I don't, I just don't, and that is my right as a fan of the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' books/the 'Game of Thrones' television series. I am allowed to have a subjective opinion about a character, in fact that is the best thing about a story in one medium or another having a huge fanbase, the diversity of interpretations of characters and scenarios.
I am of the opinion that any interpretation of something like a fictional book, poem, television show, etc. is valid if you can properly back up your interpretation. For example there is, to me, nothing romantic about Romeo and Juliet. It's an exaggerated, dramatization of the intensity of feeling teenagers can have in a completely shallow relationship based on nothing but physical attraction and a sense of taboo.
Romeo was LITERALLY in love with Rosalind on page three, then saw Juliet and fell in love with her on page five. Are you kidding me?
However, if you genuinely see Romeo and Juliet as the greatest love story of all time, that Romeo discovers the difference between shallow lust (Rosalind) and true love (Juliet) through the quick emotional connection he has with Juliet, and they are truly martyrs for love and proof that love is blind and such forth, that is truly your opinion and I would never discredit that.
So bringing it back to Cersei Lannister, because this is a really specific point of contention I have if you couldn't tell, you could argue that she is the personification of the female struggle against patriarchy, or the epitome of what a mother will do to herself and others for her children. However, I can also argue that she is pathetically scrabbling at the coat tails of those she presumes to be equal to or better than, her downfall is her vanity, she is definitely a villain, and that if you spoke to Cersei Lannister about sisterhood or a feminist movement she would laugh in your face and have your tongue cut out.
But hey, both views are valid!
I would never discredit the opinion of someone who enjoys Cersei as a character, nor would I insist I was right and they were wrong. It simply is not a case of right and wrong because these are opinions about a fictional character.
This is an issue I have about a lot of people on Tumblr and Twitter and their opinions surrounding female characters. Specifically people that perpetuate the idea that it is unfeminist of me to have a negative opinion of a prominent female character in a series they enjoy. I will be shouted down as being wrong, or will be dragged into a long, tedious explanation about the character because I just “don't understand the specific nuances and amazing aspects” of Ginny Weasley or Sansa Stark or Rose Tyler.
My pet peeve is people deciding that frivolous things like disliking a certain female character can be deemed “unfeminist”. That nonsense is unimportant and unhelpful to the movement, as far as I am concerned.
Why can't a female character be irritating? Why can't I find it impossible to relate to her? Why can't I feel like she adds nothing to my enjoyment of the story? There are plenty of male characters that I could speak about in the same way. Crabbe and Goyle! Tommen Baratheon! Victarion Greyjoy! Why is it valid to consider Tywin Lannister to be a cruel, awful human being but not Cersei, if you consider them equally important and prominent in the story?
Why are you holding these female characters above reproach?
Does that sound like equality to you?
It doesn't sound like it to me.
I mean...thinking about it...
Couldn't you call it...narrow-mindedness? The idea that if someone does not agree with your opinion they MUST be incorrect or stupid?
Just a thought.
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Thanks for letting me use your blog as a soap-box for my anger, Ellana! Really appreciate it! And to everyone that read my nonsense this week, thank you to you as well!
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