What Does the Mountain Do to the Septa

By far the most disquieting question to come out of "The Winds of Wintertime," Game of Thrones' season 6 finale, concerns an human activity we didn't witness: Merely what was the zombified Gregor Clegane doing to Septa Unella backside that closed door?

Lest you've forgotten, Unella is the "Shame!"-proclaiming nun who presided over Cersei's humiliating walk of atonement at the stop of season five. And while Cersei spent near of "The Winds of Wintertime" claiming the Iron Throne for herself (subsequently suffering her own devastating tragedy), she fabricated sure to spare a few minutes to get her revenge.

To recap, later on Cersei gleefully confessed her many crimes to Unella, who was strapped to a table, the queen mother — and before long-to-be queen, period — revealed that Unella'southward death, while certain, would not come quickly.

And and so Cersei called for Ser Gregor, announcing to Unella, "Your gods have forsaken you. This is your god now."

Gregor loomed over her prone figure as Cersei left the room, chanting "Shame, shame, shame," and endmost the door behind her. Unella screamed. Cue thousands of, "Ewwww!" tweets.

The implication to me, at first, seemed clear: Zombie Gregor was going to rape Septa Unella. Everything near the scene suggested as much, to me.

But the more I've discussed this matter with other viewers, the more they've proposed that maybe Gregor was "merely" torturing Unella. And their example is at to the lowest degree somewhat compelling.

So what, exactly, happened behind that closed door? Let's take a expect at the evidence.

The case for Gregor "just" torturing Unella

Septa Unella prepares Cersei for her walk of shame in the flavor 5 finale.

HBO

So, non to be too crude almost information technology, but Game of Thrones has rarely been all that subtle when characters have been sexually assaulted.

Information technology might make weird choices, similar focusing on a graphic symbol other than the victim, as it did when Ramsay Bolton raped Sansa Stark on their wedding ceremony night.

Or it might avoid acknowledging that what it'south depicting is rape, as was the case when Jaime raped Cersei in the Sept of Baelor, next to Joffrey's dead body. But it normally lays its cards on the table when it comes to almost any human activity of violence.

And if you look at the framing of that shot through the door as Cersei exits, Gregor is standing near the Septa's caput. Since Unella almost immediately starts screaming, it seems likely enough that Gregor began inflicting physical hurting. (The tabular array she's on besides resembles a torture rack.)

Finally, there's the unproblematic fact that Gregor is a zombie who shuffles around a lot. Breaking limbs is something he can do easily enough, but anything that would require more movement seems similar a tall order.

This is non to say that torture is some sort of easily dismissible human activity; it'south gruesome and terrible. The only benefit of it in this instance, story-wise, is that torturing Unella would farther underscore Cersei's descent into utter depravity without resorting to sexual set on as a cheaply deployed plot point (something Game of Thrones is guilty of having washed in the past).

But I notwithstanding think the stiff implication of the scene is rape.

Even though it's non every bit explicit every bit nosotros've come to wait from Game of Thrones, the scene functions in a very specific manner

Cersei's walk of shame is at the heart of all of the choices she makes in season six.

HBO

At that place's a certain inference we draw from the paradigm of a man standing over a prone woman in a fictional work, and information technology's generally sexual in nature. In a romance, that can be positive; on Game of Thrones, information technology'due south almost always negative.

So the very nature of the image that closes this sequence seems to imply sexual assail, regardless of Game of Thrones' usual tendencies toward explicitness. (Similarly, if the showrunners had wanted to imply torture, they hands could have hinted in that management more forthrightly than they did.)

At present consider that implication in the context of Cersei'southward human relationship with Unella, which primarily consists of Unella punishing Cersei for a number of sins, most of them sexual in nature. It would make sense for Cersei to visit what she would see every bit a similar punishment on someone she viewed as a tormenter.

Too, Gregor removes his helmet, the start time we've seen him practice then since his corpse was revived. The implication is that more of his armor is going to exist coming off.

And while information technology might exist a little unfair to bring evidence from the books into the TV bear witness, within the pages of George R.R. Martin'south A Vocal of Ice and Fire novels, Gregor is known for his raping and pillaging. For those who've read the books, that whole sequence would have been unmistakable in terms of what it signified.

Finally, at that place'due south the fact that Lena Headey, Cersei Lannister herself, commented to Entertainment Weekly that the scene as originally written was much, much worse:

Merely it'southward and so depraved, it'due south brilliant. The scene was meant to exist worse, merely they couldn't exercise it. This is similar the tame version. It's pretty bad even so though. I'd take beingness exploded in the Sept over that whatsoever day.

Could that statement refer to extensive torture? Certain. But Headey knows all near controversies stemming from Game of Thrones' condescending treatment of sexual assail, so to me the implication here is clear.

Just, look, either style, the scene is a sign that Cersei has finally lost whatever tiny scraps of humanity she had left, equally however some other casualty of her quest for power and revenge. And that sets her up every bit the series' ultimate villain.

Why do we demand answers when things are left even slightly ambiguous?

1 thing non left ambiguous: Cersei is the queen.

HBO

I started writing about this because I was still seeing people ask on various social media channels what had happened in this scene, more than than a calendar week later on the episode originally aired.

The ultimate question, to me, is why we experience like we demand to know what happened inside that room. Whatever information technology was — fifty-fifty if it was simply Gregor taking off his armor and forcing Unella to gaze upon his zombie body — it was horrible. We probably don't need to know the gruesome details.

And to me, in that location's very trivial ambiguity here. Cersei's arc has always been about a woman, raised in a patriarchal culture steeped in sexual violence, trying to seize her own ability within that structure. And having her cave to utilizing sexual violence to get her own revenge would be in keeping with that.

Everything about both the filmmaking and the storytelling of the scene suggests Gregor rapes Unella. And I would argue that goes too far — just it's hard to have that conversation if nobody agrees on what happened in the first identify.

And, of course, if you're the people behind Game of Thrones, y'all probably want to proceed this scene as ambiguous as possible, because it's such a horrifying notion to contemplate that it might completely pause the story. The all-time villains are ones where you can sort of sympathize where they're coming from, which is why Cersei is such a dandy villain. Toss in an explicit scene of zombie attack, and it would perhaps turn audiences confronting her too thoroughly.

But we don't bargain well with ambiguity in art, do nosotros? Fans still construct elaborate theories to "evidence" if Tony Soprano lived or died, and there were many who were sure that Jesse Pinkman had permit Gale alive at the end of Breaking Bad, season three, even though he shot a gun into Gale's face. (To be fair, weird filmmaking choices contributed to the confusion at that place.)

Perhaps this is because whatever Cersei did, it was so beyond the pale that we don't want to contemplate it. But ambivalence is often the eye of not bad narrative, and it's not equally if Game of Thrones hasn't indulged in it in the past. However here we are, wanting answers. Sometimes knowing what happens behind closed doors is worse than not knowing 100 percent for certain.

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Source: https://www.vox.com/2016/7/4/12060310/game-of-thrones-finale-gregor-clegane-septa-unella-mountain

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