Tolkien: and then the Good King came and cast out the Evil Stewards who were corrupt because they ruled without the correct bloodline. Everything was peaceful after that and there was no more evil. There are two women in this story. Monarchy is good. The actual singular God who created everything wants you to be ruled by a 300 year old nobleman. The End.
GRRM: Feudalism is inherently destructive. Even the Noble Good Guys cause unimaginable suffering due to the structures of the system they operate within. Women are no more than brood mares under Feudalism. There is a Good King whose father was deposed. This Good King has spent his life living amongst the common people in order to become a good ruler. He is being manipulated by cynical actors and will bring devastation to the world when he begins his conquest. Thirty years ago the Hero of Prophecy acted to save the world from the Great Evil. He unleashed devastation on the land, died, and destroyed his own dynasty, possibly dooming the world. There are no gods, only powerful forces beyond our understanding that operate through the power of blood. Once upon a time there was a Good King who ruled justly. He brought peace to the land and improved the common folks' lot tremendously. Due the nature of Feudalism, the succession crisis that succeeded his reign led to the most bloodshed in 300 years. No one who wants war understands its cost.
People who dislike things because they're popular: Wow these are exactly the same!
As I said before many times in this thread, it's one thing to illustrate it and another to illustrate it again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
Dune had
spoiler
rape as a plot point when Baron Harkonnen raped a Bene Gessarit and managed to survive a retalitory Golm Jabbar poisoning which directly shaped his appearance and his psyche forever after
and the point was illustrated without being revisited again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. At some point, it simply becomes about what the author wants to emphasize more than what the story absolutely needs, and clearly you and the rest of his fandom are totally fine with that but if you can't see how that's offputting to other people, I don't know how else to explain it.
As I said again and again, you're welcome to not like this depiction. But there is easily 100x as much non-sexual violence as there is sexual violence. People are just used to genocide in their stories.
Yeah I don't.
I didn't even imply that I was absolutely fond of all the non-sexual violence presented as exhaustively as banners and pigeon pie, either. To me, GRRM gets too lost in the details of what he gets into, and what he gets into is unpleasant overall for me, be it slaughter or sexual violence. That's a matter of subjective taste, of course.
Dune has plenty of murder and mayhem and weighty consequences and presents the perils and potentials of power in a way that fascinate me, and it does it without repetitive "and this battle was this gory!" or going into excessive details about the Harkonnens' latest acts of brutality, sexual or otherwise. That's more my jam. Things can be illustrated without being driven into the ground with repetition and over-emphasis.