<insert infinite legions of Kashima fans from the across the Omniverse screaming for Seweratmiral to be tortured and crucified for his crimes>
I can't help but notice everyone wants to murder THIS rapey bastard Admiral, but when a less cartoonishly-faced Admiral goes beyond the pale with Murakumo, people keep cheering it on.
I can't help but notice everyone wants to murder THIS rapey bastard Admiral, but when a less cartoonishly-faced Admiral goes beyond the pale with Murakumo, people keep cheering it on.
One, I haven't read that comic yet, only glimpses of its pages when they turn up in random pools that I regularly check.
Two, from what I did see, Murakumo seems to not suffer any psychological trauma from such sexual harrassment, so I'm assuming the universe she's in is a slapstick comedy one where such things more or less as trivial to the victimized girl as ordinary pranks.
The universe of this story, however, is not slapstick or comedic at all, and in fact is very serious and full of dark drama alongside the happy WAFF of peaceful moments.
One, I haven't read that comic yet, only glimpses of its pages when they turn up in random pools that I regularly check.
Two, from what I did see, Murakumo seems to not suffer any psychological trauma from such sexual harrassment, so I'm assuming the universe she's in is a slapstick comedy one where such things more or less as trivial to the victimized girl as ordinary pranks.
The universe of this story, however, is not slapstick or comedic at all, and in fact is very serious and full of dark drama alongside the happy WAFF of peaceful moments.
Isn't that an odd standard, though? "Haha laugh-it-off rape" is fine, so long as the author doesn't make it expressly clear you're supposed to empathize with the drama? I mean, shouldn't you react the same way to the same situation, regardless of what the author's trying to make you feel?
Isn't that an odd standard, though? "Haha laugh-it-off rape" is fine, so long as the author doesn't make it expressly clear you're supposed to empathize with the drama? I mean, shouldn't you react the same way to the same situation, regardless of what the author's trying to make you feel?
That's kinda the point of drama and story telling though. The writer's ability to intentionally instill a certain emotion into the reader. It's not meant to take in account the reader's ability to think beyond the story's scope. That is something you gain through your understanding of the story as well as your own personal experiences. Which is the point of storytelling in a nutshell.
Not to say that either circumstance is right or wrong or more or less, but that whatever the artist or writer is trying to tell you is governed by how well they convey that within the story itself. The reader is who allows it to expand beyond its pages.
I can't help but notice everyone wants to murder THIS rapey bastard Admiral, but when a less cartoonishly-faced Admiral goes beyond the pale with Murakumo, people keep cheering it on.
That Murakumo is willing and able to defend herself against his advances, to the point of physically counterattacking and injuring him, without fear of official retribution. She doesn't seem to be able or willing to quit, so there's some powerlessness involved, but she isn't nearly as powerless as this Kashima was against this admiral.
EDIT: Your point is still well taken, that we seem to be willing to accept sexual assault as comedy, as with ha akabouzu's storylines (and many many others on this site and elsewhere). Whether the victim is able to fight back does make a difference, though.
That Murakumo is willing and able to defend herself against his advances, to the point of physically counterattacking and injuring him, without fear of official retribution.
I'd push back a little on this, since part of the point is that Murakumo isn't capable of effectively fighting back, and this is pretty deliberate. If Murakumo tries to fight back, most of the time, she winds up groped, semi-naked, face-down with her ass in the air while the Admiral takes pictures of her, or else rubbing her groins directly in the Admiral's face. Whenever Admiral does something bad enough that he actually does get his comeuppance, it's completely off-screen and results in nothing but a head bump that lasts a couple panels. If we're supposed to feel for the trauma caused by humiliation, then it's pretty clear that the humiliation is entirely on one side, there.
Compared to the Kiso series, where all Kiso's humiliation was broadly self-inflicted (outside of Kuma) and the Admiral was generally moving towards helping her out of it, Murakumo's Admiral is clearly abusive and trying to systematically humiliate Murakumo.
It must suck to be that child who didn't laugh when sitting in front of the TV while watching cartoons because the characters always got hurt. In another life you would be a perfect PETA supporter chained to the main gate of Warner Bros. studios.
Isn't that an odd standard, though? "Haha laugh-it-off rape" is fine, so long as the author doesn't make it expressly clear you're supposed to empathize with the drama? I mean, shouldn't you react the same way to the same situation, regardless of what the author's trying to make you feel?
I think you missed a part of his explanation. Different fictional universes -- even when they're fanworks of the same canon, such as KanColle -- can operate on vastly different underlying sensibilities.
You wouldn't expect one of the Three Stooges to be rushed to the hospital for emergency eye surgery after a two-fingered eye poke -- even though that would be a likely outcome for a real eye poke -- because we recognize that, in this fictional universe, an eye poke is never going to cause permanent harm. Just as we know that the ten sticks of dynamite planted by Jerry going off at Tom's feet are only going to give him a charred appearance for a few seconds, not do permanent harm.
In short, we are not "reacting the same way to the same situation" because it's not the same situation. In this particular series, it's clear that a sexual assault -- even one that gets fought off -- causes deep and lasting trauma, and it's understandable for an audience to react with anger towards a character who inflicts such damage. In another series, though, it may be clear that no one suffers anything worse than temporary embarrassment and chagrin from a sexual assault. If that sensibility is made clear, why would it be reasonable for a reader to willfully reject it and say "No, I am going to hate that shitty admiral just as much as if he'd inflicted deep, lasting emotional scars on someone, because that's what his actions would have done in a realistic series, such as this series is not?"
I mean, honestly, if we start digging into "isn't it weird for readers to forgive terrible sexual behavior in fiction if it's played for comedy?" it's only a few steps until we realize it's weird for us to get emotionally invested in the first place in the fates of characters who were never real. There is no Kashima. There is no Robba-san. There is no ratmiral. The fact that we know these things and yet we invest emotions anyways is what's really weird -- far more so than the fact that when authors establish different expectations for their universes, we invest our emotions differently.
Which leads us to another point. When someone invests too much time plot analyzing and over thinking situations for characters that don't exist in the first place, maybe it's time to seek for help and affront the real life instead of hiding forever between fictional ones.
