#and ofc this is not about romantic love necessarily but thats often the implication of this whole comment

[ilynpilled]

That post about the concept of deserving when it comes to ASOIAF makes me think of the arguments about Jaime deserving Brienne

i mean i obviously hold the same opinion on that whole conversation too. this is a fictional story where relationships serve a thematic purpose. i can understand doylist criticism of certain trends in grrm’s writing (like the age gaps), but i personally will never give a shit about what a character “deserves” because they are not real people. they are tools to tell a story. brienne being a good person doesn’t mean her romantic arc being with an ideal/perfect partner that “deserves her” or whatever would make an interesting fictional story. jb is extremely thematically central as a relationship when it comes to exploring gender, constructs of beauty and ugliness, the battle between cynicism vs idealism, and synthesis when it comes to interrogating knighthood and its deeper existential meanings in the context of the text. if you take out the uglier parts of it then that story is no longer there, or the story is not as strong. i like jb bc i think it is a very thematically functioning dynamic, that is also very interesting to follow in canon. and i like the dynamic at a surface level too. i am fine with ppl who do not like it or care for it, but this brand of criticism means nothing to me personally. if you want more ugly female characters to be given romantic arcs that is understandable, which would mean a diversification of relationship dynamics, but this is one example with a specific intent, and it excels at that in my eyes.

#ask #also i do not think the text is saying that love is something we have to deserve #if u go down that rabbit hole u can say ohh but jaime deserves better than cersei this character deserves better than this character #no one is worse than this character therefore they should remain unlovable #who cares #witholding love entirely is what leads to characters being consumed by darkness #its a big part of tyrion’s story #and ofc this is not about romantic love necessarily but thats often the implication of this whole comment #idk there r a lot of layers to this whole discussion that i find very interesting #i get the whole women shouldnt have to rehabilitate men trend like ofc but brienne doesnt really do anything but show an example #she doesnt fall in love with him until he reveals himself to be different #she doesnt desperately want to change him #she just hates him thru most of asos #he changes independently #and jaime doesnt want to court her either he doesnt even know what he feels bc he is stupid