Min Farshaw, Arya Stark, and Maisie Williams

[Sammuel]

 

 

This is not fan casting, which is why I wanted to put this thread in the book section. I can't get into why Min is my favorite character right now but she is, even though a lot of what I love about her might be fan fiction I've written in my head. And I wanted to talk to everyone, especially the ladies on here, and get their thoughts on a possible body image crisis Min Farshaw might have had that kind of got ignored.

 

Book 6 & 7 is when Min finally get's to be with Rand, and even though she's still wearing coats and britches instead of dresses she makes an effort to make her attire more feminine and appealing to Rand, even though she struggles with the idea of changing herself for a boy. Kind of an annoying section in the book is when she slut shames Berelain and then immediately decides to get low cut blouses made for her. To a lot of fans minds, she's become the silly lover girl that she promised she wouldn't become. 

 

Lord of Chaos comes out 1994. A Game of Thrones comes out 1996, and we meet Arya Stark. I think George RR Martin was keeping up with WoT, and there are things in ASOI&F that respond to it. Firstly that in WoT, Daes Dae'mar is ridiculed by most of the protagonist throughout the series, and they usually prefer to use strength rather than play in this deadly game, so GRRM decided to show us what happens when someone is strong and noble, but bad at playing politics. We can dig deeper into that another time. But more importantly for this discussion is Arya Stark, who shares a lot of attributes with Min. It's not just that they both are tomboys, but that they have a kind of egalitarian sense of justice, both are smart, both seem to have an easier time making friends with old rough men than women their own age, and they both pretty much grow up having to look after themselves, although Min has her Aunts I guess. But it seems like GRRM wanted Arya to be a Min Farshaw with more integrity, that follows through on not being a damsel or lover girl. And so far Arya has followed through on this, on the books and the show.

 

Which brings us to Maisie Williams, who had the responsibility of bringing this character to life. The thing is that she was not only great playing Arya, but she was a fun personality off-screen, and talked freely about whatever was on her mind. So I want to draw your attention to this article that you guys might have seen already if you're GoT fans.

 

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/maisie-williams-arya-stark-game-of-thrones-affected-her-body-image

 

Basically playing a character that was supposed to be devoid of sexuality, and was suppose to be disguised as a boy while going through puberty effected her body image, and her relationship with femininity. After writing all this, I realize this might be a stretch in the point I was making, but it get's me thinking about the mixed messages women get about how to feel about the feminine. 

 

Reading the article about Maisie Williams is what got me thinking that maybe Min was having a kind of weird body image crisis in these two books that never got addressed. In fact, sadly, a lot of Min's trauma is never addressed, so I just kind of assumed it's always been there and that Jordan just forgot to tell us. The first conversation she hands with Rand does not leave us feeling like "Hey, Rand just talked to this pretty girl who gave him a prophecy, I wonder if they'll get together later" as much as "Rand just talked to this psycho lady who uses the same words the dark one used." Later on she's acknowledged as being pretty "despite" wearing boys clothing, and she seems like she appreciates being acknowledged for her looks, and being acknowledged as a sexual being, after resisting being this way for so long. Personally, I'm not a fan of the heeled boots, and would have loved it if Rand had just told her she could be herself at any point, but her changes in a way point to almost exactly what happened with Maisie Williams.

 

I'm not sure if I've described this as clearly as I would hope, and there might have been a key piece I left out, but I want to hear from you all. When I said particularly the ladies, that was mostly because I assume that Min is not as popular among female fans because she is the only major character in the books who's role is entirely dependent on their S/O, and also because I have the nerdy cliche in my head of nerdy fan girls who suddenly put on make up and dresses for the first time and are suddenly noticed by everyone around them. 

 

PS. It just got me thinking that someone like Daniel Radcliffe or Maisie Williams or Kit Harrington could be hired as consultants to tell Joshua Stradowski what it's like to have people only care about getting you to fulfill a destiny "completing a movie or Tv series of a beloved property" and not being acknowledged as a human being. Be good for preparing him to be dark Rand and whatever horrors being in a beloved property brings onto him.

 

 

[Harldin]

A bit if trivia for you.

There is actually a character in ASOIAF named 

Trebor Jordayne of house Jordayne,

Martin and Jordan were actually good friends, so a pretty fair chance there is some influences from WOT in ASOIAF, mind you that won’t stop some of the Show viewers claim that some stuff like Daes Da’mar has been stolen from GOT. 

[Sammuel]

7 hours ago, Harldin said:

A bit if trivia for you.

There is actually a character in ASOIAF named 

Trebor Jordayne of house Jordayne,

Martin and Jordan were actually good friends, so a pretty fair chance there is some influences from WOT in ASOIAF, mind you that won’t stop some of the Show viewers claim that some stuff like Daes Da’mar has been stolen from GOT. 

I'm sure they were friends, just like I'm sure Martin would have loved to know Tolkien. But I think that the main Characters don't take the political theater in WoT as seriously as they should, and Martin would have wanted to show the consequences of that.