By Emily Cutler | Game of Thrones | May 2, 2016 |
By Emily Cutler | Game of Thrones | May 2, 2016 |
You might have heard that last night’s episode of Game of Thrones had a few huge events. And just in case you haven’t
So Jon Snow is back, Roose is gone, and Ramsay is the worst. But as Dustin covered, the internet lost its goddamn mind. And you know what? Just like chill out and relax, dudes, because this is totally NBD. This whole thing about people being appalled that Ramsay killed off his entire family in a few minutes? Stop making a stink about it. It’s cool because:
1) It’s Historically Accurate
Guys, Game of Thrones is based on medieval European culture. AKA the place where people killed the shit out of each other all the time. Royalty and land holders were way more likely to kill of siblings to keep from sharing wealth. The show including these details makes it more realistic and therefore better.
2) How Else Are We Supposed To Know That Ramsay Is A Bad Guy?
Yeah, sure, we saw him systematically torture and psychologically destroy Theon, we saw him hunt an old girlfriend with a new girlfriend, we saw him rape Sansa on a daily basis, and we saw him feed his old girlfriend’s dead body to his dogs. But how are we supposed to know he’s really a bad guy? We have to see him kill his dad! And his newborn baby brother and his step-mom who just popped that kid out a few hours ago! He killed a brand new baby, yo. Now we know he’s really, really terrible! It’s called character development.
3) It’s A Violent, Fantasy TV Show
Everybody knows Game of Thrones is violent. If you don’t like the violence, then don’t watch the show, but also don’t talk at all about why you’re not watching the show anymore. Just shut up and stop watching it. We don’t want to hear your jabbering about the “continual gratuitous use of violence that doesn’t seem to enhance the story.”
Also, you remember that this is fantasy, right? Fucking dragons and shit? Maybe it’s not that big of a deal to murder your father, take over his lordship and feed an innocent woman and baby to dogs in this world. You can’t demand that they abide by our standards because it’s not our world. And this reason definitely doesn’t negate my first reason. You can have fantasy elements and introduce characters with different morality, but then other stuff needs to be more realistic to make up for it. Like you can’t have a well-trained, 6-foot-tall ass-kicking machine of a woman beat a recently injured, poorly fed, unprepared guy because everyone knows ladies can’t fight.
4) Stop Bumming Me Out And Shit
Listen, Game of Thrones is my favorite TV show, and I’m really tired of hearing complaints about how unnecessary or poorly handled the violence is. I just want to watch a show about dudes swinging swords and dragons blowing shit up. So when I have to hear about how the show sometimes makes big mistakes that change the way a large portion of the audience views a character, or when it seems like writers throw in some sort of assault when they’ve run out of ideas, or when you point out that how violence is framed and portrayed and how that careful construction can either make a scene breathtaking or offensive depending on how it treats the recipients of that violence, I get totally bummed. So just stop critiquing art and entertainment on your websites devoted to critiquing art and entertainment and let me watch my show.
5) Adults Get Super Murdered On The Show And Shit Too
If you’re going to freak out every time they show a brand new baby getting eaten by dogs, then you better also freak out every time an adult gets horrifically murdered on the show. If you’re not also going to be critical of every time a grown-up gets killed, then it’s because you’re an adultist. And probably a prude.