Post by whitewolfstark on Apr 4, 2016 2:06:47 GMT
In the book this theme is hammered in all of our faces consistently as a running motif through several plot lines--some of which have been kept by the show and some of which delayed for another season or completely abandoned.
Preston Jacobs on more than one occasion has spoken of this song as a "rape song" and while to some extent it is on one interpretation of it, in another, it's more clearly an adaptation of GRRM's favored "Beauty and the Beast" theme that he returns to in his stories. In the song of course, the maiden doesn't get what she expected from a husband (a knight)--but finds she prefers the Beast to the Man she had thought she'd wanted because she had never known what she'd wanted in the first place until she'd tried it. Once you see it as an adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, it becomes easier to see the story playing out all across the books and the show. One must also recognize that men can be maids and that women can be bears just as much as the reverse being true.
Some qualifications for being considered a permutation of "Bear and Maiden Fair":
One of the two have to be considered unattractive at first glance to the other by society.
One of the two have to be considered far prettier than the other deserves by society.
The ugly character has to have a better personality if the surface is scratched.
A love triangle between a Bear, a Maiden, and a Knight character.
There's a wild card thrown in as well: Swan Maidens, shapeshifters by another name who are unreachable by Bears; and a happy bear is wise to know that they are elusive and cannot be kept, and that it is better to have a taste and move on than to cling.
The show keeps a few of them from the books, and drops others.
Tom Sevenstrings & Lady Smallwood (who additionally is from House Swann originally and a mature Swan Maiden in terms of archetype; the typical "the old couple's still got it" version)
Gendry & Arya (who is also a Swan Maiden in terms of archetype--though in the vein of the "Ugly Duckling" version of a swan; the child friendly version)
Jon & Ygritte (the very first time it "clicks" version, also a gender swapped version as Jon is always told how "pretty" and how much of a "maid" he is, and he is the one to learn to look past Ygritte's pug nose and learns to love and admire her inner strength and spirit)
Jaime & Brienne (only in this case Jaime's the maiden and Brienne the bear, so the genderswapped version)
Bear & Brienne (the ironic and mocking version)
Jorah & Dany (the version where the Bear is rebuked)
Jorah & Lynesse (who is also a Swan Maiden in terms of archetype)
Sandor & Sansa (the version where one wonders what might have been)
Tyrion & Sansa (the version where it might never work out)
Gendry & Arya become less rough housing = juvenile sexual tension, and more adoration from afar. On some level Gendry knows he can't have Arya as she remains a Swan Maiden in terms of archetype, and he recognizes that when he says in the show and book "you'd be my lady", while Arya, who hasn't come to terms with her "swan" nature at the moment, doesn't quite "get it" just yet.
Sandor & Sansa is more in Sansa's mind as she reflects and invents a fantasy in her head (the "unkiss"), while here Sansa's head is filled with thoughts of "the knight" (Loras) and she's very much still unaware of what she might want (as Margaery clearly fishes out of Sansa). So this one gets dropped by the show as it's hard to get out of Sansa's head without doing a dream sequence for Sansa.
Tyrion and Sansa becomes an example where the Bear and Maiden never allow themselves the opportunity to try each other, due to prior attachments each has formed. And as such, they are ships passing in the night, rather than husband and wife.
Jaime & Brienne, Jon & Ygritte are practically thrown in our faces and those who had wanted to be knights, realize that a knight is just another word for a male maiden, waiting for his female bear to come along and show him what he was missing.
Jorah is the bear who loses out, which is actually, now that I think on it, made more clear in the show than in the books. In the books, Jorah's bear nature and presumption rubs Dany the wrong way, and so she distances herself from Jorah until the truth about him is revealed and he is banished from her. Here, the show has the perfect set up for Dany, Jorah, and Ser Barry. Ser Barry being a celibate knight in sworn devotion to her, Jorah trying to play the part of the Bear, and Dany being a maiden. But this struggle between knight, maid, and bear is delayed for Season 4, and there the sexualized element of it is taken out.
Brienne is made for the mockery of Harrenhal to "dance" with an actual bear, a case where the song is taken literally in order to mock both the culture of the Westerosi but also Brienne in thinking she can be anything but a maiden in the eyes of the world.
The only one completely dropped is Tom Sevenstrings & Lady Smallwood, and I can understand why, given how shrunken the Brotherhood without Banners has become. Lady Smallwood is important more for Arya's sake in denoting her to be a Swan Maiden, as Lady Smallwood looks at Arya and understands and sympathizes with Arya without any explanation at all, and Arya comes to appreciate Lady Smallwood for this silent respect and understanding faster than anyone else.
Preston Jacobs on more than one occasion has spoken of this song as a "rape song" and while to some extent it is on one interpretation of it, in another, it's more clearly an adaptation of GRRM's favored "Beauty and the Beast" theme that he returns to in his stories. In the song of course, the maiden doesn't get what she expected from a husband (a knight)--but finds she prefers the Beast to the Man she had thought she'd wanted because she had never known what she'd wanted in the first place until she'd tried it. Once you see it as an adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, it becomes easier to see the story playing out all across the books and the show. One must also recognize that men can be maids and that women can be bears just as much as the reverse being true.
Some qualifications for being considered a permutation of "Bear and Maiden Fair":
One of the two have to be considered unattractive at first glance to the other by society.
One of the two have to be considered far prettier than the other deserves by society.
The ugly character has to have a better personality if the surface is scratched.
A love triangle between a Bear, a Maiden, and a Knight character.
There's a wild card thrown in as well: Swan Maidens, shapeshifters by another name who are unreachable by Bears; and a happy bear is wise to know that they are elusive and cannot be kept, and that it is better to have a taste and move on than to cling.
The show keeps a few of them from the books, and drops others.
Tom Sevenstrings & Lady Smallwood (who additionally is from House Swann originally and a mature Swan Maiden in terms of archetype; the typical "the old couple's still got it" version)
Gendry & Arya (who is also a Swan Maiden in terms of archetype--though in the vein of the "Ugly Duckling" version of a swan; the child friendly version)
Jon & Ygritte (the very first time it "clicks" version, also a gender swapped version as Jon is always told how "pretty" and how much of a "maid" he is, and he is the one to learn to look past Ygritte's pug nose and learns to love and admire her inner strength and spirit)
Jaime & Brienne (only in this case Jaime's the maiden and Brienne the bear, so the genderswapped version)
Bear & Brienne (the ironic and mocking version)
Jorah & Dany (the version where the Bear is rebuked)
Jorah & Lynesse (who is also a Swan Maiden in terms of archetype)
Sandor & Sansa (the version where one wonders what might have been)
Tyrion & Sansa (the version where it might never work out)
Gendry & Arya become less rough housing = juvenile sexual tension, and more adoration from afar. On some level Gendry knows he can't have Arya as she remains a Swan Maiden in terms of archetype, and he recognizes that when he says in the show and book "you'd be my lady", while Arya, who hasn't come to terms with her "swan" nature at the moment, doesn't quite "get it" just yet.
Sandor & Sansa is more in Sansa's mind as she reflects and invents a fantasy in her head (the "unkiss"), while here Sansa's head is filled with thoughts of "the knight" (Loras) and she's very much still unaware of what she might want (as Margaery clearly fishes out of Sansa). So this one gets dropped by the show as it's hard to get out of Sansa's head without doing a dream sequence for Sansa.
Tyrion and Sansa becomes an example where the Bear and Maiden never allow themselves the opportunity to try each other, due to prior attachments each has formed. And as such, they are ships passing in the night, rather than husband and wife.
Jaime & Brienne, Jon & Ygritte are practically thrown in our faces and those who had wanted to be knights, realize that a knight is just another word for a male maiden, waiting for his female bear to come along and show him what he was missing.
Jorah is the bear who loses out, which is actually, now that I think on it, made more clear in the show than in the books. In the books, Jorah's bear nature and presumption rubs Dany the wrong way, and so she distances herself from Jorah until the truth about him is revealed and he is banished from her. Here, the show has the perfect set up for Dany, Jorah, and Ser Barry. Ser Barry being a celibate knight in sworn devotion to her, Jorah trying to play the part of the Bear, and Dany being a maiden. But this struggle between knight, maid, and bear is delayed for Season 4, and there the sexualized element of it is taken out.
Brienne is made for the mockery of Harrenhal to "dance" with an actual bear, a case where the song is taken literally in order to mock both the culture of the Westerosi but also Brienne in thinking she can be anything but a maiden in the eyes of the world.
The only one completely dropped is Tom Sevenstrings & Lady Smallwood, and I can understand why, given how shrunken the Brotherhood without Banners has become. Lady Smallwood is important more for Arya's sake in denoting her to be a Swan Maiden, as Lady Smallwood looks at Arya and understands and sympathizes with Arya without any explanation at all, and Arya comes to appreciate Lady Smallwood for this silent respect and understanding faster than anyone else.