It also shouldn't ever be rape, but here we are.
Valid points, yes, but still not an excuse for rape. It's unfortunate considering I had high hopes for the character.
You do realize the scene isn't even over, right? He stopped at the end once he snapped back; there's plenty of time for this to turn into self-reflection and better communication instead of one-sidedly deciding a victim and a perpetrator before anybody has time to talk or repent.
CAN this be considered rape? Absolutely, but again, we don't genuinely know what the outcome of this is going to be until the end of the scene.
As someone who was raped, I don't think my rapist having some self reflection right after the act would change what he did to me. Decidedly not actually, it wouldn't heal my body, wouldn'tremove the feelingof him inside me, wouldn'tturn back time and change the interaction.
Snapping out of it and realizing you fucked up doesn't mean you didn't rape someone. Repenting doesn't take away that you were a predator and you had a victim. No amount of retribution takes away the pain you caused, the trauma you inflicted, or the act you chose to do. We even see Richard lose control when he realizes she's in pain, how is that cool with a little self reflection?
Your victim can forgive you. You can grow and improve. You could be named a fucking Saint for all I care and it doesn't erase what you did. It doesn't erase what you were and are. A rapist. This is fiction but shit like this happens and in the end so many victims are told to forgive, he didn't mean it, she wasn't trying to hurt you, you said yes at first. If this isn't treated properly in the story it's just another rape apologist love story.
With all due respect, I think you're projecting way too hard on a psychological BDSM manhwa of all things. Nobody has any right to dictate what happened to you, but likewise you aren't the absolute authority on every piece of noncon or kink literature ever. Your lived experiences aren't Courtney's and Richard's, and that doesn't even get into the fact that BDSM and kink culture is inherently dangerous (in the sense that it poses a higher general risk than vanilla) and needs to be treated with an understanding that people can - and often do - get hurt in ways that you don't normally see in vanilla, and that those types of situations between partners who knowingly enter kinky scenarios together need to be handled with delicate gravitas, not with the force of a pointed finger and a rape accusation. Something that it seems like the author is setting up in the next chapter, if you were willing to read the previous chapter all the way through.
I don't think I can say anything else because you've pretty much firmly made up your mind, and you and multiple other people in this comment section have been liberally throwing around rape apologist accusations and putting words in people's mouths, so I'm just going to leave it at that. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Realistic communication issues between a sub who has been in control since the proposal and was less ready for subspace than he thought and a domme who wasn't mentally prepared for it from the get-go and stubbornly tried to move forward with something they were both unprepared for. Yes, this is ALSO a facet of learning kink culture, especially without an experienced lead. Even for experienced people (of which they are NOT- Richard admits to being a virgin himself in this chapter), it's not always sunshine and roses.