The Princess’s Garden: An Open Letter to Ginia Bellafante of the New York Times

I'll have my sword AND my tiara, thank you very much!

Dear Ms. Bellafante,

After reading your recent article, "A Fantasy World of Strange Feuding Kingdoms", which reviews the upcoming HBO series, A Game of Thrones, I felt compelled to comment.

I found this review to be offensive to fantasy lovers, particularly female fantasy lovers. Now, I will state for the record that yes, I am a fan of fantasy, I am a fan of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, and yes I regularly play D&D and LARP. However, the way you come off in your article you seem to attack the idea that females cannot enjoy these things and if they do that somehow makes them not feminine. Fantasy, this one or otherwise, is not gender specific. It is an interest just as RPGs are a hobby. It may not be something you are interested in, fine. But please do not presume all because you personally don't consort with women interested in the fantasy genre, that we aren't out there and those that are, are somehow flawed in some way. In fact, most of the fantasy lovers I happen to know (male and female alike) are very well-read, intelligent, creative and poised people. You may wish to consider having more of an open mind if you are to make judgment calls and critiques about things you are not familiar with. You are a writer. Do your research. It's part of your job.

Furthermore, from your jumbled piece I fail to understand exactly what it is that you do not enjoy or appreciate about the show. The message you sent with your review comes off as "I don't like fantasy, no woman out there could possibly like fantasy over any other genre, and this is just a fanboy service show to watch naked wenches." That is not a constructive nor professional review. What exactly didn't you like? What the quality of the writing poor? Were the performances stilted? Was the story too confusing and/or too contrived?

Now you may be under the impression that as a fan of the series, I am just giving you are hard time. But I assure you that is not the case. I am very interested in hearing about reviews (both positive and negative) from critics who are new to the story. I like hearing about what aspects of the production work or don't work for you and why they do or do not.

All I ask is that next time you write a review please refrain from making such sweeping generalities and attacks on a fan base and on my gender. That is not what you are supposed to be writing about - you are supposed to be reviewing the product and telling us specifically what merits and/or flaws the product has. End of story.

The Princess Comments:

Yes, I did send that email to Ms. Bellafante after reading her poorly written article in the New York Times. Here are a few quotes from the “review” (if you can even call it that based on what little journalistic merit it actual has):

“The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.”

Excuse me? So because I am female, I can’t like fantasy? And if I do, does that make me somehow strange, flawed or defective in some way? Or unfeminine? Articles like this and people like Ms. Bellafante are part of the reason why the Warlock and I have this blog. To show the perspectives of two fantasy lovers – one male, one female.  

Ms. Bellafante you have offended me as a geek and but what’s more, as a woman.

What is it to you that makes someone feminine? Do I have to watch “Sex in the City”, have only girlfriends, shop at the Gap, carry a Prada bag, only watch rom-coms, drink cosmopolitans and spend my free time reading Nicholas Spark novels? Because while that great for some women, that is not who I am. And while I will not make judgments on those ladies, I want the same respect and not have you judge me on my own merit as a woman.

Because some days this princess gets dolled up in lolita fashion, while other days she runs around in a Slytherin t-shirt, hoodie and jeans. She drinks both mint flavored bubble tea and beer (not together, mind you).  She has a collection of graphic novels, RPG manuals and children’s books. She gives to charity and does volunteer work. She spends her time running through forests pretending to be an Elven warrior, while sometimes she has tea with her friends. She is a fabulous, happy and intelligent and I wouldn’t have it any other way. If by your definition enjoying fantasy makes me less of a woman in your eyes, then maybe it is you who are flawed and not me and not all the other women out there like me.

(note: pic from weheartit)

Event Report: A Song of Ice and Fire Focus Group for HBO's New Series

Oh Ned, why didn't you just stay in Winterfell?

Last night we had the chance to participate in a focus group discussing one of our favorite book series, A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin. We found out about this opportunity through a post on Westeros and the Livejournal community, Westeros Sorting.

Weeks before the focus group took place, we had to speak with a representative of the marketing company who were presumably hired by HBO to gather fan feedback for the upcoming HBO series, A Game of Thrones, based off the books.

During this phone interview, we had to answer several trivia questions about the series to prove our fan status. These questions included: “Who is Cersei’s lover?”, “Where did Catelyn take Tyrion?”, “What is Gregor Clegane’s nickname?”, “ Who is Robert’s true love?”, and “How did Tywin’s wife die?”.

After answering all the questions, we were invited to join the focus group and were told to bring any fan paraphernalia we had, a list of ASoFaI related websites we read, and were asked to create a collage based on elements we enjoy about the series. The collage request tripped us up a bit. We stewed over it for a while until we created these using Polyvore:

The Princess's collage featuring her favorite couple, Rhaegar and Lyanna:

Rhaegar and Lyanna by childdoll on Polyvore.com

The Warlock's collage featuring the Kingsguard:

White Knights by childdoll on Polyvore.com

Yeah, we won’t be quitting our day jobs – don’t worry.


The focus group itself was split up into two groups – one group of nine females and one group of eight males (ten signed up, but only eight showed). The session lasted about two hours, with the ladies going first, followed by the guys.

We discussed our separate sessions with one another afterwards and came up with the following rundown:

For the most part, we were asked roughly the same questions. They seemed interested in finding out what we loved most about the books, who our favorite characters were, and what type of extras we would like to see in the series.

Both groups mentioned that the detail in the world was a big factor in what makes the series stand out. Everyone seemed to agree that the wealth of history really helped make it a believable setting. The stylized POV chapters were another huge draw for everyone since they allow for multiple perspectives and the chance to get inside different characters minds. Other things mentioned in both groups were the witty dialogue and dynamic characters.

As for characters, it appears that Tyrion was the favorite in both groups. Both groups spent a decent amount of time speaking about him, followed by Sansa, who divided the groups into Sansa fans and Sansa haters. For both Tyrion and Sansa, there was a lot of discussion generated on their motivations and what makes them so interesting to the readers.

They asked us a few other character questions, too:

Who did we feel the main hero of the story was? Both groups went with Jon Snow.

Who did we feel the central bad guy was? Both groups mentioned Tywin, but the ladies veered more toward Cersei while the guys veered more toward Littlefinger.

Now the interesting thing is that the ladies were asked two questions that were not brought up in the guy’s group:

Who did we think was the sexiest character? (The ladies went a unanimous vote of Jaime)

and...

Who did we think the most romantic character is? (Both Sansa and Rhaegar won out here)

After characters were discussed, our focus group leader asked us what kind of extra features we would like to see included in either the DVDs or extra feature section on HBO. Both groups mentioned features on fight choreography, costume design, character histories, family trees, character profiles and flashbacks (though the guys said that they would actually prefer to have the flashbacks in the actual show and not as extras). The guys also requested maps while the ladies mentioned detailed looks into the Wall and the various castles.

We were also asked if we read any websites related to the series. Winter is Coming, Westeros and Westeros Sorting were all mentioned.

The ladies group was also asked for words of wisdom on things we felt must be present in the show or things that should not be present in the show in order to make the adaptation work. The ladies mentioned that the most important thing was for the overall tone and theme to remain the same as well as the characters personalities and motivations. All the ladies agreed that changing core parts of characters would really upset them. Additionally, the ladies also requested that the appearance of the characters be consistent with the descriptions in the book since families and bloodlines are an important factor in the series.

In general, we conclude that the ladies group covered more topics while the guy’s group covered less topics but went into greater detail and discussion on the topics presented. It also seems like there was a definite consensus between both groups in regards to over many elements of the series that we enjoyed and wanted to see present in the show.

Does this mean we might see more screen time for Peter Dinklage (who is playing Tyrion in the upcoming HBO series) and Sophie Turner (who is portraying Sansa), plenty of flashback sequences and a making-of extra featuring fight choreography and costume designs? We hope so!

On an side note, The Warlock was pleased to get pulled aside by one of the clients who is interested in playing in The Warlock’s planned weekend long ASoIaF LARP for next I-Con. Score!

EDIT: We were just reminded by one of the Westeros Sorting ladies that was in the focus group with The Princess about something we forgot to mention... Both groups were also asked if we had any suggestions for good taglines in addition to "Winter is Coming" which is already featured on the teaser trailer. "Win or Die", "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die", "Life is not a song" and "Don't wake the dragon" were all mentioned as taglines we liked.