El Lucero del Atardecer y La Mano Dorada

The thing is, I need to believe that I can be loved for something other than the way I look. That I can be admired and respected for my ability. That I have value regardless of how I conform to societal expectations of how a woman should look. That I deserve friendship and romantic love because of who I am as a person even if I am ugly.

Men get these messages ALL THE TIME. All of the stories where someone has to learn to look past appearances at the inner beauty of a person, it’s a guy with the scars and the deformities. Women learn to love the monster with a heart of gold. The monster is never female. It never works in reverse.

Brienne of Tarth is ugly. She’s not just unconventional or out of fashion. She’s big and scarred and her nose is crooked and she’s missing teeth and people actually recoil when they see her. And she is one of the most lovable and heroic characters in ASOIAF. She has the most beautiful soul. And everyone who actually gets to know her, truly know her, grows to admire and respect her, and in one particular case, to love her.

This is why I fight people who want to insist, based on the tv show, that Brienne is pretty. No. No no no no. You are not taking this one away from me. Brienne is ugly. She starts out ugly, and in the course of the books she gets a chunk of her face ripped out just to underline the point. The actress who plays her on the show is beautiful, but Brienne of Tarth is ugly.

Brienne is ugly, AND she is deserving of love. And she’s kind and brave and the best swordsman in Westeros and so fucking Good it kills me. She is all of those things. She gets to be the truest knight in the entire story. She gets a love story with Jaime Lannister that’s all about looking past the surface* and building a deep bond of respect and trust with the last person either would ever expect. In the books at least, she is how we explore what it means to be a hero.

Brienne is an ugly, courageous, fascinating, loveable woman who’s beautiful on the inside and deserves the entire world. I need to believe that’s possible. For every dudebro who dismisses her importance to the story or discards even the possibility of Brienne as a serious love interest I love her even more. She’s one of my favorite characters of all time (for even more reasons than I’ve listed here) and I dearly hope the story will do her justice in the end.

******

Symbolism: That time Jaime virtually gave Brienne a penis in a vagina. 

“Brienne of Tarth.” Jaime sighed. “I have a gift for you.” He reached down under the Lord Commander’s chair and brought it out, wrapped in folds of crimson velvet.

Brienne approached as if the bundle was like to bite her, reached out a huge freckled hand, and flipped back a fold of cloth. Rubies glimmered in the light. She picked the treasure up gingerly, curled her fingers around the leather grip, and slowly slid the sword free of its scabbard. Blood and black the ripples shone. A finger of reflected light ran red along the edge. “Is this Valyrian steel? I have never seen such colors.”

Top 40 Game of Thrones Non-Romantic Relationships:

Jaime : Ow! What are you doing?!

Brienne : Hitting on you.

Top 40 Game of Thrones Non-Romantic Relationships: