The "Game of Thrones" creators will be changing their approach on sexual violence in the upcoming sixth season of the series because of the backlash they experienced from the fans last year.
ABC News reported that creators David Benioff and DB Weiss considered the fan feedback they received last year which made them decide to change some things in the series. Jeremy Podeswa, the director of the first two episodes of season six, said that the two were "responsive to the discussion and there were a couple of things that changed as a result."
He added, "It is important that [the producers] not self-censor. The show depicts a brutal world where horrible things happen. They did not want to be too overly influenced by that [criticism] but they did absorb and take it in, and it did influence them in a way."
What the fans complained about was the episode titled "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken" where Sansa Stark was raped by Ramsay Bolton, with Theon Greyjoy forced to watch scene. Due to its graphic scene and violent content, a lot of the fans had a negative response.
Podeswa defended the rape scene while he was in Australia. He said, "It was a difficult and brutal scene and we knew it was going to be challenging for the audience. But it was very important to us in the execution that it would not be exploited in any way."
He added, "To be fair, the criticism was the notion of it, not the execution. It was handled as sensitively as it could possibly be; you hardly see anything."
"I welcomed the discussion about the depiction of violence on television and how it could be used as a narrative tool sometimes and the questionable nature of that. We were aware ahead of time that it was going to be disturbing but we did not expect there would be people in Congress talking about it."
George RR Martin, the "Game of Thrones" author, also defended the rape scene and said that by including such scene means that the war is depicted from there. Sexual violence meant war.
"The books reflect a patriarchal society based on the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages were not a time of sexual egalitarianism ... they had strong ideas about the roles of the women."