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)
The first of multiple episodes on Nymeria of the Rhoynar. Foreshadowing for ASOIAF via the rise & fall of the Rhoynar; includes: greyscale, Darkstar, water wizards, the Water Gardens of Dorne, Volantis, dragons and much more. 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.
“This is Ny Sar, where the Mother gathers in her Wild Daughter, Noyne,” said Yandry, “but she will not reach her widest point until she meets her other daughters. At Dagger Lake the Qhoyne comes rushing in, the Darkling Daughter, full of gold and amber from the Axe and pine-cones from the Forest of Qohor. South of there the Mother meets Lhorulu, the Smiling Daughter from the Golden Fields. Where they join once stood Chroyane, the festival city, where the streets were made of water and the houses made of gold.
Then south and east again for long leagues, until at last comes creeping in Selhoru, the Shy Daughter who hides her course in reeds and writhes. There Mother Rhoyne waxes so wide that a man upon a boat in the center of the stream cannot see a shore to either side. You shall see, my little friend.” – Tyrion IV, ADWD
Sean, Aziz & Ashaya chat about Season 7 and Con of Thrones 2017! Listen on your podcast player of choice, otherwise go to the YouTube version. You can also find our full Con of Thrones album at our Facebook page here.
Drogo He Didn’t (Daenerys & The Targaryens!)
The Manimals
You’re Welcome Filks from Ice & Fire Con
Clegane Rap Battle from Ice & Fire Con
We’re joined by special guest PoorQuentyn for a look at Euron Greyjoy and his 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.
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 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.
“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
Euron had seduced them with his glib tongue and smiling eye and bound them to his cause with the plunder of half a hundred distant lands; gold and silver, ornate armor, curved swords with gilded pommels, daggers of Valyrian steel, striped tiger pelts and the skins of spotted cats, jade manticores and ancient Valyrian sphinxes…
– AFFC, The Reaver
“When I was a boy, I dreamt that I could fly,” he announced. “When I woke, I couldn’t…. or so the maester said. But what if he lied?”
– The Reaver, AFFC
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 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. We also take a look at her personality and relationships with other powerful people. Finally, we of course consider “interactions” with the Mad King, and certain parentage theories. So join us for this episode about Joanna!
Our introduction and the Westeros and Essos maps were created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox). The cyvasse pieces were created by dutchmogul. Check out the episode on YouTube below to see those images.
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
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
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
“…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
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. Check out our series on the Blackfyres here. Time to find out what is beneath the gold, in this episode on the Golden Company.
Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox) created our introduction, the Essos map, and the Bittersteel and Golden Company images. Dutchmogul created the cyvasse pieces used in the intro video. Joey Townsend does our intro music, and Jesse Kowal does our outro music. Thank you to them as well!
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. 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
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
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
It ended far more quickly than the pretender might have wished, at the Battle of Wendwater Bridge. Afterward, the corpses of the Black Dragon’s slain choked the Wendwater and sent it overflowing its banks. The royalists, in turn, lost fewer than a hundred men. – TWOIAF
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.
Our introduction, and the awesome new Essos map were created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox). Dutchmogul created the cyvasse pieces. Martin Lewis of Echoes of Ice and Fire did the quotes.
“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
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
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
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
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
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”! It is a truly epic chapter. Find PoorQuentyn’s transcript of The Winds of Winter: The Forsaken here. Check out our episode on Euron Greyjoy, also with PoorQuentyn, here. We are recording a Valar Rereadis episode on it too, so look out for that!
Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox) created our intro video. dutchmogul created the cyvasse pieces.
“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.”
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.
“Falia Flowers,” he called. “Have courage, girl! All this will be over soon, and we will feast together in the Drowned God’s watery halls.” The girl raised up her head, but made no answer. She has no tongue to answer with, Damphair knew. He licked his lips, and tasted salt.
In this episode, we give our first impressions of The World of Ice and Fire. We discuss all of the immediate revelations. The latter half of the episode contains discoveries more related to the ‘current events’ of the series.
Special attention is paid to the Kingdom of Sarnor, other ancient cultures, and the mysterious oily black stone that keeps popping up. There is, of course, a lot of discussion on House Targaryen. We also talk at length about the sections on Dorne. The mystery of Asshai’s children is also debated. Who is Hyrkoon the Hero? What’s the deal with Bonetown? Join us on a journey through the world of ice and fire. It is also a journey back to 2014 now!
On the Isle of Toads can be found an ancient idol. A greasy black stone crudely carved into the semblance of a gigantic toad of malignant aspect, some forty feet high. The people of this isle are believed by some to be descended from those who carved the Toad Stone, for there is an unpleasant fishlike aspect to their faces, and many have webbed hands and feet. If so, they are the sole surviving remnant of this forgotten race.
Such questions abound even to this day. Before the Doom of Valyria, maesters and archmaesters oft traveled to the Freehold in search of answers, but none were ever found. Septon Barth’s claim that the Valyrians came to Westeros because their priests prophesied that the Doom of Man would come out of the land beyond the narrow sea can safely be dismissed as nonsense, as can many of Barth’s queerer beliefs and suppositions.
For scholars and students of history, the fall of Sallosh by the Silver Shore was especially tragic. For when that City of Scholars burned, its great library was not spared, and most of the history of the Tall Men and the peoples who had gone before them were lost for all time.
History of Westeros analyzes the fifth pre-release chapter from The Winds of Winter, widely regarded as the best of the bunch. George gives us something that is somehow dark, controversial and satisfying all at the same time. We peel off all the layers to find all the references and details you might have missed. This was released in 2014. You can now listen to our 2021 coverage here. We have also released an audio play production of this chapter!
She woke with a gasp, not knowing who she was, or where. The smell of blood was heavy in her nostrils… or was that her nightmare, lingering? She had dreamed of wolves again, of running through some dark pine forest with a great pack at her hells, hard on the scent of prey.
On stage, Bobono was bargaining with Marro’s sinister Stranger. He had a big voice for such a little man, and he made it ring off the highest rafters now. “Give me the cup,” he told the Stranger, “for I shall drink deep. And if it tastes of gold and lion’s blood, so much the better. As I cannot be the hero, let me be the monster, and lesson them in fear in place of love.”
The gods have given me a gift.
The Winds of Winter excerpt on GRRM’s site.
So Spake Martin we mention that talks about Izembaro.
