Abstract
In this chapter, Jordan Haynie Ware explore two fantasy narratives, looking at their religious systems and the roles that these systems play in shaping the gender relationships and gendered violence depicted therein. She first considers George R. R. Martin’s fictional world of Westeros, created in his fantasy novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Focusing on two of the religious systems operating within Westeros, she examines the ways that religious leaders and institutions are complicit in the perpetuation of misogynistic gender roles and gender violence. Then, turning her attention to Ron D. Moore’s TV show Battlestar Galactica, she compares the faith systems and deities of the cybernetic Cylons and human Colonials, reflecting again on the theological questions that the series raises about religious complicity in the validation of gender violence. By exploring the ways in which these fantasy religions either challenge or condone women’s oppression and the perpetuation of rape, she contemplates Christianity’s problematic silence and indifference about gender violence, drawing on the theology of imago Dei within both fantasy religions and Christianity to inform her critique.
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Notes
- 1.
Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series was adapted for television by HBO and renamed Game of Thrones (2011–). In this chapter, I refer primarily to the novels, although there is much overlap between the books and the television adaptation.
- 2.
The Battlestar Galactica franchise also included a three-part miniseries that aired in 2003, a two-episode television movie, Razor, that played between seasons 3 and 4 (2007), a prequel spin-off TV series Caprica (2010), another spin-off, Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome (2012), and a web series of ten short episodes (2013).
- 3.
Neumann (2013) notes the heavy reliance of the Battlestar Galactica narrative on Mormon theology, both in the original series and also the subsequent franchise.
- 4.
We first encounter Elosha in the 2003 miniseries, Razor, leading funeral services for those killed in battle.
- 5.
Although interestingly, Starbuck does later embrace that most traditional feminine role of motherhood. In the opening episode of season 3 (“Occupation” 2006), she is tricked by Cylon Leoben into believing she has a young daughter (Leoben claims he is the father and the child was “conceived” after eggs were harvested from her ovaries during her incarceration at the Farm). Although initially indifferent towards the girl, she develops a strong maternal attachment to her; when she learns that Leoben tricked her and the girl is not her daughter after all, she is grief-stricken.
- 6.
There is much speculation about Starbuck’s return—did she survive the plane crash, does she reappear as a ghost or angel, or was she “resurrected” by the gods? Or is she actually a Cylon, whose resurrection technology would have allowed her to regenerate? The series gives nothing away, and viewers are left to speculate the significance of her reappearance (Butler and Winston 2009, p. 269 ; Conover 2013).
- 7.
For an overview of the various theological understandings of imago Dei within Christian theology across the centuries, see Garner (2006).
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Ware, J.H. (2018). Imago Dei and Fantasy Religions: Defeating Violence against Women throughout the Realms. In: Blyth, C., Colgan, E., Edwards, K. (eds) Rape Culture, Gender Violence, and Religion. Religion and Radicalism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72685-4_11
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