Ishal said:
the view that rape in a story should carry a lot more weight. That rape should play a more central role to the story, and thus be granted a reasonable degree of gravitas.
Also, such a claim is talking out both sides of the mouth. Rape
is central to the story, and the world. It happens constantly, both on screen and even more implied offscreen. It's a horrible place, and a horrible time. But by it being a central role, it's going to happen a lot... and thus lose it's gravitas. If it's central and indeed a thing in the world, I'm afraid there is no way to avoid diminishing returns.
Rape is not central to the story.
Game of Thrones is a series about a bunch of royal families violently competing for control, set in a world with sword chairs and dragons. The World is most certainly one of hardship, grit, ruthlessness and violence. None of that actually demands rape be an included feature however, any more than the
Dark Knight movies are obligated to have a rape scene because, hey, Gotham is a shitty place. I just finished reading China Melville's
Perdido Street Station: it's a fantasy setting crammed with incredible (and often surreal) violence, grimness and inhumanity. But I didn't feel weirded out when the book lacked a rape scene, because I didn't need one to feel the tone or engage with the story.
It is ultimately up to the writers as to whether they want to include rape in their story, but we can still criticize them for choosing to do so, if that rape feels gratuitous, out of place, poorly inserted, or badly handled. Just saying "it's a medieval setting, rape happened in medieval times" is not an actual justification.