Would it be cynical and/or offensive if I said that I've come to suspect "a love of [rape-filled] Grimdark" and "someone's fetish" are one and the same?
No, I think it would be 100% accurate.
I've been thinking about why I enjoy JRPGs so much, and I lately realized something that might be part of it. They have some truly horrible stuff happening. Huge emotional gut punches, main characters dying, end of the world, etc. Lots of darkness all over the place. And it's not like they're free of sexism.
But 1) there are characters who, even if hugely messed up, are still trying to do the right thing and 2) there's almost no rape. There's creepiness sometimes -- there was an attempted forced marriage in FF10, which the girl got out of all on her own, and also a really weird part of FF7 -- and sometimes there's gender essentialism and such. But when there's an implication of the danger of rape, you can be almost entirely positive that the women or girls are going to find a way out of it, and entirely positive that they will not be blamed for it.
I can only think of one time a female character in a JRPG I've played was threatened with rape, besides the implications of the attempted forced marriage in FF10. In Persona 4, there's a scene in which a character is pretty blatantly threatened with gang rape. But that scene and her entire character arc are done right. It's about her. And though she's been a pretty obnoxious character, one who uses her looks to get what she wants, it's very explicit that the boy doing the threatening is totally and completely in the wrong. There's no "she deserves it" from anyone whom we're supposed to respect.
Basically, the female characters are all people. While there are background characters who are there to be victims, they're as likely to be men as women, and be of any age, and they are not likely to be rape victims. I might have to be braced for "okay, something really shitty might happen at any moment" and "the characters I love most are about to die" and even "the world is about to end and everything my characters worked for will be undone", but I don't have to be braced for "oh look a female character let's see how she's going to be sexually assaulted this time" or "let's see where the rape market is in THIS neighborhood."
Er, I apologize for the tangent. Tl;dr: I think you're completely right. A story can be dark without being rapetastic, even while having rape in it but treating it right. But I've never heard of a Grimdark story without lots and lots and lots of rape, all fetishized.
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No, I think it would be 100% accurate.
I've been thinking about why I enjoy JRPGs so much, and I lately realized something that might be part of it. They have some truly horrible stuff happening. Huge emotional gut punches, main characters dying, end of the world, etc. Lots of darkness all over the place. And it's not like they're free of sexism.
But 1) there are characters who, even if hugely messed up, are still trying to do the right thing and 2) there's almost no rape. There's creepiness sometimes -- there was an attempted forced marriage in FF10, which the girl got out of all on her own, and also a really weird part of FF7 -- and sometimes there's gender essentialism and such. But when there's an implication of the danger of rape, you can be almost entirely positive that the women or girls are going to find a way out of it, and entirely positive that they will not be blamed for it.
I can only think of one time a female character in a JRPG I've played was threatened with rape, besides the implications of the attempted forced marriage in FF10. In Persona 4, there's a scene in which a character is pretty blatantly threatened with gang rape. But that scene and her entire character arc are done right. It's about her. And though she's been a pretty obnoxious character, one who uses her looks to get what she wants, it's very explicit that the boy doing the threatening is totally and completely in the wrong. There's no "she deserves it" from anyone whom we're supposed to respect.
Basically, the female characters are all people. While there are background characters who are there to be victims, they're as likely to be men as women, and be of any age, and they are not likely to be rape victims. I might have to be braced for "okay, something really shitty might happen at any moment" and "the characters I love most are about to die" and even "the world is about to end and everything my characters worked for will be undone", but I don't have to be braced for "oh look a female character let's see how she's going to be sexually assaulted this time" or "let's see where the rape market is in THIS neighborhood."
Er, I apologize for the tangent. Tl;dr: I think you're completely right. A story can be dark without being rapetastic, even while having rape in it but treating it right. But I've never heard of a Grimdark story without lots and lots and lots of rape, all fetishized.