For various reasons, I don’t post on here very often but I try to keep an eye on what is being discussed when I do visit.

From my view I think, regardless of the style of dom, it will take time for people to see you as a dom at all. You have spent so much of your time being your natural submissive self and some people won’t want to see you any other way whilst others will happily see you switch but it will take time for them to get used to your new role.

As someone who has known you for nearly 5 years, I think I would have difficulty in seeing you as a dom.

I know that isn’t an answer to your question but at least it’s my view.

But good luck with finding what works for you and is popular with your fans.

If you can help with the rigging then that’s brilliant, but I’m less sure of you domming on camera. I do think you can pull off ‘The Temporary Dom’ and ‘The Situational Dom’ but not the other types. (And a nice set of definitions by the way 🙂

So, a sub who is forced to dom as part of a story, or a sub taking revenge but then getting her comeupance, yeah, those work for you. I don’t think you could ever do the kind of domming that Chanta does, you don’t naturally have a dom side like her.

I’ve greatly enjoyed the videos that have had Chanta domming, especially the ones where she doms you Ariel, and also Donna and Jade. I love her style and it’s a great bit of female/female D/s.

Sorry to hear you needed an operation like that, glad you’re on the road to recovery.

Robert.

To me you look sexier when you are a sub. You are most beautiful when you are in ropes especially in the Japanese shibari style. So you should stay sub and be contented. Switching roles causes persaonality disorder …. Hee Hee!

HI All,

I’ve added a poll at the top of this thread.

I think the most interesting question here is “which sort of on-screen domme do you prefer”: that’s certainly the most important thing for me to know when we try writing storylines for the videos. Ariel does actually have an acting background and I’m sure she’ll do a wonderful job if we cast her in any one of the domme roles, but we might have to script more closely for some styles than others.

I think some domination styles tend to come more naturally to a person than others. We’ve found over the years that tightly scripting videos has its problems. Writing dialogue is a real skill- it is hard to write believable lines that sound natural when spoken. It is more work to get everyone to learn the lines, too, and it only takes one cast member to be a bit rubbish remembering their lines to slow the whole shoot down to a snail’s pace. So… the usual way we work is to have the plot outline well developed, but improvise each scene and the dialogue more or less as we go along.

And that’s what I mean about some styles coming naturally: how much direction do you need to dominate in that style? If it comes naturally (as a faintly amused, slightly avuncular style typically does to me) you can be “wound up” and left to set the action and dialogue of the scene with very little input from the director; the submissive can react to you. If it doesn’t come naturally, you would need very close direction and the poor submissive might end up “topping from the bottom” and almost telling you what to do through the scene. (“Oh no, don’t use the cane on me next!”)

Of course, practice makes perfect. I’m a big reserved and reticent to do the full “sexual sadist dom” on screen for RE videos, but that’s actually a style that appeals to me very much (and which I’m much happier doing off-screen in my personal life). Angry shouty dom might be fun, but I’d have to work myself up to it because normally I’m not a very shouty person.

It can all be done, but what would really help us the most is to understand what sort of dom you actually prefer to see on screen- and what sort of interaction between the dom and the sub, too.

Cheers, Hywel.

P.S. sorry about the irritating “cut off” typing longer posts. It seems to be a bug in Internet Explorer 8 which makes the window jump and blink when the text gets to a certain length. Didn’t happen on IE7 and doesn’t happen on Safari or Firefox, so I guess it is just a little present from Microsoft.

Yikes, get well soon Ariel. Normally, I’d be surprised if someone says they’d got injured on a trapeze… 🙄 Crazy lady..

I confess I used to think you’d be the perfect Domme, you’ve kinda got the stature for it somehow. But now having met you a few times I now have to laugh at the very idea. Saying that, infact perhaps because of that I’m often impressed by your Domme perfomances, recent Hareem vid for example. I suspect many people don’t realise that there’s a good amount of acting going on there 🙂

For my penneth the best performances come from people playing characters common to their own character in some way so in this instance I voted for “temporary domme” but generally I’d go “sexual sadist” if there’s a Domme/Dom who is completely comfortable in the role.

The two I can’t stand are;

1 – “apologetic Domme/Dom” who is like an “unwilling/unable temporary Domme”
and
2 – “shouty Domme/Dom” who is a amateur giving the D/s world a bad name. If you’re not in control of yourself you’re surely not in control of anyone else..

IE 7 problems… hahah you should all know better than upgrade anything Microsoft until you absolutely have to.. 😆

M

P.S. arrr, what does that say about poor Sammie?! Ironically you’re probably the Domme she’s least scared of 😆

Greetings from New Jersey,

Hi Ariel and everyone else. First, albeit a bit late, let me add my best wishes for getting over your injury and surgery as soon as possible. Very sorry to hear you had the mishap and that it was serious enough to require surgery which is never fun.

As far as what kind of Dom I prefer I would have to go with first the “Temporary Dom” and then the “Sensual Facilitator Domme.” I don’t have a problem with seeing a Dom on camera (stills or video) but I do prefer to have a cross section of sets/videos that show both the dom and sub as well as just the sub. I also have no issues with seeing either a male or a female dom on camera. I prefer variety (which RE is very good about).

I have little use for the “Angry Shouty Domme” and I agree with what several others have said in that if you are not in control of yourself then you can not be in control of someone else. This obviously could also cause significant problems if the dom has to somewhat loose control to get into a character and then have to do the rigging for the scenario. In that case the dom may well not be paying proper attention to the safety of the sub.

How well the “Situational Domme” comes off depends a lot on the strength of the story line. There are cases where I have much enjoyed such a set and also times where it fall completely flat. Of course if the bondage the “Situational Domme” rigs is garbage that will not help the set/video as well. I do not seem to recall the “Glady’s Blog” set with Kate that you mentioned Ariel so I can’t comment on how well it came off. If that is an RE set then who was in it besides Kate and when was it posted?

I know I am probably in the minority as far as RE members go but I really do not care for the “Sexual Sadist Domme” style of set or video. Cruelty is just not my thing. I prefer the more lighthearted and sexual. I just don’t find slapping, spanking, flogging, etc. a partner to be sexy but I will look at it from time to time. I have enjoyed some of Chant’s dom sets/videos, particularly the behind the scenes ones or the how to tie ones. Ones like the “Stocks in a Box” don’t bother me too much but ones like “the Interview from Hell” with you and Bianca or the “You’re in the Army Now” set with Jade go too far for my tastes. But RE is a community so you take a bit of what you might not like and you get a bit of what you do like. That works.

I definitely like the “Sensual Facilitator Domme” as done in “Swords and Sandals” or with you and Sophia in “Sophia’s Day Off”. Some of my favorite sets over the years (both at RE and from other sites) have used the general scenario of each lady taking her turn as both dom and sub. Since, by your own description Ariel, you are sub by nature then this form of dom should be easier for you to get into character for with regards to RE work than Chanta’s much more aggressive style. I would think it would come across more believable on camera.

I also like the “Temporary Domme” style and perhaps just slightly more than the “Sensual Facilitator Domme.” I think the reason for that is that the dom in these situations may well wind up as a sub before the plot is over. Doesn’t always happen, and great when it does, but the possibility is there dangling in front of us. The recent harem video you mentioned is a good example of this. The “Girl Flesh Ranch” video also had the same potential outcome as well. With the harem set either Elle and Sammie might get free and take some revenge or the Sultan might enter and be displeased at the senior slave girl taking matters into her own hands. You never know if it will happen, and hopefully it will from time to time, but it helps expand the fantasy.

As far as you taking on the role of the dom in future sets and videos I don’t have a problem with it in concept. True we have primarily seen you on the site in the role of a sub but there have been some dom roles that have been done well. This is fantasy after all so it is not hard for me to envision someone being a sub in one set and then being a dom in the next. Besides, that’s called being a “Switch” and I certainly don’t have an issue with that. But the roles you take on have to have a certain believability to them to make it work. If you are uncertain about what you are doing in a “Sexual Sadist Domme” role then that will come across on camera, particularly on video and could easily wreck the scenario you are trying for. Of course that doesn’t apply to something like the “Girl Flesh Ranch” which I would call pure “Farce” and which kind of throws believability overboard so most any dom style works.

Will look forward to seeing how you progress with the dom role and, of course, will still seriously enjoy you in the restraints as well. Get well soon.

Cheers,

Jeff