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netgirl_y2kAll ASOIAF characters today, because 1) I like themes, 2) Morgana and Regina already got their own posts, and 3) this a series crammed full of characters I love, who terrible things happen to, and then I cry.
1. Theon Greyjoy
Okay, perhaps delight is the wrong word.
The first thing you have to understand about Theon is that he's awful; I hated him on sight. He's arrogant, he's smarmy, he's a horrible misogynist. When we first meet him he's taking horrible advantage of an innocent woman, he betrays Robb, captures Winterfell, gives Kyra to Ramsey, kills two innocent children--
A brief aside, I have heard the argument that it was somehow "better" that Theon killed the miller's children rather than Bran & Rickon, and that's not true, it's worse. It feels as though it's better because we don't know those children, and we do know Bran and Rickon. But killing Bran and Rickon would have been an insane overreaction, and the stupidest thing Theon could possibly have done (they are his only hostages of value); killing the miller's children is all that (because nobody knows that they're not the princes) as well as being needlessly barbaric, and a sign of how pathetic, spineless, and easily led Theon truly is at that point.
So, Theon is awful. But, but, but-- he has these moments, brief ones, where he nearly does the right thing. He nearly stays loyal to Robb, he nearly abandons Winterfell and goes to Deepwood Motte with Asha, he comes this close to Taking the Black and the fresh start that it offers. And that's what drew me to him even when I hated him; Theon Greyjoy is a character who wouldn't recognise a good life choice if it walked up to him wearing a sandwich board that said: "Hello, I'm a good life choice."
All the same, by the end of A Clash of Kings I was repulsed by Theon; I wanted horrible, horrible things to happen to him. And that's when his narrative becomes immensely satisfying to me, because when he reappears in A Dance with Dragons it quickly becomes apparent that appalling things have been done to him, and I immediately went: No, hang on! Stop! I take it back!
Careful what you wish for, right?
Theon in ADWD has identity issues which fascinate me (your name, you have to remember your name) He's been made into Reek, and he's slowly and painfully becoming Theon again, but a different Theon. When he contemplates killing Jeyne Poole to spare her from marriage to Ramsey he thinks that a boy called Theon would have saved her, but all Reek could do was kill her; and that's just not true, the old Theon wouldn't have cared about Jeyne, but Reek does because Jeyne give him someone to be Theon for.
I don't think it'll happen, but I desperately want to believe that Asha will find a way to rescue her little brother, and that he and Jeyne can go and live quietly and co-dependently by the sea somewhere.
2. Samwell Tarly
Bless Sam's little cotton socks, and his thoroughly good heart! If I hadn't already fallen hard for Sam I would have when he said of Gilly: "I can't steal her, she's a person, not a goat" because it doesn't occur to Sam, not even for a second, that Gilly is any less of a whole person than he is. And in the misogynistic world of Westeros this is not a thing that you would hear many of the "good" male characters saying, not even those who sincerely love their wives, mothers, and daughters, because that's some easy shit to internalise; lots of the women of Westeros have.
But the thing that I first saw in Sam is actually the same thing Jon Snow saw in him; Sam is a guy who abhors physical violence, eschews confrontation, likes singing and sewing and stories, and these are not okay things in a man in Westeros, even less so at the Wall; and in a world that hates cowards it takes a particular type of courage to admit that you're afraid all the time.
And Sam the Slayer; Sam, fat, cowardly Sam who can't swing a sword is the person who discovers that you can kill a wight with a dragonglass dagger, because he does it. If that had been me I would have had the words SAM THE SLAYER tattooed across my forehead, but Sam's embarrassed by it, and I find that adorable.
Were I the queen on the iron throne, I would take Sam for my king.
3. Sansa Stark
There are some people in ASOIAF fandom who believe that the fandom is obsessed with the female characters and is overlooking the poor neglected male characters. Um, yeah, excuse me while I laugh bitterly for about twenty minutes. Right, I'm back. And firstly, I think this an example of that thing where as soon as you even get close to equal representation between the sexes people will think it's biased towards women. Secondly, people are not not-writing fic about Stannis or Victarion - and there's plenty of fic about Stannis - because they prefer Sansa or Dany, and as far as I can tell Jon, Jaime, and Tyrion are still the fan favourites way ahead of any of the female characters. And finally and most importantly, it ignores that ASOIAF was for a long time one of the most misogynistic fandoms you could possibly be in, where it was not uncommon to come across people on forums baying for the rape and murder of a fictional fourteen year old. Yeah. So people reacted against the OTT hate, and maybe some of them overreacted, but I remember the old days before the show brought a new wave of fans in, and this is better.
Anyway, that was a long preamble to say that I am one of those fans who didn't realise how much I liked Sansa until I started defending her. And here is an incomplete list of things that are awesome about Sansa:
-Sansa is not stupid; Sansa is naïve. Nothing in her life has prepared her for a situation like King's Landing. Yes, it takes the horrible shock of Ned's life for her to realise that she's in the lion's den, but if she wasn't a good observer, if she wasn't quick and careful with her words she wouldn't have survived. I've said it before but Sansa would have died in Arya's situation, and Arya would have died in Sansa's. Sansa Stark is as smart as a whip within the limits of her lived experience.
-Sansa is stronger than even she knows she is. I know a thousand tumblr graphics have done the "my skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel," line to death, but the first time you read it it's a fucking good line, and perfectly describes Sansa.
-Sansa is kind, in a world that does its best to stamp out kindness, a world all but built on the principle that the abused kick downwards, Sansa is still kind. That's why stories about Sansa's courteous yet utter destruction of everyone who's wronged her family rarely work for me. Dany, yes; Sansa, not so much. I will however eat stories about Sansa rebuilding Winterfell and moving into the future up with a spoon.
-Sansa grew up believing in stories. I know this is often cited as a reason to dislike her; but seriously, we're in fandom, surely we can relate a little to someone using stories to understand the world. It's why her realisation that life is not a song is so powerful. It's why one of the big things I want from her narrative is for her to discover that some of the some of the stories are true after all; Brienne of Tarth is coming for her, there are true knights; Jon Snow cut off Janos Slynt's head; there are real heroes.
-Sansa's story isn't just pawn to queen, it's piece to player. And one of the things that I love from a fandom perspective is that I genuinely don't know what's going to happen with her, she's kind of a wildcard tucked away in the Vale, so many things are plausible, you know? But as far as canon goes, if she is reunited with her siblings, and gains enough power to control at least her own life then I will be a happy little Sansa stan indeed.
I've been enjoying this December meme. I feel like have talked more to people in the last week and a half than I have in the rest of 2013. I still have pretty much the last third of the month free, if anyone has ideas for things they might like me to talk about.
1. Theon Greyjoy
Okay, perhaps delight is the wrong word.
The first thing you have to understand about Theon is that he's awful; I hated him on sight. He's arrogant, he's smarmy, he's a horrible misogynist. When we first meet him he's taking horrible advantage of an innocent woman, he betrays Robb, captures Winterfell, gives Kyra to Ramsey, kills two innocent children--
A brief aside, I have heard the argument that it was somehow "better" that Theon killed the miller's children rather than Bran & Rickon, and that's not true, it's worse. It feels as though it's better because we don't know those children, and we do know Bran and Rickon. But killing Bran and Rickon would have been an insane overreaction, and the stupidest thing Theon could possibly have done (they are his only hostages of value); killing the miller's children is all that (because nobody knows that they're not the princes) as well as being needlessly barbaric, and a sign of how pathetic, spineless, and easily led Theon truly is at that point.
So, Theon is awful. But, but, but-- he has these moments, brief ones, where he nearly does the right thing. He nearly stays loyal to Robb, he nearly abandons Winterfell and goes to Deepwood Motte with Asha, he comes this close to Taking the Black and the fresh start that it offers. And that's what drew me to him even when I hated him; Theon Greyjoy is a character who wouldn't recognise a good life choice if it walked up to him wearing a sandwich board that said: "Hello, I'm a good life choice."
All the same, by the end of A Clash of Kings I was repulsed by Theon; I wanted horrible, horrible things to happen to him. And that's when his narrative becomes immensely satisfying to me, because when he reappears in A Dance with Dragons it quickly becomes apparent that appalling things have been done to him, and I immediately went: No, hang on! Stop! I take it back!
Careful what you wish for, right?
Theon in ADWD has identity issues which fascinate me (your name, you have to remember your name) He's been made into Reek, and he's slowly and painfully becoming Theon again, but a different Theon. When he contemplates killing Jeyne Poole to spare her from marriage to Ramsey he thinks that a boy called Theon would have saved her, but all Reek could do was kill her; and that's just not true, the old Theon wouldn't have cared about Jeyne, but Reek does because Jeyne give him someone to be Theon for.
I don't think it'll happen, but I desperately want to believe that Asha will find a way to rescue her little brother, and that he and Jeyne can go and live quietly and co-dependently by the sea somewhere.
2. Samwell Tarly
Bless Sam's little cotton socks, and his thoroughly good heart! If I hadn't already fallen hard for Sam I would have when he said of Gilly: "I can't steal her, she's a person, not a goat" because it doesn't occur to Sam, not even for a second, that Gilly is any less of a whole person than he is. And in the misogynistic world of Westeros this is not a thing that you would hear many of the "good" male characters saying, not even those who sincerely love their wives, mothers, and daughters, because that's some easy shit to internalise; lots of the women of Westeros have.
But the thing that I first saw in Sam is actually the same thing Jon Snow saw in him; Sam is a guy who abhors physical violence, eschews confrontation, likes singing and sewing and stories, and these are not okay things in a man in Westeros, even less so at the Wall; and in a world that hates cowards it takes a particular type of courage to admit that you're afraid all the time.
And Sam the Slayer; Sam, fat, cowardly Sam who can't swing a sword is the person who discovers that you can kill a wight with a dragonglass dagger, because he does it. If that had been me I would have had the words SAM THE SLAYER tattooed across my forehead, but Sam's embarrassed by it, and I find that adorable.
Were I the queen on the iron throne, I would take Sam for my king.
3. Sansa Stark
There are some people in ASOIAF fandom who believe that the fandom is obsessed with the female characters and is overlooking the poor neglected male characters. Um, yeah, excuse me while I laugh bitterly for about twenty minutes. Right, I'm back. And firstly, I think this an example of that thing where as soon as you even get close to equal representation between the sexes people will think it's biased towards women. Secondly, people are not not-writing fic about Stannis or Victarion - and there's plenty of fic about Stannis - because they prefer Sansa or Dany, and as far as I can tell Jon, Jaime, and Tyrion are still the fan favourites way ahead of any of the female characters. And finally and most importantly, it ignores that ASOIAF was for a long time one of the most misogynistic fandoms you could possibly be in, where it was not uncommon to come across people on forums baying for the rape and murder of a fictional fourteen year old. Yeah. So people reacted against the OTT hate, and maybe some of them overreacted, but I remember the old days before the show brought a new wave of fans in, and this is better.
Anyway, that was a long preamble to say that I am one of those fans who didn't realise how much I liked Sansa until I started defending her. And here is an incomplete list of things that are awesome about Sansa:
-Sansa is not stupid; Sansa is naïve. Nothing in her life has prepared her for a situation like King's Landing. Yes, it takes the horrible shock of Ned's life for her to realise that she's in the lion's den, but if she wasn't a good observer, if she wasn't quick and careful with her words she wouldn't have survived. I've said it before but Sansa would have died in Arya's situation, and Arya would have died in Sansa's. Sansa Stark is as smart as a whip within the limits of her lived experience.
-Sansa is stronger than even she knows she is. I know a thousand tumblr graphics have done the "my skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel," line to death, but the first time you read it it's a fucking good line, and perfectly describes Sansa.
-Sansa is kind, in a world that does its best to stamp out kindness, a world all but built on the principle that the abused kick downwards, Sansa is still kind. That's why stories about Sansa's courteous yet utter destruction of everyone who's wronged her family rarely work for me. Dany, yes; Sansa, not so much. I will however eat stories about Sansa rebuilding Winterfell and moving into the future up with a spoon.
-Sansa grew up believing in stories. I know this is often cited as a reason to dislike her; but seriously, we're in fandom, surely we can relate a little to someone using stories to understand the world. It's why her realisation that life is not a song is so powerful. It's why one of the big things I want from her narrative is for her to discover that some of the some of the stories are true after all; Brienne of Tarth is coming for her, there are true knights; Jon Snow cut off Janos Slynt's head; there are real heroes.
-Sansa's story isn't just pawn to queen, it's piece to player. And one of the things that I love from a fandom perspective is that I genuinely don't know what's going to happen with her, she's kind of a wildcard tucked away in the Vale, so many things are plausible, you know? But as far as canon goes, if she is reunited with her siblings, and gains enough power to control at least her own life then I will be a happy little Sansa stan indeed.
I've been enjoying this December meme. I feel like have talked more to people in the last week and a half than I have in the rest of 2013. I still have pretty much the last third of the month free, if anyone has ideas for things they might like me to talk about.