LMAO I think you guys are talking about my story (sorry
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In my case, it would be stories romanticizing rape.
I really can't stand the MCs in those kind of story. I mean, it's not their fault they got raped, but girl (most of the time it's a girl). Really? You're really falling in love with the guy who's constantly sexually harassing you and forces himself on you? Nah.
I don't mind the rape itself, but the development of the plot afterwards got to make sense. The webtoon Light and Shadow is a good example. The main characters' relationship started with rape, but it never once got romanticized.
Don't worry. My grudge was not directed towards your story in particular even though it includes a mild form of it too.
I have another one and that one is borderline rage-inducing because it makes absolutely no sense and is contradicting the MC's personality. To convey why I have to outline a bit of the story and the character(s).
About the MC: She has a strong personality and follows through with what she has in mind. I dont mean it as a form of stuborness but more like her opinion on matters isnt easily swayed or just does what everyone wants her to do. Lets just say she is not dumb and is no puppet on strings, normally that is.
A bit of what happens storywise: Starts with an arranged marriage. She arrived at the place where her husband-to-be lives and marriage is planned in a few weeks. Husband-to-be is abusive (not physically). No problem for her, she can live with it to some degree because she has friends in the court and doesnt have to interact as much with him. Her sole responsibility is to produce an heir and she is prepared for that. Well, stuff happend and she flees the castle at day of the marriage with her bodyguard.
That was the first arc wich introduces the MC and important side-characters. Potrays their personalities and how they act. Every event that happend had a logical consequence. I was a happy reader at that time because of it and the lack of plot holes. Even the writing is superb. Overall enjoyable and interesting.
Later in the story she was captured with her bodyguard for a crime that was constructed by a tribal-queen. They were forced to wander around with them and had to do heavy physical labor and got weapon training for some constructed reason until they got ransomed. After a pov change to the tribal-queen the reader got to know that the tribal-queen was acting according to a prohecy/vision of their shaman because they would need the MC in the future to survive certain events.
After some time the queen took the MC and some tribes-men to a coastal city to sell stuff because the vision said so. The bodyguard was left behind with the rest of the tribe because of reasons. (The bodyguard was at no point of the story more than a room/tent away from the MC)
First night in the town the MC got kidnapped by a slave trader captain because she got regocnized as a wanted run-away noble lady. The only condition to get the reward was that her face and womb had to be intact.
Important to notice at that point: The tribal-queen and the MC were not friends. The MC was a prisoner and they were absolutely not on 'good terms'.
To cut the events on the ship short, she made a friend on the ship and had to watch her get raped every night until said friend died after a few month. She was forced to fight other slaves/prisoners as a sport/entertainment for the crew. In the end even she got raped. She was broken and lifeless when she got 'rescued'. Well her rescue involved a mortal wound and she survived because of 'outside' influence and not because of her rescue party.
Now she was back in the care of the queen as a guest and not as a prisoner. There was not much interaction between them. After she overheard a conversation between the shaman and the queen she learned that her 'imprisonment' by the queen happend because of a prohecy. Mental-breakdown followed.
To summarize: Her time with the queen, the slaveship and then again with the queen left her mentally-traumatized, scarred, battlecrazed and with night-terrors and anger-issues.
I dont know if I am allowed to do this but I will copy some part of the chapter here:
Their relationship had always been tainted by deceit, the Queen’s loyalty to her people, and to an unseen balance. Aggie had never felt truly close to her, and yet…
She had been as much a friend as any Aggie had ever had.
Save only for Ines. (Slave-friend on the ship)
“Thank you. For doing the best you could.” Aggie managed to say, her cheeks burning at the show of humility with an audience. Despite the wording sounding condescending, Aggie had meant it to ease an assumed guilt. She didn’t know if the Queen truly felt guilty for all that had happened to her, but Aggie wondered…
If she herself were the Queen, and someone she were trying to protect had been exposed to horrors despite her best efforts…
She would feel endless guilt.
The look on the her face, made Aggie realize her guess had been accurate. The Queen had not treated what happened to Aggie lightly, but couldn’t let the weight of the folly disrupt her ability to lead.
In the end, Aggie hoped she would see that woman’s face again one day.
As it was, the 2 embraced warmly.
At no point of the whole story I got the feeling that they became friends or even remotely close. The MC was at no point such a forgiving person and carries some grudges even to this day. I got fucking blind-sided by this scene and cant make any sense of it. Is that some kind of stockholm syndrome? I just cant follow the reasoning of the author. Does he want to force a friendship between those two even though it doesnt make sense because of some stupid plot in the future?
Well, as you can see with the amount I wrote about this particular story Im infuriated. It contradicts her potrayed personality and logic the story followed. Everytime I think back to this story I get uneasy.
