Fanfic lack of warnings and other rants
I am so disgusted lately with reading fics only to find myself faced with death!fic or even worse squicks that are not warned for. Warnings and ratings are there for a reason. I don't care if you attempt to justify yourself in later comments that you don't want your story spoiled beforehand.
I've been reading a domestic/kidfic SGA series and while there has been some melodrama it's all been pretty innocuous. Mostly. But nothing I couldn't handle.
Then I get to the last story and there is a surprise revelation of a major character having been gang raped while off-world. WTH? It was not explained graphically but was referenced several times and then the emotional trauma afterwards, etc.
After the shock, I'm sitting here thinking, why? Why was this even necessary? Except for shock value and cheap melodramatics. Which, besides the fact that there was no warning for this at all, really pisses me off. Things like rape and brutal physical abuse should not be used as fodder for entertainment or punching up your story. I have read serious fics where these subjects were dealt with but A.) there were thorough warnings so I KNEW what I was reading and B.) they were presented as a serious matter and were not just shoved in there for shock value.
It's the same reason I don't like the way some episodic television is being developed on cable channels now. They take it as carte blanche to depict as much sex, nudity, and bloody carnage as they can get away with at the expense of an actual story. Call me a prude, and I have been, but I just don't think much of the "because we can" mentality in entertainment. Which was my big problem with SGU's premise.
I don't like rape and abuse used as theatric shocker filler in fic. Therefore I'd really appreciate a warning so I could choose for myself to skip that particular story.