S3E03 - "Walk of Punishment"

[Gilberto]

Walk of Punishment: Sean, Andrew and Gary dissect the latest Game of Thrones episode. The brutality of war and the questionable ethics of the nobility that starts wars is a big focus of the discussion, but it quickly degenerates into an awkward examination of how prominently the threat of rape factors into this episode and the show in general.

Walk of Punishment

[lynn]

You missed the most important part of the episode; what exactly did Podrick do to those whores that made them refuse to pay him? That one whore could totally put her vagina in the air! She must have seen everything!
The thing about rape is that it raises the important issue of war; it's the little people who weren't involved anyway who suffer the most. All these great men fighting over power and a throne, and it's the innocents at home who get raped and killed when the army comes through.

[Gilberto]

Well, I thought there was an intrigue involved, but Andrew and Gary seemed to think it was more likely Tyrion arranged that to make the boy feel good about himself.

I think we spent a good deal of time addressing how the show borders on trivializing rape while trying to portray the horror of it at the same time. There's a fine line where they're trying to be realistic on the one side, but they tend to use it to be titillating or salacious on the other, which trivializes it.

Having said that, I admit that ending the show with a five minute comedy bit about war rape may have damaged our credibility in making that point.

[Glip]

Well, episode 4 was less about the rape and way way way more about the killing.

I like what you guys are doing so far! Looking forward to this week's podcast, you can almost fill an entire hour talking about those last ten minutes!

[Gilberto]

You almost do. Every episode of this show gets longer. It's funny how we can spend an hour and a half talking about an hour long show.