G.O.T. Small Council

Published April 24, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi Shat friends!

Firstly, I’m a big fan. I recently found your American Gods Season 1 podcast while on a roadtrip with my boyfriend, which we basically binged and listened to all at once, and when we got back we discovered you all also had one for Game of Thrones. (Sidebar: We’re big fans of the American Gods tv show and Gaiman’s book. We also listened to the audiobook of the 10th Anniversary Edition. We’re budgeting our streaming services right now, so we’re not actively watching the second season, but we will go back and watch the episodes later and listen to your podcast as accompaniment. Hopefully, you all will review the next season too, and we can catch back up with you then.)

In general, I really appreciated this week’s episode. I too was incredibly excited to see Ghost on the ramparts, which brings me to my first point.

1. White wolf vs. well, also a white wolf: In thinking of those characters that we may see come back as Whites, there was another character death at the same time as Hodor. Bran’s wolf also died in that attack on the Three-Eyed Raven, and I think we might see a fight between the wolves. (Which breaks my heart a bit to think about because the direwolves hold a dear place in my heart, and Ghost has always been my favorite.) 2. Dead dragons vs. live = cause for pause: I liked that another listener called in about the dragon battle we’ll potentially see in Episode 3, but I think there’s an additional piece that wasn’t mentioned. Dani knows that Viserion has been turned into a White, but there’s no way she can communicate that to her living dragons. They saw Viserion die, and as living creatures, they can understand that concept. You can’t have a conversation with those dragons though to explain what they will see during the upcoming battle. Imagine Dani telling them, “Hey guys, I know you watched your brother die, but he’s an evil zombie dragon now that breathes ice fire, and we’ll have to kill him.” Not gonna work. Furthermore, I don’t think she or her dragons are prepared for what they’re going to see. I think of the badass Wildling woman from “Hard Home” who’s a great fighter, chopping up Whites left and right, then she sees a group of White children, and FREEZES. Then she just gives up and lets them overtake her. They weren’t even her children, and she couldn’t bear the thought of harming them. Imagine when Dani sees Viserion, who she thought of as a child, in his new horrible form. 3. The Lady, or the Tiger: Dani’s reaction to Jon’s news of his Targaryen heritage leads me to believe that we are primed for a Lady or the Tiger-type moment in the next episode. Are you guys familiar with this short story by Frank R. Stockton? (Super short; it’s hyperlinked above.) If you aren’t, the gist is this: a semi-barbaric king discovers his daughter is in love with a peasant. Outraged, the king throws him into an area where the lover must choose between two doors. Behind one is a fierce tiger that will rip him to shreds, and behind the other is a beautiful lady whom he can/will immediately marry. When in the arena, the lover looks up to the princess, who points to the door on the right, and the question is, which did she choose for him, the lady, or the tiger? She loves him so much, surely she couldn’t bear to watch him die! Or…she loves him so much that she can’t bear to watch him marry someone else. I believe that Dani is going to be presented with one of these Lady or the Tiger choices where she will see Jon in a moment of need and have to decide to help him or not. Save him because she loves him, or let him die because he’s one less person in the way of her Iron Throne. I think she’ll likely ultimately move to help him, but I think her hesitation in both the above dragon duel scenario as well as this one will cost lives, possibly Jon’s.

Thanks so much for doing what you do!

— Andi S. (female – short for Andrea)

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