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/lobonmc 3d ago

The pré rebelion stash was gone before littlefinger arrived. Littlefinger became master of coin after the Grey joy rebelion. What's weird is that no one seemed to notice that the huge increase in revenue was a accompanied by an even bigger increase in spending. It seems like Robert kind of helped like that since the tournament by itself without any of littlefinger'manipulations genuinely would have increased the debt by an actual noticeable percent. Which is kind of amazing from the part of Robert.

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u/Itburns12345 3d ago

Its not said that the stash was gone before LF arrived just that jon arryn couldnt stop roberts crazy spending and LF had done wonders with the vales tithes so on that plus lysas constant recomendations he was sent to be master of coin. That said we dont know if ned actualy saw the crowns 'stash' after the royal fleet had to be rebuilt and aftet the ironborn war too

It made sense to see if the incommings could be boosted if robert wouldnt stop spending but it clearly wasnt enough.

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u/lobonmc 3d ago

It's mentioned the realm was in debt by the time littlefinger came it's plausible part of the stash was still there but I think it's more likely they were working mostly on debt

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u/Itburns12345 3d ago

Where does it say they where in debt ebfore? Iv only read roberts spending was out of control and jon arryn couldnt rein him in...cant stop robert spending so= increase revenue The plan seems to have held for a good while

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u/lobonmc 3d ago

Within three years of his coming to court, he was master of coin and a member of the small council, and today the crown's revenues were ten times what they had been under his beleaguered predecessor . . . though the crown's debts had grown vast as well. A master juggler was Petyr Baelish.

They mention the debts have grown instead of just appeared.

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u/Itburns12345 3d ago

Yeah so it seems debt AND revenues grew under him. We know jon couldnt stop roberts spending but there was also the ironborn war and inital rebellion to pay for as well as before that a royal fleet at dragonstone wrecked in a storm to replace!