gratuitous poll post

[ratcreature]

I rather like D/s stories, obviously not all kinds, for example characters doing the responsible "safe, sane, consensual" thing works less well for me than stories which are a fantasy directly (like slave!fic), rather than a fantasy once removed, but I've been wondering how much characterization (as I see it in the source) matters to me in the context of this kink.

The thing is, at first I was quite sure that how I perceive characterization doesn't have a lot of impact on whether I can get into a D/s story, for example in any pairing I like my preferences for who ought to be submissive and who dominant tend to be fixed, and I figured that that was a result of who my favorite character is, rather than any actual extrapolation I was attempting from the character's personality.

I simply have a preference for my favorite character to be submissive. That is true for me in TS with Jim Ellison, in XF with Mulder, in DS with Fraser, in SW with Obi-Wan, and mostly true with Sheppard in SGA (though I'm a bit more flexible there)... however it didn't hold up in HP. My favorite character is definitely Harry, but while I do read stories with him as submissive sometimes (that is, I'm not actively turned off by those, like I am in some of my other fandoms if a D/s story for my favorite pairings doesn't match my preference), I prefer Harry to be dominant by a vast margin. And I'm not really sure why that is, it might be because submissive!Harry kind of collides with my other kink for powerful!Harry, but then again I actually want my favorite characters to remain powerful and competent, even when I like them to be submissive.

I mean, when a story works for my kinks I'm pretty easy-going wrt characterization, but one thing that will cause me to stop reading even then is when a confident and competent hero character I like is turned into a snivelling, insecure idiot or saddled with neurosis and issues that are just completely not there in canon (it's not as if they don't usually have enough problems without adding random eating disorders and the like).

Anyway, the inexplicable glitch with HP in my personal pattern aside, I still think that my preference for whom I like as submissive in a D/s story is kink for me first, not characterization, though obviously I like stories much better if they get the character to fit with my kink while staying in character or at least arriving at the OOC place starting from canon characterization in a believable progression, rather than starting OOC. And I am curious about other people, so I made a poll:

[Poll #805849]

Comments

[garnet525.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is an interesting discussion. I never thought other people had preferences for who is submissive and who is dominant in d/s stories.

Then again, perhaps this should have been obvious considering: in X-files - Krycek or Mulder is always submissive while Walter is almost never submissive; Star Wars - Obi-Wan is usually the bottom; Sentinel - it's the guide who submits to the sentinel. It seems many of the authors for these fandom tend to favor one character over another for the submissive position.

For me, which character gets the submissive role and which gets the dominant role depends on a few factors. First, I dislike stories where women is the submissive. (It reminds too much of the old days when women meekly obeyed men.) Second, if the story has a clear distinction of good and evil characters, I dislike stories where the good guy submits to the bad guy. (Good doesn't always triumphs over evil in real life but I'd like it to my fanatasies) Third, I don't read stories where humans become enslaved to aliens, vampires, and demons. (That's just yucky)

After those criterias, it depends on who had the submissive role and who had the dominant role when I read a fanfiction story for the first time in the genre. For example, in my first X-file story, Walter was a strong alpha male while Krycek was broken from his encounter with the Consortium. Ever since then, I can't read stories where Walter is a bottom. I think this is because the first story makes an impression upon me about the characters and their strengths.

I don't pay any attention to how the character is portrayed in canon.

[ratcreature]

In TS I never got why so many extrapolated submissiveness from the guide fanon, as to me it always seemed more logical that the one guiding the sentinel would be in charge of said sentinel. Thankfully there was a sizable minority in TS writing stories with sub!Jim, so I was never lacking stories catering to my preference in my beloved first online fandom.

And there's apparently no accounting for taste as I tend to find humans enslaved by aliens and demons hot, especially if those are non-human and the human is even more miserable while enslaved.

[garnet525.livejournal.com]

I think it's because Blair is younger than Jim. Younger characters tend to be submissives.

[lothy.livejournal.com]

For me, which character gets the submissive role and which gets the dominant role depends on a few factors. First, I dislike stories where women is the submissive. (It reminds too much of the old days when women meekly obeyed men.) Second, if the story has a clear distinction of good and evil characters, I dislike stories where the good guy submits to the bad guy. (Good doesn't always triumphs over evil in real life but I'd like it to my fanatasies) Third, I don't read stories where humans become enslaved to aliens, vampires, and demons. (That's just yucky)

I think you've summed up most of my preferences there. And I agree on the 'first one I read' thing - I've never seen The Sentinel, but the first fanfic I read for it was sub!Blair so that's what I like.