How important are plot, character development, conflict… to you?

[Daphne]

How important are standard "storytelling" virtues to you in the comics? These are things like plot, character development, conflict, etc., as opposed to the MC and the sex.

Be honest! No one is judging!

[hereno]

Variety is good! One of the virtues of this site is that it's lines are pretty diverse in tone and style. THK gives me a lot of juicy plot; Audiophilia is more of a "just the basics" story. I like them both. Both is good.

[onyxghoul]

Definitely essential. If I wanted xxx comics, there's plenty of options. I'm subscribed here for the storylines. I don't necessarily need to know everything about a character, but world building and the type of MC it is has a great effect on how much I enjoy content. I am not a fan of "this guy can force his thoughts on this schoolgirl" because it feels empty. Even when the story spirals out wildly, I enjoy when there's some kind of attachment to the characters.

I also like conclusions. BR and Con 'Fused are two of my favorites, and while I'm sad the stories ended, I'm glad I can go back and read a complete story rather one at the risk of cancellation (or at least year long hiatuses).

[crazydorian]

I voted for a balance, but I'm okay with that being site-wide, rather than having every single title have a balance.  There's plenty of room for titles with immediate MC payoff, and Penelope is one of my favourite titles on the site, despite being story heavy and more MC-adjacent than MC-focused.

I think the only trouble with story-heavy titles is that sometimes a title may only get updates once or twice a year, but on the other hand, that's a good excuse to re-read them when there is a new entry.

[grimtidings]

Plot, character and conflict are the building blocks necessary to craft a protagonist you can care about (or hate), root for (or against).

Mind control can then come along and break the rules of the game in ways that matter to that protagonist (and, by extension, the reader).

So I find myself just echoing onyxghoul (except that I'm in the extreme minority who didn't particularly enjoy anything but the art of Beyond Rubies and Con'Fused).

The first "book" of Bearing Gifts holds a special place in my heart for Officer Kopejove's arc. Ashley's doomed resistance (and loyalty to her boyfriend) in Friend Request has been a source of recent enjoyment. The points of view and power exchanges in the Help are fun. Takeout (before it started hinting at serial recruitment) has me for its intriguing, nomadic, underground-controller-for-hire dynamic.

But it's not just long-runners that get me. One-shots like Cloud 9, Sang Froid, Business as Usual, and 4F also managed to pack in context around the characters so that I could feel something (because there's enough context given to fire the imagination).

[carmel0]

A truly great mind control story has three phases.

A storyline that introduces and develops the characters prior to any mind control
An interesting and hot conversion (mind control) process
And a continued storyline with the same characters now converted, and then of course storylines about new characters being converted.

Some of my favorites are Bigger, Unknown Pleasures, Friend Request...
I was a fan of 'An Education' because you took time developing the characters of Brigid and Gwen. You got to know them.
Since then it's kind of jumped all over the place and shows almost the same slides, just with different people.

[marcus]

Another survey I managed to miss. If I hadn't, you could have added one more for the "balance between them and MC/smut" being important. Hell, I might have been a rebel anf voted for "A dash here and there are fine, but… it's smut."
I would formulate it differently though. To me, the plot needs to serve the "smut". So in this sense, it's really important. Like every erotic story, the context, atmosphere, dialogue, and art makes it or breaks it. Did the plot and everything around it manage to make the target of the mind controller feel real and desirable or not?   

[Haight]

I feel like with TF (whether mental or physical) the more depth there is in the pre-transformation characterization the hotter the TF gets. Also, it becomes less necessary for the transformation to be completely overpowering/crude in its application to hit the right notes.

That said, if all you want to see is female characters hypnotized into being "mindless whores" then characterization might get in the way of your kink, idk.

[tods1976]

I missed the poll, but I would have voted for balance.  The smut is why I’m here, but usually your great storytelling and dialogue enhance it quite a bit.

Plot and character development are essential for some hot things. All the forms of delayed gratification need to be supported by good plot (foreshadowing the hot new thing to be conquered in two users; resistance to control that takes more than two panels).  Betrayal can be very hot but it requires a backstory and some caring about the target (think Gabby in Beyond Rubies).

I prefer more subtle MC that changes the target’s attitude and priorities as opposed to sex robots and women following commands. Think Inheritance, Beyond Rubies, Scent Lure, Community Property, Francesca’s serial recruitment arc in By the Book, and the early and middle issues of Bigger where Kurt succeeds through inchoate charisma and dominance rather than programming women with his hypnodick. And storytelling really shines there.

That said, I associate myself with the protagonist, so too much external conflict-especially losing women to a competing controller, like Monsonis or the new guy in bearing gifts-does really detract from my enjoyment.  And sometimes the plot becomes too complex-I’m focused on other things- and I can’t fully follow it anymore.  I mostly gave up on SJI for this reason and I got similarly lost near the end of By the Book.  I can enjoy Francesca’s arc but I no longer have any clue who works for whom otherwise.

[Haight]

That said, I associate myself with the protagonist, so too much external conflict-especially losing women to a competing controller, like Monsonis or the new guy in bearing gifts-does really detract from my enjoyment.  And sometimes the plot becomes too complex-I’m focused on other things- and I can’t fully follow it anymore.  I mostly gave up on SJI for this reason and I got similarly lost near the end of By the Book.  I can enjoy Francesca’s arc but I no longer have any clue who works for whom otherwise.

Unfortunately losing women to a competing controller appears to be a turnon for the writing team. It's interesting how things have shifted from the POV/MC being the one who does the stealing in the earlier stories, to in the later stories it being more common for the MC to have someone stolen from their harem.

Yes, at a certain point the plot can become unnecessarily complicated. By the Book 2 should have been its own story, since it has very little in common with 1. When the plot gets lost in the weeds and seems to try to set up contrived circumstances for the sake of feel (that isn't hypno kink)... this isn't exclusive to this site but it happens here sometimes. And it ain't great.

[Daphne]

Unfortunately losing women to a competing controller appears to be a turnon for the writing team

Dude.

Are you... trying to kink-shame me?

[Haight]

Dude.

Are you... trying to kink-shame me?

Not really, no. Just calling it how I see it.

[orifalcon]

That said, I associate myself with the protagonist, so too much external conflict-especially losing women to a competing controller, like Monsonis or the new guy in bearing gifts-does really detract from my enjoyment.  And sometimes the plot becomes too complex-I’m focused on other things- and I can’t fully follow it anymore.  I mostly gave up on SJI for this reason and I got similarly lost near the end of By the Book.  I can enjoy Francesca’s arc but I no longer have any clue who works for whom otherwise.

Unfortunately losing women to a competing controller appears to be a turnon for the writing team. It's interesting how things have shifted from the POV/MC being the one who does the stealing in the earlier stories, to in the later stories it being more common for the MC to have someone stolen from their harem.

Yes, at a certain point the plot can become unnecessarily complicated. By the Book 2 should have been its own story, since it has very little in common with 1. When the plot gets lost in the weeds and seems to try to set up contrived circumstances for the sake of feel (that isn't hypno kink)... this isn't exclusive to this site but it happens here sometimes. And it ain't great.

Same here on the POV-loser issue. I've skimmed past the recent issues By the Book, Bearing Gifts, and a couple others for that reason. Its not as much of an issue in something like Waiting Room or Flesh for Fantasy because they didn't have much of a protagonist established in the first place. I'd take Roll Playing, Friend Request, Unknown Pleasures, Trigger Warning, and Ring Cycle every week though.