Game of Thrones s*x scenes were always considered problematic, especially since several actors had opened up about the demeaning nature of them. However, the show crossed all lines with one particularly disgusting scene in Season 5 Episode 6. Sophie Turner’s Sansa Stark is subjected to brutal r*pe by her new husband, the sadistic Ramsay Bolton, in this episode. The scene was not only unwatchable but also problematic on multiple levels, prompting a fan outcry.
The infamous ‘Black Wedding’ episode was not a part of George R.R. Martin’s original books. Sansa Stark had already been through enough trauma in the series and another torture/r*pe scene did not add anything to her character arc.
Game Of Thrones‘ Unnecessarily Disgusting Scene Received Widespread Criticism
Sophie Turner‘s character went through a lot of suffering throughout the run of Game of Thrones. She had to witness the beheading of her father and she believed for a larger part of the series that she was the only Stark alive. She was married to Jeoffrey and then Ramsay, two of the most hated characters in the series. However, the series still chose to depict the character’s r*pe scene, a decision met with severe backlash.
The creators of the series further diminished Sansa’s suffering, when it chose to show Theon’s traumatic reaction to witnessing the r*pe rather than her trauma. This scene marked the peak of all the gratuitous n*de scenes and demeaning s*x scenes in the series. Iwan Rheon, who played Ramsay, shared that filming the scene was the worst day of his career.
Rheon told Metro UK that it was a very hard scene to watch and revealed that no actor wanted to film such a scene. He shared with Metro UK:
“It was very, very hard watching. It’s a horrible thing that happens, unfortunately, and it shouldn’t be. It was the worst day of my career.”
Sophie Turner shared in an interview with Time Magazine that the r*pe scene was the hardest scene she ever filmed. She revealed that both she and Rheon couldn’t sleep the night before the filming of the scene. She shared with Time:
“To have to do a really intense scene, like the r*pe scene last season, we couldn’t really sleep beforehand, Iwan and I. During the day, it was a bit awkward. But afterwards you just go to Safe Haven, which is the hotel bar, and sort yourselves out.”
However, Turner defended the scene against the backlash and told Rolling Stone that she did not agree with the criticism of the scene. She shared, “I think the backlash was wrong because those things did happen.” She added that the show spoke about people trying to establish their power in medieval times and it couldn’t just be dismissed that such things never happened.
How Did The Prequel Series To Game Of Thrones Address This Issue?
One of the reasons that Game of Thrones filmed such undignified s*x scenes was due to the lack of an intimacy coordinator on set. The job of such a coordinator would be to ensure that actors felt safe in filming intimate scenes. The coordinator would also help to depict the scene as realistic as possible. In the aftermath of the #MeToo movement in 2018, HBO came up with the decision to make intimacy coordinators mandatory for their shows (via Deadline).
Game of Thrones never got around to using an intimacy coordinator which made its s*x scenes awkward and problematic until its end. However, when the prequel show House of the Dragon was released on HBO, fans felt that the s*x and intimate scenes were more dignified compared to its previous installment. The show had an in-house intimacy coordinator who made sure the scenes did not cross a line.
Be it the love scenes between Matt Smith‘s Daemon and Emma D’Arcy‘s Rhaenyra, or the young Rhaenyra played by Milly Alcock, seeking s*xual pleasure, the show handled these scenes with a better perspective. The intimacy coordinators made sure that the audience would never have to watch a scene like Sansa Stark’s assault again.
