I dropped $45 on that big fancy Middle-earth atlas last month and on page 32 the Shire river system is drawn running north when the book text clearly says it flows south to the Brandywine. How does a map that expensive get a basic river direction flipped when the source material is right there in the same book? Has anyone else caught a geography error like this in an officially licensed map product?
I used to just glance at the Middle Earth map in the books and think distances were fine, then I tried to plot Frodo's walk from the Shire to Mordor at 18 miles a day and it comes out to like 4 months, not 2 weeks. The movies made it worse with the eagles thing, but the books are the real culprit. Anyone else sit down with a ruler and get annoyed at how the map never matches the journey times?
So I was binge-watching a popular fantasy show last week and I started comparing the map from season one to the map in season three. The capital city was on a river bend in season one, but by season three that same river was flowing the other direction completely. I checked the book maps too and they matched the season one version. It got me thinking about how many shows just slap a new map together without checking the old one. The Witcher actually got this right, they kept their river consistent across scenes in season 2. Has anyone else noticed a series that completely changed a coastline or mountain range between episodes for no reason?
Noticed in the last 3 fantasy shows I watched, rivers on the maps go from a mountain range to an ocean with zero tributaries. Has anyone else caught this shortcut in worldbuilding maps and does it bug you as much as it bugs me?