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Who Are The Faceless Men Really? | In Deep Geek | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Who Are The Faceless Men Really?
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Core Theme
The Faceless Men are a religious order originating from Old Valyria, dedicated to serving the Many-Faced God of Death by offering the "gift" of death to those who seek it, and by fulfilling assassination contracts as a sacred duty.
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who actually are the Faceless Men why
were they formed where did they
originally come from and what does that
tell us about what they might actually
want in A Song of Ice and Fire
hi everyone this is Robert welcome to in
deep geek on this channel we cover the
best in fantasy books and TV shows A
Song of Ice and Fire the Lord of the
Rings The Witcher and much more if that
sounds good there's a subscribe button
in the bottom right of your screen
this is the start of a new series of
videos exploring the role of the
Faceless Men In A Song of Ice and Fire
or more accurately it's a revised and
fully updated version of a series of
videos I did on this subject a few years ago
ago
the origin story that we know for the
Faceless Men comes from the kindly man
who is one of the characters Arya meets
at the house of black and white in the
books and who seems to be overseeing her
training he recounts the tale that the
first faceless man was in Old valyria
well before the Doom he heard the
prayers of the slaves in the mines
beneath Valeria heard them crying out to
countless different gods for an end to
their suffering and concluded that
although they all thought that they were
calling out to their own God from
wherever they'd originally come from
actually they were all calling out to
the same God who had many names and many faces
faces
the man then decided that he must be
that God's instrument he was there to
answer their prayers and brought the
gift as he called it to the most
miserable and desperate slave the gift
and freedom of death
he followed this up by giving the same
gift of death to many other slaves who
prayed for it until one day the first
faceless man heard a slave crying out
not for his own death but for the death
of his master offering everything he had
the first faceless man thought that this
would be pleasing to the many faced God
and as the slave had nothing to offer
other than himself created the first
convert to The Faceless Men the master
was killed and now there were two
Faceless Men dedicated to serving the
many-faced god
how long this went on for we do not know
because the next time we hear from The
Faceless Men they have moved base a
couple of thousand miles away apparently
as a fully fledged religious Society of
Assassins when the city of braavos
announced itself to the world which
rather unhelpfully opens up a whole new
series of timeline questions because we
don't know for sure when braavos was
established we know it is not an old
city by associe standards anyway it was
founded by slaves who rebelled against
the Yoke of the valyrians and its very
existence was a secret for over a
century and its location a secret for
three times that or more and at some
point in this secret past perhaps even
at the beginning The Cult of the
many-faced God made its way from valyria
to braavos and the house of black and
white was formed
but whatever the mechanism for The
Faceless Men arriving at braavos whether
they were part of the original Founders
or were later arrivals the city is
undeniably a perfect fit for them being
founded by former slaves like the first
faceless man it is staunchly
anti-slavery the first law of braavos is
that no man woman or child will ever be
a Slave
it is also anti-valerian it's a little
reference side note to aegon's invasion
of Westeros that braavos sent a fleet to
help defend Westeros against the
targaryens albeit to little effect keep
a note of that for what might happen
when Dany invades Westeros and finally
the city has complete freedom of
religion not just tolerating different
faiths but actively allowing any and all
faiths because it was founded by people
the former slaves of any and all faiths
once established the house of black and
white became a temple of sorts where
people could go to die like with the
original gift given to the slave this is
for those seeking release from their
struggles in life Arya helps an old
woman to take a drink from The Poisoned
fountain at the center of the house as
part of her duties
I say it became a temple of sorts
because it really isn't like any other
religious Temple there are no services
or rituals nobody is told what to
believe there are no rules or guidelines
for life or apparently any attempt to
convert people there's just a large room
that is open to all all of which perhaps
explains why this cult has not expanded
why you won't find temples of black and
white elsewhere this Faith does not
actually care whether you believe it is
telling the truth or not there is no proselytizing
proselytizing
there are many statues of various gods
in the house of black and white but no
Central focus on an altar or a mystical
symbol there is no picture or Graven
image of the many faced God what is
being put across is clearly based on an
understanding of the Gods but it isn't a
religion in a classical sense there is
no one preaching or trying to impart any
truths in fact The Faceless Men are very
happy for people to carry On Believing
whatever gods or religion they already
believe in instead the impression is of
a group of people who believe that they
understand a deeper truth than the other
religions that whatever you might think
you are worshiping actually it's
something different and it actually
doesn't matter whether you know or
believe that to be true so no image of
the many-faced Gods him or herself just
images and statues of his many faces
of course there does need to be some
sort of passing on of the torch to the
Next Generation and that is why we see
Arya and others going through their
training and apprenticeships we tend to
focus on the elements of the training
most associated with being an assassin
fighting poisons disguises and so on but
another part does seem to be about
passing on the ethos and the theological
basis of the order this theological
basis appears to be that Valar morghulis
all men must die and valadeis all men
must serve these aren't just cool
catchphrases they are statements of
faith the role of the Faceless Men is to
serve the many-faced God by facilitating deaths
deaths
this makes the house of black and white
both a sort of Center for assisted
suicide and home base for their role as
assassins both are sacred functions for
their God an assassination contract is
not a simple business deal for them it
is a holy sacrament
we will come back to the significance
and implications of this several times
over the next few videos but for now the
main point is that although the outside
world thinks of them primarily a guild
of Assassins they see themselves as a
religious order Servants of the god of death
death
of course there is a business element to
the assassination contracts and there is
little doubt that the Faceless Men have
grown Rich from their work even though
they aren't particularly ostentatious
about it once a contract has been agreed
it is allocated to one of the Assassins
which brings us to one of the most
intriguing aspects of how they operate
that a contract cannot be given to a
faceless man who knows the intended victim
victim
we see this when Arya Witnesses a
business meeting in the house of black
and white where they are divvying up
assassination contracts one of the
Faceless Men says he cannot do one of
them because he knows that man so
someone else takes it on Instead This
has some amusing side effects such as
when IR is first sailing to braavos and
the crew know that she is going to join
The Faceless Men because she has that
coin from Jack and they try endlessly to
get her to remember their names thinking
logically enough that this would protect
them from her killing them when she has
finished her training but it does also
shed light on the whole becoming no one
business because the main point about
this rule about not being sent to kill
someone you know is presumably to
prevent a situation where the Assassin
may have feelings about who they are
sent to kill and compromise the mission
so despite the rhetoric it seems that
the Faceless Men are not expected to
completely lose their old identities and
memories this seems to be a bit of a
pattern Jack and breaks or bends what he
claims are the rules of the order quite
a lot as we'll see in the next couple of
videos so there is more than a hint here
that the absolutes that Aya is being
told like needing to completely abandon
her old self for example are actually
less absolute than they first look like
bear that in mind when thinking about
what are you becoming a faceless man
might actually look like she would still
also be Arya Stark anyway we should be
in no doubt that this isn't just a
highly effective and highly trained
Assassin's Guild it is a fanatical death
cult with its own motivations and agenda
that thinks that it knows better about
the nature of gods and magic and life
and death than anyone else
so if the Faceless Men do have beliefs
and organizational aims what are they
and how will they impact on the story
well let's start with something they
probably don't care about as much as you
might think you will find many theories
out there suggesting that they are
secretly dedicated to ending slavery or
opposing the targaryens because they
came from the slave Minds certainly
that's the case for braavos as a whole
however to apply it unthinkingly to the
Faceless Men would be to fundamentally
misread what they think was important
about their own origin story to The
Faceless Men the time in valyria was
about understanding the nature of the
many-faced god and about bringing the
gift of death to those who seek it it
wasn't really about the moral rightness
of freeing slaves from their oppressors
in the books Arya is constantly seeking
reasons for why people need to be killed
by The Faceless Men her starkish moral
compass always wanting there to be some
justice behind an executioner but the
answer from the kindly man is always the
same it's not about that about deciding
who should or shouldn't die because all
men must die
when Arya tells the kindly man that she
thought the first gift of death should
have been given to the slave masters not
to the slaves the kindly man noticeably
doesn't agree or even acknowledged the
idea that there was a justice issue here
at stake at all he simply asserts that
the slave masters were also given the
gift at a later time yes the clear hint
here is that the Faceless Men were
involved in the Doom of valyria that's
what we'll look at in our next video and
hopefully by now it should be clear that
their involvement wasn't out of a sense
of social justice it was just a matter
of serving their God more on that next time
time
so if that Vengeance or social justice
is not what they're about what do they want
want
I think that there are three levels to
this all of which are connected to the
only thing they seem focused on serving
the god of death first they want to just
carry on with their day-to-day offering
of a service to those who want to die at
the house of black and white this may
seem like a pretty boring desire and
won't have much impact on the plot but
to them it is a deeply important sacrament
sacrament
second they want to do the assassination
jobs they are hired for because Vala
dehiris all men must serve and the many
faced God must get its Jew this will
have an impact on the plot going forward
and it definitely has behind the scenes
on the plot so far in the books it is
clear that euron hired The Faceless Men
to kill his brother Balon Greyjoy so
that he could seize the salt throne for
example but third and I think most
importantly for the plot going forward
the Faceless Men are facing a new
challenge one that strikes to the core
of their Doctrine because what a cult of
death will fear and hate the most is not
say Daenerys and her dragons killing
thousands wherever she goes after all
all men must die no what they will want
to oppose most of all is a force or
forces that are committed to ensuring
that not all men die that someone at
death's door like say the mountain or
someone who has recent he died like say
Beric dondarian or the entire Army of
the Dead
do not die they can be brought back
this is heresy to The Faceless Men a
challenge to everything they believe in
can they really stand by and let their
foundational belief be challenged in
this way
I think not and one of the things we'll
be doing over the next few videos is
taking a look at what they might be
doing about it
but what do you think what do you think
the Faceless Men want as an organization
let me know in the comments below
if you want more A Song of Ice and Fire
videos please click on the playlist on
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thanks for watching that's all for this
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