Are the castles in Game of Thrones realistic?

ratings I'm shad and the TV show Game of Thrones has many things that are realistic in a medieval sense having said that though there are also many things that the Game of Thrones gets wrong but in the larger scheme of things in all types of medieval fantasy seas that have been made Game of Thrones gets far more right than many other TV shows and movies that are based in a medieval period or theme and so with that in mind let's take a look and see how accurate the castles are in the game of thrones TV series now we won't be having a look at every single castle that is featured in the TV series but what we will be doing is having a look at some of the more prominent and common or important castles that appear in the show also I will be analyzing how the TV series represents or depicts these castles because I am aware that many of these castles are described differently in the books as opposed to how they are represented in the TV show and so this isn't a look at the castles as they are described in the books it is specifically a look at how they are shown and represented in the TV show now the difficulty in doing this is that there are very few high detailed shots of the castles in the show because of budget constraints most of them when they show the castle they are very wide off angle shots and there's no sweeping scenes that show the castles and all their glory from every angle usually it's a static image showing the castle from only one angle but I'll do the best from some of the more detailed pictures I've been now to find all these castles and we will start with Winterfell now from this angle Winterfell looks very very believable and when I say that what I mean is that every single structure I see I could also see that structure being built in a historical setting nothing is so monolithically big that would have made it impractical or impossible to be built with medieval technology and I can't see anything that is defying the laws of architecture or physics either and so from these perspectives it is very believable some of the things that stand out to me when I look at this castle is the use of hoardings around some of the hours and also other structures and so the hoarding or hoardings are the wooden battlements that are fixed to the outside of some of the towers that is very historically accurate and they will put on castles to give arches and the defenders a platform to shoot down at their enemies and it also provided protection from incoming arrow fire it should be noted that a bit later on in castle design hoardings were architectural ii combined with towers and castle walls as matriculation z' and the regular battlements and so when that happened hoardings were not really needed now when we look at Winterfell we actually don't see any of the embattlement or the matriculation that we are extended off from the side or top of the walls which would then mean hoardings would be the option to go with that also identifies the architectural style of Winterfell to be a bit older in the medieval time period and from what I understand of the game of thrones law that does make sense the thing that I don't see is any crenellations along the outside or the outer wall and that is very odd that is a defensive weakness of this castle the other odd thing that stands out to me when I look at this castle in an objective and analytical sense is the roofs of these towers and in some of the cases of the other building structures about its the roofs of the towers that particularly stand out to me and the thing about them is that they are so flat now there are you know castles in other cultures not really medieval based cultures but in other certain cultures where they have such flat roofs now this is a fantasy so of course this style can be incorporated on to this castle without any problem the problem that would actually exist is a matter of functionality okay what is the main theme of the house of Stark what are their words winter is coming and so out of anyone in the game of Thrones everything so in the game of thrones world it should be the Starks and the people at Winterfell who should really understand that concept winter is coming and it causes changes in many things one of the things is snow when winter comes you have to deal with a lot of snow and of course this is this is called winter felon so it should be built to be out a handle winter and snow and these flat roofs are a complete contradiction on that logic you see when you get heavy snow it piles up and if you have a flat roof it will pile up on the roof as well and oftentimes that weight will be so great that the roof will not be able to support it and will cave in and so what you will find in every location in a medieval period in which snow was common the roofs were tilted at a very steep angle and this was so the snow would slide off the edges and so these Tower roofs should have very pointed and steep angles they should not be flat it isn't a problem in the summer and you know the summers lasts a pretty long time but so do the winters all right so unless they're going to replace the whole roofs when winter does eventually come which you know it does seem like it's taking a heck of a long time but when it eventually gets here these roofs are not built to handle winter weather at all so there you go those are my thoughts on the castle Winterfell let us move on to the red keep now out over really all the castles that I've seen in the game of Thrones series the red keep is the one that strikes me as most like a fantasy castle design now don't get me wrong what I mean when I say that the red keep strikes me is one of the stronger fantasy designs is in regards to its silhouette its size and also some of the architecture that's in it I'm well aware there are some castles in the game of thrones that seem very fantasy esque especially in regards to their location like pike castle and the Eyrie but don't worry I'll get to them what I mean when I say that the red keep strikes me is one of the stronger fantasy designs is in regards to its silhouette at size and also some of the architecture that's in it like this extended part which faces the city from the red keep that is very strongly Gothic style architecture which was never traditionally used in real historical castles where you do find a lot of Gothic style influences in regards to castles are the fantasy interpretation of castles like the Disney Castle and so on and so because of that the red keep actually does have quite a fantasy s feel to it especially with how tall it is and how it all kind of gets taller as you go towards the center part of the castle now in regards to the other architectural styles of the red keep that strikes me as very authentic and realistic you see some very effective battlements there and you also see some realistic looking towers the thing that makes this castle a bit less realistic is its sheer size it is very very tall there are some historical castles that you could compare in size ish to the size of the red key but those are more the rare exceptions than what the common historical castle was but even they would be hard-pressed to get as tall and high as what the Red Keep appears to be in regards to the layout of the outer walls that is actually some very good defenses what they have right there it has to lower Bailey's or wards that extend behind additional walls from the main internal Bailey each with a fortified gatehouse that would make assaulting this castle very very difficult and every other access point from the main entry is a cliff surrounded by ocean this castle is very very fortified and defendable and I really like that because even with some of the fantasy esque elements put in its design especially that Cathedral like gothic styled part to the front of it it is still made to be very practical and this style is actually one of my favorite kind of fantasy style designs I don't mind them you know some unrealistic and fantasy style embellishments especially in size and grand jar as long as we keep it grounded in realism and practicality and function and the red keep really strikes me in that regard that this is what they have done alright so there you go that is the red keep now let's move on to castle Pike the stronghold and seat of house Greyjoy now apart from location right Pike strikes me as one of the most historically authentic castle designs in the game of Thrones now it's interesting you could kindly consider Pike as four different kind of castles but they group together and each one leads to and from the other and sorry we it's considered you know this is one castle together but with each one of these individual you know castle bodies they are very very historically authentic they are clearly inspired by some of the earlier designs of castles specifically the Norman keep style castles which were far more Square and blocky than they were rounded also the battlements at the top are not extended outwards from the rampart and again these are the style of battlements that are very common to have hoardings fixed to them in times of war but the crenellations are there as well as individual towers what is also extremely authentic about this castle is the lack of windows on the outside there's barely any what you really see a mostly arrow slits and maybe one or two windows on the higher up levels that is very very accurate because windows are a huge weakness on actual real castles now to its location and from you know cursory look you could consider that structures built on sea stacks like this would be extremely improbable well in reality yes and no you see there are some legitimate historical structures that are built on as improbable locations almost almost because the big clincher for a castle Pike is that it's at the sea or on the seashore if it wasn't on the seashore it would be far more plausible because there are some actual historic real structures in the world that are built on very comparable kind of rock formations just not at the sea like the monasteries of meteora just have a look at some of the rock formations that these monasteries are built upon the difference is that these rock formations are under far less danger of erosion than if they were at the sea you see a sea stack which is what several of the castle structures of Castle Pike are built upon are formed by sea erosion and once they are formed they don't last forever and their stability is also questionable now if they were very stable and strong and what several hundred years for the erosion to fully take out BAPS II stack well then it could be plausible for you to build a structure atop it but it would not last forever and I think that's kind of what they're implying with castle pike as well is that these sea stacks they're slowly eroding them so this castle is not going to you know remain intact for much longer but for the time that it would stay there it is incredibly defensible like oh my goodness it ever the other towers behind the first primary castle body would basically be impenetrable you would not be able to get them from really any other location with an army sizable enough to overtake it and the castle as a whole just looks awesome this is a beautiful castle for its medieval authenticity and also the novelty of its unique location which is not as unrealistic as it might appear it's impractical don't get me wrong and there are far more chances of those sea stacks being unstable than they are stable but if they were stable well then you might get away with it it just definitely would not last forever now much of what we've talked about castle pike in regards to its location can be applied to the Eyrie as well the difference is the Eyrie is not on the seashore and so that means if it's rock foundation is stable enough this structure could be feasibly built in reality it would be incredibly difficult and what they would have needed to do first is build access to the top of this rock formation so they would have had to have build that long winding road first but we've built comparable roads and walls like that in history think about the Great Wall and the mountains that that thing sneaks over and once you have access to the top of this rock formation you would then need to bring up every stone one at a time to actually build the structure and if the foundation was stable enough you could get away with it because there are some historical comparisons that we can make of course the real-life historical ones don't have anything near as grand as the Eyrie built atop them but they are built incomparably difficult location now regards to the architectural style it's very hard I found it difficult to find any close-up images of the area itself only these far wide-angle shots but from the look of it it looks to be a very domed like structure with domed roofs and not really a castle more of a Cathedral or Palace I don't really see many embattlement on it and you know in reality if this was real you wouldn't need many in battlements on it it is so high up OK and so difficult to get to you that it's sheer location is defence enough and the main part you would need to defend is that snaking wall and road that leads to it you put enough gate houses along the way on that road and you could hold off an army of limitless size almost because there is only one access point to get to this castle and without inventing aircraft is really no way you could try and take on this structure apart from a long-term siege to starve them out as it is presented in the TV series now from the angle and perspective we have in this shot the Eyrie would be incredibly big like absolutely huge far bigger than a castle would ever have been in history but the Eyrie isn't really a castle just like I said before it's more of a grand domed Palace and Cathedral than it is a castle and historically we do have palaces of incredible size the thing that needs to be remembered though even though it could be feasibly possible to build a structure like this in real life it would be incredibly impractical and just unbelievably difficult so much so that I don't think anyone would ever really do it in real life but that's just my opinion I could be wrong here and finally let's take a look at Dragonstone now out of all the castles that we have looked at so far Dragonstone by far is a no-fuss militaristic fortress it doesn't care about looking fancy or embellished it is just down and dirty right here to do a job now of course because of its size and its imposing look it does look grand and impressive there's just no embellishment to dress it up what's also interesting about this castle it actually has some fairly advanced defensive designs in it specifically with those kind of spikes jutting out portions on the wall now that kind of design is something that you would find more on a star fort than on actual medieval castle now a star fort or a bastion fort is a fortress that arises after the medieval period and it was a style that evolved during the age of gunpowder when the cannon came to dominate the battlefield now the purpose of these sharp jutting out parts on the wall was to deflect cannon fire now of course cannons don't exist in Westeros yet so it does beg the question as to why this design philosophy was adopted in Dragonstone as opposed to other castles but even without cannon fire these extended portions of the wall serve a very functional purpose it gives the defenders on the wall greater purchase to fire down on enemies what you'll notice about the battlements on the edge of Dragonstone is that they have matriculation x' there the embattlement is extended outwards a bit from the rampart on the wall and then you have corbels holding up those in battlements which will then have matriculation x' in between which are places where the defenders on the wall can shoot arrows or drop rocks down on anyone trying to assail the walls which I mean is that's kind of superfluous because I don't see anyone even getting close to the walls because Dragonstone is situated on a cliff at the sea but hey why not it's just you know further security it gives them peace of mind and then we come to size and as I kind of gauge the size that Dragonstone appears to be compared to other medieval castles I get the impression that dragon stone is easily bigger than any historical castle ever built that's not a criticism because again this is fantasy they can get away with that it's just important to note so people don't get confused that historical castles were not this big and there you have it these are my thoughts on the castles in the TV series Game of Thrones I hope you have enjoyed if you would like to learn more about the differences between the classic fantasy castle and historical castles please go watch my video the castle fantasy vers reality and until then farewell if you would like to support shadow versity or express appreciation for a video that you particularly enjoyed please become a patron through patreon your one dollar donation would be absolutely wonderful

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 1,075,267

Rating: 4.8487825 out of 5

Keywords: game of thrones, medieval, castle, review, castles, middle age, middle ages, a song of fire and ice, a song of ice and fire, season, battlements, tv series, george rr martin, george martin, shad, shadmbrooks

Id: bneQBDgCmOE

Length: 18min 15sec (1095 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 05 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/brtt3000]

Hmm.. Dude kinda missed the essential point on starforts: the angular shape is not to deflect cannon shot but to allow defenders to fire parallel to the other walls.

[u/fruitcakefriday]

Regarding the flat roofs of Winterfell; Winterfell is built on hot springs and everything is naturally heated. It's possible the roofs are designed that way in order to capture water from snow melting on the rooftops from the heated interiors.

[u/kuttanpilla]

Dude seems to forget motherfucking dragons when speaking of the Eyrie.