Going over Areo Hotah II

I sit down and go through The Envoy (Areo Hotah II), pointing out some easter eggs and talk about how things came together.
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[@TheEldenwhite]

21:44 "So young," said Preston Jacobs. "Though mayhaps this was a blessing. Had he lived, he would have grown up to be a Slynt."

[@jaredbrady5566]

I liked how there was a hint that Gerold didn't have a garrison. As the local farmer wasn't providing much food for them.

[@CaptainTimeStories]

Naming the horse mirror and all that entailed was both my favorite part of the chapter as well as a demonstration of the unique power of the collaboration displayed within this project.

[@iamnotagoose]

I am so excited to see how the “Beware Jon” message plays out

[@Ancor_Vantian]

I'm a bit more intrigued by the weather revelation Maestre Jon had. That the f*ck did he find out about why the seasons act the way they do. I _need_ to understand!

[@carter9449]

Has it been revealed what the full message is?

[@Redpilled_Retribution]

@@Ancor_Vantian Milankovitch cycles

[@Ancor_Vantian]

@@Redpilled_Retribution Who and/or what are those? I had to google what they were. Insanely interesting topic. Found a good video explained this concept. Never knew Earth orbit was more elliptical than circular and that its 'angle' would change ever-so-slightly over time. I think I can sort of 'see' how it could be implemented into the FanFic, but I'd say it'd require a very knowledgably/skilled writer to fully lay it out for the reader. Thanks for sharing.

[@iamnotagoose]

@@carter9449 I think he’s mentioned in some of the “Talking __” videos that the intended mention is “Jon, Beware Marsh”

[@jsull81]

About the rainbow peace banner, we actually get a similar situation and one of Jamie's chapters. When he leaves Harrenhall with Ser Walton, Jamie asks him why he's using a southern peace banner and Steelshakes says something like, "because it's a southern peace we want" But ya, definitely a weird situation

[@stevefyfe1018]

I realize this is a fanfic project but this is legit a really cool way to release an actual novel

[@aaronginsberg4993]

Yeah, the "confronting a guy for a crime you committed thing" is why I think Darkstar is working with Doran. Doran needs a new snake to replace Oberyn.

[@TobeWilsonNetwork]

Preston always posts during the boring part of my shift, a gift from the Long Tall Dutchman

[@ser_ryon_vine6392]

It’s almost like he’s secretly a spy

[@Fnidner]

and when I cant sleep!

[@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl]

You have more than an hour of free time in your shift?

[@theophrastusbombastus1359]

@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl Maybe a security guard?

[@goatmc]

Of course you’ve been to Morocco!

[@muat1155]

One minor criticism , specifically about your / the editors/contributors writing style - is that every character you are writing seemingly has the same inner mannerisms and narration style and one could attempt to make each one sound unique to themselves. Especially the part you highlighted ‘the repetition’, it’s very noticeable. Also, Hotah negated to mention his chest this chapter. I would have thought his feeling of guilt over the deaths of the kingsguard would have intensified this chapter. Kudos to all involved though, I don’t have the knowledge about houses/characters to be able to contribute. Please keep going with these ‘going over’ videos. It’s a ver enlightening series, going over the creative process.

[@TunezCottage]

Yeah, Joe Abercrombie is a good example of an excellent author that manages to capture different voices with each character he writes. George does too, but he's very subtle about it, usually through their wants/needs/ghosts. Like how Arya wants something entirely different from Sansa, or how Sansa sees the world through a dream-like filter from the fairy tales she was read as a child etc. Truly a master of his craft, would be tremendously hard to replicate his process.

[@equinoxomega3600]

Castles are a force multiplier, depending on how well it is built, a factor of 5-10 is reasonable.

[@Radiotomb]

I love the white raven "Jon Beware" subplot 🙂

[@Kaknamenuss]

I like the "less" easter-eggs. I thought it was a it much in the past chapters, but a very good amount in this one. Regarding raven-lore: I think GRRM kinda screwed it when he wrote that normal ravens know only one place to fly, and then have to be returned back. The streets of Westeros must be stuck with raven-carts that constantly transport the ravens back to their homes. Rookeries of every minor keep would have to be filled with hundreds if not thousands of ravens. Even managing the ravens of a rookerie - which come from where? which do I even discern which ravens fly where? - must be a enormous effort. Maesters must have a link in their chain for raven-tending, if not there should be a specialized job for this! If any normal raven could go two places, much of this would be solved. Oh, you are the Maester of Last Hearth and you need to send a raven to Karhold? The raven knows how to fly there and back, so when you send the raven, you automatically grant the Maester of Karhold a raven which he can use to write to Last Hearth. Each of you have 2 or 3 ravens that can go there, and if you need more, you might just train them yourselves! Talking about it, every Maester of at least a medium-sized hold would need to have 2 or 3 underlings that help him with all this stuff.

[@aguglie441]

Sylva realising there was a swap makes more sense, she spent more time with her.

[@crannogman6289]

Does Darkstars line not recall batman: "I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman"

[@muesliman100]

The main advantage of half towers is actually that after the enemy take your tower you can still shoot at them without them having cover if you're shooting from the Donjon or Bergfried (the larger central tower in a lot of castles)

[@ThePeetzerGuy]

@@fakenodj depends on the era, the place, and the castle. Many early German castles didn't have a central keep, but rather a large perimeter tower known as a Bergfried. Donjon is a much broader term, often referring to the highest or most fortified tower separate from the keep, but gets its name from the earliest "keeps" of the old Motte and Bailey style castles.

[@alanpennie8013]

@@fakenodj It's the standard English name.

[@ModernSynthesist]

Wait, didn't Arya kill a ship insurance salesman? Did they never call it insurance?

[@louisroy4911]

Love the behind the scenes stuff! I don’t pick up on half of these details, so I need you to tell me and that makes me appreciate it all even more.

[@BFB1Mr]

Honestly your chapters are amazing, thanks Preston for everything! Will you cover the battle of ice aswell at some point? I want to know what ending the one true king Stannis is getting

[@CaptainTimeStories]

I thought the inclusion of Dayne lore in the drafts was something really fun to review, I would have liked to see more of it in here….

[@mycattypedthis2827]

wouldn't it be funny if Arianne, a practiced seducer, couldn't do anything to Areo, Balon, Lysono Maar, JonCon, but then Darkstar, an ultimate cringelord, kinda seduced Areo without even trying

[@SpaztasticSheep]

PLEASE

[@alanpennie8013]

You have to admit it's impressive.

[@MyUserTubeAccount]

based on the chapter, Areo seems to have loved Arrianne's mom, so doubtful

[@permiebird937]

The Goats that were made to look like Unicorns was the project of author Oberon Zell and his wife Morning Glory, who would at the time of horn debudding baby goats move one of the horn buds to the center between where the horns sprout. The horn bud can be attached there. If the bud attaches, a single horn grows in the center of the top of the head. They did this in California in the 70s.

[@annedavis3340]

Waaay back in the earlier days of the internet that made it into one of my research essays and my teacher was so enormously skeptical. It was delicious being right on that one lol Fun being reminded, thank you for bringing that up

[@permiebird937]

@@annedavis3340 I met the Zells in the mid 80s, forgot to ask them about the goats. 🤦

[@annedavis3340]

If I recall correctly they split the two horn buds and put half of each next to each other so they'd twine? It has been a long time, I might be wrong

[@permiebird937]

@@annedavis3340 I don't know how they did it, but what your describing makes sense.

[@MrPhbahia]

love these going over videos! they are so interesting

[@CaptainTimeStories]

Nice to see these reviews, excited for these next three!

[@jaredbrady5566]

I thought the "Where do Septas go?" May have been a Lemore = Ashara reference. As there was a mention of Ashara earlier by Darkstar.

[@Xob_Driesestig]

When I suggested the half-towers I also had some additional symbolism in mind. They could also symbolize that half the arriving party is gone or maybe symbolize that this is only half of house Dayne. It also could be seen as foreshadowing that Darkstar is not half as threatening as he appears. It looks imposing from the front, but things are not as they seem, and once you get a look behind the curtain(wall) the threats (and towers) are actually hollow. They could also be an extra reason Areo doesn’t want to storm the castle, while ironically, with the benefit of hindsight, the half towers would’ve actually helped him since the Daynes have so few men. Half towers are great if the enemies scale the walls and you have many men since your men can attack the enemy from the courtyard, but if you only have a couple men on the wall it doesn’t help you at all, and if they break through the gate and you have no-one in the courtyard it actually helps *the attackers*. But because Areo doesn't know the half of it, he doesn't attack. Darkstar masterfully controlled the flow of knowledge, and knowing is half the battle.

[@ModernSynthesist]

I read it as also symbolizing how Darkstar's power is a facade: strong-lookong on the outside, then hollow on the inside.

[@Bluemilk92]

Bravo

[@Jord73]

Thanks for doing these, Preston! Very interesting.

[@zacrusk5274]

Thanks for the upload Preston. Love where all this is heading! Hope we get some Greyjoys soon!

[@steveandortudge]

Really enjoyed this overview. Great work all around

[@paulcato3434]

It was Gaemon Palehair (4yrs old) and his mother's Dornish girlfriend. Gaemon later became Aegon III's whipping boy and only friend.

[@profoundpronoun4712]

Great job big P!

[@ModernSynthesist]

YES! DEADLIEST BY STARLIGHT! 😍

[@ser_ryon_vine6392]

Was waiting for this

[@Corsharkgaming]

Since you mentioned Sylva, it got me thinking, will you be fixing the Estermont family tree discrepancy? Essentially the books kept changing whether Eldon Estermont is Stannis's uncle, grandfather, or great-uncle.

[@alialmuhanna4938]

7:55 Your search history must be quite colorful researching the effects of injury on human bodies, eh Preston ? 😁 Makes you wonder if you’ve ended up on a watchlist.

[@elisebrodeur-jacobs5215]

You are the man, Preston!

[@daboos6353]

Love these videos, makes me realize I miss a lot lmao

[@brendanfechter4889]

Prest Jon can't stay dead. Ice and Fire bro. Ice. And Fire. Maybe he never died at all. Twist! Stabbed but not dead.

[@The_Wrath_of_Conn]

Thank you Preston for being the voice i go to sleep with in times like these And also for giving me such depth for this series and lore that i love

[@JoniukasVader]

Back are we and

[@AS-fi7hc]

1:07:45 this idea of “she gonna die eventually” is funny to me because I know that’s not really the point here but it seems very believable that GRRM would use a character like Obara to make the point that her fate was sealed and “she was gonna die eventually” the moment she chose to go down the road of revenge and war. So I can see him making it very obvious leading up to this that Obara was always going to die from her wounds not matter what even if she herself and the people around her tried to deny it. So it’d be very interesting to me to see everyone ignoring the elephant in the room that she’s dying and the very obvious elephant in the room that the path of the sand snakes only leads to death

[@fredchapman6389]

Hey Preston, I love all the new chapters. They’re just as good as a GRRM original. Was thinking with the Dornish chapters, George clearly takes a lot of influence from Dune. A lot of parallels between the Dornish resistance throughout history and the the Fremen, gender equality amongst the Dornish/ Fremen etc. I kind of thought you (perhaps unwillingly) paralleled the duel between Paul and Jamis in the last chapter with the dual between Hotah and Swan at the beginning that give Hotah this almost supernatural respect for Balon Swan. Now that Hota is in rural Dorn I feel there’s so much scope to parallel the local Small folk with the Fremen, value of water, genetic mutation towards desert life etc. Again, you’ve kind of already touched on this with the purple eyes. Dunno, just an idea you could pursue.

[@catlord760]

I thought Gregor's rats called him Ser out of respect mixed with fear, like no other knights matter except for "Ser".

[@oc5337]

Can 5 people defend a castle against a 100? You need to read about black Agnus. You will be surprised. (LazerPig has a great Video about it btw.)

[@hughmoore2143]

We celebrate the solstice because it is when days begin to get longer again. It is a promise of better things to come.

[@Ryan6586]

I really think you are taking that line from the Stannis sample chapter wrong. I'm pretty sure when they say ravens usually only know one castle means they can go back and forth between their home AND one other castle. The idea they have to be shipped back all the time is crazy.

[@hollin220]

In regards to siege warfare, you typically want to have more than double the troops then the defender. But the castle and its defenses can make that number fluctuate.

[@HolsteinerCox]

Thank you!

[@CaptainTimeStories]

Siberian unicorns are fairly different than what we see of asoaif unicorns, though they are the inspiration.

[@thoughtsuponatime847]

Braaaaains

[@SHARKVADERS]

PJ IS BACK FOMOS

[@baldandbearded9953]

Commitment to the bit. Your consistency is a boon in these troubled times

[@darylchurch2115]

Yes! First thing when I wake up, a new Preston video~!

[@peterv1054]

Do we know how white ravens work? Black ravens grow up in the place they are supposed to fly to and then carried to the sender of the message. But white ravens are straight from the citadel, they don't grow up in their destination castle. How does this work?

[@PrestonJacobstheSweetrobin]

It's a good question. I think somehow the white ravens are smart enough to be instructed on direction and distance or something.

[@kublai7123]

Every place does not need ravens for every other location. The Maesters are a network and could be relaying the messages to the right destination. This is how most post and logistics work. Only frequently communicating castles would need direct ravens for more security and speed.

[@alialmuhanna4938]

I think it’s clear that Hotah killed Obara.

[@alanpennie8013]

Were you thinking of elasmotheria when you were talking about real (extinct) unicorns?

[@Larzinius]

Don’t know if this was prerecorded but hope all is well after your stream yesterday

[@muat1155]

What happened?

[@alishamarieh.1519]

@@muat1155 Preston looked up during his latest stream and very abruptly apologized and left without an explanation - I was personally concerned about him as well! It could have simply been the case he lost track of time but he left with an urgency that made me wonder if something more serious might have happened.

[@muat1155]

@@alishamarieh.1519 oh dear…hopefully it’s something innocuous like he was late picking his child up from daycare or something rather than anything serious. Thanks for the response :)

[@jdwest34]

Thanks

[@adashofbitter]

Honor is a horse now as well? IS ANYTHING NOT A HORSE????

[@ceilingfanenthusiast6041]

I know it's been months but J watched a 3 month old Preston stream today where he said word for word "I am horse" (he was talking about his voice being hoarse)

[@umwha]

2:35 Arya dosent become the ugly little girl in the chapter. It was the prior chapter she puts on the face for the first time, so she’s already attained that identity

[@sosa2mars]

The idea that George based unicorns off the real world elasmotherium seems to mostly just be a fanon that got extremely popular. You’re right with your idea of Westerosi unicorns being goat like as the unicorn we see Shaggydog fighting a large one horned goat which is presumedly a unicorn on Skagos in Jon I Adwd.

[@ser_ryon_vine6392]

Need to dig a grave in the desert? just give me ten good men.

[@abdirahmanmohamed2478]

Preston looks exactly like Ryan Condal lmfaoo. That’s trippy

[@alishamarieh.1519]

🤣 they could be related for sure

[@JB.27_]

Im really loving the series but I have to admit… I feel like a total bozo because I don’t understand the raven thing.. Is this based off of a theory that I somehow missed? I’ve been watching the channel for years and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen everything you’ve put out, which is why I’m confused. Is this something that is going to be playing out over the series, or am I missing something?

[@JB.27_]

So… I’ve read the chapter over again, and still don’t see what I’m missing. Mind giving me a super short explanation if possible? I understand the story, so you don’t have to go over the small details.

[@Diiffer]

Shouldn't Samwell I be an early chapter in TWoW in your fanfic? Considering that Sam's influence on the speech of the white ravens have effects early on?

[@jonttopia]

I don't think you want to reveal what Sam has been doing too early

[@Diiffer]

@@jonttopia It's obvious that Sam is the one affecting the white ravens. Showing how he did it won't spoil anything. If Sam has been doing/learning about other important stuff, then that can happen in later Samwell chapters.

[@Gui101do]

👍🏻

[@jessecook4466]

No way 5 people in a castle can beat 50 sieging it

[@chemputer]

26:00 That bastard was a baby, decrees coming down from his mother, the whole thing was referred to as "The House of Kisses", so I don't think it was his wife/lover as much as his mother, given he was a baby.

[@Wolpertinger-yl6ll]

if allyrya dayne rules starfall in Ned's stead, did his dad die offscreen? or was that another bluff by darkstar?

[@paulbutts5620]

The wiki says Ned Dayne is already lord as of A Storm of Swords, so I assume his dad died offscreen a long time ago.

[@DontPanicVU]

Elasmotherium sibiricum - the Siberian unicorn

[@gh1430]

You’re the best Preston!!

[@permiebird937]

Darkstar probably can spot the difference between an 11 year old girl and a 9 year old girl, especially if he spends a lot of time with them. That could be how Darkstar saw through Desert Girl. Who has the High Hermitage host that should be waiting in the Prince's pass? Early winter can be hopeful, if food stores are full. The first part of winter is when the short storage foods need to be eaten, which is part of the why winter celebrations happen.

[@samuelherrington6973]

:D

[@shinjinobrave]

"I think myself a binder." Darkstar is a trans icon change my mind.

[@tylerruddy5444]

Honestly I don’t care about GRRM’s Winds of Winter, I’m all in on PJ’s Winds of Winter.

[@aguglie441]

No flashback to Arys’ last words, not a reflection of their meaning. “Was he talking about Arianne or Myrcella?” or something like that. Even though it was a good chapter (I really liked it), sadly, that is not the only problem with this chapter. Edit: you somewhat fixed some of the issues with your comment on how stupid Darkstar’s story about meeting Myrcella is... But still, I must keep emphasizing that the never-swapped-back theory is still horrible and makes Arys’ story (both thematically and logically) more senseless.

[@The1whocould]

First

[@umbraunuivis]

Am I the only one that doesn't like the fan-fiction project? I feel like this takes A LOT from the theories videos of the real ASOIAF! Should have waited for GRRM to die before doing this.

[@daboos6353]

It's likely the closest we're ever gonna get to Wind's of Winter

[@sarahmetcalfe50]

Also, if we start now, we might even have the compiled novel as a post Mortem tribute to GRRM.

[@umbraunuivis]

@@sarahmetcalfe50 What do you mean start now? Are you afraid PJ will die too and not have time 10-15 years after GRRM to finish ADOS too?

[@sarahmetcalfe50]

@@umbraunuivis I don't think PJ will die. The big fandom concern is if GRRM will die before he finishes it; especially if PJ's estimates are correct and it takes him a second global pandemic to do so. the post mortem tribute part was referring to GRRM and I wasn't sure if we had given up on ADOS altogether. If there is a fanfic dream it's going to be a much different beast with a longer writing time as it's entirely fanfic content. This was why I didn't mention ADOS at all in my last comment. We start now and we can probably finish both books. We wait for GRRM to die and we will probably be in the exact same place we are now but with fewer people giving a damn about ASoAF and so nobody gets anything.

[@val_wildling767]

Maybe Preston will have other priorities and plans in his life by the time GRRM dies? You know, like two kids and family... 😬 If he has now the time, motivation and enough followers supporting him to start this project, why in hell should he wait?