Hannah and Zack from Game of Owns join us for a joint episode to discuss what’s being called the greatest Game of Thrones trailer to date! Sean of House Beard returns. Click on the Acast player below to view the screencaps referred to in this episode, otherwise go to the YouTube version, which had audio issues on Aziz and Sean’s end.
LIVE ASOIAF Only Q&A – Anything Goes
Aziz took a series of questions on June 17th, 2017! The first half of this episode is spoiler-free, the 2nd half features questions that pertains to TWOW. Aziz answers questions submitted in advance and through the live-chat that pertain to ASOIAF, not Game of Thrones.
Euron Greyjoy (TWOW spoilers)
We’re joined by special guest PoorQuentyn for a look at Euron Greyjoy’s past, present and future. This episode includes spoilers for The Forsaken chapter from The Winds of Winter. Listen to our episode on The Forsaken here.
Credits
Our introduction and the Westeros and Essos maps were created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox), with the cyvasse pieces created by dutchmogul. Check out the episode on YouTube or the Acast player below to see those images and some great art of Euron while listening, as well as the newest art of Mazzalicartho, by Azany. You can also find these images below.
The primary topics in this episode:
Meta-History
Becoming Crow’s Eye
The New Old Way
Above the Game… of Thrones
Outro
Tell the Crow’s Eye he’s afraid of kinslaying, and he’ll murder one of his own sons just to prove you wrong.” – ADWD, The Wayward Bride
“Who knows more of gods than I? Horse gods and fire gods, gods made of gold with gemstone eyes, gods carved of cedar wood, gods chiseled into mountains, gods of empty air… I know them all. I have seen their peoples garland them with flowers, and shed the blood of goats and bulls and children in their names. And I have heard the prayers, in half a hundred tongues. Cure my withered leg, make the maiden love me, grant me a healthy son. Save me, succor me, make me wealthy… protect me! Protect me from mine enemies, protect me from the darkness, protect me from the crabs inside my belly, from the horselords, from the slavers, from the sellswords at my door. Protect me from the Silence.” He laughed. “Godless? Why, Aeron, I am the godliest man ever to raise sail! You serve one god, Damphair, but I have served ten thousand. From Ib to Asshai, when men see my sails, they pray.” – AFFC, The Iron Captain
Mazzalicartho has grown! Art by Azany.
The Life of Joanna Lannister
When considering his mother Joanna Lannister, Tyrion thinks: “It all goes back and back, Tyrion thought, to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us”
That’s true, Tyrion! Which is a big part of why we made an episode on your mother. Our latest contains a long look at the political setting during her life, which included Tywin’s rise as Hand, Aerys’ crowning, Summerhall, the Rains of Castamere, the War of Ninepenny Kings (her father led the Westerlands army) and more. Of course we also take a look at her personality and relationships with other powerful people, and of course consider “interactions” with the Mad King, and certain parentage theories.
Credits
Our introduction and the Westeros and Essos maps were created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox), with the cyvasse pieces created by dutchmogul. Check out the episode on YouTube or the Acast player below to see those images, as well as the newest art of Mazzalicartho, by Azany.
The primary topics in this episode:
Part 1 – The Joannameta
Part 2 – Early Years
Part 3 – From the Rock to the Red Keep
Part 4 – The Princess and the Queen… and the King
Part 5 – The Lioness In Her Den
Part 6 – A Coat of Gold, a Bed of Blood
Outro
In 263 AC, after a year as the King’s Hand, Ser Tywin married his beautiful young cousin Joanna Lannister, who had come to King’s Landing in 259 AC for the coronation of King Jaehaerys II and remained thereafter as a lady in-waiting to Princess (later Queen) Rhaella. The bride and groom had known each other since they were children together at Casterly Rock.” – TWOIAF
“In those days, his father had been Aerys’s Hand, and many people said that Lord Tywin Lannister ruled the Seven Kingdoms, but Lady Joanna ruled Lord Tywin.” – ASOS, Tyrion V
“…though she turned a blind eye to most of the king’s infidelities, the queen did not approve of his “turning my ladies into his whores.” (Joanna Lannister was not the first lady to be dismissed abruptly from Her Grace’s service, nor was she the last).” – TWOIAF
“Though Tywin Lannister was not a man given to public display, it is said that his love for his lady wife was deep and long-abiding. “Only Lady Joanna truly knows the man beneath the armor,” Grand Maester Pycelle wrote the Citadel, “and all his smiles belong to her and her alone. I do avow that I have even observed her make him laugh, not once, but upon three separate occasions!”” – TWOIAF
Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 6 – The Golden Company
Steven Attewell of Race for the Iron Throne returns, we discuss the 3rd and 4th Blackfyre Rebellions, the Golden Company, and a lot more Bittersteel.
Credits
Our introduction, the Essos map, and the Bittersteel and Golden Company images were created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox), with the cyvasse pieces created by dutchmogul. Check out the episode on YouTube or the Acast player below to see those images, as well as art by Ed Scheer.
The primary topics in this episode:
Part 1 – The Life of an Exile
Part 2 – The Blackfyre Dynasty ~212
Part 3 – The Golden Company
Part 4 – Third Blackfyre Rebellion
Part 5 – Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion
Part 6 – Bittersteel: Death & Legacy
Part 7 – The Golden Company Then & Now
Outro
“At first the magisters and archons and merchant princes were pleased to welcome the last Targaryens Blackfyres to their homes and tables, but as the years passed and the Usurper Falseborn continued to sit upon the Iron Throne, doors closed and their lives grew meaner. Years past they had been forced to sell their last few treasures, and now even the coin they had gotten from Mother’s crown had gone. In the alleys and wine sinks of Pentos Tyrosh, they called her brother “the beggar king.” Dany Calla did not want to know what they called her.” – AGOT, Daenerys I
My mother was a lady of Tyrosh. I dye my hair in memory of her.” – ADWD, Tyrion III
“He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be, but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them.” – ADWD, Epilogue
“Bittersteel gathered exiled lords and knights, and their descendants, to him. He formed the Golden Company in 212 AC, and soon established it as the foremost free company of the Disputed Lands. “Beneath the gold, the bitter steel” became their battle cry, renowned across Essos.” – TWOIAF
“Bittersteel saw the strength of House Blackfyre scattering to the four winds, so he formed the Golden Company to bind the exiles together.” – TWOIAF
“Ser Aegor Rivers was sixty-nine years of age when he fell, and it is said he died as he had lived, with a sword in his hand and a curse upon his lips. Yet his legacy would live on in the Golden Company and the Blackfyre line he had served and protected.” – TWOIAF
ASOIAF Dreams and Dreamers, plus Q&A
An episode dedicated to all kinds of ASOIAF dreams and dreamers, whether mundane or magical. Green dreams, wolf dreams, dragon dreams, dreams of guilt, fever dreams… and an accompanying Q&A to go with it, answering all the burning (and freezing) questions sent us regarding the last episode.
Credits
Our introduction, and the awesome new Essos map were created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox), with the cyvasse pieces created by dutchmogul. Check out the episode on YouTube or the Acast player below to see those images, as well as art by Ed Scheer.
The Reader (Martin Lewis of Echoes of Ice and Fire).
The primary topics in this episode:
Part 1 – Dreams of the Past
Part 2 – Dreams of the Present
Part 3 – Dreams of the Future
Part 4 – Dreams Out of Time
Outro
“There’s different kinds,” he said slowly. “There’s the wolf dreams, those aren’t so bad as the others. I run and hunt and kill squirrels. And there’s dreams where the crow comes and tells me to fly. Sometimes the tree is in those dreams too, calling my name. That frightens me. But the worst dreams are when I fall.”
– ACOK, Bran V
That night Sansa dreamt of Joffrey on the throne, with herself seated beside him in a gown of woven gold. She had a crown on her head, and everyone she had ever known came before her, to bend the knee and say their courtesies. – AGOT, Sansa IV AGOT
“He knew nothing of his mother; Eddard Stark would not talk of her. Yet he dreamed of her at times, so often that he could almost see her face. In his dreams, she was beautiful, and highborn, and her eyes were kind.” – AGOT, Jon III
“They are children, Sansa thought. They are silly little girls, even Elinor. They’ve never seen a battle, they’ve never seen a man die, they know nothing. Their dreams were full of songs and stories, the way hers had been before Joffrey cut her father’s head off. Sansa pitied them. Sansa envied them.” – ASOS, Sansa II
“That night Catelyn slept fitfully, haunted by formless dreams of her children, the lost and the dead.” – ASOS, Catelyn I
“She had no time for sleep, with the weight of the world upon her shoulders. And she feared to dream. Sleep is a little death, dreams the whisperings of the Other, who would drag us all into his eternal night. She would sooner sit bathed in the ruddy glow of her red lord’s blessed flames, her cheeks flushed by the wash of heat as if by a lover’s kisses. Some nights she drowsed, but never for more than an hour. One day, Melisandre prayed, she would not sleep at all. One day she would be free of dreams. Melony, she thought. Lot Seven.” – ADWD, Melisandre
The Great Empire of the Dawn
The Long Night, Azor Ahai, strange stone, dragonlords & ancient bloodlines; this episode on The Great Empire of the Dawn, with Lucifer Means Lightbringer of Mythical Astronomy of Ice & Fire has it all! GRRM gave us all a lot to think about with regard to the (way)back-story provided in TWOIAF on top of what was already present in ASOIAF proper. Here we attempt to cover as much of it as possible in one place. We also recorded a Q&A episode where we answered the questions you submitted!
Credits
Our introduction, stone animations, and the awesome new Essos map were created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox), with the cyvasse pieces created by dutchmogul. Check out the episode on YouTube or the Acast player below to see those images, as well as art by Ed Scheer.
The Reader (Martin Lewis of Echoes of Ice and Fire).
Durran Durrandon’s “Daenerys is the Amethyst Empress Reborn” Essay.
The primary topics in this episode:
- Part 1 – Legacy of the Ancients
- Part 2 – The (Old) Long Night
- Part 3 – Strange Stone
- Part 4 – The First Men of the Dawn
- Part 5 – The (New) Long Night
- Outro
“In ancient days, the God emperors of Yi Ti were as powerful as any ruler on earth, with wealth that exceeded even that of Valyria at its height and armies of almost unimaginable size. In the beginning, the priestly scribes of Yin declare, all the land between the Bones and the freezing desert called the Grey Waste, from the Shivering Sea to the Jade Sea (including even the great and holy isle of Leng), formed a single realm ruled by the God-on-Earth, the only begotten son of the Lion of Night and Maiden Made-of-Light, who traveled about his domains in a palanquin carved from a single pearl and carried by a hundred queens, his wives. For ten thousand years the Great Empire of the Dawn flourished in peace and plenty under the God-on-Earth, until at last he ascended to the stars to join his forebears.”
– The Bones and Beyond, TWOIAF
How long the darkness endured no man can say, but all agree it was only when a great warrior – known variously as Hyrkoon the Hero, Azor Ahai, Yin Tar, Neferion, and Eldric Shadowchaser – arose to give courage to the race of men and lead the virtuous into battle with his blazing sword Lightbringer that the darkness was put to rout, and light and love returned once more to the world.
– The Bones and Beyond, TWOIAF
“Yet the great empire of the Dawn was not reborn, for the restored world was a broken place where every tribe of men went its own way, fearful of all the others, and war and lust and murder endured, even to our present day. Or so of the men and women of the further east believe.”
– The Bones and Beyond, TWOIAF
“Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white and their eyes were Opal and Amethyst, Tourmaline and Jade. “Faster,” they cried. “Faster, faster!””
– Daenerys IX, AGOT
“Even more enigmatic to scholars and historians is the great square fortress of black stone that dominates that isle. For most of recorded history, this monumental edifice has served as the foundation and lowest level of the Hightower, yet we know for a certainty that it predates the upper levels of the tower by thousands of years.”
– The Reach, TWOIAF
“If indeed this first Fortress is Valyrian, it suggests that the dragonlords came to Westeros thousands of years before they carved out their outpost on Dragonstone, long before the coming of the Andals, or even the First Men.”
– The Reach, TWOIAF
“The dragonlords of Valyria, as is well known, possessed the art of turning stone to liquid with dragonflame, shaping it as they would, then fusing it harder than iron, steel, or granite.”
– The Reach, TWOIAF
Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 5 – Bittersteel
The Blackfyre series returns! This time: the life of Aegor Rivers, aka Bittersteel. Aziz also does a Grandpa Simpson impression. Our new introduction, animations, and the Bittersteel sigil were created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox), with the cyvasse pieces created by dutchmogul. Check out the episode on YouTube or the Acast player below to see those images, as well as art by Mike Hallstein and Ed Scheer.
The primary topics in this episode:
- Part 1 – Early Life (172 – 184)
- Part 2 – The Great Bastards at Court (184 – 196)
- Part 3 – Becoming Bittersteel
- Part 4 – At Last, Rebellion (196)
- Part 5 – Exile to Essos (197 – 211)
- Part 6 – The Second Blackfyre “Rebellion” (211)
- Outro
“Younger than Daemon Blackfyre, older than Bloodraven. Bittersteel was also a warrior, and looked the part. He was only half Targaryen, so he got the purple eyes, but his hair was black. As an adult he wore a beard, cropped very short, little more than a shadow on his face and jaws. Somewhat of a Conanesque look to him, but not the Frank Frazetta Conan and definitely not the Arnold Conan, more the Barry Windsor-Smith version, or the one described by REH (Robert E. Howard)– he is tall and well made, but lean and lithe as a panther. And angry. No smiles here. Bittersteel was pissed off all his life, and had a special loathing for Bloodraven and his mother, who had displayed his own mother as the king’s favorite.”
Serenei was the most beautiful of Aegon’s mistresses, but she was also reputed to be a sorceress. She died giving birth to the last of the king’s bastard children, a girl called Shiera Seastar who became the greatest beauty in the Seven Kingdoms, beloved of both her half brothers, Bittersteel and Bloodraven, whose rivalry would ripen to hatred.
“I should have gone with Bittersteel into exile, or died beside my sons and my sweet king. That would have been a death worthy of a chequy lion descended from so many proud lords and mighty warriors. Daeron’s mercy made me smaller.”
“I wept when Bittersteel carried him off to exile, and again when Lord Peake told me he was coming home.”
“His armor is well-made but plain, no nonsense grey-steel and black rings. His helm bears a horsehead crest with a horse’s mane flowing down behind.”
“His shield has a grey longsword displayed bendy sinister, with a black dragon’s head above and a red horse’s head below, both facing out. The field is white.”
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The Winds of Winter: The Forsaken
We were among the first on the planet to hear this chapter, and it’s safe to say: we’re taken by the “The Forsaken”! PoorQuentyn’s transcript of The Winds of Winter: The Forsaken can be found here. Our new introduction was created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox), with the cyvasse pieces created by dutchmogul.
The primary topics in this episode:
- Part 1 – Euron
- Part 2 – To Valyria and Beyond
- Part 3 – Dreams, Visions & Hallucinations
- Part 4 – Of Sacrifice and Bait
- Outro
“The Shields have served my purpose. I took them with one hand, and gave them away with the other. A great king is open-handed, brother. It is up to the new lords to hold them now. The glory of winning those rocks will be mine forever. When they are lost, the defeat will belong to the four fools who so eagerly accepted my gifts.”
“I think the Damphair’s dead. I think the Crow’s Eye slit his throat for him. Ironmaker’s search is just to make us believe the priest escaped. Euron is afraid to be seen as a kinslayer.” – The Wayward Bride, ADWD
Euron Crow’s Eye stood upon the deck of Silence, clad in a suit of black scale armor like nothing Aeron had ever seen before. Dark as smoke it was, but Euron wore it as easily as if it was the thinnest silk. The scales were edged in red gold, and gleamed and shimmered when they moved. Patterns could be seen within the metal, whorls and glyphs and arcane symbols folded into the steel.
Valyrian steel, the Damphair knew. His armor is Valyrian steel. In all the Seven Kingdoms, no man owned a suit of Valyrian steel. Such things had been known 400 years ago, in the days before the Doom, but even then, they would’ve cost a kingdom.”
“If your Drowned God did not smite me for killing three brothers, why should he bestir himself for the fourth?”
“Euron did not lie. He has been to Valyria. No wonder he was mad.”
“A weaker man might have wept, but Aeron Damphair prayed, waking, sleeping, even in his fever dreams he prayed. My god is testing me. I must be strong, I must be true.”
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Aziz vs. ADWD Epilogue
A breakdown of the final chapter in A Dance with Dragons! Our new introduction was created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox), with the cyvasse pieces created by dutchmogul.
This episode was created as part of our Patreon reward system! Patreon voters will select from a short list of chapters and Aziz will record an episode breaking down that chapter. A new installation will come periodically. All the foreshadowing and parallels, the historical references, easter eggs and fates of secondary characters. All the fun.
These episodes will be available for Patreon supporters only until TWoW is released! When that happens, we’ll switch to discussing a TWoW chapter each time instead. The TWoW chapter recordings will be for Patreon supporters only, and the previous episodes will be released for anyone. This ADWD chapter is the first episode in this series, so we released it as an example of how these Aziz vs. Chapter episodes will work.
“You do not deserve to die alone on such a cold dark night. There are many like you, good men in service to bad causes…”
“We do not even know if he’s alive. Meryn Trant claimed that Strong took neither food nor drink, and Boros Blount went so far as to say he had never seen the man use the privy. Why should he? Dead men do not shit. Kevan Lannister had a strong suspicion of just who this Ser Robert really was beneath that gleaming white armor. A suspicion that Mace Tyrell and Randyll Tarly no doubt shared. Whatever the face hidden behind Strong’s helm, it must remain hidden for now. The silent giant was his niece’s only hope.”
A knight of the Kingsguard was always posted at its far end. Tonight the duty had fallen to Ser Meryn Trant. With Balon Swann hunting the rogue knight Darkstar down in Dorne, Loras Tyrell gravely wounded on Dragon-stone, and Jaime vanished in the riverlands, only four of the White Swords remained in King’s Landing, and Ser Kevan had thrown Osmund Kettleblack (and his brother Osfryd) into the dungeon within hours of Cersei’s confessing that she had taken both men as lovers. That left only Trant, the feeble Boros Blount, and Qyburn’s mute monster Robert Strong to protect the young king and royal family.
“The more I give him, the more he wants. Kevan Lannister was beginning to understand why Cersei had grown so resentful of the Tyrells.”
“Ser Kevan was cold as ice, and every labored breath sent a fresh stab of pain through him. He glimpsed movement, heard the soft scuffling sound of slippered feet on stone. A child emerged from a pool of darkness, a pale boy in a ragged robe, no more than nine or ten. Another rose up behind the Grand Maester’s chair. The girl who had opened the door for him was there as well. They were all around him, half a dozen of them, white-faced children with dark eyes, boys and girls together.
And in their hands, the daggers.”
“Grand Maester Pycelle bobbed his head. “Dragons. These same stories have reached Oldtown. Too many to discount. A silver-haired queen with three dragons.””
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