“Fear cuts deeper than swords,” says Arya Stark on the US fantasy-drama television series Game of Thrones. This seems to hold true for the show itself, as the Turkish military recently banned the show across military schools in Turkey, citing fear that its obscenity may pervade lives of students.
The decision surfaces as part of a new set of rules employed by military schools to ‘protect’ their students from graphic violence and bloodshed that are part of the show, reported the Al-Arabiya News.
Military schools in the country will now have to follow the updated set of secondary education regulations, which have been formulated by the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). The updated regulations reportedly include a new chapter titled, ‘The protection of students’, which makes screening of certain content impermissible. The new provision aims at protecting students from gory content, which is featured in the show.
This is not the first instance where the HBO series has faced the TAF’s ire. In 2012, four TAF officers were discharged on the grounds that they had allowed their students to watch the Game of Thrones in a military school in Istanbul. It is still not clear whether the screening was held for recreational purposes or was a part of a new teaching plan introduced by the officers.
Earlier this year, Chinese television channels had also broadcasted the show in an attempt to increase viewership. But, according to the Quartz, the pilot episode of the first season was around 11 minutes shorter than its original duration, as graphic scenes had been removed from the episode, which was dubbed in Mandarin.
The show’s fifth season is currently being filmed in Europe, reported the Christian Today. Nine new characters are set to join the cast of the critically and commercially-acclaimed, most notably Alexander Siddig, who will play the character of Doran Martell, Oberyn Martell’s older brother and the ruler of Dorne.
The upcoming season will prove to be something of a midpoint for the series’ run. As expected, the story will draw heavily from George RR Martin’s fourth and fifth novels, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, reported screencrush.com, an entertainment news website. The show has often been subjected to criticism for its depiction of violence and bloodshed.
Game of Thrones, which was nominated for 19 awards at this year’s Emmy Awards, bagged the prizes for art direction, costumes, make-up and visual effects, reported the LA Times. The series has recorded the largest audience ever for a channel’s original programme this season, with a whopping 18.6 million viewers on average across all platforms.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2014.
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