Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 232 — AFFC Cersei IV

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

Cersei finally gets to join and lead a Small Council meeting made up of mostly unqualified people with newfangled titles. --- 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 Cannon Reads A Song of Ice and Fire, episode 232, Sersi 4, in A Feast for Crows. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. This week I did remember my name. Exciting. I had to remember that I say Girls Gone Canada at the beginning today, so. We're losing it. We've done this over 232 times. Yet. Just putting that out there. Somehow. today, so. We're losing it. We've done this over 232 times. Yet. Just putting that out there.

Somehow. Welcome to Circe 4, a delightful chapter, ready to get into it, but first we have some housekeeping up top. This month for patrons in the Stranger Tier and above, There is a bonus episode that will be out by end of month on Sand Kings by George R.R. Martin, a novelette, a fun little story I had the pleasure of reading on the plane recently and I'm about to get some notes down for this episode, so I'm excited. Please join up to hear this episode and many other bonus episodes that patrons and the stranger tiering above it, patreon.com, slash, Girls Gone Cannon have access to.

Yes, and if you're listening to this, you've already missed October's Brunch slash Happy Hour. Alas, so sorry, but right around the corner in basically like a fortnight or so, you've got the other Brunch, you got the November brunch slash happy hour, brappy hour on November 9th. That's over on our Discord where patrons in the Thunder Tour and above get access to that as well as lots of fun channels full of hijinks. We should bring back the the slideshow. I was thinking that. I have a thought. Hear me out, Kate. Have everyone... well, that would be good too. But have everyone bring what they would

bring to the Harvest Feast. Oh, that could be fun. We did something... What would you bring to the Harvest Feast? We did something similar a while ago. Well, I don't know if it was similar or people just happened to bring food-related stuff. I can't remember anymore. I think it was food-, but yeah. I only know because our friend Lowe the Links from Ragman's Harbor taught us about Loot Fisk, which I already knew a little about, but it was pretty cool. That one was life changing. Oh yeah, I just

always remember Maddie's Hypocris presentation. So good. Yeah, that was great. We'll workshop this and let everyone know with a little time to spare the for-brunch. In like a moment. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. All right, we got some emails and reviews of notes. We got a really fun review, actually. Eliana, I was so excited when you sent me this because of the username. Yeah. Okay, so this person- Is this your alt? Is this your alt? That'd be hilarious. But yeah, we got an Apple podcast review, which I was like, whoa! Haven't seen one of these in a second. We got this a few days ago from- okay, this person says, I have been a day one listener of the finest Asswaf podcast in all the land. And I know that this

is real because their username to post this was BelleWaas Deserved Better. And I was like, wow, deep cuts, deep cuts. And it says, girl's gone canon is the perfect blend of serious analysis and whimsy. I like that we've been described as whimsical. Whimsical. We are.

Yeah. The hosts have great chemistry together and have only gotten better and funnier over the years. This is actually what I want to hear that gotten better and funnier over the years. This is actually what I want to hear, that I've gotten funnier over the years. We already know, we have a strong bond. Anyways, the unique approach of following the different POV characters is a great way to get in-depth character analysis and explore the many themes present in the collected works

of George R.R. Martin. I probably should have written this review a long time ago, but they made me wait six years to get to CERC, so now we're even. And see, look, look, it sounds like I'm laughing to myself about how great this is, but you can't see. I can see Chloe is also laughing. Let me just tell you the chemistry is real. I'm not just talking to myself. GINNY It's really funny because it's like how everybody reinforces to Cersei and validates all the stuff that she says that is quite a little unhinged. She's like, you're right, I am so beautiful and everything I do is good, and that's how I feel

about this review. They're right, they're so clever to have seen it. STACEY I think for me like it's just being told, yes, you are so funny. And I'm, which is actually hilarious. That's not what any of the Lannisters really want to hear, but I'm always like, yes, thank you, so whimsical, so full of whimsy. We sound like, I don't know, little forest elves or fairies, Midsummer Night's dream of us. Everyone wants a little validation is all we're saying. Okay. Thank you. Every once in a while, we just want to be seen. So thank you, Bellos Deserve Better. I'm not convinced it's not like Eliana's Finsta Apple account.

Oh, that'd be pretty funny. It would be pretty bad if it was like that would pretty... you should choose a better name and password. Worried about you. What would my... I don't know. I don't know what my alter ego is. My finsta would be like, I hate SandBob Kluge. Definitely not Kluge. I think mine would be something stupid like, this is definitely not Eliana. Not an Eliana. If you- yeah, it's really a mouthful. Like, not a cast, but-

We're not a cast, but- We're not a vlog. Not a girl. God, can't we? Not yet a woman. Oh my god! We're gonna continue with this episode. The chemistry spire.

Yeah, thanks, BelleWossDeserveButter. If you also want to leave a rave review for us, you should do so at a listening platform near you. Leave us five of them stars and tell us how we changed or ruined your day. Thank you. But if we ruined your day, please still only give us five stars. Please, my family is dying. I don't know how to budget this. Listen, art should inspire a response and it sounds like we did for you.

So. My wife is pregnant. Please. Oh my god. Five stars. She's not. We got a great email. Segwaying from the validation requests.

We got a great email from our friend Rowan, who is, of course, the founder of Circeology. And she wanted to let us know two perfect episodes in a row on those first two. She hasn't gotten to hear Circe3 yet. It's not out for public at the time of this recording. So she's violating HIPAA to let us know that her patient, Circe Lannister, Circe's therapist is Rohan, right? Like that is her role, Circe's therapist. And she's violating HIPAA to let us know that her patient, Cersei Lannister, Cersei's therapist is Rohan, right? Like that is her role, Cersei's therapist, and she's violating HIPAA to say that her patient and her feel secure. She's in excellent hands. She wanted to comment on me saying that Cersei likes to do the short-term risks. That's one of her downfalls in ruling. And also that we hinted at the podcast being Tyrion as Tywin's true heir, and she wanted to bring up Cersei being Tywin's true heir. In Cersei 1, Cersei thinks to herself, she was a daughter of the Rock, a lion, no use of lion, not lioness, followed soon thereafter by I am the only true son he ever had.

And she's right, Tyrion may be called Tywin Ritz Small, but Cersei is the most like him and his true heir, for better and for worse. Mostly worse. Think about how many traits they share. They act defensively and protectively from a place of paranoia, make grand gestures to claim power that work in the short term, but not the long. They're driven by hatred of others and a need to prove themselves against their father, duh, has a core of bitterness. We don't get a Tywin POV, but if we did, it probably would resemble Cersei's dark, paranoid, suffocating psyche more than Jaime's or Tyrion's. If he had been assigned female at birth, I think he'd be as miserable as she is, and

by labeling the ship she names after Tywin with she, her pronouns later in this book, Cersei gets that little bit of revenge on him. Someone write a Joana force-femming Tywin fic now! Interesting. Oh, Rohan. Oh, Rohan. Rohan plans to talk more about the gender trouble in the Lines Above some other time. Perhaps you'll hear it here. But that's too much to get into right now. Wanted to put out the Cersei is Tywin's true heir, true son agenda out there. Love, R. Xoxo, R. Yeah, why no Xoxo this time? Holy shit. Wow, we lost the Xoxo. Now we move to love. I mean, it's not just hugs and kisses, now it's love. It's a it's a throuple. Challengers. Circe challengers.

So thank you for this email, Rowan. The Rowan Report, week two. Do do do do do do do do do. I just thought I should make the like NFL music in there. Oh, is that what they sound like? Do do do do do do do do do. Are we getting into football also? I finally learned how it works.

Listen, Chloe and I are getting into baseball. As you've all heard throughout the course of this podcast the past two weeks. Go Dodgers! Fuck them up! They have to defend me now because I've been lost. Yeah, no, literally, like, I think it's tonight. Yeah it's tonight. So that's why we gotta do this episode so we can go get vengeance for my fallen red

shirt affiliates. Anyway, so that gives you an idea of when we're recording this podcast, which also is prior, you know, we mix things up a little just because we want to get these out to you in a timely manner and give you our brains. But yeah, I think in the last episode you also talk about how Circe is very much Tywin's true heir as well, like both she and Tyrion share traits that are inherited from him. And I think there's a lot here that's really interesting regarding acting defensively and

protectively in a place of paranoia and those grand gestures, right? Because we're seeing that happen in this chapter especially, and also some that are not grand gestures. But it's also like, Circe, as we see, very much rules by fear, which is something that is very Tywin-wise. I think we see that Tyrion does mix in other strategies, right? He doesn't only rule by fear, he only starts doing it kind of later. And we don't know that he actually always executes and does those things. But he might later on. It's interesting because Tyrion's like kind of a perversion on like, when Sansa's like, but I am queen, I'll make them love me. And Tyrion's like, I want them to

love me, please love me, you know, looking for that love and in that it turns to hate when they refuse to love him. Yeah, exactly. His is a kind of like a, you know, all right, fine, I will be this thing that you want me to be. Whereas Cersei is very much like, she's playing against those roles. She says, I do not want to be that, which is very much what Tywin was doing, right, trying to take control of his narrative, his family's narrative, after the downfall of their father. LESLIE Mm-hmm. Agreed there. STACEY Well, and with that, let's jump into it. LESLIE Yeah, lightning round motherfuckers. First up, between Cersei III and Cersei IV in a feast

for crows, the Soiled Knight, Racked with guilt and love for his princess, Eris Oakheart plots to queen-make in Dorne. Hmm, interesting. Prepare to hear. Brienne 3. Brienne and Podrick come upon Hile Hunt. Boo. And Nimbledick. Yay. More like Hile Cunt. Yeah. Samwell 2. Where Samwell realizes the sacrifice Gilly has made on the road to Braavos. The road being metaphorical, it's the sea. Every now and then, Google Maps, if you put something across Notion, they'll put swim as part of the directions.

Swim, bitch. Jamie too, Jamie confronts Cersei about Tana's spy status. Jamie also gives Laura a history lesson. Well, I bet it wasn't about House Quam. STACEY Old man yells at Cloud. STACEY Listen. STACEY Old man yells at Cloud. That throws us tumultuously into Cersei IV in A Feast for Crows, where Cersei gets things back to politics. Cersei delays today's small council meeting to manage three ugly men who brought her ahead. It's grey-green, it's crawling with maggots, and it's not Tyrion because we get inside Tyrion's head next book. Cersei thinks that no bells will ring for

you Tyrion. Right, because we got some death bells going on in the background, which I think is really interesting in the context of whether, you know, the Battle of the Bells is going to come up again when either in like, John Connington's storyline or even Daenerys's and both of these storylines intersect of course with Tyrion's. Yeah, in a way he's doomed them to the Bells again. Yes. Right? Like he's doomed Jon conning to this all over again just from like, from the way he's goaded Aegon, from the way he's goaded Griff, and how they're going to approach Westeros.

Yeah, goated and goaded, my friends. Yeah, absolutely. So I think that's really interesting. I think it's, we're gonna be talking about a lot of these characters though. I mean, they just really intersect with Cersei's storyline as well. Like one of them is literally her brother. Why are we gonna talk about them? Hmm. Oh, one's literally her brother.

All must choose. All must choose. Anyway, I also love that she thinks that the rotting head smells like father, which confirms that the smell at the funeral is rotting. This is all in the context of how she's like, I don't know, I guess I could raise these people up to lordship, but why them? They don't seem like they've washed in a long ass time. And also obviously this dwarf's head is just some random other lowborn person and it shows

that they're all the fucking same. We're all the same as she thinks about like, you know, she thinks Tywin's better than I know. We all rot the same, probably. Yeah, there's a lot of class commentary between those lines. Yeah. I mean you would rot too if you weren't cremated, but anyways. It also kind of reminds me of the the White Harbor stuff popping off, right? With Davos and White Harbor and what we just have coming up with a small council, like the head rotting and about how they're going to chop off his head and hands and hang him. Hands.

And it's not actually him. It's like just a normie. So Sarah. So Sarah. So Sarah. Blackfire. There's a lot of, Sarah. So Sarah. I'm Blackfire. There's a lot of, yeah. I'm joking.

I'm joking. Unless I am. Goat and goated. Not. I don't know. Cersei announces that they've killed the wrong dwarf, highlighting, this head has a nose. The simplest thing.

And you missed it. You biffed it. You failed. She's disappointed she delayed her small council for this, but also doesn't want to kill these guys for committing a crime because it might stop others from continuing to commit this crime and finding Tyrion. Because how many dwarves are there, really, Cersei kind of thinks? What if we just kill all of them? You know? That's basically where this is leading to.

Is this eugenics? Is this... maybe? So what isn't in this fucking book? That's true. That's true. Actually, let's go back to the previous ruling family. Take panning quickly camera to previous ruling family and talk to that. Anyways, so on a policy aspect, I think this is kind of interesting because you know, Circe does

condemn to an extent, she's like, you've killed an innocent person. And it's like, she's like, well, I'm just not going to do anything though, to protect any of those innocent people. And even remembers, dang, last time the head that I was brought, that was just an ugly child. And I was like, oh my god, she just does not care about if the kids like get killed. Because also, you know, it's not the first time Remember that Circe's killed a child

Which yeah, we do we are kind of talking about Malara But we're also not only talking about Malara because in the book Circe's the one who gives the order For Robert's bastards to be killed which is uh, which also comes up later this chapter when she's like I can't believe Catlin let that boy live, let that boy Jon Snow live. She's like, I simply would have killed him. She kind of more or less does that and it's a good insight into her character and I think what Rohan was saying about this ruthlessness that Tywin has, to an extent, she really doesn't care who gets hurt or who dies as long as she reaches her goals. I think Tywin cares if people get hurt, if it weakens the impression of the family, which is something we discussed in Kevin's chapter.

Yeah, narcissists give way to narcissists. Whoa. Whoa. So. Cersei sends them out of her sight, demanding Jocelyn Swift clean up her own puke that she puked. This had been the third head they saw this morning. Or, I mean, in total, not this morning. This has been the third of dwarf heads they have seen throughout this. Ser Osmund promises they'll find and kill Tyrion, and Cersei thinks of the dream she had last night, of Maggy the Frog. She never told anyone, not even Jaime, what the woman said. Malara had told her

if they never spoke of Maggy's prophecies, they'd forget them. And a forgotten prophecy can't come true. Yeah, I really love this proposal from Malara because I think it's something the series does sort of question. Like, the more that you try to prevent a prophecy, as we see with... I think we brought this up last chapter, maybe Melisandre and the Blackwater, and it kind of forces it to come true. But at the same time, like, Circe does not speak of the prophecy, but she also does not forget it. It's a constant in her mind, so of course she'll self-fulfill it. I love that it's like the little things you tell yourself when you're afraid of the dark, right?

The things that go bump in the night. If you don't, it's not real. It can't see me. It can't touch me. If I don't see it, then it's not real. If I don't think about it, it's not real. Forgotten prophecy can't come true. It's great that it's coming up against

the Sam and Amon stuff right now, the talk of the prophecy, because there are prophecies that are very old and some are very forgotten, but it just takes someone keeping them alive. That's an interesting idea. Very thematic for a feast for crows. Yeah. I think this is George kind of playing with that sort of the way prophecy manifests in both Greek tragedy but also like some of Shakespeare's plays and we'll talk about that more later. Yeah.

Yeah. Qyburn promises that he is in formants looking for Tyrion in the Old Town, Gulltown, Dorne, even the Free Cities and seriously worries that Tyrion is still here haunting King's Landing and he is but in your head. So one of the places she thinks he could be is in Baelor's set. She thinks that like what if it's him ringing the bells and I wonder if this is in some way like kind of a reference to the hunchback of Notre Dame just a little bit. Not much, not like very much. Just like a little nod like of you know. Yeah, though. Yes. I mean you have Hugo, Hugo or Hill. Oh, yeah. Oh my god, you're right. Yeah, but like, you know, sort of outcast kind of dude there.

Maybe there's more, but I'd have to like actually put more thought into that. And little gargoyle, you know, being called a gargoyle constantly. I do think you're onto something. He does call himself, yeah, or think of himself as such or like a grotesque, which is also another term that sometimes is used for grotoquills. Yeah, real Quasimodo hours. And the idea of love versus being refused love. It's really notable also that Qyburn has informants in all of these places. Yeah.

That stood out to me like hmm okay. I am curious about his network. I am too. Like are these just his friends? Does he go on LinkedIn and he's like hey what's up over in Gold Town? Yeah can you keep an eye out for me like? Old Town makes sense for him to have people there. It's interesting, he's definitely not what he looks, you know? There's more going on here than meets the eye. They make their way to the small council finally and they discuss a different head, Sir Robert Strongs, which is ready to be presented to the Dornish men. Hmm, question mark, question

mark, question mark. Who knows the truth there? Meanwhile, the bells are ringing for the High Septon and it annoys the shit out of Cersei. Qyburn's like, oh, they'll end at sunset, and she's like, how do you know? And he says, knowing is the nature of my service. Your move, Varys. So you have Cersei thinking in some of these moments that Varys wasn't irreplaceable after all. Everyone acted like he was just like so necessary for this job. And honestly, I think Varys is like very good at what he does.

He's pretty good at what he does and actually she remembers something about him later on we'll get there. But it's just that what Varys was doing wasn't in service of Cersei, but he's very good at the thing that he does. Yeah. Yeah. This is just not his regime. Maybe if you were a Blackfyre, Cersei. Anyways. Cersei looked forward to putting Qyburn in Varys's seat and seeing Pycelle's reaction.

It was the silver that paid for the whispers all along. Boros is guarding the council chamber, and Cersei notes that he looks rather grey since he had become the food taster for Tommen. Yeah, I don't actually know if this is the best use of a king's guard, but whatever. Do we not want someone who's physically well to, anyways, protect the king? Right, why are you weakening your Kongskar? Like, we are supposed to have some of the best like physically capable people. Anyway.

Classist only not when it matters to be classist. SMH. So Cersei apologizes for her tardiness and introduces Lord Khyberne and Pysel's pretty taken aback. He's like, Lord? Um, and he's like, you've hired this chainless abomination to this small council. Which now I'm like, did they like intersect at school? Seriously, yeah, I guess so.

They must have. And he's like- It's being implied, yeah. Not him. Everyone knows about him. He's infamous. That's true. I want to know more.

Cersei addresses this by implying slash saying that Pycelle made a mockery of her father's corpse, except this is standard embalming procedure, as he points out. He's like, listen, I love that man. I love that man so much. G. It's a very interesting thing for her to pick on with him, right, for her to blame him for. And it is like, it's something he loves, Ty tight when he would not do that to the body but you get this line that the silent sisters removed his bowels and organs drained his blood every care was taken his body was stuffed with salts and fragrant herbs and she cuts him off and she's like despair me the disgusting details I smelled the results of your care and I'm like isn't that just like the extent

of their embalming technology then? This is, yeah. Like, seriously, this is just what dead people who have been left a week smell like because you wanted to make a spectacle out of him. Yeah, I agree. That's just, that's just what they smell like. The longer you wait, the more he rots. Like, that's how it works.

That's how it works. You don't have a big block of ice to put him on. Like, it's season fucking seven. We don't have formaldehyde, you know, like... Yeah. Also, he sounds like... a meal. Stuffed with salts and fragrant herbs, like what are we doing with him? Tie up his little skinny old man ankles and stuff him in the fucking oven, broil him.

I mean, cremation would stop the rotting. As we brought up earlier in this episode. Some things the Targaryens just did better, man. Cersei vouches for Qyburn again, stating that he saved Jaime, and then introduces Qyburn to each counselor. Orn Merryweather, who's the justiciar, Giles Rossby, Lord Treasurer, Orrhen Waters, Grand Admiral, and Hera Swift. Her hand!

The big reveal! And I just, random thing, small tiny fashion like minute. I love how each hand styles themselves a little differently to show their office. We had like the pin, we got the chain, now we got Harry's wearing a mantle of blue velvet with like a hundred golden hands decorating it. It's cute. That's really cool. Yeah, that's interesting. And it totally shows the wealth of the availability. Now I'm the hand, I can go get fancy clothes. I just think it's interesting that he chose a cloth as opposed to a metal because you had the metal pin, the metal chain.

Mm-hmm. Well, and it's interesting because he's very showy. His horses, right? She commented that his horses are well dressed. Yeah. Oh yeah. And that he would be good because he dresses richly and his horses are even well dressed. So that's interesting. I wonder if this inspired some of the- Oh no, that's Giles.

I'm sorry, that was Giles, not Harris. Okay, because I was like, I wonder if this inspires even some of the styling in House of the Dragon, right? I loved the little choker that on the- Cristin Cole's bloody little choker. Yeah, Cristin Cole's choker breastplate. Yeah. Yeah, he's so- okay, Cristin Cole.

Okay. We know what you want. Cersei named them all after Free Cities styles, which I thought was interesting. She's borrowing the fashion of the Free Cities in this and trying to be different, right? This is kind of one of her first attempts to diversify the rule, the current regime, compared to the past regimes. STACEY That's not actually a bad idea. That's interesting when you consider it with like, as they find out in, spoiler, the Winds of Winter Elaine chapter, where they're giving different things to, I forgot what

they called them, the different names for the knights, the Veil, the Winged Knights, and also Renly did this too. With the Rainbow Guard, yeah. I will say that it's probably politically not the right move, because not to be a Westerosi nationalist about this, but in this time, like, you probably want to, like, embrace classic Westerosi ideals. And, you know, like, you want to, like, run on a platform of cherry pie and the American flag right now. It's true. Like, Tommen needs all the fucking support he can get. Like, I'm Westeros's true queen- king. Changing the offices to be something from the Free City.

changing the offices to be something from the Free City. Not everybody is, you know, cultured in this country. We meet a lot of uncultured folks in this country. And Cersei herself is like fascinated by it. So I'm sure this could be influenced by Taina, right, a little bit. Oh, yeah, that's a good point. It is interesting, because interesting because to some extent, as we've discussed, parts of the Free Cities seem a little more advanced, some not, but also like, you know, we're talking about going up against people like Stannis, right? Stannis has done a little bit too much changing. So as you were saying, it might be good to like herald to the, hey, remember, like, this is what our government, this is what consistency in a government looks like for Westeros. True, true. G. The good old days when we took our countries back from the dragons. L. No, I don't know if it was like that, right? Well, it was, but the dragons weren't there. G. I mean, Robert.

L. I don't know. It's all complicated. It's all complicated. The other thing is it kind of has that, we talked a little last episode about the history of Dusk and Dale coming up and being kind of contrasted with this and you have the serpent being whispering in Raniera's ear, and Taina's kind of becoming that way for Cersei. Yeah, that's a good point. There's this line that Ser Harris had been thrilled by his appointment, too dim to realize he was more hostage than hand. And that feels subjective, actually. I feel like that's a very subjective statement by Cersei. It's kind of sad that she doesn't see people

as having their own will. As somebody who also had her own autonomy taken from her, she sees people as like pawns of war and pawns of scheming. Harris's daughter was taken as hostage by Cersei's uncle and married into the Lannisters. I think of Sansa and how she speaks of her later in this chapter, that she treated her like her own child, calls her a little wolf bitch. I mean, Sansa and, you know, like, Harris had his own problem where his daughter was

a hostage to the crown, basically. While Sansa was easily fooled by Littlefinger and Cersei at age 12, she did end up learning. Cersei is the one who is in council being like, I was fooled by the wolf bitch. Even if it wasn't on purpose that Sansa did any of this, obviously I understand that. Cersei doesn't understand the threat of being a hostage in this manner. LW- Interesting. G- Right? She's seen it as a way out or a way to kind of utilize her station, right?

Using it so that she could have Jaime forever. LW- Oh, yeah. Yeah, she uses it- G- Using it in many ways. Melara, she doesn't see that as her plaything that was at court with her. That's kind of a hostage situation, being Cersei's plaything at court. Lina I mean, you are supposed to, like, part of being a hostage is you might just die. Maelaro. for Cersei's downfall, she just considers so little of other people that her, like they are her fire drill fire escape plans. She sees them as these moveable pieces and it's

a very flimsy bit of power she doesn't actually have. Her family's losing. Like, why did they have to have the wedding to Margaery and the Tyrells? Because her family is losing right now. They should be up higher than they are, but things are bad," said the Lannister regime. People being afraid of you isn't enough. It's not enough to live off of. Eventually, you get enough people afraid of you, and they join together to get rid of you. Ask Ares Targaryen. LWX Yeah, absolutely. That's much, but eventually these people will leave or turn to each other and say, maybe we should, somebody should do something about this.

Selina Meyer. Targaryen power was like firepower, right? Might over the country. But in some ways they did sew the realm together. Prophecy or not, right? I mean, if you don't believe in a prophecy, it can't come true. But might doesn't win over all. The Targaryens may

not have planted trees, but they didn't just burn all of their enemies to the ground in totality. It was the threat that was important, the threat that theyrained, and it is to an extent in the way that they are, a great house, right? But at the same time, Tywin's reign is actually much more fragile than we think it is. It was only his generation, right? It was only during his very lifetime that he established all that. So it's not like set in stone. And, um, I also like what you're saying. Just as a quick aside, you're like, you know, seriously things like I treated her like my own child. And I'm like, on one hand, no, but on the other hand, seeing the way

that you talked to Tom in maybe, uh, maybe, uh, and yeah, she's using the hand position as like a hostage situation, which isn't really the best use of this position. Like just if you want him as a hostage, just keep him as a fucking hostage, right? Like as opposed to like the hand is a position that should be able to like maximize your ability to roll, right? Either as someone else who helps with the day-to-day things, like complements your skill set or just has something that you don't, which is what we've historically seen it used as.

Even ineffective hands, right? They were appointed there at least in an attempt to use the office. Not as a hostage, not as a figurehead necessarily. But yeah, like it's supposed to extend your reach. STACEY Mm-hmm. And here she is. It's what happened to her brother, but metaphorically, she's cut off her own hand. STACEY Interesting! STACEY That's really good. Or is cutting off your own nose to spite your face. Ah, like Tyrion.

Mmm. Well, Cersei- Apples rot under the core. Continue. Cersei thinks that her current chest move is brilliant. Kevin won't move against her, with Dorna's dad as her hand. A flimsy shield, but a hostage all the same. Orn asked if the king will join them, but he is busy playing with his little queen, too young to comprehend the affairs of state. Orn asks if Jaime will join them. We have this line

here of "'Sir Jaime is at his armory as being fitted for hand. I know we were all tired of that ugly stump, and I dare say, he would find these proceedings as tiresome as Tommen." Aurene Waters chuckled at that. Good, Cersei thought. The more they laugh, the less he is a threat. Let them laugh.

Jadeon laughs. Eryn laughs. Eryn laughs. Eryn laughs. Eryn laughs. Eryn laughs. Eryn laughs. Eryn laughs.

Eryn laughs. Eryn laughs. Eryn laughs. Eryn laughs. Eryn laughs. Eryn laughs. Eryn laughs. a Tywin though, Tywin wouldn't have let them laugh at Janey. He protected Kevin, right? He mistrusted laughter. Yeah. Yeah. I see a couple times she always laughs. It's like the way she's going, she wants to be feared, but also simultaneously she wants them to laugh at her, which when you multiply those together, it makes her a laughing stock. Yeah. I mean, not everyone, not everyone, right? Like, can be...

Can have great chemistry together and have only gotten better and funnier over the years. Over the many years you have ruined together. Cersei asks for wine, choosing the Arbor Gold, the Lies, instead of the sour Dornish wine. She says, as sour as the Dornish. And then she decides to Eliana segue into talking about the Dornish at the council. So, Pysel reluctantly begins saying Doran has jailed the sand snakes and Sunspear is still pissed. Doran writes them demanding justice. Cersei says they send Balen's swan to Sunspear today to deliver Gregor's head.

Immediately, Ser Balen would have another task as well, but that part was best left unsaid. Well, it's okay. We'll find out soon in these other chapters. But Hmm. Well, it's okay, we'll find out soon in these other chapters, but building off of what you were talking about in the way that Cersei sees people as pawns and just pieces to move, in many ways I think seeing Cersei play the Game of Thrones, especially against the Dornish, is actually very interesting because I think she makes a perfect foil for Doran, who kind of does the same thing, right? He sees people also as pawns and pieces. He cares about their feelings probably a little more. But Doran waits too long, overly plans all of his plans until they are just ineffective.

Whereas Cersei makes a first draft of a plan and is like, thanks, she has all the elements for it already. And she's like, of course it's all going to go according to plan duh, like, it could, there's no way it could fail. Which for what it's worth. Doran also thinks of all his plans, they just, you know, because he's like, it's so well thought out, it's so elaborate, how could it ever fail? But anyways, Cersei's like, it's perfect, it's definitely gonna succeed. And I think you contrast that with like, Varys, who, I don't think he necessarily always makes big moves. Sometimes he'll make small moves, small tweaks at a time, right? And he and Littlefinger,

they're very much people who like kind of find opportunities and seize them. And they know how to pivot their plans. But most importantly, what they do is they create the conditions for their moves to work out. They don't always go straight into the move in the plan. They kind of like push buttons in other places to create the conditions for success and neither Doran nor Cersei do that. I think maybe to an extent early A Song of Ice and Fire Cersei was really good at seizing those opportunities but I don't know if like her abilities justated since then, or she just has less resources at her disposal to do that, like with all, you know, the deaths have probably kind of taken a toll emotionally, mentally, but also her plans were very much more short-term stuff, as

you were talking about. They weren't long-term strategies, they were very tactical, they're not strategic in the way that, like, I think we see They're not strategic in the way that I think we see fairies and Littlefinger move, even though Littlefinger's also a lunatic. That's a really great way to put it. I definitely agree. He's one of George's short story characters. He's another take on that. It's like if the second kind of loneliness guy got another chance.

Yeah. It's like, what if I did go back to Earth? Yeah, dropped him right back into Westeros. Good call. Yeah, Jorah's another one of those two. Yeah, I love that perfect contrast with Doran of waiting too long and his plans become ineffectual. And it makes me think of those changes that were called out at the Cushing Library drafts of the book that Doran shows a little more active. I think G. Steff did this, had found this note that Doran is like, in the original Ares chapters, there was meant to be one more and Doran makes them all like,

promise to not say anything about everything going on and Basically, Ares and Darkstar surrender at the end of the Queenmaker and are alive. Then Doran asks Ariane to convince Ares to lie about the Queening plot when Balin comes. So that's really interesting. They stay alive and probably there was supposed to be another Ares chapter and I think he probably would have died. So interesting, maybe he would have died at Balin's Swan or something, but it kind of puts Dorne into a more active role in that version, which I think George wanted to pull back. STACEY Yeah, because he wanted to show. Dorne just moved too slow, and also, as Ariadne points out in that one chapter, I think it's in one of the wins chapters, she's like, I don't know. He sent my brother there with

four people. I don't think he really knew what the fuck he was doing either. STACEY Interesting, especially thinking of the Cersei stuff and what you said about the Game of Thrones that we played back and forth. I think that Cersei will get a few jabs in, a few cuts in. STACEY Yeah. I mean, all of them, to an extent, all the players of the game see the pawns as devoid of their own personalities and will. We see that happen with like Illyrio being like, I don't know, Daenerys is just gonna, she has no choice, she's just gonna fall along

and they're like, oh dragons. And then they come up with the plans with young Griff, right? Whereas Dorne's got his plans, he's like, of course she's gonna want to marry Quentin. And- Pa-pa-pa-pawn to play. Yeah. Turns out the person with dragons is very much the opposite of a pond. Did you know that? When you have weapons, you don't have to be a pond. Amazing.

Cersei declares that Gregor has perished, just like Pycelle foretold. Pycelle eyeballs Qyburn and gives a harumph towards him. I love their little rivalry. This is very interesting. She asks Harys what they were speaking of when she had first arrived, and he recaps the Sparrows are rising. Their leaders preach of doom and demon worship, and Cersei says, well Stannis is out there just worshipping a demon-red god.

They're obviously right. The faith is right. Qyburn, of course, had reminded her of that. She thinks, the clever man. Cersei, no! No, it's a trap! You're walking yourself into this trap! STACEY Okay, random thought I just came up with. You talked about the rivalry between Pysol and Qyburn. Rivals to lovers arc? For Pysol and Qyburn, Rivals to Lovers arc? For Pysol and Qyburn?

Well, except he's dead. Anyway, it's done. To be honest, the idea of wielding religion against Stannis, I think that it's not a bad idea. I think it could have been a really effective strategy and we see it come up every now and then. There's also a part of me that wonders, are there some ideas and lines like this? Is it inspired to an extent?

This book came out in 2005 by the Islamophobia following 9-11, but also to an extent read scare stuff from decades earlier. I don't know, just random ass thoughts. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there's definitely some Cold War shit in there. But of course, this entire conversation comes up because the High Septon has died. Freak accident! Unrelated! And he had been letting a lot go unchecked during his tenure.

And so the new High Septon has challengers. Did you put this here on purpose to say challengers rising all over now? Applying very publicly for the job, feasting folks, feasting the most devout, etc. Cersei, meanwhile, is watching Orain Waters, who kinda looks like Rhaegar. He's the current Valyrian bastard who has risen in the background of the Valyrians. Yeah, she wonders if he would shave his beard for her. She's like, maybe I've seen the way he looks at me. Men have always looked at me ever since my breasts grew like this.

And she's like, hmm, he's a decade younger than me, but he totally still wants me. "'Because I was so beautiful,' they said, but Jaime was beautiful as well, and they never looked at him this way." Arguments could be made here that Bye-King Jon Snow did look at Jaime this way, by the way. I agree. I agree. Also, also a little maybe resemblant of Rhaegar. Speaking of people.

Yeah, speaking of. Speaking of. We have a line here of, When she was small she would sometimes don her brother's clothing as a lark. She was always startled by how differently men treated her when they thought that she was Jaime, even Lord Tywin himself. was Jaime, even Lord Tywin himself. This kind of implies she had some sort of experience where Tywin thought that she was Jaime, like that she was dressed like she was Jaime and he definitely thought she was Jaime and perhaps validated her, saying something like, oh son, I'm so proud of you.

Like loving her and acting like she was his child. So that's heart wrenching. Like it's very akin to some of the gender exploration we get on Brienne side. Right? This is so fascinating of Cersei. And you think of Jamie's role in Tywin's life, right? Like losing Jamie to Ares is part of the big fire of Tywin really betraying Aerys. Aerys coveting Joana, Aerys coveting Jaime. Aerys took the one thing Tywin had left after Joana's death and the disappointments of having a daughter and having Tyrion. Aerys was Tywin's op. Aerys was Tywin's final boss, dude. And then even though Jaime joined the Kingsguard and that ruined Tywin's life, Jaime then, no matter why he did it, killed Tywin's moral nemesis,

that famous crime and act that no one knows it was to save the world or whatever. Tywin lives his life thinking in his head that Jamie did his duty to the family, number one boy, committed the ultimate act for the family. When Logan hugs Kendall Roy after Kendall kills the kid in succession and draws him back into his web and forces him to stay, that's what I imagine that dynamic being a lot of the time, number one boy, but at what cost, right? At what cost? And Cersei had an experience when she was young of like that ultimate love that Tywin has always had for Jaime when he thought that it was Jaime and not Cersei.

And that's devastating. Can you imagine that? Like that would shatter your psyche. Absolutely. Yeah. Conditional love, man. It is a very conditional love and it's something that's like unchangeable about yourself, right? And you get that exploration from both Circe and from Tyrion. But Circe takes the

tact of, and I think this is kind of how Tywin probably approached it too, he's like, fuck it, I don't need love. I don't need love. My wife said, whatever, I don't fucking need love. I got these two kids that I don't really want and this other, the kid that I actually like, gone. Whatever, I have no friends. Whatever, I don't fucking need love. I just need respect and fear. And Tyrion, I think we see his transition into that in these books. But for a lot of his storyline, he's like, I can do it. I can still get daddy to love me. Cersei has never had that. She's just never had that, especially because as you said, she realized

that while donning Jamie's clothes. And I also think that along with that, and this is something we'll probably discuss in other chapters as well. Like she thinks to an extent that beauty is what she has to work with because she sees what hap- when you get treated like when you're beautiful as Jaime and people don't treat you that way. You're like, I have other things to work with. Here she's like, well, this is what I have. This is the only thing maybe that I have. Right, and she sees the opposite in Tyrion. Yeah, and she's like, I don't know, he's

not beautiful, but also he's going to kill me. Well, but she sees how he's treated, right? Which is very bad. That's the biggest reason to run. That's the biggest reason to run from that in her adult life and cling to her beauty. I've never actually thought about it, like the way that she sees Tyrion as the opposite of beauty versus her own in that Eving Crasset until just now. And like her greatest fear. Yeah, and yet he still gets, as far as she can tell, to some extent, respect. Despite not being beautiful, just because he's a man. But I guess she doesn't see, you know.

And Tyrion doesn't really share it, because why would he? With her, all the other parts where, Dad, Dad really fucked me up. Right. Wow. The Queen interrupts some background quibbling from Pycelle and Merriweather and says that whoever the new Hyseptan is, they must excommunicate Tyrion and the pink sparrows are not their problem as long as they don't preach any treasons. They all agree, Giles Rosby agrees a lot more colorfully with Flem. Huh.

Lots of color to your pink. Green. Rasmu agrees a lot more colorfully with Flynn. LSG Huh. Lots of colors here. Pink, green. So, yeah, we can see how she's really using the Regency and its office in service of her own personal goals, right? Her personal safety and fears around Tyrion versus shoring up stability in the realm. She's not like, I don't care who the High Septon is, all that matters is he says Tyrion was bad. LSG Yeah, you can see why it puts her in the position she's going to be in.

LSG I was like, I feel like there's other things. There's other things that the High Sub-Tank can do. Nope. At Cersei's command, Pycelle opens a letter from the Vale, a declaration signed by lords Bronzio and Royce, Lady Wainwood, Hunter, Redfort, Belmore, Simon Templeton, the Knight of Nine Stars. They began amassing troops below the Eyrie to remove Littlefinger, who hasn't reached out asking for help at any point, so that's notable. The Lords of the Veil aren't necessarily asking for help either, so maybe they do nothing? Everybody decides, maybe we just do nothing, which is a lot of what these meetings become. They argue about whether Littlefinger could actually win a war, lol, and that there wouldn't

be bloodshed likely, so Cersei thinks Littlefinger is more useful here than at court in the Vale, though. Cersei's like, damn, too bad he's not here making money for me. Yeah, she's like, well, if he's dead, he definitely can't make money for me, so let's just not encourage anything. And I think that this is actually one of the areas where there is a big disconnect between George's perception of his story as an author versus the readers. Because there's that famous interview, right, where he says that Littlefinger is one of the characters that is most different in the show versus in the books. And he says how people in-universe around Littlefinger don't see him as a threat, everyone trusts him, he's like, he's just a silly guy that they all like laugh

at and trust. Oh, that's interesting. They laugh at him. Yeah. Anyways, um, and we can see that happening in this very chapter, right? Where they're like, I don't know, I don't really see like Littlefinger as a threat. But in my opinion, George saying that about Littlefinger is actually a surprise to most readers. And I, yeah, that might be influenced to an extent by his portrayal on the show, since a majority of us like, I think came to the books via the show. But I do think like a big part of it has to do with most of the POVs that we get of Littlefinger. They are through Ned and Tyrion, who are suspicious of Littlefinger. They keep him at arm's length.

They do end up trusting him, but they are like, I don't know, this guy seems kind of weird and slimy, and even Catalin, she trusts him, but she's like, I don't know. I don't know about this boy Peter. And Sansa, of course, trusts him, but we know she's a child with no one else to turn to. So I think that this is that one spot where that's coming through in George's writing where how he sees people in the universe is trusting him, but I think he's disconnected from reader perception on that. Yeah, because in the original drafts, he actually, in the Cushing Library drafts, I think he was the mastermind behind John Aaron's death too.

Yeah. And he was able to do that because he was very close with the Arons, which is interesting. So there's a lot of gardening. I think George has changed his mind on how to use Littlefinger since the beginning too. So it's interesting because in a way, now that we're seeing his vulnerabilities, it can be an effect of both, obviously, like, we're seeing those vulnerabilities as he grows, but also he's growing. And that goes up with the scale up of the book series, I guess, in general, too.

But it's interesting that, like, we don't really feel like he's very clever, but I guess he is in some aspects. I think we see him as clever. We just, like, don't see other characters as trusting him. But like, what you're saying is an example of George saying like yeah, the other characters trust him I just think he didn't portray that well Based on the POVs that he chose and their own thoughts on Littlefinger like it doesn't give the impression that no one that everyone trusts Littlefinger he gives the impression of no one fucking trusts Littlefinger the very opposite. Yeah, so yeah

I definitely think that he's had to like pivot on him a little bit. Yeah. So he's trying to like hammer home like, Oh God, I guess no one understood that people like him. Yeah. Fuck. Yeah, they're all just making fun of him. And also, it's really funny that this entire council meeting is like, let's make fun of people that aren't here for an hour. Oh, that is kind of what it is. Shit. It's just gossip hour. Yeah. Like, it's just water cooler shit. Oh man, XOXO. Yeah, she's like, fuck the Dornish, fuck Littlefinger, making fun of everyone, get me wine. Sounds like a good time, honestly. Except for the part where you keep being like, I don't know, why are these people here?

They don't seem like fun people to hang out around. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Cersei decides they should instruct the lords, no harm shall come to Petyr, but whatever they all decide is good, figure it out as a group. Next comes the fleet. Orain says they need to restore their strength at sea, their navy, and Merriweather says maybe we should make an alliance with the Ironmen. They want the north.

The north, though, is already promised to the Boltons. They think maybe we could convince Roose to share the North. Maybe he'll share it. That is interesting, though, because we talked a lot with Asha about the idea of the North being shared with the Ironborn at some point, right? So maybe it's a hint at something to come. They plan to workshop it, though. Balen is dead, so they need to figure out who could rule in his stead. Giles Rosby then reminds them, Balin had a son, Theo Greyjoy. Some of this dialogue in this chapter is so fucking funny. VB – It is. They're like, wait, isn't that guy dead? And they're like, wait, Balin

also has brothers? Also, what are the names? They're like, I don't know what's his name? Leo? Theo? They literally just do not know. And this is a moment in which Cersei literally like things like damn, fairies actually would have known the state of house Greyjoy right now. And I think it goes to show how far removed the rest of this specific small council is from the rest of the realm's politics and just like how ill prepared this group is to rule because how do you not even fucking know the succession of like one of the major seven houses of Westeros? Not only is Theon Greyjoy the heir technically of House Greyjoy, he was a ward of the other Lord Paramount. How do you not know? Like, we start to understand that we saw that education that the Starks were giving their own

children and I think like even interestingly kind of like Tyrion was was mentoring with Podrick in knowing all these players, knowing the houses, like it doesn't matter how big or small they are, you use the clues to determine this is who this person is. And we see like, you know, Sansa naming Renly or Bran like learning the lords at the harvest feast and trying to figure out how do we create stability for these houses in this part of the realm? Whereas the crown just keeps saying like, I don't know, let's ignore that problem for now, send their resources and all of that really matters to ruling. And you know, it seems as though the education of the Stark Children, we assume this is very basic information because we're seeing it through those core POVs we get and because they're children,

but it's actually in fact impressive and important that they know it at their young age, considering that these are grown-ass men ruling the kingdom and they don't know it. The Queen Regent also does not know it and again, this is one of the major houses. STACEY And not to even take it a step further but also because the northerners are a little- they're sheltered. These children are sheltered. They leave for the first time. They go to King's Landing for the first fucking time and Sansa can stand there and be like, oh, black of Hair, Blue of Eyes, you're a Baratheon. Yeah.

Which Cersei maybe should have thought about, but needless to say. Whatever, whatever. YOLO. Yeah. Either way, they need ships. They need ships up in this bitch, and Orain is proposing they build new ones, but they would need to find the money because apparently they're broke. They're poor.

They are fucking poor. Too many gold cloaks, too little gold is said. Cersei decides to defer their repayment to the Holy Faith and the Iron Bank of Braavos until war's end, and everyone's like, yes, yes, this is the way to go, yes, yes, my queen regent, except for Pycelle, who's like, um, they will come break your knees. You know that, right? And Cersei's like, whatever, Alannister pays his debts, may I remind you? And he's like, well, the Braavos, you like to say the Iron Bank will have its due.

She squashes the conversation and is like, they will have their you like to say the iron bank will have its due. She squashes the conversation and is like they will have their due when I say they will, and says commence building the dromons. Up next, Lord Frey has put forth claims on lands and grants, and Qyburn's like, what if I said the quiet thing out loud and told you that the streets keep saying, the crown was complicit in Lord Frey's crime. And the sparrows are spreading those lies, that it's an affront to gods and men, and those involved are doomed." Cersei kind of catches what he's laying down pretty

quickly and she's like, well, Walder will face the father's judgement soon because he's old as fuck and it has nothing to do with us. Everyone agrees. This is a big lull moment because the crown was in fact complicit in these crimes. I actually don't know if Cersei knows. I know that Tyrion does because we see Tywin and him discuss it, but hilarious. And her saying it has nothing to do with them, it does kind of remind me of Daria Martell being like, oh, the Vulture King, haha, that has nothing to do with us, I don't know what he's doing. And I don't know, Daria was obviously likely in the know. Seriously, he's just trying to clean up dad's mess. I think she obviously we thought dad would be able to do it, but he's dead now.

Rip. Literally? Figured to? No, not literally. Let that man not rest in peace. Anyways. Good call on the Daria. I didn't think about that, but that's a good call. And I will say, sure, she may not have known, but she'd be a fool not to have known at this point. It's like, it's one of those catch-22s that if she didn't know, she's foolish. Like, she shouldn't be ruling, you know? Like, if you are in that level of leadership, even if he didn't tell you, you had to have put two and two together at this point. Yeah. Qyburn takes it further, and he says they should punish a few Freys to appease the North.

Don't worry, someone's already on that. Cersei suggests that when Father Frey finally passes, they massage the relationship with the new Lord of the Crossing to satisfy some disagreeable siblings and cousins and name them culprits. Yeah, so I kind of wonder if we're gonna see the crown actually play something of a role in the downfall of House Frey if it collapses due to infighting, which would be interesting. Like I don't know, do they give power to the wrong claimants? And this is of course assuming, as you said, that there are any claimants left after Lady Stoneheart is done with them.

So, who knows? Oradean brings up that the Golden Company has broken its contract with Mir. Interesting. And maybe supporting Lord Sanis, who everyone laughs about and says is too poor to hire them. Yeah. Khyber done spoken with some of the Mirrishgalley's crew and they claim the Golden Company is making for Volantis, marching in the wrong direction."

That really stood out to me right there, too, that he spoke with some of the Mirrishgalley's crew. Did he go to heal them? Was he just hanging at the docks? Why is he hanging at the docks so much? Interesting, interesting. That's true. I love the unwinding and breakdown of these chapters because we've already read the POVs

where this all happens. We know what's happening versus they don't know. They literally, most of them, do not know. As we read these chapters, we know the truth and they do not. Yeah, it's actually a really good recap episode also of like, here's the state of Westeros right now in case you forgot. The budget ran out, so we used a recap episode using all the previous footage. We get more of a recap, too.

Only a blind man could fail to see our war is all but won. Lord Tyrell has storms and invested. River Run is besieged by the Freys and my cousin Davin, our new warden of the West. Lord Redwine's ships have passed through the Straits of Tarth and are moving swiftly up the coast. Only a few fishing boats remain on Dragonstone to oppose Redwine's ships have passed through the Straits of Tarth and are moving swiftly up the coast. Only a few fishing boats remain on Dragonstone to oppose Redwine's landing. The castle may hold for some time, but once we have the port we can cut the garrison off from the sea. Then only Stannis himself will remain to vex us." This is interesting. It makes me think that Orton Merriweather too, like with the Mere connection, has maybe been misdirecting the council on what's going on as well.

Oh, okay. And Qyburn as well, obviously it has his own things that he wants to happen, so... Of course, the idea that the war is all but one is very silly because as we know there are little asterisks on all of this. Lord Tyrell has Storm's End invested. Okay, well that's gonna be over because of Aegon. Riverrun is besieged by the frays of my cousin Davin. So Lady Stoneheart is probably gonna show the fuck up to take her home back. Lord Redline's ships have passed through the Straits of Tarth

and are moving swiftly up the coast. Well, we know that it's Autumn seas, winter seas coming. There are slave traders on the water, and Euron Greyjoy is on the water. Yeah, especially when it comes to the Arbor. Mm-hmm. And then only a few fishing boats remain on Dragonstone to oppose Rudwine's landing. Well, we don't know what's going on with Loras there, but seems like Loras may be now holding that castle because I just don't think he's dead or burnt. STACEY Yeah, same. STACEY Um, and then only Stannis will remain to vex us. No. Aegon, then Dany. STACEY Yeah.

STACEY Bright Flame, the Kraken. STACEY Dorn, and then eventually probably the Vale, and honestly, like- STACEY The North. STACEY Stannis will probably still vex them though. STACEY Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. eventually probably the Veil and honestly like- The North. Stanis will probably still vex them though. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, yeah, there's a lot going on. I, that's a great breakdown of how all these things are going to come unraveled by just very quickly.

It would have been in the next book, but it got moved. Anyways. The next book. Now it's in the next next book. Now it's in the next next book. Yeah, because the next book got moved and the next next book got moved. Oh my god. So Pricel warns that Per Janos Slynt, Stannis is making common cause with the Free Folk and they all agree, like, ugh, that's so desperate and foolish, ew.

The Northmen hate the Free Folk and Rus' bastard son is going to clear the way for Bolton to return, and a bunch of other houses are totally on the verge of joining them, like Umber and Wiswell and even the Manderlys. Pysal is doubtful that these men, who were loyal bannermen to Eddard Sark, can be trusted. Cersei's like, yeah, well no one can be trusted, idiot. And Manderly's stubborn, but would bend the knee if they would release his heir. That is, if that heir is still alive, he was taken captive at Harrenhal by the Mountain and his men, who were not always very gentle with prisoners. Yeah, I've heard that about those guys.

They have that reputation. We have a line or two here. If he is dead, I suppose we will need to send Lord Manderly the heads of those who killed him with our most sincere apologies. If one head was enough to appease a Prince of Dorne, a bag of them should be more than adequate for a fat Northmen wrapped in sealskins." Hmm. Should be good enough, you know?

Should be good to just send anyone a head. We could just keep beheading people and just sending the heads around. That will fix the problems. What if that was how we ran the Nevermind? That's a new Patreon gift. Heads. Wow, heads. That's a new someone's head. Yeah, we'll be giving you head. Oh, whoa. Whimsy. That's not quite whimsy.

Whimsy. That's not whimsy. Reader, what our reviewer did not mention was also our obscenity, our vulgarity. Truth. Oh, the vulgarity. Also a little bit of Cersei's fatphobia jumping out here about Lorde Manderly that Morden adequate for a fat Northmen wrapped in sealskins. Of course, that intense criticism that she holds for anybody that is overweight and herself. Yeah. It's kind of like what we were discussing last chapter, right? Don't build your own little

prison with your critiques of other people's bodies when it comes to age and weight. It will be you. It'll happen to you too. It's just what happens. Seriously? So I think this is interesting. She at least knows that the Northmen hate the Free Folk, but thinks too easily that because of that it's going to go the way of the Boltons. And again, this is what I'm talking about. She has these very simple first drafts of the plans that she makes, and neither she nor the rest of the council that she makes. And like neither she nor the rest of the council that she has here have a nuanced view on the politics of the other kingdoms. They actually have like no sense of the current events it seems going on in the other kingdoms

except for what they've mentioned here, right? It's a very high level like bird's eye view. And no one knows that the Boltons won't win easily the other houses to their side because Ramsay has been busy antagonizing everyone the whole time. Everyone's like, well, we actually really hate that guy. Why would we pledge to him? Also they are very creepy. I do not want to pledge to them. It's just they're not going to clear the way.

And then she forgets the names of the other houses that are there, right? Just like how we've forgotten who are the rest of the Greyjoys. I don't fucking know. And thinks that the mandalies are going to pledge them. Actually that's hilarious that she doesn't know them and we get their POVs in this book. Anyways, they're like, those people you all forgot, here they are. Anyways, she's like, yeah, the mandallees are totally going to pledge to us for getting that.

Well, maybe they are still actually mad about the hostage thing, whether or not you can give back the air, right? Like, you know, not thinking that maybe if that guy is dead, we don't have any leverage. Have you considered that you won't have leverage? Which of course is what mandirlees like he hoped everyone would assume that he was falling in line with them, right? So it's all going according to Keikaku for him.

But also the idea that like he's just a fat Northman in sealskins. I'm like, everyone knows, right, that he holds the financial power of the North, also ships. Remember that thing we were discussing a few paragraphs ago, literally like two seconds ago in this chapter, how we have no ships? And he was building a fleet for the North? Right! I mean, I know that he's doing it kind of in secret, but at the same time we understand

if we are, if we the Crown need money and we don't have enough ships, who has a harbor and a lot of fucking money? Maybe Lord Manderly? It's literally in the name. White Harbor. Uh, financial capital of the North. Anyways, forgetting the other houses. They just like, they just forget about everyone. Like, they have too narrow of a view of this political strategy. And the way that we see the rest of this council approaching it, this is not

a gender thing. This isn't just because, you know, Searcy wasn't necessarily taught. All these people were clearly not fucking taught. But she just doesn't have a nuanced enough view of the strategies because she doesn't have the entire picture, nor all the pieces that she should be considering or using. It's kind of what you're saying about the pawns, but also like, you know, she doesn't really truly understand to an extent without these nuances the motivations of people. Like, whereas we see at the end of this book, that's exactly what Littlefinger is teaching Sansa. Yeah, all the nuances of every person and how to deal with them. Yeah, like don't trust what they tell you their motivation is.

What do you think is the real reason why they are doing this? What are the other things going on in the background that we do not see? They're taking everything at face value. Absolutely. White Harbor's allegiance is definitely totally the Crown's. In fact, they're going to betray Stannis's Onion Knight for the Crown. His head will be sent to the Crown, and White Harbor will never support Stannis, completely guaranteeing that they will be supporting Stannis. That's what that means to me. Absolutely. Completely guaranteeing. they will be supporting Stannis. That's what that means to me. Absolutely. Completely guaranteeing.

Yeah, right? I have to point out this hysterical fucking line. Stannis will need another hand, observed Orain Waters with a chuckle. The turnip knight, perhaps? A turnip knight? said Harris Swift, confused. Who is this man? I have not heard of him. I'm gonna be real, like I'm you know, I'm out here throwing slander at them, but that would be me. I'd be like, turnip knight, who is he? That's me. Who's he?

I don't know him. I am being completely honest. He has a gullible written on his arm, Raleigh. Absolutely. Absolutely. Cersei is pleased with her political endeavor here, but Pycelle reminds her Sansa Stark exists. What if the North rallies behind her? I think about this every day, Pycelle, you're so real. I most certainly have not forgotten that little she-wolf. She refused to say the girl's name. I ought to have shown her to the Black Selves as the doctor of a traitor, but instead I have made her part of my own household. She shared my hearth and hall, played with my own children. I fed her, dressed her, tried to make her a little less ignorant of the

world, and how did she repay me for my kindness? She helped murder my son. When we find the imp, we will find the Lady Sansa too. She is not dead, but before I'm done with her, I promise you she will be singing to the stranger, begging for his kiss. Me smiling in Sandor Clegane right now. I like how she knows that Sansa would be singing, probably. Maybe. I mean, in the Veil, she's thinking of Sandor's kiss, so literally in these chapters. Hashtag just saying. It would be hilarious if somehow Sansa and Tyrion did turn up at the same time. Like,

obviously they wouldn't be in- I mean, they might be in the same place, who knows? Like, the twists and turns that this story might take, but I just think it would be hilarious. I'm just saying, I've never seen them in the same room at the same time. They're probably the same person. George R.R. Martin. George B.B. Martin. Wow. Everyone's pretty silent and like, well, this is awkward. And the Queen decides to move on, wondering why she even bothers with

the council. Real. She tells them Arya is to wed Lord Bolton, thinking that as long as the girl plays a role, no one needs to know that she's a tricked up steward. Well, A. If the North must have a Stark, we'll give them one. Knock off Stark. VB Oh my god. Aw, poor Jane. Reminder though, that If the North must have a Stark, we'll give them one. Knock off Stark. Oh my god. Aw, poor Jane. Reminder, though, that like in that first book, you know, Cersei is the one who gives Jane to Littlefinger.

Yup. Just like, he was her kyburn. That was her kyburn originally. Littlefinger. Oh, that's right. Yeah, she just doesn't care about kids. She's like, hmm, child. Fuck them kids.

Yeah, literally. She's like, at least she's not dead. No, she didn't say that. But she might think it. That said, they're coming into a new issue. The Wall has elected Ned Stark's bastard as their new Lord Commander, who looks very much like his father. We take a quick deep breath. No, he looks like his mom! Right? Well, I guess his mom could look like his son.

Have you considered that Leanna and Ned might have- that's a joke. I'm not actually putting that out there. So she probably wonders if they fucked. She probably would. Honestly, if Leanna had gotten older, she would have looked at Leanna and been like, Do you think she's fucking her brothers too? They do look alike. Maybe all three of them. Not everyone who looks alike and is related is fucking. Holy shit. Why not? I mean, you and I literally just don't know.

We're only children. We don't know how this works. We are the only children we will ever have. So we take a quick detour into Circe's mind, to Robert's bastards, and Robert had the grace to keep them out of sight. Once after that sorry business with the cat, he had made some noises about bringing his baseborn daughter to court. "'Do as you please,' she told him.

"'But you may find the city is not a healthy place for a growing girl.' The bruise those words had won her had been hard to hide from Jamie, but they heard no more about the bastard girl. Catalin totally was a mouse, or she would have smothered this John Snow in his cradle. Instead, she's left the filthy task to me." Oh, I get it. Mouse versus her being a cat. Ha!

I see it now. I see it. That story business with the cat, though, not Catlin Stark, in which she neither acknowledges that Joffrey cut open the live cat to see the babies. He's just kind of like, oh, he's kind of like Qyburn. Anyways, nor that Robert nearly beat Joffrey to death, which is, we're just glossing over that. She's got, she just will not touch that with her mind. And also here we get an implication of the something that we've been discussing, like that. I think confirms Robert does hit her at other times than just the ones that Ned saw.

So it speaks to her being like, you know, the city's not a healthy place for growing girls. That's coming from her own experience. She's talking about herself being the one who's unsafe here at the mercy of her abusive husband, who, you know, also preys on girls as we see from the mother of Bella. Well, no, not Bella, Barra, the mother of Barra. He's made the aid a few times, that's all. You can really see that normalization of violence and scheming and domestic abuse that Cersei is facing and how it's delivered in such a great structure. When you look back at A Storm of Swords Tyrion VI and A Storm of Swords Davos VI, we get that first introduction to both Joffrey

cutting open the cat and how it's delivered next to Cersei being hit by Robert as well as Joffrey being hit by Robert in Tyrion VI. "'You gave me to understand the boy cared nothing for his father. Why would he? Robert ignored him. He would have beat him if I'd allowed it. That brute you made me marry once hit the boy so hard he knocked out two of his baby teeth over some mischief with a cat. I told him I'd kill him in his sleep if he ever did it again, and he never did, but

sometimes he would say things." It appears things needed to be said. Lord Tywin waved two fingers at her abrust dismissal. And then in Davo VI, the king ran his fingers across the table. Joffrey! I remember once this kitchen cat. The cooks were wont to feed her scraps and fish heads. One told the boy she had kittens in her belly, thinking he might want one.

Joffrey opened the poor thing with a dagger to see if it were true. When he found the kittens, he brought them to show his father. Robert hit the boys so hard, I thought he'd killed them." So that's where Joffrey learns it from. He doesn't learn it from Circe. Just a reminder to everyone. He thought he'd killed him. Yeah. Joffrey also had it. Did not have a great parenting experience either. And interestingly, would he have gotten along well with Qyburn is now where I'm at right now, though. His new papa.

Yeah, I'm like, oh, Joffrey's going for a research grant here as well. That's why it's not weird that we hired Qyburn. Academic funding. Does Cersei see Qyburn as her new son? Anyways. Aww. A Twink Grandpa sign. So. Yeah.

Zombie sexual. As you said, great structure that we get that reminiscent. Because it is introduced in Storm. Yes. She declares that Jon Snow's treason is like his father. Not untrue in some ways, based off of a dance with dragons. But he's prepared to hand the realm to Sanis, just like his father, also not untrue. His words say the Night's Watch takes Snow apart, but his actions betray those words.

Not untrue. Agreed. Pleading for arms and men, and everyone agrees that Snow must be removed, and they must not support the Watch until he's done for. Instead, Orain says that the men of Westeros should send their thieves and poachers to Orain instead of the Wall. Yeah, that felt interesting that Orain is building basically a gang of pirates, and it's like okay.

Yeah. Obviously it's like okay. Yeah. Obviously it's the beginning of that setup as him as the Corsair King, the Pirate King potentially, but I'm like, hmm, that's a problem. Yeah. Actually, honestly those people would probably prefer being sent to Oirene than I guess the Wall. Oirene though is kind of like, I could use a little prison slave labor. Yeah, as a treat.

Yeah, absolutely. Qyburn has a different opinion that he very subtly lays on the table. He says King Tommen should be generous and open-handed and send many men to the Wall to help remove Jon Snow from command. If this bastard boy is truly his father's son, he will not suspect a thing. Perhaps he will even thank me before the blade slides between his ribs." Not untrue. Like, he's not here for research grants? I'm like, does he have ulterior motives that we don't know? I mean, yeah, obviously. But like, not just research kind.

It makes me think maybe he literally is zombie sexual, like Tina Belcher, erotic friends, fiction coded. Meat House Man. Meat House Man. Yeah. Like it does, now that you pointed it out, especially because he introduces the idea of why don't we kill Jon Snow, does he mean to destabilize the wall for further zombie purposes? I don't know, maybe. Like, is he-

I don't know. Yeah, like, is he kind of like, let's just bring on the end of the world, let's see what fucking happens. I don't know. Yeah. Cersei is just gonna be surrounded by this, by the storms of crazy men. Yeah. ST – Wow.

VB – Well, here's another kind of maybe crazy guy as well. As you said, trying to start like a new little pirate gang. Orain brings up the last topic of business. There's queer taco dragons from the sailors at the docks, but no one wants to hear that, so the meeting's over. Boris Blann accompanies her back to her apartments where Lady Merriweather chuckles with Jocelyn and Dorcas, gossiping about the red wine twins left and right, both falling in love with Lady Margaery.

Both of them also want to join the Kingsguard to be near the little queen. I'm sorry, the name Dorcas, like I just never get over it. It's so funny. Like in general, no matter what I'm watching, if someone's named Dorcas, I'm like, interesting. It's very funny, absolutely. I kind of wonder, and this is probably just hot deep brain, but I don't know, since we're missing so many Kingsguard, do you think Eric and Aric are going to get named to the Kingsguard in Tiwau and maybe one of them betrays the Queen to Aegon? Oh!

Very possible. Yeah, I just never thought about it, but I'm like, obviously they want to protect the little queen and obviously the little queen is going to probably die. Next book. Yeah, somehow. It's also ripped. Sorry, Margaery. Sorry, Margaery Tyrell fans.

I don't make the books or the rules. Take your shit up with George, but let's be real. Is she gonna live? I don't know about that. Probably not. Probably not. Bummer, she was fun. Interesting. She was fun. Yeah. We hardly knew ye. We still have to get to her best line. I'm excited

about her best line. Her conniving, scheming, vile bitch. Cersei is thoughtful about this and commands Dorcas to fetch her Osney Kettleblack. Dorcas blushes and leaves and Taina asks why did she turn so red and Cersei laughs saying, love, Osney is the youngest clean shaven kettle black he looks like his brother Osmond but as a scar from one of Tyrion's sex workers on one of his cheeks and Circe thinks that she might just like his scars potentially and I'm also like do we not think that because Osney and Osmond look the same are they fucking too anyways that's how it works right I should like to read that one. I don't know, I'm just coming up with ideas based off of the rationale.

Also Cersei's like, oh you just like him because he has hot scars. I'm like, nobody look at me right now. Nobody talk to me. Oh my god. Interesting. Tyena's like, well, men with scars are sexier and more dangerous and exciting. Yeah, I'm like, George, don't play like you didn't know what you were doing when you made Sandor Clegane. You fucking dork. Cersei teases her and is has peas porridge for wits," Cersei thinks.

Tyena laughs and says he's more bountiful than dangerous, but she hadn't come to his bed a maid. She once had a dangerous lover. She begs the queen to keep her secret, and we have this line, I liked this, Men have scars, women mysteries. That's pretty interesting also when you consider how she was hiding the bruises. Mm-hmm, yes, yes, yes. You're not allowed to have the scars or the bruises because it makes you less beautiful.

You have to be mysterious. Right, and the way that she was more worried about Jaime seeing it than her being hit by her husband. Yes, exactly. It's more important to hide it from people than it is to actually acknowledge it happened. When Dorcas returns with Osney, Cersei dismisses her ladies and invites Ser Osney to drink by the window with her, noting that his cloak is threadbare and she means to put him in a new one. A white cloak, that is, but Osney would rather be in the Queen's Guard than

the King's Guard. They begin to flirt pretty heavily, and it's revealed this isn't the first time they've been intimate together. Osney has already had her once. She calls it one good night for one good night, that he did a valiant service for her and had his reward. She comments she had seen Osney riding a new mount, who he named Midnight, given to him by his brother Osfred. But what if she gave him another mount, a younger, newer, spirited filly? She proposes that

he should fuck the young queen, Lady Margaery. She asks him to pluck the little rose for her, and his boner is visibly going down at this, notably. That felt very notable here for me. I was like, ah, fucking Margaery did not excite him. He says, she's the king's wife. Wasn't there a kingsguard who lost their head for bedding the king's wife? So he's like, that was ages ago. Not adding he lost more than his head. Aegon dismembered that man piece by piece, making the women watch. But he did also lose his head. Yeah, Terence Toyne. Yeah, he did. He did. That was Terence Toyne. He was found a bed with Bethany Bracken who was groomed, poor Bethany, not unlike poor Margaery, to marry a king, come to court or try to marry the king or try to seduce the king.

So it's a very sad end for Bethany. She was forced to watch him be dismembered piece by piece before then. She was also killed. And it's interesting he's brought up because it's remarked upon that he was tall, dark, and handsome, kind of similar to the kettle black looks. You kind of think of Miles Toyne, who wasn't described necessarily as handsome, but his face had character. He had a very prominent nose, a very memorable nose, much like the kettle black, so a memorable nose, and then you have the Kingswood Brotherhood Simon Toin, right? Like three very infamous Toins, so it's interesting to compare Asni to them. Yeah, yeah, I do think it's interesting we're getting the sprinklings of the Toins,

and also even with the Aegon stuff, right? That plays into how the Blackfyres end up coming to being as well, being the fourth. And then also you're talking about like a bed with a king's mistress and like making her watch. Like this kind of speaks to what we were saying last time of like... Cersei actually does know the histories pretty decently, but especially things that have to do with like salacious, you know, sexual sexual exploits like extramarital Sexual exploits like I think this is might actually be her special interest area in the history is

Like this is a this is a deep cut for her to know she memorized Oh because she had to memorize all of it because of Jamie Because of the risk they were taking by putting him in the Kingsguard. That's really why, right? She memorized all those stories because she probably recited all of this to him the night she convinced him to join. Like, look at the risk. This is the risk. Sure, it's risky, but we can be sneakier than them. It's not going to happen to us, da-da-da-da. LS. But it might work for us. A rest of development style. KINAY Yeah, absolutely.

Interesting. STACEY So she declares that Tommen is not Aegon the Unworthy, which is true, and he will do as she bids, but Margaery will lose her head, not Osney. He's like, her maiden head, right? And she's like, sure. And Margaery had defended Osney to her ladies, apparently, when they were making making fun of his big nose and she said that he had a lovely face. I'm like, I don't know, that doesn't mean she finds him attractive. Like, that's just her being fucking polite. Like, that's just common decency. You know? that, right? Like we're seeing that just like the later with the accusations and the tea,

the moon tea, etc. Everything just taking it as far as she can. I'm like, that's just the thing that I say, you know, I would say to a child like, of course you have a nice face, I guess. Not like that, but you know, like reassuring them if like they're being bullied. Yeah. Well, and she needs to lead by example. Yeah. Of course, the funny part, the second part of this, is that not only would he get to fuck Margaery, but then after, he would be able to take the black once he was discovered sleeping with her, and he'd need to kill a boy to return from the wall. Two birds, one stone. A bastard boy in league with Stannis, young

and green." Hmm. Cersi tells Osney, reminds him that, you know, lying with a queen is treason, ignoring that she and Osney have lain together. Like, you've already committed treason once, Osney. What's the big deal? But also, as I personally was reminded last episode by Chloe, I would like to bring up another counterargument that is it actually treason to lay with a queen or, as Lancelot brings up later in this book, it isn't treason unless you come inside. So really, you're just, pull out, Osnie, and it's fine.

The irony because those babies would probably look like Robert's. Oh. That would be fucked up. I do think there's a great line here too, where like, Cersei says she almost laughs at Osney and then remembers that men hate being laughed at, which, there's more to unpack there, but I don't feel like doing it. And it's also like interesting to me that she's like, this plan is totally going to work, right? As though it's really that easy to seduce Marjorie because Cersei's like, I don't know, it's been very easy for me to seduce lots of like different boys and men as part of my schemes or like for her to gain a sense of safety and control.

Whereas for Marjorie, like obviously her motivations for things are different, right? Like, also we don't even know that Osnie is her type. If we're really trying to succeed, why don't we just send Orain waters in there or something? If we're trying to go like, we want someone who's too hot to turn away. And I'm like, is Osnie? I don't know. No one's describing him as particularly hot. And not that Orain is Margaery's type either.

We don't even know what Margaery likes at all. And'm just like, we're just throwing things and she's like, obviously she'll just sleep with anyone. Yeah, I think too she can't trust Oraine. True. Yeah. Is a big thing too. Like she can trust- like sure, the Kettleblacks might not be able to do it, but she can at least trust them to do it. Yeah.

Or to try. Or to try. Yeah. And that's the problem for Cersei right now. She doesn't have people that can be successful that are also willing to do this for her. Yeah, it's a difficult task, I think. She would have been better off being like, go kill someone. A tool for every task and a task for every tool, as Tywin would say. A lordship and a pardon would be given to Osney

if he succeeded, and he'd be a lord, lord enough to bed a queen. Which then he'll have fucked two queens, just keeping track. He swears he'll dream of her when he's in Marjory, and off he fucks, hopefully literally. Afterwards, Jocelyn brushes Cersei's hair, and Cersei gets kind of into the zone of getting ready for bed, thinking, I was made for all this scheming in King's Landing. If Margaery was caught fucking a kettle black, not even Mace Tyrell could defend her, and when the kettle black showed up at the wall, no one would question it. If only Father could see me now, he would not be so quick to speak of marrying me off again. A

pity he's dead. Him and Robert, John Aaron, Ned Stark, Renly Baratheon, all dead. Only Tyrion remains, and not for long. That night, she summons Lady Merryweather to drink with her, and asks her to pay a call on Margaery the next day. We get that great bit here, as we've talked about in the past couple chapters, that Taina is very clever. She refers to Margaery as Lady Margaery instead of the Queen in front of Cersei, so she's once more feeding into Cersei's desires like how Qyburn does. That's a great observation, I didn't really notice that little switch in titles. I mean, she's doing the thing where she only, you know, she says she only wants to do things that please Cersei, and it, speaking of Sansa earlier, reminds me of Sansa surviving in King's Landing around Joffrey and Cersei.

Absolutely. Just little birding. Exactly. Cersei tells Taina to tell her several things, that Circe has sent seven candles to Baelor Sept for the memory of the High Septon in order for Margaery to out-candle her and send seventy-seven. Clever. Incredible. I really love the use of numbers here too, though, because you have the seven-seven, seventy-seven, which is like Matthew 18, 21 to 22.

Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sinned against me? Up to seven times. And in response, Jesus said, no, not seven times, not seventy times, but seventy times seven. So there's kind of a fun biblical joke in this in that like Cersei is like all pretend faithful like, I'm sending seven candles, but also she's the least forgiving person in the entire universe, right? Like so she's over here like out-candling Margaery instead of actually like Forgiving and like trying to just you know

Forgive and forget she's now my daughter. Yeah, what a weird passive aggressive fight just sending candles Look the way girls fight is much trickier than the way guys fight in this story that's for sure. They stay up late drinking Arbor Gold telling one another tales and she finally pulls the name of Tana's secret lover from her. It was a Moorish sea captain half a pirate with black hair to the shoulders and a scar across his face chint ear. It's not even his name." We have a hundred times I told him no and he said yes, the other woman told her. Until finally I was saying yes as well. He was not the sort of man to be denied.

"'I know the sort,' the queen said with a wry smile. "'Has your Grace ever known a man like that, I wonder?' "'Robert,' she lied, thinking of Jamie. Yet, when she closed her eyes, it was the other brother that she dreamt of, and the three wretched fools with whom she had begun her day. In the dream, it was Tyrion's head they brought her in her sack. She had it bronzed and kept it in her chamber pot." Isn't that so telling of Cersei? First of all, dog Locust, Robert, Jamie, just to pull an old one out real quick

for you. Dog Locust on the Robert and Jamie, just like what she says to Margaery when Margaery's like, oh, what turnies did Robert win? And she's like, the greatest turnie of all, Robert's Rebellion. It was built on a Y. LW- She's like, quick thinking, I got it. Still got it. G- And that she thinks of Jamie as not the kind of man to be denied, right? A hundred times I told him no and he said yes, like the sept scene. LW- Yep. And also, I mean, Robert, I mean, honestly, Robert was that too. Not that she said yes, but like that. Exactly. You can't, you don't get to tell the king no.

And that when she closes her eyes, she thinks not of Robert, not of Jamie taking and ravaging her body, but of Tyrion. Tyrion staring up at her. Yeah. Also, I do love the pettiness of keeping his head in the chamber pot. Yeah, Cersei IV. There's a lot going on. There's a lot going on here in the rest of the realm. Yeah, Cersei's small council chapters are very loaded. First birthday. Lots to get done, except nothing to get done. Yeah. It's like, you know, this is what a day at the office looks like now that we're done with grieving dad.

What is the office siren look again? Yeah, office siren. Oh my god, she totally would. We'll be back with our office siren next week. again. Yeah. Oh my god, she totally would. We'll be back with our office siren. Oh my god. Next week. We're getting closer to guests. Get ready. Our first guest will be coming on in Circe 6. We'll be announcing that next week. So stay tuned. Eliana, where can they send us a review email, etc? What do they do here? Yeah. Help. Even if you don't get to guess you may or may not end up in an episode if you want to send us your words you can send some at girlsgonecanon that's C-A-N-O-N over on Twitter at twitter.com slash girlsgonecanon

or you can send us an email as many people have done. Send us a if you'd like, at girlsgongcanon.gmail.com Yeah, and our patrons from patreon.com slash girlsgongcanon sponsor every single episode that we put out. It's what keeps us ad-free, and they are going to tell you about where you can find us on a streaming platform, which is also probably where you can leave us a review if you want your iTunes review, etc. to be read. Take it away, patrons. You can catch Girls Gone Cannon on any of the following streamers. On Podbean, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Acast, Spotify, Overcast, Apple Podcasts, I Heart Radio, Audible, and Amazon Podcasts. You can also join us on Patreon, where if you join the thunder tier above, you have

access to a Discord, and monthly happy hours, and things like that. And by joining the Discord, you get access to a bunch of great channels, including but not limited to memes and shitposting channel, Fashion Hour, there are multiple channels for historic materials, A Song of Ice and Fire, there's a Pet channel, which I think is probably the most important channel of all. Respectful Thirsting, because there's a channel for that. Come by, join the community, it's a lot of fun fun and you won't regret it. Thanks patrons and friends of ours for letting us know where to go and what to do to stream

GGC. As always, I've been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I've been another one of your hosts, Eliana. Robert, she said. Jamie, she thought. VB- Dog. Eryn- Dog. Locust. VB- Um, I was also thinking like when I tell them, you know, maybe we'll read your stuff a little, maybe we won't. It's just like Cersei being like, if you tell me your problem, maybe I'll deal with it, maybe I fucking won't in this chapter.

Eryn- Who needs a genie in a bottle when you have Cersei in a council? VB- Oh my god. Eryn- Goodbye. VB- Goodbye.