Academic Discourse - Tumblr Posts
Chicago style both ways is fucking beloved, @ me MLA users you are all weak.
The Abject in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones.
The abject status of Tyrion Lannister in his relationship with his father and sister (Cersei and Tywin).
His physical appearance is frequently used by his family to belittle and humiliate him. Tywin, in particular, is disdainful of Tyrion's physical disability and sees him as a stain on the Lannister family's reputation and his own personal curse. He blames him for the death of his mother in childbirth, even though Tyrion is the only one that is completely blameless. He did not ask to be brought into the world. In one scene in A Clash of Kings, Tywin tells Tyrion, "You are an ill-made, spiteful little creature full of envy, lust, and low cunning." This shows how Tyrion's abject status is linked to his physical deformity, as well as his position within the Lannister family.
Cersei also uses Tyrion's abject status to undermine him, portraying him as weak and powerless. In A Storm of Swords, Cersei says of Tyrion, "He is a dwarf, a stunted twisted little monkey who's no fit consort for a queen." Cersei's use of animalistic language here further emphasizes Tyrion's abject status, as she portrays him as subhuman and less than fully human by representing him as a monkey. This is similar to her father’s treatment of Tyrion in calling him a “creature.”
Despite his family's efforts to marginalize and exclude him, Tyrion is a character who refuses to be defined by his abject status. He is highly intelligent and resourceful, and often uses his wit and cunning to outmaneuver his enemies. In A Clash of Kings, and on the show Game of Thrones in the Battle of the Blackwater, for example, he manages to repel an attack on King's Landing by using a hidden cache of wildfire to destroy a large portion of Stannis Baratheon's fleet.
By representing Tyrion as abject, Martin is able to highlight the often cruel and arbitrary nature of social hierarchies. Tyrion's exclusion from society is not based on anything he has done, but rather on factors outside of his control, such as his physical appearance and his family background. This serves as a critique of the unjust nature of social systems and the way in which they marginalize and exclude certain groups of people.
By portraying Tyrion as both abject and heroic, Martin is able to challenge the dominant narratives of heroism and villainy in fantasy literature. Instead of being a typical hero who embodies strength and perfection, Tyrion is a flawed and vulnerable character who is forced to navigate a hostile world in order to survive. Through his character, Martin is able to explore the complexities of power, politics, and identity, and to challenge readers' assumptions about what it means to be a hero or a villain.
Further Reading:
Young, J. R. (2021). Useful little men: George R. R. Martin's dwarfs as grotesque realists. Mythlore, 39(137), 77-95,77A
Felluga, D. (2011) "Modules on Kristeva: On the Abject." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. Purdue U.
I have never heard this term POV trap before coming to Tumblr. You are supposed to empathize with the point of view character in some way it is an exercise in building emotional intelligence. Look into Reader Response Theory (The theory maintains that textual meaning occurs within the reader in response to text and recognizes that each reader is situated in a particular manner that includes factors such as ability, culture, gender, and overall experiences.) This is a natural reader response and there is no such thing as a POV trap, people are just uncomfortable with their own reactions to the text...
I think we (humans) in general need to get used to the idea that sometimes life is uncomfortable, ugly and imperfect (most of the time) and that everything is not on it's face good or evil. WE are not reading to find the good guys. We are reading to open ourselves up to new experiences, all of them not necessarily positive, so that we train our brains both emotionally and intellectually for the life we are living.
I think most people just get deceived by the "pov trap" so they think Tyrion is some underdog poor boi "he was in AGOT" but actually he is very dark inside, and honestly one of the most disgusting and disturbing pov characters, his behaviour towards Sansa is just.... Also the fact he wants to rape Cersei so badly like yeah i love his character but compares to other povs ? He is so misgonystic to the point of violence and sexual abuse. I think Cersei gets so much hate when her actions are NOT that different from Tyrion's.
yeah, the fact that tyrion has literally legions of fans, while cersei is so reviled, is definitely a prominent example of sexism clouding people's judgments. tyrion not only fantasizes about raping cersei in ADWD, but he also has frequent sexual thoughts in relation to her throughout the books - he often looks at her breasts, remarks on her beauty, one time he tells her something to the extent that if she fucks one brother she should also fuck the other etc there's an interesting but fucked up dynamic at play here, as tyrion is also jealous of jaime and really craves his family's affection, whichever shape it might take
this is v funny bc fans tend to separate tyrion from his siblings as "the good lannister" whereas i have the feeling that he would have been over the moon if cersei fawned over him and gave him the jaime treatment. lannisters truly are obsessed with each other.
tyrion/cersei is a much less analysed ship but here's another pairing for you freaks out there (affectionate) you're welcome