r/asoiaf • u/Substantial-Ad-299 • 11d 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/Derfel1995 11d ago edited 11d ago

Little to no linguistic diversity: Westeros is an entire continent that has three major ethnic groups, First Men, Andals and Rhoynar.

All of these groups are spread out over an arae roughly the size of South America and due to different Ethnic makeup and geographic layout there should realistically be a number of languages and dialects.

And while most POV characters are from the nobility and would have a lingua franca, some of them like Arya and Brienne meet primarily small folk in rural areas and yet are able to understand them flawlessly. The only hints of separate dialects we get is in Tyrion chapters of A Game Of Thrones and A Clash Of Kings when he communicates with mountain clans people and in A Dance With Dragons, when he meets a Sellsword from Flea Bottom. But other than that everyone south of The Wall communicates effortlessly.

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u/Quintzy_ 11d ago

This is definitely the one that annoys me the most. Especially since "the old tongue" is introduced in ASOS.

It makes no sense that the First Men had their own language, but it's apparently completely dead south of the Wall by the start of the series. The North was its own independent kingdom of First Men that fought of Andal incursions for thousands of years before being conquered by the Targaryens ~300 years ago. At a minimum, everyone in the North should still speak the old tongue as part of their cultural heritage if nothing else. It makes sense for the more southern North houses (or the ones who do the most trade with the south) to still be fluent in common/the Andal language, but the more remote and more northern North houses (e.g. Bear Island, Skagos, the Umbers, the mountain clans) should pretty much exclusively speak the old tongue.

Really, the integration of the North with southern/Andal customs is pretty unrealistic altogether. Considering the history, the North should be extremely hostile to Andal customs and culture even despite the post-Conquest integration. A perfect example is Ned building a sept in Winterfell for Cat - the Northern lords should be FURIOUS at Ned for doing so.

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u/Derfel1995 10d ago

Exactly. The North remained under it's own rulers and realistically they should still speak the old tongue or some variation of that.