Why are "most" of the Nobility in Westeros ignoring winter??

[Stormking902]

I mean winter apparently lasts six or seven years which is a tremendous amount of time when your talking about feeding the smallfolk and keeping them warm, all the powers of Westeros are concentrating on the war when they should be concentrating on winter. The nobility gain there power from the smallfolk, I find it hard to believe more nobles are ignoring the call to war to keep there men safe and fed. How can you ask your smallfolk to fight when there familys are fighting at home to stay alive from the cold and starvation? Wouldnt the smallfolk eventually riot and say screw the call my family comes first?. 

[rotting sea cow]

Nobility are not ignoring winter (most of them at least), see Jaime's worries at the first snow in the Riverlands. Even the rather stupid Merrett Frey is concerned about the first flurry and what it means for late harvests. Most people certainly prepared for winter... until war came first.

Smallfolk rioting is an additional problem for the troubled Westeros. 

[Lord Wraith]

Winter has only just arrived and most were too busy trying to play the Game of Thrones to think of the coming Winter. 

[Adam Yozza]

2 hours ago, Stormking902 said:

I mean winter apparently lasts six or seven years which is a tremendous amount of time when your talking about feeding the smallfolk and keeping them warm, all the powers of Westeros are concentrating on the war when they should be concentrating on winter. The nobility gain there power from the smallfolk, I find it hard to believe more nobles are ignoring the call to war to keep there men safe and fed. How can you ask your smallfolk to fight when there familys are fighting at home to stay alive from the cold and starvation? Wouldnt the smallfolk eventually riot and say screw the call my family comes first?. 

Actually, look at the Mountain Clans and the North during the Dance. The men are more willing than usual to go to war during winter because it saves the family one extra mouth to feed. Beyond which, winter isn't here yet. So while the men are still fighting the wars, they are also preparing for winter.

[Dorian Martell's son]

4 hours ago, Stormking902 said:

I mean winter apparently lasts six or seven years which is a tremendous amount of time when your talking about feeding the smallfolk and keeping them warm, all the powers of Westeros are concentrating on the war when they should be concentrating on winter. The nobility gain there power from the smallfolk, I find it hard to believe more nobles are ignoring the call to war to keep there men safe and fed. How can you ask your smallfolk to fight when there familys are fighting at home to stay alive from the cold and starvation? Wouldnt the smallfolk eventually riot and say screw the call my family comes first?. 

There is this \/ \/ 

4 hours ago, rotting sea cow said:

Nobility are not ignoring winter (most of them at least), see Jaime's worries at the first snow in the Riverlands. Even the rather stupid Merrett Frey is concerned about the first flurry and what it means for late harvests. Most people certainly prepared for winter... until war came first.

Smallfolk rioting is an additional problem for the troubled Westeros. 

It is hard to prep for winter when crops and livestock are razed and your lands are constantly being invaded by army after army after army 

[Lady Blizzardborn]

4 hours ago, Stormking902 said:

I mean winter apparently lasts six or seven years which is a tremendous amount of time when your talking about feeding the smallfolk and keeping them warm, all the powers of Westeros are concentrating on the war when they should be concentrating on winter. The nobility gain there power from the smallfolk, I find it hard to believe more nobles are ignoring the call to war to keep there men safe and fed. How can you ask your smallfolk to fight when there familys are fighting at home to stay alive from the cold and starvation? Wouldnt the smallfolk eventually riot and say screw the call my family comes first?. 

They don't think that way. 

Yes, but as we can see from real history, it takes centuries upon centuries to get to that point. Most of the smallfolk are so locked in to how things are and always have been, that they don't see the power they would have if they stood together...much like the ants in A Bug's Life.

[Magnar of the Dreadfort]

No doubt they would have been combfortable getting everything in order for the coming winter in a time of peace (although we know this is probably gonna be a much harsher winter than what they expect).

But none of them would have expected the current turmoil in the realm , Roberts freak injury and death then the Wot5K , destruction of property and agriculture , this is still ongoing there hasn't really been chance lately for the nobility of the riverlands to prepare for winter.

[Free Northman Reborn]

I think there is a general misconception here in the forum about the average Winter. Most Winters don't last 6-7 years. In fact, most Winters seem to last 3-4 years at most. From the wiki, there doesn't seem to be a known Winter in the last generation that exceeded 4 years in length. And some lasted only 2-3 years.

So the reason people aren't terribly stressed about the coming Winter, is because they hope that it will just be another 3 year Winter or thereabouts. As for the Mountain Clansmen. It is only during long Winters, when the food runs out, that old men go out to die in the snow. Not during normal Winters. So the idea that they are heading out to die at the mere sight of Autumn's end is unfounded.

No one actually knows that this is the second Long Night approaching, and that Winter could last 10 years or more. If they did, they would be far more concerned than they are.

[rotting sea cow]

2 hours ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

 

It is hard to prep for winter when crops and livestock are razed and your lands are constantly being invaded by army after army after army 

Isn't it the tragedy of Westeros? They had a long and peaceful summer, they were preparing for winter and storing food and then war "came". Harvests were burned, able men took arms instead of plowing the land, stores were stolen, people had to flee or were killed. War brought also disorganization, capable rulers were killed or driven away. Etc, etc and etc. Instead of putting their efforts in preparing for a devastating winter, people were killing each other, preparing the way to the Others.

 

 

[Dorian Martell's son]

1 minute ago, rotting sea cow said:

Isn't it the tragedy of Westeros? They had a long and peaceful summer, they were preparing for winter and storing food and then war "came". Harvests were burned, able men took arms instead of plowing the land, stores were stolen, people had to flee or were killed. War brought also disorganization, capable rulers were killed or driven away. Etc, etc and etc. Instead of putting their efforts in preparing for a devastating winter, people were killing each other, preparing the way to the Others.

There will be a bittersweet ending 

 

[Lord Lannister]

There has been a major war going on in Westeros. The Riverlands and North have taken the brunt of the fighting to be sure, between the men going off to fight, and various armies looting and pillaging, there's little they can do to prepare. Even in lands where the fighting hasn't been touched, the men are still often going off to war, and thus there aren't as many harvesting and stockpiling.

[zandru]

3 hours ago, rotting sea cow said:

Isn't it the tragedy of Westeros? They had a long and peaceful summer, they were preparing for winter and storing food and then war "came". Harvests were burned, able men took arms instead of plowing the land, stores were stolen, people had to flee or were killed. War brought also disorganization, capable rulers were killed or driven away. Etc, etc and etc. Instead of putting their efforts in preparing for a devastating winter, people were killing each other, preparing the way to the Others.

This is probably a major factor in why they can never get ahead. Apparently, Westeros has been in a medieval state for 8,000 years or so! The variable length, but generally long, winters are a big factor, of course - just having enough food and adequate shelter to survive. Then, the double whammy of the Spring Sicknesses (plagues) wipes out significant numbers of those that made it through the winter. If you then precede winter with a few rounds of the "game of thrones", which kills off the healthiest, strongest, young members of society and depletes its other resources - well, you'd be lucky to have much of anything left to start the next cycle with. Westeros seems to have been hanging on by its toenails for millenia now.

[BalerionTheCat]

Of course the "good" lords can't prepare for winter because the bad lords are still in their war attitude. But the good question is: Why the bad lords are ignoring the coming Winter? The first thing is, they have ignored the signs of a different, longer, deadlier winter. And the second thing is, they believe they will not be touched. There will always be food and fire for them. They don't care their people die. Because no one will rebel against their power. They will always be the strongest.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

On 3/6/2017 at 0:34 PM, Free Northman Reborn said:

I think there is a general misconception here in the forum about the average Winter. Most Winters don't last 6-7 years. In fact, most Winters seem to last 3-4 years at most. From the wiki, there doesn't seem to be a known Winter in the last generation that exceeded 4 years in length. And some lasted only 2-3 years.

So the reason people aren't terribly stressed about the coming Winter, is because they hope that it will just be another 3 year Winter or thereabouts. As for the Mountain Clansmen. It is only during long Winters, when the food runs out, that old men go out to die in the snow. Not during normal Winters. So the idea that they are heading out to die at the mere sight of Autumn's end is unfounded.

No one actually knows that this is the second Long Night approaching, and that Winter could last 10 years or more. If they did, they would be far more concerned than they are.

Except that the general knowledge among the people of Westeros is that after a long summer they get longer winters, and they had a really long summer recently.

You're right that they aren't expecting the Long Night, but they're also not prepared for the longer-than-average winter that they should be expecting. They'd have had a chance to survive a standard, or even longish winter without the War of the Five Kings and the burning of peoples' crops.