Gwendoline Christie praised “Game of Thrones” for how it portrays female characters, and we agree

We can’t wait until Season 7 of Game of Thrones premieres tonight. Gwendoline Christie’s GoT character Brienne of Tarth is one of the best characters on television right now. (And supremely under appreciated, in our humble opinion). So we trust her opinion on basically anything, but especially when it comes to GoT‘s portrayal of women.

During a special on the People/Entertainment Weekly Network, Christie talked about how Game of Thrones has become a master class on how to treat female characters.

When you take stock of GoT‘s women, you can see her point. We get to watch characters like Daenerys and Sansa come into their power, growing from meek to strong. Also, women like Melisandre and Margaery have visions for their lives and go to great lengths to execute them. And of course, there’s Cersei, who is one of the most fully-fledged villains currently on TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBolRY5EQ_Y?feature=oembed

Christie says she knew from the moment she read the scripts that GoT was going to be something incredibly different and powerful.

"This was a television show that would put women at the forefront. We were going to explore female characters in a way that conventionally doesn’t happen. We were going to look at them in a three dimensional way."

Christie also notes how the show treats the women like real, complex people with motivations, flaws, strengths, and detailed back stories. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case with every TV show.

"We would explore their darkness, we would find them complex. And we would spend more time on them. They wouldn’t simply exist as the mother role, the girlfriend role, the wife role, or the sister. They would be people in their own right. I think putting women to the fore is what has changed the platform for television now."

As we prepare for Game of Thrones‘ Season 7 premiere tonight, it’s nice to remember how far we’ve come with these female characters. We’ll mourn the ones we’ve left behind (thanks, Cersei). Most importantly, we’ll be excited for all the stories we have yet to experience.

So that’s maybe the most important lesson GoT can impart to other shows. It feels good to watch fully-realized women on screen.