there’s no shortage of orientalist and white savior tropes embedded into asoiaf, but the one that takes the cake for me is the title of “mhysa.” yes the concept of being a “mother” to metaphorical children works wonderfully with dany’s personal journey, but it’s also reminiscent of the paternalistic attitude that western nations have historically used to justify the colonization/subordination of indigenous people. there’s the infamous 19th century propaganda piece depicting andrew jackson as the “great white father”, which infantilized indigenous americans in order to frame colonial violence against them as being in their best interest (native people have historically been referred to as the “children” of whichever american president sits in office):
queen victoria was also referred to as the “great mother”/“white mother” of various native people of the british empire during the 19th century (to paint her as a maternal, benevolent figure to the “children” of her colonies). of course I’m not saying that martin is some raging racist who intentionally evokes this imagery, and I’m certainly not calling dany a colonizer because I do believe that her role in asoiaf is that of a revolutionary/liberator, but it’s still undoubtedly a tone-deaf title to bestow on her. surely martin is capable of writing the story of a liberator that doesn’t depict the people that she’s freeing as “children” who needs their “mother” to rescue them. obviously “mhysa” just one white savior trope among many within the orientalist narrative of asoiaf, but it’s the one that’s always bothered me the most.
also please don’t come at me with “but there are white slaves in slaver’s bay too!!” yes I KNOW. the issue is not with the actual skin color of the freedmen, it’s the clear divide between east vs west, orient vs occident, the inability to conceptualize the world except though the (completely made up) framework of west vs east that martin is clearly working within.
