Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 3 Eddard IV/V

Episode Date: May 16, 2018

Eliana and Chloe embark on a journey through each character's POV in ASOIAF, starting with everyone's favorite honorable patriarch: Eddard Stark.  Petyr Baelish begins to carefully sow his seeds of dissent as Ned is forced to cope with a political climate even colder than the north,  and Ned begins his Film Noir Detective Arc with Grand Maester Pycelle.   Be sure to check out DrunkDoge's Theory on Sweetness turning Rotten at https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/5ipgy7/spoilers_published_jon_sweetness_going_rotten/ also check out @JellyBronut37's POV sheet to keep track of chapter numbers and characters! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1usEKYbkx1_ZIlIjUTbWsj_gGD9dp46wNx4lV_3TZWxE/edit?usp=sharing      intro by Anton Langhage.   Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/   Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: https://liesandarbor.tumblr.com

Hey and welcome to Girls Gone Canon. I am Chloe. You can find me on the internet as at Liza and Arbor on Twitter and Tumblr and also at Drunk A Song of Ice and Fire History at Drunk A Swath on Twitter. And hello, I'm Eliana. You may know me as GlassTableGirl on Reddit or on Maester Monthly. And I also have a Twitter username, and it's Arithmetic. Welcome back. Thanks for staying on this journey with us. Yes, whether you're new, you're just catching up, or you are returning, welcome back. Thank you so much for listening in. We are so excited to be here and cover Eddard IV and Eddard V today from A Game of Thrones.

Before we jump into all of that, again, thank you so much for listening. We've gotten so much great words of affirmation and support. We're so happy that you're enjoying what you've heard so far. We just want to read some of this great feedback and comments that we've gotten. To start off, we have an email. Big shout out to John of Knoxville, Prince of Sunsphere who emailed in.

He said that we had him when we quoted Hilary Duff's Come Clean and to keep up the good work. Looking forward to the next episode. I don't think we have any Hilary Duff's Come Clean. And to keep up the good work, looking forward to the next episode. I don't think we have any Hilary Duff references today, but we'll see what we can do. Yeah, maybe we can like slip in, I don't know, some Ashley Simpson. I was listening to Michelle Branch earlier. Oh, I am a big Michelle Branch fan.

This is going to blow your mind, Eliana. I've been told I look like Ashley Simpson before the nose job. Okay. I think you're like more talented but okay oh you're so sweet much better lip syncer I did want to shout out a really awesome tweet we got from ghost in BK uh we were kind of having a little bit of a chat about Robert Baratheon on the Twitters, and they tweeted to us, do we think Robert holds the Targaryens responsible for his parents' death as well, and that only contributed further to his outright hatred for them?

So it wasn't just Lyanna who Rhaegar took from him. It was everyone he loved since his parents went off looking for his wife. This is an A-plus that robert basically just and it's interesting because robert himself has targaryen lineage but that he hates what they've done to his family so much and and of course what he feels they took from him rhaegar pretty much ruined his life took took his family members, you know? I never really, I don't know how I didn't catch that before, but I sincerely never caught before that. I never thought about, wow, yeah, Rhaegar, them going to find Rhaegar a wife is pretty much that. That's,

they died because of Rhaegar. Rhaegar took everything Robert had. Yeah. And then once Robert has, in some ways, everything that Rhaegar had as the king, he's like, this sucks. It's still not exactly what he wants. Rhaegar got all of those. That's probably why he kills him every night in his sleep. This sounds really tiring, honestly,illing Rhaegar in your sleep every night. Anyway, so we have another six episodes to go on our journey with Ned. And we all know that you're very excited to find out who's next, who we're going to get to in about a month and a half. But we're not announcing that yet.

In the meantime, take a look at Corey Hoisington at jellybrownut37 on twitter sent us a document it's going to be linked below in the details uh but it shows each character and their chapters their point of view chapters and what chapter numbers they are which is actually really awesome i've used it a couple times now just because my version of the ebooks that I'm using right now do not have the chapters. I'm not using my physical copies. So I would say it was a very bold thing to do of him. Don't you think, Eliana? You don't have to sell me on it. I think it's super helpful because like say my my electronic version also does not have the numbers, so this is super useful. So that will be linked below, and I guess we're back to our lightning round of what we missed, Eliana.

Between Ned 3 and Ned 4, there were a few chapters that we are not reading since we're scooting along ahead in Ned's point of view. So Eliana, can you tell me what those chapters are, the first one? Yeah, the first one? Yeah, the first one is a super exciting chapter, though. It's Bran's dream where Bran dreams of a crow while he is falling. That's teaching him to fly and crazy things go down in that dream and it's

incredible. And then he wakes from his coma, finding himself crippled, and then names his dire wolf Summer. After Bran III, we keep the excitement. Catelyn travels with Ser Rodrik by ship to King's Landing, where she meets in secret with Petyr Baelish and Barriss. She is told the cat's paw's knife belonged to Tyrion Lannister.

And then next we have a Jon chapter and of course the way that these books are structured Ned shows up in a couple of different ways through other characters chapters so we are going to touch on some of those Ned moments because we're focusing so much on his character and his journey. So in Jon 3 Jon is attacked by his fellow brothers, and it's not the last time. Then Donald Noyce saves him, and he teaches him that not everyone in the Night's Watch grew up with the same privileges he did, even though Jon felt that he was very maligned in his station as a bastard. And Jon then meets up with Tyrion again and later learns from Lord Commander J.R. Mormont that Bran woke from his coma and that he's going to live.

But in this chapter, so in Jon 3 we have a conversation between Jon and Donald Noy that speaks a lot to who Ned is and to Jon's parentage. Lord Eddard Stark was not a man to sleep with whores, Jon said icily. His honor did not prevent him from fathering a bastard, did it? Jon was cold with rage. Can I go? You go when I tell you to go. John stared sullenly at the smoke rising from the brassiere until Donald Noy took him under the chin, thick fingers twisting his head around.

Look at me when I'm talking to you, boy. John looked. The armor had a chest like a keg of ale and a gut to match. His nose was flat and broad and he always seemed in need of a shave. The left sleeve of his black wool tunic was fastened at the shoulder with a silver pin in the shape of a longsword. Words won't make your mother a whore. She was what she was, and nothing Toad says can change that. You know, we have men on the wall whose mothers were whores. Not my mother, John thought stubbornly. He knew nothing of his mother. Eddard Stark would not talk of her. Yet he dreamed of her at times so often that he could almost see her face. In his dreams, she was beautiful and highborn and her eyes were kind.

One of the most famous Lyanna Stark description quotes used from John, of course, which, as we all know, his mother was beautiful and highborn and her eyes probably were kind. And in the last episode, we talked about how Ned is really characterized by his honor. So I think there's something great here in that Jon's talking about his Ned's honor and then Noy says did not prevent him from fathering a bastard, did it? did not prevent him from fathering a bastard, did it? And we're going to talk a lot in this episode today about fatherhood and ties of what it means to be a parent, regardless of blood. And while Ned may not be Jon's father by blood, he still fathered Jon by taking him in and being that figure for him. And his honor didn't prevent him from doing that.

His honor was less important than protecting Jon. Going along with that, later on, Noi drops this knowledge of words won't make your mother a whore. She was what she was and nothing Toad says can change that. And words won't make his mother a whore, he says, because Lyanna wasn't one. Jon's right. His mother is highborn. Absolutely.

Which, I mean, there's a lot of discourse about whether or not the words won't make your mother a whore quote is true since we don't know exactly the circumstances that surround uh rhaegar and lyanna's tryst i guess we could call it their affair uh although i think we will learn eventually that we do know, obviously, that she was not a whore. It was not one of those types of relationships. It was very consensual and somehow legal, which hopefully George will reveal. And from that, we get to Ned. We are going to jump into Eddard IV.

And in Eddard IV, House Stark's leading paragon lands in the capital to find the political corruption that blooms from the king's apathy. He meets several small council members, although friend or foe, he knows not. By the end of Ned IV, Lord Stark embarks on a noir arc, looking for clues and answers to the death of Jon Arryn. Ned arrives in King's Landing, and as he enters, he begins to feel the tiredness from the whole journey that has brought him down here. He's feeling tired, of course, from the actual physical travel, but as you all know, it's been a very eventful trip. rip. What I think is interesting about the way this chapter opens is that it feels like the third chapter in a row that Ned's opened up with this idea of sleeping and waking. It says, he was still a horse, dreaming of a long hot soak, a roast fowl, and a feather bed. And in Ned 2, Ned is actually asleep and he's woken by Robert. In Ned 3, we learn that Ned has not

slept for days. And I feel that the way these come together is it's interesting because it's all this waking and sleeping is going to blur in Ned's later storyline when we get to the chapter of his fever dream. I feel like from this moment out in the story, Ned doesn't get to rest. Ned is awoken by Alan, by Jory, by Robert several times. Right when he feels like he's hitting that REM, he is just awoken. Yeah, King's Landing is basically just a nightmare for him. Honestly, it really is. King's Landing is a nightmare for him. It's where his family died. It's where he showed up and all these kids were killed. I mean, it is a waking trauma factory for Ned to go there.

He shows up and he's ready to get settled in and he wants to get a bath. He wants to hang out, you know, smoke a doobie, whatever Ned Stark does. He wants to throw on some Netflix. Yeah, Netflix and chill with himself. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Anyways, Ned is immediately informed that there is a small council meeting, a 911 emergency meeting that he has to attend. Ned is not thrilled about this.

He kind of loses his temper and then he chills out for a second. He's like, you know what? No, I have to go to this meeting. If they're going to hold it anyway, I might as well be there. I've missed too much. And has Veyon Poole, his steward, see that his daughter's sons and Arya go to the room and especially make sure that Arya doesn't go exploring. As she does, Ned ends up having to borrow clothes to go sit in this small council meeting

because his wagons are still coming through the city very slowly and these borrowed clothes ned isn't even allowed to be himself in king's landing he's forced to go into a meeting that he doesn't want to go in in an outfit that isn't his own an unfamiliar place unfamiliar clothes another face to add to the lord stark and dad thing the hand of the king is his new face. He meets four of the small council members. Littlefinger, master of coin. Varys, master of whispers. Renly, master of laws. And Grand Maester Pycelle. Yeah, I love this observation that you make about the borrowed clothes and what people wear when they're doing politics,

which comes up a lot throughout the rest of the story. It's recognizable from Dani's story with the floppy ears, but I think that's a great catch of seeing it in Ned's storyline. We even see it with Sansa in powdering her face and making sure she's done up for court, even though she has bruises from her beatings. powdering her face and making sure she's done up for court, even though she has bruises from her beatings. And of course,

later on when both his daughters end up straight up changing their clothes in here, it may be face. So next we have Varys who greets Ned by expressing some sorrow over the troubles on the road. And he assures Ned that everyone's praying for Joffrey's recovery. Lord Stark, I was grievous sad to hear about your troubles on the king's road. We have all been visiting the sept to light candles for Prince Joffrey. I pray for his recovery. His hand left powder stains on Ned's sleeve and he smelled as foul and sweet as flowers

on a grave. I like this line especially especially about the way that Vary smells, because on Reddit, a user named Drunk Doge wrote a post once that tied the idea of the smell, sensation of sweetness, to often being used in conjunction with the idea of death or with rotting corpses. I like that theory a lot. It also brings back the Liana imagery for Ned. Ned associates flowers on a grave with death. He associates it with Liana, with her dying, with the petals in her hands. And also, this whole entire chapter, this part of the chapter, is a test for Ned. All of this meeting is a test. That was Varys testing

his loyalty, and as we keep going in a second, we'll hear the other ways he's going to be tested. But that was Varys seeing what's Ned's reaction to that. So it is really interesting that right off the bat, Ned remembers foul dead flowers just coming straight off of Varys. Yeah. And Ned, of course, image of courtesy Yeah. And Ned, of course, image of courtesy, replies properly and informs Varys that the prince grows stronger every day. He says regarding Varys' hand on his sleeve that he disentangled himself from the eunuch's grip. And I just really like this word choice since we do talk about the language that George R. R. Martin uses. The word disentangled just conjures up a lot of different associations,

especially when it comes to Varys. It's as though he's caught up in this knot or in Varys's grip. But of course, it also reminds us of the spider's web. It is another interesting word choice on George's part. It reminds me also a lot of the last chapter, how Ned disengaged from Sansa, and now he's disentangling himself from Varys, almost like isolation.

We get a lot of Ned's thoughts on the small council, and Ned thinks Renly looks a lot like a young Robert, which I do believe is immediately meant to pique our interest to contrast Prince Joffrey, especially before the next chapter as Ned gets too deep into his investigation. That's a really great point. And it starts setting up all of our expectations of what we should see in these characters in terms of physicality. Going back to that physicality, I guess, and how we were talking about the way people present themselves,

Littlefinger sees fit to remark upon Renly being much better dressed than Robert and having spent more on clothes than any ladies in the court. Yeah, it also raises the idea that Littlefinger is kind of one of those shitty bros who makes gay jokes. Yeah, it's not great. And I kind of wonder if, while this is characterizing Littlefinger, is this to an extent George R. R. Martin's attempt at trying to hint at Renly's sexuality and being gay by unfortunately relying on some of these really tired stereotypes about gay men? Unfortunately, I think it is in a way. It's definitely a subtle nod on his part. But I do want to remind us that this was written in the 90s. So that's not an excuse, per se. But those stereotypes, I I mean those existed in the 90s very heavily uh it does

help to remember that but he wasn't also probably as woke as he is at the time I mean I kind of don't conflate the two of George's blog with how he writes his characters he is a really big champion for feminism I would say in his public life but's not really, these books aren't about him writing super feminist characters and super like, yay for gay. And you know, that's not what A Song of Ice and Fire is. Everybody is unfortunately treated pretty, pretty equally unfairly in this story. There's some promise, though, of course, in he's i'm i'm really looking forward to the john connington chapters when we get wins so renly's garb we get a kind of a glimpse at is gold with an emerald brooch and i'm curious if that's meant to symbolize his future or him

embracing the emerald when it comes to house terrell? I mean, we could make like a fun tinfoil that maybe he's already been like treating with them. Later on in this book, he does bring a portrait of Marjorie to Ned. And I mean, maybe this is like a gift from them. Or maybe he just likes emeralds. I don't know.

In theory, he could bring out the color of his eyes, which might be green or they might be blue. Depending on who you ask,orge yeah they're they're blue maybe with the emerald he's like that does happen yeah with the emerald he's like today i'm going to bring out the green in my eyes i don't know i i don't know little finger introduces himself to ned and immediately he starts to play his game with Ned. He mentions that Catelyn has probably talked about him often. But I mean, like, has she? I mean, probably not in years.

It's just such a, it's such an obvious thing that people do when they like have a crush on someone. They're like, oh, did, did, did they say anything about me? Did they talk about me? anything about me? Did they talk about me? I guess the way that he brings it up really annoys Ned, who feels the need to knock Littlefinger down a peg by bringing up Brandon. She has, Ned replied with a chill in his voice. The sly arrogance of the comet wrinkled him. I understand you knew my brother Brandon as well. Runley Baratheon laughed. Fierys shuffled over to listen. Rather too well, Littlefinger plays with Ned. Littlefinger is a schemer, and this chapter does a lot of characterizing for Peter as it does in continuing Ned's characterization. We really don't get a chance to see Peter this closely and in depth besides Ned's chapters and

Sansa's chapters. We get a true sense of Ned's political aptitude as we go on in this chapter and in the next. This parrying of words is not Ned's style in the North, and he ends up saying as much. He had no patience with this game they played, this dueling with words. And Littlefinger sends a threat his way with his own words, even. Here in the South, they say you are all made of ice and melt when you ride below the neck. I have this personal theory in that the CAD chapter that precedes this Ned chapter, Littlefinger's scar is brought up there, and it's referenced again in this chapter. So we know what it means when Littlefinger says that Brandon has left Peter with a token of his esteem. And it doesn't seem to be anywhere visible. We actually, as the readers, don't have

a specific idea of where it is on Littlefinger. But the fact that it's brought up earlier and it's brought up again here makes me feel that we are going to eventually see this scar on Littlefinger. Now we know that Littlefinger is a giant creeper. And I feel that when we see this scar, and actually see it not just hear of it we can anticipate that the fall of little finger will be just around the corner because in essence when he shows that scar a he'll probably be kind of undressed which means this is the fan service that no one wants and yeah but it also shows that he will be making himself vulnerable and there will be that moment where, of course, his weak spot or this scar is shown to the audience and would signal that this is the moment

for other characters to strike. I'm very anti-Sansa Littlefinger sex scene of any sort. I'm interested to see what happens. I do think it could happen but i'm very anti it in general just because i'm like stay away from her get a job uh but if it if this is if this is something that's gonna happen that scar is kind of his achilles heel of sorts which also would mean sansa that would be the person that would see this scar yeah i mean i don't know that like it's gonna be like a sex scene but it's gonna be like um you know put your clothes back on yo do you think it's

on his butt okay and the next of the small council Ned sees and observes Pycelle something I noticed in both of these chapters that we're reading today is that Pyceel has a bedazzled chain. I feel like I've never noticed this until now. Really, he has garnets, amethysts, black pearls, emeralds, and rubies mixed into his metalwork. And most maesters have chains that are just forged with the plain metals, but Grand Maester Paisel's chain kind of serves as a reminder of the power of the Lannisters, his position through them, and the corruption their regime has kind of brought to the realm, which we were about to hear coming in the dried coffers of King's Landing. Totally. It also kind of makes you wonder, like,

has Pycelle stayed true to serving? But also, unrelated, how does he get the jewels? Like, did he already come? Yeah, but did he already show up to King's Landing with, like, chain and then what did they take the links and like melt it a little and just like stick stick a jewel in there once you're like oh this is soft well and they also say that his chain is like super thick and jumbled it was almost like they were like two chains upon chains upon chains because he has every single link so his it's just this big like chain just like gnarled hanging around his neck with jewelry in it yeah does his chain hang low

does it wobble to and fro can you tie it in a knot probably can also tie it in a bow it is platinum and it's gold wait not the not the rap version. You were going with the actual one. No, I was thinking the rap version, but I don't remember all the words. And finally, let me just save him for last, like Varys just shuffles over when he sees Ned and Littlefinger sparring. Because Varys is just here for the tea. Like, that's literally his job, you know? He's literally here for the hot gossip. I love that it's always him and Renly. Renly's always making the japes, and Varys is always there to gossip, and they're just, like, tittering in the corner like girls. Yeah, and then Renly's, like, got his popcorn out, and he's, like, posting up.

He's like, all right. And then he's there laughing. He's like, this is my favorite song. Now you know a lot about the gifs that I like, I love, this is my favorite song. Now you know a lot about the GIFs that I like, but anyways. Varys and Renly would have the most lit Twitter accounts. I would retweet them every day. I actually would. I really would.

Ned asks after other members of the council, and he's told that Stannis left for Dragonstone once the king went north to Ned, and Barristan and King Robert are still riding through the city. Ned suggests that they wait for the king, and Ren Ned, and Barristan and King Robert are still riding through the city. Ned suggests that they wait for the king, and Renly tells him don't bother. The king rarely attends these boring meetings, unlike Ned, who diligently runs the north and not only does these boring meetings, but sits down with all of his men. Renly, thankfully, does have whateverbert wants him to take care of he says that the king has sent him ahead since you know robert isn't coming to convene the council together to handle a very

very important matter so serious it's the big it's so important and little finger produces this sealed letter for ned this is yet another time that Ned gets handed a letter that seems like it's something totally important and a piece of the puzzle he's trying to unfold. And it's not. Not at all. Basically, the letter is that Spider-Man picture of, And promise tomorrow! But it's the tourney of the hand ned reads this letter and it's straight up telling him that he's going to have a tourney thrown in

ned's name for the tourney of the hand of the king and it's a total dog and pony politics display of power show where you know it keeps the people happy. It keeps them thinking, oh, there's money in the realm. All the small folks suffer and starve and injustices are done. Ned is extremely unhappy about this extravagance in his name, especially as he starts to learn later on that it's going, the prizes are ridiculous, 90,000 gold dragons. And that doesn't even count how much the tourney itself is going to cost the crown. If the North were in in debt ned would cancel any event in the north they don't practice these

follies ned finds this a dishonorable event especially when the realm is so indebted right now and he even says to do this in his name that was salt in the wound gods be good he swore it is like a dog and pony show and as you were saying it seems incredibly irresponsible but you know i'm kind of wondering if there were any other attorneys when previous hands are sworn in is this something that is actually expected and it would be weird politically in terms of the expectations of the realm if they didn't have a tourney with when a new hand is this show of power actually necessary are there are there moments when it seems like tourneys and these events are necessary i suppose from what we've heard that this is kind of a normal ish event

uh but it is a little not even just with tourneys it's kind of a little tacky seeing as John Aaron just died. Also, it's kind of an affront on his death. Some tourneys are for scheming, as we know, like Harrenhal, looking to call a great council. Some are for celebration of birth and power, like Ashford Meadow. And then there are the smaller

tourneys that consist of namedays, like for Prince Joffrey and King Joffrey, when he becomes king's namedays. We'll see how people feel about this, probably poorly. Especially because Littlefinger reveals that not only is the realm starving and there's a lot of injustice but that the crown happens to be six million gold pieces in debt and three million of that debt is just the Lannisters so in the last 15 years this is why Ned's just astounded um the crown has managed to bleed the plentiful coffers that

the targaryens left behind completely dry uh and you know littlefinger's the master of coin he's keeping track of all this personally i do like these theories that say that Littlefinger knew what was going on and had set it all up so that the realm would be in such an unstable position where they are indebted to other areas. Like, they probably could have kept that money, but he might have been putting it somewhere else. I also think it's a big show of they are too far deep in with the Lannisters. You can't just get rid of the Lannisters at this point. The Lannisters bought their way in. Every little inch of gold that you see embroidered in a pillow, like the golden stag on the pillows in the council room. Those pillows, they have a gold stag embroidered.

Not black. They have gold. I mean, they are sleeping with the lions obviously quite literally they are totally indebted to them at this point like yes they're indebted to other people they're indebted to the iron bank they're indebted uh elsewhere but the lions are half of the debt half of that six million is the lancers ned starts to question how john aaron allowed the realm to bleed out like this and I mean the council basically tells him you know Robert doesn't listen to anyone which is definitely a big part of the equation it's not really much of a surprise at this point and it

shouldn't come as a surprise to Ned because he's already kind of learned the king is not the man he thought he was and he's learning that every single sentence in every single one of these chapters it's like how low do we have to go until ned realizes that bobby's not bobby anymore we see ned's first attempt at using his power as a hand of the king he insists this tournament is something the realm cannot afford and says they will revisit the topic later, abruptly leaving the meeting. Yeah. The way the scene plays out is another day, Ned said, perhaps too sharply from the looks they gave him. He would have to remember that he was no longer in Winterfell where only the

king stood higher here. He he was but first among equals forgive me my lords he said in a softer tone i am tired let us call a halt for today and resume when we are fresher he did not ask for their consent but stood abruptly nodded at them all and made for the door so he's immediately put in his place just by the looks that the small council gives him. And this entire chapter is Ned adjusting to the differences in King's Landing. And I think that him realizing that the power that he wields, while great as the hand of the king, also needs to be used wisely

when it comes to all of these other political alliances and machinations. Checks and balances, so to speak. Indeed. Ned proceeds after this toward the Tower of the Hand for the first time. He is intercepted by Littlefinger, and Littlefinger once more plays his game and tells Ned that he is going the wrong way. And Littlefinger once more plays his game and tells Ned that he is going the wrong way. Following Littlefinger, he begins to realize that Littlefinger is not leading him to the tower. And Littlefinger explains he's leading Ned to his wife.

After they go down, which this is ridiculous. They go down this wall. They like scale down a wall. And there are little holds, invisible holds in the wall that you could not see unless you're really looking. So they scale down it. So it is a treacherous climb down for him to be able to go to his wife so ned stark is following this annoying pestilent little git down this stone wall because he says he has his wife so they mount onto waiting horses outside the castle and they ride into the city okay gonna throw this out there i don't know that it's intentional but did you get a sansa going down the side of the veil vibe when he was doing that i did

that i did that and then also when she escapes from uh king's landing with him he takes her down some stony wall i want want to say. Is that the same wall? I don't know. I don't think it should be, but... Huh. Yep, written Sansa 5 in a storm of swords. There's a sort of ladder, a secret ladder, carved into stone. Here, you can feel it, my lady.

So, I think it's the same exact wall. Yeah. So Little little finger ends up leading ned to his brothel and ned's like and you may find yourself in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife and you may ask yourself well how did i get here to quote the talking heads um so ned is very insulted by this uh and he's like, this is not my beautiful wife. And holds a knife to Littlefinger's throat. Which ends up, as we know, later on being a dynamic that will be reversed. And then he claims that Brandon was too kind to Littlefinger.

As Chloe says in these notes, he's not fucking wrong. Just as he's about to gut Littlefinger for being an annoying little shit, he's interrupted by Roger Castle, who disarms Ned of his suspicions. He would have to remember he was no longer in Winterfell, where only the king stood higher. Here, he was but first among equals. Littlefinger's cat-mouse game continues on, and this is a place where Littlefinger is feeling Ned out, just as Tyrion feels Aegon out when he flips the table at Savas. Littlefinger is learning what

makes Ned tick, what his weaknesses are, and how best to force Ned's hand. Another quote that comes to mind during this is a quote that springs to mind during all of this is from A Feast for Crows in a Sansa chapter with in the Game of Thrones, even the humblest pieces can have wills of their own. Sometimes they refuse to make the moves you've planned for them. Ned's political style does not fly in King's Landing. We know this because we know how he ends and we know what comes of him. But watching it play out is once more painful. It's not that Ned is a poor politician. He's a great politician,

but in the North. It's almost like a dance that Littlefinger plays with Ned. I jab, you jab. But Ned does not know the moves. He even thinks to himself, he had no taste for these intrigues, but he was beginning to realize they were meet and need to a man like Littlefinger. And of course it makes sense in many ways for Littlefinger to keep Kat inside of a brothel because it is a good hiding place.

It's a very unlikely place to find the wife of a high lord like Ned. We end up seeing this happen a couple of other times in the series. In fact, a brothel is a great hiding place. It's extremely unlikely. We see it often used for, you know, like Robert's Bastard. In fact, the whole city of King's Landing is great for hiding Robert's Bastards. So we'll just, you know, let's make that one Robert's Bastards. Ned embraces and exchanges news with Catelyn, and he sees the scars from the cat's paw and says, what happened?

You know, he's freaking out. So I'll read this passage because I found, I feel like it's very important. There's a callback to last week's episode, to episode two of Girls Gone Canon. So pay attention, listen up, class. She put a finger to his lips. Let me tell it all, my love.

It will go faster that way. Listen. So he listened, and she told it all, from the fire in the library tower to Varys and the guardsmen in Littlefinger. And when she was done, Eddard Stark sat dazed beside the table, the dagger in his hand.

Bran's wolf had saved the boy's life, he thought dully. What was it that Jon had said when they found the pups in the snow? Your children were meant to have these pups, my lord. And he had killed Sansa's. And for what? Was it guilt he was feeling, or fear? If the gods had sent these wolves, what folly had he done? Major callback to last week's episode with Lady's death. I just wanted to kind of briefly mention it, that this is the moment where Ned learns that Bran's wolf, wild as it was, just saved Bran's life.

And now Sans is in a lion's den with no wolf. That's a painful feeling. Painfully, Ned forced his thoughts back to the dagger and what it meant. The imp's dagger, he repeated. It made no sense. His hand curled around the smooth dragonbone hilt, and he slammed a blade into the table, felt it bite into the wood. It stood mocking him.

Why should Tyrion Lannister want Bran dead? The boy has never done him harm. Yeah, it's true. He hasn't. And we're gonna see even more how this is a very mixed signal that we're getting. But we've seen Tyrion's perspective, which makes the audience feel more sympathetic towards him, makes them feel that, oh, Tyrion's not a bad guy. Tyrion would have never done this to Bran Stark because you know how he thinks. And that, of course, he is trying to understand what even happened to Bran and looks at Jaime and Cersei and is suspicious of their activities. But the way that Littlefinger convinces Ned and Cat,

but especially Ned, that it was tyrian is really interesting he says that of course it's obvious that tyrian wouldn't have acted alone and the reason that he's able to just slip in this untruth is because of the way that little finger has been acting towards ned this entire time so he's been making all these sarcastic remarks that exasperate Ned to no end about these quote-unquote obvious truths. So when they're outside the castle, we're outside the castle, Ned said. You're a hard man to fool, Stark, Littlefinger said with a smirk. Was it the sun that gave it away? Or the sky? Follow me. And later on, when Ned sees Catelyn, he goes, my lady. Ned whispered in wonderment. Oh, very good, said Littlefinger, closing the door. You recognized her. When he gets

to this point, he goes, do you Starks have naught but snow between your ears? The imp would never have acted alone. It fits in seamlessly with all of these other things that Littlefinger has been saying because it just seems like another one of those obvious truths of which Littlefinger has been goading Ned with. And of course, this raises suspicions for Ned of if Tyrion's not acting alone, then with whom is he conspiring? He feels the need to assure himself that Robert would never do something like this, but remembers all the terrible things that have happened in the last three chapters that the king has either supported or ignored. The king has either supported or ignored.

Not only does he remember the things from the last few chapters, he once more slips into some Liana trauma and disassociates. Ned rose and paced the length of the room. If the queen had a role in this, or, gods forbid, the king himself, no, I will not believe that. Yet, even as he said the words, he remembered that chill morning in the Barrowlands and Robert's talk of sending hired knives after the Targaryen princess. He remembered Rhaegar's infant son, the red ruin of his skull, and the way the king had turned away as he had

turned away in Derry's audience hall not so long ago. He could still hear Sansa pleading as Lyanna had pleaded once. And again, later on in the chapter, he says, Lots of Jon Snow guilt and Lyanna trauma buried in those words. It haunts his every move. Not only is Ned set up politically for failure in King's Landing, but the ghost of his sister and the grief he bears of Jon Snow haunts him and disallows him to properly function throughout his entire point of view. He has no problem thinking Cersei did it, though.

That is the biggest thing to take from that is that immediately, he immediately says, no, Robert wouldn't have but cersei though which is kind of funny because out of everyone turns out involved in that entire fiasco of attempts on bran's life cersei was actually the one most against it this is actually like the only time cersei has not done something wrong yeah and she was like that was dumb why did we throw the boy from the window this was you've made a

horrible you've made a huge mistake anyways and the next Ned is Littlefinger reminds them that oh if you're thinking it's them then you're accusing them of treason but of course if you have proof the king may listen which this entire chapter is just a great exercise in littlefinger manipulating ned

he grabs ned right before ned i mean all ned's wanted to do since he got to town is just like i want to go take a long ass nap, at the very least a nap, you know, which means he's very tired. So when Littlefinger grabs him, he's on his way to bed, and he's like, no, we're going this way instead. And this means that Ned's mental faculties are actually weaker. He's already exhausted from having to come here and deal with a small council. And that makes him more vulnerable to suggestion such as when little finger once again goads ned into doing the dishonorable thing he's like oh what you should do is just throw throw that dagger away and just forget it ever happened which of course is not

a thing that ned would do but it in suggesting it, that cements Ned definitely keeping the dagger and pursuing this investigation. And Ned's initial thought is that he should take this case and the dagger straight to Robert. Just immediately says, you know what? Go straight to the source. Cut out the middleman. Let's take it to Robert. But Littlefinger reminds him there was no solid proof that Tyrion was involved. But Littlefinger reminds him there was no solid proof that Tyrion was involved. Which is quick thinking, or maybe he's already thought this through on Littlefinger's part, to continue to push this idea that, oh, you can't just accuse people of, you can't just make these treasonous allegations.

Because had Ned actually taken the dagger directly to Robert, this entire thing would have been settled. Like all of these lies would have been dispelled immediately because the dagger should have been in Robert's hoard. And further on that, this is kind of a big chapter because it's Littlefinger making up the rules for Ned. Ned doesn't realize it, but Littlefinger is giving him rules and saying, well, this is what you're allowed to do here, Ned. Ned doesn't realize it, but Littlefinger is giving him rules and saying, well, this is what you're allowed to do here, Ned. And of course, like, he makes the Starks so dependent on him. And Ned chooses the wrong person to trust amongst those flatterers and fools that he

identified earlier. Absolutely. It's actually really interesting that the one person that doesn't trust him is sansa i mean she has a pretty good grip on his character right now as of a feast for crows of thinking you know like oh i know who peter baylish is george has pointed out that he feels a character that was most changed from the show, from the books into the show is Littlefinger, because he says that in the books, everyone trusts Littlefinger. You know, in the show, he seems like this very schemey kind of guy that, oh, of course he's going to like turn on you. But in the books, he says that no one thinks anything of it. no one thinks anything of it. Littlefinger's just always so hopeful to everyone, not just to the Starks, and seems like someone who's out of the way and that you can trust and that you don't have to think anything of him. We see in this chapter, Littlefinger places his seeds very

carefully. He says, you know, oh, well, this is how it should go. This is how you're allowed to handle it, Ned. This is how I'm going to help you. You can only trust me. And it's a very manipulative behavior that he continues on with Sansa. As we see, he isolates her. He doesn't allow her to have any contact with anyone else by telling her he's her savior. He kind of makes it so she has to rely on him. He makes it so cat and ned have to rely on him he is their only hope the only person they can trust in king's landing we even see in the next line because cat explains she told little finger their suspicions about john erin and little finger promised to help them find the truth and ned asks immediately if varus knows and he's told that he doesn't and cat warns ned varus knows things no ordinary person could know.

So this is another example of Littlefinger kind of giving them some more and saying, oh, yep, yep, you guys are right. You're right. You can't trust him either. You can only trust me. Yeah, Catelyn says of Varys, he has some dark arts, Ned, I swear it. And as we know, having seen actual magics in this story, Vires does not in fact have magics. His art isn't sorcery, but it is still dark, the secret behind it. The price of

the secrets and the knowledge that Vires has is child labor. He has children, orphans brought to him and has their tongues cut out so that they are less likely to spill secrets but they are literate. They can read and they can write.

Child labor, go hide in the wall. Yeah, it's literally that. It does remind me of Mel's smoke and mirrors in a way of how we learned during her chapter. Melisandre, you know, obviously she does have some magic, but a lot of her magic is more show and tell. It's, you know, potions and dashes of things to make smoke appear. And, you know, there's a little bit of showmanship behind it. and you know it there's a little bit of uh showmanship behind it yeah though there is of course a history of i guess master of whispers uh in fact using dark arts and magic like we don't know for sure how tana of the tower and like blood raven though we don't know exactly how much magic he was using

but we do know that he has magics med asks little finger to give him and cat some alone time for a second little finger asks if they would like a chamber a bedchamber but med deems it unnecessary you fool it

was necessary i'm sorry like this just when we read this part i'm just like this was they should have banged you know this was their last chance but you know that was a very generous offer uh being given a room uh he probably wanted to watch at the peephole. Oh, that's weird. You're right. He probably actually did. Yeah, he's gross. Get a job, Littlefinger. We are in his

business, though, I guess. Get another job. Yeah. And Kat thanks Littlefinger for his help. And she claims that she's found the brother that she thought she lost. Ned is still kind of reluctant to trust Littlefinger, and once he leaves,

Ned instructs Catelyn to have Bannermen fortify Moat Cailin, and to keep careful watch over Theon in case his father's ships are needed. They did not, in the end, keep watch over Theon. I'm gonna just say that Cat tried though. Cat tried to convince everyone don't don't let go of Theon. But

they did not, though, in the end keep watch over Theon. Rip. ned hopes that it isn't going to come to war and that robert will believe him when he finds out the truth and that robert is the man that he thinks he is and not what he fears he's become ned is holding hope in the wrong places though this is every single chapter that we've read of ned so far all this is what the four this is the fourth chapter that we've read of ned like i don't remember we're only reading through it uh the fourth chapter and ned has had nothing to tell him that robert is the man that he used to be in fact he has had many things yelling at him that robert is not the man he used to be. This is like red flags everywhere.

Red and gold flags. Everywhere. Red and gold flags everywhere. Just no. Turn back. Just say no. It's also the very last time that Ned and Kat see each other. They should have banged.

They should have banged. They should have banged. This is have banged! They should have banged! This is their last chance! Goddamn. Alright. Finally, of course, we see Catelyn go back on her journey. Yep. And Catelyn, it's really interesting to see Catelyn

fulfill the job of a lady of a Lord Paramount's keep. Not even just a lady of a keep. She has more trust from ned than most of the ladies in the stories do uh she was given basically a mission to go enact and i mean we see it during the feast at winterfell for example we saw her you know preparing things around the house getting things ready for the lannisters to come rushing you know making sure her feast would be ready but we see once more that Catelyn has more trust from

Ned than most people would yeah and even in Ned's absence after he leaves Winterfell uh Catelyn's duty is to be taking care of the books and making sure that the upkeep of the castle runs so it's you can really see the partnership between ned and cat when he gives her this really important political decree and trust that she will be able to execute it before we barrel into ned 5 we will once more pull our lightning round of what we missed between Ned IV and Ned V out for you. First up, right on the heels of the accusation of the conspiracy for Tyrion

of hurting Bran, we get Tyrion III, which is completely intentional on George's part. Tyrion dines with officers of the Night's Watch, promising to bring their petition for more men to the king. While visiting the Wall for the last time, he also meets Jon Snow once

more, who requests Tyrion do something, anything, big or small, to help his brother Bran with his newfound brokenness. And next we have Arya 2, and this is a very Ned-heavy chapter, so we're going to go a little...

We're going to touch on a couple of points in this chapter. So Arya is unhappy in King's Landing, and when Ned comes to speak to her, he sees Needle for the first time. After a long talk, he decides not to take her sword away, and instead he sends for a dancing master that will teach her how to use the sword so the chapter opens up with this tension between ned and sanza for obvious reasons and ned is trying to bridge that gap between them and eventually he's just like i can't deal with this you two are sisters you should you you should get along with one another. Arya also gives us the exposition of how Ned would frequently sup with his men to get to know them, how there would always be a different seat at the table where different members of Ned's household

and bannermen would come and he would speak with them, which gives us insight into how the Stark children were taught about the lands that they would come to inherit. This is, of course, also the Wolfblood chapter, where we learn a lot about the different members of Ned's family. In Ned 2, we see a lot of unease. The chapter closes with Ned's unease about how he feels out of depth, stepping into the role of Hand of the King. That hits him full force in this chapter when he remarks upon Arya having a sword. He learns that he's been completely oblivious to his own daughter owning a weapon and that his own smith is arming her and feels that he's just losing a grip over everything we also learn more about

how ned sees his family he talks about his siblings having wolf blood uh brandon and liana having it and aria perhaps having a touch of it and he also delivers a crucial line that becomes a mantra that aria tries to run away from in her later chapters about the starks being wolves who are a family when the snows fall and the white winds blow the lone wolf dies but the pack survives and aria says later on um i hate sansa too she did remember she just lied so joffrey would like her and then ned ends up saying we all lie her father said or do you did you truly think i believe that nymeria ran off later on he follows up with it was her father said, and even the lie was not without honor. He put Needle aside when he went to Arya to embrace her.

And in this moment, you can see that when Ned is talking about lies, he's not just talking about Sansa, and he's not talking even necessarily about Aryaa but he goes to hug her as he's thinking about it because when he's talking about a lie having its own sense of honor he's thinking about another Stark girl who had a bit of wolf blood and whom Ned lied for he's thinking about his sister, Liana. I would be very curious to see how many times Ned uses ellipsis in text, because this is the second time of note that I could say that this is the second Liana ellipsis we see. The first being fond of flowers. There's a lot going on in Ned's head in these pauses that is a very fill in the blanks character and then we also end up seeing the kind of person

that ned is especially influenced by liana being so willful and especially influenced by liana's willfulness and feelings of what it would have been like had liana been able to pursue some of the freedom that she wanted so ned ends up allowing aria to keep the sword needle and goes in search of someone who will teach her to use it we get daenerys three following that chapter and Daenerys begins to become comfortable in the Kalasar she stands up to Viserys for the first time and she even sexually dominates her partner while learning how to ride cowgirl as the chapter ends Daenerys's handmaiden Jehi notices that Dany is pregnant. And then we go to Bran.

In Bran 4, we find the young boy suffering from depression at his new limited life. And then, of course, again, after Tyrion has been accused of making an attempt on Bran's life, Bran receives Tyrion Lannister in the Great Hall of Winterfell, where the wolves are leery of him, and even Robb is rude towards Tyrion. But in spite of all that, Tyrion does Bran a great kindness by providing blueprints for a saddle that will allow Bran to live once more a normal life riding a horse. Hey, you haven't gotten to talk about horses in a while oh true and that's about it for what's between though sorry that's all the horses you get

eliana i mean i moved on from horses then as you know sources and now i'm on to horseshoe crabs horseshoe crabs really um you know we aren't going to get there for a very long time but you will at least get to talk about crabs when we get to brienne that's true uh in the quiet aisles that's a crab moment that is a crab moment look forward to those hot crab cakes. Okay. We stumble up to Ned V, and in Ned V, the heat of King's Landing presses on while our patriarch finds himself visiting Grand Maester Pycelle in an attempt to learn what happened to his foster father before his death. This chapter opens with Ned and paicel sitting and talking while it is

hot hot is a mad hot outside so hot yeah it's so goddamn hot and we also get a little bit of exposition about and world building on how the seasons work in Westeros. Spoiler alert, they don't. It's all broken. It's very broken. And nothing makes sense. And you can see how this nothing makes sense when Pycelle tells a story about the small folk claiming that the last year's summer is the hottest, but evidence leads him to think that this isn't necessarily true. Yeah, he says that Kingmaker's summer was hotter, and that it broke in the seventh year,

leading to a short autumn and a terrible long winter, which is extremely interesting foreshadowing because that's kind of where we're at right now in the story. They had a very short autumn and they're about to have a terrible, horrible winter coming up on dance. But interesting enough, also, we hear more of Kingmaker's summer in Dunkin' Egg. And we actually do get to experience this if you read the Duncan Egg novellas which I highly recommend doing. Something else in the scene I do want to point out is that we see this young slender serving girl and I think the show really did get this right about Maester Pycelle

with this creepy lecherous old man nature about him. There's even a line in a Sansa chapter that's very brief and glazed over, but Pycelle basically molests Sansa. She has people holding her down while he touches her. And I think George made sure to write that in as a maester who sits so esteemed and so high up, so powerful with his bedazzled, jeweled maester links, that he is also completely gross and abusive of his power, which is a huge contrast to the maesters that are more honorable, like Maester Aemon or Maester Luwin. And then after being super weird to this servant girl, Pycelle goes into some walks down memory lane, has a couple of moments uh where he talks about the forging of his chain during makar's reign he says some of the same things that uh robert says of the reach but through paicel's point of view we get the smells of what the nights are like in old town the mix

of the perfume and the sweat and melons ripe to bursting he talks of peaches and pomegranates so yet again we get that peach symbolism showing up just in time to remind you of uh better more innocent times tysel remembers that ned had wanted to talk about john aaron which is a total old man thing like ah yes had wanted to talk about Jon Arryn, which is a total old man thing. Like, ah, yes, you wanted to talk about Jon Arryn. He explains Jon was melancholy, but healthy. And then suddenly he became ill. As a side aside, I actually love the way that this chapter opens. And then Pycelle asks, oh, yes, but you were asking about Jon

because the way the chapter starts out he does talk a little bit about john and so you kind of inference what it was that ned just asked and then we come back to it and dive into it so i i just like the way that works but coming back to actually john aaron um we see that like ned john aryn has also been carrying his own share of ghosts. We had sat together on council many a year, he and I, and the signs were there to read. But I put them down to the great burdens he had borne so faithfully for so long. Those broad shoulders were weighed down by all the cares of the realm and more besides.

It's... Obviously, Jon Araron went through a lot of trauma and lost some loved ones as well in the past so it's it's interesting to see that foster father sharing those same burdens as ned we find out that john had asked Maester Pycelle about a specific book, and Pycelle could sense that there was something troubling John. Immediately, the next day after receiving that book, John Arryn finds himself twisted over in pain, unable to leave the bed. in this chapter and in the last, especially now on a reread that, you know, Liza and Littlefinger were the true poisoners. You get insight,

uh, that Liza, the only person close enough to know when John was around, Littlefinger, knowing that the time to kill him was now because he was asking questions. You kind of start to get the familiarity and insight of when the poisoning would have happened, how it would have happened, how it would have happened, and all these signs that are equaling up to it happening.

And it's funny that he times it at that point, because it's the moment that makes the Lannisters look incredibly guilty. Oh, incredibly. It's the perfect timing. Yeah, you almost have to wonder how far in advance he had planned this. I don't know. I would love to get those few chapters just before. That is, I know you had spoken about it on Twitter the other day, but that show scene where Cersei and Jaime are just, you know,

laying out talking about, talking while they look over the Silent Sisters over Jon's body. That was a great show scene. And I really wish we had those few chapters before. Obviously, George wouldn't have given us that, because his style is artistically to keep these things off the page to keep us wondering. But I really want it. Yeah, I love that scene. It's shot so well, too.

As for the pain in the stomach, maester coleman i thought it was uh just a chill in the stomach because john aaron i guess puts ice in his wine which like why would you do that to a perfectly decent wine why would you put ice in it yeah freeze some fruits some grapes yeah don't put her down your wine i mean mean like i don't know make some say they can afford these fruits you know get get you some of those peaches or pomegranates you're talking about earlier and make yourself some sangria you're a lord paramount seriously yeah i i don't know it bothers me um anyways back to maester coleman we actually learned that paicel sent maester coleman we actually learned that pie cell sent maester coleman uh john's maester away because he felt maester coleman didn't understand the older body and was inexperienced

lady waynewood comments in elaine one and feast for crows that her maester hellweg is far more experienced and older than coleman and also maester coleman was endangering john's life with purging potions wasting potions and pepper juice cayenne uh peppers help the capillaries the veins and arteries regain their elasticity of youth generally moreover when the venous structure becomes filled with mucus the blood thickens and has a hard time circulating cayenne moves blood like no other herb so if he had been poisoned interestingly to think about it could have helped in a way uh that could have moved the poison out of his veins now that you think about it i wonder if it works like that yeah i don't know it's interesting to see this

compared to later on trying to use leeches to thin robert aaron's blood constantly dream wine milk of the poppy. Maester Coleman was set up consistently from this very first book. He's currently stationed in the Vale with his herbs and potions ready to go in a lane two in a feast for crows and servicing Sweet Robin.

They need to get better Maester. That's sad. Well, it's not really easy when Little finger is you know the one that wants the maesters and what he wants of them then we get this great quote you know every episode we get a little sad and today we're gonna get sad about john aaron uh pisel talks about the last moments of john aaron's life in the last stage of his fever, the hand called out the name Robert several times, but whether he was asking for his son or the king, I could not say.

Lady Liza would not permit the boy to enter the sick room for fear that he too might be taken ill. The king did come, and he sat beside the bed for hours, talking and joking of times long past in hopes of raising Lord John's spirits. His love was fierce to see. I think that this is such an indicative part of the relationship that Robert and John had. Pycelle's saying, who did Robert call for? Was it Robert Aaron, Sweet Robin, when he's saying the name Robert? The person that he's calling for is Robert Baratheon, who, while Sweet Robin did not stay by the bedside like his son. He's the one who cares about raising his own his foster father's spirits in the hopes that he might survive. Ned learns that John's last words were the seed is strong and another really sad passage.

We really are just sad about John Aaron. I didn't realize I could be this sad about Jon Arryn until we did this. When I saw that all hope had fled, I gave the ham the milk of the poppy so he should not suffer. Just before he closed his eyes for the last time, he whispered something to the king and his lady wife. A blessing for his son. The seed is strong, he said. At the end, his speech was too slurred to comprehend. Death did not come until the next morning, but Lord Jon was at an irony that Liza thinks that the blessing of the Seed is Strong is for Robert Aaron, for Sweet Robin.

But I don't think that there's actually anything untrue in the statement that he whispered something to the king and his lady wife, a blessing for his son, the seed is strong. I do think that it's a blessing for his son. Robert Baratheon, again, in the actions that he took in the last moments of Jon Arryn's life, is Jon Arryn's son. This entire saying, the seed is strong, is about Robert Baratheon, as we learn, and his bastards. It's a blessing for his king, the boy that he raised. And it plays really well into this theme that's running throughout this entire book, and especially in Ned's chapters, of fatherhood being more than just the blood that runs in our veins, same as it is for Jon Snow and Ned.

And I don't think it's a coincidence that Jon Arryn named Sweet Robin Robert. We talked in previous episodes about how Robert feels that Ned is the brother that he chose, and I think that this is very much the case for Robert and John. Robert Baratheon is the son that John Aaron chose. I definitely agree. Sweet Robin is extremely named for Robert Baratheon, just as Ned gave Jon Snow John Aaron's name, which, as we know, that goes even deeper. No one would question Ned naming a son after John Aaron, really. So it made sense.

And on top of that, I mean, these boys are Jon's kids. When the Mad King called for Ned and Robert's heads, that's when they raised the banners. That was it. That was an important moment. And you can see the sort of concern, like if Jon Arryn is harboring suspicions, he had been a little melancholic before, but if he's harboring suspicions. He had been a little melancholic before, but if he's harboring suspicions that Robert is at risk and is in danger, that his bastards are the key to his line being usurped, of course John Aaron is going to worry about that. And as we see as these chapters go on, Ned gets extremely melancholic

while investigating the same thing there's just it's just sad we're sad on this podcast real sad girl hours girls gone sad sad girls gone sad's gone crying um pie cell talks about how john aaron's death however sad it was he feels that the death was unremarkable and that it was no different than any other death but ned brings up that liza thinks otherwise and pie cell says that grief can derange minds and of course that Liza's mind wasn't already that great before coincidentally grief did damage Liza's mind we see later

on when she finally loses it in the eerie and goes full blown psycho on Sans at the moon door giving us our big reveal of the poisoning but that first child she was forced to kill of Peter's child is ever since then she has never been the same being surrounded by people she didn't want to be around which of course leads to you know this whole situation ned asks paicel if he does not think

it might have been poison and paicel's response is we are not in the free cities where such things poison are common and I think it's funny that Pycelle phrases it like that in the previous chapter Ned 4 we get a description of the entrance of the red keep we get the actual funnily enough uh description of the entirety of king's landing from cat's pov a pov that wasn't even supposed to go to dead to king's landing so it's kind of funny but ned observes the decor of the red keep and uh how he's greeted and everything about it actually screams of the free cities mirrish carpets covered the floor instead of rushes, and in one corner, a hundred fabulous beasts cavorted in bright paints on a carved screen from the Summer Isles. Technically not a Free City, whatever.

The walls were hung with tapestries from Norvos and Kohor and Lys, and a pair of valyrian sphinxes flanked the door eyes of polished garnet smoldering in black marble faces so while we're not in the free cities there's a lot to surround you to make you feel as though things are going down the way would they would there absolutely it's a really that's a really interesting catch that you got i honestly going down the way they would there. Absolutely. That's a really interesting catch that you got. I honestly would never have even noticed that, but it's totally a nod to that. Yeah, I mean, when I read it in Ned Forrest, the imagery just struck me.

It felt, of course, it goes back to the things that we were talking about last episode about how there are so many remnants of the targaryen rule uh we were talking about all those houses and and it's part of that too but it also just feels like a nod and this among many other things there are just so many clues that start pointing to Liza incredibly quickly, right from the get-go. Such as Pycelle saying, I've heard it said that poison is a woman's weapon. Later on, he says of poison, it is said women, cra cravens and eunuchs he cleared his throat and spat a thick glob of phlegm onto the rushes above them a raven cod loudly in the rookery the lord varies was born a slave in lies did you know put not your trust in spiders my lord And we'll get more into this as we go through POVs in Clash and Storm, but the entire time up to the reveal, we're hinted at Liza Arryn being the killer, the tears of Lys, Alyssa's tears, etc., just different little nods. Later on in the chapter, we get to the scene of Ned praying by the heart tree.

Eddard Stark had taken the girls to the castle of Godswood, an acre of elm and alder and black cottonwood overlooking the river. The heart tree there was a great oak, its ancient limbs overgrown with smokeberry vines. They knelt before it to offer their thanksgiving, as if it had been a weirwood. offer their thanksgiving as if it had been a weirwood sanza drifted to sleep as the moon rose aria several hours later curling up in the grass under ned's cloak all through the dark hours he kept his vigil alone something that struck me when i was reading this scene is that We know now that Ned's condemned. His fate ends poorly. He dies. But in this very scene where Ned is praying and he's surrounded by his children, who are in many ways his disciples,

it reminds me of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane before he's arrested by the Roman soldiers and taken to his crucifixion. You can read the scene, I guess, in Luke 22. And Jesus is praying so hard that he's sweating blood and that redness. Maybe you can think of it as like the Weirwoods crying blood. I don't know. And but while he's keeping his vigil, his disciples fall asleep. In this moment, his disciples fall asleep in this uh moment jesus is praying hard that the cup be taken away from him his fate of uh being crucified and i think you can see this in some ways as ned thinking of how he doesn't want to be in king's landing he doesn't want to be the hand and he's filled with dread this parallel of course also between ned and jesus in that garden of jesemany also serves as a parallel that warns us of ned's impending

betrayal in death he warns the disciples that they ought not fall asleep and that they should pray lest they fall into temptation and his daughters of course go along many wayward paths and fall into different kinds of temptations and at the end of this entire scene when ned returns to his bed chambers who of course is better suited to greet him than his own judas storming into the garden of his life peter bailish who warns ned that he is untrustworthy it is such a beautiful parallel and i very much so think it's a great catch as ned goes back to his chambers to meet his own Judas. He sees Arya practicing her water dancing, which again comes with a whole bucket of Lyanna trauma. I love the way that the show handled that moment when he comes back to the

tower of the hand and sees Arya practicing on the steps. Yeah. It kind of flips between this chapter. This is playing as a memory of what's happened that day for Ned, kind of like a diary entry because it's flipping between these two moments in these pages it's flipping between he has the memory of the girls sleeping in the godswood as he approaches the tower he has that memory of the other night uh he speaks with aria and he says she asks him about bran's fate and now that bran's awake is he coming to King's Landing?

Is he going to be a knight? What is going to happen, Dad? He thinks he will never run beside his wolf again, he thought, with a sadness too deep for words. Or lie with a woman or hold his own son in his arms. Again, much like we see him seething with guilt over killing Sansa's wolf. Now there are two Stark kids who cannot run beside their wolves, although we do know Bran will eventually with his third eye, besides the point. Technically three, because Arya's not with Nymeria right now.

Right. So Ned is feeling very guilty right now about these wolves. He's like, oh, I really messed up. Like, these kids and their dogs, I messed up. I have a slate tinfoil-y question for you regarding brandon his third eye so going back again to them praying in the heart uh in that glide with the heart tree sanza when she wakes says i dreamed of brand i saw him smiling do you think that i thought of that absolutely but if it was brand in a, it would have had to be Bran later. Yeah, yeah, of course. And I mean, if it's Bran later, him smiling is a good sign. I mean, it's him seeing the memory of his sisters with their dad probably, too.

I mean, if she's getting that dream, which, I mean, I do think that Sansa does have some sort of prophetic dreams and ways. She doesn't have the full warging or skin-changing capability, obviously, but she did have that stark connection. And the old gods obviously favor all these kids, so it could fit to me. I'm not gonna say it's a thing, but headcanon yeah it's a thing yeah again going back to that scene where judas balish just decides that he's gonna come chill hang out with ned in ned's chambers there's more back and forth between little finger and ned more of little fingers game little finger tells him that he's located servants of John's household, still in the capital for Ned, including Sir Hugh. And then Littlefinger shows Ned exactly who

belongs to who outside of his window. The Queen's little birds, Varys's, Renly's, you name it. And Ned is, again, very out of place in this situation. His household guard isn't meant to be whisperers and secret gatherers. They guard the family and household guard isn't meant to be whispers and secret gatherers they guard the family and get the work that needs to be done in the north done and they go home to their families and king's landing is a completely different bird this entire conversation is about trust of course this entire chapter is, really. And it ends with this omen where Littlefinger outs himself and Ned just doesn't take it. You were slow to learn, Lord Eddard. Distrusting me was the wisest thing you've done since you climbed off your horse.

And that's it for Eddard 5. We will join next time for Eddard 6 and Eddard 7. In Ned, in his sixth chapter, he deals with matters of state surrounding the upcoming tourney. And after speaking with Jory Castle, who has spoken to john aaron's remaining household members ned learns lord aaron and stanis baratheon both visited a brothel and an armorer and sends jory to visit the brothel while he visits the armorer he meets

an apprentice who looks very much like king robert he also looks a lot like Chris in Skins. Then in Ned 7, Ned and Barristan Selmy struggle to convince King Robert not to compete in the melee after Ser Huw of the Vale dies. Rip and later learns that Robert

was meant to die in the melee. Dun dun dun! Dun dun dun! Dun dun dun! Thank you everyone so much. That is our episode. If you've liked what you've heard here or any of the previous episodes,

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i know we've had a hard week yeah i have an idea though for this michelle branch song we'll talk later we'll work on it yeah thanks so much you guys tune in next week as we cover Ned 6 and Ned 7. And I've been Eliana, Glass Table Girl on Reddit and Maester Monthly. I've been Chloe. You can find me on Twitter and Tumblr as at Liza Narver and also on Twitter

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