Why So Much Rape in Stormblood

[-Teria-]

Invaders rape the native women when attacking a country.
This has been a common practice throughout human history.

It isn't a nice thing. You may not like it (Nor should you like it), but that's human history.
It's realistic to portray the same thing in your fantasy setting.

[Delily]

Did Yoshida watch too much Game of Thrones or something?

The main thrust of Stormblood was us driving the Garlean occupation of 2 regions. Have you studied history in any form or fashion? Because conquering nations would often encourage and reward soldiers for raping the conquered. Not only did it demonstrate power over the nation, it gave the soldiers a reward, and it was drive out the native population. If anything, Game of Thrones is tame to what we've done to each other.

Not only does it interfere with the escapist fantasy of FFXIV

Beneath all the glamor, the lalas, and the moogles, the main story of the game is fairly brutal and morally grey. The Scions slaughter anyone who's tempered. We kill beastmen just to stop them from summoning primals. We've killed countless Garlean soldiers. May want to tune in a bit to the quests and cutscenes a bit. I mean, I'm a little astonished your main concern is rape when our character has basically committed genocide against the Garlean people.

[Vexander]

I honestly felt like FFXIV has done a good job as far as using something as touchy as Rape in a narrative manner. I never felt it so much dismissed someone's actions, as it gave a whole new light to them. I think the best example is Yotsuyu, really. A lot of time when you hear about Rape, you imagine the victim as this broken, frightened individual, curled up in a corner, too afraid to open the curtains or answer the phone, but Yotsuyu shows us a different perspective, she showed us the FURY of someone who's had to deal with it, the pure, absolute hatred and desire for revenge. The sheer levels of ecstasy she took in the suffering of the people who let it happen to her, who didn't help her, was an eye-opening portrayal of the sheer levels of pain and anguish someone who's been through that goes through. Every act against a Doman was an expression of her trauma.

It's not nice.
It's not pretty.
But it was beautiful in its own way.

I think it may be one of the most powerful demonstrations of what it can do to a person, especially one who cannot find help. Yotsuyu was a victim. She succumbed to every negative emotion that came from the experience, and she became a terrible person because of it. That's not something we see a whole lot of outside of stories years down the road of the abuse women put their children through when that child was a product of rape. Like what Arenvald's mother did to him. Except in Yotsuyu's case, she didn't have a child to take it out on. She had a nation, the nation which was responsible for the act.

Not every victim of rape will process the trauma the same way, and how they cope and recover is largely dependent upon the support they have from others. Some will never want to see their rapist again, never want to think of them. Then there are those who WANT to see them again, and make them pay for ruining their life. I think it was well done how SE made that work.

In summary, I think Square has done a fantastic job handling such a touchy subject. It'd be as wrong to ignore it outright, as it would be to dismiss it as mere backstory.

[Vayanne]

FFXIV has done a very good job at portraying atrocities so far. It neither sweeps the issues under the rug, nor drowns us in gruesome images just to make us cringe in shock or disgust. It has the right mix to make us realize there are many terrible things we have to fight against without turning the setting into a dark, hopeless crapsack world.
The story of Griseldis from Ala Ghana is a good example. Every time I walk near her, the urge to give many Garleans the Holy treatment intensifies.

[Yukiba]

Lol.. people complain that there is too much rape particularly towards women and then say it needs to happen to men as well.. Good lord some of you people got some twisted logic.

[Vexander]

Lol.. people complain that there is too much rape particularly towards women and then say it needs to happen to men as well.. Good lord some of you people got some twisted logic.

To be absolutely fair, in a fantasy setting, anything goes. If Square could make a compelling and interesting character out of a man who was raped, the same way they did for Yotsuyu, or incorporated it into Arenvald's backstory, then I'd say why not? Honestly, I would not be surprised if it was a Miqo'te either, men are treated like garbage in both societies honestly. For Sunseekers the sum total of who they are is literally defined by whether or not they get to sire children, and for Moonkeepers, men don't even have NAMES, just numbers.

Though I do agree with the spirit of your reply, that adding male characters who were raped as some kind of arbitrary scorecard would be pretty terrible. FFXIV has done a good job of having a story where nothing is altogether superfluous. Every detail has a purpose to the plot. Nothing is included, 'Just because,' or due to a developer's personal, political, religious, or sexual crusade. Well, except maybe the disproportionate number of female exclusive transmogs, but we're talking story.

[SendohJin]

I mean, I'm a little astonished your main concern is rape when our character has basically committed genocide against the Garlean people.

We have nothing against Cid or Lucia, when you use the term arbitrarily it starts to become meaningless. have we even killed a single Garlean civilian?

war =/= genocide.

[SpiritMuse]

To be fair, rape-as-backstory is an overused plot. It's so often the go-to for giving a woman a Tragic Backstory that it's become stale and uninspired. And it's not often treated with the respect it should get - sometimes treated as "empowering" even.

That said, in FFXIV I haven't noticed a particular abundance of it, really. It's occurred, yes, but we've seen so many characters by now that it's bound to pop up here and there.

[Vexander]

To be fair, rape-as-backstory is an overused plot. It's so often the go-to for giving a woman a Tragic Backstory that it's become stale and uninspired. And it's not often treated with the respect it should get - sometimes treated as "empowering" even.

That said, in FFXIV I haven't noticed a particular abundance of it, really. It's occurred, yes, but we've seen so many characters by now that it's bound to pop up here and there.

I would ALMOST say Yotsuyu bordered on the, 'Rape is Empowering,' category. However, thankfully SE demonstrated quite the opposite. It didn't empower her, it utterly destroyed the person she could have been and turned her into a monster. She had a position of power for sure, but not due to the rape in her past. She herself was still quite weak when push came to shove, and very ineffective in combat and tactics.

I'll be very curious to see where they go with her now.

[Kerwin]

Not just women. Don't be so close minded.