Upon reflection, I will contradict myself and agree with you; I was actually very pro-Renly when I first read the books, and have covered up the trauma of his death by telling myself it was due to naïvété.
I don't fear to contradict myself. It makes me right at every moment. ^^
But yeah--I think Renly is just screwed because he's in a G.R.R. Martin book. Martin doesn't like the idealistic, picturesque ones, I don't think. XD Well, apart from Dany. Besides, if Renly had won, Tyrion and Jaime would be goners.
So he had the idealistic, picturesque hero (Renly) killed by... a sort of Deus Ex Machina... shadow creature.
That actually angered me. I mean, punishing the picturesque is one thing, but doing it with some contrived magic is quite another. Those are the two things that annoy me most in fantasy right there: contrived magic and Beauty = Good. Contrived magic? Definitely annoys me more. And it won. Argh. I suppose I was justifying it to myself by saying that idealism does deserve punishment, but damn.
What would the books have been like had Renly cut off Stannis and Melisandre's heads instead, and gone on to destroy the Lannisters? Robb et al. would be alive... Jaime and Tyrion might be dead, so sad. The books would likely be shorter, more picturesque, less morally ambiguous-(seeming) (though G.R.R. would find some way to screw it all up anyway)... and gayer.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Tyrell
Date: 2009-10-21 03:25 am (UTC)I don't fear to contradict myself. It makes me right at every moment. ^^
But yeah--I think Renly is just screwed because he's in a G.R.R. Martin book. Martin doesn't like the idealistic, picturesque ones, I don't think. XD Well, apart from Dany. Besides, if Renly had won, Tyrion and Jaime would be goners.
So he had the idealistic, picturesque hero (Renly) killed by... a sort of Deus Ex Machina... shadow creature.
That actually angered me. I mean, punishing the picturesque is one thing, but doing it with some contrived magic is quite another. Those are the two things that annoy me most in fantasy right there: contrived magic and Beauty = Good. Contrived magic? Definitely annoys me more. And it won. Argh. I suppose I was justifying it to myself by saying that idealism does deserve punishment, but damn.
What would the books have been like had Renly cut off Stannis and Melisandre's heads instead, and gone on to destroy the Lannisters? Robb et al. would be alive... Jaime and Tyrion might be dead, so sad. The books would likely be shorter, more picturesque, less morally ambiguous-(seeming) (though G.R.R. would find some way to screw it all up anyway)... and gayer.
Had to say it. Don't hurt me.