GoT is actually disgusting, isn't it?

[Miljah]

In what way can it be described as 'entertainment'?

I seriously, don't understand why people happily sit down to watch the carnage, the immolation, the screaming children.

What is wrong with people?

But the politics and the philosophy and the history are the really interesting bits. Nobody watches it for the violence and soft porn-how could you think such a thing.......

Sadly, indeed, Bertrand.

I guess I've been involved in the care of horribly burnt people, so I see it differently.

If you don't like it, don't watch it. GoT didn't invent any of these themes. Have you never heard of the genres of action or horror?

Shakespeare wrote amazing works of literature which featured the themes of death and war, as well as love. You don't have to read them either if you don't like them.

Seems to have gained some cult status, to me it's just a show designed to titillate prepubescent boys. There was another one as well, about Romans I think, just soft porn for teens to wank too.

Yes it’s staggering, the number of teenaged boys on the MN GOT threads.

“Shakespeare wrote amazing works of literature which featured the themes of death and war, as well as love.“
I don’t think it’s the themes anyone’s complaining about. It’s the graphic sexual violence.

Valar - what disturbs me is that I walk among people who think this stuff is OK. Who apparently like many on here, MN, barely register horrific injury, screaming children, because it's entertaining.

Just- what?

Totally agree. I don’t get it at all.

I totally agree - it's vile.

I have OCD and nasty images play on my mind so I don't watch anything violent anyway but I can't understand for the life of me why people want to see people being burnt alive 🤷‍♀️

I couldn’t get past the first series.

YANBU. It’s horrible. We watched one episode as we liked the idea of a long running series with a big story arc: hated it. Complete gratuitous violence and sexual brutality.

I am also SO bloody sick and tired of my fb feed being wall to wall GoT “analysis” and Daenerys obsession (although it’s great that Emilia Clarke has been raising awareness for subarachnoid haemorrhage which can be utterly devastating)

Indeed. People watch this for fun- then hand-wring about our societal desensitisation to violence.

It's insidious, but this is the stuff that contributes.

Well it’s been on ten years so your coming a little late to the party

If we all liked the same thing - tv would be pretty dull. I can’t stand songs of praise tbh but I don’t mind people watching that- each to their own...

Gosh, some of you know a lot about it for people who are revolted by the thought of watching it...

If it's not ok to enjoy a tv programme that depicts human suffering then that's all horror, soaps, action, crime, most drama, even some comedy. The news is out, obviously - who could bear to watch such things? Monsters, probably. You're left with children's tv, basically.

Also, OP do you think you might be overusing the dramatic italics? It's distracting

Oh do piss off. No one makes you watch it.

Miljah it’s complete fantasy and I don’t think people would ever get desensitised about riding a fire breathing dragon if they ever saw one OR an ice zombie?

I rec if they did a film about the bible it would be pretty intense...

You’ll have to take it up with Aristotle OP.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharsis

That’s not to say that all gross horror aspires to the heights of Oedipus Rex: some is just plain exploitative tat, and the sexposition scenes in early GOT were indefensible. But a plot in which people make terrible decisions and we feel the pity and terror of the dreadful consequences on a visceral level is the basis of some of the heights of Western literature.

If we all liked the same thing - tv would be pretty dull. I can’t stand songs of praise tbh but I don’t mind people watching that- each to their own...

and most definitely

Oh do piss off. No one makes you watch it.

unless of course your tv only shows Sky Atlantic, and you are unable to turn it off, and you are forced to sit there and watch it!!

I agree -finally!!! It really upsets me. I tried to watch but by episode three I was like no no no. When live is horrible enough anyway why make your downtime worse by filling it with such images :(

Seems to have gained some cult status, to me it's just a show designed to titillate prepubescent boys. There was another one as well, about Romans I think, just soft porn for teens to wank too.

Well, it apparently has over one billion viewers in over 170 countries, so I assume that not all of them are prepubescent boys.

I watch it and it doesn't make me want to go out and kill or torture anyone.

Which bit do you find most disturbing?

Sophocles went in for keeping the challenging stuff offstage, though. We don’t actually see him penetrate his mother doggy-style, or get a glistening close-up of him skewering his own eyeballs.

There are things I do judge people for watching - I think people who watch Jeremy Kyle are disgusting, and that the people who watched the Madeline McCann documentary - indeed, any 'true crime' programme - are ghouls. The difference is that those things are real and involve the lives of real people.

I meant Oedipus penetrating his mother, obviously!