At this point, I think we’ve all realized that the gender and sexual politics in Game of Thrones are a bit, um, iffy. After all, this is the series that gave us a pair of incestuous twins pitching a young boy off a tower, as well as another character being raped by the husband to whom she had involuntarily been wedded a few minutes before. Oh, and that was the first episode. Fun times for women and children on HBO, coming this Sunday night! So why, exactly, did the most recent episode, and in particular the sept-set scene between Jaime and Cersei, send the inter-webs into such a tailspin? Yes, the scene depicts a forceful sexual violation, and is both disgusting and painful to watch. Normal sunday, in other words. But, well, is it?
I’ll venture a guess that the horror of the scene comes only partially from the content, and also from the characters involved. Jaime, over the past season and change, has become a gigantic fan favorite. Rightly so. In the first season, he was depicted as a fairly stereotypical rich, spoiled, jackass. Creepily loyal to his sister, not particularly smart, terrified of his father (who the hell wouldn’t be????) and utterly protective of the family name. Starting in season 3 (he barely appeared in 2), Jaime became something else, something far more interesting. He became a haunted man, robbed of the sword-hand which was the source of his legend, and uncertain how else to define himself in the world. The search for a new identity, his great arc, led to something suspiciously like genuine nobility. Could Jaime Lannister, the notorious Kingslayer, actually be a good man?
Welllll, maybe not. But he certainly has his good side. Watch him during the Purple Wedding, when Joffrey starts to choke and the rest of the kingdom sees best-laid plans evaporate like steam rising from hot wine. Jaime charges for the King. Sprinting, terror on his face. He and Cersei huddle together above the boy, for all that Cersei tries to shove him away. In that moment, Jaime looks..... Paternal. Protective and caring and horrified and helpless, as any father would in that situation. Look, I’d like nothing better than to chain all the Lannisters down in front of a good therapist (paging Dr. Lecter!) for several years. They’re the most profoundly messed-up family on TV. But Jaime, in that moment, is following his heart and really, genuinely trying to do right by his son. A day later (in diegetic time), he proceeds to rape the only woman he’s ever truly loved.
This is the thing I’ve been dancing towards for three paragraphs; It doesn’t fit. That isn’t Jaime. Nothing we’ve seen, in three seasons and change, suggests he would ever violate and betray Cersei that way. And yes, it is rape. Plain and simple. There are a lot of ways to interpret these two characters and concoct a scenario in which they might have consensual sex in the sept. But none of it works, because the filmic text, in everything from acting to set dressing to camera angles, simply doesn’t support the reading.
As a lot of people have pointed out, it’s different in the books. In that version, Jaime has just arrived back in King’s Landing. He and Cersei are, pretty indisputably, wildly attracted to one another and haven’t been able to do anything about it for several months. They’re also half-mad from grief, and so engage in a desperate, deeply sickening version of comfort sex in the sept with their dead son. It is a brutal, ugly scene, but it fits with the characters as they’ve been written. The show does not. Jaime has been kind of a dingbat at times, but he’s demonstrated over and over that he truly, deeply, loves Cersei. In the not-very-distant past, he worked hard to protect Brienne from rape, so he’s at least a little conscious of things like sexual choice. But what I keep coming back to is that Jaime’s sole focus in life has always been on his family, on protecting and honoring his closest relatives. It’s his mission, purpose, and passion. And then, this happens. Jaimes rapes Cersei because the producers decided it would be useful to them if that happened.
There is a slight element of betrayal here. We’ve watched Jaime grow, turn into someone we like and want to see succeed. The producers of the show have asked us to invest in his emotional journey. Look, if they want to reveal that he’s secretly been Lucifer and single-mindedly planning to rape Cersei the entire time, then go for it. Plot twists are cool. Sudden betrayals and backstabbings are cool. Bad people pretending to be good before revealing badness is cool. You know what isn’t cool? Undoing three years of emotional growth and character complexity just because you felt like it. I know, to paraphrase Neil Gaiman, that Messrs Benioff and Weiss are, collectively, not my bitch. It’s their fictional world and they get to move people around in it. All I ask is that they play by the rules they’ve established.
So what exactly is causing all the anger around this scene? I’ll submit that there are two things happening. Foremost is the use of rape as a plot device, which is another in a long, long line of questionable decisions the show has made on that particular subject. Second, as I’ve tried to unpack a bit above, is the sabotage of a primary, very popular character. And that leads us back to my first point; This is rape as plotting mechanism, which officially makes it one of the dumber decisions in the run of a show not short on those.
The rape of Dany by Khal Drogo in the pilot didn’t bother me in the slightest. The scene is a drastic departure from its novelistic counterpart (“No?” He said, and she knew it was a question.), but the change is made for dramatically interesting reasons. It puts Dany in an even worse position among the Dothraki, which makes her eventual triumph all the more amazing. It provides information as to the social and sexual traditions of a foreign culture (that these traditions are repulsive is irrelevant; it’s a valid creative choice). The scene between Jaime and Cersei accomplished nothing. It stood for nothing. It did not further the story, and as I’ve already stated it torpedoed one of the best characters on the show.
Is it acceptable to use rape as a plot device under these circumstances? I’d argue that it is not. I have great respect for creators who attempt to imbue their worlds with something of the depth of experiences, both positive and negative, that we might recognize as the “human condition.” Sexual assault is, to our great shame as a species, part of that. But this particular subject is a raw wound for so many people. It ruins lives. Game of Thrones is a television show, meant for escapism and entertainment. I am a firm believer that art, whether in books, film, television, painting, music, whatever, can engage with and perform a valuable service in discussing such an issue. But not like this.
The scene begins with a level of raw emotion rarely equaled even on this series. Cersei, for all that she is vindictive, manipulative, and just plain nasty, is nevertheless a mother standing over the corpse of her first-born son. The camera, as the scene opens, grants her primacy in the frame. Joffrey’s body is below, and Jaime looms behind, but Cersei’s face is at the center, where our eye is trained to fall. Hers is the dominant perspective, which maintains as she first shifts to hold Jaime. From here, as they kiss, the camera jumps into a quick series of tight, mirroring two-shots. These are romantic shots, and fitting for the scene of two parents comforting one another in the face of ultimate grief. Notice, however, that Joffrey holds the bottom edge of the frame. Notice the editing, jarring and sudden, always cutting a half-breath before it should. We’re seeing two characters driven into each other’s arms by grief and rage, their thoughts too chaotic for it be entirely genuine.
Cersei is perhaps slightly more rational, and breaks away from the kiss. But when she does, Jaime has taken control. He fills the frame, and she falls momentarily out of it. From there, the damage is done and the scene spirals into an ugliness I don’t care to discuss in more detail. Except, of course, that the camera is careful to hold Joffrey in the frame as one last obscenity. So, just to recap; The show is telling us, in every way possible, that Cersei has just had her agency and power ripped away by the man she (in a reeeeeeaaaaalllly sick way) loves, on the altar holding the corpse of their son. Um, guys? How the hell did anyone think this was a good idea? It isn’t creative, intelligent, or thought provoking. It’s just revolting. Women are 2nd class, at best, in this world. Cersei is one of the few to achieve a modicum of real influence, but even that is almost wholly dependent on her father and brother. It is clear that she regards her re-assertion of sexual power, by choosing Jaime over her husband Robert, to be a major victory in her life. That her choice is then ripped away by the man to whom she’s devoted her life is both an insult and a horror.
Look, I get why they did it. Cersei is going to spend the next couple of seasons in a downward spiral, and if this doesn't get it started then nothing will. Jaime needed some darkness and edge back in his character, and violent rape sure fits the bill! Bullshit. I know why the producers did this, but their reasons are wrong. Cersei just watched her first-born child choke on his own blood. She has plenty of justification to go crazy for a while. And Jaime, poor Jaime...... Here’s the mistake the show made: It had set up the character as a maimed knight, capable of killing, searching for a new identity, deeply honorable but profoundly fucked-up emotionally. That is a fascinating, complex, charismatic character. Some may love him, some may hate him, but everyone will be intrigued by him. Now, though, the only emotion is hate. Jaime crossed every line, and there’s no turning back. I hope we don’t look back on this moment and say the same of the show.
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