Game of Thrones map

[Kellerica]

In addition as always in FANTASY world maps dragons and magic are always fine, but a river going upstream is not. i really don't understand the logic here

For me, the key is reason and effort.

The map, to me, is a story within itself. And the good basic rule of storytelling is that you should be able to tell what purpose a thing serves to the narrative, and give it a reason for doing so. I have no problem with a river running upstream, if the creator of the map has set up some sort of a reason for it to exist ("A rivers runs upwards the hill, into a garden where a quirky demi-god once lived, who enjoyed creating things that defy the very laws of nature. Even the master of the garden is long gone, the magic of his creation still lingers..." etc.). A fantasy world doesn't necessarily have to follow flawless Earth logic, but it needs to follow a consistent logic of its own in order to feel believable. I'm willing to buy an awful lot of unrealistic stuff as long as it has been set up in a logical fashion. But there is a big difference between well thought-out fantasy weirdness, and just explaining your lazy worldbuilding away with "eh, it's magic, it doesn't have to make sense".

And just for the record, I think the same does apply to dragons and magic and the other typical fantasy stuff as well as geological inconsistencies. Don't just lazily drop dragons into your world for the sake of having dragons, if they add absolutely nothing to the narrative of the world.

[Voolf]

For me, the key is reason and effort.

The map, to me, is a story within itself. And the good basic rule of storytelling is that you should be able to tell what purpose a thing serves to the narrative, and give it a reason for doing so. I have no problem with a river running upstream, if the creator of the map has set up some sort of a reason for it to exist ("A rivers runs upwards the hill, into a garden where a quirky demi-god once lived, who enjoyed creating things that defy the very laws of nature. Even the master of the garden is long gone, the magic of his creation still lingers..." etc.). A fantasy world doesn't necessarily have to follow flawless Earth logic, but it needs to follow a consistent logic of its own in order to feel believable. I'm willing to buy an awful lot of unrealistic stuff as long as it has been set up in a logical fashion. But there is a big difference between well thought-out fantasy weirdness, and just explaining your lazy worldbuilding away with "eh, it's magic, it doesn't have to make sense".

And just for the record, I think the same does apply to dragons and magic and the other typical fantasy stuff as well as geological inconsistencies. Don't just lazily drop dragons into your world for the sake of having dragons, if they add absolutely nothing to the narrative of the world.

Generally agree. Those are some good points Kell.
It is just. Sometimes it hits me when people so easily rejects something really JUST because they never saw it. That dosen't disprove anything.

Consider that drawing ravine or canyon with 90degree curves would seem strange and "impossible" several years ago, but after we saw high-res images of mars depicting this:

all of a sudden when someone makes maps like that, the voices of "garbage map" says "well done, great map"

OH the irony !

Edit: And as Naima posted already Westeros is based on our world's land. Other then "I don't like the land" (which is totally fine considering one's aesthetic prefereces) i would not agree that it's "garbage". You would have to say that Ireland and UK are garbage too to some degree

[Naima]

Generally agree. Those are some good points Kell.
It is just. Sometimes it hits me when people so easily rejects something really JUST because they never saw it. That dosen't disprove anything.

Consider that drawing ravine or canyon with 90degree curves would seem strange and "impossible" several years ago, but after we saw high-res images of mars depicting this:

all of a sudden when someone make maps like that, the voices of "garbage map" says "well done, great map"

OH the irony !

About that canyon I remember a new theory that explained it as a cosmic lightning bolt that struck the surface... kind of sounds like magic ��...

[Kellerica]

Generally agree. Those are some good points Kell.
It is just. Sometimes it hits me when people so easily rejects something really JUST because they never saw it. That dosen't disprove anything.

Consider that drawing ravine or canyon with 90degree curves would seem strange and "impossible" several years ago, but after we saw high-res images of mars depicting this:

all of a sudden when someone makes maps like that, the voices of "garbage map" says "well done, great map"

OH the irony !

Edit: And as Naima posted already Westeros is based on our world's land. Other then "I don't like the land" (which is totally fine considering one's aesthetic prefereces) i would not agree that it's "garbage". You would have to say that Ireland and UK are garbage too to some degree

Yeah, fair enough, I do see your point. Maybe garbage is indeed too strong word. I don't think there is necessarily anything in there that is impossible, and I was really speaking more generally while talking of the whole using magic to cover up lazy worldbuilding. I actually really enjoy GRRM's worldbuilding and really love the Song of Ice & Fire books, even if I'm not a fan of the map itself. But honestly, I'm so much of a visual person, that I just like it when things look aesthetically pleasing, and I'll have to own up to that. Different strokes.

For me personally, the coastline details and the stuff inside them isn't really the issue. For me, it's these lines that I see every time I look at the map, and I just can't unsee them. Don't know if they are really geologically impossible, but they sure look ugly to me