Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 250 — AGOT Daenerys IX

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

“Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone.” Mentioned: Eliana's essay "Daughter of Death: A Song of Ice and Fire’s Shakespearean Tragic Hero" — https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/19/daughter-of-death-a-song-of-ice-and-fires-shakespearean-tragic-hero/ Background music "The Sky of our Ancestors" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ "Mourning Song" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ------- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Cannon Reads A Song of of Ice and Fire, episode 250, Daenerys IX, in a game of Thrones. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. Wow, 250. It's a big chapter as well, as well as being like, you know, a big number for us. I actually don't know if we have enough episodes. I just realized this now. being like, you know, a big number for us. I actually don't know if we have enough episodes.

I just realized this now. Do we... are there enough chapters left in both Daenerys and Tyrion to even reach 300? Yes. Okay. Cool. If everything goes to plan, honestly, it might even not. Like, not to make fun of certain podcasts that split chapters amongst several episodes, but there is a small chance that you could see some split Daenerys chapters in your future to part 1 and 2 and I would never make fun of that sibling podcast full of Amen Brothers.

But maybe I'm starting to understand it and maybe, I mean, these books get chonkier and these characters get a little chonky. I mean, also, if all goes well, like, 2026 end of year will finish this, depending on weeks off. It might be 27. And then George will release The Winds of Winter. And only then, only then will he release it. He was waiting for us. Oh, I'm sorry. No, I don't want to, I don't want to chain that to us. That can't be my fault.

I can't let it be my fault. Sorry. Absolutely not. If we don't split any episodes, it looks like we'll be at like 319, but I wouldn't hold us to that. So. Yeah. Interesting, fun, fact, everyone. You can hold us to that. So yeah, interesting fun fact, everyone.

You can hold us to gently hold us. We're in your ears. We can hold you in our heart. Warmly, tightly and warmly in our hearts. We're holding you right now. What the fuck are we talking about? They're holding space for us. Hold space in your device that you listen to us on at patreon.com slash girlsgoncanon and become a stranger to your patron where you'll get a bonus episode every month. This month you'll get to hear In the Lost Lands, the movie, as told by us. And we are going to watch the movie. It's not going to be

like the short story we did last month where neither of us has seen it, but we talked about it. This is going to be a real situation where we really see the movie. Because we've also really read the story. You can listen to that on our feed. Yeah, we covered in the Lost Lands, so get lost, get a little more lost with us. Get lost with us. And then of course we have our monthly brunch slash happy hour, brappy hour, that happens once a month as I've said.

And this May, it will be on May 18th from 2 to 4pm Eastern Time ET. And that happens of course on our Discord, which is available for patrons in the Thunder tier and above. We love Discord Brunch, actually. We do. It's a very fun time. It's like a time to get so many different personalities together. It's like almost like a two hour sleepover.

It's not a sleepover, it's a brunch, but like it's like two hours where you're all just at the table together chatting virtually. I love it. Yes, it's Br brunch is a fun time. Actually lately the the hours have just been flying by with just chatting so not even the games. The games are the only games we play are with each other's hearts. JK, JK. We're playing games with my... I know, I was just thinking about the little songs.

Last time I told everyone about Angelia, that was really fun. Oh that's right! That song is in it. Yeah. Oh's right! That song is in it. Yeah. Oh my god. That song is in it. Wow. Well, we'll talk about different Shakespeare things ever so lightly today, or not so lightly,

whatever. We'll talk about it at medium amount. Medium? You can have it heavier somewhere. We'll tell you where to find it. But before we get into that, we got some emails and tweets and notes. Eliana loaded this shit today. This is like one loaded baked potato. She was, she's out of control.

It's because I discovered, I was like, wait, people are actually commenting on our Spotify episodes and I have no way of checking it. Apparently it's connected to your account. But yeah, yeah, I sent one to our friend Matt,, aka Joe, magician was like, Oh my God, people love you. They thought we were so fun together. They're like, Oh, that's great. They're like, unless he was like, unless this is a different Joe's like, no, it's you. It's kind of OG. Like did you, you had a last FM. We've talked about this. Yeah. The last FM. Yeah. It's like the last FM now. Like, I feel like it's like a new old social media. You can like comment on things.

Yeah, I'm the last FM of the Giants. Um. Yeah. That's an indie band now. Yeah, oh, interesting. Our first email of note is actually from our friend Richard of House York. He hasn't sent anything in a while.

I think the two most important things Mirri tells Danny before Danny commands her slave are, it's not a matter of horses and death is cleaner. I've heard people claiming sewing flesh on means Mirri is engaging in sabotage but with necromancy, and the standard of care in Westeros for maesters, see Eury Greyjoy's fingers. I'm not really buying that. I'm not either. On the other hand, wait, on the other hand, you have different fingers. Whoa. Like Uri Greyjoy and his fingers. On the other hand, there is mud with antibacterial properties and George loves ambiguity and leaving things open to debate. Ooh.

Ooh. Fun. Yeah, so I don't know. I think Richard was right. George likes leaving things open to debate. I don't know if George knows even with Miri Masdur. But I will say, like, I liked something that I liked that Richard brought up was the whole discussion about how death is cleaner

for Drogo because it makes me think again of what people said about Bran when Bran was injured, you know, thrown off the tower, whatever, and Joffrey, you know, Joffrey took that to heart. Allegedly. Joffrey took that to heart as we find out in book three. Allegedly thrown out of a tower. Allegedly.

Yeah, Joffrey did take that to heart. I love that idea, like the death is cleaner, like what they said about Bran, because it also comes back to later themes that George plays with with Mudd, right? And Barristan in his very own POV chapters that are kind of complementary to Dany's, you have that whole idea that he thinks like, you know, women don't like Mudd, they don't like boys like Quentin, and Quentin being kind of like, related to mud. But also, we have that same idea of like, fire actually burning and killing, and mud soothing and protecting, and so here you had that Drogo literally had mud that was supposed to have helped him, but he tore it off.

Yeah, I mean, I, yeah. And that idea of like, the choosing the mud instead of fire and like, mud not being ice, obviously, that preserves, but mud being like a self, mud being something that heals. Yeah. But even like fire can be too. I don't know, there's a lot of ways to go about it. So I think that is kind of fun. I don't know that Drogo, because didn't he just like, smear the mud?

That man doesn't know about bacteria. A lot of people actually don't understand how bacteria and viruses work. I have to keep telling my mother, antibiotics aren't gonna do anything if you have a viral infection. It's not gonna do anything for the flu, but anyways. Yeah. Anyways. You have to suffer. That's it. Thanks for listening to my little rant.

Uh, we got- we got an Apple Podcast comment as well from- Whoa! From- I'm gonna pronounce this the way that I want to, which is Le Toilolo. Le Toilolo! Le Toilolo! I don't think that's how this person intends this. El Toilolo?

They're gonna get here one day, they are much further behind, and they're gonna get here one day and hear like Le Toilolo and be like, wait, fuck, is that me? They're gonna get here, I think, actually, probably much faster than any of us realize, because I find that to be an ongoing pattern. Like, people will be like, I just started, and then like a month later, they're like, I'm caught up.

I'm like, wow, incredible, great, hi. Ooh, like, do we get better with age? That's the question, because we think we do. I think I do. We were young girls who knew little of war back then. I mean, that was a long time ago. I mean, I have heard that, like, the speed has gotten better the way that we hit points, but also, of course, as your and my relationship strengthens and the podcast is built on love. And as we live and have experiences that help us relate to these stories in different ways. Friendship is magic.

Actually, I think it is. I think it is. So tell us what Le Toilolo says. Le Toilolo says, new favorite Asswaf podcast. Recently heard about you guys from a different podcast, so I went back to your first episode. Currently on episode 31, and I'm loving the way this reread is set up. Going through individual characters as opposed to just going chapter by chapter gives great

new insights into everyone. Maybe wow will be out by the time I'm caught up. Get a job, little finger. Oh, I forgot, we have two emojis. We have a praying emoji, then crying, laughing face emoji, then hashtag get a job, little finger. Wow, Leitwa Lolo, I'm always saying this. Everything you say, I am always saying this.

I do think that like, or I hope, because again, I think this person's gonna be caught up way sooner than any of us think. So yes, I do hope. What's your bet? I don't know. Like I think they could be caught up by next quarter to inflict psychic damage like that. Oh my god, the next quarter at GGC headquarters.

Like, okay, no, sorry, by Q3. I think they could be caught up by Q3 or sometime Q3. Wow. Yeah, no, I think you're right. And I really think that's impressive. Not only that, I hope that's the case because that means maybe Winds of Winter will be caught up. I'm talking to LeTualolo instead of to our podcast. Oh my god. Thank you so much LeTualolo for the review. Eliana loves a little iTunes review,

so please get in there, leave her a little 5 star and tell her what's up. That's not the only thing Eliana loves. Eliana loves podcast comments on Podbean from Thunderclap, like this one. This one, actually I love this one. This one's so funny. I was cracking up. Every time the girls say cowgirl style, my brain edits in reverse Dothraki. That's the new position.

That's reverse Dothraki. Reverse Dothraki? Everyone should try that tonight. Try that tonight. That's the new position. That's reverse Dothraki. Reverse Dothraki? Everyone should try that tonight. Try that tonight. Oh, maybe. Maybe. Go home after this episode, sadly. Jesus Christ. It's a sad episode. It's a sad chapter. It is actually. We got a message on Patreon from Helix Fossil, which I appreciate. It's a, this could become an omenite if you take it to pewter city. Oh

Yes, I'm telling you same part of your brain as animals. I fucking know how you mean so sick of you We'll go we'll dive deeper into that next episode Uh, I was proud of this one. We'll go we'll go into the production We'll go behind the scenes about this a little bit. Helix Fossil says, the heavy metal backing behind Chloe doing Drogo's speech in episode 247 got me to immediately re-up my Patreon. LOL. Wow. We'll accept the BAFTA.

Thank you. Thank you Helix Fossil for giving us this BAFTA award. Knowing that is not how the BAFTAs work, but we are still accepting it. Or the Hugo. We couldn't get a good Hugo for this, who knows? For the Honey Medal. Don't tease me. Um, Eliana, thank you because you have been so good at being inspired with these passages because This creative director.

Sometimes I'll take the wheel on them here and there, I'll be like, I want this one, but when you get it, when you get in Kevin MacLeod's files and you download the right one, because Kevin goes the fuck off. Shout out to Kevin and Eliana. Thank you so much for this award. You know, Helix Vassal. Really appreciate it. Loki, because like, you know, you and I had been discussing, do we put like some drums to be like, really go a little literal with it? And then I was like, well, heavy metal has drums. And honestly, I just got too lazy to add some other parts. I was like, this is going to be sick. This is perfect.

And so and apparently Helix Fossil felt the same. So rock on. Yeah. Today's musical moment behind the passage will be dedicated to Helix Fossil. Oh, yeah. A dedication for you, Helix Fossil. Aww. That's beautiful. A dedication for you, Helix Fossil. Thank you. Wow. Eliana, so you learned about Spotify comments,

as we mentioned up top. Let's lightning round these comments. Hold on, we get- From our episode with Glytus. We get way more of these than I thought we did. Yeah, we do. We get a lot. I didn't know that. I don't read the Moffat, I'm sorry.

It's okay. It's fine. Keep them to yourself. It's a lot of like, with great power comes great responsibility, so I only read them like all at once here and there, and I don't read them often, so I don't want to get anxiety about it. We get anxiety too, we're humans. Yeah, you keep this from me even though we're on the same Spotify family account, don't tell them. I'm sorry. We live in the same household, if anyone asks. We live together. If you looked at us right now, we're smooching. We're not. The same moon. That's impossible.

So from our episode with Glytus, the first comment from Gerolando, I'm in the part where Viserys calls the baby a bastard. I think he does this too because the baby's not his. She was supposed to be his wife. Yes. Yes. Great comment. Yeah. We also got one from Arizona Karenina, an incredible name that says wife guy trademark called Drogo. Real total wife guy. It just took a while. Yeah. It really comes to the consequences, I guess, of that. No,

everyone should be a wife everyone should be a wife guy yeah or girl yeah yeah then we got another one in the episode before that i think from our friend ursalalalala lalalala it's actually only three laws but like i just kept going like a revolving door that's the song of of Ice and Fire. Ursa lalalala. Ursa lalalala says, blah blah blah blah. Hey girls hey thanks for the episode bouncing back between current episodes and starting back at the beginning. Thermal shock can cause rocks to crack, fracture, or explode, so I don't blame Dani for being hesitant. Yes! Oh yeah, that's a good point.

This seems she is on a thermal ground. Yeah. Or like with the eggs. Good point, good point. Good point. And finally we got one back, way back in Agat Aria 3. Three months ago. No I'm not.

Yeah, so long ago. Screeha02 says, going through the back catalog. Oh my god, this is the back catalog now. Damn, who were we? And felt compelled to express my support for the voices. Yes, thank you, thank you. Okay, I was kind of confused because I feel like only one person really pointed out the voices, but one of the summaries about our podcast on one of those aggregators,

says that some people don't like the voices, but it makes reviews around that. But otherwise, everyone... I was like, that happened once. That happened once. They're running AI off of transcripts. Don't get too deep in the weeds on that. Oh, that's right. Because we never let it go. We never let that one criticism go. Sorry to that person. And we're bringing it go. We never let that one criticism go. Sorry to that person. And we're bringing it up like right now too. I know you edited it, that person. Thank you.

Yeah, no, we have to let it go. It's time to let it go. I think I've read that like some people don't like our jokes that we kill to death and I'm like, can't help it. I've never seen that critique. I simply do not see it. But they're wrong, personally. And with that critique, we're gonna jump into something we'll never let go, which is the lightning round between Daenerys VIII and IX, starting with Arya V, where Arya chases

pigeons on the streets of King's Landing, and then her father wargs into one. Because he's dead. It is canon. Yeah. He's in the pigeon and then Lil' Pigeon. It's really important for everything we're going to talk about obviously. Absolutely. Bran VII. Bran dreams a new dream but one shared by Rickon who he finds in the crypt. They dream that their father has died. Which he has. Yes. He definitely... well no, he's alive in the pigeon. Oh my god and in our hearts warmly and tightly. Sansa 6. After her father's execution, her boyfriend makes her attend court and

later stare at the heads of the people that she has lost. Good guy, Ja. Wow. Wow. Wow. And that brings us here to Daenerys IX, a game of thrones. Daenerys pays the price for blood magic and grief and agony. Yes. We're gonna do, like, this full fucking weird passage.

I feel like it's important. I really do. I think it's Eliana you're gonna have like this full fucking weird passage. I feel like it's important. I really do. I think it's Eliana, you're gonna have to cast for it. We're gonna really go through it. It is an incredible passage. It's actually poetic. I feel like this whole chapter is so inspired by many poems. You can see that in a lot of the words, in a lot of the acts, and I think we're gonna talk about a lot of that today, especially with the way it opens with this passage, right? It's part prophecy, part dream. It's pretty closely related to Eddard's passage where he opens with his fever dream, right? Dani's having her own fever dream and beautiful prose, horrifying, terrible. It reminds me a

little bit of a few different poems that we'll talk about today like The Solitary Reaper from William Wordsworth, Edgar Allan Poe, which I'm going to talk about later in the episode at the end of the episode, but especially in the opening it makes me think of a little ditty, a little villanelle that inspired George in other stories, so probably in this one as well, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas. And that opens with, Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Later in the poem at the end we get, Grave men near death who see with blinding sight, Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, In the poem at the end we get, Grave men near death who see with blinding sight, Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light, And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray,

Do not go gentle into that good night, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. It's this idea of night as death, right? Watching your beloved die, feeling powerful against it, and turning to fire and light to try to stay and fight that powerlessness instead of going gracefully into the darkness. It's acceptance of death, it's grief, it's everything this chapter's about in many ways, and in some aspects it's kind of a big theme across A Song of Ice and Fire. Absolutely, I do think it inspires him. First of all, I will say you can in fact find recordings, I guess, of Dylan Thomas reading this poem aloud himself, so would recommend.

It sounds... the way that he says, he goes, rage, rage against the dying. I cannot do it. I don't have the gravitas in my voice for that. Oh, wow. Would recommend. It's fine. It's not the way it's not enunciated the way you think. But anyways, yes, George's first novel, Dying of the Light is named in honor of this poem.

And I will say there's aspects of the Dothraki that feel a little bit like the high Kavalaan society in Dying in the Light but also I think the one of the characters, Gwen Delvano, you can see a little bit of her in Daenerys also in some of the other women and girl characters that we've been examining. We've discussed some some of the ways like lore, unexpectedness in regards to gender manifest in Dying of the Light and may manifest in A Song of Ice and Fire, but I do see a lot of Gwen's trajectory and denarius and so one day, one day.

So I'm not off base. I think we- I will read it someday. Yeah. I think I'll think I will read it someday. Yeah, not even that. You can see an aspect of this that really just, I think, reverberates, you know, just the themes of this poem throughout all of the Song of Isengard here. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, especially even in the next chapter, you know. Yeah, the next chapter is, yo, when I was working on the next chapter's outline and I was like reading through it and I'm like, Yo, Daenerys' chapter's goaded. So good. Every single one of these is good. Holy shit. Yeah, they just get difficult and complex because, especially in the later books, I think he tries to smush together different world events and kind of loses the thread of why those real world world events happened when applying them to his fictional world. But anyways, anyways. Wings shadowed her fever dreams.

You don't want to wake the dragon, do you? She was walking down a long hall, beneath high stone arches. She could not look behind her, must not look behind her. There was a door ahead of her, tiny with distance, but even from afar, she saw that it was painted red. She walked faster and her bare feet left bloody footprints on the stone. You don't want to wake the dragon, do you? She saw sunlight on the Dothraki Sea, the living plain rich with the smells of earth and death.

Wind stirred the grasses and they rippled like water. Drogo held her in strong arms and his hands stroked her sex and opened her, and woke that sweet wetness that was his alone, and the stars smiled down on them. Stars in a daylight sky. Home, she whispered as he entered her and filled her with his seed. But suddenly the stars were gone and across the blue sky swept the great wings and the world took flame. Don't want to wake the dragon, do you? Zor'Jorah's face was drawn and sorrowful.

Rhaegar was the last dragon, he told her. He warmed translucent hands over a glowing brassiere where stone eggs smoldered red as coals. One moment he was there and the next he was fading, his flesh colorless, less substantial than the wind. The last dragon. He whispered, thin as a wisp, and was gone. She felt the dark behind her and the red door seemed farther away than ever. Don't want to wake the dragon, do you? Viserys stood before her, screaming. The dragon does not beg slut.

You do not command the dragon. I am the dragon and I will be crowned the molten gold trickled down his face like wax burning deep channels in his flesh he shrieked and his fingers snapped like snakes biting at her nipples pinching twisting even as his eyes burst and ran like jelly down seared and blackened cheeks. Don't want to wake the dragon. The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind sweeping

up on her. If it caught her, she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run. Don't want to wake the dragon. She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. Her son was tall and proud, with Drogo's copper skin and her own silver-gold hair, violet eyes shaped like almonds.

And he smiled for her, and began to lift his hand towards hers. But when he opened his mouth, the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant, he was gone. Consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash. She wept for her child the promise of a sweet mouth on her breast, but her tears turned to steam as they touched her skin. Want to wake the dragon. Ghosts lined the hallway dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were

opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. Faster! Faster! They cried. Faster! Faster! Faster! Faster!

She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. Faster! Faster! Faster! Faster! Faster! Faster! Faster. Faster! The ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood, and saw the shadow of wings, and Daenerys Targaryen flew. Wake the dragon! The door loomed before her.

The red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki Sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath and all that lived and breathed, fled in terror from the shadow of her wings. She could smell home. She could see it there, just beyond that door. Green fields and great stone houses and arms to keep her warm there. She threw open the door. The dragon. opened the door and saw her brother Rhaegar mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm.

The last dragon. Sir Jorah's voice whispered faintly. The last. The lust. The lust. The lust. Danny lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own. After that, for a long time, there was only the paint. The fire within her and the whisperings of stars. She woke to the taste of ashes. No, she moaned. No, she moaned. No, please. Alright, Loki, George got that idea from like, what, Lucondagoba opening?

Yeah. That's exactly the same, the black visor and being like, oh my gosh, it's me! I don't care, it's so good though. It's like earned. It's like when you write the first handful of paragraphs like that, you're allowed to pull a cheesy thing at the end like that, it works. I don't think it's bad and I don't think it's cheesy. I'm just saying it's inspired by Luke on Dagobah.

It's a little cheesy. It's a little cheesy. Yeah, again, especially with the Black Visor. That's what it is. And you know what? There is a hero's journey going on here. It's fine. The language of Moth's in regards to Rago being like that candle towards a flame and

then the description of a knife ripping her back and shedding her skin, it shows that this is very much also Daenerys, right, going through a metamorphosis. This is her emerging from the cocoon with her own wings, in the moment metaphorical, but it's okay, it's going to become very literal next chapter. And so it kind of like, without saying it, keeps that moth imagery going and it's her own rebirth. Yes, and you have that moth to the flame like Cersei, right? So you have like her own translation of it and blood magic being the flame for her. Yeah, especially because it has her being the one like flying, right?

It sounds as though within the dream she's the one who's gaining wings on her back, not riding on something. It is within her. She's the dragon. Not on her son's coattails. Yeah. And then we have like, this is something that I discussed in that really long essay. And I've discussed this chapter in depth. Oh, you wrote an essay? Oh, you wrote an essay? A long time ago on Not A Cast. I realized how long we've been doing this, so congrats to the people who have just started

our podcast and episode 31. Because I think, I don't know if it was 2017 or 2018 when I recorded about this chapter with Not A Cast, but it's one of those years. So either way, it's a long-ass time ago. And yeah, so anyway's one of those years. So either way, it's like a long ass time ago. Wow. Yeah. So anyway, part of what I examined that that we're going to bring into here is a home. We find the way that Daenerys defines home, which is it's a place. It's not a place,

but it's synonymous with these ideas of life, warmth, love, right? It's not just this thing that's the seed. The Dothraki seed just happens to be where she found those things, and now it's gone. Arms to hold her. That's what home ultimately is, but it gets really muddied with this quest for that physical place of home. And she's running, refuses to look back. She is running from the cold that's behind her, right? You get the dichotomy of warmth versus cold

and how the iciness represents a fate that's worse than death behind her, it's loneliness. So you have these different ideas that start coming through the story of warmth as love, right? But turns out we're finding out that perhaps love isn't always positive, even though it's something we desire. And then you have that loneliness and what is the balance between all of this? And I also just, you know, you were saying that the Star Wars scene is very earned. It absolutely is because I really love how the language in this feels like cosmic horror shit. It's all just happening to one girl, but the way that the fire burns and consumes

her feels so all-encompassing. It feels so universal, especially when it leaves her with only the whisperings of stars, right, as she's just kind of wheeling through this unconsciousness. just kind of wheeling through this unconsciousness. Only Banger is in Daenerys' chapters. Oh my god, and Aegod is so good, like, George, hats off. Hats off to you. Floppy bunny ears off to that man, cause it's just so good. I love the way that the language is so repetitive is actually great. I think Daenerys has some of the most, like, repeated motifs in her story across all of these bits. I love it.

Like, as she has visions, as she lives, as she remembers things, that repetition pulls you right back and makes it so much more poetic. Her art is just complete poetry. Xiqui awakens her, hovering over her in the night. Its dark and flames of ash drift from a brassiere. Dani thinks she dreamt she was flying, but it was only a dream. She whispers, help me, bring me, I want, I want, and she trails off. Add her to the pile of Catalin with I want and Ariane with I wanted and Cersei with I want right you have these trailing

desires I love George encapsulating that throughout these plots. Absolutely and it's kind of funny like I was just talking about this with a friend yesterday um who's like rewriting her personal statement as she applies for a doctorate of like you know these I want statements from women only I only vaguely talked about it I'll I'll about it. I'll walk her through the thesis sometime. You're in my thesis, I mean. I really like the way that Daenerys waking from all of these different dreams is kind of a mirror to Bran's own fever dream at the... or not fever dream, it was it was much longer than that, you know, his coma. His coma dream at the beginning of A Game of Thrones, where he also was flying.

But of course it was only a dream, allegedly. And like Bran's dream, who, you know, a lot of what he's doing is seeing the future and the present, hers is much more focused on the present As well as the past right and kind of ties into something that you were talking about in those early Daenerys chapters especially as you were likening it to Dune like some of this feels a little like that Alia the knife and the like seeing all the past past Lives right in their legacy that you were talking about in the the Ceremonial Dune that I forgot the name of, but whatever, um, and how it weighs on Daenerys and propels

her forward. And as she wakes, there's still those like lingering feelings of the dream, and there's even a burning sensation. She says she can still kind of like feel the pain where Bran also like talks about a burning sensation where the crow pecked his third eye and they both obviously experience weakness and dizziness, which sometimes, you know, I just feel waking up on a normal basis and it's just like a normal sleep. But so whatever.

Yeah, like that's not I guess that's not special, but whatever. We're going to talk about it as parallels between them. And then Daenerys thinks of her own body as feeling broken and reformed. And of course she's dizzy. We have the blanket tangled around her legs and the language of that kind of, I think, feels a little like Bran suddenly realizing he cannot get out of bed. And she immediately goes for her eggs, just as Bran is immediately greeted by Summer. So kind of fun parallels there with our magical characters.

I love this as a pure magical awakening. That's great. There's such great parallels there and there's definitely George having the characters bodies being broken and giving them their magic being involved, right? Like Daenerys has just had her complete everything broken, Her spirit, her psyche, her body, her life. But she's about to perform some crazy magic, so I guess there's some... that perk, but you know, there's something in it. There's something. I don't know. There's something going on there. I didn't get any fucking magic when I was born.

Yeah, that's true. Maybe I did. Maybe this is my magic. You know, maybe that's true. There's something going on there. I didn't get any fucking magic when I was born. Maybe I did. Maybe this is my magic. You know, maybe that's true. The podcast? I mean, I guess so. We did say friendship is magic at the beginning, so. I want to refund.

But once I get dragons, god, I'd trade you and the pot. No, I'm just kidding. I wouldn't do that. You're worth more than a dragon. She trades for all these people for dragons. I don't know. Maybe it is a good trade. You're right, Chloe. Maybe it is a good trade. So, Daenerys doesn't know what she wants, but they find her on the carpet crawling toward the dragon eggs. Jorah lifts her and carries her to the sleeping silks, and she tells him she has to... Well, she doesn't finish that sentence, but she tries to, but

he tells her she needs to sleep and to grow strong and to come back to them and then they drug her. Yep, definitely takes the ol' drugs soon. Jorah tells her before she falls asleep to come back to them, and I love that because at the very end she pleads with Drogo to come back to them. And I love that because at the very end she pleads with Drogo to come back to her. Puking, crying, throwing up, you know, whatever, sobbing, shaking, shaking about the Child Bride. Don't quote me on that. She is a Child Bride. Yeah. There's also, even with this fever, now at Calling Out a Fever Dream, reminds me even of Ned and Sansa just a few

chapters earlier. Ned's was kind of a little bit more mid-bookish. Sansa's was just like, I don't know, a chapter ago, just before this one. And it is like that loss of time, the sleep and comforting darkness going in and out of it to sort of dull the pain, especially with Ned, right? He was in much more physical pain, which Daenerys is probably going through right now because pregnancy and not. CB & KS Yeah. Yeah, true. CB Miscarriage is horrible. KS Oh, I don't know. It's not a miscarriage, right? It is a birth. You just gave birth to a dead child, which is very, yeah, yeah, also painful and difficult. Again, yeah, Miriam Mazdur. She appears.

We drug Daenerys. She tips a cup of something like sour milk and then something thick and bitter into Daenerys' mouth, and it dribbles a bit down her chin. Tini swallows and this time she doesn't dream. She awakens and doesn't attempt to rise. She calls for Iri, Jikui, and Derea and asks for something to drink, this time not rising, and they bring her warm, flat water and she drinks it eagerly. I love this kind of like post-fever. You can tell she's coming out of it. No dream, and I love the relation kind of to Bran, right? Where we get him having his drugs in a dance with dragons. And then later with her and the blue acid

shade of the evening. Sorry, I couldn't think of the name because all the blue acid I've done. Blue raspberry acid. Then it makes me think of like the, blue raspberry flavored acid. The shade of the evening that she does in Clash of the Kings and Etc etc. So great language that'll come back later

And there are a couple other little things that are nods here like There's a moment where she looks at the tent and the flaps to the entrance of the tent look like wings As they open is how it's described and I I'm like, that's cute, George. This is just riddled with foreshadowing. We get it, dragons are coming. Even the tent is like a dragon. I'm like, I see you, George. And then I didn't expand on this and I don't plan to expand.

I have nothing poetic to say, but Eerie Jiqui D'Orea are really Dani's real blood riders and also her dragons, parallel to her dragons in some ways. Like, they're the real blood riders and also her dragons. Parallel to her dragons in some ways, like they're the real parallels to each of the dragons. Okay. I have nothing to expand on, that's it. That's it. Yeah. No, I like the idea though, like I mean they also have very much bound themselves to her as well and and serve her in different ways. I like that. Devoted. Devoted. Yeah. Thank you. Also they are her dragons, nothing to expand on there, that's it. They are her I like that. Devoted. Devoted. Yeah. Thank you.

Also, they are her dragons. Nothing to expand on there. That's it. They are her dragons. If you ask me to explain, I will not. That's them. That's them. It's the true dragons.

She asks her handmaidens how long she's been sick and they tell her, well, a long time. Who can know? Miriam Mazdor returns with sweet wine, telling her to drink, and then sleep overtakes her once more. Before she passes out, she asks for a dragon's egg, but then she falls asleep. So we, as the readers, kind of remember what happened last chapter, maybe better than Daenerys did, because she's saying, bring me, and you think it's gonna be for the child, and Mirri asks, alright, different kind of shade now. Um, in my opinion, just a little bit too eagerly.

She's like, yes, what is it that you want, Khaleesi? And she's just a little too eager for Daenerys to ask for the baby so that she can tell this girl, your baby's dead, I killed it. Um, but Daenerys swears and she's like, bring me the egg. And I'm like, same. Bring me egg. Just, just in general. I love eggs. Child is not egg, Finary's.

No, it is not. Which one's more expensive nowadays? Child or egg? I'm sure. The third time she wakes, sunlight fills the tent. She's holding the cream golden bronze egg and it's hot to the touch. Sweating, she whispers, dragondew and traces the golden veins on the egg, feeling something from within it. I really love this line though, she felt something twist and stretch in response. It did not frighten her. Her fear was gone, burned away.

The language of twist and stretch in response resol Saul kind of mirrors that language of, I guess, how people describe feeling the baby when you're pregnant. I have not experienced this and don't intend to. I also really love the, it did not frighten her, her fear was gone, burned away. The fear and the role it plays in Daenerys' story. We've discussed it in the past, especially, you know, the first time she rides a silver. And I've got new thoughts about this fear and stuff now, because we've talked about it also a lot in regards to Ned and how he raised his children, the dichotomy between, like, the education his sons and daughters got. Right, we've talked a lot about it with like mercy and justice, but also in regards to fear

because Ned like tells Bran up at the top that only when a man is afraid can he be brave, and I really butchered that line, but that's okay. The daughters don't receive this lesson, but Arya and Sansa learn some of it, or like learn lessons about fear anyway. They learn to silence their fear, not really working through it in the same way. Like Arya thinks fear cuts deeper than swords as a way to kind of silence it. You know, fear is the mind-killer shit. And now I'm rethinking, like maybe, maybe it really is like one of those true only-for-men in their society, right?

The only time a man can be brave thing. Because as we see with Daenerys' storyline, some daughters like Sansa and Arya, they were born fortunate enough to have a loving family, right? Their male family members treat them with love and care and respect. But as we find out, like, they didn't have to, right? Like- Yeah, a lot of people in this story don't get that. Yeah, I mean Sam doesn't get it, right? He's born male and like his dad's like, hmm, I'm gonna I'm gonna chain you to a wall. And I mean obviously people probably should treat their family members with love and care and respect, but it's not an obligation

in the same way. And especially when it comes to women and girls, because when you are an object, when you are property, you're always going to be vulnerable. And when you're vulnerable, you're probably gonna feel fear, right? Like when men own you, you'll always feel fear. And so there are the same kind of like adages for when women and girls can be brave

because I would argue there is always a whisper of fear. As Sansa and Arya finally learn outside the walls of Winterfell, like that's something that I think a lot of people can relate to. Like I feel fear sometimes just walking down the street even if it's like in a safe area as long as it's nighttime, right? Crossing a street and like having to look at where am I headed, you know, walking past a group of men or even just one strange man or just anything, there's always a lingering fear, even when there shouldn't be.

And it's like, there's that challenge. I don't know if it was last year or the year before, time is fucking fake, but people are like, would you rather face a bear or a man and a bunch of women picking the bear over the man? Yeah, we talked about it all the time on here. Yeah. And like, that's what I'm saying, right? And like, Daenerys has always, fear has always lived beside her as her brother. And then her father, her husband, and then what

happens when her husband is gone and now like it's burned away. I think that's powerful. It's all she's ever known. So in a way, it's like, like Tyrion says, you know, like make that your armor. It's all she's ever known, so in a way it's like, like Tyrion says, you know, like, make that your armor. Let that cradle you, you know? That's your mother's milk, man. Fear.

Yeah. If you can't, you have to own it and control it, and she kind of like is in this chapter in a total way. Yeah. The fear does come back into her life later on, sadly, but just manifests a little differently, especially because Quaithe is like, but what if I cause problems on purpose? That messy bitch.

Touching her forehead, Dani finds the fever is gone. Dizzy but stronger, she asks for water, dates, and a robe. She wants to call for Jorah, a bath, Mirri Maz Duur, and then she remembers Drogo. They say he lives, but Eerie's eyes darken. When she passes Derea, she says she'll fetch Jorah. Just immediately, I'll fetch Jorah. We can't deal with this emotionally. That's for Jorah to do. I respect that. Like, no. Also, I really love the dragon making Dani sweat or like what she was like understanding is that and her calling it Dragon Dew. So cute.

So cute. If she touches her sweat, she's like, oh Dragon Dew. I wonder if that'll come back, you know, I- It's condensate, but- Yeah, well, I mean know? It's condensate, but… Yeah, well I mean like, what if it… It's just cute. It could come back, especially when they're in the sky more in later books. Yeah, some dragon bonding and shit, I wanna see more of that. As Jikui turns to leave, Danny grabs her and pleads with her. Why had she not remembered the child until now?

My son, Reiko, where is he? I want him. Her handmaid lowered her eyes. The boy, he did not live, Khaleesi. Her voice was a frightened whisper. Dany released her wrist. My son is dead. She thought as Xiqui left the tent.

She had known somehow. She had known since she woke the first time to Xiqui's tears. No, she had known before she woke. Her dream came back to her, sudden and vivid, and she remembered the tall man with the copper skin and long silver gold braid, bursting into flame. She should weep, she knew, yet her eyes were dry as ash. She had wept in her dream, and the tears had turned to steam on her cheeks. All the grief has been burned out of me, she told herself. She felt sad, and yet she could feel Rago receding from her, as if he had never been. Ugh. Terrible. As if he had never been. Uh.

Yeah. Like you had said, it reminds me a little bit of Sansa's chapter, the trauma and the shock, right? Makes me think of when she forgot about Arya after all the slaughter and didn't ask about her sister. She does remember though, just reminding everyone, she does remember later on. She does remember. I don't know, people are hating about that. What a

fucking bitch. She didn't remember her sister while she was being questioned by the royals after all this trauma and seeing her father. What a bitch. Yeah, guys, I figured out during a job interview, like chill. I know y'all feel the same. God, chill. That's it. Yeah, some of y'all wouldn't last as a 13 year old in King's Landing first of all. Yeah, me. Yeah, exactly. I wouldn't last as a 33 year old if I ever got that old, which I never will. Yeah, there's a lot here of that like concept of how could you remember what you scarce knew, right? From Beric. How can I dwell on what I scarce remembered, right? Are you my mother, Thoros? Actually, like not just Beric, but there's a lot of Hamlet in this chapter. I know someone who wrote an

essay about Daenerys and Shakespeare. The essay is called Daughter of Death. You can look for it online. I can slide it to you under tables or under doors, you know, real secret like. It's a pretty good essay. But there's literally no point in me expanding on the hamlet of this chapter because like you can read it and about the next chapter and about King Lear and about Othello and a bunch of other stories in that essay. It's really hard because some people are really smart. They have a great brain. They wrote the hardest and the bestest already so you don't have to think about it. But Eliana could just do this chapter. Like, it's her podcast, you know? She could just have the whole thing. Truly, I should just let you do it. The whole thing.

It already exists, right? I mean, you already did. You did it. You already did. It's there. We're not gonna, like, retread that ground. I like to, you know, I like to expand. I like to expand. We were talking about growth earlier, right? So we're gonna, we're grown and grow the body of work of our thoughts. And, um, if you guys want to read it, it'll be in the, in the links. And otherwise, I think I've like, I touched on it a little bit all those years ago with not a cast, but that was like, you guys, I was drunk and that was so long ago. I was so young.

Who was I? I really was. I could, I could drink. I mean, I still do, but like, you guys, again, these podcasts have only gotten more sober as time has gone. That's the fun fact. You know, Beric's not the only fire white that I feel like Dani is acting like, right? I really love you bringing it into what Beric says, though, and the pain of like, or lack thereof of can you remember what you scarce knew. Because I mean, even like the Fire White stuff I think ties into some of what like, Miri and Daenerys are exploring there at the end too, with, you know, different

kind of white. Drogo? Question mark elemental, random element white, you know. And earth white. Yeah, as he keeps losing his memory, so that really goes into it too. And honestly, there's an aspect of this that even like makes me think of Catlin, and you contrast it with her own grief, right? Becoming a creature of only grief, and like wondering if she's like cried enough, and those tears as Daenerys doesn't feel it and the... I think there's something interesting going on there too. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Like mothers.

I love... oh my god, they're all mothers. They're mothering. They're mothering. God, mother. Uh, they are. But also, I just think there's such a great mirror there for how Catalin, how Beric becomes as a fire white, how Catalin becomes, and like, Dani's kind of a fire white in some ways, right? Like she's reborn here? It feels that way from what- yeah, it feels like, I don't know. I don't know if that feels like an implication from that dream to me. It's kind of crazy that like, she's basically... how old's Beric again? 24? Like

a 24 year old man. But she's Daenerys. God, Beric's so young! Holy shit! I was gonna say he's so old! Daenerys? No, they're both fucking babies! Holy shit! And so is Catelyn! Yeah, actually no. Catelyn's young and hot. Just like me. Yeah. Um, anyways. Mouth. We've been talking a lot about the kind of overlap between Catlin and Daenerys' trajectory. We did get a fun email about that that we do think fits in better with next episode, so. Yeah, you'll hear it then. Just my eye. Keep your ears peeled, as Chloe says. Is that my thing? I guess that's my thing. Yes. In my head it is, in my heart it is.

Tightly, warmly. Jorah and Miri Mez Duur enter to find Dani standing over the chest of dragon eggs. They feel hot and passing strange, the text says. She makes Jorah give them a feel, and he doesn't feel the same heat that she feels from the eggs. She wants him to feel the heat with some eggs. He asks if she should lay back down but she tells him she's strong. She reclines on cushions to appease him and asks him to tell her what is being said of her son's death. He starts but he can't finish. He looks like a corpse himself

after all of the battle from last episode and his face is full of dark shame. Mirri jumps in for him, she's happy to answer, and she says, monstrous, that he was twisted, scaled like a lizard, blind with the stub of a tail and small leather wings like a bat." So there's a lot of debate and again, back to what Richard of House York said at that email at the beginning, George does like to leave things a little open to interpretation like is this something that is due to Mary of Mazur's magic? Is this something that just happened naturally, right? Like the way that Rego is described matches something called

harlequin ichthyosis, which is like a skin condition that babies can be born with that they do not survive long after. And we also hear that this, and yeah, we've heard it happening in the past with other Targaryens such as Rhaenyra. So like, is it just... What happens when you have enough incest in your bloodline that these certain genetic things get passed down?

Etc. And also, or is it like, you know, maybe you shouldn't be eating raw horse heart while pregnant. What's food safety? I don't know. But the stub tail and again, the predisposition to genetic issues with incest, it does make me think of like, I'm gonna light, light spoilers for the book 100 Years of Solitude, because sometimes I do think that there's a little House Targaryen drawing from Marques's book, 100 Years of Solitude, with all the repetitive names to building up of a city and stuff and the dreams and like prophecy and then like the constant threat of incest and then you know then the aunt and then the nephew don't realize they sleep together and then the baby has a tail and like I just gave away the whole

book but that's fine. I mean it's been out since 67 you're allowed to do that. Yeah there's a there's a Netflix series and I haven't watched it. I was gonna say have you? No I hear it's good but I don't know I don't know if I'm ready like there are certain things like for example I've never watched the Handmaid's Tale television series because I actually like really like the book and there's some things that I'm like afraid you get too stuck on it and like certain interpretations might bristle. Maybe we reread 100 years of solitude Re-read I have a friend who actually was doing that. Yeah, I would totally reread it. Let me see if I have my copy It's not long. It's only like 400 pages. I feel like I have it somewhere I've been rereading East of Eden as I told you, and still fucking slaps. Aww, that's your fave.

It's really different, even the stuff with Kate, as an adult woman, I'm like, dang, she was done so dirty. Anyways. Yeah, yeah. Aww, I'm so glad you're back on your shit. Your Steinbeck shit. I know, I never stopped. Dude, he wrote a fucking- somebody gave me the werewolf story that he wrote.

Somebody released it. What? Really? He wrote like- he wrote back then before he had reached enough commercial success- I bet you could find it. To sell it. It's locked away. It exists. Someone has read it. It's locked away because he didn't want it published. But he wrote like a murder mystery about a werewolf. And I bet it slaps. I bet it slaps. I bet it's great. Release the butthole cut. Your favorite. Not the butt. Jesus. Not the yiff yiff cut. Yeah, I like what you're saying here about the incest and 100 years of solitude and I think like also all of the trauma and stress. Like, it could be any of those things. And the trauma and stress of the last three days. Like, four days, five days, like out of nowhere.

Like, or pretty much since the Lazarine chapter. Like, I mean, things have not been, it's not been an easy pregnancy since then. It could be anything. I do think that Sh Mazador didn't help, and I also think the stress probably would have driven her. She did not help. Did not help Dani. Helped Drogo, but did not help Dani.

Helped. And I also think Dani was doing far too much. Okay, yeah. Because she was trying to hold power, which there's, you know, somewhat of that parallel with Rhaenyra, who has a ton of trauma happen at once with her father dying and her throne being usurped from her. We definitely see the parallel there of that doesn't help a pregnancy. So I think the day-to-day conditions on top of that, I mean, it was like a boiling pot

of what's going to happen here. Yeah, I mean, there's just so many factors that have gone into it, but Mirri Mazda is really, really excited to be like, it's your fault. Yeah, we know she was targeting it. And you know what, like, I get it. I get why Mirri feels that way. She also makes points. But I'm just like, it really comes through on a reread how she's just a little too eager

with some of this stuff, you know? Oh, she's so happy. She's such a nasty bitch at the end. Yeah, and Daenerys finally sees it, right? She goes, the knight was a powerful man, yet Dany understood in that moment that the Magi was stronger and crueler and infinitely more dangerous. Yeah, Mirriamazdur responds that Rago had been dead

for years. Haunting. Very nice creepy thing to say, haunting. Haunting. And then Dani has this thought, darkness, the terrible darkness sweeping up behind to devour her. If she looked back, she was lost. God, okay, I'm sorry.

Seeing this and then thinking about what darkness is going to represent in the story because George, unfortunately, without those last few books can't really like flesh out that theme and I feel like we have ideas of what it is but what is his argument? I want to see the Danny Long Night chapters, that's it. What's she gonna feel? I do deserve that. Oh my god, think of the prose, dude. The pros is gonna be so good. The pros and cons of George releasing this book for me. Okay, like, there's another thing later on that I'm like, George, please give me this,

please give me wins so I get this, but like that and this, like, as you said, the pros and how Dani feels about darkness and also I desperately want to see Alas- Alasir Thor in finding out about Jon being the godson, which I don't even think George will give it to us even if he gives the books, but still. Still. Desires. I know you want it, though. Desires.

You deserve it. Daenerys Declare declares that Rhaego was alive and strong when she had entered the tent, but Mirri Maz Duur says that death was in the tent. Jorah says he only saw shadows, only the magi, dancing with the shadows alone. Dani thinks Jorah was the one who killed Rago by bringing her into the tent, but she thinks that it was out of loyalty and love that they had fed him to the darkness, and Jorah knew it shamefully too. Alright, so song that goes here, dancing on my own, right? Drawers like, she was dancing on her own.

That's what's happening. She's in the tent with the shadows. Oh, killing your baby right over here. Yeah. That's a song of Icy Fire. Yeah, yeah. Jesus. Oh, that's Miri's, that's the Yulelating. Alright, so confirmed. We were discussing it last chapter. Other people could see the shadows, but alone intent.

Interesting. There's definitely a turn here where like, if this was a legality, like, they're saying right here, they're like, you're guilty, Mirri Mazdor, I only saw you, you're the reason he's dead. So like, it's almost like they're charging her with a crime right here. Right? You have Dani being like, Rago was alive and strong when I entered and Jorah being like, exactly, I only saw you in there dancing with shadows. So it's almost like they're indicating that she is guilty of the crime they're going to charge her for.

That's definitely part of what's going on here, Agreed, and I don't know, part of it is just, it's just creepy shit, right? Because you can believe, you can believe that, yeah, I think from the way it sounds, maybe that baby had been dead. Like that something happened in the tent, and yes, Muri like kind of did it with the blood magic but that twisted time to be able to do that, you know? Yeah like time traveling brand style. Tyrion, Tyrion time traveling fetus. Oh you mean brand actually time traveling in the story. I mean the brand doing that little bit of time yeah. That's true sorry I'm uh too- playing with the

fabric. Reddit, Reddit raw brains, sorry. It's so fine, I could have meant the fetus, I'm too, uh, you know, reddit- reddit- reddit-rodbrains. Sorry. It's so fine. I could have meant the fetus. I don't know, Tyrion. You could- you could have. But no, no, uh, DDT, Rego, whatever. I don't remember those ones, but you know what I mean. You hear what I'm saying. Yeah, I do. I do. The- the playing with the fabric of space and time and, you know, all these linear bits of quantum everything, I think that's being played with with that magic for sure. Absolutely.

Spooky shit. Whisperings of stars. Wrong season, but… Mirri says that the shadows touched Jorah too, and Dany turns to her saying, she paid for Drogo's life with the horse. But Mirri Mazdor says that was a lie you told yourself. You knew the horse. But Mirri Maz Duur says that was a lie you told yourself. You knew the price. We have this back and forth of, had she? Had she? If I look back, I am lost. The price

was paid. The horse, my child, Quaro, Quotho, Haggo, Caholo, the price was paid and paid and paid. She rose from her cushions. Where is Cal Drogo? Show him to me, God's wife, magey, blood mage, whatever you are, show me, Cal Drogo, show me what I bought with my son's life. Not much." Eryn- First off, is there an implication here where, like, I'm just realizing it on reread with the shadows touching Jorah, feels like what's happening to Stannis maybe? What do you think? And how he looks half a corpse. Devouring him a little, yeah.

Did he give up some of his soul? I don't know. I didn't think he had enough to give up. Ha! You're right. He had... You're welcome. Clearly. Thank you. Um. I love you too. Yeah, I figured that was all from like half, I love you too.

Half bleeding out maybe last night, like is what I thought it was from, but maybe. That's true, he did do that. I don't know if it was last night, but that's true. I do think it's interesting because so much keeps coming up about him being like, let's go to a shy, let's go to a shy by the shadow, where you can be touched by the shadow. So like there's something in there, I don't know what, but... There's a lot I don't know what's going on in Jorah's life. Maybe it's foreshadowing that Jorah is gonna get greyscale, like the TV show. Oh my god!

Just kidding. And Sam's gonna scrape it off with toenail clippers. I'm just kidding again! You can see my face just kind of like, eyes up, like, dead. Why is this happening? Why did that happen to us? Holy fuck. Um.

Was that even real? They should have just given us the John Connington stuff, which slaps. Anyways, I will say regarding the price being paid and paid and paid and the show me what I bought my son's life. Maybe I'm biased, right? We've just read that chapter and both high key and low key. I know some people think it is very obvious, right? And Denirri's just ignored all the signs. In my opinion, no. If someone tells me it's the fucking horse that's the price, I'm gonna

believe it's the horse, right? I do not think, in my opinion, as not a lawyer, Beery's statements would hold up in a court like this was not a well-written contract. I mean I want to make my lawyer case here. Yeah. I'm not a lawyer case. As a defendant's attorney. I don't feel like, I don't know, Dani took that implication like just because Dani was like my death and she's like, no, not your death. But right before that, she says to her, it's not a matter of gold or horses. She says the words, it is not a matter of gold or horses. This is blood magic, lady. Only death may pay for life. Dani asks if golden horses will pay for this.

And she said, it's not a matter of gold or horses. So I disagree. Danny then took it after that just because they cut the horse like that was part of the ritual that was not the payment for the ritual that is on Daenerys there and I would have been fooled too for I'm also a 14 year old girl basically. I think if as a 14 year old girl, I would have definitely been like, so harsh. But I mean, she knows, she knows it also included the human life, right? Because she talks about Quora and Kotho. But I don't know if I would have thought it was my son,

but I guess, you know. Yeah, I mean, the thing is, is like, I would like to know what I was paying for. Yeah, you should like put those terms up front, right? Don't just give me the bill and be like, we added a service fee at the end, you know? Tell me up front. It's like an extortion of medical care, right?

It's just like medical care in America. Like you go to the hospital, they're not gonna come to you with your tab and say, this is where you're at tonight. Is there any way you wanna hold your kidney in your stomach while you hobble down the street and leave? Otherwise we're going to charge you another $40,000 tonight.

Thanks. Like they don't do that. They just charge you and then you're left with crippling debt, which is kind of what Danny's doing here, right? Like she didn't get an invoice upfront. She now is just charged with crippling grief. It's fun. But I mean, if you think about it though, is it also analogous to the American healthcare system? You give birth,

whether the baby's alive or not, then you're charged with a crippling debt. It's like the same. It's the same. It's the same. It's the same. It's the same. It's the same. Don't they see? Don't they see? It's the same. US healthcare and baby and birthing, it's the same. Okay. What magic? Kind of. I mean, like, maybe a better choice. So, after you and I just said we would not pick the water bath, hilarious. Okay. Miriam Mazdor says she will take Dani to Drogo, and Dani realizes that, oh, she's physically weaker than she thought. Jorah helps her stand and says, there's time enough for this later, but no, she wants to see Drogo now.

There's this line of the sun burning like molten gold, and it's so sad because it's like a piece of her story of a game of thrones, right? Like she's picking out the color from her brother's molten crown. She thinks it's molten gold because the memory is coming from her brother melting away. Like everything she's thinking is just wrapped in layers of grief. Flashes of her trauma are playing out in everything she's seeing right now, whether she wants them to be there or not, right? Viserys is there whether invited or not. Your trauma doesn't make you who you are, but it's like, it's part of her and her story. It's the baggage you take everywhere with you.

Yeah. Anyways, I also like that they pointed out that there's the glare of the sun on the sand, and I'm like thinking, oh, is that something we'll see her notice one day, the glare of sun on snow, because I've heard about that happen. I mean like I've seen it happening right but I know more about it happening when people talk about themselves going snowboarding or skiing which I've never done. Yeah the light on snow is nice but you know what's better than the light on snow? No. Is the dark on snow? Like I love when it's snowed but it's dark and like first snow

and it's like super sharp and your nostrils get like icy a little bit but the feeling of like when you breathe it's super clean and the smell is like weird and nothing but wonderful and sharp and it hurts your nose but it feels great and then everything sparkles a little bit under the moonlight. Yeah yeah yeah and you keep that sunburn from snow. That's what I've heard too. Oh, I didn't know that. That's the reflection, huh? The reflection is so strong that you could get, and much closer, right? That you could get. That makes sense. That makes a lot of sense, actually. Wow. The more you know. Yeah, truly. You're learning a lot today, everyone, from our podcast. Um. You're welcome.

Hahahaha. A crowd gathers to watch her, and she sees women and old men going about their work beyond. Maybe a hundred people. No more than that. All the other 40,000 are gone. She whispers that the Call of Sare is gone, and Jogo reminds her that the Dothraki only fall this strong, and a Call who cannot ride is no call. Jorah says that he's sorry there was no way for him to hold them when Kopono named himself a call and took followers with him.

Jaco was the next to do the same. The rest slipped away into the night, and now there are a dozen new Kallisaras where once there was only one big one, Drogo's. Ago says that the old remain, the frightened, the weak, the sick, and, he says, we who swore, we remain. I do love that because, Dune, only I shall remain when everything else is gone. A little bit of that. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

I like the we remain. There's something really poetic about it. You were talking about the poetry and the language in Dani's chapters. That's one of that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I like the we remain. There's something really poetic about it. You were talking about the poetry and the language in Dani's chapters. That's one of them. The comfort, right? Like it makes being alone comforting. Yeah. Or, I don't know, even it kind of feels like we remember, you know, the North remembers,

but we remain. And when can a man be brave? Yeah. And also, the people who do remain make me think a little bit of like, you know, and we're about to be maybe a little insufferable next book, talking about denarius and Jesus, whatever. But this hymn from Joseph Hart. Next chapter even, I don't know what you mean about this next book. That's true. You're right. We're about to go so hard on this. It's fine. Solar power by Lord. She's kind of like a prettier Jesus, you know?

I mean, I don't know. Jesus could have been pretty, who knows? He wasn't white, though. Everyone listen. Jesus was a brown man. Anyways, this hymn by Joseph Hart goes, Come ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore. And that's, I think, a lot of what weak and wounded, sick and sore. And that's, I think, a lot of what we're told Jesus was about in the New Testament, you know, that's who he hung out with. No, I'm being serious. That's what it's supposed to be. And then also makes me even think of like what's written on the Statue of Liberty, right? Of give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. And that very much, I think, sounds a lot like the trajectory of Daenerys' storyline. Because as Sher Horowitz once said, it does not say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty.

Yes! Just thought it had a third piece of poetry, you know? Mm-hmm. Agreed. Great callouts. Daenerys is Jesus. So the other cows- And the Statue Cal's- And the Statue of Liberty. And the Statue of Liberty. And Shere Horowitz. Silver Lady Liberty, yes. And Shere Horowitz. They took Drogo's herds, many slaves, Eroae included. Mago was

now Caljoko's blood rider, and he had seized Eroae, raped her, and given her to his Kal, who then gave her to the Kal's six blood riders. Afterwards, they slit her throat. Ashes in your mouth, right? Like that's gotta really be terrible. Terrible. Just fuckin' horrible. And then, of course, Ago tells Dani that it was Eroë's fate, to which Dany thinks if I look back I am lost. But Dany says it's not so cruel as Mago's fate will be. I promise you that, by the old gods and the new, by the lamb god and the horse god and every god that lives, I swear it by the mother of mountains and the womb of the world, before

I am done with them, Mago and Kojako will plead for the mercy they showed Erewe." When will George give me this? You know, Eliana, George will give you this when the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, when the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like Lee. No? Does it not lead on here? No, no it's not. But also like, I just want to know what it entails because I feel like burning, like burning's still just too much more merciful than what- Charter!

It's just more merciful than what Ero A received, right? So what does it entail? That's it. Can't wait. Can't wait to see it. I hope it's cruel. The Dothraki exchange glances and Eerie advises that Jaco is now a Kal, riding 20,000 strong, but Dany is a third different, scarier thing. The dragon. I am Daenerys Stormborn, Daenerys of House Targaryen, of the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel, and old Valyria before them. I am the dragon's daughter and I swear to you, these men will die screaming, now bring me to Cal Drogo."

And so they do. Drogo is despondent in the sun. He seems to like the warmth, they say, and he follows the sun with his eyes, but he can't see it. He can walk, ish, if you lead him. He'll eat if you feed him. Drink if you dribble water down his lips." Very interesting that he likes the warmth, though, when we have like the whites and the cold animated by ice. Something to think about. The way he's described though, what he can do, it's something that George has explored a lot in some of his other short stories that you and I have even discussed, particularly like the empty corpses in the corpse handlers and stuff in

Meat House Man and you know, Drogo's like a doll ring. Yo, baby born. I was thinking of those a little. Yeah. Oh my god that is the song. Because they can pee, they can shit. That's literally like they can literally pee and poop. They can't walk, you walk them. But like you know they can do all this stuff, you have to take care of them like they're real, but there's nothing there. It's sad. It's over. So Dani, taking that in, and she addresses Miriam Asdur and says that her spells are costly. And Miriam Asdur says, well he lives, you paid for life. Here he is. And Dani's like, this isn't life. Drogo's life was laughter. It was roasting meat on a spit, a horse between his legs, and a rock in his hands, bells ringing in his hair. His

life was his blood riders and Dani and their son together someday." Oh, I like that Mirima's door has no answer for Daenerys when she says all this because she knows that Dani was saying like, she knows all that is true. She even like echoes that later on. And it makes me even think again of like Catlin, who's now Lady Stoneheart, right? Like she lives in quotes, but what is life without her family, right? Without the people she loves, without joy. And it's like what you were saying with Baric too, like perhaps Catlin was dying before that knife ever touched her throat. I take no joy in mead or mead.

Broken man shit. Yeah. And then we get… iconic lines. When will he be as he was? When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again and you bear a living child, Then he will return and not before."

I gave her a voice like that because I think I'm gonna sound more or less the same at 40. That's like in two days, I'm just kidding. I know, I know. 200 years, 200 years. I'm not a Taurus. So old. You're literally so old. That was not recommended. I'm not a Taurus. So old. You're literally so old. That was not recommended. I'm not a Taurus.

Of course, I would be remiss if I did not relate this a bit to some William Shakespeare. Have you heard of him? Have you ever read me? Shakespeare? I don't know. You're not supposed to read him. You're supposed to watch him. That's my strongest take. That's so real, but we're going to read him right now because you can't watch him. Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love. Reminds me a little bit of that. And then also reminds me of WH Auden's funeral blues and the verse that is is the two verses I should say. He was my north, my south, my east, my west, my working week and my Sunday rest.

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song. I thought that love would last forever. I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now. Put out every one. Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun. Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood, for nothing now can ever come to any good."

Wow. That feels like this chapter. I would not be surprised if you hit one of the- something George is pulling from. I think the whole chapter he's pulling from so much poetry, I mean. Yeah. I bet that bitch gets so sad and he just reads poems when he needs to be inspired to write something really devastating. Okay, so here's a thing that I feel, and you know what, maybe I'm gonna be fucking

wrong one day, who knows. People take what Miriam Mazdor says here as a prophecy and they're like, oh okay, so this means, you know, that things are gonna change, blah blah blah, in regards to Khal Drogo, or I don't know, they're all like, well, this doesn't mean anything because, like, look, Daenerys is able to conceive, right, as we see her have a miscarriage in a Dance with Dragons. And we'll probably revisit- I'll probably go on this exact same diatribe again in a Dance with Dragons because I feel so passionately about it. Your womb quickening does not mean the same thing as the ability to become pregnant, right?

Bearing a living child is also not the same as your womb quickening, nor is it the same as being able to become pregnant, because if you can miscarry, that does not mean that your womb has quickened. And if you miscarry, it definitely does not fucking mean you can bear a living child. If anything, it means, oh, you did the opposite of that, right? For your womb to quicken, quicken has a specific meaning. It's when you feel the baby. It is a specific point in the development of pregnancy, right? And so what Miri Mazdor is saying here is a very elaborate, fuck you. I do not interpret it as a prophecy and Daenerys miscarrying, if anything, continues to prove how strong that fuck you is. That's it. Yeah, absolutely agree. No, you're on the money there. Like, it is not a clever prophetic poem from Miri.

It is a middle finger up, fuck you, bitch. You're not getting a baby ever again, except she's pregnant with three of them right now. Yeah. I think that, you know, her miscarrying doesn't mean that, oh, okay, like, it's breaking, she's actually able to carry a child, and that she will have one later on. It's, uh, as Danny says, it's, um, and that's important for her character development spurs her in the same way as John Coddington being like, Oh, fuck, I got grayscale, right? Daenerys being like, these are the only children I will ever have. Okay, so now what do you do with that? Yeah, she clings to it. Mm hmm. Daenerys gestures for Jorah and the others to leave them be to talk.

She then accuses Meeri of knowing that she was sold a lemon of a blood magic spell, and that Meeri had known the price, yet let Dany pay it. Meeri obviously doesn't deny that. She says they angered the great shepherd by burning her temple. Dani then accuses her of cheating her and murdering her child. Honestly, I probably should have put this in the last chapter, but whatever. We talked about a lot of things. I think that the reason Miri Mazdor, I touched on this two chapters ago, does actually perform healing on Drogo is partially like shock of the moment.

She doesn't realize the loss that she's feeling yet, right? She's not feeling that vengeance until she has let the grief rotten her, which makes sense, right? When you think about the stages, the depression, then the anger and the bargaining, and sometimes the anger is later on when we're talking about the grief cycle. But I think part of why she actually does do it is because she was in the temple of the great shepherd. And I think maybe she felt bound by some sort of religious oaths to perform that healing duty while in the house of the Great Shepherd, that temple, and that's why it's only later that she seizes her chance. But I don't know.

LS. Interesting. Oh, that's really interesting. Yeah, I think you're, I do think that like, she seems to really, really respect the Great Shepherd and her religion. That's something I think we pointed out earlier on when we got to her in the Lazarine chapter. She very much is embracing those things

and those superstitions, so. Absolutely. Mirri tells Dani, the stallion who mounts the world will now never burn cities or trample nations into dust. Dany is anguished and kind of flabbergasted. She says, I saved you, I spoke for you, and the Lazarine woman spits at her and says, I've been raped by three riders, the fourth was inside me by the time you rode past.

She says that she watched her god's house burn. She watched her home burn She saw the piles of heads in the streets from the baker who baked her bread from a boy She had once saved from a fever. Tell me again what you saved. She says to Danny It's like you said Eliana a life right like she was living before and now she has nothing her world was taken away living before, and now she has nothing, her world was taken away. Dani says that she had saved Miri's life, and Miri laughs cruelly telling her to look to her Cal and see what life is worth when all the rest is gone. I threw that quote in there just because we've come back to it a lot throughout our coverage in this podcast, and I do strongly believe it's one of the theses of the whole series. And I do think that there's, you know, I don't think Miri was necessarily wrong for feeling

what she did and for doing what she did. I don't think that... I think it's a question that the series raises, and I think it's on us as the readers to all come to our interpretation and think and feel however we do about it, but also I would say that there's an argument to be made of the series wants to explore that there is a life after what does rebirth look like and we discuss it through characters like the Hound, right? Things like that. So, that's all.

And I think that theme is so recurrent, right, when you get to Quentin in dance. Obviously you have Quentin, you know, men's lives have meaning, not their death. The repeated theme throughout all of this. Dani calls out to have Miri Mezdur locked the fuck up, and Miri smiles as she's taken away, what a great late act villain. And Dani thinks she could have her head off with a word, but what would that give her? A head? She thinks if life was worthless, what was death?

Mm. Mm. Thank you for including that. They lead Drogo. Yeah, absolutely. That feels important here. It ties to what you just said, right? About the Quentin shit. Big themes. Big theme. I'm getting paid by big theme, man. I'm in the pockets of big themes and I love it. They come with their dump trucks of nothing.

Nobody. Nothing but eighth grade book reports in my yard. I was thinking that too. Oh god. They're all walking by and I'm just like shoveling through eighth grade book reports. We're fertilizing it with all these biodegradable eighth grade book reports. Do they even- they don't even print that out anymore. You just send it. No, they just vape their book reports now. Do they? No, please no. Substance... Children, leave the substances for later.

It's like... Put the elf bars down. Okay. They lead Drogo to the tent, and Dany commands they fill a bath for him, and she bathes him herself. When she's done, it's night, and she's exhausted.

She stops for a fig and some water. We have the line, sleep would have been a release, but she had slept enough. Too long, in truth, to sleep her chance to dream, yada yada yada. Billy S. Billy S-lish. Billy-es-lish. Billy-es-lish, get away. She thinks she owes this knight to Drogo and she reminisces on their very first ride. She tells herself there are powers that are stronger than hatred, spells older than any spell, Mirri learned in a shy. Overhead, a million stars burn bright and she takes that for an omen. Yeah, interestingly, no moon in the sky tonight. It's busy, like, I don't know, hatching shit. Or being here, here, with us, in this chapter.

Um. It's pregnant. It's on leave. Yeah. I love this line. She owed this night to Drogo for all the nights that had been, and yet might be. Sorry, it's so heartbreaking. I'm like holding back tears. I'm like, this chapter. And she's just 14. What have you all done lately?

She's just a girl! Her thoughts are poetry and what am I? I'm in corporate America. I hate it here. I don't know. Such a good line. Ugh. Heartbreaking. The chapter starts, right, with the past meeting the present through that dream and therefore also even the future, but this single one, this single night she's dedicating to him and not only that, it also muses upon this idea of powers stronger than hatred. She has, she's like, I have to believe that powers stronger than hatred exist and you know the implication is that it's love, the love that she has for Drogo.

And I, on one hand that's beautiful, encouraging, empowering, but on the other hand I think she is right that love can be a stronger force than hatred, but that does not necessarily mean that it is necessarily a positive force all the time and that the books want to explore that, right? Love is poison. Love is the death of duty. Love leads you to sacrificing a bunch of people to keep your corpse queen alive. Love is paying your son's life for this sliver of your husband's. STACEY Love is sweet, but it can't change human nature. Yeah, but maybe it can.

Okay, there's also the aspect of the series that is explored that maybe it fucking could. We will get to that with Tyrion. Yeah. What if love and hate could mate, right? And ice and fire and the entire fucking Kranog speech and harvest. I do think Dani's storyline is also exploring could love change a man's nature and that's what she's yearning for as we see in that dream earlier. Poor girl.

Dang. God, she knows how to yearn. She so knows how to yearn. We really see that here. Yeah. I mean, no, literally, like, I'm not going to cry about the child bride marriage thing going on, you know, like, it's really hard, because I'm like, Georgie wrote this all very romantically.

Yeah. Very hard, but, like, literally, all the line about power is stronger than hatred, like, there's still love in the world, things are still beautiful, that she can comprehend that right now. Incredible. And like, this part, and the sweetness and tenderness behind all of this I think a lot of people have talked like about her dressing him and everything and like hoping maybe he could come back to life In this moment, but I feel like she already knew and that she knows she's dressing him for his funeral in this moment Like it feels very intentionally choice that she's like she's dressing him in the clothes

Like she knows it's over. Like there's no... Yeah. It's also, Chloe's being censored right now by my internet. It's bullshit. And what you said just now made me realize it's, it doesn't happen to everyone, but there's an aspect in which if both you and your partner get old enough,

one of you may reach a point, right? Like maybe both of you will like lose all of your physical ability, but one of you may reach a point, right? Like, maybe both of you will, like, lose all of your physical ability, but one of you may reach a point where you are dressing your partner, you are helping them bathe, you are, like, doing their hair, like that. They're reenacting, you know, what a night would be between the two of them far, far into the future if they reached that age. It reminds me of the Doctor Who story I've told you about. The girl who waited and like, living out somebody's life in one day, right? Like she's living out the years to come, the years they'll never have together.

In one day, dressing him. Yeah. It's like a cat that I used to love that passed away and I had to put him down Like I gave him like the best last night, right? Like I fed him like the best food I took care of him sweetly like this is a kindness what she's doing and this is putting him to bed as the warrior He was supposed to be put to bed as right respected it does make me think of cat and Ned right with the bones and like wanting his bones back and It does make me think of Cat and Ned, right, with the bones and like wanting his bones back and, you know, the idea of his when the girls burst out sobbing, like now he won't go to the to ride in the nightlands, you know, like she understands culturally this is a very important thing for Drogo.

I mean, this is the literal manifestation of what would I what can I do with a skull? Yeah, what can I do with bones? Take it to bed? Yeah. What can I do with a skull? What can I do with bones? Take it to bed? Yeah. Well, we end Danny Nine with... Remember my sun and stars.

Remember and come back to me. The birth had left her too raw and torn to take him inside of her as she would have wanted. But Daria had taught her other ways. Danny used her hands, her mouth, her breasts. She raked him with her nails and covered him with kisses and whispered and prayed and told him stories. By the end she had bathed him with her tears, yet Drogo did not feel or speak or rise. And when the bleak dawn broke over an empty horizon, Dany knew that he was truly lost to her.

When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, when the seas go dry, mountains blow in the wind like leaves, when my womb quickens again and I bear a living child, then you will return my sun and stars, and not before. Never, the darkness cried. Never, never, never. Inside the tent, Dani found a cushion, soft silk stuffed with feathers. She clutched it to her breasts as she walked back out to Drogo, to her sun and stars. If I look back, I'm lost. It hurt even to walk, and she wanted to sleep to sleep and not to dream. She knelt, kissed Drogo on the lips, and pressed the cushion down across his face. Whew.

That's a tough one. Yeah. Maybe, maybe it's good. Maybe it's good that I was big, Sam. We can bring it. I was like, we'll use it. We. Maybe it's good. Maybe it's good that I was big sad. We can bring it. I was like, we'll use it. We'll use it in our arts. Bafta for us.

Bafta. Bafta. Real feelings. Real sadness. Uh, rough. 14. She had to do that at 14. Damn.

Yeah. I just can't even, like, fathom it. I can't even fathom it. She had to do that at 14. Damn. Yeah. I just can't even like fathom it. I can't even fathom it. It's terrible. It's- it's a hard one, you know? Like, and you were even talking about like- we were talking about like living a whole life and all that shit and... She doesn't even make the like call of like, you know, let's end life support now. She has to actually fucking to hold it there, like it doesn't go into it, but that's, that's also a very visceral and physical thing, because you would feel the body, it thrashes, like, I assume his does, but you know, like

instinctively, you know? It has all those other life functions, the body just does that twitching and does so anyway. Yeah, that's putting yourself through that part. That's so hard. That's so... props to that girl. She's strong. How not? How fucking not, dude? She went through that, she could do anything. Yeah. Obviously, you need to read Daughter of Death because you can read more about Hamlet and Dani and this episode is riddled with Hamlet between the margins. Highly recommend you read and expert talk about it. But I see Dani Nine paired very strongly with parallels to The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, the structure of the poem as well as the major themes of the poem, like grief, despair from loss, finality of death, and to my friends that have read

Sunrise on the Reaping, I'm very Sunrise on the Reaping-pilled and that poem features in it. No spoilers, Eliana, so it is prominent in my mind. I was just like, I don't know what, I've been staring at this acronym like, what the? What does this mean? Sotter. That's Sotter, baby. What does it mean?

And then you said Sotter, and I was like, oh, sunrise in the- You've had T-Boss ass, but now you get Sotter. I was like, ah, Skywalker of the Brides. Yes, Skywalker. Just read, reversing it. Ah, flip your thing down, flip it, reverse it. The speaker and subject of the poem, if you're unfamiliar with this indie poem from Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven.

The Baltimore Ravens. Name five of his albums. Actually that is why it's named. They are named The Ravens, I think. I think it is actually Poe inspired. So the subject of the poem, if you've never read this indie little diddy called the Raven, starts the poem... You've never read it. Oh god, get ready, buckle up.

He starts the poem, weak and weary, falling asleep, reading a book of forgotten lore. The World of Ice and Fire? Yeah, he's reading a book of forgotten lore." He then connects that to... The World of Ice and Fire? Yeah, he's reading the World of Ice and Fire. He's reading Signs of Importance. He's reading Fire and Blood. Oh my god, Blood and Fire. He has it. Oh my gosh, he has it! The Speaker desires to bring back his love from the dead with the book.

That's Lenore, his love. He's awakened by a knock at the door, but when he opens the door he is greeted only with darkness and supernatural dread. He echoes back at the darkness asking if it's his lost love, and then there's a tap at his window. He opens that and in enters the Raven, a house guest that will not leave. He tries to learn more about this bird, and he questions why it's here and if it's Lenore, basically, but the Raven only responds nevermore, sitting atop the bust of Athena. He asks the bird when he'll get Lenore back, but the bird responds nevermore. The subject tries to

understand was the bird sent by angels or maybe by the devil, and he tries to really come between the meaning from the bird of like Do you mean I will get my love back or do you mean I'm never gonna get my love back? And so he's struggling between what he should do if he's doomed for trying to get her back or doomed if he doesn't try To get her back. He shouts at the bird telling it to leave him alone in his misery Let him be in his loneliness to mourn Lenore, where he could stay with the memory that's making his life horrible, rejecting that he should accept Lenore's fate. The speaker wants to move on and not feel the pain anymore, but the raven just lives on that

statue evermore, symbolically showing there's no escape from the eternal agony and grief of this loss. And then that's kind of mirrored in the last verse for the struggle of living, of choosing life over death. And the lamplight o'er him, streaming, throws his shadow on the floor, and my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted nevermore." So we open the chapter with wings shadowed her fever dreams, not unlike the Raven shadowing the Speaker, and the chapter gives us a few similar beats, right? Dani is beginning to wrap her head around blood magic in these

chapters, the Speaker reading the Book of Forgotten Lore to bring his loved one back. The Raven is almost like Mirri Mazdur, right? And this reminder of everything that she's lost. Drogo, Rago, Viserys, her family, her home. Haunting her like the Raven haunts Po's speaker in Never... in the Raven. Like Mirri says, then he will return, not before. You could replace that with nevermore. Really, right? Then he will return, not before. You could replace that with never more. Really, right?

Then he will return, not before, never more. Or when the darkness speaks to her, saying never, never, never, never more. Throughout these chapters, Dani has asked, how can I pay for Drogo's life? Can I pay for Drogo's life? What is the cost? And the Raven is the question of... I mean, well, the Raven is a question, right? Is the Raven real? Is the Raven who's haunting the Speaker real, saying never more? Or is the grief and the loss real? The grief and the loss and the memory of

all of this loss is what's real. That's what the Speaker realizes is real, and that's what it feels is real. And this is a lot of what Dani has to go through in this chapter to understand if it's time for Drogo to leave her. If she should wait, if she should try to bring him back, if it's worth trying to bring him back. But she's learned he won't. Never more. And she has to say goodbye to him. It's pretty devastating and I really like, you know, the way that you've tied it to that. There's a hauntingness too, like as you said, and there's an otherworldly aspect of like, you should not have done this and the Raven... Mm, opening the window, opening the door,

can't unring the bells. Yeah, kind of being like, you can't, yeah, you can't, it's not happening and it's maddening, right? I think grief is maddening. Absolutely. Yeah, grief is madness. Like when they say Targaryen madness, I'm like, that's Targaryen grief most of the time. Yeah, it feels like fucking going crazy, absolutely. And that it follows her throughout this. Of course she thinks if I look back, then I am lost. If she sits in her grief, that's fucking it. The Raven's gonna come for her. And it's a bummer because if the speaker had just been with the Raven during the right moments, the narrator would have heard it going, corn, corn instead. Um, and maybe that would have saved it. You know, I was just making stupid jokes about Janira Mormont's Raven.

Sorry. Nevermore. Yeah. Um, I do think that there, you know, I do think that you can see at ground post stuff sometimes in, in Georgia stuff. Like as you're saying here, I sometimes like Scepta Lenore, Scepta Lamore. Yes. Or even like, honestly, the shit about Annabelle Lee

kind of feels a little like the story that they tell about Ashara in a tower, like jumping, I don't know, sad shit, sad girl shits. But not the girl being sad, cause she's dead being sad about the girl because a girl in Poe is a little weird about that. Yeah, definitely sad about the girl. Or even like burying people alive. Um, Taiwan coated. They do channel that a little in the show with what they do in Zaro. Yeah. Because they never bring him back. Anyways, something that I've realized in later thoughts

about this chapter and Drogo not coming back to life is how it will impact Daenerys' story, especially with her encounters with Jon, right? Because she's now got a very personal encounter with resurrection and seeing what life is not and she's gonna play a pretty big role in ending the practice of the others. Ending them wants to stop what they were doing because it's kind of similar to the practice of maybe what Miriam Mazdour did to her husband, right? This is an abomination. And it very much intersects with also her storyline around slavery, the use of bodies. And it kind of makes me wonder if Daenerys might even be the one who uncovers like the price that was

paid in order to create the wights because she also partook in such a ceremony herself. Oh. Yeah. Like the magic is, it's open now. It was trickling before about the faucet is full stream. Yeah like because she has done it in one version of what it takes to make a white will she be the one to piece together how the others did it and like what sort of you know what sort of heinous like price and what what. Yeah like that what they wanted was like very rooted in I I mean it might have even been rooted in love, you know? Second son shit. Um, most importantly, I think it would mingle with like the human heart and conflict with itself because, and I think I touched on this in that Not A Cast episode back then, but

I, I think it's really important to understand how this moment will color Daenerys' exchanges with Jon because initially like, you know, I don't think she's going to know that he's resurrected. It's not just like how you open up with people. You go, hi, you know, I'm Eliana. Um, my, you know, I like this thing. I grew up here. And also I died and was resurrected. Not usually how people open about themselves. And I think when she learns it would absolutely cause a rift between them, because John has consciousness that defies what Daenerys knows resurrection should look like. She knows that there's a price, and she has been told that resurrection, the way that she wanted for

Drogo, is impossible. So how come John gets to defy that? She might even demand to know what the price of his rebirth was. And I kind of wonder if she will like, maybe even resent for a little bit. Like, why did you get to live, John? Why did you survive and live? I was gonna say resentment. Yeah, and why not my sun and stars? Why did I have to suffer all this? What makes you different? And I could not have all the things that I wanted. And that won't be like the last resentment, right? Because the other resentments will grow too when it turns out they would rather have a bastard boy. Yeah, like why does John get to do all this? Why does John get it? And I...

Why did I have to be unhappy? And not just that, but like the... the obsession too. Like I think there will be a mounting obsession for her with necromancy and with magic, and I wonder if that will rub the wrong way for Jon too. Like there's a lot at play that's like a stirred pot here of like, Dani, why are you so obsessed with the magic of it though? I mean she's not the only queen getting a little into resurrection, you know? Right, Cersei. I mean we've had a Cersei reference or two in this chapter already with the moth, so I mean, moth to the flame.

Part of the resurrection of Gregor, right, is providing protection for Cersei. That's part of, that's a non-zero amount of Daenerys' incentive in wanting Drogo to stay alive. Security. Yeah. So why- Security, love, safety, home. Exactly.

I don't know. I think, I think it's's gonna play just a really, really big part in Daenerys and Jon's relationship. And also another part, you know, is she might be like, do I just have a type when it comes to men and why is it dead men? But yeah, I think it's gonna play a big role in reviving Daenerys' grief that she has never given herself time to really sit with

Rue Jon He's gonna be really interesting for her emotions and her purity. Yeah. Yeah, I can't wait Yeah, they're gonna really spur each other in a lot of different ways. Like I really see it. Yeah, so complex. I love it Oh my god Can you wait till those chapters and we get to read those together and my Jon voice at your Danny voice at a passage together? Like speaking at each other? Oh, that's right.

Yeah, that's right. The Jon voice comes back. Wow. Can't wait for T-Wow. It's also like hard because like, I don't even know if we're going to get it. This won't be Winds of Winter stuff, right? Like because George just told us- This will be Ados, so yeah.

Yeah, George just told us Shant will be Adas, so yeah. Yeah, George just told us she and Tyrion might not even intersect till end of Wind, so it has to be a dream of spring. She's not even landing till the end of Tiwau. Like, let's be real. Uh. Uh.

I can't believe we're gonna get five more books. We have to wait so long for the Danny, John stuff. Sorry. It's gonna be three trilogies in total. And then we will get- It's gonna be three trilogies total. It's gonna be three trilogies. Like, I don't... There's gonna be one more. David and Dan fucked me on the, like, enemies and rivals to lovers arc for them!

Sorry. Ugh. And vice- and it- yeah. It's gun- it's real! It would happen! It has to be that kind of dynamic, you know? Where they're like, we disagree, but we respect each other just anyways yeah because of sex well basically she's falling in love with I don't know Ned too yeah yeah no

but that's what we are just kidding yeah the other brother she was meant to marry yeah that's true and then it's like 100 years of solitude and then they're all like, that was weird. Why? Yeah, we're gonna reread that shit. Get ready. Uh, thank you so much for listening to Danny 9. We will be back to close out a Game of Thrones next week. Very excited. So be there or be blood sacrifice in a ritual to bring back dragons. What? I don't make the rules of blood sacrifice. Don't look at me like that, Eliana.

Apparently none of us make the rules. Maybe we don't even know the rules, but maybe you, dear listener, do. Who knows? Yeah. Um, if you want to, if you want to pay the price with us, different price, iron price? I don't know. You can by following us on social media at girlsgoncanon.com. That's C-A-N-O-N over on Twitter or Blue Sky, or perhaps you have thoughts for us that we

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Quack! I don't know. I have no good thoughts. This was just Big Sad. Just Sad. She's just a girl! This episode sponsored by Big Sad and Big Eames. When all the rest is gone. You've got to set yourself on fire. Goodbye. Yo!

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