#does it use rape as a means of sympathizing with a character like in Show!Sansa's case

[la-pheacienne]

Y'all. Probably the most UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTED criticism against grrm is the abundance of gratuitous extreme sexual violence against women in asoiaf. GoT doubled down on that and is endlessly criticized for that. On the ONE (1) INSTANCE where sexual violence was NOT part of a female character's arc in grrm's work, HotD decided to introduce it as a means of giving "nuance" to a story and making a character more sympathetic. And now not only is this not considered a sexist narrative but on top of that you call this an inspired twist ffs I'm gonna eat my hair

[reviewpri]

Beware-Alt Right is claiming GoT

I do not think DnD set out to do that...no, but it is happening.

and I do not think that all the people coming out to give a positive spin on season 8, in particularly, justifying Mad Dany are Alt-Right inserts- but some are.

How is Alt-Right claiming GoT? Well, they are spreading misconceptions about Daenerys solely based on the show in order to convince people that fighting for a more just society is misguided.

(not the same people, but on the same level of those who keep crying over the fact that selfish Dany is going to these places, liberating slaves while ignoring their culture...whatever that means.)

Note those claims are wide enough to convince normies and some leftists also that being a revolutionary equals being a tyrant.

1- Daenerys is a white savior.

Wrong. The trope that we are dealing with is actually “ going native”- a white person embracing and being embraced by other people/culture.

(in this case, Dothraki- and that they were presented as almost irredeemable savages is on GRRM )

Moreover, she rules over a very racially diverse population who had been ruled by a racial elite that Daenerys is no part of- meaning, she does not think her race makes her superior to the underclasses-  the Ghiscari, on the other hand..

2- Daenerys is an imperialist.

Wrong.

I am not going to touch on the fact that we are speaking of a 20th-century concept when speaking about a piece of fiction depicting a magical medieval world.

Daenerys' intentions have never been set up an Empire with her as Head. What she wants is to end slavery. Period. This will also explain her taking over the Dothraki, not only because she wants an army, but because the Dothraki are great suppliers of slaves.

She stays in Meereen because first if she leaves before the transition is way underway, they Ghiscari Elites will enslave the people she freed again. And, she wants to learn how to rule.

3- Daenerys is bloodthirsty

Wrong.

This is a show invention. Daenerys first impulse is NEVER to “ burn cities to the ground”, but she is constantly advised to do so.

4- Embracing Fire and Blood is the first sign of her tyranny.

Doubtful. 

Daenerys is compared to Aegon, the Conqueror.

Aegon was not a lunatic who kept burning things. Quite the contrary- despite having the obvious advantage of three dragons, Aegon would give his enemies a fair warning before he went to war.

Most probably, Daenerys will repeat the two events that set Aegon to be King: the Field of Fire ( season 7) and burning the Red Keep ( as an analog for Harrenhal)

5- Daenerys going crazy is GRRM ending.

Doubtful.

First, DnD cited the “ she is a Targ and they are crazy” reason for her meltdown, which is bullshit. 

Second, they retconned the whole thing in addition to changing the dynamic of Daenerys and her advisors. 

SEASON 8 HAS NOT BEEN METICULOUSLY PLANNED SINCE SEASON 5- the retroactively going through scenes, changing their meaning or actually inverting their meaning, show just that.

Examples that impacted the story:

a- Theon did not make fun of Tyrion when they met in season one- it was the opposite- They retconned it because they made Tyrion, who is a bloodthirsty man with daddy issues who cares nothing about the smallfolk ( and was portrayed as that for four seasons) to be a pacifist. In that scene, they wanted to remind us that Tyrion is a nice guy, who can be a bit emotional. A turn for the character who, at season 4 had screamed that the populace of KL should have died during Stannis attack.

b-Daenerys did not force Jon to give up his Crown for her to go North- the one who made this demand was Cersei. But this is the version of the story that is in the mouths of the northern Lords- and neither Daenerys nor Jon rectify the mistake because, voilá---the writers decided that Daenerys IS Cersei now.

c- Targaryens never went North to fight against Starks, like Tyrion said they did, so really, the northerners could not still remember it because the fact never happened. ( and this episode, of the King Who Knelt, is in the History and Lore section- so, it is TV Canon)

d- Jaime had already told Brienne the truth about his actions during Robert´s rebellion when they weer at Harrenhal and why he killed the Mad King, but by season 8, that scene never happened- or Jaime had lied back then for no reason whatsoever.

e- Daenerys and Jon never spent time together during their childhood, but by season 8 she is telling him about when they were young and she could not count till 20...something that would only make sense if the dialogue was written for Jaime and Cersei.

f- The House of Undying vision of Daenerys had already been fulfilled by season 7. Daenerys had literally the chance to take the Iron Throne, but she chooses to go cross the Wall and go North. She gives up her plan to blow up the Red Keep- shown in the vision with a Seven-Pointed Star, meaning it was a “what could have been” they elected to retcon ( which can be attested because Daenerys, in the original version of the scene, mentions it as a difference between her vision and the reality.) to save Jon Snow North of The Wall.

Season 8 they inverted the chronological order of the vision to fit their plot- Daenerys is North and, instead of resting her troops, she goes South and for some reason ( madness) she destroys the whole thing with dragon fire, but miraculously, The Iron Throne remains. Drogon then sets fire on the Throne, which melts? ( why has not melted before? same reason Tyrion manages to find and recognize the corpses of his siblings- because logic does not matter.)

As their infamous Austin panel shows, DnD confirmed they were interested in writing scene for scene, not necessarily characters arcs or themes. They also said that they divorced the books since season 5, that they made GoT theirs, that the magical elements were downplayed and finally that they simplified the scope of ASOIAF to a “ Power is everything” mentality.

Power being their concern explains why the series is called “ Game of Thrones”, which is just the name of the first book. 

GRRM is often quoted as not believing in heroes...but in fact: he does. What he does not believe in are in perfect, never at fault heroes:

“My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones. Some succeeded, some failed, most had mixed results... but it is the effort that's heroic, as I see it. Win or lose, I admire those who fight the good fight.” 

Note that DnD gave this definition of hero- the ones who try to make the world a better place- a sentence that Daenerys repeats at least a couple of times during seasons 6 and 7.

and again..while GRRM gives space for his heroes to “win or lose” ...and admits that most heroes “ had mixed results”...he does qualify them- the dreamers- as heroes nevertheless.

Therefore this vision...this black and white vision of Daenerys as Hitler with Dragons (incidentally- Alt-Right has been known to make claims that nazism- as in national socialism- was, in fact, a far-left movement.) that just because she started out freeing slaves by force, it never meant she was in fact, a hero, but a misguided despot in the making...is not GRRM, but Dave Benioff and Dan Weiss.

To place things in context, the producers of GoT are members of the Elites. Of course, they sympathize with characters like Sansa and Tyrion ( their admitted favorites) who are members of Elite- in case of Sansa, the Starks are what one could call benevolent aristocrats- but aristocrats nevertheless- and to them...it does make incredibly sense that a person who is willing to go as far as to challenge the Elites for the well being of the underclass by using violence ( Daenerys) would be a step away from being a Tyrant.

Am I saying that GRRM does not intend to make Dany crazy? I am not saying that. I cannot say what his intentions are. What I can say is that, in his own words, not only Daenerys, but most of the characters are going to be Darker in the next book. Possibly, keeping with the tone of the series, this means Daenerys will go grey. 

Grey could very well choose to go for the Red Keep, as Aegon went to Harrenhal, despite innocents are being held there. Some people will call her crazy...others will see the actions as simply a part of a war.

I think he intends to allow readers to decide.

Personally though...I am not sure I am up to it anymore. By making Daenerys a victim of rape, one who not only survives and thrives, but chooses to fight against such inequalities instead of becoming the abuser ( Cersei) that he might use such character to discuss the limits of being a hero...I find it distasteful.

As of now, ASOIAF is shaping out to be one of many standard fantasy series. It has been sold as nothing of the sort, but as an inclusive, realistic portrayal of a generational saga where the main characters would have to contend with the mistakes of their fathers...but GoT leaves the impression that ASOIAF is, indeed, just white men´s wank.

[battlestar-royco]

Concerning game of thrones, I get why people are upset about this but acting like this one episode ruined eight seasons of fantastic writing is bullshit. Like where was this outrage when they shat on Ellaria's character and turned her from a kind and caring woman to a murdering psychopath? The white feminism really jumped out

Yeah, I’ve been having similar feelings to the fandom reaction these past couple weeks. A lot of people have been steadily casting off the show for several seasons, but the critical audience is microscopic compared to the stan audience. I do feel bad for Danielle stans because her writing this season has been particularly terrible and nasty and OOC. Though she is a colonizer and she executes people by fire, this whole “mad queen” thing is super sexist and ableist, and she has a moral code. That’s where her ambiguity comes in. That said, I also get the feeling that a lot of the Danielle stans who are having huge meltdowns right now haven’t been betrayed by a narrative before on this scale. Danstans are of course diverse (in terms of why they like her and in terms of identity), so I don’t mean to generalize, but I’ve noticed that most of her outspoken critics are POC who are uncomfortable with the way she uses her power in these secondary “eastern” regions of the ASOIAF world. For many of us she is not a feminist icon because what she does has been done by white men and women at the expense of POC (especially WOC) for centuries and completely damaged our cultures and global wealth disparity. WOC have been watching themselves die for white women for decades, if they even make it on the screen in the first place. In G0T alone, we’ve seen all the WOC be brutally murdered (randomly killed offscreen, stabbed in the pregnant gut, poisoned, hanged from their own weaponry as set decoration in a naval battle, decapitated with their head and body falling off the battlements) after playing a secondary role to a white character’s romance or arc. Let’s also not forget the Dornish women who either had their characterization assassinated or didn’t even make it onto the screen in the first place and had their names shat on by D&D (aka Ellaria, Elia, and Arianne).

And even just contained to G0T, Danielle was one of the only characters who wasn’t completely atrociously done dirty until this season. Cat’s storyline was given to Robb. Jaime and Jon have been completely scrubbed of personality since season 4. Sansa was raped so she could turn into a cold and sassy construct that is antithetical to her original purpose, and even that didn’t have such an outrageous response as this past week. Arya got beaten by sticks for two seasons and came back to Winterfell to threaten to cut off Sansa’s face. Bran was literally gone for an entire season only to have his character stripped to exposition for Jon to become king. Loras was reduced to a walking stereotype from day one, then knelt in submission to a fake church and got his head scarred with a homophobic symbol before being blown up. And Dorne was fucking annihilated. I mean, D&D can’t write for shit, so Danielle and all the other characters have been wooden caricatures for several seasons, but it’s not like Danielle was deleted from the show for 10 straight episodes, or her character development was dialed back to create Cersei drama for four seasons. So. I do sympathize with Danielle fans because, ouch, I’ve been there. Lots of times. Like almost every single time I open a book or turn on a movie. LGBTQ+ viewers, disabled viewers, plus size viewers, POC, we’ve all been there. It really sucks. And Danielle stans’ feelings are valid. But this reaction is wild to me given how the show has treated literally every other marginalized identity besides white cishet able-bodied women who use violence.

[linsh6]

Speculations for GOT S8

Since I’ve expressed some thoughts about Show!Jonrya, maybe I just outright say all my opinions toward GOT and my S8 speculations.

D&D are really dumb writers

Yes, I won't avoid my “despise” on them so I just outright say it. A lot of people think they just hate Arya so much so they reduce her complex character into a one-dimensional badass assassin and ignore her capacity to become a leader (or queen). But in my opinion, they just purely so suck at script writing that everyone in the show is reduced to a one-dimensional character.

I once held a job as a scriptwriter back in my country (not in English though, and then I quit my job and became a free writer), and I know some important principles and points when it comes to scriptwriting. First of all is the characters’ arcs, D&D apparently have sucked at that so I won’t say much, all of you guys can refer to Grrm’s amazing original and will know how complex character development truly is (He’s so talented and I admire him so much). Why, based on Grrm’s brilliant work, D&D still managed to fuck up the characters’ shapings, I don’t know the reason, just like I suspect why they can even earn their job at HBO. 

Then is the structure and consistency,  I can convince myself that D&D did try their best for the characters but failed, but if the story is not consistent and even contradict itself, it’s deadly. A good scriptwriter (or at least who wants to be) must consider the whole plan from the beginning, otherwise, the story would easily become a total mess.

I believe that D&D do that effort (I believe in their ambition to be remembered and honored as scriptwriters), and we can access that they did plan out some character's development from S1 and talked with Grrm regarding their endings. 

So based on that I would build my personal speculations for S8′s plot.

1. Jonerys’ relationship & Daenerys’ ending.

First of all, I am a little up for the Daenerys’ mad queen theory. In S7 Daenerys literally burn people alive because they refused to bend their knee, which includes Sam’s father and brother. Tyrion felt it not good and tried to stop her, but he failed. 

That behavior is not a really good sign to me, and every character must hold their fate for what they’ve done, remember some actors did refer that there’s a trail for everyone in the final season? If that’s the case, why Daenerys should escape that final trial? I can tell D&D set this up intentionally because Tyrion as a neutral mirror already contradicted Daenerys at that scene.

And I dont’t see Jonerys will end well, their value and ways of lifestyle are too different, and their union in last season was nothing more than a forced push. They only knew each other for several days! How can we count on their relationship to be a great love story? And honestly I don’t see D&D put any effort in developing Jonerys’ relationship, all of their plots are so obvious and cliche, if they really are the final endgame D&D certainly could come up something better & more touching. 

I do think that Jonerys would become enemies in the end. Daenerys has no way back but become a queen to rule the seven kingdoms, otherwise all the efforts along her way to come to now would mean nothing, where there’s no better description than Grrm’s original line “If I look back, I am lost” ( In the books I sympathize for Daenerys, but she’s so flat on the show...)

2. Sansa will die

Honestly, I think Sansa will die halfway both in the show and in the books, she’s not important enough to make it to the finale episode. Actually she’s not even important enough bothering me to talk about, but D&D certainly did show some “fondness” to this character that made us hard to ignore.

Of course, they really “like” her, even to add a rape plot to force her to “grow” and made her first reunite with Jon. But that’s it, they can’t do more. They nearly made her become the top tier characters, but only nearly. Despite of their “fondness” of Sansa, D&D still didn’t make the northern lords fight against Boltons for Sansa like they did for Arya in the books, neither Jon. And D&D shaped her as an ambitious politician who would rather take place of Jon and almost kill her sister, which was verified by the script remark. (And Jonsa is a crackship both in the show and the books, there’s no other way around.)

Sansa still needs to fulfill her final character arc with meeting Cersei at King’s Landing,  so her death may happen at episode 4 or 5 I guess.

3. Arya’s role in the battle of dawn

I surely believe Arya will play an important role in the battle of dawn, even decisive, first point is her valyrian dagger, and second is Nymeria. 

In Isaac’s interview, he did say bran offers Arya the valyrian dragger because he senses there’s gonna be some importance to it. So maybe we can guess Arya would use this dagger in some vital fighting moment like fighting the Night King.

Then is Nymeria, I know people are all upset about the scene in S7, but it must mean for something, otherwise that would be a total waste of time for showing that Nymeria becomes a queen of a wolf pack (and the money too). Remember Ghost and Nymeria are the only Stark’s direwolf left. I believe Nymeria’s wolf pack would show up in the critical moment during the fighting. 

4. Arya’s parallel to Lyanna

I guess that in S8 there may be a scene directly compare Arya to Lyanna. Remember GOT’s team did make some efforts to choose an actress who resembles Maisie to play Lyanna. And Maisie also once said "I remember having a little braid in my hair and the hair and make-up team would be like, you cannot leave with that braid in your hair, we have to take it out. Because people will read into it and find some spoilers with just a braid." 

If Arya has a scene with a braid and be referred to Lyanna, then it must have a strong impact to Jon, because all these years he always wondered about his mother, now finally gonna see a live Lyanna 2.0 before his eyes.

5. Jonrya’s relationship development

According to actors’ interviews recently, that would be a fair guess that Jonrya won’t go well at the beginning, like a forthright hug as they do in S1E2. But I don’t view it as a bad thing, on the opposite I believe a real important relationship would need a proper and elaborate-designed development (never like Jonerys’ one),  that arc would be more moving and impressing.

If Jon & Arya develop their relationship through the final season, like afraid to face each other at the first but then realize they will still love each other no matter what, then I have every reason to believe Jonrya is the endgame. 

And if they do end up romantically (that’s my hope), I guess would be under that stressful circumstance and they still and only have each other (Sansa will die, Bran is emotionless, Jon and Daenerys may turn against each other halfway). Only they would love the other unconditionally, what else does it need for them to go further?

Final word

To close this post, I just want to express my love and respect for the show. Not for D&D of course, they suck at those characters and mess the story after S5. But for Grrm’s brilliant original base and the actors’ amazing performances, including those of Lena, Peter, Carice, Alfie, Aiden & so many other great ones, and finally my beloved Maisie (Not including Kit and Emilia, especially Emilia, they’re lovely though). 

In my view, GOT is one of the greatest show in the world (thanks to Grrm’s original work of course not D&D’s), and I may rewatch and appreciate it every now and then for my later years. 

D&D did a rather good job at least for the first 4 seasons, if they really make an “unexpected” ending as every actor put it and want to impress the audience & to be remembered well, I do hope they could end it well, just like what they did with the beginning.

If that so, I may still not forgive what they did in S5 but would not hate them anymore probably😊.

[kallypsowrites]

Are Adapted Characters Seperate from their Original Counterparts?

So here’s a post that has been on my mind for quite some time, partially because, after being in the Game of Thrones fandom pretty regularly, I see people compare the book and show characters a lot. This is understandable as changes through adaptation are inevitable and sometimes a character can be changed for the worse or for the better, depending on your preference. But today I want to address the question: should adapted characters be viewed as an EXTENSION of their book character or should they be able to stand on their own?

Before I get into the weeds of this argument, imagine you are me. I’m a seventeen year old high school student and my brother has decided to show me this rad new show which has already aired two seasons and is several months off of airing the third season. Game of Thrones. Naturally, I am excited and I dive right into watching with him. And of course I love it. I’m a fantasy nut and there’s magic and dragons but also POLITICS and really intriguing character dynamics and dialogue and moral grey areas. All the stuff I like! I know there are books of course, but I want to experience the show and be surprised as it comes out, so I hold off reading the books. In fact, I hold off reading the series all the way through until after season seven airs (in an effort to make the long wait for season 8 less painful. It didn’t work. I read too fast).

What’s important here is that for several years, the show was my ONLY CONCEPT of all of these characters. The book versions, to me, didn’t exist. All I had access to was the characters on the screen. And that’s all many of the GA has access too. Let’s face it, the books are bricks and, for that matter, dense. A lot of people aren’t going to take the time to read them, especially the strangely paced and structured book four and five. So what does that mean? The characters on the screen have to stand on their own. And therefore, you can easily argue that the onscreen characters are seperate entities.

There’s been a lot of talk in the fandom about the show creators white washing male characters and ‘greying’ female characters. That is certainly an issue worth talking about and I’m not trying to discourage that conversation, nor am I trying to say that we shouldn’t talk about adaptation changes and focus on the books and tv show as different entities. They are in conversation with each other. But I do want to address the fact that just because something is present in the book does not mean that watchers of the tv show have to acknowledge it as ‘canon’...especially if the show never mentions it. They are, in many ways, seperate, particularly since the TV show has moved ahead of the books.

Conversely, this means the TV show can’t rely on the books as part of their ‘canon’ to take short cuts. Because if it isn’t made clear in the show and can only be understood by a book reader, then the show has failed in some way. The TV show has, in fact, dropped the ball on a couple of prophesies in this way. The fact that they did not include the ‘valonqar’ section of Cersei’s prophesy takes away from her reasons for hating Tyrion and, for that matter, doesn’t guaruntee either of her brothers will be her killer. It wasn’t in the prophesy in the show, so it really doesn’t matter if it was in the books. Its not part of show canon.

Even more egregious is Mirri Maz Dur’s prophesy to Daenerys. In the books, she says that Daenerys will never bare a living child again. In the show, she does not say anything of the sort. And yet Dany says to Jon that ‘the witch who murdered her husband’ said she would never bare a child again. That’s the show straight up making something up for cheap forshadowing and if the casual watcher went back to view the first season they might be understandably confused. Even if it happens in the book IT MUST BE PRESENT IN THE SHOW in order to effect the show.

This applies to character interpretation as well. And as an example, let’s talk about Tyrion.

The Moral White Washing of Tyrion Lannister

Tyrion Lannister is one of the most commonly cited characters in the conversation about moral white washing, and with good reason. Tyrion is never the best person, but he’s certainly not the worst. Being born a dwarf, he is an underdog who has been ridiculed all his life. But he’s also his father’s son and spends much of the series manipulating people in order to gain power in King’s Landing or elsewhere. It just happens that he is a better person than a lot of the other characters surrounding him. It’s not that he’s not sympathetic, but he’s not an angel.

He, however, has a much darker character arc following the death of his father and his Essos stuff, in particular, really delves into the dark corners of his mind. His father’s cruelty shows itself more than ever and being in his head is almost difficult. In the show, this Essos arc is effectively deleted. Tyrion never meets Young Griff, never meets Illyrio, spends much less time wallowing in the darkness, and actually meets Daenerys pretty dang quickly. And, considering the fact that we’re not in his head, we’re not really exposed to any of his thoughts. It’s left to us to decide how he feels about the situation based on Peter Dinklage’s acting.

But the most contested aspect of Tyrion’s character is his relationship with Sansa and how he treats her throughout the books vs the show. In the books, Tyrion  thinks often about how he is attracted to her. Honestly, it’s uncomfortable at many points, considering that Sansa is like...twelve. And he straight up molests her. He doesn’t rape her on their wedding night, but I don’t think we would call him person of the year for that. He sees an opportunity in being married to her and he’s not completely repulsed by the idea.

In the show, it’s a very different story. Tyrion protects Sansa from Joffrey before their engagement (and even from the Hound in a deleted scene), and his kindness to her does not seem to be motivated in any way by attraction. When he is engaged to her, he is very clearly repulsed, and it is painted much more like him being forced into it. He does not make any physical advances on her and in his scenes with Shae, he makes clear that he sees her as a child and is therefore not interested. Again, because we are not in his head, he are able to interpret this at face value if we prefer. That he isn’t attracted to her and is only doing this to satisfy his father.

At the wedding, he prevents the bedding and, while making a few very crude comments in order to play off threatening the king, does not touch Sansa. Does not even let her undress all the way before he says that they don’t have to do this. And he really doesn’t seem all that bitter about it. Because we don’t have access to his thoughts, we never hear him lamenting that his child bride will never want him.

All of Tyrion’s interactions with Sansa on the show, especially after their marriage, are that of someone trying to make a girl’s life slightly more tolerable even though she is a prisoner. He sympathizes with her and is genuinely horrified by her situation. And he never makes a move even once or complains about it. Because she’s a child. It’s easy for show only watchers to come out of watching this relationship with the opinion of: yeah. Tyrion’s a decent guy. Even though it would be expected and accepted in this society for him to press Sansa, he doesn’t, and that’s cool of him. I’m in NO WAY saying that this means Sansa owes him anything. He’s a Lannister and the Lannisters destroyed her family and if she doesn’t want him, she doesn’t want him. End of story. But Tyrion is, overall, a more sympathetic and better person for how he is portrayed in the show. And you can’t blame show only watchers for seeing him in that way.

Of course this is a double edged sword. In the books, it seems that Tyrion is headed toward some sort of dark/tragic end, and his darker personality earns this. But if the show wants to give him the same ending it might seem very jarring. Because the show has not earned making Tyrion a villain. It has not given him an arc that makes that narratively satisfying because of the white washing. Now maybe Tyrion will get a perfectly find ending or at least remain as a hero. It’s possible that he could have some sort of redemption in the books as well. But we’ll have to wait until season 8 to see how that ends up.

There are a lot of characters that have diverged from their show counterparts. Lena Heady has imbued Cersei Lannister with some very genuinely sympathetic moments and the pathos she brings to her role has moved me on multiple occasions. She also plays Cersei as more in control than she seems in the books, very much her father’s daughter. The book, again, has Cersei’s thoughts and we get a view into her increasingly unstable and paranoid brain. The two characters feel very seperate from each other so conversations and interpretations may vary depend on the version.

The whole ‘lack of thoughts’ thing also makes Jaime easier to stomach in the show. Many of his thoughts are shocking and kind of vile in the books. Nikolaj gives Jaime more pathos and softens him. Again, maybe it’s moral white washing, but you cannot blame a show only watcher for that (like me, who fell in love with Jaime long before I even touched the books). I know people like that Jaime got away from Cersei in the books but that was much more motivated by his own jealousy as opposed to any moral problems he has with her actions, and abandoning her to suffer at the hands of the high sparrow always left a sort of sour taste in my mouth. And I say this as a JaimexBrienne shipper, which I’ll talk about later on. But first--

The Greying of Daenerys

@rainhadaenerys made a pretty extensive post on the differences between show and book Dany which I’ll link here . It’s highly show critical so bear that in mind, but one of the things she mentions is that Daenerys is consistently made more impulsive, less competent and ‘greyer’ as a character. There is a more of a sense, especially in season seven, that she must be ‘controlled’ by her advisors and she rarely makes plans of her own but rather listens to other make plans and decides based off of that. Lots of valid points made in this post.

But if we were to interpret the show only and look at Daenerys as a character seperate from her very different book counterpart, it begins to make sense why the dark dany theory became so popular, especially after season seven. I’m not going to argue my stance on that theory here, but suffice it to say there are a lot of show!dany characteristics that COULD potentially lend themselves to a tragic fall from grace. Though you could make the argument that this is just a writing error on D&D’s, that does not make the interpretation invalid. One could just as easily argue that yes, the transistion is clumsy but that George will write an even better and more believable fall from grace. Again, not saying it will happen. I know a lot of people on all sides of the debate following. I’m just saying that you can’t blame people for differing interpretations based on the show alone.

Posts like the one linked above are great for thinking about the show in context of what it is adapted from. But in a New Critical reading (which focuses on the text itself), we could analyze the show only to extrapolate that perhaps Daenerys is not going to be the hero everyone expects. It’s equally possible to extrapolate that she will be the hero and I’ve written a post here on the various interpretations of Dany so I won’t go too in to detail on this post. But it’s just another example of a show character needing to stand on their own seperate from the books.

The Inconsistency of Arya

Sometimes an adapted character is different from their book counterpart. And sometimes they are inconsistent in their own adaptation. Such is the case of Arya Stark. She’s one of my favorite characters and despite the butchering of her Braavos arc, I still took a lot out of her stuff there when I first watched it. Watching Arya struggle to hold onto her name and her very identity is quite emotional. For the most part, show! Arya might be a bit different but she’s consistent with herself.

Except for fucking season seven? Arya’s arc with Sansa featured some truly trash dialogue (from both characters but especially Arya). And I have nothing against these characters clashing. Far from it. It makes sense for their to be tension. But it was very bad tension and Arya literally threatening to murder her sister and steal her face was one of the more ‘what’ moments of the show.

I bring this up to say that while it is valid to interpret a character based only on their show version, sometimes there is still bad writing within that version that one has to...deal with. And it’s important for a character to be consistent within it’s story.

There are other examples of this besides Arya’s season seven stuff. The Dorne bullshit, for instance, is the canon show Dorne stuff and all of the intriguing Dorne stuff in the book is irrelevant to a show interpretation.

And then there was that trashy season four scene where the directors UNKNOWINGLY filmed Jaime raping Cersei?? That was especially out of character for show Jaime and apparently the show runners thought so too because they didn’t even think they were filming a rape scene. Because they’re dumb sometimes.

Anyway, this is just in here to assure you that I’m not forbidding ‘the show has bad writing’ criticisms because it super does. But sometimes you don’t even need to compare it to the book to see that.

In Conclusion

We are ALL going to view media in different way. There is no right way to consume it. And certainly if you want to evaluate the show based on what happened in the books go right ahead. I’m not here to force anyone to read the show or the books in a certain way.

On the other hand, in some way, the show and books are seperate entities that must function on their own. And because they are so different in some ways, that makes for more differing opinions. Some people really like Tyrion because of his show verse self. Some people wonder if Daenerys will go dark based on her show self.

Me personally, I’m a big Jaime and Brienne shipper. The other day I saw someone who didn’t like their ship mention the power imbalance and age gap in the book--something I of course didn’t notice during the show because the two characters seemed close in age and on pretty equal footing with each other most of the time. And that person’s opinion is totally valid! We’re just both viewing the pairing through a different medium.

This got a little long and rambly, so I just want to throw out there that this not anti any particular character. Just another one of those, it’s okay to have differing opinions and biases and stuff. Enjoy your Game of Thrones, nerds! I’ll be right there along with you!

[thoughtfulpaperback]

People crying like they never watched the show before.

So like the GOT fandom is going crazy over certain deaths like "_______ didnt deserve to die like that"... and Ned deserved to die the way he did what about Mance Ryder, Cat, Robb, Lady, and Rickon? Like this is a story wereany characters either through thier decisions or through another person's actions die. They are good, complicated characters, that have emotional growth only to be torn down. Robb made stupid decisions but he wasnt the same boy he was when his father died. He grew into a good military leader and prospective king. His bad decisions were ones that made sense to his character and for sure didnt deserve to be massacred. But it happened. And for arguably didnt make sense to build up this character, show him on a journey of growth only to decimate what he built with like 3 bad decisions made in the season he dies.

I don't think D and D hate women or are racist. Cat was a strong female character and was butchered. Because what game of thrones does best kills off all people across the spectrum of good and bad. Talisa didnt need to be a medically trained foreigner from volantis because in the books she was a southerner or more south than riverrun if I remember correctly. So on one hand I appreciated them not going that route and giving us a stronger female partner to Robb than the books did, but it was crappy that she died, but made sense since unlike the book wife she wouldnt have had been staying with her family who was in on it.

Shae dying was sad, but it happens in the books (granted books shae wasnt nearly as interesting or that compelling of a character and was not in love with Tyrion (arguably)) Book Gilly isnt as developed as show Gilly and show gilly is pretty great. Arya and Sansa are two women who have gone through crap but are strong and fierce characters in thier respective ways. Book missandei is like 9 so I think the plot with grey worm was D and Ds add in and it explored both the characters and developed then in a way that made us love them even more. Like the women arent treated differently then the men writing wise.

Then the there is the argument about women being pitted against each other... so like did we forget this is the game of thrones and everyone is playing. Did we forget that Margery was moving against Cersei the whole time she was at kings landing. That was what made the characters compelling was that admist this War of 5 kings the women were fighting just as hard in thier own ways. And now these women have armies and are in actual positions of power and have differing interests. And we dont expect them to have tension or to distrust each other??? They did it when they had nothing so of course now that they are in charge they are gonna keep doing it.

Also the idea that Dany's character is being slaughtered to service Jon's is a total slap to his character development. Danys people have been murdered before and she has decimated those who were responsible in her eyes before too (not on that scale but not out of character). She has trusted the wrong people, hurt those that were loyal to her (mostly jorah) similar to Robb( justified in the desicion but it still wasnt the best one), etc.

Jon has been betrayed bullied killed and he even had to do some betraying too. Also as a bastard he was treated more poorly than noble women (social structure wise).He hasnt had it any easier in that sense than other characters and has earned the respect of his people just as dany did hers. Again as a woman I feel that the women of the show have had it tougher because they have to deal with that extra societal level of crap. Dany and sansa have been sexually harassed and raped, and treated poorly because they are women. But the point is that Jon hasnt had it easy either and earned the respect just as much as Dany and Sansa.

Her character isnt being butchered to make him look better. In the context of Westeros he is the better option. Dany is a foreigner with a an army made up of foreigners. The locals are there because of jon (its him they trust). All the locals know of targs since the mad king is that they are incestual, violent, dragon obsessed and conquerors. And from a small folk perspective Dany fits the bill. Of course we've seen dany from the beginning so we sympathize with her experience. But I mean Dany has been pulling some shade crap since season 3 imo. I started to dislike her character then or I should say I started to dislike they way her character went around conquering and ruling.

I think it is disappointing that we will be left with little or possibly no POC characters and that I feel could have been fixed by D and D (who arent strangers to adding or replacing character with thier own characters or changing the backgrounds). And I think that other television shows should take note and add more POCs across the board so that you arent killing off all the POCs.

But I dont think that makes them racist, they could have done better but working with so much material and so many characters I can understand how they dropped the ball. If a show has like four characters and the kill of the only POC, lgbtq+, trans, character or a character that doesn't conform to ableist standards I riot because like there is not excuse at that point when you are working with very little.

I just feel like people have been dying on this show like crazy since the beginning and so many "unfair" things have happened we like game of thrones for doing that. But now that the end is near people are more upset over these things than they were before.

I think my favorite thing about GOT is that everyone has a justification for thier actions. To Just say that Dany is suddenly going insane is unfair to her. Again books wise it seems more obvious since we get things from her perspective, but Danys experience shaped her yes she is compassionate but like she is ruthless too she has had to be to conquer cities in essos. She is just as emotional and volatile as other characters only unlike jon and sansa she has a dragon and the actual power to cause massive damage. She basically has a nuclear bomb and that kind of power in anyone's hands is dangerous. And she doesn't have to go through others to use it.

Dany is complex flawed and angry, so I dont think "Mad" as in insane is correct but she is super charged and that is a threat to many people. Always was, but now we get to see it while she is with the other main POV characters.

Again could the writing have been better..

Yes. But don't think it would change anything because Dany, Jon, sansa and the remaining characters are all justified. We have example of them being good and bad at leading, strategy, and so on, they also represent different styles and ideology that political scientists still argue about. So of course Dany stans will still stan her and people like me who sympathize with her character but cannot ideologically align themselves with her will not.

I am not saying people shouldn't be upset with the way thier fav dies. I cried so hard during the red wedding. But can we not pretend that the whole show wasn't built on that. Jaime destroyed jaime's character development he is constantly one step forward 2 steps back as a character when it comes to his family. He always has the most growth Way from them but he always goes back. This is not D and D's fault. How else could they write his character to get that across? I will see how George does it and decide if they did it justice or not. I mean again from the book people guessed that jaime would die with cersei.

I dont know yall. I do think the show is flawed and wished somethings were done better but then there are somethings that I am just like...it is game of thrones they have been doing it since the beginning why are we more mad about it now versus then?

[rhegar]

Show!Rhaegar: You’re Not Really Meant to Look That Deeply into Him.

Or, How Game of Thrones Bastardized Rhaegar to Unbastardize Jon. 

So, now that I can finally access the internet from my computer for an unlimited amount of time, I wanted to write down what you’re meant to make of show!Rhaegar, why he annulled his marriage to Elia (even though that shouldn’t even be possible) and how close he is to being book!Rhaegar. And while we’re at it, let me tell you all the reasons why book!Rhaegar would never do such a thing (even if he could.)

I have definitely gotten a lot of inspiration and ideas from @lyannas and @oadara especially about annulment and the complications of Jon being and then not being a bastard, and gotten a lot of useful info from A Wiki of Ice and Fire.  So huge thanks <3 The article contains mentions of rape and dubious consent. 

To begin this, we need to take a look back on what the show has made of Rhaegar so far, and the differences between the show and the book depictions. 

1. In season one, Robert mentions Rhaegar’s kidnapping of Lyanna, but not in detail, just that Rhaegar did something bad to Lyanna. At the end of the season, in episode 10, Bran mentions specifically that Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna and that Robert started a war for that and killed him, but Lyanna died. Somewhere in the middle of the season, Jorah mentions that Rhaegar was the last dragon while “Viserys is less than the shadow of a snake” painting Rhaegar, for the first time on the show, in a positive light. 

Now, one thing in season one that interested me that nobody else ever notices (or if they do notice, they never talk about it) is when Jon was having a talk with Aemon. I always watched this conversation carefully as it is the first time that Jon communicated with a Targaryen and heard him speak of the family. One odd thing that Aemon said that I noticed is, (as well as I can remember) “But when I heard how they murdered my brother’s son, and his poor son, and the children... even the little children,” and then Aemon later clarifies the line of the latest Targaryen kings on the show, saying that his father was Maekar, and then Aemon’s brother Aegon V (Egg) ruled after him, and then came his son Aerys. This is unlike the books where Aerys is actually the son of Jaehaerys II, not Aegon V, so there’s a king in between that the show skipped. 

Back to the first quote now. When Aemon said “They killed my brother’s son,” he was talking about Aerys. “And his poor son,” that’s Rhaegar. Why would Aegon talk about Rhaegar especially that way? Was there some type of connection between them? Why would Aemon sympathize with Rhaegar especially? In the books, we know that Aemon exchanged letters with Rhaegar, but on the show, Aemon is now dead and we never knew (unless there’s going to be a flashback or if someone is going to find Rhaegar’s letters in Aemon’s records at Castle Black, but I don’t personally think the show gives so much regards to continuity or that Castle Black is going to exist for very long at all.)

2. In season 3, Barristan gives Dany a talk about Rhaegar and how he fought at the battle of the trident and how his men died for him because they believed in him and loved him. Again, Rhaegar is painted in a positive light, as a charismatic and well-loved leader who inspired loyalty. 

3. In season 4, the very first episode. Oberyn finally appears to give us the perspective of Elia’s family on Rhaegar’s deeds. Oberyn calls Rhaegar “beautiful and noble” sarcastically and says that he left Elia for another woman after Elia had been nothing but good and kind to him and his children. He also went as far as to say that Elia loved Rhaegar. What kind of love did he mean? Did she truly love Rhaegar or was she “fond” of him? We can’t tell. 

4. In season 5, the writers seemed to be in a hurry to catch up with reminding us who Rhaegar is, by inserting talks about him twice in one episode, for pretty long conversations. That is, of course, episode 4, in which Littlefinger tells Sansa the story of the tourney of Harrenhal as we all know it, quite objectively, and then asks, “How many men had to die because Rhaegar chose your aunt?” and Sansa replies, “Yes, he chose her, and then he kidnapped her and raped her.” The second time he is mentioned in that episode shows how much contrast there is between the two ways people see Rhaegar, when Barristan again paints him in a positive light by telling Dany that he liked to walk among the people, sing to them, give money to orphans and poor singers, and that he never liked killing, but loved singing. 

5. And of course, in season six, came the (bastardized) conversation between Ned and the three (now two) Kingsguard at the ToJ, most importantly Arthur. Ned reminds them of Rhaegar’s defeat and asks them why they weren’t there to protect him, and Arthur replies that Rhaegar wanted them at the ToJ. And at the end of the season, Bran presses play and we resume watching this scene, leading up to the big R+L=J reveal. 

6. In season seven, we are told that he (somehow????) convinced the High Septon at the time to annul his (four-year, consummated) marriage to Elia and married him to Lyanna (or to “someone else” as Gilly puts it, but we all know it’s Lyanna) in a secret ceremony in Dorne. 

So, what has the show missed?

1. In all of this, there isn’t a peep about the prophecy, when in the books we are told three times that Rhaegar cared about it and it motivated his actions a great deal: a. At the House of the Undying b. When we’re told that he found a scroll that changed his life and made him feel that he “must become a warrior” and c. When Maester Aemon discusses his communications with Rhaegar concerning the prophecy with Sam. So, as much as the show is concerned, Rhaegar never even heard the word prophecy, and would think The Prince that Was Promised was the name of a rock band if he heard of him. 

So, the part of Rhaegar’s character that escaped with Lyanna because they must have a child together who is ice + fire (and I plan on exploring why this had to be the case, why Lyanna specifically when he could have had a third child on any milkmaid or handmaiden on Dragonstone with no political consequences) basically doesn’t exist on the show. Show!Rhaegar was NOT motivated by the prophecy (and I know one could argue that he is but we just haven’t heard that yet, but I personally find it weird that we haven’t heard about this whatsoever in seven seasons, when we could have seen the scene at the HotU or at least been told by Aemon or even Barristan).

2. Rhaegar as a melancholic (potentially clinically depressed) person and an intellectual scholar is not mentioned. Again, in the books, those are important aspects of Rhaegar’s personality that also seemed to motivate his actions and affect his way of thinking. 

3. Rhaegar as a politician is not mentioned. We don’t hear anything about the rift between him and his father, his plans to establish a regency/overthrow Aerys, his possible involvement in organizing the tourney of Harrenhal, and the fact that he held his own court at Dragonstone and had his own backing. Show!Rhaegar doesn’t seem to have politics in mind much either.

So, what does the show tell us about Rhaegar?

That Rhaegar never once thought of himself as a prophetic figure/a father to one. That he was a man who liked the smallfolk and mingling with them. That Rhaegar was charismatic, well-loved, the last dragon, and seemed like a sympathetic figure to someone as smart as Maester Aemon. And finally, that he ran away with Lyanna Stark and annulled his marriage for her, and at this point, only one reason for that is left by process of elimination: Love. 

So, basically what the show did, is try to simplify Rhaegar into someone that the viewer doesn’t need to look too deeply into. He was a spirited singer who didn’t care about politics but loved the people (who here wants to bet that show!Rhaegar also called all the nobles fake, made fun of fat noblewomen and made a lot of dick jokes?) and he was married to Elia for political reasons/because he needed to marry someone, but along came Lyanna Stark, he fell in love, and set aside everything (including his own family) to marry her, not even caring about all the political repercussions because, hey, he’s spirited! And all the nobles are fake! Who cares about politics, kids? Of course he later paid with his life and the lives of his entire family, but who cares, still got laid.

It’s basically the same thing that the show did with Jaime. Take a complex character that has a core struggle and a life mission, simplify it into a one-dimensional character that doesn’t really require any effort to understand or depict. The writers of the show know that they don’t have nearly as much talent or IQ as it takes to depict either of them with their full complexity and depth in the books, so they simplified things up for themselves and for the members of the audience that don’t really want to look too deeply into things either. 

Now, if we look completely away from Rhaegar... why would the showmakers do this whole annulment nonsense, you say? Why did they waste screentime on it and energy writing it? Because Jon Snow is their favorite, and bastardy is such a bad thing (not just an invented and bigoted Westerosi social stigma) that, on his nameday, they decided to take it away and give him legal rights to a kingdom that he never wanted, fought for or thought of having. Even though bastardy wouldn’t have affected his ability to be a hero, and even though we already have a legal claimant with an army and three dragons, who’s struggled and fought plenty for that kingdom, there’s a small problem: She’s a woman, and she’s not everyone’s favorite like Jon Snow is. Must keep the ratings up, guys. 

Now, as to all the reasons why book!Rhaegar would never annul his marriage to Elia (even if it were possible, which it isn’t, because their marriage was beyond a shadow of doubt consensual and consummated, and Rhaegar needs to be a king to set her aside and take another wife, which he wasn’t yet. Source) (UPDATE: Linda Antonsson, a writer who has collabed with GRRM on A World of Ice and Fire and is very familiar with ASOIAF content, has said on twitter in criticism for the episode that the idea of an annulment is bizarre and that it would be very difficult for Rhaegar to obtain one and the fact that those “records” exist in the citadel is very odd. I also asked her if she knows for sure that an annulment would make Rhaenys and Aegon bastards, and she said there’s no definite answer but it’s likely that yes. Her twitter)

1. Let’s assume that Rhaegar absolutely held no value for Elia whatsoever and had no problem giving her the ultimate humiliation of annulment. Elia is a princess of Dorne, and Dorne has only ever joined the fold of Westeros by marriage. No Targaryen king was able to defeat Dorne and forcibly make it kneel to him. If Elia is returned to Dorne with such an insult as setting her aside, this threatens that Dorne might disassociate itself from the rest of Westeros again, taking away a huge asset from Rhaegar (the Dornish were his biggest allies against his father.)

2. For reasons mentioned here by Lyannas, it’s most likely that this annulment would result in Rhaenys and Aegon to become bastards. Not only would Rhaegar not do that to his children who are also important prophetic figures to him (two heads of the dragon) but also it threatens civil war in the future. If Dorne decides to not only remove itself from Rhaegar’s backing but also align themselves behind Aegon against Lyanna’s (”legitimate”) children in the case that Rhaegar does become the king and the line of succession continues normally, a civil war similar to the Blackfyre Rebellion could break and the future of House Targaryen will be majorly threatened. Who has time for that when you’re trying to stop a zombie apocalypse? 

Book!Rhaegar may have been a lot of things, but he wasn’t that big an idiot as to jeopardize his future on the throne and the future of his children like this. But of course, show!Rhaegar who was practically an idiot had no problem with all that.

I want to conclude by saying that we have been looking at show!Rhaegar the wrong way. We’ve all had book!Rhaegar in mind while thinking about show!Rhaegar, but the truth is, they’re two completely different people. And while book!Rhaegar is smart and sensible enough to know that he couldn’t and shouldn’t annul his marriage to Elia, show!Rhaegar, who is merely a wasteful bastardization of everything that Rhaegar is, totally would. He’s a miracle man who was able to obtain an annulment from a marriage as steady as rocks because he’s THE Rhaegar Targaryen. And while thousands of metas and rereadings have been done to understand the dilemma of book!Rhaegar, show!Rhaegar only needs you to clear your mind of book!Rhaegar, forget about any depth or intellect or savior complex, watch the show, and enjoy his jackassery. 

Oh, poor George...

[sheikah]

The pro-Daenerys and pro-Sansa meta no one asked for.

So I felt compelled to write this in response to the growing ugliness between the Jonerys and Jonsa fandoms. It’s something that puzzles me and makes me sad. It’s no secret to anyone that I am a Jonerys shipper, but that doesn’t mean I dislike Sansa as a character or hate the Jonsa ship in general. What does bother me, though, is the constant bickering over which will be canon, and the constant attacks from each side aimed at the female protagonists in an attempt to devalue the opposing ship. 

I don’t understand these attacks and to me they just perpetuate the damaging tradition of female competition over a man. I realize all of this is fictional, but in most cases of the Jonerys/Jonsa feud I see people tearing down Dany or Sansa in order to legitimize the ship in question by saying that Jon could only be with Dany because Sansa is weak or only be with Sansa because Dany is evil, etc. What’s worse, I stumble upon a lot of fics where the main conflict is a love triangle in which usually Dany but sometimes Sansa becomes a villain character. Think about this for a second. A complex, interesting, multi-layered female character who is not canonically a villain in either case being used as a mere obstacle to a romantic ship, thereby creating a love triangle and feminine competition that doesn’t--and probably won’t--canonically exist. Maybe it’s the feminist in me screaming, but that makes me so, so sad.  Now, fic writers can and should write whatever they want, and I am actually a huge fan of the love triangle trope. But in this case, it is being fabricated out of thin air and the end result is a lot of hate thrown at these women because of imagined scenarios in which they fight over Jon Snow.  So now that I have given you this lengthy preamble, here’s a post about why, as far as I’m concerned, that would never happen--because Dany and Sansa are actually very similar. I believe that both women are confident by this point of the series and would not chase a man who is divided in his feelings for them and, in my opinion, they would actually be great friends.

1. Dany loves and protects women.

I feel like the idea of Dany fighting Sansa for Jon’s affection goes fundamentally against her character. 

Dany would not try to destroy another woman’s happiness that way. We have seen her defend other women and display a special concern for women on several occasions. 

In season 1, Dany used her power and influence to save the women in the shepherd village from rape at the hands of the Dothraki. We all know how this turned out, but it is the first instance of her trying to stand up for women and establish them as something more than property in Dothraki culture. 

In season 3, Dany makes it a point to save Missandei from Master Kraznys and take her into her care. This is not something she needed to do. She doesn’t need a translator and was easily able to take the Unsullied without Missandei’s assistance or friendship. But she saw how Missandei was mistreated and wanted the opportunity to give her a better life. The famous line, “But we are not men,” just further illustrates Dany’s awareness of the plight of women in this culture and her desire to fix that. 

In season 6, when Dany is held captive by the Dothraki horde and has been placed with the Dosh Khaleen, she is kind to the young, widowed khaleesi who brings her outside the tent, understanding and sympathizing with her situation. 

But these women seem to love their chains--they feel the Dosh Khaleen is not a terrible situation to be in. They are an obstacle to Dany’s freedom but she understands their reluctance to question their status and doesn’t view them as her enemies. She liberates them, only burning the khal’s men who sought to harm her.

Finally, at the end of season 6, Dany forms an alliance with Yara Greyjoy, knowingly and willingly establishing another woman as leader of the Iron Islands. While a woman like Cersei sees other queens as dangerous competition, Dany seeks to aid, protect, and elevate other women. 

We have no reason to assume that she would treat Sansa Stark any differently, and (as I will argue below) their similarities would probably lead to a meaningful friendship if they spent enough time together. 

2. Sansa craves (and deserves) friendship.

Sansa’s character has changed noticeably through the course of the series. I would argue that the only person to change more is Jaime Lannister. When we first meet Sansa she is selfish and a little rude. But I can’t fault her for this--she’s a teenage girl, and one who starts the series in a place of considerable privilege. 

But when that is taken away from her, Sansa becomes noticeably kinder and more understanding of other people. While she used to be annoyed by and somewhat mean to Arya, the loss of her little sister seems to affect Sansa and she misses that companionship. 

She first tries to replace it with Margaery Tyrell, who seems to care genuinely for Sansa’s wellbeing--something Sansa isn’t used to at court, where everyone has questionable motives and hidden agendas. Sansa and Margaery’s friendship was sweet and offered us a glimpse of a happy, grateful young girl who was giddy at the prospect of marrying Loras Tyrell and eager to develop a closer friendship with Margaery. 

Again, as we all know, that doesn’t exactly go according to plan, and Sansa’s next option is Shae. While Shae is only her handmaiden, Sansa seems to trust her and is thankful for her support in moments like the one when Sansa starts her period and tries desperately to hide it from Cersei. She doesn’t have a mother to talk to or a sister or any close friends, so she relies on Shae to help her. In this moment, Shae does. Shae tries to protect Sansa and even tells Tyrion that she loves the younger girl. 

But jealousy sours this relationship when Shae believes that Tyrion actually wanted his marriage to Sansa, causing so much trouble that Tyrion is forced to remove Shae from Sansa’s service, leaving her alone again. 

After that happens, Sansa is left with no one but Tyrion himself, and after Joffrey’s death her only ally is Petyr. He cannot fulfill the role of friend and confidant because their relationship is very sexually-charged and he clearly sees Sansa as a younger, lovelier version of Cat--his lost love. Yet Petyr throws her into the Bolton’s clutches where it becomes immediately apparent that Sansa’s only friends are the rugged Northerners. But Ramsay puts a stop to that very quickly when he flays the woman who tries to help Sansa, and with no one but the Boltons themselves, Theon as Reek, and Myranda, Sansa is alone again. 

Sansa has almost given up on finding someone who can truly be her friend, as evidenced by her very well-placed distrust of Myranda from the beginning. 

This is why Sansa is so willing to forgive Theon and to accept Brienne’s service the second time--because she has realized how lonely and desperate she is for a companion, someone to trust. 

At the end of the day, Sansa is like a lot of us. A girl who fantasized about a beautiful life and grew up to realize it hardly works out that way for anyone. This experience hardened her. She is stronger and smarter than ever before but she isn’t heartless and still needs other people in her life. So I feel like meeting a woman like Dany wouldn’t arouse territorial feelings of jealousy in Sansa, who we already know doesn’t want to take the Iron Throne. Instead, she would see a kindred spirit--a woman who has also suffered, been used by men, lost everything, but emerged victorious and strong. 

3. Dany and Sansa have a lot in common. 

Although they lived very different lives and followed very different paths, Dany and Sansa have a lot of similarities that make both women such interesting and enjoyable characters to watch and read about. 

Both women have had, at one point or another, magical creatures: Dany’s dragons and Sansa with Lady the direwolf.

Both women have lost their parents. Both women have lost two brothers. 

Both women have been raped, if we are going by the show!universe. Dany was raped on her wedding night by the khal. Sansa was raped on her wedding night by Ramsay.

Both women entered into marriage arrangements to advance themselves politically so that they might avenge their families and take back their rightful homes. Dany, at Viserys’s behest, married Drogo for his army so that she might overthrow Robert Baratheon and take back her kingdom. Sansa married Ramsay at Petyr’s behest so that she might ingratiate herself to Ramsay and eventually take Winterfell for herself.

Both women have vengeful streaks, and it’s badass. Dany and Sansa aren’t murderous villains, but they recognize the necessity of violence as a means to an end and as a tool of vengeance. Dany’s burning of the slavers’ fleet was one of the most intense moments in the entire series and I will never forget it. It was also amazing when Sansa had Ramsay killed by his own hounds in an epic display of poetic justice.

Both women are still softhearted and loving despite their many hardships. We can still see love and compassion in Dany’s treatment of her friends and her dragons. I especially liked her gesture of giving Tyrion the Hand of the Queen pin, and her decision to forgive Jorah and urge him to save himself. Sansa displayed similar kindness in her gesture of sewing Stark clothing for Jon to symbolize his true status as a member of her family. 

4. Their friendship would be mutually beneficial, and also really sweet ^.^

Last but not least, here are my cheesy ass headcanons about what would happen if these two spent a significant amount of time together at King’s Landing or Winterfell, and became friends. 

--Dany seeing snow for the first time, and Sansa--who is apparently the Westeros Champion Snow Castle Architect--showing her how to sculpt things in it. 

--Sansa showing Dany how to wear her hair with more of it down in the Northern style, and Dany fixing Sansa’s hair in intricate braids. 

--Dany giving Sansa advice about men and sex, since poor Sansa has not had a positive sexual experience yet. 

--Sansa being a welcome and valued member of Dany’s council meetings, because Sansa’s time at court is a valuable asset and Dany recognizes that. 

--Both of them swapping funny but totally endearing stories about what it is like to live with Tyrion, the hilarious wino. Tyrion being super uncomfortable that his two favorite gals are always walking around arm-in-arm giggling and whispering conspiratorially in his direction. 

--Both of them being girl power af and disrupting the fuck out of the patriarchy by making the most important decisions and strategizing like a couple of bosses.

--Trying to borrow each other’s clothes, but Sansa’s are hilariously big for Dany because of the height difference, and Dany’s dresses show even more skin on Sansa and are totally impractical in the Northern climate. So Sansa, expert seamstress extraordinaire, sews Dany some nice furs. 

--Both women being important parts of Jon’s life, and vice versa, and all of them working together to leave the world better than they found it because that is literally like Dany’s motto now.  

Wow, okay, so if you read all of that, thanks for being interested in my ramblings. Hopefully I convinced someone that we should all love each other and be friends lol. I know none of those headcanons will happen because there is no time for people to be cute and friendly with a war happening and everything. But a girl can dream.

P.S. My super-smart bff @oadara expressed interest in my ideas on this, so I’m tagging her now :D

[loavesofoaves]

GOT: Episode 7 x 03 Review

You know, for a season that D & D have been hyping as “nonstop action,” I’m rather bored. Just because the pacing is fast does not mean anything of actual substance is happening. Episode 3 proves that.

The episode opens with Jon and Daenerys meeting for the first time; a meeting that has been hyped since the show began. And it was remarkably underwhelming. As to be expected, Deadpan Targaryen is only concerned with the throne, and Jon tries to tell her that they have bigger fish to fry and that winning the throne will be for nought if the White Walkers invade Westeros. They have a back and forth on what’s more important: Jon bending the knee or the fight to the North, which goes nowhere after 20 minutes. But hey, we got some memeworthy Daenerys reading off all her titles and Papa Davos saying “This is Jon Snow” so LOL. (BTW, is Davos even a character anymore? I feel like he exists solely to be a straw man and fatherly mansplainer.) Also, why is Jon’s resurrection a secret now? You’d think with this show logic even Hot Pie would know about that.

 The thing is, I really want to sympathize with these characters. If Emilia Clarke didn’t play Daenerys as so god damn deadpan, she almost would’ve had a nice speech about how she is not going to back down after all she’s been through. I’m shocked that they acknowledged that Drogo raped her when it turned into TRUE LUB on the show. And if there are bigger fish to fry, then why doesn’t Jon doesn’t bend the knee, especially considering Winterfell isn’t even his god damn birthright anyways?

 But dramatically satisfyingTM, amirite?

 There are also a few scenes at Dragonstone that reflect the sad truth that GOT has become a parody of itself. Jon stands brooding on a ledge and Tyrion gives him shade for it. Tyrion tries to outsass and mansplain things to Daenerys and she calls him out for making shit up and pretending it’s the most sage advice ever. I honestly can’t tell you what any of them talked about other than mining Dragonglass, that’s how boring those scenes were.

Remember when these characters actually had development, guys? What sweet summer children we were.

Speaking of ruined character development, we see Euron parading Yara and the Sand Fakes around a cheering King’s Landing. Because no one cares that Cersei blew hundreds of people up and it was totally an accident? MMkay. Euron brings Ellaria and Tyene as a gift to Cersei and then asks Jaime if she likes being butt-fingered, I shit you not.

Cersei locks up Ellaria and Tyene and basically kills Tyene the same way Myrcella was killed by kissing her with poisoned lips. Yet another example of characters somehow finding out exactly what happened offscreen because it is convenient. The scene is also an example of Lena Headey and Indira Varma blowing it out of the park despite lazy writing. These actors are too good for the material they were given to work with, and it shows. It’s hilarious how many roles D & D have “reconceived to suit their actor’s talents” that actually ended up being less dramatic and meaty than they would’ve been had they followed the source material. But it looks like we’re done with Dorne for good at least.

Next we see Cersei giving Jaime a blowjob because they are just in true love, guys. And then they end up doing the do and I believe Lena’s body double is back. I just don’t understand why D & D are trying to push the twincest on us, but god damn. How little regard they have for Jaime’s character arc is astounding.

 Cersei also has a conversation with Tycho Nestoris from the Iron Bank in which she demands money because Dany will free all of the Iron Bank’s slaves....even though Braavos doesn’t permit slavery?

Just counting down the days until Confederate is cancelled, good grief.

I will say it was surprising to see a scene that was attempting to establish some sort of logistics even though it failed miserably.

Back in Winterhell, Sansa is a boss ass bitch and tells everyone what to do as if they are not experienced lords. This totally would’ve been earned if D & D had actually followed Sansa’s political plotline from the books, but I guess rape powers make you a leader. Littlefinger, who is officially the most pointless character on the show at this point, takes Sansa aside to give her a nonsensical speech thats only purpose was to fill the season 7 trailer. He is interrupted, however, by the return of Bran. But unlike the genuinely heartwarming reunion that was with Jon and Sansa, Bran is now a robot because the three-eyed raven must have no emotion for some reason. Sansa, of course, has no idea what Bran is talking about, so Bran decides the best way to demonstrate his powers is to remind Sansa of being raped and tell her how beautiful she was when it happened.

I screamed “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK” at my TV.

D & D are seriously messed up. They aren’t just incompetent, they are fucked up.

There are just so many things wrong with this. One, we did not see Bran’s transformation into this robot, so we can’t just accept this drastic change without reason. As of last season, Bran still seemed human. Of course, the deaths of Hodor and Summer were tragic, but Bran doesn’t even bring them up as a reason for his detachment. So this sudden character change just comes out of nowhere. And even so, the fact that D & D gleefully like to trigger Sansa and the audience like this by bringing up rape for no reason just shows how juvenile they are.

And Bran. Well, they’ve never been invested in his character development since Season 2, so at this point it’s easy to just call him a plot device and not try to explain anything.

Well, RIP book Bran. Book Jaime’s holding a seat for you.

Oh, and there’s also a scene showing that Jorah is OK and basically all you needed to do to cure Greyscale was peel it off, because of course it would be that easy. Jorah decides to go stalk KHALEESI, Sam experiences the very real task of being an unpaid intern who doesn’t get credit for anything, and that plotline went nowhere and served no purpose! But someone needed to get greyscale because….?

Oh, and there’s a pointless Theon scene just to show he survived.

I am literally trying to remember what else happened this episode, but it was so boring that my mind is blanking….oh yeah! There were some fights somewhere. Grey Worm and the unsullied storm Casterly Rock, and Tyrion narrates how they’ll go in through his hoe-door because he is oh-so-clever, but oops! They get bamboozled by Euron Greyjoy. It turns out most of the Lannister forces were actually marching on Highgarden and take it offscreen because gay people obviously don’t know how to fight.

I have to laugh at Benioff’s ignorant-ass comments in the “Behind the Episode” sequence. Like, bitch, do you remember who won the battle of Blackwater? So much blatant homophobia in assuming a house that has an openly gay character has a shit army when the whole point of season 2 was showing that the Lannisters needed their army? HOW did GRRM decide these guys were the best choice to adapt the show again?

Anyways, Jaime confronts a defeated Olenna. Olenna, who is just too damn good for this show, agrees to drink poison as her execution, and then reveals to Jaime she was behind Joffrey’s death. She has the same thing on her mind as the audience: Why the fuck is Jaime still with Cersei? A woman who’s committed the atrocities the Mad King threatened to do? Jaime retorts with some bullshit and leaves Olenna to die, but she’s the real winner here, escaping this shitty writing and absolute bullshit. Oh, and she calls Joffrey a cunt because swearing is cool (I know, I am guilty of being a potty mouth, but that’s not out of character for me).

Oh! And I just remembered that Varys and Melisandre have a conversation. It wasn’t a bad conversation, and it wasn’t even out of character, but I was so outraged by all of the things happened this episode that acceptable scenes fell through the cracks.

I am just stunned that even shownlies could watch this crap and think it’s anything more than shock value entertainment. The writing just keeps on getting lazier and lazier, and it didn’t even pay off with anything of real excitement or value. Even the fanservice is lackluster. I am actually dreading Season 8 at this point. It is so obvious D & D just want to be done and they don’t care about logic as long as they can get from point A to point B.

If anything, the show has made me appreciate the books more, so I guess that’s one positive that’s come from this.