The Sold Queen
On the night of Khal Drogo and Daenery’s
wedding night it is obvious that Daenery was a slave and forced to marry this
big beastly man that she would have never intended to if she had a choice in
the matter. It is no question the filmmakers wanted this night and the next
couple of nights to be seen as rape. Daenery is forced to have sex with Khal
Drogo at his will, and he doesn’t seem to be so gentle either. If you have seen
this episode, he is quite rough. In the
show, Daenery is depicted to be only 13-15 years old, and in no way a girl of
that age would know what she is doing. However, was it the right choice of the
filmmakers to do this? I would argue in favor of that. Although I have not read
the book, I have skimmed over this section. To me, the book made it seem quite
confusing whether Daenery was wanting to have sex or not. Again, it is clear in
the scene on HBO that it was rape. The
choice to show the sex scene between Daenerys and Drogo on their wedding night
as rape and not consensual sex created problems as their characters and the story line progressed. The creators of
the show did not have many acceptable options since the circumstances surrounding
Daenery’s and Drogo’s marriage preclude the possibility of the sex being
consensual. An author of another post
named “Bad” also agrees with me on this topic. Not assuming this person’s gender
but I would say most feminists are women, with that being said I will refer to
her as a she. Furthermore, she says:
With this statement, she is obviously agreeing
with me saying it is rape. At the beginning of her article she said by doing
this it made all men in the show seem like rapist in that time period, which
can be the case half the time.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, for some
reason people thought that this scene wasn’t rape. The fact that some people
did not see that the scene was rape completely puzzles me. A person that wrote
the article “Drogo didn’t rape Dany” shared their opinion on the subject.
However, this person also thought that Danny had an option, which I did not
believe she did. In the show, Daenery’s
brother forces her into the marriage, and this gives her no way out which would
lead to her being raped. Here are some things “eyeheartsansa” had to say:
Although
it is true that Danny eventually did fall in love with Drogo, it doesn’t take
away the fact that she was clearly raped on her wedding night. Also, she learned that if she did what Drogo
wanted; she would then start to gain more power over her people. She no longer
had to take orders from her brother because she was technically higher on the
totem pole than he was. Speaking of her brother, if anyone paid close attention
to the show, before Daenery’s wedding, her brother takes her
clothes off and rubs her breasts, which I believe is considered sexual assault.
With that being said, if she was never sold to the Dothraki’s, who knows where
she would have ended up. I can assume
that she would have probably been stuck taking orders from her brother.
Here is the scene if you
are interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz1LvbvF0GU
As you can see in Daenery’s face at the beginning, she is
obviously scared, frightened, and honestly doesn’t really know where this is
going. Starting at the 30 second mark, is when Drogo starts to undress her.
Once he has everything off of her, she covers her breasts because she is scared,
and it is inferred that she does not want to be touched by Drogo. You can obviously assume this because he has
to force her hands away, and then she begins to cry more when the intercourse
begins.
Considering what’s all been said so far, I do believe the
creators made a respectable decision in making the scene the way they did. Like I said earlier, in the book it didn’t
seem clear if the sex scene was consensual or rape. Regardless of what it may
have seemed like, prior to anything being done with Drago and Danny, we should
have known it would have been rape. For one, Daenery is sold the Dothraki’s, she
had no option, and she was quite underage. The only things that the TV series could have
done differently was maybe to not make the scene quite as gruesome. Like the
other blog post I used, a feminist would likely lose their interest in watching
the show, which goes to show that the show could have lost some of their
audience by making a somewhat gruesome rape scene.
I hope this post proves the point in
which Danny was raped, I don’t see how other people can see that it was consensual.
I can obviously see how it consensual after they actually do fall in love.
Furthermore, like I said I do believe the film makers made the right decision to
sort of change the turn of events from the book. I just believe it adds more spice to the show,
and shows how intelligent Danny actually is by using her beautiful body to gain
the power that she did.
References
·
“Daenerys Was Raped!” Daenerys Was Raped!,
thingsarebad.blogspot.com/2011/05/Daenerys-was-raped.html.
Looking back on the “rape” scene with Dany, I can see how many people are now okay with how those events took place since they eventually fell in love. In my opinion, it was kind of smart in order for her to gain that power for herself. I feel as if in that moment when she learned to take control, the whole trajectory of her life had shifted down a different path. This different path now has her with her own army and three huge dragons that are at her command whenever she wants.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is so truthful in the fact that it was hard to decipher whether her wedding night was consensual or not in the book. It took to viewing the TV series to show that it was indeed rape. I agree that the film makers decided to go with the rape scene to add and build up on Danny's character. After all, she was just a young girl, unknown of her own identity, and all she knew was that her brother was urgent in getting rid of her to appease his selfish needs.
ReplyDeleteI can not speak on behalf of majority of the girls who have watched GoT. But watching Danny's character grow and become stronger mentally and more powerful, made me happy and brought the "You go girl!" out of me. It made me admire her more. In the beginning, she was unsure of what to do. She lacked confidence. Now she is strong and unafraid to fight for the rights of those in slavery.
It was interesting to read from your blog that there were some viewers who did not see Danny's wedding scene on the TV show as rape. It made me upset but yet from your quote, I can see why they would view it their way. It's still wrong though. LOL.
Your blog was interesting to read and I enjoyed your inputs. Your line that Danny did fall in love with Drogo but not in the way that he loved her. That was quite insightful.
Your blog post had a strong subject matter and must have been a difficult subject to talk about, for that I tip my hat to you sir. While reading your post I also view this scene of Dany’s first night of marriage as rape, very difficult to see in any other way to me. I also felt that the book and show were similar in this aspect and both seemed to show her overcoming these horrible events to become the stronger character that would the mother of dragons. However, I could be wrong maybe they did it for the views, wouldn’t be the first time someone did something like this to get people to watch.
ReplyDeleteGood post, not the biggest fan of Dany as a character because of the way she seems to carry herself as a god. Kind of liked when her transformation was complete and she rose from the ashes, it seemed to symbolize that she was able to overcome this brutal past you pointed out. But her personality seemed to have transformed with her and without her dragons who would she be? Reminded me of those people smug when they get a lot of friends in high school, or an army.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with it obviously being rape because of the age difference and the point that she was sold, but I'm confused on how you said that the adaptation to make it a rape added "spice"?
ReplyDeleteI believe Daeny knew she what she had to do to survive in the situation no matter the cost and in this time period it's not new that women were treated like trash, but upper hand trash is better than lower.