Can someone please explain to me how it’s possible that HBO does NOT see it that way, and also how it is NOT utterly demeaning to Catelyn Stark and how it is NOT against what Martin was trying to show with Catelyn Stark?
Like I honestly don’t get how anyone can watch seasons 1 and 2 and not think that HBO thinks that her son is totally wiser and smarter and that that’s a GOOD story to tell.
That HBO thinks that a woman in a sexist society being put in place by her adolescent male child is a GOOD and totally unproblematic story to tell.
I want to understand your perspective, how is it possible.
I’m not entirely disagreeing with you, but I think you’re trying to argue two different things here and only one of them is really 100% fact. TV!Robb absolutely scolds Cat on many occasions and “puts her in her place”, and certainly in an uncalled for way, which makes the audience react a little bit hostilely to both Cat (for doing whatever it is she did, and in Robb’s defense, I can list a few things. I love Cat and I embrace her completely, but I hate this fandom notion that she actually doesn’t do anything worth being upset over, as if she doesn’t make mistakes, no matter how good their intentions were. Her mistakes certainly do not define her. She is an awe-inspiringly strong woman and she goes through so much that would break anyone else, but she does make mistakes, which I think is the point of Martin’s characters.) and to Robb (for being a dick).
I never really understand why this fandom sees this as an attack on Cat (not that she was treated as fairly as she could’ve been by the writers because in no way is that true…but let’s not act like that was a double standard, Robb as a character was ripped to shreds too so.) and doesn’t see the bigger picture going on: The effects of a war on a mother and son and the way it corrodes their relationship bit by bit in a tragic but beautiful way that only makes us love them more because you also get to see them struggling to hold on to each other as the war rips them apart.
Also, do I think Martin would be happy with Cat and Robb’s portrayal on the show? No. But, Robb is a little bitch in the books once that crown is on his head too, so it’s not a black and white issue. The characters didn’t do complete 180’s on the show. And Robb not having the capacity to handle all the shit on his shoulders is the entire point of his character. He’s a reality check to thousands of years of our culture holding up the King Arthur legend, the Romeo and Juliet story, the ‘young underdog fighting the impossible fight and winning despite the odds’ without questioning all its flaws. And yes, it’s enraging to see both parties making the mistakes they make, but those mistakes and flaws are the point. I don’t think HBO tries to endorse Robb’s behavior, but they’re writing him the way they understand Robb’s arc should go. They don’t understand him as much as they should, and that’s a whole other conversation but I absolutely don’t agree that they’re endorsing Robb’s authority over Cat’s in a real sense. I think as an audience we’re supposed to be disappointed with Cat and then even more upset with Robb for reacting like a child…which. he. is.