The Scarcity of Dom Top MCs in FVNs and why they're important.

No seriously, this is a real issue that I wanted to discuss and make an actual blog post about.

Hey, champ. Today I wanted to talk about dom tops and what people think about them. This topic has been something I've wanted to write about for a while, but I couldn't grasp what it was I wanted to say. I knew there was something weird about sexual positions in furry visual novels, but I just couldn't parse why. Then I saw a Reddit post (Yes, I know Reddit is cringe but bear with me) that talked a bit about this topic. There were a lot of interesting replies to it and I think I'm able to figure out what I want to say.

I've noticed a small but notable section of furry visual novel fans who want more FVN protagonists who are tops. They are tops themselves (or at least get turned on by perceiving themselves as a top in porn) and they want sex scenes where the protagonist tops. Now if you ask an FVN creator to add top MC scenes you'll get responses like "I'll consider it but please remember that this is my VN and I won't force a top scene just because people want it". So basically ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. This is kinda frustrating to these people as there aren't a lot of FVNs where the MC is a top. You can argue there aren't a lot of FVNs where they're verse, although I disagree with this notion. But why is this? Furry art and comics are able to appeal to tops, verses, and bottoms just fine. How come we don't have a lot of furry visual novels aimed toward tops? There are a bunch of different reasons for this.

Trust me, this is relevant to the rest of the blog.

I find sexual position is something most writers don't really think about. Either you write what's the hottest to you or you write what would make the most sense in your mind. Due to this, we see a lot of the same things. The bigger, more powerful guy tops the smaller, less experienced guy. The standard dom top/sub bottom dynamic. Most gay media tends to promote this dynamic (ever noticed how almost every Chuck Tingle novel is about getting pounded in the butt and not pounding other people's butts?) and we could talk about how this sets expectations and limits gay men to archetypes. Still, we can save the big-picture talk for later. In any case, non-standard dynamics like the small top/big bottom pairing or the younger guy topping an older lad are decidedly considered niche. When it does appear, it's almost always treated as something unexpected or out of the norm, which admittedly might be for fetish purposes, but there is a part of it where it's intentionally playing with expectations. For example, look at Spedumon's Twitter and see the comics he makes about his game, Small on Top. Notice how most of the time, the joke is basically "haha big muscular guy a sub bottom". Imagine if the comics were all making jokes about big muscular guys being dom tops. It just wouldn't be as funny. That's how taken for granted the small sub bottom/big dom top pairing is to the gay community. It's a norm, and the thing about norms is that people don't think about them unless they either are against that norm or they're made ultra-aware of it. So you have a writer who creates a character he finds hot. He's not particularly sure about what his sexual position is because he doesn't really think about that stuff a lot but he has to play some role during anal sex (and he's adamant that they have anal sex because other types wouldn't be enough in his eyes). The character is a little commanding and aggressive so he decides that it makes sense for him to be a top. Then he makes a more shy character and he also has a sex scene in the VN, so the writer decides that he's a bottom because of his personality. I imagine you can get more detailed responses from asking the devs themselves, but that's usually the reasoning for most devs.

The artist for Minotaur Hotel had a Twitter CYOA where his audience decides what happens next in a small story. Although not within an FVN, it shows that at least the audience of one furry bara artist enjoys being the bottom more.

But what about devs who are aware of the sexual positions and knowingly make the protagonists bottoms/bottom-leaning despite being aware of other options? It seems like more FVN writers are bottoms or bottom-leaning compared to verse/top writers. I've heard out there stuff like, "The easiest to write VN protagonist is someone who is passive and submissive because then they wouldn't make too many choices on their own, which allows VNs to naturally have fewer paths to write" but I don't believe that this is the case. I can't really explain why, turns out Google doesn't have good results when you search "Why are FVN writers bottoms?", but my explanation is that furry visual novels tend to appeal to the 18-25 age range the most out of any of the furry fandom. Visual Novels generally appeal to that age group the most because they're most likely to get past the "Visual Novels aren't games" sentiment and try them out/be willing to create them. And people in that age group are also most likely to believe the standard experienced top/inexperienced bottom dynamic the most and will lean towards being a bottom due to lacking experience in sex, relationships, and the world in general. With all the complexities and problems they get introduced to at that age, it's easy for them to latch onto a belief that's simple and makes sense to them, even if it's untrue. There are exceptions of course, but I'm just talking about generalizations. As mentioned before in a previous devlog, this is a lot more apparent in furry visual novels because the protagonist is usually seen as a projection of the reader, due to how POV usually sticks to the protagonist, both in text and in visuals, and how the protagonist ends up being less hot than their love interests.

Oh boy, I’m talking about Amicus and Leo. This is going to be fun and not get me any negative emails whatsoever.

Then there's Adastra and Echo. They're the most popular FVNs in the scene and they have gotten a reputation for having a lot of sub bottom fans due to the sexy red flag dommy wolf boyfriends, Amicus and Leo respectively. While you can top Amicus in Adastra, he has another sex scene where he always tops and he ultimately prefers topping. And while there are no sex scenes in Leo's route, it is said that Leo was the one topping most of the times he had sex with Chase. These two characters and their fanbases have turned the perception of FVNs, in general, to be mostly for bottoms despite all the FVNs where you can top.

FVNs without sub bottom love interests, this is what you’re missing.

So why is this such a big deal? Who cares? Just enjoy the story and skip the sex scenes, bruh. Well, there are a couple of reasons why. First, most people look forward to the erotic content of an FVN. Think about it, there are so many things a person could be doing besides reading a furry VN created by a bunch of hobbyists. Why not just read a novel created by a professional writer or even watch a high-production TV series? Gay representation? Maybe, but then why a furry visual novel and not an indie gay comic or novel? A lot of FVN writers don't want to admit this but the answer is obvious: hot furry men. And being able to see those furry men get naked and have sex. It's a pretty big draw. So if a guy comes for the hot gay furry sex only to find that he's supposed to be forced into a position they don't like, then it's going to leave a bad taste in their mouth. Also, while protagonists can be their own characters, you are expected to relate to them at least a little since you're the one making choices for them, and it's hard to relate to a character who is in a different position than you, at least for some people. This also goes for protagonists being generally submissive when the reader is more dom, making it even harder to relate to them as it's outside of sex scenes. There's also the fact that to some people, their sexual position is part of their identity. We can argue if that should be the case or not all day, but that's a fact. This is even more notable as erotic gay FVNs have a promise of exploring gay sexuality in their stories, which very few fiction do. Having a part of you never being represented consistently across different stories is a bit disheartening. Finally, big bottoms are really fucking hot and they deserve to have their asses get pounded on-screen in more FVNs.

I think most of our life’s problems would be solved if everyone was verse. Alas, such a cruel world we live as that’s not the case.

So what can we do to solve this dilemma? The most obvious but most expensive solution is to let the reader decide if they get to top or bottom. The problem is that art assets are expensive and that would double the number of CGs (and words) needed just to satisfy a small portion of readers and characters would have to be rewritten to be verse which some writers don't want to do as they have reservations about that (such as it not being realistic and etc.). There's also the option of having the love interests alternate between top and bottom for sex scenes (which is what Extracurricular Activities does) but while verse players would enjoy that, everyone else would end up with the situation where they go through a sex scene they're not into and another that they do enjoy, which isn't great. Plus you'd run into the issue of having everyone be verse like the first option. Ultimately, I believe we simply just need more FVNs where the MC is a top, or at least can have the option of only topping. More FVNs for a wider variety of people is never a bad thing. If you don't want to make an FVN with a top MC, that's fine, and VN creators shouldn't be pressured to have their characters in positions they don't want them to be in. But people who want a top MC should be encouraged to make such an FVN. Also more dom FVN MCs as well. Some people want to be the ones taking initiative in a relationship. Also, consider dom bottoms and sub tops. Or that you don't need anal sex, or any sex for that matter, in a story. The sky's the limit.

If you are a top reading this and are wondering what FVNs allow you to top, allow me to give you a list of several FVNs that you can top. It's not going to be every FVN that lets you top because that list would be too long but here are a few notable ones:

• Small on Top: This one is cheating because it's not an FVN, but I had to mention this one because this game is an absolute goldmine for tops who love beefy bottoms. There's a large variety of guys to fuck in this game and in many different ways. This game knows what it wants and isn't ashamed to flaunt it.

• Minotaur Hotel: Oh, look at me, recommending Minotaur Hotel when I have a writer from that game's development team working with me. What a shock. Seriously though, this is a really good VN regardless of its erotic content. But since this is about erotic content, the three erotic scenes so far don't have any anal sex, but they feature major characters being submissive (although one of them is a bit conflicting in that the more dominant one gets more focus art-wise). The update that features the MC having sex with the love interest is coming soon, and the developers have confirmed that the MC will be the top, so keep your eyes peeled for that one.

• Lyre: I haven't played this VN, but I have heard that the MC can top the love interest and the writing's otherwise pretty decent, so I'm putting it on this list.

• Fueled By Insanity: I also haven't played this VN, however, someone told me that the MC is a top. So maybe have a look at this if you want.

• Bakabu (バカ部) and Torakoi (トラ☆コイ): Two oddball picks as they're untranslated Japanese VNs that I haven't read, but I've also heard good things about them. Both of them square in on the slice-of-life romance genre, but if that's your thing, I'm sure you'll find very good things about these VNs. Both of these VNs let you top the love interests (Bakabu is for all love interests, Torakoi I'm less sure about). Because they aren't available on itch I have provided links for both Bakabu and Torakoi. As for how you can read them without being a Japanese reader… there are Japanese VN auto translators out there if you know where to look.

• Extracurricular Activities: This one is more of a Verse game, but every LI has at least one top scene and one bottom scene. I hesitate to put this one on the list because of its length and its tendency to stuff meaningless fluff that's unimportant to the game, but there are a lot of kinks and variety in the game that I thought to put here anyways. It's a pretty good VN once you get past all the padding.

• By Your Hands: Okay before you blast me for putting in my own VN here, it is a VN that has good stuff for tops. After I make an adjustment to a certain scene in the game, it will be possible to go through all five routes by just topping. Two of the love interests are pure bottoms while the rest are verses who will let you choose most of the time. I've already put a sex positions chart of the cast on the main page so I don't feel like putting it here. But yeah, if you are reading this, you are probably already playing By Your Hands. It would just be a missed opportunity if I didn't at least mention it.

There were a few VNs I wanted to put on the list such as Burrows, Pervader, Shelter, Glory Hounds, and Tennis Ace, but unfortunately, they're either just too early in development for me to declare if they'd be good for tops or they simply have way more bottom content than top content for me to recommend them to tops. Maybe things will change in the future but this is my list for now.

I hope you've gained an insight from all this babble. Hope you have a good day and see you later!