A lecture in 12 pictures. Daddy Warpig directs our attention to a prescient Outland cartoon:
On the same subject, Didact’s Reach quotes my example of how properly applying the Social Justice principles he upholds would have completely destroyed GRR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and wonders if that is part of why the series has declined with each new book.
I suppose this might explain why A Dance of Dragons was such an unbearably long, tedious, boring doorstopper of a book. This exact idea is something that Vox Day has addressed repeatedly in his screeds against the need for feminism and equalitarian impulses in high fantasy and sci-fi. In fact, the single fastest way to counter Martin’s frankly absurd notion that “many of those differences are created by the culture we live in”, is to conduct a simple thought exercise, which Vox walks us through as follows:
Consider the consequences of changing Cersei Lannister from an oppressed woman used as a dynastic piece by her father to a strong and independent warrior woman of the sort that is presently ubiquitous in third generation fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal fiction.
- Cersei doesn’t marry Robert Baratheon. She’s strong and independent like her twin, not a royal brood mare!
- House Lannister’s ambitions are reduced from establishing a royal line to finding a wife for Tyrion.
- Her children are not bastards. Robert’s heirs have black hair.
- Jon Arryn isn’t murdered to keep a nonexistent secret. Ned Stark isn’t named to replace him.
- Robert doesn’t have an accident coordinated by the Lannisters, who don’t dominate the court and will not benefit from his fall.
- Robert’s heirs being legitimate, Stannis and Renly Baratheon remain loyal.
- The Starks never come south and never revolt against King’s Landing. Theon Greyjoy goes home to the Ironborn and never returns to Winterfell. Jon Snow still goes to the Wall, but Arya remains home and learns to become a lady, not an assassin, whether she wants to or not.
So, what was a war of five kings that spans five continents abruptly becomes a minor debate over whether Robert Baratheon’s black-haired son and heir marries Sansa Stark, a princess of Dorne, or Danerys Targaryen.