Senior government and politics major
After watching Game of Thrones, I thought I probably should feel worse than I do about watching some of the brutality on the show. I won’t talk about the plot at all, so don’t worry about spoilers, but everyone and their grandma knows Game of Thrones is one of the most unapologetically violent shows on TV. Some of the gore would make those at WorldStarHipHop sick.
I’m not proud that I can stomach this kind of violent content. Every edgy 14-year-old at my middle school watched 300 at home and came to school the next day claiming they had been “desensitized” to the violence in the movie. In high school, it turned into “thrill-seeking,” and now it’s an emotional distance that makes me feel creepy.
I think it’s OK to enjoy gnarly action occasionally, as long as reflection follows. Game of Thrones doesn’t glamorize violence for this reason. Characters frequently lament the needless bloodshed, and it’s used to demonstrate the tragic failings of politics. When the show involves children, it’s not trying to encourage exposing the young to violence. Instead, it’s demonstrating the children’s ability to persevere and the overarching goal of keeping kids out of these situations in the first place.
However, there are times the line between reflection and unapologetic enjoyment are blurred. Hotline Miami, a top-down action video game released in 2012, features some of the most gut-wrenchingly disgusting depictions of violence I’ve ever seen. The game seduces your inner animal and pumps you up with exciting music and vibrant, ugly ’80s colors. It sickens and disorients you with artificial scan lines and a slightly drunken camera. Finally, it shoves you into a room full of armed thugs with just your fists.
It’s gross. Yet after I saw the trailer for Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, I don’t feel bad about being excited for its release.
That’s because Hotline Miami picks at you for having fun. There is almost no plot, and the main character has the flimsiest of reasons to be performing the game’s actions. Therefore, if you’re not playing for the plot, you must be playing for the ultra-violent action. At one point, a character asks you point-blank, “Do you like hurting other people?”
If you do anything but put the game down then and there, the game is asserting itself over you. You must either answer yes or try to defend the weak argument in which enjoying a simulation of violence isn’t analogous at all to the real thing.
I don’t think it’s true that violence in media leads to violence in the real world, but it’s worth picking apart where the enjoyment of this violence is coming from. I like how Hotline Miami tests my reflexes and the way it forces me to think on my feet. I feel weirdly satisfied and relieved after completing the heinous tasks in the game. It’s complicated to find the game’s true source of fun, but Hotline Miami forces me to think during a mindlessly violent game.
Ultimately it’s all about reflection. There are fights in Game of Thrones that are hard to watch because they’re cruel, but there are also awesome fights for vengeance against injustice. If the fights have meaning, and if you’re cognizant enough to enjoy them for more than just brutality, then maybe it’s OK to pump your fist. Only a little bit, but absolutely no whooping.
Emma Atlas is a junior government and politics and journalism major. She can be reached at eatlasdbk@gmail.com.
