Game of Thrones TV Thread **HBO-Purists ONLY**

[wufwugy]

I dont get the qarth hate. I honestly dont know why there is a red wasteland...but surely its possible for it to exist. Whether you argue that its just some land that is naturally infertile, or that man did it intentionally, or that its the result of dragon fire or something, it surely isnt that hard to believe that a red waste land could exist in this area that has very few cities around it (as you would expect of a wasteland).

The issue is that there's a coastline. Coastline and inlets provide for most of the pre-industrial world's population. Qarth couldn't have a Sea of Bones because it's not an oasis in the middle of a desert, it's one small place on a TON of coastline

Boost's point about trading mecca is astute. That entire coastline would be a trading mecca. In fact, the region would probably be a bigger place than Westeros since Westeros seems to be unrealistically isolated from anywhere else. The Narrow Sea *should* be nothing more than a channel like between Britain and the mainland

Re Navy size: Its been a time of peace.

It was a time of peace because the Targs ruled. Without dragons, the Targs couldn't rule with the shit navy they have. One of the keys of civilization is use of water, everything from transportation and military to food. The Iron Throne not ruling over the greatest navy is just bad logistics

When did we find out the Targarians are from Valyria? And I'm not sure that I agree with most of your geography nits, however this is the sort of nittery I enjoy, and I would like to hear more reasoning behind it. Why can't Qarth stand alone? Are there no historical examples of such cities? A sort of waypoint on the road, an oasis, where if you are denied entry your chances of survival on the road are slim... I'll do some wiki'ing, I'm pretty sure I can come up with an example.

Pretty sure season one said Targs came from Valyria. I'm not googling it though.

The Sea of Bones would work if Qarth was an oasis, but it's clearly not. It's like Spain, and GRRM assumes that this Spain wouldn't have a France, UK, or Morocco around it. In many ways, a better example would be that Qarth is like United Arab Emirates, but we know a lot more about Europe than the Middle East, so I try to make my analogies there, I guess

[BennyLaRue]

The Sea of Bones would work if Qarth was an oasis, but it's clearly not. It's like Spain, and GRRM assumes that this Spain wouldn't have a France, UK, or Morocco around it. In many ways, a better example would be that Qarth is like United Arab Emirates, but we know a lot more about Europe than the Middle East, so I try to make my analogies there, I guess

That's exactly what Qarth is - the Arabian Penisula. Look at the map and consider the societies we've seen...it's exceptionally similar to Earth (WITH WINTERFELL ALL TORONTO-Y AND KING'S LANDING AS SHITTY WASHINGTON DC, the Dothraki like the Mongols) with the Atlantic shrunk so that we wouldn't be all like, whatever GRRM, there was no crossing of the Atlantic in Medieval Times, fucker.

Season 1 went on and on about how broke King's Landing is. They can't afford a navy.

[wufwugy]

That's exactly what Qarth is - the Arabian Penisula. Look at the map and consider the societies we've seen...it's exceptionally similar to Earth (WITH WINTERFELL ALL TORONTO-Y AND KING'S LANDING AS SHITTY WASHINGTON DC, the Dothraki like the Mongols) with the Atlantic shrunk so that we wouldn't be all like, whatever GRRM, there was no crossing of the Atlantic in Medieval Times, fucker.

Season 1 went on and on about how broke King's Landing is. They can't afford a navy.

My two main points are that Qarth is like UAE, but GRRM's version of Qarth is not. UAE doesn't have a Sea of Bones around it. All that coastline is in heavy use; so if Qarth rejects you, just go to a different part of the coast

The other point is that the Narrow Sea is not like the Atlantic, but a channel. If it was the size of the Atlantic then the trip from Pentos to Vaes Dothrak is not scaled even close to correctly and would be waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long for virtually anything to survive and would be like traveling from Israel to China while taking the time it would take to walk the whole globe or something


Also, KL being too broke to afford a navy would mean that within the year, a navy destroys them. Navies completely and utterly rule land areas where there's sea access. That's why, in history class, we learned so much about the naval dominance of Spain and Britain along with their vast empires.

GRRM's world has greater access to sea than our current world, yet less mobility. It's weird. One of the most important aspects of how civilization develops/distributes is sea access

[boost]

That's exactly what Qarth is - the Arabian Penisula. Look at the map and consider the societies we've seen...it's exceptionally similar to Earth (WITH WINTERFELL ALL TORONTO-Y AND KING'S LANDING AS SHITTY WASHINGTON DC, the Dothraki like the Mongols) with the Atlantic shrunk so that we wouldn't be all like, whatever GRRM, there was no crossing of the Atlantic in Medieval Times, fucker.

Season 1 went on and on about how broke King's Landing is. They can't afford a navy.

I'm sure you're half joking, but the world GRRM created is clearly a heavily Anglo-centric world view. Westeros is essentially mainland Britain but 10x the size. People from the north even tend to have Scottish accents.

[BennyLaRue]

I'm sure you're half joking, but the world GRRM created is clearly a heavily Anglo-centric world view. Westeros is essentially mainland Britain but 10x the size. People from the north even tend to have Scottish accents.

Well, I did just want to suggest the Starks are Canadians, but Westeros is probably more of a amalgam of the Western world than strictly North America or England, what with a frozen North and a hot South that's reminiscent of Spain or the Southern US.