#The dudebros claiming realism aren't actually any more right than the people saying it's not realistic because nitpicky

[kyliafanfiction]

What gets me, I suppose, about people whining about how the Dothraki and the Iron Islands don’t work, especially when compared to their RL analogues (insofar as they are analogues and not just inspirations) is... yeah, duh?

First of all, fiction is always going to need to be shallower than real history. 

Secondly, there are countless works of fantasy fiction that have the ‘Viking Style Raiders’ and the ‘Mongol Horse Nomads’ that are just as shallowly written as the Dothraki and the Ironborn. Shallow appropriation from real history is endemic to the genre. ASOIAF does not merit singular targeting here, except insofar as it is popular.

Now, yes, ASOIAF does attract a certain class of grimdark-loving dudebro who crows about how the story is realistic because of all the rape and brutality, but they’re just as wrong as the people attacking it because the climate makes no sense or because the Dothraki are unsustainable.

It’s not the point. 

The realism, insofar as there really is realism or even part of the goal here for Martin, is in consequences for people’s actions. In narrativium not serving to protect people. The dysfunction of the Iron Islands and the Dothraki fit right into that, because their non-functioning status is the natural followthrough of what happens when a society is as monotasked as the Dothraki and Ironborn (under Balon and other followers of the Old Way anyway) are.

In most High Fantasy, the Red Wedding doesn’t happen. In most High Fantasy, Ned doesn’t die after sacrificing his honor (either he dies defiant, or he lives after recanting). In most High Fantasy someone like Tyrion gets rewarded by his father for his cleverness, finally getting the paternal affection he never had before. 

In ASOIAF? Not so much.

Is ASOIAF perfect? No. Does it have certain things that one wishes GRRM didn’t include? Is it perfectly realistic?

No.

But it doesn’t actually strive to be. It’s realism in a specific category of approach, not realism in every way. So no, the agricultural economics of Westeros don’t make sense, the army sizes are hair-pull inducing, and the specific nature of the misogyny in Westeros is far less nuanced than the reality of the middle ages, but...

That’s not the point?