‘GoT’ Scene Defended By Novels’ Author R.R. Martin As Fans Express Outrage Over Rape Depiction
After fans expressed outrage over the wedding night rape depicted in the popular HBO series GoT (Game of Thrones), the scene was defended by author R.R. Martin.
The show’s writers have departed from what Martin portrays in his novels — it is after all an adaptation — and on the last episode, fans were left in shock. Sansa Stark’s brutal wedding night rape at the hands of the twisted Ramsay Bolton outraged many viewers, especially those who are fans of A Song of Ice and Fire novels.
In the original, Ramsay rapes a girl posing as Sansa, not the main character, which took fans completely off guard. Despite the scandalous episode, the GoT scene was defended by Martin, who said D.B Weiss and Dan Benioff have license to do as they please.
In his blog, Not a Blog, Martin addresses what he calls “a flood of emails and off-topic comments” about Sunday night’s episode of Game of Thrones.” He confesses, “It’s not unanticipated.”
“There have been differences between the novels and the television show since the first episode of season one. And for just as long, I have been talking about the butterfly effect. Small changes lead to larger changes lead to huge changes. HBO is more than forty hours into the impossible and demanding task of adapting my lengthy (extremely) and complex (exceedingly) novels, with their layers of plots and subplots, their twists and contradictions and unreliable narrators, viewpoint shifts and ambiguities, and a cast of characters in the hundreds.”
“There has seldom been any TV series as faithful to its source material, by and large (if you doubt that, talk to the Harry Dresden fans, or readers of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, or the fans of the original WALKING DEAD comic books)… but the longer the show goes on, the bigger the butterflies become. And now we have reached the point where the beat of butterfly wings is stirring up storms, like the one presently engulfing my email.”
Martin is exactly right and that is why shows such as this one are “adaptations,” which sometimes fans have trouble understanding. It’s not an exact depiction of the novel, something that is nearly impossible to do. Martin is okay with the GoT scene and defends the right of the showrunners because, “Prose and television have different strengths, different weaknesses, different requirements. David and Dan and Bryan and HBO are trying to make the best television series that they can.”
Despite R.R. Martin’s words and his GoT scene defense, fans continue to express outrage. Even a U.S. Senator said she was “done with the show,” which is known for its viciousness and explicit sex scenes.
Do you think R.R. Martin should defend the GoT rape scene?
[Image via HBO]
