Fans of "Game of Thrones" know that even if one is familiar with the riveting storyline adapted from George R.R. Martin's books, one can never be sure what's going to happen next on the HBO show. The series' past five seasons had certain episodes that were shocking, but one episode from season 5 stood out as it was even discussed in Congress -- and it's not the season finale.
The episode titled "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken" caused an uproar as it depicted the rape of Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner). In the episode, Sansa was raped by Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) after she was forced to marry him. While this was not shown on screen, the rape was witnessed by Theon (Alfie Allen), whose reaction to Ramsay's brutality was captured on camera.
The scene, which was not in any of Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" books, had Senator Claire McCaskill speaking out about the show as she tweeted last March that she was "done" with the series.
"Gratuitous rape scene disgusting and unacceptable. It was a rocky ride that just ended," she wrote.
Speaking with reporters at a breakfast meeting at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, director Jeremy Podeswa, who is helming the first two episodes of the upcoming season, pointed out that the criticism was directed at the notion and not the execution of the rape.
"It was handled as sensitively as it could be; you hardly see anything," said the director, according to Vanity Fair.
However, Podeswa said that show creators Dan Weiss and David Benioff "were responsive to the discussion" and that there were a few things that changed on the show as a result.
"The show depicts a brutal world where horrible things happen," said Podeswa. "They did not want to be overly influenced by that [criticism] but they did absorb and take it in and it did influence them in a way."
"Game of Thrones" returns to HBO in April 2016.
