The Naval Worldbuilding in A Song of Ice and Fire is a Mess and Here's Why 

I think the most unrealistic part of the Ironborn is that after all those thousands of years of kidnapping, rape, murder, and pillaging, the Lannisters, Starks, Redwynes, and/or Hightowers hadn't gotten pissed off enough to just wipe them out.

Never read any of the novels but this was a great analysis

George has rolled the landlubber special rule⛵ Also missed opportunity for sea dragon fleets is all I'm saying

I hate to break it to you, but during the Viking Age, the Norse and Danes *did* settle Ireland and Britain, and staged raids from them. The Irish cities of Dublin, Cork, and Limerick was originally founded by Vikings in 841 AD as an overwinter port. Sure, the lack of trees was a piece of ill-advised poetic license on the part of Martin, but the idea that being raided from nearby in the middle ages is hardly impossible in reality. And in the books, the Iron Islands *were* brought to heel by the Targaryen Kings, and it is, in fact, the divisions of the Civil War which make Balon Greyjoy believe he could return his people to the "old ways" (both before the events of 'A Game of Thrones' when Robert took the Iron Throne, and during, when Robert was killed and in the War of the Five Kings).

to the Ironborns credit, if there based of of actual Vikings then they would trade and people would come to the iron isle to trade. Vikings themselves where shrewd traders and there would have been perhaps dozens if not more merchants that would have attempted to make there way to the isles with the goals of selling and buying and that may have resulting in planks in large numbers being sold. that most likely how they might have a good economy is that they do a vast majority of the trading from westeros to that big east lands since they fear the water less due to there god and sailing is a custom. Still good video keep it up.

Even without the Mediterranean sea you would still have the galleys. Vikings mostly sacked river towns. Paris was a regular target. Not sure what kind of innovations you expected but they did add giant crossbows for killing dragons.

the map with what i assume are old growth forests seems ok from a historical real world view, it might interest you all to know that europe is richer in forests today than it was in the 18th century and prior, even in the medieval period many areas were less rich in forests than today but most of these today are young growth, often pine where it used to be leaf trees prior, that is being mended but it takes time, there is also the simple fact that we usually import wood from russia or south america or africa which allows us to act superior for having more green than we used to whilst consuming more wood

To be fair, it's coming. I think the early parts of The Winds of War will feature two massive, defining sea battles - Euron's Ironborn fleet versus the kingdom's fleet (or what's still loyal to it), and his brother Victarion's Ironborn fleet in Slavers' Bay. It's being set up with the Ironborn fleets being a mix of smaller 'Viking' longships and captured huge ocean-going warships. Mind you, expect dragons and krakens to determine the outcomes!

The Iron Islands are - as the name suggests - rich in metals (iron, lead and tin, specifically). Apparently, these metals are otherwise sparse in Westeros with other sources (for Westeros) usually being northwestern Essos. The worldbook proclaims that the Ironborn often trade iron for timber. The metals are usually mined by thralls but also the smallfolk as the soil is pretty crappy (note that the children of thralls automatically become free). Finally, the island of Great Wyk is not only the biggest of the Iron Islands, but it's also said to have been covered in forests and partially still is. Note that this is actually also symbolic since this island is mainly inhabited by house Goodbrother (which does not trace its heritage to the Grey King and instead might be Green King descendants - the Green being the "good brother"). Specifically, "soldier pines" are visibly covering the mountains of Great Wyk all the way from the surrounding islands (Saltcliffe, Old Wyk, etc). Further, it stands to reason that in times of peace, the Ironborn most likely do not keep a large standing navy (show Euron "build me x ships"; don't remember how many exactly, but at least a thousand). Also, if all oceans are rough, then the quantifier "rough" is redundant. It is a comparative term and implies more smooth oceans, too. Perhaps then also the oceans are currently rough as the books are set in the turning of the seasons from summer to winter. That could easily cause more turbulence. But yes, the seas in ASOIAF are pretty mysterious and the reason is probably what dwells beneath. Take the "Thousand Islands" for an example. A large archipelago with tiny inhabited islands - and the people are deathly afraid of the sea, never venturing from their island. Lorath and the Sarnori also have stories of the sea, as do the Crackclawmen and Sistermen. Personally, I believe that ASOIAF is set on earth, either far in the future or past. I lean towards future since this is pre-Pluto-cracking (ask at your own peril; I have a Lovecraftian explanation for a lot of the things)

Bruh, EVERYTHING that isn't _War of the Roses_ fanfiction in A Song of Ice and Fire is an absolute mess. Almost as if GRRM is an overrated hack...

Didn't Robert and Ned invaded the Iron Islands soon after the war?

I think George should give the Iron Born a unique resource that makes budling navies easier than anywhere else.

Honestly I think one really easy way to evolve the naval warfare system is to combine a sailing ship with something similar to the Roman Corvus (a razed boarding ramp that can be dropped onto the enemy deck and held in place with a large metal spike on the bottom) combine that with maybe some thing similar to allow the attacking ship to (for lack of better term) grapple with its victims (maybe a combination of hook lines and smaller but sturdier “boarding arms” that act similar to the Corvus would be really cool

ASoIaF has always been pretty overrated, especially if one knows the origin of templates and how relatively lazy is G. R. R. M. with them. By the way, are those naval battles from first Rome? This is for me the most shocking revelation at least for the last year. :-D

3 Things: 1. About the development of more fitting ships. Remember that the city-states of Essos only had 400 ish years to develop proper combat ships after the fall of the Freehold. Before that, it was kinda useless, especially because most cities were build by dragonriders. There just was no reason to build some better suited ships of war because they were kinda useless. It's reasonable to assume that the city states, on which westeros got it's technology, just had coast-develing combat ships because there wasn't anything before to go by for centuries, while otherwise to transport resources, there was only a need for civilian ships that can travel long ranges. The only place where we have some good sources from (we know about nothing of the society of Yi-Ti) that wasnt ruled by the freehold were the summer isles and they were able to produce a good ship able of cargo and combat with the Swan Ships + the warriors on board that were masters of archery. 2. Westeros also just became that centralized with the conquest by the targarians. Before that, these kingdoms were barley centrelized. Except the Ironborn, no kingdom had the incentive nor the resources to largely adopt a navy. The North barley had costal cities, the Westerlands just recently had the ressources and they lacked expertise, the Reach had barley a reason to develop military shipbuilding as they had more natural protections against the ironborn and the reach largely has towns and cities within the land, Oldtown being more of an exception. 3. The ironborn is a hybrid state of a regular early medival kingdom with "soft" Slavery and pirate attributes. However, the things the ironborn pulled of during Roberts reign and later in the books is regarded as very special. Before that boats just were a means to transport warriors from and to the isles. Raiding happend on foot in either conquest or ambushed. Thise warriors were capable because of the class system the ironborn have and because they are a ressource rich land in terms of minerlas. That doesn't explain how they were able to get the timber, but otherwise, they had a lot of costal towns and they got the expertise through their acquired servs, besides that they were definitely able to do more than raiding, as seen by the lord of Harlaw or the construction of Harrenhall. The thing about the "we do not sow" Is a special idea by the more religious and fanatical bunch, but its not the standard go to social setting of the ironborn. Of course, not everything aligns 100% and it shouldn't as we either get information via ASOIAF which is of course not focused on the social and economical fabric of Westeros or through BAI and AWOIAF, which are just imperfect descriptions of the societies and history through thr eyes of a intellectual with very imperfect sources and a contemporary point of view. We talk about a time in whoch the concept of economy as well as research and development barley exists. There are of course other holes, like with Brandon the Builder for instance and his fleet or the river people of essos building a fleet and just moving between three continents, as this is more of additional information then fixing the plot holes which do exist, but I'm personally ok with them existing because ASOIAF is in the end still a great universe that has little competition in scale and detail.

What is the taxes under aragorn? Better question who cares?

I think its best to see Martin as a history lover not a history expert because this whole thing sounds so disjointed to me as someone who cares about world building details given history is my favorite subject matter even when I was a kid especially military, culture, and political history. Even with my own setting I have a faction that use to raid for the same reason why the vikings happened since they live in very blizzard environments but had to change to strictly trading with strength being one and the same with decorum and generosity and often restrained by political and social conventions, because they understand they're in a whole different landscape and face a different line of politics so they can't just raid random countries. They can't just get away with that so they act kindly if a bit blunt to the point of being seen as unsocial. Martin should know why countries went after pirates and vikings. Its so understand why it died out.

Despite being a history buff George knows surpridingly little about pre-modern warfare weather it is on the land or sea. The early War of the 5 Kings is almost nonsensical in how it takes place. The Battle of Oxcross should have essentially been the end of the war between the Starks and Lannisters in a medieval setting.