IP you're making me nerd out on some of this stuff, so I blame you for what follows.
And he goes to absurd lengths to describe how hard it is to get to the keep in the Eyrie, the nigh unassailable stronghold, but how the hell do they get eggs and crap up there? The same way? One basket at a time? Come on. It's dumb.
There's a giant freight elevator that drops from the underside of the Eyrie. Hasn't been shown on the show but they talk about it and show it in action several times in the books. That's how they get their supplies.
IIRC in the books its referred to as a wooden bucket, and people who use it as a means of ascent are mocked, but its noted Tyrion could fit in one. Again, IIRC.
And 90% of Rome's energies were devoted to keeping a land peaceful after they conquered them, so that sweet, sweet swag could be channelled back to Rome. What happened when grain became scarce? Power shifted.
What was the limiting factor for the worlds greatest armies throughout history? Keeping them fed. Stretch a supply line far enough and it breaks.
ASOIAF is a great example of something that started out as brilliance but has become tedious and less believable at each subsequent turn.
It took Rome decades to collapse, centuries by some standards.
I was more talking about like the rise of the Graccus brothers than the fall of Rome with the power shifting comment. The supply line comment holds though.
Westeros has been at war for like a year, year and a half, and starvation and massive power shifts are already happening - that's kinda one of the broader plotlines of the series. And that's in a world where the seasons let you harvest several times in a row and build up a large surplus. I'm as big a fan of nerding out over fantasy realism as the next guy, but it seems like all the stuff you're talking about is covered.
Actually, yeah I'd forogotten about the multiple years of summer meaning full grain stores entering the relatively short time of war in Westeros. I just think of Arya running all over the continent and ending up at assassin's school (seems like for GD ever), Jon on the War (seems like forever), just everything takes so LONG in the books to happen, I lost track a little bit that its really been 3 years or so for the longest running characters, and they're not necessarily concurrent.
But the books suck. Can;t wait to complain about the next one.