Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner defends Sansa Stark’s controversial wedding scenario, details explored

Game of Thrones is known for being brutally honest when it comes to what might happen to the show's characters given the chaos they live in. The show focuses on the seven kingdoms of Westeros fighting each other to determine who will sit on the Iron Throne.

Violence is a constant theme in the show, and it's not limited to the battlefield. Game of Thrones shows us how innocent women (and men) become victims of violence simply because some abusive people decided to walk on a twisted path. Sansa Stark, a Lady of House Stark, was made to go through immense humiliation, pain, and suffering from the beginning of the show. All that culminated in her getting se*ually assaulted by her husband, Ramsey, on her wedding night, while Theon was forced to watch, in season five.

Back when the episode, Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken, aired in 2015, it was met with quite the backlash because it showed a character getting se*ually assaulted. Sophie Turner has now defended her character, Sansa's wedding night scene, in an interview with Flaunt.

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Sophie Turner on Sansa Stark's horrific wedding night scene in Game of Thrones

An opinion that was very popular when Game of Thrones aired was that the show was extremely explicit in its se*ual content. The show did have quite a lot of nudity and se*ual content, but they were all central to the story. Sansa Stark getting se*ually assaulted on her wedding night was one of the scenes that was considered highly controversial at the time because it showed a character in such a horrific situation. Sophie Turner, in an interview with Flaunt, defended the scene, saying,

"I did feel — and still do — that Game of Thrones shone a light on things that many people were like 'Oh god, you can't show that kind of thing' — and I understand it can be triggering — I totally understand that point of view,"

She also added that what many thought was unnecessary or something that did not need to be shown explicitly was actually a common experience many women have had. By talking about it, the show acknowledged the pain and assault many women face in similar situations.

She said,

"But I did feel we were actually doing a lot of justice to women and the fight women have had to fight for hundreds of thousands of years — the patriarchy, being treated as objects and being constantly se*ually assaulted — I don't think there's one woman I know who hasn't had a form of that."

"And that's because we don't [talk about] it enough — we shy away from it,"

She continued,

"I think if Game of Thrones came out today, we'd definitely put some trigger warnings on there. But I'm really proud to have been a part of Game of Thrones where they didn't shy away from showing atrocities that happened to women back then. I feel proud to have been part of the conversation."

As Turner said, Game of Thrones definitely did not shy away from addressing how the times the show is set in were not the best for women. We see countless examples of women being mistreated, including Daenerys, Sansa, Missandei, and Cersei.

Se*ual abuse, while heavily addressed now, wasn't as much in the world of the show or back in 2015. Hence, a scene like that meant more than just a bad experience. It depicted the pain of many women who have gone through a similar experience.

When Entertainment Weekly had spoken to Bryan Cogman, who wrote Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken, back in 2015, after the episode aired, Cogman had said,

"This is Game of Thrones,"

He continued,

"This isn't a timid little girl walking into a wedding night with Joffrey. This is a hardened woman making a choice and she sees this as the way to get back her homeland. Sansa has a wedding night in the sense she never thought she would with one of the monsters of the show. It's pretty intense and awful and the character will have to deal with it."

In the books, Sansa wasn't the one who went through the ordeal. In the books, a different character married Ramsey, and he forcefully made Theon engage with his new wife se*ually. But the scene was changed for the show. Cogman explained the reason, saying,

"When we decided we were going to [combine Sansa's storyline with another character in the books] we were faced with the question: If she's marrying Ramsay, what would happen on her wedding night? And we made the decision to not shy away from what would realistically would happen on that wedding night with these two characters, and the reality of the situation, and the reality of this particular world."

While a scene showing se*ual abuse can be extremely triggering, sometimes it's necessary to be shown to convey a character's pain and the pain of many others who have gone through similar incidents. While Turner understands how it might trigger many viewers, she is also proud of the message the scene had.

Game of Thrones is streaming on HBO Max.

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