Game of Thrones Episode 2.04: Your Money’s Worth of S&M and Torture
Last week at his Spengler blog here at PJM David Goldman commented on the discussion of Barack Obama’s time eating dog meat while growing up in the third world:
Globalization — which ultimately is a good thing — may be unspeakably destructive for traditional societies in its path. Tens of millions of people are forcibly torn out of their roots. In Thailand, farmers become construction workers in the big cities, and the girls they would have married in their villages become prostitutes. Education and income and health all improve, on average, but the disruption of lives produces immeasurable hurt.
We laugh about it, but people in some Third World countries eat dog meat because they are poor — not only so poor that they will consume almost any source of protein, but so poor that they cannot afford to enjoy the natural bond between human and canine that began almost 15,000 years ago. For a billion or so people, life is a daily struggle to survive. People who are that poor also sell their daughters into prostitution. Female flesh is almost as cheap as dog meat in parts of the Third World, and for the same reason.
It used to be that Americans watched TV fantasies and dramas to escape the world’s most painful evils. Now we’re so comfortable that we need to dive into them head first for entertainment. Screen Rant sanitized their description of my least favorite scene in the new episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones last night, a stomach-turning depiction of Marquis de Sade-style sexualized torture from the young totalitarian King Joffrey:
Speaking of the poster boy against inbreeding, Joffrey has taken to punishing Sansa (Sophie Turner) for her brother’s victories in battle, having his betrothed beaten for little more than his own pleasure. Thankfully, Tyrion steps in, refers to his nephew as a half-wit and eloquently demonstrates the difference between educating someone and threatening to end their life. For her part, Sansa seems to be one of few in King’s Landing capable of learning any sort of lesson that may ensure a longer life. When Tyrion offers her an out she brushes it aside, professing loyalty to Joffrey.
Curious as to how Joffrey could have turned into such a – well, let’s just say, sadist – Tyrion and Bronn (Jerome Flynn) come to the conclusion that it must be teenage hormones and decide to send two prostitutes to his bedchamber, as a little belated nameday gift. Unfortunately, King Joffrey only likes seeing pain inflicted on others. This time, however, Joffrey knows that his actions will also serve as a message to his uncle.
Other horrific acts last night included multiple torture sequences reminiscent of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho. Jailers strapped a basket with a starved rat onto a man’s chest and then set a fire, prompting the poor creature to turn to the prisoner’s soft flesh as the only exit.
Memo to HBO and Game of Thrones writers: disgust is not excitement.
Thanks for reminding me of why I started the books and then could not ultimately continue. After Book 4, I just couldn’t take the suffering, the cruelty and the body count anymore. I set them down and haven’t been tempted to go back ever since. I remember the series as chock full of characters who are nearly devoid of any redeeming values. The plot as one that is as bleak and without hope as any I have ever read. Maybe it will end well at some point but I just don’t have the stomach to stay the course until it gets there.
I was wondering if I was missing something by not watching the TV series. Now I know I am not.
Have to say, you’re way off. That was a great episode.
I don’t have HBO at home, but it is usually in the hotel rooms I stay in (airline pilot).
I don’t think I have seen more than 20 minutes total of G of T. All I ever did see was violence ond soft core porn.
Yetch!!!
Don’t you mean, “Memo to George R. R. Martin . . .”?
He wrote the books, the series writers and HBO are just adapting them.
I said when the series began that people had better take notice that the series was quite prurient and deviant, but everyone was just thrilled that another “fantasy” series was getting some play.
And no, it doesn’t get better in the next few books, it just keeps going, with more and more brutality and indulgence of sexual paraphilias.
I guess you could be happy that they at least cleaned up and bowlderized some of the most extreme elements (Daenarys Targaryen is supposed to be 13 at the start of the series, shacking up with Khal Drogo, and yes, she still has the nude scenes), but that’s about it.
In the long run, this thing is going to make Guccione’s “Caligula” look like a weak PG-13.
I have read all the books, and really enjoyed the first season of Game of Thrones. This season is a real drop off. The scene in question – Joffrey torturing the prostitute is not in the book. Nor is there anything more than a vaguely implied affair between King Stannis and Melisandre. The Margaery / Renly / Loras stuff is nothing but implied too.
HBO seems to have taken out much of the drama this season and turned it into some kind of old-school porno (back when they tried to have plots). They never miss a chance to show some nudity, while chopping characters and plot points out of the story.
A minor is forced to marry an evil man in the last book then raped by some sleaze bag he calls in on their ‘wedding’ night while he watches. We’ve all heard of gratuitous sex but if this scene is gratuitous, what is it?
“Ender’s Game” is the default No.1 best science-fiction novel of all time on most lists you’ll find. Since it is artless hackery and historically irrelevant, and whose sole distinction, given the author’s personal views, is that pedophiles hate gay people, a distinction I’m sure we were all grateful to know more about, one has to wonder to what extent fantastic literature has been infiltrated by sexual mental cases.
I had checked out the first book from my local library. After a few pages I returned it. Yecch. Somehow “glad” to know that my first impression is sustained by those brave souls who put up with more of it than I could.
In creating a medieval fantasy world, George R. R. Martin pretty much dramatized some things that actually did go on in our own medieval past. However, HBO has seized on the prurience and sadism and amplified them. Notice that only the women ever get completely nude, and that everyone does it doggy style?
I liked the Ice and Fire books, but the most problematic thing about them is that everyone good, bad, or indifferent, gets screwed some way, and everyone dies a horrible death. There is no dramatic conflict between good and evil, no redemption of any kind, and no one ever gets a satisfying resolution to anything. I had hoped HBO wouldn’t go that route, opting instead to give us tales we can relate to, but alas, I think it is not to be. I had also hoped they wouldn’t try to tell each and every character’s story, because there are just too many of them to keep straight or care about, and the ones we could care about get short shrift.