Helen Sloan/HBO Game of Throneshad many a controversial scene as it neared the end of its eight-season run, and one such scene was the (second) wedding night ofSophie Turner's Sansa Stark. Reflecting on the scene in which her character was sexually assaulted by her husband during a lengthy interview withFlaunt, Turner said she still believes the show was "actually doing a lot of justice to women." "I did feel — and still do — thatGame of Thronesshone 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," Turner told the outlet. She continued, "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 sexually assaulted — I don't think there's one woman I know who hasn't had a form of that." Turner said that when she says this to men now, many still don't believe her. "And that's because we don't [talk about] it enough — we shy away from it," she added. "I think ifGame of Thronescame out today, we'd definitely put some trigger warnings on there. But I'm really proud to have been a part ofGame of Throneswhere they didn't shy away from showing atrocities that happened to women back then. I feel proud to have been part of the conversation." The eldest Stark daughter, who had been through countless trauma since leaving her home in the North in season 1, seemingly reached the pinnacle ofher torment in the show's fifth season, in which she was brutally attacked and humiliated on her wedding night by her sadistic new husband Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon). The season finale, titled "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken," saw the character lose her virginity to rape at the hands of the psychotic son of her mother's killer, while her former childhood friend Theon was forced to watch. At the time, the brutal scene was met with immense backlash, especially since the scene isn't a scenario in theA Song of Ice and Firenovels, which the series is based on. In George R.R. Martin'sA Dance With Dragons, Ramsay's bride is played by a different character who is not in the show, and he forces Theon to sexually interact with his bride. Even with its deviation from the torture in the novel, the scene resulted in outraged worldwide headlines andeven a U.S. senatorswearing off the show. Entertainment Weeklyspoke with producer Bryan Cogman, who also wrote the episode, after the episode aired, who explained what was behind the decision to introduce the line for Turner's character. "This isGame of Thrones," he said soberly. "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." The producer-writer shared further thoughts inthe season's DVD commentary, where he seemed to want to set the record straight. Cogman explained, "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." Sign up forEntertainment Weekly's free daily newsletterto get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more. A reaction among some fans was that Sansa should have tried to kill Ramsay in the scene. "Yes, it would have been hugely satisfying [for Sansa] to have a shiv up her sleeve and gut Ramsay, but that's not Sansa," Cogman asserted. "She goes [into the marriage] without the right information about Ramsay, she gets the sense that he's dangerous, and when he turns out to be even worse than she thought, she's not broken by the attack, she immediately sets to getting the hell out of there and planning her next move." Turnerechoed her recent sentimentsduring an appearance at San Diego Comic-Con in 2015, telling fans, "The one thing that Sansa still is, despite what happened to her, is strong. She's not to blame for that. I don't know why the camera was focused on Theon — because I was giving a great performance!" "Sansa, yes, has gone through a lot, but she's developed some skills from Cersei and Margaery and others, and she's still just as strong," she added. "What she's been doing this whole series has been just getting by without doing anything totally radical because she could die — with the Boltons, that's a big risk to take. She thought it through, and she could have fought back [in the wedding night scene]. But she didn't. She does her scheming in her mind rather than outwardly." As fans know, Sansa's journey ended withRamsey dead, Winterfell finally securing its independence from the Seven Kingdoms, and her ultimatelybeing crowned the Queen in the North. Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly
