What is with people obsession with realism? Like, in what moment the series even implied it would be a manual to BDSM?
So, there's a difference between a story being a step-by-step practical guide to safe and ethical bondage, and a story using BDSM themes effectively to be kinky and exciting. The latter type can skip a few steps that the former can't, in terms of safety measures, informed consent, aftercare etc, for the sake of maintaining the fantasy and general narrative convenience. It's a little risky, since you can really easily fall into the trap of writing what is basically a violently abusive relationship without realising it, because you skipped all the parts that make it healthy. And, y'know, abusive relationships in fiction - especially erotic BDSM fiction - can be a huge turnoff for people, unless they're specifically looking for it at that particular moment.
That's all totally beside the point, though, because this isn't either of those things. The biggest problems with realism in this story have nothing to do with the BDSM stuff, it's the part where any of these characters are supposed to be relatable or comprehensible as humans. And that's the biggest turn-off of them all. For that matter, when was the last time anything BDSM-related actually happened? The sex scene in chapter 1? Since then, there was some aggressively rapey behaviour and some cutting, but those scenes were BDSM adjacent, at best. So yeah, not really sure who you're talking to with "it's not a BDSM manual", there's barely been any BDSM for us to criticise, yet.
last edited at Mar 3, 2016 2:28PM