I am not asking for help or guidance. I want to join in a conversation that talks about stories that involve kidnappings and the messages they send. I am not asking what stories that have them. Here are some base questions but (most) anything related to the topic works. (I stole the entire wording of this from @FallenAngelNight13’s other topics. Credit to Fallen)
Do you think there is a trend in how kidnappings are portrayed in Episode stories? If so, please explain.
Have you ever read a kidnapping story in which the kidnapper wasn’t the love interest?
Is there a way to include a kidnapping plot without it being problematic?
Should “falling in love with a kidnapper” be against the guidelines? (i.e. romanticizing Stockholm Syndrome)
How would you feel about someone promoting their story by making the kidnapper look “hot” or using hashtags/photos on Instagram that make the kidnapper look desirable?
What’s your overall opinion on including kidnappings in stories?
There definitely is a trend on the app with these stories. It’s almost always a “hot” bad boy abducting the MC and her falling in love with him and completely forgetting everything terrible he has done. It is unrealistic, disrespectful, disgusting, and harmful to such an impressionable young audience. They deserve better and we should give them better.
Yes I have actually, thanks to @EliseC who clearly has a grasp of how to properly portray a criminal, because that’s what they are.
Of course. No one is saying kidnappings should never be written about because the sad truth is that they do happen, and very often. It’s the glamorization of this topic that is the issue. There is no valid excuse for portraying a kidnapper as a sexy broken bad boy who is misunderstood and don’t worry! All he needs to do is a kidnap you and you’ll fall in love! Give me a break.
1000000% should be against the guidelines. There’s already a rule prohibiting the glamorization and romanticization of sexual and physical abuse. Having this rule extend to other forms of abuse seems fairly logical but unfortunately we don’t see that yet.
I’ve seen it. By a very popular author might I add. It’s extremely toxic and if anything contributes to this epidemic of “hot” abusers. These authors have very young readers and don’t seem to care about the message they are promoting. You’re really comfortable knowing that your underage readers are commenting things like “Maybe ___ isn’t so bad” “Now I should’ve let him sleep [assault] with me”
I sincerely hope the Episode team hears our concerns and worries regarding this topic. It’s heartbreaking knowing that this is the kind of content being popularized on an app with 13 year old readers.
I’m glad someone has created a topic about this, I’ve seen quite interesting stories.
I’ll use your format.
Do you think there is a trend in how kidnappings are portrayed in Episode stories? If so, please explain.
Yes… it’s always portrayed as kidnapper being ‘protective’ over the victim, it’s seen as something romantic, and it’s quite disturbing and concerning assuming these are written by and for the young female demographic. I as a male, feel uncomfortable reading these young female main characters falling in ‘love’ with these criminals and seeing young readers asking for partners like this in real life.
Have you ever read a kidnapping story in which the kidnapper wasn’t the love interest?
Quite disheartened by my answer, but, no. No I haven’t.
Is there a way to include a kidnapping plot without it being problematic?
Of course, there is a way. What I always see is these victims feeling sympathy for the kidnapper and falling in ‘love’ with them. You can feel sympathy for the kidnapper, but falling in love is too extreme. You would want to escape not date your kidnapper.
Should “falling in love with a kidnapper” be against the guidelines? (i.e. romanticizing Stockholm Syndrome)
When I first heard about Stockholm Syndrome, I was interested in it, it has been decades, however I still enjoy it when it’s done in a non-glamorizing way. If the author can show us the damage kidnapper causes to victim, it’d be fine. However, the author needs to keep in mind that this isn’t actual love. But, the direct answer to your question, yes, I do think romanticizing it should be in the guidelines.
How would you feel about someone promoting their story by making the kidnapper look “hot” or using hashtags/photos on Instagram that make the kidnapper look desirable?
It would irk me. Personally, I wouldn’t read the story, and I would try to contact the author privately and explaining how this is wrong. What the author does afterwards is beyond my control.
What’s your overall opinion on including kidnappings in stories?
As I said, could be great if done in a non-glamorizing way, this part depends on the author.
Anything else?
Thank you for this thread, it was nice to reply and see someone else also being concerned about these stories.
Yep. It starts with being kidnapped, then falling in love with your kidnapper, then living at peace in whatever mansion (what?) the dude and his gang have as if you were not kidnapped at all. There is no danger, just some physical abuse (sometimes) that it is later kicked under the rug. Oh, and suddenly, your kidnapper becomes possessive and BAM, you two are in love.
There is one, its name escapes me, where MC got briefly kidnapped, and the author had warned us since the kidnapper’s first appearance that he would not be a love interest. The author had to tell readers to stop via fanmail; most of them wanted to “bang” this kidnapper, and the author would not have it.
But that is the only one, and it kind of disappoints me.
Plenty. There is nothing wrong with writing a kidnapping story if it is properly done. As long as you abide by Episode’s guidelines, write about whatever you want. I think that answers the question. I am not quoting the guidelines. Each author should know them by now.
Also, a story dealing with real Stockholm Syndrome would not bother me. Sure, I would not read it because it is not my cup of tea, but it would not rub me the wrong way either.
Definitely. Kidnapping is a crime no matter the reason and purpose. It is basically falling in love with your abuser. Contrarily to what Episode stories depict, kidnappers are not going to treat you good or flirt with you. In fact…
You know what? Let’s not go there. Yes, it should be against guidelines. But it is too late; it sells, soooo…
Confused and insulted.
It is fiction, so there is nothing wrong with saying “hell, look at this character! I really made them hot”. But condoning their actions just because they are attractive and using their looks as promotion? A criminal is a criminal. It does not matter if he is hot, normal or hideous. If you want to use them to promote your story, then just present them as what they are: criminals. Do not ignore that.
If they are not love interests, give me all the kidnappers you want.
Yes. Last year, I was almost kidnapped by two men, perhaps more because I did not see if there were more in the van. I managed to escape, and it took me two months to go outside again. I had nightmares, I did not talk, I barely ate. I did not know what those men wanted with me, but still thinking about the possibilities gives me goosebumps, so please, Episode writers, do not give me that bullshit.
And I would like to point out that not every single girl needs a man in her life to save her from disaster. I mean come on, could we have some equality here? And the sad thing is, most of these authors are females, and you would think we make our females in the story just as strong as any other character (unless of course that’s their personality).
If someone kidnapped me, I’d beat the living crap out of them. If I die, I die with pride
OK, anyways to answer the questions:
Hmm, I think there is because sometimes in trending stories you see “kidnap” being used in the description. My memory’s faint on this as I don’t read the trending section anymore but I’m pretty sure this is the case.
Yep. I believe so.
Yeah, just make the kidnapper evil and heartless, or paid to do their work. When I think of kidnapping, I honestly don’t think of falling in love. I think of someone who’s crazy and I’m thinking “come on MC, get out of there and FAST!”
Yeah it should. WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD WANT TO FALL IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE WHO KIDNAPPED THEM? Instead of kissing them, you should be brainstorming karate kicks to use on them.
I’d ignore it but inside I’m thinking “just whyyyyyyyyy?”
It’s fine to include, just not in a romantic context where the kidnapper and the person they kidnapped end up together because that’s just unhealthy.
Do you think there is a trend in how kidnappings are portrayed in Episode stories? If so, please explain.
Yes. Idk where to begin, lmao. It’s all problematic and normalizes abusive, stalker behavior.
Have you ever read a kidnapping story in which the kidnapper wasn’t the love interest?
My story and Elise’s.
Is there a way to include a kidnapping plot without it being problematic?
I think so.
Should “falling in love with a kidnapper” be against the guidelines? (i.e. romanticizing Stockholm Syndrome)
Not if it’s done well since Stockholm Syndrome is a real thing. BUT IT SHOULD BE EMPHASIZED THAT IT IS NOT OKAY. I think you could show the person feeling emotions (like empathy, tolerating them, etc) towards their kidnapper, but never allowing it to be a normal thing. The MC or whoever should realize how wrong that was in the end.
How would you feel about someone promoting their story by making the kidnapper look “hot” or using hashtags/photos on Instagram that make the kidnapper look desirable?
No, thank you.
What’s your overall opinion on including kidnappings in stories?
I don’t tend to read them since the kidnappers are LI’s 9/10.
Anything else?
I’m v concerned about a lot of stories on this app as a whole, lmao.
I personally am planning a story where the kidnapper is one of the main love interest but… the difference would be that the MC herself is the one that’s more deadly xD She basically can escape at any moment but yeah… Would that still be the same?
It may not be the exact same scenario, but it’s not entirely free of issues either. Even if she is skilled enough to escape at anytime, she’s still falling for someone who THINKS he’s holding her against her will, which is generally not a quality in a LI that is healthy to romanticize.
Well he would actually know what shes capable of, Since well she basically knocks his right hand unconscious in front of him and her strength and fearlessness is actually what intrigues him
Look like @Cee gave you a pretty solid answer! The main issue here is that you’re not diminishing a kidnapper’s wrong doings by their attractiveness or appeal. As long as you’re not glorifying what the kidnapper is doing, you should be fine.
Just, pls, don’t even bother publishing a story about kidnapping if you’re going to romanticize it. It’s never okay, never has been, never will be. Point blank period.
Yeah. There’s always been a trend. The fact they exist in the first place and that we call them “kidnapping stories” as if it has its own genre is proof of that. Though, I think the latest trend I’m seeing within kidnapping stories is getting kidnapped in episode 25 or something. Like, author’s just lead me on to think it’s some great story and then MC gets kidnapped all of a sudden and I’m stuck because I’ve already invested too much in the OG story line that now I feel I have to live through this one. My ability to quit stories after a certain amount of episodes is non existent. I wish I could just drop stories that do this.
Yes. Maternal Instincts has been mentioned a few times and that’s the only one I can really think of right now… Unfortunately.
There is. Not making the kidnapper a love interest is one easy way to do this.
Yeah, but so should a lot of things. In my opinion, problematic stories in general should be against the guidelines, but that would be too hard to define. I hate that it’s subjective.
Ok, honestly… Nowadays it’s actually kind of hard to make a LL character ugly. The features are just getting tooooooo good. But just because of that, I still think you can - and should - make characters act as if the kidnapper is ugly. None of this “He looked so hot as he handcuffed me to a bed and starved me for three days”. I don’t understand why characters can’t think their kidnappers are disgusting, even if looks are subjective. Also, none of this “You’re playing as MC and sometimes her views might not represent your own”… Like, mmm okay, but if you’re going to do something like that for a problematic thing, where’s your follow up disclaimer splash saying “Also, you shouldn’t start thinking the same way as MC either because her views are down right messed up”?
Oh and the whole hashtag thing? Do not ever post your “villain/kidnapper” character and use #episodedaddy, #episodehottie and/or #episodebae in your post. This is the whole reasons these stories became so problematic. It’s basically saying that you want your readers to find the kidnapper attractive and unfortunately if you find these posts, you can see it actually works. So many heart eyes emoji comments, it’s alarming.
There are just so many other things to be explored. Even though there are ways to include kidnappings that don’t send the wrong message, at this point there’s just far too many that do… So I’d just rather see people do something else altogether.
