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Game of thrones: Gone too far?

Three short years after it first debuted on HBO, “Game of Thrones” has become one of the most popular – and controversial – shows ruling the kingdom of premium television.
I honestly can’t remember a recent Sunday evening that hasn’t been overrun with various conversations about the events of the latest episode, and constant speculations of how the actions of the characters involved are going to affect the series from this point on.
As expected, the show has once again made headlines for shocking many of its faithful viewers. This time, however, the controversy doesn’t have anything to do with its now common depictions of extreme violence or an unexpected plot twist.
It deals with the extremely sensitive topic of rape.
I’ll spare the details for the sake of those who haven’t seen the episode yet, but the main cause of concern by many stems from a scene in which the rape of a central female character is graphically depicted on screen.
Critics have criticized the actions seen within the episode (entitled “Breaker of Chains”) for being “despicable” and contributing to rape culture.
Others were upset mainly because the scene wasn’t faithful to George R.R. Martin’s source material, where the sexual activity between the two characters was consensual.
Simply put, this episode made a lot of people unhappy and outraged for a lot of different reasons.  I’ve come to the conclusion that instead of focusing on the production of “Game of Thrones”, that same outrage can – and should – be channeled and directed towards real life issues.
Instead of becoming angry at the rape of a fictional character, why don’t we do more about actual instances of rape that occur within our society?
Instead of mourning another casualty at the hands of Joss Whedon (R.I.P. Wash), maybe we should start mourning the deaths of countless people due to war, poverty and many other negative aspects of the world.
Things are not well in the Seven Kingdoms as of recent, but as I look at the top stories on the news, I realize our world isn’t in that great of shape either. Maybe if we started becoming as passionate about real life in the same way that we become passionate about our favorite shows, the state of society might start taking a turn in the right direction.
At this point, only time will tell.

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