It must have been some time after the first brothel scene, but well before Jamie Lannister threw a child out of a window after being discovered mid-coitus with his twin sister, that the first audiences of HBO's Game of Thrones realised what a fantastically perverse time they were in for. When it debuted in 2011, the show had all the makings of a premium cable hit, with a huge budget and extravagant sets. But what it had more than anything, and what set it apart from your average primetime fare, was lots and lots of naked people having lots and lots of sex.
By the time the series wrapped up in 2019, the shockingly sexy early promise of Game of Thrones had been eclipsed by grumbling about how badly it ended. The show's quality, everyone agreed, dropped off sharply once it started to outpace its source material, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. But today, with a new prequel series centred on the Targaryens about to debut on HBO, it's that sacred source material — and the show's extraordinarily steamy-even-by-HBO-standards legacy — that's making everyone jumpy.
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In advance of the premiere of House of the Dragon, creatives behind the show have been falling all over themselves to assure audiences that their new narrative is just as sexy as the original, except without all the actual sex. According to the Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Miguel Sapochnik said the show will retreat from actual sex scenes, "while adding glimpses of how sex is a nonchalant aspect of Targaryen life".
If you're confused by the notion that audiences will catch "glimpses" of casual sex without any sex scenes, you're not alone. It's hard to overstate how strange a Westeros without sex would be, particularly given that the Targaryens are canonically one of the sluttiest families in Westeros. The show's sex scenes were like a show-within-the-show, just this side of pornographic; the very progressive website Jezebel — which unabashedly adored the series, so different was the world back then — lovingly griped about all the nakedness but also suggested a drinking game that involved doing a shot for every nude scene, with the explicit goal of giving oneself a case of cirrhosis by the season's end. Everyone knew it was over the top, but the reaction was amusement, not outrage.
[su_unherd_related fttitle="More from this author" author="Kat Rosenfield"]https://staging.unherd.com/2021/09/how-feminism-ate-itself/[/su_unherd_related]
Watching Game of Thrones felt like getting away with something. The Seven Kingdoms were a patriarchy governed by sordid, and sometimes sadistic, sexual dynamics. In this exceptionally gritty fairy tale, there were bold knights and fair maidens, battles and brothels, cunning women who wielded sex as a weapon that could also be turned against them (and often was) at any moment. It was so titillating, and so not politically correct — but wrapped up as it was in the cloak of high fantasy, set in a world where snow zombies roamed the winter woods and indoor plumbing and electricity did not exist, it was easy to excuse it.
The sexual violence was safely confined by fantasy, but it also raised the stakes: plumbing the depths of human depravity was one of the things that made the show feel real, and that made us fear for and care about its characters as if they were people we knew. As George R.R. Martin, responding to critics who asked why he included sexual violence in his work, once said: "An artist has an obligation to tell the truth. My novels are epic fantasy, but they are inspired by and grounded in history. Rape and sexual violence have been a part of every war ever fought.”
For the first few seasons, even for devout feminists, this was reason enough to turn off the woke part of your brain for an hour each week — or even to appreciate it for its strong female character studies. It was just everyone's bad luck that Game of Thrones was walloped right at its narrative midpoint by the double whammy of Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the #MeToo movement. Resistance feminism was on the ascent, and it was coming for the culture.
[su_unherd_related fttitle="Suggested reading" author="Mary Harrington"]https://staging.unherd.com/2022/01/why-do-men-hate-women-2/[/su_unherd_related]
The first sign that the bubble had burst came in May 2015, after the episode in which Sansa Stark is raped on her wedding night by the vicious Ramsay Bolton. Overnight, the show's sexual violence was suddenly a serious problem, the subject of multiple "we need to talk about” headlines, the trigger for lots of flouncing and performative outrage from tastemakers (and in some cases, sitting senators) who declared that they'd never watch again. In truth, what this moment revealed was the shifting modes of cultural discourse, and the rise of opportunistic offence-taking as a power play — rather than any actual concern over the depiction of sexual assault. This was, after all, a show that had not long ago featured a pregnant woman being stabbed to death, a man being sexually assaulted with leeches, and one character being flayed (on-screen) before having his penis cut off (not shown, but horribly implied).
And while this was the last time anyone was explicitly raped on Game of Thrones, the bloom was off the rose — and the stink of having being deemed Bad For Women would not wash off (even as the show tried to prove its feminist bona fides by showing a penis the following season). From this moment forward, any ordeal a female character suffered was declared to be too much and chalked up as further evidence of the show's misogyny. The conflict between Sansa and Daenerys at Winterfell? Sexist. Daenerys going the full Mad Queen? Sexist. Jon Snow killing Daenerys… well, yes, she deserved it, she'd just overseen a genocide, but couldn't they have found a woman to do it?
[su_unherd_related fttitle="More from this author" author="Kat Rosenfield"]https://staging.unherd.com/2021/02/what-woody-allens-accusers-wont-tell-you/[/su_unherd_related]
All of this makes it strange that HBO is returning now to the poisoned well of Westeros-based content, all while trying unsuccessfully to preemptively assure audiences that there's still plenty of the sexy sex they love, but not the bad kind. (And really, any sex scene that involves Matt Smith in a wig is, by definition, the bad kind.) It's also a marked change in tone after the past few years of markedly unsexy HBO prestige dramas: Succession, The Outsider, Mare of Easttown, and The White Lotus all noticeably shied away from depicting sex onscreen, let alone the sort of extravagant flesh-fest that marked the early seasons of Game of Thrones. And based on the early media buzz, professional critics seem disinclined to let a show get away with the type of morally-ambiguous sexual shenanigans that made the original series such a hit.
On the other hand, these critics — and their bizarre insistence on viewing every work of art through the same narrow, sanctimonious lens — have never been more divorced from the tastes of the average television viewer, who just wants to be entertained. And if HBO has decided to make a show for the masses — a big splashy affair full of dragons and fighting and love and sex and violence — it's a fair bet that they'll find no shortage of people who want to take that journey. Anyone who liked Game of Thrones enough to fancy a return visit to Westeros not only knows that it's a perverse place, they'll be counting on it — and the handful of people who actually stopped watching the first series over its depiction of women are hardly likely to be back for more.
In 2022, there is no shortage of content that advertises itself as Good For Women, for those who like that sort of thing. But those who don't are out there, ready and waiting to embrace the fantasy again, darkness and all.
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SubscribeGenerally, fantasy books/movies is not my genre at all. However, in 2019 I was stuck in the house with a bad case of a broken ankle. That’s when I binge-watched all of Game of Thrones within about 3 weeks.
I was taken aback, I was breathless, I couldn’t stop (tried to limit myself to 2-3 episodes per day to avoid desensitisation) etc.
What was so astonishing to me was that everything, absolutely everything there concerning human nature rang so true. It was not a fantasy series I was watching, it was story of humankind, their survival, their brutality, their passions good and (mostly) bad, their determination, their complicated relationships, their personal development etc. Characters were not just black and white, as in a simplified version of life and human interaction prescribed today by PC culture, they were all real.
I was in disbelief – how was it even allowed to be shown at all? – raw human nature without that fragile veneer of manners and rules of modern Western civilisation.
One of the best movies/series ever.
When referring to “raw human nature”, please understand that you can only speak for yourself. I’m glad you saw yourself reflected in the series, but many people are not brutal and are not entertained by brutality.
It was quite clear he was giving his opinion. But thanks for feeling it was necessary to make sure we didn’t think he was writing for our entire species. Here’s a thought – why don’t you write your opinion and then you’ll have actually contributed something
I think Ms Adrian’s has written her opinion above, and in so doing has contributed something. I cannot comment as I have never see the show, but from the reviews that I have read, especially those that think the show is brilliant, it is not the sort of “entertainment” that I want to spend time with.
It’s acceptable drama porn for apparently intelligent and sensitive men to feed their libidos. Obvious from the comments above by the fanboys.
I initially shared you view on this show – for the first 8 years was dismissing the hype and believed I was above such “common” entertainment – until I finally watched it.
Just give it a try – will youself into 2 full seasons (some initial effort is often required for the first 50 pages of some very good books too) – and you will be surprised.
Btw, libido is one of the main drivers of human interaction. Such is the human condition, there is no way around it.
I am a 50+ woman.
Do not think I would count my very feminist, liberal, fiance as a “Fan Boy”, but she LOVED that series. In fact she bought the whole thing on DVD.
My lawyer daughter, another strong feminist, is the one who got me into it. She and her girlfriends at school were the ones who convinced me to tune in and then my fiance and I binge watched the first 4 seasons.
Then you have not watched it.
I do not know ANYONE who started that series that did not get fully sucked into it.
Hate to break it to you, but he is not wrong.
If you do not see that Game of Thrones, the fantasy elements aside, gave very real look at human nature left unchecked by societal norms and rules, then you are living in a fantasy yourself.
It was a very real look at human nature, male and female, when given power with nothing to put it in check.
And dragons and zombies too – quality drama!
Do you ever watch opera? – a lot is invested into theatrical scenery of all sorts (some of it is even magical), but in the end it is all about big music and big drama, telling us stories about choices we face in our lives.
It was. Super stuff.
That is the beauty of sci fi or fantasy fiction when it is well done. It allows for the exploration of narratives that if they were set in a real world, current time, setting, would have been too overwhelming for people to cope with. It allows for the isolation of the narrative from current conditions.
From all my friends who used to watch it, the terribly written, poorly directed, and usually nonsensical final season is what did GoT in.
It is quite possibly one of the worst disasters of storytelling in the millennium so far. A show that once embodied political intriguing ends with a cringeworthy Triumph of the Will sequence and nonsensical, rushed story beats. Once formidable and beloved characters become poorly written caricatures that act nothing like they did before. Season 1-4 were excellent television, but the rot quickly set in once they outpaced the book writer. Season 8 was laughably bad.
Season 7 (the 2nd to last) was when I really noticed a big decline in quality,
Unsurprising, given the actual book series is still not finished – they would have been better advised pushing Martin to get the book series finished so there was proper source material. He is, bar none, the laziest writer I have ever had the misfortune to read – he appears to have had time to churn out various prequels and compilations in recent years whilst fans are still waiting for Winds of Winter. I have vowed that if, or ever, he releases the next book I will buy it secondhand – even if its only a couple of quid cheaper – I am not putting any more money in the pocket of an author who has total contempt for his fans.
An author is an artist. I have read his series and loved it. Artists don’t work to a timetable necessarily. Have you considered that actually finishing his magnum opus is not a matter of laziness, but more a mental condition. For example, how old is the guy and will he have the time left to start and finish anything else comparable to the Game of Thrones series. I doubt it. So maybe he just wants to get it right. No pressure or nothing… Have some compassion and allow him his diversionary prevarication, you don’t have to buy any of it. Speaking as an artist here so maybe I’m just projecting…
Would have to somewhat disagree about the early show’s “huge budget and extravagant sets”. Early GoT contained not many huge stars (Sean Bean aside, and latterly perhaps Charles Dance). Whilst the landscapes/locations were epic it was quite small scale – all battles and large pieces were conducted offscreen.
It was acclaimed because it had excellent dialogue, complex story lines and excellent acting. The fantasy element at the beginning was quite minor and incidental to the bulk of the story. It didn’t patronise or over simplify for its audience and so got a lot of early success. Character development was nuanced and superb.
As for the sex, yeah it was quite prominent I suppose – a friend of mine who got into it early called it “boobs and swords”, but considering the above it was not central to its success. GoT was not any more debauched than Rome and Spartacus before it, to name two examples.
As the author correctly and succinctly points out though it lost its way once it outstripped the rich source material. Whilst the acting stayed decent, the dialogue and characters collapsed and were replaced by ostentatious CGI and big piece battle scenes.
I largely agree with you, but I will note that the early seasons clearly spent large budgets (by TV standards) to give the show a feel of a much larger and “lived in” world. The early seasons don’t show large battle scenes, but we do see various sets and locations, lots of extras to fill out scenes, etc.
The change in that feel was one of the disappointments of the last couple seasons, in addition to the other problems that you point out. In the first seasons, we’d often see a character or group traveling from point A to point B. Those journeys and the people they encountered along the way were interesting stories and showed us the world they inhabited.
In the last 2 seasons, the world of Westeros felt smaller. The larger budgets and long production schedules were apparently all (and more) spent on large battle scenes and dragon CGI. The world therefor looked as if it wasn’t inhabited by much of anyone beyond the main characters. That was a huge problem with the much lamented “teleportation” of characters from place to place in the later seasons. The show went away from showing us other people and places. The issue wasn’t just a pedantic complaint about realistic travel times.
The teleportation was a problem
Them travelling is actually hugely plot important because Catelyn encounters Tyrion randomly at an Inn and that kicks off the entire war basically
I do agree, good charackters, good story, good dialogs. I found the porn distracting. Why watch others if You can do it yourself? The kids (7 and 5) didn’t like the porn either.
But thanks to the author I finally understood what gave us the hound’s dickpic 😉
In 2022, there is no shortage of content that advertises itself as Good For Women, for those who like that sort of thing. But those who don’t are out there, ready and waiting to embrace the fantasy again, darkness and all
No, the point is its not good for any person, male or female. At least in the high quality earlier seasons. That’s why it’s fun! Earlier in the article the writer notes it is the reality, the appalling acts inflicted by all against all, in short the humanity which makes sense in the fantasy environment in which it’s set. George Martin recognised the power women do possess in such a society.
He shows them using it and the books have many strong female characters. What’s fun is that they are using female power in a clever and targeted way to achieve their aims. Modern political correctness doesn’t fit in that reality, so ruins the show.
When your show regularly features dragons, you don’t get to claim that it’s realistic.
The show’s producers added rape scenes where none existed (like in the marriage of a teen girl to a grown man – the book described this as a slow seduction rather than a rape).
People who are sheltered from violence get a sadistic thrill from watching it acted out onscreen.
Is it possible to enjoy a series that does not include graphic violence?
Is it possible to enjoy a series that contains sexual violence that does not graphically act out the sexual violence onscreen?
“Unbelievable” was a brilliant series based on true events that dealt with sexual violence but did not act out the rape scenes that the characters experienced. We got the point – they were raped – we did not need to see this horror acted out for us in graphic detail.
There is a large market for sheltered people who get a sadistic thrill from seeing violence acted out onscreen.
Your desire to consume sadistic violence does not make you a “rebel” it makes you sheltered and small.
Well said.
Judgmental
Sadistic violence happens in the real world. Not pretending it doesn’t made the show much more realistic given the type of society it was modeled after … real people, real wars, realpolitik, and all too few happy endings. The realism of all of it, the good, the bad, and everything in between are what made it a hit.
Don’t spoil it for the wee boys here who think they’re not misogynists!
To the best of my recollection all they showed was Sansa, fully clothed, being taken from behind. Is that “graphic”? My guess is you’re not disturbed by how graphic the rape scene was, you’re bothered that she was raped at all because strong, independent women who don’t need no man aren’t supposed to raped in woke world.
I realize you’ve written four or five bitter comments about Game of Thrones and the people who enjoyed the television show, but why it infuriates you so much that adults have choices when it comes to entertainment escapes me.
Adults can make their own decisions about the entertainment they watch and enjoy. You seem to be advocating for some sort of theocratic system where a panel of unelected, uneducated, uncultured clowns declares that We Shall All Watch Hallmark Channel Movies, and we shall all love every minute of those saccharine deuce festivals.
If you’ve found shows you like, fantastic. I’m glad you enjoy them. But at no point did any of us solicit your opinion or your moral finger-wagging. We live in a free society, not a theocracy where people like you get to dictate what forms entertainment can take.
As for this idea that people who watch shows like GoT are “sheltered,” that’s a bizarre accusation from someone who doesn’t want to accept that violence, sexual and non-sexual, has existed for as long as humanity has, and continues to this day in places like North Korean death camps, China’s Uyghur concentration camps, Russian-occupied villages and towns in Ukraine, wide swaths of Africa where sectarian violence rages indefinitely, and even here in the first world thanks to policies that leave borders open and people vulnerable to exploitation by cartels, coyotes and human traffickers.
Just because you’d prefer to ignore it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. And maybe if we all knew the full costs of war and disastrous policies, we wouldn’t be so quick to support foreign policy “adventures” or live in a world that tolerates tyrants.
As I recall, the Sansa Stark rape scene was not shown at all but clearly implied… the camera actually panned away to the face of the castrated character (can’t remember his name) who was present.
That’s why I was puzzled at the time it caused such a fuss. There was nothing graphic to see and with a character as sadistic and cruel as Ramsey Bolton (who Sansa was forced to marry) rape was entirely in keeping with his character. Whether it was in the book or not, it made sense from the point of view of plot and character.
I don’t enjoy watching violence, including rape scenes, same as I didn’t at all enjoy reading the scene where a horse is beaten to death in Crime and Punishment, but art also exists to disturb and provoke us out of complacency.
Of course rape was a regular occurrence in such a violent society – it still is, even in our (slightly) less violent times. I’m with George R Martin
I don’t recall any graphic depictions either, just heavy implications. Without the villains being utterly despicable, how else are we to enjoy their comeuppance? Which is probably the most fantastical aspect of it. They all got their comeuppance, no villain was left unpunished in the end.
Bronn needed a beating
None of them had completely clean hands, though Bran was the closest. But yes, the worst of them did get their “due” even if they took many of the good along with them. And that too is realism.
In hindsight, we probably should have noticed that the Sansa Stark rape scene was the beginning of this delusion we’ve been living in for some years. What happened to her, while extremely horrible, would have happened to many high born women in medieval and ancient times who were forced to marry someone they didn’t love. Only the very lucky ones would have married someone they might eventually love and I thought it was brave of HBO at the time to reinforce that. Too bad this was also when “safe spaces” and “triggers” were emerging as a force in social discourse at the time.
Who has the luxury of believing that marital rape doesn’t happen? Oh, yeah – the privileged folks who watch GOT.
Marital rape was only recently criminalized in parts of the West, and I don’t think women who have actually suffered the horror of marital rape find it entertaining to see it acted out by good looking actors who prettify what usually involves blood, saliva, vaginal & a**l tearing, and gutteral sobs.
I’m sorry so many viewers are being deprived of this “fun”.
Another tranche of down votes. Never mind, stick with what you believe and be true to yourself. I up voted you.
Yeah it’s rather exposed the primitive man child in many Unherd readers – worth bearing in mind when you read their views about women in other articles.
I guess war movies would also be quite traumatizing for those who have been in a war, so no actual war scenes or their aftermath should be shown. If they are, anyone who has not been in a war and watches could be classed as “privileged” and having vicarious “fun,” if you want to set up that straw man again.
Certainly onscreen GoT did tone it down as stated. That doesn’t concern me. What has puzzled me has been the transition to the idea that people have sex in bed with clothes on. Is it just me that finds this weird?
Depends what you dress up in.
How to get away with Murder was like that. It became laughable that these super-sexy students of the central character – a black bisexual, natch – had sex-scenes shoehorned in every episode, and always with their clothes on – even the slutty gay character…
Shame, as it was rather good at first, but gave up during the second season.
We’ve come a long way from the “I Love Lucy” show, where Lucy and Ricky slept in separate beds.
Lucy couldn’t say ‘pregnant’ even though she was as big as a house (no offense to houses 🙂 because pregnancy implied sex.
I miss the 1950s
I take the article’s overall point, but don’t quite recall the history of Game of Thrones on television like that. In the first season, it is true, there were a lot of brothel scenes. To the extent that there was a very funny SNL sketch where they revealed that the series was being advised on plot by a 14 year old boy – who naturally enough prescribed adding more boobs to every scene. However, after the first season, while there were still the occasional brothel scenes, it was much more in line with HBO’s normal b**b per episode quotient (it’s what Americans traditionally paid for premium cable for after all).
Yeah i think that’s a fair criticism. I don’t think it needed it – the show was successful due to its other qualities – superb acting, dialogue and character development – not because of the b**bs
Yes, while I also take the author’s point that political correctness and groupthink ruin all the fun, the fact is that almost all of the sex scenes in GoT (except for those between characters who actually liked each other like Jon Snow/Ygrit, Missandei/her guy), were gross. They were gratuitously pornographic (and I was a single male viewer…) and a turn off.
Communism destroys creativity. That’s what happens.
To be fair, both the Left and the Right typically execute their intellectuals in the beginning stages of a revolution
The thing that GoT had for me that really kept me interested was that it seemed believable. The first season was great, 2-4 were pretty good, and then it was nothing but disappointment after. I have a feeling that the new series is going to leave me feeling the same way.
Sex is a thing, and it is a very important relationship driver, both for the characters and for the audience. You can’t just throw it in like it’s something you have to fake in order to check a box (it’s HBO – there must be sex!)
Dragons and zombies – the ultimate get out of jail free card for any drama – and you say it was believable!!
The Red Woman, Melisandre. Sexiest character on television ever! Until, that is, she turned out to be 200 years d!
The last few seasons were the typical plotless and mindless drivel that most film maker churn out now. The previous seasons were only mildly interesting because they had been plotted by an author who knew how to write an engaging story, which sadly no film director or TV producer has know how to do for at least 20 years.
Mythical porn with some drama in between.
I am in the minority here, in that I could not get thru the first episode when I first wanted to watch the series – after the third a tergo sex scene incongruously popping into view I felt I had seen enough. A few years later I was persuaded to watch it again. I’m not sure which one is the episode in the first season when there is a large wooden cabin on a snowy precipice, but by then I felt the entire story to be overwrought, I felt being spoon fed with the various aspects of this imaginary world, it was like an agit-prop of fantasyism. The again I also couldn’t find the Lord of the Rings interesting the least bit.
Maybe I’ll go and rewatch Breaking Bad.
Covid is child’s play. The woke mind virus has infected everything. There is no escaping it.
what is ” Game of Thrones”?
A rather feeble medieval version of “Spartacus Blood and Sand”..Short on blood, prurient sex, and mostly filmed in the dark.In short a ‘complete waste of rations’ but beloved of the young…….the future, no less!
You clearly didn’t watch it, Charles. Or you did and..?
Only the final battle…..under duress!
Yeah it was s**t Charles. You can tell from the fanboy defences given in these comments.
So far, a really good five book medieval fantasy series (with more to come) by Geroge R. R. Martin. Also, an excellent and extravagant 8 season HBO series based on the books, although it did have to come up with its own endings since the books didn’t get that far.
I am glad you believe there are more books to come – having been waiting for Martin to finish Winds of Winter for many years I am no longer convinced he will ever finish the series. He seems to have found time to write any number of prequels and non-related books though – he treats his fans with contempt and, if I buy any more of his books, it will be secondhand.
Great Article but rewatch the Murray Bartlett scene in White Lotus with his staff….
South Park savaged GoT some years back (“wiener… wiener, wiener, wiener”, etc.). Satire on a base level but still much more entertaining than its target.
Can’t say I was ever bothered with the show itself but I did enjoy the flouncy fallout from people who hated it sufficiently to ensure they gave it a good viewing. Maybe I’ll fire up the popcorn pot again when this turkey hits the screen.
South Park as critics? Seriously? Fun yes, satire, yes but serious criticism. Naaah.
I always thought that Daenerys surname was spelt Ptargaryen.
I’ve read the “House of Dragon” book. It’s a boring chain of boring events. As if the guys who produced the phonebooks made a TV-series.
It’s the 2020s, we’ve moved on – we have She-Hulk …enjoy!
Sansa Stark was not raped on her wedding night by Ramsey Bolton – the women who was forced into pretending to be Sansa was. Assuming of course the series did not deviate from the books in this respect, something of which I am not sure – I’ve only watched a series and a half of GoT whilst I’ve read all the books that have been released (come on GRRM – we have been waiting for Winds of Winters for YEARS, many years!). This is medievalesque fantasy so of course there will be plenty of sex, and plenty of rape, that is both fictional and historical reality. Given the common name for the Game of Thrones series is Game of Tits and Ass – don’t think they are going to retain many viewers by going all #metoo somehow…
“Rich source material”. Even the gamer geeks this porn-in-costume was intended for would giggle at that.
Jeez I’ve got one thing to thank Metoo for, the demise of the tripe that was Game of Thrones!
Almost worth it.
Why do you find rape so entertaining, Kat?
I’m in a social minority, because rape was a central part of my growing up (my father started raping me when I was 4).
I guess I’m just a “snowflake” because I do not enjoy watching graphic rape scenes.
People who are sheltered from the reality of violence are those who tend to get off on it the most. This is probably because violence lives in the realm of fantasy for them, so it’s just a fun shot of adrenaline rather than a punch in the gut.
Vietnam war veterans were extremely critical of Apocalypse Now when it came out, because it turned their devastating experiences of war into a video game. (Vets were not critical of Platoon, which was made by an actual war veteran).
I’m sorry that you’ll be deprived of watching graphic rape scenes on GOT, Kat. But there is a free site called Porn Hub where you can watch actual filmed rapes to your heart’s content.
Those of us who’ve actually experienced the depths of human depravity don’t find it entertaining, and we tend to be disgusted by those who do.
I have never watched a millisecond of GOT, but people who sit in the comfort of a cozy flat, work from home and order their meals online to be delivered can be ignorant of the savagery of human history and become intrigued by it. The fact that depictions of that savagery can be entertaining to some only proves that we are indeed savages. Public floggings, hangings and decapitations have been widely watched by peasants over the centuries.
Now imagine a fellow like Jesus Christ arriving on the scene in the darkest of those days? No wonder he was put to death….in the most savage of ways ever conceived.
Your personal experience doesn’t give you the right to misrepresent the views in the piece. Disagree all you want – but the dishonest twisting of the intent is malicious and desperate.
In fact all your comments posted seem to be either gross misrepresentation or a denial of others right to express their opinion. Seems like you need to do some work on yourself before being allowed to interact with society
I guess it must not matter that mine started at 6 through 16. I enjoyed GoT and part of why is because the people were so real. Both in the good and the bad. It was also extra satisfying when their rapists got their comeuppance which mine never did.
“Those of us who’ve actually experienced the depths of human depravity don’t find it entertaining, and we tend to be disgusted by those who do.” Penny, I would advise not watching any Shakespeare tragedies.
Most of it wasn’t even sex. It was just sadistic and depraved. I couldn’t understand how so many friends with “values” could drink it in like that. It said a lot about Christians who found it entertaining.
“Christians who found it entertaining.”
They always have! Take Witch Burning as an example, particularly popular amongst the 16th century Swiss, notably in Geveva, Sion, and Valais generally. 15,000 in three months in Geneva on one occasion, such was Swiss efficiency!
Last Witch Burning in the UK? You guessed it..Scotland. Dornoch, 1720’s, stripped, tarred, burnt alive. ‘Scotland the brave’.
Worth remembering “Christian” is an adjective. A human is just a human and we are all susceptible to doing evil. The only thing that distinguishes a Christian from any other human being, is that they are supposed to be trying to obey the ten commandments and the golden rule, because they believe in God and have faith. Whether they do or not, or make the right choices, is a matter of the free will which God gave us.
Hooray for your reply. Any Christian who claims to be without fault is certainly not a Christian.
I read that 15.000 number and immediately thought: that cannot be right!
So a quick google search suggested this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_witch_trials.
A peak of 29 witches executed in 1571 after a plague. 150 trials in over a century, many over not witchcraft but propagating diseases, and most ending in banishment.
Correct, my sincere apologies I inadvertently misread the source!
Here it is in full:
Outbreaks of witchcraft hysteria, with subsequent mass executions, began to appear in the early 1500s. Authorities in Geneva, Switzerland burned 500 acccused witches at the stake in 1515. Nine years later in Como, Italy, a spreading spiral of witchcraft charges led to as many as 1000 executions.
The Reformation divided Europe between Protestant regions and those loyal to the Pope, but Protestants took the crime of witchcraft no less seriously–and arguably even more so–than Catholics. Germany, rife with sectarian strife, saw Europe’s greatest execution rates of witches–higher than those in the rest of the Continent combined. Witch hysteria swept France in 1571 after Trois-Echelles, a defendant accused of witchcraft from the court of Charles IX, announced to the court that he had over 100,000 fellow witches roaming the country. Judges responding to the ensuing panic by eliminating for those accused of witchcraft most of the protections that other defendants enjoyed. Jean Bodin in his 1580 book, On the Demon-Mania of Sorcerers, opened the door to use of testimony by children against parents, entrapment, and instruments of torture.
A Brief History of Witchcraft Persecutions before Salem
by Douglas Linder (2005)
Do I detect a bit of Christian hatred here?
Certainly not.
I would argue that they are Christians in name only. A practicing Christian would not want to be exposed to this material upon seeing it.
My view completely, and why I didn’t watch it after I saw the reviews.
Unlike the Christians who killed millions in their various religious wars.
Oh good grief. Your comments were good until that one.
I doubt Christians killed millions in their various religious wars throughout the millennias, but atheists certainly did in less than one century.