Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|"''In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous.''"

 

In many works of fiction, especially situations of [[Rape as Drama]], rape is not merely bad; it's a qualitatively different level of evil. As such, a rape scene can be used as a [[Kick the Dog]] moment for a particularly evil character, or as the point where a character who previously was merely unlikeable crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]] into [[Complete Monster]] territory.

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Death Note]]'': Light Yagami was made more sympathetic in the anime adaptation of the manga by changing his second murder from the killing of man who was sexually harassing a woman to the killing of a man who was attempting to rape a woman.

* In ''[[Blood+]]'' {{spoiler|most viewers sympathized with Diva until she raped Riku, at which point she crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]]}}.

* In ''[[How Not To Summon a Demon Lord]]'', this is a major reason (along with being a [[Dirty Coward|coward]] and [[The Caligula|an idiot]]) why Shera’s depraved brother Prince Keera is such a monster. First, he brainwashes Shera using magic to “convince” her to come with him, intending rape right from the start and turns the brainwashing off right before attempting the act so she can be as terrified as possible. He then uses some sort of magically controlled [[Blob Monster|slime monster]] to disrobe her, laughing like the madman he is and describing this as "foreplay" to the hero when he breaks in to save her. All this is portrayed with the appropriate [[Fan Disservice]], in stark contrast to the many scenes of Fanservice elsewhere in this series. Worst of all, [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|the concept of basic decency is foreign to Keera]] - when he learns that Rem and Shera had accidentally put on [[Slave Collar]]s and that Diablo could have forced himself upon them at any time, but never acted on it, he genuinely can't understand why. He instead rationalizes that Diablo must have manipulated Shera into giving consent, and that she was too stupid to realize it, when Diablo hadn't been intimate with her at all.

 

* ''[[Identity Crisis]]'': Dr. Light was evil, but he wasn't '''[[Complete Monster|evil]]''' until it was [[Ret Conned]] that he had raped {{spoiler|Sue Dibny}} in the JLA watchtower. Following the retcon, it's become standard practice to write Light as a serial rapist. Quoth Plastic Man: "It's like that's his power now."

* To quote [[Fantastic Four|Doctor Doom]] in a 2010 issue of ''[[X-Factor (comics)|X-Factor]]'':

* In ''[[Final Crisis]]'', [[Lex Luthor]] joins Libra in his plans to aid [[Darkseid]] in his conquest of the Earth and seems to have no problem with Libra brainwashing people and killing superheroes. But when Libra vaguely implies that after victory he plans organizing a rape-train on Supergirl and Lex is going to be first in the line, Luthor teams up with Doctor Shivana to bring him down.

 

* In the ''[[Ranma ½]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/220198/1/Lost_Innocence Lost Innocence]'', Kuno rapes a female Ranma, while "she" is under the influence of a love potion administered by Shampoo, which prompts Ukyo to use a Jusenkyo spring water to turn him into a mouse and let him out in the forest... Where he is bitten in half by an owl.

* In ''[[Tiberium Wars]]'', even the Brotherhood of Nod is disgusted by rape, and it is implied that Kane personally considers it reprehensible. (Sexual assault is listed as a "Class One Offense against the Messiah.") Soldiers caught in the act can be summarily executed, which happens when {{spoiler|a Nod soldier tries to rape Sandra Telfair}}. He almost manages to pull it off, when {{spoiler|a Black Hand busts in, beats the attacker senseless against a wall while repeatedly telling the Nod soldier what his offense was, and then chucks him out a window,}} once again proving that [[Even Evil Has Standards|even evil has standards.]]

* Semi-example in ''[[Mistakes]]''; the [[Axis Powers Hetalia|nation-tans]] don't mind being killed at all because it [[Good Thing You Can Heal|doesn't stick]], but being raped still traumatises them.

 

* ''[[M]]'' is about a bunch of criminal gangs that work together to capture a child-rapist/murderer. Although many of the gang members are themselves guilty of murder and such, they still see themselves as morally superior to the pedophile. This combines Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil with [[Wouldn't Hurt a Child]]. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and even [[Deconstruction|deconstructed]] by one character, who suggests that Hans may actually be ''less'' blameworthy, because for him killing is a compulsion, whereas the others all have a choice.

** Hell, ''the serial killer himself'' deconstructs their adherence to this trope with a [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] directed towards them all; he knows and hates that he's a monster, but he does what he does because he's mentally ill and can't control his compulsions, whereas they do what they do because they're too lazy or greedy to seek honest employment.

* ''[[Sucker Punch]]'': The way all the orderlies and viewers of the girls dancing in the brothel are depicted as entirely gross, creepy and evil. (After Baby Doll's sister dies and her mother dies)

 

* In [[Belisarius Series]] the Malwa seem to be fond of rape as no one else is, presumably to show how evil they are. At least one of them even makes a point of physically ravishing [[Sex Slave]] s rather then just ordering them to have sex with him. It is even specially noted that in other societies "concubine" means "pampered semi-official junior wife of aristocrats in societies that practice limited polygamy" whereas among the Malwa it means "today's rape victim of an important person". Good guys, [[The Woman Are Safe With Us|of course]] do not stoop to this sort of thing and in Belisarius' army someone caught raping will have to [[Off with His Head|talk to Valentinian]].

* In ''[[Chung Kuo]]'', a world with a [[Grey and Gray Morality]], rebel leader deVore is established as particularly evil through a gruesome rape scene.

* Young Adult novel ''I Hunt Killers'' by Barry Lyga is about the son of America's most notorious [[Serial Killer]], who at one point muses on whether it really matters whether or not a woman (always a woman) was raped before she is horribly tortured, mutilated and killed.

 

* The entire premise behind ''[[Law & Order: Special Victims Unit]]'', as indicated by the page quote - rape and other forms of sex-based crimes are considered especially heinous by society, and the Special Victims Unit of the NYPD is tasked with handling the arrest and prosecution of those alleged to have committed such crimes.

** ''SVU'' [[Lampshade Hanging|hung an episode-long lampshade]] on the fact that they treat rapists more harshly than any other kind of criminal. During this episode, a man was accused of raping a minor, and was basically treated like crap by the cops despite his pleas of innocence. When he complained of being attacked by other prisoners, the cops responded with "You deserve it". Turns out, {{spoiler|he really was innocent (and being railroaded by the woman he supposedly raped, who was 24 but looked younger), trying to scam the hotel for a big settlement, and... oops... the accused rapist was murdered by another prisoner before he could be released}}. [[Justice by Other Legal Means|Luckily, that made the "girl" legally culpable for murder.]]

* There are not many things Richard [[Sharpe]] will not do. Most of them involve harming civilians, and rape is top of the list. And if he catches someone ''else'' doing it, he will kill them and damn the consequences.

 

* This is the reason why servants of Slaanesh in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' are considered [[Complete Monster|nightmarish]] even by [[Exclusively Evil|Chaos]] standards. Khorne followers [[Axe Crazy|maim burn kill]], Tzeentch followers [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulate]], and Nurgle followers are [[Affably Evil|genuinely friendly]], but Slaanesh followers will inflict unimaginable tortures for their own pleasure, death being a gift. Granted, rape is ''far'' from the only tool in their considerable arsenal, but it is certainly used.

** Somewhat subverted (possibly) with the Dark Eldar, for whom it is implied several times that they can be considered even more gruesome and, well, evil, than Chaos. When their new release was announced, the title of the White Dwarf article was "Pray they don't take you alive." They aren't known specifically for rape (although it is possibly included), but some of the things they do can be pure nightmare fuel

** ''[[The Book of Erotic Fantasy]]'' includes a Wizard spell that will turn a victim into a willing [[Sex Slave]]; the description specifically notes that using the spell is an Evil act.

 

* In ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire]]'' {{spoiler|Stanley's rape of Blanche}} cements his status as a complete [[Jerkass]].

* [[Spring Awakening]]'s [[Abusive Parents]] are bad enough, but "The Dark I Know Well" puts Martha and Ilse's fathers firmly in this category.

 

* Open-ended role-playing games or [[Karma Meter]] games as a whole. Plenty of games exist where you can go around slaughtering innocents if you want, but how many allow you to rape someone at will? (In retrospect, not that allowing this would at all make for better games ...)

* [[Nippon Ichi]] are pretty big on this trope:

* In ''[[Alice: Madness Returns]]''. the [[Big Bad]] is {{spoiler|a psychiatrist who deals with a human traffickers selling ''children'' to a prostitution ring after hypnotizing them; possibly he is a pedophile himself. He is depicted as the more vile than even the darkest residents of Wonderland.}} The game also uses the Trope as a way to show [[Even Evil Has Standards]] at the start of chapter 2. Alice winds up in a bad part of town full of unsavory crooks, but while many of them make indecent and perverted advanced towards her, they back off when she tells them to.

 

* In ''[[Drowtales]]'', murder, slavery, gladiatorial combat, etc., are commonplace, but when {{spoiler|Rikshakar}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20111205033310/http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?id=1085 kidnaps and attempts to rape] {{spoiler|Ariel Val'Sarghress}}, it's [[Moral Event Horizon]] crossing time! He had tried this once before and failed due to interference, but this made Ariel realize how truly fucked in the head he was. It also makes [[Fridge Horror|more sense]] that she didn't at first recognize what he was trying to do when you remember that drow have [[Ethical Slut|a very open view of sexuality]], so the idea of forcing someone into sex would seem odd to them.

** There's also an interesting variation in the fandom's eyes, mainly how {{spoiler|Quain'tana}} was seen by many to have crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]] with the reveal that she'd ordered {{spoiler|her daughter Mel'arnach}} raped to try to conceive an heir. It had been well established that she was a horribly abusive parent, but to many fans this seemed especially callous and cruel. This is a case where {{spoiler|Quain'tana}} herself (apparently) didn't commit the actual act, but everyone agrees that the onus fell on her for ordering it, resulting in an interesting aversion of [[Double Standard Rape (Female on Female)]] (sort of).

* From ''[[Last Res0rt]]'', only two of the [[Condemned Contestant]]s in the [[Deadly Game]] reality show, Geisha and Arikos, are considered [[Complete Monster|beyond redemption]] by the rest of the cast - both have rape-related crimes on their rap sheets.

 

* Since murder is a common element of ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', frequently being committed by even heroic characters, the truly awful villains are often characterised by rape or torture. Rapists include Adam Reeves, Cody Jenson and Walter Smith, and the act is considered the [[Moral Event Horizon]] for each.

* ''[[SCP Foundation]]''. Darkly subverted with SCP-231. Yes, this pre-teen girl was tortured by an evil cult and forcibly impregnated with what may be [[The Antichrist]], and must be subjected to a horrible procedure to prevent its birth and the world's destruction. However, what the cult did to her was ''not'' rape. It was something ''worse''.

* Lots of flashbacks in the ''[[Hazbin Hotel]]'' music video ''Addict'' show Angel Dust's boss, Valentino, sexually abusing him, with a very quick flashback during the post-credits scene implying that Valentino even raped him, leaving Angel traumatized by it.

 

* In ''[[Rick and Morty]]'', most of the evil things Rick does are played for [[Black Comedy]] potential. Rape, however, is always portrayed as a vile act that ''none'' of the regular cast condones.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'': Interestingly averted with Quagmire. He customarily [[Slipping a Mickey|drugs the various women he dates]] [[Date Rape|and then rapes them]] [[Dude, She's Like, in a Coma|while they are unconscious]]. Yet when he finds out that his sister is [[Domestic Abuse|being subjected to physical abuse by her boyfriend]], ''this'' tips him over the edge into [[Knight Templar Big Brother]] territory by leading him [[Wife-Basher Basher|to murder the boyfriend]].

{{quote|'''Harley:''' Oh just what we need, another perv in Gotham.

'''Mad Hatter:''' I'm not a "perv", I torture and murder, nothing ''gross''.}}

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Rape Tropes]]

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:Morality Tropes]]

[[Category:Double Standard]]

[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]

[[Category:Corruption Tropes]]