Discussion Friday

[geraineon]

Time for Discussion Friday again!

This time, inspired by my very rapid descent into a Chinese otome game that tried to be culturally sensitive by translating "哥哥" (older brother*) into "childhood friend" in English, what are your thoughts and feelings about incest/pseudo-incest in fiction?

If you enjoy it, why do you enjoy it?

If you find it uncomfortable, is it for all incest/pseudo-incest related tropes, or are there situations where you are more likely to be okay with them and situations where it's a squick?

(Feel free to share any other related thoughts. I trust you all to be respectful to each other's preferences in fiction!)

*brother, very loosely, because it is not always someone related.

Comments

[aurumcalendula]

Incest tends to squick me out. w/r/t pseudo-incest, it depends a lot on the characters in question's dynamics and how they feel about it.

I've run into some of the kinda the reverse (siblings with platonic feelings towards each other pretending to be a couple to conceal one's identity) a few times.

[geraineon]

What kind of character dynamics and character feelings towards it makes pseudo incest okay/not okay for you?

I think I have seen the reverse but somehow my brain is not coming up with examples.

[aurumcalendula]

Mutual interest is a big one - like I don't mind if one party is really repressed or slow on the uptake w/r/t their feelings, but if things are completely one sided I'm probably not going to want them to get together. I also like when there's interesting (and shifting) power dynamics and push and pull between the characters instead of them being pigeonholed into one or another.

Sha Po Lang wasn't really my thing, but I wasn't squicked by Changgeng and Gu Yun's romance. On a semi-related note, I'm very curious to see Hua Xiangyi and Qi Zhuyin's interactions in Qiang Jin Jiu since Highlight for spoilers! *(assuming the marriage that's been talked about in the last few volumes goes forward (I've been attempting to avoid spoilers)) the former will be the latter's stepmother.*

re: the reverse, the ones that came to mind for me were Highlight for spoilers! *Qiyan Agula and Qiyan Nomin* in Clear and Muddy Loss of Love and *Li Ningyu and Lao Pan in* The Message (athough tbh I found their relationship in the 2020 adaptation more interesting than the book's).

[geraineon]

Mm, mutual interest contributes to so much of the delicious messiness I enjoy!

Re: SPL and QJJ, tbh these did not strike me as incest-trope forward at all. For SPL, there's very little yifu-ing from Guyun's end. For QJJ, they are all already adults.

Did the 2020 adaptation of The Message change the relationship dynamics?

[aurumcalendula]

tbh SPL didn't strike me as especially pseudo-incesty either (although I think I saw some people on Goodreads freaking out about the yifu stuff). Yeah, re: QJJ (and I think Hua Xiangyi is a bit younger than Qi Zhuyin).

We got to see their interactions more in general - a lot of the book involves unreliable narrators talking about stuff after the fact (the 2020 drama kept the unreliable narrators, but did more showing vs telling). In the 2020 drama Highlight for spoilers! *Lao Pan's driving motivation is desperately attempting to rescue his sister despite the fact that he has no idea how to contact her superiors (In the 2020 drama he's a burned KMT spy and she's a CCP spy. In the book they're both CCP spies by the time the story starts).*