Just because a story is fictional doesn’t mean that everything in it becomes acceptable, or that justifying crimes in it is suddenly okay. If I wrote a story about war and portrayed the killers as the victims and justified their actions, would that make it okay just because it’s fictional? What about racism, theft, rape, sexual harassment, or pedophilia? Fiction doesn’t automatically make these things any less disturbing. There are people who have actually experienced these things, so it’s understandable that seeing their trauma being justified or portrayed as something forgivable could be hurtful to them. Of course, I would never actually want anyone to experience rape, but if the authors think that just wishing rape on them is cruel and unacceptable, then shouldn’t they also understand that justifying rape and treating it this way can be cruel and hurtful to actual victims?

The punishment for a rapist is to be prosecuted and sentenced to prison, not to sit down with the person they raped, drink tea together, and forgive each other. This may sound harsh, but I honestly wish authors would experience it themselves so they could understand what they’re writing. Making the victim forgive and befriend their abuser is one of the worst things you could ever tell someone who has been raped.