Game Of Thrones may be all about female leaders — but female writers is a different story. In a recent piece, Vanity Fair pointed out that the HBO series, which is on its seventh season, boasts only four episodes that were written by women. That's a pitiful 6.6% of episodes in the first six seasons, and 5.9% total if it continues this trend for the remainder of the seventh.
This is absurd for so many reasons, especially for a show whose recent message has been all about female empowerment. While we appreciate the feminist arc of the story, it doesn't pack the same punch when women's voices aren't the ones writing it.
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Plus, the episodes written by women have frequently been some of the strongest. For instance, Jane Espenson was behind 2011's "A Golden Crown," the episode that ended with Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) pouring molten lava over Daenerys' (Emilia Clarke) brother Viserys' (Harry Lloyd) head, killing him and proving that he wasn't a true dragon.
The remaining three women-written episodes belong to Vanessa Taylor. "The Old Gods and the New" includes Bran's (Isaac Hempstead Wright) first escape with Rickon (Art Parkinson), Hodor (Kristian Nairn), and Osha (Natalia Tena), and also the excellent moment when Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) slaps Joffrey (Jack Gleeson). "Garden Bones" features more of Joffrey's cruelty and Arya's (Maisie Williams) brief stint as Tywin Lannister's (Charles Dance) cupbearer. "Dark Wings, Dark Words," the final episode written by Taylor, is the second episode of the third season of Game Of Thrones, when Theon's (Alfie Allen) capture by Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) begins, and Arya runs into the Brotherhood Without Banners.
And that's that for female writers on the series. Of course, it's possible that the remaining episodes will make up for it, but with both seasons 7 and 8 being cut short — the final two seasons of the series — this inequality looks pretty set in stone.