Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 48 - AGOT Jon IV & V

Episode Date: April 19, 2019

The newest recruit to the Night's Watch is a craven—but that doesn't stop Jon from protecting him. The recruit becomes Jon's new friend and then his brother. As many of the other recruits advance to the Lord Commander to join the Watch, Jon pays a visit to help his new brother Sam catch up. ---- 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 48 of Girls Gone Canon, John in a Game of Thrones, chapter 4 and chapter five. I am one of your hosts. Chloe, you know me from the internet as LiesInArbor on Twitter, Tumblr, and at LiesInArborGold.com, my blog. And I am Aliana, another one of your hosts, and you might know me as GlastableGirl from the Song of Ice and Fire subreddit or on the Maester Monthly podcast or even as Arismetric over on Twitter. Guys, we are coming to you on Game of Thrones night. Tis the season.

Yes. It is. Our Super Bowl Sunday has begun. It really has. It's the whole season though, right? Six weeks of Super Bowl Sunday. That's the thing. I get it if you're into football, but this is more intense. This is it. This is the thing. Yeah, people get way more angry. It lasts for six or seven weeks too very angry holy crap i can't wait for all of the flame

wars oh my gosh i can't i can't well yeah i can wait too you're good you guys are gonna hear all of our takes on game of thrones uh in just a couple days actually in fact you'll have already heard it by the time this episode came back isn't that right eliana you will because of course we are going to still put out these episodes for the public on fridays and of course on patreon beginning on wednesdays but we'll be putting out our game of thrones episodes probably usually on tuesdays. The Tuesdays right after the show. Yes. Maybe even Monday if I get so ambitious. We'll find out.

Talk about a turnaround. Yeah, we'll be doing lots of Game of Thrones coverage. Every now and then I watch a little bit of the show. So we'll be putting these out on Tuesdays. Look for those in your feed. They'll come to you on the places that you listen to podcasts. Same as this. Next week we are going to definitely be discussing further

on Winterfell and the show after episode 2 comes out. So if you are listening to this, I hope you enjoyed episode 1 of season 8. If you're a show watcher as well. And we'll keep on keeping on. We will. But before then, we have some housekeeping as we do. And we'll keep on keeping on. We will. But before then, we have some housekeeping as we do.

And we got a lot of really great emails and tweets this past week from Styles of the Veil. We got, hey girls, as always, you guys do great work. I was curious about your opinions on what Thorne's reaction will be when he finds out about Jon's parentage, assuming he doesn't die first. For a while now, I have assumed that one reason he hates Jon so much is because he's Ned's bastard and Ned and Robert dethrone the Targaryens. So how would he feel knowing that Jon was the true born son, if the show is the same as the books of Rhaegar, that Jon was in fact the true heir to the Targaryen line, the family that Thorne served so loyally

that he ended up being sent to the Wall. Like I said, I just wonder what you think his reaction would be and if he'd have treated John differently. Oh yeah, we talked about this a little in the last episode. I think the show has conflated a lot of Alistair Thorne's character as well, right? You know, it kind of gave him- They combined him a little with Bowen Marsh, but in doing so kind of changed some of the motivations for why for the watch happens yeah and in the show alistair thorne i mean his actor is great uh i love the guy that plays him

i want to say it's peak teal peel i don't know what his name is no i like him though i think he's a great person to act for thorne even though he doesn't exactly look like what the description in the books is of him. But I mean, Thorne gave up his whole entire universe, you know, because Tywin was like, well, you either bend the knee to our new king, or you can go to the wall or die. Pick one, buddy. So he goes to the wall. And to be fair, while he does love antagonizing Jon, even in the later books, he does as he's told when Jon is Lord Commander, right? He doesn't disobey Jon. Jon sends him away and he goes where he's supposed to and he listens to Jon. He doesn't want to get executed like Janos Slynt. So I do think that I don't think that we're going to maybe get that reaction. We might not see it, but it would be a really interesting change if he found out that john is the targaryen a targaryen the targaryen yeah i think just as we discussed before like i feel like we're going to be withheld from that emotional catharsis that comes from a thorn

finding out that john is the targaryen i would love it like i just don't think we'll see i know i just want to see that look on his face but you know there's a lot of things that uh george does I just don't think we'll see it. in these chapters characters that have more strength but he doesn't quite like them either he still like bosses them around like they're little idiots so i i don't know how he would have treated john because he's been doing this for like so many years now right like it seems like he's just been growing even more bitter since the end of the rebellion and like has kind of lost hope so i mean you don't see him sucking amon's dick you know you don't see him that's true mr amon you're the best so i think thorn is someone that yes well he is an antagonist and he's kind of a big adult bully uh and he's pissed because john he is it

you're exactly right styles that he does not like that john is from ned he doesn't care for the baratheon regime absolutely that's what made him lose his comfy, cozy, King's Lander lifestyle. But he would probably still treat Jon fairly. I mean, we don't see him fall over himself to love Maester Aemon, and I don't know. I don't think that's

part of his character. I think he would still be very neutral on Jon. I think Alistair is also really interested in or ingrained in power structures, like the existing power structure. And like you said, he listens to Jon when he's Lord Commander.

He's not like great at it, but eventually he does. He kind of listens to Jair Mormont and stuff too, but I think he has a lot of respect in like those authority structures, which is maybe why he continued being a loyalist to the targaryens because he was like that's how it's supposed to be and that's why he doesn't quite like john being kind of upjumped and rebelling a little it bothers him because he's

like i'm supposed to be the authority figure here yeah absolutely john is stirring trouble constantly and we're gonna see it in this chapter a lot too the next two chapters here we did get a comment on Podbean from our John 1 episode and Tupzin on Podbean made a small correction for us that the singer at the feast is Orland of Oldtown not Mance

because Orland is playing the high heart while Mance plays the lute and that is correct we get a little ahead of ourselves sometimes and excited so good call good call. Good call out there, Tupson. Oh, my God. That's the worst. I just brought Slang from work into the cast.

Good call out. Is that a thing you all do? Oh, my God. People say that on our corporate calls all the time, and I'd rather die. Oh, my gosh. Oh, that's a really good call out from so-and-so. We really need to pay attention to doing this. Oh, my God. Usually it just means so-and-so just tattled on another person on the call.

I usually use the term flag, but I guess it's not quite tattling either no oh my god the use and then we got an email from our good friend pat spinagle who answered the call last pat pat pat i don't know a pat i don't know i'm just kidding we do i think i used to i used to he used to email. But he remembered us this week and sent us a greenling email about the Night's Watch and rethinking it as not only as a penal colony, but as a landowner.

So here Pat says, it can be argued that a man of the Night's Watch probably has better opportunities than a similarly skilled peasant in some random fife. The collective Night's Watch probably has better opportunities than a similarly skilled peasant in some random fife. The Collective Night's Watch can be considered equivalent to a noble house because they own land and, interestingly enough, don't have a direct overlord in one that is the largest land-owning house in Westeros. The Night's Watch control is about an area of 300 miles wide,

the length of the wall, and 50 leagues south of the Wall, which is roughly 45,000 square miles of territory. So the Wall feels land-rich and land-a-status and wealth in those times. And since all men in the Watch are equal and then Pat corrects himself because never mind, they're not equal, but the brothers of the Night's Watch are probably less separated by class

distinctions, then highborn and lowborn in a more traditional fife of the same size, that wealth and status is more proportioned among the watch than in the example fife. The setup of the watch also probably provides more stability, which supports the watch having their wildling bias since wildling raiders would trespass and disrupt those holdings. But anyway, he wanted to suggest that yeah, we look at the knight's Watch in the wall, not just as a penal colony, but as a rich landholding.

I definitely agree with what Pat has said here. It is a rich landholding. I mean, no matter what the Night's Watch is, when you get down to the nitty gritty of it, it is a military order, right, of the Seven Kingdoms. It is a military order that is charged to hold the wall and protect the realm. And naturally, they have to go begging for people to join, and they have to ask the king to give them support. But technically, it's basically the army. This is a

militia. And this, they've been supported by the Seven Kingdoms, right? I mean, you have Queen Alysanne, who I actually wanted to mention this later, but I'm going to talk now because it's just too good not to. Queen Alysanne convinces Jaehaerys, you know, we really got to give them some help out there. People were sending kings there even. So like Nymeria's war, she sent kings to the wall, which now, you know, nowadays you have them coming in and just getting whoever's in the dungeons. They don't get real noble, valiant knights that are joining them. So the wall has always been this kind of, you know, back and forth, we support you, you support us thing with all the seven kingdoms. But now we're at a point in history where it's no longer like that, right? It's getting down to just kind of slim pickings at the wall.

So obviously funding has left this military order, but it definitely is, you know, that one last chance to gain nobility for yourself, even if it's not very much so nobility, it's not getting a title compared to other titles. Yes. It is interesting though, the idea of a penal colony and as a landholder is I think a much more modern concept than it is medieval because penal colonies weren't really that much in fashion right during the medieval era so this is very much like george exercising his fantastical um fictional wonderful imagination that we love and i'm gonna point to this is gonna be way out of left field when talking about like the intersection of in not a military order but the intersection of like prison and landholder i'm going to point to the show

riverdale sorry the idea i need to laugh i know i'm being kind of serious but like the idea of private prisons uh the wall obviously isn't an actual like private landowner in some sense. Like they're not profiting off of it. They're using it to keep operations going. And like that's a big part of their oaths and stuff. But throwing ideas out there. Riverdale, everyone. I mean, I'm not judging you.

I'm judging you. Of course, with all that, that brings us to our lightning round, what we missed between John 2 and John 3. And this is kind of a doozy. There are a lot of chapters in this book, and all of them are important to John right now. So we are just gonna rifle through them. Are you ready, Eliana? I'm ready. I'm ready. Okay, in Eddardard four eddard is summoned to plan a royal tourney upon his arrival to king's landing and littlefinger leads him to his lady wife tyrian three tyrian takes supper with the higher officers in the night's watch and promises to speak their cause to the king he pays the wall a last visit before he returns south and asks Jon Snow what he can do to help Bran. Arya too.

King's Landing sucks the big one. Arya skips her dinner to go back to her room and play with her sword, but her dad catches her. Daenerys III. Daenerys has started to assimilate into Dothraki culture and it's showing. She stands up to Viserys and even takes control with Khal Drogo in bed, and then she later discovers that she's pregnant. Bran IV. Tyrion Lannister builds a saddle for Bran to ride once more. Eddard V. Investigating Jon Arryn's death while also parenting two lively children in the capital, Littlefinger brings ned the last of john aaron's household and that throws

us into another john john snow in john 4 full of a sense of brothership samwell tarly arrives in the courtyard during training sam yields in fighting and alicer thorn orders the other boys to beat him john comes to sam's aid convincing the other recruits to go easy on their new brother. And so the chapter opens with Jon, who last time was like, yeah, I'm going to teach a grand to do these things, is now teaching Darian how to perform a sidestroke when a new recruit shows up in the yard. It's Samwell Tarly! Samwell Tarly! He's very fat!

He's just like a big blob. A big furry blob. And I love him. I love him so much. I can't believe. I was so surprised to find out just like with Bran. People don't like Sam. Did you know there are people who don't like Sam? Those people are wrong Eliana. And they should feel bad. They should. Sam's so

precious. I love him. Yeah so Samwell Tarly shows up and he's just like fleshy and fat with furs hiding his neck and watery little eyes like a fleshy cute gerbil, right? That is not the image that I thought of, but I'm out here standing Riverdale on our podcast. So whatever, Chloe. I love it. I mean, I love the idea. It's just not what I thought it. I mean, I love the idea. It's just not what I thought of.

Well, I just am imagining a little puffy Samuel Tarly, and he's so cute in his little clothes, and he's just so floof, and he's nervous, right? He shows up, and he's like, I've come for training, and John doesn't recognize his sigil, a striding huntsman, but Pip immediately knows he's a highborn Southerin from his clothing. Alistair Thorne, dickhead of the day, calls him a pig, his lord of ham to be specific.

Dick move. But I do want to call it I like that detail of Pip being able to discern where Sam is from by how he speaks because like we talked about back then in the Ned chapters, those class distinctions in terms of how people speak, but there's also those regional differences in dialects. And I mean, this is a fantasy world and not historically accurate, of course, but a lot of those dialects and accents would have been very pronounced during such a time where there's people in different regions and shit,

and maybe even to the point of it being difficult for some people to understand one another in real life when they encounter people from different regions, even though they technically speak the same language and anecdotally this is not this is not scientifically proven i've had friends from the uk saying they're like yeah i can tell what town someone's from based on their accent and i'm like i don't know if that's true or you're just saying that but whatever but i mean you have some modern day ideas like those different dialects and how you can tell where people are from in the US like if people are using

the word pop when they're talking about soda or if they use the term lightning bug versus fireflies and I just think that's really fun the world building from George oh yeah it reminds me of Joe Buckley over from Isle of Faces that we've recorded with yeah Joe

his dialect I remember I recorded with him for some drunk song of ice and fire stuff i was just totally oh my god your dialect is so blah blah i love your accent he's like oh i'm like my accent's trashy i'm like from a small ass place over here like you've never heard of it and it's garbage and i'm like oh i just think it sounds wonderful and beautiful um so you know we don't our ears aren't trained to that so it's really uh it's funny to hear that and it shows in this absolutely that immediately you know pip is like ah yeah he's from the south and not only that but john isn't uh he isn't as versed in recognizing houses right from their sigils or from what they look like this is saying that someone that we know like sansa sansa is more

into this bran is more into this as far as his education is Padraic Paine obviously yeah Padraic Paine John was obviously not as interested in heraldry and in that kind of diplomatic lessons I guess he felt also that it was necessary for his education to an extent right like he first of all majored in things that he thought were interesting, like sword fighting, but he was likely not going to be doing as much politicking as any of his, like, true-born quote-unquote siblings, because he's his family's bastard. He wouldn't need to necessarily know those sigils because he's not the face of the house. Right. Ironically, he's just the face of the entire nation yeah but at that point they all gotta cater to him you know yeah right that's what happens when you the king yeah

no i just think it's funny because it's he's very you know he's the sword is what his training is that's what he has to know his martial ability and now his diplomacy is growing too which is awesome to see uh sam actually brought his own armor with him from home but he got reprimanded and had it taken away because none of it was black uh he's made to go to the armory choose black armor and it takes half the morning to get him actually into it they have to stuff him super tightly into the armors like he brought this on purpose because it fit him yeah you know and believe it or not there are no no breastplate stretchers. No, there's not. There's not.

Oh. Yeah. So, Alistair then makes him fight Halder after he finally gets stuffed like a freaking, like, tuna into this can of clothing. Oh, tuna. Yeah. My poor little Samwell tuna Charlie.

Anyways, sorry. Yeah, and then it lasts really really shortly it's like a minute it ends really pathetically and then alistair invites halder again to like beat the crap out of sam they're like hit him harder beat him with the flat of your sword do it even harder than that maybe it'll teach him courage it's like this is not how this works okay and john also is like i don't think this is working and he doesn't quite like this yeah and john stands up to alicer for sam right he's like halder enough and i kind of wonder since these are in game but i wonder if these are kind of meant to mirror that scene of sansa being beat in clash right with the hound rasping enough and Tyrion stopping it being like what is the meaning of this I wonder if there's any parallel

just in those scenes at all I think that's really interesting just the him standing up and saying enough yeah I mean it is interesting because Jon and Tyrion are good friends, especially here. So it's interesting to see them have those similar values of stopping things like that. Right. At least it's showing like that moral parallel between the characters and showing alignment in what George wants us to currently think of them. Yeah. The bastard speaks and the peasants tremble. The master at arms said in that sharp, cold voice of his,

I remind you that I am the master-at-arms here, Lord Snow. Look at him, Haldur, Jon urged, ignoring Thorin as best he could. There's no honor in beating a fallen foe. He yielded. He knelt beside the fat boy. Haldur lowered his sword. He yielded, he echoed. Yeah, that's what's up.

Right there. Good for you, Jon. Indeed. I also appreciate that Halder listened pretty quickly. It's just like, yep, now you're right. It's been a while since I've reread all of A Game of Thrones, so I don't remember all these people from the Night's Watch so easily, right? I'm getting the recollection.

And at first, I couldn't remember if Halder, like, stayed around, if he died, if he was just a random character. And then I remembered, oh, no, like, he's straight up, he's not bad. He's a good character. He starts off as just, like, some guy that's beating the crap out of another kid. And then Jon's like, don't do it. And he's like, okay. Yeah, Rass is the one who's, like, a total butthole.

Yeah, we're gonna get into that. But, like, Halder has other great moments, and we'll touch on them in this episode, because this is now the Holder POV podcast. I love Holder. He's now my favorite. Yeah, Holder is now also, we've also adopted Holder. Everyone. They're all my children. Yes, except for Rass. Yeah, no, I disowned that bitch. I don't want that boy.

You can keep him. I don't want i don't want i don't want that boy you can keep him i don't want him you keep him okay alistair then mocks john saying that their bastard must be in love and commanding him to draw his steel so john obeys drawing his sword and he's like all right john we're gonna do three against just you and he tells them all to fight john to get sam and makes an example of him and then john tells sam to stay behind him because he's a very gallant hero and then pip and gren also come in because they are also gallant heroes because they're like we're not gonna let our boy fight alone. Yeah, because friendship's magic. It is. This is like, you know, when you had like already Sailor Mars and then Sailor Mercury.

And like, it was just the three of them for a while before like Jupiter showed up. Great times. Yeah, they found their next Sailor Scout. They did. John drove him backward, attacking with every blow, keeping the older boy on the heels. Know your foe, Sir Rodderick had taught him once john knew halder brutally strong but short of patience with no taste for defense frustrate him and he would leave himself open as certain as sunset this is a great passage kind of showing just what goes through john's mind how he analyzes

these situations he gets into with fighting uh and his strategy right this is obviously as we talked about in the last episode these guys didn't really have master at arms growing up or someone to just train them in sword and john was lucky enough that that was his educational pursuit that is what he knows is the sword it is and it's something that you see he kind of actively pursues he's he's not jamie lannister levels right of um prodigy but i i remember there was a line what this past season where like denarius is like you're really good at fighting or something these this is not verbatim and john's like i wish i wasn't good at it and it's like i don't know if john's gonna feel that way later on in his chapters but you can see that set up for him actually being really good at fighting

because he's also good at that in analyzing. Yeah. And just like we saw with this episode in the last episode, you know, have him fight against three guys and be able to hold his own. That's a huge mark of, you know, swordsmanship. It's a very big mark of his martial abilities. And I think that's going to be really interesting to see George depict in the Winds of Winter and a Dream of Spring, just his martial abilities and how much that's going to be really interesting to see George depict in the Winds of Winter and a Dream of Spring just his martial abilities and how much he excels in them and I would argue that he does you know he's not prodigy level like Jamie Lannister but he can hold

his own and he will get to that level I think that by the end of the whole entire series he would be on that level oh for sure and like it reminds me now that you're talking about you know the that unevenness and how it was brought up in last chapter it's reminding me of course of the tower of joy ned had more of the numbers but the king's guard all who were formidable knights and like arthur dane and stuff three against seven and they almost won if not for howland reed yep yep my child howland reed i birthed him um yeah he's he's an older of our children or your children he's very old but i still birthed one of yours i'm stepmom john knocks them back and by the end they all yield against

john's group and unhappy allister ends the trading and he leaves the yard. The quarryman's son wrenched off his helm and threw it across the yard. For an instant, I thought I finally had your snow. For an instant, you did, Jon replied. Aw. I love that that could come off as sinister, but it actually was just like kind of chummy and happy. And Halder and Jon actually end up friends john sends him to the shadow tower and keeps him kind of protected and out of sight during all the craziness in a dance with dragons yeah it comes off more like good sportsmanship after yeah absolutely good

game slaps each other's butts i don't know i don't know how sports work well halder does slap what's his face his butt later on you know no? No, well, there you go. Toads. Toads' butt, that's true. So, very sportsmanship. That's what sports is like. Sam helps John out of his gorget, and he introduces himself formally. He starts to tell him that he's from Horned Hill, but he trails off when he realizes he's no longer from there. John introduces himself as Ned Stark's bastard of Winterfell and he introduces Samwise

to the rest of the fellowship. I mean, wait, wrong series, but we do have a Pip, right, a Pippin, and we do have Gren, and they want to know why Sam didn't fight. Sam says he's a coward, his dad always said he was, and he apologizes. John says he could do better tomorrow,

but Sam doesn't think he will. Oh, and then like once sam leaves grin and pip are like what the fuck was that they talk about being craving they're like who just who does that who just like says they're fucking craving and grin's like oh people are gonna think like we're craving now too and then pip i love this exchange all right it's like the cuteness and pip's like you're too dumb to be craven like you wouldn't even run from a bear if you faced one and then grand's like no way i would run faster than you and then they like tussle i love it i do love it it's very the camaraderie on this wall is so nice i know it's interesting though because his cowardice is seen as so dishonorable

to the men of the night's watch because they all coming to the wall and being unable and unwilling to fight is totally a head scratcher to these guys right they're like this is it this is all i have left my primal urge is to just like tear shit apart with my bare man hands that's all i got that's all they have left tearing shit apart with their bare man hands yeah Yeah. Yeah. Bear hands. Yes. They're going to have to do that, right? Like, they're not going to be able to run from some bears maybe later on.

Like, we see, like, literally undead bears. It's going to be sick. Life at Castle Black followed certain patterns. The mornings were for swordplay, the afternoons for work. The Black Brothers sent new recruits to many different tasks to learn where their skills lay. John cherished the rare afternoons when he was sent out with ghosts ranging at his side to bring back game for the Lord Commander's table, but for every day spent hunting, he

gave a dozen to Donald Noy in the armory, spinning the whetstone, while the one-armed smith sharpened axes, grown dull from use, or pumping the bellows as Noi hammered out a new sword. Other times he ran messages, stood at guard, mucked out stables, fletched arrows, assisted Maester Aemon with his burbs, or Bowen Marsh with his counts and

inventories. I like that. I love that that just gives you a day in the life. Yes. That's the watch. That's what they do. There's a lot of great exposition in this book. I feel like it's interesting because Jon is the only person we really see working in these chapters, right? Like Arya eventually in A Feast for Crows.

I mean, you see Arya's adventure, but this is someone who he's the only one that has a stable working schedule. This is what you can always expect Jon Snow to be doing. That's true. Somewhere on the wall doing one of these things is where his chapters always opens. That's true. I guess everyone else has like had their life already upturned, right? And so is Jon. Right, so Jon Snow is just really waiting, waiting for the next one.

Yeah, it's interesting that he's the one that out of all of them actually has the most stability amongst the POVs that we have right now. Yeah, it's true so later john is sent by the watch commander to go pour some gravel on the wall for traction for the men to walk on he brings his doggo ghost and he's super bored and lonely up there he thinks but he still likes it super moody as we've discussed but he's now less moody like he's still moody but now it's happy moody-ish. He's accepting of his moodiness. He's learning to control his moods. Yeah, he's learning you can feel more than one thing at one time. He thinks about Sam and then he starts to think about Tyrion as well. He remarks that it takes a lot of courage to admit that you're a coward.

And of course, like Jon is talking in this context about the bravery of accepting hard truths. That's like the word that he uses, hard truths. And I think that there's like a couple of things going on here. But first, we're going to focus on Sam. Because Sam's character as a coward is absolutely set up in these chapters. Like, they're using the word constantly about him being coward, craven. But we see later on that, like, this is why I don't understand why people don't like Sam. Like, there are people who, like, take it at face value that sam's a coward because i think sam is one of the bravest characters in a song of ice and fire he lives up to all of the things that ned

stark says bravery is like a man can only truly like be brave when he's afraid and time and time again sam rises to those challenges and he grows like he doesn't run when the others come he or the whites do like he steps up and he saves gilly does all those things and like part of this of course is because sam was i think able to grow and become braver because he had supportive and now has a supportive environment in people like john unlike his like abusive father but of course the other thing going on here that i think maybe is being hinted at in terms of accepting hard truths and braver is like eventually there's going to be a hard truth of parentage revealed to john so like what sort of courage is john going to have to have when he meets that?

Yeah, they both really encourage each other to be brave when they're feeling very, very, very alone. Even what we're about to get to really, really paints that description of just them in their loneliness together, you know, finding that friendship and encouraging each other to be brave. Yeah. i don't know if i see it as loneliness i just love i'm getting ahead of myself i like i like when they sit quiet together it's cute yeah well again they're very alone but very together yes john is lowered back down in the winch as night falls and he makes his way to the end of dinner with ghost observing his friends laughing but he sits with samwell tarly instead Sam meets Ghost and they talk about their sigils Sam admits he hates hunting and John asks why he's always so frightened about everything they go outside to talk and they talk about their

Night's Watch experience so far Sam is surprised that everything is awful here cold and falling apart and just like we talked about, the state of the Night's Watch from the beginning of the series to even currently has just been atrocious. When Alysanne went to the Wall and decided they needed aid, it's been pretty long ignored on and off since. No one's really paid it the heat it needs. And now we have these ice zombies descending on the realm.

So these guys guard the whole realm. It's not good. Stuff's not looking good. The state good. Stuff's not looking good. The state of the wall, not looking good. Yeah, what we need to do is dissolve the entire Westerosi nation and go back to Seven Kingdoms fighting against each other so that we can restaff the wall. Clearly, that's what we need to do. Yes. But it doesn't work.

Anyways, turns out, being from the south uh sam has actually never really seen snow before he saw it for the first time in the barrowlands oh my god fucking californians oh my gosh never seen snow before the men had crusts of snow in their beards and more on their shoulders and still it kept coming i was afraid it would never end. Foreshadowing! It's never gonna end for years. It's gonna be the long night. It is. It's gonna suck.

Unless, I don't know, you fix it somehow, but this is it. This is your life now. Yup. Just because it's there at the wall and there are like mountains and stuff. Even without the long night, this is it is it yeah this is your life forever and ever it's just like this chill in your bones it's never gonna go away but we have the warmth of friendship because sam is afraid of going up the wall even then john doesn't understand he's like why did you join the night's watch if you're

afraid of everything samwell tarly looked at him for a long moment and his round face seemed to cave in on itself he sat down on the frost-covered ground and began to cry huge choking sobs that made his whole body shake john snow could only stand and watch like the snowfall on the barrel lens it seemed the tears would never end it was ghost who knew what to do silent as shadow the pale dire wolf moved closer and began to lick the warm tears off sanwell tarly's face the fat boy cried out startled and somehow in a heartbeat his sobs turned to laughter oh ghost ghost knew what to do i mean i'm not gonna john is doing a great job being a supportive friend here but also i can understand being a teenage kid and being like, Alright, this person's sobbing in front of me. What do?

John and Sam sit in the snow for a while and they talk about their family and their homes, and John talks about Winterfell. Sometimes I dream about it, he said. I'm walking down this long empty hall. My voice echoes all around, but no one answers. So I walk faster, opening doors, shouting names. I don't even know who I'm looking for. Most nights it's my father, but sometimes it's Rob instead, or my little sister Aria, or my uncle. Something we'll hear in John 5, we'll talk about this then too, but even his mother had not had a place for him. These halls and these crypts and everything, they the stables are full of bones. That always scares me. I start to run then, throwing open doors, climbing the tower three steps at a time,

screaming for someone, for anyone. And then I find myself in front of the door to the crypts. It's black inside, and I can see the steps spiraling down. Somehow I know I have to go down there, but I don't want to. I'm afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old kings of winter are down there, sitting on't want to i'm afraid of what might be waiting for me the old kings of winter are down there sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps but it's not them i'm afraid of i scream that i'm not a stark that this isn't my

place but it's no good i have to go anyway so i start down feeling the walls as i descend with no torch to light the way it gets darker and darker until I want to scream. He stopped, frowning, embarrassed. That's when I always wake. Ah, it's such a good passage. It is. I have the chills just thinking about it. What's in the crypts?

His parentage, bitch. What's in the crypts? Liana waits for him. Your mother's waiting for you. The amount of his identity that they talk about it's just so heavy-handed i love these nightmares george is painting us this picture of what his story is actually about it's also interesting because because it's the show premiere day and it's on my mind there's been a lot of emphasis on the crypts now in these past few

seasons coming back there something's in there i do love that uh theory that paparazzi wrote about it being egg on the fifth's ring yeah i think it's definitely something like that something just real light something uh i don't think it's like rhaegar's harp or anything i think that's silly but there will definitely be some sort of something in liana's crypt it's lady stoneheart stop she's here sam never dreams of horn hill though the tarleys were a family old in honor bannerman to mace tyrell lord of highgarden warden of the south the eldest son of lord randall tarley samwell was born heir to rich lands a strong keep and a storied two-handed great sword named heartsbane forged of valerian steel and passed down from father to son dear 500 years but sam doesn't like all that stuff right like sam likes kittens and dancing and tarts and books

and same and he hated the idea and the sight of blood yeah randall had actually paid people to come and try to fix sam knights to train him he was cursed caned slapped starved one man made him sleep in chain mail to toughen him up and one man made him wear his mother's dress and walk through the square to shame him he grew fatter and sadder and his dad hated him more and more and more he even had warlocks come from karth to bathe him in bull blood and all sam could do was puke that's fucked up yeah all of this is like really fucked up it's just randall tarley should never have been allowed to like have children like he's a terrible father or if he did like he shouldn't have been allowed to raise them no not at all he's very bad at this

eventually though after having three daughters randall finally had a second son and sam he's like no that's not my son anymore he forces sam to abdicate his claim and join the Night's Watch or die in a quote-unquote hunting accident. Like, goddamn. Alright? Yeah. Nothing would please me more than to hunt you down like the pig you are. His arms were red to the elbow as he laid

the skinning knife aside. So, there is your choice. The Night's Watch. He reached inside the deer, ripped out its heart, and held it in his fist, red and dripping. Or this. What? So messed up, dude. That's, like, some intense- that's some Tywin Lannister is your dad shit right there.

Yeah, but, like, kind of worse. You know, like, Tywin Lannister is at least like he's a terrible dad but but he's still you're part of him yeah he's like i'm not gonna kill you know he's like i can't kill you as my kid my child yeah i'm i'm gonna try and do my best which is like his worst but you know what i mean you know what i'm saying yeah i mean this whole entire scene in the books is the foundation of sam and john's friendship it's this abuse that they've received as children that feeling of being unwanted and abandoned and it's what ties them together and it's kind of what causes people to remain loyal to john and his faction in general

yeah exactly we saw earlier in chapters that john definitely shows that capacity for empathy even in his first chapter and after his chat with donald noy he like really starts to lean into that and grow it and sam's situation mirrors a lot of john's but um now that we've talked about tywin you can see how a lot of sam's situation mirrors john's other friend tyrian but like all of these both sam and Tyrion have their situations compared to John's like turned up like to a bazillion like a lot because Sam's not good at fighting and he comes in though like when he does everyone looks at him still as a lordling with all this nice armor which is kind of like John but John isn't actually he didn't he wasn't gonna be a lord

and John feels unwelcome at winterfell and received emotional abuse from catelyn while sam's father was like outright hostile to him directly and i'm not saying that like sam's situation is worse or anything or like any moral judgment just that like george is definitely drawing these similarities as a way to contrast and highlight like certain aspects of john and like later sam's journeys also i wanted to point out george definitely comes up with the Blackfyre Rebellion stuff later, probably between the books of A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. But it's interesting because here you have Randall Charlie being like, I'm giving the sword

to Dickon, and that means he's going to inherit Horn Hill. And that's definitely like these sword things are a point of contention when it comes to inheritance in A Song of Bison Fire. Yeah, absolutely. And of course, that whole inheritance thing, if what the show has kind of shown and what we imagine is going to happen is true, in the end, Sam is probably going to be the Lord of Horn Hill. And Jon is going to be the king or something. Or something. I don't know. Something. So it's really interesting that, you know, one is disinherited.

One has his whole identity hidden. And in the end, their identities kind of become them. Yeah, they definitely do. Jon finally suggests, like, let's go back into the hall. And Sam's like why and he's like uh because there's food and there's warmth and there's cider what else could you want and darian sometimes even sings i i just love the way that he describes here he's like darian was found in the bed of like lord golden grove's daughter and like the lord named it rape and off he was sent but different part but i like is Jon is like,

yeah, Darian's a singer. I mean, kinda. Almost. He was a singer's apprentice. Right. It's like, oh my god, Jon. Adorable. I love that Darian is one of those characters

that travels in the plots, right? We see him in Jon's plot, but then he ends up showing in Arya's plot when he travels with Sam. Not for long, because Arya gets a little angry and she's like, snip, snip. Those black boots. Yeah, Darian really lets you down later. Absolutely. He's a coward. Fucking deserter.

He really is. Of all the people. And Sam's the one. You're right. Yeah. Darian's a deserter and sam's the one who's like no like we can't do that sam isn't a coward sam's so brave i love you sam dreading fighting the next day sam doesn't want to hang around so john goes back to sit with his

brothers and they all start to make fun of sam and john isn't into it he makes them all swear not to hurt sam tomorrow and everybody agrees except for rast rast is like yeah he's a jerk he's like i want to slice a cut of sam off for me which to be honest too fatty for me i'd say this is someone who like i love a nice slab of steak with fat on the edges but i don't know if i could deal with sam sam probably wouldn't taste good to me yeah i mean i don't know we're gonna talk about cannibalism eventually it's gonna happen may as well get into it now yeah yeah have we already talked about it have i already talked about how people taste like sweet tough pork maybe maybe not that's what i hear

allegedly if it was steakier it'd be better yeah but we're like more biologically similar to pigs than we are to cows or something yeah anyway yeah ross sucks you can see george being like yeah ross is the worst he's definitely writing ross to be like terrible i like the way though that uh john convinces everyone not to hurt sam anymore the quote is gren was anxious at the first but john knew the words to move him one by one the rest fell in line john persuaded some cajoled some shamed the others made threats where threats were required and so you see john like using different methods to motivate like different kinds of people and you can see a basis for some of that smart politicking on john's part and a promise there's like some promise there of him being like

a good leader, maybe even the good king. But like John ends up facing a lot of challenges on his way up to becoming Lord Commander that are really difficult, right? And it makes it so that some of the methods that he uses end up proving ineffective. Like they're more difficult situations. And he also sometimes is just like, fuck this. It is frustration. And I do think that some of that comes from the battle of the wall and losing Ygritte just really changes Jon. Yeah, absolutely.

He's much more hardened. Where we have him now is a lot different than what we have otherwise. The Jon that we have in A Dance of Dragons is just like, you know, completely changed. He's gone through battles and he's fucked a woman finally. And right now he's just this 15 year old boy, 14, 15 year old boy who's made it to his mission

to protect Sam. Yeah, right now it's still like the summer snows. You can see it with how everyone is hanging out. Yes. In the middle of the night, Jon and his friends and Ghost threaten Rast they visit his cell and ghost softly nips at him drawing a little blood the next day rast claims to have injured himself shaving and doesn't fight sam everybody is like softly fighting him play fighting him etc and it's kind of funny because you're seeing john using the same thing that was used against him when he was being a bully against this other bully. Turning it around.

Alright. Fat and awkward and frightened he might be, but Samuel Tarly was no fool. One night he visited John in his cell. I don't know what you did, he said, but I know you did it. He looked away shyly. I've never had a friend before. We're not friends, John said. He put a hand on Sam's broad shoulder. We're brothers. And so they were, he thought to himself, after Sam had taken his leave.

Rob and Bran and Rickon were his father's sons, and he loved them still, yet John knew that he had never truly been one of them. Catelyn Stark had seen to that. The gray walls of Winterfell might still haunt his dreams, but Castle Black was his life now, and his brothers were Sam and Gren and Halder and Pip, and the other castouts who wore the black of the Night's Watch.

My uncle spoke truly, he whispered to Ghost. He wondered if he would ever see Benjen Stark again to tell him. Damn. This is actually, this is one of my favorite Jon chapters, if not my favorite i know i don't know if that makes me like basic maybe it should be something more like intense or hardened but i'm like here i'm just like oh the soft boys oh my god what i love i do love

them i love the brotherhood just so soft but there's more softness in the next chapter yes in our lightning round what we missed between chapter four and chapter five of john eddard six ned balances his investigation on john's death with governing king's landing and the tourney is looming ever closer catlin five catlin and roderick shelter in masha heddle's inn from the rain and tyrian lannister and his company have the same idea. She calls upon the many rivermen in the room and takes Tyrion captive. Sansa 2.

The hand's tourney dazzles Sansa, and her betrothed is courteous to her at the feast. The night ends with Sandor Clegane escorting her back to her quarters and telling her the truth behind his scars. Eddard 7. Ser got these scars eddard seven sir barrison and eddard view the body of sir hugh and then attempt to convince robert not to fight

in the melee later various reveals to ned that robert was actually meant to die in the melee tyrian four lady catalan brings tyrian to the Eyrie to face justice, but the trip is interrupted by attacking Vale Mountain clans. Tyrion saves Catelyn in the fight. Arya III. While chasing cats, which Chloe can relate to, Arya finds herself in the dungeon overhearing two men speaking about killing the Hand. eddard 8 eddard argues with his oldest friend about something he thinks should be a no-brainer child murder he resigns from his post ready to return home but little finger has something to show him don't do it don't do it dad no dad no caitlin six caitn ascends the mountain in the night to meet her sister her sister oh my god your sister eddard nine instead of leaving king's landing eddard follows little fingers trail to a brothel where he remembers promises once made as he leaves jamie lannister's crew murders jory and honestly i don't want to talk about this anymore. I just want to fight Jaime Lannister. Jory! Jory!

Jory. Rip. Daenerys IV, riding up the godsway to face Dothrak. Daenerys discusses the Dothraki's strengths and weaknesses with Jorah. Later, she gifts her brother with unwanted clothes and he awakens the dragon. Bran V, riding for the first time since his fall. Six outlaws surround Branens the dragon. Bran V, riding for the first time since his fall, six outlaws surround Bran in the woods.

Robb defeats all but one, which Theon notches an arrow to kill. They take Osha the Wildling as captive. Tyrion V, captive in the Eyrie, Tyrion demands confession and requests a trial by combat. He meets a new ally,

Bronn, who fights for his life. Etterd 10. Ned dreams of a distant memory, and Robert reinstates his handship. Catelyn 7. The Lannisters are gathering an army at Casterly Rock, and Catelyn meets with her uncle Brynden. Tyrion wins his trial by combat, and Catelyn reluctantly watches him leave.

This leads us into Jon 5. When Samwell Tarly is the only member of Jon's new wolf pack not to advance on by Alistair Thorne's judgment, Jon seeks Maester Aemon's guidance and his station to push Sam through as Aemon's steward. And so this chapter opens with Alistair Thorne, who's giving another negging speech while he's also advancing eight of the boys to move on to the Lord Commander. And they are... He calls them by their cute military

nicknames or some shit, but here's what their names are actually. It's Totter, Hauler, Gren, Darian, Albert, Pippar, Mathar, and John. And then a bunch of other boys come around and congratulate them for moving on. And then Holder adjusts with Toad. This is when he slaps him on the butt, Chloe, because he's very sportsmanlike.

And then Pip is like, a black brother needs a horse! And then he jumps onto Gren's's shoulders and just horse play literally horsing around and then alicer i mean alicer's right they are just boys but they are just so cute and i think that this is this is very good i like this it's sweet and golden and it's nice to just embrace this because the flash forward to everything else in john's plot they have so much to come and face in the north yeah so let's just have a happy celebratory drink with these boys as they celebrate because they have gone on in the night's watch i'm happy for them my sons i am too but of course off to the side is samwell tarly who john invites to come drink with them, but Sam declines. He says he's happy for John, who's one day going to be First Ranger.

Poor Sam. He didn't advance. He didn't. He's about to be, like, held back, and it's going to be, like, really, school is real weird, right? John's not ready, though, to accept that Benjen is gone, even though everyone's like, First Ranger! And I feel like I've never really noticed until this

reread um this character reread right and just john's chadris how much benjamin is like really there at the forefront of john's story and very much driving it like i mean that's a big part of why i guess the great ranging happens right yeah it's kind of what really leads me to believe benjamin went to the wall out of shame for how Jon was being raised, not out of shame for Lyanna's death, right? I think just everything he said and really just him bearing that impact on Jon's plot is so important. Yeah, yeah. I'm interested to see what happens when he comes back, Rad, and I think it'll be more significant than, like, I don't know. Two-sex Machina?

Yeah, yeah. Two-sex Ben sex machina? Yeah. Yeah. Two sex benjin? Oh no. Okay. So there's more horsing around that's going on, right? Sam slips away finally during that time. He doesn't want to take any part. And the boys have a special dinner. You can also find

many of these recipes, such as this rack of lamb and these buttered turnips, both a modern and more medieval inspired version in a feast for a vice and fire i think they also might have the salad i'm not sure but they definitely have the blueberries and the sweet cream recipe as well i've only made the lamb i don't think i've done the buttered turnips i have not i haven't made anything from it yet i'd like to it's it's pretty good i think i think the easiest still is the onions and gravy one yes pip wonders if they're all going to stay together because most of the boys want to be a ranger but who knows where the sorting hat is gonna place you right who knows you might belong in gryffindor yeah and i'd like the sorting hat you know you might be like i really belong here

and it's gonna be like no you're gonna get placed wherever the fuck we place you. All right. Because every man who wore the black walked the wall and every man was expected to take up steel in its defense. Sorry. Yes. Defense. But the Rangers were the true fighting heart of the night's watch. It was they who dared ride beyond the wall, sweeping through the haunted forest

like in Harry Potter, and the icy mountain heights west of the Shadow Tower, fighting wildlings and giants and monstrous snow bears. Ice bear. Aww. Ice bear.

I'm definitely, I think I'm grizz. Yeah, I could see it. I could see it. Maybe pan pan. I just, oh my God. Halder, though, wants to be a builder. And I love just this exposition we get on the Order of Builders. They provided the masons and carpenters to repair keeps and towers, miners to dig tunnels and crush stone for roads and footpaths.

The woodsmen to clear away new growth when the forest pressed too close to the wall. Yep. Now it was all they could do to ride the wall from Eastwatch to Shadow Tower, watching for cracks or signs of melt, and making what repairs they could. Yep. And I forgot, like, Halder is like the son of a quarryman or like a stonemason or something, so. Makes sense. And a small, small structural comment in terms of what you were saying about exposition. I do like the way that we get all this information about how the watch is, like, made up. Like, first it's like the boy is talking about like i want to be this or i want to be this and they're like info dom and then later on through the dialogue is how we learned about what the stewards are yeah and it's really important that all these roles in order for the wall to function they have to have people working together right

it's kind of that whole metaphor for the Long Night as well. They have to band together against the Long Night. The builders, the stewards, the rangers, they all interact to make sure the wall operates and it builds a lifestyle for all of them every single day. While everyone wants to be a ranger, the other jobs are really, really important to keep that little colony functioning.

Yes, exactly. I can't just have everyone fighting and I'll fucking die. And Durian, like many, they are sure that john is going to become a ranger because like john's the best swordsman like a fucking course and john is insistent though that benjamin is still the first ranger and everyone's like oh this is so awkward but john has barely touched his food because he's actually very worried about sam who isn't here part part of the celebration. John worries about Sam being left behind to Alistair Thorne's whims and he's like, I haven't done enough to help him. Yeah, he feels this need to protect Sam because he knows what the other boys and Alistair are capable of. Obviously, he's been dealing with the antagonism

of Alistair Thorne for a bit here. And he also knows from sam's admittance that he's craven he's making his own little wolf pack with gren pip and sam and he doesn't want to leave any part of this pack behind it's that whole ideology that he's learned from his family growing up yeah no group of friends is complete without sam even though like earlier gren and pip and john were like sailor mercury sailor moon sailor I mean, Sam's really the Sailor Mercury of this group. Aw, he is. He is. No, he is.

Every group needs its, like, smart nerd thing. John, in his restlessness, goes on a night drive. And he's, like, staring around. And then he stares down the King's Road. And he thinks of all the places that he could go. Because he hasn't taken those yet. He's like, but if I went back to winterfell there's not gonna be a place for me especially because lady stark's there you're half brothers a voice inside reminded him and lady stark who will not welcome you there was no place for him in winterfell no place in king's landing

either even his own mother had not a place for him. The thought of her made him sad. He wondered who she had been, what she had looked like, why his father had left her. Because she was a whore or an adulterous fool, something dark and dishonorable, or else why was Lord Eddard too ashamed to speak of her? Wah. He's lived with this shame for so long, and it's so laced with dramatic irony. Yes, there's a place for him in Winterfell. He is a child of Winterfell and there's a place for him in King's Landing as well. And your father left her because he had to do his duty at the Trident. Your actual father.

Your other father left her because she died. So he actually took her and then he took her north. God, I'm just, I'm sad. It's very confusing. There's a lot of dads. Yeah. And as you said, like Ned wasn't ashamed of her. But I mean, it's not like she wasn't not an adulteress in some ways, but Ned wasn't ashamed of her.

True. True. Short answer. Yes, you are correct. She wasn't not an adulteress. She was not. But at some point she was probably an adulteress. Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. not but at some point she was probably an adulteress kind of yeah yeah i mean in the

sense that like you know they were committing adultery together ish they're fucking they fuck wow wow leona fuck this is lewd we need to talk instead about how john turns around to look at castle black and then he goes home yeah i love the actual wording is he started for home he calls it home yeah i i do love that like he's all there's all these possibilities that life can hold and like they're his brothers now right because just now he's thinking about like oh my half brothers but like he doesn't have any blood with sam or pip and grunt but they're his real brothers it's like when you were talking about building his pack I'm sorry

and it sets up quite a lot for understanding John later on like right now they're a family and then he's gonna become a lone wolf when he's the Lord Commander yeah he finally comes to terms with this being his home and his family which is what makes him sending all those friends away later as Lord Commander

so haunting and hard for him even though he knows it's the right thing to do to protect them yeah but in as a result he ends up protecting them and not not himself oh john oh john oh john as john returns he sees ghost with fresh blood on him from a hunt so john knows what he needs to do he heads to maester amon's apartments below the rookery, where he's attended by Clydus and Chet. Chet gives John attitude when he comes calling, but John is adamant he needs to see the Maester right now.

It's Maester Aemon! Yes! Yes! I think this is our first time, like, really formally seeing Maester Aemon in this read-through. It's very exciting. The old man was clad in his bedrobe, but around his throat was the chain collar of his order. A maester did not remove it, even to sleep.

And Aemon says, So, Jon, it's fine, you didn't wake me up, because I actually don't need as much sleep as I get older. And then he says, I often spend half the night with ghosts remembering times 50 years past as if they were yesterday sad very sad and like just as john you know just now was thinking about what his life could be if he doesn't join the night's watch abin's probably thinking about like what his life could

have been as we're gonna come to learn in a bit i think a lot of people act so underwhelmed about amon and john's chapters but he's so important in john's chapters uh right now maybe not so much but i'd love to see what the reflection is from john later on when he learns his parentage it's likely that's who he's going to think of when he kind of has to deal with that and struggle with that parentage. Aemon learned that he had to let go of his family, which is what Jon has already had to do with the Starks. So what happens when it's Targaryen he has to learn to let go of? But even as Aemon almost like couldn't let go of his family, like at the end of his life, when he finds out about Daenerys and the dragons, he suddenly feels the need to to like cling on to being a targaryen again

and john does the same at the end of dance when he's like oh i gotta go save my sister aria yes absolutely oh anyways family john john says he came to amon so sam tarly may advance from training to become a sworn brother of the night's watch chet and amon say this is alice or thorn's job but in different ways john insists amon needs to help sam or sam will be in danger explaining everything that has happened yeah and then we have like a quick thing where like john's like my sister aria could beat him up and she doesn't even know how to use a sword so another another reminder of aria and john's bond closeness yes then we have this exchange where he goes tell me chet what would you have me do with such a boy leave him where he is chet said the wall is no place for the weak let him train

until he's ready no matter how many years that takes. Sir Alistair shall make a man of him or kill him as the gods will. That's stupid, John said. He took a deep breath to gather his thoughts. I remember once I asked Maester Lewin why he wore a chain around his throat. Maester Aemon touched his own collar lightly, his bony, wrinkled finger stroking the heavy metal links. Go on. He told me that a maester's collar is made of chain to remind him

that he is sworn to serve, John said, remembering. I asked why each link was a different metal. A silver chain would look much finer with his gray robes, I said. Maester Lewin laughed. A maester forges his chain with study, he told me. The different metals are each a different kind of learning.

Gold for the study of money and accounts, silver for healing, iron for warcraft, and he said there were other meanings as well. The collar's supposed to remind a maester of the realm he serves, isn't that so? Lords are gold and knights steel, but two links can't make a chain. You also need silver and iron and lead, tin and copper and bronze and all the rest, and those are farmers and smiths and merchants and the like. A chain needs all sorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people. Maester Aemon smiled.

And so? The Night's Watch needs all sorts, too. Why else have rangers and stewards and builders? Lord Randall couldn't make Sam a warrior, and Sir Alistair won't either. You can't hammer tin into iron, no matter how hard hard you beat it but that doesn't mean tin is useless why shouldn't sam be a steward yes it's just it's just a great passage it shows how john has a good understanding maester lewin did a great job teaching everyone he certainly was a good teacher you even see it in theon's chapters where he's still trying to teach Theon.

And Jon has a good understanding of the way a people in a kingdom should work, and his appreciation for all those different kinds now. And also I think it's interesting that even here you have Jon doing something that we see Donald Noy do, where

they keep describing people's personalities as being like metal anyway it's fun amen asks well what can sam do because like apparently through this conversation we learned sam can't hunt i mean we know that sam also cannot plow he also cannot drive a wagon he can't sail a ship and he can't butcher a cow i wish i knew how to butcher a cow but like sam can't do any of these things okay what can he do sam is he's there he's he can read and as chet makes another snide remark john actually says there is one thing he can do better than anyone else and he feels awkward saying it in front of chet because colitis has has weak eyes. Chet can't read, but Sam can. Sam can do sums and read and write. He's a voracious

reader and animals like him and he has great stewardship skills. Yes. The Night's Watch needs every man. Why kill one to no end? Make use of him instead. Maester Aemon closed his eyes and for a brief moment, Jon was afraid that he had gone to sleep.

Same. I think that's just hilarious john's like oh god he's so old is he okay finally he said maester lewin taught you well john snow your mind is as deft as your blade it would seem and with that Eamon dismisses John he says he'll think on what John has said and is now ready to sleep yes I like that Eamon compliments John's thinking and I mean there's a lot of character set up here right for the later John

that we have who ends up letting the wildlings through the wall and the reason he tells him is like we're gonna need every man and we've talked about this before like because otherwise they're going to all become whites everyone duh this is how it fucking works and this is the argument that john is more or less making to aim in that practical usage about the usefulness of sam but we can see john's thought process like he isn't trying to get sam passed into the night's watch because like sam's useful even though he is. He's doing it out of compassion

for Sam's situation. He's like, if I don't Sam's gonna fucking die under Thorne's care. How is there not a negligence lawsuit against Alistair Thorne right now or something about compliance? Why is anyone fucking allowing this to happen? Well, there you go. It's the end of the world. It's the end of

the line. This is it. This is the last bit of civilization between Westeros and Wildlings and Westeros and the East. And this is the end of the world. There's no one there's no accountability on the wall. If someone dies at the wall, who's gonna get mad? Cersei? I mean, you know, yeah, there's no accountability. And Alistair Thorne kind of, he kind of comes off almost professor snapey is that weird no i don't think i see it he but like yeah up to 100 yeah and i'm i'm kind of a snape apologist whatever but this is very snapey especially the alistair and john bit with sam being kind of the neville neville long bottom of the harry potter situation here he has the most courage for standing up to

his friends and neville even led a rebellion after the main trio left. So Sam Neville is just such a good character. Sam has that same kind of personality as all the Neville's and the Sam Wise's in the world of fantasy.

Yeah, I mean, like, Chloe, we're just going to be that problematic cast. Like, I also, I think, I'm somewhat of a Snape apologist. But also, yes, earlier I was also thinking, yes, Sam is Neville. So is neville so i'm glad yes glad

that we are on the same page on these two things yeah he has a certain type of bravery that you just don't it's not the same as how john's bravery is written but it's still a type of bravery uh sam is still brave and he's still a life worth saving with that very same idea of you know where's the accountability that's negligence on the wall. Jon is becoming that accountability and saying, hey, like, he's gonna die. You have to take care of him. He's your people. Also, speaking of Sam as Neville, like, he literally does that later on, right?

When Jon's trying to leave. And actually, Sam's successful where Neville wasn't. But right. Whatever. That's just how the story goes. But yeah, I mean, both sam and john build each other up yes absolutely and they complement each other really well where john is better at sword and he's better at you know uh some of the kind of more manipulative diplomatic kind of things that he's been doing you know sam is also decent at that manipulation

we learned that with the night swatches uh later on with lord commander and he's smart he is good at sums he's good at stewardship the stuff that john doesn't think of doing so they really just complement each other well and it's a really good pairing in the book and along with that courage like sam also has that sense of accountability in a way too and he has that sense of responsibility he's like i gotta save this girl from craster's keep now i'm gonna i'm just gonna leave with this woman and this child and it's like okay it's a big risk all right sam but like it it's absolutely a heroic deed he's becoming a little like John. John's becoming a little like Sam. Yes. It's the cutest. It is cute.

Okay. Well, that's our wrap. John 4 and John 5. Holy crap. We are piling through these episodes. We have tons to go though. Yep. And we're also beginning to fill in a couple of few exciting guests. So stay tuned. We have an announcement for that next week.

Yes, we'll be announcing a guest next week. One of our many we'll be having during these point of views. So I'm excited for that. But in the meantime, if you want to track who that guest will be, and if you miss the announcement in episode, we will definitely be posting it on Twitter. You can follow us on Twitter at Girls Gone Canon. And if you want to send us an

email or a direct message, feel free to do so. Just let us know what you thought about the episode. We love hearing from you guys. You can email us at girlsgonecanon at gmail.com. And of course, to make sure that maybe you do catch an announcement in the episode, be sure to subscribe to us on the various platforms that we're on, such as Google Play, iTunes, Acast, Stitcher, and Spotify. And of course, we are going to be having a live stream for patrons and anyone else who sneaks in coming up at the end of the month once we hit our stretch goal. You can find us on Patreon at patreon.com slash girls gone canon. You can join in for just $1 and up, you'll get show notes and just some fun patron only posts that we do occasionally put up. And $1 and up. You'll get show notes and just some fun patron-only posts that we do occasionally put up.

And $5 and up will actually get you a special episode every month. We will have a special guest joining us on this month's episode, which will be Game of Thrones themed. So stay tuned for the announcement of that. Game of Thrones? What's that? Never heard of it. It's actually the show that this book series was based on. Oh, right, right. I gotta watch that at some point. Anyway, until then, you know, we're gonna work on catching up on all of it. It's actually the show that this book series was based on. Oh, right, right. I got to watch that at some point.

Anyway, until then, you know, we're going to work on catching up on all of that. I've been one of your hosts, Eliana, also known as Gloss Table Girl. And I am Chloe. You can find me as Liza and Arbor on the internet and at lizanarborgold.com. Thanks, guys. Goodbye, everyone. Have a happy show season. Yes, Merry Thrones-ing.