"Game of Thrones," HBO's television series that's not new to controversial scenes, managed to shock fans yet again on Sunday by showing a scene where Margaery was seen consummating her marriage with Tommen.
The scene shouldn't have elicited negative reactions as both Margaery and Tommen were consenting people who weren't related. But the age difference between them became a cause of concern as Tommen was still a child.
"It was very disturbing," actor Dean-Charles Chapman told MTV after watching the scene. "I found out about that scene by reading the script, and I was really shocked."
"It's just really weird as a viewer to watch — even if I watch it, it's pretty messed up, because Tommen is such a young kid. Margaery is like, this fully grown woman, who is really just using Tommen for the power she can get from him."
Although the scene was disturbing, Chapman said his co-actor Natalie Dormer made him comfortable, and showrunners made sure there was just limited number of people while filming the scene.
"On the day of filming, normally when you go to shoot a scene, you just have a run-through, and this run-through was really… The rehearsal was really just a chance to get comfortable with it; to open up and say if I wasn't comfortable with anything. [We filmed with] the director, the main camera-man, then there were a couple of dudes that helped out the camera man — like five or six people in the room. Not even that, probably like four, while it was happening. It was definitely limited."
Soon after the episode aired on Sunday, a number of fans took to social networking platforms to comment that the sex scene between Tommen and Margaery was akin to child porn. Many also opined that such a scene was unnecessary.
"I skipped margaery and tommen sex scene, that was really unnecessary and gross," wrote one "Game of Thrones" fan on Twitter. "After sex scene of Tommen and Margaery feels like child porn, gosh #GameofThrones S5Ep03," another added.
"Game of Thrones" airs Sundays on HBO.