Discussion: Hostage stories

What are your opinions on stories with characters held hostage? In my story, MC kidnaps her crush, as well as his girlfriend. MC has pathological/morbid jealousy so if you’re looking for a reason behind it, that’s why she kidnaps them.

I meaaaannn… Just depends how it’s done tbh.
I’ve only read one story that involved a kidnapping because I was doing a review of it. I didn’t like the idea of it going in to it, but it turned out to have a different twist to the typical kidnapping stories on episode that always have the MC fall in love with the kidnapper, and I actually quite liked it.
So yeah, if it’s done well and has a twist I’ve never seen before, I’m fine with it.

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Thank you for your opinion! May I know the title of the story? I’d like to study it.

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lil bumpppppp

If that don’t turn to romance between those 2 char, Im good. I mean I don’t find it realistic when MC is being kidnapped and she falls in love with the man right away, just because its sexy to be dangerous, somehow.

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I tend to stay away from those because they’re usually about the victim falling for the kidnapper and I hate how people romanticize those kind of situations. That being said, if the MC’s actions are NOT being justified, and the crush doesn’t end up falling for her, I think there’s a wide range of ways to develop the story. One interesting approach would be from the side of criminology - what’s going on in the MC’s head? How did her perception of good and bad got so messed up? Or does she know what she’s doing is wrong?

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She justifies the situation with love inside her head, she thinks she’s doing the right thing because him and her are “2 souls in 1 body”

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This is a story where choices matter, there will be several endings, where some of them are corrupted like marriage.

But I mean in a general point of view - making it clear in the story that the behaviour of the MC is not okay, even though she thinks it is. One example of making it clear is the crush’s reaction to the situation - don’t make him fall for her. That’s what I meant, sorry if I wasn’t clear.

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Sadly, that depends on the reader, I will put several choices in each dialouge, if the reader chooses the ones were it justifies her actions every single second, they might even get married in the end :speak_no_evil:

It was called Stockholm Syndrome: The Broken One. I’m not finished reading it yet, so I don’t know how it ends up, but the first several chapters I definitely saw it mixing up the usual cliche.

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Ahhh, my biggest fear! Stockholm Syndrome :scream:

I usually avoid those stories because for some reason I tend to fall in love with kidnapper along with MC??

My review literally started with please change your title!!! Because it has that twist, but so many people won’t even try this because of the name

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If you’re saying that, I’ll read the story :smirk:

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Oh, okay. That’s an interesting approach, I like that. But morals aside, it still doesn’t make sense - why would he end up marrying her after everything? I just can’t see that happening without the male character losing all its consistency.

I have a suggestion: maybe if the reader chooses the path of justifying her actions and the MC and the crush are gonna get married, it turns out it’s just him playing along so she doesn’t kill him and his girlfriend? And then we could see him attempting to escape and survive! I’d definitely read that.

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Oops, that’s one of the endings :joy:

His girlfriend may die, if she does he will lose his mind and do everything to escape from her and bring justice.

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I have a kidnap story :joy: but the kidnapper is NOT a love interest.

I know, we took different approaches, you focus more on finding the kidnapper I focus more on keeping it secret :joy:

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If anyone has read Killing Stalking (a webtoon) you’ll get more hang of the story.

I think kidnap stories can be done well, you just need to make it realistic and be very, very careful with your plot and dialogue. This was the hardest story I’ve ever written. For the touchier topics, I put a lot of thought behind every line. The best fanmail I’ve received for the story is that it’s realistic and some people have said they could relate to aspects of it which means a lot to me. Anyway my point (lol) is that I have no issues with kidnap stories in general but I do have issues with those where one person falls in love with their kidnapper (not Stockholm syndrome) and they make it seem all romantic. Just make it… realistic I guess? From what you’ve described, I think this could be a good story and I would love to be able to see inside both the kidnapper and the hostage’s minds to know what they’re both thinking.

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