Game of Thrones (Breaker of Chains) — Addressing the Elephant
I keep trying to recap “Breaker Of Chains.” But there’s this damned elephant in the room. And it’s going to take quite a few words to shove him out. So let’s take a moment to talk about this scene:
“Breaker of Chains” had me and many others genuinely upset with the show and not in the usual “they changed something, now it sucks” way, though that was definitely part of the problem. I was so angry afterwards, that I’m glad I had some time, some perspective, and lots of interviews to read before writing it up. But I was livid at first and trying to figure out if I could ever trust this show again.
That was a shame because I have trusted the show implicitly up to this and the adjustments it’s made in translating George R. R. Martin’s universe to the screen. If I didn’t enjoy them more, I at least understood them. But I did not understand the Jaime and Cersei scene the way they chose to portray it on screen. In the book, there was a dark and troublesome, but consensual, sex scene that left me feeling sorry for both characters. In the show, I saw a man forcing himself on his sister as she sobbed.
Wasn’t it enough that it was incestuous sex in this universe’s version of a church mere feet away from the corpse of their incestuous son? Why make it into to rape as well? Are we supposed to hate Jaime just as we were beginning to like him?
Jaime has been on a journey to redemption from the moment he was captured, but more particularly from the first time he spoke openly to Catelyn Stark. He has changed from the man who casually pushed a little boy out of a window to apparent death. He has personally suffered for the first time in his life and it has made his decisions just a shade less selfish and his words more honest. Furthermore, he and Cersei are toxic to each other, so he was improving, out in the world, suffering, making friends, losing hands…
I’d like to think that, if Cersei had the same opportunity, she’d do the same. Sadly, she stayed in King’s Landing surrounded by sneaky, plotting jerks and her only friend with Jaime gone—-lots and lots of booze. She’s cruel, deceptive and bitter. So what was the purpose of this scene? To take away her power and make us sorry for her?
Furthermore, there are enough awful things happening to women in that world without adding more! I can live with those atrocities, knowing the truly heinous perpetrators are always punished. As unjust as Westeros can be, George R.R. Martin is also generous in doling out a damned good punishment. Look what he did to Theon! So how do we watch now? Are we supposed to root for Jaime to be punished?
Well, that’s the tricky part. Because that scene was not meant to be rape. And that doesn’t just go for the book. Is it a problematic and dark consensual sex scene? Yes. But not a rape. Jaime Lannister has been a on an upward trajectory since Catelyn released him from captivity. This scene, the way it was presented, seems to undo that character work in the eyes of anyone who doesn’t know how the scene should have played as the majority of the show’s viewers don’t have the advantage of having read the books.
Director Alex Graves said, in an interview with Alan Sepinwall, “Well, it becomes consensual by the end, because anything for them ultimately results in a turn-on, especially a power struggle.” This was said before the episode aired and before the public outcry. So Alex Graves didn’t seem to realize he filmed a rape scene.
Then we have Cersei, herself, Lena Headey, saying in a live Google Hangout for GoldDerby, “there’s lust and desperation and you know, a need to feel something other than this searing, empty loss. And so that’s where I came from when we were filming. There was this need and it wasn’t right and yet it felt great and yet it wasn’t right and it played out the way it did. And I was really happy with it. I thought it was um, my intention was there and I think people’s reactions are right and opinions are varying.” So Lena Heady didn’t realize she filmed a rape scene.
Then after all the media, Graves insisted, talking to Vulture, that “she wraps her legs around him, and she’s holding on to the table, clearly not to escape but to get some grounding in what’s going on… before he rips her undergarment, she’s way into kissing him back. She’s kissing him aplenty.”
Yeah. Well, Graves, the problem is that it would take hours of study to see any of that with all the darkness, the fabric of Cersei’s dress, and fact that the camera cut away rather quickly. To most people, this simply looked a lot like rape. Now, maybe this was all in the editors’ hands. But didn’t someone think to say “Hey, this looks kind of like rape, you guys. Think we should recut this just a weensy bit?” The fact that Graves doesn’t seem to see that this is problematic lessens my trust in this show to portray the books well.
It wouldn’t have taken much to fix it. Even when George R.R. Martin addressed it in a comment on his blog, he said, “If the show had retained some of Cersei’s dialogue from the books, it might have left a somewhat different impression.” You can read the rest above (and ignore all the fake twitter accounts. The only place he interacts is on Not A Blog). For the most part, he tries not to talk about the show as he’d never have spare time to actually write if he addressed everything. But he addressed this and was diplomatic. Honestly, I don’t think he’d have bothered if people were not so particularly upset, and there was good reason. That scene looked like rape, however unintended it was.
I fault the execution. Like I said, it wouldn’t have taken much to fix the scene. Three extra seconds in that Sept or one extra word from Cersei and people wouldn’t have been so upset. But here we are. So I suppose the only thing to do is put it out of our minds if we want to see Jaime continue on his redemptive journey. I really do love the dialogue, the actors, the subtle and understated fantasy elements, and the production value. So I’ll try to pretend this scene played as it was intended to so I can continue to enjoy this show.
But I hope the show runners attempt to recut the scene in some better way before the DVD is released. I also hope everyone involved with this show looks at their scenes a little more carefully before they make it to the screen.
There. That’s all I can say. I hope that elephant’s out of the room, down the hall, and making its way to another town by now.
