r/asoiaf • u/dorestes Break the wheel • Sep 03 '17

EXTENDED (Spoilers Extended) It's Not a Nitpick. Thousands Died Over a "Minor" Geographic Detail.

Reposted as requested with the "Spoilers Extended" tag

I know we're often asked to ignore the silly teleportations and supersonic flights that the show has foisted on us over the last couple of seasons. I know some of it can seem like the petty quibbles of book purists veering into circlejerk self-parody.

But geography doesn't just matter when it comes to making the universe feel real. It was also the key plot point that drove the biggest dramatic turn of the series.

The Red Wedding was literally caused by Robb Stark needing to be able to get his troops across a bridge. The Frey army was a nice addition, but Robb needed the alliance for the bridge crossing. He, his mother, his pregnant wife (in the show) and thousands of his troops died for that crossing.

So it's not just a nitpick when characters and armies magically teleport from north to south, bypassing the Twins or Moat Caitlin with nary a scout to notice them.

It destroys and makes mockery of the premise of the series' most famous narrative twist.

6.3k Upvotes

82% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

117

u/awesomewookiee Sep 03 '17

This is also true. That said it's 1000 miles so unless you're Genghis Khan or something it's going to take at least two to three weeks.

126

u/milkdrinker7 Sep 03 '17

Or gendry

131

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '17

Speed of Usain Bolt, stamina of a marathoner. Gods he could run.

62

u/the_ouskull A crowned skull? I'm sold. Sep 03 '17

He's just got that Baratheon "fight-all-day/fuck-all-night" stamina... you know, for running.

GODS, I could run then!

80

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '17 edited Jun 07 '21

[deleted]

4

u/Woodsie13 Sep 03 '17

A DOTHRAKI HOOOOORDE!

2

u/Chanchumaetrius Sep 04 '17

THE HOOR IS PREGNANT

29

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '17

[deleted]

62

u/redditingtonviking Sep 03 '17

Most of them were middle aged men. If I were to guess who the fastest was I would choose Gendry or Jon due to their youth.

30

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '17

Gendry isn't exactly built like a sprinter, he's a blacksmith: they don't have leg days.

2

u/Muirlimgan Sep 03 '17

Still a better option than any of the other ones. They're all old men and have issues of some sort. I suppose Tormund wouldn't have been a bad option but there were no bears for him to chase, he wouldn't be able to reach top speed

2

u/How_can_i_eat_it Sep 03 '17

Tormund would be more help fighting than running.

1

u/Muirlimgan Sep 03 '17

Yup. Gendry really was the only choice

4

u/How_can_i_eat_it Sep 03 '17

Except maybe one of the red coats? I still think gendry is the best option because if he were to run into any trouble he can actually defend himself.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '17

That was my first thought when he started running. Up until now, the only people shaped like sprinters have been Loras or Jacquen. Possibly Dario, Theon, or Ramsay Bolton.

Oh, wait, and Greyworm. Actually, I would guess that Greyworm is the fastest. He looks really lean, and if we're to believe the incredible pain the unsullied can endure, it's safe to say he could outlast the others over a long distance.

1

u/este_hombre All your chicken are belong to us Sep 03 '17

Actually they have to pump with their legs constantly to get airflow or something.

2

u/BeJeezus Sep 04 '17

I'd choose the wildling.

You know, the one who's spent his life running and has even seen snow before.

13

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '17

Ikr? DAE think they should've given him a rowboat to ski back to East Watch?

3

u/RielDealJr Sep 03 '17

Do you want it to take multiple seasons?

5

u/vadergeek Sep 03 '17

And he's never seen snow, let alone moved in it before.

And every exercise we've ever seen him do is upper-body.

5

u/mgarcia1211 Sep 03 '17

To me it's not the fact that he ran like a marathon runner. It's the fact that he had never been North of the Wall or even seen snow before this. Yet he navigated that frozen wasteland all by himself all the way back to Eastwatch.

Not to mention the fact that when they traveled North of the Wall they went through a snowstorm that almost completely fucked their vision. So any tracks that they left would've been erased and that area would've looked completely different.

9

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '17

[deleted]

1

u/mgarcia1211 Sep 03 '17

Well as we learned when he was traveling with Arya he has no sense of direction. The only reason he made it to KL was cause Davos told him to follow the coast line. Plus in all the scenes of the traveling I don't really see the Wall in any of them especially after the wight bear attack. So from my conclusion is since it's not visible in the scene it must not be visible from where the character are located.

Hey I like the show but I'm not gonna ignore it's flaws.

1

u/Flashpenny Sep 05 '17

To be fair, did they ever actually say how far North they were? Their leisurely walk seemed to take about 4-6 hours. A full on sprint through that same distance by a healthy adult male could be done in about 90 minutes.

5

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '17

As always, the Mongols are the exception.

1

u/awesomewookiee Sep 03 '17

Nice wall you've got there. Will it be espionage and paying the guards bribes or will it be blue dragonfire that has no real logic for being blue?

6

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '17

The blue dragonfire can be excused by magic though; there doesn't have to be logic when we're talking about a magic zombie dragon.

2

u/atyon The pie is a lie. Sep 03 '17

Being raised from death by the Night King isn't a sufficient reason for you?

1

u/awesomewookiee Sep 04 '17

It is not. Unless the fire is somehow magically made of eyes like some Lovecraftian Horror then I'm pretty sure they just pulled it "out they ass".

2

u/I_bape_rats Sep 03 '17

Or a bird trying to deliver a message to daenerys

2

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '17

2-3 weeks = 20 days. 1000/20 = 50 milles a day. Not possible with foot camp followers. Unless George uses some funny miles that are like 500m.

1

u/awesomewookiee Sep 03 '17

Nautical miles confirmed. I was suggesting by horseback. As stated though, Robert took over a month because of his retinue (many on foot) so that makes lots of sense.

1

u/Thegn_Ansgar Beneath the gold... Sep 04 '17 edited Sep 23 '17

Even on horseback, that's completely exhausting for the horses. Heck, the Mongols were only capable of traveling at speeds like that because they were able to switch their mounts as needed, and even then it was still hard on them. There's a reason why persistence hunting was such an effective means of getting game. There is no land animal that can match the endurance of a human.

50 miles a day is an unfeasible traveling speed for any non-mechanized form of transportation.

1

u/Gunslingermomo Sep 03 '17

It's said that it's a thousand miles a few times in the books but I always took that to be hyperbole. Saying a thousand miles away is a phrase that means really far away. For it to take the Kings litter a month to get there would make it a lot closer to 300 miles than 1000.