A Little Vice (Trans Magical Girl fic)

Aranfan · Apr 8, 2023

RiceRockRekt said:
Ida: But you did? Right now?

Also C mentioned it last night when "he" was talking with Inessa, she just didn't pick it up.

RiceRockRekt said:
Great to know being angelically blessed with temperance doesn't stop a girl from being a horrible glutton.

Temperance isn't about not consuming, it's about not overconsuming and not preventing other people from consuming.

Theaxofwar · Apr 8, 2023

I have a creeping suspicion that when C finally realizes what's going on (her dreams not being dreams) it'll be in such a way that she feels fully reinforces all of her issues, leading to her embracing being a villain while remaining full of self-loathing.

If it goes that way I'm going to predict that eventually C ends up as the last bad guy after everyone else gets redeemed. Then it'll end in a dramatic battle with all of her friends that ends in her egg finally cracking, and presumably also finally also letting herself cry for the first time in the story.

Or maybe I'm totally off base, very excited to see what happens next either way!

prof_Chemical · Apr 8, 2023

satan doesnt have to be good for angels to be bad. currently have a great dislike for michael as a person (not necessarily as a character)

maybe itll be revealed that they were taught wrong as a joke and a higher power is the one truely at fault. but right now all i see is a being recruiting teenagers to fight supernatural wars who is like emotionally isolating them from outside support, and growing thier friend's insecurities.

this is still sus with all the tropes played straight, without there being a dark twist that they were eating children all along. the evil is passive, systemic and unaddressed.

this is all without going into the psuedo christian nature of the setting and how ive never been able to read the love of the abrahamic god as anything other than an abusive one.

pls donot read any of this as a complaint levied at the story. because that was not the intention or impetus for forming these thoughts. it was instead the inthread discussion speculating over wether there may be reveals the virtue side might not be all it seems.

personally i am rooting for the human characters over the meddling cosmic alignment factions. (the gross rapeculture dragonman can get folded with the most immediacy, its clearly a more pressing problem and threat in the immediate term.)

(an aside - am not saying this is a reveal that is going to happen, but it would not be out of place for the sin faction to be a threat propped up by virtue to make people accept less than they deserve. not unlike the electoral circus of choosing between the neoliberal ghoul and the out and out facist man, tho i dont see virtue serving as a rachet for the gains of sin so the allusion admittedly breaks down there)

Simon_Jester · Apr 8, 2023

prof_Chemical said:
satan doesnt have to be good for angels to be bad. currently have a great dislike for michael as a person (not necessarily as a character)

maybe itll be revealed that they were taught wrong as a joke and a higher power is the one truely at fault. but right now all i see is a being recruiting teenagers to fight supernatural wars who is like emotionally isolating them from outside support, and growing thier friend's insecurities.

I am sincerely unsure if there is an in-story justification for why Michael is recruiting teenagers. Unfortunately, it's a problem with the entire magical girl genre of fantasy, or for that matter nearly any story featuring significant adventure and child participants. You really can't have the genre without the issue arising, and viewing each individual mascot character as an abuser effectively becomes a way of saying "I don't like the genre."

Heck, sometimes (much of Pretty Cure, for instance) it arguably becomes a form of victim-blaming, because the mascots are often themselves threatened by the antagonists, and the genre revolves heavily around never even presenting "recruit actual adults" as a meaningful alternative option.

(an aside - am not saying this is a reveal that is going to happen, but it would not be out of place for the sin faction to be a threat propped up by virtue to make people accept less than they deserve. not unlike the electoral circus of choosing between the neoliberal ghoul and the out and out facist man, tho i dont see virtue serving as a rachet for the gains of sin so the allusion admittedly breaks down there)

It can be very easy to attribute the defeats of Side X to an intentional conspiracy on the part of Side X to lose. Personally I try to avoid doing that because it makes it easy to misunderstand a lot of situations.

Groups that are often defeated by the superior force of the enemy, even though we'd like to think they wouldn't be, are a lot more common than groups that intentionally lose or prop up their enemies as a way of pretending to fight when they wanted to lose all along.

Past Dreams · Apr 9, 2023

Some random details I've noticed that may hint on C's Beast nature, examine some tangential implications, alongside some unconnected points: (Sorry, if this is post rambles a lot and focuses mainly on Chapter 5 with a little bit of Chapter 4 and Chapter 6)

Shadell said:
I waved to a few passing shadows, jolting them out of their rhythms and sending them skittering away in shock. An instinctual part of me ached to chase them down, to pull and twist at the darkness and show them there was no reason for fear when the night could be so beautiful if they would only let it in.

and

Shadell said:
I hopped onto a nearby streetlight, landing just heavily enough that something cracked beneath my feet. I took a moment to appreciate the feeling of just being able to let go and break things without having to work through hating myself over every little mistake.

Then I was off, bounding across the rooftops. The night sky embraced me as it would any favored child, the wind rushing past me in a cutting hug before it sent me on my way. No silly little mundane boy would ever get to appreciate this vista.

Two things I take away from these; one, that beasts either seem to instinctively like the night or perhaps, instead this is a C's thing. Possibly hinting towards C becoming an aerial or arboreal nocturnal animal like a Jaguar or a Bat (making me imagine C quoting the "Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!" line from Dracula while Avaritia is howling in the background. Or better yet do a duet with Avaritia singing)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_hJxBUMuss[/URL]

And secondly; makes me wonder, what does the "pull and twist at the darkness" mean, (assuming that was a distorted perception toward night goers) if from what we learn in the subsequent chapter. That resinners are created through corrupted first tree resin applied to people. Are they capable of transforming regular humans into something else without that? Or is this merely just thinking instinctively about warping a person's psyche. Possibly as apart of C's native beast powerset. On a semi related note to this

Shadell said:
"What's a 'Beast'?" I wondered, thankful for the information but worried that I'd never manage to keep track of it all.

"Oh," Inessa nodded, "Those are their leaders like Avaritia and Gula and Superbia."

which I think implies that the Abyssal Forest may possess non resinner or beast denizens. Since being described as leaders gives me the impression that beasts have subordinates to command that C has yet to see and I don't think we've been told that (Avaritia and Superbia) have kidnapped people en mass to create resinners to populate the Abyssal Forest. Avaritia has (I think) only created one or two at a time in accordance with the monster of the week formula, and are subsequently turned back to normal by the Saints. Not enough to inhabit an otherworldly realm. Alongside the fact that C did see a few spaces that could have been filled with a lot more people, but were explicitly stated to be empty.

Shadell said:
With an imperious wave of his hand, Superbia dismissed us. Avaritia wasted no time silently dragging me out of the throne room and down the long corridor in which we'd materialized into the rest of the demented castle.

The palace was impossibly labyrinthine, full of all sorts of strange rooms. Avaritia marched quickly. The layout proved no obstacle to her. Her strong grip on my arm as we went kept me from getting lost or making an escape. I had room to absorb very little of our surroundings in any depth. But I spied glimpses of boxing rings and swimming pools and studio stages, all in the same brooding gothic aesthetic.

The one thing I didn't see was another living being besides Avaritia and me.

This itself begs the question of why is there a castle/palace in a place called the Abyssal Forest. Did Superbia built it, presumably with "native" manpower or magic after he "discovered" the forest somehow. Or did Superbia find it already existing, this interpretation perhaps backed up by.

Shadell said:
We stood in a profoundly ostentatious hall. It was wide, but poorly lit, and I couldn't see the ceiling in the gloom. Cyclopean columns held up, strange monoliths to some forgotten age.

However, this just pushes the question back further, in all likelihood to that First Tree era mentioned by Michael.

Shadell said:
"So, what's the First Tree?"

Michael hesitated, "The First Tree guards the power of both sin and virtue and taught both to the humans who sheltered under its branches. It is connected to the feelings deep in everyone's hearts, though only a rare few can awaken the powers of their emotions.

LampWitch · Apr 9, 2023

Considering Temperantia is allowed to enjoy herself and indulge in a lot of food, the Heaven faction seems to be lax rather than hardasses trying to enforce virtue to the point of breaking balance. Also, nice catch @RiceRockRekt, didn't realize Temperantia was into C. Guess we'll have relationship drama between Avaritia, C, and Temperantia.

The dream thing is interesting in that C remembers it as a good time but Inessa thought she was sad and anxious.

RiceRockRekt said:
Starting to think something more. Existential. Than deadnames are happening here.

Yeah, now that you pointed it out. Maybe their old identities fade away?

Linkstore · Apr 9, 2023

LampWitch said:
Considering Temperantia is allowed to enjoy herself and indulge in a lot of food, the Heaven faction seems to be lax rather than hardasses trying to enforce virtue to the point of breaking balance. Also, nice catch @RiceRockRekt , didn't realize Temperantia was into C. Guess we'll have relationship drama between Avaritia, C, and Temperantia.

The dream thing is interesting in that C remembers it as a good time but Inessa thought she was sad and anxious.

Yeah, now that you pointed it out. Maybe their old identities fade away?

I'm pretty sure it's just that Gula Shark was also an alien/spirit/whatever like the other two, except that she for whatever reason didn't have/bother/whatever with a civilian identity until she switched sides. But we'll see.

GreatWyrmGold · Apr 9, 2023

Finally, someone even chattier online than me.

RiceRockRekt said:
What IS up with Christian angels being plushies tho.

I believe Michael referred to the plushie as a "vessel".

Inessa: EVIL MAGICAL WOLF ENBIE, PLEASE KNOW WE RESPECT YOUR PRONOUNS VERY MUCH WHILE WE'RE KICKING YOUR BUTT!
Avaritia: Awww, that's sweet–Uh. I mean, curse you, do-gooders who ruin perfectly fine shark girl friendships?

It's always nice when your nemesis can be an ally.

Wait I just realized Inessa was responding to 'it's weird this dark magical girl isn't hot to me' in all seriousness. For god's sake.

Makes me wonder if she realizes her goth crush is also Avaritia.

Look at this.

Inessa: I'm happy I can be open and rely on your opinions.
In C's head: She said, like a liar.

Genuinely good advice and a helpful breakdown on the elements at play, and yet, obviously Inessa could never be honest about this postive opinion.

I think C's really gonna hurt Inessa with that one of these days.

Yeah. C's certainty that she can only hurt and impede her friends is almost certainly going to be what makes her actually hurt them.
Well...also the dark magic. But that's a secondary factor.

(Jokes aside, that certainty is...it hits hard.)

And we see the identity magic logic established! And literally Superbia screwed the pooch completely unnecessarily as a flex!

Villainous hubris and their inevitable downfall. Name a more iconic duo.

If this isn't a throwaway identity it is just embarrassing on Noir's part.

He's certain that he has Charleton under his power; he has nothing to lose by transforming in front of him, and it's slightly more convenient to do so.

It's been a while since I've read the Evil Overlord list, but I'm pretty sure this falls under at least one of its bullet points. And even for a boomer like Superbia, making a mistake any teen with an internet connection can learn how to avoid is pretty shameful.

Decisively silly being.

The best kind of all-powerful magical patron in this kind of story.

You've already worn a skirt C. In Temperance's sight.

It doesn't count unless Temperance knows it's C. She may also need to not look identical to Inessa.

Temperance: She's very lucky I don't have shark teeth anymore.
Inessa: I wouldn't say that, they were cute.

You are making it very hard not to imagine ~~Gula Shark~~ Temperance as Gawr Gura.

The way the problem is that Ida is just not in the least on the same wavelength about all this.

Like right down to the difference of pronoun choice between her and Temperance, it's like, is Ida even, aware? That C's blatantly trans and this is all a long game affirmation play?

I might be wrong, but Ida seems like the Saints' token straight. So yeah, she's probably clueless.

What did Michael see though. Does she see the Seed. What are the missing qualifications.

And why didn't she clarify anything? Does she just not care/think it matters?

Denial is not a river. It is an ocean, and C is drowning.

This is a good line.

prof_Chemical said:
satan doesnt have to be good for angels to be bad. currently have a great dislike for michael as a person (not necessarily as a character)

maybe itll be revealed that they were taught wrong as a joke and a higher power is the one truely at fault. but right now all i see is a being recruiting teenagers to fight supernatural wars who is like emotionally isolating them from outside support, and growing thier friend's insecurities.

On one hand, I think this framing is needlessly harsh.

On the other hand, I think it's fair to say that Michael is...not good at supporting the teenagers she recruits to fight evil. She strikes me as a well-meaning being who doesn't really understand people well enough to actually do that part of her job. And she might well have other issues that we didn't see in the one scene she's present in.

Past Dreams said:
Two things I take away from these; one, that beasts either seem to instinctively like the night or perhaps, instead this is a C's thing. Possibly hinting towards C becoming an aerial or arboreal nocturnal animal like a Jaguar or a Bat (making me imagine C quoting the "Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!" line from Dracula while Avaritia is howling in the background. Or better yet do a duet with Avaritia singing)

It's also worth pointing out that the three Saints currently active have powers corresponding to three of the Classical elements. The missing element? Air.

NemoMarx · Apr 9, 2023

I think Micheal is probably comparable to Luna from early sailor moon - she's knowledgeable and a mentor, but she isn't necessarily in charge and doesn't know everything about the conflict, and the magical girl team will have to grow on their own and eclipse her at some point down the line.

(SV has a bit of a madoka fandom bias, but kyubey is honestly in a pretty weird spot as far as mascots go. In the current Precure the mascot is an infant and can't actually talk, it's a pretty loose role usually?)

Simon_Jester · Apr 10, 2023

Yeah. I think "this is the archangel Michael" is overriding "this is a magical girl mascot" in our assessment.

We expect the archangel Michael to be powerful, knowledgeable- this is the captain of the heavenly hosts, the guy who literally stomped on Satan's face and then tossed him over the fence into Hell.

We do not expect the archangel Michael to be a plushy, or to have silly misunderstandings about commonsense everyday stuff, or to say "attention, mortals" in a squeaky, silly voice. But magical girl mascots do these things all the time regardless of how foolish it is.

prof_Chemical · Apr 10, 2023

too alien to live up to thier duty of care got it.

why young teens tho is always a narrative tension/ narrative disbelief thing u contend with when you engage with these kind of stories without being a young teen or child yourself.

it doesnt need to be addressed in story, and could even further strain things or distract from the themes that are actually in focus.

i /am/ a madoka fan tbh but i also watched w.i.t.c.h and trollz (and other western teen girl sentai/ magical girl type shows) first/ before then.

theres a story on spacebattles that had a well meaning mascot character that got grilled in story. the mascot was an older (millennia) human with foreign cultural values and the magic was such that you needed to be young to develop it.

but yeah the reason is always going to be that it wont feel like magical girls without girls who r magic. and thats fine.

*the story was called "my little sister is a magical girl" or something like that. was a kitchen sink style setting.

**would like to take a moment to say some nice things instead of standoffish pendant things.
want to echo that the narrative is really elegant and smooth with weaving things together and packing a bunch of information in.
and as a trans mostly-a-girl with bpd C is very relatable.

AurielReaver · Apr 10, 2023

Might be a case of in particular a matter of compatibility because for instance the potential Patentia or whatever is probably on the relativly older side comparatively from what I got from that one preview Blurb they just tend to get noticed in their teens and thus capitalized on by Either side not to mention any possible magic Retrictions placed upon Michael here for whatever reason

Aranfan · Apr 10, 2023

prof_Chemical said:
why young teens tho

It could just be that Michael didn't get the memo that people of Inessa's age aren't considered adults capable of making their own decisions anymore. The social phenomenon of "teenager-hood" is actually pretty new.

Simon_Jester · Apr 10, 2023

prof_Chemical said:
too alien to live up to thier duty of care got it.

why young teens tho is always a narrative tension/ narrative disbelief thing u contend with when you engage with these kind of stories without being a young teen or child yourself.

I think that's a thing that varies with the reader.

Spitting fire about how unethical it is to have fourteen year olds doing this kind of thing and how anyone complicit in the situation must be some kind of monster (either too ignorant or too alien or evil or manipulative or whatever) for "using child soldiers" isn't something everyone constantly feels an urge to do 100% of the time.

Theaxofwar · Apr 10, 2023

It doesn't really stand out as special for me because it's traditionally a medium targeted at children of that age. A standard magical girl show doesn't really need to justify to kids why the main character is a kid. As this seems to be trying to mimic those kinds of mg shows (as opposed to the later stuff characterized by PMMM), I think it's perfectly valid to just overlook the potential child soldier aspects.

Chehrazad · Apr 10, 2023

Yeah! Magical Girl shows are traditionally about girls growing up!

GreatWyrmGold · Apr 10, 2023

Simon_Jester said:
Yeah. I think "this is the archangel Michael" is overriding "this is a magical girl mascot" in our assessment.

On one hand, yes. On the other hand, as a magical-girl-inspired story, for me it falls into the same category as anime which make Orochimaru into a human with one head and no snakey characteristics, or King Arthur into a lady warrior, or Thor into a blonde. The name has some influence over how we should interpret the character, but not that much.

Theaxofwar said:
It doesn't really stand out as special for me because it's traditionally a medium targeted at children of that age. A standard magical girl show doesn't really need to justify to kids why the main character is a kid.

And this isn't unique to magical girl series. For some reason, the child soldier discourse doesn't pop up around (for instance) Avatar: the Last AIrbender or most Shonen Jump series. I wonder why magical girl series would be subject to harsher criticism than those other series...

Anyways, I don't just bring up ATLA because it's anime by any reasonable definition. I also bring it up because I want to contrast how people treat Aang being tasked with basically leading a rebellion against a nascent world emperor and how people treat Azula being sent on small-scale combat missions. Because people are a lot more critical of how Ozai commands Azula than how the sympathetic adults put the burden of saving the entire world primarily on Aang's shoulders, even though Aang is twelve.
(And it's not just the stakes—plenty of magical girl villains have plans that would be apocalyptic on a scale not even comet-empowered Ozai could dream of, and as we see in this thread, the magical girls' patrons are still subject to more criticism than ATLA adults.)
I think the big difference is how the adults treat the kids outside that framework. Ozai is an abusive dad; Zuko isn't as good at the things Ozai cares about as Azula is, so he gives Zuko the cold shoulder and hot face, with Azula picking up that she might be punished similarly if she doesn't live up to Daddy's expectations. (And if you devoted multiple paragraphs to it, you could get a lot deeper into how Ozai f*ked up his kids, even without mentioning Zuko as anything but a tool to scare Azula with.) By contrast, most adults on the Gaang's side range from well-meaning jerks to Uncle Iroh. They're mostly good to Aang and pals.

Using this metric, Michael seems to be...okay. She's no Uncle Iroh, but she seems better than Master Pakku, let alone Ozai. And yeah, it's kinda weird that she specifically sends children to fight the bad guys, but that's just the cost of doing business in an action-adventure coming-of-age story.

Shadell · Apr 10, 2023

Just to be clear, people realize they're all high school seniors right?

Aranfan · Apr 10, 2023

Shadell said:
Just to be clear, people realize they're all high school seniors right?

I said teenagers. Someone else said 14 year olds, presumably because that's the standard magical girl age.

Hestia&theCourt · Apr 10, 2023

Shadell said:
Just to be clear, people realize they're all high school seniors right?

We did not realize that, honestly. Guess we'd better file them into the "roughly the same age as the Doki Doki Literature Club cast" category.

Old enough to at least seriously consider joining the US military, I guess, though admittedly the military itself is nearly as predatory as Kyubey and Kyubey-likes in the first place. So really the issue is less about the age and more about "is anyone being exploited here", and so far my read of the situation is "we haven't really seen enough of the situation to know if anyone's being exploited by Michael, or if Michael is herself being exploited by her own higher-ups". Pretty safe to say that Superbia is definitely trying to exploit people, though, so like... bigger dragons to fry at the moment.

AurielReaver · Apr 10, 2023

Also have to consider the possible Soul based compatibility shenanigans possibly afoot with as far as I can tell the Candidate for Patience is possibly Not a Teenager so actually unlike say Madoka stuff its probably a fair bit more restricting on who they can actually get the High Quality Magical Girl/Beast thing going on with the seeming Baddies utilising the Resinners which probably has a number of Side Effects that the Equivalent for Michaels side of things probably has problems of itz own so focus is placed on a number of Quality options versus whatever Superbias side is up to

Simon_Jester · Apr 10, 2023

Theaxofwar said:
It doesn't really stand out as special for me because it's traditionally a medium targeted at children of that age. A standard magical girl show doesn't really need to justify to kids why the main character is a kid. As this seems to be trying to mimic those kinds of mg shows (as opposed to the later stuff characterized by PMMM), I think it's perfectly valid to just overlook the potential child soldier aspects.

Well, I'm pretty sure PMMM was itself targeted at the demographic of "adults who watch magical girl shows or grew up watching them," because deconstruction as an art form doesn't work very well for an audience of children. The children haven't had enough life experience to build up expectations, and the tropes are all new and fresh to them.

GreatWyrmGold said:
On one hand, yes. On the other hand, as a magical-girl-inspired story, for me it falls into the same category as anime which make Orochimaru into a human with one head and no snakey characteristics, or King Arthur into a lady warrior, or Thor into a blonde. The name has some influence over how we should interpret the character, but not that much.

Uh yes, that's my point.

Namely, that while our cultural expectations tell us "an Archangel Michael should be a strong, competent figure with leadership abilities who has their shit together and should be held to extremely high standards," the reality within the secondary world of this show is that the 'Archangel' 'Michael' is basically a standard magical girl mascot.

Which is to say, not particularly strong, competent, leaderly, or in a state of having their shit together. Holding them to high standards may be a tad bit unfair.

And this isn't unique to magical girl series. For some reason, the child soldier discourse doesn't pop up around (for instance) Avatar: the Last AIrbender or most Shonen Jump series. I wonder why magical girl series would be subject to harsher criticism than those other series...

Anyways, I don't just bring up ATLA because it's anime by any reasonable definition. I also bring it up because I want to contrast how people treat Aang being tasked with basically leading a rebellion against a nascent world emperor and how people treat Azula being sent on small-scale combat missions. Because people are a lot more critical of how Ozai commands Azula than how the sympathetic adults put the burden of saving the entire world primarily on Aang's shoulders, even though Aang is twelve.

In all fairness, as I understand it (I'm not particularly familiar with the source material)...

My understanding is that Aang was born with a unique superpower that nobody else has: multi-element wielding. Friends and allies can shoulder some of his burdens, but the rebellion wouldn't have much chance of success without him playing a pivotal role in it. Granted, making him actually be a leader in a meaningful sense is asking more of the kid than is strictly required. But then, in terms of "is this child being done right by in this conflict," it wouldn't necessarily be better if a council of adults were making all the decisions except when they need the Avatar to use his powers, at which time they pat him on his bald little head, tell him what to do, and point him at the enemy like a fire-and-forget missile.

That would bring things worryingly closer to the kind of treatment you describe Azula getting.

...

So from the sound of it, Aang sort of gets what I think of as the "Sailor Moon" exception. And that's another show where the reason teen/preteen children are getting thrown into a magical war is because they have the relevant superpowers and nobody else does. Sailor Moon getting to stay home and play video games just means that Queen Beryl or whoever destroys the Earth before her fifteenth birthday or whatever, because there's no one else who can do what she does, even if they're theoretically more suitable on grounds of maturity or being an experienced soldier or something like that. Being the superhero who can do special things no one else can even approximately do for you means that, like it or not, you are apt to wind thrust into the thick of things in a setting where forceful action is called for.

(And it's not just the stakes—plenty of magical girl villains have plans that would be apocalyptic on a scale not even comet-empowered Ozai could dream of, and as we see in this thread, the magical girls' patrons are still subject to more criticism than ATLA adults.)
I think the big difference is how the adults treat the kids outside that framework. Ozai is an abusive dad; Zuko isn't as good at the things Ozai cares about as Azula is, so he gives Zuko the cold shoulder and hot face, with Azula picking up that she might be punished similarly if she doesn't live up to Daddy's expectations. (And if you devoted multiple paragraphs to it, you could get a lot deeper into how Ozai f*ked up his kids, even without mentioning Zuko as anything but a tool to scare Azula with.) By contrast, most adults on the Gaang's side range from well-meaning jerks to Uncle Iroh. They're mostly good to Aang and pals.

Using this metric, Michael seems to be...okay. She's no Uncle Iroh, but she seems better than Master Pakku, let alone Ozai. And yeah, it's kinda weird that she specifically sends children to fight the bad guys, but that's just the cost of doing business in an action-adventure coming-of-age story.

Also, this.

Shadell said:
Just to be clear, people realize they're all high school seniors right?

This kind of discussion topic tends to trigger a lot of people's baggage.

LampWitch · Apr 10, 2023

I think whatever is happening to C is what happens to people who aren't ready for the transformation. Michael probably thought that she couldn't help with whatever issues C is having, instead letting the team help her. Something to note is that the whole thing doesn't seem that dangerous, fighting to the death is far from Inessa's mind. Michael can afford to wait it out and let people close to C help. Superbia is the only actual threat, and he is away now.

The fact he was willing to have someone like the person he thought C was in the team is quite telling. He made Avaritia think he's fighting against the establishment but he's the worst parts holding on.

On to something else. The fact C is covered in shadow when not copying someone means Temperantia won't be able to see her presenting as a girl. More fuel for her rivalry with Avaritia.
Avaritia: A-Are you crying?
Temperantia: I finally get to see her in a cute outfit and she's mimicking someone else! And she's sad and anxious!

GreatWyrmGold · Apr 10, 2023

LampWitch said:
The fact he was willing to have someone like the person he thought C was in the team is quite telling. He made Avaritia think he's fighting against the establishment but he's the worst parts holding on.

Which is more evidence for the Superbia as a metaphor for reactionary transphobes, by the by. Or just...reactionaries in general, who happen to be transphobic. However you want to describe them.

Theaxofwar · Apr 10, 2023

Simon_Jester said:
Well, I'm pretty sure PMMM was itself targeted at the demographic of "adults who watch magical girl shows or grew up watching them," because deconstruction as an art form doesn't work very well for an audience of children. The children haven't had enough life experience to build up expectations, and the tropes are all new and fresh to them.

Hence why I mention it separately. PMMM is pretty representative of a wave of magical girl fiction that targets an older audience, which naturally would consider children being conscripted to fight monsters to be pretty messed up. Now, PMMM isn't really a deconstruction of the genre in my opinion (I think Sailor Nothing is a much more straightforward example of that), but it did help spark a new wave of magical girl stories that worked off of its darker take and different target demographic.

Notably however, the anime that seems to be taking part in the background of this story doesn't seem to be part of that wave. Rather, it seems more in line with Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura, which was legitimately aimed at a younger female audience. I think that's clear in the tone of the episode blurbs, the constant focus on learning important life lessons, and the focus on redemption and talking to enemies rather than killing them. Things seem bad because C's having a really bad time, but Sailor Moon has all of Usagi's friends die multiple times and nobody is arguing it's a deconstruction of the genre.

I think the nature of the underlying show gives me hope that things will go well in the end. Even if things get really bad, this is a setting and genre where love and justice win out in the end.

A Little Vice (Trans Magical Girl fic)

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