Khal Wadege wrote:
To be fair with the Tokar, it is the clothing embodiment of a slave society, you have to hold it one place with one hand, and can only walk in it. The only people who can wear a Tokar are Masters who have lots of slaves to do work for them, so I can understand Dany being reluctant to wear it because of what it represents.
I agree and I generally side with Dany on that one. But at the same time people can definitely interpret it the other way, especially if they were being vigilant about these kind of attitudes to begin with.
Khal Wadege wrote:
Something I would like to see an Essay on is how Martin portrays the 'non-eastern' Othered societies like the Ironborn, the Wildlings and the North vs 'eastern' othered societies.
+1.
Between the Slaver's Bay plot, the aftermath of Robert's Rebellion, and especially the Sons of the Dragon novella, it seems like there is a bit of a theme in the books of how the right of conquest doesn't mean you can just do what you want, which feeds into the larger question of "What is Aragorn's tax policy?".
@Shoeshiner you might be interested in Ursula K. Le Guin's
The Left Hand of Darkness, which tries to move beyond
Fantasy Counterpart Culture tropes. It still has an "Othering gaze" since the narrator is a diplomat from Earth, but off the top of my head, it sounds closer to what you might be looking for in terms of fantasy.