I’m not really sure what to make of this post. I seriously hope the poster was being sarcastic, but it’s hard to tell.
Although, I got to be honest, the idea of Grand Maester Pycelle as an intelligent and capable leader made me laugh out loud. His main skill seems to be pointing out the obvious.
The idea that GRRM refuses to portray a competent female leader who is not veritably calling out for assistance from the naturally more competent males around is not at all ridiculous, and is a fact that has been hammered in at every juncture in these books. Did you notice something that all of the people offering the foolish, doomed Cersei much wiser advice that she (as a dreaded self confident evil woman rather than an insecure good woman, a la Dany) refused to take all had in common? In addition to all having proven to be second-rate minds in the past, ALL of these wiser advising folk were male. Jaime, Kevan, Grand Maester Pycelle, and seven-year-old Tommen—all know better than her, but the foolish Cersei will not listen to them.
Apparently, even the most mediocre of men are naturally wiser rulers than a woman. Meanwhile, the truly good and smart women (Margary Tyrell and Olenna) are clever enough to stay in the background, and manipulate things from behind the scenes when the man in power is an idiot.
Meanwhile, Dany (who is supposed to represent the other way women can rule, according to the author) has just as much of a lack of judgment as Cersei. She is foolish and unfit to rule, only her apparent redeeming quality is that she knows how unfit she is, realizes that she needs someone to depend upon for all her major decisions, does not trust her own judgment or abilities, and can’t wait for someone (read: Tyrion) to come waltzing on in and show her the correct way to act.
Having women leaders when they are merely veritable figureheads; front people allowing the naturally superior men whom the author relates to to run the show (as nature intended) is really not all that threatening, apparently, to an author who further popularizes the idea that women who want power must really, really want to have penis’s.…
Again, the only one of these men who comes close to having these advantages is Tyrion, and even he does not really fit the bill. Though he is the son of a very competent ruling father, there is no indication whatsoever Tywin ever taught Tyrion anything about how to rule (in fact, Tyrion notes that Tywin constantly denied him this opportunity because he did not want Tyrion to inherit the rock), and Tyrion has no experience ruling anything. And still, its implied frequently that Tyrion is Dany’s great hope—he is a wonderful, capable leader that Danerys needs and that Cersei, with her evil, unnatural desire to rule and penis envy, could not recognize and would not allow him to take his rightful place—above her. (P.S.—did anyone else notice how, during Tyrion’s “OMG, my sister sucks so much and is sooo incompetent” speech, that all of the competent leaders Tyrion suggested were men?)
No truly intelligent, natural woman would ever put herself forward in the place to rule a country. The fact that Cersei does so is proof of her incompetence, unnaturalness, and stupidity. The fact that Dany’s dragons made her do so has created a dangerous situation—a woman with absolute power; but luckily Dany realizes this. Thus, she is only too ready to take advice from the nearest competent male—and will happily bow down in judgment to Tyrion when she meets up with him, as the evil, stupid, unnatural bitch Cersei would not do.
