Thread:WoddieLaddie/@comment-38019860-20190815043518/@comment-5470513-20190816235610

PyroHunter16 wrote:

See, there are ''so many other ways to show a villain is a villain, or to show that a system can be exploited. It's true those scenarios unfortunately exist, but you don't have to put them in your story. Kawahara's other story, Accel World, has absolutely nothing of that sort, and it's doing fine. There were so many other options.''
 * Fake Fairy King is a greedy corporate superiority complex, so have him challenge Kirito to a proper duel instead of just ripping Asuna's cloth coverings off bit by bit like a disgusting fuck.
 * Sinon's attacker was actually somewhat tolerable. He was psychologically fucked, so his insanity got the better of him. Also, Sinon's attack was the least explicit, thank whatever deity exists.
 * Tiese and Ronye did not have to be exploited to show the system's limits and exploitations. The Canon Wiki states "The Seal works by inducing great pain onto a human's right eye whenever they even attempt to think about questioning or breaking any rules that they believe have authority, to dissuade them from questioning or acting out against an imposed rule." If that's the case, you can write any number of scenarios that don't involve sexual assault around this rule and have it break. Maybe Kirito and Eugeo are dueling the noble bullies or something, and the bullies taunt them. Our protagonist duo prove to be much stronger than the nobles thanks to the Aincrad style or some shit, and the bullies start getting impulsive. They start fighting for real, and one seriously injures Kirito. Finally, Kirito takes a hit and Eugeo reaches a decision: does he continue to follow the code and fight according to the duel's predetermined rules, or does he break the seal and get revenge for Kirito?

All of these scenarios are things I made up on the spot. The last one took the most effort. They're all still plothole-ridden, but they're alternatives that could've happened. Arguably, they're more interesting this way, since Eugeo's new scenario puts him in a big character development scene and Kirito's not plot-armored protagonist. I'll agree that in these instances the story could've (and maybe even should've) been handeled better.

What I won't agree on is that writers don't have to put them in their stories. It's all a matter of context, you won't put sexual asault in a story made for kids. Movies made for adults, well, that's a different matter (of course, I'm not saying that every single story made for adults should be about rape, but the subject can be used in a story).

Stories are, ultimatelly, about people. Humans. The conflict that affects those humans and how do they come out of that conflict. As such, anything can be the subject of conflict.

To quote one of my favorite authors ever, GRRM said about the sexual violence in his series of books: "Rape and sexual violence have been a part of every war fought since the ancient sumerians to our present day. To omit them from a narrative centered around war and power would have been fundamentally false and dishonest, and would've undermined one of the themes of the books, that the true horrors of human history don't derive from dark lords or orcs, but from ourselves. We are the monsters (and the heroes too). It's all a matter of the choices we make."

Lastly, this is the last reply I'm making to this post. I think I made my point.