GAME OF THRONES Director Discusses That Scene From Last Night's Ep

I didn't really see it as a full rape though. They're essentially a couple, and it's not about forcing sex on her. It was about something else, and sex was essentially how he's breaking through to her. About their son's death, and also her distance from him since he returned.

People are exaggerating, but honestly, this just seems like Dungeons and Dragons [frick]ing shit up for no reason again. It was clearly consensual in the books, and the directing and dialogue of the scene didn't really help to convey that. Specially the dialogue. Dropping the "stop"s at the end would have sufficed to make it clear that it was consensual.

aRandomSinisterClone:
Here's that page from the book:

She kissed him. A light kiss, the merest brush of her lips on his, but he could feel her tremble as he slid his arms around her. “I am not whole without you.”

There was no tenderness in the kiss he returned to her, only hunger. Her mouth opened for his tongue. “No,” she said weakly when his lips moved down her neck, “not here. The septons…”

“The Others can take the septons.” He kissed her again, kissed her silent, kissed her until she moaned. Then he knocked the candles aside and lifted her up onto the Mother’s altar, pushing up her skirts and the silken shift beneath. She pounded on his chest with feeble fists, murmuring about the risk, the danger, about their father, about the septons, about the wrath of gods. He never heard her. He undid his breeches and climbed up and pushed her bare white legs apart. One hand slid up her thigh and underneath her smallclothes. When he tore them away, he saw that her moon’s blood was on her, but it made no difference.

“Hurry,” she was whispering now, “quickly, quickly, now, do it now, do me now. Jaime Jaime Jaime.” Her hands helped guide him. “Yes,” Cersei said as he thrust, “my brother, sweet brother, yes, like that, yes, I have you, you’re home now, you’re home now, you’re home.” She kissed his ear and stroked his short bristly hair. Jaime lost himself in her flesh. He could feel Cersei’s heart beating in time with his own, and the wetness of blood and seed where they were joined.

I've read the most disgusting shit.
If a girl says ''no'', ''stop'', ''enough'' or doesn't want to, or is forced to want to, or even if you ''convince her'', it's rape. Whether she's your girlfriend, your wife or your goddamned sister, it's rape.

oh come one. are people forgetting how she was resisting in the books? she was hitting him on his chest asking him to stop. then, when he actually penetrated her, she started saying 'yes'. here, the scene was cut short but still... even in the books, i thought it was a bit rapey. why are people making such a big deal about this is beyond me. it's fiction after all.

@danield222

Not only did he take her in front of their dead child, he did it on the perod.

Geez, that director is clueless. Yes, that's maybe what he was going for, but it clearly didn't come out that way on-screen. It's mind-boggling for him, the cameramen, the editors, and literally everyone on set to NOT think that this would be perceived as rape.

It was rape, plain and simple. Yelling "No, no! It's not right!" over and over again and then having Jaime respond with "I don't care", and then ending the scene like that, makes it pretty clear it was rape. And even worse, the rapist is the same guy who previously went out of his way to make sure that a woman he hardly knew, Brienne, wouldn't get raped and abused.

It's just utterly tone-deaf to the character as presented in the show. I haven't read the books so I won't get sucked into whether THAT was rape or not. In the show, it was clearly rape.

And I get that he's in an incestuous relationship and pushed a little kid out a window and is a complicated guy with conflicting morals...but rape is just such a sensitive topic, why throw that into a wildly popular show when you don't need to? Do we really need more reminders that Jaime isn't a good guy? I'm pretty sure having consenting sex with your sister in the same holy room as their dead, incestuous spawn Joffrey makes it pretty clear that he's no hero. No need for the rape...unless this ends up becoming a bigger development that is actually acknowledged and developed later on. I kind of doubt it though, based on what the show did with Drogo and Dany. We'll have to see.

Yeah I know what you mean MAK. When I first saw this scene, I figured that's what happened in the books and so I figured they knew what they were doing with Jaime's character. Now that I hear that it was a bit different...I can kind of understand the book readers getting up in arms about it.

But wow really? Ha, I didn't even know about the backlash to Stannis burning those people.

@Sauron

If you type in "Stannis Character" into Google, one of the top suggestions will have the word "Assassination" afterwords :P They really aren't happy with Stannis' treatment. I still find the letter scene in Season 2 funny.

It was rape, she said no. Even in the books its rape, whether she enjoyed it or wanted it after the fact doesn't matter.

They kill other characters and sometimes basically sell them into slavery. Why is this scene so outrageous to some people? The director shouldn't have explained anything. Let he art stand as it is without justification or explanation.

I get what he's saying and I could see that Cersei was, after some advanced persuasion techniques from Jamie, accepting of his advances. On the whole (*giggle*), it did look like it was a lot more forced on Jamie's part than portrayed in the books.

@ McGee

High five!

Again, to me, it's not a rape scene. She resists, yes, but that's more a part of the greater issue between them as a couple. She's been resisting him since he got back, emotionally AND physically. It took this, the death of their son, to get him to yes, force her to let him in. Literally, and figuratively. She was closing herself off completely, not just from him, but he knows he's the one person she needs to be there for her.

And yeah, it's kinda sick to have sex by a dead body. But it's actually a naturally thing when you lose someone you love to want to get it on, to feel alive, and it's a possibly bizarre way to cope, but it happens. Just..not usually RIGHT by the body. But, you know, they can't really be choosers given they're siblings etc.

This turned into quite something....

Obviously the rape scene isn't the problem! Is that not clear from the article? It's the reason it was altered from the book, ostensibly changing Jamie's character arc completely. Why change a consensual scene to a rape scene? They may have plans to address it..but as I said, they didn't when it happened with Drogo and Dany.

Murder, rape, incest, infanticide, and tons of gratuitous sex and nudity to gain viewers.

And it wasn't an assumption. You assume when you don't know. I do know. That's not an assumption. It's a juvenile and perverted show.

@ruadh, I can't believe anyone has to spell this out, but the reason this is upsetting people is because:

A: As Ror just said, it's apparently an unnecessary change from the books that is way out of character and really messes up future developments.

B: No matter what happened in the books, this is STILL an extremely odd plot point that is still really out of character from how he's been established on the show.

C: Rape has and always will be a ridiculously sensitive subject in media (and yes, this is undoubtedly rape, despite any silly rationalizations. I honestly have no idea how anyone can perceive this scene to be anything other than what it shows, despite what the director THINKS it showed) and Game of Thrones specifically has a history of throwing in rape, sexual abuse, and other unsavory things purely for the shock value.

Rape doesn't automatically make things more interesting or more deep, despite what Hollywood would have you believe. It needs to be in a proper context that actually opens the door and adds something to the proceedings. In this example, it really didn't. That could possibly change depending on next week's episode, but to pretend that this isn't a big deal, or that it's not even rape...? Yeah, that's where you lose me completely.