Winter Already Came
Game of Thrones had always been a well written show with lots of deep, three dimensional, well rounded characters both male and female. Until the last couple of seasons that is. In season 6 things started going downhill, and in season 7 things were just plain bad. Poor writing, flat uninteresting characters who suddenly change from their previous personalities as well as plenty of plot holes.
One of the reasons I think this is the case is because of the current trend in feminism and "girl power" type characterisation. Strong and interesting female characters were always a selling point of the series, and I think in trying to build on this positive PR with their audience (and social media which now influences much of modern opinion), they tried to take this too far and ended up falling flat. The female characters which now, while strong and confident, and flat and boring. Flawless and almost superhero like in their wisdom. Erudite, without ever learning.
Arya Stark underwent a sudden character shift. From a scared and stubborn 15 year old, who couldn't swallow her pride long enough to actually complete her training. To a surprise ninja badass, who from a few class with her "dancing master" and a couple sessions washing bodies and failing to kill her assassination targets, suddenly knows the secrets of the faceless men and was able to best one of the most skilled fighters in the show, Brienne of Tarth. In one scene she is on the run from a legendary cabal of anonymous assassins, but still has time to sass her way into buying a cabin on a ship.
Sansa Stark has undergone a similar change. She was originally naive and superficial, self-centered and somewhat air-headed. But we can't be having a flawed female character in this day and age now can we? She even is shown to seemingly supercede Jon Snow, the character who always had intelligence, rationality and leadership skills. She contradicts him in the middle of meeting of the allied houses. The contradiction, or offering opinion it should be noted was not the problem, it was where she was doing it. But the show sidesteps this by bringing up Joffrey and later showing an exasperated Sansa trying to draw attention to how underappreciated her "expertise" is, presuming it's because of her gender. The engineered lines here designed to show how pig-headed men are, and if they would only listen to women then all the problems would be solved.
With a smirk of course, she "saved the day" and won the battle after all. This is the character we are encouraged to cheer for. The one who suffers so much with all these men refusing to take her seriously.
The male characters, contrarily to the female ones, have degenerated. The strong and wise being killed off and later even mocked as somehow being lesser or foolish characters because of these traits, apparently inferior to the trait of being female. The surviving male characters largely exist to serve one of the true rulers (Daenerys, Cersei, Sansa).
Tyrion Lannister is arguably one of the smartest, most educated and well read characters in the show. Through all the torment he suffered throughout his life, it pushed him into books and thought, making his mind of the more powerful weapons in the show. This is demonstrated on a few occassions with him outsmarting kidnappers, outmaneuvering enemies as in the battle of blackwater bay. However in season 7 he is a shell of his former self, his advice is either written to be bad or useless and he regularly has it pointed out to him how ineffective his advice is. It seems the girl who was sheltered her whole life somehow knows better.
Lord Varys, or "The Spider", is another neutered male character. Perpetually mysterious, cunning, intelligent. With an endless, international network of spies, which turned out for convenient, and terrible, plot writing reasons to be half a dozen easily bought peasant children in Kings Landing. He is now reduced to barely a background character with no real role left other than to offer his ignore-able man-advice.
The shows creators have managed to shoehorn in lots of scenes of just Arya and Sansa together with a truly terrible story line involving laboured sisterly friction and a weak attempt at divsion by Littlefinger. Presumably this is mostly to maximise their Bechdel test scores. Which actually shows some of the flaws of the metric. Admittedly some of the scenes contain talk of some male characters, but considering the point in the storyline it would be hard to not make occasional mention of a man. Again attempts to make the show popular with the feminist trend crown they've actually made worse characters of both genders.
Speaking of Littlefinger. The man that was once perhaps the most dangerous man in the entire show. Fiercely intelligent, insidious, always 2 steps ahead of everyone else. His treatment in the last season has been pathetic. Unceremoniously reduced to a whimpering wretch, humiliated and on his knees. This is one of the most egregious story lines of this season. I think partly down to just poor writing and again, partly to artificially show the power of our female characters. By making an 18 year old and a 15 year old outsmart arguably the most cunning character in the series.
I don't want to make it seem that smart, resourceful or strong female characters are a bad thing. It's quite the contrary, Game of Thrones was always great with this. But the current trend of trying to jump on the feminism bandwagon has actually lead to less interesting female characters, as well as muted or impotent male ones. In my opinion, for all the "strong" female characters in the show, the most interesting one right now, and one which should be the feminist favoured, is Brienne of Tarth. Because she is the only one left with any real deep characterisation. Although admittedly she is really underused in the latest season. The characters need reasons to be the way they are, such as Tyrion being so learned because of how he was ostracised, or Brienne being bullied for her size and learning to use it to her advantage.
There are so many story lines here it's hard to do a gender reversal for all of them. But I would actually like to see a show that truly shows a reversal of these current archetypes. Legions of disposable women butchered to allow the chosen man to gain power. Male characters shown as being the truly smart and courageous ones, if only those darned females who unfairly have all the power would let them. The wisest women dismissed as foolish because the men simply know better for no reason. The only reason female characters do anything is to win the favour of a male one. The most despicable or evil characters always being male. I think there would be plenty of complaints were the genders reversed, at least as they are shown in season 7.
I'll just finish by reiterating that it is possible to have a great range of characters, male and female, deep, and fully realised, with no need for stereotypes. It is not necessary to try to appease the vocal, "girl power" social media influencers to do this. In fact as we see it's probably detrimental to these efforts. I don't hold out much hope for the next season, there aren't really any decent male characters left. Even Jon Snow is no longer just an interesting character with a rich back story, he's just another chosen birthright type. It's really a toss up of what will happen as the final story between he and Daenerys. Only time will tell.
One of the reasons I think this is the case is because of the current trend in feminism and "girl power" type characterisation. Strong and interesting female characters were always a selling point of the series, and I think in trying to build on this positive PR with their audience (and social media which now influences much of modern opinion), they tried to take this too far and ended up falling flat. The female characters which now, while strong and confident, and flat and boring. Flawless and almost superhero like in their wisdom. Erudite, without ever learning.
Arya Stark underwent a sudden character shift. From a scared and stubborn 15 year old, who couldn't swallow her pride long enough to actually complete her training. To a surprise ninja badass, who from a few class with her "dancing master" and a couple sessions washing bodies and failing to kill her assassination targets, suddenly knows the secrets of the faceless men and was able to best one of the most skilled fighters in the show, Brienne of Tarth. In one scene she is on the run from a legendary cabal of anonymous assassins, but still has time to sass her way into buying a cabin on a ship.
Sansa Stark has undergone a similar change. She was originally naive and superficial, self-centered and somewhat air-headed. But we can't be having a flawed female character in this day and age now can we? She even is shown to seemingly supercede Jon Snow, the character who always had intelligence, rationality and leadership skills. She contradicts him in the middle of meeting of the allied houses. The contradiction, or offering opinion it should be noted was not the problem, it was where she was doing it. But the show sidesteps this by bringing up Joffrey and later showing an exasperated Sansa trying to draw attention to how underappreciated her "expertise" is, presuming it's because of her gender. The engineered lines here designed to show how pig-headed men are, and if they would only listen to women then all the problems would be solved.
Sansa then goes on to even claim credit for winning the battle of the bastards.
Let's recap what happened at the battle and the run-up to it.
They were time pressured into attacking, winter was coming and their supplies were running out. They asked Sansa previously to ask The Vale for help, but she refused. So a certain point was reached where they just had to attack, against all odds. Dozens if not hundreds of men died fighting in awful conditions to re-seat Sansa at Winterfell. Jon reverted to a typical male stereotype, an unthinking and largely interchangeable meat bag with sword attached. Despite Sansa's warnings of Ramsey, he rides off alone to try to save is brother from the obvious trap. Then, at the last minute, just as more disposable men were taking their last breaths, crushed, beaten, skewered, the knights of The Vale ride in and save the day. Sansa, it seems had asked for their help after all, but neglected to mention this to Jon or anyone else. So, how does Sansa react having sent large numbers of men to die, and even watching her own brother die right there on the field?
The male characters, contrarily to the female ones, have degenerated. The strong and wise being killed off and later even mocked as somehow being lesser or foolish characters because of these traits, apparently inferior to the trait of being female. The surviving male characters largely exist to serve one of the true rulers (Daenerys, Cersei, Sansa).
Tyrion Lannister is arguably one of the smartest, most educated and well read characters in the show. Through all the torment he suffered throughout his life, it pushed him into books and thought, making his mind of the more powerful weapons in the show. This is demonstrated on a few occassions with him outsmarting kidnappers, outmaneuvering enemies as in the battle of blackwater bay. However in season 7 he is a shell of his former self, his advice is either written to be bad or useless and he regularly has it pointed out to him how ineffective his advice is. It seems the girl who was sheltered her whole life somehow knows better.
Lord Varys, or "The Spider", is another neutered male character. Perpetually mysterious, cunning, intelligent. With an endless, international network of spies, which turned out for convenient, and terrible, plot writing reasons to be half a dozen easily bought peasant children in Kings Landing. He is now reduced to barely a background character with no real role left other than to offer his ignore-able man-advice.
The shows creators have managed to shoehorn in lots of scenes of just Arya and Sansa together with a truly terrible story line involving laboured sisterly friction and a weak attempt at divsion by Littlefinger. Presumably this is mostly to maximise their Bechdel test scores. Which actually shows some of the flaws of the metric. Admittedly some of the scenes contain talk of some male characters, but considering the point in the storyline it would be hard to not make occasional mention of a man. Again attempts to make the show popular with the feminist trend crown they've actually made worse characters of both genders.
Speaking of Littlefinger. The man that was once perhaps the most dangerous man in the entire show. Fiercely intelligent, insidious, always 2 steps ahead of everyone else. His treatment in the last season has been pathetic. Unceremoniously reduced to a whimpering wretch, humiliated and on his knees. This is one of the most egregious story lines of this season. I think partly down to just poor writing and again, partly to artificially show the power of our female characters. By making an 18 year old and a 15 year old outsmart arguably the most cunning character in the series.
I don't want to make it seem that smart, resourceful or strong female characters are a bad thing. It's quite the contrary, Game of Thrones was always great with this. But the current trend of trying to jump on the feminism bandwagon has actually lead to less interesting female characters, as well as muted or impotent male ones. In my opinion, for all the "strong" female characters in the show, the most interesting one right now, and one which should be the feminist favoured, is Brienne of Tarth. Because she is the only one left with any real deep characterisation. Although admittedly she is really underused in the latest season. The characters need reasons to be the way they are, such as Tyrion being so learned because of how he was ostracised, or Brienne being bullied for her size and learning to use it to her advantage.
There are so many story lines here it's hard to do a gender reversal for all of them. But I would actually like to see a show that truly shows a reversal of these current archetypes. Legions of disposable women butchered to allow the chosen man to gain power. Male characters shown as being the truly smart and courageous ones, if only those darned females who unfairly have all the power would let them. The wisest women dismissed as foolish because the men simply know better for no reason. The only reason female characters do anything is to win the favour of a male one. The most despicable or evil characters always being male. I think there would be plenty of complaints were the genders reversed, at least as they are shown in season 7.
I'll just finish by reiterating that it is possible to have a great range of characters, male and female, deep, and fully realised, with no need for stereotypes. It is not necessary to try to appease the vocal, "girl power" social media influencers to do this. In fact as we see it's probably detrimental to these efforts. I don't hold out much hope for the next season, there aren't really any decent male characters left. Even Jon Snow is no longer just an interesting character with a rich back story, he's just another chosen birthright type. It's really a toss up of what will happen as the final story between he and Daenerys. Only time will tell.
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