Why is it that the common interpretation of the Land of the Lustrous fandom is that "Phos did nothing wrong, everyone around them was terrible?" Not only is that not true, but it takes the nuance out of so many complicated characters and just reduces them to shallow good or evil.
For example, one fandom favorite punching bag is Cairngorm. I think we have to remind ourselves that for basically their entire life before meeting Aechma, they HAD ZERO SELF AGENCY.
They were trapped in Ghost for the majority of their life, and after, even when Ghost was gone, the small part of them left was still able to influence Cairngorm so much that Cairngorm was almost driven to suicide for Phos multiple times. Offer their head for Phos, pretend to be Antarc for Phos, you name it. OF COURSE Aechmea villainizes Ghost and Phos, and by extension the rest of the gem society for this, because he knows that isolating Cairngorm will make them cling to him more, and therefore Phos will be alone and easier to manipulate as well.
Cairngorm's complete 180 in personality likely isn't just as a result of them being repressed for the entirety of their life, but also from an extreme repelling of everything gem society was, stood for, and expected of them. They were vulnerable, and Aechmea took advantage of that and took away one of the few people who might've been able to help Phos.
And them there's Cinnabar. Maybe even more divisive then Cairngorm, because they actively try to physically harm Phos at the end, but theyβre one of my favorite characters in Land of the Lustrous for exactly that reason.
Cinnabar loved Phos in the beginning because of their earnestness, not because they thought that Phos would actually be able to find a job. They become less and less attached to the actual Phos and more attached to the Phos that once was and will always be in their mind as Phos changes constantly. Even Phos has lost sight of who they were, Cinnabar never did, and I personally interpreted Cinnabar trying to destroy Moon Phos in their final battle not just as an obligation towards gem society, but also sort of as a way to get Moon Phos to come to their senses, or, if that was impossible, to at least βfreeβ the old Phos Cinnabar knew and loved. Cinnabar, in this way, is such as tragic character to me, and thereβs so much more I could say if it werenβt for the fact that itβs 1:30 am in New York City right now.
titsay
romaincrisis
yousharknotpass
snowghoul
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