Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 33 - AFFC Sansa Stark Intro/I

Episode Date: January 4, 2019

The Lords of the Eyrie have come to feast upon the power vacuum left after Lysa's sudden death in way of an investigation.  Sansa must adapt, and serve lies and arbor gold, or go out the moon door. 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: www.liesandarborgold.com   

Hello and welcome to episode 33 of Girls Gone Canon, Sansa 1, an intro to A Feast for Crows. I am Chloe, one of your hosts. You can find me on the internet at liesinarborgold.com. And I'm another one of your hosts, Eliana. You might know me as GlossyTableGirl from the Song of Ice and Fire subreddit or Maester Monthly, or as Arithmetric on Twitter. Happy New Year! Yeah, it's the new year when you guys are getting this. We are actually recording on New Year's Eve. We're celebrating together with our girl, Sansa Stark, Sandra Bolton.

Yeah, truly. That's what we're doing. Turning over a new leaf. Yes, turning over a new leaf. Maybe some new hairstyles going on, right? Yeah, I hear that's a thing people do in the new leaf. Yes, turning over a new leaf. Maybe some new hairstyles going on, right? Yeah, I hear that's a thing people do in the new year. I saw a comic about getting a new haircut. It was by Charluby, who does the pigeon comics.

He's like, I'm going to be a better person. New me. New your new me. They were like, no, I just decided to get new hair. Being better was too hard. Well, that's what's so great is in this chapter we're about to discuss in A Feast for Crows, Sansa truly opens up with new year, new me. So new hair, new me. Exactly. As a little bird, just like a pigeon.

Aww, little pigeon. Wait, is Sansa secretly a little pigeon? Whoa. Theories, my friend. We got them. We're going to kick off though, of course, with some emails and tweets of note. But this is not an email or a tweet. Because, again, everyone, you can leave comments on Podbean. Every time. It's so surprising.

My mind is blown every time. This one is, I'm in trouble. This one is by PianoDiva11. Would you say this one is putting me in the doghouse, Eliana? It truly is. And I'm like, I mean, I'm not going to get you out of there. I know. I mean, I do it to myself.

I'm going to just sit there and be like, oh, hello, Snoopy. We all know I'm more Lucy than anything, okay? I'll have to think about who I am. Probably Charlie Brown. PianoDiva11's comment. Please read it for us. Piano Diva 11 says, I have been absolutely loving this series.

You are both articulate, intelligent, warm, and funny, and I appreciate every episode. I just have to comment on a moment in this part of the book that drives me crazy in the way people tend to analyze it. And I feel like it got missed here as well due to a bit of overzealous Sansan shipping. When Sansa wakes from her dream in the Eyrie and says to the old blind dog, I wish you were a lady, I think she truly meant it. Sandor demanding a song from her as in the

dream was really not his best moment, as you noted in a previous podcast. Come on, it was full-on rapey. And Sansa is still rightfully traumatized by how all the men in her life have treated her thus far. Despite the cloak and dogger foreshadowing Can we just pause and give praise to this pun? Even though it's putting you in the doghouse? Whatever. Sorry, Chloe. Pun. It's my brand.

Are you PianoDiva11? I am not. Is this Eliana? This is your podcast too. You can talk about things on it. You don't have to make a fake account and leave a comment on our pod beam, which you didn't even know how to do. So I'm amazed you got this far. I'm only a diva, no piano. I took piano lessons as a child and did not continue them.

Same! Very, very early. We break stereotypes here. Jumping back in, Pa 11 says the hound has not yet rehabilitated himself to the point where he is truly behaving like a decent human in the story and i've always seen this moment as sansa rightfully declaring to hell with you all i want to protect myself do it for yourself baby girl piano diva 11 if that is her real name, Aliana, Piano Diva 11 makes really great points. And I do love that part of it, too.

But the problem is, and I'm going to present this to you guys, because if you're listening to this podcast this far, I think you probably already know this. I'm never going to change. I'm never going to act right. I ain't ever going to change. I wish I would change. I wish like I would not be like this. But at this point, I've just come to accept how I am. Also, this is what happens when you get two big Sansan fans on an episode

and Eliana is put in the corner and nobody puts Eliana or Piano Diva 11 in the corner. So, yes, I am sorry that we underrepresented that point. I do like and encourage that viewpoint. I just personally can't promise to ever change the way that I am. I don't know if that's a good compromise, you know? Man, what happened to character growth, Chloe? What happened to character arcs and character development?

It turns out I'm the villain. I'm just gonna throw this out there. Piano Diva 11 and me being the same person is Sansa and Lil Pigeon being the same person, okay? Whoa, mind is blown. The best tinfoil in the whole thing wait what okay oh you're trying to say you're not piano that is indeed what i'm saying but i mean next thing we know little pigeons revealed to be sansa and there goes my comparison well it is a sci-fi story so anyway piano diva 11 i want to say yes i agree with a lot of the things that you say here i do think that scene is very rapey that's why i'm like this is

weird at the black water and i do think though uh this is a side note it's interesting that sansa tends to wake up from dreams in general, thinking about Lady. She's always like, oh, Lady's here with me. Then she's like, no, she's not. Anyway, digressing. But I also think that while I do condemn Sandor for a lot of his actions and the way that he treats Sansa actually turns me off quite a bit, I feel that something that our cast brings to the table is this different perspective on Sandor. That background and humanization of him and that analysis of him is very much indicative of a larger thing that George is exploring in A Song of Ice and Fire. It is to an extent, right? Because it's not to the extent that some people say it is like Gregor Clegane is bad and that's just not negotiable. Sandor is a greater character

but I'm also of the opinion that like just because bad things happen to you and it makes your perspective and the things that happen in your life understandable and explainable it's also not a justification for perpetuating bad actions and acts which is something that we are likely to explore more and talk about more in the brand interior chapters whenever we get to those and especially in aria i mean I mean, we're going to see that in Arya. We're going to see it with Sandor, obviously. She explores a lot of those gray characters. And I totally agree.

I mean, the big thing is Sandor is obviously not just a caricature like Ramsay Bolton is. We don't get that exploration of character to know, oh, Ramsay, like we see why Ramsay's fucked up and then he's just fucked up. And a lot of this, since it is a reread, I guess my tone probably comes off about it, especially what we know now. I'm not just considering, you know, just in the moment because, yeah, Sandor's being pretty garbage. But it really adds more, obviously, to the overall buildup of him in Arya's chapter when he's, quote, dying and he's just sobbing about all the awful things he's done. quote dying and he's just sobbing about all the awful things he's done and he's admitting like i was a prick like i did this i was the worst person like just fucking kill me which i just think it really builds up to his overall character so not to take away from sansa's obviously even in this

coming chapter she thinks about the hound and how he at least had protected her in you know proposition to you put little finger next to him and well there you go garbage yeah i think that it just ends up that sansa is put in these positions and we're going to obviously discuss this a lot more in this upcoming episode where where there's a tension in those characters who end up being her protectors but and tutors where they are not necessarily looking out for her best interests but also she has to rely on them that's something that will obviously come to the fore as the story continues yeah especially in these feast chapters too yeah and in feast in the winds of winter when you know it comes out next week the the yeah this year it's coming out in 2018 it's coming out later

2019 i'm just saying you know why can't we be optimistic for the rest of this year why not let's send the 2018 on a high note yeah by the time you all listen to this in 2019 when's the winter i'm just gonna like yell about it i can't wait this month we're taking a break from doing our dance of the dragons chapters just so we can do an Elaine chapter from the Winds of Winter for our sample chapter because we're going to finish up Sansa in the next few weeks. In that chapter we're going to talk a lot about Sansa's future

and I'm really excited because there's so much waiting to go off in the Winds of Winter and there's going to be such a power shift in Sansa's chapters and that is just key right there. That is what I want. Exactly. So, can right there. That is what that is what I want. Exactly. So can't wait. Next week.

Exactly. 2019. It's our year. So with that, let's get let's jump in. All right, let's talk about the things that have happened in the previous few years, where we have the Sansa Feast for Crows chapters. In Sansa, a Feast for Crows, something that's really interesting is George especially gives the character naming, Theon having the ghost in Winterfell, the Prince of Winterfell, and of course, you know, Aaron Greyjoy with the Prophet,

the Forsaken in the Winds of Winter, the 800 different Asha chapter titles, different characters with, you know, actually the same characters, but characters with, you know, actually the same characters, but different names, quote unquote, even Arya with Mercy or, you know, the blind girl. The play on identity, just like the episode we did in October for different identity and disguises in A Song of Ice and Fire really comes to the forefront in Sansa's chapters. And I think that the structure of the naming is very interesting in A Feast for Crows because we start off with one Sansa chapter,

and then it's versus two Elaine chapters. I think the last two of her chapters in The Winds of Winter will probably be her returning to Sansa one and two finally, and that we're going to see the first three, Elaine one, two, and three. Yeah, I like that idea that we're going to come back to Sansa. At least the last chapter. Being her own identity, yeah, in the last few chapters. And I think that's actually a perfect way to end it, to end The Winds of Winter, especially if the next book,

which is not going to be entitled A Time for Wolves, is something like that, or A Dream of Spring. It makes sense for Sansa to return to being her Stark identity. Yeah, absolutely. I think the last chapter of the Winds of Winter, just one of my little theories that we're totally going to delve into in that patron episode, is that Sansa will be either boarding the ship to go to White Harbor, or she'll be, you know, sitting at the head of her column and getting on her horse ready to go home.

One of the two. She's going to be leading the Eyrie, though, to Winterfell in her last chapter. Either there, either leaving. One of the two. She's going to be leading the Eyrie, though, to Winterfell in her last chapter. Either there, either leaving. One of the two. Yeah, something's happening there. George likes to end, when he can, he likes to end a character's arc or chapter with them in a different position or poised for the next part of their journey. Yeah, there's a lot of duality in Sansa's A Feast for Crows chapters that we're going to learn a ton about. It's not just in her chapter titles. There's also a lot at play in the way that she dresses and looks.

We're about to read a lot of contrast of her dress and hair from her Sansa to Elaine role. She's going to have darker colors, muted, a maid of winter kind of look about her, so to speak. She's downplaying her looks and clothing colors to, you know, come off as a natural born daughter who's lived her life in the nunnery, which of course is something that a noble lady from the north would actually probably look more like, right? They're a little more conservative with dress, a little more conservative with hair. She's darkening her hair with dye from Tyrosh that obviously, as we know, is going to run out sooner or later. So the Vale is this ticking time bomb. And these chapters, as we go forward, load up that powder keg and assemble people at opposing sides and goals in the Vale with Sansa all between the middle of it. It's

that ever flowing power vacuum that we learn about in A Game of Thrones and Catelyn and Tyrion chapters. For sure. And something that's going to come to the forefront in these chapters is we get to see all of those power dynamics you were talking about in the Vale. It's a microcosm of King's Landing as you see all of these different lords and ladies there vying for influence in the Vale.

And it's a little more subtle, right? Because King's Landing, we're told that everyone's a liar here and the stakes are big they're also big in the veil but everyone has to at least pretend to be civil to one another unlike in king's landing where you just have joffrey being like ridiculous and in the veil people are putting on those airs and playing their roles and creating those those heirs the heirs you were talking about the heirs yeah brokering uh alliances amongst one another it'll be it'll be good it'll be great and then of course as elaine sansa has a lot of that safety that she didn't have in her old identity especially in the lion's den of king's landing and a feast for crows in the veil gives her that opportunity to begin learning by doing as opposed to just like

trying to fly under the radar and being lectured at by drunk people all the time like how many drunk people were lecturing at sansa throughout like a game of thrones in the clash of kings everyone everyone she encountered was drunk and lecturing at her. Yeah, she's starting to actually be able to walk around and do things. I mean, this is great. We don't get to see Sansa as an actual person with actual actions. Usually it's her being passive in her internal POV. Exactly.

And she gets to express annoyance. She gets to express annoyance outwardly. So that's going to be fun and the situation becomes a little more complicated as we were discussing earlier where sansa's captors before would beat her if she did something wrong or for just like no fucking reason because they were terrible and sansa's imprisonment is muddied here because she's wrestling with what peter is asking her to do and learn a lot of which is incredibly unethical, but she feels that she has no other allies.

And A Feast for Crows is very much our lens into one of those big players and villains of A Song of Ice and Fire, Littlefinger, through Sansa's perspective as she wrestles with her idea of him. Yeah, she's dealing with a lot of projections from Littlefinger. She's dealing with basically from riches to rags, the opposite of what Littlefinger does. So when he stands here in this chapter in his brand new fancy velvet outfit, Sansa has been forced to discard her claim, which to her, that's obviously

heaven. She's like, thank God. Now I get to just breathe for a minute because everybody only wants me for my claim. But she is completely just like subverting everything she ever wanted so that she can be a bastard born girl and survive in the veil and not only has little finger kind of forced her into that but i mean every single move everything he does every word he says is laced with poison that immediately implicates sansa so she really is kind of stuck for the moment but we're going to get into how she's really not actually that stuck. And then of course, A Feast for Crows picks up at the end of A Storm of Swords. However, originally there was going to be a five-year gap. A legendary five-year gap. Yes. So the five-year gap, originally when George was conceiving of A

Song of Ice and Fire in his plan he had all the things that happened from a game of thrones to a storm of swords and he was going to do a time skip people love time skips people have mixed feelings about time skips i'm joking and was going to jump forward five years which would have given a lot of time for some of the seeds that he was planting to grow and it would have worked out really well for a lot of these younger characters like Arya, Sansa, Jon, etc. But turns out it was actually very difficult for characters like Cersei. Like what are we going to say? She just was being weird in King's Landing the whole time? Yeah, she was just like being crazy for a handful of years. So he ended up

discarding that idea, which led to a long gap in real life between the publication of A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows. The five-year gap is really just the friends we made along the way. That's the, how many years? That's the seven-year gap that we are in now. Seven, a holy number. I think we should all praise it. Sansa is 13 in the first chapter in A Feast for Crows.

And so that means she would be 18 if George had his five-year gap. As Elaine, next chapter, will hear this, but she talks about how she decided she's 14, not 13. It's close enough to 13, and she can get away with it, obviously, because she's tall for her age, and she looks older, and she's, you know, flowered, as we've discussed uh but she is actually 13 so she'd be 18 if george had had his five-year gap and we talked about some of those possible come into my castle theories with little finger and sansa last episode with lady gwynn from radio westeros really great episode if you didn't listen i don't know what you're doing with your reading

order but that's fine good luck uh if ge George had gone through with this gap, though, does that mean it was going to be a sex thing? George was going to make it a sex thing, wasn't he? Even if it was Sansa owning her weapon. Come on, George. Was it really going to be a sex thing? I think it was, because we're going to go into this a little later, but the age of majority in Westeros or when someone's

no longer considered a maiden is 16 they become a woman after that and I mean Catelyn Stark was to marry Brandon Stark when she was 18 so that's pretty average age for that now one thing about that Lyanna was betrothed to Robert at 13. And so I'm guessing they were going to marry at 16, maybe. But I mean, there's also Southern ambitions pushing that really hard. Yeah. So. Yeah, if it's not a political alliance, then it seems like the normal was really 16 to 18.

I do think we're very much going to get a lot of the stuff we were supposed to see from Sansa after the five year gap like we did with, not to go too much into it, the Arya Mercy chapter. Yes. Which I'm like, this is really uncomfortable. But George was just like, this is my vision for it. And we're just gonna change the ages. And like, I guess. So we're still gonna get that storyline. We just also get this great

training montage in the middle which it is a great training montage it is it really is there's a lot especially on this i mean it's a dense chapter with a lot of information i'm really excited to keep dissecting and with that let's jump into our lightning round. Let's get started on A Feast for Crows. Prologue. Pate's unrequited crush and ambition opens the door for an alchemist to get through. The prophet. The damp here senses a king's moot on the rise. The captain of guards.

Doran faces tension from the sand snakes and makes a move to show his loyalty to the crown. Cersei I. Cersei awakens to a nightmare. Lord Tywin is dead. Whose nightmare is that? Not mine. I guess Cersei's since it's her point of view. Brienne won. On the road again, Brienne meets a hedge knight with a similar goal as hers, finding a girl of three and ten with red hair who's that you don't know her i mean i don't simul one john does what every other person wishes they could have which is they pay entirely for sam's university tuition it is off to college in old town for sam man sally may suck on it is it a coincidence that sally Mae has an S and an A and an M?

Oh my god. And two L's like Samwell. There's just no W. You see exactly where I'm going with this. Exactly. Arya 1. Arya arrives in Braavos by sea and enters the House of Black and White. Cersei 2.

After Tywin's wake, Cersei finds difficulty in establishing a new Hand of the King. Jaime, one. Seething with guilt over his father's death and Tyrion's escape, he thinks back on the death of Rhaegar and Aerys. Later at the funeral, he tells Tommen to go away inside. Damn. Brienne, two. Brienne searches for Sansa and Dantos in Duskendale, but turns up with a new squire instead. Hashtag pod pain. Aww. And, of course, that puts us at Sansa 1. Sansa and Littlefinger must serve the eerie lords, lies, and arbor gold.

I thought you'd appreciate that. Only true Chloeanz will know if you can see our show notes that's that this is you'll see it there are a lot of really good uh inside jokes in our show notes i don't know if anyone actually reads them i don't even think i read them so our show notes only the things off on the side only the things we're not gonna ever actually say the nonsense so this chapter opens with sansa stark who is remembering the time when she was age young and tried to kidnap a singer and force him to stay in winterfell for half a year this is the most sansa stark crap in the world it really is she's like no don't make him stay some girls want ponies anyway so the singer is an older man and eventually ned is like no he's a person and we have to let him go he's got a life and i guess i mean i'm sure

the singer probably would have been perfectly fine with a cushy tenured job as court singer winterfell but ned was like i'm not wasting any more money on this. He sang all the songs he knew. Ned was like, it's over. Ned promises her that other singers are going to come. And boy, do they. And not the way she thought or wanted. But that was when she was a little girl and foolish. She was a maiden now, three and ten and flowered. All her nights were full of song. And by day she prayed for silence. So I just wanted to call something out here about Sansa thinking of herself as a maiden now of three and ten and flowered. We have kind of touched on this, but not entirely on this concept of maidenhood

in Westeros. And in a so-spake Martin called called age of sexual relations in westeros george goes into this a bit but we're going to talk about how he says however for girls the first flowering is also very significant and in older traditions a girl who has flowered as a woman fit for both wedding and bedding but a girl who's flowered but not yet attained her 16th name day is in a somewhat ambiguous position part child part woman a quote-unquote maid in other words fertile but innocent beloved of the singers there's a funny way to phrase it she's beloved of the singers but now she the singers are no longer beloved of hers that is really interesting it directly reflects on what sans is dealing with right now which

of course uh what george is saying in, especially the beloved of the singers, is that the singers love to speak of the maids, you know, which, of course, makes it really easy for old dudes to creepy groom cute young girls like Sansa. But, you know, whatever. It turns out the songs are all lies, all of them. I do love that Sansa's thoughts all kind of revolve around how she used to think of her life as a song. Just like when she thinks on like Eleanor Terrell and all those girls, how they're, you know, young, they've never seen battle. They're nothing but young girls. And like, I pity them. I envy them. And of course that leads into, you know, she, she thought her song was beginning that day. Now it was ended. You know, all these just these thoughts about her life as a song and how she just is praying for survival at this point.

She doesn't want actual songs. And we see that because Marillion haunts her day and night. The eerie, of course, the marble that it's made of echoes. Sansa begs Peter to make it stop, but he has to wait for Nestor to see Marillion, and for Marillion to make his confession to killing Liza before a crowd. So Sansa, of course, has to suffer multitudes of songs by him. Jenny's Song, John Cullen Florian, The Dance of the Dragons. All of which are songs that are now relatable at this point in the story. The line follows that he sang of betrayals and murders most foul of hanged men and bloody vengeance. He sang of grief and sadness.

Some of the other songs that we learn Marillion has been singing during this time are The Day They Hanged, Black Robin, or A Mother's Tears, and The Reigns of Castamere. And then he ends with On a Misty Mourn, which is a song about a mother looking for her son after battle, and then they're going to go home to Windishtown. And all of these songs of betrayals, murders foul hang men and bloody vengeance are i think very poignant in this chapter which again is picking up after the previous chapter to an extent and which is followed by the lady stoneheart reveal and this hanging of folks which is what lady stoneheart is doing and then how we have a mother's tears we there are discussions about alissa erin's tears and how that connects to catelyn becoming lady

stoneheart with her mother's tears and then of course the connection with the reigns of casimir is like pretty obvious and then of course that feeling of a mother mourning the loss of her son which is in the lyrics of on a missy mourn but i just want to get sad about wendishtown for a second because wendishtown is or was a real place in a song of ice and fire but in a game of thrones because of the war of the five kings or this might be in clash we learned that that Wendish Town was actually destroyed by raiders in the Westerlands. And not just like, oh, things are sad and things are destroyed. No, every inhabitant was killed.

It was burned down. It's a ghost town now, basically. And there's nothing there. No one lives there. It's really devastatingly sad. So Sansa worries that Nestor will know that they're lying. She remembers meeting the man on their way up the mountain, and Littlefinger says he would never let anything happen to his daughter.

Sansa, of course, thinks one of the most epic lines in the entire series. I am not your daughter, she thought. I am Sansa Stark, Lord Eddard's daughter and Lady Catelyn's, the blood of Winterfell. She did not say it, though. There's a lot to talk about in that passage. We could go on for, like, hours about Stockholm Syndrome as well. Like, the whole passage is just her, you know, thinking. But, you know, Littlefinger helped her.

He was helpful and he was nice. It was, you know, she can't be that mean to him. Yeah, there's a lot of that going on throughout this chapter and he kind of forces her into this position because now santa's worried like what if marillion tells nester voice the truth and then peter corrects her and says no no if marillion says something he's lying that's not the truth anything that we say their truth is the truth. Fucking sociopath. Holy shit. I know. A touch of fear will not be out of place, Elaine.

You've seen a fearful thing. Nestor will be moved. Peter studied her eyes as if seeing them for the first time. You have your mother's eyes, honest eyes and innocent, blue as the sunlit sea. When you're a little older, many a man will drown in those eyes like you asshole you're first you're gonna drown except it's gonna be your blood not her eyes bitch it's still satisfying though that end of season seven despite all the rest of it

there were good episodes and moments there were good scenes Yeah. Peter then tells Sansa that they have to lie, just like the lie that we told little Robert Arryn. And Sansa comments about that was to spare Robert's feelings. And Littlefinger says, this time the lie is to spare us. And this lie may spare us, else you and I must leave the Eyrie by the same door lies are used. Peter picked up his quill again. We shall serve him lies in Arbor Gold, and he'll drink them down and ask for more. I promise you. He's serving me lies as well, Sansa realized.

They're comforting lies, though, and she thought them kindly meant. A lie is not so bad if it is kindly meant. If only she believed them. It's not true. I'm going to stop you there, Sansa. That lie is not kindly meant. No. There's a lot of interesting discussion on lies here, and I think that it isn't a coincidence that we are reminded, again in this chapter, that Sansa is in fact Ned Stark's daughter, not Peter's, as we all know.

daughter not peter's as we all know peter says that his lies are kindly meant but we see from you know the way that he did wrong to our boy ned and killing liza erin that those are not kindly actions someone literally died and you contrast that with the way that ned stark who himself was also a liar as we've discussed during the utterdard chapters. He's hiding this giant secret that, in fact, was kindly meant regarding the parentage of Jon Snow, and it was to keep him alive. And it's, of course, a reminder of Ned's last act of honor, where he, again, lies to the realm, telling them that he is, in fact, a traitor who conspired to steal Joffrey's throne.

But he lies in order to save the life of his little girls, unaware that Arya had escaped. Yeah. That's a kindly meant lie. Absolutely. That's the kind of kindly meant lie that I'm into. Unfortunately, this kind of does question that line for Sansa, you know, of how far is she willing to go with kindly meant lies right like also i think it's interesting that this is sansa's lying game while aria has her own lying game oh yeah this is sansa's mask this is sansa's bag of masks that she pulls out right

here exactly she has to do it without an actual face. She must do it by actions and deeds. Yes. Sansa breaks into this big internal struggle about Littlefinger and how he had saved her, but had never actually saved her when she really needed it. He only saved her when the moment was convenient. So of course we have to say them out loud.

We have to read these passages because it's some of the best writing in Sansa's feast chapters. These are, these chapters are so good. You can feel the eerie. You can just understand Littlefinger's gross, pedo smile. God, he's the fucking worst. I wish we could get a fucking job out of the eerie.

You'll never find a job in this town again. He saved Elaine, his daughter, a voice within her whispered. But she was Sansa, too, and sometimes it seemed to her that the Lord Protector was two people as well. He was Peter, her protector, warm and funny and gentle, but he was also Littlefinger, the lord she'd known at King's Landing, smiling slyly, stroking his beard as he whispered in Queen Cersei's ear. smiling slyly stroking his beard as he whispered in queen cersei's ear and little finger was no friend of hers when joff had her when joff had her beaten the imp defended her not little finger when the mob sought to rape her the hound carried her to safety not little finger when the lannisters wed her to tyrian against her will sir garland the gallant gave her comfort and also poison

but not little finger that's not in the part of the book, sorry. Littlefinger never lifted so much as his Littlefinger for her. I mean, that's not true. I'm being gross. It's a gross thing to think about. Why did you? I don't want to know how little his finger is, Randa. RandaDiva11. I'm excited to get to the miranda voice oh my god you know you're gonna be reading randa the whole time you're already excited aren't you oh i love their frenemy situation i know i can't wait for you to just be like real like ridiculous i i want to hear your boobies shake through the computer when you do her voice yeah your bastard babies okay i don't know we'll work on it i'm gonna work i'm gonna work work on my Miranda voice and think about what I really think channels her.

Oh my god. So you admit it. You think you're pretty. Vintage. So fetch. I heard that the Night's Watch has a new Lord's Commander. Oh, Jon Snow? Yeah, how'd you know?

So Sansa talks herself down after she begins to think so poorly on Littlefinger and reminds herself that he risked everything to whisk her out of King's Landing. So the passage ends with, I have no place but here, Sansa thought miserably, and no true friend but Peter. She spends this chapter justifying Peter and his actions, and it makes me so sad because the saddest part of her talking herself into humanizing and caring for her captor is she doesn't actually need him she doesn't know that yet but she can't go running around yelling i'm sansa stark right

now but the iris set up perfectly to allow sansa to come into her own there uh they're already guilty and disappointed because liza didn't lead them into the war for fighting for the Starks. And she has her dad's supporters there to her claim on the North. And she has her wits that Littlefinger is also teaching her how to lie expertly. So when the time's right, she doesn't really need Harry the heir. She doesn't need the upjumped Littlefinger. She just needs herself and 20 good men. I'm honestly mad that the 20 good men thing it might be an actual real thing that is repeated it is it's horrible i think i only really realized that during the reread of this podcast yeah same it makes me so sad i'm like man we made fun of that so hard i'm still gonna make fun of it but i'm also mad that it's real yeah absolutely

speaking of absolutely absolutely to all the things that you just said here you can see you can see sansa wrestling with that cognitive dissonance about little finger here and of course understanding that what peter did was bad but now she's kind of like roped in all right and she's forced to hide because of all these enemies around her and she has to buy into the lies that he said about liza and that Liza's confessions were just ravings of madness even though I mean yes but also no yes she falls asleep to Merlion's music after that so it's interesting because you're hearing all this you know these are the songs that we have to sing Sansa to these people and these stories. And then she's just surrounded by all this music that she doesn't want to hear.

I mean, does anyone want to just get Sansa Stark a lemon cake and a blunt? Maybe not in that order. We can switch it up. And like maybe a really nice bubble bath, like a bath. Are you saying you want to give her a lemon cake in the shape of the giant slants? Yeah, but it would be bigger because bigger is better little finger take no so together uh with you know all these thoughts about sansa wanting marillion to shut the fuck up i do love this language from earlier in the chapter because as you said there's a lot of really great writing

in here no matter where she went in the castle no matter where she went in the castle, Sansa could not escape the music. It floated up the winding tower steps, found her naked in her bath, slept with her at dusk, and stole into her bedchamber even when she latched the shutters tight. It came in on the cold thin air, and like the air, it chilled her. It's really good writing because here we see that the music just isn't a thing anymore. The way that it's written, the music becomes personified and has come to actively torture Sansa. She cannot hide from it. And Marillion in his singing has become this little like telltale heart sort of beating of guilt for Sansa. Next we have Nestor, Royce and his son and the rest of their party arrive and they have brought

a dozen not 20 a dozen knights and a score of men at arms but today to greet them peter balish has his lord face on yes with that duality we mentioned of peter versus little finger that sansa brings up with her quote unquote father. We totally see something similar here, just like with Bran's comments that Ned has a lord face and a father face. Littlefinger is, of course, playing her father. And further than that, he's playing Lord Protector of the Vale and he's playing with a lot of colors with his outfit here. Peter is super solemn. He has on gray and black velvet, which of course gray and black are actually how Stark's colors, their war colors. And the velvet shows this power play on his newfound position

and wealth. The gray and black are harsh colors, but it's meant to show kind of emotionless. They're all wrapped around him, defending him to bring out his green eyes that kind of encompasses that greed within. More more than that than just wearing his defensive outfit his armor to show himself as wounded to their attacks it's his next play in his game and the position he's also playing here is sanza's father he is wearing the stark colors also i just realized this and i'm an idiot they're mourning colors oh for liza yeah yeah that too he's he's pretending he's theoretically mourning liza theoretically theoretically sounds great on paper yeah all the things you said here it's a great discussion on identity because feast as you were saying earlier is very much the

beginning where a lot of this murkiness regarding identity comes forth and whether a person is like themselves or if it's or if they are their mask that they're wearing is definitely a huge discussion in the aria chapters because at what point do your actions even if you're like playing a role or pretending to be another person where is the line drawn between like oh that's just an act and this is who you really are yeah Yeah, I think Sansa's really starting to struggle with that too as we get closer in The Wind's Winter because, you know, that delicious medicine they keep feeding Sweet Robin, that good, good baby cough syrup, that bubblegum flavor.

Which I think growing up, we usually did the grape flavor. We had both, but the bubblegum one was the best flavor. I don't think I ever had the bubblegum one. You know what? It's like adult, aspirin-y, like bubblegum-y. I don't know. You should try it. You should really.

I'm not about to just go robo-tripping. I'm not. Next time you're sick as hell, I just want you to get baby cough syrup. It's not going to be as effective, but it's going to be good. Because I'm not a babby anymore? I don't know. Fuck you, Eliana. Listen, P&O Diva 11.

So Maester Coleman is standing next to Peter. He's pretty tall, but the text tells us that Peter stands out far more than Maester Coleman, even though he's a major shrimp, which is really telling about this whole stark face and outfit, this morning outfit.

And Littlefinger introduces Sansa to the men as his natural daughter, Elaine. She's really scared that they'll know, and they glance over her, and she's just feeling guilty the entire time. He has her go see what's going on with Sweet Robin, why is it taking so long, and she does, because surprise, her life doesn't suck badly enough. She's the semi-official babysitter of sweet robin's life and yeah yay and no pay so robert aaron didn't sleep an inch last night surprise again and he's full of snot and he's red from crying all night so she's got some work cut out for her marillion's been keeping him awake by playing through the night uh not on purpose i'm sure you know good guy marillion but apparently someone locked sweet robin in his bed chambers so he couldn't get up in the middle of the night to come bother someone who could have done that who who would do such a

thing honey in the air oh i do think that there is something interesting that's happening with these chapters and feasts because especially in regards to Sweet Robin, because I mean, he was pretty insufferable under Liza. He was very annoying. And especially that's the view we get of him from the first few POVs that encounter him, like Kat and Tyrion, where Kat is just like, what the fuck is going on here with this kid? And Tyrion's's like fuck this little kid but i feel like sweet robin operated as a manifestation of liza's own madness and bloodlust even though he's he should be his own person but through sansa's pov without liza there we begin to see sweet robin for who he really is while he's a little unhinged and comes off as vengeful as his mother

he's still just like a child he's a weeb ab and he's very small and weak and most of all i think he comes off as a little pitiable especially when you realize that he's probably doomed and i guess that's a song of ice and fire for you when uh sweet robin starts getting humanized to be fair he's not a bad kid he's definitely misguided he wasn't raised properly i feel for him in that same pathetic way that I feel for Liza, right? And not that there's much you could do about it. I mean, sending him to Stannis wouldn't have really helped at this point, right, if he had actually gone to be a ward.

And obviously, sending him to the Lannisters wouldn't have helped. He's bratty. He's immature for his age. And he's not developmentally stable. He's totally a hassle. But he's not a bad kid. He's the result of his environment. And it's kind of a bummer because it's sad.

He's being used super politically, just like his mom was, you know, by her dad. He also does show an aptitude, though, that he's being used kind of like the way that kids know when adults being fake nice to them or kids will just call it out adults out. Right. He knows he's being used as we'll hear him say in the future chapters about uh how he feels about harry the heir yeah and it's really sad when you think about it he knows that people are just waiting for him to die which is not great for any kid developmentally but i guess he has sanza who's cleaning his face softly and tells

him that oh that was so wicked and awful of whoever locked you in your room. Who could have done that? Then we get, like, Robert's lip quivering. I was gonna come sleep with you. You should do this part. I fucking know, dude, that's why you got locked in your room.

I can't fucking handle it every night. Look, she's a girl who's, like, just coming into her own. She just grew some titties, you know, she bleeds once a month now, night look she's a girl who's like just coming into her own she just grew some titties you know she bleeds once a month now and now she's got this fucking seven eight year old like coming in her room snotting all over her in the middle of the night of course she literally sweet talks Lothar Broon into locking Robert's door so he can't come into her bedroom and people say Sansa Stark is weak. Idiots. Idiots.

Yeah, I mean, one of them's gotta get some sleep. Yeah, she literally has the Lord Paramount locked into his bedroom. Good for you, Sansa. Sansa is left to convince Sweet Robin to come downstairs and greet Lord Nestor, but of course he doesn't want anything to do with that. He says he has a mole and that Liza hated him. So Sansa lies to him and she says, My poor sweet Robin. Sansa smoothed his hair back.

You miss her, I know. Lord Peter misses her too. He loved her just as you do. Being able to calm this little shit down and lie smoothly to him, that's a full-time job. Yeah, it's called, I don't know, motherhood, I guess. There's some interesting distancing here, though, that Sansa does where she thinks about Liza and right after that line she thinks, She was mad and dangerous. She murdered her own lord husband and would have murdered me if peter had not come along to save me so sansa seems to understand that liza's ravings uh might have had some truth to

them despite understanding them to also be very much mad because how could you not especially when liza tried to kill her and was all like you tried to kiss peter and she was like no i really didn't i just wanted to make a fucking snow castle as she thinks later on but because sansa's having this internal battle with herself of how peter was the one who truly got her out of king's landing she didn't quite pointed the finger at him for john aaron's death especially since i guess she doesn't know about the letter that liza sent cat yeah there's a lot she doesn't know about too. Not only that, but also, you know, the throne room with her dad and Jane Poole. And what

I'm saying is Sansa's gonna have a noir arc in the Winds of Winter where she straight up goes full investigative and she unravels all of Peter's lies and by the beginning of A Dream of Spring she's gonna have him cornered. Figured out. It's going to be great.

It's going to be like Veronica Mars. Yes, only darker. Sansa fastens Sweet Robin's ear and brooch to his soft cream and blue lambswool outfit, which sounds very comfy. And then she gets him looking very lordly. And so they go off to meet Lord Nestor and company. She tells Maddy and Gretchel, the chambermaids, can you help me get this boy downstairs? They head down to the High Hall,

which has been shut since Liza took her trip. That was a really nice fall last year. It was a lovely fall evening. It was a nice fall trip. Sansa is frightened by the wind at the moon door and the eerie, get it, eeriness of the hall. Robert says hello to Lord

Nestor and he avoids discussing his mole, good job, and tells him that Marillion murdered his mother when he's asked and Littlefinger and Elaine saw, but he did not. I'm just saying, but what if there is a mole? What if it's Miranda Royce? Ba-ba-bum.

But also, very small detail and aside as I do, I just love that Sansa is so relieved that the eight-year-old child has remembered his manners and didn't bring up the mole, like that that got called out. She's like, and sweet Robin was good and didn't mention the mole.

Cool, good job, team. We did it. I mean, let's be fair. She was probably thinking of something Rickon or Arya would do, too. That's true. At least Bran wouldn't. Yeah, Bran is, uh, behaved. Yeah. But then

now it's Sansa's turn, and she's trembling. Uh, but she manages to lie. A tear rolled down her cheek. That's good. A tear is good. By the time Sansa finishes telling her story, Robert goes into a fit. He starts screeching that he wants Merillion to fly for killing his mother, and he starts having one of his many shaking spells.

Lothar Brun catches him before he falls off the Weirwood throne, Maester Coleman prepares himself on standby, and by the time it's all over, he's too weak to stand. Peter sends him off to be bled to get the bad blood out, and Brun and Coleman take him away. I love bad blood. It used to be bad blood. It's cold, Sansa's tired, and she's just ready for it to be done

because it turns out lying is a lot of emotional labor. And at least Nestor Royce found her lie passable and, of course, find some way to make it all about himself i always told liza that marillion was a stinker he says peter is defending her softly explaining you know it's it's one of those double crossing cruel explanation and jabs though he says liza could not see the evil in men, only the good. Merlion sang sweet songs, and she mistook that for his nature. He said, flinging her out of the moon door after he sang her his own sweet song. And I'm just saying, like, Liza seems to have only seen the evil in men, except for the most evil of them.

Very strange, very strange. Albar, who is Nestor Royce's son, complains complains about marillion saying that he had written a song about two pigs sniffing around after falcons leavings and when they questioned it he said why does a song about pigs i'm sorry that's the funniest bullshit in the world yeah marillion's a fucking rapey fucker but that was really funny i love that description though of the actual passage that you get you get he called us pigs sir elber royce said a blunt broad-shouldered knight who shaved his chin but cultivated thick black side whiskers that framed his homely face like edge rose sir elber was a younger version of his father it really establishes the royces and that whole very

first men look they have going on extremely Extremely proud of, too. They're very proud of being First Men. And it definitely paints the Royce coloring for us. I kind of feel like House Rice is the Northern Westeros House Dane. You know, with their runes and their hieroglyphics and their we remember are their house

words and... I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of connection there between the two but the singers do seem to love to poke fun at their lords because marillion songs here kind of remind me of thomas seven strings song about edmure and his floppy fish or even of uh the the singer in king's landing and the stew of course course. Simon Silvertongue. Yes. Hands of gold. The idea of Alba Royce and them being pigs, though, kind of reminds me again of that story of Odysseus, as we discussed last episode with Lady Gwynn.

And though Lysa is very much a Penelope figure by doing all this, she's also a bit like Cersei, not Cersei Lannister, Cersei that island witch. Yeah. And she turned all the men into pigs in order to keep odysseus yes and of course that line in general is something we'll come back to in a minute but it is a feast for crows boom right there the pigs and the falcon leavings sir marwyn belmore jumps on this train as well with the whole shitting on meridian thing they all are just like yeah yeah, fuck Marillion. We can blame him. Fuck that guy. Marillion called Sir Marwyn

Belmore Sir Ding Dong and then Belmore threatened to have his tongue out. So Marillion went to Lady Liza and hid behind her skirts. Like, bold move though. Marillion's the person that you want in a rap battle. It's just

like, why? Tis a song about pigs you pig sir ding dong sir ding dong what sick burns dude yeah they kind of are they're pretty good nester does give us this further exposition on liiza giving Marillion her favor constantly. She gifted him gold and clothes and gold rings and a fancy moonstone belt. And she even deigned to give him Lord John's favorite falcon, one that King Robert had given him, which that's a really nice touch. I think in this story, it reminds us of that familial bond Ned, Robert and John shared. King Robert, though, it sounds so formal. You know, I don't think of Robert as King Robert ever, so.

It's not very kingly. But I do love that because they're all like, Jon loved that falcon, and the implication is he loved that falcon not because it was, like, a cool falcon, but because, like, the son he chose gave it to him. Yeah. Peter then grimly claims that he put an end to all of that

by having Lysa send Merillion away, and it's his fault, it's my fault, as Peter claims that he put an end to all of that by having liza send marillion away and it's his fault it's my fault as peter that he's dead and then to sansa's horror he says it was i who killed her yes but anyway but of course he has tricks up his velvet sleeves yes friendos my favorite part of this back and forth is that it's just this club of sad old men who are mad that liza wanted to fuck a young pretty singer and not them like they would not have minded getting that falcon they're all like well that was lord john's favorite you know for a fucking fact that those motherfuckers would be fine with it because they think they deserve it and that marillion is a singer well you fuck you she gets to fuck who she wanted to bro you all think you deserve the veil which is totally obviously that huge power

suction but like whatever they do all think that they deserve the veil they thought they all had access to her vagina just cause and this goes obviously that comes to play with later on in this chapter what happens and along with all that it kind of reinforces what Littlefinger was saying from the beginning. Like, who are these lords going to believe, the singer or them? Like, it's a reminder of how much the deck is just stacked against those lower classes in Westeros. As we see in moments like, you know, in the Hedge Knight, where Dunk is up against Arian Brightflame. Like, who are they going to believe? The rich crown prince or the no-name who's masquerading as a hedge knight where dunk is up against aryan bright flame like who are they going to

believe the rich crown prince or the no name who's masquerading as a hedge knight or in even sansa's own storyline like who are people going to believe joffrey claiming that micah and aria attacked him or are they going to believe micah and so wealth is equated and seen as goodness or truth because anyone who's poorer than them, they're like, oh, they must be lying in order to advance their position or because it's out of jealousy. But we see here who's actually fucking jealous. And of course, it holds consistent with that lack of justice that we see in the veil earlier on in the story when we first encounter it in Kat and Tyrion's chapters where the falsely accused has

very little chance they're like nah he guilty and tyrian's like whoa whoa hold on i am from a great house and you know if you're not from a great house the veil is somewhere where the truth has no place and that's something that we're reminded of when we see mord flashing his golden teeth absolutely all these veil lords descending uponfinger and on this whole power thing, that imagery is in the Cat and Tyrion chapters in A Game of Thrones as well, especially when Cat first gets to the Veil in her sixth chapter with Uncle Brynden. Her uncle's voice was troubled. Lord Robert, he sighed, six years old, sickly, and prone to weep if you take

his dolls away. John Aaron's true-born heir by all the gods, yet there are some who say he's too weak to sit his father's seat. Nestor Royce has been high steward these past fourteen years while Lord John served in King's Landing, and many whisper that he should rule until the boy comes of age. Others believe that Liza must marry again, and soon. Already the suitors gather like crows on a battlefield. The eyrie is full of them. I might have expected that, Catelyn said. Small wonder there.

Liza was still young, and the kingdom of Mountain and Vale made a handsome wedding gift. So there's a whole other discussion on a woman ruling, and also on Liza ruling as regent in Robert's stead that could be had here. Not today. It reminds me, though, a lot of almost like an alternate version of Cersei, right? Ruling for the incapable kid, being forced to, you know, take another husband, etc. erin but we do see throughout history that there have been quite a few lady of the veils yes uh at least one uh no there's been at least two at least two there's been quite a few i don't know that well there's yeah shara obviously was through her son through ronald right jane there's uh emma so there's a lot there's a lot and so all the men agree yeah it wasn't your fault little finger is fine it's fine bro it's the singer and then they demand that oh let's bring the singer up let's all shit on him so morg brings him up and the contrast between both mord and the singer is

insane because morg is this like mord uh if you'll remember is this like hulking deformed maimed uh very ripe smelling interesting his clothes don't fit marillion by contrast looked almost elegant someone had bathed him and dressed him in a pair of sky blue breeches and a loose fitting white tunic with puffed sleeves belted with a silvery sash that had been a gift from lady liza white silk gloves covered his hands and a white silk bandage spared the lords in sight of his eyes. And then Marillion sings them a new song for the lords and for Littlefinger.

If I had eyes, I should weep. The singer's voice so strong and sure by night was cracked and whispery now. I loved her so. I could not bear to see her in another's arms. To know she shared his bed i meant no harm to my sweet lady i swear it i barred the door so no one could disturb us whilst i declared my passion but lady liza was so cold when she told me that she was carrying lord peter's

child uh a madness seized me so a that's the story he sings for them, that she was, you know, pregnant with Peter's child, which is supposed to give him more legitimacy. But interesting that Littlefinger and Cersei have similar methods, right? Similar torture methods. I don't know if I actually realized it on the last read, but so his eyes have been pretty much gouged out, is what that tells me. He's been tortured into this song he's singing, just like what the Blue Bard was by Cersei and the Cattleblacks in his ripped off nipples. Watt? Watt? I love that so much.

Watt. Oh my god, I need to make that meme, except, like, make it a singer, like a bard. Aww. Yeah. Sansa even, like, looks at the fingers. There are rumors that Mord took off, like, three of his fingers and shortened them, and Sansa's looking at it, but the gloves are, you know, too stiff to actually tell. It's a great detail because considering that this chapter would have actually originally been published alongside those weak chapters in Dance. of in the context of that storyline and his performance uh as theon grayjoy you know with that slipperiness of identity and his own stuffed gloves when he's giving jane away as aria stark

and we're reminded that this is exactly what happened to merlion especially on this reread because it was to get him to lie on their behalf that torture like this wasn't good not that what happened to Theon was good either. And I mean, yeah, Merlion sang songs and he sang those pretty words and he was like a shitty person. But yeah, this was a lot. The punishment doesn't really fit the crime in this situation. Like, yeah, he was very rapey and was coming on to Sansa and was probably going to, you know, try to pull that crap off before Lothar Broon came and put the hammer down. I mean, I don't know.

That's not the punishment for this crime. Go like gel him. Don't cut his fingers off and torture him into saying a different story. It's just cruel punishment. But I mean, what do you expect? You're talking about the man that sold Jane Poole into sex slavery, so whatever. That's true. That's true. Belmore and the Royces all agree that Marillion has to die.

Heeter has Oswell guide the men to their rooms before the main players gather for some wine in the solar, because that's right, Littlefinger has decided to serve them lies and arbor gold in the solar. So, every single time i say it is just like air horns i'm trying for everyone that's ever not understood my online handle you guys this is it this is this is what it's from uh the symbolism here is interesting in implicating sansa the themes are repeated from the last book as well, something we haven't lost in this transition into Feast. The words are the poison in the wine, and this time at a different feast. At least Littlefinger thinks so, right?

I mean, Lysen Arbor Gold being served, the poison's in the words. Exactly. there are theories about this that lies in Arbor Gold every time it appears in the series as an indication that someone's lying or some sort of deceit is happening which has only really been cemented further by Fire and Blood because we're going to talk about Fire and Blood because it's new things

and how Ulf the White died he was given some arbor gold and he was like you drink it first to the other person who was there that I don't remember and it was poison and they both died we'll get to it eventually when we get to that part of the dance

it'll be great it's gonna be sick I can't wait it's gonna be sick like Ulf the White Nestor says that Bronn's yone when he comes up with the lord's declarant means to investigate further on liza's death he of course is bringing the rest of these lords down upon little finger and they are simon templeton lady waynewood lord belmore lord hunter horton redfort sam stone the talets the shets the cold Waters, and even Lin Corbray, who, quote, mislikes Littlefinger, unquote, but we'll get into that eventually. The Talets.

Yes, Ed. All the lords are like, so, what are you going to do now? Because they're going to try to take your place away. And Peter tells them he can only make them welcome, as he has but 20 good men. He can only make them welcome, as he is but 20 good men. He then gifts Nestor Royce the gates of the moon, saying that, yeah, this was actually what Liza wanted. It's out of Liza's love that she bore for you. He totally plays Nestor like a fiddle and tells him that Liza called him her rock.

Nestor tells him that the men at the gates of the moon were almost seen as being at the same level that the king's house Aaron once were as it was always a brother within the house Aaron who would hold that position but of course Jon Arryn has no brothers so of course Nestor feels like he deserves it as he quote-unquote ran Jon's realm for him and this gives us some time to break down something really cool that i'm excited to talk about i've been sitting here waiting for eight years so here we go the battle of the seven stars so one of the really interesting things happening in sansa's feast chapters and how that and her the winds of winter sample chapter are being framed is that it's becoming a story within itself it's having a magical tourney about to begin, sides being taken, those that are in favor of Littlefinger, those that are not. And Sweet

Robin is constantly begging for a story about the Winged Knight, who comes in Vale history before the Andal invasion, but many get confused Artis Arryn with the Winged Knight in the Battle of the Seven Stars. Sir Artis defeats the First Men Coalition in battle and becomes King of the Vale. And we even get mention of this here when the Royces talk about how they were kings 300 years ago. So when the battle shaped up, here's how it looked. On the First Men side, there was House Royce,

House Redford, House Upcliffe, House Hunter, House Belmore, House Coldwater, and House Shett. On the Andal side, there's House Grafton, House Corbray, House Ruthermont, and House Belmore, House Coldwater, and House Shett. On the Andal side, there's House Grafton, House Corbray, House Ruthermont, and House Templeton, and of course, House Arryn. So far, Peter already has a lot of these Andals on his side. It's the first men he's really working on convincing. He tells Sansa he's well-loved by Goldtown, by House Grafton, and then we learn about his brokering for House Corbray, that he managed to craft a marriage for Lionel. And some of the lords shunned Lionel's wedding, not all, but some did. And of course, later on, we're going to learn about his alliance with

Lynn Corbray, although it's a very secretive monetary alliance. It's like his own brawn. House Ruthermont hasn't appeared yet, but Templeton does also support the Lord's Declarant. House Ruthermont hasn't appeared yet, but Templeton does also support the Lord's Declarant. And that's not to say that that might not change. But so far, we have the Andals sitting on Peter's side and the First Men not. And of course, if you think about that a little harder, who has the blood of the First Men that could do some uniting of both sides here? Who would ever do that? Who is that?

That's really good the the house royce words of course are we remembered so i like that uh peter and sansa then put the first lords to bed and the lords are drunk on their words and wine and sansa then as she's getting ready to go to bed he grabs her wrist and like, let the fuck go. All right, don't do that. Get a job. Get a job. And then he lectures her about what happened here tonight. And then Sansa, she's like, why did I feel like weeping?

Like, this is good, right? And then Peter breaks it down. Like, oh, it's so sad. Woo woo. Woo woo. Nestor is proud and prickly and Liza wanted the castle to go to Robert's little brother. Obviously, there's no little brother for the castle to go to, so it doesn't matter because Littlefinger has to give it to someone. Nestor craves power, since he's the lesser Royce branch, so he wants to believe the words that Littlefinger told him.

Sansa figures Littlefinger signed the deed and did not make Robert Arryn sign it to bolster support from Lord Reiss and make him loyal to Peter only. Talking again about histories in the Vale, I do wonder if this whole thing is going to bite them in the ass later because we know that Tyrion has promised the Vale Mountain clans the Eyrie and that House Arryn has typically descended from the Eyrie to the Gates of the Moon in the winter. And the Gates were, of course, once the seat of the Falcon Kings, and as we learned earlier on in this chapter from an info dump from Lord Nestor. But there are two reasons why

they moved from the Gates of the Moon to the Eyrie. And one of the reasons is because they're like, I want a cooler crib, just like Casterly Rock or the High Tower. So we're gonna have it both in rock and it's gonna be really high. Everything, not both. MTV cribs.

Exactly. And it also made it harder. And also the gates of the moon were harder to defend. So Roland I made his decision after the mountain clans first descended upon them, or not first descended upon them, but descended upon them from the mountains of the moon and of course we see throughout a song of ice and fire and especially sansa story and king's landing how nepotism has just really weakened the quality of people who are assigned to different important positions for example like in the king's guard the quality is both fighters and good people because now we're like what beating little girls and i don't know i'm just wondering if we're gonna find out that nester voice wasn't a strong enough choice to be the forever inheritor of the gates and they're gonna like be unable to hold an attack against the

mountain clan especially if they come back led in finance by tyrian lannister finally repaying his debt and let's not forget about some of those theories about to matt being the lost heir to the veil but we'll get to that in a feast for crows too obviously with the crazy uh crazy discussion of how heirs pass left and right yeah that'll be fun to go into little finger is really proud of sansa for figuring all of these things out and he's like you're my daughter stop no this role play is weird you do know like this isn't real like and he's like no no no you have to say it's real not because of my weird boner but what if someone walked in and heard you say it wasn't real i'm gonna live this life yeah little thing yeah little fingers just like oh if someone find out found out you wouldn't want to have more blood on your hands.

Ha ha ha, no guilt, ha ha ha ha. Which is just very creepy and some grooming fucking BS. It's like, it's your fault. No, it's not. Okay. Anyway, Sansa worries that Oswald knows who she is. Well, duh, he's a wen, like your grandma, so I mean. And then Littlefinger, as he does, gives another villain monologue. Oh my god, I can't wait till he dies. He loves these.

That's how you know he's a villain, he loves his monologues. He's a classic villain. And explaining them. The speech he launches into is on how Oswald and Lothar watch each other in gridlock, basically, so no one can affect their plans. Trust no one, I told Eddard Stark, but he would not listen. You are a lane, and you must be a lane all the time. He put two fingers on her left breast. Stop. Don't touch her. Get a job. Stranger danger. Even here, in your heart, can you do that? Can you be my daughter, in your heart? I...

I do not know, my lord, she almost said, but that was not what he wanted to hear. Lies in Arbor Gold, she thought. I am a lean father. Who else would I be? Lord Littlefinger kissed her cheek. Stop. With my wits and cat's beauty,

the world will be yours, sweetling. Now off to bed. First of all, this whole, like, I told Edward, but he wouldn't listen. That's some fucking victim-blaming-ass shit if I ever heard it. You also pull a knife on him, you fucking prick. Yes. Oh, God. What a jerk.

What a job. Sansa, though, she's showing that she's learning this lesson from Peter. She's really absorbed it now in this day. And like her sister Aria, she hasn't really forgotten who she is because she's like, yeah, I'm gonna lie by saying that I'm his daughter. I'm a lie, no matter what name she wears. And so Sansa makes her way to bed, and she doesn't make it in time to avoid running into Sweet Robin,

who huddles up against her breast. Sweet Robin, you can can stay but try not to squirm around just close your eyes and sleep little one i will he cuddled close and laid his head between her breasts elaine are you my mother now i suppose i am she said if a lie was kindly bent there was no harm in it so there's just this great roller coaster of roles here about you know those lies in arbor gold because in the span of like a page sansa tells these quote-unquote kindly lies where first she's a daughter of little finger and now she's like a mother of sweet robin when really she's just she's just a maid of three and ten man something that really got me during this is just

like how slanderous little finger is of her family and how he expects that to just go like sansa thinks ned honorable ned was my father the man who taught me the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword and little fingers catch phrase was we'll serve them lies and arbor gold that difference is so breathtaking sansa stuck in the world her father was stuck in growing up with the man responsible for his death which is a crime unto itself and it's a crime that's begging to be undone which again we're gonna talk about this for like a couple weeks and especially in that when's a winner episode we're gonna do i'm really i've been really excited i've

been waiting for that for 49 years It's gonna last 73 days It's a long episode But you guys are gonna love it It's a long episode, it's gonna be like our Blackwater Bazillion hours, no it's not 112,330 hours So yeah, absolutely Littlefinger is just

The worst People think he's gonna survive, dude. He's very telegraphed to die. It's very clear. If you're reading these books and you think he's gonna live, I'm sorry, but I'm telling you now, he dies by the end. I saw a maid with purple serpents in her hair slaying a giant in a castle made of snow. I'm sorry, it's written in the books i mean it's it's literally right there you guys should read these but have you guys ever read these books

next week you guys we're gonna get into a brand new point of view what yeah oh yes we're reading a brand new pov and that pov is elaine stone she's 14 years old and she's bastard brave you guys and she is coming down that mountain yes and then miranda royce is gonna that's not in that chapter i don't know you're talking about bastard brave bastard titties yes bastard titty what is with you in these bastard titties i just can't believe that's like her insult. I know, because like, what does that mean? I have bastard titties, technically. Yeah, I just don't understand.

I'm like, uh, anyway. Guys, this has been a great episode. I can't wait till next week. Yeah, stick along with us. Thanks again. If you've been with us throughout 2018, here's to a new year, new cheer. New year, new cheer. New year, new canon. New POVs.

Yeah. In 2019, new hair. Don't care. New us. New us. No, Jake.

Elaine stoned in 2019. Hey. Guys. Yeah. Subscribe to us on social media. Keep up with us. You can find us on Twitter at girls gone canon. You can send us an email. Talk to us in both of on twitter at girls gone canon you can send us an

email talk to us on both of these things at girls gone canon at gmail.com yeah make sure to subscribe to us on our several areas you can subscribe we got podbean we got itunes we got google play we got a cast we got stitcher we got all of them did i say spotify i don't know and spotify big one i don't know whatever i'll figure it out yeah we got them all collect We got all of them. Did I say Spotify? I don't know. And Spotify. Big one. I don't know. Whatever. I'll figure it out. Yeah, we got them all. Collect them all.

Subscribe to them all. Don't miss out on an episode. We are here almost every week. We're sorry we took a week off last week. It's hard being robots, but we did it. We did it. Though we did put out an episode for Patreons who are $5 and up. We have The Dance of the Dragons Part 2.

five dollars and up we have the dance of the dragons part two it covers first part of the dance because it turns out the dance is very dense doesn't cover shit there's so much to go there's so much stuff we're never gonna finish this yeah fire and blood it's gonna go on forever part seven of the dance of the dragons yeah patreon if you want to support us there, subscribe. Also, if you have enjoyed, I guess, listening to Lady Gwyn, which like, how would you not on our episode, I joined her a few weeks ago for one of the Radio Westeros quizzes, which are very difficult. I never get 100. And that was very fun. We talked about characters. And Chloe, of course, has also appeared on the Radio Westeros quizzes. Yeah, Girls Gone Characters. I was a characters part one quiz. So glad to be in good company. It's characters part three, a blessed number. And hey, don't forget that. And hey, if you're around this weekend after you're listening to this and you're bored,

throw on some history of Westeros if you didn't already watch it. I'm going to be on the live stream that aired on New Year's Day, covering more of Fire and Blood, covering the end of Maegor's reign, and some of Jaehaerys and Alysanne, which I'm very excited about. And of course, 2019 means the final season of Game of Thrones. And to prepare, counting down for it, the Knights cast from Watchers on the wall is doing some recaps of each individual episode of season seven so sometime i don't know if it's already out or if it will be out soon by the time that this releases because i don't know how things work i joined them to discuss the beginning the opening of season seven episode one fun that's a good episode to open to that was

actually a good episode i'm really glad you got that one because I know you and I were talking about it. But man, that intro and that outro and her finally coming home. It's real good. Oh my god. It's a perfect scene. And I don't care that there were no people. It was beautiful. I can't wait to listen to this. I can't wait for it to come out. So make sure you guys check that out from Night's Cast. As always, I am one of your hosts, Chloe.

You can find me on the internet as at L in arbor on twitter tumblr and also at lies in arbor gold.com and of course i'm the other one of your hosts eliana that you can find as glass table girl on reddit or the arithmetic on twitter happy new year guys thanks so much for uh sticking around it's 301 ac