Tag: rape tw

What is the reason for arya’s popularity? I don’t get. In the books she prioritised killing a perfect stranger over tywin. In the show she doesn’t like sansa but likes tywin just cause he praised her. She is insanely problematic. Yet everyone Stan her. She is the fandom darling.

me @ this question:

largely because you pulled something random from the books and something random from the show and then called her ~insanely problematic~. pick one battlefield: the books or the show. i’ll not address the show because the show is bullshit and i’m amazed you haven’t realized that yet.

To answer your general question: why do people like Arya? Well, she’s compassionate, she loves people for who they are, she stands up for those weaker than her, she’s resilient, she’s intelligent, she’s emotional, she cares, she’s willful, she’s brave (so, so brave), and is stronger than anyone gives her credit for. I could go on and on and go into the details, but you’re clearly not interested in that. But I do want to address one thing…

In the books she prioritised killing a perfect stranger over tywin.

Who was that perfect stranger? Oh yes, he was Weese, who physically abused Arya during her time at Harrenhal, hitting her over nothing, and a man who she described as being “nearly as scary as Gregor Clegane” and who she lived in fear of. A perfect stranger? No. She knew who he was. She knew he was beating her and her friends. So she had him killed.

Alright, what about before Weese? We’d be talking about Chiswyck, a man who tortured smallfolk and bragged about gangraping a thirteen year old in front of her father and killing her brother. Who, while bragging, laughed about it and made jokes about it. Did Arya know him very well at all? No. But Arya saw a chance to make this disgusting man pay, to prevent it happening to other girls, and she took that chance. It’s not always about cutting off the head of the snake. Sometimes attacking the body is just as necessary.

In any case, Arya regretted her decision to have Weese and Chiswyck killed very soon after she whispered his name to Jaqen:

A shiver crept up Arya’s spine as she watched them pass under the great iron portcullis of Harrenhal. Suddenly she knew that she had made a terrible mistake. I’m so stupid, she thought. Weese did not matter, no more than Chiswyck had. These were the men who mattered, the ones she ought to have killed. Last night she could have whispered any of them dead, if only she hadn’t been so mad at Weese for hitting her and lying about the capon. 

Lord Tywin, why didn’t I say Lord Tywin? Perhaps it was not too late to change her mind. Weese was not killed yet. If she could find Jaqen, tell him…

But emotion is what drives Arya. She is willful, she gets angry quickly, and she acts fast. That sometimes works in her favor, and sometimes saves her. But Arya saw these smaller villains, experienced their abuse firsthand, learned of their other abuses, and made the quick decision to see them killed. Sure, she could have had Tywin killed then and there, but wasn’t his fate. But I wouldn’t say that Weese and Chiswyck didn’t deserve what they got, I recognize that Tywin’s story would never have ended so early, and I’m glad for Arya’s anger and compassion. Those are two of the many characteristics that make her so likeable.

This question is completely out of curiosity and I don’t want you to think I’m being disrespectful, but why do you want Cersei to die with dignity? It just seems odd when so many characters have died horrible, violently deaths (like Elia, Robb, Catelyn, and Oberyn) or undignified, unjust death (like Ned, Lyanna, and Jon). Why do you want her to have a noble death? Why should she be treated better than them? I’m sorry if seems like I’m being rude. I’m just perplexed.

ladyofdragonstone:

blueagia:

lyannas:

Because I don’t see the point in continuing the pattern of violent crimes against the women in this series. There are entirely innocent women and girls who have violent acts done to them, just as there are women who have done bad things and have violent acts done to them. I don’t believe that the severity of the punishment should match the severity of the crimes. Cersei has done really awful things, but why should she be murdered by a former lover and a man she trusted while other men who had committed crimes get cleaner deaths or a judicial process?

Look at Gregor, for example. His “death” is the result of a duel, and thought it was long and slow, it was certainly an easier death than what he had given his victims, especially his female victims with whom he practiced a pattern of indiscriminate rape, abuse, and murder.

Even Tywin, who sanctioned rape and torture and murder, got off pretty easy. It’s really not practical to demand that Tywin’s death also be torturous and cruel and long; sometimes their death is enough (though in Tywin’s case, I’d argue that he at least deserved a public trial to drag his name through the dirt, but that was never going to happen under Baratheon rule anyways).

So yes, Cersei has done terrible things, much worse than many other victims of violent crime, but that doesn’t mean she deserves to be killed via a violent and intimate crime, especially when she has already had so much violence, sexual assault and humiliation done to her already. In a perfect world, she would be put on trial, and given a public and dignified death. I know that’s likely not going to happen, which is what makes me unhappy.

Strangling in particular is such a creepily sexualized form of death, especially for women. Cersei had the walk of shame already you’ve made your point grrm.

@lyannas do you have any comments on Tyrion strangling Shae?

I have nothing novel to add to the conversation at large, but as far as my views go, Shae’s death is one of the most distressing deaths in the series for me. She was young, foreign to King’s Landing, had her life and jobs managed by Tyrion, and then was forced to a make a decision to save herself over saving Tyrion. It was Cersei who approached her for her testimony after all, and if we know Cersei at all we know that there is an easy way and a hard way for her to get what she wants. Cersei gave her the easy way, which was a reward in exchange for her testimony. Had Shae refused, I don’t think she would have found a forgiving enemy in Cersei. The fact that she is later found in Tywin’s bed just drives it home that Shae did not want to make enemies with either of them when they approached her, and since Tyrion was figuratively a sinking ship, she made the smart choice of saving herself. This still cost her her life, unfortunately, at the hands of her employer and lover.

I should note that the reason strangulation is especially abhorrent for me when its done by a man to a woman is because victims of strangulation, especially in a domestic violence setting, are overwhelmingly female. It starts as a way of exercising control over a partner, but has an extremely high risk of becoming fatal. It’s a sad reality that I don’t enjoy seeing translated onto the page.

i mean??? i legitimately have not watched half of both seasons 5 and 6 because of cersei and sansa’s respective rapes. i looked up clips of stuff i wanted to see like oberyn vs the mountain and hardhome because i was so disgusted by this violently misogynistic writing and moreso when i realized that sansa’s rape was written in as a latent empowerment tool. these men are gross and they’re bad writers.

Late night thoughts: The all-male societies of ASOIAF were so misogynistic that when the Night’s Watch caught Danny Flint disguised as a man to defend the wall instead of being like “hahaha funny lady let’s take u back to your clan safely” they were so offended that their pristine male society was “defiled” by a woman that they gang raped her and slit her throat

ah yes… ancient and “noble” orders of men often have that symptom of hyper-masculinity. It’s seen with the Night’s Watch in the story of Danny Flint, and it’s seen in the order of knighthood as a whole with Brienne. Women “infiltrating” all-male ranks earns them ire and disrespect.

I would add that the violence that arose in the story of Danny Flint goes beyond that of just a woman joining. It’s the fact that a woman joined *in secret*, that she tricked the men into thinking she was someone she wasn’t, and so when the truth came out, so did the anger at being fooled. It’s a story of men’s bruised pride as much as it is a commentary on how twisted revered orders are beneath the surface.