Oh good, I'm glad. I think you're right, it's a matter of degree. And thanks for sharing that bit about George saying she came in looking like Brienne (I must've missed that).
Having a hefty dose of skepticism when it comes to HBO is just good sense. I'm so tired of the few sexposition scenes; the couple they added to the series were so unnecessary. :-/ Still, there's been a lot of faithful adaptation from book to TV series -- some of the creative choices have been really well done.
Speaking of prettifying examples, we already have one: Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont. He's apparently supposed to be a big, hulking, unattractive bear of a man aka NOT THIS. *pauses to drool* And his story does revolve around his not being attractive (it's partly why Dany isn't attracted to him), but there's not much ado about this shift from book to series because the only person in the ASOIAF world who cares about Jorah's looks is Dany.
I do think there's a significant degree of gendered judgment of Brienne; she's so talented as a knight, strong and loyal, yet the aspect everyone keeps harking to is that she's a masculine-type female. Like with Tyrion, she's doing a man's job yet falling short of the expected standard (kinda like how Dany calls the Unsullied "not men"). There's so much noise made of Brienne being unattractive because as a woman she's expected to be attractive, demure, graceful, and feminine. So yeah, it's back to a matter of degree. I think how the ASOIAF people react to Brienne's looks is more extreme because she's a woman, not solely because she's really that ugly.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-07-09 01:57 am (UTC)Oh good, I'm glad. I think you're right, it's a matter of degree. And thanks for sharing that bit about George saying she came in looking like Brienne (I must've missed that).
Having a hefty dose of skepticism when it comes to HBO is just good sense. I'm so tired of the few sexposition scenes; the couple they added to the series were so unnecessary. :-/ Still, there's been a lot of faithful adaptation from book to TV series -- some of the creative choices have been really well done.
Speaking of prettifying examples, we already have one: Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont. He's apparently supposed to be a big, hulking, unattractive bear of a man aka NOT THIS. *pauses to drool* And his story does revolve around his not being attractive (it's partly why Dany isn't attracted to him), but there's not much ado about this shift from book to series because the only person in the ASOIAF world who cares about Jorah's looks is Dany.
I do think there's a significant degree of gendered judgment of Brienne; she's so talented as a knight, strong and loyal, yet the aspect everyone keeps harking to is that she's a masculine-type female. Like with Tyrion, she's doing a man's job yet falling short of the expected standard (kinda like how Dany calls the Unsullied "not men"). There's so much noise made of Brienne being unattractive because as a woman she's expected to be attractive, demure, graceful, and feminine. So yeah, it's back to a matter of degree. I think how the ASOIAF people react to Brienne's looks is more extreme because she's a woman, not solely because she's really that ugly.