A Game of Thrones - TV Show Discussion Thread

[Imran Siddiqui]

I seem to remember it being pretty strongly implied, if not said outright.

And Martin has confirmed they were in later interviews.

[Guynemer]

Just started reading the novel. So that's why the Mad King was mad--centuries upon centuries of inbreeding. Huzzah.

[VetLegion]

Here's one thing that's bugging me.

I found it online that seasons are erratic and winters sometimes last for years or even a decade or so.

So how do the people feed themselves during such long winters? Winters in our world last for a couple
of months and it's hard for me to grasp how one can even have such a big surplus even to cover an
entire year of winter, let alone two, three or ten.

I do understand that the story is set on a different and magical world, but even so... how do you prepare
for winter if you can't know how long it is going to last? Do you put aside 10, 20, 30% of the harvest, or
what?

Or do their plants grow in winter conditions too? Or does the entire continent live on fish during the winter?

I find it hard to suspend my disbelief on this matter and I demand a coherent explanation.

[Kuciwalker]

I have read all of the books and still don't understand how that works. I also found it wtfconfusing.

[Jon Miller]

I think of it as more of a magically induced mini ice age.

And yeah, probably a lot of people die.

JM

[Kuciwalker]

No, I wasn't wondering how the winter works (magic, duh), I meant the everyone-not-dying bit.

[Arrian]

Yeah, since Winter is still coming as of the end of book 4, Martin hasn't explained it yet. All there is so far is a few references to putting aside a portion of the year's harvest in preparation. Ok... you do that for normal winters. That's not gonna get it done if winter lasts for a decade.

-Arrian

[Jon Miller]

No, I wasn't wondering how the winter works (magic, duh), I meant the everyone-not-dying bit.

In an Ice Age, it isn't actually the season winter all the time. I think similar happens here. Probably people in the North mostly die or live as eskimos or something. People in the South probably live like people in Sweden or something...

Probably a lot of people die period. There was another series of books that had a planet do something liek this too, IT hink.

JM

[VetLegion]

I like your explanation Jon , it makes sense, however it does take some drama away
from the dreaded "Winter" if there are still regular "summers" in it.

[Bosh]

I find it hard to suspend my disbelief on this matter and I demand a coherent explanation.

Yeah, same here. HOWEVER, most winters and summers are pretty short. Big long decade-long and counting summers like the ones the TV show are VERY rare. Some ways to deal with winter:
-Greenhouses built around hot springs.
-Storing up food, you can store up a lot when you growing seasons back to back to back for years.
-Importing food from the south (even in winter it doesn't snow if you get close enough to the equator).
-Dying and stuff. If winters are long there's a big die off. Fatking mentions in the show that the North has as much land as the rest of the kingdoms combined, places were the winter is wtfcoldi'mgonnadie have a low population carrying capacity and not many people so any resources they have don't get stretched too thing.

Humans surviving I can understand, my bigger question is what happens to the deer.

As far as what Jon says there is temperature variance during winters (thaws and whatnot) but it isn't clear if they're long enough to get a good growing season in if you're in the north. But keep in mind that a lot of people live in places relatively close to the tropics and having a three year winter doesn't matter too much there unless it's a really really really really bad winter.

[Berzerker]

I'm not reading the thread much to avoid spoilers but how did the imp's dagger implicate him in the kid's near death

[Kuciwalker]

Er, it was his dagger, being used by the assassin trying to kill the kid? (This is after Bran falls.)

[Berzerker]

thats right, thx

[joncha]

They mention summer snows happening in the North in the books somewhere, so I suspect winter thaws in the South would be just as common. I've always just assumed that it would still be possible to plant at least some crops during winter, at least south of the Neck.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

At this point, let me suggest everyone reads the brilliant Helliconia trilogy by Brian Aldiss. Rather than this half-arsed Martin seasonal stuff, Aldiss created a world with binary suns, where winter lasts 500 years and midsummer sets the equator on fire.

Oh yes, I nearly gave up on "Game of thrones", but episode 5 was rather good. That burnt-face/big bastard double act is completely ridiculous, though.