i think people jump to the conclusion that maekar and dyanna had a very loving marriage because they’re very uncomfortable with how transactional that marriage could have been (given the historical inspirations). society as a whole today is profoundly Love Brained and cannot fathom that in the european medieval period, especially for a PRINCE and a NOBLEWOMAN, love was not considered for a marriage nor was it generally a desire. in an interpersonal sense, someone competent who you tolerated was ideal and if love grew from that then hooray. i enjoy the “love at first sight” comics for bowlcut maekar and dyanna as much as the next guy but let’s be serious. also, this is fandom and fanworks we’re talking about here. fandom wants to ship first and thirst second; they want to see maekar/dyanna as a loving husband/wife because the fanart is cute, and they don’t want to reconcile the idea that the relationship was transactional because they don’t want to see maekar as “a misogynist” because they lack nuance and think he’s hot
i also think they apply 21st century views to a medieval way of life. i think fanworks create a loving marriage between maekar/dyanna from absolutely nothing, to be frank, because it’s the only way they can reconcile with the inherently sexist westerosi culture/society. they make comics of dyanna dayne seeing maekar’s ugly bowlcut and going “😍 THATS THE ONE” because they wish to give her agency in a system we know is sexist from the entire asoiaf saga. yet in doing so, they neglect the actual ways in which dyanna would/could have exercised agency and influence as A Wife Of A Prince, a noblewoman from a highly respected house in her own right, and the actual manager of the house at summerhall. people really get caught up insisting what westeros (see: the european medieval period) SHOULD be like that they neglect what it was ACTUALLY like. yes, women should have had rights but unfortunately they didn’t i’m sorry😭nobody wants to see maekar prioritizing heirs because that makes him an irredeemable misogynist i guess, and they also don’t want to see dyanna as someone who is okay with this transactional relationship because giving maekar heirs, sexist as it unfortunately is, is the very thing that provides her influence and security in her position. to those who don’t get nuance or don’t want to give women flaws, properly navigating the sexist society you live in with intelligence and awareness is also sexist
(all of this applies to baelor and jena dondarrion too by the way #truthnuke. the myriahling most likely to be the fanon-style Wife Guy is actually rhaegel but the fandom sidelines him because of his implied mental disability)
(also i haven’t even touched on the concept of maekar being a BAD husband which is also very possible. but at the end of the day people find him hot so nobody will EVER consider the idea that he didn’t care for his wife besides the heirs she could give him. people find him hot so we’ll never critically examine how he and dyanna had 3 kids in 3 years (aemon daella egg from 198-200). Whatever)
pixelskylines
origamiaround
tangentwithtanner
prguitarman
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
gummygunk
