In addition to this TWOW chapter guide, you can find the chapter guides for the rest of the series here. The timestamps will take you to that spot in the video, and FB will take you to the corresponding discussion posts in our Facebook group.
Victarion I (with JoeMagician)
Barristan I (with Game of Owns)
Barristan II (with Jim McGeehin)
Alayne I (with Radio Westeros)
Arianne I (with The Isle of Faces)
Arianne II (with Scad and Manaro)
The Forsaken (with InDeepGeek)
GRRM’s version of the Odyssey is here! We’ve got Brindled Men, wyverns, killer diseases, ancient cities, corsairs, dark gods. Plus characters like Daenerys, Missandei and her brothers, Victarion, Barristan Selmy and his new knights. See our previous episode in our Nymeria series here. Special thanks to Michal Schick of Vassals of Kingsgrave podcast and Hypable for the voices.
UPDATE: HBO is now developing a Nymeria series with the working title Ten Thousand Ships. Hopefully it makes it to series. In the interim, check out Ash’s Nymeria spinoff pitch from 2017.
Legend tells us that Nymeria took ten thousand ships to sea, searching for a new home for her people beyond the long reach of Valyria and its dragonlords. Beldecar argues that this number was vastly inflated, perhaps as much as tenfold. Other chroniclers offer other numbers, but in truth no true count was ever made. We can safely say there were a great many ships. Most were river craft, skiffs and poleboats, trading galleys, fishing boats, pleasure barges, even rafts, their decks and holds crammed full of women and children and old men. Only one in ten was remotely seaworthy, Beldecar insists.
Nymeria’s voyage was long and terrible. More than a hundred ships foundered and sank in the first storm her fleet encountered. As many or more turned back in fear, and were taken by slavers out of Volantis. Others fell behind or drifted away, never to be seen again. The remainder of the fleet limped across the Summer Sea to the Basilisk Isles… – The World of Ice and Fire
Aziz & Ashaya break down the major characters from House Dayne. Theories, background and predictions!
Thanks to Lucifer Means Lightbringer of Astronomy of Ice and Fire for the quotes! Michael Klarfeld did the maps.
“The finest knight I ever saw was Ser Arthur Dayne, who fought with a blade called Dawn, forged from the heart of a fallen star. They called him the Sword of the Morning, and he would have killed me but for Howland Reed.”
“He wondered what Ser Arthur Dayne would have to say of this lot. “How is it that the Kingsguard has fallen so low,” most like.”
“The Prince of Dragonstone had never trusted him as he had trusted Arthur Dayne. Harrenhal was proof of that. The year of the false spring. The memory was still bitter.”
The Dornishmen who had come to court with the Princess Elia were in the prince’s confidence as well, particularly Prince Lewyn Martell, Elia’s uncle and a Sworn Brother of the Kingsguard. But the most formidable of all Rhaegar’s friends and allies in King’s Landing was surely Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning.
“Men call me Darkstar, and I am of the night.”
“Continuing the most ambitious and imaginative epic fantasy since The Lord of the Rings The action in Book Four of A Song of Ice and Fire begins the day after the end of A STORM OF SWORDS. While the remaining northern lords war endlessly with each other and the ironmen of the isles attack the Dreadfort, Sansa becomes a skilled player in the game of thrones with Littlefinger as her mentor, Arya a skilled assassin, and Bran a magician and shapeshifter of great power. All seek to gain revenge for the death of their parents and Robb Stark, whose head was cut off and replaced with the head of his direwolf. Valar morghulis. All men must die, and wolves, too. Danerys trains her growing dragons and learns from Barristan the secrets of her father, her brother Rhaegar, and other matters that will culminate at Starfell. And Jon Snow is the nine-hundredth-and-ninety-eighth lord commander of the Night’s Watch. The Wall is his. The night is dark, and he has King Stannis to face. The cold wind is rising, and still there are inhuman powers gathering in the north.”
This episode delves deep into Aerys, Rhaella, and Rhaegar Targaryen, and we also discuss other characters impacted by Summerhall. There’s talk of how the Mad King could wreak havoc on the Seven Kingdoms even now. Of course, our main focus is the Aftermath of Summerhall. Why didn’t it work? Who tried to capitalize on the instability? What impact did the event have on the survivors? What impact does it have on the current ASOIAF storyline? You can listen to the previous episode in this series here. Stay tuned past the credits for a short after episode chat. We’ll talk a bit more about dragon eggs, pyromancers, Summerhall art, toss out a few random facts.
Anyway, here’s Summerhall.
“Summerhall.” The word was fraught with doom.
Thank you to yolkboy of Radio Westeros, Nina Friel, and Rhaenys_Targaryen for their contributions.
The primary topics in this episode are:
“Once it takes fire, the substance will burn fiercely until it is no more.”
Drawing on his father’s plans, His Grace put aside his grief, called his lords bannermen, and resolved to meet the Ninepenny Kings upon the Stepstones, choosing to take the war to them rather than awaiting their landing on the shores of the Seven Kingdoms.
“…many of the accounts written of Harrenhal speak of his hysterical laughter, long silences, bouts of weeping, and sudden rages.”
He would go there from time to time, with only his harp for company. Even the knights of the Kingsguard did not attend him there. He liked to sleep in the ruined hall, beneath the moon and stars, and whenever he came back he would bring a song. When you heard him play his high harp with the silver strings and sing of twilights and tears and the death of kings, you could not but feel that he was singing of himself and those he loved.
“He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.”
“Your grandsire commanded it. A woods witch had told him that the prince that was promised would be born of their line.”
“It was a prince that was promised, not a princess. Rhaegar, I thought… the smoke was from the fire that devoured Summerhall on the day of his birth, the salt from the tears shed for those who died. He shared my belief when he was young, but later he became persuaded that it was his own son who fulfilled the prophecy, for a comet had been seen above King’s Landing on the night Aegon was conceived, and Rhaegar was certain the bleeding star had to be a comet. What fools we were, who thought ourselves so wise!”
After the Battle of the Trident, Robert Baratheon, Eddard Stark and others had a decision on their hands. Barristan the Bold, one of the greatest knights in the realm, lay badly wounded after suffering 3 or more wounds during the fighting. Roose Bolton counseled his throat be cut (this is also the very first time Roose’s name ever appears in ASOIAF). However, Robert would do no such thing. As he did with so many others, he flipped a foe into a friend.
Robert, still young and uncorrupted by the throne, was not yet a man willing to murder. He believed that the only place for killing an enemy was on a battlefield, save perhaps an arranged duel or the like. Robert said (according to Ned):
“I will not kill a man for loyalty, nor for fighting well”
It was not necessary for anyone on the side of mercy to argue, since Robert was already set on allowing Barristan Selmy to live. But had he been on the fence, or intent on an execution, any student of Westerosi history could’ve made a great point that may have swayed Robert on a personal level. A particularly glorious deed of Ser Barristan’s looms large here… One very relevant to House Baratheon.
Barristan the Bold is famous for many reasons, but aside from Duskendale, the slaying of Maelys Blackfyre is surely at the top of the list. Why would this matter to Robert? Because Maelys the Monstrous himself slew Robert’s own grandfather, Hand of the King and Lord of Storm’s End, Ormund Baratheon, during the War of the Ninepenny Kings. Robert had not even been born by this point, but surely he heard how his Lord grandfather died. Robert is no student of history, but in a land where blood debts are common currency, this would surely argue strongly for a pardon.
In fact, perhaps this did factor in Robert’s decision to name Ser Barristan the Lord Commander after the war.
A huge battle is about to occur in The Winds of Winter where several POV characters have converged into a battle of fire – one with dragons. We break down the relevant spoiler chapters while detailing each of the participants’ motivations and expectations for the conflict. Theories, predictions and plenty of action from the battle of fire itself! Follow our coverage of the Battle of Ice here.
I came for blood, not gold.
“The slavers may shiver when they spy your sails rising from the sea,” he told him. “but once they see you plain they will laugh at their fears. Traders and fishers, that’s all you are. Any man can see that. Let them get close as they like, but keep your men hidden belowdecks until you are ready. Then close, and board them. Free the slaves and feed the slavers to the sea, but take the ships. We will have need of every hull to carry us back home.”
The iron captain was not seen again that day, but as the hours passed the crew of his Iron Victory reported hearing the sound of wild laughter coming from the captain’s cabin, laughter deep and dark and mad, and when Longwater Pyke and Wulfe One-Eye tried the cabin door they found it barred. Later singing was heard, a strange high wailing song in a tongue the maester said was High Valyrian. That was when the monkeys left the ship, screeching as they leapt into the water.
Barristan I and II
Transcript of Victarion I
Tyrion I
Tyrion II
YouTube: Video of Victarion I (last 9 minutes)
[row][column size=”1/2″]Learn more about famous Kingsguard members like Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, Barristan the Bold, and Ser Arthur Dayne. There are no spoilers past A Storm of Swords.[/column] [column size=”1/2″]Some had been heroes, some weaklings, knaves, or cravens. Most were only men.[/column][/row]
[column size=”1/1″ center=”yes”]There are some technical difficulties in this episode that are edited out of the audio version. Please listen to that for a better experience, or go ahead and laugh at the video when one of us forgets to unmute our mic![/column]
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