Tolkien: and then the Good King came and cast out the Evil Stewards who were corrupt because they ruled without the correct bloodline. Everything was peaceful after that and there was no more evil. There are two women in this story. Monarchy is good. The actual singular God who created everything wants you to be ruled by a 300 year old nobleman. The End.
GRRM: Feudalism is inherently destructive. Even the Noble Good Guys cause unimaginable suffering due to the structures of the system they operate within. Women are no more than brood mares under Feudalism. There is a Good King whose father was deposed. This Good King has spent his life living amongst the common people in order to become a good ruler. He is being manipulated by cynical actors and will bring devastation to the world when he begins his conquest. Thirty years ago the Hero of Prophecy acted to save the world from the Great Evil. He unleashed devastation on the land, died, and destroyed his own dynasty, possibly dooming the world. There are no gods, only powerful forces beyond our understanding that operate through the power of blood. Once upon a time there was a Good King who ruled justly. He brought peace to the land and improved the common folks' lot tremendously. Due the nature of Feudalism, the succession crisis that succeeded his reign led to the most bloodshed in 300 years. No one who wants war understands its cost.
People who dislike things because they're popular: Wow these are exactly the same!
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:michael-laugh: i actually enjoyed the books, but i had an issue with this too. His writing is so pessimistic especially on that point. World is bad, but changing it is always worse, is a pretty fucked world view, very lib one though
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Totally understandable. Plenty of room for critique of GRRM for sure
When the show was announced I decided to re-read the books and I quickly realized what a miserable fucking torture porn mess they are and just stopped.
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Then soon after a scheming Romani fantasy ethnic minority that she made the mistake of sparing betrays her
Yeah who knew that
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slaughtering someone's entire tribe and then personally saving them from their 15th rape of the day
wouldn't earn you their undying gratitude. What's the objection here?
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summons the fucking devil in a blood magic ritual, aborts her child, resurrects her husband as a mindless zombie, and facilitates the destruction of the clan
Yeah that's all stuff that happens. It helps illustrate that this is a world of powerful and unknowable blood magic. Again, I don't know what the objection is beyond "this depiction of events is an endorsement of them"
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Yes GRRM chose to write about rape to illustrate how horribly violent and misogynistic his Feudal world is. You're welcome to not like that depiction. He chose to write a story that shows that hypocritical moralism at the last second doesn't excuse horrific violence preceding it.
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As I said again and again, you're welcome to not like this depiction. But there is easily 100x as much non-sexual violence as there is sexual violence. People are just used to genocide in their stories.
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My interpretation of events is Mirri Maz Duur doesn't distinguish between the people who genocided her tribe and their queen who does not have as much power as their king, yet nonetheless has more than anyone else (who else could stop a warrior from raping a woman and claim her as their own slave without killing the warrior?). Dany then proceeds to ask this victim for help in keeping the man who just oversaw the genocide of her people alive. She then exacts revenge on the hypocritical queen who saved her from a force commanded by her husband. She explicitly tells her savior how hollow she finds the gesture.
To extend it to real life, I think the only reason Europeans and their descendants haven't experienced similar reprisals is because of the completeness of their genocides and the effectiveness of the caste systems they erected to prevent just such a thing.
Who is, I cannot stress this enough, 13.
And I checked, and during the War of the Roses period that the story is loosely based on the average age of first marriage for women was 18-25.