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Claire McCaskill is DONE with Game of Thrones! Are you?


Pong Messiah
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Don't read any further if you don't want book/TV spoilage :)

 

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The Missouri senator said last weekend's rape of Sansa was the "last straw" and she is so done with the show.

 

Kind of made me think of the other issues the show has had real probs with, which raised other questions:

  1. Shallow portrayal of the darker-skinned Dothraki people as "the other," with the high (or low) point being Khal Drogo raping Daenerys on her wedding night.
  2. Jaime and Cersei's post-Joffrey, consensual book hookup getting all rapey in the TV show.
  3. Sansa getting raped by Ramsey "I'm not a Bastard" Bolton on her wedding night.

Of these three issues, the only one I took real issue with is number 1. I think the show really missed an opportunity to set itself apart from standard fantasy fare by playing up the "wild-eyed savage" aspect of Dothraki culture (which, while not a focal point in the books, had a lot more color and depth). I wasn't necessarily offended, but it was undeniably a tired and lazy portrayal.

 

While I don't like what it does to the relationship between Daenerys and Drogo, I have less of a prob with Drogo being portrayed in a rapier light in the show, because frankly, she was sold to him as property so it's not like the marriage was at all consensual in the first place. They become more equal later, but definitely weren't at that point.

 

As far as Cersei and Jaime go... eh, it certainly does make Jaime's road to redemption rockier (assuming that is where we are headed), though it doesn't change much, if anything about Cersei's character, as she already feels as if she's been bought, sold, and used her whole life anyway. If I recall correctly (it's been awhile, so please correct me if I'm wrong), it was apparent she was viewing him more as a useful tool/idiot by that point anyway, and consensual (book) or not (TV), I don't think the experience fundamentally changed her view of herself in any meaningful way. Admittedly, I would have much preferred a non-rapey version, but it didn't ruin the show for me.

 

And Sansa being raped by Ramsay? Not a game changer, either. Mentally juxtaposing this scene with Sansa talking about how badly she wanted to get married off before the Stark's trip to King's Landing years earlier, it is just a horrific, gut-punching culmination of her "hopes and dreams" finally being realized. Be careful what you wish for, indeed. I had less problem with the inclusion of this scene than the other two "big issues" of the show.

 

Now for the questions they raise:

 

1. Why is it that in a show where we have kids being wantonly tossed out of windows, pregnant women repeatedly stabbed in the belly, awesome protagonists who are there one minute and totally dead the next, dicks chopped off, skin flayed, babies given away to scary blueish monsters, people being set on fire and munched upon by dragons, etc. the only time we get a true Internet Uproar is when a minority culture is clumsily portrayed or a woman is raped? Yes, I realize tumblr's Postcolonial Feminist Brigade never sleeps and is always angry about... something, but surely there are other people watching the show who find aspects of it to be... problematic? Are rape, sexism, and racism really the only things we care about collectively? Individually, I know people who threw down the books after Robb's death (including one who never picked them back up), but you never get essays or opinion pieces from them...

 

2. Does our entertainment have a duty to avoid troubling, offensive, or "dangerous" portrayals of certain peoples or actions and deserve to be called on its bad behavior when it steps outta line, or should people just stfu and enjoy what they want to read, watch, or listen to... and avoid stuff that they find troubling/offensive/"dangerous"? IMO, this is a complex question that should engender complex responses -- a libertarian "No, let the market decide!" or Social Justice Templar "Yes, anything that butts up against (my perceived) values is hate speech. Burn it and shame the author!" answer just ain't gonna fly.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

I highly doubt Claire McCaskill watched one minute of GOT, let alone read the books. Seems about as likely as Tipper Gore jamming out to NWA. And if she is truly part of the morality police, she would be a hypocrite if she had. This is clearly an example of some aide of a politician paying attention to the twitterverse on their behalf, scanning for things to make a moral/political stand on to gain notoriety and talking said politician into making some public stand on said topic, and/or feed some red meat to the base and potential financial donors for the next election.

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The best point of all of this is that she said NOW she is done. Now? She taking back her DVD season sets? Of course I don't know if she has them but I would bet she accidentally leave the television on HBO next Sunday night.

 

The show is TV-MA correct? So if even adults can't handle R rated material then the problem is bigger than the content.

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Yeah, I don't believe anyone who claims to have been watching it to this point and is now stopping due to OUTRAGE!

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Let's not also forget that Sansa is a more likeable character than Cersei and even Daenerys. People get upset when something bad happens to their favorite characters.

I call bullshit. I liked Dany quite a bit for a long time. Cersei is just an idiot, but so is Sansa. Sansa's not ALSO an evil bitch, but that doesn't make her likeable. She just recently became less of an idiot, so respect. But I don't think she's any more likeable than most of the other characters. Pitiable maybe.

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1. Why is it that in a show where we have kids being wantonly tossed out of windows, pregnant women repeatedly stabbed in the belly, awesome protagonists who are there one minute and totally dead the next, dicks chopped off, skin flayed, babies given away to scary blueish monsters, people being set on fire and munched upon by dragons, etc. the only time we get a true Internet Uproar is when a minority culture is clumsily portrayed or a woman is raped? Yes, I realize tumblr's Postcolonial Feminist Brigade never sleeps and is always angry about... something, but surely there are other people watching the show who find aspects of it to be... problematic? Are rape, sexism, and racism really the only things we care about collectively? Individually, I know people who threw down the books after Robb's death (including one who never picked them back up), but you never get essays or opinion pieces from them...

People care about what they're told to care about. If someone were to go off about the complete mistreatment of Rhaegal and Viserion by Dany and the fact that they're OMG CHAINED IN THE DARK, I'll bet PETA would be all over it.

 

 

 

2. Does our entertainment have a duty to avoid troubling, offensive, or "dangerous" portrayals of certain peoples or actions and deserve to be called on its bad behavior when it steps outta line, or should people just stfu and enjoy what they want to read, watch, or listen to... and avoid stuff that they find troubling/offensive/"dangerous"? IMO, this is a complex question that should engender complex responses -- a libertarian "No, let the market decide!" or Social Justice Templar "Yes, anything that butts up against (my perceived) values is hate speech. Burn it and shame the author!" answer just ain't gonna fly.

 

 

I think entertainment should be true the world in which it exists. If a movie or show takes place in the "real world" rape shouldn't be played purely for entertainment, half the cast should be women, and there should be more than the ONE black dude on screen to represent all non-white ethnicities and cultures. However, if your story is about a serial rapist, then seeing a rape on screen shouldn't shock anybody any more than seeing a murder while following a serial killer.

 

If the story takes place historically in the real world then characters should act accordingly. There shouldn't be warrior women in Victorian England or black businessmen in the antebellum south.

 

Fictional universes should similarly stay true to their established worlds. In Star Wars that means there should be more women (unless it's meant for women to only account for about 10% of the population, but that should be addressed if so) and more than 3 black people (same reasons). In Game of Thrones that means that occasionally ( :rolleyes: ) people are victimized by sadists. In Lord of the Rings that means stupid elf women shouldn't randomly start stalking and falling for dwarves (who, in turn, shouldn't look like L'Oreal models).

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I don't think that entertainment has a duty to avoid offensive or controversial content. Not at all. I'd go as far as to say they have a duty NOT to avoid such content when warranted. On the other hand, though, know thy audience. Also, I have no time for gratuitous violence and material that almost seems to revel in brutality. Game of Thrones is meant to be a cynical, decidedly anti-romanticist work. Does it go too far at times? I haven't watched or read enough of it to really say. Martin's writing is good, but it strikes me as being excessively drawn out and soap-opera-ish. I've tried it, I can't sustain interest. It's not bad, I'm just not on board.

 

As for the sensitivities of the "tumblr Postcolonial Feminist Brigade" - don't blame them for the starry eyed, head over heels, worship-the-ground-they-walk-on, slavering, sycophantic, grovelling worship avalanched on them 24/7/365 by an academia and mass media unified well past totalitarian state levels in their unshakable support. Perhaps the social justice crowd comes by their messianic sense of righteousness and mission honestly. They would not believe it if they were not told it so often. Their pet issues will monopolize all public discourse until the powers that be grow some back bone and decide otherwise. Absent sustained and organized public pressure, that won't be happening for a damn long time.

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I'm with Destiny. To have outrage over this property at this point feels false. Rants about book to show changes have the ring of honest points however, I can feel those as a fan who pleads for Snyder to let Superman smile.

 

Side Note: Speaking of rapey fiction, I was watching the Reeve and Kidder Supermans with my teen son. He chuckled a few times because the looks and situations sometimes felt awkward. He ranted, "Look Supes is all human now. So he's like do me Lois and she's like uhh. And he's like I didn't lose my powers for nothing, woman." He then went on a rant about Superman being a bully to the diner guy after he got his powers back, so I told him to shut up and grounded him.

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I don't think that entertainment has a duty to avoid offensive or controversial content. Not at all. I'd go as far as to say they have a duty NOT to avoid such content when warranted. On the other hand, though, know thy audience. Also, I have no time for gratuitous violence and material that almost seems to revel in brutality. Game of Thrones is meant to be a cynical, decidedly anti-romanticist work. Does it go too far at times? I haven't watched or read enough of it to really say. Martin's writing is good, but it strikes me as being excessively drawn out and soap-opera-ish. I've tried it, I can't sustain interest. It's not bad, I'm just not on board.

Pretty much why I said that if an ADULT can't change the channel if they don't like something then there is a bigger problem.
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Ive been a die hard fan of this show but this season has been uninspiring and boring.

 

If they keep changing things from the book then Sunday night would have been perfect to redeem Theon rather than watching Sansa get rapped. Before this last episode I commented to other friends of mine who watch the show about how boring its been. I almost want to cancel hbo because this season has lost me. All of my shows are tanking. I gave up on American horror story freak show, and almost giving up with Bates Motel.

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Racism and domestic abuse are two issues that our society are struggling to overcome...as opposed to dragons eating people.

Yeah, but if AZ passed a law saying it was illegal for dragons to eat people, I bet people would say it was because we're racist.

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What the fuck is a trigger warning?

 

And who the fuck is this Claire person?

 

So since racism and domestic abuse are something we are trying to overcome, we should rewrite things to no hurt anyone's feelings and rewrite history? I know GoT isn't historical, I know it's fiction, but during medieval times which it is based on, this type of behavior was all over the place. So we're supposed to pretend it didn't happen? It's not like it was celebrating rape with sparklers and dancers. It was showing it for what it was. Brutal and wrong.

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