Far Cry 3 and The Rape of Jason Brody

[maninahat]

I certainly thought it was problematic, especially as the whole thing was set up as a gratuitous piece of male fantasy. We're meant to find Citra sexy, and because we're removed from the actual physical stress of being drugged, publicly humiliated, and fucked, we're supposed to be quite into the whole thing, without even questioning that this is casual rape. It was also kind of racist too, but I'll stick on topic: no I didn't like the rape, I didn't like the fact that it has been kind of low key in discussions (though I certainly have seen critics and websites take issue with it too), and I certainly didn't like the fact that these things get tastelessly thrown into a game in the first place.

Hell, it isn't even the only rape that occurs. One of your friends gets raped too, and he is visibly very tortured by the memories of it. It doesn't get addressed beyond the rescue though. The writer seemed very keen to go with the most gratuitous display of sex, violence and ethnic stereotyping as possible, and whilst he claims the whole thing is a satire of gratuitous displays of sex, violence and ethnic stereotyping, he totally failed to get a message across.

 

[Therumancer]

Hello my fellow escapists. I've recently added a video to my YouTube channel discussing the topic covered in the thread title. Of course I am not allowed to link to my own channel nor am I allowed to indicate you towards my profile page where a link to said video can be found. (cough cough)

Anyway I digress. I have pasted most of my notes below into a semi-articulate manner:

I spoke with a friend of mine who had just beaten the game and I asked him what he thought about the first case, as far as I can remember anyway, of male rape in a video game. He gave me a funny look until I explained the scene in question and then he was rather shocked to find out that he hadn?t actually thought about it in this way. Strange isn?t it?

I?ll give you the details: in one of the games story missions, a mission that must be completed in order to advance the plot and thus complete the game, the protagonist Jason Brody is given a ?magic potion? by Citra, the leader of the Rakyat Tribe. Upon consuming the potion Brody experiences hallucinations and after a trip-like gameplay segment Brody awakes during a non -consensual sex act with Citra.

I was shocked to find out that this had not been mentioned in any review or in any article that I have read about Far Cry 3. Especially when one considers the uproar over the Tomb Raider trailer where one of Lara Croft?s captors touches her hip inappropriately, before being disarmed by Miss Croft and having his brains blown out. Cause and effect Lara Croft style there, don?t mess with that lady!

Imagine this ladies and gentlemen, imagine if the gender roles in the Far Cry 3 scenario had been reversed. Imagine if it was Liza who was the player character out to rescue her friends and in return for a male tribal leader?s assistance in completing her quest she had to visit his private chambers, drink a hallucinogenic cocktail and the wake up from these hallucinations during a non-consensual sex act. Pretty creepy that isn?t it? There?s not enough bleach in the world to clean the grime off of that story line.

How far do you think this plot point would have got? It wouldn?t have even made it in to the first draft of a script never mind in to the finished product. They would probably have the writer sectioned for God?s sake.

So why does this scene appear to have gone unnoticed? Well there may be a couple of reasons for this:

1) Playing to a male fantasy

Some males may find the allure of the exotic and attractive Citra so powerful that they are willing to be dominated by her in such a way. She is an attractive and powerful woman after all. Maybe some men are so easily distracted by the naked flesh of an attractive woman that they are not even aware that they are in fact being taken advantage of. Or because her beauty they are subconsciously willing to be taken advantage of. I would like to think that most guys out there wouldn?t be that thick, but I?m going to leave that one open for debate.

2) Balance

I may be over thinking this somewhat here, but maybe this scenario of Brody and the player being dominated by Citra is the ?ying? to the ?yang? of the powertrip kill crazy rampage that the rest of the game is. Now don?t kid yourself, the first time you took down a pirate camp by executing each pirate without being spotted felt pretty damn good right? Maybe this is Citra?s way of showing you that you are not the all-conquering force that you believe you are and that she has complete power over you. This would also tie in to the ?bad? ending as it were, and that Brody and the player are happy to submit to Citra.

So what do you think? Why has this act gone unnoticed by many players and the gaming media? What do you think of the scene itself?

Is it a non-consentual sex-act though?

If you want to get technical this is less an issue of straightforward rape as the whole issue as to whether someone who ingests intoxicants could be defined as consenting, or is capable of consenting. It's more akin to "some girl goes to a club, has drinks and does drugs with some dude, winds up having sex with him, and then getting POed because it's something she wouldn't have done if she wasn't drunk and on drugs". This raises entire questions about consent when someone goes into certain locations and does certain things whether that counts as consent. I mean you go to a club alone, or to a singles bar, and by definition your looking to hook up as is the purpose of those establishments and they serve drinks, and oftentimes encourage drug dealerss to congregate there for a reason.

No need to sound off on that, I'm just saying it's a differant kind of issue. The whole thing of "OMG, I woke up with some strange guy/girl" and then sneaking off to making it clear it was a one night thing or whatever, rather than a rape per se. Oftentimes the differance between a one night stand or a sexual mistake (realized afterwards) and a rape is entirely dependant on one party or the other being pissed or immature enough to want to file a complaint, or feeling the need to do so due to a pre-existing relationship.

In the context of Far Cry 3 (the scene has been mentioned before) let's really analyze the situation here. We have this guy going into private with an attractive girl he knows, and willingly ingesting bizzare jungle potions. Being grounded somewhat in reality, it's kind of well known what some of these potions do to people. It's akin to smokine the peace pipe, or doing some ceremonial mushrooms south of the border, unless your really frakking naive, at this point you know someone is offering you drugs (ritual signifigance or not).... and even if Jason *WAS* Naive, it's not like he's brandy new to the island anymore. Under these circumstances it would be really unusual *not* to wind up in bed together. The guy might see it as a mistake later, but sorry, he wasn't raped, and that applies to a girl as well. I mean if some girl goes into a private place with a dude, downs a dozen shots, drops acid, and smokes pot, all of which she knows are going to totally lower her inhibations and judgement and so on, she has no right to NOT expect she's going to wind up in bed with the guy, indeed it could be argued that's kind of the point under those circumstances. To really get sympathy from me you'd have to convince me the person on the "Receiving" end (regardless of gender) was like totally oblivious to the effects of alcohol, drugs, etc... and basically unless you just got out of some unusually isolated convent or whatever, I'm not buying it. Just to make sure everyone learns about drugs and alcohol in school so they can make informed desicians.

I'm not expecting everyone to agree with me, any more than they did on other threads, but I don't see this as a rape personally. It was styled differantly but this is sort of like Citra going "Hey Jason, why don't we go back to my place and have a party with just the two of us", him getting loaded, and having sex. A great desician? Maybe not, but rape? Not really.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

She's also wearing a skirt in the rather more explicit sex scene in one of the endings. Fact is, skirts are rather good at providing easy entry for sex, seeing as they are open-bottomed. Likewise, you don't need to take your pants off for sex.

This still doesn't provide any actual evidence that she was having sex with him rather than simply being on top of him. There were things they could have done if they wanted to make it explicit (like having him put his pants back on), and they didn't.

Jason has just snapped out of a drug-induced hallucination, and is therefore not in a clear, coherent state of mind, by any standard. If a woman wakes up during a drug-induced rape, and the first thing she does is grab her attacker's hips, that doesn't mean she's alright with the the whole thing. She'd still be shaking off the effects of the massive trip, and sure-to-be-heavy comedown. Drugs don't come with an on/off button. Once you take them, then the effects can last ages, even after the initial psychotropic effects have worn off.

He doesn't act like he's incoherent five seconds later, and he doesn't ever subsequently react to what happened. He doesn't act confused, excited, angry, or anything else. It doesn't negatively color his reactions to her later. He just marches on through with the rest of the scene.

Is he weirded out at all? Happy? Thinking about his girlfriend? Doesn't know how to feel? Who knows? We sure as hell don't, because Jason Brody never solidifies into a real character.

It's hard to traumatize anyone coming out of a drug bender, considering they're usually still rather spaced out and not with it.

That's hilariously and incredibly wrong. Different drugs have a variety of effects on people, many of them heightening sensations and emotional reactions. I've never heard of a rape victim saying "I was raped, but I don't mind because I was drunk at the time".

 

[Gigano]

Is Citra hot [http://www.google.dk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.consolegames.ro/forum/attachments/f60-console-club/182281d1353664795-console-games-wallpapers-far-cry-3-cover-art-citra.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.tesorp.com/forum/post/last/m/10783447/viewthread/5718819-safanad&h=2758&w=2000&sz=1422&tbnid=Rj8h0kJkhr6iNM:&tbnh=186&tbnw=134&zoom=1&usg=__gZOzPrulujorwxcfM3Sy86aLZVs=&docid=b-z3BDTt41FOVM&sa=X&ei=WI4rUayMH_CP4gSa64GYDA&ved=0CDQQ9QEwAA&dur=1927]?

If they think so, that's probably why people didn't notice a problem. After all, hot fictional women with an overwhelming fictional desire to bone your fictional bone is seldom perceived as a problem[footnote]And if it is... first world problems, eh?[/footnote].

Doesn't seem like the protagonist made any big deal out of it either. And if he had shown signs of subsequent dislike... well, it's a game about tons of dudes trying to commit murder on your polygonous person, so one woman taking her lust too far kinda relatively pales in comparison. Not to mention that - like having an existential crisis over one's character being killed in Call of Duty - getting all worked up about one's fictional character being raped would be pretty foolish.

 

[upgrayedd]

The crime is that she didn't do it with me!

 

[BloodSquirrel]

How would you show a character putting their pants back on, in fist person, without getting a penis shot in there? Bearing in mind that a penis shot will almost automatically get a game an AO rating?

You can show his feet, with his pants around them. You can have a few seconds where Jason is clearly fumbling around with clothing based purely on sound.

Also, you aren't grasping the basic concept of "non-explicit" and "ambiguity". When not enough information is given, there is no "real way" it happened. When things are intentionally made ambiguous, it's actually because of the very fact that it could be either way that makes it interesting.

The scene could be interpreted either way- but one of those ways better fits Jason's completely non-reaction, and so many people are going to interpret it that way and subsequently not react to it as if it had been intercourse.

So chalk that up to bad writing.

Wow, you actually managed to figure out half of the point. Good job!

If it had been a well written scene, and Jason had reacted in such a way as to give us reason as to think that he was negatively affected by what Citra was doing to him, we could say that he was traumatized by it. But those are ifs. Wonderful, magical ifs. The real state of things is that the author doesn't give us any reason to think that Jason gave the whole thing a second thought, and when characters don't care what's going on the audience tends not to either.

Hallucinogenics and hard-drugs are different. Drugs which actually alter your perceptions can take a while to stop affecting you, which means that even if you're no longer hallucinating, your mind is still going to be in an altered state. Meaning that in the case of this game, snapping out of a hallucination doesn't mean Jason would suddenly be clear-headed and sober, no matter what the game might say. Your brain simply doesn't work like that.

You clearly don't understand the basic concept of fiction. "What the game might say" overrides actual, real world effects of drugs. If the game shows Jason Brody as being unconscious one second and fully functional five seconds later, then that's how things are. In fact, your arguments are showing a pattern of you wanting to override the canon version of the story with your version of it, a version which I am completely uninterested in.

In more general terms, if someone is in the comedown of a massive trip, then they are likely going to be passed out or very, very not-with-it, which means they can't react much to what's going on around them.

A state Jason Brody is not in at that point.

You're the one who initially used the term 'traumatised', when very few people riding comedowns are actually capable of feeling trauma during the act. It's only afterwards, when coherency returns, that things like trauma are more likely to kick in.

[citation needed]

 

[Fappy]

This thread reminds me of this one time I was threatened with murder/rape by a dremora in Morrowind (Tribunal Temple questline ftw).

The scene, as you said, seems to me like it was playing to some silly male fantasy. I don't think the intent of the scene was to portray rape, though I can see how people would think it was a rape scene. I honestly wonder what it'd be like to play a game where you are an actual rape victim, but I'm really not sure if there are many developers who'd be able to pull it off tastefully/well.

Bleh, I already regret posting in a rape thread.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

I suppose Jason didn't really consider it to be rape. It least nothing like that was ever brought up. And if the vitim doesn't feel like it has been raped, is there really much of a case to be made? I mean, yeah, Citra drugged him and had sex with him but after he regained conciousness he didn't attack Citra for it but just kinda went along with it.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

Given that the game presents Jason's perception prior to and during the event as being somewhat tripped out and psychedelic, you really cannot argue consent. That's not how strong hallucinogenics work. They take your perceptions, and fling them into some far flung part of the cosmos. The downside being that you're unable to fathom what's going on around you. Some milder hallucinogenics like mushrooms can give you hallucinations which fit into your perceptions around you, but that's not what the game presents. The game shows a full on LSD-esque trip, where Jason's perceptions are completely divorced from reality.

If you know of a magic hallucinogenic which induces full-on, whacked out hallucinations while still allowing you to have a good handle on what's going on around you, please let me know, so I can get a patent on that shit.

And that doesn't change the fact that even with milder hallucinogens, instigating sex with a stranger while they're under the effect counts as rape. Someone on mushrooms is not going to be able to give consent.

You're making a broad assumption about the effects of a hallucinogen that the game doesn't specifically identify or name. There are levels of intoxication which impair consent, and there are levels that do not. There's no real indication that Jason is unable to give consent except for the fact that the sex act itself is replaced with a highly suggestive boss fight where he shoots arrows into a giant lady's head.

Considering how much of the game is intentionally surreal, I don't think it's that weird that they chose to display a sex scene through the medium of a boss fight. As I said in my first post, when I played through that scene I assumed the boss fight was an in-game metaphor for Jason having trippy sex with Cintra. At no point was I given the impression that Jason was unconscious or not in control of his actions.

Nope. You and your girlfriend are in a committed relationship, and have no doubt reached some sort of agreement, spoken or otherwise, that blowjobs and similar are alright while one or the other is asleep.

That is not the situation here. Guy starts tripping balls, wakes up during the comedown to find a girl he's had no prior intimate connection with riding him. Completely different scenario.

The presence of a committed relationship should be irrelevant. Say it's a girl who I've just taken home the previous night. We had consensual sex the night before, and she started giving me oral sex in the morning. Rape or not rape?

The point is that if the "victim" gives consent after or during the fact, then rape has only occurred on very technical terms which no actual prosecutor, judge or jury would consider convicting. It would be like prosecuting me for breaking and entering when I came into my parent's house through the back window.

They were hallucinogens. Therefore, by definition, they did.

I don't think that's true. For one, "hallucinogen" is an extremely broad pharmaceutical term that covers a number of drugs with a wide range of distinct effects, some debilitating and some harmless. For two, we have no real idea what hallucinogen he took or what exact effects they had on him. All we know is that he went into a trippy sequence that may or may not have been the game's writers intending to escape an AO rating by replacing a sex scene with a boss fight.

He was in a comedown. People riding off the effects of hallucinogens are still very rarely in any sort of clear-headed state of mind. It takes a while for the effects to truly wear off, and they can still do strange, weird things in that period.

You have no idea what drug he took! How can you say how long the aftereffects are? Assuming he and Cintra don't possess superhuman sexual stamina, the drug's actual effects probably lasted about twenty minutes.

I mean, you're applying real-world pharmaceutical principles to magic mushrooms in a video game that is intentionally surreal and misleading. And you're not even applying those principles properly, because you're talking about "hallucinogens" like they're all one drug.

 

[Samurai Rabbit]

1) What is this I don't even

2)This thread was conceived in a sterile vacuum with no influence by societal norms or ANY sort of common sense. Reading what you say I can't help but think of you as some sleazy lawyer bending and twisting rules and using sterile logic against common sense.

3) I actually had to look up the scene on the net, and no it's not anything significant.

4) I feel so strange having to explicitly say that : "Yes, waking up to a sexual act with an attractive woman wearing nothing but tribal clothes is a male fantasy." It's not rape because I honestly can't think of one person that I know who wouldn't want that.

5)Yup it is a double standard, and surprisingly enough : "Men getting sexual acts performed on them by attractive women" isn't a top issue.


5) This thread was made 100% to bait for views and replies, as evidenced by my own reply. There's no way you actually believe anything you wrote.

Thanks for reading.

1) ?

2) Nah this thread was born out of the only emotional response I felt from the game's narrative after the first couple of hours. Mainly because it is unnecessary and feels completely out of place, even with Jason's gradual character change.

3) It has to be taken in the context of the whole narrative and the events leading up to that point.

4) Attire and beauty does not substitute consent.

5) Granted it is not, but if the gender rolls we reversed it would have been, that was a point made in the OP and by many people in the thread so far. Would you have been so dismissive of the scene if it was male on female too? If so why? If not why not?

6) See point 2) and also as I found it strange this scene wasn't commented on even by he most overreactive of media outlets I wanted to get a wider opinion on it. I've used this site for a long time and there is quite a wide mix of gamers on here so though I'd gather some opinion.

I'm interested in what the community on here has to say and I don't think anybody should have to defend a thread that they start to get replies. Wouldn't starting a thread with the intention of not getting any replies be a bit redundant? That is how a forum works: one person starts a discussion, other people join in if they choose.

 

[Samurai Rabbit]

Is it a non-consentual sex-act though?

If you want to get technical this is less an issue of straightforward rape as the whole issue as to whether someone who ingests intoxicants could be defined as consenting, or is capable of consenting. It's more akin to "some girl goes to a club, has drinks and does drugs with some dude, winds up having sex with him, and then getting POed because it's something she wouldn't have done if she wasn't drunk and on drugs". This raises entire questions about consent when someone goes into certain locations and does certain things whether that counts as consent. I mean you go to a club alone, or to a singles bar, and by definition your looking to hook up as is the purpose of those establishments and they serve drinks, and oftentimes encourage drug dealerss to congregate there for a reason.

No need to sound off on that, I'm just saying it's a differant kind of issue. The whole thing of "OMG, I woke up with some strange guy/girl" and then sneaking off to making it clear it was a one night thing or whatever, rather than a rape per se. Oftentimes the differance between a one night stand or a sexual mistake (realized afterwards) and a rape is entirely dependant on one party or the other being pissed or immature enough to want to file a complaint, or feeling the need to do so due to a pre-existing relationship.

In the context of Far Cry 3 (the scene has been mentioned before) let's really analyze the situation here. We have this guy going into private with an attractive girl he knows, and willingly ingesting bizzare jungle potions. Being grounded somewhat in reality, it's kind of well known what some of these potions do to people. It's akin to smokine the peace pipe, or doing some ceremonial mushrooms south of the border, unless your really frakking naive, at this point you know someone is offering you drugs (ritual signifigance or not).... and even if Jason *WAS* Naive, it's not like he's brandy new to the island anymore. Under these circumstances it would be really unusual *not* to wind up in bed together. The guy might see it as a mistake later, but sorry, he wasn't raped, and that applies to a girl as well. I mean if some girl goes into a private place with a dude, downs a dozen shots, drops acid, and smokes pot, all of which she knows are going to totally lower her inhibations and judgement and so on, she has no right to NOT expect she's going to wind up in bed with the guy, indeed it could be argued that's kind of the point under those circumstances. To really get sympathy from me you'd have to convince me the person on the "Receiving" end (regardless of gender) was like totally oblivious to the effects of alcohol, drugs, etc... and basically unless you just got out of some unusually isolated convent or whatever, I'm not buying it. Just to make sure everyone learns about drugs and alcohol in school so they can make informed desicians.

I'm not expecting everyone to agree with me, any more than they did on other threads, but I don't see this as a rape personally. It was styled differantly but this is sort of like Citra going "Hey Jason, why don't we go back to my place and have a party with just the two of us", him getting loaded, and having sex. A great desician? Maybe not, but rape? Not really.

I see your point. I still see this as Citra exerting control over Jason however, and she uses all of the means at her disposal to do so. That Jason seems to be feeling Stockhom Syndrome feelings for Citra doesn't change that either. (Hmmm I could have worded that better couldn't I?!)

 

[Auron]

4) I feel so strange having to explicitly say that : "Yes, waking up to a sexual act with an attractive woman wearing nothing but tribal clothes is a male fantasy." It's not rape because I honestly can't think of one person that I know who wouldn't want that.

Drugs not a factor?

Your analysis leads me to conclude that if it was a woman drugged all the way to hell and she woke up below some handsome guy it would be fine as well.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I get what you're saying, but the issue here is that not only was the act in no way forceful or violent, but myself and many other guys (Jason Brody included) would LOVE to have that happen.

Taken advantage of? In what way? We're both enjoying the hell out of each other. And if I AM, so fucking what? Don't you dare call me thick for wanting to have sex with a gorgeous exotic woman.

If you wouldn't want any of that and feel the need to make a stink about it, go right ahead. I encourage it. But don't expect me to feel the same way.

Issues like this are not as simple as reversing the sexes and going "Look look! It's creepy now!". Personal feelings and differences in the way the sexes think HAVE to be considered.

[sub/]on a side note, I don't think they ever actually fucked. they we're both wearing pants 2 seconds after she retreated[/sub]

 

[Auron]

Don't you dare call me thick for wanting to have sex with a gorgeous exotic woman.

For some reason this reeks of orientalism...

Issues like this are not as simple as reversing the sexes and going "Look look! It's creepy now!". Personal feelings and differences in the way the sexes think HAVE to be considered.

Differences in the way the sexes think? Really? So you're saying most men would find the premise of being drugged and sexually attacked perfectly okay but with women it's not okay because of some kind of gender defined way of thinking? I'm sure some women would enjoy the premise as much as you do you'd probably be surprised even, it still doesn't make it consensual or right.

 

[Nieroshai]

It never becomes overtly clear, but I have to ask: on the intoxication issue, say I get drunk. Say I propose sex. Say I get on top and start banging away. Have I, who have been doing most to all of the action, been raped? Say I commit rape when drunk. Have we both been raped? By who, each other? That would lead to the preposterous assumption that it is possible to accidentally rape someone.