Board Thread:Rant and Rave/@comment-25926288-20170618042330/@comment-28162607-20170910160122

CoolDudeAl wrote: Aine1989 wrote: So you see nothing problematic in a rape victim being told to trust his rapist and then getting killed so said rapist can have custody of his child?

I am not blaming Zelena or Regina, I am blaming the writer for throwing a victim of rape under the bus to prop up the rapist. Saying "victims do not matter as much as their abusers" is not good.

And on Robin, how about the fact that he did not even get to speak about his rape? It was made about Regina and how she feels about it, how it was so unfair for her. Yes, part of that is due to the fact that Robin is not really a character in his own right, but it still sucked that his rape was not even made about him or his trauma but about how sad it was for Regina that her boyfriend was raped. (Just saying, if the genders were switched everyone would be up in arms about this)

My point is, these writers handle abuse plots badly.

I'll use another example you probably won't argue with: Killian jumping off a roof to get Emma's attention. As a hardcore Killian/CS fan, this was an atrocious writng choice and shows their complete ignorance on abuse related issues, to have Killian manipulate Emma in a way very common to abusive relationships.

Or having David/Killian force a kiss on Snow/Emma. Again,w hile not sexual assault in the context of the show, it shows their lack of knowledge re consent

I am not trying to demonise any character,  I am trying to point out this show is terrible at handling abuse, which is a serious topic. I guess I just don't watch the show for a commentary on abuse. There are much better things (that aren't set in a fantasy world), that give better commentary on this. Also, this is more a general complaint, because many people do it, but I hate that people refer to what happened to Robin as rape. Robin willingly slept with Zelena, because he thought she was Marian. Yes, Robin was tricked, because it wasn't really Marian, but to me "rape" implies being forced to have sex against your will, which it was not. That doesn't make what Zelena did right, but I think by refering to is as rape, it takes away what rape is to actual rape victims. No it was rape. He consented to sleep with Marian, not Zelena. Consent gained through fraud is not consent. It is rape by deception. Which is a thing.

I don't watch the show for a commentary on abuse either but that does not change that there are several instances of abuse and sexual violence that have not been dealt with properly