Does Rape Scene ruin a show for you?

PeripheralVision said:
Fair enough, it did seem like I was. What I meant was that showing the effects of sexual assault and such would have infringed on the escapist fantasy aspect many of these series have. These topics are to put it simply depressing, and have the sort of long-term implications for the narrative, especially for the characters who experienced them. I interpret these series as a bit self-serving, and although I do not think it is bad, I do believe they are written in ways to conform to that goal.
This is why I love fiction. It enables a greater sort of intimacy you simply cannot have with other people, and perhaps (arguably) that of your loved ones, as well. Fiction can visualize thought patterns and express abstract thoughts and concepts. People are essentially built from the ground up through writing, and although I hesitate to say that most if any fictional characters can be rendered as complex and developed as a human being, I think many works come close.

When you have such internal conflicts brewing under the surface within the realm of fiction, I see no real reason to hide it. To me, it is generally impossible to "hide" things in fiction; things are either written in existence or they do not functionally exist to the audience. Autobiographies may come close, but they are ultimately limited by the perspective of the writer, who may or may not be reliable or of sound mind, and of the "objective" reality and conflicting narratives; this is different than the intentional writing of an unreliable narrator like Humbert Humbert.

A personal example for me is No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, which although written in the form a diary covers a character who has to wear a facade his entire life. One of his major conflicts is that few if any people he encounters understands his mental anguish and despair. We the audience on the other hand know better, and many can identify with it since this is the sort of stuff that is seldom shown and near-impossible to convey.