A Dance With Dragons
Halfway through the book I was ready to come and write a really angry post. Decided to finish it first, and now I just feel kind of drained and moody. It's not that it was bad per se, just that people wiser than me were right and GRRM clearly cannot conceive of competent women. They have to fail and be patronized and rescued and sexually dominated by men.
Thanks for ruining Daenerys, you ass. Cliche and Mary Sue as she was, I loved her and cheered for her. But that was when she had more important concerns than choosing what gown to wear and commanding men to fuck her. The Dany I loved would NEVER. EVER. LOCK HER DRAGONS IN A PIT. Obviously that was the root of all her failure, as she realizes in the end while Ser Barristan and the Shavepate are salvaging Mereen for her, but WTF! Those dragons mean more to her than anything. They're what she got for the loss of her son and her khal and everything that mattered to her. She loves her freedmen and the child that got eaten would devastate her, yes. But I thought Dany would leave the city and run wild with her dragons before she would EVER chain them underground and ignore them.
I'm sure you don't have an agenda against women, but there's no excuse for being so ignorant. And it's only reinforced by the other oh-so-convenient plot device that I think is in sore need of a treatment from Saturday Night Live Weekend Update REALLY?!? with Seth Meyers.
REALLY, George, REALLY?!? Aegon Targaryen, swept away and safely hidden for, what, sixteen years? And you're bringing him out in Book Five, really? So all that moving rhetoric about Dany being the last dragon is just so much BS now. And really, even before the demise of Aerys and Robert proved to be a dreadful king, Varys was already planning to restore the Targaryen dynasty nearly two decades in the future? And Elia meekly handed over Aegon but let little Rhaenys be brutally stabbed to death? Really? Elia of Dorne, where, hey - weird! girls are legitimate heirs and maybe even equal human beings? Really?!
I think that was what pissed me off the most about the whole situation (other than it being a really cheap and easy way of going OH SURPRISE! TARGARYEN!). You could argue that a toddler would be easier to recognize than an infant, but really? Babies have distinctive features. Did Varys know the Mountain was going to smash his face against a wall? And who would have recognized a false Rhaenys, Amory Lorch? Robert? Ned? Tywin hadn't even been at court.
So really, I just don't give a fig about Rhaegar's son. Rhaegar pissed me off when he assumed that he was the prince that was promised, and then he pissed me off even more when he concluded it must be his son. I know, the comet, error in translation, etc. Whatever. Elia should have poisoned the strings of his silver harp and then broke it over his moony face. Maybe she would have had the strength to do it if he didn't keep her barefoot and pregnant trying to produce his three heads of the dragon.
End rant. In other notes, I despise Tyrion more with every book and now actually get annoyed when I have to read his chapters. Do NOT like the implication that Tyrion might be Aerys' bastard. I thought that was the craziest fan theory out there but it's now a legit possibility. Gross. If that spoiled pig who likes to slap around whores in between vomiting on their floors gets to have a dragon, I will lose all respect.
I liked the Stone Men. GRRM loves zombies, doesn't he? The creepy stuff is good. I think Varamyr's prologue was my favourite part of the whole book. So haunting and yet satisfying. GRRM is really a master of producing that simultaneous revulsion and sympathy toward a character. I liked Theon's storyline too. I was actually happy that he made it out. He's a terrible human and can die anytime now, but I guess, like him, I wanted him to die Theon, not Reek.
So, by the time the next book comes out I'll probably have children and a meaningful career and hopefully be too busy to care about it. I read an article where GRRM was talking about someone making a Master's thesis out of comparing his drafts to the final version and the changes that he made. Maybe. And maybe I'll write my PhD dissertation on why you're an asshole. The "American Tolkien" - um yeah, because your race and gender politics belong in the 1950s.
Thanks for ruining Daenerys, you ass. Cliche and Mary Sue as she was, I loved her and cheered for her. But that was when she had more important concerns than choosing what gown to wear and commanding men to fuck her. The Dany I loved would NEVER. EVER. LOCK HER DRAGONS IN A PIT. Obviously that was the root of all her failure, as she realizes in the end while Ser Barristan and the Shavepate are salvaging Mereen for her, but WTF! Those dragons mean more to her than anything. They're what she got for the loss of her son and her khal and everything that mattered to her. She loves her freedmen and the child that got eaten would devastate her, yes. But I thought Dany would leave the city and run wild with her dragons before she would EVER chain them underground and ignore them.
I'm sure you don't have an agenda against women, but there's no excuse for being so ignorant. And it's only reinforced by the other oh-so-convenient plot device that I think is in sore need of a treatment from Saturday Night Live Weekend Update REALLY?!? with Seth Meyers.
REALLY, George, REALLY?!? Aegon Targaryen, swept away and safely hidden for, what, sixteen years? And you're bringing him out in Book Five, really? So all that moving rhetoric about Dany being the last dragon is just so much BS now. And really, even before the demise of Aerys and Robert proved to be a dreadful king, Varys was already planning to restore the Targaryen dynasty nearly two decades in the future? And Elia meekly handed over Aegon but let little Rhaenys be brutally stabbed to death? Really? Elia of Dorne, where, hey - weird! girls are legitimate heirs and maybe even equal human beings? Really?!
I think that was what pissed me off the most about the whole situation (other than it being a really cheap and easy way of going OH SURPRISE! TARGARYEN!). You could argue that a toddler would be easier to recognize than an infant, but really? Babies have distinctive features. Did Varys know the Mountain was going to smash his face against a wall? And who would have recognized a false Rhaenys, Amory Lorch? Robert? Ned? Tywin hadn't even been at court.
So really, I just don't give a fig about Rhaegar's son. Rhaegar pissed me off when he assumed that he was the prince that was promised, and then he pissed me off even more when he concluded it must be his son. I know, the comet, error in translation, etc. Whatever. Elia should have poisoned the strings of his silver harp and then broke it over his moony face. Maybe she would have had the strength to do it if he didn't keep her barefoot and pregnant trying to produce his three heads of the dragon.
End rant. In other notes, I despise Tyrion more with every book and now actually get annoyed when I have to read his chapters. Do NOT like the implication that Tyrion might be Aerys' bastard. I thought that was the craziest fan theory out there but it's now a legit possibility. Gross. If that spoiled pig who likes to slap around whores in between vomiting on their floors gets to have a dragon, I will lose all respect.
I liked the Stone Men. GRRM loves zombies, doesn't he? The creepy stuff is good. I think Varamyr's prologue was my favourite part of the whole book. So haunting and yet satisfying. GRRM is really a master of producing that simultaneous revulsion and sympathy toward a character. I liked Theon's storyline too. I was actually happy that he made it out. He's a terrible human and can die anytime now, but I guess, like him, I wanted him to die Theon, not Reek.
So, by the time the next book comes out I'll probably have children and a meaningful career and hopefully be too busy to care about it. I read an article where GRRM was talking about someone making a Master's thesis out of comparing his drafts to the final version and the changes that he made. Maybe. And maybe I'll write my PhD dissertation on why you're an asshole. The "American Tolkien" - um yeah, because your race and gender politics belong in the 1950s.