Girls Gone Canon Cast - Ggc Episode The Hedge Knight Part 2

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Part 2 of this story that we've covered before and are going to cover again from the top in like, 2 weeks when it comes to HBO. --- 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 the Hedge Night, Part 2. I'm one of your hosts, Chloe. And I'm another one of your host, Eliana. And if you feel a little like you're having a bit of deja vu, that's not in your head. You get deja vu! That's not in your head. Yes, yes, Chloe and I have in fact covered the Hedge Knight once before, a very long time ago, like eight years ago. gonna be honest, I feel like we covered it so many times.

Like, I know eight years ago, but I feel like we covered it 800 times. But in a good way, it's a great story. I'm having a really good time covering it with you right now. If you haven't already listened for public, we have released The Sworn Sword and Mystery Night, which were recorded before these episodes. Sounds confusing, you might say. And again, that is because eight years ago,

Eliana and I conceived this podcast in a night of lusty passion full of drinking and Skyping for like eight hours for our love. So we already did this. It's a four hour episode. You can find it at Drunk A-Swaff History, rest in pieces. If we say the very same thing we said eight years ago, you should consider that an Easter egg. You should. And time is a lot of circle. We should start back.

So just pretend. Pretend that's fun. You probably already know this if you're here listening to Part 2 because we went through this entire preamble the first time around. Full spoilers, by the way. Full spoilers for the whole story, because we are going through A, the whole story. We are going to do full spoilers also of all the other Dunkin Egg.

Stories talking about that. We're going to do full spoilers of the entire main series. We're going to do full spoilers of anything that happens in fire and blood and the world of... Game of Thrones. Hot D and blood and fire and the world of ice and fire. Dude, I wish we had spoilers for blood and fire. That would actually be in this.

Like, if it were out. I think you do. I think you do. I hope we get some. I think that here's my hot take. I think Ira Parker has pleased George. It sounds like from interviews and sound bites, George is pleased with Dunkin Egg.

So maybe George is going to lay some Easter egg sugar on Ira Parker. Mr. Dunkin' Egg. So Ira Parker lays it on us, on Mr. Dunk and Egg. He's going to lay it on us. He's going to tell us what's coming in blood and fire. I do feel it. I know it. I know it to be true.

I'm hoping so. And because we have such faith that blood and fire is going to be released like tomorrow as well, same at the exact same time as the winds of winter, in fact, we are bringing back. We are reviving our Patreon. series, Boulding and Dorn, which actually, like, we did kind of plan around this time period, but then we kind of forgot that we had a schedule, but now we're back on schedule-ish. We're so back. Eliana.

Bolding and Dorn is a passion project about Dorn, about its conquest of Dorn and also of Dorn's place in Westeros, out of Westeros, and a lot of its culture and history. And it's one of, this is your passion project, honestly. I love it too, but you are so passionate about it. You have outlined kind of what to expect. What can the people expect about part two of folding in Dorn? Remembering, part one is available at our Patreon at patreon.com slash girls gone canon. That's C-A-N-O-N.

I just find Dorn incredibly interesting because of, I mean, it does have a huge political impact on Westeros, right? like it is the one kingdom that was not in fact conquered and when it finally did join the seven kingdoms basically a huge war broke out because people were big mad that they finally accomplished their goal amongst other things other things happened to like the whole like I don't know the whole bastardy and allegedly because of the sister got married off but that's like probably not even the case and all these other things

happened and swords a sword was given away it's all it's all like just wishwash but anyways in the second episode of folding in dorn we are going to cover uh the third and fourth dornish wars quote unquote some of them are more warlike than the others and uh during the the reign of jaharis whoa yeah we're returning to fire and blood that is the first part of George's anthology on the reign of House Targaryen in a song of ice and firing outside of it

and before it, I look forward to this part and I do love Dorn especially what you brought up with like Bastrody and all that, that they are almost the answer to a lot of these intolerances that we see in Duncan Egg, right? This lack of passion and this

bristling of the people. There's almost like a call and response here, right? No, how could you fuck? The seven, look at God, he's watching you. And then, also, we live our lives with passion and love one another while we still have time left to do so. Anyway, I thought we were still on my cousin. No, but if you want to tell everyone, no, I'm just kidding.

We don't bring family affairs to the podcast. Unless it's the Hunger Games. Yeah, we just had my mother on for The Hunger Games, exciting. We do bonus episodes, and so Folding and Dorn is a bonus episode for patrons in the Stranger tier and above. That is the $5 tier and above over at our Patreon. Every month we release a bonus episode. I'm going to be honest, a lot of times it's really what we want to talk about.

So lately it's been the Hunger Games, right? We're about to enter Mocking Jay, maybe next month or the month after. So get excited for those of you. that love The Hunger Games, we have finished Catching Fire and the first novel, The Hunger Games, and look forward to covering the remainder. We've been trying to cover them in three to six parts, each book. It's been about five to six episodes a book, I'd say, on average, and really enjoying that as well. You should take a look. And for those of you that are patrons in the stranger, or in the Thunder tier, for those of you that are patrons in the Thunder tier and above,

or if you would like to become a Thunder Tier patron, you will be given access to Discord as well as our monthly Discord Brappy Hour. Brappy Hour is brunch slash happy hour. We prefer Brap. Brappy, you know, as loved by Eliana. It will be on the 24th of January at 2 p.m. ET. We look forward to seeing you there.

Indeed. Indeed, indeed. And that means it'll be, it'll be fun. The first episode of the Hedge, no, fuck, that's not what they called that series. The first episode of A Night of the Seven Kingdoms, season one, will have been out. Yeah, we'll get to discuss it on the eve of the second episode, which I hear they're airing 10 p.m. E.T. Sundays. And they're going to be about 30 to 40 minutes, so shorter than your usual apps of hot, or got, yes.

Fun romp. I'm excited about that. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. There's not a lot of story here, though we could do eight-hour episodes all day long. Yeah. It sounds like they're doing six hours, so. All right. Ira Parker, you didn't try hard enough. You should say that to it.

I don't know. I think I wouldn't have tried hard enough to say that. That brings us here. Like, okay, so we did part one last year. We left off. We left off in part one. Now we're doing part two. We are going to continue with part three next week.

And then afterwards, we will be doing our coverage of a night of the seven kingdoms covering the exact same story that we are covering right now. So, all right, Dunk makes his way back through the merchant town and checks out a redheaded sex worker on the way. He thinks of his money and that he could have her if he liked all night if he wanted, but he had never laid him with a woman. And he thinks, while Turney's could be dangerous, so could sex workers. He could be robbed while he's slept. Question mark, question mark, question mark. For me, I'm just like, so that he thinks and is particularly giving attention to the red-headed girl makes me think, oh, so he's always had a thing for them, which plays into, of course, the sworn sword. I mean, who hasn't always had a thing for a redhead though?

For real. Very real. That's true. real. Human. Everyone loves a redhead. A hot redhead. What are you going to do? No, regardless of

gender. What are you going to do? I thought there was something interesting on reread of, like, Dunk's view on sex and how it has directly come from Arlen's views on sex, whether it's from Dunk watching Arlen having fornications with women or fumblings

with women, maybe some of them should be described from what we read in this novella. Yeah. But also, Dunk's view on sex, I feel like is that very weird, fragile line between inexperience and in-cell, right? He's living off of these other folks' stories

instead of having his own experiences. Like, buddy, I have news for you. Any woman could rob you, regardless of whether they make money off of having sex or not. You could be married to them. Yeah. I know your story. I know you're like. before this podcast.

I've heard some shit today. Anyone could get robbed. Like, I know you're 80 feet tall or whatever is so special about you, but that's kind of the idea, right? Like being intimate with someone and trusting them and making yourself vulnerable

to another person does open you up to potentially being taken advantage of by someone who is close to you. And that's not a risk you take because you see a sex worker. That's a risk you take by being vulnerable with someone in general

and letting them into your quarters, letting them into your bed. I mean, that's a risk in general in life, like at all. That's true. At all, ever. And like, other things can,

you could end up, I sound like, we sound like, we sound like fucking dare, you know, we're like, you could end up with STDs. You could,

you could end up knocking someone up. But it's like, if you flip the coin, yeah. Yeah. Like, anything could happen if you flip a coin. Yeah, that's true. going to happen. That's life. Life is going to happen to you. I don't know. It's just so funny because I'm like, there's really not a difference. Anyone could rob you if you take your clothes off and you

lay with them in a room in the dark. Yeah. He's also, I mean, he's young. So it's like not too weird for him in my opinion. It's not weird to be a virgin at that age. In fact, I'd be worried. Yeah. I'd be a little worried for you. If you weren't, I'd be like, baby, are you okay? But, which sounds very counter to probably how we portrayed Dunk the first time around, which, uh, I lost my virginity by then. He's 17. I was sexually active, but not yet penit. No, none of you need this.

Wow. I think they do. I think they should know. I mean, like, who knows? Okay. All right. All right, you guys, because we are not in a dear podcast way. We're sex positive.

We are. And I do think like that actually. to talk about my experiences, I do think that was actually, like, good for me. Not because, like, I need it. But it made me actually prioritize my pleasure growing up in a way because of that. Like, I was sexually active, but not necessarily penetrative sex until, like, a few years later.

Oh, I'm jealous of that, maybe. Like, I feel, yeah, that is something. Like, I didn't. And I didn't. And I can tell you about about a decade of that that has contributed to my overall life. I thought, and it wasn't like, you know, I thought like for a few years, I was like, oh, it's because I'm waiting for someone. And then I was like, I don't know. This guy seems cool and, like, has brought me other sexual pleasure.

So I'll, like, trust this person to, you know, stick it in me. And it was fine. It was, like, a very pleasant experience. I mean, I'm so jealous. Pleasant as it could be. Yeah. Like, so it was, it wasn't someone that I was, like, in love with, but it was someone that, like, I trusted in that into anyways. This has nothing to do with the hench night.

It's interesting because I think, like, It reminds me that George, and I'm not speculating on his sexual activity, which is probably great and good for him. But what I will say is I feel that George writes very realistic sexual encounters or writes very realistically about sex, about the idea of it. I mean, Dunk is sitting here. He's never had sex. All he's done is like Ben and Brothels where people are, everyone's having sex but dunk. Yeah. Everyone is having sex but dunk, right?

And that is a very big thing. Like, I do remember it being a, a burden and a prize is how the world describes it as, oh, you're a virgin. But oh, you're a virgin. You have no experience. You can't get a job. You know, like you need all the experience. I didn't know that. That was supposed to be on my resume.

You can't have a job. Oh. A sex resume. A sex resume. Making a euphemism here. But like, no one wants to fuck you, but everyone wants to fuck you. You know, and Dunk is literally living that. I want to say it was the Old Spice commercial, right? At the time, like, turns out the punchline was experienced.

Or like, if you have it, then you have it. Or like, if you don't have it, then you need it to get it. Or like, I don't know. It was like a bunch of plays on that. And turns out it was about experience or something. Which is like, honestly, fantastically done commercials. Yeah, well, and you look at kind of like Dunks influence. I was going to say the influences in his life, but his influence in his life,

which is Sir Arlen, singular, one sir, it is Arlen, he's got a very interesting history of like being alive, I would say, the years that he was alive, that very much fascinates me. like Arlen was born after the dance, right? A little bit after the dance in Agen 3's reign. We know that Arlen was a boy when the last dragon died in 153 AC. So that's just a few years before Ag 3 dies. And then that makes you think of King Darren, the good. And then Agin Fours rise.

Like Darren, Agan, you start to kind of look at, you know, you think of Darren 1 and how he lived and then Darren 2 and Agen 4 and all these different characters in Arlen's life and you almost can chart it like it's like a sandwich of Darren Agan, Darren but you can almost chart it of like

okay Darren 1 he lived he did some things then Agan 4 showed up and was like what if I fucked everything so I don't want this to be about modern politics, but as I wrote it earlier, all I could think about was like, what if my president was, and then I like was like, I better not. But the treatment of women and the treatment of women from other places like Dorn, and then the treatment in general of like men and what a man

should be that probably trickled down and reflected in Arlen's world, right? I think of the way our world perceives politics and perceives like perceivability. I think of what we're dealing with right now in America, what we're dealing with all the time. God, my fucking God, every single year, a year over year, for many years in America, decades, many of them, how it's all come to be and like how that reflects in your world around you, how you see those things change,

and then how they reflect on you as a person and how you perceive them and you adapt to them, and, like, Arlen is all Dunk had as a role model in his life. Everything Arlen saw passes down to him in a lot of ways, whether Dunk perceives it differently or whether Dunk accepts it that way. Well, that's interesting because I hadn't really thought about, like, I hadn't really thought about Arlen's sex life. But I hadn't.

I hadn't thought about, like, what his otherworldly connections look like in terms of, like, not really having a family. like this is his son. This is his son, Dunk, you know? Like he didn't, as far as we know. After his nephew. Yeah. He didn't have, get married, right?

Was he even actually, was he sleeping with women or was he not? You know, was that just something that he like put on as a face of Profato? And maybe he was, maybe he wasn't, but Eternal Bachelor, arguably. And to an extent, if that's the model of masculinity and family that, like, Dunk grows up in, I mean, not a crazy take from him to be like, I guess I'll join the Kingsguard, where in which, you know, the laws say never get fucking married and never have a kid which now that I think about it maybe that'll be like a whole thing where we're like

whoa what about dunk what about honor dunk he's like someone's gonna come up to him and be like but dunk we've got a kid what do you mean you're going to join the king's guard he's gonna be like I'm gonna join the king's guard and leave the kid oh my gosh that's going to be one of the stories assuming we get them maybe I mean like I didn't think about that but well you want blood and fire So settle down.

Yeah. We can only get so much. But yeah, I mean, like, you're talking about... If you're lucky, blood and fire will cover him, okay. Oh, Egan the 4th and, you know, as you said, just fucked anything. But also, it's okay if it's for prophecy. That's a joke. No, actually, though.

Anyways. I do think there's a lot of... There are a few notes. A few notes in this part especially, but throughout this novellable, where he thinks about Arlen and what Arlen taught him. And that right here, this thought about sex workers being untrustworthy is very much a thought that he learns from Arlen and from watching Arlen, he says. So I find that interesting and I find his distaste for it and kind of rejection of it interesting.

We know he continues on here. It's also kind of cute, like not knowing this isn't a POV necessarily from one POV. It is dunk, like we're following dunk. like, it also feels as if we're not getting the whole truth always because of dunk's observation skills. So curious to see if that develops in future novellas. Like, we start to get more. Like, does dunk, does Hedgenite rated G, sworn sword rated PG, mystery night PG-13,

and like, is village hero or whatever's next or the winner felt? Like, is that R? I don't know. I thought you were going to tell me, like, he becomes more observant of all these things around. And I was like, oh, my God, dunk to Tom Wamsgan's arc, JK. No, you got to go because I'm re-watching Succession for the first time in, like, two to three. Like, since it ended, like, the year that it ended. I was like, this is not the first time she's rewatched Succession.

She's lying. All right. So, speaking of people who are observant, egg, who. been at the puppet show. Dunk thinks he's like, oh, little eggs is afraid to enter the castle and he's sitting across like it with this whole pulled

forward to hide his face because he's so shy about going to the castle. Sorry, the way he said that was really everything to me. He is shy. He's so shy. Dunk thinks he doesn't think himself worthy to mingle with lords and ladies, let alone great princes.

It had been the same with him when he was little. The world beyond flea bottom had seemed as frightening as it was exciting. Agneed's time. That's all. For now, however, Dunk decides to give him coppers. Wow, what a guy, to enjoy himself outside of the castle. And this morning, he's watching the puppeteers play Florian and Jeanquil. The tall Dornish woman had checked out, that Dunk had checked out, is playing Jeanquille, of course, while the other Dornish woman plays Florian. And I have to say, like, the Dunkin' Egg stuff sometimes feels like, you know, like the idea of like, what if God was one of us? And you're like supposed to like, like, you should treat every

person like they're Jesus or God. They tell you in Christianity because like there's a fable. I mean a story where Jesus like reveals himself and he's like, I am Jesus. And I'm suffered for you and you have been acting bad or good and you will be judged accordingly. And like it does feel like that sometimes like, oh, Dunk is giving coppers to egg who's rich as shit and he's like, what are coppers? I've never heard of the pennies because we don't have pennies anymore. Egg says. We've credit cards. It's 2025 or 26. It's 2026 and we no longer are going to make pennies, by the way, for the historians and historians listening. Wait, I'm Sorry, what?

Like, is that real? Yeah, they're not printing pennies anymore, bro. Oh. It's over. So every place you go to now is rounding up five cents a lot of times to, like, make up for the penny. Like, oh, no, we're going to be like 1255 instead of 1251 because of the pennies. This is the worst timeline. I'm in a bad timeline, I think.

No, I think we're in the bad place. I really do think that. But anyways, out of the copper, but we don't have coppers now. like we don't understand this, but Dunk does give coppers to Egg. Egg also doesn't have coppers, but cute. We have a dialogue stream back and forth between Dunk and... No, this isn't the play, right? I'm sorry, between Tansal.

Yes, this is the play. I was thinking it was the next part. We have a dialogue back and forth between Florian and Jean-Quil and the puppet show, and it goes, You are no knight. I know you. You are Florian the fool. I am, my lady, as great a fool as ever lived, and as great a knight as well.

A fool and a knight, I have never heard of such a thing. Sweet lady, all men are fools and all men are knights, where women are concerned. It was a good show. Sad and sweet both with a sprightly sword fight at the end and a nicely painted giant. Ah, a nicely painted giant. Wait, in a sprightly sword fight at the end. What does that mean? What does that bode for Summer Hall?

Anyways. Wait, but also like a giant being slayed. Oh. Almost Winterfellate. It's not, but it just reminds me of that. Also, like, the cutest shit ever, you did such a good job at the booming voice. And honestly, it made me feel like we were, like, voice actors in Avatar, the animated series. Like, Cora maybe or something.

like it was fun. We felt like really cheesy Kora characters. The Ember Island players. Yeah, or the Ember Island players. Yeah. You know what? Okay, you guys, you know what's devastating? Maybe if I like use my platform, you know, we can all make Paramount not do this.

They were going to show the new Avatar The Last Airbender like movie in theaters. And then they decided. Yeah. And they decided actually we're not going to do it. It's going to only be on Paramount Plus. That's because Paramount Plus is run by a bodder. of motherfucking conservative assholes who don't want anything to happen.

I think that they know people, yeah, people want it. And so they're going to, they think they're going to, people are going to buy Paramount Plus for it. And I don't know, I want to see it in theaters. I think it could be really sick. I love animated movies and theaters. Anyways. Yeah.

Back to Florian and Junkwell. This idea was clearly top of mind for George, Florian and Junkwell, considering that Storm of Swords comes out in 2000 after this one. and obviously, as you all know, the Florian, the Fool stuff, plays a big role in Sonsa's plot.

So he's, like, kind of fleshing it out here. He's like, oh, yeah, it's Florian. That's not how George sounds. Yeah, he, like, launched it. I mean, it's in Game of Thrones, but, like, clash, it became so prominent. And then Storm, it's, like, full-blown. So it's kind of fun seeing the between.

Yeah. Definitely working it out. Working it out of the remix. This is the remix. Um, afterwards, the girl packs away the puppets while her co-puppeteer works together. at tips from the crowd. Egg compliments the young lady on her boobs

and how the figures are carved. She says her uncle carves them, but she's the one who paints them. And I'm like, well, I guess, you know, actually that means a lot maybe that comment coming from Egg. Like, he's a fucking connoisseur, you know? Like, he's seen a lot of puppet shows because, A, they'd be

around Kings Landing in general, but also because he'd be, like, at all these events and they're probably busting out, like, entertainment for everyone and the kiddos. But also the carving and the painting of the figures. by Tanzel. It kind of feels a little bit like Georgia's, you know,

fan history of being into tabletop games coming through when, you know, you paint the little figurines, but these ones are bigger, obviously, but like that idea. Twofold, I've painted Warhammer models, and it's a blast. I highly recommend if you, like, have time or have a friend

that plays Warhammer and you get invited or ask to be invited to paint models, it's so peaceful. It is so fun. Like the stakes are so low. Nobody gives a shit if you fuck up a smudge or whatever on your guy. Just like paint some shit.

Highly recommend it. And then also, I do love that George is like, this is so George being nerdy. You are right. He has gone to these fan cons for so long. I love it. George, go to my friend's Warhammer events. He's a, like, Warhammer event organizer.

Cute. He hasn't formally launched, I guess, some parts of his business yet, so I can't plug him in the same way that I would want to. But I will. I will. Does you want me to paint with him? He might. If he wants me to, let me know because I would.

I think he goes to, yeah, your neck of the wood sometimes, so maybe. Wow. I would. If anyone wants me to paint their Warhammer models and you have the paint and the paint brushes and, like, a six pack, I'll come. A six-pack. of figurines or of abs. What are we talking about?

I meant beer, but you know, that too. If you have a six pack of models, abs, and beer, then I will be there. We're there. I was confused. I was like, what the whole is going on? Dunk uses this opportunity to ask Tanzal for a shield commission. And then he's like, I don't know what to get as a sigil,

but can you paint my shield? He calls himself a fool and then she repeats well all men are fools all men are knights and she says she can mix paints to make anything he wants and then it comes to him

a sunset field an elm tree and a shooting star above she says she'll paint it this very night and she introduces herself her name is Tancel and she says the boys used to call me Tancel too tall.

I'm allowed to say this because I also am too tall. Dunk responds, she's not too tall, she's just tall enough for and then he's like, oh shit, I can't just go around saying I want to kiss you. Right, right, that's not appropriate.

And he's like, you're just tall enough for puppets. So smooth, dunk. Nice. Good save. She didn't catch it any. thing. She doesn't respect the thing.

She absolutely knows. Four and he's for puppets. She so knows too. She so knows. Also, like, the fact that they go there between books next, they go to Dorn like, hmm.

Okay. Okay, Dunk. So day one of the tourney comes, and Dunk breaks his fast on goose eggs and fried bread and bacon, but he really doesn't have a real appetite to eat of things on his plate, even though he's not competing today, because day one is for high-born lords and knights and champions.

Egg is busy, he's yapping about each of the contenders and how he thinks they're going to fare, and Dunk thinks, wow, egg wasn't joking when he said he knew all of the knights in the seven kingdoms. His knowledge might save my life, Dunk thinks, or it might end it, Chloe thinks. Yeah, that's true. Jokes, we just joke, wall, they're giggles. Giggles, well. They're going to live forever.

I, okay, I've obviously tried, I guess that's not obvious, but I've tried chicken eggs. I've tried duck eggs. I've never tried goose eggs, and I want to find and eat goose eggs. I haven't tried them either. Yeah, like, it's not, it's not like super popular. I guess what, do I just like go down to the nearby lake? I don't think that they'd like that very much. Also, those might be fertilized.

Also, they're like three times a size of chicken eggs. Yeah. I don't want a fertilized goose egg. I've had fertilizer egg. No, that seems really big too. Did these even taste good? Was it good? They are good, yeah.

Yeah. But they're huge. They're like. They're like. They're like. They're like. They're so fucking big though. They're like.

like 2.2 or 3 pounds or some shit. They're crazy. Oh, that's a lot. That's a lot. Absolutely. Regarding all, like, egg, just yapping about all the contenders. I'm like, oh, he's like, he's like that kid. He's like that sports nerd of like, here, let me tell you all the stats about the players.

It's like BT's sun, ampere, and sunrise on the... Aw. Aw. Aw. Aw. Uh, he is totally a nerd, right? He's a sports nerd, and it's so cute also that throughout this entire part of the novella, Egg knows so much and Dunk knows so nothing.

Like he knows so little. Egg knows everything. Egg is always quietly, accidentally correcting him. I'm like, no, you say this. No, you say this. And Dunk's like, oh, thanks. And he doesn't go, wait a second. He doesn't turn around and go, wait a second.

How do you know that's correct? He just believes him and does it. Oh. Yeah. It's so cute. I love you, Don, but like... You know nothing, for real. Sometimes you're just a 16, 17-year-old boy

whose best friend is a life as a child. I love those memes that are like, sometimes your best friend is like a 50-year-old or 60-year-old you work with, and you come to work like, yo, Denise, what's up or whatever? Like, I think those are cute memes. But I love the one that somebody posted about... what's his face, Latoli and Hot D with Damon.

And it's like, sometimes you show up at work like, damn, we're Mr. Damon at today. Yeah, it's real. Yeah, Egg's best friend is like an 80 year old in his mind, but he's literally only 17. That's true. He probably does think of Dunk as like 80 years old because he's so good. Dude, kids think we're so old now. Yeah. And I mean, I was talking to a 7 year old who was like, you've got to be 50.

I was like, I don't think of myself. They don't know They don't get it I didn't that either But it was fucked up I was like Why'd you say that Now I have to literally die

Yeah That's just like what you have to do It's like the law Bro I will die Dunk elbows his way To the front of the show For a better view

And ag is on his shoulders Kyo The viewing stands are filling up with the highborn And he doesn't see Prince Mycar but does see Prince Baylor dressed rather simply for a Targaryen next to Lord Ashford. Agremines him, Baylor favors his mother, who was a Dornish princess.

Oh my God, they said the thing. Dorn. The Eliana Code has been activated. Wow, I've been summoned. No, I don't actually know that much about Dorn, but I'm gonna. Oh, my God. I know quite a bit. We know quite a bit.

All right. But I think that a lot of this, you know, it is happening in a similar time span after the last big war that shook their generation. The time span between like the start of the Duncan Egg novellas is similar to like the 15 year time span since Roberts Rebellion. And again, a lot of the Blackfire Rebellion has some non-zero amount of roots in a Dornish alliance, right? And we're getting that throughout this chapter, right? That sort of political tension here with like Tanzania. But also there's a reminder here that this is why Baylor looks different than the other Targaryens. And also it might even give us some insight into like why he's such a chill nice dude.

He's very gracious because as the eldest son, he might have actually seen more about the way that his mother was treated at court than any of his siblings because A, he was there, B, he would have had more time on this earth. Also facing that same shit from his brother. Yeah, that's true. his younger brothers and also like he was he protected and maybe shielded his siblings perhaps from the way that people treated his mother so i wouldn't actually be even so i wouldn't be surprised if baler's own parentage recalled into question because he's a brunette we see it happening during the dance of the dragons with um rainier's children who like to be fair they actually like really weren't born of her husband but um she is like a targaryian and

It was flowing through her, so it was like, fine, but, like, that's not necessarily the case when it comes to Mariah, right? Like, so knowing that that was a question, like, he probably developed a lot of compassion for other people because of those experiences of being other death court, his mother being other dead court, and then seeing how his siblings were treated instead, they were probably treated, like, really great because they're like, wow, that's for sure Targaryen. And it also makes you think, like, wow, if I were Mariah, I'd be fucking anxious every single time I was pregnant being like, what if my kid doesn't look Targaryen? and knowing that someone's going to accuse her own children of being bastards every single time. And if it were the case, like it could incite war, especially because this was also like, granted Targaryen on both sides, but this was something that during the second dealt with, right? Like himself, people were like, I don't know, but what if he's a bastard, you know? What if he's not really Egan the Forth's kid?

So something that he would have grown up around. It's crazy to think about it in regards to like Catalan too and a Game of Thrones when she thinks, She had come to love her husband with all her heart, but she had never found it in her to love John. She might have overlooked a dozen bastards for Ned's sake so long as they were out of sight. John was never out of sight, and as he grew, he looked more like Ned than any of the true-born sons she bore him. Somehow that made it worse. Dun-dun-dun-dun. Like it really does give that kind of light to why.

and also is some of the cause. Like, as we read through this, it's reminding me of exactly why Westeros is the way it is today, right? Like, what does it mean to live in a post-dance-of-the-Dragons Westeros, right? A place that has barely recovered

from the Dance of the Dragons that destroyed land, destroyed lives. Brother and brother and father and mother and sister and all were, like, murdered and torn apart in order to fulfill this civil war. What does it mean to take that? A post-dance world. A post-first Blackfire Rebellion world.

And also not overlooking, yeah, first of the five, and then not of the six, I should say. But not overlooking then. Yeah, you like that? 182 AC, which is when Egan the 4th unleashed his decree onto Westeros, acknowledging and legitimizing as bastards, right? Like, what does it mean to live in this post-dance world that has recently been, reawakened, re-torn apart, and also the seeds of all this rebellion are just floating around?

And then what it's done today in 299,300, 301, AC, 26, whatever you want to call it, but what it's done today for Westeros and for the families of Westeros, whether you are a Targaryen or not. It will become really relevant for Denarius Targaryen again. We just finished her POV not so long ago. It's going to become important for her POV all over again when it comes to Egan. And probably when it comes to John, who is a black-haired Targaryen-ish bastard, quote-unquote, asterisk with a potential claim, quote-unquote, asterisk to the throne that DeNaris is seeking. Yeah.

And he has the most important thing anyone can have, a penis. Oh, I was going to say black hair, but a penis, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but also, and I never forget, I never forget that as much as Danny hated Ned, she's going to fall for a boy who looks just like him. Yeah, she will. Five champions raised their pavilions to come out. No, two small orange tents bear the Ashford's sigil,

while nearby stand Leo Tyrell's green tent, Humphrey Harding's Red and White Pavilion, and Prince Valar's, black silk tent with Scarlet Penans, guarded by Kingsguard. Dunk wonders, who would dare challenge the king's grandson? Fucking no one. The horse south and the champions ride out, dipping their lances before choosing opponents. The gray lion faces Tyrell, Tibolt Lancer challenges Ash, Ferd's eldest. Tully rides against Harding and Abelar

High Tower faces Valar and the youngest Ashford meets Lionel Barathean. We're not big action team people but I think like it was kind of funny like reading this because the way that all the horses charged together for it on the tourney field

it feels so much like because this is a sports podcast now and Chloe's wearing her eagle shirt feels very much like football gets snapped back and then both teams like rush toward each other, you know, and then they go, that's the sound they make on the field.

When I read your note, all I could think was maybe you're saying that football feels like the tourney sound where it all gets snapped back and they rush together because tourneys came first in Westrose before football. I don't

think so. I think that the American sport of football preceded. Predates tourneys. Yes. Google it. I don't. don't know. I think America existed before the tourneys. The great eagle

brought it down to us and taught us football. Okay, that's propaganda because I was going to agree. Like, immediately. I was literally like, yeah, you're so right. Go fucking birds. Oh, so you think that America existed before the

12th century? I know that America and the American past time. No, that's baseball. That also existed before tourneys. They literally can't get rid of us now. Like, we love America this much. Oh, my God.

Okay, well, I'm going to give you some real history while you dwell on that idea. The Grey Lion, Damon Lannister, that's Tibolt's dad, right? Can you follow along? Follow along. Make the tree in front of you. As we go. All right. All right. Tibolt Lannister is the older brother to Gerald. Gerald Lannister is rumored to have murdered Tibolt and his daughter Sorrell, age three,

in order to take the throne at Casterly Rock. Gerald Lannister is a potential love interest for Rowan Weber in the very next book. However, it doesn't happen for a while. Eventually they get together. I think he's like our fourth husband or something and they get married. They give birth to sons named Tywold, Tion, Titus and Jason This all becomes really important

for context in the next story but then for the real main series of a song of Ice and Fire, right? Because Rowan Weber gives birth to Titus, then to Jason, then she disappears. Titos gives birth to Tywin

and Tywin gives birth to the most important children of all time, the Roy family from Succession. Yes. So there you have it. Kind of fun. I don't know. I think that's like such a fun history thing

because you don't think about it in the moment and then you start to put the things together and you start to think about like the Oz Gray stuff and the next story and Roan and where she fits in and then you're like, oh wait, these guys become important past the story.

She's just got a thing for I guess lions, right? Because wasn't it the Czechie? The Czechie Lion? Yep. Checky. Checky Lion for Rowan. Because I was like, is the why I'm sorry?

silent? I don't know. Um, she's just got a thing for alliance. Do you think like later on at court, you know, she's there and then she and Dunk run into each other and it's like this weird, awkward thing. I bet that, I bet that happens to them. I'm just predicting random ass dunk and egg things. I mean, I'd say yes, but no, because she literally disappears after Jason, after she gives birth to her last child. She's just gone. There's like time between with all the other children. Like, they all go, they bring the kids to court and he's like, oh. For you, maybe. What's up? I guess. And it's like a weird, awkward scene. Okay. I'm into it. I'm interested. I'm invested.

They raised their lances. Orange ribbons from the maid of Ashford on their arms. And the meadows stills until the horn sounds. Riders crash past each other. All ten lances shatter. The Super Bowl is on the line. And the crowd roars as lances arrive. And the ground shakes. Egg shouts along from the dunk's truce. shoulders. From the dunk.

I was like, what the fuck am I saying? The Donald? Wow. No. Patriot. You're a patriot. No. You're killing you though.

From dunk's shoulders. The language reminds me of the dragons roaring as one, right? And I think it's more like the opposite. I think the language of the dragons roaring as one reminds me of the crowd roaring as one. But nonetheless, Prince Valar strikes down Sir Abelon. while Humphrey Harding unhorses Lord Tolly, who fights on foot before yielding. Abelar gets carried off, dazed, confused. Elsewhere, lances continue to shatter.

Leo Tyrell strips the gray lion of his helm and wins. Tibot Lannister defeats Androw Ashford and Robert Ashford lasts about ten courses against Lionel Barathean before yielding, after a particularly brutal fight. Dunk reminds himself, fighting well will not be enough here he has to win

he must win no chance no choice tibble and the laughing storm join the champions as the orange pavilions fall valor rests before his black tent and dunk wonders

about his true skill what is valor up to no one knows new challengers step forward pierce karen against terrell joseph malister against hump and Gawain swan against Valar. Egg names Gowan the least dangerous and Dunk corrects him because he had said Valor.

And he's like, it's Prince Valar. L.M.A.O. You can't say that. That's Prince Valor. I can say whatever the fuck I want. So jot that down. The familiarity. At least be like respectful. You know, that's Guia Valor.

Like, egg, come on. No, stop. I'm so sick of you. Oh, my God. I think it's interesting that Gowan is seen as the least dangerous or it ends up actually being the case due to his age slash strength when the entirety of like a storm of swords is dedicated to questioning that idea with Barriston and even arguably clash. They're all like, well, he old, but he's very dangerous. That's a really good person to compare to like geographically, right? because he, Gowan is from the stormlands.

He lives a little bit west and south of Storm's End. Stone Helm is not quite marcher lord territory, but not far from where the Selmys live. So kind of interesting to think about, like, if he's said to be an old man by 209 AC, so like right now and he's an old man, and also that's from Dunku's 17. So as we talked about earlier, like, kids don't know ages.

Glossing over that. Like, is he that old? Is he not? And also, did he participate in the Blackfire Rebellion where it said that the majority of supporters of Damon Blackfire were from the Stormlands and the Reaching? Interesting. Or what did he have sympathies or et cetera?

Like, so to your point, I don't know. Is he strong? Is he not? We might never know. he is a dick later, but what can you do? Yeah, maybe that's why. Maybe because he's an asshole, that's why he actually turns out to be weak. I don't know.

Maybe. I think that's true about most assholes, Ellie. I love that. You called that out. I didn't really think about the fact that he's from a similar area. I guess, like, are they just, like, long-lived people, like, you know, from the stormlands? Like, maybe they're... Yeah.

We just live a while. I mean, it's a time of peace, too. That's true. a lot of people, I guess, died before then. So if you may get through the war, maybe, I don't know, depending on your injuries. Dunk watches valor closely, noting his battle patterns, because again, nerd,

Gowan yields to him and Egg insists that this round was not well fought. But Dunk is like, hush! That's rude. He doesn't say that, but elsewhere, Joseph Malister is carried off unconscious while Pierce, I've never thought about the fact, yeah, it is pronounced peers. Pierce Karen, Leo Tyrell, clashes blunted axes

and Dunk believes that Valor he's probably an okay night but he's definitely unhorsable Yeah because to your point What Dunk's not saying is Gowan clearly And what Egg is saying Gowan clearly did not

Perform to the best of his abilities If he had performed to the best of his abilities He wouldn't have lost so badly to Valor Like Valar's not good The ultimate thing that we're learning in this first battle is that Valor's bad or like mediocre at best. He's mediocre. He's just a man.

He's just a man. That's why he's name's valor. He's just a man. In the words of Lana Del Rey, you're just a man, it's just what you do. It's like if he were named Guy, you know, or just ombre or something. That's like what happened here. I will say, I do think this is a Robin Hobb tribute that his name is Valar. I cannot get over it still.

I still think about it. Like now I'm very convinced now that we're rereading the next part. I'm like, oh, no, I'm convinced because he's not doing anything very valor worthy. That's true. Yeah. That's true. Also, to your point, dunk's sports analysis is so fun and strong throughout this. And it actually works out well for him.

You start to see him catching some of these really incredibly, like, unique. thoughts of like, oh, Valar does this when he does this, or Aryan does this when he does this. Dunk's a good study when it comes to the different plays in the sports ball field. He's tearing apart Valor's training and the why behind that training. It's not just Valor likes to do this. It's Valor does this because he was trained to do this because he's a prince. And that's what his master at arms taught him.

Like, Dunk is going for the root cause analysis and figuring out how to get around them. not just with Valar, but with every player, and I really appreciated that on this reread. Well, it kind of goes back to what you were saying at the beginning of this part, not chapter, because this is all one novella that we've broken up into three pieces. Asterisk. Yeah, about Arlen's tutelage, right? Because Arlen probably was a good teacher and good at observing that stuff, considering he made it to that age, and his job was fighting.

His job was Beach. and he fought in these wars and survived multiple of them multiple journeys so arguably he had some good knowledge yeah absolutely

egg cheers loudly for Lord Karen as the divided crowd shouts and curses Leo's shield shatters but he breaks Karen's weapon and soon forces his surrender the fighting continues for hours. Humphrey Beesbury faces Humphrey Harding, Humphrey on Humphrey Crime, Tibald

Lannister is unhorsed but he fights on, and Robin Reasling, like the wine but not, loses his helm, yet he refuses to yield. At last, Leo Tyrell strikes him down. Lionel Barapion dominates lesser lords while he booms laughter out, flinging his opponent's ornate helms off of their heads, and into the crowd, leaving only restless men willing to face him. Yeah, he like tears it off and blames it, and I love that. What a crowd pleaser. He's like, this is my bit. It's amazing.

So no one wants it to go up against him. I think Lionel Baratheans is a fun dude. It's a bummer that things go sour. Have you seen the pics of him? No, I don't. Oh, oh, in the show. In the show? No, not yet.

Oh, my God. I'm so excited. for you. He's V. Cunty, like, in a good way. He's, like, he's pretty hilarious. I mean, like, this is what I guess Robert Barathean could have been without, you know, all the other stuff.

And, like, honestly, if I were him, I would have been big mad, too, if, like, eggs kids didn't marry my kids. I would have been, like, bro, I, like, did all this stuff. We're friends. What the hell? My kids, like, are you calling my daughter? and ugo? Like, what the hell? Yeah, I mean, I know this was a long time ago, but like,

this also feels like a real solid. Like, yeah. I'm not saying egg as like an 11 year old had to choose if this was a real solid, but like, I just would think the egg as a king might think back fondly on his friend Duncan the tall and think, wow, when I first met Duncan, do I remember this crazy time that also was partially my fault? Hmm. Yeah, that's true. And I mean, a bunch of other things like probably transpired between them at that time too. I don't know. As, as Agon's skin

fries up in the fire, he calls out, Dunk, I just remembered that one time I ruined your life. Oh my God. As the flames eat them both. So real. All good.

All good, besty. Cute. Adorbs. Sorry about that whole life thing, Dunk. Yeah. Good luck. And after. life.

Save these kids. Um, yeah, I think, uh, I mean, not that like egg should force his kid to marry someone that like, they're not into,

I guess. No, just don't make promises. Yeah. Before they're allowed to make that choice. I mean, I guess, you know,

you're royal, so your body doesn't belong to you anyway because who's does, but, but I mean, like, also I guess that maybe he did remember and he and Lionel were good friends. And like, you know,

obviously I would want to tell my, like, best friends, of course my kid's going to marry your kid. Of course. That's like I guess what Robert and Ned did. How dare my child have a mind of their own? Have you thought about that?

That's so selfish of us. I know. They were just excited to be, they were just excited to be related, just like Ned and Robert. Oh, whoa. Oh, whoa. Dunk thinks that Sir Humphrey Harding deserved the day's honors the most. He humbled 14 formidable knights, and Valar sits outside his tent until he has to fight most of the time. he wins nine victories, but they all kind of seem hollow.

All of them are against old knights or unskilled challengers, and the dangerous men seem to walk by and ignore his shield when they pick their next battle. Hmm. Yeah, so of course, what's being called out here is the treatment of valor. It's pretty obvious that he's never truly challenged because it would offend the crown, and it kind of makes you wonder what else is he never truly challenged in

And of course, like, that sets the context for Baylor later on, but also kind of gives context for Egg, making the choices that he does in terms of he wants to go incognito. He wants, like, actual, to really experience what it means to be, I don't know, for people to treat you the way that they would treat people. Yeah, and it, like, you know, builds character or whatever, but also, like, Valor, I wonder if he knows that everyone's going easy on him or not. I'm curious. Yeah, he has to, too, right? Like it's interesting to think of later on with Darren, and we're going to come to a lot of those dynamics later in this episode, but like Darren, for example,

knows he's treated specially and also knows he doesn't measure up in many ways. And Valar really doesn't get a big moment until the third part of this story, but he also seems to know that. Like, the tone he takes with Dunk in part three of this is pretty clear that he knew. right he knows how people look at him he knows what the subtext going around the town is he's not stupid uh so i guess in a way it's interesting because you get to watch the celebrities find their peace right what is their peace and how do they keep it from the paparazzi and the crowds and this and that valor just does the bare men yeah valar cardassian yeah cal i want organic dragon eggs. Oh my god. Organic.

And it really does, like, all of that said, it sets the context for all the kids, right? Like, every single child, you see why they're this way and why they act this way. And also, like, the kids that are directly in line beneath Baylor

when he's in line, like, they're kind of vanilla. They're boring. They're pudding. They're, like, not good at what they do and it's funny because MakeR is so up in arms about it all but like neither of your kids are better

than one another. Okay, I think two of his kids are better. We'll get there but um... That's different and we'll get there but you know what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. It's not... Your air competition is the same. You both have bad airs. I learned so much about siblings from this story. So

much. Yeah. This is all going on. Cam. Cam. Cam. Yeah. Oh, The story she means is keeping up with the Kardashians. Learned a lot about siblings there. Every day. So late in the day, a new challenger joins Aryan Bright Flame.

Egg clamps his legs around Dung's neck at the introduction of him. Arion, of course, is serving cunt. He has his own sigil. It's a three-headed dragon, but it's in vivid orange, yellow, and red with gold leaf flame coming from its mouth. And his armor is also basically giving cunt. His Sir Codas smoke and fire, his helm blackened with a crest of red flames. He dips his lance to Baylor very briefly, and he gallops past Valar's tent, almost looking like he might choose him.

Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. But then he chooses Sir Humphrey, taunting him to come out and face the dragon. The spectators grow quiet. The men charge. Egg shouts out, kill him! And Dunk is unsure who he means to die, but we know. Yeah, and he says it a lot. He's like very, imagine the little kid going, get him, kill him!

And I just think, Murder him! Egg wanting his brother to die because he sucks and just, he's just like unabashedly suggesting, like, regicide adjacent crimes from the crowd. Some, like persons can be like, yo, that little kid's treasonous, you know. I love him. I love him so much. Good for him.

I know. I'm treason it up. Speaking of treason, I guess that is kind of why Arian doesn't pick Valar. Because that's like treason, because he's not directly, directly in the line. He's not directly, directly in the line. And like, I think that they're all, again, they're all growing up in the shadow of the Blackfire rebellion. You don't want to suggest, like, you know, put on too much of a show of Targaryens challenging other Targaryens, especially Targaryans being stronger than other Targaryens.

Because people will be like, wow. that guy's like way stronger. Maybe he should be king, even though that's not a basis on which someone should rule, especially not for Aryan. That's why Amen got sent actually away to the Citadel, not just because he was like bookish, because Darren was like,

there's a little too many Targaryens at court right now. We got to get rid of some. Isn't that interesting and like, the sensitivity of how they have to present themselves and then the actual tenacity of the children who have no desire to listen to the elders, telling them how to present themselves because of these very deep political issues. I love it.

It's such a messy little stew that we have in our hands right here. Love it. Yeah. And like, Maycar and his family can't, they can't be like, wow. You can't just be like, I should be more deserving because you're like, well, that's how the family got into a war last time. And it's so hard because you literally watch the boiling water in this. You watch the teetering between them of like. Mekar is like moments away from, like, I think that's actually the saddest part of this is how hard you watch Mekar and Baylor work to avoid a civil war and how easily Arian wants to push it to that.

You watch Mekar and Baylor, like, suffer. Like, their pained interactions are because they are withholding themselves. And the restraint that they have as rulers and that they know they are teetering. on this dangerous edge versus teenagers, bro. Teenagers, and you know how teenagers are. You know their instant need for gratification and the blood in their veins and everything is angry

and like, that's a teenager, that's a Targaryen teenager. Multiply it by 10. And yet, my car and Baylor are here just restraining themselves as much as they can moments away from it as well. Yeah, no offense if you're a teenager. precociously listening to our podcast. Yeah, be precocious. Yeah, and like, fiery, I guess.

Yeah, feel your feelings. Be fiery. Fire and blood, baby. Yeah. Honestly, though, more respect for Baylor, because, like, the amount of patience that man has to deal with Maycar, like, truly. I kind of even, I know that we hate Maycar, but also I have to say, I almost respect it because, like, he is moments away of any moment of teetering to the, like,

side of being a dumb bitch. And at the same time, like, it's so easy to be one. Because I won every day. Same. I love being a dumb bitch. Me too. Absolutely. It is impressive, though.

Like, either way, both of them. I'm like, wow, how do you keep the country out of Civil War every day? But you do want to kill each other. Serving country. Okay. My God. So Dunk watches Aryan dip his lance, and he dips it far too low. Dunk notices.

Dunk's like, he's going to miss the rider and kill the horse. Why is that boy doing that? And then he's like, oh, because that boy probably means to do that. That's evil. At the last second, the horse rears away from the lance, but it is a second too late. And Aryan's lance pierces it coming out of his neck. Sir Humphrey is crushed between fence and horse, and Aryan vaults from the saddle advancing with sword on the fallen foe.

Egg squirmed on Dunk's shoulders. Let me down, the boy said. The poor horse, let me down. Dunk felt sick himself. What would I do if such a fate befell thunder? Hey, what was that one horse's name while we have a moment? Do you remember that? Just kidding.

Oh my God. This is painful. We can't rest too much on this because we already did it. I'm pretty sure. Horses, yeah. We can't do horse analysis. We can't. We can't do it.

listen to it elsewhere. So someone kills the horse. Glossing over that. No horsing around. What the fuck, Eliana? Glossing over that. Someone kills the horse and Dunk talks to egg, telling him, while it's terrible to see a horse die and someone get hurt,

you know, a squire has to be strong egg. And he says, mishaps happen. Egg's like, bitch, that was not a mishap. Aryan meant to do it. You saw. And Dunk's like, secretly he's like, yeah, that's true. I did see that. And he is right.

Instead, he's like, no, it was a green knight losing control of his lance. What are you talking about? I love this because it kind of reminds me a bit of Ned and Sanzas POVs, especially in Aga and that kind of innocence. And also choosing ignorance, right? seeing the best in people and saying like, no, they wouldn't cheat. I'm giving them the moment to be honorable and do the right thing, which is what courtesy is about. And then they cheat and ruin everything and people die.

So interesting, very sans-in-ed-ed-ed, right? That's kind of dunk-ish. Dunk has a lot of that very same innocence that sometimes lends itself to ignorance. Yeah. I mean, I guess as we're seeing. in the hedge night, Dunk has, like, dealt with, you know, probably unsavory people before, but they've been forthcoming with it, you know?

This is his first time dealing with, like, a different level of unsavory person because, you know, he's a poor, and they won't talk to him until now, where he's pretending to be a knight. You know, you wouldn't have to deal with people, like, Aryan really, or, like, you would know that they exist, but just, like, stay away from them.

but Egg doesn't have that luxury. He's telling us now for sure Aryan's nature because he knows he's been that horse but metaphorically in an emotional sense for Arian and also I think it's kind of interesting the green knight. I was like, oh, is this a green knight reference? Anyways.

Then we have like the way that Humphrey's leg was broken and like how everyone's so scandalizing and this is so terrible. It really goes to kind of drive home why the blood is so bad between the Martels and the Tyrells, even though Oberyn's like, and I believe Oberyn's saying it was an accident. And, you know,

Willis is also like, I mean like, you know, mishaps happened, but another way it could have gotten. It's fun that you bring up the Green Knight because this does have some like Gawain versus the Green Night energy, right? Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious Green Knight who dares anyone

to strike him. He'll take a return blow in a year and a day and Gawain accepts and beheads him and Gawain waits, right? Picks up the head and waits. He demonstrates chivalry loyalty, and then a test comes involving the lord and lady of the castle. A whole shebang,

but not unlike Dunk, who also has a big test that comes of him very soon. And, yeah, I like what you're saying about, like, you can see why the bad blood happens when someone is injured so deeply, because like being injured like this, getting your leg broken, and this isn't like an easy broken,

and there aren't MRIs and x-rays, and like this is like a, you hope it heals, and if not you have a lame leg, maybe, which, you know, there are way worse things to have than a lame leg. However, that is in this society,

specifically, like masculinity, which we've already kind of glossed over today, that's looked out with a microscope and having a leg that doesn't work the way it's supposed to work to put you on a horse to fight in a tournament, to fight in melee, to make yourself be a man in the eye of society, that's gone.

You'll never do that again. And we see Dunk, right? It's interesting that Dunk shows so much desperation at the beginning, not desperation, but so much like negativity towards the sex workers who have nothing left to sell but their bodies, while he also has nothing to sell but his body. and that's what the tournaments are. And that's class.

Thank you. Nailed it. End of the episode. Boom. Boom. Nice. We're just not going to continue the rest of the novella. Tune in two weeks when we covered Night of the Seven Kingdoms.

Peace out. Finish the novella. But you know, yeah, that's it. That's it right there. That part, that part. Yeah. Damn. I really did that.

Good for me. Yeah, you really did. Yeah. See, I bet that's neat. I bet that's new. She did not say that in 2018. You're getting so much new content. Like, we're so, aren't you glad we're doing this again, everyone?

We're so much better. All right, at sunset, the tournament ends for the day. Dunk wanders the fair, and Raymond Fossoe finds him in remarks on the very young lad he saw atop Dunk's shoulders. Who was that? Dunk is like, this is egg, my squire. No one knows. Raymond wonders, why are you watching with the commons, Dunk?

Why aren't you hanging out with the other knights up in the stands? And Dunk is like, I'm not like other girls. Low birth. Yeah, he thinks about how low his birth is compared to, per se, Prince Valor, who's up in the special stands. He doesn't feel worthy and then says Lord Ashford has named Humphrey, the victor of the day. Aw.

But chose to continue the tourney with just four champions, even after Humphrey's leg broke. And Raymond also talks about Stefan's plans to challenge Tibolt, or the weakest night, and invites Dunk for wine. And Dunk tries to say no, but Igs like, no, no, no, go play with your friends. Go make friends. I can go get the shield from Tanself for you. And Doug's like, are right, friends, and follows Raymond to the Fasoie Pavilion.

Honestly, actually, this is good. Networking, good for you. You gotta, if you're gonna, these people can hire you maybe one day, dunk, where servants are roasting a goat. And Raymond offers him food and drink. I like goat. Do you like goat? Oh, I fucking love goat, bro. Yeah.

I'm a weirdo. I'll eat anything. Well, I feel like, yeah. Except cauliflower. Oh, that's true. That's right. We don't have to talk about that, but. Yeah.

Yeah. I know. You know what? I did actually have some really good cauliflower, not to be like, off tangent here in random, but I did have some cauliflower. last week in a marly spoon meal and I'm not getting paid to tell you guys about this, but I will tell you it was good as hell. It was like a, we're going to be account history right now because it was bad good. It like was tangy and garlicky and everything good.

It was a rosemary chicken Pallard with cheesy polenta and Brussels. Oh no, that was a different one. But whatever it was, it was good. Maybe it was the chutney. I'm sorry. It was the chutney-glazed pork tenderloin with curried cauliflower. And the cauliflower was curried, and it had this like garlic, sour cream, cilantro sauce all over everything. And ginger and curry powder.

It was so good. So I will say cauliflower was good last week because it tasted like something else. I'm not disinterested. Good to know. Because I feel like, so there is this one like sort of like curried cauliflower dish that I do make sometimes that I meant to make, but I forgot, and the cauliflower probably went bad at my fridge now. But anyways. Oh, no.

Maybe. Maybe I could continue trying to be like, but cauliflower, Chloe. Anyways. You can convince me when I'm there next. We'll see. I do love goat. I had some really good goat biryani a few weeks ago, so highly rocked goat. We love goat.

I love biryani. I love goat biryani. Oh, my God. And the right spice level. Sometimes repikoa is made with goat instead of like lamp. Very good. I'm making, you know, I'm making some beeria this week. And I'm kind of like I said beef, but what if I did something else?

I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. Could be interesting. Mm. Give me goat. All right. So Dunk is kind of experiencing a magical taste of the good life right here suddenly.

This is like the rise before the fall, right? He gets invited to the room party at the con. He gets invited where all the kids are having fun. And Raymond kind of tries to elevate him about. He's like, this is what Succession but Coachella can be about, don't. And it's interesting because there's such great class commentary on what being poor means. Like what having stability and money means, not knowing where your next meal comes from, but then like the idea of having stability, it's dangled in his face.

He just has to hit one good tilt to make it big, right? Just one. This is how knights are chosen. This is like uncut gems, but make it turn. tournament. This is how I win. Kevin Garnett is Baylor Targaryen. It's a specific joke. Because I've seen the, I'm trying to, I'm actually trying to be more, see more movies. Maybe I should have Chloe make me a movie list or something. I haven't seen on-cut jams yet.

I would like to, but it, this is the second time it's come up for me this week. Our friend, Alex August, who's... You can't see Marty Supreme if you don't see... She literally, we were talking about it in the context of Marty Supreme. Yep. Same thing, but different. Yeah. So this is something that was discussed with our friend, Alex August, from the Got Thrones

podcast. I had the pleasure of joining the roundtable. Go check them out. They're also going to be covering the rest of a night of the Seven Kingdom. So they've already released their episode on the Hedge Night. I love that. Yeah, go listen to Eliana, too, when they put it out. Something that I think is interesting of what you said is like how this plays into right,

the end of this novella but we'll get there we'll get there next week next week on Girls Gone Canon wow dunk hears all the hot goss going on and he steers the talk very carefully and Raymond's like no no no dunk we can speak

freely there's no such thing as treason between bros okay and he says that Aryan was raging all day because Lord Ashford gave his horse away to Humphrey likely at Baylor's urging because he's like wow this could be really tyrannical and fucked up and people already hate us.

Makar has meanwhile left to search for his sons, Darren and Agon. And Raymond thinks that Makar is lesser than his brothers. And he says, well, his sons live in their shadow. Suddenly, speaking of those shadows, egg bursts in, shouting, The puppet girl is being hurt. Raymond warns, Donk, be careful. A prince's blood is at stake, ironically, because then I'm like, oh, egg. but Dunk doesn't listen.

He forces his way through the crowd and he sees men burning and smashing the puppets of Florian and Jeanquil. The dragon puppet was scattered all about them. A broken wing here, its head there, its tail and three pieces. And in the midst of it all stood Prince Aryan resplendent

in a red velvet doublet with long, dagged sleeves, twisting Tancel's arm in both hands. She was on her knees pleading with him. Arian ignored her. He forced open her hand and seized one of her fingers. Dunk stood there stupidly, not quite believing what he saw. Then he heard a crack and Tancel screamed.

Oh, and then she screamed. Yeah. And it's like, it's particularly horrible because obviously like Arian's just really going after Tansel's livelihood here too. Yeah. Yeah. Also, yeah, and that, by the way, is very, very. Robin Hobb, so you need to go back to Robin Hobb, like I've been saying. The third book and the Robin Hobb First Farsir trilogy deals with this, literally this exact

scene pretty much happens in it. So an evil princeling hurt somebody's fingers who use them for their livelihood. So literally it's the same little plot, highly wrecked, but also there's something about this. The Dragon Puppet scattered all about them. A broken ring here, it's head there, it's tail in three pieces. and in the midst of it all stood Prince Aryan. And it's like Darren's prophecy that dunk stood in the middle of it all over the dead dragon or Tyrion, right? Standing in the middle of it all.

Shadow. A very large shadow. That's where I thought you were going with it. And then you said the other thing. I was like, oh. I went through a whole emotional. I was going there. Yeah.

I went through a whole emotional journey just then. I'm like, yeah. Oh. Yeah. Well, you stuck with me. You stuck with me. We got there. Also, I think we might have talked about this before, but I mean, like, I'm not saying

it was anti-Targarian propaganda. Not propaganda. But I'm not saying it was not anti-Targarine either. You know? It doesn't mean that the state, aka A.A. Aryan, gets to censor her, though. It's interesting because later, like, Baylor even defends it, and he's like, it wasn't that bad. Yeah. He's like, it didn't mean anything.

And like, did it, did it not, it doesn't really matter in the large scheme of, like, the difference in power that Arian has, right? Right. Right. Like, he already has power over her complete life. Yeah. Like, what does this little bit of blowing off steam actually do to the Targaryans? Nothing. And it kills their pride.

It kills their pride. And if anything, by acting like it is, in fact, anti-Targarian, like messaging, he, gives it power and credit, and then he plays into the fucking idea that, yes, they are the dragon that he doesn't want them to be portrayed as, whereas Baylor understands, like, don't give it power, don't give it attention, if it were that. Yep. Yes, exactly. No, that's a great point. And then also, I want to tack onto this that I'm making the Italian hand symbol, where I'm holding my hand out, and I'm just thinking, it's anti-Targarian propaganda. Instead of anti-Italian propaganda. So I just really think that matters too. It does. It does. And also like something important

to note is all these things also that Chloe's saying about Robin Hobb, you're getting such good value out of us doing this again. She could not have said that in 2018 either. Impossible. Impossible. That's so true, Bestie. It's so impossible. So true. And we're best. Also I'm like, did George copy that? Like I want to know, did he copy that? I don't know. Wait, Farsier Trilogy. Or like an image inspired. Yeah. Yo, it's an homage, sorry, because men only do omages, as Eliana recently has said. Yeah, that's... And I agree with her, so...

It's a reference to our Hunger Games coverage in a last December, 2025 Patreon episode. Go check it out. Actually, because we are proud about that series that we're doing. Yeah. And, you know, it's like men are from Mars, woman, or from Venus or whatever, but it's like men do homages in women's steelwork. Yeah. Obviously, duh.

So, Dunk lunges forward, dragging the prince down, and he beats the shit out of Arian until his men pull him off. Arian is spitting blood, and he vows to break Dunk's teeth in return. He mocks Dunk for risking his life for Tancel, who is lying curled up on the ground, and he kicks at her. Egg shouts for Dunk to be spared, and he orders him to run, which Dunk is like, what the fuck? What would that do for me, Egg? Like, what are you yelling about? And Egg's like, no, they will have to answer to my father and my uncle if they don't. And suddenly, just like in River Run with Cat Tully Stark, the men realize who Egg is and they fall back.

Some of them begin to kneel. The crowd parts as Raymond and Stefan arrive with their men, the Fasaway men. It's also very aria being like, don't you know me? Don't you know me? Or just showing up anywhere being like, I'm the hands, daughter. No, literally. I mean, what good is a title if you can't wear it out a little? For real.

For real. Which is, I guess, kind of the plot of these first three took neck novellas. For sure. It doesn't get old. It's kind of like, it's kind of like the opening, you know, of crazy rich Asians. Anyways. Respect to both the Fossways here. Yes.

even though, like, had, like, they actually clashed, what you have probably bailed? I don't know. But I do love that they did both show up. Like, Raymond was like, oh, fuck, our friend Duncan, like, to back up their stupid friend. Because they're in full armor. They, like, went out of the way to get fucking decked out.

They got their men, and they were ready to fight. You know, this is a bar brawl. Those are the boys in this moment, not Stefan necessarily for later on, but still. It is a bummer about Stefan later on, because here, like, he's one of those guys. Yes, he's a glory hound, but you want to believe him, right? You want to be like, oh, we're going to do it together.

And he is really positive and he's a great starting momentum for Dunk to go out and find more men. True. He is only one, but a good starting momentum and really respect Raymond, as we'll get into, because I think he's latching on for a little glory himself. He might say that his brother's about. glory and he's not. But also, yeah, he is too. He's looking for anyone to give him validation. He's kind of an underdog. And that is, of course, what leads to Dunk's faction throughout this mini-war being so good, because it's full of underdogs. It's full of the people that are wronged

in Westrose more than they are righted by Westeros. And that's what attracts you to the story. That's what attracts you to Dunk. That's what makes you cheer, right? When Dunk screams, are there no True Knights among you, you're like, yeah, there are none. Dunks the last one. God. So the spirit, the brevity, it's all within. It's all within the story. It's stirring in our hearts, our souls, all that shit. So Arian doesn't care about Egg. He's like, oh, big reveal. Of course it's you, you annoying bitch. And he calls Egg an impudent little wench. And he's like, what happened to your hair? Egg says, I cut it off, brother. I didn't want to look like you. Good for you. Yeah. Good for you. Not true, but great comeback. Love.

Yeah, love it. The overcast tourney draws thinner crowds this day because Dunk is listening to them all pile in. He's sitting imprisoned in a tower cell. Dunk has been stripped of sword and silver, his heavy silver that he was just cradling happily is now gone. He's cursing his own foolishness and he listens to the distant hoofbeats and the breaking of lances, thinking of Tancel and Arlenz's words that of all knights, hedge knights, Keep the vow to protect the weak. A, love, B.

What if the crowds are thinner because they're boycotting the fact that Dunk got fucked over? Or they're like, I'm not going to show up. Random thought, especially because we know that there's more crowds when he does eventually take field. Interesting. Yeah, there's also something a little, a Game of Thrones of this, like that he's stuck in a cell and there's slaughter, maybe, it sounds like. or maybe not and there's a battle in the halls and it sounds far away and close up.

It reminds you of Agat. It's Ned and Sansa. Yeah. Aw. There is a lot of this that is kind of... Yeah, Agat. Same P.O.V. bro. Well, at dusk, the door opens

and Egg enters. He's now dressed in his house's color and splendor. He is a Targaryan lordling, but a bit bald. He begs forgiveness and he explains that his name is short for Agan. It's used by his siblings, though.

Egg, the name is used by all of his siblings to describe him always, Dunk understands, he gets it. Egg admits he hit his identity because he was meant to square for Darren, who was avoiding the event. And so they fled their path and disguised themselves from their father. Yeah, so Darren's plan, after escaping from escort, was he actually went in the direction of the tourney, thinking that because he ran away,

people will think that he ran the opposite direction and honestly a brilliant plan. I think it was a brilliant plan on his part. Like do love him, that is brilliant. He was not wrong. Yeah, it worked for the most part, you know? But yeah, Egg still wanted to be Squire and Dunk was the night he chose.

And I'm like, oh, he said he was like, I just wanted to be somebody's squire. I'm like, oh, it wants to be somebody's baby. And that was just his dream. I also, I love that this line, it tells us a little bit about, you know, Dunk and the subtext throughout the novella, because Dunk thinks he knew what it was like to want something so badly that you would tell a monstrous lie just to get near it.

Oh, like the tourney at Ashford? Huh. Hmm. I see. Yeah. I see it now. All right, Tom Mom's games. Eight years ago.

J.K. Oh my God, LMAO, but really. Eight years ago, I don't think that I... I think that I felt that the subtext and the idea of him not being knighted didn't matter so much. But now I realized that it did matter so much for him. Yeah. And he lied on his resume, I guess. Which is fine, but, like, because of that, it mattered so much for him.

Like, he was the one... Nobody cares. Anyone can say there a knight. That's what the point of this is. all of these men are like, I'm a knight, I'm anointed, and they're all assholes. Dunk? Nicest guy in the whole fucking world. He's not a knight, but he'd give you the shirt off his back and he could fight as good as them.

What's the point? What does it mean? I get it. I think, yeah, that is the question of the novella. What does it mean? Yeah. Actually, though. Well, we have a back and forth between Dunk and Egg, where Dunk says,

I thought you were like me. Might be you are. only not the way I thought We're both from King's Landing still The boy said hopefully Dunk had to laugh Oh yes You from the top of Agan's Hill and me from the bottom

That's not so far sir Isn't that it though Yeah that's not so far That's the story The entire story of Westrose That's not so far The distance from the top of Agan's Hill And the distance to the bottom

as Searcy shows us in her final chapters. True. That's not such a far distance, whether it's a figurative or a literal distance. It's not a far distance. Anyone can climb it or anyone can descend it. Without clothes on. Wow. Literally?

Anyways. Wow. Because she is naked. That is fucked up, Eliana. Continue. Oh, I meant those people on the island. But yeah, she naked too. Um, Duncan, I discussed how...

Wouldn't it be crazy, though, if Rowan, like, cucked Gerald? Like, what if? I feel like we would have known, just because one of those kids would have been real big. I mean, the cuckoldria's literally in their blood. Yeah. No, that's true. Maybe, yeah. I'm just kidding.

I just thought, I just thought the, yeah. What are the like it's going to be way bigger? Anyways. Dunk and Egg discuss how they need to act in public now. Dunk will have to, he's like, do I got to call you your grace at court? And then it's time for Dunk to meet with Baylor, post-dinner. He's taken to Baylor in the Solar, who reads in the candlelight and asks if Dunk would like wine. And I really love, there's this little detail.

Baylor still uses the honorific sir for dunk. And I don't know if it's meant to be a detail or not, but he does do it, right? And then I just think that's like so, it's so chivalrous of him. him, you know, so courteous. And then I love that there's this moment of dunk defending egg. He's like, he's a good, he's a good squire, and he's a good kid. You know, because obviously

egg is lied to him. And then, there's this really good line here of one need not intend harm to do it. I'm like, oh, Baylor is very wise. And now I'm just like, oh, is this now, now that I say this aloud, I'm like, is this about egg using wildfire

to try and revive a bunch of dragons and not intend harm and then killing everyone in his family? It's about all ag, right? Like, it's about what we were just saying about, like, the, the sword point falling, right? And that Baylor and Makar are in a very tricky position where the sword is pushing back and forth. And if one of them moves an inch forward or one of them moves more than an inch back, they stab

each other, right? Like, they have, like, a mutual destruction going on and a sure destruction. And Baylor says, you know, one doesn't need to. to intend harm to do harm. Egg has to know that. Egg has to learn that as a prince. If he's, A, a prince, or if he's ever going to rule in any way, he needs to understand every single thing that has a cause and effect.

And that's what Baylor so very carefully chooses here and has chosen in the past and the future and what make hard of's too. Every single step they take is one step forward, one step back, and it's balancing it out so they don't kill the other. the mutually assured destruction. That's like a really good point. And we'll talk about that a little in a sec. But like, yeah, there is a lot of weight.

Like things, when you have so much power, it reverberates. But also you were talking about like, you know, the closeness and like, it's very much hedgehog's dilemma. Again, to bring it back to Ned chapters. Ned. Ned. Ned. Egg pours for them. Oh, egg, you're here.

Oh, and Baylor apologizes. and got dunk dragged into this and that Egan should have come to him instead of dunk regarding the whole Aryan thing but he was kind of far away and Baylor says that Baylor says he would have done the same thing as dunk rushed in but he's a prince not a hedge knight to what you were saying right like he's very aware of the way that his actions take and egg declares that he hates his brother and Baylor's like you must love Aryan the sept and say so and I love like this moment because Baylor is very gracious and kind

not in spite of the rules of their society but as we see again he's very aware of those rules he understands him he's like I can do this because I'm a prince you have no power I can throw around that way and he knows that the rules

are unfair whether it's a written spoken one or not and he knows what survival looks like for someone like dunk and there's There's a line that here of like, it is never wise to strike a king's grandson in anger, no matter the cause. And it makes me think a lot of Brandon Stark, not brand, Brandon Stark, that's older brother,

yelling for Raygar to come out and fight him after Leanna goes missing. Another journey. Whoa. That is like a reference right there for the ages. Damn. You're really good at this. I don't know. I don't know that that's an insightful, but I'm glad you like it.

I know I didn't say that in 2018, probably. Well, I know I wasn't impressed about it in 2018, so today I am. I don't know what we said, so I don't know what any worse were impressed on. Here's the secret. We didn't know what we said then either. We don't. We were drunk. But it is, it's being aware of like, this is treason.

in general, right, to harm the royal body. And Baylor, I like that, you know, he says this about egg, this is how you got to feel about your siblings, because Baylor likely had issues with his siblings as well, and not in the same way as like, I don't know what, is this, Arian, like having issues with Arian that Egg does, but as we can see, Maycar is fucking annoying. And the septance probably told Baylor when he's,

he's like, you gotta love your brothers. Maybe the septans like gave him that lesson, because his brothers were annoying. But there are layers here as well. Like, Baylor doesn't say it's what he thinks, but what a different authority God dictates. However, to love one's own brother, again, it's in the background of this whole story

considering the generational trauma of the Blackfire Rebellion of Brother against Brother. Isn't that it? We talked about it a lot last part, but now this part, this part, this part. We're going to talk about it the forefront. Yeah. I mean, forever.

That's like the whole point of all of it and then the point of the whole thing and then like the end. Yeah. Yeah. But Baylor sends egg away and he speaks with Dunk alone and he asks, are you skilled at arms? Because Makar has returned and he's angry that his sons are, well, falling short of Baylor's hopes and Dunk is now his new target. Worse, Darren kind of spread a little bit. of a fib that a robber knight kidnapped ag and even the truth will not matter now. Arian insists, well, it's treason.

Baylor admits, my brother pins his hopes on Arian after Darren's failures and then states the very unarguable truth that Dunk has laid his hands on the blood of the dragon. And for that, he must be tried, judged, and punished. Yeah. Interesting that, yeah. No one even raises the idea that Arian. should be tried for fucking anything. I am now a number one Maycar hater.

Maybe I was back then, too. I mean, he is like Stannis, but actually, like, he's worse. Like, at least until the part where Stas killed is... I don't feel like I felt very passionately about him before, or that we did in general, so it's weird because he is annoying. He's not just, he's like a bad dad. You know, he's a shitty brother and a shitty dad. Like, you know...

It's sad. Stannis, like, was annoying, but at least in some ways he was a good brother, arguably. except for in some ways, but also like he was... Okay, go on. He was an okay dad, except for the part where he kills his kid. He was an old... He didn't show, but Ben George said it happens. Yeah, I mean, he's like an okay-ish dad, all right?

Like, he's supportive enough. And Makar has, like, two sons that turned up fine, and I think that's because he didn't fucking raise them. Like, a bunch of professors raised one of his sons, Amen. And Dunk is the one who raises the other one as he's going to call out at the end of this novella. And like the way that make her acts, like, no wonder

Arian is the way that he is. You didn't raise him, right? He did nothing to curtail his son's bullying of his other children and also the cousins and probably everyone else in fucking court. And turns out he probably encouraged Arian to be that way, which like we see in the way that

he tells, like, dunk, oh, you're guilty because no one's going to fight for you. And he's like, my son's right. He's like the, he's the shitty rich dad who's always supporting or rich parenting. and John was supporting his kid, he's like, oh, it's fine, you're a perfect angel. He's allowed to pee on the floor. It's okay. Yeah. He didn't raise his kids. Yeah, he's like, and it's okay however they act. How many cousins do you have?

Like, you know? First cousins, two, but second cousins, whom I actually am, like, close and have relationships with, like, a bazillion. Oh, say, like, growing up, like, what was your average handful of cousins? quantity. Actual measurement. I think about it as my second cousins and like, again, a bazillion, but also they were on the other side of the world. But we have a group chat. Okay. Well, I just asked because, so I grew up with 21 first cousins. Oh. Yeah. Do you want to take a moment? I'm an only child.

Yeah, my mom's also, yeah, and only, yeah. My mom is a second, or she's a first child of two, and my dad is one of nine, okay? So nine total kids that grew up on a farm. All right. So glossing over that. Catholic on a farm. I'm like, so Eliana gets it because of her heritage. Yeah.

And I relate to it too. But like 21 cousins is like, I remember. And so like my dad's parents were good people that suffered a lot actually and like were very hardened. And really good people though. like a very Christian god-fearing, you know, like raise these children with the strength of God and good luck. My grandma was like a personality. Like I somehow, the bastard black sheep of the family had her love very greatly.

My dad was very involved in his parents' life and there were a lot of kids and a lot of stuff. So like people went unheard. So like I did always have my grandma's attention and my grandpa's attention. My grandma also read a lot. She loved to read like romances and mysteries. She loved a soft cover mystery book. We'd sit on the couch reading together. That's cute.

But she, yeah, I loved her. She and my grandpa are gone now on my dad's side. But, you know, there were all these kids and I had one other cousin that she was really close with. But like, fighting to get attention in that family was wild. It was wild. It was like, it got to a point where I didn't even want to fight. And at Christmas this year, I was looking through some photos. and I saw a photo of my mom's parents and my uncle, her brother,

and they came to one of the Christmases at my dad's family's house for that year. And I had this memory of like going to my mom's parents and like knowing, oh, I'm so excited because my other grandparents are here, so I have someone to go to because I knew I wasn't going to get attention in the crowd of kids. And I knew it was crazy. And I just think about that and like, that's how the Targaryans must have. have always felt like how are you going to get any attention how are you going to um set yourself

apart from the crowd how are you going to be the targaryen right yeah how are you supposed to even make a dent in it and i think about like all these people that send their children to court to impress the targaryans and this and that how far down it goes right uh so seeing it firsthand here with these children that like aryan will do anything if it means getting the attention of grandpapa and his uncle Aryan will do anything He'll kill anyone Even if it means his dad And then think about like Makar

These kids were all born in a time Of kind of excess Targaryans Right We come from a hundred years ago The dance where they were all Dying off left and right In about 10, 20 years After the dance started

Yeah Now we have a lot of Targaryens And now this is when trouble starts Yeah Yeah Too many Cox When it comes to Egan 4 I was thinking too many cooks

Too many cooks. In the kitchen. Too many cooks. Too many cooks. Yeah. But yeah. I will say my family and all my cousins, they're not like that. They, uh...

Well, okay. Yeah, well, I think, yeah, they had a very different family dynamic with their grandparents. And their parents ended up very great. My cousins are lovely. Yeah, my cousins are lovely. Yeah, my cousins are lovely when people. will come visit. They're like, my family's not like this. You know this right. And I'm like, some of mine are cool. Yeah. Some of them are distant. A lot of them have kids. So it's like,

they have a life. You know what I mean? I can't go being buddies with them all the time. I'm all the way over here. So it didn't feel it. But I am the oldest girl. So, and if anyone's Yeah, you are. I guess I should be having kids, but I'm not. That's not happening. Wow. You're the air with no airs. I actually am. You're a problem. Oh my God, Darren Cor. Darencore. Wow. That's why you like me. Anyways. Yeah, no, that's a good point. Like, it would be hard to stand out, but also like,

that's why I guess Egg was like, fuck this. I'm going to just remove myself from the story, same as in due revenge. And the punishment for Arian, he wants it to be Dunk's head. But Baylor won't have that. He says, you know, I'll urge my fellow, judges to be merciful, including my brother. And he's like,

Makar and I will be judging, but so will the Lord of Ashford and Lord Tyrell. And they're going to be fucking simps. He didn't say that, but that was the subtext. And also, like, the last time someone was guilty of striking royal blood, they lost a hand, which Dunk did, but also Dunk kicked him. So he might lose a foot too. And I'm like, what is this? Full Metal Alchemist? We're going through a full metal Occamist Brotherhood rewatch right now in my household. Caust an arm in a leg. Yeah. Speaking of siblings.

Oh, brotherly bonds. Yeah, literally. Not me doing the transmutation circle. Sorry, everyone. Dunk wants to try to defend the puppeteers. He starts getting mad listening to this. He's like, they're puppeteers. They didn't do shit.

And he's like, they didn't mean treason. It didn't mean a royal Targaryen prince in their little sketch. They were just doing fun things. But the words don't come out. And Baylor speaks instead. He's like, you have another choice, you know. You could choose trial by combat, Dunk. And then he says,

So I ask you once again, Sir Duncan the Tall, how good a night are you? Truly. From there. I do love this because Baylor is trying to give Dunk the most chances he can. And he's like, I'm going to be real with you. Justice system, not justice.

So. Yeah. For real. Like, how good are you in fighting? Because I want you to live. Isn't that crazy? Like, he is for all intense, and purposes, his line is the next

line, quote unquote, until it's not because they all die. So besides that, beyond that. But he is next and he is just and he says, look, the justice system isn't it, buddy? You're not going to live past the justice system.

Not going to live. But beyond all odds, Dunk does live. And so we fast forward to the fellow judges calling, yes, we agree, trial by combat. Aryan is there and he smirks and he demands a trial by seven instead of single combat gasps all around. Pretentious. Macar is like challenging his courage.

He's like, oh, that's kind of pathetic that you don't think you can face this shitty little hedge knight alone. It is. Ariens like in his head, okay, not little, by the way. He's like seven feet tall and okay. He's basically the mountain at this point. Aryan's like this so evil twink I'm like he's gonna snap in half We need to be carefuler with Aryan

It's not gonna be a hard win if it was dunk on area Like I do kind of understand I don't agree with Aryan But like yeah I see why he's like seven please Like this is my only right left as a prince seven please Honestly skill issue Oberin could have done it if he didn't get cocky Skill issue

That's true that's true Mekar though is like Okay what's the deal And Aryan's like, well, I act for my dear brother, Darian, that I love so much. Darren is so weak and he was wronged by this robber. And Darren's like, I don't need fucking favors from you. I will cheer you on from afar while you slay the rogue, quote unquote. Dunk is watching and he notes, Darren looks really bad.

Like he does not look good. He looks worse than before. He has bloodshot eyes and a very sweaty brow. We have this line here of a, You are too kind, sweet brother, said Prince Aryan, all smiles. But it would be selfish of me to deny you the right to prove the truth of your words at the hazard of your body. I must insist upon a trial of seven. Interesting that he's clearly he knows that Darren tried to get out of it.

Yeah. Right? Like that right there is like, oh, you and a you tried to escape. with ag to not have to participate because you didn't want to participate. Because like, back out of this and think for a minute. First of all, Darren's not very athletic. He's what I would say, Chloe health. Okay, he doesn't really athlete.

And I understand that. I'm not very athletic. I just like athletics as a sports ball fan. Go birds. And Darren is also haunted by nightmares, dragon dreams, especially of a specific dragon dying from Dunk, if you remember. And here he is, now enlisted in a war against Dunk, if you remember, who's going to kill a dragon after Darren had originally tried to run away from this entire thing.

Right? So there's a prophecy maybe. Darren tried to run from it with his little brother that he loves, and here they are facing it. He's not sleeping. His appearance is telling us that. He's not sleeping. He's having alcohol withdrawals. He's shaking.

True. The dreams are driving him matter and matter and deeper and deeper. And like there's something really highlighted here. Being the air when you're a failure at air things, right? He's being slowly killed by dragon dreams. I mean, that's the truth. He's killing himself because of the dragon dreams. He's not taking care of his health.

He's drinking himself to death. Like, bit by bit, the pressure of everyday life, I mean, his name is Darren. They could have named him like Magor and he wouldn't have had to live up to that much, maybe a little aggression, but they named him Darren. Darren the first.

Darren the good. Why not Darren the third, the heir in his father's line? He has to be the young dragon and the good and himself and it's so much pressure that he just dies. I mean, then you have Arian, right? His namesake is the father of the original trio,

Arian. Lord Arian. Father to Arian. and Rainies and Bessena. And you have Arian here. It's very clear for me. Like he's trying to live up to these huge stakes his father has set for him that he can't live up to.

But also, Arian is gleefully happy for his kin to die. Not just his kin on the opposite team, but also the fact that he knows Darren can't handle this. Darren can't be a knight. He knows that and he's happy about it. He's happy to kill his own brother. The Makar Baylor dynamic we've been discussing,

it's the same thing, but writ more poisonous and smaller, right? Rit more evil. Makear's own poison, however much he would never intend to act on it, seeps through. The poison always seeps through, and it reminds me of like the Lannister Barathians when the Winter fell yard, where you have Rob and Joffrey fighting and Aga and all of that poison, that hatred seeping to the next genesis.

It's really written well when I think about it. Like the answer to Joffrey setting the cat's spot to kill Bran, right? Is because he wanted nothing more than to show his dad what he could do. This is what my dad would do. This is what Robert would do. The irony, of course, is that his real dad, Jamie, is the one that threw Bran on the ground in the first place. Anyways, I see the Lannister infighting being this generation's Targaryans, which is so funny because we're so close to it, right? We're only a couple

of gens away. We're only a couple of degrees away. We have the characters that bring the Lannisters someone into the world here soon. Brothers killing brothers. Sons killing fathers. Blood spilled for the blood god, the Iron Throne. That's all this is. Yeah,

absolutely. That's a really good point out. Like, Arrian is like the id, you know, of Makar. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I like that. He's a little shadow. Okay, go off, girl. self of Maycar and also like Maycar like he could have rewarded other things

but clearly he rewarded this kind of behavior in Aryan which is why he is the way that he is and Darren's like well I'm not gonna ever live up to that it makes you kind of wonder like how Darren for whom he is named like raise his kid like he was like very bookish seems like he wasn't a great dad too I guess if Maycar doesn't feel loved enough but like

we don't hear anything about all that Maycar just kind of seems like envious and overlooked whereas again as we've discussed like Baylor was like, well, what's the fucking point? No one's going to be impressed with me. So I'm going to just kill him with kindness. And honestly,

worked for him because he's the best dude ever. And everyone knows it. Even Maycar's like, I hate him, but I can't hate him too much because he's also like the best fucking dude ever. And so I'm just going to hate on Maycar instead. Because like, again, if he hadn't been forcing all of his kids into all this shit, like Darren would have never had to pretend to go missing, which led to egg.

running away. But also, I don't know, like, Darren has also raised a little spoiled too because he's like, yeah, I'm just going to lie to get out of it. I'm just going to lie. But also it shows like they don't trust their dad to be, they can't be their honest selves with their dad, right?

That's why he has to lie about all this. And they also lie about egg, but also like, I don't know. Would I lie if I lost my little brother too? I don't know, maybe. Like, that's kind of a, that's kind of bad thing to have had happened. regardless of if you're a prince or not. Yeah.

And I also, I will say though, it's kind of semi-sweet with Darren and egg. And I'm going to throw out a scenario I think I see in like TV shows is where I'm going to get this from. So like stay with me, please. You know, like the little kid who takes his little brother with him because he thinks the violence in his family is too much. Oh, yeah. And that he thinks he can take him. take care of them and that things will be better when it's just them and I'm going to take care of you,

Eggie? And like, can't you imagine? That's what, that's what Darren thought he was doing, Eliana. I think you're right. He thought he was getting him an egg out of this, out of this hell, out of the prophecy that dooms them. Yeah. He's probably seeing Egg's end in his mind and he's thinking, I can save me and you, brother.

I can't save the rest of them. They're in the throes, but I can save you and me. And then he can't. He's like, I'm going to save you. Amen, he's going to make it to over a hundred. He's going to be fine. Yeah, that motherfucker's fine, but the rest of us. Yeah.

It's sad. I see that. Like, you know, like lifetime movie shit is all I'm saying. Yeah. Or I mean, like, you know, HBO show. I mean, high stakes, yeah. High stakes. Every Sunday.

On your TV for six weeks straight, prestige TV. It's not TV. It's HBO. And, meanwhile, in our story that will soon be coming to HBO. Dunk absorbs none of the politics of any of this that we just discussed, by the way. He's like, what's a trial of seven? I'll bite. And everyone's like, oh, I see. And they explained to him. Baylor explains the ancient seldom invoked format that the Andles brought over with their seven gods, believing seven champions would give them a stronger hand in the result from God. If they brought

seven champions to dedicate to God, God would surely answer truthfully, honestly, justly dispensing, crime, punishment, where it was necessary. Of course, Leo Tyrell adds, mayhaps they simply had a taste for sword play, and mayhaps

Chloe adds, blood. So, dunk is to fight seven men. Makar's like, well, not alone, of course. You'll need to find six knights to speak for him. The very task he almost failed at in the last part, of the story when he couldn't find one

to speak for him. Burr-bur-bur. And so, Dunk thinks, six knights, they might as well have told him find six thousand. He had no brothers, no cousins, no old comrades who stood beside him in battle.

Why would six strangers risk their own lives to defend a hedge knight against two royal princelings? That's the question, isn't it? I guess, of for everything. Yep. Now that I think about it. He voices what every one.

Everyone's thinking, what if no one will take part for him and make us, like, well, that'd just mean your grasp wasn't very just and you'll forfeit because good men would fight for you if you were innocent. Yeah. And if it is not, clearly you're guilty. And, I'm like, clearly this is the sort of common. There's a reason why no one fucking uses this anymore, first of all, you fucking loser with your. You hate her so much. Well, no, I mean, like, also Aryan's the one who brought it up. I'm like, don't tell me you're not a nerd-arion.

Where'd you fucking get this from? What fucking lawbook did this come from? Clearly, this is the sort of combat that is only skewed towards, like, the nobility and those with the network. Like, especially if only knights are allowed to compete, which as we see is a problem for Raymond for a while there, they're like, fuck, only knight? Like, who has access to, like, seven knights who are going to fight for them at any given time? Like, what, your little fucking rolodex? Anyways, it also goes to highlight, like, this

line, just how alone Dunk is in this world. And obviously, like, we're told it at the beginning where he's like, well, I don't really know anyone except for Arlen, but this really shows, he's like, I don't know anyone. I know this kid. Anyone. I know this little

kid. And now he knows Raymond now, apparently, is what we're going to find out and stuff in, but, like, I'm not saying he would have been better off in Flea Bot. them. I don't know though, but like, because staying in one place at least would have potentially afforded him the ability to make friends and grow roots somewhere, right? There are tradeoffs, whereas, you know, Arlen, he sacrificed that community for, I guess, learning a trade. Like, I don't know. There's, like, prices to it all. Isn't it interesting, too, that whatever the result,

whether Don't grew up better in Flea Bottom, or whether he would have grown up better in a castle, raised by a lordling with an education. The ultimate point is that everyone in Westrose deserves the right to have that education and have the same level of care for their child. Child care in Westrose shouldn't just be a privilege. It should be a right. Yeah. I'm Chloe and I'm here to fight for our education system in Westrose.

I'm not going to say universal childcare. Universal childcare. the Alicia episode of V. I know, right? Both of us just the socks same thing. Love you. You're my girl. You get me.

Nobody gets me like you do. Well, that is the trade-off. Isn't that so sad? Like, everyone, but I'm serious, kind of, like, back to not living out, back to normaling out. Yeah. I mean, yeah, every kid should have the right

to be able to grow up there or there. And every, not just that, but every place, should be able to enrich and enable those children. Yeah. To become real knights and not just fake nights that are killing people for fun and for show. I think that's kind of like that. And when you're talking about the child care, like, obviously it shouldn't be dependent on like a random old man being like, sure, I'll take you under my wing kid.

But Dunk had a better parent than during an area. Yeah. He had an actual parent, arguably. We live in a society where like what? They say we work 40 hours a week. and that's bullshit. We work like anywhere from 55 to 80 hours a week at least in this fucking country. But like when you work that many hours, do you know how many hours there are in a total week? Not enough. I will say that. I know that. 168. So you're spending,

a lot of them you should be sleeping. Almost half of your time working. Half of your waking life working, yeah, the fucking person you're working with like that. Like Arlen should be that. And that's like, I don't know, I mean, I've had managers I talk to more than my family, bro. Oh, yeah. I get it. They should be decent people. So good for Dunk, good for Arlen, and sucks for Aryan.

That Maycar is terrible. Yeah, I know. And like, okay, I haven't actually verified this, but you hear the stat passed around a lot of like that the medieval peasant worked less than we do. I'm not what I was saying. Okay, braggers. Well, because they didn't have like, I guess, the same kind of weird idea that we do, you know? Yeah.

They were like, wow, they might die if we keep pushing them. Yeah. We've got to get on that level. Anyway. Dunk walks back alone in a soft rain. Green Day is playing behind him. Boulevard of Broken Dreams. The night is half gone.

Ian received back his weapons and thinks about salting his horse and fleeing. He's like, I couldn't do it. But then he's just become an outlaw until some lord takes off his head. He's like, well, better to die in night than live like that. He told himself stubbornly. Until it isn't. This is so 50-send of him. Dunk finds his horses by Raymond Fosway's tent.

He meets Raymond. Well, two of them. Yes. Which, by the way, you guys, in case you haven't noticed, if this is your first time encountering us, our patrons here. We're not going into it. The United of the Seven Kingdom horses. Um, yeah. Anyways, he goes and he meets Raymond and Stefan.

And Stefan. But what a nice thing for him to do agrees to fight for him And names others that he plans to ask before dawn To join their coalition And after he leaves, Raymond warns that this means glory For Stefan But it might mean death for you, Dunk

But Raymond's on his side too I love Raymond to dunk As like this big comparison of optics for class rate Raymond is born to a house That refused to let him move on from being a squire They're like Oh, yeah. It's like an interesting, like, there's a level between Squire and Knight that is this, like, emasculation of you to keep you young, this infantilization, right?

Like, you're still a Squire, Raymond. You're not a man grown. You aren't allowed to be a man grown. Wait, Britney Spears would say that he's not a boy, not yet a man. And it doesn't work as well. So all that said. Kill the boy and let the man be born, right? Let the man be born.

Kill the boy Kill the boy Actually It's not it It's got it Kill the boy I can't be a man Not yet a man

So there's like this literal splinting Of his house to come Right in the final act of this novella And it's crazy to watch him be like The craving for glory The craving for real knighthood Like he wants to be a real night and no one will let him

be a real knight and he arguably does very honorable things and gets rewarded with knighthood because of that. So I don't know, there's something interesting with Dunk especially because as we've discussed, not knighted and also fighting for that same level of legitimacy, right, which is what a lot of this story revolves around legitimacy, whether from the Blackfire standpoint, whether from the second line of Targaryen standpoint or whether from being not a knight, not yet a man or whatever. I'm doing the little like finger cloppy thing because that was like, that was incredible. Look at the way she just tied all those things together.

The whole thing. I cook. I'm cooking. Legitimacy. The C stands for Chloe. Wow. Wow. The C and legitimacy. Wow. Oh dear. We're almost done. with this part, you guys, don't worry.

We're not going to stretch it out too much longer. Egg appears as Dunk Squire and brings Darren, dunk threatens him, but Darren apologizes, admits he lied to his father, duh, and says he never knew,

you never knew that Egg was missing. I'm like, oh, great, fuck. I got to their father's sides of the accusers to redeem Aryan. Wait, so does that he mean? He just, like, didn't know until they showed up, and they're like, dude, your brother's missing. He's like, he's like, he's what?

He's been here. Yeah. Yeah. I guess so. I mean, he was upstairs, A, blackout drunk, because all he can do is get visions all day. Oh, yeah. Maybe he'll hallucinated an egg there next to him the whole time. I don't know.

From the visions. Egg adds that their father sides, you know, with the accusers to redeem Aryan. And Derek promises he's like, don't worry, I'm not going to offer a real fight. I'm just going to pass out. I'm just going to pass out. He's like, I'm going to just, like, lie down. Which honestly, I have thought about as a strategy for many things, but I am actually a little bit surprised that this is Darren's plan because,

look, you don't know what's going to happen out there on the field. And he does get slept on a little, but I'm like, what if he got trampled? You could, you can still die by being trampled. Look, it's the best thing you can do, right? Brown lie down, black attack. Wait, that's bears. That's like, whatever bears. Never mind.

I was like, is this about poop also? Hmm. Yeah. But also, I would argue, like, it's one of those great double-sided motifs that we get in Aswaffe of bravery and cowardice being parts of a whole. Right? I think about Sir Dantos, who was in all facts a coward, right? He sold out information on Sonsa Stark while also pretending to save her, but also was a strong link in helping get her free. one way or another she would not have been sprung had he not existed or of Sam right

Sam the Slayer he is so brave even when he is also parts coward there is bravery and cowardice in this story yeah right I think of howlin Reed if he stabbed Arthur Dane in the back you know after probably telling him like sorry I fucked your sister glossing over that beat but it's been a while real Hashara hours motherfucker it's still canon but I think of like that like he's a little guy

the world is big but little people turn it around bravery and cowardice and Ned even some of his facets and some of the things he does could be seen as cowardice you know Dunk portrays something the complete opposite of cowardice in his final hours he saves people

even though his final final act as a king's guard should be protecting his king and going down with his king. Dunk got people out instead. He protected the family. And I think that comes up here a lot as a theme, right, of the Kingsguard protect the royal princes. They protect the king, as Jamie tells us. But, you know, we protect the king. He heard, but he doesn't have to protect the queen.

What does all that mean? What Dunk chooses at the end is kind of telling who survives is kind of telling who survives is kind of telling. I think there is bravery and cowardice and cowardice and bravery. Bravery and how you wield your power over others. Think of how Baylor reacts and responds in this story and how weighted everything

he says is and his wisdom and how even and steady it is. It's carefully chosen. There's cowardice and bravery and some of what he says too. He says, read out loud, the system's unfair and you're probably going to die, but I don't want you to.

well, you're next up. If Darren kicks it, you know, in the end, you're up, bro. Yeah. It's going to happen there. Bailor was all like, couple kids down, it's you. May the odds be ever in your favor, you know? But like, earnestly. And then came like 10 times, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, like, I'm going to quote another like podcaster that I know who said this, like about a couple of like other characters actually related to Thunk. But like, in regards to Baylor, like, I know it's big, you know. I know it's big. I don't even know if it's big for Baylor. It's me.

It's me. So if you can't find me. Listen to the podcast. As someone told me lately, it's not the size, but the most. Ocean of the ocean. But like that, right?

Like, who knows? I mean, I don't know if it's big, big, but it's solid enough that, like, he knows also what he's doing. Clearly. He also goes down. He squirted a few out. He goes down. Oh, Baylor, yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, Baylor also, how I know he goes down, he's giving Dunk a lot of very free advice. This is how you know Baylor's very good. He's a giver. He's being very transparent. He's a giver. Okay.

Oh my God, baby, he's the giver. He warns that three Kingsguard, interesting. Three will fight for Arian, making six champions so far. Arian still needs a seventh, but he could buy that champion, he says. Dunk names Stefan as his only ally, and Egg's like, oh, we need to find you some more allies. I could help find some more, and Dunk's like, egg, I have to kill your brothers. You do get that, right? And Egg instead responds. He's like, oh yeah, no love lost. I mean, like, if you kill Arian, that's fine. And he tells us.

And Arian, I remember when I was little, he used to come into my bedchamber at night and put his knife between my legs. He had too many brothers, he'd say. Maybe one night he'd make me his sister. Then he could marry me. He threw my cat in the well, too. He says he didn't, but he always lies. Yeah, not good. All Aryan's gifts are poison, I guess. It's very much seeds for Euron here, but also, like, I will say, I am surprised that, like, egg, what network do you have? Like, what are you going to do?

I mean, it works out, but I'm mostly, egg, do you know anyone you're a kid? He's really precocious. Yeah, he is, actually. There's also a little bit of Circe with Tyrion when the Martel's visited going on here. Twisting, yeah. Twisting his cock off and all.

Yeah. Oh my God, wait, Circe, you're on? Is it happening? No, I'm just kidding. I don't think it is. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I'm kind of also at the point where, like,

what isn't happening? We'll never know. I don't know, but blood and fire is. Any day now, look under your chair. Darren says that eggs right. Aryan is basically a monster. He thinks he's a dragon in human form. He says,

A pity he wasn't born a Foss away. Then he'd think himself an apple, and we'd all be a deal safer, but there you are. What is he a ham? Bars, but also it reminds you a little, I want to say it was like Illyrio, right, talking to Tyrion, but also like,

there's other bravosy discussion. I don't remember if this was in the Mercy chapter or not, but like, how they were like, yeah, the West Roci are like really weird. They have, like, the sigils, and they, like, really just very much believe in them. Oh, just like sports. Go birds. It is kind of, I was actually thinking that was like, is just like a sports thing, George? Who, who, who, ho.

E. H-E-A-G-L-E-S. Eagles. Chloe's wearing an eagle sweater, yeah? Yeah, real. So real. I'm real like that. Wait, but I'm also going to put my Detroit head on for you. Oh, okay. I guess I could wear my eagle sweater. What is it? You said Thursday, Friday? Yeah, one of those days, Google it. Me, Google it.

Darren says that they need to go back to the castle, but request a private word with Dunk and tells him once more that he dreamed of him. We close out this part with a passage back and forth. My dreams are not like yours, said Duncan. Mine are true. They frighten me. You frightened me.

I dreamed of you and a dead drag. You see. A great beast, huge, with wings so large they could cover this meadow. It had fallen on top of you, but you were alive and the dragon was dead. Did I kill it? That I could not say. But you were there, and so was the dragon. We were the masters of dragons once, we Targaryens. Now they are all gone, but we remain. I don't care to die today. The god alone know why, but I don't. So do me a kindness if you would, and make certain it is my brother Ariane, you slay. I don't care to die either. Well, I shan't kill you, sir. I'll withdraw my accusation as well, but it won't serve unless Arrian withdraws his. Maybe I've killed you with my lie. If so, I am sorry. I'm doomed to some hell, I know, likely one without wine. We shuddered, and on that they parted there in the soft rain. Oh, Darren.

Darren, big thought. Big thought, which you've already been kind of privy to. Darren Tyrion, TBH. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Like, Darren Tyrion's so bad, like getting people involved for his life, Bronze Style and the Vale. Yeah.

What's to come in his future story? and like the idea of like setting his family against itself in war and that he's like, oh dear, my lies might have helped to that. How could that have happened? And also his dreams and what they bring him snarling in the midst of it. There were a couple parts of this speech I really loved. He says, and you know, there's a lot of gloss over it, you miss it kind of stuff that he's just talking.

But thinking about this is a post-dragon Targaryan world, It's only been 50, 60 years without dragons. Goes back to some of what we've been saying about David Hume in our Hunger Games coverage. And in Sunrise on the Reaping, we talked a little bit about David Hume of like the idea that David Hume believes that the sun is actually, yes, likely because it's the only thing we've ever known to rise. But that doesn't mean the sun will rise, right? Like, just because it's everything we think is going to happen doesn't mean it will. And so there's a little bit of that with Darren too, right? He's like, huh, I might die.

You might die. He doesn't really know any kind of rolls with it. And I think that's interesting that maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but my dreams are true. And I think someone's going to die and you're going to be involved. There's that idea of, but we remain, he says, right? even without the dragons, even without what made us so big 60 years later,

but somehow we remain. And it's very dune. It reminds me of the fear is the mind killer speech, the I will remain. When nothing else is left, I will remain, but the Targaryans remain. And also Doran, that great speech in a Feast

for Crows when he says, yet here I sit and they are gone. That one by one, his siblings who were so strong, so smart, so sharp and so ready for the world that they died and he the weak one, he the one who should never have ruled, he the one who could never have ruled. He is the one that is left and he is the one that is ruling. And that really weighs on Darren as well, right?

Even in their names, it's not dissimilar. Doran, Darren. They are both the somewhat emotionally and physically, somewhat, lesser than their brothers and of their cousins in some ways. I look at Doran and Oberyn and not necessarily the same, but basically a skip and a rung when it comes to Darren and Aryan or Darren and his other cousins like Mataris or Valor, but Darren and Aaron and Obron, there you go.

There's a little parallel that unlike Doran and Oberyn and Maher and Maikar as well. Yeah, but Oberyn actually seemed like a supportive younger. I mean, whoever Doran and Oberyn's parents were, did a pretty good job, I guess, was raising them. It sounds like. But they seemed like they had a nice dynamic. I don't know, man. But. I think Baylor and Maycar had somewhat of that at one time, though.

It may be. But they, and they did, like, I mean, they did go to war together, and then Maycar was, like, sad and upset that he got overshadowed in the story of the hammer and the anvil. Yeah. But also, like, I like what you're saying regarding, like Darren as well, because, you know, he's not, he's a little like Doran, but honestly, like all these things that make him like so overshadowed and like not very knightly,

not very quote unquote kingly is actually very similar to the current king also named Darren, right? He was the one who wasn't very good at fighting. He was the one who was bookish and all these things. Yet he was the one who was king. Which I guess a lot of people were not, yeah, he remains. And he's probably like, what the fuck just happened? Um, real.

That's how the whole family feels. But there's also like another meta aspect in regards to, I think the, this, because I was kind of like, that's an interesting like infodump and reminder of like, you know, we were the Masters of Dragon once. Like, is he just explaining it to Dunck? Because he doesn't know. But also like, when this story was originally first published as a novella, it wasn't an anthology of a bunch of other short stories.

So also is like, here's the context, everyone. If you've never heard. of this story and the world in which this takes place. Dragons are dead, baby. They're gone. Yeah, I love that as like a, I'm so obsessed with that as a thesis statement now. Yet we remain.

And here's what we did. Here's what we've become. That is like a question that comes up at the end of this short story of like, why do you remain, Dunk? Why was it you? But also, because he's questioning that too, but also like, end of the books too, probably. How did you bribes above?

of how did you rise above us and stay? Yeah, exactly. End of the books for them too and end of the books in total. Yeah, yeah, exactly. The whole books. Yeah. But also yet we remain. Interesting.

You and I. I've heard a lot of, you know, Ira Parker in an interview said something about how the show is going to also show the decline of the Targaryians in some aspects. And a lot of people took that as very big discourse and they were like, Oh my God, what do you mean the decline of the Targaryens? And I'm like, but it is true. They don't have dragons anymore. They've had a civil war that broke them apart.

And they're just barely recovering with a peacetime with also civil war actions happening right beneath their noses. So to me, I'm like, yeah, that's a great trajectory to take it. Because right here, as we see in this part, it's not how it was. That's a great. Actually, that is really interesting because it goes to show like how. important. Maybe we'll talk about it. It important was to have

Doran as part of them during that time because of the role they play in the dance, especially when they're dealing with threats across the sea. That was the defiance then. Yeah, they were dealing, they're dealing now,

next thing you know, with threats across the sea, the third Duncan egg follows the really shittily done second Blackfire rebellion. But that's a, there's a whole ass rebellion in the third novella.

We got to talk about that like sports next time, you know, oh yeah, we've got another band. bastard on the field. Is he legitimate? Who's to say?

They got traded to another team, though. Yeah. Also, the cool, soft rain coming back to A-Sos. You've been talking a lot about it, this part, and we've talked about it in the past of the relation of writing, but A-Sos being simultaneously kind of written, there's a lot of rain happening to show emotion, and then also reminds me of the mystery night. He has that talk with Maynard. that rain as well where Maynard is like, oh, I'm blurry and I'm Blood Raven. No, I'm Maynard.

Who, mysterious. Who knows? Who knows? Anything can be happening. Yeah. Good call. I really love them. Do you love them too?

I kind of like missed Duncanag. I do. And I'm really excited, actually, for the show. You guys, just so you know, this is the end of part two. don't worry. We didn't tell you. I guess that would have been really nice of us and polite if we told you. We're reading from here up to here, so you had like an expectation.

But, whoops. I mean, we told them it was going to be part two. They should know better. There will be a part three. We will return next week with the end of our Dunkin Egg coverage as Girls Gone Cannon. The artists formerly known as Drunk Aceball History featuring Eliana Glass Table Girl. now are Girls Gone Cannon. So we are redoing this eight years later.

Really happy to have you on board and much soberer in this episode than we were eight years ago. But we hope you enjoyed it. We are excited for part three to as Ag shouted, kill him. That will be us. Oh, God. Oh, God. All right. Well, thanks everyone for being here.

Yeah, if you have any thoughts, you can send it to us on social media like Girls Gone Canaan, that's C-A-N-O-N over on Twitter or Blue Sky. You can also send us an email at Girls Gone Canaan at gmail.com. Hit us a Patreon comment on any of our posts or a message. We are active there. That's patreon.com slash girls gone-canon-C-A-N-O-N. And of course, thank you to those that support us. We appreciate it. It's what keeps this podcast coming week after week.

We love it. Thanks so much again for listening, and we will return with the final act of Duncan Egg The Hedge Night leading up to a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, airing on HBO this January. And we do it literally again. Yeah, we do all of this all over again. Maybe shorter. Maybe, yeah. Hopefully shorter.

Are you ready to do three-hour episodes for half-hour episodes? Yeah, honestly, yeah. I thought that's what we were doing. I thought that's what we fucking do. I'm so glad to hear that from you. Thanks again. Bye.