Here’s the thing that worries me about ‘the moment’: If you don’t subscribe to it (meaning shape your message to identify with it) then somehow you are suddenly lacking.
I should start at the beginning.
Game of Thrones is a fantastically old outline that was written by a fairly misogynistic author named George RR Martin. He thought up the ideas of how the story would end decades before the arrival of the me too movement and present energy on female leadership and positive roles. He did this and then they made a really famous show that landed smack dab in the middle of the ‘Ms. Marvel’ era. So, what I am saying is there ought to be no expectation that it ends in a way that promotes the roles we have come to realize are more positive for women. That is the equivalent of asking Mrs. Brady to act differently because now we want her to or to expect June Cleaver not to treat her husband in the fashion that seemingly fit her needs and desires of the era.
So, I am saying not to expect GoT to be a reflection of the now. In a larger sense I am saying not to expect writing–especially fiction–to be a mirror of the world we live in. Fiction is a lens into possibility. Fantasy and Science Fiction are both nakedly reflective of the worlds we either want or fear and often of both. They are ‘Black Mirrors’ if you will, and not meant to be Fan Service of an idea of ‘the way it is now’
So, what led to this argument? I saw an article post on CNN about how GoT missed its moment to be something amazing by shaping the lead female into something that everyone wanted her to be. I find that argument to be deeply immature and relatively stupid. If anything, GoT showed us solid character journeys and in one such journey we did get to see a woman become that woman. In truth more than one reached her place in that sense. Still, we aren’t talking about them. We are talking about the one ‘we care about’ the one that ended far far worse.