Game of Thrones Makes Its Audience Complicit
Last night's Game of Thrones was a masterpiece, it really was. (SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT.) It worked even more perfectly than I guessed it would have, having read the books and known what was coming. I'm going to leave the in-depth recapping aside---Scott does a great job of it here at Raw Story---and just talk briefly about how the final scene played out. The audience at home is made to endure Joffrey's ugly and mean-spirited play where a bunch of little people do a comical re-enactment of the War of the Five Kings. Joffrey and his supporters chortle horribly at the deaths of their enemies for many long minutes, many more minutes than you would ever have to endure in most TV shows. After awhile, you start to squirm and actually feel the discomfort of Tyrion, Sansa, and the Tyrells at this unseemly display of pleasure in the deaths of you enemies. You can't wait for it to end. It's really terrible, all this gloating over death.