• autismdragon [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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    11 months ago

    True, but he crosses more serious lines and, I think, has more agency in his choices.

    I actually do have some sympathy for Joff though, Robert’s reaction to seeing early sociopathic tendencies was to beat him, and being Cersei’s kid is not an easy life lol. Joff is written as a bad seed who was always going to be bad though, which i think is a flaw in Martin’s writing. I chose to kill the author there and interpert him as more of a 50/50 nature vs nurture situation, where better parents and a lack of power corrupting he could have turned out better. I realize, of course, that Tommen and Myrcella turned out decent kids under similar circumstances. But hey that happens irl too. Kids react to abuse differently. Me and my sister definitely did.

    Another charachter thats similar to Joff for me in that he’s a child who’s awful and has agency, and who’s written as a bad seed, but who I have some sympathy for because of life circumstances and being a child, is Viserys.

    I do get your pov on judging kid charachters more now that youve explained it though. I appreciate that.

    • Sphere [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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      11 months ago

      That’s actually a very interesting perspective, thanks for sharing that!

      (I admit I did also have to soften my own perspective on Sansa when I went back to the source material–Martin is careful to ensure that Sansa is written as just a kid who gets caught up in forces she doesn’t understand and can’t control, and is crushing on the worst possible dude. She really doesn’t have all that much agency, and if I’m honest I think it was my inner child being unwilling to sympathize with someone who backed up a bully that kinda drove my perspective originally.)