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The smallfolk: frustrating yet realistic


Felguy

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Was rereading a Davos chapter just now, where he comes into White Harbor and goes searching for information.

There is this part where he comes into the Lazy Eel and the smallfolk start talking about rumors.

As a reader you know everything but it is so immersive and realistic the way the smallfolk don't know jack about what's going on. They don't know what Daenerys is really Called(they get her name wrong) and they got the method of execution used on Viserys all wrong too. :D

The part where they call Daenerys... Daena. So much cringe. :D
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To be expected. A huge function of this series is how POV influences character knowledge and action. We are reading about (with the exception of Davos, and he's probably up there) well educated highborn citizens who are more in the loop on things than anyone else in the kingdom (and they still get things wrong and have delayed info).

I mean how many characters do we read that don't come from one of the top 6 or so families of Westeros (Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, Targaryen, Greyjoy, Martell) or are in close proximity to their ranks?

From their perspective, most of these events are coming to them weeks/months/years after the fact from second/third/fourth hand sources that they overheard.
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To be expected. A huge function of this series is how POV influences character knowledge and action. We are reading about (with the exception of Davos, and he's probably up there) well educated highborn citizens who are more in the loop on things than anyone else in the kingdom (and they still get things wrong and have delayed info).I mean how many characters do we read that don't come from one of the top 6 or so families of Westeros (Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, Targaryen, Greyjoy, Martell) or are in close proximity to their ranks?From their perspective, most of these events are coming to them weeks/months/years after the fact from second/third/fourth hand sources that they overheard.


Yep, might be a good idea to give a chapter from one of the smallfolk once... If there is room for that. An epi or pro logue for example
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Yep, might be a good idea to give a chapter from one of the smallfolk once... If there is room for that. An epi or pro logue for example

 

Well Pate was a smallfolk if you want to be technical. He wanted to be a Maester though.

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I think if we were going to get any view from the townsfolk it would have been an aftermath of something Dany had done, maybe we'll get one in the prologue for ADOS? More likely we'll see it through Selmy's pov...
The closest we get imo is through Arya and when Brienne meets Gendry.
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I sympathize with the smallfolk as they suffer the most when nobles go to war. This is why I don't get too attached to most of the POV characters, as they brag about going to war like it's nothing. They get captured they can still be traded back, but no one cares about the farmer taken away from his home to fight because the ego of some rich bunghole was hurt.

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I sympathize with the smallfolk as they suffer the most when nobles go to war. This is why I don't get too attached to most of the POV characters, as they brag about going to war like it's nothing. They get captured they can still be traded back, but no one cares about the farmer taken away from his home to fight because the ego of some rich bunghole was hurt.


You're quite right in this...
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I sympathize with the smallfolk as they suffer the most when nobles go to war. This is why I don't get too attached to most of the POV characters, as they brag about going to war like it's nothing. They get captured they can still be traded back, but no one cares about the farmer taken away from his home to fight because the ego of some rich bunghole was hurt.

 

It's funny how literature mimics real life sometimes.

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