[ SECRET POST #5978 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5978 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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08. [WARNING for discussion of non-con]




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09. [WARNING for discussion of abuse]




























Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #854.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

08. [WARNING for discussion of non-con]
https://i.imgur.com/Wk9fxnN.png

[(Anonymous)]

I've seen these books mentioned a lot but the non-con turned me off. Maybe I'll give them ago next time I'm drawing a blank on what to read next.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like a lot of people get turned off from these books by the expectation that there's going to be a lot of explicit non-con smut. Which makes sense when you have a master/slave enemies to lovers romance. I would say that the non-con is more present as an undercurrent/vibe through the series (obviously, because sex slaves) rather than hit-you-in-the-face individual non-con smut scenes (I can only remember one scene that could be read as played for smut non-con).

[(Anonymous)]

Master/slave enemies to lovers is a big no for me....unless done just right. I don't even care if there's smut or not, it's the set up of a non-con relationship turning into love that squicks me. But I see these talked about a lot so it's got me curious enough to give it a try.

[(Anonymous)]

DA Yeah, in the main relationship it goes in a very different way than the tropes might lead you to expect and it wasn't squicky for me. That said, there are other EXTREMELY squicky relationships, including abusive ones and abusive underage ones, throughout. And one of the main characters (the one who is enslaved) has opinions on slavery done right that are squicky in themselves.

[(Anonymous)]

Different DA

You just got me to go "ah. This ... sounds relevant to my interests." Whereas, the book just sounded like it was teasing a premise that it was too cowardly to actually pursue.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT No, the author definitely knows what they're doing with the trope! They don't back down on it, but they do take it to unexpected places.

[(Anonymous)]

Ditto this. The author couldn't decide whether to write kinkfic or a m/m romance and landed squarely on rape apologia.

[(Anonymous)]

Kinda same. In that, like you, I expected a lot of non-con and dark subject-matter but instead there wasn't as much of that as I expected and I ended up not liking the book because I found it boring. I also couldn't stand the blonde princeling guy(can't remember either of the characters names, they didn't leave an impression on me).

[(Anonymous)]

The supposed non-con is why I haven't picked these up, but... did FSOG have more non-con than GOT???

[(Anonymous)]

I think it depends on what you consider non-con. Which is somewhat a matter of opinion when it comes to fictional sex. The author of FSOG doesn't consider what she wrote to be non-con, and in-universe it's not treated like non-con, so a lot of it is how much you accept the rules of the canon universe as different from the rules of reality, and how much you consider the MC's feelings and reactions to the sex as indications that she's not fully consenting, etc. Game of Thrones has more non-con in that it was fully written with the intent of being rape/non-con, no debates. Especially the TV show.

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm. I kind of just assumed the same, OP - that there'd be very little plot and tons of gay non-con, which I'm not really into. I did read Dark Rise and it was... eh, all right. I don't know if I'll pick up the next book if/when it comes out because it felt like a very elaborate YA fantasy set up for non-con gay smut. Nothing wrong with that, but there wasn't enough interesting world building for me to balance my lack of interest out.

[(Anonymous)]

I read the series when the discourse was at its peak because I wanted to see if it was really that bad and maybe have fun hatereading (I'm past that phase of my fandom consumption now, thank god) and I ended up instead liking it unironically because of the reason you were disappointed.

Whether non-con is your thing or not, I am glad whenever someone points out what the books are actually like. One of my pet peeves is the "common knowledge" from people who haven't read the books is that it uses the "character falls in love with their rapist" trope. And that... doesn't happen! Neither of the two main characters rapes the other one. They don't get together until they're equals, so it's not even dubcon where it's consensual but one is a slave so really it's not consensual.

But I can't really point this out because "Well yeah, one of the main characters is a rapist and slave owner at first, but he doesn't rape his love interest" still doesn't exactly sound... good. But I mean, they put the goalpost at "rape is love" so hey.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah a lot of the criticism I've seen about these books seems to come from people who have only read the blurb and formed their own idea of what the story actually is. Or people who have only read the first book and so missed out on all the character and relationship development that comes later.

But I can't really point this out because "Well yeah, one of the main characters is a rapist and slave owner at first, but he doesn't rape his love interest" still doesn't exactly sound... good.

It doesn't, but it's also worth adding the caveat that this book is set in a world that doesn't exist and slavery is shown to be a normal and accepted part of every culture in that world. Anyone who is going to read these books will need to adjust their expectations and understand that this is not a series onto which you can easily map real world morals.