Favourite Women

[sabrecmc]

Beala sounded really awesome. She was one of my "surprise" favorites. I also liked the toad woman...was it Meria Martell? I can't remember, but she was all, "yeah, whatever, good luck with that" about the whole fire and blood thing. Heh.

Actually, almost all of the women seemed interesting, to say the least. I hope one day, many, many years in the future after the books are done, GRRM writes more about them.

[King Tyrion I]

Joanna Lannister, Nymeria.

Lady Rohanne Webber.

[Hos the Hostage]

Visenya and Rhaenys reminded me so much of Arya and Sansa.

[ARYa_Nym]

Visenya and Rhaenys reminded me so much of Arya and Sansa.

Why? There were female characters in the story that Arya is far more similar to. Sabitha and Daena Targaryen. I can spot more differences to Visenya than I can similarities unlike with Daena.

"His widow, Lady Sabitha of House Vypren, proved redoubtable for her courage and notorious for her lack of mercy. According to Mushroom, she was a "sharp-featured, sharp-tongued harridan of House Vypren, who would sooner ride than dance, wore mail instead of silk, was fond of killing men and kissing women."

DAENA TARGARYEN, aka DAENA THE DEFIANT

The eldest daughter of King Aegon III was sixteen when her brother Baelor ascended the Iron Throne, dissolved his marriage to her (which had been celebrated but never consummated), and confined her and her sisters to their own apartments in the Red Keep, soon known as the Maidenvault.

Daena was Targaryen to the bone; strong, beautiful, wilful. Her silver-gold hair was thick and curly, a wild untamed mane that tumbled down across her shoulders and framed a heart-shaped face, a pair of sparling purple eyes, and a fearless "I'll dare anything" smile. She was a wild almost from birth, lithe and athletic, a runner, a climber, and an expert horsewoman. "I was born to ride a dragon," she liked to say, but the dragons were dead. Daena was expert at riding at the rings, though she was never allowed to joust in an actual tourney. She was also a hunter, and a fine archer with her short recurved bow. She worshipped her father and idolized her brother Daeron, the Young Dragon.

Daena's dress was often as dramatic as she was. As a child she often dressed all in black, like her father King Aegon III. After her brother Baelor failed to consummate their marriage, she changed to all white, and vowed to wear nothing else until she had been properly bedded, in hopes of shaming him. (It did not work. Baelor liked her in white, feeling that it made her look more innocent). Later, as a pampered prisoner in her brother's court, Daena made several escapes, usually by dressing as a washerwoman or serving girl (once with the connivance of her cousin, Aegon).

You could legimately depict her in the simple brown skirt and laced bodice of a peasant girl -- in her hunting leathers, with her bow and quiver -- in her white post-wedding court clothes -- even in the blacks she wore as a child. No matter how she was dressed, however, she always wore the golden three-headed dragon pendant she had inherited from her father. At court she wore it on a fine golden chain; when in disguise, she hung it on a leather thong and hid it beneath her clothes. Supposedly she even wore it when bathing, and when making love.

She became known as "Daena the Defiant" when she turned up pregnant, and refused to name the father. Her son was born robust and healthy, with the purple eyes and silver-gold hair of the Targaryens. Daena named him Daemon. Years later, when he distinguished himself as a squire, his father (who by that time was the king) presented him the sword of Aegon the Conquerer, and from time forth he was known as Daemon Blackfyre.

Daena hunted and used a bow which Arya did want to learn. There's an SSM where Daena complains she can't rule because she wasn't born male. Arya complained about Bran being able to hunt because he was male. I see hardly any differences. The major one is sleeping with the cousin and getting pregnant. Daena lacks the dark quality but Sabitha like her is fond of killing men and lacks mercy.

Visenya:

Visenya often braided her hair or bound it up in rings, while Rhaenys wore hers loose and flowing. Both are warriors and dragonriders in their own rights, but their personalities are much different. Visenya is both stern and sensual, more voluptuous than her sister, more passionate, but with a dark and unforgiving side. Rhaenys, the younest of the three, is slender and graceful, playful, with a mischievous aspect to her personality than Visenya lacks. Rhaenys is the flirt, Visenya the seductress. Although they share their brother Aegon between them, they compete for him too, each in her own way.... The sisters would be likely to wear jewels and clothing that reflected the dragon and fire motifs...

There's being trained in arms from young, exchanging courtesies with Sharra and being nurturing with Ronnel, using diplomacy, immersing herself in politics, and kinslaying. All qualities that are different to Arya. They weren't physically similar. And imo Visenya being called a harsh beauty seems to be more that she looked mean. Arya looks nonthreatening.Arya is not sensual but she has the dark and unforgiving quality. Arya dressed and wore her hair like Daena not Visenya.

Arya will seduce but she's not passionate like Visenya. It's clinical and cold.

And Visenya appears to have ambition. She wanted her son to rule. Arya also lacks this quality. She really has no interest in political power. I would say political ambition and kinslaying are two fundamental differences.

ETA: Plus, Sansa I think has some of Rhaenys' qualities but there are a few differences there too. Rhaenys was said to be impulsive/given to flights of fancy, curious, playful, a flirt that surrounded herself with handsome men. These are things that Sansa lacks. I doubt Sansa would arrange marriages after what she went through. They are similar in that she liked music, dancing, and poetry. She supported the mummers but Arya is the one who hangs around them. Rhaenys was mischievous. Sansa is not.

[Hos the Hostage]

Because of the contrasting nature of two sisters.

[ARYa_Nym]

You could say he uses the same setup of having the sisters as foils where one is supposed to be everything the other is not but neither of the two are actually that much like Rhaenys and Visenya.

ETA: Thinking on it I could say the same about Daena and her sisters. Daena and Rhaena are opposites. Elaena has that thing where she was not regarded as beautiful like her sisters.

[Mark Antony]

I didn't get a Sansa/Arya vibe at all from Visenya/Rhaenys :dunno:

[Maid So Fair]

Baela (Daemon and Rheanyra's daughter) also forcibly reminded me of Arya and there are similarities between her flight from Dragonstone and Arya's from the Red Keep. Had Arya had a dragon instead of just Needle it wouldn't have ended with the stableboy. Cersei would burn.

[Nictarion]

Baela (Daemon and Rheanyra's daughter) also forcibly reminded me of Arya and there are similarities between her flight from Dragonstone and Arya's from the Red Keep. Had Arya had a dragon instead of just Needle it wouldn't have ended with the stableboy. Cersei would burn.

Baela wasn't Rhaenyra's daughter. Laena Velayron was her mother.

[Maid So Fair]

Baela wasn't Rhaenyra's daughter. Laena Velayron was her mother.

Oh, I seem to have misremembered that. You are correct, of course. Nevermind, she is still awesome!

[Nictarion]

Oh, I seem to have misremembered that. You are correct, of course. Nevermind, she is still awesome!

She certainly was!

[joluoto2]

Black Aly Blackwood, who tamed the wild wolf.

[naseridrl]

Having now read the book for a second time I've come to the conclusion that Sabitha Vypren and any of the Blackwood women need to find a way to have a daughter together because those combined genes would birth a daughter that would wreck shit up in Westeros.