(Spoilers Main) Anyone else notice how the female characters are portrayed as cold and "badass" while the men show more emotions and are balanced?

Look at the source material. The three characters on redemption arcs are male. The character genuinely torn between good and evil (Stannis) is male. The advisor that speaks the theme-we're all grey/saving a child is everything--is male (while the oft-mistaken, religious fanatic advisor who burns people alive is female). The three most prominent plotters--Petyr, Varys, Tywin--are male (compare to Rianne, yikes). We get not one, but two brotherhoods. We get the smart, agonized dwarf.

GRRM is a feminist, but the last multi-faceted, major female character in the novels was Cat, and she was, interestingly, a woman who never rebelled against conventional expectations. Brienne would have been the other, but GRRM wrecked her for me, thanks to the pointless quest, thanks to the endless harping on her physical appearance. Asha was promising, but GRRM reduced her to acting as Stannis' pov in Davos' absence. Arya is def heading into the cold killer territory. Sansa, I believe, will end up icy and calculating. Cersei is surely one of the stupidest and most vicious villains ever written (compare to Tywin, a male). Arianne has boobs, and acknowledges daddy knows best...compare her to Oberyn and Doran. Compare Septa Mordaine, of zero dimensions, with the High Sparrow. Compare Jon Connington, who has a plan and personality and feelings, with Septa Lemore, whose most memorable aspect is her naked body.

OK I'm going on here, not because I disagree with the premise, but because of the unspoken assumption that GRRM did it better, and the show fucked it up, which is there in most such posts.

Show fucked up à lot of things. On women, though, imo it improved. GRRM, I fear, does not excel at writing women. In fact, with few exceptions, his portrayal of women is cringe worthy.

/r/asoiaf Thread