Though you've probably already figured out what happened on last night's Game of Thrones, I'll save all spoilers until after the jump. HOWEVER. As you know, today the internet has been howling mad regarding that scene—and for good reason—but according to an interview with "Breaker of Chains" director Alex Graves, what people are screaming about apparently isn't the way he sees it at all.
Hit the jump for Graves' take, AND more from those who VEHEMENTLY DISAGREE with him.
[Confidential to commenters: I've already permanently banned one dipshit misogynist from our site regarding this topic, and I'm soooo happy to do it again. Either take that shit to OregonLive, or tread carefully.]
When I interviewed Alex Graves about "The Lion and the Rose," we also spoke briefly about the Jaime/Cersei [rape] scene and about how the encounter starts out as Jaime forcing himself on her, then turns into something else. This is what he said:
"Well, it becomes consensual by the end, because anything for them ultimately results in a turn-on, especially a power struggle. Nobody really wanted to talk about what was going on between the two characters, so we had a rehearsal that was a blocking rehearsal. And it was very much about the earlier part with Charles (Dance) and the gentle verbal kidnapping of Cersei's last living son. Nikolaj came in and we just went through one physical progression and digression of what they went through, but also how to do it with only one hand, because it was Nikolaj. By the time you do that and you walk through it, the actors feel comfortable going home to think about it. The only other thing I did was that ordinarily, you rehearse the night before, and I wanted to rehearse that scene four days before, so that we could think about everything. And it worked out really well. That's one of my favorite scenes I've ever done."
Slate's Amanda Marcotte disagrees:
If Graves intended to depict consensual sex in the end, he completely failed. This wasn’t even one of those terribly clichéd scenes where a man starts raping a woman only to find that she comes around to thinking it’s hot. Cersei is still kicking and protesting when the camera cuts away. It’s as straightforward a rape scene as you’ll get on TV, unless you buy the ridiculous myth that a woman can’t be raped if she’s consented to sex with a man before.
From Samantha Escobar at the Gloss:
The show is known for aggressive violence–both physical and sexual–but last night’s rape scene between Jaime Lannister and his sister Cersei made it clear that the show’s is using rape as a sexual stimulant rather than a plot point. The show’s aggressive nudity and sexual content is often brushed aside as part of the plot line, but last night proved that Game of Thrones considers sexual assault sexy for TV.
And Tom Hawking from Flavorwire:
Clearly, the Jaime/Cersei relationship is deeply fucked up in a lot of ways, but this still doesn’t play. The implication here — that something non-consensual can magically “become consensual” because DEEP CONFLICTING EMOTIONS is at best lazy writing and at worst exactly the sort of thing that perpetuates the idea that “no” just means you haven’t insisted enough yet.
Plus a thousand other places on the internet. Stay tuned for director Alex Graves eventual and desperate backpedaling.
