Mysoginy in fantasy: The case of Westeros in House of The Dragon and the toxic fandom of Ser Criston Cole

Team Green, meaning Alicent Hightower et caterva, stand for the Patriarchy and the oppression of women and everyone that is in any way different from what is called adequate by the establishment in Westeros, and this means, The Citadel, The Maesters, the Andals, ergo Oldtown, going full circle to the Hightowers.

The little we learn about the Freehold of Valyria, we understand that being a dragon riding family meant something, and that was genderless trait, same working for the dragon and fire mages. Families heeded the council from its female members as much as that of the male, so much that the Targaryen left Valyria at the behest of a female member who possessed the gift of Vision.

Old Valyria does not seem either patriarchal or matriarchal, but dragon centred, its power and status deriving from fire magic and dragon lore, which can be exercised by men and women equaly. Since Dragon lords and Ladies are intrinsic to the Dragons, incest should be common, marriage among the Dragon Houses more than common, to preserve the precious dragon blood that gave those families that non human ability to connect with those fearsome magical beasts.

Essos had other societies where power could be exherted regardless of gender, and another example is the Rhoynar, whose cities were ruled by Princes and Princesses.

Westeros, however, as many other societies, is extremely patriarchal society, same as the first men.

In order to rule Westeros, after the Doom of Valyria, the Targaryen, a low family of Dragon Lords, had to adapt: they forsook their old Gods, and the fire magic, if they even brought fire mages with them, and they had to accept the patriarchal rules of succession, and one character who seemed quite uneasy with this was Aegon´s older sister Visenya. She was older, a formidable rider, fighter and strategist, and yet, she had to crown her younger brother king.

One tradition the Targaryen could not forsake however: Valyrian blood had to be kept in the family. Maegor the Cruel was indeed cruel, however his greatest deed was to fight the Faith Militant and force the Faith into submission. 

In GoT we saw Cersei as a villain, and in the end, the showrunners turned Daenerys into a villain - that she wasn´t. Why? Women´s acts are always unexcusable, women are always considered evil when they reach out for power, in fantasy as in real life. 

Now, in House of the Dragon we are seeing a Targaryen Princess, named heir by her father, and a Usurper Hightower Queen, factions known as the Blacks and the Greens, and their clash all but extinguish dragons from earthos.

The debate online, on facebook, twitter, discord, is absolutely crazy, and it reflects how fantasy and sci fi has been dominated by involutary celibates, usualy while males; there are also females who dream of a world of romance and justice, Tolkien and C S Lewis style, who stray on Westeros, of course, but their speech is often full of bigotry.

In their minds, there can not be black, latino or asian looking elves, and everyone in Valyria, even non Dragon riding people, had to be pale with silver hair. Valyria was a Freehold and had people from all over Essos, either as slaves and citizens. 

Their recent hero is Ser Criston Cole, cause in their minds, he was a victim of abuse and was left by a heartless slut who does not deserve to be queen, since she has a younger brother (even though her father reafirms that he wants her on the throne, not the Hightower offspring).

Their reasoning is that the Knight had to yield to the princess desires, because she was too powerful, and he could face dire consequences if he did not have sex with her, therefore he was forced to have sex with her, breaking his sacred vows of celibacy. This justifies his anges, his lashing out at Lord Laenor´s paramour, and also betraying Rhaenyra, to whom he had personally pledged his sword.

The idea that a woman can force herself on a man is pretty new. Sexual harassment is not about gender, but about power. Sexual abuse sees no power, in terms of institutionalizes power: it is enough to have physical strength, or to have something that might serve as leverage and force the other part into some sort of sexual intercourse.

Since the World of Ice and Fire is inspired in medieval history, it is quite non sensical to depict Ser Criston Cole as a victim, and to assign such overwhelming power to a young, unmarried princess. 

I still remember my second year at law school, in 1990, when my Professor of Criminal Law had us discussing the idea of honour. Yes, is honour a reason to kill? All those men who kill women to defende their honour. Women have no honour, he claimed, they are, however, keepers of a man´s honour. So many raw statements were discussed in those classes! Nowadays, 32 years later, and we discuss feminicide, I feel that that was such an important class, cause we were trying to understand what is at stake in a relationship that make it acceptable for men to kill a woman, but the reverse unacceptable. If a woman kills a man, she is ten fold the monster.

But how come that women such as Alicent Hightower, and thousands of other women in real life, defend men against women, defend patriarchy?

When I was a child I was an annoying kid, who often overheard adults talking, and loved to eavesdrop of adult talk. I concluded that married women felt they were different than single women, and that it placed them a category above other women. If they were mothers, yay, they earned a few more stars on their score card. If they managed to keep being housewives, and their husbands were decent providers, they were like the top of the bill. And they dissed the ones who did not make it to the top.

They did not like other single women, divorced women, they abhorred single mothers, and all but organized lynch mobs against women they suspected were lovers of some married men. All these women were a threat to them, to their lifestyles, to their stability.

The single mother should know that she and her child were low and should not mingle with the positively legitimate ones. The divorced woman was ostracized, to keep her from stealing their husbands, and so on.

A woman must keep her home, even if the kills another woman. Even is she has to turn a blind eye to her husbands infidelities, and bastard children (as long as these do not inherit anything), as long as she and her children are the ones her husband keep. 

She must massacrate the women who think otherwise, to keep her system up and running,

Those who comment on twitter, praising Criston Cole, say that he was victim of a bad woman who deserves to die, because she dared to claim the crown for herself, as her right, and because she is a woman who enjoys sex  and love and is open about it. They call Princess Rhaenyra all sorts of evil things, and Criston is almost an angel, and Alicent, that example of a woman who complies with patriarchy, are their uncontested heroes,they are showing their true colours: mysogynoys to the deepest recesses of their souls.

So, boys, no, the handsome white knight had every chance to resist, and had he snitched her little escapade to the Lord Commander of the Kings Guard, Rhaernyra would have had to face her father and Otto Hightower would have got the upper hand. Criston would have been considered loyal to have confided on the commander and on the king himself, protecting the young girl´s virtue and the crown´s honour. But he chose otherwise. And it was not her fault, it as his fault, his desires, his foolish dreams of eloping with a princess on the back of a dragon to fight on essos.

She can´t be accused of being cold hearted, cause she said that he would still be her protector, her white knight, and she said so, with a mix of anguish and love in her eyes, followed by disappointment, cause she had hoped she could be happy.

In Ser Criston´s mind, he felt the could punish Rhaenyra for his mistakes, and he won´t rest until he does not rain hell on westeros.

And his fans cheer!

It is so scary! Men and womem who support such character arcs, show the inner workings of their minds and their hearts, and they are dangerous peoples, huge red flags. 

In these people`s minds Sir Criston Cole had every reason to snap and kill a person on a fit of rage in the middle of her wedding, and betraying his vows to her, and to be from now on, her worst enemy. How mature!