A tale of two scenarios

[Le Jacquelope]

Scenario #1... a guy tries to rape a woman. He fails. Because while he is ripping her clothes off, she pulls out a knife and slits him a new smile - from ear to ear.

Scenario #2... a woman assassin comes out of nowhere with a wicked blade and tries for a man's head. She misses and he rapes her as punishment.


Which one would you find most offensive?

Disclaimer: nobody's endorsing rape here. I'm just asking how different plot devices would look to a reader.

Thanks.

 

[FallingToFly]

Both sound like a lot of fun, from a reader's standpoint.

Write both!

 

[glynndah]

I have more questions, more I want to know, about the second one. I'd write that one first.

 

[Liar]

Depends. Who, if any, do you want the reader to root for? The victim in each case, who gets to retaliate in a gruesome way? If so, the first scenario is better. Mess the attacker up with surgical precision. Rape is just ugly and undignified. No poetic justice at all.

 

[Handley_Page]

Depends. Who, if any, do you want the reader to root for? The victim in each case, who gets to retaliate in a gruesome way? If so, the first scenario is better. Mess the attacker up with surgical precision. Rape is just ugly and undignified. No poetic justice at all.

I quite agree.
Apart from that, I doubt any man would offer rape as a punishment.
Surviving victims tell tales.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

Both sound like a lot of fun, from a reader's standpoint.

Write both!

LOL! Not so fast! If I ever do go nuts and write a rape scene I'd be afraid for my career and maybe my life to do scenario #2.

I have more questions, more I want to know, about the second one. I'd write that one first.

What kind of questions?

Depends. Who, if any, do you want the reader to root for? The victim in each case, who gets to retaliate in a gruesome way? If so, the first scenario is better. Mess the attacker up with surgical precision. Rape is just ugly and undignified. No poetic justice at all.

That makes sense.

I quite agree.
Apart from that, I doubt any man would offer rape as a punishment.
Surviving victims tell tales.

Or in the case of a vanquished assassin... they come back to try again?

 

[3113]

Scenario #2... a woman assassin comes out of nowhere with a wicked blade and tries for a man's head. She misses and he rapes her as punishment.

If he can overpower and rape her if she doesn't kill him, then she'd not nearly a good enough assassin, is she? When send her on this job if she can't manage it? And why does she have to get within "raping" distance to kill him anyway? Good assassins kill at a distance, as quickly and quietly as possible.

I think what would make more sense would be for her to be "punished" by whoever is in charge of the assassin's guild if she failed. That makes more sense.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

If he can overpower and rape her if she doesn't kill him, then she'd not nearly a good enough assassin, is she? When send her on this job if she can't manage it? And why does she have to get within "raping" distance to kill him anyway? Good assassins kill at a distance, as quickly and quietly as possible.

I think what would make more sense would be for her to be "punished" by whoever is in charge of the assassin's guild if she failed. That makes more sense.

Lots of stories have the assassin coming in close for the kill. Supposedly, a knife = swift, silent, deadly. In this case she would have miscalculated her prey. There's actually even a trope for that... "Boss In Mook Clothing".

Still, your point is valid. It's incredibly easy to screw up scenario #2 and make it look like one is gratuitously justifying sexual assault.

I've never written nor intend to write such a thing; but the asymmetry of public reception toward the two scenarios had come to mind. I had even considered "guy tries to kill a woman but fails and she humiliates him with a strap-on" as the third scenario - but then I said to myself... come on... who ever writes that?

 

[Liar]

I've never written nor intend to write such a thing; but the asymmetry of public reception toward the two scenarios had come to mind. I had even considered "guy tries to kill a woman but fails and she humiliates him with a strap-on" as the third scenario - but then I said to myself... come on... who ever writes that?

Truth is tranger than fiction.

http://russiatoday.ru/Top_News/2009-04-14/Hairdresser_turns_robber_into_sex-slave.html?fullstory

 

[FallingToFly]

I personally would take the second scenario. And turn it into a wicked, dirty BDSM romance, as she is not only broken from her arrogant stance of assassin into slave, then to student, and finally to equal.

And then have it all turn out to have been part of her "real" initiation into the assassin's guild.

But then again, I have no problem with rape as a plot device. It's a fact of life, it does happen, quite often. And much like child abuse and alcoholism, drug abuse, and other horrible facts of life, those are things that will either make or break a character- they will either live through it, learn, and become a new, maybe not better, but different creature, or they will break under the strain.

So if you can use it to further the plot and make it GOOD, then hell yes, go with it.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

Truth is tranger than fiction.

http://russiatoday.ru/Top_News/2009-04-14/Hairdresser_turns_robber_into_sex-slave.html?fullstory

Aw snapsky!

I personally would take the second scenario. And turn it into a wicked, dirty BDSM romance, as she is not only broken from her arrogant stance of assassin into slave, then to student, and finally to equal.

Hmmmmmmmm... wow, that comes very close to the plot of the Japanese anime "Crying Freeman"

And then have it all turn out to have been part of her "real" initiation into the assassin's guild.

Someone else will actually have to do that story - rape isn't actually erotic for me.

But then again, I have no problem with rape as a plot device. It's a fact of life, it does happen, quite often. And much like child abuse and alcoholism, drug abuse, and other horrible facts of life, those are things that will either make or break a character- they will either live through it, learn, and become a new, maybe not better, but different creature, or they will break under the strain.

So if you can use it to further the plot and make it GOOD, then hell yes, go with it.

Yeah, who can ever forget Luke & Laura?

 

[FallingToFly]

I loved Crying Freeman, lol.

I'm a pervy little hobbit, thought, which is why I'm writing the kind of stuff I'm writing now.

Maybe I'll see if I can get some people interested in a group project...