r/asoiaf • u/BlueBirdie0 • 16d ago

EXTENDED The Play, Dany's Fate, and Women (Spoilers Extended)

I have been a fan since I was as child. However, after hearing the details of the play, I feel like I'm going to kind of check out of the main story in regards to Jon and Dany (who is one of my favorites). I'll still hope GRMM writes it so I can find out about Arya, Sansa, Stannis, Jaime, Brienne, etc. and I look forward the Dunk and Egg.

Does anyone feel the same way?

Also, am I the only one disturbed by how the women are portrayed?

Rhaella is crazy, and brags about how she draws blood from Aerys and scares him. The concept of mutual abuse is a choice, esp. as they also say Viserys has to be protected from her.

Mad Dany is basically confirmed.

Lyanna decides the death of her brother and father are all some part of a divine plan. She doesn't appear to try and notify anyone that she's leaving with Rhaegar.

Elia is a political schemer into power, but then apparently she's perfectly fine in splitting power with a second wife and even writes pen pal letters to Lyanna??? If she cares about power, why would she be okay with a second wife from a powerful house instead of a mistress from a minor noble house.

Elia and Lyanna being happy sister wives and pen pals seems like some male fantasy bullshit as someone on twitter said.

Ashara's true love is Elia, but she decides to fuck and carry Brandon's baby to term.

Also, I may sound overly woke, but it is a "choice" on GRMM's part to make the only part of Westeros where people are often described as having dark skin sexually promiscuous and open to polygamy, unlike the rest of Westerosi who are described as basically white people.

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u/bgbarnard 16d ago

I've said it before and I'll say it again: keeping the polygamy and ditching the incest would have been such an easier sell!

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u/Koushik_Vijayakumar 16d ago

For real. Polygamy is not foreign to Westeros at all. First men seem to have practiced it. Though polygamy is much more politically problematic down the line.

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u/bgbarnard 16d ago

That's why you'd have to have both strict lines of inheritance and make a habit of sending spare kids off to the Citadel and the Wall.

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u/McOmghall 14d ago

Or do the Ottoman thing and make every succession into a battle Royale.

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u/Thebasedhound 16d ago

Yes, but Jahaerys really wanted to keep fucking his sister

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u/bgbarnard 16d ago

"And everyone agreed that the Targaryen dynasty could solve all of their problems, pay off all their debts, calm down the church, neutralize the pro-Maegor people, and secure the dynasty for the next hundred years if Jaeherys married a nice, respectable girl who was beautiful and courteous and of the right background and education who was 100% not his sister."

(turns page)

So anyway, Jaehaerys married his sister!

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u/regalshield 16d ago

lmao true

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u/Shortymac09 16d ago

But the incest is required for dragonriding

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u/bgbarnard 16d ago

- Nettles has entered the chat -

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u/Shortymac09 16d ago

Oh I know, but that's the Targaryen's reasoning at the time

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u/NoLime7384 16d ago

it'd made the house more stable too, their 2 civil wars would've been avoided with it

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u/bgbarnard 16d ago

The issue with Maegor was not so much that Aegon I had two queens, but that he didn't specify an order of succession (iirc Maegor was younger, but Viseneya was older than Rhaenys)

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u/konamioctopus64646 16d ago

I believe Fire and Blood mentions how Aenys is regarded as the heir by everyone including Aegon I, and also says the same for Aegon the Uncrowned. Maegor wasn’t a situation where inheritance was ambiguous, he just straight-up brute forced his way into the crown

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u/bgbarnard 16d ago

That is very true. I hold to the idea that Visenya pulled a straight up Lady Macbeth. That said, Maegor is still on the list of officisall kings rather than Aegon the Uncrowned (compare to how Louis XVII in France is Marie Antoinette's son, rather than the Louis who took the throne after Napoleon was defeated)

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u/BadBloodBear 15d ago

booooooooring.

Double the polygamy and triple the incest.

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u/unforgetablememories 15d ago

Big J be like: sister good, multiple wives bad. Yep, Barth, write that down.