Game of Thrones: Exploitative or Exposisitive.

I know it is somewhat late to post this but I had a customer the other day and she saw me reading Game of Thrones. Both being fans we immediately began geeking out. Until she said she felt like the series is 'too much' sometimes and went onto say 'As a woman' the rape scene with Sansa could have been implicit.

Certainly that is a valid point, as with most shows that is the tactic. Even with consensual sex scenes most series 'imply' people are having sex instead of showing them which doesn't damage the story. We all know what is happening so why doesn't Game of Thrones do it?

Well my retort to this argument is that as a man I have no idea what it is like being a woman and having that fear. It does happen to men, just look at the scene with Theon Greyjoy, he was only nearly raped and it filled my stomach fear because I can empathize with that. Can I empathize with a woman? No. Can I sympathize? Certainly, but can I feel?

When a film/show 'implies' something it can be shocking but we have to use our imagination to picture what is happening. Our imagination is limited because we know it is fiction, it's happening in our heads so we cannot become emotionally involved with what is happening.

The era Game of Thrones is set in, let's say for argument sake, is the Dark Ages, life was raw and rough. Knights raped entire villages, murdered plundered but these words are like stones to our ears, lifeless and meaningless, just words. Game of Thrones grabs us by the neck and says 'Fucking watch. These are people you love, watch them and feel for them.'

We can see these characters we know and love and fully empathize with them. When these characters are being subjected to horrors we know nothing about we can fully empathize with them because the realism of the show is a double-edge sword.

To do anything else, to imply what is happening would not only shame the show but also the themes that run through it. If it implies rape or murder and pans away then aren't we just panning away from the truth ourselves? That's why Game of Thrones isn't exploiting the horrors of rape and torture, its saying these things happen and they are much worse then you can possibly imagine.

That was a bit heavier so here is Ramsay Bolton playing with a sausage: