A Game of Thrones - TV Show Discussion Thread

[Krill]

Bad winters last 10 years, good ones, not as long according to the books.

[Hauldren Collider]

At one point they mention that they freeze a hell of a lot of meat inside the wall, but that's only to feed the watch.

[Jon Miller]

I guessed that it changed those that lived in the warmer climates to climates similar to what is i Sweden/etc.

Or maybe what is in Northern Canada.

Anyways, people can live off a lot of meat... and sea stuff...

I guess you would hope for a lot of onions/etc?

JM

[Jon Miller]

I guessed that it changed those that lived in the warmer climates to climates similar to what is i Sweden/etc.

Or maybe what is in Northern Canada.

Anyways, people can live off a lot of meat... and sea stuff...

I guess you would hope for a lot of onions/etc?

JM

[regexcellent]

Mass starvation and eating a lot of fish is pretty much all I can come up with.

[Dr Strangelove]

I am sure the winters lasting from decades to maybe centuries at times have a pretty big impact on development. It's like throwing in a nuclear winter every generation or so. Since the series has been so quiet on how seasons actually work who knows.

Yeah, how would anyone living in a medeival culture survive a winter 100 years long? They seem to imply that it involves the whole planet.

[Hauldren Collider]

Melt the wall and watch the seas flood Westeros!

[Koyaanisqatsi]

See also: Magic.

[Hauldren Collider]

Don't know if anyone mentioned it already, but apparently when the author saw the first version of the first computer game based on GoT he saw the wall and thought it was a mistake, because it was far too huge. They then explained that it was scaled exactly to his description in the book, and his response was basically 'Ah, I didn't realize 600 foot was THAT tall..'.

Yeah, the wall always seemed way too tall to me. It's a wall of ice a thousand miles long and taller than the Washington Monument--it has to be a significant fraction of all the freshwater--or just water, period, on the entire planet.

[Patroklos]

What I'd like to know is why is this civilization so backwards? According to the Features sections of the DVD it's over 5000 years old, yet it's stuck in a permanent dark ages. There doesn't appear to have ever been a golden age of literature, or philosophy, or arts, or math or science.

I am sure the winters lasting from decades to maybe centuries at times have a pretty big impact on development. It's like throwing in a nuclear winter every generation or so. Since the series has been so quiet on how seasons actually work who knows.

[Dr Strangelove]

Hmmmm....... Maybe the planet they're on is significantly smaller than the Earth. That would explain the pint-sized continents and the flying lizards.

[kentonio]

Don't know if anyone mentioned it already, but apparently when the author saw the first version of the first computer game based on GoT he saw the wall and thought it was a mistake, because it was far too huge. They then explained that it was scaled exactly to his description in the book, and his response was basically 'Ah, I didn't realize 600 foot was THAT tall..'.

[Dr Strangelove]

One could legitimately ask, if not for the Europeans, how long, if ever would it have taken the Chinese, Indians and Muslims ever to reach the scientific / industrial era? Each of those societies had their golden ages of scientific intellectual endeavor and then forgot about it.

[Ming]

Yeah... why should reality get in the way of a good story

[Dinner]

What I'd like to know is why is this civilization so backwards? According to the Features sections of the DVD it's over 5000 years old, yet it's stuck in a permanent dark ages. There doesn't appear to have ever been a golden age of literature, or philosophy, or arts, or math or science.

That's kind of something you see a lot of in different fantasy series. There are inexplicably long period of times where society is kept in something like a status where nothing changes. I'm not sure why so many fantasy series are like that but it seems like at least a 1/3rd of the ones I've read have that happening.