Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Game of Thrones S5E7 features a series first: an on-screen character dies of old age, peacefully! Yes, this is the 47th episode of the series, and the first time that's happened. I won't say who it's is; it's a minor spoiler, though anyone watching the series wouldn't be surprised the death is coming.

In addition S5E7 features a couple who have sex together— and it's completely consensual. It's not the first time in the series on-screen sex has been completely consensual sex but it remains rare enough among all the scenes of rape, coercion, and false pretenses that it's worthy of note. Even one of the actors whose character is involved in this particular coupling has spoken in interviews about how this sex act is unusual (in the series) for being an expression of love instead of lust, power, or violence.

Two days ago I wrote about Monkeypox, an old disease at new risk of becoming another global pandemic. One thing I did not address in that blog is what Monkeypox is. For those who don't know from current events news and discussions, it's a viral disease (like Coronavirus) that jumped from animals to humans (like Coronavirus) that has a few symptoms like Coronavirus but is especially known for causing a painful, blistering rash (unlike Coronavirus). Also unlike Coronavirus, Monkeypox is spread primarily through skin-to-skin contact. People get infected by having close physical contact with a contagious person, not by merely breathing air in the same room as them.

The contact nature of Monkeypox transmission has led a lot of public health experts and advocates to raise the alarm among gay men's communities. Gay men— or more broadly, "men who have sex with men", as the common messaging goes— are at greatest risk. Indeed, the CDC report I cited on Tuesday notes that 94% of the cases are in men who reported recent male-male sexual activity. BTW, an update from the CDC today increases the estimated number of cases in the US from 7,500 to 10,000. A 33% increase in two days is a clear sign of a growing epidemic.

I am of two minds about the way Monkeypox is being communicated as a risk primarily to gay men. On the one hand, it's helpful to direct public health information at those most at risk. On the other hand, gay sex is already stigmatized by a large minority of the public. Characterizing Monkeypox as a gay men's disease risks further stigmatizing their sexuality and misleading the public about how Monkeypox spreads.

Monkeypox is not an STD. It is a contact disease. It can be spread between any two people of any gender or sexual preference. And of any age. I emphasize age because think about what happens when this disease appears in preschool and elementary school children. Kids play with each other. They hug, they tumble, they roughhouse. Then they hug and kiss their parents. Soon Monkeypox is going to be an everybody problem, not just a "men who have sex with men" problem. The time to take it seriously is now.

A few nights ago I decided to take the plunge and start watching Game of Thrones. Y'know, catch up with the 2010s (the show aired 2011-2019) before they're over. 🤣 Here are my thoughts as I watched through the premier episode. I'll mark spoilers though at this point, 10+ years since the episode aired, how many people want to watch the episode and haven't?

It starts like a D&D game turned TV show...

As I watched the opening scenes of the episode I thought, "Hmm, this is a like a D&D game." Swords and sorcery stuff. Three intrepid guardsmen ride their horses through a tunnel blocked by locked gates at both ends. They emerge on the far side into a snowy winterscape. Behind them we see they've just tunneled under an unnaturally shaped mountain built like an enormous wall. Let's call it the Winterwall.

North of the Winterwall, where everything is way, way colder and snowier than 1/2 mile south, the guards are looking for a clan of savages, to check up on them or something. Guardsman 1 sneaks forward toward their encampment (they see smoke rising, indicating a campfire) and finds that ( Opening sequence spoilers.... ) Guardsman 1 flees.

Okay, so it's Lawful-Neutral...

Back south of the Winterwall, Guardsman 1 is apprehended as a deserter. It's a death sentence. The local baron— though they don't call him a baron, but that's totally the kind of title he'd have in any sensible D&D game— Ned Stark comes out to deliver the sentence and perform the execution personally. Stark explains to his 10 year old son that it's important the people who pass judgment understand carrying it out.

Okay, I'm thinking, the law seems unnecessarily harsh— nobody cares why Guardsman 1 fled, like most people don't even think to ask because they assume whatever he says must be a lie and there can exist no proof or corroborating details for it— but Stark administers the law with a sense of reason. So, this D&D game setting is Lawful Neutral.

Puppies!

In the next arc of the episode Stark and his retinue are traveling back to the castle when they come across a large buck, killed and gored. Stark spots a trail and follows it to find a ( very important plot point-- wait, PUPPIES!! )

The king visits; the D&D metaphor starts to falter

Back at Baron Lord (because they avoid saying "Baron" like it's trademarked, or something) Stark's castle building with lots of stones (they oddly avoid saying "castle", too) news has just arrived that the king is coming. Preparations must be made!

In terms of a D&D game this is where stories start to struggle. Because while most groups of players I've played with ask, no beg, no insist! that the game have politics & intrigue & roleplaying rather than just combat, whenever I give them a scenario that focuses on politics, intrigue, and roleplaying they withdraw and cop sulky attitudes until it's time to Roll Initiative again.

...Actually it's not everyone who'd get sulky about actual politics, intrigue, and roleplaying. There's a big subgroup of D&D players who see this as the perfect opportunity for a robbery spree. 😨 They're like, "Everyone's busy feasting with the king? Cool, let's loot their homes and businesses while they're they're not looking!" 🤣

More raunchy sex than any D&D group has ever been comfortable with

Through the middle of the episode the storytelling alternates between scenes at not-Baron Stark's not-castle and a faraway land where siblings Viserys and Daenerys, children of a deposed king, are plotting their return to power. ( Sex, rape, more sex, more rape, but don't be late to dinner! ) Because, apparently, wanton meaningless sex is okay but being late to dinner is an unforgivable sin.

And just like that, it's an Evil game

All the raunchy sex and rape— and there's some I'm leaving out here for brevity— broke my suspension of disbelief for a moment. "What happened to this being a D&D TV show, a story of good-vs.-evil with the Whitewalkers as the villains growing in power?" I mused. Then I remembered that the Whitewalkers become big villains in, like, season 6 or something. That means about 50 episodes of raunchy sex, incest, and rape until we get back to this being a proper D&D TV series.

Oh, then there's the last scene of the episode. ( Surprise! Genuinely evil.... ) And I'm like, "And just like that, this D&D game is an evil game."

Throughout the whole series of The Sopranos there have been a variety of scenes showing that the adult characters subscribe to regressive cultural norms as they consider themselves pious Catholics. One of those norms is opposition to homosexuality. "It's a sin!" the characters protest. But it gets worse than that....

The theme of homosexuality and how people deal with it becomes a major element of the series in season 6. One of Tony's gang captains is witnessed participating in homosexual behavior. First he's spotted dancing with a man at a gay club; later he's seen having oral sex with a man. When the other gang members learn of this, most of them call for his murder. Tony, having adopted a new outlook on life after his brush with death late in season 5, recommends tolerance as the gay man isn't hurting anyone and remains a productive earner for the gang. But virtually nobody else shares his opinion. They're all calling for summary execution.

Episodes in season 6 spend a bit of time focusing on the gay character. (Actually, he's likely bisexual since he has a wife and kids.) The man hears that much of the gang want to kill him and flees town to live incognito in another state for a while. While there, in a small town that is remarkably tolerant, he develops a relationship with another man. Ironically, the relationship they enjoy is one of the healthiest portrayed in 70+ episodes. Yeah, one of the men is a career criminal, but he seems to be trying to put that behind him, and the two men show genuine care for each other. Seriously, it's better than pretty much all the heterosexual relationships portrayed in the series.

It's important to note, the show isn't preachy about this gay relationship. It merely shows it. Just like it merely shows all the other gangsters calling for immediate punishment by death. ....Other gangsters who, it must be pointed out, routinely break at least 5 of the 10 commandments. "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone," anyone? 

I hope that by showing, not telling, the series gets enough people thinking about this horrible homophobia and saying, "That's not right. That's not okay." But I'm sure that even if a majority see the portrayal of homophobia as unsympathetic, there's still a sizable minority who think the gangsters are right.