Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 260 — ASOS Daenerys IV

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

In which Mother is mothering. Links Mentioned: (Spoilers Everything) Rhaegar's Biblical Parallel — https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/4szgaw/spoilers_everything_rhaegars_biblical_parallel/ Background music Silver Flame Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ --- 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 Canaan reads A Song of Ice and Fire episode 260 Dineries 4 in A Storm of Swords. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. I am another one of your hosts, Eliana. Welcome. I definitely forgot what book this was. Did you hear me pause? That pause was pregnant. That was a, for a moment, I was like, what do I say here?

I say it every week. What do I say? We've just been losing it lately. We've just been forgetting how to introduce ourselves. I almost did the past tense. I almost did the version of who I am. I've been on the end. Yeah, at the end of the episode.

Oh, no. And you haven't even have had yet. I know. So we're just losing. whatever she liked whatever she well mercury just left retrograde thanks girl and now it's always i feel like it's always in retrograde though i'm like what is up with her when is it ever not like every single time anyone brings something up it's in retrograde so i just assume it's like always there i don't fucking know i love those memes of though of the kids being like i heard like mercury's and

gatorade i love mercury and gatorade that's my favorite variant yeah well we're glad to not be on Gatorade anymore with you guys. Thanks for listening. This month for patrons in the Patreon tier. Stranger, that's the $5 tier or above, you will get a bonus episode like you get every month. Bonus episodes. This one will be on Catching Fire. Part two, The Quell. Asterisk, there is a chance that it could be split into two episodes. This happened to us recently. Who knows? Or three. You just. don't know. We don't know. We are taking some pages out of our friends over at Not a Cast's book, you know, like real Davos

hours. Give us four parts. Let's go, baby. Let's do it. Yeah. It could also end up being only one episode. Anything could happen. It's anyone's game of Thrones. Indeed. Or of catching five. Or it's anyone's hunger games. Of Thrones. Yes. We, why didn't we name it that? We should have named actually this series that Hunger Games of Thrones, but that would have actually been confusing.

It would have seemed like we were mashing them up. Never mind. Never mind. Yeah. It's a thought, though. Well, if you want to talk about the Hunger Games or a song of ice and fire, you can, with us over on our Discord that's available for our patrons in the Thunder tier and above $10 and up, where we have various channels for conversing, but also we

converse with our people voices, our faces, by video calls, once a month for brunch slash happy hour. This month is going to be at the very end. It's getting August 31st. The last of the August, like the most end of August we could make it. What's Mercury going to be like that? Someone tell me. I don't know. Don't tell me. I want to be surprised. We'll see you August 31st, though, from 2 p.m. E.T. Probably till 4 p.m. E.T. Sometimes the party goes a little later. You just don't know the day you're going to catch us on. It could happen. You just don't

know. I love one like you'll leave it and you come back an hour later to the discord and you see they're still going and you're like, what's going on there? You guys party? Yeah. Hanging out. Kind of cute. Well, we'll see you on August 31st and we've got a couple of emails

and comments and different things we're going to run through real quickly. I loved this email from our new friend Matt Matt, oh, he said, Great episode. Pim was an awesome guest to have. Lots of insightful, cool shit, disgust, real.

I got hyper-fixating, L.O.L. on Danny's left boob out and started thinking about George's Catholic upbringing and his religious iconography that he loves. Matt's theory is it represents the apple from Adam and Eve because the whole apple being a breast metaphor and woman being evil, obviously. Very true, Matt. Very true. And specifically being...

The left, boob. In Italian, left means sinister. In old Italian, comedy plays would be left-handed, like Chloe. So the audience knows, but the protagonists don't. Anyways, left side, Carth was hellish and evil. Also, you guys were on point about Danny absorbing her enemy's ways and the way that they present themselves. Hmm, chameleon. Yeah.

Thank you, Matt. Fun email. Lots, a packed email. Wow. Yeah. Matt packed a lot in there. This was originally, apparently, going to be a Spotify comment, according to Matt. So, love that people were paying attention to that.

And, yeah, this is fun and agreed. Pim was an awesome guest to have. I'm so... Fucky. I'm like, I'm still basking in the joy of having had her on, yes. And, yeah, this is kind of fun about, like, the Italian old comedies. And there's a term here, and I assume it's latte. I cappuccino

Oh my god There's also something fun In the hand being something different right Like I don't know I think back to series of unfortunate events plays with that right Like having the villain like Ah we've outsmarted you by using our other hand against the villain Is a plot line in series of unfortunate events books

So I don't know there's something fun there Because that's old-timey movies you know, and also left-handed people facing a lot of discrimination for being said left-handed. It's a very fun trope. We can come back now. I think as a left-handed person, we can bring it back. Let left-handed people be evil in media. Talk about the left hand of darkness.

Yeah. Well, I want to one day. Bada-bang. Also, I don't know if it was in our Discord or in their email. Someone discussed the left boob. Also, like, because it's the left side as, like, having the heart more. exposed um sort of that tech wasn't it tech tech is always saying smart shit in the discord join the discord for tech yeah um it was tech saying um bearing your breasts is a way of saying

bearing your heart so maybe yes and then i responded also but with that language oh yeah bearing the breast the left breast is very nisa nisa yes you did you did sorry i didn't scroll back far enough i didn't realize no it's okay i knew it was somewhere in there That's what I thought. Yeah, a lot in there. I was like, I hallucinated this. Thank you, Matt, for your email. Love it.

Please send us an email if you want to be featured like Matt at Girls Gone Cannon at gmail.com. Indeed. We also got another email from our friend Jason that says, I was sad that I got behind during the throes of things. I was forced to read that took away my podcast time and discovered much too late that you were. doing an email episode.

Having just gotten caught up with everything, I'm really loving listening about Denaries, and here's my question. Given the popularity of DeNeres and Tyrion, all right, and like, as I read aloud this part of the email, I want you to all, like, think of Eric Andre, the Eric Andre Giff. And imagine Jason, that's how I'm imagining, imagining Jason saying this. How brave was it to keep them until the very end? Was that always... How brave?

How brave? How is that always the plan? It was very brave. It was brave. Jason says that my logic here is that when you're launching a podcast, and yes, it's from the books. But you're going to pull in some show first, folks. Anyway, how much did you have to resist just playing the greatest hits from the beginning to build your audience? I think I started listening to you and Noddcast around the same time, and I went back to the beginning and caught up on both casts. So I don't have a good sense of what you all were thinking back.

Fuck, I don't know what I was thinking back then. Maybe you were just drunk and talking about Dunkin' Egg, and you never thought about it, who knows. Anyway, I want the inside baseball, Jason. Yeah, first off, we were very brave, and we did. So, like, yes, we were drunk talking about Duncan Egg and we're still drunk talking about Dunkin Egg these days. But then specifically we were, but also then, yes, we did choose

before we even made our first episode. That was chosen. The POV order was chosen. There was no changing it. And we felt, in my opinion, in my opinion, which is correct. Were we? I think so. I remember it being, I remember daylight.

So I assumed that I was sober. Because we did. We were on a call, like going back and forth, moving things around, sharing screens. It was like a whole after-day. We have a whole planning sheet that is from then. I think we were sober. So we never moved. Once we see, probably, hopefully.

Once we started, though, we never moved. it and we felt very serious about that because that feels like a betrayal to us like that's like cheating we're not doing that we're seeing it through we're both fire signs so we're stubborn yeah but also it I think there was just something about it like we felt so good and so confident in the order that we put together that like why change perfection but also I think there's an extent of like once you're fucking in it you're in it yeah it took us like five, seven, how many years has it been? Seven years to get to this point, but it's also like, once the ball is rolling, I don't think you and I felt like stopping the ball to like reassess and

move everything around. That would have also just been way too much work. Chloe and I can't even remember how to open up the episodes right now. Like, what do you fucking want from us? Yeah, absolutely. And realistically, if we did every single, week right now until the end, which isn't going to happen because you guys are going to get Dunkin' Egg, so that's going to move you out six weeks. You're going to get Hot D that's going to move you out however fucking many episodes they decide to let us have what two episodes watch. It'll be like episode one, they take Kings Landing and then the next episode. Anyways, so like right now, if we didn't do those things and if we didn't take any pauses for our

entire well-being or for like scheduling purposes we would finish august 28th 2026 like just let that sink in for a second august 28 that's in like a year from now realistically it will not be it will be like a year and a half that is probably what will happen i think we will finish though probably early 27 so your move george r martin yeah i mean it would be really fucking funny if he did release it because i we have no clue what we will do when he does. Like, we have not figured it out. We have, like, thoughts. Yeah.

We have not structured them. We have not discussed them. We don't have time for that. We're busy. We're in Danny right now. That's literally, yeah, what I was actually going to say. I was like, you know, we've gotten questions of like, what will you do if dance comes out? And like, no clue.

Bro, I don't. I just like, don't think I have to think about that yet. You know, like, if there's any inkling that's on the horizon. Yeah. We'll think about it. But we don't. I would love to have to, but we don't have to. So I'm just going to keep kicking that can down the road.

Amen. Hallelujah, sister. And hallelujah to you, Jason. Thank you for your email. It does make us, like, we get fond and nostalgic a little, right? Like, I feel a little, I'm fond of you and what we've done here with this child we've created together. It's definitely, yeah, a child that we've created together.

and all these other children. This is the only child that I will have. Are we mothers? No, we're not. Yeah, and we are, no, we are mothering every day. Anyways, thanks, Jason. Our friend Betty sent us a really nice email as well, and I did want to highlight it.

She's also recommending the Locked Tomb series. So, second rec, we've got to check it out. And she wants to obsessively dissect it with us. You never know. never know you really never know on the new summer i turned pretty podcast oh my god i mean so funny i'm caught up now i'm ready to discuss it with just chloe i don't know if i feel like having i don't know opinions out the september we turned pretty oh my gosh watch out patrons well thank you everyone for your messages we're going into the light thing around now that's how these

episodes go. Bad damn right. Yeah, you've been here before, hopefully. If not, welcome. Welcome. I can't imagine, like, welcome to the lighting round. Like, even in the middle

of a POV, can you imagine? What is that like? Just going in raw like this? Wait, actually. Raw dogging Girls Gone Canon? If any of you have done that, and like, you started this podcast, not by starting, like, at the beginning of a

character or anything, you just like started in the middle of a character. and just kept going with our podcast. Tell us. Please write in. I want to know about your experience. We're surveying the top 10 percentile of people that listen to us different. I've just never heard, like, of someone doing that.

No one's ever expressed that being their experience so far from our listeners. They probably exist. We should pull it. We should pull it someday. On Patreon, we should at least do a pull. I'm sure someone's done it. Maybe we'll do that. I'm sure many have done it.

I just, you know, tell me. tell me well here's what you missed between denarius three and denaries four in a storm of swords in our lightning round and it's going to get weird today everyone eliana has this look on her face of puzzlement she's like what the fuck we missed a fucking lot you go like a fucking bagillion chapters without deniers so because of that we're going to push some of these lightning rounds into one oh my god there's real lightning round going on outside by the way so if you hear storms my bad yeah Chloe Stormborn, wow. Do miss a good...

My God, am I going to die? Jesus. Yeah, every other day. So we're going to start off this lightning round with Sansa 3, Arya 5, and John 4. Surprise, it's Sansa's wedding day. Sandor arrives in Stony Sept and John makes the great climb up the wall.

This makes it sound like Sansa is getting married at the Stony Sept or the wall. Don't fucking tease me. No, I'm just kidding. Jamie 4 and Tyrion 4. Jamie's wound is infected, and he shouts sapphires, or Thaphyrith, if you will. Turing gets blackmailed, gets lectured, and continues to lose power on the council. That's like every fucking chapter in this book.

We're going to go through all that. Actually, I'm pretty excited. We're going to. Tyrion's going to be a time You know, like It's going to be Imagine Um

I'm imagining My eyes are closed Imagine The Donna Summer song Last Dance All right Oh yeah Yeah

Imagine that vibe That's the vibe We're going to bring to Tyrion I think What do you think Chloe I think It's gonna be

crazy. Let's keep going. Samwell 2. Sam takes Gilly with him from Craster's Keep. Arja for and Catlin 4. Sandor survives a trial by fire while Catlin grieves her father, Winterfell, and all that they continue to lose. Wow. It's bad for Catlin and Tyrion right now. Doesn't get better either.

Davos 4. Davos becomes a lord. Definitely not. Davos becomes a lord. Stannis hopes to kill false kings. Jamie 5 and Tyrion 5. Jamie relives the past with Brienne in the bathhouses of Heron Hall. Tyrion greets the Dornish retinue who want justice. Aria 7, Brand 3, and John 5. The Brotherhood attacks a septry of mummers and Arya is kidnapped by Sandor.

At Queen's crown, Brand's skin changes Hodor to calm him down before investigating through Summer's eyes what's happening on the ground, which is where John and the Thet. are currently facing off. I don't remember who does it, but the way you've grouped these together reminds me that people sometimes will do like a Lannister only read through and then a Stark only read through. I've suggested it, et cetera. That's another way.

Yeah, that's another way you can all do it. If any of you want to start a podcast doing it like that, it's time. This is your sign. My hope is that someday with our someday fancy website that we have in our mind, the UI will let you build your own. So you can build your own readthrough with girls. Oh, we can do that. Wouldn't that be fun? Oh, for someone else to build their read through? Oh, I don't know how to do all that. Like, you choose what POVs you want. In what order? Like other people, not for like us to choose it, but like people on the webpage is my idea, my goal someday. Yeah. To like checkmark. I want all

Jamie episodes, all Tyrion, all Circe. Yeah. And what? It intersperses it all. in like chronological order. Oh, interesting. Man, that'd be like just so crazy also because it's just chronologically different in our lives and like you hear Jamie and it's the pandemic and then Ceres and like things are so different. I hear it. And we're just wild and now.

The historians, man. Oh my God. The historians. It would be like a really weird. Someday. Anyway, it would basically be like watching Oppenheimer, you know, and how it. Okay. Anyways, anyways, Eliam, can you give us the Danny overview, please?

The Danny Overview for Dany Four Storm of Swords is that Deneres arrives at Yonkai, where the second sons and the storm crows guard the city. Their captains try to win Dineries' favor and push her to leave their turf. But instead, Deneres is given the first gift of many by Dario Niharis. Later, Danny tells Dior to piss off and swells her armies. Well, here we are at Dany Four, where Danny is. and Jora are surveying the Yunkish army from a ridge. She estimates 5,000 troops with the second sons and storm crows on the flanks, and the Yonkai slave soldiers are in the center. Jora thinks

they can win, but he doesn't think they can do it without bloodshed. Danny realizes the mounted cell swords could devastate her freedmen because they're a bit untrained, and she decides to summon the slaver envoys and captains of the cell sword companies to her tent, each at different times to take their audience this is actually a great scene and great opening that I I've like thought of but I haven't really pondered upon but it's another great example the way that DeNeres is learning you know I she's not just absorbing you know ideas from her enemies and I don't think like that means she's becoming like cartoonishly evil like the masters it's like you know you see an adversary and you

try and like you respect like they got to where they are through something and you like learn how they're doing it adapted to your situation that That's what De Nerees is doing here, too. And as she learns about surveying the size of armies from Arston, Barriston, it even reminds me of Sam telling John that he's being groomed for leadership when he becomes a steward to the Lord Commander. But unlike John, who's, like, being super ungrateful in that moment for his position, De Neres has to make and seize those opportunities, right? Like, John kind of gets shepherded into it.

Bersen ends up being a really great mentor about this because, you know, he actually is a seasoned warrior. And he's not trying to fuck her. You know, like, the bar is in hell. The bar is in hell, okay. But yeah, actually, that's something that I love about his POV, that he's not trying to fuck her. Like, should that be the bar? No, but it is. I'll take it.

I'll take it. I'm like, thank you, Barriston, for being fucking decent in this. Anyway, that she's getting this kind of education about learning to gauge army sizes is also in the trend of bucking those gender norms. And it even speaks a bit to class because I think that this kind of education is typical maybe of what a lord's son would learn. And it is obviously a tip off about white beard, right? Like, you become a commander in Westrose's armies because you've learned to do all these things and lead, and this is part of that strategy portion. You don't always get it if you're, like, busy farming because you're farming, and that's important. It really is.

And besides learning to estimate army sizes, Jora, is providing a good other way. I hate to give him props. I'm glad that I guess Pam was here to do that. If Pim was here, she'd be like, you got to, yeah, you got to. Someone was joking about, I think it was Warren, Pym joining in on Hating. I was like, I don't know. Pim was trying to bring balance to the force, and I was like still not having any of it. But Jora provides a good other way of approaching the strategy of trying to have Deneeris look at what kind of troops are we looking at from the enemy.

So I think that like this is just a cool scene. Yeah, I like that take on it too. It is kind of cool for her to, like, absorb it. Yeah. Like, just look around her and see what's happening. Like, being on the other side of it, we aren't ever on the other side of it, right? You see Taiwan and through Tyrion's eyes on the offense, you don't get really the war councils of, here's what we're going to do and how we're going to do it.

That's a good point because also, like, the other young characters that we see do this, like maybe John, we don't get insight into Rob necessarily doing it or Tyrion. They've all already been taught this when they were from a young age. deniers is only getting that opportunity now and yeah I love that she's also considerate about wanting to take this city bloodlessly and I think that's important for future battles like yeah it's just like good it is good that she's worried about her freedmen knows that they're the most vulnerable but I think this is important in regards to when you're being strategic against the others right because it's not just about like the morality of not

wanting to lose your forces. It's not even like about the cost of human life. When you're fighting the others, every single one of your losses, not only it just becomes a negative for you, it becomes a net positive for them. It gives them an advantage, gives them forces because you know, they do the whole resurrecting bodies and it bolsters their numbers. So preventing loss. I've got chills they're multiplying kind of thing. Yeah, like literal chills though, because cold. Yes, exactly. Yeah, it's not just an honorable choice, it's a strategic one, so

love that we're seeing her take that into consideration, and also even, like, again, speaking of her drawing in past lessons, last episode slash chapter, we see her being like, well, I guess the Asapori aren't that different from the Carthine, they all came to

see my dragons. And she says, don't worry, the dragons, the envoys, they're going to come. They want to see the dragons. Yeah. I mean, you don't send your queen out on her own first, right? Make them come to her. That's true. That's true, literally. Chess. You play defensive at the start. You don't send her out right away. And there's something great that she goes to look at all of these troops, right, and see what they're up against. Even after Jora brings her the report, she chooses to go look herself that she wants to see it too. And we start

to kind of get the view that Astipur was maybe a little easier. She had the element of surprise. They didn't expect her. This time is a little different. This time doesn't seem like it would be bloodless. They're not as well matched. Not all of her new armies that have swelled her numbers are on the same level as the militant training that the unsolid have had.

And that is unless she gets a little extra help and there's a little trick that gets pulled, right? Because once more, here's another betrayal in her plot. but with Dario and her, right? Yeah, that's true. I mean... We pull a new trick. She's like, wow, I used up one element of surprises you said there.

She's like, I got to have new, cool, new surprises. I guess all surprises should be kind of a little new. I don't know. They don't have to be new. Maybe. Sometimes surprises, like, are surprising because they're the same. I don't know how surprises are. Fuck.

What's wrong with you? Nobody surprised. Everyone just, nobody surprised me. I got to ask this weekend. Like, would you want to surprise me? I'm like, absolutely not. I think I'd walk in the door and literally walk right back out. Yeah, absolutely.

So anyway. Absolutely. I just want to go to my bed when I get home. Come on. Anyway, so that's surprises. This podcast, surprising all the time. Back at camp, Denari sees the insullied, fortifying the perimeter. Greyworm leads the efforts with discipline and loyalty.

Danny tells them to spare any slaves who surrender in the coming battle. And of course, as we all know, Greyworm is in this position because he was chosen by the other unsullied. And I just really love this detail because it shows that even though the Ostapori masters, and frankly all any of the other masters would insist that personality has been removed from the unsullied, this shows that there still was individualism. Like you couldn't stamp it out. They had a sense of leadership and Greyworm showed the other unsullied care clearly. It shows that they still had those bonds of humanity for so many of them to be like, yeah, you should like make that dude in charge.

And also that when Greyworm says like he chooses his name, I love that when he explains why, he calls her DeNeri's Stormborn. He doesn't call her like, this is the day that DeNeri's Targaryen freed me or whatever. It's also another name that she's kind of taken on herself, right, that she's kind of chosen, the stormborn part of it. Yeah, the chosen name. I love this. I love this passage, too, that they all get to choose their names forever, right? She abolishes that they take a name every day, a new name, which was there before. So now they get to choose their new names, and it's very symbolic.

It's very beautiful. They get to choose who they want to be. Not unlike Jamie at the end of that one Storm of Swords chapter, the whatever he wrote, right? They get to write their own story, and it's so thematically relevant, not just with Jamie. Amy. It's the whole book, right? And Feast, Arya, right? Every day Arya's identity is taken away and given to her in Feast and Bravo's, right? In the House of the Undying. She goes through some of that. John Snow, his battle with identity and name, Sansa becoming a lane. There's Tyrion, Hugor Hill, right? There's a lot coming down the line for identity for some of these characters. And there's a lot of great identity in Robin Hoddle. Varsier trilogy, like fits chivalry, the main character. Oh, I'm into Robin Hobb now, by the way, you guys. And it does make me feel like I'm better than everyone else.

And I will talk about it all of the time until Eliana makes me shut the fuck up. So just a warning that I feel superior, intellectually speaking, for having read it. I will say, just like a quick tip, and this might not happen. This is also, like, more than a year out. We have floated. this could you know if you're making a bingo card

or like placing bets on what are we going to do when Tyrion's done this should be amongst your bets this should be because I'm almost done with the third book

of the first trilogy so it's fucking over for me and it's going to be over for Eliana soon too my God actually no it's going to go forever I digress

lots of really good stuff of like bastardy and names and legitimacy right legitimacy and names being a legitimizer Or look at the free folk, right? We come upon Dalla and Mance and the whole crew who we learn.

They don't name their children for two years in case they don't survive, right? So like that dehumanization and coming back to a lot of what you were saying about others, right? Like before they weren't even allowed to have their own name. They were forced with a new name every day, never allowed to keep identity. And now they have to find that identity. It's a new day for them. and I love that some of them actually take on the names of gods, heroes, weapons, gems, flowers. We don't get too many known, unsullied in the story, but a handful of the ones we do get,

there's hero, second in command, after grayworm, and loyal spear, and then Eladon Golden Hair. I think that's cute, and Duren. So just some dimension, right? These are some of the gods and the weapons and the names that they've taken on and that they've chosen. and they chose their forever name. Yeah. It's not like an AIM screen name that you can change it when, you know?

Well, you couldn't change those. You had to make a new one. Yeah, but you would just change yourself and then hit up everyone on your friend's list again. Yeah. It was a time. It was a vibe. Yeah, that's true.

You'd have to keep your old account and put your away message on all the time and have it say new account, such and such. And you'd have to do that for like six months or whatever. Yeah. I kind of loved it. Once you just ghosted. Yeah.

Yeah. I did too. I had many. that and Zanga. I had many Zanga usernames. I think I only kept my one Zanga We should try to list all of them. No, they're gone. Thank God. They're all gone.

No, I just mean we should try to list all the ones we remember, you know. Oh, yeah. Like at one point I had K-Fanks, OMG, STFU, and we don't have to discuss that. I think, so my first AM screen name, I don't remember all of mine anymore, but I can tell you all that my first one was cold potato 564. I'm pretty sure I've shared,

that on here before. Yes, you have, because CHB ball. One, two, three, four, five. The lore. The lore. My current Cotein C.HB. Ball, what a... Yeah, my Twitter handle was an AM

screen name that I just kept using. Anyway, so, yeah, it's kind of, some of these are giving that vibe, like loyal spear, but love what you've said about identity and like the names and these titles, because it does, it does come into play, right? At the very end of this chapter with those cheers in the Misha, but also, like,

reminder, one of I think our earliest Patreon episodes was a pretty deep dive into identity. You were talking about like Aria and Sonson. Interesting. I didn't know you remembered any of those. This is one of the ones I remember. Look, I don't even know who I am. Every time I say one of them, we did that. I feel like I'm taking on a new identity, like, every single thing. Every day.

Yeah, that's why I tell you all who I am at the beginning of the podcast, just to remind me who I am. It's not for you. Yeah, you have to remember your name, Aliana. I feel that way. I legit feel that way. Yeah, big deal, though, getting names. That's awesome. Yeah, it's a beautiful moment.

Many of the former slaves followed her from Astopor, forming a disorganized mass. They are ill-equipped and largely unable to fight, but Denaries cannot abandon them. We have this line here of, I told them they were free. I cannot tell them now they are not free to join me. And I feel like this is something that I will have more thoughts on in book five. So I want to like let you all know that this has not gone unnoticed. I just want to talk about this more. Yeah, like especially like when we come back to the discussion about the things.

There's also and how everything like starts to fall apart. Like, you know, she leaves this council and asked the poor. that's like one of them is a priest she leaves also no way to enforce the structure that she has put behind so anyway we'll come back to that but also there's this terminology of likening the people who have chosen to follow her that they are eating everything that they come across like locust and it kind of reminds me of the language of those plagues from from exodus you know at the freeing of the Israelites from Pharaoh. So I thought that was kind of another way that I think George is very much kind of

hearkening to all these sort of biblical stories throughout DeNaris's POVU, so much more so in like than some of the other ones. Like he does in other ones, but very much so in this. And the word of the Lord, Lord as in the artist, the musician known as Lord, I'm kind of like a prettier Jesus. She wrote that about DeNaris, I think. probably I think probably not to be basic

but I really love the parallels going on to the Janaris parallels John Aris Don I don't know what we call it but the Danny and John John Aris or Don

You know the ship They've got Don yeah D-O-N Don Don Oh my gosh Wow Wait if his name was Amon

It could be Damon Much to think about I do love the parallels though right, because you start to have this group of, you know, of an impossible place to politic, right, of people and folk that have grown and they have such different needs and such different wants and desires and you're trying to craft a world where they all somehow harmoniously can live together. And John faces a lot of that, especially in dance as well, where things don't harmoniously fit together. Yeah, like, what really doesn't harmoniously fit together is a knife inside your body or for

of them. Oh, yeah. That's what he learns. But, yeah, there are definitely strong parallels with him and, with her and John. I don't know, when we say John Eris, it sounds like a John and Aries ship, and I feel like that's not what we're doing.

Hmm. Is it not? Okay. It's like... We'll work on it, you know? Grandpapa. There's got to be, there's other names. The girlies have already figured it out. I just know this. Yeah, I think they do just call it. a generic but I think maybe if we say more like generis genaries you know generis gineries give it more like i don't know i don't know the lore pronunciation so

don is hilarious though i'm a don stand no i'm not i don't care what happens to them but danny's own camp is orderly with her pavilion at the center her dothraki calisar is small and weak but she needs them for scouting and outriding. And of course, her militant order of unsullied isn't enough. Something interesting there of her callisar being kind of weaker and smaller, but they do the things she really needs, like the outriding. They can go do the actual more manual tasks where the unsullied aren't able to necessarily break free from their current work streams to take on a new project.

There was something that you were saying earlier about, like, stuff. and like the scout and it made me think that like it reminded me of in house of the dragon they have some of the younger targaryens and dragon riders do scouting as well as you know the fighting so i'd imagine denarius might actually do some of the scouting herself more at some point right yeah with the dragons yeah that makes sense being able to go farther and faster and high above like really see things yeah higher than anyone's ever been the before. Literally, maybe. That's how high I want to get.

Oh. You have the means now, is what I've heard. People have been saying. My own dragon, the streets are saying, I'm on my own dragon. The maple-flavored dragon. Oh, my God. When the three Storm Crow captains arrive, Prendal Naghezin is hostile and arrogant. Danny kind of mocks their chances very lightly.

offers gold and plunder if they switch sides. Prendal refuses and insults her and calls her a horse lord's whore. Strong Belwavs offers to cut out his tongue, but Danny restrains him. Dario Naharis shows up, though. He's more flamboyant and maybe almost polite, and he seems to linger when everyone leaves. Okay, you know how George likes to create weird Easter eggs and, like, name things? I think Prendel's name might be inspired by the gear shifter on cars. park reverse neutral drive low

P-R-N-D-L which is pronounced Prendel I'm not joking I just thought this now He was really running out No I'm not joking either I think you're right Like you look down one day

Yeah well I think he was like I need a name And then he's like I'm just gonna name it I'm just gonna name it Prendel Like I just thought this And I feel it strongly I'm like convinced

In this moment I kind of am too You're convincing me No I mean where else Would you fucking get that name from? I'm writing this down. I have to start taking down all of my... Like, I have questions for George R.R. Martin.

Is Prendel Nagazen named for the gear shift? I have other, like, questions that I've lost, that I've taken down that I need to get. Some of them are about, like, House Filarian, I remember. Anyways. So, these people that she's meeting with, they call the way that she took Osterpore treachery. So that makes me really think now about the way that Gray, who was with us for the House of the End Dying episode, discuss the interpretation of that House of the End Dying Prophecy because, like I said, I've been kind of like reluctant on the idea that, like, De Neres commits the three treasons because it's treason, but like, if it isn't treason, then I'm like, all right, sure. So I was like, okay, treachery, treachery, yeah, all right, I see it, I see it. And then De Norees, like, says the thing, right? She says the thing finally.

were here in this phase of her story of I am only a young girl and, you know, no little in the ways of war like regarding not understanding it, which is kind of fun because we literally opened the chapter with her learning about war. So that was fun. And then using woman, they try to insult her by calling her like a woman. She's like, is that supposed to be an insult? And then taking, she throws back, taking Prendel for a man. And I think that there's something really interesting here regarding how we structure personhood and masculinity, which I'm pretty sure I've said probably every single POV that we've ever done. But that's not a joke. I'm pretty sure I have in some way or form. But it is interesting. But it works. It's a big

theme. It's a big theme in this story. It is. And it's something that George does examine throughout like all of his other stuff, you know, like in his shorts, in his, in his novellas, so... In his shorts. Oh, in his shorts. Oh. Has he ever worn shorts, like, recently? He is a married man. I'm sure he has.

It's fucking hot as dick out there in Santa Fe. I've just, like, never seen it. Like, can you imagine, like, the shorts suspender combo is an interesting fashion hour, but for George, um, more questions for George. Tell us about your philosophy on shorts, prentles. name um anyway we talk about it a lot in regards to who has access to power and westeros and again like humanity but it goes to such a different extreme when you're talking about it in the context of slaver's bay right like you have the bed slaves and you have the unsullied like

young kai's known for their bed slaves and the insullied of course are castrated and so it's very much this idea of like i guess sexual power and gender and manhood, you know, how that works in the context of, yeah, here, who gets to be a master versus slave? That's the only dichotomy that we see within Slavers Bay. Like, there are no normal-ass people. There are no free, just freedmen. Everyone's either master or a slave.

Yeah, there's a lot. And we're going to come back as we kind of detail through a little more of this, I think, but there's a lot about that power structure and that very gendered power structure going on. And it's interesting to look at, like, against Tyrion and Tysha, right? That story that comes out during this, the Tyrion and Tisha story coming out. I think that there are some really interesting dynamics George is clearly wanting to write about in this book. And this chapter specifically has kind of three different versions, three and a half different versions of, I mean, let's face it, hashtag the sexism Danny is experiencing here in Slavers Bay. True.

Not to be the girl who cried feminism But Never want to be that You've never done that in our lives I hate girls and boys equally But it's great we get another three wise men Right like this is your next three wise men You start to see

Oh true interesting I didn't notice that Yeah another pattern Also welcome back to the podcast, my friend, Dario, Naharrio. He's here. He's here. He's my hear me out.

And I don't think he should be my hear me. Like I feel like everybody should want Dario. I love Dario. Big Dick Dario. BDD. I'm so excited he's here. I love the little passage we get introducing him. So I'm going to read it because it's my podcast that I can.

I can read it. It's really grown on me. grown on me. Darion Harris. Now that you say it. Yeah. No, I really, I love him now. He's like, yeah. Amen. Agree with you. Grown on me so much. Dariung Harris was flamboyant, even for a Tyrosi.

His beard was cut into three prongs and dyed blue, the same color as his eyes and the curly hair that fell to his collar. His pointed mustachios were painted gold. His clothes were all shades of yellow, a foam of mirish lace, the color of butter. spilled from his collar and cuffs. His doublet was sewn with brass medallions in the shape of dandelions, and ornamental goldwork crawled up his leather, his high leather boots to his thighs.

Gloves of soft yellow suede were tucked into a belt of gilded rings, and his fingernails were enameled blue. Right off the bat. Total drip. Total Riz. Wow, what an outfit. What a king. He has it all.

Dario and Joyers. Welcome to the podcast. I think there's something really interesting in how he's presented. Unlike the storm crows who have their black feathered helms on, and they're kind of boring otherwise, he is like meticulously dressed, which gives you the impression that he spent time putting this outfit together, but also that this is who he is in some aspects.

This is just how he dresses. Some of the aspects of the actual outfit pieces, like the gloves, for example, they're soft yellow suede they're meant for show they're not meant for him to get on his knees and start digging up a garden those are meant for show

they're soft yellow colored that's going to get dirty as hell they're not meant for him to kill or do work in these are show like it's for a show right like he's here to put on a show in these clothes he's not here

to go to battle he's here to present himself to a queen his hair is very specific very cared for. His beard and his hair match his eyes. His mustache was painted gold. His clothes have this yellow and blue and brass and goldwork. He's got the rings all over.

He showed up to treat with a queen today. He didn't show up to kill a queen. He didn't show up to do battle. He showed up to respect a queen. And they're having a queen off. Wow. They're having a queen off. I just think there's a lot of precision about him and it shows like the things about Dario, he's very precise in how he dresses. He's precise in how he presents himself and when he presents himself. We see that at the end of the chapter when he shows back up with his bag of heads, right? Very precise about the things he's saying and what he's going to do about

them. And the colors kind of tell you, the color story is really interesting. They tell a whole story on themselves. Yellow is kind of a warm, welcoming color in contrast to the storm pros who are here in their black feathers and their dark clothing. The texture and color is all described as like buttery, lace, suede, soft. It's even like very feminine coated. The textiles that he's wearing are very feminine coated. Then him in blue, right? The water, the ocean, stormborn, divinity, the sky, all these things that really just bring, I don't know, bring your mind kind of to Danny, right? her on her dragon, flying in the sky, her in the ocean, escaping the storm, right, that she was born into. Think of the Roman villas that are painted with imported indigo pigments with such

great, like, ceiling installations, the deep, rich color of emotion. It's a very specific color, it's a very romantic color that George chose to paint Dario with. His belt, dandelions, on his medallions. This is kind of fun. We've been talking a little bit about Danny's story as a fairy story, right? Having characters and trickery like a fairy story or Queen Mab being kind of quath-like. And here we have dandelions, which in you might note the tale that when you blow on a seated dandelion, you can make a wish and it might come true, right? Those are all your wishes. Did you hear this as a child?

Did you ever hear the version where they're called fairy clocks? because the fairy takes the seed to go grant your wish? Well, no. Dandelions are called fairy clocks. Yeah, that's the next layer. Dandelions are fairy clocks. They're fairies taking each little seed off to grant the wish. So Dario is like literally comes in the room wearing these colors that makes him be focused of the main character.

The main character is like, holy shit, why is he dressed like this? I must look at him. And then he has literal wishes. all over his belt, right? Like, he's being portrayed as a romantic, like, you know in TV or shows or movies or whatever when the girl is like slow mode on and you're like, wow, she's so pretty and this guy's in love with her? That's what they did to Dario with Danny.

You made episode five of the summer I turned pretty? Oh, my God, exactly. He's showing up as a splash of color. Yeah. Oh, yeah, there you go. He's showing up as like a splash of color and light of wishes and dreams in her life and saving And he saves her in a way from real bloodshed, right? The problem at the table right now is that Danny doesn't want to lose blood in fighting these people.

And she's probably going to have to. And he pretty much shows up and takes care of half the problem. I just think there's something great because he, I don't know, he definitely understands the law of attraction, right? Like Dario was working it. And we don't actually see Dandelions in the story outside of being related to Dario twice. I thought that was kind of cute. Dario's got a little flower Yeah

Also that they got dandelions around here I mean he is a very flowery guy right Like he's very he's very flamboyant And he's another person where I'm like What are your undertones Dario that you're wearing All of this kind of yellow but you're pale Like how is this working These are questions that I have

But also I love what you said of how he Knows how this all works He comes back and like proves himself later and helps to kind of reduce the bloodshed that she would have to incur and like, you know, that's kind of what women want, you know, come with fucking solutions.

You know, don't bring me more problems. He came with a solution and makes this problem, like, you know? Also, I kind of forgot that he has painted nails and that he's choosing

to follow De Neri's shows that, like, there's something about it that he's dressed in a way that doesn't seem like it would make sense, but he's confident. There's like this femininity or like what people would associate with femininity because of that frivolity, right? That he's confident in his choices and that shows like also why like he's like, yeah, I'm going to support this girl queen. Like that's kind of cool. You know what I'm, you know what I'm trying to say, Chloe. Yeah.

Yeah. I love that, are we like, are we a Dario Stan podcast? I mean, like, in the way that our friend San Rixian is a Dark Star Stan podcast? Is this our Dark Star? Yeah, I mean, there's no accounting for taste on that, so I can't really comment. But, yeah, Stario. Oh, okay. I am a strong, staunch Dario fan.

Dark Star, I'm sorry, San Rixian. I love me very dearly. But Dark Star could never be Dario, ever. Interesting. Wow. Are we starting? Could I do like my men a little pathetic, too? Like, I do like my men a little pathetic, so at the same time, I get it, but.

Dario's got his own, like, kind of pathetic, too. Like, any, he's very imprisoned right now. That's a little pathetic, like, in book five. Yeah, you're not wrong there. Anyway, he's also probably doomed. So later, Miro of the Second Sons comes alone. Not very cool. He's crude and lewd, flirting with Dineries and mocking her.

She keeps her composure, countering his boast with calm threats and offers. Mero promises to give an answer the next day and accepts a wagon of wine as a gift. Not a flagon, a whole ass wagon. And this is a great exchange from Deney's. We're not going to go over the whole thing. You can all look at it. She's got bars. Good for her.

And interestingly, he insults her by asking if she's ever seen the Titan of Bravo's, which she doesn't say anything, but like, yes. It's like, I assume, very visible across all of Bravo's. But I also love the detail of her. It's a little weird. Yeah, and now I'm just like, oh, God, I hate... That he keeps calling himself the Titan? I hate to give like a Lemon Gate, like, you know, prop, but that she doesn't say anything.

But anyway, I love the detail of her being like, yes, I got. I got that wine from the Masters of Astepore, and I'm just like, all right, flex, all this wine. I got that from the people that I'm going to do the same thing to all of you. Give me your gifts, and maybe I'll burn you a little less motherfucker. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Great flex. And there is, so there's so much here with, like, this sexual power structure and how Danny's being treated during these meetings to talk about.

And I know you're going to talk a little bit about Grazden after this, but I think it's really notable. that Mero tries to like, he does this disgusting thing where he tries to hit on her to get her allegiance and then won't leave it alone, even though she's clearly like glossing over it and not responding to the sexual overture that he's pursuing. You know, he's like, oh, I bet I slept with you once in a pleasure house. As if like fucking someone in a pleasure house is degrading, it's only degrading if you have personal issues you need to settle about sexuality with yourself. Right? Like you're the only one that's being a weirdo about it, Miro, but okay.

But also like using it to try to delegitimize her, right? And saying like, oh, I just know I fucked you once. I just know we fucked once. We hooked up once. I fucked you. Oh, I bet you want to fuck me though. Don't you want to suck on this? Like the Titan of Bravo's. Don't you want to put it in your mouth, Danny? And that's literally straight up like what he's doing here. It's and he doesn't let go of it. And she continues to just be like, no, I don't. Please keep moving on. You know, like, da-da-da. I don't want to break the deal. but also, and I don't want to, like, break the piece, but also, like, I want to stab you in the penis, but I can't say it.

And so she, like, redirects his attentions several times, like a fucking dog. She's like, oh, but you would be a great, glorious hero if you bow to me, DeNaris, and he's like, oh, but you'd be great and glorious if you sucked on my, you know. So it goes back and forth like that, and I don't know what's interesting. He just comes back, like, it's just like a guy who comes back to your Instagram story. responding about your boobs in every picture, you know, and he just doesn't go away. It's like the same kind of annoying. What I'm describing is one of the many types of sexual harassment, DeNaris, deals with in this chapter, let alone the whole series, but like especially in this chapter.

Yeah. I mean, she gets it throughout the entire series. I mean, like, even, like, she has to address the issues with that with, like, the guy who's supposed to be working for her literally, like, in the same chapter. Yeah. Well, it's, which is a feature, not a bug, because there's three whole versions of this throughout the chapter. That's true. But at least, uh...

Joro's the final one. Yeah, I'm just like, thankfully, thankfully, Barisdyn's not a creep. Thank God. Oh, my God. The bar is in hell. Yeah, I love... Lower and lower as we speak. I know, right?

Like, I, she does actually, like, a really masterful job of, like, balancing, you know, the sexual. talk and not, and turning it on, like, everyone else in this. She's, again, bars. Masterful at banter, De Nerees. After Mira leaves, Sir Jora and Arson warned Danny not to trust him. He's known for cruelty and treachery, unwanted even in the free cities, and I'm also just like, I mean, do you think she's stupid? Like, do you think she came out of that exchange she just had being like, I'm going to

trust that man. That man really won me over. No? Like, anyway, the youngish envoys arrive at sunset, led by Grosdan Moeras, dressed extravagantly. He warns deniers that Yon Kai will not fall easily and mocks her and Sully, claiming that they shall be enslaved again. Grozden offers a chest of 50,000 gold marks for deniers to leave, she inspects it, then gives her terms. In three days, all slaves must be freed, given supplies, and allowed to leave. If the city complies, she will spare it. here once again this is not like the first time that this this insult has been levied at her

but they say that they see her only as a horse lord's whore but interestingly by offering her these 50,000 gold marks they're actually treating her like a call not like the way that calisi are usually treated because they are offering her payment you know homage tribute whatever to be spared from the attack which is typically how things go in this area. So I thought that was really fun. And of course, also the way that she keeps saying, free the slaves, do it in this amount of time, this is what I want, free them, free them, free them.

Like, it's very, again, Moses in Exodus coded, Moses talking to Pharaoh. I love that, Danny is Moses coded, yet another Bible banger from Eliaba. Everything is, I mean, like, this is not the first. time she's been Moses coded it's just you know yeah that's true that's true she doesn't I would argue like you know when we get to Marine also a little Joshua mm-hmm which I guess John is a little too or like some of that stuff we've discussed it I think in regards to the the horn of winter in the past but whatever Grazden refuses DeNeres's gifts and her allegiance that she's asking for and calls her mad. In response, she's like, oh, bat, and she says Dracatus, and her dragon's hiss, snap, and

Drogon breathes flame, setting Grosden's to-car on fire. And he panics and he screams, and she's like, a reminder, you received safe conduct on this trip. Yeah, he's all like, what happened to guess, right? And she's like, I don't know, you're fine, right? It's just your clothes. And... Cry baby. I do think this is a really difficult line that De Neres is towing here, right? And sets the stage for other parts of her story. Like, it's one thing for her to internally wonder whether or not she is mad. And I don't, I don't think she's mad. I don't think she ever will be. Other than, like, maybe, like, a little, like, brief spell of it in the way that I am, you know, normally, you know, that any of us go through. But, like,

it's another thing to play into the perception of being mad in the way that, like, Like, Tyrion says to many of the other characters, like, make this thing your armor and very, like, own it, you know? And I think that's especially the case in Westeros, where it's stacked against her and, like, with the specter of Ares, which she doesn't really know is, like, turns out that was, like, a little true about him. Because I think that it's one thing to play into, oh, they're a madman, right, when you're a man, right? Like, madness is something that people fear a little in Westeros. You see it in the way that people talk about, like, Ramsey. And even, like, Ares, he was mad, but people still followed him for long enough, right? And, you know, you see.

Yeah, bitches love power. Yeah, exactly. Like, you see it in a lot of, like, the other lords and things like that, or even, like, you're on. But when it comes to madness in women, it's not something that you're like, oh, got to follow that because you never know what that wildcard's going to do. With women, it's something to be contained and controlled. That gets you fucking tossed in like the asylum, right? They're going to be like, oh, we have to lock her up. We cannot have her out and about. She's mad. Like, regardless of whether or not someone is truly mad, that just gets thrown on women as a way to control them if they

refuse to behave. So I think it's, I understand why DeNaris is kind of like using that because she is trying to perform the way that she's seen men seize power, or maybe the way that she's been told they could work. But unfortunately, this is not a strategy that works for women. Right, especially when you consider some of how we've had to watch characters who are clearly great in politicking and diplomacy, like Alessan Targaryen, who had to play second, third string, and had to wheedle her way in through Barth and couldn't take power for herself necessarily.

DeNaris is entering, especially in Westeros, but here, out in Slavers Bay, too, a very, a society that's not run by women whatsoever, and that women have had to kind of take their power where they can in it, and she is challenging that. Yeah, it's seen as, like, more weakness, right? Like, we see it in, like, the way it's described amongst the wents or, like, the lost ins and the whatever's happening with the high towers right now, Malora. Yeah. whose name now that I think about it reminds me of Mallort anyways Grazden kind of soils himself from all this excitement and Danny is kind of kind of calls him out she's like oh there he is shit himself she threatens to burn Yunkai

if they don't surrender their slaves in three days yeah get them Grosden angrily warns her that her dragons won't protect her and I'm like I don't know about all that after he leaves Danny plans a very surprise night attack. She knows the self-swords are drunk or unsure right now and partying. And the yun Kai think they have time, three days. So the night here is described, you know, surprise attack night, as no moon and no stars. And there's also this line of chill wet wind blowing. And I just wanted to call it out because it feels exactly like the kind of circumstances that she'll probably have to deal with when fighting against the others, probably like no light at all.

but here she's using it to her advantage probably not going to be to their advantage for the most part but the others they could find a way she's clever good at coming up with ideas and surprises but the others you know it's kind of their element but I love the idea that she could make it work yeah I love all these little like bits that we're probably going to see comeback for her in the long night

and in the north a lot of this similar language that George might hearken back to someday And not just that, but then also it reminds me of whispering wood a little bit. Oh, yeah, exactly. There's a couple things here that feel very whispering wood. Yeah. Yeah, like later on, when she's waiting for them to all come back, it's very Catalan, Catalan waiting, coated.

She orders a three-pronged attack, the unsullied flanking left and right, the Dothraki charging the center, because she believes that the slave soldiers won't be able to stand against the cavalry. Three-pronged, like, three-headed, right, like dragons, or three-pronged like Dario's beard.

Wow, that was the real foreshadowing. The 5 o'clock shadow, but beard. Get out of here. Go away. Go away. Okay, I think that, like, I think the one thing about Dario that, like, I see it, like, I can see, I see it,

it's just the mustache. I think the mustache just throws me off. Like, if either if the mustache were the same color as the rest of his hair, or if he just did not have mustache it would just make it more believable for me but like you know sometimes you can see past it like if it's like light enough i guess maybe she's just like whatever that's that's fair that's that's that's that's it that's just my take i think he should get rid of the mustache or dye it blue he can keep it but died blue heard yeah getting the second son's drunk

as part of her strategy it reminds me of walder fray getting the start camp's drunk during the wedding the red wedding treachery but for Danny I'll let it slide these are slavers it is bad for Walter Frey but it's good when Denarius does it I stand by this yeah it's great I agree

it's you know slavers and people supporting that system and profiting from it so good for her yeah yeah they're not playing fair yeah no exactly they're just so why she got to do it yeah yeah her commanders admire the planning that she's been doing.

Jora compares her to Rhaegar and Arston calls her a true queen. I find it really interesting for Barristan to describe her as a true queen for doing this kind of attack. Because in the context of Jora comparing her to Rhaegar, like, we actually never hear about Ares having come up with any sort of wartime strategies nor doing any fighting. And like he doesn't have to. I think it would be good for, like, a king to have, like, a non-zero amount of say in, like, the strategy. He doesn't have to do the fighting, right? Like, I'm sure Darren, the bookish one, like, he wasn't out there fighting, but he was probably very involved, right? Whereas Rhaegar did very much do these things.

So I just thought that was kind of interesting for Bairison to call her true queen because of that. Yeah, especially, too, when it's kind of laced in a little bit of trickery. Exactly. I mean, like, I like the trickery. It's an advantage. Sorry, it's an advantage. Like Whispering Wood, it's an advantage. Yeah, no, it is.

Like, because Rob does some trickery, too. And I love, we've been talking about trickery in Dineries' storyline and her as a trickster god, which is kind of interesting because, again, very much a male-coded thing. Um, a lot of trickster gods sent to be, I guess, male-coded, not all of them in mythology across the world. And this is some, like, a whole tier that I gave my partner yesterday. I was like, please sit down and listen to my new lecture. Um, so you are. all going to get it now off the cuff and I think that this is something that George is really

interested in because again he keeps giving to Neri's all these ways of like subverting expectations using surprise and again these tricks she's been portrayed as a trickster god she brings even fire to the world very much like Prometheus who is another trickster god figure and like in general like this whole idea of bringing this boon to humanity and and taking it from the other gods right The way that she's doing it here and freeing everyone, giving that sort of freedom back, that's also very trickster god-coded. And for it to be given to this, like, girlish figure, I think is something George is interested in because I see, like, in Eldon Ring and the mythology that he's created, there's this character

Ronnie that I would say is also very trickster god-coded. She, like, finds a loophole in this way that, like, ends up killing someone else's soul while she gets to escape her body and this whole other system. And then develops this whole other thing. Very much tricks her. She's like hiding in dolls, makes you go on quest, and then you get to marry her if you want. You don't have to, but like it's fun.

Why not? You know, the video game gives you a cool little wife. So, like, obviously I'm going to do that. Anyways. I mean, Eros is in her name too, right? Pardon? Deneris, ERIS, the goddess of discord and strife, who's also constantly pulling little tricks.

I mean, that's part of her name. Danaris. Yeah. So I think it's kind of fun that we got that there. Anyways, more surprises. Ladies is pimps, too, they say. More surprises are here. We got a surprise visitor.

But Chloe loves this kind of surprise. It's Dario Naharis. Oh, my God. Jean Parvajon. Oh, my God. He kind of does feel, like, Jean Parmesan, he got a mustache, but it works on him because it's the same color as his other hair. What does Dario have?

He's carrying a sack of D's nuts. Oh, is like each of the heads a testicle? No, it's two heads. Yeah, he declares the Storm Crozer now hers, and he dumps the severed heads of the other two captains onto her carpet, and he's like, yeah, I killed them because you're beautiful. Ladies, gaze, days, get your quills out and take some notes. This is how you do it.

This is the way to the... heart, pussy, pussy? The pussy? Oh, my God. Remember when we explained to everyone what a bussy was? That's a classic. I think that's a classic. For the historians, I consider that a classic moment in Girls Gone Canon history.

Oh, yeah, we love a simp sometimes. Yeah, this kind of simp, not like a Jora. Yeah, it's an important distinction. Again, he comes with, this guy came with solutions. Let's talk more walk. You know what I mean? Like, we like actions. Mm-hmm.

We like an actionable simp. Yeah. Learn the difference. And also he's supporting Dineris in freeing slaves, right? Like, Jora was all like, let's just have slaves. Well, another reason. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And Dario kind of boasts of his skills. He's out there. He's hot to try. He's like, hey, girl, let me holler at you. I'm really fucking good. And he swears himself. to Danny, his body, and

his soul. Yo. Okay. And then Jora's furious, by the way. Jora, like, urges Danny to keep Dario under guard until after the battle, which, okay, not to hand anything to him, but I will say, like, is it suspicious? It could be.

Obviously, it turns out somewhat okay, but yeah, I could see where it's somewhat suspicious, but then, then he continues on. Danny's like, well, this is a gesture, like, this is a very nice gesture. It's a big gesture and it's proof of loyalty. I'm not going to do that. Yeah, this is like she's all about the big gestures. Yeah. And Jora warns her. He's like, don't trust him. Loyalties are shaky. This

guy dies his beard so you can see he's a liar. Okay, Jora. Danny finally lashes out. And she's like, you're trying to isolate me. True. And she's like, I respect you. I value you very deeply, but I don't desire you. I'm not going to be pushed into needing only you. And Jora leaves her wounded. So yeah, she's worried she's a little harsh, but honestly, I don't think she was. She only did what was needed, right? Because he was not taking no or a hint. And he, on it, he really was trying to isolate her. Like, that wasn't in her head. That was real. Like, he was doing that. It's an abusive strategy because abuse isn't only need to be physical. That's it. Yeah. And it's a strategy he has been using. The last handfuls of chapters. He's always.

done this to her, so it's a pattern. Yeah. And it's a good thing, I don't know, it's so funny that he was all like, you can't keep strong Belwas or Barriston around you and it's like Bellwas is just chilling. He's big chilling eating food, dude, and I love that for him.

He's just what I want to be doing. I want to be eating. Yeah, like he's just like projecting on these people like Barristen again, not being a creep. Like, he's just projecting being creepy onto everyone. Granted Dario is in fact interested in Denieres, but like yeah and again like I do see how yes maybe the guy that just killed these guys and

threw it there that is a big gesture so you should trust some of that they're asking for trust too it's a high risk high reward true true but big reward clearly and it's the way that you're not going to kill half your fucking army yeah also a good point like I mean she she's taking a risk too true yeah she is but she's hoping it pays off and it does and denarius does a lot of that And like, Jora pulling out that Dario is his fake as his beard color is hysterical to me. And it does start to link Jora to the captains and the sexist behavior that they portrayed, right? Here he is trying to cage her and not letting her experience what she chooses to. Interesting that we have the Sonsa chapter before this, right, where she's married to Tyrion and is very honest with him that she will not probably ever sleep with him.

And he needs to get that together. that's the end of that chapter and that's kind of part of this chapter's end too before we get to the battle that's a great tie to the other things going on around this one and yeah yeah and when she's alone danny really regrets being kind of sharp with him but also she's her she's his queen he should not be speaking that way to her first of all yeah um she does wonder if dario can be trusted and feels kind of alone. She's like, I can't have children. My dragons have to be my legacy. Is this just a distraction? What am I supposed to be doing here? And she plays with Drogon. She notices he's growing very fast and she dreams one day of riding these dragons into

battle someday. As the night wears on, Danny grows restless and asks Arston to tell her more of Ragar. And yeah, again, like this is the, she goes like the waiting is the hardest part. It feels, again, and very much like Catalan and all those other commanders who don't go into the battle. Yeah. Love that. Even though that I guess that chapter happens very far away from here. Anyway, Arsson reveals that Ragar didn't enjoy fighting. He preferred his harp, but he did what was expected of him and excelled at everything,

happy for him, I guess. But I guess things didn't turn out great for him, so never mind. He was melancholy, shadowed by a sense of doom. And I thought it kind of fun that in this moment, we see that. that De Neri's commands those who are close to her twice, right? She says to Doris, she makes it clear. She's like, I command you in regards to, like, quit your fucking nonsense. And just now, she commands Arston to tell her these true things about Ragar.

And also, side note, Ragar is very Janthony in Dying of the Light. Clearly, Rhaegar was a gifted child, is what I'm noticing here. I think so. I think so. Burned out, you know. Yeah, burned out is one way to put what happened to him. I guess more like the flame was snuffed. Burnt out, caved in, you know, however you want to put it.

Ragar, in his great peak of being a gifted child slash man child, won the great Ternia Heron Hall where he crowned Lianastard instead of his wife, Elia, gasped the shock, the drama. Danny reflects on how her birth might have changed everything had it been earlier. Arston says Ragar had been born in grief, haunted by the events of his birth at Summer Hall. He would go there alone to write songs, often of sorrow and loss. So a lot of these chapters have been likening Dineries to Ragar, and I think here's another thing that They share being swallowed in grief and melancholy because, you know, Rhaegar probably felt

very alone in his responsibility, much like Denei's does, because he's like, well, my dad's fucking crazy. My mom's just, like, not really, you know, she's not, she's too busy being big sad. I was born like this. My other siblings aren't really born yet, slash my dad's, like, you know, corrupting my seven-year-old brother, and it's just really me. And so he's carrying all that weight of legacy, just like DeNaris. And, yeah, he's also born in grief.

Here they talk about Summer Hall. But you know what's really being born in grief? Being born in a war to your mother who dies soon after and then you have to escape. And then, like, your whole family is gone and dead. Passing it down. Her. That's called genetics, baby. Is it?

Runs in the family, they say. Being born in grief, being born. in a big cataclysmic family event. Rhaegar also, he reminds me a lot of the way that King David, in the Bible, I guess, is described, and there's a great post, I'll link it from, how fucking long ago is this from? This is from nine years ago. Jesus. Where someone does a great job of charting some of the parallels between Ragar and

King David so I'll link that yes and I love of course that he's a total byronic hero right it reminds you of when our friend Mary came on from Heart of the Dragon you may know them a long time ago to talk about John Snow back in like 2019 and 2020 and talked a lot about John as a byronic hero and

John's not dissimilar to his father whatsoever in this of course he doesn't know but he's definitely replicated some of that behavior and like any good byronic hero right like victor frankenstein or i mean he's not very heath cliff but many others yeah i recommend james joyce for great byronic heroes like a portrait of the artist there's a lot of good stuff in that interesting the conversation gets cut short when the dragons sense horses approaching jora enters and he's bloody but victorious he announces the surprise attack succeeded.

The storm crows switch sides. Yung Kai's slaves fled, and the second sons were too drunk to fight. They lost very few men. Yon Kai lost hundreds. Mero fled, but he's being hunted. Danny tells Jorov spare and accept any who pledge loyalty. Even the second sons, if enough join. The next day, Danny's forces marched to Yonkai, which looks kind of like a yellow brick

version of Astopor. Oh, the yellow brick road. The city walls are crowded with defenders. and Danny sets up camp and waits. On the morning of the third day, the city gates open, and a long line of slaves begins to walk out. At some point during our coverage of the series,

we just decided that we were going to read aloud most of the end of the chapters, because they're just good. They're bad ass, yeah. And we especially have to do that for the Danny ones. Because they're good as thought. They're just very cinematic. You know, George was very in his, like,

writer's room ending an episode of something vibe so danny mounted her silver to greet them as they passed little missonde told them that they owed their freedom to denary's stormbornly and burnt queen of the seven kingdoms of westrose and mother of dragons mea a brown skin man shouted at her he had a child on his shoulder a little girl and she screamed the same word in her thin voice bisa misa dany looked at Missande, what are they shouting? It is Giscari, the old pure tongue. It means mother. Danny felt a lightness in her chest.

I will never bear a living child, she remembered. Her hand trembled as she raised it. Perhaps she smiled. She must have, because the man grinned and shouted again and others took up the cry. Misa! Misa! Misa! Misa!

Misa! They were all smiling at her, reaching for her, kneeling before her. Maela! Some called her, while others cried. Elala, Kete, Tato. But whatever the tongue, it all meant the same thing. Mother, they are calling me mother.

The chant grew, spread, swelled. It swelled so loud it frightened her horse. And the mare backed and shook her head and lashed her silver gray tail. It swelled until it seemed to shake the yellow walls of Yongkai. More slaves were streaming from the gates every moment and as they came they took up the call. They were running toward her now, pushing, stumbling, wanting to touch her hand, to stroke her horse's mane to kiss her feet. Her poor blood riders could not keep them all away, and even strong belwest grunted and growled in dismay. Sir Jora urged her to go, but Danny

remembered a dream she had dreamed in the house of the undying. They will not hurt me. They are my children, Joy. She laughed, put her heels into her horse, and wrote to them, the bells in her hair ringing, sweet victory. She trotted, then cantered, then broke into a gallop, her braids streaming behind. The freed slaves parted before her. Mother, they called from a hundred throats, a thousand, ten thousand. Mother, they sang, their fingers brushing her legs as she flew by.

Mother, mother, mother. I feel like I want to take with you. done there and like remix it into a song. I can't. Like the I Love Cat song. Do you remember that one from it was an E-Harmony? It was a big meme. It was an E-Harmony dating commercial.

And she's like, well, I love cats. And she goes into it and she starts getting really emotional once she gets halfway through. And she starts like being like, I just love them so much. And it was like a chick that would do skits and shit. So she did this. And it went viral. people made a song of it and they turned into it. It's like, I love cats. I love every kind of cat. I just want to touch all them, but I can't, can't touch every cat. Also, I know it when I

sing it by heart. I don't know it. Not in the song. So, like, if that says anything to you that I know the song that was remixed and made of her, I think you should do it. I mean, I don't know how, but I think someone should like to learn. Take up a new hobby. Like, make it like a dance like the, you know, I think someone should make it where you can like vogue to whatever Chloe just gave us here. Yeah, mother is mothering. Yeah, mothering.

Mother. Mothering to the mothership, which is Drogan. Oh yeah, that's true. Drogan's the mothership, yeah. Could be, like they are changeable at will. Changeable as flame. She's dropping a mother bomb on young Kai.

Oh my God. Sorry, I'm so sorry. You have to kill me to end it. You just have to. to end it? The language here, I didn't realize, it very much parallels her wedding night, you know, with the trotted, canter, broke into a gallop, right? And then brushing her legs as she flew by and how she feels like she has been given the

wind when she rides on her silver. And so I thought that was cool. There's a line here where, you know, she tells George, they will not hurt me, they are my children. And that's kind of an interesting idea in the context of a storm of swords specifically. because just because someone's your child doesn't mean that they're not going to hurt you. That's not a sure bet as a Tyrion.

Tyrion shows us at the end of a storm of swords. And I mean, maybe even Aria with Lady Stoneheart and arguably even like Rhaegar was going to perhaps suppose his own dad. So. Yeah. And his kids, also that his children did not have protection from their father, right? So it goes both ways for the parent and the child relationship going on.

That's true. like what happens when one of her three children do revolt and what happens when any of these children revolt you never know yeah yeah i think the sad thing about the series is it's like very clear that like parents very often hurt their children like sam i think is a very obvious example of that there are other ways be the verse right yeah yeah this be the motherfucking verse they fuck you up but these two chapters uh they end with chanting very in his uh

George is really into I guess that parallel perhaps for these and yeah I thought that like you know we're talking about De Neri's and this loneliness that she's experiencing this isolation that she's like Dora stop fucking doing that but also like regarding Ragar right he likely felt very alone

in many circumstances and because of that she kind of is like she takes on these people and decides okay they're calling me mother like are they my children you know And there's that great element too. And, you know, George hasn't had children. I'm curious, you know, I'm not saying he's exploring that fully, but I do think there is an aspect of it that when you don't have children and you're not going to have children, there is still like you see a world full of children that, I mean, children are abused more than any other fucking class of human, right?

It's very easy. there are children that are abused every other second, every other moment, right? And like, you see a world full of hurt and anger and pain that forges children into whatever they turn into someday, right? And, like, you see a world that you want to protect children, even if you don't want to have them. And that's something that DeNaris does, right? She might not be able to have these children, but to her, these people and this world is what she's trying to protect and trying to give it about. opportunity so that there's less of selling your child away, whether it's selling them into slavery or whether you're sending them to the citadel or whether you're not setting them

to the citadel and you're making them fucking sit and torture in chains in your dungeon, your highborn son and abusing him. Like, I think there's just like so much going on in Westrose and how everybody has become, you know, a type of currency. I mean, it's a pound of flesh that Danny does want to improve that. And I think there's kind of a worldview in that. like while George doesn't have his own children, I would argue that his stories have changed people's lives. They're not bringing world peace. Maybe they should. Maybe they could. But like, while they're not bringing world peace, I think they do improve people's lives, right? So when you put something into the world, because you want the world to be a better place, you know,

community and shit. Like, you understand from living in a bigger city in your life how community comes together, how you make that huge city a better place in the face of corruption. and injustice. And that's what Danny's really looking around and seeing at all of these people she's able to free and maybe hopefully give a better life, question mark. We don't know. Yeah. Something that you said, like, kind of strung these two ideas for me, too, of like,

she calls them her children because she wants to help protect them, right? Like, that's what people are supposed to do. You're supposed to protect your children. But as you pointed out, so often the children, children, children, are hurt and they're hurt by their parents also specifically like again speaking of sam and like it really i think highlights that in the story you know yeah she's like i want to protect them but yeah so many of these westerosy parents do not seem to wish to protect their children yeah think of ned with this three-year-old soldier right fuck rickin go get a job rickin get a job stupid he's three he should have been

employed 12 months ago. He did want to protect it. He was like, I don't know. Are you sure, like, we should be betrothing anyone? Like, maybe no one. He's like, no one should get married. No one should ever get married again. Aria? That's dark. Well, another end to a great buildup. I mean, this is way better than Danny Four Aycock, right?

Like, Danny Four Aycock is a snooze compared to this. So, love Danny Four A-Sos. Very excited to get towards the end of A-Sos. for Danny. It's coming. We're almost at the dance, girl. We're almost dancing with dragons. Wow. Wow. Last dance. For dragons

tonight. Oh, yeah. A dream of Donna Summer. A dream of summer. Instead of a dream of spring. Yeah. George, you have the chance. Anyways, thank you so much for listening to Girls Gone Cannon. Episode 260, Danny Ford in a sauce. I'm glad we burst out into song.

I felt like it was a very dry episode. We didn't sing a lot. We'll do better next week. We'll do better. Oh, my God. We'll do better. Well, we sing a lot last week. Can anybody start censusing our episodes for how often we sing?

Yeah. Yeah, maybe it shouldn't even count as a real episode if we don't sing even once. Like, I think that's a new rule. And some of our episodes just might not count anymore. That's fine. And then we have to redo them. Oh, God. Eliana, where can they find us to talk at us on the internet?

Yeah, you can keep up with when we drop our next single on social media at Girls Gone Cannon, that's C-A-N-O-N, over on Twitter or Blue Sky. You can also, of course, make song requests if you desire, maybe, maybe not. but it's a thought by sending us an email at GirlsConnanatain at gmail.com or you can send this new, like, cool things like Thunderclap did with Demon Road. Demon Road. Yeah.

Hey, if you join the Patreon, you'll even get a chance to hear it played live at brunch. You just never know. You just never know. Never know. Never know. Make sure you're subscribed to us on a platform where you can listen to our episodes

and get notifications when they drop almost every week. You can find that at patreon.com slash girls gone canon. That's my favorite place to find all of our podcast stuff and different posts where we'll tell you what's going on. And our patrons and friends are going to tell you where else you can subscribe. You can catch Girls Gone Canon on any of the following streamers.

On Podbean, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Acast, Spotify, Overcast, Apple Podcast, iHeartRadio, 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 shit posting channel, Fashion Hour. There are multiple channels for historic materials, a song of ice and fire. there's a Pets 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, Chloe. And I've been another one of your hosts, Aliana. We'll be back for Danny Five. Bye. Bye.

Thank you.