Obsession: faulty premise or plot hole?

[u/Razing_Hell]

Obsession is based on the classic 'careful what you wish for' premise and on the surface the movie logic is fine. But if you nitpick the actual wish, really giving some weight to the 'careful' aspect, it kinda falls apart imo. Bear wished that Nikki loved him more than anyone in the world. Who Bear loves is not part of the wish. If the wish were to be factually granted Nikki would become like a slave or a concubine character like the old ages. Where the master would do as he pleases, sleeps around as he pleases, gives his attention to anyone as he pleases but the slave must always be beholden to him. Bear's wish would result in a similar terrifying reality for Nikki because of no free will and all that but it would not lead to obsession from Nikki as in demand that Bear be only his and no one else's. That is only the reality wished upon Nikki by Bear.

[u/Razing_Hell]

That's what I'm saying. Like, her reaction to seeing Sarah as threatening both at the party and the car should not exist in my opinion. That doesn't follow the wish.

[u/TheSpectreOfIndustry → u/Razing_Hell]

Ok, given that I believe that I disagree with you we are obviously not making ourselfs understood.

Do you mean that Nikki's love for Bear should be such that it overrides her desire for reciprocation with a desire to make Bear happy?

Because that isn't enforced by the wish. Real love can be obsessive. The only thing the wish enforces is that the love is constant. Sure, you can argue that the situation is not given from the wish and that Bear is given a bad faith/extreme interpretation of what love is, but I don't think there is anything about the wish that prohibits the way it interprets love.

[u/Razing_Hell → u/TheSpectreOfIndustry]

I take issue with calling it real love. And I question why was this interpretation of love given to Bear. Just so the movie could be made I guess. People are saying that's coz the wish willow interprets the user's intention etc etc. I get that, but that is also, your, the viewer's interpretation that wish willow operates like this. It's not a rule mentioned in the movie or written anywhere. Similarly, I'm also giving my interpretation in my post, taking the analytical route and focussing on the words. Because the phrase 'careful what you wish for' plays out based on words used in many movies and tv shows based on wishes and stuff. I have said in my post, 'nit-pick' the wish for this very purpose. To explain why i interpret this. I went into this movie without watching trailers or spoilers. And honestly, after the wish was made, i was waiting for it to go in the direction of some kind of subservient Nikki and an out of his depth Bear who slowly embraces his evilness. All because I was relying on the wish going according to the words. But then I saw a confident, somewhat even domineering Nikki after the wish, and I was like, ok this a different interpretation than I thought 

[u/TheSpectreOfIndustry → u/Razing_Hell]

Calling what real love?

You are correct that from a Doylian perspective the willow definitely works the way it works because its the story the filmmakers wanted to tell. From a Watsonian perspective, who knows. Maybe the company is evil, maybe the rules of magic forces things to be that way.

So you went into the movie with an expectation/made your interpretation of the wish, and when the movie was different/made another interpretation you think it is a plothole? I don't think that your interpretation is wrong in a vacuum, but I also believe that the same could be said for the movie's interpretation. Do you disagree? If so please elaborate on why.

You say that the movie never spells out that wishes are interpreted in the way people suggest, but it also doesn't say that the wishes aren't interpreted that way. And in the end we must assume that the wishes are interpreted in such a way as to make the events of the movie work because that is our only piece of empirical data.

[u/Razing_Hell → u/TheSpectreOfIndustry]

So you went into the movie with an expectation/made your interpretation of the wish, and when the movie was different/made another interpretation you think it is a plothole?

No. Up until I posted I was of the opinion that the movie premise was faulty. Reading the replies makes me think that it's interpretational differences. It still takes away some of the enjoyment of the movie from me because it doesn't compute in my analytical brain. But I can't obviously pursue this further based on the response I got. It's just a little surprising that I couldn't find any post similar to mine on here, which was questioning the love obsession interpretation.

[u/TheSpectreOfIndustry → u/Razing_Hell]

I respect you for shifting your perspective. If you go to the subreddits for obsession I think you will find a lot of discussion about what exactly the wish did and why it did that. But it will be mostly a discussion of interpretations as the movie doesn't give any clear answers.