Warning: Spoilers for the latest season for Game of Thrones.
Full disclosure: I am not a patient woman. However, I have put in several years, five seasons and countless hours watching the saga of Game of Thrones. Throughout that time, I have seen several sexually violent scenes that made my stomach churn. After each one, I hoped it was the last as the number of prominent female characters who have been raped increased. But my wish is becoming less of a possibility: three of the six lead women have now been abused on HBO’s most-watched TV show.
What’s even more frustrating is that these plot lines deviate from the books and the writers have wantonly included it in the last two seasons. Violence is a key component for the program, but constantly writing a rape storyline into each woman’s life is just lazy. I’m bored by the writer’s tactics to elicit shock in audiences and if I was an average viewer, I would find something else to do on Sunday nights.
It is part of my job to write about TV for Forbes, so I will continue to watch and report. But I’m eagerly looking forward to the end of this tale when I can spend my time enjoying something with more creativity.
Throughout the series, women have been the center of sexually violent plotlines. Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei Lannister and Sansa Stark have been raped. We’ve seen close calls with Brienne and most recently Gilly (who was raped by her father, but it was not shown). Arya Stark and Margaery Tyrell have not been raped.
However, in the books, Cersei was not raped. She had consensual sex with her brother Jaime Lannister after their father was murdered. Sansa’s story greatly deviates from the books as well. Her whole storyline this season is new to fans, and therefore her rape was something that could have been excluded.
The author George R. R. Martin has made arguments about the historical accuracy of sexual violence while defending his work. He told The New York Times, "rape and sexual violence have been a part of every war ever fought, from the ancient Sumerians to our present day.”
Sure, rape did happen and continues to occur everyday without being gender specific. But let’s not forget that women in history had lives beyond that violence, Mr. Martin. And were dragons, demon fire babies and ice zombies a part of war?
While he can write a civilization of White Walkers marching towards Westoros to impose a cold, night-like state on the world, Martin can’t think of something more creative for the women of his stories? And I pose the same question for the writers of the show, who adapted that world for HBO.
Like watching a car accident, I found myself helplessly bracing for some sexual violence towards Sansa this season. She’s had two close calls in the past and narrowly escaped. But as she got closer to her wedding with Ramsay, I became less hopeful that the writers would not include rape in her life.
Last week’s episode ended with Ramsay ripping Sansa’s clothes off and raping her in front of his servant Reek. The latest installment showed her bruised and locked in a room. She told Reek that Ramsay rapes her every night. Again, this is not in the books.
My role at Forbes aside, I would have likely watched this episode of Game of Thrones to see if Sansa carried out revenge on Ramsay. I wanted a true-to-form Game of Thrones vengeance twist. But we didn’t see that for Sansa. And she didn’t need to be raped to want to kill Ramsay – he’s an evil character and she's been pushed to the point where if she killed anyone, no viewer would blink. She did steal a sharp object while conversing with Ramsay, but it’s too little, too late. The writers of the show have already violated her twice by including an unnecessary rape scene and robbing her of the storyline she deserves.
For many seasons, I have wanted to see something better than gratuitous rape for the women in this show. But with the last two episodes, I have even less faith that this wish will come true. There are other story lines the writers can introduce for women that doesn’t have to be sexually violent. Even in the latest episode, the long-awaited romance between Gilly and Sam finally happened, after she was almost raped.
I am likely not alone when I say I am happy that they “got together,” but the way it occurred was cheap. Sam has always been Gilly’s savior — he rescued her from a sexually abusive father and other treacherous threats without those moments sparking their love story. But now that Shireen Baratheon is gone and no longer teaching her how to read, Gilly needed a new story line. When Sam intervenes, she sleeps with him. It seems like the sloppy end of a term paper someone crafted an hour before it was due.
I am disappointed with Game of Thrones, and despite the outcry the show has faced in previous seasons for the same problem, it appears nothing may change. If the writers are going to take creative license, then why not listen to the fans and pen something different? I don’t think the writers of Game of Thrones are bad people, but I do think they are being lazy when it comes to the female characters. And I challenge them to get to the point they are trying to make without incorporating more sexual violence.
