"Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good...

Jack Vance was pretty good. It’s a shame there’s no Dying Earth series in the pipeline.

God you manchildren are so angry over a story with the courage to treat its readers as being mature enough to enjoy a fantasy story with some grit. Tolkien was writing for children. He wanted to dazzle naive boys with a tale about magic fireballs and horse archers. Absolutely no depth or realism. I can't understand why all of these years later anyone gives a shit about Tolkien when we have much better entertainment to choose from.
youtube.com/watch?v=QmKhGqWcJGY

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Tolkien wrote for children. Grrm writes for manchildren.

George doesn't really talk about anyone's tax policy, the only real money talk that even comes up is about how they borrow a lot of money from the iron bank, get wealth from conquest or get loans from somewhere to be spent on things.

the fact that characters have sex and say bad words and theres a shitty description a a brutal rape every third page does not mean that the story is mature.

lol, asoiaf is dumb. Its not deep at all. THe only people who read it are people who never gre up and wondered "what if middle earth had more gays, incest, and politics?"

get over it incel

he’s not wrong, what he means is that both book series have different ambitions and goals

if you look into it youll see how he ruined his economy

The fact that she wasn't up to the difficult yet mundane task of actually ruling, and left Mareen to go back to the easy part and conquer some more, should have revealed right off the bat that she wasn't suited to rule.

The big question posed by the series is who makes a good absolute monarch, and the answer is "a prescient eunuch... otherwise absolute monarchies suck."

thats so deep

>"Tolkien can say that sunset found her squatting in the grass, and the more she drank, the more she shat. But Tolkien doesn't ask the question: What happened the more she shat?"

>gritty cynicism good
>triumphant heroism bad

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haha

>Tolkien is to creative literary genius what Martin is to hack pulp idiocy. They both so far surpass anyone else in their field that they will be remembered 1,000 years from now as a kind of yin and yang of fantasy, a Manichaen duality of speculative letters. For every sublime, luminous beauty that Tolkien has gifted the world, Martin has cursed us with a tedious, banal ugliness. It is unfair to compare the two directly on any one point, because Martin is in every way the anti-Tolkien, patently sterile, parasitical, and inferior, but so much so that he becomes a monument in his own right, and counterbalances Tolkien. Could one exist without the other? Tolkien obviously could. But it is only by the contrast that Martin offers that we can truly appreciate the full depths and heights of Tolkien. Our understanding of Tolkien would be incomplete if Martin had never set pen to page. It is through only the abject failure and futility of Martin that we can approach an apprehension of the true scope and scale of Tolkien's hitherto inconceivable greatness. Perhaps this is what Tolkien had in mind when he wrote about the Music of the Ainur. If Tolkien is a subcreator in the image of Eru, truly Martin is like unto Melkor. It is only reflected in the awfulness of the one that we can fully see the goodness of the other.

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he dont either. just says littlefinger deals with it

I know robert bankrupted the kingdom because he spent a lot of money on frivolities, money that littlefinger just magically found all the time. But other than borrowing money from somewhere else they don't ever really talk about the ruling people's taxes, money just magically appears.

Littlefinger was the bank's inside guy ensuring the realm would be firmly planted in debt servitude. He was taking loans backed by the crown.

Excellent b8 user. You hooked a few

I read the books a long time ago but I think there were a few instances talking about the ruling people's taxes. The conflict that pushed Aerys over the edge into madness started with a lord refusing to pay his taxes.

It is mentioned a few times actually. I'm in Clash of Kings and at one point Tyrion asks where the funds are being found for some operation, and the answer is that Littlefinger is imposing a tax on anyone who would wish to enter King's Landing seeking refuge from the war.

you fuck.
Tolkiens writing is much better and much more enjoyable to actually read.

“A fox passing through the wood on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed. 'Hobbits!' he thought. 'Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There's something mighty queer behind this.' He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it.”

Just like your mum's pus.

"There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tower high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end, the shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach."

Name a single fucking time his books ever mentioned tax

That's not a tax, that's an entrance fee. It's so banal a concept it can't even be described as infrastructure. It shows a lack of knowledge on Martin's part concerning politics and commerce. Where are the everyday stipulations of trade and regulations of agriculture? The very things he wanted Tolkien to address are crudely described in a manner of "dude they taxed people for existing lmao". Complete hack.

Hey George, how did people teleport around Westeros in 10 minutes when it would take them weeks or months realistically?

I hate to nitpick you but the kingdom was already deeply in debt during Aerys' reign. Robert just made it worse with his frivolities. The economy of the greater Seven Kingdoms was already crumbling when he took over. It was a doomed system from the start. The disparity in wealth between places like Oldtown and Riverrun was already enormous. The whole feudal structure was already breaking down.

I like ASOIAF and Tolkien both. I bet GRRM really regrets that quote because it is fucking stupid and he knows it. It's not like GRRM initially set out to 'subvert expectations' and 'deconstruct fantasy tropes,' or at least it's my opinion that he didn't, I think he just wanted to write a more modern story.

Tolkien is Homeric -- it's truly epic fantasy on its grandest scale. ASOIAF is something entirely different but not necessarily bad.

TL:DR: not everything falls neatly into the us vs. them argument dynamic that is so popular on Yea Forums. Granted, GRRM facilitated it with his dumb ass quote but ultimately there is merit to be found in both works (just different kinds of merit). More than one thing can be good which is something Yea Forums should really try and accept at some point.

I mean he's clearly exaggerating a bit. In reality reading about typical administration would be boring as fuck. Point is he does illustrate how financial concerns affect the rest of the realm. Furthermore, whether it should be called a "tax" or an "entrance fee" is meaningless term chopping.

Is there context to this quote? I know GRRM is asking for trouble by inviting comparisons to Tolkien however he clearly does have a different philosophy towards fantasy that has left an impression on people. I don't think he's close to Tolkien's level in realizing a world of ancient traditions and magic, and I will always admire Tolkien for what his masterpiece achieved. HOWEVER I think GRRM has made a major impact on fantasy as well, adding layers of intrigue into stories and drafting complex societies. I believe he raises the bar in this respect. So now new authors in fantasy may find themselves lacking against comparisons to JRR Tolkien and to GRRM.

one of the most emotional moments in the book. Sam gets an intuition that even the fight against Sauron is just a small part in the great story, no matter how dark their situation is at that moment.
The star was supposed to be the star of Eärendil, which doesn't mean much unless you've read the Silmarillion.

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destroyed nothing, he's rich as fuck

What makes orc culture so appealing to white boys from the suburbs?

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Interesting. Funny how Tolkein can turn cosmic horror on its head.

I heard that elves are very heavily promoting it for some reason

based post, i bet you read wolfe as well.

>PIG FUCK!

this aged so fucking poorly considering how little is answered in the end lmao

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