The Sword and Laser discussion

The women have body hair? I hadn't noticed, I think I should go back and review all the sex scenes to look for that.

Seriously though, I don't think the nudity/sex/violence is overly extreme as it fits with the context of the story. But I *do* think it's getting a bit predictable.

I'm at the point now where I watch an episode and just say to myself, "OK, who's going to die at the end of THIS episode?"

I am a heterosexual male and even I sometimes find myself saying, "again with the t, a, and p? Also, where's the love for the ladies? Lots for me to see, not so much for my wife.

The violence, on the other hand, doesn't bother me. It's mideivil/rennaisance times - lots of violence if you're a king/queen.

The whole show is gratuitous. Knowing that, we can evaluate for what it is: entertaining.

Neil wrote: "Answer to original question... no."

Agreed.

Alex wrote: "I think they did it just right, especially considering the tone of the books.

I'm tired of implied violence. I want to see someone actually get their head cleaved in twain, someone's tongue forcib..."

Happy with last week's episode, I presume?

Andrew wrote: "Here is an interesting discussion of the HBO series on io9 Is Game of Thrones Gratuitous Violence Worse Than the Gratuitous Violence?

I have to say that I do feel like the violence is a bit much, ..."

Hollywood tends to dull a good satire, but I think Kickass' ridiculous violence serves as a great satire of both comic books in general and America as a whole.

Your point about the mideivil world being run by men being the reason for the female nudity is nonsense. In most of the sex scenes there's no reason not to see more male nudity - the camera is not a mideivil camera. It can be anywhere in the frame. It tends to be in a male gaze area.

After coming across this thread and already replying, I did find this article that also addresses a lot of your question: http://blogs.indiewire.com/bent/game-...

I'm a little conflicted here, because I have always been someone who is all for shocking violence, but here is my issue with the way Game of Thrones (the show) has progressed, both in terms of violence and nudity. Violence first; it might just be me, but I have come to the conclusion that we, as a society, are too focused on visceral carnage. Let me explain; in The Viper and the Mountain, the head explosion was obviously memorable, but my cringe moment was when the SOUND of Clegane's gauntlet smashed into Oberyn's head, followed by the soft "skittering" of shattered teeth. Ive seen some comments saying that implied violence is a thing of the past, and I completely disagree. Seriously, it is no wonder that maybe the most disturbing part of that episode might be the otherworldly shriek of grief let out by Oberyn's paramour (I want to say, Ellaria Sand?).

On the nudity, Ill keep it short. Compare this to Deadwood. Both are meant to provide the viewer with a seedy atmosphere. Deadwood has nudity, blowjobs, rapes, sex, everything on Martin's Christmas list (bad joke), so why does the nudity not take away from Deadwood? Because it is real. If you think Littlefinger's brothel looked like a set from Dormdaze, you're mistaken. Every other episode has a little, fifteen-thirty second pure-sex scene that people will come out and be like "oh, but he made a good speech." Consistently Deadwood would end with Al Swearengen vomiting forth shakespearian prose while simultaneously receiving some very ugly oral sex. Ugh, it kills me how shameless it is sometimes.