First, I may as well lay my prejudices out on the table here, I'm rather anti-fanservice, mostly for the reasons. It's unnecessary to the plot, it disengages me from the story, and it cheapens the experience by making the developers think they can do that instead of real quality or character development. That doesn't mean that I'm opposed to sexuality on the whole, because it absolutely can be a good narrative and character development device. But let's try to use an ounce of discretion, please.
If I want spank material, I will look up spank material. There is an abundance of stuff out there that's much better than a few animated T&A shots. If you want to make spank material, then by all means, do so, but don't try to pass it off as anything other than that.
Moving on:
I get that it's a spine implant thing.
Look, I've read about spinal surgeries. Sure, it's never pleasant, but that's something entirely apart from the scene as it was described here. If we're taking this to be science fiction, that is, in the future, we should not expect a surgical procedure as delicate as interfacing a computer with your spinal cord to be that horrendous and brutish.
Of course, maybe there was to be some plot development, like her suffering was a metaphorical sacrifice or trial, or that there are supposed to be hints that maybe there is some moral ambiguity on the part of the organization she is enlisting with. If that was the case, I MIGHT buy it. But I don't.
It's not that I'm unwilling to suspend my disbelief. Given that I have a background in physics and engineering, I would not be able to even watch sci-fi if I was unable to do that. But there is a difference between plot devices (magic, warp drives, time travel, etc) and contrivances. Saying that an operation will be painful and bloody is one thing if there is some narrative justification for it: Warhammer 40,000's character backstories pull this off all the time without serious trouble. Using a contrived plot explanation as an excuse to have what, for all intents and purposes, looked like a rape scene, is not only something that takes me out of the story, it's also really kind of fucked up.
Okay, fine, maybe I'll just suspend a little more disbelief and go with the argument that it just LOOKED like a rape scene but was sincerely meant to be a depiction of some kind of surgery. Well...why? If they're performing an operation on her, why no anesthetic? The spinal cord is an extremely delicate organ, even small damage can cause permanent disability: why did the people installing the spine thing have to be forceful and violent about it? Why, after this whole ordeal, did she seem to be just fine about the whole thing? Just in general, if the justification is that it's a surgery, a delicate, highly ordered procedure, why did it have to look anything like a rape scene?
DarkhoIlow said:
that thing was necessary to build up her character and toughen her up as a soldier
Nostras are the lowest of the low and are treated as such. It wasn't anal rape..the boss of that facility that trains the soldiers did the necessary thing by taking her virginity to build her into an hard soldier..they don't have time for flowery princesses in the military.
See above what I wrote about contrivances. That attempt at an explanation in particular makes it worse, not better, because it's suggesting that raping someone is "building character" and that violently "taking her virginity" will cause her to feel some sort of obligation to her boss, or that being "the lowest of the low" makes one deserving of being raped. That takes it away from "tasteless sex scene" to full-on male power fantasy.
