Long, but really interesting post.
Cool preface... sorry, I
am of a long wind, I suppose.
IMHO the MC is not a sadistic boyfriend but a man with a fantasy.
No, he isn't sadistic as in hateful, vindictive of the sense I mean here (though certainly sadistic, the sexual preference, in enjoying dishing pain and being submitted to etc.). But I disagree, kind of, on him having a fantasy, I think it's more he's developing it, partially under influence, both direct (active encouragement) and indirect (he's sensing tendencies in his girl, and he's somehow enjoying them).
I think every man in his life had or have the fantasy to see his fiancee or wife taking a stranger cock.
Who likes to expose her wife or gf has this kink, too.
Well, I don't know about that...
I don't agree that her having ANY previous experience is NTR either way
No, not either way. But that felt like something threatening, and I think even was written with a hint of it I think. Young person, early GF, hard in love ("the one" type stuff) and then the creeping "have they said/done/felt this before?". It's a common enough issue in relationships and across genders. It is not NTR, to be sure. But in the wider sense we've come to use the term to denote the fetishization of these types of insecurities/suspicions involving the love-interest enjoying/preferring others.... like, I'm saying if they add a bit more in that direction, including the feel of rising doubts and nightmarish discoveries, and you're immmersed enough, you might get that stomache-turning feeling which some NTR-tropes are all about.
But yea, Vi definitely is the primary instigator but not only does Eric love it, but she pushes him to punish her because she wants him to be a part of the whole cycle and not just a spectator to it.
I would go so far as to say, if we liberate our perspective from the expectation/bias of knowing the genre, this VN could be seen as a rather straightforward corruption story. And MC is the one being corrupted.
I don't think all sadism = losing respect though, BDSM involves sadism but the sadist can still love the masochist. From what I've gleaned from past conversations months ago there will be some growing sadism on Eric's part, but I don't think any of that will be sadism outside of the bedroom. In other words, it would be sadism connected to kink, not sadism connected to any actual change in how he sees Vi.
Surely I meant these not as synonyms but different scenarios. So, yes, what I mean is that he isn't just a dom kinkster (yet), nor a more extreme just-a-dom that doesn't do GF/BF stuff really, and certainly not the more mainstream meaning of
antisocial etc. where she's just a victim.
I agree, they are having him discover his enjoyment of gagging, slapping, etc. Part of the brilliance here, it takes you back to when you discovered this stuff.
wait Is that what I'm liking here?
Is this just a coming-of-age, nostalgia trip and our favourite filthy smut turns out to be wholesome?
... there shrinks the id