> Have you watched Korean shows? What do you think of their stance on this?

They feel closer to Japanese productions to me than Western ones, which isn’t really surprising, considering they’re both Asian countries.

Many of their productions seem to have a wider political meaning (like criticizing capitalism or Korean society), but they don’t seem very concerned about gender or being politically correct. As I said, that’s more palatable to me than double standards.

It is, but not even close. And they make a conscious effort to try to move away from sexism against female characters and are many times written by people who consider themselves feminists.

In Japanese media they just don’t seem to have a compromise with political correctness for any gender. I can think of a few Japanese sexist tropes that are applied to both genders in most productions. The pervert male being played for laughs, the stalker tsundere or the female characters who physically assaults male characters, which is played for laughs too.

That’s how it feels to be a man watching modern shows/movies, tbh. Yeah, unpopular take, but it is what it is. That’s one of the things I like about Japanese media. It’s just sexist about both genders. I guess the double standards annoy me more than the sexism itself in recent productions. The way they consciously try to avoid sexism against one gender, but not the other. The way most characters from one gender are upstanding, while the responsible for problems, prejudice and all bad things belong to the other.

She was against sex work and pornography long before she started earning money with those things. You’d think she would change her mind, but apparently not. She still follows and shares things from anti-porn/anti-prostitution pages on Facebook. How people can deal with this level of cognitive dissonance is beyond me.

That’s what happens when you don’t believe in middle grounds. They don’t believe people can watch pornography without being addicted and trying to emulate what they see there IRL. They don’t believe someone (or better, women) in their right mind can possibly consent to do porn or sex work for money.

I have a friend like that. She spouses many of the same views of the group mentioned above. Anti-pornography, anti-prostitution. Goes as far as calling prostitution “consented rape”. And you know what’s funny? Despite being an outspoken radical feminist who is against all those things, I heard she’s making good money on OnlyFans. Not only that, she’s doing actual sex work. And her parents supported her financially, so it’s not like she needed that to not starve. But it’s good money that can allow a very expensive lifestyle for her age.

I understand their premise. I truly do. The professional porn industry is plagued with problem, there’s amateur porn being uploaded without the consent of one or both parts, there are people addicted to porn, there are women in third world countries with no option other than prostitution to make a living. But putting us at the mercy of corporations to remedy that or even leaving room for dodgy/dictatorial governments to use our data against us? That’s insane. As well assuming that a middle class woman in college from a first world country who does porn to earn money and afford an expensive lifestyle or an exhibitionist couple who decides to monetize their sex is the same as an underage girl being sexually exploited in a third world country or a mother who resorts to prostitution because that’s the only way to support her family. Or that someone who is single and watches porn once or twice a week is the same as someone who prefers pornography to sex with their partner.

They’re apparently a radical feminist group, judging by their page. It’s hard to tell them apart from evangelicals, they share a passion for some of the same causes.

> Like she clearly fucks up on an epic scale producing all these bastards

The show tries to sweep that under the rug by saying she and Laenor tried to have kids, but it just didn’t work, which is a pretty poor excuse, to be honest. Especially for someone who knows her claim is likely to be challenged. In the books, my impression is that she did it because she thinks she can get away with it.

> Also, the whole tie in of the prophecy is stupid and I don't understand why it's even there.

One of its purposes, the way I understood it, was to remove Alicent’s agency. Like she supports the usurping of the throne, but just because she thinks it’s her husband’s wish. Pretty lame, if you ask me.

> It is so clearly a pro-Rhaenyra show, which is fine

I mean, is it (fine, not pro-Rhaenyra, which it obviously is)? It really feels like they rob her of a lot of what makes her compelling in the book to me in the process. She comes off as very soft spoken, wise and well-meaning in the show. Some interpretations of the book are not as flattering, but I genuinely believe they’re more interesting and have the potential to be more entertaining.

I really think the show is good in terms of acting and direction, but in my opinion it tried too hard to make certain characters likeable (even so, it didn’t work for everyone, like you). Mainly by removing their agency or making them very different from their book selves, the biggest offenders being Rhaenyra and Alicent.

Like, they saw these two extremely dangerous women who have no shortage of agency and influence in their respective factions and decided to turn Alicent into someone who’s oblivious to the schemes of the men around her and feels more like she’s only joining the bandwagon to mitigate damages and because she misunderstood her husband’s last words (which is not a thing in the book), when in fact she’s the biggest Green supporter in the books. And Rhaenyra into someone who isn’t dangerous at all (she’s just married to a dangerous guy), who’s extremely wise and reticent about starting a war, when the impression in the books is that she’d go to extreme lengths to secure her claim, no matter the cost. Personally, I think the story would be much more entertaining if they were true to their personalities from the book, even they didn’t have as many redeeming qualities.

I think it’s a story that functions much better if you’re not actively rooting for anyone, but actually seeing it as fascinating historical events unfolding, even though I admit I’m biased, because that’s how I consumed the books. I’m aware that this kind of storytelling wouldn’t be popular with everyone, but I genuinely believe it’s the best way to absorb it.