what’s with people acting like old valyria was some feminist utopia??? like hello… are y’all serious 😭 why are we treating the slave empire as the beacon of progressivism??? and I say this as someone who loves old Valyria and the Targaryens btw
( acting as if andal culture is uniquely misogynistic compared to the valyrians makes 0 fcking sense whatsoever when valyrian society literally revolved around things like polygamy, incest, slavery and even human experimentation. those are not exactly the foundations of a progressive paradise.
I said this so many times already but : polygamy and incest have historically been tools used to control women and keep bloodlines and power locked within elite families. that’s true both in the real world and in the historical inspirations grrm pulls from. so the idea that a society that practiced slavery on a massive scale and allegedly bred beasts with enslaved women would somehow be a bastion of feminism is… a very generous reading to say the least )
[ notes : this came from a twitter convo i stumbled onto where people were saying all of daenerys’ ancestors would obviously support and idolize her, which… isn’t really true. just look at how rhaenyra was treated — a lot of the same ppl would’ve been against daenerys too.
but the weird part was people claiming valyrians were basically feminist icons. and that idea mostly comes from daenerys being progressive and that famous “all men must die” vibe in the show. somehow the fandom turned that into “valyrians were feminist.”
but that’s just not the case. old valyria was still a patriarchal society. women might have had more visibility (like riding dragons), but that doesn’t erase things like polygamy, incest, and the overall power structures that clearly weren’t built for women’s freedom. so acting like valyria was some progressive feminist society is… a huge stretch. ]
