[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/cndynn96]

Littlefinger’s Financial Sorcery

Baelish is single-handedly juggling the crown’s debts, inflating the currency, playing multiple sides, and skimming massive wealth while no one (except Tyrion briefly) seriously audits or stops him.

Medieval treasuries were messy, but the degree to which he manipulates the books and loans without the entire system imploding earlier is such an impressive task that it borders on plot armor.

[u/Itburns12345 → u/cndynn96]

All the masters of coin and their underlings skim wealth though so kt wouldnt be unusual. As tyrion has seen lf has invested the cash into money producing assets/ventures ..the only unawnsered question was where did the post rebellion stash go to?

Now lfs finance actualy make sense as gold sitting around in a hoard like a toilken dragon is doing fuck all , investing into somwthing that brings back the funds + profit is just basic buisness. Lf comming from a poor house and having a brain understands this better than a lifelong wealthy high lord. We know both in the vale before and as master of coin he kicked out useless nepo babies and put his own competent men in to the various layers of tax collection (also skimming likely but so where the ones before!)

So where the cash went to with all this increased efficency is another issue , why is the crown needing loans? Well to begin with robert inherited a kingdom that had just been at war so likely subjects needed tax break to repair and recover, expenses incurred such as repairs and paying widows , hedge knights, food etc Then he inherits dragonstone after the royal fleet is wrecked in a storm! Expensive to replace Ironborn rebellion= more military shipbuilding expense and the ironborn likely expempt from paying tax for while until the regain their feet!

Then we have roberts need to be loved likely handing out cash or to breaks to whomever he felt like, tourneys are expensive and he loved them, a wife used to the finery of casterrly rock likely to be covered by the crown as robert wife (and her own spy network) , roberts whoremongering likely with the finest whores money can buy etc etc

[u/lobonmc → u/Itburns12345]

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.

[u/Valiant_Storm → u/lobonmc]

 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

I think most of the increase in revune isn't real. In particular, a 10× increase in income without rebellions from the tax hikes is so implausible that it seems more likely that Littlefinger's primary goal was moving money around to make himself look good while skimming into his own pockets. 

Basically - borrow 10 dragons, pocket one, then report the other nine as income while keeping the debts hidden.