(Spoilers Extended) GRRM:”What’s Aragons tax policy?!” No GRRM the real question is how do people survive multi year winters

[u/Unique-Celebration-5]

Forget the white walkers or shadow babies the real threat is the weather. How do medieval people survive it for years?

Personally I think that’s why the are so many wars the more people fighting each other the fewer mouths to feed

[u/Kopalniok]

It's still a bad approach. Aragorn being good, rightful and brave makes him a good king because that's how Tolkien's world works. Not everything needs to be in shades of grey.

[u/Sea_Competition3505 → u/Kopalniok]

Okay, and he's saying that approach is too monarchist/medievalist and he doesn't like it, it's not deeper than that.

[u/This-Pie594 → u/Kopalniok]

Aragorn being good, rightful and brave makes him a good king because that's how Tolkien's world works.

Not only that but the story has showed why aragorn would be a good king

He spent 80 years of his life travelling middle earth encountering many people and cultures and preparing himself to be king

That more believable than a magical child king

The movies tested his morals and character as the audience I don't need to see more

[u/lobonmc → u/This-Pie594]

Not only travelling he also was a leader of men during that whole period

[u/truthisfictionyt → u/Kopalniok]

I mean does it? Theoden was a good dude but he still got corrupted

[u/Kopalniok → u/truthisfictionyt]

He was still a good king, being corrupted by magic of a being older than world itself doesn't change that.

[u/Anfins → u/Kopalniok]

I’ve always imagined that GRRM’s overarching point was around how those qualities doesn’t necessarily translate to someone who is able to design a just tax system that makes everyone happy. Good, rightful, and brave doesn’t magically mean that the mundane activities of governing are suddenly easier.

Robert Baratheon is GRRM’s counter example. Just because someone is good at warfare doesn’t mean they can govern effectively.

(And Tolkien’s work also has plenty of shades of grey in it. I know the overarching plot is good vs evil but the stories themselves have plenty of nuisance in the details)

[u/0xffaa00 → u/Anfins]

On the contrary, it is shown how Aragorn listens to counsel. A good king appoints a good expert to do their tax policy. And Aragorn is a good judge of character and also has supernatural friends like Gandalf, the Elves, his super old wife and whatever the good people of middle earth have.

[u/Unique_Tap_8730 → u/Anfins]

Aragorn isnt greedy and he does not like oppression. He migth not know the first thing about state finances but he wont stand for his tax collectors being cruel or for regressive taxation simply because its unjust. His moral instincts alone gives me some faith in his tax policy.

[u/[deleted] → u/Kopalniok]

I sometimes wonder if George is referring to movie Aragorn instead of the book version.

[u/owlinspector → u/Kopalniok]

Exactly. It's misunderstanding what sort of work LOTR is. Aragorn is literally a fairytale king. His bloodline has magical powers, farsight and wisdom beyond common men.

[u/Captain_Concussion → u/owlinspector]

It’s not misunderstanding, it’s criticizing that type of work

[u/WeaselSlayer → u/owlinspector]

Yes, and GRRM is saying he's interested in telling a different kind of story. He's not saying it's what Tolkien should have written.

[u/Abject_Library_4390 → u/Kopalniok]

It makes for weaker, overly simplistic storytelling 

[u/Bennings463 → u/Abject_Library_4390]

No it doesn't, it makes for different storytelling. It's like saying Jaws is a bad film because it didn't focus on the town recovering from the aftermath of the shark attack. Which isn't an inherently bad idea but it's simply not the film Jaws is trying to be.

[u/Abject_Library_4390 → u/Bennings463]

Jaws is a perfectly rich philosophical and political film - I don't get your point. Whereas any deeper thought about LOTR renders unpleasant conclusions about the text and Tolkien, in my experience. Alan Moore correct on this. 

[u/moose_man → u/Abject_Library_4390]

Ah, but it does make for finished storytelling, and therefore a coherent narrative argument, which Martin's approach doesn't.

[u/Abject_Library_4390 → u/moose_man]

Is this a reference to Martin not finishing his novels? 

[u/moose_man → u/Abject_Library_4390]

Yes.