There are a ton of rapes, sexual violence and gang rapes in the ‘Game of Thrones’ books.
‘Game of Thrones‘ is probably one of the most violent shows on television next to The Walking Dead. But, unlike The Walking Dead, producers tend to depict sexual violence a lot more often on TV. Every other episode features death, destruction and rape. It was all overlooked on the show until a controversial scene involving Jaime and Cersei Lannister brought light to the topic of sexual violence on television.
Since then, there’s been a lot of discussion on the sexual violence against women on the show. So much sexual violence that critics are saying that it is a cheap way plot line on the TV series. Others argue that the show is just following in the footsteps from the books, which are as full of rape as the medieval societies in which the books are based on.
One Tumblr user named Tafkar put together some numbers to see how much sexual violence went down in the books compared to the show. The numbers may be a little shocking:
Rape acts in Game of Thrones the TV series (to date): 50
Rape victims in Game of Thrones (to date): 29Rape acts in ASOIAF the book series (to date): 214
Rape victims in ASOIAF (to date): 117
According to her count, the books contain at least four times as much rape as the show and probably more. She later describes how difficult it is to estimate the number of gang rape victims in the books.
Rapes/Attempted Rapes that Appear In Both Works: 34
Victims in Both Works: 24Rapes/Attempted Rapes that Appear in the Show Only: 16
Victims in Show Only: 5 (see below section re: Craster’s daughters)
The author of Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin had this to say regarding the accusation that his book focuses too much on sexual violence:
My novels are epic fantasy, but they are inspired by and grounded in history. Rape and sexual violence have been a part of every war ever fought, from the ancient Sumerians to our present day. To omit them from a narrative centered on war and power would have been fundamentally false and dishonest, and would have undermined one of the themes of the books: that the true horrors of human history derive not from orcs and Dark Lords, but from ourselves. We are the monsters. (And the heroes too). Each of us has within himself the capacity for great good, and great evil.
I’m sure the debate will rage on through the rest of the season as things will probably get a lot worse.
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