Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 258 — ASOS Daenerys II

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

Daenerys arrives in Astapor and learns the true cost of the Unsullied. Check out Pim Wangtechawat's book, The Moon Represents My Heart: https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/products/book-gm7e ----- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song of Ice and Fire, Episode 258, Denary's Two in a Storm of Swords. I am one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. And for a brief moment there, I definitely forgot who I was. Oh, that happens to me at least once a month. At least once a month while we do this. I'm like, you look at me sometimes right as we hit record and I go, wait, this is where

I say something. Yeah. I'm like, this is where I say my name and I have to be like, don't say Chloe, don't say Chloe. My name is not Chloe. I'm not, I'm not Red Flee. We have done that before. I'm not Brown Flee.

Oh my God. Maybe I'm, what is it? There's something rat, stinky rat or some shit. Yeah. Maybe that was me. Brown flea. Oh my god. Maybe I'm what is it there's something bad. Stinky rat or some shit. Yeah, either stinky rat also like real vibes you are Bell was sitting on the pier just eaten. Well, we have a lot going on in Danny two and coming up after this right before we jump into Danny two. Let's talk about our Patreon episode this month. If you

are a Patreon member of the Stranger Tier and above, at patreon.com slash girls gone cannon, you will get a special bonus episode this month and every single month. That's right, we put out an episode of bonus content just for you. So this month will be part two of Catching Fire from our Hunger Games series and part one with our friend Ara, i.e. Zebra, was excellent and we can't can't not have her because as you can all expect we split the episode in half so she will be coming back to finish it. Yes. You will get that by end of March. Oh my god. I'm gonna make that joke every single time. I say it like every single time I think, but it's just too perfect. And yes, also, tomorrow, if you are in the public listening to this episode, we will have our Patreon brunch slash happy hour.

That's available on our Discord for patrons in the Thunder tier and above, And yeah, we get on and we chat and it's a good time. That's from 2 to 4pm ET. Yes, Eliana time. July 19. Yeah. In case anyone was unsure what I meant by tomorrow. Thank you to all the historians tracking this. Next week, something different is coming to you. To your ears. Something is going to be very different that you will be hearing because Girls Gone Cannon

will be explaining it all in your ears. We are gonna, GGC explains it all. We're gonna answer questions and comments and emails and anything that we haven't really gotten the time to take a bite into. Everybody sends us such awesome stuff. It's not always just animal pictures. Sometimes you guys send us some really beautiful stuff written about the story and how you relate to it through your view or some of the questions you have or sometimes some of the theories that you have and we are gonna read, react, chat, and see where it goes in this episode. And the biggest reason why we're putting this episode out

and why you will not be getting Danny 3 is because we are waiting for our friend, our guest to come on for Danny 3. Yes, we have a very exciting guest for Danny 3. We are, however, you know, we are coordinating schedules. I'm super excited for this guest. And this is someone that I hope to bring back on again another day to discuss a different story. But it is our friend Pym. Listen, you are all in for a treat. Pym is like so-

First of all, she has like such a good personality. You know what I mean? Like you ever meet somebody that just like is such a good, genuine person. She's so authentic and she's so talented. She is an author. She is an amazing writer. She wrote a little ditty. You should all be checking out called The Moon Represents My Heart.

It actually truly represents our heart, we would say here, But, but it's a great story. It's about a time traveling family and beautifully written and Pym's a huge Aeswaf fan. So having her on for Dani is going to be a blast. It's been a very long time cooking and coming. Yes. I'm like very excited to just have Pym on and again would love to have her on again another time. And yeah, both you and I have read The Moon Represents My Heart and it's beautiful. And I cried. I think you cried. Everybody cried. And like honestly, like part

of what's really cool about it is like P also writes poetry, so very fun format for this. Highly recommend. And I believe it's gonna be... I know. Oh, so excited. Big deal. Big deal. Yeah. So you're going to hear Pym here first before the TV show happens. And then the TV show is going to happen. You're gonna be like, oh my God, she was on an Aeswaf podcast.

I listened down. Yeah. Well, I guess it's like a may. I don't know. I don't really always know. Like I don't want to get everyone's like hopes up. Yeah. I don't know. I don't really always know. I don't want to get everyone's hopes up. Yeah, I really hope that it gets made into a phenomenal TV show, but you'll get to hear it here first, you know? Pim. She's a star. A star. We're going to link that book below.

You should look it up at Barnes & Noble. Wherever you buy a book, if you have a local bookstore, ask them to stock it. If they don't have it, you should buy that book. You gotta do it. You should absolutely, absolutely buy this book. You should read that book. It's hot out, you know, you should go like to a park with that book and you should just sit there and read it with the leaves rustling around you.

It'll do you good. There are leaves, that's so true. I know. Yeah, anyway, so we're not gonna do this emails and tweets of note portion, because as we said, we're gonna follow up on a lot of these. That means we are jumping right into our lightning round. Yeah, starting with Bran I. In the Tumbledown Tower, Bran opens his eye. I got so confused, it was like, Tumulton? Daavos too. Daavos wants to kill Melisandre, but doesn't even get the chance, thanks to Axel fucking Florin. Jamie too. At the Inn of the Kneeling Man, Jamie begins to reminisce about his years

in the Kingsguard. Tyrion too. Tyrion realizes that he has been outplayed in the city and moves to protect Shay from the Vipers. Aria too. Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie are taken to an inn with the Brotherhood. Catalin too. The Stark faction returns from warring in the west and Rob seems wiser thanks to love… perhaps.

But… but maybe… perhaps not? All will be revealed in time. John 2. John steals Ygritte the same way that she had stolen him. And more. Oh hey, I also noticed like, oh the sex chapters being right next to each other. John and Rob having sex parallel. Parallel sex.

John and Rob. That's how it happens, you know. One person's having sex somewhere in the world and someone else also having sex at the same time as them. They're linked. No way, that's impossible. That can't be real. Penetration? Parallel penetration? Someone else is also having sex at the same time. Holy shit. You've blown my mind. Not just in the orgasmic way.

I don't know what I'm saying right now. Sansa too. Sansa is having a really nice day for once and she gets a new dress. Jesus Christ. What do you think the last lightning round is gonna be? Oh my god, the last lightning round. The last published lightning rounds are gonna be like, it's gonna be crazy. You know what's gonna happen?

I'm gonna get really, we're gonna be really unhinged when we get to Tyrion. In the middle of the last lightning round, all of a sudden a press release is gonna drop and they're gonna say the winds of winter is fucking ready. Look under your chair. That's what's gonna happen. And you will find Arya 3. Hot Pie starts his career as a baker. Arya tries to escape the Brotherhood but is caught by Harwin.

Sam will won. Sam runs south from the Fist with the other survivors and slays an other. Hell yeah. I want a Sam the Slayer shirt, like in the Slayer font. Yeah, like someone should get me that. Yeah. Absolutely. But like the sword. Oh wait, remember they had the band, they called it Kingslayer, right? On one of those like Night Nights shows. That was so cute. Hell yeah. Adorable. Tyrion III. We get a major war status update and Tyrion learns that he has been volunteered, boohoo, to marry Sansa Stark. Oh no, I got the worst child bride. I know right? Child bride.

You'll take what you get and you'll like it. I know right? But he, everyone's all like, uh, but he didn't really want to, but he like, he was happy about it. Let's be, everyone, let's be so for real. We'll get there in a few months. My dick is moving. Ketelin 3, Rob gives a sentence and swings a sword.

See what I did there. Jamie 3. Jamie does some more reminiscing on his childhood romance with Cersei, and then the brave companions descend upon them and he loses his hand. Arya 4. Arya meets the ghost of High Heart. And that brings us to Daenerys 2, in a storm of swords in Astapor, where Daenerys is deciding which of her brothers she should be emulating. In the Plaza of Pride, Daenerys inspects the Unsullied near a grotesque bronze harpy fountain, the ancient symbol of Geese.

The harpy of Geese, she thinks, beginning to recall how Valyria destroyed the old empire. I love that we open with that because Danny has entered the part of the story where herstory, I mean history, is telling us that her blood, her ancestors, defeated these terrible, evil slavers that we are meeting today, and then enslaved them, destroyed their culture and religion and their language, has only survived in little bits and pieces into the high Valyrian that they speak here and asked for Yunkai and Meereen. And it is an important way to open the chapter, right? Like she ends up in Slaver's Bay trying to tear apart their entire system and economy. But also, that entire system and economy was born because of the Valyrians. Yes. Huh.

It's true. Like, I think, okay, first of all, I have many thoughts in terms of like, you know how we talk about Chalisi in terms of pronunciation. Sometimes I'm like, is it Giscari or is it Chiscari? You know, other things that I can make weirder. And I do like that it's distinguished as the Harpy of Gays versus like, there's also one that's like the Harpy of Astapor and like how it's different symbolically. And yeah.

Kind of like in a video game, like if there's like four things you have to hit, you know, four totems. Yeah, like one of them has like, the Harpy of Geese has a thunderbolt and like the Harpy of Astapor has like the chain, you know, from the Talon. So I just think that's kind of interesting that they got all those different special symbols but also like, yeah, as you were saying, like the Valyrians didn't make it better. You know, they came, as you said, they were like, wow, slavery. Here's more slavery, here's different kind of slavery, and then as you said, erase everything and... Like, the legacy of Old Geese is absolutely, and the legacy of Slaver's Bay

is the legacy of the Freehold of Valyria. Like, the slavery only became worse because of the Freehold of Valyria. The slavery only became worse because of the system that the Valyrians introduced. It does remind me of what we've done in the United States, you know, and the entire fucking world, obviously, too, of here installing our new thing that is actually the same thing, just flashier and with dragons. Well, I do like, I do think that right. And I do think that that becomes much more evident in the Mironese chapters, which we will talk about. Oh, yeah. More when we're there. Oh, yes. Which makes sense because those are those chapters. But I do think that we don't want to blow our load too early. I know we don't.

We're edging. So I'll just say that. And then just everyone can have a little suspense for funsies. You're all used to waiting and suspense. Again, that last lightning round in our very final POV reading. My clit is tingling with anticipation. What is happening? Every time any of you have sex, someone else is having sex too. My clit is tingling. This is why we have an explicit tag on Apple Podcasts.

So we can talk about Chloe's clit. The slaver, Krazenz Monaklaas, shows Dani the unsullied. He insults her in Valyrian, he calls her Westerosi whore. Unaware, actually she understands Valyrian pretty well. She also speaks it pretty decently. Also, by the way, she is Valyrian. It kind of makes you wonder how often he pulls this on people, the talking shit using the translator translator getting away with selling them. Interesting. A slave girl from Noth is translating Missandei, while Dani feigns ignorance and she's speaking only in common tongue and dothraki, which is what Jorah advised her to do. LS Yeah, every now and then I guess Jorah's got good tips. This reminds me of like, completely unrelated story. The time

that my uncle and I were like, waiting for food in sort of a food court and then two Filipino people were talking and then talking about him and be like that Japanese man there and then he comes back at them in Tagalog and is like, hey, I'm not Japanese. They were very embarrassed. I don't think they were saying anything bad really, but it was just funny. I love it. So, this chapter is introducing us to the importance of translation. I think there's a lot of really fun things going on here. And, first of all, recommendation. I assume you've all watched Shogun amongst our listeners, which does a great job of exploring this concept.

And if you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it. I just assumed there's like a big overlap between people who watch Shogun and people who listen to our podcasts, like very almost circle of diagram. So that explores this concept, but here Missandei editorializes kind of what Daenerys has said in response to Krasnis, and she gives an analysis, right, that Daenerys didn't praise the Unsullied, because she says that Daenerys is going to try to bargain, which is not at all part of what Daenerys has said. This is like, I guess, the subtext that Missandei is picking up on.

And I really love the way that comes out in different ways here. We'll talk about other moments, like in two seconds, but, you know, giving that sort of info is part of the translation and maybe even the aspect of, if you will, like localization, right? Like how do you, sometimes when you translate something, you don't do it literally because you cannot, because the concepts and the way that we understand ideas have different connotations to them. And so I think that that's very fun that she includes that context and info.

And we're also told there's an area specific slang and dialect to the kind of Valyrian that's spoken here in Old Geese or the Giscari area, Slaver's Bay, that is very specific to the slaver class. They have their own kind of slang and it very much continues this theme of understanding language and humanity and being able to understand across those barriers that began with the Dothraki arc, right? Like how we were saying it's really great that Daenerys learned Dothraki because we can see that like, Khal Drogo has this very rich way of speaking with metaphors and this very, you know, he's very articulate and it's not shown when you can't speak in your own, like in another fucking language, right? And you get to see that he's got like all these opinions and thoughts and yeah. Slaver language to the bits that survived the Valyrians and so like thinking of Aria, right?

We've covered Aria and all that we learned about bravos Thinking of now here where the Valyrians came and how like this is what's left, right? This is what they've built back up in the bits that exist in the language now like the high Valyrian spoken here has these things and then you realize that class division to the slavers and like the slavers have their own slang because they have their own club. They have their own clubhouse and Dani here. So she's been kicked out of Carth, right? She couldn't fit into Carth. She obviously can't stay where the Dothraki are. Can't stay out in the grasslands. So now she's here and even the worst people in the world are like, no, she doesn't fit in with us. She's not one of us. She doesn't

speak that language. I find that really fascinating. Also kind of dumb to be like, the girl who looks really Valyrian can't speak Valyrian. No, it's so stupid. It's literally the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Like you'd think they would be just a tiny bit smarter. And it also like, okay, I used to work retail, right? So like years of retail have also made me think about this and like Missandei's role is really interesting because I think of like how, you know, your average interaction with a retail worker,

you're not gonna be able to do anything to save their lives. They are trapped at this desk and they must do the job whether you're an asshole or whether you're great. So like Missandei has sat here, enslaved doing this job for ages. And by ages, I mean she's 11, right? So like, at least four or five years, which is ages, it's half her age. But she's done this for so long and she just knows the rules, which are, I'm going to give him a summary of what she's saying in order for him to better buy or what, you know, et cetera. Like translating for her is more than that. It's like the translators in VEEP, right? For the Chinese, it reminds me of that a bit. That's exactly what

it reminds me of when the Chinese president and his translator, he's saying different things, but the translator is like, I'm saying this instead. Yeah, and then eventually Celine is like, I know you can understand, don't fuck with me, don't play with me. She's like, make him speak English again, he's spoken to... Yeah, also when you brought up Missandei and how she's been doing this for ages, it really reminds me of like what we said during Arya's chapters, which is, I'm 11, so shut the fuck up.

You know it's good because I just like belly laughed and like threw my head back. It's a callback. You got me there. You got me there. I know. You said it like two episodes ago, like during the lightning round, and I was like, oh. It's a callback. You got me there. You got me there. I know. You said it like two episodes ago, like during the lightning round, and I was like, oh, that's right. I'm 11, so shut the fuck up.

It's the best Vine in the world. I still shout out to our friend Roland from the Discord, who knows what Vine is, but still had the fucking audacity during brunch to say, what's Vine? Just to fuck with us. What's Vine? Fuck you. Fucking 10 year old. What's Vine? Yeah, very much do not cite the deep magic to me, witch. What's Vine? Get out. You're not that young. Anyways, so... Krasnis boasts of the Unsullied's training, boys are taken at five, only one in three survives the brutal training, and the sword, spear, and shield. And I do think it's important to note that Krasnis is not actually the one who delivers this explanation.

He doesn't even say a version of it to be translated into later on. He's just like, wow, I mean like everyone knows how they're trained, duh. He's like, you just tell her, and he says to Missante, tell her what she would know, right? And it shows how much reliance there is here in regards to like that translation and sales pitch. Like how much- it's a fascinating like exploration into the way that power is structured here, right? Like obviously the slavers have much of the power and they're using it in regards to force and violence against the slaves that are there, but like there is a lot of like kind of

a foolish amount of trust, right? A foolish amount of trust that they have given these people, that they've given the slaves, and how they treat them to be like, I don't know, just tell her fucking whatever. If you cared about it that much, you wouldn't be like, tell her whatever, right? And it's like, you give the sales pitch, Missandei. The slavers can't even be bothered to come up with what to say about the training of the Insullied. We also have like some hints here that Krasnis might understand a little bit of the common tongue based on how he nods to like, what Missandei says about the training, though it could be an act, right? He might just be nodding along

being like, yes, yes, of course, she's definitely saying what I told her to say, even though that's not what's happening. But he does chime in eventually to heighten the cruelty, right, and show the intensity of the Unsullied's training. And there's something interesting in what you're saying about the elevator pitch here. These are like VPs who don't know why they're doing it anymore. They're there to see the gold stack up, right? It's all about the numbers. Every single person here is a number to them, and they're here to wait for the gold to stack up. They don't actually care what they're doing. They could do this

in any business, right? They could try to scam people. They could try to sell people. They could do this anywhere in any place. And that's like, it's kind of similar to a little place I like to call America. Sometimes I don't really like to call it at all. But it's stagnancy, right? Like you start to see like the economy like fucking like, like it's guzzled like so much. I don't know, like sticky bubble gum or something and it's all gummed up. Like why don't they care? Like they don't actually know.

They don't know how the sausage is made and they don't care. They just want the money. And it's a waste. Like all the waste they're creating is kind of incredible. Three people die for each Unsullied. Like only one in three survives. Two trainees die for every one that makes it through. A newborn for each. A dog. So much life is sacrificed and for what? What are you creating? I know there are people who have done the math on like how much it's everyone's

worth and how much the training actually costs and like what the waste, what the amount of flesh you're wasting. People have done this. I could sit down and do it if I really wanted, but like I didn't go that far today. But I mean, think of that and like the money that they get when they buy the Unsullied to sell them again, like flipping a house, you know, is how they look at it. But when they buy these young people to flip them, the money doesn't even go to their family, right? It goes to the slaver that they're buying them from, the broker in between. That's fucked. It's fucked up. Same as the baby who gets killed, right? The newborn. That goes to the slaver as well and yeah

this also like the math also includes the unsullied themselves right they do experience a death not only literally as a soldier but also in terms of the life that you're just fucking squashing and stealing like all that potential everything that they could be stolen yeah and as you said like in regards they don't even- do they know how the sausage is made? I don't know, like, he can't even be arsed to do his own fucking sales pitch, right? Like, you have one job, sir. Anyways. They stand for day- Vian Sully can stand for days without food or water if commanded. We're told, like, that they've been standing here for quite a while without food or water.

And then Krasnis explains, when 999 have collapsed to die, the last will stand still. And I feel like that means something in regards to maybe the other parts of the books and the story. And I don't know what yet, like, but like the last, the last night. The Lord Commander. Oh, I was thinking like, will it have to do with the Lord Commander? Will it have to do with also like the whites? I don't know. It's hard to examine themes when you don't have anyways.

Um, glossing over that Arstin objects with this training and he's like this is madness not courage and Krasen snarls and he's like OBEDIENCE is the Unsullied's true strength. Yeah, so Arstin aka Barrison Which you all know because this is a reread podcast Rebutts aka Barysin, which you all know, because this is a reread podcast, rebuts that because Krasnis says that such as the insolates courage or something like that, and it makes you think again, like, is it so far from madness to courage, right? Like the idea that someone would stand there, even after everything else has fallen and still fight when you think about it against, I mean, stories of like the last hero, right?

And obviously, we're gonna examine this idea of whether it's courage or not in regards to the Unsullied in a bit. The madness isn't on the part of the Unsullied, necessarily. The madness isn't the part of the people who have forced them to become like this. Yeah. them to become like this. Yeah. And we'll be coming back to this idea throughout this chapter, but there's obviously many people have discussed this about Daenerys' story and meeting new cultures as a parallel to Jon's, where he's learning to humanize the

free folk and understand that, wow, we're all the same and people have discussed this and like where it's lacking in Daenerys' story as she comes to understand the Dothraki. But the heart of seeing that other cultures are like yours for Jon is very much in this book. It happens in A Storm of Swords. And Daenerys' story, I think, runs sideways at it a bit in a different way, but similar. Like, Daenerys feels assimilated into the Dothraki culture while also being Westerosi herself. She is the one who actually gets called savage by so many of these other associate cultures as opposed to like in Westeros where they call the Free Folk savage. So Daenerys is the one who's in the position of being seen as uncivilized here, right? Like,

we've learned that the Carthians see the Dothraki as horse lords. They see her as some weird girl pet when she's there until she's like, whoops, I fucked up your big magical landmarks, sorry. And then also here with the Ysgari, they seem to see the Westerosi as backwards. They keep calling them savage. And so I love that fun reverse racism. Oh my god. But it is right like they see themselves as more civilized. They see themselves as the legacy of Valeria and then no way they are but like the worst part of it. And they see it's fun because Daenerys isn't like from anywhere, right? Like, right. She yes, Westerosi, yes, Dothraki, yes, oh, all these things, but like, she's not. She's never been and she never, she's never been any of them. She, well, I think she has and she hasn't. And that's something that I think of as interesting

in regards to Daenerys's story as like, when it comes to culture and immigration and all these other things, and Jon's story does that too. Theons as well in a different way and we've discussed it in Catlin's. But like, she is and she isn't and then also, yeah it's weird the associate like we're very... George is playing at a couple of different things here like we're supposed to I think he relies on some orientalist tropes in regards to how he paints the Giscari as so brutal, but also is trying to have them say that they see themselves as more civilized because they see themselves as like having all this wealth and money born from the slaves and sees like denieris as fucking like insipid but anyways. There's also this funny line here, it's not that funny, others may be stronger or quicker or larger than the Unsullied, some few may even equal their skill with sword and spear and shield but nowhere between the seas will you ever find any more

obedient and I think that this idea of this sort of like underdog story with the Unsullied is kind of fun to consider in the context of how Oberyn and Gregor's fight goes toward the end of the book, right? Like, I mean, Gregor is definitely stronger and bigger than Oberyn, but Oberyn gets to be quicker, has the spear, and so forth. Was that madness or was that courage? The way that he came at Gregor and fought until that last moment in order to get that sort of revenge for Elia. Yeah. I love that hint. Can't forget the kids.

Yeah, absolutely you can't. Deadass kids, fuck. Deadass. I'm not sure what you're going with deadass for. You're like, deadass, you know, like, serious. Yeah, like dead ass. God. No, also, there's something like about the northerners and Rob's army in general, too, right? Like, the obedience, like, and the every northerner being worth 10 of a normal southerner, and they kind of are in some aspects, right?

But also reminds me a little bit of like the Winter Wolves Back in the old dance of the dragons and them coming out and being like rawr Yeah, the olden days, you know, they were badass Yeah, they were. The eunuchs are naked but for loincloths and spiked bronze helms unmoving under the baking sun, Dani sees that they're of many races, some of them even Giscari. She thinks, or says, they sell even their own kind. Which obviously hits a little harder considering Illyrio Blackfire, or or whatever, sold Dany to his own kind.

Like as in- Protect one, sell the other. The Targaryens and the Blackfyre, yeah. I wasn't sure if you were saying like, Illyrio's Valyrian there for a second, I was confused. I mean, maybe, you might be. Maybe. A little, you know? Everyone's got a little Valyrian in them. Would you like a little Valyrian in you? Yeah, I don't know.

Just kidding. I mean, they do probably during- Jesus Christ. Everyone's got a little Valyrian in them. Would you like a little Valyrian in you? I don't know. Just kidding. Throbbing clay. They do probably during, Jesus Christ, during the free cities. Explicit tag. This is why we have it. You're like, how can I make a Eliana short circuit right now? It's a serious episode. We need, we're bringing,

we're making it palatable, I guess. I don't know. We are coping. This is coping. Yeah, I, that's a good point. And like, the idea of her being sold comes up again later on and it'll come up obviously during the other episodes, the other chapters. Daenerys, as she's thinking about like all their different races and even how all the eye colors look different, you know, very much Melisandre, blue eyes, whatever, finance, JK, that's not what she says. That weird thing she says to Arya that's like not in the books. Blue eyes, eyes you'll close forever. Yeah.

I'm like, oh my god. I knew where you were going. I just didn't want to interrupt you. Leave me alone. Melisandre of the show. Melisandre of the show instead of a shy. I'm obsessed with you. Obsessed with you.

Literally nobody could ever be better than you to me. Holy shit. That wasn't even like intentional. I'm just like, god damn it. You're magic. We make magic together. We make magic together. Yeah. So Daenerys thinks about how the Unsullied's eyes all look the same as though they are like one man until she remembers about their manhood and how they are all castrated. But I will say I'm intrigued by that concept of their eyes all looking the same, seeming as though they are all part of one man, right? That idea of the collective or hive mind, mostly because just like on a thematic level, I don't

actually think the Unsullied share one, but it's something that George's short stories explore a lot, like when you think about the jellies in A Song for Leah, which like I've been thinking about it lately, and there's a scene in Futurama where they have the brain eating things, and I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced that the writers of Futurama did not read A Song for Leah. Yeah. I'm not convinced either. I mean, it's sci-fi. Yeah, like I know for sure that they probably read All You Zombies by Heinlein, which inspires, I think, Fry's origin story in regards to how he's literally conceived and made. But like, I think, I'm not convinced they did not read A Song for Leia. No, and I will say like, before A Swaf 2, he was kind of a big deal for sci-fi,

right? Like, not just fantasy, he wrote sci-fi and he wrote short stories that were very popular and did get adapted into television and movies, so like, and miniseries. So realistically, yeah, I think that you're right. You're always right. He got nominated a lot. I know that he's like, I don't know how often he won based on George always being like, and I didn't win that time. So not as much as he'd want probably, but yeah, he wins in our hearts. I do like that. And I mean, the obvious comparison of the others, right? Like, the slavers being the others and the slaves being the whites, like not just an other, but the others, right? Like, the slavers being the others and the slaves being the whites. Like, not just an other, but the others, right? Like, they fit both archetypes here, and as Arstin tells her, Arstin, whatever, there have been no slaves in the Seven Kingdoms for thousands of years. The Old Gods and New Alike hold slavery to be an abomination, evil. Obviously, that's not true. Just saying like that's not true.

Like that's like saying, yeah, that's just not true. Like, of course, there's been slaves. I mean, literally, like Jorah was poaching. But those are the OG slavers, right? Like those are the proto slavers in a swath history. What do you think about it? The others? CB Yeah. LWX Yeah. I mean, who knows like how old old geese

is because I think the others are newer than I think. But yes, in Westeros for sure. And like it's funny that he's saying that the Old Gods hold it to be an abomination considering that what the others and the way that they're making the wights and doing that likely has roots in old god magic. Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. I don't know.

And to your point, like, there's always been slavers and always been slaves in all of history ever. People suck. Yeah, I agree. And that's why the others are born of peoples. And hey, in the words of Abner Marsh, fire and blood, baby. Read Fever Dream. Oh, yeah, I was like, what is she talking about?

I actually was thinking that as I was reading this chapter. I was like, I gotta read Fever Dream sometime, huh? Yup, you gotta read it before dance. I know, okay. It's not that long. I feel like I gotta read Gone with the Wind at some point. Yep. You got to read it before dance. Okay. It's not that long. I feel like I got to read Gone with the Wind at some point. Okay. I know that that'll still be there. Don't worry. I mean, Isabel, our friend, Mighty Isabel has talked about how Gone with the Wind is likely a huge influence on how George

has written Daenerys's storyline. I don't know what that means because I haven't read it. No, I see what she- I actually understand it is important to read, but fever dream first and you can read Gone with the Wind. Okay, okay, okay. Comparise! Daenerys asks, why are the Unsullied cut? And Crasnis says, whole men are strong like bulls but in discipline, whereas the Eniks are pure, loyal, and fearless.

That's a really interesting pedestal that we have placed them on with these words, but it does make me think of Arya and the Faceless Men. Mmhmm. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. That's all. It's interesting because like, it is also like, to your point, not living. No love. Yeah. The purity. I think it's very lonely. Yeah.

Or like the lack of fear that's supposed to come along with it, you know, like, coming from a heart. Because they can't stick their dick in things anymore, they now have nothing to do but be loyal. Well, that's never gonna backfire on you. Yeah. I mean... Nothing bad could come of that. Nothing bad could come of forcing people to be castrated. Nothing bad. Yeah. Not at all. And to show how nothing bad could happen from that, Krasnis demonstrates. He lashes one of the uncellied, draws blood,

and cuts off another's nipple with a sword. Like, it's so extra. The soldier does not flinch. It's so unnecessary. It is all a big show. It's all a big show. Yeah. I mean, to your, like, yeah, he didn't have the elevator pitch, but this is the elevator pitch right here. Oh my god, you're right. this is the demo. Book your demo. Schedule your demo of our product. My god. This is him showing, let me vacuum your home.

Let me bring this vacuum and clean your carpet. Well and he explains that they drink the wine of courage, poisons and drugs that numb the pain and fear over years. So like they're not fearless and painless naturally because you did these things. They're fearless and painless because you have them fucked up on a cocktail of like ketamine and like heroin and like maybe an upper

so that they can do their job. Like, like Lexapro, like. Do you have to like buy that? Buy that too when you buy all the Unsullied? I guess it's like over the years it just, I guess he's saying it seeps into them so they are trained to not feel it. I don't know. It's- Yeah like numbing everything, like cauterizing your senses almost with drugs. Right. Well, it goes back to like WAIF, right? The WAIF, or goes forward to her? Question mark, I don't know what book we're on,

but I read them book by book, I read them POV by POV, thank you very much. Sometimes Emmett will be recording it, I'll say, oh, what chapter are you doing tonight? And he'll give me kind of a quizzical look, like, oh, well, last week was ax. So next week is ax. And I'm like, I don't know how that works. Don't fucking presume with me. Yeah, it reminds me of like the wave. But of course, bravos in general,

there are people that also drink things like pain, things to take the pain away. Yeah. Yeah. Well, like, I just want to go back to what you're saying about chapter order. I mean, like, obviously, you know, the next chapter after, like, Assortment Sword Stanny 1 is Assortment Sword Stanny 2. That's how it goes. I've read these books so many times, I don't understand what everyone's upside down. What do you gotta get? Like, duh. Learn to read the books right. Then it's the storm of swords Danny 3, duh.

Yeah, and then it's Danny 4, which is wild. But yeah, as you were saying, they're completely numbed, right? And again, the only time when a man can be brave is when he is afraid. So there's a lot of contradictions going on here, right? Like there's so many, it goes to show the's a lot of contradictions going on here, right? Like there's so many, it goes to show the kind of fucking like contradictions that you have to accept when you decide that you are going to remove someone's personhood. Because earlier Krasnis was like, yeah, they're so curvaceous, they're so brave. And he's like, it's their obedience that makes them

brave. And like later on, he's like, oh, no, it's not courage. They just can't feel anything. So I'm like, so is it fucking courage or not? You have to believe crazy fucking contradictions in order to be like, this isn't a person. Yeah, really have to fucking stretch that one out to get there. And it also reminds me of the end of ACOC, right, that we just finished up. You're

welcome. I see that you smiled a little at that as you drank your water, maybe choked a little bit on ACOC. Yup. On ACOC, yup. Every time one of you chokes on ACOC, someone else is also choking on ACOC somewhereeral scent of world. Not the tingling clit of it all. It flashes me back to the Hound, right, who breaks drunkenly during – if there's anyone who could use ketamine therapy, it's that boy. Yeah, he breaks in battle drunk, right, because all he does is drink, because everything's fucking terrible and he's traumatized.

What happens when they break? When the man breaks? This is no way to treat humans. It's not. We learn worse things, but I will highlight, like, we do, we are excited about a couple things in this paragraph that I'm about to read to you all. The Unsullied don't have possessions. Boo. So everyone knows we don't like that. Boo. They have no names. Boo. But they have special name disks like, every day changes, Red Flea or Black Rat. Unfortunately, the names are to remind them that they are vermin, so booing again. To earn their spiked caps, each of them has to kill a baby before its mother's eyes and pay the owner with silver. Any who fail or refuse to strangle the puppy after a year are cold.

Black Rat, what can you say to us today? Yeah, Black Rat. Yeah, these are good band names, but now I think about it, they're just like user, they're just like generating like new screen names every day for everyone. I guess that's the principle. But there's a lot of, like, irony and there's a breakdown of the logic here as well as Krasnis discusses the benefits of castration, right? He's like, oh yeah, obviously it's like more humane because they're not tempted by anything compared to your weird celibate orders there in Westeros, like, you know, the Night's Watch and the King's Guard and there's, again, a great irony here because Barristan is the one who brings it up. He's the, he's one of those people, right, who joins such a celibate order and makes

it clear that, hey, there are other things that can tempt someone besides sex, right? Like love, maybe the love of your own father who is coming to storm King's Landing against the King and you're in a celibate order, or glory, right? Or freedom. Freedom seems like a pretty big motivation perhaps for these people, or even like revenge, revenge, when we're talking about, again, like the context of Arya. And I mean, revenge, when we're talking about, again, the context of Arya. And I mean, again, there's another interesting parallel there with the Faceless Men because, of course, they are an order that is specifically built to not only don a new name, but to don a new identity on a regular basis and requires the erasure of the self, very much like with the Unsullied.

And it's... yet we are all like, wow, faceless men, so interesting. But they're also soldiers. I'm trained to be as such. As you were saying, the waif drinks weird things. And lowkey, you guys, I'm like mad that the show, besides many other things, I'm mad that the show eliminated the last part of the training of the Unsullied in regards to the strangling of the puppies. Like they left the training at the killing of the infant.

And I think it's so significant that the Unsullied's training involves the death of the puppies. Like, it's fucked up, but like, I just think it really characterizes how cruel this has become because, like, I just, like, think it doesn't- as Krasnis points out, most of them pass the test of killing a newborn, right? Like, that's supposed to show, I guess, that they've lost all their humanity and the show just leaves it at that. But there's something especially cruel to be given something that is innocent, that relies on you to care for it, that becomes essentially like in a way your own child and that is your dog, right? That you love, it is your only comfort when you are being tortured as a child slave, and then you are forced to kill this thing that you love. Like, I think, I mean, obviously that ties into a lot of the other themes in the book

and is why it's like significant, and I just think that the show should have included it to highlight the cruelty. I mean, maybe it's like not necessary. Maybe like, it's all cruel enough. But I think like it doesn't get to the heart of like, how terrible this system has been to these people like and and destroys like their humanity and sense of like they have to know the dog for like a year. Like that's a very long time to have a companion that you then have to kill and it's not unlike like actual war and having to like kill people in war and like also yeah they should have left it in because people in America fucking love dogs dude.

I saw at least 80 dogs today on my walk to and from the dentist and like bitches love dogs in fact humans love animals more than people because humans are evil and dogs are like I can never grow up to be evil unless my owner's evil, basically. And I mean, I think that's the other part of it. Like the fact that they are so ready to to devoid them of love, to take out love, to make take a measuring glass of what a human is, right? And look at the measuring glass and take out all of that liquid that is love that creates a human and what do you get? And that's actually the big overall theme

in the story, right? Look at Tyrion. Yeah. Look at Joffrey, right? Look at these characters that you realize that they did not have a certain love. They were not given the love. You look at the Starks and you look at the very unconditional love they received, though sometimes there are still issues in the family, but they were unconditionally loved. No, they were. They were. And to do that to something that you have come to unconditionally love, these children are sharing their food, the little food that they get to keep this animal alive, you learn to become attached to it. And so you're killing all those attachments. It's so, I don't know, and it just highlights the loneliness of it.

And when it comes to Daenerys' story, which we'll talk about that quote in a second. I just think they missed the point by maybe like they thought it was too much because as you said people love their dogs like maybe they thought it was like too much to include in the show but just like it's so heartbreaking that they make the children do that like how painful for the children you know i had to yell at a dog owner today she walked by with her dog aliana and she went to get a treat out this woman did for her dog that i saw today she went to get a treat out. This woman did for her dog that I saw today. She went to get a treat out and then she's like, no, not yet. And the dog looked her and there was a halal cart across the street. The dog turned and looked at the halal cart. And I just when I was walking by, I had to scold them and say,

you owe that dog some halal cart now. I heard that she looked at me. She was kind of like, what the fuck? Felt important. it felt important. Yeah. Also for it to be strangling, that's even worse, you have to feel it. Exactly! Which is interesting considering the other characters that maybe are connected with potentially

strangling another character someday too. Yeah. Right? We have strangling in this very book actually, Shay. That's true, that's right. That's right. Yeah. Or maybe Jaime and Cersei someday. Yeah.

Who knows how that's going to go? George probably, but not us. As you said earlier, because we don't have a- Yeah. It's hard. It's just like, it does make it difficult without the thesis statement of- Yeah. Anyways. So Arsten is still appalled by all of this this and is like, you need to leave this place before your heart turns to brick as well. Which Ketelin Stark, eyeball emoji's heart turned to stone.

But Dani says that she must have an army, not promises from Westeros. So there's this line here of Mei, said Dani, or like regarding like... so there's this line here in regards to whether or not the lords will follow Daenerys upon returning to Westeros or not, and she says they may, said Dani. That was such a slippery word, may, in any language. And I really wanted to call it this line because I think that is at the heart of this chapter this word may because it is the implication of choice that you may do something also implies that you may not and that is the opposite of obedience that is freedom. Yeah you may win. You may give them a better life, but you also may not. Like, and the entire what if of everything happening.

It's crazy, because this chapter's so well set up, because even without completely telling us what she's thinking, you know the wheels have started to spin, right? I think that's really fascinating. And so that right there is a great point of it, because Barristan says, he's like, go to Illyrio and he can give you protection and keep you and your dragons safe until and slowly get the lords to like you.

And she's like, OK, well, that's worked so fucking well so far for the last several years. And also something about the May being in there very much makes me think that George is playing with it after the crossing game in the north and clash. Mayhaps, right? And what's happening in this book with mayhaps. True. That's right. Walder Frey didn't say. Uh-uh. He did not say. Yeah, I was just being East Eden-pilled as always. Yeah, I know this and I love you. You're like, I know you. But yeah. this and I love you." You're like, I know you. But yeah. Smooshing at the East of Edith hotel? One day, Walder Frey, you would have loved

East of Edith. I don't know about all that. So, Krasnis demands that Daenerys decide quickly. This would kill me. I can't decide anything quickly. A Corsair king, I as the same soldiers. Dany reminds him who she is. Daenerys Stormborn, mother of dragons, the Unburnt. But he mocks her, calling her a woman who needs pampering. He offers to guide and service her, boasting of Astapor's pleasures, the silk-lit pyramids, the

cruel fighting pits, and also says like, listen, we've got the greatest reality TV show here, it's a bear and three boys, one rolled in honey, one in blood, one in rotting fish, and we see which one the bear is gonna go for. And disgusted, Dani refuses because she has her own bear. She returns to her ship with Arson. Bears are very significant in this book. Just putting that out there. I almost forgot. ASOS, you know, go bears. Not those bears, but go these bears. But something also feels very poetic that there's three boys. One in honey, one in blood, one in rotten fish. One for honey, one for blood, One in honey, one in blood, one in rotting fish. One for honey, one for blood, one for rotting fish.

Yeah. Another trio. I don't know. And then you have like a bear, a bear all covered in hair, obviously. Bear in the Maiden Fair. One in blood, you know, that's the same bear, I guess. And then one in rotting fish. Cat?

Cat? Cat! Cat! Cat! Yeah, no, I do- it's something about it does feel Tully-esque. Like rotting fish? Yeah, it's also fascinating. Poster?

Do they eat a lot of seafood here? Like, where? Should I visit? Yeah, well, I guess they don't, right? Do they just bring in the fish? They're like, it's rotted by the time it gets here, let's just roll a kid in it. Like, what the fuck? Oh my god. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Yeah. This wasn't really serious, but it did feel fun that it was like a trio, a little triplet here. Well, you saying it and the significance of bears in this book also makes me wonder of like, am I supposed to be reading into the idea of like bear-isten, like the way that it's pronounced sounds like bear, I don't know. Maybe not. I think I thought too hard and like, it's

wrong. I don't even want to respond to you. I don't want to respond to me either. Like, I- Holy shit. That was like a serious thought too, and I'm just like, I don't know. Is it real? Is it not? I don't know anymore. I mean, if we're going to bring it back real quick for a second, I can barely stand you. Oh, amazing. Got em. Promoted. No, I've literally never thought that before and I literally want to smack you

in the face and I love you. But what? Barist? Get out. I don't know. I don't know. You got to go. You got to go. You got to literally leave. Help. I don't know. I don't know. You gotta go. You gotta go. You gotta literally leave. help The city leaves Dani

Cold in her very soul and her very heart. It's full of ancient red brick veiled women Slaves and chains dust and decay everywhere this line that goes very hard Bricks in blood built astapor and bricks in blood her people. Arstin begs her to hire sellswords instead. He says it's better to come as a beggar than a slaver. But Dany recalls how her brother always had to beg in vain, Viserys, and says, a man cannot sup from the beggar's bowl all his life and stay a man. And there it is is all about this chapter

manhood yeah yeah yeah what you what gets you to be a man still like leaving being alive right suck from the beggars bowl and live a full life a half life it's probably even worse to show up as a girl beggar than a boy beggar too, when you're trying to get paid. Yeah, every fucking thing we do as a girl is worse. Yeah. I'm just saying, like, come on, Barith, use your fucking head a little. Some common fucking sense, Barry.

Come on! Yeah, right? Yeah. Um, that line does go hard. It's gonna re-re re-written again next chapter. It's like this, like, Ben against Widow of the Waterfront, right? Two great, hard-as-fuck lines about Daenerys slash from Daenerys. Yeah.

There's lots of, I mean, honestly, some of the best written chapters. I, and speaking of some of those best written chapters, I think that upon like rereading Dani's A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings chapters, that line of also like, a man cannot stop from the beggar's bowl all his life and say man, like, is very important. I've been seeing a lot of discussion lately online regarding the strange romanticization of Daenerys and Drogo's relationship and like the thing is Daenerys reminds Barristan aka Arstin that she knows what it is to be sold right? Barristan as she points out has never been either a beggar nor a slave and it is true that

many people and I would say that yes that even includes George and the way that he is discussed The wedding night of Daenerys and Drogo, right? They do romanticize that relationship. But as we stress during our coverage Yes, it's meant to be gray and we're not trying to hand wave away the rape and pedophilia of it all because Daenerys Doesn't she doesn't hand wave it away. She's like, I was fucking sold. Right? She reminds us that she felt fear and like she doesn't say it aloud but like I think, you know, I think she knows she was raped. She discusses it, she knows how vulnerable she was, and she knows that she was able to ply Drogo and as she says in this line, she knows that things could have been different had it not been Drogo,

had she not been able to do all that. And as we discussed in those previous chapters of our Daenerys coverage, she had to cleave to those sources of power for her. Like, is it love? Is it not? Is it Stockholm Syndrome? Is it not? I don't know. That's what drove her. But that was the source of her agency. Like that was how she could have power over her own choices in life, which is again, part of the theme that's going on here.

What does it mean to have a choice in your own life to be a soldier, someone taking away whether you get to choose to have sex or not, whether you fight or not? Well, it's interesting put against Cersei, right? Cersei, who was meritoriously raped for most of her adult life now. And you see kind of like what could have happened, right? If, if Dani was married to her brother, right?

And he was king. Uh, Cersei gets meritoriously raped and she now in the last book finally has some agency there in the next book. Again, I do not know what book it is. In Feast we start to see her take that agency, whether it's poor decisions or not, she takes control of her body and how she uses it and what she uses it for in many ways. In some ways she doesn't, but in some ways she does. I do think that's something clear here. To your point, feminism is having the choice. It's having the choice. I don't know, especially with assault. If you've been assaulted, sometimes you might want to drown that out or replace those memories with memories that let you live through it

and that let you survive. Right? Like the brain, the human brain is very complex. It will do a lot of crazy stuff if it means getting you to survive. That's true. And at the end of the day, like that is, as Tyrion points out in other line that goes hard. She is a survivor. How not? I not? How not? I said that on the couch the other day to my roommate. Did he understand why you were saying how not? I said that I had to do something and it was a terrible thing.

It was probably not that bad. I probably just had to get up or something. And he was like, wow, you're so brave. And I'm like, how not? How not? Of course he understood it. That line does live like rent free. not. How? Nah. Of course you understood it. That line does live like rent free. It's rent free in my mind. Like, I should be paying it, actually. I should be paying it. We did. We bought these books.

Yeah, a few times actually. We did pay. Dani thinks of Sir Jorah, who recently, if you recall, had just kissed her without her leave. His touch still gives her some really weird feelings. She's like, ooh, I don't really want to be thinking these things about him. Like, she's like, oh, my clit tingle. Jesus. No. I mean, it's true, though. She's like, why do I feel the stirrings of Jorah? But she's like, it's because I long for my dead ass Drogo. Back aboard though, Jorah's like, we must act, and Dani instead rages in return against

them saying we must act. Honestly, like, if Jorah were pulling nonsense shit, and also being like, we have to like buy these slaves and then Barysyn, aka Arsyn, was telling me we don't. And then like after like learning, getting like the massive trauma dump, essentially in a way of like learning the terrible fucking things that have happened in this place, which you know, makes me think a little bit now of like the weird moment in Poor Things. But anyways, I would crash out in the way that Daenerys is crashing out right now too. I fucking would.

And okay, I'm gonna bring up a straw man that I've never heard. Thankfully, people are better than that, but maybe it exists somewhere and I really hope it doesn't, and if it does, do not tell me. Do not tell me. Okay. No one is being like, oh, maybe Daenerys would like Jorah if he were attractive, right? She wouldn't be so disgusted. Because I think at the end of the day, he's so detestable, not because of that also. It's because he's a slaver, right?

That sucks. And I will say that if an argument were ever put forth, then would she have been okay with it if Drow were handsome? I would like to point out Kristen Cole, right? Because Kristen Cole is the counter argument. Very physically attractive, very not worth giving up a whole kingdom for, that's all. That's fair. That's fair. I'm just saying. Thank you for arguing with the random straw man argument, Eliana. I'm really glad that you did this for the person that doesn't exist.

I think the person exists only in my mind, and I'm like, they better not ever come in. I hope I didn't manifest in you kind of shitty person. And you know what? Fight every battle. In your mind. All the time. In your mind, Eliana, all the time. Fight all of them at once. Oh my god. 40 chest. Keep it up. Also there's a line here regarding like how one treacherous kiss is the thing that awoke those feelings in Daenerys and I will say the language of one treacherous kiss reminds me of Judas the Bible once more Oh, cuz I was about to be like Judas, Judas Gaga

I'm just out of here I'm like messianic I like yours better, yeah I mean, I like the- I do like the Lady Gaga Judas, yeah I think that is actually what George was thinking about when he wrote this I like... oh. I do like the Lady Gaga part of it. Judas, yeah. I think that is actually what George was thinking about when he wrote this. I think so.

No, yeah, that is building to the betrayal, though, because soon... oh my god, soon. Oh my god. Can't wait till she gets rid of his ass. Even in this chapter she's all like, you know what I hate? Lying. And you know what Jorah gets revealed to have done? Lied. Yeah. God, little shithead. There's this line of, shall I buy eight thousand brick eunuchs who kill babes and strangle

their dogs? They don't even have names. And we get this moment where to a raucous applause, she slaps Jorah. The crowd goes wild, especially Eliana. We don't condone violence where you can hear us condoning it. We would never condone violence, but this is a special scenario where we condone the violence against Jorah. Yeah, as I said, I too would crash out in the same way.

Well, no, I don't think I don't really hit people. So maybe not. I don't know. Oh, I'd love to see you get mad. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah. That's true. That's true. It's not as exciting, I guess, now that you put it that way. Yeah. She says that if he was her true knight, he would never have brought her to this vile stye. And then she says, I want to sail far and fast and never look back.

But I can't, can I? There are 8,000 brick eunuchs for sale and I must find some way to buy them. Eliana, this next bit would go so hard if you watched Doctor Who, but you won't watch more of it. So just pretend you understand. There's this very specific emotion with the Doctor in Doctor Who. Actually, like many of the Doctors in Doctor Who. All of the Doctors, pretty much. And there's a dynamic with their human companion. It's the same Doctor. Yes, they're one person, but-

There's more than- wait, no. I meant meant are there other doctors that are not doctor who um, they're other other time lords not doctors That's what I meant. Okay. Yeah. Yes, there there is like Time Lord kin Time Lord kin in some ways do exist There's like this guy called the master that comes from Gallifrey and he's evil and then there's also the Mistress who is like a female version of him that's existed in the old days and the new days, and then there's also like, there are a couple of different characters like that. So there are side characters that potentially come from Gallifrey, etc. But the Doctor in Doctor Who, many of his regenerations have this dynamic with the human companion and like, the doctor is like, you know, he's like an old ass bitch. First of all, he's lived for hundreds of years, thousands, depending on what doctor you're on. And he has seen some shit. And when you see some shit, you go a little numb. Right? And also, he's like a god, he has this power to like go wherever, whenever he he wants in time and space and get in this little box and right away and do things so like.

When you bring a human into a life style with a god like that. There's gonna be some differences the things that you and i look at the small memories we make everyday the little day to day life things we do the way the world looks to us probably looks very different than to a time traveling space flying God. Right. So sometimes the humans find like suffering or find things that are superhuman and point it out. And the doctor has kind of a survivor and savior complex, right. But he also doesn't have time. Well, he does in some ways, but he can't go around saving everyone all the time, right? Like you can't just go messing with time. But sometimes the humans get him and they're like, you have to save them. And he's like, I'm not

fucking saving them. Like I save everyone. We can't save them. And he's like, why? This is the one that's hurting my feelings. You have to do it. And then he ends up doing it. But he's never like, there are moments, especially the 10th Doctor does this, where his companions do something so human, which is a euphemism for like fucking stupid, that like they fuck up his plans for whatever he was going to do, so he gets forced to do something at great sacrifice to him and to their team and to others, and he fixes it. But there's definitely moments where he says just like this like I must find some way to fix it huh like I can't just leave I can't just leave because I'm the doctor and that's what I do I heal shit like he it's a little bit of an attitude in a way which is what

Danny has copped here and that's an interesting thing for a main hero, a protagonist of a story to have, right? The savior complex that they have. Yeah, I do have to save everyone and then it does them in. And Danny has lived this. She grew up with slavery around her. She's been sold off as captive. She can't ignore this happening.

And there's something happening here even before she pulls the later trickery on Krasens with the bait and switch with the dragon. Krasens gives her all this backstory and treats her fucking stupidly. And then, while conversing with Jorah and Barristan, they accidentally humanize these Unsullied by talking with her about it, right? So like, Krasens, Jorah, and Barristan make these soldiers so human by telling her the tragedy that they go through, by telling her the horror they have to commit to become a full, unsullied soldier. She's so close to leaving. She's like so close to getting her goal. She has her three ships. She could take

this army. She could do some shit. There's an entire fake out last chapter that we pointed out, right? Where you're like, oh my God, is she going to? No, she's not. We all think this is it. No, she's not. But when Dani says, if you were my true knight, you wouldn't have brought me here.

And I wanna leave and never look back, but I can't, can I? It's not that she's found the best bargain in the world on pounds of flesh to turn into fighting pounds of flesh to turn into her army. She's found people who are living a life enslaved who don't get to dream. They don't get to fly. They don't get to leave. Her greatest weakness and strength of character, she stops to help. She has to stop to free them. And then I love how this is really framed against what Viserys would do and what Rhaegar would do, right? As we go through the end of this chapter, she fakes out her knights with her skein before she burns the masters, and her trickery in her language and who she is,

and it requires them not to know. It requires her to play stupid, as we'll come to in the next chapters, and it requires her not to share her plans with them. I love that you can see this start to build and you can see the wheel really start to turn here when she just says, I can't, can I? I can't let this go on. Yeah, and the language fakes you out too here with like, I can't, can I? Because it makes you think that she feels

like she's in a bind here of like, she needs the soldiers, right? Not that she feels compelled to address this problem. And it really builds into the next chapter, as you said, right? Like it requires people not to know because also George does a good job of withholding it, which is kind of the same sort of balance that he strikes with Ned and withholding the information about Liana while still planting all the clues there. And I love everything that you've said here in regards to this.

I think there's some other stuff that I want to say, but as you also said earlier, can't blow our load too early. Like some of this stuff is just going to have to wait until like next chapter because these are such pivotal moments and it's also, I think, an insight to an extent. She's been confronted with these horrors that people are doing. The horrors here aren't from something supernatural. They're not warlocks. They're not zombies.

They're not zombies. They're people. They're people. Doing this great evil unto other people. And it goes to show how she reacts in a time when no one has put this problem forth to her. She just realizes in her heart this is a problem, which is kind of like, it's her moment of Stannis going to the wall, right? Instead of going to the rest of Westeros.

It's him being like, oh, well, I guess this is what I have to do as a leader, as someone who theoretically cares about people. So this is the right thing to do. Good call. And it's very much like Stannis. Because it's also in the same book. Which we know this. We know that this happens in

this book. We know a little bit about where we are. Stanis isn't a feast for crows. No, I'm just kidding. It's still a storm sword. Don't let us fool you. We've got two more books to go. And then after Daenerys III is Daenerys IV. So behind the captain's carved door, Dany's dragons are restless. Drogon lifts his head and screams smoke. Viserion flaps her, trying to perch like he once did. She laughs as he clings to her arm despite her protests, because he's just too big now. Aww. Oh my god, sorry. Speaking of dogs, but like a happier- imagine a dog that has lived, okay, a big dog. I love when big dogs think that they're small and they like try to get in your lap.

They're like, I'm a small lap dog, right? You're like, no, you're enormous. This is not how we should be hanging out. This feels like that. Yes, that's like my mother-in-law's dog. Yeah. Oh, both of them. Well, the previous one, I mean, I assume also. Yes, they are. That was a big dog too.

They were lap dogs. That is about how big this one is now. Yeah. So I guess it's kind of like that. Oh, she did say they were the size of dogs last time. So now they must be an even bigger dog. Well, soon they'll be cane corso's and they'll be huge and... Horse sized. Woo!

Yup. Yup. Eerie tells her the dragons were wild while she was gone, and Viserion clawed at the door. Drogon tried to escape and bit her when she grabbed his tail. And then Daenerys kisses like Eerie's bit in hand, apologizing and says dragons aren't meant for cramped cabins. And then Eerie says the horses scream below, deck two kicking the walls, the old women and children cry when Dani's gone. They hate the water cart, which is a hilarious term for this.

Makes me think of fruit carts, but water cart. Um, completely different concepts. It makes sense because, king cart, right? Like Viserys, but... regat. Ohhhh! Yeah. That's true. It is that. I don't know. I was thinking of buying fruit from the fruit cart. Which is more fun.

I don't know. Boats are fun for some people. They hate the water cart and the black salt sea. Daenerys admits she feels sad and lost and Eerie offers to pleasure her again, but Daenerys refuses saying that Eerie isn't a bed slave anymore. She sends Eerie away, wanting only her own thoughts. And that did happen, I guess, like a few paragraphs ago, and we'll probably dig into this more at some point, but I think we've also discussed some of those dynamics pretty well in our

chapter in the Cersei coverage. So a lot of things to discuss with the complexity and power dynamics. Don't worry, it'll come back. It'll come back! On the other side, with the coming. At dusk, Dany stands by the rail watching astapor glitter with silk lanterns and starlight. From afar, it almost looks beautiful, but she knows darkness fills its fighting pits and barracks, where boys lose their manhood for puppy scraps.

This line is so important, I think, to Daenerys' storyline. It ends up in, I think, italics or something in the text, but like, it's- but it is dark below in the streets and plazas and fighting pits, and it is darkest of all in the barracks where some little boy is feeding scraps to the puppy they gave him when they took away his manhood. I just like wanted to read that quote aloud just because I think it is so good in regards to the core of what's going on with Dani's chapters here. And I'm gonna quote myself, I'm gonna quote myself in this essay I wrote with,

her loneliness feeds her greatness, her greatness feeds her loneliness in regards to how Daenerys' character functions, because it is through her empathy of having been sold, of knowing what it is to be alone, to have no love, and to finally find something to love that Daenerys is, as you said, confronting here. And like, it is that which pushes her to be like, I know what it is to feel that way, so I must do something. And throughout this chapter, Daenerys is actually wrestling with the empty eyes of the Unsullied, right? They're called as such, I guess, for their alleged purity, which I guess only applies to

sexuality, because it seems as though the path to training them has been very sullied, and they have to kill. Seems pretty sullied to me. And she mourns the 8,000 dead babies, those newborns that die in order to advance as an insolid. She mourns the 8,000 dead puppies, but she's not mourning yet the insolid themselves. But until the end of the chapter, she's wrestling with the issue of like, well, Rhaegar had an army, I have to have an army. And then next chapter when she turns and internally you see the issue of like, well, Rhaegar had an army, I have to have an army. And then next chapter when she turns and internally you see the echo of like, I will buy them all. And then she goes, I must have them all. And this happens in her interiority because she sees finally like, and she didn't want to acknowledge it because the truth is so

difficult that the Unsullied are still men. Yes, their eyes are empty, yes their manhood has been cut off, but they are still men, they are still people, and inside each of them is that little boy who's mourning his childhood, mourning his manhood and adulthood that has been taken away, he's mourning his friendships and the social ties that have been torn down between him and the fellow Unsullied and any other person, and even with animals and a puppy. And it's mirrored by Daenerys needing to give space for her own, I am only a young girl. She sees the little boy and she sees the little girl. And it ties together the assertion of

her own personhood as someone who matters with the personhood of each of the Unsullied. Yeah, absolutely. Well said. Good quote, Eliana. You deserve it. I like that I used that quote in that essay where I also quoted myself. It's a good fucking essay and you've earned it, so no, well said. It's the one thing that she can't abide, right? Like she just can't. This one is too much for her to ignore. As you said, he does a great job of like burying it under the surface until next chapter.

There's something so great about a protagonist who is good, but having that goodness be their flaw, having that goodness be the match that lights the fire that starts the rage, right? Like, having your goodness lead to rage is such an excellent way to write someone. And I love that. I mean, in this very chapter, she rages. I wasn't sure if for a moment, if you were about to quote, I'm the spark that lights the fire of the rebellion or whatever that- No, but go on. It was too long.

It was too long, that line, to be a tagline as much as I still like and enjoy The Last Jedi. It was too long of a tagline. That's all. Ahhhhh. We rewatched Rogue One recently. Hell yeah. Jorah asks to speak plainly with Daenerys, and without even turning around,

she lets him in. He reminds her that Aegon won Westeros with steel and dragon fire, and that she will need to have blood on her hands too. Dany accepts her enemy's blood, but she says she won't spill innocent blood for the Unsullied. Eight thousand dead boys and strangled dogs. Ugh. Jorah says war unleashes beasts in men. But the Unsullied are different, he says. They don't rape or plunder except on command. They kill only whom their master wants dead. And Dany does have dogs to kill herself, if you recall.

She points to Astiforce. They're already dead. Stop, stop, they're dead already. Like where does it end? Right? Ask Ellaria. She points to Astapor's crumbling walls and idle towers, wondering why the Dauphraki never sacked it. Its sons of the Harpy are soft, she says. The Unsullied are the ones who do the dying. Jorah explains that no cow wants to face unsullied spears, so the slavers pay off any cow who come near. It's cheaper than fighting. Not one poisoned apple. The whole orchard. Fire and blood. Tear it all down. All of it. I totally fucked up that quote, but you all knew what I was going for.

I knew what youman. Thank you. I knew it. And if only... if only it were that simple for her, right? She's like, well, I wish I too could just pay Joffrey off and send him away, and honestly... yeah, that could have been... that could have been a nice solution, but I don't think he would have taken it. He's a silly. It kind of sags, it's like, what would he have done with his life anyway?

Ah... Yeah, he wasn't like... I don't know. He's a silly. It's kind of sad because it's like what would he have done with his life anyway? Yeah, he wasn't like, I don't know. I guess like there's the possibility that people can always grow, right? But... Sometimes. When nurtured. Yeah, which he wasn't really. Anyways, Didier is nose. She can't just pay him and send him away. And then we get to the close of this chapter. Dany shrugged him off.

Viserys would have bought as many Unsullied as he had the coin for. But you once said I was like Rhaegar. I remember Daenerys. Your grace, she corrected. Prince Rhaegar led three men into battle, not slaves. Whitebeard said he dubbed his squires himself and made many others knights as well. There was no higher honor than to receive your knighthood from the Prince of Dragonstone. Tell me then, when he touched a man on the shoulder with his sword, what did he say?

Go forth and kill the weak? Or go forth and defend them? At the Trident, those brave men Viserys spoke of who died beneath our dragon banners. Did they give their lives because they believed in Rhaegar's cause, or because they had been bought and paid for?" Dany turned to Mormont, crossed her arms, and waited for an answer. "'My queen,' the big man said slowly. "'All you say is true.' But Rhaegar lost on the Trident. He lost the battle.

He lost the war. He lost the kingdom. And he lost his life. His blood swirled downriver with the rubies from his breastplate, and Robert the usurper rode over his corpse to steal the Iron Throne. Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably, and Rhaegar died. Yup.

Rhaegar did the right thing and Rhaegar fucking died. That's about that. Really makes you think. Really makes you think. If more rich people did the right thing and died. I guess he did kidnap that girl though. Well, you know, he did the other right things. Did he? We don't know. I mean, he might not have. It was weird. It was weird. It was a little weird, you know. Left his wife and kids. Yeah, that was fucked. But you know, other than that, right thing. Hey, you gotta break a couple eggs to make an omelette, Eliana.

I think like... At least one egg. Oh my god. Um, okay, random thought though. Crazy thought. Arguably. Crazy. Because Robert wasn't like a fun game weirdo during this time. Could we also say that Robert fought valiantly and Robert fought nobly and Robert fought honorably. And he lived. Like, I mean, he was fighting for a pretty good cause at that point. Yeah. Okay. Not the gotcha. What the fuck gotcha journalism ass shit is this?

I'm trying to gotcha Jorah, which is all of my life. All of my life. That's it. What a fun lens that Eliana has chosen to analyze the story through. It does kind of make you think about Gregor, right? It really makes you think. Really makes you think about Gregor, right? He really makes you think. Really makes you think about Gregor Clegane. Oh, what an honor to be dubbed by Rhaegar yourself.

True knights, good guys that fought for Rhaegar. Oh yeah, that's right. He was one of those people. Nah, shit happens, you know, like you said. One wrong, I mean, cut the whole orchard out, but... It's also like you said just now now you got a break with UX. Oh my god. There's something really fun going on in this trio of chapters, right? Before this you have Aria, then you have this, then you have Brand 2, famously one of our

favorite chapters, aka me, one of my favorite chapters, you know I love that shit. But end of the chapter for Aria, you get Lady Smallwood talking about her dead son giving Arya the clothing from her dead son instead of her daughter, and also the forest last song, right? Which Gendry and Arya roll around and fight during, but that all feels a little Rhaegar and Lyanna, the lyrics to the song, as well as the Arya Gendry tomboy roll-around fight. Rhaegar's, you know, Lyanna's kind of rough and tumble, like she's like, raw, I'm an

attorney, which, hold on, spoilers, it's the next chapter, but at the very end of the chapter Arya literally takes on the clothes of Lady Smallwood's son and kind of like taking on his role, just like Dany is deciding to take on Rhaegar's persona in a way here. And then your next chapter is Bran II, Night of the Laughing Tree, to wrap all these three chapters together. Also right after the chapter for Catelyn with Rob coming home in love and John and Ygritte. So an amazing run of chapters that is screaming at you about some of the potential romance

things in Aeswaf maybe being echoed across time and what kind of person Rhaegar was. That's a really great needle that you've threaded between these. And also a great way to prove that you guys, Chloe does in fact know the chapter orders. STACEY Thank you. It's the lightning round, I really wouldn't if it weren't for the lightning round, you guys. LWX No, I believed you.

I believed you. That was amazing. I was like, wow, I'm proud of her. She really showed me, showed us, because I don't know. I didn't even have the Catalan and John chapters planned in what I just said. I pulled that out of my brain. It was brilliant. Thank you.

No, I love that. It shows how well George is balancing all these different parts of the narrative, right? Because as you said, like he's like Planting these seeds of how it went down there while also, of course advancing our like current modern day current modern day story. Yeah really really well Spreaded once more Chloe. Thank you. Your grace She corrected Spread it once more, Chloe. Thank you, Your Grace. Uh, she corrected.

Um, also the next Davos chapter, he's locked up with Axel Florent, who's like, I'm planning Shireen's marriage. And then he like, you know, will die for it. But it reminds me of these like treacherous choices happening in the background with the advisors and that Tyrian chapter we just had with all the reveal that he has no power once again, and Varys is like, oh yeah, you're fucked, buddy, and he's like, well, shit. I think there's something great about that of these rulers and these people in positions of power and the treachery going on behind them to undo that power, the conspiring, like Jorah,

who does, you know, his soul being very much undermines pretty much everything Daenerys tries to do. Yeah, and I mean, like, that's the thing, right? You were talking about power, we'll examine this more in the Tyrion chapters. Tyrion actually did have a choice. He was given a choice. He was like, we can marry Sansa to Lancel instead. Yeah. Coulda. Coulda, coulda, coulda. I mean, but he's like, dying.

Well, Tyrion was all, no, he wasn't dying. Tyrion was all like, I don't know. I do like the way that Lord of Winterfell sounds. Yup. But I meant Lancel is like half dead right now. Oh, oh yeah. In the story. Oh. Aw, Lancel. Yeah. Yup. But I meant Lancel is like half dead right now. Oh, yeah. Oh. Oh. Lancel. Yeah. Rip. It's bad for him. He comes back stronger than ever. Don't worry. Don't worry about him. The Lord's power is within him. That's right. That's true. He comes back

That's right. That's true. He comes back, part of a religious organization, and then dies in a wildfire attack. Maybe. Oh my god, I'm joking. That's not real. It's not real. I mean, the Lord's power is within him. The new album, Virgin. Oh, okay. I was like, what are we talking about with the Lord's power being within him? I mean, I did mean the religious thing, but now I'm making a Lord reference. Everyone go stream Virgin. I did it. Go stream it. Stream it. Stream it. Good job. It's only 35 minutes. It's 34 minutes and 51 seconds, but albums are really short nowadays. I'm telling you, we need more. We need more. My favorite album that has come out recently, We need more.

My favorite album that has come out recently, Angie by Spiltab. That one's only about like a little over a half hour or so around that time. Wow. I'm like, wow, why are albums so short nowadays? Recession indicator. Oh, my God. Maybe. Maybe. Thank you for listening. We'll be back with GGC Explains It All next week. Get get some emails in if you're listening on this

Friday, you have a very short window of time. We're recording it in a couple days if you're listening to this. So get some emails in Eliana, if they want to send stuff in that could maybe potentially allegedly be featured in our in our episode, where would they send that? Wow, well, you would send it to us on social media at girls gone cannon, can on over on Twitter or on blue sky. You can also send us emails at girls gone cannon at gmail.com. But turns out you could leave us pod bean comments, you could leave a Spotify comments, which is always fascinating to see where those happen and when where they don't and then also Call us beep us if you want to reach us there are many ways there are many ways and I think my favorite place to find us to stream us is probably patreon.com

And my friends over from patreon all of patrons, have joined together to tell you where else you could listen to our podcasts. You can catch Girls Gone Cannon on any of the following streamers. On Podbean, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Acast, Spotify, Overcast, Apple Podcast, iHeart Radio, Audible, and Amazon Podcasts. You can also join us on Patreon, where if you join the thunder tier above, you have access to a Discord, and monthly happy hours, and things like that. And by joining the Discord, you get access to a bunch of great channels, including but

not limited to memes and shitposting channel, Fashion Hour, there are multiple channels for historic materials, A Song of Ice and Fire, there's a Pet channel, which I think is probably the most important channel of all. Respectful Thirsting, because there's a channel for that. Come by, join the community, it's a lot of fun, and you won't regret it. As always, I've been one of your hosts, Eliana. Oh god! That was actually a very immediate reaction, I was like, what am I gonna do?

And I've been another one of your hosts, Chloe. Oh god, we'll see you next time, bye guys! Oh my god, we switched name disks. Oh, I like ya'll see you next time. Bye guys. Oh my god, we switched name discs. Oh, I like ya black rat. Aw. They had some other good names in there. I mean, they're not good names. Not good. Obviously, if you were an Unsullied.

But banger rap names, like banger. Yeah, they were interesting. Or again, band names. Everything out here, like Lil Pigeon, right? Lil Pigeon, yeah, no, that one actually is a rap name, but I feel like, I don't know, Red Flea, again, could be, or they have another one like Scobby Flea. We're Red Flea and we're here to scream. Yeah, yeah, could be a band.

Stay tuned, stay tuned for more. Goodbye. Goodbye.