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Game of Thrones (tv series)

Why I quit 'Game of Thrones'

Hoai-Tran Bui
USATODAY
Sansa Stark and Theon Greyjoy in 'Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken.'

A lot has been written about Game of Thrones and its tenuous relationship with misogyny and feminism. Though some of the strongest female characters on TV hail from the HBO fantasy series, Game of Thrones has also received much criticism for its shocking portrayals of rape and violence against women.

A year after the breaking point for some of its audience, we examine why it is so polarizing and why one reporter shuns the show and why another still watches it (read that here).

As many former Game of Thrones fans can, I can pinpoint my breaking-off point down to a single scene last season. In Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken, the sixth episode of season 5, Sansa had just been married off to Ramsay Bolton, and in full view of a horrified Reek, née Theon Greyjoy, she was raped, her pained screams piercing through the screen as the camera closes in on Reek’s face.

"Why are you so bothered by this?" I was asked by friends, coworkers, family. "Nothing good happens in Game of Thrones. That's the world they live in."

Why I’m still watching ‘Game of Thrones'

Nothing good happens in Game of Thrones, but I expected things to happen for a reason. This scene did not -- I felt it was a shoehorned attempt to give Sansa a plot that had nothing to do with her story arc in the first place. Not only that, but the traumatizing scene wasn’t even about Sansa — it was about Reek. Poor Reek who had to suffer through his childhood friend being raped.

Ramsay Bolton and Sansa Stark in 'Game of Thrones.

Sansa had been a victim for so long that it was thrilling to see her rise to power in the early episodes of season 5, with her escape from King’s Landing, her coming-to-terms with Petyr Baelish’s fixation on her and her successful lie in the face of the Eyrie lords and ladies to save Baelish’s skin. Her storyline was of victimhood no longer, and she had suffered all that she needed to at the hands of Joffrey for four seasons. But then the show pulled her journey of empowerment out from under her, and foisted on her the storyline of a completely different character — in the Song of Ice and Fire books, minor character Jeyne Poole is the one who gets married to Ramsay under the guise of being Arya Stark.

To me, the combining of the two storylines was a clumsy attempt to reunite two of the main characters, but it only managed to push Sansa to the backseat of her own story. The show switches its focus to Reek and his suffering, and Sansa goes back to the role of hapless victim once more.

Worst of all, the rape scene felt as if it served no purpose except to shock the viewers and motivate Reek to get out of his already horrible situation — something that could have been done without sacrificing the integrity of Sansa’s story and making her a victim once again.

And this wasn't the first --  the show has a shaky relationship with handling sex scenes that aren’t rape-y or voyeuristic. Jaime’s uncharacteristic rape of Cersei while she’s mourning Joffrey’s death — let’s stop trying to pretend it wasn’t rape — and the rape of Craster’s nameless wives during the Night’s Watch mutiny are just a few examples of this. Even Daenerys’ first night with Khal Drogo back in season 1 was uncomfortably non-consensual (despite it being somewhat consensual in the books).

A rape scene in Season 4 of 'Game of Thrones' caused backlash.

It's part of Game of Thrones' reputation for titillating and shocking the audience without any of the narrative purpose. Sansa's needless and gratuitous rape scene was just the last straw for me.

My rants may sound like classic “but this didn’t happen in the books” complaints. But the show goes out of its way to twist storylines in an overtly misogynistic way, enacting physical and sexual violence against female characters as a means of motivating their male characters.

Despite all the schemings, betrayals and brutality, Game of Thrones is still a fantasy show. I came to the show for its subversion of classic fantasy tropes like the standard knight, maiden romance. And while the violence and deceit was part of that, the show’s constant insistence that senseless violence against women is part of it was not.

You can read why USA TODAY reporter Kelly Lawler still watches Game of Thrones here

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