travisestrella said: I can’t “like” this. This crosses a disturbing boundary that even I wouldn’t cross, especially in a fictional narrative. You’ve managed to combine rape, bestiality and domestic abuse into a fetish. This would give Freud an aneurysm.

Well, I won’t give you the bestiality comment because having sex with an alien isn’t generally taken as bestiality, but I will grant that the rest of the image is very squicky, which is why I didn’t post it.

After I walked away from the computer last night I thought about what in the image is specifically so disturbing. The funny beat-up Gunner image doesn’t give the same unsettling reaction, and I think it is because there is clearly no power-play at work. Also, the expressions are a little more cut and dry. Gunner is annoyed and Naveed is being cute. There’s nothing really uncomfortable there. People expect them to have fun power-plays in their relationship. They are both strong characters. That’s what makes them fun as a couple.

In the second image, I think it is Gunner’s expression that really pushes it over the top. He doesn’t look tired or worn out, he looks afraid. It seems really desperate, and that combined with the bodily harm and (in the full unposted image) Naveed is leaning over him. It has the look of something very non-consensual. That definitely wasn’t something I was aiming for when I started doodling. I think if I changed his expression it would change the tone of the entire image.

When I was finished doodling the picture I sort of stepped back to look at it, and was really surprised at how wrong it was. That’s why I tweeted about it. Then I felt bad because a lot of people wanted to see it. Morbid curiosity gets to us all.