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

• Twitter — https://x.com/totesnotalice

• Bluesky — https://app.bsky.cz/profile/stillnotalice.bsky.social 

• 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

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

• https://x.com/King_Margosha

• https://bsky.app/profile/kingcersei.bsky.social

References from Lo

• Essay: A MOST UNCOMMON WOMAN: Cersei Lannister’s Gender Trouble

• Essay: Maidens, maidenheads, and the patriarchy- Virginity norms in ASOIAF

• Lo and Virginie's podcast, Ragman's Harbour

• Mentioned Quotes

  • 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."

  • 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?"

  • 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."

  • 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

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"

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

Whether this diva is up or down, one thing's for sure: The Blue Bard won't be playing in any of this diva's backing tracks.

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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

Cersei ate. (So did Chloe.)

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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

"Ten thousand of your children perished in my palm, Your Grace, she thought, slipping a third finger into Myr. Whilst you snored, I would lick your sons off my face and fingers one by one, all those pale sticky princes. You claimed your rights, my lord, but in the darkness I would eat your heirs."

Professor of Cerseiology at the University of Lesbos, Rohanne, joins us to do a deep dive about Cersei, queerness, and the importance of complex narratives.

Where to find Rohanne:

• https://x.com/cyrilwoodcock and https://bsky.app/profile/cyrilwoodcock.bsky.social

Essays and resources mentioned in the episode:

• A Most Uncommon Woman: Cersei Lannister’s Gender Trouble by Rohanne and Lo the Lynx https://lothelynx.wordpress.com/2021/10/17/a-most-uncommon-woman-cersei-lannisters-gender-trouble/ 

• Rohanne’s psychoanalytic analysis of Jaime and Cersei’s relationship: https://www.youtube.com/live/vLi47CKhFPA?si=tJL7BpchfyqTXY4Q 

• Rohanne on Melisandre and PTSD on NotACast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0VPklta6R9p7JLxVfoRQj1?si=2f98e700206745b6 

  Scholarly works mentioned in this episode- 

• The Traffic in Women by Gayle Rubin https://summermeetings2013.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/rubin-traffic.pdf 

• This Sex Which Is Not One by Luce Irigaray https://www.columbia.edu/itc/architecture/ockman/pdfs/feminism/Irigaray.pdf 

• Tori Amos being Cersei- https://youtu.be/a9zAE3qL-sU?si=rtxQExndYDxKZDBu and https://youtu.be/tQ9mpu-t-7Y?si=mz83A5W2kXfMA4E6 

• Rohanne's Cersei playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5Vqe6prPlLf54kdP0iYX2W

Music credits:

"Spring Thaw" 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

Get on your knees: The queen is visiting the Great Sept of Baelor and giving new rights to the Faith. Special guest Maddy breaks down the historical influences and parallels (particularly from the history of the Catholic Church) for the outcomes of Cersei's meeting with the new High Septon.

Where to find Maddy:

• https://twitter.com/madeleinewintr

Recommended by Maddy: https://twitter.com/hightowerfunk 

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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

It's hard to juggle work-life balance when you're Cersei.

Where to find Maddy:

• https://twitter.com/madeleinewintr

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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

Cersei finally gets to join and lead a Small Council meeting made up of mostly unqualified people with newfangled titles.

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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

There's a wedding (again) where no one dies except Cersei's patience. Ghosts of weddings haunt her (and the reader).

Bonus: Listen to a developing, ongoing B plot where the "B" stands for baseball.

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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