‘Game of Thrones’ is unquestionably one of the greatest television shows ever despite bestowing a disastrous final season. We cannot help but fall in love with the show’s virtuoso acting performances, breathtaking battle sequences, complex characters, Ramin Djawadi’s phenomenal score, and perfectly executed plot twists. But we also cannot turn a blind eye to the highly negative portrayal of women characters in the show. It faced the wrath of many people for displaying acts of nudity and sexual violence way “too flawlessly” during its entire run. However, ‘House of the Gragon’ possesses a great opportunity to handle female characters better than ‘Game of Thrones’. Let’s check how!
There are many shocking and heart-wrenching scenes in GoT where the makers went way too far. How about Daenerys feasting on a bloody horse’s heart? Yes, the show treasures “better and more” gory scenes than this one. Still, it was cringy and disgusting for many viewers. How about we raise the temperature here? Do you guys remember Talisa Stark’s death? The way she was repeatedly butchered to death in her pregnant belly is enough to make anyone shudder from the inside.
And what about King Joffery? That mean, bullying, and sadistic SOB is by far the worst television character people have ever seen. And we are damn sure that the diehard GoT fans have not forgotten the scene where he orders the prostitutes to bludgeon themselves to death at the point of a crossbow in front of badly beaten Sansa.
Wait, we almost forgot about the “iconic” GoT rape scenes! The violent sexual assaults on women characters became kind of a trend on the show: Cersei Lannister’s rape by her brother, Daenerys’ rape by Khal Drogo, Sansa’s rape by Ramsay Bolton, and the list goes on.
‘Game of Thrones’ debuted in 2011. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was a completely different time in the world of television. A large portion of viewers did not care about the women characters nor had any desire to see them in meaningful roles in those days. Fans can hail GoT for its “grandeur”. But they cannot just deny that the show’s shameless exhibition of violence and nudity aided HBO in gaining a record-breaking viewership.
This all can change! The makers of ‘House of the Dragon’ must treat women characters with more respect and give more importance to them. In a recent talk with Entertainment Weekly, Emma D’Arcy (Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen) spilled some beans about her character. The actress believes that her character will “push the edges of womanhood” in the upcoming HBO show.
“She [Rhaenyra] is a person who feels at odds with the way that she is read by the world – even this label the Realm’s Delight, which implies a passivity, being an object of people’s ogling,” D’Arcy continued. “It’s like she has a doppelgänger. The doppelgänger is a Rhaenyra-born male, who has access to all the things that she craves and feels to be hers. She has this amazing connection with her uncle Daemon. In some ways, they’re [of] the same fabric, and yet the rules are completely different [for them].”
But we know that the Middle Ages were not a perfect time for women to live their lives. So, we should not expect “too much” development of women characters in the show. Still, Rhaenyra seems better than Daenerys. The makers better not ruin her character!
‘House of the Dragon’ will premiere on HBO on August 21. Indian viewers can enjoy the show on Disney+ Hotstar. Stay tuned for more updates.
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