Disregarding fantasy elements, what aspects of ASOIAF are unrealistic?

>>9677862
This ties in to fantasy elements somewhat because it comes back to the stupid unpredictably long winter/summer thing, but food storage.

They can't manufacture food for astronauts that'll last long enough for a mission to Mars without it deteriorating and potentially going bad. The maximum for any goods produced today is 2 or 3 years, and after that you're pushing it and how much do you like botulism?

So, assuming the fear of the winter means people start putting food stores away as soon as the very first harvet of summer arrives, and they continue to store as much food as possible, how does the food remain unspoiled until the end of the winter when at least one winter has lasted like nine years?

I mean, if they were far enough north and dug down below the permafrost I might be a little more inclined to believe it, but would permafrost exist when you can have summers that last seven years?

I do not understand.

Are they importing massive amounts of food from warmer countries with more temperate climates? Does the whole planet go into winter at once because of an unstable orbit, or does the planet wobble unstably on its axis, so when it's winter in the north it's summer in the south?

How do fruiting trees that require a freeze in order to flower work? Do they flower after winter and fruit only once, so fruit is abundant only at the beginning of the summer, or do they repeatedly flower over the summer? Why would they repeatedly flower without the necessary freeze/daylight change to prompt their reproductive cycles?

How do animals' reproductive cycles work? Most mammals have a breeding season that lets them birth in spring, when their young will have the best chance of growing big and strong over summer to make it through the next winter. But if winters and summers are all over the place, how to mating cycles work?

How do small animals like mice survive? They only live a few months or maybe a year at most. A single long winter would be enough to wipe them out entirely, wouldn't it?

And what about animals that hibernate? How do they store sufficient fat to survive however long the winter will be, since the winter is unpredictable? Won't most of them run out of their fat reserves too soon and starve to death?

I mean, I guess all of these questions come back to the stupid winter/summer fantastical element, but still. They bug the heck out of me.

>>9677862
The Iron Bank

>>9677862
The treachery is too compressed in time.

File: 1496867627152.png (94KB, 300x450px) Image search: [Google]

94KB, 300x450px

>>9677862
For one thing. It can decide if it wants to take after Medieval time period or Renaissance. You have the rise of a merchant class yet no guns or cannons. Where are the tax policies and why does a region like the North with a large port( White harbor) that can trade directly with one of the largest trading city in that world, a large resource base of Timber in the vast not have a Warden that becomes at least the 3rd richest house? How does this same region not have a large amount of ships at their disposal just because of muh traditions(which is retarded how it came about)?

Women can't fight

File: stannis-baratheon-sigil-game-of-thrones-1.png (584KB, 694x459px) Image search: [Google]

584KB, 694x459px

>>9677862
What's your favorite house?

I like Baratheon of Dragonstone

>>9677899
Yeah, this is the worldbuilding problem. An author isn't smart enough to plan for infinite repercussions, so other things equal you should just mimic the real world and trust the consequences to take care of themselves, as they do in the real world.

Unfortunately this creates some really tight strictures. For example, if you want the force of gravity to be the same, you better make the planet about the size of earth – and if the force of gravity isn't the same, that will cause so many issues that you probably have no idea how to coherently imagine.

Same with seasons. It's just not a good thing to fuck with. If you have to, use models of real-world places with weird seasonal phenomena (little difference between seasons, midnight suns, etc.)

>>9677862
What fantasy elements?

>>9677929
The Manderlys are rich, though, and do have a large fleet. The rest of the North is landlocked (it's huge), and the Stark position is ancestral / traditional. White Harbor is of far more global import than Winterfell, which is just a castle and town.

Rape and incest was not that common.

>>9678692
It was though

>>9678850

Well you've certainly changed my mind. Consider me persuaded. Of the hundreds of different instances of sex throughout the series, only one or two are between a husband and wife. The rest is rape, incest, or some other sort of deviancy. As you said, that's how it really was throughout history.

>>9678869
That's how it is now you absolute fucking mong. You think people were less degenerate in a time when you had corpses hanging next to the whore house on main street?

>>9678692
thing is westeros has a population of what, 80 million? in an area of modern day germany

and then consider the fact that the north is as densely populated as scotland in the middle ages

add to that the fact that the whole region is in political and material turmoil, I think it makes sense

>>9678911

There's no need to be hostile because I'm agreeing with you. Heterosexual sex between husband and wife is incredibly rare. It's so rare that you're more likely to see rape.

>>9678935
It's not that rare so much as it's boring. Why would you want to read about sex in the missionary position for the sole purpose of reproduction when there's all that firey rape and hot lesbian hand maids?

>>9678932

Yeah the sex in ASOIAF is totally an accurate representation of reality and not a product of the skewed perspective of an author with a rape fetish.

>>9678947

I don't care about what's boring and what isn't. The thread is about unrealistic elements of the books, and the portrayal of sex is unrealistic. Rape and incest is not that common. It's ridiculous to say it is.

>>9678957
What are you doing on /lit/ if you haven't read any history? Rape and war go hand in hand. A quarter of Germany's women were raped by Swedes during the 30 Years' War, for example, followed by a quarter again by the Soviets. American missionaries and teachers raped children left and right at Native American boarding houses.The Rape of Nanking. Come on son.

>>9678957
Realistically war time brings out the worst in men and diverts the attention of authority.

As a common soilder with little prospects who just slaughtered a village, of course he's going to let loose his battle boner on the buxom farm girl. Hell, look at all the rape in Syria right now.

>>9678980
>>9678985

There are over two hundred acts of rape in the books series, and in contrast there are only two or possibly three acts of sex between a married husband and wife. If we isolate these numbers, for every one act of heterosexual sex between a husband and wife there are 99 acts of rape. Are you really going to maintain that this is an accurate representation of reality?

>>9679002
How many acts of peeing are described in the books? The average person pees at least a few times a day, more than they have consensual sex, let alone rape.

>>9679024

I don't know how often characters are describes as peeing. What does it matter? What's your point? You could say it's unrealistic how little characters are described as peeing and I would agree with you. The fact that peeing is portrayed unrealistically doesn't negate the fact that sex is also portrayed unrealistically.

>>9679045
So you admit that your standards are unrealistically strict and describe virtually no fiction?

>>9679002
wat?

>>9679056

I never said people should portray sex accurately. This thread is about unrealistic aspects about the novels and I brought up the sex. I'm baffled that you've taken such an issue with this.

>>9679066
>I never said people should portray sex accurately.
Next sentence
>This thread is about unrealistic aspects about the novels and I brought up the sex.
kek

>>9679104

There's no contradiction there. You can recognize an aspect as unrealistic while at the same time holding the position that it's acceptable for the purposes of storytelling.

>what aspects of ASOIAF are unrealistic
Nearly everything when it comes to size or scale.

>>9679164
For example?

>>9679191
700ft walls, 800ft Pyramids, fucking Harrenhal.

>>9679191
there's a fella called jaime and it's pronounced jamie

>>9679274
>Harrenhal
How do? I honestly want to know.

How about the portrayal of aristocracy, and feaudalism? What does he get right here? I've noticed that the title for lords is just "lord" and "lord-paramount" and not Baron, Duke, Earl, etc... What about Westerosi knights as opposed to medieval knights?

Strong women leaders in a medieval/feudal european society.

>>9679045
moron

>>9679274
As for the wall, it was tradition that every Lord commander of the night's watch built the wall up higher than when he got there. I guess over the centuries they just got carried away.

>>9679727
the author himself said he meant for it to be much shorter but he is bad with measurements

>>9679945
What? No!

>>9680825
Yes he did. "I meant for it to be much shorter but I'm bad with measurements." - George R.R. Martin

>>9680850
Surely you jest.

>>9680985
I saw it on reddit

>>9678957
GRRM's rape fetish is fucking weird
Fans excuse it because of realism
But GRRM only depicts attractive women being raped
There's no male-on-male rape depicted, even though it would be pretty common the Wall (look at prisons throughout history if you want terrifying examples) and would probably occur to some degree in the various armies as well
And even if we ignore the absence of male-on-male rape, there's still the fact that GRRM almost only depicts young attractive women being raped
In short, it feels like GRRM is leaving out the kinds of rape that make him feel uncomfortable, and is only including the kinds he likes writing, which feels unnerving

GRRM isn't including it for realism, which is why it feels really weird to reread those books
Maybe its a complete accident on his part, but it does feel a bit weird that his books ended up like that

>>9678372
>For example, if you want the force of gravity to be the same, you better make the planet about the size of earth
How about "the planet is a different size than the earth, but the gravity is the same because of unexplained factors that will never come up in the story"?

>>9681071
>But GRRM only depicts attractive women being raped
What ugly female character is there that could have been raped?

>>9681089
The planet can be smaller but denser. That would create about equal gravity.

>>9681099
Brienne

File: westeros.jpg (596KB, 1328x1208px) Image search: [Google]

596KB, 1328x1208px

The rivers flow from bogs and marshes rather than mountains

>>9682674
what a dumbass that's like the first thing you learn when you're creating a map for worldbuilding purposes

>>9681089
Larger iron core and less rock would make the planet more dense and allow it to be smaller

>>9678935
Kek btfo

I like your style anon

>>9678372
Discworld

>>9677899
Commendable points

>>9682674
Oh lad that does look a little fucked

>>9682674
Those rivers are retarded

File: 1485650234302.png (428KB, 639x474px) Image search: [Google]

428KB, 639x474px

>>9682674
So... Mander R. flows out of Silverhill, makes a hard 60 degree left turn at Highgarden and proceeds to branch uphill until around Tumbleton, Grassy Vale and Ashford? Or is it the other way around?

>>9683028
Wow ur dumber than grrm

>>9681071
>Hasn't read the books

The mountain porks an obese 12-year old or something in A Clash of Kings. Theon fucks a 5/10 on his ship home in A Game of Thrones. Tormund rapes a fucking bear or something, what about Craster's hags/kids?

File: 19430109_1803782619950967_3230216573672888837_n.jpg (11KB, 478x361px) Image search: [Google]

11KB, 478x361px

>>9683321