[Idea Advice] Imprinting/Mate Bonds as Brainwashing

[Yadal]

It seems that people are so zealous for trying to get me to lower my standards that nobody will help any more. If that's the case, then although I'll return if somebody is willing to start advising me properly (or I might be able to find a source that can) I'm going to give up on this fanfic for good.

As an additional argument against potential criticism, I will point out that I am the sort of person who would reject Robert Nozick's hypothetical Experience Machine, meaning I want some things more than happiness. Since I'm not wanting to change my desires for happiness there, I don't do it here.

[Alicorn]

I find it very unlikely that someone woke up this morning and said, "You know what I'm zealous about? Lowering Yadal's standards. I think I'll advise him improperly!"

It seems much more likely that you're finding it difficult to match the ways in which you're willing to work to the output you're willing to accept, and there may in fact be no overlap between these two things, and people trying to advise you on creating overlap are getting an awfully hostile reception from you. Maybe you'll have better luck elsewhere getting advice more closely cohering to your needs.

[Yadal]

As I said, that would be a good suggestion if I actually knew where to find said advice. Thanks for it, but I don't think it's possible.

"Zealous" might be too strong a word, but given the conversations on IRC it sure felt like it. I'm just too afraid of ending up with something like James Orland's Truth, where when you think about it logically the characters are acting nothing like themselves (you can't comment, but you do have eyes), probably not in that way but in some new one. I'm also afraid of the logic of Coven strategies not making sense for these people.

If I can't get those right, I may as well not bother. If key characters are OOC, as a matter of general principle a story is worthless. Also, admittedly I need to get past some contrivance problems. If I can't, the tragedy feels ridicolous.

EDIT: If somebody has some clever new way of working that will allow me to get this draft working, that might work. I'm also willing to revise the draft and keeping changing and changing it as many times as it takes.

EDIT TWO: Come to think of it, since I did fail to anticipate this, apologising to everyone who tried to help me on this and whose work went to waste. That includes Alicorn.

I'm a bit hung up on the idea. It doesn't make much rational sense I admit, but I'm going to put my last few thoughts down here to "get them off my chest"..

Last Few Thoughts

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-I speculated on the Carlisle version of the debate. It's actually rather tricky, as it's etablished that Carlisle believes in the idea of meaningful consent (hence free will), and obviously a mate bond isn't. Another character might be willing to pragmatically argue that at least this is better than the alternative, but I doubt Carlisle would. An argument that doesn't contradict either his idealism or his established principles is very difficult. He can't believe in fate given he knows about several possible partners.

-One weakness in my story is that the obvious compromise is for Maria to see "her vamp" every so often in order to talk. The best I could do in terms of a workaround is that because they can tell they don't have a chance no matter what they do it's not enough. Maria will never, ever love them.

-My vision of the Coven goes basically like this:
-A few vamps hear about the Maria case, and it gets a bit of publicity in the vamp world. Somebody brings it up at a Coven meeting that Bella Swan herself is at.
-Bella doesn't think this is a big deal. Alice is currently occupied almost completely with checking who is and isn't obeying the new laws right now, so she shoots down involvement. Somebody (Benjamin? Rosalie?) argues that they need to do something about this, or even mentions feeling sorry for the Vamp concerned. Even Bella sees reason to be, but she's more concerned with saving humans right now. She only agrees to get Elpseth on it (makes more sense), and gets everybody else back to their respective jobs.
-Alice is caught up the whole story. Possibly she's consulted briefly, and tells them that Maria would be very creeped out by somebody using that kind of power to determine her decisions.
-Later on, two vamp characters very low down but Coven affilliated in some sense are used to show what's going on. It is mentioned that Bella thinks the issue much less important than most vampires do, even amongst her own allies. The bad publicity is getting annoying.
-Finally, the Kidnapping part of the story happens because somebody advised the vamp on how to delay Alice. But the Coven catch up and the vamp protagonist is either killed or commits suicide in the hiding place.

But this is obviously flawed so I wanted to improve on it. It's not that IC for these people.