Game of Thrones

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snickfic asked for my ~feelings on the show, so here they be. (Not too much in the way of spoilers, but I do reference some things up to and including 3.01.)

Things I love:

1. Ladies! The vague descriptions I'd heard of the books made them seem rather full of misogyny and rape, so I wasn't sure how much I was going to be able to stand watching the show. And there's certainly plenty of rape and exploitation of women, not to mention the heaps of gratuitous female nudity, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the main female characters are fascinating and complex and actually provide a broad range of narrative reactions to the misogynistic of Westeros.

In particular, I love the different ways they seek to obtain or maintain power as women in a male-dominated society. I love Catelyn's fierce mama-bear protectiveness of her children, coupled with her mad negotiating skills - she's proven to be much more adept at diplomacy than her husband ever was or her son is ever likely to be. I love Arya's determination to pursue her own tomboyish interests, even if they're not gender-appropriate ones, and I love how that leads into her literal transformation into a boy in order to survive. I love that Daenerys is able to win over a race of people who value physical strength above all else, even after the loss of her enormous hulk of a husband, through the power of persuasion (even if her speechifying gets somewhat tedious in S2). I love watching Cersei attempt to navigate the world of powerful men using the meager weapons in her arsenal, including her harsh lesson for Sansa on the value of seduction. And I'm excited to see where Margaery's Princess Diana approach takes her, especially combined with her determined pursuit to be THE Queen.

(I confess, though, I still don't get all the love for Sansa? I mean, I certainly feel bad for her, and she's done a terrific job of making the best of a truly awful situation, and her powerlessness is a valuable contrast to these other ladies I've mentioned, but she doesn't stand out for me the way she seems to for much of fandom. Maybe I am overestimating the love for her, because of things like fandom nominating her to represent GoT in FMM?)

2. Tyrion! Who, as it happens, actually bears some similarity to the female characters, in that his small stature prevents him from making the displays of masculine physical force that Westeros values, and so he must rely on his wits instead and gain power by being cleverer than everyone else. In fact, one of my favorite overarching themes of the show is the focus on characters who use unconventional means to attain power because they don't have access to traditional forms of power. Also, it seems that the best rulers come from this set of characters (see again: Catelyn, Daenerys, plus Tyrion's brief stint as Hand), whereas the characters with the most power are really terrible at being good leaders. (God love you, Ned Stark, but literally no one is surprised you lost your head.)

I promised myself I wasn't going to write meta, but I seem to be doing it anyway, lol, so I'll also mention how this is a great deconstruction of privilege, in the way that those who are in power feel entitled to it by virtue of their birth, all the while the show makes it clear that they don't really deserve their power, because they're not effective or just rulers. And how much better off they'd be if they set aside sexism, ableism, and classism and listened to the people who actually know what they're doing, lol.

3. Worldbuilding! Seriously, this show is like worldbuilding PORN. Props to George R. R. Martin for that one. As dense and meandering as the books may be, they do provide a thorough framework for the world in which the story is set, and the show draws on that in fascinating ways. Unfortunately, it's SO interesting to me that I frequently find myself wishing we'd spend more time on the show's mythology and history, and less on the petty bickering and political machinations. LOL who needs a plot?

Like, for example, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of an outside threat so terrifying that they built a giant fucking wall to keep it out. And yet, what we've seen of that threat has been mostly hints and teases (albeit impressively rendered in that last shot of the S2 finale). I realize that the whole THERE ARE ZOMBIES WAITING TO EAT YOU AND YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT WHO GETS TO BE KING? LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES aspect of it is intentional, to emphasize the futility of pursuing their war while the real threat goes ignored. But I find the impending zombie apocalypse far more interesting than the pointless infighting over the crown. LET'S GET TO THE ZOMBIES ALREADY.

I also love the ominousness of "winter is coming" and the concept of preparing for a winter that could last for years and years, although that works a lot better on a metaphorical level than a meteorological one. (How does it work? Why don't the seasons match up with the calendar year? I want to knooooooow.)

4. Dragons! I think this one's pretty self-explanatory...

Things I do not love:

1. JOFFREY. Joffrey is the ACTUAL WORST and deserves a slow, painful, agonizing death. I gather this is not an unpopular opinion, but I felt it deserved restating.

2. Jaime Lannister. This is perhaps a less popular opinion, but seriously. He's talked about as being such a badass - his nickname is Kingslayer, for heaven's sake - and at first he's all about screwing twin sisters and shoving kids out windows and I'm all YES AWESOME VILLAIN, and then... not so much? He's a captive for basically all of S2 and doesn't get to do much of anything. LAME. Perhaps I wouldn't mind so much if Jaime hadn't been sidelined in favor of boring characters like Stannis and Theon - I mean, at least Jaime had potential. Therefore, you're on notice, Jaime. Be more awesome.

3. Exposition whores and gratuitous sex. I am bored and your porn is boring. I know it's HBO, but come on.

I know there are about a zillion characters and subplots I didn't mention, but tbh I mostly find the dudely posturing kinda boring and I spend their scenes waiting for the ladies to show up and make things awesome again.

Comments

[likeadeuce]

Perhaps I wouldn't mind so much if Jaime hadn't been sidelined in favor of boring characters like Stannis and Theon - I mean, at least Jaime had potential. Therefore, you're on notice, Jaime. Be more awesome.

JUST. WAIT.

I really like your thoughts, though; I think all the interesting things the series has to say about power and privilege, and all of the absolutely amazing women (plus the sheer VARIETY of them -- there is no one good way to be a powerful woman!) gets understated in favor of the more obvious flaws. Which are legit flaws! That's just not all there is to it.

Re: Sansa, it's funny for a long time I had an impression that Sansa was the character everybody despised (tbf, she's more overtly treacherous toward her parents in the books, I think?) Then I stopped paying attention for a bit and suddenly EVERYBODY LOVED SANSA. I am sure that (1) these are different segments of fandom and the latter feeling is a reaction to the former and (2) a lot of it has to do with Sophie Turner, who is marvelous.

I am glad that everybody is united in hating Joffrey. I have never seen a character who is so universally recognized across every segment of fandom to be the absolute worst. (I actually think I hate book Theon MORE than Joffrey, though show Theon is a bit more nuanced.)

[snickfic]

Edit: Sorry about that misplaced comment. :P

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Yeah, I definitely don't hate Sansa - Sophie Turner is great, and it's definitely a necessary counterpoint to the more empowered female characters. I just was expecting something more, based on fandom's reaction, I guess?

LOL Theon. I want to hate him, but he's such a total failbot that I kinda just have to laugh. DUDE CANNOT DO ANYTHING RIGHT. Also, the Greyjoys are giving the Lannisters a run for their money as WORST FAMILY EVER, so it does make me feel a little bit bad for Theon? His family gave him away and then blamed him for it when he came back!

[pocochina]

1. YES. The series is really good about having a lot of women, having those women show as wide a range of femininities/masculinities as the men do, and always acknowledging that the female characters have points of view which are not auxiliary to that of their menfolk. Which, writing it all out like that, of course it should go without saying, but it doesn't, so, snaps.

Sansa is beloved, I think, because she's the every-woman stand-in in a lot of ways? Most of us - at 13 especially - do want to think the world is a fair and good place, and if that vision were disrupted we'd be slow to figure it out and then have a long uphill battle to figure out how to save our own asses as best as possible in it. So I, at least, have this mixture of sympathy and protectiveness for her which leads to ~bonding. (And then there's four books where she's a POV character, so there's a lot informing what happens on-screen.)

2. God love you, Ned Stark, but literally no one is surprised you lost your head.

LOL

3. THERE ARE ZOMBIES WAITING TO EAT YOU AND YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT WHO GETS TO BE KING?

hahahaha, yeah. And I love that the series started off with Ned chopping off the head of the one person who tried to warn the and talk some sense into someone. "He's not too crazy to execute, but WAY too crazy to know a ZOMBIE when he sees it!"

*

Jamie is Spike to me, lol. Entirely. But he's dropped out of a hero narrative and into this really bleak, cynical world, and so he comes across really differently. And yeah, he does get a lot more awesome (S3, I think, corresponds with the book where we finally start getting his POV, so it's fair to expect better things.)

[likeadeuce]

Book 3 Jaime is chipped-Spike, basically...

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Sansa is beloved, I think, because she's the every-woman stand-in in a lot of ways?

Yeah, I can see that. I think (lol fan expectations again) I was expecting her to be more Daenerys-like based on fandom's Sansa stanning? And so it was puzzling.

Jaime as Spike? Innnnteresting. I'd say BtVS did a better job of making Spike both evil and compelling right off the bat, whereas I was mostly TOLD how evil and compelling Jaime is and not shown it. But I will be looking out for improved Jaime in S3...

[goldenusagi]

I also don't get the Sansa love. She's just fine. But the overwhelming (on my flist, at any rate) QUEEN SANSA etc, makes me dislike her in a way I wouldn't have disliked her had everyone not been raving about her.

But I find the impending zombie apocalypse far more interesting than the pointless infighting over the crown. LET'S GET TO THE ZOMBIES ALREADY.

I bet dragons could kill zombies with fire. This could bode well for the person with dragons, I think.

Tyrion remains the best.

Indeed, Joffrey remains the worst. Something HAS to happen to him, right? There are enough horrible deaths in this series, surely one of them will belong to him. I await it, lol.

[snickfic]

I bet dragons could kill zombies with fire. This could bode well for the person with dragons, I think.

I like the way you think.

Joffrey is a cockroach. He will survive TO THE BITTER END. /0\

[goldenusagi]

Dragons >>> zombies.
FTW.

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I certainly don't dislike Sansa. I did at first, a bit, because she seemed kind of like a brat, but I quite like her now. I just don't get all the stanning...

I bet dragons could kill zombies with fire. This could bode well for the person with dragons, I think.

LOL! True.

I look forward to Joffrey's gruesome death with glee.

[snickfic]

I agree with all your thoughts, basically. Ugh, Jaime Lannister is just so useless. And if this show weren't based on a book series, I'd say the reason we see so much more of the other members of his family than we do of him is because they can act, whereas he can... look pretty. (I mean, possibly the actor can act. He hasn't been given much opportunity thus far, tbf.) Your least favorites are my least favorites. :D

TYRION. ZOMBIES. I DON'T EVEN LIKE ZOMBIES.

Yeah, I don't get the Sansa love either. Certainly I don't dislike her; she's survived well given the hand she was dealt. However, she's mostly survived by outwardly being as inoffensive as possible, which while an admirable strategy does not necessarily make for riveting TV.

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And if this show weren't based on a book series, I'd say the reason we see so much more of the other members of his family than we do of him is because they can act, whereas he can... look pretty.

LOL! I know nothing about his acting ability, but one thing I find interesting is the way that the show kind of set up the major players in the beginning, and by the end of the season, all those people are dead and the people you thought were on the sidelines are the important ones.

Which makes sense for a book series, but goes against every instinct of successful TV shows, so it's fun to see who fades in and out of prominence. Which is a long-winded way of saying I expect we will get back to Jaime eventually.

[snickfic]

one thing I find interesting is the way that the show kind of set up the major players in the beginning, and by the end of the season, all those people are dead and the people you thought were on the sidelines are the important ones.

And thank goodness for that, because aren't the people on the sidelines nearly always more interesting? I'll take Catelyn and Cersei over Ned and Robert any day.

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Amen to that.