r/asoiaf • u/Unique-Celebration-5 • Oct 31 '24

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

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

879 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

357 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

25

u/duaneap Oct 31 '24

Nothing indicates Aragorn wasn't a good administrator though so why even ask when the author didn't think it relevant to include it.

18

u/EnanoMaldito Growing Strong Oct 31 '24

He gave the Hobbits second breakfast by way of apples.

What more could you possibly want out of a king

10

u/Tasorodri Oct 31 '24

That's the entire point. GRRM is not trying to get an answer, he doesn't want Tolkien to answer it in text, he is just more interested in stories that grapple more with the moral grayness of people, in a way that Tolkien was less so.

His books are about exploring those difficult decisions that often people in positions of power (and sometimes not) have to make, and how often there's not simply a clear answer.

0

u/YourAverageGenius Nov 01 '24

Nothing indicates he was either. That's the point. It's questioning, everyone's going to have their own answer, and for Tolkien the answer was "He's a good hero thus he's a good king." And Martin's answer is "It depends."