A Game of Thrones concern

[yendi]

So, I haven't read the series (although I've listened to most of the first book as an audiobook). And I often forget characters given how bloody huge the world is.

But something still bothered me this week.



So, as far as I can tell, this is the first episode that's featured a black character (the pirate hired by Stanis's man).

And within two minutes, that character has established that the only thing he wants is to "fuck the blonde queen." Granted, he says that he's not going to rape her, but only because he's so confident that she'll just fall into bed with him (something that could only happen, in theory, after his ships have helped destroy her kingdom). Because, you know, conquering her kingdom and destroying her family and killing all of her protectors and then asking her for sex would totally not be coercive at all.

Am I missing something? Have there been a slate of black characters on the series (not POC -- the Dothraki have their own set of issues, but have been pretty thoroughly developed) that I've somehow missed, ones who have provided us with enough range to ignore the stereotype?

Comments

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

lastly, I am pretty sure Saladar didn't say that in the book.

that'd be the second time they added rape to the series when it wasn't in the book.

When Kaleesi was with Kal Drohl for their wedding night, the series made it look like he rapes her. Then later she wants to know how to please him sexually? Wha?
In the book that's not how it happened. He actually approaches her carefully, tenderly and ASKS her permission for every touch. It was pretty much the opposite of rape. She actually takes his hand and places it where she wants it and tells him to go ahead. It was strangely touching and erotic. I was outraged at how they changed that in the show.

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

No, Salador mentioning be interested in fucking Cersei is in the book. Which to me is more about him being a mostly amoral PIRATE than anything else. Other than a few minor characters there aren't a lot of POC in the first couple books. Not until Daenyrs starts expanding into the "Old" city-states...

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

agreed

[skitty.livejournal.com]

I respectfully disagree with you. In the book, Dany repeatedly says no, and Drogo, however tenderly, presses onward until she capitulates. He may not have physically forced himself onto her, but there was a clear imbalance of power in that scene and Dany's participation was not voluntary. I appreciated that the show made this more explicit than the book.

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

I just now read it again. She does not repeatedly say no. HE says no. No to her tears, No to her shame. He basically is telling her not to be afraid of him.

He seduces her tenderly and erotically. And he ASKS her "no?" before he has touched her sexually, she grabs his hand, puts it on her precious parts and says "Yes". Read it again.

[skitty.livejournal.com]

You're right; I was mistaken about the dialogue. That doesn't change the fact that she was a frightened child who did not choose to marry Drogo and did not choose to be intimate with him. When she submits, I firmly believe it is motivated out of an instinct for survival and the fact that she fears him less than she fears her brother.

Look, you can read the seduction however you want, but when an adult king marries a fourteen year old fugitive girl, that's not a consensual sexual relationship.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

Definitely not consensual but I think that there was a time when it was common to marry at 12 or 13 and there was some form of acceptance that this is what is going to happen. Usually coerced but there is also a sense of familial obligation.

Katerine of Sforza was married at 10 and the groom insisted upon consummation before he rode off to get into Vatican politics (this is a Renaissance family).

It's creepy as hell but in the context, it's generally accepted.

[skitty.livejournal.com]

You make a fair and accurate point, but I'm not sure it's relevant. Of course the community accepts this marriage. The khalasar and Viserys support it. Illyrio supports it. But Dany is coerced into it and at her age, she is not really qualified to consent. Age aside, any woman who is told she is going to marry a king has just lost any control she ever had over her sexuality.

I don't think Drogo's seduction of Dany is erotic or tender because I don't think Dany has any power to consent, or to withhold consent. The same goes for Katerine of Sforza, no matter how acceptable her family and her community may have found it.

[yendi]

Hell, it's not just that she's told to marry him; any failure to marry him and make him happy would result in "waking the Dragon," which we know means she'll be beaten at the last, and likely raped by Viserys, too.