7 Game of Thrones scenes that haven't aged well

Game of Thrones has certainly has some problematic moments without us even getting into the ending. Some scenes just haven’t aged well. Some didn’t seem too bad at first, but as time has passed, we’re seeing more and more issues. Here are seven that stand out as the worst ones for me.

Daenerys being lifted up by the freed slaves in Yunkai

Daenerys Targaryen's journey through Essos was slow, but there were some important moments to show her character development. We had to see her grow in confidence and see how she would lead her people. That led to her freeing the enslaved people in the city of Yunkai.

There is a moment where she’s lifted up by a sea of people. It’s her pale white body up against all these nameless brown people, immediately causing a problem. The White Savior complex is one that needs to be done away with. Other shows are criticizing the white savior trope, and here’s Game of Thrones showcasing it.

Given that Daenerys' story ends in brutality and death, you could argue that this scene actually is a critique of this trope, but it still settles uneasy on the mind.

Daenerys wants to please Khal Drogo

Drogo and Dany’s relationship is actually one of the more toxic ones on the show. Especially at first. Drogo treats Dany the way he would his own people, and he literally rapes her on their wedding night. Yet she’s the one who wants to please him. Maybe at first it’s to ensure that her life is somewhat pleasurable for her, but we get this little girl who falls for an abusive man.

All this does is continue the idea that women are there to be used. There’s the view that women like being used and treated poorly. That’s not the case, and we need less of this in TV.

Sansa’s wedding night with Ramsey

We’ve gotten to another rape scene. It wasn’t surprising to anyone how Sansa’s wedding night went. We knew what Ramsey was considering his treatment of Theon. It’s not that part that’s really the problem, especially since Sansa doesn’t fall madly in love with him. Instead, it’s the way the wedding night was shown.

We don’t see the rape happen onscreen. That’s a good thing. However, instead of cutting away and doing something like Outlander where it’s all behind closed doors, we focus on Theon watching it happen. There’s something icky about watching Theon’s expressions rather than him stepping in to save Sansa.

Sansa’s wasted goth phase

At the end of Game of Thrones season 4, we got to see Sansa take control of her life. Sort of. She dyed her hair, put on a darker-colored dress, and stood up for Littlefinger. However, it was all for show. Sansa allowed herself to be married off to Ramsey Bolton, and we ended up with the storyline of her attempting to escape Winterfell for Castle Black.

This huge moment where it looked like Sansa would take control of her life was all for nothing. Sure, eventually she would become Queen of the North. But many hoped that the end of season 4 was her turning point, and she went back to being the women who everyone could use instead.

Gendry running back to Castle Black

Game of Thrones really had a problem with keeping timelines straight. It took episode after episode, season after season, for Daenerys to get from Essos to Westeros, and then no time at other characters to cross vast distances. Gendry was left rowing for a couple of seasons, but it took him just minutes to run from an unknown location beyond the Wall back to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, little time for Daenerys to receive a raven about the rest of his party stranded in the far north, and little time for her to zip down there and save them. All of this happens in the space of one episode, seriously beggering belief.

We know that Jon and others were supposed to have taken hours, if not days, to get to the point where they ran into the Night King and his Army of the Dead. They thought Gendry could quickly run back to the Wall and get a raven to Daenerys in Dragonstone immediately? None of it made sense, and just shows how badly thought out some of the storylines were. That moment has just become laughable.

Cersei and Jaime’s anticlimactic deaths

When it comes to big characters, we expect climactic endings. There was even a big prophecy about how Cersei would die: at the hands of one of her brothers, the valonqar. So what did Game of Thrones do? Completely botch it.

While Daenerys was attacking King's Landing with her dragon, Jaime tried to get Cersei out of the Red Keep. They ended up in the tunnels with the Red Keep crashing down around them. Later, their brother Tyrion found them crushed in the rubble together. There was no justice or even a connection back to that prophecy. Plus, there's the way this final arc had Jaime unable to break his traumatic bond with Cersei. He should have chosen Brienne.

Jaime raping Cersei next to their dead son

I’ll stick with Jaime and Cersei for this last one. After the death of their son Joffrey, Jaime attempted to reconnect with Cersei. She wasn’t having any of it, grieving for the loss of her son. For all of Cersei’s faults, she loved her children and they were her world.

In the end, Jaime forces herself onto Cersei, raping her by their dead son's body. It was gratuitous and nauseating. It continued this idea that women were only to be used and that women fall for men who abuse them. After all, Cersei's feelings toward Jaime didn't exactly change after that. They remained together!

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