Spoiler alert! The next incorporates particulars from “Home of the Dragon” Season 1, Episode 6, which aired Sept. 25.
It have to be Westeros if girls are struggling.
Over the course of its eight seasons, HBO’s “Sport of Thrones” got here below fireplace for its portrayal of sexual violence. Even because it wrapped up with record-breaking scores and hype, it by no means actually did its feminine characters justice.
The brand new spinoff “Home of the Dragon,” which premiered on HBO in August, promised one thing completely different. The collection, based mostly on creator George R.R. Martin’s “Hearth and Blood,” is primarily about two girls, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock in early episodes, changed by Emma D’Arcy after a time soar in Sunday’s episode) and Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey, and now Olivia Cooke).
But from that very first episode, “Dragon” slid into the dangerous habits of its predecessor, swapping a predilection for sexual violence and rape with one for traumatic births. Within the first six episodes, three gratuitous beginning scenes included two that ended within the dying of each mom and child. It is clear from the way in which these scenes have been filmed, and what the creators have stated about them, that their intentions have been good. However the scenes got here off not as revolutionary or revelatory, however as clichéd, exploitative and in poor style.
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The primary beginning, within the collection premiere, was a ugly and violent C-section, intercut with a jousting sequence, that resulted within the dying of mom Aemma (Sian Brooke) and youngster. The second, in Sunday’s episode, a standard beginning was adopted by a grueling stroll for the instantly postpartum Rhaenyra (D’Arcy), bleeding and leaking all the way in which. Within the third (additionally Sunday), a stalled beginning for Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), ends in Laena committing suicide by telling a dragon to burn her alive, nonetheless carrying her unborn youngster.
Director Miguel Sapochnik, who labored on the unique “Thrones,” has spoken at size concerning the collection’ need to point out these births. “Every beginning on this present has a theme, simply because the battles I’ve filmed previously have a central idea,” he instructed the Los Angeles Instances in August. “The hope and intention of the present … is to shine a light-weight on how the expertise of women and men on this world has parallels to our personal previous and current.” Sapochnik additionally instructed the Instances midwives have been consulted earlier than filming Aemma’s scene, and he obtained “optimistic” suggestions from different girls.
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As a girl who just lately gave beginning and has talked to others who’ve seen these episodes, my suggestions is lower than optimistic. As I watched every beginning unfold, I used to be immediately reminded of the worst of the rape scenes on “Thrones.” The spectacle of the violence was the focus. So was the ache and trauma of the girl, not realism or the expertise of the mom. The sequences felt like they have been there for shock and awe, not for thematic or character causes.
Every of the three girls is barely given sufficient characterization so as to add any emotional depth to their scenes. Aemma is a throwaway character who has just about no dialogue that is not about her being pregnant. The viewers is launched to D’Arcy because the grownup Rhaenyra within the childbirth scene and it’s inconceivable to attach her to the teenage model Alcock performed in a scene that’s all screams, sweat and squelches. Laena’s labor and dying is designed extra to point out the distinction between her husband Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and his brother Viserys (Paddy Considine) than it’s about Laena and her youngster. All of those scenes might have been improved if the girl’s expertise was extra central, even when her company was taken away from her by males.
The “Dragon” creators deserve a small quantity of credit score for making an attempt one thing right here. Popular culture usually has lengthy shied away from what childbirth is admittedly like. Once you consider well-known beginning scenes you consider Phoebe on “Mates” capturing out triplets with out a lot problem. You consider medical doctors which can be current always and somebody shouting “push, push, push!” for 30 seconds after which a smiling child pops out lined in raspberry jam. It is not like that. It is lengthy and generally boring and it smells and it’s usually traumatic and harmful. Even in 2022, girls die (the U.S. has a really excessive maternal mortality fee amongst developed nations, and the dangers of being pregnant and beginning improve dramatically if the mom is Black).
When collection are life like about beginning and toddler care and motherhood, it may be a radical act. After I assume of popular culture that may seize what it is actually prefer to beginning and take care of a new child, the checklist is desperately brief. PBS’ “Name the Midwife,” a collection all about beginning, is one. CW’s “Jane the Virgin” provided a practical tackle postpartum life, from grownup diapers to lack of showers. These portrayals are essential. When folks see simply how arduous the work of motherhood is, it could actually change the notion of parenting in the true world.
However in “Dragon,” the births simply hit the unsuitable observe. It would not really feel like Rhaenyra bleeding everywhere in the palace flooring or leaking breast milk in a small council assembly is something however a gratuitous use of her physique for drama. When Laena kills herself throughout a labor that is not going properly, it sends the message that girls would somewhat die than fail to present beginning, and take their unborn child with them. The violence of Aemma’s beginning is excessive, virtually cartoonish.
Shortly earlier than she is seen half-naked, minimize open and bleeding within the collection premiere, Aemma tells her daughter that for girls, “the birthing mattress is our battlefield.” Heavy-handed as that dialogue is, it factors to the proven fact that there are extra nuanced and essential issues “Dragon” might have stated about beginning. There was a technique to truly make these scenes as empowering and feminist because the writers appear to consider they’re. I need to give the collection, which has some good components amid messy episodes, the advantage of the doubt. I would like it to have the ability to say one thing profound about girls and motherhood. However I do not need to be re-traumatized after my very own beginning expertise on the picture of blood leaking from a crude C-section wound.
I do not need beginning to be simply one other horrible factor that occurs to girls on TV.
