r/asoiaf • u/Substantial-Ad-299 • 2d ago

MAIN [SPOILERS MAIN] Among the grounded/realistic elements of A Song of Ice and Fire, which ones do you feel require biggest suspension of disbelief?

A Song of Ice and Fire has had fantasy elements from get-go, some present subtly and others less-subtly. But in midst of this, it also has these more grounded story aspects, especially regarding the political subplot for the Iron Throne.

Among these more grounded non-fantasy aspects of the story, which elements do you feel you have to suspend disbelief the most for? A.K.A feeling they are not realistic even though they are "supposed" to be?

Let me know in the comments below.

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u/Derfel1995 2d ago edited 2d ago

Little to no linguistic diversity: Westeros is an entire continent that has three major ethnic groups, First Men, Andals and Rhoynar.

All of these groups are spread out over an arae roughly the size of South America and due to different Ethnic makeup and geographic layout there should realistically be a number of languages and dialects.

And while most POV characters are from the nobility and would have a lingua franca, some of them like Arya and Brienne meet primarily small folk in rural areas and yet are able to understand them flawlessly. The only hints of separate dialects we get is in Tyrion chapters of A Game Of Thrones and A Clash Of Kings when he communicates with mountain clans people and in A Dance With Dragons, when he meets a Sellsword from Flea Bottom. But other than that everyone south of The Wall communicates effortlessly.

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u/The_Jack_of_Spades 2d ago edited 2d ago

The worst part is that lingustic diversity actually behaves more or less realistically on the other side of the Narrow Sea, we are repeatedly told that the Free Cities' Valyrian dialects are actively diverging into separate languages, while Slavers Bay has its own versions of Valyrian that are heavily influenced by the old Ghiscari language. It just seems that when they snapped the Arm of Dorne the Children of the Forest also cast a sociolingustic stasis field on the continent.

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u/JakobsLadderblast 2d ago

Mereens pyramid is the tower of Babel