This is one scene that has caused a massive divide among fans of the television show. There are those who claim that it's an acceptable inclusion merely because it's not as brutal as the scene in the book (which actually features a completely different character), there are those who think it's standard plot development and there are those who think that the scene was gratuitous and unnecessary. It'd be possible to argue whether or not the scene was too indulgently shocking for a long, long time, but that's in many ways missing the point. The rape of Sansa Stark was way, way too far for another reason: it was terrible writing. One of the traps that Game Of Thrones is in great danger of repeatedly falling into is the trap of thinking that shock is inherently valuable. In George R.R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire series, shocking twists are built up to over a long period of time. The motivation behind them is clear and the fallout is long lasting. More recently, Game Of Thrones seems to be inserting shocking scenes out of a twisted misunderstanding of what the show is really about. In essence, the scene took whatever character development Sansa had gained and chucked it out the window. The reason? For the redemption of Theon. Make no mistake, the scene had less to do with Sansa than it did with poor old Reek. The camera lingered on his reaction during the entire scene, showing his emotional trauma, and disregarding Sansa's. The writers needed a way of snapping Theon out of it so to speak, and they did that through the sexual abuse of Sansa. If you think that's an incorrect interpretation, then why is there no difference between Sansa before and after the rape? She was miserable before and the very next episode she's miserable again, the brutal rape scene all but forgotten. But Theon has regained some small sliver of humanity. Theon needed redemption, but it was a totally lazy way of achieving it, victimising the brave and slowly growing braver Sansa Stark for the purposes of another character.
