Monday, May 18, 2015

Game of Thrones : Problematic

Progress continues!

Alas, there have been terrible developments. Apparently in the series Game of Thrones...

A fictional woman was raped.

The scene, described by many as 'offputting' and 'disturbing' is the straw that broke the camel's back.

I would like to note at this point I am not a fan of George RR Martin. I do not watch the television series. I wish no ill to any writers involved in the program- this sets me apart from these folks.

change.org, created to facilitate worthwhile change in society- being used once again to whine about trivialities.
Now I may not be a fan of the series, but I have been unable to entirely avoid exposure and if I understand correctly... This is not an especially remarkable occurrence.

In fact, according to this single rolling stone article : http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/get-medieval-the-seven-most-awful-things-people-did-on-game-of-thrones-season-one-20120328/daenerys-and-drogo-melt-viseryss-head-episode-6-a-golden-crown-19691231

In SEASON ONE alone.

1. A man's head has molten gold poured onto it.
2. A female character is raped. (According to the book lore, apparently their first time with their husband was at age 13.)
3. A ten year old child is shoved out of a window to cover up incest.
4. Buckets of blood- which I understand is rather mundane.

Through a casual bit of looking around I understand some character named Theon had Mr. Happy sliced off as well and in general was tortured in various ways.

A mighty din. A powerful racket. A Legend of Zelda fan who perhaps is confused on the show's setting.
I dislike Game of Thrones and George RR Martin, but I can't say I care any more for these hypocritical whingers who are happy to see any number of horrible things up until it treads on their moral panic agenda. At which point NOW it's a super-important ultra-horrible thing.

Will they stop watching? Nothing else that has happened in these episodes stopped them.

Yet for all this there is no reason to argue this latest rape scene should have been unexpected. It was set as the wedding night for a particularly sadistic character. I wonder if they expected them to sit around and play Dark Fantasy Uno.

It's not as if Game of Thrones had been, up until this point, a whimsical story about a fantasy world's largest game of musical chairs. I could understand that. If people were watching Sesame Street they might be reasonably put out if Snuffleupagus curbstomped Big Bird over a territory dispute.

How self-unaware do you have to be to watch the Horrible Things Happening To Characters Show and get hopped up on righteous fury over seeing a horrible thing happen to a character?

A small push for reason.
Bonus self-unawareness:

Just to be clear: Pictured is Chris Kluwe



More of a portrait in ignorance, Arther -Derp- Gies is the review editor for Polygon and was very upset there weren't more People of Color in Witcher 3. Apparently he believes that historically medieval POCs were regularly brought to Northern/Western Europe by flocks of swallows.

Progress continues.

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