#genocide reference cw

[eclaire-went-bam]

i'm THIS close to just making my pronouns he/it, or just it/its, bcs istg ppl see "prefers it/it but also ok with he/they" & think it's a good excuse to not call me by my "weird" pronouns

people hardly ever use "he" either, bcs i don't pass

like. it/it's my preferred pronouns. he/they is tolerable but over time i'm just going to get annoyed. wait till they hear abt my super secret neopronouns

[crowpolitics]

Lol, okay, so the previous blog responded to me saying they don't know what a genocide is by calling me a dipshit and an antisemite. Specifically, they said:

"I know what a genocide is, you dipshit, I think you need to brush up on the actual definition. All bad things do not always have the same name. What’s happening in Gaza can be horrific without it being a genocide. Begone, antisemite."

However, reblogs appear to be turned off so I can't respond to that... so... here's what my response would have been I guess?

Well that escalated quickly. I know what genocide is, too, thanks. You are correct that not all things that are bad are also a genocide, but when Israeli officials are outright saying their plans are to flatten a region and everyone in it, that's pretty telling, and doesn't even begin to get into the "soft" methods of genocide they have been employing, alongside the killings, for decades.

This century long genocide has brought about horrific amounts of islamophobia and antisemitism on pretty much all sides, with people either spouting bigotry out of ignorance or because they are bigots and are using these atrocities to justify their views. The existence of bigotry does not negate the existence of genocide (please see pretty much every genocide that has ever occurred - while my primary case studies were Bosnia and Rwanda, I am pretty confident in saying that).

You said in another comment to someone else, "Literally there are specific and quantifiable thresholds that have to be hit in order for it to be considered genocide. The situation in Palestine, while awful, does not meet those thresholds. There are likely far-right individuals in the Israeli gov’t that may WANT a genocide, but the actual military action currently happening is not one at this time. So by calling the current situation a genocide, people are watering down the term and are diminishing the horrors occurring in actual CURRENTLY ONGOING genocides in other parts of the world."

This suggests to me that OP only understands the first part of the definition of genocides, the part that discusses the method that uses death. That leaves out the "soft" definition, however, which describes all of the other methods. Not to say the Israel hasn't also been using the "hard" method - intentionally slaughtering families, neighborhoods, and towns to eradicate as many Palestinians at once as possible, but they have most definitely been using those "soft" methods as well.

I'm used to having to argue that part of the definition to people who don't know the definition is, so it's odd to see someone acknowledge the atrocities that are occurring, claim to know what the definition of genocide is, and then just bury their head in the sand.

OP also stated that the reason this can't call this a genocide is that Hamas is not an ethnic group, which completely ignores that Hamas is a resistance/ terrorist group that rose out of a century long genocide and the Israeli government has said on numerous occasion over the last century that their end goal is not the eradication of Hamas but of Palestine. Given Hamas came out only a few decades ago and this has been going on for much longer than that, this is a really asinine take.

The one argument that people on the "this is not a genocide" can potentially lay claim to is the intent clause. This meets every other part of the definition as described in the UN's convention on genocide, with intent always being the hardest part to prove - and why the international community has Never intervened until it was too late to make much of a difference, or until after it was already over.

Of course, given the government has been just saying the quiet part out loud since... well, the beginning, I would argue this is also a pretty clear case. They have stated on dozens of occasions - in interviews, in letters/ correspondence, in memos, etc - their intent to eradicate the people living their to make way for settlements.

You can't argue against the methods that have been used for a century, you can't argue against the documentation they have not tried very hard to hide, and frankly I don't really understand why you would.

Anyways, TLDR: what's happening in Palestine is a genocide, as per the UN's convention on genocide and according to pretty much every genocide scholar for the last century. I highly recommend people at the very least read the convention before talking about genocides - it's a baseline, but it's probably the best place to start, given it's the basis for the international law surrounding genocide.

And, referring to the original point of the post that this all spawned out of, USAmericans who chose not to vote this election are fucking awful and should feel ashamed for their actions. They have made a choice that allowed a racist, homophobic, islamophobic, antisemite to take control of our government and I hope they sit in that shame.

I hope it twists in your stomach, and you fucking do something to help put out this fire you helped spread. After all, the whole reason you decided to surrender one of the few tools you have in this democracy was to help Palestinians, right? Hope you have a plan to do just that.

[coulsonlives]

can i

umm

what the actual fuck is wrong with people

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

thinking about compiling a list of, like, information about which characters/subplots/dynamics in LL that i've reread, analyzed, and incorporated into the rest of my meta, and to what degrees. but also like. there's SO many of all of these things, holy fuck there are so many characters alone, spread out over SO many books, all with different tiers of 'have analyzed' and notes on them, and it would be a fuckin beast i'd have no idea how to organize.

i am very nonlinear about how i absorb and digest stuff like this, partly because that's just how my brain works best and partly for my own sanity, but it leaves a lot of holes in the process of filling in the gaps and connecting things together, and i both would like to be transparent about my progress there and like. have the notes for myself.

i'm thinking maybe what i'm going to do is maybe just have different masterposts for different groups of characters as well as subplots, factions, individual books etc, and just link them all to each other + update via reblogs as i go. it would make me feel a lot better and also be way less of an organizational nightmare.

hm. yeah i think i'm gonna do that.

[lookingforcactus]

Bigger source link/info:

(because The Washington Post's anti-piracy measures make it impossible for tumblr and other sites to show link previews and shit. big thanks to OP for already having the link)

Article at The Washington Post, or Paywall-Free Version

From the article:

"The Biden administration is crafting plans for a sustained military campaign targeting the Houthis in Yemen after 10 days of strikes failed to halt the group’s attacks on maritime commerce, stoking concern among some officials that an open-ended operation could derail the war-ravaged country’s fragile peace and pull Washington into another unpredictable Middle Eastern conflict...

The deepening cycle of violence is a setback to President Biden’s goal of stemming spillover hostilities triggered by Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Underscoring the threat, Iran on Saturday blamed Israel for a strike on the Syrian capital, Damascus, that killed five Iranian military advisers. The Israeli military declined to comment. In Iraq, an attack on Ain al-Asad air base, which hosts Iraqi and U.S. troops, left one Iraqi soldier seriously injured, according to a Defense Department official. An Iran-linked faction there said it was responsible."

-via The Washington Post, January 20, 2024

Get out and protest if you can. Hands off Yemen, and ceasefire NOW!

[SOURCE]

[billyshakesp]

One for his Lyctors

Something that will never cease to amaze me is how well TazMuir writes the Lyctors. So I'm making it your problem ;). CW: Spoilers for Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth.

Let's start off by stating the obvious: the Lyctors are old. Whenever I mention "the Lyctors" in this post, I'm referring to Jod's original crew of eight Lyctors, and, more specifically, Augustine the First, Mercymorn the First, Gideon the First, and Cytherea the First. Those four are the ones we have met at the time of writing this. And they are old. They are each ten thousand years old. However, ten thousand is a number which may not mean much to you since you (presumably) have not even reached the age of two hundred. To quickly contextualise how colossal a number ten thousand years is, just remember that written history only extends as far back as five thousand years. In not so many words, my bbygirls are not actually very baby, and are, in fact, fucking ancient.

We, as humans, do not have any living reference for a ten-thousand-year-old being, aside from an occasional tree or a sponge, or perhaps a condiment bottle so deep in the back of your fridge that it would warrant a paleontological dig, but I digress. So how does Muir write her Lyctors so effectively?

Vicious dehumanisation

One of the most striking things about the Lyctors is the dehumanisation they have suffered over the past myriad. The first thing I noticed while diving into this subject (and by diving into, I mean I took a long shower one day and pissed off my family) is that the Lyctors do not have last names, and their first names function more as titles. Furthermore, the Lyctors are referred to as the hands, fingers, and gestures of the Emperor. In short, the readers and the characters of the Locked Tomb, including the Lyctors themselves, don't see the Lyctors as individuals anymore. Rather, their sole purpose in life has been reduced to just a soldier of the Emperor. Muir really shows the effects of the Lyctors' age; they are ancient, to the point where they have lost their own humanity and the only reason for their existence that they still hold onto is to serve the Emperor.

2. Their morals

Are extremely fucked up. Like, I cannot emphasise enough how fucked up the Lyctors are as people. Their morals are twisted in a way which can only come about from ten thousand years, rotting in deep space. For example, G1deon probably makes like 56 attempts on Harrow's life, and he doesn't give a second thought about it. When the other Lyctors find him, they don't really condemn his actions the way a human would expect another human to condemn attempted murder. To the Lyctors, life and death are both abstract concepts: life has lost all its meaning to the Lyctors, and thus, they do not see value in others' lives, especially the life of another Lyctor. Especially the life of a "Half-Lyctor." Additionally, Cytherea's plot to destroy the Nine Houses, while technically noble in its intent, is just insanely messed up. Yet, it makes sense in the context of her being a Lyctor, and, furthermore, someone who has suffered abuse for the last ten thousand years. She wants to bring justice to Jod, and for her, a small genocide is completely insubstantial. These people do not value nor understand life the way a human would, because they are unbelievably old.

3. The ways they break

Every one of the original Lyctors we see has a point in which they break, and when they break, we see a glimpse of the humanity peeking through. I could do character analysis on all of the Lyctors, but that would take a really long time. In short, we, the reader, get to see shreds of the people the Lyctors once were, and yet this only demonstrates just how shattered they are under the inexorable weight of time (yes, I use inexorable excessively now that I've read these books). Muir feeds us these pieces of the Lyctors' former selves to show just how buried that former self is.

In short, Muir does such a good job writing her Lyctors. They really are some of the most beautifully tragic characters I've ever read. I'm really just compiling some of the elements which I think Muir used to achieve the effect of "this character is bloody ancient." Feel free to add anything you feel that I missed (and I'm sure I missed a lot of stuff), and thanks for reading!

[qin-qin16]

Why I think Horror shouldn't be part of the Bad Sanses

[cw: Long yapping, i’m a mediocre fan of Horror and Dust, dadmare and bad sans poly fans this one isn't for you]

@howlsofbloodhounds @what-have-i-unleashed

note: If you disagree with me, feel free to discuss the matter! Just don't be rude and respect my views on this!

I might get torn apart by my mutuals for this, but... I don't think Horror should be part of the "Bad Sanses" (or the bad guys, as some people have referred to them), especially if we're talking about Nightmare as the “leader” of the group (more like a cult leader but whatever).

I'll clear up any confusion about MTT choosing to work for Nightmare – no, they wouldn't choose that. None of them would make such a foolish, dumb decision. They're all too clever to willingly serve someone as arrogant and cruel as Nightmare.

To support my point, I’d like to say that, in my opinion, it makes sense for both Killer and Dust to be manipulated by Nightmare. Killer’s situation is pretty clear – not only does his canon show that he’s forced to work for Nightmare, but his whole history with Chara makes him the perfect victim for Nightmare to shape to his own will. That being said, I won’t go into too much detail about their troubled and extremely toxic "relationship" (I’m using the word "relationship" here because there’s no better term for this situation that I can think of for now).

And what about Dust? Okay, confession time: I’ve never seen any canon facts about him. Don’t throw stones at me – I know my charm is being a mediocre fan of these multiversal skeletons.

Unlike Killer, Dust probably didn’t even realize he was being manipulated by the devil. He already knew all the possibilities of a reset, all the choices the human could make — so why not take the one time in life chance to escape that world and boost his LOVE? A little more LOVE would definitely put an end to the endless resets. With enough LOVE, the human could finally be defeated! All he needed to do was increase his LV just a bit more and then return to his world before the human reset.

But before he knew it, he was already trapped in Nightmare’s filthy claws, unable to return to his world and stop the human from advancing through their endless genocidal routes. (Shoutout to my mutual @what-have-i-unleashed and their amazing post that I can’t seem to find, about the headcanon that Nightmare is a dream eater, and that it’s by eating Dust’s dreams that they end up meeting. [I’m not sure if that’s exactly what it was, but I trust my memory.]).

However, all he did was make it easier for Nightmare's sweet words to slip into his mind, twisting his thoughts into believing that Nightmare was a friend. My headcanon is that, after recruiting Killer, Nightmare chose to take a more ““““peaceful”””” approach to "recruit" his next servants.

Now, the point that made me want to write this post: why the hell would Nightmare choose Horror? Killer and Dust's worlds are basically universes on the verge of collapse, with no real reason to keep going. But Horror? His universe isn’t even close to ending; a new chapter just began with the fall of a new human (something extremely rare when compared to other timelines). It wouldn’t make sense for Nightmare to want to recruit someone who’s so deeply rooted in a place — and someone who would never abandon his brother to follow a cheap, terrifying version of himself.

Let’s be honest, out of the three, Horror would probably be the first to turn down any deal Nightmare might offer — both of them are way too manipulative to trust each other. And unlike Killer and Dust, Horror would definitely be unpredictable for Nightmare (he literally tortures Aliza just for fun! What wouldn’t he do to pass the time and be less bored?). Plus, he has no real use for Nightmare (ouch, sorry Horror fans).

His LOVE, no matter how high it is compared to the average Sans, still doesn’t come close to the extremely high LOVE that Killer and Dust possess. And while he might be bigger than other Sanses, he definitely has the most fragile, cracked, and scarred bones — wounds that even the strongest healing magic can’t repair. For Nightmare, Horror is probably just a bucket of negative emotions — his AU is merely a smorgasbord for Nightmare, nothing more.

[bigenargy]

Cw! : no physical descriptions of reader mentioned, no pronouns used to refer to reader, slight nsfw (nothing explicit or descriptive), 320 ish words, liitle bit of angst (Tom being Tom tbh) obviously toxic relationship, spoiler: he does love you, post-dark lord Tom but he's still hot so dw, not proofread cause I happen to be a real man 💪🏾

"Where'd you get that ring," Lily asked.

Your hand instinctively flinched at the mention of the ornament.

"Um," you hesitated, "it's a promise ring."

Silence, followed by a knowing "oh" was her reply as she fruitlessly tried to mask the judgment her face was rightfully showing.

"I would take it off," You hastily started; "but it's hexed in place."

She sighed, visibly releived. "Yeah, that makes sense." Still, it's weird knowing it's from him.

"Yeah, I get i-"

I tried to reply, only for her to suddenly grab my hand to inspect the ring.

"Wait!" I cried as I retracted my hand from her grasp, but I was too late.

Tears were forming at the rim of her eyes as she held her own hand, trying to soothe the pain. It looked fine, really. There was no redness nor bruising, yet I knew just how much pain she was in. She touched my ring, after all.

It was during 5th year when he gave it to me and during 6th year when he hexed it so I wouldn't be able to take it off and no one else would be able to touch it.

The memory of it is a bit fuzzy, represed memories and all, but what I do recall is the shouting, tears, and his cruel words.

I recall finally snapping and throwing his damned ring right in his perfect little face.

"I'm done, we're done." I spat furiously.

...

He went silent at my words, as a look of pure astonishment annulled his gorgeous features. The fucker was genuinely surprised that I  intended to break up with him.

I turned to leave, rightfully offended, but, the moment I cracked the door open he came up behind me and slammed it shut. His eyes were dark and and his entire body was tense.

"You think that ridiculous ring will change anything? You're still fucking mine, dizzard."

Admittedly, at the time you found that incredibly hot, The boy just had the sexiest red flags. It wasn't one of your proudest moments, but, the intensity of the situation, his piercing gaze, and the proximity of your bodies all sent your hormones into overdrive. That argument, like many before it was never properly settled or ever talked about again as the two of you opted to fuck instead. (As you very often did).

That night as the two of you laid in bed he presented you with ring again just before shoving it onto your finger and reaching for his wand to hex it in place. You only frowned at him before he pulled you into a deep kiss.

"Merlin, make it stop!" Lily cried, snapping you out of your thoughts.

"Right, sorry!" You apologized, "It should stop soon."

"I swear the mans' mad!"

She was right, he is. You initially thought he only hexed the ring in place so imagine your surprise when you tried to take it off again and it tightened so hard around your finger it turned purple and just try to picture your absolute bewilderment when you held a first year's hand and the ring had the poor boy holering in pain.

Riddle was smart but so were you. He excelled in all areas especially potions but you excelled in spellcasting. Really, you could have removed the ring with your magic at any time but you didn't want to. Even after the both of you graduated and went your separate ways, even after you heard the news of how many people he'd killed and his plans of mass genocide, you still loved him and You were sure he felt the same.

Call it delusional or plain idiocy but you knew he still loved you he had to.

[little-desi-historian]

Literally! Cause the colonists on both sides (the later US, Britain, the handful of involved German, Dutch, Swedes, and other Europeans, and of course, the French, in later Canada), absolutely commited war crimes. Statistically by the First Nations accounts of the war, they killed the least, were being forced over their ancestral land and simply sided with whichever side would screw them over the least soon. In this case, that’s the French. But go to Louisiana and you’ll hear a very very different story regarding the treatment of First Nations, free creole, and the enslaved populations of indigenous and black peoples.

I personally can’t really fault Benjamin Tallmadge for purchasing lots of land in Ohio cause that was solidly colonial territory by then and he wasn’t even born yet! He was 20-22 during the early American revolution, and by most accounts Tallmadge was forthright and self aware. Still a pretentious liar (affectionate) cause spymaster behind the entire Culper ring operation. He was clever, and, but, that doesn’t justify the seven years war and cultural and literal genocide and me and my historical characters, like Audrey, will rail against slavery and violence against First Nations people and especially children, until we’re dead. I consider it my moral and civic duty as a brown person, queer and citizen of the US and Canada.

Yes, the 13 colonies committed atrocities too! Just because Tallmadge and Hamilton as examples, were fighting the worlds greatest empire doesn’t condone the myriad of historical wrongs of the white Europeans in the 13 colonies.

Citations regarding Benjamin paraphrased from @mollafer, @onefail-at-atime, but, opinions are mine, and academic, and personal, as well as subjective. I do not condone any historical figure. period. But, historical — Benjamin Tallmadge and Elizabeth Schuyler-Hamilton are compelling to me. Benjamin Tallmadge as portrayed by Seth Numrich is my blorbo and gives me *heart eyes emoji* and gender envy.

I take a nuanced view of history that doesn’t silence the global majority (people of colour) and queer folks, like myself, and it tends to piss off historical revisionists on all sides, and the extreme of all current political parties.

Further reading.

So, I’m researching the seven years war.

All I have to say is, God damn it! English, French, and all colonizers (extremely derogatory).

Also, George Washington and Robert Rogers are here to!

I’m convinced you can’t research the American revolution without researching the seven years war first.

Just this once, in this sole instance, historical! Washington had a very small semblance of moral high ground, he was an aid to camp on the English side, but he didn’t want war, he did everything in his power to prevent the war. His superiors and the French still blamed him.

I’m still dragging all colonial powers equally, additionally, Jefferson and Washington aren’t safe from my disdain.

👏 Tallmadge 👏 only 👏 gets 👏 a 👏pass 👏 because 👏 by 👏 the 👏 regency 👏 era 👏he 👏 hated 👏 slavery and 👏 we 👏 fully 👏would’ve 👏lost 👏 the 👏 revolution 👏 were 👏 it 👏 not 👏for 👏 the 👏 culper 👏 ring 👏 and 👏French 👏 backing. 👏

Tallmadge & slavery: not an exception, but in hindsight, better than most. (borrowed from @mollafer)

Above average, comparatively. Re: Benjamin Tallmadge the historical figure. (An opinion from @mollafer I generally agree with, and, but, cultural genocide and subjugation are still… well that).

Slavery is still an atrocity and makes people chattel and enforces white supremacy, it was designed as such.

American revolution, an ever growing master list of reading, compiled by me (I’m willing to crowd source should anyone have recommendations!).

New Orleans: Whitney plantation. Slavery from the black experience.

White man’s law.

On historical fiction and representation.

[xxduncandonutxx]

Currently being harass by some Brony shmuck on Twitter who is upset at the fact that I told adults that they should censor their porn & gore art/videos of my little pony. CW// Genocide mention, grooming mention. Also, DO NOT attack, harass or bullying anyone mention in this post

So, this whole shitstorm started when I qrted this user basically giving them actual context of what that video is about.

And some dumbass, decided to be "cute" and quote tweeted me with this

So likewise, I chose to respond to him

Yes, I was aggressive but that's mostly because this dude told me to fuck off and kept referring the genocide as a "war" or "me posting gore pics, videos ect." not really grasping at the fact that the REASON I retweeted those is to spread awareness and it sickens me that he would basically call them "gore videos" which they are not.

So anyways, he replied again

So I replied again with this (Also, link to the video I sent him)

And then, this weirdo decided to COMPARE ME to lolicons and pedophiles after I explain to the user my problem.

And then, he came back on an alt account and basically started harassing me

So yeah, that's all I wanna share.. I highly suggest just reporting and blocking this guy and his alt.

Links

UPDATE 6/07/24:

Dude is harassing me and even trying to make "gotcha" points, the first one being "Well, you're retweeting content that is suggestive therefor, you're exposing your minor audience to it without warning!!!" Despite the fact that I literally have this pinned on my profile that WARNS users that "Hey, this page is gonna contain suggestive stuff so therefor, please be aware of that".

Also lastly.. Of course, I won't share strong sex themes to my main twitter for obvious reasons and this guy also brought up the fact that I retweeted pro-hamas/palestine content when meanwhile, he is reblogging The Coffin of Andy and Leyley fanart--

[ifindus]

cw: gore

"Division of territories", day 16 of @propagandistisk's hetalia goretober 2023 ✨

This is of course a reference to the wars between Scandi bros in the 1600s; more specifically the outcome of the wars predating the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The Treaty of Roskilde saw the entirety of Trøndelag (central Norway) given up to Sweden, and the region would be Swedish for two years until Trøndelag became Norwegian again in 1660 after another treaty. The treatment of trøndere during these two years has been referred to as the genocide of Trøndelag by local historians due to the large prescription of trøndish men to the Swedish army. It almost emptied the region of men overall and the large farmland region suffered greatly as many of the men were already overseas and fighting in the Danish-Norwegian army. The trøndish men in the Swedish army were then sent abroad to fight wars as the Swedish King was afraid they would rebel if left close to home. Only one third of the men would return to their homes, which by then would be plagued by famine.

The Swedes wanted Trøndelag because then they would effectively divide Norway into two parts, separated at the middle, and easier to attack in the future.

[androgynous-agent69]

info dump away!!! *grabby hands at your amazing writing*

Ohohoho~! Thank you dear anon! :3

So, this info dump is gonna be about the lore regarding my COTL fanfic mainly focusing on Leshy, Leon (my name for the Yellow Cat), and the other main Characters of COTL such as Narinder and the Lamb (and i even managed to add the Goat in as the Lamb's advisor(?), but i havent shown anything on this blog yet. Maybe soon, idk :p).

I'm only gonna be discussing the backgrounds and context of my posted story works and any essential still-private work that gives further context, because I'm too self-conscious about the rest of the still-private stuff, but what I will tell you is that the full story is mainly just me creating pages of either backstories, or building on relationships with Leshy and the others (such as when Leshy & Leon visited the coast area to hang out on the pier, discuss Leshy's background, and terrorise a few lighthouse cultists).

So, let's begin!

(WARNING: MENTIONS OF PTSD, CHILD ABUSE/HARM AND TRAUMA, VIOLENCE, GENOCIDE, AND SUICIDE BELOW. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!)

Starting off, I wanna talk about my most recent post, which is about Narinder trying to apologise for what he did to Leshy and the other Bishops.

I'll be honest, I do take inspiration from the stuff I see on tumblr, and when I came across THIS post of Leshy crying on Narinder (art by @wels-corner)

I suddenly had the urge to create a similar scene where Leshy begins arguing with Nari, which then slowly dissolves into a mental breakdown.

The whole "Shamura being essentially brain dead" isn't shown explicitly in that scene, but in the story there is a part where Shamura gets Leshy to chat, where they explain that trying to regain the Green crown will be useless as "the crowns will not accept a bearer who has failed" (failed = died/beaten by the Lamb). Leshy then begins to angrily panic and grabs Shamura by the shoulders to ask for more information, but Shamura's brain injuries then takes hold and they revert from "Bishop of war" to "elderly librarian who doesn't even know who their younger brother is, let alone their name".

Next up: The nightmare that Leshy has about Narinder's betrayal! Let's hear it for PTSD!!!

Jokes aside, I REALLY LOVED how this turned out, especially after all the tweaking I did to the story. The scene takes place after another part of the nightmare involving Leshy's regret and guilt regarding the Lamb Genocide, which is why it begins with "When you look back up", as Leshy looked down at the ground and tuned out the noises and sights.

I also did my best to make Narinder's words about each Bishop reference their injuries, if anyone noticed. Shamura was said by Narinder to "always be the smartest" resulting in their head and brain being caved in. Heket "always said such profanities", resulting in her throat being slashed. Kallamar always "eavesdropped", which made Narinder rip off his ears, and little kid Leshy in that scene was, what Narinder referred to as "a worthless spectator", which made Narinder rip Leshy's main eye out.

Final bit of the post I wanna talk about is that deerfolk mentioned at the start. the one that's twitching and makes "strange, savage noises". In that point in time, Narinder had created a basis for the resurrection spell, however it was not without flaws. While the soul re-entered the body, this body was not repaired of any decay, and as such, they essentially became zombies. The Lamb, however, managed to iron out the ritual's error, and thankfully caught it out before Narinder had to use the ritual on them after a botched crusade (thank heaven for that, imagine a crazed zombie Lamb o-o)

The next post of my fic is the one with Leon and Leshy casually talking, which happens near the start.

This scene has no real inspiration, it's just Leon and Leshy bantering. One thing I would like to talk about is the quote "Ugh, I forgot that fool actually got to your head...". My last attempt at this fic, Leon had a completely different personality. He was a hater of Chaos entirely and instead a devotee of the Lamb, whereas currently he is a former Chaos follower who, after the Lamb genocide and The Lamb's gaining of the crown, was forced by the other, higher ranking followers, to be sacrificed to Leshy. This was interrupted by said Lamb, who recruited Leon to the cult and the rest there is history!

This is important, because there's another part of the fic where Leshy finally reveals his wounds to Leon, who then gets a feline instinct to lick the wounds (inspired by the multiple artworks of this), which makes Leshy warn Leon that black ichor is deadly. This, however, makes Leon confused as only God's like the Lamb and the Bishops have black ichor blood, and Leon quickly puts two and two together.

Yeah, it ends in a rather depressing scene where Leon attacks Leshy out of sheer anger, and Leshy stops a knife that was going for his throat, only to grab Leon's hands around the grip, apologise, and pull the knife into his neck. But don't worry, because the Lamb revives him on Leon's wishes roughly two weeks later after he mentally recovered.

Finally, for those that bothered to read all this way (or just scrolled right down, idrc lmfao), have a reward through the form of the aforementioned scene above!

(BTW ignore the long ass "~~~~~"'s. Its just how I divide the 'chapters')

(Edits just fixing Shamura's pronouns, adding proper links, and fixing some grammar)

[whatever-you-can-give-me]

clarifying something in regards to my trigun meta, because i’m realizing finally why people get so tetchy with me about it.

tl;dr: can i please talk about canon events of consent violation as an entirely separate conversation from the fandom concept of a ship? i’m talking about what is, not what if.

cw: trigun spoilers, rape, incest. you know the drill.

also, because i made this mistake once before: if you use or interpret this post as some kind of tirade against kv shippers, or get morally righteous about icky fetishists in my notes: fuck off, you do not speak for me, i hate you, and this is exactly why we need to be able to separate analysis and shipping.

moving on.

okay but. people do understand. that rape is not necessarily about attraction or even about sex, right?

when i talk about the scenes i describe as sexual assault in trigun, i’m not saying that it means knives/vash is canon. i’m saying that there’s a deliberate construction to the narrative that makes knives’ violation of his siblings’ consent a driving force of the plot and what eventually screws him over.

i know this is a “yelling in the library and expecting not to be shushed” situation. you can’t take a piss in fandom without someone asking if you have a fetish.

but i really think we can stand to at least not keep putting square pegs in round holes, here.

yes, i know, you tag non-con with a slash too. but i’m not talking about shipping when i talk about knives violating the consent of vash and his sisters. those are two different modes of engaging with consent violation and relationships that involve it.

attraction and desire can be motives behind assault. but it’s not the only or even the most driving motivation. assault — violation of consent — is about power. having and exercising power over another. regardless of that’s to satisfy a personal desire or to force them to comply or just to hurt them.

(this is the same reason that using “pedophilia” as the catch-all it’s currently used as is rather than its actual definition is Fucking Stupid, but i digress)

when i discuss the metaphysical acts i refer to as analogous to rape, i am not saying that knives’ actions and his treatment of vash are driven by attraction (exclusively — that’s a conversation for another post) or that he fuses with his sisters to have an incestuous genocide orgy.

i’m saying that it’s extremely telling how knives treats his siblings, the acts of domination over them and the violation of their consent, their bodily autonomy, and their willpower, when his stated goal is to prevent humans from doing the same.

knives believes in power. that’s the only thing he believes in. and fundamentally, that’s why his attempts to “help” the dependent plants results in far more harm than good, and ultimately in failure.

he doesn’t understand freedom. he understands power. so for plants to be safe, in his eyes, there can be no humans that could hold power over them — the only one with the right to overpower them is him.

in vash’s case, the line blurs — vash is almost a whole, real person to him. he wants his cooperation, wants his company, he does desire him, in one way or another. but if vash won’t listen to him, won’t comply, won’t cede, won’t indulge in power for power’s sake [july incident, trimax] there’s no choice but to overpower him. consume him.

and the other reason i describe these events as assault, as rape — they are not just violations, not just acts of control. they have consequences. knives takes power from his siblings. keeps it, hoards it, so they have no way to challenge him. he literally consumes [trimax] and warps [stampede] his sisters’ bodies and destroys their homes. they cannot go back what they were before he raped them. and neither can vash — knives’ actions, nearly all of them, are designed to isolate vash. to make him terrified of his own body. to keep him from reaching out to humans. to give him nowhere to run but back to knives, knives who will stop hurting him, stop him from being hurt, if he’d just listen.

does knives love his siblings? yes. but when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. and when all you have are knives… well.

shipping is a what if. this is just what is.

[nartml]

Your misogyny is showing. Get your shit together

(First and last time I'll ever bother with such a rude ask, but I'll use this oh so sugary sweet statement to get some things out the way )

CW: Rant ahead, not Sakura or Hinata friendly, if you disagree and won't be nice about sharing your opinions fucking DNI, this isn't for you.

My misogyny 💀

Because I don't like Sakura and Hinata, I assume? Why is it always misogyny's fault with y'all?

Respectfully, I don't really care about Sakura and Hinata. I'm mostly indifferent to them, but they're fun to criticize, considering there's so many flaws to talk about.

Maybe I was harsh with my words when respectively bashing them, but what I said still objectively stands. Sometimes, not liking a female character has less to do with misogyny and more to do with the fact that they're really, really not that good.

But alas, I sincerely apologize for my just so disgustingly misogynistic words (in case you don't get it, I'm being 100% sarcastic)

In a bit less harsh, more analytical manner, allow me to rephrase:

Sakura is someone who doesn't fit in the Shinobi world. She's too delusional about her romantic fantasies regarding Sasuke to be able to properly advance in such a harsh environment. And Hinata, with or without her infatuation with Naruto, is an incapable kunoichi. She's far too timid and hesitant to be a warrior.

Now, those are not necessarily bad things. Not having what it takes to be a Shinobi can easily be considered positive; be it because you're a hopeless romantic and that hinders your ability to maximize your potential or because you just don't have the spine or endurance necessary to be a badass ninja. Those aren't reasons to violently hate on someone. Specifically about Sakura and Hinata, those aren't even the reasons why so many people dislike them.

Or at least I hope not. I'd understand the point of your ask better if I had said anything derogatory about their appearance, for example. Those types of haters are annoying, and I manage to turn into both Sakura and Hinata's biggest defenders the moment someone says shit that degrades Sakura for her chest or some other bs, and/or fetishizes Hinata in any way. Rest assured, I'm anything but misogynistic.

But oh shit, it's time we realized that Sakura's "feelings" for Sasuke were simply a shallow school girl crush. And that would've been okay, understandable, maybe even a little cute, if it weren't for the way she constantly pushed herself onto him, consistently referred to him as hers in her head, saw him as a trophy, a blank canvas to project her fantasies onto. She was disrespectful, and her confessions were sickening.

Because how dare you compare your loneliness to that of a genocide survivor? How could you make your supposed love's pain all about you? How could you be so ready to abandon your friends, family, life, and future just to follow him to someone who you know would cause him harm, when you so clearly don't even know or understand him? How could you try to minimize everything he went through, try to diminish all he's suffered in the name of "laughing and having fun like the good old times"? "What about me, Sasuke? I'll be in so much pain if you leave. Please, if there's even a small part of you that cares about me, stay". "I can't get close to you, I can't exchange blows with you, I can only whine and beg, it's pretty pathetic. There's nothing I can do for you".

These are all things she's said and/or done paraphrased. There's so much more I don't care to recall. And they're all very annoying.

Her sole motivation was Sasuke; he's the reason she talks about how she'll get stronger to catch up to him and Naruto, about how she wants to "save" him, or "protect" him, about how she wants to be able to "fight for herself next time".

But she never managed to really do any of it, because it was all so surface level. Her aspirations for life began and ended with Sasuke, a guy she ultimately doesn't know a single thing about. That's objectively pathetic.

I don't like her because of the way she treats Sasuke, because of the way she views him, because of the way she's so pretentious about her "undying love" for him.

I don't like anti-sasusakus who come at it from a "Sakura deserves better" perspective, because she got exactly what she asked for; now she even gets to parade around wearing that Uchiha crest like the trophy it is to her, while having done nothing to earn it!!!

But.

But.

Honestly? They're not exactly wrong. Maybe she doesn't deserve better. But her character would, at least if Kishimoto even wanted to write that story.

What do I mean by that? I mean that Sakura, as a main character, does not benefit from her feelings for Sasuke. It's not that Sasuke isn't good for her, it's that her "feelings" for him aren't.

I'll use Naruto as a comparison. His feelings for Sasuke [No, I don't care how you interpret their relationship. If you want, they can be platonic feelings or familial feelings (you'd be wrong but who am I to judge), or romantic feelings] actually serve as his basis for self improvement.

Usually, in media, love is something that drives characters to be better.

Naruto's love for Sasuke is his greatest strength.

Naruto kept getting stronger, with Sasuke as his motivator. Naruto kept trying to understand him, to see things from his perspective, never held any sort of idealistic "Sasuke would never do that" train of thought.

Naruto got to better understand the injustice of the system through Sasuke and his love for him. Naruto initially fought to bring him back to Konoha, not because he wanted to play house with him, or because he wanted Sasuke to cater to Konoha's every whim, but because in Naruto's mind, Konoha is home and it's safe, away from Orochimaru's dirty hands.

But then once he finally understood Sasuke better, once they fought and he carried Sasuke's burdensome hatred with him, he let him go. He let him travel, leave Konoha, without ever asking for him to stay, because he gets it (Unlike Sakura, who still didn't get it, and did the exact opposite)

In Sakura's case, however, her "feelings" for Sasuke hold her back. Though that's a bit of conundrum, seeing as any sort of achievements she's made are directly linked back to her crush. Like I said before, he's her motive. No, it's specifically the shallowness of her love, the half-heartedness in her convictions to improve that holds her back. Her "feelings" aren't as genuine as she –or any of you– likes to think they are, and that keeps her from growing, from seeing clearly (i.e: in the long run, they hold her back)

They're proof of her superficiality. She's too caught up in romanticizing the absolute shit out of Sasuke, too caught up in using him to live out her fairytale dreams, too caught up in asking others to bring him back to her, or whatever. She's too caught up in whether Sasuke looks at her or worries about her to fight properly. And I mean "fight" both literally and metaphorically here.

So yeah, her "feelings" for him aren't good for her. It would've been a much better character arc, in my opinion, something that could be actually empowering that would give her depth, if she had ended up with Lee instead.

Because Lee is the exact opposite of Sasuke, in the sense that he's ugly in Sakura's eyes (I'll state here that I don't think Lee is ugly, bushy brows and all, he's very pretty to me), and so to end up with him, well. That would require Sakura to see past physical appearance.

Sakura tends to be very judgemental of other people's looks, and the way she treats them is often correlated to how beautiful she finds them.

But falling for Lee would've been a great way for her to move past the cover and read the book. Something which could then translate to her being less insensitive and judgy from then on.

[Sakura fans love to point out that she might say rude stuff, but then she regrets it, so it's okay! To that I say, it hardly matters that you regret something you say and promise that you'll be better, if you're just going to repeat the process the next day]

That said, she didn't even have to end up with anyone. She could've remained single, after realizing how wrong she was about Sasuke. She could've stopped pining after him, and gotten herself a goal that is bigger than just ending up with him.

But that's not who she is. That's actually, an entirely different character. That's not how Kishimoto wrote her, and criticizing him because of that is stupid. He knew what and why he was doing it, and the narrative some of you adopt, the one that goes "no, I'm better than so-and-so, this character should've been that way instead", is exhausting.

Sakura fans never represent her how she canonically is. Truly, 100%, the way she's depicted in the show. They nitpick which parts of her they like, and ignore the rest. You guys love the version of her that isn't shallow, that understands Sasuke, that is assertive, that is 3-dimensional; a person whose hard work actually comes to mean something, who is much more genuine about her love for Sasuke, who is by all means an independent badass. The Sakura who is selfless and understanding and a go-getter badass. And that's okay, I guess. But at least admit it.

It's always an outsider commenting on how "she's better than Tsunade" because they saw her punch one time, or "her feelings for you have matured" (something cancelled out entirely by Sakura later). It's always "I've caught up to them" after something that amounts to nothing significant. We're told she's great. We've yet to see it for ourselves, outside of those five? Six maybe? Eight is my being generous. Truly iconic scenes that she has in the entirety of the manga.

I stand by my closing line on her post.

She's foolish, and too caught up in her own romantic, fantasy world to substantially thrive in a reality as cold-blooded as the one she was born in.

And that's all she'll ever be.

As for my girl Hinata. I absolutely stand by everything I said on that post. Not taking a single word back. Maybe Sakura has a few redeeming qualities; like I said, you could explore her character outside of her crush on Sasuke and make a true badass out of her. (While still acknowledging the fact that that's not who Kishimoto wrote her to be)

But Hinata? There's no character to explore. Period. She's nice. Sweet. Kind, maybe? Sweet. Did I mention nice? I should probably not forget to say that she's sweet. Let's not omit that she's privileged and doesn't care one bit that her family is a-okay with slavery!! OH, and she can cook well. She also has those big boobs. And all her symbolism with Naruto was ripped off sns, coincidentally.

She's very passively likable, and the definition of forgettable. Like it or not.

____________________________________________

As for me, I should make it clear here and now that I am no misogynist. I like to think of myself as a very passionate intersectional feminist, who gives credit where it's due.

These two ladies? They don't deserve the aforementioned credit.

Have a great day 💞

[mr-president]

I have a question (To be perfectly clear this is not an ask trying to strum up controversy, but just my own curiosity of your views, and I love your analysis and how you say things. But if you have nothing to say on this matter feel free to delete this ask)

There’s some controversy in the funger fandom about the writing of the Bremen army, also in Pav. Some people think it’s too sympathetic or the choices that Miro made are in poor taste. Do you have any opinions on this?

CW: fascism, Nazism, antisemitism, and what have you. also, sorry if i get things wrong, again, it’s been a while.

Yes, I do think that portraying a historical, fascist, genocidal regime in Nazi Germany as the Bremen army was in poor taste. It’s one thing to just have a fantastical, fictional totalitarian government and another to use an actual historical allegory as stand in for history. The Bremen army is an allegory for Nazi Germany, there is absolutely no denying that, and Mr. Haverinen made that conscious, authorial choice to make that connection.

However, and this is my personal opinion, I don’t think he properly understood, articulated, or represented the impact that Nazi Germany had on Europe, the world, and especially for Jewish people. And this is a problem, because Nazi Germany still has lingering influences on society and culture today, and Mr. Haverinen’s choice to not only write Nazi Germany in the story but portray it in such a way is…in poor taste.

I understand why Mr. Haverinen likely used Nazi Germany as an allegorical tool—the same reason why he uses religious allegory throughout the story. Because we are all familiar with WW2 and Nazism, we have a general idea and basic understanding of this fictional totalitarian, colonialist regime. And that is perfectly fine and is a valid shorthand storytelling device.

Additionally, the Bremen Empire is still depicted as Not A Good Thing. Like, that’s very clear within the narrative—Mr. Haverinen is not a Nazi and clearly does not support that ideology. However, I do believe that he could have done better in understanding/depicting a sensitive historical subject beyond showing how they are bad. If that makes sense.

My problems with the Bremen Empire are that it:

fails to articulate a coherent ideology as to why their influence is so vast,

gives them a somewhat “good” motive that kind of validates their existence

does not empathize with or represent the minority group (Jewish people) who were most affected by this historical tragedy.

For 1), though there are references to the Bremen army’s horrific atrocities, it’s kind of hand-wavey as to why they’re really doing it, seemingly only because Le’garde’s general bloodlust and assholeness. I’ll discuss that more in the second point, but I just want to state that Nazi Germany had a legitimate, compelling, and actual ideology behind it that perpetuated the attitude of nonchalance and “justice” that came with the atrocities they committed.

It is not merely power, it was fascism. Fascism cleans up your neighborhood, gives you jobs and school and work, gives you what made you great, and gets rid of what put you down. Fascism creates a problem and posits that the solution is to exclude the…undesirables and raise yourself up to your truest potential.

And here, Bremen fails. Somewhat.

Point 2). Their motive. The ultimate goal of Le’garde’s bullshit is for him to usher in new era of humanity, where he becomes Logic, ascends to new-Old Godhood, and helps humanity overcome the rule of the Old Gods and truly live for themselves rather than their whims.

Ultimately, it’s uncertain if this will be a positive thing, but in Ending A it’s kind of a good thing, especially with Reina becoming Logic instead of Le’garde. Of course, much like Funger 1, it begs the question of “was this suffering all worth it,” but like many people have criticized with Reina’s usage at all, that question doesn’t hit as hard as Funger 1.

And Funger 1 didn’t even need a wholeass Nazi allegory to ask that question. Was the suffering of every innocent civilian worth it to get Logic? To usher in this new era of humanity?

The question seems more on the side of “Yeah” because unlike Funger 1, Logic’s existence is depicted as a good thing for humanity. Thus, Bremen is sort of a “good thing,” that at least it was towards something positive and for the betterment of people everywhere.

Which is…a really awful thing to say when, again, this was an actual fascist regime who discriminated against, subjugated, and had a system that enforced the oppression of numerous minority groups.

Point 3). Not really interacting with the minority groups subjugated. Termina’s cast is pretty much entirely made up of minorities, and many of them do have or would have tangible interactions that conflict with the Bremen army.

Levi and Pav are perhaps the best examples of characters who were genuinely traumatized by the Bremen army, and their actions and characterization are substantial for recognizing the psychological impact colonization has on people.

However…no character or even allegorical minority group is a stand in for Jewish people, who are one of the most affected groups of Nazism.

Ok, there didn’t need to be a Jewish character who actually went through the atrocities of Nazism in graphic, Funger-grade detail. That could be very triggering, and it could also spell problems of getting the story censored. And also, misrepresentation is a genuine thing to fear when depicting something like that.

But to scrub most if not all references of Antisemitism? Isn’t that kinda fucked? I think it’s fucked. Let me know if I’m wrong.

Anyways, I need you (audience) to understand something.

It is imperative to understand that this is Fear & Hunger. These are games which depict suffering, mass, unavoidable, tragic, yet wholly unnecessary suffering. You the player suffer and understand suffering. And then Mr. Haverinen has an allegory for a fascist regime which caused so much mass, tragic, colonialist, yet entirely unnecessary suffering and chose not to depict who were those sufferers.

It’s my own opinion, but if you make Nazi germany you can empathize with the people who suffered from it if your central theses revolve around suffering.

Additionally, I understand that this story is supposed to be a fantastical retelling of history, but girl, like. You could keep the historical allegory and the historical context and just have it be vaguely referenced. But you interact with the Bremen army in the game. Le’garde acts as a stand in for fucking Adolf Hitler.

Like, you could keep the historical allegory and the historical context and just have it be vaguely referenced. But to interact with that history in such a direct manner, on the side of the oppressor? Without much depiction of the oppressed?

In my opinion, Mr. Haverinen doesn’t really have an excuse for depicting what is essentially Nazi Germany in such a strange way. He didn’t need to make an allegory to Nazi Germany. He didn’t need the game to interact directly with Nazis and their leader. He didn’t need to even depict Nazism to begin with, or have it be such a dominant force in the narrative.

For that reason, it is fucking worthy to critique his authorial choices about a major historical tragedy in a game about tragedy.

Of course, you can say “it’s fictional, people shouldn’t be stupid and believe Nazi Germany was actually like this; there are penis gods, don’t be stupid,” but guess what?? People will be stupid. Fiction doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and though I doubt actual Nazis will come about from Funger, I think Mr. Haverinen isn’t absolved of criticism for portraying Nazi Germany in such a way. It still perpetuates harmful narratives about authoritarianism, minimizes the impact of fascism, and what have you.

We unfortunately exist in a society where people could take away that authoritarianism is maybe cool because you get the internet out of it and maybe sovereigns are trying to help society.

We exist in a society where the portrayal of suffering as perhaps a necessary evil for societal gain is the standard. And for a series that seems to want to say something meaningful in portraying suffering, shouldn’t it aim to critique oppression by sympathizing with the oppressed?

Plus, fuck you if you just tell people not to be stupid and to shut up. That has always been a tactic used by privileged individuals to…talk around the issue. But I’m getting off topic—a rant about alt-right or moralist tactics to end or control a conversation is for another day.

Basically, hey. I care enough about this series to write this critique. I care enough about it that I drew it every day in June, and here I am still thinking about it.

Your art can and will be criticized. This is the right of your audience, and you should listen to their critiques. You should be afraid of potential backlash but people will love your work still despite its grievances. And you should try and do better.

And you should talk about problems in representation. That’s like, how things get better. Be a bitch. Don’t let those with the privilege to ignore continued systemic oppression control the narrative and silence you.

On the subject of Pav, I think he’s…fine? He’s basically Russian, and I think the problems with his characters have more to do with the Bremen Empire being poorly written than his character conceptually. Because I think conceptually, he’s fine—illustrates the cycle of abuse, the trauma of war, whatever, whatever.

tldr; oh yeah, it was not a good representation and we should criticize it.

[ratwars]

Who do you think is the deepest character in diabolik lovers and whyyyyyy :3 (sorry if this is weird btw :,))

Tomà out here activating my dialovers derangement syndrome 🥲 ty ty ty also sry sry sry in advance 🙏💜

Minors dni with this post

This is not weird omg no one ever asks me about dialovers you need to understand I was into VNs including otome before I was into any anime (including bsd) and diabolik lovers is my longest term obsession that isn't music 💜🙏 This is mostly going to involve things from the games (because the anime was basically silly fanservice that barely scratches the surface for anyone) but I'll leave out drama cd stuff because I would actually need to go refresh myself on those.

Absolute novel under the cut sorry. also cw noncon, cw dubcon, cw abuse, cw csa, cw suicide, cw matricide

Anyone not familiar with the series who decides to continue pls be aware of these warnings and take care of yourself. Also pls understand everything I say is in terms of the series and setting. Absolutely nothing that happens in these games would make any of these characters redeemable irl. This is fiction and a trashfire Do-S fetish franchise. Trauma doesn't excuse abuse. I don't condone any of the bad behavior from this series irl. (Sorry since this isn't my sideblog I feel I need to explain this so ppl don't come at me thinking I'm excusing stuff for reals with this little analysis)

Also this is probably going to have spelling mistakes and horrific formatting because I wrote it on mobile so my bad on that too.

This was so hard to answer because so many of them have serious trauma, maladaptive coping mechanisms, and large amounts of growth throughout the various sequels. I think you could make the logical argument of depth for every single character. The Sakamaki triplets are def the most tragic of the first two games in this regard though (maybe only rivaled by the Tsukinami brothers once we get to Dark Fate because of the whole being the sole survivors of genocide thing)

But as a whole I think Carla and Shin deal with their predicaments in a more outwardly focused manner (which makes sense given their stories and roles as antagonists in their debut game) so I don't think I could objectively call them the deepest esp Carla even though he is my fave.

So out of the Sakamaki triplets I am going to go with Laito. Shocking I know because I have said before he is the one I am the most terrified of. But hear me out.

(I'm using HBD (haunted dark bridal) to refer to the first game, and MB (more blood) to refer to the second game going forward)

His first route in hdb is a stomach twisting mess of isolation, noncon, gaslighting and victim blaming. It is also the only route in that game where Yui tries to kill herself, which imo is really notable. Tbh the first time I played it I was so deeply uncomfortable I didn't really give his character a lot of thought. During replays and some of his drama cds though it def changed my perspective of him (in terms of the deepness of his character, not my dislike of him)

Here are my arguments in topical format because I don't really want to go through and do the research needed to refresh myself and make this chronological. Also if I am mistaken with anything I've paraphrased my bad it's because this isn't a real essay more of a rant that you might regret reading lol.

- Cordelia

We can't go into the rest of my arguments without the facts. He was groomed by his mother and experienced a childhood of CSA at her hands. And he is absolutely confused and suffering when he has his flashbacks. Yes he kills her with the other two triplets, but that didn't actually solve anything for him internally, and I think it is a pretty clear-cut argument that his negative traits and behaviors can be linked back to his unresolved trauma from this. He even says it himself too when he tries to project onto Yui and claim her hatred for him must be the same as his for Cordelia (though unnamed in his quote im pretty sure) that a hatred can run so deep that even killing the person won't relieve the burning. The other ironic part of this is that in the dialovers universe it is explained multiple times that the highest act of love for a vampire is murder. So. Every LI (Reiji, Laito, Ayato, Kanato) that committed matricide out of their hatred probably has some deeper more complex feelings going on than that. (You could also argue maybe a similar thing about Carla and patricide as well though he is Founder/First Blood not vampire. But he is more open about his reasoning and feelings around his parents and why he did what he did imo)

- His disdain of purity (plot twist. It's jealousy).

We repeatedly see him mock both Yui's purity and religiosity. He is arguably the worst out of all of the LIs when it comes to this topic, and hits this point right out the gate when he assaults her in the abandoned church. It is simultaneously a logical and also weird choice on his part to continue on with when you realize how unwavering her faith actually is, and if you do other routes before this one you are already coming in realizing no matter how much she "breaks", "changes", or "gives in" in other ways, she never actually abandons her faith completely even in future games when she is living quite literally in the demon world. Even in routes where she becomes a vampire she doesn't eschew God. However it is canon that she is a devout Catholic and that she originally wanted to be a nun (before the events of the game screw that up for her), so it is still relevant.

While it may have started as a way to try and break her down, it really becomes more and more clear through his routes that like a bunch of his other behaviors, he is projecting his own struggles onto Yui.

He is jealous of her purity, so he attacks it. He is jealous of her faith, so he attacks it. He is jealous of her unwavering belief in goodness and in humanity, so he just. keeps. attacking. it. Because seeing it exist in front of him hurts, but especially early on he isn't aware of his own emotions or why he acts the way he does. So many things in his routes and his monologues highlight the fact that Laito views himself as permanently dirtied by his past, and this behavior is tied to that.

- His inability to identify his feelings from his fake front and his use of sex to maladaptively deal with his trauma.

** I wrote way too much on this and decide nvm I think even if someone has only seen the anime his hypersexuality probably speaks for itself. Plus this is getting so long 😔**

-His lack of control in MB and "forced" behavior. His confusion over his own tears near the end of HDB.

There are various instances (esp in MB where his characterization is wildly different and desperate compared to HDB) where we see his mask start to crack, or realize that his mask wasn't actually very good to begin with and the exhaustion from the continous abuse in his routes has caused both Yui (and us as the reader) to fall for his bullshit more easily. He plays the part of a pervert, but Shu (who arguably is a massive pervert) calls him out in MB for being a phony. His behavior in MB makes him come across as desperate and out of control, as opposed to his calculated sadism in HDB. This all comes back to his inner turmoil, unresolved feelings, and trauma and we slowly unpeal those layers through the rest of the series.

I think at baseline it is really easy to dismiss Laito. I did from the beginning too. Plus he never stops calling Yui Bitch-chan no matter how many sequels he gets 🤦‍♂️ But that is just falling for his fake front, exactly what he wants you to do because then he can just keep carrying on without dealing with his bs and let off steam temporarily in the process. But under the surface there is a lot more going on. And he definitely is a character that has an insane amount of depth.

Sorry for the multi part novel. I don't even like him as an LI even in this series. But for a series with so many inconsistencies, retcons across games, and questionable writing choices, they did a good job with his character. I just need him to stay far away from both me and Yui 🥲 Imagine if you had asked me something that prompted me to talk about my faves 💀💀💀