argues, is this right? Is this wrong? Anyways, obviously women can fucking kill too. It also speaks to some of these Freudian ideas that I feel that George is playing with, whether he knows it or not, in regards to the nature of the uncanny, that which is familiar and unfamiliar, and how it manifests in Arya's storyline and in archetypes about the mother, right? We see it with Lady Stoneheart and Catelyn,

how the mother as an archetype in Freud and Young can be nurturing but also smothering. And this idea of the womb and tomb as one, right? The earth itself being an embodiment of that as the womb from which we all come, but also the tomb to which we all return. So anyway, I think it's also like really interesting that we get this weird shit as well of like, women can't bring life and kill and take it out at the same time, when this is the same book that the Sand Snakes are introduced in. Yeah, it's like a huge overture of the entire book so much so that, you know, there's the Cushing Library that has some of the drafts of all of the different Aeswaf books.

And there's the prologue that's been discovered that George almost wrote the prologue in A Feast for Crows from Rosie's POV. And the bits that were available was that Rosie originally was a girl who wanted to be a maester. And George was so really influenced by that. And this is more meta speculation, but obviously he didn't go with that because Rosie's still there at the end. But he added Sorella into the story, right? To give us that POV at the Citadel,

which I think is really interesting in kind of a meta progressive way. That is really interesting because then you see like the role that Rosie gets relegated to, but also I don't know, it's probably better that the prologue character was unlikable, a.k.a.

Paige, because then he gets to die. Ball sell. It makes sense, too, with how we weave things in with the Faceless Men plot, so because I would prefer that over Rosie. I don't want this POVv but i'm more interested in the citadel and the idea of and look at brienne right who is acting as

basically a king's guard throughout this book the truest knight in westeros right look at jamie and brienne against one another in this book not like that you perverts and but it can't be like that it can't be like that do whatever you want look at them however you please but yeah I just think there's a lot going on of the idea of like the order of the world or any order in the world and the systemic version of it that says women can do this, men can do this, and how they actually take that and they continue that idea systemically throughout the world. Well, because it is throughout the world, right? Like, there's no way we know for a fact, even if it's not said, Rosie cannot have been and is not the first nor the last person who's assigned female at birth who wants to be a maester right like yeah especially in that city you see all those people who live there a bunch of them are probably like wow it'd be really cool to go join the citadel

right like why wouldn't you want higher education if it was available to you and it was right there yeah there's a lot of studious people out there who think it would be really fun. Or like, you have Mirri Mazdor, right, who learned some of those things from Armin. And seems very capable, as capable as any of the maesters. You have, like you said, Brienne. Like, Brienne and Arya are not the first, and the Sand Snakes prove that, are not the first people who have wanted to be fighters, but couldn't because of their body parts. I mean, we wouldn't have historical people that also have already done it. Like Jean-Claude, the Scarlet Shadow Jean-Claude, and, you know, Visenya was a warrior. I mean, she was one of the best of her time. She was fast, she was quick, she was sharp, she was one of the best of her time she was fast she was quick she was sharp

she was strong and there's something in that of like these people had some accommodations for themselves to help them be better knights but so do people like arthur dane who carry the sword of the morning dawn yeah right like that's an accommodation to be able to do your job better so yeah and i think you know it's now that i think about it like it's pointed that we have characters like gendry and hot pie in aria's story right because gendry is for the most part a pretty like emotionally intelligent boy and yeah and the gale of the story he's got he's he's a soft boy in many ways and i like that about him and unlike his dad um hot pie hot pie the things that he wants for his life are things that

are to an extent coded as feminine right he's like i want to go make like bake and do cute things so he doesn't say he wants to do cute things but yeah it can be both though but you know what i'm saying like there are there are people who are like male and who also buck to an extent gender expectations within this story we have a passage from the book that i felt was important. We've got a couple passages left. Buckle up. You should stay, and the many-faced God will take your ears, your nose, your tongue. He will take your sad gray eyes that have seen so much. He will take your hands, your feet, your arms and legs, your private parts.

He will take your hopes and dreams, your loves and hates. Those who enter his service must give up all that makes them who they are. Can you do that? He cupped her chin and gazed deep into her eyes, so deep it made her shiver. No, I do not think you can. Arya knocked his hand away. I could if I wanted to. So says Arya of House Stark, eater of grave worms. I can give up anything I want. He gestured at her treasures.

Then start with these. But I won't do that. Eater of grave worms, damn, calling her out. That's her defining characteristic. Eater of Graveworms, damn, calling her out. That's her defining characteristic. Eater of Graveworms. After supper, Arya can't sleep, so in the black of night, she dons her Westerosi clothing and buckles her sword belt on. This is no place for Arya of Winterfell, but she has no pack.

They killed her pack. In the night, she moves through the fog and stops at the water's edge with her silver fork and tosses it first next comes her floppy hat no her gloves her pouch of coins her boots her dagger her sword belt then her tunic all of it and she stands pale goose fleshed and shivering at the water yeah so i like this idea that she starts with tossing the silver fork makes me think of you know, like people, the saying being born with a silver spoon in your mouth

just getting rid of that. And also I'm like, dang, she really learned fucking nothing, right? She just threw away the money into the river. Like, I don't think she had to do that. That could have been donated. Could have just left it on the ground, you know what I mean? My god. She's like, money?

Throw it away. Alright. You ready? I'm ready for the BAFTA, you know? In her hand, needles seemed to whisper to her. Stick them with the pointy end, it said, and don't tell Sansa. Mikan's mark was on the blade. It's just a sword. If she needed a sword, there were a hundred

under the temple. Needle was too small to be a proper sword. It was hardly more than a toy. She'd been a stupid little girl when Jon had it made for her. It's just a sword, she said aloud this time, but it wasn't. Needle was Rob, and Bran, and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell's gray walls and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, old Nan's stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens The sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room Needle was Jon Snow's smile He used to mess my hair and called me little sister, she remembered

And suddenly, there were tears in her eyes Tears in our eyes Eh, I'm okay Ugh I got stoned before this to be fair but no we don't do drugs no one does drugs that is a very sad passage i'm sad we're sad uh it there's something in there too that i love when she even says needle was too small to be a proper sword it's hardly more than a toy she'd be a stupid little girl when john had it made for her like saying she's grown out of it it's time to throw it away and all these fancies and the ideas i had of like having needle. Nope. Arya thinks the old gods wanted

her to have this sword, right? That the many faced God can have everything else, but not needle. She runs naked up the steps and she finds a shoddy step that she can hide needle beneath shoving stone over it. And then she counts the steps back to the temple, memorizing them. So she'll know where she had it promising to come back someday and these memories are worth more than an iron coin or blood or gold you can't buy these memories of love of care of nurturing unconditional love right of home you can't buy those memories with those things maybe with blood but maria will never be able to give these feelings up how could you i couldn't give these up. Yeah.

As you said, unconditional love. And she had that. Still does in different ways. Her parents are dead. But Warren was right. Needle is so important to Arya's story. And like, it means so much that she got Needle back. And I can't believe two chapters later she has to fucking get rid of it.

But, you know, Needle here actually is a sewing needle right it has the threads it holds the threads that tie her to her family and also needle as her as aria stark um neither a sword nor a dagger as he called out too small to be a sword you know she's it's a sword that has no category and therefore it doesn't quite fit into this or the other it's its own secret third thing but but it's its own thing right just like aria doesn't fit within the bounds of everything neither does needle needles a weapon symbolizing protection you know it's the protection that home and family gives her for her sense of self but also something that i think she kind of hoped she could have used to protect her family she was like I'm gonna I'm gonna go in we're gonna save my mom I'm like you could not do that and she leaves it hidden there right like it's hope at the bottom of Pandora's box locked in there and uh interestingly

hidden behind a stone lots of stones going on in the Stark storyline with uh Stoneheart but also Elaine Stone but you said something of like Needle being too small almost a toy yeah but like you were saying like she feels like she needs to get rid of that child perhaps and I'm like oh this is her kill the boy and let the man be born moment but that's not always right or the good thing to do

because look at how that fucking turned out for John yeah that's a bad, like, uh-oh. Uh-oh! Yeah. This is a problem. Yeah. You're in danger. Anyway, so. Needle. The next

night, the kindly man sits with her and tells her that the faceless men are older than the titan, that they were first rooted in Valyria among the were first rooted in valeria among the slaves who worked in the mines of the 14 flames living mountains with veins of molten rock and hearts of fire basically an oven that stank of brimstone can you imagine probably smelled like sulfuric eggs like all the time like just eggs all the time you like my first job i was a bus girl at an italian restaurant and I would come home stinking of

chicken and olive oil every night and like not in a good way like it was like go take a fucking shower yeah so I would but I remember really tired nights just exhausted ass like parties that we had to serve for and I just remember like getting home and being so exhausted and just laying on the bed and making my comforter probably smell disgusting but it just sounds awful like it's like you come home from 12 hours toiling in that 14 hours probably i mean they're slaves so 80 hours yeah i'm like i don't even know do they even get to go home there is no home that they get to go back to they're just there until they collapse it sounds like yeah it kind of sounds like interesting because i'm like they decided the home for them. The Valyrians decided where they live, how they work, what they do.

And now the faceless men decide where people live, how they live, how they work. Though in theory, I guess she doesn't have to go to this school. But yeah, no, that's that's very true. But yeah, yeah. So he tells her like, this is our founding story our uh university founding story um it was awful to breathe the feet of the slaves were burnt constantly and also there were fire worms in the passages go eat one of those aria some say they breathed fire and maybe even came before the dragons and the valyrians would take slaves by the thousands during war and breathe

them in times of peace and there were revolts that were common, but few accomplished much as the dragon lords were strong in sorcery. The first faceless man had risen up against his oppressors. Men of a hundred different nations would labor in the mines and each would pray to their own god in their own tongue, but all were praying for the same thing, which was release from their suffering. The faceless man realized- or the faceless man, sorry release from their suffering. The faceless man realized or the faceless man, sorry, the man

the first faceless man, the FFM the man realized the gods were deaf and this realization changed everyone's lives. And he almost like that spark of you know, autonomy finally like what? He tells her the first man was God's instrument

and freed the most wretched slave that night who prayed for release from his bondage. Arya drew back from him. He killed the slave? That did not sound right. He should have killed the masters. He would bring the gift to them as well. But that is a tale for another day. One best shared with no one.

He cocked his head. And who are you, child? No one. A lie. I don't have anything, like, poetic or smart prepared to say here, and I don't think that I have anything to add of value besides there's something in this interesting about, like, what Arya doesn't yet realize about the faceless men as another system

and what she also didn't understand about the faceless man's gift when jackan was giving you know her uh his ear that the original faceless man wasn't going to be able to topple the entire system of slavery at the valyrian freehold by killing one specific person right as aria later is like what if i had just killed Tywin? When he had his one wish, like she once had, he instead freed the other slave who was living in misery and killed them. Killing one of the masters would not have freed this man, right? Who had suffered so horrendously. Another person would rise up in power to take that position and continue hurting the slave and he kills the slave and it becomes a tool as you'll infer to i think for

maybe freeing the rest of them in the end so a sacrifice in order to keep it moving and i think there's some stuff with a dance with dragons with daenerys right that comes into this well like she ends up in marine because she can't free marine in a day just by killing the masters she learns this is a society and a culture and a place that was so steeped in its history that all of its systems revolve around that history yeah i mean systems change takes a long time right like and it takes intentional work and you know i i that's one of the things that i thought parks and rec got really right they're like if you want to meld these two towns together, this is at least 10 years. At least. And I'm like, that's true. That is absolutely real.

And yeah, I don't think I really have anything smart to say. I mean, we all know this was a horrendous system that they had, and slavery is bad. So I don't have much to elaborate on this um i i have some thoughts on like lore of like you know that first one the first slave that the faceless man killed to take his face and also how did this magic yeah that's kind of what's implied right and then you have all this mystical atmosphere of the fireworms and the valyrians and the 14 flames like something's going on here, maybe some sort of magic or some other sort of smoke and mirrors as we, uh,

hear from Alessandra's, you know, yes, smoke. Exactly. But yeah, I think it's definitely inferred that that slave died. He took his face and that then birthed what became the faceless men and the

magic and being able to take other faces and used it as a tool to, you know, come back at the valyrians or hold on i'm just realizing now another thing it could be interpreted as the very first slave that he kills was that himself in regards to the obliteration of self yeah there are like eight ballad of songbirds and snakes jokes I'm not making right now I really need you to read that book well anyway he tells her that he knows how to read faces he says muscles tells everything that eventually you'll see the signs on a person like telling dusk from dawn and he

asks you can tell dusk from dawn right it's pretty obvious well there you go that's what this becomes and it kind of reminds me and is especially like with aria there's a line in the dune books from the manual of madib by the princess irulan where it says what do you despise by this you are truly known and coming back to kind of what we said up top with ned right his tells aria herself has her own tells yeah that's true she definitely does and um it also makes me think by the things she hates yeah makes me think of those micro expressions

that the whole show lie to me was built off of um I don't know if you've ever watched that oh yeah yeah yeah also I'm like Arya is wondering she's like I don't actually know if I could tell that's grimdondon and I'm like I know she can't because if she could she would have been a better navigator in general.

The sun rises and falls in similar spots every day. I knew that you were going to, I'm like, if there's one thing Eliana's going to do, it's she's going to get after Arya for her lack of navigational skills. She's learning, she's learning. But I'm just like saying, you know, there's two things. It's Arya's navigation and her love of worms this is all you need to make an aria stark uh anyway she wants to learn and the kindly man says all right the wife's gonna teach you she'll teach aria the bravosy tongue daily

each from the other and aria becomes a novice of black and white. They give her a robe. It's buttery soft. It's kind of cool. It's white on top, and then the undergarments are black. Kind of fun. Very fashionable. Arya and the waif spend time together learning each other's languages. They start with simple words that George never made, but eventually move on to the harder words and sentences. And the waif is better at learning the common tongue than Arya is at learning Braavosi and they start playing a lying game to practice the language and as we were talking about at the start of this

chapter there's a lot that has to do with the ability to lie convincingly that I think has to do with the ability to believe whatever it is that they are saying believe hardcore in that one big lie and I think by erasing the sense of self instilling the belief that someone actually is no one it erases the anchor as a sense of truth and it allows someone to lie convincingly because they can believe in any untruth but also in cults it's like you unlearn all these other truths and then the cult becomes the sense of truth but at least i think in the house of black and white that's part of what they're doing but they're also making it so that you can easily believe any truth to tell it convincingly or any lie whatever yeah like a

blank slate yeah aria eventually realizes the waif is actually not a tiny child she was saying that the waif reminded her of weasel the little girl and uh it turns out the waif is 36 years old this woman is 36 years old i could be the waif yeah you're almost there you old emeraffer oh i'm just kidding i'm gonna like ride that as long as i can the other day my roommate was like you're gonna be 32 soon and i'm like without missing a beat and like reactively I was just like not if I can help it and he was like what yeah time to start not if I can help it

yeah for real so yeah the waif is a grown woman who's given up her life to the many faced god and Arya wonders if she'll live to give up her life to become like the waif or not grow anymore and the kindly man explains it's from the poisons, from the drugs, like you and I were talking about.

That's why you don't do drugs. And Arya, yeah, don't do drugs. Arya then understands, because the waif empties a stone flagon into the Blackpool every day after prayer. So interesting even, like, her just being near it so much has some side effects. Also that the poison in there stunts growth.

If you drink enough of it it kills you but if you drink a little bit of it or touch it it might stunt your growth and obviously people of smaller stature exist but and it might not be related but it makes me think of the ghost of high heart a little bit and her gift of prescience

and like of being able to see things and makes me wonder what else this uh water of life shit gives dune yeah yeah it is interesting like i don't think that the waif has to drink as much of it to stay that size i think that they were like you know it'd be really convenient a child-sized faceless man that's why they have aria today yeah but actually maybe you know like they're like no one's gonna think a kid's gonna stab you yeah they're like you know what's better for your personal career path little girl who got sold here uh if you just stayed this size

um anyway it also makes me think of like something that they play with in the books of poison as a woman's weapon the tears of lease and also i mean there's this there's this uh saying people have regarding like wanting vengeance right it's like drinking or wanting revenge it's like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies and so that's it that's the deepest thought i have on that you can all string it together that's pretty interesting and how it goes with aria's storyline from there i also think there's something in there especially as we talk about like giving up your body to the faceless men this is in its most extreme right makes me think a lot about like body ownership under capitalism where your boss pays you

and money is what makes it so that you can live or houses you, et cetera. So it kind of is that like line between private property and individual responsibility. Like the line now blurs on who owns you, how you think, what you do. If you're having to give your life away for this job like congratulations you're making however many figures but you're giving your life away for this

job right and for this idea and your memories and your soul and everything even to an unhealthy aspect here like what the waif has done in not growing and staying childlike like i don't know interesting lines to be blurred about the body under whatever government we want to call this slash also fiscal society yeah they took this girl's whole life from her right like what is the difference between a slave and uh her dad giving her a way to here and they did they offer the way if the same choices are you like you don't have to stay here like what your dad did was super shitty but you don't gotta stay here or did they do exactly as you said you know like which i think they did to some extent of being like it would

be really cool if you stayed this size yeah there's also like a fetishization right of the idea of staying petite and childlike for a woman or someone that was. Are we talking about the 10 and 11 year olds buying retinol? Well, no, I was talking more of like men preferring petite childlike women and pedophilia and the way that our countries, the way our globe was set up on the idea of trafficking young children. Yeah. For their body, for, you know, your iPhones or or like for their body for like millionaires whatever true but yeah but yeah i was thinking of that as fetishization of like the the stature and petiteness especially the how the show played it off with them oh yeah young thing um or not too not too young too old there there we go that's what it was

yeah too old because too young would have been like what a pretty normal person would have done anyways visitors often visit the the house of black and white and ama sends aria to go pour for them and the kindly man instructs her to be still and not listen aria hears a lot of conversation but it's actually pretty easy to not listen aria hears a lot of conversation but it's actually pretty easy to not listen turns out when you don't understand the language so she does that aria is using her past skills from here of being rusa's cup bearer and aria asked the kindly man about drachen hagar and how he changed his face and the kindly man's like i don't know him and explains that a proper glamour requires years of practice, sacrifice, and study,

and tells her to practice making faces and learn to rule her face. Like, you want to change your face? Fine, go do it in the mirror. And this idea, though, of being able to rule your face and change your face at will, he's like, a smile should only come on command. It makes me really think of courtesy, right? And the politics and being able to perform perform in that way sansa and clash right yep i'm loyal to my beloved joffrey yeah sure yeah i mean everyone else is like all right sure girl but are you i mean they should have said sansa over here you know sansa's ready she'd

probably she'd be into it she'd be like i could win i could win uh just kidding let's not send her there she doesn't need that in her life i don't know if she could win i could win uh just kidding let's not send her there she doesn't need that in her life i don't know if she could really i just like sansa's an assassin i'd worry for that girl yeah well i mean her strength is being sansa stark and ruling her face with this very political figured face right arias is different it's in the shadows if we could just merge them you know if we could just no them, you know? If we could just... Sun and moon it. Sun and moon it.

The kindly man commands Arya to help other acolytes prepare corpses, which she finds actually not as hard as scrubbing steps for Whis was. So while her accent is pretty horrible, by chapter's end she gets promoted at the House of Black and White. The kindly man says he's going to send her to sell cockles, clams, and mussels to sailors off ships for a fishmonger named Brusco. Yeah,

in which the Kindly Man actually literally says, get a job. She didn't even have to interview for this one. Right. She assumes the identity of Cat, an orphan of King's Landing, and leaves the House of Black and White with a long iron knife on her right hip. I like this moment where they're like kind of brainstorming they're like yeah yeah sure you'll be cat and then like the kindly man shows her how to create characters right he goes your father was an oar master on a galley when your mother died he took you off to sea with him then he died as well and his captain had no use for you so he put you off the ship in bravos and what was the name of the ship and she's the one who gets to write in that part of the characterization says nymeria and it's very much i feel like george having a

little fun and being like this is what it's like to be a writer you make characters and you give them this little backstory and you build off of that but also like being a you know role playing or dungeons and dragons kind of stuff yeah i i think it's a blast that he gets to just like do a bajillion characters for Arya in this book. It's definitely fun. You can tell like, he's definitely done some writing exercise ideas of like, if so and so was here, how would I have them do X or like just to understand the characters and that's really what this came from. He's like, Arya can be anyone or no one at all, which is kind of fun. Yeah. And like, if this is the parts of your character you have to draw from that right you have to be like this is your motivation this is a what you would

be like and how you would react and yeah absolutely a blast out in the streets of bravos aria gets lost and gets curious looks and words she doesn't understand casted her by the passerby yeah and we close the chapter with before long long, she was completely lost. Sir Gregor, she chanted as she crossed a stone bridge supported by four arches. From the center of its span, she could see the mass of ships in the Ragman's Harbor. Dunsin, Raph the Sweetling, Sir Illyn, Sir Meryn, Queen Cersei.

Rain began to fall. Arya turned her face up to let the raindrops wash her cheeks so happy she could dance. Valar Morghulis, she said. Valar Morghulis. Valar Morghulis. Yeah. Arya at the end. I have learned nothing.

I have learned absolutely nothing. No, I'm joking. I'm joking. But it's cute. I mean, kind of, though. Like, you know, except for the part where it's people she wants to kill but you know whatever whatever except for the part she's supposed to like be ditching all that like and there's also a little bit of an inverse of like is there gold in the village how many how many how many right valor margulis valor margulis valor

margulis like she's just come to the next stage of her place of being rooted in vengeance and not in the spirit of the phrase right then the chapter comes round circle completely because we start with her hatred and her prayers and she gets told to abandon who she is abandon her hatred and then we end with her hatred with her prayers but now valar margulis flavored yeah slightly and i said this before in brand chapters. I feel like it belongs here too. The first adaptation of Dune to another text slash movie, Star Wars. You might know it. Star Wars, the ancient Jedi texts. Tell me a little more about, no, I'm joking. Don't tell me more about Star Wars. adapted from Frank Herbert's Doom. Yoda says, I really think I said this during a brand chapter, I think it was about Jojen, fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, and Arya is living in her hatred. She is using her hatred to consume her and use that as a weapon to get her home, to get her anywhere, to keep her alive.

That's all she has, right? I think of the bad show and, you know, there's that line that Father Ray says to Sandor Clegane, Father Ray, in season seven. He's like, what kept you going? And Sandor's like, hate, because it can keep you going. It doesn't really nourish you. It doesn't give you nutrients, but it's like eating sawdust you know like okay well i have something in my stomach so i can survive the night and there's even something that kind of reminds me of like living too long in your

animal coming back to bran and coming back to her and her dreams right living in your hatred but also living through your your animal through your warging and kind of reminds me of Varamyr, right? A little bit of his hatred that we experience. Yeah, and his anger and injustice at the world and why me and you know, whatever. But, fuck that guy. But for Arya, like put that, put like

in Arya, we like Arya. Something like that happening here too, so. Yeah. Interesting way to end it having nothing actually happened like she starts at the beginning gets the whole lore and history and why she needs to be no one and then goes back to being Arya Stark yeah but it's also I mean it I love the way you strung that all together it's perfect in a book that introduces us to Doran Martell what do you think kept him going all those years hate hate vengeance justice fire and blood yeah it's gonna lead to a lot of suffering there's a lot of suffering in store unfortunately

for him yeah i'm very sad about that but hey it's interesting you bring him up right because that's kind of what the story of the faceless man is right that they were in there with fire and blood and now vengeance and justice yeah and mercy the 14 flames and mercy yep interesting interesting stuff well i have had a blast with aria's pov but it's now over because the new pov is cat of the canals yeah we will be starting cat of the Canals, not next week. If you're listening as this comes out, it'll be the week following next. Next week, we are going to bring you a treat. We are going to be giving you our Patreon bonus episode,

The Mystery Night. And that is being provided by us. But thanks to patrons for letting us unlock it for the public. This has been oh my god when did we record the mystery night i can't even remember but it's been a while it has been a while and this is part of our redo of duncan egg i guess we'll have to come back to the first duncan egg eventually right the hedge knight oh yeah we haven't redone it yeah long ago in 2017 eliana and i were together and fell

in love and we conceived this podcast one night that night was us recording something called drunk and egg for drunk a song of ice and fire and we decided to revisit it so i think we put this out last february it's been about a year a little over a year and we'll be releasing this one for you i'm gonna throw it out there if we redo the hedge knight i have no intentions of re-listening to our entire uh oh no absolutely not i don't need to know what i don't need to know that i don't need to know all that that's okay and by that i mean i just don't want to listen to drunk me yeah it was four hours of drunk us that we put out it was eight hours of us on skype yeah

we were in love ever put out yeah we were bombed and in love so i will never forget that actually like i very much remember that we just sat there afterwards talking and that was when girls gone canon was conceived everyone we were pregnant with you all and us that night yes yes yep yeah we actually have uh already put out the sworn sword with joe buckley from over from the isle of faces he came and hanged out with us but this one's just us so yeah you'll have that next week we'll be back with Cat of the Canals. We've got a lot coming down the pipeline with a new POV, a real new POV to come. So keep your ears and eyes unpeeled. Patrons in some of the tiers do have access to POV reveals. So I know some of you are waiting with bated breath to find out who it's going to be.

Is it going to be Dany or Cersei or Tyrion or Epilogues? No one knows, but you'll find out yeah and of course if you want to keep up with our new pov cat of the canals and the mystery night and anything else that we put out or if you have thoughts that you would like to share about oaths that you were forced to take as a child you can let us know on social media at twitter.com slash girls gone canon that's c-a-n-o-n also on blue sky at girls gone canon or you can send us an email at girls gone canon c-a-n-o-n at gmail.com of course every episode we put out is sponsored by patrons it's ad free we edit them we do this for y'all we love

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We'll be back with A Song of Ice and Fire. We'll be back with The Mystery Night next week. Aria after that. Thanks for listening. I have been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I have been another one of your hosts, Ellie O'Neill. No one. Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow. That's the next POV. Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow.

Bye, folks. Or the other one, i guess so yeah i guess so bye folks bye