Yeah, that's what I thought.

About halfway through God of War III (or so I assume, as I'm still playing it), Kratos enters Poseidon's Chambers to encounter Poseidon's Princess (link NSFW), who is chained to the floor and apparently serving as a type of love slave for the god Poseidon. To say that Hecuba Maneros (as Playboy apparently called her) is scantily clad is a vast understatement: she wears a blue garment that utterly exposes her huge breasts and one almost pities her for the position she's in. Hecuba is utterly terrified of Kratos, however, which is quite understandable since he's already done many unspeakable things to other mere mortals who were simply in his way.

Throughout the following scenes, as Kratos pushes her into each successive room--both protecting her and violently shoving her--any seasoned player of the God of War games begins to wonder if Hecuba will be the latest subject of the series' infamous sex mini games. I bring this up since this thought is disturbing in many ways, chiefly because Hecuba--in contrast to every other person Kratos has slept with--would be an unwilling participant. She clearly fears Kratos deeply, but every now and then Kratos sneaks a glance at her that reveals that the thought may indeed be on his mind. Here, in the midst of heads and eyes getting ripped out, entrails being pulled out, and innocent, frightened men getting their heads bashed into a wall, it appears that we may also see a rape. Or a "normal" sex scene, if she eventually proves grateful and is willing, but something will still seem wrong about it.

Yet this never happens.

Kratos accords Hecuba the same dignity that he extends to everyone: he safely sees the princess to the end of the corridor, whereupon he ties her to a heavy wheel that he has just finished turning all the way, forcing her to hold it up while he gets through the gate. Kratos then slips through the gate and behind him you hear the sound of the princess' strengthgiving out as she's crushed by the weight of the wheel out of sight.

Business as usual, right? Perhaps not so much. Just the other day a friend mentioned a story surrounding the sex mini-game of the first God of War (amusingly, he lacked the skill to finish it). After telling a nephew of his that he was playing it, the nephew apparently said "But there's sex in that game," as though that were more horrible than all the endless crimes against humanity, the animal kingdom, and the gods that we encounter in the series. Heads may get graphically ripped off, innocent people may be killed, but heaven forbid we have sex in the same game.

I think the folks at Santa Monica Studios are playing off of this strange conflict of ideas in this scene. In the end, shockingly, it almost comes as a relief that Kratos "just" killed her. "Why, he's not such a bad guy after all," we're seemingly supposed to think. In fact, the trophy that pops up after this scene is called "I Didn't Do It… But I Wish I Did." Kratos does eventually get his moment in bed with a very willing participant, but I think the Poseidon's Princess incident is meant to be a brutal satire on the conflicting views toward sex and violence in video games. It's OK to kill hordes of people, but sex of any kind is still very taboo.

I realize that I am opening a Pandora's Box of my own in asking this, but what are your thoughts on this? Is this truly a satire? If it's not satire, is it a demonstration that rape should be considered much worse than straight, in-your-face violence? Am I wrong in thinking that rape was even possible? I'd like to know what you think.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

About halfway through God of War III (or so I assume, as I'm still playing it), Kratos enters Poseidon's Chambers to encounter Poseidon's Princess (link NSFW), who is chained to the floor and apparently serving as a type of love slave for the god Poseidon. To say that Hecuba Maneros (as Playboy apparently called her) is scantily clad is a vast understatement: she wears a blue garment that utterly exposes her huge breasts and one almost pities her for the position she's in. Hecuba is utterly terrified of Kratos, however, which is quite understandable since he's already done many unspeakable things to other mere mortals who were simply in his way.

Throughout the following scenes, as Kratos pushes her into each successive room--both protecting her and violently shoving her--any seasoned player of the God of War games begins to wonder if Hecuba will be the latest subject of the series' infamous sex mini games. I bring this up since this thought is disturbing in many ways, chiefly because Hecuba--in contrast to every other person Kratos has slept with--would be an unwilling participant. She clearly fears Kratos deeply, but every now and then Kratos sneaks a glance at her that reveals that the thought may indeed be on his mind. Here, in the midst of heads and eyes getting ripped out, entrails being pulled out, and innocent, frightened men getting their heads bashed into a wall, it appears that we may also see a rape. Or a "normal" sex scene, if she eventually proves grateful and is willing, but something will still seem wrong about it.

Yet this never happens.

Kratos accords Hecuba the same dignity that he extends to everyone: he safely sees the princess to the end of the corridor, whereupon he ties her to a heavy wheel that he has just finished turning all the way, forcing her to hold it up while he gets through the gate. Kratos then slips through the gate and behind him you hear the sound of the princess' strengthgiving out as she's crushed by the weight of the wheel out of sight.

Business as usual, right? Perhaps not so much. Just the other day a friend mentioned a story surrounding the sex mini-game of the first God of War (amusingly, he lacked the skill to finish it). After telling a nephew of his that he was playing it, the nephew apparently said "But there's sex in that game," as though that were more horrible than all the endless crimes against humanity, the animal kingdom, and the gods that we encounter in the series. Heads may get graphically ripped off, innocent people may be killed, but heaven forbid we have sex in the same game.

I think the folks at Santa Monica Studios are playing off of this strange conflict of ideas in this scene. In the end, shockingly, it almost comes as a relief that Kratos "just" killed her. "Why, he's not such a bad guy after all," we're seemingly supposed to think. In fact, the trophy that pops up after this scene is called "I Didn't Do It… But I Wish I Did." Kratos does eventually get his moment in bed with a very willing participant, but I think the Poseidon's Princess incident is meant to be a brutal satire on the conflicting views toward sex and violence in video games. It's OK to kill hordes of people, but sex of any kind is still very taboo.

I realize that I am opening a Pandora's Box of my own in asking this, but what are your thoughts on this? Is this truly a satire? If it's not satire, is it a demonstration that rape should be considered much worse than straight, in-your-face violence? Am I wrong in thinking that rape was even possible? I'd like to know what you think.

i never thought there would be sex with that character, Kratos didnt seem interested in her at all. then again, I also didnt expect her to die like she did, but thats another issue

Interesting blog. I never really thought much about that part of the game except that it was pretty shocking (and amusing) to see.

It is interesting that we as a society view Rape above murder in even the the most brutal fashion as the greater crime, Wind back time 500 years ago and the opposite would probably be true. I think the rise of Feminism has greatly increased in this mindset, and probably for a good reason, though if this was the intent with the God of War team they probably should have concentrated on a better story instead of an social commentary on rape.

I feel the same. But that problem pervades all forms of art. 

Never thought of that scene this way. Very interesting viewpoint. 

Im glad he merely killed her in a torturous manor because if he raped her that would be going too far.

I do think rape is worse than murder, but I don't think either are really outside the scope of artistic expression. We might see it sooner than you think.

This debate rages on in nearly every facet of the media and will for years, if not decades. The South Park movie took it on, it's possible that God of War had it in mind, and many others will do the same. 
 
Had that scene ended with rape that was not a binary decision (like every other action in this game), I would have turned the game off and returned it immediately. I admit, for a moment I thought it might, but recalling the buzz around the game's release, that subject never came up, so I figured I was safe. And what luck! Merely crushed by a wheel while allowing me to continue on my quest to crush everything in sight!

You've got good points. Rape in video games will probably surface eventually (outside Japan, that is), but I hope that will be in order to allow a plot to evolve in a way that makes sense, and not just "for the sake of having a rape scene". For example, look at Assassins Creed II (light spoiler here): now maybe I'm just blind or stupid, but I'm pretty sure it was heavily indicated that Ezio's mother was raped when the family was attacked. Of course, doing an actual graphic rape scene (god forbid, with QTEs) is something entirely different, and I wonder how the hell anyone would be able to implement that kind of thing 'tastefully'. But then again, GoWIII managed to gut horses and rip out eyes 'tastefully', so you never know..
 
As for the whole "sex is worse than violence" thing, it's indeed the favourite hypocrisy around these days, and will only lead to two things: More violence in video games, and more sex in video games - because the more outraged gender-scared feminists and conservative moralists get, the more the game publishers sell to everyone else: bad publicity is MUCH better than no publicity. And yes, delving further into that issue would be opening Pandora's Box, so I won't.

"As for the whole "sex is worse than violence" thing, it's indeed the favourite hypocrisy around these days, "

A bit off-topic (most of my views on the subject have already been said), but did anyone else think it was really dumb that he used her to hold up the gate? There's, like, a metal lamb thing a foot away that probably would have been a helluva lot more effective.
 
Kratos is not a thinking man.

It's after he killed her that I said: "Fuck this guy and his revenge. I hope he fucking dies."

I'm not sure if I can get down with the premise that this was some sort of clever, intentional juxtaposition on SMS's part, but that doesn't make this anything less than an interesting read. Great post!

I didn´t really expect a sex scene, but I kinda thought that Kratos would save her. When he killed her I realized Kratos is as heartless as ever but the weird thing imo was that later he saved and protected that girl named "Pandora" (I think) so he is kinda good-natured right? But still he didn't care about that other innocent woman. 

Kratos in GoW3 is literally a shell at this point.  He feels used, betrayed, lied to, and cast out by every person he comes in contact with so at this point all he has is rage.  Why should others have freedom or enjoy families when he can't?