A.) Trowa is very quiet and standoffish. 1. He's that way because he was raped. 2. He's just a quiet and mysterious character. Plenty of people are quiet and standoffish without being rape victims.
Hmm, truthfully the way he acts suggests abuse or trauma to me, but not necessarily rape. Yes a lot of people are quiet without having been a rape victim, but they usually do have some mental problem to deal with. All the people I know who have similar personality traits I KNOW were victims of child abuse or suffer from medical depression or a learning disability. So this fact by itself hints at trouble, but it's not a huge sign screaming "RAPE!"
B.) Trowa dressed in clothes that cover his entire body. 1. He does this to protect himself. 2 It doesn't mean anything, and he goes topless at the circus in EW.
Personally I throw this "evidence" out the window. Maybe he's just cold natured. I wear a sweater and long pants 7 to 8 months out of the year, and would wear them longer, (until the temp gets over the 90s at least) but my mother doesn't like me bundling up in the middle of summer. I dunno why, maybe so she can force me into a sundress before I go out to take a nap in the sun. But I see nothing conclusive in the fact of Trowa's outfit.
C.) He lived with a mercenary troop when he was a kid. 1. They obviously used him! 2. There's no way they would hurt him, it doesn't make sense.
Here I agree with the second, up to a point. I don't believe the mercenary troop he was in the Episode Zero manga did anything to harm him. However, he went on to a second troop after his first one was all killed. There, it's a good possibility that he endured abuse from the others. He was young (about 10), and an excellent pilot. Think about it, who are the kids that always get picked on? The small ones who are smarter than the bullies. Well Trowa was small and most likely a better pilot, so the others would most likely use size to dominate in social issues. It is possible that they used rape, and very likely that they abused him in some way or another.
D.) The original Trowa Barton came up and draped himself all over Nanashi when he was showing him the picture. 1. He's showing dominance over Nanashi, he must have been doing things to him! 2. He's just being a jerk, there's nothing to it, Nanashi didn't pull away or anything, did he?
Hmm, well analyzing this scene from three different sources (EW the three TV episodes, EW the manga, and the Episode Zero manga) I've come to a couple conclusions, it HAS to be a fairly important scene. But was it truly needed for plot? I mean the whole thing could have worked out without the scene, there are plenty of other ways Trowa could have ended up working for Mariemaia, but none of them happened, instead they showed the scene with the original Trowa Barton. Lets go with the theory that the scene was important than a quick way to fill up some time and an easy way to prevent plot holes. What's left? That it's an important clue to Trowa/Nanashi's character. Here's a fact that people seem to miss, sort of missing the forest for the trees. Trowa Barton showed Nanashi the picture. He made a point of saying that he'd never shown anyone else the picture. Why the heck would he do that? I mean can you honestly see President Clinton going up to some random person in the mall and saying "You know, this is top secret information, that should be destroyed, but I'm going to show it to you. Here's all the passwords into all the computers of the military bases, instructions on how to use them, and for good measure a picture of Monica and me having sex with a written admission that I lied and would do so again!" How likely is that? Well Trowa Barton did that! He went up to one of the mechanics that he had no reason to be best buddies with, treats him like a jerk, then shows him a picture of the future dictator. Now he could tell anyone her name and describe her, and she could be assassinated. But Trowa Barton showed him the picture anyway, either he's incredibly stupid as well as annoying, or he knew Nanashi couldn't/wouldn't tell. That shows some degree of control over him. How could he be controlling him? Trowa's a good enough mechanic/soldier I doubt it's "If you don't, you'll get fired and no one else would hire you." There's blackmail, but what would Trowa Barton have on Nanashi that he could use for blackmail? Then there's emotional control, which is a possibility. If Trowa Barton had raped, or shown that he was capable of raping Nanashi then he would have control over him. The hugging close was just a way of reinforcing that fact to Nanashi. Of course I'm not going to throw out the idea that the original Trowa Barton was just an idiot, there are lots of idiots in this world, I see a few thousand every day, wanna borrow a few? My school won't miss them, I'm sure.
E.) Trowa isn't often shown touching people, and didn't shake hands with Zechs. 1. He's afraid of physical contact, that comes from being raped. 2. That has nothing to do with it, he's just a standoffish guy!
This is a close call and I'll need to do more research before I pass judgement. But first throw the Zechs thing out the window, that scene was very specific in purpose. It was about Heero honoring and respecting his rival/enemy enough to shake hands with him. Trowa wasn't necessary for that scene at all, he just happened to be there. So don't use that scene for proof. I'll examine this more closely later, but I will say from personal experience that any abuse will make you less comfortable with touching anyone.
To sum up I do believe that Trowa suffered from some abuse, whether it was sexual abuse or not is hard to say. Just stop fighting about it, bakas. There's no official proof that says yes, there's no official proof that says no. Your opinion about it is just that, your personal opinion. Three things not to discuss with people, politics, religion, and if Trowa was a rape victim.
