The long watch has ended and the fantasy world of the Seven Kingdoms is back on screen (and all over the web). To the delight of fans, all the characters that matter have been paraded in the first episode of the seventh season, with enough screen time dedicated to each of them and their pursuits. Leading two of the three armies, who are vying for the Iron Throne are two formidable, resilient women—Cersei Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen, an unexpected departure from the initial years of the show when men forged alliances, raped and abused women and dissed and disposed other men, all for the throne.
Not long ago, the show had raised many eyebrows and caused heated debates over the way it treated the Westerosi women. In the early seasons of the Medieval fantasy world of dragons, wolves, witches and walking dead men (and horses), women had little say. The men married, molested and murdered at will. The sexposition, gratuitous amount of sexual violence, detailed and graphic depictions of brothels and the subservient roles assigned to many women drew opprobrium from various quarters. The series had minor female characters like Myranda and Ros, whose presence had little bearings on the proceedings and who were brought in for the exclusive purpose of titillation and perhaps to flaunt the malevolence of Ramsay Bolton and the sadistic (mad) King Joffrey.
The show was vehemently criticised after the episode Breaker of Chains, in which Jaime Lannister forced himself on his sister Cersei next to an alter on which their son Joffrey’s corpse was laid out. In an article in the Guardian, TV writer Danielle Henderson announced her decision to no longer watch the series, saying she was "exhausted by the triumph of men at the expense of women as a narrative device." She wasn't the only one. While many fans and GoT zelots argued that the series depicts acts of sexual violence in graphic detail to show how the world was unfair to the fairer sex, others took to cyberspace to disparage and denounce the show. It received brickbats again after the brutal rape of Sansa Stark in the episode Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken.
When the overuse of depravity and sexual violence seemed to grab more eyeballs than the rich characterisation and plot details, the writer himself stepped in to clarify. "Rape and sexual violence have been a part of every war ever fought, from the ancient Sumerians to our present day....To omit them from a narrative centered on war and power would have been fundamentally false and dishonest,” George R. R. Martin said in an interview to The New York Times. The show's creator David Benioff, too, defended the excessive sexual violence and gore, saying this is "what feels authentic to the world of the show".
Nonetheless, the show wasn't bereft of the presence of strong women even in the first few years. From the brave Brienne of Tarth, the scheming Lady Olenna Tyrell and her equally conniving granddaughter Margaery, the mysterious Melisandre, the fierce Yara Greyjoy, the gritty Ygritte to the ‘needle’ wielding youngest Stark girl Arya, the fantasy drama had a fair share of formidable women. Be as it may, the Seven Kingdoms were still a domain of men and their machismo.
Seasons have passed and the tables have been turned on men. The mighty blockes, who once we thought would rule Westeros, have mostly fallen or have been relegated to playing second fiddles to women of strong will. Sure, there’s the half-hearted King of the North, Jon Snow, and the Machiavellian Petyr Baelish. But Snow is too preoccupied with the White Walkers and Littlefinger’s chances of occupying the throne are next to nil. The Westeros now is women’s for the taking.
Six seasons ago, Danny was just a beautiful woman, who her brother Viserys Targaryen thought would make a perfect gift to the Khal of Dothraki tribe whose assistance he sought to regain the Iron Throne. But a few seasons and a few tests by fires later, she is back at her ancestral home, Dragonstone, with a wise Lannister by her side, dragons above her and an army of the Unsullied and the Second Sons at her beck and call. The throne and the Seven Kingdoms are almost hers.
Prominent among the women players, which include the current crowd favourite little lady Lyanna Mormont, is Sansa Stark, who was once written off by all. Toughened by years of adversity and deceit she faced at the hands of almost every man she came into contact with, the beautiful Stark girl is now a seasoned leader and the latest episode had her sitting alongside her half-brother Snow and discussing diplomacy. “You have to be smarter than father; you need to be smarter than Robb…they made stupid mistakes,” she tells Snow. The show has come a long way, and so has Sansa.
“I’m going to kill the queen," tells the shape-shifting Arya Stark to a band of Lannister soldiers in the latest episode of the series. She means every word of it as she has been striking names off from her kill list with a gleeful smile. She may not sit on the throne, for she has no desire to do so. But Arya is powerful enough to upset the plans of the few who are still on her list and Cersei is one of them. She ruthlessly murdered Walder Frey and the entire hoard of Freys, and she intends to kill again. There seems to be nothing 'a girl' can't do.
Despite all the maliciousness she possessed and influence she wielded in the Kings Landing, Cersei Lannister was fairly powerless. She was wholly consumed by the love for her steadily dying children and her insatiable lust for her brother. That was until the moment of her walk of shame. She emerged from the walk, more vengeful than ever. “I killed your High Sparrow and all his little sparrows, all his septons, all his septas, all his filthy soldiers, because it felt good to watch them burn,” she says, while sipping her wine in The Winds of Winter. She is vengeful, she is power hungry, she is unstoppable, the woman.
The nudity has been scaled down and the misogyny and subjugation of women is far gone, for the Westeros now belongs to women. Did anyone say fortune favours the fairer sex?
