Shameless self promotion, but I wrote about something very similar to this the other day in comparing Joe Abercrombie’s First Law Books and Game of Thrones. In Abercrombie’s later books especially (Best Served Cold, The Heroes, and Red Country) he writes compelling, fascinating characters whose stories are rather…

My favorite picture a picture a day/week/whatever showing incremental changes sped up are transition ones. I wish I hadn’t been lazy/had a camera when I started so I could have done one, it would be interesting to see.

Maybe part of it is this was NOT in the original book. We are turning course from where littlefinger begins training Sansa as a sort of protege and instead throwing her at the bastard for absolutely no reason, and throwing rape in cause HBO has a sex quota and shock factor to fill

The scene in question (assumption: this weeks episode) isn’t in the books. Try again.

You don’t. Others like having warnings before reading about things like rape. Respect them.

Very true. While it is definitely better if, when a rape occurs in fiction, we focus on the victim and not her attacker or an extraneous male character, it’s still a big problem that so many writers seem to go

Unless someone WANTS a trigger warning so that they don’t have to unnecessarily go through some kind of trauma. But who cares about them, right?

Also, anti-feminist? What the fuck?

It would not be so bad if not for the ubiquity of it all. If a rape scene that only served to move the male character forward only happened every so often then that would be one thing.. just some narrative choice. But doesn’t it feel that lots and lots of shows, games, books, movies etc.. are doing this over and over…

I, personally, find it repellant enough that it distracts from the story. I would rather not see/read such scenes.

Game of Thrones is not realistic to medieval times regarding rape. It’s not realistic to medieval times pretty much at all.

Game of Thrones producer said the rape scene gave Sansa an “important turning point.” If it’s just a dramatic device, my question is: Why don’t male characters have this specific kind of “important turning point” as often as female characters?

No, because her rape is still being use to motivate him. That’s still bad.

and more concretely, as narratives to stories don’t just magically happen but are the result of the author’s intention, I chose not to make circumstances in my novels where they would be necessary.

Maybe the issue wasn't that you were planning to write a rape scene, but that the only purpose for your rape scene was to motivate a male character. It's not the rape scene that's the problem. It's the fact that you, the author, should have more respect for your characters than to simply make them objects that you use…

Also, just because the setting of your story is quasi-medieval or some other type of “gritty” world, this does not mean that making your setting a nonstop rape-a-palooza is a more “realistic” touch.

So, Britain’s reputation for dreadful cuisine predates Queen Victoria. Good to know.

Montillo: I spoke to someone last night at a reading who said, “I work with children all the time, and today we’d see the signs early on. We’d know that a child who taunts other children, who goes around with a knife, who kills animals ... well, maybe you should pay attention to that.” Back then, no one knew what…