Xiya

I really enjoy the work that you put into this. It’s always interesting to watch a show and consider its implications, but then it’s so much more interesting to actually back it all up.

Just earlier I was speaking with my mom about GoT, and she was complaining that there aren’t really any ‘feminist’ characters. I know that I’ve also struggled at times with that critique, but in the end I have to say that the women are strong, and diverse in their strength. Brienne certainly is strong in a very different way from Cersei’s use of her female wiles and cunning to get her way. I feel that all the women show their strength in different ways, and personally I love to watch their characters develop (Dany, Arya, Sansa, I think they’ve all come really far)! I should definitely show this to her!

I also really like that you distinguished between strong female characters and feminists. I think that the show has a lot of strong female characters, but it’s interesting to question whether they are actually feminists as well.

I have to say, I love fanfiction, I’ve read it for years for fun and just over a year ago finally started to actually publish my own work. It has always been though a genre that I’m not so sure about. When it takes up majority of my reading and people ask me what I have been reading I’m reluctant to say ‘fan fiction’ because it’s simply not respected in the same way as a paper book.

Anyways, great article! I really like the work that you put into this. I think it’s very true, that originality in some ways is overrated. I also think that no matter how original a story is as writers we all have to learn from other people, something has to inspire us, and there is always going to be some amount of overlap, so why not use FF as a springboard into your own writing, kind of like as a way to practice writing as Gaiman and Cabot said.

In spite of how late I seem to be reading this, it’s really interesting! I remember when my friend first suggested “Reign” as a show that I would like because I enjoy historical fiction.
Back then, I balked because of the (in my opinion) horrendous costumes and what I considered to be a point-blank-pitiful attempt to mix popular culture and history together. What I have come to realize though, that in my snobbishness, I also went straight to the “very reliable” Wikipedia and re-familiarized myself with Mary Queen of Scot’s biography (as well as other aforementioned historical figures).
I think that you brought up a really good point, Kathryn, in that there is historical drama (that although you still take with a few grains of salt is trying to be somewhat historically accurate) and then historical fiction which is really just like Reign. You take people who lived, make them want to roll over in their graves, but the bigger point, I think is that you bring their existence to people who may not have otherwise been familiar or even the slightest bit interested in their lives.
Great article, I found it really interesting!