As I’m avoiding studying for my calculus exam, I’ve decided to rewatch episodes of HBO’s Game of Thrones in anticipation of the new season starting next week.  One thing I’ve found that always comes up whenever people discuss Game of Thrones, be it critics of the show or just the casual show-watcher, is the portrayal of women in the show and often times the brutality shown towards women in the show.

I mean, there are some very, very strong female characters in this show, that can’t be denied.  Daenerys Targaryen rises from essentially nothing to become one of the most powerful rulers in the show’s world.  Cersei Lannister is cunning and will absolutely anything and everything she has to do in order to keep herself and her family at the top of the Westerosi food chain.  Brienne of Tarth is yet another example of a woman character breaking the mold of the Westerosi perception of women and becoming one of the most fearsome warriors in all of Westeros.  I mean, she took down Jaime Lannister (two-handed), for crying out loud!

The show has a very dark side with regards to the treatment of women.  There are times where a very strong case can be made about whether or not it is necessary for some scenes to be included.  Examples include (and this list extremely abridged): The rape of Sansa in Season 5, the rape of Daenerys in Season 1, how Joffrey murdered Ros in Season 3, Cersei’s walk of shame being ENTIRELY too long in Season 5. Let’s not forget that Cersei was ALSO raped by her brother Jaime (gross!) right next to their dead son’s (even more gross!) body in Season 4.  The abuse that some female characters take can be sickening and understandably very disenfranchising for viewers and cause them to discontinue with watching the show.

So it leads to this: what’s the point of some of these scenes? I found myself asking that question several times, especially after reading the actual books.  These rape scenes are not present in the books, two prominent examples being Daenerys actually CONSENTING to Khal Drogo in the books, which clearly doesn’t happen in the show, as well as with Cersei consenting to Jaime (still gross) after Joffrey dies.  All it does is add shock value, to me it does not further the story and diverts viewers from the fact that these characters are actually very strong female characters who deserve to be viewed as such.  Hopefully there’s less of this in Season 6.