AceShowbiz -

"Game of Thrones" will tone down the way sexual violence in upcoming season 6 following complaints over Sansa Stark's (Sophie Turner) rape scene in the fifth season, according to director Jeremy Podeswa. Jeremy said creators David Benioff and DB Weiss decided to reconsider how the subject is portrayed on the show.

According to the director, David and DB "were responsive to the discussion and there were a couple of things that changed as a result. It is important that (the producers) not self-censor. The show depicts a brutal world where horrible things happen. They did not want to be too overly influenced by that (criticism) but they did absorb and take it in and it did influence them in a way."

Jeremy said the Sansa Stark's rape scene "was a difficult and brutal scene and we knew it was going to be challenging for the audience." He added, "But it was very important to us in the execution that it would not be exploited in any way. To be fair, the criticism was the notion of it, not the execution. It was handled as sensitively as it could possibly be."

After "Game of Thrones" caused Twitter uproar with the disturbing rape twist aired back in May, George R.R. Martin defended the show. "The show is the show, the books are the books; two different tellings of the same story," George explained, "There have been differences between the novels and the television show since the first episode of season one. And for just as long, I have been talking about the butterfly effect. Small changes lead to larger changes lead to huge changes."

"Game of Thrones" season 6 will premiere on HBO in April 2016.