Parallels: Areo Hotah & Sandoq the Shadow

Outside of looking extremely differently, there are some extremely strong parallels between two of my favorite characters.

Came from Essos with a Bride

• Hotah (Lady Mellario of Norvos)

"You know me, captain," Arianne had said, as the leagues rolled past. "You have known me since I was little. You always kept me safe, as you kept my lady mother safe when you came with her from Great Norvos to be her shield in a strange land. AFFC, The Princess in the Tower

• Sandoq (Lady Larra Rogare of Lys)

Sandoq the Shadow had come from Lys with Lady Larra, a gift from her father, the Magister Lysandro.

Simple Vows

Not exactly the same but these quotes are pretty similar:

• Hotah

Serve. Obey. Protect. Simple vows for a simple man. -AFFC, The Captain of the Guards

and of course in third person:

"What you meant does not matter, little princess," Areo Hotah said. "Only what you did." His countenance was stony. "I am sorry. It is for my prince to command, for Hotah to obey." -AFFC, The Princess in the Tower

• Sandoq

“Sandoq is no beast,” he answered from the battlements. “He cannot speak, but he hears and he obeys. -Fire & Blood I: The Lysene Spring & The End of the Regency

Using the Axe

While Sandoq has a curved valyrian sword (potentially arakh), they both use the axe as a finishing move in a scene:

• Areo Hotah against a charging Ser Arys Oakheart

… and found Areo Hotah standing over him.

The white knight raised his blade, too slowly. Hotah’s longaxe took his right arm off at the shoulder, spun away spraying blood, and came flashing back again in a terrible two-handed slash that removed the head of Arys Oakheart and sent it spinning through the air. It landed amongst the reeds, and the Greenblood swallowed the red with a soft splash. -AFFC, The Queenmaker

• Sandoq on Ser Amaury Peake in the Defense of Maegor's Holdfast

Yet Peake fought on with stubborn valor, and near the end, for half a heartbeat, the gods gave him his chance when the last of the guards somehow got his hand around Sandoq’s sword, and ripped it from the Shadow’s grasp before he went tumbling off the bridge. From his knees, Ser Amaury staggered back to his feet and charged his unarmed foe.

Sandoq tore Viserys’s battleaxe from the wood where the prince had buried it and split Ser Amaury’s head and helm in half from crest to gorget. -Fire & Blood I

If you want the full description of Sandoq's defense, checkout: Sandoq the Shadow

Staying in Westeros?

• Hotah

We know Areo Hotah stayed when Mellario eventually returned to Norvos:

Little and less. Doran Martell and his Norvoshi wife had spent half their marriage apart and the other half arguing.

and:

I should have gone to Norvos to see my mother and the place that gave her birth, so she would know that I had not forgotten her. He could hear the rain falling outside, drumming against the bricks. -ADWD, The Dragontamer

• Sandoq

Since Fire & Blood I ends at the end of Aegon III's regency, we don't know what happens with Sandoq. We do know that Larra goes back to Lys:

After his years as a hostage in Lys following the Dance, Viserys returned to King's Landing with a beautiful Lyseni bride, Larra Rogare, the daughter of a wealthy and influential noble house. Tall and willowy, with the silver-gold hair and purple eyes of Valyria (for the blood still runs strong in Lys), she was seven years Viserys's elder. She was also a woman who never felt a part of the court and was never truly happy there. Yet she gave him three children before she at last returned to her native Lys. -TWOIAF

and:

She goes back to Lys in 139, and passes away in 145. (semi-canon TWOIAF AMA)

Since our information on her return is from TWOIAF and Sandoq wasn't "officially" added until Fire & Blood, we don't know if Sandoq stayed and served the king or left with Lady Larra.

With Areo Hotah headed toward High Hermitage in TWoW chasing after Darkstar, it will be interesting to see what other potential parallels happen in each of their storylines going forward.

If you like posts on character parallels: The Anger of Lord Tywin: Gerion/Tyrion & Three Times the Gods Saw Fit to Test My Vows

TLDR: The parallels between Sandoq the Shadow and Areo Hotah are quite strong. When creating a super loyal foreign super soldier who comes to Westeros with a foreign noblewoman, it seems like GRRM decided to take Hotah and supersized him to get Sandoq.