A Song of Ice and Fire: Speed Downgrade

[Ser_Hakim_Dayne]

Most ASOIAF characters are subsonic via this feat where Qotho does afterimages with his raw speed:

Qotho danced backward, arakh whirling around his head in a shining blur, flickering out like lightning as the knight came on in a rush. Ser Jorah parried as best he could, but the slashes came so fast that it seemed to Dany that Qotho had four arakhs and as many arms. She heard the crunch of sword on mail, saw sparks fly as the long curved blade glanced off a gauntlet. Suddenly it was Mormont stumbling backward, and Qotho leaping to the attack. The left side of the knight's face ran red with blood, and a cut to the hip opened a gash in his mail and left him limping. Qotho screamed taunts at him, calling him a craven, a milk man, a eunuch in an iron suit. "You die now!" he promised, arakh shivering through the red twilight.

A Game of Thrones - Daenerys VIII​

But there are two problems with this feat:

1- Jorah Mormont is not blitzed by Qotho's blows, given that he parried some of them, which would therefore mean that Jorah also made afterimages, by scaling logic. But this is absolutely not the case in Dany's point of view, only Qotho can do it.It doesn't make sense I think.
2- All other characters with speed comparable to or greater than Jorah Mormont's and Qotho's have never done afterimages during combat. Qotho is the only character in the entire saga to have accomplished such a feat.

I honestly think he's an outlier, and that the characters should be downgraded to Peak Human and Superhuman in combat/reactions speed.

 

[Ser_Hakim_Dayne]

Bump

 

[Cropfist]

The absence of a feat is not an anti-feat.

 

[Ser_Hakim_Dayne]

The absence of a feat is not an anti-feat.

What about this?

1- Jorah Mormont is not blitzed by Qotho's blows, given that he parried some of them, which would therefore mean that Jorah also made afterimages, by scaling logic. But this is absolutely not the case in Dany's point of view, only Qotho can do it.It doesn't make sense I think.

 

[IdiosyncraticLawyer]

Agree with this. I'll also add that this is solely from Dany's perspective, who isn't a fighter and isn't used to observing fast fights, and on top of that, this scene happens during Mirri's ritual to exchange Rhaego's life for Drogo's, which severely hurt Dany, so she's in no position to react to a skilled swordsman.

 

[Random-Helper323]

Daenerys is clearly not the most reliable source, least of all at that time, and what's more the statements don't specifically describe reliable afterimages so much as him seeming to have more limbs than he does to a very incapable onlooker. It's possible it's not even afterimages but just him moving too fast for Daenerys to track.

 

[IdiosyncraticLawyer]

@Dereck03 @JustSomeWeirdo @Theglassman12 @Eficiente @DarkGrath @Moritzva @DemonGodMitchAubin @Duedate8898 @Planck69 @KingTempest @Armorchompy @CrimsonStarFallen @UchihaSlayer96 @LordTracer @Emirp sumitpo @Lonkitt @LephyrTheRevanchist @Deagonx @FinePoint @Elizio33 Please help evaluate this.

Most ASOIAF characters are subsonic via this feat where Qotho does afterimages with his raw speed:

A Game of Thrones - Daenerys VIII​

But there are two problems with this feat:

1- Jorah Mormont is not blitzed by Qotho's blows, given that he parried some of them, which would therefore mean that Jorah also made afterimages, by scaling logic. But this is absolutely not the case in Dany's point of view, only Qotho can do it.It doesn't make sense I think.
2- All other characters with speed comparable to or greater than Jorah Mormont's and Qotho's have never done afterimages during combat. Qotho is the only character in the entire saga to have accomplished such a feat.

I honestly think he's an outlier, and that the characters should be downgraded to Peak Human and Superhuman in combat/reactions speed.

Agree with this. I'll also add that this is solely from Dany's perspective, who isn't a fighter and isn't used to observing fast fights, and on top of that, this scene happens during Mirri's ritual to exchange Rhaego's life for Drogo's, which severely hurt Dany, so she's in no position to react to a skilled swordsman.

 

[LordTracer]

I agree with the downgrade, and tbh I never liked everyone scaling off of Jorah anyway.

 

[Eficiente]

Makes sense that everyone wouldn't be as fast as this.

 

[Eseseso]

This makes sense.

 

[DarkGrath]

Yes, I agree with this. Any kind of analysis of literary evidence like this needs to take into account the reliability (or lack thereof) of the narrator. I don't see this as describing literal afterimages as much as it is describing Dany's disorientation.

 

[IdiosyncraticLawyer]

That's three votes past the grace period, so I'll apply this change; this thread can be closed.

 

[DarkGrath]

That's three votes past the grace period, so I'll apply this change; this thread can be closed.

I'll close this, then.