Brutality on Television

Game of Thrones and Outlander.

A lot has been written lately about both of these shows. Both shows are based on world famous novels by legendary authors. Both book series are extremely dense, populated by characters that have, over the years, become almost very real to the readers.

But what has garnered the recent attention by people all over the world is the recent depiction of rape and brutality in both shows. Granted Game of Thrones and Outlander are both set in very harsh environs where the characters deal with life or death circumstances nearly on a daily basis. That being said, it would seem that what happened to Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones and Jamie Fraser on Outlander has moved not only fans to take to social media about their concerns over the depictions but also writers (professional or otherwise, including yours truly, the world over) to type out their thoughts on the recent rape and brutality leveled against these characters.

Truth be told, I have not read a single book written by George R.R. Martin, but I was intrigued enough when Game of Thrones debuted that I wanted to watch to see what “all the talk was about” [and it didn’t hurt that Jason Momoa and Sean Bean were part of the cast, but I digress]. As for Outlander, I made sure to read the first book before the show debuted, as I had always meant to read the Outlander books, but never got around to it until Ronald D. Moore became involved with the production and then Sam Heughan was cast in the lead role.

As I said, both series of books are dense; and for a slow reader like myself, it took me a LONG time to get through Outlander especially the more difficult chapters surrounding the rape of Jamie Fraser by Black Jack Randall. I’m sure many other readers had the same issue with the first book. I can only imagine how hard it would have been to read through any of the books by George R.R. Martin.

But where the issue of rape and brutality is concerned, Jamie wasn’t the only person violated in Outlander nor was Sansa Stark the only person violated in Game of Thrones. Daenerys Targaryen, to name but one, was forcibly taken by her husband just as Sansa was forcibly taken by her husband. I’m not saying that what happened to either of these women on their wedding nights was acceptable, however, it happened; and I’m pretty sure what was depicted in the show was even harsher in the book. That is the case for what happened to Jamie Fraser in Outlander. What we saw on the screen was pretty damn close to what happened in the book. It’s extremely unpleasant, gruesome and graphic to watch, but read the book. It was even worse, if that is even conceivable, in the pages of the Outlander novel.

Fans, viewers and writers will argue the need (or the lack thereof) for such depictions on TV until we are all blue in the face; but the fact still remains that when you adapt a TV show from the written word, most of the time, you want it to be as true to the original as possible; and the unpleasantness, brutality and harshness that is in the book is almost always worse than what you see on the small screen. Let’s all agree on one thing where this subject is concerned, shall we? The actors who had to film these scenes, in despite of how difficult they were to watch, did an incredible job because they made all of us take notice, talk about it (good bad or otherwise) and, quite frankly, marvel at their portrayals because they seemed so real. And in the end that it was TV is all about, right?

What are your thoughts on the recent storylines on Game of Thrones and Outlander?