In watching Game of Thrones Season 1
I lamented the amount of raunchy sex in the screenplay. It served no purpose to the story and was excessive. (As I noted then, I'm not prudish about sex. If this were supposed to be a story about sex, i.e. porn, well... it's dull and tedious porn.) In Season 2 sex gains a purpose. It's manipulation.
In Season 2 multiple women characters are shown using sex and sexual attraction to manipulate men into doing what they want. Multiple women characters even say on-screen that that's what they're doing. "I can manipulate anything with a dick," boasts one. "This [making you do what I want] would be easier if you had a dick," bemoans another.
So... yay? Raunchy sex in GoT is no longer gratuitous. Now it's just manipulatively preachy.