Re: ... wow, Devin. Maybe I empathize too much with Dick, here, then.
Or with Devin, since you insist on offering more charitable defenses for her than she can offer for herself.
Because it's obvious that the way you describe the scene is exactly how Tarantula perceived it; in her mind, she was comforting Dick.
And the problem is that, to many, many, MANY people who read it, THAT'S what they saw as the STORYTELLERS' intent, because IT'S RIGHT THERE ON THE PAGE, and THAT'S why so many people accuse Grayson of turning the Tarantula into her Mary Sue, because this rape scene coded so heavily as glamorizing both the rape and the rapist. And given Grayson's interview comments, in which she defends Tarantula from accusations of being a rapist, you really CAN'T separate her opinions from the work anymore, because regardless of how YOU CHOOSE to read it, it's pretty clear that her INTENT was to cast Tarantula in a sympathetic light, and the deliberate use of all these elements - the warm colors, the mothering dialogue, and Dick's passive body language - PROVES it.