diehlsam

George R. R. Martin has said multiple times that he wants to, as accurately as possible, portray how life was for people in the medieval times. Other fantasy stories are violent and have a lot of gore, but because this series is so popular, it gets so much backlash. I’m totally for it. I think it is a big part of his story. He’s not writing a fairytale where all is well and happy, he’s writing a story about the families of Westeros and Essos and their hope to sit upon the Iron Throne. There are other shows that are plenty violent, but you don’t hear as much about them. One example I can think of is Sons of Anarchy. That has a lot of violence and did include rape. At the end of the day, violence will always be around and people should suck it up.

I do think that television is dying, in a way. For me, I love streaming shows from Netflix because they put every single episode up all at once. Yes, I have to wait a year for the new season to come out, but I would rather have access to all the episodes at once than wait a week for each one. Another benefit of streaming Netflix, is that they can swear and have nudity. It makes it more real and more interesting. They can do whatever they want because people are paying for it. The internet is something that a majority of people have access to. It just makes life easier in general, so why not include watching your TV shows on it?

The way I look at it, the books are very gruesome and violent. Most of the time, the scenes we see in the show are nothing compared to how they happened in the book. A Song of Ice and Fire isn’t your typical happy-go-lucky series where good things happen and characters don’t die, but that’s what makes it memorable. I personally do not get bothered by the rape scenes. Obviously they are uncomfortable to watch, which is the case for most people, but I still do think they need to happen. In Martin’s world, it’s dark and medieval, and women in this time were not treated well. In my opinion, he’s trying to show that by including rape and violence in his books

This series had such a profound effect on me. I grew up with the books and movies, and when they ended, I was incredibly sad. J.K. Rowling has brought together so many people with her writing. And even for the people who may not enjoy the series, they at least still know what it is. I look forward to the day that another series comes along and gives the Harry Potter world a run for its money, but I’m not sure that will happen any time soon.