I think this is a great exploration of the obsession that drives many of these stories. The characters don’t know each other, don’t love each other, and generally aren’t sexually compatible, but one person has something that fills the void in the other’s life. MC has a grueling job and a boring life, and ML lives being abused by other men; the only real thing they’ve ever known is a crush with no real substance and the aftercare from a bad BDSM relationship. If you think about it that way, there are many toxic stories like this: one character serves as a stand-in for the other’s shortcomings, and that’s where all the narrative tension comes from. If we’re lucky, the characters grow. If not, it’s just cheap pornography. Anyway! I think there’s a lot to be salvaged even in bad stories.
I think this is a great exploration of the obsession that drives many of these stories. The characters don’t know each other, don’t love each other, and generally aren’t sexually compatible, but one person has something that fills the void in the other’s life. MC has a grueling job and a boring life, and ML lives being abused by other men; the only real thing they’ve ever known is a crush with no real substance and the aftercare from a bad BDSM relationship.
If you think about it that way, there are many toxic stories like this: one character serves as a stand-in for the other’s shortcomings, and that’s where all the narrative tension comes from.
If we’re lucky, the characters grow. If not, it’s just cheap pornography.
Anyway! I think there’s a lot to be salvaged even in bad stories.