# When has a rapist been a sympathetic character? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 7, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872 "2007-07-07T17:01:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/61 "2007-07-08T06:38:01Z")
Next week on [Hack](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320022/): In order to catch a kidnapper, Hack must go undercover as… a rapist. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/62 "2007-07-08T07:43:07Z")
[QUOTE=Scissorjack] Edward Hyde in _The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen_ forcibly buggers Hawley Griffin, The Invisible Man, to death in retribution both for Griffin’s treachery with the Martians and his beating and rape of Mina Harker: Hyde then goes on to heroically sacrifice himself by destroying one of the Martian war machines and eating the occupants, getting himself incinerated in the process. Sadly, none of these proceedings made it into the movie. [/QUOTE] What a very different movie that would have been! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/63 "2007-07-08T07:54:55Z")
[QUOTE=lisacurl] What a very different movie that would have been! :eek: [/QUOTE] Any resemblance between the ace comic and the wretched movie begins and ends at the title. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/64 "2007-07-08T09:06:39Z")
[QUOTE=Scissorjack] Any resemblance between the ace comic and the wretched movie begins and ends at the title. [/QUOTE] This is why I groan everytime I hear about a Watchmen movie, and cheer everytime the project fails to get off the ground. Unfortunately the studio seems confident this time in getting real production started now that they’ve hired that guy from 300 to direct it. And in the movie 300, Queen Gorgo, was raped. I didn’t feel bad for the guy that did it, but I felt I needed a rape reference to post in this thread. Oh, wait, wait! In the Watchmen, Edward Blake (The Comedian) raped another superhero woman in years past, but you sort feel sympathtic to his character even though he’s an asshole. He’s just like one of the last superheroes, a fighting vigilante in a world that doesn’t want heros anymore. And he is murdered because he discovers a plot that involved murdering millions of people. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/65 "2007-07-08T11:00:49Z")
[QUOTE=bigbabysweets2000] This is why I groan everytime I hear about a Watchmen movie, and cheer everytime the project fails to get off the ground. [/QUOTE] On the other hand, **V For Vendetta** rocked, so Alan Moore _can_ be done on film if you take the trouble: but yeah, I think _Watchmen_ should be left well alone. I just hope nobody has optioned **Halo Jones** … {I always got the feeling that Veidt/Ozymandias chucked Blake out of the window not just because he’d discovered his plan, but in revenge for laying the smack on him early in O’s career.} ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/66 "2007-07-08T15:53:02Z")
[QUOTE=Scissorjack] Edward Hyde in _The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen_ forcibly buggers Hawley Griffin, The Invisible Man, [/QUOTE] Good one! I’d forgotten all about that, but, as unpleasant as Hyde was, Griffin still had none of my sympathy. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/67 "2007-07-08T16:03:39Z")
Denis Leary in last season’s “Rescue Me.” Matt Dillon in “Crash.” (If you extend the definition of rape to include all types of sexual violations.) Although I guess you were supposed to despise him at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/68 "2007-07-08T16:17:26Z")
[QUOTE=Scissorjack] Edward Hyde in _The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen_ forcibly buggers Hawley Griffin, The Invisible Man, to death in retribution both for Griffin’s treachery with the Martians and his beating and rape of Mina Harker: Hyde then goes on to heroically sacrifice himself by destroying one of the Martian war machines and eating the occupants, getting himself incinerated in the process. Sadly, none of these proceedings made it into the movie. [/QUOTE] The more I hear about the comic, the more I’m **glad** the movie is a completely different beast. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. ::runs for cover:: ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/69 "2007-07-08T17:08:07Z")
[QUOTE=Scissorjack] Edward Hyde in _The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen_ forcibly buggers Hawley Griffin, The Invisible Man, to death in retribution both for Griffin’s treachery with the Martians and his beating and rape of Mina Harker… [/QUOTE] Actually, Griffin all BUT rapes Mina. He beats her & forces her to grovel & shoves her face down in her vomit, but according to her, does not actually rape her. Considering his antics at the girls’ school, Mina is too old for his tastes. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/70 "2007-07-08T17:51:01Z")
I think that Bigger Thomas from Native Son is supposed to be sympathetic… or something. I just think he’s a monster. He rapes his girlfriend, then throws her down an air conditioning duct. I hate that book. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/71 "2007-07-08T18:07:28Z")
This is only an attempted rape, but… one of my favorite moments in Buffy is in season 6 when Warren, Andrew and Jonathan acquire the mind-control orb, and use it to zap Warren’s ex-girlfriend Katrina into a willing sex slave. She snaps out of it before anything actually happens, and says “you were going to RAPE me”, and you can see that both Jonathan and Andrew are shocked that she would say that, and it’s clear that initially, they’d just been thinking about it on a kind of nerd-fantasy superficial level, ie, “hey, there’s a hot girl who has to do what we want! Who wouldn’t want that? How cool!”, and not actually really realized that it was REAL and that there was an actual real person who they were violating. Andrew and Jonathan, of course, both end up being sympathetic characters to one degree or another. Warren… not so much. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/72 "2007-07-08T18:09:00Z")
[QUOTE=bienville] I think Tennessee Williams would gasp if he heard Stanley Kowalski described as a sympathetic character. [/QUOTE] About 12 years ago, I was working at the Huntington Theater Company in Boston when they did streetcar, a very good production. I worked a morning school matinee, with field trips from various high schools in attendance. They hated Blanche and love Stanley, and when the lights blacked out on Stanley overpowering Blanche the place erupted in wild applause. It was then I knew we are beyond hope. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/73 "2007-07-08T18:18:01Z")
\*\* scotandrsn\*\*, that’s a terrible story. Georgia Shakespeare did a production of _Streetcar_ a couple of years ago, that was the first such I’ve ever seen where Stella came off as a real person, and not just a doormat. I’ve never liked Blanche, but that’s not the same as having sympathy for Stanley. Shouldn’t be, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/74 "2007-07-08T18:53:36Z")
[QUOTE=Scissorjack] On the other hand, **V For Vendetta** rocked [/QUOTE] I disagree. Natalie Portman: Oh V, you lovable rapscallion. You’ve tortured me physically and mentally for weeks and now I coincidentally have the same belief system as you. It was for my own good, though. Ick. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/75 "2007-07-08T19:01:17Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo] I disagree. Natalie Portman: Oh V, you lovable rapscallion. You’ve tortured me physically and mentally for weeks and now I coincidentally have the same belief system as you. It was for my own good, though. Ick. [/QUOTE] Well, can’t blame the film adaptation for that one, though. At least the film didn’t have her completely subvert her identity to serve V’s vision. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/76 "2007-07-08T19:46:23Z")
How’s’about Spock’s actions toward Valeris in _Star Trek VI_? The novelization pusses out and downplays the violation, but actress Kim Catrall was very specific on what _she_ figured was happening to her character. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/77 "2007-07-08T21:31:01Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo] Natalie Portman: Oh V, you lovable rapscallion. You’ve tortured me physically and mentally for weeks and now I coincidentally have the same belief system as you. It was for my own good, though. [/QUOTE] Actually, you could probably count that one as at least a sexual assault, since when V imprisons and tortures Eve, in her own words, “They stand me up and…I am given…an examination…I think it’s the woman.”: the accompanying panel shows her slumped against the wall his her legs slightly splayed and an expression of terror and revulsion. I think it’s pretty safe to say that V conducted a, uh, pelvic “examination”. On a sidenote, am I the only one who thinks Billie Piper would have been perfect for the role of Eve Hammond? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/78 "2007-07-08T21:39:45Z")
David “Noodles” Aaronson (DeNiro) in _Once Upon a Time in America._ (Spoiler-boxed because the rape takes place late in the film, which you might not have seen.) The **character** is sympathetic. That specific deed on his part . . . well, it’s made very clear it’s a horrible, despicable act, but it’s also made very clear the bitch had it coming; make what you will of it. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/79 "2007-07-08T21:54:37Z")
Zeus ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872/80 "2007-07-08T21:55:49Z")
I dunno, **BrainGlutton** … shouldn’t one mention the name of the film first, outside the spoiler box? Else how would someone know whether s/he wants to view the info? The film is _Once Upon a Time in America_, for those who are curious. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-has-a-rapist-been-a-sympathetic-character/410872.md?page=5)