what does gregor clegane do to the nun

By far the well-nigh disquieting question to come up out of "The Winds of Winter," Game of Thrones' season six finale, concerns an act we didn't witness: Just what was the zombified Gregor Clegane doing to Septa Unella behind that closed door?

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

To recap, later Cersei gleefully confessed her many crimes to Unella, who was strapped to a table, the queen mother — and presentlyhoped-for queen, period — revealed that Unella'due south death, while sure, would non come up rapidly.

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

Gregor loomed over her prone figure as Cersei left the room, chanting "Shame, shame, shame," and closing 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 nigh the scene suggested as much, to me.

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

So what, exactly, happened backside that airtight door? Let'southward have a await at the testify.

The case for Gregor "simply" torturing Unella

Septa Unella prepares Cersei for her walk of shame in the flavour five finale.

HBO

So, not to be too rough almost it, just Game of Thrones has rarely been all that subtle when characters have been sexually assaulted.

It might make weird choices, like focusing on a grapheme other than the victim, as it did when Ramsay Bolton raped Sansa Stark on their wedding night.

Or information technology might avoid acknowledging that what it'due south depicting is rape, equally was the case when Jaime raped Cersei in the Sept of Baelor, side by side to Joffrey's dead body. Simply it usually lays its cards on the tabular array when it comes to virtually any act of violence.

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

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

This is not to say that torture is some sort of hands dismissible deed; information technology's gruesome and terrible. The but benefit of it in this instance, story-wise, is that torturing Unella would further underscore Cersei's descent into utter depravity without resorting to sexual assault equally a cheaply deployed plot betoken (something Game of Thrones is guilty of having done in the past).

Just I still recall the stiff implication of the scene is rape.

Fifty-fifty though it's not as explicit equally we've come to look from Game of Thrones, the scene functions in a very specific fashion

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

HBO

There'southward a sure inference nosotros describe from the prototype of a man standing over a prone adult female in a fictional work, and it'south mostly sexual in nature. In a romance, that can be positive; on Game of Thrones, it's almost always negative.

And then the very nature of the paradigm that closes this sequence seems to imply sexual set on, regardless of Game of Thrones' usual tendencies toward explicitness. (Similarly, if the showrunners had wanted to imply torture, they easily could take hinted in that direction more forthrightly than they did.)

Now consider that implication in the context of Cersei's relationship with Unella, which primarily consists of Unella punishing Cersei for a number of sins, near of them sexual in nature. It would make sense for Cersei to visit what she would come across equally a similar punishment on someone she viewed as a tormenter.

Too, Gregor removes his helmet, the first fourth dimension we've seen him practise so since his corpse was revived. The implication is that more than of his armor is going to be coming off.

And while information technology might exist a little unfair to bring prove from the books into the Tv set testify, within the pages of George R.R. Martin'due south A Song of Ice and Burn 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, there'south the fact that Lena Headey, Cersei Lannister herself, commented to Entertainment Weekly that the scene every bit originally written was much, much worse:

But it'southward so depraved, it's vivid. The scene was meant to be worse, but they couldn't do it. This is similar the tame version. It'due south pretty bad still though. I'd accept being exploded in the Sept over that any day.

Could that statement refer to all-encompassing torture? Sure. Merely Headey knows all about controversies stemming from Game of Thrones' cavalier treatment of sexual assail, and then to me the implication here is clear.

Merely, await, either manner, the scene is a sign that Cersei has finally lost whatever tiny scraps of humanity she had left, as yet another casualty of her quest for power and revenge. And that sets her upwards as 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 considering I was still seeing people enquire on various social media channels what had happened in this scene, more than a week after the episode originally aired.

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

And to me, there's very little 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 power within that structure. And having her cave to utilizing sexual violence to go her own revenge would exist 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 — but it's hard to have that conversation if nobody agrees on what happened in the first place.

And, of course, if you lot're the people behind Game of Thrones, yous probably desire to go on this scene as cryptic every bit possible, because it's such a horrifying notion to contemplate that it might completely break the story. The best villains are ones where y'all can sort of understand where they're coming from, which is why Cersei is such a great villain. Toss in an explicit scene of zombie set on, and it would possibly turn audiences against her likewise thoroughly.

But nosotros don't deal well with ambivalence in art, practise we? Fans yet construct elaborate theories to "testify" if Tony Soprano lived or died, and there were many who were certain that Jesse Pinkman had permit Gale live at the terminate of Breaking Bad, flavor three, even though he shot a gun into Gale'due south face. (To exist fair, weird filmmaking choices contributed to the defoliation in that location.)

Peradventure this is because whatever Cersei did, information technology was and so beyond the pale that we don't want to contemplate information technology. But ambivalence is often the eye of not bad narrative, and it'southward not as if Game of Thrones hasn't indulged in it in the past. Yet hither we are, wanting answers. Sometimes knowing what happens behind closed doors is worse than non 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