Altered Visage Chapter 7: No Nightmare · 7:45pm Jan 7th, 2016
Or the one where my down votes are going to spike. Naturally, spoilers will be present in this blog.
Rape. I'm not beating around the bush on this one. Rape is why this chapter is going to be unpopular. I've gone so far as to have the main character get raped, and such an event is a bit of a disliked topic for some, to put it mildly. I've tried to take this seriously, and portray it in a way that's not intended as titillation. I tried to get across that it was a traumatic experience, and that it is legitimately a terrible thing. Regardless, I have little doubt that it will rub some people the wrong way, whether it's because they hate rape in general, or they dislike a protagonist who is so "pathetic" in their eyes as to get raped. To say the least, I am very nervous about posting this chapter. In fact, I can easily say that this is the chapter I am most frightened of posting.
This is where I solidified the mature, dark and sex tags and it was legitimately the hardest chapter for me to write, despite it being the second shortest. Not that it took an especially long time, just that it was difficult for me to go through with it. Oddly enough, I hadn't actually intended to go as far as I did before I wrote this chapter. I intended on leaving the rape implied, not actually displayed. Maybe I was even going to leave it ambiguous to the point where people could even argue that it may not have happened at all. Then I actually wrote the chapter and found that with the backstory and motivation I gave Nutcase that it just happened. It seemed like the natural procession.
Is a maniac like Nutcase going to be able to properly feed the changelings love? I didn't think so. Does she care about the changelings beyond what she can use them for? No. Given that her entire purpose with the changelings was to try and relive (and revive) her dead husband, and her propensity to see them as little more than objects, would she not use them basically as sex toys so she can pretend she's sleeping with her husband again?
I felt that I couldn't truly avoid this without pussyfooting around the matter or completely rewriting the character of Nutcase. I didn't want to simply allude to such a terrible thing as I felt it was simply being cowardly about my writing. While I could have rewritten the character of Nutcase, it didn't feel right doing so. This was the character now. In the end, perhaps I should have changed it so that she was trying to resurrect a family member or something instead, but I stuck with her trying to bring back her husband.
Even if I did rewrite the character, I would be faced with another problem. How would a psychopath who treats the changelings as objects feed them love? She wouldn't normally be able to, I don't think. I could have had her do chaste snuggling or hugging sessions with transformed changelings, but that just didn't seem likely to me. Another alternative was perhaps that she could actually show the changelings love for them to feed on by not seeing them as objects. However, this wouldn't work with the time line I gave. Could somebody who sees these changelings as people and is capable of loving them naturally keep them imprisoned for a year and half? Could she have killed one of them in a mad scientific/magical experiment and not feel remorse? No, I don't think she could have if she were like that.
As scared as I am of the reaction to this chapter, it is where my writing had taken me and is what I am posting. Here's hoping you don't hate the first of Victor's biggest low points in the story. If you do hate it....well, things do go up for him from here and future low points are considerably less sexual in nature.
Haven't actually started reading this Fic, but as long as it makes sense and has meaning or purpose, I'm fine with the portrayal of terrible acts.
Lol, don't let the SJWs know I said that, I could care less for the drama...
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Oh hey, a comment.
As with the majority of my nervousness over chapters I've posted, it would appear that it was quite unwarranted. The reception has been good. I have yet to receive a single down vote since posting this chapter and have had a fair few up votes.
To quote bkster from the chapter's comment section, who has a couple upvotes on this particular comment of his:
"Even though rape is a taboo topic, if used correctly, its a powerful storytelling mechanic. Good job."
So I think I'm okay!
3672142 yeah, even though it's not technically taboo, it's often used as a cheap and tasteless way to try and get reader sympathy for the protagonist and provide an easy "look my villain is really evil!" sticker.
This is why people don't like it, because so few authors can make it more meaningful like I mentioned above. Sounds like you did a good enough job indeed.
Personally, I would've gone for a shorter time frame for the other changelings' imprisonment. Number one is I hate the possibility of one pony being able to hold a few changelings that long without being discovered or a successful escape attempt, but also I just don't think there's a proper way to present a changeling that has been held in that situation for so long. A few months like that, and those changelings could still be functional, but a year and a half? Jesus, I don't think anyone that went through that would even be able to speak.
Still, small detail, mostly brought up by my own serious discomfort with the whole kidnap/rape/magical-manipulation-of-body-and/or-mind theme that seems to be so common on this site. Nice work brah, I'd like to see what happens to Nutcase now after her "rescue" at the hooves of ponies who know exactly what kind of a monster she is.
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Hmmm...perhaps you're right. A year and a half is an awfully long time, quite possibly enough to drive the victims insane and/or render them completely broken in pretty well every way. Perhaps half a year would have been a better time frame, or maybe at a stretch one year.
To do that, I'd have to dramatically decrease the time I established between the season two finale and a little into season four, though. I could probably put it at one year without a problem in my mind, getting to half a year would be really pushing it for me and less than that would just not work in my mind at all, regardless of what the real timeline in the series may be. I want to set it at that time for two reasons. First is because it is after Discord's reformation (but before his betrayal during the season 4 finale), and secondly because it means that the mane six don't have the elements of harmony at their disposal.
Chrysalis likely would have chosen this time to strike in part because she knows the elements of harmony can't be used against her. Even if it wasn't the elements that defeated her the first time, she still had to devote resources to making it so they weren't a problem, and likely sees their disappearance as an opportunity. Plus, having the elements gone means I don't have to explain why they don't get used at various points in the story.
3721055 Again, personal stuff, mostly because of how the whole manipulation of body against someone's will makes me sick in ways I don't even like thinking about. Hell, I would've ended on a higher note for that whole captivity thing, maybe had the protagonist get one good hit in by ripping out Nutcase's throat (he does have fangs, after all), thus freeing himself. Which would have taken him down a path I don't think you as the author would have wanted, again it's all personal preference.