Can't argue with true facts... 🔥🎀🧡
One thing I think I just realized is, in addition to being dissatisfied with how stories deal with Toriel’s grief compared to Asgore’s and Asriel’s, and how I don’t see many instances of Toriel and Asgore’s quarrel being addressed in a way that satisfied me… I don’t think I see that many AUs that quite get the responsibility Asgore feels… right.
Yes, I’ve seen several that portray his grief, depression, and how badly he doesn’t want to be in this position well, even if it’s disappointing how not everyone seems to be aware of what you learn about him in a Neutral run where you’ve previously killed Flowey. A lot of people can get aspects of his characterization very well, the broken man, the goofy dad, the intimidating monarch. But I think the reason I don’t see people capture the weight of his responsibility quite as well in fanfics and comics is… well. Oddly enough it’s in the way the monsters treat him.
It’s not just the fandom that has issues with idolizing or demonizing characters. It’s also the Kingdom of Monsters themselves–and they all idolize Asgore. Yes, he’s a very grounded and compassionate individual who invites his subjects to share all their problems with him, and who Papyrus insists will just let you pass through the Barrier. But he’s also a bit of the subject of a cult of personality for his subjects. When they say he’ll absorb seven souls and become a GOD, it’s not an expression of his arrogance, but rather their own adoration. While out-of-universe the Angel is generally agreed to be either Asriel or Chara(or us), in-universe I wouldn’t be surprised if Asgore was considered the Angel.
It’s not long now. King Asgore will let us go. King Asgore will give us hope. King Asgore will save us all.
Yes, individual monsters may want to collect a human soul for their own individual wants and desires. But it’s only the capture of a human soul, or using a single soul for their own benefit, that they really aspire to. (With the exception of Toriel, who wants no souls, and Flowey, who is Flowey.) Of those area bosses who earnestly try to take just one soul, Papyrus and Undyne both want to hand you over to Asgore, and Mettaton wants to protect humanity FROM Asgore. Literally everyone in the Underground seems to fully believe that Asgore will be the one taking all the Souls and fulfilling his promises, and all are content. (Again, barring Toriel, MTT, Flowey.) No one seems to ever doubt he’ll do as he says, even his ex-wife, and no one’s greedy to take the power for themselves or take the burden of being a savior for themself, except his kid who has both a God Complex and a Savior Complex.
With Chara, and with Asgore. They take a person and turn them into a representation of something More than any singular person could ever be. And then in the worst route Chara does it again, to themself. Asgore is freedom and salvation and retribution itself, and everyone including the woman who was once married to him agrees and reinforces the role. Chara is the feeling of a number going up, and the fandom agrees and reinforces the role.
And I dunno. There are fics and AUs where Asgore never lost his kids and always remained an affable, friendly guy. There are AUs where Asgore is the main antagonist and an awful villain with few redeeming qualities. There are fics and AUs where Asgore gets to recover in a post-pacifist setting. But I’m not sure any fics or AUs have ever quite captured how everyone else just talks about the guy, for me. Toriel is simply ‘intimidating’. But Asgore is a GOD.
#the villain is the reader#more specifically#the expectations of the genre that the readers have#this is true both in world (with sqh's readers driving his plot choices)#and on a meta level of our reader expectations driving the system's criteria for storytelling#the system outright says it 🤷♀️#lol yeah also sqq's reader expectations of the genre driving his blindness to actual people and events#svsss
(via @takethesword)
this is the only correct answer
Also wanna add to this how the system changes punishments when the original punishments stated no longer effectively coerce sqq. Oh, taking away this amount of points still makes you hesitate in throwing your disciple into the abyss? Let’s multiply that by 100. Oh, losing all your points means certain death? Oops, I meant that it means you get A Punishment, instead! Even when sqq wanted to talk to lbh in the water prison, it took away his ability to say what he wanted and instead gave him ANSWER CHOICES!!! Whatever it has to do to get shen yuan to fulfill his role as sqq in the juiciest, most convoluted way possible to net as many readers as possible.
Yes!!! Like, I hesitate to call the System sentient, but it’s clearly capable of adaptive problem solving and can be reasoned with with to some degree, which makes it so much creepier when you think too hard about the implications of its existence!
Shen Qingqiu’s internal identity is making me feral
He’s caught in Luo Binghe’s dream and I’m assuming that reverts him into his true self or how he sees himself internally which is why he appears as Shen Qingqiu
Every fanfic that has Shen Yuan being revealed in his dreams is wrong
Shen Qingqiu is Shen Qingqiu first and foremost
The wholesale rejection of his past self is so deep and ingrained that if someone went searching for his “real” identity the most they’d get is his web ID
Like that is …familiar and like honestly same hat in a lot of respects but also! People who are mentally stable don’t do that!
I know you said your last life was idyllic and trouble free Shen Qingqiu but forgive me for not believing a damn thing your lying ass has to say!
The fact that Shen Yuan felt so alienated in his previous life that he doesn’t even identify with it anymore isn’t all that surprising!
There were all these studies made about what amount of money actually makes people happy, and the conclusion was that people are generally happy if they have enough money for financial security, but still have goals and things to strive and work towards. People who have so much money that all their conceivable needs and desires are automatically met were, paradoxically, much more miserable.
So the fact that Shen Yuan was a fuerdai who had no ambitions, no goals, and no real struggles other than spewing the occasional vitriolic rant against poor writing paints a fairly bleak image of his previous life. Maybe he was physically comfortable, but man, what a barren existence that must have been.
The fact that he was thrust into a situation where he 1. had to work and struggle against a threat to his life and 2. was given responsibilities and work that he had to keep up with on a daily basis were both things that likely provided more enrichment than anything from his previous life. He really came alive as Shen Qingqiu.
@azzandra you’ve touched on something here that very few people speak about and it’s the fact that, surprisingly, svsss is a self-fulfilling isekai/transmigration story but not for the reasons most people think. it’s not because the cool cultivation stuff or the monsters or the romance, though that matters too; it’s because as you said, he came alive as sqq. he gained a purpose, he became someone that fought for his family and his loved ones, a teacher loved by all his disciples, etc etc and that was something he couldn’t have in his first life. He was even able to get out of the closet and have a happily gay ever after.
You’re both so right Whenever he talks about his old life he only describes himself as a “worthless pretty boy” and I find that so telling
But when he’s first asked his name as Plant Shen he almost says:
“Ha, ha, this humble one is the untalented Qing Jing Peak Lord of Cang Qiong Mountain, the Xiu Ya Sword, Shen Qingqiu of the Central Plains”
SVSSS Vol 2 p 178
He takes such joy and pride in being Shen Qingqiu and it’s such a contrast
Like he enjoys being Plant Shen but he also doesn’t want to be him. Not really
God hes so very character isn’t he?
thank u sm for the support on the wip???here's the finished version u///u
Dragged away kicking and screaming as I argue that Scum Villain is a commentary on the performative nature of gender and how forced adherence to socially-assigned roles harms not only those expected to conform to expectations placed on them but also the people they interact with
please my fandom, it's very sick, it needs media literacy, please
I did these many months ago, but never posted them I don’t remember why, probably I didn’t like how they came out in the end idk
There are many differences and similarities between Luo Bingge and Luo Bingmei but the main ones i can think abt is how they're crazy ex-boyfriend and crazy ex-girlfriend coded. Like, Bingge is the type to pretend he does not care, he'll sleep with the entire town after the break up but will still scream, cry, throw up if he finds out you held hands with another guy, Bingmei is the type to very much show he cares, he'll fake a pregnancy, have a mental breakdown in public and call you while crying. They're both the type to try and fight your "new man" but Bingge will deny he did it out of jealousy while Bingmei will admit he did it out of jealousy, but will cry so much you'll end up comforting him.
I don't think i'll ever be able to get over how coquetish Shen Qingqiu is, like, bro is supposed to be a repressed nerd inside a villain's body so why is he acting like the type of man wars are fought over? That head tilt with his voice drawing out the word "Shidi" would make ME fight a deranged half-demon over his corpse for 5 yrs straight, Liu Qingge was victim
This damn meme format kept showing up every where… I realized the only way I had to exorcise it was to accept my fate and surrender
happy anniversary to the best piece of media ever created! (hollow mind)