SPOILER ALERT: Game of Thrones was one of the best shows on TV for three seasons and 2 episodes. However, the show crossed into some deeply disturbing territory last week when Jaime Lannister raped his twin sister Cersei in front of her their dead son’s body. Game of Thrones has had some pretty shocking scenes before, but at least the show always managed to stick pretty close to the book when they were cutting off heads and killing children. Last week the show jumped off the page and over the shark when they took Jaime Lannister off his redemptive path. With one poorly written scene the highly acclaimed show has managed to ruin the series for the series for many viewers.
Weather or not you have read the books, last week’s rape scene had to feel a little out of place for you. The deplorable act managed to undo everything that Jaime Lannister has been through all last season. Not only did it kill the characters redemptive path but it also made the first half of this week’s episode, “Oathbringer.” incredibly hard to watch.
After turning the character into a rapist, are we really supposed to believe that he can ever again try and hold the moral high ground again, yet that is just what the show expected us to buy in this week's episode. You see, Jaime Lannister is a kinder gentler rapist who still honors his oath’s by sending someone else to do his job.
In the books Jaime never rapes Cersei. They do have sex in front their son/nephew’s corpse but he does not rape her. Where Jaimie definitely isn’t anyone’s prince charming, he still was on a path to redemption. This week the show decided to speed past Jaimes crime and treat him like the hero charmer that he would have been had they not had him just rape his sister.
To add insult to injury, the episodes director, Alex Graves, played down the act by saying it became consensual, telling Vulture:
“The consensual part of it was that she wraps her legs around him, and she’s holding on to the table, clearly not to escape but to get some grounding in what’s going on. And also, the other thing that I think is clear before they hit the ground is she starts to make out with him. The big things to us that were so important, and that hopefully were not missed, is that before he rips her undergarment, she’s way into kissing him back. She’s kissing him aplenty.”
We don’t really need to tell you all the reason why this is wrong do we?This description of events is not what the scene showed at all but even it it was there are any number of reasons why someone would start to engage in the act when being raped...one of which would be to appease their attacker to make the ordeal a little easier on them. The scene ended with Cerisi pushing at Jamie’s face repeating, “it’s not right,” while Jaime has his way with her.
Many fans have since claimed that they are going to boycott the show because of this scene and after trying to watch the new episode we can see why. It is hard to see any scene involving Jaime Lannister without being reminded of how far the writers made the character fall. One scene has managed to ruin the show for many fans...this one included.
