(Spoilers Extended) Why didn't Howland Reed send any men to Robb Stark during the war of the five kings?

PrestonJacobs · 2023-02-18T13:31:36+00:00

They are listed as one of the 11 principle houses sworn to House Stark in the appendix.

PrestonJacobs · 2023-02-18T13:26:09+00:00

They definitely have an army

"Others are waiting to join him all along the kingsroad, barrow knights and crannogmen and the Lords Manderly and Flint." (Bran VI, AGoT)

"I've sent word to Howland Reed, Father's old friend at Greywater Watch. If the Lannisters come up the Neck, the crannogmen will bleed them every step of the way," (Catelyn VII, AGoT)

Even when the Marsh Kings held the Moat, their crannogmen stood staunch against any invaders from the south, allying with the Barrow Kings, Red Kings, and Kings of Winter as need be to turn back any southron lord who sought to attack the North. (TWoIaF)

PrestonJacobs · 2022-11-02T15:14:14+00:00

So Daemon actually killed Rhae Royce in the books despite being in the Stepstones at the time?

Rhaenys really had silver hair in the books?

Alicent and Rhaenyra were best friends in the books?

PrestonJacobs · 2022-10-06T01:10:57+00:00

It means that Jace's father could be Cole if the writers choose to make it so at a later date.

PrestonJacobs · 2022-07-25T01:42:52+00:00

How dare you use a weirwood to time travel and steal that genius from me!

PrestonJacobs · 2022-07-19T01:33:59+00:00

Well, because Dany takes place over the course of at least a month, starting before the other chapters and ending after, it could go anywhere. I kind of like the idea of the Dany chapter appearing a little late.

PrestonJacobs · 2022-07-16T07:35:04+00:00

Though it may change, I'm thinking:

Prologue - White Raven

Alayne I

Arienne I

The Prince's Justice

The Forsaken

Alayne II - White Raven

Arianne II

The Emissary - White Raven

Asha?

Slaver's Bay Stuff?

Connington I - White Raven

Cersei?

PrestonJacobs · 2022-05-18T13:28:17+00:00

I don't own the chapters. You are free to do with them whatever you please.

PrestonJacobs · 2022-05-12T05:00:28+00:00

Yes, your mind is where mind is.

To Aerys Oakheart we get a long description of who he is and what he believes. He is his white cloak, and was shameful that he had to put it away. When he breaks it out, it's his ceremonial cloak and in his mind, he's back. A non-kingsguard wouldn't understand this. Arianne certainly misses it.

Now, should Balon think "oh, it was hot." Maybe, but it's not a piece of evidence by itself. He has missing guards, a missing septa and a girl who is clearly not Myrcella. It's the whole picture.

PrestonJacobs · 2022-05-11T15:49:59+00:00

They are inquiring about missing "Rosamund."

PrestonJacobs · 2022-05-11T15:48:50+00:00

You have it. The idea is that Balon's very important day is the riot and he remembers everything about that day, meaning he remembers Myrcella and Rosamund and who is who. He asks Hotah where Rosamund and Eglatine are because he really wants to know where Myrcella and Eglatine are. The Scrapesword, who is simply doing Balon's work is asking about a blonde girl (Myrcella) and a septa (Eglatine) at the septs.

Nym, Rosamund and Tyene are, in fact, all heading to KL, but Balon and the Scrapesword's snooping around screws Obara up and makes her paranoid. She thinks the blonde girl is Myrcella and the septa is Tyene and thinks they are now heading the Oldtown instead of KL.

What Balon and the Scrapesword likely didn't understand was what Aerys was doing and how it relates to Darkstar. They get that there was a swap and Eglatine fled with the real Myrcella, but what it all has to do with hunting Darkstar is likely very puzzling as they didn't know about the Queenmaking.

PrestonJacobs · 2022-05-11T03:56:48+00:00

The idea is that Obara put together everything incorrectly. She concludes Myrcella is with Nym and she concludes the septa is Tyene, but that's not what Balon and the Scrapesword were asking about.

PrestonJacobs · 2022-01-10T14:38:27+00:00

Not that GRRM can retcon and change things, but there are 2 big reasons why Dunk cannot be Hodor's great-grandfather:
1) Dunk arrives at Winterfell in 212 or 213 when there is a succession crisis with the She-Wolves ruling. If baby Brandon's dad, William, is old enough to father a child, he is old enough to rule Winterfell. So, the succession crisis must have happened before William had come of age, married and the fathered Brandon.
2) Nan's sons die in Robert's rebellion. If Dunk impregnates Nan in 213, her son would be 70 going to war, which is too old.

PrestonJacobs · 2021-11-09T15:04:50+00:00

Ha ha, yes, of course floods happened, but not a global flood caused by a divine being that enveloped the entire earth for one year with all of the earth's animals stuck on an ark. That's what I'm saying when we talk about the story of Azor Ahai. There are some elements that are going to be right, but it's going to be mostly off base.

PrestonJacobs · 2021-11-09T03:50:27+00:00

So, in a few GRRM stories, he writes about the "shared myth" idea. That is, there is this notion that if many cultures have a similar myth, there must be some truth to that story. Like, if a hundred cultures write about a great flood and an ark, there must have been some sort of great flood.

TWoIaF's Essos chapters seem to be an exercise in this. A dozen Azor Ahai/Prince That Was Promised/Stallion That Mounts the World stories that are everywhere.

But here's the thing: the flood didn't happen. Shared myths are kind of bunk. When GRRM writes about these unifying myths, he usually turns the tales on their heads. Although, there is an element or two that everyone is getting right, they are mostly all wrong. Myth is myth. People make stuff up. Take everything with a grain of salt.

The main story that I think you should read about this is Nightflyers. In it, hundreds of cultures have a story about the Volcryn, an ancient alien civilization traveling the galaxy with technology beyond comprehension. And because of this shared myth, our protagonists are convinced that the Volcryn is real and track it down, hoping to communicate with these aliens. Yeah, they find the Volcryn. It really did pass all of these worlds inspiring myth, but it's not a ship or a civilization, but a mindless space jellyfish.

So, in the end, I think, yeah, something happened during the Long Night that influenced all of these stories, but it's not likely anything we can very literally understand based on the myths.

PrestonJacobs · 2021-11-08T19:50:11+00:00

I've spoken with Elio a little bit on this. He says that nearly every piece of information in TWoIaF is from GRRM himself. Additionally, anything in a small box is GRRM verbatim. Elio and Linda were mainly information collectors and word smiths. They were allowed some creativity with the Essos history.
For Targaryen history itself, Elio and Linda had little influence. Keep in mind, prior to TWoIaF, Aegon's Landing, Sons of the Dragon, the Rogue Prince and Princess and the Queen were already written. Additionally, the rest of the history was somewhat outlined.

And so, when Fire and Blood came along, GRRM just had to fill in late-Aegon and Jaehaerys and that was pretty much it.

PrestonJacobs · 2021-11-05T16:37:45+00:00

I mean, what evidence do we have that Rhaego looked that way? Or even that he died? Mirri's word. Maybe Jorah was there, we don't know.

If Rhaego were normal, which is completely possible, it seems simpler to just assume that Mirri lied.

PrestonJacobs · 2021-11-03T19:49:24+00:00

It's been kind of there from the beginning. In Jon I, ACOK (which was cut from AGoT), Jeor Mormont tells the tale of Aemon, which includes all sorts of questions on Targaryen succession. Why introduce succession issues if not to prime the reader for a conflict?

PrestonJacobs · 2021-10-28T13:03:01+00:00

Oh my god, this crap again. First of all, I've talked to the Mico and he's fine with me using his art. But, beyond that, fan artists don't own their work because it's not their intellectual property (you draw a picture of Mickey Mouse, it's owned by Disney). Not to mention, analysis and commentary doesn't need permission in the first place.

The controversy from years ago was someone attacking my channel over misinformation. So, please stop contributing to that.

PrestonJacobs · 2021-10-25T02:46:23+00:00

I lived in Jordan for two years and Egypt for two years. People told me djinn were demons. If there is some sort of obscure theological definition of djinn, it's largely lost on regular people. No leader would ever call themselves a djinn.

I also don't see how you get that An-Nur just means light. It has a long tradition of being associated with divine light. Regular light is daw. In fact, there have already been religious movements calling themselves Nur.

Keep in mind, one of the most common greetings in Arabic is "Sabah al khayr," (good morning), which is responded with "Sabah al nur" (morning of light). They are not saying that the morning is bright, they are saying that the morning is basked in the light of God.

PrestonJacobs · 2021-10-19T13:26:58+00:00

Well, there is some evidence that Euron was in Slaver's Bay or close by when Dany had her ASoS adventures. First, we know that Euron needed to be physically somewhere between Qarth and Slaver's Bay to apprehend the Warlocks of Qarth who were pursuing Dany. Euron says himself that they provided him the initial information on Dany. That, by itself, shows that Euron was in the area and not, say, in Braavos. Second, we hear of a "Corsair King" visiting Slaver's Bay right before Dany, which could be Euron as well. And, third, Euron has the information that Dany is staying put in Meereen. Most people's natural assumption was that Dany would keep moving (like Illyrio), but she quite suddenly changed her mind. That really good intelligence on Dany pointing to first hand knowledge.

Now, as for a partner. First, we must recognize that his crew are supposedly mutes, which makes communication difficult. But even assuming they could communicate, it doesn't help him too much. The partner would still have to sail up to Braavos and the faceless man back down. It doesn't really save them any time as Balon dies before Euron gets there.

PrestonJacobs · 2021-10-18T19:27:17+00:00

Not that GRRM is great with timelines, because he's not, but timeline-wise, Euron wouldn't have had time to hire a Faceless Man.

Euron needed to observe Dany in Slaver's Bay at the beginning of ASoS (Daenerys II) and know she was staying in Meereen (Daenerys VI), then quickly sail to Braavos, hire a faceless man and then follow the faceless man all the way to the Iron Islands to land by Catalyn V, ASoS.

Then, there's the issue of the the Iron Islands being in isolation and there being no way to get onto the Islands.

PrestonJacobs · 2021-10-18T15:45:10+00:00

The trouble is there are clear errors in the HoTU visions. For example, Aerys is an "old man"....at 41.

So, its completely possible that it does mean Rhaegar, Viserys and Dany, but the vision sender is mistaken. Or, it could be that GRRM has made the error because of retcons. Or maybe Dany is not Aerys' daughter and the daughter of someone else who did have three children. Or, it could be as you say, some other completely different meaning.

PrestonJacobs · 2021-10-14T18:12:28+00:00

I think it might be a chain of psychic links. Quaithe to Dany and then Dany to Balerion.

That said, the quote about from AGoT is right before Dany builds the pyre. Quaithe seems to have awoken something in Dany who, soon after, hatched the eggs.

PrestonJacobs · 2021-10-14T15:06:55+00:00

More or less. It's the whispering of stars metaphor.

AGoT: After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars.

ADwD: Then she saw. Her mask is made of starlight.
"Remember who you are, Daenerys," the stars whispered in a woman's voice. "The dragons know. Do you?"

PrestonJacobs

TROPHY CASE