Her farewell to Westeros. Game of Thrones‘ brutal rape scene has left a long-lasting, bitter taste in Sen. Claire McCaskill‘s mouth. The Missouri Democrat, known for her clever and timely tweets, expressed her disgust on Tuesday, May 19, saying she planned to boycott the HBO series after it aired the scene involving actress Sophie Turner.
“Ok, I’m done Game of Thrones,” McCaskill, 61, wrote. “Water Garden, stupid.Gratuitous rape scene disgusting and unacceptable.It was a rocky ride that just ended.”
The popular series, adapted (much more loosely of late) from George R.R. Martin‘s novels, is known for featuring bloody beheadings, extreme violence, nudity, and other graphic content. Sunday’s episode — the sixth in season five — ended with teen bride Sansa Stark raped by her sadistic, monstrous new husband Ramsay Bolton as her old friend Theon Greyjoy was forced to witness the incident.
McCaskill has become one of the nation’s prominent voices against sexual violence. Like the politico, many activists expressed anger over the turn of events on the show.
Despite the controversial uproar, series author Martin defended the scene, as well as the episode — “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” — written by Bryan Cogman.
“How many children did Scarlett O’Hara have?” Martin wrote on his blog after telling his readers he received a “flood” of emails about the episode. “Three, in the novel. One, in the movie. None, in real life: she was a fictional character, she never existed. The show is the show, the books are the books; two different tellings of the same story… There have been differences between the novels and the television show since the first episode of season one. And for just as long, I have been talking about the butterfly effect. Small changes lead to larger changes lead to huge changes.”
Sophie Turner, the actress who portrays Sansa in the series, also spoke out about the scene. “It was all so messed up,” Turner, 19, told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s also so daunting for me to do it. I’ve been making [Cogman] feel so bad for writing that scene: ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this to me!’ But I secretly loved it.”
