#The condition itself is very fascinating to me because I've been in pain a majority of my life

[starlytenight]

Is Galacta/Orion ticklish in any way? I know they cant feel pain :0

Yes they are! While their whole no-pain thing is based on a real-life condition, I do allow for a few things because it was through a mystical means.

It's a double-edged sword for the two, but I do allow them to still enjoy some pleasantries in life.

Galacta and Orion have both demonstrated they can still feel touch, especially pleasant touches. They both react to such and can still feel *something* there, but may be unsure what it is at times. They can recognize some textures but really have to focus to really *feel* it.

Sensitive spots like the wings are golden spots for reactions. :)

They're also unable to really feel extremes of hot or cold, but can still sense it faintly.

Of course, because their bodies can't really react to the extremes, if they're fighting of a long time in say intense heat or cold, their bodies might start slowing down and they won't know why. Same goes for a bleed, they won't notice until they start getting woozy or notice their blood flowing out on them, but even then they'll bounce back up in a matter of hours/a day.

But yes, they can still enjoy ticklishness/nice loving caresses/kisses/ect ect. It's a fantasy and I don't need to be 100% accurate and well if I was, that would make the whole "invulnerability" thing moot.

I kind of got the idea from the SSU battle when I first encountered Galacta and noticed he never flinches like the other bosses did so yeah.

Hopefully that answers that<3

[eirikrjs]

I've been binging your stuff both on Tumblr and blogspot for the past few weeks (fascinating reads all around; even when I happen to disagree with your take on something, you always give me something to think about, and I appreciate that), and I ran into this post. First of all I want to acknowledge that this is a very old post and you might not be interested in it anymore, but I couldn't help the urge to share a slightly different perspective.

Now, that's not to say I disagree with your opinion on the issue; in fact, I think you're spot-on, but I also have additional, slightly different reasons for why the IVA scene is far worse than the Nocturne scene, despite both being very similar jokes: the IVA scene removes agency from the player.

Shin Megami Tensei protagonists are all meant to be self-inserts. They're a vehicle for the player to experience the story. It doesn't matter whether his name is Nanashi, or Flynn, or Aleph; you are the protagonist, and they are simply your vessels. This is why the games rarely push choices on you; you get to choose your preferred answer to other characters' questions, as well as the outcome to the story itself.

This is why it is extremely jarring when these games take control away from you and make you do or say something that you wouldn't if you had any other choice, and for me, the IVA scene is one example of this. Simply put, as a woman, even as a woman who is attracted to other women, I would never look at a half-naked woman the way a horny teenage boy does. And I can imagine that the scene might be similarly jarring for a gay man or a straight woman who isn't attracted to women at all, at least if they're using the protagonists the way they were intended (i.e. as self inserts). I realize that not everyone may play these games that way, but it is certainly what the devs intended.

It's frustrating, because the vast majority of these games force me to put myself in the shoes of a man, and I abide by that even though I really wish I didn't have to, and I try to see these worlds through my own eyes despite this, but the games force me to see them through the eyes of a hormonal straight teenage boy nonetheless. I try my best to accept the conditions that the devs have set, and they still force their worldview (or the worldview or their target demographic, anyway) on me.

SMT isn't the only game that does this; far from it. I vividly remember a scene from the original FFVII, where the party splits and you get to choose who accompanies you. I chose Barret and another of the male characters, and the game's dialogue acted as if my choice was incomprehensible. Surely, as a straight, hormonal teenage boy, I should've chosen the female characters that the devs had designed specifically to be attractive to straight, hormonal teenage boys, right? Surely it is any straight, hormonal teenage boy's fantasy to be surrounded by cute girls?

What the devs failed to realize was that I was neither straight, nor a teenager, nor hormonal, nor a boy, and I was choosing the only male characters available to me precisely to avoid as much of their tired, juvenile, male-pandering love triangle as the game would possibly allow.

I realize that I'm rambling, and that this is really part of a wider problem with how SMT games fail to consider the perspectives of people who aren't part of the shonen demographic, especially in recent years. And really, the Incubus scene in Nocturne could be seen as problematic in other ways (I think it managed to stick the landing and be genuinely funny; others may disagree and find it uncomfortable, and that's understandable too), but even if a game has a male character being weird and creepy towards a female character, I'd appreciate it if the game didn't force me, a woman who knows the pain of being on the receiving end of that sort of behavior and would never inflict it on others, to be that character.

____________________

First of all, thank you for reading my stuff! Honestly, the age of that post doesn't matter because sadly its subject matter is more relevant than ever. I can only nod my hod re: the series' shonen assumptions. In a way this seems at odds with their modern approach to demon designs that seem to cast a wider net of appeals than just what a teenage boy would like (notably Fionn mac Cumhaill in SMT5) but when thinking about the vast majority of the others... yeah, it's still consistent.

My only contribution here is that SMT5 could have easily added the option for a female Nahobino (except for, *gasp,* needing to rerecord Aogami's "young man" lines). I feel for all those people before release who were adamant that the Nahobino's androgynous look almost assured the game would touch on gender issues, because of the need for representation. Really, that goes all the way back to the earlier trailers where it was argued that the default design could be interpreted similarly. Also let us not forget Doi's lip service that the game's high school was an open-minded place where girls could wear pants and boys dresses--something that wasn't reflected at all in the faceless NPCs of the final product.

Atlus is behind the times in many areas but I'll make one hopeful prediction: SMT5 got the uniquely-designed protagonist out of their system, so the next game might offer a good opportunity for a character creator with appearance-changing equipment. Not gonna lie, I hate the Nahobino design and having to look at him more is definitely a reason (not a huge one) why I haven't returned to the game in months, so I look forward to a better take on SMT4's costuming approach.