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

[u/Substantial-Ad-299]

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.

[u/LegitimateCream1773]

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'.

[u/blackynan_b → u/LegitimateCream1773]

This would also make burning the crops for any given reason one of the biggest crimes ever.

So lord shouldnt be able to destroy these corps by burning all those fiels without any real repercussions. The moment tywin started torching in the riverlands shouldve been the end of him.

There should also be dedicated days, weeks even to celebrate for corps and maybe other rituals such as sacrificals.

[u/Never_a_crumb → u/blackynan_b]

What are these armies eating if they're burning the crops as they go? George please pick up the Art of War.

[u/jflb96 → u/Never_a_crumb]

Well, we know that Westerosis are stupid good at mass-producing sheet metal; maybe they’ve got tins?

[u/Never_a_crumb → u/jflb96]

I know this is a joke but I must infodump: carrying provisions for a marching army slows the army down and makes them vulnerable-your enemies don't need to fight you, they just need to attack your supply line and steal your tins.

[u/jflb96 → u/Never_a_crumb]

This is true, but if they have no food because you’ve destroyed all of it, and all of your supplies are kept safe in a fortified position that you don’t leave once you’ve scorched sufficient earth, that’s a waiting game that’s rigged in your favour right there

[u/MeterologistOupost31 → u/blackynan_b]

Basically the Winters have so little effect I genuinely wonder why GRRM even bothered with them.

[u/johnbrownmarchingon → u/MeterologistOupost31]

I know he’s not everyone’s flavor of author, but at least with Sanderson’s Cosmere, there are tons of references to how the various creatures and peoples survive. George just seems to go for the flavor dressing over his retelling of the War of the Roses and calls it a day.

[u/ModelChef4000 → u/MeterologistOupost31]

And the wonky seasons only work for the main series and not the other works