>>3931897I respect your opinion, I'm not a rape victim myself so I can't speak on behalf of them but I want to disagree from a storytelling perspective.
There IS purpose to the implied rape, it further puts Curly in a terrifying position. I thought it was just an fan interpretation but with all the anons who came to the same conclusion, it really feels intentional that nugget Curly is suffering as if it was sexual abuse.
Jimmy is this guy who refuses to make any sacrifices, he never relinquishes control, he wants to impose his will over others. He is in essence, a rapist and Curly getting nuggetfied is him coming to that realization. Pre-crash Curly knew about the rape but he had higher authority so he thought he could talk-no-jutsu his friend into doing better. He wasn't in any position to fear Jimmy. Well now he's crippled and the rapist can do whatever he wants to him.
Curly's fatal flaw was the way he tends to overlook smaller details which made him unable to properly empathize with those who suffered in ways he didn't(dead pixel convo). He is a man afterall, but Jimmy is also a man who fucking hates Curly, and Jimmy thinks the worst punishment to inflict on Curly is feminizing him, treating him like a battered wife.
The story doesn't focus much on Anya's trauma insofar as Jimmy isn't concerned with it. It does focus a lot on Curly's dragged out torture because Jimmy cares a whole lot about Curly.
Besides that, I feel like including some rape makes sense in a story thematically about a shitty person desperately grasping onto control while stripping agency and consent away from his victims.
It could be done better but I prefer that MW is subtle about rape and you can still pretend it's not there if you want. It's a lot better than stories that try to be about how rape is bad but they linger on the rape in explicit detail.
