Game of Thrones [2]

Seriously though, look at the season as a whole and it does not paint a flattering picture:

- Women were made to suffer for their feminine qualities, unless they were stripped of them entirely and turned into a “badass.”
- Motherhood led to the death of two women, to the point where they literally changed the gender of the planned character to make sure it happened that way.
- Sex slaves fawned over Tyrion and offered him free sex.
- Women were viewed as completely interchangeable, regardless of their characterizations or actual logic of swapping situations.
- Sansa talked about how kind and great Tyrion was three seconds before getting raped on screen, and was put in that situation because they felt the audience wouldn’t be able to care about a girl we “didn’t know.”
- Sansa was raped to service the plotline of a man.
- The most feminist plotline in the books that centered around a woman’s refusal to be infantalized was replaced with a story about hypersexualized brown women who only cared about vengeance and who ended up accomplishing nothing other than killing a straight, white girl with a kiss (some unfortunate other implications there).
-  A 2-episode arc about poison was introduced so a young actor could show us her boobs.
- A boy who should have been 8 was aged up so that he could be raped but have it played off as a joke because the older woman abusing him was hot.
- The “walk of shame” for the male victim tastefully cropped out his naughty bits, whereas it was so crucial for us to see Cersei’s privates that they used a body double and CGI (and I actually think the nakedness in that scene was tasteful and affecting overall, but the double standard speaks for itself).
- Pedophilia and the beating of young girls was shown to us for shock value.
- Logic was defied so that a young girl could get burned at the stake, and then everything that unfolded afterwards made sure that her death didn’t do anything or matter at all.
- Dany was made stupid and irrational to make way for Tyrion and his mansplainin’ whereas Jon (her most obvious ADWD parallel) was altered so that he could go run around in an awesome battle and be an Action Hero™.
- Dany’s moment of riding off on her dragon was changed from being proactive and an attempt to saving Drogon from others to being a damsel in distress that needed to be spirited away and then felt like a joy ride.
- A love triangle was scripted where a woman was actively jealous of a rape victim because she was so in love with the abuser.

“Bad pussy” indeed. And seriously, this is skimming the surface. So yeah, misogyny was definitely the biggest take-away.

Lancebloke wrote:I think we are all pretty sure that Jon won't remain dead.

My theory....

Jon dies
Melisandre resurrects
Jon released from vow over the watch
Melisandre realises he is the person she sees in her visions... the sword is long claw
Jon leads liberation of Winterfell.
Alliser has become lord commander.
Alliser dies humiliating death, wildlings contribute to securing castle black/wall
Jon reinstated as lord commander, Sansa top dog of the north.

Bluebottle wrote:

Seriously though, look at the season as a whole and it does not paint a flattering picture:

- Women were made to suffer for their feminine qualities, unless they were stripped of them entirely and turned into a “badass.”
- Motherhood led to the death of two women, to the point where they literally changed the gender of the planned character to make sure it happened that way.
- Sex slaves fawned over Tyrion and offered him free sex.
- Women were viewed as completely interchangeable, regardless of their characterizations or actual logic of swapping situations.
- Sansa talked about how kind and great Tyrion was three seconds before getting raped on screen, and was put in that situation because they felt the audience wouldn’t be able to care about a girl we “didn’t know.”
- Sansa was raped to service the plotline of a man.
- The most feminist plotline in the books that centered around a woman’s refusal to be infantalized was replaced with a story about hypersexualized brown women who only cared about vengeance and who ended up accomplishing nothing other than killing a straight, white girl with a kiss (some unfortunate other implications there).
-  A 2-episode arc about poison was introduced so a young actor could show us her boobs.
- A boy who should have been 8 was aged up so that he could be raped but have it played off as a joke because the older woman abusing him was hot.
- The “walk of shame” for the male victim tastefully cropped out his naughty bits, whereas it was so crucial for us to see Cersei’s privates that they used a body double and CGI (and I actually think the nakedness in that scene was tasteful and affecting overall, but the double standard speaks for itself).
- Pedophilia and the beating of young girls was shown to us for shock value.
- Logic was defied so that a young girl could get burned at the stake, and then everything that unfolded afterwards made sure that her death didn’t do anything or matter at all.
- Dany was made stupid and irrational to make way for Tyrion and his mansplainin’ whereas Jon (her most obvious ADWD parallel) was altered so that he could go run around in an awesome battle and be an Action Hero™.
- Dany’s moment of riding off on her dragon was changed from being proactive and an attempt to saving Drogon from others to being a damsel in distress that needed to be spirited away and then felt like a joy ride.
- A love triangle was scripted where a woman was actively jealous of a rape victim because she was so in love with the abuser.

“Bad pussy” indeed. And seriously, this is skimming the surface. So yeah, misogyny was definitely the biggest take-away.

http://gotgifsandmusings.tumblr.com/post/121789536832/what-was-the-takeaway-for-you-from-season-5-for

I find it hilarious that all the promotional material we got told us that the Sand Snakes were going to be “the new badass characters” of season 5 and that viewers would love them. They assumed because they’re badass fighters and because they’re Oberyn’s daughters (who is a fan-favourite) that the audience would automatically be drawn to them.

Except they were just soooo fucking over-the-top. They didn’t even bother turning them into three dimensional characters who have realistic personalities - I don’t know a single person (whether they’ve read the books or not) who liked how they were portrayed on the show. People loved Oberyn because he was witty, sexy and sassy, because he was tragic to some extent, because he stood up to the “evil” Lannisters and, let’s be real, also because Pedro is extremely charismatic.

But D&D seem to think that it’s the “sexy, vengeful, exotic fighter” trope that people were drawn to. Not the actual character who had a captivating personality. So they just cut all other qualities, just focused on those superficial aspects and tripled their intensity to turn the Sand Snakes into cheap, fucked up versions of their dad.

At least that’s the only explanation I have for those terrible characterizations. Which is a real pity because they had great potential and could have really improved the show and it’s female representation.

Bluebottle wrote:"Jon released from vow over the watch."

You know I've heard this theory bandied about a lot, but I never bought into it. It sounds to me like getting off on a technicality, which in my opinion would be pretty much the furthest possible thing from what Jons character would do.