Bringing a Literary Lens to Pop Culture - covering the worlds of A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, Fire and Blood, His Dark Materials & more
Episodes
Friday Jun 27, 2025
Friday Jun 27, 2025
Daenerys decides it's time get out of dodge aka Qarth (for now) and meets the main character of the story: Strong Belwas.
Links from Lo: https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/allegories-four-continents
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Jun 20, 2025
Friday Jun 20, 2025
Gray Area comes to visit our house—of the Undying! She's here to ~help us show~ us the pattern behind the prophecies around chosen ones and the visions Daenerys sees.
Definitely check out: Gray's video deciphering the House of the Undying—https://youtu.be/7xjhlbyu01k?feature=shared
Where to find Gray Area
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GrayArea
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Twitter: https://x.com/ThisGrayArea
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Obsidian Nights Reread Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/obsidian-nights-podcast/id1511829391
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Direwolf City YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@direwolfcity
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ThisGrayArea
Background music:
Odyssey Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Silver Flame Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Jun 13, 2025
Friday Jun 13, 2025
Daenerys wastes a lot of money and for what.
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Jun 06, 2025
Friday Jun 06, 2025
In the greatest city of the world, Daenerys receives a wonderful gift.
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday May 30, 2025
Friday May 30, 2025
Being a single mom isn't easy, Daenerys finds out as she tries to make ends meet for her three dragon children and hundred other adopted members of the khalasar.
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday May 16, 2025
Friday May 16, 2025
Only death can pay for life.
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Backgrund music
Silver Flame Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday May 09, 2025
Friday May 09, 2025
“Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone.”
Mentioned: Eliana's essay "Daughter of Death: A Song of Ice and Fire’s Shakespearean Tragic Hero" — https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/19/daughter-of-death-a-song-of-ice-and-fires-shakespearean-tragic-hero/
Background music
"The Sky of our Ancestors" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
"Mourning Song" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday May 02, 2025
Friday May 02, 2025
Another diva down. Daenerys strikes a bargain.
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Apr 25, 2025
Friday Apr 25, 2025
When the Lhazareen pay the highest price in the Dothraki violent exchange, Daenerys makes a choice: Raping the women and children won't be among the spoils of the war.
Madeleine joins us to analyze this turning point in Dany's character that sets the trajectory of her story, while bringing insights from historical popular romance tropes.
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Apr 18, 2025
Friday Apr 18, 2025
For a fleeting moment, Daenerys lives without fear. A sip of wine threatens to steal it away.
Background music:
"Ready Aim Fire" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Apr 11, 2025
Friday Apr 11, 2025
To save on the event budget, we've combined a baby shower with a coronation. You're all invited but we have a special guest: It's Glidus, coming to join as another other one of your hosts to break down Dany's arc and the end of Viserys's.
Where to find Glidus:
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YouTube—https://www.youtube.com/@Glidus
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Nebula—https://nebula.tv/glidus
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Patreon—https://www.patreon.com/glidus
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ASOIAF Jeopardy—https://nebula.tv/videos/glidus-asoiaf-jeopardy-except-the-questions-are-evil
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Listen to Glidus's band, Materia—https://open.spotify.com/album/4uaueffBjkor2A0GG1fqnv?si=zsEvh3XSQDuyYGEefxgQVA&nd=1&dlsi=fb1dac8f27ea49b3
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Listen to Glidus's other music project, The Beggar King—https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZAvHTXVctNlZIcg_WqNv1w
Sound credits:
"Silver Flame" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Sound effects from https://pixabay.com/
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Mar 28, 2025
Friday Mar 28, 2025
The city of Vaes Dothrak awakens. In the shadow of the Mother of Mountains, something stirs in a young girl's womb, emboldening her.
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Mar 14, 2025
Friday Mar 14, 2025
You (don't) want to wake the dragon.
Heads up: No new episode next week, March 21. We'll return on March 28 but without early release.
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Mar 07, 2025
Friday Mar 07, 2025
At her wedding, the young princess receives the gift of the wind.
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Friday Feb 28, 2025
When they write the history of her reign, sweet listener, they will say it began tonight.
The day is finally here: We embark on the POV of a big part of the heart of ASOIAF, the Daenerys Targaryen chapters.
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Feb 21, 2025
Friday Feb 21, 2025
FULL SPOILERS FOR THE SHORT STORY OF "IN THE LOST LANDS"
This episode comes to you thanks to the generosity of our patrons. It was originally released for patrons only in December 2023 and is now available for the public.
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Join us as we venture in the Lost Lands with Gray Alys for a job. Coming soon as a movie—and maybe even a cinematic series—we dig into this older GRRM short story.
George's Not A Blog posts about the upcoming film:
- Announcement: "Gray Alys on the Silver Screen"
- Post-production update: "Lost and Found"
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Intro by Kevin MacLeod, "Fairytale Waltz"
Friday Jan 17, 2025
Friday Jan 17, 2025
Walk Cersei home. Alisha from Direwolf City joins us to watch the queen lose her crown but not her pride in this final published chapter.
(As a quick reminder, GGC will be taking a break after this episode before resuming our next POV at the end of February.)
Where to find Alisha
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Twitter — https://x.com/totesnotalice
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Bluesky — https://app.bsky.cz/profile/stillnotalice.bsky.social
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Direwolf City — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVUTAOYvXNEU3zc3-G_uifA
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Jan 10, 2025
Friday Jan 10, 2025
New year, new book, same old Cersei (pretending to be #New for the High Septon). Margo helps us retrace the steps of Cersei's life and unpack the complexities of her familial and romantic relationships (which are kind of one and the same at times).
Where to find Margo
References from Lo
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Essay: A MOST UNCOMMON WOMAN: Cersei Lannister’s Gender Trouble
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Essay: Maidens, maidenheads, and the patriarchy- Virginity norms in ASOIAF
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Mentioned Quotes
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Susan Stryker definition: "I use [transgender] in this book to refer to people who move away from the gender they were assigned at birth, people who cross (trans-) the boundaries constructed by their culture to define and contain that gender. Some people move away from their birth-assigned gender because they feel strongly that they properly belong to another gender in which it would be better for them to live; others want to strike out toward some new location, some space not yet clearly defined or concretely occupied; still others simply feel the need to get away from the conventional expectations bound up with the gender that was initially put upon them. In any case, it is the movement across a socially imposed boundary away from an unchosen starting place- rather than any particular destination or mode of transition- that best characterizes the concept of ‘transgender’ that I want to develop here."
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From Leslie Feinberg's Transgender Warriors: “Didn’t Joan of Arc wear men’s clothes?” I asked a friend over coffee in 1975. She had a graduate degree in history; I had barely squeaked through high school. I waited for her answer with great anticipation, but she dismissed my question with a wave of her hand. ”It was just armor.” She seemed so sure, but I couldn’t let my question go. Joan of Arc was the only person associated with cross-dressing in history I’d grown up hearing about. I thought a great deal about my friend’s answer. Was the story of Joan of Arc dressing in men’s clothing merely legend? Was wearing armor significant? If a society strictly mandates only men can be warriors, isn’t a woman military leader dressed in armor an example of cross-gendered expression?"
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ibid. : "No wonder you’ve passed as a man! This is such an anti-woman society,” a lesbian friend told me. To her, females passing as males are simply trying to escape women’s oppression – period. She believes that once true equality is achieved in society, humankind will be genderless. I don’t have a crystal ball, so I can’t predict human behavior in a distant future. But I know what she’s thinking – if we can build a more just society, people like me will cease to exist. She assumes that I am simply a product of oppression. Gee, thanks so much."
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From Alica Spencer-Hall and Spencer Gutt's Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography: "Marginalised identities are often written out of the historical record by those with the privilege of formulating “historical truth”. The Middle Ages is frequently viewed as a time “where men were men, women were women, everyone was the same race and practised the same faith, and no one was corrupted by technology, sexuality or democracy”. This is not how any medievalist worth their salt would put it.
Disingenuous interrogation of the presence of trans people in history is rarely about the factual specifics of the past alone. If talking about trans lives is “anachronistic”, then “trans-ness [is] not an inextricable part of humanity or human diversity”. The transphobe’s dream is an imaginary medieval past in which everyone knows their (gendered) place. Similar themes emerge in the usage of the Middle Ages by the alt-right and beyond: those who fantasize a past in which everyone who mattered was straight, cisgender, white, and Christian. White supremacists and fascists weaponize the Middle Ages to justify their hatred.
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage
Friday Dec 20, 2024
Friday Dec 20, 2024
A special gift from our Patrons, originally released December 2023.
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The girls ended 2024 (and now, apparently 2024) by embarking on a new series by time traveling to the year 2013. In this first episode, we cover the world building that happens in the first few chapters of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and some of the inspiration behind it.
Spoilers all The Hunger Games trilogy; hints to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Want more coverage about The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the prequel book? Check out Arah's YouTube channel, ieatzebra: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGu9dGopzdFfXUhoMP2BNAchBWIkx0AGX
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Intro by Kevin MacLeod, "Fairytale Waltz"
Friday Dec 13, 2024
Friday Dec 13, 2024
And so we close our coverage of A Feast for Crows for good... with a diva down.
affuck.
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Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric
Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl
Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/
Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor
Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com
Intro by Anton Langhage