XPost: rec.arts.tv, alt.tv.hbo
In article <te2cbt$2vg0p$
7@dont-email.me>,
Ubiquitous <
weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
: This article contains spoilers for the first episode.
GAME OF THRONES fans were delighted that the highly anticipated prequel series "House of the Dragon" debuted on HBO Max last night, but even those seemingly immune to gory content are reacting to one graphic scene in the series premiere.
The central story takes place about 200 years before the events in GAME OF THRONES, spanning the legacy of the Targaryen family. In the first episode, Queen Aemma (Sian Brooke) dies while giving birth to her son when her husband, King Viserys (Paddy Considine), opts to put his wife through an undermedicated and brutal c-section in an effort to save the sole male heir.
Fans reacted strongly to the emotional, graphic scene, plus reacted to what they called "forced birth" on the part of Queen Aemma.
Yeah, I watched it last night and I knew that scene was gonna rile up
the pro-abortion crowd.
It's a medieval patriarchal society with a king that has absolute power
and which places heavy emphasis on royal lineage. Of course the king was
going to choose saving the baby boy over the life of his wife, even if
he liked his wife-- which wasn't the case in many arranged royal
marriages. (I was confused as to why the kid died, though. After the
bloody c-section, the kid was alive and crying normally, then the next
scene we see the queen bundled up on her funeral pyre and there's
another small bundle next to her and people are talking about the kid
being dead, too.)
Bitching about women's rights in this context is idiotic. There are a
lot of other barbaric practices shown on the show with men being beaten, detesticlized, and beheaded based on mere accusation of crime, so it's
not like it's just the women who have few rights in that society.
This is reminiscent of the original show's portrayal of Sansa Stark's
rape on her wedding night. The feminist brigade went nuts, condemning
the show for such a brutal scene of misogyny. They were running the full
Social Justice Warrior playbook, with calls to boycott the show, etc.
There was literally an entire army of forcibly castrated slave warriors
on the show and they didn't bat an eye at that. Theon Greyjoy was
tortured, mutilated, and had his junk sliced off-- not a peep. But the
moment a female character had a bad night-- off screen, no less-- it was
"Man the battle stations!" because now they've gone too far.
"Yes it's accurate in terms of historical context, but it's still horrifying to see, & doesn't take away the point that she still should have had a choice about her own body," one Twitter user shared. "Very timely given Roe vs Wade & how despite modern medicine, we're still told what to do with our bodies."
"Can't wait to listen to men talk about what a great show House of the Dragon is all week. Meanwhile women are watching an exact mirror of the world we live in with forced birth, no rights,
Oh, FFS. Show me where it's now legal to hold a woman down and cut her
her belly open with a rusty knife, letting her bleed out, while the baby
is ripped from inside her. Show me where that's happened with the
blessing of the law. "An exact mirror" my ass. And "no rights"? I wasn't
aware that the Roe case was also the font from which all women's rights
have flowed. So according to this silly bint, without Roe, all the
rights in the Bill of Rights only apply to men now?
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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