Jaime and Cersei Lannister's "is it or is it not?" rape scene on Game of Thrones is still causing quite a buzz and drawing ire 'round the net. You know that scene, where brother rapes sister next to their son's dead corpse? Well, today we break the rape scene down in more depth. Was it rape? Or consensual sex? 

On Tuesday, Enstars highlighted the controversy surrounding the scene in Game of Thrones. Now here's what went down.

Twitter Erupts In Anger Over Jaime / Cersei Rape Scene

First: Cersei cries over Joffrey's dead body and Jaime holds her to comfort her. Then the lovers begin kissing. Consensual enough.  Then, the turning point: Cersei reacts to Jaime's mutilation (his hand has been cut off) and she shrinks back in disgust.  Jaime takes this rather hard. (Keep in mind that they used to not be able to keep their hands off each other). Now with one hand, Jaime has been feeling the sting of Cersei's rejection (and perhaps his own shame) for weeks since their reunion. He seems to be asking: aren't I still the same Jaime to you?

Cersei turns back to Joffrey and Jaime's ire peaks: "You're a hateful woman. Why have the gods made me love a hateful woman?"  Then he whips her around and begins force kissing her - pressing her body against the coffin and snatching off her dress. She says, "Jaime, not here please." We've definitely moved into force.

Littlefinger Killed King Joffrey?!

Jaime continues, ripping off her dress as she says, "Stop it! Stop it!" Those are usually red signal words for a man. STOP! But Jaime doesn't stop.  He even says "No" as she continues to beg.  Not only is Cersei clearly disgusted by his hand, but she's not in the mood.  It is, after all, a wildly inappropriate time and place, not to mention her son just died! But Jaime is motivated by anger, hurt, and possibly, a need to be validated by the woman he loves.

That's when things get murky.  He kisses her strong, and although she says stop, it looks like she's kissing him back... strong. This isn't hard to believe since she probably still does love the man. In an earlier episode when Jaime tried to have sex with her she said she had felt abandoned by him when he left (through no fault of his own) - and that's the source of her spite. "You took too long," she said after sexually rejecting him. Clearly, Jaime's been licking his wounds.

Back to the scene:  Jaime gets on top of her, as Cersei continues to struggle on the floor. "Stop, it's not right!"  We're sensing Jaime's total entitlement to Cersei's body as he continues having sex with her despite her pleas saying "I don't care, I don't care." Yes, that's rape.

Show creator George R.R. Martin weighed in on his blog as Twitter exploded with angry fans.  He said the way it's portrayed in the TV is different than how it's portrayed in the books (which was definitely consensual).

"[In the book,] though the time and place is wildly inappropriate and Cersei is fearful of discovery, she is as hungry for him as he is for her.

The whole dynamic is different in the show, where Jaime has been back for weeks at the least, maybe longer, and he and Cersei have been in each other's company on numerous occasions, often quarreling. The setting is the same, but neither character is in the same place as in the books, which may be why Dan & David played the [scene] out differently. But that's just my surmise; we never discussed this scene, to the best of my recollection."

Director Alex Graves told Hitfix on Sunday that it's not completely a rape scene, a comment that's beginning to haunt him: "It becomes consensual by the end, because anything for them ultimately results in a turn-on, especially a power struggle." 

According to Sunday's The Hollywood Reporter, he said, "The whole thing for me was about dead Joffrey lying there, watching the whole thing. He is their sin. He is their lust, and their love--- their everything... if he's gone, what's going to happen?"  Could Graves be implying that the death of Joffrey (the product of the siblings demented lust and sinful desire) also symbolizes the death of their relationship? Perhaps that's why his focus was more on Joffrey than on what was happening below. He made sure to capture Joffrey in as many shots as possible.

Symbolism aside, pretty much no one agrees with Graves' interpretation of the scene because Cersei is still struggling against her brother at the end.  How then can it be considered consensual sex?  Angry fans are calling it rape all over Twitter:

@NickyKwonzy "I thought I've seen everything watching#GameOfThrones, until the male twin started raping his female twin on their dead son's body."

@SinCityMermaid "That scene with Cersei & Jamie was a lot more mutual on the page. Jamie may be an incestuous killer but was never a rapist. #BreakerOfChains"

@NotCuteNTwisted "that jaime/cersei scene was so disturbing i want to punch things??? why is shock factor so important to you HBO?? #GoT"

It feels like fans felt as violated by this new Jaime (and his diversion from the book) as Cersei did. Perhaps Graves missed the boat on his interpretation. Lines get blurred in this scene as the lovers do move back in forth between desire and force.  (Plus it's always easier to draw the line in the sand when the rapist is a stranger and not a lover). But our assessment is that while Cersei may have allowed desire to creep in, she was definitely resisting the majority of the time.  What Jaime did was violating enough to be called rape - and will most likely change their relationship forever.

Tune into Game of Thrones' next episode Oathkeeper next Sunday night on HBO.

Tags: Game of Thrones Season 4 Spoilers Cersei Jaime Rape Scene Consensual Sex Alex Graves george r.r. martin hbo