How 'innocent' vs 'malicious' do you prefer the predator be? by PrinnyDood

Archive > PrinnyDood > Blog > How 'innocent' vs 'malicious' do you prefer the predator be? [Report]

How 'innocent' vs 'malicious' do you prefer the predator be?

Posted by PrinnyDood 6 years ago

Hey faithful readers! I'm feeling so much healthier than I did for pretty much all of January! I should be pretty much back to normal soon, I think. Which will hopefully translate to more writing done. Can't really be less, eh? ^^;

Anyway, it's been a while since I did a poll, and this time I'm curious about people's feelings on where the predator falls on the morality spectrum! This is a bit of a followup to one I did about prey characters a while ago, which was rather interesting and illuminating: 'Innocent' vs 'Deserving' prey

So in this one, I'm curious how people feel about the various 'flavors' of predator morality. Or lack thereof.

Most of my stories have predators who are either animal-level intelligence, incapable of understanding the thoughts/feelings of the people they consume, or are sentient giantesses, but so utterly naive they don't count 'tiny' humanoids as 'real' people. But I've also done a number with highly sentient, aware dragons/lizards/succubus/whatever type things, who weren't really outright malicious, but who happen to highly enjoy devouring sexy girls, and don't really care how the sexy girls feel about their part in that equation, like the Dragon Tease Dragon. At first I thought I'd never really written any outright sadistic/malicious predators, but upon thinking about it, several of the 'Sexy Lady Who Summons/Unleashes Vore Monsters On Sexy Girls' probably kinda count. Especially Lilith from the Sorority From Hell series.

So yeah, vote away and satisfy my unhealthy love of statistics, and also please post if you have any thoughts or observation on the topic. Or just wanna yell at more to write faster. That usually works, if you yell loud enough. xD

Comments

Posted by VividLucidity 6 years ago Report

An interesting question for sure! Personally, I prefer option 3, as it leads to more interesting interaction between the predator and the prey. That's not to say that the other two aren't bad, they do have their merits, and I have played predators that fall into the first category for sure. But I'd say I enjoy a bit of teasing, a bit of malice the most.

I hope you come up with a really interesting predator for your next story though. Just go wild with it, do something you've never done before. Surprise us (but only if you want to of course :-D )

[ Reply ]

Posted by Scratch 6 years ago Report

I think it partly depends on who the prey are. Any of the three predators are fine with me if they foil the prey in a satisfying way. Like I think it's more fun to pair ditzy/airhead prey with uncaring predators, because there's a kind of comic comparison when it happens, and pairing them with malicious predators gives a story a kind of moral/deserving weight to it. Whereas with a prey character who is intelligent or sypathetic I much prefer a predator who may actually be sypathetic to them OR an uncaring predator for a particularly smart and/or naive prey character, for comical _contrast_. So it's hard to pick a favorite.

[ Reply ]

Posted by PrinnyDood 6 years ago Report

"VividLucidity" wrote:
An interesting question for sure! Personally, I prefer option 3, as it leads to more interesting interaction between the predator and the prey. That's not to say that the other two aren't bad, they do have their merits, and I have played predators that fall into the first category for sure. But I'd say I enjoy a bit of teasing, a bit of malice the most.

I hope you come up with a really interesting predator for your next story though. Just go wild with it, do something you've never done before. Surprise us (but only if you want to of course )

Yeah, it is a interesting one, for me at least, because I don't really have a strong preference towards any of them, despite my somewhat lopsided record so far.

And yes, there is certainly something to be said for a bit of teasing! ;3

"Scratch" wrote:
I think it partly depends on who the prey are. Any of the three predators are fine with me if they foil the prey in a satisfying way. Like I think it's more fun to pair ditzy/airhead prey with uncaring predators, because there's a kind of comic comparison when it happens, and pairing them with malicious predators gives a story a kind of moral/deserving weight to it. Whereas with a prey character who is intelligent or sypathetic I much prefer a predator who may actually be sypathetic to them OR an uncaring predator for a particularly smart and/or naive prey character, for comical _contrast_. So it's hard to pick a favorite.

Yeah! Part of the reason I made this poll was that I'm pretty divided on the subject, with no clear favorite, despite what my record so far might imply. It really does change the dynamic between predator & prey, and a lot of combinations can work well.

[ Reply ]

Posted by endlessDespair 6 years ago Report

Malicious/cruel all the way. The only way in which Dr. Susan Shyle could ever be hotter is if she actively enjoyed / relished / got off on the slow and painful demise of her (direct/indirect) victims.

[ Reply ]

Posted by PrinnyDood 6 years ago Report

"endlessDespair" wrote:
Malicious/cruel all the way. The only way in which Dr. Susan Shyle could ever be hotter is if she actively enjoyed / relished / got off on the slow and painful demise of her (direct/indirect) victims.

I have to admit, the scenarios where a sexy lady feeds other sexy ladies to some creature are where I enjoy the sadistic type the most. There are a couple stories of that type in the works, too, though I've no idea when they'll be ready.

I really need to bring back Susan Shyle at some point, too, since she was a really fun character to write.

[ Reply ]

Posted by WebpagesAreTrees 6 years ago Report

I have been thinking about this poll a lot, and honestly my answer is pretty wishy-washy.

I only really dislike unrealistic motivations in stories like these, things like prey being completely indifferent to their situation. A few cases are completely borderline, like social acceptance of vore. I dislike stories where vore situations are just accepted without any real reasoning, though I particularly love stories where the indifference is justified (like in the Initiation story you wrote). Another borderline case is how indifferent Lauren and the rest of the cheerleaders are to the vorish situations they encounter. Cheerleaders with Sprinkles straddled the line almost perfectly with there being a general sense that it was a messed up situation, but everyone gradually accepting it to some degree due to the seemingly commonplace nature of vore in that story.

The real key, I think, is story appropriateness. Any predator/prey motivation can be justified as optimal if the story is set up right to maximize the effect the difference has. A predator could have religious motivations that vore absolves the prey of sin, so they do it out of a reluctant sense of beneficence, even if the prey disagrees. That would work, but the story would have to make it work. I don't think there should really be a set baseline of prey/predator motivations except what the situation would realistically dictate. I also think it's important that you feel free to explore some odd combinations to try out some novel experiences.

So my advice is basically to ignore what the poll is telling you, and just go with your gut in terms of how characters should be driven.

[ Reply ]

Posted by PrinnyDood 6 years ago Report

"WebpagesAreTrees" wrote:
I have been thinking about this poll a lot, and honestly my answer is pretty wishy-washy.

I only really dislike unrealistic motivations in stories like these, things like prey being completely indifferent to their situation. A few cases are completely borderline, like social acceptance of vore. I dislike stories where vore situations are just accepted without any real reasoning, though I particularly love stories where the indifference is justified (like in the Initiation story you wrote). Another borderline case is how indifferent Lauren and the rest of the cheerleaders are to the vorish situations they encounter. Cheerleaders with Sprinkles straddled the line almost perfectly with there being a general sense that it was a messed up situation, but everyone gradually accepting it to some degree due to the seemingly commonplace nature of vore in that story.

The real key, I think, is story appropriateness. Any predator/prey motivation can be justified as optimal if the story is set up right to maximize the effect the difference has. A predator could have religious motivations that vore absolves the prey of sin, so they do it out of a reluctant sense of beneficence, even if the prey disagrees. That would work, but the story would have to make it work. I don't think there should really be a set baseline of prey/predator motivations except what the situation would realistically dictate. I also think it's important that you feel free to explore some odd combinations to try out some novel experiences.

So my advice is basically to ignore what the poll is telling you, and just go with your gut in terms of how characters should be driven.

Nothing wishy-washy about a nuanced reply!

Yeah, I do sometimes go for comedic effect in my sillier stories, like Cheerleaders with Sprinkles, where the characters aren't altogether surprised at the vore in the world, though they usually are when it happen to them personally.

I agree that the motivations have to fit the story, so don't worry about my shoe-horning in the crowd-favorite where it doesn't belong. I usually have 12+ stories in various states of completion at any given time though, so these sorts of polls do sometimes help me decide which ones to focus on finishing, or which ideas are worth fleshing out into full stories.

[ Reply ]