Bloody hell - at what point is that tirade harassment? That's just not a normal rational proportionate reaction. I'm actually pretty disappointed, having seen that, that Amin gave him airtime on a podcast that has sought to be, and still typically is, a nice corner of the internet with pleasant debate and witty insider jokes. A mis-step indeed.

In short, you linked to a Twitter incident in which Cogman tried to defend the Sansa rape as "what, you don't think bad things happen to people?", and I responded by Tweet-storming "these performances, these faces!" - quoting him - over and over again. I am not ashamed of this.

You see, we don't need to see the other aspects of that legendary tweetstorm to know that it's inappropriate and scary. There is literally NO context in which what you did there is NOT inappropriate and scary. None. There's literally nothing that Cogman could have said that would have made your response there appropriate.

"I think it's important to talk about because of the response that this storyline got. It's sort of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't.' If you don't talk about it, people think you're ashamed of it; if you do talk about it, everything you say is taken out of context. Basically, when we decided to combine Sansa’s storyline with the storyline of another character in the books, it was done with the idea that it would be hugely Dramatically Satisfying to have Sansa back in her occupied childhood home and having to navigate this Gothic horror story she’s found herself in and, of course, to be reunited with Theon – and to set her on her path to reclaiming her family home and becoming a major player in the big overall story. That said, when we decided that we were going to do that we were faced with the question: If she’s marrying Ramsay, what happens on the wedding night? And we made the decision not to shy away from it, from what realistically would happen on that wedding night with these two characters, and the reality of the situation, and the reality of this particular world. And it was not an easy decision to make, it was a very difficult scene for me to write. I've known Sophie since she was a kid, and I love her, I love Sansa. And every effort was made to do the scene as respectfully as possible.

You could of course argue with the adaptation choice, there's a larger argument about sexual assault being used in entertainment at all, I'm not going to wade into that argument here, I will say though that the accusation that our motives were "oh they just threw in a rape for shock value", I personally don't think that the scene as shot, and as written, and as acted by our wonderful actors supports that argument, nor do I think the aftermath of the scene supports that argument, not only in this episode but also in future episodes.

The main thing I would say is that the story is not over. This is a long ongoing story, Sansa has journey ahead of her, and what happens to her in that room is a huge part of that journey, and one that we've thought through.

So I guess, of course, it's an upsetting scene, it's a horrifying scene, it's meant to be. I guess where I took issue was some of the criticism was the idea that the people criticizing were in our heads, as to our motives, and our motives were about telling a Powerful story. That's really all I have to say.

Comments on Twitter are taken out of context to say I'm a victim blamer. But my comment was that she is brave. That this is an incredibly brave thing that she is doing...Sansa is a survivor, she is surviving as the only way she can as a woman in the position that she is in this society. And yes it would have been hugely satisfying for her to have a shiv up her sleeve and to gut Ramsay, but that's not Sansa, we can't all be Arya, and in fact most people aren't Arya. Most people in that situation, they have to play a longer game. She goes in thinking she can, she goes in without the right information about Ramsay, she gets a sense that Ramsay is dangerous, and then when it turns out to be even worse than she thought, she's not broken by the attack, she immediately sets to getting the hell out of there, and planning her next move from there.

I think it was the attack on our motives behind it that upset me. Because I love these characters. I've spent the better part of the last decade with these characters, and I love these actors I love – I'm getting emotional talking about it – I love Sophie, I love Alfie, I love [Maisie] and it's very personal to me and it's not an easy thing to put a character that I love through a scene like this.

It seemed to us that this was what had to happen at this stage in the story for her - and look at her! She's just so incredible! She's just absolutely incredible in this scene, when she says "I take this man", I mean that's the bravest thing she can do.

And Alfie's wonderful in this sequence too. Another argument – I shouldn't say I take issue with it, I get why this criticism was leveled at us – is idea that we took Sansa's story away from her and made it all about Theon. I don't personally don’t believe that’s the case ---- I think they're both Players in this story, and they, I think the subplot, you know they both have huge parts in it, I don't consider this her being shoehorned into Theon's redemption journey. Certainly Theon's redemption journey is an element of the subplot. But if you really watch this scene it's played from Sansa's viewpoint, for the most part. The main reason we cut away at the end, frankly, is that this was Sophie's first scene of this nature, and we didn't feel it was necessary, didn't want to show the attack. And so we cut to Theon to hear the attack. I understand why many people reacted to that, [thinking] we were making this scene about Theon and not Sansa. I’m sorry that it was viewed that way by a lot of people. All I can say is it's certainly not my intention when I wrote it or when we were producing it. It's a very delicate thing.

Jeremy and David and Dan, all of us, this was very carefully planned out. It was a very hard day on set, but also I will say, as a writer and a producer, an exhilarating day, because the work being done that day, I think, is some of the best work being done on the show, in terms the way it's shot, and in terms of the camera moves, and the lighting, and the set dressing - and most of all, these performances, these faces. It's just such a Strong scene. I mean Alfie and Sophie are just, they're just extraordinary.

And if you ask why we wanted to bring Sansa into this world, it didn't have to do with this scene, it had to do with the idea of her coming back to reclaim her family home, and encountering this broken character who betrayed her family, and the fireworks of these actors, two of our finest actors in the cast playing off each other. That was why we made the decision to put Sansa in Winterfell.

And we could have stayed on her face for the entirety of the attack, that would have been a perfectly valid choice, but for me it was about being respectful to Sophie. ----And you know what's crazy? That was a take, that wasn't even Alfie's closeup, Alfie had already done his closeup, he was done, and then Jeremy saw what he was doing, it was in a wider shot that he wasn't even going to use, and he saw what he was doing, then Jeremy just said "go in go in" and that's was the take they used."

Raw, irrational rage

I'm not seeing a specific, articulated defense of what Benioff and Weiss did. Just an ossified defense of "decorum".

You are completely correct. And it speaks to why I asked if you'd listened to the podcast before you were on it. Decorum, as old-fashioned as that mind sound, really does matter to us here. We love well-informed arguments and have a bunch of fun, but underlying that is a respect for people with differing views and perspectives.

I'm not seeing a specific, articulated defense of what Benioff and Weiss did

It's not about free speech as much as it's giving a known online harasser a spot on the longest running ASOIAF podcast.

Agreed.

I'm always glad and usually excited to have a new person on, especially someone who has devoted so much time to the fandom and is obviously so passionate about the books and show as TDD is. I was with you at the beginning of your valid criticisms in regards to what D&D have done in going off-page from the books to do their own thing.

But then...