genuinely still baffled by the "they don't need to address Mike's sexuality, all that matters is that he's in love with Will" crowd. especially when people say it who claim to care about Mike's character (when you could also just say you don't really care for that part of the show, which would be fine, no one cares about all characters/arcs)
because Surely you realize how him being gay or bi would change his entire character, right. whether he's attracted to girls or not would change the way all his actions up until now are to be interpreted. not even making a statement on his sexuality here, this is generally speaking
if he was actually attracted to El you'd have to address when and why he suddenly stopped loving El since in fiction "it just happened" isn't usually a satisfying answer to breaking a multi season couple up. Why is Will it for him? he's been acting weird for ages so when did he realize? and what made it click he fell out of love with El for good? you'd have to give some explanation for why he was able to proclaim his love for El accidentally in s3 and then fail to do it in the same season while looking uncomfortable with kissing her and so on since his pov was so majorly withheld
if he's not attracted to girls his arc in s5 needs to focus more on comphet and how dating El affected him/why he felt he couldn't break up with her/homophobic attitude in his surrounding slash Hawkins. or the idea of platonic and romantic love in general. there would be no how he got from point A(El) to point B(Will), like what the focus of a bi!Mike s5 arc would have to be on to explain what happened, but a focus on how he ended up at point A in the first place and why he was stuck there/how it affected him
and even core moments of the series would have entirely different meanings depending on if he's attracted to girls. "it's not my fault you don't like girls" being a peak example. if he's gay it's easy to explain it with projection. if he IS attracted to girls though it would read as a much more intentional (even if blurted out) act of homophobia, since it would be him pointing something out that Will genuinely does (not liking being around girls) but he himself can't relate to
and that's all just the surface level differences. Mike being attracted to girls or not being attracted to girls would give his arc an entirely different focus in s5. AS WELL as make his past actions have entirely different meanings. the idea that "it doesn't matter for his character" is so insanely wrong it's wild how many people confidently peddle it
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also since i've already seen people try to turn this into a thing i will just say now, as someone who loves Ashrym and doesn't particularly care for Callowmoore, that my feelings about the two aren't really connected. i love Fearne as a character and i don't see her as "getting in the way of my ship," and honestly i don't think of Ashrym and Callowmoore as being in competition at all! i would be just as happy with some sort of Fearne/Ashton/Orym polycule becoming canon as i would simply Ashrym.
ultimately what i care about is doing right by the characters; making choices that are both honest to who they are and compelling for their story. i love Ashrym because i think their dynamic has done a great job of developing both Orym and Ashton, and i'm far more interested in what they actually say to each other than whether they end up becoming romantic or not. I actually think both Orym and Ashton have a considerable amount of work to do before they're ready for a serious relationship! and if they were to get together i'd want it to be a much slower burn than, for example, Imodna, who were already so close and so intimate that it made sense for their romance to be like that right out the gate.
and the same sentiment applies to Callowmoore; i'm actually quite interested to see how Fearne and Ashton's dynamic could develop, and i think there's a lot of potential there. but it hasn't reached a place where a romance between the two would really feel earned. so yeah, I'm glad Ashton pushed the brakes on that, regardless of their reasons, both because its absolutely what he would do and because it gives them and Fearne the chance to develop a dynamic outside of just whether they're in love with each other.
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Belphegor's relationship with MC before lesson 16
!! THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FROM SEASON 1 AND THE FOLLOWING DEVILGRAMS: "Hatred", "Hide and Seek" and "Say his name". !!
This is just a rant about how I see their relationship developed. This is only about what the story shows.
After MC's first meeting with Belphie all the way in lesson 4-12, the game doesn't make it too clear how often they meet or if they even talk about something other than freeing him through the main story, up until lesson 12-19 where he shows up. And even then, they are too busy with arguing and then getting Belphie out of trouble until lesson 16 where he finally kills MC.
The only times they do meet in the main story/hard mode story are in lessons 4-12, where Belphegor lies about who he is, 5-7 where MC confronts him about lying and 5-10 where MC agrees to help him.
This leads to the questions:
1) "Why did MC help him? What did they have to gain from this?"
2) "How come Belphegor warm up to them so fast? Did he see them just as Lilith? Where does his sudden attachement come from."
For the question on nr 1) it can be argued that MC does either for Beel's or Lucifer's sake just from observing the main story.
The only places we clearly see they comunicate outside of planning how to set him free is through the SSR 'Hatred' and the UR 'Hide and Seek' from chapter A.
At the begging of the "Hatred" SSR we can clearly see that MC is telling him about their day at school and how Belphegor laments about the fact the he almost wishes he could go to school, but can't due to being locked in the attic. The Devilgram then goes to show more about how he used to love Lucifer in the past but now can't help but hate him.
While the devilgram doesn't go more into depth about Belphie and MC's meeting, the fact that they meet up whenever MC can sneak into the attic to keep Belphie up with whatever is happening outside goes to show that they did form some sort of relationship.
While this can be easily taken a Belphegor just manipulating MC in order to trust him more, it goes to show that MC did grow some kind of attachement to him, taking time out of their day and risking getting caught by Lucifer just to check on him. This adds to their motivation on freeing the seventh born because they care about him.
Now you may wonder "Ok, so MC has some motive to set Belphegor free related to their relationship with him. But what about his relationship with them? Did he see them just as a tool the whole time?"
That's where the URs "Hide and Seek" and "Say his name" come into play, both being also from chapter A.
In the "Hide and Seek" devilgram Belphegor is having a nightmare about how Lilith is dead and he starts crying because of it when MC finds him.
At first he tries to deny it but he is too emotionally vulnerable/weak to keep up appearances, let alone manipulate MC in this scenario and asks them to stay with him.
He seeks some sort of comfort from MC in his vulnerable moments, which shows that he did warm up to them just a little bit.
Of course there may still be some doubts about "Is that enough to really make him fall for them? He still sees them just as a way to get out and get his revenge." While it's true that his goal didn't simply change just becase of a moment of weakness, it goes to show that he did ended up seeing them as someone that can give him comfort.
And why is that so important? Because it was something only Beelzebub, one of the persons he cares about the most, used to do.
In the "Say his name" devilgram, it's heavily implied that Belphegor trapped both MC and Beelzebub in a nightmare just to check if Beel still remembers him, if his brothers hasn't left him behind.
This can easily go into his fear of being left alone, shown in season 3 and in how frustrated he was when he thought everyone was forgetting about Lilith due to agreeing with the exchange program.
During that story, Beelzebub drops this piece of information about Belphegor:
There was NO ONE but MC to visit him and to keep him company.(Lucifer doesn't count for obvious reasons).
MC is there to keep him company and to be there for him when he is scared and the fact that he lets them when he could easily tell them to leave shows that he grew some attachement to them, even tho it was overshadowed by his want for revenge.
"Ok, so he grew attached to MC for good reasons, why did he have a 180° when he found out that they are Lilith's descendent?" I will admit that the game was rushed at the end and when it came to his redemption arc, but it still made sure to show that Belphegor didn't see MC as Lilith 2.0
1) He tells MC that he loves them for who they are, their connection to Lilith not being taken into account.
2) When the reveal was made, not only did he found out that his reasons for hating humans were not valid, but he also saw MC as proof that Lilith lived a happy life.
This human, who not only freed him and reunited him with his family but was also there for him in some really vulnerable moments, was the proof that his sister lived a happy life as a human. At that point he had no reasons to hate humans any longer.
The game was too rushed when it came to his redemption arc, but his feelings for MC were not out of nowhere. Unfortunately this info is hidden in devilgrams and not the main story/hard mode story. At least, all of these devilgrama are from chapter A and not some time limited event.
Credit to Nee-san on youtube for the 'Hide and Seek' screenshots....I still don't have that card :')
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Okay so to keep it all in one convenient place:
Evidence FOR Azagath Sea-shadow being Castamir the Usurper:
The Five Sisters have beef with him. Which means he's been in Gondor before, because they don't really go anywhere else.
Nimrodel says they will "have their vengeance" upon him, and while, again, I haven't done all the relevant quests, I do know that much to-do was made of the kin-strife being fought in the waters of the Erui and the wounds that inflicted on the Lone Lady, and by extension the rest of the sisters. And whose fault was that.
All of this was also brought up again kind of out of nowhere way back at the beginning of this questline.
If Azagath was just another Black Numenorian sorcerer trying to get power for himself after the fall of Sauron, then unfortunately that would make him basically just Asachal but a dude. And she was the big bad of the last story arc. And if there's one thing LotRO doesn't do it's make their major villains repetitive. (Their minor villains... well that's a whole other wheelhouse.)
And what a FUN idea for a villain. Just based on how cool this idea is I hope it's true so so much.
Evidence AGAINST Azagath Sea-shadow being Castamir the Usurper:
The game has yet to explain to me how Castamir might have avoided getting the shit killed out of him as he so rightfully deserves
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