Do you know what I love in my shows? Men talking at me. And that’s what the finale of Game of Thrones essentially delivered. I can’t say that I’m necessarily surprised, but at the same time, I’m just so angry but unable formulate why, exactly, until a man tweeted at me, comparing me to Daenerys Targaryen just because I wanted Sansa to rule Westeros.
My problem with a male-dominated show, written by men, where the entire final episode was a bunch of men talking is that women, both the characters in the show and those who watch it, are often then dismissed. Maybe that’s why I wanted Sansa to rule. Instead, she’s the queen of the North, and … fine, but what if she ruled Westeros from Winterfell? Did literally anyone think of that?
The end of the episode is simple enough: Bran is the ruler of Westeros because, you know, that makes sense, and then all the Starks kind of go their own separate ways. Look, I don’t really know what happened, because I started to tune out all the men talking, which means I probably missed 90% of the not-real plot.
Seriously, if men weren’t talking, men were killing women, so maybe it’s a good thing we had a lot of talking? The whole thing was just so many men that Brienne of Tarth, who would have gone back to Winterfell with Sansa, had to stay in King’s Landing, because otherwise, the entire council would have been men, instead of just most of it. Because there were no women left.
I truly wish I could watch the finale objectively, but it just makes me so angry that it has been diminished to tearing down female characters and raising up male characters who were not redeemable in the first place. Looking at you, Tyrion Lannister, with your killing spree of Shae and your dad.
What’s great, though, is that fans on Twitter haven’t let this go unnoticed.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss just ruined 30 years of George R.R. Martin’s work in 90 minutes. They are obviously sexist fucks and obviously NOTHING without George R.R. Martin. There was no motivation for Daenerys to lay Kings Landing low after a lifetime of her saving innocents.
— Megan Ellison (@meganeellison) May 13, 2019
Weird how a show with no female writers or directors didn’t do justice to their female leads. 🤷🏽♀️
— Sarah Schechter (@SarahSoWitty) May 13, 2019
Daenerys gonna need Constance Wu’s publicist. #GOT
— Minnie Driver (@driverminnie) May 13, 2019
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss writing the storylines for female characters on Game of Thrones pic.twitter.com/ebuKzFvd8f
— ‘Hated’ Jon (@prasejeebus) May 6, 2019
let women write your fantasy TV.
— lindsey romain (@lindseyromain) May 6, 2019
I wish that Game of Thrones was better, and I wish the ending didn’t make me see red, but here we are.
(image: HBO)
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