Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 249 — AGOT Daenerys VIII

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

Another diva down. Daenerys strikes a bargain. --- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song of Ice and Fire episode 249, Denary's 8, in a Game of Thrones. She's so 8. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And yes, finally, we are here at one of the Dani 8 episodes. Girl, Dani 8 down. Yeah.

This was a- Actually, she's been eating a lot lately this one's not yeah Danny did not eat probably in this chapter honestly she Diva down in this chapter Diva is down yeah actually this chapter and in the next one but that's okay and the one after that she comes back she rises so back. She rises. We're so back in Dany 10. And then after Dany 10 premieres, The Girl's Gone Cannon, we will also be so down. We will be Diva Down because we will be gone for one week. That's gonna be like the week leading up to Memorial Day. We'll remind you when we get there, but we're taking one week off before we start a clash of kings because we need that week to get ready to clash with kings.

Oh, okay. Oh. Yes. And other things happening in May is our Patreon episode. Next month we are continuing kind of our George short stories, but not in the same way that you would think. Yeah, we're going for a visual medium as well, and we will be watching in The Lost Lands the movie that just came out from P.W.S. Anderson. Your other Anderson? Paul W.S. Anderson. Another Paul Anderson. I don't know though, like, it's both, I appreciate both Paul Anderson's because like Resident Evil,

Milla Jovovich, I mean, I appreciate P.W.S. for that. So it's really funny because I'm like, of them are married to like cool chicks. Like it's like the Paul Andersons in this world get everything. Yeah I respect people named Paul and by that I mean the only other Paul I can really think of that I know is actually a cat. So maybe they're not people. Maybe, maybe. But yes, for patrons in the Stranger Tier and above, we will be covering In the Lost Lands, the movie adaptation that Mila Jovovich and Dave Bautista star in, and we will, of course, be talking about our previous coverage of In the Lost Lands by George R.R. Martin. We'll be comparing, contrasting, chatting, um, gabbing, yapping, all the

things that you would come to expect to hear from us. You will hear them. That will be coming out in May. If you missed it last month, we did cover Remembering Melody by George, which is a slightly dark, slightly horrific story and very slight in its length. I loved it, loved reading it and chatting about it with Eliana and we hope you listen in to April's episode as well. And that's not all, if you're in that Stranger Tier and above you will have access to a blockbuster Girls Gone Cannon summer. Eliana, what's coming to the waves for our patrons in the Stranger Tier and above this summer. Obviously we kicked it off with a PWS Anderson movie and then we are going back to something else that also has a cinematic adaptation.

We are returning to our Hunger Games coverage and we are catching fire this summer. It's heating up this summer. We are bringing on a guest this summer at some point too. So TBA, but just a tease. And if you haven't already, we actually have been releasing these in parts according to the books. We talk a little bit about the movies, a little bit more about the books, I would say, than movies, probably. Very much so. Book coverage, similar to our Aeswaf coverage.

The first episode was released for public. Just like In the Lost Lands, we released that for public as well, so listen to the novel, the short story of In the Lost Lands and the novels being covered for the Hunger Games. The first part of the Hunger Games first book is covered in this episode and then the rest are available at Patreon. Stranger tier and above. Maybe we'll sell them individually on there someday in the future if you're not interested in committing, but we hope you commit to us. Yeah.

You know, we commit to you. Commit to the bit. Almost every week. Yeah. Yeah, we commit to the bit. We commit to you guys. Commit to us. It's time.

Become a patron at patreon.com slash girlsconcannon. Ring in the summer with more Hunger Games. Get caught up with that first episode and see if you're ready to dive in and then come dive in with the rest of them. I really enjoyed covering the first novel. Oh yeah. And I'm excited to get to Catching Fire because I love Catching Fire. And this is of course starting in time for Sunrise on the Reaping so I think there's a chance we're gonna get Eliana to read T-Boss Ass, the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Slaughter, Sunrise on the Reaping, before the movie comes out. I'm hoping. Yeah, I think also one of our guests,

right, wants to perhaps in depth discuss T-Boss Ass. So it could happen. It could happen by the time that we record Catching Fire. So get catched up on that. Look, it's caught. I know it's caught, but I'm working on it. I thought it was more fun, everyone. Catch that fire. And I will say, I think Suzanne's going for a closing up of second trilogy is really what I think. I think there's going to be a third. I think that there will be a third

of the dragon. Exactly. I do think so though. That's another thing. You know how you have all those phrases you say in your everyday life. I'm like there must be a third. I was watching, we were watching Revenge of the Sith last night. We've been rewatching because well it's its 20th anniversary and then also we've already, last week I was like i'm gonna watch Phantom Menace and my husband was like yeah we're gonna watch Phantom Menace good call so we've just been rewatching and also because Andor is back which is awesome we are trying we're like at the point now before like when Andor ends then we're gonna watch Rogue One then New Hope you know we're going chronologically in the series so you know we're gonna watch Rogue One, then New Hope. We're going chronologically in the series, so we're Star Wars-ing it in time for the holidays here in May.

Yeah, I have a friend who did that. Yeah, it's a blast. Including, I guess, selected episodes, right, of the Clone Wars series. Oh, you're smart. We should do that. Yeah, I think you should do that. I hear it apparently really makes the prequel movies shine. Mm-hmm. Pop.

I'm a prequel's apologist. Like, I don't... They shine for me already, personally, because, like, especially when you put them on mute and remove all the dialogue. Like, they're beautiful movies, but Lucas can't write dialogue. But that said, Revenge of the Sith, like, I was sitting there and I was like,

wow, I say so many lines from this movie. Like, norm... Like, it worked. Like, from this movie, like, normally, like it worked, like not even in like fan friend combo, like I'm talking like, just talking in a meeting, I'll be on a meeting girl bossing and I'll be like, ah, well, we don't really deal with absolutes here. So, oh my gosh. Yeah. So yeah, it's a problem. It's a problem.

But that's, that's, that's another one right there. Get that everyone. Lots of Star Wars third hand just now, which we are not gonna probably do Star Wars episodes. No. But... I don't think so, you know, because it's a very... Sprinkle. You know, Aeswaf's bad enough, people are already very dehumanizing and mean towards one another in this fandom,

which is ironic, obviously, considering like the story of all of it and the themes and all whatever but like Star Wars And that's like a different beast like I don't want to be told to like die on a daily basis And I have I have hot Star Wars takes no one wants them because I believe in the heart of the story and man Prequels are to the story Interesting now interesting. All right. Well final housekeeping note Final tribute. Final tribute. I knew what she was referencing. She didn't even say it. I just know from her tone.

Okay. Final housekeeping note. We have scheduled our brunch slash wrap-y-hour for this May. It is going to be on May 18th. Time TBA, but May 18th. And probably the usual. Probably the usual. Probably the usual. You know, get grillin' with us, I guess.

Get grillin'. Grill's gone cannon. Oh my god, my favorite typo. Grills Gone Cannon. The other mods over in Mod Slack, that was my handle, grill, for glass table girl with grill, instead of girl. Like drill, but grill. Yeah, so we're like Grills Gone Cannon. Actually, that's not a bad idea. Second merch idea to go with our- Or should we do a picnic sometime over in your town? That could be fun. Find a park with a grill. I love a picnic. I don't know. Do some grilling. I mean we want to fish,

we want to grill. Yeah, I think the grill sounds easier to pull off than fishing. Oh I mean I think they're probably equally. Well no, the fishing takes four more steps. You gotta like... Or you could visit me and just only you and I grill. Well, you could do some grilling with us during Brappy Hour. We'll be chatting probably for a couple hours. We usually do two hours. And if you haven't joined the Discord or the Thunder Tier and above, the Thunder Tier at patreon.com slash Girls Gone Cannon gives you access to the Discord, gives you access to tons of channels to chat with other Girls Gone Cannon fans and

talk about shared interests, you know, or Respectfully Thirst and the Respectful Thirsting channel, or post about movies you're watching in Soviet cinema, a favorite channel, and so much more happening there, including this brappy hour. And it's really just two hours we get together every month with whoever wants to hang out. Sometimes we play games, sometimes we do like, there's a doodle game on Discord and sometimes I'll just be vibing. Sometimes someone might have had an edible and would be vibing, doodling for two hours

with friends on a little whiteboard that we play with or you know, it just depends on the vibe. Sometimes we bitch, we all just bitch. If you're new if you're new I might just grill you about my god Yeah, Eliana might put you on the spot light you up drunk you been kerosene. Oh my gosh. Wow. I'm concerned What is this? So come to brunch Danny? Can't you see don't you see oh my god

Uh, can't you see? Don't you see? Oh my god. We'll see you there. Thunder to your patrons and above. That brings us to an email slash tweet of note from our friend Lo. Yes. It was good to hear from Lo telling us about their travels and how it relates to Dani's chapter. And Lo says, a less serious email for me this time but I just want to let you know that I'm listening to your latest Danny chapter. This was a Danny 6 while on a ferry and you all just

talked about how Drogo doesn't want to sail the sea and you get him. I'm not on a super long ferry journey right now. It only, in quotes, takes three and a half hours but the timing was funny. I'm not sure how long this journey would take with the kind of ships they have in a song of ice and fire but to be fair probably a few days but I make this journey a few times a year when visiting my mom luckily the worst thing that's happened over the years is me becoming seasick when it's windy anyway it was a fun coincidence so I thought I'd email you and then Lo also shared also shared some photos of their mom's new rescue cat and This is a really cute cat. It kind of reminds me a little bit of like

What is it a Manx or something? Just its shape, but I'm not I'm not sure But very cute and I have to to comment that the stripes are very nice. They have very nice stripes. They have kind of that very cute, angley kind of face, so they look very angry and like, wow, you're a devastating destruction cat. I think they're going to grow up to be really cute, maybe a little chubby.

Unless just good for them. Unless they are a mix, and that's the size. No, I mean, even so, though, they still grow up possible, Chubby, because they look like they're gonna be well-loved. And I will say, Lo and their podcast partner, Virginie, just put out an episode on a feast of food on their podcast, Rack-Man's Harbor, with their friend and guest, Abby, and they talk about food and culture and life and really great. They have a Patreon now actually where Virginie is reading Lord of the Rings for the first time. So, food podcasters unite. Yeah, maybe I should follow along.

Maybe that will keep me on track. Maybe, there you go. That might like give you accountability. Yeah, like, you know, a goal. Anyways. Thanks so much for the email, Lo. Your animal photos and Aeswaf thoughts can always go to our email, girlsgoncanon at gmail.com. Shout out to whoever's using our email for like job applications and shit because we have so much spam for someone named Mirna. You know Mirna, I hope you got that job girl. Yeah. Are you, are you okay? Mir was it Mirra or Myra? I don't know. Myra. I don't know. I don't know. I really hope for the best for you. I mean like, you know, job market is hard right now. So.

Yeah, I'm really rooting for you, but you're not going to get that job if you send it to our email address. Yeah, I'm really rooting for you, but you're not gonna get that job if you send it to our email address. Yeah, real. So, rip. Sorry, Myrna. Uh, with that, that brings us to a very quick lightning, fast lightning round of what we missed between Dani 7 and Dani 8, starting with Tyrion 8. Oh, Tyrion did 8 in that.

On the green fork, the Lannisters realize that they have been tricked. Catelyn 10. As the wolves descend on the lions, Catelyn reflects on her family, on her son, and all the bittersweet victories and failures to come. There's a lot of failures that are gonna come. And that brings us to Daenerys 8, where only blood magic can save Drogo now. I like this chapter against Catelyn X. I think that's a really perfect place to put it in the story.

We started this story talking a lot about Dany in comparison to some of the young mothers we see in the story deriving their power from their child and not understanding the culture, and Catalin is kind of a direct mirror of that, right? Catalin's already gone through that and we learn that from Catalin's POV, often alongside Daenerys' POV in this story. And against the whispering wood, this is great because we have Catalin kind of ruminating on some of these thoughts of what death means, or what her son what death means or what her son's death means and what life means. We have these quotes,

When it came, she knew it would mean death. Hal's death, perhaps, or Hers, or Rob's. No one was safe. No life was certain. Catalin was content to wait, to listen to the whispers in the woods and the faint music of the brook, to feel the warm wind in her hair. Catalin kind of reflects on some of the loss she's experienced already and

applies that to her current situation as she waits with no information in the forest for this battle to be over to find out if her son survives, to find out if they win the day. And then she thinks on her son, right? Let him grow taller. Let him know 16 and 20 and 50. Let him grow as tall as his father and hold his own son in his arms. Please, please, please. And she thinks, of course, when she watches him with his direwolf that all she could see was the babe they had laid at her breast at Riverrun so long ago. I think a lot of Daenerys in this moment because these chapters are the memories during the middle of a war going on for her in a different way, right? Her war is a very specific with the Dothraki as she's about to give birth to her child and the sorrow that

comes from that compared to kind of what Cat's already experienced and now what Cat's going through and the possibility of losing her son, which comes much later for her. LS. That's a great comparison. Daenerys is kind of fighting at the same time for both the life of her husband and her son, knowing that her son is now imperiled if should her husband die. And I just really also love the structure of the book. You know, we know that George writes a lot of the chapters all at once and then kind of shuffles them and then probably tweaks them to put them together. And that there are only two chapters between this and the previous Daenerys chapter really shows that like, hey, pay attention to this storyline. Now shit's popping off.

Like this is, we're getting to the climax of this storyline now shit's popping off. Like this is we're getting to the climax of this storyline and part of where the action is really happening in the book because you know for a lot of those other Daenerys chapters it's a long time in between them so spotlight here. It's also so rapid fire like these are quick chapters they aren't long and they have a lot going on. Right like they're like bam bam bam this this is happening, this is happening. There's a lot of good prose, but like it's not too thick, it's pretty cut, it's pretty quick. Yeah. George is moving us ahead in the plot to get to the big couple moments ahead. Ned's head, obviously,

dragons, the big stuff. Where everybody ends at this book. Off with Ned's head. Yes. Dance till he's dead. Racing. Dance all around's head, dance to Lisa, dance around, weh weh weh weh weh weh Oh god, what if they- no nevermind, that's pretty messed up. What if they played that? Cersei did.

So, we open up this chapter. The fly circled Cal Drogo slowly, their wings buzzing, a low thrum at the edge of hearing that filled Dany with dread. The sun was high and pitiless. Heat shimmered in waves off the stony outcrops of low hills. A thin finger of sweat trickled slowly between Dany's swollen breasts. The only sounds were the steady clop of their horses' hooves, the rhythmic tingle of the bells in Drogo's hair and the distant voices behind them. Dany watched the flies.

They were as large as bees. Gross, purplish, glistening. The Dothraki called them bloodflies. They lived in their marshes and stagnant pools, sucked blood from man and horse alike, and laid their eggs in the dead and dying. Drogo hated them. Whenever one came near him, his hand would shoot out, quick as a striking snake to close around it. She had never seen him miss. He would hold the fly inside his huge fist, long enough to hear its frantic buzzing. Then his fingers would tighten, and when

he opened his hand again, the fly would only be a red smear on his palm." So I feel like this is definitely one of those passages that people critique where it's like men writing women regarding the sweat going down Danny's swollen breasts or trickling in between them. I them. No, that's me like during my period outside in Philly in the summer though. Like in 95 degree weather, sweat just going down my titties and they hurt because I'm gushing.

And that's real, but usually I think of like, I don't know, when I'm thinking of, oh, I'm so sweaty, I'm usually thinking about my neck. I don't know why. Like my neck, I'm just like, That's interesting. It's so sweaty, right? I've killed a ton of phones because of boob sweat So that's so funny that you have that experience. I mean like I do have it

But it's putting my phone not in between my bra. Oh See I don't have that issue. I just gave up on bras Fair I don't have that issue anymore cuz that too. I think I convinced you I was like whatever Chloe just don't I don't have that issue anymore because of that too. I think I convinced you. I was like, whatever Chloe, just don't. I don't know. I was part of your journey. Who the fuck cares? See a nipple. Yeah. It just depends. It depends on the season too. If it's like winter or fall, maybe I'll wear a little bralet, you know?

But summer? Whatever dude. Yeah. Who cares? Who cares? Well, who cares about this? The red smear on his palm, I love that as like the comet in a way, right? Like the blood of the fly and like the idea of the whole chapter, blood sacrifice, magic, and like prophecy. So like the red smear on his palm

makes me think a little bit of the comet to come. But also makes me think of Cersei's line, the sticky princes on her palm swallowing. Oh interesting. I don't know. Okay I thought we were gonna go. I'm not gonna eat this. I'm gonna go Macbeth. Oh Yeah, I can't believe you hurt me like that. Blood on hands. Yeah out damn spot. Yeah You could have said out damn spot. No, you know like you did that on purpose. You're very cruel. I did. You were cruel like Caholo Oh my god. In this chapter.

So, this is neither here nor there. I just wanted to say this. Um, the bloodflies thing makes me think of- There's an incantation in Elden Ring called Storm of Flies, but it's not because of George. That- a version of that incantation has existed, like, I don't know, as a pyromancy or something, probably from as early as Demon's Souls in that whole franchise but I don't know

I've never seen like I guess I've never been with flies that bite but I guess they're real I mean mosquitoes yes a lot I have some friends who are joking like oh yeah you just go with Eliana to X place you'll never get bitten by mosquitoes because I'm the person that the mosquitoes bite. It's terrible. It's really terrible. It's a bad sign. They love our blood. They love it. Yeah. Wow.

I don't know. I don't know how can I make my blood less tasty? I think about that. I'm like, what should I eat to be less tasty? Well, I think we need to like drain half of it out and put a different kind in. I don't know. I also don't even, it's not like I'm eating sweet things really, so I don't know why it's happening to me. Who knows? Regarding Drogo, never missing the flies, but now missing.

I feel as though, especially during that time, there was like an iconic kind of scene slash trope, right? From like fighting movies and martial arts movies, someone like reaches out, they catch the fly and like that's it. You know that they finally reached that level of skill they need to reach. I also especially remember the training montage of Arnold and Hey Arnold learning how to fight and catching a fly was one of the tests of if you can finally do this, you're good enough. So that Khal Drogo can do this all the time and never miss says something. I will also say a personal anecdote again besides H. Arnold is I'm pretty sure I saw

my partner do this like at least once. I don't know if it was a fly or some other like flying bug that is easier. Maybe he's done it more than once and like I was impressed. I was like wow you're so talented. Like it's Mr. Miyagi you know it's like Karate Kid it's look I Daniel-san which and everything like yeah kind, you're so talented. Like, it's Mr. Miyagi, you know? It's like Karate Kid, it's Look-I, Daniel-san. And everything like, kinda stemmed from that. I mean, The Karate Kid is an iconic movie. But it comes, it does like, have roots, obviously.

Like, it comes in its roots of like, balance of the Force. Um, the balance and all that. So I think there's also that, like, the fact that that's something that he's known for, right? He's known for his execution. He's known for like, like, Drogo could kill a fly from afar just in the blink of an eye without even looking, without even moving and that his coordination is going. Yeah. Not great. And also I think what, so yeah, I do think, as you said, I, it's probably from

Crowdy Kid. I just wasn't sure if it like proceeds that or not, but absolutely an iconic film. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure it has its roots before that. I also am thinking of cowboy movies, right? Like westerns and shooting things and having precision. Like precision is supposed to be a big part of a fighter, right? Precision, accuracy, swiftness. And speed.

Yeah. Speed, yep. Yep. Well, the flies are creeping closer to Drogo and his horse, but he does not react because now he's no longer precise and swift. The reins are loose in his hands and a poultice of fig leaves and caked mud covers his wounds made by the herb women. He had torn Miriam Mazdor's poultice off six days ago, cursing her as a magi. The herb women's poultice is much more soothing and they gave him poppy wine too. If they weren't giving him poppy wine, they were giving off six days ago, cursing her as a magi. The herb women's poultice is much more soothing

and they gave him poppy wine too. If they weren't giving him poppy wine, they were giving him other libations, such as fermented mare's milk or pepper beer. There's this line in the office where Michael Scott is like, "'You cheated on me after I specifically asked you not to." And that's like the same energy that I feel about this, that it's like,

oh you did X, Y, and Z after I literally listed and bullet points and told you not to. It's like the same vibe in some aspects, different. Like one is about Michael and Jan, this one's obviously about Drogo and Miri Mezdor. I understand the difference, thank you. But like it's just the same, like how could you like she literally gave you the it's like going to the doctor They give you bullet points and you're like, that's great. These are things that I need to do to stay alive I will not be doing them, but I will still be thinking I will stay alive Like torn off the poultice because it had itched and burned itching usually does signify Healing. Yeah in some aspects right now the itching and burning today six days later is different. It's infestation

We're gonna talk about that but like six days ago. It was itching. It might have been doing its job The mud plaster was more smoothing the herb women made him poppy wine as well He'd been drinking it heavily Reminds me a lot of how Robert died too Yeah, that he just was like blinding himself and also lived that way through life. The herb women, especially as we see half the Kallasar today leave, right? And like run, like who are the herb women actually loyal to? Like they're giving him soothing things. These are not things that heal. These are things that

soothe. They are helping him to his death, right? They are saying the equivalent of, well, it's probably over for him, but we can soothe him and make him feel better. And it's kind of that comparison between like the king, right? Like you have a king in front of you, the king. Do you tell him the truth when he asks you your counsel, or do you give him lives that assuage him? Right? So just like how Robert lived, men constantly told him what he wanted to hear

or what they thought he wanted to hear. Similar here with the Cal, people aren't telling him the truth or giving him any sort of honesty. And also, yeah, healing and your body recovering and you're not letting it, like you're like, no, let's do drugs and alcohol every day instead of healing.

Like, look, I fucking love alcohol, but like I have to take a lot of medications. So it's like when I'm on certain medications, I know I can't drink and guess what? If I drink, I know that those medications aren't going to make me get better faster. And if I don't get better faster, then I'm going to suffer longer. So like, he's doing the thing that leads you to the suffering longer. Why is he doing the thing that she told him not to do that leads to the suffering longer?" Yeah, like it's kind of interesting because the way that Mirri Mazdor relays all that information last last chapter, it feels like you're leaving the doctor's office

or telling you this is what to expect in the healing process, this is how to care for like the your ailment, right? Like it's delivered in that way. As you said, like the itching and the burning implies like, yeah, it's gonna fucking hurt. You have a giant scar. Like this is not a surprise. I mean, in general, it's gonna hurt until it's done. And the burning, I know it like sounds bad, but I'm thinking it's kind of like when you put when you dab like alcohol or some other sort of Disinfectant, you know on on a wound or something and it's stings. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's like that But unfortunately, it's like held there because this is not modern medicine It is not in fact that kind of alcohol like she she disinfected it with warmed up wine last chapter. So like, she knows-

Boiled. Boiled, yeah. She knows what she's doing, right? Like, that's a disinfectant. We see that work. Like, look at Jamie's treatment, right? Like, Qyburn saves his- there's something interesting. They both studied for Marwin.

Qyburn saves Jamie's arm and he keeps it from going into necrosis and all the flesh from eventually dying off. And that's what this reminds me of a lot of because he's septic. Yeah, he has sepsis. Like the infection, his body has stopped fighting it at this point. He has sepsis. He's going to die. Like it's sunk deep within his skin.

His body is no longer properly fighting it. The chance to fight it was six days ago. And we'll go over some more about the medical stuff. Not that either of us are medically trained. We just have lived in this world. And I'm someone who's had wounds before, including big ones. I'm very lucky they didn't hit my femoral vein. You wouldn't have this. Maybe all of you are unlucky. We wouldn't have this podcast. But yeah, these are just so obviously infected. And drinking, it's just, I don't know, it's just not good for recovery. As you said, it's easing him along or like we see how they use

Milk of the Poppy when, I don't know, I guess it was fine with Ned's leg but more of as a painkiller. You can't only like be doing that in the alcohol. It's not good for recovery. Your body needs that strength and also he's not eating probably because he's ill, right? Yeah. But the fact that he's not eating or drinking water like that means okay so your body has nothing to work with to turn into nutrients that it can use to repair. You've hollowed him out. Wait he's become basically a zombie. Yeah. We're going to discuss that. Which is? Which is. Themes. That's next chapter. That's next chapter. We'll probably have more discussion of that to be fair. We'll have some themes. I have other stuff. I have other thoughts.

He has themes. He has themes. Drogo didn't eat. He didn't sleep. He had become drawn and silent. It was making Dany afraid. He hadn't spoken a single word that day, not even barely a grunt. Bloodflies continue to land on him and he sways in his saddle, his bells ringing. Danny tries to speak to him rather softly, riding closer, but he doesn't seem to hear her. A blood fly crawls up like his mustache, his face settles into his cheek and she like kind of clumsily grabs his arm because she's like, dude there's a fly

on your face and he reels and he falls heavily from his horse." No good. That's kinda like Eurydice and Orpheus right there, right? He looked back at her and then... except it's the opposite. It's him that is gone. Yeah, we have... Cal Drogo reeled in the saddle, tilted slowly, and fell heavily from his horse. The flies scattered for a heartbeat and then circled back to settle on him

where he lay. No, Danny said, raining up. Heedless of her belly for once, she scrambled off her silver and ran to him." Yeah, so the chapter makes it more explicit later on, but I think that this also already hits hard even for the reader because we went through all that trouble of establishing the tie between masculinity, leadership, and being able to ride a horse for the reader, because we went through all that trouble of establishing the tie between masculinity, leadership, and being able to ride a horse for the Dothraki by examining how shameful it was for Viserys to not be able to ride a horse. So I think there's a lot of really strong world building and using that structure to set up the stakes for this point in the story and how gossip gets around everyone. They're like, yo, I heard that Kaldrago fell off his horse. What's crazy too about the the entire way they

travel is that, like you said, the gossip is like she immediately the first thing she thinks is how do we PR control this? Like how do we stop this in its tracks? Do not let it get out past this circle, make a camp, get him out of sight, hurry. She knows and she realizes how that culture reacts within itself and like if they treated Viserys that way, who was not one of their kind, he was an outsider and also a piece of shit, like imagine someone that they revere who they well respect. It's not gonna be like a free past, it's going to be like a oh shit time to go because that's how they work. Yeah, it also even reminds me, like as you're saying, the PR and her trying to control it, enough people saw that like it gets out to everyone in the camp, but like her trying to contain it

for that bit and also like it reminds me a little of different Viserys, the death of King Viserys and the Green Council a little bit. Yes, there's a lot of that in this and like those echoes especially with Rhaenyra, right, who miscarries and loses her child at her major death, at her father's death, and at her usurpation. So kind of interesting. Here it's Rhaegos, quote unquote. Drogo gasps for his horse and looks at her without recognition.

Who is this child bride? His skin burns beneath her fingers and his blood riders gallop up and Koholo gets on his knees at Drogo. Hagos says that Drogo fell from his horse and Dani tells him, we've ridden far enough for the day, we should camp. Hagos says that this place with its dead brown grass is no camping ground and Kothos says it's not for a woman to halt them, not even a Khaleesi."

This compared to their Khaleesi. This compared to earlier in the book, right, when she first rides off with them after marrying Drogo and or before whatever. No it's after. When she first rides with them and she halts them because she thinks the day is beautiful and Viserys gets angry about it, right? And bitches at her, does this whole thing, you know, like calls her a slut, da da da, don't like the dragon. You guys read that. But comparing this to then, right, like she

was allowed, but now even though Drogo's still alive, her power is waning. She can't command the Kalasar to stop for her. Like, she had that specially just because Drogo was at his peak before, but now nope. It reminds me of that Sansa quote later in Storm when she's like, I thought my song was beginning that day, but it was almost done. Dani gets a lot of the learning and kind of she gets Sansa's learnings crushed into one book because she has to learn really quickly in a lot of ways, right? And here's that moment of, oh my song's already ended. They're calling the next motherfucker up for karaoke and it's not me. What would Dani sing? There's a lot of different songs. We should examine this.

We made an aria playlist. We should think about a Daenerys one at some point. I already have one. Okay. I thought it was interesting that the place with the dead brown grass isn't one to camp because A, obviously the horses cannot graze and eat. B, I'm wondering if it's harder to hide from people. But C especially is it's an area that would catch fire very quickly. So it makes me wonder what's going to happen for Daenerys' story in like winds and stuff when she encounters more Dothraki, especially with if there is more dead brown grass. Yeah, I have some more thoughts on this we're gonna come back to when they get Drogo kind of going here. Okay.

That probably tie in here. Word. So let's come back to that. Okay. Well, despite the resistance, Dani gives the orders anyway. She tells Haggar to say that Drogo commanded the Halt, claiming that her time to birth is near, which, um, dude. True. Careful what you manifest. And Koholo is told to bring the slaves and pitch the calls tent.

When Kotho refuses to fetch Mirri Mazdor, Danny warns that Drogo will hear of his defiance, so they obey reluctantly. And yeah, it's just, it's an interesting scene and is kind of what we've been talking about these past few chapters, right? Like she's telling Haggoth to tell the people and she's taking to halt and saying that the order came from Drogo. Like that's the only way it holds any weight and she's taking the blame and the shame of it in regards to childbirth. It's something we were talking about last chapter, like how much of this is even being done because of her own power. It's not. She even uses Drogo's name to threaten Kotho into obedience and we're seeing what the stakes are for her, right? Like, none of

the powers ever been hers. She's gone from Viserys' cage to one that, like, was pretty fucking terrible at the beginning, right? Like, it's pretty weird that Drogo is all, I'm gonna fuck this 13 year old. That was weird. Um, so she's gotten to another cage. Yeah, that she's made more comfortable for herself, but it still is a cage, as we're finding out. Yeah, she just got comfortable in this one. Yes. Dorea and Eerie help her bring Drogo into the tent. He mutters, No, in the common tongue, as she undresses him. Eerie suggests opening the flaps, but

Dani refuses and tells Jogo to let no one enter. Eroë, the lamb girl she saved, lights the brassiere and quietly says, he dies. Yeah. There's- Finally someone's fucking saying it. I know right? She doesn't know though that maybe- oh as you're saying you can't just like say the things that the rulers don't want to hear. There's a lot of poetry here though of like Drogo returning to that one common tongue word that he knew when he and Dani were wed. He's lost all the other ones just saying no. No. Mm, it's so sad.

And he's not- His final words. Yeah, and he's not asking it as a- he's not telling it to her, it's his way of trying to protect himself and all of that also being ignored. Yeah. His body. And Dani doesn't love- Yeah. Being taken.

I don't know, his body. And- Knowing that it's over- Desperated in a way. It's- actually it's a mirror to the very end of this chapter too, when she's taken into the tent and she's like, no, do not take me there, and like, they have to, they do. Like, she knows that it's not the way to go But she knows there's no other choice. So she also was saying no so interesting

She couldn't say it. Yeah, or else I wonder what Jorah would have done. He would have been like, uh, what the fuck? So what do I do with you? You are bleeding. Drop! Danny slaps Iroë, insisting he can't die He's the father of the stallion who mounts the world. His hair is uncut, his bells are still in place." Yeah, so that kind of stood out to me that Daenerys slaps Eroë, and this is the same person that she remembers in A Dance of Dragons right in his morning, because bad shit happens

to Eroë in a few chapters. And she feels that she saved this girl. Yeah, it's interesting because it comes to like the bones of the girl too, right? And in dance that kind of have a parallel to it. And she often thinks of the bones and the bodies of the little girls that are dying as she's trying to liberate and free them throughout the next couple of books.

And it also kind of highlights that hypocrisy and freeing and ruling, right, that she's going to come up against, that like the two concepts can exist, but they are dissonant against one another, always trying to cause conflict, right? You can't free people and then propose that they should be thinking and feeling a certain way because you freed them. And sure, Eroey shouldn't go just saying that. Everyone can probably hear, you know, the camp, the tent flaps aren't that thick, like you have to be careful what you're saying. I mean, to your point, this is very, there's a lot of like, Dance of the Dragons, like, Alicent locking everything

down, like, this is what we have to do, we're doing a treason right now, because she is kind of, she's doing a little bit of treason, she's using his voice to command, she's shutting everything down, she's trying to make sure that the ascension and the dissension of Khal Drogo and her son Like go properly, right? Like she's trying to just stop the world from spinning right now and she's desperately kind of reaching out But it comes to what we resurface with Mirri Mazdor last chapter and this chapter that we'll come back to You do not ask a slave you command them

Yeah, and and that's like that's something that really butts up against, as you said, the next few chapters and great parallels with Alicent. But Daenerys is spinning out here a little and like her- Crashing out definition. Yeah. I mean, her in this bedside, like in this emergency, I mean, I understand why, right? Like this is a really scary situation you know and it kind of makes me think of even like the way that Catlin felt during Bran's coma after days without sleep like there's a lot here that actually kind of reminds

me of it yeah absolutely some of that grief right like even especially comparing the horses we get Danny really upset obviously and she's like, fucking who cares about the horse later, like we're saving his life, do you not get it? But Catalin says to Lewin, you wish to discuss the new master of horse, like my son is dying and broken, do you think it matters to me? One wit, I would gladly butcher every horse in Winterfell with my own hands if it would open Bran's eyes. Do you understand that? Do you? Which that's almost directly mirrored to some of the language that Dani thinks,

like, why can't they see? Why don't they see this? Do you see it? Do you see it? A great parallel in general, because, I mean, Catalin has her rebirth as well, right, later on. So, interesting. And then, of course, the line that Dani thinks in this chapter is if she could buy Drogo's life with the death of a horse, she would pay a thousand times over. So one one, very similar. Yeah. Staying at the at the side and being willing to,

you know, take on some of that harm and sacrifice. And if we like, yeah, and if we see that Catalin like like that's Catalin's grief. We can all 100% align. Like Catalin was deep grieving and like lashing out during these moments, obviously in this chapter. So it's very safe to say that Dani is in panic grief mode as well, that everything she is doing is probably with just as much of that panic behind it right now. Yeah, and she's trying to prevent getting to the grief point, but she starting to enter those stages too and it's a it's an intense chapter. Yeah. Jiki reminds her that uh so he fell from his horse and everyone saw it and Dani knows what it means because a call who cannot ride cannot rule yet she presses. She orders a cool bath, sets up the tub, and demands Miri be brought again. She undoes his braids, laying his bells aside, and I

really thought that this line, it's like telling you, okay here's what's gonna happen because of his fever. He's burning up. You've all had a fever before, I assume. If not, you should be studied. And we have a line of, he was fire and human skin. And I'm like, interesting, George. And then you also have like the bath water, it's cold, it smells like sulfur. And I don't know, like I'm not a professional, but I just feel like that can't be good

because I associate it with rotten eggs, also volcanic activity, but I'm like, you know, I just feel like that can't be good for the big open wound, but I don't know. Well, and two feel like that can't be good for the big open wound, but I don't know. Well, and two thoughts off that. It actually is, sulfur is used to treat wounds and infection. It's antibacterial.

It has sulfonamides. Yeah, like World War II, I think. After World War II, they used it a lot. But the more important thing that stuck out to me is that, like you were talking about the environment, the water's sulfuric. The campground has sulfuric water, meaning the place that they're camping, despite its lack of resources for the Dothraki,

may be similar to places that support dragon birthing, like Dragonstone, where many dragons were able to be birthed, be hatched, fly, grow, Valyria, you know, molten volcanic area. So seems they are in a magical equator of sorts over in Essos. So listen, even though we do strongly believe that Drugo did things wrong, based on what we do know about some stuff and what Miri did, clearly I don't know everything. Clearly I'm not a medical professional.

LS. Do not take our advice also. LS. I just still think that Mirri did try to heal him that first time and I'll go a little bit into why I think she did, but maybe in next chapter we'll see. Jorah arrives and she lets him in. He says, word of Drogo's fall has reached the camp. Everybody knows. Duh. Daenerys pleads for help. Droid tells her to send her maids away. And alone, he scrapes the poultice, apparently very surprisingly delicately, from Drogo's chest. And a foul smell rises. It's full of pus, blackened skin, and black blood. And he tells her that Drogo is as

good as dead and again not a medical professional, but I think this is part of why like it didn't work on top of not following the medical instructions. Like I've had to do wound care before and he just- I just don't think you should smear mud first of all and dirt into a wound. Sounds bad. Sounds like a bad time. And also that it's kicked over and hard because of the mud. It creates that damp environment, right, for the bacteria to grow in.

It, like, can't breathe, and they couldn't change it or they didn't change it, which is kind of unlike the care that Miriam Azdor provided, which is, yeah, that initial green paste. And then that she stitched it closed with leaves and lambskin that was bound. So like, there's a little more breathability, like the lamp, she stitched it closed with leaves, and then she bound it in lambskin, kind of like, you know, medical gauze maybe right but you can therefore remove and open up to check on the wound or maybe clean it easily but we didn't do all that so now we have a an infection and as you said it's now sepsis. Shit's bad. It reminds me of uh his dark materials what is that crap called that they use on Will's finger the mossyy stuff. Oh, blood moss, right?

Blood moss, yeah thank you, there we go. Yeah, reminds me of blood moss, you know, like Miriam Asdur seemed to have the right leaves in there that should have been doing the trick, but... Well we know that fire pods, she says she uses stigminaught and fire not- fire pods, and we don't know what stigminaught is, but fire pods are used for cooking in a different dish earlier so they're not toxic yeah they're not poisonous like she's not potentially poisoning him with them yeah they're from nature and it makes me think of children of the forest and a little bit of bran in the cave with bloodraven right and ointments different things going on yeah mean, the herb women probably know some too, right? But like they didn't do medical residencies

all over the world, unlike Mirri Mazdor. It seems they're giving him end of life care. It doesn't seem like they're giving him like a treatment for his wound. It seems that they have already deemed it to me. There's a difference. They're like the fates in the background. They're like, put some mud on it

and take this poppy wine for six weekdays and good luck. You're gonna die. Yeah. We have a passage between Danny and Jorah. Will you be Jorah for me? Sure. That's so romantic. I'm just kidding. Danny says, I will not let him die.

So Jorah gave a bitter laugh. Heh, Khaleesi our queen. That command is beyond your power. Save your tears, child. Weep for him tomorrow or a year from now. We do not have time for grief. We must go and quickly before he dies. I feel like I had a different Jorah voice.

That was probably more annoying, but I can't remember it right now. I'm sorry, everyone. Well, this is like a very like smaller intimate, you know, moment. It's nice of you to not give him a fucking weirdo voice for a moment, you know? I guess, I guess. I feel like I want to add more urgency to that line. We must go and quickly before he dies. There we go. That was good. Thank you. Thank you. Feels a little more like we gotta go. I love the, that command is beyond your power for now. I mean, she's about to rebirth dead dragons to the world, so. That's true. Watch out. And then it makes me think of Arya, right? Like, could you bring back a man with

no head? Not six times, just once? No. No, that's not how it works. He's also like, I don't know, I only really have done this once. It was an accident. Daenerys asks where they'll go. Jorah suggests Asshai, doubting her Kos will follow. She hopes that they'll follow Rhaego, but Jorah warns that the Dothraki follow strength,

not infants. The Kalasar will splinter, it will schism, her son could be killed, out of fear of him being the stallion who mounts the world. Dani's like, no, my koss and Drogo's blood riders aren't like that, they would protect Rhaego. And Jorah's like, they die with their cow, the blood riders die with their cow. But Dani still refuses to abandon Drogo. Yeah, so it's basically kind of what we've been exploring the past few chapters, like

yes, they kill the sons, it's kind of like, you you know lions taking on a new pack, they kill the cubs. The colossar killing this son kind of is the same way that Robert wanted to kill Daenerys and her child, only at least the Dothraki. They wait until the child is born and then they take the newborn child and kill it so that they can at least keep their culture and keep bring danny to face dothraki unlike robert who's like let's kill both the girl and the unborn child at the same time and that's because the dothraki are pro life they are pro birth this is this is a joke i'm not being serious but like i think it is an interesting contrast, the way that people are thinking about that succession and wanting to cut it off with that child, any threats.

And she's all like, I don't want to live with those terrible old women, the Doshkaleen. And I'm just like, girl, I know you're young, but I bet living with the Doshkaleen, it probably is way better than you think it is. Maybe it even rocks, right? Like those old women are probably not that old and they're finally free in some ways of like having to deal with a bunch of men until like they come, I don't know, every now and then. Like they're probably having the fucking time of their lives and I mean, they're probably not because they didn't choose to be there and have now been dragged there.

But maybe they are and I say this as someone have now been dragged there, but maybe they are. And I say this as someone who's would probably be called a terrible old woman by Daenerys. You're my favorite terrible old woman. Thank you. You're so old. You're like negative 16. Also, I guess I never, this is like a stupid parallel that everybody already fucking knows. And I just never thought about it really till now but like oh Danny is

You know her fate is supposed to be that she goes to the Dosh-Kaleen Made up of all these women like John's fate is supposed to be dying and living with the Night's Watch the penal colony of dudes I never thought about that before I get it like their fates are supposed to be tied to that, but they're both cheating that with death and birth? Agreed, yeah. And I kind of wonder if like when she returns to Vace Dothraki, will she see them with new eyes and think of them differently now that she's been through more and realizes, wait... Now that she's almost an adult at 15? She a baddie, you know, be like wait this woman is 20, like 25 right, and dragged here to Vasteoth Rock. Are they all actually terrible old women? I don't know. Anyways, we also have this saying here of like Drogo had been more than her sun and stars, he had been the shield that kept her safe.

And again, what we've been saying about where the power derives from and it's a parallel to the way that we've been seeing women struggle to hold power in Westeros right after the death of their husbands. Like that's probably going to happen to Catelyn soon, but at least her son's grown enough. We have Lysa trying to rule in the Vale and keeping all those lords happy. We have Cersei about to do that now, and it's something that gets a little more exploration, right? Like in The Sworn Sword where it turns out her dad's like, you gotta get married or we're gonna give everything away even though like that guy's gone and dead. And then we also have, we see what happens when you are vulnerable as a widow

through like Lady Hornwood and the dangers of all that. But interestingly in regards to he had been the shield that kept her safe, I think the person who relied most on a king to keep them safe in this book, and the person in the most analogous situation right now is actually Ned Stark, right? Like Robert was his shield against this Lannister ridden capital and then his paper shield gets torn

up. Yeah. And I think it's great because it really sets the stage now that we've explored Ned and Robert's marriage and Drogo and Dani's marriage in this way. We are saying that Robert and Ned are married. Yeah. He's Robert's queen. So like, looking at then this pattern now that we explore it thoroughly in A Game of

Thrones, it's what makes it still so effective when you have Margaery as a character who really isn't characterized much, right? We get very small snippets of Margaery in the books compared to the adaptation. Sorry, I messed that up. In comparison to the source material, the TV show, Marjorie isn't really characterized in this adaptive series of books, right? She's kind of a non-character, like you get little bits about her, but you start to understand that character through these stories

that are previously being told of what happens when your husband is killed by a shadow baby and now you have to go get another one and now you need further security and of course through what Dani has to go through in marrying his daughter later. We start to see a lot of that for Cersei with her father as well as she waits to get that marriage announcement as you said and as she's like no I just don't think I will. We'll see what lengths she goes to to keep her own independence, her own security, because that's one of the things she really does crave is not having to be beholden to a man's power.

And Dani might be similar in some aspects, right? She also she's been enslaved before. She won't do it again, is how she feels. And I can understand that. That's a good point. Most of all, yeah, I mean, how could you go back after that, especially with three dragons? I don't know. Don't know that you do.

I mean, isn't that the goal? To have that kind of independence and freedom? Like perfect weapon to have, to use that. And then like, there's this entire passage here with Jorah in her as we talked about that he tells her like it is like, no, it doesn't matter if your son is the chosen one, they're not gonna follow him. They're gonna splinter, they're gonna schizom, they're gonna fight, like it's gonna be bloody, it's not gonna be worth it, in the end you'll have to run or your son will be killed or you're gonna be killed, like we have to go. And it's almost exactly what I can imagine Leona Stark was told before she had her baby

in the Tower of Joy after Rhaegar had died. I mean, you could almost replace it exactly, right? Like, but feeling trapped. What she likely heard from Arthur or from some of the other Kingsguard members. She was probably asked to flee or told we need to flee. The Seven Kingdoms won't follow a suckling babe, Jorah says. What about one that's only half a Targaryen too? One that's maybe looked at as a bastard potentially. No one was there for a secret wedding. We don't know what happened obviously yet.

Hell, even like Viserys called Rhaego, right? Viserys calling Rhaego's bastard status like even because he was just calling him a Dothraki bastard and showing he doesn't like think that the Dothraki are valid and sees them as subhuman because that's Viserys' whole thing. Like obviously that, but also kind of invalidating the line of succession by openly calling Dany's son a bastard. So if there's a little bit of question there, wouldn't there be a little bit

of question elsewhere, you know, for Lyanna with Jon? Because as we see, the claim doesn't come from the woman in this story, and that's a lot of what they're battling with in this book. And then of course with Robert being gone and Aegon, for example, was given to the dogs, Rhaego would be given to the dogs now that Robert and Drogo are gone. And Rhaegar being gone, right? Rhaegar dying, there's no protection, there's no security for baby Jon Snow. So interesting to compare Jorah's speech and think he probably had the same conversation. Someone else had the same exact conversation in the Tower of Joy with Lyanna.

LW. That's true, yeah. Or to get her to go to the Tower of Joy and hide out there. It was probably actually one of, but yeah, it could have been Arthur. I mean, he was actually Rhaegar's best friend. People think it was John Connington, but no, Rhaegar was John Connington's best friend, but not the other way around. I don't know why John Connington is catching strays right now. Jesus, he has enough on his plate. Be nice. It's just because it's a misconception I see touted around. Yeah.

Rhaegar was Jon Connington's best friend. Jon Connington was not Rhaegar's best friend. Exactly. And if you don't understand that, you are probably not someone's best friend. Oh, shit. Just kidding. Now y'all are catching strays. Oh, god, yeah.

Savage. Whoa, we attacked the audience today. Dang. Um, didn't expect that. Didn't expect that. Anyways. It's a 3D experience. I just came out of the screen at you today. Dang. Didn't expect that. Didn't expect that. Anyways.

It's a 3D experience. I just came out of the screen at you guys. Wow. Yeah. It was like you fucking losers. You fucking nerds. Holy shit. Hey, I said it's if you didn't understand it.

If you understood it, then it wasn't about you. Was it about you? Okay. Was it you? Are you maybe taking sanction with this, Eliana? Maybe it's about you. No, no. If the shoe fits. If the shoe fits. Well, anyway, so, whoa. Yes to everything that you said in regards to all that. And I don't know,

I actually didn't think about it until earlier on until you joked that Ned is Robert's queen, but there are a lot of those parallels because we see him ruling and sending troops out and being like, I don't know, this is done in Robert's name, so you have to listen to me. I am the voice of the king. And it also even shows to the extent of how Daenerys clawed her way to that position. She kind of created a hand of the king position for herself, which is not typical as a Khaleesi, I think. And we're seen and told that in this chapter.

Yeah, in the last couple chapters, right? Like constantly them saying, this is not how this is done, Khaleesi. It is not done like this, Khaleesi. That's not how it's done. And she really, like we talk a lot about her adapting throughout this book, but she's adapted very subtly in the background to carve that place out for herself. Yeah, she made a literally a Hand of the King position and another parallel in which, you know, the threat now is you're going to be taken to face Dothraki, another imprisonment,

you know, all she's, as you said, ever wanted was that sort of freedom. And then Ned also is being threatened with, I mean, here's the trade off. We're going to take you to the night's watch. You don't get to go back to your old life as, as Lord of the North. You're going to, you're going to join that penal colony. Yeah. Damn. Wow. There's the same.

That's why Danny- This whole entire book, so much going on. It's great. And that's why Daenerys falls in love with Ned Jr. in spirit, as we've discussed. Yeah, Sansa. Oh, okay, interesting. That actually could work too. I mean, I've written- Sansa, I've read it. Yeah, lemon tree, lemon cakes, I mean, there's a poetry there. It's there, it's literally there. Yeah. Meeri arrives finally, long awaited in this chapter, with Quotho and Haggo who drop her chest of all

sorts of fun treats, whether they're just smoky powders or herbs or what in there, but they drop her chest when they see Drogo's condition because they're in shock. Quotho blames Miri and Ben suggests a brutal punishment for Miri, and Dany stops him, but Quotho threatens her too until Jorah reminds them, Dany is still Khaleesi till he takes his last breath, motherfuckers. Danny asserts she was the blood of the dragon before she was Khaleesi, and she tells Jorah to summon her cas. After Kotho storms off, Jorah warns, Kotho is dangerous. Danny says, you better ready your armor, bitch, cuz I'm gonna need your sword. Yeah, the brutal punishment

need your sword." Yeah, the brutal punishment quotes that Kotho threatens Miri with is like fucking intense. What an understatement. It was really just a terrible thing to suggest in terms of, you know, we're gonna rape you, then we're gonna tie you to a stake and everyone's gonna like savage you and all these, it was terrible. Everyone's gonna ravage you and I think what's kind of fucked up about this too is like this is something that does happen in real life. The treatment that Kotho suggests, it happens quite a bit. This line also stood out to me of when he dies, she is nothing, which again, we've been talking about in so many different words throughout all this.

But it also stood out to me because the term nothing as we, I think we haven't brought this up in, I don't know, years, is actually a Shakespearean slash Elizabethan slang for the vagina. So it's just a reduction of denarius to her parts, but even then he's probably like, I don't know, we don't even want that. Then I also thought this was kind of fun this line of the Dothraki say a man and his blood riders share one life and Kotho sees it ending a dead man is beyond fear so on one hand that line of a dead man is beyond fear it's similar to that rationale that's given at the beginning of this book regarding fear and the rationale for why we behead the nights watch des Zerders. And on another hand, it's some broken man shit. And on another

hand, it ties back to like the whites and the lack of fear that the dead men feel and that beyond this, they're beyond emotion, which is, you know, what Drogo is going to be after all this. But there's a part of me that also thinks like, you know, in regards to that broken man story line and shit, like, is being beyond fear could be twist that in a way that's kind of positive? Like, I'm thinking about like, you know, the hound or other characters like that too. Right, like, how do you use that to be brave? How does fear make you brave? Yeah. I love that you connected these dots like this. I feel like that's all over this chapter, right? Broken man shit, the idea of the horse is running and wanting to kill to feel anything in some ways and all this, and then like the whites and the no

fear and the zombies and like men being zombies and like people being zombies. It's very strong in this chapter. There's a lot going on in this chapter about it. Georgia is cooking. Yeah, like what is someone who has nothing to lose, what will they do? And Dani has a lot to lose, which is probably why she has a lot of fear in this chapter. She's experiencing much fear. Yeah, I don't think that you're fucking wrong. Well, Miri says to Daenerys, oh, you saved me again. And how do you know that's sarcastic? I don't know that it's sarcastic. But there's a part of it.

But George is playing with it. Yeah, part of it is like there's there's a gravity to it that it's like, okay, well, what do you mean by that? What do you mean by that? She already got hit and she was being kicked and Daenerys begs her to save Drogo and return. Mirri says to her, you do not ask a slave, you tell her. So there's a lot emotionally going on here in that like. Yep.

That's a great way to start anything honestly in this chapter. There's a lot emotionally going on here in that, like, Yep! That's a great way to start anything, honestly, in this chapter. There's a lot emotionally going on here. Mirri knows that Daenerys is going to ask her to do it, and Mirri is basically making the through line clear to Daenerys that what you do now means that you are doing this, and that's where that came- like, Drogo told her yesterday in the other chapter, you don't ask a slave you command her and here Miria is repeating those words almost in defiance right like that she knows Daenerys is going to ask her what she's about to ask her to do and yet she's going to ask her

what she's about to do and it's almost as if Dany's also hearing a little bit undercover too and Miria is in a way saying, okay, wake the dragon then, if you're gonna be the motherfucking dragon, wake the dragon. But what Mirri is also really telling her is just what we discussed about Eroway, right? Are you better than them? Because yes, my life has been suffering, Eroway's life has been suffering, and soon both Mirri Mazdur and Eroway will suffer again. Not much of a big reprieve in between the suffering,

was there? Not a really big break. By commanding Mirri and telling her what to do, she's still being commanded as the other folks have done to her, right? Now just by Dani. But Dani doesn't hear this lesson, she doesn't hear these words necessarily because she's freaking the fuck out, obviously, because the whole entire place is metaphorically burning down before it like literally burns down. Yeah, it's also a question of like, would she ever let Miri say no? Exactly, that's what I mean, there's no saying no. Like what she's asking her to do is not a re- it's a rhetorical fucking question, it's a command.

There is no choice, there is no freedom. There is no independence. And once you do this, is there a going back? Not really. It's her kind of being like, you've put me in a cage. You're in a cage too, girl, but like you don't know. Like this is all a cage. Wish to make a window in your prison. Well, and not just that, but it's not even just Miri's lack of choice, right? It's also Drogo's. True. Yeah, and that's why I think it really stood out that there was that poetry with him saying no, no. Consent and choice. Yeah.

Consent and choice, like in that first chapter, because that's something that people discuss, like did Daenerys really, like would she really have had a choice to say no on their wedding night? No. Probably not. I mean. Well, it makes no matter, Mirri suggests, because Drogo is beyond healing because again, he's been ignoring all of her medical advice. He's

been using milk of the poppy and a completely different poultice from the herb women. And Daenerys begs Mirri to make another poultice, but Mirri says no can do. All she can do now is ease his suffering to the nightlands and that that he's probably gonna be dead by morning. We have this quote. Her words were a knife through Dani's breast. Whoa, wait a second. What had she ever done to make the gods so cruel? She had finally found a safe place, had finally tasted love and hope. She was finally going home and now to lose it all. And that's pretty much like constantly what Dani has going on, right? Like I think of Willem Darry and them having to run after he died immediately being very similar to this situation.

Her parents, right? Her mother dying, giving birth to her, them fleeing. Yeah, this has been her whole life, running. Exactly. It's really sad and she's tired of running. And we see what that means for her at the end of the book, like I'm done with fucking running. Yeah, she pleads that Miri must have away some magic. And finally Miri quietly says that she knows the spell from Asshai, learned from her teacher,

who was a blood mage. She's just tempting her, right? And Daenerys tells her to tells her to do it. We have this line of she must not be afraid, she was the blood of the dragon, but I think it kind of stands out to me that Daenerys bargains, she says if you save Drogo, I'll free you, right? She's put a price on that freedom, kind of as you said, like punctuating that Mirri Mazdor is not free. She is a slave still. Yeah. Especially because she commands Mirri to do the ritual. She says, do it, save him.

And I don't think she's thinking in that she doesn't realize she's commanding, I think, in that moment. Because sometimes when you're desperate, you're just like, all right. Desperation. You tell people like, because this is how people fucking speak, you know? Sometimes you just tell people,

yeah, go ahead, go do that, right? This is just normal fucking conversation. But it stands out, especially in terms of what Miri was looking for Daenerys to say, and what she's been warning her of. And also it shows us that Miri Mazdor, maybe she sees herself as a dead woman too, right? And because she's like, doing crazy shit now, she's like, all right, yeah, let's fucking go. And also beyond fear, right? She doesn't care if she lives or dies by that end. Right, it's kind of what makes Mary Mazador's end sadder, like for her and devastating, right?

Because it's actually a very terrible way to go and a painful way to go, as we will hear eventually. Also just the way you've equated it with the transactional nature, right? Like paying, like Daenerys does in a, offer that she will pay her, right? Like, if you free Drogo, then you are free to go. You can go. If you do not free him, well, then I'll kill you. Which it turns out when you offer people the choice between, like,

your payment will be you live, otherwise your payment is you die. That's not a very choice. It's not a very choice, is it? There's no choicing going on there. If the choice is you can either live or you can die, well then my odds are the same they were fucking five minutes ago, so. Yup. Ugh. It's definitely desperation, I mean. Or it's like maybe you don't die but you still don't get your freedom. It's like not quite

a life either Yeah, I don't think she would live through that either way. I think that the the big thing here is like Clearly someone's gonna murder Mirri's Mazador That's how however she comes out of this like Danny could close her eyes turn around and then two seconds later like someone Kotho is gonna come and be like Yeah, because he did say whatever happens to him is gonna happen to you. So, well. And to be fair, as you pulled out her punishment, they say earlier, like, tie you to a stake and let everyone have their way with you, humans, dogs, whatever. Sure, her end is a little more hospitable than that, but like, she's still tied to a stake.

Like, her punishment is not that far off from the punishment that the Kalasar was offering her. So like Dani chooses a harsher punishment herself in some aspects. Actually now that I think about it in regards to like they tied Mirri's fate to Khal Drogo and how she gets burned, if the Blood Riders are tied to Khal Drogo, are they therefore now also tied to Mirri Maz Dor? So they got a burden, or like, I don't know. They don't.

Some of them just die in like the next few paragraphs, but whatever. We're getting ahead of ourselves. We're getting ahead of ourselves. We're getting ahead of ourselves, sorry. Some Danny time chatter. We're like, dragons, dragons! Anyways. Mirri warns Danny that blood magic requires a price.

Death for life. But not Dany's death. No, something else. She calls for Drogo's horse, the red stallion, sensing death and thrashing wildly before he's subdued. When Dany's like, what are you doing? Mary says she needs the blood. It is the only way.

Jogo steps back, horrified, and pleads with Dany, don't do it, don't go through with it, this is forbidden blood magic. But as Khaleesi, she declares it to no longer be forbidden. Drogo killed a stallion and invades Dothrak. She ate its heart. It gave her son strength. She thinks, this is the same. This is the same.

Chills. I love that line so much. Chills. I love that line so much. Chills. Yeah. I think it's really, it's very interesting the way that all goes because she's now declaring what is and is not forbidden by a culture. And in A Storm of Swords, we get to this point where we're comparing leaders to gods, right? In regards to loneliness. It reminds me even of like Aegon, the first, the first Aegon. Yeah, yeah. And Jaehaerys, right, all of them kind of dictating what is allowed by a faith and what is not in regards to culture. And that's, that's a godlike power, right? The ability to shape all that. We see the

damp hair do that in, in A Feast for Crows as well. Yeah, that's great. That's a great call. And it makes me think a lot of Stannis and everything we talked about back in John chapters, right, of the way he's forming the free folks culture and deciding for them what they will do through lore and through his own beliefs. Bet you didn't think you'd see a Stannis mention anytime soon, folks. Well, we got a couple more, but like that, Melisandre, like, yeah, being able to shape and use faith as a- Faith and culture is that, yeah. I do love the poetry in the line, right?

Especially because it's almost like there's this percussive beat through each of these chapters. Ever since she had the eggs in the fire where something is in her head ticking, right? Like the wheels are turning and she's so close to understanding it. And so we start to get it through that language here in her thoughts. This is the same, the same, blood for blood, right? Life for life, the same, blood for blood, same for same. It's this language kind of leading her to do the sacrifice and to make the offering on the pyre. And there's a lot of interesting language, like with Stannis and Renly, almost about the shadow baby, the Lord of Light willed my brother die. Who did the deed matters not.

Right? This is the same, this is the same, it matters not. He did do the deed. So something very, not fun, this is all terrifying and wonderful and like a fucking sea of blood and I love it. But very interesting. Lots going on here with the language and I love that because suddenly she'll get to the next thought and start thinking very short, very quip, same for same or don't they see, don't they see, can't they see? So good. Yeah.

Well, Rikaro, Quaro and and Aggo pull the stallion, kicking and screaming to the tub that the cowl is also bleeding and pussing out in. Miri begins to chant foreign words, and a leaf-shaped knife, hammered red bronze with ancient glyphs, is in her hand, and then it's across the stallion's throat, and it shudders as blood pours out of it. Yeah, so, all right, I think you all know this. I still think that the show's version of how the others are created was kind of stupid, and like maybe I'll be wrong, maybe like that is actually how it went down and like George will make it work, but I do still think that their origins are different and maybe this is a clue because Because yes, there are glyphs

and this knife is leaf shaped, but we know that at some point the First Men came to a truce with the Children of the Forest and it was only long after that truce, allegedly. You know, time is not recorded well during that period, but it was allegedly only long after that truce that the Others first invaded. And bronze weapons are used not by the children of the forest, but by the first men. So this ritual for creating zombies is in fact using first men weaponry, and I kind of wonder like, so that's a clue to an extent to their origin. And also part of me even wonders like, will Daenerys one day hear the true

tongue or the old tongue, but the true tongue is only really spoken by children of the forest, but she is singing. So I don't know. And the old tongue, different speech. And will she be like, Oh, I recognize the sounds of this language because, you know, Daenerys is very good at linguistics. Yeah, our multilingual girl. Exactly, she'll recognize it as what Miri Mazdor was singing.

Yeah, and especially when you think of like different roots and etymologies being so transferable to other language in like real linguistics, so it wouldn't surprise me if they've adopted certain words into certain languages from that because it was the old tongue. And not just that, but like what you're saying, I mean, look, I'm sorry, I'm not handing it to D&D. I do think that they were at least in the ballpark because I do think it's Children of the Forest using the First Men's weapons against them. I just, I don't know, maybe. I just still think that the others, there's something there in regards to family and the choice and second sons that I feel could have to do with the origins of the others. Interesting. Well, we'll find out when the Winds of Winter and dance, right, with the woman with the sickle. The woman grabbed the captive by the hair, hooked the sickle around his throat, and slashed. Bada bada bah, Brandon Stark could taste the blood. So it makes me think of that ritualistic sacrifice, and of course, it's a bronze sickle. Definitely

notice that. And interesting, the Dothraki trading and having, like, when you think of like all the different people and how things get moved out there, like, watching the Dothraki have access to all this weaponry, so like, knowing that like, Mirri Mazdor is well traveled in the east, so she definitely has some weaponry in her chest, and like, what else is in that chest, right? Like, it's, every, everyone in the east has like, this magpie collection of different bits of history and magic and lore, whether it be weaponry or other other items that are like handed down or that they find valuable. So I find that really fun about the East because I feel like in Westeros, we're very limited, right?

It's very sterile. You don't have like random beautiful weaponry that's not a Valyrian steel sword or you know, it's all it's all very sterile. I like the the color that we get here. Yeah, a shy is kind of like- Different cultures trading. I guess a shy just attracts- because there's no children there, allegedly. So it just attracts people from all over the world who are going there and therefore exchanging weird shit. Like- This is where they're sending everyone from our generation. They're all immigrants in a shy, yes.

Yeah, they're like, no kids, you're going to a shy. And we're like no kids you're going to a shy and we're like oh no blood magic. Oh yeah it sounds like a weird place. Yeah. We have this song that Miri Masdor sings which I'm not convinced wasn't made up on the spot just like a lot of my songs. Are you gonna sing it for us? I can try I can put a put a sick beat to it yeah. What if I sang one of the hymns that we kept singing last week that we messed up? I was thinking that actually. Jesus' land of God. Yeah, you kept doing that.

Strength of the mount, go into the rider. Miri sing as horse blood swirled into the waters of Droga's bath. Strength of the beast, going to the man. I can imagine you getting really into like horse races and just singing this whenever a horse is racing. Oh, I thought you were saying blood sacrifice. No, you're already really into that. Jogo struggles with the horse because now it's

like a ton of dead horse weight. He's terrified. Can you imagine this? Like an empty ass puppet leaking blood everywhere just like, juggling it in your arms? It would be terrible, let alone the smell, let alone horrific also because of all the blood and the murder. Danny thinks only a horse and that she'd buy Drogo's life with thousands of horses. This is actually a really poignant moment, I think, and maybe the first part of the grieving process, you know, the bargaining. She says she'd pay thousands of horses to bring Drogo back.

And I mean, low key, she was willing for someone to die for Drogo to return. Like she considers for a moment that she'd be willing to do it, she guesses, even though that defeats the whole purpose. And I don't know, I get it. Like when my grandmother passed, I felt like I really understood Mr. Freeze willing to do anything to keep his wife alive. And, you know, because we know George loves that movie. Not the sarcasm. He does not. I don't know. I'm just telling our listeners whom you attacked. Oh, they're still here?

I'm probably projecting here a bit, but I don't think it's a far leap from all of this to get to the thought of what would you sacrifice to keep the person you love most alive? The person who keeps you safe? Who would you sacrifice? And how many? Right? Like, and I think that's a question that's raised in the form of the knight's king and his corpse queen, but I think that if Dani broached that thought, which is supported in a few paragraphs by like ordering the death of Cotho in order to keep the ritual going and then also how Quaro dies too. Like before she eventually cries that the price is too high, it shows she's piecing it together. It holds up a mirror to I think our own darkest intrusive thoughts that happen in those really, really painful moments and it's something that's very human, which is exactly what George is interested in exploring and that

Daenerys is some of his best writing at exploring the human heart, whether it's in conflict with itself, whether it's not, but just like those kinds of desires and trade-offs. And I just think that the feeling that Daenerys has here of like, do whatever it takes to save him, like that's such a real feeling and the beauty of fiction is that it lets us explore, explore what happens when you're able to give into those. Oh, this is real. What do you mean fiction? That's true.

We just don't have, oh, did you mean the blood magic part was real or like, I don't know. I meant the story. I meant Aeswaf is real. Oh, okay. Yes. Aeswaf is real. Oh, okay. Yes. Aeswaf is real, right? It's... Right?

Real? Question mark, question mark, question mark. Beautifully said, Eliana. I think Dani's grief and the idea, too, of her like entering that first stage of grief, that's important. And it does also, I guess I didn't think about the way the language is framed, but since this chapter kind of is wrapping up and bringing you back to some of those first chapters, right, in this book for a game of thrones, but through the lens of a Dany who's much more experienced in those several months, in those nine plus months, and makes me think of Viserys saying that he would trade her and let Cal Drogo's Khalasar, all 40,000 men, rape her if it meant he would have the throne, right?

Like he was willing to give her and sacrifice her. Yeah. But here, this is a much different, a more love-filled-ish sacrifice. Yeah. Well, we have this line of, When they let the stallion fall, the bath was dark red and nothing showed of Drogo but his face. Miriamas door had no use for the carcass. Burn it! Dany told them.

It was what they did, she knew. When a man died, his mount was killed and placed beneath him on the funeral pyre, to carry him to the nightlands. The men of her cause dragged the carcass from the tent. The blood had gone everywhere. Even the sand-silk walls were spotted with red, and the rugs underfoot were black and wet." Eww. Eww. You can- that's like a thing you can see in your brain. Stepping on that squelchy. Ew! Yeah, that's-

Yeah, bro! You can't use those rugs. No, you can't. That's a total... They're done. What should we call it? Toxic. Toxic waste. Not good. Miriam Asdur throws red powder into the coals of the fire. Yeah, so this stood out to me because it just reminds me of a treasured memory of me

and Chloe and our respective roommates in a backyard with a fire pit, just throwing powders to make the fire different colors, and then the less treasured memory. I still have that. Those things were cool. The less treasured memory of the next morning and me vomiting all the marshmallows. Didn't I leave the marshmallows there too? Probably. Oh, okay. I just want to preface that we roasted and ate the marshmallows before we threw the chemical powders into the fire because unlike caldrogo we have a non-zero amount of like concern for our health in that way. The eating of the marshmallows was done in over consumption and

excess which is probably what led to the throwing up on eliana's part. I think i didn't eat enough. And the alcohol. Yeah i think it was i drank too much and I didn't eat enough of the burgers, which were not grilled on the carpet. Anyway. I still have all those powders. I gotta use them this summer. Speaking of, if I could buy them online, then you can get them anywhere. So knowing what we know about George's later gardening with Melisandre,

which we're going to talk about her a bit here as we close out the chapter in the coming bits of time, but Melisandre is a garden POV basically of what Mirimaz D'or might see or think. That's how I feel about Melisandre. I re-read Melisandre's chapter a couple of times for this just to like translate Miri Mazdur's thought. Yeah, get in the headspace, get a little witchy with it, you know. So is Miri Mazdur using this powder for show for Dani, or is she just doing anything with it?

Is it purifying the air, or is it showcasing fake magic so that Dani is chillin'? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But part of me thinks it's, as you said, right, it's part of the show. Because turns out some of this wasn't even the real magic. The real magic is much darker. Yes, much darker. Eroway flees the room, she's sobbing, she's like,

all of this is too real, why are we killing the horse? Blood everywhere? I told you that man was gonna die. Bye. And Dani is filled with fear at seeing her flee sobbing. She sends her handmaids away and Miriam Asdur is like you should go too. And she's like no like I'm devoted to him, but I love him Miriam Asdur and Miriam Asdur is like you must go. No one can enter the tent when I sing, for it will wake old and dark powers, and no living man must look on the spirits in the tent." Uh-huh, there's that line again. Dani promises none will enter, and she bends over Drogo in his bath of blood,

kissing him lightly on the head and asking Miri to bring Drogo back to her. Drogo in his bath of blood, echoing Lyanna in her bed of blood from Ned's last few chapters, kind of opening that story and opening a game of thrones, exploring Ned's traumas over his sister who died in childbirth and ending it with Daenerys losing her child in childbirth and her loss in traumas, mirroring Lyanna's death in a way and losing her security, losing Drogo, having to kill Drogo, losing him in his bath of blood. So a lot of language being evoked here to kind of tie you coherently across the plot

with the losing of the loved one going on. And it reminds me a bit of what we just read in Remembering Melody by George with a certain bath of blood in that story. No spoilers, go read it and then listen to the Patreon app. Yeah, no spoilers, yeah. We do spoil all of your famous other movie though. And book. As best as we can.

That I have never read or watched. That neither of us have read or watched. Go check it out. It's so good. Outside, Jogo and Aggo dig a fire pit for the stallion against a bruised red sky, and a crowd gathers, staring at Dani with dark eyes, their faces like masks of beaten copper. Jora sweats in his mail and leather, and he makes his way to Dani's side. When he sees bloody footprints from her boots, he asks... This was very rude of him, but I guess... I get it, but...

Yeah. What have you done, you little fool? I'm like, bro, you can't talk to her like that. He tells her they could have fled, but she says that she had to save him. He addresses her as princess, and she asks if he truly thinks of her as his princess, and if so, he needs to save her now, because shit's about to pop off. Miri's yelulating song provides a backdrop for the scene, but also sends a shiver down Dani's back as it drifts over the crowd. Some of the doth rocky mutter and back away, and the tent glows from the fires lit within,

shadows moving on the wall. Mirri Mazdor was dancing and not alone. Damn, George, you have to drop a line like that? Like that? This chapter's sick. George, go off. Go off, George. I think there's a lot of questions we're going to have here at the end of the chapter about like, who is seeing some of the things we and Dani are seeing. So I'm like, Dani sees the shadows.

She thinks they represent, you know, the darkness, the magic, the souls. But does anyone else see these shadows? Because like, they take her in the tent either way, not much of a choice, but is it just that Dani's eye is open to it and theirs maybe are not? Oh, because she's part of the ritual. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, maybe.

I wonder if they like, do they not see like even the shadows because they know they're like, uh, no, she was alone. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Like, I'm like, maybe they don't. Yeah, do they see it from the outside? Maybe? I don't know. I don't know.

But Danny sees them. So yeah, that would explain why everyone was so scared because otherwise, if you don't see those, in my opinion, it's just like some weird shit's going on. You know, what Danny does see is fear on the Dothraki's faces and she realizes the Blood Riders have returned and Kotho's not happy whenever has he been. I'm just gonna put that out there. Has Kotho ever been happy? He's always in a bad attitude.

I don't know. I hate Kotho and his rusting bitch face. Yeah. But it's real. It's a real bitch face. RBS. It is. They brought the Unix with them and Kotho says, this must not be. But Dani responds, this will be. I thought that was such a good haunting line. It's exactly what power is, the ability to say this will

be. Yeah. She commands it. Yeah. It's something explored throughout everything in this series. Haggogral's Mejai and Koholo, who had bound his life to Drogo's, who had always been kind to Dani, now spits in her face. Boo! I guess that goes to show how he always felt about her, probably. Yeah, an accessory of Drogo. Yeah, someone will be kind to you, but like they don't think of you as a person If you know, they don't think you have any power dang. I guess but she's also like

spitting on their culture and the way things go and what like Because they are much older than Dani because she's like eight years old. They have known Drogo for longer That's true. And like they feel that she's desecrating him and their culture. There's also that, but I'm also like, they just thought of her as Drogo's pet. Yeah, exactly. A total necklace on his body. Not a belt. We melted that.

Ha! Button that up. Kotho promises that the Magi will die and makes to go into the tent and Dany tries to stop him. He shoves her aside and she falls to her knees, arms crossed to protect her baby within. She commands her cause to stop to kill him and Koro and Rokaro stand at the tent flat, but Kotho is too quick and graceful. He catches Koro with his Arak and blood fountains from him. Jorah calls out telling him to try him, pulling out his long sword and catches Kotho his Arak and blood fountains from him. Jorah calls out telling him to try him. Pulling out his longsword, it catches Kotha's Arak. They dance and Jorah parries as best as he can. But Kotha was fast, which tells us something

about, you know, we were talking about armor versus the Dothraki, so they stand a chance. And sparks fly as the blade glances off a gauntlet. Jorah stumbles backward and his face is running with blood, a cut to his hip, opens a gash in his mail, and Cotho calls him a craven, a milkman, a eunuch, and an iron suit promising that Jorah dies now. He sticks his blade into his hip. All the while, Rago and Dany's womb is kicking wildly. He's like, oh my god, a show. Jorah stumbles and Daenerys feels a pain in her belly and wetness in her thighs.

He brings his longsword down on Cotho's forearm when the rock catches on a bone, which I'm just like, I don't know how any of this works. And the forearm dangles loose and then Jorah brings it down his ear and it's so savage his face seemed almost to explode. Now this action scene is a blast. George is having fun writing this. There's even some language there and some things that remind me of when the Hound cuts off the arm in Clash and the riot with Sansa and the blood comes down on her, like just like a traumatizing,

violence everywhere, very traumatizing, how can you keep up? And this isn't the same, but as we get Dani with the wetness in her thighs, whether that's her beginning to have Rago and breaking her water, or maybe it's blood down her thighs from miscarrying, reminds me a bit of Melisandre when she is like taking in the fire and seeing visions and she goes for a little too long and She has that line blood trickled down her thigh black and smoking the fire was inside her and agony and ecstasy Filling her searing her Transforming her shimmers of heat traced patterns on her skin insistent as a lover's hand This comes back a little bit when she's in the fire, too,

with some of the language in Ten, but specifically searing her, transforming her, all of this violence, all of this blood, all of the fire and blood within the tent as well, searing her, transforming her. It feels very much like Daenerys is being transformed throughout this chapter, which, you know, I just watched the Kardashian, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians episode last night

where Courtney goes and she's interested in doing a water birth, an at-home water birth, but then she goes and sees one and she's like, no, never again. And I felt similarly after watching that episode. I was like, yeah, I also wouldn't have my child soberly in a water bath in my home if I was going to Actually, it reminds me a lot of all of this but

Say no to the water bath if you're into it at home if that's how you did it and you loved it good for you But I personally would rather get drugged the fuck up if I had to push a watermelon out of my body Right. I was like I'm gonna take that patrol Yeah, sorry that you came into this world a little dizzy, but like you came into this world. Modern medicine is a treat and I'm gonna use it. My mom got it and like therefore does not know my birth time. She's given me like a huge range and apparently it's not on like my birth certificate so like who knows what I am. But you can choose. I was about to say like I guess I'm not like the poster child for this because I was supposed to be like and I'm fine and I was like, but do you all think I'm fine?

Listening to this podcast. Never mind. I take it back, but I would get the epidural. Don't answer that. Yeah but love that and we're definitely gonna talk about that more in Danny 10, which is also I don't know all these are masterpieces What can I say? Inside the tent, Mirri wails and outside, Quorro pleads for water while he's dying. Makaro fights Haggo, and Jogo's whip cracks, coiling around Haggo's throat, disarming him. No one hears Dany cry out for help amidst the clanger. No, she wept. No, please stop it, it's too high. The price is too high. And there it is, the thesis of the story of the book, the whole thing.

Yep, the whole thing. And we say that maybe she knew. Yeah, she knew that this is all part of it. This is all part of the sacrifice. I mean, how could you emotionally like, weigh and perceive and like evaluate all these things against each other while all these things are happening. Like, of course she's like losing her fucking mind, miscarrying, violence everywhere, trying to save her dying husband, trying to save her dying baby. Yeah. And like realizing the price is too high and she's fucked up and like she should have gone

when Jorah said something maybe. Like, all of these things can be true, but she's fucked up and she should have gone when Jorah said something maybe. All of these things can be true, but she's experiencing all of them at once. She crawls towards the tent, but she's stopped by Caholo, who pulls her head by the hair and puts his knife to her throat and she screams, My baby! And Caholo is then shot dead by Aggo. Woo! Yay! Seems like a close shot, though. Yeah, kind of like Theon and Bran, but now I just realized it's also! Seems like a close shot though. Yeah, kinda like Theon and Bran.

But now I just... now I just realized it's also kinda like, uh, Catalin being worried about Rob. And her hair being pulled back and the life in her throat. No, Rob, get up! Get up! Uh-huh. I wonder, like, as these... Stand the fuck up, Rob. Stand the fuck up! Stand up, girl! Jesus, we're so going to literary hell. Stand the fuck up, Rob. Stand the fuck up. Stand up, girl.

Jesus, we're so going to literary hell. I know, this is why I did the epithelium. I'm glad we keep like, yeah, exactly, see? Maybe I should do the water birth, I don't want them coming out like your bitch ass. We're not having children. Yeah, well, I mean, me and you could adopt still. Anyways, I wonder if, just because our eggs are are drying up doesn't mean me and you can't adopt Do you know no, it's not even no, I don't go through all that. I don't want to fuck another child up Jesus

Have you met me my god you listed to this right guys dear readers She's gonna be like you're fucking losers. You not understand best friends. She's gonna be worse than I am. Could you fucking imagine? Jesus the mouth on this not existing child I wonder when Dani returns in Tiwau to the Dothraki if they'll hold her Accountable for the death of the blood riders in a way, right? Because they were supposed to bring her to the mountain But they never came and like she gave the command for them to be killed They never took her there. So like they couldn't complete their missions.

The trial of Dani maybe? I don't know. Yeah that's true. I kind of wonder about all that. Plus like they didn't... I guess they didn't kind of die at the same time as him or not. I don't know. Yeah like she completely stopped the entire process of him being able to like finish it. Yeah, but that's the price. Blood for blood, right? Yeah, blood riders for blood. Blood for the blood god. Well, they keep saying blood for blood, so I'm like, alright, so this is what it means. Blood of my life.

Which is like, whenever I read blood of my life, I always am like, I think of Lana Del Rey and I'm like, Blood of my life, bitter new new. That could be what Mary's singing. I'm like, I think of Lana Del Rey and I'm like, Blood of my life, better than you That could be what- that could be what Miri's singing And I'm off to the races, races B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b That's what she's singing. That's it. That's Miriam Mazda. Miriam Dalry. Oh my god. So Daenerys is finally able to move and she sees the crowd dispersing and the Dothraki leaving, some to their tents and others to abandon them. And it makes me think of the mutiny at Craster's Keep. Everyone's like, oh, we gotta fucking go. and everyone's against each other and fighting.

That is very Craster's Keep. It's very, everything's lit up and fires are burning throughout the calisar. So things have escalated. There are fires everywhere. She tries to rise but the agony seizes her and all she can do is gasp as Mirri Mazdor sings a funeral dirge behind her. Jorah lifts her off her feet. His face is sticky with blood,

half his ear is gone. I forgot about that. He shouts for help from her handmaids and she gasps from pain, biting back a scream. She thinks it felt as if her son had a knife in each hand, as if he were hacking at her to cut his way out. Oh gruesome. Jorah's ear makes me think of the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus is like praying about his betrayal, praying before he's like, oh, I'm about to be betrayed. And then he's praying and Simon Peter cuts Melchus's ear off the guard. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus heals Melchus, but I don't know, the ear representing the ability to obey, to hear spiritual deafness with Jorah maybe, something like that.

That is pretty interesting. I know that we even like talked about that with Ned's chapters back then too. Yeah, in a way this is like right before betrayal too, right? Like Dani like prays and then betrayal goes on, whether it's her betrayal or his. Indeed. Yeah, I don't know what's up with Jorah in his ear. I kind of forgot that he lost an ear. Me too. Until all this. The birthing women called her a curse and say that they will not come, and Doria weeps that they had left. They just left.

They're like, we're getting a job somewhere else. They didn't even hand in the resignation letters. No Calisar? I know, right? They're just like Myra. Didn't even have to write a cover letter? Fucker. Just like Myra.

Just like Myra. Good luck, Myra Gonko. Someone, maybe Agos, is to take her to the Magi and Dani tries to say no, not that, but instead she wails, sweating. I kind of wonder like, creepy take, what if none of them said take her to the Magi? Like what if like something just like whispered it in the air and like planted that idea in everyone's head? Yeah, it kind of makes me think of Bran and Theon, right? Theon always seemed to whisper or Jon, right? When he hears burn them and he's like, Oh, I don't know who the fuck said that about burning these bodies, but I guess I will.

Kind of makes you think especially when we think about the shadows, right? And like do they see the shadows? Do they not? Yeah. Is she connected to a web of magic? Rina makes you think, especially when we think about the shadows, right? And like, do they see the shadows? Do they not? Is she connected to a web of magic? Yes. I think so. Is that the song? That's a strength of the world. I believe her strength of the mount.

Going to the man. Going to the man. Going to the horse. What was wrong with them? Couldn't they see? No, I'm gonna actually read this. What was wrong with them? Couldn't they see?

Inside the house? Going to the man, going to the horse, the horse and the man, the man is the horse. No, I'm gonna actually read this. What was wrong with them? Couldn't they see? Inside the tent, the shapes were dancing, circling the brassiere in the bloody bath, dark against the sand silk. And some did not look human. She glimpsed the shadow of a great wolf and another like a man wreathed in flames.

If these are the souls of the dead, I actually like have always interpreted these, maybe not like always right because obviously not in the first read through, but I've always interpreted these as the ghosts of Rickard and Brandon Stark, of a wolf and then a man being burnt, but I guess they could also be Jon and Stannis, I don't know, like, because time is different because magic. Like how Stannis exchanges parts of his soul for shadow baby drone strikes and Jon probably gonna be, I mean, as we know, dead at some point and then gets brought back so like he could have parts of his soul. I don't know. Yeah, rebirth through fire maybe too for John, who knows. I don't know. I like the the Rickard and Brandon is good.

I definitely see the John Stannis too, but like with what you pointed out with the take her to the Magi line, the language being so close to Mellodance with dragons when she sees Bloodraven and Bran too. Like maybe it's Bran and someone else, who knows? And it could just be like she sees Drogo in the future too, like maybe. And that's the other thing, like what she's seeing is an interpretation, right? Like inside the tent if she glimpses these shadows and that's what she sees, but like it doesn't mean that that's what it is, right? This, the shadows, the flames, the visions she sees, like they're interpretable and that's the greatest failure with this,

as Melisandre tells us, as other people show us, right? You have that line in Melisandre's chapter, "'A face took shape within the hearth. "'Stannis?' she thought, just for a moment. "'But no, these were not his features. "'A wooden face, corpse white. "'Was this the enemy? "'A thousand red eyes floated in the rising flames.

"'He sees me. "'Beside him a boy with a wolf's face threw back his head and howled." And then there's that line of, now he was a man, now a wolf, now a man again, commonly believed to be perceived about John in the flames. I mean, I think it's really whatever she perceives it as. The shadow of a great wolf and a man wreathed in flames. I mean, that could also be Ned in someone else, you know, it could be Ned, could be Bradley, you know, it's who knows who knows.

So I find that fascinating. I also thought the line in Melisandre one where she does the old illusioning to Mance Melisandre touched the ruby at her neck and spoke a word. The sound echoed clearly from the corners of the room and twisted like a worm inside their ears. The wildling heard one word, the crow another. Neither was the word that left her lip." Right? So illusions, they both interpret or hear a different word than what she even said. So who knows? Who knows? I don't know. And of course you do have that language I keep harping on pointing out of what was wrong with them.

Couldn't they see, right, the vision that she's starting to have unfold of blood for blood, blood sacrifice magic. Don't they see? And then of course how this comes back when she brings the dragons back in Dany 10. The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons. Don't you see? Don't you see? It's what her brain is trying to tell her this entire time, what she finally puzzles out and what she doesn't understand why they don't see it too.

As that bigger picture unfolds, it's that broader line, broader message. This is the same. This is the same. this is the same. Can't you see? Don't you see? But only she is the one seeing it. There's something kind of prophetic about it too, right? Like, cause you're talking about you're talking about like the magic and her third eye, like her to be able to see that vision and I don't know, it feels even like Egen the First. I feel like I always have to tack on the First and clarify which Egen. Egen the First being the one who like was that seer right or even like

Dainies like don't they see but thankfully thankfully her family did see and they're like all right sure yeah we'll go to the vacation home. We'll listen to you weird child. Yeah. Here's another gift card for Hot Topic. I really love how you've emphasized that don't you see, and we'll come back. So well constructed with language, thank you George. How fun. Eerie and Derea agree that Mepins of Mass Destruction, because we have MMD here. Mepins of mass destruction! Sorry, we're just inserting a bunch of

random humor that no one wanted in this episode. Noah's the secret to the birthing bed and Danny tries to shout, no! No whisper of sound escaped her lips. She was being carried. Her eyes opened to gaze up at a flat dead sky, black and bleak and starless. Please, no. The sound of Mirri Mazdor's voice grew louder until it filled the world. The shapes! She screamed. The dancers! Ser Jorah carried her inside the tent.

There's no actual screaming. I love it. I love the like eerie horror, that whole idea. Like some of what you've been kind of nailing home for me of the language of the others that's kind of surrounding this chapter here, having no choice being like compared to being an other, right? She can't even scream. She can't even say no where she was able to say no to Drogo whether it was respected or

not. Now she can't even say no, right? Her body has been like ridden to nothing right now. She has no control. She's being taken into the witchcraft blood magic tent. And the way we start the next chapter is so well written, so good. You awaken it in the middle of her having the visions, right?

Like she's losing it a little bit, rightfully so, because as we said, the Kardashian episode with the water birth, that would drive me insane too. So very excited to talk about that next chapter, but I love that like the sheer ironic drama going on here of knowing this will bring you to your doom, being physically unable to stop from being taken to that doom, right? Like she knows what will happen if she goes into that tent. She already has been told not to go into that tent, and what the consequences might be.

If she does, she knows the truth that she will not leave with her health, her son, her husband, and her psyche alive and intact if she goes into that tent, and yet that is the only salvation left for her in this camp. Nobody can save her. The tent is the only way she lives, right? She will be alive, at least, but nothing else will be. It's like the antithetical like red house door in a way, or red door of the house in a way, right? Like in her dream, she's like, I want to go to the red door of the house and here it's like the hell tent with the flap. Like it's the hell tent with the flap. Like she's lived her entire life as a prisoner and it's like the allegory of the cave, right? Like she's chained in the cave.

There are shadows surrounding her, totally ruining what she can see. The only thing she knows, the shadows of truth are all she knows and she has to lose everything and break those chains, unleash her fire, her light, which will hurt her, but it will sear her. It will transform her, truth are all she knows and she has to lose everything and break those chains, unleash her fire, her light, which will hurt her, but it will sear her, it will transform her, right? And little by little her eyes will adjust because first she can only see the shadows and the brightness, but then she'll start seeing the reflections of things in the water, and later she will see real people, real objects directly, clearly, at night, the stars and the moon, and finally she'll be able to look straight at the sun itself.

In fact, she might be the sun itself as she rides the sun itself, as she rides molten fire in Drogon and wakes Drogon and her other two children, looks at her smudged hand, uh, Rhaegal and Viserion. Only after she looks straight into the sun will she know what the sun truly is, the source of light, of life, the ultimate truth and goodness in her life. So, Dani is in the hell tent cave right now. She's gonna come out of it pretty fucked up and, you know, like with a lot of trauma and loss, but also like God. She's gonna be God. Not just Jesus, like, God. God is a woman, God. She's gonna be God. Not just Jesus, like God. God is a woman God. So.

There's a transformation there in order to get to that sort of godhood and will I bring in more Elden Ring next two episodes? Probably. Yeah, probably. Probably in regards to that idea in godhood and yeah. Very, very well struck, Chloe. Wait a second. Wait a second. She's like, wait, that's not my line. That's my line. Wait, is she being sarcastic? God damn it.

No, no, I'm being serious. Like, I think I love what you said of she's gonna find that she's the one who actually is the sun here. She thought it was Drogo, but you know, it's punctuated by the fact that like, now we're looking at a dark sky, the sun is not in you know, it's punctuated by the fact that like now we're looking at a Dark sky the Sun is not in it and it's starless. There are no of her Sun and stars Yeah, she has to be that I love the desperation of this chapter and like all the drama the pain the action It's such a fast-moving chapter with some really like I said at the front

There's some nice sharp prose in the last quarter of the book, but also it's fast moving nothing lingers so like Painful chapter and it reminds me a little bit. Well, I guess a little bit of two Mythological stories right like one more passive than the other there's a little Madea in this but there's a little Madea in all The good Ace of Loft characters, right? She got dragons or flies them. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So there's some of that, and some of the sacrificing of your blood and of your life in order to get there, but that's a little more aggressive of the story, and right now she's still more

passive, right? She's trying to get a little more aggressive, but this is way passive. Like Eno and Lugothia? Bebe and Princess who becomes a goddess, she's the sister to Dionysus' mom, Sommel, and she actually raises Dionysus. And you know Herah, she hates that Zeus is a cheater, but she has internalized misogyny, so she curses anyone that's fucked Zeus, including Dionysus' mother, Sommel. Herah drives Eno and her husband, who are taking care of Dionysus, mad, and in her madness

Eno boils her son alive, Melisertes, or jumps into the sea with him in some versions. And so the Olympian Dides then transform her into Leucothia, the sea goddess who protects and aids sailors and folks on the water, including Odysseus, and harnesses the water as her element. So she loses and sacrifices her child, death and rebirth as a divine being, becoming a protector, liberator. Those are some beats, right? Some beats for Dani. Those definitely are. I mean, and I like that what you've done here is you've compared to all of these, I mean, all of these gods, right? Like, and that's actually what her story is absolutely exploring. What if God was a woman? Just, just Godhood, loneliness, um, and also the sacrifice that comes with it.

But low key, as, as you all know, and as I've made clear, I'm like, I don't know that Madea was wrong. No, absolutely. I mean, like, killing your kids, probably bad, but I'm also like, I mean, I think there's so much Madea in Cersei, right? Yeah, true. Like, if we're gonna talk about, like, oh, spiting yourself to cut your fucking everything off, like, oh, give up your children, that's gonna be pretty Madea of her with Tommen. She's gonna write that kid off.

And I think in general, there's kind of something there about the whole like rebirth, rebirthing of how one becomes a god and the death aspect and that again will play into Danny 10. Those prices. The price is too high, Bob Barker. Unless Dragon. Spin the wheel. Plinko? Well, actually, I guess that's the point, right? I guess maybe would she have preferred love and the family over dragons?

Yes, I think everyone does. I don't know. It's a weird trade-off. The dragons are her family. Yeah, it's like a difficult trade-off because one affords her agency and power and the other does not and it's cruel that one has to choose. Yeah, you shouldn't have to. But you look at like, again, Cersei, right?

I think she's the ultimate perfect person to kind of compare this to eventually because she wants independence. She wants power. She wants security. But she wants to be able to provide that for herself and protect herself from ever being treated the way she was treated again, right?

And some of that obviously drives her in some of the choices that she makes that maybe are not good choices, basically trading blood for blood, basically trading, you know, machination for machination, looking for protection in all the wrong places. And at the end of the day, would Cersei have been happy if she had fled with her children when Ned gave her the opportunity to go live overseas with her children and be nothing? No. She wouldn't. Obviously a different character, but I don't think she would have been happier doing that. And she didn't choose to do so. Yeah, it's also the idea of different kinds of power and freedom, right? Like Daenerys could have maybe had freedom anonymous again, right? Like on the run anonymous, no one recognizing her, which she had to a slight extent, right? In those free cities blending in with the children.

But now with her children, never again. Yeah. Gets harder to hide every day. Right, like San- I mean, it's like Sansa on the run also for, you know, Regicide and her realizing no one will ever love me for anything but my claim. And yeah, George's world doesn't really offer the ability for women and girls to have both. And it would be nice for that to change. But I don't know that based on what I've read of other George short stories now, I don't know that that's what he wants to explore.

He wants to explore you getting a phone call. Yeah. No. I don't know. Anyways. George is gonna tell us in The Winds of Winter, which should be out now, Under Your Chair. Yeah. And once you've read that book that's Under Your Chair, you can go chat with us online about that book in a couple of places. Indeed, indeed.

And if you want to keep up with when we have our next episode and, you know, we're switching things up as we set up at the top of this episode with our releases, you can on social media, you can find us at Girls Gone Cannon, C-A-N-O-o n over on Twitter or on blue sky and of course you can also send us emails and tweets of note and animals The girls gone animals of note animals of no, maybe we should just rename the whole section. That's a big choice Let's settle down. Yeah Let's not make any hasty decisions right now. No this bloodlust Okay animorphs of note.

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I have been one of your horses- wait, fuck, I have been one of your hosts! I have been one of your hosts, Chloe. I like the idea of you being one of the horses. I hope you keep that in. Horses. Eliana. With new tears just dropped. Chloe and Eliana horse tear. Thanks.

We'll be back in Danny 9, which actually kind of works if you German translated it's like Danny no. Yeah, I was like with the nay, that's what everyone else is saying here in this episode to Danny, nay. Nay. Nay. We shall not. Oh my god. Are you ready for my favorite thing for you, Eliana? Victoria from the White Lotus, from season three of the White Lotus.

You know, Parkatosi's character. Yeah, which thing, which thing? Ready? Okay. Danny! No! What? She does talk like that. I really loved it.

I know. Really got her. I got it now, you know? Oh my god. I loved that arc. Saxton! No! Tsunami!

Goodbye. Goodbye.