Things Strike Doesn't Understand About Modern Literature

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

The size of the wall is aprox 700 ft, about 213 meters. According to wikipedia the longbow's range is between 165 to 228 m, also, "a flight arrow of a professional archer of Edward III's time would reach 400yds" or 365 meters. Now, whether this is the same firing at a high angle at a tall target is unlikely, but by looking at those stats I think there is a fair chance a lightweight arrow could reach the archers on the wall and with a strong southward wind they may even be capable of piercing light chainmail. With enough archers firing I dont find it unlikely the wildlings could have gotten a few lucky killing shots in.

By "flight arrow" I assume they mean a "normal" arrow, but war arrows are heavier - the modern longbow has a draw weight of probably 60 pounds, but the historical one was double that and was using a comparatively heavy arrow in order to achieve penetrative power.

Physics eh?

Why do hang gliders jump off cliffs? Because cliffs are perpendicular to land causing the air to push up the cliff face creating an updraft. The wider the cliff and higher it goes in general the stronger the updraft.

I'm pretty sure only one Black Watch died on the top of the wall due to a unlucky arrow being carried up.

Most fiction is wrote at the speed of plot. Not all sci fi stands up to science... Warp speed, lazed swords, lasers beams that slowly track across the screen.

More near future stuff annoys me. Jurassic Park... I looked at how the pens were setup and the lack of redundant systems ie two sets of physical fences. Or the speed of DNA analysis in crime shows.

Anyhow unless it is inconsistent I normally don't get too worried about it.

As for pear shaped and slow ... Ever seen how fast Sumo wrestlers move, pivot and slap?

Still not convinced, especially about the Sumo part, what does a Sumo Wrestler look like next to a Saholin monk?

IT's also pretty explicit that the Night's Watch under fire atop the wall, the "fake" Watchemen they put up are full of arrows.

Actually it's only hard to draw a greatsword from the back if it is in an actual sheath. I always assumed it was simply strapped on to the back.

A fair point, but I'm fairly sure that they are "sheathed" and certainly "drawn", even strapped on it's not going to be a single smooth form as with a draw from the side.

Additionally GRRM is only a writer you cannot expect him to be flawless - while I may criticise some of his recent writing I wont criticise the world he has created for being "too unrealistic"

An interesting fact came up in a recent interview with the guys doing the Computer RPG - they regularly talk to GRRM and show him areas in the game to make sure it matches his vision of the area - when they showed him the Wall his first response was "Its too big!", they pointed out they had made it to his specification. GRRM's response was "I've made it too Big!!"

Right, so he made it way too big. The feeds into my argument though, he doesn't have a physical grip on the world he created, and given that I find the characters regularly flat (not all of them, admittedly) I think that's a serious issue.