Native Baltimorean here. He was a pretty okay mayor and governor. He legalized gay marriage, which was cool. He was also fairly progressive about immigration (the DREAM act) and outlawed the death penalty in Maryland. There was a lot of grumbling about taxes during his tenure but Maryland has a lot of grumbly old…
Agreed, and most of them have names and stories and inner lives, which the victims in True Detective did not. They were just anonymous victims used to propel a story about Rust and Marty. THAT’S a problem, using the victimization of children as a creepy, gothic backdrop for a story about 2 dudes and why they’re mad at…
Gilly was born into a life where she and her sisters were repeatedly raped and kept in servitude by their father. Rape has always been part of her life, and she’s learned to just put her head down and deal with it. Just enduring is easier than the alternative.
Thanks! My problem with True Detective was that the plot about the child molestation ring seemed to mostly exist to add a dark, salacious, twisted aspect to the show — it was mostly just a backdrop for the story about the relationship between Rust and Marty. The victims are largely nameless and faceless. They’re…
The Buffy comparison is pretty interesting, I remember the outcry about Buffy being almost-raped by Spike as being very similar to how people are reacting to Sansa’s rape. And the reaction to Spike attempting to rape Buffy being similar to how people reacted to the famous scene where Jaime rapes Cersei. (I think the…
Huh, this is interesting. (I don’t mind book spoilers, I’m currently reading the books but have only just made it through the first once.) It seems like too big of a plot point to just drop cold since Greyscale is described as such a fatal, infectious disease so I do hope they don’t let it go.
The thing is that I hear a lot of people insisting that it’s about how the rape is portrayed but I have yet to hear any compelling, nuanced discussion of why the way they’re treated, written, and directed are so problematic. The discussion usually drops off at “it’s a problem.” I don’t happen to think that characters…
I agree, actually, and I am glad that this dialogue is taking place. I just think that sometimes the criticism about rape on GoT revolves around the fact that the rape is happening on the show at all rather than discussing the intent of the scene, the characters, the aftereffects, or its context within the show. The…
Men were not, and are not, raped nearly as often as women. This is not to say that men are never sexually assaulted or to be dismissive of male victims of rape, but history and statistics simply don’t back up what you’re saying. RAINN's statistics about rape victims.
Ooh, that’s exciting! I hope it is Gendry. I kind of forgot about him but he did just set off in a boat and then we never heard from him again so it’s a definite possibility. I can’t imagine they’d introduce someone with a claim to the throne, have him escape death a few times, and then just forget he existed.
I mean, that’s all fair criticism. I am still invested because the show is known for crazy twists and turns of plot and I’ve learned never to assume I know what a character has coming. So I’m still interested, and still want to see what happens. If you’re not, that’s cool.
I wonder if they’re laying the groundwork for her to become more powerful later on, rather than just victimizing her for that sake of it. There have been flashes of something greater in the works for Sansa but I’m just not sure. I’m concerned that this Sansa/Ramsay marriage diversion in the show is just to knock her…
There are moments of justice and victory in the show as well. (See: Daenerys freeing slaves throughout Slaver’s Bay, asking the Unsullied to fight for her only as free men, horrible sadistic King Joffrey getting his comeuppance, the burgeoning storyline about Cersei’s chickens coming home to roost, etc.) No one is…
You’re right, of course. I mostly worry for him because he’s one of the few genuinely nice characters on the show. He’s not scheming or sadistic or cruel. He’s a kid who loves his wife and his mother and has a cat named Ser Pounce. I genuinely feel bad for him, none of this is his fault, and I have a feeling he’s…
Seconded! Tryion also has the uncanny ability to see right through people’s artifices and figure them out and understand what they want and why; Daenarys lacks insight almost completely and could really benefit from having someone like Tryion around. He doesn’t kowtow to authority like her previous advisers (Ser…
I’ve only read the first book so far so this is good news!
I feel like it could have been a lot more interesting but she’s pretty much abandoned all the things that won her support (her dragons, her commitment to freeing slaves, her compassion) and has just become a pretty incompetent, run of the mill player in the game. I think the question of how one balances their idealism…
I kind of got the impression that the show was just planting a seed — I don’t think we really know who “the gift” is yet. The interpretations I’ve read (that the gift is Lancel, or Tommen) just don’t make sense. If anything is consistent through the show, it’s the Littlefinger has always got something up his sleeve.
She is getting more interesting but anytime it seems like she might be on the cusp of doing something amazing (like in last season’s finale, and when she rode into Winterfell with vengeance against the Boltons in mind), she gets knocked down and victimized. She’s one of the more tragic characters in the series, IMO.…