Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Sex and Relationships in Time Braid
It seems that about every thirty or forty reviews I get a complaint that there's too much sex in Time Braid, which I admit has me a little puzzled. Indomitable has a lot more explicit sex going on, but it hardly gets any complaints at all on that score. Maybe it's just that Time Braid starts with everyone being twelve, and it doesn't spend enough time describing their process of growing up? Or maybe the way they get dumped back in their younger bodies every loop generates some squick factor? Or maybe this is really just a request for more action and less touchy-feely relationship stuff? If anyone has an idea I'd be interested to hear it.
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I thought the amount of sex in it was fine... maybe it's because Sakura's the main character so you have more female readers reading it than males? In my perspective we're more likely to complain about amount of sex in stories than praise for it.
ReplyDeleteTime Braid's summary doesn't give any indication of the sex and the rating doesn't give indication that it's going to be as...sex packed as it is. Indomitable does. Add Sakura/Multi and it might cease.
ReplyDeletexshrugsx
Huh. I always thought that there was a lot more sex in Time Braid than Indomitable, though it's more explicit in the latter. I'd bet that readers complain/comment less if Naruto was the one getting the girls (on screen); people are much more accepting of perversion when it's on the part of the main male protagonist doing it. We probably have a double standard at work.
ReplyDeleteEither way, can't wait to see what happens next!
I think it's mostly the difference in the nature of the sex. There might be more of it in Indomitable, but it's far more central to the plot in Time Braid. And really, I can't actually recall there being _that_ much in Indomitable, whereas I remember most of it from Time Braid.
ReplyDeleteactually, it seems to be more plot dependant in indomitable.
ReplyDeletei think it is because it is sakura, and not awesome macho man.
I've figured out an easy solution to your plight.
ReplyDeleteToss more explicit sex into the story.
As it is the only reason that I could think for a person to complain is that they are not making the connections between character growth and sex. So if your more explicit in the sex then the connection will be easier to identify.
"I thought the amount of sex in it was fine... maybe it's because Sakura's the main character so you have more female readers reading it than males? In my perspective we're more likely to complain about amount of sex in stories than praise for it."
ReplyDeleteThis comment betrays the answer. Most western cultures are a bit more prudish about women having sex than men, a blatant and paradoxical double standard that nevertheless holds true. After immersing the reader in a female perspective, sexually promiscuous activity will more often strike the reader as 'wrong' than the more typical male perspective. Honestly, fascination with attraction, seduction, and sex at a relatively young age contributes more to your Sakura's muliebrity than it detracts. Girls mature faster and are assumed to have a greater proclivity towards romance, however unbecoming explicit activities might be in a conservative western society.
It's really nothing more than hypocrisy. You've got nothin' on an honest-to-god romance novel, after all. For what it's worth, I find the role sex plays in your story to be somewhat subdued given the apparent age of the characters (which seem to be written as older teenagers). It is, perhaps, quite too much if you were to stick to the literal age of 12 for most of the cast, but the protagonist is a thirty-year-old woman often wearing a seventeen-year-old body. There is nothing about that which does not scream 'sexual peak' in every metric.
For me it really has nothing to do with that, it's just in the Chuunin exams, they were 12... and this resets before they stop being 12. So what growing up do they really do? They get more memories yes, but maturity is a lot of mental development that takes place during the teens where your mind literally is still changing.
ReplyDeleteMostly though- not a lolicon :) Girls gotta be well through the teens before I want to hear about her getting laid.
As for the relationship differences in Time Braid vs. Indomitable in the latter they are actually forming relationships, it's not really casual sex, it has consequences. In the former, pretty much the opposite, but seeing how you'll only rarely see someone else that actually matters on the outside, not too surpising.
Personally wonder if Ino can make the jumps with someone if she's in their head at the moment of switch. ah well food for though.
I'm ok with the amount of sex in this story. ;p
ReplyDeleteThe amount of sex doesn't bother me. And the characters are mentally much older than I am (a few of Sakura's individual loops took decades) and physically adults, so that doesn't squick me.
ReplyDeleteThe part that did bother me was in chapter 16, when Sakura was trying to have a serious conversation about the future with Naruto, and he overwhelmed her with sexyness. He really should have finished the conversation before turning up the charm; even though I know Naruto had good intentions, his behavior and supernatural attractiveness still has too much resemblance to H-jutsu or mind control.
personally, i am just glad, like a girl, that its not a super boy getting all the sex
ReplyDelete(though, at the end you made a threesome, about to girls that love each other, but love more to sex up naruto....this seems to bother me beyond anything...i used to love this sort of sakura centric fic, and i could actually dig the narusaku and the naruhina and even a sasusaku, but the whole: naruto is waay to special and girls should be happy to be able to share him...pffffttttttttt)
Honestly? I can't see what the complainers are talking about. None of the sex is actually described in detail, unless you count when Naruto was in Sakura's mindscape. Everything sexual in the story is plot-relevant in one way or another, and honestly? I agree that there would be less complainers if Naruto was the one getting laid all the time. You do great work, have you considered becoming a professional writer?
ReplyDelete