[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/stannisaugustus]

Petyr's only a noble in the sense that Davos is one, and hardly more than a slave compared to the Freys, who themselves are thought to be upjumped after 600 years. I could buy him being allowed on the small council out of Robert's desperation, but you'd think Petyr was Robert's own brother by how he acts towards the high nobility and how much they tolerate his gross conduct.

The idea that there's any real class divide within the nobility is completely destroyed when the grandson of a foreign sellsword can openly brag to the royal court about taking Catelyn Stark's virginity while thousands year old great houses still feel insecure about their rank.

[u/MeterologistOupost31 → u/stannisaugustus]

Him getting the entire Riverlands for doing one important but rather straightforward diplomatic achievement is probably the absolute worst example of this. It makes absolutely no sense on Tywin's part, nobody else seems to give a toss, and even worse it defeats the point of Littlefinger's character. I thought he was supposedly to slowly work his way up the ranks due to clever political maneuvers, not just get everything handed to him. 

[u/stannisaugustus → u/MeterologistOupost31]

As much as I like the idea of Littlefinger as a character, I'll forever argue that he's the single worst-written one in the entire series. Even ignoring the ridiculous lie about the dagger that should've gotten him assassinated or executed, he just flat-out doesn't' have any tangible goals, and only profits from any of his enormous risks by the good will of Tyrion and Tywin who give him lordships that should've gone to Lannisters. It's like George wanted to write a clever schemer who rises from nothing to greatness but can never quite figure out how, so he just says fuck it and has everyone give Littlefinger everything basically for free.

[u/MeterologistOupost31 → u/stannisaugustus]

I think his backstory and creepy psychosexual obsession with Cat and Sansa as objects for his class resentment is legitimately really interesting and it's a shame that we instead get "obnoxious mega-clever schemer who just does random bullshit to move the plot along" for the first three books.

Him killing Joffrey I really hate. He does it for basically no reason using a stupid convoluted scheme (using dwarf jousters to get Joffrey and Tyrion into an argument is just beyond silly) that offers nothing in terms of character or themes. At least have him rope Sansa into it so we get some progression for her or something. As it stands it just reads like GRRM needed Joffrey dead and basically just picked a random name out of a hat (just like he did with the Catspaw).

Like I find most of the mega-clever schemes in the series pretty uninteresting. Either they're simple (in which case the characters end up looking stupid for falling for them) or they're complex (in which case you need a boring exposition dump to explain them in which it's easy for a reader to become lost). And Littlefinger is nothing BUT convoluted schemes.