womenlovefest day 1 2.0, meta, ASOIAF: three things Brienne of Tarth isn't,

[janie_tangerine]

I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them.
Maggie's Farm, Bob Dylan*

*this song couldn't fit less with ASOIAF generally, but those lines keep on screaming Brienne to me for some reason and it felt like a proper opening.

Or: hi and welcome to day one of Brienne appreciation for womenlovefest. My first day ended up being

Comments

[bold_seer]

She’s a highborn lady, she’s beautiful, she was raised far from the main court so she can afford to have a romanticized view of court life, she’s about to be married to what is a handsome prince to her; she has no reason to think that songs aren’t real until her prince puts her father’s head in front of her. Brienne doesn’t need a reality check because she already had it. Her world isn’t a song, but she wants to be in one anyway.

Well said; it's such a great parallel that you are making between Sansa and Brienne. Some people seem to think Sansa and Brienne are too innocent, that is, naïve - and hence stupid - but that's not really what they're about, IMO. (Can I also throw in Ned Stark isn't naïve and/or stupid, either, even though this discussion is about the women?)

Both are, perhaps, wishing life could be a song, but I don't see how that's such a bad thing. They are or become very aware of the realities of their situations. And in this world they're striving to be good and to fulfil their duties, which for Brienne is loyal service as a knight. That is, in Brienne's mind, the best she can become as a person. If you, general reader, who exist outside the text and can judge the characters' behaviour and the consequences of it much easier than the characters in the story can, see no value in Brienne and her loyalty and her struggle, then wow, that's some cynicism.

[janie_tangerine]

I don't like that naïve apparently = stupid. And lol Ned most definitely WASN'T naïve. Or stupid. (If I said he was then I should say that his eldest son was too since they were cut of exactly the same cloth, and the day I say Robb Stark was anywhere near stupid is the day I don't answer to my name anymore. Okay, back to the topic.) Or that innocent = naïve = stupid. Or that there's just one kind of innocent anyway - Brienne definitely isn't the kind of innocent who is like that because they don't know how the world works, and Sansa went past that by now.

I don't see why wishing life could be a song is a bad thing either. The difference for me is that for Brienne it never was and for Sansa it was for a time, but at the same time saying that Brienne is hopeless because she wants to be a good knight when it's the one thing she can do well is.. yeah, way too cynical? Saying there's no value in that (or that it's too boring and please give them back Littlefinger!) is ridiculous. :/