In the spirit of “problematic fave”…
I think it’s entirely possible to have good intentions, to misunderstand signals, and to screw up consent. This is why a lot of our ingrained culture around consent treats it as a huge deal and that there’s no room for nuance. It doesn’t help that they have had messed up boundaries including around “no” since chapter 6 and that in chapter 8 Marika’s internal thoughts seem legit conflicted and confused. Ultimately what someone considers a violation is often decided after the fact… this is a good real life reason to not mess with the boundary, as after the fact accusations do happen in dating and D/s. On the receiving end it’s super possible to be like “I’m ok with this” and then later be like “I was really not ok with that” - sort of the opposite of what Marika does here? If someone decides after the fact that they weren’t actually ok with it, then it is in fact not consensual at all. Only do D/s with people you really trust and communicate well with, full stop, and that definitely isn’t where Marika and Aya are at with each other…
In this case Marika decides to participate and eventually with some enthusiasm. I am not saying this is a good thing or that it’s good writing, but I don’t think it’s especially jarring or inconsistent. I like the characters and complexity and story a lot, but acknowledge it’s problematic and can normalize coercion if read uncritically.