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Game of Thrones Alters Bush’s Head
The Bush Head Before and After Alterations
After the controversy surrounding the use of a mask depecting former President Bush’s head, the HBO series Game of Thrones has made some changes After HBO pulled the episode and stopped DVD production. The producers then apologized saying it was out of necessity and that they had to use the heads available. Now that the story went viral, the production team has altered the George W. Bush mask. It’s chin, nose, and face are now considerably smaller.
The changes to the mask may not erase the inappropriate mistake that the Game of Thrones staff made, but it is at least a step in the right direction. By altering the mask, the show did the right thing in trying to make amends. It acknowledged its mistake. Of course, the staff should not have made the mistake in the first place but at least it was handled with some grace.
For those who are aware of who the mask originally depicted and were offended, changing the mask may not help because the damage has been done. Using the mask of a former president to depict a beheading will always be inappropriate, but trying to alter the head was the right thing to do. The mistake will still be remembered, but so will the correction.
Did HBO and the Game of Thrones do enough?
Game of Thrones Puts Bush’s Head on a Stake
The Bush Mask as seen on Game of Thrones
HBO’s Game of Thrones has been the subject of a lot of controversy, since it was revealed that the show used a mask of former President George W. Bush to depict a decapitated head. The production crew apologized, saying that they just had to use the heads they had lying around. They can make any excuse they want and say that it isn’t a political statement, but that does not make the putting a former presidents head on a stake any less inappropriate.
The fact is that it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks of President Bush. It doesn’t matter how often he may have disappointed some parts of the public. He was still the president of the United States and deserves some basic human decency. Frankly, I do believe the Game of Thrones crew and that it wasn’t trying to express any hate toward Bush, but that’s irrelevant. It was in poor taste. They should have known they would have to defend themselves. You don’t just get away with something that is potentially and probably extremely offensive.
Placing Former President Bush’s head on a stake could easily be interpreted as a symbol of the desire to decapitate him, even if it wasn’t intended as such. Someone needed to think it out more carefully. It’s patently offensive. A member of the crew should have thought that the reaction to this will not be positive.
Thankfully, all content about the decapitation will be removed from Game of Thrones DVDs. The show did the right thing after the fact, but such a blatantly offensive idea should have never been thought of in the first place.
Wait! What's A Dial? 