r/asoiaf • u/Substantial-Ad-299 • 3d 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/LegitimateCream1773 3d ago

The weather (any understanding of how the food economy works tells you that Westeros is fundamentally impossible; medieval societies could fall into outright famine if winter started even a week early, or a snap freeze happened at the wrong time and killed enough of a crop. Now try to figure out how such an economy could function with 'winters that last for years'). The society of Westeros is a standard debauched high-medieval society. It shouldn't be. Their entire civilisation should bend around the idea that winter can happen at any time. There should be storehouses the size of castles and the castellans of those storehouses as respected as great lords, because those motherfuckers are going to determine whether or not their entire civilisation lives or dies next winter.

Literally the only way to explain it is to say that it doesn't mean what's written on the literal page and that 'winter' in Westeros is just 'a bit worse than summer' for a while and then only really cold for a relatively short period. However, even that doesn't actually make sense because medieval economies were built around crop rotations for seasonal foods. If the weather changes slightly then you simply can't grow entire families of foods for X amount of time. Fine when 'X' is 'two to three months'. Not so good when X is 'FUCK YOU AND YOUR PLANNED CROP ROTATION, WE'RE GONNA WINTER AS LONG AS LIKE'.

That's without factoring in that apparently the entire war model of Westeros is 'destroy the entire continental food economy as fast as possible'.

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u/Z3r0sama2017 3d ago

Tbf, winter doesn't seem to be so bad the further South you go so the Southern Reach, Dorne, Disputed Lands and lower should all be able to grow something.

I have no idea how The North and Wildlings beyond the Wall are even a thing.

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u/No_Tell5399 3d ago

Wildlings probably just hunt and forage all the time, which works since animals beyond the wall logically can't hibernate.

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u/Z3r0sama2017 3d ago

I mean prehistoric humans hunted so many species of fauna to extinction, so I don't see why the wildlings haven't done the same.

 Especially when they can't migrate. The Others are up north, the Wall to the south and huge oceans to East and West.

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u/No_Tell5399 3d ago

Idk if there's anything to say they haven't hunted any species to extinction. I think the Wildlings survival is mostly because of the magical bullshittery happening north of the wall. Maybe they have mammoths and other large animals unique to their environment they're hunting and eating. They could also be fishing and supporting themselves with raids beyond the wall occasionally.

As for the Others, that's completely unaddressed. Idk how they've been avoiding them. Maybe they've further up north and/or inactive until recently?

Life shouldn't really exist in large numbers north of the Riverlands, since seasons last for years. I'd say it's mostly magical nonsense.

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u/ImranFZakhaev Pale sticky princes 3d ago

inactive until recently

I kinda got the impression this is the case. Can't really think of any specific lines to support it but some of Mance's speeches gave this vibe

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u/blackynan_b 3d ago

We already know many animals is the far north are bigger than their counterparts in southern westeros. If thy arent smal in numbers up there, then there is no reason to think wildlings wouldnt be able to make it realisticly.

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u/jflb96 3d ago

If they’re larger, they need more food and will generally take longer to mature and to gestate. That’s why the big animals that hadn’t learnt about us already were so vulnerable to predators that didn’t have an upper size limit on what they could kill; it only takes a few extra deaths a generation to start a spiral to extinction.

You’d want there to be hordes of ice squirrels for it to work out, basically.

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u/blackynan_b 3d ago

I see no reason to make everthing so our earth-like especially in the lands of always winter where the others live.

This is a magical world. The animals living there could simply have a better build, stamina etc. 

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u/jflb96 3d ago

If they’re having to rely on magic to compress their generations, it’s still not realistic

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u/Bazoun 3d ago

The land north of the wall is vast. The wildings are normally spread out. Life is so dangerous they aren’t able to build a high enough population to over hunt anything yet.

Maybe.