Yeah, and nobody defended that scene or insisted on its necessity with the same level of shrillness and persistence that I see from commenters here. In fact, most people thought it was gratuitous and quickly grew annoyed with scenes created just for the show to illustrate Ramsay's sadism. But every time someone…

Shae was rightly poking holes in the contrived scenario that Jaime constructed to get his brother laid. The show writers stick to GRRM's scene. The fact that a show writer went on to use that very contrived scenario doesn't reflect well on that writer.

Reality? You're talking about a TV adaptation of a fantasy series that borrows elements from medieval history, and in this instance it departs from the books for no good reason. In the book, Jon was aware of this and other threats to Gilly, and he sent her away with the stroke of a pen. With a limited amount of time…

I wasn't talking about the implausibility of attempted rape. I was talking about the implausibility of someone narrowly escaping it and then minutes later having sex with someone else. Maybe adjust your fedora a little so you can read the comments more clearly.

I know she's a POV character and we've spent so much time with her that it's awful to watch the Sansa rape scene, but Gilly's narrowly averted rape an episode or two later is a better example of what a cheap, lazy trick rape has become for the writers. I seem to recall Shae (in both the books and the show)…

Victarion Greyjoy's crew repeatedly rapes a maester they take captive while raiding the Reach and the Arbor. Then they throw him overboard when he complains about his abuse. It's as gratuitous as most of the small-screen rapings, so… maybe next season?

Textually, rape and other atrocities often do take place "off-screen" in the sense that the POV characters will recount something awful they've witnessed or experienced after the fact. The Reek chapters don't place the reader in the action as Theon's fingers and junk are being cut off. He's already been mutilated and…

Rape or not, Sansa's presence at Winterfell did absolutely nothing for the story, and that annoyed my as much as anything else about it. Yes, we get it — Ramsey is a horrible psychopath… and somehow a tactical genius and a ninja. I'll bet Robb Stark overlooked his expertise out of jealousy!

I seem to recall Ani DiFranco recording a song or two with Prince in the mid-90s, but she was already somewhat famous by then.

I don't think they're bad writing, either. I just think there's more to his situation than the review implied by quickly writing him off as a "white knight."

Jessica still thinks it's possible at this point to catch Kilgrave, hold him, and extract a confession that would be admissible in a court of law. With five episodes to go, I don't think I'm spoiling much to say that some part of her plan goes awry, and more people die. Would Simpson's bomb plan have saved lives? Yes,…

I don't think I'd even call it "white knighting" because Simpson and Jessica have completely different goals with Kilgrave. Jessica sees him as a wrongdoer who needs to be brought to justice, even as she dabbles with the idea of rehabilitating him. Simpson merely views Kilgrave as a threat to be eliminated before more…

I've heard tell that Hannity is a true believer, while O'Reilly is a self-promoter.

Same here. I tend to skip it during re-watch mini-binges and thus can't remember much about it aside from being too overwrought for BtVS.

There's a whole genre of scholarly publishing that is, on the surface, about fan culture but focuses on a single show because the author(s) can't put "marathoned this show on Netflix, read a fuckton of fanfic, and got into arguments with strangers on the internet about the show" on a CV. The one surprise here is that…

Slash fiction is the young woman's equivalent to girl-on-girl porn made for straight men.

I've been underwhelmed by the whole season and was prepared to hate this episode, since I've always seen Charlie as warmed-over Willow Rosenberg with a side of Mary-Sue. Imagine my surprise when I enjoyed it a lot.

He's clearly not a native, but his brand of crazy fits right in there.

There's no trace of New Orleans in his accent, but I can definitely believe that he lived there. In this interview, he does come across as every New Orleanian's affectionately yet barely tolerated crazy neighbor. He has the same self-importance paired with the rambling incoherence that comes from perennial substance…

I think what put me off "Fan Fiction" was that the episode felt like it was bending over backwards to praise the fanart/fanfic/derivative works crowd, which is flattering if you're part of it but not really that fun to watch if you're not. It's for completists only. A non-viewer could watch "The Real Ghostbusters" and…