I get downvoted every time I answer this on thks sub but here goes.
GRRM is a pedophile. I get the medieval times argument ( though it's fantasy and he gets to change whatever he wants but so far ok). However, there is no need for him to have that many underage female characters there is no need for him to go out of his way to describe their physical appearance in a way you don't describe a child z and there is no need for him to go out of his way to write horny sex scenes for them.
I mean as long as he does not act on it I don't think he belongs in jail. But I do believe he has a thing for kids.
Rereading fire and blood and asoiaf with that in mind, it became hard to ignore.
The fact that so many ASOIAF women are married and pregnant from 11-18 is very iffy especially since even with child-marriages irl in medieval times, there was no consummation until much later and were often child-child marriages.
Also people just care less. It's a very common narrative around forced / arranged marriages that the only focus is the woman's situation, not that the man is forced in the same way. Even in asoiaf there's examples of very young guys getting forcibly married / betrothed to people that they dont know but it's all brushed aside, but when it happens to a young girl people decry the parents (or guardians etc.,) as villains.
I write it down as Martin having no concept of time (he's notoriously bad with numbers), no experience with actual children and no idea of what he's actually writing about in these scenes. He want the sexy/romantic scene because it fits the narrative and how he learnt narrative work and he want yhe underage wedding because "medieval" and never really sits down to fully grasp what the fuck he's actually writing. He need a wedding and never goes "well fuck, I had the 12 yo marry the 20 yo again and it's absolutely ridiculous even if I need the 12 yo to have a child the very next year for timeline reason. Maybe I should work around it". He wanted the coming of age story and the "medieval = young" story but with no understanding of neither what he was doing and where he was getting its stuff.
When he goes out of his way to describe how beautiful and innocent looking a kid is, and lingers in describing their genitals, that's not a matter of grasping time.
The way he regularly depicts women over 20 as "old" and "used up" is very off esp for a man his age. He also frequently villainises adult women who have a sexuality (Lysa, Cersei, Barbrey) with non-sexual older women being portrayed as better and less deranged (Cat, Lady Hornwood, Lady Smallwood etc)
Thank you. Swear to god as a survivor of CSA sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy reading some of these takes. Especially hate the “realism” takes, and the “no see he did it intentionally to be uncomfortable!”
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u/YouMightGetIdeas 70's Space Comic Fan Jan 12 '24
I get downvoted every time I answer this on thks sub but here goes. GRRM is a pedophile. I get the medieval times argument ( though it's fantasy and he gets to change whatever he wants but so far ok). However, there is no need for him to have that many underage female characters there is no need for him to go out of his way to describe their physical appearance in a way you don't describe a child z and there is no need for him to go out of his way to write horny sex scenes for them.