Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 283 — ACOK Tyrion II featuring Akash

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

Akash of Kings, Tyrion II, the chapter in which Tyrion believes he is doing justice but might just be doing the opposite. Filmmaker and writer Akash joins us to untangle the Spider's riddle and shed light on what it means for power to cast a shadow. Where to find Akash: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fagittarius_film Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/espressohomo91/ Background music: "Water Prelude" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 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 Canon reads A Song of Ice and Fire episode 283, Tyrion 2 in a clash of kings featuring Akash. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. And I am another one of your hosts. And yes, we are joined today by Akash, who has a lot of great knowledge, has picked my favorite of the text colors that we've ever had in this outline. I don't know. I think we've disclosed, no offense to everyone than the other guest.

Like, this was the best of the colors that was ever chosen. Not that it's a competition. That's a crazy way to intro someone. I didn't know I could rank people like that based off the colors they choose for their outline. Akash, I feel like our paths have always been connected for a very long time from bitching about Thrones show on Twitter, talking about the books and film. there's so much more to you than choosing the best most beautiful font color, which was this beautiful teal that no one's ever chosen on the show, as Eliana has said. So, like, there is more to you than that.

But the myth, the legend, thank you for coming on. We're so excited to have you. Oh, thank you so much. I'm so thrilled to be here. It's always, I'm just so used to hearing your voices. It is honestly such a pleasure. I feel like there's so much hate rage clicks drive so much online. discussion and it is so much fun to actually just talk about something that we all like really love

and have a lot of intense feelings about in a way that seems like mostly reasonable. Mostly, mostly. The unreasonable part is the fun part, you know, that's just that little sprinkle of fun. That's the little sprinkle that we have. Yeah, exactly. Well, what is up with you lately? For those that don't know, you are a filmmaker, you are a writer, you are all sorts of creative and I want to hear what is up in your world. What can you tell us, at least, of what's up?

Yeah, I feel like I spent a lot of time in fantasy books when I was a kid, which unfortunately, regretfully now, Harry Potter was a chunk of it, which yikes. You're a kid. You're not on trial. You kind of know, unless, like, you have, like, something, the fantasy power we don't have. Honestly, looking into the future is, like, the one fantasy power I never want to have. I'm like, Okay, yeah, yeah. That could really... That's fair. Yeah, I'm like, I... That could potentially do numbers on my blood pressure, so let's not.

Right. Shorter lifespan for sure. I haven't like done the research, but I'm just saying, probably. And I feel like strangely, not... I say strangely just because I feel like no one talks about these books as much, but my favorites growing up as a kid were Red Wall. Yes. And I had no concept of narrative consistency when I was a kid.

So I would pick up of all the Red Wall. well books and look at the front map. And if the map included Redwall Abbey, I knew there were going to be descriptions of food. And like the giant feasts that the mole who was like the cook or whatever would like make. And there was something very cozy about that feeling. And it's kind of where I fell in love with the like the medieval in the medieval pub kind of setting. But as it grew older, I was very much like, oh, that's not a practical. thing to really pursue, I should really go for a more practical career or something that's like,

you know, very type A. So I was like, I'll become a doctor. I worked in a cadaver lab for a minute, which was a lot of fun. Mr. Akash. And because I like, I perpetually have sinus problems, so I like couldn't smell cadavers half the time. Fascinating. This is crazy. So when like, when COVID first happened and they were like, here are all the other symptoms. And I was like, do you have more symptoms besides smell because I already kind of struggle with that a little bit. But yeah, long story short, I then went into law. But I think for a lot of folk, the pandemic really made us rethink time and what, you know, we wanted to do with our years that we have on the planet. And for me, I looked at all the drafts of these fantasy novels or films or I would draw like a lot

of fantasy maps just as a really dorky, nerdy kid. I'm not sure how they mostly ended up looking like Sweden, but I think I'll impact that out with my therapy. Did you talk about that with Lowe? Should. No, strangely enough, I didn't. Hit them a message ASAP. Stop. And yeah, I feel like in the last couple of years, I've really started giving writing and filmmaking a real shot. I was like, you know, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But I don't want to grow old and feel like, oh, I never really gave it a shot. So yeah, I have a short film that I have a couple of producers onboarded for, which is really exciting. I applied for some film grants, and I'm hoping to get some money from those in the next couple months. That would be great.

And I recently submitted a query to a literary agent. So it's kind of in the influx phase of being a creative, but yeah, I'm really stoked. It makes me very happy to do it. Nice. That's awesome. That's so cool. That's thrilling. I'm so happy for you. That is like... Thank you. That's so exciting to like just be able to just go for it. Go for being you. I'm looking forward to attending a screening one day. Yeah. I'm looking forward to the right carpet. We will be there. It doesn't... It can be any color. It can be a teal colored carpet, whatever. Yeah, absolutely. I hope it's a beautiful color.

Yeah. When you were telling us about how this was your childhood dream. I wasn't sure initially if you meant writing medieval worlds or being a medieval pubs owner slash cook. And I hope and but I think I figured it out. Yeah, I feel like my ideal alternative life would be the head bitchy buck. Okay. Hmm. Like, I feel like they really merge as like my medieval writing slash like there's like a pub and whatever medieval pub equivalent of like mango sticky rice is. they're like, oh, the head monk once this again.

Almost like court chronicler for the pub. Yeah. Like cheers, but make it medieval. That would be great. Like, imagine if, I didn't really stick with the Rings of Power, but if they made a Lord of the Rings TV show set in the prancing pony.

Yes. I hear, yeah. I would watch that. I feel like I hear that, like, the proprietors that could happen. Uncle. Yeah. It's like,

Each episode has a different vibe. Like, there's a dark comedy and then the next week, like, the Nasgul arrive and the head cook is just like, yeah. I love it. I don't know why more like, yeah, more shows and like kind of pursue that sort of format.

I think that could be fun. Could be a blast. I'd be watching. Well, we'd love to know where everyone can find you. I know where I follow you. I follow you all sorts of places, like the Graham and the Twitter, the artist formerly known as Twitter, sorry.

Um, and of course, on letterboxed, but where should folks look for you online? I am more often probably on Insta. You can find me at fagatarius underscore film, and the first part is spelled just Sagittarius, but with an F. And on letterbox, it is espresso homo 91. Oh, incredible.

Yeah, that is it. That is it. You're like, that is it. That is it. That is it. Of course. Yeah. How not.

How not. on. Amazing. We will link these below. Please, please check it out. We're really excited to have you on, and I'm so excited for all your creative endeavors and to watch them flourish, just like you are. So we could have asked for someone better to come on for this chapter.

There's some big stuff in this chapter, I would say, as a whole, in Ice and Fire World. So lots to chew on. We're going to do some housekeeping for a hot minute. and then we will jump into the episode. And then, Eliana, you have a side shout out. You have been convinced tonight by Akash, who is a film critic and filmmaker, who has said you should watch Rain, the CW show. And I just feel like that is really making me feel better about my choices,

which are also that I think you should watch. Yeah, I know you've floated it, but you weren't, like, passionate. You were like, you threw it out there. Oh, because it's a terrible show. It's not good, but I love it. But it's an incredible show. Like, don't get me wrong, but it is not good. Yeah.

I'm looking for another show that fits those two buckets, I guess. Incredible, but not necessarily that good. Because, again, sometimes you just need something to be on in the background. And I'm running out of stuff. I, like, just finished up, just caught up entirely with St. Dennis Medical, which I had to watch because they had an episode about Filipino nurses. So I was like, I'm in this hole now. Yeah, sucked in. Yep. That's just representation. You have to touch that.

That's really what they wanted. They got your ass. Yeah. It's how I got into rain, finally enough. Filipino nurses? Was representation. I don't know. I just felt, I felt really represented by Catherine de Medici rolling her eyes every time her husband, the king of France, did something stupid.

And she was like, oh, for fuck's sake. Okay. Every time she served cunt, I felt like I was serving cunt. You know what I mean? That's so special. Interesting. Oh, no. Catherine Day Medici serves.

I'm talking like, cunt, cunt. Okay, okay. I'm looking forward to it. That is a selling point for the show. About the Medici's came from an art history class I took like probably nearly 20 years ago. And watching over my partner's shoulder in like three minute segments, the raw. Stark show that was also the Mendi cheese. No, this is better.

It's probably not more accurate. I've never watched the other one, so I'm going to watch this one. Taste. To be fair, everything you learn about the Medici's from Raine is more than likely going to be historically inaccurate. I don't believe you. I think it's real. But like, who can prove that correct or wrong?

No one alive. Yeah. That could be an endeavor. Rain and then we actually talk about what really happened. My understanding is that that's what really happened. It is. It absolutely is. You're absolutely correct, Eliana.

And if you would like to argue with Eliana about rain, you should probably join our Discord in the Thunder Tier or Above. We're going to start high and go low after that. We're going to start join the Discord in the Thunder Tier or Above. It's $10 a month. You get lifetime access to the Discord unless you're an asshole. Then we have to kick you out. Like don't be an asshole.

Show up. We do a brappy hour every month. And the brappy hour is honestly a blast. We talk about stuff like rain and what a terrible great show it is or other shows. We talk about a little bit of everything. It is brunch slash happy hour. And this month it's going to be on Sunday, September 20th at 1 p.m. E.T.

Do the math three hours before that if you're PT. And the rest of you, you'll figure it out. Thankfully, Discord translates that. So if you're on our Discord, it'll tell you what time it is for you. And, you know, if you're not into that, $5 and up, Stranger Tier, or above, you're going to get bonus episodes every single month. And this month is a huge bonus episode. Yeah. This is actually, this is one for the history books, in fact.

Whoa. It is going to be the final episode of Mocking Jay and therefore the final episode of the original Hunger Games trilogy. We are wrapping that up. Which is pretty crazy. It's a big one. There's a lot to discuss and unpack in that whole entire series, and it just kind of all comes to a head right there. So, yeah, tune in.

That's available for patrons in The Strangers here in about $5 and that. It's so crazy. Another fucking series. I mean, and we're going to be done with it, which is pretty, like, impressive of us. And then we have to do the prequels of it, which we actually will do for this one, because we know that we like the two that.

are out. When will they stop? Like, that's crazy. Another one. Another one. Not another one. To quote. Well, excited for those. Stop. Not on this part. Not in the world I'm living in. What is that? We've got some emails. We've got a great one from our friend Warren. We're going to come back to that next week. We've got a guest on today. We've got people at our house. We can't be doing emails. But next week, we'd be doing emails next week. So get them in. Get your emails out. We'll post as well online telling you all to do it

because we're doing a little time traveling with these episodes. By the time this is out, your emails won't hit. So get them in, though. We want to get all your great Tyrion thoughts. This is the last POV of our published reread reading order. It is insane to keep saying. Every time I say it, it doesn't get easier or normaler. so get your emails in now, lest you never email about Tyrion again.

Yeah. I mean, or you could because George is about to drop right after you listen to this episode. The Winds of Winter. Or he could have already dropped it by the time if you listen to this late. That'd be crazy. That'd be awesome. Isn't that worth a kiss, my dear? Okay, let's move on.

Let's talk about the lightning round. I want to just zap past that. Glossing over that Here's what you missed Between Tyrion 1 in a clash of kings And Tyrion 2 in a clash of kings Starting with Brand 1 Where Mastor Lewin gives

Bran a sleeping potion to suppress his dreams But yet He still dreams this time trapped In summer in the godswood Aria 2 Gold Cloaks Come to take Gendry away But you're in

makes us stand. Damn. John won. Sam and John find maps in the library's cellar and watch the new recruits practicing later. Gior.

Thanks, George. Tell John about Maister Amon's past. Catalin won. The king in the north presents peace terms to Cleo's Frey. Catalan argues with Rob about exchanging Jamie Lannister as a hostage and then plans in alliance

with the Baratheans, with her uncle. And that brings us here to Tyrion 2. In a Clash of Kings, Tyrion has a long day of girl bossing, firing Janos, and attending a webinar with Varies, the Spider.

Do you guys see what Chloe did there? Because you should. And I did it for you. Thank you. It was really good. I was like, that's going to be Eliana. Thank you. I was like, oh, a webinar.

Webinar. Janos Slint was a butcher's son, and he laughed like a man chopping meat. More wine? Tyrion asked him. I should not object. Lord Janos said, holding out his cup. He was built like a keg and had a similar capacity. I should not object at all. That's a fine red.

From the arbor? Dornish. Tyrion gestured, and his serving man poured. I love this open. What the... Every time George does it, sometimes I'm like, George, you still got it. Sure, he wrote this ages ago, but I'm like, you still got it. Very fun nod to the Dornish entering the plot with the wine bit by bit.

This is the book where they really start to beneath the surface phys. And of course, there's something interesting in Varus that we'll go into throughout this episode, right? That Veris is also part of that introduction. This is his wine, in a way, as we'll come to find out. but also Tyrion kind of chooses the Dornish instead of the Terrell's as his ally through a lot of this, right?

He has some choices. As he goes through his riddle in the future, he could marry Marcella and Tom and off and maybe make some alliances where he could or Joffrey, etc. But yet he chooses to go the Dornish route. Why was he convinced? We will talk about that.

I also really am loving this focus from Tyrion on Janos being a butcher. And I'm not trying to play Devils Advocate here because Janos is kind of a little bitch, but like, I don't know, is he? He's closer to me or you than Tyrion is close to us, right? And I mean, he's a butcher's boy. You know who else was a butcher's boy? Micah, who just was cut down in the first book.

And I mean, I don't really know about his vibes. I mean, Aria liked him, but like maybe he could have been a douche too. I don't know, but like, just because someone's a butcher's. boy doesn't really dictate, you know, who they are as a person. Hell, Barth? Septim Barth? Right-hand man? Barth? He was a blacksmith's son, right? Does this really define you? Tyrion, you are the son of a mob boss warlord. Does that define you? I guess. It's so true. Like, he could have had bad vibes, Micah. That's what I got what you said. Yeah, we don't know. Thanks, that is what I said, and that should be the BuzzFeed title you use.

Chloe from Girls Gone Cannon said Micah had bad vibes and that's why he was butchered in the street. Is that better for you? Is that what you wanted me to say? Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. When you described Taiwan as a mob boss, just had like an immediate mental picture of Charles dance in The Sopranos and I need somehow for that to be made real.

Yes. God. He would have been great in that. It's been interesting. Casey Blois, get on this. are you doing? But I feel like this chapter, some of the whitewalker elements of a song of Ice and fire don't work as well for me. I think it's very interesting. But I came to the books from watching season one of the show first. So there's something about maybe the show's less

fantastical approach in the first season to those elements that kind of stuck in my brain. But I really love a lot of the chapters that go into George's comprehensive. of like what do the politics of this world really mean? And it sort of feels like this is spiritually almost like a companion chapter to the House of the Dragon episode, Renier a Triumphant. If George didn't do like character titles for chapters, I feel like this chapter could be called Tyrion triumphant. Because what I feel like this does really, really well is on the surface,

it's Tyrion dressing down Janus and getting him sent away. and that's kind of, you know, the general action of the chapter. But it's such effective characterization from George on both ends of the character spectrum, where Tyrion, his perspective opens with what Chloe was noting, like, oh, Janus's class station. Like, he is a son of a butcher, which also suggests that the riddle that Varys is posing to him, that's arguably one of the more famous sort of like monologues in the series, that the true answer to that riddle is eludes Tyrion

because of his class and how that sort of distinguishes him for most of the people around him. But for Janos, I feel like it suggests that while he's the son of a butcher, but he laughs as if he's a butcher himself, giving the reader the impression.

Like, this is a man who is sort of like he is like one of the kids from succession. Like they're all trying to be daddy, but like none of them. They're not quite competent enough to get there. Right. Yeah. And it's so funny because Tyrion's seeing that, but he's not getting that he is too. Yeah. Like you're not seeing your fault. What's so good in this chapter is that trap that Tyrion's falling into the entire chapter, like where he's like, I'm different, I'm special, I'm made different. It's like, no, my man, you are not made different. You are just as mortal as every one of these men, no matter how much money you own in daddy's pocket. First of all, it's not your money. but it's crazy.

And like it reminds me a little bit of the butcher and his customers, the ASOP fable, where basically it's really short. Two men were buying meat at a butcher's stall in the marketplace, and while the butcher's back was turned for a moment, one of them snatched up a joint

and hastily thrust it under the other's cloak, where it could not be seen. When the butcher turned round, he missed the meat at once and charged them with having stolen it. But the one who had taken it said, he hadn't got it. The one who had got it,

it said he hadn't taken it. The butcher felt sure they were deceiving him, but he only said, you may cheat me with your lying, but you can't cheat the gods and they won't let you off so lightly. And of course it ends with prevarication often amounts to perjury. The whole thing is like the guy is like he hides it up someone else's back to steal it, right? And the butcher's like, hey, you stole it. But the guy who had stole it. and it was like, well, I don't have it in my hands, he, he, he. And the one who has it is like, I didn't steal your fucking meat. So the butcher's like, someone's lying to me, and you can cheat me, but you can't cheat

the gods are going to get you. And like, there's something fun in that with these themes, right, of like this fable that you can manipulate people and manipulate words enough to fool someone else, but you can't make the wrongdoing just disappear just by finding a clever loophole. And I feel like that's the whole chapter. like Tyrion makes Janos disappear by finding a clever loophole. Varus has a lot of clever loopholes that Tyrion is falling for. Like there's a lot of great lying to one another and deceit.

Deceit being the great theme in this chapter. So it was fun. I was trying to just think of like what butcher stories that we know in great culture and Aesop. Aesop's got a good one. This is it. Yeah, I didn't know this one. I only know some like his animal ones.

So very good. He's pretty. varied, believe it or not. It's not just animals. Yeah. I like that you pulled this in here because it does make me feel like maybe George is kind of... I feel like George knows a lot of Aesop's fables, so very much

something that could be showing up here. And like, I don't know, there's a lot that is very... I'll come back to this later on in this episode, but like that is very, to an extent, butchre-like about like Tyrion's actions, right? And what

happens with people's bodies and the way that they're treated and moved around. But also when I think of like the opening line even, this is not related and not actually insightful. Laughing like a man chopping meat. Like I would be fucking happy if I was chopping meat. Like, you know, I'd be like, this is, this rocks. We're having barbecue.

I'm excited. And like not in a weird. What's the biggest carcass you've taken apart or like the biggest piece of meat? That I've taken apart. Probably like a roast pig, a whole roast pig. Whole roast, yeah. Because someone had to chop it for the. for the party.

No, understood. I was just curious. I was just curious. Yeah. I've done a pig myself too. I haven't done... I don't know that I could do it like over and over again. Yeah.

I think that's also maybe part of the metaphor, right? Like if a man chops a beast open over and over and over and over again. Yeah. And I think it's meant to be that he's like doing it in a way that's not very... And there is, right? We saw it in House of the Dragon, right? There's a sense of decorum you're supposed to bring. when you're at the table, a sense of table manners.

Like we saw the way that Ulf was ridiculed for not having it. And I think like thinking about Janos in that context, but yeah, but even like George will liken, for example, the way Ramsey wields a sword to like holding it like a butcher's knife. So a lot to call out here. And yeah, Janos and Tyrion, they're dining alone. Janos is already drunk and he's laying the flattery on pretty thick. They feast extravagantly with oxtail soup, greens.

crab pie squash. This is extravagant quail and like lots of wine. This is a lot of food. And the crab pie, I am curious. I've never heard of a crab pie. And I was like, is this a misnamed crab cake? I thought it was more like a like a seafood pie, like sister's stew

inside a pie. You know, like a pasty. For those uninitiated, that is a great northern and Midwestern, you know, delicacy, a hand pie, basically. Oh. or a pie with meat in it, a savory pie. I do love hand pies. Or I was thinking like once you said this, I was like, oh, does she mean like a chicken pot pie?

Because I did see an oyster pot pie somewhere. And I was like, we should have ordered that. Yeah, a pot pie. Seafood pot pie, which sounds incredible. I've had like a fisherman's pie like that. So sounds good as fuck. Better than a crab cake, honestly. I'm going to say that.

Oh, okay, bold. I don't know. I don't know. I think there's space enough for both in my heart. Tyrion jokes about Janos' future as Lord of Heronhal, and he's like, well, it's an enormous, expensive, grim, and also cursed, allegedly, castle.

And Janos is like, I'm not afraid of a pile of stone, and Tyrion praises his boldness. And Janos is like, oh, yes, you two are bold despite your size. Oh, okay, nagging. Okay, we're nagging now. We're negging. Tyrion turns to Janos' recommendations for his replacement as Commander of the City Watch. Janos favors L.R. Deem.

But Tyrion prefers Jocelyn Bywater, a veteran of Bailen Gradyro's Rebellion, who lost a hand at Pike and was knighted by Robert. Jamie 2.0. Janos dismisses Bywater as a cripple and insists on Deem. Tyrion notes Deem is hated, particularly because he murdered Bara. Robert's Bastard and also her mother at Chitaya's brothel hashtag a Game of Thrones. There's some fun little foreshadowing here for Jamie. The exchange of hand and sir, and I'm like, oh, Jimmy does feel like his knighthood is being exchanged by the loss of his hand.

And sometimes I'm like, how much did George plan in advance? But this, Jamie losing his hand feel like such a thing that he would have right now, like fairly, like early-ish, I think. Also, like, I like that it brings up also. the odd idea of why is Jocelyn Bywater not a good man for the watch and should your city be ruled by violence? Like, why not? Why not have a man? Like, what can't he do? Yeah. It does seem like George always planned for like one of the Lannisters to lose their hand for sure, like very early. And on like that was a plan. So very fun. And I do feel like, I don't know, the way that Bywater is described kind of even reminds, like the way that Janos describes him, it reminds me

a little of like Stannis and like people like I don't know I don't know if that guy should lead which is kind of interesting considering so much of this book revolves around him and like the prologue is very much like this is stennis my sad son but also the way that deem is described and that Janus is like I think it's a really good idea to hire him is he's like well he's feared and that's like better than being respected and I'm like Tyrion for all like you doubt about that this is a playbook from like how Tywin Lannister does things. Taiwan Lannister is like, I love being feared.

Being feared is great. People do shit when you're feared. Yeah. And he meets such a, I feel so bad for Jocelyn because he meets a pretty shitty end, right? But it's kind of fun that in Storm, I literally, all I'm thinking about is Jocelyn from Bob's burgers. I'm so glad.

I think we do it every time. I think we do it every time we talk about them. Well, you know, it's my roommate's favorite character. I've told you that, right? I guess you have you up. My roommate loves Jocelyn. I don't know what it is, but whenever she's settling stupid as shit in Bob's burgers, he's like, I love her.

I'm like, what is it? Is it my vocal fry? Is it Jocelyn's vocal fry? Just kidding. Catching you up, Akash. We had a reviewer say that we had really bad vocal fry. So we've been really taking that to heart, and I won't stop thinking about it. Because I don't think I have vocal fry.

I think we were tired that day, which... No, I think they're just sex. But I think it's both. I think they just think vocal cry is having a voice that comes from my body. So. I honestly feel like if a reviewer was like, oh, I didn't like this about your voice, like my immediate reaction would be to be like, okay, well, here's a Venmo so I can buy this $1,578 microphone. Yeah, I will change.

Thank you so much for your assistance. For $8,000 a month, I might change. You know what I mean? We should have just. But until you forked that over. We should have leaned hard the other way and just been like, become more shrill, right? Because you can't have as much more frill. I have a vagina.

I don't know actually how to do shrill. It's just part of me, I guess. I don't know. Yeah. That said, there is that great bit in a Storm of Swords where Jasselin, Jocelyn, Jamie talks about how he's like, oh, I could give a golden hand because Jocelyn is called Iron Hand, because he gets an iron hand. Right?

So kind of fun. There's definitely some planning, something going on there. George was having fun. And I love when he has fun. I want that for him. Yeah, he does have a lot of fun. Janos also explains that

a good commander knows his men, and some men are suited for jobs others wouldn't do. Deem's value is that he does exactly what he's told and keeps quiet afterwards. I just think, I just think like, you know, You can hate on Janos, Tyrion, but this is actually a pretty astute observation from Janos.

And it also goes to show, like, the messenger maybe does impact how we perceive a message, because what Janos says is pretty much exactly what Corinne Halfhand told John. And when we, when Corin Halfhand told it to me, I was like, oh my God, that's so brilliant. Yes. And when Janos says it, I'm like, okay, okay. but now I'm like, wait, no, that was wisdom, because Corrin tells John to lead men, you must know them, John Snow. He also gives like a whole paragraph before you get to that part, but whatever.

And yet what we see throughout all of Tyrion's arc is that I don't know that he actually knows his men, right? Like he's very, we've discussed this in the past and I don't know when, like years ago, how Tyrion kind of treats Bronn in some ways, or he perceives a vision that he has a in the way that he does with Shay, yet one he's more forgiving to and the other he is not. And we'll get to that, we'll get to that, don't worry. But the chapter ends with him trying to learn more of varies and then of course trying to learn more of Bron and like what Braun is willing to do.

And I think that to the extent that he doesn't truly know the people who serve him, a lot of it is born of his own insecurities, right? He's not willing to be vulnerable. He's afraid to try and learn who they are because he's based a lot of rejection because of his appearances and hasn't been met with curiosity himself. So he doesn't do that. And then also, he shows even less curiosity about the women and the girls in his life. He's like, I don't know. Sonsa seems really devout.

That girl loves to pray. Or like, maybe. I mean, no sex for Christmas love. Yeah. Yeah, he spends the whole episode. He spends the whole episode. He spends a whole chapter. Yeah.

Like, hmm, what about women? What's up with them? Hearing constantly throughout, like, this book, especially when he rehearsed to Shea. It's such, like, incredible, like, fuckboy energy in a character that people would never describe as otherwise, because, like, Peter Dinklage is a very charming, but, and people with their own preconceived notions around, like, disembate. are like have a very specific idea of what a fuck boy looks like but like all the time he talks about about Shay is just sort of I think foreshadding we're going to get into an in a mini here but

it's so much from the vantage point of like I have been wronged. It feels a little bit like when some kind of like stereotypical like nerds are like oh girls don't talk to me or whatever and then when a girl does start talking to them, like it's all about, he sees the women in his life solely from the perspective of like his insecurities and has no like reflection of how much agency does Shay have

because she's a sex worker and you're the guy whose family motto is like Wells Fargo. He actually does the same colors. You're right. I mean, not wrong. He's like levitating between like two worlds of women are clearly bad and wrong and evil and have wronged me, but also they could never conceive of doing anything.

Women, like the very sheer, and we'll come to this eventually, obviously like later with Sonsa, but like the fact that he cannot conceive that she could even have any notion of a plan beyond just being trapped, right. Shea, too, that he has all these conceived notions of the way she is and the way she can be speaks honestly volumes because he starts thinking here of her and Tysha and the other woman who has taken his coin and his seed. And it just like didn't need the textural thought attached to it. I'm like, oh, taking the seed, okay. But you can see like his feeling wronged by Tisha, Tisha, how are we going to pronounce it, like across the whole chapter. Like, you can see the way that that is fulfilling his preconceived notions about women.

That and Circe. And, like, you think about the females in his life. Ooh, that's like a raw phrase. I don't like the way that sounded. Wow, men gone canon indeed. You think about the women in his life and, like, who he's had as a women figure is, like, Cersie, Jenna, Tysha, Che. Like, these are the women we've been introduced to that have influenced.

his life. These are the experiences he's had. Yeah. For some reason, I feel like whenever I see the phrase, like, taking her his seed or some version of that in this series, for some reason, and I don't know why, I always think of like, like the seeds of like a dragon fruit. I don't know why. That is what it's like. But I'm just like. That's literally what it's like, I've heard when you take the seed of someone. I was like I hate the way this is phrased Please stop

Like a pomegranate And they're just coming out And you can't stop them Oh my God I'm like They're rolling away from you Oh god The Voltfruit

I'm sorry George We need to have a talk Before you Before you send the winds of winter Final print PDF To your aditor of this night It could be worse You know like folks are on A03

With a pheasaurus Right now Okay This is fine I'll take it Well, no, I'm not taking the seed, but... Okay. There's a... Yeah, there's a lot to unpack here.

And I'm not sure I... Maybe I'll pull, like, a book from, like, Tyrion's, like, page or whatever, and be, like, I will be incurious about this moment. A page from Tyrion's book? But also, exactly, I... Whatever. And I would also like to say, it's interesting. He does, like, respect, like, two women having interior worlds, but in one of the...

and that means like she's evil and that's CERCy and the other one he's like wow she's the smartest person and slash or woman I've ever met and that's Catlin Stark she really got me there well that's because he wasn't very curious about Catlin and he's like well I really just got played

yeah as you said there's like a lot of a lot of that trauma all over and so now we're going to move from the seed to Janos gushing over cheese and I don't know I don't know how I feel about this transition now. And Tyrion tells him to enjoy

it while he can, because the reach is starving, Kings Landing. There are children starving in Flea Bottom. So you better eat and finish your meal, Janos. My God.

But why can't I just mail my meal to Flea Bottom, Papa? Could you imagine the dinner tables? That would go wild in Maygor's Holdfast? And after all this, after all this, he's like, we're not going to mail it. But Tyrion asks, who sent you to do the job in the first place? And Janos refuses and jokes that Tyrion, oh, you thought you could trick me? And Tyrion says, Janos is difficult to replace.

But Lord Mormont is struggling to find his own replacement. Here's your foreshadowing, Janos. You should have paid fucking attention, but he doesn't know shit, obviously. Tyrion's doing the sandwich, right? He's like, here's a little compliment, here's a little anyways, so poking you for a little info and a little threat that Janos isn't understanding or seeing. Because Janos here is confused, right? He's like, oh, yes, well, holding Bear Island, dot, da, dot, da, dot.

He's like, no, no, no, that's Lady Mormont. I'm talking about Lord Jor, Mormont. Love it, love it very much. I love that little world building that it reminds us that Bear Island is held by a woman, but also, I gotta say, respect to Janos for knowing that because we do like put a lot of emphasis throughout like a lot of these books of do you remember who this fucking person is? There's a bazillion lords and et cetera. And I respect that Janos learned that. You know, you have to learn more about the culture you're about to enter into you. Right?

You can't just. Yeah, that's called respect. It's called cultural appreciation. Not appropriation. Not appropriation. Appreciation. He's about to learn something about a cultural appreciation. That's for sure.

That's true. Yes, Tyrion was talking about Jor, because he was up there in book one, saying the wall would be better with men like Janos or Deem, which is fucked up. Because it's like, why are you saying that, Tyrion? Because they deserve good men, not dickheads. No, I agree. No, they're not going to be better for having these people. like fundamentally misunderstanding the wall despite having gone got it um but again tyrian is saying this moreover to continue to push to janos that he's not seeing that you're going to the night's watch

bitch janos is like you know that's so unlikely that they'd be better with us but tyrian's like you know life does surprise you sometimes like it did uttered stark even veris was surprised But Janos says, well, I don't see this. Or why kids love the taste of cinnamon toast crunch, Eliana has written, and now I have to say it out loud. You don't have to. You are not. This whole segment was Eliana.

Varus had tried to persuade Sersie to pardon Ned and send him to the wall. And Janos is like, who? Who's your sister, Triad? And so we remind him and everyone, Queen, Regent. That's who my sister is. But Slint says it was the king's command, no matter. his age. Tyrion then turns the conversation to Janos' accessories.

The spear clasp. Tyrion then nags Janos' class while insulting him. How about some cinnamon toast cruncher up? Wee! No, that sounds really good. I think... Hire me Taco Bell. I love that idea.

I have friends. They've been searching. They went on a quest and could not find. Apparently, every Taco Bell only got one box of the Chaco Taco. I haven't had it yet either. Wow. They're gone. They're gone, perhaps. Life's terrible.

You were, no, you were meant to be, as you were saying earlier, the pub, the pub owner-restra tour, perhaps. I literally just started imagining myself, like, eating the crispy, like, dessert delight that would be a cinnamon toast, contract supreme. And now I want one, and it doesn't exist, right? I'll work. I'll be so good. I did this to myself. I never bought cereal though. I don't know.

A dolce de leche kind of like, like a cinnamon crunch wrap, Dolce de leche inside, like layer with like a layer of chocolate, layer of like Dulce, layer of like, I don't know, something a little maybe like fudgy chocolate is the layer you'd use and like do different texture layer. But like deep fry it, whipped cream on top. Yeah. Because the crunch from the crunch wrap comes from the taco slash toast. that is on the inside.

So you dust it with the cinnamon. Cinnamon toastata. Yeah. Then you put that in. But like what shall we put on the outside for this wrap? Drizzle of honey. How do we want to do this wrap? We could crush.

Maybe like a beautiful shalact. You could double it. You could crush a bunch of the cinnamon toast to make it into a dough and then make it into a tortilla-esque thing. Wow. There's a lot to think about. Wow. Yeah, I think that's, yeah.

And as Tyrion is thinking, tell me, my lord, did you drive the spear into the men's back yourself, or did you only give the command? I gave the command, and I'd give it again. Lord Stark was a traitor. Rude. Rude.

Not right. Janos says that Ned tried to bribe him, but Tyrion retorts, Janos was already sold. Janos is pretty offended. He's like, what? How do you know? But Tyrion says Janos has no honored a question.

He says a lordship at a castle for a spear thrust in the back and you didn't even need to thrust the spear. Slint pushes back against Tyrion's tone. He doesn't really like it and he's about to say, my lord. But instead he reaches for a fucked up insult. Imp. Boo. Yeah, the entire exchange is pretty interesting, right? because like earlier in this entire discussion,

Janos was corrected, don't call Tyrion, my lord. And you think he's about to like try and like appease the person who's higher. But now he's like testing this, right? He's about to say, my lord and then is like, wait, no, I'm Lord of Herod Hall. But he does know that he's still kind of outranked regardless of all that. So there's this very interesting interplay of that we've been seeing happen to Tyrion since the first chapter of a clash of kings

and instead he's like I'm gonna just attack his personhood I'm gonna go for the dehumanizing insult that everyone calls him and say it to his face and insult him based on his size which he's kind of been dancing around since earlier

before he was like oh it's fun you know we're Josh and I'm rimmed him by calling him small but now he's being mean about it big mistake yeah for sure so Janos reminds him that he's the Lord of Heritage Hall and a member of the King's Council and goes, who are you to chastise me like this? Tyrion cocked his head sideways.

I think you know quite well who I am. How many sons do you have? What are my sons to you, dwarf? You should have stopped at imp. I am Tyrion of House Lannister, and someday, if you have the sense the gods gave a sea slug, you will drop to your knees and thanks that it was me you had to deal with and not, my Lord father. Now, how many sons do you have? Three, my lord, and a daughter, please, my lord. You need not beg. You have my word and no harm will

come to them. The younger boys will be fostered out as squires. If they serve well and loyally, they may be nights in time. Let it never be said. The house Lannister does not reward those who serve it. Your eldest son will inherit the title Lord Slint. and this appalling sigil of yours. He kicked a little golden spear instead just skittering across the floor. Lands will be found for him, and he can build a seed for himself. It will not be heron haul, but it will be sufficient. It will be up to him to make a marriage for the girl.

Yeah, calling out again the my lord, my lord, you see when he backs down, right? Like he changes. Earlier, he's been saying, my lord, and trying it on for size, trying on the machismo. But suddenly, as his world is crashing down around him, Janos Slint reverts to Mallord, right? Not unlike where John in his chapters has had to learn about the Malord, My Lord, and his station, Janoslint realizes, what's going on here? Although we, the reader, have known for just a couple sentences before him.

Tyrion reveals a ship is set to sail for the night's watch with him on it. It's a small relief, right? It's not execution yet. Janos tries to say, well, maybe you'll be on the ship, imp. Dwarf, I'm the king's friend, and the queens, and little fingers. Oh, interesting. The truths are coming out. I'm like, is that, is this, is that what you thought?

I just, it's not logic. This is why it's happening to you? I was like, why would you drop that? In the moment. I'm like, that's why this is happening to you. Anyway. Oh, the little finger is the clue. I know a lot of people theorize that he's the one who whispered to Joffrey.

I see it. I see it. Yep. So he huffs his way out only to find the door blocked by very bulky just by water and six guards. And I do love this, like, detail in the prose of like how Slint spun on his heel, like the watchman he'd once been. And I think this is like great characterization of how Janoslint's role has, it's now changing, right? Like he was in the gold cloaks. And same as like the Mallord and him slipping into that.

This is him slipping back into these working class habits. This very like physical moment that like he's never unlearned because it was part of his everyday life, his job. And there's also, I think, a bit of irony here because the watchman he had once been. and he's about to go be sent off to be a watchman again, but like the Knights watchman. Oh, I like, I like that. Good job, George. I see.

I see. Um, you know, I guess like my biggest question is like, is Jocelyn Bywater hot? I think so, maybe. I think he's hot. Like Jason Malister level hot. he's got like the salt and pepper hair and I think like I'm into that you know oh yeah yeah yeah yeah and the old man skin I kind of like a little old man skin like when they get this little like the crow's eyes right in the yeah the crow's feet it makes them look very friendly oh it's so like you're friendly and you've lived a while I'm into that shit yeah give me that skin that little crackle who what do you think of gosh I love a good daddy and him having an iron hand versus a golden hand I think also just like says something about his character a little bit.

Like he's not, because I think some like flashier people or people who are like more insufferable would go for the really gaudy tackiness of golden hand or something along that vein. Tells more about how you feel about Jamie. Yeah, get him. It's sort of, yeah, Jamie, I have some, I have some feelings about Jamie. Yeah, me too. me too so outsource it to my therapist i don't have time for them you know what i mean like however i feel

about jamy lannister outsource it to my therapist but there's something with like the iron man but like i totally agree with you on that that's why i'm like is jaccelain wait is he and also like he's lantern jawed so i think of like like clint eastwood right has a lantern jaw and it makes you kind of hollow and gaunt and kind of like something kind of haunting i don't know there's something going on there There's something with Jocelyn by water. Jocelyn. Jocelyn. I feel like Jocelyn would like...

Fuck. He would make me like a hearty breakfast sandwich the morning after is like the vibe I get. Oh, okay. I like that. Yeah. I see this. Jamie would be like, good luck my maids downstairs. She'll fix you something.

Yeah, pretty much. Yep. Or he'd like get you captured and interneuse with the brotherhood. Yeah. Or he'd like make me. make you do the job for him. And then he'd be like, thanks for upholding my vow. Yeah, pretty much.

Anyways, outsource it to my therapist. Yeah. Jamie Lannister would make you make the cinnamon toast crunch wrap supreme. Oh my God. Yourself. I don't think he's ever tasted one. I think he thought he was above Taco Bell and has never tasted one. It probably really gave him diarrhea once and he was embarrassed and he's never gone back. Because he's weak.

He's not brave. Yeah, he won't survive the winter. Guys, as Slint is captured, Tyrion gives a parchment with six more names that should be on the ship. Like L.R. Deem is one of them. And he says, Deem, tell the captain it would not be taken amiss if one should happen to be swept overboard before they reach Eastwatch.

And, uh, of course they say, I'm told the northern waters are very stormy, my lord, which is actually true. They are. Yeah, that is true. Dean, I don't know why. It just hit me as you read it. Deem made me think of John Travolta introducing Edina Menzal at the Oscars as Adele Dezine.

I don't know why. I was like, Dean, why does that sound familiar to me? Like, there's no logical reason that that would sound familiar to me. And then I was like, oh, yeah, John Travolta. That's crazy. know that happened. It was so funny. Because half the people watching you were like tweeting, they're like,

who the fuck is that? Do we know what that is? That's Alara Deem, dude. It doesn't sound anything like her name. It's a cultural, like, touchpoint. So real. Poor Dina. Oh my God.

She's doing all right, though. She's doing it. Is she again? Didn't she, like, blow out her vocal cords? Yeah, she really let it go. Oh, God. I know. I heard it. And I was like, I thought you meant like, she's let it go and she's like fine with it, like, at peace.

Well, now they know. Oh, shit. Well, Janelson is about to find out that the cold does bother him anyway. But this entire, like, way that he tells. So this, like, stands out to me as very much the way that Turing does things, his modus. Apparandi of being like, mm, and then like,

oh, see them an accident, something was going to happen to him, right? Because he does something very similar with the way that he deals with Simon Silvertong. He like has someone like,

take care of it, out of sight, out of mind. Again, make it look like an accident. And that's very much in contrast to the very direct role that Circe likes to do things. He's like,

hmm, this person disappeared. J.K., they're in my basement and I'm having them tortured. And I'm going to watch, which is way more direct than like, um,

make it like, make it, very like accidentally and like even versus the way that Jamie does things which is much more because he could right he had kind of license to

be very direct to do this out in the open like when he you know attacked Ned Stark in the streets for all to see right like because who's going to question that that's just him being a man displaying his masculinity Tyrion does it very differently and it now like even like stands out to me because we're talking about this

like Janoslint, oh my god, there it is, I missed. Janoslint and him being a butcher, like the way that he has Simon Silver Tong dealt with, like there's a theme here, is very much butchery, right? Of being like, maybe he's going to be like in the bowls of brown, like breaking up a body like that, that's butchery. Yeah, something that really sticks out about this chapter as we go through it is like the lack of justice system.

I'm not saying I'm on Janos's side, but like maybe I am? I don't, like, he can't fucking hold Harren Hall, and it's silly to pretend he should or could. Like that's silly and a total joke and the funniest big brain move from Littlefinger, because like by propping him up as a puppet, it makes it even less fucking ridiculous when Littlefinger walks in. And he has to go through hoops. And by hoops, I mean, he has to marry Liza, right, and like do some shenanigans. So, like, really, he really barely gets in. Yeah.

Yeah. It's almost like if you introduce somebody who can destabilize of that same class or gender, right? When we look at like Circe, for example, in the future and Danny coming to Kings Landing, you know, in the words of Amy from Veep, that's why we don't have female presidents anymore. You know, like, you ruined it for the rest of them. We'll never have one again. And, like, same thing here, like, Little Finger is doing the opposite. He's like, oh, I'm richer than you are. I'm self-made and I'm richer than you are.

So, like, it's going to be normal when I take Harren Hall. They'd rather have me than dirty little Janos slint. But, like, also, this isn't right or just. Like, there's no trial. There's no justice. And it's interesting because this is the answer or part of the answer to Various's riddle, right? Right? Right here.

This is the riddle in action. This is, like, the hypothesis of, like, what if we tried to enact the risk? riddle rate now. Who would listen? Who would, who's the power and who would listen in this scenario? Guess what? No one gives a shit about Janoslint. Janoslint and his handful of kids that are going to get married off to middling marriages and they'll be just fine their whole life. Like, that's, no one cares. They weren't going to enjoy that fucking haunted capsule anyways, but like, it's dirty. This is dirty. It's not really right. One of them could have gone there. They would have met a lovely woman named Alice.

and she'd be like, here's some dragon eggs, we're going to do shit. Oh, my God. But also, like, it proves that, like, anyone can just be unmade as a lord. Yeah, that laws don't matter. The laws of men and gods don't fucking matter in Kings Landing, and it just shows, like, all of it's made up, which means that the riddle is true, right? Like, none of it's real. The rules don't fucking matter.

And it is supposed to kind of make you question, like, Tyrion as a narrator, because as you said, like, this isn't justice, and yet the last, the last chapter ends with Tyrion being like, I'm going to do what Sesey doesn't expect justice. And then he even says it later this chapter. He's like, wow, doing justice was very hard work. And I'm like, uh, yeah, word, word. So, yeah, all that hard work done, though, speaking of, Tyrion sips his sweet wine alone,

while servants clear the meal after Vary's visit. in lavender with matching scents. And I do I do love that. I really Varis, you were gone too soon, you would have loved Bedbath and Beyond. Every time

George writes Varus, he's like he waltzed in with a scent of persimums drawn from the Jasmine Garden beneath the shimmering sea. And I, just imagining how much joy Varis would get from little hand sanitizers and bed bath and beyond.

Like, he opens his little package and he's like, honey blossom. Yes. He would love perfume talk. He would be a perfume talk influencer on TikTok. He would be, like, posting every day. I do love, like, it really requires your imagination. But, like, because I've been getting, like, perfume. And I'm like, I'm not even, like, very much a, I love and a preemptive.

appreciate it though. Oh, unfortunately I've been captured by. I know you are. I'm into perfume now. I know what you are. Those are my, you know what I am. The two things that I will unfortunately drop money on are like purses and perfume. It's disgusting. It is disgusting. But that's who I am and it makes me happy. So I. I. And it makes very is happy. It really does. I feel like when y'all are up in Oakland, I will have to tweet you. No free ads. So I will say, I'm a member at like a local whiskey bar. Ooh. And I was at a random liquor store and they had two like GOT whiskey bottles. And I was like, you still have these? I thought they started making those years ago. But the amount of attention that went into the collab of that,

the Talisker, which is a Scotch, that's House Greyjoy. And it's slightly, it has a slightly smoky, peppery kind of vibe to it. And then the Targaryon one is like this Welsh whiskey that's a It's very smooth. It's like what if silk was on fire, kind of five? I have the Barathean one. That's the one I have. It's so good.

It's really good. And I feel like I'm not saying things would have been different if I was working at HBO during the show's airing. But the fact that we never got a Conlith Hill as Veris, like perfume scented back that like secrets by D. Like I feel like that was really. Yeah. That was just there.

for the taking. I agree. Yeah. That would have been really good. That would have been really good to do. It is one of the very like the craziest things. And we've talked about it a little, but like the licensing, right? Like they don't just let everyone license it. So that's so crazy. There's only a handful of things. There is like, there are independent creators, but there's really nothing licensed. I don't think. Maybe that's out right now that you can buy. But like so few things would get the license. I just got like a licensed, officially licensed charm bracelet that came out like a decade ago. I got it on Poshmark and it's a Sonsa Stark charm bracelet. I was like, what?

Special. They were doing a lot. Crazy. Yeah. So, Varas congratulates Tyrion's work saying it was sweetly done. If so, why does Tyrion feel so bitter? Tyrion tells Vary's, deem should be thrown overboard. And also, you should be too.

I want you to be thrown overboard too. Eliana has a question, which is, is this flirting question mark? Maybe? Maybe. Yes. Yes. Yes. Trees out.

I have a small passage. I feel like yes. Because I feel like Tarian flirting in a non-creepy way, which I feel like most of this flirting in the books is very creepy. But him being like, should I like do a little murk? is him being like very comfortable with somebody. That's true. Yeah.

Isn't it interesting? Yeah. They have a very, their relationship in this is what I'm really like magnetized to as we go through this chapter. There's so much to be paying attention to, but like various interians relationship and then driving the arc is crazy. Yeah.

Well, we have a passage. You might be disappointed. by the result. The storms come and go. The waves crash overhead. The big fish, eat the little fish. And I keep on paddling. Might it trouble you for a taste of the wine that Lord Slint enjoyed so much? Tyrion waved at the flag and frowning. Varies filled a cup. Ah, sweet as summer. I hear the grapes singing on my tongue. I'm obsessed. I felt that. Incredible.

I felt that. Yeah. I felt that acting right there in my bones. Wow. Wow. Incredible. I see the vision. I'm going to bring back one of the old texts of like asswaffe theories.

I don't know if you all remember. Like there was a very robust one about like varies is a merling. And I feel like this kind of speaks to the varies as a merling theory. Very much confirmation. So. Big if true. Big if true. Whenever we get like the Asanga Vise in Fire re-adaptation in anime format,

there has to be a bottle episode that is all about Varis being a Merling. I just feel like that is, that's crying out to be able. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The glittering of the water. And that somehow ties into how Varus is going to make it back, how Varis made it back into Kings Landing to murder Kevin and Paisal.

and then eventually open the doors before Fagon and Arian Martel. Yes. Exactly. Oh my God, I forgot that we still don't have that plot. Shit. I mean, we do in my head. I mean, I just, I'm like, I'm so excited for them to meet.

I just really want to know, like, I want to see the Agonne area and, like, meeting it. It's going to be crazy. He's going to be like, want to play Roblox with me? And she's going to be like, I want to play a very different game with you. Yeah. called make an error he's going to be like no I want to play Roblox he's like

what's the chicken meme from Minecraft that the kids like fucking blew up the theaters over with all their little like popcorn everywhere you're talking about? I don't know anything holy shit I don't do Minecraft so I don't know any of those words there's some meme all the parents in the chat will probably be on this so fast

responding because I'm sure their child is one of those deviance that was at the theater but I don't know whenever the chicken showed up there was some sort of meme and the chicken shows up and all the kids went crazy and they like threw all their popcorn everywhere and destroyed the theaters. The more you know. I don't know enough about it because I'm not in on kids Minecraft culture. So yeah, I'm not either. If I was working at an AMC that weekend where popcorn was flying everywhere, be like I have I have to I can't do this. I can't do this.

You know, and exit stage right. Yeah, I have to exit. It's not great. I have to exit like various when he turns into a Merling. Splush-splash along the boat that takes Tyrion to Pento's. But I love that, like, there's the little bits of foreshadowing here that are so, like, rewarding as we read the books until the Winds of Winter comes out. Like, there's deliberately choosing Dornish wine is a little, is a beautiful little touch of, like, yeah, that's kind of where a good chunk of his, like, plans for the future are so heavily tied. into. Yeah. Again, coming back to like Tyrion, you know, choosing the Dornish in a way. And I would even propose like, I think as we're revealed that like this entire moment reveals the entire dinner with Janos was actually Varus's plan. Right. Like it's revealed that they come together and they

have pre-talked about it. Like it wouldn't surprise me if this was also Varus's wine from dorm. It's very specific that this is dornish wine to me. So like it's very clear, Tyrion sought his advice. Tyrion planned all this. Tyrion put his man in place, coming back to a little bit of what we were saying with Littlefinger with Janos, it is kind of like a power struggle that Tyrion has let himself be seduced into of Tyrion, you know, is kind of supporting Veris against Littlefinger. Little finger has gained the upper hand and has gained power, but Littlefinger is just a little like new money rich kid. Verus is the real deal. Varus is the spy master with the most.

Like, he doesn't actually need money just to make it get done. And then you start to really unravel, and we'll keep looking at this as we go, but like the Dornish coming to King's Landing. Who do you think facilitated information to them for them coming? Who do you think said, boy, would it be a problem if Oberyn showed up, could be fun? I'm not, like, it's not lost on me that Tyrion completely falls into Varus's web over and over and over again because of his own weaknesses, and then Varus's plots take center stage and are ultimately what kind of both undoes Tyrion in a storm of swords

in some aspects. Not unlike Ned, right? Like Tyrion comes to this capital thinking, I'm the shit, I'm different, but he's not different. He's not different. He's no different. The only difference is he gets to live somehow. A dance with dragons is honestly the huge reveal. Yes, you idiot, this is what I was doing the whole time in King's landing through you. You were my puppet. And I think that's what's sticking out to me the most. He's just a puppet in all of this. He's allowing himself.

Varus's hand is so far up Tyrion's ass right now, and Tyrion has no clue. It's very much, he doesn't, he thinks he's a player at this moment, but he's a pawn. He's also a pawns a player kind of arc, same as how Sansa is, right? But they're doing different things.

And then, because he doesn't know anyone, or Tyrion jokes with Vary's and then reveals that Janos never admitted that Circe gave the order to kill Bara. But we do all know that it's Ceresy. And again, like, this is Ceres following in Taiwan's example, right? I'm being like, hmm, but what if we killed kids? And even though we disbelieve, like, every... It does seem like outlandish when she's like, I'm Taiwan's area.

I'm like, wow, shit, yeah, you fucking are. Tyrion is furious. That turns out Vary's new and Derry. didn't tell him sooner, but the real problem is that Tyrion realizes he cannot touch Searcy. Right, despite everything, all of his power and schemes. Yeah, punishing slint and deem feels like a mommer's show of justice, as we've discussed, when the person that's truly responsible is actually untouchable. Tyrion's really angry that he couldn't save the children, but Veris reveals,

well, there was a 13-year-old boy that I helped escape. dot. He simply never imagined that a baseborn baby would be considered a threat. Eventually, they say the quiet part out loud, of course, that the children were targeted because they're Roberts bastards bastards. I'm over here, like, in my head, I'm like, well, yeah, like, she needs to make sure their claims to the throne are solid and they actually don't really have a claim to the throne. Of course, Cercy's protecting that. Yeah, that's true. I defend her. Just kidding. Just kidding. I'm not sure if this is, like, disproven, I don't forget, but, you know, they would say that like, you know, again, seriously taking on the role of like a male lion, right,

would kill the cubs of the other pride to be able to secure their own. To protect her own. Power, yeah. That really does track for me if she is a male lion. Yeah, exactly. Varius calls it a shame, especially because it seemed that Barra's mother genuinely loved Robert, which was like honestly very disturbing when he covered it back then, still is. And as we've discussed, very much pretty fucked up of Robert.

and that was like this was pretty fucked up of Robert, what the fuck? Tyrion wonders whether sex workers can actually love, though, hearing all this, and decides that he does not actually want the answer, and I'm like, side-eye, side-eye, Tyrion. And this naturally takes him to thinking of Shay, whom he has installed in a manse with a well, a stable, garden, servants, guards, and even a bird for company. Great. Oh, hooray, a bird for company.

a gilded cage. How nice of you to put me here. I know. I was like a bird. She does though have silks, silver, gems, basically everything, allegedly, and still seems to want more. Specifically, she claims she wants Tyrion himself. And in bed, Tyrion tells her

that she helps him most hear between the sheets and immediately sees in her eyes that this is very much not the answer that she wanted to hear. Isn't that the question that's going to haunt him until the very end and he asks it himself here of like he thinks you know later could a sex worker love and like that's the craziest part is he'll never know because he killed her yeah and also like because it's coming back to like tisha right and everything it's like well i mean the answer is yes right the answer is yes because yeah anyone can love exactly and it's just that

well again it's like he treats brawn and tisha the same way, right? Yeah. Mistakes. Yeah. Someone being your employee. Someone who depends on you for survival, right? Like, what choice do you necessarily have?

And to an extent it also even comes back to like his relationship with his father. Like, did you not depend on him for your survival? Like, what else are you going to feel? Like, is that love? Is that not? I don't know. Yeah. He doesn't know love.

Yeah. And it makes me think of just like how it's a question that Tyrion should be asking himself, really, if he's capable of love. And especially because he felt him with Tisha, of course, like, we never really get to see that relationship in text. But even there, there, of course, is still the, like, astronomical, political and class, like, power differential. And I'm not saying that, like, Tyrion is incapable of love, but I think him, the amount

of times he wonders if, like, Shea is capable of it. and he sees people and he sees sex workers as purely transactional and somehow doesn't really see and they're being transactional in that capacity in his mind makes them questionable of like oh are you capable of like genuine connection beyond that i think in asking that question tyrian sort of removes that he's half of that transaction right he's also part of that transaction so if he can question like shay's ability to love why is he not asking himself that question in return, I guess is where I'm trying to. Right, because he is kind of the problem. Like, exactly. Like, why is it not you, too? And also, like, there's the concept of, like, if they're willing to give me money or to take my money for this, then something's wrong with them, too. Because something's wrong inherently with me.

And that's, like, where it stems from. I have never been loved. and if they accept my money, they agree I have never been loved. And they agree I never could be loved. It makes me think of like there's this, I'm going to mangle this line. I don't remember where I heard it, but it's something like he would question anyone who does love him, right? Like he would question like because he conceives himself as unlovable, because he has been told by his father that he is unlovable. The only one person does he feel has ever truly shown him love, perhaps, and that's Jamie.

Right? but every single other person in his life doesn't treat him as such. They only show him respect because of his father. And I think, like, to an extent after what happened with Tisha, like, he's... And I do think, like, part of why we put Tyrion at the end is, like, that is something Chloe and I have said for years. The thesis of these books is maybe, like, love, what the impact of love can do to a person. Like, we see how it strengthens the starks that they have that trust of love, right?

that someone did love them unconditionally. And he doesn't have that. There's always conditions. And love asks that you be hurt. Like, that's just it at the end of the day. You're going to be hurt if you love someone or if you experience love. And he is afraid to be hurt. He doesn't know that I love him.

Someone should tell him. He has his AirPods in. He's going to accidentally touch the wrong part of the AirPods. and then hang up on the call with you, Chloe. Hang up the phone like I did. God. Stupid. I could save you, Tyrion.

No, I couldn't. I can't do that. I was like, whoa. This is the big jump. I mean, like, I see the arc of going from I can save you Sandor to Tyrion. They are both in like a similar structure. No, I can't save Tyrion. Whoa.

Whoa. I can't save him. I can't. What's happening on this podcast? Tyrion starts to pour. drink and he remembers Janos and he's like, hmm. Seems Circe was telling the truth about Ned's execution, Joffrey gave the order, but Janos and Ilyn Payne seemed to be expecting it, which makes the whole thing even more suspicious, which he's now unpacking. At least now, Tyrion supposedly

controls the City Watch, allegedly, quote unquote, which should help prevent another surprise like that. But what about Circe's red-cloaked household guard? Tyrion believes Vilar is loyal to castorly rock, and Tyrion currently represents Tywin's will in King's Landing. I feel like there's one of my favorite recurring themes across the shows and the books is like the assumption amongst the nobility of structure and power. And that automatically that means like protection and loyalty. Like when Catlin is like, you know, we will eat while there's, you know, bread and salt or whatever, like he will not, you know, he won't not harm me. And I was like,

LOL. But the, or in season three of Hot D, where so many characters are like, just assuming, especially the, like, Renira and Damon assuming, we have the dragon seeds on lockdown. We have all these other people on lockdown. Like, we're good. We're in control. And I'm like, hmm, here when Tyrion specifically is like, oh, I believe the Vilar is loyal to Castor Lee Rock. Did you send him a DM recently? Did you, you know, just do a little homie check-in? You don't know him? You literally don't know you. Do you know what he wants? Maybe you should give him something to like, maybe have your loyalty in place. It's like this, I mean, there's never really, there's no way for any person real or fictional to like ever have full protection, like in that,

in that way. Tyrion is someone whose reputation as someone intelligent is earned partially him reflecting on who's loyalty, who is actually loyal to him and who isn't. Like having the wayberthal to ask those questions and of assuming. But I feel like he either remains, even if he questions, he still remains without assumption of loyalty because he doesn't take like the second step to like ensure that that's the case. there's a more eloquent way of saying that, but that's kind of where my head went. Yeah, he relies also on like the past and his father's name and what his father's built

without realizing like what daddy's built is crumbling, buddy. It's crumbling in front of you. Like your credit score is going down before your eyes bit by bit. Biches are sick of time in Lannister in this world. Yeah. They are. The NASDAQ rating for her. They're sick of being bullied.

Lannister. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, there's this hysterical-ass line where he's thinking, he says, Cersi only has about a hundred men.

Well, I have my own forces plus the gold cloaks. Yeah, I've heard that one before. The last guy with your job had the same situation, buddy. I don't know about that. I'd just settle down. Tyrion adds, if by water is the man you claim, confirming Varus was the one who recommended Jocelyn. Tyrion wonders aloud who Jocelyn will credit for his promotion.

Silently, though, Tyrion's like, can I trust Veris at all? Hmm, it's about time you started asking this, Tyrion. So we come back to the riddle in one of the most important passages in the series. And of course, in true GGC fashion, Eliana will be casting this. So, Akash, as I said earlier, you will be Varies, and Chloe, you will be Tyrion, because you haven't gotten to be in very many passages, because I took all the Janos slime. That's okay. I wanted you to have a good time. Janice. Janice. Janice. Janice. Janos. Okay.

Why are you so helpful, my lord Varies? He asked, studying the man's soft hands, the bald, powdered face, the slimy little slimy little sly. smile. You are the hand. I served the realm, the king, and you? As you served John Aaron and Eddard Stark? I served Lord Aaron and Lord Stark as best I could. I was saddened and horrified by their untimely dance. Think how I feel. I'm like to be next. Oh, I think not. Veracet said swirling the wine in his cup. Power is a curious thing, my lord. Perchance you have considered the riddle I post you that day in the inn? It has crossed my mind a time or two.

The king, the priest, the rich man, who lives, who dies, who will the swordsmen obey? It's a riddle without an answer, or rather too many answers. All depends on the man with the sword. And yet he is no one. He is neither crown, no gold, nor favor of the gods. Only a piece of pointed steel. That piece of steel is the power of life and death. Just so.

Yet, if it is a swordsman who rule us in truth, why do we pretend our kings hold the power? Why should a strong man with a sword ever obey a child king like Jopry or a wine son oath like his father? Because these child kings and drunken oaths can call other strong men with other swords. Then these other swordsmen have the true power. Or do they? Whence came the swords?

Why do they obey? Some say knowledge is power. Some tell us all power comes from the gods. Others say it derives from law. Yet that day on the steps of Baylord, our godly high septine and the lawful queen regent, and your ever-so knowledgeable servant, where as powerless as any cobbler or cooper in the crowd. Who truly killed, Edard Stark, do you think? Joffrey, who gave the command?

Sir Ilyn Payne, who sang the sword? Or another? Tyrion cocked his head sideways. Did you mean to answer your dabbed riddle or only make my headache worse? Hear them. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less. So, power is a mummer's trick?

A shadow on the wall, yet shadows can kill. And oft times a very small man can cast a very large shadow. Aliana. Appause, applause. Beautiful, beautiful reading. Thank you. That was a reading from the book of Tyrion, a clash of kings. Wait.

A cache of kings. Oh! Wait, has this happened to you yet? It has not. I'm here for it. Oh my gosh. You should do a read-through of only a clash of kings over and over and over again. Then you have to change your name after that.

Sorry. Yeah. That's all I have for you after that. change your name, but for now you can have that. Perfect. I'll take it. I'm going to keep this character focus, because I think you both have a lot to bring to the power riddle and

the relation of the story. And I'm finding myself, as four mentioned, incredibly moved by Tyrion's clash arc this time through. And, you know, seeing how much Tyrion is heeding Varus, more than anything, it's informing many

of his choices in the Capitol, and it's playing directly into the Egan plot with Veris and Illyrio, so it makes sense that Tyrion and Tiwau might be him tearing down what he accidentally completely helped build? I mean, he made all of this possible. He gave a foothold for the Dornish in the Capitol. He did pretty much everything Veris wanted to because he wanted a friend, right, in the Capitol to help him and to leverage his position and couldn't trust anyone else. So he threw in with Veris to defeat Littlefinger, except then you're left to Veris, who has defeated his nemesis, Littlefinger.

Egan is Varus's shadow on the wall, not Tyrion. Tyrion is a puppet throughout this. Verus uses Tyrion and Joffrey's regime to defeat stance, to destabilize the throne, to clear the way. Tyrion gets that reveal in a dance with dragons from Illyrio and Veris' big scheme reveal. This is power. This is what I was talking about. This is what it means to be able to create your own destiny, your own king,

your own safety from the shadows from nothing. This is real true power, not whatever Tyrion is convinced he has. Tyrion, despite claiming he knows exactly who and what Verus is, buys into everything, Veris tells him. Thirsty for power, for control, for a semblance of having leverage. Tyrion, despite thinking he knows the woman that he's with, is only with him for his money, continues to fall in love with her because he wants to feel power. He wants to have control.

He wants to have love. Tyrion falls directly into the spider's trap time over time again in service to the schemes from Illyrio and Veris over and over, right? In a way, we see Tyrion in this very book, try to recreate his own version of Veris's riddle. Is the Mercella plot and giving it to three people, not his riddles three? That seems pretty similar to Veris's riddle,

taking a page, or sorry, a book rate out of Veris's riddle. as Eliana would say. I'm not letting you live that one now. That one's like, type of me. I just like, I gave up and like I realized how wrong it was, like after I said and I got to the next word and I was like, I really reversed this. I was like, we have to. No, I'm obsessed with it now.

This is it for me. We have to go forward. Page out of the book. If I look back, I am lost. What is podcasting about a song of ice and fire if not making a book out of a page? Yeah, true. No, literally. I mean, it's basically that, right? It's basically that. I've read these books. I've read these novellas. I know. Power is different for everyone, right? Many characters in the story have different concepts of what power means to them or their translation and understanding of it. But for Tyrion, it's feeling love. That doesn't mean it's real love, but it's feeling this concept of love. It's feeling control. It's feeling big. And when you know what one person desires, especially when that person wears it on their sleeve like Tyrion, you can make them feel powerful.

You can make them feel chosen and you can puppet them all the same. Tyrion made himself into a puppet immediately. When I usually make a list of like my favorite scenes from either the show or the book, this is at the top of it for me. And it's not necessarily like a long monologue. I think reading it in print or rewatching the show, it always surprises me. that it's not longer, because for some reason it just takes up a lot of space in my brain. There's, I think when we look at Varys' overall story, even just to like this particular section of the series,

to go from being an enslaved and tortured boy to effectively being the owner of information in the capital is the layers of achieving and navigating power is something that Tyrion, no matter his general intellect, could ever hope to be near. I think in general and power, that's something that the show, I think, lost track of after it ran out of book material. Most specifically with John,

the whole, like, he doesn't want power, so he's a good king, like, drove me insane. for a bit. Like, I was like, I'm going to burn something down after hearing some bells, because I hate that argument, where it's like, the power has such an inherently negative connotation and so much storytelling, right? We so often hear people say something along the lines of, like, wanting power is a sign that, like, you're not fully like, okay.

Or, like, it's a red flag that people who don't actively seek power are the best suited to it. And I'm like, I don't think that's true, right? We saw House of the Dragon season one. We saw, we saw the series. Real. We saw Robert Barathean in the same series. Yeah.

And for me, I think there's such a, it's so stark of like, who feels they need to, uh, ha, ha, thank you. Who needs to pursue power and who doesn't? And I think the relative mark of safety and that, that connotates for you in the world. And I think power is the small things that people often don't think of as power. Like being able to walk down the street at night and feel safe to be able to yell at a congressperson and then actually get having to do something. Cyberbullying Trader Joe's until they bring back the lemon shortbread cookie ice cream that was too short lived.

Get them. I didn't try it, but now I will bully them so I can. Exactly. That's power. That's a shadow on a wall. For me, I think I always chafed against that so much. And I didn't really realize why until I sort of like started, you know, growing and really trying to re contextualize my life in the world that I live in.

As a brown person, as a gay person, as someone with medical debt, because America, there's like different positions of wanting to have power, like the power to not have debt, the power to not be subjected to like patriarchal norms, like white supremacist norms, classist norms. All that is power, right? It's like wanting political power. And I think that's so much more universal and relatable than the way it's like, oh, you want to be president. I really don't. I saw that did tell Obama. Like I, how, yeah, no. I, yeah, like, I, I'm really good.

I just feel like, you know, I don't really want to commit mass murder. And it seems like they all do that. So I'm, that's really not my vibe. It, like, comes with the job. Yeah, I agree. I think I. Yeah, I just feel like power is like, it's value neutral, right? Like, either it exists or you have it or you don't.

The morality is by like our intent. and, you know, what we do to get it and what we do once we feel like we have it. The artist is very aware of the discontent. Like, Tyrion throws, like, oh, Kingslending is starving as a glib line, right? When they're, like, eating cheese and they have, like, ox till stew and, you know, quail, etc. He's not. Right. And he doesn't make the leap to, oh, Kingslending is starving.

what does that really mean? And it is interesting that we just came from House of the Dragon to this, where both timelines are, there's a civil war happening, and people don't have food, and that makes them angry. And there is this, like, that has a comprehension of, like,

when the people of Kings Landing in, during the Dance of the Dragons, stopped perceiving divine power in the Targary, and stopped, you know, perceiving divine power with the dragons, that marked the, like, the irreversible decline of that family and it eventually crashed. And the Lannisters, I mean, Robert was like cute, you know, like just sitting there, but the Lannisters really are the new Targaryans for all

intents and purposes and occupying that that position of power and everything but name. And they're, they've created in their own hubris, like the exact sort of like similar circumstances. But Tyrion doesn't really see those conditions beyond like an intellectual debate. you know, if you've ever, and I'm going to assume that we've all had this experience of like when a man is trying to like explain Karl Marx to you at a bar. Especially when it's a man that literally does not actually know anything and has not experienced any of it. Yeah. Like a guy trying to explain. Yeah.

But also like he goes to like an Ivy League school at his parents paid for. Yeah. Yep. He's like, yeah, he does the whole like, oh God, was it Henry David Thoreau who did the whole like, oh God, was it Henry David Thoreau who did the whole like, living in nature is the way to escape. And then I afterwards found out that he was basically living, his mom was doing his laundry or something. Yeah, and he was living in Emerson's backyard.

They were like friends. And I was like, you live two miles out of town. Right. It's like you can't be like, but it's that degree of like disconnect, right? It's like some guy in like a Harvard business school like sweater being like, yeah, like the proletariat. And you're like, I take the bus. Like I'm aware of what.

the proletariat is. Thank you very much. Please don't explain that to me. And also, you're paying for my whiskey all night. Thank you so much. And that's kind of like the vibe I get from Tyrion is like he has that like intellectual comprehension of like people of discontent. And for him, like starvation is like a political problem. It's not a power. It's not a problem of like I don't have the power to have food. Andrea Longchu wrote an essay in which she wrote a review of Ocean Vuong's new novel. But I didn't read a lot of the review of the novel because I haven't read it yet, but I saw a quote that kind of caught my eyes over that one paragraph where she talks about the pitfalls of holding

onto your marginalization as like your sole identity. It might be like most of us are mixtures, right, of like privilege and marginalized depending on the context and who we're around. And that ability to understand that dichotomy of those two things at the same time really helps us become more self-aware and better, you know, executors of our intent. Tarian, as like y'all have also mentioned that the episode, he is so firmly clinging to his marginalization of his stature that he completely misses awareness of how, like, the extraordinary quantity of, like, class privilege that he has. And in that, I think he went, when, so when, And like, Veras talks about, like, the small man casting a very large shadow.

I think we all, like, pick up on, like, he's talking about the cobblers, right, who witnessed Ned's execution in the, in the square, because he's thinking about, maybe I'm projecting. But I like to think that he's thinking about the people storming the dragon pit, right? Well, like, the bakers and, like, weavers and the small folk. Exactly, the small folk. And that's where his brain is at. And meanwhile, Tyrion is like, oh, small man, you're talking about me. understood I can cast a very large shadow.

And I think, I like to think Varis was like, okay, well, we'll try again. Like this is... Yeah, he literally gave it every way. Like, he read every line to him like 10 different ways and Tyrion did not necessarily take it. Nope. Yeah, I love that. I love that line that you've brought up.

Yeah. That quote's great and that's like very real because like Tyrion is so obsessed with his status and how he's been slighted. you know, we talked a lot about, like, you know, Tyrion's faults and Jamie's faults and Circe's fault and, like, Searcy, you know, remembers every, like, real or imagined. Tyrion looks for love while immediately condemning himself to never have it, right, in every corner. And it's interesting because in the same breath, he'll be like, you damn fool, don't you

see these people are suffering and then do absolutely nothing about it. Yeah. Whatsoever. It's kind of pretty near ask not to come in all over. This entire chapter. It's crazy because there are a few things elsewise in this chapter, too, that I was like, oh, Ryan Condal read a clash of King. Yeah.

Yeah. Ryan and George, once he releases the winds of winter out of spite, please, like, reconcile because, like, I think he definitely read your books more than did you do that. Yeah. Yeah, actually. Or for me, not just eighth grade book reports. If you could just keep beefing enough to put the book. book out, that'd be great

and then break the beef up. Yeah. I very much like all the points that you're saying and I think you can kind of see some of it start to crystallize in The Forsaken. There are quite a few quotes in there that are very explicitly about power and I think, you know, something that

you're talking about and that I think about is power is just the ability to do. It's the ability to make real. Right? And also what you're saying here about like this is actually something I think about more of like in my everyday life. And as I look out on the world, I really like what you're calling out here of like the people who, they hold on to their marginalizations. It is absolutely

a part of us. It is part of one's identity, et cetera. But like you're talking about like this intersectionality. And I think that's something that is very well done with Tyrion's Addawey storyline, that the show just never adapted by confronting him with Penny, who does not have the same amount of gender privilege, but also does not have the class privilege that Tyrion has, but also being, but she had love, right? She had a community. She was accepted. So there's a lot of different ways that can play out.

And I think it also matters a lot when we talk about how we perceive Tyrion as a character in terms of it because I, you know, going to like have hot takes on Maine here. But I think a lot of people held on to their marginalizations of womanhood so much. And like, you know, I feel that. I get that, that they kind of erased what it meant in regards to how does Tier character manifest on the screen? How does Brand's character manifest on the screen that you would erase disability, right? In service of like other parts of the story and like what we're actually exploring here.

And I think that's what makes Tyrion such a really fun, complex character because, as you said, because he's surrounded his life with people who have more power than him, that he doesn't understand that, wait, there are other people who don't have as much. He can't understand that Ken Shea truly like. feel, if you have complete power over her, what is love, right? And then you think about that again, in the context of parenthood with Taiwan. So, like, what does that look like? And I also, quick throwaway when Vary's talks about, you know, because I think, like,

I have a more cynical view of, like, what Varies is thinking about when it comes to the power of the small folk, et cetera, in that I think he comes from this station, etc. maybe he truly does believe that Agon's going to like usher in a great time for everyone but also I think he sees it using the Fremen's power or something

you know like being like I'm going to galvanize the power of the small folk in order to place this kid Agan as king as opposed to necessarily being like I really believe in giving more rights to the lower classes maybe he does via Agon

but maybe yeah I feel like I'm not impressed with Agan's policy for what it's worth I'm not very impressed with Agan's policy but you do you I'm very impressed with Vary's's's policy that he says Agan's and so I think it's like you know when he talks about power as a shadow and all these things I kind of feel like Bougmalisandra is actually who the show wanted us to believe that Vary's was that's another take that I'm throwing out to that Anyways, I'm going to move on, and I'm going to wing it in regards to why this entire speech that's going on with like Tyrion's storyline and all this very much as exact, like, makes him well suited for Denarius's storyline and this riddle in a lot of ways because Denarius absolutely is someone who weaponizes that marginalization, right? She's just like, I'm just a young girl and I don't know anything about war. And uses the way that people underestimate her to be. be able to actually seize and wield power. She's someone who was like, this is my means to power of Viadrogo, and when that was lost,

she was like, I'm not giving that up. I have tasted freedom, and I desire freedom, right? And that is a stronger motivator than a king telling you, than a God telling you, than a rich man telling you something. And she also sees and realizes that, for example,

like that really comes to the head in Astipore. you know, speaking of spears, right, the unsullied, we see what happens with them. They are the ones, and she's like, all right, well, go kill the mat. I have the whip now, right? Like, is this what power is? You may kill the masters, and the master, same as Tyrion, believed in this structure of, this is how it's always been.

I have always wielded power, therefore it cannot be used against me in this way. And they too believe in the, they believe in the, the shadow on the wall that De Neres offers them of is this is freedom, this is better, right, allegedly. And like, to an extent she's going to, without realizing it, maybe a little unconsciously, wield a bit of that idea of like the holy man tells you to do something. Well, what happens when you believe yourself ordained, right? You believe yourself.

And everyone else believes that too, right? They believe you are Azora High returned. Yeah. And I think that, like, there's something, it feels a little bit. like De Nara's almost has like a little bit of the inverse, not completely, but the inverse problem of Tyrion in this case. Like she does have years of like running and hiding. It has an idea of the perils of not having power and safety in spite of your name.

But so in her mind that gives her a closer comprehension of the people that Tyrion might not see but at the same time, she doesn't really have comprehension of the levers of institutional power. True, yeah, yeah. And I think that she then, like, ends up melding her identity where with I am the institutional power, like I am the state sort of direction, because she sees the existing...

Right. And, yeah, I just find that so fascinating where she's like, okay, these institutions cannot be salvaged in any way, therefore I have created myself in response to them. I mean, and she's still an aristocrat after like everything is said and done. But I'm curious to see how those tendencies unspool on the page when again, George releases the Winds of Winter after the conclusion of this podcast. Yeah, after this episode.

Yes. I'm excited. I really want, I really want the Winds of Winter, you guys. You do? No. I'm okay. Oh, sorry. If I say that I don't want it, maybe it'll, like, happen.

Fingers fucking crossed, honestly. Yeah, I really like what you said, like, having the opposite problem, which I think makes it great that their characters will collide, you know, and how their storylines will impact each other and their characterization and the themes. Yeah. Well, Tyrion smiles and says he's becoming fond of varies. He still might kill him. But at least now he'll be sad about it. And maybe this is also flirting. And he asks Vary's what he actually is.

And Vary says a spider, but also qualifies that spies and informers are never loved. But he is loyal. And I was like, interesting about this. Kind of like, I'm like, Aria? Aria storyline? Maybe. Yeah, we've talked a little bit before about how like Aria as a spy master,

right, is kind of a character. and it's interesting to think about, you know, that, I don't know, I've been speaking with my co-workers about this that, like, I'm most powerful at work when I'm being mean to people in meetings, sometimes specifically men, like publicly. And, like, by doing so, I see the bosses be like, yeah, get them. Exactly. Call them out, do that shit. And, like, because I've been raised feminine to me, like, doing that is rude and mean, usually.

but it's actually not that mean considering I've heard other people be very mean. I'm usually actually nothing more than polite or stern at most. But like crazy fucking shit, like that's powerful. Like people revere me when I do that shit. And I'm like, that's so crazy. And like you start to realize that like power means showing like no loose ends. No one is leverage. Nothing hurts you.

No one to hurt you. But also it means you don't love. you block yourself off from love you block yourself off from living and without truly loving and living like what's power in the face of that you know with a newborn in your arms yes yes i've been thinking what is love versus what is power right like words and wind um i mean then your father was one and a thousand men i mean looking at so much many of these characters, right? Like, Circe, Tyrion, this turn being, like, from how hurt they are and what power means to them, the more you have, the more you lose in their book. I don't know. This isn't cohesive, but just, like, the difference, again, like you mentioned, between the love that the Stark children experienced being unconditional. Unless you're Rickon and you're

three years old, it's, like, get a job, Rickon. But, like, otherwise, unconditional love that they experienced despite throwing snowballs down each other's shirts or throwing oranges at them and pomegranates at them and shit during feasts or, you know, like, just like shit that siblings, I think, do hypothetically, allegedly. I don't have one, but

allegedly this is what siblings do. Versus like the things the Lannisters do, right? Like, Circey, like, twisting Tyrion's baby peanuts until it, he screams. That's not something someone does that unconditionally love someone else. That's true. I mean, yeah.

I don't need to start. with Taiwan's many fucking crimes against humanity and against Tyrion. Like, evil, evil, evil, evil, evil coded man. Like, those are not things that somebody does when they unconditionally love you. Those are conditional things. So it's like that difference of like Maistra Eamon's speech and John Aedegot versus this, you know, power and what power means. I also think that very lightly there is that great bit of like the others in here of like, what does it mean? to control, what does it mean to possess?

Tyrion with Shea, Tyrion with Tisha, the others clicking their little heels and turning, you know, zombies into their army. What does that mean? What is love? What is power? What is control? What are these things? Yeah. Those are the things I have for you.

These things, Eliana. And don't you think that's worth a kiss? Sure. I'm so sorry. I don't know. I don't know why it's happening this way to day. chapter actually ends. They cut it off and then, but it actually Sonsa going, sure.

Sure. Or fuck no. I don't know. It's one of those. But, um, yeah. And I mean, to your point, I think, again, that's my Tyrion and Danny's story. Because the Danny storyline to me is fundamentally, will eventually be, and same with Tyrion's maybe. What would you do for the promise of love? Because that's all she's, that's what she hopes Westeros is. The promise. of being loved. Well, I have bad news.

Well, that's why it's sad. That's why it's sad. Now they are sad. Can you imagine if Amelia Clark ever reads the winds of winter and she's like, are you fucking kidding me? Like, I could have done all this,

but okay. You said go crazy because bells. We will never forget. I go crazy. Yeah. No, that is really sad. That is sad for her. Apparently, she's in a show. I intend to watch it. She's in apparently another show recently. Tyrion.

Tyrion knows something about names too, right? Halfman, imp. People meet his appearance with revulsion, and he goes, yet I'm still a man. Shea is in his bed, and Tyrion could still marry and father's son, allegedly. I assume this is true because George put it in there, and he hopes that it would be one who looks like Jamie. But Vary's has none of that being castrated, and he says to him, dwarfs are the jap of the gods, but men make eunuchs.

And I'm like, I don't know, I have no good thoughts other than bars. Yeah, it's total bars. There's something about, like, there's something so sad in Tyrion, even in his imagination, in his imagination, like a child born out of him loving somebody, and he still wants that to look nothing like him. Like, the product of love for him is a rejection of himself. That it would be the better brother. Yeah.

It's actually, like, terrible. It's, like, makes me very sad. It's both sad that, like, he thinks that, but also I'm just, I don't, I'm not saying, like, this is right, but I'm thinking of how, like, in theory, parents are like, I want to give my child the best chance at success in life. And he's like, that's what success in life would look like if that would set him up best for that. I don't know that I want to give a child my issues that I have all my different disabilities and health issues either. Yeah. I mean, I get it. Yeah. It's just so devastating. Like, that's his whole life. And, like, it made me think of stalwart shield. right? Yeah. And that he is killed, you know, and he was coming from the brothel where he, you know, would go to just be held.

And like, also that Tyrion's so uncreative that he thinks that, like, you can't love just without sex organs. Like, really? Because anyone can love, all men can love. Love is, in fact, there's this really lame line in Doctor Who that I think about all the time in series seven episode five. No, episode two, the Dalek episode in series seven. I'm like, Akash, stay with me. Eliana won't ever know. But it's really lame, but there's this whole thing where they talk about what makes a Dalek.

And a Dalek is a villain from the show, Eliana, the one that looks like the trash cam with all the dots on it. I've seen them. I've seen them. It says exterminate. Good, good. Just educating. You know, it's a chance for education every day on this podcast. So there's a whole entire spiel about turning people.

into Daleks and like how do you how would you be able to convert someone into that and the speech basically gives you some line about like you remove the love and you add hate I think it's like crazy to look at it as a percentage of this isn't like how people are it's not this black and white you know you can't just like look at a percentage of how much love you have but like it reminds you like the pile of good and bad right love and hate are a pile of good and bad things that you have constantly within yourself that are like battling it out of you have. out to see who wins. And almost like the coin flip.

Okay? I know the coin flip is kind of an overused thing in the fandom. People don't like it. It's controversial now. But like that too. The coin is in the air flipping trying to decide what side it comes out to. And like all men can be created with love. All men can be created with hate.

It doesn't matter what you got going out in the pants. TBH. Everyone can love. So just made me think of Stellart Shield. and it made me very sad. He loved. Varus does too. Yeah.

Agreed. Tyrion's so clouded by this idea of, like, masculinity that's been denied him, that he thinks it is the only path. Yeah. He's so, there's also, there is, like, something about the sex being the replacement for love, right? Like, the hypersexuality being a replacement for love. And, like... Interesting. I mean, it's a very common thing, right?

Like, many people do it that they... don't want to experience a relationship in that manner, they would rather just have a physical thing. And like, that's fine if that's what you really, really want. But Tyrion is clearly using it as a bandage over his rejections, over a way to survive. Yeah. He doesn't even consider what if he had a girl?

What if he had a daughter instead of a son? That would be crazy. No, because he would give his father the perfect son he could never be. Wow. Tyrion, thinking that they're having a heart to heart, finally asks who cut Vary's, but Vary's dances right around that one and brings them back to businesses and it's like, we are co-workers.

This is a work environment. And so he runs through the latest problems. Some shipmasters are defecting to Stannis, including the captain of the ship's galley, the White Hart. They could simply disappear him or put him on trial and make an example of him. both encouraging loyalty and giving Joffrey something to do. The display, this is very much, you know,

the trappings of power that Vary's talks about much more later. Like, this is what a shadow of on the wall looks like, right? Putting on that display of power and trying to encourage other people to stay loyal, but also giving Joffrey something to do, I think, is a big motivator of this of like, dang, they're just like, let's keep that boy busy. And then you have the Red Wine Twins. They apparently bribed a guard to let them escape, and then rather than risk losing their valuable hostages, the Red Wines.

They're like, let's just send the guard to the wall, and we'll put more guards around the Moonrunner, which is the ship, in case the twins try again. I'm like, damn, that's like crazy. That's that class privilege, like we're talking about in this chapter of being like, well, the Red Wine Twins are way too valuable as hostages. Let's just punish the other guy I guess they are prisoners

They are prisoners They were already in the capital What else can you do? Yeah For good behavior And they are Basically Like used as hercy guards

You know, on and off But you know what First of all Yeah yeah yeah Everyone deserves freedom But fuck those guys They were mean to Sam Tarley Okay

It was the first thing that I want to put out there They like let him be beat By a kitchen girl that was fucked up. So I just want to put that out there because I love Sam Tarley. So first thing. But also,

this is crazy. I forgot about this and it's very gorilla and reminds me a little bit of Hot D. Season 3, right? Of you have the guards secretly in the city

working for the reach and opening up and acting in favor of the Tyrells for the war right within the city and also like, yo, no offense, maybe to bring up Danny again, but like, you have these hostages, they are caught doing something bad, but yet you do nothing? You don't use them? What's the point of having the hostage? Like, oh, we could do something to them, Paxter. As if Paxter isn't readying his ships for the reach right now. Are you fucking stupid? Very funny. Also, early signs of like losing the power in Kings Landing, which are plastered all over this as we keep going through this spiel here. it definitely kind of reminds me of Eric and Arik too in the dance, right?

You have Horace and Hobber, left and right, Eric and Arik, and Eric and Arick having their kind of like back and forth twin battle. I bet there's all those shenanigans they're up to. Timette kills a man while gambling pretty much because the man's cheating. Actually, sorry, he pins his wrist to the table with a dagger and tears out his throat bare-handed. Crazy. Timet gets rewarded instead of punish. Good for him.

A hell of a lot, though, in this chapter is like, oh yeah, there's not. not justice, just to us. Like, that is the chapter again. It is no justice, just us. Absolutely. That would be such a great t-shirt. I just... Write it down, oh my God.

The merch. Yeah, put it in the merch, doc. I guess. Because it's their merch. Mencon Canon is real. Not justice. Not just us. Oh, my God.

The comet has also produced a sudden plague of holy men with all kinds of people preaching, helped by the approach of year 300 since Agin's landing. That's Y2K baby, Y2K. Terrian says, let them preach. But Varus is like, well, fear is spreading. And Tyrion's like, but that was your job. I love that there's moments that even if you didn't know what was happening are so just like beautifully executed in terms of bad vibes imminent. Yeah. He's like,

you know, just let them do their thing. And I'm like, you know, Civil War, your people don't have enough food. I feel like this is like prime. People need something to believe in territory.

And I'm not entirely sure what you could do about it, but also like, just let them preach. Seems like a really bad idea. Yeah. Yeah, you're not wrong. I'm like, let's start a counter rumor, you know? I feel like Circe

kind of tried, like she almost, she almost grasped the assignment with that. And then she lost it. Wow. That's the Circe autobiography title. I almost got it. Yeah. I was kind of like, I don't know, I was kind of like,

Furious's job isn't to spread fear. His job is to spy. Yeah. No, actually. Because like, I love that his riddles and observations are almost like little prophecies. Like, it's almost like he gives you the truths, These are the events that my people have seen with their eyes.

Mostly not biased, by the way. No slant, clearly. But these are the slant are the specific things he feeds you, obviously. And that's where your attention is drawn. But it's on you as a ruler as a leader to interpret them like a horoscope or a mood ring. Right? You're supposed to be using this to like take the temperature to understand the heat map of your city. It's for the ruler to interpret.

He provides the data. They chart the vision. It's just like there is. no fucking vision in King's Landing, and that's the thing that keeps getting them in trouble glossing over that. Absolutely. I had such a vivid image of Varus doing like drag brunch, but as Maggie the Frog. I can see it.

I feel like... I'm obsessed. And just like he has like... I like do an entire. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like he has like some like go-go boys like act as spies or something. And they'll be like, okay, report back.

What have you heard? What have you heard? Okay, well, I think that couple over on table seven are definitely about to break up. I've been various drops come over as Maggie the Frog and Dragon, like, drops of prophecy that's sort of like, this isn't going to last by like tomorrow. My God. They would make an amazing duo, though. Maybe that's how he and Illyrio bonded, you know? They would just like gossip together.

And then he's like, what if he made this a job? Yeah. I need to monetize that skill because that's how I mostly make my friends. Yeah. And then you can add a dash of instilling fear, you know, expand because even though I disagree about that being Vera's role. Well, it's not cheap. Finally, last on the list of to-does, Lady Tanda has held a supper. Beres has the guest list.

Got the Partifal and Giles toasted the king after Bailen Swan made a joke. And Trian's like, dude, fuck this. Like, I'm not, I'm not interested in making jokes into treason. I, person who makes jokes all the time, Tyrion says. He's like, dang, everyone, chill. It's just a joke. Uh-oh, not interested in the politics that happened to my friend Eddard and look what happened to him. Various is giving it to, this is all attached.

My friend Eddard. This is literally attached and he's failing. He was my friend. Yeah, my friend Ned, this happened to him. Actually, he was my friend. That's true. He was. So with the action items from this little stand-up complete, Barry's leaves, and Tyrion considers how Circe he will react to Slint's dismissal.

Not well, but there isn't much she can do about it. I just, I feel like one should never presume that there's not much Circe can do about something. That's true. That happened to her friend Eddard. Yeah. It happened to her friend Malara. Yeah, that's true. Like, there may not be, like, it may not be the best thing to do, but she will do something.

And I feel like Tyrion should know that. That's true. Yeah. Tyrion now has the city watch, the Mountain Clans, and bronze cell swords beneath him. But then again, Ned Stark probably thought he was well protected to... Not my friend Ned. Oh, yeah, my friend Ned. Braun arrives and Tyrion reflects on Vary's little personnel shuffle.

Varies would have Tyrion believe he installed one of his own men, but Tyrion suspects he replaced one of Little Fingers men with one of Vary's. Oh, what gives you that idea suddenly, Tyrion? Dip shit. Braun starts rehashing the timet situation and Tyrion's like, yes, I know. Braun continues to explain and Terean's like, I do not care. I'll just say that about this guy who thought that Tomet was an easy mark just for having only one eye and I'm like, clearly no one here has ever heard of your own, Greyjoy and the forsaken God.

Also, Tyrion would rather return to talk about HR and he goes, how goes your recruiting? That actually is a line from the book. I just had, like, what if Tyrion was sliding into my LinkedIn DMs being like, Hi, Akash. So I have this remote position. Yeah. Doesn't pay well, but. Or Bronn. You might die.

Yeah, you could die. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. And by remote, you mean sending you to like the remotest corners. Yeah. And by remote, they're going to like tell you, well, actually it's a hybrid role. Well, actually, you need to be in office five days a week. Yeah.

Yeah. Or like, it's remote. It's work from home. but you can only stay at home, aka Shea being locked up in the manse with the jewels, and only a bird for a friend. Only a bird.

Like, does he not get it? She's the bird at this point. I'm like, okay, being like, you can't leave a mansion. And I'm like, okay, I can work with that, kind of. But also not really, because I don't like people telling me what to do. Like, I walk past those signs as say,

smile, you're in camera. That's the bigger part. And I'm immediately like, no. Yeah, no, that's it. Literally, it's the freedom. Yeah. It's no way to live. Braun has been successful in his LinkedIn DMs.

He has three new candidates, and Tyrion's like, well, how are you deciding who to hire? And he says that he looks at them, he asks where they've fought, he watches how they lie, and then comes the unpaid practical interview. They get a chance to kill him. So far, Braun hasn't killed anyone worth hiring. Tyrion asks what happens if one of them actually kills you and he says he'll be the one you want to hire Honestly also bars And from there we return to one of the recurring motifs of the story Killing Innocence

I was like wow the show version of Braun is For the most part such an antithesis Me as a person. It's really funny. Oh, that's true. You're like, I'm not a jock in any way, shape, or form. That's so funny. You're really going to have to act.

Like, this is it. This is your big moment. Yeah. I just wanted to see your interpretation. You've given us a lot of, like, really fun interpretation. So I wanted to see you bring Braun to life. Yeah, I get really scummy with it, you know? Get deep in your scuminess.

It's got a, everyone's got it somewhere. I think you can do it. I'm just smarmy. so I obviously always get cast as Tyrion. Tell me, Braun, if I told you to kill a babe, an infant girl, say, still at her mother's breast,

would you do it without question? Without question? Nah. I'd ask how much. And why would I ever need your allardeme, Lord Slint? Tyrion thought, I have a hundred of my own.

He wanted to laugh, he wanted to weep. Most of all, he wanted Shea. I get it. He's numbing his emotions with sex. I get it. I see it. Yes. See?

Exactly. Yeah, yeah. All right, I see it. I see it. It's pretty sad. The escapism. It's sad for Shea, too, who cannot escape. Also will die.

Of not fun. Not fun. Very not fun. Um, yeah, so something interesting about this chapter. Honestly, I don't know how much like George had set up or like come up with the Insully yet or not. But it is setting us up for them, this entire discussion of like, well, Alardine will kill a baby without question. But it also like is like, what is that ask of your soul being forced to it being not, right? Etcetera.

Because the Insully don't fucking choose to be like, I'm going to be kidnapped and trafficked as a kid and then forced to become a child soldier. and then go kill kids if I want to live and then my dog so I do I feel like a lot of this is kind of setting up that question of like okay well when it's in this scenario do you not feel pity for them as opposed to condemning them right

and also this line stood out to me about Tyrion he's so conflicted inside which I think again part of why he's such a great character of the He wanted to laugh, he wanted to weep, and that kind of stays with him. We see in Tyrion 2, Adowada. A quote, when he's having a dream of that night, Tyrion Lannister dreamed of a battle that turned the hills of Westrose as red as blood. He was in the midst of it, dealing death with an axe as big as he was, fighting side by side with Barristan the Bold and bitter steel, as dragons wheeled across the sky above them. In the dream, he had two heads, both noseless.

His father led the enemy So he slew him once again Then he killed his brother Jamie Hacking at his face until it was a red ruin Laughing Every time he struck a blow Only when the fight was finished Did he realize that his second head was weeping?

That's all I love that as like the tragedy Like kind of like the tragedy mask right? Yeah The drama and tragedy mask like yeah yeah comedy and tragedy that's tyrian i think the most interesting note about terian to me in this entire chapter is the one where he talked about like having a bitter taste in his mouth and i'm i'm really i'm not entirely sure what that bitter taste in his mouth after

his manure would slint entirely comes from and i like that we don't necessarily get a very clear answer? Like, is it because, you know, it's proving to him that maybe he is more like his father than he wanted to be, which is a double-edged sword for him as well? Is it like, oh, I'm even less like Jamie? Is that? Or does it make him feel closer to Circe? But there's, so just like where that discomfort comes from is really interesting to me. Yeah. Then what I like about also this moment that this question Tyrion poses to Braun at the end of the chapter, him sort of like circling back

flip almost like full circle to the riddle. Because in the riddle, right? It's like, he's like, oh, the cell sort is all the power, not the people telling him to kill someone and this is what the reward is. And I don't know if it necessarily crosses Tyrion's mind that if his answer to the riddle

was imposed on this question he's posing to Braun, then Braun is the person with the power and not Tyrion who's asking him whether he would do something. And it's just, it's neat, it's neat writing. I like that it like doubles on itself by literally giving us like two pages before Tyrion actually has to answer or pose that riddle in a way that has like a real consequence and not just theoretical. And then the question is like, okay, well, if Bron has all the power because he's the one holding the sword and can kill the kid, then why are we pretending that Tyrion is the person with the power in this dynamic?

Or is it really the coins when they rub between two fingers that hold the power in truth? Me, I like it. Yeah. I love that because that is really the dichotomy of the answer, right? Like, it's really the coin in truth. I'd ask how much for the right money you can get anyone to do anything for the right price, not just the money, right? It's the price. I mean, we saw various play Tyrion like a fiddle this entire child.

chapter and get him to literally install one of his men and deny one of little fingers men. And that's the first kind of throw from the new hand of the king in this miniature war that's happening underneath the surface that is so far beneath them. They're not seeing it. And Varus is all but asking him the entire time to answer the question to get there. Who actually cut Ned's head off? The answer was at the very beginning of the chapter when Janos was being taken off to the night's watch, right? I'll call Littlefinger.

There was your answer. That's what Various is telling you. You can make the illusion appear anywhere. Coin or sell sword. I mean, Littlefinger paid for it. Just like Various is paying for it right now. And I'd also like to quote a very famous woman

and say, time is money, money is power, power is pizza, pizza is knowledge, let's go. You know, that's also. the whole entire epitome of the chapter. Money is power. It is. And the cell sort gets to set the price, but also, as you said, regarding, like,

Littlefinger, it's because, and going back to what you're saying, a few earlier, earlier in the episode of, like, love and stuff. Like, they can't fathom that it's Littlefinger, because they don't understand, like, what could make him want that kind of power and motivation. I'm not saying, like, he loves Catlin, but, like, no one realized, like, how fucking thirsty, like, how down bad. Little Finger is. How embarrassed he was publicly.

The things I do for being down bad. Like, damn, bro. No one could have known. I mean, he was emasculated. Like, he is actually so much more similar to Tyrion than Tyrion realizes, right? He was embarrassed publicly at a great lord's home with other great lord's present. And like his entire youth when he was, you know, if he had just settled down, he could have maybe had a well-made marriage and settled for the middle,

but, like, Littlefinger does not settle. Little finger is like, no, I'm going to fuck my way to hell. Yeah, yeah. And now, look. Now she's dead. Now she's a zombie. And she's coming for your ass. Oh, God, and she's hot, too.

And she's going to save her daughter. Leave that girl. Curled ass pussy. I love her. Another merch idea. Lady Stoneheart with the shirt captions, fuck my way to hell. Like...

Oh. I'm... Oh my God. Like with like Ghost Rider kind of flames coming off of it. Okay. Like a really cheesy.

I like the cut of your jib. I do. Do you like Ghost Rider? Oh. How do you think of Sully to even find that many newborns? Anyways.

Yeah, I have some questions about the logistics of like supply. Yeah. And demand, yeah. All right. Well, that's a wrap on Tyrion, too. Akash, thank you so much for joining us. It was such a great time. Please tell everyone where they can find you online one last time before we sign off. Thank you so much for having me. This was so much fun. It's kind of really what I needed in my week is to talk about my boy, Varus. I love him. You can find me on Insta at Fagatarius underscore film. And you can also find me on letterboxed at Espresso Homo 91. where I have a hot take about the Odyssey.

Ooh, yes. Go read that. Yes. We love a little letterboxed action. Eliana, where can they find us online? I don't know. You can find us on social media, on Twitter, or Blue Sky, at Girls Gone Cannon. That's C-A-N-O-N-N.

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And I've been another one of your hosts, Aliana. And thank you Akash for joining us for Akash of Kings. Oh my God. We'll be back with Tyrion 3 next week. Thanks, guys.