![]() Sansa was about 17 in season five, when she was brutally raped in another forced marriage. But the outcries over their sexualization on the show are oddly similar. Arya’s arc is in direct contrast to Sansa’s. But the show has also utilized a similar trajectory for Arya’s sister, Sansa, and it suggests that maybe the way we receive different sex scenes on this show has a lot to do with the gender dynamics surrounding different female characters. Granted, Tommen was a minor character fans were far less invested in him than they are in Arya, who has always been a main character and one of Game of Thrones’ most popular. Me: /CVuzawlAfn- Melissa Anelli April 22, 2019 ![]() Internet: We are just squicked by Arya having agency and getting some sex on #GameofThrones because we first met her as a child, this has nothing to do with tired sexist tropes Some were supportive of Arya getting to have sex like any other young adult - especially with the guy many of them had shipped her with for several seasons: The scene provoked complicated responses from viewers who watched her grow up onscreenįans of Game of Thrones had lots of mixed feelings about this development, and many were quick to express those feelings on social media. Viewers, however, were still weirded out. (She even tops.) In this sense, it’s one of Game of Thrones better sex scenes, entirely about her character rather than objectifying her for the viewer. She’s straightforward and direct, and she stays in control the whole time. The scene in which she proposes to have sex with Gendry is true to Arya’s character in this regard: After a few scenes in which she openly flirted with him - by teasing him about his weapon-making ability and sharing banter-laced callbacks with him to their very first interactions in season two - she goes to him, proceeds to disrobe, and informs him that she wants to know what sex is like before they both die (probably soon, sob). But she’s still completely in charge of her own actions. (In the books on which Game of Throne is based, one of her nicknames is Arya Underfoot, a moniker that indicates her tendency to literally slide between the legs of opponents and beneath obstacles that are larger than she is.) Now, as an adult who’s crossed off several names on her list - frequently in horrifically violent and sadistic ways - she seems to have learned to relax a bit and focus on supporting and protecting her family instead of automatically exacting bloody revenge on every enemy she runs across. After that, she channeled her love of swordfighting into a quest for vengeance, famously illustrated by her ritual of falling asleep every night by reciting all the names on her kill list.Īrya has largely been an active player who’s able to fight, defend herself, and outwit much bigger and tougher opponents. We’ve watched her go from being a rambunctious, spoiled tomboy to an outcast, disguised as a boy and struggling to survive, after a series of political events tore her family apart. Because she’s one of the characters we’ve watched literally grow up on Game of Thrones, she’s also one of the characters who’s evolved the most over time. (Maisie Williams, the actor who plays Arya, is currently 22.) For perspective, Daenerys Targaryen was somewhere between 15 and 17 at the start of Game of Thrones’ first season, when she was married off by her brother to Khal Drogo without her consent and raped on her wedding night.īy contrast, Arya’s scene is fully consensual she initiates the encounter and makes it clear to Gendry that she wants to experience sex before she dies, in the classic vein of countless teens facing impending death by apocalypse.Īrya’s sex scene reflected her character in a number of ways. ![]() Though we met Arya when she was still just a small girl - she was canonically 11 in season one - Arya is now 18 years old in the show’s universe. Arya’s sex scene is fully consensual and reflects her character’s proactive, confrontational approach to life Ultimately, however, the reactions seemed to reveal more about the complicated, contradictory ways that viewers have reacted to Game of Thrones’ frequent depiction of sex - as well as a failure to understand how this particular sex scene fits within Arya’s overall character arc. The ensuing conversation canvassed a lot of ground, covering everything from Game of Thrones’ characterization and pacing issues to cultural expectations about the way we sexualize young women. ![]() 8 winners and 4 losers from Game of Thrones’ terrific “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” ![]()
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