No Thoughts.....just Thinking About How They Look At Each Other Softly Like This

I made a post about this on my Obey Me! side blog but I was wondering if you had any thoughts on why Asmo has 2 nail polish colours as opposed to the other 6 brothers, who have one? I theorise that he painted his nails teal in honour of Lilith but I have no idea

Asmo and Lilith

Ooh, I like that theory!

Asmo's nails are definitely intriguing - not only does he have two colours, but one colour is very close to that of his youngest brother, Belphegor.

Arguably pink could also then said to be similar to a combination of Lucifer and Mammon, but there are only so many colours after all.

Pink is very much used as the main colour for Asmodeus, with the Little D's of Lust all sporting pink. It's a colour associated with both romance and femininity in the modern age, though obviously those are qualities that change greatly over time.

One interesting thing to note about the traditional Asmodeus is how popular he remained, long after many other demons were forgotten. In France, Asmodeus was revitalised in the early 18th century (adapted from a Spanish satirical novel some 60 years before) as a witty critic of human foibles, a sharp new cupid, and the prince of dandies.

Many a novel and periodical appearance followed, all featuring a demon who gradually became more handsome as he laid bare the truth of human behaviour after dark. He was dressed in the most magnificent finery, and was very, very heterosexual 👀

(This is before men wearing ruffles and -gasp- fancy clothes was seen as an indicator of sexuality btw.)

That's something that was consistent with the Asmodeus of old too, that his sole focus was upon women, and he looked upon men only to destroy them in his jealousy.

More modern interpretations have changed this, as the Avatar of Lust would surely not restrict himself in such a way. As an example, the Asmodeus from Seven Mortal Sins is pansexual, female, and boobtastic.

Angels, and thus demons, don't really do the whole gender thing and I like that Obey Me acknowledges this at least somewhat by keeping the MC character as gender neutral, thus allowing all genders and sexualities (or lack thereof) to be immersed in the gameplay.

~

Teal is a fairly classic pairing with pink, and on its own reflects many of the same properties as blue - calming and serene - while avoiding the icier blue traits of loneliness and sadness.

Blue is the colour most preferred by men, which is obviously mostly down to societal conditioning of it being a Manly Colour for Manly Mens bruh, but teal is a nice subversion of those narrow restrictions.

Pink and a very teal-like blue were the fashion of choice in 18th century France, popularised by Madame de Pompadour. Coincidentally, this is at the same time Asmodeus was winning hearts and fluttering pulses across French literature.

Pink and teal are also reminiscent of the trans flag, embodying the traditionally masculine and feminine and more importantly, the reclamation and subversion of such.

(Required historical note - few things illustrate the nonsensical nature of gendered colours as the fact that only a few decades ago, pink was the colour of boys, and blue the colour of girls 🙄)

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So, what does it mean for Asmo.

I'd theorise that it's partly to express a somewhat androgynous nature, a flirtation with the feminine and masculine both within and outwith himself. (And that in between and outside the binary!!)

It's a fitting look for the Avatar of Lust who seeks to charm all he sees, and perhaps expresses his solidarity with the breaking of stereotypical tropes that most likely seem preposterous to an ancient demon.

While the demons refer to each other using he/him pronouns, they are demons (and once were angels), not humans. Even if they've chosen to look like humans of a particular gender, that doesn't mean they place the same importance upon it as humans have to in a far more unkind society.

Wait, hell is kinder than the human realm?

... that sounds about right actually 😬

~

As for the theory of it representing Lilith, there's a good chance that could be correct. Few demons are associated with Lilith as often historically as Asmodeus, and in the middle ages, the famed Asmodeus of Solomon's legends was connected with that of Lilith, Adam's first wife.

At this time in history, Asmodeus was regarded as the King of demons, and thus Lilith became the Queen, parents to many, many demons.

(The other legend of Lilith came slightly later, this time having her leave Eden as she refuses to bend to Adam's will, and she beds Samael, the angel of death who carries out god's destruction. Christianity went with Satan instead, who has much of the same role yet is punished.)

Obviously, the relationship in Obey Me is different. But we know all the brothers were deeply affected by Lilith's death, including Asmo. A pledge to carry on her commitment to love - something Asmo greatly sympathised with - would not be surprising.

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Further reading:

Lilith and the Great Flood

OM! Theories Masterpost

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I feel sick to my stomach

We lost another dear K-artist to suicide, two days ago, on the 12th of May, 2023.

Her name is Kim Ara, better known as Haesoo. She was a trot singer; a type of Korean music based from foxtrot. She also made her debut only four years ago.

This is around a month after Moonbin's death. Nothing can describe my outrage, especially because of how quiet netizens have been on the subject. I myself did not stan her, but my heart breaks for those who do.

Please take care of your idols, respect them and love them. You never know when they'll be gone.

Weird Headcanons?

Does anyone else in the ToT fandom ship ALL of the main characters together? Or is it just me being delusional?

Unfortunately I am not gaslight gatekeep girlbossing. I am goofy giddy girlcrushing.

no cause i was thinking the EXACT SAME THING staring at my poster of "FORGE your own path" in english class i'm gald i'm not the only one ahhhh

Something about the way “Forger” and “Phony” both easily have the immediate meaning of being something fake, and yet Forging can still simultaneously mean creating something new with what you have now, while no such second definition exists for the word Phony.

I love Twilight and Nightfall’s blatantly obvious cover names being made up by Nightfall in that aspect—and on the flipside, Twilight choosing “Forger” on his own accord, probably not even realizing that its other meaning would ever be relevant. I just think they’re neat

RIP

Is this crazy, or is this genius??

Crazy Tokyo Debunker theory ahead, but if I don't put it out there before the next chapter drops I'll explode:

What if

Hear me out

What if the Like Doves anomalies aren't actually a sign that someone likes another person? What if instead they are being used by someone?

Listen-

We are told Like Doves are a sign of someone liking someone else by Kaito in chapter 1 and from Luca's reaction we can gather that Like Doves aren't common in the UK.

This alone just tells us that this type of anomaly might be native to Japan, or, at the very least, that they don't exist in the UK.

However.

I believe Luca has never seen them before because they are not "natural" anomalies.

Why do I believe that?

Well-

We need to talk about Taiga's reaction to Like Doves first.

He was SO UPSET when he saw one in Romeo's room. At first I thought that he was simply Not Happy™ that he might be catching feelings for MC (if we're to believe that Like Doves appear when one of the cast starts developing a crush on MC, like it looks to be the case from previous chapters), but I'm not sure that's the only thing, or perhaps it might not even be it at all tbh.

His behaviour and mood completely change when he spots it. It's ridiculous. He was incredibly chill and comfortable talking with Romeo and suddenly his sprites all look upset and/or nervous.

He has so many "quiet" dialogues, just staring and thinking. I counted like 5 on this conversation alone-

His voice. Shakes.

His confident persona falters-! Like--

Still, that is not conclusive evidence. Here I still thought that he was simply not thrilled at the idea of liking MC but that was all. He might not be used to liking someone and might be uncomfortable, or perhaps it might be a source of concern given that he clearly has a lot going on already.

However, unlike the rest of the chapters, we see a Like Dove twice in chapter 4.

And when does it appear for the second time? Right after Taiga tells us there's a spy amongst the ghouls.

Yes, I am saying that the Like Doves might be being used to spy on the ghouls.

'cause when do they usually appear? Either a case has finished or something of relevance is happening/has just happened.

If Like Doves were created for this purpose in this academy, it would explain why Luca didn't know about them and why Taiga was so on edge when he spotted one. Taiga knows something's up, especially if we believe other theories saying that he knows what will happen in the future.

Also, the second time he spots it he doesn't freeze up and immediately goes to shoot it??? And then he eats it- which is normal for Taiga but LISTEN. Even Romeo is freaked out! Both times Taiga acts weirdly because of a Like Dove Romeo is visibly shaken by his behaviour.

And if this is not the case and Like Doves are just cute anomalies to make MC feel special, that's alright. It was fun to think about :P

I find Taiga's behaviour with all of this very interesting. I want to inspect him under a microscope, y'know?

Very fun, very amusing.

canon jfkdlsajfkds

a day when the nxx turn into cats (and a dog)

A few notes on trigger discipline, with examples from Spy x Family

One of the first things you learn when learning how to use a gun is that you absolutely do NOT put your finger on the trigger unless you're 100% ready and willing to shoot (and deal with whatever the consequences may be).

Accidental fire is extremely easy to occur. If your finger is touching the trigger, a simple spasm of the hand, a sudden sound or movement in the environment, or jostling from moving can cause the finger to pull the trigger. If you haven't aimed correctly at something that you want to shoot at, you'll very likely shoot something you don't want to shoot, including your own body parts. That's not even counting the fact that you may not properly control the recoil.

So normally, you need to train your discipline so that your first instinct when picking up a gun - especially during a stressful moment - will be for the finger to not go on the trigger until the gun is properly aimed at who/what you want to shoot.

I only trained with air guns some years ago, but discipline was still important; you wrap your hand around the handle with the index finger away from the trigger, make sure you have a good grip on it, raise the gun from the counter, aim, align the sights, and then you put the finger on the trigger and shoot. The one (1) time I accidentally put my finger on it before raising the gun, I shot at the wall while raising it and got a very angry look from my instructor. I was lucky that's all I got.

Since then, I've been noticing trigger discipline in media, and a lot of those get it very wrong.

To his big credit, Tatsuya Endo gets it right.

Twilight's finger is resting parallel to the barrel of the gun, away from the trigger. While this entire pose is more artistic than realistic, it was still important to Endo to portray correct discipline. You don't do that if you don't know about it.

Similarly with Nightfall in the cover of the sixth volume.

Again, artistic, not realistic pose. Still correct discipline.

More examples of artistic depictions with correct discipline:

And then! An action pose!

Twilight has a clear ready-to-shoot pose; he has a target, so finger goes on the trigger. (Normally the gun should be a little higher so he can properly align the sights but he's TwilightTM so I give it a pass)

Even Bondman has good discipline!

Seeing correct discipline in those pictures piques my interest a lot, because it shows that the artist is consciously choosing when he'll show a finger on a trigger, making such a moment more impactful.

Twilight aims his gun right on Edgar's head, his finger on the trigger. Again, you don't put your finger on the trigger unless you're about to shoot. If you're only threatening someone, it should still be off because one single unintentional fire can kill your target when you didn't mean to. Now, I can suspend my disbelief and say Twilight has super duper control over his body to the point of not being jostled or his hand not spasming suddenly because he's TwilightTM. So I instead focus on how serious Twilight was here about killing Edgar. Should Edgar do any movement, he's dead.

Again, it's about the knowledge of trigger discipline itself. When you portray a character not touching the trigger when they don't need to, showing the opposite hits harder.

The Handler prepares the gun ominously, her finger off the trigger.

But when she aims it at the student's head...

She's serious. She's made sure the students heard her prepare the gun, so when she threatens the student, he knows what he's facing despite wearing a blindfold.

Again, in a realistic scenario, in both cases their fingers would rest away from the trigger, because their intention is not to kill their targets unless absolutely necessary. But that might have confused the readers who don't know about trigger discipline, and might have made for less impactful moments. So I give that a pass, especially since Endo is shown to be aware of correct discipline.

The anime is also aware of this.

Twilight is assessing the situation; finger is off the trigger.

The Handler prepares the gun; finger off.

She threatens the student; finger on.

(Of course, there have been moments both in manga and anime with incorrect depictions. But I can let those pass cause I know there's a lot of people involved in creating the art and things can get complicated)

A few more examples, from the Imperial Scholars meeting:

Those are very short moments, but someone drew those stills and intentionally had the guards' index fingers extended and not around the trigger.

As I said above, those examples pique my interest because they are conscious, deliberate choices... and good use of that can make for an impactful scene... say, identity reveal happens, Twilight is aiming his gun at the Thorn Princess, but his finger is off the trigger. He urges himself to put the finger on it, but the damn thing won't move... she also cannot bring herself to stab him even though her dagger is right at his throat, and she notices his hesitation... Endo-sensei I am begging...

(don't spoil me if it happens in the manga, let me live in ignorance)

I read on Twilight's wiki page that Endo always intended on him having a high paying job (like a doctor or a lawyer) and in the end he chose to make Loid a psychiatrist due to his affinity for psychology.

And can I say. Lawyer Loid was such a missed opportunity. So much comedic potential.

Like. you have Loid Forger, notorious in the firm for winning every case that comes across him, due to his clear and concise arguments and knowledge of the law. Then you look at his home life and see that this man can't win an argument against his four six year old daughter. The minute her eyes turn teary he folds so easily. Like. That's comedy gold.

And I feel like on first meeting Yuri would hate him even more. Like, I feel like Yuri's the type of guy who goes, "a defense attorney? AKA a professional liar?" (← is a cop lying to his sister about his job) and his internal monologue just goes, "what does yor see in him? sure, he's handsome, smart, popular in his firm--" [angrily munching on food Loid made him]

And there's news of a murder on several news channels while they're having dinner one day, and the news agency names the suspect and Loid offhandedly goes, "Oh, my firm handled that" (I have to mention my work life for the mission, so they dont suspect I'm anything but a lawyer), and Yor goes, "I don't think a man his height could have done that. Look at the blood splatter. Had to be someone taller" And Loid's looking at her like: 👁️👁️, and Yor fumbles with, "Oh, Yuri used to love those detective shows when we were kids" and Loid's like, "anything you say <3. do you want some more chicken?"

And, logically, if he's assigned to a popular/high-profile enough firm, there's a higher likelihood of him making contact with high-profile businesspeople (sure they have their own legal teams, but for a consultation or something?) rather than a psychiatrist. (Again, my own opinion)

But the only downside is whenever he pulls some medical shit he cant go, "Oh, I learned that in med school" but the natural excuse can be "oh, i was a sergeant, i learned some basic medical knowledge during the war"

Anyway. Lawyer Loid could have been peak comedy.