10 Controversies That Rocked Game Of Thrones
4. The Jaime/Cersei Sex Scene... Next To Their Son's Corpse
When Joffrey finally got his comeuppance at the Purple Wedding, fans were elated. The cold-hearted fiend had it coming after all.
What fans didn't expect was for Jaime and Cersei to have sex in the death chamber next to their son's corpse. And fans of the novels certainly didn't expect that it would be played off as a non-consensual sexual encounter. In short, Jaime forces himself on her.
This depiction of rape left some fans very upset, even if it is a fictional work set in a violent, bloody fantasy world.
Why the difference? George R.R. Martin addressed it with EW, saying a big reason was that the characters were in different places when the scene takes place in the novel than they are in the show. In the book, Jaime is not present for Joffrey's death and returns shortly after; in the show, he has been back for weeks. He went on to state that "The scene was always intended to be disturbing… but I do regret if it has disturbed people for the wrong reasons."