#laios thorden

[durger101]

guess who i liked drawing more (HARD)

Based on this tweet by user misteryurifag

[sachsoup]

laios and hunter meeting each other... can't you see the chaos... the matching wolf shirts... the absolute bffs forever....

edit: a doodle...

[room-surprise]

Laios is terrified of parenthood: Why?

Laios (Λάϊος) is an ancient Greek name. Sometimes it is translated as Laius, but these are both spellings of Λάϊος, which can also be transliterated as Láïos.

Laios comes from λαιϝός, from Proto-Indo-European lehiwos, and can mean left (the opposite of right), and awkward.

There are two mythological figures named Laios, but right now I'm going to focus on one of them: Oedipus' father, Laios the king of Thebes.

This mythical Laios did some particularly vile kidnapping, rape, and violated the laws of hospitality. As a result, he and his entire bloodline was cursed by the gods.

Laios’ sins are primarily focused around the violation of social taboos, engaging in inappropriate relationships, and being unable to restrain himself from hurting others with his actions. He is also depicted as rude and violent.

Laios’ punishment was that his son would someday kill him and marry his wife. In order to avoid this, he pierced his newborn son’s ankles so he would not be able to crawl, and abandoned him in the countryside to die. The child was found by shepherds, who took him to the nearest king, who adopted the boy and named him Oedipus, for his swollen feet.

When Oedipus was told by an oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus, not knowing that he was adopted, immediately fled his home to avoid harming his beloved parents. While on the road, he encountered king Laios on a narrow road. Laios ordered Oedipus to move out of the way, and Oedipus hesitated too long, so the king nearly ran him over. Furious at Laios’ rudeness, Oedipus dragged him from his chariot and killed him.

The “Laios complex” in psychology is named after the character in the Oedipus myth, and it is described as when a father desires to kill his children, especially his sons, in order to leave behind no successors.

This name is a fascinating choice on Kui's part.

As a low-level nobleman in a historical setting, one of Laios' overarching life responsibilities is to marry a woman, reproduce, and make sure those children grow up to fill his position in society when he dies. Laios in Dungeon Meshi has a very bad relationship with his parents, especially his father, as well as issues with children and parenthood, and when you combine that with the subtext of his name indicating a fear of having children/sons, it paints a very interesting picture of our strange protagonist.

We know that one of Laios’ deepest psychological wounds, attacked by the nightmare clams, is his parents demanding he return home to the village and give them grandchildren. This is a recurring nightmare he has, so it must bother him significantly.

He also becomes so uncomfortable watching a loving father-baby interaction in the living paintings, that he can’t even try to eat food, even though he’s very hungry. This behavior makes no sense without the context of Laios' fear/aversion to father/child relationships.

Finally, in a “what if?” comic about reversing the character’s sexes, the idea that if Laios had been born a woman, he would have never left the village and have birthed children. Female Laios is shown holding a baby, looking miserable, and regular Laios seems quite upset. He says that the current timeline, despite everything that has gone wrong, is “the best one.”

This is speculation, but all of this taken together suggests that Laios may actually feel fear, disgust or revulsion towards the idea of having or raising children.

This could be because he doesn’t feel comfortable acting out the role of husband and father that he feels society demands of him, or because he’s afraid of hurting his children the way he was hurt by his parents, or it may simply be a visceral discomfort at the idea of reproduction, something which some people experience for a number of reasons.

This fear could even be taken as evidence (among other data points) suggesting that Laios might be asexual and/or aromantic, though these sort of fears are of course not unique to people on that spectrum.

Of course, none of this means that Laios could never, or would never have children, but it suggests that this fear is central to his character, and understanding this is important to understanding who Laios is, and why he does the things he does.

(This is an excerpt from Chapter 4 of my essay about the real world cultural and linguistic references in Dungeon Meshi! You can read it here.)

[ttotbs]

😑🙂

🙂😑

[loonaink]

My contribution to pride month for the dm fandom! (Happy Pride from your favorite meme posting Bisexual) 🏳️‍🌈❤️

[imbunnysan]

[the-gentle-jellofish]

Lil' cutie patootie drawing

[lorkvi]

Another WIP of Laios

I changed quite a few things, the expression didn't suit him and I had aged him a little bit, so here's a nice correction :)

[dayundying]

Theyre trying their best

[transurgender]

OB-FUCKING-SESSED WITH THE WAY THEY DID THIS SCENE . WISH I COULD SAY I EDITED THIS

[1alchemistart]

doing my duty of drawing skeleton falin

[pretty--in--purple]

how i treat my dad when he's doing a basic task for me that i don't want to do

[mew-cake]

Laios is fucking insane and amazing. Dude's whole plan to kill the dragon was to hang upside down from it's mouth by the leg and stab the weak point. Holy shit. That is metal as hell. Even with the knowledge of healing magic can reattach limbs, that's still utterly insane that he would think of it AND attempt it at all. Good god. Holy fuck.

[jinaxxo]

the dunmeshi party if i were to be the lord of the dungeon.. just a glimpse into my dark reality..

[notemaker]

Getting out of the comfort zone can be uncomfortable.