by HentaiMaster90000 » Sat Oct 23, 2021 12:21 am
Keep in mind that these are obviously just my patrician tastes, but since we're talking about personal opinion, I will voice this in an admittedly biased way. I will also note that this is mainly applicable to literature rather that to illustrations. Specifically most points in paragraph 3 do not apply because of the difference in medium.
1. I dislike it when the domination factor is too overdone. Obviously there is a power dynamic to vore, that's part of what makes it hot, but it's much nicer to see when that dynamic is presented in more of a "who's on top during sex" way, or with authority figures (parents, elders, bosses, teachers) rather than a "master/slave" kind of way. That opens up more possibility to do something interesting with those dynamics, for example a shy pred suddenly becoming more dominant, or conversely a prey that takes initiative. Domination to me is not the BDSM type aspects of it, rather it's the intrigue and character dynamic that keeps the reader on their toes and introduces potential for more nuance in the story.
2. I don't specifically dislike any kind of full-tour or digestion, or even disposal (basically as long as it's concise and not overly gratuitous I'm ok with it), since every type has it's charm. On one hand you have non-fatal and endo themes that can give a tone of comfort to the story, one the other hand you have fatal and digestion, that provide more gritty and realistic elements. It is the combination of those different elements that gives way to emotional complexity.
(For example you can have non-fatal full-tour vore that is like a happy little slide through the pred, but you can also introduce themes of entrapment and digestion for a much more nuanced story, one where the prey goes through the mental and physical torture of being subjected to their captor's digestive system and somehow makes it through alive, but not without injury. This will be elaborated on in a later point)
The outlier for me would be "sunshine and rainbows fatal" or reformation (more on that in point 3)
2**. Quick caveat to mention a small pet peeve: Excessive weight gain/obese preds. A big appeal of vore (at least for me) is the pred themselves. If the pred is unattractive, that automatically negates any other good points of the piece. Personally I always prefer a little bir of weight gain, but nothing that ruins the proportions of the pred.
3. Vore being too casual/commonplace. This might be my biggest gripe of all, but personally, whenever I see a sentence like "many men rested on her hips, now reduced to only a single layer of fat" or "He had to be careful on his way to school, as there were many predators in this neighborhood" It just automatically ruins the immersion.
This ties in to what other people mentioned several times as well, but willing prey with no/poor motive relate back to this "overdone prevalence" of vore. Is the prey suicidal? Perfect. Have they been tricked by the pred? Great! But only having "ooh it'll be hot when you eat me" as a motive is cheap, lazy, and overdone.
Stories where vore is too casual suffer from a lack of consequence, and while stories with reformation at least make more sense than strait up fatal stuff in this context, that is nothing more than a cheap cop-out.
A largely underutilized theme that works great with vore is psychological horror. Ideally, It's a world pretty much exactly like our own where vore is not a thing that exists publicly or as anything more than a fetish online. It's characters, as well prey as pred, would discover at one point, mostly by accident, that vore is actually possible. In that situation, the taboo nature of the act, as well as it's novelty provide an ideal canvas to explore different thoughts, feelings and emotions which will ultimately make the characters more relatable and the story more immersive. The psychological experience of being reduced to food and to make it out alive yet partially digested (as mentioned in point 2) far outweighs something like "My sister came home from school. She said she was hungry. I asked her if she wanted to eat me, she said yes. She picked me up and swallowed me into her stomach. I was digested and my sister was happy"
Even if a character is an established pred or knows about/is capable of vore, having them keep it a secret/doing it only under certain circumstances, like a secret superpower, is far better than a pred who eats 15 people a week like it's nothing, because in the former example the characters are more human, and as such we can get immersed into the story. In that situation it's much more interesting because it's easier to epathize with the characters because their world is more similar to our own rather and a 24/7 vore orgy.
4. Pred sizes. I know everyone has their own opinion on this, but for me personally the pred should almost always be at least a little taller than the prey. This is simply because it works out in terms of proportions, which contributes to the aesthetic appeal of the pred.
5. Lastly, here are just some themes that I find are criminally underutilized in vore.
First is forced vore where both parties are unwilling, yet forced into the act by a third party, or really unwilling preds as a whole. There is something special about a pred being forced to swallow a loved one and then try their best to spit them out, to varying degrees of success.
Second, guilty/regretful preds and accidental vore/digestion. Using the previous example, if the pred is not able to rescue their prey, they feel the psychological torment of what their body did to them while they were unable to do anything about it. This mental factor also comes into play with "willing to unwilling" and "unwilling to willing" themes.
Third, slow digestion and the pred going about their daily life. This goes hand in hand with preds pretending to be pregnant/hiding their prey. I can't tell you how many times I've seen preds sleep it off and wake up the next morning having digested the prey. While that works well in the context of accidental digestion, I find it baffling how uncommon it is for preds to go about their daily lives after eating their prey. I remember reading some stories on DA years ago where the pred goes to hang out with a friend, goes shopping, or any other mundane activity. Not only is the dichotomy of going calmly about your day while a person digests in your stomach hot af, but also because that lets the pred follow along with the process of digestion and gives them ample opportunity to tease the prey while they slowly dissolve inside them.