First of all, you say you want to watch, but Oliver doesn't...so you either get to stay outside the room or not come to YOUR HOUSE at all...Bitch get the fuck out!
Yeah this moment shattered the hope of a successful Oliver return for me, personally.
yeahsureitsallforyoubabeokhesaysyougottaleavehisfavoritefleshlightalonenowbyeeee
I'm an
Oliver returns voter, so I'll take my lumps for being wrong (misplaced hope, personal preferences, yadda yadda). I still absolutely hate him, and it leads to dislike of Laura because she's his only enabler. The winning voter group indeed wanted him back,
but the desired method of his return was different. I think this is important. Most of the audience voted for Oliver to come back with a Mea culpa/apology to Laura and MC. Basically explaining he went way overboard trying to impress Laura and including story beats with him learning to control his excitement and impulses. I still think this would have played better with the Dom readers than "he's cool now wink wink you'll see later" followed by whatever that scene's dialogue was (with maybe some code/trigger issues muddying the waters). Stag tried to write the apology route after the vote won, but said it didn't work and pivoted to the "redone Oliver" method of returning him to the story instead.
The reason apologetic Oliver didn't work makes more sense to me now that I've read 0.29. An Oliver who is clearly
role playing an asshole wouldn't make for a truly disrespectful bull, which is for some reason integral to the story (and apparently it's now more important to Laura than MC's preferences). Laura being disrespected by Oliver and prioritizing his desires is de facto being disrespectful to MC. In retrospect, this dynamic was foreshadowed with Laura's interactions with Mike. She didn't stop the cheating talk roleplay with Mike when it made MC uncomfortable, she just stopped telling him what they did. Her prioritization of bull desires over MC is the specific thing that turns off many lifestyle partners. A Sub's deference to a Dom's desires is
the dynamic that is important in a Dom/Sub relationship. If Dom MC's Sub does whatever they want, and what they want is a different Dom who constantly needles and belittles MC, they aren't "MC's Sub" anymore. The loss of status Laura imposes on MC when she's with Oliver is what the Sub/beta cuck readership (and Laura) loves, more power to preference, but it makes Laura repulsive to some readers at the same time.
What exactly is the "growth" that Doms are supposed to be seeing when Laura interacts with Oliver in this way? How is Laura behaving when
she doesn't want something, versus when
MC doesn't want something? Are there clear differences between Laura's time with Oliver and the Nathan threesome scene (which I loved, and many of the Sub/beta cucks in turn hated)? Yes, it's a silly little porn game - but it's built to be very immersive, so you're going to get readers self-inserting, investing time in the story and characters, not liking what's happening, and then showing up to share their opinions. Yes/YES/lehotface won't stop that.