Thursday, September 22, 2011

Ladies

Do you have a favorite female character? Do some seem more plausible in their roles than others?

I am rather partial to Arya, just because she seems to combine common sense/integrity/moxie to a degree beyond all the others.
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6 comments:

Erin said...

Arya is probably my favorite. She's spunky and sassy and rolls with the punches. I like that she's a tomboy and doesn't whine about her outfits or getting dirty or whatever. She doesn't sit around waiting to be rescued -- she slits a guard's throat and takes off on her own. I like that she wishes people dead in her nightly prayers. I'm always eager to see what happens to her.

What do you think of Daenerys?

3:05 PM, September 23, 2011
kc said...

Yes! I love her nightly "prayer." Quite unladylike, but that is precisely its charm.

I'm mixed on Daenerys. I guess she's supposed to be a young queen coming into her own. It's easy to forget how young she is. She's still learning. I was heartened to see her cast off her horrible brother and drop the pretense that he was anything but a crazed egomaniac; her defending him was getting tiresome. At every turn there seems to be a man ready to take advantage of her, and she has done a pretty good job seeing through that. Sometimes she seems rather vain, though, but vain in the same way that everyone else vying to have absolute control seems vain! At least she has a basis for thinking she's special: She can walk through flames unscathed and she has hatched three dragons, in addition to boasting a stellar lineage. I'd say she's the frontrunner, if she can keep the unscrupulous suitors at bay.

3:49 PM, September 23, 2011
kc said...

Have you gotten to the part about how Brienne has some hesitancy about killing -- her old master said she had all the skills and strength of a knight but the soft heart of a maiden. Not true of Arya, as you note; if a throat needs cut to effect an escape, Arya's there with her cold, sharp steel and her cold, sharp pragmatism.

10:36 AM, October 01, 2011
Erin said...

Yes, how interesting! I was surprised to read that about Brienne. I guess I assumed that because she was so good with a sword and could win the tourneys that she would be good in battle, too. But you can kind of tell from her thought processes that she is soft-hearted. Unlike Arya, yeah. Arya is pretty hardcore.

I'm mixed on Daenerys, too. I can't quite get a good read on her. But yeah, she seems like the frontrunner. She's got dragons, and she's got the magical dragon blood. But it's hard to imagine her winning out at this point. Is Daenerys even in Book 4? And speaking of no-shows, is Tyrion in it? It just dawned on me that I haven't seen him in a long time. Annoying. I can't work up nearly as much interest in the Ironmen or the Dornish.

9:49 PM, October 01, 2011
kc said...

I know. I feel scant interest in the Dornish and the Iron-dudes. Feels like the focus on them weakens the intensity of the plot. Book Four seems kind of late to take such a turn and to leave so much else hanging.

Also, speaking of ladies, it seems like Book Four has an undue emphasis on the sexual hazards they face. I don't think there's a single chapter that doesn't mention some vulgarity or show some rapacious man reminding a woman of her place and the perils that will befall her if she doesn't get into line (or even if she does). It just seems excessive, like some marketing person told Martin that fantasy readers really respond to the specter of sexual violence. Enough, though. Jeez. We get it. Men are nasty criminals at heart, and women are perpetual damsels in sexual distress. It's beginning, in this book, to feel like a poor substitute for actual drama that actually advances the plot.

10:26 PM, October 01, 2011
Erin said...

Yes, yes! WHAT is with the constant rape talk? It's in every chapter.

I'm finding Book 4 significantly weaker than Book 3, which is disappointing. I hope it's not all downhill from here.

10:54 PM, October 01, 2011

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