When Game of Thrones Stopped Being Necessary
(believe it or not, no spoilers for yesterday's finale, which I haven't seen) I've been fascinated by the notion that a rape scene should be (or could be) necessary. "Episode six ending was brutal - but was it necessary?" is a common way of framing it; Vanity Fair declared that "Game of Thrones Absolutely Did Not Need to Go There with Sansa Stark," while over at Slate, the argument is made that "this particular scene was necessary," given the grim bargain Sansa Stark had struck.