There is a lack of positive representation of medieval women warriors and medieval women warriors of color in Game of Thrones and this culminates in the final season. Several women in the Game of Thrones television series can be lumped into stereo typical archetypes of monstrous and/or sexualized women. In addition, women of color in Game of Thrones are treated as disposable. In episode four of the final season, Missandei is captured and then ordered killed by Cersei when Daenerys refuses to unconditionally surrender. I took into consideration why they decided to kill Missandei. Arguably, based on the changes in the portrayal of Daenerys in this final season, the writers of the show want viewers to believe that there is a chance that Daenerys will go mad like her father, another issue that I will explore in this paper. Instead of killing off Jon Snow, her lover and main male protagonist or Drogon, her last dragon, Missandei’s death is used as the catalyst for Daenerys’s decent into madness. Although, Missandei’s death makes sense for Daenerys’ story arc, I find the way in which Missandei was killed and the shift in her character offensive. In the moments before her execution, Missandei is reduced back to a slave. She is literally shackled before her head is hacked off by a zombie white man. Perhaps the issues in the representations of medieval women warriors and medieval women warriors of color in Game of Thrones and in general, has more to do with what is a false sense of what is authentically medieval. More importantly, when the historical evidence points to the contrary, why are we still telling stories that portray women in this manner?
About the presenterRachael Kathleen Warmington
Rachael Warmington is an instructor at Seton Hall University. She earned her English B.A. from Montclair State University, English M.A. from Seton Hall University, her MFA at CUNY, City College of New York and is ABD at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She focuses on themes of Arthurian Legend and how these themes create the space that challenges oppression in its various forms, but have also been used to perpetuate racism, sexism and religious intolerance.