The actual point of the comic could have been made without the rape bit. There were plenty of ways to make it clear that it's dumb to rescue only x amount of people from a shitty situation but we do it because games say so. How the situation was handled from there just gets progressively more stupid.
This is actually the crux of the situation.
Did they have to use rape bit? No.
Did they? Yes.
From there, feminists ask more questions, which, to them,
the answers are no longer clear:
What does this say about PA's attitude toward rape in our society? (Nothing/Something)
Does this mean PA doesn't think rape is a serious issue? (Yes/No)
Unfortunately, these questions weren't really asked. The reaction to this was that rape was used in a humorous capacity (
the link to the initial reaction) and that really sucks because people are actually raped in the world.
Now, to PA, the rape being referred to in this case had absolutely no bearing on the joke whatsoever so trying to say this comic was a "rape joke" doesn't really make sense to them. To them, branding the comic as a "rape joke" that perpetuates "rape culture" is so out of left field that it sounds a hell of a lot like censorship. Especially when their comic strip features, or at least used to feature, an actual (fruit) rapist in the "Fruit Fucker".
And if it's one thing artists hate, it's censorship. From there the super-defensive, and then offensive reaction to the censorship began.
The rest is a long history of escalation from both sides.
*This post kinda got away from me here, hopefully people get the point.*