#It seems like it’d be thematically relevant but all the Pony Island references are just there it seems. no one can parse it

[sammydem0n64]

Hey guys. Time to partake in fandom discussion. I’ve seen a lot of discussion (and honestly, mainly bashing) around Vallamir and how The Hex fans interpret him and I have some thoughts about it.

I am more than willing to accept that Vallamir was written to be misogynistic (dare I say even a bit creepy) if we can also accept this aspect of him was poorly written in canon.

Let’s look under the cut to see what I mean.

The narrative I see is that Vallamir is constantly being a misogynistic prick, and even preying on Chandrelle, on purpose. That he’s deliberately being Gross instead of just gross. That he is meant to represent how women are objectified in fandom spaces with him being the person who only sees female characters as sexy lamps to lust after.

Various lines of dialogue are cited as being his creepy factor on display; let’s take a look at all of the examples I’ve seen used against him and a fourth bonus one to try and fully understand the picture

-“XOXO, Vallamir”: The throwaway blurb on the Tome of Vallamir. People interpret this as flirting to Chandrelle’s dismay, but I’ve seen plenty of people use this in non-romantic contexts, much less forced ones. It’s a common signature. I’m sure Vallamir just thought the funniest juxtaposition was writing an entire evil spell book and then signing it off with “hugs snd kisses”

-“You can’t say you didn’t enjoy my company”, this one has the most weight as a creepy line. Creeps use this rhetoric all the time, always on about “hey! Nuh uh! You actually DID like me!”. Vallamir could be using this in that deliberate context. He could also be saying that it’s a slap to the face to have their business relationship go to Hell. He could be saying it to try and get the last laugh in a shitty situation. Him being a dick rather than a prick. Perhaps even his vain attitude shining as he’s once again trapped without escape, this time doomed to be alone since it’s a tube and not someone else’s head. He shouldn’t have said that regardless, but the line is more grey than black and white

-“Looks like we’re going to be roommates”: Mid-tier joke. It’s a mid joke. Any nonchalant character who is about to be trapped with someone else in any context of entrapment is going to make a corny “oo we’re roommates!” line.

-The bonus is his excitement over Chandrelle using the tome. I can give grace and say that “heh, you actually used it” can be read in some “fuckboy” “heh, you actually called me back 😏” allegory. However, it can also just be seen as poorly worded excitement over Chandrelle making their alliance official.

Vallamir- in these discussions- is deliberately being a sexist pig. And yet all of these lines- merely three and an item description out of all of his dialogue- aren’t completely black and white. What seems to happen is that Vallamir talks out of his ass. He’s a prick who doesn’t think about the double meaning to his words, and ends up saying things that can be taken the wrong way, and he’s not one to care enough about being socially acceptable.

Chandrelle dislikes him from the start NOT because of any objectification he’s doing, but because he constantly cuts EVERYONE off, farts all over the place, and is overall a gross jerk. He’s not a Gross jerk. And if the intention WAS to make him a Gross jerk, more should’ve been done to make this clear.

You can imagine him saying all of these lines to a male protagonist. If Lazarus was in Chandrelle’s position, nothing except Val’s signature greeting would be changed (“hey girl” to “hey boy”). He’d still say they’re going to be roommates. He’d still say “Oh so you actually used it!”. He’d still make a comment about Laz missing his company. He’d still even put the XOXO! If his hollow lines can apply entirely to a male character (and, dare I say, be taken as “Oh he’s flirting with Laz! 😳😏” to straight up “toxic Yaoi” between the two and lead to shipping. People already do this to them in these circles where I see discussions about this happen.) then there’s nothing uniquely sexist about it, it just has more unfortunately wording when paired up with a female character. Vallamir needs to learn to keep his mouth shut, but he’s not deliberately being Gross.

I’m not saying he needs to look into the camera and say “I don’t see women as equals, and also I want Chandrelle carnally”, but there are ways to make this subtext more pronounced, add more dialogue that is deliberately, unabashedly sexist. Have Chandrelle express specific annoyance towards the XOXO comment. Have him make a pass at Chandrelle during their one-on-one talking sessions instead of leaving it at “Hey girl”. Have him make a comment about “finally having some alone time” either during the first one-on-one talk or when he’s about to be put in her head. You can still imply this factor of him without saying the quiet part out loud and without having, honestly, nothingburger lines to showcase it

Just to make a further comment about the subtext; the notion that Vallamir was flirting with Chandrelle (and that they were even romantically involved if you interpret it that far) was completely overlooked and ignored for years in favor of headcanoning Val as gay and hooking up with Irving behind the scenes, based entirely on the “Say hi to Vallamir for me” line. Which, in context, has no queer undertones. It’s Irving playing mind games with Chandrelle and further threatening her since he couldn’t beat sense into her. This also ignores the blatant fact that Irving also harshly punishes Val for the SOL incident by putting him in Chandrelle’s head, a fate that isn’t good for either party. But hey. Who am I to judge Yaoi.

TL;DR: Fandom extremism towards this topic (insisting that Vallamir is a creep and that if you don’t read the text this way, you’re illiterate and foul) needs to have extremism in the text to match, and nothing in the Hex is up to snuff with this Intentional Creep!Vallamir image. If the fandom is still debating this, then clearly it isn’t black and white, and I think that how poorly this possible subtext was implemented into the story needs to be acknowledged by the side who bashes others for their writing and reading. Basically everyone-both sides! Though mainly the bashers- ends up rewriting this possible creep factor anyways, so I honestly don’t understand why it’s such a point of contention.

TL;DR 2: All Vallamir did was fart, say one- maybe even two- things that are harder to see as not creepy in some fashion whether he as a character intended it or not, have a consistent theme of being trapped, and was chill asf (a jerk) snd y’all hated him. He did all that shit but he wasn’t being a misogynist on purpose. DONT free my man!