The fifth season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” made history at the Emmy Awards on Sunday, when it became the first sci-fi or fantasy show ever to win Best Drama and its 12 total awards broke the record for the most won by any show in a single year.

Yet some have griped that, even if “Game of Thrones” is a great show, this wasn’t its best season. Indeed, that this may even have been its worst season. Season 5 was almost certainly its most controversial season, especially because of the (SPOILER ALERT) the marital rape of Sansa Stark in Episode 6 and the sacrificial burning of Shireen Baratheon in Episode 9, neither of which has yet happened in George R.R. Martin’s novels.

Some of the show’s creatives, including the director of Episode 6, have addressed these controversies in the past. But evidently, “Game of Thrones” creators Dan Benioff and D.B. Weiss still feel the issue is unresolved. In a post-Emmy interview with Entertainment Weekly, Benioff said that they “never set out to offend anyone” by staging those brutal moments.

“To try to offend anyone would be juvenile, but to be afraid to offend people would be cowardly,” Benioff explained. “There were people saying they were never going to watch again. We’re just trying to tell the story the best we can.”

It was certainly good enough for Emmy voters! And for quite a few viewers at home as well.

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