Deliberate vs accidental controllers?

[Daphne]

Do you prefer controllers that come into their powers by design, or by accident? Comments below as always?

[jmundt29]

Accident.  Typically, accidental controllers aren’t malevolent.

[Haight]

I much prefer deliberate controllers, but accidental yet enthusiastic controllers could be fun too.

White knight "reluctant" controllers usually take the heat out of the story for me. It's usually doubly hot if the subjects of mind control are into being mind controlled, but of course them being reluctantly mind controlled is a mainstay of the genre. However, controllers who somehow find their way into a situation of contact with a mind control subject seems like a fixation on blamelessness/avoidance of responsibility, and that's not the kind of thing I want to see in my kink-erotica. If you think having a mind control kink is immoral... you shouldn't be here.

[jmundt29]

We appear to disagree..  But I can’t tell if it’s that our views are diametrically opposed or if it’s that I hate a secondary underlying premise that you’re taking for granted or ignoring altogether.  Or if there are multiple layers to it and I’m misunderstanding something.  I’ve always preferred releases like Yard Sale, Housewarming, Bottled, the C-Ducer series, etc.  but my favorite release so far has probably been Spiral Bound.  Rules of preference tend to be more fluid than absolute.

[Haight]

We appear to disagree..  But I can’t tell if it’s that our views are diametrically opposed or if it’s that I hate a secondary underlying premise that you’re taking for granted or ignoring altogether.  Or if there are multiple layers to it and I’m misunderstanding something.  I’ve always preferred releases like Yard Sale, Housewarming, Bottled, the C-Ducer series, etc.  but my favorite release so far has probably been Spiral Bound.  Rules of preference tend to be more fluid than absolute.

I guess I really dislike the idea that any mind controller has to be malevolent. Well, any male one, at least; female MCs seem to get pass on that. That, and the story trope of the love interest being MCed to be in love/lust with a guy but he refuses and begs off because he's so virtuous is really tired and boring for me.

[GodWilling]

One of my favourite scenes on this site is in the unfinished story Stream where (spoiler alert) a strong woman climbs into a room where a mind control device has been left accidentally, and she's rendered the very compliant sex slave of whoever enters the room next...

I'm sorry, what was the question again?

[Haight]

One of my favourite scenes on this site is in the unfinished story Stream where (spoiler alert) a strong woman climbs into a room where a mind control device has been left accidentally, and she's rendered the very compliant sex slave of whoever enters the room next...

I'm sorry, what was the question again?

Sounds like a great premise if it doesn't devolve into the "And now our hero must beg off because he's so chivalrous, but never actually de-mind control the girl because then she'd stop chasing him."

[nageth]

All three are fine but deliberate is somewhat over represented imo. Regarding enthusiastic vs reluctant, I prefer reluctant because it can be used to develop the story.

For instance, I put down the character in Above That Ye Are Able as reluctant even though by the end he is ready to turn basically anyone he fancies into a sex zombie (as well as there being an induction intermixed throughout with a presumably enthusiastically deliberate controller). I like the progression of the reluctant character because it centers the action around learning about the women as objects in disguise. The tension of the boyfriend coming to terms with his girlfriend having a trigger that turns her into an object/distracting himself by trying to figure out first who did it before quickly giving up on that and shifting to just playing his new found toy/exploring his girlfriend as object.

The first issue of Bearing Gifts is pretty similar in that it mixes all three, more or less. There is the guy who is deliberate turning women into sex robots, the enthusiastic friend, and the supposedly reluctant friend who is being shown a sex robot supposedly for the first time. The supposedly reluctant character reveal as enthusiastic at the end is what made that issue hot.

[elenchos]

...
For instance, I put down the character in Above That Ye Are Able as reluctant even though by the end he is ready to turn basically anyone he fancies into a sex zombie (as well as there being an induction intermixed throughout with a presumably enthusiastically deliberate controller). I like the progression of the reluctant character because it centers the action around learning about the women as objects in disguise. The tension of the boyfriend coming to terms with his girlfriend having a trigger that turns her into an object/distracting himself by trying to figure out first who did it before quickly giving up on that and shifting to just playing his new found toy/exploring his girlfriend as object.
...

I like both flavors, deliberate and accidental.

What I don't like is reluctant, unless it turns into enthusiastic at some point, as in the example of Above That Ye Are Able. (Thanks for reminding me of a fantastic story, by the way, nageth!)

I'll admit that reluctance can occasionally be fun, particularly when done by someone of Daphne's amazing talent, but overall: enthusiastic by a mile. Too much reluctance just doesn't do it for me.

[Haight]

...
For instance, I put down the character in Above That Ye Are Able as reluctant even though by the end he is ready to turn basically anyone he fancies into a sex zombie (as well as there being an induction intermixed throughout with a presumably enthusiastically deliberate controller). I like the progression of the reluctant character because it centers the action around learning about the women as objects in disguise. The tension of the boyfriend coming to terms with his girlfriend having a trigger that turns her into an object/distracting himself by trying to figure out first who did it before quickly giving up on that and shifting to just playing his new found toy/exploring his girlfriend as object.
...

I like both flavors, deliberate and accidental.

What I don't like is reluctant, unless it turns into enthusiastic at some point, as in the example of Above That Ye Are Able. (Thanks for reminding me of a fantastic story, by the way, nageth!)

I'll admit that reluctance can occasionally be fun, particularly when done by someone of Daphne's amazing talent, but overall: enthusiastic by a mile. Too much reluctance just doesn't do it for me.

I think a big part of the "reluctant mc" is that the role reversal kink where the woman is the pursuer and the man is the pursued eclipses the mind control. That makes it un-fun for me.

[nageth]

For me it isn't really about any specific roles but more that reluctant gives more room for character growth of the controller. Enthusiastic and by design type controller development seems to be usually limited to conflict with either the people they're controlling (which usually doesn't last very long) or sometimes a rival controller (which really doesn't interest me most of the time because the story usually assumes you'll be rooting for one controller or the other when they're more often than not exactly the same).

Above That Ye Are Able is great, imo, because the two versions of the girlfriend, the human and sex zombie, creates a conflict between the boyfriend's Id and Ego because he desires both versions. The story then follows the boyfriend coming to terms with this and finding a balance (or at least that is what he tells himself).

It doesn't need to be that kind of relationship every time, but I just find that reluctant allows for more of the kind of drama I enjoy (not saying all reluctant stories are like this, some stories seem to do it just so the character can more closely follow a heroes arc of some sort).

Edit: Oh and I also like ones where there is no real sentient controller and the mc is more of a force of nature (Tabico is great with that kind of story).

[ozymandias]

The stories I like best are generally told from the point of view of the controlled--or at least, from third person observing the controlled.

I like enthusiastic controllers, but I'm not a fan of sadism or humiliation, and I want there to be some limits on control, so there is some kind of tension in the story. Hive by TrilbyElse, for example, is good, as there really IS no controller--just the hive. But also Daphne's Above that Ye Are Able; there's a controller, and he ultimately succumbs to temptation, but he doesn't ever seem to be evil; just horny. Ronin (Tabico) is another good example. These controllers cherish their slaves, and conversion isn't necessarily straightforward or easy process.

[Milkwood]

To be honest I do not think it matters what the controller's motives are, one certainly can not describe most of them as heroic in any sense but more self absorbed in their own sexual fantasies, which on some level or other is why most of us subscribe to MCC.

I liked the almost ambivalent way "Bearing Gifts" started with the protagonist selling his wares to others for money but for the best controller I think "The Chrysalis" must come tops as our Hero (for want of a better word) has know idea what his next playmate will look like or be.

[Haight]

For me it isn't really about any specific roles but more that reluctant gives more room for character growth of the controller.

Sure, but much more often I see it in the context of people fetishizing a supposedly moral, passive male controller refusing the controlled women who just can't stop lusting after him, and it stays in that holding pattern for far too long because *that's* the kink for a lot of people.

[nageth]

For me it isn't really about any specific roles but more that reluctant gives more room for character growth of the controller.

Sure, but much more often I see it in the context of people fetishizing a supposedly moral, passive male controller refusing the controlled women who just can't stop lusting after him, and it stays in that holding pattern for far too long because *that's* the kink for a lot of people.

Hence my explanation. *I'm* not those people so I explained my point of view.