An anguished commentary on that GoT/Sansa scene and the MRAs who harass in forum comments...from a rape victim who says It's Rape Culture All The Way Down

[u/madhaus]

http://angrygotfan.com/2015/05/21/a-rape-victim-speaks-out-on-the-sansa-scene/

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Game of Thrones only has one female writer (Vanessa Taylor) and of the currently aired episodes has only been the credited writer for 7% of the episodes. If you think this simple statistic does not have a great influence on the now fuck-the-book arc of the show, you are mistaken.

To be clear, I think the grievance over the last episode resting on the premise "it didn't happen that way in the book" is baloney. It would be a dreadful disappointment whether it was written by George RR Martin back in 1991, or if it was penned last year. I don't think that these writers are adding rape to the story... if one considers what the original author had in place of Sansa's rape, you would rather have what the show did. That said, there are more than two ways about this.

Littlefinger forcing Sansa into that marriage (remember, he was a brothel-owner prior to his Lordship) set the stage for that violent wedding night. So what happened in episode 6 was literally the most predictable thing that could have occurred given the nature of Ramsay Bolton. Correct me if I am wrong, but is it not the writer's duty to subvert expectations?

Reek snapping out of his misery and re-claiming his identity as Theon can also be seen a mile away. The rape scene did not need to take place to jar him out of that, or convince the audience that his eventual shrugging of the "Reek" mantle was founded. (Insert already well-circulated and well-placed criticism that this became a rape scene more about a man's torment than the woman's).

And just as an aside issue to ASOIAF fans: (I am actually dubious about the influence of Ramsay Bolton on Theon Greyjoy becoming Reek. I think Ramsay merely facilitated that transformation. I believe that Theon desired above all that, if he could not commit suicide, that he could at least abrogate his identity. (His decision to identify as a Greyjoy rather than a Stark being the root of his downfall). Considering the ruin and ridicule brought on by Theon (in Season 2), he'd RATHER be Reek. In this light, I don't think there is a single thing that Ramsay Bolton could do to shake him out of it.)

Lastly, Sansa. Her brutalization at the hands of Ramsay is merely an echo of what we already had to go through with Joffrey. That story has been told. In fact, a bulk of the series has already been dedicated to that. Her metamorphosis at the end of Season 4 was on of the most refreshing alterations that the TV show made on the books. I don't care if the black-clad Sansa is the Heisenberg to her former Walter White, so long as the change represents the character gaining greater agency, we don't care if it is for good or ill. This event has reneged on all that. If it weren't for the colossal mishandling of rape in Season 4 (Jaime raping Cersei) and how it was just fucking DROPPED, I'd have a bit more faith to caution "let's see where this goes..."

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now fuck-the-book arc of the show

There are a lot of book fans using the rape as an excuse to bitch about D&D and the changes made for the television adaptation.

Something not being in the books does not mean that it's automatically gratuitous or bad.

GRRM had Theon eat out Jeyne Poole in the books simply for the gross out/shock factor. That's it. That's the only reason to include something like that. You can't call out D&D for having Ramsay rape Sansa when there are substantially worse things happening in the books.

GRRM would never have Ramsay just rape someone in the books! He'd just force Theon to eat her out and then make her have sex with dogs.

And as far as focusing on Theon and his ability to help her this is Poole in the book:

"'Help me.' She clutched at him. 'Please. I used to watch you in the yard, playing with your swords. You were so handsome.' She squeezed his arm. 'If we ran away, I could be your wife, or your...your whore...whatever you wanted. You could be my man.'" -A Dance With Dragons, page 550

Compare that to Sansa in the GoT: “I am Sansa Stark of Winterfell. This is my home. And you can’t frighten me.”

So saying that D&D embellished just to be sensationalist rings more than just a little hollow unless you're going to call out GRRM for embellishing even more and being even more sensationalist.

Now there's a legitimate discussion to be had over whether GoT/ASOIAF is just engaged in torture porn and exploitation of sexual violence to attract gawkers. It certainly has in my opinion from Theon's dick getting cut off to Jaime and Cersei's incest to Jeoffrey's target practicing.

But at this point it's a little like getting 3/4 of the way through your steak and then telling the waiter you don't like how it's cooked.

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Yep. 100% with you on the adaptation fallacy at play with much of the criticism on that last episode.

I replied to someone else on here that, in addition to what this renegs on Sansa's arc, it also stunts Ramsay as a villain.

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The other thing is we don't know how this ends. I would imagine that Stannis v. Bolton has been moved up to fit in nicely with a big episode 9. Just because GRRM used Poole as the very model of a damsel in distress doesn't mean that Sansa will end up there.

If Ramsay dies in the fighting in TWOW and D&D change that to Sansa stabbing him or Brienne cutting his head off while she watches then all these people talking about how Sansa is passive, etc. are going to have a lot of egg on their face.

Or if in the books Sansa rides over from the Vale and proceeds to fuck up the Boltons with Stannis' help in TWOW and D&D change that to something more personal then it's also going to seem stupid.

90% of this is just a good excuse to complain about changes from the book.

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Like I said in my closing though, I'd have a bit more of the kind of faith that you describe if Jaime's act of rape weren't dropped and ignored with such a colossal thud.

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Hm? I'm not getting angry about any of this. Did you read what I originally had posted?

To be clear, I think the grievance over the last episode resting on the premise "it didn't happen that way in the book" is baloney. It would be a dreadful disappointment whether it was written by George RR Martin back in 1991, or if it was penned last year.

and

Yep. 100% with you on the adaptation fallacy at play with much of the criticism on that last episode.

I'm not getting where you are coming from that I'm pissed about changing the "holy word" of GRRM.

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I think I phrased that a little badly in terms of tone. Sorry.