"Psst! Khal/Dany?"

Now THAT was the show change that pissed me off - in the book, it is very explicitly Not Rape on their wedding night. He asks "No?" and she says "Yes." Granted, she is still 14 years old at that point, but she at least says yes.

Is it recency why this seems to have a bigger response than Khal/Dany? It was not such a thing then, was it? Why wouldn't it be? He was a savage? It was expected? Show hadn't spent time nicey nicing him? It's not a betrayal of a previous relationship?

eta: GRRM's response: [link]

It's not even the first time Cersei's been raped (Thank you, Robert.). I think, especially paired with the scene immediately before, where Tommen goes off with Tywin, it serves quite well to isolate Cersei. She's running real low on allies, at this point.

I think maybe the show wasn't as big a deal at that point? I honestly don't know.

I feel like HBO's done a great job of making it a big deal from the start (says a non-reader, or at least one who *tried* and failed during the first book). But it's definitely a bigger deal now.

I doubt many people will stop watching because of it, and who knows--the noise may attract new viewers.

Not my co-worker, though. He doesn't watch TV, and was trying to tell me about a show popular amongst his friends "Something about a chair?" It was quite endearing coming from a hip (but not ster) thirtysomething.

Is it recency why this seems to have a bigger response than Khal/Dany

Rape culture 101 I think. Audience LIKES Jamie and don't want to think this character could do something like that.

Of course the savage man would do that on his wedding night.

I thought Amanda Marcotte's take on the episode was exactly on point: [link]

Having finally read it, I think it's absolutely not. I don't think you can flatly diagnose assholishness of people because they enjoyed seeing a despised character get narrative comeuppance (he's not effectively a child), and "it puts you in a position to do exactly what you just spent the last hour judging others over" is nothing if not an exaggeration. For a start, we haven't done anything or been reacting to real people, as they all have, in universe.

“You are all terrible people, sitting there on your couch, enjoying the sight of a child dying a painful death.”

Yeah, no.

“You are all terrible people, sitting there on your couch, enjoying the sight of a child dying a painful death.”

That bugged me too. I wasn't enjoying his death; I was transfixed, thinking what a terrible way to die that would be. Based on limited experience, choking/not being able to breath is a very terrifying feeling.

I'm glad he's dead, and I do wonder if maybe he should have suffered more for the things he did (jesus, those prostitutes), but there's some distance between that and being a cheering throng at a gladiatorial throwdown between slaves, or something.

Marcotte and I part ways on a whole host of things. I used to really like and respond well to her writing. Since pandagon fell, not so much.