With this season of Game of Thrones finally at its close, it’s time to look back at where the season, and its finale, left us. It’s a shame that I found this season’s finale fitting for the season as a whole—in this case “fitting” meaning “I expected a lot more”. Season 4 felt like a season of mess-ups and scrambling to reach certain plot points, which only made the impact of these plot points suffer and the climax feel that much less… climatic. Honestly, some of this could have been remedied, I’m sure, if an entire episode wasn’t devoted to Jon Snow and the Wall. But an entire episode was devoted to it, and while it wasn’t a bad episode by any means, it just felt a touch unnecessary. However, on reflecting on the chaos and loss of the finale, I found that one thing in particular caused me to stare at my computer screen just a little more judgmentally. It didn’t ruin the finale, no, but it did continue the disturbing trend that started up this season, and I fear it’s only a sign of more of this kind of thing to come in the future.
WE COULD HAVE HAD IT AAAAAAAAAAALL. ROLLING IN THE DEEEEEEP. (x)
Spoilers for the Season 4 finale under the cut. Also a trigger warning for mention of rape and graphic images.
With the end of the season came the first real instance of the show writers having to deal with the consequences of changing the source material. As show watchers and book readers know by this point, Shae, Tyrion’s lover, was not a major character in the novels. Or at least not a character that held any actual importance outside of Tyrion. However, in giving this prostitute desires and motivations of her own, Shae became much more than a one-note character: she became a side character with depth. Shae was a character you couldn’t ignore because she had gained influence in King’s Landing as well as with readers. A good portion of the audience reveled in this “new” character presenting herself and asserting herself into a game that she wasn’t out to win, but to subvert. A smaller portion of the audience found itself crying out for her death when she betrayed Tyrion during his trial. I have to wonder if that same part of the audience felt some sort of karmic blessing happened when Tyrion murdered her.
Her death in the show was no different than her death in the books if we’re looking at it simply from a technical perspective. While escaping, Tyrion found her (although in the show they don’t make it explicitly clear if it was in Tywin’s room or not) and then choked her with a gold chain she was wearing. And although yes, this is perpetuating the theme that powerful, clever women will die because reasons, in this case I would at least understand it because there really was nowhere else Shae, as a character, could go. Yet there are three reasons that make Shae’s death in the show more heinous than in the novels.
The first and most obvious is due to the changes in her character. The Shae in the books is a much more pragmatic woman, going to wherever she’ll find the best deal. She stays with Tyrion because he is rich, a Lannister (which also falls under rich), and also relatively kind to her. When she decides to betray him, it’s far more obvious why: because the other Lannisters offered her a better deal. And so book Shae dies because she’s playing a game that doesn’t work in King’s Landing. However, show Shae is so clearly in love with Tyrion that she doesn’t think about leaving his side—even when he offers to send her somewhere much nicer with compensation—until he breaks her heart. And while she still betrays him, it’s not because she’s trying to get the most bang for her buck, so to speak, it’s because she wanted to pay him back for the pain he caused her. But more than that, it’s because she’s now stuck in the Lannisters’ game, a game she never wanted to play.
Shae in the show is a victim of circumstances and rather than her death being some sort of “you didn’t know what you were getting into” deal, it’s more like she’s being punished for something she couldn’t control. While it’s true that writing another way for her to leave the show would have been strange, the changes the writers made to her character completely altered what her entire character arc meant. There is no lesson about the dangers of getting in over your head; there is instead a lesson about how women who are led by their hearts get killed while men who are led by their hearts will be the ones who kill them. Eugh.
The second reason is a little bit more subtle and has everything to do with the medium rather than the writing. In the season finale there were four (possible) deaths: the Hound, Jojen Reed, Shae, and Tywin Lannister. Tywin’s death is rather short and sweet—two arrows, some banter, and done. The same for Jojen: we see him injured, but the actual death is short and off-camera. The Hound is much worse: the bloody battle with Brienne left him bleeding and the inflammation he hadn’t let Arya burn off must have been affecting him as well. Yet, despite all the blood, Shae’s death was the worst because of how it was filmed. Tywin spends about ten seconds dead on screen and the Hound doesn’t actually die before the scene changes (and he might not actually be dead, I don’t know), but we get to watch Tyrion choking the life out of Shae from beginning to end.
Do you think we’d ever see a male prostitute killed like this?
It’s honestly incredibly uncomfortable and unnecessary. You know who else died in the castle in King’s Landing? Those prostitutes Joffrey shot with his crossbow who we then got to see lovingly mutilated in his room. And need I mention the similar fate of other beloved prostitute, Ros? What I’m getting at here is that while the Hound’s supposed death may have been bloodier, he was granted a lot more dignity than any of the women who died in King’s Landing. And the thing is, Tyrion doesn’t hate women like Joffrey did. He loves women, or at least has convinced the audience he does. However, running this murder scene the way they did gives the non-verbal message that Tyrion is now scorned and that he will harm any woman who tries to cross him. I guess maiming Jaime’s character wasn’t enough—although I suppose we should be thankful that Tyrion didn’t rape Shae before he killed her.
Lastly, having this scene follow after Tyrion’s beetle monologue from “The Mountain and the Viper” confuses his character development. For an entire scene, Tyrion expounds on how he doesn’t understand why people cause more pain in the world for seemingly no reason, while at the same time, he sets himself apart from that type of person. Whether he’s speaking of the Mountain or his own family is inconsequential; the important thing is that he denies that he hurts others for pleasure. However, despite that, while killing Shae isn’t something he does for enjoyment, it is needless. If his character arc is about separating himself from the cruelty of his family and King’s Landing, he just took a huge step back. Especially because he doesn’t seem to regret it. Sure, he was crying about it, but to me that felt like him mourning the loss of the woman he loved—which he could have prevented by, you know, not killing her—rather than looking at the choice he made and admitting that he fucked up.
There they go, the last fucks I give about Tyrion.
In the end, as long as Shae was in Game of Thrones, she was destined to die. Yet given the circumstances in which it happened, I can’t help but feel like it’s more of the showrunners over-sexualizing and glorifying the death of and violence toward women who become a little too powerful for their liking. With the advent of the show, Shae managed to, perhaps, gain a stronger sense of character than she had in the books, but it was all snatched away in the end for Tyrion’s manpain. Maybe the showrunners never truly understood the impact and influence of the character they essentially rebirthed. Maybe to them Shae was truly only a whore. And if that’s the case, I worry for the equally complicated female characters in the future.
Lady Geek Girl and Friends 
Her death in the show was no different than her death in the books if we’re looking at it simply from a technical perspective.
I’d say there was a noticeable difference. On the show, Shae picked up a knife as soon as she saw Tyrion.
I think the show did this to muddy the waters and not have viewers think he just killed her because she was in his father’s bed.
Personally, I feel that if they were that unsure of how the subject matter would come across, they should have just eliminated this entirely and had Shae flee the room and Tyrion, in a rage, confront his father. Ultimately the talk from the showrunners about how this was some tragic mutual destruction is a struggle for me, because Shae is gone, Tyrion’s still around, and viewer sympathy will fall with him, as it always has.
Season 4 felt like a season of mess-ups and scrambling to reach certain plot points, which only made the impact of these plot points suffer and the climax feel that much less… climatic. Honestly, some of this could have been remedied, I’m sure, if an entire episode wasn’t devoted to Jon Snow and the Wall. But an entire episode was devoted to it, and while it wasn’t a bad episode by any means, it just felt a touch unnecessary.
I don’t really agree that having an episode with more than just the Wall would have helped. They did make a mistake in dropping Ygritte and the other Wildlings for half the season, but ultimately I thought the show needed to have an episode very heavy on the Wall, because they’d mostly downplayed that story since season 2.
The show has had bad pacing issues for a while now, but the main problem this season was stalling for the sake of having big finale scenes. For instance, Arya had almost nothing to do all season long, and some of her material regressed her character in bizarre ways (like when she was shocked and outraged that The Hound – whom she knew was a terrible man – knocked out a farmer to take his money). Perhaps the show had this to remind viewers that The Hound was not her father and that they weren’t having a fun adventure, but it still felt superfluous to me.
Bran’s story also had bad pacing. They should have cut out the beetle conversation and trimmed a bit of the Missandei/Grey Worm stuff (although I do like that story) and had Bran’s story end in episode 8 instead of in episode 10. Episode 10 could have had a little more of Tyrion’s story instead.
The show assumes that viewers feel a certain way about something and doesn’t really bother to try to help us get to that place.
GoT…way too rapey for me.
Man I really hated the way Shae was handled here, the changes from the book to the screen made a huge difference and the writers should have adjusted accordingly. The whole affair just seemed badly written. I mean Shae was not an idiot, it was very obvious that Tyrion was trying to get her out, she probably stayed because the writers had to keep the general events of the book. Really why did she stay?! To slight him? Really? I don’t believe it, it’s too stupid for this character. I was hoping that Tywin had blackmailed her or threatened her in some way or maybe promised her that he would live in exile but no, it made less sense. It really pissed me off and deimmersed me from the show. After Oberyn, a great bisexual character rare to see one who isn’t shown to be depraved or evil, and Shae’s death I’m giving the show up for a while, jeez louise.