‘Game of Thrones’ season 5: Senator quits over Sansa twist; will others?

It is not often that someone quitting “Game of Thrones” becomes headline news, and in some ways, the idea of Senator Claire McCaskill deciding not to watch the show anymore is not particularly noteworthy. Instead, we feel like it is more an indictment on how many people feel about certain types of content on TV, and also the presentation of it.

McCaskill seems to be most upset about the scene from Sunday night’s new episode that features Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) losing her virginity to Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) in a pretty gruesome fashion on her wedding night. He basically commanded her to disrobe, and then promptly started to tear apart her clothes and have sex with her while forcing her childhood friend Theon to watch it all unfold.

Anytime you watch a rape scene on a show is horrendous, but at the same time, do we really expect anything else from a series that has featured this for years? The lesson we are meant to take away from this scene, other than that rape is terrible, is how much Sansa has changed as a character, and how she is trying to bide her time until Stannis Baratheon eventually comes to Winterfell to take over and hopefully not only save her, but also help her rule.

If there is any fundamental issue we have with the scene, it is that it was such a sudden shift for the Ramsay character, who had to this point been nicer to Sansa. While we know it is in his DNA to be terrible, wouldn’t it be a smarter move for him politically to be nice to someone who still has the affection of the north? She was not going to act terribly towards him presumably, so him making this step seems arguably senseless other than to torment both her and Reek. The content of the scene itself is terrible, but in line with the series’ tone to date.

Also, we expect that things will get so much worse for this show content-wise well before they get better, so be ready for that.

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