[Cecil Terwilliger]

Whether something was in the source material is irrelevant. They’ve changed a million things from the books.

All that matters is that the changes make sense and whether the scenes were offensive or out of character and completely unnecessary/gratuitous. Dany having sex on her wedding night and it not being totally consensual makes a lot more sense than the books where she liked it (or whatever people claim). She was a 14 year old girl sold to a warlord who showed zero compassion towards her. She was raped. The book treating it like it was some romantic moment between strangers is way more offensive.

Jaime and Cersei having sex with Joffrey’s still warm body sitting right there was weird and the execution of the scene wasn’t the best but again, within the context, it does make sense. Jaime and Cersei always had that sexual connection. The fact they’d have sex in front of their dead child just goes to show they both have no shame. It was the power dynamic at play. It was better in the book but frankly if they’d mirrored the book people would have just complained that it’s wrong to show a woman giving in to an attempted rape and then made to like it (the Han/Leia problem). I think it’s more realistic that she didn’t suddenly to start enjoying being raped mid coitus. Again, show version was less offensive than the book imo.

As for Sansa and the Bolton Bastard, that never happened in the books at all but we know Ramsay did rape and torture women. What we saw with Sansa was mild compared to other #### he did (on the show and in the books). Did it help her character arc? Could they have just hinted at the abuses she suffered? Sure but then her choosing to watch Ramsay get ripped to shreds wouldn’t have had the same effect. Could they have been more subtle about Sansa losing her innocence? Yeah for sure but doing it this way really drove the point home. She’s not innocent, the world isn’t remotely the wonderful place she thought it would be, not all men are honourable like her father etc. And the scene itself wasn’t particularly graphic. I’d argue Joffrey with the prostitutes and the crossbow and the big wooden club was far more disturbing. No one gave a #### those two women got mutilated.

It mostly comes down to two things. Lame outrage culture with people trying to find ways to be offended over a goddamn tv show. And I think a lot of the complaints originated from book lovers who wanted any reason to trash the show. Using rape as a reason to be offended is basically indefensible. No ones gonna say they liked the rape scenes. Keep in mind a lot of hardcore book lovers HATE Dan and Dave for ruining their beloved books.