The fact that GRRM has written sci-fi for decades indicates that if he wanted it, there would be a science fiction explanation. He probably ruled out any realistic astronomical explanation while writing AGoT, because his sci-fi is not surface level - there's hard science in the concepts.
The way I interpreted it, they have regular seasons. With the regular "winter" they call summer snows up north. They even have annual storm season in the narrow sea, so I believe they have regular yearly seasons like we do. It's just that they have brutal winters every decade or so, give or take (irregular) and it's reoccuring enough that they know to expect it, thus considering it "True winter", but it could actually be mini ice ages, given its description, and more than likely magical in nature.
Yep. I believe their "summers" and "winters" are like the medieval warm period and early modern little ice age, only instead of centuries it lasts years. During their seasons, they have "summer snows" and "false springs."
I’m curious how animals and plants adapted to the irregular weather cycles of Westeros (and other places in the world of Asoiaf) and if a scientific explanation can be given to explain it, or is it also due to magic.
Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series covers something similar, with plants, animals, and cultures adapting to massive storms that blow across the world frequently
Another notable question. Would winter even have any impact on Sothryos (the southernmost continent in GRRM's world, which barely nobody knows anything about)? That place, based upon the latitudinal examples provided by the video, would be more or less on the equator. Even if that world's axial tilt was magically similar to a planet of extreme seasons, the equatorial region would still remain mostly the same, climate-wise. If not for the fact that the place was so godawful dangerous, that seems like it would be the place to go, if you wanted to avoid the worst impacts of the long winter.
@@jacob4920 I think Sothoryos is analogous to the Amazon rainforest or the Yucatan peninsula, sure, some civilization can flourish there but it's so plentiful and prone to life that that in itself makes it hard for humans to inhabit for long periods of time because cities are swallowed by forests and jungles and the diseases therein
@@renatlottiepilled LIke I said... a dangerous place. An entire series of books could be written, simply about a group of people trying to survive in that hell hole. lol
My theory before discovering that there was a magic related explanation was: the sun Planetos revolves around is some kind of variable star and it has random unpredictable variation in luminosity and energy output, so that it causes those harsh variations in temperature leading to long summers, brief summers, bad winters, etc...that would have been the most reasonable scientific explanation to me. No need to take axial tilt or wobbling of the axis into account.
@@zaidalvi-r2l They do exist. Pulsating variable stars are a thing, and sometimes they pulsate without following a precise frequency, so they appear random. When they pulsate their luminosity and temperature changes and that would account for the random fluctuation in Westeros' seasons. But we know that there's magic behind it, so we'll have to wait for what Martin has to say about it...
@@the_demiurg could be far more powerful winter beings like white walkers moving too....white walkers bring the cold with them, but only come at night. What if there are things like ice giants or trolls that if they but shift a few leagues south of their normal positions in the land of ever winter it sends summer snows into northern Westeros?😮
My theory is the others causing the irregularities by causing magical mini ice ages but they have limits and require time to build their power and that what causes the long summer in the start of the books it was because the others were trying to conserve their power for the long night maybe if the humans managed to kill the others the season will return to normal
You probably share the bare bones of GRRM's concept, maybe all of it. It would explain the fluctuation, or even possibly that the Others don't have control over the cycle but rather have to wait and hope for a particularly long winter.
@@Levacque that also make sense maybe the others has greensight and know when a long winter is coming and planned for it and maybe there is something causing a long summer the series called ice and fire so maybe something is also causes a long summers
@@ocsjc13 and? That just means that they were preparing and holding back their strength at least 10 years, based on the length of the summer. All indications are that the Others have been preparing for, bare minimum, forty years, because that's how long Craster had been giving them his sons. I'm not sure why the summer beginning before AGoT would have any effect on this theory.
I read somewhere that GRRM wanted Planetos (the planet where the books are set) to be three times as big as Earth but his editor convinced him that's a bad idea. Instead he made the planet to be a third larger than Earth. I wonder if that would affect the days of the year? Also, its never explained how many days are in a moon or even in a year. For all we know, a year in Westeros could be 420 days or so which would explain the prevalent child marriages occurring in Westerosi history like Daemon Blackfyre who got married at 12 and had 5 or 6 children before his death. If he was 12 years old and a year in Westeros is 420 days that would make him 14 in our own years
Do you remember why his editor stated, it would be a bad idea? Gravity would be most likely bigger, but you can counter it with a lower density than earth has. As for the duration of a year, I don't think they are longer than a usual earth's year. It was common in ancient and medieval times to marry at the age of 12. Most children were physically cabable of getting children their own at that age, and if so, why not marry and do so before dying? Also, it's the fastest method of cementing an alliance between two families. Nowadays, because of medicine and nutrition, this age would go down to 9, if there weren't more important things than getting offspring as fast as possible.
@@Barbarossa125 Multiplying Earths Size by 3-fold fucks literally *everything* up. Not just Gravity. Earth is a literal paradise in terms of ‘stable’ climate, gravity, ecological progression, etc We are in the Goldlocks zone To give an example, we dream of living on Mars, which is BARELY that much larger than Earth. Yet everything about Mars is so astronomically different (not solely due to size, but that plays a major element) than Earth as it is. That’s usually the reason most fantasy settings either stick to ‘Earth-like’ or use a Discworld of some kind. The unforeseen evological ramifications of significantly enlarging Earth by more than 1.5x can not be understated.
10:50 Vega isn't actually the star pointing north in our world, though it is a very interesting star. (The second brightest star in the sky after Sirius). The star that points north is called Polaris and is located in the ursa minor constellation.
I can fully accept that the explanation for the seasons is a magical one, but I still feel like throwing some more science into the mix 😂 I always thought that the seasons might actually not even be irregular, but maybe they repeat in cycles that are too long for humans to recognize the pattern. The maesters in Westeros do keep records and have been doing so for a couple hundred years, but let's just assume the seasonal patterns repeat in a 1000 or 2000 year cycle (which wouldn't be much in cosmic dimensions), the maesters simply wouldn't be aware (yet). GRRM himself mentioned the multi-star system and that was also one of my first thoughts. Our solar system is a bit of an exception with its one lonely sun - most star systems have multiple suns. Planetos could very well be in a system with 3 or 4 or 5 or even more suns merrily rotating around each other, opening up endless possibilities of rotation patterns. Let's throw some other weird stuff into the mix: two of Saturn's moons swap (!) their orbits every 4 years as they get close enough to each other. Imagine this happening to Planetos, taking the planet onto a completely different orbit for the next who knows how many years until it reaches its original starting point again. Maybe on that orbit it passes larger planets or moons that make it wobble for a while in addition to that. And then maybe of course there was once the famous second moon in the sky - maybe indeed some celestial body that crashed into Planetos causing a phenomenon literally called impact winter. All these options are possible and realistic and totally happening somewhere in our universe - especially in combination they could cause a climate seeming completely and utterly random to the planet's inhabitants.
@@beepbop6542 Single starred systems are the minority - it's estimated that only 20% of systems only have a single star. Whether people in this world can see the other stars would probably depend on the exact setup of the system. They might be visible during some time periods but not during others etc. We also can't know how bright they'd be in the sky.
Can’t believe I’ve found this channel so early. The production and quality of content already feels closer to somebody with tens of thousands of subs. I’m sure you’ll be there soon enough!
The video and research is closer to someone with tens of thousands of subs, but the audio is a bit rough. That could use a little bit of an upgrade to sound more professional.
my fav explanation for the seasons is; an unstable sun that itself wobbles and fluctuates slowly between; just enough energy output for a stable normal climate and not enough... so over time, if it werent for "magic" the sun would eventually dim and cause a new permanent ice age...
What if there is just one little island west of Westeros where they sacrifice people to keep the sun lit, and it’s all true, like there is a sun god and he is unsatisfied every few years and freezes everything
There could also be some more complex climatic phenomena like we have for example El Niño or La Niña in real life, which could explain this sort of irregularity in the seasons as they are perceived by the meisters.
My theory: The Arm of Dorne was broken by the Children of the Forest in order to allow the waters of the Shivering Sea to be warmed by the Summer Sea. Before then, the Others and the Long Night probably froze the entire Shivering Sea.
@@CMVBrielman Kerrie is right, it is mentioned in the beginning of the The World of Ice and Fire to stop the First Men from invading Westeros through the Arm of Dorne
@@benjaminbazi9355 I’m aware of that. That same book is chock full of unreliable narration because its written from an in-universe perspective by a Maester who is anti-magic.
It's a good theory but it doesn't really explain why the Children did the same thing at The Neck when the First Men tried to cross it. Warming the Shivering Sea might have been a side effect of breaking the arm (even though the Shivering Sea is still ridiculously cold now) but it's *probably* true that the Children were attempting to stop any more First Men trying to migrate into Westeros.
Always nice to find another competent ASOIAF commentator 👌. You should make a video about the geopolitical realities and relationship each kingdom within Westeros has.
Yo this has been one of the best game of thrones videos I’ve seen in a very long time. I love the way you applied book/show lore knowledge into real world but also understand that it’s fantasy. I loved the science and I loved the grrm comments cause I hadn’t previously been aware of them. Your awesome, instant sub
Isn't possible that the planet of Westros has an orbit that is irregular? That during long summers the planet comes much closer to the sun, and long winters it's orbit drifts away. The awnser at 13:04 is unsatifsfying to me, especially as GRR Martin has criticized the works of Tolkien for not being specific. It just kind of shows me that Martin doesn't hold himself to the same standard that he apparently holds Tolkien.
I don't see the "seasons" as normal seasons, but magical micro ice ages, basically. They have normal seasons caused by axial tilts and orbital eccentricity too, as evident by the occasionally mentioned summer snows in the north, as well as storm and harvest seasons. The long night however is a supernatural ice age.
Thanks for the informative video brother. I’m a huge fan of taking the science-fiction view of the story, even if I don’t believe the results to be true. It is fascinating to consider just what explanations could be found.
I think the seasons have to do with the black stone. I used to think it was some sort of meteor, but it may be pieces of the second moon. Or some mineral created by the impact, like Moldavite.
Seems the algorithm picked up your video a little bit, nice vid anyway, going to subscribe, the latitude map and references to real world are super interesting
A very simple explanation would be vulcanic activity in far away reaches of the world. maybe even the lands of always winter. if it is not too extreme you will not realise what is happening, just that it snows in what should be summer. Mayhaps someone wanted to create an ethernal summer(without axial tilt) and that was the result.
Being closer or further from a sun is not what determines winter and summer. For example, during Earth's furtherst distance to the Sunin its orbit, the northern hemisphere is experiencing summer. What the axial tilt does is change the incident (aka angle) to the sun and therefore the concentration of sunlight.
They've never said how the people of Westeros know what a year is. I've always just assumed they had a lunar calendar with one year being exactly twelve lunar cycles, but they've never said. They can't use the sun or the stars, because the seasons do affect hours of daylight and so the planet's axis is definitely wobbling.
They just measure the sun's cycle in the sky, like we do. They have normal years and seasons, they just have meta seasons that can make it cool even in (mini)summer or relatively warm even in (mini)winter.
@@beepbop6542 Westerosi seasons have been confirmed to change the length of the day just like ours do, so the sun's cycle is irregular and not suitable as a basis for a calendar. The maesters track the stars and the length of the day to estimate when the seasons will change, and very long winters can result in months or years with no sunlight at all.
@@beepbop6542 They never talk about any regular cycles of weather within a single season. It snows in summer sometimes in the North, but not at the same time every year within that summer. It's just cold overall, so the colder end of summer weather includes a little snow.
Seasons from Earth having axial tilt aren't because one side is closer to Sun than other. It is due to tilt that one side is longer exposed to Sun than other depending on time of the year.
My take on Planetos’ seasons are that they aren’t dictated by the same factors that govern ours on Earth. Sure, Planetos’ might have an axial tilt, and it’s likely one similar to Earth’s, but ultimately what determines the strength and length of seasons might be other environmental factors. What if Planetos has an unstable mantle or geological system? Perhaps changes in temperature or movement in the planet’s core can cause “seasonal” repercussions on the surface. Wind and ocean patterns given the arrangement of the landmasses might play a role too.
I always associated GOT seasons to our world's cooling and warming that we see play out for hundreds and thousands of years. We just left a mini ice age and if you look at rise and fall of civilization it directly correlates to rise and fall of temperature
I think George may have messed up with sothyros. He said a dragon rider (can't remember which targ) flew for 6 months and didn't find it's end. If Dorne is near the equator and he said it took 2 weeks to fly from kings landing to the wall planetos must be a weird shape
at the beginning of the series Summer had just ended after 10 years the longest it had been for centuries or more, throughout the series up until the Epilogue of Dance is Autumn/Fall
Going based on a magical explanation, my theory is that the lands of always winter is like the centre of cold and ice magic and Valyria is the centre of heat and fire magic and in order for the seasons to be “normal” there has to be a balance between the magical beings of both sides, ie. the Others and dragons.
man i really want to get into this world, but i really worry that GRRM won't finish it, so I am not sure if i ever will read the books. not ever gonna watch the show because it ends horribly
The show does end terribly, but I would still recommend the tv series…the early seasons are amazing storytelling and even up to and including season 7 it’s worth watching. House of the Dragon is also very good as well, and the story of house of the dragon is complete.
My copium is this; If the series is never finished, we can never be let down by a bad ending, and we can theorize forever, which is half the fun of the series
If the planet's orbit was more eccentric to Earth and generally wider, it would explain the long seasons. If the winter became longer, there would be more snow cover causing the planet to be more reflective creating a positive feedback loop. Also, if the majority of the orbit was more than 1 AU, which is Earth, that would give you much longer and more intense winters than summers. Still, even under this scenario winters would only be a few months longer than usual on Earth except for the snow feedback loop that could make the world remain colder longer even if it's not technically winter. I think to truly get the best results, the planet would need to go all the way to Ceres orbit at 2.77AU at aphelion and then Vensus orbit at 0.72AU at perihelion.
The sci-fi explanation alluded to in the GRRM quote - "multiple stars" ie. a binary or trinary system with the right configuration of orbits (and black holes for invisible suns) can maybe give the observed seasons and star field. But as word of god says its magic, then its magic. Going by his work so far we will not get any further explanation, so I guess its some kind of effect of the others magic and there isn't a lot more to say about it.
Perhaps it could be possible that the planets sun in ice in fire has a wobble causing planets orbits to tilt. That way when it does perhaps the planet get slightly eclipsed by an asteroid belt or some other large stellar body causing the change in temperature?
Couldn't the long seasons also be explained through a strongly elliptic orbit of asoiaf-planet? There might be irregularities as well, what would explain the differences in season length
Ive always wondered. A long night would cause seal levels to drop would it not?' Would the step stones have been close to a land bridge at the end of the long night?
I never understood if the world in GoT had the regular 4 seasons where things would change. Did they have a regular winter where it would be colder in King’s Landing for a few months a year and get warmer a few months a year during Summer? And then on top of that, ALSO have the extreme “Winter” where the sun didn’t shine for months or years? Or was the climate exactly the same all over the world until “Winter” came?
I think the death of Valyrian dragons changed the climate, the world lost a lot of that magic. Why know when Daenerys 3 dragons hatched mages felt the change in magic, imagina what was to lose hundrends of dragons at same time? The Targaryens manage to save it for 200 year +- with their surviving dragons, but they all died too at the dance and the few who hatched after it died. Maybe the answer to why it is so erratic is unbalanced magic. Too much Ice or fire for exemple can change it. Losing fire could mean awakening the Others, too much water could mean awakening the squishers. It would make sense because an ice age would make the seas level fall and a global warming would make it rise. Also the world lost natural dragons too. Before all being concentrating in Valyrian there were dragons all around the world.
I always roll my eyes at people trying to scientifically explain fantasy worlds. I like settings with bespoke cosmologies that do not even resemble real life at all. Like: No, the world is canonically the center of the universe and the sun goes around it, and the stars are literally holes into another plane of existence. That sort of thing.
There is a such thing as tidal locking as well. Basically, a planet / moon can have one face the star. The facing side would have over-long summers, while the not-facing side would have over-long winters.
Our own moon rotates on an axis, but we only see the one side - due to the tidal lock of the Earth. So the planetos would still rotate - just that one side favors the star for a little too longer than the other side.
@@peterwindhorst5775 if planetos were tidally locked then only one side would ever face the sun, just like how only one side of the moon faces the Earth
@@jackwalters5506 actually the earth's moon does rotate, we just don't see it. When the Moon is New in the phase cycle (no moon to be seen) - that is when the back side (the side without the face) is facing the earth. The problem is can't see (the side without the face) due to the earth's shadow on the moon. The operation on planetos would be the same but instead the star's light would hit the front side during the 7-14 year long summer, while while the backside would have a 7-14 year long winter. Then when the rotation happens and the positioning is right the front-side (westeros side) would get 7-14 years of winter and the back side would get 7-14 years of summer.
@@peterwindhorst5775 you do realize the moon is tidally locked to the earth, and that's why the "dark side" gets sunlight. A planet tidally locked to it's star would not have a day/night cycle
the seasons on earth aren't caused by the distance to the sun, but by the angle of the sun relative to the surface and the duration of daytime. because all orbits are elliptical, the earth is actually closer to the sun during the northern hemisphere's winter.
The seasons are probably due to some extreme axial shifting or changes in orbit from a neighboring giant planet. These cause meta seasons which result in long period of colder or warmer temperature over several years.
If the GoT Earth doesn't have an erratically wobbly axis, then I'd say there is more volcanic activity, causing a higher CO2 content in the atmosphere, causing several years long summers despite the astronomical winter, but also when once every several years there's a huge eruption comparable to eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, which caused the so-called "year without a summer". In the GoT world, such eruptions can be stronger, and due to the sulfur aerosol from the eruption, the temperature drops so low for several years that it feels like winter in the real world, and when the atmosphere clears, it warms to summer temperatures. Since great eruptions are of varying frequency and strength, this explains the irregular strength of winter and the length of both seasons. And the Long Night was caused by the eruption of a supervolcano that was an order of magnitude more powerful and caused the sky to darken for several weeks or months, maybe even longer. But rather it's caused by the Night King's magic that the Children of the Forest fight with. Then the Children wins it's summer and when the Night King wins it's winter.
My theory: The Long Night (c. 8000 BC or 6000 BC) is a mini ice age caused by a meteor that fell on Planetos somewhere between west of Westeros and East of the “Know World” of Planetos (based on the myth of the second moon getting too close to the sun and cracking open). The impact caused dirt to rise to the atmosphere, making it impossible for sunlight to reach earth. This is the Long Night. Temperatures drop and, with no sunlight, plant life starts to die, followed by life in general. Faced with extinction, the First Man ask the Children of the Forest - who know magic - some way to survive. The CotF then create The White Walkers, "humans" that can withstand the terrible cold. Time passes and the debris in the atmosphere settles down. Sunlight is back, bringing warmth and life. The First Men rejoice, but now the heat is a problem to the White Walkers; they need the cold just as the First Men need the heat. The White Walkers know magic to bring the cold, but the First Men oppose. They fight. The WW are stronger, but less numerous. At some point, the war is resolved and a compromise is settled. They build a wall. The land south of the wall will belong to the FM and the heat. The land north of the wall will belong to the WW and the cold. Thousand of years pass and the people of Westeros forget about the WW, but they did not forget the land of the south. Just as the White Walkers were created from men, they share men's greed and lust for power. Just like the kings and lords of Westeros wish to conquer and rule more land than they already have, so do the WW. They build up an army and experiment with magic of their own, which in turn makes the seasons in Planetos all crazy. Having perfected their magic, they are now ready to march South and that is the Game of Thrones plot [Continues in the comments]
The Long Night (the meteor impact and subsequent mini ice age) also explains the creation of dragons. The people of Essos are faced with the same problem of no sunlight + no heat. The people of Asshai use magic and genetic manipulation to create a predecessor of dragons, a creature capable of generating light and heat by themselves. They are not yet what we come to know as dragons in Valyria, but a prototype. Asshai is also the birth place of the cult of R’hollor, the Lord of Light, and their priests practice fire magic. Therefore, I believe it is safe to say Asshai culture is very connected to fire magic. Their myths also make mention of Azhor Ahai raising dragons from stone (stone = meteor). The buildings in Asshai are of black stone resembling that of fused dragonstone. A few Thousand Years pass and we have signs of “dragons” in Yi Ti, west of Asshai, like the “Valyrian” roads (even though they predated Valyria) and the Five Forts built in material compared to those used in Valyria. There are no constructions resembling dragonstone in Ghis (the next point in the west migration Route) except for the emblem of Old Ghis: a fanged woman with leathery wings for arms, the legs of an eagle, and the tail of scorpion, clutching a thunderbolt in her talons (maybe a reference to the fire they bring). There are not that many material evidence of “dragons” in Ghis beacuse I think the majority migrated Southwest from Yi Ti to Sothoryos, where they might have bred with basilisks and wyverns and grown in size. Afterwards, they migrated Northwest, finally getting to Valyria. They settled there because the volcanic network provides the best environment for a fire magic creature. The valyrian people naturally wanted to domesticate and harness the power of dragons. They used blood magic to do so. They became “blood of the dragon”. Valyrians domesticated what we know as dragons now, so that is why we see them as the creators of dragons.
i personally like to think that each year on Planetos has regular seasons within the larger summer/winter structure. just because otherwise most people and animals would die out.
I believe the long seasons of the planet are due to it being a planet withing the inhabitable zone of a HUGE HUGE HUGE star, therefore its seasons last a very long long time.
Lot of seismic activity, such as all the volcanoes in the east. Could be varying waves of volcanic activity cause long and irregular “winters”. That’s been the case on Earth as mini ice ages in Europe can be directly tied to can be tied to volcanic eruptions in the pacific. 😊
I dont know why we even assume the planet is a planet, it may as well be a disc or something. I mean, I prefer to think of it not in terms of real life science at all
Sorry if I'm missing something obvious, but what do you mean by no moon? I don't remember if they bring it up in the tv series, but the ASOIAF world definitely has one. Besides it simply being described in several chapters ("Tyrion had never seen a bigger moon", "Up above the treetops, a crescent moon was floating in a dark sky" and so on), there's Doreah's story about the former two moons and how "One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return".
this planet could also be in a more than 1 star system and/or one of its stars being a black hole or dwarf. There are so many astronomical variations that you don't have to touch "magic" at all lol
'Summer' and 'winter' may not be seasonal at all (as in a yearly cycle caused primarily by a planet with a less than 90 degrees tilted axis of rotation compared to its orbital plane). A slightly irregular sun (as often suggested here in the comments) may be an explanation but it could also be a slightly fluctuating density of interstellar gas the solar system moves through, a squasi-random pull by massive planetary bodies in the same solar system (and the Maesters haven't yet recognized the pattern) or maybe a significant global warming effect due to an unknown geological or biological oscillating process (for example, a species of oceanic algae that usually captures most of the CO2 that isn't absorbed locally by the normal plant life, periodically and massively dies off due to a viral infection, releasing much of the CO2 in the process. Small pocket colonies that are resistant survive, take over the now unoccupied territory, the virus mutates and the whole cycle starts over again). It also can be a combination of factors, however, then those factors can't be too extreme on itself else the whole planet might freeze or boil over.
Environmentalists would just love it if our real life climate change was leading to a "long winter," because that would mean that global warming is not, in fact, a thing. But global cooling is. So I just want to point out that while GRRM's world is headed towards a long winter. Our world, paradoxically, is headed toward a super-long summer.
I'm guessing the "Summer Islands" are so called because they never experience winter. Presumably the "Winters" experienced by Westeros are the result of something emanating from the far north.
So what is interesting is the climate in Westeros is posited to have been much like earth since maesters made discoveries that show the seasons we’re in a cycle. If the canon for the show is correct the children of the forest made the others which threw off the cycle
if a smuggler calls where one star or constellation is true north that doesnt mean it never moves just that it probably doesnt move so much to prove to hinder their work
“The taste of their food and the faces of their women made the Ironborn the best sailors in Westeros.” -Crusader Chris
I just wish the Brits, whom the quote originaly applied to, were at least half as cool.
@@Ballin4Vengeancewe're way cooler. But seeing as the iron born are a bunch of cowardly rapists, it's not saying much I suppose.
@@Ballin4Vengeance They were, you just fell for the anti-White reddit meme that they're le bad.
@@Ballin4Vengeance But the Anglo-Saxons were.
@@TopDrekthe British have always just been boring and evil
The fact that GRRM has written sci-fi for decades indicates that if he wanted it, there would be a science fiction explanation. He probably ruled out any realistic astronomical explanation while writing AGoT, because his sci-fi is not surface level - there's hard science in the concepts.
The way I interpreted it, they have regular seasons. With the regular "winter" they call summer snows up north. They even have annual storm season in the narrow sea, so I believe they have regular yearly seasons like we do. It's just that they have brutal winters every decade or so, give or take (irregular) and it's reoccuring enough that they know to expect it, thus considering it "True winter", but it could actually be mini ice ages, given its description, and more than likely magical in nature.
This has always been my interpretation too
Yep. I believe their "summers" and "winters" are like the medieval warm period and early modern little ice age, only instead of centuries it lasts years. During their seasons, they have "summer snows" and "false springs."
that makes sense actually
Perhaps natural ice ages
Semi natural
I’m curious how animals and plants adapted to the irregular weather cycles of Westeros (and other places in the world of Asoiaf) and if a scientific explanation can be given to explain it, or is it also due to magic.
Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series covers something similar, with plants, animals, and cultures adapting to massive storms that blow across the world frequently
Another notable question. Would winter even have any impact on Sothryos (the southernmost continent in GRRM's world, which barely nobody knows anything about)? That place, based upon the latitudinal examples provided by the video, would be more or less on the equator. Even if that world's axial tilt was magically similar to a planet of extreme seasons, the equatorial region would still remain mostly the same, climate-wise. If not for the fact that the place was so godawful dangerous, that seems like it would be the place to go, if you wanted to avoid the worst impacts of the long winter.
@@jacob4920 I think Sothoryos is analogous to the Amazon rainforest or the Yucatan peninsula, sure, some civilization can flourish there but it's so plentiful and prone to life that that in itself makes it hard for humans to inhabit for long periods of time because cities are swallowed by forests and jungles and the diseases therein
@@renatlottiepilled LIke I said... a dangerous place. An entire series of books could be written, simply about a group of people trying to survive in that hell hole. lol
@@jacob4920 Yeah I imigane it wouldn't be affected much by winter. Just gotta carve out a civilization there lol
My theory before discovering that there was a magic related explanation was: the sun Planetos revolves around is some kind of variable star and it has random unpredictable variation in luminosity and energy output, so that it causes those harsh variations in temperature leading to long summers, brief summers, bad winters, etc...that would have been the most reasonable scientific explanation to me. No need to take axial tilt or wobbling of the axis into account.
yeah but variable stars dont exist in real life
@@zaidalvi-r2l They do exist. Pulsating variable stars are a thing, and sometimes they pulsate without following a precise frequency, so they appear random. When they pulsate their luminosity and temperature changes and that would account for the random fluctuation in Westeros' seasons. But we know that there's magic behind it, so we'll have to wait for what Martin has to say about it...
@@the_demiurg source?
@@the_demiurg could be far more powerful winter beings like white walkers moving too....white walkers bring the cold with them, but only come at night. What if there are things like ice giants or trolls that if they but shift a few leagues south of their normal positions in the land of ever winter it sends summer snows into northern Westeros?😮
Or giant ice spiders....😮
My theory is the others causing the irregularities by causing magical mini ice ages but they have limits and require time to build their power and that what causes the long summer in the start of the books it was because the others were trying to conserve their power for the long night maybe if the humans managed to kill the others the season will return to normal
You probably share the bare bones of GRRM's concept, maybe all of it. It would explain the fluctuation, or even possibly that the Others don't have control over the cycle but rather have to wait and hope for a particularly long winter.
@@Levacque that also make sense maybe the others has greensight and know when a long winter is coming and planned for it and maybe there is something causing a long summer the series called ice and fire so maybe something is also causes a long summers
The long summer started way before the start of the book
@@ocsjc13 and? That just means that they were preparing and holding back their strength at least 10 years, based on the length of the summer. All indications are that the Others have been preparing for, bare minimum, forty years, because that's how long Craster had been giving them his sons. I'm not sure why the summer beginning before AGoT would have any effect on this theory.
Woah wait
I read somewhere that GRRM wanted Planetos (the planet where the books are set) to be three times as big as Earth but his editor convinced him that's a bad idea. Instead he made the planet to be a third larger than Earth. I wonder if that would affect the days of the year? Also, its never explained how many days are in a moon or even in a year. For all we know, a year in Westeros could be 420 days or so which would explain the prevalent child marriages occurring in Westerosi history like Daemon Blackfyre who got married at 12 and had 5 or 6 children before his death. If he was 12 years old and a year in Westeros is 420 days that would make him 14 in our own years
Do you remember why his editor stated, it would be a bad idea? Gravity would be most likely bigger, but you can counter it with a lower density than earth has.
As for the duration of a year, I don't think they are longer than a usual earth's year. It was common in ancient and medieval times to marry at the age of 12. Most children were physically cabable of getting children their own at that age, and if so, why not marry and do so before dying? Also, it's the fastest method of cementing an alliance between two families. Nowadays, because of medicine and nutrition, this age would go down to 9, if there weren't more important things than getting offspring as fast as possible.
@@Barbarossa125 Multiplying Earths Size by 3-fold fucks literally *everything* up.
Not just Gravity.
Earth is a literal paradise in terms of ‘stable’ climate, gravity, ecological progression, etc
We are in the Goldlocks zone
To give an example, we dream of living on Mars, which is BARELY that much larger than Earth. Yet everything about Mars is so astronomically different (not solely due to size, but that plays a major element) than Earth as it is.
That’s usually the reason most fantasy settings either stick to ‘Earth-like’ or use a Discworld of some kind. The unforeseen evological ramifications of significantly enlarging Earth by more than 1.5x can not be understated.
@@freddykrueger8076 "Mars is barely that much larger than earth"
Tf are you smoking? Mars is smaller than Earth
@@eruiluvatar7155 Was thinking the same thing.
1/3 the size of Earth, I thought it was supposed to be 90% the size of Earth.
Glad I found you. This is good - I'll watch your other ASOIAF videos.
Thank you
10:50 Vega isn't actually the star pointing north in our world, though it is a very interesting star. (The second brightest star in the sky after Sirius). The star that points north is called Polaris and is located in the ursa minor constellation.
I always assumed the planet had a very slight, stable tilt, and that it was variation in the star that caused the long weird seasons.
I roughly knew most of this but it's always good to watch an entertaining video about it, great job
Earth's North Star is Polaris, not Vega.
Thank you for your service. Not sure how the hell people keep making this mistake.
Recently found your channel and wanted to say thank you. Fantastic and well-informed content! Hope you get the recognition you deserve.
I can fully accept that the explanation for the seasons is a magical one, but I still feel like throwing some more science into the mix 😂 I always thought that the seasons might actually not even be irregular, but maybe they repeat in cycles that are too long for humans to recognize the pattern. The maesters in Westeros do keep records and have been doing so for a couple hundred years, but let's just assume the seasonal patterns repeat in a 1000 or 2000 year cycle (which wouldn't be much in cosmic dimensions), the maesters simply wouldn't be aware (yet).
GRRM himself mentioned the multi-star system and that was also one of my first thoughts. Our solar system is a bit of an exception with its one lonely sun - most star systems have multiple suns. Planetos could very well be in a system with 3 or 4 or 5 or even more suns merrily rotating around each other, opening up endless possibilities of rotation patterns. Let's throw some other weird stuff into the mix: two of Saturn's moons swap (!) their orbits every 4 years as they get close enough to each other. Imagine this happening to Planetos, taking the planet onto a completely different orbit for the next who knows how many years until it reaches its original starting point again. Maybe on that orbit it passes larger planets or moons that make it wobble for a while in addition to that. And then maybe of course there was once the famous second moon in the sky - maybe indeed some celestial body that crashed into Planetos causing a phenomenon literally called impact winter. All these options are possible and realistic and totally happening somewhere in our universe - especially in combination they could cause a climate seeming completely and utterly random to the planet's inhabitants.
Single starred systems are the majority. And if Westeros had multiple stars, then people would see multiple stars, wouldn't they?
@@beepbop6542 Single starred systems are the minority - it's estimated that only 20% of systems only have a single star. Whether people in this world can see the other stars would probably depend on the exact setup of the system. They might be visible during some time periods but not during others etc. We also can't know how bright they'd be in the sky.
Can’t believe I’ve found this channel so early. The production and quality of content already feels closer to somebody with tens of thousands of subs. I’m sure you’ll be there soon enough!
The video and research is closer to someone with tens of thousands of subs, but the audio is a bit rough. That could use a little bit of an upgrade to sound more professional.
my fav explanation for the seasons is; an unstable sun that itself wobbles and fluctuates slowly between; just enough energy output for a stable normal climate and not enough... so over time, if it werent for "magic" the sun would eventually dim and cause a new permanent ice age...
What if there is just one little island west of Westeros where they sacrifice people to keep the sun lit, and it’s all true, like there is a sun god and he is unsatisfied every few years and freezes everything
There could also be some more complex climatic phenomena like we have for example El Niño or La Niña in real life, which could explain this sort of irregularity in the seasons as they are perceived by the meisters.
My theory: The Arm of Dorne was broken by the Children of the Forest in order to allow the waters of the Shivering Sea to be warmed by the Summer Sea. Before then, the Others and the Long Night probably froze the entire Shivering Sea.
@Kerrie Wilson He’s been known to use unreliable narration. Or it could be both.
@Kerrie Wilson Thats not what I claimed.
@@CMVBrielman Kerrie is right, it is mentioned in the beginning of the The World of Ice and Fire to stop the First Men from invading Westeros through the Arm of Dorne
@@benjaminbazi9355 I’m aware of that. That same book is chock full of unreliable narration because its written from an in-universe perspective by a Maester who is anti-magic.
It's a good theory but it doesn't really explain why the Children did the same thing at The Neck when the First Men tried to cross it. Warming the Shivering Sea might have been a side effect of breaking the arm (even though the Shivering Sea is still ridiculously cold now) but it's *probably* true that the Children were attempting to stop any more First Men trying to migrate into Westeros.
This deserves wayy more likes. Cheers man :)
For all that is holy, Keep. It. Up. I'm so stoked to have seen you from the start! (Of this series, damn I have some catching up to do)
Im glad you made this investigation so thoroughly, because it's been a while since I've been think ASOIF planet is not round like earth
Always nice to find another competent ASOIAF commentator 👌. You should make a video about the geopolitical realities and relationship each kingdom within Westeros has.
Yes. So I can understand why the hill tribes are not referred to as wildlings or free folk.
Yo this has been one of the best game of thrones videos I’ve seen in a very long time. I love the way you applied book/show lore knowledge into real world but also understand that it’s fantasy. I loved the science and I loved the grrm comments cause I hadn’t previously been aware of them. Your awesome, instant sub
Working out an astronomical climatic model for a world that has fire breathing dragons makes the physics of Star Trek sound sensible.
Terrific ASOIAF video!
Isn't possible that the planet of Westros has an orbit that is irregular? That during long summers the planet comes much closer to the sun, and long winters it's orbit drifts away.
The awnser at 13:04 is unsatifsfying to me, especially as GRR Martin has criticized the works of Tolkien for not being specific. It just kind of shows me that Martin doesn't hold himself to the same standard that he apparently holds Tolkien.
This really did it for me!
Great video, I’d love to see this series continue for sure
I don't see the "seasons" as normal seasons, but magical micro ice ages, basically. They have normal seasons caused by axial tilts and orbital eccentricity too, as evident by the occasionally mentioned summer snows in the north, as well as storm and harvest seasons. The long night however is a supernatural ice age.
Thanks for the informative video brother. I’m a huge fan of taking the science-fiction view of the story, even if I don’t believe the results to be true. It is fascinating to consider just what explanations could be found.
I think the seasons have to do with the black stone. I used to think it was some sort of meteor, but it may be pieces of the second moon. Or some mineral created by the impact, like Moldavite.
The seasons could be explained if the star had an irregular light, in summer it burns brighter and in winter it becomes dimmer
Seems the algorithm picked up your video a little bit, nice vid anyway, going to subscribe, the latitude map and references to real world are super interesting
I loved it! Can you do the same thing about Essos and other lands? Showing the latitudes and etc
You should've also included the lands of long Summer. It gives a new perspective on this theory.
Pls pls continue this! I loved it!
A very simple explanation would be vulcanic activity in far away reaches of the world. maybe even the lands of always winter. if it is not too extreme you will not realise what is happening, just that it snows in what should be summer. Mayhaps someone wanted to create an ethernal summer(without axial tilt) and that was the result.
Being closer or further from a sun is not what determines winter and summer. For example, during Earth's furtherst distance to the Sunin its orbit, the northern hemisphere is experiencing summer. What the axial tilt does is change the incident (aka angle) to the sun and therefore the concentration of sunlight.
When are we going to get your 1k special, if we get one?
They've never said how the people of Westeros know what a year is. I've always just assumed they had a lunar calendar with one year being exactly twelve lunar cycles, but they've never said. They can't use the sun or the stars, because the seasons do affect hours of daylight and so the planet's axis is definitely wobbling.
They just measure the sun's cycle in the sky, like we do. They have normal years and seasons, they just have meta seasons that can make it cool even in (mini)summer or relatively warm even in (mini)winter.
@@beepbop6542 Westerosi seasons have been confirmed to change the length of the day just like ours do, so the sun's cycle is irregular and not suitable as a basis for a calendar. The maesters track the stars and the length of the day to estimate when the seasons will change, and very long winters can result in months or years with no sunlight at all.
@@billvolk4236 The year comes from the 4 normal seasons, not the long seasons. Think "summer snows" (winter during the warmer 'summer' period).
@@beepbop6542 They never talk about any regular cycles of weather within a single season. It snows in summer sometimes in the North, but not at the same time every year within that summer. It's just cold overall, so the colder end of summer weather includes a little snow.
@@billvolk4236 Are you sure? Im almost certain that they have normal seasons. If they don't then I've really been misreading some things
Seasons from Earth having axial tilt aren't because one side is closer to Sun than other. It is due to tilt that one side is longer exposed to Sun than other depending on time of the year.
Cool video, thanks for sharing
My take on Planetos’ seasons are that they aren’t dictated by the same factors that govern ours on Earth. Sure, Planetos’ might have an axial tilt, and it’s likely one similar to Earth’s, but ultimately what determines the strength and length of seasons might be other environmental factors. What if Planetos has an unstable mantle or geological system? Perhaps changes in temperature or movement in the planet’s core can cause “seasonal” repercussions on the surface. Wind and ocean patterns given the arrangement of the landmasses might play a role too.
Something about the reach Sam Tarly said it doesn’t even get cold there it’s always temperate and comfortable there
I always associated GOT seasons to our world's cooling and warming that we see play out for hundreds and thousands of years.
We just left a mini ice age and if you look at rise and fall of civilization it directly correlates to rise and fall of temperature
Great job
Nice buddy 👍 I got here early
Cool video.
I think George may have messed up with sothyros. He said a dragon rider (can't remember which targ) flew for 6 months and didn't find it's end. If Dorne is near the equator and he said it took 2 weeks to fly from kings landing to the wall planetos must be a weird shape
The dragon rider could just flow along the equator without encountering a sea. Sothyros can possibly shaped like Eurasia in our world.
@@iamsheel this is true but seeming as they have mapped the width of sothyros it doesn't seem likely
@@blahblahawesomeninja as far as I know it only the northern shores are known
at the beginning of the series Summer had just ended after 10 years the longest it had been for centuries or more, throughout the series up until the Epilogue of Dance is Autumn/Fall
Baratheon/durrandon biology is fairly interesting to me
Going based on a magical explanation, my theory is that the lands of always winter is like the centre of cold and ice magic and Valyria is the centre of heat and fire magic and in order for the seasons to be “normal” there has to be a balance between the magical beings of both sides, ie. the Others and dragons.
man i really want to get into this world, but i really worry that GRRM won't finish it, so I am not sure if i ever will read the books. not ever gonna watch the show because it ends horribly
The show does end terribly, but I would still recommend the tv series…the early seasons are amazing storytelling and even up to and including season 7 it’s worth watching. House of the Dragon is also very good as well, and the story of house of the dragon is complete.
My copium is this;
If the series is never finished, we can never be let down by a bad ending, and we can theorize forever, which is half the fun of the series
If the planet's orbit was more eccentric to Earth and generally wider, it would explain the long seasons. If the winter became longer, there would be more snow cover causing the planet to be more reflective creating a positive feedback loop. Also, if the majority of the orbit was more than 1 AU, which is Earth, that would give you much longer and more intense winters than summers. Still, even under this scenario winters would only be a few months longer than usual on Earth except for the snow feedback loop that could make the world remain colder longer even if it's not technically winter. I think to truly get the best results, the planet would need to go all the way to Ceres orbit at 2.77AU at aphelion and then Vensus orbit at 0.72AU at perihelion.
The sci-fi explanation alluded to in the GRRM quote - "multiple stars" ie. a binary or trinary system with the right configuration of orbits (and black holes for invisible suns) can maybe give the observed seasons and star field. But as word of god says its magic, then its magic. Going by his work so far we will not get any further explanation, so I guess its some kind of effect of the others magic and there isn't a lot more to say about it.
Perhaps it could be possible that the planets sun in ice in fire has a wobble causing planets orbits to tilt. That way when it does perhaps the planet get slightly eclipsed by an asteroid belt or some other large stellar body causing the change in temperature?
Couldn't the long seasons also be explained through a strongly elliptic orbit of asoiaf-planet? There might be irregularities as well, what would explain the differences in season length
Ive always wondered. A long night would cause seal levels to drop would it not?' Would the step stones have been close to a land bridge at the end of the long night?
Max Kepler reference is crazy
I never understood if the world in GoT had the regular 4 seasons where things would change. Did they have a regular winter where it would be colder in King’s Landing for a few months a year and get warmer a few months a year during Summer? And then on top of that, ALSO have the extreme “Winter” where the sun didn’t shine for months or years? Or was the climate exactly the same all over the world until “Winter” came?
I think the death of Valyrian dragons changed the climate, the world lost a lot of that magic.
Why know when Daenerys 3 dragons hatched mages felt the change in magic, imagina what was to lose hundrends of dragons at same time?
The Targaryens manage to save it for 200 year +- with their surviving dragons, but they all died too at the dance and the few who hatched after it died.
Maybe the answer to why it is so erratic is unbalanced magic. Too much Ice or fire for exemple can change it.
Losing fire could mean awakening the Others, too much water could mean awakening the squishers. It would make sense because an ice age would make the seas level fall and a global warming would make it rise.
Also the world lost natural dragons too.
Before all being concentrating in Valyrian there were dragons all around the world.
I always roll my eyes at people trying to scientifically explain fantasy worlds. I like settings with bespoke cosmologies that do not even resemble real life at all. Like: No, the world is canonically the center of the universe and the sun goes around it, and the stars are literally holes into another plane of existence. That sort of thing.
There is a such thing as tidal locking as well. Basically, a planet / moon can have one face the star. The facing side would have over-long summers, while the not-facing side would have over-long winters.
Yes but impossible in this context since Westeros experiences both extremes
Our own moon rotates on an axis, but we only see the one side - due to the tidal lock of the Earth. So the planetos would still rotate - just that one side favors the star for a little too longer than the other side.
@@peterwindhorst5775 if planetos were tidally locked then only one side would ever face the sun, just like how only one side of the moon faces the Earth
@@jackwalters5506 actually the earth's moon does rotate, we just don't see it. When the Moon is New in the phase cycle (no moon to be seen) - that is when the back side (the side without the face) is facing the earth. The problem is can't see (the side without the face) due to the earth's shadow on the moon. The operation on planetos would be the same but instead the star's light would hit the front side during the 7-14 year long summer, while while the backside would have a 7-14 year long winter. Then when the rotation happens and the positioning is right the front-side (westeros side) would get 7-14 years of winter and the back side would get 7-14 years of summer.
@@peterwindhorst5775 you do realize the moon is tidally locked to the earth, and that's why the "dark side" gets sunlight. A planet tidally locked to it's star would not have a day/night cycle
Nice one buddy
the seasons on earth aren't caused by the distance to the sun, but by the angle of the sun relative to the surface and the duration of daytime. because all orbits are elliptical, the earth is actually closer to the sun during the northern hemisphere's winter.
Perhaps the irregular seasons could be caused by some form of ENSO events, affecting all of westeros.
hey great work? do you think it will snow on the great grass see?
The seasons are probably due to some extreme axial shifting or changes in orbit from a neighboring giant planet. These cause meta seasons which result in long period of colder or warmer temperature over several years.
I thought you were going to mention the climate itself and how different it is in different places of Westeros regardless of the altitude.
If the GoT Earth doesn't have an erratically wobbly axis, then I'd say there is more volcanic activity, causing a higher CO2 content in the atmosphere, causing several years long summers despite the astronomical winter, but also when once every several years there's a huge eruption comparable to eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, which caused the so-called "year without a summer". In the GoT world, such eruptions can be stronger, and due to the sulfur aerosol from the eruption, the temperature drops so low for several years that it feels like winter in the real world, and when the atmosphere clears, it warms to summer temperatures. Since great eruptions are of varying frequency and strength, this explains the irregular strength of winter and the length of both seasons. And the Long Night was caused by the eruption of a supervolcano that was an order of magnitude more powerful and caused the sky to darken for several weeks or months, maybe even longer.
But rather it's caused by the Night King's magic that the Children of the Forest fight with. Then the Children wins it's summer and when the Night King wins it's winter.
Doesnt asoiaf lore have strips around sun instead of planets. It's seen at end of intros where got logo is presented and strips around it
That's a model set inside an astrolabe. It's at the Citadel or wherever it is they train the Maesters.
It's in the books, it is like inverted planet
*Sees a video about the weather in the world of ASOIAF*
Yup, that's something for me.
My theory:
The Long Night (c. 8000 BC or 6000 BC) is a mini ice age caused by a meteor that fell on Planetos somewhere between west of Westeros and East of the “Know World” of Planetos (based on the myth of the second moon getting too close to the sun and cracking open). The impact caused dirt to rise to the atmosphere, making it impossible for sunlight to reach earth. This is the Long Night. Temperatures drop and, with no sunlight, plant life starts to die, followed by life in general. Faced with extinction, the First Man ask the Children of the Forest - who know magic - some way to survive. The CotF then create The White Walkers, "humans" that can withstand the terrible cold.
Time passes and the debris in the atmosphere settles down. Sunlight is back, bringing warmth and life. The First Men rejoice, but now the heat is a problem to the White Walkers; they need the cold just as the First Men need the heat. The White Walkers know magic to bring the cold, but the First Men oppose. They fight. The WW are stronger, but less numerous. At some point, the war is resolved and a compromise is settled. They build a wall. The land south of the wall will belong to the FM and the heat. The land north of the wall will belong to the WW and the cold.
Thousand of years pass and the people of Westeros forget about the WW, but they did not forget the land of the south. Just as the White Walkers were created from men, they share men's greed and lust for power. Just like the kings and lords of Westeros wish to conquer and rule more land than they already have, so do the WW. They build up an army and experiment with magic of their own, which in turn makes the seasons in Planetos all crazy. Having perfected their magic, they are now ready to march South and that is the Game of Thrones plot
[Continues in the comments]
The Long Night (the meteor impact and subsequent mini ice age) also explains the creation of dragons. The people of Essos are faced with the same problem of no sunlight + no heat. The people of Asshai use magic and genetic manipulation to create a predecessor of dragons, a creature capable of generating light and heat by themselves. They are not yet what we come to know as dragons in Valyria, but a prototype. Asshai is also the birth place of the cult of R’hollor, the Lord of Light, and their priests practice fire magic. Therefore, I believe it is safe to say Asshai culture is very connected to fire magic. Their myths also make mention of Azhor Ahai raising dragons from stone (stone = meteor). The buildings in Asshai are of black stone resembling that of fused dragonstone.
A few Thousand Years pass and we have signs of “dragons” in Yi Ti, west of Asshai, like the “Valyrian” roads (even though they predated Valyria) and the Five Forts built in material compared to those used in Valyria.
There are no constructions resembling dragonstone in Ghis (the next point in the west migration Route) except for the emblem of Old Ghis: a fanged woman with leathery wings for arms, the legs of an eagle, and the tail of scorpion, clutching a thunderbolt in her talons (maybe a reference to the fire they bring). There are not that many material evidence of “dragons” in Ghis beacuse I think the majority migrated Southwest from Yi Ti to Sothoryos, where they might have bred with basilisks and wyverns and grown in size. Afterwards, they migrated Northwest, finally getting to Valyria. They settled there because the volcanic network provides the best environment for a fire magic creature. The valyrian people naturally wanted to domesticate and harness the power of dragons. They used blood magic to do so. They became “blood of the dragon”. Valyrians domesticated what we know as dragons now, so that is why we see them as the creators of dragons.
I mean, isn't magic in fantasy effectively its own form of science fiction?
i personally like to think that each year on Planetos has regular seasons within the larger summer/winter structure. just because otherwise most people and animals would die out.
like during winters there still are growing seasons but they’re just quite poor compared to the summer ones
I'm curious how it'll eventually be explained. The North get blizzards even during autumn.
I believe the long seasons of the planet are due to it being a planet withing the inhabitable zone of a HUGE HUGE HUGE star, therefore its seasons last a very long long time.
3:19 39⁰75' ? One degree has 60 minutes. Why not 40⁰15'?
And if it's only estimated, why not just say "39 or 40 degrees"?
I think I saw q theory once about the white walkers digging up corpses and yhat starting the winter, or the white walkers themselves coming south.
There are extreme seasons on earth, too, after volcanic eruptions. That seems much more likely reason
Lot of seismic activity, such as all the volcanoes in the east. Could be varying waves of volcanic activity cause long and irregular “winters”. That’s been the case on Earth as mini ice ages in Europe can be directly tied to can be tied to volcanic eruptions in the pacific. 😊
Winter is coming, is indeed a battle cry. In multiple ways.
2:09 you just say carnivorous trees?
Can you provide the link for the spinning globe at 7:43 ?
imgur.com/6gMzBdc
the sky is blue because they live inside the eye of a blue eye giant called macumber, every time it blinks is winter
I dont know why we even assume the planet is a planet, it may as well be a disc or something. I mean, I prefer to think of it not in terms of real life science at all
The planet wouldn't have storms or normal day night cycles if it wasn't round.
There’s no Moon. That would cause irregular seasons? Maybe the Valerians crashed the moon into themselves in a space elevator accident?
Sorry if I'm missing something obvious, but what do you mean by no moon? I don't remember if they bring it up in the tv series, but the ASOIAF world definitely has one. Besides it simply being described in several chapters ("Tyrion had never seen a bigger moon", "Up above the treetops, a crescent moon was floating in a dark sky" and so on), there's Doreah's story about the former two moons and how "One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return".
this planet could also be in a more than 1 star system and/or one of its stars being a black hole or dwarf. There are so many astronomical variations that you don't have to touch "magic" at all lol
'Summer' and 'winter' may not be seasonal at all (as in a yearly cycle caused primarily by a planet with a less than 90 degrees tilted axis of rotation compared to its orbital plane). A slightly irregular sun (as often suggested here in the comments) may be an explanation but it could also be a slightly fluctuating density of interstellar gas the solar system moves through, a squasi-random pull by massive planetary bodies in the same solar system (and the Maesters haven't yet recognized the pattern) or maybe a significant global warming effect due to an unknown geological or biological oscillating process (for example, a species of oceanic algae that usually captures most of the CO2 that isn't absorbed locally by the normal plant life, periodically and massively dies off due to a viral infection, releasing much of the CO2 in the process. Small pocket colonies that are resistant survive, take over the now unoccupied territory, the virus mutates and the whole cycle starts over again). It also can be a combination of factors, however, then those factors can't be too extreme on itself else the whole planet might freeze or boil over.
What is a year in Westeros if not a cycle of seasons? Just 13 moons?
Environmentalists would just love it if our real life climate change was leading to a "long winter," because that would mean that global warming is not, in fact, a thing. But global cooling is. So I just want to point out that while GRRM's world is headed towards a long winter. Our world, paradoxically, is headed toward a super-long summer.
I'm guessing the "Summer Islands" are so called because they never experience winter. Presumably the "Winters" experienced by Westeros are the result of something emanating from the far north.
So what is interesting is the climate in Westeros is posited to have been much like earth since maesters made discoveries that show the seasons we’re in a cycle. If the canon for the show is correct the children of the forest made the others which threw off the cycle
if a smuggler calls where one star or constellation is true north
that doesnt mean it never moves
just that it probably doesnt move so much to prove to hinder their work
Subtle Max Kepler reference haha this guy is from Minnesota
A star with irregular luminosity could account for this since solar radiation is the primary driver of the weather cycle.
"relax guys, I'm gonna explain it all eventually"
Yeah right George.
Maybe he will flex his high fantasy writing muscles and give us a magical cause/resolution
Winterfell's 54 degrees is pretty much Manchester. Greatest city in the world
Didnt GRRM said the long season are NOT caused by magic?