Meg

A SYTYCB entry

It’s hard out there for a geek girl who loves fantasy. A genre which frequently gets labeled “for boys,” strong female characters are in short supply. It soured me on the genre for a long time, and it was only after friends I trusted recommended I watch “Game of Thrones” that I even heard of  George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire Series. I watched the first season, quickly devoured all 5 books in about 2 months, and nearly danced over finally finding a fantasy series which was not only well-written but featured female characters who were complex, intelligent characters whose value was not boiled down to “love interest” or “evil witch.”

Except the show is pretty problematic, both racially and with gender. There are massive changes from book to show which “dumb down” female characters in order to push forward the story lines of the male characters, and there’s a definite “white savior” feel to Daenarys Targaryen’s life in Essos.  There are also those who think the entire series is both anti-feminist and disgusting as well as those who argue that such critiques ignore that the women in the series are the shrewdest players of the game. But even as problematic as these things were, I liked this series and, being the kind of geek girl who gets involved with online fandom, I went looking for like-minded people with whom I could discuss the series, ...