#i desire laios in a very carnal way

[fraternum-momentum]

llllll,,,,,,,,lllllllll,,,,lllaios,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[malewifesband]

i struggle to read marcilles succubus as a sexual fantasy

i feel that chilchuck is the only one who gets a clear cut sex fantasy presented to him bc hes the only member of the party with the kind of sexual experience that would make him let his guard down that way. hes been married his entire adult life, was sexually active since he was a teenager, hes the only one who makes sex jokes (which dont land, see that extra on tentacles), and we know hes been faithful to the wife he has not seen in years. that is a very long time to be dry

while its certainly possible to read marcilles fantasy as a virgin maidens desired seduction, its also very chaste even for that. her knight is covered head to toe, and looks like an overdesigned fantasy character, with no sexual appeal. hes posed on a horse, but in such a way that specifically covers his groin. there isnt a physicality to him that kui uses often to draw the eyes to a sensual nature--compare that pose to how the winged lion poses (for laios, not marcille, he ALSO is posed less sexually when with marcille, though i could be forgetting a pose here or there) to highlight his seductive nature.

even in swinging down from his horse, theres just no carnality. hes stiff legged, body turned away from the camera.

its all very romantic in a courtly fashion. i.e. the fantasy is a lot more about this decorated man telling her shes a princess who belongs in a castle. its a 12yos dream boyfriend made real.

marcille isnt comfortable enough with herself as a potentially sexual being to get even close to what works on chilchuck--she seems almost afraid of recognizing peer-to-peer relationships, and that deeply impacts her ability to engage with sex. look back at how she engages with falins shows of intimacy in the bath scene and the bed scene after: when falin engages as an equal, as an adult, marcille panics, and pushes her back into a childs role. she starts lecturing falin when she tries to return mana, not listening to her say she has a well of it right now. when falin comments that shes grown tall and strong and may not fit in a single bed with marcille anymore, marcille dismisses her with "you'll always be a kid to me!"

while marcille is not a child, she straight up is not ready for sex yet bc of that resistance to having peer relationships

[preggomancer]

ok ok short version. as a treat.

Essentially. In addition to just his general behavior, there’s several instances which make it clear that Laios does not have any romantic or sexual desire (which I am totally conflating here for brevity, forgive me) and doesn’t really understand it. The most obvious is the succubus incident—it’s very clear that the succubus feeds off sexual/romantic fantasy primarily, and only goes to a second source when that’s not available. Even Izutsumi got a sexy cat. There’s also the fact that he seems rather unhappy about the prospect of finding a partner, feels almost nothing about Falin’s relationship, and also was apparently also engaged for like five seconds—every aromantic person I know has been in very short-lived, completely passionless relationships. 

There’s also just the fact that he’s an attractive man in his mid twenties who displays not a drop of romantic interest over the course of the story, aside from the brief mention of a fiancée. And, sure, he’s awkward, but you simply cannot convince me a man who looks and cooks like that could not get bitches if he wanted to. Is it not kind of remarkable that in a manga this long in this genre, there’s not a single love interest for the dashing main character? 

and that in and of itself is important—there shockingly little romance in this comic. So much of the story is about interpersonal relationships and the complexities thereof, but the only actual romances are failed ones—Falin and Shuro and Chilchuck and his wife—neither of which are really about the actual romance, but more about its effects afterward. Traditionally, this narrative would be primed for Laios to pair off with, well. Marcille tbh (ew) but the story goes out of its way to clarify that that’s not even a remote possibility. Seriously, think of any other story of this breadth where the handsome lead guy doesn’t engage even a moment of legit romantic tension with any of the many potential love interests around him, especially in this genre. Laios is perfectly set up for a love story—and not only does he not get one, he doesn’t even consider one.

And that makes this story SO. MUCH. MORE. INTERESTING. This story is literally a 97-chapter exploration of carnal desire—but not sex and romance. So many stories about desire end up with the rather boring Freudian take of “everything’s secretly about sex actually,” which is tedious and frankly just not true. Casting an aromatic—or at least currently very much nonromantic—lead in this story let’s it exist outside of that framework, which is honestly fucking revolutionary. 

the problem with only having a kink tumblr is I have nowhere to put 5000 word essays on dungeon m.eshi