ayllriadayne

[ayllriadayne]

A Tale of Two Daeneryses

This is a post I made on Reddit a while back, cleaned up and edited. Hope you enjoy!

This is your realm; remember them in everything you do. 

Today, I want to talk about Daenerys Targaryen. Not Daenerys Stormborn, Queen, Khaleesi, Unburnt, Breaker of Chains, Mother of Dragons; the first Daenerys Targaryen, daughter of Aegon IV “the Unworthy” and Naerys Targaryen. She is the namesake for one of the series’ most important characters, yet we know rather less about her than we should. This essay will discuss what we know about Daenerys, and what the parallels between her and Dany could mean for the latter’s arc. 

Outside of The World of Ice and Fire and Dunk and Egg, the first we hear of Daenerys in the main series is in, perhaps fittingly, A Dance With Dragons, more specifically in Davos II. In that chapter, we learn that Dany was named for Daenerys--that is, her parents didn’t pick a Valyrian name out of a hat, but instead named her for one person in particular. Additionally, as I’ve discussed in my Dead Ladies Club essay on Rhaella, it’s very likely that she was the one who named Dany. Rhaella, whose husband was a monster, whose eldest son had started a war, who was always mindful of her duty. As I said in the other essay, Rhaegar and Viserys are masculine versions of Rhaenys and Visenya, the sister-wives of Aegon the Conqueror. Both of them were named for warriors and bloodshed; but Rhaella chose to name her daughter Daenerys, for the woman whose marriage brought peace to the Seven Kingdoms. 

Daenerys and Dany are similar in many ways: perhaps most obviously, they are both daughters of some of Westeros’ most reviled kings. Daenerys was born to Aegon IV, the Unworthy, whose actions led to five rebellions that almost brought the realm to its knees, while Dany is the daughter of the Mad King, Aerys II, himself. And yet despite this, both are compassionate and caring people, who value peace. It was Daenerys who began the tradition of allowing the children of servants and smallfolk to bathe in the Water Gardens, and she told her son and heir: “This is your realm; remember them in all that you do” (The Watcher, ADWD). Similarly, we have Dany, who sets aside her quest for the Iron Throne in order to wage war on slavery, driven by nothing more than basic human compassion for the suffering of others; who mourns for and pities her brother, despite enduring a lifetime of abuse at his hands; who dreams of Braavos, and Willem Darry, and a house with a red door. 

Additionally, both are, in their quest for peace, responsible for the breakdown of social order and boundaries (albeit to greater and lesser degrees), and both make an attempt to better the lives of the disenfranchised. Daenerys took pity on the lowborn children sweltering in the Dornish heat and allowed them to bathe in the Water Gardens, alongside the children of the highborn; and, as Doran points out, when children are naked, one cannot tell the highborn from the low. It is this that serves to remind him that all children are innocent and equally deserving of protection, whatever their birth--a sentiment some among the Westerosi nobility might not agree with. Then we have Dany, who is willing to shatter an entire society and rebuild it from the ground up to end slavery. She overthrows the Good Masters of Astapor and the Great Masters of Yunkai, and makes strides to form a new middle class in Meereen, made up of skilled freedmen. Both are or were--from a Westerosi point of view, at least--radical thinkers, to an extent. 

Then there’s the issue of marriage: both Daenerys and Dany enter into marriages that are politically necessary to secure peace and stability, but which they personally do not want. Daenerys married Maron Nymeros Martell to consolidate the alliance with Dorne, and Dany weds Hizdahr zo Loraq to end the reign of terror the Sons of the Harpy are inflicting upon Meereen. Daenerys may or may not have been in love with Daemon Blackfyre, but he certainly wanted her, and being denied her hand in marriage was one of the things that spurred him to the First Blackfyre Rebellion. For the sake of argument, let’s assume the feeling was mutual; blood ties have certainly never stopped Targaryens from lusting after each other (just look at Shiera and Bloodraven). Dany, meanwhile, lusts after Daario and dreams of becoming his wife, even as she knows it can never happen. 

As we can surmise from Jaehaerys II and Shaera, or Duncan the Small and Jenny of Oldstones, nothing was really stopping Daenerys and Daemon from running off and getting married in secret, then springing the surprise on their family, at which point, assuming the marriage has been consummated, there is nothing to be done. However, just as Daenerys was only ever a loyal wife to Maron (TWOIAF), Daenerys sends Daario away after her wedding, as she believes that a wife must remain faithful to her husband. Both put peace and unity above their own feelings, indicating that Daenerys shared Dany’s selflessness and willingness to sacrifice her own happiness for others. 

Given how little we know of Daenerys, it’s interesting how striking the similarities are between her and Dany. As Arianne muses, however, Daenerys came to Dorne to make peace, while Dany comes to make war (Arianne I, TWOW). After all, dragons plant no trees. 

Or do they?

While Doran plots revenge and destruction against the Lannisters, he watches the children in the Water Gardens at their play. As he tells Areo, they serve to remind him that while he and the other high lords play their game of thrones, there still are, and always will be, innocents who will inevitably suffer for it. In this way, the Water Gardens are a symbol of peace--one built for Daenerys. While it’s highly likely that Meereen, and quite likely a large chunk of Westeros, will fall to Dany’s dragons, I can see her, at some point, experiencing the same epiphany Daenerys had--that all children, and all of her children, are deserving of protection. 

[ayllriadayne]

two can play this game watch this

from arya

She wished the Rush would rise and wash the whole city away, Flea Bottom and the Red Keep and the Great Sept and everything, and everyone too, especially Prince Joffrey and his mother. But she knew it wouldn’t, and anyhow Sansa was still in the city and would wash away too. When she remembered that, Arya decided to wish for Winterfell instead. Arya, ACoK

Her father sometimes let them have a cup of beer, she remembered. Sansa used to make a face at the taste and say that wine was ever so much finer, but Arya had liked it well enough. it made her sad to think of Sansa and her father. Arya, ACoK

She drank it down at once. It was very tart, like biting into a lemon. A thousand years ago, she had known a girl who loved lemon cakes. Arya, ADWD

So the singer played for her, so soft and sad that Arya only heard snatches of the words, though the tune was half-familiar. Sansa would know it, I bet. Her sister had known all the songs, and she could even play a little, and sing so sweetly. All I could ever do was shout the words. Arya, ASoS

When she thought of seeing Robb’s face again Arya had to bite her lip. And I want to see Jon too, and Bran and Rickon, and Mother. Even Sansa… I’ll kiss her and beg her pardons like a proper lady, she’ll like that. Arya, ACoK

from sansa

She awoke all at once, every nerve atingle. For a moment she did not remember where she was. She had dreamt that she was little, still sharing a bedchamber with her sister Arya. But it was her maid she heard tossing in sleep, not her sister, and this was not Winterfell, but the Eyrie. And I am Alayne Stone, a bastard girl.  Sansa, ASoS

She had last seen snow the day she’d left Winterfell. That was a lighter fall than this, she remembered. Robb had melting flakes in his hair when he hugged me, and the snowball Arya tried to make kept coming apart in her hands. It hurt to remember how happy she had been that morning. Hullen had helped her mount, and she’d ridden out with the snowflakes swirling around her, off to see the great wide world. I thought my song was beginning that day, but it was almost done. Sansa, ASoS

She remembered a summer’s snow in Winterfell when Arya and Bran had ambushed her as she emerged from the keep one morning. They’d each had a dozen snowballs to hand, and she’d had none. Bran had been perched on the roof of the covered bridge, out of reach, but Sansa had chased Arya through the stables and around the kitchen until both of them were breathless. She might even have caught her, but she’d slipped on some ice. Her sister came back to see if she was hurt. When she said she wasn’t, Arya hit her in the face with another snowball, but Sansa grabbed her leg and pulled her down and was rubbing snow in her hair when Jory came along and pulled them apart, laughing. Sansa, ASoS

sansa and arya both associate one another with family, childhood and home, the things that are most precious to them and the things they desire the most, none of these thoughts are tainted with hatred but fond and loving memories of sisters who care for each other

[ayllriadayne]

Honestly noah fence or disrespect or anything but why do people care about Elia so much on this site?? Her main purpose in the book is to be a sad character and that’s literally it. I don’t even get why people are upset about the annulment cause we all know D&D don’t understand or care about the source material and this would never happen in asoiaf. But honestly theres a strange amount of stans for this specific character with almost no real purpose in plot.

[ayllriadayne]

I find it utterly baffling that anyone could look at Game of Thrones and consider it anything other than sexist garbage, let alone “feminist”.

[ayllriadayne]

GRRM and his Approach to Femininity

I’ve been griping about ASOIAF for like six years now (not even getting into my complaints about the television adaption, Game of Thrones, and the fandom which is toxic af), primarily about the racism and sexual violence in the books but honestly, I’ve never written a large scale post about what I think of GRRM’s treatment of Sansa Stark, Catelyn Stark, and Cersei Lannister. 

Before I get started, a major shoutout to @joannalannister‘s “Gender in ASOIAF” tag, and @valiantnedspreciouslittlegirl who I’ve been talking about ASOIAF with for years now and who is one of the kindest and most balanced people in the fandom, and of course, @onionjulius (where are you Onion, I miss you!!) who initially got me thinking about this to the point I can’t look at the books from any other perspective. These (1, 2, 3) are the main posts from where I got the inspiration for this post. 

What inspired this particular post was this question about whether GRRM did Sansa a disservice by making her so unlikable in AGOT. Like first of all, I do think comparing her to Jaime Lannister, wannabe child murderer and Grade A terrible human being (love his character but you don’t come back from pushing a 7-year-old off a tower), definitely does her a disservice. But personally, I’ve always liked Sansa, I never had any trouble understanding her perspective and I related to her disillusionment as she was exposed to the world at large. But it doesn’t change the fact that almost everybody I know, including some of the most feminist, independent minded, egalitarian men and women, have had major issues liking Sansa (and Cersei, and Catelyn) because of the mistakes she makes during AGoT and especially, the way she’s compared to Arya. 

I came into fandom during a peak of the Sansa vs. Arya wars (there were like multiple peaks) and I didn’t ever really pick a side because they’re two abused little girls, and I’m not interested in arguing about “who had it worse.” But these are the facts: in AGOT, Sansa (and Jeyne Poole) bullied Arya for not fitting into Westerosi standards of femininity, Arya was very insecure to the extent she was worried whether Catelyn and Robb would even want her her back, and Sansa was far more comfortable with what was expected for a noblewoman in Westeros than was Arya. But, my point here is basically what Onion was saying in the linked posts: why is it so much easier to like Arya than Sansa? People will argue with me about that point, but Arya comes across as MUCH more aware than Sansa of the cruelty of Joffrey and Cersei, much less naive and initially far more brave and assertive, and as Onion says, her storyline seems to me much more about the WORLD being unfair to Arya herself than about Arya’s inherent character flaws that she has to come to terms with. By contrast, Sansa must get over her naivete, classism, and idolization of Cersei and Joffrey in order to become the far more empathetic and aware girl we see in AFFC. 

As for Catelyn, Onion discusses this much better than me, but compared to Ned, her male counterpart, Catelyn makes a lot of mistakes in AGOT, none of which are singly evil or detrimental to her overall morality but which make her seem less capable than Ned overall. Not to mention her hatred of Jon Snow, which is rational from her perspective and supposed evidence of the husband whom she grew to love’s infidelity, but which exposes a deeply human flaw within her. A flaw of the kind that Ned at least, doesn’t possess. Like, Ned is honorable to a flaw but at the same time, I don’t think honor is a TRUE flaw, the same way I can’t think of Arya’s insecurity as a flaw because it makes sense in terms of their upbringing and characterization. In other words, it’s not something to be “gotten over.”

And Cersei, I’ve said a lot about her on this blog, as has everybody else but I don’t think GRRM realizes what he has in her. She’s this amalgamation of the worst possible traits for a woman to have with the tropes of Ancient Greek heroes and villains, and the character you get is one which was constructed by society and is absolutely tragic when it comes down to it. But when compared to her brothers, Jaime and Tyrion, Cersei seems both far more human and far more monstrous than either of them, and I don’t particularly like it, especially given the way people, and even GRRM talk about her. The shower comment I’ll never get over even if it can admittedly be reinterpreted in different ways. 

But the thing is, all three of these characters are very classically feminine, which makes me pause. I have a lot to say about societal constructs of femininity, particularly from a historical perspective but it seems very second-wave to automatically make your conventionally feminine characters more flawed than their male (or tomboyish) counterparts. And whether you like it or not, the comparisons between Sansa and Arya are made from the very beginning in the text, as are the comparisons between Catelyn and Ned, and Jaime and Cersei especially since they’re twins. 

First of all, wrt Sansa and Arya, beauty is undeniably a privilege but the thing is, Arya isn’t ugly or even conventionally unattractive so it’s not as if she’s an “ugly girl icon”. She’s an insecure 9-year-old and her aunt Lyanna, who she’s said to resemble greatly was described as “wildly beautiful.”And on a larger societal perspective, beauty, particularly since it’s directly to race and class and thinness, is a privilege but ultimately an ephemeral one since at least in modern society, it directly leads to objectification and even a justification to abuse and rape which never is a privilege. 

I was just thinking about this post, and I think GRRM needs to muse on it. In Medieval, or pseudo-Medieval societies, everything would fail miserably and implode on itself without so called women’s work. Women basically managed households, did accountings, and like, literally made clothing for the whole household. They weren’t like hanger-ons to the men and like burdens, they did their part and I think it’s really disingenuous to regard so-called womanly aspirations as useless which almost seems to be the implication that GRRM makes. And note that Arya herself is not to blame here since her issue with femininity is more that she can’t ascribe to it rather than with the women themselves. She clearly shows respect and love for her mother and Lady Smallwood and others, so SHE isn’t the one with an issue. 

But like, it’s not that GRRM comes out and explicitly says “women in dresses are inherently inferior to women with swords” but he does imply that the women in dresses have character flaws that are coded as explicitly feminine that they must overcome. Sansa is probably the most conventionally feminine character in the series, Catelyn bemoans Arya’s lack of adherence to femininity (even while she still loves her!!!! Contrary to popular belief…), and Cersei is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful women in Westeros, mostly by creepy men. I was reminded of the quote from Sean T. Collins’ review of Breaking Bad in like 2012:

Cold cunning, ruthlessness, rage, self-interest, a propensity for physical violence – we gender these unheroic characteristics as male, and celebrate them; passivity, bitterness, grief, emotional enmeshment, a knack for attacking and deflating egos – we gender these unheroic characteristics as female, and loathe them

Whether you want to admit it or not, Sansa, Catelyn, and Cersei are the characters who most possess “female unheroic characteristics” as Collins puts it and I can’t really believe it’s entirely accidental but rather a result of systemic biases against women. Like, Sansa has been vastly criticized for being passive in the face of her abuse, Catelyn can't “get over” being cheated on (or so she thinks), and Cersei just pretty much hates everybody, mainly men (Robert Baratheon can choke), and is the main character who calls out the patriarchy while still being enmeshed in it, which obviously is hard to stomach for many.

I notice it even with the construction of Brienne, who is seen by her society as a failure of femininity, and has literally no innate character flaws except being too trusting which isn’t a flaw with her but more with society at large. She’s “ugly” and large but those things aren’t her fault and aren’t something to be overcame since there’s nothing actually wrong with being that way! She doesn’t have control over those aspects of her appearance and they don’t make her a bad person. Like, basically, my point is, every woman, no matter how they look or present, has these human flaws, pettiness, jealousy, anger, naivete, etc. Not only women who prescribe to social standards of femininity.

(It should be noted that while I’m talking about “human” flaws, I’m not brushing over that Cersei is like objectively terrible. Her flaws aren’t that she’s ~lustful and angry at how she was treated and extremely sad and a “wound dweller”, they’re that she’s ableist and violent and takes out her abuse on other, more vulnerable, individuals. She’s a bad PERSON, not a bad woman and there is a distinction)

[ayllriadayne]

samwpmarleau

  But don’t the Targaryens have a lot of stillborns,…

I’m forever annoyed that in an SSM GRRM said it was unusual and considered perverse to bed one’s wife before the age of majority at 16 and yet he has SO many girls being married/bedded/having children at 13, 14, 15

Yep it drives me up the wall too 🙃

[ayllriadayne]

My next post, whenever I find time to write it, will be the first in a new series focusing on the minor female characters of ASOIAF, and it will focus on Ravella Swann, a character I love a lot <3 

[ayllriadayne]

"Daenerys Targaryen. I do not seem to be able to separate my feelings towards her story and my feelings towards her." Can you talk more about your problems regarding her story, please?

Um, well, this is not a subject that I like to delve in tbqh. My frustration and aversion to the way GRRM write huge chunks of this story often trips me up and I find myself mostly unable to be as coherent as I’d like to be, and as the subject deserves. I’ll do my best with it but I’d recommend reading @valiantnedspreciouslittlegirl’s post on the subject because it puts into words a lot of what I dislike in Dany’s story.

My problem is that Martin employs a lot of racist tropes in constructing Dany’s story. We’re introduced to Dany as she goes into her marriage to Khal Drogo and experience Dothraki culture, making her the one to shape our view of said culture, aided by Jorah Mormont who serves as her advisor from the very beginning. Not only is there a problem in having our sole view of one of few prominently non-white societies filtered through the eyes of white characters, but the narrative sets Dany up as the white girl coming to civilize and gentle the savage POC, and oh aren’t the Dothraki so savage and uncultured, they do not even have a word for thank you!!!

While the Dothraki culture is definitely one that needs lots of reforms, Martin’s depiction of them in general is deeply racist. He falls back on stereotypes and dehumanizing portrayals to carry the story, reducing them to a monolithic society built on violence, subjugation and sexual submission. He never bothers to flesh them out, he never bothers to give distinction for different characters that isn’t built on brutality (can you tell me what differentiates Irri from Jhiqui, or Aggo fromRakharo fromJhogo, or any of the khals from each other?), he never bothers to give them substance. He stomps all over them because they are mainly set up to contrast Dany’s own views and beliefs, and to bring her to the point where she “births” her dragons. He leaves them undeveloped and then uses that to make them bow down to the white, western-coded, civilized girl that has earned their loyalty to the point of them going against their deeply-believed and upheld social norms because she walked out of a pyre unburned, even though the Dothraki loath witchcraft. Sure Jan.

From the start, Dany’s story relies heavily on the white savior trope which is fundamentally racist. It’s a trope that has a white person descending on a non-white society to reform it and force a societal change that the residents of the region can’t or won’t force . It often goes hand-in-hand with the implication that the white person is doing it ~for the good of the nation they have invaded~. The story of an external white force coming to correct the injustice or the wrong behavior that exists in a non-white society is racist, for it often implies that the non-white society is incapable of reform on its own, that they need the intelligent white person to teach them and show them how civilized people do it, and it’s something that has been frequently used in our real world by imperialist forces to justify their occupation of a region. (Which hits too close for me because Middle-Eastern history is rife with such attempts. When you’re constantly told you’re oppressed and the progressive white people are gonna help you be better, you tend to have a visceral reaction to any fictional work that builds upon the same idea.)

Whether with the Dothraki or in Slaver’s Bay, Dany is the white woman bringing humane reforms to the savage cultures she comes in contact with, she is the enlightenment movement coming to the backwards POC cultures to fix it. This isn’t a defense of either culture because both really need serious reforms, but for that force of change to be the teenage white girl saving the indigenous people has serious racist connotations, not made at all better by Martin infantilizing the slaves that Dany frees by literally having them call her Mother. Because why not.

And the problem is that Dany does not quite fit the trope, she is not an imperialist despite Martin using imperialist writing in her story. She does not fall upon Slaver’s Bay because she wants to take advantage of the resources of the region, neither does she employ empty rhetoric about helping people to mask her imperialist ambitions or starts from a place of believed superiority. She truly cares about the slaves she frees. She is motivated by how powerless she felt herself and wants to spare others that same powerlessness. She respects the cultures she encounters and isn’t out to replace it with her own (implied superior) culture; on the contrary, she tries to preserve it and work within it to make away with the dehumanizing aspects without forcing a complete cultural shift. For me, Dany is a victim of her story because it is the single most racist narrative in the whole series by virtue of how utterly racist the writing is. That’s on Martin, not Dany. But like I said, I deal with how deeply uncomfortable I am with the story by disassociating from it, which affects how I connect to Dany despite my best efforts :/

[ayllriadayne]

Sansa and her “Stark connection”

Since the fandom is always saying how Sansa is not a Real Stark ™    I wanted to  make a post in which I explain why Sansa, born in the Winter (unlike Arya or Bran or Rickon born in the long Summer), in Winterfell (unlike Jon or Robb born in the south) will always be a Stark ( no Lannister or Baelish or whatever…), no matter who she is forced to marry (to survive I might add..). 

 In AGOT Sansa (before her father died, and when she was meant to marry joffrey) is already very proud of her Stark origins. 

Alyn carried the Stark banner. When she saw him rein in beside Lord Beric to exchange words, it made Sansa feel ever so proud.

While prefering The Seven (like her mother) she does admire the poetry of the old gods. 

Besides, even if she could leave the castle, where would she go? It was enough that she could walk in the yard, pick flowers in Myrcella’s garden, and visit the sept to pray for her father. Sometimes she prayed in the godswood as well, since the Starks kept the old gods.

By the time she reached the godswood, the noises had faded to a faint rattle of steel and a distant shouting. Sansa pulled her cloak tighter. The air was rich with the smells of earth and leaf. Lady would have liked this place, she thought. There was something wild about a godswood; even here, in the heart of the castle at the heart of the city, you could feel the old gods watching with a thousand unseen eyes.

While she is called little bird, or little dove (when people want to undermine her), she is called wolf  too.

Tyrion found himself thinking of his wife. Not Sansa; his first wife, Tysha. The whore wife, not the wolf wife.

“Your Grace has forgotten the Lady Sansa,” said Pycelle.

The queen bristled. “I most certainly have not forgotten that little she-wolf.” She refused to say the girl’s name.

And Sansa herself when she is in put  a hard position takes courage in her Stark origins. Its something that gives her  strength:

Do as you’re told, sweetling, it won’t be so bad. Wolves are supposed to be brave, aren’t they?

“Brave. Sansa took a deep breath. I am a Stark, yes, I can be brave.

“Winterfell?” Robert was small for eight, a stick of a boy with splotchy skin and eyes that were always runny. Under one arm he clutched the threadbare cloth doll he carried everywhere.

“Winterfell is the seat of House Stark,” Sansa told her husband-to-be. “The great castle of the north.”

“Do you require guarding?” Marillion said lightly. “I am composing a new song, you should know. A song so sweet and sad it will melt even your frozen heart. ‘The Roadside Rose,’ I mean to call it. About a baseborn girl so beautiful she bewitched every man who laid eyes upon her.

”I am a Stark of Winterfell, she longed to tell him. Instead she nodded, and let him escort her down the tower steps and along a bridge. 

 Petyr put his arm around her. “What if it is truth he wants, and justice for his murdered lady?” He smiled. “I know Lord Nestor, sweetling. Do you imagine I’d ever let him harm my daughter?

“I am not your daughter, she thought. I am Sansa Stark, Lord Eddard’s daughter and Lady Catelyn’s, the blood of Winterfell.

“As was bringing me here, when you swore to take me home.”She wondered where this courage had come from, to speak to him so frankly. From Winterfell, she thought. I am stronger within the walls of Winterfell.

I will tell my aunt that I don’t want to marry Robert. Not even the High Septon himself could declare a woman married if she refused to say the vows. She wasn’t a beggar, no matter what her aunt said. She was thirteen, a woman flowered and wed, the heir to Winterfell.

.His seamed and solemn face brought back all of Sansa’s memories of his time at Winterfell. She remembered him at table, speaking quietly with her mother. She heard his voice booming off the walls when he rode back from a hunt with a buck behind his saddle. She could see him in the yard, a practice sword in hand, hammering her father to the ground and turning to defeat Ser Rodrik as well. He will know me. How could he not? She considered throwing herself at his feet to beg for his protection. He never fought for Robb, why should he fight for me?

From the high battlements of the gatehouse, the whole world spread out below them. Sansa could see the Great Sept of Baelor on Visenya’s hill, where her father had died. At the other end of the Street of the Sisters stood the fire-blackened ruins of the Dragonpit. To the west, the swollen red sun was half-hidden behind the Gate of the Gods. The salt sea was at her back, and to the south was the fish market and the docks and the swirling torrent of the Blackwater Rush. And to the north …She turned that way, and saw only the city, streets and alleys and hills and bottoms and more streets and more alleys and the stone of distant walls. Yet she knew that beyond them was open country, farms and fields and forests, and beyond that, north and north and north again, stood Winterfell.

but personally my favorite line about Sansa being always a Stark and belonging North in Winterfell  (Never a Lannister! , no matter who she marries) is this quote by Ned: 

When it was over, he said, “Choose four men and have them take the body north. Bury her at Winterfell.”

“All that way?” Jory said, astonished.

“All that way,” Ned affirmed. “The Lannister woman shall never have this skin.“ 

Sansa whole story (to me) is about her journey retaking her Stark origins which were stolen from her in the worst of way, just like they killed her wolf Lady. But just like Lady remains, Sansa place is and always will be in the north, as a Stark of Winterfell. 

[ayllriadayne]

👏 BELITTLING 👏 TRADITIONAL 👏 FEMININITY 👏 IS 👏 NOT 👏 FEMINISM 👏

It’s playing into the toxically masculine notion that femininity is inherently weak and worthless, and that only women who act in a traditionally masculine way are valid!! Don’t do that!!

[ayllriadayne]

I just got the pun, I feel dumb lol. Nice one!

The ice cells one? Haha, I thought I was so clever when I came up with that, then I realised 90% of people probably wouldn’t get it. Oops.

[ayllriadayne]

Women in Ice Cells: The She-Wolves of Winterfell, Part 2

In Part 1, I talked about Lyanna Stark from a Watsonian (in-universe) perspective, examining what we could glean about her personality and character from the little information we had. This essay will be a little different from my usual fare, as it will focus on Lyarra Stark, wife of Rickard and mother to Brandon, Eddard, Lyanna and Benjen, about whom we know basically nothing (in GRRM’s own words: “Lady Stark. She died”), and how GRRM’s attitude towards and treatment of her is emblematic of the issue of the Dead Ladies Club in general.

In that now-infamous interview where GRRM was asked to talk more about Lyarra, he replied, “Did anyone ask Tolkien about Aragorn’s mother?” Now, @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly has written an excellent post on how this is particularly cringeworthy given that GRRM is a self-proclaimed Tolkien fan, and that nobody had to ask Tolkien about Gilraen, because Tolkien wrote about her in-depth. So GRRM’s dismissive attitude here comes off as both rude and uninformed. 

Secondly, I don’t know why this question garnered this response. After all, we know quite a bit about Rickard Stark and his “southron ambitions”; why, then, would it be so strange to want to know about Lyarra, who no doubt also played a part in shaping Ned into the man he is at the beginning of AGOT? GRRM claims he’ll reveal more about her if and when it’s important to the story, but relevance to the story has never stopped him from compiling entire novels’ worth of information on dead Targaryen kings. Lyarra, however, the mother of one of the most important characters in the series, isn’t even worth naming until he’s forced to for TWOIAF. Why do the dead women have to jump through hurdles to be considered important in GRRM’s mind when the dead men don’t?

This answer is, I also think, rather tone-deaf on GRRM’s part. As much as he does right, and as much as I love his work, it’s worth remembering that he is an old wealthy white man--aka, the epitome of privilege. We can see this reflected in things like the casual racism that permeates the series. I don’t think GRRM realises how problematic his treatment of the dead female characters is, and particularly that his reaction to an innocent question about Lyarra being so aggravated is very much a microcosm of that problem. If he’d been asked about random Stark ancestor guy #1238821, I’m certain he would have been far more forthcoming. This reads and reflects so, so badly.

GRRM has famously stated, in response to a question about how he manages to write such good female characters, that “I’ve always considered women to be people”. And with the female POV characters, he does some amazing things. But with the more tangential women, there seems to be a massive double-standard on his part, where a woman is only worth mentioning in her capacity as a wife or mother, and then only if she’s deemed important enough, whereas any and all male characters, no matter how relevant, are expanded upon in great detail.

I do have to wonder whether anyone’s ever brought this up to GRRM. I’d be interested to see how he reacts.

[ayllriadayne]

nymeria sand is implied to be a lesbian as well, isn't she? why are the vast majority lgbt characters dornish?

because exotification and eroticism go hand-in-hand in Racist Writing Land

[ayllriadayne]

me whenever people list the rulers of westeros but leave out rhaenyra

[ayllriadayne]

I’ve had to put my meta analyses on the backburner for a while, but I’m still alive, I promise! Coming up is Part 2 of The She-Wolves of Winterfell, and after that I’m planning on a second essay series that explores the secondary female characters of the series, from relatively important characters like Meera Reed to those who never even appear on page like Allyria Dayne.

[ayllriadayne]

Women in Ice Cells: The She-Wolves of Winterfell, Part 1

Today’s essay is going to be split into two parts. In Part 1, I’m going to be looking at one of the foremost members of Dead Ladies Club: Lyanna Stark herself. In Part 2, I’ll discuss her mother, Lyarra Stark, and how she is very much a microcosm of the problem of the Dead Ladies Club in herself. First, though, Lyanna. 

In terms of plot relevance, Lyanna might be the most important member of the DLC bar none: her kidnapping/elopement with Rhaegar kickstarted Robert’s Rebellion, which in turn to the events of the series. Additionally, she may or may not be the mother of Jon Snow, which could make him the Prince that was Promised, Azor Ahai, the Last Hero, whatever you want to call it.

But that’s not what I’m going to talk about. Lyanna is more than just theory fodder and a source of manpain. She was a sister, a daughter, possibly a mother, but she was also a person. 

What do we know? She was born between 266 and 267 AC, the third child and only daughter of Rickard and Lyarra Stark, Lord and Lady of Winterfell. She was betrothed to Robert Baratheon at a young age. She went to the tourney at Harrenhal in the year of the false spring, where she may or may not have been the Knight of the Laughing Tree. After winning the tourney, Rhaegar crowned Lyanna Queen of Love and beauty over his own wife Elia; shortly afterwards, Lyanna was kidnapped by or ran away with Rhaegar. The next we know, she’s in a “bed of blood” in the tower of joy, begging Ned to “promise [her]”, and then she dies. Alongside this, we get a bit more insight into her personality than other members of the DLC, thanks to Ned’s thoughts about her. Let’s have a look.

We know Lyanna had what Rickard referred to as the “wolf’s blood”, meaning ferocity and wildness. At Harrenhal, she fought off three squires who had attacked Howland Reed--definitely not “proper” behaviour for a highborn girl in Westeros. It doesn’t do her justice just to say that she’s hot headed, though; unlike Arya, who is impulsive in everything she does, and whose interactions are often laced with vitriol, even with her friends, Lyanna seems to have been more thoughtful and “soft” in that regard (granted, Arya’s only nine; it could be she’ll grow into that). Look at her and Ned’s conversation about Mya Stone, after her betrothal to Robert. Ned tries to reassure her that Robert will stay faithful. Lyanna’s response? Lyanna had only smiled. ‘Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man’s nature.’ (Eddard IX, AGOT) Bear in mind that at this point she’s still very young, probably only twelve or thirteen, and yet she’s thoughtful and perceptive enough to say something that many adults still fail to realise. I think that Lyanna, despite her occasional rashness, was a very clever, thoughtful and perceptive person.

The incident at Harrenhal is also interesting by virtue of what Lyanna says when she defends Howland Reed: “That’s my father’s man you’re kicking!” While it’s probably part threat, i.e. “I’m going to tell my dad and you’ll be screwed”, there’s also an implication that their abuse of Howland is even more indefensible because he’s Rickard’s man. One of the duties a liege lord has is to protect his vassals. Rickard took that duty seriously, and instilled the importance of it in Ned; it’s no stretch to imagine he did the same for Lyanna. This is reinforced by the fact that Lyanna doesn’t just scare off the squires: afterwards, she takes Howland back to the Stark tent, where she cleans and bandages his wounds. There’s the anger, yes, when she fends off his attackers; and afterwards comes the tenderness, where she helps him heal. Those two elements are, I think, key parts of Lyanna’s character. We also know that Lyanna persuaded Howland to attend the feast, arguing that he was highborn and had as much right to be there as anyone. In that way, Lyanna seems a bit of a Dany-esque figure, wanting to include those people that others have shunned and standing up for the underdog.

This dichotomy of Lyanna’s personality is shown again at said feast, where Rhaegar performed a sad and beautiful song on his high harp, which brought Lyanna to tears; but when Benjen teased her for crying, she poured her wine over his head. That’s Lyanna in a nutshell, I think: tender, and fierce. She loved to ride and play with swords, but she also loved blue roses. As Ned says to Robert, “You saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath.” (Eddard VII, AGOT). Lyanna Stark deserved better.

In Part 2, I’ll be examining Lyarra Stark in a more meta sense, aka ranting about how it’s ridiculous how little we know about her, George, please. After that, I’ll be taking on Cassana Estermont and the Princess of Dorne. Hope you enjoyed!

[ayllriadayne]

For the next instalment of Women in Ice Cells, should I do Lyanna and Lyarra? Or is there someone else you would like to see?