#DISCUSSION: Muscle Draining?

[zarina]

I'm curious about opinions about stories with muscle draining as a theme. 

The typical instance I think of is smaller woman drains muscle / height from a much larger man, fueling her own growth.  But I suppose this could also involve multiple men, another woman being drained, along with possibly disproportionate muscle gains (i.e. he loses 5 lbs, she gains 10 lbs).  Or could also include stories where the man simply loses muscle with no corresponding growth (but still becomes proportionately smaller and weaker). 

[zarina]

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[bullen77]

Sounds great! 

[Online1138]

I'm pretty okay with the theme. A classic story with that theme is the PowerFemme series, posted over at diana the valkyrie.

[NinjaStar]

No me gusta. It's too nonsensical.

[GreatJustice]

It's a fun theme, but I find it's the social aspect of it that makes it or breaks it. I prefer the ones where the woman doesn't go mad with power, or at least goes mad in an interesting way. The idea of unwilling or accidental muscle draining is interesting too, allowing for an element of fish out of water comedy.

Also, the psychology of it is interesting: is it addictive? Is it erotic? Is it satisfying? Is it repulsive? Does her perception automatically adjust itself ("I've always been this big!")? Is it even noticeable at the speed it happens?

Anyway, just some thoughts.

[Pakito]

It's a fun theme, but I find it's the social aspect of it that makes it or breaks it. I prefer the ones where the woman doesn't go mad with power, or at least goes mad in an interesting way. The idea of unwilling or accidental muscle draining is interesting too, allowing for an element of fish out of water comedy.

Also, the psychology of it is interesting: is it addictive? Is it erotic? Is it satisfying? Is it repulsive? Does her perception automatically adjust itself ("I've always been this big!")? Is it even noticeable at the speed it happens?

Anyway, just some thoughts.

Agree with him

[iome60]

No me gusta. It's too nonsensical.

Agreed.
I too find the theme just silly....

[urza]

I personally am a big fan of this theme, always on the look out for it

[bertmacklinsbrother]

It's a fun theme, but I find it's the social aspect of it that makes it or breaks it. I prefer the ones where the woman doesn't go mad with power, or at least goes mad in an interesting way. The idea of unwilling or accidental muscle draining is interesting too, allowing for an element of fish out of water comedy.

Also, the psychology of it is interesting: is it addictive? Is it erotic? Is it satisfying? Is it repulsive? Does her perception automatically adjust itself ("I've always been this big!")? Is it even noticeable at the speed it happens?

Anyway, just some thoughts.

That's an very thoughtful take on it GreatJustice and I definitely agree.  I've thought about working muscle-drain into a story, but I never wanted to fall into the typical tropes of the idea where the woman goes crazy and continues to drain every man she comes across until she's a skyscraper.  Sure, it's fun to think about, but it doesn't make for a very compelling story.  I like exploring characters too much to have them turn into one-off personalities.

That being said, I do love the principle of muscle-draining since it happens to fit perfectly with the themes that I find sexy; muscle growth followed by role-reversal where the man is smaller and feels inferior to the woman.  Muscle drain is a simple plot device to make that happen without much build up, but as you mentioned, I think the psychology of it is where things really get interesting.  How does this affect the man?  How will his every day life change now that he's no longer seen as the top dog in his friend circle?  Maybe he works a physical labor job like construction where his physical strength is needed.  How would his point of view change (literally and figuratively) now that he's living in a world where he is much smaller.

And of course, how does this affect the woman?  Did she intend for this to happen?  Was it an accident that she immediately likes, or does she too need to adjust to her new lifestyle the same way as the man does?  Does this inherently change their relationship?  Is she attracted to him anymore now that he's small and inferior?  It raises a lot of questions that I think the characters could explore, making for a much more compelling read.

I guess overall though, I enjoy stories that are thought out, polished, and contain a deliberate set up.  I'm not a fan of one-off short stories that can be summed up as "The women got very muscular.  She's now the strongest biggest person in the world.  The end."  That sort of thing does nothing for me; I need to picture the setting and characters in my mind before I get attached to the sensual side of things.  And for that reason, I think that ANY theme can definitely work and be amazing if the writer can put it in a context for the readers to get on board with.

[weaponzero]

It does absolutely nothing for me because what really does it for me is seeing a woman pit her strength against that of a strong, fit man and coming out on top.  When the man in question is weak and sickly, maybe because she drained him or whatever, it totally ruins it for me.

[zarina]

I think it can be done well, but I have my personal limits to interest with it. 

I tend to prefer the draining being more one-on-one (wife draining husband, rather than everyone in the gym). 

If the guy is reduced to roughly the woman's original size or slightly smaller, that's about my limit.  Much past that and it seems to get out of hand - either moving into shrinking, the guy becomes abnormally frail and sickly, or some other extreme. 

To me it's also more exciting when the woman surpasses where the guy was originally (taller, stronger, muscle, etc)...so the transfer isn't just proportional but gets amplified in some way. 


The downside to stuff like this is it can easily get out of hand, such as focusing too much on measurements.  It's also quite a bit more exciting, I feel, if the tables are turned without the guy getting weaker (being twice as strong as a football guy versus being twice as strong as a wimpy guy). 

The plus side is there's more of a flip in power.  Now the guy has to deal with not being able to reach the top shelf, or needing to ask for help to open the jar of peanut butter. 

[phil123]

I like the theme. It could be happen slowly. Like every morning she drains only 1 lbs out of her husband and her muscle growth is followed by role-reversa over the time.

[GAP]

I kind of like the reverse where the guy actually makes his girls muscles bigger while not being drained himself. I don't like those stories as they seemed to leave the guy without life support and they usually die the in the end.

[Sicod]

Just like any story it can be well written and enjoyable even if I don't agree with the extremes that are achieved in the story. Marknew is an excellent author in this regard.

[NinjaStar]

I kind of like the reverse where the guy actually makes his girls muscles bigger while not being drained himself. I don't like those stories as they seemed to leave the guy without life support and they usually die the in the end.

Exactly. I hate unnecessary cruelty and callousness in stories, I don't care how well written they are.