Three days after the premiere of Game of Thrones on HBO, and I am still in visual awe of the hour feast of the world George R. R. Martin has created.
But with that said, there are also millions of pages devoted online to anything Game of Thrones related. And that is why I am here because I found another review, except it was something that brought me up short, with a dropped jaw; I had to read it twice to make sure I was reading correctly.
Apparently not only is Game of Thrones a sex-filled orgy to bring women to the series, but now it is also a racist series. Sigh.
Simply put the author from the article I read, felt that the way the Dothraki were portrayed was a bit racist, the whole “brown skinned people are savages” idea. Now she states she was not the only one to feel this way and points to three other people within her article.
"The Dothraki are dark, with long hair they wear in dreadlocks or in matted braids. They sport very little clothing, bedeck themselves in blue paint, and, as depicted in the premiere episode, their weddings are riotous affairs full of thumping drums, ululations, orgiastic public sex, passionate throat-slitting, and fly-ridden baskets full of delicious, bloody animal hearts. A man in a turban presents the new khaleesi with an inlaid box full of hissing snakes. After their nuptials, the immense Khal Drogo takes Daenerys to a seaside cliff at twilight and then, against her muted pleas, takes her doggie-style.
They are, in short, barbarians of the most stereotypical, un-PC sort. As I watched, I kept thinking, "Are they still allowed to do that?"'
Now when I read the book, the people playing the Dothraki are exactly how I saw them in my mind, but never once did I think “oh wait these people are brown-skinned, and they are portrayed wrong”.
The thing is, when I sat down and watched the premiere episode (twice, back to back) not once did the scenes with the Dothraki come off as generic “savages” or typecast ones, and yet others are now taking my enjoyment away.
When listening to the audio book, I got that they were barbarians, with their own customs, their own language, and their own way of doing things, that is how the small scene came off as well. While there were some changes slightly from the book (Daenerys being taken doggie style forcefully versus being coaxed by Drogo as stated above) I did not blink or think “wait little blonde girl is being savaged by the big dark man.”
When a book is written and it is understandably fiction, the writer is writing from their own experiences, and stays as true to those experiences in the written form. With Game of Thrones, not only is the word awesome, but the author went a step further and took from many cultures to create his masterpiece. So why when it is on the screen some people are taking offense? Especially as the person who wrote the article read the book?
I do not need Mr. Martin to write a brown-skinned character just to appease said brown-skinned folk. That is not his job. His job is to tell a story in a world he created. It. Is. His. World, and he has allowed us entry into said world. The people who have written the screenplay are attempting stay true to his word, and the first episode in they have done a brilliant job.
And the funny thing is, as the story progresses, is that the true savage is not the Dothraki, but the so called “fair-haired” folk, who will smile and then push you off a balcony, because that it is how they roll.
For this examiner, the people in the story all have a part to play, and with listening to book two in this series, A Clash of Kings, please note that most of the people of Westeros are way more savage who are wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Read full article here.
What do you think? Do you feel that the Dothraki are portrayed in a racist way? Let us know in the comments below.
Game of Thrones airs on Sundays at 9pme/p on HBO.
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