HBO adaptation of Game of Thrones - will this be just for nerds? (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

it would get them too close to water and spoil their fundamental dirtiness

I'm not sure if it was fully ever explained, but besides Castle Black there are old fortresses at the "ends" of the walls at the sea that would supposedly deter such attacks.

Also where does Dany stash the now massive and unruly dragons upon arrival at each city?

so glad there's a pretty lil white women to liberate all the brown people

it's ok - she is their mother

They've crossed a line for a lot of people with the Cersei/Jaime rape even in a show where its spectre is so prevalent (amplified further with the Sam/Gilly scenes). Were they intending it to open up a debate of some sort? Much easier to see the online backlash than the story's gain right now.

lol waht

I mean are people actually morally outraged at a show about murder + incest + rape + pretty much every imaginable horrible thing

I guess they haven't covered bestiality yet

truly, what possible line could it have crossed if you've watched the show up to now.

yeah it's totally the time to handwave the massive amounts of unnecessary sexual (and sexualised) violence in the show because ~it's HBO~.

the line of ppl of really liked jaime's character before this and are feeling disappointed. it's one thing to try and kill a child...

*waves hand*

Also, Littlefinger's accent is just trolling us now. What was wrong with his s1 voice?!

I'm not handwaving - this show is really obviously exploitative, often in a remarkably silly and shallow way - I just don't see how this episode contained anything qualitatively worse than any of the other episodes

xp

the line of ppl of really liked jaime's character before this and are feeling disappointed

oh is that it? he's too pretty to be bad? lol

Because it's massively out of character and adds literally nothing to the point people wonder what was the point of including it. I seriously doubt they're going anywhere interesting with this.
http://www.avclub.com/article/rape-thrones-203499

She kissed him. A light kiss, the merest brush of her lips on his, but he could feel her tremble as he slid his arms around her. “I am not whole without you.”

There was no tenderness in the kiss he returned to her, only hunger. Her mouth opened for his tongue. “No,” she said weakly when his lips moved down her neck, “not here. The septons…”

“The Others can take the septons.” He kissed her again, kissed her silent, kissed her until she moaned. Then he knocked the candles aside and lifted her up onto the Mother’s altar, pushing up her skirts and the silken shift beneath. She pounded on his chest with feeble fists, murmuring about the risk, the danger, about their father, about the septons, about the wrath of gods. He never heard her. He undid his breeches and climbed up and pushed her bare white legs apart. One hand slid up her thigh and underneath her smallclothes. When he tore them away, he saw that her moon’s blood was on her, but it made no difference.

“Hurry,” she was whispering now, “quickly, quickly, now, do it now, do me now. Jaime Jaime Jaime.” Her hands helped guide him. “Yes,” Cersei said as he thrust, “my brother, sweet brother, yes, like that, yes, I have you, you’re home now, you’re home now, you’re home.” She kissed his ear and stroked his short bristly hair. Jaime lost himself in her flesh. He could feel Cersei’s heart beating in time with his own, and the wetness of blood and seed where they were joined.

can I just lol this is terrible writing

Exactly. Plus this instance of sexual violence isn't even in the book! They actually went out of their way to insert it into a scene from the book that is already pretty messed up. That's what's rubbing a lot of people the wrong way.

X-post

this seems like the took something present in the text and slightly tweaked it to make Jaime's anger at her previous rejection more central to the act. didn't seem out of character to me, made sense given all the indignities Jaime's been subjected to since his return, and makes sense that he would take it out on Cersei. as for whether or not they're "going anywhere" nothing on this show goes anywhere, that seems pretty immaterial

um it's right there in the paragraphs I posted, her saying no, beating on his chest etc.?

xp

first she says no, but then she says yes, so it's not rape! classic

difference in portrayal is that Cersei "helped guide him" and appears to have some enthusiasm about it as opposed to the scene in the show which is pretty vicious with all the "I don't care, I don't care" and the weird awful punishment feel to it all.

Also his line about her being "so hateful" beforehand (is this in book idk?) gave it extra menace. It just jars with his character's trajectory.

Meanwhile Ygritte killed some innocents boooo

yeah jamie's been on a "redemption arc" since leaving king's landing and has reconnected some with knightly ideas of chivalry and honor via brienne (he loses his hand saving her from a rape ffs, not long after saying if he were a woman he'd rather die than experience rape) the "why do i love a woman so hateful" line is jamie blaming the stuff he doesn't like in himself, his own self-loathing, on cersei's mere presence and the rape becomes a punishment for that. that's not exactly in the text where he's mostly just overcome with a lust that she shortly shares. it way way way out of character.

Could it be to make Cersei seem more sympathetic as far as screwing on the table your son's body is lying on goes?

also loled at Daario stepping up to fight the champion of Meereen after Barristan, Grey Worm & Jorah got turned down for being too valuable. "If you die, we'll just cast another one" - other half.

That might be what's intended to some degree but what comes across more is the viciousness of the act itself and the feeling of betrayal after building up the audience's good will toward Jaime. Unless the show runners intend to do something vastly different with Jaime's character arc It's a shockingly boneheaded miscalculation.

x-post again

Well maybe not so shockingly, as there have been plenty of baffling adaption choices on this show (as well as some really good ones to be fair).

Also, Littlefinger's accent is just trolling us now. What was wrong with his s1 voice?!

Lol, yeah, this new twist on the accent was driving me crazy.

"smallclothes" lol
Every so often I think I want to read the books but I know I couldn't stand it

Fwiw, it's really only the sex stuff that is so terrible. iirc, the Theon and his sister stuff was also pretty cringe-worthy in the books. The rest of the writing isn't nearly that awful.

Man who worked in Hollywood for years unable to write about sex well.

The food scenes however

they did this w/ dany and khal also. hbo.

I think it might be a miscalculation (opposing, sort of, AV Club review mentions that the scene in the book is from Jamie's POV and so Cersei deciding against it is probably slanted), but I don't think it's awful exploitation re: what HBO normally does.

In the books it was the first time they saw each other since he had left, right? Here they've added him there earlier and pointedly made her distant with him.

feel like the dany/khal scene in the book weakened Dany's character and stretched credulity tbh

re:the rape scene,the whole thing has been made worse by the episode's director coming out and stating that he does not see it/it was not intended as as a rape scene. which...oooooof.

^ wow. where did the director say that?

they did this w/ dany and khal also. hbo.

you might be right, my mind might be skipping to where she shows him how he needs to be fucking her

re:the rape scene,the whole thing has been made worse by the episode's director coming out and stating that he does not see it/it was not intended as as a rape scene. which...oooooof.

― Simon H., Monday, April 21, 2014 10:52 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark

In fairness, the writer (Benioff, I think) saw it as a horrific scene

http://m.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-game-of-thrones-breaker-of-chains-uncle-deadly

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/20/game-of-thrones-most-wtf-sex-scene-nikolaj-coster-waldau-on-jaime-lannister-s-darkest-hour.html

I think it's clear they don't know what the hell they're doing

in terms of "how is this brutal violence any different from whatever they've done before," i've just finally reached my breaking point in being able to stand it. i found it increasingly difficult to stomach season 3 with the constant groping of casually nude women by fully clothed men, all the rape jokes, etc. it feels like every time we see a poor peasant woman in a house somewhere and Men Arrive, you can bet they're going to manhandle her while she tearfully struggles. i can see why people think the book version of the scene in the sept was problematic because it reduced an intrinsically coercive act to "he ravished her but ultimately she liked it," but i would rather be having THAT conversation about nuance and gray areas and cersei's negotiation of agency within that coercive situation. instead it's just more unbridled violence against women in a show that already seemed oversaturated with it.

it can be tough

Interesting to see how fans react though. Rosenberg isn't one to let these things by normally, but she's a big fan: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/04/21/what-the-rape-scene-on-last-nights-game-of-thrones-means-for-the-show/

show features a lot of sexual violence against women so every instance of rape is inherently meaningless and should go unremarked upon

or idk show features a lot of sexual violence against women so it's fucking ridiculous that they'd go out of their way to add more for even more cheap lazy story drama

except yeah maybe the creepiest thing is what the director thinks consensual looks lke

A more detailed account from the director fwiw: http://www.vulture.com/2014/04/game-of-thrones-director-on-the-rape-sex-scene.html