Meh. Can't bring myself to watch Game of Thrones S5.

[rheasilvia]

I'm so unenthusiastic about Game of Thrones. I haven't watched the season opener yet, and I'm not really motivated to. None of the characters interest me right now.

Comments

[rogueslayer452]

It shows pretty clearly that the creators of the series don't want female characters with true power.

It really saddens me when people suggest that Game of Thrones is the only show on television where there are true strong women featured, because that is simply not true. If it were, why are the creators neglecting certain female characters that have an importance to the plot and then watering down and oversimplifying the ones they do have? Why have Arya, Brienne and Asha Greyjoy use gendered insults when their characters in the books don't do such a thing? It angers me so much that the show has little regard of women as actual people, of not making them as complex three-dimensional individuals, and ruining what made their characters so memorable and admirable in the books to begin with.

I do have to say that I tried listening to the audiobooks a few months back and got through the first two books or so, and I did not find the book version easier to take as regards the rapeyness of the world.

I mostly think it's how things are presented. How rape is used in the books is quite different than how rape is presented on the show; the former is uncomfortable but it's meant to be, the latter is uncomfortable because the show uses it so often and has scenes dedicated to rape and exploitation where it advances nothing to the plot whatsoever (and for one hour, ten episode seasons you'd think they would reduce the rape in favor of actual plot, but nope).

Please do not tell me more about Sansa or Danaerys and Tyrion, as this is already more than I knew.

I'm sorry. :(

[rheasilvia]

Absolutely, GoT is not about the strong women. There are a large number of important female characters, though, which - sadly enough - is in itself remarkable. A different fantasy epic would have two or three women as love interests for the main characters, period. I think that at this point, any woman whatsoever who is there as anything other than a love interest, and who even has her own plotlines, will look like a strong female character to most viewers.

I wasn't comfortable with the way rape was presented in the books for some of the same reasons I'm not comfortable with it on the show. I'm thinking specifically of Dany's relatiosnhip with Drago. I'd heard that in the book, the "underage girl is forced to marry barbarian who rapes her and gradually she falls in love with him" plotline was less rapey and awful, and that in the book, Drago actually didn't force her to have sex with him, but waited until she wanted to.

To me, that wasn't what it read like at all. It was an even worse instance of "rape a woman properly and she will love it" than the TV version, for me; it just went more quickly. He didn't wait to sleep with her until she was ready; he slept with her the same night they were married. She was simply ready immediately, because as soon as he touched her a little, she became willing - rape-to-love in a single sex act. And the dwelling on the details was very squicky to me, especially given that it was also made very clear that she was something like 14 years old.

for one hour, ten episode seasons you'd think they would reduce the rape in favor of actual plot, but nope

The show makes some very bad choices in terms of what to devote time to, IMO... I usually fast-forward through about 30% of any given ep, and recently it's been getting more and more.