'Game of Thrones' Creator George R.R. Martin Reacts to Shocking Episode
"We never discussed this scene," he said of Sunday's twist.
April 22, 2014 — -- WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Two days later, fans are still reacting to Sunday's shocking episode of "Game of Thrones."
Cersei, played by Lena Headey, is mourning her son, King Joffrey (who died in the previous week's episode), when Jaime, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, walks into the room.
The two characters are brother and sister and by the end of the scene, Jaime ends up raping Cersei next to Joffrey's poisoned corpse.
Now, most of the time viewers who also read the books are immune to spoilers, but not this time. "GoT" creator George R. R. Martin’s original work was written where the sex was always consensual between Jaime and Cersei.
READ: 'Game of Thrones' Director Opens Up About Controversial Sex Scene
Martin himself took to his blog Monday to address the added violence to his story line.
"Since a lot of people have been emailing me about this ... I will reply," he wrote. "I think the "butterfly effect" that I have spoken of so often was at work here. In the novels, Jaime is not present at Joffrey's death, and indeed, Cersei has been fearful that he is dead himself, that she has lost both the son and the father/ lover/ brother. And then suddenly Jaime is there before her. Maimed and changed, but Jaime nonetheless. Though the time and place is wildly inappropriate and Cersei is fearful of discovery, she is as hungry for him as he is for her."
He continued, "The whole dynamic is different in the show, where Jaime has been back for weeks at the least, maybe longer, and he and Cersei have been in each other's company on numerous occasions, often quarreling. The setting is the same, but neither character is in the same place as in the books, which may be why Dan & David played the sept out differently. But that's just my surmise; we never discussed this scene, to the best of my recollection."
He also gave some insight into why the show altered what happened in the books.
"If the show had retained some of Cersei's dialogue from the books, it might have left a somewhat different impression -- but that dialogue was very much shaped by the circumstances of the books, delivered by a woman who is seeing her lover again for the first time after a long while apart during which she feared he was dead. I am not sure it would have worked with the new timeline," he wrote.
"That's really all I can say on this issue. The scene was always intended to be disturbing... but I do regret if it has disturbed people for the wrong reasons."
