Game of Thrones Season 7: Elia Martell Deserved Better than Rhaegar Targaryen

(via A Wiki of Ice and Fire)

Spoilers for Season 7 of Game of Thrones throughout.

Before the seventh season came out, I knew that it would probably be worse than the seasons before it. I just didn’t know how it would be worse. But disappointed I was not. The horribleness this time around more than exceeded my expectations. There are so many things to talk about, but here on Lady Geek Girl & Friends we try to keep our posts below a certain word limit, so we don’t bog you readers down with a post the size of a novella. And Game of Thrones’s seventh season is so asinine that a novella is exactly what I’d be in danger of writing if I tried tackling all my thoughts. Thankfully for me, Mikely will be by later this month with his own Game of Thrones Season 7 review. In the meantime, however, I’ve got a bone to pick with Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, his annulment to Elia Martell, and all the worldwide implications that entails.

Trigger warning for abuse, violence, and sexual assault up ahead.

Return to Westeros: “Mother’s Mercy” Review

“Mother’s Mercy” was by no means this season’s worst episode, and I even found myself partially invested in it. Hell, there were a few things about it that I actually liked. Unfortunately, Game of Thrones really went to shit this season, and a twenty-minute epic battle at Hardhome doesn’t change that. Not as bad is still a far cry from good. At the very least, I can say that Sansa and Theon get a semi-happy ending, but I’m not sure I can forgive the show for all it’s done, especially since Ramsay is still alive.

Trigger warning for sexual harassment and violence up ahead, as well as spoilers.

Return to Westeros: “Hardhome” Review

Oh, somehow, we’re nearly fifty episodes into a show where a zombie apocalypse feels like a huge relief after weeks and weeks of sexual violence. Hooray?

Okay, this looks bad.

“Hardhome” is about more than just the title location, but it swallows up nearly all the oxygen in the room this week, capped by a long, slow, and nearly dialogue-free battle between the Night’s Watch, the wildlings, and a growing horde of skeletons, zombies, wights, and ultimately, White Walkers. There were very few survivors.

Return to Westeros: “Kill the Boy” Review

Well, Game of Thrones is really heading into darker territory this week. While Jon Snow weighs his options at the Wall, Daenerys responds to Ser Barristan’s murder with murder of her own, and Ramsay Bolton uses Theon to torment Sansa, because you know, the Sansa-Theon-Ramsay storyline is still something that everyone really wants to see and isn’t creepy and unnecessary at all.

Trigger warning for abuse, assault, and gore after the jump.

Return to Westeros: “The House of Black and White” Review

When I was first asked to come along on the review crew for Season 5 of Game of Thrones—and agreed to do so, mind you—I was intrigued to see what audiences would be in for this time around. It wasn’t until I sat down earlier to watch the most recent episode that my largest fear struck my gut like a failing test grade: I was going to get stuck with the Jon Snow episodes. Some cosmic piece of anxiety was preparing me to resign myself to this fate. Luckily, with “The House of Black and White,” I still remain at a cool zero for Jon Snow-centric episodes. Phew!

What am I supposed to do when the best part of me was always you?
(via youknownothingjonsnow-daily @ Tumblr)

Unlike the other two reviewers this season, I haven’t actually read the books. As such, if events are diverging from Martin’s novels, I wouldn’t be able to point them out. While losing the ability to compare and contrast is somewhat aggravating, being able to experience everything for the first time offers an interesting perspective. And as this episode continues with the themes of shifting power dynamics, these perspectives are going to get a work out.

As usual, spoilers beneath the cut.

A Song of Ice and Fire and the R+L=J Fan Theory: A New Spin on an Old Trope?

While the Game of Thrones TV show is pretty terrible when it comes to female representation, the books for A Song of Ice and Fire do a much better job. However, it still falls prey to some horrible tropes. At the beginning of the series, we learn that Robert Baratheon became king of the Seven Kingdoms after leading a revolt against the previous king. He did this because he believed Prince Rhaegar Targaryen kidnapped Lyanna Stark, the woman Robert loved. In the end, Lyanna passed away, and her fridging fueled Robert’s internal pain for the next fifteen some years until his own death.

Though both Robert’s and Lyanna’s characters are still affected by the “women in refrigerators” trope, at the very least A Song of Ice and Fire has a potentially different take on it.

Massive spoilers for Game of Thrones and a trigger warning for rape below.

Fanfiction Fridays: Salt Boy by dornfelder

[Spoilers for Game of Thrones season 3 below.]

So the other day, my fellow bloggers and I got into a discussion about Theon from Game of Thrones. And we had a bit of a disagreement about it. Lady Bacula took a much more sympathetic stance regarding him—all, if not most, of his actions can be explained by his want of acceptance and his feelings of inadequacy, which only heighten in the second season, when Theon is given a choice between his actual family and the family who raised him. In this disagreement, I hastened to call Theon a complete douchebag, because let’s face it, he’s an asshole. He treats women like objects, is overly proud, flaunts his lordship as if he’s better than everyone else, betrays the Starks, and has two little boys murdered in the process. All in all, you can see the dilemma we as bloggers have.

However, at the time, I had yet to catch up on finishing reading A Song of Ice and Fire—I’m still not done—and I had only seen the first two seasons. I recently watched season three, and suddenly my distaste for this character evaporated and was replaced almost entirely with sympathy; I now almost completely agree with Lady Bacula. Gratuitous torture is not my thing, nor do I think it’s ever justified, regardless of the circumstances. I might still hold that Theon was a terrible person before the third season, but I think torture probably counts as punishment, well, more than enough.

I’ve been having feels for Theon’s character, so naturally, the first thing I did was find fanfiction that would only increase those feels. Warning: after the jump, there is upsetting content regarding rape and torture.