I cant write rape, really, I kinda cant, though I read it fine, but I fucking love worried!squad finding out Raf's been in some private trouble, I could just write/read that same trope every day twice for the rest of eternity and not tire of it.
I get it, there are some I'll read but won't write or try to write either. What about domestic abuse though? Or dub-con? Like Alex come back and resume the abusive relationship he has with Rafael in highschool, and it's abusive but Rafael doesn't actually say no...
There is so much canon-based whump potential, Barba's migraines, how tired he increasingly look, how he went from constantly snacking to not... Early seasons we've seen Barba in his jogging outfit and yacht outft, and he went to plays...early seasons Barba demanded a lot of evidence from SVU before he'll prosecute a case -- but then he just started doing what Liv ask -- I'm guessing Barba's workload and stress hugely increase so he got less time for social life, outdoor air and eating. The migraine thing, I bet he gets neck-shoulders-back pain too, and feeling cold. So just imagine bunny curled up on Sonny's lap, Sonny's warm hands rubbing his neck.
I know! I totally agree! He drinks a lot, too, and he's looking tired all the time... You could've had a really good mental health ep about the dangers of burnout and write Rafa out of the show that way instead of the shitty way they did it. That way he still could've returned, too. *sigh*
Or they could have had that gang that had threatened Rafael in the elevator actually assault him, while he was prosecuting them on sex trafficking, this way how Rafa exit the show would actually be SVU related, it can tied into Law and Order: Organized Crime, and Peter Stone could have been introduced at the ADA who prosecuted Barba's attackers instead of the ADA who was attacking a fan favourite. That would be a better way to reintroduce Stabler without setting up Stabler vs Barba, making Liv chose Stabler over Barba, and instead of making Stabler look like a jerk who ghosted Liv For No Reason At All, make it so that his undercover work suddenly got so serious he couldn't contact anyone, not even his family -- and that his wife divorced him in the mean time.
ETA: I think the last good season was 16, the one that introduced Carisi and while Amaro was still there, it was still very grounded, Carisi was from Staten Island, Amaro and Barba bond over being Cubans from the Bronx -- Season 17 opened with Murder Wizards, they were clearly trying to ape Criminal Minds or even Hannibal, "National Manhunt" took them out of New York which was a major draw for why people watch Law and Order, and the court portion of the show, Barba's, start to be neglected. It felt lik Esparza was only still around because he was a fan favouite, but they didn't give good lines good clothes or even fed him...we didn't get any special Barba episodes like S15 October Surprise, or S16's Padre Sandunguero and December Solstice
If at this point Dick Wolf already knew he wanted to bring back Elliot Stabler in Organized Crime, he seriously effed up not making gangs the building arc for Season 17 instead of Murder Wizards and Celebs. Gangs deal with drugs and sex trafficking...drugs was Fin's old department, and they could have had Mike Dodds talk about transferring to Organized Crime at the end as that's a more natural pivot than to Terrorism...and that way his death would be even shocking to people who don't pay attention to Broadway news and thinks he's moving to OC. There could have been stories like, hospital call SVU because of overdosed underaged prostitutes, heck, have the John be the one call 911 and then be shocked and remorseful learning that the hooker was underage and trafficked, and they can talk about how human trafficking often happen in the open. Night club get shot up, female patron assaulted, and it turn out the night club was trying to keep out gang members that was selling roofies.
ETA2: Nick's 2nd baby mama, the one who was really sweet on him, she just took their son out of New York at the end of season 16 to get away from the gangs, so it's weird the gang storyline just dropped out of sight. Would have been a perfect background buildup to Barisi too (which they were too stick-in-the-mud to go with in spite of fan favourism, natural chemistry, and actors in agreement), Carisi starts driving Barba around, as Nick did once during October Surprise, it looked like it was just because they were working together, but Barba has been hiding threats and Carisi was empathic and intuitive enough to notice anyways.
We never did find out who that guy was working for, did we? That coulda been a really good angle, I agree. Raf was just such a whumpable character, look at him!
Esparza's big eyes are just urgh, does things to me, his big doe eyes in Cabaret. I think they avoid whumping Esparza because the showrunners were uncomfortable whumping male characters, Liv has been kidnapped multiple times, Rollins has been in multiple hostage situation, but the worse thing that happens to male characters is that their female family members get stuffed in the fridge, it wasn't until this year or last year that we finally have a male rape victim in the main cast, Cassidy, mentioned as something that happened to him a long time ago. Criminal Minds already did this with Derek Morgan way earlier. CSI had Nick that was molested by a female babysitter? This was spotlighted on both CM and CSI OVER 10 years ago.
Relatively I'm madder about Hannibal, we had so many homoerotic scenes of Will and Hannibal in peril, but none with Chilton, even the scenes that so easily could have been done in a homoerotic way is really throw-away, like Gideon's comment about getting into Chilton's belly, I feel like if it was Will or Hannibal on that table there would have been some creepy caressing.
...has any main male character on SVU even been shown bound and gag? I've only seen the Barba episodes mostly, though I'm seeing the non-Barba episodes during the Barba seasons now too. What Lewis did to Benson, shoving his gun into her mouth, that was definitely sexual. I really wish that arc was Rafael gets kidnapped and terrorized by BX9 instead, them snatching him up when he was leaving his office late and tired, or pretending to be his Uberride, makes more sense than Murder Wizard...or Rape Wizard Lewis, somehow breaking into Liv's apartment and then terrorizing her for days before taking her out of the apartment without any of her neighburs noticing, Finn said her apartment smelled like burnt flesh. I think Liv might be bigger and heavier than Barba too, with sharper elbows, Barba would be so much easier to stuff into a trunk. Though the likeliest scenario is that BX9 pretends to be his Uber, and he is texting, looking at casefile, or even asleep before he realise they are going the wrong way. Barba gets kidnapped and held hostage to pressure the DA's office and SVU? One of the old female ADA, Alex Calbot, had to fake her death and go into the witness program, but once they switched over to guys, the death threats with Barba didn't go anywhere, and nobody tried to kidnap Peter Stone, only fridge his sister?
ETA I feel like something like "Townhouse Incident" should have happened to the rookie Mike Dodds instead of Liv, I think it was supposed to make us feel for her but I just went "Not This Again", especially since Liv should have known better than to go inside AND go inside without expecting an ambush AND to have gone over there without alerting her squad first.
I think before the Barba seasons Liv got kidnapped or almost raped a few times too, during the Barba seasons:
- Got kidnapped by William Lewis and held hostage for days
- Got held hostage by William Lewis again
- Townhouse Incident where Liv possibly made things worse, it was after a text from Liv's workplace about a rapist being caught that one of the guys who had his girlfriend there decide to celeberate that news by taking the teenage girl hostage to another room to rape her.
- creeped on by Richard Wheatley.
Rollins
- almost raped at an illegal casino -- she felt like it was about to happen
- held hostage by incel mass shooter in Holden's Manifesto
- had to confront her old boss who raped her back in Atlanta, stalked at night by another male co-worker who sexually threatens her
- almost raped in Star Struck Victims?
- creeped on my serial killers, and by that psycho kid who late became a psycho teen in Post-Graduate Psychopath (post Barba)
Whereas with the guys, usually they get arrested...Amaro was in the hostage situation with the Born Psychopath very briefly where he got shot,but he was wearing a vest, then he got kneecapped at the court house. Mike Dodds got killed while rescuing a domestic abuse victim -- but these are more action movie consequence than whumping, and there is no sexual elements like with the female cast, even in cases with a male perp that prefers male victims -- it really would have made more sense for that guy in Criminal Hatred to attack Barba.
ETA: all the times Liv has been held hostage...they really should have done that more with Barba and rookie Dodds instead. https://old.reddit.com/r/SVU/comments/15v157v/how_many_times_has_liv_been_held_hostage_or/
They could have done entire episode where Barba is bound and gagged every time they cut to his scenes.....they kinda still could, not just in SVU but for Organized Crime.
In latter seasons, Raf increasing drink coffee and booze instead of eating food, he so could collapse from malnutrition. Coffee actually reduces the damage booze does to the liver, but it can interfere with the absorption of nutrients, especially iron, and booze can make you feel full.
Somebody does pushes Rafael on the court steps, or into traffic, or he runs into traffic while being chased in the parking lot.
Barba has been ambushed and choked so badly he couldn't speak for a while, maybe SVU only finds out because Barba rescheduled court dates.
Barba is snatched up or intimidated into getting into a car, and they just drive him out of town and leave him in the cold rain as a warning...or maybe his migraine causes him to pass out in the parking lot, or an ulcer (so no more take-out, home cooked meals only?)
Barba is tied up and stuffed into a luggage case, dragged around in a dark cramped space, could other people but can't call for help because he's gagged, could barely breathe, scared of being taken out at secondary location, scared of just being left in the luggage case to die.
I really like the idea of Barba being tied up and livestreamed, maybe the threat is sent directly to SVU, or they get an alert from TARU when facial recognition found out who is being whumped live and it looks non-consensual, smol lawyer being increasingly abused, tied up in an unheated barn somewhere, real cuts and bruises...pay for request to use belt, or splash cold water on him or force him to stand or have all the weight on his wrists.
He could be drugged so he can't see well even if they didn't blindfold him. I like the idea of him in the custody of a creeper though, and the livestream being mysterious at first, on the dark web, like maybe at first it's just his unconscious face, then just his eyes when he wakes up, then it's obvious he's tied up and panicking, and that's when someone tip off the cops that this stream is weird. If the SVU gets the stream when his face isn't clear maybe they don't recognize him at first, just know that it's somebody distressed from the real pained whimpers and scared sobs.
Could be either or both, like they were just hooking up or started to get intimate and then Barba pulled way after Community Policing ,on rewatch, him and Liv were tense a few episodes afterwards, and he clearly didn't feel comfortable telling SVU he's been getting threats all year till the finale when he got cornered in the elevator...he didn't want to look needy, he didn't want to be coddle, and especially after Rollins had her baby he didn't want to pull Carisi away from her. Man that scene where Barba was finally telling Sonny and Amanda about the threats have me shipping Barollisi, especially if Barba gets raped or whumped so badly he has to go live with them for a while.
That's a good point. He's sooo tense in that scene, you can see it takes a lot out of hin to just tell them. :( And he clearly thinks it's cops, since he specifically asks them to pick people they trust for his security detail.
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