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Hello all!
Margaery is my favorite character from the series. But I wanted to hear what people think about her!
To what degree is she authentic or aware of the larger Tyrell plans? What is George saying about femininity? And what role does her PR have in translating into actual power in the series?
Just like listening to people's thoughts on her character.
It's interesting because I find book!Margaery and show!Margaery to be such different characters in some ways (for example, the poisoned wine feels like something book!Margaery would be in on) but I also think about how George said that show!Marg is basically book!Marg if she were 10 years older.
She's also a great example of what it looks like when a family involves daughters in the family business/politicking, so that they're not left to try and figure stuff out on their own later.
Your later point also gets into how the Tyrells act as foils to the Lannisters in a lot of ways
Absolutely! That's what I had in mind, and even the Starks. (Which is interesting considering that Catelyn was raised with a lot of knowledge about politics and running a household, because she was heir to House Tully until Edmure was born—a good portion of her life.)
Did Catelyn have more training on the subject when she was Sansa's age? I'm honestly pretty confused about how much training in universe women get on gender politics as kids. Margaery almost feels like the exception for having her family so extremely well supporting of ensuring her success here.
Honestly, no idea if she did! I get the sense Catelyn might have just because of how Hoster was as a father, and that he seems more ambitious than Ned. I wouldn't be surprised if Ned wanted to shield his children more from the politics or rest of Westeros as much as he could due to his trauma.
I'm not super sure if George thought everything through but things get more fleshed out as he writes worldbuilding stuff (that's not uh TWOW). Like, I think if anything the isolation of the Stark girls and Cersei are exceptions rather than what should have been or what's politically advantageous. The Reach does well in cultivating alliances by having a women's court of a sort around Margaery. We see that for Rhaena (first one) and Alysanne, as well, and it seems like something Alyssa made sure they had from a young age. But this could also be due to George's gardening.
it guess the norm is just to treat women as a means to forge a political alliance, rather than training them to take advantage of their softer form of power. Sansa was taught to be an uncontroversial housewife basically, which might be all that is expected of women typically. Honestly that might have been enough if Joff wasn't Joff. Women's ambition isn't often validated or encouraged i suppose in westeros. It could even be said to be a weakness of their patriarchal society that they don't validate women in this way. Which harmed both Sansa and Cersei in different ways.