Fast forward 30 years.
Game of Thrones is arguably one of the most talked about television
phenomena in the last decade. The show is epic in its scale, complex in the
chess board of battling houses and it has enough sword play, gratuitous violence
and sex to keep the Realm a very interesting place to spend an hour on Sunday
nights. Plus, once they beheaded Ned Stark in season 1 all bets were off
on who would live or die in a given episode.
With all of that, for me, the most compelling, addictive piece of Game of Thrones lies in the women of this show. From the matriarchs of House Stark and Lannister to the tenacious arrogance of Arya the women are the true engine that makes this show soar. Season 1 establishes this truth in the surface contrast that exists between Cersei Lannister and Catelyn Stark. At face value these women could not be more different - Catelyn loves her husband, her family fiercely and has a sense of pragmatism that makes her partnership with Ned Stark a union to be admired. Yet as soon as that conviction is tested we immediately see the cracks in her armor. Cersei on the other hand is balls to the wall ambitious, calculating and at best manipulative. She navigates Kings Landing like a puppet master, playing all angles to her own purpose. To watch the power of control slip through the fingers of both women is devastating in completely different ways. These two women share a critical common trait - their greatest strength is their greatest weakness - their love for their children. Game of Thrones is hot bed of moral corruption where the meek and the naïve are quickly trampled or used for deviant purpose. What I love is the women are equally culpable of this moral ambiguity. They are not pawns for sacrifice in the quest for the Iron Throne.
Cersei's outward distain and manipulation doesn't hold a candle to the utter mind control Lady Margaery has crafted over the King. As was laid out in this week's episode, Lady Olenna, (played gloriously by Diana Rigg) clearly has taught her granddaughter from her own bag of tricks. Just when I was ready to put money on Daenerys Targaryen's newly formed army and her dragons as frontrunner to reclaim the throne the Tyrell’s, led by Lady Olenna's uncanny ability to call a spade a spade in a landscape of double speak just may be the most formidable of the families. Margaery's chameleon tactics with Joffery have aligned her not only to rise to her true ambitions but to actually pull the strings when she lands there.
Much has been said of Season 1 and 2 focusing in on women's use of sexuality to gain power. We see it in Daenerys early on with Khal Drogo and the strategy of Ros to make her way to a seat of information through prostitution. I think season 3 has expanded their storytelling in a way that provides a broader landscape for these women. Sex, like money is a means to an end when seeking power. For women in the Realm their sexuality provides a pathway to overcome the fact that they have few entitlements and little authority. It is merely a mechanism to use their intelligence and calculate advancing their causes.
That thought leads me to Brienne of Tarth. Brienne is the antitheses of the vast majority of women we have seen navigate this show. Only since coming in contact with the Kingslayer have we seen the true isolation Brienne's fate has carved out for her. Brienne is a soul caught in between a world she doesn't belong to and a world she isn't accepted in. Brienne's isolation is what makes her character's relationship to Jamie so compelling. As we watch the breakdown of the handsome, cocky Kingslayer we are also offered the true strength and humanity of Brienne being born. In an odd way she actually parallels Sansa's plight in Kings Landing. For the record, while some have written Sansa off, I think she is just as much a survivor as her sister Arya and in a structure where she's had no true allies.
Finally there is Arya Stark whose courage and survival skills have served her extremely well over the last season and a half. She is fearless to the point of careless (an attribute born as much in her youth as it is her circumstance). Yet in spite of that she is hampered and driven by the desire to avenge her father’s death. Ayra’s smarts and natural tendency for defiance are clear from the beginning of the series. The first time we see her she is showing up her brother in archery. This tenacity is rewarded by her father with a fight coach in Kings Landing. Unlike Brienne, Ayra was treasured and respected by her father for who she actually was and that love is what drives her thirst for vengeance. However in the quiet moments like this past week when she genuinely asks if the dark magic can bring her father back we, as the audience are slapped in the face with the reminder that Ayra is truly a young girl completely stripped of her innocence and isolated, yet somehow destined for greatness.
It does not hurt that the show has done well in casting actors to play these roles. All of them in their own rights breathe new life and intrigue to their characters, where I find myself rooting for them in spite of the knowledge that most of the plotting is often to an evil purpose. I for one am vested in the road they are travelling for however long HBO sees fit to let us take a peek.
Which house do you choose?
I love this post so much. I have so many thoughts about Game of Thrones and the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series, but I want to wait until I'm done reading the fifth book to write about them on NGN—so I'll write about them in this comment instead! ;)
ReplyDeleteHave you read the books, by the way? Because if you haven't, then I must say you're making some great inferences about characters that are just hinted at on the show but are made much more explicit in the books. Either way, you're understanding of these women is incredibly similar to my own.
Your thoughts on Brienne were a joy to read because she's my favorite character in the series. She's such a beautiful character because nothing about her is as it appears at first glance. She may look and fight like a warrior, but she has the soul of a true romantic. The comparison you drew between her and Sansa is spot-on. Brienne is a woman who is so much more than the typical warrior-woman trope; she's gentle and warm, but she's also deadly. She's shy, but she's brave. She's uncomfortable in her own skin except when she's fighting with her sword. And she believes in honor although men have treated her with nothing but dishonor and scorn for most of her life. (Until she was saved from being raped by Jaime, that is.) Brienne is a layered, complex character who doesn't fit in one neat little box, and that's why I love her so much.
And as for your final question, I'm always torn between House Tyrell and House Martell. It really changes depending on the day. But seeing as I just finished a Martell chapter in A Dance with Dragons (and I do think they have the coolest House words), I'm thinking I'd be a Martell if I could choose.
I have not read the books and have decided to hold out until I finish watching the series. I think HBO has taken the cast of thousands and done a great job of drilling into the emotional core that I want to actually watch through that prism. I know if I pick up the books now I will default to playing compare and contrast which I don't want to do. Especially because one of the things I relish most about the show is the actors they have cast. I think Brienne is fascinating and she has really taken on the role left empty when Ned Stark was murdered in a lot of ways. That she is a woman just adds depth to her character that I find really compelling.
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