Will the New ‘Game of Thrones’ Be Any Less Cruel to Women?
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Attention, everyone: Winter is coming. And by that I mean more thinly veiled sexism could be hitting your screens—and, inevitably, your social media timelines—this August. I know, I know, you’re still not over Bran Stark ending up on the Iron Throne, but such is life and such is the entertainment industry. The prequel series is called House of the Dragon (the trailer dropped today), and it follows the Targaryen family 200 years before everything in the original Game of Thrones. With any luck, it will bring just as many reasons for hot takes.
A lot of us—19.3 million people tuned in for the May 2019 finale alone—lived for that drama, much of it in the form of the show’s incredibly divisive plotlines (see: the aforementioned Iron Throne thing) and holy-shit-that-just-happened twists. But the prequel announcement and trailer resurface what many of us resented the first time around: Game of Thrones went out of its way to punish the women it created.
I’m talking about the many, many rape scenes. The complete lack of agency for female characters. The disproportionate physical abuse of women compared with men.
Allow me to further refresh your memory with some specifics: A very young Daenerys Targaryen is sold into marriage, raped by her husband, and then…falls in love with said husband. (See also: her eventual descent into madness and resultant murdering spree.) Sansa Stark’s storyline begins with being passed around like a handle at a frat party and eventually includes her crediting a rapist and abusers, plural, for her strength. For much of the series, Brienne of Tarth cared more about her knightly duties than anything—until she’s reduced to tears because a man slept with and then left her. (Sorry, but no one’s dick game is that strong.) I could go on.
By the end, Game of Thrones killed off or grossly betrayed nearly every female character it ever featured. Members of the show’s creative team and some of its biggest fans have defended this as reality-based. Back whenever this was, they argue, most women would have been treated like dirt. Author George R. R. Martin has even said it would be “dishonest” to leave out sexual violence in this time period, when men would have held nearly all the positions of power.
But…Game of Thrones is a fantasy. Set in a world that does not nor did ever exist. “It’s fictional, so to focus on men as the proactive makers of history and on women as largely differential victims or crazy antagonists is an entirely artistic choice,” says film and television producer Ayelet Junger. “If a series can have dragons, it can also have empowered women, especially considering the latter does in fact exist in the world.” And someone should tell the people in charge over there that women can be or become strong without being abused first. Other plot devices exist.
To add insult to injury, the people who had to answer for these terrible storylines were, in many cases, the women who were tasked with bringing them to life. At the mercy of the decisions made by the real-life men around them, some of the show’s actors ended up as victims in both worlds. I will never forget reading an interview with Nathalie Emmanuel, who played enslaved-person-turned-Daenerys-adviser Missandei, after her character’s death. “I am the only woman of color in this show [as a series regular],” she told Entertainment Weekly. “When I saw that she gets captured and she dies in chains, I just felt the weight of that.”
Like we’ve all, you know, been saying, this kind of thing tends to happen when there aren’t a lot of high-level women working behind the scenes on a show. Game of Thrones had only one (1!) female director and four (4!) episodes with women as head writers out of 73 total episodes. This despite the major incentive to involve women at every stage: According to Statista, more women than men in the U.S. were talking about the show on social media at the beginning of season 7. And those female fans were passionate. Some even named their daughters Daenerys. Need I say more?
If House of the Dragon hopes to inspire that same kind of fandom, or even migrate the old fandom over in full, it needs to elevate itself beyond its narrative crutches. “Success means at least trying not to alienate half the planet with your choices,” says Sascha Hecks, chief operating officer of production company Chaotic Good Studios.
Here’s a suggestion: Hire more women, especially in top positions. Also, I dare you, new writing team, to create this prequel without a single rape scene. And if you do decide you simply cannot avoid violence against women (which, you can), do we need to see it happen? Just tell us it happened. That would be fine.
Next, don’t create any female characters that some guy on Twitter would be tempted to describe as “crazy” or “hysterical.” Women can be compelling without being made to seem mentally unwell. Making a woman “insane”—and having that be her big or only thing—is just lazy writing.
Another free idea, from Junger: “One story that is particularly missing from Game of Thrones is that of a politically powerful woman who does not use sex or marriage for advancement.” Lyanna Mormont, the 10-year-old girl who was the head of her house, was a rare example of this in the original series but, says Junger, “she was treated more as a curiosity than a real character.” Plus (of course!), she was killed, crushed to death
by a giant, before she got any real exploration. The only other instance I can think of is Yara Greyjoy, who somehow managed to survive the series. A final request, this one from Hecks: more female friendships that don’t exist only because of ulterior motives.
Listen, I’m not asking for women who are perfect, because frankly, that would be boring. I want women who are interesting because of the things they do, not the things that are forced upon them without their consent. I want women who say the wrong thing at the wrong time and make terrible choices, but they’re choices they own. If nothing else, the girls growing up with the name Daenerys deserve better.
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