As John Piper pointed out, Christians are called to a much higher standard of sexual purity than is the norm in mainstream culture. That standard includes purity of the mind as well as purity of the body. For all of its technical and narrative excellence, Game of Thrones seems to revel in sinful.
Catholics have completely lost their sense of sin. When it comes to Game of Thrones (and other shows), everyone is deciding what “their take” is on the matter.My first encounter with GOT happened in 2013 (the show first aired in 2011); I saw the first season on DVD at our local Library and I was really interested. I was looking for a new show to watch and I liked the sound of GOT from what I heard.
That night I popped in the disk and watched about an hours worth. A nude scene came up and I skipped ahead, hoping it wouldn’t happen again. Another nude scene and I skipped ahead again, giving it one more time before I just about threw the remote at the screen and turned off the blasted thing.
It didn’t take long before I switched to something else and returned the season to the Library; pretty annoyed by the fact, but more so because of all the “good things” I kept hearing about it beforehand.
This year someone I know very well began the series and was so scandalized by it that he threw the entire series in the garbage… this person watched pretty much anything. The fact that this person actually took the time to talk to us about his shock, let alone the fact that he threw the series away, was pretty much unheard of.
Why am I complaining about Game of Thrones? Hasn’t it been, like, seven years since it came out? What’s the big deal?
The “big deal” is that right now I have had it up to my eyeballs with Catholics and their “personal take” on GOT. And the fact that I cannot find one good, solid, Catholic article decrying this and smashing the film for its debauchery makes me so mad.
Some Catholics may say, “Oh come on, GOT is just like any other show out there.”
Sure. Maybe. But that isn’t the point; the point is that so many CATHOLICS are just as obsessed with watching it as anyone else. The fact that this show is known in the secular world for its nudity, graphic sex scenes, incest and pretty much every other mortal sin you can think of, to put it mildly.
An article published on July 13, 2017, reported over 71 number of nude and/or sex scenes in the show thus far. There are 9 instances of incest known in the Game of Thrones Wiki. Express states “no stone unturned” in the medieval fantasy drama when it comes to sex: “It’s safe to say that the HBO series has featured some of the raciest moments on television to date, from incest to lesbian and gay couplings to orgies” This was in 2016, GOT’s final episode aired May 19th, 2019. The article continues, “Given the high levels of sex and nudity, the programme makers had to initially hire porn stars because they couldn’t find actors willing to perform the daring scenes.”
Astonishingly, according to HBO (in 2017), “‘Dragonstone’ beat last year’s season 6 finale (which had 8.89 million viewers) for the title of most watched Game of Thrones episode in the series’s history. That number also doesn’t factor in streaming views, which added another 6 million views to Thrones’ total last night.”
Do I really need to embellish this further? I believe the numbers speak for themselves.
Yet, we have Catholics asking if they can possibly watch the show, and here’s the kicker, no one is telling them that it’s a bad idea. In fact, I have yet to come across one good Catholic article that warns fellow Catholics about the serious dangers of this film.
If we told someone “NO”, would that persuade them to avoid watching it? Probably not, who knows. Would telling someone that something is mortally sinful (aka, damnable), as an act of charity for the sake of their souls get them to avoid watching it? Maybe, maybe not. But this is hardly the point. The point is that one of the most basic CATHOLIC duty is to instruct the ignorant, admonish the sinner, tell someone when something is wrong with charity. If the person doesn’t listen, that is on their conscience; we certainly hope they take the good advice, but our role is to instruct. It isn’t our role to harass, it isn’t our role to pander and pussyfoot around the issue.
(These are actual comments from Catholics) Chrome print all tabs.
“I’ll leave for others to determine for themselves. ”
“Oh, some are just more mature and can handle it.”
“If one is matured enough to get over those scenes, it is probably just another entertainment. The bigger downside is the addiction to it where it can take away the time used for God and prayers.”
“In my opinion, if you’re a well-formed adult who is able to differentiate between entertainment and reality.”
” I can say that if there is pornography in GoT, which I think there isn’t, but whatever it offers, the scenes do not affect me or anything bad about it. As far as that is concerned I am a mature viewer. ”
“It’s the addiction where you have to see all the episodes which is the concern, not so much the porn stuff or the violent element if you are a matured viewer. ”
Is this way of thinking even Catholic? Let’s see, what is the general takeaway here?
“If you are a matured enough adult who only views lesbian sex, gay sex, incest, rough sex, and orgies as entertainment, then it’s totally fine to watch.”
My mind is reeling with this stupidity and utter depravity of Catholics today. These emasculated takeaways from what the Church teaches about true purity, modesty, and overall SIN is just demonic, to be honest.
It takes only a few moments to find what Church has to say about impurity and the damning seriousness it has:
The Baltimore Catechism Volume III Part 43 states, “The Sixth Commandment forbids all unchaste freedom with another’s wife or husband; also all immodesty with ourselves or others in looks, dress, words, and actions.
Sins of impurity are the most dangerous
(1) Because they have the most numerous temptations;
(2) because, if deliberate, they are always mortal, and
(3) because, more than other sins, they lead to the loss of faith.
The Sixth Commandment does forbid the reading of bad and immodest books and newspapers. Immodest books and newspapers should be destroyed as soon as possible, and if we cannot destroy them ourselves we should induce their owners to do so.
The Church considers bad all books containing teaching contrary to faith or morals, or that willfully misrepresent Catholic doctrine and practice.
Indecent theaters and similar places of amusement are dangerous to the virtue of purity because their entertainments are frequently intended to suggest immodest things.”
Let’s put a perspective on what “AVOIDING SIN” means in simple terms. According to the Catholic Dictionary, the term, AVOIDING SIN is defined as: “The moral responsibility of not exposing oneself unnecessarily to occasions of sin. Three principles are standard in Catholic moral teaching:
1. no one is obliged to avoid remote occasions of sin. This is true because the danger of sin is slight and otherwise it would be impossible to live in the world;
2. everyone is obliged to avoid voluntary proximate occasions of sin, where “voluntary” means that it can easily be removed or avoided;
3. anyone in a necessary proximate occasion of sin is obliged to make the occasion remote. An occasion is necessary when the person’s state of life or profession or circumstances make it morally impossible to avoid exposure to certain enticements. What is a proximate danger to sinning can be rendered remote by such means as prayer, the sacraments, and custody of the senses, especially of the eyes.”
Pope Pius XI clearly exhorted the Clergy to take seriously the film industry and its potential to ruin souls, and to NOT BE WEARY when fighting such evil, in his Encyclical, Vigilante Cura promulgated on June 29, 1936. Can you imagine what he would think of most shows on Netflix today?
Game Of Thrones Influences
St. Alphonsus Liguori, a Doctor of the Church had some strong words to say about this same subject:
“The unchaste, then, say that sins contrary to purity are but a small evil. Like ”the sow wallowing in the mire” (” Sus lota in volutabro luti – 2 Pet. ii. 22), they are immersed in their own filth, so that they do not see the malice of their actions; and therefore they neither feel nor abhor the stench of their impurities, which excite disgust and horror in all others. Can you, who say that the vice of impurity is but a small evil can you, I ask, deny that it is a mortal sin?
To obtain salvation we must tremble at the thought of being lost, and tremble not so much at the thought of hell, as of sin, which alone can send us thither. He who dreads sin avoids dangerous occasions, frequently recommends himself to God, and has recourse to the means of keeping himself in the state of grace. He who acts thus will be saved, but for him who lives not in this manner, it is morally impossible to be saved. ”
The SACRED CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH: PERSONA HUMANA: DECLARATION ON CERTAIN QUESTIONS CONCERNING SEXUAL ETHICS states that, “In moral matters, man cannot make value judgments according to his personal whim.'”
I think we can all take this statement to heart, including myself.
Saint Paul calls us to, “be of one mind, having the same charity, being of one accord, agreeing in sentiment.” (Philippians 2:2). The Catholic Church is not a democracy where we are all allowed to pick and choose what we think and feel is sinful or not. It is a Hierarchy with Christ as the King.
With the kind of watered down perspective most Catholics have on impurity and sin, it makes one wonder how, LOGICALLY, it fits with the same narrative as the Saints and Fathers & Doctors of the Church.
Is it, or it is not something serious? And, if it is (which is what the Church and the Saints say), then why the emasculated views on the impurity in films!? Logically, the two “views” do not come together, and we need to choose the correct side if we want to call ourselves Catholic.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FranchiseOriginalSin/GameOfThrones
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Some of the later seasons of Game of Thrones can be a bit divisive — but their most criticized aspects can often be traced back to the earliest episodes, which got most fans hooked in the first place.
- Three scenes from the show's later seasons got considerable criticism for their use of Gratuitous Rape, which many viewers found to be in poor taste. First there was the scene in Season 4 where Jaime forcefully has sex with Cersei right next to Joffrey's corpse, with the creators being inconsistent on whether it was rape (even though the scene was fully consensual in the book). Then Season 5 had Sansa's brutalization at the hands of Ramsay Snow (which happened to a completely different character in the book), and Gilly's Attempted Rape by the Night's Watch (which wasn't in the books at all). But signs of this trend could be seen as early as the first episode, where Khal Drogo outright rapes Daenerys on her wedding night, even though the book's version of that scene had him simply arousing her until she consented (albeit with Questionable Consent due to her age and the underlying circumstances). This scene also got some criticism at the time, but it was quickly forgiven due to being a relatively minor change compared to the later ones because it was used to show the character development of Daenerys from a weak little girl to a strong leader. Many of the later seasons lack any reason for it beyond simply being 'dark and edgy'.
- The series has always teetered on the brink of Torture Porn, with frequent depictions of brutal executions and punishments that sometimes push the boundaries of good taste. Even Season 1 raised a few eyebrows with an extended scene where a would-be assassin is punished for an attempt on Daenerys' life by being stripped naked and forced to march behind her rider column until collapsing from exhaustion. But many critics thought the show really crossed the line with the treatment of Ros the prostitute (who's brutally killed offscreen by Joffrey and gets a gratuitous camera pan up her naked corpse) and Theon Greyjoy (who's brutally tortured and castrated by Ramsay Snow over the course of multiple episodes). Not only were those later scenes extra unpleasant to watch (even by Game of Thrones standards), they were also conceived entirely for the show; Ros' death didn't happen at all in the books (since Ros was a Canon Foreigner), and most of Theon's torture was just implied—while the show depicted it in stomach-churning detail.
- The tendency for the show to take a subplot given to a female character in the books and either cut it or reduce its importance in favor of some of the other, male characters, often by killing her off or putting her in a Damsel in Distress situation. While the shift of focus from Catelyn Stark to her son Robb in the first few seasons was more understandable due to the shift from the POV format of the books and she was still given plenty to do, later seasons saw the removal or altering of several important subplots such as the almost complete removal of Selyse Baratheon, eventually resulting in her death by her own hand in Season 5, killing off Talisa Stark in the Red Wedding in Season 3 while her book counterpart survives, the complete removal of Lady Stoneheart, with the Brotherhood Without Banners still under Lord Beric Dondarrion and the responsibility of the BWB as the resisting force in the Riverlands removed. This extended to gratuitously killing off the Canon ForeignerRos at the hands of Joffrey, solely to establish how evil Littlefinger is and have him voice one of his pompous monologues, and as mentioned above, shifting Sansa Stark's story arc from becoming Littlefinger's Bastard Understudy to that of her friend Jeyne Poole from the books, which results in the above mentioned rape by Ramsay Snow.
- Though the first season set the tone in regards to character mortality, with the death of Ned, character deaths seemed to go up rapidly after the show gained a reputation for them, and even more so after the showrunners ran out of published material and started to make their own (in Season 6). Nowadays, major characters dieOnce an Episode, with many coming Back for the Dead, leading up to accusations of Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy.
- It's become something of a running joke that the show includes so much tragedy and human cruelty that even its biggest fans sometimes find it hard to watch. The thing is, though, it was generally easier to tolerate in the earlier seasons because the writers at least played fair and allowed the tragic storylines and depraved characters to develop organically — so it never felt like they were just tormenting the audience for the sake of it. The infamous 'Red Wedding' is a good example: sure, it was tough to see the Starks betrayed and massacred, but it still felt like a fitting climax because it made sense; Robb's Honor Before Reason mentality had long been established as one of his defining traits, and it was well-established that the Lannisters had a talent for buying loyalty. Even Joffrey's sadism (as over-the-top as it could be) wasn't that unbelievable, since it was made clear that Tywin and Tyrion were the ones really running the show. But compare all of that to the later seasons, when the Boltons become the unchallenged rulers of the North, even though it was never made clear how they were strong enough to command that much influence. Where Joffrey was a chilling portrait of a budding sociopath enabled by his powerful family, Ramsay Bolton is practically an outright serial killer, making it a bit less believable that he could handle ruling an entire kingdom by himself.
- Season 7 was much criticized for being inconsistent about the size of Westeros and frequently distorting travel times for the sake of drama. The climax of 'Beyond the Wall' is often cited as the moment that finally killed Willing Suspension of Disbelief; in order for Daenerys' climactic Big Damn Heroes moment to happen, Gendry is forced to send a message for help across the span of an entire continent, and Daenerys is forced to fly back across the span of the same continent after receiving his message—all in the span of maybe 24 hours. As fans have noted, this was a problem in earlier seasons too. Most notably, Littlefinger regularly popped up all over the Seven Kingdoms whenever the plot required it, even traveling through warzones with surprising ease. Most people were willing to overlook that, though, since it led to plenty of compelling moments of character interaction, and wasn't usually a case of breaking the plot to save the main characters from certain death. It strained credulity a bit more when the Sand Snakes seemingly teleported from the docks of Sunspear to the harbour of King's Landing, and when Varys somehow managed to travel from Sunspear to Meereen (crossing an entire ocean) just for the sake of a single dramatic moment in the finale.
- Starting in Season 5 when the show began to overtake the books, they started killing off many characters who weren't yet dead in the books. They got some confirmations via Word of God (most notably Shireen Baratheon) but some like Ser Barristan, Osha, Rickon Stark, Myrcella, and Doran were considered a bit anticlimactic or done just for the sake of it. This actually happened back in Season 3 with Talisa Stark - who is killed in the Red Wedding - when her book counterpart Jeyne Westerling survives. This one worked because the character disappeared from the narrative afterwards in the books anyway, and in the show the character wasn't too well liked. Not to mention that the death more than delivered in the Tear Jerker department.
- The more lenient critics of Season 7-8 note that many of its controversial moments (the White Walkers being abruptly dealt with, Jamie returning to Cersei in spite of his Character Development, Daenerys' Face–Heel Turn, etc.) actually fit the series being a Genre Deconstruction, subverting audience expectations. The difference was then it had the intricate writing to make those developments come of as logical, realistic outcomes that the characters made, while here it came off as contrived (discarding previous characterization) in order to force the outcome the writers wanted. The reason instances like Ned Stark's death or the Red Wedding were unexpected was that it didn't seem likely that the series would kill off main characters in such a fashion, even though it made perfect sense in-universe and served a narrative payoff as the consequences for their actions. On the other hand, most of the plot twists in the seventh and eighth season were unexpected because they were laughably implausible, inconsistent, or had no narrative force behind them. An example of the twists of this is Battle of the Bastards in season 6 and the Battle for Winterfell in season 8, where ultimately the Big Bad of the battle is not beaten by Jon Snow as viewers expected but by someone else. In the case of the former, however, it was Sansa getting her revenge on Ramsay in a satisfying conclusion after all the hardships he did to her, and she killed him in a manner that made sense for the setup and her character (and while Jon didn't kill Ramsay, he did get to defeat him). The latter, however, has Arya killing the Night King on very flimsy foreshadowing and in a fairly absurd fashion, despite Jon and the Night King being set up as almost rivals since Season 5, alongside it being one of the main motivations of Jon for years of his life, while Arya had pretty much nothing connecting her to the Night King aside from her being good at killing things and him needing to be killed.
- The series always seemed to have trouble with the supernatural elements in the books, which led to a lot of magical elements being Adapted Out: Euron being a warlock, the Horn of Winter, Lady Stoneheart, etc. These omissions were forgiven by most fans at the time, since they were fairly minor elements that could be safely squirreled to the side or justified in different ways, and some of the magical elements that did make it in at least fell into Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane. However, it became a major problem in the eighth season, when the major supernatural elements that the show did keep (the White Walkers, the Lord of Light, and the Three-Eyed Raven) ended up amounting to almost nothing. Bran's Story-Breaker Power just results in him telling Jon Snow something that never really affects the plot, the White Walkers turn out to be a massive Anti-Climax Boss, and the Lord of Light has no resolution whatsoever. Even the dragons—supposedly intelligent, willful, and powerful—end up being little more than attack dogs until Drogon's rather abrupt show of intelligence results in him sparing Jon's life and melting the Iron Throne. The show's clumsy handling of those concepts just became harder to ignore in the final episodes when they were forced into the spotlight, and suddenly the story hinged on the writers having to deliver on them.
- Much has been made of the Character Derailment of Daenerys Targaryen in the last episodes of season 8, having her burn down the city of her enemies including women and children after they'd already surrendered. Many seeing this as a complete nonsensical end to her character arc and some even going as far as to say it was a character assassination. It is speculated that her razing King's Landing to the ground was one of three major moments George R.R. Martin had told the about in advance and they weren't able to pull it off.