A few days ago, I wrote a comment about how much I think D&D failed Brienne. So I thought I could expand on it, and here we are.
WARNINGS: LONG RANT, BOOK AND SHOW SPOILERS!
Why D&D failed Brienne in the show? And why D&D made so many unexplainable changes to her and Jaime's arcs, most times completely inverting what they do in the books? Let's see.
The gist of the majority of Brienne's problems in the show, was that D&D failed to write her...completely. She was doomed basically from the start from many mistakes and many unexplainable changes D&D made with her.
Brienne's true arc in the books is full of duality. She's Sansa in armor (in GRRM's words). She's a 19 years old girl who longs to be respected as a knight and she's also a girl who longs to be a lady (married, a mother, loved) but she doesn't think that's possible because of how ugly she is (and now she's also disfigured in the books), and how tall she is, how muscular she is, how strong she is, and she's been mocked and abused her entire life, starting from her piece of shit of a septa. Brienne literally thinks she's unlovable, that the marriage bed for her could only include pain and humiliation (again, thanks to the fucking crazy septa), and GRRM took her and put her right in front of the only guy in Westeros who lives for love and that nowadays would punch in the face any guy who mocks her, especially her mean former betrotheds (Hello Red Ronnet Connington, thank you for taking the iconic golden handed slap). Jaime said it best in his weirwood dream: "In this light she could almost be a beauty. In this light she could almost be a knight". See? Duality.
I know some things were probably changed because they casted the amazing (and beautiful but also tall as Brienne) Gwendoline, but mostly they simply didn't write some her struggles, since Gwen was amazing in showing Brienne's vulnerability and shyness when she could, like in the bath scene.
D&D don't know how to write women who break stereotypes. Brienne and Arya like to fight? Well they must hate feminine things then. Asha/Yara likes to fight and be tough and manly? Well if she's so butch she must be a lesbian. But in the books Brienne and Arya like feminine things. Hell, Brienne is a huge romantic girl, who loves songs and fairytales and spent her childhood dreaming of romance (you know, the kinda romance that has a guy gifting her a priceless sword, like in her favorite fairytale, the one about ser Galladon and the Maiden), and she's vulnerable, sometimes wishing just to have Jaime right next to her so she could cry on his shoulder. And she did spent the night of Renly's wedding crying her eyes out. Arya liked wearing a pretty dress, even though she thinks she's not as beautiful as Sansa, and she's never mocked girls by calling them stupid. She's just a child, but not nearly as much of a brat as she is at the beginning of the show. Asha/Yara fights men and also fucks men. If they really wanted to include some lesbian sex, in the books Dany and Cersei, two traditionally feminine women, have sex with other girls occasionally.
In the books, in the scene where Jaime gave Oathkeeper to Brienne, she also received a pretty blue dress from him (a dress that matches her eyes, Jaime is obsessed with her eyes in the books). And that's significant. Jaime gives her both a sword and a pretty dress, because he's the one who will eventually make Brienne's dreams about knighthood and marriage come true, (as it's heavily implied in the text many times, one cute and tiny example is in their very erotic fight scene in the books, where, right after, Jaime calls Brienne his wife, for a disguise from the Brave Companions). She literally dreamed of Jaime knighting her/marrying her when she was feverish because of Biter. Even though she spent almost her entire life thinking it could never come true, because she was always treated as a beast. (Why couldn't Gwen wear the pretty blue dress in the show?)And she seemed happy to wear that dress, because it actually looks good on her (at least Jaime thinks it looks good on her) and she rewards him for the gift by blushing all over the place and blabbering about her bodice being padded to have more shape, meaning it was implied that Jaime was staring at her...chest area in that scene (why else would she start talking about her bodice when he was talking about her eyes?), which isn't that weird in the books. Jaime is a freaking pervert about Brienne's body from the get go, always noticing her body and trying to stare at her boobs, legs, muscles, and when he saw her naked in the baths, he got hard, and he couldn't stop thinking about her naked for 2 books. He's obsessed with her, no matter how many times he told himself that she's ugly and stubborn...and it was mutual, btw, Brienne spent time thinking about what happened in the baths, but she wasn't thinking about the very important things Jaime told her, she was busy remembering how hot he was...almost godlike.
And Jaime giving Oathkeeper to Brienne (a Valyrian steel sword Tywin wanted desperately to keep in the family as legacy) is also important because it shows just how much Jaime believed in her. In the books, he saw how crushed she was after the Red Wedding (he actually tried to cheer her up, and he was thinking of keeping her in KL with him) and Brienne thought she failed Cat just like she had failed Renly. And he knew the feeling well, since he still feels guilty for failing to protect Rhaegar's kids and wife. So he gave her an heroic quest to redeem herself and prove her worth. He believes she can rescue Sansa. He believes in her abilities and honor. And the way Brienne treated Oathkeeper so reverently in the books, like she was handling Jaime's own heart, is so special.
Brienne and Jaime are his main book couple. So much so that GRRM made their own ancestors fall in love in a prequel book with direct parallels to their story (it's in "The Sworn Sword", the ancestors are Ser Duncan the Tall, Brienne's confirmed ancestor, the most honorable knight of the seven kingdoms, and Lady Rohanne Webber Lannister, Jaime's great-grandmother, a lady with a very bad reputation, the so called "Red Widow"). And book!Brienne and Jaime are influenced by the story of the Beauty and the Beast, GRRM's favorite love story of all time, and this influence was confirmed by GRRM himself (I mean, Brienne is literally called "The Beauty"...subtle George, really subtle). With the ugly girl making the most beautiful man in Westeros fall for her, and the Kingslayer earning the love of the most honorable and innocent girl in Westeros (The thing book!Jaime loves in a woman is innocence, from what he told to a character called Hildy).
How D&D took a look at that and discarded it all, I have no clue.
In the books Brienne literally got hanged by Lady Stoneheart in Jaime's place. She was ready to die for him! (Compare that to Cersei asking Jaime to die for/with her in her letter in ADWD)
Brienne is a tough warrior and a romantic heroine. A shy and altruistic girl with a golden heart who hates killing! Her very first kill happens only in book 4 and it's significant because she murders one of the dudes who took Jaime's right hand, and she mutilated said guy as well, to avenge Jaime, she wasn't a killing machine from the start like the show implied.
Book! Brienne would have never said something like "you sound like a bloody woman" to a suffering Jaime, after he lost his hand. In the books she merely told him to stop being a coward in that scene. Brienne is not a fucking incel, I have no clue what D&D were trying to do. The real Brienne would never use the word "woman" as an insult. Brienne doesn't hate women or being one. She just hates restrictions.
And Brienne ending in the KG is the last insult to the injury. The journey GRRM is taking with her, in the books, is a journey to make Brienne understand that being a true knight has nothing to do with stupid vows, celibacy, and always being someone's lapdog. She's learning that being sworn to someone that gives you horrible orders and having to do everything they say, endangering innocents like Pod, like Lady Stoneheart ordering her to kill Jaime for the Red Wedding, which he had no role in and Brienne knows, is fucked up.
And plus she started her story as a member of Renly's KG only because she was in love with him and she wanted to protect him and die for him if necessary (and in her POVs she remembers that she fell for him because he danced with her, making her feel feminine and delicate, something she always longed for). And it's a parallel to Jaime entering the KG to be close to Cersei, back when he was a teen (something he deeply grew to regret). Brienne was a teen herself when she followed Renly. Now, she's learning that things with a cloak on aren't always what they seem. And also she's the freaking heir of Tarth, which never meant anything to D&D, but it sure as hell means something to Brienne, and it's obviously gonna be a part of her ending in the books. Or the fact that GRRM has given us hints (like Jaime's weirwood prophecy dream in the books, where he sees Brienne's "more womanly body shape", against the zombies that represented the Others) about Jaime and Brienne possibly having a baby at a certain point in the story...like, that couldn't be more night and day from what we got in the show. For example, when in the books Jaime was thinking about fathering another child after Joffrey's death, and he started following Brienne immediately after the thought. Or when he sent soldiers searching for Tyrion in the brothels, which promptly made him think about sex, about new children being conceived, and he immediately started wondering where Brienne was... (his thought process was literally: brothels>sex>babies >Brienne).
Even the fact that Brienne wrote about Jaime in the White book in the show...ffs, Jaime wants to do that all of his own in the books. And the important part of the White book, in the books, is that one of the first things Jaime did when he was back in KL, was to write about Brienne in his bio, of how she took him back to KL safely. In the books, it's Jaime wanting to include Brienne in his life story. In the show, Brienne didn't even include herself in Jaime's bio, WTF! And this happened in the same chapter where he gave Oathkeeper to Brienne, and where he refused to be seduced by Cersei, fought with Cersei, and started thinking of his twin as his ex-lover, long before he also learned she was cheating on him with everything that moved (while he's the most faithful guy in Westeros), and that she didn't even remember the place where they first had sex, that's how little he meant for Cersei, they literally broke up two books ago. (Somehow all of this in the show happened in the opposite way, with Jaime throwing to the ground the White Book, and fucking Cersei in the Tower, without writing about Brienne).
Jaime doesn't want Cersei, and she certainly doesn't want him anymore (she was busy daydreaming about Aurane Waters). They can't stand each other anymore.
And how they turned her into a mocking trope with Tormund. I love Tormund, don't get me wrong, but imagine if he was making eyes, making uncomfortable, and flirting (without bothering to learn her name) with a beautiful girl, like Sansa. The joke would have been so much more distasteful. But Brienne was ugly so, it was okay to mock her with that nonsense right D&D? Obviously Tormund doesn't even know Brienne in the books, but if D&D actually wanted to add someone trying to get it on with Brienne, why not simply add freaking Hyle Hunt (or as I like to call him, bootleg Jaime), the idiotic but somewhat funny guy who wants to marry Brienne in the books (just to get Tarth), and that has been trying to get in her pants and take her virginity since Renly's camp? He's literally Brienne's "Gaston". And she hates him, of course.
I can also spend some time complaining about what they did to Jaime.
I always giggle when I remember a comment someone made back in 2016 about Jaime, on GRRM's personal blog. It's a comment GRRM choose to keep and not delete, even if it insulted HBO, back when GOT was still going, and it's about the differences between book and show Jaime: this I think it says a lot about what GRRM feels.
D&D literally took any chance they got to make Jaime worse than he is in the books (and that says a freaking lot, since Jaime still has many sins to answer for, I'm sure his meeting with Lady Stoneheart is gonna be interesting...).Even the way he said "the things I do for love" when he pushed Bran was drastically different: in the show, when Jaime pushed Bran, he seemed uncaring and flippant about what he did, in the books, he was loathing everything about it and he told Cersei that "what happened to the Stark boy in Winterfell" was one of the few things he's ashamed of regarding his love for her. In the show, Jaime brutally killed his own cousin, in the books, he never did anything like that, he's no kinslayer (not yet, if he's the Valonqar) since kinslaying is actually considered one of the worst sins in Westeros. In the show, he casually mentioned to Brienne, in a mocking way, that if she ended up raped by the assholes that kidnapped them, she could close her eyes and think about Renly, in the books he did tell her to "go away inside" and think of Renly, but he was serious, he was giving her an heartfelt advice to protect her state of mind, since we know that back when Jaime was in Aerys's KG he was forced to watch him murder and torture many innocent people, and he was forced to listen to Aerys brutally rape his sister wife, and to keep his own state of mind, Jaime always used the "go away inside" thing. It's also an advice he gave to Tommen in the books, when Tommen felt sick and puked at Tywin's funeral. He was honestly trying to help. And the infamous scene where Jaime and Cersei had sex in the White Tower in the show...ffs, Jaime turned her down in the books, he couldn't do something so dishonorable, it was the end of their relationship in the books. And HE was the one to give the name "Oathkeeper" to the sword, not Brienne. In the books, that was Jaime starting caring again about his honor.
A thing that always irked me the wrong way, was how the show adapted the Riverrun situation. In the books, Jaime taking Riverrun without spilling blood is a huge thing for many reasons. Brienne inspired him to try being more like her, like the honorable knight he longed to be as a child, so he decided to keep the vow he made to Cat to never harm a Tully again, even if she was dead, and he was keen on taking Riverrun without a blood bath. He used his terrible reputation as the vicious Kingslayer, and made a threat concerning Edmure's son to quickly make him surrender. HE decided to do it like this. It was all him. In the show they took away all of his agency. He took Riverrun "for Cersei", he needed to be convinced by Brienne to act decent, and in the end...the Blackfish died. So take that Cat, show! Jaime contributed to your uncle's death...yeah. And also they made him the "stupidest" Lannister, when Cersei is right there who in the books in dumb as a rock...
I also had the displeasure of reading some comments about Jaime and Aerys's death, from people claiming that he only did it to save himself because he didn't wanna die in the explosion. I mean, I have no doubts he wanted to live, but sadly D&D failed to show just how much Jaime did for KL (let's remember that, till the last moment, he was pleading Aerys to not trust Tywin, trying to protect his king from danger, it was Pycelle that told Aerys to trust Tywin, and that was a disaster). In the books, in the famous baths scene where Jaime spilled the beans, he told Brienne that he spent the weeks following Aerys's death, searching for and murdering all the people involved in making the wildfire for the Mad King and everyone who knew about his plan (expect Varys), why?! Because he was scared one of them was gonna finish the Mad King's job. He could have simply fled somewhere safe, leaving KL to its own destiny, but he didn't. He sacrificed his honor and his reputation (which were everything to 17 years old Jaime, a boy that wanted to become the greatest knight ever) to save KL, because he cared about all the innocents and otherwise (see what I did there?). But he decided to tell the truth to Brienne, and she's the only person that knows (for some reason in s8 Tyrion also knew...why D&D?), because he saw his younger self in her, because she's honorable, honest, good, nice, naive, and everything he wanted to be. Because he wanted Brienne to see the real him, because she's the only one who could understand him. Just like he saw the real her, all her hidden beauty underneath her ugliness. They get each other. They are 2 parts of the same sword after all.
For all the talk about not giving a shit about what people thought of him, in the books, Jaime trew a temper tantrum every time, in the beginning of their journey, Brienne insulted him. And when he gave her Oathkeeper and she immediately assumed the worst of him, that he wanted her to use it to kill Sansa, he got incredibly angry and he was so upset he didn't even want to look at her anymore. He wants Brienne to have a good opinion of him. And since Brienne also inspired him to keep his vows, he now started taking his KG's vows seriously, and he's being chaste, even tho several women tried, in vain, to seduce him...I'm sure Brienne is gonna change his mind. Chastity doesn't look good for someone as horny as Jaime Lannister, someone who now only longs to have a warm wife in his bed (I love how envious he was of Lancel's marital status in the books).
Jaime is someone who does "things for love".
When it comes to Book!Cersei, his narcissistic twin that abused him for decades, that always meant horrible things and crimes. Like when Cersei sent him searching for Arya to hurt her after her fight with Joffrey (in the books). She doesn't care that everytime he obeys her orders, she just added another thing he's gonna hate himself for. For her, he was her toy and her hitman. Someone she could control with empty promises of love and a place in her bed. She turned him from the future Arthur Dayne, to the Smiling Knight. She always used to seduce him when she needed something from him. She was always jealous of him, she literally seduced him into giving up Casterly Rock and his rights, to serve her from the KG, just because she always though the Rock belonged to her (and Cersei is almost right in feeling the way she does, because of Westeros's misogynistic views and laws, but since she's actually the most misogynistic woman in power in Westeros...fuck her). And their relationship is simply abusive and toxic in the books, even tho many people take a look at Jaime, a strong man, and think it's impossible he could actually be Cersei's victim. But just think of Cersei as the man and Jaime as the woman in their relationship. Think of every time Cersei hit, mocked, insulted, berated, gaslighted, manipulated Jaime in the books, but with their genders switched...things get ugly very quickly, don't they?! But apparently, D&D love abuse, and love to show that ugly women don't get to have love, while if you're beautiful, even if you're awful, you can get it... GRRM certainly doesn't agree, and he has already stated that in his books Jaime and Cersei are "effectively estranged". And that's how it's gonna stay: Jaime burned Cersei's letter (you know, the one when she begged him to go to her to DIE with her...she's so caring), if she dies or if she lives, in the books, he doesn't give a fuck anymore. They didn't even knew each other at all: Jaime always perceived an idolized imagine of her. Cersei always saw her twin as cold and evil as her. But now, they think of each other as a stranger.
Meanwhile, the "things he does for love" for Brienne, are all good. He saved her multiple times (from the bear, from the Brave Companions, from Loras), and not just her (Hi Pia, I really love you). She is such a good influence on him, but in the end, it's always him that decides to act on it and be good. You see, Brienne and Jaime were always used to be the ones giving and never receiving, without thinking of their own needs, but just about making the people they cared about safe. But with each other they have the chance to both give and receive. Jaime saving Brienne was monumental for her. Nobody ever cared enough for her to do something like that. And Brienne kinda returns the favor, like when we saw how upset she got at the inn where the innkeeper was insulting the "Kingslayer". Nobody ever cared this much for Jaime (except Tyrion, before they had their falling out).
Why D&D didn't get how amazing their romance is in the books, so that they could show it in the best way possible in the show, remains a mystery.
Also...the nonsense of making fun of a virgin is wrong per se, but what was that all about in s8? In Westeros, highborn unmarried ladies who are not maidens anymore are considered the worst of sluts. Why the hell was Brienne mocked for it? Sex out of wedlock was literally the reason why Cersei was forced to do the walk of shame. D&D sure as hell don't like being coherent in a story.
I recently saw this awesome post. It's very good, and it enlights how much Jaime and Brienne influenced each other for the better.
Sorry for the long rant. I apologize in advance for any mistakes, English is not my first language.
Also here and here you can find all textual references regarding Brienne/Jaime and marriage and babies, thanks to some awesome redditors.
Also, GRRM's email about his potential Jaime/Brienne's ending in the books. Where he confirms the Jaime/Cersei ending belonged to D&D's vision. He's planning a more positive Jaime/Brienne ending, according to his message there. And he also implied he thinks Jaime's character arc got sacrificed in the show, which he didn't like. GRRM has always been in contact with fans. He has a blog, a livejournal, a public email, his social media accounts, and back in the day he would always answer fan messages under his posts on this platforms, but recently he decided to not do it anymore or at least not often, because he would mostly get "harassed" with comments about him being lazy and whatnot, something he very publicly always complain about.
Thank you for reading my very long post!
Submitted June 30, 2021 at 11:47PM by Mary1andOnly https://ift.tt/3dynHMn
No comments:
Post a Comment