Yesterday, mainstream fandom finally caught wind of what many of us have known in Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire world for a decade: that Linda Antonsson and Elio García are racist, with the former particularly vicious in her attacks on diversity and fellow fans. Who are these people? Why does it matter? They’re married ASOIAF wiki runners, Westeros.org owners, and occasional George R.R. Martin co-authors/fact-checkers, often referred to in tandem as Elio and Linda or Linda and Elio or Lindaaaaaa and Ran. (Whatever floats your boat.) Most fandom criticism has been aimed at Antonsson because of her vitriol and her habit of antagonizing fans, but García has supported his partner and publicly voiced agreement with her offensive opinions on many occasions. And it matters what they say and do because unfortunately, they have Martin’s ear and it looks like they have a hand in the future of Westeros content.

People may have already read the articles that dropped this week, so I don’t want to rehash all the same points. What I’d like to touch upon is what I know about, since I’m in the position of having actually been present at the beginning of the drama, and personally witnessed a lot of Antonsson’s misbehavior in her Tumblr days. She has claimed “context” or blamed “cherry-picking” as the reason for looking racist in several instances but I can tell you with some citations that this is not true. It’s not cherry-picking when there are a hundred examples of Antonsson cussing people out for being feminist or hoping characters might be cast with non-white actors.  That’s not cherry-picking, folks- we’re looking at a whole damn pie these Westeros.org people made themselves.

Dueling articles were published on October 4th (a rather interesting coincidence of timing), addressing the issue at hand:

The first, by Michelle Jaworski for The Daily Dot: ‘It’s important for people to stop forgiving and forgetting her blatant racism’: Fans are resurfacing problematic comments from one of George R.R. Martin’s collaborators

And the second by Ethan Shanfeld for Variety: ‘Game of Thrones’ Fans Boycott George R.R. Martin’s Next Book, Accusing Coauthors of Racism

An assortment of other outlets picked up on the story from that point on, such as Vulture, NYPost, AV Club, Indiewire, EW, The Guardian, and more. Given the way the Variety article is written, it reads like a weak PR piece put out to cover García and Antonsson with claims about context and questioning “Like who can say what’s racism, even??” and I’m sure some people will buy into it. Don’t be one of them. If it were a reasonable thought-out article they would have interviewed people besides Antonsson and García. It’s bad journalism, and obviously was put out deliberately timed to be against The Daily Dot piece which is much more thorough- and damning.

First, a Disclaimer: I spoke with Jaworski while she researched her Daily Dot article, and referred her to Bex (who appears in the article), since Bex is the author of the infamous “Cunt-Stained Ballad” of Tumblr, which preserved many helpful links about Antonsson from a decade ago so that they could even be uncovered by Twitter folk today. While the Ballad is remembered for its savage dress down of Linda and its now-quaint memes, not all realize that the author is the same Bex who used to write for Watchers on the Wall and appears at Con of Thrones. So, I’m not impartial in this. I know Michelle as well from Con of Thrones. And yes, her article is much better researched and does not read like a PR job. But I’d say that even if I didn’t think she was a cool lady. Okay, back to the history.

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Hotah

Linda’s infamously awful tumblr really speaks for itself if you want to browse. I’ll show you a few of the pertinent highlights that she trolled the Game of Thrones tumblr fandom with in early years of HBO’s GoT.

First off, worth noting: Linda’s constant mocking use of quotations on PoC or People of Color when using the terms, while discussing race or diversity. There’s no way to misinterpret that; it’s not an accident of ignorance where one makes a mistake and learns from it. She’s being plain as day about her feelings on the subject. She thinks the term is funny and is choosing to mock people for identifying with it. Her tone there matches her behavior with her pointed complaints about “forced” diversity.

Check out Antonsson and García’s reactions to the casting of Season 5, in their own words, no twisting needed. Watch the video if you can stomach or just read these highlights. They nitpick the casting of English/Singaporean-Chinese actress Jessica Henwick as Nym Sand and speculate on what changes that might require. As usual, they suggest changing the character’s background since a character who appears a certain way can only be from one certain place, according to Linda and Elio. Frankly, Linda sounded much angrier when she thought Nym might wind up being Black, as they originally put out a casting call for a darker skinned actress for the role. From a tumblr blog post:

Of course, the reason for the changes to Nymeria is probably bullshit pandering to people whining about a lack of diversity. Same if it is true that they’re looking for a black actor for Areo. I sure hope they at least change his back story, because no, you don’t have black Norvoshi. They’re another bunch of Valyrian descendants and these moved way up north, too. And if they plan to keep Doran’s wife as Norvoshi…well, they can’t exactly have Areo be black and Mellario something else (and Trystane apparently gets no special casting notes mentioning he should look half black). Well, they can, but it’d require yet more bullshit backstory changes and world-building destruction.

I didn’t see her having a cow in the video or anywhere on her tumblr over the fact that Trystane Martell shouldn’t have this big a presence and has clearly been subject to some major adaptation changes. She can claim now retroactively that she hated it (because most people did hate the Dorne/Trystane storyline), but when these posts were made and the video? The real seething was saved for Areo Hotah (DeObia Oparei). At 27 minutes into the video, Linda has a rant about “artificial” diversity and the casting of Oparei as a Norvoshi warrior, feeling his character name should be changed or background should be changed to a Summer Islander, similar to her critiques of Henwick’s casting, only with more force. Because Hotah just cannot be Hotah from the books, it doesn’t make sense to her, so it cannot be permitted. The Martells’ mother is also Norvoshi, and that simply kills the worldbuilding for Linda.

It’s important to note, the Martells’ mother is not a character on the show and is not really ever present in the books either! Not everyone who lives in the same place is the same race or ethnicity in real life, or even in Westeros for that matter. Hell, even in the books there’s a random Dothraki and a slobbering Qohorik riding around Westeros and a Summer Islander chilling in King’s Landing. People move. Audiences get it. (But don’t tell Linda that, she’ll start talking about purity again and it goes to a weird place.)

Salladhor Saan

While García may seem like the sensible one sometimes, he’s really not much better. His comments regarding the casting of Lucian Msamati as Salladhor Saan ahead of season 2, made on Westeros.org, showed he was cut from the same cloth.

is Salladhor Saan really the role to practice color-blind casting with? The people of the Free City of Lys—where Saan was born—are repeatedly noted to be fair-haired and skinned. This isn’t just a throw away reference, as it may well play an important plot point in the future, given the fact that there are examples of Lyseni who clearly have strong Valyrian lineages. Indeed, one of the most beautiful daughters of House Targaryen—Shiera Seastar—had a Lyseni mother, probably one of high Valyrian lineage. Saan may not be so exalted… but then again, his flagship is actually named Valyrian. And there’s an ancestor of his who was widely known as “The Old Valyrian”. It rather suggests that Saan should look more like… well, like Dany than he does Nonso Anozi’s Xaro, no? Or at least more like Conleth Hill’s Varys, who also hails from Lys. Or Roxanne McKee’s Doreah, also from Lys.

Roxanne McKee (Doreah), for the record, is a brunette. So I’m not sure what he was trying to say there. The fact of where Salla comes from was never a plot point; he’s a colorful pirate friend to Davos Seaworth, and it’s safe to say his Lys heritage was not ever going to be explored on GoT as he’s a tertiary character. Even the most “purist” book fan could see that from the get-go. It was pointless, racist nitpicking.

I’m sure it will shock everyone that in 2011, Linda said, “The two castings where I have a real problem with the actors chosen are the castings of Xaro Xhoan Daxos and Salladhor Saan.”  For some reason, she could not see Nonso Anozie as Xaro, one of the “pale, lean” Milk Men of Qarth. Antonsson reasoned that, “His casting for the show not only means that the character is likely to be pretty profoundly changed—and here I am talking about his size; I just can’t see him playing Xaro as Xaro is written and Xaro won’t be the physical contrast to Drogo that he was in the books—but it also means that they need to make setting and story changes. Either they disregard the appearance of the ‘Milk Men’ or they change Xaro’s story so he’s not one of them.” As with other characters…she insists the back story must be changed when a Man of Color is cast. He cannot play the character from her beloved book. The pattern is becoming clear.

García, when reporting at Westeros.org on the casting, stated, “Of course, some fans will note the fact that the Qartheen of the novels are described as being ‘pale as milk’, and Nonso is anything but. It’s a change, but we trust that Nonso was the best actor for the part, and for my part that’s all that really matters when we’re looking out to the exotic East.”

Why the Tumblr at all? Linda made some weird comments about Oona Chaplin’s (Talisa) coloring in a passive-aggressive way, on her own blog (in a post complaining about Salladhor Saan and Xaro). It’s the main reason she started going off on people on Tumblr.

There is thus nothing to indicate that either Jeyne’s grand-mother or Jeyne herself have a skin-colour that sets them apart from the rest of Westeros.

Some fans were bothered by the implication that Chaplin wasn’t pale enough or that white was the automatic default when reading character descriptions. Fans read Antonsson’s blog and were discussing it amongst themselves on Tumblr. They didn’t comment on her blog or email her- they took their thoughts off to their own space. Linda caught wind of it- possibly because she admits to having Google alerts for herself/Westeros.org-  read the discussions and grew very upset that a handful of strangers were discussing her publicly posted words somewhere and disagreeing with her. She decided to go create an entirely new blog closer to those individuals to confront them on a regular basis. Her first post was to tell Game of Thrones fans how stupid they are. She goes on to attack a few people specifically. As she herself says, those people “rarely crawl out of” Tumblr- so she sought them out to attack them, they weren’t looking to fight her.

stupid

This led to several years of Linda mocking and verbally abusing female and queer fans on Tumblr every time they voiced a different opinion than hers, calling people “it,” using a staggering variety of misogynistic slurs, many of which Bex has already catalogued. She was particularly vicious when it had to do with those fans wanting more People of Color on GoT or voicing critique of how female characters are depicted. This went on from 2011 to 2015.

thanks for gathering this festering pile, Bex
thanks for gathering this festering pile, Bex!

 

Oh, she calls people “pedophiles” because they write fanfiction. That’s literally it.

And while Linda and Elio do get annoyed about a variety of book-to-show changes, as book nerds will do, let’s look at the pattern. They never get very worked up when it’s a change like say, Chataya being written out or Strong Belwas, do they? No, they accept those changes with surprising grace and logic.

nboll

There’s been a lot of discussion about Linda Antonsson’s use of the Swedish n-word in terms of a chocolate confection with an old-school very out-of-date name. She’d make excuses for it over the years, brush it off as a harmless word, and then take the other tactic of admitting she knows it’s provocative and she’s just messing with people ha ha ha.Well make up your mind, Linda- either it was a misstep and you didn’t mean to go that far, and you can apologize for once. Or you can admit you straight up know it’s 100% racist- own your evil already. Because I remember when you made that post. People told you it was racist even then, and I don’t mean Americans. Sycophants tried to make excuses for you even back in 2014, saying, “Oh well in Sweden they use that word for the chocolate ball,” but Swedes spoke up on Tumblr saying “Oh hell no,  we don’t use that word anymore.” The same way people are speaking up now.

And you know what? No one ever did ANYTHING to Linda Antonsson, on Tumblr, Twitter, Westeros.org, or any other site, that made it okay for her to use that language. Her childish claims of “Well, they started it! Um there was context!” are absurd. There is no context that can justify it.

She also had a strange fetish for violent language that persists to this day. Saying things like, “I do love bashing lackwitted girls on the head with a dictionary. Too bad they’re so dumb you can’t even beat some sense into them.” Talking about beating women? Gross.

But to be fair, she does it to men too. Last year, when an r/ASOIAF subreddit moderator clocked her unhappy and racist reaction to the Corlys Velaryon casting, Linda responded in typical style.

In Variety, Antonsson says “she just wishes fans were doing it ‘because of our actual opinions rather than those they project on us.’” Sweetie, we wish we weren’t seeing your actual opinions so damn much. They’ve been absolutely fucking everywhere for the past decade. There’s nothing to “project.” I’ve had Antonsson blocked for years and I still see her screencapped and retweeted constantly because her shit is that outrageous and vile. I know a troll job when I see one.

Antonsson and García aren’t victims, not now and not a decade ago when Antonsson set up a Tumblr specifically to start attacking queer teenagers on a microblogging site.

It’s a minor note, but a funny one in the ongoing drama that Linda Antonsson hadn’t even read the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series until well into the lifespan of Game of Thrones, yet was was lording it over everyone as a professional “expert” and uber book purist for years. Until shortly before Season 3’s “The Rains of Castamere” aired on TV, Antonsson couldn’t bring herself to read the Red Wedding or the rest of A Storm of Swords.  That’s approximately one-third of ASOS, I kid you not. Source. It’s for real. And no, she was never ashamed of it. You would have to be capable of feeling shame.

1x05 KL Wedding Velaryon Vaemond (Wil Johnson), Corlys (Steve Toussaint), Laenor (Theo Nate), Joffrey Lonmouth (Solly McLeod), Rhaenys (Eve Best), Laena (Savannah Steyn)

Ancient history, right? You might think, well it’s been years since those early GoT posts were made, people change! But with Antonsson’s ugly posts about the casting of Steve Toussaint as Corlys Velaryon and the presence of Black Valyrians on House of the Dragon, it’s clear there has been no growth.

According to Linda, a Black Velaryon family destroys the realism of her dragon story.

There is also this odd trend of theirs of always suggesting that they’d be perfectly happy if some smaller or less important character with no family such as Criston Cole were Black instead. Just one character, no relatives. It’s interesting how that works.

Antonsson and García also have a role-playing game at Westeros.org (a MUSH) where you’re not allowed to play Black characters. As Antonsson explains it, “why there are no black characters on Blood of Dragons and why it would be very hard to get one approved. Because this has a lot to do with other aspects of our game, such as the fact that we only allow nobles and that we expect a certain about of demonstrated experience to play certain types of roles.” Because you have to play a noble and Black people aren’t allowed to be nobles in their fantasy role-playing game with dragons and shit.

So we have to ask how and why are they getting away with this? I suppose GRRM needed the help. His fictional world has outgrown his “gardening” ability. That would feed their arrogance, being needed by the author. We’ve made a lot of excuses for Martin over the years, with regard to him not addressing the behaviors of people he cites as friends and collaborators. However these latest interviews make it clear he is aware: he just doesn’t seem to care, at least not enough to do anything. So what does he care about, if not racism or how his co-writers and “friends” treat his fans?

Maybe his own reputation? His legacy?

Probably the most problematic thing either Antonsson or García have said that isn’t racist or misogynistic is this confession:

linda said it not me

Linda Antonsson publicly stated on Twitter that George R.R. Martin did not write any of “his” newest book, Rise of the Dragon. She implied that her and Elio are solely responsible for the work. GRRM signed the contracts and handed over the reins. Fans are free to buy it or not, but people are not getting a George R. R. Martin book if they do purchase it, according to Antonsson. They’re getting the work of a pair of fans who are more concerned with racial purity than a good story.

It’s hard to believe that’s the legacy Martin wants to leave behind, but it may be all we are left with in the end.

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