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We Love the Women Fandom Hates: Catelyn Stark (Day 6: Why A Song of Ice and Fire Needs Her)
Sitting on third base, angling for home tomorrow! At least, it's late, I hope there are only three bases in baseball. There was that time when I was playing scales in piano and accidentally invented a note, "H." Except no, because that implies there's been only one time in my entire piano career that I've inadvertently renamed A "H."
More to the point, WLtWFH business as usual, and that business is spoilers.
Why A Song of Ice and Fire Needs Her
Or, You Can't Tell This Story With Just Jon Snow And Daenerys Targaryen
So if this week has been functioning as a long apologia for Catelyn Stark as a character, one thing my posts may not have done so far is convinced anyone to like her. Like I said in my introduction on Day 1, I wouldn't guilt anyone for not doing so, and I'm not really expecting that to happen either. I think it's a fruitless endeavor to try and manufacture an emotional connection with a character that doesn't exist and it leads to a lot of resentment on the part of readers who just don't get the appeal of a certain character. But where does that leave me? Theoretically, that leaves me just defending her against unjust criticism and explaining aspects of her character, never advancing any positive arguments of my own.
Not so! Today -- tonight -- uh, today I'm here to talk about why A Song of Ice and Fire would be poorer, no, impossible, without the character of Catelyn Stark. Love her, hate her, feel overwhelmingly indifferent to her, but she's here to stay and she's here to stay as the character that she is: the flawed, frustrating character that she is. And here are some reasons why she had to be that way.
1. She is a type of major female character the story would've lacked otherwise: a traditional, conservative, but sympathetic woman. A Song of Ice and Fire isn't lacking for strong or fascinating female characters by any means, even narrowed down to its POV characters: Daenerys Targaryen is the woman who takes herself from being a pawned-off young girl to a messianic dragon queen by sheer dint of her own daring and force of personality. Arya Stark is the noble daughter who survives the deaths of her family, complete upheaval of her own life, and countless battles and kidnappings and endangerment that all only steel her to become a Faceless Man and avenge her family and destroyed life. Brienne of Tarth is the lady-knight who not only can best many male knights older and bigger than herself but remains genuinely virtuous and heroic despite the world's persecution and stirs the last spark of honor in cynical Jaime Lannister. And that's not to mention the character journey of Sansa Stark. But what Catelyn contributes that none of them do is the story of a woman who acts within the boundaries of her gender role in her society and doesn't aspire otherwise, but still is the primary leadership figure in her faction and a dominant, plot-moving force. Daenerys is unconventional, Arya and Brienne take roles usually taken by men, and Sansa is for a long time less sympathetic than the others; Catelyn is a protagonist from day one, but a lady and mother from day one also, and these things are strongly important to her identity. "Feminist" gender-role-defying heroines are not uncommon in fantasy, but women who aren't either tomboys or one-dimensional sweet happy wives are not. Catelyn provides that. In fact, the very act of paying nuanced mind to the life of a "conventional" woman in fantasy is unconventional.
2. She's a needed perspective on the Stark storyline. Much attention is given to Ned Stark, due to his untimely and horrifying death. He's often spoken of as the protagonist of A Game of Thrones. But it's arguable that Ned is the decoy protagonist of A Game of Thrones, setting up the real protagonist of the Stark storyline, which until the "Stark storyline" itself shatters per se in A Storm of Swords is definitely Cat. If the Starks are the house the reader's meant to most closely identify with, of the Great Houses, then Cat is the closest reader window on it: Sansa and Arya are quickly separated, Bran's story is mostly irrelevant to it, Jon's at the Wall, Ned's in his grave, and Rickon's a baby. Other than that there's Robb, but none of the Five Kings are viewpoint characters, and there's a reason for that -- just as it maintains storyline suspense about Stannis's actions to have Davos as a viewpoint character, Robb's actions are a little bit more unpredictable through Cat's eyes than they would be through Robb's. In addition, Cat does in fact do a lot more active politicking than Robb overall; like I noted, she acts as his semi-regent. Without Cat as the dedicated and meddlesome lady mother that she is, we wouldn't have her viewpoint to watch the King in the North storyline unfold through.
3. She allows the metaplot mystery of Jon Snow to continue. If she often takes flak for both her distant relationship with Ned and the way she treats Jon, it's a pity, because Jon's plotline actually depends on it. The mystery surrounding Jon Snow and the circumstances of his birth just wouldn't have been possible if Cat had an intimate, secret-confiding relationship with Ned, or if she embraced Jon with open arms. It wouldn't have been as plausible or understandable for Ned to keep it a secret for that long. Given the secret's importance to the ASoIaF plot, making it a notch less believable that Cat wouldn't know about it would've strained audience credibility and made any eventual revelation (such as the Rhaegar/Lyanna theory, among others) harder on the suspension of disbelief. A little bit of mistrust in the family Stark was needful. Cat had to be instrumental.
4. She takes action. Readers have a tendency to side with characters they can relate to, ones whom things happen to, victims of fate who make do with what they have. A lot of beginning writers make all their protagonists driftwood bobbing around in a sea of events as a result. However, not all characters can be driftwood, and an intricate plot like ASoIaF's can't be supported on driftwood. Cat is willful and hot-headed to the degree that she is because she'd have to be to do things like decide to arrest Tyrion Lannister or to release Jaime to bargain for her daughters. If every ASoIaF character was Tyrion, whose life is basically a series of extremely unfortunate events, Tyrion wouldn't get to be Tyrion -- some people have to be confident and risktaking enough to take action and set things in motion. Ned couldn't be one of these people, as it was against his personality; Cat is one of these people. It's often something demonized in female characters, but it's one of the strengths of the books.
5. She makes mistakes. Speaking of things readers can demonize in female characters -- screwing up. There's no getting around it, Cat screws up. One of the greatest selling points of ASoIaF, though, in my opinion, is that it's full of characters who screw up and consequences of massive screwups and problems caused just by hasty action and lack of communication. Cat's no better than anyone else here, though people often want her to be, and her human ability to just plain fuck up on many an occasion (as with Tyrion) prevents her and other people from solving the plot annoyingly quickly. Readers have a tendency to forget that the annoying things about characters that frustrate them as they read would frustrate them more in the letdown that would happen if the characters did succeed too easily. If Cat were a perfect mother, then the King in the North might've won the War of the Five Kings. If Cat were a perfect wife, Ned and Jon might've been closer to her and more open with her. If Cat were a perfect friend, Petyr Baelish might not have gone down this precise path in life. Even if any of these things are true -- and there's no guarantee they are -- and even if she were responsible for them 100% -- and she's not -- they'd kill the story. No one's perfect in ASoIaF. And thank God for that, eh?
Earlier I asked rhetorically how House Stark would've gone without the presence of Cat. Now, also rhetorically, I pose a broader question: if not Catelyn Tully, what character would've done better for the story in her stead? When you're appreciating the characters in an ensemble cast, it's important to remember to appreciate not just the ones whose lines you want to quote, but the ones who do things that you couldn't have done without. It's not just House Stark that Cat bolsters with her presence, but the women in the story as a whole, and the story as a whole.
More to the point, WLtWFH business as usual, and that business is spoilers.
Why A Song of Ice and Fire Needs Her
Or, You Can't Tell This Story With Just Jon Snow And Daenerys Targaryen
So if this week has been functioning as a long apologia for Catelyn Stark as a character, one thing my posts may not have done so far is convinced anyone to like her. Like I said in my introduction on Day 1, I wouldn't guilt anyone for not doing so, and I'm not really expecting that to happen either. I think it's a fruitless endeavor to try and manufacture an emotional connection with a character that doesn't exist and it leads to a lot of resentment on the part of readers who just don't get the appeal of a certain character. But where does that leave me? Theoretically, that leaves me just defending her against unjust criticism and explaining aspects of her character, never advancing any positive arguments of my own.
Not so! Today -- tonight -- uh, today I'm here to talk about why A Song of Ice and Fire would be poorer, no, impossible, without the character of Catelyn Stark. Love her, hate her, feel overwhelmingly indifferent to her, but she's here to stay and she's here to stay as the character that she is: the flawed, frustrating character that she is. And here are some reasons why she had to be that way.
1. She is a type of major female character the story would've lacked otherwise: a traditional, conservative, but sympathetic woman. A Song of Ice and Fire isn't lacking for strong or fascinating female characters by any means, even narrowed down to its POV characters: Daenerys Targaryen is the woman who takes herself from being a pawned-off young girl to a messianic dragon queen by sheer dint of her own daring and force of personality. Arya Stark is the noble daughter who survives the deaths of her family, complete upheaval of her own life, and countless battles and kidnappings and endangerment that all only steel her to become a Faceless Man and avenge her family and destroyed life. Brienne of Tarth is the lady-knight who not only can best many male knights older and bigger than herself but remains genuinely virtuous and heroic despite the world's persecution and stirs the last spark of honor in cynical Jaime Lannister. And that's not to mention the character journey of Sansa Stark. But what Catelyn contributes that none of them do is the story of a woman who acts within the boundaries of her gender role in her society and doesn't aspire otherwise, but still is the primary leadership figure in her faction and a dominant, plot-moving force. Daenerys is unconventional, Arya and Brienne take roles usually taken by men, and Sansa is for a long time less sympathetic than the others; Catelyn is a protagonist from day one, but a lady and mother from day one also, and these things are strongly important to her identity. "Feminist" gender-role-defying heroines are not uncommon in fantasy, but women who aren't either tomboys or one-dimensional sweet happy wives are not. Catelyn provides that. In fact, the very act of paying nuanced mind to the life of a "conventional" woman in fantasy is unconventional.
2. She's a needed perspective on the Stark storyline. Much attention is given to Ned Stark, due to his untimely and horrifying death. He's often spoken of as the protagonist of A Game of Thrones. But it's arguable that Ned is the decoy protagonist of A Game of Thrones, setting up the real protagonist of the Stark storyline, which until the "Stark storyline" itself shatters per se in A Storm of Swords is definitely Cat. If the Starks are the house the reader's meant to most closely identify with, of the Great Houses, then Cat is the closest reader window on it: Sansa and Arya are quickly separated, Bran's story is mostly irrelevant to it, Jon's at the Wall, Ned's in his grave, and Rickon's a baby. Other than that there's Robb, but none of the Five Kings are viewpoint characters, and there's a reason for that -- just as it maintains storyline suspense about Stannis's actions to have Davos as a viewpoint character, Robb's actions are a little bit more unpredictable through Cat's eyes than they would be through Robb's. In addition, Cat does in fact do a lot more active politicking than Robb overall; like I noted, she acts as his semi-regent. Without Cat as the dedicated and meddlesome lady mother that she is, we wouldn't have her viewpoint to watch the King in the North storyline unfold through.
3. She allows the metaplot mystery of Jon Snow to continue. If she often takes flak for both her distant relationship with Ned and the way she treats Jon, it's a pity, because Jon's plotline actually depends on it. The mystery surrounding Jon Snow and the circumstances of his birth just wouldn't have been possible if Cat had an intimate, secret-confiding relationship with Ned, or if she embraced Jon with open arms. It wouldn't have been as plausible or understandable for Ned to keep it a secret for that long. Given the secret's importance to the ASoIaF plot, making it a notch less believable that Cat wouldn't know about it would've strained audience credibility and made any eventual revelation (such as the Rhaegar/Lyanna theory, among others) harder on the suspension of disbelief. A little bit of mistrust in the family Stark was needful. Cat had to be instrumental.
4. She takes action. Readers have a tendency to side with characters they can relate to, ones whom things happen to, victims of fate who make do with what they have. A lot of beginning writers make all their protagonists driftwood bobbing around in a sea of events as a result. However, not all characters can be driftwood, and an intricate plot like ASoIaF's can't be supported on driftwood. Cat is willful and hot-headed to the degree that she is because she'd have to be to do things like decide to arrest Tyrion Lannister or to release Jaime to bargain for her daughters. If every ASoIaF character was Tyrion, whose life is basically a series of extremely unfortunate events, Tyrion wouldn't get to be Tyrion -- some people have to be confident and risktaking enough to take action and set things in motion. Ned couldn't be one of these people, as it was against his personality; Cat is one of these people. It's often something demonized in female characters, but it's one of the strengths of the books.
5. She makes mistakes. Speaking of things readers can demonize in female characters -- screwing up. There's no getting around it, Cat screws up. One of the greatest selling points of ASoIaF, though, in my opinion, is that it's full of characters who screw up and consequences of massive screwups and problems caused just by hasty action and lack of communication. Cat's no better than anyone else here, though people often want her to be, and her human ability to just plain fuck up on many an occasion (as with Tyrion) prevents her and other people from solving the plot annoyingly quickly. Readers have a tendency to forget that the annoying things about characters that frustrate them as they read would frustrate them more in the letdown that would happen if the characters did succeed too easily. If Cat were a perfect mother, then the King in the North might've won the War of the Five Kings. If Cat were a perfect wife, Ned and Jon might've been closer to her and more open with her. If Cat were a perfect friend, Petyr Baelish might not have gone down this precise path in life. Even if any of these things are true -- and there's no guarantee they are -- and even if she were responsible for them 100% -- and she's not -- they'd kill the story. No one's perfect in ASoIaF. And thank God for that, eh?
Earlier I asked rhetorically how House Stark would've gone without the presence of Cat. Now, also rhetorically, I pose a broader question: if not Catelyn Tully, what character would've done better for the story in her stead? When you're appreciating the characters in an ensemble cast, it's important to remember to appreciate not just the ones whose lines you want to quote, but the ones who do things that you couldn't have done without. It's not just House Stark that Cat bolsters with her presence, but the women in the story as a whole, and the story as a whole.