Gilly’s Secret Significance To Got!

Published April 28, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi guys,

First of all, huge fan of your podcasts. Thanks for adding an extra level of enjoyment to these worlds for us fans.

I’m going to break the 4th wall a bit here, but all this time I assumed Samwell Tarly was the historian of GoT. That GRRM had projected himself into the plot and we’d end the series realizing that ASOIAF was Sam’s poetic retelling of the post-Robert’s Rebellion era through a book laying around at the citadel library.

But then I wondered… why would the humble and self-depreciating Samwell Tarly depict himself as a wight-slaying, Thenn-killing, professor among peasants? Because what if it isn’t Sam telling us this story, what if its Gilly.

Gilly was already taught to read and write by Shireen, so she has the capacity. She absolutely idolizes Sam, which would explain why she writes the history of Westeros with the perspective that Sam & his buddies are the heroes. The mighty underdog Sam killed the first wight! He killed a Thenn! He cured Greyscale! He discovered Jon’s true heritage! What a dreamboat!

GRRM didn’t project his image into this so he could feel like a hero. No, he took it a step further: He projected a girl that idolizes his projection. Some 4th-wall breaking 4D Chess is going on. We’re basically being told this story through the private bedside journal of a girl writing about her crush.

I wrote this before Episode 3, so if she dies tonight this is scrapped. But if she lives…

Thanks for reading,
Matt B

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