Passive PowerIn the Game of Thrones series, our perception of women is constantly changing. At first we learn that women are, on the whole, more the property of men and certainly posses less power than their male counter-parts. But as the series develop our understanding of (the main) women characters change and we see them all develop their own kind of power - either passively or actively.
The idea of women containing 'passive' power comes from scenarios where they use or manipulate something or someone else to gain power or an advantage in different situations. References: Cersei - 1. Season 6, episode 7 - 'The Broken Man' - Cersei uses the mountain to kill a Sparrow. 2. Season 4, episode 8 - 'The Mountain and The Viper' - Cersei uses the mountain in trial by combat to prove Tyrion (falsely) guilty, thus abusing her position to get what she wants (she uses her name to get the mountain to fight for her). 3. Every series where Cersei uses The Grand Maester in the small council as a spy to see whats going on (until Tyrion figures this out in season 2)so that she's "one step ahead of the game" and she always knows what's about to happen. She also manipulates Joffrey/Tommen (who at the time were Kings of 7 Kingdoms) herself (until recently with Tommen when he chose The Faith). Daenerys - 4. Season 1, episode 10 - 'Fire and Blood' - we first see Daenerys survive the flames and learn of her power. the dragons are also born. 5. Season 6, episode 4 - 'Book of the stranger' - Daenerys burns all the Khals and walks out of the burning building unharmed. Daenerys never actually kills the people herself - she just sets up the fire to kill them and then shows everyone else that she has the inhumane ability to survive it. Sansa - 6. Season 6, episode 9 - 'Battle of the Bastards' - Sansa uses her alliance with Lord Baelish to win the battle against all odds. so again she almost manipulates others into fighting for her cause and to defeating her enemies. - Sansa still doesn't kill Ramsay herself, she leaves it to Ramsay's own dogs. 7. Season 6 - Sansa's power comes from her brother Jon with his army and how they give her protection and he ability to attack the Bolton's to regain Winterfell. When shes in Winterfell with Ramsay and the wild with Theon/Brienne- shes very weak, powerless and vulnerable. |