Warning: Spoilers for A Song of Ice and Fire through A Feast for Crows.
Let’s talk about Brienne of Tarth for a minute. (Actually, most likely more than a minute. You know how these things go.) For those who don’t know, Brienne is a PoV character in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire heptalogy. She’s not a major player, and a lot of people seem to hate her in a way I just can’t understand. She is far and away my favorite character in the series and is quickly becoming one of my favorite fictional characters in general. (Just a note: I’m re-reading the series right now, but I’m only partway through A Storm of Swords, so if I make any mistakes, sorry. You ready for this? Let’s go.)
Just chillin' with a super badass sword.
The first time we meet Brienne, she’s in combat. Clad in cobalt armor, she’s fighting knights in a tournament. Catelyn Stark, who is the PoV character for that chapter, doesn’t realize Brienne’s is female until told by her escort. Basically, Brienne takes on two dudes at once, then Loras Tyrell (who is no slouch when it comes to combat) knocks the morningstar out of her hand. So she jumps at him, gets the axe out of his hand, knocks him off his horse, and lands on top of him. She then grabs a knife and gets him to yield. This first action tells us three very important things about Brienne: she is an unconventional and quick thinker in combat, she doesn’t give up, and she really should not be underestimated.
So then the crowd gets all pissed at her because she dared to beat Loras Effing Tyrell while also possessing a vagina, and Ser Colen explains to Catelyn that Brienne is a girl and then Catelyn proceeds to think such gems as, “Is there any creature on earth as unfortunate as an ugly woman?” Let’s talk about Brienne’s appearance, shall we? She is constantly described as ugly. She’s got big lips, crooked teeth and nose, and tons of freckles. She’s also really tall–somewhere in the 6’3″ range. She’s muscular, and not buxom in the least. But she does have beautiful, “guileless” blue eyes. And in essentially every interaction every character has with her ever, some mention of her appearance comes up. To me, this is Martin hammering home the inequality in Westeros. Sandor Clegane has half his freaking face burned off, and it’s rarely mentioned. But because she’s a girl, people don’t like Brienne. They call her Brienne the Beauty behind her back.
Yes. Brienne of Tarth is so ugly that calling her pretty is an insult. But I think it goes beyond that. As far as female warriors go, Westeros has the Mormonts, the Sand Snakes, Asha, and the Wildling spearwives. Now I realize the last two aren’t part of typical Westerosi culture (being from the Iron Islands or across the Wall), but Brienne is far from the only woman in the ASoIaF universe who steps into what is considered a masculine domain. But where Brienne is different, as far as I can tell, is that she never stops. During the feast that follows the tournament Brienne won, Catelyn noticed that Brienne was wearing the apparel of a nobleman. Later, she talks about a time when her betrothed told her she would have to dress like a lady and stop fighting, she told him she’d agree if he beat her at a duel. And then she kicked his ass. And she is often described as not being comfortable in her skin. Contrast this with Asha, Osha, or Ygritte, who are also capable fighters but have no trouble at all attracting the opposite gender. (Not that this is the only indicator of femininity. I just can’t imagine Brienne flirting with anyone. Ever.) Brienne is just miserably uncomfortable, unless she’s in some sort of combat. When Catelyn criticizes Renly’s host as a group of summer knights (referring to their collective inexperience), Brienne says that even if they fall in battle, she’s fine with that because in songs all maids are beautiful. And I just want to say, I appreciate this SO MUCH. I mean, I think it’s awesome when there’s hot badass girls doing epic shit (and there are so so many of them), but here’s a character who has serious self esteem issues and still has no problems kicking ass and taking names. She’s a pragmatic fighter and she uses the fact that people underestimate her completely to her advantage.
And then she gets an even cooler sword from Jaime Lannister
So, basically, Brienne is an awkward outcast who nobody knows what to make of, so instead they just decide to hate her. Keep in mind that (at least according to AWoIaF), Brienne’s somewhere between 16-18 during the course of the books so far. I feel like in a lot of ways Brienne is the deconstruction of the Sweet Polly Oliver trope. In a more “typical” story, a character like Brienne would be able to pretend to be a guy to get to fight. Then some handsome man would come along, and they’d become good friends, and the guy would want to be more than friends while wondering how he could be attracted to another dude. In this story, however, Brienne is isolated (at least at the beginning). She’s in love with Renly Baratheon, who is cannonically gay and also married (to his lover’s sister, oddly enough), because he was the first guy who was nice to her. There’s no one waiting in the wings to sweep her off her feet.
So, I feel like so far in this post I’ve just said about a lot of things about why you should feel sorry for Brienne, but that’s not how I feel at all. She’s got a lot of obstacles to overcome, but do you know what? She challenges them head on. In her PoV chapters, you do see her fall into a bit of self pity, but it never reaches Jon Snow levels. She just tries harder and doesn’t take shit from people. She’s loyal and faces death a few times while taking Jaime Lannister to King’s Landing and then later while searching Westeros for Sansa Stark.
For whatever reason, a lot of people don’t like her (she ranked #16 in the “most hated character” poll at Tower of the Hand), which I don’t understand at all. Even if you hate her chapters, that’s no reason to hate her as a character. Personally, I loved her chapters. Her story shows the shitstorm that all this civil war has wreaked on the common people of Westeros. (Previously, Arya’s chapters serve this function, but can’t anymore since she’s in Braavos.) And she so conflicted. She wants to live for honor , but at the same time doesn’t allow herself to trust the knights about her, who are supposed to live for honor and glory. She’s strong and ugly in a society that wants her to be weak, demurring, and, most importantly, beautiful. Just her quiet defiance is inspiring to me. She doesn’t go looking for trouble, but when it finds her, she doesn’t back down. She sinks a boat by dropping a giant rock on it. She almost manages to drown Jaime Lannister. She takes out three Brave Companions with the help of 12-year-old Podrick Payne (who may also get an appreciation post at some point. In so many ways, Brienne and Pod make an epic medieval crimefighting duo.)
Brienne: Resident Baddass of Weseteros
I will probably be writing a sequel to this when I finish re-reading through AfFC. Because Brienne is just that freaking awesome.
. Seriously, I can’t talk enough about how this series is everything fantasy should be. The story starts 15 or so years after the typical fantasy “overthrow the evil ruler” quest has ended, and the country of Westeros is still dealing with the aftermath. It’s quite gritty and far more disturbing than, say, Lord of the Rings, but it’s definitely one of those stories that reminds me that problems aren’t ever really solved. They just morph into new problems. 
