Is it possible the end of times is nigh?

[dangermousie]

Game of Thrones has a sex scene that does not involve either whores or rape and consists of two participants who have feelings for each other? The scene is actually...gasp...romantic?! Is the world about to end?!

I am not following GoT season 2 (in large part because of my issues with endless rape and treatment of women in s1) but this scene made me melt about 100 different ways and the whole idea of Robb/Talisa would almost make me change my mind about following this, except for the fact that in Martin's world, any character I remotely like (and they are hard enough to find in his singularly repellent world) ends up dying gruesomely while the bad guys prosper.

Talisa - not evil/not whore/not victim = dead
Robb - has honor/not rapist/idealistic = like Ned = dead.

No thanks.

Have a shippy MV though:

Comments

[sisterjune.livejournal.com]

well you're spot on about Robb, he does die. so does mama bear Cat Stark but she at least got to be awesome in the books before that happened. such a shame the same isnt true in the show. i dont watch the show, and from everything i have heard of it this is the best decision i have ever made.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Ehhh, the books are also very much not my thing, but yeah, I heard they defanged Cat/added rapiness (what. there wasn't enough in GRRM) so staying far away.

[jeslina.livejournal.com]

Robb-Talisa feels a little too modern day romcom to me. There's the prerequisite meet cute (by GoT standard anyway, heh. He helped her amputate someone's leg), the back and forth banter etc etc. I'm a sucker for romantic comedy, but it feels out of place on this show.

But to be honest, the real reason the storyline bugs me is probably because I'm over-identifying with Catelyn. Every time I see Robb and Talisa together, I want to reach across the screen, grab Robb's shoulder and shout - "what are you doing?? You don't have time for this!! Your brothers and sisters are in danger!! It's bad enough you care more about your men than your siblings, now you have time for flirting?" Catelyn's reaction on the show is wayyyyy more rational than mine, she just reminded Robb that he already promised to marry someone else.

[elizabennet69.livejournal.com]

"and the whole idea of Robb/Talisa would almost make me change my mind about following this, "

Do not get to attached to Robb - he dies a horrible death. Cat Stark is not as lucky. She dies but is resurrected (I know!!!!) She was never a character I liked but she is one of the worst treated by the writer and I feel pity for her.

My fave in the series is John Snow. I loved him at the beginning when he didn't want a wolf cub for himself. Right then and there I was in love. And my hopes for him are really high (to be alive at least until the last book) Please no spoilers about this!!!!!

I also like Jamie and Tyrion (brothers with good character arcs) although Tyrion went to the dark side at the end of Storm of Swords (I have not read Dance of the Dragons yet)

None of the female characters really appeal to me. None of the Stark women/girls are my type of people. Brianne is too butch for my liking (and I have no idea what will happen to her anyway) and Daenerys is simply too weird for me.

I have never watched the series but the books are page turners as far as I'm concerned.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am as spoiled as spoiled can be. I know what happens to everyone through the latest book and it's one of many reasons I am staying away. (In the whole Robb thing, the dealbreaker for me is not that he and his family get slaughtered but that the attitude seems to be 'serves him right, he was such an idiot to not make an advantageous marriage.' A world where everything is about expediency and any decent gesture gets punished = not my thing.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

See, one of my huge problems with GoT (I'll table the others or we'll be here all day) is that something like Robb/Talisa, i.e., a growing relationship between two sane, decent and competent people is as rare in its world and as out of its place as a unicorn. That is just not a world I want to read about/watch. It is also completely unrealistic that pretty much everyone dies a gruesome death at a rate that would make redshirts blush - my major in college was history with focus on medieval history and I can't think of a time even in the 10th century (the real 'dark age') or in various Icelandic sagas, which are verrrrry bloody, where people died at such a rate (and in sagas, at least there is an attempt at honor by a lot of characters). But I digress...

[once-a-weaver.livejournal.com]

Yeah, many issues, but a big one is I just don't want to enter a world that dark and hopeless for any period of time, being constantly saddened and horrified, with so little light.

[jeslina.livejournal.com]

I didn't read the books, so I probably have the wrong perspective on this, but I thought the main characters who died in the show so far made sense to me. Ned's story for example was pretty much over by the time he died, I can't really see a way forward for that character, and his death scattered his children to the four winds, with storylines of their own. Khal Drogo pretty much has to die if the journey and struggle is to be truly Daenerys' own. Maybe that's clumsy writing, you have to kill a character to drive the plot forward, but it kinda makes sense.

[elizabennet69.livejournal.com]

I have no problem reading dark stuff. As long as there are some good people sticking to kindness and doing the right thing no matter what. I don't really care for the stupid and/or obvious villians such as Cercei (stupid) Mellisandre (obvious) but characters such as Tyrion or Jamie who go through changes as things happen to them and like John Snow who remains kind, good and honest despite all the mysery/temptations are very interesting to me. I also like the pace of the books, the tension is always there but one simply cannot drop it. Storm of Swords was not as captivating but Jamie & Brienne kept me going in that one. There is something noble in the villain and there is something dark in the good guy after all. Some manage to overcome it and some don't.

[katranna.livejournal.com]

Well Tyrion's scenes with his smart foreign prostitute are really cute! I like her a lot.

And yeah, if mistreatment of women and rapiness bothers you, you really don't want to watch season 2. There was one ep a few weeks ago that I basically termed "the torture episode," and another one that focused extensively on Sansa's attempted rape.

[ladysaotome.livejournal.com]

Hubby & I tried watching GoT (I tried reading it, too, but GAWD how can so little happen so slowly!!) and we basically decided that you can sum up the story pretty easily. Every time there's a chance between something good happening or something bad happening - 99.9% of the time, the something bad happens. So we quit early into the 2nd season. Life's too short to waste on something so pooey.