Of dysfunctional royal families real and imagined

[selenak]

My Merlin muse came back and at last I could write the story about Arthur and Morgana I've been wanting to write throughout season 4. It's off to be beta'd now. Arthurian family dynamics are screwed up in any incarnation of the myth, but, to misquote Tolstoy about unhappy families, they're differently screwed up in every single one. Oh, messed

Comments

[diotimah]

Also, while the general aging up for the young 'uns may have created a bit of bother on the Stark side of things (as many people have pointed out, Jon Snow behaving like a fourteen years old is okay if he is, in fact, fourteen, but feels quite differently when he's played by an actor who looks like he is in his 20s), the fact that Peter Dinklage looks older, not younger than the actors who play Jaime and Cersei makes for a slightly different type of sibling dynamic which to me is more interesting. The conversation between Tyrion and Cersei, for example, is far less omg eternally maltreated youngest brother and evil stupid sister and more two equals.

Yes, I agree. I enjoyed both the TV series and the novels (though, in case of the latter, I prefer the earlier installments), each on their own terms. Cersei in particular is a much more complex character in the TV version, whereas in the books, I felt let down by her. Though often praised for his "grey characters", Martin is evidently not that great on writing complex women.

Now A Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire prides itself on bringing gritty medieval realism to the fantasy genre, but personally, I find it rather telling that the later War of the Roses is actually chock full of matriarchs and female power players,

So true.

[selenak]

There is a lot of complexity around in Martin's books, but it's definitely more on the male side of things, and so is the power. I can't imagine any of the real life women from the Wars of the Roses named above, except perhaps Cecily Neville, in his books, and Cecily's nearest equivalent, Catelyn, gets zombiefied, so.

[diotimah]

Absolutely. And yeah, Catelyn's zombiefication is rather symbolic, in that respect.