#I have a whole essay on the complexities of morality in the works

[blu-ish]

Just finished reading and gosh I love this so much. (lemme write an essay about it lol)

LONG ASS POST HSJHSJSH

She is so testing Sonic, using his own morals-- his own PROMISES against him. Because if Sonic says she and Kit can have a second, even third chance... everyone's gonna follow along because he's Sonic. If I was the villain I would use that against the hero too.

He's just gonna end up bringing everyone down with him BECAUSE he believes, because he thinks its the right thing to do.

But here's the thing, he knows its complete bullshit, I 100% got that vibe. He understands somethings up, that it's too easy, hell after experiencing Surge's meltdown while trying to drown him while electrocuting him, there's no way that didn't leave an impression on Sonic about her. (along with a few internal burns lmao)

It's the same thing with the whole Mr. Tinker (Eggman) incident, sure he really DID lose his memory, but Sonic AGAIN forces his ideals and morals onto everyone else for the sake of believing he could turn it around, and his actions affect everyone. (Gawd, Sonic and his problematic savior complex coming to bite him in the ass hsjhsjs it's so good im sorry)

He refuses to change that "second chance" mindset. He's not changing it because of ONE or even TWO bad times that it didn't work out in his favor. Even when they break his trust.

And Surge HATES it, she hates how stupid and naive Sonic is for believing all that, so she's gonna use it against him. To make him a hypocrite, to prove he isn't Mr. Perfect.

Sonic continually emphasizes how some of his friends tried to kill/waste him once or twice before, just to prove his point. But here's the thing, sure Sonic had some role in how they changed but most of that CHANGE was made by THEM not HIM. He can't force them to change, they did that on their own.

Knuckles realized he was being tricked, so he CHOSE to help Sonic and Tails. (He is the guardian of the master emerald after all, that's his JOB, he wasn't just beating Sonic up for the hell of it.)

Shadow's memory was altered, he was grieving, a traumatized kid who was just dealing with Eggman so he could watch the planet explode even if he went down with it. But he wasn't doing it for the hell of it either, he did it BECAUSE he thought his dead sister WANTED him too, to get revenge for her death. Shadow was always kind, he was kind to Rouge, Amy reminded him of Maria, Sonic was there to SHOW him he had a choice, to remind him the world was worth saving, instead of destroying it. EVERYONE helped, not just Sonic. Shadow CHOSE that. (even if he eventually FORGOT thanks SEGA lol)

Surge doesn't have that, she doesn't have the genuine motive to change and I don't think she ever will. (or that she necessarily needs too but I could be wrong ofc) Kit is following her, because he was brainwashed into it yeah (So has Surge into hating Sonic), but that's all said and done, its not "reversable" that's their genuine feelings now-- as awful and terrible as it was for Starline to do that to two freakin kids.

Now she want's to know where she came from, she wants to know the truth, and she's again, following someone's orders to do so. But that's HER choice, she doesn't CARE if it affects others because she feels that no one cares enough about her or Kit to find them after they lost themselves anyways.

But her ultimate goal, is to prove Sonic WRONG, to END him and his "I can do no wrong/everyone likes me" attitude. I for one am hyped to see where they take this next.

[ihaveforgortoomany]

For Peace of Mankind: analysis of the nature of Foundation and its similarities to Manus Vindicate

It doesn't take long for us to realise the morally grey nature of the Foundation and the scope of power it has. Arguably the aims of the Foundation place it no better than Manus Vindicate in their goals as the future and "peace" they champion is founded on ideas around limitation and control.

(This is an essay just exploring how the Foundation does have alot in common with the Manus)

The Foundation

Its interesting how early on the game establishes Vertin's independence to the actions of the Foundation, seeking out Regulus and attempting to help her against the wishes of the Foundation knowing that if Regulus had been dragged by Sonetto to be registered she would have likely been taken by the Storm.

Tbh we can be here all day listing the problems of the Foundation (experiments on children and the manipulation of a 12 year old, constant pressure on arcanists to register, everything about Laplace as an institution especially with the Mesmers, Zeno with Rayaskhi and why is Lilya already a functioning alcoholic at 14) but here I'm placing emphasis on the aim of the Foundation.

Sure they at least aim to stop the Storm (Marcus in Chapter 6 "at least the Foundation are trying to stop it but you're speeding it up") but in terms of relations between humans and arcanists, the goal seems less pure.

Chapter 6 establishes that humans do not benefit in anyway from the continuing Storm, the Foundation is an organisation primarily run by humans and yes there are both humans and arcanists in the Foundation that seek to work together to end the Storm - it seems more like returning to a previous status quo in 1999 than improving and moving forward to the future.

Thematically and narratively the Foundation is dogmatic, the "born to die martyrs" line doesn't paint a positive image of the Foundation. The institution of the SPDM seems to aim to control the future of arcanism in children, where censorship and suppression with knowledge is commonplace. The idea of the "rational" human and "emotional" arcanist is continuously hammered down by the Foundation and Laplace.

(Im not equipped at all to talk about mental health but it is questionable how the Foundation/ Laplace deal with it, Vertin's induce coma used as a political manoeuvre to isolate suitcase fam under the pretence of "extreme trauma" (yes there is an orchard of trauma but the timing is suspicious) and the whole story of Scot Mesmer in Three Doors)

The Manus

We already know there is a chess motif in the designs of the Foundation, the checkered designs on clothing and Constantine's need to one up a child in a game of chess.

The colours of both fractions are presented as opposing but more interesting is how the normal foot soldiers of both sides wear headgear that obscures the eyes (the Foundation staff headpiece thing and the Manus mask).

This can be interpreted as how neither fraction as a whole look to the future or moving forward but instead to a ideal period of time: the Manus the "garden that doesn't exist" and the Foundation "peace of mankind" or to whatever the status quo was in 1999. They are two sides of the same board.

Am I saying Vertin might break away from the Foundation eventually? No I don't think so, both are aligned in goals to stop the Storm. However thematically and narratively its fascinating how the Foundation has been set up as a complex institution we do not wholly trust but regardless root for in the game.

[creativity-deficient]

An essay on the Tweaks, how I view their relationship with their son, and what it means for their futures

Although I’m not the biggest fan of people who portray the Tweaks as loving parents, all things considered, I also don’t believe they are as evil and malicious as some make them out to be.

I have SUCH a love/hate relationship with those guys, and it’s because as shitty as they are, they’re also both WONDERFULLY complex characters who are just shrouded in mystery. They’ve been on the show for SO long and yet we know so little about them. To be fair, they could be interpreted in any way, as we don’t quite know their intentions, HOWEVER they do seem to love their son in a sense, so crummy as they may be, I do think that there’s a bit more to all of it.

Mr. Tweak is willing to do anything for his business, even at the expense of his morals. We see this exact plot in “Gnomes”, where he is willing to use small children as a manipulation tactic to get people to care about his business.

Tweek is going to inherit the shop one day, and Richard knows this. They BOTH know this. So he’s gotta prepare him in the exact same way HE was taught, to become ONE with Tweek Bros coffee and to ALWAYS put the business first, even if it’s not right. He loves Tweek in his own way, but ultimately he sees him as a business accessory first and a son second.

I’ve also mentioned in a previous post that I think Mr. Tweak sees a lot of his younger self in Tweek. It’s no secret that Mr. Tweak doesn’t seem to view his son very highly, referring to him as “nothing but a sp*z” so to speak, and if Tweek is going to take over the business one of these days, he needs to be sure of himself, not some “twitchy, tweaked out kid”. Richard knows this because HE was once like this. This was how HIS father raised him, and look how he turned out :)

Of course, by Tweek’s age, he was already had TWICE the work ethic, but no matter, just means he needs to push harder, right?

When Tweek turns 15, his father decides that he is finally old enough to learn the secret family recipe, as he and all the Tweak men before him did.

But it doesn’t go as expected, and Tweek has quite the opposite reaction that Richard hoped he would.

He feels appalled and betrayed, and why wouldn’t he? I mean his parents had both been drugging him his whole life, (as well as the whole town), essentially fucking him up for the foreseeable future. Even as an adult he still deals with twitches and tweaks. And they just expect him to be okay with it?? Tweek is a LOT more resilient than his predecessors, and he refuses to let this ruin his life.

But it’s not as easy as it looks. He’s been drinking his parents’ coffee for as long as he can remember, he doesn’t know how to be without it. He’s forced to spend a lot of high school in rehab, missing out on a lot of his teen years. Of course, Tweek has Craig by his side to make the process a lot easier, but it’s still a lot.

This definitely breaks the relationship he has with them, and Tweek finds that he can’t trust them any longer. Or course, his father just sees him as ungrateful. After all, he’s spent so long trying to shape him up into this hard working, young man, and THIS is the thanks he gets? Richard has always striked me as being someone who is nice until he’s no longer getting his way, and Tweek ultimately trying to break the cycle of abuse is exactly what hammers in the nail of their already strained relationship.

Mrs. Tweak is a different story. This isnt the first time she felt her husband has gone too far, we see her stand up for the kids in “gnomes”. I get the feeling that she’s always known what they were doing was wrong, yet she still went with it anyways. Why? Even she doesn’t know, in all honesty. Perhaps she had been manipulated into all of this as well, under the guise that it what was best, being brainwashed into this docile wife who just does as she’s told. Or perhaps it was always to her own accord, and she’s been in on it all along. We really don’t know enough to know for sure.

Her son refuses to talk to her, and she understands why. She’s always has wanted what was best for him, but they’ve gone too far, WAY too far, and things were never gonna be the same now.

But she hopes that, perhaps, with time, there will be some healing.

[soekmatthew]

Proposing a reform on Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics!

An essay on why we should reformulate the often misguided interpretations on each secondary gender.

In this essay I will debate the absence of personality often assigned to Beta's secondary gender, the inherent nature of violence that shouldn't exclusively be attributed to Alphas, and how deeply we can explore the aspects of Omega's biology in fiction, furthering its visions from the deep rotted misogyny implicated in these matters.

(remember this is a joke, you can create your ficverse and works however you'd like)

1.0 THE BETA ISSUE

The beta role in an a/b/o society is pushed towards the sense of "normality", betas normally aren't that phased by their nature. This is fitting, although the lack of complexity deposited onto its concepts led a creator to create variations of betas that aren't really necessary.

I propose that betas have pheromones that emit a scent genetically structured to be smelled by a specific type of group, regardless of their secondary gender, people who are able to scent betas pheromones have a variation in their olfactory-receptor genes and allow them to strongly perceive their scents. (this happens irl, with cilantro tasting like soap or some people being able to smell cockroaches)

It would solve the beta complex and wouldn't necessarily affect the whole structural alpha/omega naturally based relationship.

2.0 THE ALPHA MATTER

It is easy to antagonize alphas, and I do believe it is crucial for it to be antagonized, given how the discourse towards alpha aggression can create well built debates approximated to human reality. But it also can spice up some debates on a lot of more interesting matters other than hierarchy and dominance.

"Soft-alphas" was a term designed to fit in the alphas that are able to somehow "contain" their inner wolf, on contrary to "normal alphas" that are aggressive and excessively dominant.

Of course, as fun as it is to explore this concept, it's not necessary to give them this title, it thins the discussions that can be made upon this type of characteristics on alphas.

It is easy to explore the topics around an alpha considered "defective", and give them the capacity to have more and more deepness, an alpha who doesn't feel protective despite their love towards their omegas and needs to learn how to stimulate its natural instincts, an alpha who was forced to submit and therefore had their alpha contained to a point it needs healing and an exercise in dominance!! Fun aspects of an inverted container of the morality based alpha corrections often seen around the fic community.

I propose more and more diversity and complexity around alphas, seeing them fight their instincts is fun, but it would also be fun to see them fight for their need to have the same instincts that antagonizes them.

3.0 THE OMEGA DEBATE

There is a lot of discourse around omegas, especially when people simplify them as "the woman of a/b/o society".

Although understandably fitting for the time it was developed, it is still a conception most people have and has grown outdated.

It also created a movement to fight against this idea, that has empowered omegas, but the lack of consistency fails to impress. For example, in this case, it doesn't matter how much of a rebel omega the character is, they will still "fail" their morals and submit to an alpha.

I know you guys can do better!

What is better than an inner monologue on why your nature is failing your mundane conceptions? Better than that what's more revolutionary than being able to mend your instincts and ideas?

The nature of an omega is vast and instinctually more prone to aggression than most alphas! Omegas protect and go feral over their offsprings! Explore it more!

And make omegas also be proud of their nature, instead of simply making them disgusted by it without backgrounding their stories! (i mean, if they have traumas associated with their secondary genders it is obvious and expected for them to hate it).

Omegas can be hard creatures to deal with, omegas can reject their offsprings scent for example, give them hardships dudes! It will be fun!

A/B/O is fun, and I LOVE TRADITIONAL A/B/O SO MUCH! but we can do more justice at least to betas :3

(this is literally a joke in case someone hates me for it)

[at-thezenith]

writeblr intro

hi! i’m hel, i have a ba in creative writing & film, and i’m just about to finish a publishing masters. i am currently creating a drive of my notes from this degree, you can find that post here.

i love sff, literary fiction, and anything kind of weird. my favourite series is the wayfarers by becky chambers, a sf series that has fantastic worldbuilding, alien societies, complex inter-species relations, and just a whole lot of beautiful writing.

my main wip is called the faery children, a broody, morally grey fantasy story about elemental witches, which you can read about here. 

i have just started outlining/drafting a short story called baby, let the band keep playing, we’ll keep swinging ‘til last call. you can read about it here and here.

i’m an editor (now professional)! i love reading other people’s work and am always looking to help people with their own writing. if you're interested you can contact me on here. i have experience with essays, fiction and non-fiction articles, and i spent two years as an editor on a creative arts magazine.

i also beta read! that does not need to be sought after on a separate site, feel free to drop me a message or an ask and i will quite literally drop everything to read something. fully not joking.

i would love to make more writer friends of any form or genre :) ask and tag game friendly!!

[luciusime]

Everyday I draw a little closer to writing an mla format very long essay on the complex and nuanced relationship between Bruce, Damian, and Dick. It infuriates and saddens me when people boil it down to Dick being Damian's father without considering the implications of that fatherhood and the conditions it was fostered under. Would you tell a kidnapping victim that they couldn't be a father to their son? No? Then why do people rob Bruce of the opportunity to be a father to Damian? Why does Dick get to be the oh so perfect golden child even when he's hurt at least two of his siblings with his actions from the time Jason first got to the manor, to the time he ripped all that was keeping Tim stable from his hands? If parents are allowed to fuck up, why isn't Bruce allowed to work his way back to, if not forgiveness, then at least stable ground for his less reprehensible actions.( not including things like killing his children, sending them on useless or unwanted quests/missions, or not avenging or correcting their deaths. The children are allowed to be upset and never forgive those things). Has anyone ever stopped to think about the implications of Dick being Damian's father? How if you add that on top of his unwanted stint as batman, it makes him uncomfortably close to being Bruce, something he has never wanted and will never want? Why do people only ever write nuanced and complex fics about Bruce's relationship with Tim and Jason? Why is it so hard to find fics of him being nice to Dick and Damian? Are they undeserving of having Bruce affirm his love for them? Why is Damian never treated like the traumatized child he is, when Cassandra, with a similar upbringing and background, is treated with so much tenderness in the few fics she has that center around her. Why is he labeled demon, murderer; a mindless, brainless 10 year old assassin with no morals? Is he not allowed time to heal from his time in a literal cult?

And while I'm rambling on, do people ever stop to consider the delicate tightrope work Talia must have had to do to be allowed to keep her son? Not even as just Ra's heir, but as her son. Talia has always been assassin before she was mother, and those two things don't mix well when you have the amount of enemies she does. And when one of those enemies is your own father? You learn quickly what will and will not fly. The designs she must have had to make, and the horrors she must have had to witness and inflict upon her child to keep them both from dying must have been immense.

I think about these topics alot. I could totally write a whole character study about it.

[bonew3s]

a short ink sans character essay—

a short ink sans character essay (? can i even call it that i barely scratched the surface)

( Ink is made by @comyet, here is the faq i will be referencing often; https://comyet.tumblr.com/post/132998265968/i-n-k-t-a-l-e — and here is this whole thing crossposted on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49854430 )

His soulessness—

hes soulless yes and he uses his vials to feel, comyet had mentioned he pretended to have a soul— not to have feelings. He feels things even if he needs his vials to do so they're still his emotions. Ink vomits when he feels too much, that doesnt sound very emotionless does it? Ink technically isn't emotionless. He cant understand emotions, yes, but he feels them. He cant go off his vials without kind of, dying/ going comatose. Comyet said he became a lifeless husk without them— not emotionless.

Ink is a bit of a jerk, that will obviously happen if someone doesnt have a good grasp on feelings or social ques— yes im bringing up social ques now.

Social ques, are usually hand in hand with emotions, they're connected. Okay, expanding on this— lets say, someone is sad the thing someone would do is comfort them, judge the situation yes? but its so much more complicated than that, you have to read ques wether they want to talk about it, you cant ask " do you want to talk about it?" because they might not want you to point it out— or maybe they want you to point it out and end up getting mad when you dont, youre trapped all because you cant read what that person wants with their body langauge becaus people are so unpredictable.

I got a little carried away there but you get the point yeah?

I mean, ink's gonna be a jerk, purposefully or not either way cause he doesnt have a good grasp on emotions thats how his character is, him being soulless or insensitive doesnt make him an evil character, hes complex thats how people in real life are.

I just hate when people automatically think soulless= evil, cause thats not true, maybe in canon undertale it is— but undertale aus arent canon thats why that doesnt apply, also ink is different from flowey because of his vials, flowey is alive because of determination that landed on his dust and the flowers near it, there wasnt any dt in inks case (that we know of) — and flowey pretends to have feelings, ink doesnt.

In inks faq, comyet mentions ink being emotional more than once, when mentioning his rainbow freckles he has when hes positivly emotional, and vomiting ink when hes emotionly shaken.

point being—Ink isnt emotionless he feels too much, hes not evil hes not exactly well behaved but he isnt downright evil. Everyone is morally grey, real life and fiction thats what makes it realistic and intresting, everyone has different perspectivs, opinons etc and that makes people morally grey.

"He is an insecure, self-centered character with abandonment issues who has a hard time trusting his emotions." again the word emotions pop up, and not just emotions his emotions. Those are inks flaws, and that gives perspective on his worldview, it makes sense, that he views other aus as just characters, he sees so many of them its better to disconnect himself right? The thing with abandonment issues is that it causes a feeling that everyone will leave you so its better you leave them— or disconnect youself from them, before they leave you.

Okay, lets talk about his past now, he was stuck in an abandoned au, he hated it so much and it was so blank that he didnt see any other way out than killing himself. He ripped his soul apart. He felt such great despair and hopelessness that he took his very being in tore into it, dusting instantly— and smiled as he dusted. It was worded as he "broke free", in a sense he did, but Ink didnt know he would be granted another chance, i dont think thats what it meant by broke free, because right after that it says he was given another chance. Ink didn't know what would happen after he died, in his mind death was better than being alone, being forgotten. I have a feeling that Ink not remembering his past, isnt just his regular spotty memory, i have a feeling it was a repressed memory— because some of it still carries over to him, like his fear of blank spaces, and being forgotten. Its somewhat similar to anniversary reactions, where someone doesnt even have to remember it, their subconcoius and body remember enough for feelings to peak through. Its not exactly aniversary reactions for Ink because there was no time in his au— point is his feeling still carry over even if he doesnt remember his actions. Ink is traumatized. Its so clear in his personality, quirks — everything. I hate when people completly brush over his past even if he doesnt remember it because in real life people block out traumatic events too!!! it still happend!!

his abandonment issues, insecurities, fears and overall flaws reflect that.

Ink isnt evil, comyet literally said he was a chaotic neutral.

basically im sick of people overlooking Ink— esp when people overlook is faq and past.

(i might add more to this later/someday idk cuz it is a little on the short side [alot on the short side] and i only coverd a quarter of what i wanted.)

update (9/13/23); okay, when i wrote this my thoughts were kinda everywhere despite how much i tried to organize this, its messy and i did not cover alot.

here i am coming to drop more info onto this, ok.

basically on ao3, someone had mentioned that the better wording for inks memory regarding the negatives of his past can be described better with dissociative amnesia, which supports my claim about ink being traumatized. (I assume that it would be nearly impossible for an emotionless person to have trauma, once again proving he does have emotions) But of course, if someone wants to write/portray ink as an evil character i am not the boss of you, i just hate when people think ink being an emotionless evil guy is canon when its not, he is traumatized. Trauma and abandonment issues can make people seem rude, act rude and we see that in inks character, and personally i think thats what makes him awesome. Ink is relatable and realistic, trauma does not carve a perfect angel of a person, trauma is ugly and rough, though i am not saying that every person with trauma is going to be rude of course, but no one is perfect.

[halogenwarrior]

I feel like the large amount of capital-r Rationalist Worm fans has really negatively influenced some people’s interpretations of Taylor and her motivations. I sometimes see people treating her as this sort of platonic idea of utilitarianism or whatever moral philosophy you think she subscribes to, whose strengths and flaws are entirely the strengths and flaws of that philosophy in its ideal form. And having read the “rational fic writing advice of Eliezer “famous Harry Potter fic writer and comparer of Taylor to Hillary Clinton” Yudkowsky I can see where this idea comes from, because this is exactly how he says characters should ideally be written. He says he dislikes “gray and gray morality” where everyone is shown to have their flaws and hypocrisy, instead he likes conflicts where both sides are truly good rather than gray and the conflict is that they are completely true to different philosophies of what good is. To some extent, he has a point in this; there are works that use the existence of hypocrisy and self-serving as a “cheat” out of and easy answer to a conflict that really is supposed to be a clash between two pure “good” philosophical ideas (Pokemon Black and White my beloathed...). But in the end, characters who are just platonic ideas of philosophies are for philosophical essays and tracts; literature is for portraying humans in all of their psychological complexity, sometimes self-serving motives, and ways that, due to their individual humanity, they aren’t just walking philosophical mouthpieces and don’t match up completely with an ideology.

That being said, Taylor is actually quite human (and a human teenager at that, with all the expected immaturity) in this way and from author comments it seems that this is completely intentional. She doesn’t simply state her belief that Benevolent Warlordism is Better than the Corrupt Current Authority throughout the story and spend the whole time as the embodiment of that ideal. Instead, she starts out wanting to be a hero, and then she has a complete failure of her typically paranoid mindset with regards to Coil (taking him at face value of wanting to improve the city even though every politician says that and look how that usually turns out) because it’s what she WANTS to believe, so she can keep her new friends after feeling isolated while morally sanctioning her actions, and then does a surprise Pikachu face when it turns out Coil actually does bad things and her support is helping him do bad things, then spends the next few arcs running around trying to fix the one bad thing she feels particularly guilty of. It’s only after already setting herself up as a warlord to fix said guilt, solely caring about Dinah with the people she saves being incidental, that she justifies herself as the lesser of two evils compared to the corrupt status quo, a lot of the corruption of which she didn’t even KNOW ABOUT before already going ahead and deciding she was going to be a criminal. I’m saying this with genuine love for her character and acknowledgement that she isn’t a horrible monster and does some pretty admirable stuff, especially given her age and situation, and she certainly was always cynical, paranoid and judgmental with a determination for justice even if she didn’t know all the details of what was wrong with her world at the beginning, but it’s ridiculous and detracts from understanding of her character as a character and not a rationalist talking point to see her as some pure philosophical ideal from start to finish who is never making up her ideology as she goes along.

[princessmotif]

out of curiosity, what would it mean to you for fiction to replicate the maizula dynamic? like what features are most salient?

the heart of their relationship i think is replicable to an extent in that it's this sort of rotted love where you have known each other so long and so well that you couldn't not love each other but you have known each other so long and so well that you couldn't not hate each other as well. so that integral piece is absolutely something we can find in other relationship dynamics. like the rich girl/weird friend dynamic absolutely exists.

the sibling love triangle aspect with maiko's existence is also a hugely important and compelling aspect of maizula! this is techniaclly replicable in theory in terms of you can absolutely do love triangles where two members are related, but also it's so hard to duplicate the maizula-maiko triangle because mai is supposed to love zuko, and you can interpret her as actually loving him, and he feels like he's supposed to love her too, but they don't work fundamentally because he doesn't want to understand the worst parts of her, doesn't even want to admit that they exist, and she is so horribly caught up in azula who makes her feel so alive by acknowledging and knowing and seeing all these parts of her and bringing them out even more that she could say she chooses zuko because it's the right thing to do in terms of both heteronormativity and what choosing zuko represents, but i don't think realistically mai can actually turn away from azula and everything she's ever known and hated and loved and wanted to leave her alone and not known how to live without. not without regrets.

i think it's also so hard to replicate the way that their individual characters are and come together in the ship as a whole. like azula being a prodigious princess with such an insane relationship with gender and having such a tragic domestic origin and mai being a noblegirl who is so sullen and depressed and dead inside and has such an awful domestic life as well and who has to obey azula's orders but also absolutely doesn't do that because the power dynamic of their relationship is so complex by complete accident that while azula is higher ranking than mai socially and financially and in the military sense, mai absolutely has more power on an interpersonal level. that's something that you see a lot in lesser degrees in media with toxic female friendships sure, but never to the extent that one of the parties can literally have the other executed if she wants to, but she chooses not to do so even when she imprisons her former friend.

i wrote a mini essay on this here, but the way in which they play with the rich girl/weird friend dynamic is also INSANE on a level i have yet to see anyone else touch really except maybe rhaenicent.

speaking of other posts i've made abt their dynamic being so fascinating, this one about the "i love zuko more than i fear you" line vs what atla's show canon actually demonstrates is something i think is vital to understanding what makes them so insane. and i do think it's unique, if only because of what the narrative wants to tell you vs what it actually shows you.

also, one of the most important things which i touched a little on earlier is just... the politics of atla as a setting for their relationship. that makes it 10x more compelling that azula is this tragic figure who is on the completely wrong side of history, a child soldier who fights for imperialism and racism and xenophobia because she has been indoctrinated and abused and made into a weapon, and mai is someone who fought alongside with her until it inconvenienced her to do so, then switched sides in the name of love without ever actually analyzing or critiquing her own beliefs about what her country was doing. mai chooses the good and moral side by choosing zuko (who also doesn't actually reflect internally and... gets to kind of just keep doing a friendlier imperialism when we look at the comics and lok, but that's another topic), but does she actually want that? does she actually believe in that? has she actually let azula go? the comics can try to whitewash her morality more by pretending she cares abt tom-tom and she's totally reformed, but the show doesn't actually support that, and with no material in-between to show us mai's redemption beyond her betraying azula, not because she cares abt what's good and right but because she cares abt zuko, we as an audience have no real reason to believe that.

so yeah, maizula is endlessly fascinating to me, and i wish a ship would be more interesting than them

[felikatze]

Grimleal Studies: A Masterpost

Hi. I have been inspired to compile the immense body of work generated by my fellow Grimleal about everybody's favorite maggot. A lot of these are also mine, because, yeah.

These are all of varying length and style by various authors, so obviously not one congruent opinion. We all have different interpretations, after all. Additonally, this is NOT the full breadth of everything that exists, because tumblr search is, not good.

Also known as: I wish Tumblr had nested bullet points, the post.

Bolded for personal recommendations, though everything here is worth reading, honestly.

Required Reading:

Valentian Accordion: Secrets of Thabes Labyrinth

Awakening and beyond:

Grima = Robin Reincarnation Theory (the-priestess-of-dawn) [THE classic Grima essay]

check out Dawn's masterpost while you're at it, so I don't have to reiterate everything she's ever written (it's all very good)

Grima: One Guy in Two Trenchcoats (meeeee)

FP Grima is Tired (cannibal-lesbian)

Reading Grima as an Abrahamic god stand-in in the world of Fire Emblem, and how that is filling in gaps in the narrative. (imustbenuts)

Id, Ego, and Superego as applied to Chrom, Robin, and Lucina (thanatophagency)

Robin, Grima, and Fighting Your Own Nature (ro-botany)

Why does Grima have two bodies? (me <3 ft. Dawn)

On Chrom and Robin instantly hitting it off in Awakening (gimureifeathers)

Grima & personal agency (cannibal-lesbian) [prose]

Naga's treatment of Grima (iturbide ft dawn and cannibal-lesbian)

Guilt-complex Naga (dawn)

Contextualization of Grima's Echoes backstory (iturbide)

Echoes & Agency (ro-botany ft. the whole gang, really)

The Anatomy of Grima:

Grima anatomy per the Awakening artbook (dawn)

RE: Grima having a tongue (cannibal-lesbian ft. the-priestess-of-dawn)

Heroes:

Depths of Despair's continuity (dawn ft. me n salem)

What's up with Brave Robin's Forging Bonds? (me <3, ft. many people with cool opinions)

Let's talk about Grima's personal morals (cannibal-lesbian)

On the Characteristics of the Risen, and the Character of their King (ro-botany ft. the whole gang, really)

Addition 1 & Addition 2 (thanatophagency)

The Risen King and his Tactician (ro-botany)

Additional discussions:

Sombron's Cobra Dragon Form is a call-out to Buddhist Nagas. Or: wait, are Divine and Fell Dragons really that different? (imustbenuts)

Are Dragons mammals? + Addendum (Original post by me, major additions by ro-botany)

An Attempt at a Semi-Realistic Analysis of Thoron Stab Wounds (ro-botany)

The Different Kinds of Risen (dawn)

Resplendant Tiki (iturbide)

Sombron & Grima comparison (thanatophagency, dawn, cannibal-lesbian)

Additional notes:

A lot of us have started keeping track of these! Check out Grima Studies on my blog or dawn's, or Grimleal Studies on ro-botany's.

Accolades! Check out these guys, they're very cool!

cannibal-lesbian

felikatze (meeeeeee)

gimureifeathers

imustbenuts

iturbide

thanatophagency

the-priestess-of-dawn

ro-botany

And if you read all these, congrats! You are now a certified grimleal scholar!

[unityrain24]

i've gotten a few new followers recently who seems to be loki series fans... and i just. you do realize that this is a very anti-series blog, right? it's in my description too

i know i haven't reblogged a whole bunch of anti loki series stuff lately, but it's not because i've "changed my mind" or anything. I am just to tired to read long metas (i haven't been reblogging many og loki metas recently either), i do not have the emotional energy to deal with awful feelings that come with the series, and also the other anti-series blog i follow also are getting emotional burnout from it so they aren't posting/reblogging a whole bunch of anti loki stuff either so that's less content for me to reblog.

but know that i am still very anti-loki series, and had strong feeling about it even before i got a tumblr account and literally no one in my life shared my views. When i finally got a tumblr account, like the first thing i did was read through all of the master posts of all the most major anti-series blogs. I read and reblogged probably hundreds. Like i combed through the archives. And i felt so validated finally.

The loki series was a terrible insult to lokis character. They took away his intelligence and his grace and his strategy and his humour and his masking and his cool reserved (but still witty) demeanor. They took away key aspects of his backstory, and invalidated every bad thing that ever happened to him. They didn't simply reduce his complex personality to something stupidly simple, they completely took away practically every part of his personality, and replaced it with things that weren't ever part of him. They blamed him for things he never did (and don't mention things he actually should be blamed for), called him inherently evil, and made him the butt of every joke. That thing you see on the screen is not the same character, not even a different character, but a bastardization of wearing someone else's corpse. The makers didn't even watch the previous installments he was in.

The series was questionable, if not outright terrifying, in its morals/messages (having the main character be stolen and stripped of everything, then work for a genocidal fascist organization and be happy about it)(portrayed either a questionable strange psuedo-incest abuser or an abusive fascist as the two romance options)(etc etc).

Even smaller less important things made it terrible. Making a show about "loki" then having it not be about him, but rather the tva, just to expand disney/mcu's while multiverse obsession? Having the series be called "loki" the whole aesthetic of the show being something painfully not loki? from the music to the lighting to the costumes to the plot to the everything? The lack consistency of the show to the installments prior/post it (again bc they don't care to research)? Gaps in logic? Also the fact that they seem to keep mixing up the concept of multiverses with timelines? (an alternate universe is different from a branch off of one universes timeline. Alligator loki, for example, does not make sense being a loki "variant" because the timeline could not deviate in a way that would make that happen). The fact that it was called "loki" but all the merch is racist genocidal tva? The fact that they condemn loki for certain things but praise the tva for doing far worse things? The way they made tom overact in such an embarrassing way? The way they marketed as having genderfluid loki, and then not only not showing it, but actively denying it?

i could go on and on and on but since i'm not formatting this as an essay the disorganization and lack of proper sentences/grammar is just muddling my point so i won't continue that long paragraph.

anyways.

and it's not "just" a show to me. its not "just" a fictional character. it's not "not a big deal." It is. It is a big deal. To me. I've dealt with mental illnesses my whole life, and when they get bad, they get bad. Dangerously bad. Having a comfort character/ world in my head i could escape to is a vital coping mechanism for me. When they first announced the loki series, a certain nervousness set in me, and with every new piece of information released, it got worse and worse, and my mental state got worse and worse. fuck man, i wanted to kill myself so that i wouldn't be alive when it came out (amongst other reasons). When it did finally come out, not only were all my fears proven correct, it proved to much, much, much worse than i could have ever imagined. It was horrific. It was like they stole what was dearest to me and disfigured it in front of my eyes and got the blood all over me and it would wash out, and the scent and colour and feel and taste of blood filled all my senses. My mental illnesses got a lot worse (both from reason related to and unrelated to the series), and i couldn't even use my necessary coping mechanism bc every time i thought of loki (even my og loki), the series and how it ruined everything would invade my mind. things were bad for me. and all i got was people saying "it's not that bad, your being dramatic, you should watch it!"

And perhaps i'm one-in-million in that sense, it's not like they made the series specifically to personally do that to me. And they don't know that it did.

but should they be ashamed? that they took something that was originally a complex piece of art and passion and expression, and did that to it? They turned it into some soulless money-making formula? They went from wanting to make stories to wanting to make money? From quality to quantity? Shouldn't they feel ashamed, that they disrespected the original artists and writers and filmmakers who put so much into it, only to not even watch them when "wanting" to continue it? Shouldn't they feel ashamed at their hollow greed and corruption? Shouldn't they feel ashamed for forcing an actor to ruin a character they cared so much about, and not allowed for their ideas?

even without what it emotionally did to people, they should be ashamed.

[olderthannetfic]

Gotta say, as someone who is afrolatine who mostly hangs out in anime/manga/manhwa/BL/OI spaces, there's something really weird about the way that people in fandom engage with fantasy stories that have war, slavery, and oppression as backdrops. The stories themselves usually handle the subjects poorly, but the fandom jumps through hoops to justify characters' poor behaviors without considering context of how the real world works. Naruto and Villains Are Destined to Die fandoms handle it the worst I've seen in a long time.

Naruto's story is ultimately about a seemingly unremarkable guy who tells slaves that fate isn't real despite being a Child of Prophecy who goes around minimizing everyone's oppression from the fascist government because he, too, wants to lead the militaristic state, and it hurt his feelings that his "friend" who survived a genocide didn't validate Naruto's victim complex and wanted to change the fascist system while being an imperfect victim (even though Naruto continues to lie and spread misinfo about said genocide to protect the fascist state 10+ years later).

Then theres the VADTD fandom that treats a character (Eckles) as though he has the same level of agency as the main character and other love interests. "Eckles was lying to and manipulating Penelope the whole time to get her to like him 🤬." He's a slave. Of course he's going to lie to his master to avoid abuse or death when he's ranked even lower than a commoner in a classist hierarchy. "He betrayed her 🤬." He's a slave. They're not friends, and there's no such thing as a 'benevolent slave master.' He cannot 'betray' his master. That's not how it works. "Penelope offered him freedom, and he turned it down." You don't 'offer' freedom to a slave. You either give it or don't. She was attempting to emotionally manipulate him. He realized this, and responded in accordance with what he knew she wanted to hear... because he's a slave who doesn't want to die. "She gifted him a magical sword and expensive fur clothes, so she favored him despite him being ungrateful 🤬." A slave in a mink coat is still a slave. It also doesn't escape me that the male lead is the crowned prince, now a war hero, of the empire who gained his fame from his brutality against Eckles' people in the previous war that just ended maybe a few months prior to the story.

There's just something so odd about the ways in which people bend over backwards to justify imperialism and cruelty in stories just because the main characters are the ones who do it. I'm not completely sure if it's because the author's of the original works don't objectively see the undertones in what they wrote. or, maybe the fandoms are all just full of people who have victim complexes and project onto the main characters to make themselves feel better but don't see how their statements make others like me iffy of their stances on real world topics, so we avoid them, which then fuels their self-imposed victimhood even more as they whine "why won't x people in x fandom talk to me?! Or befriend me?!". Like, you just spent a whole essay justifying slavery and genocide because the main character was sad; I don't want to be your friend lol. I'm in the SnK fandom too, and despite the false statements others spread about the story, at least the fandom talks about the characters and themes with more nuance.

--

I never made it past the first few volumes of Naruto, but I do think many of these canons encourage people to judge morality based on what made the lead sad or not. The longer the canon goes on, the greater the dissonance between that message and whatever subtext is inherent to the setting.

[agarthium]

to that end, there's no conflict between the skills needed to maintain his princely facade and his true desire for blood

this turned into like an essay, sorry.

hey so, dimitri's character arc is explicitly about (severe) trauma and survivor's guilt. this was like, painfully obvious to me as a trauma survivor and the game kinda shoves what the themes of his story are in your face several times. it's not subtle whatsoever and that's a necessary lens to view his character from. he doesn't have "skills" to maintain a princely "facade" - he's compartmentalized or repressed or dissociated (all related phenomena but not all the same thing. i think compartmentalization is a form of dissociation. repression is parallel to dissociation but they manifest and function in different ways) the traumatic experiences he's had in a way that allows him to function in day-to-day life, while still experiencing post-traumatic symptoms. that's not a conscious decision he's made, it's a survival mechanism. like, that's how ptsd and other trauma disorders work.

to some degree, he's aware of this:

Everyone has something that is unacceptable within them. I certainly do, and I'd wager you do as well.

I wonder which is best, Professor... To cut away that which is unacceptable, or to find a way to accept it anyway...

dimitri's "princely facade" isn't false and it isn't some kind of deliberate act or ruse. his functional, day-to-day self both consciously and subconsciously or unconsciously rejects the traumatized parts of himself. he doesn't want anything to do with the parts of himself who are angry and vengeful and guilty and scared because those parts engulf him when they intrude in his day-to-day life, as you can see in remire and once he starts properly spiraling. the anger and the vengefulness is ego-dystonic because traumatized parts embody these emotions are operating from trauma responses that come from a triggered nervous system - when he is in this state, and in the state that he's in during his psychotic break, he is not thinking logically or within his actual morals and ethics, he's essentially operating from a fight or flight response. he doesn't listen to reason because no one is capable of listening to reason when they are violently triggered. this is how trauma works. and of course he's not gonna have the toolset and maturity to appropriately deal with that considering his circumstances and the state of the world.

but like with ptsd and other trauma disorders, this bites him in the ass later, because none of those survival mechanisms actually resolve and integrate the pain/fear/guilt/etc. from the initial experience. this happens most prominently in the form of a psychotic break. there are no small number of people who report having auditory hallucinations that center around or are related to traumatic experiences. psychosis is to trauma as lung cancer is to smoking. but his mind/nervous system is still engaging in survival mechanisms to divert the pain and the enormous survivor's guilt he's dealing with away form him - which is why he places all the blame on edelgard and focuses on her as his target, regardless of the truth of the matter. dimitri's guilt and shame are reflexively externalized because he does not have the capacity in those moments to confront and process the reality of what happened (fyi preoccupation with revenge is a very, VERY common experience in complex ptsd, which can obviously lead to some violent thoughts and fixations and sometimes violent tendencies.)

as such, just like with how ptsd and other trauma disorders are understood in the real world, both dimitri's functional day-to-day self and his traumatized part(s) are the "real him." neither are an act or a facade of any kind, they are just not integrated together into a cohesive whole. the game pretty explicitly talks about this in a conversation between he & felix:

F: Sometimes you have an animal's face, contorted with anger and bloodlust. At other times, a man's, with a friendly smile.

F: Which is your true face?

D: Do not waste your breath on questions with such obvious answers. They are both the real me.

as stated, in trauma disorders, the day-to-day self rejects and disowns traumatized parts. this is what is "unacceptable" and what he wants to cut away from himself, especially since the morals and ethics he otherwise demonstrates aren't in line with a deep-rooted desire to butcher people, which is where "ego-dystonic" comes in. it can simultaneously be true that 1. dimitri's traumatized parts are a part of his "true" self (if divided) 2. those parts are associated with feelings and thoughts and behaviors that are ego-dystonic. accepting the traumatized part of him that desires vengeance for his family's death doesn't mean letting that part of himself engulf him and carrying out said vengeance. it's complicated to explain but it's more about accepting what those feelings are rooted in (anger, grief, guilt, shame) rather than what the feelings are at face value. it's not nearly as black-and-white as "bloodthirst." he begins the path to recovery once he starts accepting the guilt, shame, anger, etc. rather than continuing the cycle of rejecting it as a part of who he is.

none of this is a justification for dimitri's actions. none of this is a justification for the actions of anyone who's suffering with trauma and their behavior as resulted in other people harmed. like, he committed atrocities. yeah. this is a game about war and there's plenty of fucked up shit in it. but seeing stuff like this kinda feels like a spit in the face because it demonstrates a lack of understanding how trauma affects people, how trauma recovery works, and how that relates to dimitri's character arc.

conversely, edelgard is an example of where i think the writer's of this game fumbled - edelgard is also dealing with severe trauma and survivor's guilt (her siblings), but there is not nearly as much substance given to her character or attention to her trauma as dimitri. some of it is subtly seen in how she has a restrictive affect and thinks about things primarily through a pragmatic, detached lens rather than emotionally-driven. she's virtually been rid of personhood (aside from small things) and has had that replaced with a cause. that's another way trauma (particularly edelgard's) can manifest itself in a person. but otherwise she's basically given a token nightmare scene and overall i feel like her writing within her own route was wasted potential. there's a lot of wasted potential irt more depth to fe3h as a whole tbh and the fact that the white dude and co. apart of the typical medieval Europe fantasy kingdom group is the one given the most attention to his character vs. the other lords is probably not be a coincidence. edelgard as a character would be probably painfully relatable to me if she were given more attention and care. an argument can be made for claude as well since racism, he had assassin's sent after him as a kid, and a complicated relationship with his parents to top it off, but i also kinda enjoy the subtle ways in which his character arc plays out & i could probably write an essay on how his behaviors relate to his own trauma as well.

sure, talk about faerghus and feudalism and misogyny in the story. i'm not against that. obviously feudalism is some outdated reactionary bullshit and faerghus/the church or whoever embody reactionary ideals. but if you're gonna talk about the characters themselves don't be like, dense about it, especially when it comes to sensitive subject matters like trauma and psychosis, especially when it comes to the latter due to how demonized and mishandled psychosis usually is in fictional media (which it definitely is in fe3h, even if it's framed in a sympathetic light.)

but if you demonize/frame dimitri's character in this way you are straight-up missing the point of what his story is doing in terms of his mental state and it easily comes off a unsympathetic to many of the things that trauma survivors deal with irl (such as violent urges/fantasies.)

[hyukassubi]

SUBI'S EXTRAVAGANT REVIEW ON GROSS!

A couple months ago, I have read, dare I say, the most dramatic fic I've ever laid my two eyes upon (in a good way!!).

It was (nearly) everything I thought I would NEVER enjoy: situationships, flawed main character, drama.

Yet here I am... Absolutely pleased with the drama-filled, humourous rollercoaster of a romance that supposedly had no chance of growing into something more.

Warning, this review is bound to contain spoilers so if you haven't read @moamidzyism 's 'Gross!' yet, read it here! Now that that's out of the way, ON WITH THE REVIEW!!!

Yes, you can like unlikable characters, actually!!

Never would I've thought in a million years I'd end up rooting for a 'bad' main character. I assume a good chunk of us have been shoved in the face countless of times by the media what 'good' main characters are supposed to look like. Like we were programmed by society to like the good heroes and pull out our stakes and pitchforks for the evil villains.

I was in a reading rut for the longest time (I still am tbh 😭😭) and I always thought perhaps the stuff I was reading didn't fit me anymore? Was it the genre? The writing style? No. None of that. I was simply bored of always reading 'perfect' stories with 'good' characters and expecting plot lines.

It is genuinely so very astounding how, in my lifetime, I stumbled upon a 'badly written' y/n and still ended up enjoying her journey and the overall plot of the fic. Moral of the story aside, 'Gross!' has absolutely helped shift my perspective on 'reading what I enjoy' and 'enjoying what I'm reading'.

Character dynamics

I love how everyone has their own little friend group and super top secret bestie groupchat convos, definitely adds to the drama and complexity of the story as a whole.

All the friend groups are so different and although the 'yeonjun-taehyun-yuck!yn' gc is my favorite of them all (a buncha sassy silver-tongued fellas (ESP YUCK!YN, what's not there to love?) I LOVE THE 'B🐶s WHO BRUNCH' SO MUCH TOOOOOO.

I'm not into itzy but Chaeryoeng and Yeji y'all, Chaeryoeng and Yeji UGHH THEY'RE SO SUPPORTIVE AND LOVING ESP TO GROSS!YN, TRULY RAISING THE STANDARDS FOR FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS AND BEING A GIRL'S GIRL

I can definitely learn a thing or two from them too, growing up as someone who's always taught to 'love someone for their gains' which can be partially true but that's not the trajectory of healthy friendships!! You can be besties with a complete Mary sue but if you're not they're biggest hypegirl then literally what's the point????

Notable scenes that devoured, left no crumbs and did the dishes!!

SOOBIN, CHAERYOENG AND YEJI HAVING A JOINT SLAY TOWARDS THE END OF THE SERIES 😭😭😭😭

Sungchan being right but we all still mutually despise his character in the fic purely because he's Gross!y/n's ex... Something I never knew I needed until now. Ex-boyfriends are typically portrayed as candy-stealing 🍑 holes (which he was!!) but to have them actually spit facts that are right and raw and brutal but he's right???? My new favorite trope ✍️the 'bad but right but we still hate him' Ex✍️

Every. Single. Kai and Yuck!yn cameo. Couple goals. *Throws hands in the air* COUPLE GOALS!! IM TRULY NOT EVEN TRYING TO BE BIASED, THEY CAN BE CHARACTERS IN A NOVEL AND I'D STILL FIND THEM SO SO CUTE!!

GROSS!YN HATE TRAIN RUN BY YUCK!YN GODDD THOSE WERE ALL SO SO FUNNY I'D EITHER MASSAGE MY FORHEAD OR LET OUT A WHEEZE

THE GC INTERVIEWS!! THE GC INTERVIEWS ‼️‼️‼️‼️ (ps, Fay you wrote yourself so we'll here 🫶🫶🫶 talented author AND interviewer wowowow your talent is BEYOND me 👏👏👏👏👏👏)

Gross!YN'S miscellaneous items: Spotify playlist, notes about YJ and THE BLOODY VOICE CALL GAAAAAAAAAH

...THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!

This segment does not need any further explanation.

I loved making the 'video essay' on 'Yuck!' A couple months back and so ofc I'm back making yet another compilation (2 WHOLE MINUTES BTW) for this lovely work indeed 🫶🫶🫶 (Fay, if you're seeing this, take this as a late birthday present ^3^)

(if your guys' short attention spans lasted all the way to the very end, you'd see what I'd be on for the next couple of months moving forth nyehheheheEHEHEHEHEHE MUAHAHHAHA TYUNNING HERE I COMEEEEEEEE)

(PS TYSM FOR READING THIS REVIEW OKAY BYEE 😄🏃‍♀️💨)

[jay-avian]

Finding True Inspiration

So I read this book for one of my creative writing classes called Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (I highly recommend for anyone wanting advice on writing) and I came across a chapter that was really helpful in terms of truly being inspired to write your pieces. The chapter starts out by saying:

"If you find that you start a number of stories or pieces that you don't ever bother finishing, that you lose interest or faith in them along the way, it may be that there is nothing at their center about which you care passionately."

I firstly felt very called out by this fact. But then I kept reading, and I understood. In this essay, I will try and explain what it means to write morally without being preachy.

Essentially what Lamott is saying is that everyone has some truth they must share, some core concepts in which you believe passionately and whole-heartedly. It is these concepts that drive a story. She's not of course saying to have some overall moral or message to your story. But characters in a book are in fact human, or at least have humanoid consciouses. Because of this, they are beautifully and wonderfully complex, just as humanity is.

You may want to write your stories because you got a cool worldbuilding idea or you want to use a cool character concept. You may want to include some really cool quotes you thought of in the shower or at 3am in bed. But as you write, "...what seems to happen almost organically is that you end up wanting your characters to act out the drama of humankind. Much of this drama does not involve witticisms and shimmer. Yet this drama is best couched in moral terms; the purpose of most great writing seems to be to reveal in an ethical light who we are." We inevitably make our characters into ourselves and those around us. As unrealistic as the world we throw them in may be, good characters should always provide a sense of grounding for the reader and a good foundation for the writer.

Why do we like the books that we do? What makes us drawn to certain characters? A good story is driven by good characters, this is a lesson I'm sure we've all been taught at some point in class or on the internet. But why is this? It is, in fact, because those characters are driven by much of the same things we are, "...they internalize some decency in the world... They let us see that there is in fact some sort of moral compass still at work here, and that we, too, could travel by this compass if we so choose." The plot only leads our characters together. And though they may find themselves lost, their compass still knows the way, unfaltering.

In my classes, we are taught the difference between "literary" works vs genre works. Literary works have some sort of lesson of life within them, while genre is very plot heavy and typically is predictable. I began resenting this esteemed view of literary and nonfiction is much better than genre, it means so much more. But of course, there are quite a number of genre works that can be considered literary: Lord of the Rings, Frankenstein, The Narnia Chronicles, Beowulf, to name a few notable ones. Some of the "classics" as they're called do have the intention of teaching some moral lesson. But this moral message doesn't have to always be a lesson; it's something you must care about passionately. We know that we live in a world of greedy dragons, we don't need reminders of this. Instead, tell us how we should live, how we should care. "A moral position is not a slogan, or wishful thinking. It doesn't come from outside or above. It begins inside the heart of a character and grows from there." Don't just write about the truth, write about your truth. Only then can you be truly attached to your writing. Only then can your readers be as in love with your story as you are.

(p.s. - I wrote this instead of actually writing an essay for school)

[asmo-cosmetics]

i didn’t mean to send that yet and i was trying to say that virgin levi is a big thing in the fandom but i can’t imagine it as a reality.

like you can’t tell me he doesn’t have sex with mammon when they’re both bored or angry, that the twins haven’t tag teamed him in their room while he was begging for them, that asmo hasn’t ridden him until he was near knocked out.

virgin levi doesn’t work for me bc the other members of the house of lamentation are right there

asks that were designed in a lab specifically for me. there are layers to this anon take my hand

in one master, none of the brothers are virgins, but in the nightbringer timeline, there's an argument to be made that they all are, because

all angels are virgins. this is a headcanon of mine and reasonable people can disagree but let me explain to you why it's so fun

SHAME. GUILT. it's canon that angels in the om! universe can be tempted by and even driven to disobedience and sin. they are naturally pious, not naturally pure – but they seem to believe they're supposed to be naturally pure, e.g. asmo asking mc if they thought the brothers were supposed to be demons all along.

it's a whole cruel mess, basically. god is the main villain of the obey me universe and i'll die on that hill.

but the result is an entire race of beings that experience sexual maturity, but due to the way their society is structured, each individual believes it to be a unique experience happening to themself exclusively, and happening to them because they are morally weak.

they're not ignorant of the concept of sexuality, because they're the guardians of humans, and humans experience sexuality. but angels shouldn't. angels, as far as any angel knows, don't.

the purest/most naïve/most loyal angels (think raphael) might not even recognize it for what it is within themselves either out of denial. like. "my brothers and sisters are so beautiful and wonderful and have such stunning features and graceful bodies. i love them very much and i love serving our father together with them. i am having a completely pure and normal reaction to them interacting with me." etc.

THIS ALSO FITS WITH THE GAME LORE. THINK ABOUT IT. LILITH IS THE FIRST ANGEL THAT EVER HAD SEX, WHICH MEANT SHE HAD TO DIE, BECAUSE IF AN ANGEL AND A HUMAN WERE TO PROCREATE IT MIGHT RESULT IN A BEING THAT DISRUPTS THE POWER BALANCE BETWEEN THE THREE REALMS. OTHERWISE KNOWN AS GODDAMN MC. GOD KILLED HER AS AN EXAMPLE TO THE ANGELS NOT TO DIRECTLY INTERFERE WITH HUMANS BECAUSE HUMANS ARE HOW THEY KNOW ABOUT SEXUALITY AS A CONCEPT okay i'm done shouting but do you understand??

(thank you diavolo for saving our grandma. you also kind of fucked up the whole universe by doing that but it's okay i get it i'm down bad for lucifer too)

anyway back to the incest stuff

the brothers were not the type of angels mentioned above. like it's been noted in the game, they were never just siblings the way all angels are siblings. they were always close. always a family. so they all experienced the solipsistic torture of loving each other and wanting each other and being sure that these feelings exist in them because they are bad and dirty and wrong

and then they were demons, and they were... free

it would've taken them a while to deconstruct everything, though

in my head, the aftermath of the war is when they became super codependent trauma-bonded weirdos. satan too, though it takes him a little longer to admit it. they start needing a lot more physical touch with each other for reassurance (cries in all sleeping in one room is canon now) and are more affectionate than before with hugs/kisses, and then asmo's sin kicks in and, well, they feed beel. they let belphie sleep. they deal with satan's meltdowns, mammon's sticky fingers, lucifer's superiority complex. they help each other. that's what brothers do.

so there's my giant lore essay. now to what's actually in your ask

you are correct

and i don't get it either (i do get it it's because obey me fans are idiots who go "ewwww incest" despite all the canon incest)

but seriously i do get why the boys as virgins is fun and i guess i could see it in the context of the brothers all being super repressed and not wanting to admit their feelings for each other? but then again. asmo.

and i get the virgin levi thing because for one thing it's cute. and for another thing he canonically has a humiliation fetish

but like that still works with demoncest levi. in fact that works better with demoncest levi. he's never had sex with anyone except his brothers. that makes him even more of a creepy shut-in freak loser.

the other brothers (especially asmo and satan) would literally teach you how to degrade him best!! hello

it's so obvious to me like bye.

also all of your suggestions are so incredibly correct. levi begging for the twins' cocks in specific has... done something to me

i will raise you, however: them DPing him. i think he could take it. and it seems like something the twins would want to do.

as i've said before levi and mammon switch bc they're both subs but mammon is the only brother i think levi's a bossy bottom with. with lucifer and satan it's "please, sir" and with asmo it's "i need you, princess" and with beel and belphie it's "as rough as you want, you won't hurt me," but with mammon it's "i swear to our fucking father if you don't put your cock in me right now i'm gonna kill you" and "harder. now." and "jesus, belphie fucks me better in his sleep, if you're gonna be this lazy turn over so i can ride you"

while i do not personally subscribe to the levi has two cocks theory i do headcanon that he is like. incredibly hung.

levi asmo belphie biggest dicks in the family. no i do not take criticism

anyway asmo's a size queen and also loves throwing shade. perfect combo

but also levi feels safest telling asmo about kinks he saw in hentai wants to try out but is embarrassed of. the first time asmo choked him out it made him come so hard asmo made the executive decision to quietly inform everyone else, who all showered him in praise after they got the same results~