Post by Deleted on May 21, 2015 21:46:27 GMT
I usually write the rough draft of the recap before even seeing the episode, about the choices made by the writers and book content. So I had this whole speech prepared about how this is so wrong. But the scene turned out to be very well done so I eased up on them. Apparently, my post is one of the few favorable ones out there.
The thing is that it's not the rape that is the thing people should be questioning, it's the very notion of Ramsay marrying Sansa. This is what leads to rape. Once there was a decision to have Sansa marry him, there is no way that this could have ended differently - unless, as I suggest in my recap, Theon would have chose that moment to save Sansa. So far the logistics behind this marriage make no sense. SO FAR.
There can still be some big consequence, some pay off that will make the entire storyline well written and justified. But historically, it's not the strong suit of these writers. Consequence. Hell, there isn't even the consequence to RW yet!
I hope there is a pay off, but the screams of outrage are premature. However I am glad they are happening because D&D use sexual violence waaaaaay too often in their show without any good reason in sight.
1. "The logistics behind the Sansa/Ramsey marriage make no sense...SO FAR." I dislike the Sansa (I almost called her Santa!) in Winterfell storyline because I cannot wrap my head around the logistics behind it to have it make sense so far. I get having a character that people know and care about rather than introducing a new one...but again having Sansa marry the son of the man who betrayed and killed her brother/mother, currently lives in her childhood home and is hated by the North makes no sense to me. I am glad that show had Cersei remind Littlefinger and the viewers that she wants Sansa dead, I thought they'd forget that. But maybe by episode 10 when I understand what they are trying to accomplish with this, I might feel differently about the storyline.
2. The outrage over this is happening because sexual violence is used way too often on the show without good reason in sight. I think the outrage is culmination of events that have happened over the years on the show. Sansa being raped was the tipping point. Critics of the outrage have every right to post where was the outcry when all of these violent (sexual or otherwise) events happened on the show? And they are correct to ask that question. And will these critics look hypocritical when they are not calling out other television shows for the use of sexual violence (whether or not it happens in the source material of the show, say like Outlander)?
I acknowledge that we don't know how this is going to play out for Sansa. And they could handle the aftermath of this wonderfully, just because they really have not done so in the past, doesn't mean they can't now. I do think the people who thought Darth Sansa/Queen of the North/Uber Power Player from Out of Nowhere was something they conjured in their heads. I do think Sansa's story is realizing she's a pawn and that's all is she is and was to the Lannisters, Littlefinger and anyone else at this point in the story. Now does she buck the system by refusing to play and go her own way? Or does she play the game? I think that's the crossroads for the character.
Terrific points from both of you. I never bought the Darth Sansa theme either and though the writers have never said so, I always felt it was just her way of fooling Littlefinger, not the audience. She told him right there in her room as she was sewing the dress that she "knows what he wants" so she's playing the part. It was just a 'costume' quite literally at that point. It's her armor!
Sati made a good point and why I think many are so confused on this issue. Rather than outrage and questioning the rape, they should be questioning the story line choice overall. GRRM has repeatedly said there's a 'butterfly effect' that's just going to get bigger and bigger as they make these changes. This to me was a hint that not all of the changes they're deciding to make are going to match up / line up with the book story and possibly cause a huge dichotomy that shouldn't exist. It's one thing to say "the show and the books are two different things" as far as character casting, sets and the like - but it's entirely different to claim you can go two entirely different directions with the story and it all end up making sense at the end of the series.
Sansa truly is at a crossroads right now and whether or not the road they take her down converges or reconnects with the story in the book remains to be seen. I hope we're right in that they are going to make it make sense somewhere down that road even when they haven't really done so successfully on a few other weird story changes so far (Yara maybe just to name one?)
