a little more dess x asriel literary critique. sorry to keep ragging on them... i've been turning them over in my head like crazy and i just kind of needed to get this out so i can let it go for a while lol
she didn't even unwrap the CD he gave her. this has been sticking out to me since i played the chapter. the game didn't have to specify that it was still sealed. if the game had just said there was a ska CD in the middle of all the punk rock then i'd think it was sweet that she had it and there'd be room for interpretation that like, hey maybe she tolerated the ska or even had a soft spot for it because she was attracted to him enough to overcome her distaste for it. but it specifies “still-sealed ska CD” which just feels so weirdly cold and dismissive for something that seems like it's supposed to be flagging "teen romance."
like, it seems ha ha funny at first and if they were clearly Just Friends then maybe it wouldn't be a big deal that she thought his music sucked, but as a couple... ska (assuming ska punk, maybe religious ska, the type asriel was implied to like) is like, happy feel-good music. it's dorky goodboy music. it represents asriel just as much as punk rock represents dess. he's a sensitive sweet normie geek who cried and snitched on kris in confessional for killing yoshi, something even alvin thinks is lame. and i get that we haven't even seen dess and asriel interact yet but surely the game could have given us SOMETHING to clearly suggest that she was actually into him for what he was. if the game had shown us all of dess's performative punkness and then said "hidden deep under the bed, there's a well-worn CD case. it seems to be... religious ska?" then i would be like oh obviously she was infatuated with him, she had a soft spot for his bad music even though it clearly didn't match her persona or tastes otherwise and she was a little embarrassed by it. it would tell me that she was actively attracted to HIM as a dorky normcore goodboy to the point that she was getting out of her comfort zone in order to engage with him. but it's just sealed. it's sterile. zero curiosity or interest.
and we have to keep in mind how important music was to dess especially, how much of her personality and passion was in music as an expression of her values. the game keeps telling us what she's attracted to and passionate about -- intellectual and emotional challenge, rebellion from the status quo, flirting with darkness and danger. if the ska music was intolerable then his whole thing just seems like it should be romantic anathema to her. close friends is one thing but what in the world could have been Sexy about him to her.
and the signs that they were trying to do a couple thing anyway just make me feel bad. every time he came over he had to see that CD still sealed. do you want a really heartbreaking read on this. the other CDs under his bed were described as classical and jazz, in a very general sense pretty standard and safe, and we've seen how dess treated all the more “classical” instruments she had, maybe ones her mom got her in an attempt to push her into a more respectable music career. the religious ska might have been the “edgiest” his taste in music got. he knew she wouldn't like his classical or jazz but maybe she would like ska punk. it's even called “punk.” and she didn't even open it! the coolest he could be was still cringe to her. dude
to be clear it's not JUST the CD, the CD is a microcosm or crystallization point of a bigger sense i have of mismatched values, obligation, performance, so on. i know, i know, they don't even have designs yet, but i think there's enough information and broader thematic context to be able to read a "vibe." i've seen others describe it as feeling normative in various ways, multiple lesbians comparing it to comphet specifically. there's just an odor to it. we've seen how toby writes teen infatuation. they're goofy and embarrassing and constantly telling on themselves. dess and asriel just aren't written like that. they're written like an old married couple and i don't think that's actually as sweet as it sounds. i can't shake the sense that they were "settling" for each other, and that sucks for both of them. 15 year olds shouldn't be resigning themselves to each other like it's an arranged marriage. the game keeps Telling us they were a couple but not giving that much romantic substance -- plenty of platonic substance, but not necessarily romantic. this feels to me like the most "forced" pairing short of the LITERALLY forced weird route (which seems like it might even be a direct parallel with the soulmates/arranged marriage dynamic) and it's almost ickier to me because the "forced" nature of it is more insidious. at least the weird route is so obviously coercive and violent that no one in their right mind would confuse it for a healthy relationship. but dess x asriel looks so Unproblematic. it seems to hit all the marks for wholesomeness and cuteness with just enough tragedy to feel vaguely compelling. and assuming toby did this on purpose, then it's absolutely diabolical, because it worked. people think it's the best het relationship he's ever written, they call it fucking YURI, when toby himself seems to write their romance with all the passion and enthusiasm of a kid eating his vegetables so he can get to dessert. i don't even have a clue what "dessert" might be but i do feel like something is going to be deconstructed here. at least i hope so because otherwise i don't know how toby of all people managed to write this by accident
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