A Girl and A Boy: The Avenging Dragons

In response to the many similarities and differences concerning “Game of Thrones” star female ruler, Daenerys, and “Histories of the Kings of Britain” destined male ruler, Arthur Pendragon, I would like to expand on their lineage and the historical underpinnings of their story and burdens. Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama series by George R.R. Martin that faithfully adapts several key elements of magic, sword play, dragons, and supernatural creatures found in the literary material while incorporating an aptly selected scenery that spans most of Northern Ireland. The series is predicated on the tale of continuous civil war between the seven houses of westeros and their endeavors to control the kingdom by obtaining the Iron Throne.

Firstly, some of the differences between king Arthur and Daenerys is situated with the coming of their births. However, I would love to expand on both characters in terms of their being. Both have a divine or mystic nature to them, while also being heavily associated with Dragons. Daenerys was the last of the Targaryen race, whose claim to throne and childhood are a little more complicated.  Being born of a dying lineage, Daenerys, the daughter of the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen who was driven insane by the multiple still births of his lineage with his child, was born a female. Eventually, Aerys was also betrayed by his allies, the Baratheons who took his thrown as King of the Seven Kingdoms and created a new rule with the Lannisters. As a woman, in this world, Daenerys birth right was overshadowed by family mental history, her young age and youth, as well with the existence of her incestuous rapist male sibling, Viscerys. Eventually, Danerys becomes the "mother of dragons", and the “unburned”. When the last Targaryen’s died with their dragons, the magic realm was changed forever and became very elusive. The generations that were able to unite and manipulate magic became of the old legends, and the first children’s stories. This omission or disappearance of magic is much like, the disappearance of Merlin, but also serves to give Daenerys a competitive edge upon the death of her brother. In comparison, Arthur was born and prophesied after a dragon shaped comet that scorched the sky shortly before the death of his father, who (let’s not forget) was Uther Pendragon. In the histories of the king of Britain Arthur Pendragon, was also born of a dying lineage. At the time his father Uther Pendragon, and uncle Aurelius Pendragon were still defending their British homeland against the Saxons, with every war their health and ability to lead diminished. Arthur was conceived in a time of need, and prophesied by Merlin as a heroic successor destined to bring Britain relief and freedom from the long history of betrayal and past transgressions against the British nobility and its people. Upon Arthur’s birth a great light in the form of a dragon pierced the sky across all the lands, as a divine and miraculous symbol of the removal of oppression.

Speaking of Symbols: Historically (and in the picture provided), we can see that the sigil for King Arthur is a red dragon, much like the one Merlin alludes to in HKB. In Game of thrones, the sigil for the Targaryen’s is actually a three-headed dragon, which more closely alludes to the devil and the end of the world, but for this blog post it will be associated with the mentioned rulers :D. King Arthur united Britain and rescued his people from the clutches of slavery, while Aerys united Westeros, and Daenerys intends to do again. However, both men failed their country, and dare I say it I think Daenerys will also fail if history continues to repeat itself. It should be noted that in an interview George R. R Martin did state that he did not base anyone character on a previous historical entity on a one to one base, but did draw a lot from English History

 Overall, while I agree that Arthur's and Daenerys's most notable characteristics being conquerors and rulers who had a true heart and respect for their peopl. eApart from being neglected the privilege of having a celestial being announce her birth to the world, the one defying characteristic of Daenerys is not her magic ability of being “unburnt” but rather her luck and innocence. Daenerys as a benevolent ruler, is vastly undermined by her blatant inability to lead, and shoddy approach to rule. By the first season of the “Game of Thrones” series, her attempt to assimilate into the Dothraki culture causes civil dissension and mutiny, while also killing her husband. Instead of being overthrown, the birth of her Dragons give her the power to free... and eventually re-enslave the peoples of Mureen in Slaver’s bay. In short, Khaleesi has made the mistakes of a soldier trying to be King, inadvertently leading to many unnecessary deaths and eventually the decline of entire races…. At least Arthur only failed Britain. 

Claymore: Empowering or Degrading Women

Claymore, a medieval anime set on a fictional island terrorized by human-eating demons called Yoma, is about a group of female knights that are hybridized with the demons, by a group called The Organization, to enhance their strengths and abilities so they can defend the cities they are assigned 

to. Besides the obvious issue of all these women being blonde haired, blue eyed "beauties" (claimed to be a side-effect of gaining "enhanced" abilities) and obvious issues with their "armor" you would think, at a glance, this story was promoting female empowerment with all female main characters. However, similar to the Albina Myth, women are viewed as beings who are driven by sexual desire which is why they are so well suited to combine with these demon-like Yoma beings. Like Albina and her sisters copulating with demons and giving birth to giants the Claymore Knights fusing with Yoma is described as a sexual climax and males proved to be insufficient at this act.  On top of this, because of womens' "volatile nature" they are known to becoming an Awakened Being which is a Claymore who has used her ability too much and has become too unstable and shifts form into a demon herself, their organization tries to control them but they leave and rampage the land. Now this doesn't mean that there aren't any male Claymore or Awakened Beings but they are far and few between (1 for every 5-10 women).

This representation, dissimilar to our current stories where women are in positions of (religious) power and persuade men to change, Claymore is a group of powerful women who are secretly being controlled by The Organization, which is found to be a group of old men. This story reflects more of the stories in our first unit like HKB, the Albina Myth, and even King of Tars where women's actions were dictated by ruling men and, in some instances, they had to defy them if there was any hope of freedom but this freedom was usually met with some form of negativity in the eyes of the society at the time (Albina sleeping with demons). With the King of Tars the princess's path is dictated by her father, the king, but she is given some religious power by being sent to the sultan.

Although a tale of a group of all female knights seems to be a step in the right direction the implementation of this tale resembles a step backwards towards some of the stories of old and leaves much room for improvement. 

Misogyny or Misandry? One Story With Several Readings

So another one of the Canterbury Tales is called The Wife of Bath’s Tale. Chaucer’s story tells that there was a knight in the time of King Arthur who raped a fair maiden, and he was brought before Arthur’s court to be punished. The court decided to put the knight to death, but then Guinevere and the ladies of the court interceded. They decided that if the knight could find out “what thing it is that women most desire” within a year, they would spare his life. So he sets out and I’ll tell you about the ending as I go along. Scholars disagree quite a bit about whether this story is pro-feminist or anti-feminist, but I found a blog where some people think that the answer is obvious. According to the blog, The Wife of Bath’s Tale demonstrates the cruel power women have over men in a gynocentric (woman-focused) society.

Although Chaucer says the knight rapes the maiden, the blog is insistent that you remember that “most men, like most primates” don’t rape people. This is true, but why it needs to be mentioned I couldn’t say. The blog considers it typical that the knight is asked what women desire and rightly points out that “[f]ew today can even imagine asking the question, ‘what do men desire?’” but doesn’t seem to understand why this is. The question of “what women want” has plagued men throughout history because women are considered to be an alien species, mysterious and beyond comprehension. The question of what men want has been answered plenty of times—Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the 1953 film states, and Cosmopolitan magazine strives to answer it with every issue—but in the end we know that the question is ridiculous because men want a lot of things and every man is different. It’s refreshing that Chaucer acknowledges that every woman wants something different too, because as the knight went around asking women what they most desire, he could not find “two creatures agreeing together.”

No, I don't want to know what Mel Gibson thinks women want, either.

Until, that is, he met an old woman who promised to give him the answer if he would promise to do whatever she asked. Desperate, he agreed, and she whispered into his ear what to tell the queen. In front of the court the knight declared that “without exception, women desire to have sovereignty as well over her husband as her love, and to be mastery above him.” All the women agreed, and the knight was not executed. The old woman, called the “loathly lady”, then insisted that the knight fulfill his promise by marrying her. He was horrified, but he was forced to give in. “In short, under today’s understanding,” the blog says, “he was raped.” That’s pretty awful. But perhaps we should keep in mind that the knight is in this predicament because he raped a woman by force. Moreover, the blog says, the knight didn’t receive any mercy regarding “the oppressive terms” of his “ill-considered agreement” because he was a man, but he already received mercy from the queen when he was sentenced to death, so maybe he just used up his only “get out of jail free” card.

The loathly lady realized that her new husband didn’t want to touch her because she was so ugly, so she offered him a choice: she could turn herself beautiful, with the result that she would then be plagued by suitors and wouldn’t promise to turn them down, or she could remain ugly and be a “true, humble wife” and never cheat on him and never displease him. Having learned some humility (as I say) or “repressed his desires, nullified his independent thinking, and surrendered his rational agency to his wife” (as the blog says), the knight gave the wife her choice, saying:

My lady and my love, and wife so dear,
I put me in your wise governance;
Choose yourself which may be most pleasure
And most honor to you and me also.

The blog makes it sound as if this applies to every decision ever, instead of just one that has a huge effect on the lady’s body and behavior and that she therefore has a vested interest in. She confirms:

“Then have I gotten mastery of you,” she said,
“Since I may choose and govern as I please?”
“Yes, certainly, wife,” he said, “I consider it best.”

And then she turns beautiful and declares that, since he said the right thing, she will be not only young and beautiful but a perfect, loving, obedient wife, and basically they live happily ever after. So the rapist got a “fairytale” ending instead of his head cut off, and the woman was allowed to have bodily autonomy, and the blogger thinks this is terrible. This must just be a story like the Albina myth, in which two people can happily argue the exact opposite reading with almost the exact same words. Is this a misandrist story because the woman gets control over her husband, or is it a misogynistic story because it portrays women as wanting nothing less than total control of their husbands? Is this story perpetuating negative stereotypes or advocating for some degree of autonomy for women? You decide!

A translation of the tale:

http://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/wbt-par.htm

The blog’s take on the tale:

http://gynocentrism.com/2015/09/12/wife-of-bath-criminal-justice-mens-subordination-to-women/