Girls Gone Canon Cast - GGC Episode ?? — The Hedge Knight Part 1

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

We must go back. To go forward, you must go back. Anyway, we're doing this story AGAIN. If you for some reason want to hear us do it for the first time, you can do it here. Preorder I Dreamed of You, the upcoming novel from Pim Wangtechawat: https://pimwangtechawat.net/books/ --- Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon covers for the very first time soberly. The Hedge Knight, episode one, part one. Question mark. I haven't really figured out how these titlings work. We're just going to roll with it. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. I'm another one of your host, Aliana. I forgot that you're supposed to do this sober. I asked my partner to bring me a drink partway through at some point. But it's not the same. Me, sober is crazy though. It's not the same. Bone sober versus you. And like at the moment, like, who knows, that drink might never happen. Who knows? But like, it's, it's different. It's different because you and I went into it quite drunk. the first time around. And again, back in

2018, on a cold jam. Well, 2017, shit. I don't know how old I am. It was 2017, right? On a gray day, it had to have been 2017 when we recorded it for the very first time drunkenly with two friends, our good friends, sweet YFT, and our friend Dot John.

And then due to technical issues, we then recorded it again, drunkenly with just us, which did tragically make it to the airwaves. You can check that out. It's hosted on the Drunk A-Swaff History Channel. Look it up. You'll find it. Good times.

We'll link it probably too, just to make it easier on you. But here we are doing it. Grown up. Big kids. Ready to enter the tourney. And we're doing this ahead of the episodes that are going to come out, the six part. series for a Night of the Seven Kingdoms, which we will figure out how to name against all of this. This is going to have spoilers, though.

Like, full spoilers. If you have not finished the series, if you don't, if you're not in the world of a song of ice and fire, if you're not wanting to get spoiled on history and what happens historically, in real history, this is real history, tune out. If you don't want to know about Magor and Makar and Maylor and pick a M name, I guess. No, I'm just kidding. There's a ravely. If you don't know.

Yeah. Oh, my God. If you don't know or if you don't want to know, this isn't going to be the cast for you. Yeah, we're going to talk about everything that happens in the novella, the Hedge Knight, which will be the first season of a Night of the Seven Kingdoms. And then we'll probably refer to this again. And honestly, like, we'll talk about anything in fire and blood too, probably. And therefore, House of the Dragon. We'll talk about anything in...

You mean blood and fire? both, but blood and fire's not out, much to my fucking chagrin. It's just you said fire and blood, too, so I had to make the joke. But yes, you're right. That would be great. I wish, no. I wish it was out. I'm not, I don't mean to be sick.

That's so fucked up to say, but I would read it. I would read it right now. I would read it right now. I would stop this podcast and say, see you later. Okay, what if he, as long as he doesn't split it into like three parts, which is absolutely possible as like a podcast that is notorious for doing that. Totally possible. Totally literally going to be three books, by the way. But, like, I don't want it to be because I'm like, don't, you can't fucking take, you cannot take.

He could. And he can't take the war. You can't put Roberts Rebellion, dude. The nine penny kings. He can't keep withholding it from me. He would, too. He'd take it away from you. He can't keep doing that. He can't keep doing it to me. But, um, anyways, we're going to spoil all that. And also, we refer to the fact that we have covered this before in the past. You are welcome to listen to it. Chloe and I are not welcome to listen to it. We are not going to listen to that because I love, I love my younger self. I have a lot of tenderness

for her because she did what she had to do to survive and become whoever she became, but I am not going to listen to her. Wow, speak for yourself. I hate that bitch. I don't care what she did. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Sympathy. for her and whatever, but I'm not going to listen to what she has to say. So if we say anything that we already said in those episodes, it's because we have no idea what we said in those episodes, because not only was it over seven years ago, eight years ago, yeah, over eight years ago, not only was it eight years ago, we were also drunk. Dude, it's so messed up. That was our conception of us.

of this podcast and that it was eight years ago. It's supposed to be a drunken one-night stand and look at us now. Oh, my God. We have a baby. Because you know next year, it's going to be nine years. And then the year after next year, it's going to be 10 years. Did you know that? I did.

Actually, like, sometimes... It's so gross. Yeah. I don't know. Sometimes I'm like, it's kind of fucked up. We're not at a decade yet. You know what I mean? We will be.

We'll blink and we will be. And for those of you that are listening to us for the first time, What an introduction, what a journey to come into Girls Gone Cannon at this time. Yeah. We highly recommend you take a trip back and check out our A Song of Ice and Fire reread podcast. This is the podcast that started in 2018. And critics around the globe were saying, this podcast is acclaimed. What great banter.

They know what they're talking about. Those girls are funny. You can see other reviews like that at places where we have reviews, which is totally legitimate. Anyways. People do say that about us. We do a reread. Yeah, I mean, really. That's like true.

We do a POV by POV reread of the story where we read one POV at a time. And right now we are up at the end. We just finished Denaries. And now Tyrion is next. It will be a long journey. We will get into that after the Night of the Seven Kingdom show ends this Q1. Business meeting, Q1. And, okay, so this is releasing mid-December, late December.

And if you are listening to this as it releases, I mean, come on, you're busy probably, end of year. We're busy end of year. So this isn't going to resume until 2026. And you're going to have a great time. Yes. Oh, yeah. We're going to have a blast. We love this story.

There are two more parts to come and we will finish it up, wrap it up, right before the show. And then we're going to beat that horse to death too. Yes. So get ready. Get on board with us. Nay. This is a great refresher. I'm excited.

Right before the show. Yeah. And I think like it'll be, it'll be fun. You know, we're looking at the past as we exit one year. And then again, as we like enter a new one, it's almost like we planned it, but we totally planned it. We kind of planned it. We kind of planned it. Yeah.

That's why I said, actually, we had a couple balls in a way. But the thematic, sometimes the themes just come out as the story unfolds. And that's the beauty of life. And yeah, thanks for being. here hopefully you find it insightful we we did put quite a bit of thought and work into this so yeah and we're going to take you all the way back 100 years before game of Rome shut up I thought you were going to be like 100 years before what or like how whatever they did at like house of dragon something before the birth yeah before denarius targaryans birth yeah and then like the next show is going to be

whatever hundred years after Beep, Targaryen's death. It's going to be Avatar the Way of Water, too, wow. We're going to cover that. Stop it. No, we are. This is cute. I will say the hundred years before God in the beginning is cute.

Very cute. Very quaint. Really gets you into the mindset. Got to figure out where you're at, what's going on. But we do open on a somber note. Dunk is burying Arlen as the sunsets. And we get our first insight into Sir Arles. that Arlen had liked the sunsets.

It's great. We're going to come back to it, but the structure of the chapter builds his shield, right? And then part one, we're specifically going to be ending on them telling him, you need to get your own sigil. And this entire part one builds up to that sigil idea. Yeah, this is, um,

Chloe did a great job structuring where we end this. It's a beautiful ending point. This is going to be long. When we first recorded this, I didn't know, all right I had to just dig a hole for my chihuahua when he passed and that was in 2021 so that was like way after we had recorded this first episode and let me tell you now as a person who knows granted maybe like that ground just wasn't meant to be dug in like that but like

digging a hole is so hard it's so yeah physically difficult like I how does anyone like we built machines to do that yeah it's fucking hard all right and like I know this man is very strong but still you have to build, you have to dig like a whole human. I was only big digging it for a small dog and digging it while you're grieving so hard. I was like sobbing. I had to stop it. And like granted we don't know if Dunk is doing that, but I think he should healthy masculinity, you know. And if he's not, they're using the impending rain to evoke the ideas of tears and sadness,

but also like let your feelings out, Dunk. It's so hard to dig a hole, especially while sad. Yeah, lots of gray. it's very um we've talked a little bit in the past you know if you haven't already listened we did cover the sworeth sword and the mystery night so really on our patreon mystery night i think we might have put them both out for public i can't remember but i'm sure one of them is both of them are out i think and i actually interestingly are third you can go backwards now yeah interestingly our mystery night episode dropped around the same time that i think they announced some stuff for the show yeah for or Night of the Seven Kingdoms, the show. But also, I don't know what we're going to do out of season, season two. We'll figure it out.

Yeah. I love that it correlates with the storm of sorts, though. We talk a little bit about that, you know, in our other episodes, but you have this impending rain, this impending gloom, much like the Catalan chapters or anybody that's kind of centrally located in ASOS, since these were written at similar times. We have this passage. where Dunk is thinking back on Arlen and thinks.

Only a few days past, he had been singing as they rode, the old song about going to Goaltown to see a fair maid, but instead of Goaltown, he'd sung of Ashford. Off to Ashford to see the fair maid, hey ho, hey ho, Dunk thought miserably as he dug. I love that, though, like Arlen was that kind of goofy old man. He was just making up songs and changing words in him. He's just like us.

he's just like us. Actually, yeah, that is like half of our episodes, like 50% of the listening time on all of episodes. Yeah. Just like praying the other person gets it. What a trait. I do that shit all the time. And I also love that in this reread especially, I'm focusing on how Arlen is such a big piece of framework. Like the actual structure of this chapter is so many things that I'm going to highlight as we go through. But Arlin, just looking at his Like, I really was thinking about him and digging into what we do know, right? Because we don't know a lot. Fuck. Digging up them holes. If we're going to go into song, right? Did you hear that got canceled? The female holes.

Okay. Female holes got canceled. Coming up in my household because my partner keeps talking about, like, did you see the headline that it was, like, gender-swapped holes? And that was the headline. And it was like, who edited this? Wow. Talk about Kiss Me, Kate. Arlin, like, kind of zooming out, right, on his entire background. As a young boy, he was, when he was born, right?

He was born in the Riverlands. He grew up in the Riverlands to start. He goes and sees the last dragon in Kings Landing the year before it dies. And then we kind of have to assume a gap of his youth, right? So as, like, teens, his 20s leading up to his 40s, because we know he's like, born and young around that time. So we know when he dies, which is around now, he's in his 40s when he starts taking place in like big meleys and jousts and he gets to joust against Baylor and some of these other folks, right, and make a name for himself. So around 45 to 50 is when he's in

the battle of the redgrass field and he loses his squire, his nephew, Roger. So it's not only a squire, but it's also his brother's kid. So that had to have affected him. how he and Dunk interacted, right? Like, in my head, I'm like, oh, he had his own egg, right? Like, I think of Dunkin' Egg and Arlen and Roger. I was thinking it's like the relationship in a way of between like Iro and Zucco, right? If any of you have watched Avatar, Last Airbender, like, dang, that would be big sad. Yeah, absolutely.

So he loses his nephew, he loses his squire that's terrible, that has to affect you, right? When it's somebody that you're responsible for and that you're proud of and you're trying to teach how the world works and then the world shits on you and it's like no bitch this is how the world works which is a lot of the story I guess uh but then like we move forward so he's in his 50s through 70s right range like he's starting to get older when he takes on dunk so he loses roger and then somewhere in the mix we meet dunk and dunk gets taken on by arlin and flea bottom when they meet so arlin sees something and dunk of himself and chooses to kind of take him on and thinks, you know, maybe I can make something of him.

They travel all over across the nation, and then they end up in the vulture king fight, number four, the fourth vulture king. Crazy. Keep count. Fighting for Lord Dondarian, and then three years later, up and dies, right? There goes Arlen, he dies. So we can't really know what he did, like, in his 20s or 30s, but based on what Dunk fills us in with throughout this entire story of, like, Arlen's colloquialisms and his ethics, how he took.

treated dunk what he expected of dunk you know when we get to where he's like a knight should be cleanly as well as godly godliness is cleanliness you know billy corgan saying that and that's what sir arlin's into he likes billy corgan apparently everyone's got their taste he's into smashing pumpkins what he wanted dunk to embody versus what he wanted to kind of embody and show and like i think that really shows through a lot this time in dunk and his teachings and his thoughts as he goes through of like, well, Sir Arlen would have done this, and Sir Arlen would have done that. So it's great that while George doesn't give us everything, he does give us something, right? He does give us some of that structure of saying, ah, you can infer.

This is what I want you to think of Sir Arlin in between the lines. Yeah, it's a, he does a really good job of that. And like, he's built up that sort of muscle to be able to write that over the past few books, right? like in terms of mentorship and the way that grief can shape it you and who you become and how you honor those memories

but like grave diggers yeah but at like a much closer like vicinity than with Ned because Ned is constantly also thinking back on past lessons we have characters who do that like John's going to be doing that too like at around this time

with a storm of swords and things like that so very mentorship remember that episode we did I actually do remember some of that a little in that... That was like our ninth Patreon episode. Yeah. So check that out.

And also in terms of future episodes, you reference the Vulture King. We are going to one day resume our episodes on... Dorn. Folding in Dorn. Holding in Dorn. Didn't I want to do that before? A Night of the Seven Kingdoms.

Oh, well. Anyways. I don't remember what my mission was for that. Not to spoil, but I've heard that they are doing some Dorn stuff. Yeah. And maybe some, they might be doing some prequel stuff too, like, not prequel, but like pre-story, like with a young dunk and showing Duncan Arlen flashbacks. Yeah, but I knew they were going to show us Dorn. We might. So I hear that we're going to get Dorn in between seasons, maybe, like, or in between the story when they go to Dorn.

Yeah, who knows? Maybe we'll continue that for January. I feel like that was my vision, but I don't even remember anymore. Yeah, so. It could go after. I am actually, like, really interested in how. that's another thing that would be in blood and fire I know I know dude I know I know I want blood and fire so bad I want like this generation

the next generation A-Lor and A-Lora Like there are so many little motherfucking things that I want Yeah Yeah And then I want the third one How did we

We just decided that there was going to be A third one right now They're going to call it Fire and Ash Let's be honest let's be honest because you have what stop I'm gonna shit myself

that would be so fucking funny if they did though I would I mean after the like you have great spring sickness you have all the blackfire stuff and then when you finally get to Agin's reign I'm like I kind of feel like

the third book could be War of the Nine Penny Aries and War of the Usurper and we wouldn't get it until after Adas, because there's no way he would put out Robert's Rebellion until the story was done. Yeah, I mean, like, I don't think he's going to put out. Like, I think he just simply

wouldn't put out, right? Like, the stuff and be like, oh, you don't need to do the history of the rebellion, Robert, you were there. Because it's like, kind of eventually, like about, like, I don't know. Anyways. Anyways. That's true. These are, these are things.

It could be like a super Barathean-focused version. Like a super pro-barathean. would be really funny and they just lied heavily. Anyways. Yeah, that's true. I just mean of current, but yeah, that too. So, anyway.

Yeah, Dorn, important. We'll probably get to more about that in more of our coverage as we talk more about Tanzel. But we do get an intro to Dunk's body type. He's dummy thick with two Cs, thick with two Cs as established the first time we covered this. We'll make reference to some of the things we said the first time around. And we learn also that Sir Arlen and Dunk were rich in spirit, but poor in gold, as everyone loves their protagonist. Yeah, we have a sweet apology from Dunk where he's like, oh, I'd leave your sword, but I don't want it to rust.

And he says a little prayer. He's like, the gods will give you a new one, I guess. I wish you didn't die, sir. Then he's like, what else do I need to say? He didn't know any prayers, not all the way through. the old man had never been much for praying he says you were a true night and you never beat me when i didn't deserve it except that one time in maidenpool it was the in boy who ate the widow woman's pie not me i told you it don't matter now the god's keep you sir and then he kicks dirt in the

hole and fills it methodically and thinks he had a long life he must have been closer to 60 than 50 there we go. And how many men can say that? At least he lived to see another spring. So part of what I really like about this is you see that dunk, he hasn't really had any other parents, right, or parental figures. He's passing down the way that he was raised.

Like the things that, like, Arlen showed him. And one of those things is that all that Arlen had to give was praise. And from what we've seen in, like, a song of ice and fire, honestly like that's a lot more than a lot of people got like we see that that's more than tyrian god and also i mean if any of you have been in real life that's more than a lot of people get from their caretakers yeah and so in a way like dunk grows up with some healthy self-esteem there but obviously not the other parts he he has this other part of like he only was beaten like when he deserved it but you know because he was raised and trained that way we see him

like treat egg the same way but it's just like really interesting the way that you know sort of like generational thing that's going on. Yeah absolutely it's so cyclical right like I mean I was beat I turned out great and all but like looking at you know Dunk kind of thinks he has to do it

because the generation before him did it in order to maintain order which is interesting because we're exploring that in the broader story right in rulership. How do you rule do you rule through fear right or do you rule through love these are two options available to you as a ruler so interesting how that's leveraged but yeah and he doesn't really like beat egg he mostly just is like i'm going to give you a

no he just threatens him so like maybe i don't know and i also think that's a little wider thing like yeah i think we as human beings do actually get a little bit better through time but we will never see it because it's a small percentage and you'd have to look wider at history to see it So things may feel bleak, but like things do get better and people do get better a tiny bit every day, I think. And we just, it's hard to see. Yeah. So, you know, Dunk didn't be egg. Like our podcast. Yeah. From when we first did this.

Yeah. A little percentage. Every day we get better sometimes. Also, like, you know how I know George just gets like full evil mode? Like he's sitting there like cackling to himself, giggling t-he. He's absolutely doing that. Dunk thought he must have been closer to 60 than 50. and how many men can say that. Egg lives to be 59 years old, closer to 60 than to 50,

and how many men can say that, Eliana, because at least he lived to see another spring when so many do not after this spring. They really don't. I mean, I guess they see it, but they don't really like make it out the other end because they get sick and die. Yeah, they don't get another.

Yeah. They don't see another. Oh, and also, oh, also, that's what's happening in the books. now too. Yep. I get it because... The dream of spring. Yeah.

Wow, George. It's like poetry. It rhymes. Devastated. You know, we're not the only podcast rereading Duncan Egg right now on a podcast. Everyone's doing it to you before the show starts. Everyone is literally doing this. It's fun.

We aren't original. We know that. But we did do it in 2017 and 2018, if that means anything to you. Anyways, just saying, but our very good friends over at Nodakas mentioned this lately in their episode. And it made me think, as such things do, dunk starts the story burying Arlen, who's dead. And then he ends the story with egg dying, but saving Rhaegar, right? Carrying the hope out alive, which is Rhaar. So then you kind of frame that entire story against Summerhall.

And it starts to make you think of how, I mean, I don't know, I think it's very easy to forget that Ragar is such an interesting person. He's an interesting character. I'm really brave, so I'm going to stand up and say, I like Rhaegar Targaryen. He's not a good. He's a great tragedy of his birth. Maybe. Yeah, like, no, he's stupid, but, like, that's, like, not his fault. I mean, he was born a man.

What? I mean what I meant. You're right. And you should say it. And I should say it. I mean, the great tragedy of his birth and what it cost for him to be alive, all the lives that were lost, and everything that leads to then. dunks death and what we explore in the buildup feels really powerful and it makes the wheels turn

about egg like before his death he decided in order to combat his rebelling lords his rebelling children and also the face of him giving rights out to the small folk for the first time which we'll talk about later you know he decides he needs dragons and history paints this as him maintaining power for all of these things who knows i mean we know No, Egg is probably having some dragon dreams. Talk more about that. But his obsession with dragons grows. And I don't know, thinking about the prophecy and hot D, yada, yada, yada, we don't have to go into that.

And that subtle decline of Targaryen power when you break alliances and you try to change the way politics are conducted in Westeros and where that leads. I mean, look at Rob Stark. They'll kill you for this, Rob. They'll kill you. My friends are going to kill you with hammers for trying to change the way the world is. And then you lead to that place where instead of don't. in what could be a ritual sacrifice to bring back dragons. No one knows for sure,

but if you want someone who does know for sure, I recommend our friend Joe magician. He's covered every facet of the theory and idea that Agon was doing a ritual to bring back dragons. It's pretty believable. He has all the details. So if you've been looking for like a comprehensive theory, that's your guy.

Go check him out. We love him. But that said, like this is pretty rich. ritual, to start a fiery ritual, bring back dragons the day of kids being born. I don't know, especially when there's circumstances in the future. We revisit with this with Dineries, right? Burning her husband, losing her son, and then bringing back these dragons and death paying for life. I mean, had Rhaegar died instead, maybe the timing would have worked.

Maybe Aegon would have brought back dragons, or maybe the call was too early, and maybe they weren't ready to wake from stone. Yeah, I can't tell, like, if it would have been good or not, just because, like, would there be more dragons in time for, like, the long night or not? But maybe it was, like, meant to all happen at that time. But also, like, I'm not, part of me, like, legitimately believes that it's because he was using, you know, like, artificially colored fire, right? Like, as opposed to organic fire. And I do, no, I do, like, legitimately think that is part of the-organic, Kim. It's actually way better this time.

Kim, is your wildfire, non-GMO, again. It's organic. Someday you're going to watch the Kardashians and you'll understand me. I do want to. I actually do want to. And is my best Courtney Kardashian. I, no, I actually think that might be part of the ritual.

So there's that. And also, like, you were talking about egg wanting to, you know, sort of consolidate power. And it makes sense if, like, he was trying to not have a rebellion on his hands because the context of these Dunk and Egg stories is in the wake of several. of several rebellions, right? Like, especially the sworn sword. The sworn sword, you know, which is what season two is going to be about.

Very much covers, like, what it looks like, the rebuilding of a nation after that. And the egg's probably like, I don't want to fucking have to go through all that again. Like, we're seeing what a country looks like after all that and how long it takes to recover. Yeah, it's so Hamilton the musical coded. Oh, interesting. Dunk feeds his horses. We get introduced to Thunder, the big brown warhorse, and then the sway-backed old man's pelfry, sweetfoot.

He thinks, you know, maybe I could sell them to live a slightly better life as a hedge knight, traveling to tourneys, serving a lord or two, and he sorts through Arlen's few belongings, keeping only the sword because it's good castle-forged steel, and then decides to go off toward the tourney, waiting at Ashford. Yeah. So the points that I'm going to cover here, there's absolutely a possibility that Chloe and I have covered them in a past. There's absolutely a possibility someone else has covered them as well at some point. But think of the context in which this is all happening. 2025 has been a terrible year economically and in terms of the job market. And Dunk is just thinking about his career. He's like, do I make a lateral move and become another squire? Is someone going to hire me for that? Do I become a guard somewhere else?

terms of his qualifications. He's like, I come from nothing. This is the only skill that I've learned. And he doesn't really have the time and resources right now. No references, by the way. No references. His only reference, his only connection or referral is dead in the ground. All right. That's his one LinkedIn connection in the ground right now. And he doesn't have... And he cannot pay for premium. No, he can. Okay. Like, honestly, no one can. And like... Yeah, for real. Who's paying for that? The, he's trying, Dunk has no in-mails to send. He's only got this chain mail.

I'm sick of it. And he doesn't have the resources to switch to a different skill right now. He might, but he doesn't have the time, especially. And so he takes the only opportunity that's available to him. He's like holding, I love how you can see, like, the wheels turning in his head is, he's like, what, what's my best bet here? He's like, well, the sword fits my grip just as well as Arlens. And he's like, I'm going to lie on my resume.

And he tries it out by lying to a child. Because this story is about legitimacy. It's about gaining legitimacy. And that sword represents that legitimacy. Like, if I have a piece of castle forged steel, that stands for me. That tells me that I am legitimate, that I am the real deal. Okay. You said the sword is the legitimacy.

And it's making me think of the blackfires. Blackfire sword and the blackfires. And the legitimate. of like the way that the sword was seen as the legitimate sign of legitimacy for Damon Blackfire and is going to come back with like probably Egan in that draft that was removed about Elyrio giving the sword to him or like the word for word passage about Agan the sixth Blackfire in the story and the current story versus Agan too exactly interesting yeah yeah interesting oh the whole story is structured like this too

The whole story, oh, that too, yeah, Phalic. The whole story is so structured well. We're going to get into more of what makes this story up, but that is intense. So good. Hours later, he reaches an inn and the bald naked boy leaps from the stream whom Doug takes for the stable boy and Dunk orders him to tend the horses. He offers a copper or a clout when the boy mocks his claim to knighthood. And so I'm going to continue my lying on his resume, like metaphor and conversation.

And again, maybe we've done this before. But George, in this discussion, is interested in the idea of the American dream, or at least the myth of it. He explores it so much throughout a song of bison fire and other things, and also this idea of class mobility. It's a very American concept and questioning when that, like, mobility is lacking. And I'm pretty sure George has explicitly said, like, little. Finger does have elements of the great Gatsby in him and you know he we've got his like grandfather's backstory from Bravo's but also like the lengths that he goes to to climb that like social and financial ladder and like the reasons why he does it the reasons why are very Gatsby asked but like

little finger does it at all cost right he's built this ladder on the backs of like humans that he's trafficked and like a bunch of like yeah his other stuff his like wits and his cunning right and all Also, like, low-key, he's fucked his way to the top when it comes with Liza, so, like, really interesting inversion of tropes there, but I don't know if he's thinking about that. We have that with John Snow, right? He's, like, also another character at the intersection of the myth of meritocracy, especially when he enters the Knight's Watch, which is supposed to be a place where that exists. And then he's all like, I'm still underprivileged. I am John Snow, a bastard. And everyone's, like, of a great house.

You are still nobility. you were trained and had access to, like, food, first of all. And he's like, wow, you're so right. And then that's like, but that's like what's introduced as early as a Game of Thrones, where George is questioned. It's introduced as early as the fucking prologue, right, when it comes to, again, the Knights Watch and Weimar versus Will and Garrid. So we're going through that here.

Knighthood, Knighthood is a place that could theoretically accept someone from any background, but it continues to stay within the same classes. The in-keep says also in a bit, and I love this line of knights are built the same as other men. And I'm like, oh, I see you, George. You're making a statement here, especially because A Storm of Swords is coming, like, is around the time of the publishing of this.

And Danny, you know, we explored this during our coverage of that Deniery's chapters in A Storm of Swords, like looks at the slaves, looks at the nobility, right, the masters, and also like the free people, not just the freedmen, like people who are just free in general and she's like looking at those lovers who are naked and the river and it's like without clothes they could have been of anyone right without it

we're all the same and dunk's just trying to make his own path in like with nothing else and i really like there's this discussion here of like you know egg questions the way that dug is presenting and signaling class and that is also what george is exploring right the scabbard like the belt. It's all the wrong material. It's ropes. All these, like, tiny signifiers of class. Yeah. And the sword should be able to tell you, tell other people what you are, but there's, there are those details, right? And that's something that, like, Succession, the show explores really well with, like, Tom Womscans, whose name I like to say. He's, like, teaching this to Greg. Yeah. That's Midwest Little Finger and Egg. Actually, yeah. Oh, my God.

Wait. It's evil Duncan Egg. Evil Dunkin' Egg. Yeah, actually, they do get into high drinks. Yeah. Yeah. And if you want coverage about all that. Chloe did cover that. You can watch part of season four with us, yeah.

With her other partner, her roommate. Yeah, you know, Rainies. Her co-hosts. Oh, my God. Yeah, actually, that was your rainy. This is the Visanya and he's the Rainies. Yeah. Yeah, it's a fact.

And Dunk asks if Egg knows how to handle a horse and I think this is like a really interesting thing because he's like, I could if I wanted and the retort of if I wanted I think it's egg kind of being like I could because frankly not everyone of his class

might actually know how to do that they might be privileged enough to not know need to know how to take care of their own horses but at the same time the fact that he can starts to signal like manhood because he's not the first born so he doesn't get to just like inherit stuff, right?

Like him knowing how to handle a horse, like that's the first step towards knighthood, masculinity, leadership, and Westeros and we see what it feels like to be like the not firstborn son wanting to be a knight with Brand Stark. And then like the if I wanted feels a very brazen child because like at the same time

it's never been a necessity for egg to know how to handle a horse like in terms of survival the way that it has to be for dunk. Yeah, he's a spare man. Like, he's like, you know, after you have a couple Targaryans, it's like, okay, well, good luck for the ones that'll never be king, except, ha ha ha, ha, ha, he's the unlikely one. He's a spare of a spare of a spare of spare. Yeah, bro, there are a lot of spares, which is like the whole point of the story, right? Like, there are enough spares that a whole entire cadet branch is formed.

That's true, yeah. And, you know, like, also it's interesting because even if egg were a squire, Would anyone ask him and treat him the same way that they would, like, another squire, even like a noble one? I don't know that they would, because he's a spirit, but he's still a prince. Are you going to talk to him like that? I mean, that's literally explored with us with the Kingsguard. Yeah. In this.

Yeah. And he's a king's car. Which is fun, foreshadowing. Yeah. Yeah. Inside, oh my God, this sounds so good. Inside, the in-keep offers lamb or duck for dinner, and Dunk is like, both, please, real. She brings ale, and she tells him.

how close Ashford is and how much of the village is already gone, chasing off the nights and getting the excitement of the tourney. They're up there having a blast at the carnival. If you liked this Inkeeps meal, you would have liked my 2023 Thanksgiving menu in which I cooked both duck and lamb. The Inkeep also asked... Duck and... Actually, we could do that, I guess. Let me think about a menu around that. The Inkeep asked if her boy is seeing to dunk's horses or if he ran off again. And I want to know what happened to that boy in the same way I want to know what happened to Weasel because what did happen to that kid because that's not him out there. That's egg. Right. Who's also lying on his

resume. Yeah, I love the very like the omissions that both of them do of like, I'm a knight, I'm a squire and like how they end up together is so cute. And all of the signs, like there are just some very obvious signs as we go along that I'm like, ah, right, ah, right, right. He tells her he means to be a champion and across the room my favorite character stirs from a drunken haze rip love him across the room the lordling raised his head from the wine puddle his face had a sallow unhealthy cast to it beneath a rat's nest of sandy brown hair and blonde stubble crusted his chin he rubbed his mouth blinked at dunk and said i dreamed of you his hand trembled as he pointed a finger you stay away from me do you hear you stay well away. Dunk stared at him

uncertainly. My lord? The innkeep leaned close. Never you mind about that one, sir. All he does is drink and talk about his dreams. I'll see about food. She bustled off. Food? The lordling made the word an obscenity. He staggered to his feet, one hand on the table, to keep

himself from falling. I'm going to be sick, he announced. The front of his tunic was crusty red with old wine stains. I wanted a whore, but there's none to be found here. All gone to Ashford. God's be good, I need some wine. He lurched unsteadily from the common room,

and Dunk heard him climbing steps singing under his breath. A sad creature, thought Dunk. But why did he think he knew me? He pondered that a moment over his ale. I love that I dreamed of you because it reminds me of what Jamie says to Brienne, which again comes out at around this time in the books, But also, plugging here, it's the title of our friend Pim's upcoming book. Pim Wong-Tichawa's book is going to be called I Dreamed of You, and it's coming out.

I think it's March 2026. Pre-orders are open now. Am I going to link it? Yes. Because what's the point of having a podcast if you can't plug your friend's stuff? That is one of the cool things. Like, we have the mic, so you have to listen. You have to listen.

And you have to pre-order. Her debut novel Do it at your local bookstore Yeah You know too Like ask them Say are you gonna get this Are you gonna get this?

Good call, yes Like her debut novel The Moon represents my heart Beautiful Heartbreaking I'm really excited about like The turn she's taking And I dreamed of you

So I'm And she joined us for a Dineri's coverage Yeah back in ASOS Yes Very recently Very recently Relatively Compared to when me first cover

the Hedge Knight. Wow. That's true. That's true. I really am excited for the brief appearance for Darren in the show. Shout out Henry Ashton. If you watch the Lady Jane Grey show, I highly recommend it. It was unfortunately cancelled because God hates everything good on this planet and he perceives to destroy it every day of my life. Oh, word. Including my Lady Jane. A TV show. by the way First world problems. Should I watch it or not watch it? Like, is it a thing that I should watch.

Oh no, it's so good. You should watch it. It's one season is all there is. George liked it. But I'm like, I'm afraid of watching things and then being sad that they're canceled. You know what I mean? Yeah, but you should be happy that like you had them.

Have you ever thought of watching something and embracing it while you had it? Are you a lover? You don't sound like a lover. Eliana. You're not a true lover. I don't think I am. Everyone leaves us in the end. Yeah, I don't like that.

It was hold it in your embrace. And every show you know will die. Instead of saying all of your goodbyes, just don't watch them so you won't be sad. So we barely see Darren again until the end of the story after this. Stay tuned. That's true. Without Darren the Dreamer. Also, shout out me who predicted that we would see Darren the Dreamer on TV before we saw Darren

and Hot D. I was right. Fuck. Wow. Wow. Without Darren the Dreamer, you wouldn't have this story because he was too busy getting drunk than to worry about egg running off with Dunk. He was supposed to be making sure that his brother was like chilling and there and they were going to go to the tourney. Both of them obviously don't want that and we'll talk about that in a moment. There are only a few canonized dreamers, right? When you really think about it, there are only like a handful of Targaryans that are

legitimately Targaryen dragon dreamers. There's Dany's the Dreamer, Markedown, written in the history books. Egan I was pretty much a dreamer because, you know, George was like Egan's dream. Darren the Dreamer. Agon, the fifth, I kind of count, because I think he did have dragon dreams, but IDK, IDK, Damon, Blackfire the Second, Maister Eamon, and Dineries. I mean, these are like the canonical people that have had dragon dreams, dreams of dragons. So, okay, but, okay, my question is, like, are you including or not including hot D?

I'm only asking because of Helena. Yeah, that's all. I don't count Helena because George didn't. Okay, valid, valid. I'm just curious about the criteria. That's all. No, that's really fair. That's really fair.

I'm talking book canonize. These are people that have had dragon dreams that we know of in the story. Yeah. Helena, I don't really think Helena counts, right? Like, I think George said that they came up with a lot of things for her that he never thought of. So it makes me lean towards not counting it. But I don't know. Maybe.

Maybe not. Time to tell. Put it on our list. And I guess like, yeah, Vicerre is the first as well to add to that question. Yeah. Which, again, I don't know. I don't think that that's canon. I think the fairy fact that you and I are questioning it when we've been doing this for eight years

means to me that not necessarily canon yet. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Now, okay, but, but wait, wait, now that you've said that, you know my opinion is there is a wider list. I think pretty much every one of these motherfucking inbred freaks had issues, and I love that about them. Like, that's why I like them. Like, they all, there's a much wider list.

Like, Baylor the Blessed. I think that bitch had Dragon Dreams. Something was telling him. He had demons is what he had, that boy. I worry about that boy. I've worked about a sister's more I know that like Agan the 4th might have just loved to fuck he might have just loved to fuck for the sport of the game

okay I get that like game recognized game but also I'm like IDK something was up there like why on your deathbed were you like I have to legitimize all these kids like I think maybe a decade ago I might have been of the opinion of like he's just an asshole

but now who loved chaos but now I'm like, no, he didn't go. Like, that wasn't necessarily him. Like, I think there's more there. I'm not saying 8 in the 4th was deep, but. Hedged knighting his bets. Well, he was like, we need to have, we need to have a Targaryen existent for, like, the thing. Yeah.

I do actually kind of feel that way. I don't know. And I know that's fucked up, but. Not that men. Like, not that we should defend men, but yeah. The feminist king, Magor that we've talked about, he. I feel is up there on that list. I actually literally do.

I know that's insane, but when we went through that really slowly, I was like, shit. I think Maygoy might have them too. Alassan with the wall, area Targaryen. I mean, look, throw a dart at Ali's kids, at Jake and Ali's kids, and there's no way that, like, one of those nine didn't have dreams. So maybe Gail. Gail wouldn't surprise me if she was a dreamer. Probably Egon the third. He's fucked up, so why not?

you know, add another layer of why you got to get rid of the dragons in his head, reading it wrong, whatever he saw. Yeah. Brendan and Chiera, like, they have a whole other layer of magical voodoo bullshit, but they're suspect. A-Lor and A-Lora, 100%. Ain't no way. They're weirdos.

Aries and Rhaegar, I don't know. Jury's out, right? There's more to that story. That's another debate to have. And then we get Danny, like I said. And then, wait, what about Shireen? She's literally having dragon dreams. What about Tiora Toland?

these are all characters with dragadriebs so i don't know i think that the spectrum is very broad and i feel that we should respect that too but you do then also start to unravel this very this competitive tension going on at this tourney between Megar and Baylor that we're about to walk into and you start to see that with Darren and egg against the other children and how these two kids do not fit the perfect princely air mold. Egg is proud of stuff like riding a horse, which is great, like good for you, egg, but also that

tells you how much he was cared about, right? That tells you, like, he was not looked at as having any options in the future. And then you see Magar living in Baylor's shadow and he's pissed because he wants his son's there to be better than Baylor

and Baylor's kids. He wants them to show up and be champions too, which is like darkly funny because later on, Matara and Valar die anyways, and then now all of a sudden, ha, ha, ha, ha, and then Darren dies, and then, oh, I guess we have a great counsel. So that polish imperfection doesn't mean anything, right? And when we meet Valor, he's not necessarily in the end. Like, he's, you know, pretty upset because of his dad dying.

That's very sensible. I'm not going to hold him to any of the things he said in grief, but he's not that special. Like, he doesn't sparkle and shine on page in my book as a interesting Targaryen I think about all the time. And that's fine. That's just me personally. That's my subjective opinion. You can love Valor if you like. But Mekar's anxiety about turning his sons into weapons against his own family is one of the biggest structural themes throughout this story, right? And honestly, the entire song of Ice and Fire series, all this courtly competition happening below the surface while rebellion is brewing underneath that, splintering factions, infighting the destabilitation

that breeds that opportunity and possibility for the Blackfire Rebellion to live and thrive and that irony that Egan still ends up one of the most effective yet unlikely rulers of it all. Somehow, when he was just looked at his little egg, whatever, teach him to ride a horse whenever, who cares. Genuinely, he's one of the better kings, right? We know not a lot about actual tax policies. B, B, B, B, B, B, Georgia's Aragorn tax policy, B, B, B, B, B, quote, quote, Yada, yada.

But Agon, like, actually tries to put reforms. Like, yeah, he tries to hatch dragon eggs, and that goes horribly wrong, right? But he does try to give reforms that help the small folk. We don't know all the details, but it's implied that he changes things like the rights to pit and gallows for the lords to have over their people, and that when Aries 2 later rolls back his rights,

you have peasant unrest and revolt and the Kingswood Brotherhood and Arthur Dane is out there before this rebellion and revolt happens trying to please these people and promise land from the royal forest to hunt on and mediate before it all

explode. So like clearly these reforms mattered. These reforms moved Westeros forward. Oh my God. I just had a realization in which when you were saying all this Like, people have talked about, yeah, Baylor, Breakspeare and him dying as akin to, like, him being, like, akin to, like, JFK and stuff. But in a way, like, some of what Egg was doing, akin to maybe FDR.

He's, they'll kill you. And so forth. Yeah, he's so FDR. JFC as well. But then Aries the second as Reagan. Whoa. That's what I have for all of you right now. But actually, and I do want to, like, say, yeah, I would say so.

Yeah. I mean, you're saying that he's rolling back, like, things that, like, have moved things forward for people, um, especially like the common man, right? And so I'm just like, oh, that was very Reagan of him. And I know, okay, look, aren't you guys glad that we're like, re-visiting this?

Because I know I didn't bring that up in 2017. I know. Good for you. I know I could not have said that back then. So. Who's going to be the RFK of Westero? Jesus. Is that?

The brain, the brain worms guy? Um, oh my God. Kyburn? No, I'm just kidding. Oh my God. Kibern is that for Searcy. He's the RFK for Searcy. I know, maybe.

I don't know. Wow. And then, okay, there was another thing. Yeah, and then I'm pretty, this one we might have said. Yeah, I saw your face. You had a really great face about something. That's it. Yeah.

Um, we've probably discussed that, but yeah, he's got his issue. Diet Stannis. Yeah, pretty much. Likeable Stanton. He's not even that likable, actually. Yeah. He's too busy thinking about his brother to be like, I don't know, parenting his kids. That's why two of his kids are fucking missing.

Quote, quote, unquote, missing. What? They are. They are. We walk in on that discussion. The food is great, though, and Dunk finishes up. Oh, that's right. This is where we are in this story shit.

Hens to the stables to check on the horses before hitting the literal hay. Chloe has a revelation. That's where that comes from. Yeah. Yeah. That phrase comes from Dunkin' Egg. Wow. Yeah.

Just like Ema music comes from Ragar. I like this line here in which Dunk's like, this is what it means to be a night. Good food and ale whenever I want it and no one to clop me in the head. And again, if you're here,

I assume you know the whole story, because we also warned you and the story is about what it means to be a night that's what the hedge night is about and it is not about good food and ale whenever you want or no clots. Well, maybe

it's a little bit about clouts of the head. I take that back. There are many clouts to the head. There's a really big one at the end to not duck and someone dies. Jesus. No, not Jesus. J.F.K. No, I'm joking.

Oh my God. Hey, look, I don't know. You say this isn't what a night being a night is about, but as somebody who's on the road is a hedge night right now, I was like scarfing down a biggie bag from Wendy's in my rental car outside of my hotel for work today. And I felt like a fucking king. Not just a knight. No, that should have been Burger King then for you, right? Well, there wasn't one right here. It's all I had. I don't know if I'm, I don't know. dude i don't know if i can i lived across from one the last time i pretty much lived in michigan or second to last place i lived in michigan when i lived there i lived across from a burger king and like you would drive home and smell the patties the the flame broil like it was crazy

but actually i started really liking it i love their combo of mustard and pickle like the quantity they use on a burger is really good and it's an addiction like if i started eating it again right now, I wouldn't stop. I can tell you that. Okay. Like, it sounds so good right now, I'm freaking out. Yeah, I'm kind of hungry. I think, like, we, if I'm with my partner, we will never go to a Burger King because

he had a very bad experience at one that he would not want me to share with all of you because it's humiliating. So we'll end it there. And also, I will tell you, like, I never get fast food unless I'm traveling and driving. Like, unless I'm going to go to a drive-through, I don't get. fast food. So maybe twice a year, I really get it. No, I don't get fast food ever.

Yeah. I know, right? This is free what we're doing. Yeah. I literally like... Yeah, after all this. I pretty much, well, I'm driving more for a new job, as you know, and as our people can know, and I'm going places.

She did apply to her on her resume. It's all real. Yeah. My resume was real as fuck, and I didn't even use LinkedIn that way. But, like, I've had fast food pretty much last week and this week. and that's more than I've had fast food the entire year. Interesting. Okay.

Yeah. I don't do fast food. I do. I have regrets where I missed out on like the Taco Bell. I thought I was going to have it like in my hometown. But for some reason the Taco Bell there isn't open. I thought I was going to try the crispy chicken Franks Red Hot Taco Bell co-lab. And I didn't get to.

I'm devastated. Um, anyways. Devastating. We find instead, Dunk finds the boy. And we're just going to call him egg for now for reasons. He's mounted on thunder and he's wearing the too big for him, Hallberg and Halm. And so, like, Dunk chastises him verbally saying it's, like, no way to treat the warhorse

and commands him to get down and pick up the chain mail and clean up his mess because he could have gotten hurt. But also, like, I love how Dunk just, like, burst out laughing, seeing this at first. But then he's like, I got to be stern. I got to be stern. And, like, honestly. So cute. This is now the scene that I'm looking for. to all. Thank you. This is now the scene. It's mine. It's here. This is now the scene I'm

looking forward to most in the adaptation because I want to see a little egg looking super silly in the big armor. Like I really, they have to give it to me. I have literally seen proof of it, so you're going to get it. It's in teasers. Or maybe it's a screenshot they release. I don't know, one of the two. I know, but I'm telling you it's real. So. brace yourself the boy begs him to take him to Ashford along with Dunk as a knight

and Dunk's like what would your mother say and Egg's like my mother's dead and she wouldn't say shit you fake night and Dunk is like oh so you're an orphan and Egg is like oh so are you an orphan very cute

they're back and forth then Egg says every night needs a squire but Dunk's not budging Instead, he flips a copper to egg Who lets it land in the hay Dunk thinks he'll scoop it up As soon as he leaves and then he rides off We have this beautiful little bit

The trees were bright with moonlight The sky was cloudless and speckled with stars Yet as he headed down the road He could feel the stable boy Watching his back, sullen and silent What good characterization And also hysterical because like He throw a copper at egg

But egg doesn't know what to do with that He was like, why are you throwing something at him like eggs never because eggs rich egg has never had a copper thrown at him for a job well done so why would he pick it up or why would he catch it he had no clue what the fuck dunk was doing he's probably like i've never even seen like is this money like this is so small he's like never had held something like that he's like i've got a credit card i've got a he was gonna just be a trust he's never seen a copper yeah yeah and it's a penny that's what's thrown at him and i'm like oh cute a penny and i'm like

Penny Tree. That's the line of thought. That's it. But... Cute. When you think about it also, like, eggs, insolence and his ability to talk back at Dunk, like, is it something that we think most children who are stable boys would have shown a knight in terms of attitude? Which is, again, another indicator of his class, though, because we're like, you know,

it's giving a little bit of, like, a knight's tail and vibe, you know, so we're just like, oh, a cheeky brat. I love the, um, yeah, the Chaucer of it all, but also the, uh, the very obvious misses. Like, it's very screwball. Yeah. Chaucer based this off of the Heath Ledger movie. You have to go. You have to literally do.

You have to leave the podcast. Eliana, I hold in my hands one picture. The girl who sees this picture will leave the podcast immediately, pack her things. and go home. You are no longer America's next top Game of Thrones podcaster. I mean, I'm not a song of ice and fire, though. Get out of here. No more Game of Thrones podcasters.

Oh, are we? The book's based on the show. Oh, sorry. I didn't know that. Get it right. My God. Who are we? Yeah, very cute, but Dunk's threatening him, like, the audacity.

Like, very funny, because Egg is also thinking the audacity that you're threatening me, but Dunk is like, the audacity you're acting this way. The audacity for recording this on. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out flashback to 2017, 2018, where we talked about the tourney being like Coachella, mostly because of these next passages.

Yeah. Dunk rides to the tourney passes a riot of bright banners and sigils that he knows because of Sir Arlen, like Barathean, Karen, Tarley, Dandarian, Fasoway, Eastermont, Bracken, Blackwood, and countless other houses, until it seems half the realm has gathered. He admires the beautiful bright silk pavilions, but then he plans to find a hedge to sleep in, hoping a victory might win him a lord's service and a roof. Because again, it's not just making money from winning, it's also trying to make networking connections to get a real full-time job.

Yeah, he chooses a tall old green elm as a shelter, and he cleans himself as Arlen taught him to which I think Chloe referenced earlier and dries beneath the tree while watching a dragonfly drift past he reflects on dead dragons and Egan the 3rd and Arlen's belief

that summers shortened and winters grew crueler after the last dragon died he turns to his horses he turns his horses out to graze and sleeps and honestly I don't know that could be true I don't fucking know and by morning By morning, a bustling tent town has risen.

And I'm like, I don't know and don't remember. Did we also discuss Burning Man and Pop Up Cities in 2017? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But I'm bringing it up now. I feel like we might have because one of my roommates slash friends near that time did does burns and does like, yeah, not my current roommate, ex-roomate, not like that either, but she was a really good friend of mine.

She's still a good friend of mine, but she does like Burns and they do big installations and stuff like that. So I wouldn't be surprised if we brought it up because she was making a crazy installation, but it is like that. It is that, yeah, like a whole commerce, everything like that. Yeah, it absolutely is. And like, no, I'm curious, and I'm not going to find out. But if someone wants to tell us, if we brought up.

You tell us. Yeah. Thunderclap. food sellers, jugglers, puppets, and merchants. And Dunk eats sausages and ale, watches a puppet dragon, fight men, and notices a dornish puppeteer. And he examines armor at a blacksmith and meets steely pate. It feels like steely, Dan, every time, and offers fine mail, steep price. Needing to appear legitimate, dunk trades in his old armor for a large discount, pays two silver down,

and leaves very, still very much in debt. Oh my God, he's looking for a job in a recession and he's got a lot of student debt. Anyways, he's a millennial. He's telling himself, one win, we'll pay for it all. Or I guess Gen Z is doing this too now, those poor kids. Yeah, this is just like uncut gems, but like Chaucer Edition. I don't know if he's meant to be this, but Steely Pate. I've never realized that he was meant to be.

be like short until rereading this but in regards to the height and his stockiness he feels very fantasy dwarf inspired like Tolkien dwarf inspired places as smith so I'm like come on a lot of fan art depicts him like a Tolkien dwarf which is kind of fun I've never looked at it so I've just like had my imagination just crazy because it was yeah it's scary up there also um shout out game of owns I think Zach really loves steely Pate if I recall like really loves him I think can't I might too. And it's so funny you said Steely Dan because I've been thinking that too and I've been like trying to figure out the connection.

Like is it a connection, George? I don't know. I do like Steely Dan. So. Me too. Yeah. You are a fool for doing my dirty work. I have that on vinyl.

Don't say fool for doing dirty work. Oh. Yeah. And I have Goucho somewhere else like at home. Yeah. Yeah. they actually covered the Dunkin' Egg stories

so check out Game of Owens as well I assume that you do if you're listening to us but I don't know A lot of crossover and they rocked Those are good people Yeah Good people Remembering Arlin

Once breaking seven lances Asterisk against the aprons of Dragonstone Dunk returns to his elm to find A fire question mark and a bald boy question mark cooking fish in his camp he tries to send egg away

but the boy says he's fled the inn and dunk sees the horses brushed in laundry hanged and allows him to stay warning him that the life of the tourney is wet and roofless he laughs at the boy in his behaviors now called egg for burning the fish

though egg insists I could be a kitchen boy if I wanted he's so multi-talented Arlen Arlen boasting that he broke lances with the best night in the seven kingdoms and we know now that he's referring to Baylor Breakspeer and honestly

so Arlen takes pride in this and when we see Baylor in person I'm like yeah maybe he actually was the finest knight in the seven kingdoms because of his attitude and his heart and his actions in this story God. He really is. My heart. It hurts.

A real one. Also, I love, again, we come back to if I wanted to from Ag. I could do that if I wanted to. It makes you wonder how many times he's told what he can and can't do, right? Oh, interesting. And his life and how this kind of comes out against that. And also that, like, the irony of him being a royal, so he has every opportunity he could want, but also maybe doesn't. Yeah. And also that, like, he chooses to want. walk that path of learning these lifestyles and these professions of the small folk. And whereas not all kings and queens recognize that or walk that path, but Egg does choose to walk that path. Yeah. To an extent, like, you're talking about him, we were talking about him being like a spare of a spare

of a spare, spare, spare, right? And he's so far down, like, the line of succession when this story starts, that, like, maybe he could have, like, I don't know that anyone would have led it. him be a kitchen boy like but like you know he could be like jeremiah fisher or something go be a chef would anyone have let him do that but then something we've been talking about within like denarius's storyline as well is the way that legacy and the throne can just as much be a cage right and so egg does he hatches from the egg i guess and he's trapped he becomes trapped by the throne and sad.

Yeah. Yeah. Damn. He's trying to escape the cage of Targaryeness. And that's why I'm like, I love that he so badly wants to attend Ashford as like, in general. A normie. But also, yeah, as a normie that he just hitchhikes. And also I love that he's just like cooking a fish that he found.

I'm impressed that of everything that he's done here. Honestly, I'm impressed that he caught the fish, that he's cooking it. It's very Cora coming to the city. coated. Then he makes a misstep saying that the Macer's shaved his hair though and Dunk's like, what do you mean? Like, are you sick?

Because get the fuck away from me. He doesn't say that, but that's what I'd be thinking. Because like, who the fuck has access to Misters? Highborns? Yeah, absolutely. Starting to give it away. Very aria, right, in Heron Hall. Yes, a lot of this is that.

A lot of this is that. And I love that Dunk doesn't even bat an eye. He's so funny. He's so funny. worried about other things. He's worried about being a good manager for the first time. He's like, I've never managed an employee below me. I don't have the funds to hire you. We don't have the budget. Yeah, this is not in the budget, but I really do need a squire, so whatever. Well, he doesn't

feel that way yet, but he will. They finally get their cute first introduction. Sir Duncan the Tall and Egg. He, Egg says, I've never heard of any, Sir Duncan the Tall. Do you know every night in the Seven Kingdoms then? The boy looked at him boldly. The good ones. I'm as good as any. After the tourney, they'll all know that.

Do you have a name, thief? The boy hesitated. Egg, he said. Oh my God, I'm so depressed, first of all. After the tourney, they'll all know that. But I'm as good as any. Um, I love that they both hesitated. about their names for different reasons, right?

We go into the psyche with Dunk where he's like, oh, shit, I don't actually have a name. And Egg's like, oh, I very much have a name. That's true. That's a great point. It's very ironic. That's kind of like cute. I've never... Egg basically names him.

Hmm. Chloe, what if I named you? It's like that. It's the same. I have a lot of questions, but I'm going to gloss rate over it. I don't know that it is the same energy. It is. It's letting your best friends give you your name for the first time ever.

I also like, you know, Dunk feels so bad. He's like, aw, they called him an egg because of his head. No one likes him. You little egg head. He's like, aw, he's being bullied and he feels, he's like, sure, I'll let you staj in the kitchen. Aw. There's this line in the same. Simpsons that I will quote, I'm betting you, I would bet, I didn't listen this far in their first episode, but I would bet you $15 that the boys at Nautakas probably said this line from the Simpsons of Egghead likes his bookie book.

Aw, I don't know. I have a feeling. But word. It's a line that said, I don't know that I know necessarily either. I don't know anything. If Emmett was here, he'd tell us. Aw. Agmit.

Oh, yeah. You guys. So I would keep our rainies around. Yeah. absolutely that's egment yeah egment and I'm egleana and I'm glad actually I'm Chloe

Chloe I like it I like it it's different it's different um so rereading this though this little strange I'm glad that we're doing this now

I was excited about the night of the seven Night of the Seven Kingdoms but now I'm even more excited reliving these moments I'm now I'm like it's gonna be so wholesome They come to an agreement, egg will squire and be obedient, and dunk will be the hero that he hopes to be.

Hooray. This reminds me of you for some reason. Every time I read it, the fish was still a little raw on the inside when they ate it, and the boy had not removed all the bones, but it still tasted a world better than hard salt beef. Cute, sweet, but also really funny. I feel like when we go fishing someday. It's going to happen. Afterwards, we will try to, like, cut our fish. fish up and eat it, and I feel like that'll be a

disaster and a half. I know how to fillet a fish. Let's see how that goes. I like objectively know how... Caught from the water? Um, once it's dead. Yeah. Like, it's in, like, in the round, like, a whole... I mean, like, I couldn't do a tuna. Tuna. Tuna's are very big.

But I could do, like... Well, trouts are usually butterfine, but I could do like a... One of the ones I've done. I don't know. I've filleted fish before. Just know this Okay, I'll trust you I'll take it back

Like a rock fish You wouldn't burn it And there wouldn't be a bunch of bones in it My bad There might be bones in it But Okay so maybe I take it back I take it back again

It depends It depends on the type of fish All right Well I'll stop imagining You and your little bald head Also As a Filipino We have certain types of fish

That we just like fry You like pound them You pound them, like, really, like, flat. They're, like, small ones. We called it pinarosahed, which means punished, because you just pound it. And then you fry it, and you're supposed to eat the bones. Well, yeah, because when it's thin, like, the bones can cook nicely. Yeah.

Yeah, I feel that. Sometimes when I do my chicken stock, I'm like, can I just eat the bone? Because it's now nice and soft. Like, will anyone tell me? No, you can do that. Yeah, it's just probably calcium. I can do whatever I want. just like egg.

Yeah. Chloe's being really innovative with her claw clip right now, everyone. Yeah, I just kind of put it on my titty because it was bugging me. So it's here. If you want to know what's going on with us.

Yeah. I love, of course, the beautiful line as they go to bed, the stars were everywhere. Thousands and thousands of them. One fell as he was watching, a bright green streak. that flashed across the black and then was gone.

A falling star brings luck to him who sees it, Dunk thought, but the rest of them are in their pavilions by now, staring up at silk instead of sky. So the luck is mine alone. A moment of silence for this banger. Dude. What a good story.

I love you, George. Give me blood and fire Sorry I called you evil earlier But I think he would like that Yeah I think he would get off on that Yeah exactly Like literarily Like affectionate

We do love evil characters on this podcast The Green streak It reminds me of like Gatsby's green light But positive Except It's probably I probably made that in there Yeah I think I just like made that up I'm pretty sure I did.

I mean, no, I like that. I would say also green light by Lord, probably inspired by that song, you know. That's the song that plays, like, in the puppeteer show. I want it. Yeah. But also the bright green streak that flashes across the black and then it's gone. Like the wildfire. Oh.

I thought you're going to say the greens. I was thinking them too, but this is really what I. Yeah. Really what I thought. I don't even know that George had come up with the greens yet. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

He had somewhat of a thought. Wait, that's so sad. I'm sad. I know. That's all that he is, right? He's the green streak. He dies in that green streak. He's consumed.

I know. Hate him so much. He is evil. So here we are with his sigil at the very end of this part. But here we are gathering the... parts of his sigil, right? The very beginning you have the sunset because Arlen loved the sunset and here is his elm tree for his own pavilion and then the shooting star, his own luck. So like everything about him that becomes his sigil is appearing right here.

I love that very much. He's creating himself. This story is about creating himself. I think that's beautiful. And he was here with his best friend, a kid. But actually. A fucking kid from the right side of the track. Yeah, actually And that So he's like in this image In this sigil too Because he was there

Oh, because Ag is like The green of the light In the sky too You know, he's really a wildfire Because he burned up Fuck Fuck Burn out, don't fade away

Oh my god I mean he did live a pretty long life I guess But he probably shouldn't die like that I guess Closer to 60 than 50 Yeah and how many men can say that At least he lived to see him

how many men can say that. Fuck. Fuck you, George. Fuck you, George. Terrible. So the morning comes and Dunk wakes Egg, though he does have to threaten him

quite a bit to get up and get the day rolling. And when he's like, what's for breakfast? And he finds out it's just salt beef. And Egg says that he'd rather eat the horse instead of the salt beef.

And I'm like, that's Denarius' ancestor right there. She eats a lot of big amount of horse In that one chapter Yeah Yeah Hors tartar

Diet Yeah He condemns egg to stay at the camp All day while he goes into the tourney to sign up As a as dunk heads into town He admires the market town beyond Cockles went And he wonders what it would be like

To have a place to stay with a roof someday And that He's going to get that lifestyle for him an egg someday. I'm going to cry. And he's eggs part of his dream now, his mission. I'm like, bitch, egg is going to give you a place

to stay, you stupid motherfucker. Oh my God, yeah. The tables are about to turn. Yeah, jail. And I love this line. It may be that soon I'll know. I, an egg too. It could happen. Stranger things happened every day. Well, let me tell

you, Dunk, about your future. Why am I tearing up? The fuck. I know. It's really, yeah. Yeah. I don't want that lifestyle. I want to be homeless.

I want to train off. That's what I said. With this little bindle over his shoulder and he's on the train tracks walking away. That's literally what's happening here. Uh. So. Dunk heads into Ashford and he needs to find the steward plumber in order to enter his name into the competition. So the captain of the guard of the house, whatever.

I don't know if it's horse or guard, I can't remember. Caput of the Guard asks him to follow along. We're going to go meet Steward Plummer. He's like, are you entering your lord's name? And Dunk can't tell, but he thinks this man is smirking at him. Yeah, because Dunk goes like, no, I'm entering mine. And like, here's my take that has absolutely no evidence. And it's probably like not canonical anyway.

But in my heart, this man isn't smirking at him. He's smiling because he believes in Dong. where he's like, oh, someone who has dreams and hope. That's what I want to believe. Huh. As long as, you know what, I'm just glad your heart is big and full of whimsy, Eliana. Yeah.

Big and full of whimsy. When they get to Plummer, Dunk introduces himself as Sir Duncan the Tall from every place, squiring for Sir Arlen of Penny Tree since five or six years old. But Plummer and most people, Dunk will meet in this story have never heard of Arlen of Penny Tree. Dunk is like, no, I swear to God I was knighted. I swear to the gods that I was knighted in a real, real knighting ceremony, like a real one. But then he's like, but the only person who saw it besides my dad knight is a robin up in a tree. So there's that.

Not really good. But you know what? Like I know he's like saying, no, there were no witnesses. But using Aeswaffe logic, like Blood Raven. Yeah. Yeah. He was there. And he's probably like, good for you, kid.

I love lying. A thousand eyes and two birds. eyes. Yeah. I mean, he does a lot of lying too. I love lying. He loves lying. It's like there's, I don't know if it was one of those like recess, whatever.

It's like, hi, liars. I love lie or whatever, like those two little children. It's so funny. It's like a TikTok or something. Man, five or six years old. I do love lying. That's really young. I don't like lying.

Yeah, his whole life, dude. I'm amazing at it. I'm doing it right now. No, I'm just kidding. Whoa. Wow. Incredible. Incredible. Plummer asks if any of the knights could vouch for him and says maybe the Dondarians that Sir Arlen had served for them three years ago in Dorn. Plummer tells him to bring his reference back tomorrow to vouch in person and off dunk goes. He's like, fuck. I got to go to my like second LinkedIn connection.

Dude, this is like an insane day for him. He has to do so much back and forth. It made me so. tired just to watch because as he leaves, Plummer is like, oh, by the way, reminding you and the reader of the stakes, if you lose, you lose your horse, your armor, your arms, and you can't win them back without money. And Dunk is like, I won't be needing coin. Because in his head, he's like, well, I'll be through. If I do all that, if I lose, there's no getting that back. So, yikes. He asks to be directed to the master of horse and heads to the stables where he plans to sell Sweetfoot Arlen's horse, boo. His introduction to the stable boy is interrupted, though, by House Targaryen,

and it's basically akin to the plastics being introduced in mean girls, like, straight up. Yeah. He does see, like, the fair maid that this, like, tourneys for. She's short, blonde, round, and I guess pink face. I don't know why that's the house. And thinks that she's not so fair and that the puppet girl was prettier. And part of me is, like, when we said fair made, did we just mean, like, literally fair? Like, she's just really pale and white.

But also... Oh, you meant fair maid. Yeah, maybe... Fair maid. Yeah, no, I'm like, maybe that's what they meant in there. But also at the same time, like, she's 13. I don't want you to think she's that pretty. Well, you know, it's about the time these days.

Release the files. Just kidding. It's a joke. Release the fucking Hedge Knight files. Oh, my God! So we meet Arian Targaryen. He's blonde, shiny, plastic, and he commands Dunk to tend to his horse,

mistaking him for the stable boy. A rider had dismounted in front of the stables. He's talking to me, Dunk realized. I'm not a stable boy, my lord. Not clever enough? The speaker wore a black cloak bordered in scarlet satin, but underneath was Raymond bright as flame.

All reds and yellows golds, slim and straight as a dirk, though only of middling height. He was near Dunk's own age. Curls of silver gold hair framed a face, sculpted and imperious, high brow and sharp cheekbones, straight nose, pale, smooth skin without blemish. His eyes were a deep violet color. If you cannot manage a horse, fetch me some wine and a pretty wench. I love the nasal quality to your arian. I love it. Really good. Where does he get the curly hair from?

A lot of, like, the Targaryans I've seen have straight hair. What do you think? Probably from the Dane side of the family. Maybe. I'm just thinking. I mean, like, obviously Allison had curly hair, so. I guess not all of them. I guess DeNaris kind of had, but, like, was it because her hair was in waves?

I don't know. Well, and I also do think I'm straight up, like, serious that this is the second. of the family that has started to interbreed, right? They're not interbreeding with themselves. They're breeding with, like, people not them. So you have folks with different hair. I mean, you have Valar has the brown hair with the white streak, and you have Baylor being a brunette from the Dornish in him.

Yeah. And looking Dornish, that is, unfortunately, one drawback to the show as the actor they cast, you know, maybe doesn't really reflect Dornish in my book. Mm-hmm. And that's okay. That is what it is. you know, why, why take the opportunity while you have it to be accurate? Why would you do that?

It's also like a mess. Like, I will say, the cohesive thread of Targaryens throughout the three shows that now exist. I can see where it's hard to thread because they didn't all have the same vision, right? So I'm not like forgiving them, but I just understand why maybe they haven't gone super accurate. I think of like Rainies, right? And they like didn't give her the black hair because they didn't. have big enough balls for that. Yeah, their balls weren't big enough.

He decided to be too difficult to explain, but also, it could have been fun. It could have been fun. And, like, also, at least, like, keep the fucking, the seed is strong. Like, what happened to that, y'all? Well, yeah, like, that was literally in the show. Like. Exactly. I mean, but they did away with it by Shereen, so. Yeah, with her sandy blonde hair.

Her dishwater blonde. I just, I do think, like, it is stupid that they. don't want to treat their audiences smarter. Like, they aren't going to get smarter by you treating them stupid. Anyways. Yeah. Yeah. So the meeting with Arian, you kind of, like, hinted at it already before, but, like, you know,

it's an interesting contrast to the way when Dunk first meets Egg, he, like, asks Egg first if he's a stable boy. He doesn't, like, start ordering him right away. He doesn't wait for an answer, though, from Egg and then asks. But he asks Egg first, at least, if he can do these duties, as opposed to just, ordering him in a way but not really I guess

but he is at least a little nicer about it I mean either way I will say to your point like this literally did just happen that's so crazy I didn't think about it but this is literally what we just did like Dunk literally just came up to ag and was like

you're my stable boy so very funny that dunk doesn't and they both lied in that moment I mean, like, Egg didn't technically lie. He was just, like, in his head, he's like, I guess I could be a stable boy. And in this moment, Dunk's like, I'm a knight. Yeah. Interesting.

Interesting contrast. Dunk is defiant, but kind of apologetic. He's like, well, I am a knight. And Arian is like, well, knighthood has certainly fallen on sad days. And then he rides off and leaving Dunk forgotten once more. And he's not wrong. Like, knighthood has fallen on dark days, but, like, not. because of the reasons you're thinking.

So, there's that. The master of horse brushes Dunk aside and sends him on to the next place, telling him, go sell your horse for far less than what it's worth. And Dunk's like, has the King come to the tournament as well? And the Master of Horse is like, thank God, no, he hasn't. I barely have enough room for this many of them as it is. Real. In the yard, Dunk introduces himself to the two Kingsguard that are out there.

protecting the princes, Sir Roland Craig Hall and Sir Donnell of Duskendale. They explain they're not riding today in the lists because Prince Valar is championing young Lady Ashford, and two of his cousins are challenging him. It would be improper to ride against the royal family, they say. Dun dun dun dun the foreshadowing. Dunk thanks them for their kindness and wonders whether someone like him could ever be allowed to champion a lady so high-born against a prince. dun dun dun more foret know me

in short form as well as long form I love that again and we're seeing what happens when cousins challenge princes and what happens when the country splinters Yeah Yeah We're gonna find out

In hot D and blood and fire And the dream of spring Because I don't think it's going to be covered in the winds and winter Because we have to get back to Westrose first No, I'm serious. Also, it's interesting that these knights, the ones who are, like, you know, very high up, pinnacle of their station, are among the only people who are actually fucking courteous to Dunk. They're like, yeah, hey, what's up? Yeah, they are actually two good dudes.

Yeah, just like, hello. And it kind of, like, I guess, plays up the point of everyone else is just very insecure, right? They don't know how to be insecure. Dunk meets with Henley, who says, sweet, but is great. until Dunk says that she's for sale. And he's like, oh, no, I hate this horse. So cheap. Boo.

And in the end, Dunk ends up selling Sweetfoot for 750 silver and promises to come back for her when he can and when he wins and he doesn't. And like, I'm sorry, I can't do this again. Everything's a lie and we've been stabbed. I don't have the emotional, like, space to, like, go down this dark hole because it will be a dark hole. And so we have to, like, go, we have to go forward. I'm not strong enough.

Yeah, I've literally been stabbed, so. I, like, had a moment, and I had to, like, take a moment back upon reading it, and, like, we can't, we can't go over it in the podcast. The man gives him three gold dragons and the change in silver, and Dunk has never had a gold dragon for, so he bites into it and smiles. Dragons, men called the coins, since they were stamped with the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen on one side. The other side bore the likeness of the king.

Two of the coins Henley gave him had King Darren's face. The third was older, well-worn, and showed a different man. His name was there under his head, but Dunk could not read the letters. Gold had been shaved off its edges, too, he saw. He pointed this out to Henley, and loudly, the stable man grumbled but handed over another few silvers and a fistful of coppers to make up the weight. Good for him. Yeah. Not getting cheaped out.

I really do wonder who it was. I wonder what king it was. Curious. He heads off. His pouch is strangely full of money, not used to that, been there. And he thinks he could live off this for a year if he really wanted, but then what? Sell thunder, become an outlaw, become a beggar. He thinks, this chance will never come again.

I must risk all. No chance. No choice. Oh. Dang. Yeah, bro. Yeah. For the kiddos.

powerful The morning is almost done As he finally makes his way Back through the Merchant Town Seeing a singer and band Playing Bear and the Maiden Fair This song's been around for a while And a bear shuffling along with its master

Jugglers juggle Puppeteers finish a dragon fight Dunk stops to watch the wooden dragon Be slain And the puppet knight cuts off his head Which bursts into red sawdust He throws two coppers at the Dornish Dragon Girl Calling out that one of them is for last night

As well She smiles back at him and he wonders if she smiles at him or at his coin or at his cock. No, I'm joking. Not yet. Not yet. He has a brief memory of Sir Arlen promising to take him to a brothel

three years ago to make him a man. But Arlen had been too drunk to remember and Dunk was too embarrassed to remind him. Oh my God, just like Sandorke-Lagain, Dunk's a virgin. Look, I think my husband might divorce me about that take someday. But I'll stick to it.

I, Dunk yes. Skinder Clegan is like 30 years old. So like maybe... Okay, 30-year-old's going to end up divorcing. That's true, but... That's okay. We can divorce. I could start again. Yeah.

You bitches, though. I don't know. Who, the listeners? No, are you and my roommate? Oh, us? Yeah, I don't know. We'll just go egg along. We'll egg each other on. Get out of here. I'm going to punch you in an egg, whatever.

Me, I'm really hot. I can start again, but I don't know about you guys. That's it for me. This is the, I mean, I guess I could start another podcast. This isn't, but I don't think I will. All that said, like, Dunk doesn't stay a virgin, obviously, because Dunk Fox later. That's true. Yeah.

Yeah. He was a virgin when we started the series. Wow. He invites the young woman out for an ale or a soft. Really smoothly, clearly, by the way. He's so smooth when he does it. So smooth. No, he's not.

But she has another show, and he's like, wow, she'd be really easy to kiss on account of her height because he knew how to kiss, thanks to a rather short girl at a tavern in Lannisport who taught him. The memory made his ears burn. Oh, my God, yeah. On the table. The memory made his ears burn. What a great fool he was. It was jousting he should be thinking about.

Not kissing. isn't that life, Dunk, isn't that life? He watches the Ashford carpenters whitewashed the jousting yard barricades as a three-tiered viewing stand has also risen with four high-backed chairs for Lord Ashford, the fair maid, and the two princes. At the far end, he sees the brute of bracken, the lord of Karen, and some other knights practicing on the Quintain. The yard teams with men training and Dunk watches two Fasoways,

spar until the younger Fasoaway yields, bruised and bleeding, while the elder, Stefan Fasoaway, is unmarked. Stefan sizes Dunk up and asks him to spar. He gets egged on a little bit by the younger Fossaway, and Dunk refuses, and he's like, no, no, I have to go get my coin to stealy pate. Stefan mocks him as a hedge knight and then moves on to find a new combatant. At least he's, like, working for his job, Stefan. Shut the fuck up.

Also, I've said this before, probably the first time we did this as well. In general, I just like, I love the Fossways, like, lore is a story, mostly the green Fossways, but knock the seats out of him. I don't know, I think that's kind of funny. So cute. I love it so much. It's so fun. They're so funny. Also, there's a line here where Don's like, oh my God, what the fuck? Don't talk to me. Don't notice me. He's like, why were these lordlings involving him in their quarrel?

And I'm like, ah, yes. That's the theme Regarding the wars According to Dora Yeah The Highborn Lords Play their Game of Thrones Anyways

Yeah Clashes between numbers Of the same noble family Again, a reminder Of the Black Fire Rebellion Wow Wait, did you just quote Jora?

I know, it's so fucked up This is like not the first time This has happened in recent months or whatever and I'm like, this is fucked up. It's unfair. Wow. Podcaster, Eliana admits Jora not so bad.

Ew, no. I would never. That's what I heard. No. Gross. I love that it's like office drama. Like they're bored. They're involving him in their drama, right?

It's kind of funny. And more structure, right? Two classes of Fossaway, two branches of the tree. What could happen? What happens when you create a new branch? Because of that inter-falling out in the family. Hmm, what could possibly happen when you have two branches of a family, one red, one green? A war.

Or you have... Hmm. Sometimes the companies will separate if it is corporate. I don't know. Maybe. Raymond Fosway follows Dunk to apologize. admitting Stefan often injures men in practice to weaken them for the list.

Fucked up. Interesting strategy, though. He says, Stefan is promised to knight him once he is ripe enough. I don't like that. That sounds wrong. And that they will both compete. Dunk tells him he will not enter the list

until the third day, and they part. And I feel like only Alex will really appreciate this, but the Fossaways and the way that Raymond speaks about Stefan makes me think of the Hyuga clan. Yuga clan and Naruto and how Naji's family has to serve Hinataz. That's the insight for all of you.

Thank you, Aliana. I don't understand. It's okay. For those of you that are Naruto fans, enjoy it. We have this line, if he is only a squire, what business do I have being a knight? One of us is a fool.

Well, all men are for. fools dear dunk oh i thought we were to say that we are because we're entertainers um we're bards bard coded and so thinking about the rules of the tourney itself working against him like this is true right because the tourney dunk is betting everything on this but it is in some ways supposed to be one road to class mobility except it's blocked by all of these other like resources and barriers that you have to get there. Like, for example, access to a horse. Expensive to get. Expensive to maintain.

Finding good armor. Expensive, as we found out. Entrance fee, probably. Having a pavilion, which I guess you could just sleep under the stars, but what if it's raining? Paying for food. And then that's on top of all the other things that get you to the point where you could even compete, such as training and nutrients. Dunks just happens to have natural talent of, I'm big and strong.

strong, right? And was raised by someone from the ages like a five or six. But not everyone has that. He also, like, was at least taught to identify good armor in order to find, like, the good resources for this, which means he knows, like, the tools for the job. That's not something people just know. And I think it's very sweet that he's trying to pass that knowledge down to Haig. He's like, this is a good armor. Yeah, and a good teaching. Like, he's actually trying to you know, in leadership, right, you can either lead and mentor and, like, bring people along, or you can leave them behind to struggle to keep up, and he doesn't want to do that to Ag.

Yeah. Which is good, because Ag has those stubby little legs. Mm-hmm. He's just an egghead. Egghead likes his bookie books. Dunk thinks about the different formats attorneys can take. This one specifically is celebrating Lord Ashford's daughter's daughter's. 13th name day. She's the reigning queen of love and beauty. Hasn't really done anything to earn that.

But okay. She's 13. I'm just kidding. Stop sexualizing her everyone. Oh my God. Five champions would wear her favor. The others would be challengers. But if they defeated a champion, they would take their place as champion until they were unseeded. And so it would go at the end of three days, the five that remain would choose to either keep her crowned, Queen of Love and Beauty, or give the crown to another. Again, the structure, the five that remain choose who rules. This feels important. You have the great counsel for Egg later, right,

who choose who rules at the end, who gets the crown, basically. And then you have Robert's Rebellion, which, shocking, has that big display of Queen of Love and Beauty for Leanna. And then the main story and the unlikely queen who's trying to rule. as well, right? And, you know, how that will be decided in Westeros. We'll see who will decide what in Westeros. But I just thought at the end of three days, the five who remain choose to keep her crowned or give the crown to another. Yeah, or even like, I was also thinking because of the five, I was like, oh, like the War of Five Kings. I thought that's where we were also going. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay, wow. I see it. I don't know. I don't know, but yeah, they're all dead. I mean, they're not all dead yet. they will be yeah if we look back

we're lost we'll get other men exactly we can all just start over no I'm joking they'll make new words yeah

true true wow not that lord though we're just like we're just quoting Jora and Stanis

every day of our lives um woo liberation liberation of the titties is happening in this podcast right

nah Oh, we're going to keep this. Free the tits, free them. Dunk watches the grassy lists, and he thinks of Sir Arland, who had never been a champion. He thought back on all the songs he had heard, songs of Blind Simeon Star Eyes, and noble servant of the mirror shield, of Prince Amon the Dragon Knight, Sir Ryan Redwine, and Florian the Fool. They had all won victories against foes far more terrible than any he would face.

but they were great heroes brave men of noble birth except for Florian and what am I Dunk of Flea Bottom or Sir Duncan the tall well the coin's still in the air it hasn't dropped yet

yeah but Dunk you stood up against something very important entrenched classism maybe the scariest of all the those he heads to Steely Pate where he gets his armor and then heads back to camp

Egg observes that he sold sweetfoot And Dunk gives him a lesson in armor Again, super sweet Double chain mail for protection And a rounded helm to avoid the sword or axe hitting it And egg points out he's like, it has no visor And dunk calls, visors are a point of weakness And steely paid and explain to him as such

Egg also calls out but it's pretty plain Eggs like doesn't mind He asks Egg if he knows how to clean the mail He does and he's like in a barrel of sand which obviously Dunk doesn't have, again, another barrier. Who's going to just fucking have sand? When Egg asks if he got a pavilion to, and Dunk's like, well, I didn't get that good of a price. I love that you can start to understand, like, egg doesn't necessarily understand, like, the price of things also.

How much could it cost? I was literally thinking that. How much could it cost? Literally what I was thinking, like, exactly. So, like, he has no clue what any of that cost. bossy, just like you didn't get a pavilion. Like, you can't just buy a pavilion. You can't buy a legitimacy.

Oh, true. You can't, which is, again, what Tom Wamskans tells Greg. Oh, my God. Greg. Greg. Uh-uh. Nah, not the got to break a few Gregons to make an omelet. Oh, my God.

Jesus. Good thing they're going to Dorn, right? Eventually, where there's a lot of sand, so you can really clean that armor. you can just dunk that crap into the sand dunk it also feels important to quote Anakin Skywalker I don't like sand it's coarse and rough

and irritating and it gets everywhere not like here here everything is soft and smooth this but about the armor it feels important it's not that important no I think it was important to quote that we need to remember the classics um Dunk says that egg

That's what Dunk's trying to do That's why he's trying to teach egg He says that eggs Will come with him to the tourney grounds tomorrow And buy groceries for the horse And maybe for themselves Worried Egg asks

Are we going to need to go into the castle And Dunk thinks like Oh he's afraid to enter a Lord's Hall And I'm like yeah Yes And Dunk instead responds Why not One day I mean to live in a castle

I hope to win a place above the salt before I'm done. Oh, donk. I do love the above the salt phrase. It just tells me. In medieval England, salt was very expensive, right? It was only for the upper

nobility. They sit at the high table on the dais with the salt placed in the center. So if you were important enough to sit near salt, you had excess. Nobles would eat, you know, with silverware, with salt, et cetera, while everybody else below them used wooden or horn dishes. people had their own knives but spoons were rare and forks didn't really show up to late

1300s liquid food was basically drink from a cup everybody at lower tables was literally beneath the salt so he's lived his life beneath the salt and now it's time for him to rise above it yeah um great call-out salt honestly sometimes i think about how i take it for granted no wonder it was considered bad luck to like spill it it was like so expensive and difficult to gut um dunk goes next to Manfred Dondarian hoping for some legitimacy but Manfred does not

remember Arlen has never heard of Dung and sees no reason to involve himself and when Dunk tries to prove his knowledge of house Dondarian and its sigil Manfred's like you look that up online and says that everyone knows that tale Dunk returns to the castle and the steward empty-handed

while waiting Dunk wanders the unimpressive but still imposing castle gets turned around among the tapestries and steps through his side door into an argument. The steward stands with Lord Ashford and a dozen men facing a pale,

silvery, gold-haired man with a square jaw who insists they would be angrier if it were their sons. And an unseen voice answers that Darren has done this before. It just does not belong on the field. No more than Ares or Regal does.

And I'm like, Rangel's a dragon. we have the argument I guess I'll be Mekar feels right kind of fun because it makes you feel like I'm strapping it you know I'm not going to say it makes you feel like you have siblings oh my god yeah I love doing this with you this is such fun role play

by which you mean he'd sooner ride a whore than a horse the first man said thickly built and powerful the prince he was surely a prince where a leather brigandine covered with silver studs beneath a heavy black cloak trimmed with Hermine. Pock's scars marked his cheeks, only partly concealed by his silvery beard.

I do not need to be reminded of my son's failings, brother. He has only 18 years. He can change. He will change. God's be damned, or I swear I will see him dead. Oh. Well, rip. It's interesting how much insult Stannis takes here.

I mean, make our takes from this when... I mean, like... like Baylor was offering up, like, Aries and Regal, my sons, they're not, they're bookish. They're not into this. They're not, they can't do attorney. Like, you're pushing Darren into something that isn't for him. Whoa. Okay.

Um, first of all, yes, agreed. Second of all, yeah, I'm like, Maycar, he said none of this. It's like, this was some waffles, waffles, pancakes shit right there. Seriously. And now I'm like, okay. First of all, like, there's a lot going on in Darren's life. He's probably got a lot of stress. But, like, this is, like, a really sad thing to suggest.

But, like, is part of his substance issues because his dad's such a dick to him about the path in life he has to take. And he's unhappy. His dad being a dick and his dragon dreams. Yeah, that's that too. Yeah, the dragon dreams are probably part of it. True. When he wakes, he lives in a nightmare. When he sleeps, he lives in a nightmare.

Do you get it? Do you see why I like him? Yeah. In fact, my husband made me write out the other day. It's so weird to call my husband. My room made me write out. We were writing out a document of, like, male characters I like. Which isn't very long.

Why? For, like, DEI or something? I'm going to fucking scream. I'm going to shit myself laughing. Well, mostly because he was like, well, you don't really like boys. And I'm like, yeah, that's true. I don't. Let's figure out who I do like. And so we just started going through the list because we were talking about Darren and how I like him.

And I'll have you know there's pretty much like 800 parallels between my favorite boys. They're all the same character. It's terrible. In your defense, George writes a lot of the same character over and over, which we know objectively from doing his short stories. But they're archetypes. They're just archetypes. But I mean, this isn't just George is what we looked at. I mean like...

Yeah, no, for sure. Like, I'm talking... Oh, let's see, like across all media. Oh, you meant everywhere, in all the thing. Wow. Yeah, yeah, dude, like the same guy, same kind of brand of guy, like Sandor, Amos from the expanse, Andy Botwin from Weeds, he's pathetic. I do love Amos.

Burritch, yeah, I do love Amos. Burritch from Farsier, Verity from Farsier, Junk Gideon from all that jazz, Tom from Nashville, the Matt Smith's Doctor, Cyril Karn from Andor, Pathetic Little Worm. love him. Gaius Baltar, another pathetic worm that I love from Battlestar. Just so many great characters. I just like, I need to keep going. But Tom Wamsgans, you know, pathetic worm. They all have some similarities in some ways, so very interesting. Interesting. Wait, what about, what about Kendall? And Roman? I like him, but I just don't, they aren't in like my top, you know?

Oh, oh, this was like in your top. yeah this is like top percentile of men which isn't that long of a list but i don't know i don't i don't have the brain space to give them um all right yeah absolutely not interesting the other voice argues the other voice is arguing more that we can't see but it's baler that darren is what he is and sir roland will turn up with him and agon eventually dunk finally sees the other voice's face he's seated in the high seat with lord ashford at his shoulder and we get a very interesting contrasting introduction to him his short-cropped hair was dark and peppered with gray his strong jaw clean-shaven his nose looked as though it had been broken more than

once though he was dressed very plainly in green doublet brown mantle and scuffed boots there was a weight to him a sense of power and certainty so right off the bat you have the introduction of Makar where he's wearing the trappings of power, the literal trappings of power holding him in, the brigandine covered with silver studs and a heavy black cloak trimmed with the fur, and

you see also Boots with the fur. Boots with the fur. He is. But then you also see he has pox scars, acne scars, all over his cheeks that are hidden by his beard. So you have this sense of him overdressing and overcompensating

and covering himself up out of insecurity, where you have Baylor, who is dressed in green. He's not even dressed in Targaryen colors, and he's wearing a pretty casual outfit, a green doublet, brown mantle, scuffed boots. He's sitting there in the biggest physical appearance that we're paying attention to. He's clean-shaven, no beard hiding him. His nose looks like it's been broken more than once, right? He's described as having such an immense power for somebody that doesn't have to try to have that power he's not dressed up to the nines in order to take it yeah i love that i i hadn't really thought to think about all that but i mean he doesn't have the hair and he's just dressed normal like a

normal guy he doesn't just a guy he doesn't have to pretend to power he just owns it he's not insecure which is crazy because makar has the look yeah yeah and because of that like and part of it is you know you're talking about leadership and he's such a good leader because of it, because he's willing to give space to other people. And that's why people want to follow him. He does a lot more listening here when he's not chiding his brother, instead of speaking, right? And you see that. You see Megar over-extend himself and aggressively speak to Dunk, where Baylor is like, no, let's wait.

Let's wait and see what happens. Yeah. Yeah. Baylor's like, all right, sure. Everyone, everyone gets a voice. And Dunk is suddenly noticed because of that. And, like, Baylor's like, Macar's about to be like, what the fuck?

Why were you spying on us? And Belers like, no, no, no, no, no. We're the ones who are intruding. He's here because the steward's expecting him. The steward's like, what the fuck? Flustered, Dunk blurt's out that Manfred Don Darien will not support him. But he has a sigil, a sword, and a shield. And Lord Ashford says that, okay, yeah, sure, whatever, that doesn't make a night.

And Baylor, at least, you know, he remembers Sir Arlen, bureaucracy be damned, and recalls how he overthrew Lord Stokeworth and the bastard of Heron Hall in a Kings Landing melee 16 years ago. I'm glad he can remember that because I can't remember the podcast that I did seven or eight years ago. And earlier, unhorse... I can't remember it a week ago. I know, right? unhorsed the gray lion at landis port and when baler asked dunk to name the gray lion dunk answers

to damon lannister after much thought yeah makar is astonished by baler's memory same and he's like how the fuck do you remember that and baler's like when i study my foes i look for their weaknesses and i remember all of them also he recalls a haste elude at storms ed nine years ago where arlin broke four lances before Baylor unhorsed him and Dunk is like no, no, no, it was seven. And then he's like, oh shit, like, wait, that was against the Prince of Dragonstone.

Oh, you, you're the Prince of, oh, shit, that's you. And then he like shuts the fuck up and then he's like apologizing and stumbling and shutting the fuck up and shutting the fuck up because he's like, oh, fuck, these are the princes. These are the Targaryen princelings.

In Dunk's defense, that would absolutely happen to me. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It would happen to you. Yeah, no, I agree. I wasn't sure. I was like, it's cool.

You're going to say it would happen to her? Because I don't think so. No, it would not happen to me. It would happen to you, though. I'm like Sonsa style. I'm like on the tourney ground going, this is Lord So and So with their little sigil. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And then I'd be like, telling a story and be like, oh, wait, bro, that was you, wasn't it? Oh, fuck. Oh, you're the one that shit all over the place. Whoa. My bad. So the structure of this story This sounds like something I might have said Seven years ago, eight years ago, I don't know

But the structure of this story does a good job of showing Why Baylor is so good Because like, again, nobody will even give Dunk the time of day No one cares that they're using him, night or not No one cares about Arlen, they're like, who? Some guy and like even though Arlen fought and almost died for them

got hurt for them and I'm like you're not allowed to say he's just some guy only I Chloe and I are allowed to say that about people and like the Fossoways don't give a fuck they're like go fight for me you know go do these fights on my behalf

like it's just like all these nobles or people who are trying to social climb and become nobles and are like noble adjacent but Baylor who's like at the top of the top you know he not only remembers all of it, he gives Dunk grace. He like tries to protect him and he gives Dunk more actual attention and time than

anyone else who's like, oh, I'm taking care of more important things. I'm like, if anyone's got important things to me doing, it's Baylor. And I also think it helps build up obviously to his end, but that he never asks Dunk to do things necessarily like he lets dunk come to the realizations too that he has to do these things and that also Baylor doesn't ask him to do things he wouldn't do right like he gets in there he gets in the mess and that of all of the people Baylor never want to dunk to put himself in harm's way for Baylor necessarily yeah but Baylor knew there was no other choice than to go forward.

Yeah. Also that it's leading up to that moment, to that crunch, right? Like that make our, like that we began this right here, that Mekar and Baylor are like at each other's heads and then we get the brother's peach at the very end, right? Of like, wow. That's true. Yeah. It was always leading to this and I never realized it, right?

Like if I could turn back time, if I maker could turn back time. But it was always leading to this and I guess that was on me. Yeah. And he's like, I never wanted this. But, like, I kind of did a little, but I never did, but also a little. And... Yeah. Because you can see it here.

He's, like, so insecure about it. And Baylor is, like... So insecure. I think you were kind of, like, talking about this little, but just... Baylor doesn't even correct Dunk and say, like, well, I think I know what happened in this story, because I'm the other guy in the story. He's just like, eh, I remember what happened that day. He doesn't tell him who he is.

He doesn't tell him who he is. Yeah. He doesn't try to tell Dunk who he is. He doesn't need to own it. it's um yeah that's confidence he's confident in himself yes oh my god i love you oh my god this is why we fell in love seven or eight years ago this is quite the time oh my god is it happening again right now well you feel it right now we're gonna start the whole series are you in love with me again oh my god wow should we do sworn sword and mystery night again um i okay i think i don't know what we're gonna do

Shut the fuck. I don't know what we're going to do. I just like, Dunk, mortified, fumbles his courtesies, and kneels to apologize. Interesting. But Baylor says no harm is done and bids him rise. Dunk recalls that Baylor once returns to Arlen's horse and belongings without ransom. And that Arlen called him the soul of chivalry, who would one day keep the seven kingdoms safe. Baylor hopes that day is far off, though.

And Dunk's like, oh my God, I'm so embarrassed. Of course, yes. Apologies. Like, Makar does not need that in front of him right now, too. Like, he's so insecure, the idea of his brother just suddenly hopping up. Yeah. God. Dunk then realizes and does the math, and he's like, oh, shit, that's Prince Makar, the youngest of King Darren's four sons.

He's like, Aries is bookish, Regals matted sickly. is a capable warrior, but he's eclipsed by Baylor. Baylor allows Dunk into the list, and he's like, well, I don't see a reason to deny you. Do any of you? And everybody's like, no, no, no, no, not at all. When Maybarr brusquely interrupts, thanks, Dunk is like about to think and Megarar's like, yeah, yeah, I bet you're fucking grateful. He's like, make my brother look better.

Is this what siblings are about? Wait. Or then, Baylor then, even worse, is like, oh, please forgive my brother. He's very worried about his missing sons. So, you know, do ignore his discourteous behavior. And Dunk is like, oh, maybe the spring rains delayed them, right? Because they're filling up the flooded rivers and everything. Maybe that's the delay.

Very sweet of him. As Dunk leaves, Baylor then reminds him, by the way, reminder, you're not of Sir Arland's blood, right? because if you aren't, you can't wear his sigil. You need to choose your own. Oh. And the line is, I will, said Dunk. Thank you again, your grace.

I will fight bravely. You'll see. As brave as Baylor, Brakespeare, the old man would often say. Oh. No, this is heartbreaking. What the fuck? Why did he do this?

George is in evil mode. I'm so mad at him again. Also, because we chose to, I guess, end this year, but yeah. Yeah, really sad and a perfect way to end this part, honestly, as we get through the next two parts. I think it's like the right place to really bring in the structure of the entire story. Yeah, not to mention, like, I guess there's rains, and I'm thinking about it now, because this is a story about new seeds, and this is in the spring, and that's when new life begins and a new story is happening, also because of eggs. Eggs are also associated with

spring, because Easter flowers, things. Like you have dunk and the fossil ways and the hedges, all this new life happening here. New Westeros too. Wow. New Salina now. The succession moves

Oh my god. The succession moves so quickly in the next bit of time because of all the great spring sickness and everything to get to egg as his eventual rulership happens. So it's really interesting because this is such a, uh, all the events that stem from these three stories really, then boom. Fast forward and it's egg time. Egg time. Eggs, get your eggs here. I think I've linked that already

for all of you, but I'll do it again. Farm fresh eggs are here. Oh my god. Yeah, I feel a great sense of sadness. The foreshadowing, the structure. Did you hear he fucked her. Um, sorry. Blink 182 quote, you know, the timing, the structure, did you hear, he fucked her. Gotcha. Yeah, something about, like, just the structure and the foreshadowing of it all. It's really heavy-handed in a good way. Yeah. It's a good, like, it's supposed to be.

Yeah, it's a good tight story. And honestly, look, we've taken many breaks this year. It's really cute until you remember everyone in it is doomed. Yeah, that's true. I was like, we need it. We're going to obviously need the ones at the end of year. But it kind of makes me a little sad. I'm like, oh, man, I'm excited.

I'm excited to talk about the rest of this. No wonder Chloe and I talked about it for like four to five hours. Yeah, it's great too because it brings all of George's great thematic writing and some of the great things he's built up in its main stories. And it kind of like concentrates it into this little story in a way that's so contained. But also it's not very contained, right? Like, historically, we know what happens. They all die one way or another.

time, wildfire, I mean, getting bludgeoned by your brother. Oh. These are all things that are going to happen. Yeah. They're set. These are a set point in time. These are fixed variables. They are not changing.

So knowing that going in is a lot of people don't maybe know that necessarily on their first time through. But once you've read it, you've read the whole series, you've gotten into the side books, like, oh, that's that. that same egg. Oh, that's sad. Yeah. All of it's sad. Some of the best kings that could have been for much longer. Yeah.

And I mean, you're talking about, like, I think it's right to put it in the context of how it all ends. And I don't mean this in a flippant. We're all going to die away. But, like, it does end, right? With a tragedy and everyone's going to die. But, like, the story. Well, the story starts with death. With Arlen's.

Starts and ends. Yeah, with Arlen. Yeah, it starts with Arlen and ends. then with egg. Yeah. Well, tune back in the new year for our adventures with Dunkin Egg that will get less sad, clearly. They're not going to get less sad.

It's going to be a mix. It's going to be bittersweet. And I'm also excited now. I'm like so hype now for a night of the sun. I'm getting hyped for this show. I was really keeping my expectations low. And all the teasers. everything. They're starting to really, in my opinion, like, they look good. And I'm trying to

keep those expectations low. So it turns out great. But also be reading this. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm hyped. I'm hyped. I know. I had been. And then, like, I was reading this. And I was like, no, I'm excited. I don't know. I also, like, wasn't excited about it to an extent because I'm just, like, there's a part of me as like, does everything need to be adapted? Sometimes, like, we can, like, expand to other. Yeah. I do feel that way. Yeah. Sometimes just like, let it be in the medium. It's fucking is, but whatever. Yeah, that is kind of a feeling I have. Like, can we just...

You know, a few years ago, maybe I was more excited about the idea and concept, but now I'm a little burnt out of the idea of the Westeros MCU. The Westeros C.U. Like, I think there's a way to do it in a good way, but now I'm like, I don't know. Do we really need to be pushing a bajillion shows at once?

Who the fuck are we? Disney Plus? I actually have come like the opposite journey. I was like much more against it in the past. But nowadays I'm like, fuck it. Nothing means anything. That's also true. Yeah, I'm just like, sure, whatever. Just sure, why not?

Make it. Make jobs. Whatever. Yeah, that's actually the bigger thing. At least make the creative jobs in the field for a passion you can have. I'll give you that. Yeah, I agree. I agree.

Well, thanks for giving us a passionate job, folks, which is listening to us. We love doing this. We've had such a great 2025 with you all. We hope you've enjoyed your time with us. And we'll be returning in the new year for part two and three of the Hedge Night. We'll wrap it up and then we'll do it all over again in Night of the Seven Kingdoms. Yeah.

And speaking of parts, just based off of when this is coming out, don't forget, we are finishing up. Catching Fire, Act 3, Part 2, episodes on... like, I don't know, 9, 10, or whatever of our Hunger Games coverage this month on Patreon. Yeah, it's going to be explosive. The fuck. Yes. I mean, yeah. Yes.

Objectively true. Well, not objectively. Bad girl is on fire. Metaphorically. I don't know, whatever. Yeah, thanks for being here. If you want to keep track of, like, our schedule and when things come out, be sure to follow us on social media. You can at Girls Gone Canada.

that's C-A-N-O-N over on Twitter and on Blue Sky. And, of course, if you have thoughts, like, you have, like, two weeks, all right? You have a whole fortnight, at least, to get your thoughts about the Hedge Knight and Dunkin Egg in once more at Girls Gone Cannon at Gmail.com. And other asswashed thoughts, we might be for Tyrion. Yeah, absolutely. We will be back with Tyrion in a few months. get ready for that. Get us some emails. Yeah, 80 years from now. No, it'll be like March. Yeah, probably. We'll be back though. All right. See you next year. I've been one of your host, Chloe.

See y'all. Bye. Bye.